August 5, 2020 • 40 mins
Carmelo Anthony is a better version of himself and UConn was right to cancel their football season.
Guests: Tom Telesco, Michael Rapaport
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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Sports Radio. Oh, here we go, it's our two. We
(00:25):
are rudeling along alive in Los Angeles. This is the
Herd wherever you may be, however you may be listening
Fox Sports Radio FS one. My good friend Nick Cohn,
(00:48):
been my agent for years, got a new job now
the president with Vince McMahon of the seat WWE. This
is kind of behind the rope, but Nick has guided
my career for the last half decade. Best agent I've
ever had, perhaps the best friend I've ever had in
the business. And it's not goodbye, it's see you soon.
(01:11):
He is now running the WWE, which of course is
on Fox. So if he can get me Charlotte Flair
on the show, we're all good Ingrats Nick. Nick has
been very great for me in my career as well.
It's wonderful news, huge, huge news. Congratulations unbelievably peerless in
his talent, perception and work ethic. Congratulations to Nick conn
(01:32):
will see you soon and get me. Charlotte Flair, the
Queen rules the Internet. So listen. A lot of you
think I don't like Carmelo Anthony. Calomelo Anthony frustrated me.
But last night he hit big shots for Portland and
at thirty six year old, thirty six years old, at
the end of the road, he's finally in shape and
he has found a perfect spot to play. You know,
(01:54):
I always tell my wife, you got the good in me.
There was me in my twenties. That was my wife,
and I was so obsessed with my career and I
was so tunnel vision. And now I'm older, you know,
I'm beaten down as a broadcaster. I'm like, you get
the good met I'm more fun. I like vacations. I
like to hang out. I you know, I cannot think
about work all the time. Damian Lillard got the good
(02:17):
Carmelo Anthony. He doesn't have options, He's not the player
he once was. He knows he's not dame. And this Carmelo,
I like, it's a little late, but I like it.
And Damian Lillard talked about his performance. He hit the
big shot of the game last night. Here's Dame. He's
a Hall of famer. You know, I think it's more
(02:38):
disappointing that people are surprised by it, you know what
I mean. He's a he's a Hall of famer. Like
I said, he's a great teammate. And that's what we
expect from him. You know, we put him in those
positions because we expect him to make those shots. We
believe he's going to make those shots. And we brought
him here because we knew he would make a difference
for our team, and he's been doing it. First of all,
he is a Hall of famer. That's not even disputable.
(02:59):
It's called the Basketball Hall of Fame, and even if
it wasn't, he would make it. But he's Syracuse national champion,
ten time all star, top twenty all time score, three
gold medals in the Olympics, and he was very good
in the Olympics. Of course, he's a Hall of famer.
And again, Dame's getting the good mellow. Right, we all mature,
(03:20):
we all grow. He's not getting the twenty three year
old mellow. Here's the interesting thing when I think about
NBA stars and Mellow's certainly a star. They always fall
in two categories. Now I'm not talking NBA players, those
those fall in multiple categories. But stars, Dame's a star,
Lebron's a star, AD's a star, Kawhi, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony.
(03:40):
They always fall into two categories, winning stars and stat stars.
And the difference is not talent. The difference is not talent.
The winning stars are Kobe and Lebron and Steph Curry
and Dwayne Wade and Magic Johnson and Bird. The stat
(04:02):
stars or Tracy McGrady and Dominique Wilkins and Carmelo Anthony.
I wrote a few down this morning, t Mac George Gervin,
who I loved as a kid. It is not talent.
Carmelo is more talented than Steph Curry, bigger, stronger, more talented.
Dominique Wilkins, to me, is more gifted physically than even
d Wade. It is not about that. It is about
(04:25):
self awareness, and the winning stars have it at a
very early age. Do I give them credit or their parents?
Hell if I know, But this league is about kids
coming in. This is not college football. When you come
in at twenty four, You're come in at nineteen twenty
twenty one years old. Do you have at nineteen twenty
twenty one years old latest twenty two? Do you understand
(04:50):
how valuable coaching is? Do you understand how hard you
have to work to be able to be good on
the offensive and defensive end. Do you understand some nights
take fewer shots even though you can get the points
to get teammates involved. Do you have the self awareness
to understand how valuable everybody is beyond yourself? Because to
(05:10):
get to the NBA at twenty one, you were the
best high school player, the best au player, the best
college player. I mean you are literally like a prodigy.
I mean, think about this. In America every year there's
about eight basketball players. How many times do you watch
people play basketball? Young people, eight of them a year
from America make the NBA. I mean, like like play
(05:31):
You're a prodigy, like a music prodigy, like the kid
that goes to Harvard at fifteen years old or MT
it's seventeen, right, fifteen seventeen. So and that's my knock.
This is not a knock on Carmelo Dominique, but there
were moments in time that Carmelo kept showing me he
just didn't have the self awareness. And give you an example.
When Lebron went from Cleveland and Miami Miami back to Cleveland,
(05:53):
he didn't demand trades because he manipulated the situation so
he would join good players. When Carmelo left Denver, instead
of just being a little more patient, he demanded a
trade and the Knicks had to give up all sorts
of talent and all sorts of pick, all sorts of players,
guaranteeing they weren't going to be a championship team. Self awareness.
(06:15):
Lebron had it, Melo didn't. How about the fact that Lebron,
I mean, thirteen years ago, watched the game and went,
I'm gonna start working on my three point shot. Carmelo
begrudging begrudgingly, never wanted to take an extra step and
a half back. He didn't like it. He wouldn't do it.
He wouldn't embrace it like Lebron did. How about the
(06:35):
fact that when he went to Oklahoma City off the bench,
I'm a bench player. Well, actually on that team, he
were a bench player. It's not that Melo's lacked talent.
I mean, he's a ten time All Star three goals,
Syracus dead. But there have been multiple instances where Jeremy Lynn.
Remember when the Knicks for about a month caught fire,
(06:57):
they were the talk of basketball with Jeremy Lynn. Mellow
came back. Instead of embracing Jeremy Lynn and the winning streak,
He's like, no, I'm not gonna play that offense, dude,
It's just about winning games. Time and time again. Mellow
lacked the self awareness. And this is the gap to
me between the Kobe's, the Wades and the George Gervins
and their nice guys, and the Nicks and the Mellow.
(07:19):
Now they may have the self awareness at twenty eight
and at thirty four and now in their fifties, but
when they were twenty two and twenty three and twenty
one and twenty and they were building that reputation, they
turned people off. Remember, your prime in this league is
twenty two to about twenty eight, maybe twenty nine thirty. Now,
(07:40):
now Lebron's like Brady exceptional, but that's the difference. He's
a Hall of Famer. Dame is now getting the good Mellow,
the more mature Mellow, that not as talented Mellow. We
don't need you to score twenty mellow, you gotta occasionally
play some defense. Mellow, and this is a good Mellow.
I mean, he can fill it up. He's he's talented.
There's no I mean, they got no wing scores. They
(08:02):
need Mellow bad. They got a great backcourt and Nurkic,
so they have a humongous hole in their team. I
mean I talked to somebody up in Portland that covers
them when they got Mellow, and they're like, no, this
is gonna work, Like we just need a guy in
the wing, the six seven guy that can shoot jumpers.
So it's that cell phone sports is incredibly cruel. In
almost every business in the world. You become a millionaire,
(08:27):
your prime is forty two to fifty five. You can
make all those mistakes when you're twenty years old. Pro
sports is different. You have to be smart, self aware, focused.
You don't get to have a social life like like
an average twenty two year old. Oh, you're carrying the franchise.
Figure all the difficult stuff out For guys like me.
(08:49):
I didn't have to worry about that was forty. Pro
athletes have to figure it out at nineteen, twenty, twenty
years old, like Luca Donchez twenty years old. Dude, you
are the face of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban's number
one business. You're the face the hell. I wasn't ready
for that at twenty were you? Luca is? And that
was mellows thing he's now, It just took longer for
(09:10):
him to kind of get the big picture. Now he's perfect,
but there was a lot of years in there where
forcing a trade, not embracing Jeremy Lynn, kind of laughing
at those who suggested you come off the bench, not
really working on that fifteen years ago, working on that
three point shot. That was clearly the future of the league.
And that's why he'll make the Hall of Fame, but
(09:31):
he won't be in that other category of stars to me,
the winning stars. I saw another story that I think
is interesting. Yukon became the first FBS football team to
cancel the college football season. So Ukon said, we're out now.
The reason this happened is Yukon was kind of an independent.
The way their schedule worked, they had multiple road games
(09:53):
that got canceled because of other league schedules, so Ukon
really didn't have a you know, they're just like Listen,
we don't feel like losing twenty five thirty million dollars. Now,
twenty minutes after that was announced, the Big Ten announced
their schedule. And let's be honest about this college football season,
and let's be honest about COVID. It is really separating.
Some have and have knots. In the MLS, two teams
(10:15):
couldn't get it right, didn't even show up in baseball.
