Baseline Buzz And The Southeast Shakeup

Summary:

News tries to sprint; we trap and make it talk. Vince opens with Baseline Buzz, unpacking Dallas’ nagging availability problem and why identity keeps slipping when your best players can’t stay on the floor. Then we celebrate the quiet risers who tilt winning margins without headlines: AJ Mitchell carving up lanes in OKC, Ryan Rollins steadying Milwaukee’s non‑Giannis minutes, Collin Gillespie giving Phoenix error‑free connective tissue, Cam Spencer’s off‑ball fire in Memphis, and Keontae George’s footwork clinic in Utah.

De’Aaron Fox’s return to San Antonio gets the grown‑up treatment: rim pressure, fourth‑quarter poise, and spacing that actually serves Wemby. We map the short‑term gains and the long‑term assignment for Castle, plus the tweaks that turn speed into shots instead of turnovers. From there, it’s Full Court Press through the Southeast. Atlanta looks different without Trae—five‑out flow, real movement, and defenders who don’t have to hide a target. Is this Snyder’s blueprint finally breathing, or a sugar rush that fades by December? Miami is flying at top pace while Hero sits, Bam anchors, and Spo deals with real‑life loss; the cap question ahead is sharp: pay for two‑way reliability or pure shot creation.

Washington’s tape hurts but teaches—Alex Sarr and Keyshawn George look like real pillars if the organization keeps grading possessions over vibes. Charlotte flashes real foundations with Con Kanipple’s movement shooting and Kalkbrenner’s vertical spacing, but LaMelo’s shot diet has to mature for the defense to rise. Orlando’s warning light blinks: last year’s elite defense gave them a brand; this year’s pace leaked points while Banchero’s three deserted him. The fix is sequencing—bully ball, cleaner reads, and shot choices that let the defense get set.

Press play for receipts, not rumors, and a sweep that prizes clarity over clicks. If you rock with smart hoops talk, follow, download, and leave a five‑star rating. Then tell us: which Southeast pivot feels real, and which one is fool’s gold? Subscribe and join the FRPC community.

