April 30, 2024 • 35 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon react to the Nuggets eliminating the Lakers with FSR NBA Insider Mark Medina. Jason breaks down why Kevin Durant to the Lakers will be the rumor that dominates the offseason. Plus, could LeBron have played his final game in purple and gold?!
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Episode Transcript
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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 Foxsports Radio
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iHeartRadio app by searching FSR. Let's give this parties.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello, welcome in, side buckle in for a crazy final
hour here on the Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. Hi buddy, Live from the tirag dot
com studios tirac dot com. I help you get there
over ten thousand recommended installers, fast free shipping tirack dot
(00:50):
com The way tire buying should be. The Nuggets beat
the Lakers one o eight, one oh six. They win
their first round, a competitive for round series, competitive, completely
very competitive.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Again.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
I mean, here's a metal that I'm going to give
you for being competitive and not laying down five more years.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
The Lakers win this series. It was a competitive sweep
last year. Yeah, competitive in five games, this year, next
year competitive and six year after that. Competitive and seven
year after that competitive and seven but the Lakers win
straight line in prig about that, Yes, one game per year,
but they have to cryogenically freeze Lebron any parts of
(01:30):
Lebron James four. Yeah, he'll just sit out the entire
year and only play in the playoffs. That's what it's
going to be for Lebron. But wow, what is next
to the Lakers? And I think a new head coach
is what the first thing is going to be. Joining
us now on the hot line. Longtime NBA insider covering
the NBA playos with us year at Fox Sports Radio.
He's on Twitter at Mark g Underscore Medina has had
(01:51):
Mark g Underscore Medina, Mark. What's happening, Bud?
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Not much? As you were talking about the Lakers newest accomplishment,
I'm thinking, you know what, they should get a banner
than they can hang it up to the in season
tournament one in the arena.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Yeah, they have the ist bat and then next of
it just says very competitive.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
And they hang the batter up. But you can look
up there and at least with the in season tournament
you could say I made an extra five.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Hundred grand, you know, want the I'm very competitive. They
should use the phrase somewhere marginal contact. I had never
heard of that referee expression until this series.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Well, hey, look, and if you're the Lakers, you're like, hey,
there's two champions at the end of the year. There's
the nd season tournament champion. We're one of the two champions. Man,
what do you want from us?
Speaker 4 (02:33):
You can't differentiate between either either.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Let's start with the the end of the game and
then get bigger and then of course we'll get to
the Knicks. You know, look, Darvin Ham is someone who
you can tell the Lakers don't listen to him. When
Anthony Davis in the middle of the series says, we
don't know what we're supposed to be doing, you know
that Darvin Ham is not going to be around. But
I watched that last play, Mark, and I see whether
(02:56):
it's Darvin Ham's strategy, which would have been terrible, or
the Lakers, which is even worse. Like, how do you
come out of that huddle and say, Okay, we're going
to allow Jamal Murray and open shot, and if Murray
doesn't want to take it, we're going to keep Nikolay
Jokic open because eighty doesn't guard anybody. Hat Ja Murray
doesn't guard anybody, and Murray's allowed to dribble and get
a shot off with nobody in his face. And if
(03:18):
he didn't want to, Jokic is wide open on the
other side, for it would have been an easy bucket.
I don't understand the Lakers breakdown on that final defensive possession.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Yeah, I understand as a team that neither of them
wanted to load up or double on Jokich or Murray
because I would just result in a wide open teammate.
So they wanted to be able to roam. But I
put a lot of blame on Rui at jamorro like
he didn't rotate at all when Jamal Murray pulled up,
So I think that's the main culprit here. And look,
(03:47):
you're comentary at Darvin Ham. I understand it, and certainly
players have had their frustrations with his rotations in game strategies.
But I will push back a little bit. If they
really didn't have as much respect, we would have seen
what we saw with the Phoenix Suns, where they just
got blown off the floor swept. You know. I know
we make a little bit of light of the competitive series,
(04:09):
but the Lakers playing hard is a positive reflection of
Starbnham the coaching staff, at least in the sense that
you know they're buying in and trying to respect and
put it in a necessary effort, where the indictment is
obviously the finer detail. So what this means for, you know,
his security moving forward, It's very hard to say, because
(04:31):
I think, on one hand, when you look at the
Lakers track record, they usually blame the coach first. But
I think, but I think, and it's a huge butt
to consider. This is a hire that the front office,
you know, heavily endorsed. They don't want to be seen
as you know, just this organization of instability. And so
(04:53):
while it is an unprecedented, I guess, to relieve a
coach after two seasons, it's very rare. Usually it's that
third season where there might be a change. But look,
well we'll see what happens pretty soon.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Just out of the last week, just the curiosity, we
talked about it with Darvin Ham and Anthony Davis. We
don't seem to know what we're doing. Well, that final
play case in point, we just run that audio back
over the top.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
How about Lebron's very animated response to him not challenging
that call in Game four. That was another good one
for the no.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
That's just it, right, It's just the preponderance of evidence
says your two biggest stars are have a liking problem
with Darvin Ham at the moment, and I have that
an offseason after this kind of exit again is going
to be able to suage that.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Yeah, I think the certainly no one's blameless when especially
with the first round exit and teams trying to make
a championship run. So he definitely deserves a few slices
in the blame high. But I think the bigger blame
high is the roster construction. And I say that agreeing
with what the Lakers front office did last summer philosophically
(06:03):
of not getting Kyrie Irving or Tree Young because they
are unpredictable players, and we know with the Russell Westbrook experiment,
when you don't have roster depth that can cause more problems.
I think they've come to the conclusion that with Lebron
James Anthony Davis, their best position to succeed is if
they have a good supporting cast. But I think obviously
(06:24):
what we saw is they didn't get the right supporting
cast members as far as who they retained, who they
pursued in free agency, and as a result, you had
a mix of players that were either inconsistent with the
incumbent guys D'Angel Russell really actually more Austin Reeves, and
then guys that they retained or acquired that just were
(06:45):
hurt all the time, a La, Jared Vanderbilt, gave Vincent.
So that's where I think that the challenge is going
to be. Does this cause the Lakers and also Lebron thinking, Okay,
because this didn't work, we now have to pursue a
third star and because they have you know, I think
three draft picks on Draft Knight, that that's more capital
(07:07):
for them, or do they stick firm to we got
to have the roster depth. We just need to find
better players that fill that role. That's going to be
the challenging thing that they have to wrestle with.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
NBA insider Mark Medina, our guest here on Fox Sports Radio.
All Right, so now from the flip side of this,
the Nuggets give me percentage chance that what I am
telling you, that what I'm telling you is a true statement.
You ready sure if Jamal Murray had not torn as ACL,
the Nuggets are going for their fourth straight title.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Ooh, that is I think that's a very good take.
I think that even if Jamal Murray was hurt, wasn't hurt.
I think that I think the Warriors would have beaten
them in the first round in twenty twenty two. So
I guess your point I disagree with, but that's just
(07:57):
a fine detail. I think the larger point making I
do agree with that they would have I think an
even extended run from last season. I mean, we have
to keep in mind that his injuries kind of caught
up to him a little bit where he was playing
a limited role last season. He could have been an
All Star and while I didn't preclude the Nuggets from
(08:18):
winning a championship, they could have been even more dominant.
You also wonder, moving forward, now that he's removed from that,
if he hadn't had the ACL, you could think that
there's not going to be as many question marks on
how long they keep this run moving forward. So I
guess what I'm saying is I don't think they would
(08:39):
have had more than one championship, but I think that
he would have gone an All Star bid, and I
think that their runway for multiple championships would have been
a lot clear had he not gotten hurt.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Others series tonight, are the thunder ready to take them down?
As they bank washed the Pelicans eight point margin of victory.
There no zion course.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
If the Nuggets are gonna get taken down, I think
it's going to be more likely the Minnesota Timberwolves, because
let's just put this out here for radio. We're seeing
the second coming to Michael Jordan with Anthony Edwards, So
that's number one, number two. They have been a complete team.
