July 29, 2024 • 36 mins
On today’s episode, Jason discusses LeBron James and Kevin Durant powering Team USA to a blowout victory over Serbia in the first round of pool play, whether Steve Kerr’s peculiar decision to bench Jayson Tatum altogether is some kind of indictment on the Boston Celtics star and what the long-term contract extensions for Tua Tagovailoa and Jordan Love mean for the quarterback position moving forward. Finally, J-Mac closes the show by telling us about one rookie wide receiver that every fantasy football player should target heading into the upcoming NFL season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Streight
Fire for Monday, July twenty ninth. The Olympics are underway.
I actually checked out the Olympics over the weekend a
little more than I thought I would. Now my daughter
and her friends are all like, oh, Dad, do we
have peacock? And I was like, yeah, we have peacock.
(00:31):
I watched bell Air. That's all I know about peacock,
really bell Air, and maybe there's one other show on peacock.
But so he called a peacock and you can like
cycle through everything. I really only care about the basketball,
but I did check out some volleyball men's basketball. Sorry
to the ladies, No Kitlyn Clark. I'm just not that interested.
And there actually is a Kitlin Clark angle, but I'm
(00:51):
gonna hold off on it because there's other good stuff today.
A lot of fun NFL news buried in a Friday
news dump while Rob g was on his way to Vegas.
Friday news dump of quarterback contracts. I'll get into my
theory later, but I think we have to start, obviously
with the Uns men's team going against Serbia and basically
smashing him, winning by twenty six points. It was not
(01:14):
close in the second half, and I mean there's a
lot of angles to take with this one. I think
this is one of those games where it was like,
obviously Lebron was tremendous with twenty one to nine and seven.
He was excellent. I mean, flying all over the place.
I love the knocking the ball off the rim. You
could do that in FOBA play, and you know it
takes a high IQ guy who spent his entire career
(01:35):
in the NBA to oh, that's why I can knock
this off. And Lebron just knocked one off the rim.
Very cool stuff. And I am starting to see a
bit of a tied turning on the whole Lebron thing.
What he's doing at thirty nine, he basically looks like
the so far the best player in the Olympics. Now
we have gone up against Giannas or Wemby and both
had monster games over the weekend. Although Yanni's lost, Lebron's
(01:57):
just playing at another level. It is incredible, and folks,
he's gotta love this. Remember twenty seven minutes, that's all
he's gotta do, and it's not like he's got to
run the offense. Everything goes through him. That ain't the
show when Lebron's in there. Oh look, i've got all
NBA Devin Booker, all NBA's Steph Curry. Oh, let me
kick it over here to you know, Kevin Durant, who's back.
(02:18):
And Kevin Durant should be the biggest story out of
this game. But of course, you know what, the haters,
they're gona they're gonna find a negative story in a
twenty six point blowout when the US look tremendous, and
they're gonna they're gonna latch onto that. So I am
going to be positive to start the pod not only Lebron,
but the return of Kevin Durant. And you guys remember
last week, I think it was after the Germany game,
(02:38):
we opened the pod basically asking did to see us
need Kevin Durant, Like, I mean, listen, they're they're narrowly
beating Germany. They're not bigs. We can't waste a roster spot.
What's up with KD? Then he played in the scrimmage,
did not do any of the exhibitions, comes out and
I wrote out in my notes, So Serbia gets off
to a good start once again, say starting Joel and
(03:00):
bid and I think it beats a bigger story than
Jason Tatum, but we'll do both. D Us has another
clunky star just out of the gate. Not great. They're
down nineteen to fourteen, and all of a sudden, Kevin
Durant goes to the scorers table and checks in. Then
Serbia makes a free throw. It's twenty to fourteen Serbia
and two less than two and a half left in
(03:22):
the first quarter. Okay, twenty to fourteen Serbia winning KAD
first touch splash from deep. It was like a Derek
White drive. Yeah, Derek White's playing a lot, playing well defensively.
Derek White drives and then he kicks it to Ant
in the corner and then just the rote beautiful ball
rotation to KD splash and it's like, oh boy, here
(03:44):
we go, just a beautiful touching, like that's the KD.
I know that's the greatest scorer in USA basketball history,
that's him. And then Kevin Durant later, as the quarter's
widing down, he has a three to I think extend
the lead to UH three. It was a quick nine
(04:06):
to nothing burst with Katie hitting two threes, then on
the at the buzzer to end the first half, he
hits another one. I mean, Durant was just flame throwing everything.
Makes his first seven shots twenty one points, and as
soon as he checked in, they went from down twenty
to fourteen to a thirteen to nothing run and they
(04:28):
led twenty seven to twenty. Kevin Durant totally changed his game.
People can talk about Lebron who was tremendous. People can
say Drew Holliday was freaking excellent. The US made eighteen threes,
they shot fifty six percent from three. We're not losing
to anybody. We're beating everybody by double digits. If we're
making eighteen threes or shooting over fifty percent from three,
that's it. That's a wrap. This ain't her heart. This
is not rocket science, folks. Okay, Booker four threes, Steph three,
(04:54):
Drew Holiday three, KD five for five, Anthony Edwards two, like,
this is unstoppable when you're shooting it like that, Yane losing. Okay,
it was a tremendous performance. Obviously, Katie didn't do much
in the second half, twenty three points in seventeen minutes
and Listen, I'm not gonna knock him. You play seventeen minutes,
you don't get any assists, no steals, no blocks. But
(05:14):
he did get two rebounds. He's not out there just
getting cardio, okay. But they eased him in and it
was a great start for Katie, very promising. Now the
rough news is when you insert one of the great
scorers in the history of basketball, who is the greatest
international basketball player in US history. That's Kevin Durant. And
(05:35):
that's not listen, that's not hyperbole. He is the leading
scorer in USA basketball history. He is unbelievable. In FIBA basketball,
he cannot be Like, you can match up with guards
and bigs, Okay, you can't match up with Kevin Durant.
You're not gonna find any international players who are on
his level. Well not yet. Let's see if Wemby guards him.
But I digress. So who falls out of the rotation
(05:59):
to get Katie in it? Because it was clear from
Steve Kerr that he likes not maybe not so much
the hockey changes here, which he didn't totally do like
he did in the exhibitions, but it was more of
a two in, two out kind of deal, and one
big loser, if you will, was Joel Embiid. Now we
could see this coming in the exhibitions. We talked about
(06:21):
a lot. It's not that he's not built for international basketball,
but this is like his first experience with it, and
it's clearly a steep learning curve. This is not the NBA.
It is a physical brand of basketball. They don't want
to hear you complaining. You guys know who complains Joel
embie They don't want to hear it like throwing your
arms up and being like what the hell? That's like
(06:42):
an instant warning and then they'll tee up or they'll
just tea up. And sadly, that's like Embiid's looking looking
for all these calls and it's like, bro, international basketball
is a contact sport, like they're getting after you. And
it was physical. Embiid didn't handle it, I thought particularly well,
and so he didn't play a lot. Eleven minutes. Now,
the beneficiary, obviously, bam Adebayo was excellent at both ends.
(07:06):
Anthony Davis continues to excel, but the biggest beneficiary obviously
Kevin Durant. So who's the big loser? And this is
what everybody focused on yesterday. I didn't even think it
was really worthy of discussion. I asked Rob G what
is his thoughts oh to Jason Tatum, and I'm like,
I don't think this is as big of a story
(07:27):
as people want to say. I can be wrong. I'm
sure it's gonna click. A lot of people gonna are
gonna talk about it. But why because, as JJ Reddick
astutely pointed out, engagement farming is a thing. Why would
I talk about a twenty six point USA victory when
I can bash Jason Tatum and further my point that
(07:49):
he's not a superstar in the NBA First Team All
NBA the last three years. He's not a superstar. He
was on the bench and got it, did not play
coach's decision. How is he good? And that's what people
are doing online and it just annoyed the hell out
of me, and I like an idiot. I got in
like a little pissing contest with some people and then
I was like, what am I doing? This is Sunday.
