May 10, 2018 • 38 mins
Doug tells you why the 76ers need to continue to trust “The Process" even after they were eliminated from the playoffs by the Celtics. Former Cavaliers GM David Griffin joins the show to preview the Eastern and Western Conference Finals match ups. Plus, Doug talks to Albert Breer from the MMQB about the expectations for Cowboys QB Dak Prescott next season and whether the Giants are going to sign Odell Beckham Jr to a new contract.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of the Doug Gotlip Show on
Fox Sports Radio. Oh Up America, Doug Godlip Show, Fox
Sports Radio. I want things now, now, now, now now now.
Are you like that? Ever wait in line for an iPhone?
Not me? You ever waited in line to go see
(00:25):
uh first showing of Star Wars or im? Not me?
I want it now now. I love I got Uber
Eats on my phone. Love it, love it. I go
get coffee every day. And though I like talking to
all of those people my barista's at my various coffee joints,
because my wife and I are two different, we are
a coffee house divided. But I I want I mobile order,
(00:48):
I want things I I just don't have great patience.
I drive through traffic and I don't like it. In
the second I see daylight, I punch it. That's what
I do. But we all know that the best things
take time time, Right, relationships take time. I sit down
(01:10):
and I do homework with my kids, and they they're there,
are no different. Though they teach math differently than the
way they taught us math, the idea behind math is
still the same, right, which is it's not as much
about the answer as it is the process that it
(01:31):
took that you took to get the answer. Show your work, right,
show your work so you can sit here and go
like man showing my work. It stinks. I hated showing
my work. The Philadelphia seventy six kids are showing their work,
and they screwed a couple of things up over the
(01:52):
last week or so. It costs them a couple of games.
Brett Brown learned a thing or two. Ben Simmons learned
a thing or two. Joel Embiid learned a thing or two.
The Colangelo's learned a thing or two. But what I'd
encouraged the seventy sixers to not do is don't just
break out the calculator and do your do your work. Mhm,
(02:17):
right it out carry the one show your work. There's
this thought that some in my position have, and my
position is yacker, and there's some that have have a
position of authority in the NBA and say, hey, seventy years,
go for it, go for it. But it's interesting the
(02:41):
team that they lost to was criticized roundly for um
not going for it right. Remember the Paul George trade man.
Why wouldn't Boston make some moves to go for it.
And then you look around the NBA and you go
(03:03):
back almost a year ago, the entire offseason, even after
Gordon Hayward went there. Go back and look at the
quotes from Danny Ainge. This is not a short term.
This is a long term. And so I know that
there is this lust for a Paul George is out there,
Why don't you go get him? Lebron James is out there?
(03:25):
Why don't you go get him? Gwi Leonard could be
out there, Why don't you go get him? Is it
an indictment of mark El folks that he didn't play,
didn't take off the sweats last night a little bit.
But he's also a nineteen year old kid who just
not ready, just not ready. He missed most of the
year with a shoulder injury, and when he came back,
(03:46):
it was in it was when most teams were in
tank mode. He put up some meaningless numbers. He wasn't
ready for that. This is a long term play, not
a short term play. Long term, and so when you
hear people say Philadelphians go out and add some stars
so they can win right now, or they can let
(04:08):
these stars figure it out. When you try and cheat steps.
Eventually it will come back and get you. You're so
much better off keeping what you have, building organically and
allowing players to learn on the job. The more consistency
that you have, the greater the uh the comfort level
(04:31):
you'll have with your stars. They'll grow together, There'll be
a team. The cohesion will be obvious. Look, Ben Simmons
needs tons of work on his jump shot. Maybe needs
to start shooting jumpers right handed. Joel embid needs to
understand what a good shot and a bad shot is.
They need to figure out if they can't keep jj Reddick.
They do need somebody to stretch the floor and move
(04:54):
to open up space. But they ran into a hungry,
more athletic, quicker team that got after him, and they
still had a shot at several of these games, including
last night. But you're better off not skipping steps. You're
(05:16):
better off getting to the the playoffs, losing to the the semifinals
next year, going to the conference finals, probably losing the
Celtics next year, and you're on the proper, proper upward trajectory.
Here's Joel Embiid after the game, Like at the end
of the game, he came up to me, was like
that's gonna be shown me his hands and he was like,
(05:36):
there's gonna be a lot of weights on this, and
then I was like, for sure. So we got the
by future and we're gonna be fun. But I'm excited
to learn from this stuff because I felt like we
had to put a good chance, but you just got
a loan from it, and uh, gonna be fine. The
the idea of the process is just that it's a process.
(05:58):
You have to learn how to win. I will point
out it's embarrassing Joe EMI's last last shot, he got foul. Foul, foul. Listen,
n b A. If you want all three point shots, fine,
if that's what you want, but you got like ten
qualities seven footers, and if you don't ever call a
(06:18):
foul when they clearly get fouled at the end of
a game, if Lebron James had driven in and the
exact same play been made, you would have called a foul.
If that sort of contact happened on the floor, you
would have called a foul. If you want big guys
to be a part of the game, and you can say, man,
I like the game more spread out, I do too.
But one of the things that draws us. One of
(06:38):
the things that draws us to the NBA is these
incredible giants who have a skill of you know, being
able to score and comparing like we have. We're we're
almost eliminating post play from basketball because we won't call
a foul. I'm not a seventy Sixers fan, not fan
(07:00):
of either town, fan of Brad's, friend of Brad's. I
like bread a lot. I was on the Ben Simmons
train before uh for Colin Coward got in the front
car and put his flag in the ground and do
that as the foul. Foul. Lots of fouls not called
(07:24):
um And to two people who say, you know you
gotta play through it, okay, fine, but there's a reason
they're called fouls because it impedes your ability to score
or to play. But if it's me, I've heard lots
of calls for man, they gotta go out and get Look,
if you can add Lebron James, great, awesome, and Lebron
(07:49):
James can teach you how to win, but I'm not
sure he's gonna teach you how to move the basketball.
You're gonna play kind of his one way. And if
you don't get Lebron. You don't have to go out
and had a bunch of big names. You have the
big names right there. And trust me, markul Folds may
not ever be as good as Jayson Tatum. He's gonna
be fine. He's going to be good eventually. He was
(08:11):
evaluated as the top guard in the draft. He's very
very young. He wasn't ready for that. He'll be fine eventually.
He might not even be Terry Rogier, who, by the way,
came back down to earth when he was guarded by
by a point guard. So I'm fired up to see
what Brad Stevens can do because I still think they're
undermanned there without their two best players, are going against
the Cleveland Cavaliers. Super excited about the Western Conference finals.
(08:35):
But as we put to bed the Philadelphia seventy sixers
season this year, my advice is stay the course. The
Astros stayed the course. Okay, stayed the course. Remember they
made the playoffs. They choked to the Texas Rangers. This
(08:55):
is like three years ago. Then they had a disastrous
next season. Remember that two years ago they had disastrous season,
didn't make the playoffs. And then last year they stayed
the course and after the trade deadline. Only then and
then did they add Justin Verlander, and that end up
being enough. They had a couple of other pieces. But
(09:17):
the point is that they didn't start going out signing
big name guy, a big name guy, a big name guy.
Even this year after winning a super winning a World Series,
they went out and said, like, what's our biggest weakness, bullpen,
let's go fix it. So I think the long play
is a smart play. I think you start trading off
major pieces and trying to make runs at things and
(09:38):
bringing in other stars. Everyone knows that Simmons has a
chance to be a superstar if you can learn to
shoot the basketball. Everyone knows an Emdeed probably has more
talent than Simmons. He's just gotta learn how to win,
gotta show he can stay healthy. I think everyone knows
that Marquel Folds can be a good player in the NBA,
probably not a superstar, but a good player in the NBA.
(09:59):
And you've got nothing out of him. Everybody feels like, sorry,
ch has the ability to be a good role playing
starter or bench player in the NBA. You build around
that as your core, and you compete for titles over
the next decade as opposed to trying to win it
next year. If you don't think that's a good plan
and you don't like what the Celtics have done, because
(10:20):
that's essentially what the Celtics are. They are planning for
the long well. The long play is much better in
my opinion than the short term go for it play,
especially when you have guys that aren't even in their
mid twice. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three p m. Eastern noon
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.
