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Speaker 1: The other thing we have to admit, Jason, is because
Speaker 1: of Luca's ball usage. I felt like he wasn't healthy
Speaker 1: for the last two series. He looked, he looked fatigued,
Speaker 1: he looked beat up. So again, when when Kyrie's not delivering,
Speaker 1: it becomes very Luca dominant, I thought, he looked. I
Speaker 1: thought you were getting about eighty percent of Luca in
Speaker 1: this finals, and and some of that's just when you're
Speaker 1: the guy and it's little Jalen Brunson It's like Jalen's great,
Speaker 1: but there are limitations to you know, when Jalen went
Speaker 1: on that forty point run, You're like, this isn't gonna
Speaker 1: end well, Like he's just you can't. You can't be
Speaker 1: that dominant. You have to be able to you know.
Speaker 1: And that's why the Celtics work is that Tatum wasn't
Speaker 1: good in the first two games. He and Brown were
Speaker 1: both good. In Game three tonight, Tatum was superior. I mean,
Speaker 1: there were Knights that Derek White, I mean presser before
Speaker 1: the half, like it's symphonic watching Boston. They're just handing
Speaker 1: the baton off man Luca. He had that baton out
Speaker 1: multiple times and nobody grabbed it, and I thought he
Speaker 1: looked And that's I agree with you. Oka sees only
Speaker 1: getting better. Denver's already favored. Boston's not getting significantly worse
Speaker 1: six percent. And by the way, keep your on what
Speaker 1: Houston's doing. They had a strips this year. You're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're probably a veteran away. So listen, we've seen this before.
Speaker 1: It's like in the NFL, the loser of the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: like most of the time doesn't farewell. Like this felt
Speaker 1: like a magical moment in time for Dallas. But there's
Speaker 1: some real flaws here. We would both acknowledge that it
Speaker 1: is too Luca dependent. That's what it feels. It does
Speaker 1: feel like that Cavs team that was really very Lebron
Speaker 1: dependent played with great energy. If you remember Zill Goscas,
Speaker 1: I mean, they played with tremendous energy. Lebron was captivating,
Speaker 1: they had streaky shooters on the wing. But then you
Speaker 1: watch them against San Antonio and you're like, all right,
Speaker 1: they you know, five of the best six players are
Speaker 1: all Spurs. And that's how I felt in this series.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: One of the things that I find fascinating and I'm
Speaker 4: actually curious to get your take on this, Like one
Speaker 4: of the things that is hard to do in a
Speaker 4: situation like this after you have a successful postseason run
Speaker 4: is to be realistic about how far you are away. So,
Speaker 4: for instance, Lakers fans last year, it's like we made
Speaker 4: the Western Conference finals and I'm like, okay, Well, like
Speaker 4: Golden State has always struggled against big athletic teams, that
Speaker 4: was a pretty favorable matchup for you. And then also
Speaker 4: that Memphis team, young John Morant driving into Anthony Davis,
Speaker 4: all series was obviously not going to work. So it's
Speaker 4: like you got a couple of favorable matchups, then you
Speaker 4: ran into a real championship level team in Denver and
Speaker 4: you got your ass kicked. So you're not close, right, right,
Speaker 4: So when I look at the Dallas piece, this is
Speaker 4: what I think about, Like when the circumstances are favorable,
Speaker 4: meaning like when Luca has obvious mismatches, he can pick
Speaker 4: at the entire series, and then on the other end
Speaker 4: of the floor, when they can really load up the
Speaker 4: strong side and keep their rim protectors at the rim
Speaker 4: and hide Luca on the opposite end of the floor,
Speaker 4: they can get stops. But where I get concerned is
Speaker 4: how many times in NBA history have we seen a
Speaker 4: team led by two stars that are both at least
Speaker 4: combining for two bad defensive players that go win the title.
Speaker 4: It's exceedingly rare, and so yeah, one of the things
Speaker 4: that I wonder I shouldn't say exceedingly rat can't.
Speaker 2: Think of one.
Speaker 1: It's never happened like.
Speaker 2: I would say.
Speaker 4: I would even say, like the case would be, oh
Speaker 4: what about Jamal Murray, Nicola Jokic, which I understand, But
Speaker 4: the flip side there is like even the two of
Speaker 4: them were not this type of like like Jokis was
Speaker 4: a dominant defensive rebounder who could actually do some stuff
Speaker 4: in pick and roll coverages defensively, and Jamal Murray did
Speaker 4: his job, and he's bigger. Jamal Murray's bigger than Kyrie.
Speaker 1: They also had an elite defender right off that in Gordon,
Speaker 1: So they had yeah, I mean they they accentuated like
Speaker 1: you know, it's like the Mavericks or like the Warriors.
Speaker 1: They hid steph Igwoodala Clay. So you can get away
Speaker 1: with your star not being an elite defender, but you
Speaker 1: have to have elements. You have to have size, Jokic, athleticism,
Speaker 1: Gordon like that. That's not what this Dallas team is.
Speaker 1: It's it's their two stars are Luca Is disengaged lot defensively.
Speaker 1: Let's go back to the Celtics, very deserving. Don't forget
Speaker 1: they had a dominant record. They lost to Denver, but
Speaker 1: they had a dominant record against the West, even more
Speaker 1: dominating against the East. Flushed through the Eastern Conference playoffs
Speaker 1: and the finals. So you know there are these teams
Speaker 1: too that you know, we're so used to dynasties in
Speaker 1: the NBA. I was talking to Chris bruce Hard today.
Speaker 1: We were talking about teams that won a championship that
Speaker 1: weren't a dynasty, but they were great teams. And one
Speaker 1: of the first ones was the Jerry West, Gail Goodrich,
Speaker 1: Wilt Chamberlain. Remember that thirty three game winning streak Laker
Speaker 1: team that I think beat the Knicks and won a championship. Now,
Speaker 1: they didn't reel off a lot of them, but in
Speaker 1: a singular season that was an older Wilt. That's one
Speaker 1: of the greatest teams of all time. There was a
Speaker 1: seventy six Ers team that had Moses Malone joined Julius
Speaker 1: Irving and they were kind of missing a dominating interior
Speaker 1: scoring presence and for a year or two, Jesus, I
Speaker 1: remember those Sixers well, like Malone was. It's just hard
Speaker 1: to exp Moses Malone. If you ever saw him play,
Speaker 1: nobody discusses him. He was as dominating a rebounder as
Speaker 1: I've ever seen in the history of basketball, with doctor
Speaker 1: J and good guard play. And I think Boston falls
Speaker 1: into that group. So right now, like we thought Denver
Speaker 1: was gonna run off two or three Boston in a
Speaker 1: single season like that, West good Rich Will team or
Speaker 1: the Moses Malone Doctor j T for a season lightning
Speaker 1: in a bottle health spectacular. You know, just just flush
Speaker 1: through the playoffs. The question will become they will play
Speaker 1: with a champion swagger next year. They probably won't be
Speaker 1: as relentless in the regular season. This is, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of predictable. They'll they'll be you know, they'll have
Speaker 1: their little swoons and won't be. But I do think
Speaker 1: there's a chance it's a back to back championship because
Speaker 1: cross your fingers on poor Zingis's health. You know they're
Speaker 1: bringing the guys back. You'll play with more confidence. Tatum
Speaker 1: comes into a season like, Okay, I got it, I
Speaker 1: got my money, I got my title. I think it
Speaker 1: does take pressure. I think it was building you and
Speaker 1: I said this this was Celtics had to win this
Speaker 1: after that Warriors Final where they came home and kind
Speaker 1: of laid an egg emotionally. They had to play well
Speaker 1: in this series. I thought by second quarter game too,
Speaker 1: it was like this is a mismatch. But I think
Speaker 1: next year you'll see this goes down to me is
Speaker 1: a in moment in time, A great team in a
Speaker 1: great moment, too good not to win a championship, but
Speaker 1: at times too weird to be a dynasty. I mean,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown wins the MVP and he averaged twenty a game.
