Wemby On Ice, Spurs On Trial

Summary:

The NBA can turn in a week, and this one just flipped the table. We open with San Antonio’s gut-check moment: Victor Wembanyama’s calf strain removes a 9.9 block percentage and 21.5 rebound rate from the lineup, and the schedule shows no mercy. With seven of eight on the road and Phoenix, Denver, Minnesota, Orlando, and Cleveland looming, we ask what the Spurs’ system looks like when the alien isn’t erasing the paint. De’Aaron Fox has to carry, but the spotlight shifts to Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, and Stephon Castle to keep the offense honest while Mitch Johnson retools the defense with scram switches and gang boards. The message: resist panic moves, gather data on non-Wemby lineups, and buy time for a late-winter ramp.

Then it’s Philadelphia, where Tyrese Maxey is playing like a star and VJ Edgecombe is flashing two-way promise. Paul George returns at 35, fresh off knee surgery and a down year. On paper, he’s the perfect big wing and secondary creator; on the court, he could crowd touches and slow a thrilling pace. We lay out the decision tree: PG as stabilizer who eases Maxey’s load and mentors Edgecombe and Jared McCain, or a 30-game tryout before February if the fit stalls. The priority is clear—protect the Maxey-first era and preserve developmental runway without sacrificing playoff shot-making.

We also confront the Clippers reality. At 4–10 with the league’s oldest roster and another “ramping up” cycle for Kawhi, the margins are gone. The twist of the knife: Oklahoma City owns their 2026 first-round pick. If the slide continues and the lottery smiles on OKC, add another blue chip to Shai, J-Dub, and Chet and kiss parity goodbye. Paths forward aren’t pretty—limited assets, aging stars—but acceptance and a reset beat denial. Let deals expire, retool with youth and modern development, and stop renting yesterday’s ceiling.

To close, a bright spot in Detroit: Darius Jenkins delivered 26 and 8 with real pick-and-roll craft, purposeful paint touches, and lob timing to a monstrous Jalen Duren, who looks like an All-Star-level interior hub. Jenkins’ film shows a second-unit engine who can scale in a pinch, while Duren’s screening, finishing, and short-roll passing bend defenses in useful ways. Growth lives in the margins when teams protect the runway.

If you enjoyed this breakdown, follow and subscribe, share with a friend who lives on Hoop Twitter, and drop a review with your take: should Philly keep PG all year or flip him if he pops?

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Transcript

Solo Host, Roadmap For The Show

SPEAKER_00 0:13

What's good everybody? Welcome to Front Runner Podcast Collective where we talk like friends, we argue like cousins, and somehow we still live a little bit smarter. I am your humble host Vince, and sometimes I am your favorite bad influence, occasional therapist. Today, I feel like a captain on a on a ghost ship. I am by myself, solo dolo again, but it does not affect this podcast at all. We have so much to talk about. We're going to talk about the San Antonio Spurs and life without Wimby starts now. Uh we will go over that. We also are going to get into the Clippers and what's wrong, and also what's on the horizon, because that's very important. Speaking of the Clippers, we're going to talk about Clippers past. We're going to talk about Paul George now going to make his debut in Philadelphia with the 76ers and what it all means. The other thing that we're going to talk about is uh something that is near and dear to my heart, other than Paul George, which is reckless trade speculation. You know how much I love it. And to finish it all off, and what all the other last thing that we're gonna talk about is we're gonna get into um something that I caught my eye last night. And I was watching Detroit play basketball, and I really am a sicko. I really am because I took notes on a point guard that will probably not be the point guard of the Pistons very soon once K comes back from his injury, and we will break down Denise Jenkins uh night and what I thought of it. So that's what we have in store for you today. Uh couple things that I want to get off my chest is one again, thank you, listening audience, blog readers, for your tremendous support. You guys have really uh stepped up. There's a lot of you, there's different countries that are just coming in, it's just surprising to me. Because when you turn on this microphone and you start doing the podcast, of course, you think at some point you're gonna reach some people, but to really see who's out there, and that they're enjoying the podcast and not just enjoy one episode, they're downloading multiple podcasts, it's it's just warming my heart, and I cannot thank you enough. My appreciation to you, to our audience is very near and dear to me, because to me, it's like family. You know, you come in, can we get you a plate? Get you something to drink, kick it, do our thing. So that's what we try to do here at Frontrunner Podcast Collective. We talk about the NBA, and that is what we're about to do right now. And we will start in San Antonio, we will start at the Riverwalk down by the Alamo. Victor Winbayama goes down with the left calf string, and the whole NBA quietly sits in bed with the covers like right below their eyes, type of thing. This isn't just any seven-footer, this is a 22-year-old averaging 26, 12, and 4 with 3.6 blocks. He got grow man efficiency, he's anchoring the top six defense, a top eight offense, and you know what that means if you are in the top ten in both categories, you are a bona five playoff contender. The squares suddenly are staring at two to three weeks without their sun and their whole galaxy that orbits around them. For San Antonio, life without Wimby isn't theory anymore. It's seven of the next eight on the road, starting with Phoenix, a team that just punched them, then Denver, then Minnesota, Orlando, and Cleveland. All teams with real playoff agendas. De'Aaron Fox finally gets healthy, finally gets healthy, plays a handful of games with Wingby, and now he's looking at his adept chart where Dylan Harper, Stefan Castle, and Jordan McLaughlin are all dinged up too. This is what infrastructure check looks like. You will find out if your system is real without your alien cheat code available to you. I am um poor Darren Fox. He gets traded from Sacramento last year. During the trade deadline, right? That was as the Luca thing is taking over the world last year, and how could Dallas trade Luca to the Lakers of all teams? You know, everybody was all up in arms about Luca coming to the La La. Dearren Fox snuck into San Antonio, played a handful of games with Wimby five. And now he just came back off of injury, plays five more games with Wimbayama, and now Wingby's hurt. My man can't buy can't buy some luck. He can't buy it right now. But he gets to show off some of his clutch skills, and we'll get into that momentarily. My my question is always