May 31, 2024 • 49 mins
Colin sees greatness within the pair of Luka and Kyrie as the Mavericks head to the NBA Finals to face the Celtics. The Cowboys are already facing issues as Micah Parson is missing camp, and the Bears being the focus for this year’s Hard Knocks show is well worth the watch. Plus, Danny Parkins and Ric Bucher both stop by to enlighten us all on the Bears future and upcoming NBA Finals
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Oh, it is a Friday, A very very interesting Friday,
live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd. Wherever you may be,
however you may be listening. Thanks for making us part
of your day. Jamax Dallas, Mavericks. He was on this
(00:47):
team at Christmas because he was unwrapping presents, Mavericks dancing
in his head. They are now in the NBA Finals.
Something to behold. Last night, that first eight nine minutes, Yeah,
Luca was just insane.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I think I texted you some expletives about how good
Luca was. We could stop this Anthony Edwards face of
the league nonsense.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Okay, it's Luca. Well, let's let's start with that. What's
really scary about Dallas? So they opened the playoffs against old,
experienced Della Clippers got rid of them. Next it was
as an underdog, the young, talented as sending OKC thunder
(01:31):
got rid of them. And then that was the best
defensive team in the league, the biggest team in the league, Minnesota,
Nah got rid of them three for three. Next out
the Celtics. They take the most threes, they make the
most threes. But so far, three different variations, the veterans,
the talented kids, and the big, intense defenders knocked them
(01:54):
all out. The Mavericks, because of those moves at the
trade deadline, had been a very good team in an
era of a lot of very good teams. We'll have
our six different champion this year. But unlike the Celtics,
I actually see great. Not all the time, but I
see it, And that first half for Dallas, that was
all time stuff. Luca did what he did to Phoenix
(02:16):
a couple of years ago into Game seven. And I've
said this about Boston, who watched that last night with
the rest of us. Boston's a very very high functioning team,
very good collaboration and chemistry. But I don't see great
because their number one player, Jason Tatum, sometimes drifts, he's
off ball, doesn't control the game. The MAVs have a
(02:37):
lower floor because they are dependent often on Luca, But
to me I watched last night, Dallas is a higher ceiling.
Whereas the Celtics can overcome an off Tatum night and
still win by double digits. Now, some of that is
the Eastern Conference. Dallas can't. I don't think have off
Luca knights. But here's the thing, he's not really having
(02:58):
any Luca is the best tough shot maker I've ever seen.
You'll push back and you'll say Steph, but Steph moves
so quickly. He's so nimble and twitchy and quick. He
gets lots of open looks. What about Kobe. Kobe could
jump over you more athletic than Luca. Luca scores body
on body. Degree of difficulty is all time stuff. He
(03:23):
can get separation from time to time, but usually it's
in a crowd, bumping off somebody, leaning into somebody. A
great tough shot maker. Another advantage for Dallas is the
best way to win a championship, unless you're a dynasty
and just have more good players, is to be a
slight underdog that's actually played better competition and beaten several
(03:46):
teams in many close games that builds confidence. That is
not Boston. That's absolutely Dallas. Plus, we can now stop
debating something. The two best players in this league and
it's going to be this way for a long time
are Yo kich and Luca. Now again face of the
league doesn't have to be the best player. Sometimes Tim
(04:09):
duncan best player for years. They don't really want to
embrace it. But Yo Kitchen Luca are the best players
in the league. What you're watching with Luca offensively, what
you're watching with him offensively is Michael Jordan dominance, but
a much better passer. And whereas we used to complain
when Lebron came into this league and challenged mj is
(04:31):
the greatest all time, and it was a fair criticism
early Lebron didn't have that killer instinct. He passed up
big shots too often. Yeah, that's not Luca. Luca takes
it as a personal affront. If a kid thirty rows
in snickers at him, he's offended by anybody that doesn't
consider him the best player on the floor. So Dallas
(04:55):
is a very good team. That inspurts of the two
teams left shows me greatness. And what's scary is those
spurts of greatness are getting longer and more sustained and
happening more frequently, and I'm not sure who I like
in the finals. Here's Kyrie after.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I just had that utmost confidence when I was going
to sleep last night, waking up and shoot around, like
I said, and just feel like we were gonna play
one of our best games and you didn't know how
it was gonna happen, but I felt that way. And
that's the type of confidence that you know, I felt.
Majority of this playoffs is just you know, no matter
what's going on in the beginning of the game, middle
of the game, before the game, you know, our words
(05:40):
of affirmation and positivity go a long way.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
The reason Kyrie Irving is in Dallas is because of Luca.
The truly all time greats forced the owner's hand, forced
the GM's hand. Kobe did this in Los Angeles, and
they went and got pau Gasol. They took a big swing.
They couldn't just sit there. I mean, Dirk Novitzky's a
(06:05):
Hall of Famer, but Dirk got his title at thirty two.
Luca is twenty five. He already has more all NBA
first team selections than Steph Curry and more all time
than Dirk. He's only been in the league six years.
Luca isn't just a Hall of Famer. He feels like
(06:27):
a dynasty guy, multiple title guy. You could be a
little more patient with just a mere Hall of famer
like Dirk, a really nice guy. But Luca's got an
edge and impatience and anger and a game that even
Dirk didn't have. So they sat there. Jalen Brunson takes
(06:50):
him along with Luca to the Western Conference Finals. They
let Jalen Brunson leave right he moves to New York
and he starts crushing and now it's embarrassing, and Niko
Harrison and Mark Cuban think, Okay, this isn't This isn't Dirk. This,
this is Dirk plus jet fuel. This is Dirk playing
(07:14):
with twenty five more pounds, stronger, a little better, with
twelve red bulls in him. This is different. Luca's different.
I don't just throw out the MJ thing. This is
what MJ looked like. MJ. Moore vertical. Luca the better passer,
like the best world's best athletes can't stop him. I mean,
game's over first ten, first one, hundred and fifty three seconds,
(07:35):
ten points NBA game against to the best defensive team
in the league. And so they take a swing, and
they needed to take a swing. And when they took it,
I remember going on the air and saying, you've gotta
do something. Don't do Andrew Louck and play the patient game,
go out and get star receivers ed rushers. Okay, you
(07:57):
gotta take a big swing. Kyrie blew up the Celtics,
blew up the calves with Lebron. He blew up Brooklyn
and I said, you gotta do it. You gotta take
a swing, and they did, and it's worked. I don't
think it's going to be a thirty five year marriage.
This is not going to last forever. They'll be divorce
proceedings eventually. I mean, let's be honest. In May of
(08:18):
twenty seventeen, Kyrie came out and said he and Lebron
had the kind of special relationship and trust that you
could never find in the league. In July, he requests
it a trade. Okay, So he's a very emotional guy
and it may not work forever, but Bro, it's working now.
(08:38):
And when it's working, like last night and in that
first half. There's nothing like it in the league. There
is nothing like this in the league. And I said
it then and I'll say it again. Not every relationship.
You can date and you can marry, you can date, trade,
you can do a four oh one. K Kyrie's not
lasting forever. It doesn't have to. But for the time,
(09:02):
for the moment, he's in his essence, and Dallas is
Hammon and here's Jason Kidd.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
After to be able to have a talented young man
like Hi who's playing at a high level, a lot
of people have missed on it. But it's it's all
right because now they're writing about that that it does fit.
And but those two worked at it. It just didn't
happen overnight. And that's a beautiful thing. And so it's
(09:30):
all right to be wrong, and we're not always right,
but it's it's it's a beautiful combination, those two playoffs
of each other. And you can see that they care,
they care about one another when.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
They're talking about me or saying things about me as
a teammate. It's been a lot of people, you know,
I don't want it's too many people to name, but
that's not where my focus has been. It's always been
on making sure my teammates understand who I am and
what I want to accomplish with them, and being selfless
in my approach, and also realizing that, you know, everyone's
going to have a past, Everyone's going to be judged
(10:04):
for that. But I think putting your best foot forward
and focus on the future is the best place to be.
You know, all the stories and narratives are going to
exist forever. I'm sure I'll hear it too i retire.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I mean, let's be honest. He had no market. Kyrie
Irving out of Brooklyn was a hasmat spill with a jumper.
But because of that, Dallas didn't have to give hardly
anything up. We looked it up this morning. The average
cost to acquire an All Star three or four top picks,
(10:36):
pick swaps, high level players. Dallas gave up one first
rounder and two vets. That's it. They took a huge swing.
Huge swings in life don't have to pay off forever.
They have to pay off now, especially if you don't
surrender much to get them. J Mack, we are going
(10:59):
to have I think we're going to have an all
time final. This is going to be one of those.
I remember old enough to remember when Jordan met the
Utah Jazz in the finals the first time, and the
feeling was I remember this being reported Utah is a
small market, nobody will watch, and it is. I think
it remains the highest rated NBA Finals ever. You had
(11:22):
the small market guys against the legend the Dynasty. You
had Utah with a physical team that gave Michael trouble.
Michael could struggle at times against them. You had controversial
plays and calls and star power. And this finals may
not be a Lakers, you know, Nicks. It may not
be the Heat, but it is four stars, three domestic,
(11:47):
the hottest player on the planet, the team we keep
thinking is supposed to win. The big brand to meet.
This as a great final. If you go best ten
players in this final, you're getting to eight or nine,
and then you start You're like you're getting to eight
and you're like Drew Holliday in this thing, like this
is your first four players are all Hall of famers. Yeah,
(12:09):
your first four Hall of famers. You're getting a five
and you're like, Okay, poor zingis Wait wait, Derek White,
Drew Holiday, Derek White's making nineteen large a year next
year and would be a two on most teams. He
could be the sixth best player in the series.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
We oh, Derek Lively makes your top ten. Luca tried
to hand him the MVP.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Trophy last night, Like, Hey, that kid, how about that
as a as a rookie out of college basketball. It's
not like he came out in the old days a
junior senior. You got one year of college at Duke,
walked in in pressure, high leverage situations.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I mean, if you're Dallas, you're Nico, you take a
swing on Kyrie trade deadline, then this becomes the rookie
out of Duke.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
And to your point about always getting off stuff that
doesn't work. Remember last summer they got Grant Williams. That's
from Boston. Grant Williams at like six or seven threes
in a Game seven against the Bucks.
Speaker 7 (12:59):
Great pick him, pick up?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Great with was it working? Trade deadline? Let's get about
it here, let's go rerouted. And that goes to your
theory about it.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
If it's not worrying, if something works, double down. If
it doesn't, don't fall in love with your idea. Just
get off it. Grant Williams didn't work just get off that.
