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Optionality - NBA Free Agency Stalls on LeBron Decision · Front Runner Podcast Collective

• 0:16
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: Good afternoon, Wednesday.
• 0:19
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: You know it's time for Front Runner Podcast Collective.
• 0:23
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: We have more thoughts on the Jalen Brown trade to Philadelphia.
• 0:28
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: We also are going to be talking about the Cleveland Cavaliers bet on a guy who is 6'2 and a $273 million bet, by the way.
• 0:40
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: And LeBron to put a freeze on the rest of the NBA without saying a single word.
• 0:47
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: Now, the word of the day or the word of the week is optionality.
• 0:53
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: It's just a nicer word to say we can't afford both of you anymore.
• 0:58
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: Boston has traded two years removed finals MVP for an older, more injury prone Paul Paul George.
• 1:07
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: Y'all already know that.
• 1:09
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: I am going to publicly say I was wrong about the Donovan Mitchell situation.
• 1:23
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: I had this man walking out of Cleveland.
• 1:25
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: Instead, he just signed a $273 million deal to stay.
• 1:31
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: And somebody explained to me what the whiteboard meant was was what was going on with the whiteboard.
• 1:38
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: Like what was going on, Rich Call.
• 1:40
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: We need answers and we're going to try to give them to you.
• 1:44
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: And I guess the last thing that we also need to talk about, if LeBron is all is frozen, that means Denver's optionality is also frozen.
• 1:55
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: And with that, Draymond has opted out of his deal, right?
• 2:00
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: And we're just awaiting what the king is going to do.
• 2:05
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: Right now he's playing golf.
• 2:09
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: So that's where we are.
• 2:11
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: And we will get to all these topics as we get into the pod.
• 2:16
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: Let's go.
• 2:17
  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.
• 2:42
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: I am your host Vince, your occasional hoop therapist and absolute favorite bad influence when it comes to completely reckless NBA overreactions that low-key make perfect sense.
• 2:55
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: We are setting the table.
• 2:57
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: With actual verified receipts.
• 3:16
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: Give you exact barbershop ammo you need to take into your group chats and completely nuking the argument.
• 3:30
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: If you're an NBA sicko who wants more than highlight talk, if you want context, numbers, and a point of view, then this is your pod.
• 3:42
  FRPC Host Vince Carter: This is FRPC, and let's
• 3:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: go.
• 3:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We're gonna start off with the uh with the press conference in Boston.
• 3:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I thought it was uh interesting to say the least.
• 3:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Brad Stevens said trading Jalen Brown cost him sleep, and for once, that's not you know just regular old PR speak.
• 4:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Ten years, six conference finals, uh two finals trips, a NBA championship, a finals MVP trophy, and the Celtics never missed the playoffs with him on the roster.
• 4:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Then Boston sent him to Philadelphia for Paul George and four picks.
• 4:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Optionality was the word that Stevens married himself to in Monday's press conference.
• 4:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This stripped the buzzword away from this one thing, money.
• 4:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You don't trade two years removed finals MVP for an oft-injured, six-year-old Paul George, unless the second apron is functioning as a de facto hard cap.
• 4:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And with that being said, I want to talk about that real quick.
• 5:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He said something very important in that um press conference.
• 5:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He talked about how Jalen Brown was a hell of a player.
• 5:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He talked also about how he couldn't have 70% of his cap tied into two guys, and this is where the second apron it was going to stop guys like Steve Balmer and now like Mark Walter and Joseph Lacup to not be able to just spin their way out of trouble.
• 5:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But the unforeseen circumstances in the in the kind of the byproduct of this is also you got guys who like Jalen Brown is a homegrown talent in Boston.
• 5:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They drafted him out of Cal.
• 5:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It was one of those situations where it they bet on the athletic traits, and they absolutely absolutely hit.
• 6:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's one of those things where I as as now as somebody who works in a situation where I'm trying to scout these players and the ones that are coming into the draft, like the guys who came in this year.
• 6:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: One of the things that I actually absolutely have taken myself out of is just scouting the athletic traits.
• 6:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know, do you have actual basketball sk skill?
• 6:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And then now you have Jalen Brown, I'll be it, this was 10 years ago, so it's not like we've had a lot of Jalen Browns come into the league.
• 6:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But Boston was the one team to hit on this guy.
• 6:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And did they hit I mean immaculately?
• 6:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, what does it all mean?
• 6:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Well, it means that Boston is gonna be seeing a lot of Jalen Brown, obviously in the future.
• 6:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um Brown and Tatum uh couple years ago combined for 47% of the cap in the 2024 title season.
• 7:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And what Steven's saying, that number was trending towards 70% of the cap, such a high percentage for our usage tied to into two players.
• 7:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Brown was traded for financial architecture, not performance.
• 7:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His career high obviously in 2028.7 per points per game, 6.9 rebounds, 5.1 assists, uh with 56 wins, and he was sixth in MVP voting, second all-team NBA.
• 7:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: These are things that you already know, but it was his best individual season of his career, and it came a year, uh, came a year, and then they moved him.
• 7:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know, so this was his best year that he just had, and they moved him.
• 7:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So you can never say, well, we made our team better.
• 7:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know, there was this there was this discussion in the well, I I applaud the Boston press.
• 8:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I applaud the Steve Buckley's of the world, the Dan Shaughnesses of the world for asking the hard questions.
• 8:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think A.
• 8:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Shirach Blakely was in there, and a couple other cats that really are in tune with the with the goings-on in Boston.
• 8:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And they asked, hey, you traded Jalen Brown.
• 8:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: How does this make your team better?
• 8:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And there was no answer for that.
• 8:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It was basically kept on going back to the word optionality.
• 8:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This gives us more optionality down the road.
• 8:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This doesn't make our team better now, but this makes our way, our pathway to a better team in the future easier.
• 8:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know if any Boston fan wants to hear that.
• 8:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know if anybody really wants to hear that.
• 9:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Cause here's the thing that you're giving up motor, character, adversity, response, all these things are what Brad Steven knows about Jalen Brown.
• 9:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's the defining player of this era for the Boston Celtics, along with Jason Tatum.
