March 25, 2025 • 42 mins
More thoughts on the Lakers since LeBron's injury
Should the NBA change their draft lottery rules?
Colin believes Aaron Rodgers is a bad fit for the Steelers
Guest: Nick Wright
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
All right, Ready to go. This show's host isn't retiring.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
It's gonna be one.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hundred cat season baby live in Los Angeles, The Herd
Nick rights around the corner. I got I slept like
crap last night, and I took magnesium.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I can't figure it out.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
But you know, a lot of things going on out there,
A lot of things, j Mac. I got a lot
of things weighing on me.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
I keep lobbying for two things here a ping pong
table on set, and number two is our commercial breaks
to be videotaped in streamed.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
The conversation we just had is awesome.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
There's no winner in that.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Tell the little about Jacksonpine. I think the audience loves
that stuff. Oh when you talk about seventies.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I love I loved so. I watched the Bill Simmons
stuff last night. I watched episode three. It was great,
and I was I watched episode four and there was
a comment by one of the guys talking about how
bad the NBA was before A Magic and Bird showed up,
and it just it pierced my heart.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
He said it was so true.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
He said, I mean, does anybody even remember that the
Washington Bullets and the Sonics played in back to back finals.
And I'm like, ah, yeah, that's when I fell in
love with the league. I can name both starting, I
can name the whole teams, I can name the entire rosters.
And it's like, but that's where the NBA was. Those
games were televised like after the nightly eleven o'clock. I
(01:47):
think they were delayed. Yeah, And it's like, and that's
what I talked about with the NBA.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
It's hard.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Tanking is unavoidable because if you land Larry Bird or
Cooper Fleck, you look at what the Bulls have done
in the last week scoring. You put Cooper Flag on
this team and one other veteran that can score. That's
a playoff team in the East. Hell yeah, it's a
playoff team. So I don't think you can avoid that.
So I was thinking about this because cam Ward is
gonna go number one on the draft, and apparently his
(02:16):
pro day was great, and he has one big advantage
over last year's number one pick, Caleb Williams, is that
he has an offensive coach who everybody in the building
likes and respects, not a defensive coach on the hot
seat and a GM in Chicago also on the hot seat. Now,
cam Ward may not be walking into a mansion, but
(02:38):
it's not a building that's on fire. Right like Tennessee.
I looked at their schedule this morning. You get the
Jags twice, the Colts twice, Raiders, Cleveland, Saints, New England,
Arizona had a lot of w's. There a lot of
games at home, Saints, Patriots, Jags, Colts. Some of those
(02:59):
road games winnable Cleveland, Raiders, Jags, those are winnable games.
Bears played in a better division. But again, it's an
offensive coach. The other thing that jumps out to me
is that Brian Callahan and J Mack loves him, smart
offensive coach. He had palpable disdain for will Levis. We
(03:21):
have pieces of video during a Jets game when I
mean Callahan is screaming at him, I mean visceral, and
he's not subtle about it.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
He didn't like him.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I mean, after the Jets game, here's what the coach
said at the podium.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
I think the camera caught it pretty clear if I
had to guess, So, yeah, I was upset. It was domb.
It was the same exact thing he did last week,
and he cost us points in the red zone.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
And that's that is what it is.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
That he's a grown up and he knows better, and
so you know, I was really irritated that he cost
us three points in a game that we probably needed it.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I've never heard of coach hammer a young quarterback like
that ever at a podium.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Privately, maybe publicly. No.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Here was Callahan later in the season, after benching will
Levis in a Bengals game.
Speaker 7 (04:11):
The easiest way to say is that there's a you know,
there's a standard that of play, and there's been multiple
guys in our team that we've sat down for pertence.
Those are all things that that are just a part
of NFL life. That's performance in China, win football games,
and you just have to make sure that when you're
(04:32):
you're making decisions and you're coaching that it's that's standing
across the board for all positions, and quarterback position is
a part of that.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, he didn't like him.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Like, so you're going to a weak division, you have
an offensive coach for cam Ward, and I guarantee you
the coach is going to like the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Like I thought last year.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
There were multiple times and we said it on the air,
Kalahan didn't like will Levis. Will Levis comes in gun show, cocky,
he'll like him. It's one thing to be critical, but
to say stuff publicly to podium you don't like him,
and you can say, well, it's just a motion of
the game. Now you talk fifteen minutes after a game,
that emotion's gone. You've got that emotion by the time
you hit the locker room. So I think cam Ward's
(05:12):
going to be a good player.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Is he a great prospect? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I think he's a good one. And I think shaduur
seventy four percent completion percentage with the worst ole line
in college football, no run game.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I do not get the shaduor Sanders criticism. I don't
get it.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Seventy four percent completion running for his life, trailing has
to throw and one elite receiver. If he gets competent protection,
chadur is going to be hit in the NFL with
that Nick right, Cohl's first thing, you know, I was
watching It's interesting. I was watching the Bill Simmons Celtic
(05:46):
City last night and we were in this. I generally
wouldn't lead with this, but it makes me think it
was really good. And I said, every league has an
unavoidable problem. Baseball has no urgency. Most of us didn't
play hockey. NFL's got violence and people get seriously hurt.
And the NBA's is the Celtics were terrible. They got
Larry Bird, they were great, like in the NBA one
(06:09):
guy now.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
In the NFL.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That's true too, but you don't see Mahomes by the
time he's fourteen in basketball, Luca Wenby Lebron, they're fourteen
years old.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
You're like, yep, you can plan for it.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I do think the NBA's trying trying to manipulate load
management down and most of the young players TATUMSGA they
like to play. I don't think you can avoid tanking.
I think it's the league's unavoidable problem.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
What say you?
Speaker 8 (06:37):
So that's interesting. The problem with fixing tanking is every
realistic fix has a butterfly effect that could cause an
equal or greater problem. So some people have argued, you
know what you should do instead of having a lottery,
having March Madness style single elimination tournament of the non
(07:00):
playoff teams and the winner of that gets the number
one pick. But the problem with it, which sounds great
on its face, like, oh, that would be fun to
be more inventory, whatever, the problem with that is the
moment that happens, there would be an actual playoff level
team that's like, you know what we should do, miss
the playoffs entirely so we can win this tournament and
(07:22):
get Cooper flag.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
So that won't work.
Speaker 8 (07:25):
They have flattened the odds to prevent teams from wanting
to have these single worst record. What that ended up
creating was teams were like, well, if the number one
worst record is not as valuable as it once was,
that by default makes having the sixth or the seventh
worst record more valuable than it was previously. So there
(07:46):
is not a pure clean fix except for severely financially
penalizing ownership like that would be the fix. The fix
would be the way that they can you know that
they enforce other rules, which is real financial penalties for
(08:07):
teams the league hit. Who did they hit recently? Utah,
I think they hit somebody with one hundred thousand dollars fine,
And I'm sure the Jazz were like, have you seen,
with respect the Sixers the last three weeks?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Where's they're fine?
Speaker 7 (08:22):
Like?
Speaker 8 (08:23):
Have you seen these other teams? And so No, I don't,
I don't. And here's the other thing. I don't actually
think fans have a huge problem when you're talking about
issues with the NBA. I don't think tanking is high
on the fans list. I think good teams, who's good players,
(08:43):
rest load and load and management. I think that is
a far greater fan concern yea than the bad teams
throwing games at the end of the year. So, and
I don't know why your producers, I'm sorry, I don't
know why your producers just showed Lebron James, the man
who's played more minutes ago when I said load management,
he's the face of anti load management.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
But go ahead, bad bad job by the back. How
about this one. I'm gonna throw another one at you.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So Brawny last night scored thirty nine points against the
lass l Passer did donuts or whatever they're called whatever,
who cares you can?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Don't do that.
Speaker 8 (09:18):
Okay, don't do that Island anyway, don't do that.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Against the El Segundo Knights, I don't know who they played.
Speaker 8 (09:26):
He gainst the team on his schedule, Okay, with equivalent players.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So my take is because of his the situation he
had in college with kind of a life threatening situation,
is he's gonna be a sucked Yeah, his art stuff.
So what's he's going to be is a late bloomer,
semi late bloomer. He's got it like right off eighteen
months of his development. It may be starting right about now.
(09:51):
So I saw that last night and I thought, okay,
I want to say something nice about it. I want
to ask Nick about it, because it is it is something.
Thirty nine points in any leagues, a lot of points.
But as I saw that, I thought to myself.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Okay, maybe the late bloomer.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
I still think he feels like is a six to
non point guard, A rotational player.
Speaker 8 (10:11):
Of course, that fair, of course, but that makes him,
you know what a rotational player is a top five
percent outcome for all second round picks in NBA history.
If he is a rotational player, it will end up
being one of the best two or three picks of
the entire second round of his draft, which is why
(10:35):
the criticism of the pick. Which is why folks, when
he had a bad ten minutes against the Sixers, going
on and begging Lebron as a father to put an
end to this farce and treating Brownie like he was
a make a wish prospect was wildly unfair. The facts
are as follows. He was a legitimately excellent high school
(10:58):
player who in the summer going into his freshman year
of college, suffered cardiac arrest due to congenital heart failure
that then made it to where they thought for a
moment he might not ever be able to play sports again,
and he had to for the first time in his
entire life, go months without working out, without playing ball.
