Wolves Learn Valuable Lessons in Western Conference Finals

[00:00:10] It's Monday, you know what time it is. Front Runner Podcast Collective is back on the air.

[00:00:16] I am your humble host Vince and thank you for joining us for this exciting podcast that

[00:00:23] we have for you. But before we get to all the particulars which we will break down

[00:00:29] what the Wolves learned in this Western Conference Finals, we will talk about maybe

[00:00:36] what they're going to do in the offseason. We're going to look at the Clippers and

[00:00:43] Kawhi and what that conundrum is and then we're also going to hit a couple of

[00:00:49] nudes and notes on the way out. But before we do all that, we hit our

[00:00:53] socials. So the first thing that I want to do is recommend that you join us

[00:00:59] on Twitter that is at Front Runner PC and also at BFunch FRPC. That's the

[00:01:08] producer, my guy is doing tremendous work and I'm so excited to have him on

[00:01:14] staff. The other thing is the YouTube channel is doing well. We're going to

[00:01:20] be posting some videos obviously from this and we have some clips from the

[00:01:24] last podcast that we need to get up as well. So there'll be some new stuff up

[00:01:30] there within the next couple days so look out for that and that's at Front

[00:01:37] Runner Podcast Collective. And then the last thing that we want to tell

[00:01:41] people first, I want to thank all our listeners now. We have such a huge

[00:01:50] contingency in Ghana that I was not aware of. So shouts out to Ghana.

[00:02:00] I was, thank you for listening to us. We appreciate it. But be a friend, tell

[00:02:08] a friend about the podcast. It's available on all major platforms so

[00:02:14] Front Runner Podcast Collective. We will also want to tell you that Monday

[00:02:20] you're going to have this show. Wednesday we will give you the preview

[00:02:24] to the Boston Dallas NBA Finals and then Friday we're going to do a Game

[00:02:36] One I guess recap and see if we learned anything. So that's what the week

[00:02:42] has in store for us and we're looking forward to it. So let's get to these

[00:02:49] games, let's get to what happened. And the reason why I'm doing this post

[00:02:57] mortem late is because I wanted a couple days to digest. I didn't want to

[00:03:03] be reactionary to Carl Anthony Towns. I had a whole pod ready to go on

[00:03:11] cat and I wanted some time to really allow the season, allow the

[00:03:19] performance in the playoffs to sink in, go back, look at some things and

[00:03:25] see before I start speaking on these things because we want to give

[00:03:32] a full robust picture of what goes on with these teams as much as

[00:03:38] we can piece together. Also entertain you, also be real about what's

[00:03:48] going on. And obviously Carl Anthony Towns in the last game scored 28

[00:03:55] points. He looked more comfortable in the closeout game after they were

[00:04:04] down like 25, 30. He looked more comfortable in that situation, played

[00:04:10] more free than he did at any point in this series. And it just struck me,

[00:04:18] it just struck me at that point. Now I am going to tell you that I have

[00:04:25] not been a Carl Anthony Towns fan as far as his style of play since

[00:04:31] he's gotten into the league. The first couple years I was like,

[00:04:34] okay, there's some real talent here. I still believe there's a lot of talent

[00:04:41] there. Let me preface this by saying that Carl Anthony Towns is a very

[00:04:46] talented player. There is no doubt about him being a great shooter.

[00:04:53] There's no doubt about him being able to defend at a decent level when

[00:05:01] motivated. He also is such a threat and you know that he is the secondary

[00:05:09] option on the whiteboard for teams. And so there's a lot of strategic

[00:05:18] minutiae that goes into Garten Carl Anthony Towns. You really have to

[00:05:24] check for a player like that. With all that being said, we talked about

[00:05:32] in the first round, the second round and then in the Western Conference

[00:05:36] Finals, the silly fouls, the quick shooting, which we didn't see a lot

[00:05:47] of that in game five. I'm going to be fair when I talk about this.

[00:05:53] But still the fouls in the previous games, the drives that were

[00:06:03] inexplicable. We talked about on our previous podcast that Carl Anthony

[00:06:09] Towns is a two dribble type of player when he's on the perimeter.

[00:06:15] Anything more than two dribbles, it turns into the twilight zone.

