Trade Winds & Title Dreams: Desmond Bane, OKC's Rise, and Indiana's Bold Play

it is tuesday, you know what time it is. Frontrunner podcast collective is back on the air. I am your humble host, vince, and on today's podcast we will be talking about the desmond bain trade. I know a couple people have gone over it so far. We will put our two cents in on it and then go ahead and let it go. Now that's not the only trade news of the day. The trade wins in the nba have been blowing and they have been blowing robustly. So we will get into all the kevin durant machinations, all of those. We will also get into a couple chaos theories on kevin durant. If he chose to kind of broaden his horizon, so to speak, we will talk about that as well. And we will get into the finals and we will talk about j-dub. We will talk about oklahoma city and how close they are. They are on the doorstep of a championship, the first one for oklahoma city. So we have that. And also, indiana made a trade today. Indiana pacers, who are in the finals, made a trade today and it might give us a glimpse of what they're thinking about their roster right about now. So, with that being said, we have so much to get to. We'll get right on into it momentarily, but the first thing that we always do is we show appreciation to our audience.

Now, when I talk about be a friend, tell a friend about the podcast, people have been taking this to heart. We have grown exponentially, which is amazing. So shout out to the audience for all of your participation in this. I mean, we've gotten people from mexico now joining the podcast. We talked about chile last time. Venezuela has joined the podcast crew as well. I talk about all the audience members in germany. What about norway? Yes, they're involved. The french, which we were hoping for, which we will be talking about victor win by yama today. They have also joined. We are global. Shout out to all of you for doing it big for me and for my crew.

I want to also talk about what is also on deck, and what I mean by that is that you know what next week is. Next week is the NBA draft. We will have wall-to-wall coverage on the draft. We will do the Tuesday show like normal. So that will be the 24th. You say well, vince, the draft is the 25th and the 26th. What are you going to do about that? Don't worry, because what we're going to end up doing Is after day one of the draft, we're going to go ahead and take some notes. You know we're going to look at it and then we're going to give you a bonus pot For the draft on Wednesday night, so it'll probably be dropping like Thursday morning. Then you'll say, well, there's around two events and I'll go you know what we got you there too, because we will then do the Friday podcast and that will then break down the draft incomplete, incompletion, in totality.

We will give draft grades, we will talk about maybe some of the trades that have gone on at that point in time and then we will wildly speculate on what is going to happen during this offseason, because we expect a pretty uh, I think it's going to be a free-flowing offseason as far as these trades are concerned and, from what I have been told, all of it should basically have gone down before, like mid-july, like all the, all the real big moves that need to happen will be probably done by mid-july. So if that's gonna happen because usually we have to, uh, we have to wait. A couple years ago we were sitting there waiting forever for trades to go through. What was this guy gonna do? What was this guy gonna do now, from all of the insiders. They're basically saying we should be done by the middle of july. So if you got plans, you got weddings to go to, you got, uh, you know, like trips to plan or whatever case may be, you guys can do that because supposedly we will be done by mid-july. We will see. By mid-july we will see. Doesn't look like yannis is leaving, but who knows.

Now, speaking of trades, speaking of what is going to happen, let us give you the last folks to talk to you about the desmond bain trade to orlando. Now, when we're talking about this trade one, the first thing that I want to get to is that doesn't ban is one of our guys, we love them in the draft process and to see him now on the Orlando magic, on a team that I feel like is going, you know their trajectory is going up. I think this is a perfect fit for desmond bang. I think orlando do did his due diligence shots out to uh weltman and his crew down there for doing just great work getting desmond bang. Memphis in return got cole anthony, which we will talk about. They also got four picks and we will get into all of that.

But the first thing that we need to get to is what Devin Bain means to Orlando and what he has meant to Memphis. The first thing I want to get to with him is that his range is so deep. He got traded to Orlando and you're sitting there, I was sitting there going down, you got you got four first-round picks for this. Huh interesting, especially when you got Luca out here going for one pick. People say, well, they got Anthony Davis and they got Max Christie. What did Memphis get? Well, they got Cole Anthony, which is not anywhere close to Anthony Davis but still young player. What have you has a lot of great value in this league as a backup point guard. At the minimal. I think he could be a real like engine for a team off the bench. I love cole anthony energy as far as discern. I wish that he could be a laker. He would solve a lot of point guard issues for us. But hey, we got luca. I cannot be mad about that now.

Orlando, we looked at them last year. We said, hey, you're missing some outside shooting and they kind of looked at us and shrugged it off like we'll figure it out, everything will be taken care of. We play a lot of defense here down in the magic kingdom. You know, if we need some outside shooting, we can get donald duck, or we can get mickey mouse to come down and shoot for us and get you know, get some 45 footers going in and what have you? Maybe we can get snow white to stand in the corner and shoot some corner threes for us. You know they were not really worried about their outside shooting and their spatial gravity. That they did not have, which was absolutely apparent when you saw what paulo gran caro and franz wagner had to go through all year. It was terrible. There was no space, paint was clogged, it was just awful for these two gentlemen. And now you got dozen bang, who is a career 41 three-point shooter on volume. Okay, so he's gonna make shots, he gonna take shots and that's good for orlando. Now they also traded kcp in this deal. We'll talk about that in a second as well.

But I'm looking at orlando and they're looking at this team and going hmm, we're seeing all these squads like indiana's in the finals. What happened to cleveland? Can we make a jump? Can we make a jump next year, I think, with a move like desert bang. They're thinking absolutely. They're thinking that the easter conference is wide open and I do not blame them. If you look at what boston is about to go through with the injury to tatum, knowing that he's going to be out the entire year. Next year we we also got Jalen Brown having knee surgery. They say he'll be ready for training camp. We'll see. There's no reason to rush him back Because it's not like you're going to contend next year If Boston is taking a couple steps back. We got the craziness that's going on with the New York Knicks and we'll get to their coaching search at towards the end of the podcast as well. Cleveland might have to make some adjustments. We saw that Darius Garland will be having surgery on his big toe. He looks like he's going to be out for quite some time. So the landscape of the Eastern Conference has changed and Orlando is saying let's take advantage of this situation and we're gonna go get an adult now.

I understand that KCP was brought in to bring some outside shooting and some defensive point of attack pressure on the ball now. He was not able to shoot. He was not able to shoot at all last year. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. It was absolutely disgusting how he was shooting, not because of the fact that he can't shoot. It was just like he. He lost his mojo and he just couldn't get it back. Now, I don't know, by changing teams, getting a new zip code, will his three-point acumen show back up in Memphis? We will see.

Let's also take this into consideration with Contavious Caldwell-Polk is that he is in year, he's age 32 and he's he's put a lot of miles on his body. He's played defense and been the point of attack defender, usually for teams like the Lakers, the Denver Nuggets and also now the Orlando Magic. So I wonder if we're starting to see the slowdown of Contavious Caldwell Pope at this point? And was the best of Contavious Caldwell Pope? Did he leave that in the mile high city in Denver? And are we just at that point in his career where it's going to show up every once in a while and his productivity will be infrequent at best? These are all questions that Memphis will have to answer, but we got to get into some of the crux of this trade. So let's just set the mood here.

