Speaker 1: Welcome to the Best of the Week for What's Right
Speaker 1: with Nick Right the best takes and moments from this
Speaker 1: week on the show Enjoy.
Speaker 2: Luca was on the cover of Men's Health magazine, looking
Speaker 2: very slender. He came out with a quote saying, just visually,
Speaker 2: I would say that my whole body looks better. How
Speaker 2: are you feeling about Luca's transitions?
Speaker 1: So a couple things. One is, first, sorry to I
Speaker 1: pointed this out on TV, and I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: pick on anybody, but this, to me is one of
Speaker 1: the main takeaways from the article. Remember I told you
Speaker 1: guys Ai doesn't know sports and that Ai hallucinates sports.
Speaker 1: This article got marred a bit by the fact that
Speaker 1: the author included in it an anecdote about how Luca,
Speaker 1: when he came into the league had a forty two
Speaker 1: inch vertical that was measured at the NBA Combine. The
Speaker 1: problem with that is twofold. One is anyone that's watched
Speaker 1: ten minutes of Lukadanic at any moment of his career
Speaker 1: knows he never had a forty two inch vertical. The
Speaker 1: other problem is Lukdancic did not go to the combine,
Speaker 1: so there is no place to measure his vertical, So
Speaker 1: what happened there? The most obvious answer, is figured out
Speaker 1: by some Internet sleuths, was if you googled Lukdanciic vertical,
Speaker 1: the top AI result was that Luk Adancic had a
Speaker 1: forty two inch vertical measured at the NBA Combine, which
Speaker 1: then links you to an article about Dante Divincenzo's forty
Speaker 1: two inch vertical at the NBA Combine. But AI hallucinated it.
Speaker 1: I guess they saw the chu in both names, white guys,
Speaker 1: the same draft class, and they just made it up.
Speaker 1: So again, I'm not saying AI can't be used for things.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's not you know, the next, the future,
Speaker 1: all of that. I am saying, for some reason, AI
Speaker 1: does not know sports and can't figure it out. That's
Speaker 1: first thing. Second thing is this my other takeaway from
Speaker 1: that article demands. I'm going to read you a line
Speaker 1: in it which I found fascinating. The facility which is
Speaker 1: located in the town where Doncic is vacationed every summer
Speaker 1: since he was a teen. That's important. The facility which
Speaker 1: is located in the town where Doncic has vacationed every
Speaker 1: summer since he was a teen, didn't have weights until
Speaker 1: earlier this month, when he had dumbbells, barbells, weight plates
Speaker 1: and medballs trucked in. So here's why that's noteworthy to me.
Speaker 1: Luke every summer goes back to this town in Slovenia
Speaker 1: UH and trains. But his training has always just included
Speaker 1: hoop it, you know what I mean. He plays ball
Speaker 1: and does drills, all of it. Weight draining was never
Speaker 1: a big part of it for him. And so now
Speaker 1: you guys know, I feel like the go ahead.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's so cool just being able to get a
Speaker 3: bus of.
Speaker 2: Uh weights, Oh just yet to wherever you're Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Of course. But the the I felt that the whiplash
Speaker 1: effect of you know, Luca's fat, out of shape drinking
Speaker 1: problem was far too strong, considering that without ever being
Speaker 1: in peak physical condition, he had one of the greatest
Speaker 1: opening six year stretches of a career.
Speaker 3: Ever.
Speaker 1: This is where I am contractually obligated to remind the
Speaker 1: audience that Luka Doncic all ready has made more first
Speaker 1: team All nbas than either Steph Curry or Chris Paul
Speaker 1: and only has one less than Kevin freaking Durant. He's
Speaker 1: twenty six years old. That's how great he's been. Now,
Speaker 1: he did have a down year, and part of it
Speaker 1: was he was a little out of shape. He was
Speaker 1: also sad. He also got hurt, He also got traded,
Speaker 1: and all, you know, all of those things. So I
Speaker 1: think that is I think that is important. It's not
Speaker 1: giving him an excuse. But I just thought twelve months
Speaker 1: ago today, before Luca got hurt, before Luca got traded,
Speaker 1: when Luca was coming off a finals appearance, nobody thought
Speaker 1: and he had beaten in round two Shay and in
Speaker 1: round three Anthony Edwards, and had averaged thirty four to
Speaker 1: nine and ten in the regular season. Nobody thought Shay
Speaker 1: or Anthony Edwards was better than him. Now I think
Speaker 1: it's like conventional wisdom that those guys are better than him,
Speaker 1: and Shade certainly has earned it. I guess Anthony. I
Speaker 1: don't think Quhite has. But whatever, the point I'm making
Speaker 1: is this, Luca, in non tip top physical condition, was
Speaker 1: already well on his way to being one of the
Speaker 1: greatest players ever. Luca like this should be the early
Speaker 1: favorite for League MVP.
Speaker 3: Well you don't, and.
Speaker 2: You don't think with his play style that him being
Speaker 2: a little bit thinner might affect it.
Speaker 1: So I don't know he's going yeah, but I think
Speaker 1: I think that if he is, I don't think he's
Speaker 1: going to be skinny. I think he's going to be lean,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I think if you just
Speaker 1: replace some of what was fat the Lakers, Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like, I would bet he weighs
Speaker 1: about the same, but look at me, if not.
Speaker 2: More, Yeah, I mean, muscle weighs more than fat, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, so he looks a lot thinner than he was.
Speaker 2: He looks a lot thinner, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: So I just, yeah, I don't think you want actually
Speaker 2: skinny Luca, but thinner Luca. I think what is.