(10:42):
David Griffin joins the show. He was famously the general
manager of the of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Last and Uh.
He has his own show on Serious x M and
NBA is also on NBA TV. He joins us in
The Doug Gottlip Show. I know everybody has you on
to talk Lebron and the Calves. I want to ask
you about the Sixers. There are some in in your business,
(11:03):
some in my business, and some of the basketball business.
I think, hey, go out add of Paul George, go
out and add stars. I kind of think they're on
the right path. I think this is good that they
didn't use faults. He wasn't ready yet, but eventually he'll
be good. I'm not saying that you don't add more pieces,
but I think this should be your core for a decade.
You don't want to screw that thing up. Do you
(11:24):
try and win the short term or you try to
win the long term. If you're the gentlemanager of the Sixers,
David Well, I I guess it just depends on how
you know what you think long and short term is.
So like, if you can say that Lebron is gonna
play at an elite level for let's say five more years,
I'd love to have the young kids learned from someone
like that, you know, I'd love for him to raise
(11:46):
the next generation of elite talent in your organization. So
there's no downside to that. It's not like they meet
the jettison any of the other talent they have UM
relative to the Paul George piece, I don't think that's
terrible likely. It sounds like Paul if he leaves, okay,
so he's pretty much got his heart set on l
a UM. What I think is interesting is would you
(12:08):
break up that nucleus to bring into somebody's because that's
really the only way you're going to attract, you know,
those elite guys as they tend to want to to
be together. So would you break up that group to
have Kauai and Lebron? I don't. I don't know if
you would or wouldn't, but I think that's what it requires. Now.
It's not just we have the cap space for one superstar.
(12:30):
Those guys tend to want to be together, would you
you know, I don't know, to be honest with you,
I really don't. It's hard for me not holding the
cards they're holding. I don't know exactly what they're thinking
about the group they have. The thing that I thought
they ran into in the playoffs that was tough Doug
was Ben can't shoot, and because he can't space the court,
(12:54):
and because the paint is going to be occupied because
Joel is an elite player himself and the defense is
going to be pretty keenly aware of him and the paint,
then the driving lanes that Ben would have to take
advantage of and it would allow for him to play
to the full bandwidth of his path thing don't exist.
So I think it's just really really difficult to say
(13:17):
that that Nucleus is going to be elite until you know,
if Ben's gotten to the point where he can shoot um,
and that's that's the ways away and Mark l folks
might be a ways away from being able to be elite.
So I think he could make a pretty compelling argument
if you could get Lebron, you should But again, I
(13:37):
don't know what they're looking at. That's that's that was
actually I said. The only the only guy I would
probably move outains for would be Lebron James. The one
caveat with Lebron is he's now at the state of
his career where he doesn't practice. You know, he does
work in his game and his body, but he ain't
it ain't practicing. And I do think that, you know,
culture wise, those young guys, I mean, Benson has got
(13:59):
there's a lot of work to do, a lot of
work to put in, and I think and Bead has
to learn the game situations. You know what what winning
shots look like, winning plays look like. And I think
you only learned that over time and actually playing in
big games. I hope you learned a lot from the series.
I don't know. I just I think it's gonna be
fasting to see what they do because they got a
(14:20):
chance to do something special. But there have been other
teams that have been in this situation and they've screwed
it up, whether even even if they didn't try to,
they screwed up and haven't been able to as opposed
to what Boston has done, which feels like they've been
building for the long term and the short term thing
has just happened in the meantime. Yeah, I agree with that,
and I think it makes it even harder to be
(14:41):
excited about your long term term nucleus when you're looking
at the fact that Boston's as good as they are,
They're as deep as they are in the playoff run.
They've got the young assets on the roster they have,
they have all the high variance assets in the in
the stockpiles from the pick standpoint, and the guy that
came into the years thinking was gonna be their best
player didn't even play a minute. So you can also
(15:04):
get in trouble just in their own division if you think,
you know what, let's let's take our time, We're we're
going to be the cream of the crop. Because Boss
is gonna be damn good for a long time. So
if you take your time and Joe l MBI gets
hurt in the meantime. Now what I mean, you're you're
not really truly elite even in your own division for
(15:26):
the foreseeable future. So that's why I think you could
make the most compelling case for Hey, we don't know
how long Joel is gonna be healthy, and we better
be damn good. Now. It's interesting what you said about
Lebron not practicing. That part's true, but he's the very
first one in the practice facility every morning and he
works like a freak, and there's nobody better to teach
(15:47):
Ben Simmons what this is about professionally than him, whether
he's actually taking part in the five on five that
might take place, he's still going through all of the
shell drow, he's still going through all of the sense
of stuff, and he's far and away the earliest person
into your practice facility getting a lift in doing the
things he needs to do to take care of his body.
(16:09):
When Kyrie was there, going through shooting games with Kyrie
after practice, all of the things that then needs to
learn how to do. Rohn does that, and then in
the off season Brown works way harder than Ben has
ever worked on his shooting, and that would help Ben
as well. Do you think Ben should shoot right handed?
So this is awesome. I've seen a lot of this.
(16:31):
The thing for us with Tristan Thompson when we had
him changed his hands was it was just his handedness
was sort of up in the area. He himself didn't
know which handy should use. He wasn't married to one
or the other. And we got him to throw a
football one day in the practice facility, and when he
threw it left handed, which in theory would have been
(16:54):
his natural hand, he threw it into the ground like
I would throw with my off hand when I was
eight years old, right, I mean it was he just
sort of flailed it into the ground left handed and
right handed. He's through like a sixty yard spiral. And
you went, Tristan, you're you're right handed. So if I
could see Ben Simmons throw a football, I'd have a
(17:15):
better chance to tell you Ben Simmons, he shoots everything
right handed inside the paint. The only thing that is
left handed is free throws and and primimeter shots. And
didn't shoot perimeter shots. You know, he finishes everything was
right hand. So I I you know, I don't well,
and Tristan was exactly the same by the way that
he was incredibly deft with his right hand around the rim.
(17:37):
The only jump book he could make was right handed,
but he was shooting his free throws left handed, and
he would shoot like the you know, the short corner
jump shot left handed and kind of like, what what
are you doing? Whatever made you think you were left
handed to begin with? And then case again, he can
do all of those things right handed, and maybe that's
because he's more naturally comfortable with it, but it could
(17:59):
also be the it that's just he's wired like that,
And it's easy to tell by the way I'm I
know this sounds crazy, but it's easy to tell when
you have somebody throw a football, throw the football challenge.
I love that. Let's get to the Cavaliers, Um, have
they figured something out or is this just who they
are going to be? Right? Which is you know they're
(18:20):
gonna space you with with Kevin Love at the five,
and now that Kyl Kover is much more comfortable and
he's making shots, just create space for Lebron James, play
through him and play with a bunch of shooters and
then you know, switch everything. Defensively, well, it's sort of
who they've always been. Um, you know, we we had
Kyrie at one time, so when the shot clock would
(18:40):
run down, he could go get a shot and he
could create offense when Lebron sat down. They don't have
the ability to do that now, but they've always been
a team that if you're going to take advantage of
Lebron's full talents, you've got to be able to space
the court and let him pick people apart from the
center of the lane by being a driver and then
making the right read. And fortunately in the last series,
(19:01):
you know, the team had a three to one assist
turnover ratio, which is a really really good situation. It's
in part because of Lebron, but it's also because George
Hill was present for a big part of that. And
George Hill being healthy and being capable of playing significant
minutes and starting makes it possible to keep Corridor j R.
(19:21):
Smith and Love altogether on the starting lineup. And those
are the guys Lebron's one with. Those are the guys
he's comfortable with. So fortunately for Cleveland, that first series
with Indiana took them seven games, so they got as
many different opportunities as they could to figure out lineups
and and figure out where Lebron was going to be
(19:41):
the most comfortable. And I think because of that, they
landed back with what they know best, which is the
guys they're starting. You get Tristan Thompson a lot more
opportunity to play. You know, this is one of the
things I think from a basketball analytics standpoint is is
really a helling thing. And I don't know what the
(20:02):
number is, and I would love for somebody significantly smarter
than I am to tell me the right way to
do this, but their effective field goal percentage on Tristan
Thompson's offensive rebounds has got to be damn ne Well,
this is just back There's just backbreakers, right, You're like
your your your garden, Lebron your garden shooters. You're paying
all attention. Elston shot goes up, you start leaking out defensively,
(20:24):
there's Tristan Thompson with the ball and he kicks it out.
