On today’s episode, Jason McIntyre discusses a story about Suns center Deandre Ayton detailing his inability to live without video games. While Jason talks about his own affinity for video games, Ayton spending a lot of his free time in the virtual gaming sphere is a much different story. Ayton asked the Suns to deliver on his request of a multimillion dollar deal last summer, but if you’re an organization having to question his work ethic and what he does on his free time, it’s understandable for Phoenix to take some pause on paying their big man. If you’re a real contender in the NBA, Ayton should not be the one you shell out your dough for. Plus, Jason discusses some NFL topics including Packers CB Jaire Alexander’s big payday AND previews Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the short rested Boston Celtics and Miami Heat!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. What's up, straight
Fire fan, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight Fire for Tuesday,
May and the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals are tonight. I'll
do some gambling on Celtics in Miami. A little later on,
(00:29):
by the way, shout out on a gambling note to
the dude who outside Starbucks Monday. I go to Starbucks
before I had to head to Fox to do a
gambling show with Cowherd on the NBA Playoffs. And I
get out of my car and I go to put
a quarter in the meter and this dude was like
with his wife kind of nearby, and he goes Jason
(00:50):
McIntyre and I look over. It's this older guy, probably,
and I look up and I kind of smile. You know,
you're caught off car. You don't. You're not used to
hearing your name out loud in public from random people
on a sidewalk as you're going to get coffee. And
he goes, I like your podcast, You've won me some money.
And I and he kind of laughed with his wife
(01:11):
and I was like, all right, I'll take it. Hey,
thanks man. Pretty good, pretty good notes. So shout out
to you, faithful listener. Um. A couple of notes before
we get to the NBA though, I heard from some
of you that I was too harsh on Chris Paul,
crushing him for his listless no show in game seven. Folks,
it was not a no show in game seven. It
was no show in game three, four or five, six,
(01:32):
add seven. This is five straight games. Oh, I keep
hearing Chris Paul one of the greatest point guards ever.
Oh my gosh, he's amazing. Yeah, he's a great player.
He's been to the finals once. I just want to
remind you, guys, Steph Curry went to the NBA finals
five years in a row. Chris Paul's got there once.
With a rich history of failures in the playoffs. And
(01:53):
I'm listen, this is not being me being overly critical.
You know. I've been openly I don't particularly like Chris Paul.
But I'm not just crushing the guy to crush him.
He has been a colossal playoff failure. Not quite on
the level of James Harden, but he's within shouting distance
of Harden's failures. This is what happens to these guys
in the playoffs and listen, the spotlight is bright for
(02:14):
a lot of folks. I ain't gonna lie to you
guys known on a much much, much, much much more
granular level. I've entered two tennis tournaments in the last
I don't know, three years or whatever, and I got
to the semifinals both time and lost. Now, the first
time I got to the semis, I got absolutely smoked
by the guy who wanted. The second time, I led
for one in the first set, and I was feeling
(02:34):
myself thinking about the championship, and I totally imploded, and
I'm I was so mortified. A. I never checked to
see who won the championship. I was that angry. B
I have not played tennis once since I lost that match.
I was so ticked off. It ate at me for
a while. It was just it was just weak. I
was just mentally weak. I got crushed after leading. At
(02:56):
any rate, I will be picking up tennis shortly, as
the shoulders seems to be re funding nicely from the
soccer injury suffered a couple of weeks ago. Um, so
I won't have as much time to prep for the
tennis tournament this summer. But I guarantee you I will play.
I don't know how I'll do since I haven't played
in goodness gracious eight months. I was so angry about it.
All right, quickly onto some sports, actual sports stuff, not
(03:18):
Jason McIntire sports. Um, just two things that I saw
in the NFL that were of note. Number One, I
saw Gyr Alexander of the Packers got the biggest deal
ever for a cornerback in NFL history. That's awesome. This
is the only thing that I found interesting. So I
see the deal was reported, of course by schefter Rappaport
(03:40):
whoever it was, and they mentioned when they broke the
news who brokered the deal, and it was a guy
by the name of John Thornton from Rock Nation, that's
the jay Z company. And I was like, John Thornton,
Holy cow, I think I know that guy. And I
went on my phone and I punched in his his
spelled up his name, and I had his number, and
I was like, holy cow, this is the same guy.
