July 9, 2018 • 46 mins
Doug chronicles the break up between LeBron James and Kyrie Irving and what that tells about their current situations with their new teams. He also thinks the MLB All Star selection process is flawed and tells you how he would fix it. NBA Champion Antonio Daniels joins the show to give his thoughts on the NBA summer league plus how he would handle the Kawhi Leonard situation.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of the dun got Lee Show
on Fox Sports Radio. Boom, What Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show,
Fox Sports Radio, coming to you from the steamy hot
city of Los Angeles, California. They searched and searched and
searched for a place to call the Fox Sports Radio
(00:22):
and Premier Networks home, and they decided to find the
closest place to the sun, and they succeeded. What. I
hope you had a great weekend, whether you went to
the beach, went to the mountains, went to a lake,
or just set your fat fanny on the couch and
watch some TV. I hope you had to help you
ad yourself a good weekend. Uh yeah, I did double
(00:44):
duty most of last weekend Dan Patricks Show. This show
was off of this show. End of the week Up.
Don't worry. I grinded this weekend a mix of Summer
League on TV, hanging out by the pool, got got
around of golf in and went to uh Angels Dwyer's
Game three at the Big A, which John Ramos I
(01:06):
do believe the Angels took two of three from your Dodgers.
The correct the A good game yesterday for the Angels.
Yes he did. Fellow Oklahoma state alum Andrew Haney had
ten strikeouts over seven innings. Only really made one mistake.
That was ya C. L. Puigue after getting squeezed in
the third inning by the umpire and Puigue hit it up.
(01:28):
Not not quite bo Jack's Terry show. Hey o Tani
off the bench with a pinch hit showtime home run. Anyway,
That's all we're gonna talk about with Freeway Freeway Series Baseball.
What the All Star teams were announced? Sort of? Sort
of it's like, oh, here's the Alsto Teth, But we're
gonna name one more guy and then we're gonna add
some more dudes because other guys that pull out right
(01:51):
and eventually, as with the Pro Bowl, most of the
guys who belong in will belong in, but do they
actually belong in? We will clean up the mess which
is All Star Game selections later on the show. Um,
but what I find to be fascinating about Lebron a
week later, a week ago last week hosting this show,
(02:13):
hosting The Dan Patrick Show, we were reacting to the
news that Lebron James is going to be an l
a Laker leaving behind Cleveland the second time around, and
what was fascinating was fascinating is how everyone has over
corrected for their past mistakes. Right Like, in the past,
(02:36):
Lebron has had a big show and it's caused a
big stir and he's had a big article. This time
it was called the Lakers get on a G five
and fly to Europe with your wife. In the past,
Dan Gilbert has Um has gone Sherman and burned everything
down to the sea. This time it was hey, dude,
(02:59):
thanks for everything, come back. Any time, everyone has overcorrected.
The Oklahoma City Thunder didn't want to go into the
tax famously with James Harden, so up until the time
to which they buy out Carmelo Anthony, they're a hundred
and fifty million into the tax. Forget about the salaries,
over three hundrellion dollars in salaries, and though they will
(03:20):
save some money when they eventually part ways with Mellow,
the fact is they'll still be in the tax. They've
overcorrected for their past mistakes. But what's what's the most
interesting part about relationships, quite honestly, is post divorce breakup stories.
Not how they broke up, but why No one shares
(03:42):
the good stories about the marriages that make it. They
just don't. No one says like, yeah, we're in year
forty five of marriage. But man, for the first thirty
five years, I hated her guts and she hated mine.
Now we sleep in separate bedrooms and we just stay married.
To say we stay married and he does that when
you get divorced and you have divorced. The reason that
(04:04):
people don't go to court is they don't want full disclosure.
They don't want to know. They don't want all of
their idiosyncrasies on trial. They don't want all their failures
as a husband or a wife to be made into
public record, especially when your celebrities. That's what's happened with
(04:25):
lebron As he's left Cleveland. Every time he's left somewhere,
you've gotten a little bit different sense of who he
is and what and and how how you feel about it.
Even Dan Gilbert, who by all accounts seems to be
a fairly miserable dude. Right, he's worth like six seven
billion dollars and people are People will will say, well, look,
(04:47):
he's miserable because his NBA team, his NBA team just
lost a substantial value evaluation because they lost Lebron James.
Two things you should know. One, yes, it will lose
its value, but they'll probably actually make money this year
as opposed to losing money going into the tax the
(05:07):
last couple of years. And two, and this is really
really important. The guy owns quicken loans. He's worth five
billion without the team. Everybody wants to make money and
win championships and be competitive, and this is an it's
an ego thing to own a pro team, but this
is not his major major source of revenue. Don't worry
(05:29):
about Danny boy, He'll be just fine. But we start
to learn more about guys, and I find the Kyrie
Irving divorce, which is now almost a year a year
since it's been consummated. I find that to be really
interesting because here we are again with Lebron James going
(05:51):
to play with a young, unproven team. Right, That's what
happened when he went back to Cleveland. Sure, he brought
in Kevin Love and there were some other pieces that
are added, but when he first went to Cleveland, that
was a young and very unproven team, and almost overnight
they were turned around. Jason Lloyd has has covered him,
(06:12):
So too is Joe Vartin Joe Varden's covering from Cleveland
dot Com, Jason Lloyd said, quote, I will freely admit
the relationship between James and Irving was worse than I thought.
The Kyrie Lebron relationship was worse than I thought. I
told Lebron that on opening night, I said, you guys
did a great job of fulling me. I had no idea,
and I won't tell you exactly what his response was,
(06:33):
but he more or less agreed that it was not
a good relationship between the two of them. The little
brother thing did annoy the crap out of Kyrie. Joe
Varden Cleveland dot Com, also a local radio host, Lebron
did all kinds of stuff to Kyrie, almost like hazing,
just the kind of way in which you would treat
a thing, way in which you would treat treat him,
(06:53):
the things he would say to him, the things he
would say about him. I think certainly that's part of it.
You know, Kyrie resented how much attention, how much power,
how much sway Lebron had within the organization on a
number of levels. Again, we've all allowed Lebron to say
we shouldn't have traded Kyrie, but he did absolutely nothing
to keep him here until it was too late. When
(07:16):
it came out, there was a month, a whole month
before anybody had any idea that the trade was going
to be Boston. Lebron didn't do anything. There was no
love lost between them. These historical notes are really important
because if this fails in l A, or if he's
not if it fails in l A, because because uh,
(07:39):
they're not good enough, Lebron James will somehow avoid criticism,
avoid critique. Look, I don't know how much of the
blame Pie you want to go blame Pie Lebron deserves
for the fact that they didn't win more in Cleveland,
they didn't win more in Miami, or what they will
do in l A. It's a no brainer for the
(08:02):
Lakers to go after Lebron. But but the part to
which you got to be cautious of, and I think
Magic and Rob Polinka are cautious of, is how much power,
how much pull? How much do you listen to him?
If you don't listen to him, he will shut down
on you, he will pout on you. If you do
listen to him. Oftentimes that that can create a wedge
(08:24):
between him and whoever else is on the team, especially
a young star, if you do listen to him, and
also lessens your power. Remember when you hear Dan Gilbert
say I got my team back, whether that's real or
whether that's kind of in an inflated statement that some
have said they've heard Dan Gilbert say, you understand that.
(08:45):
Though Dan Gilbert can be small and petty, the fact
is there is some reality to it. Lebron is one
of those guys that wants things to happen, and then
when they happen, he acts like, oh, what are you
talking about? You know what, Lebron do us? You see
it in European soccer. You see it with the influence
(09:05):
of European players in the NBA. And if you've ever
seen this, where guys will be super super physical right
with their lower body, they'll stick out a knee, a hip,
you know, a groin, an elbow, and then when the
ref's looking, they got their hands off, like what, I
didn't do anything? Do you know that? Look? You see
it at times on what do they called in soccer
(09:27):
set pieces on corners right where they're pushing, they're shoving,
they're grabbing their kneeing each other, their elbowing each other,
and the ref looks like, what, I didn't do anything.
I did nothing. That's really the European influence on the NBA.
It's not just the flopping, it's the using all different
parts of your body and keeping your hands where the
(09:49):
refs can see him, and then act like he didn't
do anything. That's Lebron. That's what he did with Kyrie.
He rode Kyrie, and then even after they won a championship,
he wanted Kyrie traded for his awoid Chris Paul. Then
when it came back around to him, he's like, what
I didn't I didn't do anything. I didn't trade him.
I didn't want him traded. I didn't want him trade
to Boston. I didn't want him. We were good, we
(10:11):
were in the finals, we came back from three one
and then and then you know, last year we lost
to the Warriors. Like what what he's done this with
multiple coaches. He didn't get David Blad fired, but he
didn't save him. He didn't get David Griffin fired, but
he didn't save him. If you want to say he
didn't fire David Griffin, that's fine. You can live by
that lie. But the truth is that if Lebron James
(10:32):
picks up the phone and calls Dan Gilbert and says, Dan,
if you if you don't resign David Griffin, I'm not
playing this year. Guess what. Guess who's going to be
gainfully employed with the Cleveland Cavaliers. That's power. So I
think the learning from the dysfunction within the Kyrie Lebron
(10:53):
relationship why that ended, it also gives you clarity on
Kyrie got so many nonsensical lies told about Carrier. Well,
he wanted to be his own guy. He wanted to
have his own show. I know from three sources. He
want to go to places. You want to go to
San Antonio or Boston? Why because he thought you could
(11:13):
win there because they have really good coaches. Wait wait wait,
he wanted to go there because he'd be the face
of the team. Not really, he wanted to go there
because those are professionally run organizations. You don't have Lebron
making calls going through Rich Paul, who represents half the team.