gonna be this how good are the others, really? And what does that mean for the next month? What did it tell us about De'Aaron Fox on his team? Because obviously, the difference with De'Aaron Fox on San Antonio and the difference between him on Sacramento is this. Sacramento was his team. Right now he's a placeholder for Wayne Bayama. And how does Mitch Johnson, the new head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, kind of walk that line with him? Wimby left Cap Strain will be re-evaluated in two to three weeks. So that doesn't mean he's necessarily getting on the court, just means that they're gonna re-evaluate him, which usually means he's probably out for a month. The 26.2 points per game, the almost 13 rebounds, because he's at 12.9 rebounds, four assists, and three point six blocks on true shooting percentage of six zero nine. That's a legit MVP candidate. Obviously, we got some all-world candidates ahead of him, but for a 22-year-old, just getting his feet wet and understanding what real contendership basketball looks like, those are impressive numbers. The San Antonio Squares got off to a really hot start, they're 9-4. Again, they have a top five net rating, which is plus 6.7, they're sixth in defense and eighth in offense. This isn't a cute start anymore. They were legitimate, and it's really hard when you see somebody who is so immensely talented, like Winbayama go down like this, especially when they were just about to hit their stride with De'Aaron Fox. Now they had some injuries also that they were dealing with. Those guys would have come back, and then we would have seen what this team could look like. Now we have to put all of this off until probably around Christmas time. We probably won't get to see the real the the best of this team until the end of January now. Cause you all have to coalesce to with one another through this situation. And here's the best part. Life without Wimby is super cold. It's a nuclear winner. When you got seven of the next eight on the road, and some of those opponents are Phoenix, Denver, Minnesota, Orlando, and Cleveland, you get no freebies there at all. And here's the best part. We have seen this movie before. Last year, when we went out with the deep vein throng bosses, San Antonio's record was 13 and 23. Now, do they have much improved depth this year? Yes. Obviously, when you have somebody like Deere Fox, who's a natural-born killer, and if he you keep it close, in the fourth quarter, he is a difference maker, no doubt. My whole thing is that we will now find out what Stefan Castle is all about when he gets back from his little injury that he got going on, too. I don't think he's gonna miss games, though. I think he's just kind of hoggling a little bit. So we can look at this as a calf strain or a full audit of the San Antonio Spurs and their foundation. So what does life without Wingby look like? What is it that we're about to see that we haven't seen? One, Wingbanyama provides the rim protection that nobody else in the league provides. There were teams that weren't even looking at the paint when Victor Wingbanyama was in the game. And then as soon as he left, it was like a tactic basket, like some red ants at a picnic. Cornet is a really good backup center, but he is not built for 30 minutes a game. So let's not even go there. I understand this is we're not asking for everything out of Luke Cornette, but he is not built for 30 minutes. Now he can be a capable spot starter. Defensive identity will shift to more scram switches, more team rebounding responsibilities, because you're taking 13 boards away. Offensively, you lose your automatic mismatch. I mean, when you have somebody who is seven foot five plus, it's it's weird. And he can get you out of so many issues either through his own shot creation or an offensive rebound where he can just throw in his what eight foot two wingspan and just tip the ball to himself or out to one of the guards. San Antonio again becomes a Fox first team. That's great in the short term, in the interim. The one thing that you don't want to do is have Fox be in a situation where he's just carrying the load completely. So we're gonna need to see Devin Vassell, we're gonna need to see Kelden Johnson, uh Stefan Castle do their thing and kind of keep this team afloat. There's no doubt in my mind that they have enough firepower to keep themselves in games. The thing that I absolutely am very interested in, that I'm very curious about, is on the defensive end. Wimby was such a just a security blanket where if you got blown by, you have a 7'5 standing behind you, and nobody wanted to touch the paint. I saw games where teams who average like 44 plus points, paint points, were getting somewhere in the a range of like 28, 26, things like that. They would go into the paint and just just feel like a force field, and they would just back out. Now we're in this situation where it is open season on San Antonio's uh interior defense, and we are about to see what this looks out looks like without Wimby. So where do the San Antonio Squares look for uh leadership? Obviously, we just talked about Fox. Devin Vassell has been there for a while now, so and he is a gate, he's a great compliment piece that you have, and he's gonna be able to get you anywhere between 17 to 23 points. He'll have that one occasional night where he just goes completely off. Also, Kelton Johnson's good in that backup role. But head coach Mitch Johnson has to balance accountability for sloppy games versus perspective on injuries piling up. Harker, Castle, McGaughlin, O'Linick, Sohan, and Waters are all in the training room right now. Leadership have is now will decide how this group handles the future playoff adversity. Now, here's some team metrics that y'all need to check this out. This is where this is what they're missing. Wingby's PER, which you know I don't like that stat, but we can use it to paint the picture right now, is 26.5. I told you why it's true shooting percentage. Here's the other thing. Wingby has a decent usage. He's 30.7. Now a lot of that was before De'Aaron Fox got there, so we don't know what that would have looked like. You know, we would have had a better sample size if this would have happened like a month later. God forbid. Now his uh total rebound percentage is 21.5. His block percentage, though, 9.9. That is nuclear impact. That is what they've lost. The team has a 118.5 offensive rating and 111.8 defensive rating. That's real contender profile, not noise. Now, what you will get with this situation is that, you know, if Harper can come back from his injury pretty quickly, is that you're gonna get real data on Fox-driven lineups with Castle and Harper once healthy. Um, this road trip is a sample-size gift for analytics groups. Ugly games, but valuable data. If the net rating stays positive without Wimby, the front office starts dreaming about real depth and not just vibes. The non-wimby minutes were so important, but we always knew he was coming back. Now