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Zone Coverage: Central Division Over/Under (2026-27) · Front Runner Podcast Collective

• 0:16
  FRPC Host Vince: Podcast Collective is back.
• 0:18
  FRPC Host Vince: And uh we're gonna talk about a specific division.
• 0:23
  FRPC Host Vince: We call this our zone coverage, and basically we will be going through the outcomes of each an individual team in the central division, and we will continue this process until we get all of the divisions done.
• 0:40
  FRPC Host Vince: I am your host Vince, and uh we're gonna get to this and also gonna get to some things that also happened.
• 0:48
  FRPC Host Vince: Like we waited all day, October 1st, waiting for the inevitable situation with Jalen Dorn, and it finally came to pass.
• 1:00
  FRPC Host Vince: He did sign his contract.
• 1:02
  FRPC Host Vince: We'll get into it, and also where this actually puts Detroit in the process of winning a very competitive Eastern Conference.
• 1:12
  FRPC Host Vince: We'll also talk about other teams in that division, obviously Milwaukee, Cleveland, Indiana.
• 1:18
  FRPC Host Vince: Uh, and um we will hope to sort out where these teams are going to be at at the end of the year.
• 1:29
  FRPC Host Vince: So, with all that being said, let me take you a little bit behind the scenes of October 1st when we were looking for this information, shall we?
• 1:38
  FRPC Host Vince: So obviously we get up, have a coffee, October 1st.
• 1:47
  FRPC Host Vince: We know that at some point in the day we're gonna get the qualifying offer, or we're gonna get the some sort of long-term deal with Jalen Dorn and the Detroit Pistons.
• 2:04
  FRPC Host Vince: Boy, did they not disappoint on the drama?
• 2:07
  FRPC Host Vince: You know, people had to miss dinners, people, you know, I'm sure people were in mid-cocktail when their phones started blowing up, and then our guy was signed, sealed, delivered, and uh he is signed for $200 million over five years, and we'll get like I said, we'll get into all of that when we talk about the pistons.
• 2:30
  FRPC Host Vince: So, buckle up.
• 2:32
  FRPC Host Vince: We got a good podcast for you, and let's hit it, shall we?
• 2:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What's good everybody, and welcome to Front Cup Front of the Podcast Collective.
• 2:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is where we talk like friends, we argue like cousins, and we still walk out a little bit smarter than we came in.
• 3:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I am Vince, I am your host, your occasional hoop therapist, your absolute favorite bad influence when it comes to completely reckless NBA overreactions that low-key make perfect sense, and we are here to set the table.
• 3:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know how we dive into the film, you know we have our own observations, and it just contributes to the grown conversations that we have about the NBA, about the players, about the coaches, about the front office, and how how everybody's actually moving.
• 3:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We're gonna talk about blank checks, the contracts, the rumors in the locker room, and the PR span that goes behind it.
• 3:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We're actually gonna have verified receipts.
• 3:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now we will bring jokes, we will bring advanced math and exact barbershop ammo that you will need to take back to your group chats and completely nuke the argument.
• 4:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: If you're an NBA sicko like myself who wants more than the highlight talk, well, you've come to the right place because we're not we're gonna give you things in context, we're gonna give you the numbers and a point of view that makes sense.
• 4:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So you're in the right spot.
• 4:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So let's go.
• 4:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Like I said, we're gonna be talking about the central division today, and we're gonna go through each individual team, we're gonna tell you their uh win-loss projection, and would they go over that and why they will or will not, and kind of give you an overall view of what this team looks like and what they're trying to achieve in this situation.
• 4:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And what we're gonna end up doing is we're gonna go through every team, but we're gonna go obviously in descending order.
• 4:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So we're gonna go from the team that probably has the lowest projections to the highest projections, right?
• 5:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Build the drama, all of that sort of thing.
• 5:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So we will be doing that.
• 5:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So we will start with the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Milwaukee Bucks are coming into this season, obviously, without Giannis and Tacumpo for the first time in a over a decade.
• 5:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's led that team, he's been a part of great victories, great seasons, and he's the all-time leading scorer.
• 5:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's probably the best Milwaukee Buck of all time.
• 5:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Some people will still probably say Kareem out do Jabbar, but he played a lot longer than Kareem, so therefore, our guy, Giannis, will be missed in Milwaukee.
• 5:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, what is the aftermath of Giannis Anthony Kumpo leaving?
• 5:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Well, they damn sure made sure they damn sure made it where they got a lot of conversation back as in players.
• 6:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know about draft picks, but in players, they got a lot back, so we're gonna get to that.
• 6:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I will tell you right now that their win-loss record is at uh bet MGM is at twenty-six and a half.
• 6:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So I will have to say that if I was looking at this team, knowing that last year they went 32 and 50 with a negative 6.3 net rating on offense, um, and they were 27th on defense.
• 6:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The 26 and 56 records seems hard to believe when you th when you know that Giannis missed a lot of games.
• 6:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He only played in 36 games last year.
• 6:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's for their bad record that they had, but they went 32 and 50.
• 6:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So if you're losing 63% of the minutes of your best player, and then you transfuse this uh team with players like Tyler Hero and Jaime Hawkes Jr.
• 7:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: and Khalel Ware and our guy uh Caspis Yakachunis.
• 7:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know saying so how good is it gonna be?
• 7:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know, but we're gonna work through it, we're gonna talk about it, and we're gonna go from there.
• 7:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: First thing that we need to kind of establish is this team is a pokery of players.
• 7:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I honestly do not know, and I you know, I can't wait to di delve into this team early in the season and see who's playing where and how much of their playing.
• 7:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because you have the old guard from the team, which would be your um Miles Turner's of the world, your AG Greens of the world, and you know, you got those holdovers, the Ryan Rollins of the world, Gary Trent Jr., and then you have this influx of Miami heat, heat culture with Jaime Hawkes Jr.
• 8:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: and the rest.
• 8:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, what is this team gonna look like?
• 8:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Well, the two things that we need to establish here is that they did get a piece back that I'm very interested in, and that's Calair Ware.
• 8:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Caler Ware will provide some rim protection that they will absolutely need.
• 8:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was a plus 0.8 in the LeBron metrics, which is in the 82nd percentile, and a plus 1.8 in multi-year defense on the LeBron metric, which is in the 92nd percentile.
• 8:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's on a rookie deal, obviously, and he and Miles Turner should provide the rim protection for the Milwaukee Bucks.
• 9:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, I don't know if they'll stagger those two, play them together.
• 9:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Khalil Ware is cultivating a three-point shot.
• 9:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We know Miles Turner can shoot the three-point shot a little bit.
• 9:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's not prolific.
• 9:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Both of the guys are not prolific, but if you were hoping basic uh betting on upside when it came to one of those two, it would be Khalil Ware.
• 9:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Can he shoot it a little bit better?
• 9:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Can those numbers increase over his time in Milwaukee?
• 9:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Maybe so.
• 9:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Right now, we're looking at both of them being basically a 32 to 33% shooting uh big.
• 9:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So you can't sit there and absolutely bank on it that it's gonna hit, but the proof of them shooting it and the proof of them hitting it at a halfway decent rate for big is there now, so you have something to go off of there.
• 10:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now their steady influence on this team uh is probably Ryan Rollins.
• 10:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Ryan Rollins grades out at like the 95th percentile uh using the metrics, and Tyler Hero also is at the 92nd percentile on the three-point shooting uh prowess.
• 10:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, hopefully Tyler Hero doesn't get into any uh fisticuffs when it comes to his teammates.
• 10:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We all know what happened in summer league with BAM out of bio.
• 10:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We hope that that issue never returns onto itself again.
