February 28, 2023 • 36 mins
Jason and Mike discuss the rumors about the Chicago Bears trading the number one overall pick in the NFL Draft.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on
the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR. You're listening to Fox
(00:25):
Sports Radio. Greetings and welcome inside our two of The
Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Hobo
Tonight show from the tirect dot com studios ti irac
dot com. We'll help you get there an unmatched selection, fast,
free shipping, free road hazard protection, over ten thousand recommended
(00:45):
installers tirerac dot com the way tire buying should be.
Now we need to do something here, Mike me to
make sure you got to see how Laker fans are
after the Lebron James news. All they talked about is
how they were back. They bid big win over Dallas.
Maybe it was Russell Westbrook's fault, but now Lebron could
be out in multiple weeks. Let's let's see how they feel. Hey, Frostburg,
(01:08):
Frostburg you're there. He's upset. He's up. Why is he upset?
As Lebron's foots broke? No, I I get it, but
I gotta ask him very important question. I don't think
he's gonna talk to you. He's not gonna say why.
Why is he? I just think he's on his wits
end about this. He's he really does seem like a
broken man. I'm standing in though. I'll answer the question.
You'll answer, okay, okay, So so Lebron James is hurt? Okay, okay.
(01:33):
Do you know what team Lebron James plays for? A
basketball team? Wait? Wait? Wait? Is it from your favorite city? Yeah?
Come on, TI shirt? Where's the thing? Oh my gosh,
I have it? Okay, not anymore? He was? He was there,
not anymore? Where'd you go? H Well? First he went
to the Knicks he won three three well, yeah, three
in a row was on a different earth. You got
(01:55):
to come back to the one we're on here. Then
then then then he went to the Pistons one back
to back titles there, Yeah, it was awesome. Then he
went to Sacramento they won a title, loss in the finals,
and now he's with the Lakers. Did they win in
the Lakers. Uh, yeah, they did win a couple of
years ago. Yes, it was on a different Yeah. No, no, no, Lebron,
(02:16):
Lebron and Magic Johnson both won co NBA Final MV.
Really yeah it was pretty cool. Yeah, it's nice. Yeah,
you haven't seen that video of the play where Magic
takes it up over half court and throws the alley
to Lebron. He dunks it and they hugged. Yeah, no, no,
it's on there. It's there. So now standing in for Frostburg, yes,
knowing full well that Lebron James has hurt. But you
(02:36):
thought they were back before. How do you? How do you?
How does Frostburg feel right now? All right, let me
say real quick, we're bad baby. In other words, Lebron
is inconsequential. If you're believing in the Lakers, you believe
they can win in spite of him, Yeah, absolutely, I don't.
I don't know that you back away now because Lakers
(02:57):
fans that think they're back don't want to credit Lebron
with any of it. They want to credit the new
players and Anthony Davis. Now, we don't want to give
Lebron any credit. So now of course they're gonna say no,
we're still good, We're still back. It's great. Yeah, Lebron,
now he's not anything. He's not anything for us. It's
all about the other guys. So I can see where
Laker fans are still in the in the hey, the
zombie Laker fans who are the we're back Laker fans.
(03:17):
I could see that. Wow. But you saw even on
the night when Lebron passed Kareem abdul Jabbard, did people
buy full in? Nah, it was inevitability, let's go, let's
finish the game, get the W and then he was hurt,
and then they lost that game, right, and then he
was unavailable. And now you see after the trade you've
had some great success. But but yeah, it's it's one
(03:40):
of those where he's always kind of been at arm's length.
So while they're salty, they also, I think, as we
talked about last hour, recognize that that you're you're in
the end game and it's just a question of how
quickly you find that cliff. There you go, that's pretty
that's pretty deep right there. I like that. Hell, I'm
a deep thinking kind of guy. You know. I saw
Cocaine Bear and I've been really just pondering the meaning
(04:03):
of life thereafter, you know, it really has. Let me
tell you, the first two thirds of Cocaine Bear were
amazingly good. I can't tell you how much fun it was.
I mean, you saw these people that you've seen on
TV for the past twenty years and all big roles.
It was so unbelievably fun. I'm wheezing. There's certain scenes.
I'm laughing so hard and that just kind of ends
(04:25):
and I'm like, oh, it's oh, it's over. Just think
I think it resolved all right, and like in the end, yeah,
I actually looked at the kids and we had a
great active crowd when we went, very vocal and a
lot of the exploit. And as we're walking out at
the end, we actually had a couple of police officers
walk in and I exchanged some pleasant treams with the
(04:47):
guy and his wife walking back next to me, going
all right, well, who's the guy carrying in there? Like
what is this all about? And we had a good laugh,
you know, shook hands and off he went into the
good night with it with his wife and and it
was fun. But like I thought, it might have actually
been and I kid you not, and I say this
with all sincerity, Isaiah Whitlock, O'Shea Jackson, Junior, ray Leota
(05:12):
Han Solo go all the way down the line. Everybody
was great. The kid was great. It was like he was, um.
I don't know how old the kids from Stepbrothers would
be these days, but it was like one of them
was in that role. Uh. And then I left, going,
this might have actually been the best movie I've seen
in a theater, right, because I love Bansheese. I think
it's one of the finest movies I've watched a long time.
(05:34):
I didn't see it on a big screen. I saw
that once it was released to streat me. Once it
actually in theater, this might have been the most fun
experience that I've had in a long tremendously fun, tremendously fun.
All right, So yeah, there's our there's our thirty second
review of Cocaine. Well, Isaiah Whitlock gave it the gravitash Well.
(05:54):
I wanted him to give his line from the wire,
but he didn't say it. I said, come on, he's
got to be able to say it. Now. He didn't
get a great deeping. Now, let's talk about your bears
for a second. Yeah, they finally everybody's now reporting would
seem like common sense. But yeah, let's go I told
you so. I hate to say, but when we first
broach the Bears can trade Justin Fields they pick first
(06:17):
in the draft. We we did this topic in the
beginning of January, before the last week of the regular season. Congratulations.
Everybody else was coming around to it. Now, like I say,
we're ahead of the curve. But you know that, all right,
you listen to the show. You know that. What did
I say of the options they had? They could keep
the pick, they could trade the pick, they could they
could they could take a quarterback, not take a quarterback.
I said, watch them trade the pick, watch them trade
(06:39):
the pick, because the Bears are afraid, they are paralyzed
by the outcome that's going to get them criticize the most.
They're afraid to take a quarterback there and trade Justin
Fields because what if they're wrong, what if they're wrong
about Bryce Young and Justin Fields is a star. Right,
We're afraid to take a quarterback there and trade Justin Fields.
They're afraid, they're afraid to not take a quarterback there
(07:01):
because well, we go all in on Justin Fields. And
what if Justin Fields isn't a franchise guy and Bryce
Young turns into be a franchise guy. This is how
people lose jobs. No, no, no, we don't. So what
do they want? They want what they feel is the
safest avenue, which is, let's trade the pick. Let's trade
the pick, because then we can say, well, we wanted
to make the team better. It's the least criticized angle
(07:23):
of the three. They're playing that game because they're afraid,
they're running, scared of standing up and making a big decision.
It is what they think is, Okay, the least criticized
thing we could do is trade the pick. Right, It's
the least criticized because then at least we can say, well,
you know, yeah, Bryce Young turned out to be number
one pick, but we had to and we traded. We
got a whole bunch for him. You know, we got
a lot for We had to remake the team. We're
(07:44):
a bad team. We need to fill more holes than that.
We like Justin Fields. They feel that that's going to
be the least criticized angle on it. And that's why
they're doing is they're scared. They're scared to make a
big decision and you can say, oh, yeah, teams are.
Of course, the fact that teams are calling you to
move up to number one overall to take Bryce Young,
does that tell you about what the league thinks about
Bryce Young? Seriously? What does what does that tell you? Oh, Brad, Well,
(08:04):
we don't know, we don't know. You that tells you
what people, what teams feel about Bryce Young, because that's
the guy they're going up to get. No. One's going
up to number one to get c. J. Stroud, They
are going up to get well none, no, not Anthony Richardson.
Those guys all go on the top ten. Bryce Young's
the guy, right, So for all of this, we don't
know if Bryce Young's a franchise choirs. Bryce Young is terrific.
You have seen quarterbacks that height succeed in the NFL.
(08:25):
I don't know that we've had a quarterback come into
the NFL that can read defenses and get to the
options the way he can in a long time. He's
a He's a great pick at number one. But yet
now the Bears they want to shy away from it
because they don't want to do something bold, because they're
afraid if it doesn't work, out the criticism they're gonna get.