Speaker 7 (13:12):
Do you want to guess the spread for Game one
if you haven't lost a right right.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Don't tell me. Don't tell me, don't tell me. Oh
my god, I would not Boston has been I like
Dallas to win game one. Wow, Okay, Well.
Speaker 7 (13:24):
I think they're underdogs.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
I would say Boston favored by three and a half.
Speaker 7 (13:30):
It's six and a half.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Oh, I love Dallas. I love Dallas. Okay, I mean
Dallas is I mean even the Minnesota series had multiple
really intense close games, did lose.
Speaker 7 (13:41):
Game one against the paper Clips and OKAC.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
But they're not the same team. They're playing with the
level of conference.
Speaker 7 (13:47):
I say Boston's more like Minnesota or OKAC.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I don't think they're like either. I think they're like
the Warriors. They're very three reliant and now without porzingis
one hundred percent healthy, they're a smaller team.
Speaker 7 (13:58):
Well just should be back, right.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Well, if you don't play at all and then you
enter a finals against the Dallas team that's playing defense
like it hasn't played forever, this is not the kind
of series that you can just merge onto the freeway
and you're just going eighty like everybody else. This is
a this is an all timer, right. I watched that
last night, and I'm like, there are I never see
great with Boston. I see incredibly fluid, collaborative chemistry, very
(14:23):
good could win. Like Dallas has these spurts. You're like, yeah,
that's this stuff is way up. But I think Boston
feels like the Warriors, but without the confidence. They play
like the Warriors without poor Zingis. They're small like the
war but they don't have that attitude. They don't got Draymond,
(14:43):
Steph Clay, especially KD. They don't have that vibe, that feel,
that confidence.
Speaker 7 (14:48):
Yeah, that's a that's a good comparison.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Dallas doesn't feel like Dallas is.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Just they're flexible. They could be any we can match
up with Bigs. We got wings, we got guards. I'll
be with you. Actually, if Horford play, if Porzingis does,
I'll take Dallas.
Speaker 7 (15:01):
I'll take Dallas in game one. Yeah, because you can
hide Luca on Al Horford.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Well, you're gonna pick and roll Boston to death without
porzing or Horfor will get crushed. That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
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FS one and the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
App uh Micah Parsons of the Cowboys like Lamar Jackson,
has been absent from the OTAs and head coach Mike
McCarthy not overjoyed with it.
Speaker 8 (15:34):
I think anytime you have a chance to, you know,
to be together, it's it's it's a it's an opportunity
to improve, whether it's in the mental realm, the physical realm.
It's a long year training camp is really the heightened
you know focus for all that. But yeah, it's definitely
an opportunity that's been missed. I mean, at the end
of the day, everybody has a responsibility. I mean, this
is this is our jobs. Obviously we have this period
(15:56):
of time to do football activity. I want to say unfortunately,
but you know, ninety eight percent of our football team's
been here, you know, one hundred percent of the time.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
The downside to being a Dallas Cowboy is that you
get more attention than you often earn. This is a
franchise that hasn't been to the NFC Championship in I
lost count twenty five plus years. Attention doesn't make a
very good player great or a good player very good.
Dak is good. He's paid like he's great. That's a problem.
(16:28):
We have a salary cap. Ceedee Lamb and Micah Parsons
want to be paid top of the league. In my opinion,
Micah Parsons is not TJ Watt, nor is he Miles Garrett.
And I don't think he's Nick Bosa. I don't. In fact,
I think I have questions if he's Aiden Hushison.
Speaker 8 (16:47):
Now.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Aiden Hudgson from Detroit had eleven and a half sacks,
Micah had fourteen. Micah did get two and a half
against Carolina and two against the Jets offensive line, But
in the big game Micah against the Packers at home
in the playoffs vanished, blocked, disappeared, no sacks, only one
(17:10):
quarterback hit. Meanwhile, Aiden Hutchison with the Lions led the
NFL in playoff sacks with three. Sorry, but October sacks
mean more than September October sacks. Nick Bosa for the
Niners led the entire NFL playoffs in quarterback pressures and hits.
Hutchison led them in sacks in one game against Green Bay.
(17:36):
Micah Parsons as a favorite vanished, so very on brand
for Micah Parsons and the Cowboys when it mattered, they
didn't do anything. So you know, again, it does matter
where do you get your sacks. If you're a if
you're a number one receiver, I do need some catches
(17:57):
against a really good secondary. So if you're getting if
you're getting four and a half, five or fourteen sacks
off Carolina and the Jets and then you vanish against
Green Bay. Yeah, it's different because I watch Bosa, I
watched TJ Watt, I watch Miles Garrett, I watch Aiden
Hutchison in their biggest games, take them over and be
(18:19):
very difficult to block. But that's sort of the deal
in Dallas. Big brand players who are good, think they're
very good, very good, think they should be top of
the league, and I just don't. I thought this was interesting,
So Hard Knocks for most of the last ten years
(18:39):
has been a hard pass for me. The Rex Ryan
Jet stuff was interesting, gobbling up Eminem's trash talking, a
lot of swearing. Outside of that, you're trying to sell
me something I'm not interested in. But the Chicago Bears
and Caleb Williams will be this year's HBO's Hard Knocks,
and I'm into it. I think this is this one's good.
(19:01):
I think there's a lot of things going on. I
think you have a lot of ingredients, and you've got
to figure out if all the ingredients mesh the defensive coach,
the prodigy out of USC Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, DeAndre Swift,
Cole Comet. You have a defensive culture and a surplus
of offensive talent. And I think this is really really interesting.
(19:24):
The Bears are due for rebirth. Sorry, but it's time
to pivot off celebrating Mike Ditka and the eighty five defense.
It's time to join the party. So I looked up
this this morning. The Chicago Bears have been outside of
the top twenty okay, outside of the top twenty in
(19:47):
offensive yards nine of the last ten years. They have
been a gas guzzler on a freeway next to electric vehicles.
They're out of place. They are Jurassic, they don't fe
they're of this age, and I think Caleb Williams is
going to change that. I think they'll be an up
the field, vertical, athletic good on third down. One of
(20:10):
the things I always said about justin fields, if you've
got the right quarterback, you can play with the lead.
You can play from behind, you can play on the road.
The Bears underfields were awful in the fourth quarter. There
was one way to win, get a lead and hold
on for dear life. I do not think that's what
(20:31):
we'll have, So Hard Knocks has been a hard pass
for me. I think they're going to be a vertical,
clever team. I think you got the young star with pressure,
the big city, the defensive coach. This defense in the
last six seven weeks was top rated defense in the NFL.
So it does appear that they're pivoting to the twenty
first century in Chicago, a city I love. It feels
(20:51):
like the Bears. This is a hard knock you can
get your arms around. The last good Hard Knocks was
Rex Ryan and the Jets, and you know that story
was good for a couple of years and then you
know it. You know, Rex does what Rex does and
where's everybody out? But very exciting times. Micah Parsons isn't
showing up, Lamar Jackson isn't showing up, and the Bears
(21:12):
will be showing up on HBO's Hard Knocks. Rachel Nichols
Next Hour. So, as I was watching the game last night,
Jaback is a big Mavericks fan. You know what you
forget because these series last sol long. The NBA is
actually a very good job, whereas baseball last forever and
then the playoffs are done in a heartbeat. That's not
the way to do it. What you want to do
(21:33):
is have a long playoff. And people can complain about that,
but the NBA gets they milk two months out of
their playoffs. In fact, we don't have the first game
until next week like they milk. And there have been
a lot of sweeps and gentlemen sweeps, which is not
great for the company that has the rights. They're scrambling
now hoping for a game seven. But I will say
watching that last night, is that there are things about
(21:57):
the NBA that are true. They've got they have what
base they have great pace, lots of stars, and their
stars always have the ball. Baseball's got a slower pace.
There's not many stars that are recognizable. And you're sho
Hee Otani Dhing. You're on the camera for five minutes
of a two hour, fifty five minute game. Luca Tatum, Brown, Kyrie,
(22:18):
you know they're playing forty two minutes. They have the
ball in their hands just like a quarterback in the NFL.
So there's a lot about the NBA to like. The
European thing is I'm watching thinking Yo Kitchen and Luca
are easily the two best players in the game, and
they're they're kind of ground grounded players. They're not real vertical.
But I got to tell you, when I watch it,
I think it's fascinating. I think it's a lot of angles,
(22:40):
body on body, clever passing, smart basketball, not as reliant
on jumping over people, which can be fun as well.
But I do think the league is pivoting to a
bit more grounded league with higher skilled players. So you know,
I mean, when Jah Moran came into this league, John
Morant's old school, he's flying through the air, wild dunks,
(23:04):
but kind of inefficient. This basketball is efficient, highly skilled,
remarkable passing, unbelievable shooting. The European fusion of our basketball
and the European version it used to be ten years ago.
The knock on Europeans were they were soft and they
hurt it. And so Luca is not soft. Jokic isn't soft.
(23:27):
The European players now have higher skill level than our
college guys do because they play against older players at
an earlier age in the academies, so they have a
higher skill level and they come in now tough and
physical and trash talking. And it's something to why. I mean,
if I said to you top five players in the league, Jokic, Luka, Jannis,
feel like the top three in the league, who is for?
(23:50):
I mean, I would say, just from a scoring perspective,
Sga is really special. He is hard to stop.
Speaker 7 (23:56):
Sga or Tatum.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I would take Sga as a pure score. I think
it's not pure score. Gettle more dog in him.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Also, by the way, he's playing four team Canada this
summer in the Olympics.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
So though I would say, yo, Kitch Luca, I think.
Speaker 7 (24:12):
A lot of people like him bead you and I
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
That's not you and I. You got to deliver at
some point in your career in big games. You gotta
do that. That's part of the NBA is what you
do in May and June, and so you get to
I think the three is established. The fourth best player.
I think sg a well.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
People want to lean on Kevin Durant and lebron'st I
don't know the Steph Currie does.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
He cracked your top five.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
And also those players holistically are a bit meatier. You know,
Lebron's running do coaches. Kd's the ultimate don't want to lead,
just want to score. Luca wants the whole thing. Jokich
wants the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
To your point about the Europeans, there was a story
a little while back about when Porzingis was with the Mavericks.
The Mavericks went to him with all these analytics and
they're like, hey, we can't post you up, bro, but
postuff don't work. They're not working for you. He's like,
I want to post up. Porzingis didn't want to fall
in life anyway.
Speaker 7 (25:03):
They get rid of him.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
He goes to Boston, Hey, here are the real analytics
for Zingis. You shoot threes, That's what we want from you.
You don't see Porzingis posting up in boss try. He's
shooting threes pace in space. So he's like getting with
the program now. And I think there's a bigger story here.
NBA is now heavily analytics, and Europeans they're dominating the league.