Speaker 1: Helpful. And I think that he has taken this, you
Speaker 1: know what happened last year to heart. And this was
Speaker 1: the thing that I warned the MAVs about after the
Speaker 1: trade that even if they were going to be right,
Speaker 1: they're going to be wrong. Even if they were right,
Speaker 1: that if they didn't trade him and they signed him
Speaker 1: to an extension, he was just gonna get fat and
Speaker 1: out of shape and all these things. He by trading
Speaker 1: him and motivating him and insulting him. They then put
Speaker 1: this extra chip on his shoulder. Now people can say,
Speaker 1: why didn't he do it during the year. I don't
Speaker 1: think you can do this type of thing during a season,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? I think you have to this.
Speaker 1: You n need an offseason. And he's about to be
Speaker 1: playing a ton of ball at euro Basket at for
Speaker 1: Slovenia and I right now he would be my early
Speaker 1: season pick to win League MVP next year.
Speaker 2: And if he just torched Dallas every single time they
Speaker 2: play and it just doesn't even matter.
Speaker 1: God, I just can't wait if that were to happen. Also,
Speaker 1: by the way, shout out to Marco in the chat
Speaker 1: watching from Slovenia.
Speaker 3: Yes, shout out Marco. Very cool.
Speaker 1: Let's do Matt Stafford here and then we get to
Speaker 1: the listeners.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Matt st Everett has been dealing with some
Speaker 2: backsword on this and is set to miss another week
Speaker 2: of camp. You've been high on the RAMS. Does this
Speaker 2: affect it at all?
Speaker 3: I think the guy just doesn't want to go to
Speaker 3: training camp. He's old. Oh old.
Speaker 1: I hope that's it. That would be great. That would
Speaker 1: be an awesome result here. If it's just old guy
Speaker 1: doesn't want to practice. So here is before training camp,
Speaker 1: there was one story of potential contender that hit my radar,
Speaker 1: and that was the CJ. Stroud's shoulder soreness. I was like, ooh,
Speaker 1: that's something to watch CJ Stroud, you know, like that
Speaker 1: he wasn't able to do full throwing practice or whatever,
Speaker 1: like that's something watch. That seems to have subsided. Okay,
Speaker 1: but it was. It hit my radar in training camp.
Speaker 1: We've been lucky so far, fingers crossed. There hasn't been
Speaker 1: the like devastating superstar injury, and there hasn't been the
Speaker 1: contender that has just been hit with a bunch of
Speaker 1: you know, contributor injuries, at least not yet. So there
Speaker 1: have been to me two made stories out of training
Speaker 1: camp so far for contenders. One is a positive one.
Speaker 1: One is a worrisome one. The positive one and people
Speaker 1: can say this is you know, Chiefs colored glasses, but
Speaker 1: I'm not wrong about this. The Chiefs rookie first round
Speaker 1: pick Get who was considered a top ten talent, who
Speaker 1: fell because people thought his knee was not right and
Speaker 1: he might not be healthy for a good portion of
Speaker 1: his rookie year. Not only being healthy the first day
Speaker 1: of camp, but being slotted as the starting left tackle,
Speaker 1: not competing with Jalen Moore, who they signed to be
Speaker 1: the left tackle for that spot, and just being their
Speaker 1: left tackle from day one of camp today to right
Speaker 1: now is one of the biggest positive stories for any
Speaker 1: true contender this training camp, because if they have that
Speaker 1: spot locked down, and then you have Jail Moore, the
Speaker 1: guy they signed from San Francisco, and Juwan Taylor, the
Speaker 1: right tackle who's been a bit of a disappointment with
Speaker 1: Kansas City since they signed him from Jacksonville, competing on
Speaker 1: the right side, then all of a sudden, the Chiefs
Speaker 1: offensive line is totally different. So and there was everyone
Speaker 1: agreed that Josh Simmons had the talent to potentially be
Speaker 1: the number one tackle in his draft class, but the
Speaker 1: injury was so worried some he slid. If the knee
Speaker 1: is really right, then the Chiefs dealing at taking care
Speaker 1: of one of the most important and one of the
Speaker 1: most expensive spots in football by drafting a guy at
Speaker 1: thirty two is a game changer that's in the positive
Speaker 1: direction for a contender, in a negative direction for a contender.
Speaker 1: It's this Stafford story because aside from confidence for your
Speaker 1: team's secondary, there is nothing positive that comes out of
Speaker 1: Jimmy G practicing and playing in trailing camp. And you
Speaker 1: need desperately healthy Matt Stafford in order to contend, and
Speaker 1: I think the Rams can contend. I liked now poor
Speaker 1: DeVante Adams. He's like, you got to be kidding me.
Speaker 1: I got massive, I got Jimmy G throwing me the
Speaker 1: wall again. I love Puka, I really like their d line.
Speaker 1: I obviously love McVeigh. I think DeVante is good as
Speaker 1: a number two with the Rams, but it all comes
Speaker 1: undone without Stafford, and Stafford is thirty seven. He got
Speaker 1: the shit kicked out of him for a decade in Detroit.
Speaker 1: He has been banged up at times with the Rams.
Speaker 1: I am it's not the biggest story, but I Am
Speaker 1: not going to ignore it as a potential big story.
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Speaker 1: All Right, speaking of indefensible, I guess this is semi defensible,
Speaker 1: but I hate it. The Madden rating go.