• 10:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But Tyler Hero is a sharp shooter, and if he can stay healthy, and with the amount of bigs, and also the uh the the steady influence of Ryan Rollins, which is a he's a good little heady player.
• 10:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I like Ryan Rollins a lot, and I hope that with now new head coach Taylor Jenkins, who comes over from the Memphis Grizzlies, who sported a 200 a 250 and 214 record while in Memphis and three playoff trips.
• 11:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So this is a good coach that's coming over who's steadying that ship.
• 11:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Obviously, Doc Rivers lost that team last year and they just went into the toilet.
• 11:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But the covers aren't there, like we talked about.
• 11:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They got Hero now.
• 11:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Hero's defense is not great, right?
• 11:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's not.
• 11:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But with the two bigs, whether they they um put them out together or they stagger them, you're gonna have pretty good rim protection at all times when you come to the Milwaukee Bucks.
• 11:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, also you have a guy like Jaime Hawkins Jr.
• 11:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: who can definitely play some isolation defense.
• 11:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Ryan Rollins can play some defense as well, so they do have some guys that you sit there and you go, okay.
• 12:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Alright.
• 12:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now the guys that I'm very, very interested in, and we'll talk about their their draft situation momentarily, but they did pick up Braden Burries and also Nate Amit in this last draft.
• 12:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, you would sit there and ask me, hey Vince, why is that important?
• 12:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The reason why that is important is because these are two young guys who have a lot of upside.
• 12:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Braden Burries really showed out at Arizona.
• 12:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was 16.1 points a game, he was uh 4.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists.
• 12:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He shot 49% from the field, he shot 39% from three, and he shot 80% from the free throw line.
• 12:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So he had a true shooting percentage of 62.3%.
• 12:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He also had an assist to turnover ratio that was a positive 1.67.
• 13:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And this is as a two-guard.
• 13:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay, he's not really a point, he's more of a combo guard.
• 13:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think he can get you buckets.
• 13:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's also stout, he's like 6'4, about 200, 205 pounds.
• 13:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This guy is ready to play NBA basketball right now.
• 13:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: My whole thing is that with the guys in front of him, what is his developmental pathway?
• 13:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You'll hear me say that a lot when it comes to uh guys who are obviously in the lottery, especially somebody like Braden Burris.
• 13:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We would like to see his development grow because to tell you the truth, as we start to talk about the Milwaukee Bucks further and further, you're gonna start to see where it might be in their best interest to kind of trade away trade away what they built up in players.
• 13:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I think that's one of the reasons why they got the players in the first place, is because once we start talking about their draft capital and how those coverts are pretty barren at this point in time, you're gonna see the importance of what Braden Burries is gonna mean to this team, and also if you can swing big, and they did swing big with their second first round pick, which is Nathan Mitt.
• 14:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, Nathan Mitt comes out of Tennessee, he had a real up and down year.
• 14:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He started off terrible.
• 14:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This guy was supposed to be like a top five uh draft pick when we started the draft process last year.
• 14:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um, once one thing that we're gonna let you know here at Frontrunner Podcast Collective, we'll be doing a lot of draft.
• 14:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh, shout out to our guys at No Ceilings who really do the heavy lifting, but we do our own work here as well, and we kind of put them together and then come up with a consensus of what we think these prospects are gonna be.
• 14:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, I'm gonna tell you right now, when it comes to Nathan Mint, I was not big on this kid at all.
• 15:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um, I thought he was skinny, which he still is.
• 15:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I thought he was not terribly physical.
• 15:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He kind of floated around the perimeter.
• 15:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't like that when you are 6'10, 6'11 dude.
• 15:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I it drives me crazy that you don't take the ball into the trees.
• 15:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now he is 6'10, he's 211 pounds, so he's quite thin.
• 15:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, as the season went on, he shot the ball better.
• 15:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, his overall numbers, not great.
• 15:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He did put up 16.7 points a game, 6.3 rebounds, and 2.3 assists.
• 15:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now he shot the ball terribly, but he shot the ball terribly early as it went on later in the year, he started to shoot the ball a lot better.
• 15:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So the overall numbers are he shot 40% from the field total.
• 15:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He did shoot the three-point shot at a 33% clip, and he shot uh 79% of his free throws.
• 16:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's all, listen, not great, but when you start to look at the numbers in the second half, that's when you start to see the 48% of his uh field goal percentage, that's when you start to see the 37% of the three-point shot, and that's when you also start to see the 84% of the free throw shooting.
• 16:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, again, he's still slight.
• 16:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's walking into a league where you know Giannis lives in this league, right?
• 16:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I hate to bring that up from Milwaukee Bucks fans because I'm sure it's still tender at this point, and you're gonna have some lean years, but those are the two kids that you kind of need to lean on.
• 16:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's like he those two kids, Ryan Rollins and Khalil Ware, if you're gonna hold on to where.
• 16:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We might talk about that a little bit later though.
• 16:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So hold on.
• 17:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, when it comes to their asset leisure, uh they hold as far as their picks are concerned.
• 17:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You got Tyler Hero and the money, but this is where their picks are.
• 17:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Next year, this this upcoming year, 2027, that pick is owed to New Orleans or Atlanta, depending on who has where it all where it ends up.
• 17:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 2028 ends up in Portland or Washington, and they hold the swap rights.
• 17:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, there's a pick that also in 2029 that conveys to Portland as well.
• 17:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh now the 2030, you got Portland, Miami swap rights, and then 2031, they own their pick plus Miami's unprotected.
• 17:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So for the next four years, the Milwaukee Bucks do not have picks, they're not in control of any other draft compensation whatsoever.
• 18:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So that brings me back to Tyler Hero.
• 18:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That also brings me back to Miles Turner.
• 18:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So what I am saying is that yes, Tyler Hero is there, he's a hometown hero.
• 18:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Oh, the pun was not is it is a terrible pun.
• 18:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But if you can get Tyler Hero to showcase his skills and hide his defensive kind of negative outcomes, he can put the ball in the basket at a pretty effective level.
• 18:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And if he can show that he can do it for a team that is lottery bound, no doubt, you could probably trade him at the trade deadline to a team who is desperate, and then you can go ahead and get a draft pick back, or maybe two, depending on how over barrel you have this team.
• 19:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: With that being said, the the reclamation project that is Miles Turner, who had probably his worst career season last year.
• 19:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, I don't blame him totally.
• 19:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know, Doc Rivers was there, and there was just a lot of upheaval going on, and it just wasn't working.
• 19:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now they gave him a big contract, and this is where people will go, I don't know, dog.
• 19:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know about that one.
• 19:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because he owed $26.6 million for the next three seasons.
• 19:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's a lot of money when it comes to the center position.
• 19:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And Miles Turner is no screen chicken.
• 19:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This dude is now over 30, so we're not paying for uh upside, we're paying for production.
• 20:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And last year, he had his least productive season since his rookie year.
• 20:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He is a good defender, he can get out on the wings on the perimeter, he can also hold it down as far as blocking shots when it comes to um at the rim.
• 20:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But the problem is that he's never being like a super duper scorer or anything like that, and paying somebody like Miles Turner $26.6 million a year is uh I would consider that a bad asset right now.
• 20:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So can you curate can you curate his reclamation project to make him um more viable when it comes to trades?
• 20:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because right now you'd have to give up stuff to trade Miles Turner.
• 20:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let's just be honest about what we're looking at.
• 21:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So if he is not a piece that you can kind of discard and get something for, that brings me back to Killel Ware.
• 21:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And it brings me back to Hi Jaime Highcast Jr.
• 21:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now here's some kids who are still young, like I uh Khalel Ware is not even twenty twenty-four yet, and also Jaime Hotcast Jr.