Karl Anthony Towns has been I think, very comfortable with
being one A, one B with Anthony Edwards. They have
(09:24):
a lot of good roster depths with Rudy Gobert and
Jade McDaniels and Mike Conley. I think that they're a
little bit more seasoned in Oklahoma City. But assuming no
major injuries to Jamal Murray or anyone else on the Nuggets,
I project that they're going to get back to the
NBA Finals and defend their title.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, where they fall to Jalen Brunson the Knicks, because
the Knicks wow, right here he goes the Knicks wanted more.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Yeah, and you know what you can never discount. We
see the Knicks fan base invade Philadelphia, maybe they start
invading Denver as well.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Of course they will then and then Jok will complain
and say, ah, the fans are rooting for the other team.
And Joel Embiid. Sorry, I just jump from yokist Embiid.
Sorry about that.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Well, you went from the guy that's going to be
the MBP to the guy that was and guy that's
really lost a lot of support here in the last
yards mark, have you ever seen a guy go from
being a fun loving, jovial guy to constant wire complainer
(10:26):
in villain.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
You're talking about to Embiid, correct, Yeah, I think it's
that's been kind of his whole career. I mean, I
think there was sympathy because this season because of his
long injury, but he's always been the guy that makes
opinion comments and uh, Sixers fans mostly love them, and
opponents the fans don't love them, especially the Nuggets. I
mean they've been se offended when he and is a trainer.
(10:51):
Drew Handler would talk about how great he is, and
then you know, the Nuggets fan pace, would you know,
fiercely defend nikoly jokicch and look like nikolajkicch deserved his
MVP awards. But it has been an interesting back and
forth battle that Joe'll have EMBA it has had with
different teams fan bases.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
All right, Mark, so let me leave you here now.
If I said to you, okay, the Eastern and Western
Conference finals will be because we're getting here last time
we got talked to you before. The Eastern and Western
Conference finals will be what teams against what teams?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Okay, So the West Finals it will be it will
be Denver. They play Minnesota next, so it can't be Minnesota.
It'll be Denver and Oklahoma City, and then it'll be well,
it'll be Boston and New York. Look, the day's wrinkle
(11:46):
changes the dynamic. This Christos for zingis injury, you never know.
I mean, look, it's going to be day to day.
It's very early, but given his injury history, you do
have to pay attention a little bit. And I do
feel for him because ever since he came to the Wizards,
you know, I was talking to him during that time,
(12:06):
and this season he's done so much different work with
his training, like with strengthening his lower body, doing a
lot of lunges to lose his weight, to improve his balance,
do a lot of things that removed pressure from its joints.
And as a result, he's not mister iron man. He's
never going to break Aces Green's record streak. But he
was becoming more healthy or he was becoming healthier this
(12:30):
season than last season. So I feel bad for him.
But as far as your question, this, this very well
could change things in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Nicks, Nuggets, NBA Finals. Just Tibbs and Michael Malone just
think about that, mid o man, that'd be something.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Yeah, but how about this? Will Michael Malone be pumping
his own gas like Tibs' is? Yeah you see that?
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah? Oh yeah, yeah No, And Michael Malone would say,
why does everybody want to talk about the Knicks? Why
do they want to talk about us? We're a team
that won a championship. We play hard the next play
hard to find a way to find every slight and
make it all about that. That's what he's gonna do.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
I love it. I mean, they'll they'll get ready for
the three hour practices in between final games.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
He's on Twitter at Mark g Underscore Medina a man
I want to say, because you know, I'm I'm I'm
I'm you know, I'm a guy that says, hey, I
want to help people out. Despite the fact Mark Medina
lied to me and said that Jalen Brunson would have
forty in Game three, he had thirty nine, We're still
having Mark on every week to talk end.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
You know, I was particting at some point four that's true.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Hey, it's right. Hey, no one's calling him underpaid overpaid anymore,
are they?
Speaker 4 (13:41):
You know what. We'll have to wait and see. But
I've been a believer of the Knicks ever since you
told me to.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
So Mark is always funny. Appreciate it. We'll talk to
you soon.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
It's a good one liner to go out on.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I've been a big believer of the Niggs ever that
you told me to.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Bench.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I've been telling you the Knicks are going to the final.
It's all I'm said. Go New York, Go New York, Co,
Go New York, Go New York. It's all I've said.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
She already created the giff of you dancing.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah, buddy, we're there, man, We got we got to
take care of business here. You gonna take care of it.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
But there's a lot of basketball to New York, New York,
Go New Exit.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
How about a Frasca exit Swalling Dome. Great stuff from
Mark Medina right there. Coming up next, Yes, the end
of the Lakers season, the Nuggets move on. There's a
little bit of controversy about the final play of the game,
not the Murray jumper, but what happened after we got that.
Plus the silver lining for the Lakers in this season
because they're gonna get something pretty big this offseason. What
(14:43):
does it will tell you? That's next Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
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 5 (14:58):
Hey, this is Tom Berducci from Fox Sports, MLB Network
and Sports Illustrated, and I'm Joe Madden, and we're going
to be around to talk a little bit about managerial
decisions and what may have accorded to the dugout maybe
in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
It's the book of Joe Podcasts. I can't wait for this, Joe.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
We're going to dive into what goes on in the
dugout and behind the scenes in Major League.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Baseball, cars, wind, whatever else we want to talk about. Yeah,
well there are no boundaries, right.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Listen to the Book of Joe podcast on the iHeartRadio app,
on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. Go New York, Go, New York Go.
The Knicks are here to save the NBA Playoffs for
the first time since two thousand and five. No Lebron,
Steph or KD in the second round of the playoffs.
The Knicks are here to save us all, here to
save its Anders. As much as people love Shy Gilders,
(15:51):
Alexander and Anthony Edwards, you need the Knicks and we
need to save the playoffs. The Knicks are here to
do that. They will save the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to to watch if the
nation does gravitate, because generally, you know, as you've complained
about a lot, if you were if I could bring
back your memory of the beginning of last week, everybody
there's an anti New York bias. Everybody hates the Knicks.
Blah blah blah. Fast forward a week. Now, you have
no choice dancing.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
You have no choice. No, you still have a choice. No,
you have to love the abdicate. The Knicks play hard.
They play hard on the team they're playing against. Celebra
love them, dispay Jalen Small. He's not big, He's not
gonna win anything. Jalen Brunson is bleeping fantastic. I wouldn't
trade him for anybody. He's already the second best Nick
of the last twenty five years by Ewing. And I
(16:37):
don't know if they make a big run in the
playoffs this year, I might put him out of Ewings.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
You gotta add add dates. If you're gonna go, you
in go New York. You ain't played for the Knicks.
And how long I play left?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Ewing left in ninety nine, the child gets on the bus,
Ewing left in ninety nine, twenty five years old. Oh yeah,
well look, hey, that last year Ewing to Ewing Torris
Achilles in the finals.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
In the conference Remember of the Seattle SuperSonics. Or we
could have worn the Orlando Magic.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
We could have beat the Spurs pretty easy in the
NBA finals, losing you I know, but Tours Tours Torris Achilles.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
We do you know? The Marvel absolutely sucked. We had
no chance in the finals.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Let's get to the Lakers because there's a lot of
controversy and already Lebron has been dropping hints in his
postgame Brens conference. Uh the final play of the game,
We've talked about it from the Nuggets game winning shot perspective.
Awful defense by the Lakers. Awful by Ruy Hatchimura who
allows Jamal Murray to take an uncontested shot. Awful by
Anthony Davis who doesn't close on either close on Murray
(17:50):
or stay with Jokic, because if Murray wanted to, he
could have passed to Jokic who had a wide open shot.
Lakers defense, big epic fail. But there's some controversy about
what happened following that. On the Lakers last possession, difference
of two seconds the game clock in the shot clock,
worst case scenario, we're going to overtime.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Joki a screen mory to try to break the team.