Speaker 1: You didn't neverge thirty, you didn't neverage twenty eight. He
Speaker 1: averaged twenty twenty one a game and was the MVP
Speaker 1: for the second straight series. So historically, can we acknowledge
Speaker 1: they're a little bit of an odd eight team?
Speaker 5: Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're They're absolutely weird.
Speaker 4: I mean, like when we think about the when we
Speaker 4: list the all time great teams in NBA history, we
Speaker 4: think like twenty seventeen Warriors, twenty thirteen he you know,
Speaker 4: teams like the the two thousand and one Lakers, the
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety six Bowls, right, the nineteen eighty six Celtics,
Speaker 4: like the nineteen eighty seven Lakers. We think of these
Speaker 4: teams and every single one of them is led by
Speaker 4: one of the five best team players in NBA history.
Speaker 4: In my opinion, Steph Curry is the fifth best perimeter
Speaker 4: player that's played since nineteen eighty Like, I think he's
Speaker 4: right up there with Bird and Magic in that tier.
Speaker 4: So like these it's just funky to see a team
Speaker 4: that is as dominant as the Celtics have been. But
Speaker 4: I think one of the things too, is this kind
Speaker 4: of stuff bears out in time, Like you know what
Speaker 4: Celtics fans, they're gonna want a certain amount of like
Speaker 4: the credit for being dominant, and like here's the thing,
Speaker 4: like you beat the you beat the cas the Heat
Speaker 4: without Jimmy Butler, the Pacers and the Maps. So like
Speaker 4: like I'm not trying to like, but one of the
Speaker 4: things with NBA history because like people said this about
Speaker 4: the Nuggets last year, and I thought the Nuggets run
Speaker 4: was a little underrated because they went through Lebron and
Speaker 4: Ad and they went through Kadi and Devin Booker, and
Speaker 4: they went through Jimmy Butler and.
Speaker 5: Bam Ata Bio.
Speaker 4: Like I actually thought that Nuggets team, yeah, played some
Speaker 4: tough opponents, but like everyone was like, oh, Denver had
Speaker 4: an easier path. Well guess what happened this year. They
Speaker 4: had to play a really tough team in the second round.
Speaker 4: They lost. So yeah, NBA history has a chance has
Speaker 4: a kind of like a habit of working these sorts
Speaker 4: of things out. Like next year they're probably going to
Speaker 4: have to play a Milwaukee in a playoff series, or
Speaker 4: a healthy Knicks team or a team like Denver out
Speaker 4: of the Western Conference, or maybe what if Ooklahoma City
Speaker 4: makes some big trade this summer and they end up
Speaker 4: going to the finals and it ends up like NBA
Speaker 4: history is a kind of a habit of working these
Speaker 4: things out. Everything about how this team is remembered is
Speaker 4: going to be about the big picture. So, for instance,
Speaker 4: they lose, if they lose next next year, you're gonna
Speaker 4: zoom out on a three year window here, and you're
Speaker 4: gonna be like, embarrassing loss against the Heat in the
Speaker 4: conference finals, beat four mediocre teams, then lost the following year.
Speaker 4: People will write the story of that Celtics team as
Speaker 4: an underachieving, overly talented team. But if they go out
Speaker 4: next year and they beat better teams on their way
Speaker 4: to the Larry O'Brien, people will zoom out and be like,
Speaker 4: this is an all time great team. So like that's
Speaker 4: the thing, Like you're gonna get another crack at the
Speaker 4: table next year. It's like Jason Tatum said, gotta do
Speaker 4: it again next year. Go ahead, do it and it'll
Speaker 4: shut everybody up. Like these things get worked out with wins.
Speaker 1: I think a team to keep your eye on is
Speaker 1: the Knicks. I think one of the great things if
Speaker 1: you're a Knicks fan, because they don't match up from
Speaker 1: an offensive perspective. They just don't have They don't have
Speaker 1: that many guys that can catch it and shoot it
Speaker 1: and ball handle in pass. One of the things that's
Speaker 1: great about the Celtics winning if you're a Knicks fan,
Speaker 1: it does force you some urgency.
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 1: We can't make us a tweak. We're not a tweak
Speaker 1: away from beating Boston. Like we got to go out
Speaker 1: and get guys like Michale Bridges and another score. Boston
Speaker 1: really puts pressure on Eastern teams. It's one thing if
Speaker 1: you if you're a Western team and you lose to
Speaker 1: Boston in the finals. You got to the finals, but
Speaker 1: you're you're not getting past Boston in New York with
Speaker 1: a tweak. You're just not you know, even Miami Bam
Speaker 1: and Butler. You know, Butler will probably be banged up
Speaker 1: by the time. You know, if he if he's a
Speaker 1: Miami Heat, they need another not Tyler hero, they need
Speaker 1: another player. So it's this is the good thing. If
Speaker 1: you're a Miami fan, or a Knicks fan, or a
Speaker 1: Sixers fan, this is like, guys, this wasn't competitive like this.
Speaker 1: They just I mean, how many blowouts they had, like
Speaker 1: thirteen blowout wins. It's like tweaking is not beating Nobody
Speaker 1: in the East has Jokic. Okay, you don't have Yokic,
Speaker 1: so Tweaking's not gonna do it. And I think that's
Speaker 1: that's sort of the advantages. I say this in sports
Speaker 1: all the time. The great thing about harbaught Michigan. For
Speaker 1: a Buckeye fan, it puts pressure on going and getting
Speaker 1: Chip Kelly as an offensive coordinator. It's like they're throwing,
Speaker 1: They're pushing us around three years in a row. You
Speaker 1: want your rival to be viable because it puts pressure
Speaker 1: on your owner and your front office. And so I'm
Speaker 1: watching this game tonight and I'm thinking, if I'm a
Speaker 1: Knicks fan, you may hate Boston, but your front office,
Speaker 1: these are smart people now in New York running that franchise.
Speaker 1: You got to bring the McHale Bridges on and another
Speaker 1: guy that can drop twenty Devivingenzo's become a great catch
Speaker 1: and shoot. Guy Brunston's going to give you twenty eight.
