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Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Well, between the Luca trade and the Chiefs getting humiliated,
Speaker 1: I did not have that as a two team parlay.
Speaker 1: You know, I was thinking about this. Listen. The Chiefs
Speaker 1: are gonna be fine. They got to They knew they
Speaker 1: were going to probably draft an offensive tackle in the
Speaker 1: first round, and there's plenty of them. But it's interesting
Speaker 1: Brady's three super Bowl losses, the point differential was minus fifteen.
Speaker 1: He could have literally run the table. Mahomes, it's minus
Speaker 1: fifty three. With two super Bowl losses, he'll be three
Speaker 1: and two in Super Bowls. But I do think I
Speaker 1: would say this again Philadelphia. We both said they have
Speaker 1: the better roster. It's just hard to go against Andy
Speaker 1: Reid on two weeks and Mahomes, who never loses close games.
Speaker 1: I did not think it would be this, but I
Speaker 1: do think. You know, one of the things I was
Speaker 1: thinking in the first half is that, you know, Brady
Speaker 1: would always generate something. He was just so good pre snap,
Speaker 1: and it was a little you know, listen, I know
Speaker 1: Philadelphia's defense is dynamic, and you know, we didn't think
Speaker 1: Kansas City would run much on them, but were you
Speaker 1: a little disappointed that they couldn't generate six and seven
Speaker 1: yard throws, They couldn't max protect it. It was like
Speaker 1: they weren't moving off their game plan.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought they were overwhelmed at levels in which
Speaker 2: you just don't see good teams overwhelmed the line of
Speaker 2: scrimmage because it wasn't just edge pressures, it was interior pressures.
Speaker 2: I mean, Mahomes was under siege that they had I
Speaker 2: think seven yards after the first quarter Colin or excuse me,
Speaker 2: nineteen yards on seven plays. That's because they got a
Speaker 2: first down on the first play from scrimmage and then
Speaker 2: they essentially went three and out, three and out so
Speaker 2: I just thought the defensive line. Remember two years ago
Speaker 2: when the Eagles were in the Super Bowl, they led
Speaker 2: the league in sacks and they had an excellent defensive line.
Speaker 2: I don't think this defensive line was looked as good
Speaker 2: as that one because it wasn't productive top to bottom.
Speaker 2: But the way they played to night, I mean, that's
Speaker 2: as well as you can play. And I don't know
Speaker 2: what you can do when your defensive tackles are doing that.
Speaker 2: When when your defensive ends are doing that. I mean,
Speaker 2: the Chiefs do have a guard playing left.
Speaker 1: Tackle right well, ten quarterback hits six sacks, zero blitzes.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about that. And you know, as I
Speaker 1: was watching this game with Philadelphia, I kept thinking about this.
Speaker 1: You know, for years and years when Peyton Manning was
Speaker 1: in your division or Brady was, it affected how people
Speaker 1: in the division drafted. You watched Philadelphia's D and O Lions,
Speaker 1: And if you're the Rams or the Lions or San
Speaker 1: Francisco or Dallas, don't you watch this game and think, Jesus,
Speaker 1: I'm the Rams. I'm like, you know, a corner or
Speaker 1: defensive tackle in the third round. Like it was so
Speaker 1: dominating that it makes me think all the rivals of
Speaker 1: the Eagles have to look at this and think, you know,
Speaker 1: we've we've got to get better in the lines or
Speaker 1: we're not going to compete with this team for years.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean that's to me how he and Andy
Speaker 2: has done this too, and the two Super Bowls they've lost,
Speaker 2: their offensive line has just let him down in those games.
Speaker 2: I mean the Tampa situation, Remember they were missing two
Speaker 2: tackles and tonight they just got overwhelmed. But it's not
Speaker 2: just Jalen Carter tonight, right, I mean Brandon Graham does
Speaker 2: everything to come back off a torn shoulder or elbow
Speaker 2: sweat was incredible. Milton Williams has that play destroying. You know,
Speaker 2: he was a third round pick years ago. Like he's
Speaker 2: about to be a free agent. He's gonna get a
Speaker 2: ton of money. And to me, the offensive line for
Speaker 2: the Eagles, how about the difference when they would go
Speaker 2: back and forth, the Chiefs would punt and then the
Speaker 2: Eagles would come back and you'd be like, well, they're
Speaker 2: just not generating any pressure. Jalen's sitting back there having
Speaker 2: a hot dog, He's having some gumbo in the backfield.
Speaker 2: Just who's open, who's not I'll just scramble where mahomes.
Speaker 2: Within a second, he's moving around, scrambling left and right,
Speaker 2: and yeah, I just think the offensive line and defensive
Speaker 2: line for the Eagles tonight and really all season down
Speaker 2: the stretch once they remember they started slow like two
Speaker 2: and two, and then since then they were the best
Speaker 2: team in football. And tonight they dominated. They absolutely dominated
Speaker 2: this game. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean before tonight, Kansas City had won the last
Speaker 1: nine playoff games where they did not score first where
Speaker 1: they trailed, but in those games, I mean, it was
Speaker 1: really interesting even early in the game. My first take
Speaker 1: after the first three drives for each team is it's
Speaker 1: one thing if you make mistakes, if you're nervous. I'm
Speaker 1: like Jesus that Philadelphia is not even adding edge pressure.
Speaker 1: They're just putting their four guys out there and they
Speaker 1: can't lock them. You know, as I look at over
Speaker 1: my notes, only three minutes time of possession in the
Speaker 1: first quarter, I think we forget. We've been spoiled John,
Speaker 1: We've had First of all, it was a great season.