• 9:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Any way you look at it, losing Brown is a talent decline.
• 9:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Framing it outright, like in a situation where you're saying, okay, well, it's cap math, it's not scouting, you can tell me all of those things.
• 9:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You can give me all the buzzwords you want.
• 9:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But at the end of the day, you're losing a really good player.
• 9:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, the analytics will tell you that Jalen Brown is inefficient.
• 9:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Brown's pick and roll ball handling turnover rate set at uh 60 68th to 83rd percentile, which basically is elite ball handling from 2019 to 2021.
• 10:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Then it slipped back towards uh 38th to 57th percentile from 22 on.
• 10:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay, so there's a there's a slippage there.
• 10:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So I'll say this again pick and roll ball handling turnover rate was in between 68th and 83rd percentile from years 2019 to 2021.
• 10:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Then it slipped from 38th to 57th percentile from 22 till now, present day.
• 10:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Boston learned leaned on him for more table setting uh and not just scoring, his uh efficient field goal percentage held steady.
• 10:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It was in the low to mid 50s the whole time.
• 10:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, if you want to talk about like his splits or what have you, we can do that.
• 10:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 55% of his career positionally, he was a small forward, 38%.
• 11:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was a shooting guard, he really wasn't never a coin guard.
• 11:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's a second-side initiator only, you know that and where he's going.
• 11:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's what they're gonna ask him to do.
• 11:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's paired with Tyrese Maxie now in Philadelphia.
• 11:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's gonna be the lead guard.
• 11:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Obviously, he was third all NBA, shooting close closer to the rim, and more efficiently than the year before.
• 11:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: All this means is that they got another stud to pair with another stud, and hopefully Jalen Brown's availability will kind of counteract what you're gonna lose with Embiid and his pending injury that he usually has during the season.
• 11:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So if you want to talk about more stats or like how lopsided this deal was, Paul George played 41 games in 2024 and 2025, and then he played 37 games in last year's uh tilt season tilt.
• 12:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh, so two thing two seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers, and he basically averaged less than 50 games a year.
• 12:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um went healthy, he's an efficient type of dude.
• 12:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He shoots uh 53.6% efficiently uh efficient field goal percentage last season, but obviously it's the durability situation that is going to hold back Paul George.
• 12:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now ground said Boston showed him a lack of respect once the trade talks went left.
• 12:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: A real relationship was fractured, separate the front from the on card uh case and stuff like that.
• 13:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So basically, he said he felt disrespected.
• 13:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He said that he felt like the relationship went completely left once the Giannis trade was talked about and what have you.
• 13:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, Brad Stevens says that he talked to Jalen Brown before all of this happened, and now we're in this situation.
• 13:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, you want to talk about anything else when it comes to Jalen Brown in Brad Stevens?
• 13:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Stevens called him a force, and that's exactly the problem for projecting George into the squad.
• 13:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: George can fall into a lower usage complimentary role in a way that Brown by nature was never going to accept.
• 13:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You can tell me that.
• 13:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's the real stylistic swap being sold as a like-for-like trade.
• 14:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But you know, and I know that the Tatum Brown tandem might touch the ball close to evenly, but the inherent value in a Tatum possession over Brown's possession, that's the got in shot value, is arguably the real reason Boston kept Tatum and Moo Brown.
• 14:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The cap story and the value story point in the same direction.
• 14:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So the what they're saying, what what I'm saying through all of this, in layman's terms, and I think somebody can't remember who said this, but having two similar guys.
• 14:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now I don't think they personally play the same type of game.
• 14:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think Tatum shoots more threes and Brown shoots more long twos than anything else.
• 15:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think that was the real reason why Brown was let go.
• 15:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They wanted to play a different style of basketball.
• 15:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know if it's gonna still be the same style of basketball that was played the last three or four seasons with Joe Mazzula at the helm, but I do believe that what we're looking at right now is that they are pivoting, and I think they want to skew.
• 15:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They're not gonna skew younger this year because of Paul George, but I think at some point they want to skew younger.
• 15:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh, they want to get uh contracts that are more controllable, that are more reasonable for them, but they don't get that relief for another two years.
• 15:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So you can't tell me that this was a a right now issue.
• 15:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You can tell me that you're preparing for the future, and there's no Boston fan that I know of that really gives a rat's ass about what's gonna happen in two years.
• 15:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Here's the other point that I want to make to this.
• 16:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: In your saving of money in two years, not right now, not this moment, not when the season starts, in two years, is that gonna ultimately cost you JC Tatum?
• 16:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: How frustrated is this guy gonna be if for some reason he's the one who holds the keys to the castle, but he doesn't have any knights and he doesn't have any army to help him win the ultimate prize, which is the NBA championship.
• 16:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now I will say this about Philly and Jalen Brown with Brown Maxie MB and now he's not a rookie going into his second year, VJ Edgecomb, who needs touches to develop still.
• 16:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's a lot of miles to feed at one table.
• 16:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Nick Nurse will have to manage this with real finesse as or it will turn into a shot distribution problem by Thanksgiving.
• 17:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Boston didn't lose Jalen Brown because he stopped being great, they lost him because great got too expensive to stack twice, and optionality is just a nicer word for budget problem.
• 17:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Don't build a fully armed operational battle station and then act surprised when the budget office comes for it.
• 17:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know, you you sit there and you and I'm gonna tell you right now, this is a Bill Chisholm situation, and his uh private equity group that that's behind him.
• 17:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Them dudes is crunching the numbers and saying, Hey, hey, we we gotta we gotta cut costs a little bit.
• 17:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We gotta figure this out.
• 17:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I'm gonna tell you right now, it's gonna get real loud in Boston when the product on the court is going in a downward, you know, cycle.
• 18:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It will be a real problem.
• 18:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Optionality is a nicer word for we can't afford both of them anymore.
• 18:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's what you should have just said, and you should have said that thanks to Bill Chisholm and Sixth Street, you know, private equity, this is where we are.
• 18:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, obviously, Brad Stevens would have lost his job job over something like that, and we don't want that to happen because you know here's the thing: we can judge Brad Stevens on his body of work.
