Trade Embargo in Chicago: What's Next for Zach LaVine and the Bulls?

[00:00:13] It's Wednesday, you know what time it is. Front Runner Podcast Collective is back on the air and I am your Hungle holds and Vince and thank you for joining us today. We have a really jam packed show.

[00:00:27] We're going to be talking about the Detroit Pistons. We're going to be talking about the Toronto Raptors and also we're going to hit on some news and notes and stuff that kind of crossed our desk a little bit earlier yesterday that we had spoke about in a previous episode.

[00:00:42] In a previous podcast, so stay tuned for all of that. But before we do all that, we have to get into the socials, right?

[00:00:54] First, in Formals X, Front Runner PC and then if you can also follow the producers at RAIA under Score, FUNCH, FRPC that will be greatly appreciated.

[00:01:12] The other thing, the YouTube channel. We have some videos up there right now Houston. We did something on Reach Shepherd really good piece.

[00:01:22] We have a couple things on there from Chicago and you know, just some things that you should check out. So Front Runner Podcast Collective on YouTube, please go check it out, subscribe, go hit and also like the videos and if you can comment because I'm going to comment back.

[00:01:43] Now, today is the 31st of July and we weren't scheduled to podcast yesterday but I would have been able to give you this information yesterday.

[00:01:57] We did surpass our all-time mark for downloads. We did break our own previous record so for these last few months, the downloads have gone up and up and up.

[00:02:12] So again, thank you to everyone who has joined us and joined our little journey here to talk about the NBA draft picks, some of the rumors that go along.

[00:02:25] The free agency of it all and some of the front office stuff. So thank you for understanding what we're trying to do here. Thank you for supporting the podcast and thank you for being a friend and telling a friend about the podcast because that's what we talk about all the time is that it's a grassroots situation and to see you guys kind of rally around us.

[00:02:52] This is the best kind of situation right? You are sitting here saying hey, here's a podcast that you guys will enjoy and he's going to give you a bunch of good information. So thank you. Thank you so much.

[00:03:06] So with that all being said, August is coming and we talked about the NBA draft prospects which we will be doing. We thought that we would go in reverse order fell.

[00:03:21] Of course, you're going to hear about the cougar flags of the world and the VJ edge cones and things of that nature. A spail. People like that.

[00:03:33] But we're going to start towards the bottom or towards some of the lesser known guys give you some background on that and then work our way up to the top. So you know the true good.

[00:03:44] Looking towards the end at like a spail in the VJ edge cone and some of the other guys that you've heard in the top with a lot of them. So you got that to look forward to the producers have told it told me that Friday when we do our podcast that they will have brainstorming the name and we will be able to release it on Friday.

[00:04:11] And they will be starting that situation towards the end of August. We just logistically want to make sure that it's working correctly and get everything going.

[00:04:22] And then so let's get on with the podcast, shall we? And the first and foremost thing that we're going to talk about is Zach Levine. And the reason for our conversation about Zach Levine is there was a new report. There's a situation between the bulls and Zach Levine.

[00:04:43] And the growing tension. According to ESPN Jamal Collier, there's an ease between Levine and the bulls and has been brewing over the past year.

[00:04:53] And Levine is frustrated with the team's performance. And the bulls are upset with his decision to have season ending foot surgery instead of potential potentially returning last season before we go any further with this last week.

[00:05:14] We talked about Zach Levine as well. And we talked about him in some of these things that are being said right now, we talked about it last week.

[00:05:56] And we're in a situation where we're not getting a lot of bang for our buck and your hard to trade. One of the quotes is that the bulls have been shopping with Levine since January indicating a desire to restructure.

[00:06:10] So the reason why we're doing this is because it's all coming to a head and now the no books are opening and people are starting to report what we already know is that there's growing tensions between Levine. And we have made a comment, we didn't give you the whole thing that we did in that particular podcast.

[00:06:31] But we talked about Levine changing who he is because the statement and I'm a paraphrase this coming from inside the organization is Levine has done it his way.

[00:06:48] Where has it gotten us? Has he ever won? Has he ever made us way better? No. So at this point we need you to just build up your value so we can go ahead and trade you.

[00:07:05] And I find it fascinating that he's coming out and talking about how he's frustrated with the team's performance and we had talked about it in that pod while he going to another team might be able to help him.

