All right, you know what time it is.
It is that time of week, Friday, hoops, and I am here with the Canadian bomber, the Canadian
shaman, the Canadian Bill Simmons, and the Canadian Zach Lowe.
Nico, Miatella, what's up?
Not much, man.
That's always lofty titles to live up to, but I'm glad to be doing it today.
I'm excited to get going with the story you were telling me.
We're going to do some storytelling on today's part as well.
Story time.
So I was a little lad and I was exposed to a lot of things early on in life, maybe some
seedy underbelly things.
One was horse racing.
So my dad thought it'd be a good idea to take his young son to the track.
And he had all his little degenerate friends with him, right?
And they all knew about horses and all this horse does this and this trainer does this.
And I got all this, you know, I got like the key to making money.
Yeah.
So I sat there and I was like, well, I have a couple of dollars, right?
I was like, would somebody please guess for me, right?
So I started to see a trend, like, I don't know, third race on.
Now I'm hit on the first two because really honestly, it was pure luck.
But then I'm starting to like pay attention to what's going on.
And they had a jockey by the name of Lafitte Kenkai Jr.
It's like a really famous jockey or whatever.
And he had a day at Hollywood Park one time where he won like all the races.
And that was the day I was there.
Oh my God.
So I just started picking him.
I was like, oh, this dude is awesome.
He must know what he's doing.
So now as now just betting one horse, you know, to win, he's going to win.
As we leave Hollywood Park that day, I have $165 now, $165 in 1980 for eight year old
child, probably really good.
That's a million bucks.
Yeah.
And all these other idiots had $0.
Like there's people who can't don't have gas money really to get home.
Yeah.
Okay.
And I'm sitting there and I'm looking at everybody.
I'm like, ah, it didn't go well for you.
Why not?
You didn't pick the guy.
Probably y'all didn't see this guy had won like more races in a row.
We just picked the dude, right?
You got all these high level thoughts on, you know, he runs better on the turf and he,
you know, this one is a downwind, you know, a scrinter.
All this other, this trainer is really good in the mile and a half or whatever.
Or just go with the jockey that's hot.
Yeah, man.
Sometimes it's as easy as that.
I think that's a great allegory for basketball overall.
Like we talk about all these different nuances between these teams and what team should win
what game, but sometimes it just comes down to is Steph Curry going to hit 10 out of 12
degrees.
Cause if that happens, you win.
It doesn't matter anything else.
Sometimes it's just that simple.
It's the right person on the right day is playing well and it changes everything.
With that being said, I think I got some, some, uh, some things, some observations that
I want to run past you.
We didn't even talk about this.
So this is like just straight off top of your dump.
How many actual difference makers going off the theme of what we just talked about?
How many actual difference makers are there in the NBA?
Well, I think generally speaking, um, I tend to shy towards more as opposed to less on
this scale because a lot of people, um, won't give that same credit to people who haven't
necessarily won titles before, but watching a guy like Damien Lillard play and snatch
victory from the jaws of defeat time after time, you have a hard time convincing me he's
not a difference maker like that.
So I I'd sit somewhere around the 12 to 15 mark of difference makers that are in the
league.
Oh, that's yeah, that's how I numbered.
So you're telling me you think that the 13th best guy in the league, if he changed franchises,
that's probably like the game range for me.
He would make.
Okay.
So who do you consider 12, 13, 14, 15?
Who's in that range?
I think we're looking at guys like Dame, like John Moran and like Anthony Davis, like that.
That well, Anthony Davis might be a little bit higher.
Yeah, no, he's not.
It's closer to like eight, nine.
But what?
Maybe Donovan Mitchell is in a similar range.
He he's probably the line for me, like Donovan Mitchell and below, I think are quite those
difference makers.
But the people overtaught that level of play, I believe, are difference makers.
I do not think Anthony Davis is top 10.
Oh, you don't think so?
No.
I I get I I don't think he's top 15.
I don't even think he's top 15 at this point.
That's fair.
That's well, if you're I guess it depends how you're looking at it, because if you're
looking at what Anthony Davis gives you throughout a regular season, he's probably he might not
even be top 25 necessarily.
But if you're putting me in a playoff series and you're giving me a certain amount of guys
and Anthony Davis is going to be a lot higher for me than a lot of the other guys on the
list.
Can I ask a question without sounding condescending?
Yeah, sure.
Is that really how like the guys talk about it and like the discord?
No, Anthony Davis, no, just players in general.
Like if I have if I'm winning, if I'm just talking about playoffs, like you've already
discounted the regular season to a point, right?
Yeah, that will.
I think I'm not sure that's how they talk about it necessarily.
But for me, once you get in specifically to the conversation about difference makers,
that's kind of where my mind goes, because I'm thinking of a guy who's going to make
a difference in the games that matter.
I'm not really worried about what you're doing in the regular season.
Yeah, you and I have a different definition on what a difference maker is, because I'm
thinking I'm thinking like, if you put Donovan Mitchell on the on the Knicks right now, they
don't win a championship.
No, no, they know.
And I like even in my estimation, Donovan Mitchell, I wouldn't have as a difference
maker.
I was trying to say he's like the line that everyone's who's like at Donovan Mitchell's
level approximately is probably not.
And everyone who's better than Donovan Mitchell probably is the difference maker in my mind.
So is Trae Young a difference maker?
He showed the potential to be one.
But at what we've seen from him the last two years, he's not at that level.
OK, so Dame would be on this list, right?
Yes, Dame is definitely on the list.
So if I took Dame and I put him on the Knicks, would they win the championship?
No, but I don't think there if you put Yonis on the Knicks, they're winning a championship.
I don't really I don't think there's anyone you can just drop on this Knicks team.
They're necessarily the best team in the league.
I think the league is very balanced right now.
It's going to be hard to get over some of these teams.
Yeah, I think if you took Yonis and dropped him in a Knick uniform, it drastically changes
who they are.
Yeah, absolutely.
And they're like Eastern Conference Finals, like no doubt every year.
I don't know about that.
I don't know if they're Eastern Conference Finals.
I think they need this roster to be overhauled.
I mean, literally, let's say because if you took the position, they play it right.