(11:19):
That led to a very poor freshman year of college.
All of that is the record of what happened. He
then after being drafted, was rough in the Summer League
and rough at the very beginning of the G League.
But now that he's eighteen months removed from the cardiac arrest,
what we have as a player who is one of
(11:41):
the younger players in the whole G League, one of
only five guys twenty or younger averaging twenty plus points
per game in the G League averaging twenty two, five
and five on forty six thirty eight eighty splits, and
a couple weeks ago got because of the situation, Lakers
(12:01):
were an injury wise real NBA burn and looked totally fine,
And so my issue was twofold with the Bronni discourse.
The first part of it was I thought everyone had
totally just memory hold that he suffered a major medical event,
(12:24):
and that I think he would have been better off
in the public's eye if he simply sat out his
freshman year rather than rushing back and averaging four points
per game. That was the first issue I had. The
second issue I had was this idea that it was
a reckless use of the third to last pick of
the draft. When if I were running an NBA team
(12:46):
and Lebron was retired for a decade and it's like, Hey,
who's on our board, and they're like, oh, tell me
about this kid from USC And they're like, oh, as
it happens, you know, his father's literally the greatest raw
athlete in the history of the country. He has no
character concerns whatsoever. He's a little undersized. We have questions
(13:07):
about his shooting, but his character, IQ and genes are
ten out of ten. Yeah, I'd take a flyer on him.
It was a totally reasonable pick, and he is now
exceeding any reasonable expectations. And so I'm not talking about
you here, Colin. I thought some folks who always liked
to take shots at Lebron used Bronni as a vehicle
(13:31):
to get to Lebron, and I thought that was shameful.
And I'll add one other point to this. Lebron put
extra pressure on him by confronting steven A. That's not
why he did it, but that is a because Lebron
what he did. There was a bigger spotlight on Bronni
in the days that followed, and I think it's really
(13:52):
impressive that he has played his best basketball since that
moment with higher scrutiny on it.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So we don't talk a lot of college basketball, but
I had to take yesterday that I actually think sometimes
culturally you benefit from big change, sometimes you're a victim
of it. And college basketball had a pretty bleak last
fifteen years. The G League did not help, but I
also think it didn't necessarily help the NBA because I
think players are better going to college where I mean
(14:20):
you can you can take four hundred thousand yeah, I
mean like you can take four hundred thousand dollars in
the G League or twenty two million dollars of free
advertising at North Carolina for your likeness. I would go
to college for a year and by the way, get
taken care of like cause all kids do to some degree.
So my take is, actually the NIL is great for
college basketball. It'll keep a zach Edie in for one
(14:42):
more year because you can pay him some money. And secondly,
these teams that have a whole they don't have to
get it. I don't have to get a high school
guys just go get like Marshall's mid majors NBA guy.
And I think it's great for the sport that there's
no cinder religis because it was mostly mystology anyway, and
(15:02):
the big brands are better and the ratings are up all.
Speaker 8 (15:06):
Right, So this is one of your less popular but
more accurate takes. Also, to be fair, it is not
lost on me that you are at your peak interesting
college basketball, simultaneous with you having.
Speaker 9 (15:20):
What are you?
Speaker 8 (15:21):
Fifteen of the sixteen Sweet sixteen live? What I mean
is that what it is like, all of a sudden,
you're really into this tournament. I don't blame you, buddy,
that's hell of a run. Broussard has eleven of sixteen,
he won't shut up about it. You got fifteen of sixteen.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
I'm impressed. So a couple things.
Speaker 8 (15:40):
One is this, I don't like folks acting as if
a one year event is evidence of Oh, this is
how it's going to be. Like Folks like there's no
mid majors in the sweet sixteen. Well, first of all,
this is that is a streak of one tournament. And
second of all, even this tournament, if not for a
(16:03):
literal buzzer beater by Maryland, we would have a mid
major in the sweet sixteen.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
So I think the.
Speaker 8 (16:09):
Total death of Cinderella is you is being stated prematurely.
But your take for as long as I've remembered listening
to you, and that's I mean, I'm much much much
younger than you, So I was talking about when I'm
a little kid, You've always had the take that big
upsets early create a worse tournament late.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yes, And so if you kind of you can pick
and choose.
Speaker 8 (16:37):
Do you want an amazing, exciting first weekend and then
a not so great second weekend or a chalky first
weekend and then what should be an unreal second weekend. Yeah,
and that's what I feel we got. You look at
these point spreads. Every game is a six and a
(16:57):
half point line or smaller except for two, and those
two games are seven and a half.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
And nine and a half.
Speaker 8 (17:04):
At The only double digit seed we have is coached
by John Calipari and it's Arkansas. So like almost every
team remaining has a plausible path of creating a really
good game. And so, and I didn't think last weekend
was bad at all, and I thought the games were good.
(17:26):
I understand that it's fun when there is a fifteen
seed or a fourteen seed that makes some noise, but
you kind of want that noise to crescendo with a
great Round two loss rather than them getting whacked in
the sweet sixteen by a great team. So I agree
with you on this, and I think Thursday through Sunday
(17:48):
we are going to get there's gonna be twelve games.
I think we probably are gonna get nine awesome ones
and that's a rarity for the Sweet sixteen and Elite eight.
So I'm excited for it.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
So I said this, This is a rare take by
me that I said, actually, and I've always felt this.
I used to say this about Phil Jackson when he
would criticize the refs.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
And go, I can't believe.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I'm like, you're too smart to act dumb, right like Belichick.
You're too smart to pretend Spygate caught you off guard,
Like you're too smart, and it's I kind of look
at Aaron Rodgers, He's too smart to really sign with
a bad fit. And Pittsburgh that can't get their own
line right, spends all their money on defense, has two needy,
(18:34):
combustible receivers. It sounds good. It's a bad fit, and
Aaron knows it to bad fit, but he wants to
be respectful to a guy he loves, Tomlin that Aaron
is sitting there thinking the Niners don't want to pay
Brock pretty sixty million, and his agent keeps saying that's
what they want, and he is just gonna wait till
the draft is over, because if Kirk Cousins would have
(18:56):
waited last year until the draft's over, he would have
had a better and Aaron's like fifty nine quarterbacks played
last year.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
What's the hurry's signing?
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Somebody's gonna be desperate in seven weeks and he's waiting
for the Niners if they don't sign perty, am I nuts?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Why is he waiting?
Speaker 8 (19:18):
So here's the thing, man, What you're saying I wish
I could agree with. But you're saying why is he waiting?
And the answer is, well, let's think about that, because
I believe there's I believe Aaron Rodgers is going to
be a Pittsburgh Steeler. I think the Steelers know what
I think Aaron knows it. So then the question is
what is gained by waiting? And the answer is, well,
(19:41):
one thing that could be gained is just raw, unadulterated ego.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
I get.
Speaker 8 (19:46):
I am still and free agency's done for everyone else.
I am the hot topic I am being discussed. That
tracks with what I know of Aaron a bit. So
that's a possibility. The second reason, and I am this
is the most likely, is this is how you shift
power in a relationship. Like neither you nor I have
(20:08):
been single for a very, very long time. But I'm
sure a lot of the viewers are. And everyone knows
that if you are the person saying, hey, will.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
You go out with me? Will you go out with me?
Speaker 8 (20:18):
Will you go out with me?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Wait?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 8 (20:20):
And then when that person finally says yes, and you
have been waiting and waiting and waiting, that person has
the power. So if Aaron was worried about, oh, if
I go to Pittsburgh, am I going to have full
run of the place like I did with the Jets.
One way to ensure you will is to prove how
valuable you are before you even get there, because they
(20:43):
will wait, they will host you, you'll leave, and then
they'll still wait. And the last one is off season.
You know, activities are starting up here in a month.
And maybe he doesn't want to do him. I just
I think he knows the only place he's gonna play
football this year is the Pittsburgh Steelers. Florio postulated that
(21:05):
he's trying to make some grand announcement at a live
show in Pittsburgh in a couple weeks. Maybe, but I
think Aaron has known it's Pittsburgh for a long time.
I think the Steelers have mostly known and he's dragging
this out because he can, and because.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
It serves Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 8 (21:22):
I love your idea that he could parachute in to
a better team or a better situation, But I think
most of those better teams are not as desperate, and
I think they are better run from an offensive standpoint
to where they wouldn't say, yeah, we'll sign up for
the forty one year old who hasn't been good in
four years. And so I think it's the Steelers, and
(21:44):
I think he's just making everybody wait because he can.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
All Right, I got a couple more questions. I'm gonna
do it tonight when we do our own thing.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Okay, I got it you?
Speaker 8 (21:51):
Oh, I thought, well, yeah, no, I know, because I'm
on a hard fifteen minute limit. I'm no, Bill Simmons,
I can't get twenty six minutes with you.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
No, I get it. I get it you and I'll
talk later.