• 18:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You can tell me that this trade was awful, and I would 100% agree with you.
• 18:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The problem is is that I don't think this came from Brad.
• 19:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't think this came from Stevens whatsoever.
• 19:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think this was a absolute call from up top, and I don't care what Bill Chisholm tells me, he can tell me all of this stuff that this is a move towards winning down the road.
• 19:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This was a move to clear up your budgetary constraints for the next two seasons, you know what I'm saying?
• 19:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So this is something that you can tell your shareholders and your board of directors, hey, we're gonna make some cash at the end of this.
• 19:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So there is that.
• 19:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, you won't talk about some cash.
• 19:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let's talk about Donovan Mitchell.
• 19:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Donovan Mitchell had the leverage to wait another year and sign for $353 million next summer, but he gave the Cavaliers a break, and he signed this season, taking on a he signed a $273 million extension ext instead.
• 20:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And again, I was wrong.
• 20:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I was wrong on this one.
• 20:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I had the situation trending toward Mitchell asking out after two disappointing playoff runs that ended abruptly had me thinking the frustration was gonna build towards a trade request, not a nine-figure vote of confidence.
• 20:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So this raises two real questions.
• 20:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Does Donovan Mitchell know another domino is about to fall?
• 20:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is LeBron landing in Cleveland?
• 20:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Or is this just a just a faith in Kobe Altman and Kenny Atkinson to build the right thing around him?
• 21:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So let's get into the numbers.
• 21:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: My man signed a four-year extension for $273 million that does not kick in until the 2027-28 year.
• 21:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This includes a $75 million player option when Donovan Mitchell hits 34 years of age.
• 21:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He left a bigger extension on the table by not waiting.
• 21:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Mitchell in April on record, he said this organization that's willing to do anything for its players.
• 21:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh, it was direct, it was uh something that you sit there and you go, his verbiage has always said like he wanted to stay.
• 21:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This wasn't something like PR put in his head, this is something that you got from Donovan Mitchell himself.
• 21:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, what is the Cleveland Cavaliers getting with Donovan Donovan Mitchell?
• 21:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Well, they're getting a lot.
• 21:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I mean he is a almost a 27 point per game guy over five assists four and a half rebounds a game and one and a half steals a game on 46 well damn near 47% shooting across 264 games since the trade playoffs every year and now confirm the first true deep playoff run ever after LeBron you know saying betting on a smaller guarantee now versus a bigger one one year later is a differentiator between this situation this dude craves stability he also again must love where he's at in Cleveland this is a win for the front office of Cleveland this is a win for that uh for that franchise it's a win for the Cleveland fans because you your guy left money on the table.
• 23:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He left money on the table.
• 23:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Jokic didn't is not going to do this.
• 23:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Jokic is going to sign the contract next year, and he's gonna get the 353 million.
• 23:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Our guy left like 80 million on the table.
• 23:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So Donovan Mitchell should be uh applauded for his uh his virtue towards the Cleveland Cavaliers for this situation.
• 23:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, I will say this, he has been snake-bit in the playoffs.
• 23:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His Cleveland era, his Cleveland era playoff averages are still stellar, 27.3 points a game.
• 23:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's shooting uh 52.1 uh effective field goal percentage, 2.6 turnovers, it beats his Utah era, not in points, but if you look at it, it's a little more efficient.
• 24:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was averaged 28.3 points a game in Utah with an effective field goal percentage of five point uh 50.4, and he also averaged like a half a turnover more, so his efficiency and his ball handling have gone up in Cleveland.
• 24:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So what does this that basically tell you?
• 24:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That tells you two things.
• 24:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: One, he's grown as a player, and two, he trusts his teammates, and his teammates have you know rewarded him with their with his trust.
• 24:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, this is what I also will say a full year of James Harden, another full season of both bigs and real continuity for once.
• 24:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Can this version of the Cleveland Cavaliers actually make the run that the Cleveland fans have been wanting?
• 25:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm still skeptical.
• 25:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Me, Vince Carter, host of Front Runner Podcast Collective, Cleveland, you can sing all your hate towards me.
• 25:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And the reason why I say that is it's not about the roster construction as it sits today, and it's not about Mitchell's game.
• 25:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The numbers above say it all.
• 25:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's trending up, and I'm not just sold on the roster around him that's getting caught that's caught up yet.
• 25:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And the reason why I say that is I don't think I've had real high expectations for Evan Mobley, and I don't know if he'll ever be more assertive than he is now, and that really bothers me because I expected this dude to be Chris Bosch-esque, okay?
• 26:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Not Chris Bosch himself, but Chris Bosch-esque.
• 26:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I just don't know if he'll ever get there, and I think if the Cavaliers want to go where they do want to go, kind of waiting on LeBron James seems to be something of a sticking point.
• 26:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And here's the one thing I will say if LeBron James is willing to go ahead and take that like that tertiary road of role, well, tertiary road of a role player in Cleveland, where he doesn't have to score 20 points a game, and whatever the case may be, and he can give some more effort on the defensive end, he's going to be an upgrade from Max Struce.
• 26:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, I'm worried about the spacing in Cleveland, you know, because Evan Mobley, even though he shoots threes, he doesn't shoot them at a volume that scares anybody to have to like really rotate out to him.
• 27:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So that's a problem, but we'll see.
• 27:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Every artist got the album where they finally sound like themselves.
• 27:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The one where the singles stop feeling like warmups.
• 27:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Cleveland is betting on last season's conference or conference final run and was Donovan Mitchell's version of that album.
• 27:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And they just signed him to make three more like it.
• 27:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm not fully bought in yet.
• 27:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's whether the roster has the features to back him up.
• 27:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And here's the one thing I am going to say.
• 27:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I have my right to change my mind anytime I want on this particular situation because the sticking point, and we'll get to a little bit later.
• 28:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Go ahead and drink on that.
• 28:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I know I say that a lot, but we will get to a little bit later because we're going to talk about LeBron and what's going on with him.
• 28:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The tension.
• 28:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Here's the thing that I want to say about Donovan Mitchell.
• 28:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's getting paid like he's already won a championship with this extension.
• 28:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is a belief that there'll be a Larry O'Brien trophy in that building sometime in the near future.