[00:06:19] It never turns out good. It usually ends in an offensive foul on

[00:06:25] Carl Anthony Towns, which he gets enough of those on his own,

[00:06:30] honestly. So it's one of these things that you just keep on going like,

[00:06:36] what is it? What is it? What is it? And I think we got our answer

[00:06:42] earlier in the series when the series was still in doubt. Now,

[00:06:47] I know Minnesota fans will tell me that going into game five, they

[00:06:51] felt very confident. And I'll tell you this, as somebody who really

[00:06:58] appreciate who Anthony Edwards has turned out to be, I still have my

[00:07:04] thoughts on, hey man, if this dude pulls a Superman effort out, all

[00:07:10] bets are off. We could be going to game six and this could be

[00:07:14] looking like a completely different situation. But the problem is that

[00:07:22] in games one, two and three, we saw Carl Anthony Towns in the

[00:07:29] fourth quarter missing huge chunks of those four quarters and they

[00:07:34] turned to Nas Reid. Now, if they're turning to Nas Reid in the most

[00:07:41] critical games of the season and Carl Anthony Towns is supposed to

[00:07:46] be your submitted number two or one B, however you want to play

[00:07:51] with the roles or whatever, I'm not here to get into all that.

[00:07:56] What I'm here to get into is with Carl Anthony Towns' salary, there's

[00:08:01] no way that he can be off the floor in crunch time minutes and be

[00:08:07] viable next year. That's what I'm coming to. We've soft pedaled this

[00:08:15] situation the whole way through. We wanted to wait and see. We said

[00:08:20] previous times that the playoff is the light of truth. It tells

[00:08:27] you who you are. It shows you exactly where your flaws are. It

[00:08:30] tells you exactly where the deficiencies in your rosters are.

[00:08:38] Guess what? Carl Anthony Towns, unfortunately at this point in time

[00:08:45] is a deficiency for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Now, we can

[00:08:50] You can say, oh, well he is good in the regular season. That is true.

[00:08:58] He will be perfect in a regular season for you. That being able to

[00:09:04] be that type of floor stretcher, that type of thing. He can be

[00:09:12] when motivated again. We saw in this playoff especially early

[00:09:16] against Denver, he was stout defensively. I didn't have a

[00:09:21] problem with him. But again, just the fouls that you just don't

[00:09:29] put your hand in there. Just don't do it. They are baiting

[00:09:33] you to do that and it's almost like a moth to a flame. He

[00:09:39] does it almost every single time and it's usually like some

[00:09:43] inconsequential play 30, 40 feet away from the basket and now

[00:09:51] he's picked up his third foul and it's got eight minutes to go

[00:09:55] in the second quarter. You can't rely on him,

[00:09:59] unfortunately, Minnesota. Now a lot of this is going to have

[00:10:06] a lot to do with who ends up running this team. We had made

[00:10:11] a clip, I want to say probably like two months ago talking

[00:10:19] about this specific situation. The Glenn Taylor, Mark

[00:10:24] Laurie ownership debate. Who had what money in on time or

[00:10:32] not on time depending on which party you talk to.

[00:10:35] The rumors that the Mark Laurie A-Rod ownership group is having

[00:10:45] problems with coming up with money or whatever the case

[00:10:51] may be. The Glenn Taylor side or the side of Glenn

[00:10:56] Taylor where A-Rod and Mark Laurie say that he acted in

[00:11:02] bad business faith. There's so much clutter to get into a

[00:11:07] team that played remarkably well in this playoffs and

[00:11:13] again do not have anything to be ashamed of because you

[00:11:17] have a 22 year old burgeoning megastar in Anthony Edwards.

[00:11:23] It's just a shame that you have this looming over the

[00:11:27] head of a really great season and a promising look to the

[00:11:33] future even with some of the issues roster wise

[00:11:38] constructional situation that you got going on there.

[00:11:42] All that to be said

[00:11:48] when that day does come this Carl Anthony Towns conundrum will

[00:11:54] still be sitting there. The other thing that I saw in this

[00:11:59] series is that they need another on-ball creator. They

[00:12:04] need another guy who can initiate offense and create

[00:12:08] offense on his own. Now the easy way or the way of

[00:12:14] maybe trying to do that is doing a Carl Anthony Towns

[00:12:21] trade. Now what's his value is going to be a big conclusion on

[00:12:30] whether he gets traded or not. I mean I don't know. I

[00:12:33] haven't looked around. I haven't talked to anybody about

[00:12:36] that but as of right now to me I had to sit on it for a

[00:12:42] few days. I did not want to come to this podcast

[00:12:46] reactionary. One of the things that we always talk

[00:12:49] about while it's on the it's one of the models of the

[00:12:52] podcast is thoughts not takes. Right? We believe that we want

[00:12:59] to have something well thought out to give to you and then

[00:13:03] hopefully it's entertaining as well. I still came to the

[00:13:08] same conclusion that Carl Anthony Towns who definitely

[00:13:14] does help this team in one way to get to that next

[00:13:19] level to get to that level where you can count on your

[00:13:25] number two or one be specifically for 22 points in

[00:13:32] eight to 11 rebounds and provide the spacing that is

[00:13:38] necessary. There was a point in time where Carl Anthony

[00:13:42] Towns was three of twenty from three point land in this

[00:13:49] series when the series mattered. Now, I think he

[00:13:54] ended up if I'm not mistaken, I think he ended up something

[00:13:58] like six of thirty-two which is still or no eight or

[00:14:02] three was no six thirty-two which is still not great.