Lebron's boy ends up being the coach, and there's the
(11:35):
can I coach him? Can I not coach him? Are
we're not going to practice anymore because Lebron doesn't want
to practice. So it's really hard to get together and
to have kind of one mindset in a game. I'm
not sitting here telling you Lebron James stinks. Far from
I'm telling you it's really interesting. What has he what
he's become as a guy who comes in and immediately
(11:59):
energizes you're franchise, give you a chance to win a championship,
fills up the arena and plays at as high a
level as anybody's played in the last fifteen years in
the NBA. There is a downside. He's manipulative. Uh. And
then he does this, um, he does that that thing
(12:19):
what's it called where he uh where he does things
without taking ownership over them. Remember when Lebron said this,
try to do whatever I could do to help the
kid out be the best player he can be. And
I wish the kid, wish the kid great health. Um,
and kid wanted to do it was best for his uh,
(12:40):
I guess for his career. And you know, I try
to do whatever I could just try to help the
kid be as great as he could be or as
great as he wanted to be. And uh, you know,
and that's it. Yeah, words do in fact matter, Okay,
they do matter. And though he may think calling Kyrie
Irving a kid is a way of express saying, Amen,
(13:01):
he's only at the time five years old. Now he's
twenty six, got a world in front of him. You
can play for ten more years at a super high
level when you're twenty five years old, when you've hit
the game winning shot in Game seven of the NBA Finals,
when you're perennial all start a member of Team USA.
You know what I'm not anymore. I'm not a child.
(13:22):
So as we look back to what happened in Cleveland,
it's like reading divorce proceedings. You know, I have no
doubt in my mind. I said this on my show
and on Colin Show last year. I would tell you
the nail and the coffin had nothing to do with basketball.
With him and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Lebron James came out
(13:46):
in full support Hillary Clinton, and Dan Gilbert put his
money and and and support behind President Trump. And if
you want to tell me like that doesn't happen, how
many relationships have you lost over this presidency? How many
friendships have you lost? I guarantee at minimum one and
(14:11):
there is no maximum. Even if you haven't told your
friend they're not your friend anymore. I'm guessing there are
people just post something on on face on your Facebook page.
Either side. You will lose a couple of friends over this.
That's how we become. And when you already kind of
don't like the guy, when you're not able to keep
(14:34):
guys in town, when you're kind of fried on the
place that you grew up in, he came back and
won a championship. There's another team that's just better than you.
There's just a limitation of the guys around you, and
then you're that politically divided with the guy you're collecting
checks from and making money for from. Keep in mind,
Lebron James is making as much or more playing for
(15:00):
Dan Gilbert playing in the NBA. But how Lebron sees
the world, he's a man, he's a leader, he's an alpha.
Everybody one else benefits from his presence. The divorce proceedings,
the divorce trial sometimes way more interesting, oftentimes way more
interesting than the marriage itself. Be sure to catch live
(15:22):
editions of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three p m.
Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. Chris Mannox joins this live from Las Vegas.
Of course, Mannix isn't now an NBA inside for Yahoo Sports.
You can also hear him on Fox Sports Radio noon
to three Eastern time, along with NBA champion Caron Butler.
Right here on Fox Sports Radio, Manix, we talked last
(15:44):
week about Lebron James joining the Lakers, but it's totally
different when you go to Vegas because you're surrounded not
only with all of your media brethren, but with all
the NBA players, the NBA front office people. What's the
league's reaction to the Lakers and they've so far put
around Lebron James. Well, it's it's a healthy dose of skepticism.
(16:06):
I think Doug with Um with this group. I mean,
there's a level of understanding about what the Lakers are
saying it's going to mean with this group, but a
lot of doubts about what's gonna come from it. I mean, look,
one thing we know is that the Lakers practices are
gonna be great. Like you've got intense guys, Ron Do Stevenson, Lebron,
They're gonna change the culture of Los Angeles. But I
(16:30):
mean a whole bunch of non shooters. I mean, that's
that seems strange. I mean Lebron. I look, I understand
the need to take the ball out of Lebron's hands
to ease his burden a little bit in that way,
but he's still gonna get double teams and he's gonna
be throwing the ball out to guys that can't shoot.
So skepticism is a word I'd use that that a
lot of people are having around here. Um, DeMarcus Cousins
(16:50):
signs with the with the with the Warriors, NBA Twitter
goes crazy handing them the trophy, and then the reality
is that twofold Mannix one, he ain't gonna be ready
until Marche two, even if he is healthy. As much
as you would think it's addition by addition, it dramatically
changes him some for the better, but the potential is
(17:12):
some for the worst, specifically the defensive end of the floor.
What's the league's reaction as of now to what the
Warriors are doing in reconstructing outside of the Hampton five. Yeah,
I mean, look, it's there's a level of incredulousness that
that DeMarcus Cousins mostly was willing to take this type
of contract, but we all know the offers out there
for a big contract weren't there. I mean, look at
(17:34):
your concerns were valid, Doug that you know, how is
he going to defend He doesn't have a great defender anyway,
how is he gonna defend when he comes back? But
the reality is, I mean, if if he's not effective,
Jordan Bell will step in there. He's gonna be at
most five minute per game type of guy with this team.
They don't believe that he's gonna gripe about his role
(17:54):
because he knows what's at stake for him, uh in
this coming off season. So there's you know, there's plenty
of optimism amongst the people in Golden State that they've
got themselves an absolute steel here, and you know a
lot of conviction I think from other NBA people that
it's gonna work out, just flying with Cousins, who's really
just replacing you know, JaVale McGee and Zaza Patulia. I
(18:15):
agree with you, but again we're you're we're we're thinking
that DeMarcus Cousins, during his time off and rehabbing, he
is going to be Are we assuming he's gonna be
okay with those minutes? Right? Like? Are you gonna be
okay with starting and then coming out of the game?
You know, can can can he play when he doesn't
have the basketball? I think I think though, Doug. I mean,
(18:35):
a lot of this has been conveyed to DeMarcus. I
mean when when Steve Kerr and Bob Meyers found out
about this, I think they had a pretty frank conversation
with DeMarcus Is representatives about what his role was going
to be. And I think this is all a long
game for DeMarcus. He's got a chance to get healthy,
he's got a chance to get a ring, he's got
a chance to maybe rid himself with some of the
toxicity that's around him. I think he's going into this
(18:58):
with his eyes wide open. Where are we with Kawhi Leonard? Nowhere? Really?
I mean, you know, I'll sell you this much. There
are teams out there that believe that they have an
offer san Antonio would accept, but they're not going to
make those offers because of the contract and the health
of Kauai. And that's kind of, you know, sort of
the stand still we've been stuck. At at this point,
(19:19):
the spurs from the people I've talked to you that
have have contacted them still showing no sense of urgency
to make this deal. The guests is still before training camp,
they make a deal involved in Kauai. But at this point, uh,
nobody has any idea where he's gonna end up. Where
do you think he ends up? I still think they'll
find a way to make it deal with the Lakers.
I think the biggest question, Doug and you know you're
(19:41):
you're out there in l A. You you know a
lot about this as well. I think the biggest question
is draft considerations. I don't think the Lakers would blink
about anybody on that roster. You want Ingram, you want Kuzma,
will make that deal happen. But how deep into the
well of draft picks you go, especially with two lurking
out there as a potential, uh, you know, a year
(20:02):
without the one and done rules. So I think that's
what's what's scaring a team like l A off or
making a big offer. Yeah, I'm gonna disagree with you.
I don't think I think they would. I think Ingram,
you know Ingram or Kuzma preferably Ingram. They would be
they would be okay parting with Um and then maybe
one other guy. You know, the problem is, the more
(20:23):
they see Josh Hart tear up Summer Lady, the more
they like Josh Hart. But I could see one or
two guys and a draft pick. But yes, I think
it's a combination of both. You don't just you don't.
You don't need to move mountains, especially when again, even
as much as you want Kauai and he probably wants
to be there, there's other guys that you can get
if you're a year away anyway, and you don't have
(20:44):
to give up all of these resources to get them. Sure, No,
I completely agree with that. I would say though, that
counting on Kauai to come to l A next summer,
I wouldn't do that because I don't even think that
Kawai Leonard's conviction about coming to l A is a
strong as Paul George was. I mean, if Kawhi Leonard
was fully healthy last season, I don't think we're having
(21:05):
this conversation. I think he signs that five year super max,
and you know he's still the San Antonio spur So.
I don't know that He's in love with the idea
of coming to play for the Lakers as much as
even Paul George was. That's why maybe there is if
the Lakers are fixated on him and think he's the
perfect compliment to Lebron. Uh, there is an urgency to
get a deal done. Chris Mannix joining us on The
(21:25):
Doug Gottlib Show. There's talk of Jimmy Butler being at
his wits end with Carl Anthony Towns as Cat is
a little bit of a different guy like some of
these younger guys. What's the reality to it? See buy
in for another year in the Twin Cities. Yeah, I
just you know, look, if it was another team run
by somebody else, I might think it's more likely that
(21:46):
a Jimmy Butler gets moved. But that's just that's just
not how Tom Thibodeau operates. I mean, he is constantly
in this sort of win now type of mode. He
loves Jimmy Butler, he traded for Jimmy Butler, and I
think it's more likely we see like the Bulls Band
get back together, Jokekim Noah winding up out there, or uh,
you know, somebody else from that two thousand and eleven
Bulls team winding up in that mix. You're You're right,
(22:08):
it is. There's a very clear difference in in style
and difference in attitude between the veterans the tips brought
in and the young guys that are currently there. Can
that bridge be kind of connected over the next sixty
eight months, I don't know, but I don't think that
Jimmy Butler is gonna be moved in that time period,
I was told, and Chris Mannox joining us and of
course caused Boston home. I was I was told that
(22:32):
a lot of these stories about Kyrie just untrue, Like
even the list that he's of teams from last summer.
He really wanted San Antonio or Boston. He wanted stable,
well run well Cuoch organizations. Yeah, he wanted to be
the guy. But I I think it's it's it's one
of those things where he just didn't love the dysfunction
and the top heaviness in the way in which you know,
(22:53):
Frankly Lebron had such a big hand in so much
of what was going on in Cleveland. But then these
these stories can in they spiral to the Weldon. You know,
next year he could end up in New York for
next year, he ends up in Brooklyn. What's the reality
to Kyrie and his relationship with the Celtics. I think
the relationship is strong. The relationship with Brad Stevens is
(23:13):
even stronger. But the reality is that Kyrie is a
different kind of guy and and nobody can really get
a great read on them. Now you talk to people
with some people in the Celtics express confidence about him
coming back, signing a five year deal, but there are
others that will tell you that there's real anxiety about
Kyrie and and one of the big, you know, biggest
(23:34):
piece of evidence of that is the likelihood they hold
on to Terry Rogier all the way through next season.