• 28:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That is a big bet on Donovan Mitchell as a player, as a leader, and as a person.
• 28:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, do I think all of those three things have the capability of getting an NBA championship to Cleveland?
• 28:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 100% I do.
• 28:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: My thing is this.
• 29:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What are you getting from James Harden and what are you getting from Evan Mowgli to help him achieve this goal?
• 29:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because it will take those two guys, even if.
• 29:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now LeBron comes, whole different story.
• 29:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We can talk about how that makeup of that roster looks then.
• 29:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But for right now, we just got to go off the roster that we have right now.
• 29:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Speaking of the Eastern Conference and dominance, our guy Jalen Brunson, who just won a title, playing through a torn up left wrist on his shooting on his shooting hand, nobody knew up until the surgery that got confirmed after the parade.
• 29:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This dude averaged 28.4 a night through the run.
• 29:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He dropped 45 in the closeout game and walked away with the finals MVP with his hand quietly falling apart the whole time.
• 30:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now he's doing it with one hand tied behind his back, literally.
• 30:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: For the New York Knicks fans, who are still basking in the glow of the NBA championship after 53 years.
• 30:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His postseason splits by month tell the whole story.
• 30:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: In April, he shot 52.4% effective field goal percentage with a 56.9 true shooting percentage.
• 30:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Then in May, he shot 54% effective field goal percentage and 60.8 true shooting percentage.
• 30:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: A plus 17.8 with him on the floor.
• 31:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Then in June, finals month, effective field goal percentage craters to 47.4%.
• 31:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: True shooting percentage drops to 53.6%.
• 31:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And the plus minus collapsed to one to uh a positive 1.6.
• 31:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now here's the twist: his scoring average went up to a series high 32.6 in June.
• 31:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know what I'm saying?
• 31:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He scored more and got less efficient at the same time with his team's margins shrinking around him.
• 31:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's the box score fingerprint of a guy playing through a wrecked shooting hand.
• 31:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We got more stats for you that we, you know, we pulled his field goal percentage in these playoffs, was sitting at 47.2%, with the is a 58 percentile below his 2023 postseason peak of 52.7, which was 71st percentile.
• 32:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His three-coin stroke actually held up fine, 36.3%, which is 51st percentile mid-pack for his career.
• 32:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So this wasn't the shot being gone, it was specifically the contested shots at the rim, pressured looks, getting harder.
• 32:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's consistent with his wrist issue, not a slump.
• 32:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is the Rocky training montage in reverse.
• 32:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Rocky got months to get right before the fight.
• 32:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Brunson showed up every night for two months and manned up.
• 32:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And he just rolled through the Eastern Conference and then got to the NBA finals and just continued to come back on San Antonio.
• 32:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And this is what I want to say about that.
• 33:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Jalen Brunson and the Knicks reminded me a lot of the chick for the ring.
• 33:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What is it, Samira?
• 33:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: She never sleeps.
• 33:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: She never sleeps.
• 33:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And as much as San Antonio came out like a house on fire, it was never enough.
• 33:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It it didn't matter what lead you had, it was gone, it was gone by the end of the fourth quarter, baby.
• 33:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because Brunson and the Knicks walked you down.
• 33:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, here's the other thing with him, and just just you know, again.
• 33:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm so impressed with Jalen Brunson in so many ways.
• 33:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The four-year averages are ridiculous.
• 33:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 26.3 points per game, 6.8 assists a game, back-to-back east final trips, and now a title.
• 34:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This isn't a one-series fluke, it's sustained four-year climb to a franchise great.
• 34:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And he did it the hardest part of it, very compromised.
• 34:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, the injury might have been a mystery, but what we're hearing from leave sources is they expect him to resume basketball activities late in the summer, and it shouldn't uh linger into camp.
• 34:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Pair that with the June dip, and Reed is clean.
• 34:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is an is a basically an in-season injury he played through, not a chronic issue that's gonna build enough for years.
• 34:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The great thing about that is that Knicks fans, your boy will be back on the court as the season starts.
• 34:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's what they are saying right now.
• 34:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We'll see.
• 34:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I believe that's listen, Brunson is a hard worker, he's a dedicated dude.
• 35:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He puts a lot of time into his um preparation to get ready for the season.
• 35:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's a complete Iron Man, and uh I expect him to be back on the court post-haste.
• 35:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Knicks ran it back with basically the same roster for a reason.
• 35:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Why break up the team that just won it all?
• 35:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And their best player being hurt.
• 35:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The real story isn't that Brunson gutted it out for the title.
• 35:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The June numbers prove it cost him something real down the stretch, which makes him fully healthy and Brunson next spring genuinely scary proposition for the rest of the East.
• 35:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So I'm gonna say this right now.
• 35:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Knicks, I'm not saying they're gonna repeat.
• 35:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think there are a lot of teams that are building up to to go ahead and and challenge them.
• 35:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But tell me a team that's better prepared for what they need to do.
• 36:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Cause I think that what we also saw is the emergence of of OG and Anobi.
• 36:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I think that he played such a critical role, not just with the block.
• 36:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I mean the block was the block was special on the tip end was even more special.
• 36:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But when you needed him to step up and put some points on the board, and then continue to play the stellar defense that he normally plays, he did that.
• 36:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now you lost Mitchell Robinson, you gained Andre Drummond.
• 36:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We'll see how much of a a downgrade that is, or or if it's kind of like a rock steady even situation.
• 36:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But as far as your core is concerned, it's the same.
• 36:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And it got another year of continuity, and now it has what we call NBA finals confidence.
• 37:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We got championship swagger, and we walking into this year.
• 37:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So good luck with that.
• 37:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Good luck with the East dealing with that.
• 37:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Basically, Josh Hart is still gonna be a maniac.
• 37:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I want to caution New York Dicks fans this way.
• 37:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: There's a team that's lurking out there.
• 37:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Maybe a team that you forgot about.
• 37:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And that's the Indiana Pacers.
• 37:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now the Indiana Pacers, they picked up Kelly O'gray during this uh free agency frenzy that we got going on.
