June 20, 2024 • 35 mins
Rich Paul is talking big about Bronny James because he knows in the worst-case scenario Bronny will be a Laker or a Sun. And Jason explains why Monty Williams is the perfect fit to be the next Lakers head coach.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Please give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello, and welcome inside our three The Jason Smith Show.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
With my bas friend Mike Harmon.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
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Speaker 3 (00:47):
Tyraq dot com is the way tire buying should be. Well.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
We had the conversation about Brownie James a few moments
ago and Rich Paul talking really big today. Hey, Brodny's
not gonna go work out for a lot of teams.
He's going to only work out for a couple. I
don't want a two way deal. I want a one
way deal. Because he knows he's gotten some kind of assurance.
(01:13):
And again I don't know it for a fact. I
just know it's true. He's got some kind of assurance
the Lakers or the Suns are going to take him
at some point, right, So he's got the landing spot.
If something happens earlier. It's a big happy accident that
someone drafts him early. Hey, great, Right, they'll deal with that,
And that's an awesome thing. Because someone's drafting him early,
they believe in him as a first round pick. He'll
(01:33):
deal with that. But he knows for sure. You know,
I have the ace in the hole writing. I know
that either the Lakers or the Sons are gonna wind
up drafting at some point, taking Bronnie.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
James, Yeah, Jason.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
And the other thing though, like as mentioned in the quotes,
right when he started talking and bringing in the Mavericks,
the Raptors, whatever, you're talking about organizations where there's some stability, right,
and a belief into they know what they're doing, how
to build a program, whatever. So he can go to
one of those places with people who know him. And again,
a lot of this, like with all draft prospects, is
(02:06):
what the hell do they be come in two to
three years?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Right?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
It's not necessarily Hey, I'm bringing in a guy now,
because what's the old adage in college buckets. If I'm
bringing in a guy who's a junior or a senior,
he may have topped out, which means he's a back
end rotational player at best. Whereas with Bronnie James, is
he going to grow another three inches four inches, I
don't know, actually get to the six four and a
half he was listed at in the USC program. Maybe
(02:30):
if there's team at the back end in the first
round or beginning of the second that has that belief
and he's not doing the two way deal, but he's
at the end of the bench, you know, where he
can be like Bursett and have some mop up dudes
in the big games. Now, the other part.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Of this equation, of course, is Lebron James, and there's
been so many, I would say guesses as to what
he's going to wind up doing in the offseason. Is
he really gonna leave the Lakers? Would he go play
for the Suns? If the sun preferred destination, If the
Sons get Bronny, will Lebron go there? And you know,
Lebron has been using every way he can to give
(03:08):
a little bit of leverage to get what he wants
out of the Lakers, whether that's another year, another fifty
million dollars. He doesn't have a lot of leverage because Lebron.
They need the Lakers, know, Look, Lebron wants to stay here.
He doesn't want to go anywhere. Do you even want
to upset the Apple card and go try to win
someplace else?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
He won the maths here.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yeah, in the man right, it's because he's never gonna
take less right. Forget about Lebron taking less right. He's
not gonna do And we'll get to Tom. Why Tom
Brady figures into this in a minute.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Well, because Richard said, yes, it's like he's not going
somewhere out a minimum deal.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
He waving over at Phoenix. No, no, I'm not gonna
do that. No, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So really, how badly does he want to win? I'm
not gonna take less money, dude. This is what the
greats have done a lot in sports. Take less money
so you can win. I mean, I mean, yes, I
get it. It's tough to turn your back at fifty
million dollars, But could you take twenty million dollars at
some point when you're worth in the billions. Could you
do I think you could do that. I'm pretty sure
(04:04):
you'd be able to do that.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah, those are the same guys. You know, how do
you stay rich? Other people pick up your meals When
you're a celebrity and you go to a restaurant, Oh
we got this, mister James, mister Smith, whatever your case
may be.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I mean, they take care of you. No one's ever
bought McDonald's for me. No one.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
I've gotten a couple of times, I've gotten recognized in McDonald's.
No one's bought Mike Mike. So you're saying if Jason
bought food for us every night, we'd be rich.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Well, I mean it's science because it's money.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
We're not spending food and that over time, including compounding interest,
I mean, it would work out in our favor.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
If I'm not spending, mister hand, and you're not spending
then But this is what Lebron has to realize. Okay,
in playing this game, you don't want to play too dangerous,
right If you want to get paid and you're not
gonna take less money all of a sudden, that's gonna
cut a lot of teams that could be quote interested
in you and you lose your leverage. Because I'll be
(05:00):
honest with you, if Lebron plays this game too long,
it's not gonna end the way he wants it to.
Because there is not a Lebron James market like he
thinks it's gonna be. There isn't There is no matter
how good you are. Lebron James is near the end
of his career. He wants a lot of money, and
it's been a long time since he won in twenty twenty.
(05:21):
All right, It's been four years of watching Lebron with
Anthony Davis other whatever invention of the team they have,
it not be enough. They've watched him metal, They've watched
him make help make the worst personnel decision that has
still set the Lakers back to this day, and that
is let's go in for Russell Westbrook that still is
holding them back to this day. So it's not the
(05:42):
market that you think he has. There's not a lot
of teams that are interested in Lebron James, and maybe
the one or two teams that would be interested, maybe
he doesn't want to go there, right because there's only
a couple of places that Lebron would really probably think
about going, there's not a Lebron James market. And if
you think I'm wrong to ask Tom Brady. When Brady
was coming off one of the best careers we've ever
(06:04):
seen the history of the NFL as a quarterback, probably
the best, and it wasn't too far removed from a
Super Bowl. How many teams wanted to sign him in
free agency? How many too? And really one and a half? Right,
really it was Tampa Bay and the Chargers were a
little bit lukewarm. This is Tom Bleep and Brady were
talking about the Patriots kicked him to the curb as, Oh,
(06:25):
he's kind of done. Nobody wanted the guy. Nobody wanted him,
but Tampa Bay did. And what happened They won the
super Bowl? All right, they won the Super Bowl Playoffs.
The next year they won, right. So I'm not saying
he can't get it done. And Lebron's still not a
great player. But if you see Tom Brady and he
had no market, what market do you really think Lebron
has after the last four years, there's less and less
(06:45):
every year that goes by. People think we're a Lebron
away from winning. No, Lebron sucks up a lot of
oxygen in the room. They've seen him not be a leader,
they've seen the end of his career. Maybe he's gonna
get a little bit wiser, maybe he's gonna back off
a little bit, be a little bit more of a teacher.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
No, it's not who he is.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
His market is really small, and if he dares the
Lakers enough, he's gonna find out and he's not gonna
like that lesson and you're gonna see. You're gonna see
working overtime at Clutch Sports going. How do we create
artificial interest in Lebron James? How do we create interests
where where supposedly we're talking to a bunch of different teams,
when really nobody is gonna go out and go crazy
for the guy. With all the stuff that goes along
(07:21):
with Lebron. He just isn't as sought after as he
was a few years ago, right, first couple of times, yes,
one hundred percent. Now things are different and when you
weigh all of the things that go along with Lebron,
what you have to do to be able to accustomize
to his personality and what he likes to do and
what he likes to practice and input he wants to
(07:43):
have with a team or doesn't want to have. How
he leads or doesn't lead your young players, how he
listens to or doesn't listen to the coach, how much
money he's gonna take up, because he's not gonna take less.
All of these things where teams are gonna say, yeah,
Lebron business, it sounds better than it is. And if
he pushes this, if he pushes this, he's gonna find
out in the bed. If he pushes the Lakers, the
Lakers say, you know what, go do it somewhere else.
(08:04):
We have something else in the works, Go try it
some Thanks, thanks, everything is great, Go do it someplace else.
And then he'll be miserable in Los Angeles where he's
got his home and he's not a Laker anymore, and
everyone's got to hear about his Lebron left, Lebron left. Yeah,
I don't think he wants to play this game. He's
not gonna like how it ends.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Yeah, I mean other than the Lakers love of stars,
uh and and look, everybody wants them, right. We all
like to have those names that becomes synonymous with the logo,
like you with Grimace or on the field Pete Alonzo, right,
when they're not there anymore. It just looks weird when
suddenly they're in a different uniform. Now Lebron's changed enough
(08:44):
to where we've gotten past that to a degree. But yeah,
as much as Anthony Davis might become the guy is
he really don't know will he stay healthy again? That's
the question with Lebron that you have to answer as well.
