The Mavericks Got Played: An Epic Fail

it's Tuesday. You know what time it is. Front runner podcast collective is on the air. I am your host, vince. We are here today to talk about the greatest game on the face of the planet, and it's called NBA basketball. Now, in back in the day, they used to have this song. It was like we're playing basketball. We're playing basketball. Now that vibe is going to live here on front runner podcast collective. I am joined by my silent assassin, producer serea. She will be backing me up with numbers. She will be backing me up with numbers. She will be backing me up because I forget things, because I am an old.

So, with that being said, you want to know the rundown of what we're going to be talking about today. We're going to be talking about the Mavericks a lot early and often. We're also going to be talking about the phoenix suns and what they're going to be doing. We're also going to hit what has happened in philadelphia, why it has happened and who we should look at at, some of the probable situations of who we should point the finger at. So, with all that being said, we have a lot to get to, and let's get to it. So, the Dallas Mavericks. Right now. Let's run it back one more time. Luka Doncic is gone. Now for my Dallas fans out there, I am not trying to kick you in the teeth Because I want to make a point towards the end of this, but I got a lot of stuff to get through because you guys have gone through a lot. But I have some words for you as we go along. So Luka Doncic is gone, trade this to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis and also Max Christie in a future first-round pick, which was the 2029 pick. Anthony Davis first game goes out dominates, looks like an absolute stud, certified G. You know what I'm talking about. He scores like 26 points. He has like 14 rebounds, five assists, four blocks, three steals. He looks like an absolute killer out there. Dallas fans are starting to feel a little bit better and then early in the third quarter he like yanks at his junk and it turns out that he has a really severe abductor strain which he came back to early from the previous abductor strain that he had in los angeles.

Now patrick dumont, the new owner, taking the steering wheel away from Mark Cuban, he and Nico Harrison go into this conversation that only they have Now 1,500 miles away in the city of Los Angeles where the Oscars went off a couple nights ago. You know a lot of big, big time people here just mulling around the city, all kinds of stuff, a lot of blocked vehicles. You know a lot of people in ties and then other people getting out of cars and stuff like that. But I digress. There is a similar conversation going on between genie bus and rob palenka. Now you will go hush, hush discussions going on between the owner and president or vice president of player personnel, whatever the title you want to give. Let's just call exec people in charge of the basketball team, right? So nico harrison and patrick dumont say hey, now this is all out in public too, so you can go look it up.

This dude don't like to practice hard and i'm'm talking about Luka Doncic. This is things they're saying. This dude doesn't like to stay in shape. This dude is now getting hurt since Christmas. When is he coming back? I don't know. We really want to give this dude like $70 million. Don't know we really want to give this dude like 70 million dollars. That seems like an iffy proposition at best. Now it's almost like you got one of those uh, those memory zapping machines from the men in black, right, so I'm holding up my pen now. I know this is an audio podcast. Some of this will be on youtube, so hopefully this part ends up on youtube. But in the men in black they have the little pen and they flash the light and then your memory gets zapped and it's kind of like that's what happened to nico harrison and patrick Dumont.

Did they not witness Luka Doncic carry the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals? Not more than like, oh, let's say, eight months ago? Huh, interesting, because here's the thing. There's a lot of revisionist history, because we're going to get to the other thing that we came to talk about, which is the most heart-wrenching thing of this whole deal. But Kyrie Irving was not good in the last two rounds before the NBA finals. He really wasn't that good in the nba finals. Luca don just carried a big burden for that team and he hit a lot of clutch shots and drove a lot of the offense. So, with all that being said, luca gets traded.

They try to regroup, have a new norm. They're trying to wait for ad to get back. Kairi irving is carrying this team and here's the thing kairi irving was the only offensive facilitator they had on this team. You can talk about dante exum all you want, who has been often injured. You can talk about other dudes, you can talk about Spencer Dinwiddie but the driver of offense was always Kyrie Irving.

