Ja Morant’s Joy, Memphis Malaise, And The Central’s Rise

Summary:

The box score says one thing; the body language tells the real story. We open with Ja Morant’s return and ask the hard question: where does joy come from when the defense dares you to shoot? It’s not in quotes. It’s in reps, spacing, and the kind of leadership that makes teammates’ jobs easier. From there, we map the teams actually building something sturdy—and the ones still talking about it.

Chicago looks organized in a way that travels. Josh Giddey’s jumper is finally respected, Vucevic is bending coverages with ruthless efficiency, and Buzelis is a plug-and-play wing who brings edge on both ends. Simple reads, quick decisions, and a bench that hits in waves turn a hot start into a blueprint. Milwaukee trades some defensive certainty for offensive inevitability by putting the ball in Giannis’ hands and surrounding him with real shooting. AJ Green bangs threes, Ryan Rollins connects dots, and Miles Turner patrols the airspace. One leaky lineup is a film session, not a fatal flaw—because inevitability scales.

Detroit shows what composure looks like at closing time. Cade Cunningham’s fourth-quarter map against Memphis is proof-of-concept: control the clock, trust the reads, slam the door. Duren’s vertical gravity and a top-five defense give this group a floor, while wings keep the weak side honest. And Cleveland? Call it clunky growth with purpose. Injuries forced awkwardness, but Mobley’s usage spike and Lonzo’s defense laid a sturdier base. With Garland set to return, paint touches and pace should right the shot diet and calm Donovan Mitchell’s load.

We also check in on Brooklyn’s shot-hunting drama—Cam Thomas and MPJ chasing numbers while rookies wait for oxygen—and what that teaches about development versus dopamine. If you care about leadership, shot profiles, and systems that actually win, this one is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves real hoops talk, and drop a review to tell us which team’s trajectory you trust most.

