WEBVTT - Not So Fast Episode 4 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:05.890 Welcome to Not So Fast with Andrew Perloff and Paul Patz, where. 0:00:05.710 --> 0:00:09.160 Two longtime friends challenge each other on the biggest sports 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:10.100 stories of the day. 0:00:10.140 --> 0:00:12.660 Here's Andrew Perloff and Paul Patz. 0:00:13.540 --> 0:00:14.650 Not so fast, my friends. 0:00:18.550 --> 0:00:22.330 I'm Andrew Perloff. He's Paul Pax. Day four. We had 0:00:22.370 --> 0:00:25.850 a huge college football show planned today. You have the 0:00:26.010 --> 0:00:27.970 Arkansas Pine Bluff depth chart ready to go? 0:00:28.110 --> 0:00:31.010 Oh, ready to chop it up. At directional schools, hyphenated schools, 0:00:31.050 --> 0:00:31.569 I was all in. 0:00:31.590 --> 0:00:34.200 Yeah, and then the NBA said, not so fast. We 0:00:34.260 --> 0:00:36.460 got a bomb to drop. Of course, if you watch 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:38.920 the Dan Patrick Show, you know what happened. The NBA 0:00:38.940 --> 0:00:42.519 took five first-round picks away from the Clippers for salary 0:00:42.540 --> 0:00:45.739 caps for a convention. Kawhi Leonard, I thought the Dan 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.100 Patrick Show broke it down in a really interesting way. 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:51.600 They had Pablo Torreon, of course, Brian Windhorst. But what 0:00:51.620 --> 0:00:54.260 was your reaction, Paul, when you saw the news last night? 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:55.640 Well, this has been a year in the making, and 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:57.260 it felt last year like it was a big story, 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:59.120 and then it just kind of went away for a while, 0:00:59.150 --> 0:01:01.510 or it was simmering for a while. Then in August, 0:01:01.530 --> 0:01:03.350 there was a story that made it sound like this 0:01:03.370 --> 0:01:05.569 has much to do about nothing, and nothing's going to happen. 0:01:06.150 --> 0:01:08.230 Pablo Torreon has been chopping this up for a while. 0:01:08.310 --> 0:01:10.830 But the NBA punishment, when I saw it yesterday, five 0:01:10.890 --> 0:01:15.000 first-round picks, that's not little. $ 30 million, Steve Ballmer is 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:18.040 not allowed to be in the facility, participate, go to games, 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:20.400 which He's always on the sidelines, like Mark Cuban a 0:01:20.420 --> 0:01:22.920 generation ago. But this is the hammer. This isn't a 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:24.240 mild hammer. This is the hammer. 0:01:24.580 --> 0:01:26.200 Yeah, I think, and not so fast, one of the 0:01:26.220 --> 0:01:28.380 things we want to do is try and speak as fans. 0:01:29.060 --> 0:01:30.960 I thought if you're a Clippers fan, this is a 0:01:31.020 --> 0:01:34.280 raw deal. You're losing five first-round picks. How can you 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:36.500 get excited about the future of this team? And they're 0:01:36.550 --> 0:01:40.270 expensive tickets. I understand hitting Bomber. He deserves it. But 0:01:40.370 --> 0:01:42.330 the fans didn't do anything, and now what do you 0:01:42.350 --> 0:01:43.210 do as a Clippers fan? 0:01:43.230 --> 0:01:45.169 Yeah, anyone who's a season ticket holder of the Clippers 0:01:45.209 --> 0:01:50.570 gets punished. You lose five. Draft picks 29, 30, 31, 32, 33. 0:01:50.570 --> 0:01:53.590 You're getting into another generation of Clippers fans. You're punishing 0:01:53.630 --> 0:01:55.870 people who weren't born yet. You know, Bomber will get 0:01:55.910 --> 0:01:59.470 away over this. Kawhi, he does a quick my bad 0:01:59.490 --> 0:02:01.690 and then rolls out of town like he's a bad 0:02:01.730 --> 0:02:04.340 pass in a pickup game. But the Clippers, imagine you're 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.900 Keaton Wagler, the new Clipper guard. You now have nothing 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:09.399 to help you for the next few years. So they're 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:10.740 the real people getting punished here. 0:02:10.860 --> 0:02:12.240 Yeah, I mean, I'm very curious. 