Colin’s top takes of the week!
First, he’s joined by John Middlekauff, host of “3 and Out” to break down the Eagles crushing the Chiefs in the Super Bowl!
They begin with the Eagles absolutely dominating the Chiefs in the trenches on both sides of the ball (3:15) and why this Eagles team isn’t going ANYWHERE because they’re so talented and well run (11:00). Finally, they react to the news that the Jets are dumping Aaron Rodgers because the new coach didn’t want his personality in the building as they try to reboot (16:30).
Then he's joined by Jason Timpf, host of “Hoops Tonight” to talk about all things NBA!
They start with Luka Doncic making his debut with the Lakers and why his presence has reinvigorated the team and given the Lakers offense the juice to compete in the postseason (28:30)). They examine all the potential western conference teams that could create problems for the Lakers in the playoffs and why the Lakers should be able to compete with all of them (32:30).
Colin calls the Spurs the team he wouldn’t want to face in the playoffs despite having a record that wouldn’t qualify them for the play-in (37:00), and they discuss why Jimmy Butler being the “anti-Wiggins” has proven to be a perfect fit for the Warriors (39:00).
Finally, they try to solve the Knicks inability to beat the Celtics (42:30).
Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 2 (00:35):
All right.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Well, between the Luca trade and the Chiefs getting humiliated,
I did not have that as a two team parlay.
You know, I was thinking about this. Listen. The Chiefs
are gonna be fine. They got to They knew they
were going to probably draft an offensive tackle in the
first round, and there's plenty of them. But it's interesting
Brady's three super Bowl losses, the point differential was minus fifteen.
(01:00):
He could have literally run the table. Mahomes, it's minus
fifty three. With two super Bowl losses, he'll be three
and two in Super Bowls. But I do think I
would say this again Philadelphia. We both said they have
the better roster. It's just hard to go against Andy
Reid on two weeks and Mahomes, who never loses close games.
I did not think it would be this, but I
(01:22):
do think. You know, one of the things I was
thinking in the first half is that, you know, Brady
would always generate something. He was just so good pre snap,
and it was a little you know, listen, I know
Philadelphia's defense is dynamic, and you know, we didn't think
(01:42):
Kansas City would run much on them, but were you
a little disappointed that they couldn't generate six and seven
yard throws, They couldn't max protect it. It was like
they weren't moving off their game plan.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, I thought they were overwhelmed at levels in which
you just don't see good teams overwhelmed the line of
scrimmage because it wasn't just edge pressures, it was interior pressures.
I mean, Mahomes was under siege that they had I
think seven yards after the first quarter Colin or excuse me,
nineteen yards on seven plays. That's because they got a
(02:19):
first down on the first play from scrimmage and then
they essentially went three and out, three and out so
I just thought the defensive line. Remember two years ago
when the Eagles were in the Super Bowl, they led
the league in sacks and they had an excellent defensive line.
I don't think this defensive line was looked as good
as that one because it wasn't productive top to bottom.
(02:40):
But the way they played to night, I mean, that's
as well as you can play. And I don't know
what you can do when your defensive tackles are doing that.
When when your defensive ends are doing that. I mean,
the Chiefs do have a guard playing left.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Tackle right well, ten quarterback hits six sacks, zero blitzes.
I mean, think about that. And you know, as I
was watching this game with Philadelphia, I kept thinking about this.
You know, for years and years when Peyton Manning was
in your division or Brady was, it affected how people
(03:13):
in the division drafted. You watched Philadelphia's D and O Lions,
And if you're the Rams or the Lions or San
Francisco or Dallas, don't you watch this game and think, Jesus,
I'm the Rams. I'm like, you know, a corner or
defensive tackle in the third round. Like it was so
(03:34):
dominating that it makes me think all the rivals of
the Eagles have to look at this and think, you know,
we've we've got to get better in the lines or
we're not going to compete with this team for years.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah. I mean that's to me how he and Andy
has done this too, and the two Super Bowls they've lost,
their offensive line has just let him down in those games.
I mean the Tampa situation, Remember they were missing two
tackles and tonight they just got overwhelmed. But it's not
just Jalen Carter tonight, right, I mean Brandon Graham does
everything to come back off a torn shoulder or elbow
(04:12):
sweat was incredible. Milton Williams has that play destroying. You know,
he was a third round pick years ago. Like he's
about to be a free agent. He's gonna get a
ton of money. And to me, the offensive line for
the Eagles, how about the difference when they would go
back and forth, the Chiefs would punt and then the
Eagles would come back and you'd be like, well, they're
just not generating any pressure. Jalen's sitting back there having
(04:34):
a hot dog, He's having some gumbo in the backfield.
Just who's open, who's not I'll just scramble where mahomes.
Within a second, he's moving around, scrambling left and right,
and yeah, I just think the offensive line and defensive
line for the Eagles tonight and really all season down
the stretch once they remember they started slow like two
and two, and then since then they were the best
(04:54):
team in football. And tonight they dominated. They absolutely dominated
this game. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I mean before tonight, Kansas City had won the last
nine playoff games where they did not score first where
they trailed, but in those games, I mean, it was
really interesting even early in the game. My first take
after the first three drives for each team is it's
(05:22):
one thing if you make mistakes, if you're nervous. I'm
like Jesus that Philadelphia is not even adding edge pressure.
They're just putting their four guys out there and they
can't lock them. You know, as I look at over
my notes, only three minutes time of possession in the
first quarter, I think we forget. We've been spoiled John,
(05:44):
We've had First of all, it was a great season.
The quarterback play has never been better. A lot of
people that were watching our podcast right now are in
their twenties and thirties. This is what super Bowls look
like in the late seventies and eighties and nineteen ninety
I can remember. I can remember the Giants beating Denver
(06:05):
thirty nine to twenty, and then San Francisco beating Denver
fifty five to ten, and Denver got beat by Washington
forty two to ten, and then the Raiders hammered a
couple of teams. You go back to the eighties right now,
Google it if you're listening to us and you're watching
it home. This is what super bowls look like. I mean,
there was a decade people that was talking about the
seventies NBA where there were no great teams. The eighties
(06:26):
NFL were very few great super Bowls. So we were
on a run. We've had so many good Kansas City
Buffalo games or Buffalo Baltimore games. We've just been so
lucky in the AFC with Mahomes and Allen and Lamar.
But there was a run in college football with Alabama.
This is what the title games were looking like, the
Bama Notre Dame. This is what super bowls looked like.
(06:46):
So we hadn't had I mean, I thought the Celtics, Mavericks,
was a lobsided mess, but this is one of those
where I think it resonates beyond the game. I think
you look at Philadelphia and they're going to have an
impact on the draft and free agency. People will feel like,
in the NFC, you cannot compete with this roster for
the next two to three years if you just don't
(07:06):
get better up front.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Well, I also think it's pretty rare in you know,
in football, right the coaches are such stars, where in
basketball and baseball the executives can be pretty big names.
You know, in basketball, GM's are a really big deal. Listen,
I've known Bret Veech for I don't know, fifteen plus
years Redvechs stud and he's well known. I mean he
should be. He's been to five Super Bowls, he won
(07:30):
three of them. But how he is kind of the
guy that serves the drink with the Eagles. He is
much closer to someone in baseball or basketball where he's
the boss, you know, when they needed coordinators. He's going
after Vic Fangio. And I'm not trying to take anything
away from Sirianni. Clearly the guys, you know, they beat
to his drum like he gets them going from an
(07:52):
inspirational standpoint, and he's good with the players, but he
doesn't call plays or anything. And he's a younger guy.
It's pretty rare to see US CEO head coach in
his early forties. But the talent on that team and
the offseason moves. I mean, Colin they signed a one year,
four million dollars back then, who was fantastic guard. They
got Zach Bond, immediate All Pro, and they got Saquon Barkley,
(08:12):
who had one of the better seasons of the history
of the league. So I mean, it's a large remarkable
Howie Roseman became a Hall of Famer tonight. He's won
two Super Bowls with two different coaches and two different quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Listen, I don't want to overreact to the game, but
in this instance, John, it's hard not to overreact. I mean,
it's I'm watching the Celtics drub the Knicks last night,
and I'm like, this Celtics team has so much depth.
I'm not trying to overreact, but when they won the
finals last year, You're like, they're like significant, significantly better
than every team in the league. And I watched them
last night and I'm like, I'm not overreact. Boston's gonna
(08:46):
win it again. They're just better than everybody. Yeah, And
I'm watching Philadelphia here and I'm like, yeah, this team's
not going anywhere because it would be one thing if
the quarterback was cocky, or if they had a bunch
of free agents or they didn't draft well John, seven
of their best players are like in year one or two.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Well, think about it. They just won the Super Bowl
and two of the better players in franchise history, Jason
Kelsey and Fletcher Cox, had retired this year. So do
you know what hit me tonight is remember when Fangio
and the Miami Dolphins like got a divorce and then
how he hires him twenty four hours later in the Dolphins,
he was just too mean, he was too demanding. It's like, guys,
(09:27):
this is football, and this is defensive football. I got
news for you. The guy knows what he's doing. And
the one thing we've seen with VIC with Jim Harbaugh,
the one year when they was he was with the
Naggy and the Bears and they traded for Khalil Mack
and then this year with you give him talent, it
is on because one thing you and I talked about
is like his record against Andy Reid, but it's like, well, really,
(09:49):
if you siphon those teams out, he did not have
good teams in Denver, so nothing of the caliber of
talent that he was rolling into this Super Bowl with.