After Luka Nachez left and now he has a torn ACL, he is out for the season. Here's the bad part it is the start of March. That means that pretty much all of 2025 is gone for Kyrie Irving. So we will not see him in October unless he's sitting on the bench. We probably won't see him in November. We might still start getting rumblings in December, but most likely we will see him in January of 2026.

Keep in mind, kyrie. His game is necessitated on speed, change of direction, lateral quickness, being able to stop on a dime. Those are all things that are a complete obstacle to an ACL tear. That's going to take time. He's going to go through a ACL tear. That's going to take time. That's also going to he's going to go through a mental hurdle. So these are all things that are disrupting what the Dallas Mavericks and Nico Harrison promised when he was putting this together and tried to tell us that trading Luka was a good thing. Remember he wanted a defensive team. He wanted the right type of players that would buy into a system, and he believed that the window was two or three years. Well, hell, son, one of those years is gone. Now the second one is in real, real peril.

Dallas fans, I'm getting to you. Trust me, I have not left you. I know this sounds terrible right now, but the thing that I want to talk about with Nico Harrison is this, and this is where Dallas fans and I want to give them a voice. I've heard you, mavericks fans, hashtag MFFL. I have heard you. You are torn. Your heart has been torn up. The guy that you identify with the Dallas Mavericks is gone. He is now wearing a Laker uniform that sucks, and I'm not gonna sit here and and dance on your grave that's not what I'm here to do but to know that Nico Harrison was had a front row seat to what he witnessed in the spring and also into the early summer of 2024, and to see that, and as somebody who supposedly is a very successful businessman coming from Nike, decide that I am going to punt on this talent. I am going to feed the city of Dallas that we are looking for a certain type of player and Luka was not that certain type of player and that we will be better off in the short term and probably in the long term because Luca will break down.

There are things that I like. I like coffee. Probably not good for me, but I do like coffee. Now I've cut out chips, I've cut out diet. I've cut out Dried soda, Dried coke. I'm a coke guy, my wife Coke product girl. We are symbiotic. In that situation, you know, I just want to make sure that everybody know that me and the wife Are in lockstep, right, but my wife knows like, okay, he's giving up chips, he's giving up diet, coke. We can't ask him to give up everything, right, can't ask him give up every last thing. And coffee keeps him as a human being. So so why do I say all this? I say this because Clearly, nico Harrison Doesn't understand talent.

You can Not like the approach. You can make suggestions On Habits and diet and ways to work out, you can continue these processes, but the one thing that you don't do is you don't trade a 25, now 26 year old luka donchic, who I've said clearly is one of the top five players in the league really top three can't do it, it's a crime. And you got Anthony Davis, who's 32, who probably still wishes he is was in LA, got Max Christie, who will be awesome for you. He will be a difference maker as a perimeter defender. I believe there's more to the game than just a spot-out shooter. I think there is some wiggle to him, but he is not a driver of offense, not like luca and that 2029 first round pick that you got from the Lakers. Well, good luck with that, because we're going to give the entire city to Luka. He's 26, so we expect him to play for a long, long time.

This wasn't a rebuild. It wasn't a long-term plan. This was a front office pressing the self-destruct button in the middle of the season. And here's the. Here's the best part about the whole thing. Again, to the Dallas fans if you decide to not go to games, if you guys decide to protest until Nico Harrison and I don't provocate for people losing their jobs but I can understand a fan base wanting that, suggesting that. I can see a fan base thinking that way I am devastated that now Kyrie is out, ad, who knows if he'll come back now because he can say well, should I just go ahead and rest up and come back next season? Here's the only saving grace for the Dallas Mavericks. With research, they do keep their pick. You do get this pick this year. So if you're going to tank it, go ahead and tank it. That. If you can somehow wiggle your way in To that top four, somehow, good on you, because you're going to need the talent upgrade To the talent that just walked out the door For almost what a half A half a Starbucks coffee and maybe some what I don't know kids like right now I don't know, some of the pixie sticks or whatever. But I'll tell you this at the end of day, this, this, this is this is bad. This is really really bad. Now, how bad is it? The Lakers are 18 and 6. The Mavericks are 9 and 15.