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Transcript

Baseline Buzz: News Runway

Dallas Availability Crisis And Identity

Under‑The‑Radar Risers Across The League

De’Aaron Fox Returns And Spurs Fit

Full Court Press: Southeast Setup

Atlanta Without Trae: Snyder’s Vision

Heat Pace, Hero’s Future, And Spo

Ja Morant Trade Fits: ATL Or MIA

Washington’s Pain With Real Pillars

Charlotte’s Talent Vs Shot Diet

Orlando’s Identity Slippage And Fixes

SPEAKER_00 0:13

What up well how's everybody doing? Welcome to Front Runner Podcast Collective where we We talk like friends, we argue like cousins, and somehow we still leave a little bit smarter. I am your humble host, Vince, and I'm your occasional therapist, your favorite bad influence. And here on FRPC, we unpack the wins, the mess, the middle ground with jokes, receipts, and maybe a hot take that ages badly. Saraya is on the production deal side. She will be handling all of some of the notes that we're gonna get. She is silent but deadly. Well, she'll be dropping reminders, occasional gems, to keep us very honest and maybe make us better people in the process. What is on deck for today's show? First and foremost, the one thing that we really need to talk about is that we have brought back baseline bus where we talk about some of the news that is going around on and around the NBA. In the background, we're gonna have to cut that out, but anyway, and then also we're gonna travel to the dirty dirty south. That's right, the southeast division, where we also bring back another segment that everybody loves. It's the four court press where we discuss every team in that division and what's going on with them, and uh just kind of keep you up to breast, keep keep you up to date with what's going on. Before we get started with all that, there's a couple things I want to talk about. One, we have been telling you lately that our numbers are up as far as our downloads and and what have you. Uh, if you are a new person to the podcast, welcome. We are so grateful for you to be here for our day ones. You know the drill. Be a friend, tell a friend. We do not advertise this podcast, and what I mean by that is that we do not like pay Google to move us up, you know. We don't do any of that, any download that we've ever gotten is through the word of mouth and the five-five folks who have found our podcast and enjoyed it and decided to keep it. If you're listening to us on Spotify, if you're listening to us on Apple or iHeartRadio or Amazon Music or however you choose to get us, we are grateful for all of you. But make sure that you're following, you know, those numbers count, and make sure you're downloading. And the next thing with that is interact with us, you know, send us a rating. You know, hopefully it's five stars. That's what we're looking for, that's what we're trying to achieve. And then leave us something. Say, hey, you know, I enjoyed this segment. Oh, you talked about Orlando, and that was you know, I'm an Orlando fan, and whatever the case may be. We want to hear from you. We also have other ways for you to get at us, and one of those ways is through email. It's frpcvince at gmail.com. The Twitter still works, or if you live under the Elon Musk rule X, it is frontrunner PC at frontrunner pc. Our producer is at Rea underscore Funch, which is F-U-N-C-H-R-P-C. One day we'll have to explain that. But the numbers are really humbling. Like we're gaining people, we're gaining people in areas that I didn't even think were possible. You know, I mean like Bolivia, are you kidding me? Chile. I mean, it's ridiculous. Australia, our numbers are growing there. We even got some folks in New Zealand. What's up? Good day, however you say it. But thank you guys for joining us. We can't do this, we can't build this community without you. So please make sure that you're telling other people who enjoy NBA basketball, who enjoy good conversation about NBA basketball. Let them know that we do this on Tuesday and we do this on Friday until I mess up and we don't do it on Tuesday or Friday. But we are trying to make a commitment that we make sure we get these podcasts out on time, on target for you, and uh we're able to present you with the best analysis that we possibly can give you. We do work hard for this, and without further ado, let's get into it. We're gonna start with the baseline bus and the part of the show where the news tries to sprint, and we full court trap that bad boy. Injuries, risers, you're not watching enough, and one very important return to San Antonio. Take a breath, we'll give you the receipts, not the rumors. We will start in Dallas, and it's a for us who are Lakers fans, this is an all too frequent occurrence. As you know, A D is hurt, he entered camp heavier than he normally does. Mobility questions started to rise. Then the left came the left calf strain that happened on October 9th or October 29th, and now he's been out for a little while. Now, the Dallas Mavericks are struggling, they're 2-6 right now, they're one and two without him. Uh, they're ramping up, but they're cautiously cautiously optimistic. Again, tell me Lakers fans, do you not remember that? This is echoes to the Dallas Mavericks fans of last year's CAP saga that hung over the building with Luca. Dallas is reliving this nightmare over and over again. It's like groundhogs day, but without Bill Murray. Oh, for our young people, if you don't know Groundhog's Day, the movie with Bill Murray, the legend, go ahead, YouTube that back boy, see what streaming service is on, and go ahead and watch that. Highly recommend. I understand what what AD was trying to do. You know, he was trying to bulk up a little bit, but he needs to understand who he is. I think that's been the problem with AD the whole entire time. Is that he wants to be a power forward, but you don't shoot the ball well enough to be a power forward unless you your center is going to shoot the ball from three. So instead, unless you play with Jokic, you're gonna have to be a five, my guy. And you're gonna have to be in that dunkers position, you're gonna have to be at that nail because you do have really excellent passing skills that we want to go ahead and utilize. With that being said, he has always really kind of pushed back on being the center, and that's unfortunate, and he's just kind of ebbed and flowed into these seasons, and now AD is old, 54.1 million this year, 58.5 next year, and with a player's options in 2027-2028, it's 62.8 million. The Dallas Mavericks must value availability, not just resume, before the big paper. You know what I'm saying? I mean, this is the thing that the Lakers continued to go up against when they had them. It was how long was he going to be available for? And there were questions about toughness. I will never question Anthony Davis' toughness. I don't care whether he's not a Lakers or not. I loved Anthony Davis when he was here. I thought he was additive when he played. The problem was is again, I just don't think Anthony Davis understood his basketball identity, and I don't ever think he has fully felt comfortable in his form. And I'm not talking about weight and whatever. I'm just talking about his his basketball being. I hope my guy finds it. Hope he finds some inner peace and understands who and what he is, which he's a phenomenal defender. You know, he's one of the better rim protectors in our league. And also, he can get you 25, 13, and 6 if you need so. So what we're hoping for right now is what? Better conditioning, see if my man loses about 10 pounds. He is scheme dependent. He's a two-way acre, he's a defensive ceiling, but when without him, that ceiling collapsed a little bit. Now Derek Lively also is on the men, so you are down two of your bigger rim protectors, and now you're just holding on with Daniel Gafford and Cooper Flag. And they the way they've been using Cooper Flag, honestly, I you know I haven't been a fan of. I know what Jason Kidd was trying to do with Cooper Flag. The thing about it is that he's not Giannis. One, two, you don't have enough shooting around you that you can depend on for Cooper Flag to be the on-ball initiator that you want him to be. And I think personally, right now, we need to go ahead and put him in a position where he's getting buckets and really being impactful in that way. So our hope is that the Dallas Mavericks can bounce back. I know there's a lot of people. Jason Gallagher, who is one of the voices down there, who has really banged the drum when the Luca trade went down. Talking about management and who is ultimately responsible for what happened with Luca and the poultry get back that the Dallas Mavericks received for Luca. All we can hope for now is better days to come and health. So, but Dallas is going through it, they're 2-6, and they're just kind of waiting for our guy to come back. Couple last things that we want to talk about with this situation in Dallas is that you know Nico Harrison has a lot to answer for, and I don't know when that's gonna happen, when that shoe's gonna drop, but I can't see this going on too much longer. And we will obviously keep keep on monitoring that situation, but for the rest of the Dallas Mavericks fans, if I think this is the last year, right? They this last year with their pick, Soraya. She enters in the chat, yes. So Dallas Mavericks, if for some reason this is the season where it does kind of all fall apart, and you're looking at a situation where maybe it's just not your season, they do have pieces, and they have pieces to trade, and it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to