Speaker 1: The quarterback play has never been better. A lot of
Speaker 1: people that were watching our podcast right now are in
Speaker 1: their twenties and thirties. This is what super Bowls look
Speaker 1: like in the late seventies and eighties and nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: I can remember. I can remember the Giants beating Denver
Speaker 1: thirty nine to twenty, and then San Francisco beating Denver
Speaker 1: fifty five to ten, and Denver got beat by Washington
Speaker 1: forty two to ten, and then the Raiders hammered a
Speaker 1: couple of teams. You go back to the eighties right now,
Speaker 1: Google it if you're listening to us and you're watching
Speaker 1: it home. This is what super bowls look like. I mean,
Speaker 1: there was a decade people that was talking about the
Speaker 1: seventies NBA where there were no great teams. The eighties
Speaker 1: NFL were very few great super Bowls. So we were
Speaker 1: on a run. We've had so many good Kansas City
Speaker 1: Buffalo games or Buffalo Baltimore games. We've just been so
Speaker 1: lucky in the AFC with Mahomes and Allen and Lamar.
Speaker 1: But there was a run in college football with Alabama.
Speaker 1: This is what the title games were looking like, the
Speaker 1: Bama Notre Dame. This is what super bowls looked like.
Speaker 1: So we hadn't had I mean, I thought the Celtics, Mavericks,
Speaker 1: was a lobsided mess, but this is one of those
Speaker 1: where I think it resonates beyond the game. I think
Speaker 1: you look at Philadelphia and they're going to have an
Speaker 1: impact on the draft and free agency. People will feel like,
Speaker 1: in the NFC, you cannot compete with this roster for
Speaker 1: the next two to three years if you just don't
Speaker 1: get better up front.
Speaker 2: Well, I also think it's pretty rare in you know,
Speaker 2: in football, right the coaches are such stars, where in
Speaker 2: basketball and baseball the executives can be pretty big names.
Speaker 2: You know, in basketball, GM's are a really big deal. Listen,
Speaker 2: I've known Bret Veech for I don't know, fifteen plus
Speaker 2: years Redvechs stud and he's well known. I mean he
Speaker 2: should be. He's been to five Super Bowls, he won
Speaker 2: three of them. But how he is kind of the
Speaker 2: guy that serves the drink with the Eagles. He is
Speaker 2: much closer to someone in baseball or basketball where he's
Speaker 2: the boss, you know, when they needed coordinators. He's going
Speaker 2: after Vic Fangio. And I'm not trying to take anything
Speaker 2: away from Sirianni. Clearly the guys, you know, they beat
Speaker 2: to his drum like he gets them going from an
Speaker 2: inspirational standpoint, and he's good with the players, but he
Speaker 2: doesn't call plays or anything. And he's a younger guy.
Speaker 2: It's pretty rare to see US CEO head coach in
Speaker 2: his early forties. But the talent on that team and
Speaker 2: the offseason moves. I mean, Colin they signed a one year,
Speaker 2: four million dollars back then, who was fantastic guard. They
Speaker 2: got Zach Bond, immediate All Pro, and they got Saquon Barkley,
Speaker 2: who had one of the better seasons of the history
Speaker 2: of the league. So I mean, it's a large remarkable
Speaker 2: Howie Roseman became a Hall of Famer tonight. He's won
Speaker 2: two Super Bowls with two different coaches and two different quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: Listen, I don't want to overreact to the game, but
Speaker 1: in this instance, John, it's hard not to overreact. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's I'm watching the Celtics drub the Knicks last night,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, this Celtics team has so much depth.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to overreact, but when they won the
Speaker 1: finals last year, You're like, they're like significant, significantly better
Speaker 1: than every team in the league. And I watched them
Speaker 1: last night and I'm like, I'm not overreact. Boston's gonna
Speaker 1: win it again. They're just better than everybody. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I'm watching Philadelphia here and I'm like, yeah, this team's
Speaker 1: not going anywhere because it would be one thing if
Speaker 1: the quarterback was cocky, or if they had a bunch
Speaker 1: of free agents or they didn't draft well John, seven
Speaker 1: of their best players are like in year one or two.
Speaker 2: Well, think about it. They just won the Super Bowl
Speaker 2: and two of the better players in franchise history, Jason
Speaker 2: Kelsey and Fletcher Cox, had retired this year. So do
Speaker 2: you know what hit me tonight is remember when Fangio
Speaker 2: and the Miami Dolphins like got a divorce and then
Speaker 2: how he hires him twenty four hours later in the Dolphins,
Speaker 2: he was just too mean, he was too demanding. It's like, guys,
Speaker 2: this is football, and this is defensive football. I got
Speaker 2: news for you. The guy knows what he's doing. And
Speaker 2: the one thing we've seen with VIC with Jim Harbaugh,
Speaker 2: the one year when they was he was with the
Speaker 2: Naggy and the Bears and they traded for Khalil Mack
Speaker 2: and then this year with you give him talent, it
Speaker 2: is on because one thing you and I talked about
Speaker 2: is like his record against Andy Reid, but it's like, well, really,
Speaker 2: if you siphon those teams out, he did not have
Speaker 2: good teams in Denver, so nothing of the caliber of
Speaker 2: talent that he was rolling into this Super Bowl with.
Speaker 2: I mean, Colin the when you have one good unit,
Speaker 2: you could have a good defense, right when all four
Speaker 2: of you or three of your levels of defense are good.
Speaker 2: Their defensive line is outstanding, the linebackers, they have an
Speaker 2: all Pro linebacker and Bond who had a pick tonight,
Speaker 2: And then all their dvs are good, you know, I
Speaker 2: mean CJ. Will Hit, Cooper Dejeen and Mitchell. The rookie
Speaker 2: corners are excellent and Slay is still a solid player.
Speaker 2: So they're good at every single level of the defense.