You took Julius and switched him to put Yonis.
You know, talking about this.
Yeah, just swap them, please.
I'm just thinking like if you put Yonis on this team.
Now Hardenstein would have a role.
Yeah, he would for sure.
But you have absolutely no spacing in front court.
And I think you're way more powerful because against that team, you can build the wall
against Yonis.
And we've seen people successfully build the wall against Yonis several times.
There's no Brook Lopez.
There's no Bobby Portis.
There's no one who's going to present that threat from distance.
So you're going to end up with Yonis taking a lot of jump shots in the playoffs.
And that's a recipe for the Bucs to lose the series.
We've seen that happen many times.
So let's go to Jokic.
You put Jokic on New York.
Do they win the championship?
Are they in the championship mix?
It's very difficult to win a championship with a guy like Jokic.
And defensive front court of Jokic and Randall might give me an aneurysm.
How about Embiid?
I don't think so.
I don't think there's a guy you can just drop on this team.
Weirdly, the guy who might be the most qualified is probably Luka.
If you have Luka in that RJ Barrett role, because you have Tibbs, Tibbs can figure out
defense with a guy like Luka for sure.
We've seen him get good offensive players to defend adequately several times.
I think Luka is probably their best chance to win the championship.
Maybe you just drop him on this team, but even then, I think it'd be very difficult.
Well, this was a good exercise with this because I just wanted to see where we were with like
because I would think a team like the Knicks are your kind of like your test subject because
they're good.
They're just not title contending good as far as that's concerned.
Sorry to my New York brethren out there that I don't think your title contending at this
point.
I think you're a move away if I'm not mistaken.
You know, weirdly, the Nets might be a good example for this going forward because they're
kind of a team that's structured with really good defense, really good spacing and like
the right players to function in the playoff.
So they're kind of a team that makes the most sense for me in my head to just airlift and
drop a superstar in the only difficulty they really have is shot creation.
So assuming the superstar helps with that, they're probably going to be like a title
contender like that in my mind, at least.
So I think if you were to air drop a guy like Dame on to the Nets, they'd be on the periphery
of contention for sure.
I wouldn't be surprised if they won the East.
So what you're saying is that you want to stage house.
Yeah, basically.
I think that's the best way for me to visualize the difference maker conversation.
Which leads me into my next question.
We talked about something off here pre production wise.
Yeah.
And I'm going to allow you to speak on what I said.
At this point in time, just as purely as an evaluator of talent and looking at today's
NBA, could you let me write down this road?
I'm taking Brandon, I'm taking Brandon Miller, number two overall.
So Victor will be one.
Brandon Miller will be two and scoot would be three at this point in time.
Now, here's my quick.
Here's my my one thing I will say.
I don't necessarily think I would if I was a GM.
I don't think I would necessarily have them on my board.
I know that's that seems like an oxymoron.
But talent wise and what today's NBA is wanting.
I could do a lot with him.
He's plug and play.
He's what you want.
He's a starter home piece.
He's a stage home piece.
Yeah.
I I definitely feel differently, but I think I'll break it down into a few parts.
The the first part is just that my prospect evaluation is different on Brandon Miller.
I'm significantly lower than you are.
I still I'm higher on him than I was at the beginning of the year.
I've definitely moved him in within my top 10.
I think he's outside my top five right now, though.
I think there are five guys I like better than him in the class currently.
I would hope that one of those guys would be just Walker.
Yeah, just Walker is amongst the group.
I really like Amon Thompson and I I really like Keonte George as well.
I see some some special stuff out of Keonte George and I feel like there's someone else
I'm forgetting.
Honestly, I've got a few guys I like in this class.
I the Brandon Miller.
To me, if you would have asked me the same question, I think three years ago, I probably
would have been irresponsibly high on Brandon Miller because he is the type of prospect
that used to really infatuate me.
He's got so many skills and his game is, like you said, tailor made for the current NBA.
But what I struggle with is I don't personally believe he really has that one lead skill
to separate him.
I don't I'm not sure.
I believe the scoring is that I think defense is adequate.
I think the handle is much better than I thought it was, but it's not anything you want to
write home about.
I don't know.
Finishing inside same story.
I don't know what he does necessarily to make him that that guy and scoot as a plethora
of those qualities in my head.
Even when you're talking about the current NBA.
Looking at the teams around, even again, looking specifically at my Rockets, everyone drink
shot creation is still king.
If you don't have anyone who can create shots either for themselves or other players, you
can't have a functioning offense and scoot.
Two best qualities, I would say, are creating shots for himself and then creating shots
for other players.
He's going to create for your offense instantaneously.
But I'm not as worried about fit because I kind of think he can work in most situations.
The only need he really has is to have the ball in his hands.
So like just unless you have a lamello type, I think you move other people out of the way
and let's go.
I probably out of the prospects I've watched in the last four or five years, I might only
have like Victor and Zion ahead of scoot.
He is in rarefied air for me.
I like him so much more than these other guards we've had in recent years.
Can he play off ball?
I think so.
He hasn't done much of it so far at this point.
Often he's asked to play off ball when like City Susoko or Leonard Miller are initiating
offense and those guys are looking to create their own shots.
They haven't done much with him and London Johnson on the court at the same time.
And he's another player who functioned kind of similarly to scoot.
I don't think he's at scoot's level or anything, but he runs offense in the same way and he
hasn't been asked to do that at all, which is something I question a little because I
love Jalen Green pre-draft.
QPPN listeners will remember.
And the thing basically I love so much is all the stuff they did with him off ball.
We haven't seen any of that in the NBA so far, but they did a lot of really creative
stuff with him and he showed like propensity and intelligence for it.
So I'm surprised that they haven't tried to run scoot very much with another guard.
I believe he can play off ball though because he works hard enough and you even see him
out there setting screens.
The type of size and guy he is, I think he will develop off ball definitely.
I really want scoot to succeed.
My issue is, is I think he has to go to like the correct team.
They would have to have a bunch of shooters around him for it to work.
I think he can kind of shoot, so I'm not necessarily as worried about that.
It's so sporadic.
It is.
He's still quite young and like we said, he hasn't done much stuff off ball.
