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Jalen Brown Trade Shockwave: NBA Free Agency · Front Runner Podcast Collective

• 0:14
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: What's up everybody?
• 0:15
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: It's Front Runner Podcast Collective.
• 0:18
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: We are talking about all the free agent happenings that are going on.
• 0:24
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: We got a little bit of breaking news, and we'll talk about that in a moment, but let's get to the rundown.
• 0:31
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: LeBron James told the Lakers he's out.
• 0:34
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: He ended an eight-year marriage with a group text energy that is still has their three franchises pretending that they didn't see it.
• 0:45
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: So now he left his son in Los Angeles, you know, so there's that.
• 0:53
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: Kawhi Leonard is also on the move, but it's kind of a back to the future situation, and we'll get into that uh later.
• 1:02
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: And then we just have basically a cornucopia of moves that have happened.
• 1:08
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: But the one thing that we want to talk about, and we're gonna get into it momentarily, is the breaking news of Jalen Brown getting traded, and it was so interesting where he got traded to and what he got traded to for, so that will be the first topic that we go ahead and hit.
• 1:26
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: But as far as free agency as a whole, we have some hits and some misses that we'll get to, and I can't wait to talk about them.
• 1:37
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: And what do you do when your guard room, your lead ball handlers, you have too many of them, and we'll get to that story a little bit later.
• 1:53
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: But before we do all that, here's the one thing about NBA free agency that nobody says out loud.
• 2:02
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: It doesn't move like a river, it moves like a heart monitor.
• 2:06
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: You get 48 hours of pure unadulterated just move after move, but it doesn't come out just like that.
• 2:16
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: It comes out in a way where it's drips, drabs, and what have you, and then there's a deluge of information and moves that happen.
• 2:26
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: Now, with that being said, what goes on from there is then you're left in the rubble of what has just happened, and that's what we'll get to momentarily.
• 2:38
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: You are locked in with FRPC, let's get into it.
• 2:43
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: What's good everybody, and welcome to Front Runner Podcast Collective.
• 3:00
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: This is where we talk like friends, we argue like cousins, and we still walk out smarter than we came in.
• 3:07
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: I am Vince, your host, occasional hoop therapist, an absolute favorite bad influence when it comes to completely reckless NBA overreactions that low-key make perfect sense.
• 3:20
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: We are setting the table, we get into the film room observations, we have grown conversations about players, coaches, front offices, and actually what is moving the needle in the NBA.
• 3:35
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: We talk about the contracts, we talk about the locker room rumors, and also the PR spin from those lovely PR people in the front in the uh offices of these franchises.
• 3:48
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: So, we also like to make sure that we get these jokes off along with the advanced math and the exact bombershop ammo that you need to take straight to your group chat and completely nuke the argument.
• 4:03
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: If you are NBA sicko who wants more than a highlight talk, and you want context and numbers and a point of view, then this is your slot.
• 4:15
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: This is FRPC, and let's go.
• 4:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I told you we had something big, we had something marinating, and we're gonna talk about it right now.
• 4:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Jalen Brown has been traded to the Philadelphia 76ers of all places, and you ask, well, Vince, what did they get?
• 4:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I know if you're sicko, you got your shams notifications on and what have you, but Paul George coming to the Celtics.
• 4:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I'm gonna say this right now.
• 4:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This only makes sense if Boston decided that he was unmanageable, meaning Jalen Brown.
• 4:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Ten years, five all-star games, a finals MVP, also an Eastern Conference MVP, and also a year where you didn't have Jason Tatum.
• 5:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know, that that's a very important situation.
• 5:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh, we went into last year thinking that the Celtics were going to suck.
• 5:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We thought this was a gap year.
• 5:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We thought maybe they would play themselves into the lottery.
• 5:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And Jalen Brown and Joe Mazzula was were not having this whatsoever.
• 5:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Jalen Brown played like an absolute man.
• 5:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He held that team together along with his teammates.
• 5:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know, give credit to where credit is due.
• 5:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Peyton Pritchard had great games and they got great production from their bench and what have you.
• 5:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But Jalen Brown was the head of the snake, and he held that team together.
• 5:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So the Celtics in their front office, head by Brad Stevens, had decided that Jalen Brown's attitude going forward was probably going to be an issue, and they weren't willing to manage it, manage it anymore.
• 6:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And because of the pure roster construction, this trade doesn't even add up any other way.
• 6:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So here's the trade, and you tell me, this is what Boston receives.
• 6:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They receive Paul George, a 28, a 2028 first round pick, to convert to a Boston favorable swap, 2031 unprotected Philadelphia first round pick, a 2028 second round pick, most favorable of Golden State, Oklahoma City, and Milwaukee, and a 2030 second-round pick, most favorable of Washington, Portland, and Phoenix.
• 6:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And what does Philadelphia receive?
• 6:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Jalen Brown.
• 6:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Coming off his best statistical season of his career and also Jalen Brown's personal favorite year that he has ever had, he felt that this was his most favorite season because of the fact that he can just go crazy with the ball.
• 7:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So Boston spent most of June trying to send Brown to Milwaukee, as we know, part of the Giannis Ante Tacumpo trade.
• 7:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: When Giannis chose or and Milwaukee Brass chose to go to Miami and what they were giving back, Boston didn't scrap the plan of trading Jalen Brown.
• 7:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They just found a different taker.
• 7:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: As a couple of the talent evaluators and scouts in the league have said, uh, you run this through a real evaluation, and the tension is exactly where it should be between an elite talent and character red flags, and that tension is the story.
• 7:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: After Boston, the first round elimination, Brown vented on Twitch that the league had an agenda against him, and more than more tellingly, called this disappointing.
• 8:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Tatumless season, um, his favorite year, which we know that's something that came out of that, and we had weeks on weeks of talking about it.
• 8:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I wish I was here for that.
• 8:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I wish I was present for that.
• 8:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I would have had jokes off on the regular on that.
• 8:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now his uh Celtic career is over.
• 8:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um and over the actual the thing that I loved about his statement, and this is where everybody came up, this is where everybody came together on.
• 8:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You're telling me you like this particular season, the one where Tatum wasn't there, over your actual championship season.
• 8:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And to me, I think that was the the the red flag that Brad Stevens could not choke down anymore.
• 8:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think that was really the end, that was the beginning of the end, but I think that was the final nail in the coffin.
• 9:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, does he have an issue with culture ability?
• 9:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Not really.
• 9:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is it his talent?
• 9:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No, it doesn't cancel his production, but exactly the kind of signal that shows up in files right before the front office moves on from a player, it still values on the court.
• 9:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Brown situation, he was being shopped in Giannis talks in June.
• 9:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It wasn't invisible to him.
• 9:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The player in Brown's caliber knows when he's being used as a base package in a star swap.
• 9:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That message Well, a trade will trade you for the right star, and once a locker room hears that, going back to business as usual is rarely clean, especially in the uh with the with the information that was out there that Jalen Brown had put out.