(04:01):
And of course I look at our text message. The
last time I texted him was tw so fun fun backstory.
So this guy just negotiated Jayar Alexander's huge deal. I
used to go to the NFL Combined back when I
wrote for The Big Lead, and I went I think twice,
maybe three times, and there was this bar there where
everybody would go, agents, coaches. It was a media obviously.
(04:24):
It was like the hangout bar after every single night
of the combine. It was a scene, right, you know,
this isn't quite what happens in Vegas days in Vegas.
And there were a couple of female reporters who really
went after it hard, and you know, guys obviously said
stuff about them. I'm not getting into that stuff. What
I will talk about is I'm going around and introducing myself.
(04:46):
I'm a young guy. I'm at a website, you know,
I'm like whatever, and I'm fearless. And I come up
on a guy or I was introduced to him, I think,
and I'm like, oh yeah, he uh he's with a
bunch of Jets and I was like, oh yeah, I'm
a you Jets fan. He goes, I know who you are, Okay,
all right, and he goes, I've seen you bashing Geno
(05:08):
Smith for two years. That's my that's my client. And
I was like, oh okay, and you know, we started
discussing it. Obviously, Listen, he was not coming after me,
after me, but he was aware that I had been
blasting Geno Smith. That's in Geno Smith was with the Jets,
and you know, he kind of struggled a little bit.
And listen, I'm not gonna lie to you guys. The
(05:31):
stuff I say on the podcast, I would say on
TV in public um to an agent, to a player,
and obviously I've got to be ready for what they
say back, which is can be harsh and critical. And
that's fine. I get that. That's that's part of the game.
And you know, I said to them, well, listen, you
know I'm keeping it. You're real with you here, John.
(05:52):
You know Geno Smith he's not long for the NFL.
He's not a starter. I'll tell you that. And he
would argue, no, no, Gino, blah blah blah. He's got
this that the coaching staff stays blow whatever it was.
And I looked back at our test text messages and
I thought Gino Smith would be done in the NFL
in a few years. Here we are two Gino. Now, listen,
he ain't a starter. We all know that he's a backup.
(06:15):
Maybe he's a second or third string, and he's gonna
have a shot to beat out Drew Lock in Seattle.
So I text Thornton on Tuesday night, Hey, you know what,
I gotta give you props. You were right about your guy,
Gino Smith. I was wrong. Now I'm conceding, But if
it was that, if you tried to take a victory lap,
I'd be like, Listen, Gino has got like a few
more starts than I do in the NFL since we
(06:37):
last spoke. But I was happy for the guy, and
he has a couple of other clients. I will not
mention the other stuff we said in the text messages
because I'm always fishing for any kind of edge I
can get on the NFL and gambling and um, let's
just say he has a couple of clients for a
couple of teams that I'm targeting this season to be
backing at what I think will be a miss price
(06:59):
market value. I think they're on the up and up.
Um at any rate. That's a fun story on Alexander
and the Packers and the other NFL note Antonio Brown,
it's so weird. This guy was last seen disrobing his
jersey and his pads on the sideline. I think in
the third quarter against my Jets at the meadow and
(07:22):
not the meadow Lands when it MetLife, Tampa Bay was
that MetLife and Antonio Brown basically just takes off all
his gear and runs off the field, literally runs off
the field, runs to the locker room, gets in an
uber like that was. It hasn't been seen since he
(07:43):
blamed the coaching staff. They were benching him. He wasn't
going to hit his his numbers to get his bonuses. Whatever.
It was ugly. Antonio Brown's done in the NFL, that's obvious.
But have you noticed since he's officially basically been banished,
nobody wants to bring him in. He's too much of
a problem out. Have you noticed how hard he's trying
(08:04):
to keep his name in the news. He knows that
he's near the end of his career. He's sensing, damn,
it's pretty much over for me. But I've been used
to being in the news because I was a star receiver,
catching touchdowns and dominating and you know my highlights. Everybody
knew me anywhere I went. And now I'm just a
(08:25):
guy who sits in like the front row of NBA
games and occasionally pops off on a seventh tier podcast.
Antonio Brown has been desperately trying to keep his name
in the news. Let's I looked up a few of them.