build it around Cooper Flag, and if you can get in to that high area of the lottery, where the lofty names of Darren Peterson, AJ Bonasta, um, and our guy Cam Boozer, also Nathan Mint, people like that, Mikhail Brown Jr., those type of guys would be very, very helpful in your cause to create uh the new iteration of what the the Dallas Mavericks are gonna end up being. So if there was one year to kind of tank it, because after this year, from 2027 to 2031, I think Dallas doesn't have any of their picks all somewhere else. It's time to get it going. The next thing we're gonna discuss is coming some of the the guys that are under the radar. Um, and I want to kind of just you know give them show them some love. These aren't your this is not Giannis, this is not your Devin Bookers of the world, these are the guys who are kind of like third, fourth in a rotation, and they're showing some really surprising numbers early on in the season. And so if you got league pass and you find yourself catching a Milwaukee Bucks game, a Oklahoma City Thunder game, uh a Suns game, or a Grizzlies game, or a Utah Jazz game, I want you to look these guys up and just kind of look and see what they're what they're doing. Without further ado, let's jump into this. We talked about AJ Mitchell in the past. AJ Mitchell is a guard that was picked up a couple years ago by our guy Sam Presty, and he's having a phenomenal start to the year. He's averaging 16.7 points a game uh through nine. He has had some clutch bursts despite only shooting 28.6% from three, which is crazy. He has a low turnover rate, and he seems to be able to finish at the realm between three to ten feet with ease. He's getting he's got elevation, he's able to kind of hang in the lane and stuff like that. So I love this kid. I love the way he plays, and uh wow, he's been super additive to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are 8-1 at this point in time in the season. He is going left, he is going, he's gonna continue to go left, and then when you think you can't stop him from going left, he's gonna go left again. It is like NASCAR, but our guy is being productive, and that's all that matters. Now, obviously, get a little more tape. You go around the league a couple times, especially in the Western Conference, they might be able to slow that down, but early in the season, the 16.7, think about this. Oklahoma City doesn't have still at this point in time Jalen Williams. Any kind of step up from somebody else is super at this point. Uh welcome. Oklahoma City does it again. Here's a guy, had a little injury, you didn't get to see him really the first year, comes out of nowhere this year, and we're like, who is this guy? Another guy that we talked about, I think, on the previous pot, I think it was on the last one, actually, was Ryan Rollins. Actually, it was. We talked about the last pot. He has been scoring, he's also been stealing the ball, and he's provided consistent offense and defense, two-way ability for the Milwaukee Bucks. He's been a good point of attack defender. Uh Ryan, he's and the best part about Ryan Wallace is this is that he has played two seasons before. He kind of was going through the G-League process or whatever. He's still very, very young. But the confidence leap for him and guys learning his name is odd. But he is being a consistent performer next to Giannis, and they can survive the non-Giannis minutes because of the fact that two things. One, he'll go ahead and he'll get into that lane. He provides purple purposeful paint touches. You know how much I love those, and he's able to shoot it out, get it out to the shooters, and then the other thing that he's doing is that he doesn't turn the ball over. You gotta love a guy who values the basketball, that he is so patient with his game that he's not gonna rush into something, and that's usually what you see with young guards, especially in this league. They get sped up too quickly, and then all of a sudden, you don't know what's going on, and the ball is going the other way. Another guy I want to shout out is Colin Golebsky. Now, Colin Golepsky was part of some of the uh Villanova teams that won championships. He's been injured pretty much the whole time, and now he's getting the time to shine in Phoenix. He's a money shooter, he makes low mistakes, 42 assists to 12 turnovers is ridiculous, homie. You know, he's on a minimal deal, which makes him very valuable. He's shown rotation competence for a team that has absolutely needed it. They needed a guard that could go ahead and be out there and be able to run the offense, get the ball to Devin Booker, get the ball to the other players that they have on their team that are gonna provide most of the bulk of the scoring. And I will tell you, with that being said, I'm super excited about what's going on with Colin Galevsky. And it couldn't happen to a guy who has just worked at his craft for so long and toiled, and again, you know, had a couple injuries here and there, you know, couldn't get a look, toiled in the G League, tore it up, and now he's getting to play and getting to show his wares in the National Basketball Association, and that is love right there. The next guy on this list is now there's not a lot of reasons to watch Memphis basketball, but this is one of the reasons to watch Memphis basketball. Camp Spencer is a uh second-year guard. This dude is a connector, he's an off-ball flamethrower, uh he assists every five minutes, which is great. Uh, and he's a feisty defender that offsets his tools because he's not very fast, he's not he doesn't jump out the building, but positionally he's strong. I love that about him. And the great thing about it is he has a lot of moxie, you know, he's a little fiery little dude, and he is up to the challenge. So when you think it when you look at him, you go, man, that's the dude I want in pick and roll right now. I'm gonna cook this dude so crispy. But he's like, nah, I will stand in front of you, I will shadow you, I will mirror you, and you know, we can go ahead and you can pound the ball for 21 seconds of the shot clock, but you're not getting off this shot as easy as you think it is. So no good looks for you. He's like the shot, you know, never mind. We we ain't gonna go there because we can't be talking about that right now. Why is this important for Memphis? Well, we're gonna get to a lot of Memphis talk, even though we're gonna be talking about the Southeast uh division, because Morant's name will come up a couple times in the in that process. Having guys who are on really good contracts and who can play competent basketball, they know their role on the team, they prize the basketball, and what I mean by that is that they cherish it, they don't turn it over, they share the sugar with their teammates, go ahead and drink. I know you guys love that terminology when I say share the sugar. This is one of those guys that's just a connector, and they find their way to play like eight years, ten years in the league. So if you are watching a Memphis Grizzlies game and you're tired of watching John Morant shoot 30 39% from the field and 14% from the free from the the land of three, check out our guy, Cam Spencer. Now, a guy that I want to talk about real quick, playing in Utah, and another team that is also going through it this year. This was a guy I was hard high on when he came out. Keontae George of the Utah Jazz. Now, 22 points, 22.6 points on strong, true shooting percentage, despite the three-point slump. That's because he can get into the lane. He got a lot of wiggle to his game, he's got a lot of uh dance ability when he has the ball on the string when he's dribbling it. He is one of those guys that I wouldn't say Jalen Brunson, right? But I would say he has the essence of Jalen Brunson. He's got really good footwork, and he definitely knows how to get his shot off. Keontae George is one of those dudes that I wonder, you know, with the Isaiah Colliers of the world, with the Ace Baileys of the world, would he get lost in Utah? Obviously, you know, we still got Lori Marketing on the team and things of that nature. So I've been warning and waiting for Keontae George to go off. In this offense, you just wonder if he's gonna get enough opportunities to do so. Right now, with the opportunities he is getting, he is uh flourishing, and we love that for him. Keontae George of the Utah Jazz. Now, a guy who's had nothing but injury trouble, couldn't say healthy. Uh Drew Smith of the Miami Heat, he's healthy at last. He has 13 stills, he has more stills than he has Faust. That's always good. He's a backup point guard, he gets he's not getting like a ton of run or whatever, but when he gets in the game, he just like makes everything so crazy. It's just a lot of chaos, a lot of disruption, a lot of deflections, and you gotta love it. Because he gets in there and he's like, Listen, I don't know how much time I got here on the court, so I am gonna be as productive as possible while I'm here, and you gotta love that when you are talking about a young guy, especially a young guy who's had some injury issues, and he's not timid, he's not getting on the court going, I wonder when the next ACL situation is gonna happen or Achilles situation is gonna happen. I'm just out here, I'm grateful for the time to be on the court. So, shout out to Drew Smith of the Miami Heat, and also extending that heat culture yet again. They always find these dudes that are just grimy and are additive to their team. Now we're gonna uh make our next stop in Hotlandah, and the