[00:14:09] I mean what are we doing here at this point? Let's give

[00:14:16] some credit to to a guy who did show up. We want to

[00:14:21] definitely give a shout out to our guy Anthony Edwards. I

[00:14:30] think the one thing that we found out and it still holds

[00:14:34] true to this day and I'll say it again for all of my

[00:14:39] young people out there and I and there's a couple out

[00:14:43] there that I know very very well. For you who say

[00:14:48] that Magic Johnson is just a Ben Simmons that is willing

[00:14:53] to shoot so so disrespectful for you to say that but

[00:15:00] Magic Johnson is the only rookie or young player to come

[00:15:06] into this league and take his and really be like a

[00:15:13] real cog because he was the number two option to Kareem

[00:15:18] and then the game six in the NBA finals where he had to

[00:15:22] start at center played all five positions scored like 42

[00:15:25] points in that game and won the championship and that

[00:15:31] started the Showtime Lakers Anthony Edwards at twenty-two

[00:15:39] is finding out what all you know ascending mega stars find

[00:15:45] out. Usually if you are

[00:15:51] it's almost if you want to put it this way right like if you think of

[00:15:55] like Marvel superheroes and then you think of

[00:15:59] uh Greek mythology like if so if you hold Greek mythology a little bit

[00:16:03] higher than um you know the Marvel

[00:16:08] superheroes right they're on a different level

[00:16:10] however you however you rate it right it's kind of like

[00:16:18] Magic is among Mount Olympus and then Anthony Edwards

[00:16:25] is in that group that's like the Marvel superhero

[00:16:28] they're gonna have some flaws right Michael Jordan

[00:16:32] it took him it took him six years to get to the finals

[00:16:36] uh by the way Luca six years this is it

[00:16:39] he's in the finals this is usually the time it takes

[00:16:47] it was looking for a split second I mean a split second like Anthony

[00:16:54] Edwards because we were just so enamored with what

[00:16:58] happened in the Denver series that we just thought it was just gonna roll

[00:17:01] through the Dallas series our bad we've

[00:17:05] apologized to Luca our MVP front runner podcast

[00:17:09] collectives uh 2023 2024

[00:17:14] MVP of the NBA Luca Donchus we have apologized about that

[00:17:18] but it's hard to win in the NBA and there are certain

[00:17:24] lessons and people don't want to hear this

[00:17:27] who are young they don't want to hear this

[00:17:30] but there's certain lessons that you must learn

[00:17:35] as it comes to winning and this was a hard lesson for

[00:17:42] Ant to learn he will learn when to trust his teammates and

[00:17:49] when not to trust his teammates he will

[00:17:51] look at the team and look at the score and look at the time

[00:17:56] next time and say hey this is this I think I have to be more

[00:18:00] Ant this needs to be more Ant centric now it looked like that was

[00:18:11] starting to happen but you know again learning process

[00:18:19] also having the correct teammates around you make the most sense

[00:18:24] LeBron and JJ Reddick in the Mind the Game podcast talked about

[00:18:31] the role players and how essential they are to winning

[00:18:35] especially winning at the highest levels

[00:18:38] and it's not that they are the flashiest guys it won't be the guy

[00:18:44] who is oh my god can you believe that the Pacers picked him up you know

[00:18:51] and they gave up a first rounder and blah blah blah and this

[00:18:56] it turned out to be Derek Jones Jr that's who it turned out to be

[00:19:04] Luca was great Kyrie Kyrie was great but Derek Jones Jr

[00:19:12] did his job and that was the key to the series I mean that was literally

[00:19:19] it PJ Washington turned into Carl Anthony

[00:19:24] like I guess they switched bodies or whatever

[00:19:29] and the Bigs for Dallas played awesome you know shots out to Derek Lively

[00:19:38] and really shots out to Nico Harrison he's the VP of player personnel for