• 37:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh two years, 16.5 million guaranteed to solve a problem that Chad Buchanan named out loud last week.
• 37:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No size on the wing.
• 37:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Ougre's 6'8, and he is a band scorer, he's a cutter, and which matters a lot when you have a healthy, healthy Tyrese Halliburton finally back from missing all of last year with a tornado Achilles.
• 38:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Also, my guy got shingles last year.
• 38:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's been a hard year for our guy.
• 38:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Do not sleep on a team that also acquired Ivica Zubots during the trade deadline.
• 38:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, did it cost them a high drawdy uh a high draft lottery pick last year?
• 38:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yes, it did.
• 38:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But you're getting Tyrese Halliburton healthy and Avisa Zubat healthy back into the lineup.
• 38:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, with everybody chasing LeBron and his sweepstakes, let me give you some things that I want to kind of give back to you as far as people who are trying to figure out what supremacy in the East is going to look like.
• 39:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Kelly Ugray Jr.
• 39:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: last year was 14.1 points per game on a slash line of 46.7% field goal percentage, 36% three-point shooting percentage, and 76.6 percentage from the free throw line.
• 39:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 41 of his 50 games were starts.
• 39:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He played 31.5 minutes a night.
• 39:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This wasn't a bench cameo.
• 39:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This was a near full-time role.
• 39:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: In Indiana, he's going to be a bench scorer.
• 39:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's going to come off and he's going to play significantly less minutes than he did last year.
• 39:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But this his ability to slash and score and then stand out by the three-point line is going to be absolutely critical to the Pacers team.
• 40:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now I will say his three-point percentage of 36% is a career high.
• 40:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That means his stroke is trending up.
• 40:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I like that feature.
• 40:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Over his 11-year career, he's played in 705 games.
• 40:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's averaged 13.3 points a game.
• 40:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His field goal percentage is about 44%.
• 40:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His career three-point shooting is 32.7%.
• 40:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And he's very close to what his his free throw percentage is from last year.
• 40:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The reason why I'm telling you that is that a lot of things are trending up.
• 40:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And now also you're going to tell me that he's going to get better shots.
• 40:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The one thing that I will say about Kelly Ubre Jr.
• 40:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: is this.
• 40:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's played on some god-awful teams.
• 40:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He played on a pretty good team with Philadelphia last year.
• 40:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This year he's playing on an Indiana team that is getting Tyrese Halliburton back.
• 41:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And they'll have their full complement of players.
• 41:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Plus, they will also have the just bruising brute Avisa Zubots also in the mix.
• 41:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now you want to talk about what he is, his positional size at 6'8, um for a wing.
• 41:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The league benchmark is 6'6, 211 pounds, and we got this dude at 6'8.
• 41:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He also is a cutter of the highest level, which will help Halliburton in live ball situations.
• 41:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We know what Halliburton's vision is like, and he stylistically fits the cutting frequency of the Indiana Pacers.
• 41:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Keep moving, keep moving at with pace.
• 41:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is the type of thing that our guy, Rick Carlisle, loves to have.
• 42:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So he's getting, guess what?
• 42:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Our fame our most famous word of the week.
• 42:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Optionality.
• 42:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, what does this do for Jarrett Walker?
• 42:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This might be the end for our guy.
• 42:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I was I had high hopes for him coming out of Houston.
• 42:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It just never clicked, as far as that's concerned.
• 42:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, he did score 11.6 points per game because he actually got some run last year on 25.7 minutes.
• 42:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And he also chipped in with 41 starts.
• 42:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The last season was awful for Indiana.
• 42:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They just kept getting injured.
• 42:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: People in and out of the lineup, no kick cohesiveness whatsoever.
• 42:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So I am really looking forward to seeing what they're going to look like this uh next offseason or next season.
• 42:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Also, the same thing for Ben Shepherd.
• 43:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's going to lose some time off of this situation.
• 43:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This deal pushes Indiana 6.5.5 million dollars over the luxury tax.
• 43:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh 1 million below the first apron.
• 43:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Doesn't matter.
• 43:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because at the end of the day, you are looking at a championship, you know, or bus type of team.
• 43:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is why they let go of Miles Turner last year.
• 43:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But they replaced him with something even more awesome.
• 43:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because when you get a Visa Zubots, now again, first round picks, all that very I can understand what we're talking about.
• 43:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But what a Visa Zoobots gives him is a physical presence in the lane.
• 43:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's a decent, he's a good shot blocker.
• 43:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's also going to be a good target for our guy, uh Tyrese Hatlenburton, and also.
• 43:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: A visa Zubat sets bone crushing picks.
• 44:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Like these picks are going to be physical.
• 44:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: My man is not out here playing games.
• 44:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's out here to make sure that he gets Tyrese Halligan a real release cost to be able to get into the lane, put pressure on the paint, and then allow the defense to be able to collapse on him so then he can make a move to shoot it out, to shoot to kick it out to shooters who are sitting on the wing.
• 44:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So I am really high on what this team, uh, the roster construct is of this team.
• 44:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I am obviously even more thrilled that Tyree Talliburton is back, which is great.
• 44:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm gonna take a sip of coffee because my throat is about to close.
• 44:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Everybody's obsessing about LeBron where he lands.
• 45:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Meanwhile, Indiana quietly assembles a top-tier East roster without needing him.
• 45:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Zubats inside, Ubre in top and coming off the bench, McConnell with McConnell running the second unit and a healthy Tyrese Halleckburton to go in and then slot everybody back into their position again.
• 45:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So our guy, Nim Hard, not gonna have to shoot it as much, our guy Neesmith playing crazy defense, and Pascal Siakum being the bet being one of the better uh Robins to Tyrese's Batman that we have in the league.
• 45:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Again, to all the Eastern Conference teams out there, I understand that the Pacers weren't a factor last year.
• 45:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You can best believe they're gonna be a factor this year.
• 45:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Oh, and then they got also uh Larry Nance Jr.
• 46:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: as a backup big, so we'll see what that looks like as well.
• 46:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You're not gonna need a lot from him, but just in case, another live body, not gonna ask him to do much, but damn.
• 46:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, let's talk about the Clippers real quick, shall we?