The Marlins are lost, the Dodgers, the Twins, the Yankees,
the Cubs, they're not getting guys getting tests. The reality
is some UFC fighters couldn't be disciplined enough. They got
pulled off cards. College football has always been have and
(10:37):
have knots. There is a massive gap in money in
state recruiting, passion, history, commitment resources, and Yukon is a
have not. Notre Dame, Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, Clemson, Oregons. Those
(10:58):
are halves and those programs have the money and the resources.
I mean, the NBA spent in seventy five million dollars
on all this COVID testing. Like it's expensive. Ukon can't
afford it, and probably sixty teams in college football they
probably just can't afford it. Plus there's no fans, there's
no revenue. So I think college football this year, I
(11:19):
think it's going to work for the SEC. I think
the stronger gonna get stronger. I've seen this in restaurants,
and I've seen this in airlines. Delta has I've flown
them twelve times. They've been virtually flawless, low cost airlines.
Some are not going to make it, most may not
make it, and they're really struggling. So Yukon's news today
(11:40):
is not the story of college football. It's the story
of a college football have not in an incredibly restrictive time,
and it's going to test those schools that don't drive
big revenue in football. Yukon doesn't, and they're probably doing
the smart right thing canceling their season. Coming up next,
(12:02):
Michael Rappaport In thirty Minutes, Tom Talesco the GM of
the Chargers. Many believe it's a top three roster. Here
we go campus starting. He's got Justin Herbert, that young
star quarterback who's gonna learn this year. We presume sit
this year. Talk about the challenges of an NFL GM
that's coming up next. One more Herd The Herd Streams
(12:24):
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Within
the iHeartRadio app, Search Herd to listen live or on
demand whenever you like. Today and I'll be on FS
one continues as Bryce Harper and the Phillies take on
Aaron Judge and the Yankees. It all starts at four
eastern one Pacific on FS one and the Fox Sports app.
I'll be watching. You know, yesterday we had Chris Ballard
(12:45):
on the GM of the Colts and they obviously acquired
for one year Philip Rivers and it's interesting and he
was talking about Philip and he said, Philip is so
intense and he loves the game so deeply. And now
that's Brady, that's Russell Wilson. When you get that, like
some of it's luck that you literally find somebody who
as they age, they love the game more. Philip Rivers
(13:06):
once told me on the show, he goes, I like
practice more than games, and I'm thinking that's a guy
that loves football. And his former general manager is Tom
Talesco is the youngest Charger GM ever when he got hired.
He is joining us eighth years the Chargers GM via
the Coward Global Satellite Network. And you know, it's interesting
and I'm sure Tom you've thought about this before. I mean,
Philip plus the Chargers emotionally, his intensity, his love is passion.
(13:31):
Are you concerned that we didn't just lose a great guy,
good lord, we lost an emotional part of our tapestry
and that is a that's tough to fill, right, Yes, yeah, No,
it's it's a big void someone of that stature, that
where you just mentioned about the passion that goes into
it in the leadership and everything that comes along with that.
(13:53):
Everybody else feeds off that and they see that's how
your leader works, they fall in line. So but that
gives us is we'll have other people work into that void. Now,
is it gonna be one person? Probably not, But we
have a number of players here that I think will
become those next leaders have that same energy. And like
you said too, it's a lot of us on the
(14:13):
practice field in the meeting rooms. If you have a
passion for what you do and love what you do,
this game's a grind and you won't get better, you
won't improve. So you have to have that part of
that buydset that to love what you do just to
keep improving. And I think we have a number of
players here that will kind of fill that void. You
just signed Joey Bosa to a contract. Now, he's an
unbelievable talent, as is his brother. So when you sign
(14:38):
him before the season, I was just thinking to myself,
you know, you lose Philip and this is a really
good signing. This sends a message to the organization. Listen, man,
we're all in on this stuff. What was that part
of the signing that you know he is a leader,
he is vocal, and then it sent a message to
your locker room we're keeping our stars here. This is
(14:58):
a big guy. This is a big sign Well, that's
always been our philosophy is to draft players, develop them,
and resign our own. Now can you do that one
hundred percent of the time, No, you can't, not in
a salary cap era. But certainly with with Joey, he
falls into that and he'll he'll continue to grow into
that leadership role. But in this league, and certainly in
(15:20):
our division, you need edge rush and you need interior rush,
and obviously Joey can help us there big time. It's
a very important signing for us to have that done
moving forward. Look, you know football is gonna look different,
feel different this year, but you know we're gonna have
a trophy at the end of the year and we're
competing for that with everybody else. So you know, football
(15:42):
operations still moving on. We just have to adapt and
change a little bit with it. But now that was
very important for us to get that done for this
football team and the organization. So justin Herbert doesn't need
to play because Tyron Taylor, who he said multiple times
on this show, has always been a much more competent
starter than he's been given credit for. If you go
less or five years, he's been with rebuilding teams and
won a lot of football games Cleveland and Buffalo. So
(16:04):
Herbert doesn't have to play. That's good news. Let's talk
about rookies. Let's talk about no OTAs, no preseason. Let's
talk about how difficult it is, Tom how do you
make up that ground with rookies. Look, if you can't
adapt or if you're resistant to change, the year twenty
(16:25):
twenty may not be for you. So that's what we
all have to do. I mean, it's just it is
what it is. You know. Where I'm less focused on
what we can't do and the challenges and just figuring
out different ways to do things. So with young players, yes,
there may be some less opportunities on the practice field,
or not in the practice field, but just in preseason games.
But for young players, they've gotten a lot of work
(16:46):
in the classroom, a lot of work on zoom meetings.
They should know the playbook well if you if you
if you're unsure or don't know what to do on
the field and you play slow, you won't play in
this league very long. So they should know the playbook
well on paper. Now, processing that in real time on
the practice field, that does take time. That's what we
got the next five or six weeks to work on,
and we'll put them in a lot of competitive situations
(17:08):
in practice. Anthony does a great job with that to
try and get a feel for these players and evaluate them.
But you know, don't forget too. We've got a fifty
three man roster in sixteen practice squad spots this year,
so that's sixty nine jobs. That's the most jobs and
an NFL team that I've ever been around. So there
may be less actual opportunities on a practice field to
(17:28):
show coaches what you can do, but there's more jobs available,
so you know, we've got a glean one or two
things from these players, get a good feel for that,
and hopefully the opportunities to even get on a practice
squad and then work your way up from there. You know,
years ago, it was funny watching teams that had to
face Peyton Manning for ten years in their division or
(17:49):
Brady for ten years twenty years in the AFC East.
You could watch teams draft pass rushers because they knew
where they were going to have to face Peyton Manning
and Tom Brady and possibly would be trailing in games.
You're gonna face Patrick Mahomes for a decade? Is it
going to Tom? When you're sitting in these these draft
meetings with your scouts, will you? Is Mahomes so influential
(18:11):
it may change the way you draft your team? I mean,
how could it not. I mean, you know, the first
way into the playoffs is to win your division, so
that's our number one goal. And as you build your
football team, you have to look at your whole division
or how you match up with those teams, and you
also have to look at how they match up with you.
So it goes both ways. But certainly, yes, you know,
(18:34):
as a as a fellow team builder. It was it
was nice to see Kennan City to be able to
get that done in this challenging environment as a division foe.
I don't have the same opinion early obviously, so but yeah,
we know we're gonna be facing him for a long
time and we got to build, um, you know, a
balanced team, not just defense. We got to build a
(18:54):
balanced team to go against them in Oakland and Denver
because the division is goal number one. When the division
one and everything from there. Yeah, you listen, you're gonna
you're not gonna hold Kansas City in the team. So
you're gonna be in some shootouts. And let's let's talk
Justin Herbert. I think he's really good. I mean you've
seen him. I have not. Our audience has not seen
Justin Herbert. What do your eyes tell you? Well, I
(19:18):
so far, and we've only had a couple of walkthroughs
with these players, but you know, he has a combination
of the physical talent that we're looking for and then
the makeup and at the quarterback position, you really need
to have both. Now, there's a lot of work that
needs to be done. You know, he's not the perfect quarterback.
We don't expect him to be right now, and he'll
grow at his own pace. And I think every team
(19:38):
we draft the quarterback high. I think everyone has different
philosophies how you want to develop that quarterback. But I
don't think there's a one size fits all when it
comes to that. It depends on your team, it depends
on your roster. You know, it's with the Colts when
both Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck were drafted, they played
right away, and part of it was because they were
the best quarterback on the roster at that time. When
(19:59):
I was the Carolina Panthers early in my career, when
Bill Polian drafted Carry Collins, you know, he had signed
Frank greg to come in and be the starter, and
Frank started the first three or four games and then
Carry came in from there. So you have to be
ready when that opportunity presents itself. I don't think you
tell any player that, hey, look, this is a red
shirt eyear, especially this year with what's going on, because
you gotta be ready to moment's notice. So we're gonna
(20:21):
let Justin grow at his own pace. I love our
coaching staff. They're teachers, they're communicators, and he's get a
lot of good work, you know, this training camp and
we'll take it from there. By the way, this is
a maybe a weird question. Do players wear masks during practice?