One of them was he made it like a thing.
He wanted to hang out with Lamar Jackson on Super
(08:46):
Bowl Sunday. Hint, hint. The Ravens are the rivals of
his old team, the Steelers. Let me see if I
can get in with the Ravens and get back at
the Steelers to screw me over Mike Tomlin. Right, so,
he's been pumping up Lamar Jackson online hanging out with him,
said he would love to catch passes from Lamar Jackson. Okay, next,
obviously that got a ton of pickup. Former NFL receiver arrivals, Bob,
(09:07):
It's a perfect store. Next thing, you know, he comes and,
just for no reason whatsoever, just unloads on Colin Kaepernick,
a guy who has not thrown a pass in the
NFL in like six years. Who cares? But that's how
desperate Antonio Brown is. He knows if I just put
him on blast, people are gonna pick it up, and
it's gonna be aggregated everywhere social media. People are gonna
be in my mentions like these guys are addicted to
(09:30):
this stuff. So here we are this week. Antonio Brown.
I want to retire a Steeler Now. I don't want
to play for the Steelers. They just want to retire
in Pittsburgh. Bro, nobody cares. Do you think anyone cares?
What Antonio Brown? This is the height of irrelevance. And
I do worry for him just a little bit because
(09:51):
he's got a chief, very checkered history with the law.
We know off the field, he's had a lot of problems,
and I hope this doesn't spiral into something worse than
an Tonio Brown's on TMZ for the next like, you know,
ten years or worse. I just it's sad to see
a guy like this who was ridiculously talented, a career underdog.
I think he was a sixth round pick, a converted
(10:13):
quarterback in high school, could not get into college academically,
ends up at Central Michigan, turns into this pretty darn good,
you know, Swiss army knife guy, and the Steelers decide
we could put this guy in the slot and he
can eat. And he was one of the best receivers
in the league for a good I don't know, five
six years he was electric and now he's a side show.
(10:36):
He's a cartoon act. It's an embarrassment, and you know,
you'd hope that this guy would have some people in
his corner to talk him off a ledge, but it's
it's getting ugly for Antonio Brown. Fox Sports Radio has
the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and
within the I Heart Radio app search f s R
(10:56):
to listen live. One quick note before we get to
uh tonight's game. I need to talk about DeAndre Ayton.
And I was unaware of this until I guess something
I said in the pod triggered something and a buddy
texted me about DeAndre And have you seen this story?
(11:17):
And Destroyer is headlined, and unbelievably it's from five days ago.
Why Phoenix sun Star DeAndre Ayton can't live without video games?
That's the headline. I can't believe he did this. He
did this story in the middle of the playoffs. Okay,
(11:39):
so essentially he invites his writer over and this writer
talks to eton years old who is a serious gamer.
Now I need to take a quick time out because
I I like video games. I know everybody likes video games.
We everybody has played video games, that's one time or
the other. I, as you guys know, and I like
to talk about it at a guest on the pod
(12:00):
last week. Who is you know, the primary owner for Nickoxa,
the Mexican soccer team I brought into Once we bought
that game, I went out and got the game FIFA
and I said, you know, let me get an understanding
of the league, the players, how the loan stuff works, um,
all that fun, exciting stuff. So I started a career
(12:22):
with my team, Nakoxa. It went well. Eventually I started
screwing up contracts because I didn't do the right number
on release clauses. You guys don't care. I got fired
from Nikaxa, and I put the game down. So then
of course the season started up again and I picked
it up and I started another season with another team
in the league. So I can get an idea and
again like, this is a big investment, uh, not the
(12:45):
video games, but the soccer team. So I want to
know what's going on in the league. And it helped me.
So then football season comes around, I have to put
down the video game. I don't play at all. During
football season. It's just it was it's unhealthy. Football season,
super busy. I'm gambling fantasy football. Fox work is is
super busy the podcast obviously, so I don't do any
video games during the season. Recently, Nickox got hot. I
(13:08):
picked up the game again. I've got this franchise. I'm
dominating obviously. I'm up to the um. You know, I
won the title the World Class twice. I'm on legendary
now and I've got this great team. I've recruited some
US national players over to Nickox at Tyler Adams, hay
SU's Ferreira, who by the way, leads the MLSON scoring.
