Speaker 1: Hey, what a welcome in. I'm Doug Gottlieb. This is
Speaker 1: all ball and we got some great shows for you
Speaker 1: upcoming with the more long form interviews over so many
Speaker 1: of the coaches and players that you that you love
Speaker 1: and like, I did want to do a quick little
Speaker 1: pod on a couple of things that are that are
Speaker 1: going on in the world of hoops, and I thought
Speaker 1: it was I think, like this is like a super
Speaker 1: important time, believe or not, just because so many of you,
Speaker 1: like me, we love basketball, surround, watch basketball, read social media,
Speaker 1: which has like kind of become our right like our
Speaker 1: daily newspaper sort of thing, and if you read, you know,
Speaker 1: now with everybody's comments being kind of judged the same,
Speaker 1: the freak out over colleges and their portal situation or
Speaker 1: their rosters with the new world of the nil is
Speaker 1: is really interesting and I want to get to that
Speaker 1: in a second. We'll also talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: the media, which I'm a member of. I'm not one
Speaker 1: of these guys I hate get people that are in
Speaker 1: the media and they'll say, like, you know the media, Like, well, hey, dude,
Speaker 1: you're actually in the media, so whatever narrative is being set,
Speaker 1: you are setting said narrative. So in the media which
Speaker 1: I'm a part of, and our treatment of Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: more specifically of how we break down the NBA, how
Speaker 1: the NBA is covered. It's really interesting as you watch
Speaker 1: kind of the polar opposite style coming from the NCAA
Speaker 1: tournament to watching the NBA playoffs in terms of style
Speaker 1: of coverage, and you know who people go after and
Speaker 1: why they go after them. And then I thought we
Speaker 1: could also do a little something, a little something on
Speaker 1: the NBA draft as we're going to kind of crank
Speaker 1: up closer and closer to the draft and some of
Speaker 1: the coaching hires have been made. So let's start with
Speaker 1: anil because I'll give you a couple of things that
Speaker 1: are just like interesting. You know, with Nemhart going to
Speaker 1: Gonzaga Arizona, Twitter Nation is freaking out because the premise
Speaker 1: of what people thought was Ryan Emhart's at Creighton. He
Speaker 1: would only leave to go play somewhere that you can
Speaker 1: maybe win a national championship or become like his brother
Speaker 1: or pro And because his brother was supposedly recruited by
Speaker 1: Tommy Lloyd, then of course he's going to go to
Speaker 1: follow Tommy Lloyd to Arizona because Arizona lost Kirk Carrisa
Speaker 1: and Kirk Carisa, by the way, signs at West Virginia,
Speaker 1: which just feels I can odd fit. But I mean,
Speaker 1: Huggi and his group, they've done a really good job
Speaker 1: in terms of NIL. They've gotten after it, They've got
Speaker 1: the center from Syracuse, and they're they're rolling in terms
Speaker 1: of kind of their new group as they're trying to
Speaker 1: put it together. Let's just kind of explain sort of
Speaker 1: how it works again, And this is because I've tried
Speaker 1: to do a little bit of a deep dive into
Speaker 1: NIL stuff, into the market and how it works by
Speaker 1: talking to coaches, players, agents and really kind of informing
Speaker 1: my because I knew or a thought I knew, But
Speaker 1: the more you you listen and learn, you're like, wow,
Speaker 1: it's kind of eye opening that it's not exactly as
Speaker 1: it's perceived by most fans and by the media, and
Speaker 1: maybe even my perception on some level is off as
Speaker 1: not being as inside as somebody who's actually a college coach.
Speaker 1: But generally, you know, you have different sorts of guys
Speaker 1: that enter the portal, and many of these players that
Speaker 1: enter the portal, the number one reason they enter the
Speaker 1: portal is they're looking for more money. That's it. And
Speaker 1: that's where we talk about free agency and the odd
Speaker 1: part about calling college basketball in twenty twenty three free
Speaker 1: agency is the difference in free agency and college basketball,
Speaker 1: and the difference in free agency in the real world
Speaker 1: professional athletics is you actually have to fulfill your contract
Speaker 1: before you can become a free agent. You know, like
Speaker 1: in Major League baseball, think how many years you have
Speaker 1: to play. Really, you got to play up to five
Speaker 1: or six years of Major Lee League baseball time, not
Speaker 1: even count the minor league to become an actual free age.
Speaker 1: And yet here in college basketball, I mean, then the
Speaker 1: everything has gone from I thought a reasonable share in power, right, Like,
Speaker 1: as much as it felt in the media like there
Speaker 1: was an imbalance empower in coaches and administrators had this
Speaker 1: ability to stop a player's career, the reality is, you know,
Speaker 1: for the longest time, if you felt like you were
Speaker 1: being treated poorly, you could get out of your deal,
Speaker 1: you could get to a new school, and you can
Speaker 1: get to a place where you fit in better. Right
Speaker 1: Whereas now there's a complete imbalance. There's you know, if
Speaker 1: you want out of your national letter of intent, you
Speaker 1: just ask out and they let you out. If not.