Speaker 8 (22:01):
You save those, Save those extended segments for the big guests,
not the loyal guy for the last eight years. Talk
to you later, Colin Nick.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Right, first things for well, you know, we don't get
Simmons a lot. You know, it's like when the cousin
shows up that shows up once a decade. You let
him stay the night, you know, in the basement, but
you let him stay the night.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
He didn't.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
He didn't like when I threw out the l Paso donuts.
That didn't land with him. He didn't didn't like that.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Can we laugh, It's just it's a sports show. He
didn't like that one either.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
That already bothered you. Hey, listen, he scored thirty nine
spent I gave. I gave Nick four minutes to talk
effusively about Brownie. I've said before, I hope he ends
up being a nice player.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I don't root against anybody's kids.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Do you think all the talking heads who criticized him
or feeling like, oh, maybe I was wrong, Maybe I
was irrationally rushing to judgment, to slander this kid for
being a second round pick. Well, I mean, he's hanging
thirty nine in the G League. That's pretty damn good.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
I thought I could get a few buckets in there.
But no, I mean, I listen.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
You watched the third Ronnie's getting buckets. He's getting better,
that's obvious.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
He's twenty Yeah, well, yeah, he's Gonnayeah.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
He was a hard worker. I mean, if you're Lebron's kid,
you're going to be a grinder. Yeah, he's a worker.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
But you know, people were really quick to just dismiss him.
Oh he averaged three points in USC How could they
draft him?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Well, maybe the Lakers said, Hey, besides Lebron, this guy's
got some details and I'd like to see him.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I defended the Lakers drafting. I said, week draft Lebron's
DNA and why not. I mean, it's it's it's like
the Griffy thing. It's like it's an all time historic move.
Lebron's carried the league for fifteen years. You owe Lebron
a saw. I also supported the first game when he played,
even though he wasn't ready.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
He wouldn't have been there, fine, but.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
I supported that.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I but you know, when you rushed him up after
a good G League game, it was like, stop, let's
let's just be honest about what he is at this point.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
And I don't know what he's gonna is he gonna
be a rotational guy in the league.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I don't know either, but I did give the floor
for somebody to speak.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
It's good.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
You know, we need people speaking up because there's so
many mouth breathers out there yelling you shouldn't be in
the league, and Lebron stepping up and confronted her.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Well, I wouldn't even give Nick the opportunity to combat
my puka take, because, like you, he comes from the
generation of a sleep till noon ice cream for breakfast.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Sleep till noon. You're looking at a guy who grinded.
I would wake up at six in the morning and
run the big lead while listening to Howard Stern before
going to my full time job. So miss me with
the wake up at noon stuff where you was like
my college that two earring era, Yes.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
It was too earing. And then I met the wife
and she's like, yeah, that's not gonna work.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
She told you that. Yeah, she just say get rid
of those. Yeah. I like her a lot. Yeah, she's
got to be a grown up in the family.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
One more Heard The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
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to listen live or on demand whenever you like.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Did I tell you that I got fifteen or sixteen
teams left in the tournament? No?
Speaker 5 (24:58):
You hadn't mentioned that a impressive well done cow hurt.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
By the way, I know I'm gonna go up and
you're gonna have a very strong finish because you have
Duke and you know they're rolling, and I you know,
I took some I got a little precious with my
Arizona pick because I love love the guard and I.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
Like you took Arizona over Duke.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Well, I have Arizona get into the final four, so
I know that's not a great interesting.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Well Jables could turn Thursday night. I would say we
should get together and have a drink. But you know,
I get a little heated during these games. You do
got some cheddar on Duke.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
So you like you like March Madness more than the NBA,
but you like the NBA more than college basketball.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
But March Madness.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
If I ranked NBA playoffs March Madness regular season, right,
your number one is March Madness.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Oh the tournament is on. You can't touch it. I
mean it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
It's I was reading something last night, some legendary college
basketball sports better it was like one one for twelve
because he didn't go chalk. He's one of these The
committee doesn't know what the committee doesn't know what they're doing.
The committee is mostly accurate every year. But there is
something about guys in general. I don't know if women
(26:10):
do this, but you know, guys love to brag. Like
I heard the garage band before they were big, Like
I remember listening to you know, the Smashing Pumpkins in
the sixties or you know, I was at the you know,
it's just like, yeah, they didn't really exist until like
the nineties or whatever. But and there is something about
like I watch a lot of college basketball, so you
don't have a social.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
It's almost like the soccer guys that you were blasting yesterday.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
I know soccer. I was on board early. I will
say this.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
I coached my kids to get shocky with their brackets.
And my daughter's first in her class, so badge of
honor there.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
You don't do that, but she does.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Well.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
I don't do it with all my brackets. You know,
I'm a nine to ten bracket.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, that's exhausting, Not really, I'm surprised. Like your earrings,
your wife doesn't put her foot down with that.
Speaker 5 (26:54):
We do the news, We move on.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Jake back with the news. No, no, turn on the news.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
This is the hardline News.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
And because we like to cater to you, let's start
with the Patriots, your team of destiny this year, very
active in free agency. Rainbow's the new head coach Patriots,
evp Elliott Wolf says that their off season work will
give them flexibility in the draft. The best player available
is going to be the way it is. Maybe we
(27:26):
went for a little bit too much last year. Obviously
that culminated an unced drafting Drake May so it wasn't
all bad, but just moving forward, it's taking the best
player and understanding that we filled a lot of needs
in free agency. Colin, this is a tough one because
Travis Hunter will be on the board at four unless
he's somehowers too. Do you take Travis Hunters down a
(27:47):
great I need it receiving.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Well, I think Travis.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I think one of the things about New England in
Belichick's last year and Male's year, they're slow and they
don't have any perimeter speed. So I would take Travis
Hunter and just say he'll be a top two athlete
in every.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Game he plays.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
He may not be the best player, but there probably
won't be five athletes better than him on the field.
So My take is you take Travis Hunter, and as
a coaching staff, you have to when he goes in motion,
you have to put somebody on him a role coverage.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Because he's gonna get open. So I think it.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
I think in most drafts you would hope that you're
not unathletic going into the draft. But even Brabel's free
agent pickups were more beef guys and tough guys than
they were speed guys.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
That's the tough part because they could go offensive lineman
beef you know, Rabel was a trenches guy, or they
could go Travis Hunter. Remember how Rabel reacted when they
traded A J. Brown the GM crush.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Yeah, he's devastating. He's like, oh my god, what are
we gonna do?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Also, remember Rabel came from Tennessee, who always had big,
tough guys. They lacked weapons outside of Derrick Henry. So
Rabel's probably looking at them up and thinking, you know,
a smart guy, what got me in a little trouble
in ten I didn't have power with personnel and we
just didn't have enough weapons, right like like, So he
knows Drake May is a better prospect than Ryan Tanneil,
(29:08):
So that solves that. I think Brabile probably says, my
teams will always be physical and tough like Harballs. We
need we need speed when he got in big troubles
when he lost his most dynamic playmaker in Tennessee.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Yeah, next story is another Coward special.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
And at the Dallas Mavericks they returned Anthony Davis to
the lineup.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Last night.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
We got hurt first game he ever played with Dallas.
So he returned against Brooklyn and was a cupcake win.
Davis twelve point six boards, three assists, a steal in
the block, twenty six minutes in action, and your Mavericks
are fired up about a d returning as is he.
Speaker 9 (29:46):
Here was tough olgc gush little bad every single night,
winning close games.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
It was the close games.
Speaker 9 (29:52):
Alan Tanzel being blown out for me was never you know,
I thought about probably gonna come back and play, especially
when I was healthy. Hell, I'm demand Phil Gotta heard
there was no doubt out in combat in playlet that
makes you want to come out, you know, you know
on play you know with these goss and they read
on the floor and how the battle beach.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
And you know what, can.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I say this in the history of NBA trades. I
don't think I've ever seen a player more disrespected than
Anthony Davison. No timeout, he is the best defensive player
arguably in the league. Lucas the worst star defensive player
in the league.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
So he is a is adea better defender than one.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
I'm just saying the Luca Deil.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
The feeling is Mavericks are screwed the Lakers. Anthony Davis
is arguably the best of venteran in the league, a
better rebounder, in better shape, and can give you on
any night twenty seven. This idea that Dallas got nothing.
This guy has three great years left and is a
great player. And Max Christy. Now, now would I have
(31:03):
wanted three first round picks?
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Not one?
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Absolutely, But I will make the argument with PJ. Washington,
the Gafford, Davis, and Lively, they will have the best
big rotation easily in the league and the best closer
under six to five in league history in Kyrie.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Best what stop?
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Best closer in league history under six five bits, That's nonsense,
He's very good.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Kyrie.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
The one shot against the Warriors in Game seven. All right, timeout,
I do have to push back.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Just a little bit.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Ad is great.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
AD's great. Yes, great, I largely agree they have the
potential if everybody else really good.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
But was PJ. Washington, Lively, Gafford? Were they all awesome
because they were playing with Luka Doncic? Who makes everyone better?
Are they gonna be awesome playing with Kyrie? I mean,
what was Daniel Gaffer before he.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
Got to the Maus? Come on, he was in Washington whatever.