• 46:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: As you know, Kawhi Leonard is back in Toronto.
• 46:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The aspiration cap circumvention grueling is still hanging out there unresolved.
• 46:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Clippers are turning the page whether they're fully ready to or not.
• 46:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What they got back in retiring, Brandon Ingram is a very good player, but he is not Kawhi, he's never impacted winning anywhere close to his predecessor, and for someone as long as Ingram, you think he would cause havoc on the defensive end.
• 46:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We have not seen that part of Ingram's game really since his like rookie season with the Lakers.
• 47:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, let's give you some stats that kind of hold hold this all to be true.
• 47:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Over the last seven years, Leonard's Clippers numbers are ridiculous.
• 47:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: When he's in the lineup, they have a winning percentage of 65.6% without him, they're 48.4%.
• 47:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Obviously, they are better with him than without him.
• 47:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Tyloo's Clippers 11 out of 13 head-to-head.
• 47:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He averaged 22 points per game while shooting 51.4% shooting.
• 47:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And but his first season in Toronto and his last season in Toronto, the Clippers held him to 30 30 37 points on 31 shots.
• 47:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That is bad efficiency over two games.
• 48:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His assist to turnover ratio was six to eight.
• 48:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Not great.
• 48:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Small cycle size, right?
• 48:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Here's the thing that I want to everybody to understand.
• 48:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Ingram has posted a defensive box plus minus for every season he has played in this league in a negative situation.
• 48:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay?
• 48:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He has never had a positive defensive box plus minus in his entire career.
• 48:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His career steal percentage is 1.1.
• 48:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Well below plus defender wing norms for a player his size.
• 48:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is exactly the number that I was worried about.
• 48:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His length has never translated into this defensive disruption at all.
• 49:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's not one year blip.
• 49:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is his entire career.
• 49:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Both of Ingram's last two teams defending better with him off the floor than with him on it.
• 49:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And the Clippers will have to hide him.
• 49:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um, and here's the best card.
• 49:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was on a team last year with uh Colin Mark Murray Boy Boyles.
• 49:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh say that three times fast.
• 49:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Colin Murray Boyles, Scotty Barnes, RJ Barrett, who's I would say a at least a break-even type of defender.
• 49:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Actually, he was more of a plus defender last year.
• 49:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And now you're telling me that Brandon Ingram is going to have like assignments where he's going to be guarding like Kevin Durant, Luca Doncic, maybe.
• 49:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know what I'm saying?
• 49:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Like he's gonna have to guard Lori Marketing.
• 50:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Oh, don't forget the three terrors that are on San Antonio of Stefan Castle, Devin Vassell, Dylan Harper.
• 50:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I mean, this is going to be hard for our guy, Brandon Ingram.
• 50:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because he's gonna have to average like 32 to 36 minutes a game.
• 50:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That means that he's gonna be on the quarter lot.
• 50:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And if he's on the quarter lot, guess what?
• 50:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Teams are gonna seek him out.
• 50:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, what the Clippers are losing with Leonard, Leonard posted positive deep defensive box plus or minus every season on record.
• 50:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So he was he was plus 0.9 plus 0.6 plus 0.6 plus 0.6.
• 51:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He averaged his career average is plus one point eight with a career steals percentage of 2.7, nearly a full point above his 2025-2026 usage similar level.
• 51:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Next to Ingram's negative 0.7 career average defensive box plus minus.
• 51:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And I understand that the salaries might have matched and what have you.
• 51:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I am re I mean, I'm not saying they would have gave you Colin Murray Boyle.
• 51:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm not saying that.
• 51:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I think I would have asked for something else.
• 51:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think I would have, I don't know what I would have asked for, but we will see.
• 52:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Also, here's the other thing.
• 52:07
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You got Darius Garland on that team, and I love Darius Garland.
• 52:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think he's a really good player.
• 52:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The problem is that he is six foot one, and him being six foot one, he is going to be absolutely hunted.
• 52:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And if you don't have somebody who is defensive minded on the wing, which we have been waiting for Brandon Ingram to show us this his entire career, and he has not, you're gonna have some issues on the defensive end.
• 52:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's just what it's gonna be.
• 52:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, where Ingram is very valuable, he shoots 47.1% from the mid-range on 5.4 attempts, which is top three in the in League Y.
• 52:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He shoots 52.2% on corner threes.
• 53:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He doesn't get to the rim a lot, personally.
• 53:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He averages 52 games across eight seasons before this last past season, where he played in a lot more games as far as that's concerned.
• 53:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't it's a downgrade.
• 53:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: For sure.
• 53:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You don't have a center to really speak of.
• 53:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But can he replace some of the productivity that Kawhi left?
• 53:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yes.
• 53:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 100%.
• 53:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Are you getting Keaton Waggler and uh Darius Garland in the backcourt?
• 53:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And will that help?
• 53:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Maybe a little bit, yes.
• 53:46
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But you still don't have the type of center you need to be uh the the rim protector because Brooke Lopez is old.
• 53:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now he might still be decently effective at the rim, but you know what helps is having strong defensive wings that can help keep dudes out of the paint.
• 54:11
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Just saying.
• 54:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Every long running show has a moment where the lead actor leaves and the studio recasts the role.
• 54:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Same name, on the call sheet, completely different show.
• 54:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's the Clippers right now.
• 54:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Ingram can hit every line Leonard used to hit on offense, but the show DNA was the two-way force that LA was scary in the playoff series.
• 54:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because that's one thing that we always thought of is that with Kawhi, we had no idea what the upside of the Clippers were.
• 54:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now he's walked out the door, went back to Toronto, and the numbers say his midseason replace or his uh his his replacement this year, say there's gonna be a gap.
• 55:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Tyron Lewis not directing the same series anymore.
• 55:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's directing a spin-off, and the front court is still an okay casting call because they're gonna need some listen.
• 55:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Derek Jones Jr.
• 55:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: is going to be vital.
• 55:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay, he is going to be vital to help that defense because Keaton Waggler is a rookie.
• 55:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Darius Garland is small and is going to be hunted on pick and roll um actions, and then Brandon Ingram is not obviously Kawhi Leonard.