Orlando has been lurking. They not been tanking. They tried to contend a little bit. But with Boncaro growing into a problem for defenses and Franz Wagner being very real. What they lacked is someone who could pull the defense out like an old sweater. Pull the defense out like an old sweater. In comes Desmond Bang. Desmond Bang also his assist rate. Soraya dropped this in the notes. His assist rate the last two seasons is 5.3 per game. He's more than a spacer. He gives you a secondary creator that they have not had for quite some time now.

If you think that Paulo Gancaro and Jalen Suggs and the plethora of ball handlers that Orlando has, if it's gonna be point guard by committee, adding in a Dezvin Bain definitely helps, because it means if you swing the ball to the corner, if there is a, a reckless uh blitz out to the corner on his three-point shooting, he can then just go ahead and pump, fake, drive the basketball to the hole and then either kick it out to shooters or find the open man or make a shot on his own. He has a ton of straight line drive capability. I love Desmond Bain. I think he is. He is added things to his game every single year, and at 26 and I this is where we'll talk about the draft picks momentarily but at 26 years of age, and then you look at the age of the other players that are on orlando.

As far as the core of the actual team, we're talking about jalen sucks, we're talking about paul ogden carroll and we're also talking about franz wagner. All these guys are in their early 20s. So if Dez and Bane is basically the old man of the crew, we're looking real good. So I know it was a lot of picks, it's an overpay, but it was a purposeful overpay. It's the same thing as what Brooklyn did with Mikael Bridges you lock in what fits to your team and what you solidly need for your team.

If you look at this from just the, they just didn't have enough shooting on the line, though you know, jet Howard hasn't paid, hasn't paid off. Unfortunately, jalen suggs was hurt. He is a 40 three-point shooter. He was hurt for most of the season. So now you got two guards who can shoot the ball. This takes off some pressure off of franz wagner, who we've been asking for his shot to show back up. Paulo and Carol is a drive kick guy, and maybe what will happen is is that one of these young guys Anthony black, jet Howard or whomever they have also on the bench can now fall into a role? And because they're not like sin cinemals uh, just a center situation. As far as three-point shooting is concerned, if they're, that's a secondary thing for them. Maybe there's less pressure on them. Now.

When it gets to Memphis, this is where it gets a little murky. You don't let go of a homegrown shooter with a work ethic culture unless something is really bugging you, and apparently that thing was the cap. I told you guys in the last couple years that the salary cap for the NBA will end up starting to be punitive. I think this is one of those moves. This is a cost-cutting move for Memphis. Now I'll tell you how they figure this whole thing out in a second. But Memphis looked at Bain's contract, which is $163 million over four years, and said said, we're not paying that to be an ac. Okay, we are not doing that. Now john hollinger of the athletic pointed out that the league execs were already framing bane's deal as a problem too rich for a non-all-star and they're not taking. But they are prioritizing flexibility with job max contract and triple j's upcoming extension. So those are the two contracts that they are saying we are going to keep these no duh right now.

When we get towards the end of this, I'm going to ask a question to our Memphis fans out there, to our Memphis audience. They are prioritizing Jaron Jackson Jr's upcoming extension and also, ja, to the risk they're betting on it. Ja, and Jaron. Let me say this for the folks in the back John Morant played in 70 plus games, just once in his career, and Triple J fouls like he's a guy playing tag with ghosts. So you're building around those two Bane was more the stable of that group. Now I understand that Jaronson jr took a step forward last year with the scoring, but I wonder still, can we get this dude to average like 30 minutes a game? Because right now, with his foul problems, he does not average 30 minutes a game. Now, with his foul problems, he does not average 30 minutes a game.

They also picked up a guy by the name of jalen wells last year who shot the bejesus out of the ball, and maybe what they're thinking is this is what we can replace desmond bain with. This is our desmond bain replacement. And again, they got a ton of picks and we'll get to that more momentarily, but the magic did not need a shooter. No, no, no. They needed clarity. This trade says they, they, these guys, these are our guys. Bang Barcaro, franz and Suggs.

This is your core four. They will need a point guard or they will need a center. I think they will need a point guard. I also think they will need a center. I'm not sold on the Wendell Carter Jr experiment, unfortunately. I do like Goga Gbataze, but I don't know if he's a starter. Uh, jonathan isaac, unfortunately, is one of those guys that I don't know if he'll ever be healthy enough to give you more than like 17 to 20 minutes a game. So if we're in that situation, there's still work for orlando to do.

But these are all things that they can get now, more on the cheap level, because if they're thinking about the center position, the way I think about the center position, um, this might sound very disrespectful, but I'm gonna go ahead and say it just like this. When I think of bigs in the NBA now, I think of them like running backs in the nfl and you could say whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That seems super disrespectful. What? Let me just say this if your big is not a spacing big, he's not a shooter and he's not an offensive hub creator and he's just more of a rebounder and a shot blocker, if you, if you both, if you have those combinations, you're in a good position. How much actual stress, or how much actual non-stress, is he putting on to the offense? Is he impactful offensively or does he need things to be a certain way to be impactful on the offensive end? And then, how much do you want to pay for that? These are questions that I have in my head. So I think the center position has been diminished.

Now if you got a joel mb type, anthony davis type, a nicola yokich type, good on you, you're in a really advantageous position. Now, maybe not for philadelphia, because joel and weed is constantly hurt, kind of same thing for anthony davis as well. But if you have a nicola yokich which those are, I mean, there's only one of those in the world but an offensive center, somebody who can drive offense, let's even say like demonis abonis he's not the best defender, but he does drive offense right. When you have a guy like that, he is. He is so worth having around because the fact that he's not just okay, I'm providing rebounds and you know rim protection, I'm actually helping the offense be diversified enough where now you, you have to count on me, you have to look for me to figure out where we're going in this offensive set. But if the guys aren't like that, I'm not paying them. I'm not paying $25 million for a guy who just grabs rebounds and just blocks shots, unless you do it at such a historic level that I cannot not see you anymore. I have to acknowledge that you are really great at what you do and you deserve to be compensated for it. But if you're just a normal dude out here take, for instance, I'm trying to think of a guy who absolutely needs people to run stuff for him.

I want to look at Daniel Gafford. Daniel Gafford is a really good player really good but he is dependent on a point guard to throw him lobs. He doesn't really create a lot of offense on his own. He needs to be set up in really good positions to go ahead and score the basketball and, yeah, the defense and the rebounding are fantastic from him. But am I going to pay Daniel Gafford $26, $27 million a year? Probably not. Probably. Looking at a mid-level exception type of deal, it's probably about as high as I want to go Now. You can call me crazy, you can call me whatever.