I'll talk out about the Lakers. I gotta go James
au pomp the food a Prince shot. No Siro's on
the clock. The Nuggets a dance play. You have one
Kevin Harlan on the call, Following the.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Nuggets bucket, the Lakers inbound the ball. Lebron has it
going up the left wing. Jokic gets in his way
and won't let Lebron dribble. Lebron stops, tries to get
the ball out with only a couple of seconds left,
gets the ball to Vanderbilt, who goes and gets a shot,
gets the ball to Prince, who goes, gets a shot off,
(18:48):
who runs into a defender shot fall short. Game over. Now,
there's a lot of going on about how boy Lebron
is found by Jokic. There's a foul on Vanderbilt on
that final shot from half court, Yes, yes, by the
letter of the law, that's a foul on Jokich on
Lebron letter of the law. Probably a foul with vander
(19:10):
with with Prince going in for that shot. However, that's
never gonna get called. Referees are never gonna blow the
whistle something like that. They're not gonna blow the whistle
that Jokic fowls Lebron in the back court unless Lebron
falls down. If Lebron wanted to sell that call and
fall down, well, okay, that's one thing, but you're not
gonna get that call. Who's gonna call You're gonna call
(19:32):
a foul. It's like calling it past interference on a
hail Mary, Like you just don't get it. Yes, is
there pass interference on hail Mary's our hundred percent. Guys
reach up, grab officials don't see it. They let it go.
But yes, you could. You could have potentially called a
foul on either of those things. But the officials are
never gonna blow the whistle on it. Never gonna It's
never gonna happen. So yeah, you could do it. But
I live in the real world where I've never seen that,
(19:54):
and officials aren't gonna do it. I mean, can you
imagine really, Oh, we're gonna blow the foul and we're
gonna send Torri and it's the free throw line for
three free throws, a chance to win the game. That's
just not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
But like Jokic did a good job defending, arms are
up and they kind of bump together, the princes leaning
in as hard as he can to try to draw
whatever contact he can. If the folks want to complain
about that, man, we want to go through a full
forty eight. You still shot twenty seven free throws to
their nine.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Well, and you missed nine of them. I mean that's
a bit the missing for the Lakers, Like keep on
going down the line. You want to talk about files
not called uh there was. There was a sequence where
Hachimura does a full clearout on Jokic to score a
bucket in the final two and a half three minutes
and Jokics just looked at the official and kind of shruggling.
(20:45):
Really yeah, I mean we could go back and dissect
the whole game.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
If you want, but certainly, in the final minutes of games,
whether you like it or not, it's always been the case.
It's not called the same, not called the same as
it is the first two minutes to the end, and
a lot more contact is allowed low post even look
at the play when when Jokic goes to screen for
(21:11):
Jamal Murray down the stretch, it's like Anthony Davison. He
are beating the hell out of each other as he
tries to step through to go set the screen, Like
you could blow a whistle right there before Murray makes
one step towards the lane. So it's it's all about
being properly adjudicated, and you can find fault with all
of it. Yes, close games, we can go two minutes. Notice,
(21:33):
what do you want to be a sixers?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah? Oh how many times did we get wronged in
the final two minutes? You got to let us know
so we can at least say to our fans, oh,
look at that, we should have.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Had that call. And that's the beauty of sport. Good
human error, human decision making. I mean, not that they
don't do a million of these. Let's go to the
videotape stops along the way. But you're not getting that
call either way. I mean Lebron, I guess given his.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Lebron Lebraun tries to dribble and yo Caauz, Jokic just
gets in his way and he's moving around doing the
Jokic things like if Lebron. But that's a decision to make,
saying we're not gonna get a shot and I'm gonna
draw this foul. That's a tough decision to make in
the moment because you're trying to find a way to
make a play. You're not saying, oh, I'm gonna change
and get a foul call here, like you're you're gonna
try to figure something out like if that happened, it's
(22:20):
hard to not call a foul. It would be hard
to not call out. I mean, he'd have to sell
the hell out of it, right, right, He's gotta be
okay with the fact that I'm gonna dribble the ball.
It's gonna go out of bounds or it's gonna bounce somewhere,
and if they don't call a foul, we're gonna lose.
But instead, I'm gonna still try to finally get the
ball away for a last second shot. That's what I'm
gonna try the ball.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
To Prince from forty feet and not exactly the guy
with the game he was having offensively.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Well, you don't want anybody from forty feet, you know what.
But unless it's Kitlyn Clark, I'll take Caitlyn, give me
and give me her, give me Steph. But no, the
point being that he has not shot the ball well
even in his normal sets let alone. Hey, you come
in off the bench and now you get to be
the chucker. Now here's where the silver lining comes in
(23:05):
for the Lakers, because already it's what's next. They have
draft picks coming up finally, because they're done giving up
all their picks for Steve Nash. They finally have draft
picks coming in. What can the Lakers do? I will
tell you what not only is most likely, but you
are gonna see a dance between both sides to make
(23:26):
this happen. We talked to Mark Madini. So are the
Lakers going to decide they need a third Star? Well,
they kind of do. They kind of need something else because,
as you see, what they have is not quite what
they need. The Nuggets supporting cast was better. You're getting
big shots all the time from Aaron Gordon, You're getting
big place from Michael Porter Junior. The Lakers as the
roster is constructed here is not good enough. Yes they're older,
(23:48):
but it's just not good enough. We just watch the
Phoenix Suns get wiped out of the playoffs and all
they did. The Stars have done so far is blame
Frank Vogel, Devin Booker saying, Hey, I was unprepared, KD
was unprepared, Vogel was unprepared. When you say you're unprepared
as a player, you're basically saying coach's fault because I was.
(24:10):
I don't prepare myself, You prepare me to play. Also
reports that KD was not happy with how he was
used this year. Felt he was too much on the
side and it didn't mesh with what the whole the
whole thing should have looked like in Phoenix. Spending all
this money, You've given up a lot of draft picks
for KD. You made a big trade for him a
year and a half ago. You get the same thing
for Bradley Beal, but it's not working when you go
(24:32):
out in the playoffs like this. This is a complete
and hard reset. This means Vogel is gone, and you
have to find a way to say, we'll continue to
build around Booker. It's a great player, but we need
to move on. You are going to see a dance
between Kevin Durant and the Lakers that's gonna go over
the course of the off season, and with KD eligible
(24:54):
for contract extension. If the Suns don't talk to him
about it and we're not gonna do it, you know
KD is gonna want out, and he's not a guy
that's been shy before about saying I want out. What's
gonna work. Are the Lakers gonna trade for a young star? No,
anybody trade They're gonna trade for an older star because
they don't have the pieces to move that are gonna
get a young star to come in. But KD at
thirty six with Lebron and AD and you're maximizing the
(25:18):
last two years of Lebron James, where Kevin Durant thinks
I can go to a big location and maybe win
a championship. The Lakers are really good. Look how competitive
they were. It's about the Nuggets and they can't get
past the Nuggets. You are gonna see this dance with
KD and the Lakers, and stuff will move closed. There
will be conversations and that deal will be made to
(25:38):
send KD to the Lakers for the supporting parts to
make the money match. Maybe it's a sign and trade
something else with Kevin Durant, but we've seen the Lakers
and Sons work together before. I mean the Lakers. I'd
be a little bit nervous after the Steve Nash trade. Boy,
you traded with Steve Natch and he's stunk. What are
you gonna do with Kevin Durant? But KD is still
KD as long as you don't need him to dominate
every game. This is kind I know what the top
(26:01):
of the market that the Lakers can be in for
as far as a player you can get who can
be a difference maker that you're able to obtain for
what you have and the desire for both sides to
get that done. You're gonna see close, close, close, KD.
I'll give you this Bowl prediction. He'll be a Laker
for next season, and then it's gonna be a bigger
traveling road show with the Lakers, with lebron and KD
(26:22):
and a D. And maybe in regular season they take
turn sitting out, Like two of them play in each
game and the third guy sits out. Maybe it works out.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
How many games did the three of them play?
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Oh? Big games? Look in the oh they'll play in
the I st in season, turn they all play. They
gotta play those.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Those are big games, except for the championship because it
doesn't gain No, no, no, they'll playing championship Christmas Day,
Christmas Day, They'll they'll play.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
They'll play. That's a big game, and they will play.
