Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 1: Sports Radio. See and here's the thing though it's not
Speaker 1: a hot take, but I think they're lying. You think
Speaker 1: they're lying. I think Do you think they're in Arizona? No? No, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no, come on? Or are they go Are
Speaker 1: they actually gonna go watch Nicks Bulls? No? No, they
Speaker 1: are in Chicago for Nicks for the Eastern Conference Finals
Speaker 1: preview tonight between the Knicks and the bull That's where
Speaker 1: they're really well, I mean, only Dan really has to
Speaker 1: show up, right m I mean the other guys can
Speaker 1: zoom in and be like, hey, thanks for the seats, Hey,
Speaker 1: this is fantastic. Yeah, but look, I mean clearly, look,
Speaker 1: they're taking the Packers and the Cardinals off of national
Speaker 1: television to put the Knicks and the Bulls on tonight.
Speaker 1: It's a really really big deal tonight, huge Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: Final preview. It made it all the way to NBA TV,
Speaker 1: which is like being almost on TV. It's really really
Speaker 1: I like when there was a press release put out
Speaker 1: saying it was a national game and then well, NBA
Speaker 1: TV was the last note to it. Here's where you
Speaker 1: find it, and I think that kind of killed the
Speaker 1: buzz them. Wow, they elevated it to a top spot
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be opposite Thursday Night Football and let's
Speaker 1: go NBA TV. Oh boy, but we got more NBA
Speaker 1: on the way. Rick Buker stopping by in about twenty
Speaker 1: minutes to talk the Russell Westbrook experience because last night
Speaker 1: end of the Lakers Oklahoma City Thunder game was this
Speaker 1: was peak Russell Westbrook and Buckling because I am here
Speaker 1: for the Russell Westbrook experience. But two big stories that
Speaker 1: broke last night. Obviously one likely you are aware of,
Speaker 1: the World Series is tied at two games at peace.
Speaker 1: The Astro game of the last night or one game
Speaker 1: apiece rather Game two goes to the Astros, and kind
Speaker 1: of an inverse from game one, we watched the Braves
Speaker 1: jump on the Astros early in game one and they
Speaker 1: win Game one of the World Series. Astro jump on
Speaker 1: the Braves early in game two and they win it
Speaker 1: by the final of seven to two. Now it's one
Speaker 1: one going back to Atlanta, and clearly, look Atlanta did
Speaker 1: what they wanted to do. They come back and they win,
Speaker 1: they win, They win one of the first two games
Speaker 1: and they split going home. I'm really concerned for the Braves,
Speaker 1: all right. I'm really concerned for the Braves out of
Speaker 1: this because look at what's going on in the last
Speaker 1: twenty four hours for Atlanta. Your strength was going to be.
Speaker 1: Here's the pitching pictures that we're going to trot out
Speaker 1: here for the World Series. Charlie Morton, Max Freed, first
Speaker 1: two games. These are guys we love, right, Freed is
Speaker 1: the guy they want on the mound. Morton. We know
Speaker 1: Morton's out for the rest of the playoffs now and
Speaker 1: hopefully he's ready for the beginning of the season and
Speaker 1: pitching with a broken leg during Game one before he
Speaker 1: has to come out. And then Max Freed, who look,
Speaker 1: he's there, he's there, young. This is the guy we like.
Speaker 1: This is this is this is our this is our
Speaker 1: Walker Bueller, this is our deGrom this is our guy,
Speaker 1: and this is the second big game in a row
Speaker 1: that he has gotten just pasted. Yeah, the horrible outing
Speaker 1: against their Dodgers, the horrible outing last night against the Astros,
Speaker 1: and likely the only reason he stayed in the game
Speaker 1: as long as he did was to save wear and
Speaker 1: tear in the Braves bullpen, which comes in wins game
Speaker 1: one for them in relief of Morton. But now you're
Speaker 1: talking about the Braves having to navigate the last five
Speaker 1: games of this series without your starters you were bringing
Speaker 1: back in five and six. Because Morton is obviously not
Speaker 1: going to pitch and Freed, I don't know what you're
Speaker 1: gonna get from him. I mean, you can't walk out
Speaker 1: and say, hey, we're feeling good about about our ace
Speaker 1: on the mountain. No, you can't, because he's not pitched
Speaker 1: well the last two times out. He's not looked aggressive,
Speaker 1: he has not looked that he is in command. And
Speaker 1: if I'm the Astros, I'm feeling great about this going. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: we split, but we got the best pitcher is out
Speaker 1: and their other one really is in a big, bad,
Speaker 1: bad place right now mentally because he's gotten racked around
Speaker 1: the Ballpark. The last couple of times out, I'm really
Speaker 1: worried how the Braves are going to try to navigate
Speaker 1: these next few games. Yeah, I mean, at least Freed
Speaker 1: was able to gut out five innings, right, Should they
Speaker 1: have pulled him in the second? You know, the world
Speaker 1: may never know. Did they just concede at that point? Well,
Speaker 1: I was going to do the TUTSI roll pop and
Speaker 1: we all remember the ad and it gets people a
Speaker 1: little cheery thinking about Saturday morning television and then in
Speaker 1: the middle of their week. But the idea that they
Speaker 1: didn't want to go to the bullpen early because what
Speaker 1: did they do? They use the bullpen a bunch to
Speaker 1: try to make sure they didn't give away that lead
Speaker 1: in Game one. So you go to Freed and he
Speaker 1: gives you eighty six pitches, only fifty nine strikes, seven hits,
Speaker 1: six earn runs, six strikeouts, but get you five innings.