Speaker 2: Ahead, So I don't know about indefensible, but the ninety
Speaker 2: nine club came out for Baden twenty six. Your guy
Speaker 2: Mahomes was snubbed. Josh Allen Lamar Jackson are the two
Speaker 2: eight both f ninety nine ratings? Yeah, how do you
Speaker 2: feel about this? Is this legit? I think it's pretty fair.
Speaker 2: I think that Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen are much
Speaker 2: more Madden type quarterbacks than Patrick Mahomes is. Like Patrick
Speaker 2: Mahomes is more of an improviser. Lamar Jackson's obviously like
Speaker 2: super fast, and Josh Allen's like a freak athlete.
Speaker 3: He's huge running through dudes.
Speaker 2: So it's like as far as games, like, if you
Speaker 2: want to play Madden, like you're thinking, like you want
Speaker 2: to play, you would rather play with Lamar Jackson or
Speaker 2: Josh how Okay.
Speaker 1: So that's a really interesting way to look at it.
Speaker 1: And if that's the argument, that so be it. Listen,
Speaker 1: Mahomes coming into this year, in the six Maddens post,
Speaker 1: his rookie post, his first year as a starter, he
Speaker 1: was a ninety nine to four times, he was the
Speaker 1: highest rated quarterback five times. The one time he wasn't
Speaker 1: he was the third highest rated quarterback behind Brady and Rogers,
Speaker 1: and that was after the AFC Championship Game loss to Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: And he responded by having more yards than any player
Speaker 1: in the history of the league, winning the Super Bowl MVP,
Speaker 1: winning the regular season MVP, and having arguably the greatest
Speaker 1: quarterback season anyone's ever had. So I'm I'm not even
Speaker 1: mad at Madden. Maybe they motivated him. I act actually,
Speaker 1: I I want to use this as an opportunity and listen,
Speaker 1: Josh just won Super Bowl or I'm sorry, regular season
Speaker 1: MVP had, you know, for a team that a lot
Speaker 1: of people thought was not going to be good. Some
Speaker 1: people who had always been called a Bill's hater for
Speaker 1: just being right about the Bills then last year thought
Speaker 1: the Bills could be really good and that person was me,
Speaker 1: but that it was because of Josh Allen, So it's fine.
Speaker 1: And Lamar has had basically back to back perfect regular season,
Speaker 1: so you want to give him a ninety nine rating,
Speaker 1: it's fine. I actually want to use this time here
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about Lamar and the Ravens,
Speaker 1: because I was on Mina's podcast and she was a
Speaker 1: gog that I was skeptical of the rape Vins and Mena,
Speaker 1: you know, said Lamar didn't play poorly in the playoff game,
Speaker 1: which I find unbelievable, and said that basically she thought
Speaker 1: I was being unfair to Lamar or the Ravens by
Speaker 1: not I guess chalking up the same exact thing happening
Speaker 1: every single year to just dumb luck and said, oh,
Speaker 1: I didn't know you were a Ravens hater. And this
Speaker 1: is where as I said with her, I will break
Speaker 1: k fabe for a moment. I adore Mina times. I know,
Speaker 1: I call her my rival that I want to vanquish.
Speaker 1: I think she's outstanding. It's the only reason I went
Speaker 1: on a podcast with her at seven o'clock New York
Speaker 1: City time on the night before I was going to
Speaker 1: the Bahamas for a few days, and I think she
Speaker 1: does great work.
Speaker 3: But I.
Speaker 1: There are two major points I want to make here.
Speaker 1: The first one is this, at what point does someone
Speaker 1: stop being a hater if they are constantly one of
Speaker 1: the only people provencorrect at what I'm just curious for
Speaker 1: the for the media and internet at large, at what
Speaker 1: point does hating transition to accurate skepticism or is the answer?
Speaker 1: Never is the answer? Nope? If the whole world acknowledges
Speaker 1: this guy is just you know, dan close to a
Speaker 1: perfect player, who's had a couple perfect regular seasons, who's
Speaker 1: just bad timing for these awful moments and now twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three for Lamar, it was an awful game. Twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, it was not an awful game. It was
Speaker 1: a couple really awful moments that ruined an otherwise really
Speaker 1: good game by him. But I am and so because
Speaker 1: I didn't think Lamar was terrible in the Divisional round
Speaker 1: game against Buffalo. What I did think was a guy
Speaker 1: who was historically good all year about protecting the football
Speaker 1: having two turnovers in the first twenty minutes of that
Speaker 1: game made it to where the best grade he could
Speaker 1: get for the games, like a C plus and especially
Speaker 1: because they end up losing. And so the the question
Speaker 1: I truly have, and the question I truly have for
Speaker 1: the audiences is that hating is. And I'll use the
Speaker 1: Bills thing as an example. Every single year people called
Speaker 1: me a Bill's hater. Now I was a Bill's troll
Speaker 1: to a degree, and I said drop the banner, and
Speaker 1: I poked fun and I did all that stuff. But
Speaker 1: I was also right every single time. And then this
Speaker 1: past year when I thought the pendulum had swung too
Speaker 1: far in the other direction, and I said, I actually
Speaker 1: think the Bills are going to be excellent. I think
Speaker 1: they're once again the biggest threat to the Chiefs, And
Speaker 1: that's the opposite of hating, and it was just correct. Right.
Speaker 1: So then the and yes, guys, when I say Mahomes
Speaker 1: at the most yards in the single season ever, that's
Speaker 1: that is exactly the It's exactly what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 1: It's total yards for the full season, everything all put together.