I mean, Colin the when you have one good unit,
you could have a good defense, right when all four
of you or three of your levels of defense are good.
Their defensive line is outstanding, the linebackers, they have an
(10:11):
all Pro linebacker and Bond who had a pick tonight,
And then all their dvs are good, you know, I
mean CJ. Will Hit, Cooper Dejeen and Mitchell. The rookie
corners are excellent and Slay is still a solid player.
So they're good at every single level of the defense.
And they have one of the best defensive coordinators in
the league. Like he's he can't win it because he's
a coach. But if you told me they gave the
(10:33):
Super Bowl MVP to Vic Fangio because the game was
it felt like over pretty early on because defensively the
Eagles were I don't remember the eighty five Bears, but
I would have had they smothered him, And it was like,
have they even made it past midfield and then finally
Burkhard's like they have not crossed midfield yet, Like didn't
feel like it.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
You know, John. One of the of the many reasons
the NFL is king and I'm you and I are
both football guys. I do love the NBA playoffs, and
I love March Madden, and I love a good I
love a good golf Major, and I love the World Cup.
And by the way, last year I loved baseball playoffs.
Last year I thought they was just Oh. I thought
the National League Playoffs were insanely good. But one of
(11:15):
the reasons that the NFL continues to have such a
visceral connection with us is college football and the Eagles
are an advertisement forget the draft, right, And this is
why you and I are draft guys, and I've told
my friends this for years, is you can't buy your
way to a championship. All the bad gms in football
(11:38):
overspend in free agency. We're in the NBA. If the
Lakers get Luca, you're like in a big trade. At
the trade deadline, You're like, Wow, the Eagles are just
an advertisement for you start nailing multiple drafts. That's when
That's why you can go get AJ Brown. That's why
you can pay Saquon and AJ Brown because you just
(11:58):
keep nailing draft pick after draft picks. Like the Rams
are in a spot now they'll they'll keep Stafford, but
they've hit on like six straight defensive draft picks. If
they have another good draft, it's like, okay, then you
then you get to the point where you can just
go buy elite players.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah. I mean, I've mentioned this to you and it's
I think it's been well documented. Is once they missed
on Jalen Rager for Justin Jefferson, they had an internal
meeting that what are we doing overthinking this? We're gonna
take the best players from the best program. So when
you listed all those players, that was a lot of
Alabama and Georgia in that list of players, and it
(12:35):
paid dividends. I mean, it paid big time dividends because
you know, from Jalen Carter to DeVante Smith to Landon
Dickerson to This year was somewhat unique with Mitchell and
Cooper Dejen but Mitchell is a good example of a
guy like Ashton Genty this year with Boise, he could
have got a million dollars and gone to Alabama Georgia
(12:56):
Ohio State, but he chose to stay at his program.
That's why he was I think Tulane or Toledo. I
think it might have been Toledo, and Koober's gene was Iowa,
which is one of the better defenses in the league.
But they're not drafting little school guys anymore. They've been burned,
you know, Carson, I think you know that situation.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Then.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Obviously, the Jalen Reaguer over Justin Jefferson at the time
was the COVID draft. And remember the Minnesota Vikings were
on the clock next and they go to the video
of Spielman and he's laughing him and Zimmer because they
couldn't believe that they didn't just take Justin Jefferson, and
that scarred how he and how he's come back swinging.
I mean to go to two Super Bowls in three years.
(13:36):
And let's face it, this was a lot different team
than than two years ago. Right, Kelsey's gone, Fletcher Cox gone,
So they had to kind of, you know, reshape the
squad with some impact players, and they did it with
you know, Jurgens and Landon Dickerson inside and Aden Beckton.
But to me, Jalen Carter, who you know, tonight's not
going to be his greatest performance, but what he's meant
to him this year he was He's a dominant, dominant
(14:01):
impact player.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Jordan Schultz and then Jay Glazer reported the Jets moved
off Aaron Rodgers. So for the second time in a
couple of years, a team as Aaron flew out to
New York thinking positively optimistically it would happen, they moved
off him. I think the Colts and the Raiders work.
I think Chip Kelly, they have two tackles, they have
(14:24):
a center, they have two good tight ends, then they're
running back in a receiver. I think I think the
Raiders works for Aaron Rodgers. He'd take that over the
Colts and Shane Steichen. But you know, Peyton Manning and
Tom Brady late in their careers leave and have some success.
Brett Farve did as well, got to an NFC championship
a throw from the Super Bowl. Are you surprised that
(14:45):
it was just two years of nothing and the second
team bailed on him?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I'm not. But are you you know this new culture
coming in? You know Aaron Glenn's at former high level player. Yes,
It's like, do I want to deal with some old aging?
You know, what's the hardest thing to deal with sometimes
in pro sports an aging former superstar, especially one that's
a little different. You know Peyton Manning that last year.
Remember Kubiak and Elway had to sit him down and
(15:12):
like it was difficult, he took a pay cut. These
are these are tough conversations. But I think it was
pretty clear that the Johnson family was over this guy
about two months left to go in the season. I
wonder if part of the interviews was like Aaron's done here,
which most of these new code who cares like it's
not like okay, fine, I don't need them anyway. I
(15:35):
think the question now is is he even tradable because
he's on the books for this year, his cash, you know,
his cap pits twenty three million dollars. I honestly think
they'd probably have to cut him. Yeah. I wonder if
anyone had even trade for him, so it's not I
think they just cut him, cut them, and then someone
(15:56):
signs him for ten million bucks. I mean, is he
is that what he's getting? Kind of because if you
think about it, Roethlisberger's arm gave out on him. It
was clear, but he just ends as a steeler. Manning's
arm doesn't work, wins the Super Bowl, but then no
one would resign him. Breeze's arms started going and it
just ended. Is he really just going to go play? Like?
(16:19):
What if the Titans outbid that and they give him
twelve million? The Raiders were only willing to give him,
So he's gonna finish his career on the Titans. Because
I do think it wouldn't just be those two. I
think a lot of teams would be interested just to
try to get their franchise. You know, these owners give
them a little oomph. If you got some cap face,
I'll give Aaron Rodgers fifty if you're the Titans, why
wouldn't you pay him?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, he has a house in Nashville. I mean, let's say, hey, listen,
we'll give you two years. Got a house in Nashville.
It's an easy division, and then you have that number
one pick you could trade down, get a bunch of
players around him. It's just interesting. I was told that
Aaron Glenn for the people that didn't hear my pre
Super Bowl fifteen minute rant, I was told by somebody
(17:01):
I trust that Aaron Glenn, coming from a really strong
culture in Detroit, wants to mimic that right, duplicate that
in New York, and he didn't want Aaron Rodgers the
player or the person in the room. And they'll say
all the right stuff. But in the end, I mean
Green Bay caught him off guard. The Jets kind of
caught him off guard. Aaron has that disease of has
(17:24):
to be the smartest guy in the room. I'm gonna
do my own homework on the internet, and you know,
I think in the end, Aaron, I mean, I could
write chapters in a book on things I've heard from
people that have been around him. He's really moody guy.
You can get good Aeron or bad Aeron, but in
the end, he's just not good enough. Now he's probably
the fifteenth best quarterback in the league, he's just not
(17:45):
good enough for the bs you deal with. Like he's
not early to the locker room. He's not optimistic like
Brady to the end. I mean, it was just like
high energy, high optimism, high standards. I'm not sure Aaron
loves the game. I think, you know how when he
ever worked with somebody or you have somebody in your
(18:06):
family and they're like, I work hard, and you're like, dude,
hard work is sixty five hours a week, not forty two.
I think Aaron says he loves the game. I don't
see it, don't. I don't see that just just unbridled,
like just relentless passion for it. I think I think
Aaron thinks he loves the game, but he doesn't love it.
He doesn't love it the way the guys that I
(18:28):
see it in pro sports love it.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I think it'll be very telling that when they cut him,
if he's only getting seven, eight, ten million dollar off,
he doesn't need the money, right, He's worth hundreds of
millions of dollars. At this point in time, it was
clear he did not want to get hit last year.
Don't blame him. He's forty years old, right, So is
he gonna go play for some of these teams?
Speaker 3 (18:50):
You know?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Pete Carroll calls the Titans, call like, yeah, this might
not go well again. Right. The one thing Aaron Rodgers
has a good feel for, you know, the most of
his career is what a good team looks like. So
this could be really like, you go sign up for
one of these teams. Best case scenario might be like
seven wins and you know, struggled to stay hurt last
(19:11):
year on a roster that's going to be better more
than likely than one of these teams interested in you.