• 10:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The organization likely got its answer about going forward with the relationship well before the Philadelphia call came in.
• 10:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And with this being said, this is a real open question.
• 10:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He didn't escape the co-star situation, he walked into one that's arguably shakier than the one he left in Bede's health, right?
• 10:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And his unreliable years of service to the Philadelphia 76ers, the ascension of Tyrese Maxie, who's a ball-dominant league guard, who needs touches to be effective.
• 10:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: If anything, Brown may have ended up playing the exact role he played in Boston.
• 10:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The guy who was who had to carry the operation when he with higher usage co-star is out, except now with a franchise that has a center whose health is even less certain than Tatum's recovery time turned out to be.
• 11:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And if Brown wanted to be the guy, unambiguously, this isn't obviously that.
• 11:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, let's get into the numbers.
• 11:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is what Philadelphia is getting, okay?
• 11:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I think Philadelphia fans are going to be really excited.
• 11:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think they know who they're getting in our guy, Jalen Brown, but let's give it to you straight.
• 11:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 28.7 points a game, damn near seven rebounds a game and five assists.
• 11:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was all NBA second team.
• 11:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Some people would uh tell you that he should have been all NBA first team for the season that he put up, with Tatum not being there for most of the season and the Celtics winning 56 games.
• 11:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, that is the Jalen Brown side of the leisure.
• 12:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let's go to the Boston side of the leisure.
• 12:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Who are they getting?
• 12:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Well, they're getting Paul George.
• 12:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And if you want to base it on the 37 games that he played, 17.3 points a game, 5.3 rebounds, and 3.6 assists over a 37-game period.
• 12:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, was he limited by his knee surgery?
• 12:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yes, he is.
• 12:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Did he have a 25-game suspension of uh testing positive for PEDs?
• 12:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He sure did.
• 12:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So why is this where we are?
• 12:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Put those two those two stat lines next to one another, and then you take into consideration Paul George's age.
• 12:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What doesn't add up?
• 12:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Why is this if he was if he was in a deal for Giannis, right?
• 12:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: If Jalen Brown was in that deal, you're telling me that you couldn't extract more from Portland, who was also after him, where he probably would have ended up being the guy there.
• 13:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I love Denny Abdia.
• 13:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I love his ascension in Portland.
• 13:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm actually happy for Danny Abdia that he now doesn't have to go through this, but if you wanted to trade him to a place where maybe you can extract more compensation as in actual on-the-court talent and maybe a little l little more draft capital, maybe Portland was a uh a fine choice.
• 13:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Could you have traded him to Atlanta, where his hometown is?
• 13:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, Quinn Schneider and the crew run it down there.
• 13:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They have a guy by the name of Jalen Johnson who's also ascending to stardom.
• 13:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We saw what Nikhil Alexander Walker did down there last year.
• 14:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It was amazing.
• 14:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That guy has just come of age in the last couple years.
• 14:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I mean, I did not see this offensive production coming from Nikil Alexander Walker, but it has happened.
• 14:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, you could have could you have made a maybe a three-team trade where maybe Jalen Brown is going somewhere else, and then you get New Orleans involved and Trey Murphy III is moved.
• 14:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know.
• 14:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Quite possibly you could have, but you didn't.
• 14:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: At the end of the day, that is not what actually happened.
• 14:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And now we're here with this.
• 14:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And the Brown exodus only makes sense if you believe his makeup going forward had become genuinely unattainable to this front office, and that the one's lens through which any of this is defensible, but strip that away, and you look at only what is on the paper as far as the stats are concerned.
• 15:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Boston traded somebody who is five years younger, right?
• 15:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Who's coming off his best season that he has ever had.
• 15:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You could take it, you could take it for whatever it's worth.
• 15:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is the one thing I will say.
• 15:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Jalen Brown was the first name on the whiteboard, right?
• 15:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We can all agree to that.
• 15:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That Jalen Brown, when he came into a city, or somebody came into his city, what they were trying to do was stop Jalen Brown.
• 15:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, what did he do?
• 15:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Obviously, he scored 28 points a game.
• 15:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, again, you're trading him for somebody who is 35 years old, coming off knee surgery, which he's had multiple lower limb injuries uh previously, the PED manner, which is not a big deal.
• 15:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't even really care about that personally, but he did lose 25 games to that, and what the Celtics are left with is something that is suboptimal, period.
• 16:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This deal is not the best deal that they could have got, or is it?
• 16:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Or is it?
• 16:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I find it hard to believe that an NBA team that is trying to get to that next level.
• 16:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I um you couldn't involve like I mean I wouldn't have done it, I wouldn't have sent him to Indiana, but you couldn't have involved Indiana into this.
• 16:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Phoenix is always looking for talent grab upgrades.
• 16:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: There wasn't like a Jalen Green type of situation, Dylan Brooks brings some grittiness to the Boston Celtics and some and some size.
• 16:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Clippers are adding pieces, and we'll get to them later.
• 17:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Golden State is looking for talent influxes.
• 17:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now they're also they're also on the hunt for LeBron James, and we'll get into that later.
• 17:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I really believe that if and let's just talk about it, and we'll talk about it a little bit later, but Kawhi got traded to Toronto, and with all his the his gone on with him in the last six-seven years, to see him for the what the package he got, and we'll we will talk about that, it really absolutely astonishes me the lack of assets that the Celtics got in the Jalen Brown trade.
• 17:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is a whiff.
• 17:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is the first time I can sit here and say that I don't get what Brad Stevens has done.
• 17:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, we'll talk about some of his uh pickups that he has picked up in this uh free agency because he did pick up a a big man.
• 18:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So there is that.
• 18:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But we have so much news to get to.
• 18:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That is the top of the thing.
• 18:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I wanted to get that breaking news out to you.
• 18:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let me know how you guys think.
• 18:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Do you think with me and say, hey, you know what?
• 18:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Vince might be on to something with this deal about you know there's no way he could have come back to Boston because that package is nasty.
• 18:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's all you got for him.
• 18:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: How do Celtics fans feel about this right now?
• 18:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Boston, I want to hear you.
• 18:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I want to hear you from Brockton, from Sharon, from Canton, from Rentham, to uh High Park, to you know, Dorchester, to the Back Bay, out in Chelsea, what's up, Cambridge?
• 19:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I want to feel you.
• 19:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Danvers, how y'all doing?
• 19:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know what I'm saying?
• 19:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let me know.
• 19:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Braintree, where y'all at?
• 19:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Brookline, you know, you know what's up.
• 19:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I want to hear from y'all.
• 19:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let me know what you think about this trade.
• 19:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Did your front office, Dick Brad Stevens, leave some meat on the bone, according to you?
• 19:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because to me, this smells of we got desperate.
• 19:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Portland felt like they maybe were, you know, you didn't have them on the on the vine, so to speak, as much as you might have thought of, and did just basically the music stock, and there were no chairs left, and you took the Philadelphia deal.
• 19:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Hit us up on X at Frontrunner PC, or you can hit uh the rest of the team up at socially underscore F R PC.