Now either you have to do it all over again
or they shoot a three, which just those are backbreakers. Yeah,
And if you you know, if you if you look
at Tristan when he plays significant minutes that's five opportunities.
You have to make four more threes. That's twelve points.
Link that's winning and losing basketball games. And he also
(20:44):
is your best big in terms of his ability to
match up on the wing and switch and defensively be
at president. So it's not surprising to me they wound
up with him. I think it's a good thing they
were healthy and that he was healthy enough to actually
get back into the rotation. But I think this is
who Cleveland has always been. They're going to have to
outscore you. They're probably not going to get enough stops
(21:07):
to be the team like Golden State four times, but
I think they can get enough stops to to get
past Boston. What's what's the deal with Brad and the
rest of the league's coaches. I I I understand that
there are a lot of good coaches that did quin
Steiner did magnificent things. Uh, Look, Toronto had the best
record the East. Like I can make an argument for
a bunch of these guys, but there is something there
(21:30):
that other coaches are like, hey, he gets a little
bit too much credit. I think we did it. Like
from a media perspective, I think we did it. I
think It's one of those things where other coaches have
probably had enough of Brad getting nothing but love and
never taking any of the blame um. And I don't
mean that Brad personally doesn't take any of the blame.
I mean that the media never a signed him any
(21:52):
blame um. And I think it's just made it so
that there's I don't want to call it petty, but
I think the petty's under feed it in some ways,
and I think there's just a natural bias to feel, like,
you know what, I'm not sure he's that good. And
I think it makes you more critical of Brad as
a coach because you're hearing from everywhere how good he is.
(22:13):
And I think Dwayne Casey was a great selection as
Coach of the Year from the Coaches Association's standpoint. That's
I totally get it, and I'm not even gonna argue
with it. It's been Quinn Snyder. I wouldn't argue with it,
but for eight guys to get a vote and Brad
not to get one, that was pretty crazy. Am I
crazy to think that? As that Capella is super important
(22:34):
to Houston, yet I don't think Capella can be Compella
much of this series because they'll go small and now
he kind of like Valanchun is what happened with him
with the Calves. Golden State stretches you out, goes small,
and Capella becomes a lot less effective. Yeah, So I
think he's so different from Jonas because he defends in
(22:56):
space so well. Um, I think Clint is Actually if
Houston is going to win the series, it's because not
only does he hold his own when they go small,
but his ability to roll and finish and be dynamic
at the rim forces them to stay bigger. If if
Golden has to play a traditional five to check Capella,
(23:18):
that changes the whole series. Now, I tend to favor
Golden State pretty heavily. I think just from the standpoint
of them having been through the wars together and they're
now at a point where they realize the amount of
focus they have to play with to be successful. I
think they have appropriate fear of Houston. You know, Kur
really hinges a lot of what he does from a
(23:39):
preparation standpoint on that appropriate fear, and I think they
get it. And I think because they do, they're just
too deep and too good offensively. There's too many weapons
that you can't take out of it. And in the
Houston situation, they're so dependent upon you know, they played
two guys defensively, and Tucker and Areza Uh and Tucker
(24:02):
and bomb Moute when they're together, that defensive lineup is
really predicated on Hardened and Paul either generating offense or
Hardened getting you to the foul line quickly that he
gets you into the bonus and you shoot far more
free shrows than anybody else. Well, the deeper you go
into the playoffs, the less likely you are to get
those calls, which means it might be harder to keep
(24:24):
your defenders on the court. And if that's true, you're
never gonna guard Golden States. So I think it's a
five or six game series of close games. But I
think in the end, Golden States just got too much
great stuff. I can't tell how much I appreciate. Look
forward to hearing you some more on serious sex and
I'm watching an NBA TV. Thanks for being our guest.
We'll talk to us the playoffs roll on. Thanks man, alright,
(24:47):
pleasures mind David Griffin joining us, former gentle manager of
the Cleveland Cavaliers. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I
Heart Radio app Let's bring an Albert Beer from the MQB.
He joins us on the Doug gott Leaf Show. What
does the league think of Dak Prescott? I think the
(25:08):
jury is still out. You know, we saw only performer
at a pretty high levels, a rookie who was in
pretty ideal conditions, you know, and they played really well defensively,
they stayed healthy. Um, he was playing behind the best
offensive line in football at the time. It was a
running back who looked like a generational talent there. And
(25:29):
you know, at the time Whitton had a little bit
level or left than the tank does, had a little
bit more less than the tank, um, you know, and
then you get to twenty seventeen. Is sometimes happens with quarterbacks.
When there's a little less around him, you get a
little less out of him, and um, you know, part
of it was, you know, of course losing Ron Leary
on the offensive line, which caused some shuffling up front.
What was their strength wasn't quite the strength that happened before.
(25:53):
Whitten's the year older des a year older Zeke is
dealing with the suspension hanging over his head, and then
he finally asked to serve it um and the defense
wasn't quite as good. You know, Doug, I didn't. The
easy answer to that is like, right now, you know,
you there's this category of quarterbacks where, you know, I
think it's a big it's a big group of quarterbacks
(26:14):
where the performance depends largely on what's around them. And
right now, I think you'd have to put Jack in
that category, which doesn't mean he's not a good starting quarterback,
it's just sort of, um, you know, means that if
you're if you're depending on him to carry your team
at this point in your career, of his career, you're
probably gonna be in trouble. I've heard so many of
these Cleveland guys come out and and say, well, you know,
(26:36):
so and so wanted Baker Mayfield and so and so
had I feel like Cleveland's almost trying to convince themselves
that they made the right pick. Is that the sense
you get? Yeah, you know, I like I honestly, and
I've said the two places now, I mean I I've
been able to ascertain that they were the only team
in the top five who didn't have Sam Donald number one? Um,
(26:56):
the Poncos did, the Jet Giants did? The Jets did? Um?
You know, I know there were some teams further down
the line that's certainly really like the Baker Mayfield the
Dolphins were in that category. Um, you know, so this
is a unique year and there was I think a
lot of split opinion on on on who the quarter
benef we're going to be as pros and and really
(27:17):
I was able to kind of, um, you know, bake
phone calls and look at it. It really came down
to what you felt like you were gonna be able
to coach. Could you coach accuracy and the ability to
see the field in the Josh Allen, could you coach
the turnovers um out of Sam Donald? Could you coach
the personality as Josh Arlis? And could your coach around
(27:38):
the Baker Mayfield? So with these of those guys, there
was something he had to feel comfortable with. And um,
you know there were the team Baker Mayfield and said
he has the best tape and we can coach around
the height. And so Cleveland clearly was one of those
teams that were others. But the teams that were around them,
they were kicking around them. Weren't that category? What's the
(28:00):
early returns? I know, like, look, just rookie mini camps
is just but a lot of and and it's hard.
But a lot of times you gotta take you take
a look. You're like, oh boy, or you gotta take
a look in your your your pleasantly surprised. What's the
early returns? Oh, I think they're happy with what they've
got right now. Um, you know, and really, look, he's
(28:22):
I think there's I don't even find much argument on
the fact that he had the best tape of any
of them last year. Um, he's accurate, he's a good
decision maker, he plays fast. There are a lot of
things to like about him. You know. I think with him,
it's really gonna take him. Um, in a live bullet situation.