Speaker 1: The just social media and social pressure is so great
Speaker 1: regards to the fact that like no one forced you
Speaker 1: to sign no one, no one forces anybody to sign
Speaker 1: a national letter of intent. And yet when a team
Speaker 1: goes out and gets a player in the portal that
Speaker 1: plays your position, and you feel like you're not going
Speaker 1: to play as much right away, you ask out and
Speaker 1: generally get out, and then you're a free agent and
Speaker 1: you can renegotiate a new deal with a new school.
Speaker 1: That part is crazy. So if we start from the
Speaker 1: ground level, right, we start from high school recruiting changing dramatically,
Speaker 1: where many college coaches will tell you like, man, I
Speaker 1: still like recruiting high school kids, but I have to
Speaker 1: go in knowing that there are some kids who you know.
Speaker 1: Hopefully if you get a top hundred, get top fifty kid,
Speaker 1: you think he can stay for a year or two.
Speaker 1: And then outside of that, you got to either just
Speaker 1: get guys that you know at the numbers game. How
Speaker 1: many can you hold onto? What type of kid is he?
Speaker 1: Is he willing a red shirt? Because you're going to
Speaker 1: can be competing against you know, college players, grown men,
Speaker 1: who have developed and honed their game, and whether or
Speaker 1: not they were as highly tauted or have the upside
Speaker 1: of your high school kid, you'd prefer them because he's
Speaker 1: already been coached, he's already been in the weight room,
Speaker 1: he's already played a college season, and at this point
Speaker 1: in time, many of these kids that played at the
Speaker 1: low major mid major level, all they want to do
Speaker 1: is come in and win and think get a little
Speaker 1: bit bigger check than the kid staying where they were previously.
Speaker 1: So how it affects the high school recruiting is going
Speaker 1: to be interesting moving forward because you know, how much
Speaker 1: do you recruit high school kids, you know, because you're
Speaker 1: signing them to eventually play on somebody else's roster. That's
Speaker 1: just the reality to it. Look at the high school kids,
Speaker 1: and you know, if you talked to college coaches, they'll
Speaker 1: tell you, like, you know, I can, maybe you play
Speaker 1: a freshman, but having two on the court at one time,
Speaker 1: unless they're an absolute pro, like, you're going to get
Speaker 1: destroyed because you still have COVID six years, seventh year kids.
Speaker 1: You have low major mid majors that people missed on
Speaker 1: because of the COVID years where they were just recruited
Speaker 1: off of a off of a huddle video which was dated.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a it's a hard thing. So high
Speaker 1: school recruiting has changed dramatically, and now with the live
Speaker 1: events going on, it's like a lot of these coaches.
Speaker 1: You talked to him like, yeah, I'm going there, but
Speaker 1: I don't know do I go all in on any
Speaker 1: of these high school kids knowing that I'm really recruiting
Speaker 1: out of the portal and I and in the short term,
Speaker 1: that's what the sport actually looks like. I think that
Speaker 1: that element to it is interesting. But let's just take
Speaker 1: the Nemhart situation, right, like, whatever whatever you say publicly
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with what's going on private. Right,
Speaker 1: you have to go all in on a player, you
Speaker 1: go through an agent, which again completely legal. You go
Speaker 1: all in, and then you know, at some point you
Speaker 1: got to have kind of a backup plan. And when
Speaker 1: Nemhart's brother shows, you know, is pushing him to go
Speaker 1: to Gonzaga, it does show that it doesn't really have
Speaker 1: to do with his relationship with Tommy Lloyd. And it's
Speaker 1: not a negative towards Tommy Lloyd. It's just the reality
Speaker 1: the kid had a great experience there and he wants
Speaker 1: his brother to have a similar experience, you know. And
Speaker 1: then Creighton goes out and they sign a kid who
Speaker 1: I think is as valuable in the portal and Steven Ashworth.
Speaker 1: Now I'm interested as to whether or not Steven can
Speaker 1: play the point full time because he's kind of like
Speaker 1: a college version of Steph Curry where he can play
Speaker 1: both point and off the ball. And then, you know, Creighton,
Speaker 1: you get Baylor Shireman pack with Steven Ashworth pack and
Speaker 1: holy cow, can you shoot the ball. And now it
Speaker 1: comes down to what do you surround him with? Could
Speaker 1: Creighton be better off? Even though Nemhart is a better
Speaker 1: pure point guard than Steven Ashworth in terms of fit
Speaker 1: and what you need and how you play, it does
Speaker 1: feel like Creighton's going to return to the more totally
Speaker 1: offensive mine had spread your court, shoot the three short
Speaker 1: a team than they have been maybe the past year
Speaker 1: and a half, and maybe that fits them better. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's who they are. And what happens to Gonzaga is
Speaker 1: Gonzaga looks like they're kind of back roll in here
Speaker 1: getting high level recruits at high level transversely, like everybody's
Speaker 1: talking about all these all the kids coming in from
Speaker 1: the from the portal. For Gonzaga, he's Dusty Stromer's big time.