• 21:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: is not I don't even think he's twenty five, twenty-six.
• 21:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So here's some guys who on winning teams can play a role.
• 21:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, Khalel Ware has the huge upside, so that's the guy who you think that might can be able to get you a bunch of picks back when it comes to that.
• 21:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um so if he you can get him to play well and you can showcase him, this is where you can start making inroads on Reclaiming picks back to fill your coffers so you're not absolutely barren when it comes to the next three years because it looks bleak in Milwaukee right now.
• 22:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, here's some things that you need to know.
• 22:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Milwaukee Bucks do not have any incentive to tank because that pick goes somewhere else.
• 22:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: If that pick is gone, so you gotta really play hard.
• 22:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The great thing is they have a ton of depth and they have a ton of options when it comes to every basic position when it comes to their team.
• 22:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, is it any great piece?
• 22:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No.
• 22:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is why I think that the development of Braden Berry's and Nate Amit and Khalil Ware are critical to what they're trying to achieve.
• 22:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because if you can get Khalil Ware to be something that people are very interested in, and who isn't interested in a rim-protecting big that can shoot threes who's hella athletic?
• 23:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay?
• 23:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let's not, you know, I see a lot of lobs to Khalil Ware this year in his future, and then if he can bang out the threes at a decent level, which he was on his way to doing in Miami, I think you might have something, and then you might be able to recoup some of the things that you've lost in your last couple prior trades.
• 23:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, you want to ask me where they're gonna end up this year?
• 23:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: If Vegas is saying that they're gonna end up with 26, you know, they're over-under 26.5, I'm gonna take the over simply because of two things.
• 23:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: One, Taylor Jenkins can manufacture an offense, and he has a lot of different type of pieces to be able to do that.
• 23:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You also have the steadying hand of Ryan Rollins and Tyler Hero with a bunch of depth behind them.
• 24:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So if Braden Burries is getting minutes behind Tyler Hero and um maybe taking over the reins for Ryan Rollins and kind of, you know, it's like a rotation of three guards there, I think you will be able to really do something when it comes to that.
• 24:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, do I think that the Milwaukee Bucks have a chance of being like 500 or anything like that?
• 24:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No, I do not.
• 24:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: If they win 30 games this year, it is an absolute moment in time for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Milwaukee Bucks organization.
• 24:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So don't get too hyped, but they'll play their ass off because, again, they don't have anything to tank for.
• 24:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I know we're not supposed to use that word anymore.
• 24:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let's call it strategic uh letting go of the rope at the end of the year and what have you.
• 25:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let's do it that way, right?
• 25:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So I would think that right now you're gonna get the best version of the Milwaukee Bucks.
• 25:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's not really a lot of fair shakes, but it is something to look forward to.
• 25:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And really, if you're a Milwaukee Bucks fan, what you're looking for is three things.
• 25:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Again, it's Kaleware and his growth and his development, and is it a piece that is so tantalizing that you gotta keep?
• 25:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because remember, Khalil Ware is a legit seven-footer.
• 25:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's also, again, pretty damn athletic.
• 25:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's gonna block your shots, uh, he's very hyperactive when it comes to defense.
• 25:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He can go out and uh shoe three-point shooters from the corners and things of that nature, and then he can also chase down blocks, which is great.
• 25:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The tantalizing thing when it comes to him is this are you sure that he's part of your future?
• 26:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And what I mean by that, it might be a situation where you have to rip off the band-aid and trade him because he might be able to get you two first-round picks and like two second-round picks, and you might say, Well, that's not a huge haul, it's not the Desmond Bain haul that Memphis got from Orlando, but it is a step in the right direction when your coffers are as empty as the Milwaukee Bucks, but I have them going over 26 and a half, so we are going to move down to Chicago, and Chicago has a lot of interesting things going on.
• 26:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: One, their overunder is 27.5 games, so not a lot to see here, supposedly, but there is a lot going on in Chicago that we need to kind of catch ourselves up with.
• 27:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Do they have talent?
• 27:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They do, and we'll get to it.
• 27:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh, last year they went 31 and 51, they had a negative net rating of 5.1.
• 27:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh they were through the analytics, they were supposed to be 29 and 53.
• 27:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's their per their Pythagorean record, but they ended up two games above that, which is great.
• 27:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh, they played at the second fastest pace in the league.
• 27:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They were outshot by 3.6 attempts a game.
• 27:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh courtesy of NBA.com, and they ranked 19th in three-point efficiency.
• 27:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, why is this all important?
• 27:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Two things.
• 27:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They have Norman Powell, who is, I can tell you right now, before he even played a regular season game, Norman Powell is a trade asset, and look for him to be on the move come early February or what have you.
• 28:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So keep that in mind.
• 28:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But Norman Powell's on this team, he's gonna get you bucky while he's here.
• 28:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You got Josh Giddy, you got also uh Nick Clask uh Claxton who comes over from Brooklyn, who's gonna show up your be the your big man as far as that's concerned, and then what makes this team kind of interesting is Caleb Williams, and we'll get to him, but let's talk about what they have on the squad right now.
• 28:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What have we seen from Giddy?
• 28:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Well, he's an elite creator, he grades out at the 99th uh percentile on playmaking uh talent, and he's 99 on the assists uh assist points per 75.
• 29:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now his offensive LeBron is a plus 1.28, which is at the 90s percentile.
• 29:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So this dude gets buckets, he gets but he gets buckets for other players, he puts Peeko in good positions.
• 29:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, a guy that um I have a lot of interest in as a Lakers fan is Jalen Smith.
• 29:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Jalen Smith has had a pretty good kind of renaissance in Chicago, so I like him a lot.
• 29:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think that's gonna be real uh awesome when it comes to that.
• 29:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I also like that they got Buddy Healed in the Rob Dillingham trade a couple days ago.
• 29:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He shoots 35%, he is a volume three-point shooter.
• 29:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He is his uh career average is 39.5% from three.
• 29:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Can't really be angry at that at all.
• 30:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, Tiago Splinter uh Splitter takes over for uh Gilly Donovan who left, Splitter, who went 42 and 40 as the interim coach in Portland last year.
• 30:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think you got a guy who really understands the game, he can teach it to the young kids.
• 30:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's what you got here, and that's what you're looking for when it comes to rebuilding what Chicago has been in the past, and you know, it's been a long time since Chicago's been really relevant.
• 30:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, you know, you had that that blip when Derek Rose was healthy, and it just disappeared, you know, due to his knee injuries and things of that nature.
• 30:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It was you know, it was a heartbreak.
• 30:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But you can see in Chicago that they're really coming around.
• 30:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Giddy and Buzelis are nice little fun foundational pieces that you have, and I can't wait to continue to see their growth and development with one another and how it all works out with those two.
• 31:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, when you talk about those two, they're gonna be a really big team because if you got Nick Claxton at the five, you got Boozelis, and you got Giddy, we haven't even talked about Caleb Wilson.
• 31:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, Caleb Wilson was the number one, it was the number four overall draft pick in the 2026 draft.
• 31:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, he only played 24 games at North Carolina.
• 31:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He put up almost 20 points a game, damn near 9.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists.
• 31:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He shot the ball at a 57.8% clip.
• 31:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He did not shoot the three well at North Carolina, but you know where he shot it well at?
• 31:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Summer League.
• 31:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This dude had a real coming out party.
• 31:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This dude looked like a superstar in Summer League.
• 32:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, his interior defense and his rebounding are what got him to the top four situation.
• 32:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But his three-point shooting was a revelation at Summer League, and if that's going to hit, and that's what it's going to be, man, did Chicago end up with an absolute stud.