great thing about this is that we're gonna be talking about Atlanta a little bit later in the pod when we go to the full court press. Mahame guy, he is a 6 foot 11 pogo stick. Okay, he just terrorized Paulo Bancaro when they had their matchup. He was like, nope, no scores in the paint for you. These shots are going to be sent away, or they're gonna be terribly difficult for you to get them off, and you're definitely not gonna shoot as efficiently as you want to. So he held up against Paulo, which you know, he's also shooting from corner threes at 31.6% clip, and you would go, hey, that's not that impressive. But you gotta understand this is a young big guy learning this skill on the fly. He did not have this in his bag when he when he came out when he came to the Atlanta Hawks. This is something that he is learning, and I love that he's able to first of all, he wants to shoot it. Second of all, he knows when to shoot it and when to uh okay, this guy is crashing down on me. Let me go ahead and hit a cutter or pump fake, put two dribbles down, and then see where I'm at. So very aware of who he is when it comes to that. Now, what makes him kind of special is that he's cheap and he's young. The other thing is is that he's providing really good backup minutes for Jalen Johnson and the rest of the crew, the Zachary Russian shades of the world. So we love that part of it. He's a switch friendly big, and he can change like geometry on the court. He is a absolute weak side rim protector nightmare for you. This is one of those guys that would probably end up on the scouting uh sheet when you go along, as far as that's concerned. If you're the opposition, come more guys, and then we're gonna get to the to to the mess that we need to talk about. Uh, shout out to Jamal Shedd of the Raptors, 43 assists to eight turnovers. That's crazy. 47.4% from three. He is lighting it up, having that backup point guard roll for the rafters. Shouts out to my guy there. And the good thing about him, again, these are guys. The the narrative of these guys is that they're they're young and cheap. As in Tristan DeSilva of the Magic, he's shooting 41% from three on movement. His IQ is off the charts. Remember, he was at Colorado and also Oregon. Uh play well, played in March Madness, was kind of a leader when he was at those two schools. Comes to the NBA, nothing phases him, goes to his rookie year, played well then, he's playing well now. And I'm gonna tell you one thing, we're gonna be talking about some guys with Orlando very, very soon here, and then you're gonna go, well, if you got Tristan da Silva, what are we doing? So stay tuned for that. Jalen T uh Jalen Tyson. I I watched a game of his the other night when they went up against the 76ers, and there's three things that I want to talk about with Jalen uh Tyson. One, he plays very good defense, two, he's able to be another facilitator for the Cavaliers, and at 6'6, you love it. Absolutely love it. 43.6% from three, 13 or 29 over the last five games. He is doing yeoman's work off the bench. He's also kind of uh if you want to call it sharing time with uh Alonzo Ball. They put him in the starting lineup for a second. He's been basically the three. He was the he actually started against the Philadelphia 76ers, and he held his own against Kelly Ubray Jr. and the likes, and I love that. I love that you see young guys, you know, basically in a sense getting opportunities and then making the most of their opportunities. You just you go like this. Well, damn. This is a revelation we didn't have, so we love you so much. And the last guy on this list, and of course, is Jake LaRavia of the Los Angeles Lakers. Jake LaRavia was a Memphis Grizzly, and then he got traded to the Sacramento Kings, and then he was brought over to the Los Angeles Lakers. Now, he's good friends with Austin Reeves, and the reason why I bring that name up is because they also share an agent. So Jake LaRavia was the first guy during the free agent period this last summer that the Lakers contacted and then signed. Yeah, six million dollars, gotta love it. What is he doing? 12.1 coins per game, 37 uh percent from three. Gotta love that part. He attacks closeout like a banshee, and the best part about it is that he just does his job, and he is also somebody who's very adept at playing that second side situation, being able to uh throw the pass, not turn the ball over. If for some reason you close out on him aggressively, he can put the ball on the deck and then take it to the rack and yam on you, which is great. We love that. White dudes out here just yamming on people, it's great, great situations, it's great theater. So, Jake LaRabia is doing yeoman's work in Los Angeles in the la la. We wanted to show him some love. Jake, welcome to the team, welcome to the Lakers, to the purple and gold, my guy, and we hope that you have an incredible season. The last bit of news that we want to talk about is D'Aaron Fox. And you go, well, De'Aaron Fox has been hurt, Vince. Well, guess what? He's gonna return on Saturday against the Pelicans. Fox plans to make his season debut after hamstring rehab. Uh, the Spurs are banged up right now. Dylan Harper is out uh with a significant uh cap strain. We won't be seeing him for a second. Uh, and they need a guard. Now, Stephon Castle, it was cute that he thought he was a point guard when he came out in college and went through the uh pre draft process. His people were telling people telling everybody that he was a point guard. We clearly see. That is not the ultimate position for him. And I talked about this in the summer. So go back and listen to the archive pods. We did a thing on San Antonio. Basically, what I said in that is that if Dylan Harper pops, if he is who I think he is, here's a guy that could move Darren Fox over to the two guard because Dylan Harper is 6'5, pretty stout, like 210. You know, he's not like, oh, I'm coming into the league, I barely weigh 180 pounds. No. No, this dude eats some water burgers or whatever the case may be down there. You know what time it is. But I always thought that also with that, and I said I he would be the one guy I would be worried about. Will he be able to get off ball and become that second side initiator that the San Antonio Squares need? Also understanding that his role is to support Victor Wingbayama. I think Castle is a good kid. I think he's also a great defender. I do think that the the ball handling and the instincts to be an on-ball facilitator are not quite there yet, but he can make like the rudimentary pass. He can make like okay, this guy is crashing down on me from the you know at the three-point line. Let me go ahead and pump fake it, put it on a deck. I have the athleticism to do something very, very special at the rim, or I could kick it out to another shooter and we can get into a swing swing type of situation, and maybe if I relocate, I'll get this defender off me and shoot the ball. If we're talking about actual, hey, we want you to run the team, the results have been mixed. Let's just be honest. There's a lot of turnovers in that Lakers game that were his. I think he has six, eight assists, but six turnovers. It's a D'Angelo Russell type of stat line. I love that kid, but I'm very happy that De'Aaron Fox is back because he will be the grown-up that the Spurs need. He'll get the ball to Wimby. In the short term, he's gonna stabilize the guard room. In the long term, what we're hoping for is that he is going to be that guy that stabilizes the whole offense. Because what you get with De'Aaron Fox is you get a guy who in the fourth quarter he knows how to get his shot, he knows how to get to the rim, get fouled. Uh, he's gonna be able to put up twelve 20 plus pretty easily, especially with all the attention that goes on with Victor Wingbayama. I think that De'Aaron Fox, because when he was with the Sacramento Kings, he was the number one option, he will no longer have to be that anymore. So he's gonna add rim pressure, that frees out Wimby. What does that look like? And if you surround him with shooting and that type of speed, and that point of attack type of defense that he could utilize, especially with a absolute window wiper in Victor Wingbayama, he can probably go ahead and you know gamble a little bit more, which is great. So, what we're looking for is that Saturday against the Pelicans, our guy, Darren Fox, will make his return. Remember, De'Ren Fox and Victor Wingbayama played a total of five games last year, so it's not gonna be organic, it's not gonna look crispy early because of the fact they don't have that chemistry yet, but he will be a welcomed edition, no doubt, with that. Baseline buzz, castreens with history, a dozen names, graduating from who to a problem, to a real problem, and a return that brings pace but demands patience. We will keep the receipts to keep you honest. This is the baseline buzz, and we talk here about the news that all basketball fans want to know. So you know where we're going now, right? Y'all know where we're going for court press. We swing through a whole division, no skips, no mercy, every team, every truth, one press at a time. Each episode of the full court press is rapid, detailed, sweeps through a NBA division, all five teams, five mini reports, tone, high tempo, observational, and we put a little spiciness in there. You're not doing it, you're not doing PR, you're pressing full court on accountability, strategy, and what's actually moving the needle. So, where do we start? You know where we go start. We're gonna start in the ACL. And why are we starting