They're afraid, and they're taking this angle on it because
it's the most defensible angle that hopefully, if if it
(08:47):
doesn't work out, everybody can keep their jobs. They can
shrug their shoulders and say, well, we traded the pick
because we had kind of had a quarterback. Didn't know
this guy was gonna be great, or well, you know,
we traded to the the pick because we were getting a
lot for him and we thought we had a quarterback.
I mean, they know if it doesn't work, they're gonna
get criticized with whatever they pick, but they think this
is going to be the least critical angle on it,
and that's why they're doing it. The Bears are afraid
(09:09):
to stand up and make a decision and say things like, hey,
we can restart their clock on our quarterback and uh
and and build around him and not have to worry
about paying justin Fields in a couple of years we
were we do we know that Justin Fields is great?
Because to me, that's the question, is justin Fields great?
Nobody can say that, And if you've got a quarterback
play a couple of years and yes, he had a
(09:30):
big step up. This year. That was awesome, But is
Justin Fields a great quarterback? You can't say yes. All
of these reasons is why I said, hey, they should
trade that pick. They should trade ards, they should keep
the pick, and they should take the quarterback. Trade Justin Fields,
get some stuff for him and do it that way,
and all of these different things you can do. You
can reset and maybe get a franchise quarterback for the
(09:51):
next decade plus. But the Bears are gonna choose option three,
which is we're gonna trade the pick. There's no doubt
in my mind they trade this pick. You are all
over the place and doing the told you so's. I'm
not quite sure following your logic because you took credit
for two things there. Uh, this was the out time
for a lot of things. You credit for a lot
of things. And I thought me saying that the efficacy,
(10:12):
the greatness, the gravitas of the movie that was Cocaine
Bear was going to be the hot take theater moment
of this segment. Instead, you're talking about running scared. I
like it. It'll play well on social media when you
tweet it, but it's it's just the best option. Right.
If you're not convinced that any of these guys is
(10:32):
the guy, because if they were, then Justin Fields is gone,
like yeah, but but are they are they convinced Justin
Fields is great, They're not there. But what they're doing
I think they're doing here is that they're looking at
the rest of these guys, going, he's got two years here,
he's got a year with this system. We've got one
hundred and fifteen million dollars, and if we trade this
(10:52):
pick down once or twice, we now have a bunch
of other pieces for a guy that showed out fairly
well in year one, picking the groceries in polls that
maybe you can build up around the base that you have.
You have to reconstruct the defense. You have to do that.
A better offensive line, no matter what anybody's grade was,
(11:14):
they were not good running back. You've got to decide
what you're doing there, whether that's draft or free agency,
or do you just bring Montgomery back and as Herbert
going to be one hundred percent, but you have one
hundred fifteen million dollars to spend, So you're looking at
Justin Fields and trying to take it full on or
any of these guys decidedly better than he is. Going
(11:36):
forward because the reset of two years. Okay, that's fine,
it's a reason possibly, But I don't think it's that
high of one that you jump off if you think
fields can play. If anything, if it all goes disastrously,
you may have enough picks that you can trade back
in and grab one of the guys next year that
are supposed to be quote generational guys, you know, like
(11:57):
we do every two to three years. Generation you have
you have the Yeah, but you have the number one
pick now like that. But if you don't know, but
if it's not a guy that you think is the guy,
is the point? It's not running scared like if you
I mean, they're gonna talk to all these guys. That's
lost in all of the the excitement of something that
was said a long time ago. Trade the number one pick,
Go go bolster your your rosters actually need a lot
(12:20):
of help. But they're gonna talk to all the quarterbacks
at the combine. Yeah, But the fact they're already leaning
towards trading the pick without guys, what does that tell you?
What does that tell you? They're afraid. They're afraid, they
know they know what the criticism is going to be.
They don't want to get this decision wrong, so they're
gonna take the least because they're all soft and scared.
Everyone Sun Times writers are gonna say, or what you
(12:44):
or someone else? No, no no, no, no, no, no no,
they're mine. Man, no no, no, man, you're not even
better than man. You're not even listening to me because
what I said was if you were paying attention, that
are going Oh man, the Bears are gonna criticize. Is
that if it doesn't work out and the Bears stink
and they don't take a back and Bryce Young turns
into a superstar, everybody's getting fired. If they decide we're
(13:04):
gonna stick with Justin Fields and he's not any good. Well,
guess what. Anybody's getting fired. You had a chance to
get a quarterback there. That's what's gonna happen. So of
course people on social media are gonna go crazy about it,
but they're looking at hey, if we're wrong about this,
we're all gonna get fired. That's how do I keep
the job. Let's trade the pick. We don't want it,
we don't want it to Let's trade the pit. Let's
trade the pick. They're doing it before they even talk
(13:25):
to anybody. So what does that tell you about? Oh,
we really want to leave no stone unturned before we
do this. We're gonna look into it. All these guys
here we like, we haven't talked to the guys yet.
It's telling you, man, we'll see, We'll see Twitter and
running scared what did take place in Chicago? So there
is that bringing that full circle. The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon Live the tire rack
dot Com Studios. We'll have more on this coming up next.
(13:47):
But straight ahead, what is the latest on Lebron James?
What is going to happen? How long will he miss?
Are the Lakers really back without him? Keep it right here,
Jason and Mike, This is Fox Sports Radio. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app Fox Sports Radio.
(14:11):
The Jason Smith Show with My bass friend Mike Harman. Tonight,
Joe brought you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy
and affordable. Get a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat,
a TV, and more. All your protection in one place,
Bundle and save at Progressive dot Com. We'll continue that
justin Fields debate coming up in a bit. Mike and
(14:33):
I Butt joining us now on the hotline, someone who
may go from covering the Lakers being an insider to
starting for them. In the wake of the injuries to
D'Angelo Russell and Lebron James, the Lakers bracing for multiple weeks.
Lebron could be out with an injury. He's out tomorrow.
De'angelo Russell is back, is out tomorrow. Dan Woiki joins
(14:57):
us right now covers the Lakers and the NBA for
the La Times Fall on Twitter at Dan Woiki Sports. Dan.
Does it really matter if they're hurt because the Lakers
are back? Right? I mean, it doesn't matter Lakers are
back because it doesn't matter who'shurt, they're back. Yeah. I
think the you know, to me, the takeaway is sort
of like my wife and a war on Dark Wisconsin,
like this is probably gonna be a little boring. It's
(15:19):
kind of worry that what I'm taking. I said, no, no, no,
you have to study the intricacies of it. And look,
this was a very very lakery. Thirty six hours um,
look twenty four hours really right where you get the
(15:41):
obscene high of a third straight win, the optimism of
you know, I mean, and guys, we've talked about the stuff.
It's not like it's not like the Lakers in a
couple of games I'm saying, oh wow, like they're gonna
make the playoffs. It's no, They're gonna go to the
finals now, right like you you uh, well, you get
on the you get on the Mario Kart zoom path
(16:02):
right where you just go uncontrollably fast and and like
should you shut riding that? And then it's sort of like, well,
you see Lebron leave and you're like, that doesn't look great,
and you know, just talk to him a little bit
a lot coming after the game, and you know, you
had kind of said something along the line like, you know,
I thought somebody. I thought I stepped on someone's foot.
I was like oope, Like no, there wasn't anyone there.
(16:25):
And you're like, wow, that's not good. Um, And then
you know, I mean, today it's kind of one of
those weird days where really the only thing you're hearing
is that it's not good. Um. No one's saying, you know,
specifically what it is. No one is saying, um, physically
how long? Just said it's not going to be tomorrow, certainly,
(16:46):
and it's not gonna be Wednesday, right, So, um, they're
they're prepped here now for for threats without him. Um,
they're more equipped to handle it than they were three
weeks ago. But a lot come after go right for
them to stay anywhere close to the trajectually that they
were briefly on there this beast sea. But let's have
(17:07):
fun with that, shall we? Im a rotational perspective, assuming
Russell's not out too terribly long. I mean, you got Vanderbilt,
you got Gas coming in and playing some big minutes,
and it doesn't have to run through Lebron. Maybe there's
a little different flow. Maybe Anthony Davis gets a little
spring in his step. Sure, and they've won some games
earlier this year this way, you know where Lebron sat,
(17:30):
and I think they had a stretch where they won
three in a row. They beat some pretty bad team
and that stretch and they're not going to play that
many bad teams here. But yeah, I mean, I think
they're more equipped. Like it's not like you have to
squit that hard to see how they would win. Right,
It's like the balls that they're on, we can easily
make shots. D Angel Russell make some shots, Anthony Davis
plays all on the paint and they defend right. And
(17:51):
you know, if you play hard and make shots in
the NBA, you usually win. You know, those two things combined,
they usually get the job done. And um, you know,
obviously there they'll be in a talent episode with Lebron James.