I mean, you would think that Terry Rogier, especially with
it likely being Marcus Smart coming back, would be a
luxury they could deal. They don't look at it like that.
Until Kyrie's name is on a contract term. I don't
think they even think about dealing uh Terry Rosier. So
I think that everything is good with Kyrie and Boston,
(23:56):
with Danny, with Bratt, with all those people. But you
know the pull of New York, of playing in that
New York area. He's real for Kyrie Irving, and with
so many out teams out there, Doug with max cap space,
some with double max cap space, they're gonna be opportunities
for him not just go to a place, but the
team up maybe with somebody who wants to play with.
How secure do you think Luke Walton is his head
(24:17):
coach of the Lakers. I mean, I look at and
and I don't really have any insight necessarily into his
relationship with Lebron and and everything else. But you just
have to look at it objectively and say, the front
office didn't hire him, and Lebron is a challenging player
to coach. I know ty Loo said Lebron's easy, but
that's a little bit misleading. I mean, in practice, maybe
(24:39):
he's easy, but Lebron consumes a lot of the basketball oxygen,
He has a lot of stay and how a team plays,
He has a lot of poll Obviously with that front office,
I think Luke Walton has to win. I think he
not only has to get into the playoffs, but I
think he's maybe gotta win around in the playoffs in
order for him to remain as the head coach there.
They missed the playoffs. Very easy to see a scenario
where Magic and Lebron collaborate on finding the next coach.
(25:01):
I completely agree with you. They missed the playoffs or
or if it goes bad, and you're right, he's the
He's the one guy in that organization that was hired
by Jeanie, not hired by Polinka. Even the assistants were
hired when Polinka and Magic were there. Um that said,
they do all think. I mean, he survived last season
and the LaVar stuff and and injuries and dysfunction and
(25:23):
and end up looking like a guy who looks like
the real deal. We will see moving forward. Chris mannocks
joining us here on the Doug got Leave Show on
Fox Sports Radio. So what's left Clint Capella's left out there?
Like what else is out there? Well, you know, Capella
gets done because you know, even if somebody offers him
a four year max, Houston's gonna match you. Right now,
(25:44):
they're you know, kind of going through the minutia and
trying to find a way to to make it more
team friendly with that deal. But he's gonna wind up
back in Houston. The questions that are out there are
guys like Marcus, smart, guys like Robby hood and those
the people within those uh for those players their reps.
They're kind of looking at Sacramento right now. I mean,
(26:04):
Sacramento is still a team with some flexibility, as you
saw with the completely crazy Zach Lavine contract that they offered.
Crazy for them because they've already got a bunch of
young two guards in that mix. They're willing to do
nutty stuff sometimes. And there are people, in the case
of Smart, people within Sacramento really like him. I could
coming after him with some type of offer sheet. But
(26:27):
those are the two guys that maybe I don't want
to call them difference makers, those Smart certainly is one
in Boston. Those are the two biggest names still the
workout great stuff. Chris mannis check him out Sundays with
Karen Butler at noon Eastern time until three Eastern time.
And of course Reid is working whose sports follow him
on Twitter? Uh well, let me let me go one
last thing. Uh, most disappointing rookie so far summerly everybody
(26:51):
is running away from Trey Young like like he's the
Titanic sinking right now. I mean, really is Chris? It
was bad. I've watched all four games. It was it
was bad. I know he hit shots against the Nicks.
It was not good. But I'll even tell you that.
You know, and I haven't talked to anybody was in Atlanta,
but people that have talked to Atlanta. I'm starting out
here like, well, it was he wasn't our guy. He
(27:13):
was this guy's guy. You know how that goes. But
it was more, you know, this guy ap pops at
this about Tree Young. At this point, you don't know
who was behind Tree Young. Hopefully it's just you know,
a freshman coming out and being too overly hyped and
he works out, but he's the one guy that's that's
drawing the most attention in a negative way. Great stuff
as always, man Chris managed who Sports, Thanks Mannix. Fox
(27:34):
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
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a two point o nine e r A on a
(27:55):
terrible Tampa Bay team. He's also twelve and four hundred
and thirty two strikeouts and hundred sixteen innings. The players
got to pick their own. They got Luis Servino, Justin Verlander,
Garrett Cole, Chris Sale, and Corey Klueber. It's hard to
question any of that group, right um. The must have
(28:19):
guy was Blake tiern In, who's five and one point
eight one e r A twenty two saves four chances.
And they have since shoo Choo, who's fine but not
really an All Star. The biggest thing is this, the
American League is really hard because American leage has got
all the good players, right um. And first thing is
(28:46):
I don't really understand. I don't understand actually at all
why every team has to be represented. Can somebody explain
to me why? Because I believe though it's a cell
of bration of the sport, we should be celebrating the
best of the sport. Jose Barrios, Jose Joe Aimenez, Like,
(29:08):
do Joe Aimenez? Do you know how bad he was
last year? Last year he had a twelve point three
four e r A, a twelve point three four r A.
Now this year it's a two point eight five and
he's pitched in forty four games as a reliever. But like, really, really,
So to two things here in order to fix it. One,
(29:31):
most importantly, you don't have to have every team represented,
and you don't have to double up on every position.
You double up on catchers. But I mean this is
it should be an All Star team. The depth of
guys you need to have is that pitch pitcher, so
(29:51):
you don't so guys don't hurt their arms. Right, that's
the big We can't have guys pitching too manyings and
an All Star game hurt their arms. I agree with that,
So load up on as many pictures as you want,
but you don't need to first baseman to second baseman,
two short like this is not Noah's Ark. It's an
All Star team. And oh yeah, by the way, if
a guy gets selected as an All Star and he's
(30:14):
a short stop and he's a backup, like he can
play second base for the All Star why because that's
what you do in like Little League Baseball. All these
guys can play other positions. Does it mean it's for
a championship? No, So in in order three different things. One,
(30:35):
every team doesn't need to be represented. I believe the
reason they do that is the intent was so that
every different market would have somebody who would draw eyes.
Is there one person in Detroit that's not named Menez?
That's like, I wasn't gonna watch the All Star Game,
but Joe Amenez is pitching. Maybe at some point in
(30:56):
the sixth, seventh, eighth, or ninth inning, he might throw
to one hitter, So I'm gonna watch. It just doesn't happen.
It doesn't happen. Nobody want people. Not enough people watch
the All Star Game anyway. No one's watching the All
Star Game to see a guy pinch hit or to
see somebody throw to one batter or one inning. You
watch the All Star Game because you're baseball fan. You
(31:18):
want to see the best guys play baseball period. All
stars should be stars. The roster should easily be capped out, okay,
at like, I don't know twelve position players, and then
(31:39):
you can have I don't even you have unlimited pitchure.
I don't care how many pictures. But I want the
best of the best. I want to know who the
best short stop is. I want to be best third basement,
is best first baseman, best second basement, and then whoever
the next best couple of guys are Somebody who want
to play first base the whole game. Final, we'll replace him.
And you gotta have two catchers, and you know what,
(31:59):
you might go through two catches and you're the third one.
I guarantee theres somebody who's playing third places, playing the
outfield that's played catcher. Something I can catch you any
like we act like we act like you. These players
can't do. Of course they can. It would make it
more fun for them and more interesting to watch. And
they just haven't playing baseball game. We we so massively
overthink this thing. It's ridiculous. Every team doesn't have represented.
(32:24):
Cut some of this roster down, make it a true
select group of the best the best twelve position players
in the sport. And then here's the last thing. My
belief is three factors in an All Star selection. What
have you done this year is important? It does not
(32:47):
It does not trump what you've done your entire career.
And to me, I even think it's the third most
important thing. And what have you done over the last
twelve months? Let me give you an All Star selection,
and which I would call into question, Matt Kemp and
you might say to yourself, got leave? Didn't you go
to the Dodger game. Don't you live in Los Angeles?
(33:11):
Doesn't Doesn't Matt Kemp belong as an All Star based
on how he's played this year? Okay, sure, but Matt
Kemp wasn't even supposed to make the Dodgers. Matt Kemp
had been in All Star previously. But last year Matt
Kemp was bad? How does that not factor in at all?
(33:35):
At all? Who's not good? Last year? He had a
negative war? Last year? A negative war wins above replacement.
Other words, they would win more games when he wouldn't
play than when he would play, based on stats. Okay,
I know that war is a lot more complicated than that.
But two guys like me, the layman like wins above replacement. Wait,
he would they win less games when he plays then
(33:55):
he when he doesn't play. I believe you should fact
during the last twelve months, not just the first four
months of this season. What has he done since the
last All Star Game? So that's how I selected All Star.
Be sure to catch live editions of the Doug gott
Leaps Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on
(34:17):
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Let's
welcome to Antonio Daniels. He covers the thunder for living course,
he was an NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs.
How much would I have to pay you to attend
two games of a baseball doubleheader? Wait, let's not go there.
Let's not go there. I don't, I don't. Yeah, No,
that's not gonna happen. We're all due respect to baseball
(34:39):
and Major League Baseball and the players. Yeah, I can't
do that. I got a bunch of things I want
to get to with you. Let me start with Summer League.
How much you've been watching? I enjoyed watching Summer League.
I don't enjoy the way it's covered, but I really
enjoyed watching it from from what what? What aspect? How
how it's covered? You mean the actual commentary or the
twitter I'm on Tarry, the radio commentary, what part of
(35:02):
how it's coming Just the amount of pressure that's put
on guys and what we say about them. To me,
To me, the Summer League is like preseason football. You know,
it's like in pressing the football. If your team does well,
it's fantastic, But then people always come back to the
same thing. You can't win either way in summer league,
so you look at somebody like Trey Young, all I
see is from every possible angle, he's getting beat up.