Derek Lively, I think he's a tenth overall pick.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
There's a fare like him a lot.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
He was great with Luca.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
We have no data of him without Luca.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Well that's because Luca's guy blew by him and Lively
got a block shot credit.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
I's feeding this guy negative jokes about Luca. Oh my gosh,
final story, Colin, Oh, oh, here we go. Bronnie went
off last night.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
It is the G League, but he.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
Hung thirty nine on what'd you call them, the Elsagundo Knights.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Thirty nine points seven boards forced Deeel's forces, and.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
That was after he dropped seventeen on somebody playing with
the Lakers recently. I'm just saying, yeah, the guy is He's.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
Not the chop liver that everybody thought he was.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
He's not the NEPO baby, everybody thought, wow, he can
play basketball.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
I'm not anti nepotism.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
I'm not either.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
I'm saying a.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
He's probably a late bloomer because of cardiac arrest.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Secondly, because you know the average height in the NBA
six six and a half sixty seven. He is fast
and he blows by people. Now he's not John Wall
fast or Iverson fast, but Brownie's athletic and when you
watch the footage, he's just fast. He gets past people
really quickly. Now is does he have the ability to
pull up and hit shots? He did last night? But there,
(33:15):
he's an athlete. I mean, he got some decent genetics.
He's an athlete and and I think he has a
work ethic. You can tell from his body of shape.
Dude works, he works at it. So this is a
good story. I didn't I thought rushing him after he
had that one good game of the G League rushing
him up, I thought that was like, come on, stop.
And I don't think there's a history of six two
(33:36):
non point guards in the league.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
So I don't know what his role is.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Is it highly athletic, fast guy, transition guy off the bench.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
That's a role violy find your role.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Yeah, so just remember he's averaging twenty five and five
in the G League as a rookie. And as you
noted earlier, the G League's full of like twenty nine
year old who are still hanging onto the dream that
they can make it into an NBA roster. They're trying hard,
and he's a sort of cooking.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
You know what I'd like.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I would love to talk to a G League player anonymously,
just be totally honest.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
I don't want to hurt your dream.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
But if we could do like put somebody on and
put a filter on and let's let's is he good?
What are you saying? What are the players saying? Is
their animosity? I would love to talk to a G
League player that does is it gonna get called out
or like a fear of reprisal or you know, get
into trouble Because the G League is something nobody, very
few people watch, and I and I wonder if there
(34:29):
is a lot of animosities there.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Maybe not. Maybe people are rooting for the kid.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
I know fans are any he goes to, They're like
a plodding when he gets well.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
He's also I've known people that know him. He's a
nice kid. He's an easy guy to root for. He's
not cocky, he's not He's like a nice guy.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
J Mack with the news, Well that's the news, and
thanks for stupping by the herd line news.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
They show has been a little combustible. I got Nick
calling me out because I won't give him twenty six minutes.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
You know it's sometimes you know, you don't know who
your friends are. J Mack.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
But apparently this going forward is just wants more vacation
and is going to publicly state it on his ig.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
Well, you you negotiated your deal.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Mine's in the works.
Speaker 5 (35:13):
We'll see what happens.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
I wouldn't use the V word your sake.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
I wouldn't leave with I need six weeks vacation.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah, what's what sick pay like here? Probably not what
I take it?
Speaker 5 (35:22):
A sick day here in eight years?
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Bro, come on, you do play her.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
I don't get sick because I'm a machine. I'm gonnadonnas.
I work out all the time.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I see what you eat. Laugh.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
I wouldn't go at Donna's no, I mean you eat
like uh.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
Chicken parm coming up here?
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Want peace? No? I don't eat big meals at noon.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
You. I've never seen anybody eat like you at noon.
I would fall asleep driving home.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
I don't even fasting. My friend, I don't do breakfast. Shake.
Speaker 9 (35:51):
Look at it.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
He's not impressed.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
He's j mac all right. Live in l Answer Herd.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio App.
Speaker 10 (36:06):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're
Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 11 (36:12):
You could catch us weekdays from five to seven pm
Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
of course the iHeartRadio App.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.
Speaker 11 (36:21):
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Going on in the world.
Speaker 10 (36:25):
We have a lot of fun talking about the stories
behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture,
stories that well, other shows don't seem to have the
time to discuss.
Speaker 11 (36:33):
And the fact that we've been friends for the last
twenty years and still work together. I mean that says something, right,
So check us out. We like to get you involved too.
Take your phone calls chop it up. As they say,
I'd say the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio,
maybe the.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Most interactive show on planetar.
Speaker 10 (36:48):
Be sure to check out Covino and Rich live on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app from five to
seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific, And if you
miss any of the live show, just search Covino and
Rich wherever you get your podcasts, and of course on
social media.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
That's Cavino and Rich.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
You made and the.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
Astros or the Braves take on the Padres. Baseball Night in.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
America returns Saturday at seven Eastern on fives.
Speaker 5 (37:11):
Take local listings for the game in your area.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
I'm really into Aficia, you know, I'm sitting there.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
You know what I think is a dumb part of
the pre draft process is pro day workouts indoors, you know,
throwing against air. I think it's so dumb. Like, I
want game footage for three years. I want you to
go to the Senior Bowl, and if you want to
go to the combine to interview them, go for it.
I do want my scouts to stand next to the
(37:37):
players and like, let's see what it looks like. Let's
see the shoulders, the butt, the size, the hand size,
and I want game tape. There's nothing about pro day
that is similar at all to playing in the NFL.
Totally comfortable. You've you've basically worked out for the Pro Day.
(37:58):
You practice routes for the province. The opposite NFL is
a winter league, a fall winter league. It's sloppy, it's cold,
it's windy, you have bad protection. I get game footage.
I get the Senior Bowl. Senior Bowl. You're competing against
guys you wouldn't normally compete against. And I gotta walk
around and see how.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Big you are. I don't need to. I don't need to.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Go to a cam Ward Pro Day. There's nothing I'm
gonna see. He's got a really good arm and he's
a very good athlete. So I I just I don't think.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
It has any value. I really don't.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
I just think it's and the Senior Bowl does such
a great job to let you see the players. Get
up close to the players. I mean, you're they're walking
by it. You're that's what you want to see. You
want to see a guy's real size. A lot of
guys you know you you see him on tape and
then you're up next to him, and you're like, you know,
he't not as big as I thought. He's just not
as thick as I thought. But the Pro Day stuff
doesn't do a thing. Zach Wilson lit it up at
(38:49):
Pro Day.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
I mean lit it up.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
In fact, I thought Will Levis hurt himself at Pro
Day with a gun show. It's like, dude, come on,
you want to be a bodybuilder or quarterback. I had
to Nick right on earlier to talk about. So we
were talking about what I believe every league has an
unsolvable problem. Baseball not enough urgency, the season too long,
(39:16):
hockey most of us didn't play at as kids. Football,
violence that people get hurt sometimes seriously. And I think
load management you can manage a little bit by not
giving out awards unless you play sixty five games, which
matters to a lot of players. Bonus is tied to that.
I don't think you can avoid tanking. I think basketball
(39:36):
prodigies you can spot them at fifteen years old and
teams go into a two year, three year plan to
get Cooper flag Luca Wemby Lebron. I don't think there's
anything you can do about it. And Nick talked about that.
Speaker 8 (39:49):
The fix would be the way that they can. You
know that they enforce other rules, which is real financial
penalties for teams the league hit. Who did they hit recently?
Speaker 5 (40:00):
Utah?
Speaker 8 (40:01):
I think with a hundred they hit somebody with one
hundred thousand dollars fine, And I'm sure the Jazz were like,
have you seen with respect the Sixers the last three weeks?
Speaker 3 (40:11):
Where's they're fine?
Speaker 8 (40:13):
When you're talking about issues with the NBA, I don't
think tanking is high on the fans list. I think
good teams, who's good players rest load management. I think
that is a far greater fan concern than the bad
teams throwing games at the end of the year.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
But load management is being curtailed by a younger generation
of players like Tatum, Sga and Ant. They like playing Wemby,
likes playing the old guys who have their money. They
want knights off tanking. There's nothing you can do about
it if I just want to rest guys. And I
also think even if you find Steve Ballmer, who's got
(40:54):
I don't know what Steve Ballmer's networth is, it's probably
forty billion dollars.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
What if you find.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Him seventy million dollars, which would be unprecedented. He makes
that a Microsoft stock on a good day when it
goes up eight points, So you're not really I mean
I would If I was worth twenty billion dollars and
you find me a million dollars because I'm tanking to
get Cooper Flag, I would pay that one hundred out
(41:20):
of one hundred times. That wouldn't bother me at all.
I mean, so Balmer, here is my staff. Did this
is worth one hundred and sixty billion dollars? If Balmer
could get Cooper Flag? What possible fine could you levy
(41:41):
that would curtail him tanking? The coach doesn't get it,
you know, I mean, it's I just I don't think
you can solve it. It's unsought. Football is gonna have
some violence. Baseball is a long season, and hockey. Most
of us don't grow up on a rink load management.