Speaker 2: And they have one of the best defensive coordinators in
Speaker 2: the league. Like he's he can't win it because he's
Speaker 2: a coach. But if you told me they gave the
Speaker 2: Super Bowl MVP to Vic Fangio because the game was
Speaker 2: it felt like over pretty early on because defensively the
Speaker 2: Eagles were I don't remember the eighty five Bears, but
Speaker 2: I would have had they smothered him, And it was like,
Speaker 2: have they even made it past midfield and then finally
Speaker 2: Burkhard's like they have not crossed midfield yet, Like didn't
Speaker 2: feel like it.
Speaker 1: You know, John. One of the of the many reasons
Speaker 1: the NFL is king and I'm you and I are
Speaker 1: both football guys. I do love the NBA playoffs, and
Speaker 1: I love March Madden, and I love a good I
Speaker 1: love a good golf Major, and I love the World Cup.
Speaker 1: And by the way, last year I loved baseball playoffs.
Speaker 1: Last year I thought they was just Oh. I thought
Speaker 1: the National League Playoffs were insanely good. But one of
Speaker 1: the reasons that the NFL continues to have such a
Speaker 1: visceral connection with us is college football and the Eagles
Speaker 1: are an advertisement forget the draft, right, And this is
Speaker 1: why you and I are draft guys, and I've told
Speaker 1: my friends this for years, is you can't buy your
Speaker 1: way to a championship. All the bad gms in football
Speaker 1: overspend in free agency. We're in the NBA. If the
Speaker 1: Lakers get Luca, you're like in a big trade. At
Speaker 1: the trade deadline, You're like, Wow, the Eagles are just
Speaker 1: an advertisement for you start nailing multiple drafts. That's when
Speaker 1: That's why you can go get AJ Brown. That's why
Speaker 1: you can pay Saquon and AJ Brown because you just
Speaker 1: keep nailing draft pick after draft picks. Like the Rams
Speaker 1: are in a spot now they'll they'll keep Stafford, but
Speaker 1: they've hit on like six straight defensive draft picks. If
Speaker 1: they have another good draft, it's like, okay, then you
Speaker 1: then you get to the point where you can just
Speaker 1: go buy elite players.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I've mentioned this to you and it's
Speaker 2: I think it's been well documented. Is once they missed
Speaker 2: on Jalen Rager for Justin Jefferson, they had an internal
Speaker 2: meeting that what are we doing overthinking this? We're gonna
Speaker 2: take the best players from the best program. So when
Speaker 2: you listed all those players, that was a lot of
Speaker 2: Alabama and Georgia in that list of players, and it
Speaker 2: paid dividends. I mean, it paid big time dividends because
Speaker 2: you know, from Jalen Carter to DeVante Smith to Landon
Speaker 2: Dickerson to This year was somewhat unique with Mitchell and
Speaker 2: Cooper Dejen but Mitchell is a good example of a
Speaker 2: guy like Ashton Genty this year with Boise, he could
Speaker 2: have got a million dollars and gone to Alabama Georgia
Speaker 2: Ohio State, but he chose to stay at his program.
Speaker 2: That's why he was I think Tulane or Toledo. I
Speaker 2: think it might have been Toledo, and Koober's gene was Iowa,
Speaker 2: which is one of the better defenses in the league.
Speaker 2: But they're not drafting little school guys anymore. They've been burned,
Speaker 2: you know, Carson, I think you know that situation.
Speaker 1: Then.
Speaker 2: Obviously, the Jalen Reaguer over Justin Jefferson at the time
Speaker 2: was the COVID draft. And remember the Minnesota Vikings were
Speaker 2: on the clock next and they go to the video
Speaker 2: of Spielman and he's laughing him and Zimmer because they
Speaker 2: couldn't believe that they didn't just take Justin Jefferson, and
Speaker 2: that scarred how he and how he's come back swinging.
Speaker 2: I mean to go to two Super Bowls in three years.
Speaker 2: And let's face it, this was a lot different team
Speaker 2: than than two years ago. Right, Kelsey's gone, Fletcher Cox gone,
Speaker 2: So they had to kind of, you know, reshape the
Speaker 2: squad with some impact players, and they did it with
Speaker 2: you know, Jurgens and Landon Dickerson inside and Aden Beckton.
Speaker 2: But to me, Jalen Carter, who you know, tonight's not
Speaker 2: going to be his greatest performance, but what he's meant
Speaker 2: to him this year he was He's a dominant, dominant
Speaker 2: impact player.
Speaker 1: Jordan Schultz and then Jay Glazer reported the Jets moved
Speaker 1: off Aaron Rodgers. So for the second time in a
Speaker 1: couple of years, a team as Aaron flew out to
Speaker 1: New York thinking positively optimistically it would happen, they moved
Speaker 1: off him. I think the Colts and the Raiders work.
Speaker 1: I think Chip Kelly, they have two tackles, they have
Speaker 1: a center, they have two good tight ends, then they're
Speaker 1: running back in a receiver. I think I think the
Speaker 1: Raiders works for Aaron Rodgers. He'd take that over the
Speaker 1: Colts and Shane Steichen. But you know, Peyton Manning and
Speaker 1: Tom Brady late in their careers leave and have some success.
Speaker 1: Brett Farve did as well, got to an NFC championship
Speaker 1: a throw from the Super Bowl. Are you surprised that
Speaker 1: it was just two years of nothing and the second
Speaker 1: team bailed on him?
Speaker 2: I'm not. But are you you know this new culture
Speaker 2: coming in? You know Aaron Glenn's at former high level player. Yes,
Speaker 2: It's like, do I want to deal with some old aging?
Speaker 2: You know, what's the hardest thing to deal with sometimes
Speaker 2: in pro sports an aging former superstar, especially one that's
Speaker 2: a little different. You know Peyton Manning that last year.