So I wonder if he gets to the point where
it's like, am I really going to do one year
for eight, nine, ten million dollars? Yeah? I don't want
to say you jest this year paying him thirty five
million dollars. If someone was willing to pay him that,
I think he would.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
For sure play sure, sure, But I have a hard.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Time if you're ten million dollars, it's like the best
options the Titans, him just going, I'm just gonna go
hang out Malibu and just kick it.
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Speaker 1 (21:13):
It's called Hoops to Night. It's Jason Tim. Let's start
with this. One of the things watching the Lakers last
night with Luca is that I felt like they were
kind of on a train to nowhere, and it was
like Ad was a great defensive player, bit hit and miss.
Offensively good, not consistent like the great offensive scores. I
think he's been the last two years the best defensive
(21:34):
player in the league. I like Austin Reeves if he's
the three or the four. Lebron having an insane year,
but he's gonna take some nights off. And if he
does take nights off or Ad does, then Austin Reeves
because your second option, that's not good enough. And then
I'm watching them last night and I'm like, well, Luca's
missed a lot of time, so he's not taking time off.
(21:55):
It's almost like Lebron is going to try to impress Luca.
He's not gonna take his May nights off. And now
I've got Austin Reeves is a third on virtually every night.
Ruey can always hit the corner shot, Dalton connect. You
keep him. He creates space. And I'm watching last night
and I'm like, God, there's so much younger and more
fun to watch, Like I got to I got to
(22:17):
a place where I really respected them, but I just thought,
this is there's not enough. I don't know, I know,
I don't They don't have a rim protector Jackson Hayes again,
Ali up guy, fun energy. It's just it's weird how
just inserting Luca into it, the whole team feels younger
and different. Does it feel like that to you?
Speaker 3 (22:39):
No? Absolutely. I mean I hated this Laker team at
the start of the year. They had this personality that like,
I don't care about the work that was driving me crazy.
But over the course of the last month, they've been
playing a really likable and fun brand of basketball. Lebron
was playing super well, Austin was playing super well. Before
Ad got hurt, he had a couple of monster game.
(23:00):
He played really well twenty Yeah, but I felt like
they weren't good enough on either end of the floor
to really do what you need to do to win
four playoff rounds. And I've been really keyed in on
this concept lately, like if you're gonna win the title,
you have to be able to do something well enough
that it really gives people problems, like where teams can't
even match up with it for one reason or another.
(23:22):
And the Lakers just didn't have that punch on either
end of the floor, even with Lebron and Ad. It's
not the defensive team it was back in twenty twenty, right,
So they didn't have that punch with Luca. One of
the unique things he does. This Laker team has a
lot of guys who are good offensive players as long
as they're set up well, even with Lebron and Austin,
Like one of the reasons why they struggled against defenses
(23:44):
that did a lot of switching all year long is
Lebron's forty and it's hard to get him to just
get downhill time and time again in a random regular
season game in January or December. Or Austin not an
elite athlete in terms of getting past top tier NBA talent,
and Anthony Davis obviously has offensive limitations. But once you
bring Luca in, he just has this magical ability to
(24:07):
get the ball to the basket. He's so big, and
he's so strong, and he's so going to change of
pace and he's so going to getting guys sealed on
his shoulder, sealed on his backside, he can get downhill
and now he's spraying out to all these guys And
they're actually all really good offensive players when they have
an advantage, Like Ruly shoots fifty three percent on unguarded
catch and shoot threes, but you need to get him
(24:29):
unguarded catch and shoot threes. Luca can do that. And
one of the biggest things that it's allowed is it's
allowed Lebron James. Like, have you ever watched a guy
say like, oh, Lebron should drive to the basket every time. Yeah,
it sounds great, but it's really exhausting to do that,
especially at his age. Now, Lebron when he gets his
touches can be super physically aggressive because he knows he
(24:51):
has Luca to carry the lion's share of the offensive load.
And so now when I look at this situation, yeah,
they have defensive question marks and we can get into
that here in a minute, but I try I don't
have to overthink it. This team is going to be
basically impossible to guard. And so they have a unit
now their offense that presents legitimate problems for every single
team in the league. That is it. That is a
(25:12):
foundation you can build on.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yeah, and remember Dallas won the West last year and
their two best players are below average suboptimal defensive players,
Kyrie and Luca. Is that. Let's be honest about the West.
Denver has Jokic, but they're atrocious defensively. Houston's young, can't shoot,
and I don't think they translate to a playoff team.
I think they're just one of those teams that they
(25:34):
are so young and twitchy and athletic in the regular season,
if you're not well rested, if you don't have a
lot of tape time, they are a tough matchup. If
I get to play them seven times. They can't shoot.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
There's a team like that every year. Every year there's
that team.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah, So all of a sudden, Denver can't defend, Houston
can't shoot. Oklahoma City I don't trust chet Honggren's health.
I think they're the best team. Golden State doesn't have
enough offensive firepower, very steph reliant, even with Jimmy Butler.
You know, Memphis is Memphis plays with a lot of
(26:10):
pace and they're a lot of fun to watch. I
don't trust him. You know said this part. They're just
teams like Philadelphia in the plaus I don't trust them.
Memphis in the Plus, I don't trust them. I know
Jaron Jackson, I know John mort I get it. So
if you look at the West, O case is clearly
the best team. They have the most kind of diversity
of options. They have so many different players, and they're
(26:30):
really good and really young. They're what I think Utah
wants to be in about three years with all those
draft picks. But the Lakers are an exceptional offensive team,
and if you're giving me, it's also a team Lebron
clearly likes Austin Reeves. He likes to play with him.
It's obvious. Lebron's like a city. He's like a fifteen
(26:51):
year old with a crush on Luca, the way he plays,
the energy, and I just think they're so good offensively
that there's nobody that's complete enough in the West to
roll them. Boston would, but Boston's got you know, Boston's
been playing these guys. You know, I watched them the
other night against New York. Jesus, They're good. God, They're good.
(27:14):
So my take is, if you put them in the East,
I don't think they can I don't think they can
beat Boston. I think They're a Western Conference finals team.
And I'm not trying to be a La Homer.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Yeah, I'm with you every team below. To me, oka See,
Denver and the Lakers are the clear top three in
the West. And Denver and like you were talking earlier
about the young, feisty athletic team, Memphis used to be
that team. That Houston's that team. Now there's always a
team like that, and that team always wins a lot
of regular season games and then loses in the first
two rounds. It's just that's what happens. And let's just
(27:45):
put it this way. Who are you picking in a
playoff series, Fred van Vliet and Jalen Green or one
of these duos from the top of the of the conference. Right, So, like,
I'm with you on that. To me, Denver and the
Lakers are both closer to oka See than people realize,
just because Oka See is also super young and athletic
and has a ton of energy for the regular season.
The question marks that you talked about in terms of
(28:06):
the Lakers with the defense, that's where it gets interesting
because the Lakers were playing some pretty damn good basketball
before Luca joined the squad. There in their last thirteen games,
they have the best record in the league, and they
have the number one defense in the league. The Lakers
do the number one defense for about a month now.
Now there's a reason for that. Jared Vanderbilt is healthy.
He is an excellent defensive player. And you turn Dangelo Russell,
(28:27):
a bad defensive player, into Dorian Finney Smith, who's a
good defensive player. And then a huge part of that
is part of that excitement from Lebron has manifested and
he's playing a lot of defense this year, and he's
been very good on that end of the floor. But
if you take a player out of that lineup and
you insert Luca, you're not going to be as good defensively.
That's just acknowledging reality. So when Luca's in this picture
(28:52):
full time, you're not going to be as good defensively
as you've been in the last month. But we've seen
an NBA history like with Denver. Denver in twenty two
twenty three, they were not an elite defense, no, but
they had bad defenders on the court who did a
job and did it well, that's right, And they were
and they were anchored by good defenders. Contavious Calbo Pope,
Aaron Gordon, Bruce Brown. They had guys who did compete
(29:15):
on defense. They did the hard jobs and then they
created easier jobs. That's the thing. You can imagine a
scenario where you've got Luca, Lebron Austin, but you have
Dorian Finney, Smith and Van Doo out there. This is
going to be a small ball team. Colin Alex Lenn
hasn't played a thousand minutes since twenty nineteen. Lebron's played
sixteen hundred just this year. Like Alex Lenn, He's not
going to come in there and save the season. So
(29:37):
this is a small ball team. But you can imagine
a universe where Lebron's playing defense. You've got two professional
defenders in the lineup, and what if they just score
every time or get a great shot every single time?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
A team that I think, and I don't know historically,
if this happens, I'll tell you the team in the
West that I would not want to play. And right
now they're not even a plan team. Keep your eye
in San Antonio, Okay, Stefan Castle out of Yukon is
no fun to defend. That guy is this time next year?