The young guys are playing. That could have been an
old old guy thing and a generational thing. Young guys
(42:04):
want to play. Tatum's playing every night. Our three next
Thanks for listening to 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 Sports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every day on the
iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
All right, Ready to go. This show's host isn't retiring.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
It's gonna be one.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hundred cat season baby live in Los Angeles, The Herd
Nick rights around the corner. I got I slept like
crap last night, and I took magnesium.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I can't figure it out.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
But you know, a lot of things going on out there,
A lot of things, j Mac. I got a lot
of things weighing on me.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
I keep lobbying for two things here a ping pong
table on set, and number two is our commercial breaks
to be videotaped in streamed.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
The conversation we just had is awesome.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
There's no winner in that.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Tell the little about Jacksonpine. I think the audience loves
that stuff. Oh when you talk about seventies.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I love I loved so. I watched the Bill Simmons
stuff last night. I watched episode three. It was great,
and I was I watched episode four and there was
a comment by one of the guys talking about how
bad the NBA was before A Magic and Bird showed up,
and it just it pierced my heart.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
He said it was so true.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
He said, I mean, does anybody even remember that the
Washington Bullets and the Sonics played in back to back finals.
And I'm like, ah, yeah, that's when I fell in
love with the league. I can name both starting, I
can name the whole teams, I can name the entire rosters.
And it's like, but that's where the NBA was. Those
games were televised like after the nightly eleven o'clock. I
(01:47):
think they were delayed. Yeah, And it's like, and that's
what I talked about with the NBA.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
It's hard.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Tanking is unavoidable because if you land Larry Bird or
Cooper Fleck, you look at what the Bulls have done
in the last week scoring. You put Cooper Flag on
this team and one other veteran that can score. That's
a playoff team in the East. Hell yeah, it's a
playoff team. So I don't think you can avoid that.
So I was thinking about this because cam Ward is
gonna go number one on the draft, and apparently his
(02:16):
pro day was great, and he has one big advantage
over last year's number one pick, Caleb Williams, is that
he has an offensive coach who everybody in the building
likes and respects, not a defensive coach on the hot
seat and a GM in Chicago also on the hot seat. Now,
cam Ward may not be walking into a mansion, but
(02:38):
it's not a building that's on fire. Right like Tennessee.
I looked at their schedule this morning. You get the
Jags twice, the Colts twice, Raiders, Cleveland, Saints, New England,
Arizona had a lot of w's. There a lot of
games at home, Saints, Patriots, Jags, Colts. Some of those
(02:59):
road games winnable Cleveland, Raiders, Jags, those are winnable games.
Bears played in a better division. But again, it's an
offensive coach. The other thing that jumps out to me
is that Brian Callahan and J Mack loves him, smart
offensive coach. He had palpable disdain for will Levis. We
(03:21):
have pieces of video during a Jets game when I
mean Callahan is screaming at him, I mean visceral, and
he's not subtle about it.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
He didn't like him.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I mean, after the Jets game, here's what the coach
said at the podium.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
I think the camera caught it pretty clear if I
had to guess, So, yeah, I was upset. It was domb.
It was the same exact thing he did last week,
and he cost us points in the red zone.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
And that's that is what it is.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
That he's a grown up and he knows better, and
so you know, I was really irritated that he cost
us three points in a game that we probably needed it.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I've never heard of coach hammer a young quarterback like
that ever at a podium.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Privately, maybe publicly. No.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Here was Callahan later in the season, after benching will
Levis in a Bengals game.
Speaker 7 (04:11):
The easiest way to say is that there's a you know,
there's a standard that of play, and there's been multiple
guys in our team that we've sat down for pertence.
Those are all things that that are just a part
of NFL life. That's performance in China, win football games,
and you just have to make sure that when you're
(04:32):
you're making decisions and you're coaching that it's that's standing
across the board for all positions, and quarterback position is
a part of that.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, he didn't like him.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Like, so you're going to a weak division, you have
an offensive coach for cam Ward, and I guarantee you
the coach is going to like the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Like I thought last year.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
There were multiple times and we said it on the air,
Kalahan didn't like will Levis. Will Levis comes in gun show, cocky,
he'll like him. It's one thing to be critical, but
to say stuff publicly to podium you don't like him,
and you can say, well, it's just a motion of
the game. Now you talk fifteen minutes after a game,
that emotion's gone. You've got that emotion by the time
you hit the locker room. So I think cam Ward's
(05:12):
going to be a good player.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Is he a great prospect? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I think he's a good one. And I think shaduur
seventy four percent completion percentage with the worst ole line
in college football, no run game.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I do not get the shaduor Sanders criticism. I don't
get it.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Seventy four percent completion running for his life, trailing has
to throw and one elite receiver. If he gets competent protection,
chadur is going to be hit in the NFL with
that Nick right, Cohl's first thing, you know, I was
watching It's interesting. I was watching the Bill Simmons Celtic
(05:46):
City last night and we were in this. I generally
wouldn't lead with this, but it makes me think it
was really good. And I said, every league has an
unavoidable problem. Baseball has no urgency. Most of us didn't
play hockey. NFL's got violence and people get seriously hurt.
And the NBA's is the Celtics were terrible. They got
Larry Bird, they were great, like in the NBA one
(06:09):
guy now.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
In the NFL.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That's true too, but you don't see Mahomes by the
time he's fourteen in basketball, Luca Wenby Lebron, they're fourteen
years old.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
You're like, yep, you can plan for it.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I do think the NBA's trying trying to manipulate load
management down and most of the young players TATUMSGA they
like to play. I don't think you can avoid tanking.
I think it's the league's unavoidable problem.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
What say you?
Speaker 8 (06:37):
So that's interesting. The problem with fixing tanking is every
realistic fix has a butterfly effect that could cause an
equal or greater problem. So some people have argued, you
know what you should do instead of having a lottery,
having March Madness style single elimination tournament of the non
(07:00):
playoff teams and the winner of that gets the number
one pick. But the problem with it, which sounds great
on its face, like, oh, that would be fun to
be more inventory, whatever, the problem with that is the
moment that happens, there would be an actual playoff level
team that's like, you know what we should do, miss
the playoffs entirely so we can win this tournament and
(07:22):
get Cooper flag.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
So that won't work.
Speaker 8 (07:25):
They have flattened the odds to prevent teams from wanting
to have these single worst record. What that ended up
creating was teams were like, well, if the number one
worst record is not as valuable as it once was,
that by default makes having the sixth or the seventh
worst record more valuable than it was previously. So there
(07:46):
is not a pure clean fix except for severely financially
penalizing ownership like that would be the fix. The fix
would be the way that they can you know that
they enforce other rules, which is real financial penalties for
(08:07):
teams the league hit. Who did they hit recently? Utah,
I think they hit somebody with one hundred thousand dollars fine,
And I'm sure the Jazz were like, have you seen,
with respect the Sixers the last three weeks?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Where's they're fine?
Speaker 7 (08:22):
Like?
Speaker 8 (08:23):
Have you seen these other teams? And so No, I don't,
I don't. And here's the other thing. I don't actually
think fans have a huge problem when you're talking about
issues with the NBA. I don't think tanking is high
on the fans list. I think good teams, who's good players,
(08:43):
rest load and load and management. I think that is
a far greater fan concern yea than the bad teams
throwing games at the end of the year. So, and
I don't know why your producers, I'm sorry, I don't
know why your producers just showed Lebron James, the man
who's played more minutes ago when I said load management,
he's the face of anti load management.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
But go ahead, bad bad job by the back. How
about this one. I'm gonna throw another one at you.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So Brawny last night scored thirty nine points against the
lass l Passer did donuts or whatever they're called whatever,
who cares you can?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Don't do that.
Speaker 8 (09:18):
Okay, don't do that Island anyway, don't do that.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Against the El Segundo Knights, I don't know who they played.
Speaker 8 (09:26):
He gainst the team on his schedule, Okay, with equivalent players.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So my take is because of his the situation he
had in college with kind of a life threatening situation,
is he's gonna be a sucked Yeah, his art stuff.
So what's he's going to be is a late bloomer,
semi late bloomer. He's got it like right off eighteen
months of his development. It may be starting right about now.
(09:51):
So I saw that last night and I thought, okay,
I want to say something nice about it. I want
to ask Nick about it, because it is it is something.
Thirty nine points in any leagues, a lot of points.
But as I saw that, I thought to myself.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Okay, maybe the late bloomer.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
I still think he feels like is a six to
non point guard, A rotational player.
Speaker 8 (10:11):
Of course, that fair, of course, but that makes him,
you know what a rotational player is a top five
percent outcome for all second round picks in NBA history.
If he is a rotational player, it will end up
being one of the best two or three picks of
the entire second round of his draft, which is why
(10:35):
the criticism of the pick. Which is why folks, when
he had a bad ten minutes against the Sixers, going
on and begging Lebron as a father to put an
end to this farce and treating Brownie like he was
a make a wish prospect was wildly unfair. The facts
are as follows. He was a legitimately excellent high school
(10:58):
player who in the summer going into his freshman year
of college, suffered cardiac arrest due to congenital heart failure
that then made it to where they thought for a
moment he might not ever be able to play sports again,
and he had to for the first time in his
entire life, go months without working out, without playing ball.