Speaker 2: Remember Kubiak and Elway had to sit him down and
Speaker 2: like it was difficult, he took a pay cut. These
Speaker 2: are these are tough conversations. But I think it was
Speaker 2: pretty clear that the Johnson family was over this guy
Speaker 2: about two months left to go in the season. I
Speaker 2: wonder if part of the interviews was like Aaron's done here,
Speaker 2: which most of these new code who cares like it's
Speaker 2: not like okay, fine, I don't need them anyway. I
Speaker 2: think the question now is is he even tradable because
Speaker 2: he's on the books for this year, his cash, you know,
Speaker 2: his cap pits twenty three million dollars. I honestly think
Speaker 2: they'd probably have to cut him. Yeah. I wonder if
Speaker 2: anyone had even trade for him, so it's not I
Speaker 2: think they just cut him, cut them, and then someone
Speaker 2: signs him for ten million bucks. I mean, is he
Speaker 2: is that what he's getting? Kind of because if you
Speaker 2: think about it, Roethlisberger's arm gave out on him. It
Speaker 2: was clear, but he just ends as a steeler. Manning's
Speaker 2: arm doesn't work, wins the Super Bowl, but then no
Speaker 2: one would resign him. Breeze's arms started going and it
Speaker 2: just ended. Is he really just going to go play? Like?
Speaker 2: What if the Titans outbid that and they give him
Speaker 2: twelve million? The Raiders were only willing to give him,
Speaker 2: So he's gonna finish his career on the Titans. Because
Speaker 2: I do think it wouldn't just be those two. I
Speaker 2: think a lot of teams would be interested just to
Speaker 2: try to get their franchise. You know, these owners give
Speaker 2: them a little oomph. If you got some cap face,
Speaker 2: I'll give Aaron Rodgers fifty if you're the Titans, why
Speaker 2: wouldn't you pay him?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he has a house in Nashville. I mean, let's say, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: we'll give you two years. Got a house in Nashville.
Speaker 1: It's an easy division, and then you have that number
Speaker 1: one pick you could trade down, get a bunch of
Speaker 1: players around him. It's just interesting. I was told that
Speaker 1: Aaron Glenn for the people that didn't hear my pre
Speaker 1: Super Bowl fifteen minute rant, I was told by somebody
Speaker 1: I trust that Aaron Glenn, coming from a really strong
Speaker 1: culture in Detroit, wants to mimic that right, duplicate that
Speaker 1: in New York, and he didn't want Aaron Rodgers the
Speaker 1: player or the person in the room. And they'll say
Speaker 1: all the right stuff. But in the end, I mean
Speaker 1: Green Bay caught him off guard. The Jets kind of
Speaker 1: caught him off guard. Aaron has that disease of has
Speaker 1: to be the smartest guy in the room. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do my own homework on the internet, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think in the end, Aaron, I mean, I could
Speaker 1: write chapters in a book on things I've heard from
Speaker 1: people that have been around him. He's really moody guy.
Speaker 1: You can get good Aeron or bad Aeron, but in
Speaker 1: the end, he's just not good enough. Now he's probably
Speaker 1: the fifteenth best quarterback in the league, he's just not
Speaker 1: good enough for the bs you deal with. Like he's
Speaker 1: not early to the locker room. He's not optimistic like
Speaker 1: Brady to the end. I mean, it was just like
Speaker 1: high energy, high optimism, high standards. I'm not sure Aaron
Speaker 1: loves the game. I think, you know how when he
Speaker 1: ever worked with somebody or you have somebody in your
Speaker 1: family and they're like, I work hard, and you're like, dude,
Speaker 1: hard work is sixty five hours a week, not forty two.
Speaker 1: I think Aaron says he loves the game. I don't
Speaker 1: see it, don't. I don't see that just just unbridled,
Speaker 1: like just relentless passion for it. I think I think
Speaker 1: Aaron thinks he loves the game, but he doesn't love it.
Speaker 1: He doesn't love it the way the guys that I
Speaker 1: see it in pro sports love it.
Speaker 2: I think it'll be very telling that when they cut him,
Speaker 2: if he's only getting seven, eight, ten million dollar off,
Speaker 2: he doesn't need the money, right, He's worth hundreds of
Speaker 2: millions of dollars. At this point in time, it was
Speaker 2: clear he did not want to get hit last year.
Speaker 2: Don't blame him. He's forty years old, right, So is
Speaker 2: he gonna go play for some of these teams?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: Pete Carroll calls the Titans, call like, yeah, this might
Speaker 2: not go well again. Right. The one thing Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 2: has a good feel for, you know, the most of
Speaker 2: his career is what a good team looks like. So
Speaker 2: this could be really like, you go sign up for
Speaker 2: one of these teams. Best case scenario might be like
Speaker 2: seven wins and you know, struggled to stay hurt last
Speaker 2: year on a roster that's going to be better more
Speaker 2: than likely than one of these teams interested in you.
Speaker 2: So I wonder if he gets to the point where
Speaker 2: it's like, am I really going to do one year
Speaker 2: for eight, nine, ten million dollars? Yeah? I don't want
Speaker 2: to say you jest this year paying him thirty five
Speaker 2: million dollars. If someone was willing to pay him that,
Speaker 2: I think he would.
Speaker 1: For sure play sure, sure, But I have a hard.
Speaker 2: Time if you're ten million dollars, it's like the best
Speaker 2: options the Titans, him just going, I'm just gonna go
Speaker 2: hang out Malibu and just kick it.
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Speaker 4: slash audio.
Speaker 1: It's called Hoops to Night. It's Jason Tim. Let's start
Speaker 1: with this. One of the things watching the Lakers last
Speaker 1: night with Luca is that I felt like they were
Speaker 1: kind of on a train to nowhere, and it was
Speaker 1: like Ad was a great defensive player, bit hit and miss.