It'll be harder to certainly win a kind of game
like they did Sunday in Dallas where they made no
(18:13):
shot and still somehow one. Um, but it's not it's
not impossible. And guys, I mean I think there's another
part of this that that needs to be sort of addressed,
and that's like, you know, no one's actually like really
sprinting either, you know in that eight to eight to
twelve range or maybe even six to twelve range. Right, Like,
(18:34):
it's a bunch of teams that have a bunch of issues. Um,
you know, I saw New Orleans lost again tonight. Um.
You know, these teams are all playing each other and
when they're not, like seemingly they're losing kind of wild games. Um,
you know, maybe the Lakers don't have to play you know,
seven hundred basketball, so you walked right into it. Why
(18:56):
not us because there's only three teams, including the aforementioned Plicans,
with an easier schedule down the stretch. Yeah, yeah, and
I mean look the Lakers, and believe me, I know
this to be true. The Lakers are said to be
home for a big stretch. My wife has been reminding
me how much I've been gone. I can't tell if
she's happier that about. You know, some version like boy
(19:19):
you're never here or boy you are never here. Um,
it's one of the one of the two, I'm not
quite sure, but the emphasis here I will be home
on Thursday, so do whatever you need to do. Clean
up the house, however you need to fix it up right,
and like it's like I'm gonna be there, um for
a month. Basically, they play two road games in March,
(19:41):
um really before the end of the month, so um,
a really big stretch of home games. You know, well,
we'll see. I reserve the right to be pleasantly surprised.
It's a kind of basketball they play, but it's I mean,
this is just sort of the reality when you build
your team around a thirty eight year old in year twenty.
You know, it's like like that that I'm probably going
(20:03):
to write some version of it tomorrow. But like, you know,
this is a team that's spent. People always talks about
like WS and L's ray with teams like this is
a team that has done bill almost entirely around I
and F. You know, which is good? There is you
know we talked about this last hour, Dan, is that
you know, with the short term look for the for
the Lakers, obviously it's Hey getting in the play and
when's Lebron gonna be healthy? But I kind of look
(20:25):
at today and maybe it's just the combination of coming
off the All Star break and Lebron saying these are
the most important twenty three games of my career. And
the Lakers made, you know, a bunch of moves of
the deadline, and they redid the roster, and there's a
new blend of excitement, and after a couple of games,
a big comeback win against the Mavericks, all of a sudden,
now he's hurt and we don't know when he's gonna
(20:46):
play again. And I feel like this is now is
the beginning of the end of Lebron James's career, like
it's four years of data. Now he's never going to
be healthy, right, He's missed at least a third of
the season all the way through, and and now he's
missing war games. It's like, how much longer does the
guy have until his body just gives out on him.
Now you can extend it by a year with some
(21:07):
really big time load maintenance. But I feel like we're
now in the beginning of the end of the last
act and we can I can see the finish line
like I've never been able to before for him. Yeah,
it's it's it's funny because like, yeah, I mean that's
obviously in conversation I had at some point in time
today with some people is like is this you know?
Is this is this what we're seeing? You know? Um?
(21:29):
I will say though, all that ever, cakes is like
a good week from Lebron, A couple of thirty point games,
are couple forty point games, and you're just like, oh no,
this is crazy because like dudes at the end, like
don't catch flabs like this. It's like, dudes at the end,
don't you know a reverse sunks like this? Or like
there is like some of this stuff. You just like,
you know, bet against him at your own peril, right
(21:51):
like that. That's sort of been the lesson in a
lot of ways of his twenty year career. It's like,
you don't think you can do this, Like you're probably wrong,
and so yeah, I think on one hand, like you
start to worry about non contact injuries. Uh, you know
a guy being an easy report with soreness for months
at a time, right like, Um, like he banged up,
(22:14):
for sure, he is banged up and he's had to
you know, he's had to do a lot for the Lakers.
I do think that you know, in a world of
this roster it existed in November, you know, maybe he
doesn't have to do as much, right Like. One of
the crazy things about you know, the two winds prior
to the Dallace win was that they were both season
lows and minutes for lebron Um and back to that game, right, um,
(22:39):
like the kind of firepower, the kind of balance they
haven't had all year. Now. Look, I'm not sure they
could have gotten the Agual Russell and November um, and
I don't think they wanted to pay the cost and
what it would have taken to get Jared ran about
easily and Mike Conley um at that time, right, like
certainly would have taken probably two thicks um to do
that in a ropewestern treat and we're never interested in that.
(23:01):
But I do think seeing him with like a little
help here like sort of does speak to like, you know,
the need for things to like slow down a little
bit for him, right and that maybe like he can't
be the every night guy um that he's been, but yeah,
I don't know it just there's so much up in
(23:24):
the area now, Like, look, he could be back in
three weeks and the Lakers could be the five seeks Fox.
That doesn't seem that doesn't seem totally out of question.
But it also like that they're stuck in thirteenth you know,
in Perpetunity also seems super realistic, nice and purgatory like there,
not realistic, it's super realistic. It's super realist. That was
(23:51):
adding a paper right there. Super Let's be honest, I
mean like it really they've been a pretty wide variant
team all year, and tip typically like those are like
think about the wide varied people in our lives, Like
shows out the people asked the babysit. Noah, Like, well,
you might do a good job, or they might get tattoos. Yeah,
(24:13):
you don't know. Well, that depends what the tattoo is up.
I mean it might be tasteful, might not. No, you
don't know. You don't know a little bit of a wildcard.
Hey speak of wild cards? Dan Dan Wik our guest
at Dan Woiky Sports where you find them read them
La Times. Joyce is each and every week talking all
things NBA. Uh Jason, switch out with me, Mike Harmon
(24:34):
here at Fox Sports Radio of course. Uh Dan, how
happy a are you that Russell Westbrook stayed in LA
made a quick detour? H be you know the have
you ever seen the team or do you ever think
you'll see it again in your lifetime? Where they're back
and cruising and they score one hundred and seventy five
points in lose well to the ladder. No. Um, but
(24:56):
but maybe I should get used to it the way
that defense is currently being played. There's a lot of
players around the league right now. But no, I mean
that game was crazy. That's Clippers, Like you said, I
will I will tell you guys, Russell Westbrook's blown defensive
assignment I'm linked monk at the end of regulation did
not go unnoticed in the Lakers locker room. That was
(25:17):
something that was I would I would be lying if
I if I said that no one mentioned that I will.
I will say I do think that the Clippers are
an opportunity for Russell Westbrook to show that he still
has a place in this league that he can functioned. Um,
(25:39):
you know, with the right sort of supporting cast. I
twoose the other day that like part of the Russell
west Of problem wasn't always Russell Westbrook. I mean, he
is a big part of it, but it was that
when you pay him forty seven million dollars, that's forty
seven million dollars that isn't going to shooting or defense
or guys that make up for some of his weaknesses.
And when you're paying him no dollars functionally, which is
(26:01):
what the Clippers are, UM, you have guys to make
up for that stuff, right, and you can he can
potentially learn how to function in that situation. I do
think though, guys the Clippers sort of stuffer from like
what I call like too many guys syndrome, where the
roster is you don't want to say show stacked, but
like there isn't enough differentiation and talent between player four
(26:24):
or five in the rotation of players eleven that like
it's just so hard to get it right. You know
that your coach is constantly forced to make vocational decisions
at closing lineups, Like Norman Poell played like seventeen minutes
last night against Denver and you know it wasn't on
the court in the fourth quarter. And like, you know,
I think Norman Poe probably is one of their six
(26:45):
plus players. You know, he played well against the Nuggets,
but you know Eric Gordon is a guy they're looking at.
So Eric Gordon played too, and I think that is
to me, it's it's a it's a challenge when you
don't have that sort of differentiation and talent. And right now,
like there's gonna always be somebody pissed off. Um, you
know when the lake is like I'm sorry, pardon me.