Speaker 1: McHale Bridges could give you twenty four and I've got
Speaker 1: to get somebody better than Mitchell Robinson in the post
Speaker 1: that can give me offense. So it's that's the upside
Speaker 1: for the Eastern Conference teams is I think Darryl Morey,
Speaker 1: the Knicks, you know, Indiana, if they can get somebody
Speaker 1: that the pressure's on. You got to add multiple pieces
Speaker 1: over the next couple years to beat these guys.
Speaker 4: And aggression is going to be the key because again,
Speaker 4: like how did Boston do this. They did this by
Speaker 4: trading for Drew Holliday and Chrisops Porzinkis, Like Brad Stevens
Speaker 4: just hit two massive home runs. I went back and
Speaker 4: looked at that trade and saw that they ended up
Speaker 4: like netting two first round picks in the Porzingis trade,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, ah, man, like anybody could have had him,
Speaker 4: and then Boston went and got him. And then you know,
Speaker 4: like even looking at Denver, it's like they went and
Speaker 4: got KCP, they went and got Aaron Gordon, Like those
Speaker 4: are two like slam dunk moves to surround Jamal Murray,
Speaker 4: Michael Porter Junior, and Nicole Jokic. They just there. That
Speaker 4: aggression is the big piece there. Even going back to
Speaker 4: twenty twenty one, they won after they traded for Drew Holliday.
Speaker 4: The Bucks did they traded for Drew Holliday, They went
Speaker 4: and they won the title. And so like, keep an
Speaker 4: eye on those aggressive teams this summer, the teams that
Speaker 4: add talent. There are a lot of young teams in
Speaker 4: the NBA right now that are like this close to
Speaker 4: becoming great. That Thunder team, that Orlando Magic team is
Speaker 4: probably like two years away, but they're gonna be really
Speaker 4: really good. You mentioned the Pacers. If they if they
Speaker 4: make maybe one more edition this offseason, they could be
Speaker 4: in the mix. The Knicks are obviously gonna be aggressive.
Speaker 4: I mentioned Memphis earlier. Like Memphis, this kid Gigi Jackson
Speaker 4: that they have on the wing is awesome that they
Speaker 4: discovered this year. He like slots perfectly between Jamrant Desmond Bain.
Speaker 4: They're gonna have Jaron Jackson coming back. They're gonna have
Speaker 4: a big look. They're gonna go get a center, and
Speaker 4: they're gonna have a massive frontline that could contend with Denver.
Speaker 4: As long as Jamranc can like stay healthy and available
Speaker 4: for his team, I think they could be really good.
Speaker 2: Like the league is just.
Speaker 4: Like this Celtics team is kind of settling right in
Speaker 4: this nice little opening here where all the older teams
Speaker 4: are kind of falling apart and all the younger teams
Speaker 4: are not quite there yet and they're having a lot
Speaker 4: of success as a result.
Speaker 1: All right, it's my buddy Nick, right, So you know
Speaker 1: I was thinking about this is the Lakers still haven't
Speaker 1: named a coach and they're just a mess.
Speaker 2: You could argue, would you let Rob Linka run the volume?
Speaker 1: Well, no, because it's a different business, I would not. No, No, Yeah.
Speaker 2: He's one of those guys.
Speaker 1: No, but he's one of those guys that's really a
Speaker 1: good looking guy with a lot of confidence and bright
Speaker 1: and I get you a long way in life.
Speaker 2: And great relationships. Great, that's a the good looking, smart
Speaker 2: and friends, you know, good with good at cocktail parties,
Speaker 2: social that it is that those are a lot of
Speaker 2: skeleton keys to life. That is true. That that is true.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, and I think, and it's not a knock
Speaker 1: on Rob, but he's good looking, social relationships and and
Speaker 1: and bright enough and it just works. And then in
Speaker 1: a weird way, the worst thing that could have happened
Speaker 1: to the Lakers is Lebron coming because Lebron has done
Speaker 1: this for franchises his whole career, or except Miami. Remember
Speaker 1: that thing you used to use when we used typewriters
Speaker 1: called white out. Yeah, you'd make a mistake and you
Speaker 1: could wipe it out. Lebron's like that for basketball franchises,
Speaker 1: shitty gms, average coaches. Lebron just wins championships like he
Speaker 1: just even more than Michael, who needed Pippin, who needed Phil.
Speaker 1: Lebron got every coach to the finals. It doesn't matter,
Speaker 1: and so he's the great eraser. Is that people forget
Speaker 1: how bad the Lakers were for a long stretch pre
Speaker 1: Lebron six years. Yeah, and then Lebron comes. They went
Speaker 1: in the Bubble, which was a weird year, and people
Speaker 1: forget how mostly bad they've been with Lebron. Take the
Speaker 1: Bubble year out. I mean that's the year Harball's team
Speaker 1: was terrible and Belichick's was terrible. Like that year was.
Speaker 2: Can I just say something real quick, because I have
Speaker 2: to defend the Bubble before any of us had ever
Speaker 2: heard the word coronavirus. The Lakers have the best record
Speaker 2: in the NBA. So I am so I think that
Speaker 2: team was. It was the last year we ever had
Speaker 2: Lebron before he suffered his first significant injury of his career,
Speaker 2: the Solomon Hill thinking of his ankle, Anthony Davis the
Speaker 2: best we ever saw him. So I do think that
Speaker 2: was the best team in basketball under any circumstances. But
Speaker 2: that doesn't change your point. The point is ten.
Speaker 1: Days had ten years, one fifty one season, and they
Speaker 1: will go into this season. Then on any night where
Speaker 1: Lebron or a d and this will happen often in
Speaker 1: the regular season, take a night off. Austin Reeves is
Speaker 1: your second best player. He does not start for Boston,
Speaker 1: nor do I think he starts for Denver, and I'm
Speaker 1: not sure he starts for Oklahoma City. That Lebron were
Speaker 1: conning to the Lakers, Yeah, Lebron coming to the Lakers
Speaker 1: got you a COVID Bubble title for a franchise with
Speaker 1: twelve Who gives a shit In the end, it has
Speaker 1: masked a like twelve year eleven to twelve year run
Speaker 1: of large incompetency or suboptimal guidance upstirs. So again, the.
Speaker 2: I think they I think that title's as legitimate as anyone,
Speaker 2: but I don't think it changes your point, which is
Speaker 2: they have in both the Tatum and Brown drafts. They
Speaker 2: had the pick before Tatum and Brown. They had the
Speaker 2: number two pick both years. It took Lonzo and Ingram.
Speaker 2: And by the way, I have tweets out they're saying
Speaker 2: I liked Lonzo more than I like Tatum. I miss
Speaker 2: that and people here's the thing on that people are
Speaker 2: people often say, oh, well, you had that wrong too, Guys.
Speaker 2: It's not my own my I have a lot of
Speaker 2: things I'm looking at. Figuring out the single best draft
Speaker 2: pick for the Lakers is not literally my only job.