Bottom line is I'm getting my fix of soccer frequently.
(13:33):
And I mean, like I didn't play this weekend, but I,
you know, came home from work on a Monday from
Fox and I fired up the game. Played a couple
of games, you know, I played like the six minute games,
which are pretty quick. Um the half last you know,
in real time, I don't know, maybe six and a half, sorry,
six minut half, so it's like six minutes halftime, six
(13:55):
minutes to a mint of games. They go quick, and
then once you get a good team, you could just
simul A. Bottom line is video games are cool. I
totally understand that they're a great outlet. It's mindless, it's
a great time waste. Uh. You know, obviously I like
to work out. I'll play basketball, um, soccer, um. I
subscribe to a magazine. I've got some books that I'm
(14:16):
backed up on reading. I should read instead of play
video games. Obviously, but video games are a great chill
out thing. I want to preface that before I talk
talk about DeAndre Ayton, the NBA center who kind of
a big deal here, is demanding a max contract. Last summer,
he said from the Suns. You know, he was eligible
(14:37):
for his extension. He said, I wanted five years, hundred
seventy two mill that's it. I'm not taking a cent
less Okay, no agreement. There's chatter out there, eighton. But
we like him, we don't love him. We're not giving
the guy. Quickly do the math. Hundred seventy two million
divided by five. I'll call up the old calculator, divided
(15:01):
by five thirty four million dollars a year, guys, twenty
three years old. Okay, that's what he wanted last summer.
He didn't get it. Let's fast forward to now. Just
remember I just talked about I'm into video games. My
son had a season in two k I'm cool. I
understand video games a great, great outlet. Okay, this guy's
an NBA basketball player. He considers himself a serious gamer. Okay,
(15:28):
DeAndre Ayton. According to him, this is not like alleged
or anything like that. He typically wakes up, according to story,
around six am, after only getting two hours of sleep
because he's up all night gaming. Then there's time for
a quick round of gaming after eating breakfast. Then he's
(15:51):
off to practice. Then it's back home to finish trash
talking and practicing, moves on the virtual basketball court on
game days eight and is focused, but that schedule will
still include time for video games. It's so hard for
me to sleep after long games, especially big long games.
At And says, I don't know why, but I occupied
(16:12):
my time with the game. Now this part next, I understand.
I connect with some of my people from the UK, Jamaica, Bahamas, etcetera.
Whoever we just beat up on, we talked about it
and laugh. I ain't go to bed until four or
five am. There's an NBA basketball player video games every night.
Now you're wondering, what the hell, what is what is
(16:34):
this guy doing? Am I giving thirty four billion dollars
to an NBA center who plays video games every night
for until four or five am. Now you could say, hey,
j it's better than he's out in the clubs. Well yeah, um.
You also wonder, like, what's the work ethic, like if
it's video games over? I don't know, putting in Kobe
(16:58):
Bryant like ours in the gym, or Janice or Steph Curry?
How bad? How great does he want to be? I
don't know. Now the story goes on again. This is
a story you can find on ESPN. I'll give you
the title again, why Phoenix Suns star DeAndre Ayton can't
live without video games? I assume it's a free article.
This part, you know, is a little tough, and I
understand where he's coming from. So Aton, of course, was
(17:20):
in the Bahamas as a kid. He wasn't playing basketball,
And next thing you know, he's eleven years old and
he goes to a basketball camp. Within two days, the
scouts were like, yo, hey, co, come to America, come
play for our school. Right And eventually he accepts DeAndre
aten a move to the United States to pursue basketball.
(17:42):
He goes to some school in California, but he didn't
fully understand how much work the program would be. He thought,
I'm just getting a free education at a private school. Okay,
this is a DeAndre Ayton quote, and again this goes
into the full body of work on this potential franchise
center who wants a seventy two million dollars. The program
(18:05):
consisted of school. But I wasn't waking up at five
five am to go lift no weights or run a track.
We ain't sign up for that. We heard free education.
We ain't here labor. I'm like, hold on, what is this?
So he leaves his home country, his family, everybody goes
to California and he's in the school and they're telling
him to wake up and lift weights and run and
he's like, no, I'll get you had the occasion, I'll
(18:28):
play basketball. But that's it. Okay. Now that's as a teenager.