I'm going to the beach. I got to lock in
(08:10):
because I got my playoff semi final game last night.
I don't have time for these morons. You guys can
go ahead and take shots at Jason Tatum all you want.
We know he's a great basketball player. So here's clearly
what happened. It was a matchup dependent game and this
was not a Tatum game. And Steve Kerr, even talking
(08:31):
to Windhorse afterwards, said he felt bad about it. But
I guess Tatum knew before the game. He had said.
I talked to Tatum. We wanted to, you know, keep
our rotation, and he was kind of the odd man out.
Now does it look weird that Derek White shows up
for Kawhi Leonard? Derek White shows up what two weeks ago?
And I almost feel like he was the first or
second guy off the bench. Now, Obviously, listen, Drew Holliday
(08:55):
and Derek White are similar players. I think Holiday is
a much superior player, obviously, and that's why he starts.
But you need that one defensive, high IQ guy who's
gonna block shots if he gets switched onto a big,
he's got the length to handle it. Holliday and Derek
White are perfect players for international basketball. And oh, by
the way, they both play for the Celtics. What does
(09:15):
it say that the Celtics' best player that's Jason Tatum
did not play. What does it say that the finals
MVP Jalen Brown ain't even here. What does it say
that Holiday and White are playing a lot and effectively?
And I'll say nothing. I really don't think this is
(09:36):
a huge deal. Holiday and White are guards. They specialize
in defense, and they're long difficult to get around pesky guards.
Tatum and Brown are wings. It just so happens that
the greatest wing on this team also happens to be
the greatest player in the history of basketball, Lebron James.
(09:58):
And when you can get twenty seven minutes of Lebron
a night at this level, nobody's turning that down. And
then what does it say about Kevin Durant, who is
one of the greatest scorers in the history of the sport?
And yeah, I know he's getting up there in age,
but when he can come in and go five for
five from three and play seventeen minutes, like, who's not
(10:20):
taking that? So this is where we are. It's like, oh, well,
Tatum's not playing, dude, look at the guys in his spot.
It's Lebron and it's Kevin Durant. And oh, by the way,
they're not really good. They're going it with a three
guard lineup most of the night. Whether it was Booker,
Holiday Currie, whether it's Aunt White Currie, whatever it was,
it was usually three guards and two bigs. The NBA
(10:42):
is a wing lead league. FEBA basketball not really so
much a wing. I mean, there's nobody to match up
with Durant, and essentially Tatum was kind of sort of
the odd man out. I don't think it's the end
of the world. I think he'll definitely play in other games.
I think matchups matter at this level and rob them.
So I just don't think it's like an indictment of
(11:03):
Tatum at all. I thought he handled it well. Haliburton
did not play, but I just I don't like the
negative narrative that, well, he didn't play, so he's not good,
Like this isn't the NBA. Okay, it's just for a
forty eight minute game. You're sure Tatum would have played
because you're not having Lebron log thirty five minutes or anything. Right,
It's a forty minute game and it's really about the
bigs and the guards. At least this matchup was will
(11:25):
things change? Hold up? I have their next game, I
think it's against South Sudan on Yes, South Sudan Wednesday
at twelve o'clock. Will that match up be different? I
would almost be certain it is because South Sudan is
not a team with biggs. Serbia had bigs. I think
South Sudan will play wings and guards, and I think
(11:47):
this will be a much more game reliant upon Tatum.
I wouldn't be shocked if, like Joel Embii didn't play
against South Sudan and they went with just An Ant
and bam Adebayo rotating at center. I don't know, we'll
see Kerr has options and Rob I just I can't
freak out. I know you've got takes. I'm very excited
to hear them. Fresh off your Vegas trip, where I'm
sure you bet a lot of money on the NFL.
(12:08):
I can't wait to hear about it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
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(12:42):
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Speaker 3 (13:40):
Well, if you know anything about what happened in Vegas
this weekend, I was part of the group of people
who were stranded out in the middle of nowhere, California
for a couple hours.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
But that's another store of another day.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
To your point, I don't believe that this Jason Tatum
benching is in any way and indivement on Jason Tatum.
On the flip side, I believe it is a huge
indictment on Steve Kerr. What Steve Kerr is doing in
this Olympic run here, both including the exhibition and this
one game that really counts for seeding, is showing that
(14:15):
he is having an extremely difficult time adjusting to the politics.
Because you and I have said on this podcast now
for a couple of weeks it is abundantly clear that
Joel Embiid is getting the kind of run that he's
getting because there was some kind of backdoor promise made
(14:35):
that said, hey, if you play for us and not
for France and not for Cameroon. We will guarantee you
a starting job, no questions asked. That is the only
reason I can fathom as to why Joel Embiid in
a game that Team USA won by let me get this,
twenty six points was a plus minus of minus eight
(14:58):
in eleven minutes. And I can promise you he is
going to start the next game against South Sudan. Steph
Curry your favorite player of all time. You arguably believe
he's one of the top ten greatest players in NBA history.
I'm not gright there, but I think Steph Curry is amazing.
What he's done for basketball is something that should be
(15:19):
commended for years and years and years until my kids
kids kids.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Are done watching basketball.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
But Steph Curry in this Olympic run, outside of one
game against Serbian he's like six for nine for three,
has been mediocre, point blank period. He has not been
good at all.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I don't think he's been amazing. Now, he did have
the No Look three, which is like probably the coolest
highlight from this game. I'm sure it's everywhere I posted
on my IG like that was probably the highlight. It
was Curry. But you're right, Yeah, I would say, I
don't tell you. I don't know if he's been okay,
say garbage.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
No, he's been mediocre, okay, mediocre throughout this run through
with the six games, shooting thirty nine percent for three
which is good. Nothing to sneeze. I'm not going to
complain about thirty nine percent. But Steph Curry is the
greatest shooter in NBA history. He is on this team
because he's going to hit open jump shots and he's
going to get a ton of them no matter who
he's playing against. Because the roster is that loaded. Steph
Curry should be shooting in the high forties. To be
(16:14):
quite honest with you, he should be shooting like Carmelo
Anthony was when he was part of that Redeemed Team
twenty twelve era, when he was arguably one of the
greatest scorers in Olympic history. If you take away his
six for nine performance against Serbia in the first match,
Steph Curry across the other five games is shooting thirty
one percent while while also being targeted on defense, while
(16:35):
also not providing anything with the rebounding in the assist department.
And yet I can promise you Steph Curry against South
Sudan is going to be guaranteed a starting job. He's
going to be guaranteed twenty plus minutes. Jason Tatum, while
has been uneven i'll say so far in this run,
has done nothing that would suggest that he should have
(16:56):
his minutes cut.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Period.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
He's not turning the ball like Anthony Anthony Edwards is.
He is not getting you know, picked on relatively the
way Devin Booker is on the defensive end. He is
a much bigger threat offensively than Derrek White and Drew Holliday.
And for whatever reason, Steve Kerr has decided, I'm only
gonna play two bigs at a time, whether I'm only
(17:21):
gonna play MBD AD and BAM, I'm gonna have Lebron
James at power forward and I'm gonna have KD masquerading
as a power forward. Other than that, I'm gonna play
three guards no matter what, no matter what the other
guys are doing. That's the way I'm gonna play. That's
what I decided is gonna work for us, and you
(17:41):
might win because the talent level is so you know,
disparaging between USA and everybody else. Because Lebron and KD
alone can probably win this tournament by themselves. Those two
guys and pick three other dudes can probably do it.