We starting to see how bigs are very important in this league again, which makes me extremely happy. I like to see bigs get paid, I like to see bigs be involved in the game plan and what have you, but I'm still not paying a ton of money for them. If you can only really help me on one side of the ball and then the other side, you're basically um, dependent on a really good point guard or a really good um you know offensive initiator who is going to get you into these situations. With that being said, suggs for the Orlando Magic becomes a full-time point guard. That could be a gamble, but here's the thing. He has Paulo Guincaro who also drives offense. He also has Franz Wagner, who's a good ball handler, great passer and can get you into offense easily. Now also, again, desmond bang being in, being that guy who can stand outside and basically draw a crowd will help the unclogging of the lane, which I think we'll see a lot more. Uh, offensive creation from paulo guanquero when the lane is not as clogged. I personally believe that. So you can call it the gamble. But here's the thing that I want people to understand what they've done now we have this rule in the nba. It's the step-in rule and it limits Orlando from trading more firsts until 2032.

The cleanest shot at impact before they hit the cap hill is 2026. Meanwhile, memphis owns 10 first round picks and three swaps and supposedly they're not rebuilding. They're just stockpiling assets like it's 2020 and toilet paper is on clearance. That's what they doing. We got a lot of picks. We're trying to be mini okc. Y'all should have been mini okc like a long time ago. Dog, I'm trying to tell you now let's talk money, because this trade had ripple effects on both cap sheets.

Orlando is staring down the first and second apron like they're thanos in the mirror. If boncaro lands an all NBA nod next season, his rookie max turns into a super max and that likely is to start in. I'll say that will. Well, we're going into the 2026. 2026. 2026, 2027 season. Now that will push them over the second apron with vane, wagner and sugs window. Carter is already signed. They'll be stuck with minimal deals, they'll lose their mid-level exception and they can't aggregate salaries for trades.

So keep in mind when you lock into this second apron, it is very punitive. So you gotta have a team that's young and you gotta have depth and you gotta have pieces that you've already pinpointed and said. You know what? That's a guy that we can get on the cheap or that's a guy that we have on the cheap and he's going to be able to pro, he's going to be able to produce over what his valid or what we're paying him. So hopefully anthony black hits and some of these other guys that they picked up over the last couple years hit so they can go ahead and continue to have depth that they have built up over the last couple years. This was their get into get it in before the locks click move. You know I'm saying this is their bet, that their core is enough to justify the luxury tax pain that they might be going, that might be going through in the next couple years.

Now memphis, they looked at their team and said, nope, we're not doing this. We pull the rip cord now before the locks lock in. With bane making 40 million dollars coming off the books, they can now extend triple j with cap room. They have over 15 million dollars in maneuverability post room exception note from serea cole anthony's deal 13.1 million dollars, maybe flip really easily and that might be able to add a couple more picks. And suddenly you're talking uh, maybe are you looking at a cam johnson type situation. Everybody's been trying to get cam johnson out of brooklyn for the longest period of time to no avail, by the way.

But cole anthony is a nice little piece for somebody to pick up. Now, if you're dallas, is this a guy that you can pick up because you need a point guard until kairi gets healthy, especially the cooper flag coming in there having a cold anthony might be useful to the dallas mavericks. This is reckless trade speculation. Don't aggregate me on this. I don't know anything about whether uh dallas has made phone calls to the memphis grizzlies about cole anthony, but I would think a cole anthony would be able to get you a nice little. Uh, pick you up a nice little piece to add to your bench or what have you. Where do I think orlando will finish next year with this deal? Well, if everybody's healthy, I think they're going to be a top four team. I think this is a we will have home court advantage at least through the first round type of team.

Now in Memphis it all comes down to Jaws health. Triple J's uh growth. As far as am. I gonna not foul people. At the rate I'm fouling people. And what are you getting from Jalen Wells? What are you getting?

It's very important to find out these things because jayna wells is a real dude, shot the wall so well last year, so I think they are looking for him to basically kind of take over the bane role. I don't know what they're gonna do with marcus smart. That's still a piece that they have to deal with. Oh no, they tried to market smart to washington. My bad, they did that last year. That was another cost-cutting move that they did. But they need to figure out what. What else they're going to do, because this is starting to erode and erode quickly in memphis. So if we're sitting here next year and they're struggling and Jaws hurt again and missing considerable games throughout the regular season, might be time to really flip this whole thing around. So I am very interested in what goes on with these two teams going forward, because I think it's going to be real interesting for orlando. I like the new look that they have and I hope that this gives them a uh, some showcase games during the season next year.

But that's the thing this wasn't about who won the trade or you know who lost the trade, because I think we won't know for quite some time down the road. My thing is this for the fan bases if you're orlando magic fan, is this the guy that you have been waiting for? Is this the guy that you earmarked? You know, and said well, we got a strike while the iron's hot. I know a lot of people, um, especially somebody like myself. Last year we were saying, go out and get some outside shooting. You didn't do it. Now you have. How do you feel Orlando Magic fans? Do you feel like you got the right guy? I think you did. I think Desmond Bain is absolutely the right guy to go get. He's very expensive, very expensive, but I think you got a guy with work ethic. You got a guy who is a professional and you got a guy who does not shy away from the big spotlight whatsoever.

Now for grizzlies nation is this a smart sell high pivot, or did you give up on your dude too early and are you like because of what went down last year? Let me just ask I'm going to ask it this way, grizzly fans, did you trade the right Grizzly? So I'm challenging the Memphis Grizzly fans. I know Chris Vernon is going to be so mad about this podcast right now, this podcast right now, because if jaw goes into next year and he's hurt for a significant time next year, I am telling you, grizzlies nation, you are going to be upset about trading Desmond Bang. I understand that you didn't know if you wanted to pay him 40 mil, especially since you guys couldn't really do anything in the playoffs. But now you're in a situation where Desmond Bang, who was, to me, the most reliable grizzly you had John might be more spectacular, he might be able to put you on sportsCenter top ten more times than not, but as far as the most consistent grizzly you had, that was Desmond Bain and he just walked out the door. So again I asked Memphis, hit me up on Twitter at frontrunner PC, or hit our producer up Raya, underscore Funch FRPC and see, let us know what you think. Did you trade the right grizzly? Best comments End up on the podcast. Just letting y'all know.

Now we go from One trade situation To another trade situation Because the KD the kd trade uh train has picked up momentum and speed and I'm actually gonna look now because I don't know if he got traded during the recording on this podcast. He definitely could have. So let me look at the news right now and make sure be funny, if I'm sitting here and then Kevin Durant is traded, that would be wild to me. So Right now we are Still Without a KD trade, but we got news on the front, so I'm going to take you back a little bit With KD trade. But we got news on the front, so I'm gonna take you back a little bit with KD, because there's so much to go through with this guy.