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:16.230 Will Ballmer fight back, and can he reduce the penalties over? 0:02:16.510 --> 0:02:18.290 You know, if the Clippers play ball and say, okay, 0:02:18.310 --> 0:02:20.350 we'll take the penalty, I wonder if the NBA would 0:02:20.389 --> 0:02:23.290 go from five first-round picks to three like they've done 0:02:23.330 --> 0:02:24.150 in past situations. 0:02:24.190 --> 0:02:25.970 Yeah, so if you go back to last September, the 0:02:26.010 --> 0:02:28.340 Clippers issued a statement that said, yeah, we didn't do 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.300 any of this. This is completely false. Yesterday, they didn't 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:33.940 wiggle at all. They said, We still didn't do this. 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:37.579 Commissioner Silver told us we were going to negotiate, and 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.359 we didn't expect this. And they're complete deny mode still. 0:02:40.700 --> 0:02:42.260 Here's the one caveat, and we're going to have Chris 0:02:42.300 --> 0:02:45.290 Mannix from Sports Illustrated in a second here. But is 0:02:45.310 --> 0:02:47.869 there any chance, just to play devil's advocate, is that 0:02:47.910 --> 0:02:51.710 this was all done behind Steve Ballmer's back? Like his henchman, 0:02:51.750 --> 0:02:54.500 his business guy, his assistant GM said, We're going to 0:02:54.540 --> 0:02:57.060 find a way to get Kawhi and shovel this money 0:02:57.100 --> 0:02:58.440 to him, and he never knew. 0:02:58.760 --> 0:02:59.200 I don't know. 0:02:59.220 --> 0:03:01.380 I see the guy in the front row. It looks 0:03:01.410 --> 0:03:03.230 like he wants to jump into the game. He doesn't 0:03:03.270 --> 0:03:05.410 seem like the kind of owner who just sits back 0:03:05.430 --> 0:03:08.110 and lets other people do his dirty work. I have 0:03:08.150 --> 0:03:10.350 a sense, and based on Lawrence Frank, I had notes 0:03:10.389 --> 0:03:12.930 that Bomber was involved. It doesn't seem like they're going 0:03:12.950 --> 0:03:15.350 to be able to fight back in that way. But 0:03:15.370 --> 0:03:17.470 then again, if they just say, all right, we did it, 0:03:17.530 --> 0:03:18.190 I think the penalty. 0:03:18.070 --> 0:03:21.040 Would be worse. They want to keep fighting back. Who knows? 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:22.720 Maybe the NBA will come after them some more. 0:03:22.780 --> 0:03:24.480 Yeah, they have a couple months. It's like the SEC. 0:03:24.500 --> 0:03:26.280 They're going to go to the courtrooms. But let's bring 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:29.210 in our good buddy, Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, senior 0:03:29.370 --> 0:03:32.389 NBA writer. Mannix, all right, let's get into this. When 0:03:32.430 --> 0:03:36.050 you saw this punishment yesterday, what level of surprise or 0:03:36.090 --> 0:03:37.460 lack of surprise was there for you? 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:41.440 The severity of it was certainly eye opening. 0:03:42.460 --> 0:03:45.430 This is a comparable penalty to what the Minnesota Timberwolves 0:03:45.470 --> 0:03:49.330 received back in 2000. And that was a clear case 0:03:49.550 --> 0:03:53.090 of cap circumvention. There was an email paper trail. that 0:03:53.270 --> 0:03:56.980 had the Timberwolves dead to rights. This penalty tells me 0:03:57.000 --> 0:03:59.800 that the NBA believes that they've got the Clippers dead 0:03:59.820 --> 0:04:02.760 to rights. But more significantly, I think the fact that 0:04:02.780 --> 0:04:06.420 they went after Steve Ballmer spoke volumes here. Nobody I 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.540 talked to was really surprised that the NBA came down 0:04:09.620 --> 0:04:12.790 hard on the Clippers because they had a lot of evidence. 0:04:12.830 --> 0:04:14.370 You saw that 35-page report. 