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Transcript

Blog Companion And How To Read Along

Ja Morant Returns Without Joy

The Grizzlies’ Numbers And A Call For Leadership

Shooting, Spacing, And Memphis Anxiety

Monthly Watch: Brooklyn’s Shot Diet Drama

Cam Thomas Vs MPJ And Rookie Freeze-Out

SPEAKER_00 0:13

What's good everybody? Welcome to Frontrunner Podcast Collective, where we talk as friends, argue like cousins, and somehow leave still leave smarter. I am your humble host Vince, and sometimes I am your occasional therapist, your favorite bad influence. And we here at Frontrunner Podcast Collective, we unpack the wins, the mess, and the middle ground with jokes, receipts, and maybe a hot take that ages badly. I am not alone. I am with Saraya. Saraya is our silent assassin producer who will be dropping notes, reminders, and the occasional gym to keep everybody honest, and maybe make us better people in the process. So we gotta get into this thing. But before we do, I want to commend all of the audience members of this podcast. You guys are doing an excellent job. Looked at the numbers last night, and it's amazing the growth and how people continue to find us. We are growing not just domestically, we're also growing internationally. We are in Germany heavy, uh Argentina, Bolivia of all places, obviously, United States of America blown up. Actually, the funny part about it is a city that does not have a basketball team has jumped up in the ranks. St. Louis, Missouri has jumped up in the ranks, and we have really put the pedal to the metal, and I couldn't be more uh humbled by the interest in our podcast and the way that people are receiving it. And if you are new here, welcome to the podcast, welcome to the fun, the frivolity, the information, the stats, and hopefully, you will have a lot to talk about with your friends after you get done with this podcast. Now, also, another piece of information for everybody to know is that we have a blog that goes along with the podcast, and we've been trying to promote this, but I also want to make it easier on people for two reasons. One, if for some reason, and I am trying to get better at this, I want to speak more clearly and slower and more relaxed, but we have a blog that goes along with the pod, it is on frpc dot beam, so b-e-a-m.ly, and then you go to the blog section, and the first blog will accompany the latest podcast. That's how it works, that's how we do it, and usually there is a stat or two that does not end up in the podcast, or there is a observation, there's observations or what have you that did not end up in the podcast. So I would thoroughly uh suggest that you also get with the blog as well. It's a good read-along piece with the podcast. So if you like homework, if you like to uh just stay abreast of what's going on with us, that's a good way of doing it. So I recommend that entirely. So, what we're gonna be talking about today, more job morant news. I can't believe it that we're still talking about this. I have a a segment that I am reintroducing, but we're gonna do it monthly. Something that we talked about probably more in the summertime. Probably haven't talked. I we I know we talked about it on the preview pod in regards to Brooklyn, but I can't wait to talk about that, and then we're gonna get into the central division. We're bringing back divisions and talking about the teams that are worthy of conversation and what they're doing lately and how they're looking. So we have a stack pod today. So bear with us and also get your coffee, get your snacks ready, because we are in for a ride. So let's start with the John Morant news, and basically, so John Morant is back from suspension. He had a press conference after the Detroit Pistons game, which was a loss. What I will say about that, it looks like he left his joy at TSA. So two weeks into the season, instead of highlight reels, and we got a post-game sub-tweets and a coach named Thomas I Solo trying to not blink into the camera. The box score reads for John Moran 18 points, 10 assists, and 5 rebounds, and you would sit there and go, you know what? That's a that's a pretty good game for somebody bouncing back after a suspension. But it wasn't what happened on the court, and that's the funny part with Ja. It's never the thing that's on the court. It's never that thing where you sit there and you go, Man, he he has such an athletic profile, and he dunked on somebody, and he made somebody fall and break their ankles or whatever. It's all the stuff off the court. The body language that said, I'm here so I don't get fined. What he hit the interview at his locker. Saraya says this Jason Jones of the Athletic had the piece, Ja came back from a one-game suspension, was asked if things were resolved. He hit reporters with, yeah, they told you all that, right? He's not just playing without joy, he's playing without conviction. Here are the things that we need to know about Ja. And the reason why I say this is you're gonna probably hear a little bit of frustration in my voice, and and I'll get to it towards the end. But let me just read you off some numbers. This is Ja right now, field goal percentage 39.3%, three point percentage field goal percentage, right? 13.9%, his assist rate still elite at 40.3%, his true shooting percentage is barely over 50%. That's a drop from last year to 56%. The Memphis Grizzlies right now are 3-5, they're 25th in net rating, 24th both in offense and defense. They're not a good team right now. I mean, that's what it comes down to. Now you can discuss the injuries, and we will. You know, I want to make sure that we have a panoramic picture of what's going on in Memphis. Brandon Clark is out with a knee, Zach Edy is out with an ankle, Ty Jerome is out with a with a bad calf strain, and Scottie Pippen Jr. is out with a toe. So Jay's uh isolation bursts have turned into half court traffic jams. The lane the lane is absolutely clogged, and because nobody respects his jumper, this is where we are, and we'll get to that point. I mean, we already talked about him shooting 13.9% from three. That's kind of a telltale sign of what is actually going on. I'm gonna say this because I like I said I there is some frustration, and I want to I want to make sure that I say this, and I'm not trying to throw shade at Ja. Because I actually really like Ja. I like the way he plays because he reminds me so much of a player that we all respect, and that's Al Alan Iverson. So I'm just gonna say this playing with swag is not the same as and for a while Ja was a league's avatar of joy that bounce, that grin, that I'm next, he was Iverson without the cornrows energy for sure. But lately that smile has looked taxed. We live in a mean culture and everybody is chasing that viral moment, and I thought Ja would be the one cat too original to copy, but there he was quoting Jimmy Butler, old escape line from Miami. Think about that. We just did this with Jimmy Butler, trying to sound deep, sounding instead like a rerun. This isn't about hate, this is more about return on investment. Memphis gave him the keys to the kingdom, the commercials came, the shoe deal from Nike still stood after his gun situation with the league, and the soundtrack. Now it's time for job to give. Try to give something back to Memphis. Discipline, leadership, hell, just some consistent joy. You're the leader of the team, my guy. You know what I'm saying? Like you're the leader. Yes, I understand that you got a lot of soldiers down at this point in time, but that's when the leader must step up and look at his troops and go, hey, no matter what, no matter how tough it gets, I'm here with you, and we're gonna go down fighting, um, and we're gonna we're gonna stay in the fight. And that's period in the story. And I wanna I want to mention something after this, after we get done talking about Ja. Stat-wise, again, the red flags are so aren't subtle. The three-point shooting is absolutely abysmal. He's never been a really good three-point shooter, but it's now hit a level where and listen, he's gonna shoot better than this. He's not 13.9 type of dude. Now, is he a low 30s type of guy? For sure, but he is not a 13.9 three-point shooter. That is for like the old school power forwards that used to roam the land in the NBA. The team is flat out sitting in the paint. His pick and roll frequency at 54% is the actual fine. You know, you gotta find partners, willing partners, to do that with. Jared Jackson Jr. isn't the pick and roll type of guy, he is a pick and pop type of guy. He's also let me go ahead and be a second-side initiator, let me attack the defense that way. And now you stretch that corner, everything collapses. Now compare this to Josh Giddy, who went into the lab and came out shooting 35% from three. That's growth, you know, that's what you want from your leader. Josh still trying to dunk his way out of a scheme. And it's all well and good when you had Desmond Bang. It's all well and good when you have all the shooters around you, and you had the backup guard in Tyus Jones, who used to be the best backup point guard in the league, but you don't have that anymore. And you got a lot of, like I said, you got a lot of troops down right now. So they need you. Let me say what Memphis won't. They're nervous because once the franchise starts answering relationship questions in November, you're already flirting with a trade rumor season. Zach Kleiman built this team around Ja, and now he has nothing but disruption and chaos and unwanted eyes on his team. The Grizzlies' offensive rating of 113.1 and their defensive rating of 117.8 tell you all of what you need to know about the vibes in Memphis right now. The mismatch, the mid, the meandering. If they don't fix it soon, you'll start hearing fake, serious trade packages on ESPN with future flexibility in the headline. And that would be tragic because the Ja Jackson window was real. Triple J is trying to be the grown-up in the room. You don't have Marcus Smart to kind of quell whatever else is going on in the room. He's a Laker, and that's gonna bring me to my point momentarily. And this group looks like a project waiting to happen, looking for a leader to show up. And then you got the Memphis fans. They still ride for Ja. But loyalty is a two-way street, and that's the one thing that I want to kind of get to Ja is that it is a two-way street. And when he said maybe I shouldn't even have been on the floor after the Lakers game, that wasn't leadership. That was a