Speaker 1: The most yards any players I ever accounted for was
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two Patrick Mahomes. So the Lamar stuff to
Speaker 1: me is interesting because I it's not only that I
Speaker 1: don't think I'm a hater, but I think a lot
Speaker 1: of other really smart people who cover this league are
Speaker 1: in willful denial because they like him and because they
Speaker 1: want it to be different than it is, and because
Speaker 1: and this part I really empathize with, because they detectest
Speaker 1: so much, so many of his original actual haters, the
Speaker 1: people who said he should change positions coming in the league,
Speaker 1: or he'd never be any good or any of that stuff,
Speaker 1: and so all of that has created this very odd
Speaker 1: world where folks patronize him a bit in a way.
Speaker 1: They discuss what is the only hole on his resume,
Speaker 1: but it's the hole that matters the most, which is
Speaker 1: in that league, for that position, how you play in
Speaker 1: the postseason. And so this is the question that I
Speaker 1: would just have to everyone, Folks on Ravens Twitter who
Speaker 1: are mad at me because they think the team is
Speaker 1: absolutely stacked, and I have questions about its received position,
Speaker 1: and folks in the media that think I'm unfair in
Speaker 1: my skepticism. Because one of the other things that happened
Speaker 1: when I was talking again I think Mina is outstanding
Speaker 1: with Mina was Stafford came up and I talked about
Speaker 1: how if I were like I kind of impromptu was
Speaker 1: talking about how he might be my third pick of
Speaker 1: any quarterback in the league to have in the postseason.
Speaker 1: That would go Mahomes Alan Stafford, And she seemed legitimately
Speaker 1: a ghast that I was not including Lamar in the
Speaker 1: math for that, and I was legitimately aghast that she
Speaker 1: possibly could include Lamar in the math for that specific question.
Speaker 1: You could have any quarterback for a playoff run, like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to pick the guy who's literally never
Speaker 1: like shown us that he can do that. It would
Speaker 1: seem that would seem silly to me. You might be like, well,
Speaker 1: Josh hasn't shown it. Josh has had plenty of playoff
Speaker 1: runs where he's played excellent throughout. He just the team
Speaker 1: wasn't good enough or did see that from Lamar? But
Speaker 1: that's fine. This is kind of an old hat. We've
Speaker 1: talked about this each of the last few years, because each
Speaker 1: of the last few years it has gone exactly like this
Speaker 1: unbelievable regular season that I look at with a quizzical
Speaker 1: eye because I want to see how it works in
Speaker 1: the postseason. Then Lamar has one of, if not his
Speaker 1: downright worst game in the postseason, and then everybody has
Speaker 1: this moment of clarity for about three days, where after
Speaker 1: the year people are like, damn, Nick was right without
Speaker 1: saying Nick was right, and then come this time of year,
Speaker 1: it's like, no, this will year will be different. So
Speaker 1: this is my question because Raven's Twitter, Raven's Twitter thinks
Speaker 1: the team is absolutely loaded, so obviously like there shouldn't
Speaker 1: be any excuses there. But my question in the media
Speaker 1: is this, if it were to happen again, same be
Speaker 1: to the last couple of years, is Lamar gonna win MVP?
Speaker 1: He is the MVP's top two MVP, all of it,
Speaker 1: and then once again the Ravens don't play to their
Speaker 1: seed or don't play to their talent or you know,
Speaker 1: and it's because of massive quarterback mistakes early in a
Speaker 1: playoff game that puts him in a hole that they
Speaker 1: can't quite dig themselves out of. Will this year then
Speaker 1: be enough? Is it, like before, the sample is too
Speaker 1: small or will it still just be a randomness, dumb
Speaker 1: luck of the playoffs? I find it really fascinating because
Speaker 1: it is absolutely true that the only thing standing between
Speaker 1: Lamar and being in the discussion demanse as one of
Speaker 1: the Mixer seven greatest quarterbacks of all time, is one
Speaker 1: great playoff run. That's all that's standing between It's just
Speaker 1: one because the regular season stuff is so unbelievable. But
Speaker 1: the only thing standing between him and being in a
Speaker 1: very unique class of all time athletes in a in
Speaker 1: a not great sense, is deja vu all over again
Speaker 1: one more time. And it makes this year one of
Speaker 1: the most fascinating. It makes it makes the Ravens and
Speaker 1: Lamar one of the most fascinating stories of the season. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it also I am I'm really excited to watch it,
Speaker 1: and I am really excited to see how people react
Speaker 1: myself included to how this full season plays out. And
Speaker 1: so like it was, it's back to back years. It's
Speaker 1: all been right there, all been. And that's one other
Speaker 1: thing I want to say, because one of the things
Speaker 1: Mena pointed out was Dvoa has over the last quarter
Speaker 1: century de Monday, the two best teams, the two best
Speaker 1: five year stretches by any team to not make a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl are the last five years of the Buffalo
Speaker 1: Bills and the last five years of the Baltimore Ravens.
Speaker 1: And the point there that Mina made was, you know,
Speaker 1: basically that's an Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes stat, and
Speaker 1: it's that these two teams were good enough to be
Speaker 1: all time greats. They were just blocked by one of
Speaker 1: the great is, if not the greatest duo in NFL history.
Speaker 1: And I pushed back on that too, because I think
Speaker 1: the Bills being on that list is a Andy Reid
Speaker 1: and Patrick Mahomes stat because the Bills have lost to
Speaker 1: the Chiefs five times in this stretch all r I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: four times. I don't know that. I feel the Ravens
Speaker 1: being on that list is a Chief stat because only
Speaker 1: one of those years have the Chiefs been the team
Speaker 1: to block the Ravens. They haven't gotten to that level yet.