Since 2016, kevin Durant has been the most talented passenger in basketball, and what I mean by that? He has chose his situations. Maybe not specifically for him, maybe he was a little kind of gun shy since the Golden State days. He goes to Golden State after leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now, remember Oklahoma City was up on them. Golden State comes back. Then KD joins the Golden State Warriors the next year. Everybody and their mama Gets upset. He broke basketball, supposedly, and basketball wasn't fun For about 4 or 5 years. Well, he wanted to win championships. I don't blame him for that.

Now he Gets towards the end of his tenure in Golden State and you start to hear some of the murmurings and you see the well-documented fight on the sideline between uh, draymond Green and Kevin Durant. As we push forward more through the history, we look at Draymond Green a little bit differently after that spat. But I digress. So he goes to Brooklyn and he chooses to go with Kyrie. Now, there was a chance they could have ended up with the Knicks. That didn't happen. They ended up in Brooklyn. They then add James Harden to that mix.

We saw some of the chaos that ensues. We saw that Kyrie had his Issues with being. He decides not to get the shot and the team goes into chaos. Now remember, kd was like a toe, like a half a toe, from going to the eastern conference finals. He put on a historic game against milwaukee and he just barely couldn't win that series. But with that being said, he then leaves Brooklyn, says I want to be traded, goes to Phoenix and we think, well, maybe he has found basketball. Nirvana here, devin Booker, here we go, whatever.

Now here's the best part. Well, kevin Durant. You can never say that his productivity has waned because this player has put up historic numbers. He's averaged 26.6 points, again six boards, four assists. He's averaged 1.2 blocks, elite efficiency. And only he and yannis are in that 26, 6, 5 and 1 club. So why does this dude continue to get moved? So raya has a note in here, and I love this. Durant has always been the ultimate chess piece because he's so adaptable with his role. Now his role, or more specifically, the area on the floor with Phoenix was redundant, with the leading man being Devin Booker, also using the mid-range to great success. Still, durant's skill set is a desired commodity around the league. Great notes for you, thank you. That put just put a point, a bow on that situation, and this is why she's one of the best producers in the game today.

So let's hit this. Let's hit the teams that are now looking at kevin durant. We also got news on where he specifically says he wants to go, and we'll talk about that momentarily. We got minnesota, we got houston, we got san antonio, we got miami. So let's start in minnesota.

Now his olympic mentee, that would be anthony edwards. Uh, a deep, playoff tested squad. Kd can thrive in ant city because he can go ahead and play that backup role, that secondary role. Ant can answer all the questions the way Ant does. You know what I'm saying. I think it will work out perfectly Between these two Now. Does he desire to be in cold weather? Does he desire To be Coached by Chris Finch At age 37.

This isn't Minnesota chasing relevance anymore. They already have it. Kd would be basically be a just an additive piece, an additive like go-to scorer. When you could, you can use another real scoring punch that you don't necessarily have. Because here's the thing jayden mcdaniels is awesome, but it's not consistent. Naz reed sometimes he's coming off the bench, sometimes he's starting. You know julius randall, he is a. Is he going to pick up his option? Is he going to stay in minnesota? Is he going somewhere? Who, who knows? As long as you got ant edwards, you good to go, and I think that it's a desirable location to be at with anthony edwards in tow in minnesota. So you have that now.

Houston, on the other hand, is a team that is young, they are hungry and they're coached by Emea Delka. Now the one thing that Houston Rockets need is a legitimate scoring punch, somebody who can just get you buckets efficiently. That is what KD does. The deal to Phoenix is light. Phoenix isn't biting on Jalen green and the number 10 overall pick. They want now and not next. The Rockets have assets, but the timeline doesn't sync up.

I think, personally, houston has whatever you need. If you got, if you want players, they got that. If you want picks, they got that. But also keep in mind you got a 37 year old kevin durant, and we're gonna get into what people are saying around league about him and about what you should be giving up in a second. Now.

San antonio this is a spot that durant wants most. He's come out and said that in the last day or so that he wants to go to san antonio. That's his first choice. And why is that the case? Well, there's a seven foot five reason, or, if you believe the rumors, seven foot seven reason to want to go to san antonio and that his name is victor win by yama. Now he's an absolute unicorn, no doubt. And if you're looking at it from kd's point of view, they already got De'Aaron Fox. They have the number two overall pick as far as that's concerned. Now you could trade De'Aaron Fox, flip him for some other stuff and you get Kevin Durant. You know what I'm saying. And keep Dylan Harper, because I like Dylan Harper a lot and we're going to talk about the draft on Friday. Trust and believe that. But KD is ready to sign the two-year 122 million dollar extension if the spurs are all in on him.

But the catch is, is that phoenix has asked for the number two overall pick, or stefan castle, and san antonio has said nah, we are not doing that. We balked at that whole situation. So kd might want the spurs, but the spurs are not willing to pay up the price to get him, or the price that phoenix wants them to pay. I should say that because others have brought their own thoughts to this situation and we will talk about that momentary now. It's rare for the superstar want a small market structure, but kd sees the legacy and when we and here's the thing phoenix might need to cut down on their asking price a little bit. Now there's miami, who is star hungry and this is the only east coast team that he's supposedly willing to go to. Now obviously, like we said, he's more willing to go to san antonio.

And here's the thing that I wonder with that, if you're san antonio, you got the number two overall pick. You got stefan castle, victor win by yama. You traded for darren fox who, if you wanted to, you could flip darren fox for something else. As far as, as far as that's concerned, as far as your timeline with victor and stefan Castle, if you get Dylan Brooks not Dylan Brooks, dylan Harper from Rutgers doesn't he fit the timeline that Victor is on more than De'Aaron Fox? Because if you have De'Aaron Fox, you're saying, okay, we are ready to go now, we're ready to make the playoffs, and then, if that's the case, you may as well go ahead and get Kevin Durant and build up the offensive diversification of the offense. So then it doesn't just rely on Victor's shoulders, but Miami. I don't know what they necessarily have as far as picks are concerned. I don't think they have enough of the players that phoenix will want, so it would have to be picks. I don't know if they have it. I think durant would have to just ask to go there now.

Durant's trade request has always felt like moves towards situations that suited his mood, not necessarily ones that are challenging his arc. Yeah, some of his choices, like when he made the Brooklyn choice, I was like I don't know why you're doing this. And then when he went to Phoenix, I was like, well, we'll see how this works. Now, when LeBron moves to a team team, he reshapes every franchise. Kawai has reshaped two in his uh travels, kd drifts. He's not a team builder, he's not a team finder, and sometimes that difference has cost him in more ways than he would want to admit. Since, go to state, katie hasn't driven the car, he's been in the backseat the Brooklyn collapse, the, the friction in Phoenix and he just let it happen. He didn't command the space to kind of quell the energy that was going on.

And here's the best part. You see teams like Boston, you see other teams making these jumps and you see, for somebody like Kevin Durant's stature to see them, to see them just fall apart last year, like Kevin Durant's stature to see them, to see them just fall apart last year, was eye-opening. How additive are you to winning at this point in your career? Are you a secondary scorer? Are you the primary dude? Are you the third dude? Now, at 37 kd is still brilliant. He's still tier one scorer in this league. But the role he plays in his own story that's what's up with the trades, not just the jersey.