live mic therapy session. Look, I've been saying this for a minute. You can't talk about getting your joy back when you never worked on your game. And I want to say that in the most respectful way possible. His outside shooting has been an issue not just for this year, it's been an issue for four years. Because, you know, the first couple years you kind of sit there and you go, hey, he's a young guy, he's gonna try to figure it out, and as he gets stronger, and as he starts to understand, you know, the NBA three-point line, he will find his spots on the court, he'll start nailing these shots. Well, we're now in year like six, okay, and remember he was the number two overall pick in the night in the 2019 draft. It's just not happening. You want the lane to be unclogged, hit threes. You want your coach to stop overmanaging you, hit 38% from deep. The joy comes when defenses can't game plan for for you out of the gym. And let's not act like it's all tragedy. This dude is still 20.4 points a game. He's still 7.1 assists a game. He has a PER that is uh 16.5. Even in this whatever you want to call this, this morose funk that he's in, this can still be fixed, but not until he stops thinking the answers are in the post-game quotes instead of in the off-season and in practice grind. If this dude wants to get better, this dude wants to go ahead and be the star that we all know that he can be, because he's electrified us. He has made our jaws drop, he has brought us to social media and said, Yo, did you see what John just did? Did you see him cock it back behind his head and dunk over that seven foot three ogre? He has been a fearless warrior for a long period of time, but now whatever that warrior mentality was has seemed to left him, and he is struggling to get it back, and until he looks inward, this is where Memphis is going to be. Memphis has built their identity on grit and grind, then they upgraded to grit and glide. Right now, they got neither. If job is to blend those and find the balance between flare and floor balance, the Grizzlies can cry back into the Western Conference mix. But, and this is a a real butt, this is a legitimate, but you gotta keep your emotions and you gotta dictate your efficiency. Oklahoma City ain't gonna come back to the pack. Okay? They're not. What they're gonna do if you don't get this together is they're gonna lap you twice before all-star weekend. So this here's my challenge to Ja. Get your joy back through work, not through words. The league has already moved past the highlight reel. Now it's about leadership, longevity, and hitting a damn corner three. Appreciate the people out loud, and remember, the loudest thing you can say in the league is winning. This all goes away if you start winning, dude. We are not sitting here critiquing John Morant for his ability, we're critiquing John Morant for his work ethic and what he has known to need improvement on for multiple years and still has not done it. When you look at some of the greats, when you look at some of these guys who have made leaps and whatever the case may be, you know, we had just did a whole thing on like Austin Reeves and who and what he is, and listen, John Moran is way more talented than Austin Reeves. Let me get that straight right away. But who's a better player right now? Who would you take on your team right now? Probably take Austin Reeves. And that's the thing that I want to get to before we close this Memphis thing out. So you want to talk about leadership? We want to talk about winning, you want to talk about getting things done. The Lakers went into Portland last night. And we're not going to talk a lot about the Lakers because I know everybody's sitting here like Vince, dude. We get it, you're a Lakers fan. But they went into Portland last night, no Luca, still LeBron not playing, and Austin Reeves sat on the bench. Marcus Smart, DeAndre Ayton, Rui Hachamura, and Nick Smith Jr. led the Lakers to a win in Portland, 123 to 115. And this isn't yo your brothers Portland Trailblazers. This Trailblazers team has some fight and some bite in them. They just knocked off the Denver Nuggets uh the other night as well. So, and they also beat the Lakers like a week ago. And they were playing 94 feet of defense and everything like that. So to go into Portland and win a game shows the type of grit and the type of toughness that you hope that the Memphis Grizzlies would show with Ja Morant. So that's it about Memphis and Ja. So we're gonna move on to something that I want to do monthly. And the reason that I this is something that I've been following for a while, it's my own little curiosity in this situation, so you gotta indulge me a little bit. So Brooklyn, who's not a good team, right? We know that they're they're basically tanking for their pick. They have a nice little situation going on right now, which I want to kind of get to. Brooklyn's offense, it's not basketball, it's dodgeball with sneakers. You got Cam Thomas out here, and you got Michael Porter Jr. And they're launching like the rim owes them money. Serea says in the in the chat. If you can dodge a pass, you can dodge accountability. So if you haven't been like really locked into Brooklyn Nets basketball, let me kind of give you like the reader digest version of what's going on over there. You got Cam Thomas, who is on a restricted one-year free agency contract that they're for$8.6 million. They couldn't come to any type of agreement on what his actual worth was during the offseason. So he signed a one-year deal, which basically locks him into a no-trade situation with the Brooklyn Nets, so they can't get anything for him, and there's a good chance that he's gonna walk at the end of the year. So, why is that important? Two reasons. One, we all know what Cam Thomas has been since he got into the league. Cam Thomas is an absolute bucket. That is what he is. One of the things that was brought up during his draft process and people scouting him was that his inability or his lack of want to pass the ball. He's not looking for his teammates, he's looking for his shot. It has held true in his time in the league. He is a shooter. That's what he does. Now, last year he averaged 24 points a game, but if you look at his assist percentages and things of that nature and his usage, it goes back to the original scouting report on Cam Thomas. Hey, I am going to shoot the ball. You put other people on the court who have playmaking ability and can initialize the offense for the others, but what I do is score the basketball. Also, what happened in the off-season for the Brooklyn Nets? They traded Cam Johnson, so the other Cam, right? So they had Cam Thomas and Cam Johnson. Cam Johnson goes to the Denver Nuggets and Brooklyn receives Michael Porter Jr. Now, Michael Porter Jr. also when he came into the league, was uh I'm all shot, no offensive initiation type of dude. I am looking to get my shots up. And there was a time where we thought that Michael Porter Jr. would kind of implode the Nuggets because Malone Michael Malone, who is now the ex-coach of the Denver Nuggets, his first couple years with with Michael Porter Jr., I mean, he was trying to really relay to him that hey, just so you know, everything flows through Jokic. I mean, I know that sounds funny now because he's a three-time MVP, but our guy, Michael Porter Jr. is going to lead like six, seven years now, right? Even though he's still so young. So you have a guy who until they start basically really winning and getting very that this is a serious team, like competitive as far as a Western Conference Finals and NBA finals type of team. There was legit thought in Michael Porter Jr.'s head that we would be better off if I was a number one option. Okay. So that's the picture. Now Michael Porter Jr. is in Brooklyn with our guy, Cam Thomas. So you know what's gonna happen, right? You got Cam Thomas wanting to prove that he's more of a more than a microwave score. You got Michael Porter Jr. fighting to prove that he's not just a Jokic sidekick, and then you got the front office quietly betting on chaos and disruption as a developmental tool. Saraya says it's not a system, it's a shootout in disguise. She is right on that. So who is going to take the most shots? Okay, so here's the tell of the take. Our guy Cam Thomas right now is averaging 31 minutes, and he's averaging 17.7 shots a game. Okay, 24.3 points a night. Michael Porter Jr. 32 minutes, 18 shots a night. He's averaging 20.8 points a game, cleaner percentages, efficient, yes. Cooperative never met her. Brooklyn runs ISO like it's a tax deduction. It's like two actors fighting over the same close-up. Cam's auditioning for future buckets, and Michael Porter Jr. is auditioning for redemption. The script is good, the direction is non-existent. And then the core rookies. So they so Brooklyn drafted five rookies. Uh Baron Seraph, uh Egor, Dead Denham, uh Danny Wolf, Drake Powell, and I'm trying to remember the last one. Here's the deal. Let me get that up while I try to figure this out. If you talked about all those guys, and you said, hey, what do those guys do? Well, most of them, most of those guys that are on the nets that were drafted. Nolan Trayori. Okay, so now we got that set. So Nolan Treori, Igor Denim, Danny Wolf, Drake Powell, they're all here, Ben Serif, right? They're all here to provide offensive initiation. That was their they they all kind of registered as connectors in the draft process, in the scouting process. What they were going to have to develop is okay, where's their offense coming from? How do they get into you know their own bag and whatever the case may be to develop their uh whatever their offensive prowess is gonna be. Well, that is all suspended right now. That is for next year. Because this year, I don't know how they're gonna get the ball. I wonder how many times those guys wake up in a cold sweat hearing Cam Thomas clap for the ball and Michael Porter Jr. going, hey, I'm here open. Just wonder about that whole situation. This isn't a rebuild, it's an internal power struggle. The front office development, locker room, here's rotation auditions. It's not a rebuilding, it's a resume building situation. Cam's minutes are a statement, MPJ's minutes are insurance. The rookies are graded on compliance right now, and it it just it boggles my mind. It just it just boggles it for sure. So let's get more into this. Oh, so Cam's usage right now is 32%. That's kind of where it's been. His effective field goal percentage is 0.480.