So generally off balls when you develop that nice form, I think if you get him in the NBA
with an NBA shooting coach where he can now focus on that part of his game, he's going
to be a good shooter because you don't show like the level of touch that he's shown not
only on the floater game, but on free throws and on the pull up jump shot.
The pull up jump shot is significantly better than the spot up and that's like never true
for anyone.
So you can tell it's likely just reps.
I want to see him rev it down.
Like I want, I don't want it to be great next.
I'm not seeing different levels of pace.
I am yet.
I think I think I've seen different levels of pace at times.
I can maybe will watch a game together or something, because I think I might have some
good examples of him doing the fast and slow stuff.
He generally against teams that move quickly.
He's very happy to get out there and run, but at times he can be a little more methodical
to normally when he starts like the step back on a play, he then like reexamines the floor
and tries to go into another set or something.
I've seen him do it a few times, so hopefully I can pinpoint some of that on Phil.
Yeah, I need to see it more.
I need to see a more consistent level of that that he's willing to do that before I turn
my my offense over to him.
The one thing that I wanted in this might sound very hot takey, but it's not to me.
And I'll put some thoughts behind it.
And then, Nico, you tell me exactly what you think of this.
If I was going to put that time and effort into somebody.
I would want to do with a man Thompson because of the 6667 frame and the ability that he's
going to see over defenses.
And I love the athletic skill of both scoot and a man Thompson scoot Henderson being good
Henderson and Amy Thompson being Amy Thompson.
But if I think if I was going to look at it that way and I was going to say Uber athlete
to Uber athlete, I would think I would want to put all my wealth of development into Amy
and Thompson just because of the size difference.
Is that am I crazy?
Am I am I just overlooking this?
He does remind me a lot of Derrick Rose.
Yeah, he's so I'm scared to even say what I'm saying, but I'm looking at today's NBA
and I'm going.
I get it.
I want that because that looks more prototypical to what I'm trying to do.
But that's fair.
I understand that perspective to a certain extent.
However, like if you just look at there's I love Amen and I don't mean to disrespect
him in any way.
But if you just look at their skills as actual basketball players and their touch on the
floor scoot is in a different world than Amen.
He's also a full year younger than Amen at this point, and he's playing against men in
the G League where Amon's playing against mostly high schoolers and overtime elite.
I think Amen is an impressive prospect for sure.
And I love the creation at that size.
He's another guy who I think would look great on the Rockets.
But everybody a player like Scoot is just to me like once almost like a once in a decade
prospect that you just don't get guys like this who care like this and work like this
have the body like he's built like a full grown man already like this.
And like coming to the league ready to create for others, ready to learn and improve.
You kind of can't miss on Scoot in my mind.
I think he's almost guaranteed to have some level of success.
I wonder what Kendall thinks about Scoot.
Yeah, he loves him.
Oh, yes.
Yes.
He's great. See, you guys are bringing me back to just because I've always been the
type of guy give me the best prospect.
This is the first time I've.
Kind of zag on my.
Like, oh, no, that dude can play basketball.
Yeah, I can just see it.
Because the Desmond Bay thing wasn't analytics or anything like that.
I just said that dude can play basketball at a high level.
I think I'm I will put my reputation on that guy.
Yeah, right.
I felt that way about Mowgli.
You know how I felt about Mowgli and I felt I feel right on that one.
I mean, young guys making bad choices.
But now the thing with Scoot is that I do see all of these traits that you're you're
telling me about.
The only thing is I want.
I don't want him just to be an athlete.
I want I understand that you can out athlete people.
What I want him to be able to.
Mentally impose his will.
You know the game.
And I understand that comes with time.
He's young to get that part.
Well, I just wish the if I if you got tape that says that he slows it down.
You play at different gears.
Then I can say, OK, I can see a developed path, a developmental path that he will get
there.
But what I've seen, because I think that game against Victor was a little telling because
he was he was ready to go.
Oh, yeah.
He was ready to go.
He was ready to like real.
That's that.
I can't scoot that guy definitely exists.
If you are in the big lights and you need to make the game about himself, he is ready
to do that.
And I've I've seen it several times from him.
But there are definitely other situations where the game takes on a slower pace and
he matches that and orchestrates it.
And I I'm very hesitant to say this name because I don't see necessarily all of it in their
player styles.
But I've seen a lot of people make Chris Paul comparisons.
And there are times you can see elements of the CP3, OK, stop what's going on right now.
We are scratching this entire play.
We are rerunning a different play that whether it's something he came up with or it's some
audible the coaches have worked in, he's willing to do that at times and often can exploit
defenses doing that.
Also the touch, the touch is the thing that athletes generally don't have.
And his touch is special.
He knows how to put the ball in the hoop.
It's so soft everywhere on the floor is.
He's a rare prospect.
I feel weird having him second because I I really love Scoot coming into the year.
I was way more open to the idea of scoot over Victor.
But as soon as we started to see Victor, it was never going to happen.
But man, I I love that kid.
I hope he comes to use that.
Then my concern then you said it in your praise in your analysis of them.
When the bright lights are on, he wants to take it all over.
And can we can we beat that out of him a little bit?
Oh, I know.
Let me let me reframe that.
Is there any way we can curtail that out of him?
I'm not sure it's necessarily like.
A thing that is ingrained in him as much as the fact that he plays for G League at night
and often G League night puts him in situations where they're asking him to do that.
And when when they ask him to do that, he's ready to do it.
That's not going to be the case in the NBA.
We're not going to need Scoot to come show why he got drafted or whatever, unless it's
like a summer league game or which he probably won't play or like like the time in the season
we're in right now, like the games 68 and on when it doesn't matter anymore.
Maybe then you need Scoot to go off and it's all about Scoot.
But besides that, in the NBA, that's not going to be the case anymore.
I think it more shows his ability to perform under pressure.
I don't think it's as much him trying to make the game about himself.
What do you think Scoot Henderson ceiling is like?
I'm going to throw a couple of names out to you.
At the end of the day, is he better than Dame?
That's a tough one.
I I I'm hesitant to say yes, that any prospect will be better than Hall of Famer, but I could
see it.
It's possible.
OK.