we have a real stretch where we have. Like, that is what he is going for. He is talking about true greatness. He doesn't want to be a just a San Antonio great, he wants to be an all-time great. So it's a little bit different. So we're gonna treat this with kid gloves, make sure he's 100% healthy. This is why I say two to three weeks is very, very generous. I would expect somewhere in the range of four to five weeks personally, but we'll see how it all goes. Not to throw cold water on San Antonio Spurs fence. So now the calendar flips, the schedule gets mean, and the alien is in sweats for the first time with a real roster around him. We get a clear look at who the San Antonio Spurs are when Victor Wangmayama is nothing but a courtside camera angle. Darren Fox has to carry them through this road gauntlet, and Mitch Johnson has to coach like with the training wheels are off. The locker room itself is full of nice pieces, a lot of people that we like. It has a chance to prove that they're more than the wing bayettes. We don't want them to be footnotes in someone else's MVP season. This is where the old Spurs reputation meets the new Spurs reality. Do they stay patient, protect the future, trust the system, or do they tr do they chase early season wins and pretend the risk isn't real? I think right now what you're looking at is that there's no reason for them to panic, make any kind of panic trades or anything like that. Victor Wang Mayama's coming back. Um they pushed some of their chips into the middle of the table last year for De'Aaron Fox. Let's allow De'Aaron Fox to be who he is, which is, like I said, a natural-born killer. Personally, I think San Antonio will kind of weather this storm now. Are they gonna be top five when Bayama comes back? I think not. We're gonna have some ugly losses here. But if they can stay above 500, if they can stay like four games over 500, like kind of a little bit where they are right now, what will put you in a situation where top six is still a reality. And you don't have to put your foot on the gas pedal when Wimbayama comes back, you can just play your natural course of business and continue to build the cohesiveness that you have not built yet. Because we have not seen Dearon Fox and Victor Winwayama play more than 20 games yet. This they played 10 together. So obviously, there are some there's some kinks to work out, obviously. So I am more on the patient side than I am on the side of hey, let's go all in right now. It's not time for that, not time for that at all. So San Antonio fans, core Vita fam. What's your panic meter without Winbayama? 1 to 10. And who do you trust to step up most? That's something I would like to know. So, I want you to send that to Twitter at FrontrunnerPC, or also you can send that to FRPC Vince at gmail.com. Let me know what's up. And I'm gonna tell you, these responses come in. If they're good, they make the pot. But if they're not good, we can't put mediocrity on the pod. You know that. Speaking of mediocrity, speaking of, I have some intrusive thoughts that I want to share with the audience right now. Tyrese Maxie and VJ Edgecombe have been hooking in Philadelphia. And I have been thinking to myself, now that I found out that Paul George is coming back, do the Sixers actually need Paul George? Or is it just the idea of Paul George? Hilly is 75 with a top 10 offense. Maxie is dropping 32-8 on big usage. And Edgecombe looks like a real two-way find. He's averaging 15 points, five rebounds, and four assists as a rookie. And we haven't really seen Jared McCain yet this year. Remember, he took off like a like a Phoenix last year. It's been fun, it's been fast, it's been loud. The kind of energy that feels more future than last dance. Now, George, fresh offseason knee surgery, and a season where he slid to 16 points per game last year. He was uh shooting 43% from the field, 35% from three below his uh his career averages, obviously, is walking through the door. Now on paper, he's exactly what the Philadelphia 76ers need. A big wing, a secondary creator, contested shot maker. He can be a defensive option, we will see on that, on jumbo guards. And here's the thing that I want to press the pause button on. Paul George is 35 years old. Coming off a decline tape, and here's the non-zero chance you're getting 75 to 80% of what Los Angeles Clipper Paul George looked like. Because we definitely didn't see it last year. We definitely did not see that last year. We saw a guy who looked slow, he looked timid, he looked like he was thinking too much out there, and it wasn't like naturally flowing for him. And I don't know if that had to do with Joel Embiid in and out of the lineup. I didn't know if that had to do with playing with Tyrese Maxie, and was he comfortable playing with Tyrese Maxie? We had no clue, but I know Philadelphia fans felt like they got sold of just a bag of goods. Is it fair to ask if adding an older George slows down Maxie and VJ Edgecomb and their timeline? And also, you know how I love to say this. So if you guys play a drinking game with this word or this phrase, go ahead and pour some in a glass right now because I'm about to say it. I'm always talking about developmental runway. Now we know who Maxie is, he's showing he's showing himself to be you know super great, but who we don't know what he's gonna be, we're starting to see glimpses of it, is VJ Edgecombe. And then also Jared McCain. We want to see Jared McCain play basketball. Does Paul George's now availability slow down that process? And Philadelphia fans, 76ers fans, I know y'all don't like to hear the word process. I know that's a triggered word for you. It means a lot of losing, you know, 65 plus losses and things of that nature. I wasn't trying to trigger you. What I was trying to say is that we're in a situation right now where we have three really electric uh wings and guards out here who are really trying to make their carve their uh their their name into the NBA, and VJ Edcombe is like in the virgin stages of his development, and as well as Jared McCain, because if I'm not mistaken, Jared McCain played like 32 games last year. So it wasn't like this huge sample size, what we saw was impressive, but it's Paul George about to slow all that down. Ubre has a LCL injury, and the winged dip issues make George feel necessary on paper. But if he comes back and he's 16 points per game, low rim pressure, jumper heavy again, do you need that long term? And if you're a Sixers fan, are you looking for just as many wins as possible? Get Joel and Bede into the playoffs, baby him all year, and then unleash your dragon on the playoffs? Is that what you're hoping for? Or are you a Philadelphia 76ers fan that goes, I believe the children are our future. Help them and make them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they have inside. Give them a self of pride, give them a sense of pride. Shout out to the late great Whitney Houston. You know what I'm saying? Now, what I mean by all of this is