0:04:14.410 --> 0:04:17.870 There is a lot of, let's say, smoldering guns out 0:04:17.910 --> 0:04:21.710 there That suggests the Clippers did a lot of impropriety 0:04:21.740 --> 0:04:23.719 when it came to the salary cap. But Steve Ballmer, 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:26.979 there was a belief in NBA circles that the league 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:28.839 might find a way to go a little bit easy 0:04:28.940 --> 0:04:31.760 on him. Maybe give him a fine, a slap on 0:04:31.779 --> 0:04:35.520 the wrist. But this is really the ultimate penalty that 0:04:35.580 --> 0:04:39.000 you can give a billionaire owner, telling him, that he 0:04:39.060 --> 0:04:41.320 can't be around the team telling him he can't watch 0:04:41.380 --> 0:04:44.270 games in the arena that he built that he can't 0:04:44.310 --> 0:04:46.690 be part of the board of governors means they can't 0:04:46.710 --> 0:04:49.470 be part of the nba uh this is something i 0:04:49.490 --> 0:04:51.990 think steve ballmer is going to fight the hardest and 0:04:52.029 --> 0:04:54.420 it surprised me a little that the nba was willing 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:55.000 to go there. 0:04:55.420 --> 0:04:58.360 Chris how powerful is ballmer in the nba amongst all 0:04:58.420 --> 0:05:00.720 the owners is he near the top kind of like 0:05:00.740 --> 0:05:03.630 jerry jones is in the nfl I wouldn't. 0:05:04.100 --> 0:05:06.240 He's the most influential owner, I would say, in the NBA. 0:05:06.260 --> 0:05:10.060 You know, Jerry Jones is like the de facto co-commissioner, 0:05:10.100 --> 0:05:11.600 it feels like, in the NFL. 0:05:11.620 --> 0:05:13.520 I wouldn't go that far with Steve Ballmer. 0:05:13.580 --> 0:05:18.320 But Steve Ballmer's ability through his net worth to make 0:05:18.380 --> 0:05:22.170 connections for the NBA globally, to be part of their 0:05:22.790 --> 0:05:26.390 development in technology. He sits on a lot of committees 0:05:26.790 --> 0:05:29.630 within the NBA. He's a loud voice at the Board 0:05:29.670 --> 0:05:32.320 of Governors meetings or an influential voice at the Board 0:05:32.339 --> 0:05:36.180 of Governors meetings, he is as powerful a figure as 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:39.080 they get in the NBA. And this is Adam Silver saying, 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:42.540 we believe you did enough wrong to boot you out 0:05:42.580 --> 0:05:43.000 for a year. 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:45.880 Chris, you chopped up the Clippers' response yesterday, and they're 0:05:45.900 --> 0:05:49.570 not backing down at all. Do you believe that the Clippers, Ballmer, 0:05:49.830 --> 0:05:52.610 and Commissioner Silver were negotiating in any way some type 0:05:52.650 --> 0:05:55.810 of middle ground the past month, and then the NBA said, nope, 0:05:55.850 --> 0:05:56.510 we're going to hammer you? 0:05:57.250 --> 0:05:59.370 I mean, maybe, but not to the extent that ESPN 0:05:59.610 --> 0:06:03.170 acted like it was. I certainly think there have been 0:06:03.250 --> 0:06:09.080 conversations where the NBA has shown some of their hand 0:06:09.540 --> 0:06:13.099 when it came to what this report revealed. Now, obviously, 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.400 they didn't show their entire hand because the Clippers were 0:06:15.500 --> 0:06:18.979 as taken off guard as anybody by the results of 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:22.380 this investigation. But I certainly believe that there were some 0:06:22.460 --> 0:06:27.060 conversations that went on behind the scenes. But clearly, the 0:06:27.180 --> 0:06:31.210 NBA was not willing to let the Clippers skate with 0:06:31.270 --> 0:06:32.770 just a slap on the wrist. I mean, one of 0:06:32.790 --> 0:06:37.670 the most revealing things in this report, the summary of 0:06:37.710 --> 0:06:40.640 the report... is that we're not done. There's still a 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:44.180 lot more. This is Wachtell Lipton saying, hey, we had 0:06:44.220 --> 0:06:46.600 to get this out. Adam Silver, the NBA, they were 0:06:46.620 --> 0:06:48.880 telling us to wrap this thing up. So here is 0:06:48.900 --> 0:06:51.039 what we got so far. But we want to be clear. 