Speaker 1: He'll play right away. And depending upon who else they
Speaker 1: get to come back, you know, if they get Anton
Speaker 1: Watson or maybe they go ahead and get another portal,
Speaker 1: big guy. I think I think Gonzaga is going to
Speaker 1: be interesting, but I don't know if they're I think
Speaker 1: they're better, you know, on the perimeter they were last year.
Speaker 1: What happens to does Drew Timmy come back? He can?
Speaker 1: He said, he doesn't want to say he's gone, but
Speaker 1: he sounds the right to change his mind unless he's
Speaker 1: actually signed. There's two different contracts, right There's the the
Speaker 1: agent representative contract for college. Then there's the agent representative
Speaker 1: for pro and unless you switch that contract over, you
Speaker 1: can still return. It's it's just the craziest kind of
Speaker 1: set of base rules that aren't crazy binding, with a
Speaker 1: couple exceptions. Anyway, if you follow on social media, you'd
Speaker 1: think that the end is near for Arizona hoops, and
Speaker 1: it's reasonable to be concerned at this point in time.
Speaker 1: But here's you have to understand about the portal. There
Speaker 1: are waves to it, and there's another wave coming right,
Speaker 1: you have the first wave, which is kids, some of
Speaker 1: whom were asked to leave, some of whom put their
Speaker 1: name in hoping their current school would increase what they
Speaker 1: were making in NIL and some kids that just want
Speaker 1: to leave because they want to go make money elsewhere.
Speaker 1: They want to be that free agent. And then you
Speaker 1: have the kids that have put their name in the
Speaker 1: NBA Draft while maintaining their college eligibility. What does that
Speaker 1: allow you to do? That allows you to be in
Speaker 1: what you call the dark portal? Right in the portal
Speaker 1: agents talking to people but not really talking to people, right,
Speaker 1: that would be illegal and that would be frowned upon,
Speaker 1: but for just having a conversation and it doesn't involve
Speaker 1: the player. And if he pulls this name out of
Speaker 1: the draft, I mean, look at all the kids that
Speaker 1: have put their names in the draft. So now what
Speaker 1: happens The second wave of the portal is players go,
Speaker 1: they have a workout. The feedback they get is, hey, dude,
Speaker 1: go back to college. You can make more money in
Speaker 1: college now than and maybe you ever will as a pro.
Speaker 1: Stay as long as you can, and so some will
Speaker 1: go do that. Additionally, there'll be a wave of players
Speaker 1: who are at their current school chose to tell the
Speaker 1: coach they were coming back, whether they renegotiated ANIO or not,
Speaker 1: but we're probably told, hey, your role will be bigger,
Speaker 1: everything will be better next year, don't worry. And then
Speaker 1: that same coach has a kid they take in the
Speaker 1: portal and the current player gets nervous or doesn't like
Speaker 1: the idea that there's another guy come in to compete
Speaker 1: those minutes for those field goal attempts, and they put
Speaker 1: themselves in the portal. Right, so there's at least another
Speaker 1: wave or two coming from the portal, And my advice
Speaker 1: to Arizona Wildcat fans is like, don't freak out. Tommy's
Speaker 1: going to have a team. My guess is they'll be
Speaker 1: pretty good. He's obviously been very good at international recruiting.
Speaker 1: That was his jam when he was at Contaga. And
Speaker 1: there isn't the portal for those kids. There's all sorts
Speaker 1: of and there are other kids that you may look
Speaker 1: and say, no game changers in the portal, which is
Speaker 1: not true. To Ron Armstrong, the kid who played at
Speaker 1: Cal Baptist. I mean he's an elite point guard. He's
Speaker 1: in the portal. Many people think he'll end up at Providence.
Speaker 1: But you know, now Arizona they have I'm sure money
Speaker 1: to play with. They need a point guard and it's
Speaker 1: been point guard you forever. Is that a place that
Speaker 1: they would go Just a lot of different interesting elements
Speaker 1: to it, which you know without talking to each coach.