(35:25):
So if he plays well, you know what, people say, Oh, well,
you know what, it's only it's only summer league. It's
this summer league. He's playing to get second and third
string guys, so it doesn't matter. And if he struggles,
he's a bust, so he can't win either way. So
for me, I enjoyed watching it, but I really enjoyed
watching these young guys grow. I don't enjoy the amount
of pressure they're under. And then once the season starts,
(35:45):
then you can really start to truly evaluate what somebody
can become in the future non summer league. Yes, what
do you think? Uh, summer league? So I'm not I
mean some of the things that people I've been issued
with or going to be an issue because he's eighteen
years old. Nineteen years old? Did I say at the time,
he's one year remote from prom, so all of these
(36:08):
different issues that people are having with him, Like I'm sorry,
I mean, when the guy's one year removed from prom,
he's drafted and now he's supposed to be the faith
of your franchise. Do you really think he's ready for
that or the amount of pressure that the media and
everyone else is putting them under. No, he's not so
for me, I was, I must rather sit back, watch
the product grow, rosch the product developed, and then maybe
(36:31):
sling some sort of judgment towards him in the future.
This is fine, but I'll just give you, like you
want to video actual basketball talk about it instead of
I don't want to comment on other people's comments. My
thing is like, look, he didn't play any defense in college, okay,
which look I when when you get to the pros
now gets real, you get challenge, You look across and
you start to get challenged. I've seen a lack of
(36:53):
forget about the fact that he's not a great athlete.
It's now when you're a when you're a top pick,
when you're the the fifth pick of the draft, to
still not offer up any sort of effort defensively when
everyone's watching you, that's a problem. And then there's the
problems to which I don't know how much is going
to improve based upon how his body improves, which is,
(37:13):
can he get a step? I don't even care about
the shot making, but the shots keep coming from further
and further out because he can't seem to get by
guys um and he can't seem to guard people. You know,
we're in a you're in a league now where everybody switches.
So it's he can't guard point guards. I don't know
who he can guard on the floor. Like I'm I
think it's gonna be a problem regards to the fact
(37:33):
that he's nineteen, he's going to play, and there's some
major issues there that have been uncovered at times in
college that right now continue to be an issue in
some releague. Yeah, for me, I don't number one, I
hear you. As far as the defensive intensity, I think
that will come in time and understanding. But also he
wasn't I mean, with all due respect, he wasn't drive
(37:56):
for a defensive intensity. That's not drive. Before he was
dripped because he could score and he could make guys
around him better. And that's when I say, when I
say the development that comes along with it. He's always
gonna be small, He's always going to be smaller stature.
But the thing that he'll have to learn in time,
which will come with NBA reps, is learned to compete
and how to compete. You think what you're saying, you
(38:19):
think you learn to compete. I mean I don't you
either have that or don't have that. No, No, you learned,
you learn the time because once you learn this is
not Oklahoma and what's your us to is Big twelve basketball.
What's the used to is Big twelve talent. It's a
different case in scenario when you leave the Big twelve
and you leave the n c A A and you
(38:39):
come to a league where everybody went through twelve can play.
Everybody went through twelve can play. So you may be
able to get away with talking it on defensively for
Lon Krueger, you may be able to get away with that.
At Oklahoma you might be able to because the fact
of the matter is you're putting the thirty points tonight,
you're leading the n c A A and points and
also in the cyst. When you come to this next
(39:00):
level and you've got guys coming at your hand every day,
it sets a different mindset. It brings out a different
motivation within you. A lot of times that didn't you
didn't know that you have or needed to have. Antonio
dani is joining us on The Doug Otlups Show on
Fox Sports Radio all right, So since we've last spoken
Carmelo Anthony with the news came out that Kamelo Anthony
(39:22):
and the Thunder are eventually gonna part ways in some
form or fashion. Um this this kind it had to
happen because of tax but did it also have to
happen because of the fact that there wasn't a role
that he wanted to fulfill. I beg that helps the process,
and it's very it's very rare in this league where
(39:43):
you can actually say something works out the best way
for both sides. Oblahoma City Thunder, this is a great
scenario for you because now you have an opportunity to
shop Mellow see what you get can get for him,
and you have an opportunity to rid itself that one
million dollars of taxes that you were just talking about.
But here's my question to you, Doug, if you're Carmelow,
do you really think going to a different situation reverous
(40:06):
Houston or reverous the Lakers, it's going to change your role.
If you go to Houston, you're gonna be in a
third option. No one's going to allow you to be
that guy that you wanted to be. So do you
think changing um scenes of whatever it may be, as
far as going to the Lakers and going to Houston
or anywhere else. Do you think if role is going
to change or be any different than it was at
(40:27):
Oklama City. No. I think though that here's here's where
it does. He may accept it better or he may
be forced to accept it. Twofold one. You know how
it is if you're making league minimum, even if you
get the twenty seven million paid right or whatever they
buy out, pecking order is not just based upon the
respect you have. But but like, look, did you're a
(40:47):
minimum deal? Okay, you're you're cutible, you're releasable. You don't
like it, that's fine, we can eat that deal. So
I think that helps it, And then I think it
helps it, and I think theoretically again this is theoretically
it helps it. Way you have other better stars than
him on the team that can can cajole him with
Chris Paul, who's a friend. Lebron James is a friend. Hey,
(41:09):
if I'm the Warriors, I don't think it's crazy for
the Warriors to kick the tires on Mellow only in
that like, like, look, we got our dudes, we just
need somebody to come out the bench occasionally get buckets
like Most Space. Like Most Space didn't playny defense when
we play for them, he just come off and get buckets.
Mellows five times the player of Most Spaces. So so
you look, if you if you want to accept their role.
If you don't find that's okay, And I think it's
(41:31):
if you get in, if you get into the relationship
with open, honest dialogue and you're making minimum money, I
think it's possible, not likely, but possible that it works. Yeah,
and that's a great point. I do agree with that.
I think relationship means a lot. When you start talking
about his relationship with Lebron James and his relationship with
Chris Paul, I agree there's not just relationship, but there's
(41:53):
amount of respect there between those guys as well. Agree.
Does the does the Cousins thing actually make them better?
It's part of it makes them different, right, they've always
played small when they want to win. Does it actually
make them better? Yeah? You know why? I think that
makes them better, dug Because number one, they don't have
to faith the Marcus Cousins, So I think that's one
(42:15):
of the reasons. It makes them better because the kryptonite
for the Golden State Warriors, so many people thought was
the Ethny Davis along with the Marcus Cousins, where they
had difficulty matching up the thunderbeat the thunderbeating twice last year,
and they play with Steven Adams, they just beat super physical, right,
beat them up on the board, be really physical with them, right,
(42:38):
and that's easier. The thing is is not about being
him twice. That sounds great, and I said that during
the regular season. When you start talking about the regular season,
it's fantastic if you beat Golden State twice even three times.
But when you start talking about the postseason and the playoffs,
to eliminate the Golden State Warriors, you have to beat
them four times. That's very difficult to do with a
certain style of basketball. But if you adde them Arcus Cousins,
(43:00):
a guy that teams will have a very difficult time
matching up with, especially Golden State with Raymond Green at
the five spot, they would have a hard time controlling
DeMarcus Cousins. Now you don't have to worry about him,
So now you don't have to worry about playing against him.
So if you're going to state. It gives you another option.
So if an injury happens, if a Kevin durd goes down,
(43:22):
if a Steph Curry goes down, now it allows you
to play completely different style of basketball through someone that
no one in his league can go on on one. Yes,
I definitely think it makes him better because I think
it makes him more personal offensively. Antonio Daniels joining us
in the Doug Gotlips Show here on Fox Sports Radio.
What do you think ultimately happens with Kauai Man? This
(43:45):
is getting crazier by the day and right now, and
I've said this on day one, it really wouldn't surprise me, Doug,
if he was here once the season started, it would
not surprise me. If you continue to hear about why
I want to go to l A. Then Boston picked
up track to, then Philly picked up tright, now I
want to go to to the Clippers, and all these
different things were going on, and meanwhile I'm here in
(44:07):
San Antonio and nothing's happening. So this day's continue to
pass and days continue to pass. If you're the San
Antonio Spurs, the longer this goes, the more you lose leverage.
So it would not surprise me at all by any
stress of the imagination. If Kawai Leonard was here. Yeah,
But I mean even if he doesn't want to be
even if he says like, look, I've asked to be traded,
(44:28):
you want to trade me, you know my thighs. Still
he can do to my thighs still not ready. Thing Well,
but the thing is, if you're the Spurs, you're gonna
do what's in your best interests always. So I get
Kawhi Leonard coming out and saying, well, you know what,
I want to go here, here, here, How often the
professional sports is an organization, what is going to do
what's in the best interests of the player, It's not
(44:48):
going to happen. So you can have your little teams
that's too. You want to go to the Lakers and
the Clippers. But if they don't respond with youth, athleticism, assets, traffics,
all these other package that the San Antonio know Spurs
likes that it was best what I said, Antony Spirs,
They're not gonna move on it. That is not the
Spurs way, that is not the way they do business.
So I get Kawhi Leonard wanting to go certain places.
(45:11):
It may come a point and I'm not saying this
is true, and may come a point where he actually
asked to go free agency. Um, do you do you
think the Thunder are better next year without Mellow and
Robertson coming back off of the knee. Yes, much better.
And it has nothing to do with just Carmelo. It
(45:32):
has to do with chemistry because now, when day one
of training camp starts, you don't have to know Paul George.
If you're Russell Westbrook, you don't have to understand where
Steven Adams likes to ball. If you're Paul George, they
have a year under their belt together and it may
not have ended the way that the Thunder wanted it to,
(45:52):
but you kill still can't discard it the fact that
it happened. Anytime you get an opportunity to start training
camp new without that that newness, but with that comfortability
attached to it, like, Okay, we're coming into training camp,
but this year behind us, I don't have to know you,
you don't have to know me. Now you add Andre
Robertson back to the match, an excellent defensive guard on
(46:12):
the wing, and when him and Paul George were there,
the Thunder were fantastic defensively after who they could cover
and what they can do defensively. So for that reason,
in chemistry alone, and plus just the fact that you
have the whole free agency talk done, that's not an
issue anymore. No one in that locker room is worried
about their their foundations moving forward, worried about their future.