Luka Doncic's most guaranteed superstar in the NBA outside of Nikola Jokic was sent to the Lakers. They blamed him on the conditioning. He ballooned up to the 260-pound range. He had conditioning breaks disguised as injuries. There was frustration within the organization that led them to think they wouldn't commit to him long-term, so they traded a midseason. Now here's the thing under the watchful eye of Jason kid and also Nico Harrison, luka Dodgers has dropped 73 points in the game. Luka Doncic has been in the MVP conversation every year and he was their best chance at another title in the interim right.

This was the Eric parent, parent to dirk davinsky and things of that nature, and now you start all over. So my hope is that now I don't think that dallas should be rewarded for bad behavior at all, but my hope is is that you know you either get one of the top four picks or if for some reason, you're in that five to eight range, one of those guys pops off for you, the dallas fan base per se. This is not to get nico harrison out of trouble. Please know that. That is not what I'm saying. No, what I'm saying is that for your guys to say for the Dallas Mavericks fanbase I wish good on you for the draft prospects, that your guy was the right guy, because your guy that you had previously was the right guy and they traded him away so we can move along.

Now. Here's the one thing I will say about this whole deal um, death threats to family members is not cool. Um, nico Harrison, you know, I don't know if he's going to get fired soon, but he's getting death threats. And I'm just here to say, as a podcaster, as somebody who has kids, uh, who is a wife, um, or somebody who, just humanity sakes, has kids, who is a wife? Or somebody who, just Humanity sakes? That's just not a. That's not a good situation. It is basketball. I do understand you guys, it's frustration, but Don't show it like that. That's not cool.

Now the other things that are going on. The fans feel betrayed. They don't trust ownership and they don't think that ownership understands. Like they. They raise ticket prices. So you trade luka notchance and you raise ticket prices in the middle of the season. Like you, you really truly don't understand your fan base.

So, new owner syndrome, this is the a, this is the epidemic. And why does this epidemic keep happening? I don't know. But there are going to be scholars, they're going to be scientists, they're going to be men of great knowledge 60, 70 years from now, and they will be doing studies on the buffoonery of nba, nba owners and what they do in the first, let's say, 500 days of owning a franchise. Now Charlotte is the only team with new owners that hasn't done anything stupid yet, so clock is still ticking on them. But congratulations. So far, you guys have stayed out of the stupid zone, which is great. But new owner syndrome is real.

Here's the plague look, take over a successful franchise, immediately make a huge, reckless trade, alienate your fan base, burn everything down and it's happened over and over again. See the Phoenix Suns, let's see. Yeah, yeah, that's a good, that's a good correlation. Right there, the Phoenix Suns, matt Ishpia he is. He is knee-deep into it. So where do we go from here?

The one thing we can talk about is that conspiracy theory about Patrick Dumont trying to get the Dallas Mavericks out of Dallas. We can talk about that. Let's do it for a second. Does this look like a franchise trying to win? Hmm, does this look like a franchise trying to alienate a fan base? The NBA wants to end expansion team. What if Dallas was set up to move? Well, if you're raising ticket prices, you trade the most popular player in Dallas, in the state of Texas right now, maybe Arch Manning. That might be it Luka Doncic. No, luka Doncic is more famous than Arch Manning, for sure. So now Arch Manning has the title all by himself. You're welcome, texas. You didn't win a national championship, but you now have probably the most famous sports athlete in the state of Texas. Now Congrats.

Now, new owner doesn't have any connection to the city. Hmm, matt Ishbia, patrick Dumont, ring a bell. I'm not saying they're moving to Vegas, but this is how Seattle lost the Sonics, literally. Remember? The dude that owns them said oh, I'm not going to move them to Oklahoma City, I'm not going to do that. And then he moved them to Oklahoma City.