I literally saw a practice video yesterday yesterday with receivers
in Seattle wearing masks. What does it look a practice
look like? Do you got masks? Do you have hand
(20:43):
sanitizer everywhere? What does it look like? It's different. So
right now we're in more of a walkthrough pace. So
in a walkthrough pace, a lot of our players are
wearing masks. When we get the full speed running and
maybe a little bit more difficult to do that, but
right now most are wearing masks and the walkthrough. We
all have our contact tracers that we wear, which is
(21:03):
which is helpful, especially for coaches and staff on the sidelines,
because it does indicate to you, UM, worry, maybe too
close to somebody for too long, because you know, right now,
our protocols are really good. They're very stringent. Obviously we
have daily testing. UM that doesn't protect us from the virus,
but it will protect us from the outbreak. But as
far as handwashing, wearing masks, physical distancing, the contact tracers
(21:26):
that we wear. Um, that's all preventative, and I've been
really proud of of everybody how they've taken us so seriously,
I've been really pleased with everybody with the protocols are following.
We've got, you know, one hundred and eighty people here,
you know, eighty players and coaches and staff that are
all following these protocols and they're doing a great job.
Let me see that thing again on your wrist. What
is that? The tracing thing? Let me see a picture
of that now, what is it? Yeah? So okay, So
(21:51):
all the players, coaches, all of us staff, we wear these.
And it really has two functions. One, um, if somebody
does test positive, we can go back and look at
the data and see who's been close to that person
and for how long, and then probably pull that person
out to isolate them and retest them. So it helps
that and it really just helps because it will start
(22:11):
blinking red if you're too close to somebody within six
feet for too long. And that's that's really good for
us because we're used to working close with each other,
should the shoulder many times, and it's different for us
to have to take a step back and give that
distance I guess, and it's really important. I mean, this
is all preventative measures. I mean, testing will can only
take you so far. So it really has not been
(22:32):
an issue wearing these tracers. When they first brought it up,
it sounded like it's gonna be a little bit restrictive.
It really hasn't been at all, and I think it's
gonna be a big help. Yeah, Tom Tolesco Chargers, young GM.
Good talking to your coach. We'll talk soon, go to dinner,
all right, great talking to you, all right, It's good,
all right. He's one of the smartest guys I've ever
met in that sport. He's GM at like thirty nine,
forty years old. With the Chargers, there's not gonna be
(22:54):
any fans, it's so far so. I mean the Chargers
have had a weird kind of fan experience the last
couple of years. Anyway, they've been playing home road games, right,
so they're kind of equipped to deal with an odd
home field disadvantage. I am so impressed, Like I can't
say enough how impressed I am with all of these
professional leagues and protocols they've put in place, and how
(23:15):
everyone is just doing what they're supposed to doing on
protecting everyone and making sure that the season happens. It's remarkable. Okay,
the marlin screwed up. What we were going to have
a perfect view. Nothing was nothing is going to be perfect.
Nothing in life is perfect, so that's impossible. Let's not
trying to achieve achieve the impossible. Let's manage the situation.
(23:37):
Like everything that I've heard from the NFL has been
so positive about these protocols and everyone buying into it.
It's it's really impressive. Well, working from home, working on
the road. Binging your podcast by Raycon dot com fifteen
percent off by Raycon dot Com Wireless earbuds. The code
is h e ard Joey Taylor with the news. No No,
(23:57):
this is the Herd Line News sponsored by Mercedes Bets
The Best or Nothing. Baron Rodgers wasn't the only packer
that was surprised at the decision to drop the Jordan's
Love in the first round. Wide receiver Davante Adams says,
everyone thought that Green Bay was going to go in
a different direction then bringing in a rookie quarterback, I
(24:18):
mean extremely solid quarterback, and you know it may have shocked.
You know, we were all expecting. There's no secret, we're
all expecting to have a receiver drafted, but you know
that wasn't the case. Also, they don't. They're not great
at tight end right now. If they would have had
a great I mean, if you gave them Travis Kelsey,
you probably wouldn't have to go get it. I mean,
he's such a volumes, but they don't have a big
(24:41):
tight end presence, and it's just DeVante Adams. So I
think I didn't mind the Jordan Love pick. I was
deeply bothered by no wide receiver pick for the next
four I did not love the Jordan Loves pick. Not
that I don't think that Jordan Love is a good prospect,
I do. I didn't like how he was drafted, meaning
that they moved up in the draft to get him.
(25:01):
If he had fallen to them, it would have been
a different situation. But that's not what happens. They were
in the NFC Championship game last year. There's no comparison
to the far Rogers situation. They lost in the wild
card game the year before. They drafted Aaron Rodgers. It's
not the same thing. The NFC Championship Game is great
accomplishment they had a thirteen and three season. To me,
it's kind of significant that DeVante Adams said that everyone
(25:23):
thought that they were going to take a wide receiver.
There's a little bits of a messaging to the team
there that like, no, we're taking We're moving up to
take Jordan Love while we still have Aaron Rodgers, who
despite the fact that you know, the team obviously had holes,
they weren't able to get past San Francisco. Aaron Rodgers
(25:43):
had that season last year. Despite all that, we're still
going to move up and take Jordan Love. I understand
the strategy from Matt Lafleur and the front office's perspective,
but how does the rest of the team look at that.
It's not great players manner. It's kind of interesting. So
the Suns have been a surprise team in early and
oh and that continued yesterday against the Clippers. Devin Booker
had as terrific game thirty five points, four rebounds, and
(26:05):
eight assists, and he capped off an amazing night by
hitting a buzzer beating shot over Paul George and Kawhi
Leaner kind of to give the Phoenix Suns a one
seventeen one fifteen win. It could have been the star
in the bubble. That could have been their biggest win
in five years. I could be wrong on that. When's
the last time they had a win that big. I mean,
I can't even remember it five seven years. I just
(26:25):
think that they're finally trending in the right direction and
that's exciting. Devin Booker is a star. Yeah, they have
a star in the NBA and they have their Dame.
They've got their star. I don't want to go crazy
because it's still the Suns organization and we know how
they do things. But I thought this was a nice
night for for Devin Booker and the team and in
a nice moment. Obviously, you know they're they've they're three
(26:48):
and oh in the bubble, which is great. I don't
think it's a significant win over the Clippers as far
as the Clippers side of it. For the Suns it is,
but you know, we know what the Clippers are and
what they're going to do. But I think it's I
think it's building blocks when you have young teams and
young stars like this is. We know what Devin Booker is,
but this is a big moment and it was fun
for the NBA like having these moments in this this
(27:09):
couple weeks span, finishing the end of the season, going
into the playoffs is great. So many last second games
or not yet, I've been amazing five to six last
second shot games, amazing games. And then everything that's happening
with Mellow is awesome too. He came up touch for
the Blazers last night, sank at three pointer to give
his team a two possession lead with less than a
minute to go against the Rockets, which was a really
great game, and that put an exclamation point on a
(27:31):
strong performance fifteen total points and eleven rebounds. Portland also
got of a game out of Damian Lillard, who nearly
had a trible double with twenty one points, eight, nine rebounds,
I'm sorry, eight assists in one most intense game I'd
seen in the bubble? Was that one that that was
the most single most intense game I've seen in the bubble?
Was that game? Yes? Because this one really kind of
was a playoff games for Yeah, So they're ninth in
(27:54):
the West, are one and a half games behind Memphis.
CJ McCallum also had twenty points, seven rebounds, and I've
assist we I really like both these teams. I feel
like Houston is really the team that is sort of
my sleeper to possibly make something happen, and if you know,
a few things go awry, Like they are a championship team,
(28:14):
they're a factor in the bubble. I know everyone's very
high on Portland's and they're kind of afraid that the
Lakers match up with Portland. I love the Blazers and
everything that they're doing, they don't have anybody that can
go yeah, I just don't think that they have enough
for I mean, you know what AD's gonna do, what
he's going to do in the fourth quarter or who knows,
but I just don't think that they have anything for
Lebron at the end of day. I think it would
(28:36):
be an amazing series, ye see it like the Lakers
and the Blazers have like multiple seven foods, just be
such an intense series. So I would love to see it,
But in the end, I would still take the Lakers
in that spot. Joy Taylor with the news, Well that's
the news, and thanks for stopping by. But by the way,
you should show the show the Western Conference. As of now,
(28:57):
Joy was talking about this, so they showed it last night.
It was a game on TNT last night. I forget
so on they were showing the Western Conference right now.
So Memphis is in the eight spot, Portland's in the nine.
Memphis just lost one of their best players, so that
Portland's gonna get their way back in if they can win.
What's also interesting is the way the bubble works out.
(29:17):
If what is it? John? If you're within when it's
all done the regular season four games. If you're within
four games, Portland then gets a playoff series with Memphis,
and Memphis would only have to win one game, Portland
two in a three game series. It's very clever, Son.
The nine team is gonna get in to a playoff series,
(29:40):
a mini micro series with the eight team. So Portland's
better than Memphis, I think. To begin with, they've had
a lot of injuries. Ner kids didn't play it forever.