(46:33):
All the issues that were issues last year won't be
issues this upcoming season. Great stuff. Antonio Danis covers the
Thunder for a living. He's an NBA champion, a really
good uh dude who covers the league. Antonio, thanks for
joining us man anytime. Thanks for happy me, brother,
This is the best of the dun got Lee Show
on Fox Sports Radio. Boom, What Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show,
Fox Sports Radio, coming to you from the steamy hot
city of Los Angeles, California. They searched and searched and
searched for a place to call the Fox Sports Radio
(00:22):
and Premier Networks home, and they decided to find the
closest place to the sun, and they succeeded. What. I
hope you had a great weekend, whether you went to
the beach, went to the mountains, went to a lake,
or just set your fat fanny on the couch and
watch some TV. I hope you had to help you
ad yourself a good weekend. Uh yeah, I did double
(00:44):
duty most of last weekend Dan Patricks Show. This show
was off of this show. End of the week Up.
Don't worry. I grinded this weekend a mix of Summer
League on TV, hanging out by the pool, got got
around of golf in and went to uh Angels Dwyer's
Game three at the Big A, which John Ramos I
(01:06):
do believe the Angels took two of three from your Dodgers.
The correct the A good game yesterday for the Angels.
Yes he did. Fellow Oklahoma state alum Andrew Haney had
ten strikeouts over seven innings. Only really made one mistake.
That was ya C. L. Puigue after getting squeezed in
the third inning by the umpire and Puigue hit it up.
(01:28):
Not not quite bo Jack's Terry show. Hey o Tani
off the bench with a pinch hit showtime home run. Anyway,
That's all we're gonna talk about with Freeway Freeway Series Baseball.
What the All Star teams were announced? Sort of? Sort
of it's like, oh, here's the Alsto Teth, But we're
gonna name one more guy and then we're gonna add
some more dudes because other guys that pull out right
(01:51):
and eventually, as with the Pro Bowl, most of the
guys who belong in will belong in, but do they
actually belong in? We will clean up the mess which
is All Star Game selections later on the show. Um,
but what I find to be fascinating about Lebron a
week later, a week ago last week hosting this show,
(02:13):
hosting The Dan Patrick Show, we were reacting to the
news that Lebron James is going to be an l
a Laker leaving behind Cleveland the second time around, and
what was fascinating was fascinating is how everyone has over
corrected for their past mistakes. Right Like, in the past,
(02:36):
Lebron has had a big show and it's caused a
big stir and he's had a big article. This time
it was called the Lakers get on a G five
and fly to Europe with your wife. In the past,
Dan Gilbert has Um has gone Sherman and burned everything
down to the sea. This time it was hey, dude,
(02:59):
thanks for everything, come back. Any time, everyone has overcorrected.
The Oklahoma City Thunder didn't want to go into the
tax famously with James Harden, so up until the time
to which they buy out Carmelo Anthony, they're a hundred
and fifty million into the tax. Forget about the salaries,
over three hundrellion dollars in salaries, and though they will
(03:20):
save some money when they eventually part ways with Mellow,
the fact is they'll still be in the tax. They've
overcorrected for their past mistakes. But what's what's the most
interesting part about relationships, quite honestly, is post divorce breakup stories.
Not how they broke up, but why No one shares
(03:42):
the good stories about the marriages that make it. They
just don't. No one says like, yeah, we're in year
forty five of marriage. But man, for the first thirty
five years, I hated her guts and she hated mine.
Now we sleep in separate bedrooms and we just stay married.
To say we stay married and he does that when
you get divorced and you have divorced. The reason that
(04:04):
people don't go to court is they don't want full disclosure.
They don't want to know. They don't want all of
their idiosyncrasies on trial. They don't want all their failures
as a husband or a wife to be made into
public record, especially when your celebrities. That's what's happened with
(04:25):
lebron As he's left Cleveland. Every time he's left somewhere,
you've gotten a little bit different sense of who he
is and what and and how how you feel about it.
Even Dan Gilbert, who by all accounts seems to be
a fairly miserable dude. Right, he's worth like six seven
billion dollars and people are People will will say, well, look,
(04:47):
he's miserable because his NBA team, his NBA team just
lost a substantial value evaluation because they lost Lebron James.
Two things you should know. One, yes, it will lose
its value, but they'll probably actually make money this year
as opposed to losing money going into the tax the
(05:07):
last couple of years. And two, and this is really
really important. The guy owns quicken loans. He's worth five
billion without the team. Everybody wants to make money and
win championships and be competitive, and this is an it's
an ego thing to own a pro team, but this
is not his major major source of revenue. Don't worry
(05:29):
about Danny boy, He'll be just fine. But we start
to learn more about guys, and I find the Kyrie
Irving divorce, which is now almost a year a year
since it's been consummated. I find that to be really
interesting because here we are again with Lebron James going
(05:51):
to play with a young, unproven team. Right, That's what
happened when he went back to Cleveland. Sure, he brought
in Kevin Love and there were some other pieces that
are added, but when he first went to Cleveland, that
was a young and very unproven team, and almost overnight
they were turned around. Jason Lloyd has has covered him,
(06:12):
So too is Joe Vartin Joe Varden's covering from Cleveland
dot Com, Jason Lloyd said, quote, I will freely admit
the relationship between James and Irving was worse than I thought.
The Kyrie Lebron relationship was worse than I thought. I
told Lebron that on opening night, I said, you guys
did a great job of fulling me. I had no idea,
and I won't tell you exactly what his response was,
(06:33):
but he more or less agreed that it was not
a good relationship between the two of them. The little
brother thing did annoy the crap out of Kyrie. Joe
Varden Cleveland dot Com, also a local radio host, Lebron
did all kinds of stuff to Kyrie, almost like hazing,
just the kind of way in which you would treat
a thing, way in which you would treat treat him,
(06:53):
the things he would say to him, the things he
would say about him. I think certainly that's part of it.
You know, Kyrie resented how much attention, how much power,
how much sway Lebron had within the organization on a
number of levels. Again, we've all allowed Lebron to say
we shouldn't have traded Kyrie, but he did absolutely nothing
to keep him here until it was too late. When
(07:16):
it came out, there was a month, a whole month
before anybody had any idea that the trade was going
to be Boston. Lebron didn't do anything. There was no
love lost between them. These historical notes are really important
because if this fails in l A, or if he's
not if it fails in l A, because because uh,
(07:39):
they're not good enough, Lebron James will somehow avoid criticism,
avoid critique. Look, I don't know how much of the
blame Pie you want to go blame Pie Lebron deserves
for the fact that they didn't win more in Cleveland,
they didn't win more in Miami, or what they will
do in l A. It's a no brainer for the
(08:02):
Lakers to go after Lebron. But but the part to
which you got to be cautious of, and I think
Magic and Rob Polinka are cautious of, is how much power,
how much pull? How much do you listen to him?
If you don't listen to him, he will shut down
on you, he will pout on you. If you do
listen to him. Oftentimes that that can create a wedge
(08:24):
between him and whoever else is on the team, especially
a young star, if you do listen to him, and
also lessens your power. Remember when you hear Dan Gilbert
say I got my team back, whether that's real or
whether that's kind of in an inflated statement that some
have said they've heard Dan Gilbert say, you understand that.
(08:45):
Though Dan Gilbert can be small and petty, the fact
is there is some reality to it. Lebron is one
of those guys that wants things to happen, and then
when they happen, he acts like, oh, what are you
talking about? You know what, Lebron do us? You see
it in European soccer. You see it with the influence
(09:05):
of European players in the NBA. And if you've ever
seen this, where guys will be super super physical right
with their lower body, they'll stick out a knee, a hip,
you know, a groin, an elbow, and then when the
ref's looking, they got their hands off, like what, I
didn't do anything? Do you know that? Look? You see
it at times on what do they called in soccer
(09:27):
set pieces on corners right where they're pushing, they're shoving,
they're grabbing their kneeing each other, their elbowing each other,
and the ref looks like, what, I didn't do anything.
I did nothing. That's really the European influence on the NBA.
It's not just the flopping, it's the using all different
parts of your body and keeping your hands where the
(09:49):
refs can see him, and then act like he didn't
do anything. That's Lebron. That's what he did with Kyrie.
He rode Kyrie, and then even after they won a championship,
he wanted Kyrie traded for his awoid Chris Paul. Then
when it came back around to him, he's like, what
I didn't I didn't do anything. I didn't trade him.
I didn't want him traded. I didn't want him trade
to Boston. I didn't want him. We were good, we
(10:11):
were in the finals, we came back from three one
and then and then you know, last year we lost
to the Warriors. Like what what he's done this with
multiple coaches. He didn't get David Blad fired, but he
didn't save him. He didn't get David Griffin fired, but
he didn't save him. If you want to say he
didn't fire David Griffin, that's fine. You can live by
that lie. But the truth is that if Lebron James
(10:32):
picks up the phone and calls Dan Gilbert and says, Dan,
if you if you don't resign David Griffin, I'm not
playing this year. Guess what. Guess who's going to be
gainfully employed with the Cleveland Cavaliers. That's power. So I
think the learning from the dysfunction within the Kyrie Lebron
(10:53):
relationship why that ended, it also gives you clarity on
Kyrie got so many nonsensical lies told about Carrier. Well,
he wanted to be his own guy. He wanted to
have his own show. I know from three sources. He
want to go to places. You want to go to
San Antonio or Boston? Why because he thought you could
(11:13):
win there because they have really good coaches. Wait wait wait,
he wanted to go there because he'd be the face
of the team. Not really, he wanted to go there
because those are professionally run organizations. You don't have Lebron
making calls going through Rich Paul, who represents half the team.