But ye had the giant chart, right. If we're gonna
go and see what the centric circles are between teams
that would be interested and teams that Lebron would be interested,
(09:05):
it's gonna be very few. It's gonna be the Lakers.
We make money. We're still contending at the back end
play in maybe with a little luck here and there,
and again Western Conference and all that. You have to navigate,
remembering that in the background.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Of this tale.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
But the other side is you've got a bunch of
teams that I'm sure are like, all right, if we
win at what cost? Right, because you have to sacrifice
other players depth most definitely if you're gonna end up
paying Lebron anywhere near the market value that he wants.
So all of a sudden, those guys coming off the
(09:41):
bench that were pivotal as defensive players and substitutes or
the expert marksmen for some boost on your second unit.
Suddenly they got to go away. So you know, some
of those squads are just gonna say nope, no, thank you.
And it's a large number. And then you go to
the non contenders, Well, does he want to go and
just be a side show for a couple of years. Maybe,
(10:03):
I don't know if the price is right, because I'm
sure there's plenty of owners ago.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Hell yeah, he'd be really good for.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Business for two years, Jerseys, suerseys, bobblehead nights, you name it.
We'll get asses in seats and this will be fantastic.
My guess is most of those squads, you know, like
an Orlando Magic, ain't.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Exactly what he's looking to do.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Even if he loves going to Disney or Universal or
whatever the hell else he does go into gator firms
or what have you. But the fact is there's not
gonna be a giant demand for it, and the Lakers,
as you surmise, eventually they just say, okay, we at
least have to get him after the embarrassment that was
(10:43):
our coaching search.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Look, it's going to be not quite a battle of wills,
but it's always been Lebron and the Lakers at arms
length from each other. It's never been we are together
here and Clutch Sports is working with the Lakers. Lakers
work with Clutch Sports because Clutch Sports is like, hey,
we're very powerful, we're influencers, and the Lakers are saying,
we're a mom and pop business. You don't tell us
(11:06):
what to do. So it's always been they've never really
moved forward to it. It's been very difficult when when
you have two different agendas and two different ways of
doing business.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
You know, look at the way.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Look things have worked out with the Knicks, right, Leon
Rose has showed up at the Knicks and it's worked. Hey,
we've given you the team. You're the guy. It's worked out.
We're bringing players in, we're making moves for guys that
were it's great, but sometimes it doesn't. And so Lebron's
always kind of had that relationship with the Lakers where, yeah,
he's never really quite gotten that hug, he's never quite
(11:38):
gotten that, hey, you're like Magic or Kareem or Kobe
or anything else. So this is something that's kind of
built in to every sort of negotiation.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
That they have.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And when this is built in and you're kind of
an arm's length, yeah, you can make emotional decisions. Oh,
they're not going to do this, Well, screw that. I'll
go here. I'll go here. I'll go play in Phoenix,
where I'm only a a forty minute flight from LA
when I need to come back for business whatever.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
I don't care living in LA.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I don't care if they hate me out of this
is how decisions like this get made, and the Lakers
finally make it.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Hey, we have to move on from Lebron.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
We were gonna corral Anthony Davis, make sure he's on board,
and he's the guy, he's the leader of the team.
Now we get a player with him. I can see
it happening. I can see Lebron pushing it, but I
just don't. I just don't see where there's going to
be this overall. Hey, let's go get Lebron right like
it's it's not even been, because it would be different
if it was. Hey, Lebron's a free agent and there's
(12:33):
a lot of buzz about it. No, the only buzz
is if you draft Brony, maybe you'll get Lebron. Oh, Okay,
so that means Lebron on his own isn't just telling
you Lebron on his own might not be what it
was because well, if this was Lebron's a free agent,
it would be, Hey, Lebron's a free agent. Bron, he's
getting drafted. Maybe they could wind up Lebron writes his
own ticket. Just by that perspective of it, you know
(12:55):
that there's not a market for Lebron.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Yeah, Jason, I would say some of that is just
the percent is that Lebron's not gonna go anywhere, and
we're so caught up in the coaching search mess whatever
you want to call it, that that just falls to
the wayside because again, he's not gonna walk away from
what is it fifty three million dollars a year or
one sixty two over three or whatever it is. I
(13:17):
equate Lebron a lot to Alex Rodriguez in New York.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Great player. Was he ever really embraced?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Now? It was Jeters and here he's gone certainly not forgotten.
It's Kobe Bryant's Lakers. Lebron came in and we're talking
about history, pageantry of the Showtime era and into Kobe
Bryant and that that is not changed. So he's a
guy that while he's a Laker, there's the Hey, he's
our ours now, But is he really gotten that hug?
(13:48):
I don't think so. So in that way, you know,
it's a bit of a mutant situation as well.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Don't test it, Lebron. You saw what happened with Brady.
Don't test it exit. How about a Fresco exit? Swollen
down The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon live from
the Tyraq dot Com studios. A little more basketball on
the way because coming up next, it is expensive when
you have to eat sixty five million dollars. But that
happened today, that incredible story is next Jason and Mike.
(14:16):
This is Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
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Speaker 3 (14:30):
Hey it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
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Speaker 1 (15:00):
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon live from the ti iraq dot com studios.
Where it's not often where you wake up and see
a headline that involves sixty five million dollars for not
doing anything, but yet, this is where we're at in
the NBA today.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Not a mad way to be.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
No, no, no, Listen, there's worse ways to be fired, right,
There's worse ways to be fired than to say, hey,
it hasn't worked out for us, but here's sixty five
million dollars to not work Oh okay, great. The Detroit Pistons,
after one season have fired head coach Mani Williams. They
are absorbing the remaining sixty five million dollars on Mani
(15:43):
Williams contract. They went nuts to get him a year ago.
This is a guy who was former Coach of the
Year in the NBA, had some great run with the Sons,
didn't really win the playoffs, which is kind of what
made the Sons think, Okay, we could be better than
we are.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Oh well maybe not. Uh so they move on from
Manti Williams the Pistons. They had to go bold.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
They lured him with a huge contract, six years and
seventy eight million, and after one season they've said, we've
seen enough of the full Monty TJ.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
We need to go on.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Uh you didn't, you didn't. I gotta go full mind.
How many Monty lines are they?
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Not that many?
Speaker 6 (16:23):
Well you anymore?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
So? I guess dude, dude, you went against the Grimace era.
Look what happened to your Dodgers tonight? Telling you, man,
look what happened. But the Grimace era was over. When
that is still going.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
Man, it's still him in the head.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
No said twice, don't stop. Both you guys are going
to hell. Okay, just so you know, just because of.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
That, because I gave a point of clarification.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I'm a bad guy when I say both of you guys,
I mean Frostberg and Tysher. Come on, man, pay attention, harmon,
come on, man, the specific and the reasons you're going
to hell, But not for that.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I mean, not that well. I defended Bill Belichick. You didn't. Yeah,
I do have are There's no question.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Bonnie Williams is a good coach. It didn't work out
in Detroit. Why Detroit wasn't very good? Right, There's only
one problem with Detroit. It's only one, only one problemmn.
There's only one problem with De Truit.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
One problem. What's that problem? They only have one problem.
They only have one problem. They stink. That's the only
problem with Detroit. They stink.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
But they're in the Eastern Conference, so that, yes, rise
could happen at any moment.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
I don't know, man, I think that shows you that, boy,
they couldn't. They couldn't win even a little bit more
in the East. That that tells you how bad things are.
I mean, they had a they had a sixty seven
game losing streak last year, So I get why they
needed to move on because last year was just so disastrous.
But it gives you pause because there's two big takeaways
from this, and the first one is that, Okay, when
(17:44):
you think about a coach, you understand that they don't
have the overall impact on a on a team like
a coach does in the NFL. Right, Major League Baseball,
NBA coaches, NHL coaches, they all have sort of a
looser impact. It's about Matt Egos managing the players, getting
them to play and be the best versions of themselves.