• 32:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This could really jump start uh just good vibes in Chicago and a upward trajectory that I'm sure the Chicago Bulls fans that uh have been holding on.
• 32:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Just hold on to anything that looks like potential hope.
• 32:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I know it's getting some lean gears for you guys in Chicago.
• 32:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I know.
• 32:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But this guy right here is legit.
• 32:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think that he is going to be a stud in the NBA.
• 33:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, his development is really on him.
• 33:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's gonna be that three-point shot.
• 33:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Which position is he best suited for?
• 33:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The three of the four.
• 33:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's very athletic, he's a big kid, but uh right now all we're looking for is him to get out there and play, catch some lobs from Giddy, get real hype with uh Boozelis, you know, and talk a lot of trash and show some swag.
• 33:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We're not expecting him to light the world on fire this year, but I think this kid has a definite shot uh at rookie of the year, the way he played in summer league.
• 33:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now I know the other kids, and we'll, you know, get to them when their time comes or whatever, because you know, we're gonna break down each division.
• 33:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So we'll get to the AJ DeBancers of the world, we'll get to Derek Peterson and things of that nature, but I think this kid has a legit shot at doing something really special.
• 34:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So we'll see how it all goes.
• 34:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But Caleb Williams is definitely a guy that I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time on NBA League pass watching.
• 34:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And that brings us to the second rookie, which is Dalen Swain out of Texas.
• 34:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He put up 17.3 points a game, 7.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists.
• 34:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He shot the ball very uh fairly well, 54% from the field, 34.4% from three, but what gives you pause and what also gives you hope is that he shot at 81.5% from the free throw line.
• 34:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I'm gonna tell you right now, that's one of the biggest indicators that this dude has touched and that that three-point shot could go up.
• 34:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now he's going from the college three-point line to the pro three-point line.
• 35:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He did not show very well in summer league, but also keep in mind, he's a lower first-round draft pick.
• 35:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We're not expecting him to blow up, but he does a he's like a Swiss Army knife.
• 35:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Alright.
• 35:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He can rebound, he can pass a little bit, play some defense, he's long, he's athletic.
• 35:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I like Dalen Swain a lot.
• 35:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, it will be up to him on his where he's gonna fit in.
• 35:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I think that Tiago Splitter has a has a situation where we saw him resurrect Denny Abdia of the Trailblazers, and I think if you think about the way that Denny Abdia plays the game, I think we have a chance of seeing Dalen Swain be sort of like a Denny Obdia light.
• 36:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So a little bit more athletic, but that's who I'm thinking of.
• 36:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, what holds him back from being like pure Denny Abdia is the 2.7 turnovers a game.
• 36:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That is a red flag.
• 36:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So I'll say this about Cleveland.
• 36:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You got Buzelis, you got Nick Claxton, you know, you got uh a strong foundation of guys to build on with now you adding Caleb Williams to the mix, or Caleb Wilson to the mix, Caleb Williams talking about the Chicago Bears quarterback, man.
• 36:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is crazy.
• 36:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Anyways, you have some talent, you have some young talent that you can go ahead and really mold, and again, you got the right coach for it.
• 36:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's all gonna be you're in a really hard-hitting division, you're in a division that's gonna be hyper competitive because it's gonna be you really are gonna be the anchor with Milwaukee of that division.
• 37:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The other three teams that are Indiana, Cleveland, and Detroit are gonna be the hammer to your nail.
• 37:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So you're gonna have to get victories off like Brooklyn, you're gonna have to get victories off of the you know, near the well of the other people in the Eastern Conference as well.
• 37:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because there is the talent at the top is just ridiculous right now.
• 37:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And as we go through division by division, you'll start to see that.
• 37:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because we're about to get into the high-rent destroy in this division after we talk about the Chicago Bulls.
• 37:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, what to watch for in Chicago is this development, development, development.
• 37:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: See whether Splitter starts Smith over Claxton or Claxton starts.
• 37:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Does Jalen Smith start at all?
• 38:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is Caleb Wilson earmarked for a position?
• 38:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I would think so.
• 38:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think if you have that high of a draft pick, you let that kid go, you let him learn through his mistakes, and you allow that developmental pathway, his developmental pathway to be as wide berth as possible.
• 38:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think also we are looking for another jump up for uh Matos Guzelis.
• 38:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And they are going to be playing Washington in the opener first month of the season.
• 38:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They that means AJ Devanster comes to town.
• 38:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That means that Caleb Wilson will be hyped and it will be awesome.
• 38:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, we did talk about Norman Powell.
• 38:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Norman Powell will get you buckets through fake through like the early through January and maybe like the very early part of February.
• 38:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But do not go out and buy a Norman Powell jersey because I'm gonna tell you right now, unless you bought it on an MX card, you need to have that jersey insurance replacement, because he will be a trade uh candidate for sure come February.
• 39:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, where do we think that Chicago will be at?
• 39:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 27 and a half games is not a lot of games.
• 39:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They I think that Tiago Splitter can get them to play a little bit better than that.
• 39:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Personally, I think 30 games aren't out of the question when it comes to the Chicago Bulls.
• 39:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think they're a team that's gonna play hard.
• 39:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I think if you come in to Chicago and you've had like a long road trip or whatever the case may be, you can get got in Chicago, especially with the talent they have that they have put together so far.
• 39:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's just young and it needs to be nurtured and it needs to be kind of manicured.
• 39:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I like what Chicago's doing.
• 40:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It took them a while to go ahead and rip the band-aid off and go ahead and get to this point, but I like the little foundation that they have.
• 40:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um, obviously, Giddy has to shoot the three at a at a decent level.
• 40:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Buzelis still has to work on his three ball, and if again, if Caleb Will Wilson's three is legitimate, look out.
• 40:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Maybe not this year, but put a couple more drafts together like this, and we're gonna be talking about something pretty damn special in Chicago.
• 40:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now I'm not gonna say championship, but I'm gonna say, hey, you know, you wanna get back to that playoffs playing in you know in the spring, playing legitimate, meaningful games.
• 40:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You got a really nice foundation to do that off of.
• 41:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Speaking of nice foundation, let's get to the Indiana Pacers.
• 41:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Pacers To me, remember this team was uh one game away in the twenty twenty five NBA finals, and then Tyrese Halliburton absolutely ripped up his Achilles.
• 41:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, when we were le when we last saw them, it was not great.
• 41:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And of course, if you take Tyrese Halliburton off your squad, it's probably not gonna be great.
• 41:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So they went 19-63 and did do not have any draft conversation to speak of because they made a trade and we'll talk about who they picked up in a second, which is uh uh Evita Zubots from the Clippers, and that number five overall pick, Keaton Waggler, went to the Los Angeles Clippers.
• 42:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, what you say, what do they have?
• 42:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Well, they got Tyrese Halliburton, and the band is back together, damn it.
• 42:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's what they have.
• 42:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay, they have a lot of good stuff that we don't need to worry about.
• 42:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Tyrese Halliburton is back, that means that Nimhar goes to his regular position.
• 42:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That means that we don't need to see an overabundance of shooting from um our guy Aaron Neismith.
• 42:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He can go back to his role, and now you have a legit seven-footer who's a really good rebounder.
• 42:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You're gonna have to make some augmentations to the offense, which listen, Rick Carlisle is a genius when it comes to this.
• 42:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You also got Pascal Siakum, so, and you got uh OB Toppin off the bench and then a couple other guys.
• 42:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, Indiana's back.
• 42:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, they're in the they're in the central and they're in the east, which is one of the most competitive.
• 43:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um this is gonna be one of the most competitive Eastern conferences that we uh uh battles that we've ever seen.
• 43:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because there's a lot of good teams out there.