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.380 We want to put this in writing that there is 0:06:53.460 --> 0:06:56.040 more out there. They said we had a witness that 0:06:56.100 --> 0:07:00.000 came forward this week, this week, to give us information. 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.540 So I just think the NBA was never going to 0:07:02.580 --> 0:07:06.000 allow the Clippers to skate with any kind of small, 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:07.080 insignificant penalty. 0:07:07.100 --> 0:07:09.480 That's why any talks, Probably didn't go anywhere. 0:07:09.900 --> 0:07:13.050 You know, today on SI.com, you wrote, the Clippers are cooked. 0:07:13.750 --> 0:07:16.170 If you're a Clippers fan and you're worried about the 0:07:16.210 --> 0:07:18.910 future of your team, can they recover from this and 0:07:18.970 --> 0:07:21.040 be competitive and stay over the next 10 years? 0:07:21.620 --> 0:07:23.260 I like it, Perloff. You're a man of the Clipper 0:07:23.300 --> 0:07:27.220 faithful there. You're one of the supporters of. 0:07:26.540 --> 0:07:28.200 Big, big Clippers. Look, it is. 0:07:30.460 --> 0:07:32.580 It is the basketball equivalent of a death sentence. 0:07:32.900 --> 0:07:33.400 It just is. 0:07:34.780 --> 0:07:36.680 You know, there's some questions about whether or not, and 0:07:36.700 --> 0:07:37.880 I heard you bring this up at the top of 0:07:37.900 --> 0:07:41.580 the show, would the NBA restore some of these Clippers 0:07:41.620 --> 0:07:42.000 draft picks? 0:07:42.020 --> 0:07:42.880 They did it in Minnesota. 0:07:43.260 --> 0:07:45.820 But the difference is that the Timberwolves were on their 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:48.980 best behavior throughout that entire process. The Timberwolves didn't really fight. Like, 0:07:49.020 --> 0:07:51.640 they were dead to rights. They didn't fight it. They 0:07:51.660 --> 0:07:54.100 kind of took their punishment like men. And the NBA 0:07:54.620 --> 0:07:57.220 turned around in, what's it, 2003 and said, you got 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:58.180 a couple of these picks today. 0:07:58.800 --> 0:07:59.040 Back. 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.300 The Clippers are not going quietly into that night. Like 0:08:02.340 --> 0:08:04.750 they are determined to fight. It sure sounds like they're 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:09.830 considering legal options. That's not the behavior of an organization 0:08:10.310 --> 0:08:13.270 that's likely to get their picks back. So they're not 0:08:13.290 --> 0:08:16.330 going to have a first round pick till I believe 2035. 0:08:16.330 --> 0:08:19.970 And if you think about it contextually, guys, like the 0:08:20.030 --> 0:08:21.730 player they're going to draft in the first round in 0:08:21.730 --> 0:08:22.860 2035 is like 10 years old now. 0:08:23.450 --> 0:08:23.830 You think. 0:08:26.270 --> 0:08:27.560 Young kid right now. 0:08:27.630 --> 0:08:32.199 So it's, look, I think you're talking about late 2030s 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.440 before the Clippers have a chance to be really relevant again. 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.400 You know, I can tell you that 10-year-old does not 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:39.260 want to go to the Clippers already. Believe me, I 0:08:39.300 --> 0:08:40.860 don't know what his name is, but he doesn't want 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:42.500 to be a Clipper. Let me ask you this, Chris. 0:08:42.540 --> 0:08:44.920 You did a feature piece on Kawhi Leonard a couple 0:08:44.940 --> 0:08:47.240 years ago, cover of SI. You got to know him, 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:48.740 and we don't know him at all. I mean, the 0:08:48.820 --> 0:08:51.220 casual fan, even people who work in the sports media 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:54.900 barely know this guy. Were you surprised by... Let me 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:56.900 ask you about his statement on the way out, his 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.560 half apology, blaming his underlings. Do you know about his 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:02.000 backstory and the people who work around him? 