Speaker 1: Offensively good, not consistent like the great offensive scores. I
Speaker 1: think he's been the last two years the best defensive
Speaker 1: player in the league. I like Austin Reeves if he's
Speaker 1: the three or the four. Lebron having an insane year,
Speaker 1: but he's gonna take some nights off. And if he
Speaker 1: does take nights off or Ad does, then Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: because your second option, that's not good enough. And then
Speaker 1: I'm watching them last night and I'm like, well, Luca's
Speaker 1: missed a lot of time, so he's not taking time off.
Speaker 1: It's almost like Lebron is going to try to impress Luca.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna take his May nights off. And now
Speaker 1: I've got Austin Reeves is a third on virtually every night.
Speaker 1: Ruey can always hit the corner shot, Dalton connect. You
Speaker 1: keep him. He creates space. And I'm watching last night
Speaker 1: and I'm like, God, there's so much younger and more
Speaker 1: fun to watch, Like I got to I got to
Speaker 1: a place where I really respected them, but I just thought,
Speaker 1: this is there's not enough. I don't know, I know,
Speaker 1: I don't They don't have a rim protector Jackson Hayes again,
Speaker 1: Ali up guy, fun energy. It's just it's weird how
Speaker 1: just inserting Luca into it, the whole team feels younger
Speaker 1: and different. Does it feel like that to you?
Speaker 3: No? Absolutely. I mean I hated this Laker team at
Speaker 3: the start of the year. They had this personality that like,
Speaker 3: I don't care about the work that was driving me crazy.
Speaker 3: But over the course of the last month, they've been
Speaker 3: playing a really likable and fun brand of basketball. Lebron
Speaker 3: was playing super well, Austin was playing super well. Before
Speaker 3: Ad got hurt, he had a couple of monster game.
Speaker 3: He played really well twenty Yeah, but I felt like
Speaker 3: they weren't good enough on either end of the floor
Speaker 3: to really do what you need to do to win
Speaker 3: four playoff rounds. And I've been really keyed in on
Speaker 3: this concept lately, like if you're gonna win the title,
Speaker 3: you have to be able to do something well enough
Speaker 3: that it really gives people problems, like where teams can't
Speaker 3: even match up with it for one reason or another.
Speaker 3: And the Lakers just didn't have that punch on either
Speaker 3: end of the floor, even with Lebron and Ad. It's
Speaker 3: not the defensive team it was back in twenty twenty, right,
Speaker 3: So they didn't have that punch with Luca. One of
Speaker 3: the unique things he does. This Laker team has a
Speaker 3: lot of guys who are good offensive players as long
Speaker 3: as they're set up well, even with Lebron and Austin,
Speaker 3: Like one of the reasons why they struggled against defenses
Speaker 3: that did a lot of switching all year long is
Speaker 3: Lebron's forty and it's hard to get him to just
Speaker 3: get downhill time and time again in a random regular
Speaker 3: season game in January or December. Or Austin not an
Speaker 3: elite athlete in terms of getting past top tier NBA talent,
Speaker 3: and Anthony Davis obviously has offensive limitations. But once you
Speaker 3: bring Luca in, he just has this magical ability to
Speaker 3: get the ball to the basket. He's so big, and
Speaker 3: he's so strong, and he's so going to change of
Speaker 3: pace and he's so going to getting guys sealed on
Speaker 3: his shoulder, sealed on his backside, he can get downhill
Speaker 3: and now he's spraying out to all these guys And
Speaker 3: they're actually all really good offensive players when they have
Speaker 3: an advantage, Like Ruly shoots fifty three percent on unguarded
Speaker 3: catch and shoot threes, but you need to get him
Speaker 3: unguarded catch and shoot threes. Luca can do that. And
Speaker 3: one of the biggest things that it's allowed is it's
Speaker 3: allowed Lebron James. Like, have you ever watched a guy
Speaker 3: say like, oh, Lebron should drive to the basket every time. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it sounds great, but it's really exhausting to do that,
Speaker 3: especially at his age. Now, Lebron when he gets his
Speaker 3: touches can be super physically aggressive because he knows he
Speaker 3: has Luca to carry the lion's share of the offensive load.
Speaker 3: And so now when I look at this situation, yeah,
Speaker 3: they have defensive question marks and we can get into
Speaker 3: that here in a minute, but I try I don't
Speaker 3: have to overthink it. This team is going to be
Speaker 3: basically impossible to guard. And so they have a unit
Speaker 3: now their offense that presents legitimate problems for every single
Speaker 3: team in the league. That is it. That is a
Speaker 3: foundation you can build on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and remember Dallas won the West last year and
Speaker 1: their two best players are below average suboptimal defensive players,
Speaker 1: Kyrie and Luca. Is that. Let's be honest about the West.
Speaker 1: Denver has Jokic, but they're atrocious defensively. Houston's young, can't shoot,
Speaker 1: and I don't think they translate to a playoff team.
Speaker 1: I think they're just one of those teams that they
Speaker 1: are so young and twitchy and athletic in the regular season,
Speaker 1: if you're not well rested, if you don't have a
Speaker 1: lot of tape time, they are a tough matchup. If
Speaker 1: I get to play them seven times. They can't shoot.
Speaker 3: There's a team like that every year. Every year there's
Speaker 3: that team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So all of a sudden, Denver can't defend, Houston
Speaker 1: can't shoot. Oklahoma City I don't trust chet Honggren's health.
Speaker 1: I think they're the best team. Golden State doesn't have
Speaker 1: enough offensive firepower, very steph reliant, even with Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 1: You know, Memphis is Memphis plays with a lot of
Speaker 1: pace and they're a lot of fun to watch. I
Speaker 1: don't trust him. You know said this part. They're just
Speaker 1: teams like Philadelphia in the plaus I don't trust them.