(30:11):
We're gonna have different conversations. Daron Fox. I think because
he plays in Sacramento, you don't realize it. He's a
twenty five point a night scorer with a high IQ.
He's so good, we just don't watch him. Stefan Castle
Wemby Daron Fox, you know guys that get lost, but
I don't know his EPA. Yeah, I don't know what
(30:33):
all the numbers are, But like Harrison Barnes, you know
it's this guy that. Harrison's one of those players that,
like Shane Battier, You're like, I think he's really good
and he ends up making your team better, but nobody
wants to talk about it. I think san Antonio, if
you told me they went on like right now, they're
not a playing team, I think they're gonna go in.
(30:53):
Popovich is gonna steal a game in a series. Houston's
the team we all think is gonna be dangerous. I
don't san Antonio the team nobody's paying attention due. I mean,
can you imagine Lakers end up you know, Denver ends
up playing them, and Wemby neutralizes Jokic to some degree
and castles a pain and gets the whistle. I mean, listen, Denver,
(31:16):
you can score on Denver like they're just not good.
They're not effective at all. So I think I think
the West is really fun I thought the NBA had
a tremendous fourteen day period. I thought, Jimmy Butler, you
know it's funny about this, Jason, is that I know
the analytic people think Wiggins maybe a better fit with
Steph than Jimmy Butler. I read an article on that,
(31:38):
but my take is Jimmy Butler's the anti Wiggins. He's tough,
he's a badass, he's physical, he's ornery, and he's a
really good number two. It's like in baseball, it's when
you try to make a two to one you're pitching
staff's not good. Jimmy's an excellent two behind Steph, and
he's the opposite of Steph. He's tough physically, he's a
(31:59):
mid range guy. He'll defend you. I don't think Golden
State's a championship team, but I just thought between Luca,
between Deer and Fox to San Antonio, between Jimmy Butler
the Warriors thought, I just thought the West got really
and we've talked about this. The West has been better
than the East for twenty five years, a lot of
(32:20):
it's just better gms, And I thought the West had
a great fourteen days.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Yeah, they completely flipped the conference over in a bunch
of different ways. I liked what you said about san Antonio.
Like we were talking earlier about like having a problem
that other teams can't solve. Victor is a problem around
the rim that other teams can't solve. Try and then
the Deer and Fox as a two man game partner
with Wemby is a problem that teams can't solve. The
Jimmy Butler thing, it was amazing to me how many
(32:47):
people overthought this. And when I was watching the Bucks
game last night and I saw Jimmy Butler constantly operating
in the middle of the floor as kind of like
a hub out of the attention that Steph would gather,
it reminded me of when we'd watch the Warriors back
in their heyday, where it's like everyone talks about shooting,
but when it comes to the Warriors with Steph, you
(33:07):
don't actually want shooting as much as you want playmaking,
because what happens is is Steph gets two to the ball.
As soon as Steph gets two to the ball, it's
a four on three, and it becomes more about quick
processing and decision making and guys being in the right
spots to get dunks and maybe a wide open corner
three for a certain player out of that sequence to
pay it off than it is about, like with Lebron
(33:29):
or a rim pressuring guy, where you want spacing, you
want shooting that pulls guys further away from the rim.
Steph inverts your spacing in that way, and it actually
reminded me a lot of Andre Guidala. Remember when Andre
Guidala was there. He was never a great shooter, but
he constantly greased the wheels for them because he was
a rangy Ford who could screen and operate in the
middle of the floor, make quick decisions new and to
(33:51):
cut new and to relocate, do all those sorts of things.
There was a play in the Bucks game last night
where Steph took a ball screen from Jimmy. Steph got two,
He dropped it to Jimmy and Jimmy made a little
ball faked buddy, healed, and then dropped it off to
Draymond Green for an easy layup underneath the basket. And
I literally just watched this and I'm like, this works
this just works. You weren't comfortable with Wiggins as a
(34:11):
processor in the middle of the floor, you are comfortable
with Jimmy. Simple stat how many times has Jimmy or
how many times has Andrew Wiggins had seven plus assists
in a basketball game in his NBA career fourteen? How
many times did Jimmy have seven plus assists last year
with the heat fifteen? So like, it's an entirely different
stratosphere of playmaking talent that you plugged in. There. You
(34:33):
have a guy that can quickly process those situations. And
they've been killing teams Colin so far. Obviously small sample.
They've been really good with Jimmy on the floor with
Steph off, which is all that really matters.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
That's the key. I mean when I watched them two
weeks ago when Steph left the floor, not only were
the inefficient, they were unwatchable. They were a bad tell.
I said, this, make the move to be a better
TV product. You're terrible.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Well, and like Pat Spencer, like at the lacrosse story,
it's really cool. He probably shouldn't be your like secondary
ball handler. In a Thursday night National TV game against
the Lakers, when steps off the floor, like that that's
an issue. But I'm with you, like I don't see
the Warriors necessarily as a substantial threat.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
To me.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
What's cool about it is we get to watch Steph
play meaningful basketball again. Because I do think they're gonna
get out of the playing tournament. I do think they're
gonna end up getting at least a first round series,
and that team's just gonna be fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
I think the NBA has always been better when the
Knicks irrelevant and between Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Kat Josh
hart Og, it's a really good basketball team. But they
do not match up with the Celtics, and this is
where you're really good. I mean, I've watched them play
the Celtics twice and that shift's not competitive, Like it's
it does not work now. It's it's almost like the
(35:51):
Celtics have circumvented the NBA CBA. The NBA CBA they
don't want you to have like five really good players,
and it's almost like the Celtics figure out a way
to be the last team that can have a roster
that you're not supposed to have anymore, where Derek White's
your fifth best guy some night.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
And now they're trying to sell the team so someone
else has to pay for it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, Like it's like they're almost circumventing the new CBA.
Like this is not really fair, and you can tell.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
So.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
I think New York's a really good basketball team, and
I think I trust them in the playoffs. I think
they're smart. I think they've got you know, it's well chronicled.
They're kind of got a Villanova field. They play hard,
they're smart. I think they're one of those teams that
will be a better playoff team than a regular season team.
And they're a good regular season team. They're teams like Houston,
I think are a better regular season team than a
(36:38):
playoff team. The next you're gonna be fine. But I
watch them now twice play Boston, and I want you
to break it down because they don't match up and
this is a good team. Let's just be honest about this.
They got five to six guys in that rotation. The
Knicks can match up with almost every team in the league.
Why is Boston? You can tell Boston like when they
(37:01):
played this past week, think that's a national TV game.
They're like, okay, all right, guys, I mean that thing was,
I mean it four minutes in You're like, yeah, yeah,
Boston came to play. Boston's not fing around. Why doesn't
New Because I think New York has enough different players,
and they play hard enough, and they're really smart and
(37:21):
they're well coached. They kind of match up with everybody.
They do not match up with Boston, Like what is it?
Speaker 3 (37:28):
So there there are two kind of prevailing theories in
NBA offense right now, which is like matchup hunting versus
like running motion. And the motion is like what you
see with the Warriors. There's tons of screens. Guys are
running in circles all over the floor. Boston's like, where's
your weakest defender, Let's get him up here, Let's play
some basketball. And like that's literally all they do. And
when I watched that game, the way they surgically attacked
(37:50):
Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns every single time down
the floor. They'd get them both in, they'd bring the
ball off the floor, they'd have Jalen Brunson's man comes
screen for Tatum. Okay, now Jalen Brunson's on Tatum. Okay,
now we're gonna get cat into the action. So now
it's like Tatum and one of his teammates attacking kat
An Brunson in the same action, and there's just nothing
they can do about it. The Knicks are really, really good.
(38:13):
They can score whenever they want, They get out and
transition like crazy. They've got all these good players that
are super bought into their r They're super fun to watch,
and they have beat the shit out of some good
teams this year. But every time I've watched him against Boston,
it's the exact same issue. We are going to get
Karl Anthony Towns in space and make him guard and
just get right past him and then spray out and
(38:35):
get great shots and beat you. It's actually kind of funny, Colin,
because you can tell that they really want to beat
the Knicks. Because the Celtics have played some pretty bad
basketball in the middle of the season where they're not
deliberate and where they do take bad shots and they
settle and they don't do the things they need to do.
They see the Knicks and they like snap back to
the playoffs last year and they just get surgical in
(38:55):
the way that they pick on those guys. But it
really just comes down to they go at York's worst
defenders every single time, and then they play driving kick
out of it to get great shots, and that really
is the issue. And then Jalen Brunson, he just has
this wall of athletic, bigger defender every single possession. As
it goes down to the other end, it's like, here's
(39:15):
Jalen Brown, Here's Drew Holliday, here's Derek White. He's just
it's such a difficult job for him to consistently break
down that Boston defense because they just have so many
different defenders they can put on him.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, it's interesting to say that because I really like
the dexterity of the next I think they're a matchup problem.