(11:19):
That led to a very poor freshman year of college.
All of that is the record of what happened. He
then after being drafted, was rough in the Summer League
and rough at the very beginning of the G League.
But now that he's eighteen months removed from the cardiac arrest,
what we have as a player who is one of
(11:41):
the younger players in the whole G League, one of
only five guys twenty or younger averaging twenty plus points
per game in the G League averaging twenty two, five
and five on forty six thirty eight eighty splits, and
a couple weeks ago got because of the situation, Lakers
(12:01):
were an injury wise real NBA burn and looked totally fine,
And so my issue was twofold with the Bronni discourse.
The first part of it was I thought everyone had
totally just memory hold that he suffered a major medical event,
(12:24):
and that I think he would have been better off
in the public's eye if he simply sat out his
freshman year rather than rushing back and averaging four points
per game. That was the first issue I had. The
second issue I had was this idea that it was
a reckless use of the third to last pick of
the draft. When if I were running an NBA team
(12:46):
and Lebron was retired for a decade and it's like, Hey,
who's on our board, and they're like, oh, tell me
about this kid from USC And they're like, oh, as
it happens, you know, his father's literally the greatest raw
athlete in the history of the country. He has no
character concerns whatsoever. He's a little undersized. We have questions
(13:07):
about his shooting, but his character, IQ and genes are
ten out of ten. Yeah, I'd take a flyer on him.
It was a totally reasonable pick, and he is now
exceeding any reasonable expectations. And so I'm not talking about
you here, Colin. I thought some folks who always liked
to take shots at Lebron used Bronni as a vehicle
(13:31):
to get to Lebron, and I thought that was shameful.
And I'll add one other point to this. Lebron put
extra pressure on him by confronting steven A. That's not
why he did it, but that is a because Lebron
what he did. There was a bigger spotlight on Bronni
in the days that followed, and I think it's really
(13:52):
impressive that he has played his best basketball since that
moment with higher scrutiny on it.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So we don't talk a lot of college basketball, but
I had to take yesterday that I actually think sometimes
culturally you benefit from big change, sometimes you're a victim
of it. And college basketball had a pretty bleak last
fifteen years. The G League did not help, but I
also think it didn't necessarily help the NBA because I
think players are better going to college where I mean
(14:20):
you can you can take four hundred thousand yeah, I
mean like you can take four hundred thousand dollars in
the G League or twenty two million dollars of free
advertising at North Carolina for your likeness. I would go
to college for a year and by the way, get
taken care of like cause all kids do to some degree.
So my take is, actually the NIL is great for
college basketball. It'll keep a zach Edie in for one
(14:42):
more year because you can pay him some money. And secondly,
these teams that have a whole they don't have to
get it. I don't have to get a high school
guys just go get like Marshall's mid majors NBA guy.
And I think it's great for the sport that there's
no cinder religis because it was mostly mystology anyway, and
(15:02):
the big brands are better and the ratings are up all.
Speaker 8 (15:06):
Right, So this is one of your less popular but
more accurate takes. Also, to be fair, it is not
lost on me that you are at your peak interesting
college basketball, simultaneous with you having.
Speaker 9 (15:20):
What are you?
Speaker 8 (15:21):
Fifteen of the sixteen Sweet sixteen live? What I mean
is that what it is like, all of a sudden,
you're really into this tournament. I don't blame you, buddy,
that's hell of a run. Broussard has eleven of sixteen,
he won't shut up about it. You got fifteen of sixteen.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
I'm impressed. So a couple things.
Speaker 8 (15:40):
One is this, I don't like folks acting as if
a one year event is evidence of Oh, this is
how it's going to be. Like Folks like there's no
mid majors in the sweet sixteen. Well, first of all,
this is that is a streak of one tournament. And
second of all, even this tournament, if not for a
(16:03):
literal buzzer beater by Maryland, we would have a mid
major in the sweet sixteen.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
So I think the.
Speaker 8 (16:09):
Total death of Cinderella is you is being stated prematurely.
But your take for as long as I've remembered listening
to you, and that's I mean, I'm much much much
younger than you, So I was talking about when I'm
a little kid, You've always had the take that big
upsets early create a worse tournament late.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yes, And so if you kind of you can pick
and choose.
Speaker 8 (16:37):
Do you want an amazing, exciting first weekend and then
a not so great second weekend or a chalky first
weekend and then what should be an unreal second weekend. Yeah,
and that's what I feel we got. You look at
these point spreads. Every game is a six and a
(16:57):
half point line or smaller except for two, and those
two games are seven and a half.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
And nine and a half.
Speaker 8 (17:04):
At The only double digit seed we have is coached
by John Calipari and it's Arkansas. So like almost every
team remaining has a plausible path of creating a really
good game. And so, and I didn't think last weekend
was bad at all, and I thought the games were good.
(17:26):
I understand that it's fun when there is a fifteen
seed or a fourteen seed that makes some noise, but
you kind of want that noise to crescendo with a
great Round two loss rather than them getting whacked in
the sweet sixteen by a great team. So I agree
with you on this, and I think Thursday through Sunday
(17:48):
we are going to get there's gonna be twelve games.
I think we probably are gonna get nine awesome ones
and that's a rarity for the Sweet sixteen and Elite eight.
So I'm excited for it.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
So I said this, This is a rare take by
me that I said, actually, and I've always felt this.
I used to say this about Phil Jackson when he
would criticize the refs.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
And go, I can't believe.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I'm like, you're too smart to act dumb, right like Belichick.
You're too smart to pretend Spygate caught you off guard,
Like you're too smart, and it's I kind of look
at Aaron Rodgers, He's too smart to really sign with
a bad fit. And Pittsburgh that can't get their own
line right, spends all their money on defense, has two needy,
(18:34):
combustible receivers. It sounds good. It's a bad fit, and
Aaron knows it to bad fit, but he wants to
be respectful to a guy he loves, Tomlin that Aaron
is sitting there thinking the Niners don't want to pay
Brock pretty sixty million, and his agent keeps saying that's
what they want, and he is just gonna wait till
the draft is over, because if Kirk Cousins would have
(18:56):
waited last year until the draft's over, he would have
had a better and Aaron's like fifty nine quarterbacks played
last year.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
What's the hurry's signing?
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Somebody's gonna be desperate in seven weeks and he's waiting
for the Niners if they don't sign perty, am I nuts?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Why is he waiting?
Speaker 8 (19:18):
So here's the thing, man, What you're saying I wish
I could agree with. But you're saying why is he waiting?
And the answer is, well, let's think about that, because
I believe there's I believe Aaron Rodgers is going to
be a Pittsburgh Steeler. I think the Steelers know what
I think Aaron knows it. So then the question is
what is gained by waiting? And the answer is, well,
(19:41):
one thing that could be gained is just raw, unadulterated ego.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
I get.
Speaker 8 (19:46):
I am still and free agency's done for everyone else.
I am the hot topic I am being discussed. That
tracks with what I know of Aaron a bit. So
that's a possibility. The second reason, and I am this
is the most likely, is this is how you shift
power in a relationship. Like neither you nor I have
(20:08):
been single for a very, very long time. But I'm
sure a lot of the viewers are. And everyone knows
that if you are the person saying, hey, will.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
You go out with me? Will you go out with me?
Speaker 8 (20:18):
Will you go out with me?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Wait?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 8 (20:20):
And then when that person finally says yes, and you
have been waiting and waiting and waiting, that person has
the power. So if Aaron was worried about, oh, if
I go to Pittsburgh, am I going to have full
run of the place like I did with the Jets.
One way to ensure you will is to prove how
valuable you are before you even get there, because they
(20:43):
will wait, they will host you, you'll leave, and then
they'll still wait. And the last one is off season.
You know, activities are starting up here in a month.
And maybe he doesn't want to do him. I just
I think he knows the only place he's gonna play
football this year is the Pittsburgh Steelers. Florio postulated that
(21:05):
he's trying to make some grand announcement at a live
show in Pittsburgh in a couple weeks. Maybe, but I
think Aaron has known it's Pittsburgh for a long time.
I think the Steelers have mostly known and he's dragging
this out because he can, and because.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
It serves Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 8 (21:22):
I love your idea that he could parachute in to
a better team or a better situation, But I think
most of those better teams are not as desperate, and
I think they are better run from an offensive standpoint
to where they wouldn't say, yeah, we'll sign up for
the forty one year old who hasn't been good in
four years. And so I think it's the Steelers, and
(21:44):
I think he's just making everybody wait because he can.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
All Right, I got a couple more questions. I'm gonna
do it tonight when we do our own thing.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Okay, I got it you?
Speaker 8 (21:51):
Oh, I thought, well, yeah, no, I know, because I'm
on a hard fifteen minute limit. I'm no, Bill Simmons,
I can't get twenty six minutes with you.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
No, I get it. I get it you and I'll
talk later.
Speaker 8 (22:01):
You save those, Save those extended segments for the big guests,
not the loyal guy for the last eight years. Talk
to you later, Colin Nick.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Right, first things for well, you know, we don't get
Simmons a lot. You know, it's like when the cousin
shows up that shows up once a decade. You let
him stay the night, you know, in the basement, but
you let him stay the night.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
He didn't.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
He didn't like when I threw out the l Paso donuts.