Speaker 1: So we'll see, and I listen, you believe in the
Speaker 1: Ravens this year year.
Speaker 3: NFL is wide open this year. See what he does.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, we'll see. I have a feeling it will
Speaker 1: be like every year, unbelievable. In the regular season, they
Speaker 1: lose a couple of games they probably shouldn't lose that
Speaker 1: are a little odd, but the it is jaw dropping.
Speaker 1: And then come the playoffs, we're gonna be like, wow,
Speaker 1: this team sure looks different, wonder why? And then but listen,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll be wrong. Maybe I'll be wrong.
Speaker 2: So Brown's owner Jimmy Haslam has distanced himself from the
Speaker 2: Shador Sanders pick, saying that the GM was the one
Speaker 2: who made that call and not him. So why wouldn't
Speaker 2: he want stake on such a low risk, high reward situation.
Speaker 1: So listen, I think he is just trying to I
Speaker 1: don't think he's trying to distance himself as much as
Speaker 1: what he's trying to do is make it clear or
Speaker 1: at least clean up a bit. No, the GM's in charge,
Speaker 1: not me. Here is what I find so interesting about
Speaker 1: the Chador situation right now. I was not a Shadoor guy.
Speaker 1: I was one of I think the first people in
Speaker 1: the mock draft community that had Shador early in the process,
Speaker 1: slipping to the back half of Round one, talking about
Speaker 1: that the Steelers might not need to trade up if
Speaker 1: they need to get him. I talked a lot about
Speaker 1: how I thought there was too much discussion about Shador's
Speaker 1: personality and not enough discussion about his lack of arm talent,
Speaker 1: and I just didn't look at him as like a
Speaker 1: blue chip prospect. So I was not a Shadoor guy.
Speaker 1: And now the however, because of where he is and
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks that he is competing with. I find myself
Speaker 1: feeling like they've got to start him at some point,
Speaker 1: because here's the deal. Kenny Pickett is injured and not
Speaker 1: an NFL quarterback. There is a zero percent chance Kenny
Speaker 1: Pickett is the Steeler's answer at quarterback. Zero percent. The Steelers,
Speaker 1: pardon me, there is a zero percent chance he wasn't.
Speaker 1: The Steelers answer that Kenny Pickett is the Browns answer quarterback,
Speaker 1: so cross him out. Joe Flacco is forty years old.
Speaker 1: There is a zero percent chance Joe Flacco is their
Speaker 1: long term answer at quarterback, so cross him out. Dylan Gabriel, sorry,
Speaker 1: and you're not gonna like this, demase, he's too small.
Speaker 1: There is a zero percent chance Dylan Gabriel can be
Speaker 1: a nice backup, maybe a spot starter. There is a
Speaker 1: zero percent chance Dylan Gabriel is the Browns franchise quarterback
Speaker 1: three years from now. Shadoor, there is a five percent
Speaker 1: chance Shadoor is the Browns franchise quarterback. Five percent got
Speaker 1: more than one, less than ten somewhere in there, when
Speaker 1: the other three guys are a combined zero percent, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna be a terrible team the moment you know,
Speaker 1: you can start Flacco to start the year, but the
Speaker 1: moment that the year has gotten away from you, you
Speaker 1: gotta play shittor. And that's the other weird thing. Haslam
Speaker 1: was like Andrew picks the players, Stefanski sets the rock,
Speaker 1: you know, decide too plays, but then also said in
Speaker 1: that same SoundBite, obviously both young guys need to play
Speaker 1: this year. I mean, Haslm's not the greatest donor just
Speaker 1: just flat.
Speaker 3: Like both of them just saying that this year is
Speaker 3: like a waste.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I don't. I mean, it seems.
Speaker 3: Quarterbacks need to play this year. You kind of have
Speaker 3: an idea of what your season.
Speaker 1: To correct because they have two first round picks next
Speaker 1: year and they yeah, I mean, Haslm is a tough
Speaker 1: guy to work for. Danny's quarterback rankings are just an abomination,
Speaker 1: and it just begs the question, why is it? Why
Speaker 1: do we play the games if they're not going to count?
Speaker 1: And again they are. I might be being a little
Speaker 1: harsh because the rankings are actually Danny's rankings. Go Mahomes,
Speaker 1: Alan Burrow, Lamar, Herbert Stafford, Jaden Goff Baker hurts. So
Speaker 1: here's the when I say they're an abomination, here's what
Speaker 1: I mean, or here's here's what's unfair about that. If
Speaker 1: he's simply flipped Hurts and Herbert, they're totally legitimate ranking.
Speaker 1: And that's I'm not saying that's how I would have
Speaker 1: it one through ten. But if it went Mahomes, Alan Burrow, Lamar, Hurts, Stafford,
Speaker 1: Jaden Goff, Baker, Herbert, that's fine, Like, there's nothing crazy
Speaker 1: about that. But having Justin Herbert ahead of Matt Stafford,
Speaker 1: Jaden Daniels, Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield, and Jail and Hurts
Speaker 1: for nothing other than vibes, it's just it's just ridiculous.
Speaker 3: And that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: So now, you demons, do you have an issue with
Speaker 1: people who put Burrow ahead of Lamar?
Speaker 3: No, I could.
Speaker 2: I could see those, I can flip those on any
Speaker 2: given day. I feel like, so I could pull Lamar
Speaker 2: before before Brow. I'm also not mad at Burrow being
Speaker 2: before Lamar.