[00:19:43] Dallas and his relationship equity that he

[00:19:48] has with Kyrie Irving who was one of his guys that he

[00:19:53] eyed when he was a Nike executive and

[00:19:57] representative or whatever PJ Washington he had a close

[00:20:02] relationship with and he also had a relationship with

[00:20:05] Daniel Gafford so what's what a great story

[00:20:11] in the sense of identifying talent that you have a

[00:20:14] personal relationship with that you can kind of vouch for

[00:20:18] that really fit the needs of your team

[00:20:21] so succinctly that it brings the Dallas Mavericks to the cusp of an NBA

[00:20:26] Championship which we will preview on Wednesday so

[00:20:32] keep a lookout for that pod we will have a

[00:20:36] NBA finals preview on Wednesday I can't wait for it I'm diving into

[00:20:41] the tape I've been watching tape for over the weekend I have some thoughts

[00:20:46] but I want to get those thoughts as clear as possible so then we can

[00:20:53] bring you a concise podcast but also something entertaining and

[00:20:57] hopefully maybe something that you can kind of look at when you

[00:21:01] are watching the NBA finals and enjoying them

[00:21:04] enjoying them yourself so that's the hope

[00:21:08] let's talk a little bit about Dallas in this oh I do want to make

[00:21:15] one other thing about the Minnesota Timberwolves

[00:21:18] in this particular series yes it did come down to the role players

[00:21:26] yes the role players were essential shots out to Lively and Gafford

[00:21:30] and Derek Jones jr again but here's the other thing

[00:21:34] that we really need to talk about and this is where

[00:21:38] again I'll ask is Carl Anthony Townes necessary

[00:21:46] the first two series in the NBA playoffs the defensive rating for the

[00:21:53] Minnesota Timberwolves was 99.63 the

[00:22:00] defensive rating in this series was a 111.4

[00:22:08] that'll lose your series I mean it's a 12 point difference

[00:22:12] and your offense didn't go with you know it wasn't

[00:22:16] okay we elevate the defense kind of takes

[00:22:20] a back seat in this series and our offense elevates it never happened

[00:22:26] the offense stayed pretty much what it was because

[00:22:29] there were some deficiencies in the half court

[00:22:32] anytime that Minnesota was on a fast break they were definitely more

[00:22:38] comfortable anytime they could get up up the

[00:22:41] court quickly on a deflection or or whatever the

[00:22:44] case may be they could get into their offense and

[00:22:48] flow move the ball around but we also know

[00:22:52] that there was some stagnation in that offense

[00:22:55] and when you can't rely on Carl Anthony Townes to knock down

[00:23:01] shots the paint shrinks and there's no

[00:23:05] there's no room for Ant to get in there and do what he needs to do

[00:23:10] so there it is in a nutshell the other piece to this thing

[00:23:17] is the Luka first quarter everybody's talked about it

[00:23:21] he had 20 points in the first quarter T Wolves themselves the whole team

[00:23:26] had 19 he came in there and he took the heart

[00:23:33] of all Minnesota fans everywhere he was like I don't care if we're in

[00:23:38] Minnesota or not we're gonna win this game so

[00:23:44] y'all can pack up and go on vacation time to go

[00:23:48] bye-bye the reason why I bring this up is because

[00:23:55] Boston's a different beast they will talk to Luka I don't think that's

[00:24:03] the proper recipe for success if you

[00:24:07] ask me Luka is a guy who looks for things

[00:24:13] to get angry about he used them as tackling fuel right

[00:24:19] shouts out to Adam Sandler and the and the water boy so any kind of

[00:24:28] personal affront he can gather from the audience you know so

[00:24:34] fans in the front row if you're talking if you're talking trash to Luka

[00:24:39] be aware you might wake up the beast and that guy actually does play better

[00:24:46] when he's angry because it seems like he's in some

[00:24:49] sort of constant state of discontent for some

[00:24:53] apparent reason everything's a personal affront to him

[00:24:57] I tell you but it should be a really good series

[00:25:01] I can't wait to dive in and talk to you guys about it on

[00:25:05] Wednesday let's see is there anything else that we

[00:25:08] need to bring up about oh the one other thing that we do need

[00:25:12] to talk well before we get off Minnesota

[00:25:14] and close the book on the Western Conference Finals

[00:25:20] are the Minnesota fans aware that Tim Connolly your president of

[00:25:26] player personnel has an outclause I guess when their contract with

[00:25:31] Mark Laurie and Alex Rodriguez to become the owners of the Minnesota

[00:25:37] Temporal Wolves was put together was that once they

[00:25:42] got to the end of this payment plan business

[00:25:46] and whatever if for some reason that Mark Laurie

[00:25:50] and Alex Rodriguez weren't able to fit their or or fulfill their financial