Let's see, Uh, probably why they're playing MSG. They'll want
to play an MSG against the next because you know
it's the Madison square guard. Lebrono's Madison square guard.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
And probably against the Nuggets because they want to prove
they can beat They don't want to keep losing to
the Nuggets. Beating them once in their last like seventy
five times.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
That's about right.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
So those those are the games that the three of them,
but you know, led a lot of minutes. They did,
they did, they led a lot.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
So here's the current odds. This was from bed online
that released earlier today. Return to the Suns is the favorite,
the Oklahoma City Thunder at plus four hundred, followed by
Nick yea one go New York, Go New York, Go
Go New York, Go New York sat at six to one,
(27:32):
Philadelphia at seventy to one or seven to one, sorry seven.
All of a sudden it jumped from six to one
to seventy to one. Misspoke seven to one because I
was getting ahead. Because the next team is the San
Antonio Spur that's nine to one.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Kevin Durant looked at it, go yeah, no, not doing that.
So those are all your the early odds on this.
Leger's think is interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I think they'd be better off going and trying to
figure out how to bring Draymond Green uh to Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Need more than that. You need you need, you need to,
You need more shot making, you need more guys could
take the pressure, because look what we saw tonight and
this whole series, all the Lakers led. Yeah, but the
Lakers are an older team. I realize you're getting a
thirty six year old Kevin Drip. You're still and Durant
was fantastic in this series. That's what I guess he
was with Phoenix. There was a lot of roster construction,
right because to bring these guys in, you gutted your assets.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
And that's where the Lakers now having picks allows you
to give some of those back. Hey, you don't have
picks in the at all till like twenty thirty, I
think it is before the Sons have selections. And you
gutted your bench for the Lakers. Yeah, a number of
guys that weren't available to you that you thought, like
Vanderbilt and other guys that just were not around. Gave
(28:42):
Vincent missing a lot of time. He was supposed to
be one of your defensive specialists, right, so he wasn't there.
But if you can bring in Kevin Durant, and I
think go to that rotation where you play rock paper scissors. Hey,
what's your history against this opponent? I dominate them? All right,
you're in the night.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
All right, I'm ready to go. Which one of us
is coaching? No?
Speaker 3 (29:04):
But look, I mean you can. You can look at
this series many different ways, and the bottom line is, Hey,
the Lakers had the lead. What happened there?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, the Lakers are an older team and they ran
out of gas in the fourth quarter of games. Because
it happens when you're an older team. You're lying on
a d and Lebron and Ad was in and out
of the game tonight. The mile high air is gonna
get you. This is just natural. All the things that happened, yes,
but overall, the Nuggets were just better. I mean you
can there's all these different parts of it. There's the
(29:32):
bad defensive play at the end, there's what the Laker.
But in the end, the Nuggets were the better team
and they won this series.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
And Mike shakes down with a giant arrow greater than
Darvin Hann as much as Michael Malone tried to send
out that olive branch from the smack talking of the
last couple of years, talking about what a great coach
Darvin Hand is because even the reporters asking the questions,
You're like, now, he won't be there when you face
the Lakers next. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Now, Michael Malone has decided, Oh, I'm gonna be the
bigger guy. I'm not gonna talk about the Lakers anymore.
Lebron the greatest player of all time?
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Like, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
I'm waiting to see a Joe Bluth magic trick. Illusions, Michael,
They're illusions illusions Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon, live from the Tirack
dot Com Studios. What a night, buddy, What a night.
The Nuggets have eliminated the Lakers. They will face Minnesota
(30:36):
in the semis. Oklahoma City will get the winner of
the Clippers and the Mavericks. And I know we're talking
about the Nuggets real quick. We'll get to Lebron in
the second.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
What if the next great NBA rivalry is Anthony Edwards
and Shigildess Alexander, Like, what if that's right? Both big
sweeps looking great? What if that's the next rivalry. Think
about that, Edwards.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
We're getting all the nice little morphs of kind of
like the old sport Flix cars where he turns into
Michael Jordan after You're Dunk yesterday, and with Gildas Alexander
as a guy who was all right, you're gonna be
a great sixth man and opportunity. Oh no, now you're
a finalist for MVP.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I just say, what if that's that's your next great rivalry,
which I did not have on my Bengo card. We
had Zion and joh okay, and we had we have
Yanna said no, no, we had Steph and Nope, it's
Anthony Edwards and Shi Gildess Alexander.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Well, as we were talking about Oka see a little
bit earlier, right when we talk about the league and
the desires to always have the Los Angeles or New
York market involved, Boston, Chicago, you know, I mean you
go up and down looking for all of that, and
OKC reminder, you know we got it on Twitter. We
appreciate you at how about a Fresco at Swalling Dome
reminding us, hey, you know what, they were great until
(31:48):
there was the hashtag mister unreliable. Yeah, and once that
headline hit, that was it.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
I'm not coming back. Hey, would you go back to
Oklahoma City KD. Remember that headline? He pulls it out.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
I got this.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
I keep it in my bedroom. But see, I'm never
coming back.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Bro's my brain, it's my screensaver man.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Speaking of coming back once again, Lebron James, at the
end of his year in press conference Lakers lose, said
some great things about his teammates, you know, the Lakers
in this series. Was asked about his potential. Could this
be the last game you play as a Laker? And
this is how Lebron responded.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Tonight, was there any thought at all that you know,
this could have been your last game with the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I'm not gonna answer that.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
I'm not gonna answer that. See it, Okay, yeah it
Look and that was the end of the press conference.
Was over, like he was done. Look, let's just be
honest here. Lebron likes to do this, right. He did
this last year right after they got eliminated. I don't know,
I got to see and it was all cryptic and
oh and what happened? Of course, Lebron James came back.
(32:54):
He loves playing the cryptic game. He needs leverage with
the Lakers to make sure they improve. He still playing
at such a high level. He's not hanging up until
he knows he's done, until I can't do it at
this level anymore. And you saw many times during the
playoffs in Spurts. Is he the same player he was
few years ago? No, of course not. But still he
(33:15):
can dominate. He's still a guy that's gonna score thirty
a night. He still is the biggest star in the game.
He's gonna keep playing. Remember Bron, He's still find his
way to the NBA. What's right, if that's possible, that
could work. This is just end of the year cryptic Lebron.
I'm not gonna answer that, because what does it matter
if you say, no, I didn't think about that at all,
or thinking about playing this game. No, I'm like, it's
(33:35):
like he thought in a moment, going oh, I'm not
gonna answer that. Now I'm gonna get people thinking things.
So now I get the Lakers working about bringing me back,
about whatever new deal he's gonna have or whoever they're
gonna bring in. This is just Lebron being Lebron. He's
coming back next year.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
He's playing well, but it keeps the cycle talking about
him and the Lakers, but mostly about him, whereas if
he answers it definitively yeah, I'll see seeing the fall.
Oh who cares. That's it until the draft.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Like at school, Hey, have a great summer, see.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
You in the fall.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
I forgot to tell you how World War two ends?
We won? Yeah, full Simpsons, But it's it's that kind
of thing. If he leaves a cryptic, now you get
the thousand word thought columns, you get the pontificating on
the morning shows, and and you know it stolen the
virtues of lebron And look at him and his minutes
(34:30):
and his contribution per minute, and look at this, and
look at these plays, and then make sure you add
a couple of defensive plays to show that he can
still make a big defensive stop on occasion. He had
a couple tonight and all of that. So the conversation
stays about him instead of turning to Edwards, and he'll
just Alexander or Yokich. So now Michael Malone will have
(34:53):
fuel because it's gonna be about him. Now, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Giving to these guys.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
You gotta take it from my cold dead ends. You're
gonna be the star of the league, the face league.