(18:05):
That it's not like suddenly, I'm coming in with a
system that's going to be incredible and set the league
on its ear right. We had the neutral zone trap
in the NHL. Look at the neutral zone trap, Oh
my goodness, winter.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
But in the.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
NBA, look at the Celtics. They won without really having
a plan on offense. They just put their guys out there.
They all hit threes and they kind of figure it out.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So just so you know that the impact of a
coach on a team isn't always what you expected to be.
He had a great impact with the Suns, got the
Sons to play defense, terrific coach of the year. They
won a lot of games. He goes to Detroit. It
doesn't work to the point where they can't even win, right.
They have one of the most one of the most
unsuccessful years and have one of the most unsuccessful eras
(18:45):
the last four of anybody in modern sport.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Like we thought for a while.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Last year, they may not win as many games as
the sixers did in seventy three, like they may win
less than nine games, so to show you it is
a limited impact on it. But the first, you know,
the thing to take away is that is that is
it that bad that they ate sixty five million dollars
(19:08):
to not bring money Williams back? Did he not get
Did he lose the locker room so badly? Did the
team revolt against him? Could they not? I mean, this
is a lot of money, and I can't believe the
Pistons have it. I mean, I know their owners a billionaire,
but I mean we can eat sixty five million dollars
after one year and tell a coach to go away, Like,
there's gotta be stuff that we haven't heard about. There's
(19:31):
a reason why, because, like I said, money, when he's
been around the game a long time, he's a good coach.
There's gotta be a reason because after one year to
say hey, we're moving on for you, not even to
give him a second year, to say, hey, maybe let's
give him another year, Let's get a different mix of
players in maybe some of the guys need to go out.
This is a guy that managed Egos before in Phoenix
in the one game let's give him another chance. Nope,
(19:53):
we're getting rid of them after one year. So and
so I wonder just how much has gone on behind
the scenes where they really couldn't bring him back. I
know it was a really, really bad year, but again,
I don't think people are walking around after this year going, boy,
Monty Williams is awful. This is all Monty Williams fault.
He's he's one of the worst coaches ever. He's not
rich k Tite. He's not like, oh we gotta get
(20:13):
say it's not Todd Haley. We're all we gotta get
right now. I mean, no one's walking around saying this
is on Monty Williams.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Yeah, when we look at I mean the career coaching record,
I mean he had his moments. You're talking about Coach
of the Year awards and Western Conference, you know, champions
and all of that fun stuff. Sixty four and eighteen
and twenty twenty one, twenty two, forty five wins before
heading to Detroit. So the overpay man, it's it's nice
(20:40):
to be at the head of a business where you
could say, is this gonna hurt us in any way,
shape or by the way they now estimate Tom Gore's
networth at nine billion, so you know you add that
extra you know, thirty three percent or fifty percent addition,
depending on what matth you want to use there, And
all of a sudden, it's like, yeah, sixty five million dollars,
(21:02):
we're gonna make that up, right up, a private equity guy,
we're good, and you say we're moving on right, You're
not getting the direction, and maybe maybe he's just a
guy that's really impatient, right, I don't I don't know
that enough spin. They were so bad that they were
so far off the radar except a couple of weeks
ago just kind of a whispering of all right, seasons
in the rear view, and there may be, you know,
(21:25):
that one more bombshell movement and that MANI William's name
was that guy as the bombshell, you know, kind of
movement in the NBA. And here it is today we
get this this giant note this morning, and everybody immediately
started pondering, if someone gave me sixty five million to
go away, would you ever hear from me again? The
(21:47):
answer is no, you know it to be true, you'd
send a letter and maybe some nice gift basket from
wherever you ended up saying, I'm in a new life,
new number. Who is but or the Pistons. Yeah, I
gotta imagine there's got to be a story there or
two that that start to come out.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, it's a really odd time to say, yeah, we're
firing you now, Like before the draft, if you were
going to do this, you knew you could. This would
be the day after the season. This would be hey, sorry, Monty,
it's not working out. Jason, you're saying, I mean it's well, well, okay,
he's not doesn't have to coach the Pistons anymore. But
(22:28):
like if he wanted to, Like if you let a
guy go, you want to give him the chance. Okay,
I want to get another job somewhere he wants to
work if he wants to, But like why you don't
know him that, why would you make it now? But
it's but it's good for both of you. It's good
for your team because then you have the pick of
people to choose from to be your head coach. The
quicker you move on. You wait until now, right before
the draft, and and then free agency coming up, and
(22:51):
you don't know what kind of culture you're going to have.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Or what the coach is.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Going to be like, you could have really just you know,
known that that you were going to make a higher
at some point, and it could have been a month
and a half ago, you.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
You hired Trajan Line, didn't the former Duke star right
new president of basketball operations that they evidently didn't have
since twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
So ponder that for a minute. Maybe that's why they're losing. Oh,
we don't we don't have one of those. Wait what Yeah,
we don't have a president of basketball ops yet.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
We don't.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
We don't have if they haven't already there.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Maybe it don't give him any semblance of a winning streak. Yeah,
they'll they'll be hon I'm sorry, No, no, it's I'm sorry.
It's Detroit. They'd have to adopt something from White Castle.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
That's it. They have to have to be white Castle.
That I don't know they have the Oh that's you
do you adopt Harold and Kumar.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
That's well for the funco products, they made little white
Castle buddies and stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, you find you find some kind of white Castle
mascot if you're in Detroit, because that's there's White Cast
every quot. You think McDonald's is everywhere? No Detroit man,
Dude White castles.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
To cost him out there somewhere.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, like like you know, like, yeah we're talking.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
You make some sort of like crave case and it's
just like a it's like a like a like a
like a character with like a case for a and
and like his eyes are on top of the cases.
He's walking around and when the case opens, that's his mouth.
Like I think that would be kind of a thing. Hey,
the trade the crave case. Yeah, the crave case.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
I think I just sent you what what could become
the official mascot here. Oh boy, oh but I mean
literally it's just a slider and he's got a face,
and he's got you know, like you would get one
in its wrapper, right in its little little house.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Uh that he's popping out where he kind of looks
like a transformer. Oh yeah, I like that slider with
a face. Yeah. No, No, I like that. No, I
think that's pretty cool.
Speaker 6 (24:42):
Send us this.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
What.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I can't make you hungry wanting a crave case.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
I like how fast he found it. I ads value.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
No, I like that the slide and that would be
his nickname would be sly Ah. That's that's that's genius
right there. That's what the Pistons need to do. And
you know, screw that. If you're the Tigers, do it first.
You're playing right now like you're a you're at five
year around five hundred. Do you go adopt a slider
and then give slider to the Pistons when they start
playing in the fall.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
Mike, there's no way this is real. Why is it?
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Yeah, it's an actual funco product. They've done a bunch
of mascots and and all the different product things. I mean,
there's a Grimace, we can get the we can get
the whole McDonald's lineup up in there, we can get
the frog, smack him from back in the day, you
name it.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
You can't Sam, he's there too, dude. And what about
me Lucky Charms that Aly Oh yeah, no, no, no, he's
out there too.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
But the other part of the Monty Williams is this
already there are reports earlier today is Monty Williams going
to be a candidate to coach the Lakers. And it's
kind of been I wouldn't say it's been poo pooed,
but it's kind of been. The can has been kicked
down the road. And I'll go bold and I'll tell
you that this is what the Lakers were waiting for,
(26:06):
because follow me on this, they swing and miss at
Danny Hurley. Actually, they just take a fastball down the
middle and don't take the bat off their shoulders for
Danny Hurley. So now they need to rebound, right, And
JJ Reddick's the guy, right, Reddicks the guy. He's a
guy we're talking to and incredibly impressive, the same things
we heard for the three weeks leading up to Hey,
wait a minute, we're gonna go get Danny Hurley. The
(26:27):
NBA Finals been over now for a couple of days,
and you now have the Cleveland Cavaliers who want to
hire a coach, and you're gonna lose James Morego, most
likely because the Cavaliers like him already. He has popped
up as a potential fit in Cleveland for how they're
gonna replace Monty Williams. So you want to make sure
that you get the guy you want, Like there's hey,
(26:47):
there's only two teams and JJ would come out here.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
But if JJ Reddick was.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Really your guy and you knew it, you would have
hired him by now, I get the dalliance with with
Danny Hurley because the guy's got a great resume, and
JJ Rede can't be that upset going, hey do we're
going for a guy that's won back to back national
championships and has accomplished a lot. You know, no, I
get it. But now here's JJ Reddick and you can
sit here and tell me. All they want to get
is his coaching staff together. And it's a bit of
(27:14):
a piece trying to figure out everything. If they really
wanted JJ Reddick, they would have hired him by now.