[00:25:57] obligations that Tim Connolly would have a 10-day window

[00:26:02] to become a free agent now I'm gonna tell you right now I don't

[00:26:08] expect him to leave I am sure that

[00:26:14] whomever is in charge Glenn Taylor or the Mark Laurie

[00:26:21] Alex Rodriguez group but get that squared away right away

[00:26:27] take care of that this is a this is a guy who built your team

[00:26:32] this is a guy who built Denver's team basically

[00:26:36] no not basically he did build Denver's team

[00:26:41] you must ensure that Tim Connolly your your president

[00:26:47] who played a personnel guy is is there for the long haul

[00:26:52] there's no question about that that should be priority

[00:26:56] number one I understand the ownership group and all that

[00:27:00] that's high level priority as well but

[00:27:06] if somehow Tim Connolly gets to this and I think it's coming up in the

[00:27:10] next couple days if Tim Connolly gets to a window

[00:27:16] of 10 days where he is actually a free agent

[00:27:20] look out man because I'm gonna tell you they're gonna be like several teams

[00:27:25] that are gonna pounce on that guy because of the remarkable job that he

[00:27:29] did in Denver providing a championship and then now

[00:27:34] also with the Minnesota Timberwolves

[00:27:37] with the ascension they they've been on the last couple years

[00:27:41] that has now culminated in a western conference finals

[00:27:45] they lost but great ending to the year right Minnesota has made

[00:27:52] tremendous strides everything is on the up and up with them

[00:27:56] and we're we're very excited for the future

[00:28:00] so who would not want Tim Connolly as a player personnel exec just food

[00:28:07] for thought for the Minnesota fans out there so Wolves back

[00:28:11] love y'all you know I got love for you but

[00:28:15] that's something that you guys gotta take care of

[00:28:19] uh let's get into the other thing that we have to talk about

[00:28:25] um I for a long period of time have been sitting in Los Angeles

[00:28:38] and and watching the two franchise go back and forth and this is not about

[00:28:43] the Lakers right now this is more about the Clippers

[00:28:47] and the reason why I bring this up is because

[00:28:50] um the deal back in 2019 to bring Paul George here and that also

[00:28:57] basically locked in Kawhi Leonard to the Clippers it was it was

[00:29:02] looked upon as groundbreaking it was looked upon as

[00:29:06] you know a real inflection point in the league and how this was going to shift

[00:29:10] the power in the league etc etc etc

[00:29:16] now I'm not going to bore you with the five years of what has gone on

[00:29:21] because I think it's well documented but I do have

[00:29:25] a couple more questions that I need to have answered

[00:29:29] so um I now have it on great authority that Kawhi Leonard has his

[00:29:36] own doctors and his own physical therapy

[00:29:40] right we knew this from the beginning or whatever

[00:29:44] now those people for some reason don't report

[00:29:47] to the Clippers uh we also have on great authority that

[00:29:55] Kawhi has relatives that are on staff with the Clippers

[00:30:01] okay now when you're a megastar when you've done some things in the

[00:30:05] NBA when you are a all-world defender you're coming off a championship reign

[00:30:11] you know you're leaving Toronto and everything yeah

[00:30:15] you get these certain perks in your deal

[00:30:23] now um the other thing that we we know for a fact

[00:30:30] that Kawhi Leonard does not adhere to his uh

[00:30:35] his team's or his franchise's uh physical therapy regimen to keep the knee

[00:30:41] healthy so he can stay on the court

[00:30:45] that's been the biggest thing with Kawhi this whole time

[00:30:49] um we're not gonna rehash it because we've talked about it

[00:30:53] so many times but everybody knows that

[00:30:56] he's not available a lot you know I mean just comes down to that

[00:31:01] and then here's my question there's this two

[00:31:04] two main questions to this um why even have Jerry West as in

[00:31:11] consulted at this point allow him if if for some

[00:31:16] reason it can be worked out he can get back to the Lakers and

[00:31:19] help them out because they need the help and and

[00:31:22] they're probably looking for the help honestly

[00:31:26] um if you're not going to use them why bother

[00:31:32] I mean I know Steve Ballmer has a lot of money it doesn't matter

[00:31:35] to him but there's no way in hell that Jerry West

[00:31:43] at 86 years of age as a consultant of the Clippers

[00:31:48] is sitting there going like I am cool with all of what's going on with

[00:31:52] Kawhi Leonard matter of fact I think he is the opposite of cool

[00:31:59] with all of this I think he is absolutely

[00:32:03] incensed by the to me personally I wouldn't say lack of

[00:32:11] professionalism it just seems like there are some

[00:32:16] social cues that are missed by Kawhi Leonard and I don't understand

[00:32:21] why is it hard to communicate with your franchise who is

[00:32:29] paying you a lot of money a lot of guaranteed money because

[00:32:34] see that's the whole thing I can

[00:32:38] I can be dismayed with LeBron being the number one option on the Lakers