Speaker 1: I'm not mad at Burrow being ahead of Lamar. However, again,
Speaker 1: my job on this pod is to just be sports.
Speaker 1: The sports worlds ras al Ghoul and you know, create
Speaker 1: balance in the world where there otherwise isn't let me
Speaker 1: defend Lamar for a moment here. It is unfair in
Speaker 1: my opinion to penalize Lamar for bad postseason performances and
Speaker 1: then lift up Joe Burrow, who the last couple of
Speaker 1: years has had nonexistent postseason performances, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So like that is it's a weird because you can't
Speaker 1: argue as great as Burrow has been was in the
Speaker 1: regular season last year, a lot of the MVP voters,
Speaker 1: all pro voters, a lot of people thought Lamar was better.
Speaker 1: And then obviously the year before Lamar was better in
Speaker 1: the regular season is Burrow was hurt and wasn't that
Speaker 1: effective early and Lamar won League MVP, and so the
Speaker 1: knock on Lamar's postseason performances, but Burrow hasn't been in
Speaker 1: the postseason. So like that one I do think is
Speaker 1: a little.
Speaker 2: Much of Lamar is my guy and you're ripping into
Speaker 2: him the other day on Tuesday. But as postseason success,
Speaker 2: I really can't argue, like that's that's fair. But how
Speaker 2: much of that stuff is Burrow's fault? How much of
Speaker 2: that stuff is Lamar's fault? As far as the postseason,
Speaker 2: what happens, like with with Joe Burrow, You're saying he
Speaker 2: was banged up and then you have a terrible defense
Speaker 2: last year.
Speaker 1: I just think, well, no, That's what I'm saying is, yes,
Speaker 1: those are true factors, but I'm also not going to.
Speaker 3: Use it as a metric, like when when ranking them.
Speaker 1: Well, no, I I what I'm not gonna do is
Speaker 1: say after the regular season, Lamar is higher than Burrow,
Speaker 1: Burrow misses the playoffs, Lamar plays poorly in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and then Lamar gets dropped beneath Burrow, like the because
Speaker 1: you can't, yep, showing up to a test and failing
Speaker 1: it is still better than skipping the test, like not
Speaker 1: showing up. And so like you got you got more,
Speaker 1: you got some questions right, and so oh like the
Speaker 1: and so that's the So I listen, I don't think
Speaker 1: having Burrow ahead of Lamar is outrageous, but it's not
Speaker 1: what I would have And and then it starts getting
Speaker 1: you know, then we start figuring out where exactly do
Speaker 1: you have hurts, And the hurts ranking is really interesting.
Speaker 1: And I tried to make this point on TV yesterday
Speaker 1: and I did it kind of ham handedly, which is
Speaker 1: Eagles fans right now, and I get it they're feeling themselves.
Speaker 1: You won the chance Super Bowl, you should absolutely be thrilled,
Speaker 1: But they kind of want the best of both worlds.
Speaker 1: They want everyone to acknowledge how utterly stacked their roster is,
Speaker 1: how great, Howie Roseman's done, how good they are, you know,
Speaker 1: in every way, shape and form. They want all of that,
Speaker 1: but they also don't don't want any of us to
Speaker 1: incorporate any of that into our evaluation of Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 1: Like they want everyone to bend the knee that they
Speaker 1: have the best overall roster in football by a mile,
Speaker 1: but also pretend like we think Jalen Hurts is carrying
Speaker 1: just a regular team. And so now I think Hurts
Speaker 1: has been clearly excellent in huge spots, and I think
Speaker 1: Hurts I think having Hurts ten like Danny did is
Speaker 1: too you know, a bridge too far. But I also
Speaker 1: think that it is you view it differently than if
Speaker 1: Josh Allen had won the Super Bowl last year with
Speaker 1: the team he had, Jalen winning it last year with
Speaker 1: the team he had. I just think there is some
Speaker 1: nuance there. Eagles fans, on the other hand, want us
Speaker 1: all to be like, you have the greatest roster in
Speaker 1: the league. It's it's sakwan'sa Hall of Famer. How he
Speaker 1: drafts better than every everyone, the best wide receiver, duo
Speaker 1: of the best offensive line. And I'll also Jalen Hurts
Speaker 1: got no help, Like, which is the you're not gonna
Speaker 1: get that.
Speaker 2: Yesterday was the five year anniversary of the first game
Speaker 2: in the Bubble, and it's still a huge debate on
Speaker 2: its legitimess. Darryl morri said in quote, everyone I speak
Speaker 2: to around the league privately agrees that it doesn't truly
Speaker 2: hold up as a genuine championship. Yes, looking back, how
Speaker 2: would you measure the Bubble championship?
Speaker 1: Okay, so first let me help out my pal Daryl,
Speaker 1: because I was shocked when I read this quote, because
Speaker 1: Darryl has publicly many times talked about how legit he
Speaker 1: finds that championship to be and how hard it was.
Speaker 1: And so when I saw it's one thing for you know,
Speaker 1: Legion Hoops or whatever one of these kind of aggregators
Speaker 1: to post a quote to another thing for ESPN their
Speaker 1: social team to post, you know, end quotes. Everyone I
Speaker 1: speak to around the league privately agrees that it doesn't
Speaker 1: truly hold up as a genuine championship, with the source
Speaker 1: being the Athletic. So I'm going to read you. So
Speaker 1: I reached out to Daryl, and not surprisingly, he explained
Speaker 1: to me what I thought was going to be the case,
Speaker 1: which is, while he wasn't misquoted, it is being misinterpreted.
