The Ja Morant Dilemma: Hope vs. Reality

it's friday, you know what time it is. Frontrunner podcast collective is back on the air. I am your humble host and we have a. This is a really good card today because it's a real good Friday. 1, 2, 2, 2 so much happened yesterday. So much. We'll get to the job all of it and we'll get to the.

What happened Los Angeles last night gives us an indication of what is well. Well, so we're gonna go ahead and get into that as well, but we really need to start our focus things in on the job situation. So we're going to talk about Hulk versus sustainability, talent versus team identity, flash of substance, the real reality of a job insurance, injury history and what that looks like going forward for somebody who utilizes speed. So buckle up. This is going to be a tough one, because we'll get through this part and then we'll get to the other parts of the podcast. So how are we going to start this? We are going to start with the John Mara situation and it really starts off like this Talent can't last trouble until it can.

Today, john Mara hit me. I mean, the Grizzlies are starting a brutal decision. You could take it however you want One day fire Taylor Jenkins and let go of the head coach with nine games left to go in the season. That was pretty much the jetpack on the season to start off. We'll get into the other team that also decided that in a real rash fashion. Get rid of the coach. Very, very close to the clouds. We'll get into that later.

But when you're looking at situations, when you look at a situation where he has something pop up on your computer, I'm like what the hell is that? Anyways, when you look at this and you go, okay, ja has played literally 40 something games this year. You know that Olajuwon was also interrupted by NPN, you know that your previous was interrupted by someone else. And then you get to this point where the job trajectory from rookie of the year to playoff breakout to all nba superstar, all NBA superstar Because here's the crazy part about this whole thing the numbers are still elite 27.5 pos per game, 8.6 assists per game, a little bit smarter shot profile, I would say A career-dancing free throw percentage, showing lucidity at the moment. I remember the job dunk in ABM, the one where he stared down the rim like it owed him money. That was just a dream. Problem is, we said, dreams get expensive and you can't land safely anymore. This is kind of weird. So we got two major hip injuries in 12 months. We got bad landing mechanics because of the fact that we only know one speed. We got chris vernon, who is one of the hosts of the mismatch, going on twitter saying that jaws on crutches. So jaws on crutches, you don't bring out crutches. So Jaws on crutches, you don't bring out crutches if you stub your toe. You bring them out if something inside isn't holding up weight anymore. No, is it Derrick Rose? Is it John Wall? We don't know. At the time of recording, we have no idea what the prognosis is on Jaws. Injury is concerns.

Note from Soraya is that, if you knew it to FRPC, remember, we do not root for against players, bodies. We root for smarter timelines. This isn't slander, it's survival. We want our talent on the court. You know saying we want to be able to be able to praise job or just some of the more miraculous things that he's able to do on the court, and the only way to be able to do that is to be less, less reckless. I think we even talked about this in a pod previous.

In regards to how long do you hold on to this situation. I think I've locked this up. We and Taylor Jenkins did get unceremoniously fired and now we have Ja God knows you're about to get swept by OKC. I mean, I'm not saying anything that's out of you know, out of I don't know out of school, whatever the case may be, but we need to get into what now this looks like. Retaining Jai, build a bubble wrap culture. Is that what we need to do? Trade Jai Then, against your own heart.

Now here is the nuts and the crannies of the situation. In the crannies of the situation, it is Memphis. So free agents, especially big-time free agents, don't call Memphis. You got to draft well, and you have to make sure you trade. So you have to make sure, if you're betting or you're gambling, that this is a player, that this is always going to continue to have this happen to him. You have to decide now, because Jaron Jackson Jr is a player, that, whether he's a 3 or a 2, I think he's probably more of a 3 than he is a 2. Not based off of last night's performance, I think that Jaron Jacksonr has made incredible strides with his ball handling, but he was going up against the most ferocious defense in the NBA.

Okay, see it is. I mean we'll get to the Alex Caruso of it all later, but this thing was y'all. You got to win the draft, or you got to win the trades or you fade away. Memphis is not LA, it's not Miami. They're not giving Anthony Edwards in 2029. You either love hard or you lose. Louder.

Quick note from Soraya. She says if you guys know Memphis, know Memphis is not just about wins, it's about soul, it's about connection. That's why this decision says deeper than just basketball. I couldn't have said it better. I mean, we're about to get into a couple teams that might be interested in jaw kind of, in a sense kind of re-kick off what they're trying to do and bring whatever and we will talk later in regards to how Ja and the community, how he's looked upon as far as in-emphasis concerns and also hit us up, let us know at FrontrunnerPC, on X, also at FrontrunnerPC, at the pskysocial, on Blue Sky. Go on YouTube, go to the community page. As far as I know, drop us a note. We'll be more than happy to talk to you there. So many places you can get to us. Also, you can go to our website, for sure, frpcpodcastpageio. You can get email, everything there is great, fantastic, love it, all right.

So let's, let's, uh, rip the band-aid off a little bit. Could it be brooklyn? Could brooklyn be in the john moran business? Josiah does life. Stars john moran in brooklyn just his mentality, whatever kind of fits. What they're trying to do now, phoenix is trying to get anybody.

Now, I don't know how that works out for you, memphis, that doesn't sound great. Personally, if you're gonna do Brooklyn, what do you want back? Do you want the 2025 Phoenix first round unprotected pick? Sounds great, doesn't it? You want the 2027 Phoenix first round pick top five protected Still sounds pretty, pretty good, right? And do you want Brooklyn's 2029 unprotected pick? Would you take something where it's cam thomas, who's a microwave store, and derek whitehead, who's kind of a lottery flyer? I don't know. Is it nick clackstein that you want? And you kind of? Maybe you jettison off, uh, zach edie in this trade because we're going to get to him in a second as well.

I know these don't sound super appealing to Memphis because you have a star and that's the thing that we have to talk about. Instead, if you're looking at this situation and you're going okay, even now, ja has a lot of you can get a lot of assets for John. Even with the injury, he's still super young. He is box office, no doubt. How many more years did you go through the experiment though, not knowing whether he's gonna be there, not knowing he's gonna get maybe a little bit stronger, where he could take the Liggers of the NBA season? Maybe he understands that he needs to throttle down on some of these drives where he's going into the lane and it's been reckless for a long period of time.

This is something that we flagged um this situation. What working here? This dude is fearless when he goes to the hole. That's why he gets some of the Iverson Combs. I'm not talking about the off the court stuff, I'm talking about on the court. It gives you some of that Iverson vibe, because you're looking at the situation where speed is incredible, the athleticism, the leaping ability is incredible for somebody his size, but it's the way he goes in there and the fearlessness and not understanding.