• 19:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I want to know your thoughts.
• 20:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So let's get into the rest of what has gone on, and we'll start here in LA because two uh monumental um transformative wings are gone from Los Angeles, and we start here.
• 20:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: LeBron James has uh told the Lakers that he is no longer wanting to be a Laker.
• 20:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh he is at this point, you know, this old news, but he is still unsigned, and his situation is that he is waiting for the teams to settle, and then somebody to make his best offer as far as that's concerned, and then he will go ahead and then make his decision from there.
• 20:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now he left Los Angeles in a situation where the Lakers had to scramble a little bit, but we'll get to all of what they have done and maybe some thoughts behind what they've done a little bit later in this program.
• 21:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But it's not lost on me that LeBron left, and you know, now you got teams vying for his services.
• 21:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Doesn't it feel like it's deja vu all over again?
• 21:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And at 41 with LeBron turning 42 years of age, this dude still moves the needle like this.
• 21:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I mean, can you believe it?
• 21:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Can you believe like this dude is out here having teams clamor over him at this point in time in his in his career, his illustrious career?
• 21:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We will be checking all Twitter and we will refresh that damn thing until that dude is finally settled in a city.
• 22:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now we move across town and Kawhi Leonard gets traded to the Toronto Raptors in the trade.
• 22:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Clippers receive Brandon Ingram, Grady Dick, two first round picks, two second round picks, and a title reunion narrative with the Toronto Raptors that basically made the trade mechanics behind this.
• 22:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And basically the headline writes itself.
• 22:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So back to the future we go.
• 22:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Kawhi Leonard goes back to Toronto.
• 22:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Drake can be happy yet again and create singles because Kawhi is back in the six.
• 22:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And we will see how that plays out.
• 22:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now this has been a a off-season of real change.
• 23:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And obviously we saw we saw this coming, right?
• 23:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Paul George got traded last year.
• 23:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And now Kawhi Leonard is now gone.
• 23:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And the Clippers have moved into a real youth movement.
• 23:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, that's the first thing.
• 23:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The second thing is this.
• 23:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is it a downgrade from Kawhi to Brandon Ingram?
• 23:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No shade on Ingram.
• 23:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But yeah, this is a downgrade.
• 23:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The one thing that Brandon Ingram will uh frustrate your fan base by doing is that he is reluctant to take a bunch of threes.
• 23:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I'm not saying you gotta take eight threes or anything like that a game.
• 23:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But we need you to take five.
• 23:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know, and this is something that you know other teams have asked of him.
• 24:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He couldn't they couldn't get him to do it in New Orleans, and they damn sure couldn't get him to do it in Toronto, and spacing was an issue.
• 24:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now with Darius Butler, I mean, oh my god, I called him Darius Butler, Darius Garland, and Keaton Waggler, who's a rookie, and the rest of the crew with the Clippers.
• 24:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Do you have enough around Brandon Ingram to allow him to continue his mid-range mastery?
• 24:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Or is this dude gonna have to conform and hit some threes?
• 24:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know what?
• 24:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The jury's still out on that.
• 24:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We will see.
• 24:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Trey Young resigns with the Wizards, he signs four years, $212 million, and we'll get into this later.
• 24:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The salary starts at $49.5 million, and it climbs up to $56.9 million with a player option in 2029 and 2030.
• 25:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh, we will see how that works out.
• 25:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's not the only one getting big deals.
• 25:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Austin Reeves, he hasn't signed it yet, but he has agreed to re-sign with the Lakers, and in that he got a four-year $185 million contract, and we will talk about that later on.
• 25:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The only thing I will tell you is that Draymond Green told on his podcast, told Austin in no uncertain times, that type of money puts huge expectations on you.
• 25:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You are now in the spotlight, you're in the limelight, and you're gonna need to produce at a certain level and stay at a consistency level that you have never been asked to do.
• 25:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, the I guess the challenge for Austin this year is hey man, can you average 24 points a game?
• 25:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Can you do that consistently?
• 26:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Can you also show up against some of the better opponents out there, which his his numbers come down a little bit when we are talking about some of the best teams out there?
• 26:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He had worse numbers against Oklahoma City, against San Antonio, you know, against Boston and people like that.
• 26:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So we are see we want to see real progress when it comes to Austin Reeves, and we will talk about his team a little bit later in this podcast.
• 26:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, Boston wasn't done with the with the trades and what have you, and making making their team reshaping their team.
• 26:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Mitchell Robinson signs a three-year $47 million contract with the Boston Celtics, leaving the New York Knicks, leaving uh Mr.
• 26:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Dolan, who said we are not going into the second acronym.
• 26:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, a rival plucking a rotation piece off the reigning champions is an automatic headline to fuel on its own.
• 27:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Knicks can't match it without blowing past the second acronym, which, like we said, James Dolan said we're not doing that.
• 27:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's publicly come out and said that, and you don't ever say that before the parade, man.
• 27:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What are you doing?
• 27:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But that's James Dolan for you.
• 27:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He does what he wants to do.
• 27:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Boston gives one of the best rebounders, offensive rebounders in the league today.
• 27:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This dude is an absolute just glass eater when it comes to that.
• 27:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And he basically adds a little toughness to that front court that's been lacking that.
• 27:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, is he going to shoot?
• 27:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No.
• 27:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And Joe Mazzula is recordedly a fan of Robinson for years because you know, Joe Mazzula watches the town four times a week.
• 27:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He probably looks at Mitchell Robinson and goes, Yep, that dude fits my mode, a type of grit and toughness that I need.
• 28:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, here's the other thing with Mitchell Robinson that we all know.
• 28:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He does not shoot free throws.
• 28:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The hacker rod will be on and crack a lack in in Boston.
• 28:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay.
• 28:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So if you are a Boston Celtics fan right now, you lost Jalen Brown and you gain Mitchell Robinson, which uh you know, I mean it's good in one way, it's bad in another.
• 28:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And who's the guy who's going to step up beside Jason Tatum?
• 28:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now you can tell me that you have expectations for Paul George, and that's cute.
• 28:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But really at 35 years of age with all the lower limb injuries, do you really believe that you can sit there and mandate that Paul George play like he did when he was in Indiana, Oklahoma City, or early years with the Clippers?
• 29:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Probably a big ask, especially now at 35.
• 29:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We move on because Oklahoma City obviously signed their dude, uh Hartenstein, to a three-year, $75 million contract.
• 29:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So his money moves down a little bit, saves them money up against that cap because you know they're coming close to that second apron.
• 29:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um and some of these deals got done before the Eva Free Agency started.
• 29:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um CJ McCollum is re-signing, Kobe White is re-signing with the Hornets, and he was part of obviously the bigger story with you know Lamelo Ball going to Minnesota, and now you got Kobe White, who's probably gonna man the league guard situation and get the ball to Con Knipple and also Brandon Miller in Charlotte.
• 29:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So I can't wait to see what that looks like.
• 29:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: CJ McCollum had a great year in Atlanta.