But what Steve Kerr is doing to Jason Tatum is
so wildly disrespectful. I don't understand how he's able to
(18:02):
avoid criticism.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Oh, everybody loves Steve Kerkr, nobody's gonna come.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I don't get it. I do not understand it. Jason
Tatum is an All NBA player. Jason Tatum is arguably
a top five player in the NBA. Jason Tatum should
have won Finals MVP a couple of weeks ago. Jason
Tatum is the best player on one of the best
teams that we've seen in the last twenty years, and
you're getting him a DMPCD against Serbia in a game
(18:28):
that you won by twenty six points. Steve Kurt needs
to be taken to the wood shed verbally for what
he's done in this.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Okay, So here's I guess the counter would be who
you pull it off the floor and like, what's the
rotation or lineup? And you could say, well, hell, just
get Derek White out of their Tatum Guguard Gards. Maybe
by the way, Dwayne Wade had a bit of a
rough call on this. I didn't know he was like
(18:55):
an announcer, and initially I was like, wait, is that
twin Wade? And you know, he mixed in a couple
of good stories when I was playing, you know, my
time with Lebron. I never took a chart like some
of the stuff was okay, but when it was just
straight up on the commentary of the game, he was
not great. I did not think he had a good
game at all. And all these Celtics fans are upset
(19:19):
he apparently he Waite claims that, oh, Derek White doesn't
have much of a vertical jump. You know, I way
bigger vertical than him. Apparently he said that in the
game and then they looked it up and like Derek
White actually at the combine had a better higher vertical
than Tway Wade, which is kind of comical. And listen
why it's a good player. But like, I don't think
you can just say, hey, we're gonna go big here
(19:40):
and go with Tatum at the two or not go
with the three guard. Look, I you know it's interesting
to hear go excuse me going after Kerr for this.
He is universally liked. Everybody likes his staff of Spolstra.
And by the way, if anything was this pitched by
Spolstra as a way to further potentially drive division.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
There we go, who are in the East?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I mean, listen, Jayleen Brown already put up posted a
monocle or whatever it is eyeglass emoji when he was
passed over for White, and then it was like, whoa, what's.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
He's still hill? Still he was tweeting about him on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
WHOA not great? And now now it's like, whoa, wait
a minute, Jason Tatum not even playing at all, and
White slogging bigger minutes and hollow and then and now
we've gone like ten minutes on what really is a
nothing burger in a USA? Easy win? Like, I don't know,
maybe this is the first did not play coach's decision
(20:42):
of Tatum's life. You know that he didn't get that
at college one year. You know he didn't get that
in the I mean he was playing as a rookie,
and you know he didn't get that in high school.
His mixtape is insane and I can only be a
little sinister. I don't know if it's on Kurt's spostal.
I mean, Mark feuin't pitching this idea, but it is
Spoolster's pitching it. And listen, the defense worked. They body
(21:04):
bag Serbia is never close in the second half. It
is interesting though that embiid continues to start. You can't
pull Lebron out now that Durant's flame throwing, Like, what
do you do to the rotation? I don't know. I mean,
if you remember rob during the exhibition, we thought, like
Anthony Edwards after a few games, was maybe their second
best player, right right, I was Lebron a d and Ant,
(21:27):
And now it's like, wow, well Durant's gonna play like this.
It's tough to see them losing a game, right, Like
maybe they're a little gassed up and feeling themselves for
smashing Yokic that they take South u Dan lightly, but
they only beat South su Dan by like was it
one or two in the last week? Yeah, one point
in the last week. So there's not gonna be any
letdown here, right, I mean I can't imagine.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Yeah, no, I think that they're gonna be fine.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Like I said, if if Kevin Durant is healthy, and
he looked very healthy on Sunday. If KD and Lebron
are healthy, they are the two biggest mismatches in this turn. Like,
there's nobody else across any of these other rosters that
can match their size and skill between those two guys,
just giant wings. If you want them to play bully
ball like Lebron, he can. If you want to play
at three point game KD, he can. They can defend
(22:14):
across four or five positions. They're gonna be just fine.
But Team USA, if that was the case, then we
would just send like the Boston Celtics and say we
don't need to send our best players if all we
want to do is win. It's supposed to be an
honor to say, hey, these are the ten to twelve
best guys we have. We are going to send a
message to the rest of the country or the rest
(22:35):
of the world. And what Steve Kerr is doing is
he's so locked into his ways and he's so locked
into the politicking that he's doing for Joellenbi specifically Steph
Curry to a much lesser extent that he's you know,
disrespecting one of the great players who should be arguably
(22:56):
your first or second best player in the next Olympics.
Jason Tatum. If I'm Jason Tatum, I'm gonna yood like
this around. There's no way I'm coming back in twenty
twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
No, Well, Kurr is not going to be the guy
in twenty eight. I don't know who. It won't be Curry.
It can't continue to keep him. Hmm. Interesting? Would Tatum
be so turned off that he doesn't return?
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I doubt Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search
FSR to listen live.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I do want to quickly wrap up with an NFL
news dump that happened Friday. A lot of people probably
didn't see it, and listen. If you're haggling with your
quarterback for months on a contract and you're waiting for
the right time to leak it because maybe you don't
want to get you don't want to be like leading
the news cycle. What do you do? Oh? You wait
for the Olympic opening ceremony in Paris and then boom
(23:53):
there it is Friday, late afternoon. Jordan Love signs a
massive contract with the Packers. Oh, and also too well,
also got his massive deal from the Dolphins. Both got
four year deals, and everybody didn't dig into the numbers.
And guess what here we are Monday morning, and have
you guys seen anybody really dig into the numbers? Oh? Interesting, Yeah,
(24:16):
hasn't happened yet. I wonder if that's by design anyways. Um,
the big talking point here, which I'm sure and listen,
agents can steer this thing. They can. They'll leak the
news to the news breakers and then they can I mean,
they've been working on these nuggets because they know the contract.
Then they can leak stuff that they know is going
to catch on and go viral. So what went viral
(24:37):
on the TUA contract, Not what percentage of the cap
he's making, not how it stacks up compared to some
of the other guys, but Dan Marino's career earnings fifty
one dollars and TUA is gonna destroy that in like
a year. And Dan Marino is an all time great.
Oh wow, that's funny, that's crazy. But now we don't
(24:59):
have any any details on the contract. Are these other
guys signed deals and it's like, oh, we've got They
go with a fine tooth comb and it's like, hmm okay.
The best thing I was able to unearth on Tua
was it as basically the same as the Jared Goff
contract with the Detroit Lions. I don't remember much Pearl
(25:21):
clutching over Jared Goff inking his long term deal with
the Lions. Right, it was like, that's a good contract.
Jared Goff is solid. I don't think anybody thinks Jared
Goff is the guy to put the lie like Lions
over the top. Obviously he makes them good, but I
don't know, rob is Jared Goff a top ten quarterback
(25:41):
in the league? Like maybe he's like fringe. It's right
in that too range, probably nine to fifteen, which is
why I think is reasonable. There's a lot of guys
in there. It's like Tua, Dak Goff. Oh. I don't
know what you do with Jordan Love, but his contract,
as far as I could tell, is slightly bigger than
Trevor Lawrence's, which is telling because I got a buddy
(26:03):
who's a Packers fan and I actually played volleyball with
him over the weekend and his first comment to me is, Jay,
why the hell did we give Jordan Love so much money?
When he basically was good for half a season, and
I go, I don't happen to answer. It just doesn't
make sense. But here's the option. What do you do alternatively?
It's not like, oh, we'll give him like ten million
dollars less than Kyler Murray. Like that's not gonna fly.
(26:25):
Just that's not how it works. It's not the business.
And so I do think if you're looking for a
large takeaway macro zoom out. You now have twelve quarterbacks
in the league making forty five million dollars more per year.
Oh well, only twelve, but there's thirty two teams. Yeah,
(26:45):
so twelve guys are in that forty five million dollars class.
Then you have a handful of rookies. And then you've
got like your geno Smith Daniel Jones is under forty five,
and you've got like your mid tier dudes. Who else
is mid tier guy? Rob? I'm trying to think here,
it's you look at like teams without like Kirk Cousins.