Now do I believe the conspiracy theory? No, you don't leave Dallas, which is a top five market, to go to Vegas or other places. You just don't do that. Do I think they make incredible moronic mistakes? Yes, I do, I do. I do believe in that. I do believe that new ownership syndrome continues and it continues to produce awful results, produce head-scratching moves. That sometimes doesn't make any sense.

Now, to take the pain off of the Dallas Mavericks, we can talk about the Kevin Durant trade. And it's not about do you do the Kevin Durant trade, because of course you do what you tell the Brooklyn Nets hey, you get picks or you get a bunch of players. It's not both, it is not both. So Dallas went the other route. They said hey, we don't even want a lot of picks and we don't want a lot of pigs and we don't want a lot of players and we especially don't want young players. Alright, we gotta talk about another ownership group that seems to be having some issues here the Philadelphia 76ers. And no, I am not here to break down the last, the 29 and 39 disaster class that is this season.

We all know what it looks like, um, but let's talk about the real elephant in the room and basically that's the joel and bead extension that happened this summer. It was supposed to be a final move to secure a championship window. Instead it is looking like a five-year $213 million IOU to a player whose body won't cooperate. And now, with whiskers of microfracture surgeries, shamans, german doctors, we see you, lebron, and maybe even some dead guy's cartilage. Yes, that is where we're at. The whole thing is just unraveling fast.

In Philadelphia, the 76ers front office, led by our analytics godfather Daryl Morey, bet big on Embiid staying healthy and being able to anchor a contender deep into his 30s. Betting on a big man with significant injury history to a specific area on the body has always been a dice roll, but in B's case it was like rolling snake eyes and then doubling down at the crash table. So today we're diving deep into. The extension never made sense in the first place, and what's the Sixers need to do next and how they should be looking at maybe the Memphis Grizzlies as a blueprint for post injury rebuild. So let's get into a little bit. So we're gonna rewind a little bit.

The Sixers had a choice. They had a real choice. They could have taken the conservative route approach, with Embiid understanding the risk of locking a big man up with significant wear and tear, or they could have done what they did. What they did. They handed him a massive extension and assumed he'd hold up and hope to chase titles I have no idea what in his track record that Darryl Morey and, I will say, josh Harris, who is the owner of the 76ers, also the owner of the Washington Commanders, who had a great season this year. I don't know what they were thinking when they handed that massive extension over to him. Like this dude's going to make close to like $70 dollars a year towards the end of this contract and it's guaranteed.

They didn't put any verbiage in this contract that says, hey, if your knee falls apart, we we get to this, this contract, because null and void. They didn't do any of that verbiage that they had in the previous contract. I want to take a sip of water. I don't want to get dry doing this. All right, all right, all right. So now here's the other thing too. You give them the contract extension. You don't put any verbiage in, and you know what's been going around the internet is that Joel Embiid has missed as many games as he has played in in his entire career. It is pretty much a 50 50 split. At this point. That is absolutely nuts and it's kind of like. You know it's good work if you can get it. You know work half the time right.

And here's where Morin made the key mistake. He thought he would extend in 2023, joel Embiid, not 2025, joel Embiid. It's like buying a luxury car and knowing full well that the transmission is going to fail you in two years, then acting surprised when it breaks down on the side of the highway and beat is 30 years old now and he has like 62 year old knees. The Sixers knew he had lingering issues, yet they still locked him in and now this deal is starting to kick in. We haven't got there yet. It's amazing. We talked about the 21 and 39. That's not a typo. They're the 26th ranked offense, they're the 27th ranked pace and they have a negative 4.7 net rating, which places them in some terrible positions. They're down there with some real bad teams.

Now, in Joel Envy's absence, it's pretty crippling. Without him, they're both bottom five in offense and defense efficiency. He wasn't a lot of help when he was on the floor because if you watch any of the games whatsoever, he couldn't move. The only time he moved is when it was on the offensive end. Of course and no shade to Joel on B he's probably it was an excruciating pain trying to play through a knee that probably has no cartilage left in it. Purely speculation on my part, but if you had knee surgery after knee surgery after knee surgery, then there becomes no cartilage left. It's pretty scary situation. Now Embiid has missed significant time for four straight years and let's not forget that he is dealing with a knee injury that might never ever fully heal and that it's the kind of turn the superstar into role players, basically, and some of the surgery options or some of the things that they're talking about would definitely turn him into not the Joel Embiid that you are thinking of.