unknown 27:18

Uh-huh.

Central Division Snapshot Plan

Bulls Identity Check And Hot Start

Giddy’s Leap, Vooch’s Efficiency, And Bench Waves

What Chicago’s Build Signals Next

Bucks Offense Hums, Defense Wobbles

Giannis As Point Engine And The New Spacing

Milwaukee’s Red Flags And Rotation Questions

Detroit’s Composure And Cade’s Closer Case

Pistons’ Defense, Duren’s Leap, And Role Players

Cleveland’s Clunky Growth And Injuries

Garland’s Return, Mobley’s Expansion, And Fit

Closing Gratitude And Blog Reminder

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Michael Porter Jr.'s now and and this is actually high. 27% usage. His effective field goal percentage is 54.2%. They they combine for 18% 18 as far as assist percentage, 18%. That is not synergy, that's solo cues. Efficiency without trust is just cardio with better optics. When these two stars pass less than your backup center, that's not ball movement. That's a polite warfare that is going on between those two. So again, you know, we got numbers to back this up. This is something that I've been tracking all year. This is something that I'm gonna continue to track for you. It is the war going in going on inside Brooklyn, and sometimes you talk about Brooklyn just being a hard place, or whatever the case may be. Brooklyn, yo, inside that uh inside that arena is where the warfare is going on. I don't even know what to say anymore. Uh if you remember the dodgeball ending where your average Joe's wins by being themselves right now, Brooklyn is trying to be both Joe's and Global Jim. Every big rebuild starts with humble egos by the purple uniforms, you know what I'm saying? I understand where Cam is coming from. He didn't get paid, so now he has to make sure that he can go ahead and get these shots up. And I understand that Michael Porter Jr. is looking for validation, but you gotta think about the kids. You gotta think about the kids that are not getting developed because you guys are in this, like, who in this shot war that you guys are in. Like Saraya said, it's a call it a dramedy of usage, and the punchline is the box score. Well said. So, Nets fans, what do you want more? Growth or entertainment, chaos or dis or chemistry or disruption? I don't know. Personally, I've been check checking on this all year. The shot charts are amazing. I love it, and I can't wait till next month to see where we are. Now, let's get to what else is going on in the league. We are going to transition to the central division, and the reason why we're doing this is because it's something that we did last year. We would take a division, we look at it, we take a snapshot, tell you we're All the teams were tell you what the maybe what the front office were thinking. We tried to give you the biggest story of what was going on within every team as we did this snapshot. Um we are going to do it again, and we are going to start in the Windy City. We are going to start in Chicago, Illinois. And I want to say this right now. This is not the baby bulls, nor is it the D. Rose and Yoakim, Yoke, Yoakim, uh the Noah. This is not D. Rose and Joakim. This is not even the Zach Levine era. It is 2025. And the Bulls opened up 5 and 0 for the first time since the Jordan days. Then they took a split in MSG to sit 5-1. Isn't a star worship. It's a system. Running, cutting, everybody eats. They had a 37-point second quarter. We got eight threes, one turnover. This is not luck. The tempo is being set with a syllabus. Josh Giddy is out here. The secret is simple. Confidence, belonging, and trust. Chicago plays like uh plays the half-court office. It's just transition with paperwork. They don't bully you, they erase you. In three possessions, and when the New York Knicks punch back with 20 made threes, the Bulls answered with pace, depth, and even seven seven turnovers total in a game. We're not crowning anyone after six games for sure, okay? But we're clocking the identity of the bulls. The United Centers finally has a game plan that sells out on both ends of the court, even if the defense is still filing for an upgrade. They're running you into decisions, it's not just layups. Let's talk about some of the particulars. Josh Giddy right got his contract. He says, I got my contract, it's off my back. I want it, I'm happy. He also has role clarity, his count stats prove it. If it holds up, rating spike for show. But credit to Artoris Kernishevis, credit to the type of team that he wanted to build. Because here's the thing, he made some tough decisions over the last couple years. And what I mean by that is that he gave up Zach Levine for almost nothing. And you could sit there and go, well, why did he do that? And whatever. And then a couple years back, actually, yeah, we're yeah, DeMar DeRozan was also let go, went to Sacramento. They also traded Alex Caruso for Josh Giddy. And at the time, I was so bent out of shape about them not getting a first-round pick back from OKC. I still, to this day, don't understand that part of it, but the proof is in the pudding at this point. You can talk to me about, you know, this team has been middling for a long period of time, and I'm not telling you that this 5-1 start is the start of something super special in Chicago. Hell, they might end up right around 500 or whatever the case may be again. But the thing that you have to respect is that you knew you weren't going anywhere with Zach Levine on the team, and we'll get into that a little bit later. And they made room for the young guys to be able to develop at a rate and also get more um ownership of the team. And Billy Donovan, who's the head coach, finally has a squad that he could really kind of meld into what he really wants to see out there. So he is has a vision for what they are trying to do, and with that vision comes uh right now success. So the bench is averaging 40 49 points per game. Now we we do not know and we do not think that is going to continue, but that is a huge number if your bench is averaging 49 points a game. Kobe White is hurt right now. Uh Ayu Jesumu has an illness. Their status right now is up in the air. But keep in mind, Giddy is getting it done. And his usage to assist versus winning percentage, bench net rating, all good. The starting fight right now is Giddy, Trey Jones, or Koro, who they got in the Lonzo ball deal, Buzelis, who we love, and Nikola Vucevic, Bucci Main, doing his thing. The unit is slightly negative on the season. Scoring comes from the bench, avalanches, staggered lineups, and what have you. In the signature Knicks game, they answered OG's OG Ananobi's fifth three with a 13-3 run. They had Ayu DeSumo running downhill, Giddy's orchestration and Voot's paint and pop uh combination just bewildered the Knicks. They had 72 turnovers through first the first four. Seven versus the Knicks, and just two in the first half. That's a maturation process that's going on warp speed. And you will say, well, okay, what are some of the numbers, Vince? You know, you're telling me a lot, but you're not telling me everything. Giddy right now is averaging 22.2 points a game. He's averaging 9.2 rebounds and 8.7 8.7 assists. He's shooting 40.7% from through behind the three-point line. This is where we're talking about. Now remember Josh Giddy at OKC, he could not hit a three-pointer to save his life. One of the reasons why OKC was cool on moving on from him was like, hey, we need somebody who can play better defense, and we need somebody who can knock down a three. We just talked about John Morant. We just talked about his developmental arc and his inability to knock down a three. Josh Giddy saw that people were just backing up off of him, so he couldn't get into the paint because the lane was clogged because he was in there. And now he's shooting 40.7% from three. That's just letting you know. Complete ownership of the offense 100%. Now Vooch, now this is the greatest thing. I I love this because he's been blind since he got to Chicago. He's averaging 19.3 points a game. His true shooting percentage is 70.3%. And he's getting 2.3 three pointers made every game. So he's a floor spacing anchor. The old man's strength is right there. He looks young again. It's it's all working out. Trey Jones is shooting 60% from three, it albeit low volume, albeit early. His true shooting percentage is 63.3%. What we like about Trey Jones is just like his brother Tyus, he is connective tissue, he's a table setter, he's not a big like, I gotta get my shots. I gotta get, you know, I gotta get my 20 up, or I'm not happy. Now, the critical piece to this is the leap that Modus Buzelis has taken. You started to see it towards the end of the year, and sometimes you're always weary about the end of the year because you don't know if it's teams that are tanking and they're just allowing this dude to get off. You don't know if it was like teams low managing, resting people, getting ready for the playoffs, or whatever the case may be. It's real tricky to look at that march and go, hey, this dude is eating and he's eaten good. But he has crew it and backed it up with numbers like this. So Buzelis right now is averaging 15.7 points a game. He's also shooting 41.4% from the land of three. He is a plug-and-play wing with a quick trigger. He also will dunk on you. He also has like a junkyard junkyard dog mentality on the defensive end. He likes to block shots, he likes to be in the mix when it comes to like deflections and steals, and he's just nasty, and I love the way he plays, and he talks trash. So, all good things from me. And here's the thing that I also am really enamored with with Chicago. Kevin Herter, who was in Sacramento, and for some reason he just kind of fell apart. I don't know if it was confidence, I don't know if he was just injured and he just couldn't get right, but he's averaging a respectable 13 points a game. He also has a true shooting percentage of 60 65.1%. Liberated secondary creator. It's all the stuff that you saw in Atlanta, and you thought, man, now he's gonna be able to supercharge this with De'Aaron Fox in Sacramento, you know, and it just never material materialized, and now that whole backcourt is gone, and they got Chicago Bulls West out there, or old regime Chicago Bulls West out there. Oh, oh, we're also getting some we're getting some some contributions from Patrick Williams. Now, you know, if you listen to the show for any amount of time, I'm not the