Speaker 1: And again, even when you talk to the coaches, they're
Speaker 1: not going to necessarily share with you their plan A,
Speaker 1: their plan B, their plan C. But any of these
Speaker 1: guys that have been in this game for long enough, no,
Speaker 1: you actually have to have about five guys at each
Speaker 1: spot that you're recruiting at any time, and the second
Speaker 1: they commit elsewhere, you got to go to the next
Speaker 1: man up. And some of these deals, believe it or not,
Speaker 1: our package deals, just like they've always been, only now
Speaker 1: it's a package deal through an agency where you go
Speaker 1: and the agency says, look, all right, if you give
Speaker 1: me six hundred, you know, we get six hundred. We'll
Speaker 1: get these three kids, you know, and one of the
Speaker 1: kids could be a two fifty kid, one of the
Speaker 1: kid can be one hundred kid, one of the kids
Speaker 1: could be a one to fifty kid, right, and maybe
Speaker 1: you overpace that you get all three in once like
Speaker 1: that legitimately happens. So the message to the college basketball
Speaker 1: fan out there is not every kid that doesn't choose
Speaker 1: your school, your school completely wanted. Like, I know, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to crush kids, but you know, I was
Speaker 1: talking to one of the coaches of a top ten
Speaker 1: team earlier this week and I asked him about one
Speaker 1: of the higher level mid major low major players in
Speaker 1: the portal that they had had on a visit that
Speaker 1: they had reportedly offered, and his response was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're not getting him, And I just ended of the
Speaker 1: day I didn't really want him because he doesn't totally
Speaker 1: fit with how I like to play. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: like I like him, but he doesn't necessarily fit. You know,
Speaker 1: whether it's a lot of these kids that played at
Speaker 1: the lower levels because they're the star player, they haven't
Speaker 1: played the level of defense you need to to compete
Speaker 1: at the higher level, you know, or they've just you know,
Speaker 1: they've been they've been dominant at that level. And now
Speaker 1: you get to where there's like athletes, but guys that
Speaker 1: are way more committed defensively, and can you hide that
Speaker 1: while understanding that as talented as they are offensively, it's
Speaker 1: not going to be as profound as you're playing against
Speaker 1: high level competition in a higher level athlete. I think
Speaker 1: all of that is is super super complex. And again
Speaker 1: the message is like I didn't say I like it,
Speaker 1: but understand that the process has changed dramatically, and I'm
Speaker 1: just using Arizona as the perfect kind of jumping off point. Well,
Speaker 1: like four guys on a roster. Well last year at
Speaker 1: the final four, so shortly thereafter, Kansas State had two
Speaker 1: players on their roster, one of whom was Marquise Nohell,
Speaker 1: who nobody was doing backflip flips to keep. And you know,
Speaker 1: they went out, used their connections and figured out a
Speaker 1: way to put together a roster and how you're going
Speaker 1: to do it again this year. So I just don't
Speaker 1: freak out. Let's wait. You got to almost wait until August,
Speaker 1: and by August you look at your roster and even
Speaker 1: then you don't really know how good any of these
Speaker 1: players are. You know, you talk to a coach, you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: have you seen him? Yeah? I watched him on Synergy
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's really hard to tell what does that
Speaker 1: look like against an SEC Big ten, PAC twelve, Big
Speaker 1: twelve level of athlete ACC level of athlete. It's like
Speaker 1: a different sport, you know. So I think that part
Speaker 1: is fascinating. And for these kids, many of the players
Speaker 1: are very bright and they understand, hey, I'm never going
Speaker 1: to be an NBA player. My path is going to
Speaker 1: be overseas. It's not like overseas money out of the
Speaker 1: gate is mid to high six figures. It's not a
Speaker 1: lot of these guys that played at mid majors. You know,
Speaker 1: your first job is going to be less than one
Speaker 1: hundred grand, you know, fifty to one hundred, and so
Speaker 1: if you can make you know, one hundred one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty two hundred for one more year in college,
Speaker 1: why wouldn't you do that? Give yourself a little cushion
Speaker 1: so that you can take your first job overseas and
Speaker 1: you know, be able to still send money home and
Speaker 1: take care of yourself and all of this now they'rein,
Speaker 1: by the way, lies kind of the rub and where
Speaker 1: we're setting kids up for failure is the numbers being
Speaker 1: thrown around are so obscene and really not realistic. You know,
Speaker 1: oftentimes you'll hear numbers in the six figures, and then
Speaker 1: how they actually get to it is you combined Alston money,
Speaker 1: cost of attendance money. You know, you kind of piecemeal
Speaker 1: it together and it ends up being close to that
Speaker 1: number if and only if they achieve, said Marx. But
Speaker 1: it's going to be interesting when these guys get out
Speaker 1: of college, the reality that hits them when there's no NBA,
Speaker 1: the G League is filled up with dudes and you
Speaker 1: got to go overseas and you're like, wait, you want
Speaker 1: me to play for what I made more than that
Speaker 1: in college? Yes, you did. And then the last part
Speaker 1: to it, which is really interesting, is going to be
Speaker 1: how are these guys remembered and where is their quote
Speaker 1: unquote basketball home, right. I mean, that part's really interesting.