You will pay a tax for going into the land of the Giants. Yes, this is not 1984, nor is it the 1990s, charles Oakley from the clothes lines or whatever, but you guys, dudes, are 265 pounds that are flying through the air as well, to go ahead and make sure you don't get to the bucket sounds like a spicy development all the same to me personally. Here's where I land. You don't panic. You hold John total this next upcoming year. You give him one last real runway. If the hip fails again, you call Brooklyn the smallest island and you start the next chapter. Smile sadly and start the next chapter.

John Moran is hope incarnate, but hope without a body behind it. That's just heartbreak waiting to happen. We love John here at FRO Conce and see, you want him soaring. If you're just going to continue to recklessly go in the lane, we can see this crash coming on all the way. We don't like to do this. This is not what want to do. You want to celebrate you, my guy. I think personally, if you're the Memphis Grizzlies after this, if you see the same Tennessee's going into camp next year, you start having discussions because you better have a parachute ready, because this dude is an axe not waiting to happen. So I want to give a shout out to Saraya for helping us with this situation. She gives us stats and she gives us things that we need. So shout out to Saraya.

So now we're gonna get in to the nitty niche and greedy of the podcast. It's that segment around the park where we're going to hear all these playoff games that happened last night. We're going to talk about them a little bit and then give you our span on what's going on with some of these impressive series. On with these, some of these impressive series. So so we just talked about jaw, let's get into it. They're down 29 points. Okay, see, now when jaw gets hurt, they're down 27. So OKC is getting absolutely mauled by Memphis. The crowd is lit, everybody's having a good time. It is a party on Beale Street, no doubt. Now John crashes to the ground and I mean silent. It was absolute. Like, yeah, there was a funeral in there. It was terrible. 3.15 left to go in the second quarter. Now I will say this At halftime OKC was still trailing by 26 points.

Ok, so there was no big rush where they made this incredible 8.8 to 0 run. It closed the gap a little bit. No, memphis held strong. Now the gap a little bit. No, memphis held strong. Now the third quarter Alright, this isn't a recap five, it's a map where the playoffs are heading.

These weren't just wins, these were philosophical battles, identity games, and when you look at this situation and when OKC is trailing by 29 points. It's the one thing that we had not seen all year from OKC. What's gonna happen when your back is up against the wall? And here it was. They outscored Memphis in the second half 64 to 31. They held Memphis to 31 points in the second half total. So they had 77 in the first and they ended up with one away.

The series is obviously not over. They're up 3-0. There was a point where Memphis came out. They were so hot from 3. You're thinking to yourself like, hey, what are we doing here? Like okay, is this? The gentleman sweeps? This is a game they, okay, she gives them. And then I don't know what Mark Dagnall said to them. That happened. You must have challenged them. You must have said to them hey, do you want to put the fear of God in the teams? You really want to start building your mythology? Come back and win this one and they will write songs about you. People will have babies tonight or last night based on this game. Okay, I'm not. I'm not exaggerating at all. There's a quote from my guy from the athletic Darnham Mayberry. He said this they overcame a 26 point halftime lead with a ranch status in question for game four. The Thunder, in great position, closed out the series on Saturday, and I cannot disagree at all with this quote whatsoever.

Now, what you just saw with OKC is what we've been talking about all year. This is not a comeback. This is a culture flex they used, they ramped up their defense. What Mark Dagnall built in OKC looks like a very early stage curve player empowerment, powering, rapping, obsessive detail and a bunch of wild dogs who just seem to love to get the ball turned over. And this is where we start talking about former Laker, alex Caruso. Alex Caruso did what Alex Caruso does in the playoffs. This is something not new. What you saw wasn't some sort of coming out party. He's already done it.

What you saw was a reminder of what I'm not talking about. The team, it's got control. It's got to be clear who's doing what you can't do. I'm not talking about the team. It's got control. It's got to be clear. I'm not sure if I can keep it going. I'm not sure if I can keep this flash back. I've been doing, you know, stuff like video. I've been doing stuff like video and I'm trying and it's great. I don't want to be a fool to just lose this focus and see how impressive they are. It's all the stuff that we talked about all season. I don't want to be included in this series of OK Seasons. I don't trust any of y'all. It's all the stuff that we've talked about all season. By the way, I want to be able to say Check the tape. It's gonna be hard because my game is really stupid. We are very happy that you did it for us, very excited Y'all seenin' this and when you need it I'll give it to you.

I'm a real buster. I'm a real buster. I'm a real buster. I'm a real buster. I'm a real buster. I'd rather have some $40,000. I'm a real buster. I'm a real buster. I'm a real buster. You better have some $40 bills and really know You're called a good singer. They be good and a lot of good people. They be the real good people and a lot of good people and a lot of good people and a lot of good people. In about a span of four minutes, where it just flips again. Now, chet did a lot of the scoring. We're gonna get to that in one second. Just the way he played defense, the way he was able to manipulate the ball. When the time goes up.

You can't be so secretive, waiting for the truth, manipulating the thought of eternity. You ain't bullshit. You're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a fucking idiot. I'm not a fucking nerd, I'm just a fucking idiot. I'm not a fucking nerd, I'm just a fucking idiot. I'm not a fucking nerd, I'm just a fucking idiot. I'm not a fucking nerd, I'm just a fucking idiot. I'm not a fucking nerd, I'm just a fucking idiot. I'm not a fucking nerd, I'm just a fucking idiot. I'm not a fucking nerd, I'm just a fucking idiot. I'm not a fucking nerd.

This is his second year really playing, but this is his and be. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. I'm not a bad person, but I'm not a bad person.

Uh, the perimeter defense saw the grizzly offense, and this is what we're talking about. We're talking about the alex caruso effect. What john moran does speed, control most direction, gravity, remove that and every cutter becomes a standstill threat. Okay, sees. Dean didn't even. It didn't even ratchet, it just ratchet enough. It just exploited all the predictable things that Memphis was going to be able to do.

Because Scottie Pippen Jr is a good backup on the court. He can get you through stints in a regular season where the defense is not racking it up to just the highest levels. But you're asking this man to go through a gauntlet of OKC defenders that we all hold in very, very high regard. This isn't a Ja was missing story. It's a your offense structure collapse without a bailout option moment.

Basically, and that's what Jai is. He's kind of a get-out-of-jail-free-car dude. Right, this is the type of—you talk about these guys. He's on the outside looking in because we can't depend on him because of the injury risk at this point in time. Because we can't depend on him Because of the injury risk At this point in time. But as far as the actual productivity Of Josh, he's one of those I would say right on the outskirts Of a handful of dudes that's like okay, there's five seconds left on the shot clock. Nothing's working, go create me a shot, go create me something and he can do it. The only problem is that it doesn't stay on the court long enough before you get the full impact of what a job truly can be, which is a complete force of nature.