He feels alone in the country. He's got like the accent,
and then ultimately he the family he's staying with gets
him a video game console, which is great because he
can then communicate while playing video games with his friends.
And family back home. And I will applaud that that
is awesome, That is great, he needed that. That's tough.
(18:51):
I cannot imagine what it would be like leaving your
family to come to a country. Now, my dad did that,
my mom did that. They uh you know, left um
there their countries when they were young, came to America. Um,
it's got It's tough, obviously, So I get what DeAndre
went through. My thing is, he's now twenty three. What
(19:14):
is the work ethic like for DeAndre? And I think
that's a real question that not many people know. Okay,
you can ask the coaching staff. Maybe they'll say, are
they gonna throw the guy under the bush right now? No,
if he signed somewhere else or a sign and trade,
will they I guarantee you, And I'll tell you this,
my guest, right now, ain't no way. DeAndre Ayton is
(19:34):
playing another game for the Suns. And again this is
very early in the process. But I'll tell you right now,
if you are the Phoenix Suns and you consider yourself
a contender, two seasons in a row, they were one
of the best teams in the regular season, melted down
in the finals last year, melted down against the maps.
They're close. If you pay DeAndre Ayton, you're basically locked
(19:55):
into your roster. Can't do much. You already paid Chris
Paul Uh, you pay d book Bridges like That's about it.
You can't do not much flexibility if you're the Sons,
and remember their owner notoriously cheap. Also may have to
sell his team if if some of this stuff comes
out against him. Um that that's been out there. I mean,
(20:16):
obviously there's there's plenty out there against him, but I
don't see how you can take a guy number one overall,
have him in the building for what is his four
or five years now, and you gotta know what his
work ethics like. You have to the coaching staff, front office, teammates,
(20:39):
they've all got to know what this dude is like.
And now this part pretty tough rating. So remember he
had that good year and then he gets suspended for
I don't know, some kind of p E D drug policy,
some some diuretic, I don't whatever it was, but he
got suspended for twenty five games. DeAndre Ayton basically played
(21:05):
video games a lot, and I don't want to say
all the time, but you can read the story and
and he was people were talking trash to him in
the chat room. Oh, DeAndre at and suspended. He should
be working out. He's in here playing video games with us.
He said, people talk trash to him like that, and
he basically eton This is from the story again, this
is DeAndre kept pushing himself in playing condition, but spent
(21:28):
his time playing video games from four to five hours
a day. That was before the suspension too, around the clock.
So then COVID hits what do you think he did? What?
I'm gonna take a guess. DeAndre and was not grinding
during COVID. He was playing video games around the clock
until five am. Folks, this guy is going to go
(21:50):
to the Suns and demand that hundred seventy two million.
He's on record saying he's not taking a cent less.
His agents are saying the same thing. Okay, there's a
lot of worse things that guys can get into than
playing video games. But given what you know about this guy.
He vanishes in game seven at home, allegedly had a
tiff with the coach on the bench, said he wouldn't
go back in. Uh. Monty Williams has not talked about it.
(22:13):
I think Aton is going to be one of the
guys for sure on the move this offseason. Now, whether
it is a sign and trade, I floated Atlanta, UM
some of the other teams. I went through and and
jotted down some teams that might make sense. Um. You know,
I don't. I don't know why the Raptors would get
(22:37):
involved with the lumbering center. But here's the reason. I
think a team like the Sons that's close doesn't overpay
for Aton. Look at the final four teams, guys, I'll
rattle off the centers. Bam At a Baio picking pop guy, Agile,
Twitchy can guard guards when he switched on to them,
(22:58):
Eton cannot um. The center for Boston is Robert Williams,
who is like Bamat to Bio Twitchy, more like a
wing than a true center. And then in the West
you've got Dwight Powell, who is exactly what that those
guys are, except he's even less of a shooter. And
then for the Warriors, you've got Draymond Green. Like there,
(23:22):
nobody has a seven footer that plays real minutes in
the playoffs. That's left in the playoffs. That's just the reality.
Nobody has a seven foot lumbering center in the playoffs.