That didn't land with him. He didn't didn't like that.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Can we laugh, It's just it's a sports show. He
didn't like that one either.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
That already bothered you. Hey, listen, he scored thirty nine
spent I gave. I gave Nick four minutes to talk
effusively about Brownie. I've said before, I hope he ends
up being a nice player.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I don't root against anybody's kids.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Do you think all the talking heads who criticized him
or feeling like, oh, maybe I was wrong, Maybe I
was irrationally rushing to judgment, to slander this kid for
being a second round pick. Well, I mean, he's hanging
thirty nine in the G League. That's pretty damn good.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
I thought I could get a few buckets in there.
But no, I mean, I listen.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
You watched the third Ronnie's getting buckets. He's getting better,
that's obvious.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
He's twenty Yeah, well, yeah, he's Gonnayeah.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
He was a hard worker. I mean, if you're Lebron's kid,
you're going to be a grinder. Yeah, he's a worker.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
But you know, people were really quick to just dismiss him.
Oh he averaged three points in USC How could they
draft him?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Well, maybe the Lakers said, Hey, besides Lebron, this guy's
got some details and I'd like to see him.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
I defended the Lakers drafting. I said, week draft Lebron's
DNA and why not. I mean, it's it's it's like
the Griffy thing. It's like it's an all time historic move.
Lebron's carried the league for fifteen years. You owe Lebron
a saw. I also supported the first game when he played,
even though he wasn't ready.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
He wouldn't have been there, fine, but.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
I supported that.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I but you know, when you rushed him up after
a good G League game, it was like, stop, let's
let's just be honest about what he is at this point.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
And I don't know what he's gonna is he gonna
be a rotational guy in the league.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I don't know either, but I did give the floor
for somebody to speak.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
It's good.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
You know, we need people speaking up because there's so
many mouth breathers out there yelling you shouldn't be in
the league, and Lebron stepping up and confronted her.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Well, I wouldn't even give Nick the opportunity to combat
my puka take, because, like you, he comes from the
generation of a sleep till noon ice cream for breakfast.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Sleep till noon. You're looking at a guy who grinded.
I would wake up at six in the morning and
run the big lead while listening to Howard Stern before
going to my full time job. So miss me with
the wake up at noon stuff where you was like
my college that two earring era, Yes.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
It was too earing. And then I met the wife
and she's like, yeah, that's not gonna work.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
She told you that. Yeah, she just say get rid
of those. Yeah. I like her a lot. Yeah, she's
got to be a grown up in the family.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
One more Heard The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search her
to listen live or on demand whenever you like.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Did I tell you that I got fifteen or sixteen
teams left in the tournament? No?
Speaker 5 (24:58):
You hadn't mentioned that a impressive well done cow hurt.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
By the way, I know I'm gonna go up and
you're gonna have a very strong finish because you have
Duke and you know they're rolling, and I you know,
I took some I got a little precious with my
Arizona pick because I love love the guard and I.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
Like you took Arizona over Duke.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Well, I have Arizona get into the final four, so
I know that's not a great interesting.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Well Jables could turn Thursday night. I would say we
should get together and have a drink. But you know,
I get a little heated during these games. You do
got some cheddar on Duke.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
So you like you like March Madness more than the NBA,
but you like the NBA more than college basketball.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
But March Madness.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
If I ranked NBA playoffs March Madness regular season, right,
your number one is March Madness.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Oh the tournament is on. You can't touch it. I
mean it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
It's I was reading something last night, some legendary college
basketball sports better it was like one one for twelve
because he didn't go chalk. He's one of these The
committee doesn't know what the committee doesn't know what they're doing.
The committee is mostly accurate every year. But there is
something about guys in general. I don't know if women
(26:10):
do this, but you know, guys love to brag. Like
I heard the garage band before they were big, Like
I remember listening to you know, the Smashing Pumpkins in
the sixties or you know, I was at the you know,
it's just like, yeah, they didn't really exist until like
the nineties or whatever. But and there is something about
like I watch a lot of college basketball, so you
don't have a social.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
It's almost like the soccer guys that you were blasting yesterday.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
I know soccer. I was on board early. I will
say this.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
I coached my kids to get shocky with their brackets.
And my daughter's first in her class, so badge of
honor there.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
You don't do that, but she does.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Well.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
I don't do it with all my brackets. You know,
I'm a nine to ten bracket.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, that's exhausting, Not really, I'm surprised. Like your earrings,
your wife doesn't put her foot down with that.
Speaker 5 (26:54):
We do the news, We move on.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Jake back with the news. No, no, turn on the news.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
This is the hardline News.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
And because we like to cater to you, let's start
with the Patriots, your team of destiny this year, very
active in free agency. Rainbow's the new head coach Patriots,
evp Elliott Wolf says that their off season work will
give them flexibility in the draft. The best player available
is going to be the way it is. Maybe we
(27:26):
went for a little bit too much last year. Obviously
that culminated an unced drafting Drake May so it wasn't
all bad, but just moving forward, it's taking the best
player and understanding that we filled a lot of needs
in free agency. Colin, this is a tough one because
Travis Hunter will be on the board at four unless
he's somehowers too. Do you take Travis Hunters down a
(27:47):
great I need it receiving.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Well, I think Travis.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I think one of the things about New England in
Belichick's last year and Male's year, they're slow and they
don't have any perimeter speed. So I would take Travis
Hunter and just say he'll be a top two athlete
in every.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Game he plays.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
He may not be the best player, but there probably
won't be five athletes better than him on the field.
So My take is you take Travis Hunter, and as
a coaching staff, you have to when he goes in motion,
you have to put somebody on him a role coverage.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Because he's gonna get open. So I think it.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
I think in most drafts you would hope that you're
not unathletic going into the draft. But even Brabel's free
agent pickups were more beef guys and tough guys than
they were speed guys.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
That's the tough part because they could go offensive lineman
beef you know, Rabel was a trenches guy, or they
could go Travis Hunter. Remember how Rabel reacted when they
traded A J. Brown the GM crush.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Yeah, he's devastating. He's like, oh my god, what are
we gonna do?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Also, remember Rabel came from Tennessee, who always had big,
tough guys. They lacked weapons outside of Derrick Henry. So
Rabel's probably looking at them up and thinking, you know,
a smart guy, what got me in a little trouble
in ten I didn't have power with personnel and we
just didn't have enough weapons, right like like, So he
knows Drake May is a better prospect than Ryan Tanneil,
(29:08):
So that solves that. I think Brabile probably says, my
teams will always be physical and tough like Harballs. We
need we need speed when he got in big troubles
when he lost his most dynamic playmaker in Tennessee.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
Yeah, next story is another Coward special.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
And at the Dallas Mavericks they returned Anthony Davis to
the lineup.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Last night.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
We got hurt first game he ever played with Dallas.
So he returned against Brooklyn and was a cupcake win.
Davis twelve point six boards, three assists, a steal in
the block, twenty six minutes in action, and your Mavericks
are fired up about a d returning as is he.
Speaker 9 (29:46):
Here was tough olgc gush little bad every single night,
winning close games.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
It was the close games.
Speaker 9 (29:52):
Alan Tanzel being blown out for me was never you know,
I thought about probably gonna come back and play, especially
when I was healthy. Hell, I'm demand Phil Gotta heard
there was no doubt out in combat in playlet that
makes you want to come out, you know, you know
on play you know with these goss and they read
on the floor and how the battle beach.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
And you know what, can.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I say this in the history of NBA trades. I
don't think I've ever seen a player more disrespected than
Anthony Davison. No timeout, he is the best defensive player
arguably in the league. Lucas the worst star defensive player
in the league.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
So he is a is adea better defender than one.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
I'm just saying the Luca Deil.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
The feeling is Mavericks are screwed the Lakers. Anthony Davis
is arguably the best of venteran in the league, a
better rebounder, in better shape, and can give you on
any night twenty seven. This idea that Dallas got nothing.
This guy has three great years left and is a
great player. And Max Christy. Now, now would I have
(31:03):
wanted three first round picks?
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Not one?
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Absolutely, But I will make the argument with PJ. Washington,
the Gafford, Davis, and Lively, they will have the best
big rotation easily in the league and the best closer
under six to five in league history in Kyrie.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
Best what stop?
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Best closer in league history under six five bits, That's nonsense,
He's very good.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Kyrie.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
The one shot against the Warriors in Game seven. All right, timeout,
I do have to push back.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Just a little bit.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Ad is great.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
AD's great. Yes, great, I largely agree they have the
potential if everybody else really good.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
But was PJ. Washington, Lively, Gafford? Were they all awesome
because they were playing with Luka Doncic? Who makes everyone better?
Are they gonna be awesome playing with Kyrie? I mean,
what was Daniel Gaffer before he.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
Got to the Maus? Come on, he was in Washington whatever.