Speaker 1: Is that enough to kind of stem the tide? I
Speaker 1: don't know, because he and Anderson coming in as your
Speaker 1: Game three guy hasn't exactly been a workhorse in terms
Speaker 1: of innings, especially the last couple of times out. I mean,
Speaker 1: you look it at five innings pitch five and a
Speaker 1: third five then early you know, that's all early in
Speaker 1: the season, and then the last month three innings, five innings,
Speaker 1: five and two thirds. You did have a seven inning
Speaker 1: game at the end of September and then a sixth
Speaker 1: inning spot back to back wins to close out the
Speaker 1: regular season. But his last couple of outings very short work. Right,
Speaker 1: So we're looking at taxing the bullpen once again when
Speaker 1: you know you're going to need them to pick up
Speaker 1: as this series goes, and you don't have more. By
Speaker 1: the way, Morton greater than Bloody Sock, better than so
Speaker 1: many of the other storylines that could. I don't know
Speaker 1: what you can put into the Hall of Fame for him,
Speaker 1: you know, for pitching with a broken leg. There's got
Speaker 1: to be something there that's Yeah, that's really tough because
Speaker 1: you can't like cut off a piece of his leg,
Speaker 1: you know, and put it in it. Maybe some toenails
Speaker 1: you have to click, you know, I was thinking more,
Speaker 1: you know, part of his uniform or something, and then
Speaker 1: you just show the video of the comebacker and saying,
Speaker 1: see kids, perseverance, you keep going. So you know you
Speaker 1: can't do that. I know because I just saw this
Speaker 1: is that Charlie Morton's uniform actually goes to the guy
Speaker 1: that caught Brady six hundredth touchdown ball that's been added on. Yes,
Speaker 1: he's getting that. Yeah, it's already even promised. Is this
Speaker 1: is this guy's stashed out like a Wikipedia page. We
Speaker 1: just keep adding paragraphs to it. Something Bill's happened. Hey,
Speaker 1: give him more. Yeah, I want this and I want this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that's out of our control. You get it for me.
Speaker 1: I gave you that six hundredth ball. Okay, listen, Hey,
Speaker 1: this is the bucks. We'd really like Charlie Morton's jersey.
Speaker 1: We gotta give it to this guy. I know, I know,
Speaker 1: I know. If you could just listen, just send us
Speaker 1: a fake one, all right, just said us one of
Speaker 1: the other ones. We'll just tell him it's real and
Speaker 1: it's gonna work. Well, the packers are starting to sell
Speaker 1: shares again in the in the team. Oh they're gonna have,
Speaker 1: they're having they're printing those certificates. Does he get a
Speaker 1: few of those while he's at it? Well, yeah, because
Speaker 1: because I think the guy actually said, Hey, if Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers owns the Bears, I want to own part of
Speaker 1: the Packers. So this is this is what I'm going
Speaker 1: to do. A Todd The guy's gonna have everything. Trust
Speaker 1: he's gonna have Aaron Rodgers jersey after tonight. Just watch.
Speaker 1: I like this, just next level stuff right here. So
Speaker 1: Game three of the World Series Friday night. And you know,
Speaker 1: the one good news about this is that, hey, ratings
Speaker 1: were up over Game one last year. We're still waiting
Speaker 1: for the ratings to come in from the night of
Speaker 1: Game two, which is great. And because the pandemic and
Speaker 1: it was a really difficult year last year in sports obviously.
Speaker 1: But I got a feeling, if I had to, if
Speaker 1: I had to put my money on this, that we're
Speaker 1: going seven games in this series. Neither team looks like
Speaker 1: a team that can pull away from the other. These
Speaker 1: are both teams that got hot at the right time. Right.
Speaker 1: That's how you win the World Series. The best teams
Speaker 1: get in. The hottest teams win in. The Braves are
Speaker 1: a really flawed team. The Astros are a flawed team.
Speaker 1: You know, we have this image of the Astros as,
Speaker 1: oh my good they you know, they went in one
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen. They were there and back to back
Speaker 1: ears and all this thing the Astros are not quite
Speaker 1: the Astros of that time. They don't have the pitching,
Speaker 1: the lockdown pitching that they had before. So this is
Speaker 1: one of those series where I don't really see either
Speaker 1: team saying, hey, you know, we're going to rip off
Speaker 1: the next three and this is gonna be one of
Speaker 1: those knocked down, drag out, scratch and claw years where
Speaker 1: we're going to see a seven game series, which is
Speaker 1: gonna be great because we get the Fall Classic to
Speaker 1: go seven. So the good news even though we didn't
Speaker 1: get the Dodgers, which I know, look, everybody wanted the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: Everybody wants to see the Dodgers in the Astros. Sure,
Speaker 1: I mean, look, I wanted to see it because I
Speaker 1: wanted to see the Dodgers say hey, here's our idea
Speaker 1: for the World Series. Astros, they'd say, lay it on me.
Speaker 1: If we win, we get this World Series and we
Speaker 1: get twenty seventeen. If you win, you get both of them,
Speaker 1: and then we don't say anything about the cheating scandal
Speaker 1: on are you in? And that would work, and that
Speaker 1: would be the bet and instead of the crazy Mayor
Speaker 1: bet where we're betting cheesecake versus steak or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: that's the bet. That would have been the bet the
Speaker 1: Dodgers say, Okay, we win, we get them both and
Speaker 1: if you win, we dropped the gambling gambling, we dropped
Speaker 1: the sign stealing scandal. Sorry, that was just that. Didn't
Speaker 1: mean to say that we dropped the sign sealing scandal
Speaker 1: and then we move on. That would have been great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that allows it to really build into a whole
Speaker 1: other thing. I mean, it's like Rocky versus Apollo Creed
Speaker 1: the second time, or pick any of your big wrestling
Speaker 1: pay per view matches that you got the return bout in,
Speaker 1: and you know, maybe there's a loser leaves town match,
Speaker 1: maybe there's a hair match, a ladder match. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's all different ways we could do this, put him
Speaker 1: inside the cage, all of these things could come to
Speaker 1: fruition at last. We did not get that. And yesterday
Speaker 1: you had the exit interviews for the Dodgers executives. They
Speaker 1: got a lot of decisions to make, so rebuild, retool, repurpose. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: you have a giant war chest behind you, but a
Speaker 1: lot of decisions to make on guys that have become
Speaker 1: very important to the organization and fan favorites couple that
Speaker 1: maybe they should have looked at extending before you got
Speaker 1: to this point, but hey, hindsight's twenty twenty. As alway,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at you, Taylor, because he's gonna go get paid.