there? For a good reason. The emotion, relief, mixed with curiosity, the Atlanta Hawks suddenly are in a I don't even know what you want to call this. It's it's kind of a no man's land, and we'll get to why, but they have lost Trey Young, he has a MCL injury, uh, he'll be re-evaluated in four weeks. And here's what I'm going to say about this. I believe that the Atlanta front office, the coaching staff, are really intrigued to see what this is gonna look like. Just be just saying it. They're losing an all-star, the Hawks are, no doubt. Will the ball be popping? Will the wings be flying around? And is everybody wondering if this is a glimpse and what Quinn Snyder wanted to do all along? This is we're probably gonna see really the first real version of Quinn Snyder's offense right now. And I'm not there's no shade being thrown to Trey Young. We're gonna talk about this, we're gonna break this all down, but there's no shade to him. Are we seeing growth or are we just seeing a novelty of a new script? The Hawks pace and spacing finally match Snyder's ideals. But can this movement offense survive scattering courts and November fatigue? No doubt the the Atlanta Hawks are probably in an identity crisis right now, but they do have some guys that are going to be able to help them along with this process. But let's get into what the where the Hawks are, where they're going to be, and there's a lot to get to. They're 4-4 currently, which is seventh in the east. They average 116.6 points per game. The opposition is averaging 117.4, their pace is 102.2, which is seventh. We talked about Trey Young and his injury. The team net rating is positive 3.6 without him. Just so you know. Sometimes subtraction teaches you more than the standings. And now the ball is in Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson's hands, and I wonder if we're looking at the future or are we looking at something that goes, man, I told you Trey is too valuable to this team. All will be all will be washed out. All will be said in the wash, man. It's gonna be great. We're gonna figure it all out. What makes this so juicy and spicy to me? Trey Young's deal is up at the end of the season. He has a$43 million expiring contract. Leagues execs say I value correction. Could be a trade window here if everything goes right with this situation while he's out. A guy that I want to talk about right now is uh a NECA conguo. And you go, well, why do you want to talk about NECA? We just talk about Trey. Well, it's all this all feeds into what what we're trying to do here. Remember in the off-season, the Atlanta Hawks picked up Christoph Barzingas. I said, damn, what does this mean for my guy NECA congo? Well, he got in the lab. And the reason why he got into lab on a real level, he's actually, to me, a he's shooting the ball from three very well. Right now, he's shooting 40.7% from three. Now, Jalen Johnson ascension levershift the front office math. And what I mean by that is that Jalen Johnson is somebody who can handle the ball. At 6'9, uh he has capability of seeing over the defense. Uh he definitely has the creativity to get the ball to his teammates. He doesn't seem to be a guy who's like, I'm taking 28 to 32 shots tonight. And there's nothing that my teammates or my coaches can tell me. Nope. Jalen Johnson is like a 18-shot a game guy. I think that's what he's averaging right now. And you go, well, that's all gonna change with Trey not in the lineup. Yeah, you're right. He's probably gonna go up to about 21. But I do believe that Jalen Johnson is the type of guy, let's get let's get a better shot than a good shot. If we could get a great shot instead of a good shot, then we've done our job. Why is this so fascinating? Well, it opens the door for so many things. The Hawks could trade the could test the trade market without tanking. Dyson Daniels is not averaging the assists that he did last year, but he's still doing his thing. He got he's 5.8 rebounds, he's almost four assists at 3.8, and he's still averaging 2.5 steals a game. Thriving as a point of attack engine. And what makes that so important in this situation is that if you don't have Trey on the court, you take one of the biggest defensive liabilities, in a sense, off your roster for a little while. Trey was constantly picked on because he's six feet tall, he's not very heavy, and let's put him in quick and roll action and see what happens. So now you are getting a situation where you're getting the kill Alexander Walker, and you're also getting Dyson Daniels. So you're talking about 6'4 and 6'7, and you're talking about good defenders. Boy, Nikhil Alexander Walker is heavily missed in Minnesota right now. Trust and believe that statement. But now what he's being asked to do here in Atlanta, this is real, real incredible situations for him because he's averaging 17.3 points a game, and he's hitting 1.9 threes a night. So he stays steady, eddy like that, gives the def gives the defensive pressure that he's been given, and also you're not even the number one point of attack, dude. You're just like you're going against a number two guy, which is great. If they're putting that type of pressure on the ball and they end up with a lot of steals, then the offense even gets easier for the Hawks. The Hawks had seven players in double figures in their last game. Everyone eight. No leftovers, no heliocentric hangover. That's from Sarah. And she is right. The one thing that we have talked about ad nauseum on this podcast in production of this podcast, not this particular podcast, but uh over the years. I wonder how difficult it is to play with Trey Young. Because that pounding the basketball for 21-22 seconds, and then you basically throwing up a grenade shot towards the ram, or you're giving the ball to somebody with three seconds left to go, and they're not as accomplished as Trey. So their anxiety level goes up, the chances of them hitting that shot, not great, and then they've been standing around for like 20 some odd seconds. Not great, Bob. The culture shift might outlast the injury stretch. It will depend on what the record is, though. Jalen Johnson's assist percentage is 25.4, a congru's true shooting percentage is 62.6. Evidence that there's a system flow. This is a Quinn Snyder offense. Five out. Ball is moving, ball is finding energy, everything is flowing, and you know, we're just trying to find rhythm. We're trying to find, take, we're trying to eliminate a good shot and get a great shot. That's all we're trying to do. Move without the basketball. Please go ahead and get some motion going on and make the decisions easier for the passer. You know, we don't want the ball to kind of stay in one area. We don't want the ball to get stagnant. These are the type of things that I know right now that's what Quinn Snyder is preaching. Because this is the same thing that he used in Utah. You know, Utah had Mike Conley, who was a steady point guard, but Donovan Mitchell had the ball a lot when he was there. This leads to Auntie Salah, who is uh taking over for God, what, two different regimes now? But Salah is the guy who is going to see what's going to happen with this team. Is he right here for the meritocracy run experiment? Or do we go back to the trade dictatorship? Only time will tell. And it really will depend on the record and how they how the execs and the scouts look at the offense once we get more sample size. Right now we're we don't have enough sample size to make a intelligent decision. The early records are good, but obviously we want to see this play out a little bit more before we start saying, Oh, okay, this is a real situation. But if this is, they're gonna have some decisions to make. The difference between confidence and stubborn, confidence adjusts. Stubborn keeps shooting from the parking lot just to prove a point. The building, the building has been patient, the fans have been loyal, but the tape doesn't lie. Trey has been launching 35 footers with 14 seconds on the shot clock. The game owed him clarity. Now without him, the floor moves freer, the passes got purpose, and the that front office, they're sitting there quietly, but they're thinking loud, can we do this differently? You can love the player. Trey Young has provided a lot of good moments in Atlanta, but you can outgrow his patterns. That's not betrayal, that's growth. You can't lead a team that learned to breathe without you if you keep choking the air off with your shot selection. It is something that we have been talking about for years with Trey Young, and it was one thing that I thought with Quinn Snyder that that would change, and I would say that it has changed a little bit, but it's not changed fully. Trey Young still throws out the obligatory 34-footer with a bunch of time on the clock, and you just don't understand why. And you well, people say, well, he shoots the ball. That's what he does. He's a shooter, he's a gunner. Well, you can be a gunner on a team that has no aspirations of doing anything in the playoffs, but at some point, Atlanta wants to be a competitive team in a wide open east. You definitely want to make sure that you have all your ducks in a row. I don't know, Atlanta fans, you let me know. Hit us up at FR hit us up at Frontrunner PC or hit us up at Raya underscore function FRPC. Let us know what you think about the non-trade games. Let us know what you think about just the flow of the offense. What you think that this could possibly mean as far as uh your guy staying in Atlanta. Do you want him to stay? Do you think the team is better off without him? Let me know. I will be I will be very interested in those comments. Now we need to move down to Miami. Now Miami right now they sit at 4-4 with one of the fastest pace, one of the fast pace in basketball, and the weirdest calm. The offense is fireworks 122 a night. The defense feels organized, and the question hanging over Biscayne isn't what are the heat, it is what to do, what do they want to pay for? Denver punched them late, Charlotte's on deck, and the schedule says, hey, we'll get clarity fast. Now they have Tyler Hero out. I want to keep that in mind when we talk about what this team looks like right now. Let's talk about some of their numbers. They are 105.3% in pace. That is first in the NBA. Their net rating is positive 4.5. They are 162 point two 162.2 offensive rating. Their defensive rating is 111.7. We told you they're averaging 124 point 122.4. They they make 14.33s a game on almost 39% accuracy as a team, which is great. Speedy is the policy now, not personality, because really, who do they have right now? Like we said, Tyler Hero is out with a foot injury. His name has been leaked, he's been linked to trade targets as far as that's concerned, with an extension looming, paying for two-way reliability, or paying for shot creation. That's the thing they have to answer for themselves. Now Bam is averaging 19. Bam out of bio is averaging 19.9 points a game. He's also averaging 8.