But how much of that were they wondering? Is many
Williams going to shake free? Because what does Moni Williams do?
He is a great defensive coach right everywhere he's been.
He got the Suns playing great defense. He gets his
teams to play defense. How do the Lakers going to
(27:34):
improve this year playing better defensively? So why would you
drag your feet? If JJ Reddick is really your guy?
You want to be very authoritative right after the season
is over and say he's our guy. We didn't get
Danny Hurley, doesn't matter. This is a better fit, this
is who we have. But instead we get reports the
last couple of days, Hey, maybe JJ Reddick to the
(27:55):
Lakers is done. They're talking a lot, But why are
the Lakers moving so slow? They're only moving so slow
because they think something might happen. Now there could be
pie in the sky and somebody could shake free that
we were thinking about. Like all of a sudden, Eric
Spoltz was gonna say, I've had it with Jimmy Butler.
I want to go to La coach Lebron again. Come on, Bron,
we could do it, like there could be that unbelievable
(28:17):
mystery thing. But I got a feeling that Manti Williams
and the Pistons this is kind of what the Lakers
are waiting for, and I wouldn't be surprised. Next twenty
four hours, you see Monti Williams link to the Lakers
with some kind of conversation.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
I mean that was the secondary part of that report
from a couple of weeks ago. As the early walking
back and forth and speculation, JJ Reddick came a guy
that clearly, I mean, we just got to get him
in the celebrity deathmatch ring as him and your guy
steven A. Since he's been practiced and he's stupid ass
walkout thing.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
He's ready for the octagon, so he can do that.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
But it's inevitable that you at least have to have
a conversation, give it his track history and getting guys
to buy into defense. Jason, I agree with you one
hundred percent, Like that's one of the biggest thing, right
managing egos. As much as folks want to dismiss Phil
Jackson for the stars that played for years, look at
the hindsight, how many other teams have had two or
(29:16):
three stars. How many of them actually went one for
any sustained length of time. I mean, you even hit
your under on that abomination that happened in Brooklyn a
couple of years ago. But you get down to it that,
you know Lebron, assuming he's back, which I think we
all do ad, what can you get out of them?
And how do you build a roster around them where
(29:37):
defense becomes the hallmark in a loaded Western conference and
not add that much more to the weary minutes that
you're potentially opening the door to them missing more extended
time because on some level, for twenty three twenty four,
they got lucky as hell, right, they got lucky as
hell so now it's a question of, you know, how
(29:57):
do you double down on that and go in and
especially you know for Lebron James, it always just comes
back to relationships. Manti Williams is a guy that was
connected with the Lakers job in the past. Everything Old
is New again.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Exit out about a Fresco Exit Swollen Dome. The Jason
Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. We're live
from the Tirak dot com studios. Speaking of the NBA,
how about Mike and I give you our early NBA
Finals picks for next year? Who'll be playing for the
lariot and they gotta have a coach first? Who'll be
playing for the Larry O'Brian Trophy a year from now.
(30:33):
We'll tell you that's next Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon,
Live from the Tirack dot Com studios. Good to give
you our picks for who's going to be in the
NBA Finals next year? At a second, but first, of course,
you know you're gonna have to hear from Nicholas Cage
right now. Here we go, just because let's do one
(31:06):
more time.
Speaker 6 (31:07):
Man of the people. Nicholas.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
There we go.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Legend did not have to perform jury duty this week
that he did show up?
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah, yeah, I'm here, I'm here. Hello, I'm here, Scott
a cool movie.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
This is not me shooting a new movie where I'm
a juror and I'm really me, but I'm not.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
No, I'm just here for jury duty. Marsden did it.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
He's just like us, guys.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Yeah, stars, they're just like us. They do jury duty.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Looking ahead, we are now on the end of this season.
We have the Celtics Parade coming up. Celtics basically go
wire to wire win the NBA title this year. We're
getting all kinds of crazy stories. Joe Mizula coaches with
a with a bad cruise shit, and uh, you know,
Jason Tatum and Missoula were inspired by the Dark Knight
(31:58):
Rises to be able to win a championionship together. All
kinds of crazy stuff. But how about we give you
our really early predictions for who is playing in the
NBA Finals next year. Looking at it now, obviously, teams
have to change. You have to go through free agency
in the draft. But looking ahead, the two teams I
expect to be playing in the finals next year both
(32:21):
need something and they both have it. If you're going
to take a step from not in the NBA Finals
to the NBA Finals, you need to improve in the
offseason because what you did this year wasn't good enough.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Everybody else is going to get better. Teams evolve.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
You need to be able to make change, and both
of these teams have the same thing in common. They
have money to spend, they have contracts they can move,
and they have draft picks they can move to get talented. Right,
if you have those three things going in, I know
you're flexible enough to make the moves needed to make
your team better going into next year. So I'm gonna
(32:56):
give you the Thunder out of the West because they're
one of the youngest teams in the in the NBA. Plus,
they have a lot of money they can spend. They
can go get a big if they want to. They
have picks they can move. I'm already hearing that that
the Thunder might be the Knick's biggest obstacle to keep
Isaiah Hartenstein. But the Thunder already are terrific. You already
have an MVP finalist in Shi Gildess Alexander Uh. You
(33:19):
you have everything you need and you can get the
over the top what you need this offseason because you
have the capability to do it with the money, with
the draft picks.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Give me the Thunder. In the West, look at you.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
I am gonna go with a team that got a
lot of headlines, a lot of comparisons, uh, defense, the
order of the day uh, and a budding superstar and
the heartbreak and all of the derision. Give me Minnesota
at about nine to one, which runs in line with
your OKC nine to ten to one right now.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
In the East, you're gonna hate it. You're gonna hate it,
but it's gonna hate it. Mut's go because they.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Have the round picks they can trade to bring in
what they need, whether it's depth because hey, you gotta
make sure you don't have everybody injured next year, or
you have the big contract you can move. You have
a guy coming back and Julius Randall that can either
fit in with the team or not. Because clearly the
Knicks are now Nova Nicks driven with Brunson and Devincenzo
(34:20):
and Josh Hart. How does Julius Randall fit? Maybe he fits.
Maybe he's the piece that brings back something that they
need that fits better with where the Knicks are right
now because the Knicks have moved away from Julius Randall.
Maybe it's Julius Randal for Karl Anthony Towns. But they
have the ability with that contract to move with Randall.
They have the draft picks. They can either get a
(34:41):
star or they can bring in a couple of players
depth wise that are gonna incredibly help them. Yeah, gimme
the Knicks in the NBA Finals. I said it this
year and it probably would have happened if they didn't
get hurt. But give me the Knicks in the final.
It's finals are bust for the Knicks. Next year, Knicks
and the thunder go New York, Go New York, Go,
Go New York.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Go New York.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Got sixteen to one along with the Sixers, but can't
go down that road. Milwaukee's at ten to one. They're
moderately interesting, but they still have docs, so I can't
go there. Hard to go away from the Celtics and
the Chalk They've got two more draft picks and addition
to do everything they've already got on that squad. But
(35:22):
frostbur brings up the Pacers two first round picks. Young
squad forty to one. You want to go deep odds
and have some fun and watch it die. Pacers could
be that squad for you. No, Nenbar's kno gonna another
shot like you did.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
He shot against Canadian Olympian, Show some respect. Big story
out of the NBA next
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
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Please give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello, and welcome inside our three The Jason Smith Show.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
With my bas friend Mike Harmon.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I'm an ass man live from the Tiraq dot com
studios tirec dot com. I'll help you get there at
unmaxed selection, fast free shipping, free road hazard protection, over
ten thousand recommended installers.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Tyraq dot com is the way tire buying should be. Well.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
We had the conversation about Brownie James a few moments
ago and Rich Paul talking really big today. Hey, Brodny's
not gonna go work out for a lot of teams.