Speaker 1: But you know, when we start looking at the rest
Speaker 1: of this series, I think, for me, it's all Atlanta pitching.
Speaker 1: Can you get enough inning? He's out of the relief
Speaker 1: arms because they're going to be taxed. I mean, they
Speaker 1: are going to really have to pick up some big,
Speaker 1: stressful situations. And what's always the rule of the three
Speaker 1: pitcher or three batter rule for pitchers, I think will
Speaker 1: come up at least once or twice here where it's
Speaker 1: a leverage situation like I can't take this guy out
Speaker 1: and now all of a sudden, I'm facing Korea or
Speaker 1: I'm facing Altuve, who's now setting records at this point
Speaker 1: and creeping up all these all time lists for playoff heroics.
Speaker 1: So advantage Houston even though Atlanta got the split. Why
Speaker 1: because Morton just has to watch like the rest of us.
Speaker 1: So a lot more on the World series as the
Speaker 1: day unfolds. But the other big news that came in
Speaker 1: last night late is that for this big Titanic matchup
Speaker 1: tonight and Thursday Night Football, the Packers and the Cardinals. EI,
Speaker 1: there's so much at stake it. Whoever comes away with
Speaker 1: the win tonight is going to be the team that
Speaker 1: Friday morning you're gonna see everywhere on TV. Hey, this
Speaker 1: is the favorite to get to the super Bowl. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be a phenomenal event tonight. The Cardinals are gonna
Speaker 1: do it without JJ Watt. And not only that, they're
Speaker 1: gonna do it without JJ Watt for the rest of
Speaker 1: the season. ESPN's Adam Schefter reporting Wednesday night that Watt
Speaker 1: is going to undergo what is likely season ending shoulder surgery.
Speaker 1: No date yet has been set for the procedure. Now,
Speaker 1: this is a big story mainly because of the name
Speaker 1: of JJ Watt. Right when they signed him. Look, I
Speaker 1: hate to say I told you so, but I said, listen,
Speaker 1: you're giving him twenty eight million dollars for two years.
Speaker 1: How long is he gonna make it before he gets hurt? Right? Right?
Speaker 1: That this is just who he is. Right, He's been
Speaker 1: every other year for the last five He can't stay health.
Speaker 1: He hasn't been really good since twenty eighteen. And you know,
Speaker 1: that at thirty two, being a part time player, he's
Speaker 1: only gonna play so long you're gonna get four games,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get nine games, you're gonna get one game.
Speaker 1: But you knew this was gonna come. And still this
Speaker 1: is why when I looked at the Cardinals, I said,
Speaker 1: what the hell, man, I mean, you know what's going
Speaker 1: to happen? You're still you're gonna guarantee him twenty three
Speaker 1: million dollars, And now with him being out, I believe
Speaker 1: is his contract for next year's guaranteed against injury. So voilah,
Speaker 1: now you're paying JJ Watt for next year two. But
Speaker 1: the sunny side of it is for the Arizona Cardinals,
Speaker 1: is that it's not really that big a deal. All Right,
Speaker 1: Watt was a great player, and now you signed him
Speaker 1: hoping that he would give you some kind of production
Speaker 1: and be one of those locker room leaders that you
Speaker 1: have on a young team that is figuring things out.
Speaker 1: So if you look at the trade off of well,
Speaker 1: we signed JJ Watt and for seven games, we got
Speaker 1: what we got out of him. Right, he was really
Speaker 1: invisible for the first month of the season as he
Speaker 1: was trying to figure things out and then he's played
Speaker 1: well the last three games. But it's not like they're
Speaker 1: losing Chandler Jones. It's not like they're losing Kyler Murray
Speaker 1: or DeAndre Hopkins. They're losing JJ Watt. Injuries happen and
Speaker 1: they're losing somebody that you're hoping all right, Well, hopefully
Speaker 1: he is able to import whatever amounts of knowledge that
Speaker 1: he has had and the team has been able to
Speaker 1: understand and they will be able to cope with his loss,
Speaker 1: which I think they will. And the bottom line is,
Speaker 1: you're seven and oh, right, it's not like, boy, we
Speaker 1: really need him. We're trying to go trying to scramble
Speaker 1: and make the playoffs. We're four and three in a
Speaker 1: crowded NFC. No, you're seven and oz. So that part
Speaker 1: of it at least was worth it, where you spent
Speaker 1: a lot of money which you probably shouldn't have, and
Speaker 1: you brought him in. But the flip side is without
Speaker 1: him being an incredibly big contributor, because you were four
Speaker 1: and oh when he wasn't really playing, well, you were
Speaker 1: three and oh when he was playing sort of well,
Speaker 1: you can withstand this. I really I have no issues
Speaker 1: with the Cardinals, and I think they're gonna go forward
Speaker 1: just fine. In the wake of this news, schedule still
Speaker 1: has some soft landing spots on it. Chandler Jones Zach
Speaker 1: Allen return for the game tonight against the Packers. Packers
Speaker 1: without Joe Barry their defensive coordinator, obviously without Davante Adams
Speaker 1: and Alan Lazard, as all you fantasy owners well know,
Speaker 1: as you try to find replacement options in your lineup.
Speaker 1: Certainly for Adams, Lazard was going to be the pickup
Speaker 1: until he wasn't available. He might be out there on
Speaker 1: an available play players list as well. But back tr
Speaker 1: isn't back So when you look at short term, it's fine.