He's going to come back.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
This is it.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
We saw it last year and it was and we
took it a little so oh it hasn't no. But
of course he's gonna go. He's gonna keep going until
you see him fall off to the point where you
know this is gonna be it. He's not gonna go
out there and be a shell of himself as long
as he can still dominate like he's gonna play.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
I want to talk about me, want to talk about
I want to talk about So it goes late Toby
Keith with the classic and lebron theme song.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
And and how I find a way to get kd
here and uh, you know we we wind up trying
to win next year.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
That's good sound. We did lose a bunch of our
Broadway momentum, so I'm a little disappointed.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Well, we'll play more Broadway with them next tomorrow. Now, okay,
go New York, Go New York, Go, Ben Mallis next,
go New York.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Go
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 Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR. Let's give this parties.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello, welcome in, side buckle in for a crazy final
hour here on the Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. Hi buddy, Live from the tirag dot
com studios tirac dot com. I help you get there
over ten thousand recommended installers, fast free shipping tirack dot
(00:50):
com The way tire buying should be. The Nuggets beat
the Lakers one o eight, one oh six. They win
their first round, a competitive for round series, competitive, completely
very competitive.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Again.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
I mean, here's a metal that I'm going to give
you for being competitive and not laying down five more years.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
The Lakers win this series. It was a competitive sweep
last year. Yeah, competitive in five games, this year, next
year competitive and six year after that. Competitive and seven
year after that competitive and seven but the Lakers win
straight line in prig about that, Yes, one game per year,
but they have to cryogenically freeze Lebron any parts of
(01:30):
Lebron James four. Yeah, he'll just sit out the entire
year and only play in the playoffs. That's what it's
going to be for Lebron. But wow, what is next
to the Lakers? And I think a new head coach
is what the first thing is going to be. Joining
us now on the hot line. Longtime NBA insider covering
the NBA playos with us year at Fox Sports Radio.
He's on Twitter at Mark g Underscore Medina has had
(01:51):
Mark g Underscore Medina, Mark. What's happening, Bud?
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Not much? As you were talking about the Lakers newest accomplishment,
I'm thinking, you know what, they should get a banner
than they can hang it up to the in season
tournament one in the arena.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Yeah, they have the ist bat and then next of
it just says very competitive.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
And they hang the batter up. But you can look
up there and at least with the in season tournament
you could say I made an extra five.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Hundred grand, you know, want the I'm very competitive. They
should use the phrase somewhere marginal contact. I had never
heard of that referee expression until this series.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Well, hey, look, and if you're the Lakers, you're like, hey,
there's two champions at the end of the year. There's
the nd season tournament champion. We're one of the two champions. Man,
what do you want from us?
Speaker 4 (02:33):
You can't differentiate between either either.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Let's start with the the end of the game and
then get bigger and then of course we'll get to
the Knicks. You know, look, Darvin Ham is someone who
you can tell the Lakers don't listen to him. When
Anthony Davis in the middle of the series says, we
don't know what we're supposed to be doing, you know
that Darvin Ham is not going to be around. But
I watched that last play, Mark, and I see whether
(02:56):
it's Darvin Ham's strategy, which would have been terrible, or
the Lakers, which is even worse. Like, how do you
come out of that huddle and say, Okay, we're going
to allow Jamal Murray and open shot, and if Murray
doesn't want to take it, we're going to keep Nikolay
Jokic open because eighty doesn't guard anybody. Hat Ja Murray
doesn't guard anybody, and Murray's allowed to dribble and get
a shot off with nobody in his face. And if
(03:18):
he didn't want to, Jokic is wide open on the
other side, for it would have been an easy bucket.
I don't understand the Lakers breakdown on that final defensive possession.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Yeah, I understand as a team that neither of them
wanted to load up or double on Jokich or Murray
because I would just result in a wide open teammate.
So they wanted to be able to roam. But I
put a lot of blame on Rui at jamorro like
he didn't rotate at all when Jamal Murray pulled up,
So I think that's the main culprit here. And look,
(03:47):
you're comentary at Darvin Ham. I understand it, and certainly
players have had their frustrations with his rotations in game strategies.
But I will push back a little bit. If they
really didn't have as much respect, we would have seen
what we saw with the Phoenix Suns, where they just
got blown off the floor swept. You know. I know
we make a little bit of light of the competitive series,
(04:09):
but the Lakers playing hard is a positive reflection of
Starbnham the coaching staff, at least in the sense that
you know they're buying in and trying to respect and
put it in a necessary effort, where the indictment is
obviously the finer detail. So what this means for, you know,
his security moving forward, It's very hard to say, because
(04:31):
I think, on one hand, when you look at the
Lakers track record, they usually blame the coach first. But
I think, but I think, and it's a huge butt
to consider. This is a hire that the front office,
you know, heavily endorsed. They don't want to be seen
as you know, just this organization of instability. And so
(04:53):
while it is an unprecedented, I guess, to relieve a
coach after two seasons, it's very rare. Usually it's that
third season where there might be a change. But look,
well we'll see what happens pretty soon.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Just out of the last week, just the curiosity, we
talked about it with Darvin Ham and Anthony Davis. We
don't seem to know what we're doing. Well, that final
play case in point, we just run that audio back
over the top.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
How about Lebron's very animated response to him not challenging
that call in Game four. That was another good one
for the no.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
That's just it, right, It's just the preponderance of evidence
says your two biggest stars are have a liking problem
with Darvin Ham at the moment, and I have that
an offseason after this kind of exit again is going
to be able to suage that.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Yeah, I think the certainly no one's blameless when especially
with the first round exit and teams trying to make
a championship run. So he definitely deserves a few slices
in the blame high. But I think the bigger blame
high is the roster construction. And I say that agreeing
with what the Lakers front office did last summer philosophically
(06:03):
of not getting Kyrie Irving or Tree Young because they
are unpredictable players, and we know with the Russell Westbrook experiment,
when you don't have roster depth that can cause more problems.
I think they've come to the conclusion that with Lebron
James Anthony Davis, their best position to succeed is if
they have a good supporting cast. But I think obviously
(06:24):
what we saw is they didn't get the right supporting
cast members as far as who they retained, who they
pursued in free agency, and as a result, you had
a mix of players that were either inconsistent with the
incumbent guys D'Angel Russell really actually more Austin Reeves, and
then guys that they retained or acquired that just were
(06:45):
hurt all the time, a La, Jared Vanderbilt, gave Vincent.
So that's where I think that the challenge is going
to be. Does this cause the Lakers and also Lebron thinking, Okay,
because this didn't work, we now have to pursue a
third star and because they have you know, I think
three draft picks on Draft Knight, that that's more capital
(07:07):
for them, or do they stick firm to we got
to have the roster depth. We just need to find
better players that fill that role. That's going to be
the challenging thing that they have to wrestle with.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
NBA insider Mark Medina, our guest here on Fox Sports Radio.
All Right, so now from the flip side of this,
the Nuggets give me percentage chance that what I am
telling you, that what I'm telling you is a true statement.
You ready sure if Jamal Murray had not torn as ACL,
the Nuggets are going for their fourth straight title.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Ooh, that is I think that's a very good take.
I think that even if Jamal Murray was hurt, wasn't hurt.
I think that I think the Warriors would have beaten
them in the first round in twenty twenty two. So
I guess your point I disagree with, but that's just
(07:57):
a fine detail. I think the larger point making I
do agree with that they would have I think an
even extended run from last season. I mean, we have
to keep in mind that his injuries kind of caught
up to him a little bit where he was playing
a limited role last season. He could have been an
All Star and while I didn't preclude the Nuggets from
(08:18):
winning a championship, they could have been even more dominant.
You also wonder, moving forward, now that he's removed from that,
if he hadn't had the ACL, you could think that
there's not going to be as many question marks on
how long they keep this run moving forward. So I
guess what I'm saying is I don't think they would
(08:39):
have had more than one championship, but I think that
he would have gone an All Star bid, and I
think that their runway for multiple championships would have been
a lot clear had he not gotten hurt.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Others series tonight, are the thunder ready to take them down?
As they bank washed the Pelicans eight point margin of victory.
There no zion course.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
If the Nuggets are gonna get taken down, I think
it's going to be more likely the Minnesota Timberwolves, because
let's just put this out here for radio. We're seeing
the second coming to Michael Jordan with Anthony Edwards, So
that's number one, number two. They have been a complete team.