Speaker 2: So to compare my how I would have done as
Speaker 2: Lakers GM went in that by that same metric, I
Speaker 2: am the GM of thirty NBA teams, thirty two NFL teams,
Speaker 2: a couple baseball teams, and doing other things. It's nonsense. Yes,
Speaker 2: I would have gotten it wrong to the Lakers job
Speaker 2: to get it right. There's that. There is the fact
Speaker 2: that they either were too cheap or incompetent to keep
Speaker 2: Alex Caruso. They ever Lebron wanted, no question, Lebron wanted
Speaker 2: Russell Westbrook, but Lebron wanted Kyrie Irving, and they found
Speaker 2: a way to say no to that. Lebron wanted Tyleru.
Speaker 2: They found a way to say no to that. They
Speaker 2: said yes to Russell Westbrook because they wanted him to
Speaker 2: because they're about stars. And then they mortified themselves with
Speaker 2: this coaching search. This is horrifying, man, horrifying. Danny Hurley
Speaker 2: told you he was to the point where he's talking
Speaker 2: to Lebron and the Lake. The Detroit Pistons are willing
Speaker 2: to pay Many Williams more money to not coach them,
Speaker 2: then the Lakers were willing to offer Danny Hurley to
Speaker 2: coach them. It's not They're not as serious. They are
Speaker 2: a family business that is being run by Linda Rambis,
Speaker 2: Kurt Rambis, Kobe's former agent, Rob Blenka, and Genie Buss.
Speaker 2: And the only this is what frustrates me so much
Speaker 2: about because there's still a contingent of Laker fans that
Speaker 2: are really Kobe fans that are hostile towards Lebron. The
Speaker 2: only reason this team has not been in the wilderness since.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the first term of the Obama administration.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right, is Lebron that's decided he wanted
Speaker 2: to live in la not even Oh, you had built
Speaker 2: a fun team that made since Nope, I want to
Speaker 2: live in Los Angeles, find the cap space, all do
Speaker 2: the rest. I will get us Anthony Davis, and we'll
Speaker 2: instantly win a title. And then so I just I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't think you could squander a situation more readily
Speaker 2: than the Lakers have as an organization. And they man,
Speaker 2: they fired Darvinham seven weeks ago, seven weeks ago, and.
Speaker 1: They didn't have an answer. Why would you ever fire somebody.
Speaker 1: If a company fired me, I can assure you they'd
Speaker 1: have a plan. Lakers have no plan, no plan what?
Speaker 2: And the the Danny Hurley thing was e like, this
Speaker 2: is where I've said this to you four or I'll
Speaker 2: say it again. One of my favorite lines from an
Speaker 2: all time movie, Casino, when de Niro is on the
Speaker 2: casino floor with the state assemblyman's nephew or whatever, the
Speaker 2: cowboy that had the job they didn't deserve and there
Speaker 2: had been three slot jackpots in a row, and de
Speaker 2: Niro's losing his mind because it was a scam. He
Speaker 2: says to him, he says, you're fired, and the guy's like,
Speaker 2: I'm fired. He's like, you're hefing fired. He's like, I'm fired.
Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, you're fired because either you were in
Speaker 2: on it or you were too dumb to know you
Speaker 2: were being scammed. Either way, you gotta go. That's how
Speaker 2: I feel about the Danny Hurley situation. There are two
Speaker 2: doors you can walk through on that. Either you never
Speaker 2: actually intended to hire him and you thought having that
Speaker 2: story out there would be good pr and soften the
Speaker 2: blow of eventually hiring JJ Reddick, or you really did
Speaker 2: want to hire him and you thought eleven million dollars
Speaker 2: a year was gonna get it done. So either you
Speaker 2: were trying to run a scam on your fan base
Speaker 2: or you were too incompetent to get your guy. Either way,
Speaker 2: you're unqualified. You are unqualified, And I don't think this
Speaker 2: is why I brought up blink up. That is in
Speaker 2: a lot of industries, man, that is a fireable offense.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, if somebody, if you have say, I'm not
Speaker 2: going to compare you to Darbnham, that's unfair. But if
Speaker 2: if you if someone, if you get if you get
Speaker 2: fired and the company's like trust us and then publicly,
Speaker 2: very publicly goes after someone that everybody thinks, oh well
Speaker 2: that would be great. Oh they're getting costas I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm just making yes.
Speaker 2: Whatever it is. And then that person says, nah, don't
Speaker 2: want it, and the next day does seven radio shows
Speaker 2: telling everyone about why he didn't take the job and
Speaker 2: makes a fool of you. That person who screwed that
Speaker 2: up usually is held to account, and instead we're just
Speaker 2: left with they had a good meeting with JJ Reddick, Like,
Speaker 2: give me a break, you're the Los Angeles Lakers crazy.
Speaker 2: It's mortifying. It's mortifying, man.
Speaker 1: I think it's an amazing time. I think something is
Speaker 1: happening in television, in media, in sports that's really really fascinating.
Speaker 1: Is that because basically television now, the platform of television
Speaker 1: may be shrinking, but it's all sports. I've told you
Speaker 1: this before. If TikTok banned everything except cooking and culinary
Speaker 1: stuff on TikTok and it lost seventy percent of its audience,
Speaker 1: it would be great for culinary because it would be
Speaker 1: the only thing on TikTok. You don't have to own
Speaker 1: a platform. If you're the only thing on the platform,
Speaker 1: it's powerful. And I think a lot of media critics say, oh,
Speaker 1: cable TV is losing its audience. The only thing that
Speaker 1: works on TV today, the only thing is sports in
Speaker 1: every four years politics, So television now is just Fox
Speaker 1: has said on Fridays we're doing sports. Weekends were sports,
Speaker 1: We're going to Fridays. In fact, if they had the
Speaker 1: Amazon Thursday Games, I think Fox would say Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Speaker 1: We're a sports network, three days a primetime nonsports. And
Speaker 1: so I think what's one of the things that's interesting
Speaker 1: is that the explosion Caitlin Clark is clearly a catalyst
Speaker 1: for a business that was and let's be honest, Whereas
Speaker 1: Tiger and Connor McGregor elevated their sports, Caitlyn to some degree,
Speaker 1: Caitlin to some degree financially saved the WNBA. It was
Speaker 1: hemorrhaging money for years.
Speaker 2: So that so let me can I just before you
Speaker 2: get to your point. So I think that people have
Speaker 2: a hard time saying that or accepting that both of
Speaker 2: these things can be true. It is good and I
Speaker 2: think worthwhile, and I'm glad that pre Caitlin Clark there
Speaker 2: was a women's profession basketball league in America that was
Speaker 2: treated as a big time league and deserved to be.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's act that is true, and in terms of
Speaker 1: basketball annually.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Here's what's also true. There is proof of concept
Speaker 2: overseas that women's basketball can be profitable. That's why for
Speaker 2: Britney Griner, you know, ended up in prison, was because
Speaker 2: a lot of these women go overseas make a lot
Speaker 2: more money. And that's not charity. They're not getting paid
Speaker 2: out of charity. They're because those those leagues in those
Speaker 2: countries have found ways to monetize it in a way
Speaker 2: the WNBA hadn't. The WNBA was not well run. Flatly,
Speaker 2: they they had a product that could be monetized in
Speaker 2: a way that it was not. I'm not saying the
Speaker 2: teams weren't well run. I'm saying the league as far
Speaker 2: as whoever was in chards of generating revenue, there was.