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists. He is still BAM out of bio. Defensive captaincy stable. Uh, you're getting good production for Jaime Hotcast, 17.4 points a game, or 62.5 effective field goal percentage. He's a connector. He also plays a little bit of defense. He also knows how to get into his mid-range. But the guy who's holding it down for them is Norman Powell. Boy, let me tell you. With Jaime Hot Cass Jr. out here, UCLA dude, Norman McPowell out here as a UCLA dude, Norman Powell is averaging 23.2 points a game. His spacing, his rim pressure, all great. That makes Wiggins not ancillary piece, but more like in a more comfortable role for himself. Because if Bam is getting the shots and then Norman's getting the second round of shots or whatever the case may be, Wiggins can fall into that number three role, which he's more suited for. And he's currently averaging a comfortable 17 points a game, and his his uh effective field goal percentage is uh 60.2. So he's doing what he needs to do, and I love it. I love that he knows exactly who he is right now. Now, Miami is still not as talented as the other teams, that's why they have a 500 record. This is a resilient team, they're always better than the sum of their parts. Eric Spostra, who we'll get to in one second, because there's some stuff going on with him. This dude has just been like an NBA lifer, but also he's been an NBA survivor. And what I mean by that, no, he hasn't been coaching in 13 different places or anything like that. But the new ways for the Heat to win games, the new ways that they reinvented themselves as he's been the coach for a a long period of time, it's him, him looking at his team going, okay, we don't have the greatest shooting, or whatever the case, we're not big, or whatever it is, he figures out a way, like, we're gonna we're gonna find a way to win. We're gonna find a way. And he usually does. But reality has hit home for the Miami Heat. Yesterday, Eric Spostra, his five-bedroom, six-bath home went up in flames. There's been no injuries reported. When you think about Eric Spostra, you think about what he's been able to do as a coach, right? Uh he's been able to adjust on the fly when there's been an injury. He's been able to figure out lineups when you know they had a plethora of injuries and the what have you. And when they didn't have the talent to figure out how to win, he figured out a way to win. We'll muck this game up to do that. Well, when reality strikes you and your home is gone and your belongings are gone, and maybe some of your memories and things of that nature, it's a tough go. And uh, Front Runner Podcast Collective would like to send out our prayers and our thoughts. The head coach of the Miami Heat, Eric Sproster. Uh, because here's the thing: we can talk about all the money he's made, we can talk about, you know, is that organization gonna take care of him? Yes, all those things are true, but when you get displaced, you know, and I know he went through a tough situation, went through a divorce a couple years ago, whatever. Now you don't have a place for your kids to go. All that, you know, they're not coming to the same place that they knew. And those type of situations can wear on you. Uh JJ Reddick currently is going through it right now. He lost his home in the fire in the wildfires that we had last year. Oh, actually, it was really earlier this year, um, but it was last season, and now he's staying in a hotel. Yo, it's a tough deal. So, money doesn't solve everything. It really doesn't. Obviously, he has more money where he can make himself and his family comfortable, but it doesn't change the fact that he went through a really tough ordeal, and our hearts go out to him and his family, and uh yeah, man, speedy, speedy uh real estate situation for you, and we hope that you can uh battle through and persevere through this adjustment period that you have to go through because uh we saw it we saw it firsthand here in California. It happened, it was so quick, and just the devastation, and there are people who are still trying to pick up the pieces. Again, we send our thoughts and prayers out to Eric Sposter. Now, we talked about Atlanta and we talked about Miami, and why do we talk about these T two teams first? Because there's a point guard that is much maligned in Memphis, Tennessee, right now. And would John Morant be a right uh like a like a right landing spot? Would it be Atlanta? Would it be the Miami Heat? Now I'm gonna give you something that a lot of people will sit here and I'll you know we we stir it up with the trades and whatever the case may be. But I want to say this real quick. I think Job Morant going to Miami would be awesome. It would be awesome for him because one Eric Spelstra don't put up with mess. Pat Riley is the hammer, so if you get out of line with Eric Spelstra, you gotta go deal with the godfather, which is Pat Riley, and Pat Riley do not play any shit whatsoever. Okay, Jimmy Butler got out of pocket and Jimmy Butler got gone. So you can play with no joy or whatever the case may be, but here in Miami, you gotta have 4% body fat and you gotta pass these these conditioning drills, or you don't see the court. That's for sure. Let's turn that question around a little bit. Do I believe that John Morant is good for Miami? And I would actually tell you that the answer is no. I think Miami would be one wonderful for Ja. But I don't know if Ja would be wonderful for Miami. And the reason why is simply because our guy, John Morant, still can't shoot the basketball. He could provide extraordinary highlights. There are gonna be some dunks on people's heads that we sit here and go, I don't know how he did that. But as far as three-point shooting is concerned, I mean it just has not gotten better. Now, right now, it's in the toilet. He's shooting like under 15%, which is terrible. Now, will he shoot that all year? No. But is he gonna shoot 30%, 28%, 31%? Yeah, that's probably where he's gonna be. And that's not good enough for Miami Heat. Especially when you got Bam out of bio, you got Khalel Ware, uh, you got Hammy Hotest, you need to be able to create the gravity, and he just does not do it. So if I was Miami, I would kind of stay away from this situation, not because of the attitude issue, not because some of the disciplinary issues that he's had in Memphis or whatever the case may be, or that act that he pulled against the Lakers where he pouted on the court for a good six minutes in the fourth quarter when it that when that game was still in the balance. No, those are not the things that I would say are the reasons. The reasons are he has to be able to shoot the ball better. And I just don't think that right now will be the best time for John Morant to head down to South Beach. Can you imagine Ja running free off South Beach? You know what kind of you know what kind of nightlife Miami has. We're gonna let Ja out in them streets? That sounds like a bad idea for everybody involved, bro. I'm just letting you know right now that's terrible. Terrible. Atlanta also, another situation. Now his here's the thing. He's a better fit for my for uh Atlanta. The problem with him is in Atlanta is that he does not provide the defense that everybody else on that team provides, but they would be able to cover him up in Atlanta. I think he would be a good fit for Atlanta because of the fact that they got length, they got size, he wouldn't have to be the point of attack defender, they got shooting, because he doesn't need to shoot, but what he would need to do is get purposeful paint touches and then kick it out to his shooters, and then they have a bunch of those, and again they can hide them on defense, and that would be great. What do they have to give up to get Ja? Maybe the expiring contract of Trey Young. Here's the thing I don't think Atlanta has to give up any first round picks. Not what not with what Ja has been. So if I'm Memphis and I have to really look at myself in the mirror and say, what do I want to get out of this deal? Do I want picks? Do I want young players? Here's the deal. You might not have the big stick to make this deal work in the favor that you