Let's get to what's happening in the next instance, shall we? First of all, let's set the scene. Okay, detroit basketball royalty is out in full effect. I mean, it's Rip Hamilton, it is Jalen Rose, it's Ben Wallace, it is Jalen Rose, it's Ben Wallace. We got all the casting characters here. Like, detroit basketball is set in a real way.

Okay, they're feeling good, they got a win in New York. They're like yo, we do some things right. And then comes that visit. What I'm saying is it was a nice trip. 30 points. Hounds was an eater of the world. 31 points Was a eater of the world. 31 points.

The Knicks starters had to carry the team. They scored 103 of their 118 points. The bench for the Pistons the Pistons outscored the bench Of the Knicks by a margin of 31. This was always going to be the problem. We kind of talked about it around the trade deadline. But the Knicks didn't have a lot on the bench and Thibodeau did not trust what he had and Thibodeau did not trust what he had. New York bounced back narrowly, avoiding wasting a solid performance. But the Pistons. Man, you gotta give them credit. They have not clinched through this whole situation. Shout out to our guy James L Edwards III, and also David Aldridge of the Appalachian. Scott finally played like a dude who knows. He's on the billboards last night scoring 31, getting it done.

And Brunson, the clutch player of the year campaign, feels like folklore now. He's a stone cold. Stone cold. In the fourth quarter you saw what he did. It was not just quintessential, jim and Brunson. He is starting to get that reputation around the league where, as soon as he moves, you can see the defense get real antsy. You see them not feel comfortable. He's making a move towards the basket. What does this mean? You drew the fouls and I know a lot of people don't like him. He's a he's a foul merchant boy. You got it. You got to respect the mobs. You gotta respect this dude is 511. He's like a fire hydrant and he's busting us detroit, uh, on a four quarter, I mean he's absolutely killing it.

Now let's get into some things that Detroit was doing out there. This is in poke. They just ran out of clock. There's something spooky about how confident Cade is. He's giving vibes of 2010. D-rose A D-Rose. Sorry about that. I'm thinking of Cody Rose. Why am I doing that? Friday night Smackdown We'll be on the events, but we got to get through this podcast first.

All right, lock back in, I'm good, all right. So D-Rose D Rose paid is giving that now. See, here's the things. I know you put you saying these are two different players with you. Go out, you can put them together. I'm talking about the control with the whole thing. Yes, yes, that rolls, what's. It wasn buzzer doing all kinds of crazy stuff. He just has the command of the offense. It's reminiscent to a guy that I'm really fond of here in LA, but we'll get to that in a second.

Now, when you lose a game like this and now you've got a game four, what are some of the adjustments that can be made? Who can we put on Jalen Brunson to get him stops? Can we swell some of these runs? Here's the thing If Cat is going to be out there bombing threes and looking the way he's doing it, just looking super nice. This is like december, cat. This is when everybody was saying bodega cat, right, right, man. He has some moments where he just just tantal to you and then there was moments where you were just like. I know there was a big deal made that he didn't feel really a part of game 2 plan or how the game broke or however it was spun to him. He wasn't aggressive enough in game 2, came back fixed that in game two, came back fixed that in game three and you saw the results.

Listen, the Knicks are a more talented team than Detroit. Let's not get it twisted. It is K and dudes and no shade to those guys. They're out there giving out a bunch of effort, max efforts, the whole thing. But we know that the talent deficiency is on side of Detroit. You do have a super hero in k Cunningham who can do so many things for you, but he is one man. You know one guy.

But I love this series. I love where it's going and this is exactly what you want in detroit. I know this is probably the result. Wasn't the result you were looking for. I understand that. I understand that people really gave you a shot to win this series. I understand that. Don't feel like it slipped away from me. Look at, this is all lessons learned for Kay Cunningham, your franchise. Does you know who got now? This is just like when we know you got a good quarterback in the NFL.

Speaking of the NFL, I'm geeked for the draft because I'm a Rams fan. I know there's not a lot of us out here, but you know I'm feeling real good about how this draft is about to play out. So let's get to the rest of the pot. So this is what a mid-seat playoff team do. They respond under pressure, but if towns doesn't show up again, msg might get real quiet, real quick, and kade is not scared of lights. He's just missing a co-star and that's why my girl, soraya, soraya, dropping jewels again. Thank you, soraya, salute, you know what I'm saying.

So again, I think the Pistons are doing exactly what they're supposed to do push a talented but very undermanned En next team to the brink, who does not trust this bench whatsoever. You utilize all your young legs and you get real physical and you make this game as gritty as you possibly can and you see how long you can extend it. And then next year, when you get jayden ivy back, you say, hey, let's run this back and see those sucks. Just thoughts, thoughts, just saying all right, all right. We can't end around the arc without talking about probably the tastiest matchup of the night, and this will be the Clippers versus the Denver Nuggets, and the reason why, to me, this is the tastiest matchup of the night is because there's so much underlying things that are going on. Remember, we just talked about Josh.

I just talked about what was going on in Memphis with the coach change, and they made the coach change late. Now here's another team that made the coach change late. Right, they went out and fired their coach, michael moreno, with three games left to go on the season. I wasn't as bent out of shape about the calvin booth situation because of the fact that if you're looking at that, you're gonna hey, we probably don't want this guy making decisions anymore if we don't believe in the philosophy of where it's going, because we got a couple you know, you know proof of concept moments out here that are staring us into the face that this is not currently working. Now, if you're so good on Shade about that, go ahead and remove him. That takes some of the attention off.

You are sitting there telling me that you were going to Cam Michael Malone at the end of the season anyway, and then your fear was that he was going to go on some sort of heater, some sort of run in the playoffs, which would make him harder to find. Here's the thing. You're the only team. You do whatever you want. You can say, hey, I don't care about this run that you made. You damn near killed our team in the regular season by not playing any of these young cats. You had this crazy Game of Thrones with handmaidens tail-type arc with the player personnel guy, calvin Booth. So we don't want you around anymore. So you have all of this in the backdrop with this playoff series. And then why is that so? Just like Jaws, jaws 2, jaws 3, why is why? So let's get into it. Draw stories wise, wise. So let's get into it.