Speaker 1: Like take Hunter Dickinson. You know, I know he can
Speaker 1: put on the WWE character, you know, be the heel
Speaker 1: sort of guy, but the reality is, I mean, he's
Speaker 1: a hell of a player at Michigan. So reportedly he's
Speaker 1: you know, he was kicking the tires on Maryland, kicking
Speaker 1: the tires on Georgetown because he's from the area. What
Speaker 1: does he do there? And now he's being recruited by
Speaker 1: Kentucky and Kansas, and I kind of think that's one
Speaker 1: of the two places that he'll end up, right and
Speaker 1: if you're gonna leave Michigan and Juwan Howard as a
Speaker 1: four year starter, you're gonna leave one. Not it's just
Speaker 1: for the most money, but a place where you feel
Speaker 1: like you can win a national championship, and those two
Speaker 1: places you can. And he's probably more important, frank to
Speaker 1: Kentucky than he is to Kansas because self always finds
Speaker 1: a way, right whereas cal there's a little bit of
Speaker 1: desperation there and Al is banking on his recruiting class
Speaker 1: and going back to the start of the Nile discussion,
Speaker 1: can you really win with eighteen, nineteen twenty year olds
Speaker 1: against twenty three twenty four year olds. You know that's hard.
Speaker 1: And he's a I believe he's a winning player, a
Speaker 1: damn good one, a really tough one. And though yeah,
Speaker 1: he can be a bit of a dick you need that, right,
Speaker 1: He's just you do you need an older player that's
Speaker 1: not not afraid to make big plays, to be himself
Speaker 1: to lead a team on the road, And that's Hunter Dickinson.
Speaker 1: But I mean, you know again, think about Hunter Dickinson, like,
Speaker 1: is he an NBA player? He was an NBA player,
Speaker 1: he would have left for the NBA draft a long
Speaker 1: time ago, so you know, on many levels, it's smart.
Speaker 1: Hey dude, you can play another year. You can make
Speaker 1: well into mid six figures, maybe seven figures. He goes
Speaker 1: to Kentucky or Kansas, right, I mean, that's a legitimate
Speaker 1: thought that how much that he can get, and it's
Speaker 1: smart to do so. On the other hand, when it's
Speaker 1: all said and done, is he an Kentucky guy or
Speaker 1: a Kansas guy? Right? Like? Is he? You know, like
Speaker 1: that's part of your basketball family, that's everything you do.
Speaker 1: And how welcome does he at Michigan as a Michigan man.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind, he I believe has a Michigan degree.
Speaker 1: So he fulfilled his service. But he could also have
Speaker 1: stayed there for another year. He can still go back
Speaker 1: there for another year. It's just going to be interesting
Speaker 1: to look at this point right now, fast forward to
Speaker 1: ten years from now, because every guy I know still
Speaker 1: feels associated and tied to the schools that they went to.
Speaker 1: And when things go bad or they want to, you know,
Speaker 1: redo their life or get into coaching or you know,
Speaker 1: do pharmaceuticals, he goes whatever. The people you call on
Speaker 1: are the people who cheered for you or played with
Speaker 1: you in college. Right, What happens to these guys that
Speaker 1: played four or five years at a good school and
Speaker 1: then they left him played, you know, for nine months
Speaker 1: at another good school. Where's their home? That's fascinating to me.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that more in future pods. I have
Speaker 1: one coming up my next spot with Darren Heighten, who
Speaker 1: negotiates a lot of these nil deals, and you'll get
Speaker 1: a much greater insight into how it works from his
Speaker 1: perspective as a lawyer and agent and representative of some
Speaker 1: of these players.
Speaker 2: Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 2: listen live.
Speaker 1: Let's talk NBA for a second. I'm really bothered by
Speaker 1: the coverage and treatment of Kawhi Leonard. I saw Steven A.
Speaker 1: Smith say that always he's the worst superstar ever and
Speaker 1: he's done with him. He should just go retire, Like,
Speaker 1: how have we gotten to this place where it's ever acceptable?
Speaker 1: I am just like anybody else. I hate the load management.
Speaker 1: And my belief is that basketball players play basketball right
Speaker 1: like you're gonna play. Most basketball players play basketball six
Speaker 1: days in a week, you know, and twice on Central.
Speaker 1: So I hate the idea that we have. You know,
Speaker 1: you get to a point where, like I get the
Speaker 1: NBA season's hard, it's long, it's difficult, but we're treating
Speaker 1: medical professionals advice like it's gold. And yet we haven't
Speaker 1: done that in sports for the longest time, and we've
Speaker 1: always kind of taken their advice previously, as I get it,
Speaker 1: But that's for normal human beings, right, Like a speech
Speaker 1: I give the kids all the time is like, what's
Speaker 1: your dream car? You know, and they all tell you
Speaker 1: something crazy, right, Oh, a Lamborghini or a Ferrari or
Speaker 1: heck even like a five S five fifty Mercedes Benz.