biggest Patrick William Williams fan at all. But uh plus 13 in 23 minutes at New York. He's a shape-shifting defender, uh, he's selective on the threes. He he's shooting it at a 44% clip right now, which I never thought he'd get to, but obviously that's on very low volume, so you gotta take that with a grain of salt. But you're getting something from Patrick Williams, and I will take something, you know, something compared to nothing. Because I honestly tell you the truth, I was hoping for Buzellas to make a leap, and then we could get out of the Patrick Williams business altogether, but you know, he's showing himself to be uh quite useful right now. The leadership and culture of this team right now is run together, rest together. Donovan's template of 14-second summer clock, conditioning, and this and decision speed is kind of the key ingredients of what is actually going on in Chicago right now. We knew who we had to be weeks before camp. Never seen a team this dramatically dynamic without a clear number one. They're getting it done. Giddy's quotes scream psychological safety, risk tolerance, daring passes, and also having a guy like Okoro step into a role, which is a he's a low usage stopper, his defensive block plus minus is ugly early, but assignment values free shooters. I'm trying to tell you, he gets the worst assignments, and he handles them very well, and all you're asking for him to do is like, hey, listen, all I need you to do is make him less efficient than he normally is. Now, again, we talked about bulls and thinking like, okay, this is this is fun, right? When you have a team profile like this where your offensive rating is 120 even, which is fifth in the league, and their defensive rating is 114.8, which is 14th in the league. Okay, it's okay, it's not great, but it's not terrible. Their net rating is uh positive 5.3, which is 7th in the league, and their pace is 101.4, which is also kind of middle of the road in the league. What you're seeing is development. What you're seeing is that, okay, Modus Guzelas has made a leap. Josh Giddy is shooting the three ball with a consistency and also with a the level of like, okay, you're gonna have to respect my three-ball now. And that is very important. It's the thing that is gonna unlock his drives, which also then unlocks the shooters, because if he gets into the lane and then he's spraying the ball out to the three line, and then you have a swing swing, you're gonna get a wide open shot. It's something that we always talk about here on Front Runner Podcast Collective, and I'm gonna say it for the first time, probably first time all year in the new season. When you share the sugar, when you share the sugar, it's always good. You know, that's what it is. So I'm good I'm big on what Chicago's doing, I'm big on the uh development that they have had with this team. Say what you want about Artoris Karnishevich. He is still packed and provided developmental continuity. There's a chance to upgrade the wing situation, mid-season. You're also getting back Kobe White. You're also gonna, you know, I you DeSumo has an illness, so you know that's a that's a unfortunate situation. Guzelis, this leap is real. We're we're good. But again, it's a hot start. Oconis three-point shooting is cold. The Knicks mook themselves, you know what I'm saying? And we still are looking for a number one option in Chicago. Now, I don't know if that comes by a trade, I don't know if that comes by a free agency, I don't know if that comes if we put three or four pieces together and we and we go out and get one. It all of what you're doing right now is you're building for the future, you're building for what this iteration of the bulls is, you're building a a culture, but you're also building a standard. And like the famous words of Mike Tomlin, the Pittsburgh Steelers coach, the standard is the standard. Well, damn it. We've been asking for some sort of proof of life out of Chicago for years. And let me tell you something, with a 5-1 record, you know, with a net rating of plus 5.3, which is seventh in in the NBA. You got Giddy out here almost averaging a triple double, you got old man Vooch almost averaging 20 points a game, and his true shooting percentage is 70%. And then you got the the leak from Buzelis. These are all things that lead to proof of life. This is what Chicago has wanted. I am glad for the fans of the Chicago Bulls because guess what? Man, it has been a long time coming. The Bulls aren't pretending to be something they're not. They're sprint team with a passing habit and a point guard who has found his voice. The East will punch back eventually. The variants will swing, but pace purpose and shared oxygen travel. If Giddy keeps blending confidence with command, and Voots keeps bending spaces, and if the kids keep making the next read, Chicago doesn't need to get a savior, it needs legs and discipline. Five and one doesn't crown you, it invites you, and it invites the Chicago fans to get excited. So November joy is rented, January habits are owned, and I believe in that. The Bulls aren't getting lucky, they just got organized, and again, you finally see a true standard, you see a true vision, and I love it. Speaking of vision, did anybody see the Bucks game last night? Anybody see this? Now, the Milwaukee Bucks are five and two with a top five offense and a defense still trying to find his shoes. But Giannis Antonbo is still out there and he is causing havoc wherever he goes. He's averaging comic book numbers and hitting 16-foot game winners in Indy and sending those people home unhappy. Ryan Rollins goes from who to two-way engine with 14 steals in six games, and Miles Turner in his return to Indianapolis was booed unapologetically. They was pissed at uh Miles Turner. Where his jersey is still like hangs in some of some of the wing spots out there, it's just business, bro. It's just business. Different when the crowd makes it personal, though. The Bucks have lineups that hum, lineups that leak, and a coach in Doc Rivers willing to have an A B test in public. So what you saw last night with the Bulls, I mean with the Bucks, Bulls, Bucks, same thing. Not really, you know what I'm saying. We just trying to do it deal with the Central. Let's talk a little bit about what we're seeing right now. Okay, now Kevin Corter Jr. has been out for a while. He's had an ankle uh injury, and we'll see what happens when he comes back. I'm not saying he's gonna get Wally tipped in this situation, but Ryan Rollins is playing his ass off. 17 points a game, uh hitting 53.6% of his field goals. He's shooting 41% from three, and he's uh 5.7 assists per game with 16 with 14 steals in six games, so he's averaging basically 2.3 steals a game. Uh AJ Green is out here shooting uh 51% from three on six point seven attempts. I want to understand this. How is this even possible? This dude is shooting 51% from three on six point seven attempts. Now I understand. You can tell me all day long, Vince. Stop tripping. It's six games, my guy. Why are you getting so excited? Well, remember the whole thing with Giannis and whether he was staying, going, whether he wanted liked Milwaukee, is he's never not liked Milwaukee. He won a championship there. He's spent his whole adult life in Milwaukee. He's been loyal to the soil since he got there, and yeah, has he flirted with other situations? 100%. But he is a primetime type of player. But to see development like this from AJ Green, who's shooting 51% from three, you know, on almost seven attempts, that's amazing. Yes, it's a very small sample size of what we're talking about, but this is what they have to do to win, and I'll tell you why that is in a second. Now, Turner's move to leave Indy after failed talks equal booze and thumbs down when he came back. Now, I want to say this to the Indiana fans, I want to say this not in a not in a like, hey, pointing the finger at you. I want to say this, I want y'all to remember that there was up until last year, Miles Turner was on the trade block for five straight years. I heard Miles Turner name in 15 different trades in a five-year period. Yes, some of those was to the Lakers, okay, no doubt. But I've heard to other teams, I heard maybe, hey, we're going to Toronto, hey, we might be going somewhere else. I've heard all kinds of stuff. I heard him going to Oklahoma City. There was so much going on with Miles Turner. So the place to shop Miles Turner's for years. So the fans going is therapy for them, but the front office might need to get to grab your ire. We might be looking at Miles Turner and going, hey, well, you left us. Okay. Well, you had your real estate agent on had had their number pinned to the top of your iPhone for years, waiting on this trade that never materialized, and then he goes to Milwaukee. We can sit here and go, oh, well, that's you shouldn't have gone to Milwaukee, all this other, but guess what? He did. That's what he that's what he ended up doing. That's hey man, you gotta do what you gotta do. It's business. At the end of the day, it is business, and you need to take care of yourself. So what's going on with Milwaukee? They're 5-2, they have an offensive rating of 120.1, which is fourth in the league. Their defensive rating is 115.3, which is 16th in the league. That is absolutely kind of mind-boggling for a team that has Giannis Anticuumpo and Miles Turner anchoring their their back end. Okay, so that's a little wild to me, but their net rating is uh positive 4.8, which is right behind Chicago at eighth. Their pace is 102.2, which is probably the highest pace they've been in quite some time. Remember, this team has made a drastic facelift of their team. A couple years back, they had Drew Holliday, and they also were waiting for Chris Middleton to come back, and this team also had Brooke Lopez. So you gone from Brooke Lopez, Chris Middleton, and Drew Holliday, to a team with Ryan Rollins, who nobody knew, AJ Green, who they've been hoping to get better and better, and he's that's all he's done. He's just improved every single year. And they also have like Cole Anthony's of the world, they also have Gary Trent Juniors of the World, so it's a different team than what we remember the championship Milwaukee Bucks as. But it's about Giannis, it's all about Giannis, and I'll this is what this is where it gets really interesting. I told you about AJ Green's numbers, but then