Speaker 1: So I'll read you the full quote and clarify, and
Speaker 1: but then I'll also give you my thoughts on what
Speaker 1: everybody seems to think. All Right, Daryl says, quote, had
Speaker 1: the Rockets won the title, I absolutely would have celebrated
Speaker 1: it as legitimate, knowing the immense effort and resilience required.
Speaker 1: Yet everyone I speak to around the league privately agrees
Speaker 1: that it doesn't truly hold up as a genuine championship.
Speaker 1: Pause for a moment. The privately agrees is what is
Speaker 1: tripping people up. He is saying everyone he talks to
Speaker 1: agrees amongst themselves, like he is the outlier that says
Speaker 1: this was an amazing accomplishment, but everybody else says not
Speaker 1: so much. Where people are saying, and I actually understand
Speaker 1: why people are confused. They are reading it as everyone
Speaker 1: privately agrees with me, he's saying, everyone privately agrees with
Speaker 1: each other, and so just to and again, Darrel is
Speaker 1: my pal. But I also you know, he deserves to
Speaker 1: have his actual opinion out there correctly. He then went
Speaker 1: on to say, perhaps lasting legacy the NBA bubble is
Speaker 1: that the NBA should be proud of its leadership at
Speaker 1: both the beginning and the end of pandemic, even though
Speaker 1: the champion will forever be marked an asterisk. And he
Speaker 1: again is saying there because that's the way seemingly everyone
Speaker 1: else feels. And so here is I said to you
Speaker 1: guys a couple months ago that the vast majority of
Speaker 1: NBA myths fall into one of two categories. Not all,
Speaker 1: but the vast majority. Category one is uplifting Michael Jordan,
Speaker 1: and category two is tearing down Lebron James. And there
Speaker 1: is no greater example of that than the revisionist history
Speaker 1: on the god Doog bubble. So here is the accurate
Speaker 1: timeline of the Los Angeles Lakers winning the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: NBA Championship. Okay, in twenty eighteen, Lebron James was universally
Speaker 1: old as by a wide margin, the best player in
Speaker 1: the NBA, dragging a Cleveland Cavalier team to the NBA
Speaker 1: Finals with a playoff run that had an all time
Speaker 1: record eight forty point games, two true buzzer beaters, two
Speaker 1: game seven victories, one of which on the road, and
Speaker 1: what some consider the single greatest individual performance any players
Speaker 1: ever had fifty one to eight and eight in Game
Speaker 1: one of the twenty eighteen NBA Finals, where with no
Speaker 1: other because Kevin Love was not was had gotten banged
Speaker 1: up at the end of the Celtics series with no
Speaker 1: one around him against Steph kd Clay Draymont two Lebron
Speaker 1: was in twenty eighteen. In twenty nineteen, he goes to
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers, who were in the midst of
Speaker 1: the worst half decade stretch in the history of their franchise,
Speaker 1: and is playing a game on Christmas Day when they
Speaker 1: are a top four as drug that team to a
Speaker 1: top four seed in the West, and suffers the first
Speaker 1: major injury of his career. But at that moment, there
Speaker 1: was still no argument and no debate over who the
Speaker 1: best player in the world was. That offseason, they acquire
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis and instantly become the best team in the league.
Speaker 1: That Lakers team pre pandemic, pre bubble, pre everything with
Speaker 1: ad started the year twenty four and three was running
Speaker 1: rough shit got over everyone. Lebron James was the leading
Speaker 1: NBA MVP candidate and they were the favorite to win
Speaker 1: the championship pre pandemic. So what we had was the
Speaker 1: Lakers had the best record in basketball, the Lakers had
Speaker 1: the best player in basketball, the Lakers had made the
Speaker 1: biggest trade an acquisition of any team that offseason with
Speaker 1: respect to what the Clippers had done, and they were
Speaker 1: the favorites to win the championship. The season then shuts
Speaker 1: down post shutdown, or right before the shutdown, Jannis had,
Speaker 1: you know, really gone on an unbelievable run, and the
Speaker 1: NBA MVP debate came down to two guys, Giannis or Lebron,
Speaker 1: with hardened kind of lurking because Harden had made the
Speaker 1: Key and Westbrook thing work and that team seemed dangerous.
Speaker 1: And then we get to the bubble and there is
Speaker 1: no home court, which penalized two teams more than any
Speaker 1: which were the two teams that had earned home court advantage,
Speaker 1: Lebron's team and Giannie's team. Lebron's team which won the
Speaker 1: West by four games and Janice's team, which won the
Speaker 1: East by four games, and then the bubble happens, and
Speaker 1: the playoff bracket is set, and every single potential pitfall
Speaker 1: matchup that people are convinced is a bad matchup or
Speaker 1: the toughest possible path hits the Lakers. We can now
Speaker 1: pretend it did not happen. But Dame and Portland were
Speaker 1: the scary team that nobody wanted to face in round one,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers drew them with no home court advantage,
Speaker 1: and after losing Game one, dispatched of them in five.