The Clippers annihilated them in the first quarter. Nine threes in the first quarter, a 25 point win. Jokic was as good as he possibly be, but we'll get into where maybe some mistakes were made with him. 23 points, 13 rebounds, 13 assists I mean, what are we talking about right now, dude? Best basketball on the face of the planet. Series is 2-1. Clippers are ahead. So the fans who are flipping out, oh shoot, what's going to happen? Are we in trouble? After game no, you're good. Quotes from Lon Murray and Tony Jones of the Athletic. The Clippers had the NBA's best offense over the last 20 regular season games and then from Tony Jones he said Denver will only win another game if Jokic is dominant. And that leads me to what I want to talk about.

Jokic was looking for cutters that were not all down. He was looking for outlets that weren't there. It wasn't because of the fact that the moment was too big. We know how Jokic prefers to play. He wants to get his teammates involved. He is a kind of a student of Steve Kerr Brown. The basketball beautiful game. Ball finds energy. I like passing it. But when you are looking at your team and you are making an assessment and you are the star.

And this is where we have always talked about Jokic in a way where we love his brilliance, we love his mind, we love the offense of just the creativity and what he's able to facilitate In his 6'11, 275 pound body. We love it. But here's the problem Jokic is so married To who he is that he could not Look at that team and go, damn, they don't have it tonight. It's time for me to put them on my back, you know, saying they need to back, pack it up with me and I'm gonna go ahead and show out and show out and I'm gonna get me a 40 piece tonight. So when we talk about his reluctancy to kind of promote the game as the face of the league a couple years ago, it also kind of goes into his mentality as a player.

He is not a type of guy. Yes, he wants to rip your heart out. I'm not saying he's not competitive, but he's not that guy who's like. You know what? That dude made me upset. Give me the ball Four straight times down the court and I'm gonna punish this dude. I'm gonna make him look silly. I'm going to make him embarrassed that he even did that to me. He doesn't have that in him. What he has is like I think I can find us the best shot possible Every single time down the court. That's what Yoki just thinking Every single time. And that's why we love him, because he plays basketball literally the right way, literally to like the nth degree.

Now, now last night. Okay, your team's struggling. You see everybody missing shots. It's not the same michael porter jr that it was before. Whatever case may be the two-man game between Jamal Murray. They're basically kind of pseudo-trapping it, but what they're doing is they're slow, playing the trap where Jokic doesn't get to make a real quick decision because they're not committing. So he doesn't get a tell on what they're doing, so they're being able to disguise that defense, just enough to get Jokic to hesitate. And what have you? It was brilliant rule by Ty Lue Holden. Watch that game. It was a great, great game. You look at Jokic's box score and you think they should win.

23 points, 13 rebounds, 13 assists in a playoff game of this magnitude is nothing to sneeze at. What low leverage touches is Kyle Hill's timely threes, with two in the quarters with back breakers, and harden didn't even need to exist after half-time, so there was no worry whether he was going to fall apart or whatever occasion may be. This is the best I've seen tyloo weaponized depth since that 2021. I've seen Ty Lue weaponized since that 2021 run. This version of the Clippers just didn't beat Denver. They nullified the idea of what Denver could be.

Because, again, jokic is the type of guy who wants to sit there and be able to pick you apart. He enjoys that part of the game. He enjoys that aspect of the game. He doesn't enjoy getting 28 shots up. He doesn't enjoy saying I'm going to impose my scoring productivity wheel onto you, my scoring productivity will on to you. He doesn't enjoy that, like many other what we call superstars, right, the guys who want the commercials, the guys who want to be playing on christmas day, the guys who want, you know, the quad, uh, during all-star weekend, you, they want the money, they want the advertising, they want everything. Right Now we're at a point where we're also starting to understand that Jokic's kind of deference when it comes to the spotlight also is a detriment when it comes to these type of situations.

I'm not saying that Yoki's just not a great player. He is the greatest of this generation. This dude right now is the best, he's the best basketball player on the planet. But his dogged determination to play the way he wants to play might be to the detriment of the team right now, and I know that's a hard thing for people to hear. If you're a Nuggets fan, but I hope you understand where it's coming from. If you're a Nuggets fan, but I hope you understand where it's coming from I don't think anything worse. I just think that he has a way of playing. He wants to play that way and it's going to be really hard for you to get him so deterred where he's going to be like, screw it. I'm going to take 30 shots now, cause y'all some assholes and won't let me pass. Okay, see, looking awesome Clippers, looking real, real good, and the Knicks are surviving, so so so let me know in the comments.

Hit us up on youtube, hit us up on twitter. Hit us up on blue sky. So Rhea is at Rhea underscore fudge frpc on twitter and she's fancy on blue sky. It's frpc hyphen. Rhea dot b sky dot social. So hit us up, it's FRPC-REABSKYSOCIAL.

So hit us up, let us know what you think of these series. It don't have to be me just talking, because here's the thing If you're Twitter or you're, what are we calling a blue sky? What are we calling a post on blue sky? Is it a skeet? Is that what it is? We're calling it a skeet. Is that what it is? We're calling it a skeet. Okay, skeet, so like a G. So it's a G or it's a skeet Skeet, all right, all right. So send us a line Let us know what you think of this series. If it's a good line, we'll put it on the podcast, and you know that we're going to drop one on Tuesday, so get them in dawg Now.

I want to just say that Baseline Buds has made some alterations, and the reason why we made some alterations is because we are going to give the people what the hell they want. You want draft coverage? I got you son. You want thoughts on some of the top players in this draft? I also got you, son. If you want comparisons and stats and you know what we think they could be and what, what to look for if it's not working out got you sons. So so we are called baseline buzz now we're gonna call it draft buzz until we get through the draft.

So buckle up. We got a lot to get to. We're gonna get to some of these top players, but we're gonna look at some of these players down the road because now that we've done some work on them, now that we've talked to some people, now that we are, we think we're fervent in some of our evaluations at this point and I think I'm very excited. So to go ahead and drop our first mock draft now I think it will be tuesday and I am going to have all 59 picks. Now here's the deal with that. The picks are going to be indicative of what the team needs are and what we think the teams are thinking about at this present time. This is not necessarily where we think of the player. This is not necessarily where we think of a player. Mock draft is different than how we rate these players and how we evaluate these players.

Okay, I just want to make the distinction. I'm not saying anybody's stupid here. I know you guys are super smart. You wouldn't be here listening to Frontrunner Podcast Collective again. Here listening to Front Runner Podcast Collective again.