You put him in a seven on seven drill duck,
(28:43):
he's gonna look great, you know. Um, the high thing
is going to come into play when you know there's
there's actually stuff happening in front of him, and so
that part of it I think is going to be
interesting to watch. He was able to manage it in
college and he had a great offense. He was planning
and and and it really works for him. But look,
I mean there are you know, there are lots of
(29:05):
quarterbacks CANSL who deal with that. Derek Carr's one. You know,
he's six ft two and I know he loses vision
on place sometimes. You know, it's just something some quarterbacks
have to warned to deal with when they get to
the NFL level. And that's something that I think we
have to wait on Baker. But the early returns that
I've heard I'm out of Cleveland that first we're really good,
which had come to expect based on you know, how
(29:25):
good a pass where he is and how good he
would you know, figure to be in seven on seven
type situations based on who he was. John Merris said, hey,
the contract will get done when he gets done. And
knowing that, like, look, if if Odell Beckham Jr. Doesn't
like the contract extension, eventually he'll be offered. They can
franchise tag him for a couple of years. What is
(29:48):
what is ultimately going to be the right number to
keep him with a new long term contract. Well, I
think it sort of depends on when it happens. Um
if it happens now, Um, I I st only think
he's well within his right to ask for more than
Sammy Watkins got, and Sammy Watkins got sixteen million per
and he's clearly a better player than Sammy Watkins. Um,
(30:09):
how high that number is gonna go? I think you know,
right now, the highest paid non quarterback in football, Um,
you know would still be the that that the richest
deal is still be the deal and Dominan Sue did
a couple of years ago and that was sort of
twenty millions, So, um, he could ask for the neighborhood
twenty million now and maybe get it. I think if
(30:31):
he waits, um, that could wind up benefiting him because
you could have Aaron Donald sign, you could have Kodel
Max sign, and I think both those guys are going
to be in excess of twenty million dollars. So I
think part of it sort of depends on the timing
and you know who goes first and what order they
go in. Um, you know, certainly, I think that non
(30:52):
fact record is going to be broken, and Sue's held
that for three years now, UM, and you know, once
one of them breaks it, I think there's a good
chance that the next one tops that one, and the
one after that tops that one. What's what's the story
with Ben Ben Roethlisberger. Um, you know, a couple of
years ago, you go out, I don't know if I
want to come back, and you know whatever, he always
(31:14):
missed a couple of games because of injury. So they
draft Mason Rudolf in the third round and he acts
says though they're handing Mason Rudolph his locker. You know,
I'll point to the playbook, like, what what is the
I I you know, I know, you know this is
who the real Ben is? But why would he let
the world in on who the real Ben is? Yeah,
it's interesting, you know, you hit it there, like I
(31:34):
think the theatrics of it or what part of the
seal is a little bit. You know, every quarterback deals
this way when you know the guy guy who's potentially
because a replacement comes in. Um, And we've seen it before,
so this isn't new. The fact that Ben's being vocal
about I think, you know, kind of adds a different
context to it. But look, you know you can go
(31:55):
back to when the Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers and and
and the kind of play that the team was able
to get out of the threat far off and oh
six and oh seven going to an NFC Championship team,
the Patrons tracting Jimmy Garoppolo, what they were able to
get out of Tom Brady asks that they hadn't warned
championship for ten years and they went two in three years.
So he can bitch and moan. I would tell you
(32:18):
there's probably a better chance now that he's gonna be
showing up to everything over the next few weeks, O
t as, mini camps, everything, and there's probably a pretty
good chance he's gonna show up in pretty good shape
to training camp two. And so you know, I the
the idea that that that the quarterback would be chafing
at the idea that his replacement could be in the building. Um,
that isn't new. I would tell you that the best
(32:40):
competitors and the guys at that position who played at
the highest level, the way they generally react as pretty positive.
And so while it might be uncomfortable with them as
a human nature thing, you know, this isn't any line
of work they bring in your replacement. Um, you may
not feel great about it, but you're gonna bust ask
to try and improve them. Proved to them that you're
still a guy Brian plays where next year. Oh god,
(33:01):
that's he put me on the spot there. I think
we have to wait till his financials, uh demands, you know,
come down a little bit. I wouldn't be surprised if
Baltimore circles back with him and takes another look at him. Um.
And uh, you know, Seattle clearly is looking at some receivers.
They've they've they brought in Brandon Marshall the other day.
(33:22):
You know. Part of the issue with Dez is is that,
you know, he's been making and this happens with a
lot of vetteran pleasures, been making a certain amount of
money for a long time, and now he's trying to
get some of that back, and it's gonna be tough
because he's not the same player anymore. Uh. The other
issue is that he's a guy who really relied on
his athleticism and his raw ability for a long time
(33:43):
and that's starting to escape him. And what happens with
receivers is they have to reinvent themselves when that happens. Yeah,
he's not a reinvention guy, right. You need to be
to do that. You need to be a pretty good
route runner. You need to have a great hat for
the game. But the guy is the greatest example of
it is Larry Fits who went from being with this
premiere outside deep threat so like now it's basically a
(34:04):
slot receiver. He was able to He's able to find
a way to reinvent himself. And I think a lot
of teams look at dess makeup and say to themselves,
this isn't the type of guy that generally is able
to kind of create a second life for himself as
a prov bo layer. Uh. Last thing, the Matt Patricia thing,
I think caught everybody by surprise. It goes back twenty
(34:25):
two years ago. Um, but you know, like he's saying, like, look,
it never people, well it never came up. Is it?
Is it? Whose fault is it that never came Should
he have offered up? Hey? I just so you know
this is out there, It was a long time ago
and it was handled. Or is it the league's fault
that they didn't know about it? I think it's like
the individual team's fault, right, I mean, look, I mean
(34:46):
the Patriots didn't know, the lines didn't know. It wasn't
that hard to figure it out. They're the ones I
think that like right now, we don't like, we don't
know what happened twenty two years ago, and clearly uh
you know the state of Texas, uh, you know, maybe
made a ruling on how they feel about all this
and the case being dismissed and so um. You know, I,
(35:10):
I know it's going to cause some people to look
at that patricial a little differently, but this has gone
through the legal process, So you know, I just I
look at this and I say to myself, Well, the
ones who kind of are gonna have egg on their
face long term right now are probably the lines and
do a lesser extent of patriots because he came in
at a low level employee there. Um. And you know, now,
(35:32):
you I think this puts the pressure on every team
to UM to to vet head candidates, assistant coaching candidate scouts,
GM to all those people, um, more diligently than maybe
they ever have before. So you know, again, I like,
if I remember, right, like the last time I filled
out a job application or had to you know, built
(35:52):
one of those forms, who says are you convicted? Have
you ever been convicted of? Appealingly? Right? I mean that's
they normally say. So I could certainly see where, you know,
something like this, because he wasn't convicted of anything, could
slide past, um, you know, slide past the initial phase
of the process and where he could be truthful and
not bring it up. Um. And I think certain people
will get to a point where maybe they would stop
(36:13):
bringing it up if they've never brought it up before
to employers, um. You know, but it's still on the
obviously on the on on on the employer um to
to to go and figure out what's going on here,
and obviously didn't keep very much time for the Detroit
News to to uncover this thing, crazy crazy stuff. That
the timing of it, and and how quickly he went
(36:33):
and faced it and said that that he didn't do it,
and now I guess it did. I'd say this too.
I mean one of the things, one of the things, Doug,
that you have to look at here, you know. I
read that story and you know, we've all had we've
all gotten tips in the past on on on things
like this, and um, you know, clearly they had the indictment,
you know, so they had something. The one thing that
(36:54):
kind of stuck out to me about that story. They
turned out, They turned over a lot of rocks and
came up with nothing, you know, And I just think
in a case like this or something so sensitive, you
can really tar someone's name. Yah. So so so let's Albert.
That's the honest. Like, Look, I I, I know I
have to abide by some rules of journalism, but I'm
not a journalist. What was it the you are? Was
(37:16):
it the wrong thing to do journalistically? Hey, here's the
story you decide? Is twenty two years ago he was
in fact indicted, but the charges were dismissed. Is that
is that a viable story for a newspaper? I would
have had to like, it is absolutely something you should pursue.
Something you should pursue if you keep coming up empty.
(37:40):
Now I understand that you poured resources into it, spent
time trying to figure out what was going on. But
if you have something in your hands and you know
at every single turn, you're coming up empty, and that's
sort of what it felt like was happening with that story,
I just I'd be really really careful about doing something
would create permanent damage to someone's name. And that's I mean,
(38:04):
for better or worse, Like there are people that just
aren't going to believe math pressure, right, I mean, like
there are people out there they just aren't going to
believe what he's saying, and they're going to think that
this actually happened. And you know, it's just one of
those things. It's a scarlet letter when you're accused of
something like this. And I've always felt like I better
be sure that I have something on someone if I'm
(38:26):
never going to stop them with something like that. Alberber
H Alberbreer, Albreer, thanks so much for joining us. Really
appreciate your time and love your work. Thanks to appreciate
it all right. MMQB dot com is the website.