• 30:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Once he got traded there, uh he showed up, he showed out, he had a couple great playoff performances before he got shut down by the Knicks, and they say, hey, we gotta stop this dude.
• 30:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, Miami, who is just basically trying to puzzle piece this thing together after the Giannis deal, they picked up Tim Hardaway Jr.
• 30:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He signs with the Heat for a one-year contract, six and a half million dollars.
• 30:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Our guy THJ shot 40.7% from three and was a sixth man of the year finalist last season in Miami.
• 30:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Got him basically uh nothing right, they got him for nothing after the Giannis trade, and he will help the spacing that is going to be the issue in South Beach.
• 30:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Our boy Julian Champagne got re-signed, he got re-signed for a three-year deal, a little bit $42 million, so that's about $14 million a year.
• 31:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Annual AAV, you know what I'm saying?
• 31:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Love that for him.
• 31:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And our guy, Jose Alvarado, gets to stay in New York.
• 31:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He will be donning the Puerto Rican parade for the next three years to come, because he's gonna be there.
• 31:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Bob Bogdanovich signed with the Rockets, which we thought was kind of interesting because he we thought Marcus Smart was gonna sign first.
• 31:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He did not.
• 31:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But then Marcus Smart signed a little bit later.
• 31:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Something that was a heartbreak to Lakers fans because of the fact that we'll talk about it a little bit later, but Kelly Ugray Jr.
• 31:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: signs with the Pacers two-year $16.5 million guaranteed.
• 31:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Indiana GM Chad Buchanan named wing death as a priority before free agency even opened, then delivered exactly that a 6'7, 6'8 wing, who averages 14.1 points a game last season and gives Indiana instant bench scoring, real size on the perimeter, and the front office solving its own stated problem is rare enough to notice.
• 32:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The other big thing that came to San Antonio was Tobias Harris today.
• 32:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Tobias Harris signed a two-year deal worth $31 million.
• 32:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: San Antonio needed a four.
• 32:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They needed a four who can stretch.
• 32:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They needed somebody who has sides without sacrificing versatility.
• 32:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Tobias Harris does that.
• 32:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's coming off a year where he averaged 18.1 points a game, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.5 assists.
• 32:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now in the playoff, Detroit, he was Detroit's number two option.
• 32:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He won't have to do that in San Antonio.
• 32:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He can go back down to like his like the fourth option in San Antonio.
• 33:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Cause you know, San Antonio got some dudes there.
• 33:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They are just loading up.
• 33:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And if we weren't scared of them last year, we damn sure are going to be scared of them this year.
• 33:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He fits exactly, um, meaning Harris, he fits exactly, and far less usage than he had with the Pistons.
• 33:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The timing is real, the value is real.
• 33:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This deal expires as right as Steven Castle's max extension and Dylan Harper's eventual one kicks in, giving San Antonio size at the four with zero long-term entanglement.
• 33:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Andrew Wiggins resigned with the Heat.
• 33:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That was a critical piece as far as that's concerned.
• 33:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because he's going to also help with the spacing and also keeps them long.
• 33:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know, Tim Hardaway Jr.
• 33:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 6'6, Andrew Wiggins, 6'7, long arms, and you know, he just fits that situation that you got going on in Miami.
• 34:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So defense is going to be definitely the priority in Miami.
• 34:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Stops is coming.
• 34:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So with all that being said, we got some more stuff to get to.
• 34:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Right?
• 34:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And what I want to start doing now.
• 34:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Alright.
• 34:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So as a podcaster, you love these segments because this is the stuff that probably will get the group chats talking.
• 34:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And this is what in the hell were they thinking?
• 34:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What WTF?
• 34:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What were these front offices thinking?
• 34:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, let's start with my favorite one.
• 34:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: John Morant gets traded to the Trailblazers.
• 34:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, put the actual death part next to each other and listen to this.
• 35:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You got John Morant, you got Damian Lillard, you got Scoot Henderson, you got Drew Holliday, you got Shaden Sharp, you got Blake Wesley, you still got V Critchy, and you got two-way breakout star Caleb Love when everybody went down last year.
• 35:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: These are all the names that are in Portland Trailblazers backcourt right now.
• 35:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's not a backcourt.
• 35:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I mean, that's a cast of Love Island, if you tell if ask me.
• 35:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Everybody's coupled up with a title, and nobody actually know has a idea of what their role is.
• 35:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Portland won the trade.
• 35:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: If you want to just say, hey, pure value, no picks, no expiring salary, and a former rookie of the year.
• 35:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But the building with this many bodies at one position only makes sense if there is a bridge to something else.
• 36:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And what I am thinking is this.
• 36:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Maybe so.
• 36:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Maybe that will happen.
• 36:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But now that Jalen Brown has been traded, what happens now?
• 36:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Scoot Henderson is more likely to be the odd man out.
• 36:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's what you might say.
• 36:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The former number three overall pick.
• 36:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's gonna get buried by the all the depth pieces as far as that's concerned.
• 36:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You don't trade for John Morant and then let Scoot start.
• 36:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is Drew Holloway uh Drew Holiday out the door?
• 36:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Maybe so.
• 36:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But where do they go now that Boston has made this trade with Philadelphia?
• 36:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Who needs league guards?
• 37:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Cause again, Portland has way too many of them.
• 37:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I mean, you can tell me that Damian Lillard is gonna come off the bench now at his advanced age and also having the Achilles tear from last year.
• 37:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I get it.
• 37:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But Holiday was their most consistent player and he wants to stay.
• 37:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Plus Cortland's messaging says that he's not available, and we're taking a real skepticism and giving math doesn't work without someone leaving.
• 37:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So now, if I'm sitting here and I'm Cortland and I got all these guards, who's going?
• 37:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Someone's gotta go.
• 37:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And what are you getting back in return?
• 37:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is this a play for Houston?
• 38:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is there a Houston Cortland deal?
• 38:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know.
• 38:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Does Milwaukee get involved?
• 38:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Do they have any I mean with the picks they got from Giannis, is there something that they can do?
• 38:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Can they kind of bank on a young guy?
• 38:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But they they put took uh they took Braden Burry's with the first round in the first round.
• 38:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, as far as a league guard is concerned, do you think Scoot is that guy?
• 38:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Maybe, maybe not.
• 38:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm sure they're not gonna want a veteran like Drew Holliday, even though he would be returning to his uh likely spot where you know he served as a a guy who really helped that team win.
• 38:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So with all that being said, you don't want the music to stop, and then there's less chairs for all your guys because there's no way that Portland can go into the regular season with this many guards stockpiled.
• 39:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No way.
• 39:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now let's go on to the Washington Wizards.
• 39:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, Washington has had a pretty awesome offseason in one way, you know.
• 39:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You get AJ DeBanster, the fan base is very excited, you know.
• 39:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You pair him with all the other young talent you got, which is, you know, you're talking about Alex Sarr, you're talking about our guy Balal Kulok Bale, you're talking about also some of the young wings they had over there last year, and there's a lot to be uh invested in in the uh district, right?