(27:06):
When the Clippers are are closing games, there's gonna be
four guys that think they like Marcus Morts was gonna
want to play, Eric Gordon's gonna want to play. Norm
Pal's gonna want to play. Robert Covington isn't playing and
surely wants to play. Um, you know, they've they've got
a lot of veterans who want minutes and those exists
for them. You know, It's funny. I kind of feel
that way at the LA times as well, Like with
(27:27):
sports writings, there's no delineation between three through nine, you know,
for sports, like you know, whoever's the third best could
be there. I feel like it's kind of all over
the place like that. I'm with you, I don't know
what you're talking about. Never heard who? Who is it?
Who is it? Yeah? Hey, Dan, with all the extra
time you're gonna have, Um, how much are you gonna
(27:49):
really dive into the baseball rules of spring training and
lamenting at bats by the White Sox. Well, I mean,
the good thing about sharing for the White Sox is that,
like it can only really be a one month relationship
if you want it to be, Like there is a
there's always a good ripcord, like you watching me loo
him and as like I don't know, like rupture is
like shoulder playing outfields at the point, I was very
(28:11):
happy to see him out in the outside of the
first the first day of spring training after after having
a season almost scented last year by playing defense. Um,
it is a it's it's a sad life, guys. I
don't know why place I mean between because I do
it too. If the justin Field situation. Yeah, like the
Bears finally have a quarterback that they can believe in
(28:33):
and like honestly, like just for postings, they have to
talk about how they might want to leave him, you
know what I mean, like the beautiful Yeah like what
like what like you know, like what it's just what
a horrible time. We can't have nice things when it
comes out. No, But I will say though, I mean, look,
at least I get to at least I get to
punch of talk every day watching a basketball team that
(28:55):
that now now plays with like some semblance of order.
And you know, who knows, maybe I'll get maybe I'll
get a A playing tournament came out of it. I
was very proud, guys. You know the Lakers by winning yesterday,
very big mouthstone for the Lakers. They were able to
work their way into the television graphics of the Western Conference,
(29:16):
which they're always twelve. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they love their
way into the standings below that second line they were
they were always for for months they've been like they
would show the same time percast and like we're chard Jeffersons,
You're like, well and the Lakers at thirteen. Now they
don't have to say that anymore. They they're right there
right No, I with you. That's how I feel with
the Jets when in the in December, when we're in
(29:36):
the in the hunt. Hey, we're in the Hunt in December.
We're not like Fall that we're in there where it's
just the logos of like four teams just like separated
by commas. Yeah, yeah, five and eight or something. Yeah.
Oh it's Dan Woiki, one of the nine best riders
at the La Times uh NBA inside makes them start
(29:59):
check out, yeah, check out. Well listen, we got it,
we got it. We got a differentiate between Woike and
like Ben Bolch and Broderick Turner and yeah, a bunch
of lunchury I built plash key Helene Elliott. You know
there's lots of guys now it's called Helen a cell
and that's where we settling a lot of guys. Check
him out on Twitter his latest odd Latimes dot Com.
Dan has always buddy appreciated, my friend. We'll talk to
(30:20):
you all right, guys, be good day, Bunny. All right,
great stuff there for that great stuff on the clippers.
Oh yeah, I know that too many guys. That's a
that's a really really interesting point. I saw him tweet
that the other day. I was opening to bring it
up before we asked about it. That was just a great,
great point. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harman weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
(30:41):
seven pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show
with My best friend Mike Harman Live from the tirerect
dot Com studio. Tonight show brought to by Progressive Insurance.
Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable. Get a multi policy
discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, a TV and more,
all your protection and one place. Bundle and save at
(31:01):
Progressive dot Com. Well, Carson Wentz is no longer a
member of the Washington Commanders Jets coming stop it stop
you can you know, you can keep saying that it's
not going to happen. There are many people I am
afraid of the Jets signing. Carson Wentz is not one
of them. It's a Pavlovian response. There's a quarterback name Jets. Look,
(31:25):
I love the report today that the Jets could go
out and get Geno Smith and go get Daniel Day.
Jesus shut now have a deck of cards which includes
every quarterback to take a snap two? Could they get him? Yeah? Anybody?
The only guys you had to take out were burrowing Mahomes.
(31:48):
Yeah yeah, no, no, we can. Somebody is available for you.
Herbert's not, and Frostburg's gonna protect Justin Herbert. So those
three guys, everybody else is on the table. Let's go. Yeah. No, no, no,
So we can even get them if we wanted to.
It doesn't matter. We'll find a way. We're linked with everybody.
We're a quarterback, does it we could get more? That
does go a long way. That's all it is. But
(32:12):
Carson Wentz, who was released after one season with Washington,
I don't think he plays in the NFL again. He
has gone from quarterback of the future quarterback of the
present MVP candidate and then the last four or five
years has been a slow and steady decline for him
(32:32):
away from production. Now, that would be one thing we've
seen that many times quarterbacks we thought really good turn
into backup quarterbacks and they wind up sticking around in
the league for a long time. And you know, Carson
Wentz on the Marcus Mariota train. Maybe he'll start somewhere
else at some point. But here's the thing with Carson Wentz,
why did he get traded from Philadelphia? Personally? He had
(32:52):
a lot of issues, right we saw all the reports. Um,
he had a lack of leadership, he tuned out coaches,
he play his play was very reckless, and he wasn't
coached very well. His teammates didn't like him. Gone to Indianapolis.
What happened after Indianapolis? He tuned out coaches, the lack
of leadership, his play was too reckless. He winds up
in Washington. What happened lack of I mean, it's all
(33:15):
these personal things about him. It's not just he's a
bad quarterback. Because if someone who's a bad quarterback at
least all right, well they were, they're not a starter.
But if we need a guy to come in for
a little bit, okay, because a guy at least to
put numbers on the board. He's had, you know, three
years with at least twenty seven touchdowns. We can't trust
him to be the number one guy. But if he's
the number two guy, okay, but if he's someone that
(33:35):
has so many issues in the locker room, is Carson
Wentz gonna be worth it for anybody? He's not? So
I don't know who's gonna say, yeah, Hey, Carson Wentz
is gonna come in to be our backup quarterback? If
he's had all these issues when he's the starting quarterback,
is he really going to suddenly be a great guy
now that he's the backup. I mean, he's had enough
chances that, hey, this could be your last chance to
start right. You had a bunch of years of Philadelphia,
(33:57):
You had a year to be the guy in Indianapolis.
You thought you're gonna be that guy at and happened,
starting to be the guy in watching it didn't happen.
He's had enough chances. He's had enough chances at that
where I don't know the team says, yeah, do we
want to bring in a backup in the locker room
that could be yeah. You know I would shy away
from it. I would. I watched Carson Wentz. I think
he'll go unsigned throughout this whole year and very just
(34:18):
quietly not playing the NFL anymore. See, I think he
becomes a break glass in case of emergency guy, especially
with the way the NFL has been these last couple
of years. We talked a lot about the number of
players getting snaps. We watched in San Francisco where chaos ensued. Hell,
they're already jumping right back into it, Rock Bertie and
his surgery, Trey Lance. Can he stay healthy? Don't be
(34:40):
a need a number three guy there, and it's not
something you necessarily need in your locker room right away. Like,
I think that's that's where his next job becomes. These
teams that do the dance in free agency and maybe
get shut out, but more likely that we start going
to camp and that it takes an injury for another signing.
(35:03):
The other thing is, if you're Washington, there's no way
you could carry the salary that this guy was commanding
rights as you look at everything that was on the books.
I mean, he's made one hundred and twenty eight million dollars.
It's been brilliant and at times he's been brilliant on
the field. Right now, it's that all right? Can I
eke out one more contract at three to four with
(35:23):
three four million with some sort of incentives if I
do elevate to the top spot, that that would be
the most likely of scenarios. See, it's tough for me
because his year with the and this this gets around
to why I don't see Another reason why I don't
see him playing is that his year with Indianapolis wasn't
that bad, but it just ended so horribly. And the
(35:47):
fact that you could still look back after going okay, well,
they gacked away at the playoffs. He was really bad
the last couple weeks. But it's also the fall guy thing.
And look at what Indianapolis has been been these last
couple of years. Ye. Look at Jim er Say on Twitter.
He's convinced because he wrote a Bear in the sixties,
he's got connections to Chicago. I mean, come on, man,
well you know it's it's how people. I can only
(36:09):
blame Wentz so much for anything in Indianapolis. Right now, Jason,
I'm not gonna lie that picture I sent you of
Wentz and the Jets. Jersey's pretty clean, man. Yeah, but
it's not gonna happen again. It's not gonna you can
send it out many was not gonna happen, Oh man,
it's really really popped too. We're brought to you by
(36:29):
Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable. Get a
multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, a TV,
and more, all your protection in one place. Bundle and
save at progressive dot Com. Big NBA story coming up
next Fox
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on
the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR. You're listening to Fox
(00:25):
Sports Radio. Greetings and welcome inside our two of The
Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Hobo
Tonight show from the tirect dot com studios ti irac
dot com. We'll help you get there an unmatched selection, fast,
free shipping, free road hazard protection, over ten thousand recommended
(00:45):
installers tirerac dot com the way tire buying should be.