He's going to only work out for a couple. I
don't want a two way deal. I want a one
way deal. Because he knows he's gotten some kind of assurance.
(01:13):
And again I don't know it for a fact. I
just know it's true. He's got some kind of assurance
the Lakers or the Suns are going to take him
at some point, right, So he's got the landing spot.
If something happens earlier. It's a big happy accident that
someone drafts him early. Hey, great, Right, they'll deal with that,
And that's an awesome thing. Because someone's drafting him early,
they believe in him as a first round pick. He'll
(01:33):
deal with that. But he knows for sure. You know,
I have the ace in the hole writing. I know
that either the Lakers or the Sons are gonna wind
up drafting at some point, taking Bronnie.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
James, Yeah, Jason.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
And the other thing though, like as mentioned in the quotes,
right when he started talking and bringing in the Mavericks,
the Raptors, whatever, you're talking about organizations where there's some stability, right,
and a belief into they know what they're doing, how
to build a program, whatever. So he can go to
one of those places with people who know him. And again,
a lot of this, like with all draft prospects, is
(02:06):
what the hell do they be come in two to
three years?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Right?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
It's not necessarily Hey, I'm bringing in a guy now,
because what's the old adage in college buckets. If I'm
bringing in a guy who's a junior or a senior,
he may have topped out, which means he's a back
end rotational player at best. Whereas with Bronnie James, is
he going to grow another three inches four inches, I
don't know, actually get to the six four and a
half he was listed at in the USC program. Maybe
(02:30):
if there's team at the back end in the first
round or beginning of the second that has that belief
and he's not doing the two way deal, but he's
at the end of the bench, you know, where he
can be like Bursett and have some mop up dudes
in the big games. Now, the other part.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Of this equation, of course, is Lebron James, and there's
been so many, I would say guesses as to what
he's going to wind up doing in the offseason. Is
he really gonna leave the Lakers? Would he go play
for the Suns? If the sun preferred destination, If the
Sons get Bronny, will Lebron go there? And you know,
Lebron has been using every way he can to give
(03:08):
a little bit of leverage to get what he wants
out of the Lakers, whether that's another year, another fifty
million dollars. He doesn't have a lot of leverage because Lebron.
They need the Lakers, know, Look, Lebron wants to stay here.
He doesn't want to go anywhere. Do you even want
to upset the Apple card and go try to win
someplace else?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
He won the maths here.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yeah, in the man right, it's because he's never gonna
take less right. Forget about Lebron taking less right. He's
not gonna do And we'll get to Tom. Why Tom
Brady figures into this in a minute.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Well, because Richard said, yes, it's like he's not going
somewhere out a minimum deal.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
He waving over at Phoenix. No, no, I'm not gonna
do that. No, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So really, how badly does he want to win? I'm
not gonna take less money, dude. This is what the
greats have done a lot in sports. Take less money
so you can win. I mean, I mean, yes, I
get it. It's tough to turn your back at fifty
million dollars, But could you take twenty million dollars at
some point when you're worth in the billions. Could you
do I think you could do that. I'm pretty sure
(04:04):
you'd be able to do that.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah, those are the same guys. You know, how do
you stay rich? Other people pick up your meals When
you're a celebrity and you go to a restaurant, Oh
we got this, mister James, mister Smith, whatever your case
may be.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
I mean, they take care of you. No one's ever
bought McDonald's for me. No one.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
I've gotten a couple of times, I've gotten recognized in McDonald's.
No one's bought Mike Mike. So you're saying if Jason
bought food for us every night, we'd be rich.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Well, I mean it's science because it's money.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
We're not spending food and that over time, including compounding interest,
I mean, it would work out in our favor.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
If I'm not spending, mister hand, and you're not spending
then But this is what Lebron has to realize. Okay,
in playing this game, you don't want to play too dangerous,
right If you want to get paid and you're not
gonna take less money all of a sudden, that's gonna
cut a lot of teams that could be quote interested
in you and you lose your leverage. Because I'll be
(05:00):
honest with you, if Lebron plays this game too long,
it's not gonna end the way he wants it to.
Because there is not a Lebron James market like he
thinks it's gonna be. There isn't There is no matter
how good you are. Lebron James is near the end
of his career. He wants a lot of money, and
it's been a long time since he won in twenty twenty.
(05:21):
All right, It's been four years of watching Lebron with
Anthony Davis other whatever invention of the team they have,
it not be enough. They've watched him metal, They've watched
him make help make the worst personnel decision that has
still set the Lakers back to this day, and that
is let's go in for Russell Westbrook that still is
holding them back to this day. So it's not the
(05:42):
market that you think he has. There's not a lot
of teams that are interested in Lebron James, and maybe
the one or two teams that would be interested, maybe
he doesn't want to go there, right because there's only
a couple of places that Lebron would really probably think
about going, there's not a Lebron James market. And if
you think I'm wrong to ask Tom Brady. When Brady
was coming off one of the best careers we've ever
(06:04):
seen the history of the NFL as a quarterback, probably
the best, and it wasn't too far removed from a
Super Bowl. How many teams wanted to sign him in
free agency? How many too? And really one and a half? Right,
really it was Tampa Bay and the Chargers were a
little bit lukewarm. This is Tom Bleep and Brady were
talking about the Patriots kicked him to the curb as, Oh,
(06:25):
he's kind of done. Nobody wanted the guy. Nobody wanted him,
but Tampa Bay did. And what happened They won the
super Bowl? All right, they won the Super Bowl Playoffs.
The next year they won, right. So I'm not saying
he can't get it done. And Lebron's still not a
great player. But if you see Tom Brady and he
had no market, what market do you really think Lebron
has after the last four years, there's less and less
(06:45):
every year that goes by. People think we're a Lebron
away from winning. No, Lebron sucks up a lot of
oxygen in the room. They've seen him not be a leader,
they've seen the end of his career. Maybe he's gonna
get a little bit wiser, maybe he's gonna back off
a little bit, be a little bit more of a teacher.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
No, it's not who he is.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
His market is really small, and if he dares the
Lakers enough, he's gonna find out and he's not gonna
like that lesson and you're gonna see. You're gonna see
working overtime at Clutch Sports going. How do we create
artificial interest in Lebron James? How do we create interests
where where supposedly we're talking to a bunch of different teams,
when really nobody is gonna go out and go crazy
for the guy. With all the stuff that goes along
(07:21):
with Lebron. He just isn't as sought after as he
was a few years ago, right, first couple of times, yes,
one hundred percent. Now things are different and when you
weigh all of the things that go along with Lebron,
what you have to do to be able to accustomize
to his personality and what he likes to do and
what he likes to practice and input he wants to
(07:43):
have with a team or doesn't want to have. How
he leads or doesn't lead your young players, how he
listens to or doesn't listen to the coach, how much
money he's gonna take up, because he's not gonna take less.
All of these things where teams are gonna say, yeah,
Lebron business, it sounds better than it is. And if
he pushes this, if he pushes this, he's gonna find
out in the bed. If he pushes the Lakers, the
Lakers say, you know what, go do it somewhere else.
(08:04):
We have something else in the works, Go try it
some Thanks, thanks, everything is great, Go do it someplace else.
And then he'll be miserable in Los Angeles where he's
got his home and he's not a Laker anymore, and
everyone's got to hear about his Lebron left, Lebron left. Yeah,
I don't think he wants to play this game. He's
not gonna like how it ends.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Yeah, I mean other than the Lakers love of stars,
uh and and look, everybody wants them, right. We all
like to have those names that becomes synonymous with the logo,
like you with Grimace or on the field Pete Alonzo, right,
when they're not there anymore. It just looks weird when
suddenly they're in a different uniform. Now Lebron's changed enough
(08:44):
to where we've gotten past that to a degree. But yeah,
as much as Anthony Davis might become the guy is
he really don't know will he stay healthy again? That's
the question with Lebron that you have to answer as well.