that again, I like the version of the Philadelphia 76ers that is featuring VJ Edgecomb. I want to see Jeremy McCain, and I want to see this new improved Tyrese Maxie who's out here doing his best Allen Iverson impersonation. Just play the hits. Play the hits, damn it. Now, what I will say, Maxie is playing 40 minutes a game. Okay, that is a lot. He's also at a 30.9 usage rate. And his recent 28 for 74 shooting stretch shows fatigue. So Paul George coming back, being that guy who can kind of slow down the offense a little bit, be like, all right, we're gonna get a we're gonna get a real good shot, could be a welcome sight for our guy, Tyrese Maxie. He can run pick and roll, hit pull ups, keep Maxie from driving into a wall nightly. He also plugs the small forward hole created by Ugres injury. And we know the tsunami poppy was getting it done. He gives Nick. Nurse a little little lineup flexibility because he's 6'8, 6'9. He can play that, he can play that four spot or the three spot. You know, it's dealer's choice when it comes to that. But I am still wondering about last year. Was last year um just basically an image of what is to come? Is that what we should expect out of our guy from going forward, Paul George? Or can he get closer to Los Angeles Clipper version of Paul George? Only time will tell. What we don't want to see is this. We don't want to see Paul George turn Maxie into a floor spacer. That is not what we want to see. Maxie's touches per game and edge comb usage once George is back. I'll be very interested to see what that looks like. Paul George is a veteran, no doubt. He will help the younger regime, like i.e. Jarrett McCain, and also VJ Edgecomb. He can help Edgecomb learn learn about off-ball reads, pacing, and how to live in a star market like Philly. So he can be a good valuable vet. But if we're asking West Coast 35-year-old coming off knee surgery, you know, if we're asking that dude to be Superman, it might be a big ask. Might be a real big ass, personally. And here's the thing the culture of the 76ers is Tyrese Maxie now. I think we saw that last year when they had the players only meeting, and Tyrese Maxie spoke up about Joel and Bede and said, hey man, you need to get to places on time. You need to get your shit together. Because you are our leader and you are not leading by example right now. I think with his improved play, obviously, when you're averaging 32 and 8, you're you're the number one. Like there's no question about whose team this is at this present time. Now Paul George can mess up the chemistry, or Paul George can be additive. It all depends on what role Paul George wants to be in. Now, here's the best part. He has played with dynamic guards before, or dynamic wings before. He has played with Kawhi Leonard, he has played with Russell Westbrook. So this is nothing new. Paul George being like the leader of a squad, that has not happened since he left Indiana. So he understands what a compliment piece looks like, and he has played that role to a T. Now my question is, can he regain some of his physical attributes that left him last year? Because even before the knee surgery happened, we saw a very watered down Paul George. And it looked scary to me because I was like, man, did this dude just hit that that old person wall? Because I think we've been spoiled as NBA fans to see Steph Curry play into his late 30s and just be dominant. And also LeBron James, who I'm gonna get to a little bit later, play you know, he's in what year twenty-three now, which is ridiculous. And he's still like a twenty, you know, twenty-four or twenty-five point per game type of dude? We'll we'll find out. We'll we'll find out tonight. We'll tease now. Here's the other question I have about the 76ers and Paul George. Does Daryl Morey use this as a live tryout? Is Paul George still a near star or just a large salary glue? If George looks like Clippers Year 2, 3 for 30 games, do you write do you write it out and push in all your chips, like I said? Are we just kind of manicuring the season to get Joel and B to the playoffs and then unleash them? Or are we trying to pivot? Now, this all blows up in your face if this is last year's Paul George. You know what I'm saying? This is last year's call George. We're kind of like, we're in no man's land. But Maxie and Edgecombe's growth gives Philly leverage. They no longer are beholden on to aging superstars. They do not have to care about Joel and Bede's feelings anymore. You know, Paul George, when he was signed or when he got traded to Philadelphia, it was a big deal last year. We thought, oh, wow, this could be a real big piece, and if they could just nurse Joel and Bede to the playoffs, which it didn't happen, that's a you know, that's another story. But I I saw the vision, what they were trying to do last year. I saw it. Like, okay, so we get Paul George, he's a vet, uh, he definitely understands how to play a complimentary role. He will be able to be a uh a great confidant to Joel Unbead and give him a secondary, a second side action type of dude that will be very dangerous to deal with. Now, we got VJ Edgeco. Now we got this this new version of Tyrese Maxie, and those guys, they're great. So, it got me thinking, if Paul George is 80%, 85% of himself, like the code version of Paul George, are you able to trade him in February and get pieces back? Because let's be honest, I understand that Joel and B's contract will probably be really hard to move. I'm not saying it is impossible because we seen Luca get traded, right? We have seen Bradley Bill get traded and tossed around in whatever the case may be. Pause. I I got it, I understood what I just said. But we've seen all this, and yet and still things happen. But when you have the foundation of Maxie, VJ Edgecomb, and I'm very high on Jared McCain and what he can sh what he can shoot like and what he can provide for the 76ers. If somebody was willing to take on Paul George, because they just needed that like that veteran wing, if he's looking more like PG back in LA days, I wonder what Daryl Mori's move would be. Again, we saw the drop-off in percentages in his uh field goal shooting and his three-point shooting last year. But I'm also with Ubre out, I'm kind of going like, Maxie, he can't give you more than what he's giving you. We saw this with Nikolo Jokic last year, where he was putting in 42 to 44 minutes a game, and as soon as they took him off the court, this, I mean, the lead would just go away and just evaporate, and now you're in this situation. But Paul George, even in a more diminished role, in a diminished state of what he used to be, can still provide you some buckets. He can still provide you maybe a little, you know, headiness on that second side creation vibe. And if the floor is tilted towards Maxie and VJ Edgecomb, maybe you don't have obviously the better defenders on Carl George. Maybe you have lesser defenders on Call George, and then he can go to work, he can cook. Well, that's the hope in Philadelphia. I