Karl Anthony Towns is offensively gifted. He's shooting threes like
right now, like the best he's ever. I mean, he's
really shooting the ball. Well, he's quirky. I've seen him
play live four times, and there'll be halfs you're like,
is he a top ten player in the league? Like
(39:47):
he can destroy people, he can embarrass people, and then
in the second half you'll be like, did he take
a made did he have a thorough flu at half
like what happened, but it is interesting you break it,
and I'm so glad for our audience listening. Jason is
so good at this and that's why I just foisted
(40:08):
it up to him. Is when I watched them play
twice the Celtics and it shit is not competitive. They
just do not match up at all. The volume
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Speaker 2 (00:35):
All right.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Well, between the Luca trade and the Chiefs getting humiliated,
I did not have that as a two team parlay.
You know, I was thinking about this. Listen. The Chiefs
are gonna be fine. They got to They knew they
were going to probably draft an offensive tackle in the
first round, and there's plenty of them. But it's interesting
Brady's three super Bowl losses, the point differential was minus fifteen.
(01:00):
He could have literally run the table. Mahomes, it's minus
fifty three. With two super Bowl losses, he'll be three
and two in Super Bowls. But I do think I
would say this again Philadelphia. We both said they have
the better roster. It's just hard to go against Andy
Reid on two weeks and Mahomes, who never loses close games.
I did not think it would be this, but I
(01:22):
do think. You know, one of the things I was
thinking in the first half is that, you know, Brady
would always generate something. He was just so good pre snap,
and it was a little you know, listen, I know
Philadelphia's defense is dynamic, and you know, we didn't think
(01:42):
Kansas City would run much on them, but were you
a little disappointed that they couldn't generate six and seven
yard throws, They couldn't max protect it. It was like
they weren't moving off their game plan.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, I thought they were overwhelmed at levels in which
you just don't see good teams overwhelmed the line of
scrimmage because it wasn't just edge pressures, it was interior pressures.
I mean, Mahomes was under siege that they had I
think seven yards after the first quarter Colin or excuse me,
nineteen yards on seven plays. That's because they got a
(02:19):
first down on the first play from scrimmage and then
they essentially went three and out, three and out so
I just thought the defensive line. Remember two years ago
when the Eagles were in the Super Bowl, they led
the league in sacks and they had an excellent defensive line.
I don't think this defensive line was looked as good
as that one because it wasn't productive top to bottom.
(02:40):
But the way they played to night, I mean, that's
as well as you can play. And I don't know
what you can do when your defensive tackles are doing that.
When when your defensive ends are doing that. I mean,
the Chiefs do have a guard playing left.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Tackle right well, ten quarterback hits six sacks, zero blitzes.
I mean, think about that. And you know, as I
was watching this game with Philadelphia, I kept thinking about this.
You know, for years and years when Peyton Manning was
in your division or Brady was, it affected how people
(03:13):
in the division drafted. You watched Philadelphia's D and O Lions,
And if you're the Rams or the Lions or San
Francisco or Dallas, don't you watch this game and think, Jesus,
I'm the Rams. I'm like, you know, a corner or
defensive tackle in the third round. Like it was so
(03:34):
dominating that it makes me think all the rivals of
the Eagles have to look at this and think, you know,
we've we've got to get better in the lines or
we're not going to compete with this team for years.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah. I mean that's to me how he and Andy
has done this too, and the two Super Bowls they've lost,
their offensive line has just let him down in those games.
I mean the Tampa situation, Remember they were missing two
tackles and tonight they just got overwhelmed. But it's not
just Jalen Carter tonight, right, I mean Brandon Graham does
everything to come back off a torn shoulder or elbow
(04:12):
sweat was incredible. Milton Williams has that play destroying. You know,
he was a third round pick years ago. Like he's
about to be a free agent. He's gonna get a
ton of money. And to me, the offensive line for
the Eagles, how about the difference when they would go
back and forth, the Chiefs would punt and then the
Eagles would come back and you'd be like, well, they're
just not generating any pressure. Jalen's sitting back there having
(04:34):
a hot dog, He's having some gumbo in the backfield.
Just who's open, who's not I'll just scramble where mahomes.
Within a second, he's moving around, scrambling left and right,
and yeah, I just think the offensive line and defensive
line for the Eagles tonight and really all season down
the stretch once they remember they started slow like two
and two, and then since then they were the best
(04:54):
team in football. And tonight they dominated. They absolutely dominated
this game. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I mean before tonight, Kansas City had won the last
nine playoff games where they did not score first where
they trailed, but in those games, I mean, it was
really interesting even early in the game. My first take
after the first three drives for each team is it's
(05:22):
one thing if you make mistakes, if you're nervous. I'm
like Jesus that Philadelphia is not even adding edge pressure.
They're just putting their four guys out there and they
can't lock them. You know, as I look at over
my notes, only three minutes time of possession in the
first quarter, I think we forget. We've been spoiled John,
(05:44):
We've had First of all, it was a great season.
The quarterback play has never been better. A lot of
people that were watching our podcast right now are in
their twenties and thirties. This is what super Bowls look
like in the late seventies and eighties and nineteen ninety
I can remember. I can remember the Giants beating Denver
(06:05):
thirty nine to twenty, and then San Francisco beating Denver
fifty five to ten, and Denver got beat by Washington
forty two to ten, and then the Raiders hammered a
couple of teams. You go back to the eighties right now,
Google it if you're listening to us and you're watching
it home. This is what super bowls look like. I mean,
there was a decade people that was talking about the
seventies NBA where there were no great teams. The eighties
(06:26):
NFL were very few great super Bowls. So we were
on a run. We've had so many good Kansas City
Buffalo games or Buffalo Baltimore games. We've just been so
lucky in the AFC with Mahomes and Allen and Lamar.
But there was a run in college football with Alabama.
This is what the title games were looking like, the
Bama Notre Dame. This is what super bowls looked like.
(06:46):
So we hadn't had I mean, I thought the Celtics, Mavericks,
was a lobsided mess, but this is one of those
where I think it resonates beyond the game. I think
you look at Philadelphia and they're going to have an
impact on the draft and free agency. People will feel like,
in the NFC, you cannot compete with this roster for
the next two to three years if you just don't
(07:06):
get better up front.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Well, I also think it's pretty rare in you know,
in football, right the coaches are such stars, where in
basketball and baseball the executives can be pretty big names.
You know, in basketball, GM's are a really big deal. Listen,
I've known Bret Veech for I don't know, fifteen plus
years Redvechs stud and he's well known. I mean he
should be. He's been to five Super Bowls, he won
(07:30):
three of them. But how he is kind of the
guy that serves the drink with the Eagles. He is
much closer to someone in baseball or basketball where he's
the boss, you know, when they needed coordinators. He's going
after Vic Fangio. And I'm not trying to take anything
away from Sirianni. Clearly the guys, you know, they beat
to his drum like he gets them going from an
(07:52):
inspirational standpoint, and he's good with the players, but he
doesn't call plays or anything. And he's a younger guy.
It's pretty rare to see US CEO head coach in
his early forties. But the talent on that team and
the offseason moves. I mean, Colin they signed a one year,
four million dollars back then, who was fantastic guard. They
got Zach Bond, immediate All Pro, and they got Saquon Barkley,
(08:12):
who had one of the better seasons of the history
of the league. So I mean, it's a large remarkable
Howie Roseman became a Hall of Famer tonight. He's won
two Super Bowls with two different coaches and two different quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Listen, I don't want to overreact to the game, but
in this instance, John, it's hard not to overreact. I mean,
it's I'm watching the Celtics drub the Knicks last night,
and I'm like, this Celtics team has so much depth.
I'm not trying to overreact, but when they won the
finals last year, You're like, they're like significant, significantly better
than every team in the league. And I watched them
last night and I'm like, I'm not overreact. Boston's gonna
(08:46):
win it again. They're just better than everybody. Yeah, And
I'm watching Philadelphia here and I'm like, yeah, this team's
not going anywhere because it would be one thing if
the quarterback was cocky, or if they had a bunch
of free agents or they didn't draft well John, seven
of their best players are like in year one or two.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Well, think about it. They just won the Super Bowl
and two of the better players in franchise history, Jason
Kelsey and Fletcher Cox, had retired this year. So do
you know what hit me tonight is remember when Fangio
and the Miami Dolphins like got a divorce and then
how he hires him twenty four hours later in the Dolphins,
he was just too mean, he was too demanding. It's like, guys,
(09:27):
this is football, and this is defensive football. I got
news for you. The guy knows what he's doing. And
the one thing we've seen with VIC with Jim Harbaugh,
the one year when they was he was with the
Naggy and the Bears and they traded for Khalil Mack
and then this year with you give him talent, it
is on because one thing you and I talked about
is like his record against Andy Reid, but it's like, well, really,
(09:49):
if you siphon those teams out, he did not have
good teams in Denver, so nothing of the caliber of
talent that he was rolling into this Super Bowl with.