[00:32:42] but the one thing that I can that I can count on is that yeah

[00:32:47] there's going to be some entry stuff along the way with him but he's

[00:32:51] 39 and he's put it on the line for several years

[00:32:57] and if he can get out there he will case in point not this year the year

[00:33:04] prior his foot he had a ruptured tendon

[00:33:10] in his foot in that Denver series now he won't tell you that the

[00:33:19] Lakers won't tell you that but I will tell you that

[00:33:24] that is why he went to the Michael Jordan of foot doctors or whatever the

[00:33:28] hell he was

[00:33:31] and then he disappeared to Europe and he came back and that dude

[00:33:38] looked faster stronger you know whatever I don't know I don't know

[00:33:44] what they do in Germany bro I have no idea zero clue but my

[00:33:49] man's foot looked good you know and he keeps on playing

[00:33:54] Kawhi it's always a mystery it's always Uncle Dennis it's always

[00:34:00] these two-week hiatus that no one knows where you are

[00:34:05] it's always these things and my whole point is

[00:34:10] again how is it that Jerry West is a consultant with the

[00:34:16] Clippers there's no way there's no way he's looking at this and

[00:34:22] going this is just the price of doing business

[00:34:27] with superstars now there's no way and then the other thing is

[00:34:34] if you're Paul George and you saw Kawhi Leonard take less money

[00:34:39] and also not alert you to the situation

[00:34:43] and then now is expecting you as his number two

[00:34:47] to now also in a sense take less money

[00:34:52] do you want to sign up for three more years or four more years of

[00:34:57] you don't know if your Batman is going to be there

[00:35:01] to your Robin Paul George has taken a lot of crap

[00:35:07] for some things said sometimes you know just

[00:35:11] self-inflation of ego or whatever he did redeem himself in the playoffs a

[00:35:16] couple years ago play well this last playoffs but you know

[00:35:20] they just didn't have the weapons so i mean for him i just don't know if

[00:35:25] this is something that he would want to do

[00:35:27] anymore i can't fathom it personally and i think it's a real chance

[00:35:35] that Paul George is either making way much more money than Kawhi Leonard

[00:35:41] and he stays a clipper or he's gone and i'll be really interested to see

[00:35:49] where Paul George ends up i want to talk a little Trey Young

[00:35:55] because oh before i get to the Trey Young thing i want to get to

[00:35:59] the Pistons we reported on this podcast or didn't report

[00:36:04] sources Shams Wodes talked about Trey Jen Langdon

[00:36:08] of the New Orleans Pelicans going Detroit

[00:36:11] and we thought that this was going to be

[00:36:15] the signal of the end of Troy Weaver it was

[00:36:19] Troy Weaver is now let go in Detroit there is a gentleman by the name

[00:36:27] of Michael Blackstone who was a secondary

[00:36:32] exec in the Pelicans organization he looks like he's the front runner for

[00:36:37] the job he might actually have the job by now

[00:36:40] but he was a trusted assistant to Trey Jen Langdon in New Orleans so

[00:36:48] that's the first part does Monty Williams keep his job

[00:36:53] we'll see now remember Monty was in New Orleans but now he wasn't part of

[00:36:59] that now Trey Jen Langdon was there i

[00:37:02] think yes he was there when Monty was there

[00:37:05] so i don't know how that relationship still flows

[00:37:09] but he does have autonomy to also let go of Monty Williams if that's what he

[00:37:15] wants to do and by all this account i would kind

[00:37:19] of guess that now they might hold on to Monty for

[00:37:24] one more year just because maybe the candidates aren't to the

[00:37:28] liking of you know of Trey Jen but we'll see how it all plays out

[00:37:35] i am really interested to see if Gore swallows the rest of uh

[00:37:44] Monty Williams contract i just heard that in my head and i'm gonna go ahead

[00:37:50] and say pun not intended but okay i know you got it you

[00:37:54] sickos out there sometimes the sophomore humor i get it i

[00:37:59] understand sometimes things are funny i got it

[00:38:03] um the other thing that i want to kind of alert people too is this

[00:38:08] is that um uh there's reporting that Shams and also

[00:38:12] Wold you're talking about that uh Isaiah Hardenstein is going to

[00:38:17] receive in upwards of 80 to 100 million dollars

[00:38:21] for his next contract i think we spoke about this uh

[00:38:26] probably two weeks ago in regards to what

[00:38:29] do the Knicks do can they hold 40 million dollars a center

[00:38:34] or whatever um due to the new climate of the cva and knowing what the second