Speaker 1: Memphis in the Plus, I don't trust them. I know
Speaker 1: Jaron Jackson, I know John mort I get it. So
Speaker 1: if you look at the West, O case is clearly
Speaker 1: the best team. They have the most kind of diversity
Speaker 1: of options. They have so many different players, and they're
Speaker 1: really good and really young. They're what I think Utah
Speaker 1: wants to be in about three years with all those
Speaker 1: draft picks. But the Lakers are an exceptional offensive team,
Speaker 1: and if you're giving me, it's also a team Lebron
Speaker 1: clearly likes Austin Reeves. He likes to play with him.
Speaker 1: It's obvious. Lebron's like a city. He's like a fifteen
Speaker 1: year old with a crush on Luca, the way he plays,
Speaker 1: the energy, and I just think they're so good offensively
Speaker 1: that there's nobody that's complete enough in the West to
Speaker 1: roll them. Boston would, but Boston's got you know, Boston's
Speaker 1: been playing these guys. You know, I watched them the
Speaker 1: other night against New York. Jesus, They're good. God, They're good.
Speaker 1: So my take is, if you put them in the East,
Speaker 1: I don't think they can I don't think they can
Speaker 1: beat Boston. I think They're a Western Conference finals team.
Speaker 1: And I'm not trying to be a La Homer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm with you every team below. To me, oka See,
Speaker 3: Denver and the Lakers are the clear top three in
Speaker 3: the West. And Denver and like you were talking earlier
Speaker 3: about the young, feisty athletic team, Memphis used to be
Speaker 3: that team. That Houston's that team. Now there's always a
Speaker 3: team like that, and that team always wins a lot
Speaker 3: of regular season games and then loses in the first
Speaker 3: two rounds. It's just that's what happens. And let's just
Speaker 3: put it this way. Who are you picking in a
Speaker 3: playoff series, Fred van Vliet and Jalen Green or one
Speaker 3: of these duos from the top of the of the conference. Right, So, like,
Speaker 3: I'm with you on that. To me, Denver and the
Speaker 3: Lakers are both closer to oka See than people realize,
Speaker 3: just because Oka See is also super young and athletic
Speaker 3: and has a ton of energy for the regular season.
Speaker 3: The question marks that you talked about in terms of
Speaker 3: the Lakers with the defense, that's where it gets interesting
Speaker 3: because the Lakers were playing some pretty damn good basketball
Speaker 3: before Luca joined the squad. There in their last thirteen games,
Speaker 3: they have the best record in the league, and they
Speaker 3: have the number one defense in the league. The Lakers
Speaker 3: do the number one defense for about a month now.
Speaker 3: Now there's a reason for that. Jared Vanderbilt is healthy.
Speaker 3: He is an excellent defensive player. And you turn Dangelo Russell,
Speaker 3: a bad defensive player, into Dorian Finney Smith, who's a
Speaker 3: good defensive player. And then a huge part of that
Speaker 3: is part of that excitement from Lebron has manifested and
Speaker 3: he's playing a lot of defense this year, and he's
Speaker 3: been very good on that end of the floor. But
Speaker 3: if you take a player out of that lineup and
Speaker 3: you insert Luca, you're not going to be as good defensively.
Speaker 3: That's just acknowledging reality. So when Luca's in this picture
Speaker 3: full time, you're not going to be as good defensively
Speaker 3: as you've been in the last month. But we've seen
Speaker 3: an NBA history like with Denver. Denver in twenty two
Speaker 3: twenty three, they were not an elite defense, no, but
Speaker 3: they had bad defenders on the court who did a
Speaker 3: job and did it well, that's right, And they were
Speaker 3: and they were anchored by good defenders. Contavious Calbo Pope,
Speaker 3: Aaron Gordon, Bruce Brown. They had guys who did compete
Speaker 3: on defense. They did the hard jobs and then they
Speaker 3: created easier jobs. That's the thing. You can imagine a
Speaker 3: scenario where you've got Luca, Lebron Austin, but you have
Speaker 3: Dorian Finney, Smith and Van Doo out there. This is
Speaker 3: going to be a small ball team. Colin Alex Lenn
Speaker 3: hasn't played a thousand minutes since twenty nineteen. Lebron's played
Speaker 3: sixteen hundred just this year. Like Alex Lenn, He's not
Speaker 3: going to come in there and save the season. So
Speaker 3: this is a small ball team. But you can imagine
Speaker 3: a universe where Lebron's playing defense. You've got two professional
Speaker 3: defenders in the lineup, and what if they just score
Speaker 3: every time or get a great shot every single time?
Speaker 1: A team that I think, and I don't know historically,
Speaker 1: if this happens, I'll tell you the team in the
Speaker 1: West that I would not want to play. And right
Speaker 1: now they're not even a plan team. Keep your eye
Speaker 1: in San Antonio, Okay, Stefan Castle out of Yukon is
Speaker 1: no fun to defend. That guy is this time next year?
Speaker 1: We're gonna have different conversations. Daron Fox. I think because
Speaker 1: he plays in Sacramento, you don't realize it. He's a
Speaker 1: twenty five point a night scorer with a high IQ.
Speaker 1: He's so good, we just don't watch him. Stefan Castle
Speaker 1: Wemby Daron Fox, you know guys that get lost, but
Speaker 1: I don't know his EPA. Yeah, I don't know what
Speaker 1: all the numbers are, But like Harrison Barnes, you know
Speaker 1: it's this guy that. Harrison's one of those players that,
Speaker 1: like Shane Battier, You're like, I think he's really good
Speaker 1: and he ends up making your team better, but nobody
Speaker 1: wants to talk about it. I think san Antonio, if
Speaker 1: you told me they went on like right now, they're
Speaker 1: not a playing team, I think they're gonna go in.