Now we need to do something here, Mike me to
make sure you got to see how Laker fans are
after the Lebron James news. All they talked about is
how they were back. They bid big win over Dallas.
Maybe it was Russell Westbrook's fault, but now Lebron could
be out in multiple weeks. Let's let's see how they feel. Hey, Frostburg,
(01:08):
Frostburg you're there. He's upset. He's up. Why is he upset?
As Lebron's foots broke? No, I I get it, but
I gotta ask him very important question. I don't think
he's gonna talk to you. He's not gonna say why.
Why is he? I just think he's on his wits
end about this. He's he really does seem like a
broken man. I'm standing in though. I'll answer the question.
You'll answer, okay, okay, So so Lebron James is hurt? Okay, okay.
(01:33):
Do you know what team Lebron James plays for? A
basketball team? Wait? Wait? Wait? Is it from your favorite city? Yeah?
Come on, TI shirt? Where's the thing? Oh my gosh,
I have it? Okay, not anymore? He was? He was there,
not anymore? Where'd you go? H Well? First he went
to the Knicks he won three three well, yeah, three
in a row was on a different earth. You got
(01:55):
to come back to the one we're on here. Then
then then then he went to the Pistons one back
to back titles there, Yeah, it was awesome. Then he
went to Sacramento they won a title, loss in the finals,
and now he's with the Lakers. Did they win in
the Lakers. Uh, yeah, they did win a couple of
years ago. Yes, it was on a different Yeah. No, no, no, Lebron,
(02:16):
Lebron and Magic Johnson both won co NBA Final MV.
Really yeah it was pretty cool. Yeah, it's nice. Yeah,
you haven't seen that video of the play where Magic
takes it up over half court and throws the alley
to Lebron. He dunks it and they hugged. Yeah, no, no,
it's on there. It's there. So now standing in for Frostburg, yes,
knowing full well that Lebron James has hurt. But you
(02:36):
thought they were back before. How do you? How do you?
How does Frostburg feel right now? All right, let me
say real quick, we're bad baby. In other words, Lebron
is inconsequential. If you're believing in the Lakers, you believe
they can win in spite of him, Yeah, absolutely, I don't.
I don't know that you back away now because Lakers
(02:57):
fans that think they're back don't want to credit Lebron
with any of it. They want to credit the new
players and Anthony Davis. Now, we don't want to give
Lebron any credit. So now of course they're gonna say no,
we're still good, We're still back. It's great. Yeah, Lebron,
now he's not anything. He's not anything for us. It's
all about the other guys. So I can see where
Laker fans are still in the in the hey, the
zombie Laker fans who are the we're back Laker fans.
(03:17):
I could see that. Wow. But you saw even on
the night when Lebron passed Kareem abdul Jabbard, did people
buy full in? Nah, it was inevitability, let's go, let's
finish the game, get the W and then he was hurt,
and then they lost that game, right, and then he
was unavailable. And now you see after the trade you've
had some great success. But but yeah, it's it's one
(03:40):
of those where he's always kind of been at arm's length.
So while they're salty, they also, I think, as we
talked about last hour, recognize that that you're you're in
the end game and it's just a question of how
quickly you find that cliff. There you go, that's pretty
that's pretty deep right there. I like that. Hell, I'm
a deep thinking kind of guy. You know. I saw
Cocaine Bear and I've been really just pondering the meaning
(04:03):
of life thereafter, you know, it really has. Let me
tell you, the first two thirds of Cocaine Bear were
amazingly good. I can't tell you how much fun it was.
I mean, you saw these people that you've seen on
TV for the past twenty years and all big roles.
It was so unbelievably fun. I'm wheezing. There's certain scenes.
I'm laughing so hard and that just kind of ends
(04:25):
and I'm like, oh, it's oh, it's over. Just think
I think it resolved all right, and like in the end, yeah,
I actually looked at the kids and we had a
great active crowd when we went, very vocal and a
lot of the exploit. And as we're walking out at
the end, we actually had a couple of police officers
walk in and I exchanged some pleasant treams with the
(04:47):
guy and his wife walking back next to me, going
all right, well, who's the guy carrying in there? Like
what is this all about? And we had a good laugh,
you know, shook hands and off he went into the
good night with it with his wife and and it
was fun. But like I thought, it might have actually
been and I kid you not, and I say this
with all sincerity, Isaiah Whitlock, O'Shea Jackson, Junior, ray Leota
(05:12):
Han Solo go all the way down the line. Everybody
was great. The kid was great. It was like he was, um.
I don't know how old the kids from Stepbrothers would
be these days, but it was like one of them
was in that role. Uh. And then I left, going,
this might have actually been the best movie I've seen
in a theater, right, because I love Bansheese. I think
it's one of the finest movies I've watched a long time.
(05:34):
I didn't see it on a big screen. I saw
that once it was released to streat me. Once it
actually in theater, this might have been the most fun
experience that I've had in a long tremendously fun, tremendously fun.
All right, So yeah, there's our there's our thirty second
review of Cocaine. Well, Isaiah Whitlock gave it the gravitash Well.
(05:54):
I wanted him to give his line from the wire,
but he didn't say it. I said, come on, he's
got to be able to say it. Now. He didn't
get a great deeping. Now, let's talk about your bears
for a second. Yeah, they finally everybody's now reporting would
seem like common sense. But yeah, let's go I told
you so. I hate to say, but when we first
broach the Bears can trade Justin Fields they pick first
(06:17):
in the draft. We we did this topic in the
beginning of January, before the last week of the regular season. Congratulations.
Everybody else was coming around to it. Now, like I say,
we're ahead of the curve. But you know that, all right,
you listen to the show. You know that. What did
I say of the options they had? They could keep
the pick, they could trade the pick, they could they
could they could take a quarterback, not take a quarterback.
I said, watch them trade the pick, watch them trade
(06:39):
the pick, because the Bears are afraid, they are paralyzed
by the outcome that's going to get them criticize the most.
They're afraid to take a quarterback there and trade Justin
Fields because what if they're wrong, what if they're wrong
about Bryce Young and Justin Fields is a star. Right,
We're afraid to take a quarterback there and trade Justin Fields.
They're afraid, they're afraid to not take a quarterback there
(07:01):
because well, we go all in on Justin Fields. And
what if Justin Fields isn't a franchise guy and Bryce
Young turns into be a franchise guy. This is how
people lose jobs. No, no, no, we don't. So what
do they want? They want what they feel is the
safest avenue, which is, let's trade the pick. Let's trade
the pick, because then we can say, well, we wanted
to make the team better. It's the least criticized angle
(07:23):
of the three. They're playing that game because they're afraid,
they're running, scared of standing up and making a big decision.
It is what they think is, Okay, the least criticized
thing we could do is trade the pick. Right, It's
the least criticized because then at least we can say, well,
you know, yeah, Bryce Young turned out to be number
one pick, but we had to and we traded. We
got a whole bunch for him. You know, we got
a lot for We had to remake the team. We're
(07:44):
a bad team. We need to fill more holes than that.
We like Justin Fields. They feel that that's going to
be the least criticized angle on it. And that's why
they're doing is they're scared. They're scared to make a
big decision and you can say, oh, yeah, teams are.
Of course, the fact that teams are calling you to
move up to number one overall to take Bryce Young,
does that tell you about what the league thinks about
Bryce Young? Seriously? What does what does that tell you? Oh, Brad, Well,
(08:04):
we don't know, we don't know. You that tells you
what people, what teams feel about Bryce Young, because that's
the guy they're going up to get. No. One's going
up to number one to get c. J. Stroud, They
are going up to get well none, no, not Anthony Richardson.
Those guys all go on the top ten. Bryce Young's
the guy, right, So for all of this, we don't
know if Bryce Young's a franchise choirs. Bryce Young is terrific.
You have seen quarterbacks that height succeed in the NFL.
(08:25):
I don't know that we've had a quarterback come into
the NFL that can read defenses and get to the
options the way he can in a long time. He's
a He's a great pick at number one. But yet
now the Bears they want to shy away from it
because they don't want to do something bold, because they're
afraid if it doesn't work, out the criticism they're gonna get.