Speaker 1: Those are great cars, right, an Audi S eight to
Speaker 1: pick the car. It's always fast, it's always high powered,
Speaker 1: it's always a luxury car. Right. And you go to
Speaker 1: the gas station the first time you got to fill up,
Speaker 1: and what's to saying, must take ninety two octane? Right,
Speaker 1: And then you explain to them like do you know,
Speaker 1: do you know a car can run on eighty seven?
Speaker 1: They're like you can't? Like, yeah, I can, It's fine,
Speaker 1: you can run in eighty seven, But do you want
Speaker 1: to find out or do you want to get peak
Speaker 1: performance out of your car? Right, like you're going to
Speaker 1: go and you know, go cruising or race a buddy
Speaker 1: or you know, if you know you get done, you
Speaker 1: sign a million dollar contract. You just use a million
Speaker 1: dollar contract. You go and get your dream car. Are
Speaker 1: you going to put the crummy gas in it? And
Speaker 1: they all go like, nah, man, I'm not gonna put
Speaker 1: the crummy gas in it? Okay, Well, your engine is
Speaker 1: like that of an Estate or Ferrari, a Lamborghini. You
Speaker 1: don't have a normal you don't have a Antoya Camri engine.
Speaker 1: Why would you put eighty seven octane into you? And
Speaker 1: so there's a there's there's a there's a parallel there.
Speaker 1: And you know, you try and get kids to understand
Speaker 1: that they're different than regular human beings. They can it's
Speaker 1: what's the Chris rock line. You can drive a car
Speaker 1: with your feet, but that doesn't make it a good idea. Right.
Speaker 1: You can live on pizza and gatorade and you know,
Speaker 1: grab some chips or some funions or some pork rinds
Speaker 1: in between games and will your engine run? Yes? Will
Speaker 1: you get pre performance? Probably not? Well, the same sort
Speaker 1: of understanding needs to come from the medical community. It
Speaker 1: always has. Like you and me, we sprain our ankle
Speaker 1: walking down the street. You know, we step in a
Speaker 1: hole and we're playing adult league basketball. You know you're
Speaker 1: on crutches. You shut it down for a month because
Speaker 1: you're a normal civilian. An NBA player sprains his ankle,
Speaker 1: and you know they're rehabbing around the clock, and depending
Speaker 1: upon the severity of the spring, they may they can
Speaker 1: probably play in the next couple of days. Right, they're different,
Speaker 1: but yet we're treating We're treating the normal protocol for
Speaker 1: a normal human being as if it's the gold standard
Speaker 1: for the NBA. So I don't love load bands, but
Speaker 1: I've been kind of quietly watching Kawhi Leonard the last
Speaker 1: two months, last month and a half of the regular season,
Speaker 1: the first couple of weeks of the playoffs or first
Speaker 1: two games of the playoffs, and we can go back
Speaker 1: and forth between KB or Kawhi, and I consider Jokic
Speaker 1: as well. I mean, you have to, I guess put
Speaker 1: Yannis in that saying, but if I need to win
Speaker 1: a game, those are the two guys that I think
Speaker 1: right now in the NBA playss I gotta win a game.
Speaker 1: Those are the two guys I call upon, right, and
Speaker 1: that's a reasonable pick, and you can throw in there
Speaker 1: any of the usual other suspects. There's three Embiid, Jokic
Speaker 1: and Yannis, and my argument against the other three would
Speaker 1: would be both. You know, Kawhi is super efficient at
Speaker 1: both ends and has become a better passer. It's not
Speaker 1: a great passor. That's the only thing that all the
Speaker 1: others have that. I think he's probably the fifth best
Speaker 1: pastor of that group, but an improving pastor. But everything
Speaker 1: else he does, rebounding, defending, is scoring at three levels,
Speaker 1: you know efficiency, He's as good or better than anybody
Speaker 1: outside of KD as a scorer. Right, So if I'm
Speaker 1: going to say, hey, to win a game or a
Speaker 1: series in the NBA, because the problem with like Jokich
Speaker 1: and Embiid is who can they guard when you go small?
Speaker 1: And the problem with with Giannis is still like end
Speaker 1: of the day, he can't shoot, you know, That's that's
Speaker 1: his biggest weakness and that's the most valued I believe
Speaker 1: commodity in the NBA. So if I go, Hey, of
Speaker 1: the of the guys you'd most want to have to
Speaker 1: win a game, in the NBA KWHI Leard's on any list,
Speaker 1: and I think he's one B or number two to KD.
Speaker 1: So you have Stephen A. Smith essentially saying he's faking
Speaker 1: it or he's overreacting to a tweak in his knee
Speaker 1: without any sort of medical background or knowledge. It's complete bullshit,
Speaker 1: Like when did we get to that point? Like there
Speaker 1: is a limit to what you can talk about in
Speaker 1: terms of load management. He's not missing playoff games when
Speaker 1: Paul George isn't playing because he wants to Like that.