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:06.230 Yeah, I mean, he's had a pretty close inner circle for... 0:09:06.590 --> 0:09:10.490 his entire life. It's been his uncle, Dennis Robertson, who's 0:09:10.650 --> 0:09:13.710 acted as his de facto agent for most of his 0:09:13.770 --> 0:09:17.500 pro career. He's got a good friend, Jeremy Castleberry, who's 0:09:17.530 --> 0:09:20.660 been an assistant coach in Toronto and with the LA Clippers. 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:24.300 He's been his kind of right-hand man for a long time, 0:09:24.340 --> 0:09:29.100 but it's a very tight inner circle. That statement... All right, Chris. 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:31.959 That statement was awesome. I'm sorry. That statement was awesome. 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.720 It was absolutely awesome. Because this was like the Clippers 0:09:35.780 --> 0:09:38.780 are out there saying like, we didn't do anything and 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.350 we're going to fight this till the end. Kawhi, if 0:09:41.420 --> 0:09:45.209 I can paraphrase this statement, is like, guess we did something. 0:09:45.450 --> 0:09:47.270 My bad. What up, Toronto? 0:09:47.630 --> 0:09:49.230 How you guys doing? 0:09:49.330 --> 0:09:51.940 I'm here to party. I'm lucky to get back with you. 0:09:51.980 --> 0:09:53.920 Everything else, that doesn't really matter. 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.170 They needed Kawhi to load manage that statement and just 0:09:57.210 --> 0:09:59.050 hold it off for a few days and take a break. 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:00.319 How did they. 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.160 I mean, look, Kawhi owes the Clippers nothing right now. 0:10:03.179 --> 0:10:04.880 The Clippers clearly have nothing to do with Kawhi. But 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.280 the fact those statements were not more closely coordinated is 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:10.000 a killer for the Clippers. And I'll tell you guys, 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:13.100 this was the NBA being savvy here. Now, I'm sure 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:16.780 the NBA wanted to come down harder on the Clipper 0:10:16.820 --> 0:10:19.540 or on Kawhi Leonard. But by giving him this little 0:10:19.590 --> 0:10:22.670 slap on the wrist, they take Kawhi out of play. 0:10:22.790 --> 0:10:25.729 They take, more importantly, the union and its lawyers. 0:10:25.510 --> 0:10:26.610 Out of play. So now. 0:10:27.130 --> 0:10:30.670 They have isolated the Clippers here. They have removed arbitration 0:10:30.710 --> 0:10:33.329 from the table. They have removed the union from being 0:10:33.350 --> 0:10:35.270 a thorn in their side. This was the NBA saying, 0:10:35.290 --> 0:10:37.740 you know what? We don't like it, but it's more 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:41.640 important to us to police the team and not the players. 0:10:41.700 --> 0:10:43.980 And by giving Kawhi the slap on the wrist, they 0:10:44.059 --> 0:10:46.430 strengthened their position when it comes to the Clippers. 0:10:47.020 --> 0:10:49.239 All right, Chris, we have some unfinished business on the 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:51.160 basketball court, by the way. I've been coming up to 0:10:51.179 --> 0:10:53.780 the man cave every day. And many years ago, you 0:10:53.830 --> 0:10:58.010 and I famously lost to Paul and Seton. It was 0:10:58.050 --> 0:11:01.210 a Villanova Georgetown level upset. You want to come back down? 0:11:01.230 --> 0:11:04.190 I don't know how your game is these days. Mine's 0:11:04.230 --> 0:11:06.230 not great, but can we get a rematch? Are you 0:11:06.250 --> 0:11:06.770 down for that? 0:11:07.270 --> 0:11:07.870 I'm down for that. 0:11:07.890 --> 0:11:11.050 I've started to, now that I'm primarily out in California, 0:11:11.070 --> 0:11:14.110 I have started to play more outdoors games. 