Speaker 1: I mean, what ten quarterback hits, a sack, five tackles
Speaker 1: for loss this year. But like I said, they do
Speaker 1: get their reinforcements and Chandler Jones who had that monster
Speaker 1: game to start the season fourteen quarterback hits and playing well,
Speaker 1: and Zach Allen, third year guy. That'll help four to
Speaker 1: five things. But we'll see how much it tests that
Speaker 1: back seven that much more. Right, more on the corners,
Speaker 1: because even if Watt's not piling up stats, you know,
Speaker 1: still disrupting plays. And now you've got to make up
Speaker 1: for that. I think the timing also is curious, why
Speaker 1: because we've got our trade deadline coming up here in
Speaker 1: short order, Jason, So maybe just maybe Arizona starts to
Speaker 1: look and try to fortify that defensive front. Twitter At
Speaker 1: how about a fresco Mike at Swollen dump, Ja Smith,
Speaker 1: Mike Harman in for Dan and the Dan Nets today
Speaker 1: here on Fox Sports Radio. So of course we got
Speaker 1: tons of football on the way. We have a star
Speaker 1: quarterback who maybe in the last couple of weeks with
Speaker 1: his gig. We'll get to that coming up later on
Speaker 1: this hour, but straight ahead, we got Rick Bucker on
Speaker 1: the way. It was a night last night for Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook and the Lakers. You had an incredibly large, blown lead.
Speaker 1: You had Russell Westbrook playing great. You had Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: playing awful. You had a quadruple double, you had him
Speaker 1: getting tossed, you had him showing leadership, You had the
Speaker 1: full Russell Westbrook experience. Hang onto your hats as we
Speaker 1: tell you how last night unfolded between the Lakers and
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City. That's coming up next right here, This is
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch live editions of
Speaker 1: the Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten
Speaker 1: pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app. Hey, it's parent day here at school.
Speaker 1: So I know, Jimmy, your dad's a fireman. He was
Speaker 1: going to come in and talk about, you know, saving
Speaker 1: lives and all the great things firemen do. But instead
Speaker 1: we have a speech from Tom Thibodeau on Joe Kim Noah.
Speaker 1: So everybody put your books away and this we're gonna
Speaker 1: play a look up front, We're gonna play it right
Speaker 1: now for you. There you go, hard, hard work, determination,
Speaker 1: you can do like the big Voice guy, just doing
Speaker 1: like one one words jog about dedication to your craft.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be difficult because Tom Tibodau would probably have
Speaker 1: to smile at some point, and you're when you're saying
Speaker 1: night can't break character. I don't know. Yes he was great.
Speaker 1: Did you like to have him? Yes? He was terrific.
Speaker 1: Are we done? We done? We move on. But that's tonight.
Speaker 1: Last night, the Lakers, playing back to back nights without
Speaker 1: Lebron James for a second game in a row, lose
Speaker 1: to Oklahoma City, who had not won yet this season.
Speaker 1: One twenty three one fifteen. It was the Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: experience on full display. A quadruple double for Russ with
Speaker 1: the dreaded turnover faction with ten turnovers being the fourth category.
Speaker 1: It wasn't enough. The Lakers missed some big shots at
Speaker 1: the end, and then Westbrook gets ejected when with four
Speaker 1: and a half seconds left to go, the Lakers are
Speaker 1: down five, the game is over. They inbound the basketball
Speaker 1: and Darius Baseley, who should still be playing for Jim
Speaker 1: Beeheim at Syracuse, intercepts the ball at mid court goes
Speaker 1: in for an uncontested dunk, which you really don't do
Speaker 1: in the NBA. The game's over, you dribble it out,
Speaker 1: but he's twenty one and he says, hey, I can
Speaker 1: get to twenty points. This is great. Russell Westbrook made
Speaker 1: no bones about it, went over and got into it
Speaker 1: with Baisley, got his second technical, got thrown out of
Speaker 1: the game, and so the Lakers walk away from this
Speaker 1: game losing, and everything that goes on with the drama
Speaker 1: of getting Russell Westbrook is there to break down. So
Speaker 1: breaking it down now here with us Fox Sports one
Speaker 1: NBA Insider extraordinaire Rick Buker, you can follow him on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Rick Buker. Rick, good morning man, what's happening?
Speaker 1: Good morning, gentlemen. How are we dominating? Yourself? Indeed better
Speaker 1: off than he? Certainly the Los Angeles Lakers and Russell
Speaker 1: Usbrook right now, everything that the game that's San Antonio
Speaker 1: spurs over time when they gave back and then some
Speaker 1: in the loss to the Sutter. You know, I look
Speaker 1: at this game, Rick, and I said, list, this is
Speaker 1: the Russell Westbrook experience. Which if this is what it is,
Speaker 1: it is great. Sign me up. I mean because I
Speaker 1: I want to see stuff like this every single game.
Speaker 1: You know, in the loss, I will say this, in
Speaker 1: the loss the last couple of nights, the Lakers, probably
Speaker 1: because of necessity, they've run the offense through Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what I think the Lakers have to
Speaker 1: do even when Lebron gets back, because if you're gonna
Speaker 1: I mean, Russell Westbrook, you you and I we've talked
Speaker 1: about this. You didn't get Russell Westbrook to be a
Speaker 1: guy playing off the ball the sand in the corner
Speaker 1: and wait for the ball for a three. I mean,
Speaker 1: you got Westbrook to be who he is. And then
Speaker 1: Lebron and Ad can kind of be the ones. All right,
Speaker 1: we're going to figure out our roles around it, and
Speaker 1: that's probably the way they need to go forward. I
Speaker 1: would agree Russell Westbrook does not work or as not
Speaker 1: as Russell. He's not Russell Westbrook off the ball. If
Speaker 1: you want the triple double and the occasional QUB gruple double,
Speaker 1: then that's the way you have to play. But that
Speaker 1: ultimately is why I never believe that this is going
Speaker 1: to work to the level that Lake fans or Genie
Speaker 1: Buss or Frank Bogel or Rob Blinka believe that it's
Speaker 1: going to work, if indeed they believe it's going to
Speaker 1: result in the championship, because Lebron James isn't Lebron James
Speaker 1: playing off the ball and getting Anthony Dates going. I
Speaker 1: don't know that you're capable of doing that playing through
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, because while he is a terror and transition,
Speaker 1: when you have to go and play in a half court,
Speaker 1: which is other than getting that long, you know, ninety
Speaker 1: foot lob to Anthony Davis when the defense falls asleep,
Speaker 1: gets behind them, you're more than going to get something
Speaker 1: or get a lot for him in half court set
Speaker 1: and that's not where Russ operates with a lot of efficiency,
Speaker 1: and so it's a it's a sort of pick your poison. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: it's a poison for the Lakers. You're you're not going
Speaker 1: to get the best of Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis and
Speaker 1: Lebron James playing through Russell Westbrook. But you're not going
Speaker 1: to get the best of Russell Westbrook playing through anybody else. Well,
Speaker 1: take it further, flip to the other side. Well, the
Speaker 1: lack of defense. You give up one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: three points to Oklahoma City yet to hold a team
Speaker 1: under one fifteen. Rick, And I know, Frank Vocals. You
Speaker 1: know reputation is as a defensive wizard, but you still
Speaker 1: have to have some ingredients if you want to cook. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I mean go down the list of who they play
Speaker 1: right now, Russell Westbrook, subpar defender Carmelo and subpar defender
Speaker 1: Kent Baysmore or average defender Anthony Davis is the only
Speaker 1: guy there that you think of as being an outstanding defender.