I mean, Colin the when you have one good unit,
you could have a good defense, right when all four
of you or three of your levels of defense are good.
Their defensive line is outstanding, the linebackers, they have an
(10:11):
all Pro linebacker and Bond who had a pick tonight,
And then all their dvs are good, you know, I
mean CJ. Will Hit, Cooper Dejeen and Mitchell. The rookie
corners are excellent and Slay is still a solid player.
So they're good at every single level of the defense.
And they have one of the best defensive coordinators in
the league. Like he's he can't win it because he's
a coach. But if you told me they gave the
(10:33):
Super Bowl MVP to Vic Fangio because the game was
it felt like over pretty early on because defensively the
Eagles were I don't remember the eighty five Bears, but
I would have had they smothered him, And it was like,
have they even made it past midfield and then finally
Burkhard's like they have not crossed midfield yet, Like didn't
feel like it.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
You know, John. One of the of the many reasons
the NFL is king and I'm you and I are
both football guys. I do love the NBA playoffs, and
I love March Madden, and I love a good I
love a good golf Major, and I love the World Cup.
And by the way, last year I loved baseball playoffs.
Last year I thought they was just Oh. I thought
the National League Playoffs were insanely good. But one of
(11:15):
the reasons that the NFL continues to have such a
visceral connection with us is college football and the Eagles
are an advertisement forget the draft, right, And this is
why you and I are draft guys, and I've told
my friends this for years, is you can't buy your
way to a championship. All the bad gms in football
(11:38):
overspend in free agency. We're in the NBA. If the
Lakers get Luca, you're like in a big trade. At
the trade deadline, You're like, Wow, the Eagles are just
an advertisement for you start nailing multiple drafts. That's when
That's why you can go get AJ Brown. That's why
you can pay Saquon and AJ Brown because you just
(11:58):
keep nailing draft pick after draft picks. Like the Rams
are in a spot now they'll they'll keep Stafford, but
they've hit on like six straight defensive draft picks. If
they have another good draft, it's like, okay, then you
then you get to the point where you can just
go buy elite players.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah. I mean, I've mentioned this to you and it's
I think it's been well documented. Is once they missed
on Jalen Rager for Justin Jefferson, they had an internal
meeting that what are we doing overthinking this? We're gonna
take the best players from the best program. So when
you listed all those players, that was a lot of
Alabama and Georgia in that list of players, and it
(12:35):
paid dividends. I mean, it paid big time dividends because
you know, from Jalen Carter to DeVante Smith to Landon
Dickerson to This year was somewhat unique with Mitchell and
Cooper Dejen but Mitchell is a good example of a
guy like Ashton Genty this year with Boise, he could
have got a million dollars and gone to Alabama Georgia
(12:56):
Ohio State, but he chose to stay at his program.
That's why he was I think Tulane or Toledo. I
think it might have been Toledo, and Koober's gene was Iowa,
which is one of the better defenses in the league.
But they're not drafting little school guys anymore. They've been burned,
you know, Carson, I think you know that situation.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Then.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Obviously, the Jalen Reaguer over Justin Jefferson at the time
was the COVID draft. And remember the Minnesota Vikings were
on the clock next and they go to the video
of Spielman and he's laughing him and Zimmer because they
couldn't believe that they didn't just take Justin Jefferson, and
that scarred how he and how he's come back swinging.
I mean to go to two Super Bowls in three years.
(13:36):
And let's face it, this was a lot different team
than than two years ago. Right, Kelsey's gone, Fletcher Cox gone,
So they had to kind of, you know, reshape the
squad with some impact players, and they did it with
you know, Jurgens and Landon Dickerson inside and Aden Beckton.
But to me, Jalen Carter, who you know, tonight's not
going to be his greatest performance, but what he's meant
to him this year he was He's a dominant, dominant
(14:01):
impact player.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Jordan Schultz and then Jay Glazer reported the Jets moved
off Aaron Rodgers. So for the second time in a
couple of years, a team as Aaron flew out to
New York thinking positively optimistically it would happen, they moved
off him. I think the Colts and the Raiders work.
I think Chip Kelly, they have two tackles, they have
(14:24):
a center, they have two good tight ends, then they're
running back in a receiver. I think I think the
Raiders works for Aaron Rodgers. He'd take that over the
Colts and Shane Steichen. But you know, Peyton Manning and
Tom Brady late in their careers leave and have some success.
Brett Farve did as well, got to an NFC championship
a throw from the Super Bowl. Are you surprised that
(14:45):
it was just two years of nothing and the second
team bailed on him?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I'm not. But are you you know this new culture
coming in? You know Aaron Glenn's at former high level player. Yes,
It's like, do I want to deal with some old aging?
You know, what's the hardest thing to deal with sometimes
in pro sports an aging former superstar, especially one that's
a little different. You know Peyton Manning that last year.
Remember Kubiak and Elway had to sit him down and
(15:12):
like it was difficult, he took a pay cut. These
are these are tough conversations. But I think it was
pretty clear that the Johnson family was over this guy
about two months left to go in the season. I
wonder if part of the interviews was like Aaron's done here,
which most of these new code who cares like it's
not like okay, fine, I don't need them anyway. I
(15:35):
think the question now is is he even tradable because
he's on the books for this year, his cash, you know,
his cap pits twenty three million dollars. I honestly think
they'd probably have to cut him. Yeah. I wonder if
anyone had even trade for him, so it's not I
think they just cut him, cut them, and then someone
(15:56):
signs him for ten million bucks. I mean, is he
is that what he's getting? Kind of because if you
think about it, Roethlisberger's arm gave out on him. It
was clear, but he just ends as a steeler. Manning's
arm doesn't work, wins the Super Bowl, but then no
one would resign him. Breeze's arms started going and it
just ended. Is he really just going to go play? Like?
(16:19):
What if the Titans outbid that and they give him
twelve million? The Raiders were only willing to give him,
So he's gonna finish his career on the Titans. Because
I do think it wouldn't just be those two. I
think a lot of teams would be interested just to
try to get their franchise. You know, these owners give
them a little oomph. If you got some cap face,
I'll give Aaron Rodgers fifty if you're the Titans, why
wouldn't you pay him?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, he has a house in Nashville. I mean, let's say, hey, listen,
we'll give you two years. Got a house in Nashville.
It's an easy division, and then you have that number
one pick you could trade down, get a bunch of
players around him. It's just interesting. I was told that
Aaron Glenn for the people that didn't hear my pre
Super Bowl fifteen minute rant, I was told by somebody
(17:01):
I trust that Aaron Glenn, coming from a really strong
culture in Detroit, wants to mimic that right, duplicate that
in New York, and he didn't want Aaron Rodgers the
player or the person in the room. And they'll say
all the right stuff. But in the end, I mean
Green Bay caught him off guard. The Jets kind of
caught him off guard. Aaron has that disease of has
(17:24):
to be the smartest guy in the room. I'm gonna
do my own homework on the internet, and you know,
I think in the end, Aaron, I mean, I could
write chapters in a book on things I've heard from
people that have been around him. He's really moody guy.
You can get good Aeron or bad Aeron, but in
the end, he's just not good enough. Now he's probably
the fifteenth best quarterback in the league, he's just not
(17:45):
good enough for the bs you deal with. Like he's
not early to the locker room. He's not optimistic like
Brady to the end. I mean, it was just like
high energy, high optimism, high standards. I'm not sure Aaron
loves the game. I think, you know how when he
ever worked with somebody or you have somebody in your
(18:06):
family and they're like, I work hard, and you're like, dude,
hard work is sixty five hours a week, not forty two.
I think Aaron says he loves the game. I don't
see it, don't. I don't see that just just unbridled,
like just relentless passion for it. I think I think
Aaron thinks he loves the game, but he doesn't love it.
He doesn't love it the way the guys that I
(18:28):
see it in pro sports love it.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I think it'll be very telling that when they cut him,
if he's only getting seven, eight, ten million dollar off,
he doesn't need the money, right, He's worth hundreds of
millions of dollars. At this point in time, it was
clear he did not want to get hit last year.
Don't blame him. He's forty years old, right, So is
he gonna go play for some of these teams?
Speaker 3 (18:50):
You know?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Pete Carroll calls the Titans, call like, yeah, this might
not go well again. Right. The one thing Aaron Rodgers
has a good feel for, you know, the most of
his career is what a good team looks like. So
this could be really like, you go sign up for
one of these teams. Best case scenario might be like
seven wins and you know, struggled to stay hurt last
(19:11):
year on a roster that's going to be better more
than likely than one of these teams interested in you.
So I wonder if he gets to the point where
it's like, am I really going to do one year
for eight, nine, ten million dollars? Yeah? I don't want
to say you jest this year paying him thirty five
million dollars. If someone was willing to pay him that,
I think he would.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
For sure play sure, sure, But I have a hard.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Time if you're ten million dollars, it's like the best
options the Titans, him just going, I'm just gonna go
hang out Malibu and just kick it.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
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Speaker 1 (21:13):
It's called Hoops to Night. It's Jason Tim. Let's start
with this. One of the things watching the Lakers last
night with Luca is that I felt like they were
kind of on a train to nowhere, and it was
like Ad was a great defensive player, bit hit and miss.