They're afraid, and they're taking this angle on it because
it's the most defensible angle that hopefully, if if it
(08:47):
doesn't work out, everybody can keep their jobs. They can
shrug their shoulders and say, well, we traded the pick
because we had kind of had a quarterback. Didn't know
this guy was gonna be great, or well, you know,
we traded to the the pick because we were getting a
lot for him and we thought we had a quarterback.
I mean, they know if it doesn't work, they're gonna
get criticized with whatever they pick, but they think this
is going to be the least critical angle on it,
and that's why they're doing it. The Bears are afraid
(09:09):
to stand up and make a decision and say things like, hey,
we can restart their clock on our quarterback and uh
and and build around him and not have to worry
about paying justin Fields in a couple of years we
were we do we know that Justin Fields is great?
Because to me, that's the question, is justin Fields great?
Nobody can say that, And if you've got a quarterback
play a couple of years and yes, he had a
(09:30):
big step up. This year. That was awesome, But is
Justin Fields a great quarterback? You can't say yes. All
of these reasons is why I said, hey, they should
trade that pick. They should trade ards, they should keep
the pick, and they should take the quarterback. Trade Justin Fields,
get some stuff for him and do it that way,
and all of these different things you can do. You
can reset and maybe get a franchise quarterback for the
(09:51):
next decade plus. But the Bears are gonna choose option three,
which is we're gonna trade the pick. There's no doubt
in my mind they trade this pick. You are all
over the place and doing the told you so's. I'm
not quite sure following your logic because you took credit
for two things there. Uh, this was the out time
for a lot of things. You credit for a lot
of things. And I thought me saying that the efficacy,
(10:12):
the greatness, the gravitas of the movie that was Cocaine
Bear was going to be the hot take theater moment
of this segment. Instead, you're talking about running scared. I
like it. It'll play well on social media when you
tweet it, but it's it's just the best option. Right.
If you're not convinced that any of these guys is
(10:32):
the guy, because if they were, then Justin Fields is gone,
like yeah, but but are they are they convinced Justin
Fields is great, They're not there. But what they're doing
I think they're doing here is that they're looking at
the rest of these guys, going, he's got two years here,
he's got a year with this system. We've got one
hundred and fifteen million dollars, and if we trade this
(10:52):
pick down once or twice, we now have a bunch
of other pieces for a guy that showed out fairly
well in year one, picking the groceries in polls that
maybe you can build up around the base that you have.
You have to reconstruct the defense. You have to do that.
A better offensive line, no matter what anybody's grade was,
(11:14):
they were not good running back. You've got to decide
what you're doing there, whether that's draft or free agency,
or do you just bring Montgomery back and as Herbert
going to be one hundred percent, but you have one
hundred fifteen million dollars to spend, So you're looking at
Justin Fields and trying to take it full on or
any of these guys decidedly better than he is. Going
(11:36):
forward because the reset of two years. Okay, that's fine,
it's a reason possibly, But I don't think it's that
high of one that you jump off if you think
fields can play. If anything, if it all goes disastrously,
you may have enough picks that you can trade back
in and grab one of the guys next year that
are supposed to be quote generational guys, you know, like
(11:57):
we do every two to three years. Generation you have
you have the Yeah, but you have the number one
pick now like that. But if you don't know, but
if it's not a guy that you think is the guy,
is the point? It's not running scared like if you
I mean, they're gonna talk to all these guys. That's
lost in all of the the excitement of something that
was said a long time ago. Trade the number one pick,
Go go bolster your your rosters actually need a lot
(12:20):
of help. But they're gonna talk to all the quarterbacks
at the combine. Yeah, But the fact they're already leaning
towards trading the pick without guys, what does that tell you?
What does that tell you? They're afraid. They're afraid, they
know they know what the criticism is going to be.
They don't want to get this decision wrong, so they're
gonna take the least because they're all soft and scared.
Everyone Sun Times writers are gonna say, or what you
(12:44):
or someone else? No, no no, no, no, no, no no,
they're mine. Man, no no, no, man, you're not even
better than man. You're not even listening to me because
what I said was if you were paying attention, that
are going Oh man, the Bears are gonna criticize. Is
that if it doesn't work out and the Bears stink
and they don't take a back and Bryce Young turns
into a superstar, everybody's getting fired. If they decide we're
(13:04):
gonna stick with Justin Fields and he's not any good. Well,
guess what. Anybody's getting fired. You had a chance to
get a quarterback there. That's what's gonna happen. So of
course people on social media are gonna go crazy about it,
but they're looking at hey, if we're wrong about this,
we're all gonna get fired. That's how do I keep
the job. Let's trade the pick. We don't want it,
we don't want it to Let's trade the pit. Let's
trade the pick. They're doing it before they even talk
(13:25):
to anybody. So what does that tell you about? Oh,
we really want to leave no stone unturned before we
do this. We're gonna look into it. All these guys
here we like, we haven't talked to the guys yet.
It's telling you, man, we'll see, We'll see Twitter and
running scared what did take place in Chicago? So there
is that bringing that full circle. The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon Live the tire rack
dot Com Studios. We'll have more on this coming up next.
(13:47):
But straight ahead, what is the latest on Lebron James?
What is going to happen? How long will he miss?
Are the Lakers really back without him? Keep it right here,
Jason and Mike, This is Fox Sports Radio. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app Fox Sports Radio.
(14:11):
The Jason Smith Show with My bass friend Mike Harman. Tonight,
Joe brought you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy
and affordable. Get a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat,
a TV, and more. All your protection in one place,
Bundle and save at Progressive dot Com. We'll continue that
justin Fields debate coming up in a bit. Mike and
(14:33):
I Butt joining us now on the hotline, someone who
may go from covering the Lakers being an insider to
starting for them. In the wake of the injuries to
D'Angelo Russell and Lebron James, the Lakers bracing for multiple weeks.
Lebron could be out with an injury. He's out tomorrow.
De'angelo Russell is back, is out tomorrow. Dan Woiki joins
(14:57):
us right now covers the Lakers and the NBA for
the La Times Fall on Twitter at Dan Woiki Sports. Dan.
Does it really matter if they're hurt because the Lakers
are back? Right? I mean, it doesn't matter Lakers are
back because it doesn't matter who'shurt, they're back. Yeah. I
think the you know, to me, the takeaway is sort
of like my wife and a war on Dark Wisconsin,
like this is probably gonna be a little boring. It's
(15:19):
kind of worry that what I'm taking. I said, no, no, no,
you have to study the intricacies of it. And look,
this was a very very lakery. Thirty six hours um,
look twenty four hours really right where you get the
(15:41):
obscene high of a third straight win, the optimism of
you know, I mean, and guys, we've talked about the stuff.
It's not like it's not like the Lakers in a
couple of games I'm saying, oh wow, like they're gonna
make the playoffs. It's no, They're gonna go to the
finals now, right like you you uh, well, you get
on the you get on the Mario Kart zoom path
(16:02):
right where you just go uncontrollably fast and and like
should you shut riding that? And then it's sort of like, well,
you see Lebron leave and you're like, that doesn't look great,
and you know, just talk to him a little bit
a lot coming after the game, and you know, you
had kind of said something along the line like, you know,
I thought somebody. I thought I stepped on someone's foot.
I was like oope, Like no, there wasn't anyone there.
(16:25):
And you're like, wow, that's not good. Um, And then
you know, I mean, today it's kind of one of
those weird days where really the only thing you're hearing
is that it's not good. Um. No one's saying, you know,
specifically what it is. No one is saying, um, physically
how long? Just said it's not going to be tomorrow, certainly,
(16:46):
and it's not gonna be Wednesday, right, So, um, they're
they're prepped here now for for threats without him. Um,
they're more equipped to handle it than they were three
weeks ago. But a lot come after go right for
them to stay anywhere close to the trajectually that they
were briefly on there this beast sea. But let's have
(17:07):
fun with that, shall we? Im a rotational perspective, assuming
Russell's not out too terribly long. I mean, you got Vanderbilt,
you got Gas coming in and playing some big minutes,
and it doesn't have to run through Lebron. Maybe there's
a little different flow. Maybe Anthony Davis gets a little
spring in his step. Sure, and they've won some games
earlier this year this way, you know where Lebron sat,
(17:30):
and I think they had a stretch where they won
three in a row. They beat some pretty bad team
and that stretch and they're not going to play that
many bad teams here. But yeah, I mean, I think
they're more equipped. Like it's not like you have to
squit that hard to see how they would win. Right,
It's like the balls that they're on, we can easily
make shots. D Angel Russell make some shots, Anthony Davis
plays all on the paint and they defend right. And
(17:51):
you know, if you play hard and make shots in
the NBA, you usually win. You know, those two things combined,
they usually get the job done. And um, you know,
obviously there they'll be in a talent episode with Lebron James.