will hope that I think I think that's the hope. But again, I believe in the kids, and I want to make sure that the developmental runway for these kids stay open. I hope that Carl George is just an added of piece to what is going on with Philadelphia and not, hey, you're coming back to be the savior. And here's the thing in Philadelphia, you guys know a lot about high salary role players. You had to buy a Ceres on your team. 76ers fans, is it too soon? Is that y'all still sensitive about that? And the line is this you are building a maxi first era. You're not chasing one more poster of an agent co-star. Understand that. We moved on. So, 75 Sixers fans, what do you think? Is Paul George, is PG, a trade deadline dude if he's 75 to 85% of what he used to be in his prime? Let me know. Hit me up on X or Twitter, however you like to call it, at Frontrunner PC. That's where I'll dwell. That's where I want to be listening, you know, looking at your comments to this situation. Let me know. Also, let me know. Like, the first words, if you're talking about Philadelphia, right, and this and what's going on there, also want to know which which is the Philly cheesesteak that y'all really get down with. I want true Philadelphians to let me know. If it is it Pat's Is it Pat's? I just want I need to know. Now, speaking of Paul George and speaking of his old team, we need to get to this clipper situation because it's very intricate. And so we're gonna really dive into what's about happening with the Los Angeles Clippers. You know what I'm saying? And a lot of people are sitting here like Vince, you really about to do a segment on the Clippers? You goddog right I am. You know why? I'll tell you exactly why. Tell me if you haven't heard this one. At some point, if they ever get healthy and stops being analysts and becomes denial, okay? The 2025-2026 Clippers are 4 and 10. They are 25th in scoring, they're 23rd in net rating, and it already, and it looks like they're already running out a who's who on the injury report. Kawhi Leonard, day-to-day, knee, um, whatever they like, rest. You know, this guy we'll get to him momentarily. He's missed last two weeks with the ankles and ankle and foot screens. They're one and six without him. Bradley Bill, season ending hip fracture, and now Derek Jones Jr. Their 28-year-old starting wing, shooting 53%, and guarding the toughest perimeter guy every single night, is out for six weeks with a MCL screen. Now, the MDA's oldest team is now down another under 30-year-old body, still asking James Harden at 36, Nick Batum at 37, Brooke Lopez, and Chris Paul. Hello. Hello. Like Brooke Lopez is like 36, 37 as well. Chris Paul is 40. He is dusty. Okay? He is dusty. And hanging all over the Clippers is the ghost of trades past. And you want to hear the glee in my voice. I am I'm not gonna hide it. I'm a Lakers fan. I have never liked the Clippers, I have never supported the Clippers, I will never support the Clippers. I always talk about the Clippers leaving Los Angeles. Why do we need you? And then they built the Intuit Dome. You know what I'm saying? That's a nice place. I ain't gonna I can't front on the Intuit Dome. It's very nice. You know? So what goes on? Here's the thing. They're four and ten. I told you about the ugly numbers that they got going on. I told you about what's left in the cover. Guess who owns the Clippers 2026 first round pick? You guessed it. It is the number one team in all of basketball. It is also the reigning defending NBA champions, your Oklahoma City Thunder. Man, think about that. In the summer of 2019, when the Lakers are sitting here thinking that they're trying to get Paul George, actually, not trying to get Paul George, they were trying to get Kawhi Leonard. Now, by the way, tell me if you haven't heard this, right? We've been talking about all the salary cap circumvention going on with Kawhi. Kawhi and his group asking for a ton of stuff and everything like that or whatever. And then Kawhi says, hey, if you can get Paul George, I'll come to the Clippers. Right? And little did you know at the time, Los Angeles Clipper fan, the four or five of you that are out there. And I know y'all listen to this podcast. I know y'all do. So Vince, you really, you really shouldn't know my team right now. Yeah, I am. I'm sure I am. You know why? Because here's the truth. Paul George gets traded from Oklahoma City, Sam Chresty, doing magic again, magical, magical things. Not only did he trade Paul George for a boatload of picks, Shea Gilge's Alexander went to the Oklahoma City Thunder. And you say, well, we know this, Vince. Why are you bringing up old stuff? Why are you bringing up old stuff? Because here's the thing. If the Clippers are going to finish as a lottery team, and we know that the the odds have been flattened, could you imagine? Like, I know there I myself Vince Carter very ex very, very, very not looking forward to this, but could you imagine as the envelopes are opened up and one of the top three envelopes say the Clippers, which means it says Orlando, I mean it says Oklahoma City. Could you imagine what that's gonna look like? They already got Shay, they already got Jalen Williams, they already got Chet Hongren, we got people coming out the woodworks, we got Jay, we got AJ Mitchell, we got Aaron Wiggins. You know what I'm saying? We got people who aren't even playing this year. Thomas Sorber is a center out of Georgetown who's basically getting a red shirt year because he hurt his ACL. And oh, by the way, he gets to watch Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Hongren do their thing for a year and then just get just implemented into that system. A top three pick for the Oklahoma City Thunder would probably be the equivalent of Kevin Durant going to the Golden State Warriors circa 20 2016-2017. Yep, I said it. And I stand by it. I stand by it because we cannot have Derren, we can't have Derek Peterson, we can't have Cam Boozer, nor can we have AJ DeBanster going to Oklahoma City. Now, Oklahoma City fans are probably sitting there going like Vince, why you hating on us? I'm not hating on y'all. I'm not hating on y'all. But Adam Silver talks about competitive balance. Adam Silver talks about parody. You know what blows up parody? Y'all lucking up into a top three draft pick. That's what blows up parody. You guys are already sick good. You guys are disgusting good. You don't need AJ DeBanster. You don't need Cameron Boozer. And you damn sure don't need, I guess, the second coming of Kobe Bryant and Derek Peterson. I know that sounds sacrilege, Lakers fans, but all reports are that we got one. We got a 6'5, 6'6 guard who works on craft, who works on skills like to a maniacal level out here in Kansas. Just saying. The record is 4 and 10 right now. I talked about their 23rd net rating. By the way, it's negative 4.9. Now, when Kawhi does play, it's 24 points 24.3 points a game on 62.5% true shooting percentage. But they're one and six without him. Again, it's the oldest team in the