Offensively good, not consistent like the great offensive scores. I
think he's been the last two years the best defensive
(21:34):
player in the league. I like Austin Reeves if he's
the three or the four. Lebron having an insane year,
but he's gonna take some nights off. And if he
does take nights off or Ad does, then Austin Reeves
because your second option, that's not good enough. And then
I'm watching them last night and I'm like, well, Luca's
missed a lot of time, so he's not taking time off.
(21:55):
It's almost like Lebron is going to try to impress Luca.
He's not gonna take his May nights off. And now
I've got Austin Reeves is a third on virtually every night.
Ruey can always hit the corner shot, Dalton connect. You
keep him. He creates space. And I'm watching last night
and I'm like, God, there's so much younger and more
fun to watch, Like I got to I got to
(22:17):
a place where I really respected them, but I just thought,
this is there's not enough. I don't know, I know,
I don't They don't have a rim protector Jackson Hayes again,
Ali up guy, fun energy. It's just it's weird how
just inserting Luca into it, the whole team feels younger
and different. Does it feel like that to you?
Speaker 3 (22:39):
No? Absolutely. I mean I hated this Laker team at
the start of the year. They had this personality that like,
I don't care about the work that was driving me crazy.
But over the course of the last month, they've been
playing a really likable and fun brand of basketball. Lebron
was playing super well, Austin was playing super well. Before
Ad got hurt, he had a couple of monster game.
(23:00):
He played really well twenty Yeah, but I felt like
they weren't good enough on either end of the floor
to really do what you need to do to win
four playoff rounds. And I've been really keyed in on
this concept lately, like if you're gonna win the title,
you have to be able to do something well enough
that it really gives people problems, like where teams can't
even match up with it for one reason or another.
(23:22):
And the Lakers just didn't have that punch on either
end of the floor, even with Lebron and Ad. It's
not the defensive team it was back in twenty twenty, right,
So they didn't have that punch with Luca. One of
the unique things he does. This Laker team has a
lot of guys who are good offensive players as long
as they're set up well, even with Lebron and Austin,
Like one of the reasons why they struggled against defenses
(23:44):
that did a lot of switching all year long is
Lebron's forty and it's hard to get him to just
get downhill time and time again in a random regular
season game in January or December. Or Austin not an
elite athlete in terms of getting past top tier NBA talent,
and Anthony Davis obviously has offensive limitations. But once you
bring Luca in, he just has this magical ability to
(24:07):
get the ball to the basket. He's so big, and
he's so strong, and he's so going to change of
pace and he's so going to getting guys sealed on
his shoulder, sealed on his backside, he can get downhill
and now he's spraying out to all these guys And
they're actually all really good offensive players when they have
an advantage, Like Ruly shoots fifty three percent on unguarded
catch and shoot threes, but you need to get him
(24:29):
unguarded catch and shoot threes. Luca can do that. And
one of the biggest things that it's allowed is it's
allowed Lebron James. Like, have you ever watched a guy
say like, oh, Lebron should drive to the basket every time. Yeah,
it sounds great, but it's really exhausting to do that,
especially at his age. Now, Lebron when he gets his
touches can be super physically aggressive because he knows he
(24:51):
has Luca to carry the lion's share of the offensive load.
And so now when I look at this situation, yeah,
they have defensive question marks and we can get into
that here in a minute, but I try I don't
have to overthink it. This team is going to be
basically impossible to guard. And so they have a unit
now their offense that presents legitimate problems for every single
team in the league. That is it. That is a
(25:12):
foundation you can build on.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yeah, and remember Dallas won the West last year and
their two best players are below average suboptimal defensive players,
Kyrie and Luca. Is that. Let's be honest about the West.
Denver has Jokic, but they're atrocious defensively. Houston's young, can't shoot,
and I don't think they translate to a playoff team.
I think they're just one of those teams that they
(25:34):
are so young and twitchy and athletic in the regular season,
if you're not well rested, if you don't have a
lot of tape time, they are a tough matchup. If
I get to play them seven times. They can't shoot.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
There's a team like that every year. Every year there's
that team.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah, So all of a sudden, Denver can't defend, Houston
can't shoot. Oklahoma City I don't trust chet Honggren's health.
I think they're the best team. Golden State doesn't have
enough offensive firepower, very steph reliant, even with Jimmy Butler.
You know, Memphis is Memphis plays with a lot of
(26:10):
pace and they're a lot of fun to watch. I
don't trust him. You know said this part. They're just
teams like Philadelphia in the plaus I don't trust them.
Memphis in the Plus, I don't trust them. I know
Jaron Jackson, I know John mort I get it. So
if you look at the West, O case is clearly
the best team. They have the most kind of diversity
of options. They have so many different players, and they're
(26:30):
really good and really young. They're what I think Utah
wants to be in about three years with all those
draft picks. But the Lakers are an exceptional offensive team,
and if you're giving me, it's also a team Lebron
clearly likes Austin Reeves. He likes to play with him.
It's obvious. Lebron's like a city. He's like a fifteen
(26:51):
year old with a crush on Luca, the way he plays,
the energy, and I just think they're so good offensively
that there's nobody that's complete enough in the West to
roll them. Boston would, but Boston's got you know, Boston's
been playing these guys. You know, I watched them the
other night against New York. Jesus, They're good. God, They're good.
(27:14):
So my take is, if you put them in the East,
I don't think they can I don't think they can
beat Boston. I think They're a Western Conference finals team.
And I'm not trying to be a La Homer.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Yeah, I'm with you every team below. To me, oka See,
Denver and the Lakers are the clear top three in
the West. And Denver and like you were talking earlier
about the young, feisty athletic team, Memphis used to be
that team. That Houston's that team. Now there's always a
team like that, and that team always wins a lot
of regular season games and then loses in the first
two rounds. It's just that's what happens. And let's just
(27:45):
put it this way. Who are you picking in a
playoff series, Fred van Vliet and Jalen Green or one
of these duos from the top of the of the conference. Right, So, like,
I'm with you on that. To me, Denver and the
Lakers are both closer to oka See than people realize,
just because Oka See is also super young and athletic
and has a ton of energy for the regular season.
The question marks that you talked about in terms of
(28:06):
the Lakers with the defense, that's where it gets interesting
because the Lakers were playing some pretty damn good basketball
before Luca joined the squad. There in their last thirteen games,
they have the best record in the league, and they
have the number one defense in the league. The Lakers
do the number one defense for about a month now.
Now there's a reason for that. Jared Vanderbilt is healthy.
He is an excellent defensive player. And you turn Dangelo Russell,
(28:27):
a bad defensive player, into Dorian Finney Smith, who's a
good defensive player. And then a huge part of that
is part of that excitement from Lebron has manifested and
he's playing a lot of defense this year, and he's
been very good on that end of the floor. But
if you take a player out of that lineup and
you insert Luca, you're not going to be as good defensively.
That's just acknowledging reality. So when Luca's in this picture
(28:52):
full time, you're not going to be as good defensively
as you've been in the last month. But we've seen
an NBA history like with Denver. Denver in twenty two
twenty three, they were not an elite defense, no, but
they had bad defenders on the court who did a
job and did it well, that's right, And they were
and they were anchored by good defenders. Contavious Calbo Pope,
Aaron Gordon, Bruce Brown. They had guys who did compete
(29:15):
on defense. They did the hard jobs and then they
created easier jobs. That's the thing. You can imagine a
scenario where you've got Luca, Lebron Austin, but you have
Dorian Finney, Smith and Van Doo out there. This is
going to be a small ball team. Colin Alex Lenn
hasn't played a thousand minutes since twenty nineteen. Lebron's played
sixteen hundred just this year. Like Alex Lenn, He's not
going to come in there and save the season. So
(29:37):
this is a small ball team. But you can imagine
a universe where Lebron's playing defense. You've got two professional
defenders in the lineup, and what if they just score
every time or get a great shot every single time?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
A team that I think, and I don't know historically,
if this happens, I'll tell you the team in the
West that I would not want to play. And right
now they're not even a plan team. Keep your eye
in San Antonio, Okay, Stefan Castle out of Yukon is
no fun to defend. That guy is this time next year?
(30:11):
We're gonna have different conversations. Daron Fox. I think because
he plays in Sacramento, you don't realize it. He's a
twenty five point a night scorer with a high IQ.
He's so good, we just don't watch him. Stefan Castle
Wemby Daron Fox, you know guys that get lost, but
I don't know his EPA. Yeah, I don't know what
(30:33):
all the numbers are, But like Harrison Barnes, you know
it's this guy that. Harrison's one of those players that,
like Shane Battier, You're like, I think he's really good
and he ends up making your team better, but nobody
wants to talk about it. I think san Antonio, if
you told me they went on like right now, they're
not a playing team, I think they're gonna go in.