It'll be harder to certainly win a kind of game
like they did Sunday in Dallas where they made no
(18:13):
shot and still somehow one. Um, but it's not it's
not impossible. And guys, I mean I think there's another
part of this that that needs to be sort of addressed,
and that's like, you know, no one's actually like really
sprinting either, you know in that eight to eight to
twelve range or maybe even six to twelve range. Right, Like,
(18:34):
it's a bunch of teams that have a bunch of issues. Um,
you know, I saw New Orleans lost again tonight. Um.
You know, these teams are all playing each other and
when they're not, like seemingly they're losing kind of wild games. Um,
you know, maybe the Lakers don't have to play you know,
seven hundred basketball, so you walked right into it. Why
(18:56):
not us because there's only three teams, including the aforementioned Plicans,
with an easier schedule down the stretch. Yeah, yeah, and
I mean look the Lakers, and believe me, I know
this to be true. The Lakers are said to be
home for a big stretch. My wife has been reminding
me how much I've been gone. I can't tell if
she's happier that about. You know, some version like boy
(19:19):
you're never here or boy you are never here. Um,
it's one of the one of the two, I'm not
quite sure, but the emphasis here I will be home
on Thursday, so do whatever you need to do. Clean
up the house, however you need to fix it up right,
and like it's like I'm gonna be there, um for
a month. Basically, they play two road games in March,
(19:41):
um really before the end of the month, so um,
a really big stretch of home games. You know, well,
we'll see. I reserve the right to be pleasantly surprised.
It's a kind of basketball they play, but it's I mean,
this is just sort of the reality when you build
your team around a thirty eight year old in year twenty.
You know, it's like like that that I'm probably going
(20:03):
to write some version of it tomorrow. But like, you know,
this is a team that's spent. People always talks about
like WS and L's ray with teams like this is
a team that has done bill almost entirely around I
and F. You know, which is good? There is you
know we talked about this last hour, Dan, is that
you know, with the short term look for the for
the Lakers, obviously it's Hey getting in the play and
when's Lebron gonna be healthy? But I kind of look
(20:25):
at today and maybe it's just the combination of coming
off the All Star break and Lebron saying these are
the most important twenty three games of my career. And
the Lakers made, you know, a bunch of moves of
the deadline, and they redid the roster, and there's a
new blend of excitement, and after a couple of games,
a big comeback win against the Mavericks, all of a sudden,
now he's hurt and we don't know when he's gonna
(20:46):
play again. And I feel like this is now is
the beginning of the end of Lebron James's career, like
it's four years of data. Now he's never going to
be healthy, right, He's missed at least a third of
the season all the way through, and and now he's
missing war games. It's like, how much longer does the
guy have until his body just gives out on him.
Now you can extend it by a year with some
(21:07):
really big time load maintenance. But I feel like we're
now in the beginning of the end of the last
act and we can I can see the finish line
like I've never been able to before for him. Yeah,
it's it's it's funny because like, yeah, I mean that's
obviously in conversation I had at some point in time
today with some people is like is this you know?
Is this is this what we're seeing? You know? Um?
(21:29):
I will say though, all that ever, cakes is like
a good week from Lebron, A couple of thirty point games,
are couple forty point games, and you're just like, oh no,
this is crazy because like dudes at the end, like
don't catch flabs like this. It's like, dudes at the end,
don't you know a reverse sunks like this? Or like
there is like some of this stuff. You just like,
you know, bet against him at your own peril, right
(21:51):
like that. That's sort of been the lesson in a
lot of ways of his twenty year career. It's like,
you don't think you can do this, Like you're probably wrong,
and so yeah, I think on one hand, like you
start to worry about non contact injuries. Uh, you know
a guy being an easy report with soreness for months
at a time, right like, Um, like he banged up,
(22:14):
for sure, he is banged up and he's had to
you know, he's had to do a lot for the Lakers.
I do think that you know, in a world of
this roster it existed in November, you know, maybe he
doesn't have to do as much, right Like. One of
the crazy things about you know, the two winds prior
to the Dallace win was that they were both season
lows and minutes for lebron Um and back to that game, right, um,
(22:39):
like the kind of firepower, the kind of balance they
haven't had all year. Now. Look, I'm not sure they
could have gotten the Agual Russell and November um, and
I don't think they wanted to pay the cost and
what it would have taken to get Jared ran about
easily and Mike Conley um at that time, right, like
certainly would have taken probably two thicks um to do
that in a ropewestern treat and we're never interested in that.
(23:01):
But I do think seeing him with like a little
help here like sort of does speak to like, you know,
the need for things to like slow down a little
bit for him, right and that maybe like he can't
be the every night guy um that he's been, but yeah,
I don't know it just there's so much up in
(23:24):
the area now, Like, look, he could be back in
three weeks and the Lakers could be the five seeks Fox.
That doesn't seem that doesn't seem totally out of question.
But it also like that they're stuck in thirteenth you know,
in Perpetunity also seems super realistic, nice and purgatory like there,
not realistic, it's super realistic. It's super realist. That was
(23:51):
adding a paper right there. Super Let's be honest, I
mean like it really they've been a pretty wide variant
team all year, and tip typically like those are like
think about the wide varied people in our lives, Like
shows out the people asked the babysit. Noah, Like, well,
you might do a good job, or they might get tattoos. Yeah,
(24:13):
you don't know. Well, that depends what the tattoo is up.
I mean it might be tasteful, might not. No, you
don't know. You don't know a little bit of a wildcard.
Hey speak of wild cards? Dan Dan Wik our guest
at Dan Woiky Sports where you find them read them
La Times. Joyce is each and every week talking all
things NBA. Uh Jason, switch out with me, Mike Harmon
(24:34):
here at Fox Sports Radio of course. Uh Dan, how
happy a are you that Russell Westbrook stayed in LA
made a quick detour? H be you know the have
you ever seen the team or do you ever think
you'll see it again in your lifetime? Where they're back
and cruising and they score one hundred and seventy five
points in lose well to the ladder. No. Um, but
(24:56):
but maybe I should get used to it the way
that defense is currently being played. There's a lot of
players around the league right now. But no, I mean
that game was crazy. That's Clippers, Like you said, I
will I will tell you guys, Russell Westbrook's blown defensive
assignment I'm linked monk at the end of regulation did
not go unnoticed in the Lakers locker room. That was
(25:17):
something that was I would I would be lying if
I if I said that no one mentioned that I will.
I will say I do think that the Clippers are
an opportunity for Russell Westbrook to show that he still
has a place in this league that he can functioned. Um,
(25:39):
you know, with the right sort of supporting cast. I
twoose the other day that like part of the Russell
west Of problem wasn't always Russell Westbrook. I mean, he
is a big part of it, but it was that
when you pay him forty seven million dollars, that's forty
seven million dollars that isn't going to shooting or defense
or guys that make up for some of his weaknesses.
And when you're paying him no dollars functionally, which is
(26:01):
what the Clippers are, UM, you have guys to make
up for that stuff, right, and you can he can
potentially learn how to function in that situation. I do
think though, guys the Clippers sort of stuffer from like
what I call like too many guys syndrome, where the
roster is you don't want to say show stacked, but
like there isn't enough differentiation and talent between player four
(26:24):
or five in the rotation of players eleven that like
it's just so hard to get it right. You know
that your coach is constantly forced to make vocational decisions
at closing lineups, Like Norman Poell played like seventeen minutes
last night against Denver and you know it wasn't on
the court in the fourth quarter. And like, you know,
I think Norman Poe probably is one of their six
(26:45):
plus players. You know, he played well against the Nuggets,
but you know Eric Gordon is a guy they're looking at.
So Eric Gordon played too, and I think that is
to me, it's it's a it's a challenge when you
don't have that sort of differentiation and talent. And right now,
like there's gonna always be somebody pissed off. Um, you
know when the lake is like I'm sorry, pardon me.
(27:06):
When the Clippers are are closing games, there's gonna be
four guys that think they like Marcus Morts was gonna
want to play, Eric Gordon's gonna want to play. Norm
Pal's gonna want to play. Robert Covington isn't playing and
surely wants to play. Um, you know, they've they've got
a lot of veterans who want minutes and those exists
for them. You know, It's funny. I kind of feel
that way at the LA times as well, Like with
(27:27):
sports writings, there's no delineation between three through nine, you know,
for sports, like you know, whoever's the third best could
be there. I feel like it's kind of all over
the place like that. I'm with you, I don't know
what you're talking about. Never heard who? Who is it?