0:11:14.490 --> 0:11:15.110 Which is nice. 0:11:15.530 --> 0:11:16.450 Start to get some reps. 0:11:16.510 --> 0:11:18.370 I've got a kid now, so I like to bring 0:11:18.410 --> 0:11:20.870 him to the park, get some shots up myself while 0:11:20.890 --> 0:11:21.810 he plays in the grass. 0:11:21.870 --> 0:11:25.350 So I'm starting to shake some of the rust off. 0:11:25.370 --> 0:11:28.250 But I mean, like, Paulie and like, isn't Fritzy like 0:11:28.250 --> 0:11:31.000 60 with like multiple surgeries? 0:11:31.010 --> 0:11:31.910 What's going on with him? 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:34.280 I don't know if I want to beat up on 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:35.270 a senior citizen right now. 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:36.600 But he's got a great hook shot. He's got this 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:38.380 lefty hook shot that you can't lock. 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:40.459 If you're balling in SoCal, the Clippers may sign you, Chris. 0:11:41.030 --> 0:11:43.170 I mean, I'd be one of the guys available to 0:11:43.210 --> 0:11:43.750 come off the street. 0:11:43.929 --> 0:11:46.270 They might have to have open tryouts, like invincible style 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.440 tryouts to get guys on that roster. It's not going 0:11:50.460 --> 0:11:53.530 to be pretty. And just last thing on them is 0:11:53.630 --> 0:11:56.630 one of the big questions I have. is will Steve 0:11:56.650 --> 0:11:58.930 Ballmer sell this team? Like he's gone for a year. 0:11:59.330 --> 0:12:02.770 He paid $ 2 billion for the team back in what, 2013? 0:12:02.770 --> 0:12:05.870 Even as a distressed asset, the Clippers can probably get 0:12:06.210 --> 0:12:06.970 3X on that investment. 0:12:06.990 --> 0:12:08.530 He probably gets 6 billion. He owns the building. 0:12:08.550 --> 0:12:10.880 He sells that 8 billion. Like there's a lot of 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:13.440 money to be made just by selling the Clippers. Steve 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:17.280 Ballmer is 70 years old. Does he want to stick 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:21.540 around and oversee a floundering franchise with a fan base 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:24.530 that is going to blame him for the predicament that 0:12:24.550 --> 0:12:24.829 they're in? 0:12:25.540 --> 0:12:27.380 All right, Chris, thank you so much for the time. 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:29.410 I'll see you on the court. We'll set it up. 0:12:29.660 --> 0:12:30.340 Come on down, buddy. 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:31.359 I'll be there. 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:31.939 All right. 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:36.270 Of course, that's a great Chris Mannix. Oh, man, poor bomber. 0:12:37.230 --> 0:12:38.950 I don't know what he's going to do with all 0:12:38.990 --> 0:12:40.410 his money if he doesn't own the Clippers. 0:12:40.450 --> 0:12:41.849 Yeah, that yacht is going to be lonely. 0:12:41.870 --> 0:12:43.910 All right, coming up next, we're going to turn to 0:12:43.929 --> 0:12:46.630 the NFL. Is it now or never for Lamar Jackson 0:12:46.650 --> 0:12:48.740 in Baltimore? We'll explain next on Not So Fast. 0:12:56.740 --> 0:12:59.100 Leave like January it's now like that was our last 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.260 pad of practice before we play a game where'd it 0:13:01.300 --> 0:13:04.830 go like if yesterday felt like years or last year 0:13:04.850 --> 0:13:08.950 felt like centuries ago like it's it's it's on it's 0:13:08.970 --> 0:13:10.980 football season how do you not get excited like how 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:12.240 do you not have a little bit how do you 0:13:12.300 --> 0:13:14.650 how do you sleep all the way into your alarm 0:13:14.970 --> 0:13:17.569 this time you can't right you're waking up like if 0:13:17.630 --> 0:13:20.319 you don't like you got to you're waking up because 0:13:20.340 --> 0:13:23.520 you're dreaming about it like that's football season so absolutely 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:27.060 not it's there's no monotony in the football season or 0:13:27.100 --> 0:13:27.800 getting ready to play. 