Speaker 7 (25:24):
Should Americans be worried? Is this going to be a
turn off? I don't. I think that's all overblown.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
A little bit. No, I think it will be cyclical.
Like Europeans were soft, they're no longer soft. I think
the American players, who tend to be a bit more distracted,
a bit more coddled in our AAU system, come in
not hard coach, didn't don't have the hard college coach
and high school coach. It's coddling in the AAU. Too
many games, none of them matter, friends with everybody. You
(25:51):
don't kind of grow that competitive spirit. You get your shoes,
you get your stuff, you got your game, got your handles.
But there's like it takes Jalen Green, that kid everybody
that was going to be the next great player, and
it takes him like until year two, until you're like, okay,
he plays winning basketball. He includes others. So I think
it's sicklicle. I think I think American players, you know,
are going to watch and read and listen and be
(26:13):
coachable and it'll be fine. But we are watching a
major pivot in the NBA, and it's it's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and Noone Easter nin Am Pacific two.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
NBA Insiders podcasting twice a week to plug you right
into the NBA Greate fin.
Speaker 9 (26:31):
All happening in only one place. This League Uncut, the
new NBA podcast with Me, Chris Haynes and me. Mark
Stein join us as we team up to expound on
everything we're covering. Hearing and Chason.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
Listen to This League Uncut with Chris Haynes and Mark Stein.
Speaker 9 (26:49):
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Well, he's a humble guy, but I think he's the
best young sports talk show host in America. He works
out of Chicago at the Score six seventy Parkins and
Spiego Show. Danny Parkins, who I've had, got a new
book out, Pipeline to the Pros, released in April, which
is a fascinating book about the connection between Division three
basketball and the NBA. It made the New York Times
bestseller list. He's friends with get Nick right, get Nick right.
(27:14):
Of course the Twitter handle, So if he's friends with Nick,
he's friends with me. It's good to see it, buddy.
I want to talk about this the hard Knocks, and
I said, for years and years hard Knocks has been
a hard pass. You know, it just not's that interesting.
I'm fascinated with the Bears. And part of the reason
I'm fascinated because I think they're dysfunctional and I think
they don't even make sense. They have no four thousand
(27:35):
yard passing seasons, They've never had a great quarterback. You
live in the belly of that. You are your listeners.
So right now, do they believe they've been heartbroken so
many times? Danny? Do they think Caleb is going to
pivot them into a packer level at least level of
offensive football?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
This to be it, Colin.
Speaker 10 (28:01):
I mean, they tried with Mitch ter Bisky, they tried
with Justin Fields, they tried with Rex Grossman, they tried
with Caden McNown, they tried with Jay Cutler. They've done
every other version of this sort of thing. So if
it can't be with the number one pick, which they've
never done before at quarterback, one of the best quarterback
prospects we've ever seen entering a seven win team, you
(28:21):
know the Bears. This wasn't their number one pick. Keenan Allen,
DJ Moore, Roman Dunza, DeAndre Swift, Cole Kament an average
to above average offensive line which should be a good,
if not great, Bears defense. I mean, if this version
of the Bears rebuild doesn't work, then I might actually
start believing in curses.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
So the NFL did him a favor. They get Tennessee
with the all young quarterback, all new receivers, a new staff.
So that's a really nice opener. They don't have to
play the Packers until I think week eleven. That's a
bit of a break. But the thing you worry about,
said coach a little bit on the hot seat. You
(29:03):
go one in three? What is the tarmac here? What's
the runway for Eberflus is two and three? In trouble?
Can they sputter a little in the first four to
five games, Danny? They won't fire him that early.
Speaker 10 (29:21):
Ryan Poles went so hard the Bears general manager that
Matt Eberflus was the guy. And that was my biggest
and really only issue with how they handled the offseason.
I felt like, when you won the lottery in that
Carolina Panthers trade to get the number one overall pick
and get Caleb Williams, You're hard pressed to convince me
that the best possible coach to develop this generational prospect
is Matt Eberflus. I have a very hard time believing that,
(29:43):
but the players like him. The defense improved, He improved
when he became the defensive play caller. Pretty good culture guy.
So I don't think that they would hit the eject
button on him five or six games into the year
when so many people were clamoring for it in the offseason.
But a funny way to bet this actually would because
he's a co favorite with Jim Harbaugh right now for
coach of the Year. I could see Matt Eberflus winning
(30:05):
Coach of the Year and I could see him getting fired.
Like that's the range of outcomes. So what's the runway
for Eberflues. Honestly, it is one year because if they sputter,
if they are a seven win team this year like
they were last year, Caleb's here, you know, Keenan Allen
might not be. It will be looked at as a
huge disappointment this season. So they would make a change
(30:28):
at coach well before they would make a change at
quarterback again obviously, So I think Matt Eberflues has one
year to prove that he can be this guy before
they would hire an offensive coach.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I thought it was interesting that after they took Caleb
they had another pick, and I had projected that Eberflus
would pound the table as a defensive coach and say
you got to get me somebody on the other side
from Montees sweat. Yeah, because that's what coaches do. They're
the highest. You know, generally a coach makes more than
(30:57):
the GM McVeigh can pound the table or Shanahan. Now,
obviously eber Flus doesn't have that gravitas, but when they
drafted another offensive player, it really was to me assign
the Bears had pivoted as a franchise and Polls, to
his credit, has missed on a couple of receivers Felis Jones,
(31:18):
Chase Claypool. Maybe I'm a little hyperbolic here, but I
thought them saying now we're gonna go with another offensive piece,
it was almost signaling to Chicago Land, like now it
is a new day here. How did that play when
they didn't go defense? Because that city loves defense.
Speaker 10 (31:38):
The city does love defense. But I think we've finally
come to grips with what football is in twenty twenty four,
and beyond that, you have to have a great offense.
I mean, I was on the air live when the
pick was made, and I gave a big old fist pump.
I was like, modern offensive football is finally coming to Chicago,
and I mean I've been waiting for it my entire life.
(31:58):
And you know, to Ryan pulls his credit, you mentioned
a couple of the misses that he had. One of
the things that's really stuck with me. When he got hired,
he said, remember where I came from, And he was
the director of personnel College Personnel in Kansas City. So
he was there when they drafted Patrick Mahomes, and he
was there when they had the best offensive the league,
(32:20):
and they still used a first round pick on Clyde
Edwards Hilaire. Now that pick didn't work, but the point
was you can never have too many offensive weapons to
support your quarterback. So a lot of people thought they
were going to take you know, Turner or Murphy or
Verse or someone like that to go opposite Montes Sweat.
And make no mistake, that is the biggest hole on
the team. They are very thin and unproven on the
(32:41):
defensive line opposite Montese Sweat. But they are invested in
finally getting it right at the most important position in
team sports, which is quarterback, and so Rome with Dounza
at nine was a no brainer to support Caleb. And
that's the biggest mission for the Bears this year.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
And beyond Danny Parkins for our radio audience. If you're
ever in Chicago, Park and Spiegel six seventy, the score
number one afternoon show. Finally, the only thing that could
disrupt it, and this happens is that when you're the
Jets or for years Washington, for years Detroit and now Chicago,
(33:15):
you don't have a lot of inertia, you don't have
a lot of winning momentum, and you go in a
two game losing streak and it goes sideways and you're
on hard knocks. And when I saw hard Knocks, I thought, oh,
this could be just the thing that screws it up
because they are kind of young, Danny, it's kind of
a young team, right. Do you worry about just that
(33:36):
the cameras, you know, it makes people be inauthentic.
Speaker 10 (33:42):
I'm not worried about it for Caleb, that's for sure.
I mean, this guy was built in a lab. It
seems like for the spotlight, and I always think that's
so silly, Like all right, Hard knocks averages four and
a half million viewers.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
In Week two, they're gonna play c. J. Stroud in the.
Speaker 10 (33:57):
Texans on Sunday Night Football in front of two twenty
plus million viewers. This team's playing on Thanksgiving in front
of the whole country, Like they've got to be ready
for the spotlight. It might, you know, George McCaskey, the
owner of the Bears, has said for years he does
not want to do hard knocks, and it's because he's
a little weird, like he rides a scooter around a
practice field, and the Bears have been dysfunctional and it
(34:19):
is a weird organization historically. But for Caleb, for the players,
I think they like the attention that it brings and
what it can do for their brand and their Instagram
following and all of that. So will Matt Eberflus's hits principle, hustle, intensity, takeaways,
smart situational football. Will that maybe come across a little
weird on HBO, Yeah, maybe, But for the players, I
(34:44):
think they're gonna love it and embrace it.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Danny Parkins at Danny Parkins on Twitter. Pipeline to the
Pros released in April. If you're a basketball person, it's
a fascinating story in length D three to the NBA.
Very thick history there. Danny as always crush it on
first things first today, buddy, we'll talk soon.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Thanks Colin.
Speaker 11 (35:05):
You're the best.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
You bet Danny Parkins remember that name. Really talented guy.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter not a em Pacific.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Covering the NBA since the early nineties. Rick Buker, Fox Sports.
He'll be on Speak today at four thirty Eastern. Piece
of video last night after the game. Yeah, so I've
said for years my Wednesday press conference for NFL quarterbacks
with a big bank sponsor, turn your hat around. I
don't care if you're in your garage cleaning it. I
don't care about corners, YEP linebackers. That Wednesday presser. I
(35:37):
think I was the last we had this discussion.
Speaker 6 (35:39):
Last time I was here.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Yeah, so optics matter. Last night after the win, Lucas
having a cold one yes, and the assistant gam of
the MAVs, Michael Finley, watched this move here.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
He takes the beer from him, Yeah, and then and
then shakes hands with the dad like, yeah, what's going on?
Speaker 10 (35:58):
There?
Speaker 6 (35:58):
Were collectively so I think there's a couple of things here. One,
Luke is known as somewhat of an in biber right,
and he's in the best shape that we've seen him.
So I wonder whether it's like, hey, we're not like, no,
we're not doing this. And there was a time back
when I first started covering the league, Tim Hardaway Senior
(36:19):
had bad knees and he would take a plastic cup
and he would pour two beers in it, and we
knew to wait until he was halfway through the plastic
cup to go interview him because the things were going
to be a lot, a lot choicer than they would
be when he was stone cold sober. There's obviously the
(36:39):
commercial aspect for the NBA. They don't want any brands
out there potentially being advertised. I'm sure that Mike saw
that the cameras were there. But I also think it's
just a matter of hey, like, we're going to have
a certain amount of protocol here where we're not drinking
beer after the Western Conference finals, will wait until we
(37:00):
have champagne after the finals. But I just I love
that you brought that video up because I've been thinking
about it ever since I saw it. The look on
Lucas's face like Luca just owned owned this Western Conference Finals, and.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
He looks like the little kid who just got caught with.