[00:07:23] Because of the fact that there's a lot of water under the bridge here and that there was a trade for a Zac Levine towards the trade deadline last year and he ended up having a foot surgery.

[00:07:37] So it's kind of funny that the bulls are mad about Zac Levine electing the half foot surgery when there was a deal on the table for Zac Levine to go to Detroit.

[00:07:54] Interesting. But here's another thing. Levine fell single out during his film sessions and laying for the team struggles, which has only led to resulted in one playoff appearance in last seven year tenure.

[00:08:11] And we're looking at the first time, the HECO really done a van once Levine to buy into a more team friendly playing style pointing out how well the team formed in his absence last year.

[00:08:24] Now this is something that we talked about in the previous pod as well. So we always tell you to go back and look into the archive pod archives pods.

[00:08:34] And the reason why we do tell you that is that we work extremely hard to get this information for you.

[00:08:40] We don't have the budget of ESPN or the ringer or some of these other places or whatever, but I am thoroughly, thoroughly grateful to the people who will talk to me.

[00:08:53] I'm very, very grateful to the people who have basically given me an audience and giving me their time for brief moments even to 20 30 minutes of their time. When we give you this information, it's not coming out of nowhere. It's its source.

[00:09:17] It's, you know, we read all everything that everybody else writes and things that nature and try to put the connect the dots as well. We want to make sure that the information that we give is as accurate as possible.

[00:09:34] And we, what we have to work with. We are building more contact within or adjacent to the NBA. It's, it's a slow crawl sometimes, but this particular piece of information was coming to a head and we kind of tried to give you a little heads up beforehand.

[00:09:59] That was last week and we kind of done this in the podcast before with some other things. So again, I want to thank my producers and then also, I want to thank you know the people who have taken the time to talk to me as well.

[00:10:17] Thank you for going on this journey with me and thank you guys for allowing me to be able to craft some nuance to a story without giving up your given up who you are. So thank you so much, guys.

[00:10:38] So more with this is that now this reading is an interesting question could Levine thrive in the different environment. This is something that we brought up on the last podcast as well.

[00:10:53] The thing that we have to look at right now is that there's a difference in who Levine is and where the both are as a organization.

[00:11:05] We have Josh Gettie who is what 21, 22. They just got modest boozellis who was 19. You got Kobe White who's on the younger side he's like 23, I believe 24.

[00:11:23] Patrick Williams is still young so you have all this youth that is coming now. Is it talented? We don't know. George still out, but you also have Zach Levine who like again he's been there seven years.

[00:11:37] He's seen the worst time. He seems to be bad luck injuries. He seems to have some trays that maybe were ill advised of whatever the case would be and yeah, there's some frustration there.

[00:11:49] But the other thing that he also needs to understand is and I think this is where the person who made the statement out that was paraphrasing is that and we made this connection in last week's pod when we talked about Zach Levine.

[00:12:11] And this is what I'm trying to say is that Zach is not a number one option on a team that has title contention hopes.

[00:12:22] And I don't think that's a shade towards him. I think that he can find a role and again with numbers like 24.2 points again 47% shooting overall from the field last seven years with bulls.

[00:12:47] And I don't see this dude as some complete zero. It's can you stay healthy? Can you understand that your role must change?

[00:13:04] If you're going to a good team and you cannot have the opportunities of let's say a joe and be or a Nikola Yokech, but if we want to put it in the term where who's a volume guy got got shade Gilges Alexander there you go.

[00:13:27] SGA would be something like that right where the tie volume but it's efficient he's going to get the most touches he's going to get the most opportunities because he's the best player now Zach is also the best player on Chicago.

[00:13:43] Right now to this day. What the problem is is that his talent or his ability on court unfortunately is not as impactful to winning as let's say a Jason Tatum or someone like a SGA or a Luca Dodd-Chicter or even like a stepker right now with all that being said.

[00:14:13] We also told you that Levine who had been they've been trying to trade him since early 2024 we talked about it and also in last spot.

[00:14:27] The contract is obviously the issue that we had brought up they made the same claims in the article with a jemal call year that that is been the albatross around their neck that they cannot move.

[00:14:48] The last piece that was interesting was Levine needs to come back to the team and appreciate himself back into the team and understand what the new vision of the boys looks like.

[00:15:07] The new vision really doesn't include him. He's just an ancillary part for right now so it's a huge transition for Zach because for the longest time.