You are finding difficult positions to be in. You are finding difficult positions to be in, and this time I don't even think you're in control of your own fate. I think Phoenix is definitely running this show and KD keeps letting the landscape define him, then grows unhappy once the terrain settles. Well, dude, you sat there and picked a team in phoenix that had devin booker, who was absolutely a mid-range killer. Then you also got bradley bill, who wants to do a lot of his work in the same area. So where, where do you fit in now? With houston? A little bit different, well, depending on whether shangoon stays or not. But in san antonio, you might run into the same problem. Devin vasil likes the mid-range. Antonio, you might run into the same problem. Devin Vassell likes the mid-range. Really, to tell you truth, the only place where I think he would really really fit is in Minnesota. It's you're. I'm talking about other teams that are really fighting for his services at this point in time.

Now here's what is real. Phoenixoenix doesn't care about what kd's wish list is. They want to win now pieces. They say they uh, they want to stay relevant in the west, which is going to be hard with no picks and uh dwindling talent. So they better make real good work of this trade situation they have with uh kd. Now they're calling minnesota. Um, oh wow, maybe possible randall deal, maybe d vincenzo. They don't have a lot of picks in minnesota, so I don't know how that's going to work Now. Houston offer isn't enough. The Spurs are lurking and the Miami offer is okay, but it's not enough. Phoenix is trying to drum up better offers. They need plug and play fixes, not a five year plan, because our guy Matt Ishbia, he is not patient whatsoever.

Kirk goes very of the ringer recorded on the zach on the uh zach glow show that phoenix wanted the number two pick or stefan castle from the spurs and that asking price was too high for san antonio and they laughed it off. Here's a couple teams to me that kd should think about going to, and they're in the east. And the reason why I bring up the east is because, one, we got a lot of teams out here in the west that are going to be challenging for playoff spots. We're going to be in the same predicament this year that we were in last year. We're gonna have like 13 teams vying for eight slots. The west is no joke, I'm trying to tell you.

But if kd could have an open mind for like 2.6 seconds, one team that I would think that he would fit would be cleveland. Now maybe you can do something. They don't have a ton of picks, but maybe you can do something around garland and jared allen. You know garland gonna miss some time, but as far as a can't miss point guard which the phoenix suns could really use, and then you can put ty jones as a backup or maybe he's part of this trade somehow, I don't know but jared allen would also fix their, their in their uh, big issue because they don't have one right now.

Another team that I thought about and it now it's more apropos, especially seeing Halliburton get hurt the Indiana Pacers. Now you say, well, what, what are we doing here? The Pacers have a bunch of young talent, uh, jairus Walker, our guy, andrew Nembhard, aaron Neesmith, players like this, these are all like credible players that Phoenix could use to build up the depth that you don't have right now and also circumvent what Bradley Bill is or is not to your team. Also having a scorer like kevin durant, which, if you saw the game last night and we'll get into that, we'll get into that a little bit later, but if you saw the game last night, not just because of hallowburton's injury, but because of the fact they don't have like a, just an independent, like dude, I can go get a bucket whenever I want benedict mathering might grow into that situation, but he's not there yet. If you had kd, you would have that type of guy now. Albeit, you are now saying, hey, it's a win now situation, and this is something normally that the Indiana Pacers would not do, because they're more of a slow burn team.

I wonder if the playoff failures in Cleveland maybe expedite their timeline and bringing in a more dynamic scorer to go along with Donovan uh, and then you can take some of the pressure off of evan mobley in this situation. I don't know, these are all things that I'm just thinking off. The top's lethal now, but indy's quiet, maybe too content. Maybe they don't feel like the weight. They should go ahead and do something like this. I'm not saying they should or shouldn't do it. I'm just saying that if you look at the team the way it's currently constituted, they have a lot of depth. Their, their uh pace that they play at is a superpower of theirs as well.

But if you had a guy who you could just give the ball to with like six seconds left to go and you knew he can get a really good look at the basket, it might be worth it to make some adjustments and maybe make some allowances for KD to join your squad if you don't have that type of player on your team as of right now. This was a thought, and we always talk about rings, but what about the meaning. Durant got rings already, but when was the last time he was relevant in the playoffs? That was that Brooklyn series against Milwaukee where his toe was on the line, and how long ago was that? Like four years now. His last iconic moment was in 2017 in Game 3. Here's a guy who's been really kind of like outside of the playoff sphere sort of speak, and now the markets are shifting.

Espn's Sean Sharania has said that there are six to eight serious suitors for KD's wish list. It's clear that it's the Spurs, the Rockets, the Heat, but Phoenix has one priority and that's value. Kd turns 37 in September. He missed at least. He missed at least 17 games in the last four out of last five seasons. He's had the Achilles injury. He's had lower body injuries. If you're the GM, do you want to make that commitment to Katie? Do you want to have that extension? Talk with him. The Suns might have to reduce their asking price per Dwayne. Rank ranking of the Arizona Republic.

This trade isn't't about talent. It's about timing, leverage and fatigue. This is the NBA version of watching someone swipe left on too many good options until the algorithm just gets weird. Kd's usage last year, by the way, was 26.7. It was the lowest since his days in Oklahoma City. I think what he's looking for now is just a basketball home. He's looking for a place where he can just hoop and do his thing.

Now let's talk about some of these teams and what. What it will look like if he picks san antonio and they get him to san antonio and phoenix comes off. The asking price that he's asking for right now, when by yama and and kevin durant on the same teams, it just sounds um unfair. You imagine just the gravity that wimby is going to have and then just the backdoor cuts that kd is going to be able to make and just be wide open. He will be just a quiet luxury in san antonio. I hope you enjoy the river walk, my guy.

Now he goes to minnesota. This is like the coen brothers movies. Right, it's going to be cold, calculated, slightly absurd. Ants dancing in the corner while katie's meditating with his eyes open. Katie's over here asking for the ox cable and ann is saying, nah, it's young boy hour. You imagine the buddy cop movie that is kd and anthony edwards. It would listen tv. I just would pay to watch that. Right, just whatever streaming service I need to get to watch ant and kd on court, off court, whatever I just I need to see it now.

If kd goes down to miami, he'll be journaling in biscayne bay for a month, you know, and then he will have to go to the Pat Riley get in shape situation, because we know what Miami is all about. It's about less body fat, you know BMI intake situations. It's about staying in shape, being rock solid, not talking to the media Heat culture. It's real. And then kd can just be an introvert and find himself in miami drinking mimosas. I have no idea how this is all gonna work out, but I will say this is that if he wants san antonio and they're talking about this that number two overall pick, that's not happening. You might be able to get something else, but you're not getting that number two overall pick. So where do we go from here? All I know is this we will have emergency pod as soon as this trade trade goes through.