you got Gary Trent Jr. Who's hitting three threes a game at 36.8%. You got Torrent Prince hitting 52%, 52.2% of his threes. It's a low volume, albeit, but if you're gonna knock him down timely, it's fantastic. And then you got Miles Turner in his indie return, and you go, well, Miles Turner didn't have a great game. He had five blocks. Okay, I don't care how many points he scored, he had five blocks, my guy. Sending shit back left and right. No, you don't get a basket, you don't get a basket, you don't get a basket. It's a no-fly zone in the paint area. Cause you got that pterodactyl, that's Giannis Anted Tacumpo, and now you got Miles Turner, who is not 37-year-old um Brooke Lopez, who can move. He's not just a drop center, he can go out and meet you at the top of the hedge, and then double back and get back on a pick and roll. So you gain athleticism. Kuzma is an efficient, which is amazing. His true shooting percentage this year is 62.2% on in 22 minutes. Cole Anthony is averaging 11 points a game, 3 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and he is a pick and roll spark off the bench. And I'm telling you right now, it is it is team by committee, man, and then who's running the engine is Giannis Antonbo. I want to read these numbers off, and I'm gonna read them slowly for people because we talk about a lot about who's gonna win the MVP and whatever the case may be. If Giannis Antonpo is not in your top five, I have no respect for you. 34 points a game, 13.3 rebounds a game, oh, and by the way, 6.8 assists on a true shooting percentage of 70.5%. His usage is at a 35.4% situation, he's also has a assist percentage of 39.1. He is at a all-world engine for a team right now. So they could they decided John Horse and Doc Rivers decided, hey, what we're gonna do is we're gonna let Giannis be the point guard. We're gonna have like other ball handlers out there, they're gonna be more second-side initiators, right? And we're gonna let Giannis come up the court with the basketball and make decisions. It's something that Jason Kidd wanted to do back in the day, they didn't do it. Um they they they just scrapped the experiment when Mike Bootenholz got there, and now they're back to it. And it's paying off dividends. And then you just put shooters all around this dude, and now you got the lane open, and now he can attack the rim, and as he's attacking the rim, and then the the defenses converge on him, he's just kicking it out to wide open shooters. That's why you see some of these shooting, these shooting percentages that we were talking about. AJ Green shooting 51% from the land of three. So, yeah, it's uh it's different. It's not what we're used to in Milwaukee, but I'll put it this way their offense is like IKEA. There's some assembly, but every piece is labeled. You know what I'm saying? So, like, literally, Giannis knows exactly where he's going. There's quick decisions being made, it's so great. And then think about this. The scariest thing, before the lane was clogged, now you got nobody in the lane, you're five out. Because Miles Turner, he's not shooting it as good as he usually does. He's shooting it right now at 34.2% from three. But Giannis downhill, you got basically four dudes standing on a perimeter that you have to respect. You have to respect these dudes as they shooting it at these incredible levels. That means that Giannis is dunking on people. It's great. So where do we go from here? Okay. So we do have a red flag that we need to bring up. There is one lineup that's not working. In 75 minutes, the Rollins, Giannis, AJ Green, Gary Trent Jr. Miles Turner lineup is allowing 124.2 points per 100 possessions. That is not good. That is not good at all. Okay. That's a film session waiting to happen. We talked about their defensive rating being 16th overall. Uh-huh. Teams hit the threes. Just listen, man. If you're shooting 40%, almost 41% from the land of three with 16 makes a game, offensive spacing spacing is not going to be the issue. It's who is going to take charges from Giannis coming downhill. You still got Cortis and his energy. You got Chris and his toughness and his uh defense positioning that he always does. Boards, low man rotations. You got a lot of things going on for you. And Turner's rim protection is elite right now. I don't know if he's just unlocked because he has Johnny's also to help back him up. And maybe he's just you know willing to go ahead and do that. Now we need to talk about John Horse. He made a real calculated decision this offseason. And it was something that I crushed him for. So the one thing that we try to do on this podcast, and we take accountability when we're wrong, and I understand it's a small sample size. We're not saying like it's gonna work completely like this the whole time, but right now it is working, and we can only go off right now. Now, in a month, we'll have more data, and we'll be able to decide. Hey, it's working, it's working to an extent. Is this gonna be okay when we get to the playoffs? Or is this sustainable? We don't know, but the early returns are positive. So John Horace buys out Damian Lillard, knowing that you're not getting anything from Damian Lillard this year because of the late Achilles tear, and like take a drink if you have heard that particular injury and that particular terminology on this podcast so many times. We had a just a uh epidemic of Achilles tears last year. It was crazy. Still waiting for dudes to get back. So they buy out Damian Lillard to get Miles Turner. So, Indiana, you can boo all you want, right? And they said, hey, we're gonna put the ball in Giannis's hands. John Horace knew exactly what he was doing. I don't know if he knew that he was gonna get this much productivity from what they had on the team, and then also the contributors, the new contributors that they have, with which is Cole Anthony and the you know Ryan Rollins is a godsend right now, and then you have the capability of a developing AJ Green, who they've been they love that kid. They absolutely love that kid. And now, you know, you got this team that's playing really competitive basketball. They're five and two. There's some fair questions that we can ask, right? It's seven games, and they're shooting super hot. 53 per 53.6% field goal, 41.2 from three, and five assists, five point seven assists. This is Ryan Rollins' sample size so far. Plus the deep defensive playmaking, 14 steals. We talked about that. My whole thing is that you can sit here and say that number that we gotta worry about is 124.2, and that's with Ryan Rollins in the starting lineup. Hey, you can't work on the defense. You know, it's not just him, there's other people on on the team, there's other people in this rotation, so it might he not he might not be this the the leak. It might be coming from somewhere else. Now, here's the thing Milwaukee doesn't have a lot of assets to fix these problems, so all of their development and all of their capability of of getting better is all internal. There's not a way out where it's like, oh, we're gonna go get whoever the wing du jour is, you know, in the next coming months, as when the trade deadline comes or whatever the case may be. Your pieces that you have, now if you want to get rid of a young piece for an older piece or whatever, maybe that might be something that you can look into. You know, if somebody's really desiring one of your young guys, maybe there's a Kevin Porter Jr. situation, especially with the emergence of Ryan Rollins, I don't know, but there's no big acquisition that Milwaukee can do without trading the guy who's in line for an MVP. Okay? Let's let's get that straight. Let's understand where we are. See the Bucks right now, they feel like a band where a drummer is the MVP and the guitarist just found his tone. Minotaur. Giannis is inevitable. Ryan's the the Ryan Rollins situation has been opportunistic, and Turner is weathering the part of the story where it's not about to get on the highlight reel, but it's so steady that you're just like, yeah, man, this is exactly what we need. Milwaukee's offense fits in the suitcase and their defense just needs better packing. The booze say the film remains. If the Bucks fix the win on their health rules, the East gets a new problem. If not, we'll get back here talking about almost Truja Clock, basically. Bucks fans, I have a question for you. Do you ride with Ryan Rollins? Or when Kevin Porter Jr. comes back, does he get it back? Or is he the type of guy that you can go ahead and put on the bench? Now here's the thing. Doc Robert, Doc Rivers is going to do what Doc Rivers needs to do. That dude is cutthroat, and he if he makes a decision, now here's the one thing I will say. Kevin Porter Jr. in his time in the league has been um, let's just say, if he doesn't like how things are going or whatever, he can be problematic. I hope that his maturity and he's kind of grown out of that and he understands, hey, maybe I need to come off the bench and be a microwave scorer for the greater good, and he accepts that role. But I have no reason to take Ryan Rollins out of the starting lineup right now. If you're good with this or whatever, ride this out. That's just me. Now, I'm not coaching the basketball team, but from what I see, this is what I would do. Now, speaking of another team that is footloose and fancy free, let's talk about the Detroit Pistons. The Detroit Pistons are 5-2. They're top five in defense, and suddenly they're acting like a team that has been here before. They um they beat Memphis 114 to 106. This was uh this was interesting because you had just like the differencing in what you know we talked about Morant earlier, but Cade's best tape of the season was not this game. It was a grown-up version of everything they've been hinting at. He scored 33 points. Okay, that's not the lead, but including 19 in the fourth quarter, okay? And closed John Morant return night like a vet who doesn't flinch. Like he just sat there and went like this. Hey, bro, I don't care about your return. I don't care if you're in the good graces of the Memphis fans, we go out to beat you, and I am going to make sure of it by closing you out. Turn off the lights in this place. If the early wins were about potential, this is about proof. Defend, pound the paint, make smart reads, trust your closer. K didn't just score, he controlled time. Detroit didn't match Memphis