[00:15:22] It was kind of built around him or built it was trying to be built around him right. We know that packs and and and guard didn't do did do a great job with that and now carnitivist comes in to clean it up.

[00:15:42] We talked about some of the ownership issues that rise door presents as an impediment to carnitivist as well.

[00:15:54] So these are all things that are swirling around the Chicago Bulls but I thought it was really interesting that somebody from the organization did come out and say hey listen we kind of just need you to fall in line right now.

[00:16:12] We tried it your way it didn't work. We didn't get to not nearly you know the heights and levels that we thought we were going to get to this is a marriage of convenience and convenience only at this present time.

[00:16:28] You don't have enough trade value it's kind of like if I don't know if you've ever been in this situation. I personally.

[00:16:41] I think I did I was in those situations like this similar to this where I was staying with somebody it was clearly over it wasn't for a very long time but it was clearly over and you're just trying to get your.

[00:16:54] You know make sure get your finances on tangle and you know you can move on and the other person can move on and that's this kind of where Chicago.

[00:17:05] And in the back of the night right now so we were right on there's not a trade out there right now for exactly the he's probably going to have to come back to the bulls we did report that.

[00:17:18] And then you know we we talked about and we kind of threw it out there we saw played it again.

[00:17:25] About what was going on there were some things rung links in that organization where they weren't happy with Zac Levine and it turns out that obviously Zac Levine is not nearly as jovial as well. Go figure right I think this is a really delicate situation.

[00:17:53] How Billy dot of in handles this is going to be absolutely key because this could turn into a thing where remember at the first part of last year. The team only players only meeting after game one.

[00:18:14] Game one we can't have a second season of that so my hope is is that Zac Levine could see the right on the wall he goes out there he is a good soldier. Put up with stats stays quiet stays. How you want to he stays comment free.

[00:18:40] So to speak and hopefully we're going to revisit his trade value at the trade deadline. That's kind of where it is Chicago. And we're going to be the better news but unfortunately this is where we are. I will ask this question.

[00:19:04] Do you think a change of scenery will help Zac Levine? Do you think that if he went to another team and that team said hey we want you we want you to be a part of this we see a future.

[00:19:20] And a role for you all get is not the number one role it's number two or number three role. Do you see a bounce back for Zac Levine if the conditions were right just a question so hit me up on Twitter at front runner PC.

[00:19:43] Now let's move on to the Detroit pistons the Detroit pistons this year and I need a lot of moves. A lot of stuff have gone down for the Detroit pistons. The significant changes have happened starting with their front office obviously.

[00:20:08] Change in Langdon has come over from New Orleans he was a GM under Griffin in New Orleans. He is now the guy in Detroit taking over for a tour of River we talked about that in the past.

[00:20:25] Also had coaches gone money Williams who was just given the contract he's out you know they're going with a bigger staff. So good for what Detroit is about to go through bigger staff is probably the way to go J.B.

[00:20:43] Bigger staff with young guys can definitely help them and shape them into what they are probably going to be as close.

[00:20:54] So I do like that higher and it's interesting that they were able to come off of money Williams after one year but looks like Tom Gore was very.

[00:21:06] Animate a well change he was embarrassed why what transpired last year and there seems to be a more rejuvenated commitment to turning the ship around in Detroit. Now Detroit did select Ron Holland in the 2024 NBA draft. He's a defense and mind player. He does a shoot right now.

[00:21:37] Well he's aggressive he can create his own shot he has the ability to put the ball on the floor at 6.869. 252 pounds and at 19 years of age being that big and being that physically mature will only help him in his development as he moves on.

[00:22:05] Now the challenges for Langen and obviously the revelation that he came to once he got there was they don't have enough shooting veteran leadership or presence to kind of help the young kids along when they're struggling

[00:22:21] with things or along losing, you know, streak or whatever the case may be. And Langden went around and changed that so let's get into some of that. Now Langden talked about getting free agency said Langden started that the ages prefer situations with a

[00:22:47] clear path to minutes for their clients. Something that the pistons can't easily offer due to their young to their young roster, the pistons are one of the youngest teams in the league and have numerous players needing developmental time creating fierce competition

[00:23:03] for minutes without a clear direction come out. The worst season in franchise history, the team was also without a head coach for a time of the draft making them less attractive to incoming players. So he's talking about the struggles of like getting higher caliber

[00:23:22] or free agents because the free agent that he did come up with, you know, you know, Gary Harris of the world's Nick class in the world, the middle eat mugs of the world weren't

[00:23:36] coming there. So he did add, he did add to bias heres. He resized some of on tech yellow. So and they also made a trade for Tim Hartaway Jr. given away Quentin Grimes which I was a little hedge gratcher there personally for me in that situation but you

[00:23:58] know it's hey. Quentin is on the young side, understand where THA makes a lot of sense for Detroit. He can help K them along. Quentin is trying to get his and Detroit has

[00:24:15] enough guys trying to get there. So I do understand that trade in that respect but I just like having the younger asset to be able to flip down the road. So we'll see with that.