But now with Nurkitch back, Mellow playing well, Portland's better
than Memphis. Portland's better than Dallas. What a fun mini
series that's gonna be. Yeah, I think honestly, I can
make the argument Clippers, Lakers, nugget Drug, it's Portland, those
(30:02):
are the five best team. But like Portland's a deceptively
great nine seed. They're not really a nine seed because
now Mellow's in playing well Nerd kitches back. Well, that's
what all the buzz is about. Now if they get
into that spot, the Lakers people are the Lakers would
have sweat Memphis in four. Yeah, this is gonna be
a six game series, which is gonna be taxing. You're
(30:22):
gonna and you know Lebron. Remember Avery Bradley's out, and
how does that affect the Lakers in the playoff. Remember
the one team you needed Avery Bradley against was Houston
because of their guards and Portland because of theirs. Avery
Bradley was huge. You can get away with it not
having Avery against the Clippers, who are more forward dominant.
(30:45):
Houston Portland. Avery Bradley was gonna guard a Harden, gonna
guard a Dame. So that's a huge. Now people just like, oh,
it's no big deal, No, no, no, no, Avery Bradley
and Rondo. Now that's thirty five minutes of defensive activity
flushed out. It's gone. It's just this is also great
because we're going to have exciting first round series. R
(31:06):
first round. Yes, all right, Michael Rappaport's crazy. The producer,
comedian NBA thoughts. Next, be sure to catch live editions
of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine a Empacific
on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app.
I gotta give Michael Rappaport, the actor, writer, comedian credit.
He looks better on his skypie thing he's got here
(31:29):
than he does in studio. Let's go to him right now.
Michael Rappaport, Fox Sports One contributor Diehard Basketball and sports
fan is joining us. I mean, look at him. His
hair looks glorious. It looks like the Deel Sassoon products.
You look very, very good. So let's start with this though.
Wait wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a second, man, because
(31:49):
that's a backcand compliment. What so you're trying to tell
me at home? I look better than the three dimensional
in life persona that we're used to. I mean, you're like, oh,
I gotta give him some credit. But what do I
look like? I'm displaced when I show up over there? Yeah,
you look like you just rolled out of this bed.
Now you look like an actor. This is crazy, man, Joy,
(32:10):
this guy's taking pot shots out of me. I haven't
seen you guys in months you know, you know that's McCall.
Does you know he's he's trying to give you a compliment,
but he really misses having you in studios. He wants
to make you feel more comfortable about being at home
because he misses somebody comes to his studio showing up
int my pajamas and flip flops. All right, so let's
start with this. And Nick Wright was on He's freaking
(32:33):
out about the Clippers, and I'm like, they don't even
care about the regular season. They got to get stars
in a title to take this city over. Your thought
about the Clippers losing to the lowly Suns, Well, I
don't think that they don't care. I agree with him
about that, but I agree with you that they're not
(32:53):
peeking right now. So I don't think it's that they
don't care. But I think that the Lakers we're seeing
them peak, you know, Anthony Davis and Lebron. Of course,
you know they're coming. Lebron is coming hard, He's coming.
You know, nothing could stop him. I'm not worried about
anything stopping Lebron James. The Lakers are are going to
(33:14):
do that. But the Clippers right now, with the sweet sauce,
Lou Williams and the Mantras Mystery, the Mystery of Mantras,
and Kawi's just starting to, you know, get it going.
Uh They're gonna They're gonna start morphing in the next
week and then through throughout the first round. And I
don't think it's that they don't care. I just think
it's a different environment. They've been a little dismantled, you know,
(33:37):
with with Lou and Patrick Beverley. But Kawhi is gonna
get his rhythm. And uh, I think that the the
the Lakers and the Laker fans and and you know,
the Los Angeles is my second second home there. They
need to get ready for a big, big Los Angeles
Lakers Lebron James heartbreak. They're not winning the championship now.
(33:58):
If you ask me today who's going to knock them out?
I would say the Los Angeles Clippers if they make
it that far. So what do we may not make
it that far? I'm very critical sometimes of Westbrook. Last
night we got bad Westbrook. A couple of nights ago
we got great Westbrook. What do you make a small
ball Houston? They're captivating team to watch. What do you
(34:19):
make of them. Um, I think that that backcourt is
probably the most disliked backcourt by fans and opponents ever. Yeah,
they're they're criticized, they're scrutinized. Players do not like playing
against them because they just keep coming after you. I mean,
(34:40):
you and I have had the Russell Westbrook conversation for years.
I think that him and Harden, James and Russ, they
sort of level each other out and they kind of, uh,
you know, he comes Russell down a little bit, and
he also toughens Harden up a little bit. Now we
know Harden has had his disappearing X in the playoffs.
(35:01):
But they're playing very well. Also. I don't think they're
peaking yet. But their defense is scrappy. Their defense is tough. PJ.
Tucker and Covington they bought into the system. You never
thought that a Mike dan Antoni team would be mentioned
with any sort of defense. But I think they have
a nice, a nice team, and they're they're gonna be
(35:22):
a challenge, man, They're going to be a challenge whoever
whoever they wind up matching up against. You know, you
have to you have to get that that sleep in
the bubble. You need to find a way to get
a good night rest playing against that team, because they're
going to come at you. They're not going to bow down.
And I think that James Harden is really looking to
prove himself to have a great run throughout the playoffs. Now,
(35:44):
you're an actor, and actors only work about two months
a year. So let's talk about another guy who works infrequently. Zion.
I love him. I think he's my favorite young player,
and I mean, honestly, I don't remember a young player out.
I didn't even like Lebron this much when he came
into the league. So as somebody yourself who works in
frequently as an actor, you guys get paid a lot
and worked like three four days a year. What do
(36:06):
you make of Zion's restrictions. I understand restrictions. Now, m
It's been the craziest rookie season that you could ever
imagine for any of the rookie players. Obviously, he came
off with the injury, and then he started playing, and
then we had the the the stop and now he's back.
(36:27):
I think that Zion, we need to see if Zion
Williamson is going to commit to being the best version
of himself. You know, we see it in spurts. You know,
it's surprising. Defenses don't know what to make of it
because they haven't really dealt with it. They haven't played
against him consistently enough. But we don't know if this
(36:48):
guy will ever be able to stay in shape. God
willing he stays healthy, but he's got to commit to
being a professional basketball player. The hype and the excitement,
we know it's all there. But can he play defense?
Does he have enough energy in the tank to play
defense when you're blocking shots at a bound in college?
You know, we saw his highlights. We've been watching this
(37:09):
this young kid for years and when he was in
high school, bullying people in high school, bullying everybody in college.
But this is the NBA. There's gonna be other bullies.
So I like him. I like his temperament, but we
got to see if he's really ready to commit and
can he play a full season or close to a
full season. But I got a lot of young talent.
Brandon ingram Is, you know, definitely stepped it up. But
(37:33):
a Zion Williamson is his game gonna translate to when
there's eight seconds on the clock, who do we give
the ball to? Can he power his way to the
hoop the way he does. You's certainly not gonna get
alley oops three to one buzzer beater or ally oops.
So we have to see what he's gonna morph into.
But he's still a young prodigy and an exciting prodigy.
(37:53):
It's just it's a matter of commitment and good fortune
with the health. Okay, one minute left? Does it drive
you not, just as a New Yorker that Mellow's playing
great basketball now at thirty six in the Pacific Northwest
drive you nuts? No, it doesn't drive me nuts. I'm
happy for him. It's a great system. He stepped up
to the plate. He's taken the step back, and I
(38:13):
didn't like the way it was looking that they were
going to end his Hall of Fame career. I was
happy for him when he got signed and he made
a great shot the other day. Uh CJ trust him, Dame,
trust him, and he and he's having fun. Carmelo looks
like he's genuinely having so much fun. He does he does.
That's a good point. He looks like he's he's a
joyful Carmelo Anthony. And that, by the way, Yeah, that matters.
(38:34):
Lebron always said, I hate being a villain. I he
Lebron hated being a villain. He wanted to have a
joyful career. By the way, look at your hair today.
It is salon perfect. You've done a really nice job.
I gotta tell you something, You're a professional. I didn't
come here to play games with you, Colin okay, and
I didn't come here to take to get to get
a little didn't get shots thrown at me either, So
I'm ready for whatever you need. Speaking of great hair, joy,
(38:57):
yours is fan I know, ridiculous. She changes, iculous, she changes.
I'm getting a haircut today. She changes her hair every
single day, like she'll be a Hollywood starlet from the
fifties one day, and then you get a new haircut
and you look like the coolest uh college co ed
and now you're you're Joey Taylor. Well, Collie, make sure
(39:19):
you tip your barber extra today because that's a lot
of work to do for you. Man. Just I mean
just at the heads through there. Tip them extra. I
have a haircut today at my house. One hundred bucks
for coming to my house and a tip that's not bad, No, no, unacceptable. Sorry,
unacceptable to you. Gotta go better today. I want you
to double that up for them. Come on, okay, Michael Rappaport, actor, director, producer, podcaster,
(39:45):
do it yourself home projects all start at Lows. More
time at home than ever before. Go to lows dot com,
hashtag lows goals. I'm I'm creating my own bar cart.