Speaker 2: But the fact of the matter is whosever fault it was.
Speaker 2: It was a league that as a business was not
Speaker 2: a highly successful one at all. It's why you could
Speaker 2: get a I think you could get a franchise for
Speaker 2: fifty million, Well you know the is the franchise fee
Speaker 2: like it? So it is it can be true that
Speaker 2: it was it had the potential, as being proven right now,
Speaker 2: to potentially be a super valuable business. But was not
Speaker 2: being treated or run as such, and I think that
Speaker 2: was an oversight maybe by the upper echelon of leadership.
Speaker 2: And now with Caitlin, they have no choice but to
Speaker 2: adapt and evolve because there's gonna be money pouring in
Speaker 2: because there's so many more eyeballs on it now.
Speaker 1: But as I was thinking about this is that there's
Speaker 1: always been this gap. I tend to think of my
Speaker 1: show are shows in terms of, you know, like almost
Speaker 1: color coded, like red hot is Labor Day until February
Speaker 1: twenty third, right, and then it cools down. It's an
Speaker 1: orange a hue for NFL free agency, March Madness was
Speaker 1: pretty good. I thought that college basketball had a good year,
Speaker 1: women helping with that, and then the draft and that's
Speaker 1: like orange, and then it goes back to a little
Speaker 1: stronger orange for the NBA playoffs. Then it's blue. It's cool,
Speaker 1: like we got two muchs cool. And I will say that,
Speaker 1: you know, every four years World Cups, the Copas Euros,
Speaker 1: those are very good for Fox. Those getting the good numbers,
Speaker 1: they're fascinating. But I will say this selfishly, is that
Speaker 1: the WNBA has become on a fairly regular basis, it
Speaker 1: will fill a segment every day on my show, and
Speaker 1: I'm not doing it because I don't talk hockey much.
Speaker 1: I'm not doing it as a reach. And I was
Speaker 1: thinking about that, how people get famous. Some people get
Speaker 1: famous on art. Mister Rogers got famous on decency. Some
Speaker 1: people get famous or infamous on controversy, accidental or as
Speaker 1: a law provocateur. In that, not only is Caitlin Clark
Speaker 1: a catalyst, but the racial component and the underdog being
Speaker 1: picked on as a component. And it's a little like golf,
Speaker 1: where a very insular country club, predominantly white, wealthy sport
Speaker 1: had this profoundly popular, historically fantastic player and that was
Speaker 1: part of the Tiger story. He was new on many levels.
Speaker 1: And I do think, and I'm not saying there is
Speaker 1: a racial component to the WNBA, but every business needs
Speaker 1: a catalyst, and every business there explosion is different. Some
Speaker 1: it's controversy, some it's and so I'll use it is good.
Speaker 2: Sorry.
Speaker 1: So I think the Caitlin and the physicality, I look
Speaker 1: at it and I think, hey, just look at the
Speaker 1: WNBA as an American business. It is an American business,
Speaker 1: and their catalyst is an underdog from Middle America. And
Speaker 1: there's a racial component. That is a story one hundred
Speaker 1: years old in America.
Speaker 2: It could be.
Speaker 1: There's a million businesses where that has been the case.
Speaker 1: The sports one that there's a little correlation is Tiger,
Speaker 1: although Tiger was profoundly dominant very early.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the yeah, I don't. The only part of
Speaker 2: that is I don't necessarily I think the media, some
Speaker 2: media is treating Caitlin as more of an underdog than
Speaker 2: she actually is. I don't think you were as an
Speaker 2: underdog as much as I viewer as just a rookie
Speaker 2: who is going through, you know, rookie growing pains, ebbs
Speaker 2: and flows, but as.
Speaker 1: A really good player.
Speaker 2: But he is a really good player. You were talking
Speaker 2: about the way it doesn't I'm going to use a
Speaker 2: maybe unfortunate example. I'll use it as far as it
Speaker 2: doesn't really matter why you get famous, it matters what
Speaker 2: you do with it. Yeah, And I think maybe the
Speaker 2: perfect example of that is Kim Kardashian. So, Kim Kardashian
Speaker 2: was semi famous, a little famous, and then became uber
Speaker 2: famous momentarily because of a sex tape, flatly, and what
Speaker 2: did she do with it? Created a multi billion dollar
Speaker 2: business based off her skill talent and beauty. Flatly, she
Speaker 2: has one of the longest running hit television shows. She
Speaker 2: has you know more, I don't you know a clothing
Speaker 2: line or makeup line. I'm not all the way up
Speaker 2: to date on everything the Kardashians are doing. But she
Speaker 2: took that spark and turned it into a forest fire.
Speaker 2: And that is what I'm hoping the WNBA can do
Speaker 2: with this. You have Caitlin is the spark. The rivalry
Speaker 2: which dates back to college with Angel Reese is real
Speaker 2: gas on that spark. The times absurd media attention is
Speaker 2: turning it into a real fire that at times the
Speaker 2: wrong things are being focused on, and it's and to
Speaker 2: go back to our bad actors on the internet stuff.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of grossness surrounded with it. But even
Speaker 2: if it's just by accident, there are a lot more
Speaker 2: eyeballs on this league enough so everyone in the sports
Speaker 2: world today was aware. Oh man, Cameron Brink tore ACL yesterday. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like that sucks. Think about that. Two years ago, there
Speaker 2: was no if if the number if the third most
Speaker 2: famous w NBA rookie got hurt mid season. It's not
Speaker 2: like one of the biggest things that happened I'm in
Speaker 2: the sports world that day. From an attention standpoint, people
Speaker 2: now care, and I that sounded wrong. I know a
Speaker 2: lot some people care, but it has a relevance that
Speaker 2: it's a zeitgeist effect, that it happened before there are
Speaker 2: it is a bigger tint there, or it's the same
Speaker 2: sized tint and more people are crowding in. And some
Speaker 2: of those people are real assholes, and I kind of
Speaker 2: wish they would leave, but they're here too, and so
Speaker 2: I so I agree with you. It's how I forever
Speaker 2: because I love tennis. I was hoping, like, man, can
Speaker 2: someone in the Big three tennis become like controversial or
Speaker 2: that where America cares because I would love to have
Speaker 2: some Nadal Federer Djokovic seven years ago discussions, But my
Speaker 2: audience didn't care enough. So on the podcast, I do
Speaker 2: Nick's tennis corner during the Majors, and that's it because
Speaker 2: I respect what the audience wants. But Colin, I was
Speaker 2: on your TV show for twenty minutes on the Tuesday
Speaker 2: after the NBA Finals rapped, and we spent as much
Speaker 2: time on Caitlin Clark and Angel Rees as we did
Speaker 2: on Game five of the finals, and it was a
Speaker 2: smart programming decision because people have takes and people are invested.