Speaker 1: Even Lebron James at this point of his career is
Speaker 1: not that Rajon Ronda subpar defender at this point. And
Speaker 1: when you have Russell and Rajan on the floor together.
Speaker 1: There's I don't know how much Dwight Howard has left
Speaker 1: at this point in his career, but even he's not
Speaker 1: going to be good enough or Anthony Davis good enough
Speaker 1: to stop the deluge of guards attacking and get to
Speaker 1: the paint. And to me, that's also the problem with
Speaker 1: being as old as they are, is that what you'd
Speaker 1: like is to be able to finish games where you
Speaker 1: don't have to play Lebron James long minute, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: with his injury history. You want to be with James
Speaker 1: like the Dynastic Warriors where they're sitting guys in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. If you can't defend, then you're never going
Speaker 1: to have those games. I mean, we just saw it.
Speaker 1: They We've seen it every game basically where they have
Speaker 1: a game they're up by ten, fifteen in this case
Speaker 1: twenty six, but they can't hold that lead because they
Speaker 1: can't defend. And so it's just look, they got a
Speaker 1: lot of talent, they're still gonna win games, but how
Speaker 1: are they going at the level that we're talking about,
Speaker 1: which is playing for a championship, Because I just it's
Speaker 1: to your point, I don't see the ingredients in order
Speaker 1: to defend. In fact, I think the age factor came
Speaker 1: in because they were great in the first quarter, player movement,
Speaker 1: ball movement, slicing them up. Halfway through the second quarter
Speaker 1: like okay, are we done with that? Can we just
Speaker 1: like we just can we just throw the ball and
Speaker 1: see you and the rest of us will shoot threes?
Speaker 1: Because man, I seed her, that was a lot for
Speaker 1: a quarter. Hey, back to back, there no joke. Rick.
Speaker 1: In the second week of the season, yes, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: And hey, I mean they played two relatively young teams
Speaker 1: that are going to be geeked up, that are gonna
Speaker 1: play fast. They're gonna see They're gonna see a lot
Speaker 1: of that. That's the way the game is played now.
Speaker 1: And I again, anytime they play a team with any
Speaker 1: sort of a point guard attacking point guard, they're going
Speaker 1: to be in trouble because I don't speed the guy
Speaker 1: that you put in front of them. At this point,
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel is asking Avie Bradley, do you have anything
Speaker 1: anything left? And for those who are saying, hey, look
Speaker 1: we got Taylon Horton, Tucker, we got we got all
Speaker 1: these guys that are injured right now, Kendrick Nunn trouble Areza. Okay,
Speaker 1: so there's two things here. One, if you think those
Speaker 1: guys are gonna be defensively, that means they're taking minutes
Speaker 1: away from Rush Westbrook and Carmelo, Anthony and Stone here
Speaker 1: other stars, which I don't know how well that's going
Speaker 1: to go over. And Two, if you're doing that, then
Speaker 1: you're losing supposedly all this offensive fact that you have.
Speaker 1: They just don't have the kind of two way players
Speaker 1: that you need to play for a champion. That's the bottom.
Speaker 1: Rick Bucker guest here Fox Sports Radio, Jason Smith, Mike
Speaker 1: Carman in for Dan and the Danetts. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get to the end of the game here, Rick. You know,
Speaker 1: as mentioned Russell, Rustbrook got really mad Basley intercepts the
Speaker 1: ball at mid court, goes in for the dunk, really
Speaker 1: took issue of it, talked about it in his postgame
Speaker 1: press conference. You just don't do stuff like that. Did
Speaker 1: you have an issue with Basley the interception at midcourt
Speaker 1: going in for the dunk? I did not, simply because
Speaker 1: I look at the age, I look at the thunder
Speaker 1: and it wasn't as if it was a steel like
Speaker 1: in the front court, you know, or got a rebound
Speaker 1: and went the distance. He intercepted a pass at mid
Speaker 1: court and was at full stride. Now a veteran would
Speaker 1: have pulled off a veteran would He was excited. He
Speaker 1: was like, I'm like, I'm gonna go crush this. The
Speaker 1: crowd was going nuts. I get where Russ is coming from.
Speaker 1: It just sounds it seems like a weird time for
Speaker 1: Russ to make that point or to really lose it.
Speaker 1: And he didn't lose it. But you got bigger things
Speaker 1: to worry about right now than the you know, the
Speaker 1: unwritten rules or the etiquette of a basketball that that
Speaker 1: was my second time, Like I get it, but I
Speaker 1: get why, why why the young kid did it? And
Speaker 1: I just feel like, Russ, you got you got bigger issues. Well,
Speaker 1: it's great theater for all of us, so will lap
Speaker 1: it up. As he stalked him all across the court.