• 39:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But can somebody explain to me the Trey Young money?
• 39:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Can somebody give that to me and make me understand what's going on with this situation?
• 39:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 220 twelve million dollars mass money who was gonna give that to him?
• 40:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What which other franchise said we we we would do this?
• 40:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I want somebody put their hand up and figure that one out for me.
• 40:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Listen, Trey Young is gonna be able to throw lives to A D if he stays, if Alex Sar's foot injury is you know something where it's not too uh dil uh debilitating, and he's able to throw lives to him, you know, obviously the AJ DeBanster situation is gonna be on.
• 40:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We can't wait to see that.
• 40:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But Trey Young being a ball-dominant guard in the district might have some problems.
• 40:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And now with the contract like that, I will never say, never say that a contract can't be traded.
• 41:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But that's gonna be a difficult one to swallow if you got to.
• 41:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And we should have known something.
• 41:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I knew something right then and there.
• 41:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: When Yusuf Nurkic signed a two-year, 22 million dollar contract, I was like, mm-hmm.
• 41:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I did the win I did the wind horse fingers and went why would Utah do this?
• 41:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Why?
• 41:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Right?
• 41:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And they did this because of the fact that you know they lost somebody, and we'll get to that a little bit later.
• 41:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He came to the la la and we'll explain that.
• 41:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, with that, Nurkic, I don't know if he's gonna start, but we shall see.
• 41:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, let me ask this question.
• 42:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: With BJ Edgecomb there, Tyrese Maxie, does Jalen ground, does Jalen Brown go to the three?
• 42:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And is Dean Wade, who they picked up for four years, $39 million, gonna be playing the four?
• 42:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: A 36.7% career three-point shooter who's never played more than 63 games in a season is locked in for four years.
• 42:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's a lot of term and decent amount of money for a replacement level defensive person who is also a streaky shooter.
• 42:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I ain't gonna lie to you.
• 42:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I ain't gonna hold you.
• 42:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I like Dean Wade.
• 42:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know if I would have given him that kind of money.
• 42:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's like almost $10 million.
• 42:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So questionable.
• 42:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's why we call this the what what what TF?
• 42:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Keon Ellis signs with the Nets for two years, $18 million.
• 43:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, listen, I think my guy Keon Ellis got a bad break in Cleveland.
• 43:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was not even playable during the playoffs, and I was, you know, not saddened by it, but I was like, man.
• 43:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because when they made the trade to get him, I was like, oh, this is cool, because they, you know, now they can diversify, they can hide, harden a little bit on the defensive side, because you got this guy, you got a couple other dudes, or whatever.
• 43:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Kenya Ellis just I don't know where his shooting went, but it went just in the toilet, and he was unplayable in the play in the playoffs.
• 43:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And you know, they start playing other people, and I'm not talking about Sam Morrell or my guy, Max Struuss.
• 43:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No, no, no.
• 43:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm talking about other guards, Jalen Tant Tyson got run.
• 43:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know what I'm saying?
• 44:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They got a lot of dudes over there.
• 44:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And Keon Ellis is trying to revitalize his career.
• 44:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's going to try to do it in Brooklyn.
• 44:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And God bless you, my brother.
• 44:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Cause I don't know what your market is.
• 44:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And maybe this is the dollar amount, the most maximum dollar amount you could have got.
• 44:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But man.
• 44:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yo, you got to go chilling.
• 44:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Brooklyn.
• 44:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, in context, he's a 3nd D piece.
• 44:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's heading to a rebuilding team.
• 44:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So he can provide some of that veteran leadership that maybe you know you're probably not getting with Julius Randle.
• 44:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: If Julius Randle gets into his feelings.
• 44:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Right?
• 44:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: When things don't go right for Julius, he has a tendency to pout.
• 44:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay, so keep that in mind.
• 44:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Brooklyn Nets fans, how many of them are out there?
• 45:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now I want to talk about the Kelly Ubre deal, not because it's a it's a WTF situation, because I think that's a good pickup.
• 45:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: My question is this is now Jarrus Walker and Ben Shepard, are they just lost causes now?
• 45:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Are we done with them in Indiana?
• 45:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because I don't know what real roles they have there.
• 45:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They're both restricted free agents next summer.
• 45:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Walker's salary is $8.5 million, which is movable.
• 45:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um, if he wants to stay in Indiana, you know, under the tax, is it worth tracking as a what does this mean for the kids' storyline?
• 45:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know, my favorite phrase of all time is developmental pathway.
• 46:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: How much runway are these kids getting to be able to enhance and show their skills?
• 46:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What I'm gonna tell you right now, you got a vote of non-confidence when you sign Kelly Ugray Jr.
• 46:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: to what he signed because he's getting minutes.
• 46:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's getting minutes, and he's gonna provide uh uh a place in that rotation, he's gonna solidify his role, and we are going to see a different type of team for Indiana come next year.
• 46:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, you know, guys, this I have been a uh a person that has kind of killed Rob Polinka over the years, and uh when we got to this situation a little bit earlier today, I have to tell you, before everything started breaking loose, I I've been on Twitter, the tweets are there, the receipts are there.
• 47:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I said Rob Polinka cannot have a whiff type of summer.
• 47:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He can't whiff this summer.
• 47:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, you guys are gonna have to be the judge on what Rob has done in his uh balance of work that he's done.
• 47:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So we are going to get into the Lakers rebuilt their roster in 18 hours, but did they just trade away all their defense?
• 47:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So let's start in Los Angeles, let's go to crypto.com basically, let's kind of get in the headspace as Lakers fans, as people who follow the Lakers.
• 47:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because here's the one thing I'm I try to be more of a balanced analyst when it comes to this now, but I still have my fandom.
• 47:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: LeBron James walking out the door was supposed to be the headline.
• 48:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Instead, it's the starting gun.
• 48:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: In the span of a single free agency window, Rob Palenka traded for a starting center and signed three rotation pieces and watched three rotation players walk out the door, including the one guy on the roster who actually guarded the ball.
• 48:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, and spent almost every first round asset that the franchise had left.
• 48:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Lakers didn't rebuild around Luka Donchis and Austin Reeves, they sprinted.
• 48:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The question now is whether they sprinted in the right direction, or because of all the size and shooting at it, nobody on this roster is a proven point of a tag defender.
• 49:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And here's the full breakdown of what the Lakers have done.
• 49:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let's talk about the new arrival, shall we?
• 49:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Walker Kessler, who is kind of the shiny object of this whole situation, the Lakers put a full court press on Utah.
• 49:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They've been on Walker Kessler for a they've been wanting Walker Kessler for like two years.
• 49:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And he was sent to the Lakers via a signing trade from Utah.
• 49:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He also picked up four years, $130 million.
• 49:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: One of the best rim protectors of I would say of the young guys that are out there.
• 49:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, his 2024-2025 season alone, he produced 12.2 reruns.
• 49:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He had an elite block rate of 21.9 total rerun percentage.
• 49:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay.