Speaker 2: And I also think, by the way, the other important
Speaker 2: thing what was a bummer for golf was nobody was
Speaker 2: able to carry on from Tiger. There wasn't there were
Speaker 2: you know, like, there wasn't a It was. It was
Speaker 2: purely Tiger to pinning, and the people like it was like, oh,
Speaker 2: is it gonna be rory? Is it gonna be this?
Speaker 2: It was? It was. It wasn't really anybuff with the
Speaker 2: w n b A. The hope is you have this rookie,
Speaker 2: you have all the stars are already there, and you
Speaker 2: have this rookie class. Next year, you're gonna have Page
Speaker 2: from Yukon coming in Paige, who was supposed to be
Speaker 2: Caitlin before Caitlyn as far as like transcendent star and
Speaker 2: the young woman at USC Juju might be the best
Speaker 2: of everybody. She's clever then and then you then you're
Speaker 2: not just relying on you know, oh, this person's out
Speaker 2: for the year.
Speaker 1: Well, let's remember you guys in a year. America likes
Speaker 1: football and basketball. We like our basketball. I mean, hell,
Speaker 1: I mean we watched women's basketball in college. We like
Speaker 1: men's college basketball. We like the NBA. So this this country,
Speaker 1: there's been experimental leagues, you know, the the ice cube.
Speaker 1: So the truth is there is no experimental baseball league
Speaker 1: that works, but there's experimental football and basketball leagues. UFL
Speaker 1: was getting a million three, so like this is I
Speaker 1: think basketball and football. If you really break down what
Speaker 1: America likes. Europe likes soccer, they just love it, and
Speaker 1: we love in America, we like our basketball and our football.
Speaker 1: You can you can develop stuff off both, and I
Speaker 1: think so I do think there's a very good chance
Speaker 1: that Caitlin will create. She is the catalyst and we
Speaker 1: will start. Now we may never have quite a quite
Speaker 1: a Tiger, but Rory's not tiger either either as Deshamba
Speaker 1: or Brooks. But they're captivating. They move the needle. All right,
Speaker 1: let's bring in my buddy John Middlecoff, former NFL scout.
Speaker 1: His podcasts The Football One is three and Out. You
Speaker 1: know it's it's funny about I got into this conversation
Speaker 1: about quarterbacks that the last twelve years only two quarterbacks
Speaker 1: have won Super Bowls, Stars Peyton, Brady Mahomes or guys
Speaker 1: who are talented but yet to be paid. Russell Wilson
Speaker 1: and Flacco were on the last year of their their
Speaker 1: first year contract, and then the Wentz Nick Foles team,
Speaker 1: where those guys weren't making any money. So essentially like
Speaker 1: that's it, you know, Tua Dak good quarterbacks, big money,
Speaker 1: no chance. And so I looked at all the teams.
Speaker 1: I came up with twelve quarterbacks who were either I
Speaker 1: considered like throw the ball elite fashion, and it was
Speaker 1: Stafford and Mahomes and Allen. I put Aaron Rodgers on there.
Speaker 1: I put Lamar Jackson because I think he's elite, and
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow. Those are the six, so they're in the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl bubble. And then there were six other guys
Speaker 1: who I consider really really talented and inexpensive, all under
Speaker 1: twenty million dollars a cap. Hit Herbert, I think it
Speaker 1: was Jalen Hurts, Jordan Love, brock Purty, I'm missing somebody else,
Speaker 1: but it was that group.
Speaker 5: Would you throw golf in there?
Speaker 1: That's interesting. So Goff was the one quarterback on the
Speaker 1: one team I didn't. He is not great and he's
Speaker 1: too damn expensive. So over the last twelve years, there
Speaker 1: are no Jared Goffs. There are no as b plus
Speaker 1: quarterbacks and with no history. I mean Peyton Manning was
Speaker 1: older in Denver, but his brain was functioning. It's Peyton Manning.
Speaker 1: He could still play off. There are no golf winners.
Speaker 1: And it was interesting because I came away and I said,
Speaker 1: I actually liked this bubble. It was you know, Ravens, Bengals,
Speaker 1: it was all the teams we like, you know Texans.
Speaker 1: I think we both agree. And Packers are young, but
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be shocked if they end up at a
Speaker 1: conference championship and Detroit was my takeaway. And I also
Speaker 1: love Dan Campbell's ability to build a culture. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you get him in a game with a
Speaker 1: Shanahan or Andy Reid if I feel so great about
Speaker 1: highly emotional Dan Campbell. So here's a franchise. I love
Speaker 1: a quarterback. I've been higher on Goff. You and I have,
Speaker 1: I think than almost anybody in the media. Love their roster.
Speaker 1: It's a younger version of the Niners. But there are
Speaker 1: no examples of Jared Goff winning a Super Bowl that
Speaker 1: kind of pay and quarterback. And you know it wouldn't
Speaker 1: shock you if I said in five years they didn't
Speaker 1: win a Super Bowl.
Speaker 5: No I mean, well, they're Lions, but I do think
Speaker 5: they have a unique window because of the trade they
Speaker 5: met made with Stafford and how well they drafted their
Speaker 5: team roster wise, feels more like a Raven's Oh yeah right.
Speaker 5: They went toe to toe with the Niners, and they
Speaker 5: didn't have to lose any of those guys to sign
Speaker 5: this track. Now, when the bill comes due and his
Speaker 5: number starts hitting whatever. On a yearly basis, twenty percent
Speaker 5: of the CAF, it's a little different. But right now,
Speaker 5: on a man demand basis, I would say they easily
Speaker 5: have a top five roster because the other thing they have.
Speaker 5: I was talking to our guy, Jeff Schwartz, who Oregon Duck.
Speaker 5: He's like, do you realize that Piney Sewell is like
Speaker 5: twenty three, twenty four years old? You know the players,
Speaker 5: their young talent. That Jamier Gibbs, the wide receiver, meets
Speaker 5: running back like he's a Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara, we
Speaker 5: saw Laporta. I'mon Saint Brown. They do have a question mark.
Speaker 1: At defensive back.
Speaker 5: Yeah, if you have question marks a defensive back in
Speaker 5: twenty twenty four, it can be a problem. But they
Speaker 5: did add in the draft. They added Carlton Davis from
Speaker 5: Tampa Bay. So if they're just so. The other thing,
Speaker 5: Colin is a lot of times when you're a team
Speaker 5: that sucks and then a couple of years later has success,
Speaker 5: people steal your coaches for whatever reason. Ben Johnson doesn't
Speaker 5: want to be a head coach. I mean he's turning
Speaker 5: down Josh Harris as they're flying to see him. It's
Speaker 5: a unique situation with him. So yeah, Dan is not
Speaker 5: mister schematic right, he's not calling the place. But he
Speaker 5: didn't lose his start coordinator and now they're defense just
Speaker 5: personnel wise, like, I think they.