• 43:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yes, the bad is really bad, but the good is really freaking good.
• 43:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Remember, the Knicks are the defending champions.
• 43:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Boston, yes, might have lost Jalen Brown, but that's a good team.
• 43:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's still a good team over there.
• 43:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Philadelphia is locked and loaded.
• 43:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And then we talk about the teams in.
• 43:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We talked about we're gonna be talking about the teams in Central.
• 43:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Remember, in the in the South, we got Orlando, they got a lot to prove.
• 43:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Miami has Giannis.
• 43:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Charlotte's on the rise.
• 43:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think they'll dip back a little bit when it comes to that.
• 43:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Atlanta is looking to do big things this year as well.
• 43:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So Indiana is in a real dog fight for Eastern Conference supremacy.
• 44:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But if there's any team that I would go ahead and put some faith in, it would be the Pacers.
• 44:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because one thing, I think that Tyrese Halliburton was on the on the verge of being such an elite player.
• 44:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Remember, this kid was basically he controlled their offense.
• 44:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know, you had guys like and you still have guys like Siakam who are, you know, creating 25.6 points a game per seventy-five.
• 44:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You got Obi Toppin who shoots 63.7% of true shooting, which is at the eighty 85th percentile.
• 44:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So you got a lot to kind of go off of when it comes to the Indiana Pacers.
• 44:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Their starting five is legit.
• 45:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And now you got a visa zubots.
• 45:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And here's a guy who is gonna set rugged screens, and he is going to roll to the basket.
• 45:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's also a really good passer in the short roll.
• 45:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think that that's a new wrinkle to the offense that you did not have with uh Miles Turner.
• 45:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Actually, I thought Miles Turner Turner was a shaky uh passer to begin with.
• 45:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think you upgrade there.
• 45:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um the rebounding is definitely gonna upgrade with uh Evisa Zubots for sure, and I think it gives Halliburton another guy to play off of, but the one thing that Halliburton will absolutely appreciate with Zubots is that he sits bone crushing picks.
• 45:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay, that pick and roll game is about to get real dangerous because when Zubot steps out to the perimeter, yeah, he's not gonna shoot it, but you gotta get around him, and that's a big boy.
• 46:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's a seven-footer who's like 265-270 pounds, and he leans into all of it.
• 46:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Does he like physicality?
• 46:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Very much so.
• 46:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Does he want to allow his guards and his slashing wings to be set free from the uh defender who is guarding him?
• 46:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 100%, and he will do everything in his power to do so, and you are going to feel it.
• 46:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You're gonna need a bunch of ice packs after the game when it comes to a visa zoobots in a pacers uniform.
• 46:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think Indiana Pacers fans are gonna love him.
• 46:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I really do.
• 46:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, yeah, does Zubot's transition um to the Pacers mean a lot?
• 46:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yes, one hundred percent.
• 46:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I think that you will see him really, in a sense, be that protector for Tyrese Halliburton.
• 47:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Tyrese is going to be a ball-dominant dude, he's gonna have the ball in his hand a lot, his uh usage was like at 35% when he was healthy.
• 47:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't see that changing.
• 47:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So some of the schematics with him I don't see changing.
• 47:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I look at this team and go, you know, they're gonna make this run.
• 47:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Cause see Siakam is starting to get up their age, and his price tag is now at 48.9 million, which hey, if you're winning or you get into the NBA finals, this is great.
• 47:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But when you're 32 years of age, you start to think about what that cliff is gonna look like, and you start making business decisions, and especially if you're the Indiana Pacers, this is something that you do.
• 48:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You gotta you gotta divest at the right time.
• 48:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You gotta go in at the right time, and you gotta divest at the right time.
• 48:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I think that if for some reason the Pacers don't reach the mountaintop this year, I think that there'll be real hard discussions, sober discussions about Pascal Siakum when it comes to whether they're gonna trade him or not and kind of retool the team on the fly.
• 48:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So if the Pacers are gonna do something, they're gonna do it this year.
• 48:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: If for some reason they get off to some kind of slow start or whatever the case may be, they might not be able to get the absolute return they want for Pascal Siakam at the trade deadline.
• 48:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They might have to wait till the end of the year in the offseason and you know have uh Pascal Siakam on the trade block, but I think this is a really good team.
• 48:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think that Zoo, I think that Obi Topkin off the bench is dynamic.
• 49:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He can get you anywhere between 13 to 17 points off the bench.
• 49:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um, you know, TJ McConnell is gonna be very TJ McConnell when it comes to just being a complete pest on the court and getting good shots for your players.
• 49:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now it will be the shepherds of the world, they're gonna have to step up.
• 49:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um that bench has not really produced anything other than Obi Talkman.
• 49:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So I will we'll be very interested to see what happens with the the shepherds of the world and what have you.
• 49:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So um stay tuned for that.
• 49:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We will see if they are able to do anything when it comes to that, but make no bones about it.
• 49:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is a playoff team.
• 49:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't think this is a play-in team, this is a playoff team, and I think we have a lot of uh time and and and I think we can confidently say that this team is definitely going to uh win more than 44 and a half games.
• 50:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know what I'm saying?
• 50:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I mean, if that's the if that's the watermark that we're looking at, 44 and a half is easy.
• 50:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's easy money.
• 50:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Go ahead and take the over on that.
• 50:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, is Halliburth is Halligurton gonna be rusty?
• 50:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't think so.
• 50:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I do not think so.
• 50:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think they he I think they're because how competitive the East is, I'm not gonna sit here sit here and say they're gonna win 55 games or anything.
• 50:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But could they win 50?
• 50:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Could they win 51?
• 50:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yeah.
• 50:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think the Pacers can go 51 and 31 in a competitive East.
• 50:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think that's where you're gonna end up being, somewhere like that.
• 51:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But the you don't have to worry about the 19-63 that you were last year unless something catastrophic happens.
• 51:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So that's my thoughts on the Indiana Pacers.
• 51:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now that we talked about the Pacers and their 44 and a half wins, let's talk about a team.
• 51:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now that we've talked about the Pacers, let's talk about some of their teams that they have to worry about.
• 51:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Cleveland Cavaliers are in a assessment kind of standby situation.
• 51:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What I mean by that is that they're all in this year again.
• 51:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They picked up James Harden, they went 21 and 9 over that time.
• 51:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They had an offensive rating of 126.7.
• 51:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Harden and Mitchell during the regular season is a absolute dynamo of a backcourt.
• 52:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Harden's talents are undeniable undeniable.
• 52:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He is one of the best um step back uh three shooting guys in the league.
• 52:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He can get to the basket when he wants.
• 52:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He can manipulate a defense at any point in time.
• 52:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'll get to the other stuff in a second, but let's give him his flowers.
• 52:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: James Harden is is a is a real dude, and he's been a real dude for a very, very long time in this league.
• 52:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's why he continues to get paid.
• 52:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is he the best defense defensive player in the world?
• 52:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No, he's not.
• 52:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But can he play adequate defense?
• 52:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yeah, he sure can.
• 52:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Donovan Mitchell is an absolute dynamo, offensive dynamo.
• 53:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He is explosive, he can he can explode for 55 points any given night.
• 53:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's and the funny part about Donovan Mitchell is that I know they lift him at like what six foot four or whatever the case may be.
• 53:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Donovan Mitchell's like 6'2, he just got long ass arms, and he's just super duper fucking athletic, and he is an absolute killer when it comes to regular season getting buckets.
• 53:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, this team is stacked.
• 53:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Cavaliers, Kenny Atkinson has a stacked team.
• 53:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Evan Mowgli is a former defensive player of the year, he provides the ramp protection that you would want.