You do the same. Hour three, we'll go to Tampa
next
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern,
nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one.
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 heard you're listening to Fox
Sports Radio. Oh, here we go, it's our two. We
(00:25):
are rudeling along alive in Los Angeles. This is the
Herd wherever you may be, however you may be listening
Fox Sports Radio FS one. My good friend Nick Cohn,
(00:48):
been my agent for years, got a new job now
the president with Vince McMahon of the seat WWE. This
is kind of behind the rope, but Nick has guided
my career for the last half decade. Best agent I've
ever had, perhaps the best friend I've ever had in
the business. And it's not goodbye, it's see you soon.
(01:11):
He is now running the WWE, which of course is
on Fox. So if he can get me Charlotte Flair
on the show, we're all good Ingrats Nick. Nick has
been very great for me in my career as well.
It's wonderful news, huge, huge news. Congratulations unbelievably peerless in
his talent, perception and work ethic. Congratulations to Nick conn
(01:32):
will see you soon and get me. Charlotte Flair, the
Queen rules the Internet. So listen. A lot of you
think I don't like Carmelo Anthony. Calomelo Anthony frustrated me.
But last night he hit big shots for Portland and
at thirty six year old, thirty six years old, at
the end of the road, he's finally in shape and
he has found a perfect spot to play. You know,
(01:54):
I always tell my wife, you got the good in me.
There was me in my twenties. That was my wife,
and I was so obsessed with my career and I
was so tunnel vision. And now I'm older, you know,
I'm beaten down as a broadcaster. I'm like, you get
the good met I'm more fun. I like vacations. I
like to hang out. I you know, I cannot think
about work all the time. Damian Lillard got the good
(02:17):
Carmelo Anthony. He doesn't have options, He's not the player
he once was. He knows he's not dame. And this Carmelo,
I like, it's a little late, but I like it.
And Damian Lillard talked about his performance. He hit the
big shot of the game last night. Here's Dame. He's
a Hall of famer. You know, I think it's more
(02:38):
disappointing that people are surprised by it, you know what
I mean. He's a he's a Hall of famer. Like
I said, he's a great teammate. And that's what we
expect from him. You know, we put him in those
positions because we expect him to make those shots. We
believe he's going to make those shots. And we brought
him here because we knew he would make a difference
for our team, and he's been doing it. First of all,
he is a Hall of famer. That's not even disputable.
(02:59):
It's called the Basketball Hall of Fame, and even if
it wasn't, he would make it. But he's Syracuse national champion,
ten time all star, top twenty all time score, three
gold medals in the Olympics, and he was very good
in the Olympics. Of course, he's a Hall of famer.
And again, Dame's getting the good mellow. Right, we all mature,
(03:20):
we all grow. He's not getting the twenty three year
old mellow. Here's the interesting thing when I think about
NBA stars and Mellow's certainly a star. They always fall
in two categories. Now I'm not talking NBA players, those
those fall in multiple categories. But stars, Dame's a star,
Lebron's a star, AD's a star, Kawhi, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony.
(03:40):
They always fall into two categories, winning stars and stat stars.
And the difference is not talent. The difference is not talent.
The winning stars are Kobe and Lebron and Steph Curry
and Dwayne Wade and Magic Johnson and Bird. The stat
(04:02):
stars or Tracy McGrady and Dominique Wilkins and Carmelo Anthony.
I wrote a few down this morning, t Mac George Gervin,
who I loved as a kid. It is not talent.
Carmelo is more talented than Steph Curry, bigger, stronger, more talented.
Dominique Wilkins, to me, is more gifted physically than even
d Wade. It is not about that. It is about
(04:25):
self awareness, and the winning stars have it at a
very early age. Do I give them credit or their parents?
Hell if I know, But this league is about kids
coming in. This is not college football. When you come
in at twenty four, You're come in at nineteen twenty
twenty one years old. Do you have at nineteen twenty
twenty one years old latest twenty two? Do you understand
(04:50):
how valuable coaching is? Do you understand how hard you
have to work to be able to be good on
the offensive and defensive end. Do you understand some nights
take fewer shots even though you can get the points
to get teammates involved. Do you have the self awareness
to understand how valuable everybody is beyond yourself? Because to
(05:10):
get to the NBA at twenty one, you were the
best high school player, the best au player, the best
college player. I mean you are literally like a prodigy.
I mean, think about this. In America every year there's
about eight basketball players. How many times do you watch
people play basketball? Young people, eight of them a year
from America make the NBA. I mean, like like play
(05:31):
You're a prodigy, like a music prodigy, like the kid
that goes to Harvard at fifteen years old or MT
it's seventeen, right, fifteen seventeen. So and that's my knock.
This is not a knock on Carmelo Dominique, but there
were moments in time that Carmelo kept showing me he
just didn't have the self awareness. And give you an example.
When Lebron went from Cleveland and Miami Miami back to Cleveland,
(05:53):
he didn't demand trades because he manipulated the situation so
he would join good players. When Carmelo left Denver, instead
of just being a little more patient, he demanded a
trade and the Knicks had to give up all sorts
of talent and all sorts of pick, all sorts of players,
guaranteeing they weren't going to be a championship team. Self awareness.
(06:15):
Lebron had it, Melo didn't. How about the fact that Lebron,
I mean, thirteen years ago, watched the game and went,
I'm gonna start working on my three point shot. Carmelo
begrudging begrudgingly, never wanted to take an extra step and
a half back. He didn't like it. He wouldn't do it.
He wouldn't embrace it like Lebron did. How about the
(06:35):
fact that when he went to Oklahoma City off the bench,
I'm a bench player. Well, actually on that team, he
were a bench player. It's not that Melo's lacked talent.
I mean, he's a ten time All Star three goals,
Syracus dead. But there have been multiple instances where Jeremy Lynn.
Remember when the Knicks for about a month caught fire,
(06:57):
they were the talk of basketball with Jeremy Lynn. Mellow
came back. Instead of embracing Jeremy Lynn and the winning streak,
He's like, no, I'm not gonna play that offense, dude,
It's just about winning games. Time and time again. Mellow
lacked the self awareness. And this is the gap to
me between the Kobe's, the Wades and the George Gervins
and their nice guys, and the Nicks and the Mellow.
(07:19):
Now they may have the self awareness at twenty eight
and at thirty four and now in their fifties, but
when they were twenty two and twenty three and twenty
one and twenty and they were building that reputation, they
turned people off. Remember, your prime in this league is
twenty two to about twenty eight, maybe twenty nine thirty. Now,
(07:40):
now Lebron's like Brady exceptional, but that's the difference. He's
a Hall of Famer. Dame is now getting the good Mellow,
the more mature Mellow, that not as talented Mellow. We
don't need you to score twenty mellow, you gotta occasionally
play some defense. Mellow, and this is a good Mellow.
I mean, he can fill it up. He's he's talented.
There's no I mean, they got no wing scores. They
(08:02):
need Mellow bad. They got a great backcourt and Nurkic,
so they have a humongous hole in their team. I
mean I talked to somebody up in Portland that covers
them when they got Mellow, and they're like, no, this
is gonna work, Like we just need a guy in
the wing, the six seven guy that can shoot jumpers.
So it's that cell phone sports is incredibly cruel. In
almost every business in the world. You become a millionaire,
(08:27):
your prime is forty two to fifty five. You can
make all those mistakes when you're twenty years old. Pro
sports is different. You have to be smart, self aware, focused.
You don't get to have a social life like like
an average twenty two year old. Oh, you're carrying the franchise.
Figure all the difficult stuff out For guys like me.
(08:49):
I didn't have to worry about that was forty. Pro
athletes have to figure it out at nineteen, twenty, twenty
years old, like Luca Donchez twenty years old. Dude, you
are the face of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban's number
one business. You're the face the hell. I wasn't ready
for that at twenty were you? Luca is? And that
was mellows thing he's now, It just took longer for
(09:10):
him to kind of get the big picture. Now he's perfect,
but there was a lot of years in there where
forcing a trade, not embracing Jeremy Lynn, kind of laughing
at those who suggested you come off the bench, not
really working on that fifteen years ago, working on that
three point shot. That was clearly the future of the league.
And that's why he'll make the Hall of Fame, but
(09:31):
he won't be in that other category of stars to me,
the winning stars. I saw another story that I think
is interesting. Yukon became the first FBS football team to
cancel the college football season. So Ukon said, we're out now.
The reason this happened is Yukon was kind of an independent.
The way their schedule worked, they had multiple road games
(09:53):
that got canceled because of other league schedules, so Ukon
really didn't have a you know, they're just like Listen,
we don't feel like losing twenty five thirty million dollars. Now,
twenty minutes after that was announced, the Big Ten announced
their schedule. And let's be honest about this college football season,
and let's be honest about COVID. It is really separating.
Some have and have knots. In the MLS, two teams
(10:15):
couldn't get it right, didn't even show up in baseball.