Speaker 1: Got a real chance this shitar.
Speaker 5: They got a real chance because there's a ton of
Speaker 5: pressure in San Francisco. I have to see how this
Speaker 5: IU thing plays out. Jordan Loves got to do it
Speaker 5: for seventeen games. Yeah, right, So you look around Philly,
Speaker 5: we still got question marks with Sirianni.
Speaker 2: Now the roster is.
Speaker 5: Good, but I think the lot it's this year now.
Speaker 5: Over the course of the next three or four years,
Speaker 5: it gets more difficult if you're not the fourth best quarterback,
Speaker 5: if you're closer to eleven and you're making huge money.
Speaker 5: But I do think you've you've seen if you can
Speaker 5: protect the guy, he's he's mentally tough, He's like a
Speaker 5: better version. He's a different type player, but a lot
Speaker 5: like Alex Smith, but I think better and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: mentally tough and that matters in these playoff games. Alex
Speaker 5: is just so physically limited when Andy would get him
Speaker 5: to the playoffs, Jared has more physical case. You can't
Speaker 5: run like that, but he can throw and if you
Speaker 5: can protect him. The NFC, I mean, they should have
Speaker 5: won that game, and like you said, it was a
Speaker 5: I thought it was pretty reckless by Dan Campbell with
Speaker 5: the kick of the field goals. But yeah, I think
Speaker 5: this year they got a legit chance. If you tell
Speaker 5: me the Lions, is it inconceivable? They're the number one seed?
Speaker 5: Their division's hard, But I mean, why couldn't they win.
Speaker 5: I don't know if San Francisco is gonna win thirteen
Speaker 5: fourteen again, maybe they win eleven because them in the
Speaker 5: Rams both eleven. What if the Lions get to twelve
Speaker 5: or thirteen, have the one seed and then they get
Speaker 5: to everything's in adult.
Speaker 1: I would argue the two best rosters in the NFL
Speaker 1: are San Francisco and Detroit. The best teams are almost
Speaker 1: all in the AFC. It's like when USC dominated the
Speaker 1: Pac twelve. The conference was just awful, but USC was
Speaker 1: the best program and basically they got every California recruit
Speaker 1: they wanted. I think the Niners. If I said this
Speaker 1: before last year, if you took the Niners and the
Speaker 1: Lions and just we're gonna make a Pro Bowl team
Speaker 1: out of these two teams it can compete with. I
Speaker 1: mean literally the offensive line, Trent Williams one side, pinas
Speaker 1: the other.
Speaker 5: You literally hurt people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they would hurt people. So I am I think
Speaker 1: I'm in the minority here. I want you to think
Speaker 1: I'll go first of a team you thinks undervalued. I
Speaker 1: think it's Denver. So they drafted an edge rusher. That
Speaker 1: is an area of need. If you go back to
Speaker 1: last year, the defense was the issue. They got the
Speaker 1: most you could get if you go really look at
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson's stats. Now, Russell doesn't see the field particularly well,
Speaker 1: but they've got a number one receiver in Courtland Sutton.
Speaker 1: The offensive line was rated seventh. I like their backs
Speaker 1: capable at tight end again, a number one receiver. I
Speaker 1: think the old lines better than people think. One of
Speaker 1: the smartest play designers and callers in the sport. The
Speaker 1: Raiders are not going to be great. The Chargers will
Speaker 1: probably take a while to get where they want to get.
Speaker 1: They're not going to be terribly explosive vertically. The Chargers
Speaker 1: can beat teams, but they're a little bit like Kansas
Speaker 1: City last year. They're not blowing people out. They just don't.
Speaker 1: They don't.
Speaker 5: He's going to try to play in twenty to seventeen,
Speaker 5: oh every week, they're.
Speaker 1: Going to be in games with Kansas City. Kansas City
Speaker 1: doesn't blow people out anymore, or she Rice is a
Speaker 1: bit of a mess. They have a rookie. Chargers won't
Speaker 1: blow people out. They could absolutely beat both of those
Speaker 1: team once. They could beat the Raiders twice. They're over
Speaker 1: unders five and a half. If the kid they drafted,
Speaker 1: if the edge rusher works. By the way, Mems last
Speaker 1: year became a really nice piece. That's why they moved
Speaker 1: off Jerry Judy. They went and got another receiver. I
Speaker 1: it's hard when I when you say smart coach, good
Speaker 1: offensive line, automatic wins in Division. Bo Nicks had sixty
Speaker 1: one starts. If he's capable, if he's Russell Wilson capable.
Speaker 1: I think they're like an eight win team. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying playoffs, but five Jesus John five and twelve is Carolina.
Speaker 1: It's unwatchable. I don't think Denver's gonna be unwatchable.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think Bo Nick's I remember watching him right
Speaker 5: after the draft. He kind of had some like Jimmy
Speaker 5: Garoppolo Derek Carr coming out of college, and when those
Speaker 5: guys were young, they would have been perfect for Sean
Speaker 5: Payton when he was transitioning away from Drew Brees. You know,
Speaker 5: this team win loss wise. They they've been in the mix,
Speaker 5: but no one really took them that seriously. Seattle's offensive
Speaker 5: personnel is pretty awesome. I mean DK Metcalf's like Torell Owens. Oh,
Speaker 5: the receivers are great, yeah, Walker, they've improved the offensive line.
Speaker 5: Their defense, for a team that's drafted defense that's traded
Speaker 5: for defense, has been a knemick these last two years,
Speaker 5: which is crazy because you remove the last like three
Speaker 5: year stretch. Pete Carroll's easily one of the best defensive
Speaker 5: minds over the last thirty plus years, right, but it
Speaker 5: it fell apart at the end. Gino Smith I'm not
Speaker 5: the biggest believer, but he has not really been their
Speaker 5: issue of just being competitive. It's their defense. They couldn't
Speaker 5: stop the soul. Well, they get the boy genius from
Speaker 5: Baltimore who easily had the best defense in the league
Speaker 5: last year. Listen, Stafford's already kind of bitching and moaning
Speaker 5: I need a little more money. And Stafford was awesome
Speaker 5: last year. But that elbow goes. We've seen what happens.
Speaker 5: If he's on the shelf.
Speaker 2: It's one thing.
Speaker 5: If he misses one game, it's another thing. If he
Speaker 5: misses a month and a half. You know, he's the
Speaker 5: lynchpin of the whole operation. If something were to happen
Speaker 5: to Stafford, I could see Seattle being right there because
Speaker 5: you can already tell, like, are the Rams, Like, do
Speaker 5: we really want to double down on this? It was
Speaker 5: an awesome season. Can we just play out the contract?
Speaker 5: To me, Seattle is a quarterback away in the next
Speaker 5: couple of years. I'm sure Schneider is going to be
Speaker 5: all over him in the draft this year. I think
Speaker 5: that they are a very unique spot equipped in the
Speaker 5: future if they could ever find just even get their
Speaker 5: brock Purty or just a guy that's really good cheap contract.