• 55:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And we still don't know what Wayne Brooke Lopez is going to be officially super old and can't play anymore.
• 56:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Right now he's still okay, but we'll see how this works out this year.
• 56:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because he is the sands in the hourglass are ticking on our guy.
• 56:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So we're gonna get to the LeBron situation.
• 56:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yeah, sir.
• 56:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I told you we were.
• 56:25
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So LeBron James obviously still hasn't kicked the team yet.
• 56:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We're still waiting.
• 56:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The world is waiting.
• 56:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He left the Lakers a couple weeks ago.
• 56:36
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Told them, hey, we we're not coming back before the Lakers could tell them we don't want you back.
• 56:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um athlet the the athletic beat writers are checking in with all their sources.
• 56:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Shout out to the athletic, because you know I read them a lot.
• 56:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The man has an entire NBA free agency in gridlock.
• 57:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Denver clearly needs to make moves and hasn't.
• 57:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Lakers now are starting to announce some of their signings because what they're doing is saying we can't wait.
• 57:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We can't wait on this.
• 57:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We gotta figure some stuff out.
• 57:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They renounced him yesterday so they can go ahead and start signing some of their guys.
• 57:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But Gold State is also waiting.
• 57:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Philadelphia is waiting.
• 57:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: New York is waiting.
• 57:31
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yeah, that's a real story right there.
• 57:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, while all this is going on, Giannis obviously has made his situation official.
• 57:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And now here's the other thing with that.
• 57:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Giannis almost had a heart attack in the car yesterday or a couple days ago when there was a fake report of LeBron going to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
• 57:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He he started to freak out.
• 57:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Like he thinks that he has a chance in Miami to get him as well.
• 58:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't think so, but we'll get to that momentarily.
• 58:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, around the league, we are sitting here waiting on a guy who is 41 and who's going to be 42 in this season.
• 58:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This is year 24 for LeBron James.
• 58:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And to think that this man has this type of leverage at this point in his career, that's a testament to how he still is playing the game and how badly these franchises want him.
• 58:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So, where do we go from here?
• 58:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Let's tell you where we are.
• 58:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay, Denver can only afford the 3.9 veteran minimal.
• 58:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Miami, Philly are also near that same situation.
• 58:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The real, every real contender, LeBron's looking at a serious pay cut relative to his value.
• 59:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: This isn't market, it's a legacy tour with a discount sticker.
• 59:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, Jokic told reporters in Belgrade he plans to re-sign with the Denver Nuggets long term, removing is this even real timeline a risk for LeBron if he picks the Nuggets.
• 59:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Listen, our guy Jokic doesn't care whether LeBron's coming, not coming, gonna play for the Monsters, going to play for the Holland Glow Trotters, is he gonna join the WNBA?
• 59:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He doesn't care.
• 59:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: All Jokic cares about is two things.
• 59:41
  FROC Host Vince Carter: One, his horses.
• 59:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Two, I'm getting paid $353 million when I sign on the dotted line this time next year.
• 59:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's what our guy Jokic is talking about.
• 59:57
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Alright.
• 59:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Minnesota still is opening up or keeping open up rocture spots to keep LeBron on their altar where he is going to pick them.
• 1:00:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Philly fit case leans on the open power forward spot and the mutual respect with Maxie and the King.
• 1:00:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But their own Greek writer says it's probably not enough to make Philadelphia the favorite, even with Jalen Brown already at it.
• 1:00:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What do you get in LeGron?
• 1:00:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Well, he's gonna miss some games.
• 1:00:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Okay, he missed 22 last year.
• 1:00:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He played 60.
• 1:00:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, he's still a brawler.
• 1:00:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: 20.9 points per game.
• 1:00:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He shot 51.5% field goal percentage.
• 1:00:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He had an effective field goal percentage of 55.7.
• 1:01:03
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He averaged 7.2 assists a game on three turnovers.
• 1:01:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So he was a 2.1.
• 1:01:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He was a 2 to 1 turnover ratio.
• 1:01:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Actually, it was more like 2.4 to 1 turnover ratio.
• 1:01:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He had an all-star nod.
• 1:01:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He didn't have any MVP votes, nor all NBA votes for the first time in ages.
• 1:01:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The scoring is down significantly, but that's because his role changed in Los Angeles last year.
• 1:01:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His assists towards his career were not that far off.
• 1:01:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He had 7.2 assists versus his career average of 7.4.
• 1:01:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: His turnovers were actually down.
• 1:01:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He only averaged 3.3 turnovers a game to his career of 3.5.
• 1:01:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So as far as ball handling, distribution of the ball, all good signs there.
• 1:02:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Isn't just a recruiting angle, it's the most accurate description of what LeBron's tape already looks like.
• 1:02:29
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's the thing.
• 1:02:32
  FROC Host Vince Carter: LeBron begrudgingly played the third option role in Los Angeles.
• 1:02:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, when the when the Lakers needed him in the playoffs, guess what?
• 1:02:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He reverted back to the number one option because Luca and Austin Reeves were hurt in that first round series.
• 1:02:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: With that being said, if you go to Philadelphia, you are playing a role, my guy, because you got Maxie, you got Jalen Brown, you got Joel MB, so you are like the fourth member of the four tops.
• 1:03:12
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know what I'm saying?
• 1:03:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Like you are that guy.
• 1:03:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Is that going to be enough for you?
• 1:03:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, if you go to Cleveland with what we talked about earlier with Evan Mobley, the playoff struggles of James Harden, does LeBron James play a more significant role in Cleveland than he would any other place?
• 1:03:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Right?
• 1:03:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So we got Philly looking at him.
• 1:03:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We got the Knicks looking at him.
• 1:03:44
  FROC Host Vince Carter: If he was playing for the Knicks, he's definitely not going to be the first or second option there.
• 1:03:50
  FROC Host Vince Carter: With Carl Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson in the building and a title already won.
• 1:03:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: In Miami, he's going to be the third option there.
• 1:04:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Because you got Giannis and Bam.
• 1:04:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Denver.
• 1:04:06
  FROC Host Vince Carter: If they keep Murray, if they keep Jamal Murray, you know, he is going to be the third option there.