It's a wing league. Switch on everything, make threes. That's
what the league is. Deep into the playoffs and you
want to win a lot of regular season games, great,
(23:42):
go ahead and get DeAndre and he will help you
a lot. He will give you twenty and ten, maybe
eighteen and twelve, whatever it is, and he will fill
up the statue. So if you are a team like
I don't know, Detroit, let me think about it. If
you're like the Detroit Pistons, you haven't been good in
forever and you need to get good. You have cap space.
(24:02):
Hell yeah, you'll take DeAndre Aden. Now you'll know you're
not winning no title, but you get to the playoffs.
I mean, if you're if you're okay see and you
haven't been good forever and there's no hope on the horizon,
of course, you take DeAndre and get to the playoffs,
and that's a win. That's a win getting to the playoffs.
If you're okay see, if you're Portland, did you want
(24:23):
to get back? Do you tinker with the idea of DeAndre?
I mean, I think Detroit really makes a lot of
sense because they're gonna have a super high pick, They've
got Kid Cunningham, you get three pieces in the East.
Forty five wins will get you in the playoffs. Hell,
forty two might get you in the playoffs. So yeah,
if I am one of those teams, I'm lower class,
(24:44):
I'm middle class, and I'm looking to get to the postseason.
Why the postseason? Well, extra exposure looks good for gms
and coaches. You keep your job if you get to
the playoffs. Usually, I mean you know, there's exceptions, and
more than anything, the owner sees revenue for those home
playoff games. Hell yeah. So if you're lower middle class,
if you're Indiana, you're desperate, desperate to get to the playoffs,
(25:07):
you take DeAndre in her heartbeat. Now, frankly, i'd rather
have Miles Turner, but that's another story. So if you're
a real contender, you don't want Deandred. But if you
are one of these low class, you know, not making
a lot of money. Sacramento Kings have made the playoffs,
and forever they bend over backwards for DeAndre, it will
not happen because they just traded versa bonus. But you
(25:28):
understand the point. Those are the teams that would target
a guy like eighton and pay him twenty milk because
guess what, You're not getting three ages anyway. Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
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(25:52):
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What's good? This is national champion and former pro bowler Christiannas.
Let me take you a little bit about my new
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(26:33):
I'm sorry, no disrespect to Detroit, but you're not getting
it in there. You know, ain't nobody going to Orlando.
None of the free agent scars are going there now.
Orlando has a couple of big men. I don't think
they'd be that interested. But what about the New York Knicks.
Straight up, if the New York Knicks come away from
this offseason with DeAndre Aden and Jalen Brunson, that's a
(26:55):
home run. They're probably going for thirty seven wins to
forty five with those two. I don't know, We'll see
what happens with Randall, but all you need is to
get to the playoffs. It's just such a massive boost
for the franchise. And that's why I think Aton could
be on the move because Phoenix has enough parts. Where
they lose Aton, They've still got John Collins, I still
(27:17):
got a lot. Let's just say John Collins was their
new center. You're not losing that much. I mean, Aten
is no great room protector. NBA is getting weird because
what works in the regular season does not translate to
the playoffs. I mean, I think I said it yesterday.
This is the first time that in the Western Conference
(27:39):
in like a decade that the number one and number
two seeds are both balanced before the finals. Sons and
Grizzlies both done both great great regular season teams. Phoenix
Aton did not work in the playoffs. Now, Memphis, you
could use the excuse the jaw injury because they were
kind of close with the Warriors. Um, but even in East,
(28:00):
UM three Bucks, injury to Middleton, four sixers, you can
blame it on injury to EMBID. But you know, back
to the West, you look at Yokich, Tell where are
the bigs? Rudy Gobert, total non factor, Yokich, really good player,
good stats. Did they did they win one game? I
think they might have want one to get. Yeah, they
wouldn't want to get the Warriors. But where are the centers?