Speaker 1: Dude is a fierce competitor. Yeah, I think the Clippers
Speaker 1: have to be on some level cursed, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: how do you explain not just all of the injuries
Speaker 1: or flops to draft picks with Donald Stirling or you know,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul getting hurt you know, or I mean, heck,
Speaker 1: even when I was a kid and Larry Brown was
Speaker 1: the coach and they were good, Remember they had the
Speaker 1: LA Riots, so they had to play their home games
Speaker 1: in the playoffs the Anaheim Convention Center like you name it.
Speaker 1: And of course you know Kawhi getting hurt a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, Paul George getting COVID last year. All
Speaker 1: of the it's always something and it's never good, and
Speaker 1: you at some point you kind of feel bad for
Speaker 1: the Clippers and think are they cursed? But I just
Speaker 1: I got to tell you, I'm not down with the
Speaker 1: treatment of Kawhi Leonard. I'm just not And I don't
Speaker 1: have any firsthand knowledge on the severity of the injury.
Speaker 1: But if you think that guy doesn't want to be playing,
Speaker 1: you haven't paid any sort of attention. He's been incredible
Speaker 1: the last month and a half. He's put himself in
Speaker 1: in position to have a remarkable playoff run, and he
Speaker 1: was playing like it even when Paul George, you know,
Speaker 1: tweaked his knee and got hurt and they's just snake
Speaker 1: bit not going to play in Game four today. As
Speaker 1: we drop this pod, I just sometimes you just go like, man,
Speaker 1: you just feel really bad for a guy, a team player,
Speaker 1: being stake bit, and I do you do wonder, like, hey,
Speaker 1: I understand the load management, and I understand he's different
Speaker 1: because he's coming off an ACL injury, but there is
Speaker 1: you do wonder whether or not playing more basketball better
Speaker 1: prepares your body for the playoffs, for the stress of it.
Speaker 1: You know that in an effort to protect your body
Speaker 1: so that you're at peak physical condition in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: do you have load management? Do you actually do the
Speaker 1: opposite where your body breaks down easier because you haven't
Speaker 1: been playing as much basketball. And then we get the Lakers. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm going to report back tomorrow on the Lakers, because
Speaker 1: go into Laker game tonight and be able to give
Speaker 1: you a real sense of what's really going on, and
Speaker 1: it's they're a fascinating team because you know Lebron Is,
Speaker 1: he scores and he passes, but oftentimes they're at there
Speaker 1: worse when he's in the game trying to do the
Speaker 1: old Lebron stuff where he holds the ball too long
Speaker 1: because he doesn't have the ability to go buy guys,
Speaker 1: he doesn't always get downhill on guys, and because he
Speaker 1: doesn't move as well as he used to any tires,
Speaker 1: like any human being in their late thirties, that oftentimes
Speaker 1: causes his passes to be just off or as he
Speaker 1: used to be an incredible passer. He still feels it
Speaker 1: and senses it and has all this, but there's definitely
Speaker 1: a decline in his reactions and in some of the
Speaker 1: timing of the passes, and that has to be because
Speaker 1: of age, which causes fatigue. That's my hypotheses on it. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is a big time and they've been able
Speaker 1: to get Austin Reeves to play way better defensively and
Speaker 1: then his offense obviously in Game one was elite, and
Speaker 1: then trying to figure out which of the two point
Speaker 1: guards you know, have it on a given night. I
Speaker 1: think the whole thing is working way better than anyone
Speaker 1: could have thought. On the other hand, you know the Grizzlies,
Speaker 1: why do they play better without you know, without John
Speaker 1: many ways? Well, because the ball moves, and though they
Speaker 1: don't have players that you would line up and say
Speaker 1: are better players historically than Lebron James, because they're shooting
Speaker 1: threes because the ball is moving. It's always been a
Speaker 1: way to navigate having inferior talent, and it's the way
Speaker 1: basketball has played now at even at the highest level.
Speaker 1: Tom fascinated to see if the Lakers can get out
Speaker 1: of this round of the playoffs, or if the you know,
Speaker 1: or if at the end of the day and what happens.
Speaker 1: Obviously with Dylan Brooks saying, hey, I don't respect anybody
Speaker 1: till they give me forty. Okay, what happens if he
Speaker 1: gives you forty? Does that actually help the Lakers win? Right?
Speaker 1: Because what's interesting about kind of challenging Lebron to give
Speaker 1: him forty is if you look back historically, the plan,
Speaker 1: oftentimes in the Eastern Conference and sometimes in the finals,
Speaker 1: was they make Lebron score forty, you score fifty to beat.
Speaker 1: You don't let him, you know, be the passer and
Speaker 1: create with the idea in mind that carrying the load
Speaker 1: like that is so exhausting that by the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: he won't have it in the tank. And that works.