emotion, they controlled it. They have 58 points in the paint to 30. So they were oh, in a plus 20 uh field goal differential. So think about that. They were almost doubled up on Memphis's uh paint points. That is ridiculous. They're playing playoff style basketball in November. The composure and the paint math are making a lot of sense right now. Let's look at kind of an overview of what the Detroit Pistons are looking like right now. We talked about their record being 5-2, their offensive rating right now is 114.8, their defensive rating is a hundred and eleven point four, they have a point differential of positive three point four. Their pace is a hundred point nine percent. K right now, twenty-three point six points a game, nine point six assists again, five point six rebounds. His true shooting percentage is a little bit lower than what you will want, it's at fifty-three point four percent, but here is the most winning situation stat that you want to see from your point guard. Do you know that in the last two games Cade's assist to turnover ratio is 28 to 1? I want you to hear that again. Last two games, 28 to 1, he had 18 assists and one turnover versus Dallas. He had 10 assists and no turnovers versus Orlando, and he's doing this all without Jay Nivy. Now he is getting help. Jalen Doran has taken a leap, and it's this I'm gonna tell you right now, there's not a hackier dude on hold on, let me take this back. I know the Detroit fans out there, y'all super hacky about this, but if you've been with us for any lock amount of time, if you can rocking with us, y'all know last summer I was beating the drum of I don't understand why James Wiseman is here, and I know he's gone now, but this is we're going back. I was talking about why is why is Marvin Bagley here. I don't understand all these. Now, this was all Troy Reaver's situation, and Troy Reaver is man, he's been doing some crazy stuff in New Orleans, but Jalen Dorn averaging 17.3 points a game and 9.9 rebounds a game with a true shooting percentage of six of 60.9 is crazy. Duncan Robinson out here shooting 39.1% from three. B Stu not taking a bunch of threes, but shooting 40% from three is all great. It's all it's all fantastic. The real deal is this is that Kay's performance of the 23.6 points a game and the 9.6 assists a game is legendary for him. And his usage range is 28.9, he has an assist percentage of 41.7. It's all turning, not just turning around, but it's all coming to fruition now. It's like he made the leap last year, you knew he was gonna be a leader, you knew he was gonna be special. There was remember the talks about how it's Jalen Green or Cade Cunningham, and there were camps, there were camps about, oh, Jalen Green is nice. He's way nicer than Cade. And K went through that year when they won 14 games, they were 14 and 68, and people were out here whispering about K's leadership and all this other stuff. I never gave up on Kate. I always thought he was gonna be special. I did not, I was always with suspect on Jalen Green, and listen, Kid could turn out to be a really good player, but as far as special, and I'm talking about special, special, control the game special, dictate tempo, uh get people into right positions, and when you need to take over the game and do what you need to do to win, Kay Cunningham was always that guy. He was always going to be that guy, and I never fluctuated on who I thought was better. It was always Kay Cunningham. Give me the overall talent, give me the give me the guy who seems cerebral, the guy who jumps out the building, and you know, he's gonna use his athleticism to the to the nth degree. That's great. Score center highlights all around. K Cunningham's gonna win you games. Now the rotation equity that's going on in Detroit is very admirable. Like I said, having B Stu come off the bench and then be able to provide that two big viability and everything because Duran is not gonna ever shoot a three. Okay? He is a he's the cleanest vertical partner that K has. Now, they won a game with Memphis having three rotational players out. Detroit still got bench output. Check this out. 14 points from Ryan uh from Ron Holland the second. You got 26 and 14 from Beast Stew. So even when everything isn't sweet, they can get it done. And I'm gonna say this one. This is this is Katie Cunningham's last three games. Orlando, 30 points, 10 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 blocks, no turnovers. Then against Dallas, 18 assists, one turnover. And then against Memphis, 33 points, 19 of those bad boys in the fourth quarter, closing the team out. He was 12 of 20 from the field, three of six from three-point land, four of four from the free throw lines, and he did this with five fouls. You want a bigger, you want a, you know, you want more light shed on this topic? Okay, so this is Cade's closing map. 248 left to go in the game. He hits two free throws, the score is 105 to 100. 225 left to go in the game, straight line, layup 107, 100. 1 minute and 6 seconds to go, 15 foot fade away, 109 to 103, Detroit. Now, 38.3 seconds. Let me go ahead and pull out this dagger, right? Pull up 25 footer 112-103, we go home. Shut the lights off. Less pick and roll clutter, more isolation at the elbow because he's so big. He's seeing single coverage instead of crowds. Having Duncan Robinson there is also very clutch. He keeps the weak side nail honest. K could go ahead and skip to Javante Green, who was 5 or 12 from three-point land. And the corners like Asar are open up the map. Duran's shooting uh 5.3 free throw attempts a game, and he's shooting 86% from free throw lane. That's fantastic. His vertical space and his glass tempo, these are all important uh factors of his game. And then when you can bring off like Isaiah Stewart, now he's not gonna have a game like this every single time, but 26 points and 14 rebounds when you need it, and he can switch def he can be a switch defender, and then he can also be rim insurance in a combo with that side with that rare size, with Doran, who is a pogo stick on legs, you gotta love it. And then when you got Asar Thompson, Asar Thompson is steadily making that ascent. Is he where his bro is he where Armion is? No. But 13.3 points a game, almost seven rebounds a game, 6.9, he averages 1.6 steals a game, and his off-ball cuts are crispy. His deflections are are just disruptive, just daggers to people. He's just inflicting nothing but paper cuts to your offense when you're sitting out there just trying to run normal offense. And then you got Ron Holland who's averaging 10.6 points a game this season. He had a fish and 14 in 20 minutes against Memphis. So everything's on the up and up, and this is still without Jay Nivey. This is still without J Nivy. Case fourth quarter versus Memphis is a case study in calm authority. He had five fouls late, but he lost no composure. He was like, I'm not gonna foul out, I'm gonna read the floor, found rim touches, and he didn't waste any emotion. Because here's the thing K Cunningham is that dude. We saw it in the playoffs last year, and I just think we're just gonna see just more incremental growth from him throughout this season. Detroit ignored the emotional noise, they got the double tech uh in the second quarter with Triple J out there. And Bickerstaff who would left Cleveland, right? Remember, he left Cleveland and people were like, damn. And then Kenny Atkinson went in there and won you know six or four games. They were like, but Bickerstaff should be alluded for what he has done with Detroit because Detroit had terrible seasons, and then they really found themselves last year. He said more is like Big Staff wanted more isolation windows, not traffic, is a leadership mantra in disguise. He is really transformed that team and basically said, Hey, this this is what's possible for you guys, and I don't want you guys to settle. And to instill that kind of confidence in a young team. Remember, this team was coming off Monty Williams. So having somebody like JB Birkerstav on this team and coaching it and and leading this team towards, you know, they had a playoff run last year, they had a really competitive series with the Knicks, right? Was it Knicks? I think it was Knicks, it was somebody. But they went out there, clicked boost the asses to people, and really gave people a scare. So now, where are we at with this team? Well, the offense right now is not great. They're winning with smoke and mirrors. 114.8 is 18th in the league. But that defensive rating of 111.4, that's fourth. Defense travels while the offense matures. And keep in mind, they do not have Jay Nivey. Jay Nyvey is that kind of missing piece. We hope that he has developed the shot. I hope what we saw last year in a small sample size before he got hurt is what we were going to see all throughout this year. So we'll see how that all goes. When Ivy returns, we hope that we're gonna get some vertical juice. We hope that we have continued development of Ron Holland and Ossor Thompson. And you can sit here and talk about its early sample size, whatever. You can talk about all these things. The one thing that we don't have to worry about with them is that what we saw in the playoffs was real. And now this team has said, okay, now we can take the next step. And when you have a leader like Cade and you have a steadying hand like JB Beckenstaff, who's allowing these kids to grow up right in front of our eyes, you got to love everything that's going on in Detroit. Detroit didn't just steal a road win, they authored an identity. The Pistons are a top five defensive team with a league guard who knows, who knows how to control a pace like a surgeon. He's not just a shellman. Cage November isn't flash, but it's all about getting the job done, picking his spots, playing through foul trouble, and closing out like a G, like an all-star, like an all-NBA player. This version of K shows up three nights a week, and the standards will shift on their own. November's habits lead to April receipts. I am telling you, I have a lot of faith in this team. Now, 418 that we got some questions about, we go to Cleveland. Now, Cleveland is learning how to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. Last year, Cleveland had a house party, they were 15-0, best offense in the league, everybody was eaten, and now it's seven games and they're four and three. And the vibes are wait, who brought