(27:08):
I don't think he's in the forty five million dollar camp.
I think he's closer to forty. Yeah, and you and
then you've got the young quarterbacks, the CJ Strouds, the
Anthony Richardson's Jayden Daniels, and essentially we're getting close to
that point I talked about last week where it's like, Okay,
these these numbers are getting astronomical. Rob Dolphins, let's say
(27:31):
they missed the playoffs at nine to eight or eight
nine whatever. You want to say, Well, how do we
get a little bit better? Well, we can't. We're hamstrung
now because we just gave to a lot of money
forty five million a year. He's over that, like it's
tough to build your team. We've seen the Bengals have
to lose guys because Burrow got paid. We've seen the
(27:53):
Buffalo Bills they started to cut loose dudes too because
Josh Allen got his money. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs
they've had to lose guys. I mean, they're still winning
super Bowls, they've got Reading Mahomes, but once you give
that quarterback money, it's not a great look. And I
guess Rob, I'll close by saying, I know there's one
guy left who hasn't gotten paid and is Dak Prescott,
(28:15):
and it's increasingly looking to me like he ain't gonna
get it from Dallas, And then the discussion becomes, well,
is there a big market for DAK And we went
through this a little bit last week, But I don't know, Man,
start looking at some college football tape. Carson Back Quinn,
you er should do her. Jalen Milroe Alabama? Is he
(28:37):
on the come up? Drew a layer Penn State?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Like, I.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Just cannot get over Brock Purdy on the cheap for
the Niners. I mean, can Riley Leonard remember the kid
who was on dupe? Can he with one more year
of college all of a sudden become accurate? And then
I just need somebody to play the role of Brock Perdy.
Don't make mistakes, quick reads, process as fast as you can,
(29:05):
and that's how we'll win. And I and I I
just I feel like I don't know. I don't think
Tua gets to the playoffs this year. Jordan Love will
be interesting because the Packers have some talent, but the
division's a lot harder. Rob Just for my liking, I
would kind of sort of like it both missed the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Oh hater man, what you got against Tua and Jordan Love?
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Well, I just it's more interesting if it is.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
More interesting because especially if the Dolphins don't make it,
then that's ups the odds that my Raiders might get
in at you know, nine and eight or something like that,
and probably not. But still, uh, I'm very happy for two,
you know, to a guy, and this has been well documented.
Last season, twa led the NFL passing yards while ranking
in the top five in completions, touchdowns, first downs. Like,
(29:49):
you say what you want about the talent around him
and the system or whatever, but you need someone who
can orchestrate that system and execute at a high level.
He does it just as well as anybody. The Jordan
Love situation is fascinating to me because, as your buddy
alluded to, Jordan Love, up through what was it Week nine,
there was legitimate concern as to whether or not he
(30:12):
would even be their starting quarterback in twenty twenty four.
Nine games into last season, Jordan Love had thrown for
two thousand and nine yards, fourteen touchdowns, ten picks, passer
rating of eighty point five, and a fifty eight point
seven completion percentage.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
That's midway through the in an era.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Of football where it's easier to throw the ball than
in any other time in history. And then all of
a sudden from games ten through the end of the postseason,
so we ended up paying what nineteen games he completes
seventy percent of his passes, one hundred and twelve point
seven passer rating, two one hundred and fifty yards in
(30:56):
eighteen to one touchdown in interception ratio. So he basically
goes from I don't know Jacoby Brissett to Aaron Rodgers
peak Aaron Rodgers in the span of like two weeks.
He just flipped the switch and he just becomes incredible.
Right in the playoff game, he only misses on five
(31:17):
passes though, for two seventy two three touchdowns and a
damn near perfect passer rating. He was incredible. So I'm
happy he got paid. I always want to see guys
get paid. I'm glad that he used his leverage by
holding out, because when guys have leverage and they don't
use it, that's the biggest problem to me in football.
But at the same time, I'm gonna be really hypocritical here.
(31:38):
I would not have paid him that money if I
was the Green Bay Packers, if I was Brian Gudukuz,
I would have want to see it for one more
season before I paid him.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
I would have much more comfortable.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Waiting a year and paying him sixty two million dollars
a season then to pay him now off of eight
games of really high level play. But he's paying fifty five.
I don't think he would either, But that's just me again,
total great conversation by myself, but I just I would
feel real sketchy paying him off of eight great games.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
So essentially, in nut cutting time, I like that phrase, Bro,
he showed up right. I mean it was, hey, Bro,
you were garbage for half a season. Do you want
to get paid? Do you want me a starting quarterback
in this league? You got to deliver, and he delivered.
It was I don't know if the switch flipped or
there was a change in the offense. It's still really
unclear what changed, but that's it was a radical transformation. Yeah,
(32:36):
so quarterbacks are almost done campus year. We did have
an injury at camp, the money badger. Remember that kicker? Yeah,
out for the season for the Lions. Not great. He
was with the Chargers I think last year or somewhere,
but he's with the Lion. Listen, kickers matter. Kickers are
no joke. Now, you got plenty of time bring in
(32:58):
soccer players, bring in anybody who was.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
It was it.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
The Cowboys brought in a soccer player and he was amazing.
Last year somebody had a soccer player as a kicker. Oh,
I don't remember, and the guy was incredible. But also
quick note, I am not a huge like training camp guy.
I don't know if I've talked about this role, but like,
as a kid, we never went to like Washington Redskins
training camp. It was just not a thing. But then
I told you, like, we didn't have a ton of
(33:20):
money growed up, and my parents weren't like huge into sports.
Obviously they supported me being into sports, but it's not like, oh, hey, Sunday,
you want to go to a Redskins game. It was
like we I don't think I went to one Redskins
game in my life. I don't think growing up. But
because the Chargers are now here in the South Bay
(33:42):
with their new facility, and you know I work at Fox,
I said, hey, do we have a contact with the Chargers?
Can I like get some access and bring my kids?
They were like sure, So we went, and I'm just
saying it was a pretty incredible experience. Like I'm it
was like up close, you know. You know, we get
there early and my kids are kind of nerdy, like, oh,
let's go front row, let's see what's up. And like JK. Dobbins,
(34:05):
Gus the bus come over and they're like, oh hey,
and I'm like, these guys are freaking I mean, Gus
Edwards is like a massive human being. And it was
awesome because at the end of practice, literally everybody came
to give autographs. Harball was the first guy out comes
right over, and you know we had good positioning and stuff,
so you know, Herbert Harbaugh, Bosa, all the big dogs
(34:26):
came right over. Not because they's not anything to do
with me, but like the area we were in, I
did see Ian Rappaport and Hushman Zada. It was a
pretty damn good time. I gotta say Chargers put on
a good show. The new facility like literally six minutes
from seven minutes from my house, which is nice. And
I don't know. I got the kids' Chargers gear. You know,
(34:47):
maybe we'll go to a game this season. We got that.
Like the calendar of games, I circled the Chiefs game.
I said, guys, we might have to try to get
tickets to this and I'll just say this. Remember last
year I had asked a buddy who knows Stafford and
the Rams, who are you what are you hearing any
any like fantasy stuff? And they gave me Puka Nuku's name. Now, Rob,
(35:09):
I think I said it on this podcast almost certain, Okay,
talking to people at Jargers over and over Lad McConkie,
and I'm watching the drills. He's running with the ones,
the rookie from Georgia. The guy's got juice, great hands.
I'm surprised how good he is this quickly. I don't
(35:29):
think he's going to be facing number ones. And we
know Quintin Jammer is kind of hit and miss not
not Quentin to Jammer, sorry Coquin' to Johnston, the big
kid from TCU. But I'll just put out there now,
if you're doing fantasy, go ahead and take a flyer
on Lad McConkie. Maybe not early rounds, you know, but
just put the I usually in my notes pad on
(35:50):
my phone. I have a list of fantasy guys when
I hear something, read something, somebody tells me something, and
Ladd McConkie is damn near the top of my list. Anyways,
that's it for today. Will talk to you tomorrow, see
you then
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Streight
Fire for Monday, July twenty ninth. The Olympics are underway.