Speaker 1: Probably should have been in Carmelo's face for air balling
Speaker 1: that three point shots, but let's leave that alone for
Speaker 1: you know, and look, you've been on with us for years,
Speaker 1: Rick in our evening show, and you know, uh, well,
Speaker 1: it's a Titanic battle tonight. As the Knicks take on
Speaker 1: the Bulls. The Nets have their issues. Kevin Durant has
Speaker 1: to deflect, saying, I know what you want me to ask,
Speaker 1: and I want way to answer and says, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: we miss Kyrie. So that's part of the equation. Are
Speaker 1: these two teams actually contenders in the Eastern Conference? The
Speaker 1: Knicks and the Nets and the Balls? They can the Bulls, right?
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think Kobe White's going to be
Speaker 1: available until late if he is at all. But do
Speaker 1: they have enough firepower in the East to hang around I?
Speaker 1: I know, Well, it's not firepower, it's experience. And this
Speaker 1: was you know, they're winning the first four games. That
Speaker 1: was the first time in Jack Levine's career career he's
Speaker 1: won four games in a world. Now, that's your best player.
Speaker 1: DAMARDA Rosen has a certain degree of experience, but Jack
Speaker 1: Levine is your leader. And I just look across the
Speaker 1: board at this team and I think this is a
Speaker 1: This is a building year. This is a year where
Speaker 1: you make the playoffs, you figure things out, you figure
Speaker 1: out how you want to play, and you go forward.
Speaker 1: But if you look at Toronto and you look at
Speaker 1: some of the wins that they've had, first of all,
Speaker 1: played the three worst the three of the worst teams
Speaker 1: in the league to get to four and zeros and
Speaker 1: to the way they've won indicates that there's a lot
Speaker 1: of learning to still happen. Ye Are they a playoff
Speaker 1: team without questions? And are nick the next you're gonna
Speaker 1: be what they were last year? I still don't see
Speaker 1: how they go anywhere in the postseason with with basically
Speaker 1: ride stare clothes as the guy that can create for
Speaker 1: everybody else good as Julius Randalls is one on one,
Speaker 1: he's not that player. And if they're a little healthier,
Speaker 1: maybe they went around. But I can't see what's much
Speaker 1: more than that starry starry to be sner on that
Speaker 1: I can already see by the way you were talking
Speaker 1: about Tom Thibodeau smiling. I always when when I think
Speaker 1: of him smiling, because I have seen it, I think
Speaker 1: of a group, it's that it's a smile where you
Speaker 1: just go, is you is it painful for him to
Speaker 1: start up? Is that that hurt? He's on Twitter? At
Speaker 1: Rick Buker, that is at Rick Buker. Hey, he's got
Speaker 1: to ask him all your questions about tonight's Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: Finals preview between the Knicks and the Bulls. He will
Speaker 1: be there all day for you answering those Rick has
Speaker 1: always Buddy, appreciate it. Man, Thanks for getting up so early.
Speaker 1: We will talk to you soon. Russells Oh, it's only
Speaker 1: just begun. Patrick. Listen, as I said, with the Lakers
Speaker 1: in the beginning, they're gonna be fine, like a round
Speaker 1: game fifteen, right, they need some time to get used
Speaker 1: to it. Clearly Westbrook and Anthony Davis already have figured
Speaker 1: out playing with each other. And yeah, the offense has
Speaker 1: to go through Westbrook because this is why you got him.
Speaker 1: If you have him play off the ball, he's gonna
Speaker 1: be just a guy, and he's gonna sulk. He's gonna
Speaker 1: be upset. He's not gonna play well. He needs to
Speaker 1: be the ball driven point guard he's been for the
Speaker 1: last decade plus. And that's how you're going to win
Speaker 1: with Lebron coming in and saying, Okay, what's the best
Speaker 1: way that I can exert my will on every single game?
Speaker 1: Not that suddenly it's hey, it's Russell Westbrook's team, but
Speaker 1: Lebron's the guy that can change. Lebron's the best player
Speaker 1: the last thirty years. I mean, this is what we've
Speaker 1: this is what we've seen now in the NBA. We
Speaker 1: watched him go from hey, he look at what he
Speaker 1: does it forward, I'm going to be the point guard
Speaker 1: this year. Well, how is that going to go? Oh,
Speaker 1: guess what, I can lead the league and assists. That's
Speaker 1: the kind of player he is, and it would be
Speaker 1: less wear and tear on him if he's able to
Speaker 1: figure out in an AMIEBA like way. All right, here's
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do. This is my best way, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a few games to figure it out
Speaker 1: with Westbrook being the guy handling the ball. But that's
Speaker 1: why you got Westbrook. You got him to be Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: You didn't get him to be a guy that can
Speaker 1: fit into your system. Which is why when Frank Vogel
Speaker 1: said that after the first game, I said, well, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, what what? What? Why the hell did you
Speaker 1: get him for? I mean, all you're gonna all you've done,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna do that, is make sure that every
Speaker 1: night the Lakers lose. On Twitter, Buddy Heel trends under
Speaker 1: the heading of Lakers fans wish they had gotten Buddy
Speaker 1: heel instead of Russell Westbrook because they need a shotmaker.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's all you've You've clinched with doing that.
Speaker 1: The minute the Lakers decide, okay, this is where our
Speaker 1: offense goes, maybe they got a glimpse of at the
Speaker 1: last couple of nights because Lebron is out. This is
Speaker 1: the way they're going to succeed. It will take a
Speaker 1: little bit, and I fully expect them to be a
Speaker 1: five hundredish team through the first fifteen or so games,
Speaker 1: but then they'll figure it out and they'll start winning games.
Speaker 1: Lebron trust the veteran players more than he trust the
Speaker 1: young players. That's why this roster has been remade with
Speaker 1: everybody who's over the age of thirty that Lebron James
Speaker 1: has ever played with. That's gonna make the Lakers better
Speaker 1: because when Lebron trust players, he plays better. When he doesn't,
Speaker 1: he gets into Lebron mode where you scratch your head
Speaker 1: and go, what was that all about? So this is
Speaker 1: his team, this is what this is gonna work out.