All right.
Is he going to be better than James Harden?
I think it's the same the same conversation.
I don't know.
It's really hard to say that any product is going to be that good.
You're looking at maybe a five percent chance, but he could be.
He could be better than almost any guard we've ever seen hypothetically, just because the
physical build, the intangibles and the touch.
Like the starting point is so high that if hypothetically he develops like a player like
LeBron develops.
Yes.
Yeah, he could be better than everyone.
OK, I just have to see the.
I'll have to see the be able to process the information.
I see a lot of I just want to go kill people.
Yeah.
He's got that.
Because he did it in the in the Rising Stars game.
You know, he went he went for that dunk.
He went underneath the rim and then came back under.
And then to Smith, Jr. was like, no, Blair, we don't do it.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
You are not having this moment on this stage and you haven't arrived yet.
No.
I think that might be a good point here to wrap it up.
I wanna wrap this section up, the Brandon Miller versus Jaws,
or not versus Jaws, Brandon Miller versus Scoot conversation.
Last year, I had Jabari Smith ahead of a guy like Paolo.
And I think a lot of it had to do with the same conversation
this is kind of about, where Jabari Smith is the prototype
of the player you want in the NBA right now.
He can play the small ball five, he's really a four,
he can defend all the positions and he can shoot the three.
That's what you'd want.
So ideally that player type fits so well
that it had me very infatuated with Jabari.
Whereas you look at a guy like Paolo
and it's more of like a heliocentric option.
You're not too sure how he's gonna play with other players,
though the passing has shown to be better
than we all ever would have hoped.
Same with the defense, but at the time we weren't so sure
his defense was going to be at such a high level.
He is a little bigger.
There was a lot of conversations about this sweat problem
that isn't the thing.
But the thing I personally didn't take into account enough
is the touch, the actual basketball ability on the floor.
Paolo has that in spades.
And I think we're kind of looking at a similar conversation
with Jabari versus Scoot, or not Jabari versus them,
with Brandon versus Scoot.
I think the just straight up basketball talent with Scoot
is in such a different world, I don't know.
I'm just drafting that guy every time at this point.
I think I wanna focus more on taking good basketball players
in my mocks, so that's a lesson
I think I've kind of learned this year.
I've always said put dude traits over, you know,
conventional basketball wisdom, I've always done it.
The one thing that I will say about Brandon Miller though
is that he does give you a lot more of offense initiation
on his own that Jabari Smith Jr. never did.
Now, obviously he had guards that didn't wanna pass him
the ball in college, and it also looks like he has it
in the pros.
So no ball for you, buddy, no ball for you.
God, I almost want Wim Bayama to go to Houston,
everybody drink just for that reason,
because I would love to see Kevin Porter Jr.
not give Wim Bayama the ball one time,
because I think just the disdain that that young man
would have on his face, swear KBJ, would just make it
so spicy.
I'm wondering though, if in a different offensive system,
do we get a different KBJ?
We're already starting to see it a little bit right now,
since he's came back from injury where he's not really
interested in taking the shot as much.
And realistically, if you look at the solid offense
the year before he came to Houston,
and the way he was using Luca in Dallas,
that's basically the role he spoke KBJ in Houston.
And I don't need to tell anyone, but KBJ is not Luca.
So I'm wondering if the coaching change turns KBJ
into more of a pass first player,
because that's what it looked like he was
when he first came over from Cleveland.
He had like 14 assist games,
and was going down to the G league,
and having games where he shot nine times in the G league.
So I haven't seen that guy in a long time now.
I'm wondering if he still exists behind the wall
of the Steven Silas offense.
No, and he won't be on this team.
If, if, if, if Wimbayama comes to Houston,
but we don't have to worry about him.
I think he will be on this team, but I understand.
We might have to put a little weight on that buddy.
I have to put some on that, figure that one out.
But it only happens if Wimbayama is on this team.
Or Scoot, well, if Scoot is on this team,
he's definitely not on this team.
Oh, I think he plays a good brand of basketball
with a player like Scoot.
Because- We need Jamie Green
to play a good basketball.
Oh, he definitely will, he definitely will.
But with KBJ, you're looking at a guy who's six foot,
five and a half, he can slide up and play the three,
if need be, in those offenses.
And if KBJ is in that kind of role,
the balls in his hand, way less,
he can focus on the spot ups.
I think that could be great for him.
And like, it's in KBJ's best interest
to be on his best behavior next year.
Cause the Rockets have an option
to just be out of his contract entirely.
Well, we got sad news in the NBA.
We got Kevin Durant being out
for at least two to three weeks.
That's a reevaluation in two to three weeks.
And where does it put Phoenix?
I don't know.
I have no idea.
Booker scores a lot of points right now.
He can carry the load of the offense,
but that ankle screen did not look great.
And now we just have nothing but chaos in the West,
which is, I don't know if this is entertaining.
I don't know if it's sad.
I don't know.
I have no idea.
I think it's gonna make for good TV.
So the playoffs are gonna make for good TV.
Because I think the bottom of the West
is gonna look like a who's who.
It's gonna look like a who's who.
I don't know if you wanna call it your royalty of the NBA.
It's gonna look like a who's who.
I mean, there are chances that you see like Steph Curry
like in the sixth squad.
That's where he is right now.
There's a good chance that you might see like Kawhi Leonard
in the seventh or eighth spot.
Yeah, I hope they keep moving.
I'm loving this Clippers suck ever since we got their draft back.
And then you have the team that everybody just kind of craft on.
And how could they trade this guy
and all these get all the trade, all these picks?
Minnesota might find their way into non play in situation.
Oh, yeah, I assume they will at this point with the three teams
ahead of them in the Clippers Warriors and Suns,
all in not the best position to close out the year.
I think they're probably gonna jump ahead of at least one of those squads.
And with Kat coming back, I think you might have a situation
where you can work it in a little easier at first than before.
It seems like you might be able to slide him in,
like on a short minutes limit considering how long this injury is taken.
And if you hypothetically were to bring Kat in at first,
just like replacing Nasrid minutes
and then slowly creeping them up from there into the playoffs,
I think you might be looking at a spot
where the Timberwolves are pretty hot towards the end of the year.