Derek Lively, I think he's a tenth overall pick.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
There's a fare like him a lot.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
He was great with Luca.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
We have no data of him without Luca.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Well that's because Luca's guy blew by him and Lively
got a block shot credit.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
I's feeding this guy negative jokes about Luca. Oh my gosh,
final story, Colin, Oh, oh, here we go. Bronnie went
off last night.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
It is the G League, but he.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
Hung thirty nine on what'd you call them, the Elsagundo Knights.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Thirty nine points seven boards forced Deeel's forces, and.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
That was after he dropped seventeen on somebody playing with
the Lakers recently. I'm just saying, yeah, the guy is He's.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
Not the chop liver that everybody thought he was.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
He's not the NEPO baby, everybody thought, wow, he can
play basketball.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
I'm not anti nepotism.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
I'm not either.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
I'm saying a.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
He's probably a late bloomer because of cardiac arrest.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Secondly, because you know the average height in the NBA
six six and a half sixty seven. He is fast
and he blows by people. Now he's not John Wall
fast or Iverson fast, but Brownie's athletic and when you
watch the footage, he's just fast. He gets past people
really quickly. Now is does he have the ability to
pull up and hit shots? He did last night? But there,
(33:15):
he's an athlete. I mean, he got some decent genetics.
He's an athlete and and I think he has a
work ethic. You can tell from his body of shape.
Dude works, he works at it. So this is a
good story. I didn't I thought rushing him after he
had that one good game of the G League rushing
him up, I thought that was like, come on, stop.
And I don't think there's a history of six two
(33:36):
non point guards in the league.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
So I don't know what his role is.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Is it highly athletic, fast guy, transition guy off the bench.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
That's a role violy find your role.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Yeah, so just remember he's averaging twenty five and five
in the G League as a rookie. And as you
noted earlier, the G League's full of like twenty nine
year old who are still hanging onto the dream that
they can make it into an NBA roster. They're trying hard,
and he's a sort of cooking.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
You know what I'd like.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I would love to talk to a G League player anonymously,
just be totally honest.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
I don't want to hurt your dream.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
But if we could do like put somebody on and
put a filter on and let's let's is he good?
What are you saying? What are the players saying? Is
their animosity? I would love to talk to a G
League player that does is it gonna get called out
or like a fear of reprisal or you know, get
into trouble Because the G League is something nobody, very
few people watch, and I and I wonder if there
(34:29):
is a lot of animosities there.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Maybe not. Maybe people are rooting for the kid.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
I know fans are any he goes to, They're like
a plodding when he gets well.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
He's also I've known people that know him. He's a
nice kid. He's an easy guy to root for. He's
not cocky, he's not He's like a nice guy.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
J Mack with the news, Well that's the news, and
thanks for stupping by the herd line news.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
They show has been a little combustible. I got Nick
calling me out because I won't give him twenty six minutes.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
You know it's sometimes you know, you don't know who
your friends are. J Mack.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
But apparently this going forward is just wants more vacation
and is going to publicly state it on his ig.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
Well, you you negotiated your deal.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Mine's in the works.
Speaker 5 (35:13):
We'll see what happens.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
I wouldn't use the V word your sake.
Speaker 5 (35:16):
I wouldn't leave with I need six weeks vacation.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah, what's what sick pay like here? Probably not what
I take it?
Speaker 5 (35:22):
A sick day here in eight years?
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Bro, come on, you do play her.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
I don't get sick because I'm a machine. I'm gonnadonnas.
I work out all the time.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I see what you eat. Laugh.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
I wouldn't go at Donna's no, I mean you eat
like uh.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
Chicken parm coming up here?
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Want peace? No? I don't eat big meals at noon.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
You. I've never seen anybody eat like you at noon.
I would fall asleep driving home.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
I don't even fasting. My friend, I don't do breakfast. Shake.
Speaker 9 (35:51):
Look at it.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
He's not impressed.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
He's j mac all right. Live in l Answer Herd.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio App.
Speaker 10 (36:06):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're
Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 11 (36:12):
You could catch us weekdays from five to seven pm
Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
of course the iHeartRadio App.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.
Speaker 11 (36:21):
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Going on in the world.
Speaker 10 (36:25):
We have a lot of fun talking about the stories
behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture,
stories that well, other shows don't seem to have the
time to discuss.
Speaker 11 (36:33):
And the fact that we've been friends for the last
twenty years and still work together. I mean that says something, right,
So check us out. We like to get you involved too.
Take your phone calls chop it up. As they say,
I'd say the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio,
maybe the.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Most interactive show on planetar.
Speaker 10 (36:48):
Be sure to check out Covino and Rich live on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app from five to
seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific, And if you
miss any of the live show, just search Covino and
Rich wherever you get your podcasts, and of course on
social media.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
That's Cavino and Rich.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
You made and the.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
Astros or the Braves take on the Padres. Baseball Night in.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
America returns Saturday at seven Eastern on fives.
Speaker 5 (37:11):
Take local listings for the game in your area.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
I'm really into Aficia, you know, I'm sitting there.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
You know what I think is a dumb part of
the pre draft process is pro day workouts indoors, you know,
throwing against air. I think it's so dumb. Like, I
want game footage for three years. I want you to
go to the Senior Bowl, and if you want to
go to the combine to interview them, go for it.
I do want my scouts to stand next to the
(37:37):
players and like, let's see what it looks like. Let's
see the shoulders, the butt, the size, the hand size,
and I want game tape. There's nothing about pro day
that is similar at all to playing in the NFL.
Totally comfortable. You've you've basically worked out for the Pro Day.
(37:58):
You practice routes for the province. The opposite NFL is
a winter league, a fall winter league. It's sloppy, it's cold,
it's windy, you have bad protection. I get game footage.
I get the Senior Bowl. Senior Bowl. You're competing against
guys you wouldn't normally compete against. And I gotta walk
around and see how.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Big you are. I don't need to. I don't need to.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
Go to a cam Ward Pro Day. There's nothing I'm
gonna see. He's got a really good arm and he's
a very good athlete. So I I just I don't think.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
It has any value. I really don't.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
I just think it's and the Senior Bowl does such
a great job to let you see the players. Get
up close to the players. I mean, you're they're walking
by it. You're that's what you want to see. You
want to see a guy's real size. A lot of
guys you know you you see him on tape and
then you're up next to him, and you're like, you know,
he't not as big as I thought. He's just not
as thick as I thought. But the Pro Day stuff
doesn't do a thing. Zach Wilson lit it up at
(38:49):
Pro Day.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
I mean lit it up.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
In fact, I thought Will Levis hurt himself at Pro
Day with a gun show. It's like, dude, come on,
you want to be a bodybuilder or quarterback. I had
to Nick right on earlier to talk about. So we
were talking about what I believe every league has an
unsolvable problem. Baseball not enough urgency, the season too long,
(39:16):
hockey most of us didn't play at as kids. Football,
violence that people get hurt sometimes seriously. And I think
load management you can manage a little bit by not
giving out awards unless you play sixty five games, which
matters to a lot of players. Bonus is tied to that.
I don't think you can avoid tanking. I think basketball
(39:36):
prodigies you can spot them at fifteen years old and
teams go into a two year, three year plan to
get Cooper flag Luca Wemby Lebron. I don't think there's
anything you can do about it. And Nick talked about that.
Speaker 8 (39:49):
The fix would be the way that they can. You
know that they enforce other rules, which is real financial
penalties for teams the league hit. Who did they hit recently?
Speaker 5 (40:00):
Utah?
Speaker 8 (40:01):
I think with a hundred they hit somebody with one
hundred thousand dollars fine, And I'm sure the Jazz were like,
have you seen with respect the Sixers the last three weeks?
Speaker 3 (40:11):
Where's they're fine?
Speaker 8 (40:13):
When you're talking about issues with the NBA, I don't
think tanking is high on the fans list. I think
good teams, who's good players rest load management. I think
that is a far greater fan concern than the bad
teams throwing games at the end of the year.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
But load management is being curtailed by a younger generation
of players like Tatum, Sga and Ant. They like playing Wemby,
likes playing the old guys who have their money. They
want knights off tanking. There's nothing you can do about
it if I just want to rest guys. And I
also think even if you find Steve Ballmer, who's got
(40:54):
I don't know what Steve Ballmer's networth is, it's probably
forty billion dollars.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
What if you find.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Him seventy million dollars, which would be unprecedented. He makes
that a Microsoft stock on a good day when it
goes up eight points, So you're not really I mean
I would If I was worth twenty billion dollars and
you find me a million dollars because I'm tanking to
get Cooper Flag, I would pay that one hundred out
(41:20):
of one hundred times. That wouldn't bother me at all.
I mean, so Balmer, here is my staff. Did this
is worth one hundred and sixty billion dollars? If Balmer
could get Cooper Flag? What possible fine could you levy
(41:41):
that would curtail him tanking? The coach doesn't get it,
you know, I mean, it's I just I don't think
you can solve it. It's unsought. Football is gonna have
some violence. Baseball is a long season, and hockey. Most
of us don't grow up on a rink load management.
The young guys are playing. That could have been an
old old guy thing and a generational thing. Young guys
(42:04):
want to play. Tatum's playing every night. Our three next
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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