(28:22):
They're all at home? And I think that's the overriding
theme for me of these final four teams. All right,
let's get to what I think should be a good
game tonight, Boston and Miami. I'm not gonna do anything
on the draft lottery. Um, we'll do it after obviously
that that's exciting. I'll be doing a mock draft for
(28:43):
Fox Sports. Um. They are fun, they're exciting. But for
this Celtics heat game. By the way, Celtics favorite in
the series, Heat favorite in game one. I think out
of principle, you kind of have to play Miami in
game one. The line was two and a half. It's
come down to two. I'm seeing one and a half
in some places. I have to take Miami at home
in Game one. Um, same theory that Boston in Game
(29:06):
one against the Bucks. Um, exhausting exciting series. You take
down Kevin Duran and the Nets. You show up in
Game one and you lay a major egg against the
Honest I think the same will be true. Exhausting, exciting
series against the Bucks. And the Celtics come out, um
(29:26):
with only one day off, and I think they I
don't know if they lay an egg, but I think
Miami's defense will surprise him, and I think the heat
get him. I will I will be betting the heat tonight.
I haven't totally looked into player props yet. Um, I'm
very Game one almost is like a feel out. You
know how in the first quarter of the Super Bowl,
it's like always low scoring because you're just trying to
(29:48):
get a feel for what the heck is going on. Well,
I don't really know what Miami's gonna do offensively. I'm
curious again. I did that gambling show with Cowherd on Monday,
and he'd just doesn't think Miami's gonna have in any
offense and you know he's got some points. It's like,
I mean, really, Victor Oladipo gonna give you twenty? We
know Butler is good for points after that, Like what's
(30:11):
up with Lowry is Duncan Robins are gonna play Tyler hero?
Is he gonna give you twenty? Bama to Bio, I mean, honestly,
they leaned heavily on Max Strusce. I mean, I think
he was my waiter three weeks ago, and now he's
in the NBA Playoffs on a starring role. Max Struce,
Gabe Vincent, Miami at home. Boston will not have home
court advantage for the first time in the playoffs. Miami
(30:35):
did get him in the bubble a couple of years ago.
I just think the Bam Butler defense um is gonna
be is very, very difficult. Now, if you guys think
Grant Williams is gonna put up another I don't know,
twenty seven points and have the greatest game of his
life on the heels of the greatest game of his career,
go for it. But I can see Boston struggling to
just figure some things out in this in this first meeting,
(30:58):
So I will be betting the Heat tonight, I would
look at the under as well. I mean, maybe Miami
shooting carries over. I don't know, but I just right now,
everybody's picking the Celtics to win this series. I think
everybody's kind of picking the Celtics to win the finals
at this juncture. Like, you know, Warriors look susceptible. Mavericks
are kind of the only team really with with just
(31:22):
a one guy show, you know, like Curry has Clay
into a lesser extent, Jordan Pool, Tatum has to a
lesser extent. Tatum, I'm Tatum has I'm sorry Brown, and
then Jimmy Butler has like Bam and Hero. But really
it's Luca. I mean again didn' wood. He was a
zero until the final two games. Brunson has been touching go.
(31:42):
So I'm very excited um for the for the final four.
Kyle Lowry out tonight, that means more. Gabe Vincent, I
do like the ability for Miami to throw p J. Tucker,
Jimmy Butler and Bambata Bio Bambata at Boston on the switches,
(32:02):
and I think that's going to give Boston problems. Give
me the heat tonight should be a good one. We'll
talk to you tomorrow.
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. What's up, straight
Fire fan, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight Fire for Tuesday,
May and the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals are tonight. I'll
do some gambling on Celtics in Miami. A little later on,
(00:29):
by the way, shout out on a gambling note to
the dude who outside Starbucks Monday. I go to Starbucks
before I had to head to Fox to do a
gambling show with Cowherd on the NBA Playoffs. And I
get out of my car and I go to put
a quarter in the meter and this dude was like
with his wife kind of nearby, and he goes Jason
(00:50):
McIntyre and I look over. It's this older guy, probably,
and I look up and I kind of smile. You know,
you're caught off car. You don't. You're not used to
hearing your name out loud in public from random people
on a sidewalk as you're going to get coffee. And
he goes, I like your podcast, You've won me some money.
And I and he kind of laughed with his wife
(01:11):
and I was like, all right, I'll take it. Hey,
thanks man. Pretty good, pretty good notes. So shout out
to you, faithful listener. Um. A couple of notes before
we get to the NBA though, I heard from some
of you that I was too harsh on Chris Paul,
crushing him for his listless no show in game seven. Folks,
it was not a no show in game seven. It
was no show in game three, four or five, six,
(01:32):
add seven. This is five straight games. Oh, I keep
hearing Chris Paul one of the greatest point guards ever.