That was an MVP. He won one and was a perennial MVP candidate. Once he goes down the road of like a micro fractal surgery Think of Amari Stoudemire who had it he was never really the same Stoudemire who had it. He was never really the same. This is the type of stuff that they ruined him, or, if they didn't ruin him, they definitely didn't try to stop this situation. It was just like a train coming down the track and they just said, hey, you might want to get off the track, and then they just let it go. Because he was. He was coming off a knee injury. He plays five games before the playoffs. Last year he gets hurt right before the playoffs, continues to play, which was the dumbest thing on the face of the planet. I still say to this day he somehow the knee gets healthy enough for him to play in the Olympics.

He looks terrible. Please, one good game, the game they needed him in, but one good game look compromised in. And then you gave him the extension. So what's? What's the plan now? What do you do now? You don't have Joel on B. Oh, by the way, paul George, not so great. He even shut down his podcast because the scrutiny was too bad.

So what is the move now? What do the Sixers do? Well, you can look at the Grizzlies. When John Morant went down, they embraced the tank, and that's what the Sixers should do. Now to the charade. Embiid is already out. I think you can find ways for Tyrese Maxey to get periodically shut down. Paul George has been injured all year and maybe he should go back to podcasting.

But you need to think. Here's the thing Philly needs to stay in the top six of the lottery so they don't lose their lottery pick to OKC. Right now they have a 45.8% chance of keeping the pick. If they can fall below Toronto, that jumps up to 64%. Let me tell you something Philadelphia 76ers fans they need to lose at all costs, all costs. You shut them down. You lose at all costs. You do everything in your power to keep this pick. You're going to need it, whether it's to trade it for a veteran to. I wouldn't. I won't even think to double down on this team. Please don't double down on this team. But I hope that you get into the deep, the the very, very deepest end of this lottery and are able to hold on to this top six pick, hopefully move up into the top three and really get yourself a difference maker in this draft. That's my hope. I don't know, we will see. So where do we go from here? Here's the bottom line where do we go from here? Here's the bottom line.

The nbe extension was not just a bad idea. It might be career suicide for our guy, daryl morey. Now daryl morey has been a successful player evaluator for a long period of time. It might not kill him, it might not destroy him, but this is not great on the resume whatsoever. Philly has to accept their reality right now. They need to course correct. They need to see if this bad season that they're having it draws some sort of return on investment. You can't have this terrible a season and lose this pick. So I hope the wake-up call has come. I hope people stop playing. I hope we can get into this lottery and see what the hell is going to go on, because at this point you don't know if you're really ever gonna have what you consider your last memory of joel and beat ever again.

And I'm not trying to be hyperbolic, I'm not trying to be over dramatic, it is just science. He is a big dude. He's 72, he's 280 pounds. He's had lower limb injuries his entire career feet injuries, knee injuries, all sorts of things and now we're at the point where there might not be anything left in the knee to really fix, and that's a reality that we all need to wrap our head around. And since I'm just just the purveyor of good news today, let's jump to Phoenix. Ah, the Phoenix Sun, yep, the team that gives us more drama than a reality show. But now you probably read doug holler's piece um in the athletic. It's a good read. I would uh recommend also, uh, guy, our guy John Krasinski, who does Timberwolves they got a lot of good ones out there. Man, a lot of stuff I get is from the Athletic. So we like to big up the Athletic anytime we can, because they do really good work on the nfl, nba and it's super cheap. It's like ten dollars a year. It's not super expensive, go get it anyways.