would want it to work for you. You might be looking at a what's the what's the the best of the worst case scenarios? What's this what's the situation we can live with? And that's the one you do. We need to get to the wizards. And go, Vince, we're gonna talk about the wizards for real? Yeah, we we are. We're gonna talk about the wizards, man. Got to. Gotta do it. Tell you why. Because every team is is is important, damn it. They're one and seven right now, so there's not a lot to talk about. Each loss teaches something. And Washington's tape won't shut up. They run fast, they defend almost nothing. But they still have two young p players that might turn out to be pillars. Alex Sarr put up a really good game the other night where he scored 31 points. He does provide good rim protection. He is still very, very young at 20. And he's the type of guy where I don't not necessarily say he is the guy, but he can be one of your guys as far as productivity and what have you. Anytime you are 7-1 and you can shoot it from outside, you got a chance in this league. And the other guy that I like is Keyshawn George. I love Keyshawn George. I think as he's just a lanky guy who can when the discipline is there, he can provide really good defense. He gets deflections and what have you. But right now, there's a lot of pain in Washington. And the problem is that this is what you had to go through. You're one and seven. Your last loss was against Boston. 107 to 136. You're playing Cleveland tonight. Your net rating is negative 15.5. I'm not going to even give the rest of the numbers because they're all terrible. Organizationally wise, develop, keep the pick, preserve the flexibility. The vet minutes are good for you. They help you with the structure. Getting Jordan Poole out of out of the uh the DC area was great. Chris Middleton is a is a cool vet to have there. And here's the here's the things that you kind of need to know. Right now, Alex Tsar is averaging 19 points a game, 8.4 rebounds, and 3.9 assists. He also has a effective field goal percentage of 58.4, and he is making 1.3 threes a game at a 45.5% clip. And I'm going to tell you right now, that's great. He's a second-year player. This is exactly the leap that you wanted to see. And this is the type of dude that you can say, okay. Like I said, he doesn't have to be the dude, he just has to be one of the dudes. And then Keyshawn George is also averaging 16.8 points a game, 6.8 rebounds, and four assists a game. He's shooting 50% from three. Just so you know. Now, Trey Johnson, your first round pick this last offseason, 11.6 points a game. He is not defending anything. This dude can defend a doghouse. Okay. I wouldn't let him defend a trash can. But he's young. This is what you thought you were going to have to do. And the reason why I say it like that is because here's the thing. Washington still has not gotten a top five pick in the in the thing. Like we can talk about SAR, whatever case may be, but we all know that that draft was was whack. Right? We thought role players coming out of there. This dude was the one dude that was kind of like SAR was the one guy that we thought like he had stark potential, but nobody thought he would be able to reach it. They thought he'd be more of a bus candidate. Haha. Jokes on y'all. Seven foot one. Y'all can't teach that. But are you going to go through some growing pains this year? Yes. Absolutely. Is it going to hurt? Yes. Absolutely. Are you going to see development of the young guys which you are actually absolutely doing? Yes. Absolutely. It's way better than what's going on in Brooklyn, New York right now. Where you got, well, Cam Thomas is now hurt. Rest hey. Rest in peace, my gunner friend. But then they got Michael Porter Jr. out there. He's getting all the shots. He's so excited right now. But they got five rookies that aren't getting the development that they need to work enhance their game on the offensive end. And what I mean by that is not the actual passing of the basketball. It's finding their shots and finding their places on the courts where they can be the most effective. That's not what's going on. But here in Washington, DC, this is exactly what's going on. And you're going to end up in the lottery again. This is what you had to do. You went through years of mediocrity. Years of like 38 and 44. Years of just like ending outside where the best lottery picks are, where you have the chance for the most upside with a guy. But you gotta keep doing this until you get the dude. And here's the thing: the prospects that are coming out this year, at least the top three, they're all franchise-changing type of guys. So best of luck to the Washington Wizards. Keep on supporting Alex Sartre, Keyshawn George, and also Trey Jones, who's averaging 11.6 points a game, but couldn't guard a code, couldn't he couldn't get rid of a code. But he's also 19, so what do we expect from him? To my fans in the district, this is tough. But the film shows the lane. Keep the kids on ball, demand real screens, and grade every possession or organization. Not heat checks. The young wing changes, speeds, the seven-footer is out here doing his thing. Coaching is a must. Vibes need to stay high. And it's building blocks. It's not mirage. It's not there's no quick fixes. But what you're gaining is a ton of experience that you need to go ahead and gain at this point in time. To another place that's going through it. And they've been going through it for a while. The Charlotte Hornets. The Charlotte Hornets right now are in a situation where uh just brief, fans. It's still another it's another year of injuries, it's another year of what's gonna happen. You guys are three and five, you're 12th in the east, you just lost a game to the Pelicans, you're playing Miami soon. Your offensive rating is 119.2, which is fifth in the league. But your defensive rating is 119.2, which is 26th in the league. Your net rating right now is 0.0, which is 17th, which is middle of the pack. You got injuries to LaMelo, who's questionable. You got uh Brandon Miller out with a with a shoulder injury, you got Colin Sexton out. So it seems all bad. But here's some of the takeaways that you need to understand. Lamelo Ball is still a guy that is box office. 23.3 points a game, 9.8 assists. Here's the problem that we have with LaMelo. His effective field goal percentage is 51.8%. Lamello is another Trey Young type of dude where he will shoot a 35-footer for no apparent reason. But there is hope. Khan Kanipple is all of what we thought he was going to be. 14.8 points a game, and he's shooting 41% from three on 7.6 attempt. He's a movement shooter. This dude is a professional dude even at the age of 19. And you guys fell into uh Ryan Cockbrenner. How do you like 82.9% field goal percentage? Now, albeit it is low volume, he's a vertical spacer, real efficiency off the charts, but he's blocking shots, getting rebounds. We love it. You guys are in the same situation that the the Washington Wizards are in. Even though you have better players, you have more exciting players. The problem is that LaMelo has not been the leader that you guys need right now. Unfortunately, we there's a lot of talent there, but until LaMelo wants to get real serious about basketball, get real serious about actually winning, and I'm not saying that he's trying to lose. That's not what I'm trying to say. I'm just saying there are winning plays and there are losing plays. And anytime that you want to shoot a a very ill-fated jump shot from like 37 feet, and LaMelo can make that shot. I'm not saying he can't, but 15, 16 seconds on the shot clock, that's not the shot that we're looking for. It might be another year, might be another year where you're looking for like that dude. And again, you we just hope that you end up in the top three. So then you can possibly get a dude where it's like okay, and then this pushes people down into maybe the roles that they were born to be in. Maybe LaMelo gets traded. Who knows? I don't know. Not this year. You need somebody to draw a gate, and LaMelo Ball is that dude. Buzz City, keep doing exactly what you're doing. This is a medicine season. Dose dosage, not despair. Con Kenimple's jumper is crispy clean. He's doing what he's supposed to be doing. This is another guy that you can sit there and get really hyped about. Culk Brenner is an absolute find for you. You're coming off the Mark Williams years where you didn't know if this dude was going to play 25 games or 40 games, which 40 games is still bad. And you're just waiting for the next guy. And I know that sucks because you want to be better and you deserve to be better now. You've gone through a lot of these. Hey, wait till next year, wait till next year, wait till next year. You are saying to yourself, can this year be the year? And unfortunately, the answer to that question right now is no. Lomelo has not gotten real serious about doing what it takes to be a leader and leading this team to gutty, gritty victories and what have you. I thought he would. I thought Charles Lee would be able to really impact him and allow him to be the star that he he could be. But until he takes some of these shots out his shot diet, we can't take Charlotte seriously. That leads us to a team that is in Florida. The Orlando Magic. Now they're struggling a little bit. Orlando used used to win by strangling by strangling teams. Now they're running fast, leaking points. They're three and five in the middle of the pack in defense, and that's isn't their brand. It's a warning light. The offense have added pace, they've