Durant is hoop history, but only if he chooses the right team to go to. Will his story end up legendary or will it just be an epilogue? I don't know, but only KD can answer these questions. And are you gonna finally get off the pot dog? Are you finally gonna say I want to go here and this is the reason why, and then put your flag in it? We want your thoughts.

If you're KD Stan, hit us up on Twitter at front runner PC or at Rhea Underscore fudge FR PC. You can hit us on blue sky if you don't deal with Twitter anymore. I understand, I get it. For me it's the same exact thing at front runner pc. Dot b sky, dot social raya s up on all platforms. We will then take the best comments and we will put them on the pod. So far we haven't seen any good comments, so there's no reason to be.

You got to put in the work. You know, I'm saying you got put in the work with us. Now what else do we need to get to? A ton of stuff, a ton of stuff. We got to get into this Game 5 situation. It was amazing Last night. We saw things that we really Were not expecting to see. We had legendary moments last night. We also had head scratching moments. We had some scary moments, but the first thing that we need to get to is jalen Williams dropped a playoff career high of 40 points in the biggest game of his career. Now he has Oklahoma City one win away from bringing a banner to the plains of Oklahoma. This isn't your typical blow-by-blow. We're breaking down Game 5s like it's the season finale of the Bear Emotions, adjustments and a whole lot of what just happened.

The last time I saw a playoff performance like this, people would say, oh well, you want to tell us about Jordan, what you going to tell us about Vince, what you're gonna tell us about Vince? Tell you something. Last time I saw a performance like this, I was seven years old. Need to take you back to 1980. And uh, magic Johnson was a rookie out of Michigan State. He had just won a national title with the Michigan State Spartans dropping that hammer on Larry Bird.

This man scored 42 points in a finals game to close it out. Our guy, jalen Williams, did not close it out. But here's the thing was it a star making moment? You bet your ass it was. Was this jimmy in the in the bubble close? Was this wade in 06? Well, wade did it over like an extended period of time. But we'll get to what jalen williams has been doing.

But what I will say is that this moment the Game 5 moment, when you got to have it, because you know what the percentages are when you win Game 5, right, it's like 87% of people who win Game 5 go on to win the finals, or go on to win the series or what have you. Now he puts up the 40. Keep in mind Shea Gilchrist Alexander is on this team, the NBA MVP is on this team and Jalen Williams was like don't worry about it, player, I got you, I'm gonna take care of this. And before we go any further, let's give some flowers where they're due. This, this is the finals.

You know, I'm saying it's been basketball joy for us. The real ones shout out to logan murdoch and rajah bell and howard beck, because we love the real ones on the ringer network. But for all the real ones out there, this hasn't been the most star-studded finals that we've ever seen. You're not seeing LeBron, you're not seeing Steph or KD. What we are seeing is high IQ teams play basketball a clash of styles, clash of matchups, players putting on, putting together legacy, defining performances in the games that matter the most. So when you tell me, oh, I'm not here for this boring brand of basketball, oh, so you're not here for real good basketball, that's what you're telling me. Because if you're saying like, oh, I'm not watching the finals because it's boring. Well, you're not watching the finals because you don't really enjoy basketball. You enjoy all the noise around basketball and that's cool too.

But I want to get people involved in this series because we've seen strategy adjustments. We've seen players make adjustments on the fly. We see coaches make adjustments. We've seen different strategies brought forth from game to game, sometimes quarter to quarter. We've seen outstanding performances from guys that we didn't expect to see these great performances from. You know we saw tj mcconnell game. We saw aaron wiggins game. We we've seen you know we'll get into what case and wallace did last night. And then you do have the stars. You do have shea gilchrist, alexander, who's putting up 30 every single night, and jalen williams what he's done over like the last three games, because that that right there, chef kiss, what he's done over the last three. You know chet holmgren has been doing work. We've had great games by pascal siakam. Uh, tyrese halliburton has had a couple really good games. We see andrew nimhardt break out. We see tj mcconnell do his thing so well. You talk about a series. It's three, two. It's been a really competitive series, but we are about to shine a light on jalen williams, because that's Jalen Williams, because that's where we gotta go. That's where we gotta go first. So let's rewind the tape a little bit.

Jalen Williams was a late riser in the 2022 draft class. He wasn't some viral phenom like Cooper Flagg or a high school mixtape legend like Zion Williamson. He was the other lottery pick of OKC's Hall. Remember Chet Holmgren was the first pick for OKC in that draft and then it was Jalen Williams. With that other guy, that label does not hold anymore. He's gone from promising like role player to potential finals.

Mvp serea dropped this note. Williams has scored 93 points on just 61 shots across games. Three through five. That is a one. Check this out. 1.52 points per shot. It's elite efficiency under pressure. So I'm gonna say that again 93 points, 61 shots over the last three games it's a 1.52 points per shots. That's ridiculous. And then in game five, of course, 40 points right, 14 to 25 shooting 9 to 12 from the free throw line. Could have done a little bit better there.

And he made it look easy Floaters, step through, slash Through, contact. And then in the fourth quarter, he just closed. He looked Like he been waiting his whole life To step into this role and he kind of gave that kobe bryant against the indiana pacers. I hate to do this to the pacers again. He kind of gave us that vibe that kobe did when shack fouled out. He was like stay calm, dude, I got this, don't worry, I got you. This dude hit a. Uh, in the fourth quarter he hit a from the nail, he did a pivot, then re-pivot back, switch, fall away, jump shot from like 17 feet. It looked so kobe, so michael jordan.

It was so cool to see and to see him use his inside game at this early stage of his career because, mind you again, the man is like 24 years of age usually don't get the back to the basket game until you're like 28, 29, when the athleticism is starting to run down a little bit. Not jalen williams, he was like no, no, I'm gonna incorporate. To incorporate this now I'm going to incorporate this. And here's the best part Of what Jalen Williams did. He kind of has a powerful Forward's body but he has point guard skills and there was no way For anybody from Indiana To stop him. Aaron Neesmith couldn't stop him, andrew Nembhard couldn't stop him. Wherever he wanted to go, he went if he wanted to get to the paint. If he wanted to have purposeful paint touches, he did. He did all that. He got to wherever he wanted and he was 3 of 5 from 3 point shooting, which he had been awful throughout these finals, but in this game, in this game, he was three of five and it opened up a whole new world for him.

Now you want to talk about stats and you want to talk about critical things that could help you lose a series. So when indiana looks back at game five, yes, the injury to tyrese halliburton, which we will get to momentarily, was one, one of the big factors. But you know what? What? The other big factor was serious. Sirea dropped this in for us.

The pacers committed 23 turnovers that led to 32 thunder points. 13 of those came in the fourth quarter alone. You don't beat a 68 win team doing that, and credit to the thunder. They sniff blood in the water. And four straight possessions in the fourth quarter steals, one from each of the following alex caruso got a steal, shea gilgers alexander got a steal, lou dork got a steal and jalen williams got a steal. This sounds very oprah. And you get a car. And you get a car, and you get a car. Everybody gets steals, let's get them.