Now we all know that kevin durant in the trade deadline he was pushed around to teams. There was also talk in the summertime that even kevin durant was maybe kind of making eyes at teams. So this is pretty much a dysfunctional marriage that has really run its course. But this is really not about Kevin Durant anymore. This hasn't been about Kevin Durant for about, oh, two months now.

Now I understand that he will get all of the press and people will talk about where is Kevin Durant going next. But the real person we really need to be talking about is Devin Booker. Where is Devin Booker going to go? Because here's the thing. I'm going to ask Phoenix Suns this so you're Devin Booker right now, who's smack dab in his prime, and he's just going to sit back and think, sure, let's rebuild, I'm good with that.

What are you going to get back from Durant? Oh, you're going to get a 22 year old, unproven guy who was sitting behind a guy Because he couldn't take that guy's place. Sign me up, no worries whatsoever. Does this even sound right to you? I mean, listen, devin booker has talked about how much he has loved phoenix. He talks about being a phoenix son forever. But you're asking that man to eat a lot of shit right now.

And that's what it comes down to. You miscalculated on the kevin durant thing, you doubled down with bradley bill. Then you couldn't pivot off bradley bill because he has a no trade clause. And now kevin durant is certainly unhappy and he's all in his feelings and he wants to be moved. And here's the thing. Kevin durant still has enough gravitas around the league that he's gonna have say in where he goes. And if he has say where he goes, that means you're not in control of the package. You're getting back, so what's the best they can do? Well, a lot of people say what do you do from here?

The sons are currently 28 and 32. They're the owners of the NBA's largest payroll Keyword owners, because they sure haven't earned that. On the court, they lose 10 of 12. They give up a boatload of points on the regular and half the locker room apparently is up in arms about something. Hey, if it's not the coach telling you to be quiet, it's someone complaining about trade rumors. Uh, remember, bud wanted Booker to put a damper on his enthusiastic version of what was going on with the team and getting on people.

So now Devin Booker man. He's not just one of a random piece. This is the face of the franchise. If you're thinking about a teardown, a rebuild or a soft retool, that automatically drags him into the fray. Kevin Durant even said it out loud this team can't avoid the noise. They bring a new drama script to the nba every single week. It is literally like melrose place every single week in freaking phoenix, arizona, and if you don't know what melrose place is, go youtube it. It was drama, okay, or whatever. Real Housewives of the Potomac, right Right, real Housewives of the Potomac For shizzle.

So, with all that being said, booker is in the middle of this, and why he didn't do anything wrong in the middle of this and why he didn't do anything wrong. Here's the thing that we all also have to think about. He's 28 years old and by the time, usually your 28 superstars started to realize that the championship window shrinks faster than you think, because now he's been elite for so long. He's seen regimes after regime after regime come and go. Now you're asking him to go through another regime change. When does he get tired? When it? When does it be about him and his aspirations to become a champion? These are all questions that I have that only Devin Booker can answer, and the only time that we're going to get this answer is at the end of the season. But I'm going to tell you right now, if you think for one second, devin Booker is going to allow Kevin Durant to walk out the door and they get some random pieces for Kevin Durant Because they're not getting the pick haul that they gave up for Kevin Durant. Let's be honest.

And now here's one important part of Haller's article that I want to give to you. Is that mike bootenholder hoser is telling book to quiet down, essentially saying he wants. He says hey, we need to carry more. He says he said we need my voice to carry more weight. That's interesting because for years Booker has been emotional core of that locker room. He's the vocal leader, now Boone hoser as a championship on his resume, so it's not like he's some random coach. But it raises a bigger question Are the Suns trying to scale back Booker's leadership while swirling rumors about half the team possibly being shot? That's a morale killer.

And here's the other thing, and these are where the numbers come in. So what you're watching, let's pair some numbers up with it. The Suns' defensive rating has created in the last month far below league average. They rank near the bottom in points allowed off turnovers, which suggests that half-court breakdowns and transition nightmares. If your star is playing or clashing with coaching philosophies midseason, it's no wonder you can't even get consistent defensive identity. And Bradley bill is in and out. And then he had the no trade clause which gummed up the whole trade situation at the trade deadline anyway. So Booker has said to watch this whole thing just completely fall apart.