Speaker 6 (37:18):
His hand in the cookie jar.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Charles Barkley leaned Celtics over the MAVs. Here's Charles last night.
Speaker 11 (37:24):
Well, I still haven't seen anything to make me think
the set is not going to win the championship.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Man, you've always kind of hedged that with this. If
poor Zingis does play or doesn't play.
Speaker 11 (37:36):
What if he doesn't play, what IFO doesn't That's a
great question. Kenneth's thanks, I asked him, good point, Ernie,
we got another week. I still like the Celtics.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
They'll get pick and roll to death if Porzingis doesn't play.
But in a weird way, the best news for the
Celtics is they have time off, and the worst news
for the.
Speaker 6 (37:58):
Celtics, yes, because obviously Kristaps has more time to get ready,
but it's also more time where he's not playing. In
a game we saw with Joel Embiid, you can come
back and play, but you haven't been playing at playoff
level intensity, and for you to have to pair a
shoot into that, that can be a challenge for you
and how you're integrated with your team. I think the
(38:21):
time off benefits Dallas much much more because Luca does
need to get healthy, but he's been playing at an
absolutely high level. And there's you know, over the course
of this next week, who are we going to focus on?
Anything we focus on with the Dallas Mavericks are going
to be a positive story. What a story, the relationships
(38:43):
and all of that and Derek Lively and on and
on and on and everything. With Boston it's going to be.
And in fact, I'm I'm going to write one where
I talk to my sources around the league about why
is it so hard to believe in the Boston Celtics
and executive scouts GM will give you very credible reasons
why the way they're constructed what they have makes them
(39:07):
hard to buy into. One of them being that they
really don't have. You know, we complain a lot about
how many.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Threes they shoot.
Speaker 6 (39:16):
It's because they don't really have an inside game like
they don't especially without Porzingis, and so Porzingis is the
X factor. By the way, Charles pick Minnesota to win
that series going away. So I don't know that you
necessarily go with what he's got. I'm a big believer
in the MAVs. I thought you were on fire earlier
(39:38):
when you talked about all the reasons why the MAVs
should be seen as being in the driver's seat going
into this series because they've had to play at such
a high level. I still don't know who Boston is.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
I don't know how good they are going into the playoffs. Yes,
and I still don't know that.
Speaker 6 (39:57):
And it's not their fault. It's just based on who
they've played. But you look at who Dallas has had
to go through. Oklahoma City Thunder, the number one team
in the Western Conference.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Oldest team, the youngest team, the biggest team.
Speaker 6 (40:08):
Yeah, and teams that had defensively had the type of
wings and defenders that you would think would give Dallas
a problem, And they haven't given anybody a problem. The
Minnesota Timberwolves knocked out the defending champions in seven games,
and the Dallas Mavericks messed around and it took them
five games to take Minnesota out and.
Speaker 7 (40:30):
Looked like they had no problem in spite of the.
Speaker 6 (40:34):
Fact that Jade McDaniels is an All Defensive player, second
team All Defensive Player, Anthony Edwards outstanding as a defender
when he wants to be rim protection that the Boston
Celtics don't have. Like, I just look at what the
Dallas Mavericks have done to this point and how they
are playing right now, and it's very visceral compared to Boston. Now,
(40:58):
Boston may get Kristaps and they may suddenly if they
elevate to another level from what I've seen, Yeah, then
then I would change my mind. But as of right now,
going into the series, I like Dallas in six.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Yeah, no, it doesn't. Jay McK and I have talked
about this. There are huge advantages. If I just told
you one thing about the series. If I just said
Dallas wins Game one, yeah, everybody would go.
Speaker 8 (41:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
If I said Boston wins game one, it doesn't mean anything. Yeah,
So like it isn't really really imperative that Boston starts
well yep, and you're asking a lot poor singers hasn't played,
they haven't been great at home. The pressures all on Boston.
I said this the other day. That is Boston to collaborative.
It sounds better in this world we live in. Yes,
(41:48):
four day work week, toxic masculinity. These are bad things. Yeah,
but it's what wins sports, like give me the ball,
get out of the way, selfish, the coach that screams.
It works for sports. It may not work at your workplace. Yeah,
it works in sports. Volume, intensity, calling guys out. Dallas,
(42:11):
Luca Is he got a sig and a beer five
minutes after that game in his Gulf Stream home. There's
something about Dallas. I'm like, that is old school star basketball. Yeah,
and I feel like Boston is. It's it's collaborative, it's coachable,
amenable to change. They're nice guys, nice guys.
Speaker 6 (42:32):
They're nice guys.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
And Luca's like the beer the beer vendors gretty wrong,
he's gritty.
Speaker 6 (42:38):
I like Kyrie's controversial. I like him right, Uh yeah, no, no, no, no,
I I I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
There is there's.
Speaker 6 (42:48):
Value in having a balanced team, but you still have
to have a hierarchy.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Doesn't that matter more in the regular season?
Speaker 6 (42:56):
It's well, and here's the other part, is we now
because we have there's so much exposure, We have so
much access to teams and players and at least as
far as seeing how they operate, in their personalities, in
the chemistry and how everybody interacts because the cameras and
(43:16):
the microphones are everywhere, and so then we begin to
apply normal, the everyday world dynamics to the sports world.
It doesn't work that way when people are offended because
you pull the curtain back and they're like, oh, what,
you can't do that.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
I was like, no, no, no, that's the way sports
Clark almost comes to blows like two nights ago, like
in their face, like sports has standings, salary caps yelling
my great my great.
Speaker 6 (43:46):
Issue with the Minnesota Timberwolves actually was the fact that
Rudy Gobert was getting punked and that none of the
Minnesota Timberwolves went back at the Dallas Mavericks when Luka
Doncic is looking at my bench and mocking my big man,
we're going to blows. I'm finding a way he's getting
(44:07):
a hard foul I'm taking. They left it all to
Rudy Gobert to defend himself. That's not leadership to me,
that's not being a teammate. And I think in the
real world we'd be like, oh, like, you can't that
sport you get to take a fight with the person
in the next cubicle, because you know, they didn't refill
the coffee.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Like, I feel like Boston is very twenty twenty four basketball.
It's got a little international, it's very collaborative. There's no alpha.
You take it, No, I'll take it. You take it.
H Dallas is like, Hey, give Luca the ball. I'm
gonna figure it out. And it's gonna be uncomfortable, and
he's gonna talk trash and he's gonna get in your
face and he's gonna mock your star and he's gonna
and I'm like, there is something in the biggest games.
(44:46):
We were talking about this the other day, is that
Mahomes doesn't have to play great, but there is a
just with Steph Curry, which you covered for years. Just
just give me the ball. Yeah, I'm gonna figure it out.
And Luca's got that and Jason Tatum that's not his personality.
Speaker 6 (44:59):
You know, it's it's in thinking about it. I feel
as if Boston has the most to prove, and yet
I feel like Luka Doncicz feels he has the most
to prove. Like it doesn't feel like Boston is, Oh,
we got to show you, yo. You doubt us, Luca,
and you made this point earlier, which I think is
right on the money, like he's got that. Michael Jordan
(45:22):
once said it. He said, I play the way I
play every night because there might be somebody out there
who's never seen me play, and I want to prove
to them that I'm not the that I'm the best
player in the game. I'm not going to tell you
I'm the best player in the game. I'm going to
show you that I'm the best player in the game.
That's Luka Doncicic every night. Yeah, he wants he feels like, oh,
(45:45):
you don't think, let me show you Americans.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
I kind of like my athletes, not my co workers.
I like my athletes to be easily offended. Yeah yeah,
I like him to get all. I want him to
have a chip on their show. Yeah, I like it absolutely,
co workers to have it. But I like my athletes too. Yeah,
coworkers can be a problem. Rick speak today. Finally, I
(46:10):
said this in the NFL, you had one in the
Bay Area, Jim tom Sula. If you're a coach, you
get exposed very quickly in pro football, like in weeks
it could just like this doesn't work at all. In
the NBA. It's a little bit more managing connecting with
your top player, finding a rotation. You know Doc Rivers
(46:31):
famously in Boston when he had the old guys. It's
like you in the first game of the Roadie. We
don't practice until you lose a game like it, just
show up for the games like that. That's very effective.
So I think JJ Reddick is getting buy in from
Lebron smart enough to manage the rotation. I don't think
it's a gigantic lift. They're not going to give him
a one and done because they just bailed on Darvin Ham.
(46:54):
If he gets the job, what does it look like
to you in terms of what I mean? Do you
think it's bumpy? Is it turbulent? Does ad buy in?
Speaker 6 (47:04):
Are they adding Chris Paul? I hope they had, just
because I think it's going to be I think it's
it's going to be fractious.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Now.
Speaker 6 (47:13):
A big part of what's going on right now is
what I'm hearing is they've kind of decided they'd like
to hire JJ. That's the direction they'd like to go.
They're interviewing all the James Barregos and those guys because
they need to build the right staff, because they need
to be able to handle the in and out, the
details that JJ has only seen from the view of
(47:37):
a player and doesn't know half of what goes on
beyond that because he's going home or he's going working out.
He doesn't know all the stuff that a coach does
just to run a staff and then all the ancillary stuff.
So there's that, So you want to have some assistance.
The challenge is going to be can you get former
head coaches who are willing to basically be JJ's caddies
(48:02):
in LA Are they willing to take that particular role?
The problem is like, do I think it's going to
be smooth? I think there's going to be growing pains, okay.
Speaker 8 (48:15):
And.
Speaker 6 (48:16):
The biggest problem is where the expectations are, Like this
team going to the playoffs wasn't good enough, so it's
going to be judged on a night in and night
out basis. And the microscope is going to be there
in terms of how every relationship works. And there are
(48:38):
plenty of guys there that don't have the relationship with
him that Lebron does, so how is he going to
manage all that? And because everybody knows that is, or
at least the perception is that his relationship is so
close with Lebron. How's that going to play with guys
who don't think they're being treated.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
The way they should be treated.
Speaker 6 (48:56):
That's where I think it's going to be. Why I
said it was, you know, one of the most comical
things that that we're going to see. I just think
it's going to be wildly entertaining more than anything. I
don't I don't want to mock JJ or or that group.
Speaker 9 (49:13):
But.
Speaker 6 (49:16):
Like you're you're asking a guy who's never done it
before to go above and beyond expectations that are unrealistic.