• 1:04:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Oh, by the way, Peyton Watson is still there, too.
• 1:04:21
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Not saying that Peyton Watson is going to be that guy, but at the end of the day, who the hell knows?
• 1:04:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: At Golden State, that's the only other team to me where he could be like a secondary role player.
• 1:04:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So what I mean by that is that Steph is still going to hold the keys to the castle there, obviously.
• 1:04:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But Jimmy Butler's not going to be there at least until the second half of the season, if not longer down the road.
• 1:04:54
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So to me, it's Golden State and Cleveland are the two favorites for LeBron James.
• 1:05:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Do I think Cleveland is going to get him?
• 1:05:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't think LeBron wants to have on his legacy that I played for four different teams.
• 1:05:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: For me to go back to Cleveland, where I grew up, right?
• 1:05:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I played my first seven seasons in the league in Cleveland.
• 1:05:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We, you know, we got to the finals, got destroyed, whatever the case may be.
• 1:05:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Um, I came back, won a title here.
• 1:05:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now I can come back and finish out my career in Cleveland.
• 1:05:52
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Storybook shit, all of that.
• 1:05:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know what I'm talking about.
• 1:05:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It's gonna be magical.
• 1:05:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's all well and good.
• 1:06:01
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I will say this Rich Paul out here making content about his on Max Kellerman and his podcast with a whiteboard.
• 1:06:13
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yo, I mean he got all these teams up there.
• 1:06:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He got like conspiracy theories and where's Bigfoot and what is actually going on in Area 51 and all of this other stuff.
• 1:06:28
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But at the end of the day, the one thing I think LeBron wants is the capability of being like a real decision maker on the court.
• 1:06:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Right?
• 1:06:38
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Ball in his hands.
• 1:06:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: What does Steph do very well?
• 1:06:42
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Play off the ball.
• 1:06:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: He's going to have a better scoring Draymond Green on the court with him in LeBron James.
• 1:06:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, what is Donovan Mitchell really good at?
• 1:06:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Playing off ball.
• 1:06:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Yeah, I can play on ball.
• 1:07:00
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I can play off ball.
• 1:07:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But if you have a bully like LeBron James barreling down the paint area and then kicking it out to Devon to Donovan Mitchell and or James Harden or whatever the case may be, that is going to be better, easier for everybody involved.
• 1:07:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And also it does the thing that matters most to LeBron.
• 1:07:27
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I have the capability of being a real difference maker on a team that has a chance to win.
• 1:07:37
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Gold State can give him the luxury of being a ball handling decision maker, but I don't know if it necessarily gives him the um the opportunity to win.
• 1:07:49
  FROC Host Vince Carter: No shade to my folks in the back.
• 1:07:53
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I think you know and I know that LeBron probably wants a chance to win.
• 1:08:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I can't believe that we're here.
• 1:08:04
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I can't believe that in year 24 or going into year 24 with half the leaks transition uh transaction frozen.
• 1:08:17
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Draymond Green literally opting out of his guaranteed money on a hunch.
• 1:08:22
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And everybody going to Vegas, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:08:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Trying to get any morsel of information.
• 1:08:34
  FROC Host Vince Carter: When will the king make his announcement?
• 1:08:39
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I don't know.
• 1:08:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But I do know this.
• 1:08:43
  FROC Host Vince Carter: The Lakers have renounced his rights.
• 1:08:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Meaning like he can go anywhere he wants.
• 1:08:48
  FROC Host Vince Carter: They did not help him get a higher salary, which means that he's gonna be playing for the veteran minimal more likely than not.
• 1:08:59
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I think that Draymond can go ahead and resign with the Golden State Warriors because I think he's going home to Cleveland.
• 1:09:09
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Alright, so we talked our talk.
• 1:09:14
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We emptied our clip.
• 1:09:15
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's what we do here at FRPC.
• 1:09:18
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, do us one favor.
• 1:09:20
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Share this episode with one person in your group.
• 1:09:24
  FROC Host Vince Carter: You know, let them know, hey, Frontrunner Podcast Collective dropped another pod.
• 1:09:30
  FROC Host Vince Carter: It had a lot of jewels in there, had a lot of gems in there that you're gonna need to pick up because we're trying to ride this NBA offseason till the wheels fall off.
• 1:09:40
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, you can check up on us on X, which is at FrontrunnerPC or at socially underscore FRPC.
• 1:09:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Uh our Instagram page is at frontrunnerpc.
• 1:09:56
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And also check us out on YouTube because we will probably have polls up there, we will have clips up there, we're gonna have the pod and video form up there in the next couple days for show for show.
• 1:10:08
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So keep that in mind as well.
• 1:10:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: And you can get that through FRPC Vince, or you can just put in the little search engine Frontrunner Podcast Collective, and that will also get you to the pay window.
• 1:10:23
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now, before we get up out of here, what I want to say is this the best part of you is still you, not your win-loss record, not your timeline, nor your algorithm, just you.
• 1:10:35
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Now remember to surround yourself with people who actually give you light, the ones who bring you insight, the joy, and the real accountability.
• 1:10:45
  FROC Host Vince Carter: That's your max deal.
• 1:10:47
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Appreciate them out loud and do not hesitate.
• 1:10:51
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Do not wait till later that nobody has promised you.
• 1:10:55
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We're a hoop family.
• 1:10:58
  FROC Host Vince Carter: We're gonna get loud, we're gonna be wrong sometimes.
• 1:11:02
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Hell, I was wrong on the Donovan Mitchell thing.
• 1:11:05
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But we're gonna come back and we're gonna own it like I did on the Donovan Mitchell thing.
• 1:11:10
  FROC Host Vince Carter: But we always respect your brain because anyone can yell a take.
• 1:11:16
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Very few can actually defend a thought.
• 1:11:19
  FROC Host Vince Carter: So until next episode, keep your mind sharp, your heart open, and your circle tight.
• 1:11:26
  FROC Host Vince Carter: Protect your peace like cap space and never waste it on bad basketball or bad energy.
• 1:11:33
  FROC Host Vince Carter: I'm Vince, this is Front Runner Podcast Collective, and we are out.