Lebron's boy ends up being the coach, and there's the
(11:35):
can I coach him? Can I not coach him? Are
we're not going to practice anymore because Lebron doesn't want
to practice. So it's really hard to get together and
to have kind of one mindset in a game. I'm
not sitting here telling you Lebron James stinks. Far from
I'm telling you it's really interesting. What has he what
he's become as a guy who comes in and immediately
(11:59):
energizes you're franchise, give you a chance to win a championship,
fills up the arena and plays at as high a
level as anybody's played in the last fifteen years in
the NBA. There is a downside. He's manipulative. Uh. And
then he does this, um, he does that that thing
(12:19):
what's it called where he uh where he does things
without taking ownership over them. Remember when Lebron said this,
try to do whatever I could do to help the
kid out be the best player he can be. And
I wish the kid, wish the kid great health. Um,
and kid wanted to do it was best for his uh,
(12:40):
I guess for his career. And you know, I try
to do whatever I could just try to help the
kid be as great as he could be or as
great as he wanted to be. And uh, you know,
and that's it. Yeah, words do in fact matter, Okay,
they do matter. And though he may think calling Kyrie
Irving a kid is a way of express saying, Amen,
(13:01):
he's only at the time five years old. Now he's
twenty six, got a world in front of him. You
can play for ten more years at a super high
level when you're twenty five years old, when you've hit
the game winning shot in Game seven of the NBA Finals,
when you're perennial all start a member of Team USA.
You know what I'm not anymore. I'm not a child.
(13:22):
So as we look back to what happened in Cleveland,
it's like reading divorce proceedings. You know, I have no
doubt in my mind. I said this on my show
and on Colin Show last year. I would tell you
the nail and the coffin had nothing to do with basketball.
With him and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Lebron James came out
(13:46):
in full support Hillary Clinton, and Dan Gilbert put his
money and and and support behind President Trump. And if
you want to tell me like that doesn't happen, how
many relationships have you lost over this presidency? How many
friendships have you lost? I guarantee at minimum one and
(14:11):
there is no maximum. Even if you haven't told your
friend they're not your friend anymore. I'm guessing there are
people just post something on on face on your Facebook page.
Either side. You will lose a couple of friends over this.
That's how we become. And when you already kind of
don't like the guy, when you're not able to keep
(14:34):
guys in town, when you're kind of fried on the
place that you grew up in, he came back and
won a championship. There's another team that's just better than you.
There's just a limitation of the guys around you, and
then you're that politically divided with the guy you're collecting
checks from and making money for from. Keep in mind,
Lebron James is making as much or more playing for
(15:00):
Dan Gilbert playing in the NBA. But how Lebron sees
the world, he's a man, he's a leader, he's an alpha.
Everybody one else benefits from his presence. The divorce proceedings,
the divorce trial sometimes way more interesting, oftentimes way more
interesting than the marriage itself. Be sure to catch live
(15:22):
editions of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three p m.
Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. Chris Mannox joins this live from Las Vegas.
Of course, Mannix isn't now an NBA inside for Yahoo Sports.
You can also hear him on Fox Sports Radio noon
to three Eastern time, along with NBA champion Caron Butler.
Right here on Fox Sports Radio, Manix, we talked last
(15:44):
week about Lebron James joining the Lakers, but it's totally
different when you go to Vegas because you're surrounded not
only with all of your media brethren, but with all
the NBA players, the NBA front office people. What's the
league's reaction to the Lakers and they've so far put
around Lebron James. Well, it's it's a healthy dose of skepticism.
(16:06):
I think Doug with Um with this group. I mean,
there's a level of understanding about what the Lakers are
saying it's going to mean with this group, but a
lot of doubts about what's gonna come from it. I mean, look,
one thing we know is that the Lakers practices are
gonna be great. Like you've got intense guys, Ron Do Stevenson, Lebron,
They're gonna change the culture of Los Angeles. But I
(16:30):
mean a whole bunch of non shooters. I mean, that's
that seems strange. I mean Lebron. I look, I understand
the need to take the ball out of Lebron's hands
to ease his burden a little bit in that way,
but he's still gonna get double teams and he's gonna
be throwing the ball out to guys that can't shoot.
So skepticism is a word I'd use that that a
lot of people are having around here. Um, DeMarcus Cousins
(16:50):
signs with the with the with the Warriors, NBA Twitter
goes crazy handing them the trophy, and then the reality
is that twofold Mannix one, he ain't gonna be ready
until Marche two, even if he is healthy. As much
as you would think it's addition by addition, it dramatically
changes him some for the better, but the potential is
(17:12):
some for the worst, specifically the defensive end of the floor.
What's the league's reaction as of now to what the
Warriors are doing in reconstructing outside of the Hampton five. Yeah,
I mean, look, it's there's a level of incredulousness that
that DeMarcus Cousins mostly was willing to take this type
of contract, but we all know the offers out there
for a big contract weren't there. I mean, look at
(17:34):
your concerns were valid, Doug that you know, how is
he going to defend He doesn't have a great defender anyway,
how is he gonna defend when he comes back? But
the reality is, I mean, if if he's not effective,
Jordan Bell will step in there. He's gonna be at
most five minute per game type of guy with this team.
They don't believe that he's gonna gripe about his role
(17:54):
because he knows what's at stake for him, uh in
this coming off season. So there's you know, there's plenty
of optimism amongst the people in Golden State that they've
got themselves an absolute steel here, and you know a
lot of conviction I think from other NBA people that
it's gonna work out, just flying with Cousins, who's really
just replacing you know, JaVale McGee and Zaza Patulia. I
(18:15):
agree with you, but again we're you're we're we're thinking
that DeMarcus Cousins, during his time off and rehabbing, he
is going to be Are we assuming he's gonna be
okay with those minutes? Right? Like? Are you gonna be
okay with starting and then coming out of the game?
You know, can can can he play when he doesn't
have the basketball? I think I think though, Doug. I mean,
(18:35):
a lot of this has been conveyed to DeMarcus. I
mean when when Steve Kerr and Bob Meyers found out
about this, I think they had a pretty frank conversation
with DeMarcus Is representatives about what his role was going
to be. And I think this is all a long
game for DeMarcus. He's got a chance to get healthy,
he's got a chance to get a ring, he's got
a chance to maybe rid himself with some of the
toxicity that's around him. I think he's going into this
(18:58):
with his eyes wide open. Where are we with Kawhi Leonard? Nowhere? Really?
I mean, you know, I'll sell you this much. There
are teams out there that believe that they have an
offer san Antonio would accept, but they're not going to
make those offers because of the contract and the health
of Kauai. And that's kind of, you know, sort of
the stand still we've been stuck. At at this point,
(19:19):
the spurs from the people I've talked to you that
have have contacted them still showing no sense of urgency
to make this deal. The guests is still before training camp,
they make a deal involved in Kauai. But at this point, uh,
nobody has any idea where he's gonna end up. Where
do you think he ends up? I still think they'll
find a way to make it deal with the Lakers.
I think the biggest question, Doug and you know you're
(19:41):
you're out there in l A. You you know a
lot about this as well. I think the biggest question
is draft considerations. I don't think the Lakers would blink
about anybody on that roster. You want Ingram, you want Kuzma,
will make that deal happen. But how deep into the
well of draft picks you go, especially with two lurking
out there as a potential, uh, you know, a year
(20:02):
without the one and done rules. So I think that's
what's what's scaring a team like l A off or
making a big offer. Yeah, I'm gonna disagree with you.
I don't think I think they would. I think Ingram,
you know Ingram or Kuzma preferably Ingram. They would be
they would be okay parting with Um and then maybe
one other guy. You know, the problem is, the more
(20:23):
they see Josh Hart tear up Summer Lady, the more
they like Josh Hart. But I could see one or
two guys and a draft pick. But yes, I think
it's a combination of both. You don't just you don't.
You don't need to move mountains, especially when again, even
as much as you want Kauai and he probably wants
to be there, there's other guys that you can get
if you're a year away anyway, and you don't have
(20:44):
to give up all of these resources to get them. Sure, No,
I completely agree with that. I would say though, that
counting on Kauai to come to l A next summer,
I wouldn't do that because I don't even think that
Kawai Leonard's conviction about coming to l A is a
strong as Paul George was. I mean, if Kawhi Leonard
was fully healthy last season, I don't think we're having
(21:05):
this conversation. I think he signs that five year super max,
and you know he's still the San Antonio spur So.
I don't know that He's in love with the idea
of coming to play for the Lakers as much as
even Paul George was. That's why maybe there is if
the Lakers are fixated on him and think he's the
perfect compliment to Lebron. Uh, there is an urgency to
get a deal done. Chris Mannix joining us on The
(21:25):
Doug Gottlib Show. There's talk of Jimmy Butler being at
his wits end with Carl Anthony Towns as Cat is
a little bit of a different guy like some of
these younger guys. What's the reality to it? See buy
in for another year in the Twin Cities. Yeah, I
just you know, look, if it was another team run
by somebody else, I might think it's more likely that
(21:46):
a Jimmy Butler gets moved. But that's just that's just
not how Tom Thibodeau operates. I mean, he is constantly
in this sort of win now type of mode. He
loves Jimmy Butler, he traded for Jimmy Butler, and I
think it's more likely we see like the Bulls Band
get back together, Jokekim Noah winding up out there, or uh,
you know, somebody else from that two thousand and eleven
Bulls team winding up in that mix. You're You're right,
(22:08):
it is. There's a very clear difference in in style
and difference in attitude between the veterans the tips brought
in and the young guys that are currently there. Can
that bridge be kind of connected over the next sixty
eight months, I don't know, but I don't think that
Jimmy Butler is gonna be moved in that time period,
I was told, and Chris Mannox joining us and of
course caused Boston home. I was I was told that
(22:32):
a lot of these stories about Kyrie just untrue, Like
even the list that he's of teams from last summer.
He really wanted San Antonio or Boston. He wanted stable,
well run well Cuoch organizations. Yeah, he wanted to be
the guy. But I I think it's it's it's one
of those things where he just didn't love the dysfunction
and the top heaviness in the way in which you know,
(22:53):
Frankly Lebron had such a big hand in so much
of what was going on in Cleveland. But then these
these stories can in they spiral to the Weldon. You know,
next year he could end up in New York for
next year, he ends up in Brooklyn. What's the reality
to Kyrie and his relationship with the Celtics. I think
the relationship is strong. The relationship with Brad Stevens is
(23:13):
even stronger. But the reality is that Kyrie is a
different kind of guy and and nobody can really get
a great read on them. Now you talk to people
with some people in the Celtics express confidence about him
coming back, signing a five year deal, but there are
others that will tell you that there's real anxiety about
Kyrie and and one of the big, you know, biggest
(23:34):
piece of evidence of that is the likelihood they hold
on to Terry Rogier all the way through next season.