The Marlins are lost, the Dodgers, the Twins, the Yankees,
the Cubs, they're not getting guys getting tests. The reality
is some UFC fighters couldn't be disciplined enough. They got
pulled off cards. College football has always been have and
(10:37):
have knots. There is a massive gap in money in
state recruiting, passion, history, commitment resources, and Yukon is a
have not. Notre Dame, Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, Clemson, Oregons. Those
(10:58):
are halves and those programs have the money and the resources.
I mean, the NBA spent in seventy five million dollars
on all this COVID testing. Like it's expensive. Ukon can't
afford it, and probably sixty teams in college football they
probably just can't afford it. Plus there's no fans, there's
no revenue. So I think college football this year, I
(11:19):
think it's going to work for the SEC. I think
the stronger gonna get stronger. I've seen this in restaurants,
and I've seen this in airlines. Delta has I've flown
them twelve times. They've been virtually flawless, low cost airlines.
Some are not going to make it, most may not
make it, and they're really struggling. So Yukon's news today
(11:40):
is not the story of college football. It's the story
of a college football have not in an incredibly restrictive time,
and it's going to test those schools that don't drive
big revenue in football. Yukon doesn't, and they're probably doing
the smart right thing canceling their season. Coming up next,
(12:02):
Michael Rappaport In thirty Minutes, Tom Talesco the GM of
the Chargers. Many believe it's a top three roster. Here
we go campus starting. He's got Justin Herbert, that young
star quarterback who's gonna learn this year. We presume sit
this year. Talk about the challenges of an NFL GM
that's coming up next. One more Herd The Herd Streams
(12:24):
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Within
the iHeartRadio app, Search Herd to listen live or on
demand whenever you like. Today and I'll be on FS
one continues as Bryce Harper and the Phillies take on
Aaron Judge and the Yankees. It all starts at four
eastern one Pacific on FS one and the Fox Sports app.
I'll be watching. You know, yesterday we had Chris Ballard
(12:45):
on the GM of the Colts and they obviously acquired
for one year Philip Rivers and it's interesting and he
was talking about Philip and he said, Philip is so
intense and he loves the game so deeply. And now
that's Brady, that's Russell Wilson. When you get that, like
some of it's luck that you literally find somebody who
as they age, they love the game more. Philip Rivers
(13:06):
once told me on the show, he goes, I like
practice more than games, and I'm thinking that's a guy
that loves football. And his former general manager is Tom
Talesco is the youngest Charger GM ever when he got hired.
He is joining us eighth years the Chargers GM via
the Coward Global Satellite Network. And you know, it's interesting
and I'm sure Tom you've thought about this before. I mean,
Philip plus the Chargers emotionally, his intensity, his love is passion.
(13:31):
Are you concerned that we didn't just lose a great guy,
good lord, we lost an emotional part of our tapestry
and that is a that's tough to fill, right, Yes, yeah, No,
it's it's a big void someone of that stature, that
where you just mentioned about the passion that goes into
it in the leadership and everything that comes along with that.
(13:53):
Everybody else feeds off that and they see that's how
your leader works, they fall in line. So but that
gives us is we'll have other people work into that void. Now,
is it gonna be one person? Probably not, But we
have a number of players here that I think will
become those next leaders have that same energy. And like
you said too, it's a lot of us on the
(14:13):
practice field in the meeting rooms. If you have a
passion for what you do and love what you do,
this game's a grind and you won't get better, you
won't improve. So you have to have that part of
that buydset that to love what you do just to
keep improving. And I think we have a number of
players here that will kind of fill that void. You
just signed Joey Bosa to a contract. Now, he's an
unbelievable talent, as is his brother. So when you sign
(14:38):
him before the season, I was just thinking to myself,
you know, you lose Philip and this is a really
good signing. This sends a message to the organization. Listen, man,
we're all in on this stuff. What was that part
of the signing that you know he is a leader,
he is vocal, and then it sent a message to
your locker room we're keeping our stars here. This is
(14:58):
a big guy. This is a big sign Well, that's
always been our philosophy is to draft players, develop them,
and resign our own. Now can you do that one
hundred percent of the time, No, you can't, not in
a salary cap era. But certainly with with Joey, he
falls into that and he'll he'll continue to grow into
that leadership role. But in this league, and certainly in
(15:20):
our division, you need edge rush and you need interior rush,
and obviously Joey can help us there big time. It's
a very important signing for us to have that done
moving forward. Look, you know football is gonna look different,
feel different this year, but you know we're gonna have
a trophy at the end of the year and we're
competing for that with everybody else. So you know, football
(15:42):
operations still moving on. We just have to adapt and
change a little bit with it. But now that was
very important for us to get that done for this
football team and the organization. So justin Herbert doesn't need
to play because Tyron Taylor, who he said multiple times
on this show, has always been a much more competent
starter than he's been given credit for. If you go
less or five years, he's been with rebuilding teams and
won a lot of football games Cleveland and Buffalo. So
(16:04):
Herbert doesn't have to play. That's good news. Let's talk
about rookies. Let's talk about no OTAs, no preseason. Let's
talk about how difficult it is, Tom how do you
make up that ground with rookies. Look, if you can't
adapt or if you're resistant to change, the year twenty
(16:25):
twenty may not be for you. So that's what we
all have to do. I mean, it's just it is
what it is. You know. Where I'm less focused on
what we can't do and the challenges and just figuring
out different ways to do things. So with young players, yes,
there may be some less opportunities on the practice field,
or not in the practice field, but just in preseason games.
But for young players, they've gotten a lot of work
(16:46):
in the classroom, a lot of work on zoom meetings.
They should know the playbook well if you if you
if you're unsure or don't know what to do on
the field and you play slow, you won't play in
this league very long. So they should know the playbook
well on paper. Now, processing that in real time on
the practice field, that does take time. That's what we
got the next five or six weeks to work on,
and we'll put them in a lot of competitive situations
(17:08):
in practice. Anthony does a great job with that to
try and get a feel for these players and evaluate them.
But you know, don't forget too. We've got a fifty
three man roster in sixteen practice squad spots this year,
so that's sixty nine jobs. That's the most jobs and
an NFL team that I've ever been around. So there
may be less actual opportunities on a practice field to
(17:28):
show coaches what you can do, but there's more jobs available,
so you know, we've got a glean one or two
things from these players, get a good feel for that,
and hopefully the opportunities to even get on a practice
squad and then work your way up from there. You know,
years ago, it was funny watching teams that had to
face Peyton Manning for ten years in their division or
(17:49):
Brady for ten years twenty years in the AFC East.
You could watch teams draft pass rushers because they knew
where they were going to have to face Peyton Manning
and Tom Brady and possibly would be trailing in games.
You're gonna face Patrick Mahomes for a decade? Is it
going to Tom? When you're sitting in these these draft
meetings with your scouts, will you? Is Mahomes so influential
(18:11):
it may change the way you draft your team? I mean,
how could it not. I mean, you know, the first
way into the playoffs is to win your division, so
that's our number one goal. And as you build your
football team, you have to look at your whole division
or how you match up with those teams, and you
also have to look at how they match up with you.
So it goes both ways. But certainly, yes, you know,
(18:34):
as a as a fellow team builder. It was it
was nice to see Kennan City to be able to
get that done in this challenging environment as a division foe.
I don't have the same opinion early obviously, so but yeah,
we know we're gonna be facing him for a long
time and we got to build, um, you know, a
balanced team, not just defense. We got to build a
(18:54):
balanced team to go against them in Oakland and Denver
because the division is goal number one. When the division
one and everything from there. Yeah, you listen, you're gonna
you're not gonna hold Kansas City in the team. So
you're gonna be in some shootouts. And let's let's talk
Justin Herbert. I think he's really good. I mean you've
seen him. I have not. Our audience has not seen
Justin Herbert. What do your eyes tell you? Well, I
(19:18):
so far, and we've only had a couple of walkthroughs
with these players, but you know, he has a combination
of the physical talent that we're looking for and then
the makeup and at the quarterback position, you really need
to have both. Now, there's a lot of work that
needs to be done. You know, he's not the perfect quarterback.
We don't expect him to be right now, and he'll
grow at his own pace. And I think every team
(19:38):
we draft the quarterback high. I think everyone has different
philosophies how you want to develop that quarterback. But I
don't think there's a one size fits all when it
comes to that. It depends on your team, it depends
on your roster. You know, it's with the Colts when
both Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck were drafted, they played
right away, and part of it was because they were
the best quarterback on the roster at that time. When
(19:59):
I was the Carolina Panthers early in my career, when
Bill Polian drafted Carry Collins, you know, he had signed
Frank greg to come in and be the starter, and
Frank started the first three or four games and then
Carry came in from there. So you have to be
ready when that opportunity presents itself. I don't think you
tell any player that, hey, look, this is a red
shirt eyear, especially this year with what's going on, because
you gotta be ready to moment's notice. So we're gonna
(20:21):
let Justin grow at his own pace. I love our
coaching staff. They're teachers, they're communicators, and he's get a
lot of good work, you know, this training camp and
we'll take it from there. By the way, this is
a maybe a weird question. Do players wear masks during practice?