Karl Anthony Towns has been I think, very comfortable with
being one A, one B with Anthony Edwards. They have
(09:24):
a lot of good roster depths with Rudy Gobert and
Jade McDaniels and Mike Conley. I think that they're a
little bit more seasoned in Oklahoma City. But assuming no
major injuries to Jamal Murray or anyone else on the Nuggets,
I project that they're going to get back to the
NBA Finals and defend their title.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, where they fall to Jalen Brunson the Knicks, because
the Knicks wow, right here he goes the Knicks wanted more.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Yeah, and you know what you can never discount. We
see the Knicks fan base invade Philadelphia, maybe they start
invading Denver as well.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Of course they will then and then Jok will complain
and say, ah, the fans are rooting for the other team.
And Joel Embiid. Sorry, I just jump from yokist Embiid.
Sorry about that.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Well, you went from the guy that's going to be
the MBP to the guy that was and guy that's
really lost a lot of support here in the last
yards mark, have you ever seen a guy go from
being a fun loving, jovial guy to constant wire complainer
(10:26):
in villain.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
You're talking about to Embiid, correct, Yeah, I think it's
that's been kind of his whole career. I mean, I
think there was sympathy because this season because of his
long injury, but he's always been the guy that makes
opinion comments and uh, Sixers fans mostly love them, and
opponents the fans don't love them, especially the Nuggets. I
mean they've been se offended when he and is a trainer.
(10:51):
Drew Handler would talk about how great he is, and
then you know, the Nuggets fan pace, would you know,
fiercely defend nikoly jokicch and look like nikolajkicch deserved his
MVP awards. But it has been an interesting back and
forth battle that Joe'll have EMBA it has had with
different teams fan bases.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
All right, Mark, so let me leave you here now.
If I said to you, okay, the Eastern and Western
Conference finals will be because we're getting here last time
we got talked to you before. The Eastern and Western
Conference finals will be what teams against what teams?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Okay, So the West Finals it will be it will
be Denver. They play Minnesota next, so it can't be Minnesota.
It'll be Denver and Oklahoma City, and then it'll be well,
it'll be Boston and New York. Look, the day's wrinkle
(11:46):
changes the dynamic. This Christos for zingis injury, you never know.
I mean, look, it's going to be day to day.
It's very early, but given his injury history, you do
have to pay attention a little bit. And I do
feel for him because ever since he came to the Wizards,
you know, I was talking to him during that time,
(12:06):
and this season he's done so much different work with
his training, like with strengthening his lower body, doing a
lot of lunges to lose his weight, to improve his balance,
do a lot of things that removed pressure from its joints.
And as a result, he's not mister iron man. He's
never going to break Aces Green's record streak. But he
was becoming more healthy or he was becoming healthier this
(12:30):
season than last season. So I feel bad for him.
But as far as your question, this, this very well
could change things in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Nicks, Nuggets, NBA Finals. Just Tibbs and Michael Malone just
think about that, mid o man, that'd be something.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Yeah, but how about this? Will Michael Malone be pumping
his own gas like Tibs' is? Yeah you see that?
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah? Oh yeah, yeah No, And Michael Malone would say,
why does everybody want to talk about the Knicks? Why
do they want to talk about us? We're a team
that won a championship. We play hard the next play
hard to find a way to find every slight and
make it all about that. That's what he's gonna do.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
I love it. I mean, they'll they'll get ready for
the three hour practices in between final games.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
He's on Twitter at Mark g Underscore Medina a man
I want to say, because you know, I'm I'm I'm
I'm you know, I'm a guy that says, hey, I
want to help people out. Despite the fact Mark Medina
lied to me and said that Jalen Brunson would have
forty in Game three, he had thirty nine, We're still
having Mark on every week to talk end.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
You know, I was particting at some point four that's true.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Hey, it's right. Hey, no one's calling him underpaid overpaid anymore,
are they?
Speaker 4 (13:41):
You know what. We'll have to wait and see. But
I've been a believer of the Knicks ever since you
told me to.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
So Mark is always funny. Appreciate it. We'll talk to
you soon.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
It's a good one liner to go out on.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I've been a big believer of the Niggs ever that
you told me to.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Bench.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
I've been telling you the Knicks are going to the final.
It's all I'm said. Go New York, Go New York, Co,
Go New York, Go New York. It's all I've said.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
She already created the giff of you dancing.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah, buddy, we're there, man, We got we got to
take care of business here. You gonna take care of it.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
But there's a lot of basketball to New York, New York,
Go New Exit.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
How about a Frasca exit Swalling Dome. Great stuff from
Mark Medina right there. Coming up next, Yes, the end
of the Lakers season, the Nuggets move on. There's a
little bit of controversy about the final play of the game,
not the Murray jumper, but what happened after we got that.
Plus the silver lining for the Lakers in this season
because they're gonna get something pretty big this offseason. What
(14:43):
does it will tell you? That's next Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
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 5 (14:58):
Hey, this is Tom Berducci from Fox Sports, MLB Network
and Sports Illustrated, and I'm Joe Madden, and we're going
to be around to talk a little bit about managerial
decisions and what may have accorded to the dugout maybe
in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
It's the book of Joe Podcasts. I can't wait for this, Joe.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
We're going to dive into what goes on in the
dugout and behind the scenes in Major League.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Baseball, cars, wind, whatever else we want to talk about. Yeah,
well there are no boundaries, right.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Listen to the Book of Joe podcast on the iHeartRadio app,
on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon. Go New York, Go, New York Go.
The Knicks are here to save the NBA Playoffs for
the first time since two thousand and five. No Lebron,
Steph or KD in the second round of the playoffs.
The Knicks are here to save us all, here to
save its Anders. As much as people love Shy Gilders,
(15:51):
Alexander and Anthony Edwards, you need the Knicks and we
need to save the playoffs. The Knicks are here to
do that. They will save the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to to watch if the
nation does gravitate, because generally, you know, as you've complained
about a lot, if you were if I could bring
back your memory of the beginning of last week, everybody
there's an anti New York bias. Everybody hates the Knicks.
Blah blah blah. Fast forward a week. Now, you have
no choice dancing.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
You have no choice. No, you still have a choice. No,
you have to love the abdicate. The Knicks play hard.
They play hard on the team they're playing against. Celebra
love them, dispay Jalen Small. He's not big, He's not
gonna win anything. Jalen Brunson is bleeping fantastic. I wouldn't
trade him for anybody. He's already the second best Nick
of the last twenty five years by Ewing. And I
(16:37):
don't know if they make a big run in the
playoffs this year, I might put him out of Ewings.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
You gotta add add dates. If you're gonna go, you
in go New York. You ain't played for the Knicks.
And how long I play left?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Ewing left in ninety nine, the child gets on the bus,
Ewing left in ninety nine, twenty five years old. Oh yeah,
well look, hey, that last year Ewing to Ewing Torris
Achilles in the finals.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
In the conference Remember of the Seattle SuperSonics. Or we
could have worn the Orlando Magic.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
We could have beat the Spurs pretty easy in the
NBA finals, losing you I know, but Tours Tours Torris Achilles.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
We do you know? The Marvel absolutely sucked. We had
no chance in the finals.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Let's get to the Lakers because there's a lot of
controversy and already Lebron has been dropping hints in his
postgame Brens conference. Uh the final play of the game,
We've talked about it from the Nuggets game winning shot perspective.
Awful defense by the Lakers. Awful by Ruy Hatchimura who
allows Jamal Murray to take an uncontested shot. Awful by
Anthony Davis who doesn't close on either close on Murray
(17:50):
or stay with Jokic, because if Murray wanted to, he
could have passed to Jokic who had a wide open shot.
Lakers defense, big epic fail. But there's some controversy about
what happened following that. On the Lakers last possession, difference
of two seconds the game clock in the shot clock,
worst case scenario, we're going to overtime.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Joki a screen mory to try to break the team.