I actually checked out the Olympics over the weekend a
little more than I thought I would. Now my daughter
and her friends are all like, oh, Dad, do we
have peacock? And I was like, yeah, we have peacock.
(00:31):
I watched bell Air. That's all I know about peacock,
really bell Air, and maybe there's one other show on peacock.
But so he called a peacock and you can like
cycle through everything. I really only care about the basketball,
but I did check out some volleyball men's basketball. Sorry
to the ladies, No Kitlyn Clark. I'm just not that interested.
And there actually is a Kitlin Clark angle, but I'm
(00:51):
gonna hold off on it because there's other good stuff today.
A lot of fun NFL news buried in a Friday
news dump while Rob g was on his way to Vegas.
Friday news dump of quarterback contracts. I'll get into my
theory later, but I think we have to start, obviously
with the Uns men's team going against Serbia and basically
smashing him, winning by twenty six points. It was not
(01:14):
close in the second half, and I mean there's a
lot of angles to take with this one. I think
this is one of those games where it was like,
obviously Lebron was tremendous with twenty one to nine and seven.
He was excellent. I mean, flying all over the place.
I love the knocking the ball off the rim. You
could do that in FOBA play, and you know it
takes a high IQ guy who spent his entire career
(01:35):
in the NBA to oh, that's why I can knock
this off. And Lebron just knocked one off the rim.
Very cool stuff. And I am starting to see a
bit of a tied turning on the whole Lebron thing.
What he's doing at thirty nine, he basically looks like
the so far the best player in the Olympics. Now
we have gone up against Giannas or Wemby and both
had monster games over the weekend. Although Yanni's lost, Lebron's
(01:57):
just playing at another level. It is incredible, and folks,
he's gotta love this. Remember twenty seven minutes, that's all
he's gotta do, and it's not like he's got to
run the offense. Everything goes through him. That ain't the
show when Lebron's in there. Oh look, i've got all
NBA Devin Booker, all NBA's Steph Curry. Oh, let me
kick it over here to you know, Kevin Durant, who's back.
(02:18):
And Kevin Durant should be the biggest story out of
this game. But of course, you know what, the haters,
they're gona they're gonna find a negative story in a
twenty six point blowout when the US look tremendous, and
they're gonna they're gonna latch onto that. So I am
going to be positive to start the pod not only Lebron,
but the return of Kevin Durant. And you guys remember
last week, I think it was after the Germany game,
(02:38):
we opened the pod basically asking did to see us
need Kevin Durant, Like, I mean, listen, they're they're narrowly
beating Germany. They're not bigs. We can't waste a roster spot.
What's up with KD? Then he played in the scrimmage,
did not do any of the exhibitions, comes out and
I wrote out in my notes, So Serbia gets off
to a good start once again, say starting Joel and
(03:00):
bid and I think it beats a bigger story than
Jason Tatum, but we'll do both. D Us has another
clunky star just out of the gate. Not great. They're
down nineteen to fourteen, and all of a sudden, Kevin
Durant goes to the scorers table and checks in. Then
Serbia makes a free throw. It's twenty to fourteen Serbia
and two less than two and a half left in
(03:22):
the first quarter. Okay, twenty to fourteen Serbia winning KAD
first touch splash from deep. It was like a Derek
White drive. Yeah, Derek White's playing a lot, playing well defensively.
Derek White drives and then he kicks it to Ant
in the corner and then just the rote beautiful ball
rotation to KD splash and it's like, oh boy, here
(03:44):
we go, just a beautiful touching, like that's the KD.
I know that's the greatest scorer in USA basketball history,
that's him. And then Kevin Durant later, as the quarter's
widing down, he has a three to I think extend
the lead to UH three. It was a quick nine
(04:06):
to nothing burst with Katie hitting two threes, then on
the at the buzzer to end the first half, he
hits another one. I mean, Durant was just flame throwing everything.
Makes his first seven shots twenty one points, and as
soon as he checked in, they went from down twenty
to fourteen to a thirteen to nothing run and they
(04:28):
led twenty seven to twenty. Kevin Durant totally changed his game.
People can talk about Lebron who was tremendous. People can
say Drew Holliday was freaking excellent. The US made eighteen threes,
they shot fifty six percent from three. We're not losing
to anybody. We're beating everybody by double digits. If we're
making eighteen threes or shooting over fifty percent from three,
that's it. That's a wrap. This ain't her heart. This
is not rocket science, folks. Okay, Booker four threes, Steph three,
(04:54):
Drew Holiday three, KD five for five, Anthony Edwards two, like,
this is unstoppable when you're shooting it like that, Yane losing. Okay,
it was a tremendous performance. Obviously, Katie didn't do much
in the second half, twenty three points in seventeen minutes
and Listen, I'm not gonna knock him. You play seventeen minutes,
you don't get any assists, no steals, no blocks. But
(05:14):
he did get two rebounds. He's not out there just
getting cardio, okay. But they eased him in and it
was a great start for Katie, very promising. Now the
rough news is when you insert one of the great
scorers in the history of basketball, who is the greatest
international basketball player in US history. That's Kevin Durant. And
(05:35):
that's not listen, that's not hyperbole. He is the leading
scorer in USA basketball history. He is unbelievable. In FIBA basketball,
he cannot be Like, you can match up with guards
and bigs, Okay, you can't match up with Kevin Durant.
You're not gonna find any international players who are on
his level. Well not yet. Let's see if Wemby guards him.
But I digress. So who falls out of the rotation
(05:59):
to get Katie in it? Because it was clear from
Steve Kerr that he likes not maybe not so much
the hockey changes here, which he didn't totally do like
he did in the exhibitions, but it was more of
a two in, two out kind of deal, and one
big loser, if you will, was Joel Embiid. Now we
could see this coming in the exhibitions. We talked about
(06:21):
a lot. It's not that he's not built for international basketball,
but this is like his first experience with it, and
it's clearly a steep learning curve. This is not the NBA.
It is a physical brand of basketball. They don't want
to hear you complaining. You guys know who complains Joel
embie They don't want to hear it like throwing your
arms up and being like what the hell? That's like
(06:42):
an instant warning and then they'll tee up or they'll
just tea up. And sadly, that's like Embiid's looking looking
for all these calls and it's like, bro, international basketball
is a contact sport, like they're getting after you. And
it was physical. Embiid didn't handle it, I thought particularly well,
and so he didn't play a lot. Eleven minutes. Now,
the beneficiary, obviously, bam Adebayo was excellent at both ends.
(07:06):
Anthony Davis continues to excel, but the biggest beneficiary obviously
Kevin Durant. So who's the big loser? And this is
what everybody focused on yesterday. I didn't even think it
was really worthy of discussion. I asked Rob G what
is his thoughts oh to Jason Tatum, and I'm like,
I don't think this is as big of a story
(07:27):
as people want to say. I can be wrong. I'm
sure it's gonna click. A lot of people gonna are
gonna talk about it. But why because, as JJ Reddick
astutely pointed out, engagement farming is a thing. Why would
I talk about a twenty six point USA victory when
I can bash Jason Tatum and further my point that
(07:49):
he's not a superstar in the NBA First Team All
NBA the last three years. He's not a superstar. He
was on the bench and got it, did not play
coach's decision. How is he good? And that's what people
are doing online and it just annoyed the hell out
of me, and I like an idiot. I got in
like a little pissing contest with some people and then
I was like, what am I doing? This is Sunday.
I'm going to the beach. I got to lock in
(08:10):
because I got my playoff semi final game last night.