This is the best of the Doug Gotlip Show on
Fox Sports Radio. Oh Up America, Doug Godlip Show, Fox
Sports Radio. I want things now, now, now, now now now.
Are you like that? Ever wait in line for an iPhone?
Not me? You ever waited in line to go see
(00:25):
uh first showing of Star Wars or im? Not me?
I want it now now. I love I got Uber
Eats on my phone. Love it, love it. I go
get coffee every day. And though I like talking to
all of those people my barista's at my various coffee joints,
because my wife and I are two different, we are
a coffee house divided. But I I want I mobile order,
(00:48):
I want things I I just don't have great patience.
I drive through traffic and I don't like it. In
the second I see daylight, I punch it. That's what
I do. But we all know that the best things
take time time, Right, relationships take time. I sit down
(01:10):
and I do homework with my kids, and they they're there,
are no different. Though they teach math differently than the
way they taught us math, the idea behind math is
still the same, right, which is it's not as much
about the answer as it is the process that it
(01:31):
took that you took to get the answer. Show your work, right,
show your work so you can sit here and go
like man showing my work. It stinks. I hated showing
my work. The Philadelphia seventy six kids are showing their work,
and they screwed a couple of things up over the
(01:52):
last week or so. It costs them a couple of games.
Brett Brown learned a thing or two. Ben Simmons learned
a thing or two. Joel Embiid learned a thing or two.
The Colangelo's learned a thing or two. But what I'd
encouraged the seventy sixers to not do is don't just
break out the calculator and do your do your work. Mhm,
(02:17):
right it out carry the one show your work. There's
this thought that some in my position have, and my
position is yacker, and there's some that have have a
position of authority in the NBA and say, hey, seventy years,
go for it, go for it. But it's interesting the
(02:41):
team that they lost to was criticized roundly for um
not going for it right. Remember the Paul George trade man.
Why wouldn't Boston make some moves to go for it.
And then you look around the NBA and you go
(03:03):
back almost a year ago, the entire offseason, even after
Gordon Hayward went there. Go back and look at the
quotes from Danny Ainge. This is not a short term.
This is a long term. And so I know that
there is this lust for a Paul George is out there,
Why don't you go get him? Lebron James is out there?
(03:25):
Why don't you go get him? Gwi Leonard could be
out there, Why don't you go get him? Is it
an indictment of mark El folks that he didn't play,
didn't take off the sweats last night a little bit.
But he's also a nineteen year old kid who just
not ready, just not ready. He missed most of the
year with a shoulder injury, and when he came back,
(03:46):
it was in it was when most teams were in
tank mode. He put up some meaningless numbers. He wasn't
ready for that. This is a long term play, not
a short term play. Long term, and so when you
hear people say Philadelphians go out and add some stars
so they can win right now, or they can let
(04:08):
these stars figure it out. When you try and cheat steps.
Eventually it will come back and get you. You're so
much better off keeping what you have, building organically and
allowing players to learn on the job. The more consistency
that you have, the greater the uh the comfort level
(04:31):
you'll have with your stars. They'll grow together, There'll be
a team. The cohesion will be obvious. Look, Ben Simmons
needs tons of work on his jump shot. Maybe needs
to start shooting jumpers right handed. Joel embid needs to
understand what a good shot and a bad shot is.
They need to figure out if they can't keep jj Reddick.
They do need somebody to stretch the floor and move
(04:54):
to open up space. But they ran into a hungry,
more athletic, quicker team that got after him, and they
still had a shot at several of these games, including
last night. But you're better off not skipping steps. You're
(05:16):
better off getting to the the playoffs, losing to the the semifinals
next year, going to the conference finals, probably losing the
Celtics next year, and you're on the proper, proper upward trajectory.
Here's Joel Embiid after the game, Like at the end
of the game, he came up to me, was like
that's gonna be shown me his hands and he was like,
(05:36):
there's gonna be a lot of weights on this, and
then I was like, for sure. So we got the
by future and we're gonna be fun. But I'm excited
to learn from this stuff because I felt like we
had to put a good chance, but you just got
a loan from it, and uh, gonna be fine. The
the idea of the process is just that it's a process.
(05:58):
You have to learn how to win. I will point
out it's embarrassing Joe EMI's last last shot, he got foul. Foul, foul. Listen,
n b A. If you want all three point shots, fine,
if that's what you want, but you got like ten
qualities seven footers, and if you don't ever call a
(06:18):
foul when they clearly get fouled at the end of
a game, if Lebron James had driven in and the
exact same play been made, you would have called a foul.
If that sort of contact happened on the floor, you
would have called a foul. If you want big guys
to be a part of the game, and you can say, man,
I like the game more spread out, I do too.
But one of the things that draws us. One of
(06:38):
the things that draws us to the NBA is these
incredible giants who have a skill of you know, being
able to score and comparing like we have. We're we're
almost eliminating post play from basketball because we won't call
a foul. I'm not a seventy Sixers fan, not fan
(07:00):
of either town, fan of Brad's, friend of Brad's. I
like bread a lot. I was on the Ben Simmons
train before uh for Colin Coward got in the front
car and put his flag in the ground and do
that as the foul. Foul. Lots of fouls not called
(07:24):
um And to two people who say, you know you
gotta play through it, okay, fine, but there's a reason
they're called fouls because it impedes your ability to score
or to play. But if it's me, I've heard lots
of calls for man, they gotta go out and get Look,
if you can add Lebron James, great, awesome, and Lebron
(07:49):
James can teach you how to win, but I'm not
sure he's gonna teach you how to move the basketball.
You're gonna play kind of his one way. And if
you don't get Lebron. You don't have to go out
and had a bunch of big names. You have the
big names right there. And trust me, markul Folds may
not ever be as good as Jayson Tatum. He's gonna
be fine. He's going to be good eventually. He was
(08:11):
evaluated as the top guard in the draft. He's very
very young. He wasn't ready for that. He'll be fine eventually.
He might not even be Terry Rogier, who, by the way,
came back down to earth when he was guarded by
by a point guard. So I'm fired up to see
what Brad Stevens can do because I still think they're
undermanned there without their two best players, are going against
the Cleveland Cavaliers. Super excited about the Western Conference finals.
(08:35):
But as we put to bed the Philadelphia seventy sixers
season this year, my advice is stay the course. The
Astros stayed the course. Okay, stayed the course. Remember they
made the playoffs. They choked to the Texas Rangers. This
(08:55):
is like three years ago. Then they had a disastrous
next season. Remember that two years ago they had disastrous season,
didn't make the playoffs. And then last year they stayed
the course and after the trade deadline. Only then and
then did they add Justin Verlander, and that end up
being enough. They had a couple of other pieces. But
(09:17):
the point is that they didn't start going out signing
big name guy, a big name guy, a big name guy.
Even this year after winning a super winning a World Series,
they went out and said, like, what's our biggest weakness, bullpen,
let's go fix it. So I think the long play
is a smart play. I think you start trading off
major pieces and trying to make runs at things and
(09:38):
bringing in other stars. Everyone knows that Simmons has a
chance to be a superstar if you can learn to
shoot the basketball. Everyone knows an Emdeed probably has more
talent than Simmons. He's just gotta learn how to win,
gotta show he can stay healthy. I think everyone knows
that Marquel Folds can be a good player in the NBA,
probably not a superstar, but a good player in the NBA.
(09:59):
And you've got nothing out of him. Everybody feels like, sorry,
ch has the ability to be a good role playing
starter or bench player in the NBA. You build around
that as your core, and you compete for titles over
the next decade as opposed to trying to win it
next year. If you don't think that's a good plan
and you don't like what the Celtics have done, because
(10:20):
that's essentially what the Celtics are. They are planning for
the long well. The long play is much better in
my opinion than the short term go for it play,
especially when you have guys that aren't even in their
mid twice. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three p m. Eastern noon
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.
(10:42):
David Griffin joins the show. He was famously the general
manager of the of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Last and Uh.