Speaker 1: But they got to have the offense go through Westbrook.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, I mean, look, there's a lot of film
Speaker 1: study to try to figure out how to actually play
Speaker 1: some defense, right and where you can steal some possessions,
Speaker 1: because that's gonna be a difficult proposition all year long.
Speaker 1: We can stipulate to that as from figuring out your offense.
Speaker 1: At this point in his career, you're trying to have
Speaker 1: as few stressful minutes on Lebron James body as you can,
Speaker 1: particularly in the regular season, right you get to to April,
Speaker 1: you know, release the hounds, release the crack and whatever
Speaker 1: you want to say, let him go and and go
Speaker 1: win another title. But in the interim, you know, you're
Speaker 1: managing minutes, you're managing egos, and you're trying to get
Speaker 1: these guys to play and function together. For Lebron, it's
Speaker 1: been the evolution of a player. And I think you
Speaker 1: and I you know, for the last two plus years,
Speaker 1: have been talking about it on our evening show of
Speaker 1: all Right, when's Lebron start to make that move where
Speaker 1: he's down baseline a little more right, where he's in
Speaker 1: the post and he's off the ball, and will will
Speaker 1: that happen? It seems like bringing in Russell Westbrook, someone
Speaker 1: would have had that conversation with him right that this
Speaker 1: is probably what we need to do. To magnify, you know,
Speaker 1: our offense and get the best out of everybody. Yeah
Speaker 1: you think so? Or was this just uh Lebron James
Speaker 1: going hey, get Russ, Well, how's it gonna work. It'll
Speaker 1: be fine. Okay, let's make the call. It'll be fine.
Speaker 1: But you know that that means that adaptability and adaptation
Speaker 1: is going to be the main word. I think if
Speaker 1: they were to put up by o' brien trophy at
Speaker 1: the end of the year, I think that would have
Speaker 1: to be the slogan, wouldn't it. You got ted lasso
Speaker 1: and believe here it's adapt Twitter at how about a frescoup?
Speaker 1: Mike at Swollen Dome. Jason Smith Mike Harmon in for
Speaker 1: Dan and the Danettes today. Thanks to Rick Buker for
Speaker 1: stopping by again. You can follow Rick on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Rick Buker. But we got more NFL on the way
Speaker 1: after news in the last twenty four hours, it is
Speaker 1: clear that one star NFL quarterback knows he may not
Speaker 1: have that much time left as his team starter. Who
Speaker 1: is it and why? Will break it down coming up next.
Speaker 1: Jason Smith Mike Harmon in for Dan and the Danettes today.
Speaker 1: This is Fox Sports Radio be sure to catch live
Speaker 1: editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays
Speaker 1: at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey, it's me
Speaker 1: Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the
Speaker 1: Parker for twenty two minutes of pipe and hot baseball
Speaker 1: talk featuring the biggest name to newsmakers in the sport.
Speaker 1: Whether you believe in analytics or the eye test, We've
Speaker 1: got all the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday,
Speaker 1: so do yourself of favor and listen to Inside the
Speaker 1: Parkner with Rob Parker on the iHeart Radio app or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast. Fox Sports Radio, The Dan
Speaker 1: Patrick Show, Jason Smith, Mike Harmon in for Dan and
Speaker 1: the Danettes today who are on their way to Chicago
Speaker 1: for Knicks Bulls tonight actually Radio Hall of Fame, but
Speaker 1: most likely Knicks Bulls. We'll have more NBA coming up
Speaker 1: next hour on the show, but in advance of Thursday
Speaker 1: Night football. This week we have had the big news
Speaker 1: of J. J. Watt going to be out for the
Speaker 1: Cardinals against the Packers tonight. There's another player who kind
Speaker 1: of had that news cycle interrupted for him a day ago,
Speaker 1: and that's the Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield. Mayfield, who took
Speaker 1: all the reps with the ones in practice for the
Speaker 1: Browns and advance at their game against the Steelers this
Speaker 1: week with case Keenum taking the reps of the twos,
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield was asked if he could play Sunday. He said, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I can play Sunday. Absolutely. This is a far cry
Speaker 1: from Hey, if I can't play, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: go out there and hurt the team. Mayfield sees the
Speaker 1: writing on the wall, and that is that the Browns
Speaker 1: know that they have either an itch to scratch or
Speaker 1: they think we'd be okay getting by without Mayfield, all right.
Speaker 1: And it's not because Mayfield's a terrible quarterback. But Mayfield
Speaker 1: hasn't made that leap. I mean, this is his fourth
Speaker 1: year in the league and he's just a middle of
Speaker 1: the pack kind of quarterback. And this to show you
Speaker 1: how big windows open and close in the NFL. You
Speaker 1: may look at last year saying that might have been
Speaker 1: the year for the Browns. Right Mayfield was playing as
Speaker 1: best as the head of the snake. They had a
Speaker 1: great rushing attack. In every couple of games, Mayfield would
Speaker 1: go for three hundred and fifty yards and three touchdowns
Speaker 1: and the Browns would win. Here's year four and he
Speaker 1: hasn't made that leap, and the Browns are struggling, and
Speaker 1: they need him to be a great quarterback because when
Speaker 1: you draft a guy number one overall, it's what you're expecting.