[00:24:31] Now, the adding concern is by adding Ron Holland right? One of NBA executive told me that he has sympathy for K suggesting that the selection of Ron Holland might have been a step backward for the team to write Holland's potential. Phil Lung side players like a

[00:25:00] sore Thompson and Jay and I V. Erases questions about the team's cohesion and future direction with Holland's shooting struggles. And the team already have an limited perimeter shooting something that we already talked about and I didn't understand the

[00:25:16] draft situation when it happened. I was like, hold on. So you're telling me that you got Jay and I V. We don't know if he can shoot, we saw the struggles with us sore Thompson last

[00:25:28] year. His ability to not be able to shoot K who can somewhat shoot is being provided as basically the sniper on the team and yeah it was a mess. It was a train wreck for the beginning. So I didn't

[00:25:45] understand the Ron Holland draft pick especially with some of the guys that were out there and if you were kind of stuck with where you were and you weren't sure could you have treated back to get a future assets? Not necessarily maybe 2025 assets because a lot of people

[00:26:05] are trying to hoard those but could you have maybe tried to get into maybe 2026 or 2027? Now 2026 is supposed to be a sick draft as well so maybe you know those really really hard

[00:26:19] for them to do and they took what they deemed as the best player available. But still when he consticate you know where's the help, you know what are we looking to do and Langdense says you know

[00:26:36] the job going to team for the playoff is we're trying to undo 15 years of failure. Now that's a harsh statement to say what is true. To rebuild this team's image to convince players and agents

[00:26:57] that this is a place that you would want to become a viable destination you know it's a tough job but you know he feels that he's a man for it and honestly they do have a plethora talent. I mean

[00:27:12] you got K coming in who is another one over on pick you know a couple seasons ago 666720 out of Oklahoma State and I still think that K he just is getting so adversarial his development you know first year you know they they have the coach of

[00:27:37] changing to you know you know you know you have the coach in change the coach doesn't want to be there the coach says that he doesn't want coach young players they still hire him K is coming off an injury

[00:27:54] where he means significant time the second year and now you have a team that is absolutely put together completely wrong and the vibes are terrible but I still believe in K I just wondered

[00:28:09] if it's going to be in Detroit where it happens. Rahalin obviously a little bit more the future 6-8 we say it was 220 he's well 210 you played in G league last year the problem with him will always

[00:28:26] be the shooting and this was the guy that if you remember when I talked about the drought I said I'm out I'm out on Ron Holland I'm out on the theoretical super athletic wing who who Jesus is which trades but none of them ever manifest into full-blown

[00:28:51] translatable skills to the NBA so I'll feel radical now do I think Ron Holland is extremely talented yes can it all come together I mean it could you know it could you know I'm not going to say here until you can't

[00:29:10] but this is the the actual type of guy that I'm talking about when you look at him and you look at just the physical tools there's no way you don't want to draft them it's just he's just

[00:29:29] exquisite to look at and get him in the oak and floor it looks pretty and all of that it's when you slow the game down for him does he have the mental processing go okay like Luca Luca is always

[00:29:43] two steps ahead go get just two steps ahead LeBron two steps ahead you know jailing bronze and has a craftiness to him and he sets up moves you know two quarters you know prior Ken Ron Holland get that

[00:30:03] now the talent says he can theoretically and then the last guy who was kind of the wickling boy for Montigolian's last year was Jay Nivey now he's the guard out of Purdue and he was drafted

[00:30:20] fifth overall in the 2022 draft completely explosive athlete it's a it's kind of a Russell Westbrook 2.0 type of situation with the problem with Jay Nivey is the same thing can you shoot it can you

[00:30:39] shoot it consistently enough to stay on the court can you shoot it enough where you can utilize all these other tremendous skills you have like explosive explosives exclosiveness to the basket