league, and they don't have any outs. They don't have any. There's no way out of this. They can't, you know, you I don't know what you'd have to give up to try to get that pick back from OKC. What would you have? You don't have anything to give them. They're gonna like, um no, we'll just take, we'll just take this 2026 pick. You don't have young talent that is like diffused into your system where you can say, hey, OKC, we'll give you dude. Can you give us a 2026 pick back and then we call it even? No. No. Now, um, Zubox is awesome still. Hardin's gonna have to be great again. Now, Ty Lu, who is the coach of the Clippers, he called uh Derek Jones Jr.'s impact. He said everywhere, says a lot. He did the grind work the stars don't do. Kawhi's situation with the ankle and foot screen ramping up. That's I know the Clippers are are so tired of using that phrase when it comes to Kawhi Leonard. Ramping up on the trip, but no firm timetable. Have we seen this movie before? This seems like every fast and furious movie we've ever seen. I'm gonna say it again. The Clippers put out a statement that said Kawhi Leonard is ramping up from an injury, but no firm timetable. Yo, tell me, tell me this doesn't look like every car chase in Fast and Furious. We're gonna get like a dramatic slow turnaround from Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto. Tell me that you don't see this when you hear no firm timetable. So it's on Zubots and John Collins. Those are your log threats, those are your guys who are gonna have to get it. They're gonna have to play out outside their bodies for the Clippers to drag themselves out of this hole. You gotta hope and pray that Kawhi Leonard shows up sometime soon and can play for a prolonged stretch of time. That's the other thing with this, is that we played like 13, we played like 13-14 games. Guess what? He's played in six of them, missed seven of them. That's crazy. This is what they've been doing every single year since this trade happened. Since Kawhi Leonard signed on the dotted line. This is what's been going on. I feel bad for the Clippers organization in one way, that they've been held hostage by this situation since he got there. But I'm gonna tell you right now, what I do not feel bad about is Sam Cresty absolutely fleecing you, and he continues to just cash in dividend after dividend on you. And you know who knows a lot about dividends? Our guy Steve Walmer because he gets$999,999,000 worth of dividends on Microsoft every year. So you know who I don't feel bad for? Steve Walmer. I do not feel bad for Steve Balmer. One last bit. And by the way, can't wait. Are we we gonna are we gonna get some kind of um finality, some confirmation on this salary cap circumvention, or is this thing gonna be gently swept under the rug? Because I wonder if this becomes almost like the MB. Now, when I say this, I want people to understand that I'm not saying it to be controversial, I'm not saying it for like clicks or whatever, but I'm saying it just tonality, just listen to the tonality. I wonder if this turns into being the NBA's version of the Epstein's file. And what I mean by that, and I understand that's a delicate subject, but what I'm talking about, this is also a delicate subject. If all the NBA teams have to open their books to Congress, all bad. All bad. I'm telling you right now, nobody wants this. There is not a team, there is not a franchise in the NBA that wants to turn over their books to the government. So where do we go from here? What does Lauren Frank do? Well, there's a couple things to think about. One, and this is this is one of those things that I'm definitely gonna put ten toes down on. The Clickers title window is closed. Not because of hate, because of the time. Age, injury, and the numbers all point in the same direction. Tough out, not a contender. Guess what? We don't even know if they're gonna get to the playoffs this year. That 2026 first to OKC is the perfect symbol that you mortgaged your future and still came up short. The years have passed. OKC won this trade. The franchise can either chase one more imaginary run or start building something that can last. Here's the thing let all these contracts, Kawhi's contract, Harden's contract, let them all end. Steve Ballmer got a ton of money. Go invest in young free agents and see if you can start building from there. I think after this 2026 pick, I think actually the nightmare is over for the Clippers. I hope it is. Then you can get back to the business of building your franchise the right way. I still think you have the people in the building that can do that. I think Lawrence Frank is a very smart guy. But man, did y'all take y'all medicine on this deal? I told you I had something special for you at the end of this. So I'm sitting, I'm watching some basketball last night, and I am watching the Pistons play without Kay Cunningham. And I'm going, like, let me check out this kid that everybody's talking about, right? So I checked out Denise Jenkins, who played against the Indiana Pacers last night, and I took some notes. So I hope that you guys enjoy it. I'm gonna tell you my thoughts on my guy right now, and then we'll go from there. Now, the line that he had was pretty impressive. He scored 26 points. He shot over 50% from the field. Now, three-point shooting lacked. He was one of five from three-point line. He was three or four from the free throw line. He had eight assists. He had four turnovers. He also had four personal fouls. But he was a plus 23 in box plus minus. Okay. That's ridiculous. We like that. So let's get into it a little bit. Pistons are shorthanded. Cade is out. Ivy is still out from the knee surgery. Asur Thompson was out. So Jenkins was out there being the primary guard, just doing his thing. It's like, listen, there ain't nobody left. It's just you. Now, obviously, this is a this is a a team in the Pacers who also have their injury issues, right? We got no Tyree Saliburton until next year. So this is not the true Pacers that we usually have come to know and love, right? So I do want to take that into consideration. But the Pacers play hard. They don't not show up. You know what I'm saying? I know the records don't really reflect that, but they they don't have any center. Right? You know what I'm saying? Like Andrew Neilhard trying to do it. Our guy Aaron Neesmith is trying to do it. But right now, it's it's hard. It's hard being a Pacer fan right now. So I want to talk about what he did in this game that kind of impressed me. What I did see is that he had a really good connection with Jalen Dorn in this game. They ran high pick and roll several times. It was the bread and butter. You see this all over the second quarter and the fourth quarter. Um so there was an empty high pick and roll with Doran uh in the second quarter with 1105 to 925 stretch. Um there was a missed drive at 1152 and 11.07 led to Dorn plugbacks because he was getting to the ram. My guy, Denise Jenkins, was getting to the ram like on a real