[00:38:41] apron looks like and how punitive it is

[00:38:44] that might be a avenue to decide which one you want to go with

[00:38:50] do you get more bang for your buck with Mitchell Robertson

[00:38:53] or do you continue with the uh the great story that is Isaiah

[00:38:59] Hardenstein and then maybe try to come up with a uh

[00:39:03] a more inexpensive or even get somebody out of the drought

[00:39:07] a more inexpensive way of backing up Isaiah Hardenstein

[00:39:12] and maybe repurposing Mitchell Robinson to kind of build up

[00:39:17] maybe other areas of your team that uh have some uh deficiencies

[00:39:24] there are a lot of ways of going there the only reason we bring it up

[00:39:27] is because of the fact that that team was

[00:39:30] uh really good it was never whole throughout the playoffs it really

[00:39:35] wasn't whole since January and I would love to see the Knicks

[00:39:42] complete you know OG full training camp Randall

[00:39:47] healthy Hardenstein there the Nova connection

[00:39:52] doing their thing and uh Amrop doing his thing I would really like to see

[00:39:58] that team collectively all together before any changes were made but I

[00:40:05] don't know if we will get that opportunity

[00:40:08] and uh if you're a Knicks fan hit me up what do you think about

[00:40:12] this what do you think about your chances of keeping Isaiah Hardenstein

[00:40:17] do you believe Hardenstein stays Amrop goes or Hardenstein

[00:40:25] is a is a cap casualty and you're gonna try to do some sort of sign and trade

[00:40:30] and repurpose him instead of Mitchell Robinson

[00:40:35] so hit me up on Twitter or access you like to call it

[00:40:39] at frontrunnerpc we have one more thing to get to

[00:40:46] and I saved it for last um it's Laker related but it's really not

[00:40:51] Laker related but I've had somebody ask me what my deal is

[00:40:56] with uh Trey Young and when it comes to

[00:41:00] the Lakers and why I wouldn't want Trey Young

[00:41:03] on the Lakers or whatever the case may be because he's an extremely

[00:41:08] talented player um he's very exciting um he has that explosivity that I

[00:41:14] was talking about when I was talking about

[00:41:16] Donovan Mitchell that he can just break out for 50

[00:41:20] whenever he can't you know whatever he wants it if the field if the mood hits

[00:41:24] him he can do it right my main problem with Trey Young

[00:41:31] is it's not well it there is a little him

[00:41:37] we'll get to that three main things one Trey Young

[00:41:43] is small right this is there's no way around that

[00:41:47] okay now if you're going to have Trey Young as a centerpiece of

[00:41:53] your offense you need to build a team around him

[00:41:56] that is defensive minded all the way through and through

[00:42:00] you can't have any weak links on your defense

[00:42:03] now if you look at the Lakers right um that's going to be a problem because

[00:42:10] Austin Reeves was getting picked on you know uh I think he'll get better

[00:42:16] he's not a civ defensively he's he's more he's

[00:42:20] I think he's basically neutral you know maybe

[00:42:23] slightly net negative but he holds his own he tries real hard he knows exactly

[00:42:29] where to be he's just not a stopper so you got to

[00:42:34] have a stopper at that two guard position or the

[00:42:38] other guard however you want to call it

[00:42:40] and you don't then you move to the wings

[00:42:44] and then to the big right you got to have long

[00:42:47] defensive active wings who are really good in pick and roll defense

[00:42:53] being able to stop pick and roll or being able to kind of you know

[00:43:01] adjust the time of the pick and roll for the team where it kind of just

[00:43:05] makes it a little more uncomfortable right and then the other thing those

[00:43:11] dudes need to do is shoot those dudes can't just be

[00:43:15] defense they need to be knocked down shooters

[00:43:17] and then your big has to be just a just a glass eater

[00:43:21] and he also needs to be absolutely just a

[00:43:25] windshield wiper when it comes to blocking shots

[00:43:29] and that's the type of team that you need to build around Trey Young

[00:43:33] to really have any chance to win in the NBA

[00:43:37] and I just think with the pieces of LeBron and AD it just doesn't match

[00:43:41] up now could it be extremely exciting

[00:43:44] yes could they offensively really keep up with teams

[00:43:48] 100% but in those games that are close Trey Young is going to get picked on and

[00:43:55] if you don't have the right defenders around him

[00:43:58] and unfortunately it'd be a hard ask for a 40 year old LeBron James to

[00:44:08] expend a ton of energy on the defensive side

[00:44:13] if you're asking him to close games for you

[00:44:16] and when it matters most so that's my take on that now here's the other