People around the league said, that's the biggest problem with
the job is that you're there's a lot of glamour,
there's a lot of attention, but right now you're being
asked to do something that is unrealistic with that roster,
(49:38):
and the blame is going to be on you because
of the names on the roster if you don't realize
those unrealistic expectations.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
Rick Buker on Speak Today, good stuff as all as
my man
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
noon Pacific. Find your local station for The Herd at
Fox Sportsradio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Oh, it is a Friday, A very very interesting Friday,
live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd. Wherever you may be,
however you may be listening. Thanks for making us part
of your day. Jamax Dallas, Mavericks. He was on this
(00:47):
team at Christmas because he was unwrapping presents, Mavericks dancing
in his head. They are now in the NBA Finals.
Something to behold. Last night, that first eight nine minutes, Yeah,
Luca was just insane.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I think I texted you some expletives about how good
Luca was. We could stop this Anthony Edwards face of
the league nonsense.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Okay, it's Luca. Well, let's let's start with that. What's
really scary about Dallas? So they opened the playoffs against old,
experienced Della Clippers got rid of them. Next it was
as an underdog, the young, talented as sending OKC thunder
(01:31):
got rid of them. And then that was the best
defensive team in the league, the biggest team in the league, Minnesota,
Nah got rid of them three for three. Next out
the Celtics. They take the most threes, they make the
most threes. But so far, three different variations, the veterans,
the talented kids, and the big, intense defenders knocked them
(01:54):
all out. The Mavericks, because of those moves at the
trade deadline, had been a very good team in an
era of a lot of very good teams. We'll have
our six different champion this year. But unlike the Celtics,
I actually see great. Not all the time, but I
see it, And that first half for Dallas, that was
all time stuff. Luca did what he did to Phoenix
(02:16):
a couple of years ago into Game seven. And I've
said this about Boston, who watched that last night with
the rest of us. Boston's a very very high functioning team,
very good collaboration and chemistry. But I don't see great
because their number one player, Jason Tatum, sometimes drifts, he's
off ball, doesn't control the game. The MAVs have a
(02:37):
lower floor because they are dependent often on Luca, But
to me I watched last night, Dallas is a higher ceiling.
Whereas the Celtics can overcome an off Tatum night and
still win by double digits. Now, some of that is
the Eastern Conference. Dallas can't. I don't think have off
Luca knights. But here's the thing, he's not really having
(02:58):
any Luca is the best tough shot maker I've ever seen.
You'll push back and you'll say Steph, but Steph moves
so quickly. He's so nimble and twitchy and quick. He
gets lots of open looks. What about Kobe. Kobe could
jump over you more athletic than Luca. Luca scores body
on body. Degree of difficulty is all time stuff. He
(03:23):
can get separation from time to time, but usually it's
in a crowd, bumping off somebody, leaning into somebody. A
great tough shot maker. Another advantage for Dallas is the
best way to win a championship, unless you're a dynasty
and just have more good players, is to be a
slight underdog that's actually played better competition and beaten several
(03:46):
teams in many close games that builds confidence. That is
not Boston. That's absolutely Dallas. Plus, we can now stop
debating something. The two best players in this league and
it's going to be this way for a long time
are Yo kich and Luca. Now again face of the
league doesn't have to be the best player. Sometimes Tim
(04:09):
duncan best player for years. They don't really want to
embrace it. But Yo Kitchen Luca are the best players
in the league. What you're watching with Luca offensively, what
you're watching with him offensively is Michael Jordan dominance, but
a much better passer. And whereas we used to complain
when Lebron came into this league and challenged mj is
(04:31):
the greatest all time, and it was a fair criticism
early Lebron didn't have that killer instinct. He passed up
big shots too often. Yeah, that's not Luca. Luca takes
it as a personal affront. If a kid thirty rows
in snickers at him, he's offended by anybody that doesn't
consider him the best player on the floor. So Dallas
(04:55):
is a very good team. That inspurts of the two
teams left shows me greatness. And what's scary is those
spurts of greatness are getting longer and more sustained and
happening more frequently, and I'm not sure who I like
in the finals. Here's Kyrie after.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I just had that utmost confidence when I was going
to sleep last night, waking up and shoot around, like
I said, and just feel like we were gonna play
one of our best games and you didn't know how
it was gonna happen, but I felt that way. And
that's the type of confidence that you know, I felt.
Majority of this playoffs is just you know, no matter
what's going on in the beginning of the game, middle
of the game, before the game, you know, our words
(05:40):
of affirmation and positivity go a long way.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
The reason Kyrie Irving is in Dallas is because of Luca.
The truly all time greats forced the owner's hand, forced
the GM's hand. Kobe did this in Los Angeles, and
they went and got pau Gasol. They took a big swing.
They couldn't just sit there. I mean, Dirk Novitzky's a
(06:05):
Hall of Famer, but Dirk got his title at thirty two.
Luca is twenty five. He already has more all NBA
first team selections than Steph Curry and more all time
than Dirk. He's only been in the league six years.
Luca isn't just a Hall of Famer. He feels like
(06:27):
a dynasty guy, multiple title guy. You could be a
little more patient with just a mere Hall of famer
like Dirk, a really nice guy. But Luca's got an
edge and impatience and anger and a game that even
Dirk didn't have. So they sat there. Jalen Brunson takes
(06:50):
him along with Luca to the Western Conference Finals. They
let Jalen Brunson leave right he moves to New York
and he starts crushing and now it's embarrassing, and Niko
Harrison and Mark Cuban think, Okay, this isn't This isn't Dirk. This,
this is Dirk plus jet fuel. This is Dirk playing
(07:14):
with twenty five more pounds, stronger, a little better, with
twelve red bulls in him. This is different. Luca's different.
I don't just throw out the MJ thing. This is
what MJ looked like. MJ. Moore vertical. Luca the better passer,
like the best world's best athletes can't stop him. I mean,
game's over first ten, first one, hundred and fifty three seconds,
(07:35):
ten points NBA game against to the best defensive team
in the league. And so they take a swing, and
they needed to take a swing. And when they took it,
I remember going on the air and saying, you've gotta
do something. Don't do Andrew Louck and play the patient game,
go out and get star receivers ed rushers. Okay, you
(07:57):
gotta take a big swing. Kyrie blew up the Celtics,
blew up the calves with Lebron. He blew up Brooklyn
and I said, you gotta do it. You gotta take
a swing, and they did, and it's worked. I don't
think it's going to be a thirty five year marriage.
This is not going to last forever. They'll be divorce
proceedings eventually. I mean, let's be honest. In May of
(08:18):
twenty seventeen, Kyrie came out and said he and Lebron
had the kind of special relationship and trust that you
could never find in the league. In July, he requests
it a trade. Okay, So he's a very emotional guy
and it may not work forever, but Bro, it's working now.
(08:38):
And when it's working, like last night and in that
first half. There's nothing like it in the league. There
is nothing like this in the league. And I said
it then and I'll say it again. Not every relationship.
You can date and you can marry, you can date, trade,
you can do a four oh one. K Kyrie's not
lasting forever. It doesn't have to. But for the time,
(09:02):
for the moment, he's in his essence, and Dallas is
Hammon and here's Jason Kidd.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
After to be able to have a talented young man
like Hi who's playing at a high level, a lot
of people have missed on it. But it's it's all
right because now they're writing about that that it does fit.
And but those two worked at it. It just didn't
happen overnight. And that's a beautiful thing. And so it's
(09:30):
all right to be wrong, and we're not always right,
but it's it's it's a beautiful combination, those two playoffs
of each other. And you can see that they care,
they care about one another when.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
They're talking about me or saying things about me as
a teammate. It's been a lot of people, you know,
I don't want it's too many people to name, but
that's not where my focus has been. It's always been
on making sure my teammates understand who I am and
what I want to accomplish with them, and being selfless
in my approach, and also realizing that, you know, everyone's
going to have a past, Everyone's going to be judged
(10:04):
for that. But I think putting your best foot forward
and focus on the future is the best place to be.
You know, all the stories and narratives are going to
exist forever. I'm sure I'll hear it too i retire.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I mean, let's be honest. He had no market. Kyrie
Irving out of Brooklyn was a hasmat spill with a jumper.
But because of that, Dallas didn't have to give hardly
anything up. We looked it up this morning. The average
cost to acquire an All Star three or four top picks,
(10:36):
pick swaps, high level players. Dallas gave up one first
rounder and two vets. That's it. They took a huge swing.
Huge swings in life don't have to pay off forever.
They have to pay off now, especially if you don't
surrender much to get them. J Mack, we are going
(10:59):
to have I think we're going to have an all
time final. This is going to be one of those.
I remember old enough to remember when Jordan met the
Utah Jazz in the finals the first time, and the
feeling was I remember this being reported Utah is a
small market, nobody will watch, and it is. I think
it remains the highest rated NBA Finals ever. You had
(11:22):
the small market guys against the legend the Dynasty. You
had Utah with a physical team that gave Michael trouble.
Michael could struggle at times against them. You had controversial
plays and calls and star power. And this finals may
not be a Lakers, you know, Nicks. It may not
be the Heat, but it is four stars, three domestic,
(11:47):
the hottest player on the planet, the team we keep
thinking is supposed to win. The big brand to meet.
This as a great final. If you go best ten
players in this final, you're getting to eight or nine,
and then you start You're like you're getting to eight
and you're like Drew Holliday in this thing, like this
is your first four players are all Hall of famers. Yeah,
(12:09):
your first four Hall of famers. You're getting a five
and you're like, Okay, poor zingis Wait wait, Derek White,
Drew Holiday, Derek White's making nineteen large a year next
year and would be a two on most teams. He
could be the sixth best player in the series.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
We oh, Derek Lively makes your top ten. Luca tried
to hand him the MVP.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Trophy last night, Like, Hey, that kid, how about that
as a as a rookie out of college basketball. It's
not like he came out in the old days a
junior senior. You got one year of college at Duke,
walked in in pressure, high leverage situations.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I mean, if you're Dallas, you're Nico, you take a
swing on Kyrie trade deadline, then this becomes the rookie
out of Duke.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
And to your point about always getting off stuff that
doesn't work. Remember last summer they got Grant Williams. That's
from Boston. Grant Williams at like six or seven threes
in a Game seven against the Bucks.
Speaker 7 (12:59):
Great pick him, pick up?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Great with was it working? Trade deadline? Let's get about
it here, let's go rerouted. And that goes to your
theory about it.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
If it's not worrying, if something works, double down. If
it doesn't, don't fall in love with your idea. Just
get off it. Grant Williams didn't work just get off that.
Speaker 7 (13:12):
Do you want to guess the spread for Game one
if you haven't lost a right right.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Don't tell me. Don't tell me, don't tell me. Oh
my god, I would not Boston has been I like
Dallas to win game one. Wow, Okay, Well.