Speaker 1: You know. That was I think the Warriors game plan
Speaker 1: when they played him in the finals, and I think
Speaker 1: it generally worked. You look at his production in the
Speaker 1: second half, just you get at some point, you get
Speaker 1: tired carrying an entire team, and that's by design, not
Speaker 1: just what you're going to do offensively, but what the
Speaker 1: defense makes you do. And you know, at that point
Speaker 1: in time in his career, he was a really important
Speaker 1: cog defensively. Now he is a guy they almost try
Speaker 1: and hide and use his physical strength because his movement
Speaker 1: isn't nearly as good defensively. So let's say he goes
Speaker 1: for forty or forty five to night. Does that actually
Speaker 1: make the Lakers better or does that make the Lakers worse?
Speaker 1: And to people who say, well, Dylan Brooks, this is
Speaker 1: all part of the plan, I don't think so. I
Speaker 1: think that's just Dylan Brooks being Dylan Brooks. And we
Speaker 1: in the media, we always take the bait on guys
Speaker 1: like this. But you know the truth is that he
Speaker 1: just runs his mouth. To run his mouth, that's how
Speaker 1: he likes to play. And it can rattle certain guys,
Speaker 1: and I don't think it rattles Lebron James. I just
Speaker 1: wonder if Lebron James takes the bait and tries to
Speaker 1: tries to do what you remember what at one time
Speaker 1: Tom Brady got called out by a rookie h safety
Speaker 1: for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Or look what Jordan would do
Speaker 1: or what Kobe would do if you questioned their skill
Speaker 1: level at any point in their career, they'll try and
Speaker 1: eliminate you. So I think that element to it is
Speaker 1: really really interesting. And the last part is I think
Speaker 1: that something sneaking up on the NBA playoffs is that
Speaker 1: the Nuggets might actually be the best team. And what
Speaker 1: has been missing from them is Jamal Murray. And if
Speaker 1: you watch it in the bubble, Jamal Murray might have
Speaker 1: been the best player in the Bubble until they got eliminated.
Speaker 1: And now with the surrounding cast and their ability to
Speaker 1: play without Jokic and to go small, I think they
Speaker 1: fix their chemistry getting rid of Bones Highland. They have
Speaker 1: enough offense, They have better depth than Phoenix. And by
Speaker 1: the way, if they play Phoenix, you know you can
Speaker 1: play Yokic against DeAndre Ayden, whereas you know against the
Speaker 1: Warriors he can struggle to cover at times. The more
Speaker 1: I watch, the more I think, hey, we may have
Speaker 1: missed the fact that the Nuggets are actually the best
Speaker 1: team and now that Jamal Murray is playing like Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray of a couple of years ago in the Bubble,
Speaker 1: we need to pay attention before they win an NBA
Speaker 1: championship and we say how that actually happened? All right,
Speaker 1: So there's some early thoughts on NBA playoffs. I have
Speaker 1: more thoughts on some of these other players in the
Speaker 1: NBA playoffs and teams and what happens to Trey Young.
Speaker 1: I'll share with you in future pods. In regards to
Speaker 1: the NBA Draft. Again, that's my point is this is
Speaker 1: not a strong draft. Obviously we know who's going one.
Speaker 1: I think Scoote Henderson goes too, but I'm not totally convinced.
Speaker 1: But outside of the top five or top ten, because
Speaker 1: of the definite weakness in guys that jump off the
Speaker 1: page and are ready to play in the draft, it
Speaker 1: probably keeps more players in then need to be in.
Speaker 1: That's usually the case, but maybe more so this year.
Speaker 1: The interesting part is going to be how quickly players
Speaker 1: bail knowing they could, you know, they could make more
Speaker 1: money in college and you know, do the same song
Speaker 1: and dance next year. Because if you're you only keep
Speaker 1: your name in the draft. If you're a second round pick,
Speaker 1: or and you get promised you're going to get a
Speaker 1: two way two way, you can make around three hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. You can make more than that in college.
Speaker 1: Many of these kids they just don't want to go
Speaker 1: to school, even though they don't go in person anymore.
Speaker 1: They don't want to go period, and they're in leaf thrup.
Speaker 1: Can you make more than three hundred thousand? Are you
Speaker 1: guaranteed you're going to make that money in the pros?
Speaker 1: If not go back to college, collect your money, try
Speaker 1: and improve your stock, and do the same song and
Speaker 1: dance next year. All right, there you go. So a
Speaker 1: little educational pod, little thoughtful pod, and a little different
Speaker 1: way of approaching it. A reminder of The Doug Outlib
Speaker 1: Show is daily three to five Eastern twelve two Pacific's
Speaker 1: daily radio show covering all sports. We're getting ready for
Speaker 1: the NFL Draft upcoming now, and we covered the NBA
Speaker 1: playoffs a ton will be dropping a bunch of pods
Speaker 1: this week. I appreciate you listening. I'm Doug gott Leave.
Speaker 1: This is all ball