I don't have time for these morons. You guys can
go ahead and take shots at Jason Tatum all you want.
We know he's a great basketball player. So here's clearly
what happened. It was a matchup dependent game and this
was not a Tatum game. And Steve Kerr, even talking
(08:31):
to Windhorse afterwards, said he felt bad about it. But
I guess Tatum knew before the game. He had said.
I talked to Tatum. We wanted to, you know, keep
our rotation, and he was kind of the odd man out.
Now does it look weird that Derek White shows up
for Kawhi Leonard? Derek White shows up what two weeks ago?
And I almost feel like he was the first or
second guy off the bench. Now, Obviously, listen, Drew Holliday
(08:55):
and Derek White are similar players. I think Holiday is
a much superior player, obviously, and that's why he starts.
But you need that one defensive, high IQ guy who's
gonna block shots if he gets switched onto a big,
he's got the length to handle it. Holliday and Derek
White are perfect players for international basketball. And oh, by
the way, they both play for the Celtics. What does
(09:15):
it say that the Celtics' best player that's Jason Tatum
did not play. What does it say that the finals
MVP Jalen Brown ain't even here. What does it say
that Holiday and White are playing a lot and effectively?
And I'll say nothing. I really don't think this is
(09:36):
a huge deal. Holiday and White are guards. They specialize
in defense, and they're long difficult to get around pesky guards.
Tatum and Brown are wings. It just so happens that
the greatest wing on this team also happens to be
the greatest player in the history of basketball, Lebron James.
(09:58):
And when you can get twenty seven minutes of Lebron
a night at this level, nobody's turning that down. And
then what does it say about Kevin Durant, who is
one of the greatest scorers in the history of the sport?
And yeah, I know he's getting up there in age,
but when he can come in and go five for
five from three and play seventeen minutes, like, who's not
(10:20):
taking that? So this is where we are. It's like, oh, well,
Tatum's not playing, dude, look at the guys in his spot.
It's Lebron and it's Kevin Durant. And oh, by the way,
they're not really good. They're going it with a three
guard lineup most of the night. Whether it was Booker,
Holiday Currie, whether it's Aunt White Currie, whatever it was,
it was usually three guards and two bigs. The NBA
(10:42):
is a wing lead league. FEBA basketball not really so
much a wing. I mean, there's nobody to match up
with Durant, and essentially Tatum was kind of sort of
the odd man out. I don't think it's the end
of the world. I think he'll definitely play in other games.
I think matchups matter at this level and rob them.
So I just don't think it's like an indictment of
(11:03):
Tatum at all. I thought he handled it well. Haliburton
did not play, but I just I don't like the
negative narrative that, well, he didn't play, so he's not good,
Like this isn't the NBA. Okay, it's just for a
forty eight minute game. You're sure Tatum would have played
because you're not having Lebron log thirty five minutes or anything. Right,
It's a forty minute game and it's really about the
bigs and the guards. At least this matchup was will
(11:25):
things change? Hold up? I have their next game, I
think it's against South Sudan on Yes, South Sudan Wednesday
at twelve o'clock. Will that match up be different? I
would almost be certain it is because South Sudan is
not a team with biggs. Serbia had bigs. I think
South Sudan will play wings and guards, and I think
(11:47):
this will be a much more game reliant upon Tatum.
I wouldn't be shocked if, like Joel Embii didn't play
against South Sudan and they went with just An Ant
and bam Adebayo rotating at center. I don't know, we'll
see Kerr has options and Rob I just I can't
freak out. I know you've got takes. I'm very excited
to hear them. Fresh off your Vegas trip, where I'm
sure you bet a lot of money on the NFL.
(12:08):
I can't wait to hear about it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
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(12:42):
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Speaker 3 (13:40):
Well, if you know anything about what happened in Vegas
this weekend, I was part of the group of people
who were stranded out in the middle of nowhere, California
for a couple hours.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
But that's another store of another day.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
To your point, I don't believe that this Jason Tatum
benching is in any way and indivement on Jason Tatum.
On the flip side, I believe it is a huge
indictment on Steve Kerr. What Steve Kerr is doing in
this Olympic run here, both including the exhibition and this
one game that really counts for seeding, is showing that
(14:15):
he is having an extremely difficult time adjusting to the politics.
Because you and I have said on this podcast now
for a couple of weeks it is abundantly clear that
Joel Embiid is getting the kind of run that he's
getting because there was some kind of backdoor promise made
(14:35):
that said, hey, if you play for us and not
for France and not for Cameroon. We will guarantee you
a starting job, no questions asked. That is the only
reason I can fathom as to why Joel Embiid in
a game that Team USA won by let me get this,
twenty six points was a plus minus of minus eight
(14:58):
in eleven minutes. And I can promise you he is
going to start the next game against South Sudan. Steph
Curry your favorite player of all time. You arguably believe
he's one of the top ten greatest players in NBA history.
I'm not gright there, but I think Steph Curry is amazing.
What he's done for basketball is something that should be
(15:19):
commended for years and years and years until my kids
kids kids.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Are done watching basketball.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
But Steph Curry in this Olympic run, outside of one
game against Serbian he's like six for nine for three,
has been mediocre, point blank period. He has not been
good at all.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I don't think he's been amazing. Now, he did have
the No Look three, which is like probably the coolest
highlight from this game. I'm sure it's everywhere I posted
on my IG like that was probably the highlight. It
was Curry. But you're right, Yeah, I would say, I
don't tell you. I don't know if he's been okay,
say garbage.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
No, he's been mediocre, okay, mediocre throughout this run through
with the six games, shooting thirty nine percent for three
which is good. Nothing to sneeze. I'm not going to
complain about thirty nine percent. But Steph Curry is the
greatest shooter in NBA history. He is on this team
because he's going to hit open jump shots and he's
going to get a ton of them no matter who
he's playing against. Because the roster is that loaded. Steph
Curry should be shooting in the high forties. To be
(16:14):
quite honest with you, he should be shooting like Carmelo
Anthony was when he was part of that Redeemed Team
twenty twelve era, when he was arguably one of the
greatest scorers in Olympic history. If you take away his
six for nine performance against Serbia in the first match,
Steph Curry across the other five games is shooting thirty
one percent while while also being targeted on defense, while
(16:35):
also not providing anything with the rebounding in the assist department.
And yet I can promise you Steph Curry against South
Sudan is going to be guaranteed a starting job. He's
going to be guaranteed twenty plus minutes. Jason Tatum, while
has been uneven i'll say so far in this run,
has done nothing that would suggest that he should have
(16:56):
his minutes cut.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Period.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
He's not turning the ball like Anthony Anthony Edwards is.
He is not getting you know, picked on relatively the
way Devin Booker is on the defensive end. He is
a much bigger threat offensively than Derrek White and Drew Holliday.
And for whatever reason, Steve Kerr has decided, I'm only
gonna play two bigs at a time, whether I'm only
(17:21):
gonna play MBD AD and BAM, I'm gonna have Lebron
James at power forward and I'm gonna have KD masquerading
as a power forward. Other than that, I'm gonna play
three guards no matter what, no matter what the other
guys are doing. That's the way I'm gonna play. That's
what I decided is gonna work for us, and you
(17:41):
might win because the talent level is so you know,
disparaging between USA and everybody else. Because Lebron and KD
alone can probably win this tournament by themselves. Those two
guys and pick three other dudes can probably do it.