• 49:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's a live threat who can catch anything that Luca throws up there.
• 50:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The flip side is that he had shoulder surgery last year, which basically completely wiped out his 2025-2026 season.
• 50:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, there were reports that he probably could have came back last year, but obviously Utah was in that take mode, and they ended up with Darren Peterson.
• 50:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I do not blame them.
• 50:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They had to do what they had to do because they had been on the top five outside looking in for a while, and they finally got a top three pick.
• 50:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And what do you know?
• 50:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The year that you had to get into the top three or four to get one of them money dudes, one of them maybe generational talents, Utah, the Jazz, it did it.
• 50:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, um, is he going to rerun at a high level?
• 50:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Probably.
• 50:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is a bet on his all-rookie team season ceiling and not the injury history.
• 51:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: One thing I will say about Walker Kessler is this is that we are going to play a lot of drop coverage.
• 51:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is a drop big.
• 51:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is not a big that is going to be chasing wings, you know, on the perimeter or anything like that.
• 51:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay?
• 51:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is a drop big, so we're going to have to play drop big concepts.
• 51:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So get that one in your head.
• 51:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: As we start to look at some of these other players that they brought in.
• 51:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So Quentin Grimes was the was another person they brought in.
• 51:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh they signed him basically to the mid-level exception.
• 51:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He signed a four-year $60 million contract, which is a $15 million AAV.
• 51:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Good chase defender.
• 51:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We don't know personally is he if he's a point of attack defender.
• 51:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He really never had to do it.
• 51:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's a capable shooter.
• 52:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I wouldn't say he's a great shooter, he's a capable shooter, which he shoots anywhere between 33 to 38% from three across his stops in the NBA.
• 52:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Already has chemistry with Luka Doncic from their time together in Dallas.
• 52:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He can scale up or down as a starter or a six man.
• 52:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He is not, however, a true point of attack stopper on the wing.
• 52:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's very important.
• 52:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Very important right there.
• 52:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We'll get back to this a little bit later.
• 52:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let's get into the other guys they picked up.
• 52:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Lakers also signed Sandro Mamu Killisvili, X-rafter.
• 52:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They signed him to a four-year $52 million contract, which is $13 million AAV.
• 52:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, what you're getting with him is a stretch big 11.2 points a game last season, 52% shooting, and 38.9% from three as a stretch four or five, if you whatever you want to do.
• 53:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, is he a consummate pick and pop space uh space the floor next to Luca and Reeves so they can get into the paint and probe the paint?
• 53:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Absolutely.
• 53:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That is what he is.
• 53:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, is he a defensive answer?
• 53:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No, he is not.
• 53:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No, he's not.
• 53:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is he okay on defense?
• 53:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know.
• 53:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I want to say he is average.
• 53:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He might be a little bit below average when it comes to that.
• 53:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He doesn't have a lot of foot speed, doesn't have a lot of agility when it comes to being able to chase people off that uh three-point line.
• 53:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So we will see how this works out.
• 53:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But as far as a floor spacer, he can do that.
• 53:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And then they also pick up Colin Sexton of the Hornets and Bulls.
• 54:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He he came into the room exception part of the money.
• 54:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay?
• 54:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Two years, 19 million.
• 54:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Instant offense off the bench, 15.4 points a game, 3.3 assists.
• 54:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's a microwave scorer, but he has minimal defensive upside.
• 54:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is not your point of attack defender.
• 54:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But this is what you got because here's the thing.
• 54:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is the part where you should make should make you sit up.
• 54:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Lakers entered the offseason with about let's say five, well, really truly two picks they can trade and what have you.
• 54:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I'll get how it all worked.
• 55:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: In the Utah deal.
• 55:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They have unprotected first of 2030 what?
• 55:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 2031 and 2033.
• 55:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They have pick swaps in 2028 and 2030.
• 55:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I I am I'm lost for words how many how many uh picks they gave up.
• 55:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Polinka went all in and the way Danny and Eric Ainge do their deals, they had to win.
• 55:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And Danny always does.
• 55:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Refusing to lose a trade on paper, paying a premium in the years and nobody thinking about it yet.
• 55:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But the practical effect is that Los Angeles has almost no draft capital left to fix anything else, and this front office discovers what is broken.
• 56:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So who walked out the door?
• 56:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because this makes a huge deal about if something is amiss, how they're gonna fix it.
• 56:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Luke Kennard signed a two-year deal for $13 million.
• 56:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Think about that.
• 56:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Two years, $13 million.
• 56:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Alright?
• 56:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Colin Sexton got two years, $19 million.
• 56:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He led the league in three-point percentage this past season at $47.8.
• 56:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh he was 44.8 after arriving in Los Angeles at the trade deadline as a complete floor spacer weapon, as there is in the league.
• 56:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Here's the one thing I will say about Luke Connard.
• 56:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think that 47.8 three-point percentage is a little, you can you gotta dive into the numbers a little bit.
• 56:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because the one thing that we know about Luke Connard is this, is that he's a selective three-point shooter, and I don't know whether he is uh afraid to let it fly a little bit more for the sake of his field goal, his three-point field goal percentage, but I will tell you that he was maddening here in Los Angeles.
• 57:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Shoot the three more.
• 57:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm sure JJ Reddick was asking this dude, can you please be a little more aggressive with shooting a three?
• 57:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And he did not.
• 57:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's a dude that averages like three and a half threes a game, which is crazy for the type of range and the type of accuracy that he has.
• 57:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It was absolutely um just out it was just astonishing sometimes when he would not just let it fly.
• 57:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was not the only one.
• 57:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Rui Hachamora looks like he's not coming back as of right now.
• 58:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: There were reports that he was going to the Spurs.
• 58:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know if he's going to the Squares because now they got Twilight Harris.
• 58:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um, maybe the Nets, or maybe he comes back.
• 58:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know how they're gonna come back because we got no money left.
• 58:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Zero.
• 58:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No money left, and we'll talk about that a little bit later.
• 58:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um Rui, the one thing about Rui is that I loved his clutchness in the playoffs, loved it.
• 58:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The problem is that Rui gets lost on defense.
• 58:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, did he play out of position with the Lakers more times than not?
• 58:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yes, he did.
• 58:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: With LeBron James, uh man in the four position, with Luca Doncha's best probably position is the four, and you can high him on the worst, you know, offensive threat.
• 58:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Rory was out here chasing like real wings, like KD.
• 58:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know what I'm saying?
• 59:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Like he's out here chasing Kawhi Leonard.
• 59:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's out here chasing Dylan Brooks or uh Devin Booker.
• 59:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Can't have that man doing that.
• 59:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Can't have that man doing that.
• 59:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That is not his bag, but that's what he was tasked to do.
• 59:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And also re for somebody as big as Rui is, he doesn't rebound as well as you might think.
• 59:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I hate to see that dude gone.
• 59:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I hate to see it.
• 59:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now here's the piece that we couldn't lose.
• 59:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Marcus Smart declined his 5.4 player option and signed a two-year deal with the Houston Rockets for $13 million.