But ye had the giant chart, right. If we're gonna
go and see what the centric circles are between teams
that would be interested and teams that Lebron would be interested,
(09:05):
it's gonna be very few. It's gonna be the Lakers.
We make money. We're still contending at the back end
play in maybe with a little luck here and there,
and again Western Conference and all that. You have to navigate,
remembering that in the background.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Of this tale.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
But the other side is you've got a bunch of
teams that I'm sure are like, all right, if we
win at what cost? Right, because you have to sacrifice
other players depth most definitely if you're gonna end up
paying Lebron anywhere near the market value that he wants.
So all of a sudden, those guys coming off the
(09:41):
bench that were pivotal as defensive players and substitutes or
the expert marksmen for some boost on your second unit.
Suddenly they got to go away. So you know, some
of those squads are just gonna say nope, no, thank you.
And it's a large number. And then you go to
the non contenders, Well, does he want to go and
just be a side show for a couple of years. Maybe,
(10:03):
I don't know if the price is right, because I'm
sure there's plenty of owners ago.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Hell yeah, he'd be really good for.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Business for two years, Jerseys, suerseys, bobblehead nights, you name it.
We'll get asses in seats and this will be fantastic.
My guess is most of those squads, you know, like
an Orlando Magic, ain't.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Exactly what he's looking to do.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Even if he loves going to Disney or Universal or
whatever the hell else he does go into gator firms
or what have you. But the fact is there's not
gonna be a giant demand for it, and the Lakers,
as you surmise, eventually they just say, okay, we at
least have to get him after the embarrassment that was
(10:43):
our coaching search.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Look, it's going to be not quite a battle of wills,
but it's always been Lebron and the Lakers at arms
length from each other. It's never been we are together
here and Clutch Sports is working with the Lakers. Lakers
work with Clutch Sports because Clutch Sports is like, hey,
we're very powerful, we're influencers, and the Lakers are saying,
we're a mom and pop business. You don't tell us
(11:06):
what to do. So it's always been they've never really
moved forward to it. It's been very difficult when when
you have two different agendas and two different ways of
doing business.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
You know, look at the way.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Look things have worked out with the Knicks, right, Leon
Rose has showed up at the Knicks and it's worked. Hey,
we've given you the team. You're the guy. It's worked out.
We're bringing players in, we're making moves for guys that
were it's great, but sometimes it doesn't. And so Lebron's
always kind of had that relationship with the Lakers where, yeah,
he's never really quite gotten that hug, he's never quite
(11:38):
gotten that, hey, you're like Magic or Kareem or Kobe
or anything else. So this is something that's kind of
built in to every sort of negotiation.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
That they have.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And when this is built in and you're kind of
an arm's length, yeah, you can make emotional decisions. Oh,
they're not going to do this, Well, screw that. I'll
go here. I'll go here. I'll go play in Phoenix,
where I'm only a a forty minute flight from LA
when I need to come back for business whatever.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
I don't care living in LA.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I don't care if they hate me out of this
is how decisions like this get made, and the Lakers
finally make it.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Hey, we have to move on from Lebron.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
We were gonna corral Anthony Davis, make sure he's on board,
and he's the guy, he's the leader of the team.
Now we get a player with him. I can see
it happening. I can see Lebron pushing it, but I
just don't. I just don't see where there's going to
be this overall. Hey, let's go get Lebron right like
it's it's not even been, because it would be different
if it was. Hey, Lebron's a free agent and there's
(12:33):
a lot of buzz about it. No, the only buzz
is if you draft Brony, maybe you'll get Lebron. Oh, Okay,
so that means Lebron on his own isn't just telling
you Lebron on his own might not be what it
was because well, if this was Lebron's a free agent,
it would be, Hey, Lebron's a free agent. Bron, he's
getting drafted. Maybe they could wind up Lebron writes his
own ticket. Just by that perspective of it, you know
(12:55):
that there's not a market for Lebron.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Yeah, Jason, I would say some of that is just
the percent is that Lebron's not gonna go anywhere, and
we're so caught up in the coaching search mess whatever
you want to call it, that that just falls to
the wayside because again, he's not gonna walk away from
what is it fifty three million dollars a year or
one sixty two over three or whatever it is. I
(13:17):
equate Lebron a lot to Alex Rodriguez in New York.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Great player. Was he ever really embraced?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Now? It was Jeters and here he's gone certainly not forgotten.
It's Kobe Bryant's Lakers. Lebron came in and we're talking
about history, pageantry of the Showtime era and into Kobe
Bryant and that that is not changed. So he's a
guy that while he's a Laker, there's the Hey, he's
our ours now, But is he really gotten that hug?
(13:48):
I don't think so. So in that way, you know,
it's a bit of a mutant situation as well.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Don't test it, Lebron. You saw what happened with Brady.
Don't test it exit. How about a Fresco exit? Swollen
down The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon live from
the Tyraq dot Com studios. A little more basketball on
the way because coming up next, it is expensive when
you have to eat sixty five million dollars. But that
happened today, that incredible story is next Jason and Mike.
(14:16):
This is Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
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.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Hey it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of piping hot baseball talk, featuring the
biggest names of newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe
in analytics or the IE test. We've got all the
bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, So do yourself
a favor and listen to Inside the Parker with Rob
(14:55):
Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon live from the ti iraq dot com studios.
Where it's not often where you wake up and see
a headline that involves sixty five million dollars for not
doing anything, but yet, this is where we're at in
the NBA today.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Not a mad way to be.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
No, no, no, Listen, there's worse ways to be fired, right,
There's worse ways to be fired than to say, hey,
it hasn't worked out for us, but here's sixty five
million dollars to not work Oh okay, great. The Detroit Pistons,
after one season have fired head coach Mani Williams. They
are absorbing the remaining sixty five million dollars on Mani
(15:43):
Williams contract. They went nuts to get him a year ago.
This is a guy who was former Coach of the
Year in the NBA, had some great run with the Sons,
didn't really win the playoffs, which is kind of what
made the Sons think, Okay, we could be better than
we are.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Oh well maybe not. Uh so they move on from
Manti Williams the Pistons. They had to go bold.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
They lured him with a huge contract, six years and
seventy eight million, and after one season they've said, we've
seen enough of the full Monty TJ.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
We need to go on.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Uh you didn't, you didn't. I gotta go full mind.
How many Monty lines are they?
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Not that many?
Speaker 6 (16:23):
Well you anymore?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
So? I guess dude, dude, you went against the Grimace era.
Look what happened to your Dodgers tonight? Telling you, man,
look what happened. But the Grimace era was over. When
that is still going.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
Man, it's still him in the head.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
No said twice, don't stop. Both you guys are going
to hell. Okay, just so you know, just because of.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
That, because I gave a point of clarification.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I'm a bad guy when I say both of you guys,
I mean Frostberg and Tysher. Come on, man, pay attention, harmon,
come on, man, the specific and the reasons you're going
to hell, But not for that.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I mean, not that well. I defended Bill Belichick. You didn't. Yeah,
I do have are There's no question.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Bonnie Williams is a good coach. It didn't work out
in Detroit. Why Detroit wasn't very good? Right, There's only
one problem with Detroit. It's only one, only one problemmn.
There's only one problem with De Truit.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
One problem. What's that problem? They only have one problem.
They only have one problem. They stink. That's the only
problem with Detroit. They stink.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
But they're in the Eastern Conference, so that, yes, rise
could happen at any moment.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
I don't know, man, I think that shows you that, boy,
they couldn't. They couldn't win even a little bit more
in the East. That that tells you how bad things are.
I mean, they had a they had a sixty seven
game losing streak last year, So I get why they
needed to move on because last year was just so disastrous.
But it gives you pause because there's two big takeaways
from this, and the first one is that, Okay, when
(17:44):
you think about a coach, you understand that they don't
have the overall impact on a on a team like
a coach does in the NFL. Right, Major League Baseball,
NBA coaches, NHL coaches, they all have sort of a
looser impact. It's about Matt Egos managing the players, getting
them to play and be the best versions of themselves.