I'll talk out about the Lakers. I gotta go James
au pomp the food a Prince shot. No Siro's on
the clock. The Nuggets a dance play. You have one
Kevin Harlan on the call, Following the.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Nuggets bucket, the Lakers inbound the ball. Lebron has it
going up the left wing. Jokic gets in his way
and won't let Lebron dribble. Lebron stops, tries to get
the ball out with only a couple of seconds left,
gets the ball to Vanderbilt, who goes and gets a shot,
gets the ball to Prince, who goes, gets a shot off,
(18:48):
who runs into a defender shot fall short. Game over. Now,
there's a lot of going on about how boy Lebron
is found by Jokic. There's a foul on Vanderbilt on
that final shot from half court, Yes, yes, by the
letter of the law, that's a foul on Jokich on
Lebron letter of the law. Probably a foul with vander
(19:10):
with with Prince going in for that shot. However, that's
never gonna get called. Referees are never gonna blow the
whistle something like that. They're not gonna blow the whistle
that Jokic fowls Lebron in the back court unless Lebron
falls down. If Lebron wanted to sell that call and
fall down, well, okay, that's one thing, but you're not
gonna get that call. Who's gonna call You're gonna call
(19:32):
a foul. It's like calling it past interference on a
hail Mary, Like you just don't get it. Yes, is
there pass interference on hail Mary's our hundred percent. Guys
reach up, grab officials don't see it. They let it go.
But yes, you could. You could have potentially called a
foul on either of those things. But the officials are
never gonna blow the whistle on it. Never gonna It's
never gonna happen. So yeah, you could do it. But
I live in the real world where I've never seen that,
(19:54):
and officials aren't gonna do it. I mean, can you
imagine really, Oh, we're gonna blow the foul and we're
gonna send Torri and it's the free throw line for
three free throws, a chance to win the game. That's
just not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
But like Jokic did a good job defending, arms are
up and they kind of bump together, the princes leaning
in as hard as he can to try to draw
whatever contact he can. If the folks want to complain
about that, man, we want to go through a full
forty eight. You still shot twenty seven free throws to
their nine.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Well, and you missed nine of them. I mean that's
a bit the missing for the Lakers, Like keep on
going down the line. You want to talk about files
not called uh there was. There was a sequence where
Hachimura does a full clearout on Jokic to score a
bucket in the final two and a half three minutes
and Jokics just looked at the official and kind of shruggling.
(20:45):
Really yeah, I mean we could go back and dissect
the whole game.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
If you want, but certainly, in the final minutes of games,
whether you like it or not, it's always been the case.
It's not called the same, not called the same as
it is the first two minutes to the end, and
a lot more contact is allowed low post even look
at the play when when Jokic goes to screen for
(21:11):
Jamal Murray down the stretch, it's like Anthony Davison. He
are beating the hell out of each other as he
tries to step through to go set the screen, Like
you could blow a whistle right there before Murray makes
one step towards the lane. So it's it's all about
being properly adjudicated, and you can find fault with all
of it. Yes, close games, we can go two minutes. Notice,
(21:33):
what do you want to be a sixers?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah? Oh how many times did we get wronged in
the final two minutes? You got to let us know
so we can at least say to our fans, oh,
look at that, we should have.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Had that call. And that's the beauty of sport. Good
human error, human decision making. I mean, not that they
don't do a million of these. Let's go to the
videotape stops along the way. But you're not getting that
call either way. I mean Lebron, I guess given his.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Lebron Lebraun tries to dribble and yo Caauz, Jokic just
gets in his way and he's moving around doing the
Jokic things like if Lebron. But that's a decision to make,
saying we're not gonna get a shot and I'm gonna
draw this foul. That's a tough decision to make in
the moment because you're trying to find a way to
make a play. You're not saying, oh, I'm gonna change
and get a foul call here, like you're you're gonna
try to figure something out like if that happened, it's
(22:20):
hard to not call a foul. It would be hard
to not call out. I mean, he'd have to sell
the hell out of it, right, right, He's gotta be
okay with the fact that I'm gonna dribble the ball.
It's gonna go out of bounds or it's gonna bounce somewhere,
and if they don't call a foul, we're gonna lose.
But instead, I'm gonna still try to finally get the
ball away for a last second shot. That's what I'm
gonna try the ball.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
To Prince from forty feet and not exactly the guy
with the game he was having offensively.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Well, you don't want anybody from forty feet, you know what.
But unless it's Kitlyn Clark, I'll take Caitlyn, give me
and give me her, give me Steph. But no, the
point being that he has not shot the ball well
even in his normal sets let alone. Hey, you come
in off the bench and now you get to be
the chucker. Now here's where the silver lining comes in
(23:05):
for the Lakers, because already it's what's next. They have
draft picks coming up finally, because they're done giving up
all their picks for Steve Nash. They finally have draft
picks coming in. What can the Lakers do? I will
tell you what not only is most likely, but you
are gonna see a dance between both sides to make
(23:26):
this happen. We talked to Mark Madini. So are the
Lakers going to decide they need a third Star? Well,
they kind of do. They kind of need something else because,
as you see, what they have is not quite what
they need. The Nuggets supporting cast was better. You're getting
big shots all the time from Aaron Gordon, You're getting
big place from Michael Porter Junior. The Lakers as the
roster is constructed here is not good enough. Yes they're older,
(23:48):
but it's just not good enough. We just watch the
Phoenix Suns get wiped out of the playoffs and all
they did. The Stars have done so far is blame
Frank Vogel, Devin Booker saying, Hey, I was unprepared, KD
was unprepared, Vogel was unprepared. When you say you're unprepared
as a player, you're basically saying coach's fault because I was.
(24:10):
I don't prepare myself, You prepare me to play. Also
reports that KD was not happy with how he was
used this year. Felt he was too much on the
side and it didn't mesh with what the whole the
whole thing should have looked like in Phoenix. Spending all
this money, You've given up a lot of draft picks
for KD. You made a big trade for him a
year and a half ago. You get the same thing
for Bradley Beal, but it's not working when you go
(24:32):
out in the playoffs like this. This is a complete
and hard reset. This means Vogel is gone, and you
have to find a way to say, we'll continue to
build around Booker. It's a great player, but we need
to move on. You are going to see a dance
between Kevin Durant and the Lakers that's gonna go over
the course of the off season, and with KD eligible
(24:54):
for contract extension. If the Suns don't talk to him
about it and we're not gonna do it, you know
KD is gonna want out, and he's not a guy
that's been shy before about saying I want out. What's
gonna work. Are the Lakers gonna trade for a young star? No,
anybody trade They're gonna trade for an older star because
they don't have the pieces to move that are gonna
get a young star to come in. But KD at
thirty six with Lebron and AD and you're maximizing the
(25:18):
last two years of Lebron James, where Kevin Durant thinks
I can go to a big location and maybe win
a championship. The Lakers are really good. Look how competitive
they were. It's about the Nuggets and they can't get
past the Nuggets. You are gonna see this dance with
KD and the Lakers, and stuff will move closed. There
will be conversations and that deal will be made to
(25:38):
send KD to the Lakers for the supporting parts to
make the money match. Maybe it's a sign and trade
something else with Kevin Durant, but we've seen the Lakers
and Sons work together before. I mean the Lakers. I'd
be a little bit nervous after the Steve Nash trade. Boy,
you traded with Steve Natch and he's stunk. What are
you gonna do with Kevin Durant? But KD is still
KD as long as you don't need him to dominate
every game. This is kind I know what the top
(26:01):
of the market that the Lakers can be in for
as far as a player you can get who can
be a difference maker that you're able to obtain for
what you have and the desire for both sides to
get that done. You're gonna see close, close, close, KD.
I'll give you this Bowl prediction. He'll be a Laker
for next season, and then it's gonna be a bigger
traveling road show with the Lakers, with lebron and KD
(26:22):
and a D. And maybe in regular season they take
turn sitting out, Like two of them play in each
game and the third guy sits out. Maybe it works out.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
How many games did the three of them play?
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Oh? Big games? Look in the oh they'll play in
the I st in season, turn they all play. They
gotta play those.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Those are big games, except for the championship because it
doesn't gain No, no, no, they'll playing championship Christmas Day,
Christmas Day, They'll they'll play.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
They'll play. That's a big game, and they will play.