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:31.970 A football game Back on Not So Fast, Paxton Perloff 0:13:32.050 --> 0:13:35.340 here on NBC Sports Now. That's Kenny Dillingham. He's our guy, 0:13:35.380 --> 0:13:36.060 not my guy. 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.900 By the way, you want a college football czar maybe, 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.000 a scheduling czar at least, Kenny Dillingham would be the guy. 0:13:41.100 --> 0:13:44.460 Nobody talks about the sport more eloquently than Kenny Dillingham. 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:44.760 I love it. 0:13:44.820 --> 0:13:47.050 Culture czar. He's like, I want to hit somebody. 0:13:47.150 --> 0:13:47.410 Oh, yeah. 0:13:47.610 --> 0:13:49.950 He's got the sweatshirt on. It's 98 degrees out there 0:13:49.970 --> 0:13:50.370 in the morning. 0:13:50.690 --> 0:13:52.709 I can't believe he's still at Arizona State because I 0:13:52.730 --> 0:13:53.349 think he could get it. 0:13:53.490 --> 0:13:55.510 After this year, watch. He'll get any job he wants. 0:13:55.530 --> 0:13:56.709 You know, it was close last year. 0:13:56.950 --> 0:13:57.190 Yeah. 0:13:57.210 --> 0:13:59.170 There were some people calling. That's Kenny Dillingham getting us 0:13:59.210 --> 0:14:01.199 fired up for the college football season. Back on Not 0:14:01.220 --> 0:14:03.719 So Fast. What we like to do here is warm takes. 0:14:03.740 --> 0:14:06.400 You don't want to burn anybody. Now, I went first 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:08.760 the first couple days. I'm going to yield the floor 0:14:08.780 --> 0:14:10.720 to you and your lovely blue shirt. 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.440 Yeah, this was actually your outfit on day one. 0:14:15.460 --> 0:14:15.880 I called it. 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.580 Yeah, but now you kind of look like Jeff Probst, 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:19.560 but we'll get to that later. 0:14:19.580 --> 0:14:20.080 All right. 0:14:21.020 --> 0:14:23.430 My first warm take today is about Kirk Cousins. Now, 0:14:23.470 --> 0:14:26.400 Kirk Cousins named the starter in Las Vegas. I think 0:14:26.500 --> 0:14:28.920 everyone's waiting for him to lose a few games and 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.320 yield the floor to Fernando Mendoza. I got to tell 0:14:31.340 --> 0:14:33.220 you right now, Kirk Cousins is going to be better 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.200 than you think. I'm going to call it commitment to 0:14:36.300 --> 0:14:38.360 competence in Vegas with the Raiders. 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:40.180 No commitment to excellence, but competence. 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.880 Because he's very, very good in Clint Kubiak's offense. They 0:14:43.900 --> 0:14:46.370 were together in Minnesota. Every year they were together, Cousins 0:14:46.380 --> 0:14:48.750 had a passer rating over 100. 0:14:48.750 --> 0:14:51.230 They run this wide zone run game and play action, Paul. 0:14:51.570 --> 0:14:53.930 And all quarterbacks are better under play action, especially if 0:14:53.950 --> 0:14:57.170 you can sell the run. Cousins knows what he's doing. Listen, 0:14:57.250 --> 0:14:59.470 he's like me. He had no athleticism when he was young. 0:14:59.790 --> 0:15:02.370 He has none now. It does not matter. He knows 0:15:02.410 --> 0:15:04.270 where to go with the ball. He's going to throw 0:15:04.310 --> 0:15:04.970 the ball to Brock. 0:15:04.830 --> 0:15:05.570 Bowers over the middle. 0:15:05.990 --> 0:15:09.260 And Kubiak makes receivers good. It's not the other way around. 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.239 The offense will create a good receiver, even though there's 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:13.500 none on the depth chart right now. 