I could see them climbing up maybe even as high as four.
Carl Anthony Towns taking minutes away from. Slow mo.
That won't happen.
He's not that can't happen.
No, there's no chance to slow mo.
Yeah, he's the best player on the team at times.
He didn't get Daniels.
He's got to play.
Yeah, he he's playing a ton, too.
So there's there.
There are minutes there.
Oh, there's still a lot of minutes they could break up for.
First of all, you got to excise Nasrid entirely from the rotation,
but you can play
Nikhil Alexander Walker less.
Give McDaniels those minutes and give Kat the minutes that are missing there.
The five to seven minutes a game you give Luca Garza.
Occasionally, there's minutes you could even take off Rudy's plate
because the often get in foul trouble.
There is, I think, tons of options for Kat to take minutes
without taking minutes away from their good players.
I just can't wait till the off season
and see what Minnesota does with this team, because I think
the writings on the wall about
someone's tenure in Minnesota.
Personally,
I think we need to aggressively start this
era of Anthony Edwards.
In a real way, I think they already have.
Well, I think we need to continue.
I think the team's the team's pretty built around him.
Like a guy like Jayden McDaniels refusing to trade him.
I think a big part of that is how well he works with a guy like Ant
on the outside, making sure Ant never has to defend the best wing defender.
A guy like Mike Connolly over DeAngelo Russell.
We've talked about this already, but that is clearly an indication
of moving in the direction of Anthony Edwards over the team.
I think this is kind of Ant team right now that just has Kat on it.
I'm not even fully sure
what Kat's best role is on this team.
He's just so...
I can tell you. You want to know?
He is
pick and talent acquisition.
He's just so good.
Pick and talent acquisition.
That's his best role on this team.
Yeah, I know that.
Yeah, that's the role he has on this team.
But I don't care what Momo says.
I don't care what anybody says.
My first piece of business in the off season
is I am going to find a way to get picks and players back.
To fit Rudy Gobert, McDaniels, Anthony Edwards.
That's what I want.
I want that.
Yeah, I'm...
The point guard would be great.
Yeah, I'm not...
You're...
I think Kat is
a very good talent that if you try to turn him away,
there's no way you're going to get a player at his level at this point.
You're not going to get a player at his level.
I have no problem.
I get that part.
That's why I think you have to hold for one more year
and see what this team looks like.
And then on the other side of this year,
you're also looking at Rudy Gobert being a year older.
You're looking at Mike Conley being a year older.
You can trade Kat then, move on from that,
and kind of rebuild a different look of the organization around Ant, if need be.
I think that's a way better inflection point,
especially considering this off season,
you're going to need to give McDaniels the big money.
So it's going to be hard to sell me on
we're moving into the tax for the first time in this new ownership's history.
And we're also trading away our second best player.
I cannot fathom moving in that direction.
To jump up in the West because the West can be had.
That is the caveat on the back end of that
because you know, and I know that Carl Anthony Towns does not
will not refuses to play defense.
He played. He played some of the best defense of his career in the last in last year's playoffs.
And they kind of built their defense around him blitzing and stuff.
He is. I wouldn't say he refuses to play defense.
I think he tried actively to get better last year.
And I think we could have been working into a situation that would be even better for him.
Working with Colbert just takes time to figure that system out.
We didn't have the time.
I I'm I think just a lot more bullish on Kat as a player than you are.
We've talked about this before, but like one, I think it's it's becoming more extreme as time passes.
I don't think he fits one.
I think he's a tremendous offensive player.
I think if he.
I am going to sound like a complete moron when I say this, but this might actually be the clip.
I wonder if he was the piece that went back to Utah.
And not the other pieces, what this team will look like.
I'm I'm not sure because like.
I mean, you got them.
I mean, you say a walker gets where they are, too, with him.
You know, like a walker gets with him.
And you imagine like Lauren marketing.
Kat Kessler.
Yeah, you know, I'm saying like you need to surround that cat with a bunch of dates.
Yeah, I I agree, but I think they got a bunch of dudes.
But I think the biggest piece that they lost Minnesota like on the team this year in that move would have been Vando.
And I don't know if they would have signed Kyle Anderson if they would have kept Vando.
And Kyle Anderson's been crucial for this team this year.
So I I kind of think that they ended up OK on the other side of that.
They could have used a Patrick Beverly type, but they're trying to let Jordan McLaughlin like fill into that role behind Mike Conley.
He's not the greatest player, but he is talented.
So I I'm interested in seeing what that's like.
They've also moved a guy like Austin Rivers out of the rotation.
He's known to have one big playoffs game though per team he's on.
So I'd look out for that this year.
Nikhil Alexander Walker has actually been really good for them as well.
He can defend now and he's been hitting over 40 percent of his three.
So I think he's at like 42 percent on the air.
42.1 So that's a very interesting wing they have.
I like this Minnesota team on an outside level.
I I like this team too.
This one I like this team.
But I think this team with Kat can still be good.
I think there's a lot of there's a lot of other that you can trim around the edges and have it work.
I know that the tenure amongst Minnesota fans, including our guy Momo,
is that perhaps Chris Finch isn't the best guy to optimize this kind of team.
They they were I've seen a lot of Timberwolves fans and not just Momo upset when Quinn Snyder
did the Atlanta job because they really wanted him to figure out their defense around Rudy.
So I'm wondering if I really like Chris Finch.
So I think they should keep him employed.
I'm wondering if maybe in the offseason they go find some sort of new defensive coordinator or something.
And once that happens, I'd be again, I'd like to see maybe 35 games next year with Kat on that team to see what it looks like.
You have a lot more optimism on Kat working with Minnesota than I do, which I mean, I can I can wrap my head around.
I mean, I definitely am the person would say, let's let's take a breath.
So I'm not like beholden to this thought process that I'm on.
But I am just I've seen so much in Kat.
I thought the performance in the playoffs last year was abysmal.
I thought the foul situation was abysmal.
I thought his his lack of understanding the moment was horrific for somebody that if you're building
a team around as a pillar, I'm not saying that he's the number one dude, because we all know that Anthony Edwards is the number one guy there.