Let's see, Uh, probably why they're playing MSG. They'll want
to play an MSG against the next because you know
it's the Madison square guard. Lebrono's Madison square guard.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
And probably against the Nuggets because they want to prove
they can beat They don't want to keep losing to
the Nuggets. Beating them once in their last like seventy
five times.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
That's about right.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
So those those are the games that the three of them,
but you know, led a lot of minutes. They did,
they did, they led a lot.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
So here's the current odds. This was from bed online
that released earlier today. Return to the Suns is the favorite,
the Oklahoma City Thunder at plus four hundred, followed by
Nick yea one go New York, Go New York, Go
Go New York, Go New York sat at six to one,
(27:32):
Philadelphia at seventy to one or seven to one, sorry seven.
All of a sudden it jumped from six to one
to seventy to one. Misspoke seven to one because I
was getting ahead. Because the next team is the San
Antonio Spur that's nine to one.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Kevin Durant looked at it, go yeah, no, not doing that.
So those are all your the early odds on this.
Leger's think is interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I think they'd be better off going and trying to
figure out how to bring Draymond Green uh to Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Need more than that. You need you need, you need to,
You need more shot making, you need more guys could
take the pressure, because look what we saw tonight and
this whole series, all the Lakers led. Yeah, but the
Lakers are an older team. I realize you're getting a
thirty six year old Kevin Drip. You're still and Durant
was fantastic in this series. That's what I guess he
was with Phoenix. There was a lot of roster construction,
right because to bring these guys in, you gutted your assets.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
And that's where the Lakers now having picks allows you
to give some of those back. Hey, you don't have
picks in the at all till like twenty thirty, I
think it is before the Sons have selections. And you
gutted your bench for the Lakers. Yeah, a number of
guys that weren't available to you that you thought, like
Vanderbilt and other guys that just were not around. Gave
(28:42):
Vincent missing a lot of time. He was supposed to
be one of your defensive specialists, right, so he wasn't there.
But if you can bring in Kevin Durant, and I
think go to that rotation where you play rock paper scissors. Hey,
what's your history against this opponent? I dominate them? All right,
you're in the night.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
All right, I'm ready to go. Which one of us
is coaching? No?
Speaker 3 (29:04):
But look, I mean you can. You can look at
this series many different ways, and the bottom line is, Hey,
the Lakers had the lead. What happened there?
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, the Lakers are an older team and they ran
out of gas in the fourth quarter of games. Because
it happens when you're an older team. You're lying on
a d and Lebron and Ad was in and out
of the game tonight. The mile high air is gonna
get you. This is just natural. All the things that happened, yes,
but overall, the Nuggets were just better. I mean you
can there's all these different parts of it. There's the
(29:32):
bad defensive play at the end, there's what the Laker.
But in the end, the Nuggets were the better team
and they won this series.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
And Mike shakes down with a giant arrow greater than
Darvin Hann as much as Michael Malone tried to send
out that olive branch from the smack talking of the
last couple of years, talking about what a great coach
Darvin Hand is because even the reporters asking the questions,
You're like, now, he won't be there when you face
the Lakers next. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Now, Michael Malone has decided, Oh, I'm gonna be the
bigger guy. I'm not gonna talk about the Lakers anymore.
Lebron the greatest player of all time?
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Like, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
I'm waiting to see a Joe Bluth magic trick. Illusions, Michael,
They're illusions illusions Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon, live from the Tirack
dot Com Studios. What a night, buddy, What a night.
The Nuggets have eliminated the Lakers. They will face Minnesota
(30:36):
in the semis. Oklahoma City will get the winner of
the Clippers and the Mavericks. And I know we're talking
about the Nuggets real quick. We'll get to Lebron in
the second.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
What if the next great NBA rivalry is Anthony Edwards
and Shigildess Alexander, Like, what if that's right? Both big
sweeps looking great? What if that's the next rivalry. Think
about that, Edwards.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
We're getting all the nice little morphs of kind of
like the old sport Flix cars where he turns into
Michael Jordan after You're Dunk yesterday, and with Gildas Alexander
as a guy who was all right, you're gonna be
a great sixth man and opportunity. Oh no, now you're
a finalist for MVP.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I just say, what if that's that's your next great rivalry,
which I did not have on my Bengo card. We
had Zion and joh okay, and we had we have
Yanna said no, no, we had Steph and Nope, it's
Anthony Edwards and Shi Gildess Alexander.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Well, as we were talking about Oka see a little
bit earlier, right when we talk about the league and
the desires to always have the Los Angeles or New
York market involved, Boston, Chicago, you know, I mean you
go up and down looking for all of that, and
OKC reminder, you know we got it on Twitter. We
appreciate you at how about a Fresco at Swalling Dome
reminding us, hey, you know what, they were great until
(31:48):
there was the hashtag mister unreliable. Yeah, and once that
headline hit, that was it.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
I'm not coming back. Hey, would you go back to
Oklahoma City KD. Remember that headline? He pulls it out.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
I got this.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
I keep it in my bedroom. But see, I'm never
coming back.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Bro's my brain, it's my screensaver man.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Speaking of coming back once again, Lebron James, at the
end of his year in press conference Lakers lose, said
some great things about his teammates, you know, the Lakers
in this series. Was asked about his potential. Could this
be the last game you play as a Laker? And
this is how Lebron responded.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Tonight, was there any thought at all that you know,
this could have been your last game with the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I'm not gonna answer that.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
I'm not gonna answer that. See it, Okay, yeah it
Look and that was the end of the press conference.
Was over, like he was done. Look, let's just be
honest here. Lebron likes to do this, right. He did
this last year right after they got eliminated. I don't know,
I got to see and it was all cryptic and
oh and what happened? Of course, Lebron James came back.
(32:54):
He loves playing the cryptic game. He needs leverage with
the Lakers to make sure they improve. He still playing
at such a high level. He's not hanging up until
he knows he's done, until I can't do it at
this level anymore. And you saw many times during the
playoffs in Spurts. Is he the same player he was
few years ago? No, of course not. But still he
(33:15):
can dominate. He's still a guy that's gonna score thirty
a night. He still is the biggest star in the game.
He's gonna keep playing. Remember Bron, He's still find his
way to the NBA. What's right, if that's possible, that
could work. This is just end of the year cryptic Lebron.
I'm not gonna answer that, because what does it matter
if you say, no, I didn't think about that at all,
or thinking about playing this game. No, I'm like, it's
(33:35):
like he thought in a moment, going oh, I'm not
gonna answer that. Now I'm gonna get people thinking things.
So now I get the Lakers working about bringing me back,
about whatever new deal he's gonna have or whoever they're
gonna bring in. This is just Lebron being Lebron. He's
coming back next year.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
He's playing well, but it keeps the cycle talking about
him and the Lakers, but mostly about him, whereas if
he answers it definitively yeah, I'll see seeing the fall.
Oh who cares. That's it until the draft.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Like at school, Hey, have a great summer, see.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
You in the fall.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
I forgot to tell you how World War two ends?
We won? Yeah, full Simpsons, But it's it's that kind
of thing. If he leaves a cryptic, now you get
the thousand word thought columns, you get the pontificating on
the morning shows, and and you know it stolen the
virtues of lebron And look at him and his minutes
(34:30):
and his contribution per minute, and look at this, and
look at these plays, and then make sure you add
a couple of defensive plays to show that he can
still make a big defensive stop on occasion. He had
a couple tonight and all of that. So the conversation
stays about him instead of turning to Edwards, and he'll
just Alexander or Yokich. So now Michael Malone will have
(34:53):
fuel because it's gonna be about him. Now, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Giving to these guys.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
You gotta take it from my cold dead ends. You're
gonna be the star of the league, the face league.
He's going to come back.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
This is it.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
We saw it last year and it was and we
took it a little so oh it hasn't no. But
of course he's gonna go. He's gonna keep going until
you see him fall off to the point where you
know this is gonna be it. He's not gonna go
out there and be a shell of himself as long
as he can still dominate like he's gonna play.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
I want to talk about me, want to talk about
I want to talk about So it goes late Toby
Keith with the classic and lebron theme song.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
And and how I find a way to get kd
here and uh, you know we we wind up trying
to win next year.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
That's good sound. We did lose a bunch of our
Broadway momentum, so I'm a little disappointed.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Well, we'll play more Broadway with them next tomorrow. Now, okay,
go New York, Go New York, Go, Ben Mallis next,
go New York.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Go
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