I mean, you would think that Terry Rogier, especially with
it likely being Marcus Smart coming back, would be a
luxury they could deal. They don't look at it like that.
Until Kyrie's name is on a contract term. I don't
think they even think about dealing uh Terry Rosier. So
I think that everything is good with Kyrie and Boston,
(23:56):
with Danny, with Bratt, with all those people. But you
know the pull of New York, of playing in that
New York area. He's real for Kyrie Irving, and with
so many out teams out there, Doug with max cap space,
some with double max cap space, they're gonna be opportunities
for him not just go to a place, but the
team up maybe with somebody who wants to play with.
How secure do you think Luke Walton is his head
(24:17):
coach of the Lakers. I mean, I look at and
and I don't really have any insight necessarily into his
relationship with Lebron and and everything else. But you just
have to look at it objectively and say, the front
office didn't hire him, and Lebron is a challenging player
to coach. I know ty Loo said Lebron's easy, but
that's a little bit misleading. I mean, in practice, maybe
(24:39):
he's easy, but Lebron consumes a lot of the basketball oxygen,
He has a lot of stay and how a team plays,
He has a lot of poll Obviously with that front office,
I think Luke Walton has to win. I think he
not only has to get into the playoffs, but I
think he's maybe gotta win around in the playoffs in
order for him to remain as the head coach there.
They missed the playoffs. Very easy to see a scenario
where Magic and Lebron collaborate on finding the next coach.
(25:01):
I completely agree with you. They missed the playoffs or
or if it goes bad, and you're right, he's the
He's the one guy in that organization that was hired
by Jeanie, not hired by Polinka. Even the assistants were
hired when Polinka and Magic were there. Um that said,
they do all think. I mean, he survived last season
and the LaVar stuff and and injuries and dysfunction and
(25:23):
and end up looking like a guy who looks like
the real deal. We will see moving forward. Chris mannocks
joining us here on the Doug got Leave Show on
Fox Sports Radio. So what's left Clint Capella's left out there?
Like what else is out there? Well, you know, Capella
gets done because you know, even if somebody offers him
a four year max, Houston's gonna match you. Right now,
(25:44):
they're you know, kind of going through the minutia and
trying to find a way to to make it more
team friendly with that deal. But he's gonna wind up
back in Houston. The questions that are out there are
guys like Marcus, smart, guys like Robby hood and those
the people within those uh for those players their reps.
They're kind of looking at Sacramento right now. I mean,
(26:04):
Sacramento is still a team with some flexibility, as you
saw with the completely crazy Zach Lavine contract that they offered.
Crazy for them because they've already got a bunch of
young two guards in that mix. They're willing to do
nutty stuff sometimes. And there are people, in the case
of Smart, people within Sacramento really like him. I could
coming after him with some type of offer sheet. But
(26:27):
those are the two guys that maybe I don't want
to call them difference makers, those Smart certainly is one
in Boston. Those are the two biggest names still the
workout great stuff. Chris mannis check him out Sundays with
Karen Butler at noon Eastern time until three Eastern time.
And of course Reid is working whose sports follow him
on Twitter? Uh well, let me let me go one
last thing. Uh, most disappointing rookie so far summerly everybody
(26:51):
is running away from Trey Young like like he's the
Titanic sinking right now. I mean, really is Chris? It
was bad. I've watched all four games. It was it
was bad. I know he hit shots against the Nicks.
It was not good. But I'll even tell you that.
You know, and I haven't talked to anybody was in Atlanta,
but people that have talked to Atlanta. I'm starting out
here like, well, it was he wasn't our guy. He
(27:13):
was this guy's guy. You know how that goes. But
it was more, you know, this guy ap pops at
this about Tree Young. At this point, you don't know
who was behind Tree Young. Hopefully it's just you know,
a freshman coming out and being too overly hyped and
he works out, but he's the one guy that's that's
drawing the most attention in a negative way. Great stuff
as always, man Chris managed who Sports, Thanks Mannix. Fox
(27:34):
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. There's some surprises,
there's some snubs, there's good arguing. The biggest snub in
the A l is Blake Snell, who uh Snell is
a two point o nine e r A on a
(27:55):
terrible Tampa Bay team. He's also twelve and four hundred
and thirty two strikeouts and hundred sixteen innings. The players
got to pick their own. They got Luis Servino, Justin Verlander,
Garrett Cole, Chris Sale, and Corey Klueber. It's hard to
question any of that group, right um. The must have
(28:19):
guy was Blake tiern In, who's five and one point
eight one e r A twenty two saves four chances.
And they have since shoo Choo, who's fine but not
really an All Star. The biggest thing is this, the
American League is really hard because American leage has got
all the good players, right um. And first thing is
(28:46):
I don't really understand. I don't understand actually at all
why every team has to be represented. Can somebody explain
to me why? Because I believe though it's a cell
of bration of the sport, we should be celebrating the
best of the sport. Jose Barrios, Jose Joe Aimenez, Like,
(29:08):
do Joe Aimenez? Do you know how bad he was
last year? Last year he had a twelve point three
four e r A, a twelve point three four r A.
Now this year it's a two point eight five and
he's pitched in forty four games as a reliever. But like, really, really,
So to two things here in order to fix it. One,
(29:31):
most importantly, you don't have to have every team represented,
and you don't have to double up on every position.
You double up on catchers. But I mean this is
it should be an All Star team. The depth of
guys you need to have is that pitch pitcher, so
(29:51):
you don't so guys don't hurt their arms. Right, that's
the big We can't have guys pitching too manyings and
an All Star game hurt their arms. I agree with that,
So load up on as many pictures as you want,
but you don't need to first baseman to second baseman,
two short like this is not Noah's Ark. It's an
All Star team. And oh yeah, by the way, if
a guy gets selected as an All Star and he's
(30:14):
a short stop and he's a backup, like he can
play second base for the All Star why because that's
what you do in like Little League Baseball. All these
guys can play other positions. Does it mean it's for
a championship? No, So in in order three different things. One,
(30:35):
every team doesn't need to be represented. I believe the
reason they do that is the intent was so that
every different market would have somebody who would draw eyes.
Is there one person in Detroit that's not named Menez?
That's like, I wasn't gonna watch the All Star Game,
but Joe Amenez is pitching. Maybe at some point in
(30:56):
the sixth, seventh, eighth, or ninth inning, he might throw
to one hitter, So I'm gonna watch. It just doesn't happen.
It doesn't happen. Nobody want people. Not enough people watch
the All Star Game anyway. No one's watching the All
Star Game to see a guy pinch hit or to
see somebody throw to one batter or one inning. You
watch the All Star Game because you're baseball fan. You
(31:18):
want to see the best guys play baseball period. All
stars should be stars. The roster should easily be capped out, okay,
at like, I don't know twelve position players, and then
(31:39):
you can have I don't even you have unlimited pitchure.
I don't care how many pictures. But I want the
best of the best. I want to know who the
best short stop is. I want to be best third basement,
is best first baseman, best second basement, and then whoever
the next best couple of guys are Somebody who want
to play first base the whole game. Final, we'll replace him.
And you gotta have two catchers, and you know what,
(31:59):
you might go through two catches and you're the third one.
I guarantee theres somebody who's playing third places, playing the
outfield that's played catcher. Something I can catch you any
like we act like we act like you. These players
can't do. Of course they can. It would make it
more fun for them and more interesting to watch. And
they just haven't playing baseball game. We we so massively
overthink this thing. It's ridiculous. Every team doesn't have represented.
(32:24):
Cut some of this roster down, make it a true
select group of the best the best twelve position players
in the sport. And then here's the last thing. My
belief is three factors in an All Star selection. What
have you done this year is important? It does not
(32:47):
It does not trump what you've done your entire career.
And to me, I even think it's the third most
important thing. And what have you done over the last
twelve months? Let me give you an All Star selection,
and which I would call into question, Matt Kemp and
you might say to yourself, got leave? Didn't you go
to the Dodger game. Don't you live in Los Angeles?
(33:11):
Doesn't Doesn't Matt Kemp belong as an All Star based
on how he's played this year? Okay, sure, but Matt
Kemp wasn't even supposed to make the Dodgers. Matt Kemp
had been in All Star previously. But last year Matt
Kemp was bad? How does that not factor in at all?
(33:35):
At all? Who's not good? Last year? He had a
negative war? Last year? A negative war wins above replacement.
Other words, they would win more games when he wouldn't
play than when he would play, based on stats. Okay,
I know that war is a lot more complicated than that.
But two guys like me, the layman like wins above replacement. Wait,
he would they win less games when he plays then
(33:55):
he when he doesn't play. I believe you should fact
during the last twelve months, not just the first four
months of this season. What has he done since the
last All Star Game? So that's how I selected All Star.
Be sure to catch live editions of the Doug gott
Leaps Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on
(34:17):
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Let's
welcome to Antonio Daniels. He covers the thunder for living course,
he was an NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs.
How much would I have to pay you to attend
two games of a baseball doubleheader? Wait, let's not go there.
Let's not go there. I don't, I don't. Yeah, No,
that's not gonna happen. We're all due respect to baseball
(34:39):
and Major League Baseball and the players. Yeah, I can't
do that. I got a bunch of things I want
to get to with you. Let me start with Summer League.
How much you've been watching? I enjoyed watching Summer League.
I don't enjoy the way it's covered, but I really
enjoyed watching it from from what what? What aspect? How
how it's covered? You mean the actual commentary or the
twitter I'm on Tarry, the radio commentary, what part of
(35:02):
how it's coming Just the amount of pressure that's put
on guys and what we say about them. To me,
To me, the Summer League is like preseason football. You know,
it's like in pressing the football. If your team does well,
it's fantastic, But then people always come back to the
same thing. You can't win either way in summer league,
so you look at somebody like Trey Young, all I
see is from every possible angle, he's getting beat up.