But what Steve Kerr is doing to Jason Tatum is
so wildly disrespectful. I don't understand how he's able to
(18:02):
avoid criticism.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Oh, everybody loves Steve Kerkr, nobody's gonna come.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I don't get it. I do not understand it. Jason
Tatum is an All NBA player. Jason Tatum is arguably
a top five player in the NBA. Jason Tatum should
have won Finals MVP a couple of weeks ago. Jason
Tatum is the best player on one of the best
teams that we've seen in the last twenty years, and
you're getting him a DMPCD against Serbia in a game
(18:28):
that you won by twenty six points. Steve Kurt needs
to be taken to the wood shed verbally for what
he's done in this.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Okay, So here's I guess the counter would be who
you pull it off the floor and like, what's the
rotation or lineup? And you could say, well, hell, just
get Derek White out of their Tatum Guguard Gards. Maybe
by the way, Dwayne Wade had a bit of a
rough call on this. I didn't know he was like
(18:55):
an announcer, and initially I was like, wait, is that
twin Wade? And you know, he mixed in a couple
of good stories when I was playing, you know, my
time with Lebron. I never took a chart like some
of the stuff was okay, but when it was just
straight up on the commentary of the game, he was
not great. I did not think he had a good
game at all. And all these Celtics fans are upset
(19:19):
he apparently he Waite claims that, oh, Derek White doesn't
have much of a vertical jump. You know, I way
bigger vertical than him. Apparently he said that in the
game and then they looked it up and like Derek
White actually at the combine had a better higher vertical
than Tway Wade, which is kind of comical. And listen
why it's a good player. But like, I don't think
you can just say, hey, we're gonna go big here
(19:40):
and go with Tatum at the two or not go
with the three guard. Look, I you know it's interesting
to hear go excuse me going after Kerr for this.
He is universally liked. Everybody likes his staff of Spolstra.
And by the way, if anything was this pitched by
Spolstra as a way to further potentially drive division.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
There we go, who are in the East?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I mean, listen, Jayleen Brown already put up posted a
monocle or whatever it is eyeglass emoji when he was
passed over for White, and then it was like, whoa, what's.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
He's still hill? Still he was tweeting about him on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
WHOA not great? And now now it's like, whoa, wait
a minute, Jason Tatum not even playing at all, and
White slogging bigger minutes and hollow and then and now
we've gone like ten minutes on what really is a
nothing burger in a USA? Easy win? Like, I don't know,
maybe this is the first did not play coach's decision
(20:42):
of Tatum's life. You know that he didn't get that
at college one year. You know he didn't get that
in the I mean he was playing as a rookie,
and you know he didn't get that in high school.
His mixtape is insane and I can only be a
little sinister. I don't know if it's on Kurt's spostal.
I mean, Mark feuin't pitching this idea, but it is
Spoolster's pitching it. And listen, the defense worked. They body
(21:04):
bag Serbia is never close in the second half. It
is interesting though that embiid continues to start. You can't
pull Lebron out now that Durant's flame throwing, Like, what
do you do to the rotation? I don't know. I mean,
if you remember rob during the exhibition, we thought, like
Anthony Edwards after a few games, was maybe their second
best player, right right, I was Lebron a d and Ant,
(21:27):
And now it's like, wow, well Durant's gonna play like this.
It's tough to see them losing a game, right, Like
maybe they're a little gassed up and feeling themselves for
smashing Yokic that they take South u Dan lightly, but
they only beat South su Dan by like was it
one or two in the last week? Yeah, one point
in the last week. So there's not gonna be any
letdown here, right, I mean I can't imagine.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Yeah, no, I think that they're gonna be fine.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Like I said, if if Kevin Durant is healthy, and
he looked very healthy on Sunday. If KD and Lebron
are healthy, they are the two biggest mismatches in this turn. Like,
there's nobody else across any of these other rosters that
can match their size and skill between those two guys,
just giant wings. If you want them to play bully
ball like Lebron, he can. If you want to play
at three point game KD, he can. They can defend
(22:14):
across four or five positions. They're gonna be just fine.
But Team USA, if that was the case, then we
would just send like the Boston Celtics and say we
don't need to send our best players if all we
want to do is win. It's supposed to be an
honor to say, hey, these are the ten to twelve
best guys we have. We are going to send a
message to the rest of the country or the rest
(22:35):
of the world. And what Steve Kerr is doing is
he's so locked into his ways and he's so locked
into the politicking that he's doing for Joellenbi specifically Steph
Curry to a much lesser extent that he's you know,
disrespecting one of the great players who should be arguably
(22:56):
your first or second best player in the next Olympics.
Jason Tatum. If I'm Jason Tatum, I'm gonna yood like
this around. There's no way I'm coming back in twenty
twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
No, Well, Kurr is not going to be the guy
in twenty eight. I don't know who. It won't be Curry.
It can't continue to keep him. Hmm. Interesting? Would Tatum
be so turned off that he doesn't return?
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I doubt Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search
FSR to listen live.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I do want to quickly wrap up with an NFL
news dump that happened Friday. A lot of people probably
didn't see it, and listen. If you're haggling with your
quarterback for months on a contract and you're waiting for
the right time to leak it because maybe you don't
want to get you don't want to be like leading
the news cycle. What do you do? Oh? You wait
for the Olympic opening ceremony in Paris and then boom
(23:53):
there it is Friday, late afternoon. Jordan Love signs a
massive contract with the Packers. Oh, and also too well,
also got his massive deal from the Dolphins. Both got
four year deals, and everybody didn't dig into the numbers.
And guess what here we are Monday morning, and have
you guys seen anybody really dig into the numbers? Oh? Interesting, Yeah,
(24:16):
hasn't happened yet. I wonder if that's by design anyways. Um,
the big talking point here, which I'm sure and listen,
agents can steer this thing. They can. They'll leak the
news to the news breakers and then they can I mean,
they've been working on these nuggets because they know the contract.
Then they can leak stuff that they know is going
to catch on and go viral. So what went viral
(24:37):
on the TUA contract, Not what percentage of the cap
he's making, not how it stacks up compared to some
of the other guys, but Dan Marino's career earnings fifty
one dollars and TUA is gonna destroy that in like
a year. And Dan Marino is an all time great.
Oh wow, that's funny, that's crazy. But now we don't
(24:59):
have any any details on the contract. Are these other
guys signed deals and it's like, oh, we've got They
go with a fine tooth comb and it's like, hmm okay.
The best thing I was able to unearth on Tua
was it as basically the same as the Jared Goff
contract with the Detroit Lions. I don't remember much Pearl
(25:21):
clutching over Jared Goff inking his long term deal with
the Lions. Right, it was like, that's a good contract.
Jared Goff is solid. I don't think anybody thinks Jared
Goff is the guy to put the lie like Lions
over the top. Obviously he makes them good, but I
don't know, rob is Jared Goff a top ten quarterback
(25:41):
in the league? Like maybe he's like fringe. It's right
in that too range, probably nine to fifteen, which is
why I think is reasonable. There's a lot of guys
in there. It's like Tua, Dak Goff. Oh. I don't
know what you do with Jordan Love, but his contract,
as far as I could tell, is slightly bigger than
Trevor Lawrence's, which is telling because I got a buddy
(26:03):
who's a Packers fan and I actually played volleyball with
him over the weekend and his first comment to me is, Jay,
why the hell did we give Jordan Love so much money?
When he basically was good for half a season, and
I go, I don't happen to answer. It just doesn't
make sense. But here's the option. What do you do alternatively?
It's not like, oh, we'll give him like ten million
dollars less than Kyler Murray. Like that's not gonna fly.
(26:25):
Just that's not how it works. It's not the business.
And so I do think if you're looking for a
large takeaway macro zoom out. You now have twelve quarterbacks
in the league making forty five million dollars more per year.
Oh well, only twelve, but there's thirty two teams. Yeah,
(26:45):
so twelve guys are in that forty five million dollars class.
Then you have a handful of rookies. And then you've
got like your geno Smith Daniel Jones is under forty five,
and you've got like your mid tier dudes. Who else
is mid tier guy? Rob? I'm trying to think here,
it's you look at like teams without like Kirk Cousins.
(27:08):
I don't think he's in the forty five million dollar camp.