[00:30:56] docking all fools as I like to say it get into the tank he has a physicality he has a strength and he has speed to do all these things it's do you have an accelerator and D accelerator to your game

[00:31:16] and are you playing at your pace or are you playing at a frenetic play at a frenetic pace those are the questions that we have with Jay Nivey so my whole thing with Detroit yes to buy this here is

[00:31:34] this is okay pick up some more fun to get did provide some production late in the season last year but my thing with late production is this teams are tanking some teams are getting stars ready for the

[00:31:51] playoffs some are you know jacking for certain positions you know within side the playoff bracket so you're not getting the best effort on all those nights so it's a moment of contact you

[00:32:10] showing what he could do it's a it's a price spot but I don't want people to be I don't want people to be kind of like drawn in by the fools go some won't find to heck you now if he comes out

[00:32:25] and puts it puts it again together and puts the first 12 games and it looks similar to what he was doing last year well maybe we found something but at the end of the day you need to see

[00:32:40] what's going on with cutting him you need to see what's going on what I be and then did a silver Thompson make any adjustments or did he improve the three point shot and then here's the last thing that I will say thank God that Trajan Langdon is there

[00:33:03] because hopefully this means that Jayland Doren our guy from Memphis for three years ago who still really really young can finally get out the doghouse and get some legitimate plan times so we

[00:33:18] hope for the best for our guy Jayland Doren and we also hope for Kate that this is the year where you start to see the vision you start to see the plan maybe you do take your lumps this year but at least he can see

[00:33:33] what what they're trying to do what's leads us to our next team in our last team which is the Toronto Raptors and we say Toronto for last for a lot of reasons they had the key extensions

[00:33:51] right they had Scotty Barnes and a manual quickly a manual quickly remember he was the apple of the trade that they traded a O'Jeean and a novy to the next a manual quickly

[00:34:09] an RJ Barrett and picks came back to Toronto they signed a quickly to a deal which was five years one seventy five and then they signed Scotty Barnes to his deal and he ended up making

[00:34:26] five years for 224.9 million which has incentives to go up to 260 five so that is where we are with Scotty Barnes and a manual quickly. Now there was a lot of Oak you will last year

[00:34:51] I don't know if Nest Sarily Toronto was trying to win and it's really hard to put team together who's who's getting what who's taking how many shots who's the guy this who's behind the guy

[00:35:06] this is a lot going on in Toronto and Messiah Jerry is in charge of it all and for the for a while Messiah was quiet the warrant a lot of trades going on there weren't

[00:35:20] no a lot of movement activity will have you and then all of a sudden we're trading Pascocioca away and we're trading O'Jeean and a novy away and you know we let Fred van Vleet go for free

[00:35:34] and you know it there's a lot going on here but here's the deal and this is what it really comes down to Jacoby Walter who was their first rompact this year the six foot four guard out of bailer

[00:35:52] really promising guard has some good known for the defensive skills and he's he's he can put some points on the board my question is consistency with him obviously he's young this is not hey we're asking you to score 16 points right off the bat we just want to see

[00:36:15] him come into the league and look like he belonged right what's leads us to our next guy who had a really hard time looking like he belonged last year and that's a greatie dick now greatie dick came out of Kansas he was the selection in 2023

[00:36:36] struggle first year I think uh physicality hurt him so I think a year growing a year getting stronger will help him he did come back play a little suddenly look good he can shoot it we just got to see it theoretical right now

[00:37:00] and I'm hoping that this kid can get a shot off because he does have some other things he does have uh you know dribble package I'm not saying it's chai re asking anything but it's a reliable handle

[00:37:16] and if you're looking at him as somebody who's gonna be standing in the corner shooting at three well you gotta be able to attack a close out now he showed that he showed that ability last year

[00:37:31] we're gonna see need to see more of it and it's expected that he's going to have a more significant role on the team this year so that means that he's gonna have reliable minutes

[00:37:43] so we do hope with that particular piece then we do see some a jump leap for our guy greedy dick coming into the 2024 2025 season now RJ Barrett is Canada's all you know he was part

[00:38:04] of a new york trade you know at first you know everybody's super excited about RJ Barrett so probably the way RJ Barrett is he's good at a lot of things he's just not great at any one

[00:38:17] of them and he's not even really really good at any one thing he's he's like above average and everything but not so far above I was like yeah that's your thing that you can do that we we approved that