I just don't know if he can be one of those pillars.
I just that was that playoff performance really scared me about him because he's been in the league a long time.
That's my problem is that if he would have got there and understood the moment and even if he didn't play well, but it didn't look like he was getting like electric shock treatments every time he was on the court, then we will be OK.
But I'm looking at a guy who just clearly didn't understand the moment.
And your 20 year old counterpart did understand the moment.
That's the scary part is that the 20 year old showed the poise.
And I was like, OK, well, we're building the team around him, right?
That's what we're doing. Right. Yeah.
Scrap this other guy.
But I'd see that where you lose me. I I follow you the whole way around to in that whole conversation.
Yes, he didn't understand the moment. Yes.
Anthony Edwards did understand the moment. Yes.
We need to build this team around.
But I don't think that means the nuclear option of just removing cat entirely.
I think cat is a number two guy like he's not going to go somewhere else and magically figure out how to be number one.
He needs to be behind some leader in the locker room.
Clearly, like the best season we saw from Kat and his early career was when KG was there whipping his ass into shape.
Can I help with this?
I have the perfect team for Kat to go to.
We just listen, just listen.
It'd be perfect for both teams.
That's what I'm trying to tell you.
I don't think the other team would do it because they look at Kat and they go.
That's a L for us.
What if you could trade cat to the Boston Celtics and you trade Jaylen Brown? Oh, yeah. Minnesota.
So I thought those dudes.
Mom, I would kill you right now.
Is why?
You're not right.
But I have Robert Williams that helped me on the other end.
And I got Jason Tatum.
I see I said, and then I got it.
Number two, I don't think it's that different with having Rudy go bear and Jaden McDaniels and having Robert Williams, Jason Tatum is because he still thinks he's the number one.
But I'm in syndrome all over again.
I don't think this that's permanent.
I think that is going I think cat is going to very clearly see he's the number two option when he comes back.
Like trading away his friend for Mike Conley. It couldn't have been a clearer.
Example to him. This is not your team anymore.
And by the way, you're out the door to.
I can't go away.
And the town, if you have a house in Minnesota, go get a realtor.
Go get that squared away, bro.
Just let you know, because if I was a GM, you wouldn't last three seconds.
And I like when I got introduced at the press conference, it when I get introduced at the press conference, it would be like, my first piece of business.
No, no, I think it would be a bad move.
I understand where everybody's coming from with that. And I understand.
I'm just saying for me.
Yeah, what I want to see on a basketball team.
I want to see more Anthony Edwards.
It's called Anthony Towns. Actually, I like to see the car Anthony towns. I'm saying right now, I see this.
No, why not. Can I not see, can I just see this. This is the version of Carl and Lee towns. I want to see on the Timberwolves actually.
Can I see this one? No, no.
No, no, no.
This is it.
More, more McDaniels, more Anthony Edwards,
more semblance of good cohesive offense with Mike Connelly
and Rudy Gobert and less Carl.
Actually this amount of Carl Anthony Giles,
it works perfectly.
Perfect.
Okay.
Yeah, I don't think I'm convincing you at this point.
No, you're not.
You're not.
I mean, this is just how it is.
Oh, I do have a couple other things that I wanna get to
and I have questions for you.
Yeah.
With the lesbian so tumultuous at this point in time,
the Lakers are really actually in the plan right now
and could make a mini run
and they could get to six.
They could get to six.
They could.
Everybody's playing like, not great
and they're getting D'Angelo Russell back tonight.
So your lack of optimism or optimism
or optimism that the Lakers could push for six as of right now?
Six might be a little difficult
because of that team we just talked about.
I think Minnesota is gonna be putting up
the standings as well.
So I'm not 100% sure you can necessarily contend with them
but honestly, I might like your chances better
at seven or eight against a team like Denver or Memphis
than against what I think will probably be Phoenix.
I don't wanna play Denver.
That's fair.
That's fair, but I'd rather play Denver than Phoenix.
I don't wanna play against Kevin Durant,
Devin Booker and Chris Paul in the first round.
I understand.
Do you believe that they're gonna get to two or three?
I think they're gonna get to three.
I think they got to get to three.
Just cause the rest of the season,
their schedule is pretty easy.
So I think they should be able to close it out.
They've got Orlando, they've got OKC,
they've got Utah who's gonna be shut off by that point.
They've got Philadelphia who should be shut off by that point.
So I think they're sitting in a spot
where they should win a lot of these remaining games.
I guess they do have the two of them
with Sacramento specifically.
So Sacramento, if Sacramento can win those games,
it's gonna be a harder contest.
So I guess you would rather play the Kings obviously
than either of those teams.
But I would just be worried that you're gonna see
the Suns in the three seed.
So I might prefer to finish in that seven, eight seed,
even if you have to beat the Pelicans
that'll play in the game or whatever the case.
I wonder if Phoenix has the finishing kick to get to three.
Because I think without Durant, they don't.
I just, I love Booker.
I love what he's able to do,
but I love Booker a lot more with Kevin Durant.
Yeah.
Like I think they could stay where they are.
I think maybe get to three in like Memphis falls apart.
Right?
And like sack goes to two, Phoenix goes to three on that.
And then I definitely don't wanna play Phoenix.
I would definitely wanna play sack at that point.
Mm-hmm.
A lot of it depends on those head-to-head games.
If they can split the head-to-head games,
I think they have a chance to get to three
just because they're going towards the end of the year
and they're gonna have shit to play for.
And a lot of teams they play against
are not gonna have anything to play for.
So it's gonna be Devin Booker
against Eugene Uminyari and stuff.
It'll be easy for the Suns to be able to finish the year up.
All right.
Now you don't have a college basketball team
to speak of, sir.
No, I don't.
But here in Casa de Vence,
we are all in on fours up, eight clap all day.
UCLA Growns who won their first game
in the Pac-12 tournament yesterday, which was awesome.
We play Oregon today.
And then it looks like we're on a collision course
with Arizona for the Pac-12 Conference Tournament.
With the madness about to start,
who do you think will be in your final four
when you make the selections?
When you put your bracket together
and you wanna have your one shining moment
and win your bracket.
Yeah.
Who else is in on it?