• 59:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now he's playing in Houston, he's reunited with Ime Adoka.
• 59:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is one of those actual breaks, the roster type of situations.
• 1:00:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Smart was the Lakers' only real point of attack defender.
• 1:00:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He is a former defensive player of the year.
• 1:00:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And how many charges did that dude take as a Laker?
• 1:00:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: A lot.
• 1:00:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now you can talk about his antics and hearing that whatever you want.
• 1:00:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But the one thing that dude did provide was grittiness on defense.
• 1:00:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He did not just he fought over screens.
• 1:00:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was on his dude as much as he possibly could, and they stretched that dude as far as they could in a Laker uniform.
• 1:00:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was the captain really of the defense.
• 1:00:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He would basically point out where you needed to be in your defensive position, in your sets, and then if you did not understand the principles of the defense that was being run at that particular time, he would tell you about it.
• 1:01:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He would coach you up.
• 1:01:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This dude was one of the best glue guys that the Lakers have had in a while.
• 1:01:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I would say since Alex Caruso.
• 1:01:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's just my opinion.
• 1:01:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But you can say whatever you want.
• 1:01:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That dude walking out the door, and the numbers, here's the thing.
• 1:01:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We could he took 55 charges.
• 1:01:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay?
• 1:01:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 15 ahead of the second place person.
• 1:01:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, the the numbers and the shooting and all that and everything, I'll grant you.
• 1:01:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You want to talk about did we get better on offense?
• 1:01:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 100%.
• 1:01:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He scored only uh 9.3 points a game.
• 1:01:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He had 2.8 rebounds and on three assists.
• 1:01:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He shot 39.5% shooting.
• 1:01:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It undersells his value as a player.
• 1:01:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because he wasn't there for his offense.
• 1:01:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was there to guard the best perimeter scorer that the other team had to offer.
• 1:02:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And now that job is vacant.
• 1:02:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I saw this dude mashed up with KD.
• 1:02:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I saw this dude mashed up with a bunch of people, and he held it down.
• 1:02:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Where is the point of attack defender coming from?
• 1:02:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Well, if you want to talk about maybe the on-the-roster guy, well, you got Grimes is gonna help, but he's a chase defender, not the point of attack stopper that we need.
• 1:02:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Smart has left the building.
• 1:02:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Kernard was never going to be that guy, right?
• 1:02:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Even though he's in Phoenix, he was never going to be that guy because he was not brought here for his defense.
• 1:02:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Rui, I told you, he was lost on the perimeter.
• 1:02:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So as much as I would love to have Rui back on defense, he was not going to be able to help us.
• 1:02:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, who do we have that might be able to take over this role?
• 1:03:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, these are long shots to be said always right now.
• 1:03:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay, this is long shots.
• 1:03:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We are talking Trevor Lane, Rainbow, Pine of Sky, put your purple and gold tinted lenses on when I say this.
• 1:03:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But a dude Theero, who was last year's second round rookie, played only six minutes a game across 25 appearances as a rookie.
• 1:03:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's still developing.
• 1:03:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now in the G League, and take these numbers with a grain of salt, 16 half 16 and a half points a game, almost six rebounds, and 1.5 assists.
• 1:03:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's a real two-way upside guy, but he's proven zero on the NBA level as far as defensive reps are concerned.
• 1:03:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We have not seen it.
• 1:04:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It is not because of the fact that, you know, he just didn't get a lot of opportunities to do it.
• 1:04:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let's just put it there.
• 1:04:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, the next guy who could possibly fill that role is our number one overall selection in our draft.
• 1:04:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was the 24th pick overall.
• 1:04:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was our first round pick, and that's Cameron Carr.
• 1:04:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, Cameron Carr, 3 and D dude, if you want to call him that, he's gonna have to grow into that.
• 1:04:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, here's the first thing that we do know.
• 1:04:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His three-point percentage shouldn't be a problem as far as keeping himself on the floor.
• 1:04:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He shot at 30 37.5% basically.
• 1:04:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh he profiles as a 3 and D wing on paper, but obviously, until we see it in functionality, we cannot say that.
• 1:04:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He understands that the defensive part of the game is his priority.
• 1:05:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He has to learn how they want to play defense, where they're gonna set him up, what the principles are, and all of those things.
• 1:05:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We will see how that works.
• 1:05:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The other option is either keeping Vanderbilt and let him wreak havoc on tinier guards, he seems to be able to guard down.
• 1:05:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now he's lost some of his uh off his explosion pop in the last couple years because of foot injuries and things of that nature.
• 1:05:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So if you wanted to, you could stretch and waive Jared Vanderbilt, and that'll give you like seven million dollars to play with because they are up against the cap right now.
• 1:05:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: If they wanted to ask somebody, and if you wanted to get somebody for maybe about Five or six million, maybe you can do that.
• 1:06:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The other thing that you could do, which is now harder to do because I want to talk about this right now, is that you could trade DeAndre Ayton.
• 1:06:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But before we talk about that, Jackson Hayes signed a two-year deal with the Utah Jazz per ESPN's Tim McM McMahon.
• 1:06:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Obviously, Hayes has been here since the since 2023.
• 1:06:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He is a guy who really connected with Luca, caught the lobs, did the dunks, he did guard on the perimeter, which was cool.
• 1:06:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was also a weak side rim protector, but a true on-ball rim protector, he was not.
• 1:06:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because he was too light in the ass to do that.
• 1:06:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And now he's gone to Utah.
• 1:06:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So he is not even an option when you're talking about maybe trading DeAndre Aiton's $8.1 million contract, which also is an expiring contract, which makes it even more appetizing for a team.
• 1:07:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And we have a lot of teams out here that are starved for a center that can give this type of production maybe off the bench.
• 1:07:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Ayton averaged 12.5 points a game, eight rebounds, and one blocks.
• 1:07:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He played in a career high 72 games last year, and he would be one of the most movable value contracts that the Lakers have.
• 1:07:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And we are in a center star market right now.
• 1:07:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And people say, well, who's the team that doesn't have the pick?
• 1:07:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Right?
• 1:07:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I'll give you that.
• 1:07:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Are we really sure that Yusuf Nurkic and Jackson Hayes are the answer in Utah?
• 1:07:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because you can tell me that Jaron Jackson Jr.
• 1:08:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: is going to play center.
• 1:08:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I will tell you, just like Anthony Davis didn't want to play center here, Jaron Jackson Jr.
• 1:08:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: doesn't want to have anything to do with playing center in the NBA, not for a long period of time, not for long stretches.
• 1:08:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, the Brooklyn Nets say that DeRon Sharp is their center.
• 1:08:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay.
• 1:08:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's been the bench dude.
• 1:08:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Nick Claxton has moved on to Chicago.
• 1:08:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You can tell me that situation.
• 1:08:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay.
• 1:08:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think DeAndre Ayton might be a little bit better than DeRon Sharp, but not, you know.
• 1:08:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Mitchell Robinson is now gone.