And again I ask Phoenix Suns fans Just listen, I'm not. I'm going to say this Because Go back and check the tape. I wasn't this happy go lucky about the Lakers Until just now. I've been critical of the Lakers. I've been critical of the Lakers. I've been critical with other processes. I've been critical of some of the moves they've made. I've been critical of some of the non moves they made. I have been critical of how they use their mid-level exceptions and all those type of things.

So when I ask these questions, I'm not asking it as some smug Laker fan, I'm asking it as an analyst and Iaker fan. I'm asking it as an analyst and I'll ask you the question again how long is Devin Booker supposed to sit here and wait for this team to get his shit together and for Matt Ishpia to stop meddling in stuff that he has no business meddling in? You do you do home mortgages, my guy? You don't build basketball teams. That is not you, that is James Jones, and he was doing a really good job until you got in the middle of it. He was even putting together teams with Robert Solver Robert Solver as the owner. We all know about Robert Sauber.

So if you're 28 years old, in your prime, making a ton of money, and your team is telling you behind closed doors, we might have to blow it up. Aren't you just a little ticked off? Even if you are grand loyal, there comes a point where loyalty turns into frustration. Booker's not trying to be publicly blow a gasket, but behind the scenes you got to imagine that he's raising eyebrows at the lack of direction. And I don't blame him, you can't, you just can't.

So what do we do with all of this? Doug Haller's article laid out bear the tension in Phoenix. There's a leadership clash, there's a chronic defensive meltdown, those swirling rumors about trades enough drama to fill a mini series. And yet the real question is where does kit devin booker go from here? If you ask me, you trade them. You trade them to Houston. You get your picks back. That's what you do. You trade them, you trade them to Houston. You get pieces from Houston that your scouts were high on in their draft class. So if you can get your hands on Cam Whitmore or whatever, they believe that is not part of their core. But you try to get one to two pieces, that means something and you get your draft picks back and and blow this thing up. That is what the Phoenix Suns reality is going to be. Whether they like it or not.

I think this is where we're headed and I think we need to get out in front of it and start to be proactive and start thinking about how can we fix this and how can we get control over our draft picks so we can go ahead and start building this thing the right way. That's, that's one man's opinion. Now you guys can hit me, hit me up on x at front runner pc, or you can hit up serea at rea underscore punch, frpc. Now we need to get to one other thing. We're gonna get some love to the Cleveland Cavaliers and we're also going to talk about the boxing Celtics for a second. I know you guys saw the game. Let's talk about it a little bit.

Okay, so the Boston Celtics are up 25-3 in the first quarter. Everything is going right. Everything is going right. Now. Here's the best part that I want to say. They're doing this without christoph porzingis and they're also doing this without drew holiday, who is their best perimeter defender. I would say personally. Now, 25 to 3. First five minutes. The garden sounds like a marvel movie premiere. The fans are waving their arms. They're summering the spirits of larry bird, bill russell. It's over, or at least it should have been.

But here's when things got really interesting, because not only do the Cavs not fold, they actually punch back twice. First, they cut the lead to two. In the second quarter, boston wakes up and pushes the league back to 17 in the third, but Cleveland is dog determined. They don't fold again. Instead, donovan Mitchell Does what stars do he puts the Cleveland Cavaliers on his back. He scores 41 points, 26 after half, hitting every big shot, attacking the rim and also hitting just living at the free throw line. This dude was in his bag, crazy. And then there's mogli. This podcast will not take a victory lap for evan mogli. He did say that we thought he reminded us of chris bosh during the draft process, but here's the thing that we want to talk about now. It's all come together.