Speaker 1: Popovich is gonna steal a game in a series. Houston's
Speaker 1: the team we all think is gonna be dangerous. I
Speaker 1: don't san Antonio the team nobody's paying attention due. I mean,
Speaker 1: can you imagine Lakers end up you know, Denver ends
Speaker 1: up playing them, and Wemby neutralizes Jokic to some degree
Speaker 1: and castles a pain and gets the whistle. I mean, listen, Denver,
Speaker 1: you can score on Denver like they're just not good.
Speaker 1: They're not effective at all. So I think I think
Speaker 1: the West is really fun I thought the NBA had
Speaker 1: a tremendous fourteen day period. I thought, Jimmy Butler, you
Speaker 1: know it's funny about this, Jason, is that I know
Speaker 1: the analytic people think Wiggins maybe a better fit with
Speaker 1: Steph than Jimmy Butler. I read an article on that,
Speaker 1: but my take is Jimmy Butler's the anti Wiggins. He's tough,
Speaker 1: he's a badass, he's physical, he's ornery, and he's a
Speaker 1: really good number two. It's like in baseball, it's when
Speaker 1: you try to make a two to one you're pitching
Speaker 1: staff's not good. Jimmy's an excellent two behind Steph, and
Speaker 1: he's the opposite of Steph. He's tough physically, he's a
Speaker 1: mid range guy. He'll defend you. I don't think Golden
Speaker 1: State's a championship team, but I just thought between Luca,
Speaker 1: between Deer and Fox to San Antonio, between Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: the Warriors thought, I just thought the West got really
Speaker 1: and we've talked about this. The West has been better
Speaker 1: than the East for twenty five years, a lot of
Speaker 1: it's just better gms, And I thought the West had
Speaker 1: a great fourteen days.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they completely flipped the conference over in a bunch
Speaker 3: of different ways. I liked what you said about san Antonio.
Speaker 3: Like we were talking earlier about like having a problem
Speaker 3: that other teams can't solve. Victor is a problem around
Speaker 3: the rim that other teams can't solve. Try and then
Speaker 3: the Deer and Fox as a two man game partner
Speaker 3: with Wemby is a problem that teams can't solve. The
Speaker 3: Jimmy Butler thing, it was amazing to me how many
Speaker 3: people overthought this. And when I was watching the Bucks
Speaker 3: game last night and I saw Jimmy Butler constantly operating
Speaker 3: in the middle of the floor as kind of like
Speaker 3: a hub out of the attention that Steph would gather,
Speaker 3: it reminded me of when we'd watch the Warriors back
Speaker 3: in their heyday, where it's like everyone talks about shooting,
Speaker 3: but when it comes to the Warriors with Steph, you
Speaker 3: don't actually want shooting as much as you want playmaking,
Speaker 3: because what happens is is Steph gets two to the ball.
Speaker 3: As soon as Steph gets two to the ball, it's
Speaker 3: a four on three, and it becomes more about quick
Speaker 3: processing and decision making and guys being in the right
Speaker 3: spots to get dunks and maybe a wide open corner
Speaker 3: three for a certain player out of that sequence to
Speaker 3: pay it off than it is about, like with Lebron
Speaker 3: or a rim pressuring guy, where you want spacing, you
Speaker 3: want shooting that pulls guys further away from the rim.
Speaker 3: Steph inverts your spacing in that way, and it actually
Speaker 3: reminded me a lot of Andre Guidala. Remember when Andre
Speaker 3: Guidala was there. He was never a great shooter, but
Speaker 3: he constantly greased the wheels for them because he was
Speaker 3: a rangy Ford who could screen and operate in the
Speaker 3: middle of the floor, make quick decisions new and to
Speaker 3: cut new and to relocate, do all those sorts of things.
Speaker 3: There was a play in the Bucks game last night
Speaker 3: where Steph took a ball screen from Jimmy. Steph got two,
Speaker 3: He dropped it to Jimmy and Jimmy made a little
Speaker 3: ball faked buddy, healed, and then dropped it off to
Speaker 3: Draymond Green for an easy layup underneath the basket. And
Speaker 3: I literally just watched this and I'm like, this works
Speaker 3: this just works. You weren't comfortable with Wiggins as a
Speaker 3: processor in the middle of the floor, you are comfortable
Speaker 3: with Jimmy. Simple stat how many times has Jimmy or
Speaker 3: how many times has Andrew Wiggins had seven plus assists
Speaker 3: in a basketball game in his NBA career fourteen? How
Speaker 3: many times did Jimmy have seven plus assists last year
Speaker 3: with the heat fifteen? So like, it's an entirely different
Speaker 3: stratosphere of playmaking talent that you plugged in. There. You
Speaker 3: have a guy that can quickly process those situations. And
Speaker 3: they've been killing teams Colin so far. Obviously small sample.
Speaker 3: They've been really good with Jimmy on the floor with
Speaker 3: Steph off, which is all that really matters.
Speaker 1: That's the key. I mean when I watched them two
Speaker 1: weeks ago when Steph left the floor, not only were
Speaker 1: the inefficient, they were unwatchable. They were a bad tell.
Speaker 1: I said, this, make the move to be a better
Speaker 1: TV product. You're terrible.
Speaker 3: Well, and like Pat Spencer, like at the lacrosse story,
Speaker 3: it's really cool. He probably shouldn't be your like secondary
Speaker 3: ball handler. In a Thursday night National TV game against
Speaker 3: the Lakers, when steps off the floor, like that that's
Speaker 3: an issue. But I'm with you, like I don't see
Speaker 3: the Warriors necessarily as a substantial threat.
Speaker 2: To me.
Speaker 3: What's cool about it is we get to watch Steph
Speaker 3: play meaningful basketball again. Because I do think they're gonna
Speaker 3: get out of the playing tournament. I do think they're
Speaker 3: gonna end up getting at least a first round series,
Speaker 3: and that team's just gonna be fun to watch.