level. Now at 9.47, my guy threw a lob to Jalen Dorn that almost shook the building. And it also was an and one. Then he got the ball to Jalen Doran again for a reverse dunk at 9.25. Now, with 8.36 to go in the second quarter, there was a straight line drive for Jenkins, layup, then at 8.05, there was a there was a pull-up, both triggered, high screen, cross matches, confusion, and the Indiana defense look cooked. Now, also, I told you winning time. Okay, winning time. Fourth quarter. We'll talk about this a little bit later. But he did major work. Now, he also faced some adversity in this game. Jenkins likes to push off live stops, turnovers, and he gets into early drag picking roles. First quarter with five minutes. And 17 left to go. Running layup. Fast break running layup after Jenkins Green and Jenkins combined for a steal. Second quarter, multiple sequences where he's attacking before the defense is set. Even if he misses, the tempo tilts towards Detroit and Doran cleans up the off the glass. Because Jalen Doran is an absolute murderer on the glass. Okay. This dude is giving us vibes of. He's giving us like old school vibes, Ben Wallace vibes. You know what I'm saying? Like I love what Jalen Doran is doing right now. Fourth quarter, 757 left to go. Fast break, running layup from Levert pass for a 105.91. It was a classic hit ahead. Re-engage of the action. Now, slot drives and short pull-ups. Middle range game. Does he got one? For sure. First quarter, early pull-up misses 14 feet. Right? Step he hit a three-point step back. Over-eager shot selection. I didn't like that. Second quarter with 232 to go. 13-foot pull-up after reset. Because he's like, yo, I'm going to get downhill. I'm going to stop on a dime. And then rise up and drop this 13-footer. Third quarter, 1102 to go. 8 foot fadeaway. Cash. Money. Fourth quarter, 836 left to go. Four five foot floater. Flow game on tilt. Then he had a 10-foot fadeaway with 606 to go with a driving finger roll to go ahead and culminate that situation. He is real touch in the in the 6 to 15 foot band area. When he gets two feet in the paint, he can score. Over size, which is great. But you want to see as plan B counters, when the roller is taken away, not early clock shock bailouts. You want to see like a better plan. Like if the plan A is taken away from you, we need to have a definitive plan B. Now this takes time, right? So I'm I'm talking, in a sense, both sides of my mouth right now. But what I'm trying to say is that this is where the improvement comes in. This is where it's like, okay, if you really want to be that guy, you really want to be that dude, you got to have a counter to the counter. Something that I always say. He does take a couple early shot clock threes that I'm not too thrilled with. It look a lot like D'Angelo Russell, and you know how I have a problem with D'Angelo taking three-point shots with like 19 seconds to go with on the uh 24-second clock. You know how I can't stand it. With 352 left in the fourth quarter, he hits a big 23-footer, three-point off a kick out to restretch the lead to 17. So showing some clutchness. You know what I'm saying? Showing I like that. We're gonna get to the eight assists. Because this is where if you gotta understand, K is the dude. Okay, we know who who runs this squad. But you know what Detroit has been looking for? Is they've been looking for a backup point guard for a minute. Right? So let's talk about some of these assists, because he had eight of them. First quarter, 759, drive kick, two steward for the three. What this shows is that his ability to get into the lane, which he definitely he definitely makes it a point to get purposeful paint touches. And you know how much I love that, because what do I always talk about with the paint touches? What does this mean? If you're in the paint, the defense is gonna collapse around you now. If you have the vision or you have the infrastructural knowledge of where everybody's gonna be on the court, it makes these passes super easy for you. And it looks like Jenkins does that. 517, fast break, layup himself after disruptive, he helped create. So what that means is that my man's out here getting the ball, turning it over, making the guard look stupid, dropping his pants, and then getting down the court, getting in, and just hit ahead layup. Love that. First quarter, 441 to go. He hits read on a driving layup. Good read, good cut by B ball call. Second quarter, 947. High level timing with Duran on a lob reverse dunk. Sweet. Second quarter, 743 left to go. Hits Stewart on a short roll dump for layoff. So basically, gets into the lane. He gets into the lane. Again, we talk about the purple paint touches, right? We talk about that. The big surround him. What does he do? He doesn't panic. He drops it off. Gets the layup. Love that. Third quarter. 954 to go. Hits a lob to Ron Holland the second. My guy loves to throw lobs. And good on him for the anticipation. Good on him for the touch on that pass. Love that one. 430 to go in the third quarter. A hit ahead to green for a fast break layup. These are the type of things that people love to play. When you are talking about somebody who is additive, when you're talking about somebody who's a connector, these are the type of plays that you want to see. The hit aheads up the court are easy money points that a lot of people, because we are trying to show our bag work, right? We're trying to show our dribbling skills. I'm going to put it behind my back. I'm going to put it in between my legs. No, sometimes it's the easiest stuff. The hit-aheads. Hit aheads, easy points. Let's get easy points. Let's go. It's hard to score the basketball in the NBA. We got a lot of athletes out here. Fourth quarter, Don De Green again. Backcut, dunk. That just shows his vision on the court. It shows his ability to go ahead and share the sugar. It also goes ahead and understands the anticipation of your cutters. Understanding the offense. Fourth quarter, 541 last assist. Oh man, the pocket timing passes to Dorn. There was two of them. One with 540, 541 left to go, and then one with 444 left to go. He hit Doran with two dimes within a minute period. And they were both pinpoint excellent. And what did they lead to? Dunks. Because you know my guy Doran was going to go ahead and hammer those home. So those were the eight assists. He's just a connected piece. And this is where I'm real excited about what Detroit is going to look like when they're fully back together again. You know what I'm saying? When all the Jackson 5 come together and they start doing ABC. Easy as one, two, three. And then you, you know what I'm saying? Then you get the rhythm, you get the harmonizing, everything's real good. You know what I'm talking about. If you're young and you don't know what I'm talking about, that's what Google and YouTube is for. Now he looks like a real pick and roll table setter, not just a scorer. He looks comfortable finding rollers and cutters and shooters because he