added name recognition, but the identity has slipped. If the plan was Bain's gravity, opening the lane for Paulo and Franz, the tape right now says not yet. Let me give you a snapshot of what we're looking at with the Orlando Magic. They're 3-5 right now, which it's not an absolute tragedy. Losing to that Boston team was a tragedy. Because they're not very good. Their pace is 102.6, which is fifth in the league, but their net rate their net their offensive net rating is um negative 1.3, which is 19th in the league. They are offensive rating of 113.3, which is 24th. Their defensive rating is 114.6, which is 14th. But this is a team that they they their calling card was defense. And being 15 being 14th, you think, man, that's not that bad. They can get top 10. Well, in a second, I'm gonna tell you exactly why that's bad. Now remember, they got Desmond Bain in a trade. They gave up four they got gave up four first rounders for this guy, and they're about to be like severely over the cap. And I am trying to figure out what the hell has happened. Paulo Doncaro, 23 points a game, 9.5 rebounds a game, four and a half assists a game. But here's our problem with Paulo. He is currently shooting 24.2% from three on four attempts. I'm gonna say this. I have I've absolutely defended Paulo over the years when he wasn't the analytics darling, they say he wasn't efficient and all those types of things. I was like, listen, you don't know what he has to go through. You have no idea. There's not a lot of spacing, there's not a point guard, there's there's not a lot going on in Orlando, he has to do everything, and sometimes his his uh his second in command, Franz Wagner, shows up, sometimes he doesn't. Now we're gonna get into Franz in a second. He's actually having a better year this year, but I have defended Paulo. I can't defend him now. Because here's the thing whether Bain is struggling, and we'll get to that, whether Franz is not being what you thought he was going to be, you're the leader of the team. And if you are shooting four threes a game and your percentage is 24.2%, we need to get you to the to the spots of the floor where you feel more comfortable. Does that mean later you can go back to the you can go back and start shooting the three? Yeah. But right now, you can't shoot this. This is you cannot do this. This is terrible. And it's getting harder and harder to defend who and what you are. Now, Franz Wagner has had a bounce back year. He's averaging 22 points a game. His effective field goal percentage is still not exactly where I would want it. It's 54.8%, which is better than Paulo Wincaro's right now. Uh he's a steady two-level score, two-level, mid-range and dunking. Still not the greatest three-point shooter on the face of the planet. This is part of the problem. And Desmond Bane has struggled. And you know how I'm a Desmond Bane guy. 13.9 points a game. He's shooting 28.6% from deep. His gravity isn't hitting yet. And I don't know if he's injured. I don't know if it's just the system. He's learning the new system. He's not quite, he's not quite comfortable enough in that new system, but I would have never thought that Devson Bain would shoot 28.6% from three. That's that was not our monk bingo card at all. Do I believe that this will continue? No. He is a career 40 plus percent shooter from three. I believe that there's an acclamation process that he's going through, and unfortunately, you know, it's gonna take time. Unless there's an injury that we don't know about, and that's why he's struggling right now. But this is not Desmond Bain. Orlando Magic fans don't lose hope. Do not lose hope. Because Desmond Bain as a shooter is phenomenal, and when he starts lighting it up, it's gonna be real hard for teams to turn that off. But what it comes down to now is that Jamal Mosley, who's the head coach of the Orlando Magic, he has built this team on a defense first ethos. That's the standard. It must snap back. There's been communication gaps on second side help fouls after breakdowns. Uh the role clarity is abysmal right now. Shoot or shoot, stoppers stop, no roll drift. Basically, there are just gaps in communication. You gotta talk when you're out there. And again, here's the problem. Last year they had a shitty season because everybody got hurt. Do you know what their defensive rating was last year? In the bad season, they were second overall. Second overall in the NBA. We have 30 teams in this league. This team was often injured. Star players were hurt. Uh valuable, valuable role players were hurt. Jalen Suggs, who seems like the heart and soul of this team, was hurt. But yet and still, they were 41 and 41 at the end of the year with all the devastating injuries they had, and they were second in defensive net rating. Their defensive rating was second overall. So when we see them in the middle of the pack this year, it's a it's a cause of concern. Because your defense is is effort. Your defense is your energy level that you're paying attention on that side of the court. And right now, with mostly all the same pieces back, they're definitely not displaying the same energy that they did last year. The transition deed, bleeding after misses, the pace without making them punished, they're getting punished. They're absolutely getting destroyed. Now, shot diet. Is the defense best friend? You know why? Because if they're taking the ball out of bounds after you hit a shot, they're definitely not bringing up the court at a breakneck speed. So I would ask Paulo and I would ask Franz to go ahead and take more efficient shots. I would ask them to, and here's the thing. Paulo is 6'10, 250 pounds. He's 23 years of age. So he should have a ton of energy. And he should be able to bully his way to the basket. If you're not gonna hit your threes right now, I need you to bully your way to the basket and get this shit going on. Cuz you are supposed to be one of the like breakout teams this year. With everybody injured, this was a perfect time for Orlando to step up. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. But it's still early. So I expect better things from the Orlando Magic going forward. And here's the thing. If you look at the if you look at the players that they got, you gotta take the long view. You can't overreact to the slump, to the early season slump. Now you can augment, you can say, hey, what what else do we need? Well, we probably need uh somebody who can shoot it. We need somebody who can stroke the three at a good level. Who do you give up to get that? I don't know. Do you have any more picks to give? I don't know. Again, I defended Paulo's efficiency for two years. Now the spacing grenades, the workload, this season was a a mirror closer. If there are threes, if the threes are at 24.2% on four attempts, stop negotiating with that line whatsoever. Get downhill, get to your spots, punish mashups, you know, get into a pick and roll situation, get a small on you, and then start going to work. Let the jumper be dessert. If the plan is for Bane's gravity to take fold, somebody is gonna have to get to the paint. Somebody's either gonna have to force their way in the paint or they're gonna have to uh find innovative ways to get to the paint. Is there a shooter out there? Is there a shooter that's on that bench that nobody knows about? Are we are we still waiting for Anthony Black to reach his full potential? Because at this point, something has to give. Because I don't think that the Orlando Magic fans thought that this was going to be their year as far as like like this year, like this three and five start. It albeit it is a we got 74 more of these bad boys left. There's no time to panic. But y'all need to get it in gear, Orlando. So we talked about the Southeast Division today. We also brought up Darren Fox's coming back, which is great. Again, we wanted to send our thoughts and prayers out to Eric Spoker and his family for their house burning down. That was terrible. Um, we also want to, you know, talk about Jake LaVia being real good. We love that as a Lakers fan. You know I was gonna get that in. You knew I was gonna get that in. But with that being said, we're gonna get up out of here. I want to thank Saraya for what she does, it's great. Maya, you're excellent at what you do. Thank you so much. And again, if you are new to the podcast, welcome. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for listening to Front Runner Podcast Collective. We do this twice a week. The second thing is this be a friend, tell a friend about the podcast. Also, remember with the podcast, there is a blog that goes along with it. So if you go to frpc dot beam b-e-a-m dot ly, then you go to the little thing at the top of the thing, it has a three lines, click on that, go down the blog. There's a blog that goes along with this, it's a second screen experience. I suggest that you do that post haste. It is excellent because what we did not talk about here will be in that blog for sure. There might be a stat, there might be an observation that we didn't talk about here, it'll be in that block. So make sure you're getting the full immersion of Front Runner Podcast Collective. Make sure you're getting that because it's very important. And then the last thing is this the best part of you is you surround yourself with people who give you light, insight, joy, and accountability. And if you have people like that in your life, appreciate them out loud. That is your real wealth. And if you're still finding 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. This is Vince. Check it out. Peace.