He has his own show on Serious x M and
NBA is also on NBA TV. He joins us in
The Doug Gottlip Show. I know everybody has you on
to talk Lebron and the Calves. I want to ask
you about the Sixers. There are some in in your business,
(11:03):
some in my business, and some of the basketball business.
I think, hey, go out add of Paul George, go
out and add stars. I kind of think they're on
the right path. I think this is good that they
didn't use faults. He wasn't ready yet, but eventually he'll
be good. I'm not saying that you don't add more pieces,
but I think this should be your core for a decade.
You don't want to screw that thing up. Do you
(11:24):
try and win the short term or you try to
win the long term. If you're the gentlemanager of the Sixers,
David Well, I I guess it just depends on how
you know what you think long and short term is.
So like, if you can say that Lebron is gonna
play at an elite level for let's say five more years,
I'd love to have the young kids learned from someone
like that, you know, I'd love for him to raise
(11:46):
the next generation of elite talent in your organization. So
there's no downside to that. It's not like they meet
the jettison any of the other talent they have UM
relative to the Paul George piece, I don't think that's
terrible likely. It sounds like Paul if he leaves, okay,
so he's pretty much got his heart set on l
a UM. What I think is interesting is would you
(12:08):
break up that nucleus to bring into somebody's because that's
really the only way you're going to attract, you know,
those elite guys as they tend to want to to
be together. So would you break up that group to
have Kauai and Lebron? I don't. I don't know if
you would or wouldn't, but I think that's what it requires. Now.
It's not just we have the cap space for one superstar.
(12:30):
Those guys tend to want to be together, would you
you know, I don't know, to be honest with you,
I really don't. It's hard for me not holding the
cards they're holding. I don't know exactly what they're thinking
about the group they have. The thing that I thought
they ran into in the playoffs that was tough Doug
was Ben can't shoot, and because he can't space the court,
(12:54):
and because the paint is going to be occupied because
Joel is an elite player himself and the defense is
going to be pretty keenly aware of him and the paint,
then the driving lanes that Ben would have to take
advantage of and it would allow for him to play
to the full bandwidth of his path thing don't exist.
So I think it's just really really difficult to say
(13:17):
that that Nucleus is going to be elite until you know,
if Ben's gotten to the point where he can shoot um,
and that's that's the ways away and Mark l folks
might be a ways away from being able to be elite.
So I think he could make a pretty compelling argument
if you could get Lebron, you should But again, I
(13:37):
don't know what they're looking at. That's that's that was
actually I said. The only the only guy I would
probably move outains for would be Lebron James. The one
caveat with Lebron is he's now at the state of
his career where he doesn't practice. You know, he does
work in his game and his body, but he ain't
it ain't practicing. And I do think that, you know,
culture wise, those young guys, I mean, Benson has got
(13:59):
there's a lot of work to do, a lot of
work to put in, and I think and Bead has
to learn the game situations. You know what what winning
shots look like, winning plays look like. And I think
you only learned that over time and actually playing in
big games. I hope you learned a lot from the series.
I don't know. I just I think it's gonna be
fasting to see what they do because they got a
(14:20):
chance to do something special. But there have been other
teams that have been in this situation and they've screwed
it up, whether even even if they didn't try to,
they screwed up and haven't been able to as opposed
to what Boston has done, which feels like they've been
building for the long term and the short term thing
has just happened in the meantime. Yeah, I agree with that,
and I think it makes it even harder to be
(14:41):
excited about your long term term nucleus when you're looking
at the fact that Boston's as good as they are,
They're as deep as they are in the playoff run.
They've got the young assets on the roster they have,
they have all the high variance assets in the in
the stockpiles from the pick standpoint, and the guy that
came into the years thinking was gonna be their best
player didn't even play a minute. So you can also
(15:04):
get in trouble just in their own division if you think,
you know what, let's let's take our time, We're we're
going to be the cream of the crop. Because Boss
is gonna be damn good for a long time. So
if you take your time and Joe l MBI gets
hurt in the meantime. Now what I mean, you're you're
not really truly elite even in your own division for
(15:26):
the foreseeable future. So that's why I think you could
make the most compelling case for Hey, we don't know
how long Joel is gonna be healthy, and we better
be damn good. Now. It's interesting what you said about
Lebron not practicing. That part's true, but he's the very
first one in the practice facility every morning and he
works like a freak, and there's nobody better to teach
(15:47):
Ben Simmons what this is about professionally than him, whether
he's actually taking part in the five on five that
might take place, he's still going through all of the
shell drow, he's still going through all of the sense
of stuff, and he's far and away the earliest person
into your practice facility getting a lift in doing the
things he needs to do to take care of his body.
(16:09):
When Kyrie was there, going through shooting games with Kyrie
after practice, all of the things that then needs to
learn how to do. Rohn does that, and then in
the off season Brown works way harder than Ben has
ever worked on his shooting, and that would help Ben
as well. Do you think Ben should shoot right handed?
So this is awesome. I've seen a lot of this.
(16:31):
The thing for us with Tristan Thompson when we had
him changed his hands was it was just his handedness
was sort of up in the area. He himself didn't
know which handy should use. He wasn't married to one
or the other. And we got him to throw a
football one day in the practice facility, and when he
threw it left handed, which in theory would have been
(16:54):
his natural hand, he threw it into the ground like
I would throw with my off hand when I was
eight years old, right, I mean it was he just
sort of flailed it into the ground left handed and
right handed. He's through like a sixty yard spiral. And
you went, Tristan, you're you're right handed. So if I
could see Ben Simmons throw a football, I'd have a
(17:15):
better chance to tell you Ben Simmons, he shoots everything
right handed inside the paint. The only thing that is
left handed is free throws and and primimeter shots. And
didn't shoot perimeter shots. You know, he finishes everything was
right hand. So I I you know, I don't well,
and Tristan was exactly the same by the way that
he was incredibly deft with his right hand around the rim.
(17:37):
The only jump book he could make was right handed,
but he was shooting his free throws left handed, and
he would shoot like the you know, the short corner
jump shot left handed and kind of like, what what
are you doing? Whatever made you think you were left
handed to begin with? And then case again, he can
do all of those things right handed, and maybe that's
because he's more naturally comfortable with it, but it could
(17:59):
also be the it that's just he's wired like that,
And it's easy to tell by the way I'm I
know this sounds crazy, but it's easy to tell when
you have somebody throw a football, throw the football challenge.
I love that. Let's get to the Cavaliers, Um, have
they figured something out or is this just who they
are going to be? Right? Which is you know they're
(18:20):
gonna space you with with Kevin Love at the five,
and now that Kyl Kover is much more comfortable and
he's making shots, just create space for Lebron James, play
through him and play with a bunch of shooters and
then you know, switch everything. Defensively, well, it's sort of
who they've always been. Um, you know, we we had
Kyrie at one time, so when the shot clock would
(18:40):
run down, he could go get a shot and he
could create offense when Lebron sat down. They don't have
the ability to do that now, but they've always been
a team that if you're going to take advantage of
Lebron's full talents, you've got to be able to space
the court and let him pick people apart from the
center of the lane by being a driver and then
making the right read. And fortunately in the last series,
(19:01):
you know, the team had a three to one assist
turnover ratio, which is a really really good situation. It's
in part because of Lebron, but it's also because George
Hill was present for a big part of that. And
George Hill being healthy and being capable of playing significant
minutes and starting makes it possible to keep Corridor j R.
(19:21):
Smith and Love altogether on the starting lineup. And those
are the guys Lebron's one with. Those are the guys
he's comfortable with. So fortunately for Cleveland, that first series
with Indiana took them seven games, so they got as
many different opportunities as they could to figure out lineups
and and figure out where Lebron was going to be
(19:41):
the most comfortable. And I think because of that, they
landed back with what they know best, which is the
guys they're starting. You get Tristan Thompson a lot more
opportunity to play. You know, this is one of the
things I think from a basketball analytics standpoint is is
really a helling thing. And I don't know what the
(20:02):
number is, and I would love for somebody significantly smarter
than I am to tell me the right way to
do this, but their effective field goal percentage on Tristan
Thompson's offensive rebounds has got to be damn ne Well,
this is just back There's just backbreakers, right, You're like
your your your garden, Lebron your garden shooters. You're paying
all attention. Elston shot goes up, you start leaking out defensively,
(20:24):
there's Tristan Thompson with the ball and he kicks it out.