(30:53):
Popovich is gonna steal a game in a series. Houston's
the team we all think is gonna be dangerous. I
don't san Antonio the team nobody's paying attention due. I mean,
can you imagine Lakers end up you know, Denver ends
up playing them, and Wemby neutralizes Jokic to some degree
and castles a pain and gets the whistle. I mean, listen, Denver,
(31:16):
you can score on Denver like they're just not good.
They're not effective at all. So I think I think
the West is really fun I thought the NBA had
a tremendous fourteen day period. I thought, Jimmy Butler, you
know it's funny about this, Jason, is that I know
the analytic people think Wiggins maybe a better fit with
Steph than Jimmy Butler. I read an article on that,
(31:38):
but my take is Jimmy Butler's the anti Wiggins. He's tough,
he's a badass, he's physical, he's ornery, and he's a
really good number two. It's like in baseball, it's when
you try to make a two to one you're pitching
staff's not good. Jimmy's an excellent two behind Steph, and
he's the opposite of Steph. He's tough physically, he's a
(31:59):
mid range guy. He'll defend you. I don't think Golden
State's a championship team, but I just thought between Luca,
between Deer and Fox to San Antonio, between Jimmy Butler
the Warriors thought, I just thought the West got really
and we've talked about this. The West has been better
than the East for twenty five years, a lot of
(32:20):
it's just better gms, And I thought the West had
a great fourteen days.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Yeah, they completely flipped the conference over in a bunch
of different ways. I liked what you said about san Antonio.
Like we were talking earlier about like having a problem
that other teams can't solve. Victor is a problem around
the rim that other teams can't solve. Try and then
the Deer and Fox as a two man game partner
with Wemby is a problem that teams can't solve. The
Jimmy Butler thing, it was amazing to me how many
(32:47):
people overthought this. And when I was watching the Bucks
game last night and I saw Jimmy Butler constantly operating
in the middle of the floor as kind of like
a hub out of the attention that Steph would gather,
it reminded me of when we'd watch the Warriors back
in their heyday, where it's like everyone talks about shooting,
but when it comes to the Warriors with Steph, you
(33:07):
don't actually want shooting as much as you want playmaking,
because what happens is is Steph gets two to the ball.
As soon as Steph gets two to the ball, it's
a four on three, and it becomes more about quick
processing and decision making and guys being in the right
spots to get dunks and maybe a wide open corner
three for a certain player out of that sequence to
pay it off than it is about, like with Lebron
(33:29):
or a rim pressuring guy, where you want spacing, you
want shooting that pulls guys further away from the rim.
Steph inverts your spacing in that way, and it actually
reminded me a lot of Andre Guidala. Remember when Andre
Guidala was there. He was never a great shooter, but
he constantly greased the wheels for them because he was
a rangy Ford who could screen and operate in the
middle of the floor, make quick decisions new and to
(33:51):
cut new and to relocate, do all those sorts of things.
There was a play in the Bucks game last night
where Steph took a ball screen from Jimmy. Steph got two,
He dropped it to Jimmy and Jimmy made a little
ball faked buddy, healed, and then dropped it off to
Draymond Green for an easy layup underneath the basket. And
I literally just watched this and I'm like, this works
this just works. You weren't comfortable with Wiggins as a
(34:11):
processor in the middle of the floor, you are comfortable
with Jimmy. Simple stat how many times has Jimmy or
how many times has Andrew Wiggins had seven plus assists
in a basketball game in his NBA career fourteen? How
many times did Jimmy have seven plus assists last year
with the heat fifteen? So like, it's an entirely different
stratosphere of playmaking talent that you plugged in. There. You
(34:33):
have a guy that can quickly process those situations. And
they've been killing teams Colin so far. Obviously small sample.
They've been really good with Jimmy on the floor with
Steph off, which is all that really matters.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
That's the key. I mean when I watched them two
weeks ago when Steph left the floor, not only were
the inefficient, they were unwatchable. They were a bad tell.
I said, this, make the move to be a better
TV product. You're terrible.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Well, and like Pat Spencer, like at the lacrosse story,
it's really cool. He probably shouldn't be your like secondary
ball handler. In a Thursday night National TV game against
the Lakers, when steps off the floor, like that that's
an issue. But I'm with you, like I don't see
the Warriors necessarily as a substantial threat.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
To me.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
What's cool about it is we get to watch Steph
play meaningful basketball again. Because I do think they're gonna
get out of the playing tournament. I do think they're
gonna end up getting at least a first round series,
and that team's just gonna be fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
I think the NBA has always been better when the
Knicks irrelevant and between Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Kat Josh
hart Og, it's a really good basketball team. But they
do not match up with the Celtics, and this is
where you're really good. I mean, I've watched them play
the Celtics twice and that shift's not competitive, Like it's
it does not work now. It's it's almost like the
(35:51):
Celtics have circumvented the NBA CBA. The NBA CBA they
don't want you to have like five really good players,
and it's almost like the Celtics figure out a way
to be the last team that can have a roster
that you're not supposed to have anymore, where Derek White's
your fifth best guy some night.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
And now they're trying to sell the team so someone
else has to pay for it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, Like it's like they're almost circumventing the new CBA.
Like this is not really fair, and you can tell.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
So.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
I think New York's a really good basketball team, and
I think I trust them in the playoffs. I think
they're smart. I think they've got you know, it's well chronicled.
They're kind of got a Villanova field. They play hard,
they're smart. I think they're one of those teams that
will be a better playoff team than a regular season team.
And they're a good regular season team. They're teams like Houston,
I think are a better regular season team than a
(36:38):
playoff team. The next you're gonna be fine. But I
watch them now twice play Boston, and I want you
to break it down because they don't match up and
this is a good team. Let's just be honest about this.
They got five to six guys in that rotation. The
Knicks can match up with almost every team in the league.
Why is Boston? You can tell Boston like when they
(37:01):
played this past week, think that's a national TV game.
They're like, okay, all right, guys, I mean that thing was,
I mean it four minutes in You're like, yeah, yeah,
Boston came to play. Boston's not fing around. Why doesn't
New Because I think New York has enough different players,
and they play hard enough, and they're really smart and
(37:21):
they're well coached. They kind of match up with everybody.
They do not match up with Boston, Like what is it?
Speaker 3 (37:28):
So there there are two kind of prevailing theories in
NBA offense right now, which is like matchup hunting versus
like running motion. And the motion is like what you
see with the Warriors. There's tons of screens. Guys are
running in circles all over the floor. Boston's like, where's
your weakest defender, Let's get him up here, Let's play
some basketball. And like that's literally all they do. And
when I watched that game, the way they surgically attacked
(37:50):
Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns every single time down
the floor. They'd get them both in, they'd bring the
ball off the floor, they'd have Jalen Brunson's man comes
screen for Tatum. Okay, now Jalen Brunson's on Tatum. Okay,
now we're gonna get cat into the action. So now
it's like Tatum and one of his teammates attacking kat
An Brunson in the same action, and there's just nothing
they can do about it. The Knicks are really, really good.
(38:13):
They can score whenever they want, They get out and
transition like crazy. They've got all these good players that
are super bought into their r They're super fun to watch,
and they have beat the shit out of some good
teams this year. But every time I've watched him against Boston,
it's the exact same issue. We are going to get
Karl Anthony Towns in space and make him guard and
just get right past him and then spray out and
(38:35):
get great shots and beat you. It's actually kind of funny, Colin,
because you can tell that they really want to beat
the Knicks. Because the Celtics have played some pretty bad
basketball in the middle of the season where they're not
deliberate and where they do take bad shots and they
settle and they don't do the things they need to do.
They see the Knicks and they like snap back to
the playoffs last year and they just get surgical in
(38:55):
the way that they pick on those guys. But it
really just comes down to they go at York's worst
defenders every single time, and then they play driving kick
out of it to get great shots, and that really
is the issue. And then Jalen Brunson, he just has
this wall of athletic, bigger defender every single possession. As
it goes down to the other end, it's like, here's
(39:15):
Jalen Brown, Here's Drew Holliday, here's Derek White. He's just
it's such a difficult job for him to consistently break
down that Boston defense because they just have so many
different defenders they can put on him.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, it's interesting to say that because I really like
the dexterity of the next I think they're a matchup problem.
Karl Anthony Towns is offensively gifted. He's shooting threes like
right now, like the best he's ever. I mean, he's
really shooting the ball. Well, he's quirky. I've seen him
play live four times, and there'll be halfs you're like,
is he a top ten player in the league? Like
(39:47):
he can destroy people, he can embarrass people, and then
in the second half you'll be like, did he take
a made did he have a thorough flu at half
like what happened, but it is interesting you break it,
and I'm so glad for our audience listening. Jason is
so good at this and that's why I just foisted
(40:08):
it up to him. Is when I watched them play
twice the Celtics and it shit is not competitive. They
just do not match up at all. The volume
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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