• 53:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh, you also got Jared Allen, who is also one of the best defensive players in the league.
• 54:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And now you have Peyton Watson, who you got in a signing trade.
• 54:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And let me tell you something.
• 54:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Peyton Watson, I wanted him to be a Lakers so bag, but I will say this.
• 54:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's it is a it's not a big sample size, but you're not asking Peyton Watson to carry the team.
• 54:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What you're asking him to do is the thing that he should be able to wake up, fall out of bed doing, being an absolute menace on the defensive end, providing pressure on ball, and being a menace in the passing lanes.
• 54:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Get out and run, get your points that way, and when we finally go ahead and get into that half court offense, we need you to stand in the corner and shoot some threes.
• 54:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And if he can do that with the amount of talent they have on this team, I think that Peyton Watson's ability and what he showed in that month where Jokic wasn't there, and he put up career numbers.
• 55:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think that Cleveland really has something.
• 55:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Honestly.
• 55:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now again, his defensive his defensive uh prowess is unmatched.
• 55:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This dude is a 97 97th percentile isolate isolation defender.
• 55:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His catch and shoot efficiency is 95th percentile, and then you have dudes like off the bench, you have dudes like uh Dean Wade, Max Struce, uh Schroeder, you know what I'm saying?
• 55:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You got enough dudes.
• 56:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Oh, we haven't even talked about Jalen uh Tyson.
• 56:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So the covers aren't bare in Cleveland.
• 56:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yes, you will have to stagger the bigs to make sure you got enough shooting on the court, but I think with now Peyton Watson there, you got another kind of athletic person who is a legitimate six foot eight, who can provide that where he can slide down to that four position very easily, and then you could bring in another high-level defender who can shoot the three and help out with the corner threes, and you still got Donovan Mitchell and you got James Harden to do the real offensive heavy lifting that they're able to do.
• 56:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: My whole thing with the Cleveland Cavaliers is the same exact thing that it's been the last two or three years.
• 56:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Either you're gonna get more aggression from Evan Mowgli or some more nasty from Jared Allen, or you're gonna go home again, and you're never getting to the finals.
• 57:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And that's all there is to it.
• 57:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because here's the thing as much as I love James Harden as far as what he's able to do, it doesn't work in the playoffs.
• 57:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We've we've asked and we've tried, but it doesn't work, and James Harden uh ghosting you like after a date or whatever the case may be, is definitely gonna happen in the playoffs.
• 57:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You're gonna sit there and look around and go, where is James Harden at?
• 57:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And he is gonna be nowhere to be found.
• 57:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: All that production you saw in the regular season is gonna dry up, and it's just gonna be gone.
• 57:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, Donovan Mitchell still puts up points in the playoffs.
• 57:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The only thing with Donovan Mitchell is that he's been in Utah and he's been in Cleveland, and we still have not seen an NBA finals appearance for this guy.
• 58:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And the one thing that we said when he was with Darius Garland is that backcourt too small, and now we say to you again, not that it's too small, James Harden is not a really good defensive player.
• 58:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Donovan Mitchell is athletic enough to be a good defensive player, but if you put him in pick and roll action, and now you gotta guard LeBron, or you gotta guard OG Anobi, or you gotta guard Jason Tatum, or you gotta guard Jalen Brown, it's a difficult ask of somebody who is 6'2, who is also carrying such an offensive burden for you.
• 58:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is why we've been asking for Evan Mowgli to step up and just be the guy who we thought you were going to be.
• 58:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I thought this was the second coming of Chris Bosch, honestly, and we have not gotten there.
• 58:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We've seen glimpses of it, we've seen it, it's not like it's oh, it's not there at all.
• 59:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No, no, no, no, it's there.
• 59:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We just never seen it completely realized yet.
• 59:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And this is the year because if for some reason, with all this talent that has been put together by Kobe Altman, and Kobe Altman has done a fantastic job with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
• 59:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Make no mistake about that.
• 59:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But this is the year where they have to put it all together.
• 59:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You can't cry about all this, that, the other.
• 59:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Kenny Atkinson can't come out here talking about well, our our uh evaluated field goal percentage will lead us to believe that we would have won that series nine out of ten times.
• 59:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Bro, nobody wants to hear that.
• 59:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Not one person wants to hear that.
• 59:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You need to go out and win.
• 1:00:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You need to grab this season by the throat and win.
• 1:00:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You have the talent, you have now a guy who can definitely defend the wing at a high level, so you should be able to counteract the Jalen Browns and the Jason Tatums of the world with Peyton Watson.
• 1:00:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because here's the other thing.
• 1:00:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 2027, 2029 first are gone.
• 1:00:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 2028 first round pick is in a swap triangle.
• 1:00:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The 2031 pick went to Denver in the Peyton Watson deal.
• 1:00:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The 2033 pick is frozen because of your cap situation.
• 1:00:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Y'all see what I'm getting at, right?
• 1:00:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: In Cleveland.
• 1:00:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I know y'all don't want to hear it.
• 1:00:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I know y'all don't want to hear it.
• 1:00:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I'm gonna tell you right now, if for some reason Cleveland does not get it done, expect change.
• 1:01:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, will it be Donovan Mitchell?
• 1:01:03
  unknown: No.
• 1:01:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Not saying that.
• 1:01:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But Evan Mowgli gonna have to go.
• 1:01:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Or Jared Allen gonna have to go.
• 1:01:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You can't pay Jared Allen $30 million and be like, oh, he's not that type of big.
• 1:01:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's not a big where you sit there and I he can get me offense on his own.
• 1:01:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He is not that dude.
• 1:01:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He is reliant on James Harden feeding him blocks and getting put back, you know, off the rebounds, and running, you know, being athletic and running the court and beating his the his uh his center matchup up the court and then hitting him with a lead ahead pass and him scoring.
• 1:01:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But if you're asking him to like end like half court offense, go on the block and then get me like a turnaround little baby hook or whatever the case may be, or turnaround 12-footer, that is not Jared Allen's game.
• 1:02:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, this is the year.
• 1:02:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Evan Mowgli finds the aggression that he's so been searching for.
• 1:02:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Jared Allen needs to step up and be a little more aggressive on these screens, and also make sure when you we get to the postseason, you out here putting up a wall, and it's not just a throw.
• 1:02:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Peyton Watson needs to go ahead and hold it down and and be able to neutralize some of these wings that he's gonna be asked to defend.
• 1:02:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And you know, Donovan Mitchell is gonna have to carry this team a little bit and hope that when James Harden does go MIA, it's on the it's on a night where Donovan Mitchell is on a heater.
• 1:03:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Do I think Cleveland is going to contend in the East?
• 1:03:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yes, I do.
• 1:03:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Do I think that Cleveland has a chance to win more than 47 and a half games?
• 1:03:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They should.
• 1:03:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Could the pressure finally have caught up to him though?
• 1:03:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because we know that this is the year where you you know this is the proven year.
• 1:03:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Lot of weird things happen when you know that the ultimatum is like, hey, if you don't get it together this year, we're gonna have to make a lot of changes.
• 1:03:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Cause then people start playing for themselves.
• 1:03:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You start to see independent contractors out there.
• 1:03:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, I think Kenny Atkinson can hold it together.
• 1:03:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think he's the type of dude that can handle that situation.
• 1:03:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think that uh the kid they got from um was it Arkansas, whatever the case may be, Malik Anderson, I think he's going to be very good.
• 1:04:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think he might be a you know kind of energizer bunny off the bench.
• 1:04:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Do I think that Cleveland should win about 50 games?
• 1:04:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yeah, I think this the whole Eastern Conference at the top, that 50 to whoever ends up winning 55 games, probably gonna win the East.