Who is it? Yeah? Hey, Dan, with all the extra
time you're gonna have, Um, how much are you gonna
(27:49):
really dive into the baseball rules of spring training and
lamenting at bats by the White Sox. Well, I mean,
the good thing about sharing for the White Sox is that,
like it can only really be a one month relationship
if you want it to be, Like there is a
there's always a good ripcord, like you watching me loo
him and as like I don't know, like rupture is
like shoulder playing outfields at the point, I was very
(28:11):
happy to see him out in the outside of the
first the first day of spring training after after having
a season almost scented last year by playing defense. Um,
it is a it's it's a sad life, guys. I
don't know why place I mean between because I do
it too. If the justin Field situation. Yeah, like the
Bears finally have a quarterback that they can believe in
(28:33):
and like honestly, like just for postings, they have to
talk about how they might want to leave him, you
know what I mean, like the beautiful Yeah like what
like what like you know, like what it's just what
a horrible time. We can't have nice things when it
comes out. No, But I will say though, I mean, look,
at least I get to at least I get to
punch of talk every day watching a basketball team that
(28:55):
that now now plays with like some semblance of order.
And you know, who knows, maybe I'll get maybe I'll
get a A playing tournament came out of it. I
was very proud, guys. You know the Lakers by winning yesterday,
very big mouthstone for the Lakers. They were able to
work their way into the television graphics of the Western Conference,
(29:16):
which they're always twelve. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they love their
way into the standings below that second line they were
they were always for for months they've been like they
would show the same time percast and like we're chard Jeffersons,
You're like, well and the Lakers at thirteen. Now they
don't have to say that anymore. They they're right there
right No, I with you. That's how I feel with
the Jets when in the in December, when we're in
(29:36):
the in the hunt. Hey, we're in the Hunt in December.
We're not like Fall that we're in there where it's
just the logos of like four teams just like separated
by commas. Yeah, yeah, five and eight or something. Yeah.
Oh it's Dan Woiki, one of the nine best riders
at the La Times uh NBA inside makes them start
(29:59):
check out, yeah, check out. Well listen, we got it,
we got it. We got a differentiate between Woike and
like Ben Bolch and Broderick Turner and yeah, a bunch
of lunchury I built plash key Helene Elliott. You know
there's lots of guys now it's called Helen a cell
and that's where we settling a lot of guys. Check
him out on Twitter his latest odd Latimes dot Com.
Dan has always buddy appreciated, my friend. We'll talk to
(30:20):
you all right, guys, be good day, Bunny. All right,
great stuff there for that great stuff on the clippers.
Oh yeah, I know that too many guys. That's a
that's a really really interesting point. I saw him tweet
that the other day. I was opening to bring it
up before we asked about it. That was just a great,
great point. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Harman weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
(30:41):
seven pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show
with My best friend Mike Harman Live from the tirerect
dot Com studio. Tonight show brought to by Progressive Insurance.
Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable. Get a multi policy
discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, a TV and more,
all your protection and one place. Bundle and save at
(31:01):
Progressive dot Com. Well, Carson Wentz is no longer a
member of the Washington Commanders Jets coming stop it stop
you can you know, you can keep saying that it's
not going to happen. There are many people I am
afraid of the Jets signing. Carson Wentz is not one
of them. It's a Pavlovian response. There's a quarterback name Jets. Look,
(31:25):
I love the report today that the Jets could go
out and get Geno Smith and go get Daniel Day.
Jesus shut now have a deck of cards which includes
every quarterback to take a snap two? Could they get him? Yeah? Anybody?
The only guys you had to take out were burrowing Mahomes.
(31:48):
Yeah yeah, no, no, we can. Somebody is available for you.
Herbert's not, and Frostburg's gonna protect Justin Herbert. So those
three guys, everybody else is on the table. Let's go. Yeah. No, no, no,
So we can even get them if we wanted to.
It doesn't matter. We'll find a way. We're linked with everybody.
We're a quarterback, does it we could get more? That
does go a long way. That's all it is. But
(32:12):
Carson Wentz, who was released after one season with Washington,
I don't think he plays in the NFL again. He
has gone from quarterback of the future quarterback of the
present MVP candidate and then the last four or five
years has been a slow and steady decline for him
(32:32):
away from production. Now, that would be one thing we've
seen that many times quarterbacks we thought really good turn
into backup quarterbacks and they wind up sticking around in
the league for a long time. And you know, Carson
Wentz on the Marcus Mariota train. Maybe he'll start somewhere
else at some point. But here's the thing with Carson Wentz,
why did he get traded from Philadelphia? Personally? He had
(32:52):
a lot of issues, right we saw all the reports. Um,
he had a lack of leadership, he tuned out coaches,
he play his play was very reckless, and he wasn't
coached very well. His teammates didn't like him. Gone to Indianapolis.
What happened after Indianapolis? He tuned out coaches, the lack
of leadership, his play was too reckless. He winds up
in Washington. What happened lack of I mean, it's all
(33:15):
these personal things about him. It's not just he's a
bad quarterback. Because if someone who's a bad quarterback at
least all right, well they were, they're not a starter.
But if we need a guy to come in for
a little bit, okay, because a guy at least to
put numbers on the board. He's had, you know, three
years with at least twenty seven touchdowns. We can't trust
him to be the number one guy. But if he's
the number two guy, okay, but if he's someone that
(33:35):
has so many issues in the locker room, is Carson
Wentz gonna be worth it for anybody? He's not? So
I don't know who's gonna say, yeah, Hey, Carson Wentz
is gonna come in to be our backup quarterback? If
he's had all these issues when he's the starting quarterback,
is he really going to suddenly be a great guy
now that he's the backup. I mean, he's had enough
chances that, hey, this could be your last chance to
start right. You had a bunch of years of Philadelphia,
(33:57):
You had a year to be the guy in Indianapolis.
You thought you're gonna be that guy at and happened,
starting to be the guy in watching it didn't happen.
He's had enough chances. He's had enough chances at that
where I don't know the team says, yeah, do we
want to bring in a backup in the locker room
that could be yeah. You know I would shy away
from it. I would. I watched Carson Wentz. I think
he'll go unsigned throughout this whole year and very just
(34:18):
quietly not playing the NFL anymore. See, I think he
becomes a break glass in case of emergency guy, especially
with the way the NFL has been these last couple
of years. We talked a lot about the number of
players getting snaps. We watched in San Francisco where chaos ensued. Hell,
they're already jumping right back into it, Rock Bertie and
his surgery, Trey Lance. Can he stay healthy? Don't be
(34:40):
a need a number three guy there, and it's not
something you necessarily need in your locker room right away. Like,
I think that's that's where his next job becomes. These
teams that do the dance in free agency and maybe
get shut out, but more likely that we start going
to camp and that it takes an injury for another signing.
(35:03):
The other thing is, if you're Washington, there's no way
you could carry the salary that this guy was commanding
rights as you look at everything that was on the books.
I mean, he's made one hundred and twenty eight million dollars.
It's been brilliant and at times he's been brilliant on
the field. Right now, it's that all right? Can I
eke out one more contract at three to four with
(35:23):
three four million with some sort of incentives if I
do elevate to the top spot, that that would be
the most likely of scenarios. See, it's tough for me
because his year with the and this this gets around
to why I don't see Another reason why I don't
see him playing is that his year with Indianapolis wasn't
that bad, but it just ended so horribly. And the
(35:47):
fact that you could still look back after going okay, well,
they gacked away at the playoffs. He was really bad
the last couple weeks. But it's also the fall guy thing.
And look at what Indianapolis has been been these last
couple of years. Ye. Look at Jim er Say on Twitter.
He's convinced because he wrote a Bear in the sixties,
he's got connections to Chicago. I mean, come on, man,
well you know it's it's how people. I can only
(36:09):
blame Wentz so much for anything in Indianapolis. Right now, Jason,
I'm not gonna lie that picture I sent you of
Wentz and the Jets. Jersey's pretty clean, man. Yeah, but
it's not gonna happen again. It's not gonna you can
send it out many was not gonna happen, Oh man,
it's really really popped too. We're brought to you by
(36:29):
Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable. Get a
multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, a TV,
and more, all your protection in one place. Bundle and
save at progressive dot Com. Big NBA story coming up
next Fox
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.