Speaker 1: You're not expecting someone to be somewhat of an elite
Speaker 1: game manager. And Browns have looked around the league and
Speaker 1: go well from year one to year two. Look at
Speaker 1: the leap Joe Burrow is made from year one to
Speaker 1: year two. Year three, look at the leap that Josh
Speaker 1: Allen made. Look at Kyler Murray is making leaps. We're
Speaker 1: not getting a leap from Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield is
Speaker 1: the same kind of quarterback he's been for the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, which makes them think can we get
Speaker 1: by without him? Do we really need him? And when
Speaker 1: they had to put case Keenum in case Keenum was
Speaker 1: fine with limited reps. He comes in, runs the offense,
Speaker 1: the offense does pretty well, and you saw after the game,
Speaker 1: Brown's player said, hey, we have confidence in either one
Speaker 1: of these guys. WHOA, whoa? This wasn't we got to
Speaker 1: get Baker Mayfield back as quick as possible. We love
Speaker 1: case but Baker's our guy. This was we could do
Speaker 1: it with either one. And we've watched case Keenum do
Speaker 1: this before with the Vikings in twenty eighteen, catch lightning
Speaker 1: in a bottle for the majority of a season. Boy,
Speaker 1: look how well he's playing all those great weapons. Baker
Speaker 1: Mayfield's got a couple of games to prove that he
Speaker 1: can still be the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns,
Speaker 1: because if they lose these next couple of games and
Speaker 1: Mayfield is just okay, guess what, the Browns are going
Speaker 1: to case Keenum for the rest of the season as
Speaker 1: they try to win these games. So this is Baker
Speaker 1: Mayfield's real lad. Doesn't matter how many commercials he has
Speaker 1: going on around the country, this is his last chance
Speaker 1: to hold on to the brown starting quarterback job because clearly,
Speaker 1: if he falls another couple of games, Case Keena will
Speaker 1: be the guy picked up that fifty year option, gonna
Speaker 1: pay him about nineteen million dollars next year. I mean,
Speaker 1: the big question is how hurt is he? Is it
Speaker 1: paying intolerance pain management or is it something that really
Speaker 1: should require a couple more weeks off. You've got a
Speaker 1: game against the Steelers, and you've had a lot of
Speaker 1: chatter leading up to it, and then you've got the
Speaker 1: Battle for Ohio on November seventh. That'll be in the
Speaker 1: early window, going up against the upstart Bangles, who you're
Speaker 1: now being compared to on a whole other level. Right,
Speaker 1: it used to be the how bad are they? And
Speaker 1: now it's like, well, how good are these teams? And
Speaker 1: everybody jumping on the Joe Burrow and the Bengals bandwagon,
Speaker 1: just like they did with Baker Mayfield. See literally, it's
Speaker 1: last season, right, It's like last season's close. When you
Speaker 1: go to a mall, it's like, hey, why is that
Speaker 1: on sale? Did? It's not the hot hip thing anymore?
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield just that last year. And I like Baker.
Speaker 1: I think he fits what they want to do. And
Speaker 1: last year he did a good job of cutting down
Speaker 1: on the turnovers. Right, goes all the way down to
Speaker 1: eight interceptions after being in that dubious having the dubious
Speaker 1: distinction of getting to twenty the year before, Right, And
Speaker 1: I mean you go go back to twenty one interceptions
Speaker 1: against twenty two touchdowns in that six and ten season
Speaker 1: and twenty nineteen last year. Two four games stretches where
Speaker 1: he had multiple touchdown passes, a bunch of shutouts and
Speaker 1: narrow wins. But they want to run the ball and
Speaker 1: play defense. And that's what they did with case Keenum
Speaker 1: last week. He made a couple of big throws. You
Speaker 1: don't have the world beaters at wide receiver her that
Speaker 1: you thought you were going to, you know, thinking that
Speaker 1: you've got chub and hunt in the backfield. So Landry
Speaker 1: and Odell Beckham junior will eventually be the Odell Beckham
Speaker 1: junior that you remember from all the highlight videos and
Speaker 1: you know, kicking nets and everything else. And he's not
Speaker 1: that guy, right, He's not that guy on this offense,
Speaker 1: and your tight ends don't have the same level of effectiveness.
Speaker 1: It's all about the offensive line in the run game,
Speaker 1: as evidenced by Ernest Johnson going as hard as he did,
Speaker 1: including that five seventeen to close out a win against
Speaker 1: the Broncos where he had seven carries for fifty two yards.
Speaker 1: Good job by the old line. Take it out of
Speaker 1: the quarterback's hands. That's their m O. Right, And that's
Speaker 1: what they did with Baker oftentimes last year, and we
Speaker 1: saw it in the early going here it's like, well,
Speaker 1: when he needs to can he make that throw? So
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of trepidation there, I think, and look,
Speaker 1: it's not my money, but he's up for the extension,
Speaker 1: and we're talking thirty four to thirty six million dollars.
Speaker 1: That what you where you want to put your money
Speaker 1: in or do you want to invest in other positions?
Speaker 1: Because if you don't have a quarterback, you don't really
Speaker 1: get to do much here in this National Football League
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one. So while I don't think it's
Speaker 1: quite as dire as you do in terms of a
Speaker 1: short time time frame here, it certainly is in the
Speaker 1: offing that you know they're looking for someone else coming
Speaker 1: in a twenty twenty two. Yeah, look, he'll get Sam
Speaker 1: Darnold in, which will be hey, we want to move
Speaker 1: on and we're going to dangle him for somebody who
Speaker 1: thinks they aren't going to get a quarterback in the draft.
Speaker 1: Then they can have Mayfield for a year and see
Speaker 1: how it works. But here's the deal, and this is
Speaker 1: another reason why things are more dire is that their
Speaker 1: next two games right now, they got the Steelers at
Speaker 1: home on Sunday, Then they're at the Bengals, right, they
Speaker 1: lose these two games. Where are the Browns at the
Speaker 1: bottom of the AFC North and you're looking for some
Speaker 1: kind of sparks something to do it. As Bill Parcels
Speaker 1: would always say, I can't spark the offense by changing
Speaker 1: the right guard, you know, I change the quarterback and
Speaker 1: that does it. And if we're gonna do it anyway,
Speaker 1: let's do it now. And Case Keenum gets the last
Speaker 1: eight games to say, hey, I can do this, just
Speaker 1: like I did with Minnesota back in twenty eighteen. The
Speaker 1: writing's on the wall there from Mayfield. He is under
Speaker 1: so much pressure in these next couple of weeks it's
Speaker 1: not even funny. Baker's got a point one percent completion
Speaker 1: percentage advantage over case Keenum for his career. Oh boy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But when the writing's there, Mike Harmen, that's where it is.
Speaker 1: That's where you got to start singing code Chrome. Now
Speaker 1: coming up next, we got two big stories out of
Speaker 1: the NFL. This is Fox Sports Radio.