the hummus? No Garland so far, no Struce. Allen is missed time, and even Donovan Mitchell is playing through a sore hamstring. They're not bad, they're weird on purpose. Kenny Atkinson's group is learning to win ugly, left-handed, as one writer put it. Mowgli's handling of more touches, Jalen T uh Jalen Tyson's auditioning as a$20 million 3 and D guy, and Cleveland's offense has gone from Ferrari to forklift. Functional, slower, and sometimes clunky, but moving weight. November basketball is for experimentation. Maybe basketball clashes cashes those checks. You gotta figure out who you got. You've got to figure out who you got. Because Garland is about to return. They say he's gonna return for the Philadelphia game. Um we don't have like clear, clear indication on that, but if the reports are out there, we might be seeing our guy, Darius Garland, return to the team, and that will be a welcome sight. Because this is what the Cleveland Cavaliers look like right now. They're 4-3, which is seven and seventh in the east. Don't worry about that, because they're gonna be towards the top of the the conference by the time it all ends. They have an offensive rating of 112 points and a defensive rating of 111.7, so they have a a very slight positive off um net rating of 0.3. Now their pace is still 100 and 102.0, which is 10th in the league. And um, yeah, man, it's tough right now. It's tough. But there are some gems, there are some jewels in this this time of struggle for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and we're gonna have to talk about them. Our guy Donovan Mitchell is just out here putting out great numbers 20 29.5 per points per game. Uh his uh true shooting percentage 68.8. Mobley is the is the thing, 19.3 points per game, 8.9 rebounds, and 4.4 assists a game. He's doing everything. Our guy Tyson, our guy Tyson is out here shooting 44% from three. So they're doing it real big. I like what they're doing. I love seeing it. Kobe Altman has made some changes, and we're about to get into that a little bit. Lonzo ball is one of the big changes. Last year, their offense was killer, and defense was like, uh, you know, kind of getting it. But this year, with Lonzo there, it's very important to have. 15.9 made threes a game, uh, 45.4% on attempts per game. Third most in volume in the league. The trade-off is there, 28th in shots within 5 feet. So no paint touches to be called upon, no kick and swing. Mowgli's interior anchor, he's the one guy who is being able to get inside in the paint, what have you. Sam Marrow has flashed 17.3 points in limited run. He's shooting 51% from the land of three. But they're about to pierce the paint a little bit more because their offensive lives on the one-pass pull-ups until Garland returns. Guess who's returning? One Darius Garland. And that's gonna be the dude who's gonna get you in the lane. We're gonna have the quickness back, we're gonna have that just creative on ball facilitation that we love out of Darius Garland, and it's just gonna make the offensive hum just a lot better. Now, also keep in mind that as Darius Garland returns, you got Donovan Mitchell just nursing a hamstring injury. He's playing smarter. You know, he understands that he can't just explode to the hoop right now. But they need his points, they need his leadership on the court with Darius Garland not there. Mowgli's like ascent this year is he took another leap. Yes, it's been incremental, but I think I hope with Darius Garland coming back, you see a lot of two-man game between those two, and you see even more uh aggression out of one Evan Mowgli. Lonzo Ball has been the piece that I have loved. He hasn't shot the ball very well, but the defense is the point of attack defense that only he can bring because let's face it, Darius Garland is a really good offensive player, he is not a great defensive player. Donovan Mitchell is handling the bulk of your scoring, so asking him to be the tip of the spear of your defense is probably not the best way to go about this. So having Lonzo Ball on the team, having him be able to go out and guard guards, play just terrific defense, and then get in the passing lanes or what have you. Do I care about the shot? Yes. Do I care enough to worry about that shot if Darius Garland is coming back? No. He'll get better throughout the year. And if you're gonna have um Tyson shoot the ball the way he's shooting it, you're gonna be fine. And also, you got Sam Marrow out here. Shooting 51.4% from three. So I'm not worried about the outside shot. I'm worried about the defense and the sustainable backbone of the two bigs with Jared Allen and Evan Mowgli. You gotta have somebody who can guard somebody. So Lonzo playing minutes is probably the best thing for that. Now they're over the cap. You know, it is what it is. This is what they did. They went all in, and hey, you just gotta go. This is where we are. They're being 26 on offense. To me, I just think that's early season struggles, and also not having your full complement of team. I think as Darius Garland gets back and gets more acclimated with the with the offense, I think you'll see that their offense will definitely go up exponentially. But the defense being number five, we like that. We like that a lot. And Mitchell is doing too much, but when Garland comes back, some of that usage will be taken away. I think that that is where we need to continue also the growth of Mowgli. 4.4 assists, he's already an offensive hub. Let it be, let it be that. Let him continue to grow his game. I think if he's the number two and Darius Garland falls back to the number three, I think the Cleveland Cavaliers will be better off personally. Now, you can sit there and say a lot of things. Well Wednesday could mark Garland's first game back. The numbers say he's missing, he's missing, uh, he's a missing paint brush stroke because of his passing, his pace, and his poise. Mitchell gets to breathe again. Mowgli's creation gets contacts, and Cleveland shot diet finally looks balanced again. If this was last year in 15-0 sprint, we'd be talking champagne, but this 4-3 star, this is pro team. They're getting stronger doing the boring stuff. Let Garland Cook back in and Chris by Christmas time, this is probably a top 16, probably gonna be a top 14, and everything will be fine. So I don't look at it as regression, I look at it as refinement. I think, hey, get DeAndre Hunter involved, let him find his role and his spot in this team. You know, you got Darius Garland coming back, so keep your eyes on that first week back, see what that looks like. Don't worry about the box score, just worry about how the ball moves and how often Mowgli smiling. That's the story. Because if he's able to get him lob dunks and stuff like that, it's just gonna make that dude even more special on the defensive end, which is again scary thoughts for all of the Eastern Conference because Evan Mowgli is becoming Chris Bosch 2.2 2.0. And we knew this is what we thought we were getting when he came out. It's just taking a couple years, and now he's there. Now we need him to just stay aggressive. When Darius Garland comes back, I don't want to see oh my man averaging 15. No, I want to see my man still averaging close to 20. I want him to push it over 20. I want him to ask for the ball emphatically. These are the type of things I want to see out of my guy, Evan Mowgli. So, Denver, I mean, Denver, oh my god, so tired. Cleveland is going through it. Yes, it's clunky, yes, it's not exactly what we thought it was going to be, but I think this is a work in progress, and I think it's one of those things that you just allow you allow the rust and you allow some of the kind of the unevenness of the of the the way the season has started, you allow that continue to happen. Because I think the more and more you have of some of these guys being able to show their worth, the better off they're going to be. And keep in mind, Struuss is not back, Darius Garland is about to come back, so this team has not been whole for the entire year. And you don't care whether they're hitting their stride right now, are they hitting their stride in January? Are they hitting their stride in February? Those are the keys to this run that Cleveland wants to ultimately go on. Because, say what you want, I have picked the Knicks to get to the finals, but Cleveland, their runway to the finals, this is the best chance they have had. And yes, it's not look good early, but at the end of the day, if you're getting the if you're getting all your pieces back and they're all back by January, this is not gonna make a difference. You want to be playing your best basketball after January and see where you end up right now. All you're doing is auditioning. All you're doing is doing um you're doing basically just closed auditions and you're just trying to work out the kings. It's not a big deal if you lose a couple games here and there right now. You want to be humming on all cylinders when we get to January and February. That's where all the money's made. So I'm cool off Cleveland. I know what we're looking at, and it really comes down to Jared Allen and his toughness during the playoffs. So you can do whatever you want in the regular season until I see Jared Allen put somebody on their ass in the playoffs. I I'm not buying it, Cleveland. But I think growth of Mowgli and the growth of the others is essential to what they're gonna end up needing to be um this year and going into the future. So, with that being said, I want to thank um again the audience. You guys have been incredible. The growth of this podcast has really uh just brought me so much joy. And Saraya, same thing, she loves what you guys are doing, and seeing just the different little pockets of area pop up and really digging the podcast. Again, remember the blog goes with it frpc.beam, which is B-E-A-M. That is where you get the blog. That is our website. Please go check it out. Uh, it's a good accompany piece to the podcast. With that being said, the best part of you is you surround yourself with people who give you light, insight, joy, and accountability. Appreciate them out loud. That's your real wealth. And if you're still trying to find your tribe, know this. You got one here with us at FRPC. Until next time, keep your mind sharp, your heart open, and your circle tight. I'm Vince and I'm out of here. I'll see y'all on Friday. Deuces.