[00:44:21] thing with the Trey Young deal his inability to get off ball

[00:44:27] LeBron James is the de facto point guard of the team well they'll say

[00:44:31] well Trey Young with his bag is going to be

[00:44:34] the point guard of this team are you guys watching

[00:44:38] basketball like I'm not trying to offend anybody

[00:44:42] I really not but what I'm asking is that

[00:44:46] LeBron James has been in this league for 20 plus years

[00:44:49] he has been in what 10 finals LeBron James

[00:44:57] is one of the great thinkers of this game

[00:45:00] now mind you his bag package might be woefully subservient to

[00:45:09] Trey Young's miraculous skill set when it comes to handling the

[00:45:14] basketball but the other thing that goes along

[00:45:17] with handling the basketball is knowing time and space and

[00:45:23] knowing what to do has your guy in the post touched it

[00:45:27] for two minutes these are all things that LeBron is

[00:45:31] processing at a high rate every single time down the court

[00:45:37] Trey Young seems not to be bothered by these things

[00:45:41] he's looking to get his offense going then that creates everybody else's

[00:45:47] offense but if you're standing around for like

[00:45:53] I don't know 20 minutes of actual time and you haven't touched the ball

[00:46:01] might have lapsed in concentration you might just be so surprised you

[00:46:06] got the ball like damn I got it I don't even know

[00:46:10] what to do with it now I haven't seen it in you know

[00:46:13] three days and then the other thing what that is

[00:46:17] is that by not allowing his teammates to

[00:46:20] participate in because he's he's not willing to get

[00:46:24] off ball it's not fun to play with Trey so

[00:46:30] the extra efforts that you need your defense to do when you have a

[00:46:35] dominion to point guard is one of those situations where

[00:46:39] those guys got to be feel included those guys have to feel like hey

[00:46:44] I yeah I break my ass on the defense side of the ball but I know

[00:46:50] if I'm streaking down the court you know Trey gonna hit me so I can

[00:46:55] go ahead get this bucket you know oh I'm gonna touch the ball

[00:46:58] I'm gonna do this right and if you're not having that type

[00:47:02] of synergy it's gonna be really hard for an NBA

[00:47:08] player to just give you this max effort

[00:47:12] on the defensive side of the ball and maybe there's a little

[00:47:16] tad of jealousy there right it's like well

[00:47:19] okay since you're so great offensively

[00:47:23] let's see how phenomenal you can be on the defense side of the ball

[00:47:27] where we're not giving like that oh that

[00:47:31] immediate help that Johnny on the spot like we got you don't it was a

[00:47:38] different day and age but Allen Iverson

[00:47:42] those guys in the 2001 series they went to war for Allen

[00:47:50] Allen Iverson was great he was a little guard just like Trey

[00:47:56] super skills but for some reason they loved Allen Iverson

[00:48:03] and they went to war for that guy Trey needs to find that if he found

[00:48:10] that if he found that piece Trey can be

[00:48:14] successful in this league but it's going to be up to Trey

[00:48:18] Young and what changes he makes and he

[00:48:23] can look at the man in the mirror and see

[00:48:25] what he wants to do with his situation but I'm telling you right now there's

[00:48:32] not a huge market for Trey that's the reason why I'm so out on

[00:48:36] Trey being with the Lakers so if people I've had people ask

[00:48:41] that's the reason why I don't think it's a great fit

[00:48:44] you understand why with the kind of some of the

[00:48:49] he's still young you know maybe the light bulb turns on he gets it

[00:48:54] completely but for him to be a really effective

[00:48:58] leader and to lead men he is going to have to

[00:49:01] change his ways and ingratiate himself to the his

[00:49:05] teammates so they will want to do more for him

[00:49:09] and that's the bottom line when it comes to that all right

[00:49:13] I think we are done here again I want to thank

[00:49:16] everybody especially Kenya, Ghana, the Congo I mean again

[00:49:23] it's been impressive the numbers that you guys have been putting in

[00:49:28] you know downloading the podcast so again thank you

[00:49:32] so much again be a friend tell a friend

[00:49:37] that credo still moves on that mantra for this podcast still moves on

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[00:49:49] frontrunner podcast collective make sure we're commenting

[00:49:53] I answer all those comments at this present time

[00:49:58] and again we want to leave you with this on this podcast like this

[00:50:03] the best part of you is you let all the people who surround you

[00:50:09] brighten your light and if you have people in your group that extinguish

[00:50:15] your light you might want to have a talk with them

[00:50:18] go out there and do good in the world this week and I'll see you back on

[00:50:22] this feed on Wednesday deuce