Speaker 1: I think the NBA has always been better when the
Speaker 1: Knicks irrelevant and between Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Kat Josh
Speaker 1: hart Og, it's a really good basketball team. But they
Speaker 1: do not match up with the Celtics, and this is
Speaker 1: where you're really good. I mean, I've watched them play
Speaker 1: the Celtics twice and that shift's not competitive, Like it's
Speaker 1: it does not work now. It's it's almost like the
Speaker 1: Celtics have circumvented the NBA CBA. The NBA CBA they
Speaker 1: don't want you to have like five really good players,
Speaker 1: and it's almost like the Celtics figure out a way
Speaker 1: to be the last team that can have a roster
Speaker 1: that you're not supposed to have anymore, where Derek White's
Speaker 1: your fifth best guy some night.
Speaker 3: And now they're trying to sell the team so someone
Speaker 3: else has to pay for it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like it's like they're almost circumventing the new CBA.
Speaker 1: Like this is not really fair, and you can tell.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 1: I think New York's a really good basketball team, and
Speaker 1: I think I trust them in the playoffs. I think
Speaker 1: they're smart. I think they've got you know, it's well chronicled.
Speaker 1: They're kind of got a Villanova field. They play hard,
Speaker 1: they're smart. I think they're one of those teams that
Speaker 1: will be a better playoff team than a regular season team.
Speaker 1: And they're a good regular season team. They're teams like Houston,
Speaker 1: I think are a better regular season team than a
Speaker 1: playoff team. The next you're gonna be fine. But I
Speaker 1: watch them now twice play Boston, and I want you
Speaker 1: to break it down because they don't match up and
Speaker 1: this is a good team. Let's just be honest about this.
Speaker 1: They got five to six guys in that rotation. The
Speaker 1: Knicks can match up with almost every team in the league.
Speaker 1: Why is Boston? You can tell Boston like when they
Speaker 1: played this past week, think that's a national TV game.
Speaker 1: They're like, okay, all right, guys, I mean that thing was,
Speaker 1: I mean it four minutes in You're like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Boston came to play. Boston's not fing around. Why doesn't
Speaker 1: New Because I think New York has enough different players,
Speaker 1: and they play hard enough, and they're really smart and
Speaker 1: they're well coached. They kind of match up with everybody.
Speaker 1: They do not match up with Boston, Like what is it?
Speaker 3: So there there are two kind of prevailing theories in
Speaker 3: NBA offense right now, which is like matchup hunting versus
Speaker 3: like running motion. And the motion is like what you
Speaker 3: see with the Warriors. There's tons of screens. Guys are
Speaker 3: running in circles all over the floor. Boston's like, where's
Speaker 3: your weakest defender, Let's get him up here, Let's play
Speaker 3: some basketball. And like that's literally all they do. And
Speaker 3: when I watched that game, the way they surgically attacked
Speaker 3: Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns every single time down
Speaker 3: the floor. They'd get them both in, they'd bring the
Speaker 3: ball off the floor, they'd have Jalen Brunson's man comes
Speaker 3: screen for Tatum. Okay, now Jalen Brunson's on Tatum. Okay,
Speaker 3: now we're gonna get cat into the action. So now
Speaker 3: it's like Tatum and one of his teammates attacking kat
Speaker 3: An Brunson in the same action, and there's just nothing
Speaker 3: they can do about it. The Knicks are really, really good.
Speaker 3: They can score whenever they want, They get out and
Speaker 3: transition like crazy. They've got all these good players that
Speaker 3: are super bought into their r They're super fun to watch,
Speaker 3: and they have beat the shit out of some good
Speaker 3: teams this year. But every time I've watched him against Boston,
Speaker 3: it's the exact same issue. We are going to get
Speaker 3: Karl Anthony Towns in space and make him guard and
Speaker 3: just get right past him and then spray out and
Speaker 3: get great shots and beat you. It's actually kind of funny, Colin,
Speaker 3: because you can tell that they really want to beat
Speaker 3: the Knicks. Because the Celtics have played some pretty bad
Speaker 3: basketball in the middle of the season where they're not
Speaker 3: deliberate and where they do take bad shots and they
Speaker 3: settle and they don't do the things they need to do.
Speaker 3: They see the Knicks and they like snap back to
Speaker 3: the playoffs last year and they just get surgical in
Speaker 3: the way that they pick on those guys. But it
Speaker 3: really just comes down to they go at York's worst
Speaker 3: defenders every single time, and then they play driving kick
Speaker 3: out of it to get great shots, and that really
Speaker 3: is the issue. And then Jalen Brunson, he just has
Speaker 3: this wall of athletic, bigger defender every single possession. As
Speaker 3: it goes down to the other end, it's like, here's
Speaker 3: Jalen Brown, Here's Drew Holliday, here's Derek White. He's just
Speaker 3: it's such a difficult job for him to consistently break
Speaker 3: down that Boston defense because they just have so many
Speaker 3: different defenders they can put on him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting to say that because I really like
Speaker 1: the dexterity of the next I think they're a matchup problem.
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns is offensively gifted. He's shooting threes like
Speaker 1: right now, like the best he's ever. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: really shooting the ball. Well, he's quirky. I've seen him
Speaker 1: play live four times, and there'll be halfs you're like,
Speaker 1: is he a top ten player in the league? Like
Speaker 1: he can destroy people, he can embarrass people, and then
Speaker 1: in the second half you'll be like, did he take
Speaker 1: a made did he have a thorough flu at half
Speaker 1: like what happened, but it is interesting you break it,
Speaker 1: and I'm so glad for our audience listening. Jason is
Speaker 1: so good at this and that's why I just foisted
Speaker 1: it up to him. Is when I watched them play
Speaker 1: twice the Celtics and it shit is not competitive. They
Speaker 1: just do not match up at all. The volume