(35:25):
So if he plays well, you know what, people say, Oh, well,
you know what, it's only it's only summer league. It's
this summer league. He's playing to get second and third
string guys, so it doesn't matter. And if he struggles,
he's a bust, so he can't win either way. So
for me, I enjoyed watching it, but I really enjoyed
watching these young guys grow. I don't enjoy the amount
of pressure they're under. And then once the season starts,
(35:45):
then you can really start to truly evaluate what somebody
can become in the future non summer league. Yes, what
do you think? Uh, summer league? So I'm not I
mean some of the things that people I've been issued
with or going to be an issue because he's eighteen
years old. Nineteen years old? Did I say at the time,
he's one year remote from prom, so all of these
(36:08):
different issues that people are having with him, Like I'm sorry,
I mean, when the guy's one year removed from prom,
he's drafted and now he's supposed to be the faith
of your franchise. Do you really think he's ready for
that or the amount of pressure that the media and
everyone else is putting them under. No, he's not so
for me, I was, I must rather sit back, watch
the product grow, rosch the product developed, and then maybe
(36:31):
sling some sort of judgment towards him in the future.
This is fine, but I'll just give you, like you
want to video actual basketball talk about it instead of
I don't want to comment on other people's comments. My
thing is like, look, he didn't play any defense in college, okay,
which look I when when you get to the pros
now gets real, you get challenge, You look across and
you start to get challenged. I've seen a lack of
(36:53):
forget about the fact that he's not a great athlete.
It's now when you're a when you're a top pick,
when you're the the fifth pick of the draft, to
still not offer up any sort of effort defensively when
everyone's watching you, that's a problem. And then there's the
problems to which I don't know how much is going
to improve based upon how his body improves, which is,
(37:13):
can he get a step? I don't even care about
the shot making, but the shots keep coming from further
and further out because he can't seem to get by
guys um and he can't seem to guard people. You know,
we're in a you're in a league now where everybody switches.
So it's he can't guard point guards. I don't know
who he can guard on the floor. Like I'm I
think it's gonna be a problem regards to the fact
(37:33):
that he's nineteen, he's going to play, and there's some
major issues there that have been uncovered at times in
college that right now continue to be an issue in
some releague. Yeah, for me, I don't number one, I
hear you. As far as the defensive intensity, I think
that will come in time and understanding. But also he
wasn't I mean, with all due respect, he wasn't drive
(37:56):
for a defensive intensity. That's not drive. Before he was
dripped because he could score and he could make guys
around him better. And that's when I say, when I
say the development that comes along with it. He's always
gonna be small, He's always going to be smaller stature.
But the thing that he'll have to learn in time,
which will come with NBA reps, is learned to compete
and how to compete. You think what you're saying, you
(38:19):
think you learn to compete. I mean I don't you
either have that or don't have that. No, No, you learned,
you learn the time because once you learn this is
not Oklahoma and what's your us to is Big twelve basketball.
What's the used to is Big twelve talent. It's a
different case in scenario when you leave the Big twelve
and you leave the n c A A and you
(38:39):
come to a league where everybody went through twelve can play.
Everybody went through twelve can play. So you may be
able to get away with talking it on defensively for
Lon Krueger, you may be able to get away with that.
At Oklahoma you might be able to because the fact
of the matter is you're putting the thirty points tonight,
you're leading the n c A A and points and
also in the cyst. When you come to this next
(39:00):
level and you've got guys coming at your hand every day,
it sets a different mindset. It brings out a different
motivation within you. A lot of times that didn't you
didn't know that you have or needed to have. Antonio
dani is joining us on The Doug Otlups Show on
Fox Sports Radio all right, So since we've last spoken
Carmelo Anthony with the news came out that Kamelo Anthony
(39:22):
and the Thunder are eventually gonna part ways in some
form or fashion. Um this this kind it had to
happen because of tax but did it also have to
happen because of the fact that there wasn't a role
that he wanted to fulfill. I beg that helps the process,
and it's very it's very rare in this league where
(39:43):
you can actually say something works out the best way
for both sides. Oblahoma City Thunder, this is a great
scenario for you because now you have an opportunity to
shop Mellow see what you get can get for him,
and you have an opportunity to rid itself that one
million dollars of taxes that you were just talking about.
But here's my question to you, Doug, if you're Carmelow,
do you really think going to a different situation reverous
(40:06):
Houston or reverous the Lakers, it's going to change your role.
If you go to Houston, you're gonna be in a
third option. No one's going to allow you to be
that guy that you wanted to be. So do you
think changing um scenes of whatever it may be, as
far as going to the Lakers and going to Houston
or anywhere else. Do you think if role is going
to change or be any different than it was at
(40:27):
Oklama City. No. I think though that here's here's where
it does. He may accept it better or he may
be forced to accept it. Twofold one. You know how
it is if you're making league minimum, even if you
get the twenty seven million paid right or whatever they
buy out, pecking order is not just based upon the
respect you have. But but like, look, did you're a
(40:47):
minimum deal? Okay, you're you're cutible, you're releasable. You don't
like it, that's fine, we can eat that deal. So
I think that helps it, And then I think it
helps it, and I think theoretically again this is theoretically
it helps it. Way you have other better stars than
him on the team that can can cajole him with
Chris Paul, who's a friend. Lebron James is a friend. Hey,
(41:09):
if I'm the Warriors, I don't think it's crazy for
the Warriors to kick the tires on Mellow only in
that like, like, look, we got our dudes, we just
need somebody to come out the bench occasionally get buckets
like Most Space. Like Most Space didn't playny defense when
we play for them, he just come off and get buckets.
Mellows five times the player of Most Spaces. So so
you look, if you if you want to accept their role.
If you don't find that's okay, And I think it's
(41:31):
if you get in, if you get into the relationship
with open, honest dialogue and you're making minimum money, I
think it's possible, not likely, but possible that it works. Yeah,
and that's a great point. I do agree with that.
I think relationship means a lot. When you start talking
about his relationship with Lebron James and his relationship with
Chris Paul, I agree there's not just relationship, but there's
(41:53):
amount of respect there between those guys as well. Agree.
Does the does the Cousins thing actually make them better?
It's part of it makes them different, right, they've always
played small when they want to win. Does it actually
make them better? Yeah? You know why? I think that
makes them better, dug Because number one, they don't have
to faith the Marcus Cousins, So I think that's one
(42:15):
of the reasons. It makes them better because the kryptonite
for the Golden State Warriors, so many people thought was
the Ethny Davis along with the Marcus Cousins, where they
had difficulty matching up the thunderbeat the thunderbeating twice last year,
and they play with Steven Adams, they just beat super physical, right,
beat them up on the board, be really physical with them, right,
(42:38):
and that's easier. The thing is is not about being
him twice. That sounds great, and I said that during
the regular season. When you start talking about the regular season,
it's fantastic if you beat Golden State twice even three times.
But when you start talking about the postseason and the playoffs,
to eliminate the Golden State Warriors, you have to beat
them four times. That's very difficult to do with a
certain style of basketball. But if you adde them Arcus Cousins,
(43:00):
a guy that teams will have a very difficult time
matching up with, especially Golden State with Raymond Green at
the five spot, they would have a hard time controlling
DeMarcus Cousins. Now you don't have to worry about him,
So now you don't have to worry about playing against him.
So if you're going to state. It gives you another option.
So if an injury happens, if a Kevin durd goes down,
(43:22):
if a Steph Curry goes down, now it allows you
to play completely different style of basketball through someone that
no one in his league can go on on one. Yes,
I definitely think it makes him better because I think
it makes him more personal offensively. Antonio Daniels joining us
in the Doug Gotlips Show here on Fox Sports Radio.
What do you think ultimately happens with Kauai Man? This
(43:45):
is getting crazier by the day and right now, and
I've said this on day one, it really wouldn't surprise me, Doug,
if he was here once the season started, it would
not surprise me. If you continue to hear about why
I want to go to l A. Then Boston picked
up track to, then Philly picked up tright, now I
want to go to to the Clippers, and all these
different things were going on, and meanwhile I'm here in
(44:07):
San Antonio and nothing's happening. So this day's continue to
pass and days continue to pass. If you're the San
Antonio Spurs, the longer this goes, the more you lose leverage.
So it would not surprise me at all by any
stress of the imagination. If Kawai Leonard was here. Yeah,
But I mean even if he doesn't want to be
even if he says like, look, I've asked to be traded,
(44:28):
you want to trade me, you know my thighs. Still
he can do to my thighs still not ready. Thing Well,
but the thing is, if you're the Spurs, you're gonna
do what's in your best interests always. So I get
Kawhi Leonard coming out and saying, well, you know what,
I want to go here, here, here, How often the
professional sports is an organization, what is going to do
what's in the best interests of the player, It's not
(44:48):
going to happen. So you can have your little teams
that's too. You want to go to the Lakers and
the Clippers. But if they don't respond with youth, athleticism, assets, traffics,
all these other package that the San Antonio know Spurs
likes that it was best what I said, Antony Spirs,
They're not gonna move on it. That is not the
Spurs way, that is not the way they do business.
So I get Kawhi Leonard wanting to go certain places.
(45:11):
It may come a point and I'm not saying this
is true, and may come a point where he actually
asked to go free agency. Um, do you do you
think the Thunder are better next year without Mellow and
Robertson coming back off of the knee. Yes, much better.
And it has nothing to do with just Carmelo. It
(45:32):
has to do with chemistry because now, when day one
of training camp starts, you don't have to know Paul George.
If you're Russell Westbrook, you don't have to understand where
Steven Adams likes to ball. If you're Paul George, they
have a year under their belt together and it may
not have ended the way that the Thunder wanted it to,
(45:52):
but you kill still can't discard it the fact that
it happened. Anytime you get an opportunity to start training
camp new without that that newness, but with that comfortability
attached to it, like, Okay, we're coming into training camp,
but this year behind us, I don't have to know you,
you don't have to know me. Now you add Andre
Robertson back to the match, an excellent defensive guard on
(46:12):
the wing, and when him and Paul George were there,
the Thunder were fantastic defensively after who they could cover
and what they can do defensively. So for that reason,
in chemistry alone, and plus just the fact that you
have the whole free agency talk done, that's not an
issue anymore. No one in that locker room is worried
about their their foundations moving forward, worried about their future.
(46:33):
All the issues that were issues last year won't be
issues this upcoming season. Great stuff. Antonio Danis covers the
Thunder for a living. He's an NBA champion, a really
good uh dude who covers the league. Antonio, thanks for
joining us man anytime. Thanks for happy me, brother,
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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