• 1:08:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: In New York.
• 1:08:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: $8.1 million option to back up.
• 1:08:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Call Anthony Towns and give them a little bit different type of situation than they had there.
• 1:08:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And you say, hey man, come off the bench.
• 1:09:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We'll give you some, you know, we'll let you get get busy in that mid-range.
• 1:09:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You throw that little floater up there, whatever the case may be, all we're gonna actually do is play harder.
• 1:09:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Right?
• 1:09:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um You could tell me that Charlotte could use some help, even though they picked up a couple pieces.
• 1:09:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is you know, now that Miami has who they have, they're good.
• 1:09:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You don't have to worry about them anymore.
• 1:09:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Where do we stand in New Orleans?
• 1:09:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I mean, I know Derrick Queen is out there doing his thing, but he's more of a four, not a five.
• 1:09:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, his defense might tell you he has to play the five, because there really hasn't he didn't show that last year.
• 1:09:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But maybe bringing a veteran in might be able to help that team.
• 1:10:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So there are a lot of options out there.
• 1:10:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I heard somebody to say that there weren't a lot of uh places that needed centers, and I thought that was kind of you know BS a little bit.
• 1:10:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know who needs one?
• 1:10:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And they don't really trade with one another?
• 1:10:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Clippers.
• 1:10:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know who's who's who's man in their middle at this point in time?
• 1:10:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So with that being said, DeAndre Aiden is the guy who we would be able to trade.
• 1:10:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But now, here's the thing we can't, because we don't have we wouldn't have a center.
• 1:10:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So our one piece of tradable asset that we had, we can't trade.
• 1:10:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, unless you expand the trade, unless you sit there and say, okay, we'll also throw in Dalton Connect, who's a you know, you taking a flyer on a little bit, you know, can you get him back to his early part of his rookie season where he was dropping 30 on fools and stuff like that?
• 1:11:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Maybe.
• 1:11:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Maybe, but it's not guaranteed, damn it.
• 1:11:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's not guaranteed at all.
• 1:11:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So we are stuck, and this is where I want to leave you.
• 1:11:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What does this mean for Kalinka Legron and the Lakers itself?
• 1:11:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Kel the Kessler Kessler, I'm gonna repeat that.
• 1:11:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Kessler price tag is a story here as much as the player himself.
• 1:11:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Kalinka solved the five squat and in the same move spent the currency he need he need to solve anything else.
• 1:11:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's either supreme conviction that this specific core, Luca, Reeves, and Kessler, are worth mortgaging into the 2030s for?
• 1:11:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Or is it a front office that won this individual trade on a paper while leaving at least two roster needs the Lakers still haven't addressed?
• 1:12:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Both can be true at once.
• 1:12:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And that's and that's the exact tension LeBron saw coming.
• 1:12:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And this is why his exit reads less like a basketball decision and more like a verdict on trust that had been eroding for years.
• 1:12:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: LeBron being done with the Lakers and moving on signals a quiet but loud protest from a couple summers ago.
• 1:12:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let me take you back.
• 1:12:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He gave Kalinkin an out.
• 1:12:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think you guys all remember this.
• 1:12:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: LeBron was willing to forego the highest end of his compensation to add more talent to the roster.
• 1:12:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He has specific names that he named up.
• 1:12:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: James Harden was one of them, Klay Thompson was another, and Jonas Valentunis was another.
• 1:13:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It was a clear line in the sand.
• 1:13:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And the verdict, what LeBron thought of Paulinka's skills as a personnel evaluator and his history hasn't been kind to that verdict either.
• 1:13:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But LeBron also has to own the fact that both he and Anthony Davis pushed Rob towards the Russell Westbrook swing that which no Lakers fan wants to revisit ever.
• 1:13:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They never want to talk about that.
• 1:13:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It was a poor fit from day one.
• 1:13:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Both Megastar and the front office have had their personnel judgment questioned by an unrelenting fan base.
• 1:13:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And here's the other thing that I will say about that.
• 1:13:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It took years of patience, it took years of uh discipline for the Lakers to drag themselves out of that Russell Westbrook situation.
• 1:14:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You can call it whatever you want to call it, but when they got the when they traded Russ and they got D'Angelo Russell and Jared Vanderbilt and a couple other uh people as far as that's concerned, it really got them out of jail because it was an awful situation.
• 1:14:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The pieces weren't fitting together, Russ was unsatisfied, as well as LeBron and AD, and I'm sure it wasn't a good time in that locker room.
• 1:14:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So here's a question that I have for my Lakers fans out there.
• 1:14:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Do I believe LeBron should have closed his career with the Lakers?
• 1:14:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yes.
• 1:14:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Do I understand why Polinka needed to retrofit the roster around Luca?
• 1:15:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Also, yes.
• 1:15:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, all of Perko and Gold waits for the next deal to drop.
• 1:15:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So let me know what you guys think.
• 1:15:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Hit us up at Frontrunner PC at frontrunner PC on X.
• 1:15:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Also at socially underscore FRPC on X.
• 1:15:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We'll also put up something on YouTube community page, and you can find us there at FRPC events.
• 1:15:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Go to the community page.
• 1:15:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'll put something up in the next day or so.
• 1:15:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Probably a question about what you think of Kalinka's moves, what you think of LeBron leaving, and you know, y'all can go ham on that.
• 1:15:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um obviously, if something else breaks that is just jaw-dropping, you know, we will give you in an emergency pod.
• 1:15:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We will call it uh, you know, urgent pod or something.
• 1:15:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We'll call it we'll call it something.
• 1:15:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's what we'll do.
• 1:15:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But with that being said, FRPC is your spot.
• 1:16:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Do us a favor, share this episode with a person in your group chat or your friend group that needs to hear it most because we want to touch all the basketball fans out there.
• 1:16:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Pull up on us on X and Instagram and subscribe wherever you're you get your pods.
• 1:16:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And let's keep building this uh this thing together.
• 1:16:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Remember that handle on X is at Frontrunner PC.
• 1:16:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's also the handle on Instagram, and remember also the YouTube page is FRPC events, and that'll get you our YouTube page.
• 1:16:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, before I get out of here, I want to say this: the best part of you is still you, not your win-loss record, not your timeline, not your algorithm, just you.
• 1:16:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Surround yourself with people who actually give you light and the ones that bring that insight to you, the joy, and real accountability.
• 1:17:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's your max deal.
• 1:17:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Appreciate those out loud and don't wait till later that anybody has not promised you.
• 1:17:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We're a hoop family, we're going to get loud, we're going to be wrong sometimes, but we're going to come back and own it.
• 1:17:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We will always respect your brain because anybody can yell a take.
• 1:17:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Few can actually defend a thought.
• 1:17:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And until the next episode, keep your mind sharp, your heart open, and your circle tight.
• 1:17:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Protect your peace like cap space.
• 1:17:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Never waste it on bad basketball or bad energy.
• 1:17:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm Vince.
• 1:17:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is FRPC, and we out.
• 1:17:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Deuces,