I want to shout out all those people in Germany who are tuning in we're getting big numbers back from our nation's capital in the surrounding areas Maryland, I see you. Boston, I see you. Mass is coming up. Okay, massachusetts is this Vince. Even though you are a Laker fan, I see that you do good analysis about our basketball team and I'm like here here I hate your team. I really do. But I'm like here, I hate your team. I really do. But I'm not going to shit on your team when I know it's good. Okay, you're going to get fair analysis Right. So shouts out to the people in Boston, shouts out to the people obviously in LA for holding it down and getting the podcast.

But be a friend, tell a friend about the podcast, make sure that we are building the FRPC family. We need to come up with a damn nickname. Somebody wants to help us with this. Get us up on Twitter, get us up on the news. Guys, let us know what y'all want to be following. You do you want to have like a splashy line with the audience and we just, you know, put some uh quotation marks around it or whatever, and you know it'll be like the ohio state university and you guys will just be the FRPC audience. You want something like, you know cool, like are we going like the click, like HBK Shawn Michaels and, you know, newly minted Hall of Famer Triple H, paul Levesque. You know what we're doing, you know, is it the formation? Because, paul Levesque, you know what we're doing. You know, is it the formation Because it's the frontrunner podcast collective? I don't know. Just let me know, because I'm here for all of it.

All right, let's get into this draft. Everybody's talking about Cooper Flagg, dylan Harper Big names, big upside. But if you want to win on draft night, it's about finding your Derek White. It's about finding your Josh Hartz, your Al Horford Even at 38 years old, still coming in and saving playoff series. What a stud that dude was joining at for the university of florida and he's still doing it in the nba and doing it a different way than when he came in, because that dude was a post assassin when he came in and now he out here through the threes playing on the perimeter on defense. This dude is crazy. I love him.

Today's mission finding playoff starters hiding after the big headliners. We got some names for you. We will break them down. But the first thing that I want to do is I want to get to the third person of the Trinity that is at the top of the script and that is the freshman, ace bailey. Six foot ten, 205 out of the rockers.

Here are some of the concepts. You know I hate comics, but here's some of the cops that I've heard Paul George Light, michael Porter Jr. I've heard some Rashad Lewis. I've heard some Jonathan Bender if he had a jump shot. I've heard some Al Harr, al Harrington, but better shooters. I've heard some Rasheed Wallace. I was like no, I can't see that one. I watched this kid play and you cannot sully the name of Rasheed Wallace like that. Okay, let everybody know.

Alright, let's get into some of the traits. There's no question that A's Bailey is shooting gravity, catch and shoot. He's a lead standstill shooter for his size. He shot 34.6% from threes on real volume. Okay, clean mechanics, high release point, confident with the shot, quick shot front. So his uh, his ability to get into his shot is not there's no, because of the long limbs and what have you. It's a very compact shooting motion. The shooting motion to me is very repeatable. There's not a lot that a coach would want to do with it. I don't think anybody's really going to want to tinker with it. I have no worries about the actual functionality of the shot at all. So when you talk about the actual shooting, he's plugging play there Because shooting is real. There's no question about that.

Now, vertical athleticism in transition play, high level, foul off two feet. He can hammer lobs, leak out for dunks. He can finish in traffic. One of the best open sport athletes in this class. Dude can bring it. He got juice. When you get him in transition basketball, nba teams running Pace, heavy, pace, heavy systems Like Indiana OKC Will weaponize His run and jump abilities Immediately. That's how you can unlock him Because, keep in mind, he is 205. He is a stick. He is like this pin. So you this is the audio medium we will have to put this on YouTube because I'm shaking a pen. I don't know I'm obviously.

We talked about that. We talked about him being a 6'10" Fluidity of athlete. He moves like a real wing at 6'10". He's not a stiff-hip guy. He's not a longer-of-movement guy. He slides laterally, he backpedals, opens hip defensively. I would like to see more of that personally, because I thought that he did not show enough defensive intentionality at his time at Rutgers.

Now I understand the AAU circuit is run and gun, you get up and down, but when you get into real Big Ten basketball you knew that there was going to have to be some half-court sets. He was going to have to be a little more physical. I like for him to. I'm not saying necessarily put on weight for the sake of putting on weight. I'm not saying necessarily put on weight for the sake of putting on weight. I just want you to be able to put on enough weight to kind of use your shoulder, because he has a sick mid-range game. It is nice, the tape is beautiful, I love it and I think as his legs get stronger, that area of the court is still just going to open up for him. Personally, I love it.

Here's the thing he can immediately switch on. The twos and threes and fours in defensive schemes Will fit switching defenses. You're going to have to teach him Principles, philosophies and rules to that defense and you're going to have to Nail it into him Because Whatever he was doing last year during the season, he said he had a Rutgers. There were so many plays where I have questions about what did you see there? What was the? What was the setup of the defense? Because a lot of times where dudes look like they're out of place but there was a mis-rotation, but there was a lot of times where I looked and I was like no, you're the one out of position, you're the one who is causing the breakdown in the rotation. So that is something that you're going to have to clean up.

His dribble is functional. In space it gets shaky and tight quarter. So if he was in this okc series, this would not be. They could smell. We can stop. Don't come into okc's house with that weak ass drummer you got. He doesn't change speeds yet. Well, yeah, I think that has a lot to do with him being 6'10 and growing into his body and growing into the, the ownership Of his body, being able to control his body Body control. So we look forward to that.

Potential Ancillary skills Develop rip and go, attack against closeouts, not primary creation. If you are thinking, give him the ball at the top of the key and let him go to work, he is not that guy. But if you have a really good point guard, you get a pick and roll and now he has four against three. Now he's probably going to shoot it. He's going to probably get to his area and shoot it. We'll talk about some of his decision-making in a second. Actually, we'll get to that. He has the capability of becoming a cutter plus an offensive rebounder to generate rim pressure without self-creating. Off-ball slashing could unlock athletic tools. So that's something that either will have to be taught, because he's the lives on his jump shot a lot. Now let's get to the decision-making processes, because this is where it's not fun to play with just assist percentage 1.3 assists, a game, extremely low tunnel vision. When he drives he is not looking for the point threes or the key threes, he struggles some.

The second defender in health defense. Potential ancillary skill add quick swing passes to his offensive game. I think this is more of a principle rule philosophy. Here's the principle, this is the rule, if you see this, and this is the philosophy of what we're trying to do. So you say to him hey, you're on the left side above the break free. You got two guys crashing down on you. You have a guy.

Where did that guy come from? Did he come from the corner or did he come from the middle of the key? Okay, if he came from the middle of the key, okay, if he came from the middle of the key, shoot the ball to the guy there. That will start chain reaction. Now we're going to need you to move to the corner. Boom, boom, boom, and now we're off to the races. Right, simple, simple. These are things that can be taught. He just has not had these reps. He had a very ongoing dominant guard in Dylan Harper, who made really good decisions and also understood as soon as he gave the ball to Ace Bailey, he wasn't getting it back. So there was that as well. But I think that he has a chance. These things can grow into him, but he does not have these things now, so do not look for them.