[00:38:36] you do that right I know that doesn't make a lot of sense you know in the sense of um RJ Barrett to me is a guy who can definitely start for you but if you're asking RJ

[00:38:52] Barrett to be like you're number three guy or whatever the case maybe I don't think he can do that but if you said a RJ be part of our starting fight and rebound the basketball and provide it

[00:39:04] with some connectivity and you know shoot this three a little bit and whatever I think that's the proper role for him you know he went to the mix and there was a lot of you know

[00:39:19] pressure there and also expectation and there were games there flashes but it never seemed to really click right and now we're in this situation where a manual quickly got paid scottie barnins is

[00:39:36] the guy on that team now we don't know about any of the young guys as of yet but I am sure that they are you know if get mothi jiri in a quiet moment he'll tell you that his hope is for Jacobi Walter

[00:39:54] his hope is for Grady Dick his hope is for a manual quickly to you know assume a role on this team and grab it by the throat so that is telling me that yes RJ Barrett is here RJ Barrett is a

[00:40:14] is a vital member of the Toronto Raptors but we don't see RJ Barrett as that one two or three for us but we do see him as a starter so it's kind of you know

[00:40:30] dull assort when it comes to that so what is his all me right what is his all me well one Toronto didn't have a off season you know in the sense of trades and things of that nature they are

[00:40:47] rebuilding you know they got young players they got players in the sense on like second draft type situations like RJ Barrett if the talent does want to take another leap it can obviously a manual

[00:41:01] quickly is a guy that they're really making on taking that next step and kind of being their tyreys and their version of tyreys maxi I don't know if that's in cards for Mr. Quickly but we'll see

[00:41:14] and then it's you know it's the Jacobi Walter's of the world Grady Dick's of the world and see what they do they just had to have a you know who's coming the candidate when nothing's

[00:41:28] going on right now and then you know the teams not really that good so not a lot to do on the free agent rings but we'll see going forward what happens and now with Detroit again it's your one

[00:41:50] of trade in length which means that he didn't draft Kate right he did not draft Kate my thoughts are a wonder if at some point he decides to pull the trigger and see what he can get for Kate and really

[00:42:11] see if he can kind of get into that Sam Presty Ram Picks and and what have you because that would be really interesting to see them go you know basically you make a fundamental shift in the middle

[00:42:28] or whatever case maybe but again, trading land in is not married to anything prior to the 2024 draft okay he can say that Kate is a talent and we want to see you know if we can allow this to

[00:42:45] flourish and under our organization does a lot of great beautiful things being said well Kate there's a lot of great things being said well Jane and Ivy but I will tell you from just experience

[00:42:59] of talking to guys like this is that they're not married to these guys because they didn't they didn't draft them so I wouldn't be surprised I'm not saying there's something in the works I'm

[00:43:12] just saying that I wouldn't be surprised if by game 20 they figured out like oh you know what happens in marker set Marcus Saster shows up and blows it up you know you know what happens with that I'm

[00:43:31] not saying it is going to happen I'm just saying here's another young guy who's on that team who's in this mix who now sees a new coach come in and he this guy doesn't know him from

[00:43:47] matter he doesn't know he doesn't old jayton I be anything nor does he oh Marcus Saster anything so let the better man win it's going to be very interesting Detroit this year

[00:44:02] lot of competitiveness for your role your minutes and your spot so it's going to be very interesting we have a couple more things to get to and they were going to roll out of here but first thing that we

[00:44:18] want to get to is that the Cleveland Cavaliers have treated and not so straight now no they've come to an agreement with their center Jared Allen a during war genoski is reporting that it's a three year 91 million dollar maximum extension that'll now guarantee him 131 million dollars

[00:44:48] over the next five years his agent is Derek Powell who tells ESPN so they're all signed in Cleveland so we were talking about early before like as the playoffs were rolling around what is Cleveland

[00:45:07] going to do in the off season we heard early donovan Mitchell that's a name to worry well or name to think about coming up this season he signs his extension then the focus was now does Derek Garland state

[00:45:27] our guy cobealton comes out says and fatally we are trying to keep our core for we have no expectations of trading these guys and my first thought was I call cat I call BS

[00:45:44] on all of what you're talking about right now because we clearly saw a 18 game sample size that dead when you have two guys last on the court either mobility or Allen wanted to