• 1:04:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because there's too many good teams at the top.
• 1:04:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, this is provided no injuries or whatever.
• 1:04:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We have some sort of long-gated injury by one of these top teams, then I can see them definitely falling by the wayside and whatever.
• 1:04:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But if we are turning off the injury situation on 2K, and we're saying that Cleveland is going to be with their dudes mostly, their over, under is 47 and a half, they should go over.
• 1:04:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The problem is that again, this is a season where it's a make or break.
• 1:05:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You start to see people going into business for themselves.
• 1:05:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And hey, James Harden isn't it is not above it.
• 1:05:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's not above it at all.
• 1:05:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So with that being said, this is a big crew of year for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
• 1:05:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think they're immensely talented, but it all falls on not Donovan Mitchell, not James Harden.
• 1:05:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I am going to tell you exactly who is going to fall on.
• 1:05:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Evan Mobley needs to be the guy who we thought he was going to be.
• 1:05:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He needs to go ahead and average like 19 to 21 points a game.
• 1:05:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He needs to go ahead and get his get his shit together with his rebounds.
• 1:05:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He needs to be more assertive on the offensive end and be that third guy that the Cleveland Cavaliers have been looking for, and not just this mismatch, pokery.
• 1:05:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Situation that they've been going through for like the last three years.
• 1:06:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Evan Mobley needs to be the dude.
• 1:06:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Really, to tell you the truth, he really needs to be the number two, and James Harden moves to the number three.
• 1:06:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But shit, I know I'm probably asking a lot.
• 1:06:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Evan Mobley needs to step up.
• 1:06:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We need to see the guy that they drafted.
• 1:06:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um early lottery.
• 1:06:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What six years ago, six, seven years ago?
• 1:06:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We've been waiting, and it needs to happen.
• 1:06:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And that leads us to a guy and to another big that had a lot of questions to answer.
• 1:06:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And his situation just got real interesting.
• 1:06:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And that leads us to the Detroit Pistons.
• 1:06:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Detroit Pistons won 60 games last year.
• 1:06:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They were the number one seed.
• 1:06:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um the number two seed.
• 1:06:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They took and lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
• 1:07:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The market wants you to think that they will have a 10 and a half win drop in wins.
• 1:07:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, Kay Cunningham is paid.
• 1:07:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And then under the wire, they paid their 22-year-old center $200 million for five years.
• 1:07:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And you say, Vince, this is a good thing.
• 1:07:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I agree with you.
• 1:07:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Here's my question.
• 1:07:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm about to go through it here in Los Angeles.
• 1:08:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because if you don't think Austin Reeves is under the microscope with his contract that he just got, you got another thing coming.
• 1:08:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The reality is, is with that money comes great responsibility.
• 1:08:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And Jalen Duran can tell me all the things, and he can be salty about how negotiations went and whatever.
• 1:08:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The reason why Trajan Langdon had a pause when it came to giving Jalen Duran $200 million, which is an AAV of $40 million a year, is because does he get his own offense?
• 1:08:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is he a absolute shutdown defender?
• 1:08:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They were 60 and 22 last year.
• 1:08:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Cade Cunningham missed 18 games and they still won 60.
• 1:08:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Cade's shot quality is all all be it because he is the guy.
• 1:09:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He has to take some questionable shots.
• 1:09:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because if you look behind him, if you look behind Kate, who is it?
• 1:09:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: One of the best athletes I've seen on the court.
• 1:09:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's like a 99%ile athlete.
• 1:09:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Can't shoot a lick.
• 1:09:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Jalen Doran is a 20 and 10 type of dude.
• 1:09:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is he the best defensive player in the whole world?
• 1:09:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No.
• 1:09:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And how is he getting those 20 points a game?
• 1:09:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Who's spoon feeding him, you know, most of those points?
• 1:09:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Oh, that'll be Cade Cunningham.
• 1:09:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Kate Cunningham is a straw that stirs the drink, no doubt.
• 1:09:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But also, he's the he is the offensive engine for a lot of people on that team.
• 1:10:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And then you got John Collins, right?
• 1:10:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay, here's the thing.
• 1:10:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Duncan Robinson is there to give you space.
• 1:10:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay, there's your th your movement three-point shooter.
• 1:10:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You also picked up Isaiah Joe, another terrific movement shooter.
• 1:10:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know what he's gonna do on the defensive end for you, but I do know this.
• 1:10:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's gonna get you some buckets.
• 1:10:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They got John Collins.
• 1:10:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, John Collins has shot the ball uh a lot better when it comes to three-point shooting and whatever the case may be lately.
• 1:10:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That thumb that finger still looks ugly as hell, but he finally started to shoot the three a little bit better.
• 1:10:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But he's not you can't depend on John Collins.
• 1:10:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You can't depend on remember they were depending on Tobias Harris last year, and they still won 60 games.
• 1:11:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That is the greatness of Kay Cunningham.
• 1:11:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That is the greatness of also their coach JB Bakerstaff saying, hey, we are gonna play all out, tough ass deep tough ass minded defense, and we're gonna get this done.
• 1:11:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, here's the thing.
• 1:11:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And we're gonna say the quiet part out loud.
• 1:11:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Everybody plays hard in the playoffs.
• 1:11:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yeah, you can win a lot of games in a regular season because you're out efforting people, but when it comes to the crucible of the playoffs, you're not gonna be able to do that.
• 1:11:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: A Sar Thompson's defensive LeBron is 2.93.
• 1:11:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's a hundred percentile.
• 1:11:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His steals are 2.56 in 70 in 75 possessions.
• 1:11:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: One of the toughest assignments in the league.
• 1:12:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's all great.
• 1:12:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You still can't hit a jump shot, my brother.
• 1:12:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Are we expecting John Collins to become some kind of like volume three-point shooter?
• 1:12:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Or is it does it all fall on Duncan Robertson and also Isaiah Joe?
• 1:12:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now those guys are up to the task, no doubt, when it comes to shooting threes and getting those numbers out there.
• 1:12:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And maybe they will be the the the guys you need to go ahead and provide the the space the space that Cuttingham needs to operate in in a driving situation and to unlock what Jalen Durant is.
• 1:12:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I still think you need more.
• 1:12:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I still think you need more.
• 1:12:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Isaiah Stewart gone, Tobias Harris gone.
• 1:12:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know what I'm saying?
• 1:12:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So again, when you got Giannis in Miami, you got Jalen Brown and LeBron in Philly, you got Kawhi Leonard in Toronto, and Tyrese Halliburton is back.
• 1:13:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Oh, by the way, Cleveland is still here.
• 1:13:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Again, JB Bakerstaff has a lot of um he has a lot to work to do because they need to find a second scorer for Cake Cunningham.
• 1:13:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And they need to find them pretty quickly.
• 1:13:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They either need to be able to manifest one within the house, or they need to go out and get one.
• 1:13:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Cause again, paying Jalen Doran that kind of money signifies that you are like a dude that should should be the second leading score of the team or the backbone of the defense.
• 1:13:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You are second behind Cade's fifty-three point eight million, my guy.
• 1:14:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So it's either first team all defensive team at the very least second.
• 1:14:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You're starting to rebound the ball at such a prolific level, like you're averaging 13.5 rebounds a game, or you're gonna have to figure out some sort of like offensive post move and counters to that post move to unlock K Cunningham so he's not getting double teamed and glitched every single time in the playoffs.
• 1:14:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, do I think that Detroit will be good this year?
• 1:14:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yeah, I do.
• 1:14:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I do.
• 1:14:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I am just really not sold on their ceiling.
• 1:15:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I know that's real hard for Detroit Piston fans to hear when you're sitting there and saying, hey, we won 60 games last year.