Rookie season Maintain high volume, high percentage from three Spot up Trail threes. Transition finishers. Become a more reliable point of attack. Defender versus wings. Tighten up the one-two dribble combos. Improve declaration stopping power and crowd finishes. Get a little more creative around the ring. Year two and year three Add 10 to 15 pounds of muscle without losing movement and fluidity. Focus on core strength and absorbing contact, because right now he's not good at that. That's why he stands out by the three-point line on just bottom three.

Fourth year this is what you're hoping for. Secondary creation Become a grip and go creator. All defense rebounds develop, develop. Now they oppose face up game like Brandon Ingram, michael Porter Jr. Hybrid stuff, stuff. Advanced off-ball skills. Learn nuanced off-ball cuts, baseline 45 cuts, understanding like the principles of, like the spring pick and roll and what have you? Crash the offensive, blast for easy putbacks. Use your athleticism, use your height, use your length to be able to get yourself easy points, ideal hits.

Now, when I put these in, I want you to think I'm not thinking like. These are the people who can get him. This is what I think. As far as offensively, where he would fit in Oklahoma City Thunder, no doubt San Antonio Scrums, indiana Pacers those three teams come to mind. Just talking about just the movement and what happened. I love him in a Pacers uniform just because of Rick Carlisle, I know what he can do with something like that. I saw what he did with Dirk Mavinsky now. I saw what he did with Dirk Nowitzki.

Now, a lead shot maker in size Convo is hard to walk away from in the league. Okay, fluid athlete and, depending on where you are with the star tours, that's also going to be another Thing that these scouts and the coaches are going to salivate Plug and play Early in his career. Here's the thing he can shoot it, no doubt. I think that will be consistent enough to keep him on the court. But you got to be able to do something else. Needs creation, handle, grow to get real all-star outcomes. Needs to sharpen decision-making. Not get stuck on jump-shooting-only archetypes. Don't just become charles morris. Ace has a high ceiling, a sky high ceiling, but his floor is very dependent on what team drafts and how they develop his offensive yawn, catch and shoot and this is from an NBA scout, march of this year.

Do I think he's a dude? No, I don't. I think when you come in, you got one skill. Now I know listen, 6'10", 6'11". There is some ball skills a little bit. Think. When you come in, you got one skill skill. Now I know, listen, six foot ten six eleven, there is some ball skills a little bit. Keeping he is tunnel vision. My volume shooter, whatever case may be, got you rim protection? Can you do that, mmm? The ability to switch and understand some of the translations in the defense of what your role is in it, and are you able to use your length and your height on defense to keep people in front of you flashes? It was there, but not consistent enough. Lot of these things hit. Is he a guy worth swinging on at three? Definitely, you see, guaranteed to hit. It all depends on where he does. It all depends on what his attitude is towards the coaching and the development plan that's laid out in front of him, and it's going to be up to him on whether he wants to be great or not.

So we wanted to give you a little taste of what we kind of do when we talk about guides and when we're going through our evaluations. This is how our PC does it. When we talk about guides and when we're going through our evaluations, this is how our PC does it. Now. We break down film, we get into these guides, we talk to people, we try to get as much information as we possibly can, and then we give it to you, the audience. We love doing it and again, we're here Tuesday and Friday for your listening pleasure and also for your viewing pleasure as well, and there will be a second screen experience with this. We also will tie in a blog about what we talked about here on the pod. You can get that at frpcpodcastpageio, and then, if you go to the top of the screen to the right, there's a menu drop down. Go to blog boom. The last one will be for this particular, so enjoy it. You know what I'm saying.

Now, couple things we gonna get to some guys that we are high on and we gonna show some love to the guys that are not in the top three. And I'm gonna start with a guy who I just can't quit, and the more and more I watch his tape, the more and more I get excited about him, and I don't necessarily understand why others aren't as excited as I am. So let's go from there. Rashear Fleming out of St Joe's has beena frontrunner podcast collective favorite since we first saw his tapes. Okay, so love the kid.

6'9", legitimately Real NBA size. And before let's give you a couple numbers here he shot 39% from three-point land. He shot 53% over from the field. He protects the rim 1.5 blocks per game, good mobility, great production, average 14.7 points a game, 8.5 rebounds a game, while all expanding his offensive game. For me, what makes him very intriguing is that he is a stretch forward. Who actually defends is that he is a stretch four who actually defends?

One of the things that we have found out through these processes is that it is really hard to find that wing that everybody wants to talk about, the three and D wing. Usually, what we see is you'll have either the D or the three, but the 3 D have them both. Usually it's very rare to see a lot of the lockers. We got a draft full of these dudes this year, though, and Fleming is one of them. Stretch floor who defends that's gold in today's NBA. The dude is 6 foot 9. Who canends? That's gold in today's NBA. The dude is six foot nine. Who can hit threes and can switch. This is in short supply in the NBA motor, and toughness always around the. The ball Doesn't flow, doesn't go missing.

This is an anti-Tobias Harris dude. Weak side rim protection he's not a primary rim protector, but he's sneaky good at being a rotating shot blocker from the corners, low usage scores you talk about these guys, right. You always have your, your primary facilitator. You need a guy who can handle the ball, know where. He's not just gonna be a turnover machine, but you can get you that bucket and you're you feel real comfortable giving him the ball. Never leads a lot of touches, finds open areas, relocates and knocks down shots. So he's a mover. He he's in perpetual motion. When he's being featured in the offense or being knowing that he has a chance to get the ball, he's always holding, not saying when he's not getting wrong. He's not always moving, he's doing. It's the whole time. Bottom system fit. He can survive on switching or drop heavy skiing.

Personally, my projection for him is that he can be a starting floor on a good team within two years. I think that this guy has a chance of being. It depends on what you think he is. I'm not saying necessarily he has to be your third guy, but he can be a really good four for you. What I mean by that is fourth option. You're going like Vince. That's not very sexy to be a fourth option. No, no, no, claire, I believe that there's number two option on him. Number three option definitely smells good on him. But if he comes in and he's getting you efficiently 12 a game, 6 rebounds and a guy who can hit a guy who can hit 36-39% from 3 and defensively he can guard 3-5 and be a weak side helping, how valuable is that? This is Aaron Gordon with a little bit better handle and a better point my truck. This is Aaron Gordon. Just letting you guys know this is what we do.