Speaker 7 (13:24):
I think they're underdogs.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
I would say Boston favored by three and a half.
Speaker 7 (13:30):
It's six and a half.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Oh, I love Dallas. I love Dallas. Okay, I mean
Dallas is I mean even the Minnesota series had multiple
really intense close games, did lose.
Speaker 7 (13:41):
Game one against the paper Clips and OKAC.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
But they're not the same team. They're playing with the
level of conference.
Speaker 7 (13:47):
I say Boston's more like Minnesota or OKAC.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I don't think they're like either. I think they're like
the Warriors. They're very three reliant and now without porzingis
one hundred percent healthy, they're a smaller team.
Speaker 7 (13:58):
Well just should be back, right.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Well, if you don't play at all and then you
enter a finals against the Dallas team that's playing defense
like it hasn't played forever, this is not the kind
of series that you can just merge onto the freeway
and you're just going eighty like everybody else. This is
a this is an all timer, right. I watched that
last night, and I'm like, there are I never see
great with Boston. I see incredibly fluid, collaborative chemistry, very
(14:23):
good could win. Like Dallas has these spurts. You're like, yeah,
that's this stuff is way up. But I think Boston
feels like the Warriors, but without the confidence. They play
like the Warriors without poor Zingis. They're small like the
war but they don't have that attitude. They don't got Draymond,
(14:43):
Steph Clay, especially KD. They don't have that vibe, that feel,
that confidence.
Speaker 7 (14:48):
Yeah, that's a that's a good comparison.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Dallas doesn't feel like Dallas is.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Just they're flexible. They could be any we can match
up with Bigs. We got wings, we got guards. I'll
be with you. Actually, if Horford play, if Porzingis does,
I'll take Dallas.
Speaker 7 (15:01):
I'll take Dallas in game one. Yeah, because you can
hide Luca on Al Horford.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Well, you're gonna pick and roll Boston to death without
porzing or Horfor will get crushed. That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon Eastern not am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
App uh Micah Parsons of the Cowboys like Lamar Jackson,
has been absent from the OTAs and head coach Mike
McCarthy not overjoyed with it.
Speaker 8 (15:34):
I think anytime you have a chance to, you know,
to be together, it's it's it's a it's an opportunity
to improve, whether it's in the mental realm, the physical realm.
It's a long year training camp is really the heightened
you know focus for all that. But yeah, it's definitely
an opportunity that's been missed. I mean, at the end
of the day, everybody has a responsibility. I mean, this
is this is our jobs. Obviously we have this period
(15:56):
of time to do football activity. I want to say unfortunately,
but you know, ninety eight percent of our football team's
been here, you know, one hundred percent of the time.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
The downside to being a Dallas Cowboy is that you
get more attention than you often earn. This is a
franchise that hasn't been to the NFC Championship in I
lost count twenty five plus years. Attention doesn't make a
very good player great or a good player very good.
Dak is good. He's paid like he's great. That's a problem.
(16:28):
We have a salary cap. Ceedee Lamb and Micah Parsons
want to be paid top of the league. In my opinion,
Micah Parsons is not TJ Watt, nor is he Miles Garrett.
And I don't think he's Nick Bosa. I don't. In fact,
I think I have questions if he's Aiden Hushison.
Speaker 8 (16:47):
Now.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Aiden Hudgson from Detroit had eleven and a half sacks,
Micah had fourteen. Micah did get two and a half
against Carolina and two against the Jets offensive line, But
in the big game Micah against the Packers at home
in the playoffs vanished, blocked, disappeared, no sacks, only one
(17:10):
quarterback hit. Meanwhile, Aiden Hutchison with the Lions led the
NFL in playoff sacks with three. Sorry, but October sacks
mean more than September October sacks. Nick Bosa for the
Niners led the entire NFL playoffs in quarterback pressures and hits.
Hutchison led them in sacks in one game against Green Bay.
(17:36):
Micah Parsons as a favorite vanished, so very on brand
for Micah Parsons and the Cowboys when it mattered, they
didn't do anything. So you know, again, it does matter
where do you get your sacks. If you're a if
you're a number one receiver, I do need some catches
(17:57):
against a really good secondary. So if you're getting if
you're getting four and a half, five or fourteen sacks
off Carolina and the Jets and then you vanish against
Green Bay. Yeah, it's different because I watch Bosa, I
watched TJ Watt, I watch Miles Garrett, I watch Aiden
Hutchison in their biggest games, take them over and be
(18:19):
very difficult to block. But that's sort of the deal
in Dallas. Big brand players who are good, think they're
very good, very good, think they should be top of
the league, and I just don't. I thought this was interesting,
So Hard Knocks for most of the last ten years
(18:39):
has been a hard pass for me. The Rex Ryan
Jet stuff was interesting, gobbling up Eminem's trash talking, a
lot of swearing. Outside of that, you're trying to sell
me something I'm not interested in. But the Chicago Bears
and Caleb Williams will be this year's HBO's Hard Knocks,
and I'm into it. I think this is this one's good.
(19:01):
I think there's a lot of things going on. I
think you have a lot of ingredients, and you've got
to figure out if all the ingredients mesh the defensive coach,
the prodigy out of USC Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, DeAndre Swift,
Cole Comet. You have a defensive culture and a surplus
of offensive talent. And I think this is really really interesting.
(19:24):
The Bears are due for rebirth. Sorry, but it's time
to pivot off celebrating Mike Ditka and the eighty five defense.
It's time to join the party. So I looked up
this this morning. The Chicago Bears have been outside of
the top twenty okay, outside of the top twenty in
(19:47):
offensive yards nine of the last ten years. They have
been a gas guzzler on a freeway next to electric vehicles.
They're out of place. They are Jurassic, they don't fe
they're of this age, and I think Caleb Williams is
going to change that. I think they'll be an up
the field, vertical, athletic good on third down. One of
(20:10):
the things I always said about justin fields, if you've
got the right quarterback, you can play with the lead.
You can play from behind, you can play on the road.
The Bears underfields were awful in the fourth quarter. There
was one way to win, get a lead and hold
on for dear life. I do not think that's what
(20:31):
we'll have, So Hard Knocks has been a hard pass
for me. I think they're going to be a vertical,
clever team. I think you got the young star with pressure,
the big city, the defensive coach. This defense in the
last six seven weeks was top rated defense in the NFL.
So it does appear that they're pivoting to the twenty
first century in Chicago, a city I love. It feels
(20:51):
like the Bears. This is a hard knock you can
get your arms around. The last good Hard Knocks was
Rex Ryan and the Jets, and you know that story
was good for a couple of years and then you
know it. You know, Rex does what Rex does and
where's everybody out? But very exciting times. Micah Parsons isn't
showing up, Lamar Jackson isn't showing up, and the Bears
(21:12):
will be showing up on HBO's Hard Knocks. Rachel Nichols
Next Hour. So, as I was watching the game last night,
Jaback is a big Mavericks fan. You know what you
forget because these series last sol long. The NBA is
actually a very good job, whereas baseball last forever and
then the playoffs are done in a heartbeat. That's not
the way to do it. What you want to do
(21:33):
is have a long playoff. And people can complain about that,
but the NBA gets they milk two months out of
their playoffs. In fact, we don't have the first game
until next week like they milk. And there have been
a lot of sweeps and gentlemen sweeps, which is not
great for the company that has the rights. They're scrambling
now hoping for a game seven. But I will say
watching that last night, is that there are things about
(21:57):
the NBA that are true. They've got they have what
base they have great pace, lots of stars, and their
stars always have the ball. Baseball's got a slower pace.
There's not many stars that are recognizable. And you're sho
Hee Otani Dhing. You're on the camera for five minutes
of a two hour, fifty five minute game. Luca Tatum, Brown, Kyrie,
(22:18):
you know they're playing forty two minutes. They have the
ball in their hands just like a quarterback in the NFL.
So there's a lot about the NBA to like. The
European thing is I'm watching thinking Yo Kitchen and Luca
are easily the two best players in the game, and
they're they're kind of ground grounded players. They're not real vertical.
But I got to tell you, when I watch it,
I think it's fascinating. I think it's a lot of angles,
(22:40):
body on body, clever passing, smart basketball, not as reliant
on jumping over people, which can be fun as well.
But I do think the league is pivoting to a
bit more grounded league with higher skilled players. So you know,
I mean, when Jah Moran came into this league, John
Morant's old school, he's flying through the air, wild dunks,
(23:04):
but kind of inefficient. This basketball is efficient, highly skilled,
remarkable passing, unbelievable shooting. The European fusion of our basketball
and the European version it used to be ten years ago.
The knock on Europeans were they were soft and they
hurt it. And so Luca is not soft. Jokic isn't soft.
(23:27):
The European players now have higher skill level than our
college guys do because they play against older players at
an earlier age in the academies, so they have a
higher skill level and they come in now tough and
physical and trash talking. And it's something to why. I mean,
if I said to you top five players in the league, Jokic, Luka, Jannis,
feel like the top three in the league, who is for?
(23:50):
I mean, I would say, just from a scoring perspective,
Sga is really special. He is hard to stop.
Speaker 7 (23:56):
Sga or Tatum.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I would take Sga as a pure score. I think
it's not pure score. Gettle more dog in him.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Also, by the way, he's playing four team Canada this
summer in the Olympics.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
So though I would say, yo, Kitch Luca, I think.
Speaker 7 (24:12):
A lot of people like him bead you and I
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
That's not you and I. You got to deliver at
some point in your career in big games. You gotta
do that. That's part of the NBA is what you
do in May and June, and so you get to
I think the three is established. The fourth best player.
I think sg a well.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
People want to lean on Kevin Durant and lebron'st I
don't know the Steph Currie does.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
He cracked your top five.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
And also those players holistically are a bit meatier. You know,
Lebron's running do coaches. Kd's the ultimate don't want to lead,
just want to score. Luca wants the whole thing. Jokich
wants the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
To your point about the Europeans, there was a story
a little while back about when Porzingis was with the Mavericks.
The Mavericks went to him with all these analytics and
they're like, hey, we can't post you up, bro, but
postuff don't work. They're not working for you. He's like,
I want to post up. Porzingis didn't want to fall
in life anyway.
Speaker 7 (25:03):
They get rid of him.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
He goes to Boston, Hey, here are the real analytics
for Zingis. You shoot threes, That's what we want from you.
You don't see Porzingis posting up in boss try. He's
shooting threes pace in space. So he's like getting with
the program now. And I think there's a bigger story here.
NBA is now heavily analytics, and Europeans they're dominating the league.
Speaker 7 (25:24):
Should Americans be worried? Is this going to be a
turn off? I don't. I think that's all overblown.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
A little bit. No, I think it will be cyclical.