I literally saw a practice video yesterday yesterday with receivers
in Seattle wearing masks. What does it look a practice
look like? Do you got masks? Do you have hand
(20:43):
sanitizer everywhere? What does it look like? It's different. So
right now we're in more of a walkthrough pace. So
in a walkthrough pace, a lot of our players are
wearing masks. When we get the full speed running and
maybe a little bit more difficult to do that, but
right now most are wearing masks and the walkthrough. We
all have our contact tracers that we wear, which is
(21:03):
which is helpful, especially for coaches and staff on the sidelines,
because it does indicate to you, UM, worry, maybe too
close to somebody for too long, because you know, right now,
our protocols are really good. They're very stringent. Obviously we
have daily testing. UM that doesn't protect us from the virus,
but it will protect us from the outbreak. But as
far as handwashing, wearing masks, physical distancing, the contact tracers
(21:26):
that we wear. Um, that's all preventative, and I've been
really proud of of everybody how they've taken us so seriously,
I've been really pleased with everybody with the protocols are following.
We've got, you know, one hundred and eighty people here,
you know, eighty players and coaches and staff that are
all following these protocols and they're doing a great job.
Let me see that thing again on your wrist. What
is that? The tracing thing? Let me see a picture
of that now, what is it? Yeah? So okay, So
(21:51):
all the players, coaches, all of us staff, we wear these.
And it really has two functions. One, um, if somebody
does test positive, we can go back and look at
the data and see who's been close to that person
and for how long, and then probably pull that person
out to isolate them and retest them. So it helps
that and it really just helps because it will start
(22:11):
blinking red if you're too close to somebody within six
feet for too long. And that's that's really good for
us because we're used to working close with each other,
should the shoulder many times, and it's different for us
to have to take a step back and give that
distance I guess, and it's really important. I mean, this
is all preventative measures. I mean, testing will can only
take you so far. So it really has not been
(22:32):
an issue wearing these tracers. When they first brought it up,
it sounded like it's gonna be a little bit restrictive.
It really hasn't been at all, and I think it's
gonna be a big help. Yeah, Tom Tolesco Chargers, young GM.
Good talking to your coach. We'll talk soon, go to dinner,
all right, great talking to you, all right, It's good,
all right. He's one of the smartest guys I've ever
met in that sport. He's GM at like thirty nine,
forty years old. With the Chargers, there's not gonna be
(22:54):
any fans, it's so far so. I mean the Chargers
have had a weird kind of fan experience the last
couple of years. Anyway, they've been playing home road games, right,
so they're kind of equipped to deal with an odd
home field disadvantage. I am so impressed, Like I can't
say enough how impressed I am with all of these
professional leagues and protocols they've put in place, and how
(23:15):
everyone is just doing what they're supposed to doing on
protecting everyone and making sure that the season happens. It's remarkable. Okay,
the marlin screwed up. What we were going to have
a perfect view. Nothing was nothing is going to be perfect.
Nothing in life is perfect, so that's impossible. Let's not
trying to achieve achieve the impossible. Let's manage the situation.
(23:37):
Like everything that I've heard from the NFL has been
so positive about these protocols and everyone buying into it.
It's it's really impressive. Well, working from home, working on
the road. Binging your podcast by Raycon dot com fifteen
percent off by Raycon dot Com Wireless earbuds. The code
is h e ard Joey Taylor with the news. No No,
(23:57):
this is the Herd Line News sponsored by Mercedes Bets
The Best or Nothing. Baron Rodgers wasn't the only packer
that was surprised at the decision to drop the Jordan's
Love in the first round. Wide receiver Davante Adams says,
everyone thought that Green Bay was going to go in
a different direction then bringing in a rookie quarterback, I
(24:18):
mean extremely solid quarterback, and you know it may have shocked.
You know, we were all expecting. There's no secret, we're
all expecting to have a receiver drafted, but you know
that wasn't the case. Also, they don't. They're not great
at tight end right now. If they would have had
a great I mean, if you gave them Travis Kelsey,
you probably wouldn't have to go get it. I mean,
he's such a volumes, but they don't have a big
(24:41):
tight end presence, and it's just DeVante Adams. So I
think I didn't mind the Jordan Love pick. I was
deeply bothered by no wide receiver pick for the next
four I did not love the Jordan Loves pick. Not
that I don't think that Jordan Love is a good prospect,
I do. I didn't like how he was drafted, meaning
that they moved up in the draft to get him.
(25:01):
If he had fallen to them, it would have been
a different situation. But that's not what happens. They were
in the NFC Championship game last year. There's no comparison
to the far Rogers situation. They lost in the wild
card game the year before. They drafted Aaron Rodgers. It's
not the same thing. The NFC Championship Game is great
accomplishment they had a thirteen and three season. To me,
it's kind of significant that DeVante Adams said that everyone
(25:23):
thought that they were going to take a wide receiver.
There's a little bits of a messaging to the team
there that like, no, we're taking We're moving up to
take Jordan Love while we still have Aaron Rodgers, who
despite the fact that you know, the team obviously had holes,
they weren't able to get past San Francisco. Aaron Rodgers
(25:43):
had that season last year. Despite all that, we're still
going to move up and take Jordan Love. I understand
the strategy from Matt Lafleur and the front office's perspective,
but how does the rest of the team look at that.
It's not great players manner. It's kind of interesting. So
the Suns have been a surprise team in early and
oh and that continued yesterday against the Clippers. Devin Booker
had as terrific game thirty five points, four rebounds, and
(26:05):
eight assists, and he capped off an amazing night by
hitting a buzzer beating shot over Paul George and Kawhi
Leaner kind of to give the Phoenix Suns a one
seventeen one fifteen win. It could have been the star
in the bubble. That could have been their biggest win
in five years. I could be wrong on that. When's
the last time they had a win that big. I mean,
I can't even remember it five seven years. I just
(26:25):
think that they're finally trending in the right direction and
that's exciting. Devin Booker is a star. Yeah, they have
a star in the NBA and they have their Dame.
They've got their star. I don't want to go crazy
because it's still the Suns organization and we know how
they do things. But I thought this was a nice
night for for Devin Booker and the team and in
a nice moment. Obviously, you know they're they've they're three
(26:48):
and oh in the bubble, which is great. I don't
think it's a significant win over the Clippers as far
as the Clippers side of it. For the Suns it is,
but you know, we know what the Clippers are and
what they're going to do. But I think it's I
think it's building blocks when you have young teams and
young stars like this is. We know what Devin Booker is,
but this is a big moment and it was fun
for the NBA like having these moments in this this
(27:09):
couple weeks span, finishing the end of the season, going
into the playoffs is great. So many last second games
or not yet, I've been amazing five to six last
second shot games, amazing games. And then everything that's happening
with Mellow is awesome too. He came up touch for
the Blazers last night, sank at three pointer to give
his team a two possession lead with less than a
minute to go against the Rockets, which was a really
great game, and that put an exclamation point on a
(27:31):
strong performance fifteen total points and eleven rebounds. Portland also
got of a game out of Damian Lillard, who nearly
had a trible double with twenty one points, eight, nine rebounds,
I'm sorry, eight assists in one most intense game I'd
seen in the bubble? Was that one that that was
the most single most intense game I've seen in the bubble?
Was that game? Yes? Because this one really kind of
was a playoff games for Yeah, So they're ninth in
(27:54):
the West, are one and a half games behind Memphis.
CJ McCallum also had twenty points, seven rebounds, and I've
assist we I really like both these teams. I feel
like Houston is really the team that is sort of
my sleeper to possibly make something happen, and if you know,
a few things go awry, Like they are a championship team,
(28:14):
they're a factor in the bubble. I know everyone's very
high on Portland's and they're kind of afraid that the
Lakers match up with Portland. I love the Blazers and
everything that they're doing, they don't have anybody that can
go yeah, I just don't think that they have enough
for I mean, you know what AD's gonna do, what
he's going to do in the fourth quarter or who knows,
but I just don't think that they have anything for
Lebron at the end of day. I think it would
(28:36):
be an amazing series, ye see it like the Lakers
and the Blazers have like multiple seven foods, just be
such an intense series. So I would love to see it,
But in the end, I would still take the Lakers
in that spot. Joy Taylor with the news, Well that's
the news, and thanks for stopping by. But by the way,
you should show the show the Western Conference. As of now,
(28:57):
Joy was talking about this, so they showed it last night.
It was a game on TNT last night. I forget
so on they were showing the Western Conference right now.
So Memphis is in the eight spot, Portland's in the nine.
Memphis just lost one of their best players, so that
Portland's gonna get their way back in if they can win.
What's also interesting is the way the bubble works out.
(29:17):
If what is it? John? If you're within when it's
all done the regular season four games. If you're within
four games, Portland then gets a playoff series with Memphis,
and Memphis would only have to win one game, Portland
two in a three game series. It's very clever, Son.
The nine team is gonna get in to a playoff series,
(29:40):
a mini micro series with the eight team. So Portland's
better than Memphis, I think. To begin with, they've had
a lot of injuries. Ner kids didn't play it forever.