Quick glance at this drive top heavy talent, blah, blah, blah. I think this dude can help you like in the playoffs. He has starter equity in him. This dude can help you like in playoffs. He has starter equity in him. And what I mean by that? He has size, shooting, defensive scalability, motor, iq. That's what I mean when I say starter equity. He has the size at 6 foot 9 and 240 pounds just to stand up to the physicality on the league. The shot is consistent and translatable to the mda. Defensive scalability, like I said, he provides rain protection. He also provides rain protection. He also handles switches onto smaller plants. The motor is great. Iq those are the things that I'm talking about that make starters. These are the things that get coaches excited In May and in June.

It's not about who got the prettiest mixtape, it's about survives, the third rotation in a Miami zone. That's what it comes down to. So I think he is a sleeper in this draft. Here's what again. We talked about his size. We talked about him having great movement skills. I talked about the three point shooting. He has incredible translation as far as a pick and pop big in this league. And when I talk about the monster motor constant second efforts, constant, constant. Oh, and if you want to talk about like some tape or something that you want to like, look at with him.

Watch the Rhode Island game, minute 712. He's guarding a point guard. He slides, he recovers to a block of a dunk attempt. That's starter movement. That's crazy. What are we doing right now? If this dude turns out to be like a high level? I want, I think he's, I think he's Aaron Gordon, more featured, that's like the highest level he's going to get to Like PJ Washington, okay. So if you wanted to go there and I think that his floor would be like a Grant Williams you know I'm high on this kid think that his floor would be like a Grant Williams. You know, you know I'm hiding this kid. I don't think. I don't think he can fail.

This is Saray's quote. This isn't home. He figures out, he figures it out bad. This is a plug and play Him into a playoff rotation. The Sarras quote. This isn't home. He figures out, he figures it out that this is a plug-and-play him into a playoff rotation. 18 months back. I, like you, like. I think he could meet a lottery impact without having a lottery cost. Think Herb Jones, his playoff proof skill set. He talked about it the shooting, the switching, the weak side help. You know you can't play him off the floor. Now, if he was going to scale up, he can play next to bigs, a stretch floor, or he can be a small ball five coming off the bench. This is the type of player who outplays his rookie deal massively. If drafted smartly, some execs will see a undersized big and be cautious. Smart ones will see a switchable defensive forward who shoots. That's how you win the playoffs. I will tell you right now. I'm these guys on high arms.

Here's another one pass grace we got katuna's of illinois. Six foot five, two hundred pounds, nba ready body right down. He sees the floor brilliantly. 4.7 assists, 5.7 rebounds. As a freshman he shot 44 from the field. Um, I will tell you about that. In a second he shot 31.8 from threes. The shot needs tightening up with the form. It's a broken way. I will tell you.

What happened to yaka chunas at illinois is that there were supposed to be a couple more guys around him that were going to be really helpful and productive. They didn't pan out and the offense fell on those kids and he had to do a lot more than maybe what it was kind of told to him going into the year or the way they envisioned it. I think that this is a guy that was probably like floating outside that top five and Then now you're starting to see a little bit of slide. When you see him like in the 10 to 12 range, well, somebody's gonna get a really good player if, for some reason, we do a slide outside that top. I think these numbers are not indicative into who he is as a player.

What makes him intriguing to me is that he's big, he's poised and at the worst, he's a secondary creator. If you don't think that the handle is as strong as it needs to be, he will definitely be able to handle second side career. His iq and his patience are his calling card. He never looks that up. He sees the floor again. Like I said, brilliant.

It's not the 5.7 assist that I'm like astonished with, it was just the amount of volume of blitzes that this guy got. He was constantly hounded around the big 10. They knew that he was the guy that kind of was getting off the ball to kind of get on the ball to get a good shot and then hopefully, by his movement it opened up something on the other side of the court, the weak side of the court. This was the game plan all year for Illinois and what we saw was a guy just kind of, in a sense, running for his life. Basically now he rebounds for his life, basically now he rebounds, or aside, really well. Well, 5.7 rebounds wouldn't really talk about. Are you doing? Keep moving. He shows grit and toughness. You can pass. Now I will say that the defense situation was going to be a problem. Some of the concerns now this is a little something scouts, they, they talk about the assist to turnover issues. I wonder how much that would be if he had a lesser load and if the shooting they're calling it streaky and I will say this again if he's like hey, you got 12 shots. That's what you got. I wonder if that's just a better, if that's a better incubator type of atmosphere for Yaku-chan at this point.

He's a productive secondary bar handler. He's a connector. If he was going to be a starter, he could play next to a high usage guy who's a star. We got people out here saying that he can be like a 15-6-5 type of dude. I like it Shooting breakdowns. He's 6'5". He has to think frame, so he's NBA ready with five. He has to think frame, so it's nba ready.

Advantage pick and roll field okay. He is a absolute demon when it comes to kick and roll. Pass his teammates open. He's not just reactive, so he can literally see you and say, hey, keep, just, keep going, just keep going. He'll throw you open. So you're coming across the baseline and he's at the top of the key. If you keep going, going, going under the rail, he'll even kind of shade. He'll kind of protect you from, he'll shield you from a shot blocker. He'll put the ball on the opposite side of the rim and all you do is basically go up, gather and take the ball. Brilliant processor again. And the game that I want to bring up is the Illinois-Michigan game where he manipulates the big with his eyes on a skip pass. That's real processing speed. He did it multiple times to the wall. It was also a guy who's going to be in this lottery situation. Best case scenario for our guy is that he's like a real like high level, like High as general, tight.

I'm trying to think like Malcolm robbed in. Think that type of guy, but better facilitator. I'm trying to think of guys Like this Emily, now Okay, I got one for you. Think jamal murray without yelch. And there you go, y'all can choose. I'm not going to headline the draft, but three years from now I'll headline the smartest move of last night list that comes from Sarrick. She's in on it.

The next guy is another guy who has kind of like that sideways, like these sideways looks, but we like them. Meet clifford of colorado states. Now a lot of people will sit there and be like oh, david rodney, clone this dad and the other isn't gonna play in the league. You like these weird body type. Nothing though six or 6'6" Over 200. I think he's like 225. He's like twice sensible Size, ideal NBA wing frame.

Almost 19 points a game, 18.9. 9.6 rebound he's a dog. 4.4 assists that's his full. He's just a full stack stuffer. Really good numbers if you think about it 49.6 field goal percentage, 37.7 from three. That's pretty good efficiency. What makes one intriguing to me is this six foot six and you're almost at ten rebounds a game. That's. It translates to basketball. Josh Hart was a great rebounder in college. It translated. Brandon Kozinski was a great rebounder in college. It translated. These dudes translate to the NBA. He, he's going to rebound, so you're going to get more possessions because of him. So almost 10 rebounds a game from Garwin. That's crazy. Smart cutter, smart relocator, doesn't need the ball.