Now either you have to do it all over again
or they shoot a three, which just those are backbreakers. Yeah,
And if you you know, if you if you look
at Tristan when he plays significant minutes that's five opportunities.
You have to make four more threes. That's twelve points.
Link that's winning and losing basketball games. And he also
(20:44):
is your best big in terms of his ability to
match up on the wing and switch and defensively be
at president. So it's not surprising to me they wound
up with him. I think it's a good thing they
were healthy and that he was healthy enough to actually
get back into the rotation. But I think this is
who Cleveland has always been. They're going to have to
outscore you. They're probably not going to get enough stops
(21:07):
to be the team like Golden State four times, but
I think they can get enough stops to to get
past Boston. What's what's the deal with Brad and the
rest of the league's coaches. I I I understand that
there are a lot of good coaches that did quin
Steiner did magnificent things. Uh, Look, Toronto had the best
record the East. Like I can make an argument for
a bunch of these guys, but there is something there
(21:30):
that other coaches are like, hey, he gets a little
bit too much credit. I think we did it. Like
from a media perspective, I think we did it. I
think It's one of those things where other coaches have
probably had enough of Brad getting nothing but love and
never taking any of the blame um. And I don't
mean that Brad personally doesn't take any of the blame.
I mean that the media never a signed him any
(21:52):
blame um. And I think it's just made it so
that there's I don't want to call it petty, but
I think the petty's under feed it in some ways,
and I think there's just a natural bias to feel, like,
you know what, I'm not sure he's that good. And
I think it makes you more critical of Brad as
a coach because you're hearing from everywhere how good he is.
(22:13):
And I think Dwayne Casey was a great selection as
Coach of the Year from the Coaches Association's standpoint. That's
I totally get it, and I'm not even gonna argue
with it. It's been Quinn Snyder. I wouldn't argue with it,
but for eight guys to get a vote and Brad
not to get one, that was pretty crazy. Am I
crazy to think that? As that Capella is super important
(22:34):
to Houston, yet I don't think Capella can be Compella
much of this series because they'll go small and now
he kind of like Valanchun is what happened with him
with the Calves. Golden State stretches you out, goes small,
and Capella becomes a lot less effective. Yeah, So I
think he's so different from Jonas because he defends in
(22:56):
space so well. Um, I think Clint is Actually if
Houston is going to win the series, it's because not
only does he hold his own when they go small,
but his ability to roll and finish and be dynamic
at the rim forces them to stay bigger. If if
Golden has to play a traditional five to check Capella,
(23:18):
that changes the whole series. Now, I tend to favor
Golden State pretty heavily. I think just from the standpoint
of them having been through the wars together and they're
now at a point where they realize the amount of
focus they have to play with to be successful. I
think they have appropriate fear of Houston. You know, Kur
really hinges a lot of what he does from a
(23:39):
preparation standpoint on that appropriate fear, and I think they
get it. And I think because they do, they're just
too deep and too good offensively. There's too many weapons
that you can't take out of it. And in the
Houston situation, they're so dependent upon you know, they played
two guys defensively, and Tucker and Areza Uh and Tucker
(24:02):
and bomb Moute when they're together, that defensive lineup is
really predicated on Hardened and Paul either generating offense or
Hardened getting you to the foul line quickly that he
gets you into the bonus and you shoot far more
free shrows than anybody else. Well, the deeper you go
into the playoffs, the less likely you are to get
those calls, which means it might be harder to keep
(24:24):
your defenders on the court. And if that's true, you're
never gonna guard Golden States. So I think it's a
five or six game series of close games. But I
think in the end, Golden States just got too much
great stuff. I can't tell how much I appreciate. Look
forward to hearing you some more on serious sex and
I'm watching an NBA TV. Thanks for being our guest.
We'll talk to us the playoffs roll on. Thanks man, alright,
(24:47):
pleasures mind David Griffin joining us, former gentle manager of
the Cleveland Cavaliers. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
at Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the I
Heart Radio app Let's bring an Albert Beer from the MQB.
He joins us on the Doug gott Leaf Show. What
does the league think of Dak Prescott? I think the
(25:08):
jury is still out. You know, we saw only performer
at a pretty high levels, a rookie who was in
pretty ideal conditions, you know, and they played really well defensively,
they stayed healthy. Um, he was playing behind the best
offensive line in football at the time. It was a
running back who looked like a generational talent there. And
(25:29):
you know, at the time Whitton had a little bit
level or left than the tank does, had a little
bit more less than the tank, um, you know, and
then you get to twenty seventeen. Is sometimes happens with quarterbacks.
When there's a little less around him, you get a
little less out of him, and um, you know, part
of it was, you know, of course losing Ron Leary
on the offensive line, which caused some shuffling up front.
What was their strength wasn't quite the strength that happened before.
(25:53):
Whitten's the year older des a year older Zeke is
dealing with the suspension hanging over his head, and then
he finally asked to serve it um and the defense
wasn't quite as good. You know, Doug, I didn't. The
easy answer to that is like, right now, you know,
you there's this category of quarterbacks where, you know, I
think it's a big it's a big group of quarterbacks
(26:14):
where the performance depends largely on what's around them. And
right now, I think you'd have to put Jack in
that category, which doesn't mean he's not a good starting quarterback,
it's just sort of, um, you know, means that if
you're if you're depending on him to carry your team
at this point in your career, of his career, you're
probably gonna be in trouble. I've heard so many of
these Cleveland guys come out and and say, well, you know,
(26:36):
so and so wanted Baker Mayfield and so and so
had I feel like Cleveland's almost trying to convince themselves
that they made the right pick. Is that the sense
you get? Yeah, you know, I like I honestly, and
I've said the two places now, I mean I I've
been able to ascertain that they were the only team
in the top five who didn't have Sam Donald number one? Um,
(26:56):
the Poncos did, the Jet Giants did? The Jets did? Um?
You know, I know there were some teams further down
the line that's certainly really like the Baker Mayfield the
Dolphins were in that category. Um, you know, so this
is a unique year and there was I think a
lot of split opinion on on on who the quarter
benef we're going to be as pros and and really
(27:17):
I was able to kind of, um, you know, bake
phone calls and look at it. It really came down
to what you felt like you were gonna be able
to coach. Could you coach accuracy and the ability to
see the field in the Josh Allen, could you coach
the turnovers um out of Sam Donald? Could you coach
the personality as Josh Arlis? And could your coach around
(27:38):
the Baker Mayfield? So with these of those guys, there
was something he had to feel comfortable with. And um,
you know there were the team Baker Mayfield and said
he has the best tape and we can coach around
the height. And so Cleveland clearly was one of those
teams that were others. But the teams that were around them,
they were kicking around them. Weren't that category? What's the
(28:00):
early returns? I know, like, look, just rookie mini camps
is just but a lot of and and it's hard.
But a lot of times you gotta take you take
a look. You're like, oh boy, or you gotta take
a look in your your your pleasantly surprised. What's the
early returns? Oh, I think they're happy with what they've
got right now. Um, you know, and really, look, he's
(28:22):
I think there's I don't even find much argument on
the fact that he had the best tape of any
of them last year. Um, he's accurate, he's a good
decision maker, he plays fast. There are a lot of
things to like about him. You know. I think with him,
it's really gonna take him. Um, in a live bullet situation.