(18:05):
That it's not like suddenly, I'm coming in with a
system that's going to be incredible and set the league
on its ear right. We had the neutral zone trap
in the NHL. Look at the neutral zone trap, Oh
my goodness, winter.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
But in the.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
NBA, look at the Celtics. They won without really having
a plan on offense. They just put their guys out there.
They all hit threes and they kind of figure it out.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So just so you know that the impact of a
coach on a team isn't always what you expected to be.
He had a great impact with the Suns, got the
Sons to play defense, terrific coach of the year. They
won a lot of games. He goes to Detroit. It
doesn't work to the point where they can't even win, right.
They have one of the most one of the most
unsuccessful years and have one of the most unsuccessful eras
(18:45):
the last four of anybody in modern sport.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Like we thought for a while.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Last year, they may not win as many games as
the sixers did in seventy three, like they may win
less than nine games, so to show you it is
a limited impact on it. But the first, you know,
the thing to take away is that is that is
it that bad that they ate sixty five million dollars
(19:08):
to not bring money Williams back? Did he not get
Did he lose the locker room so badly? Did the
team revolt against him? Could they not? I mean, this
is a lot of money, and I can't believe the
Pistons have it. I mean, I know their owners a billionaire,
but I mean we can eat sixty five million dollars
after one year and tell a coach to go away, Like,
there's gotta be stuff that we haven't heard about. There's
(19:31):
a reason why, because, like I said, money, when he's
been around the game a long time, he's a good coach.
There's gotta be a reason because after one year to
say hey, we're moving on for you, not even to
give him a second year, to say, hey, maybe let's
give him another year, Let's get a different mix of
players in maybe some of the guys need to go out.
This is a guy that managed Egos before in Phoenix
in the one game let's give him another chance. Nope,
(19:53):
we're getting rid of them after one year. So and
so I wonder just how much has gone on behind
the scenes where they really couldn't bring him back. I
know it was a really, really bad year, but again,
I don't think people are walking around after this year going, boy,
Monty Williams is awful. This is all Monty Williams fault.
He's he's one of the worst coaches ever. He's not
rich k Tite. He's not like, oh we gotta get
(20:13):
say it's not Todd Haley. We're all we gotta get
right now. I mean, no one's walking around saying this
is on Monty Williams.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Yeah, when we look at I mean the career coaching record,
I mean he had his moments. You're talking about Coach
of the Year awards and Western Conference, you know, champions
and all of that fun stuff. Sixty four and eighteen
and twenty twenty one, twenty two, forty five wins before
heading to Detroit. So the overpay man, it's it's nice
(20:40):
to be at the head of a business where you
could say, is this gonna hurt us in any way,
shape or by the way they now estimate Tom Gore's
networth at nine billion, so you know you add that
extra you know, thirty three percent or fifty percent addition,
depending on what matth you want to use there, And
all of a sudden, it's like, yeah, sixty five million dollars,
(21:02):
we're gonna make that up, right up, a private equity guy,
we're good, and you say we're moving on right, You're
not getting the direction, and maybe maybe he's just a
guy that's really impatient, right, I don't I don't know
that enough spin. They were so bad that they were
so far off the radar except a couple of weeks
ago just kind of a whispering of all right, seasons
in the rear view, and there may be, you know,
(21:25):
that one more bombshell movement and that MANI William's name
was that guy as the bombshell, you know, kind of
movement in the NBA. And here it is today we
get this this giant note this morning, and everybody immediately
started pondering, if someone gave me sixty five million to
go away, would you ever hear from me again? The
(21:47):
answer is no, you know it to be true, you'd
send a letter and maybe some nice gift basket from
wherever you ended up saying, I'm in a new life,
new number. Who is but or the Pistons. Yeah, I
gotta imagine there's got to be a story there or
two that that start to come out.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, it's a really odd time to say, yeah, we're
firing you now, Like before the draft, if you were
going to do this, you knew you could. This would
be the day after the season. This would be hey, sorry, Monty,
it's not working out. Jason, you're saying, I mean it's well, well, okay,
he's not doesn't have to coach the Pistons anymore. But
(22:28):
like if he wanted to, Like if you let a
guy go, you want to give him the chance. Okay,
I want to get another job somewhere he wants to
work if he wants to, But like why you don't
know him that, why would you make it now? But
it's but it's good for both of you. It's good
for your team because then you have the pick of
people to choose from to be your head coach. The
quicker you move on. You wait until now, right before
the draft, and and then free agency coming up, and
(22:51):
you don't know what kind of culture you're going to have.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Or what the coach is.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Going to be like, you could have really just you know,
known that that you were going to make a higher
at some point, and it could have been a month
and a half ago, you.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
You hired Trajan Line, didn't the former Duke star right
new president of basketball operations that they evidently didn't have
since twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
So ponder that for a minute. Maybe that's why they're losing. Oh,
we don't we don't have one of those. Wait what Yeah,
we don't have a president of basketball ops yet.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
We don't.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
We don't have if they haven't already there.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Maybe it don't give him any semblance of a winning streak. Yeah,
they'll they'll be hon I'm sorry, No, no, it's I'm sorry.
It's Detroit. They'd have to adopt something from White Castle.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
That's it. They have to have to be white Castle.
That I don't know they have the Oh that's you
do you adopt Harold and Kumar.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
That's well for the funco products, they made little white
Castle buddies and stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, you find you find some kind of white Castle
mascot if you're in Detroit, because that's there's White Cast
every quot. You think McDonald's is everywhere? No Detroit man,
Dude White castles.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
To cost him out there somewhere.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, like like you know, like, yeah we're talking.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
You make some sort of like crave case and it's
just like a it's like a like a like a
like a character with like a case for a and
and like his eyes are on top of the cases.
He's walking around and when the case opens, that's his mouth.
Like I think that would be kind of a thing. Hey,
the trade the crave case. Yeah, the crave case.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
I think I just sent you what what could become
the official mascot here. Oh boy, oh but I mean
literally it's just a slider and he's got a face,
and he's got you know, like you would get one
in its wrapper, right in its little little house.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Uh that he's popping out where he kind of looks
like a transformer. Oh yeah, I like that slider with
a face. Yeah. No, No, I like that. No, I
think that's pretty cool.
Speaker 6 (24:42):
Send us this.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
What.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I can't make you hungry wanting a crave case.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
I like how fast he found it. I ads value.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
No, I like that the slide and that would be
his nickname would be sly Ah. That's that's that's genius
right there. That's what the Pistons need to do. And
you know, screw that. If you're the Tigers, do it first.
You're playing right now like you're a you're at five
year around five hundred. Do you go adopt a slider
and then give slider to the Pistons when they start
playing in the fall.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
Mike, there's no way this is real. Why is it?
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Yeah, it's an actual funco product. They've done a bunch
of mascots and and all the different product things. I mean,
there's a Grimace, we can get the we can get
the whole McDonald's lineup up in there, we can get
the frog, smack him from back in the day, you
name it.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
You can't Sam, he's there too, dude. And what about
me Lucky Charms that Aly Oh yeah, no, no, no, he's
out there too.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
But the other part of the Monty Williams is this
already there are reports earlier today is Monty Williams going
to be a candidate to coach the Lakers. And it's
kind of been I wouldn't say it's been poo pooed,
but it's kind of been. The can has been kicked
down the road. And I'll go bold and I'll tell
you that this is what the Lakers were waiting for,
(26:06):
because follow me on this, they swing and miss at
Danny Hurley. Actually, they just take a fastball down the
middle and don't take the bat off their shoulders for
Danny Hurley. So now they need to rebound, right, And
JJ Reddick's the guy, right, Reddicks the guy. He's a
guy we're talking to and incredibly impressive, the same things
we heard for the three weeks leading up to Hey,
wait a minute, we're gonna go get Danny Hurley. The
(26:27):
NBA Finals been over now for a couple of days,
and you now have the Cleveland Cavaliers who want to
hire a coach, and you're gonna lose James Morego, most
likely because the Cavaliers like him already. He has popped
up as a potential fit in Cleveland for how they're
gonna replace Monty Williams. So you want to make sure
that you get the guy you want, Like there's hey,
(26:47):
there's only two teams and JJ would come out here.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
But if JJ Reddick was.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Really your guy and you knew it, you would have
hired him by now, I get the dalliance with with
Danny Hurley because the guy's got a great resume, and
JJ Rede can't be that upset going, hey do we're
going for a guy that's won back to back national
championships and has accomplished a lot. You know, no, I
get it. But now here's JJ Reddick and you can
sit here and tell me. All they want to get
is his coaching staff together. And it's a bit of
(27:14):
a piece trying to figure out everything. If they really
wanted JJ Reddick, they would have hired him by now.