• 1:15:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Who the hell are you to tell us that we are going to because when you say something like this, what pissing fans hear is that they suck.
• 1:15:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They don't suck.
• 1:15:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And again, if you play hard, you can win a lot of games.
• 1:15:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But when it comes to that playoffs, that's a different story.
• 1:15:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because everybody's playing hard in the playoffs.
• 1:15:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Everybody is doing that.
• 1:15:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So if you're cool with getting there and like you're a first round, second round exit every single year, then good on you.
• 1:15:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't think Cade is is built that way.
• 1:15:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, what is cool about the Detroit Pistons?
• 1:16:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They own their first from 2027 to 2033.
• 1:16:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So if they want to go out and make a trade, they can.
• 1:16:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Duncan Robinson is 16 million, and Isaiah Joe is 11.3 million.
• 1:16:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So if you wanted to combine some salaries depending on what you were looking for, you have enough to go out and get what you need to get.
• 1:16:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But don't sit here and try to swoon fade me this this line about oh Jalen Duran is now the second best player on the team.
• 1:16:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay, yeah, he's second best player, but y'all know the space between him and Cake Cunningham and the offensive weaponry and wizardry that is Cake Cunningham is a vast difference to what Jalen Duran provides to this team.
• 1:17:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And yes, it was cool when you were on your rookie deal and you were averaging 19.1 points a game and like 10.8 rebounds and blocking a couple shots and whatever the case may be.
• 1:17:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That was all well and good.
• 1:17:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now you make 40 million dollars a year.
• 1:17:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So Vegas has them as like a 49-win team.
• 1:17:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This might be the one team that I say under.
• 1:17:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Not significantly under.
• 1:17:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think, like I said, a lot of teams are gonna be in that, like, it's gonna be a cluster of teams.
• 1:17:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's gonna be like the West last year and the two previous years.
• 1:17:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Where we're probably gonna have one team that kind of gets out there, but the rest of y'all from like two to seven, fifty-two, fifty-one, fifty, forty-nine, forty-eight.
• 1:18:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Just saying.
• 1:18:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, again, people are gonna kill me and think to say, hey, you have no idea what you're talking about, and I'm like, cool, I get it.
• 1:18:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I know you guys asked you you asked yourself some tough questions.
• 1:18:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is Detroit really made to go a long way in the Eastern Conference in the playoffs, the way they're currently constituted right now, or are they another team that's gonna try hard in a regular season, and then when they are playing a team for six, seven games in a row, when they can sit there and just scheme for Cake Cunningham, and when's the right time to blitz him, and where's the right time to put you know a bigger defender on him, and whatever the case may be, and you're looking around and you're trying to find and you're trying to manufacture a second option between the likes of Duncan Robinson, Isaiah Joe, and John Collins.
• 1:19:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Oh, let's throw Jalen Duran in that mix.
• 1:19:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You make 40 million, dude.
• 1:19:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You're in that mix.
• 1:19:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I just don't see it.
• 1:19:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I just don't see it.
• 1:19:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Can you win a ton of games?
• 1:19:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yeah, one hundred percent you could.
• 1:19:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Should you be a team that wins like fifty-five games a year?
• 1:19:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yeah, one hundred percent.
• 1:19:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I'm not saying you can't.
• 1:19:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I wonder if like with Toronto getting quiet, Tyrese being back from Indiana, does your gap fall a little bit?
• 1:20:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Oh, again, New York just won a title, by the way.
• 1:20:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So as far as what their confidence level is going to be, they're gonna have that championship glean to them a little bit.
• 1:20:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Boston is on a rampage to get back to where they think they belong.
• 1:20:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Philadelphia loaded up.
• 1:20:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So are you sure you're like this close to 60 win team again with what you currently have?
• 1:20:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Or more are you are you more of a team that's gonna kind of fall back to the pack, win like 52 games, be a third seed to a fifth seed, because depending on win-loss records against these other teams, they're gonna have basically the same record as you will depend on your playoff seeding.
• 1:20:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So that's what I think about Detroit.
• 1:21:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's what I think about the Durant contract.
• 1:21:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Listen, I know that they I know they trade Jan Lane had to pull the trigger.
• 1:21:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm not saying that Jalen Duran is not a good player.
• 1:21:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I just never my I never thought for one second was he worth the 40 million.
• 1:21:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Call me the bad guy, call me whatever you want.
• 1:21:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't see the defensive prowess to to to sanctify this deal.
• 1:21:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't see the offensive game that says, okay, okay, yeah, this dude is this dude is worthy of this money.
• 1:21:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So that's my that's the team that I usually root for.
• 1:21:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I don't have blinders on going, yeah, Walker Kessler, 30 something million for show.
• 1:21:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Nope.
• 1:21:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No.
• 1:22:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So if I feel this if I feel that way about Walker Kessler and I put on purple and gold sunglasses from time to time, as an analyst, I'm looking at your team and going, okay, Jalen Dorn, 40 million dollars, that's great.
• 1:22:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You should win 50 plus games for sure.
• 1:22:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I have no expectations for you in the playoffs.
• 1:22:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Zero.
• 1:22:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: As you're currently constituted, no expectations whatsoever.
• 1:22:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You'll be in the dog fight you're for your own division, and you'll be in the dog fight for anywhere between second to sixth place in the East.
• 1:22:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: One team is gonna be the rabbit and jump out.
• 1:22:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: One team will.
• 1:22:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think they currently reside in New York City, honestly.
• 1:22:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But that's for another podcast.
• 1:23:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, with that being said, I want to thank everybody on being patient with us.
• 1:23:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And uh, we got this podcast out late, so you guys are gonna get it Sunday.
• 1:23:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We will hit you with another pod on Tuesday.
• 1:23:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, with that being said, we've talked our talk.
• 1:23:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's time for us to go ahead and get up out of here, but I want to tell you right now one thing.
• 1:23:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: FRPC is your spot because we talk hoops, and we try to talk intelligent hoops, and we don't try to sugarcut it, code it for you.
• 1:23:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We try to give you the real real and we try to make sure that you are armed with good information when you go back to your group chats.
• 1:23:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So do me a favor, share this episode with the one person in your group chat that needs to hear it the most.
• 1:23:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Pull up on us on X, that's at frontrunner PC, or at socially underscore FRPC.
• 1:23:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We got an Instagram account as well, that's frontrunnerpc.
• 1:24:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And the YouTube account is at FRPC Vents.
• 1:24:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Make sure you are hitting up all of those situations for us.
• 1:24:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It is greatly appreciated.
• 1:24:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is how we get out there, this is how we grow the FRPC army, and we get more and more acolytes for our our our charge for like domination of this space.
• 1:24:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because make no mistake about it, we're trying to do that.
• 1:24:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, before we get out of here, and I mean this when I say it, the best part of you is you.
• 1:24:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And it's still you, not your win-loss record, not your timeline, not your algorithm, just you.
• 1:24:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Surround yourself with people who actually give you light, the ones who bring you insight and joy and real accountability to speaks into your life.
• 1:25:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's your max deal.
• 1:25:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Appreciate those people out loud and don't wait on a later that nobody's ever promised.
• 1:25:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, here at FRPC, we want to be your hoop family.
• 1:25:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We're gonna be loud sometimes, and we're gonna make mistakes and be wrong.
• 1:25:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But we're gonna come back and own those mistakes, and we will always respect your brain.
• 1:25:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because anybody can yell at, but very few can actually defend a thought.
• 1:25:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Until next episode, keep your mind sharp, your heart open, your circle tight, and protect your peace like Cap Space, and never waste it on bad basketball or bad energy.
• 1:25:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm Vince, and we out.