Like Europeans were soft, they're no longer soft. I think
the American players, who tend to be a bit more distracted,
a bit more coddled in our AAU system, come in
not hard coach, didn't don't have the hard college coach
and high school coach. It's coddling in the AAU. Too
many games, none of them matter, friends with everybody. You
(25:51):
don't kind of grow that competitive spirit. You get your shoes,
you get your stuff, you got your game, got your handles.
But there's like it takes Jalen Green, that kid everybody
that was going to be the next great player, and
it takes him like until year two, until you're like, okay,
he plays winning basketball. He includes others. So I think
it's sicklicle. I think I think American players, you know,
are going to watch and read and listen and be
(26:13):
coachable and it'll be fine. But we are watching a
major pivot in the NBA, and it's it's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and Noone Easter nin Am Pacific two.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
NBA Insiders podcasting twice a week to plug you right
into the NBA Greate fin.
Speaker 9 (26:31):
All happening in only one place. This League Uncut, the
new NBA podcast with Me, Chris Haynes and me. Mark
Stein join us as we team up to expound on
everything we're covering. Hearing and Chason.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
Listen to This League Uncut with Chris Haynes and Mark Stein.
Speaker 9 (26:49):
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Well, he's a humble guy, but I think he's the
best young sports talk show host in America. He works
out of Chicago at the Score six seventy Parkins and
Spiego Show. Danny Parkins, who I've had, got a new
book out, Pipeline to the Pros, released in April, which
is a fascinating book about the connection between Division three
basketball and the NBA. It made the New York Times
bestseller list. He's friends with get Nick right, get Nick right.
(27:14):
Of course the Twitter handle, So if he's friends with Nick,
he's friends with me. It's good to see it, buddy.
I want to talk about this the hard Knocks, and
I said, for years and years hard Knocks has been
a hard pass. You know, it just not's that interesting.
I'm fascinated with the Bears. And part of the reason
I'm fascinated because I think they're dysfunctional and I think
they don't even make sense. They have no four thousand
(27:35):
yard passing seasons, They've never had a great quarterback. You
live in the belly of that. You are your listeners.
So right now, do they believe they've been heartbroken so
many times? Danny? Do they think Caleb is going to
pivot them into a packer level at least level of
offensive football?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
This to be it, Colin.
Speaker 10 (28:01):
I mean, they tried with Mitch ter Bisky, they tried
with Justin Fields, they tried with Rex Grossman, they tried
with Caden McNown, they tried with Jay Cutler. They've done
every other version of this sort of thing. So if
it can't be with the number one pick, which they've
never done before at quarterback, one of the best quarterback
prospects we've ever seen entering a seven win team, you
(28:21):
know the Bears. This wasn't their number one pick. Keenan Allen,
DJ Moore, Roman Dunza, DeAndre Swift, Cole Kament an average
to above average offensive line which should be a good,
if not great, Bears defense. I mean, if this version
of the Bears rebuild doesn't work, then I might actually
start believing in curses.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
So the NFL did him a favor. They get Tennessee
with the all young quarterback, all new receivers, a new staff.
So that's a really nice opener. They don't have to
play the Packers until I think week eleven. That's a
bit of a break. But the thing you worry about,
said coach a little bit on the hot seat. You
(29:03):
go one in three? What is the tarmac here? What's
the runway for Eberflus is two and three? In trouble?
Can they sputter a little in the first four to
five games, Danny? They won't fire him that early.
Speaker 10 (29:21):
Ryan Poles went so hard the Bears general manager that
Matt Eberflus was the guy. And that was my biggest
and really only issue with how they handled the offseason.
I felt like, when you won the lottery in that
Carolina Panthers trade to get the number one overall pick
and get Caleb Williams, You're hard pressed to convince me
that the best possible coach to develop this generational prospect
is Matt Eberflus. I have a very hard time believing that,
(29:43):
but the players like him. The defense improved, He improved
when he became the defensive play caller. Pretty good culture guy.
So I don't think that they would hit the eject
button on him five or six games into the year
when so many people were clamoring for it in the offseason.
But a funny way to bet this actually would because
he's a co favorite with Jim Harbaugh right now for
coach of the Year. I could see Matt Eberflus winning
(30:05):
Coach of the Year and I could see him getting fired.
Like that's the range of outcomes. So what's the runway
for Eberflues. Honestly, it is one year because if they sputter,
if they are a seven win team this year like
they were last year, Caleb's here, you know, Keenan Allen
might not be. It will be looked at as a
huge disappointment this season. So they would make a change
(30:28):
at coach well before they would make a change at
quarterback again obviously, So I think Matt Eberflues has one
year to prove that he can be this guy before
they would hire an offensive coach.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
I thought it was interesting that after they took Caleb
they had another pick, and I had projected that Eberflus
would pound the table as a defensive coach and say
you got to get me somebody on the other side
from Montees sweat. Yeah, because that's what coaches do. They're
the highest. You know, generally a coach makes more than
(30:57):
the GM McVeigh can pound the table or Shanahan. Now,
obviously eber Flus doesn't have that gravitas, but when they
drafted another offensive player, it really was to me assign
the Bears had pivoted as a franchise and Polls, to
his credit, has missed on a couple of receivers Felis Jones,
(31:18):
Chase Claypool. Maybe I'm a little hyperbolic here, but I
thought them saying now we're gonna go with another offensive piece,
it was almost signaling to Chicago Land, like now it
is a new day here. How did that play when
they didn't go defense? Because that city loves defense.
Speaker 10 (31:38):
The city does love defense. But I think we've finally
come to grips with what football is in twenty twenty four,
and beyond that, you have to have a great offense.
I mean, I was on the air live when the
pick was made, and I gave a big old fist pump.
I was like, modern offensive football is finally coming to Chicago,
and I mean I've been waiting for it my entire life.
(31:58):
And you know, to Ryan pulls his credit, you mentioned
a couple of the misses that he had. One of
the things that's really stuck with me. When he got hired,
he said, remember where I came from, And he was
the director of personnel College Personnel in Kansas City. So
he was there when they drafted Patrick Mahomes, and he
was there when they had the best offensive the league,
(32:20):
and they still used a first round pick on Clyde
Edwards Hilaire. Now that pick didn't work, but the point
was you can never have too many offensive weapons to
support your quarterback. So a lot of people thought they
were going to take you know, Turner or Murphy or
Verse or someone like that to go opposite Montes Sweat.
And make no mistake, that is the biggest hole on
the team. They are very thin and unproven on the
(32:41):
defensive line opposite Montese Sweat. But they are invested in
finally getting it right at the most important position in
team sports, which is quarterback, and so Rome with Dounza
at nine was a no brainer to support Caleb. And
that's the biggest mission for the Bears this year.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
And beyond Danny Parkins for our radio audience. If you're
ever in Chicago, Park and Spiegel six seventy, the score
number one afternoon show. Finally, the only thing that could
disrupt it, and this happens is that when you're the
Jets or for years Washington, for years Detroit and now Chicago,
(33:15):
you don't have a lot of inertia, you don't have
a lot of winning momentum, and you go in a
two game losing streak and it goes sideways and you're
on hard knocks. And when I saw hard Knocks, I thought, oh,
this could be just the thing that screws it up
because they are kind of young, Danny, it's kind of
a young team, right. Do you worry about just that
(33:36):
the cameras, you know, it makes people be inauthentic.
Speaker 10 (33:42):
I'm not worried about it for Caleb, that's for sure.
I mean, this guy was built in a lab. It
seems like for the spotlight, and I always think that's
so silly, Like all right, Hard knocks averages four and
a half million viewers.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
In Week two, they're gonna play c. J. Stroud in the.
Speaker 10 (33:57):
Texans on Sunday Night Football in front of two twenty
plus million viewers. This team's playing on Thanksgiving in front
of the whole country, Like they've got to be ready
for the spotlight. It might, you know, George McCaskey, the
owner of the Bears, has said for years he does
not want to do hard knocks, and it's because he's
a little weird, like he rides a scooter around a
practice field, and the Bears have been dysfunctional and it
(34:19):
is a weird organization historically. But for Caleb, for the players,
I think they like the attention that it brings and
what it can do for their brand and their Instagram
following and all of that. So will Matt Eberflus's hits principle, hustle, intensity, takeaways,
smart situational football. Will that maybe come across a little
weird on HBO, Yeah, maybe, But for the players, I
(34:44):
think they're gonna love it and embrace it.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Danny Parkins at Danny Parkins on Twitter. Pipeline to the
Pros released in April. If you're a basketball person, it's
a fascinating story in length D three to the NBA.
Very thick history there. Danny as always crush it on
first things first today, buddy, we'll talk soon.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Thanks Colin.
Speaker 11 (35:05):
You're the best.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
You bet Danny Parkins remember that name. Really talented guy.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter not a em Pacific.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Covering the NBA since the early nineties. Rick Buker, Fox Sports.
He'll be on Speak today at four thirty Eastern. Piece
of video last night after the game. Yeah, so I've
said for years my Wednesday press conference for NFL quarterbacks
with a big bank sponsor, turn your hat around. I
don't care if you're in your garage cleaning it. I
don't care about corners, YEP linebackers. That Wednesday presser. I
(35:37):
think I was the last we had this discussion.
Speaker 6 (35:39):
Last time I was here.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Yeah, so optics matter. Last night after the win, Lucas
having a cold one yes, and the assistant gam of
the MAVs, Michael Finley, watched this move here.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
He takes the beer from him, Yeah, and then and
then shakes hands with the dad like, yeah, what's going on?
Speaker 10 (35:58):
There?
Speaker 6 (35:58):
Were collectively so I think there's a couple of things here. One,
Luke is known as somewhat of an in biber right,
and he's in the best shape that we've seen him.
So I wonder whether it's like, hey, we're not like, no,
we're not doing this. And there was a time back
when I first started covering the league, Tim Hardaway Senior
(36:19):
had bad knees and he would take a plastic cup
and he would pour two beers in it, and we
knew to wait until he was halfway through the plastic
cup to go interview him because the things were going
to be a lot, a lot choicer than they would
be when he was stone cold sober. There's obviously the
(36:39):
commercial aspect for the NBA. They don't want any brands
out there potentially being advertised. I'm sure that Mike saw
that the cameras were there. But I also think it's
just a matter of hey, like, we're going to have
a certain amount of protocol here where we're not drinking
beer after the Western Conference finals, will wait until we
(37:00):
have champagne after the finals. But I just I love
that you brought that video up because I've been thinking
about it ever since I saw it. The look on
Lucas's face like Luca just owned owned this Western Conference Finals, and.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
He looks like the little kid who just got caught with.