Speaker 1: Then the Rockets with the one year Harden and Westbrook
Speaker 1: worked that Rockets team with James Harden being third and
Speaker 1: MVP voting that year and Russ the last actually really
Speaker 1: good season of his career on a at least that
Speaker 1: involved winning It's Round two, the Lakers get the rights
Speaker 1: and they lose Game one and then dispatch of them
Speaker 1: in five. And then you get the Denver Nuggets with
Speaker 1: a healthy Jamal Murray who would not lose another playoff
Speaker 1: series with a healthy Jamal Murray four years, and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis plays the best basketball of his life. Lebron James
Speaker 1: in a closeout game goes thirty eight, sixteen, and ten,
Speaker 1: and they dispatch of the Nuggets in five. And then
Speaker 1: in the NBA Finals, Oh, they get a fluke of
Speaker 1: a team that definitely wouldn't have made the finals if
Speaker 1: not for the Bubble, the Miami Heat, who responded by
Speaker 1: the way to that finals trip by two years later
Speaker 1: making game seven of the conference finals, and the year
Speaker 1: after that making the NBA Finals again. And in those finals,
Speaker 1: Lebron James plays close to perfect basketball, reminding people once
Speaker 1: again that he's still the best player in the world
Speaker 1: when he averaged thirty twelve and nine on fifty nine
Speaker 1: to forty two splits to finish off a playoff run
Speaker 1: where again the best player in the world, Lebron James
Speaker 1: averaged for the postseason twenty eight eleven and nine on
Speaker 1: fifty six percent from the field. That team won the championship.
Speaker 1: And then how did they defend their title when the
Speaker 1: bubble was done? The next season? They started twenty one
Speaker 1: and six, well they I mean they started actually eleven
Speaker 1: and three, and they had the best record in basketball
Speaker 1: or in the Western Conference was maybe the Western Conference
Speaker 1: or basketball The day Solomon Hill stumbled into Lebron's ankle
Speaker 1: and he got hurt. So before the pandemic, they were
Speaker 1: the best team in the league with the best player
Speaker 1: in the league. During the pandemic, they had home their
Speaker 1: home court advantage they had earned taken from them, and
Speaker 1: got what people were calling at the time a nightmare
Speaker 1: path Dame in round one, Harden and Russ in round two,
Speaker 1: Joker and Jamal Murray in round three, and dust them
Speaker 1: all in five in the finals. People think, oh, they
Speaker 1: got lucky. They don't have to face yeh honest, they
Speaker 1: don't have to face I think Toronto was actually the
Speaker 1: two seed that year. That would have been no problem,
Speaker 1: and they got this fluke of a team in Miami,
Speaker 1: except for the fact that Miami a couple of years
Speaker 1: later beat Milwaukee again and came within a jump shot
Speaker 1: of going back to the finals. And then the next
Speaker 1: year did go back to the finals, and the best
Speaker 1: player in the world played peak basketball. And then the
Speaker 1: next season they start twenty one and six. The idea
Speaker 1: that the wrong champion was crowned, the idea that that
Speaker 1: was an easy or fraudulent or lesser path win. The
Speaker 1: only basketball ringible basketball thing that was altered was no
Speaker 1: one had home court, and so the only tangible damage
Speaker 1: that was done to any of the teams were the
Speaker 1: teams that would have had home court throughout, and that
Speaker 1: was the Los Angeles Lakers. And every single person watching
Speaker 1: knows that if the Milwaukee Bucks, who were the one
Speaker 1: seed and had the League MVP, it's like the Lakers,
Speaker 1: who were the one seed and had the second or
Speaker 1: the runner up for League MVP. If the Bucks had
Speaker 1: won that title, there's not a person in the world
Speaker 1: that would be like fake title if the I don't
Speaker 1: even know if the Warriors made the playoffs that year.
Speaker 1: I don't think they did. Certainly, though, if the Clippers
Speaker 1: with Kawhi and Paul George instead of absolutely mortifyingly folding
Speaker 1: against Denver had won the title, no one be calling
Speaker 1: it a fake title, because ultimately that discussion is not
Speaker 1: about how real or fake a title is. That discussion
Speaker 1: is about dis either dislike or jealousy of Lebron James.
Speaker 1: And now our chat says seventy nine percent say yes,
Speaker 1: the Bubble title is legit. Our chat probably skews a
Speaker 1: little Lebron and Laker fan heavy, but you cannot say
Speaker 1: that the team with the best record and the best
Speaker 1: player in the world with a very difficult path. Who again,
Speaker 1: the team they beat in the conference finals validated their
Speaker 1: appearance there by winning a championship a couple of years later,
Speaker 1: the team they beat in the NBA finals validated their
Speaker 1: appearance there by making the finals a couple of years later.
Speaker 1: You cannot argue. And then they validated it themselves by
Speaker 1: being an awesome team the next year before Bron got hurt.
Speaker 1: It's just such horseship and deep down everybody knows it.
Speaker 2: What's up to was like horse crap. It's funny, But yeah,
Speaker 2: I saw it in the rundown last night. You went
Speaker 2: on the RAMT. But I instantly thought, like, how many
Speaker 2: of those people that say that it wasn't legitimate just
Speaker 2: don't like Lebron?
Speaker 3: And it's funny that.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's all it is. Everybody knows. Everybody knows
Speaker 1: that if the Clippers, who weres everyone's team of the
Speaker 1: Flavor of the month year and Kawhi had won the title,
Speaker 1: no one would be saying it doesn't count. And everybody
Speaker 1: knows if uh Yannis had won the title, because those
Speaker 1: were the next two favorites. It was Lakers Bucks Clippers
Speaker 1: were the favorites. Kind of all year had won the title,
Speaker 1: no one would be saying it didn't count. It's just
Speaker 1: so stupid, just so incredibly.
Speaker 2: There is the calm court advantage, but the obviously that's
Speaker 2: both ways.
Speaker 1: But it goes both ways, but it hurts. The team
Speaker 1: that's damaged by it is the top seed. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: that's the and so it just such utter silliness.