I think he's closer to forty. Yeah, and you and
then you've got the young quarterbacks, the CJ Strouds, the
Anthony Richardson's Jayden Daniels, and essentially we're getting close to
that point I talked about last week where it's like, Okay,
these these numbers are getting astronomical. Rob Dolphins, let's say
(27:31):
they missed the playoffs at nine to eight or eight
nine whatever. You want to say, Well, how do we
get a little bit better? Well, we can't. We're hamstrung
now because we just gave to a lot of money
forty five million a year. He's over that, like it's
tough to build your team. We've seen the Bengals have
to lose guys because Burrow got paid. We've seen the
(27:53):
Buffalo Bills they started to cut loose dudes too because
Josh Allen got his money. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs
they've had to lose guys. I mean, they're still winning
super Bowls, they've got Reading Mahomes, but once you give
that quarterback money, it's not a great look. And I
guess Rob, I'll close by saying, I know there's one
guy left who hasn't gotten paid and is Dak Prescott,
(28:15):
and it's increasingly looking to me like he ain't gonna
get it from Dallas, And then the discussion becomes, well,
is there a big market for DAK And we went
through this a little bit last week, But I don't know, Man,
start looking at some college football tape. Carson Back Quinn,
you er should do her. Jalen Milroe Alabama? Is he
(28:37):
on the come up? Drew a layer Penn State?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Like, I.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Just cannot get over Brock Purdy on the cheap for
the Niners. I mean, can Riley Leonard remember the kid
who was on dupe? Can he with one more year
of college all of a sudden become accurate? And then
I just need somebody to play the role of Brock Perdy.
Don't make mistakes, quick reads, process as fast as you can,
(29:05):
and that's how we'll win. And I and I I
just I feel like I don't know. I don't think
Tua gets to the playoffs this year. Jordan Love will
be interesting because the Packers have some talent, but the
division's a lot harder. Rob Just for my liking, I
would kind of sort of like it both missed the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Oh hater man, what you got against Tua and Jordan Love?
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Well, I just it's more interesting if it is.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
More interesting because especially if the Dolphins don't make it,
then that's ups the odds that my Raiders might get
in at you know, nine and eight or something like that,
and probably not. But still, uh, I'm very happy for two,
you know, to a guy, and this has been well documented.
Last season, twa led the NFL passing yards while ranking
in the top five in completions, touchdowns, first downs. Like,
(29:49):
you say what you want about the talent around him
and the system or whatever, but you need someone who
can orchestrate that system and execute at a high level.
He does it just as well as anybody. The Jordan
Love situation is fascinating to me because, as your buddy
alluded to, Jordan Love, up through what was it Week nine,
there was legitimate concern as to whether or not he
(30:12):
would even be their starting quarterback in twenty twenty four.
Nine games into last season, Jordan Love had thrown for
two thousand and nine yards, fourteen touchdowns, ten picks, passer
rating of eighty point five, and a fifty eight point
seven completion percentage.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
That's midway through the in an era.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Of football where it's easier to throw the ball than
in any other time in history. And then all of
a sudden from games ten through the end of the postseason,
so we ended up paying what nineteen games he completes
seventy percent of his passes, one hundred and twelve point
seven passer rating, two one hundred and fifty yards in
(30:56):
eighteen to one touchdown in interception ratio. So he basically
goes from I don't know Jacoby Brissett to Aaron Rodgers
peak Aaron Rodgers in the span of like two weeks.
He just flipped the switch and he just becomes incredible.
Right in the playoff game, he only misses on five
(31:17):
passes though, for two seventy two three touchdowns and a
damn near perfect passer rating. He was incredible. So I'm
happy he got paid. I always want to see guys
get paid. I'm glad that he used his leverage by
holding out, because when guys have leverage and they don't
use it, that's the biggest problem to me in football.
But at the same time, I'm gonna be really hypocritical here.
(31:38):
I would not have paid him that money if I
was the Green Bay Packers, if I was Brian Gudukuz,
I would have want to see it for one more
season before I paid him.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
I would have much more comfortable.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Waiting a year and paying him sixty two million dollars
a season then to pay him now off of eight
games of really high level play. But he's paying fifty five.
I don't think he would either, But that's just me again,
total great conversation by myself, but I just I would
feel real sketchy paying him off of eight great games.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
So essentially, in nut cutting time, I like that phrase, Bro,
he showed up right. I mean it was, hey, Bro,
you were garbage for half a season. Do you want
to get paid? Do you want me a starting quarterback
in this league? You got to deliver, and he delivered.
It was I don't know if the switch flipped or
there was a change in the offense. It's still really
unclear what changed, but that's it was a radical transformation. Yeah,
(32:36):
so quarterbacks are almost done campus year. We did have
an injury at camp, the money badger. Remember that kicker? Yeah,
out for the season for the Lions. Not great. He
was with the Chargers I think last year or somewhere,
but he's with the Lion. Listen, kickers matter. Kickers are
no joke. Now, you got plenty of time bring in
(32:58):
soccer players, bring in anybody who was.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
It was it.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
The Cowboys brought in a soccer player and he was amazing.
Last year somebody had a soccer player as a kicker. Oh,
I don't remember, and the guy was incredible. But also
quick note, I am not a huge like training camp guy.
I don't know if I've talked about this role, but like,
as a kid, we never went to like Washington Redskins
training camp. It was just not a thing. But then
I told you, like, we didn't have a ton of
(33:20):
money growed up, and my parents weren't like huge into sports.
Obviously they supported me being into sports, but it's not like, oh, hey, Sunday,
you want to go to a Redskins game. It was
like we I don't think I went to one Redskins
game in my life. I don't think growing up. But
because the Chargers are now here in the South Bay
(33:42):
with their new facility, and you know I work at Fox,
I said, hey, do we have a contact with the Chargers?
Can I like get some access and bring my kids?
They were like sure, So we went, and I'm just
saying it was a pretty incredible experience. Like I'm it
was like up close, you know. You know, we get
there early and my kids are kind of nerdy, like, oh,
let's go front row, let's see what's up. And like JK. Dobbins,
(34:05):
Gus the bus come over and they're like, oh hey,
and I'm like, these guys are freaking I mean, Gus
Edwards is like a massive human being. And it was
awesome because at the end of practice, literally everybody came
to give autographs. Harball was the first guy out comes
right over, and you know we had good positioning and stuff,
so you know, Herbert Harbaugh, Bosa, all the big dogs
(34:26):
came right over. Not because they's not anything to do
with me, but like the area we were in, I
did see Ian Rappaport and Hushman Zada. It was a
pretty damn good time. I gotta say Chargers put on
a good show. The new facility like literally six minutes
from seven minutes from my house, which is nice. And
I don't know. I got the kids' Chargers gear. You know,
(34:47):
maybe we'll go to a game this season. We got that.
Like the calendar of games, I circled the Chiefs game.
I said, guys, we might have to try to get
tickets to this and I'll just say this. Remember last
year I had asked a buddy who knows Stafford and
the Rams, who are you what are you hearing any
any like fantasy stuff? And they gave me Puka Nuku's name. Now, Rob,
(35:09):
I think I said it on this podcast almost certain, Okay,
talking to people at Jargers over and over Lad McConkie,
and I'm watching the drills. He's running with the ones,
the rookie from Georgia. The guy's got juice, great hands.
I'm surprised how good he is this quickly. I don't
(35:29):
think he's going to be facing number ones. And we
know Quintin Jammer is kind of hit and miss not
not Quentin to Jammer, sorry Coquin' to Johnston, the big
kid from TCU. But I'll just put out there now,
if you're doing fantasy, go ahead and take a flyer
on Lad McConkie. Maybe not early rounds, you know, but
just put the I usually in my notes pad on
(35:50):
my phone. I have a list of fantasy guys when
I hear something, read something, somebody tells me something, and
Ladd McConkie is damn near the top of my list. Anyways,
that's it for today. Will talk to you tomorrow, see
you then
Host
Jason McIntyre
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