[00:46:02] not on the court and when Derek's going was on the court they ran off a 17 and one record now with all of that being said we do have Kenny Aconston as a new head coach so maybe there are some

[00:46:19] offensive systems principles and things that he can implement into the system to allow all these guys to flourish and allow their talents to kind of mesh at a better rate and let's see what the

[00:46:32] offensive efficiency ratings and things come into be now we did also say that Evan Moguli is going to have to shoot the three and if he's not going to shoot the three then you need to gain like

[00:46:46] 20 pounds my guy and go ahead and be the center so then we can trade Jared Allen and get whatever else we need to be at the four which is a shooting big you know so

[00:47:01] that is the news with that so Jared Allen is saying now here is one thing with that and he signs his extension oh because of his extension so he actually can be traded but this does

[00:47:18] lock in a number for him which is also very important because when you think about these things when you're looking at your roster and what have you you want financial kind of stability like I need certain contracts for flexibility reasons I need certain contracts with

[00:47:44] and a certain dollar amount because sometimes you don't want to normally necessarily trade Joe Best player for whatever you're getting you know what it's good to have like a 25 million dollar

[00:47:57] contract just sitting here and not saying that he is a throwaway piece by no means in my saying that Jared Allen is one of the better centers in our league when it comes to the defense

[00:48:13] aside of the ball the problem is is that he's not super awesome offensively he's a good rim runner he can provide screen assist and things of that nature a physical presence on the defensive

[00:48:29] in a rim protector on the defensive end and some switchability but you are never going to look at Jared Allen and think that dude is going to give me 50 tonight I can just fill it in my bones it's

[00:48:42] just not going to happen so when you have some way like this and you have this type of contract and as the cap goes up because of the dollar amount of the TV revenue this contract is definitely

[00:48:58] going to be still at some point I'm really worried about paying two bigs this type of money but we just saw it in Minnesota worked so we got to give this a chance to work as well

[00:49:13] but Jared Allen getting the bag we salute we salute our guy getting the bag we also salute uh the Grizzlies signing loop canard resigning him to a one year 11 million dollar deal now canard has been has struggled mostly because of all the injuries that have happened in

[00:49:38] Memphis but he gets another shot to kind of do a reclamation project on his career and now everybody's going to be supposedly healthy so we'll see how it all works Josh healthy, Baines healthy, Jared Jackson Jr was dealing with a little some at the end of the year

[00:49:59] so we'll see how that turns out and they also got the big guy from Purdue Zach Edy so things looking up in big Memphis so we can't wait to see what that seat looks like

[00:50:14] as the gear gets closer and closer to NBA tip well right now what that being said I think we're still here's the one thing I will say before we go the Lakers are looking at Jerry and we Grant Portland's looking at what the Lakers are offering

[00:50:34] they want to first around draft picks the Lakers told him to go kick rocks we are not doing that and that's kind of where we are but if there's something that goes now with Jeremy Grant

[00:50:44] know that we will hit a emergency pot post-tades because it's the Lakers and you know I love them and then the other reason is is that Jeremy Grant is big enough name for us to go ahead and

[00:50:57] pull the trigger on a emergency podcast so keep it locked here with that being said we should be back on this feed Friday I want to thank you guys again we did break our record so again thank you

[00:51:14] to our audience it is because of you this is the third month in a row that we have more downloads than we did the previous month so thank you so much again be a friend and tell a friend

[00:51:29] and if you're struggling you said Vince I have told all of my friends who else can I tell well on Monday's spot we said we didn't discriminate we said your your hair stylist or you

[00:51:49] know person who does you're here in the hair salon or your barber right we talked about your job with Zeus people before that we talked about a baristas who take care of us what are

[00:52:02] coffees excuse me now the next person for the next group of people that we need to help out with getting front runner podcast collective into their veins and to their conscience those people

[00:52:22] are now like the NBA Twitter people all right so if you know some of your friends on Twitter or oh this is a big account that follows the team that I follow or whatever the case may be

[00:52:42] you know they need to get hooked up with front runner podcast collective they need to start getting the 401 that we are dropping Monday Wednesday and Friday right so with all that being said we can

[00:52:55] get up out of here it is going to cool 52 minutes y'all stay easy and as always the best part of you is you and the only way you can be the best you is that you have an awesome supporting cast so

[00:53:13] make sure the people in your life are brightening your light not extinguishing it go ahead and do some goodness world and we'll see you back on this feed all Friday peace