You put him in a seven on seven drill duck,
(28:43):
he's gonna look great, you know. Um, the high thing
is going to come into play when you know there's
there's actually stuff happening in front of him, and so
that part of it I think is going to be
interesting to watch. He was able to manage it in
college and he had a great offense. He was planning
and and and it really works for him. But look,
I mean there are you know, there are lots of
(29:05):
quarterbacks CANSL who deal with that. Derek Carr's one. You know,
he's six ft two and I know he loses vision
on place sometimes. You know, it's just something some quarterbacks
have to warned to deal with when they get to
the NFL level. And that's something that I think we
have to wait on Baker. But the early returns that
I've heard I'm out of Cleveland that first we're really good,
which had come to expect based on you know, how
(29:25):
good a pass where he is and how good he
would you know, figure to be in seven on seven
type situations based on who he was. John Merris said, hey,
the contract will get done when he gets done. And
knowing that, like, look, if if Odell Beckham Jr. Doesn't
like the contract extension, eventually he'll be offered. They can
franchise tag him for a couple of years. What is
(29:48):
what is ultimately going to be the right number to
keep him with a new long term contract. Well, I
think it sort of depends on when it happens. Um
if it happens now, Um, I I st only think
he's well within his right to ask for more than
Sammy Watkins got, and Sammy Watkins got sixteen million per
and he's clearly a better player than Sammy Watkins. Um,
(30:09):
how high that number is gonna go? I think you know,
right now, the highest paid non quarterback in football, Um,
you know would still be the that that the richest
deal is still be the deal and Dominan Sue did
a couple of years ago and that was sort of
twenty millions, So, um, he could ask for the neighborhood
twenty million now and maybe get it. I think if
(30:31):
he waits, um, that could wind up benefiting him because
you could have Aaron Donald sign, you could have Kodel
Max sign, and I think both those guys are going
to be in excess of twenty million dollars. So I
think part of it sort of depends on the timing
and you know who goes first and what order they
go in. Um, you know, certainly, I think that non
(30:52):
fact record is going to be broken, and Sue's held
that for three years now, UM, and you know, once
one of them breaks it, I think there's a good
chance that the next one tops that one, and the
one after that tops that one. What's what's the story
with Ben Ben Roethlisberger. Um, you know, a couple of
years ago, you go out, I don't know if I
want to come back, and you know whatever, he always
(31:14):
missed a couple of games because of injury. So they
draft Mason Rudolf in the third round and he acts
says though they're handing Mason Rudolph his locker. You know,
I'll point to the playbook, like, what what is the
I I you know, I know, you know this is
who the real Ben is? But why would he let
the world in on who the real Ben is? Yeah,
it's interesting, you know, you hit it there, like I
(31:34):
think the theatrics of it or what part of the
seal is a little bit. You know, every quarterback deals
this way when you know the guy guy who's potentially
because a replacement comes in. Um, And we've seen it before,
so this isn't new. The fact that Ben's being vocal
about I think, you know, kind of adds a different
context to it. But look, you know you can go
(31:55):
back to when the Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers and and
and the kind of play that the team was able
to get out of the threat far off and oh
six and oh seven going to an NFC Championship team,
the Patrons tracting Jimmy Garoppolo, what they were able to
get out of Tom Brady asks that they hadn't warned
championship for ten years and they went two in three years.
So he can bitch and moan. I would tell you
(32:18):
there's probably a better chance now that he's gonna be
showing up to everything over the next few weeks, O
t as, mini camps, everything, and there's probably a pretty
good chance he's gonna show up in pretty good shape
to training camp two. And so you know, I the
the idea that that that the quarterback would be chafing
at the idea that his replacement could be in the building. Um,
that isn't new. I would tell you that the best
(32:40):
competitors and the guys at that position who played at
the highest level, the way they generally react as pretty positive.
And so while it might be uncomfortable with them as
a human nature thing, you know, this isn't any line
of work they bring in your replacement. Um, you may
not feel great about it, but you're gonna bust ask
to try and improve them. Proved to them that you're
still a guy Brian plays where next year. Oh god,
(33:01):
that's he put me on the spot there. I think
we have to wait till his financials, uh demands, you know,
come down a little bit. I wouldn't be surprised if
Baltimore circles back with him and takes another look at him. Um.
And uh, you know, Seattle clearly is looking at some receivers.
They've they've they brought in Brandon Marshall the other day.
(33:22):
You know. Part of the issue with Dez is is that,
you know, he's been making and this happens with a
lot of vetteran pleasures, been making a certain amount of
money for a long time, and now he's trying to
get some of that back, and it's gonna be tough
because he's not the same player anymore. Uh. The other
issue is that he's a guy who really relied on
his athleticism and his raw ability for a long time
(33:43):
and that's starting to escape him. And what happens with
receivers is they have to reinvent themselves when that happens. Yeah,
he's not a reinvention guy, right. You need to be
to do that. You need to be a pretty good
route runner. You need to have a great hat for
the game. But the guy is the greatest example of
it is Larry Fits who went from being with this
premiere outside deep threat so like now it's basically a
(34:04):
slot receiver. He was able to He's able to find
a way to reinvent himself. And I think a lot
of teams look at dess makeup and say to themselves,
this isn't the type of guy that generally is able
to kind of create a second life for himself as
a prov bo layer. Uh. Last thing, the Matt Patricia thing,
I think caught everybody by surprise. It goes back twenty
(34:25):
two years ago. Um, but you know, like he's saying, like, look,
it never people, well it never came up. Is it?
Is it? Whose fault is it that never came Should
he have offered up? Hey? I just so you know
this is out there, It was a long time ago
and it was handled. Or is it the league's fault
that they didn't know about it? I think it's like
the individual team's fault, right, I mean, look, I mean
(34:46):
the Patriots didn't know, the lines didn't know. It wasn't
that hard to figure it out. They're the ones I
think that like right now, we don't like, we don't
know what happened twenty two years ago, and clearly uh
you know the state of Texas, uh, you know, maybe
made a ruling on how they feel about all this
and the case being dismissed and so um. You know, I,
(35:10):
I know it's going to cause some people to look
at that patricial a little differently, but this has gone
through the legal process, So you know, I just I
look at this and I say to myself, Well, the
ones who kind of are gonna have egg on their
face long term right now are probably the lines and
do a lesser extent of patriots because he came in
at a low level employee there. Um. And you know, now,
(35:32):
you I think this puts the pressure on every team
to UM to to vet head candidates, assistant coaching candidate scouts,
GM to all those people, um, more diligently than maybe
they ever have before. So you know, again, I like,
if I remember, right, like the last time I filled
out a job application or had to you know, built
(35:52):
one of those forms, who says are you convicted? Have
you ever been convicted of? Appealingly? Right? I mean that's
they normally say. So I could certainly see where, you know,
something like this, because he wasn't convicted of anything, could
slide past, um, you know, slide past the initial phase
of the process and where he could be truthful and
not bring it up. Um. And I think certain people
will get to a point where maybe they would stop
(36:13):
bringing it up if they've never brought it up before
to employers, um. You know, but it's still on the
obviously on the on on on the employer um to
to to go and figure out what's going on here,
and obviously didn't keep very much time for the Detroit
News to to uncover this thing, crazy crazy stuff. That
the timing of it, and and how quickly he went
(36:33):
and faced it and said that that he didn't do it,
and now I guess it did. I'd say this too.
I mean one of the things, one of the things, Doug,
that you have to look at here, you know. I
read that story and you know, we've all had we've
all gotten tips in the past on on on things
like this, and um, you know, clearly they had the indictment,
you know, so they had something. The one thing that
(36:54):
kind of stuck out to me about that story. They
turned out, They turned over a lot of rocks and
came up with nothing, you know, And I just think
in a case like this or something so sensitive, you
can really tar someone's name. Yah. So so so let's Albert.
That's the honest. Like, Look, I I, I know I
have to abide by some rules of journalism, but I'm
not a journalist. What was it the you are? Was
(37:16):
it the wrong thing to do journalistically? Hey, here's the
story you decide? Is twenty two years ago he was
in fact indicted, but the charges were dismissed. Is that
is that a viable story for a newspaper? I would
have had to like, it is absolutely something you should pursue.
Something you should pursue if you keep coming up empty.
(37:40):
Now I understand that you poured resources into it, spent
time trying to figure out what was going on. But
if you have something in your hands and you know
at every single turn, you're coming up empty, and that's
sort of what it felt like was happening with that story,
I just I'd be really really careful about doing something
would create permanent damage to someone's name. And that's I mean,
(38:04):
for better or worse, Like there are people that just
aren't going to believe math pressure, right, I mean, like
there are people out there they just aren't going to
believe what he's saying, and they're going to think that
this actually happened. And you know, it's just one of
those things. It's a scarlet letter when you're accused of
something like this. And I've always felt like I better
be sure that I have something on someone if I'm
(38:26):
never going to stop them with something like that. Alberber
H Alberbreer, Albreer, thanks so much for joining us. Really
appreciate your time and love your work. Thanks to appreciate
it all right. MMQB dot com is the website.
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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