Mogbley sat out 10 minutes, uh, with foul trouble. He came back in, uh, came back in cold and immediately put up nine straight points. Uh, he was hitting hook shots. He was hitting threes. He was out playing Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown in crunch time. And you know what they said after the game. The game rewards people when they stick with it. I like that. I like that. Because here's the thing People were starting to question my guy, evan Mobley. I never, I never gave up on my guy, never did. And now, if ever, mobley is starting to figure out the three-point shot to this level where he's so comfortable shooting it, where are the holes in the Cleveland Cavaliers? Now, again, I will say this one more time Boston was without Drew Holiday Finger and Christoph Porzingis. It was an illness, and if this was a playoff game, both guys would probably play and maybe this whole game would be a completely different story. They never lose that lead. They, they just dog walk the Cleveland Cavaliers and we never have to worry about this again.

But here's the thing that I want Boston Celtics fans to know about this game is this Jason Tatum went crazy in this game 46 points, 16 rebounds, 9 assists. Jalen Brown had 37 points. He they shot 14 of 28 from 3 in the first half. I mean, this was basically a quintessential Boston Celtics performance. This was the Joe Missoula playbook on display in full regalia.

But, just like with the Celtics, all the time, they stick so close to the formula, so close to the system, that it doesn't. It doesn't allow for interpretation, it doesn't allow for audibles and things of that nature. But and this is a big but this is the first time Nick Boston has led a game, kind of just slip away from them. We saw it last year against Miami, we saw it last year against miami uh. We saw it in game one against philly. We saw it against, uh, indiana earlier this year. So I'm asking the question is this a bad night or is this bad habits that boston has picked up in his time in this little run that they've had?

Personally, to me, I'm still giving them somewhat of the benefit of the doubt, but that the one thing that I do want to say about this and this is a case for Cleveland. Donovan Mitchell is an absolute alpha now. He outplayed Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown when it mattered. Mowgli's aggression is real and he will be a completely impactful figure if the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics meet up in the playoffs. And now the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics meet up in the playoffs. And now the Cleveland Cavaliers have shown that they can take Boston's best punch and then chase them down and beat them, and that has to give the Cleveland Cavaliers and that has to give the Cleveland Cavaliers absolute confidence.

Now, on the other side for the Celtics. The Celtics can explain this away with hey, drew Holiday wasn't on the court, porzingis wasn't on the court, and those are not insignificant losses. They still got to do whatever they wanted to do offensively. I mean Jason Tatum scoring 46 points, having 16 rebounds and 9 assists that is crazy. And here's the other thing. It is March and the Celtics aren't getting hyped for a regular season game. They've been through so many battles over the last six years in the playoffs that I mean here's the thing Cleveland is a great team and I mean that they are a great team and they are going to give the Boston Celtics everything they could handle. But it is March and when you've been through the crucible of the playoffs I've talked about it time and time again sometimes an event just doesn't look like an event to you.

So am I encouraged by what I saw with Cleveland? No doubt. I think Cleveland is real. I think Boston should be scared of this team. They should have a robust respect for the Cleveland Cavaliers and their new acquisition of DeAndre Hunter. Deandre Hunter makes them bigger. He also provides an offensive creation that they did not have at the size that he is, and he is going to be pivotal to what they do going forward. And he also provides them some sturdiness against Jason Tatum and against Jalen Brown, because they really had nobody to guard Jalen Brown. So I love that acquisition. I love what Cleveland has done. They have won 50 games. They're the first team to do it. Okc then did it. These two teams are just absolutely killing it, and this is why we love basketball and this is why we talk about it.

So, with that being said, we're going to get the hell up out of here. We're going to try to chop this up and get it out to you, but I want to thank my producer, soraya. I want to thank the audience. I want to thank you guys for staying with us. Remember to join us on Twitter and on our own BlueSky, and both of those. For me, it's at FrontRunnerPC and then with BlueSky, it's BSky Social, and for the trusty producer and myself, we want to tell you this the best part of you is you. Make sure that you are surrounding yourself with people that are supporting you and, uh, that are just providing those things that you need in your life. Make sure that you are acknowledging those people, that exhibiting those behaviors, and if you're doing all that do me a favor, go out and do some good in this world, and we'll see you back on this feed in a couple days. Peace.