But how much of that were they wondering? Is many
Williams going to shake free? Because what does Moni Williams do?
He is a great defensive coach right everywhere he's been.
He got the Suns playing great defense. He gets his
teams to play defense. How do the Lakers going to
(27:34):
improve this year playing better defensively? So why would you
drag your feet? If JJ Reddick is really your guy?
You want to be very authoritative right after the season
is over and say he's our guy. We didn't get
Danny Hurley, doesn't matter. This is a better fit, this
is who we have. But instead we get reports the
last couple of days, Hey, maybe JJ Reddick to the
(27:55):
Lakers is done. They're talking a lot, But why are
the Lakers moving so slow? They're only moving so slow
because they think something might happen. Now there could be
pie in the sky and somebody could shake free that
we were thinking about. Like all of a sudden, Eric
Spoltz was gonna say, I've had it with Jimmy Butler.
I want to go to La coach Lebron again. Come on, Bron,
we could do it, like there could be that unbelievable
(28:17):
mystery thing. But I got a feeling that Manti Williams
and the Pistons this is kind of what the Lakers
are waiting for, and I wouldn't be surprised. Next twenty
four hours, you see Monti Williams link to the Lakers
with some kind of conversation.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
I mean that was the secondary part of that report
from a couple of weeks ago. As the early walking
back and forth and speculation, JJ Reddick came a guy
that clearly, I mean, we just got to get him
in the celebrity deathmatch ring as him and your guy
steven A. Since he's been practiced and he's stupid ass
walkout thing.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
He's ready for the octagon, so he can do that.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
But it's inevitable that you at least have to have
a conversation, give it his track history and getting guys
to buy into defense. Jason, I agree with you one
hundred percent, Like that's one of the biggest thing, right
managing egos. As much as folks want to dismiss Phil
Jackson for the stars that played for years, look at
the hindsight, how many other teams have had two or
(29:16):
three stars. How many of them actually went one for
any sustained length of time. I mean, you even hit
your under on that abomination that happened in Brooklyn a
couple of years ago. But you get down to it that,
you know Lebron, assuming he's back, which I think we
all do ad, what can you get out of them?
And how do you build a roster around them where
(29:37):
defense becomes the hallmark in a loaded Western conference and
not add that much more to the weary minutes that
you're potentially opening the door to them missing more extended
time because on some level, for twenty three twenty four,
they got lucky as hell, right, they got lucky as
hell so now it's a question of, you know, how
(29:57):
do you double down on that and go in and
especially you know for Lebron James, it always just comes
back to relationships. Manti Williams is a guy that was
connected with the Lakers job in the past. Everything Old
is New again.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Exit out about a Fresco Exit Swollen Dome. The Jason
Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. We're live
from the Tirak dot com studios. Speaking of the NBA,
how about Mike and I give you our early NBA
Finals picks for next year? Who'll be playing for the
lariot and they gotta have a coach first? Who'll be
playing for the Larry O'Brian Trophy a year from now.
(30:33):
We'll tell you that's next Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon,
Live from the Tirack dot Com studios. Good to give
you our picks for who's going to be in the
NBA Finals next year? At a second, but first, of course,
you know you're gonna have to hear from Nicholas Cage
right now. Here we go, just because let's do one
(31:06):
more time.
Speaker 6 (31:07):
Man of the people. Nicholas.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
There we go.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Legend did not have to perform jury duty this week
that he did show up?
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah, yeah, I'm here, I'm here. Hello, I'm here, Scott
a cool movie.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
This is not me shooting a new movie where I'm
a juror and I'm really me, but I'm not.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
No, I'm just here for jury duty. Marsden did it.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
He's just like us, guys.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Yeah, stars, they're just like us. They do jury duty.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Looking ahead, we are now on the end of this season.
We have the Celtics Parade coming up. Celtics basically go
wire to wire win the NBA title this year. We're
getting all kinds of crazy stories. Joe Mizula coaches with
a with a bad cruise shit, and uh, you know,
Jason Tatum and Missoula were inspired by the Dark Knight
(31:58):
Rises to be able to win a championionship together. All
kinds of crazy stuff. But how about we give you
our really early predictions for who is playing in the
NBA Finals next year. Looking at it now, obviously, teams
have to change. You have to go through free agency
in the draft. But looking ahead, the two teams I
expect to be playing in the finals next year both
(32:21):
need something and they both have it. If you're going
to take a step from not in the NBA Finals
to the NBA Finals, you need to improve in the
offseason because what you did this year wasn't good enough.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Everybody else is going to get better. Teams evolve.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
You need to be able to make change, and both
of these teams have the same thing in common. They
have money to spend, they have contracts they can move,
and they have draft picks they can move to get talented. Right,
if you have those three things going in, I know
you're flexible enough to make the moves needed to make
your team better going into next year. So I'm gonna
(32:56):
give you the Thunder out of the West because they're
one of the youngest teams in the in the NBA. Plus,
they have a lot of money they can spend. They
can go get a big if they want to. They
have picks they can move. I'm already hearing that that
the Thunder might be the Knick's biggest obstacle to keep
Isaiah Hartenstein. But the Thunder already are terrific. You already
have an MVP finalist in Shi Gildess Alexander Uh. You
(33:19):
you have everything you need and you can get the
over the top what you need this offseason because you
have the capability to do it with the money, with
the draft picks.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Give me the Thunder. In the West, look at you.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
I am gonna go with a team that got a
lot of headlines, a lot of comparisons, uh, defense, the
order of the day uh, and a budding superstar and
the heartbreak and all of the derision. Give me Minnesota
at about nine to one, which runs in line with
your OKC nine to ten to one right now.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
In the East, you're gonna hate it. You're gonna hate it,
but it's gonna hate it. Mut's go because they.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Have the round picks they can trade to bring in
what they need, whether it's depth because hey, you gotta
make sure you don't have everybody injured next year, or
you have the big contract you can move. You have
a guy coming back and Julius Randall that can either
fit in with the team or not. Because clearly the
Knicks are now Nova Nicks driven with Brunson and Devincenzo
(34:20):
and Josh Hart. How does Julius Randall fit? Maybe he fits.
Maybe he's the piece that brings back something that they
need that fits better with where the Knicks are right
now because the Knicks have moved away from Julius Randall.
Maybe it's Julius Randal for Karl Anthony Towns. But they
have the ability with that contract to move with Randall.
They have the draft picks. They can either get a
(34:41):
star or they can bring in a couple of players
depth wise that are gonna incredibly help them. Yeah, gimme
the Knicks in the NBA Finals. I said it this
year and it probably would have happened if they didn't
get hurt. But give me the Knicks in the final.
It's finals are bust for the Knicks. Next year, Knicks
and the thunder go New York, Go New York, Go,
Go New York.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Go New York.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Got sixteen to one along with the Sixers, but can't
go down that road. Milwaukee's at ten to one. They're
moderately interesting, but they still have docs, so I can't
go there. Hard to go away from the Celtics and
the Chalk They've got two more draft picks and addition
to do everything they've already got on that squad. But
(35:22):
frostbur brings up the Pacers two first round picks. Young
squad forty to one. You want to go deep odds
and have some fun and watch it die. Pacers could
be that squad for you. No, Nenbar's kno gonna another
shot like you did.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
He shot against Canadian Olympian, Show some respect. Big story
out of the NBA next
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