It wasn't just the defense, this was like. This was like a train robbery. You know, I'm saying let's get our desperados on. Okay, I'm gonna put the little mask on our face and everything. We're gonna be bandits out here just stealing balls left and right.

And let's not forget about the unsung dudes aaron wiggins, who had a 43 point outburst in the regular season, and case and wallace, who's been one of these understudy guys who we have been thinking about like dude. If somebody else can get their hands on this kid, what kind of star will he be right? These guys who are super young, not men, in these type of situations very often, what did they do? They combined for 25 points off the bench. That was more than the indiana pacers entire second unit outside of mcconnell. Speaking of mcconnell, we gotta salute him because he's the reason why they kept.

They was in this game for as long as they were. He gave indiana life in the third quarter. He had 13 of his 18 and he kept them in the fight because tyrese halliburton, his calf, was, uh, injured. We believe that he had injured this calf in game three. He had injured this calf in game three, not in game four, not in game five. We think he injured it in game three. He uh, he exacerbated that injury in game four. We saw him hobbling leaving the uh, the, the uh, post um press conference. After game four. Come into game five, he falls awkwardly all by himself and now we don't know what his status for game six will be Now. 0 for 6 from the field, four points, all of those from the line. He had three turnovers, third game in this postseason when he's under 10 points.

But again our guy Tyrese Allenbryton was not right. He had the heart but the juice wasn't there. You could see it and you could see it early. That crossover on Holmgren in the first quarter where he stumbles, that was the tail. You know when you see a dj truck tries to drop that beat but the ox core cuts out. That was tyrese last night because the shot wasn't falling. You can see there was no explosivity. When he wanted to go to the hole, his mind what would say go, but his body was not able to get him there. He was compromised from the get. And now you get Carlisle raging at the ref, siakam pressing and Nemhar fading like he was some ghost in a pac-man arcade game. Okc is smelling the legacy. They know they are this close to the championship. They know, one game away, our guy, shay Gilgis Alexander.

His usage rate dipped from 33.5 in game 4 to 29.8 in game five, but he passed out of traps 1.5 seconds faster on average thanks to synergy second spectrum. You know saying we get, you know we get the love. This tells the story. She didn't force it. He tilted the floor, he let the trap come to him and then he made the skip pass and Williams capitalized and kept on capitalizing and kept on capitalizing and then kept on capitalizing.

Now, another guy who was kind of an unsung hero in this game Was Isaiah Hardenstein. Now Isaiah Hardenstein. Now Isaiah Hardenstein didn't score a bunch of points. He only played 21 minutes. He had four points. But it was the screens that he set the positioning, the decisions. He ranks in the 96th percentile in screen assist per 75 possessions thanks to basketball index 1.06. Assist to usage ratio 90th percentile amongst bigs. So he gonna get it done. He's never gonna cook, he's never going to get the ball and get into some sort of offensive groove, but what he is going to do is he's going to keep the rhythm of the offense quick. He has six offensive boards. He switches on defense like he's playing zone within a zone. Three of OKC's first six assists came through him. No one's buying his jersey, but you better believe he is in the championship highlight montage for sure.

Let's talk about MVP. And why would we do that? Because Shea should win the MVP right. 100% Because he's been getting it done. But our guy, jalen Williams, is making it like a late push. A late push for it Now. He scored 25 points in three straight finals games Before his 25th birthday. Now let me tell you the names that he falls in line with on that route. Okay, so we got 25 plus points in three straight finals games.

Here's the list Kyrie Irving you heard of him. Kevin Dur durant we talked about him earlier. Duane wade, legend. Shaquille o'neal legend, also hall of famer both of them hall of fame, actually d-way and shack hall of famers. That's not just elite company, that's rarefire air homies. You know what I'm saying. Like, our guy is out here bringing super heat. How are you under 25 years of age and you dropping 25 plus points in the last three finals games? This is when the lights are supposed to be brighter. You're supposed to kind of melt Underneath the pressure, not Jalen Williams. He was on Scott Van Pelt Sports Center last night and the reason why I bring this up Is because Scott Van Pelt said something.

None of the Thunder Seem to be impressed With themselves In this whole journey. They always say they have a job to do. It's not a three, it's not the best to three or the first to three wins the series. We've heard from shea gilgis, alexander. We've heard from Shea Gilchrist, alexander. We've heard from Jalen Williams, we've heard from Alex Caruso, and all of them say the same exact thing we still have another win to go. We still got to get that fourth victory. We're trying to get 16 victories. That's the name of the game. 16 victories gets us to the championship.

J-dubs finals. Average right now is 31 points per game. He is 27 of 34 from the free throw line. He's shooting 53 from the field total. He's not just showing up, he's taking over. And this is what we thought we talked about last year when we talked about OKC's big three of Chet, jalen Williams and Shea Gildress Alexander. We saw this coming, we knew this kid was special and now he's showing the world that he is exactly what we thought he was. That doesn't mean that we need to overlook Shea, because he's been the constant. He's been the center of gravity in game five. He had 31 points. He had 10 assists. Check this out he was 13 of 14 from the free throw line and he's cool being a decoy when the role is necessary.

Shea's out here playing chess While the rest of the league is trying to figure out Uno and he has a style that is so different than everybody else's. It's beautiful to watch. Yeah, it's not this high flyinglying let me dunk on you every single time like anthony edwards, but his movement, his body control is absolutely impressive and it's in it's um. I think that dude is in the 1% in flexibility in this league. How he can contort his body to get into certain shooting angles and what have you is not just impressive, it's scientific, it's like a science fiction movie. It's just crazy that he's able to get himself into these positions. You got Caruso out here, dort out here putting clamps on people. They're a complete team OKC fine man lineup with Caruso, dort, sga, j-dub and Chetet. Their net rating for this finals a plus 26.7 in the finals. That's closing dominance.

Meanwhile, indiana's magic may be running out. Our guy Halliburton we talked about it earlier. He has an injury. It's a calf injury. Uh, we just talked about how sean serrania reported that it's a significant injury and they're doing everything they can. He says that he will not miss game six. He will not miss it, but I'm gonna tell you right now if he's compromised at all we saw it in game five OKC is going to win game six. If they can't get better play from Pascal Siakam and Aaron Neesmith and Andrew Nemhard to kind of cover up what Tyrese is not going to be able to give them we can go ahead and end this series now.

Last night was like watching a band on their last night of a tour. Everything hurts, but you have to. You have one last set to give you know, saying let's go ahead and push this one out. They struggled mightily, mightily in that fourth quarter. The turnovers just kept coming. That faucet was not shutting off at all.