Speaker 6 (37:18):
His hand in the cookie jar.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Charles Barkley leaned Celtics over the MAVs. Here's Charles last night.
Speaker 11 (37:24):
Well, I still haven't seen anything to make me think
the set is not going to win the championship.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Man, you've always kind of hedged that with this. If
poor Zingis does play or doesn't play.
Speaker 11 (37:36):
What if he doesn't play, what IFO doesn't That's a
great question. Kenneth's thanks, I asked him, good point, Ernie,
we got another week. I still like the Celtics.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
They'll get pick and roll to death if Porzingis doesn't play.
But in a weird way, the best news for the
Celtics is they have time off, and the worst news
for the.
Speaker 6 (37:58):
Celtics, yes, because obviously Kristaps has more time to get ready,
but it's also more time where he's not playing. In
a game we saw with Joel Embiid, you can come
back and play, but you haven't been playing at playoff
level intensity, and for you to have to pair a
shoot into that, that can be a challenge for you
and how you're integrated with your team. I think the
(38:21):
time off benefits Dallas much much more because Luca does
need to get healthy, but he's been playing at an
absolutely high level. And there's you know, over the course
of this next week, who are we going to focus on?
Anything we focus on with the Dallas Mavericks are going
to be a positive story. What a story, the relationships
(38:43):
and all of that and Derek Lively and on and
on and on and everything. With Boston it's going to be.
And in fact, I'm I'm going to write one where
I talk to my sources around the league about why
is it so hard to believe in the Boston Celtics
and executive scouts GM will give you very credible reasons
why the way they're constructed what they have makes them
(39:07):
hard to buy into. One of them being that they
really don't have. You know, we complain a lot about
how many.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Threes they shoot.
Speaker 6 (39:16):
It's because they don't really have an inside game like
they don't especially without Porzingis, and so Porzingis is the
X factor. By the way, Charles pick Minnesota to win
that series going away. So I don't know that you
necessarily go with what he's got. I'm a big believer
in the MAVs. I thought you were on fire earlier
(39:38):
when you talked about all the reasons why the MAVs
should be seen as being in the driver's seat going
into this series because they've had to play at such
a high level. I still don't know who Boston is.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
I don't know how good they are going into the playoffs. Yes,
and I still don't know that.
Speaker 6 (39:57):
And it's not their fault. It's just based on who
they've played. But you look at who Dallas has had
to go through. Oklahoma City Thunder, the number one team
in the Western Conference.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Oldest team, the youngest team, the biggest team.
Speaker 6 (40:08):
Yeah, and teams that had defensively had the type of
wings and defenders that you would think would give Dallas
a problem, And they haven't given anybody a problem. The
Minnesota Timberwolves knocked out the defending champions in seven games,
and the Dallas Mavericks messed around and it took them
five games to take Minnesota out and.
Speaker 7 (40:30):
Looked like they had no problem in spite of the.
Speaker 6 (40:34):
Fact that Jade McDaniels is an All Defensive player, second
team All Defensive Player, Anthony Edwards outstanding as a defender
when he wants to be rim protection that the Boston
Celtics don't have. Like, I just look at what the
Dallas Mavericks have done to this point and how they
are playing right now, and it's very visceral compared to Boston. Now,
(40:58):
Boston may get Kristaps and they may suddenly if they
elevate to another level from what I've seen, Yeah, then
then I would change my mind. But as of right now,
going into the series, I like Dallas in six.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Yeah, no, it doesn't. Jay McK and I have talked
about this. There are huge advantages. If I just told
you one thing about the series. If I just said
Dallas wins Game one, yeah, everybody would go.
Speaker 8 (41:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
If I said Boston wins game one, it doesn't mean anything. Yeah,
So like it isn't really really imperative that Boston starts
well yep, and you're asking a lot poor singers hasn't played,
they haven't been great at home. The pressures all on Boston.
I said this the other day. That is Boston to collaborative.
It sounds better in this world we live in. Yes,
(41:48):
four day work week, toxic masculinity. These are bad things. Yeah,
but it's what wins sports, like give me the ball,
get out of the way, selfish, the coach that screams.
It works for sports. It may not work at your workplace. Yeah,
it works in sports. Volume, intensity, calling guys out. Dallas,
(42:11):
Luca Is he got a sig and a beer five
minutes after that game in his Gulf Stream home. There's
something about Dallas. I'm like, that is old school star basketball. Yeah,
and I feel like Boston is. It's it's collaborative, it's coachable,
amenable to change. They're nice guys, nice guys.
Speaker 6 (42:32):
They're nice guys.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
And Luca's like the beer the beer vendors gretty wrong,
he's gritty.
Speaker 6 (42:38):
I like Kyrie's controversial. I like him right, Uh yeah, no, no, no, no,
I I I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
There is there's.
Speaker 6 (42:48):
Value in having a balanced team, but you still have
to have a hierarchy.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Doesn't that matter more in the regular season?
Speaker 6 (42:56):
It's well, and here's the other part, is we now
because we have there's so much exposure, We have so
much access to teams and players and at least as
far as seeing how they operate, in their personalities, in
the chemistry and how everybody interacts because the cameras and
(43:16):
the microphones are everywhere, and so then we begin to
apply normal, the everyday world dynamics to the sports world.
It doesn't work that way when people are offended because
you pull the curtain back and they're like, oh, what,
you can't do that.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
I was like, no, no, no, that's the way sports
Clark almost comes to blows like two nights ago, like
in their face, like sports has standings, salary caps yelling
my great my great.
Speaker 6 (43:46):
Issue with the Minnesota Timberwolves actually was the fact that
Rudy Gobert was getting punked and that none of the
Minnesota Timberwolves went back at the Dallas Mavericks when Luka
Doncic is looking at my bench and mocking my big man,
we're going to blows. I'm finding a way he's getting
(44:07):
a hard foul I'm taking. They left it all to
Rudy Gobert to defend himself. That's not leadership to me,
that's not being a teammate. And I think in the
real world we'd be like, oh, like, you can't that
sport you get to take a fight with the person
in the next cubicle, because you know, they didn't refill
the coffee.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Like, I feel like Boston is very twenty twenty four basketball.
It's got a little international, it's very collaborative. There's no alpha.
You take it, No, I'll take it. You take it.
H Dallas is like, Hey, give Luca the ball. I'm
gonna figure it out. And it's gonna be uncomfortable, and
he's gonna talk trash and he's gonna get in your
face and he's gonna mock your star and he's gonna
and I'm like, there is something in the biggest games.
(44:46):
We were talking about this the other day, is that
Mahomes doesn't have to play great, but there is a
just with Steph Curry, which you covered for years. Just
just give me the ball. Yeah, I'm gonna figure it out.
And Luca's got that and Jason Tatum that's not his personality.
Speaker 6 (44:59):
You know, it's it's in thinking about it. I feel
as if Boston has the most to prove, and yet
I feel like Luka Doncicz feels he has the most
to prove. Like it doesn't feel like Boston is, Oh,
we got to show you, yo. You doubt us, Luca,
and you made this point earlier, which I think is
right on the money, like he's got that. Michael Jordan
(45:22):
once said it. He said, I play the way I
play every night because there might be somebody out there
who's never seen me play, and I want to prove
to them that I'm not the that I'm the best
player in the game. I'm not going to tell you
I'm the best player in the game. I'm going to
show you that I'm the best player in the game.
That's Luka Doncicic every night. Yeah, he wants he feels like, oh,
(45:45):
you don't think, let me show you Americans.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
I kind of like my athletes, not my co workers.
I like my athletes to be easily offended. Yeah yeah,
I like him to get all. I want him to
have a chip on their show. Yeah, I like it absolutely,
co workers to have it. But I like my athletes too. Yeah,
coworkers can be a problem. Rick speak today. Finally, I
(46:10):
said this in the NFL, you had one in the
Bay Area, Jim tom Sula. If you're a coach, you
get exposed very quickly in pro football, like in weeks
it could just like this doesn't work at all. In
the NBA. It's a little bit more managing connecting with
your top player, finding a rotation. You know Doc Rivers
(46:31):
famously in Boston when he had the old guys. It's
like you in the first game of the Roadie. We
don't practice until you lose a game like it, just
show up for the games like that. That's very effective.
So I think JJ Reddick is getting buy in from
Lebron smart enough to manage the rotation. I don't think
it's a gigantic lift. They're not going to give him
a one and done because they just bailed on Darvin Ham.
(46:54):
If he gets the job, what does it look like
to you in terms of what I mean? Do you
think it's bumpy? Is it turbulent? Does ad buy in?
Speaker 6 (47:04):
Are they adding Chris Paul? I hope they had, just
because I think it's going to be I think it's
it's going to be fractious.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Now.
Speaker 6 (47:13):
A big part of what's going on right now is
what I'm hearing is they've kind of decided they'd like
to hire JJ. That's the direction they'd like to go.
They're interviewing all the James Barregos and those guys because
they need to build the right staff, because they need
to be able to handle the in and out, the
details that JJ has only seen from the view of
(47:37):
a player and doesn't know half of what goes on
beyond that because he's going home or he's going working out.
He doesn't know all the stuff that a coach does
just to run a staff and then all the ancillary stuff.
So there's that, So you want to have some assistance.
The challenge is going to be can you get former
head coaches who are willing to basically be JJ's caddies
(48:02):
in LA Are they willing to take that particular role?
The problem is like, do I think it's going to
be smooth? I think there's going to be growing pains, okay.
Speaker 8 (48:15):
And.
Speaker 6 (48:16):
The biggest problem is where the expectations are, Like this
team going to the playoffs wasn't good enough, so it's
going to be judged on a night in and night
out basis. And the microscope is going to be there
in terms of how every relationship works. And there are
(48:38):
plenty of guys there that don't have the relationship with
him that Lebron does, so how is he going to
manage all that? And because everybody knows that is, or
at least the perception is that his relationship is so
close with Lebron. How's that going to play with guys
who don't think they're being treated.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
The way they should be treated.
Speaker 6 (48:56):
That's where I think it's going to be. Why I
said it was, you know, one of the most comical
things that that we're going to see. I just think
it's going to be wildly entertaining more than anything. I
don't I don't want to mock JJ or or that group.
Speaker 9 (49:13):
But.
Speaker 6 (49:16):
Like you're you're asking a guy who's never done it
before to go above and beyond expectations that are unrealistic.
People around the league said, that's the biggest problem with
the job is that you're there's a lot of glamour,
there's a lot of attention, but right now you're being
asked to do something that is unrealistic with that roster,
(49:38):
and the blame is going to be on you because
of the names on the roster if you don't realize
those unrealistic expectations.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
Rick Buker on Speak Today, good stuff as all as
my man
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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