Speaker 5: They would be a problem because what Mike McDaniel or
Speaker 5: Mike McDonald did these last two years and specifically last year,
Speaker 5: I mean they Colin, he embarrassed Kyle Shanahan on Christmas night.
Speaker 5: I had a buddy on the Baltimore Raven staff. They
Speaker 5: were all calling him boy genius around the room, like
Speaker 5: he is a special defensive schematic guy, and he listened.
Speaker 5: We questioned that that side of the ball running a team,
Speaker 5: but he does inherit players everywhere on offense and we'll see.
Speaker 5: I mean, I and Grub a lot of success coaching.
Speaker 5: Now going to the NFL is a little bit different.
Speaker 5: But what he just did in Washington, a lot of
Speaker 5: NFL people are watching. I'm not shocked to John, you know.
Speaker 5: And uh, they hired him to be the offensive coordinator.
Speaker 5: So they're a team I would say this year is
Speaker 5: going to be interesting, but they're they're a bo Knicks
Speaker 5: whoever their guy is over the next couple of years
Speaker 5: away from being like they could be a problem.
Speaker 1: All right, let's flip it. Let's find a team that
Speaker 1: we think is a bit overvalued. I want to pull
Speaker 1: back on Houston so badly but Jesus, I just love
Speaker 1: everything they're doing, every move they make, every draft pick.
Speaker 1: I love what Houston's doing.
Speaker 5: They're well, they're well run, and they got a good coach,
Speaker 5: and they're What their quarterback does is sustainable. He's a
Speaker 5: pocket quarterback.
Speaker 1: So you know, I think I think about this. I
Speaker 1: really do wonder if Aaron Rodgers is upright. The Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins concerned me. Basically, it's a it's a three headed team.
Speaker 1: It's Jalen Waddell, Tyreek Hill, and Tua. Tua was healthy
Speaker 1: last year, one of the only healthy years of his life.
Speaker 1: The Jets, if Aaron's upright, are going to be much better.
Speaker 1: New England's bad. Those are two wins. Buffalo's Buffalo. Their
Speaker 1: schedule is not easy.
Speaker 2: The AFC.
Speaker 1: Here comes Burrow, Deshaun Watson's coming back. Aaron Rodgers is
Speaker 1: coming back. Shit man. Last year was the year the
Speaker 1: getting was good. If you're an AFC team like it was,
Speaker 1: it was everybody's banged up. Trevor Lawrence wasn't healthy, Anthony
Speaker 1: Richardson got hurt. CJ. Stroud's a baby, and I look
Speaker 1: at mind.
Speaker 5: I think the Dolphins have like a four game lead
Speaker 5: after Thanksgiving. I mean, how the hell did they blow
Speaker 5: that division?
Speaker 1: And I look at Miami and I'm like, I could
Speaker 1: see them just I could just see this thing with
Speaker 1: a little injury to too early. I could see it
Speaker 1: nose diving. I think Miami's the team that I think
Speaker 1: to myself, God last year was I mean, they're literally
Speaker 1: weather are affected when they go north and later in
Speaker 1: the season. Miami's the team that everybody's high on. I
Speaker 1: could see it being a bit of a mess. What's yours.
Speaker 5: I don't take them seriously at all. I don't care
Speaker 5: what their record is. In September, go four and oh
Speaker 5: in September, seeing that then they've done that. The best
Speaker 5: teams in their conference all playing freezing cold weather, not
Speaker 5: like cold weather, frigid weather, right, so they have no shot.
Speaker 5: I think the colt are team that I'm high on.
Speaker 5: Their coaches stud your guy Ballard has done a really
Speaker 5: good job. I think their rosters really good. They were
Speaker 5: a bad Gardner Minshew swing route from beating the Houston
Speaker 5: Texans and winning the division. But their quarterback has played.
Speaker 5: He's much more physically gifted and much more talented. But
Speaker 5: a little Trey Lancy, he just hasn't played much football
Speaker 5: over several years now, so you're you're very dependent on
Speaker 5: this guy. It's like, well, if he's awesome, I mean
Speaker 5: I haven't really seen him on the field. And then
Speaker 5: last year it's one thing to get hit by ray
Speaker 5: Lewis Wright or John Lynch in their prime and get
Speaker 5: a broken shoulder or whatever. He had some injuries where
Speaker 5: you're like, I didn't even think that hit was that violent.
Speaker 5: And the thing about football is some guys are just durable.
Speaker 5: They just this guy, this guy never missed a game
Speaker 5: y fifteen years. Yeah, look at Jerry Rice's career, sixteen
Speaker 5: for sixteen, So it just goes on forever. The occasional
Speaker 5: you break a leg or whatever. But like you start
Speaker 5: having concussions, shoulder issues. That concerns me. I'm probably gonna
Speaker 5: pick them to make the playoffs, but I can't feel good.
Speaker 5: I mean, their quarterback has played a combined I don't
Speaker 5: know how many games you played last year, three or four,
Speaker 5: and then before coming out of college he had played
Speaker 5: thirteen career games. That's the thing with this class, right.
Speaker 5: Hens has been playing for six years. Bo Nick's sixty
Speaker 5: one career starts Caleb Williams started every game after Oklahoma
Speaker 5: told Spencer Ratler to go, you know, to the pine.
Speaker 5: JJ McCarthy like, you've seen these guys be on the
Speaker 5: field for a long time. People get very like you
Speaker 5: said with Kyler, Murray, lazy, not into it, terrifies teams.
Speaker 5: Half the leaks is out. The injury stuff is tough
Speaker 5: because you're like, well, what if just a weird couple
Speaker 5: of years stretch and then he plays seven straight years,
Speaker 5: or what if it's just something that snowballs. You really
Speaker 5: don't know. You're just completely taking an educated guess. Half
Speaker 5: the times the doctors tell you we can't draft this guy.
Speaker 5: This guy goes on Navin eight your career and the
Speaker 5: doctor tells you to draft this guy. He's got a
Speaker 5: degenerate knee. So it's just it's tough. But that is
Speaker 5: gonna concern me picking them. But if I picked the Bengals,
Speaker 5: isn't Joe Burrows? Yeah, wrist injury that I don't know
Speaker 5: if you read about it, it's not like a broken
Speaker 5: leg or an ACL that's basically feels like one hundred
Speaker 5: percent recovery. It's a much smaller percentage. Not arthritis, but
Speaker 5: pain and just the throbbing as you're working back from
Speaker 5: it is unavoidable. He's a quarterback, so he kind of
Speaker 5: needs to use it. I love watching the guy play,
Speaker 5: and he's the only guy in the AFC that went
Speaker 5: toe to toe with Mames and took him down on
Speaker 5: the road. But like that, that injury is has a
Speaker 5: little baseball feel to it, where you're like, that picture
Speaker 5: was never the same, right, Yeah, I hope that's not
Speaker 5: the case, but it's it's it's scary the volume.
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