Who, what other Canadian brethren is in on your bracket?
I-
Is Johnny from the Timmy Horton's down the street
in your bracket?
I just need to know.
No, I didn't do a, man,
I could not put together a bracket here
if people who play college
or know anything about college basketball,
it'd be impossible.
Very hard to find.
I have-
Are these your friends on the Discord?
I know they're into their bracket.
Oh yeah, yeah.
They're in the bracket too.
I haven't actually set mine yet.
I haven't looked at the bracket itself.
Do we have?
No, it's not.
I'm just saying like, do you have a-
I have a few teams.
Yeah, like what's the trouble teams
that you feeling really good about?
You teams.
That, the team we've talked about a lot during this show,
I think is actually interesting in Alabama.
I think they could make an impact.
They've got a lot of very good players
and I wouldn't want to see them win March Madness though
after having so many national championships.
But I think it's gonna probably come down
to the other three teams are your boys in UCLA.
They're clicking right now.
I think Jarris Walker, Marcus Sasser,
and Houston is gonna be a problem.
And my Canadian brethren, Zach Eady at Purdue,
is gonna be an issue in these playoffs.
It's gonna be hard for certain teams to match up with.
Arizona, another good squad.
Those are the teams I'm kind of on so far.
I think Arizona might be missing the ultimate firepower
to get over the top, but I do like,
I would say those five teams best.
All right, well, I'm gonna do this.
Kansas, somehow, some way.
The big 12 somehow, some way gets one team in there.
Yeah.
Janty.
Kansas, probably the best bet.
But that whole conference has been just ridiculous this year.
I don't know if you've seen any other games.
Yeah, I've seen a few.
They play with baseball bats
and all kinds of stuff is great.
Houston scares the living daylights out of me.
Yeah.
You know, but I'm definitely looking at UCLA going,
this is the team that I thought would start the year off.
And it just took a while for it to show up.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, they believe, which is scary.
That's the scary part.
And they have a ton of experience,
which is always good at this time of year.
Definitely.
Is there a guy in the tournament
that you're sitting there going,
he's in my late teens to the end of the first round
that might jump up?
Yeah.
Yeah, actually, another guy from Alabama there.
I'm really intrigued by Noah Clowney.
This center class this year is pretty barren
and Clowney might not be your most traditional five.
He's pretty slight at about 210 pounds, 610.
But his ability is incredibly impressive.
I love to watch him jump.
He's also kind of unafraid to take the three pointer,
though he hasn't been hitting very many.
His touch doesn't look excellent
on the three pointer and free throws.
Numbers are both a little below average.
Though if you could see that form clean up a bit
and he's starting hitting a couple more shots,
I could really see Noah Clowney having a huge tournament
and working his way into that lottery definitively
with this weak center crop.
I'm gonna click the reverse curse on somebody.
Because I don't want him to have a good tournament
for specific reasons.
My guy, Hood Schifino, out of Indiana,
I'm kind of hoping that he doesn't have a good tournament.
I think he's going to.
I know, stop, stop yourself.
This is what happened to Chris Duarte
and my dreams of that falling apart.
But if we can get Hood Schifino to like the 19th pick overall.
Oh man, I might be looking at him
with that Clippers pick we have.
I like him quite a bit.
That's an impressive kid.
I thought you were gonna say even more self-interested.
You were hoping that our guy, Amari Bailey
doesn't have a big tournament
because then he might just go instead of coming back.
Oh no, I'm fully aware that Amari Bailey
is about to punch his ticket to the NBA.
Because you didn't see the first game.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, okay.
He said, oh, okay, okay.
Are we here now?
Oh, okay.
He is a complete NBA player.
Because he went like this.
All right, wake me up when the Pac-12 tournament starts.
Oh, we here?
Okay.
Yeah.
This Death Star is fully operational.
Yes, man.
Getting to the free throw line nine times
in a game like that, incredibly impressive.
Especially from a guy like him
who hasn't really shown much this year.
Well, he's shown a decent amount as a player.
Just he hasn't shown a tendency to get to the line.
I mean, I.
What actually happened was, if you want to know,
is that he, the whole time this year,
and they started to do it last year, and I saw it.
And I think I mentioned it to you,
but I noticed that Tiger started taking
corner threes last year, like towards the late end
of the year and into March Madness.
And I said, I bet you he plays off ball next year a lot.
Oh yeah, I remember that.
And I said, he didn't shoot really well,
but I noticed that he started to shoot them.
Little did we know that Tiger was going to learn
how to pump fake and then go to the rim
and then like create more like chaos with that action.
Yeah.
But the whole pre the whole premise of it was
is that Amari Bailey needed the ball in his hands,
and they weren't able to do it this year early
because he did the one thing that you can't do
as a freshman for Mick Cronin, and that's turn the ball over.
Yeah.
But they kept trying it and they kept giving it to him.
And if I worked in the Pac-12 tournament.
Where do you think Amari Bailey will go?
What range are you thinking for him now?
You think back end of the first?
He still has to put more on tape
to levy that type of excitement, honestly.
And to tell you the truth,
I mean, if you want to talk about my own selfish thoughts,
I would love for him to come back
because I think if he came back, he would be a lottery pick.
And I'm talking about a high.
Yeah.
High guy.
He'd be looking at a situation similar
to what Ivy was in last year, I think.
But if he continues this,
I think he would be around where Peyton Watson went last year.
He would be in the 26 to 25 to 30 range.
I think he's shown a little more
than a guy like Peyton Watson.
The problem is just-
It's the class.
Yeah, it is deeper,
but I'm not sure it's deeper at that specific area necessarily.
I thought last year's class, the strength of it was
as soon as you got to like 20 or 21,
and then you looked at the next group of guys,
I could go to like 45 with a guy that I liked quite a bit.
This year, it's a little bit less that way.
There aren't as many guys I can justify
as first round picks as I could last year.
So that being said, David Roddy,
I'm thinking of first round pick anyways.
So I'm a little more concerned.
I'd say that he ends up just looking at a situation
and maybe he gets a promise at 18 that comes up.
Oh, if he gets somewhere in the teens, he's gone.
Yeah, definitely.