If OKC closes this out, it's not just a championship, it is a moment, it is a blueprint validation for our guy Sam Presti, and if Indiana somehow forces a game, 7. Buckle the hell up, because first of all, the Pacers have been pulling off magic, pulling rabbits out of their hat the whole damn playoffs. And guess what? Can you really count them out again? Can you really count them out again? Can you really count them out in game six? Now I will say this our models had okc winning in six. I was the idiot who said, no, they're gonna win in five. I just thought they were too dominant and I think, honestly, this will end in six. And it's not because I don't believe in the Pacers. I just think if you don't have all your horses ready to go, and no matter what you tell me I know that Tyrese Halliburton is definitely compromised this is just not going to go. Well, tell me who the MVPvp is gonna be. Let me know. Hit us up on the, hit us up on twitter or also on blue sky. Also, you can hit us up on the youtube community page. Go to frontrunner podcast collective and then go to the community page and drop a note. Let us know who you think is going to win the mvp of the nba finals.

Now, before we get up out of here, the indiana pacers out here making news, not just on the court but off the court the indiana pacers traded their 23rd overall pick to the new orleans pelicans. What, yes, they did, and why did they do that to get back their 2026 first round pick that used to belong to them. So they got their pick for 2026 back. Now you ask yourself why did they do all this and why did they do this during the finals? I'll tell you in one second. Let me just set this table. You're in the nba finals. You're down 3-2. You got a home game coming and your front office says let's make a draft pick swap. I'm like cool, let's do it. If this is a movie, that's the weird third act of flashback scene where you realize the heist started before the game even tipped off. Right, but timing is everything.

While the world is focused on game five in Indiana, indiana's front office is making moves that signal long-term intent. The translation to this is Indiana ain't just chasing rings, they are chasing. They're just chasing assets, and the reason why they're chasing these assets is because of this. Now, because they got that pick back, they can trade 2026. 2028. And 2030. And you say, why is this important? The stepping rule you can't trade Back to back picks, but you can trade Every two years picks, and without that 2026 pick, they weren't able to do anything until really 2027. But now that they have this pick back. They could then make a move and say, okay, we can trade our 2026 pick, our 2028 pick and our 2030, and then we can swap. We can do pick swaps in 2027, 2029 and 2031. That's a war chest, that's a bobby axle bobby axle rod with a clean slate and no regulators type of acquisition. You know, saying like this is some real billionaire type stuff.

The trade unlocked several moves for the pacers. This is what kevin o'connor posted. Indiana is no longer in the asset tie to past mistakes. They've future proofed and their rebuild from before is present and even decided. Cap wise, this clears $3.24 million this year. That's not nothing, especially if you're looking at Miles Turner's unrestricted free agency this summer and while Indiana has flexibility to extend key rotation, guys keep Turner or it'll all go sideways and blow it up without it being broke.

What they've done is they've just kind of extended their timeline. Is it weird to have it happen during the finals? Yeah, but is it also kind of genius? Yeah, because the Pacers aren't betting on two timelines. No, they're waiting on win the chip now and stay nimble, so when the party ends, we know we got ways to diversify. We can you switch up things, what have you? So the trade gives them a fire escape if they flame out in game six them a fire escape. If they flame out in game six, no panic. They got their 2026 pack uh, 2026 pick back. This gives them cap space and they got control over their draft situations for the next six years.

That's all you can ever ask when you are a team that's trying to compete for a championship, team that's trying to compete for a championship. You gotta have ammunition. If something is out there that you need, if you have looked at your team and said, let's assess it and see what's going on, oh, we need this, oh we need a backup big, we need another like wing that could score but also play defense. Well, now you have the ammunition to go out and get it. Don't ignore draft quality here. Early mocks have the 2026 class top heavy with two-way talent, and indiana is now back in that room. So they knew something. They knew something and, let's be real, the pelicans didn't fleece them either. They get another first round pick now, adding to their stash of number seven. Now they got number 23 and I think they also have 26 as well. So they have three picks in the first round this year.

Now I don't know if they're building around zion and trey murphy or if this is a situation where they're going to start their like deep dismantling of their team and starting to pick up um assets and what have you. So for the pacers, this is just hey, we're kind of reshuffling the deck a little bit and we want to have uh, we want to have draft asset flexibility going forward and we didn't want to be unencumbered. We didn't want to be encumbered by, oh, we got this pick out to this team and we got this pick out to another team and we got this pick out to another team. I understand it, I respect it, I think it's great. Now you can tell me what you think of this trade From the Pelican side or from the Pacers side, however you feel like it. You hit us up on Twitter At FrontrunnerPC. Also. Hit us up on twitter at frontrunner pc. Also. Hit us up on bluesky at frontrunnerbskysocial for our producer. You will hit her up at at rea underscore on the twitter side and on the blue sky side it is frpc hyphen raya r-a-y-a dot b sky dot social.

Now, if you are joining the podcast for the first time, welcome. Thank you for joining us. We do this twice a week and sometimes, sometimes we do it three times a week. If there's a kevin durant trade, we will be doing an emergency pod post haste. Also, keep in mind the draft. Next week we will be dropping three pods. We will have a tuesday pod that will be like a draft preview. We will drop a uh wednesday pie, which will be after the first round. It'll be our reaction to the first round and then to follow it up on friday, we will just have a draft overview, some of our thoughts, some of our observations from the draft, some of the trades that went down, things of that nature, and also set up what we think is going to be a very hectic free agency trade period for early july. Early july is going to be jam-packed. We might be breaking in with emergency pods, we might break in with two in a day who knows what is about to happen.

But you keep it locked here at front runner podcast collective. Well, we're gonna keep it saucy for you, we're gonna keep it real for you and we're just gonna bring nothing but heat to this podcast. So for so rare, who is the greatest producer in the game today? And her understudy, maya. Yes, sir, we got another. We got another person on front runner podcast collective. I'm blessed. I can't. I can't even imagine it. It's so great.

But, with that being said, the best part of you is you make sure that the people who are in your surrounding circle is supporting you as well. Make sure that they are giving you nothing but positive affirmations. Make sure that checking in on you, making sure that you feel loved, you feel thought of, you, feel cared for, right, and if they are doing this for you, if they holding up their end of the bargain and they're exhibiting these behaviors, you make sure to acknowledge them. You appreciate those who are showing you this kind of love and this kind of support because we're better together and if you got groups like this with you, then you'll want to be part of our team. Frontrunner podcast collective definitely has a seat for you here. Make sure to be a review the podcast as well we need those and also comment on some of the posts on the social medias.

All right, so I'm up out of here. I don't know if I will be back before friday kevin durant only knows and the phoenix sun only knows but if there's a trade, we will be back. If there's not, we'll see you on Friday, and by then we will either be done with the finals or we will be looking at a game seven. Can the Pacers pull out a miracle one more time? Can they go daft punk on us one more time? We'll be here to find out. So, without without that, or with that being said, I don't know what the hell I'm saying right now. With that being said, I I'm up out of here. We will see you on Friday Unless there's a Kevin Durant trade. If there is, we'll break in and have an emergency pot. Y'all be easy Deuces. We'll see you on Friday Unless Kevin Durant gets traded Out. You.