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.160 Just wait. This passing offense is going to look way 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:17.540 better than we think it is. Will they win a 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:18.740 lot of games? Maybe not. 0:15:19.220 --> 0:15:21.580 But I think they are going to have a higher 0:15:21.700 --> 0:15:24.700 level than we thought with Kirk Cousins because they've been 0:15:24.740 --> 0:15:26.800 bad the last few years. They're going to be very 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.590 pleased with just sort of competent quarterback play. 0:15:29.690 --> 0:15:32.130 A couple things. You crushed that warm take. That may 0:15:32.150 --> 0:15:34.210 go in the warm take Hall of Fame. It had comedy. 0:15:34.350 --> 0:15:36.530 It had a little against the grain in it. I 0:15:36.550 --> 0:15:38.470 think this is a very interesting take by you because 0:15:38.510 --> 0:15:40.970 if Cousins plays well and they win a couple of 0:15:40.990 --> 0:15:43.950 those games they're not expected to win and somehow they're 0:15:43.970 --> 0:15:46.770 4-3 at the halfway point, you can't bench them. And 0:15:46.810 --> 0:15:49.080 now Mendoza is No fault of his own. It's just 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:50.900 sitting and sitting and sitting. But, you know, there'd be 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:53.120 pressure to not play a guy. You know, I always 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:55.440 said that week eight game against the Jets, that's the 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:57.900 target game. But if somehow you beat the Rams or 0:15:57.940 --> 0:16:00.990 beat the Bills or beat them both, you're not sitting anybody. 0:16:01.470 --> 0:16:03.650 Yeah, I mean, I think the high end would be 0:16:03.770 --> 0:16:06.410 Alex Smith in Kansas City right before Patrick Mahomes got there. 0:16:06.690 --> 0:16:09.170 That's possible. If they got 10 wins, that'd be like 0:16:09.190 --> 0:16:09.870 winning the Super Bowl. 0:16:09.890 --> 0:16:12.470 It's possible from the standpoint of Alex Smith is similar 0:16:12.550 --> 0:16:15.050 to Kirk Cousins in good, not great. but I don't 0:16:15.100 --> 0:16:17.520 know if the supporting cast with the Raiders will support 0:16:17.620 --> 0:16:18.700 Cousins to that level. 0:16:18.980 --> 0:16:21.100 Oh, just because they've been terrible for 20 years? 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:23.620 Yeah, because they've been terrible for 20 years. Got me 0:16:23.660 --> 0:16:25.280 on that one. All right, let's get to my warm take. 0:16:25.580 --> 0:16:27.360 Here we go. I've always thought there should be a 0:16:27.420 --> 0:16:29.500 rule in sports, and I'm being a little facetious here, 0:16:29.540 --> 0:16:32.220 but that owners should be accountable, not just for infractions, 0:16:32.260 --> 0:16:35.500 but for your team losing. You're the steward of this franchise, right? 0:16:35.730 --> 0:16:37.830 If you buy a team and they don't win, you 0:16:37.850 --> 0:16:40.130 should take the blame for it. We talked about Artie Moreno, 0:16:40.170 --> 0:16:43.540 the former owner of the Angels yesterday. And they went 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:45.960 one for 17 in making the playoffs. How about a 0:16:45.980 --> 0:16:48.150 hard rule? You buy a team, you're on the clock. 0:16:48.270 --> 0:16:50.690 Artie Moreno, you should have been on the clock. If 0:16:50.750 --> 0:16:53.510 your team doesn't make the playoffs the postseason for 10 0:16:53.510 --> 0:16:56.590 straight seasons, you must sell. And I know they can 0:16:56.630 --> 0:16:58.670 enforce this and commissioners won't enforce this, but I would 0:16:58.710 --> 0:17:00.340 love to see it in this pie in the sky 0:17:00.380 --> 0:17:02.820 thought I have. Because if you don't make the postseason 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:05.440 for 10 years and you spend or you don't spend, 0:17:05.900 --> 0:17:07.980 you're gone, man. You didn't do it. If you look 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:10.380