But now with Nurkitch back, Mellow playing well, Portland's better
than Memphis. Portland's better than Dallas. What a fun mini
series that's gonna be. Yeah, I think honestly, I can
make the argument Clippers, Lakers, nugget Drug, it's Portland, those
(30:02):
are the five best team. But like Portland's a deceptively
great nine seed. They're not really a nine seed because
now Mellow's in playing well Nerd kitches back. Well, that's
what all the buzz is about. Now if they get
into that spot, the Lakers people are the Lakers would
have sweat Memphis in four. Yeah, this is gonna be
a six game series, which is gonna be taxing. You're
(30:22):
gonna and you know Lebron. Remember Avery Bradley's out, and
how does that affect the Lakers in the playoff. Remember
the one team you needed Avery Bradley against was Houston
because of their guards and Portland because of theirs. Avery
Bradley was huge. You can get away with it not
having Avery against the Clippers, who are more forward dominant.
(30:45):
Houston Portland. Avery Bradley was gonna guard a Harden, gonna
guard a Dame. So that's a huge. Now people just like, oh,
it's no big deal, No, no, no, no, Avery Bradley
and Rondo. Now that's thirty five minutes of defensive activity
flushed out. It's gone. It's just this is also great
because we're going to have exciting first round series. R
(31:06):
first round. Yes, all right, Michael Rappaport's crazy. The producer,
comedian NBA thoughts. Next, be sure to catch live editions
of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine a Empacific
on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app.
I gotta give Michael Rappaport, the actor, writer, comedian credit.
He looks better on his skypie thing he's got here
(31:29):
than he does in studio. Let's go to him right now.
Michael Rappaport, Fox Sports One contributor Diehard Basketball and sports
fan is joining us. I mean, look at him. His
hair looks glorious. It looks like the Deel Sassoon products.
You look very, very good. So let's start with this though.
Wait wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a second, man, because
(31:49):
that's a backcand compliment. What so you're trying to tell
me at home? I look better than the three dimensional
in life persona that we're used to. I mean, you're like, oh,
I gotta give him some credit. But what do I
look like? I'm displaced when I show up over there? Yeah,
you look like you just rolled out of this bed.
Now you look like an actor. This is crazy, man, Joy,
(32:10):
this guy's taking pot shots out of me. I haven't
seen you guys in months you know, you know that's McCall.
Does you know he's he's trying to give you a compliment,
but he really misses having you in studios. He wants
to make you feel more comfortable about being at home
because he misses somebody comes to his studio showing up
int my pajamas and flip flops. All right, so let's
start with this. And Nick Wright was on He's freaking
(32:33):
out about the Clippers, and I'm like, they don't even
care about the regular season. They got to get stars
in a title to take this city over. Your thought
about the Clippers losing to the lowly Suns, Well, I
don't think that they don't care. I agree with him
about that, but I agree with you that they're not
(32:53):
peeking right now. So I don't think it's that they
don't care. But I think that the Lakers we're seeing
them peak, you know, Anthony Davis and Lebron. Of course,
you know they're coming. Lebron is coming hard, He's coming.
You know, nothing could stop him. I'm not worried about
anything stopping Lebron James. The Lakers are are going to
(33:14):
do that. But the Clippers right now, with the sweet sauce,
Lou Williams and the Mantras Mystery, the Mystery of Mantras,
and Kawi's just starting to, you know, get it going.
Uh They're gonna They're gonna start morphing in the next
week and then through throughout the first round. And I
don't think it's that they don't care. I just think
it's a different environment. They've been a little dismantled, you know,
(33:37):
with with Lou and Patrick Beverley. But Kawhi is gonna
get his rhythm. And uh, I think that the the
the Lakers and the Laker fans and and you know,
the Los Angeles is my second second home there. They
need to get ready for a big, big Los Angeles
Lakers Lebron James heartbreak. They're not winning the championship now.
(33:58):
If you ask me today who's going to knock them out?
I would say the Los Angeles Clippers if they make
it that far. So what do we may not make
it that far? I'm very critical sometimes of Westbrook. Last
night we got bad Westbrook. A couple of nights ago
we got great Westbrook. What do you make a small
ball Houston? They're captivating team to watch. What do you
(34:19):
make of them. Um, I think that that backcourt is
probably the most disliked backcourt by fans and opponents ever. Yeah,
they're they're criticized, they're scrutinized. Players do not like playing
against them because they just keep coming after you. I mean,
(34:40):
you and I have had the Russell Westbrook conversation for years.
I think that him and Harden, James and Russ, they
sort of level each other out and they kind of, uh,
you know, he comes Russell down a little bit, and
he also toughens Harden up a little bit. Now we
know Harden has had his disappearing X in the playoffs.
(35:01):
But they're playing very well. Also. I don't think they're
peaking yet. But their defense is scrappy. Their defense is tough. PJ.
Tucker and Covington they bought into the system. You never
thought that a Mike dan Antoni team would be mentioned
with any sort of defense. But I think they have
a nice, a nice team, and they're they're gonna be
(35:22):
a challenge, man, They're going to be a challenge whoever
whoever they wind up matching up against. You know, you
have to you have to get that that sleep in
the bubble. You need to find a way to get
a good night rest playing against that team, because they're
going to come at you. They're not going to bow down.
And I think that James Harden is really looking to
prove himself to have a great run throughout the playoffs. Now,
(35:44):
you're an actor, and actors only work about two months
a year. So let's talk about another guy who works infrequently. Zion.
I love him. I think he's my favorite young player,
and I mean, honestly, I don't remember a young player out.
I didn't even like Lebron this much when he came
into the league. So as somebody yourself who works in
frequently as an actor, you guys get paid a lot
and worked like three four days a year. What do
(36:06):
you make of Zion's restrictions. I understand restrictions. Now, m
It's been the craziest rookie season that you could ever
imagine for any of the rookie players. Obviously, he came
off with the injury, and then he started playing, and
then we had the the the stop and now he's back.
(36:27):
I think that Zion, we need to see if Zion
Williamson is going to commit to being the best version
of himself. You know, we see it in spurts. You know,
it's surprising. Defenses don't know what to make of it
because they haven't really dealt with it. They haven't played
against him consistently enough. But we don't know if this
(36:48):
guy will ever be able to stay in shape. God
willing he stays healthy, but he's got to commit to
being a professional basketball player. The hype and the excitement,
we know it's all there. But can he play defense?
Does he have enough energy in the tank to play
defense when you're blocking shots at a bound in college?
You know, we saw his highlights. We've been watching this
(37:09):
this young kid for years and when he was in
high school, bullying people in high school, bullying everybody in college.
But this is the NBA. There's gonna be other bullies.
So I like him. I like his temperament, but we
got to see if he's really ready to commit and
can he play a full season or close to a
full season. But I got a lot of young talent.
Brandon ingram Is, you know, definitely stepped it up. But
(37:33):
a Zion Williamson is his game gonna translate to when
there's eight seconds on the clock, who do we give
the ball to? Can he power his way to the
hoop the way he does. You's certainly not gonna get
alley oops three to one buzzer beater or ally oops.
So we have to see what he's gonna morph into.
But he's still a young prodigy and an exciting prodigy.
(37:53):
It's just it's a matter of commitment and good fortune
with the health. Okay, one minute left? Does it drive
you not, just as a New Yorker that Mellow's playing
great basketball now at thirty six in the Pacific Northwest
drive you nuts? No, it doesn't drive me nuts. I'm
happy for him. It's a great system. He stepped up
to the plate. He's taken the step back, and I
(38:13):
didn't like the way it was looking that they were
going to end his Hall of Fame career. I was
happy for him when he got signed and he made
a great shot the other day. Uh CJ trust him, Dame,
trust him, and he and he's having fun. Carmelo looks
like he's genuinely having so much fun. He does he does.
That's a good point. He looks like he's he's a
joyful Carmelo Anthony. And that, by the way, Yeah, that matters.
(38:34):
Lebron always said, I hate being a villain. I he
Lebron hated being a villain. He wanted to have a
joyful career. By the way, look at your hair today.
It is salon perfect. You've done a really nice job.
I gotta tell you something, You're a professional. I didn't
come here to play games with you, Colin okay, and
I didn't come here to take to get to get
a little didn't get shots thrown at me either, So
I'm ready for whatever you need. Speaking of great hair, joy,
(38:57):
yours is fan I know, ridiculous. She changes, iculous, she changes.
I'm getting a haircut today. She changes her hair every
single day, like she'll be a Hollywood starlet from the
fifties one day, and then you get a new haircut
and you look like the coolest uh college co ed
and now you're you're Joey Taylor. Well, Collie, make sure
(39:19):
you tip your barber extra today because that's a lot
of work to do for you. Man. Just I mean
just at the heads through there. Tip them extra. I
have a haircut today at my house. One hundred bucks
for coming to my house and a tip that's not bad, No, no, unacceptable. Sorry,
unacceptable to you. Gotta go better today. I want you
to double that up for them. Come on, okay, Michael Rappaport, actor, director, producer, podcaster,
(39:45):
do it yourself home projects all start at Lows. More
time at home than ever before. Go to lows dot com,
hashtag lows goals. I'm I'm creating my own bar cart.
You do the same. Hour three, we'll go to Tampa
next
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