We would love for the three-point percentage to go up 37.7%, but that was also. Remember. Nick Clifford was the guy on Colorado State, so everybody was looking for him. So for him to shoot 37.7% from three. I have no problem with that. Now you're talking about you're the third guy that we need to keep an eye on. You're the fourth guy that we need to keep an eye on. What could one percentage be when you got six feet of space from the closest defender? We don't know. When he got six feet of space from the closest defender, we don't know.

Defensive effort he's not a lockdown guy. He's not going to get completely turnstiled. He can move his feet somewhat as far as that's concerned, but his big ability is the rebounding, being able to clean up the boards. He has just like this. I don't know if it's a beautiful mind or he understands geometry, but he can. He understands angles and where the ball is calling off and he's able to just single track it, pick it up, go.

So I love this kid. I think you're getting a productive player, a connector. He's not this civil on defense. He's gonna be rugged. He's not gonna be scared in the moment. He came from a small school because he's gonna have a chip on his shoulder and I think somebody's going to towards the end of the first round. Somebody's going to get this kid and he probably should have went 10 slots earlier. He's not dynamic with the basketball. He's not an iso creator. He has a little off movement and reads and secondary off he will. He cannot be your on-ball creator, so can he create shots late in the cloud? Probably not. Uh, my projection for him is that he's gonna be a reliable, unselfish starter.

Playoff team at some point. I'll probably be roughly around 12 to 15 points a game, decent defense with elite rebounding at the wing position think Aaron Wiggins with more boards, so Josh Hart light will get a shooting right. More volume. Our guy Clifford is a playoff team's wet dream, a glue wing. Every playoff team fries or this place is too late. We need, we need more this In the league.

So those are the only guys that high outside Don't you know the guys to kind of know that are coming up off the board. Those are the three guys and I wanted to kind of bring some attention to. I think it would be absolutely criminal if we're shot at Fleming's cold. So goes after 20. What I don't make. These picks man you know saying how do you don't picks man, you know I'm saying I don't gosh around in the margin. Titles are defended because you can hit on the 18th pick and receive Fleming pass breaks, yaku chunas or neat Clipper land on our smart franchises. Mark my words, you'll see them starting playoff games in 2028.

So what did we learn today? What did we learn? First of all, shout out to John Moran Going through what he's going through. We tried to paint a picture of what it could be if you look down that road. But Memphis, I hear you, you, I hear you clearly, this is your guy and you want to ride with him and I want that for you, but I also want John to clean up his act a little bit and I also want him to be a little more judicial about what he does on the court. Throttle it down a little bit, my guy. Throttle it down a little bit.

Let me leave you with this. The NBA isn't a fairy tale. It's a clock and every injury, every trade rumor, every lost playoff series, it ticks a little bit louder. You can still see the future Memphis once dreamed about. It's there In the highlight reels the sold-out Knights, kids wearing the number 12 jersey.

But if the foundation is cracked, beliefs turn into burden. Parallels to derrick rose and john wall. They fall and fade, not because they stopped loving the gang, but because their bodies stopped letting them body stopped, letting them lie about being fine. And I wonder how many car crashes is it going to take for john moran to find out that sobering reality? Because two, two hip situations in 12 months not great. Situations in 12 months not great. And the reason why we put out trading them job once, just because of the fact that the option has to be talked about. Is it a comfortable conversation? No, it's not. You don't know, in this league, with just dreams you win, with dreams tethered to discipline. Memphis stands at the edge of the cliff. We root for reverse and whatever happens to the job with Memphis or wherever it goes anywhere.

And again I will say this Memphis, grizzlies, grind City. I hear you, this is your guy. I want him to be electric on Beale Street. That is what I want him to be electric on Beale Street, that is what I want. But I'm going to ask this question. You see how this season's ending this year on a downturn Sucks for you guys. I get it the whole thing. But I will ask this question.

We get to game 10 of next season season and it's still the same job, and what I mean by that. I thought I have to quit. I don't care about that. I'm talking about a reckless abandon going to the rim. We have not learned some sort of body control or we have put on maybe little added masks to be able to take some of the punishment when we do eventually go to the hole and go to the rim. If it's the same guy that was laying on the floor and I know that image is painful for all Grizzly fans but if it's the same exact situation. The league is full of broken dreams, but it's also full of impossible. If Ja writes the next chapter, it'll be because someone bet on his part and not just his house. Dreams die, legends rise. Let's see which one John becomes. I still believe in John Moran. I still believe there is a superstar in that, in that money, but I think that there has to be some cerebral practitioner, like philosophy, that goes along with the incredible athleticism that John provides. I'll say it that way again.

I want to thank the crew here at FRPC. You know we haven't really thrown out names yet because of the fact that you Again, I want to thank the crew here at FRPC. You know we haven't really thrown out names yet because of the fact that you know people. You know what I'm saying. People want to stand on this and stuff, not because they don't like the product. As you know, they got five months out of here. I want to thank the crew. I want to thank Soraya for providing the notes and the stats and what have you? I want to thank the Athletic, tony Jones, who your thing, my man, shout out to you, my guy Yovan Buha. He does his thing on a daily. John Krasinski. Go read my guys in the Athletic. They holding it down. Oh my god, the guy, lon Murray doing his thing Love that kid Holds it down for us. So you guys have a great weekend. We gonna enjoy some basketball, we gonna enjoy some drive, we gonna enjoy some things and get some things on our chest. But we will see you back on this podcast On Tuesday.

So surround yourself with people who lift you up, push you forward and remind you who you are.

If you got people you got folks like that in your life, celebrate them, text them, hug them if you have the opportunity to do so, and let them know that they matter and they are acknowledged in your world. Because growth is different when you are surrounded by love, support and real love. And if you're building that kind of culture and that kind of circle, then start with Frontrunner Podcast collective. Keep it locked here Tuesday and Friday, because we will always keep the seat open for you, the true aficionado. And if you're just joining and you will considered a casual, the more the merrier. The bandwagon is big enough for all of you and we remember Be a friend, tell a friend about the podcast. We only grow because of y'all. Follow us on your podcast platform of choice. Make sure you hit that notification bell so when the new pod drops, you got the new hotness with you. So, from myself and Sareb, we are out, deuces, deuces and we will see you on Tuesday. Peace and we will see you on Tuesday, peace.