I'm just saying I'd be a little more concerned
that that might happen just because I think the depth
might be a little tested at that range.
I don't know.
I mean, I still think that we haven't seen
like the mid-major guys really,
and the scouts haven't seen the mid-major guys at all.
I mean, not the scouts, the GMs haven't really seen them.
So, and we don't know about a couple of the,
a couple of the international kids.
Yeah.
Yeah, there are some international guys
who are undecided in this year's class.
That being said, I'm not sure there's a lot of guys
who are currently expected to go within that range.
I think it's more of like the backend
of the second round stash guys we're looking at.
I'm trying to,
I don't think I've seen him that high anywhere.
He would really have to, like he'd have to be
the second leading scorer on the UCLA team
on a final four march for him to get to 18.
I think he'd need a good combine to be honest.
He's shown the ability to flash here and there
and he's playing on a team like UCLA,
which is at such a high level.
There's so many guys demanding minutes that like,
the fact that we've seen him show up
and show out a little bit,
I think there is a distinct possibility
we could end up with him in that range.
I'm calling my shot with this one a little bit,
but I see it in the cards.
If that happens, yeah.
I mean, that's what is supposed to go down.
So I don't mind if he leaves,
he was supposed to be one and done anyway.
Having him as a second year is more of a greedy thing
or whatever.
I want him to absolutely live out his dreams
and if he can get to that right after the lottery
type of hemisphere, then yeah, go.
Somewhere like Utah, I think would be a really good.
Please don't go to Utah.
For the love of God, if,
just come back home.
Just come back to UCLA, man.
If you, listen, you end up somewhere like,
okay, see, okay.
Don't end up in Utah, man.
Don't do it.
I just, the on-court fit, I think would be.
Toronto, that's where I want him.
Yeah.
Lice-skinned brothers with Drake.
Yeah, he could hang out with his new dad there.
He would be talking about his woes.
The guy who I'm really worried about wasn't Bailey.
It's Bona.
That's who I'm really worried about.
Yeah, no, he's gone.
I'm trying to replace that guy.
I thought we were reserved to that.
I think Bona is a really intriguing prospect.
Bona is my guy.
So yeah, he's doing freaky, athletic things.
Especially considering what I was saying
about Noah clowning earlier.
Just we have a particularly sparse big class this year
with guys like Lively and Khalil were really disappointing.
So teams are gonna be looking at Bona
and saying like, what other centers are there
if they don't like Clowny or Klingon,
I guess a little later, or Edy in the second round maybe.
Like those are the only other centers
who off the top of my head are even gonna like
garner draft interest.
So I think Bona is definitely a guy I'd try to make a move on.
Go 100%.
Is there a guy that is going to shoot up draft boards
that shouldn't?
Who's the guy, who's the Adam Morrison of March Madness
this year?
Or who was the other guy?
Who was the other guy that everybody loved?
Was it Napier?
Napier had one.
Napier had a good year.
He had a good year.
He did.
I'm not sure if we have an obvious candidate for that.
A guy I'm hesitant to say
because I think he could be a good pro still
is Marcus Sasser.
I could see maybe he just goes nuclear
and ends up getting drafted at like nine or something.
And that would be crazy.
That would be more similar to a guy like Babyon Mitchell
in my mind.
Another dude, he's a little older
and he's been around the block.
So maybe not, maybe teams will smarten up
but Kurt Carissa is another guy
who I could see just getting irresponsibly hot from three
and then all of a sudden he goes at 28.
And then a few years from now,
he's like struggling to make the team
on the Edmonton Stingers or something.
But those are a few of the guys I could see making a run up.
The one guy that I'm really scared about
is the guy from Creighton, Hawkins.
Yeah, that's the guy
because I think that he has the ability
to have the ball in his hand, score a lot
and get if he got hot.
Mm hmm. Yeah, I see him moving like to like low end lottery,
like, like low end lottery.
He need to. I don't think he should.
I don't I don't think he deserves it.
That's my yeah.
That's what I'm saying.
It's like something falls in love with him.
He's Eddie. All this other.
We hear all the stuff that we normally do.
And it's like, no, no, no.
That dude should have went twenty two.
Yeah, that's it.
He should have went twenty five.
We we we we cloud ourselves.
He'd need to go pretty nuclear, I think.
And like, sure, sure, it's possible.
But I I'd have a hard time seeing it.
I guess you could also say something similar about like Kevin McCullar from Kansas.
He's another guy who if he gets incredibly hot
and all of a sudden Kansas wins the national championship,
maybe there is a team in like that that late lottery.
Well, that might be a bit too much of a reach, but like that 20 range
who looks at Kevin McCullar really interesting.
Man, it could even be Grady Dick.
What happens if Grady Nick just gets like scorching hot
and shoots like 60 percent three throughout the tournament
and all this, I think, just happened six overall.
I I don't know. It's always possible in March.
That's that's where my money is.
This Grady Dick is a Grady Dick somehow becomes a top five guy.
Oh, man. And and like, I don't want it for the kid
because I actually really like them. Mm hmm.
I think I'm higher on them than you are, actually.
Yeah, I'm not the highest, but I do like him.
But if that dude went like five.
Yeah, yeah. All the time.
You. But, oh, yeah.
You basing reputation on your situation, huh?
So, yeah, so that's the primer for the March madness.
I think we are pretty much done here
for the Canadian bomber, for the Canadian Shaman,
for the Canadian Bill Simmons and for.
The Canadians that glow, Nico Miotolo.
Do you have any other words
as we go into the madness after this weekend?
No specific words, just I'm I'm excited for the brackets
to come out and to get ready to go.
Give us a follow at Front Runner PC on Twitter at Nico F.R.
PC on Twitter, and we'd love to have you.
And we have a really exciting Monday football podcast coming.
So all the names are out there.
If you are a football fan, be on this feed Monday.
I don't think we have to hit any kind of emergency pod
between now and then, unless some Lamar or Jeff
and Lamar Jackson news breaks or.
Yeah, you never from Aaron Rogers news breaks.
We might have to be on that.
So but yeah, I can't wait for that discussion on Monday.
And we will see you then.
And you guys have a good weekend.