understands the offense. The paint pressure in the realm finishing is crazy to me. He had 26 points on 21 field goals. That's not very, very efficient, but the shot diet was heavily tilted to the paint. Layups, floaters, short pull-ups, that was where he lived. The Pacers never really put two on the ball effectively. When they tried it late in the fourth quarter, he split or quickly moved it to another person and then relocated, got the ball back, and then continued to run the offense. When he decided I'm getting downhill in the second and in the fourth quarter, when he was trying to put these put put his stamp on the game and then also put the game away, Indy stay Indy struggled to stay in front of this cat. So against a depleted defense, Jenkins function as a primary downhill engine that is translatable to second units and some starting groups. Now, you want to talk about composure. Okay. First quarter, technical foul with seven minutes to go. Right at that point in time. He is 0 for 3 from the field. He also got into a little foul trouble. So the game started all in the mud for him. Instead of disappearing, he shifts his approach. He stopped launching threes. He gets into the paint, forces help, feeds during, then he starts scoring once the defense shifts. Fourth quarter. After early turnover foul stretch, he answers the pacer's run with 836 floater. 824 free throw trip. You're seeing volatility, but also resilience. He gets hot, he gets mad, but he's able to recalibrate and still run the team. This is called what I call a competitor. This is what I call a dog. Again, the defensive, I mean not the defensive, the decision making. Second quarter, 907 left to go. There was a backcourt violation. Okay, come on. We can't do that. Fourth quarter, 1116, live ball turnover versus pressure. Well, what do you expect? Right? 903 in the fourth quarter. Offensive foul triggers uh bigger staff tech. Fourth quarter, 158 left to go, late out of bounds turnover. You want to simplify late clock pressure reads, more automatic outlets during short rolls, Robinson handbacks, rather than Jenkins just out there dribbling and getting into his bag work. But this comes with time. Comes with time. His jumper selection, he's gonna have to work on his three work because he shot three threes early in the game, and they were awful. But when he when he needed it at 352 in the fourth quarter, he cast it out. So that shows me like just poise. It shows me that the willingness to go ahead, like okay, I haven't had a great shooting night beyond the three-point line, but I'm still not scared. I'm gonna shoot this ball. I'm gonna shoot this ball and let everybody know that I'm not due. Now, his green light is because of all the injuries. Obviously, if everybody was healthy or most people were healthy, he probably wouldn't have got 26 points, and he probably definitely wouldn't have shot the ball 21 times. But my thing is, is that you know, I have, you know, I like the Lakers, whatever case can be. But how many times do you see your team, right? Whoever that is, whether it's Cleveland, whether it's you know, some of the some of these uh teams that are struggling right now, the Charlottes of the World, the Washington Wizards of the world, things like that. How many times do you see a guy get an opportunity and you're just like, man, just show what you got. Just show what you got. And they're like, oh, I'm gonna be, you know, I'm not gonna be decisive. I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna go ahead and push the ball and you know, I'm gonna get it to the other guys and whatever the case may be. Not Jenkins. Nah. He was like, oh, this is my opportunity. I'm gonna take full advantage of this opportunity right now. Gotta love it. And he knew the roster was short-handed. No K, no Ivy, no Asore. He needed to scale up his game. He needed to get his usage up, and he did, and he took, he took the the challenge onto himself. I gotta like that. Now, we're gonna talk a little bit before we get out of here about Jalen Doran. Jalen Doran is going to be an all-star this year. Book this. Okay? He might not start, but he definitely gonna be an off-the-bench dude. 31 points. Okay, I understand this against Indiana. I understand they don't have a center. They like a donut. They got a hole in the middle. I got that. 31 points. 12 or 13 shooting. Most of them dunks and layups. He got to the free throw line 11 times. He had 15 rebounds. He had five offensive rebounds. Three assists because he did the short roll, kicked it out. He was a plus 20 in box plus minus. Oh, and by the way, I only played 28 minutes and 34 seconds in this game. His season advanced through this point. He is 26.4 in PER. His true shooting percentage is 0.705. His free throw rate is 61.3%. His offensive rebound percentage is 16.5%. His defensive rebound percentage is 27.2%. His total rebounding percentage is 21.9%. His block percentage is 4.0. He has a decent usage at 22.7%. And this dude has a strong box plus minus and win share profile. Let me tell you something. Jalen Doran is turning out to be this dude. He's a high-end rim running vertical spacer with star-level efficiency and elite rebounding, trending towards a primary interior hub instead of just a rim runner. Because some of those passes that he were making were expert passes getting out to the corner shooters. And he seems to hit them dead in the hands where they like the ball. So he's not just this big ogre thug that's sitting in the middle. No. This is a this is a nuanced guy. Now, is he going to be the offensive focal point when the team is shorthanded? Absolutely. Is it going to be this when Kay Cunningham gets back? No. But to know that you have this guy who can put up 20 plus easy, easy money. If you can keep a helper near the nail or the rim at all times, it opens up the three for Robertson and Lanier and Holland. His screening and his two-man game value is sick. He sets solid physical screens. He creates genuine separation for Jenkins and or K Cunningham when available. Now, here's the best part about this. He's gonna set these screens like this, and if Jaden Ivey can come back, and Jaden Ivy is the speed merchant that he was when he left. Do you understand what kind of dunks we are in store for when Jaden Ivy is going down the lane and there is no center there? Do we understand what this is about to be like? Detroit is 12-2, folks. This is the leader in the Eastern Conference right now. We talked about Cleveland, we talked about the Knicks, we talked about other teams, Milwaukee. They got their roster restructured and all this, but you know who's leading the East? Your Detroit Pistons. So I'm just letting everybody know Detroit is real. We don't have to worry about this too much longer, which is great. I love it. Y'all should love it too. And then now we are going to do something that we always do. 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 are 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. I'm out. Deuces oces.