Oh my gosh, he's amazing. Yeah, he's a great player.
He's been to the finals once. I just want to
remind you, guys, Steph Curry went to the NBA finals
five years in a row. Chris Paul's got there once.
With a rich history of failures in the playoffs. And
(01:53):
I'm listen, this is not being me being overly critical.
You know. I've been openly I don't particularly like Chris Paul.
But I'm not just crushing the guy to crush him.
He has been a colossal playoff failure. Not quite on
the level of James Harden, but he's within shouting distance
of Harden's failures. This is what happens to these guys
in the playoffs and listen, the spotlight is bright for
(02:14):
a lot of folks. I ain't gonna lie to you
guys known on a much much, much, much much more
granular level. I've entered two tennis tournaments in the last
I don't know, three years or whatever, and I got
to the semifinals both time and lost. Now, the first
time I got to the semis, I got absolutely smoked
by the guy who wanted. The second time, I led
for one in the first set, and I was feeling
(02:34):
myself thinking about the championship, and I totally imploded, and
I'm I was so mortified. A. I never checked to
see who won the championship. I was that angry. B
I have not played tennis once since I lost that match.
I was so ticked off. It ate at me for
a while. It was just it was just weak. I
was just mentally weak. I got crushed after leading. At
(02:56):
any rate, I will be picking up tennis shortly, as
the shoulders seems to be re funding nicely from the
soccer injury suffered a couple of weeks ago. Um, so
I won't have as much time to prep for the
tennis tournament this summer. But I guarantee you I will play.
I don't know how I'll do since I haven't played
in goodness gracious eight months. I was so angry about it.
All right, quickly onto some sports, actual sports stuff, not
(03:18):
Jason McIntire sports. Um, just two things that I saw
in the NFL that were of note. Number One, I
saw Gyr Alexander of the Packers got the biggest deal
ever for a cornerback in NFL history. That's awesome. This
is the only thing that I found interesting. So I
see the deal was reported, of course by schefter Rappaport
(03:40):
whoever it was, and they mentioned when they broke the
news who brokered the deal, and it was a guy
by the name of John Thornton from Rock Nation, that's
the jay Z company. And I was like, John Thornton,
Holy cow, I think I know that guy. And I
went on my phone and I punched in his his
spelled up his name, and I had his number, and
I was like, holy cow, this is the same guy.
(04:01):
And of course I look at our text message. The
last time I texted him was tw so fun fun backstory.
So this guy just negotiated Jayar Alexander's huge deal. I
used to go to the NFL Combined back when I
wrote for The Big Lead, and I went I think twice,
maybe three times, and there was this bar there where
everybody would go, agents, coaches. It was a media obviously.
(04:24):
It was like the hangout bar after every single night
of the combine. It was a scene, right, you know,
this isn't quite what happens in Vegas days in Vegas.
And there were a couple of female reporters who really
went after it hard, and you know, guys obviously said
stuff about them. I'm not getting into that stuff. What
I will talk about is I'm going around and introducing myself.
(04:46):
I'm a young guy. I'm at a website, you know,
I'm like whatever, and I'm fearless. And I come up
on a guy or I was introduced to him, I think,
and I'm like, oh yeah, he uh he's with a
bunch of Jets and I was like, oh yeah, I'm
a you Jets fan. He goes, I know who you are, Okay,
all right, and he goes, I've seen you bashing Geno
(05:08):
Smith for two years. That's my that's my client. And
I was like, oh okay, and you know, we started
discussing it. Obviously, Listen, he was not coming after me,
after me, but he was aware that I had been
blasting Geno Smith. That's in Geno Smith was with the Jets,
and you know, he kind of struggled a little bit.
And listen, I'm not gonna lie to you guys. The
(05:31):
stuff I say on the podcast, I would say on
TV in public um to an agent, to a player,
and obviously I've got to be ready for what they
say back, which is can be harsh and critical. And
that's fine. I get that. That's that's part of the game.
And you know, I said to them, well, listen, you
know I'm keeping it. You're real with you here, John.
(05:52):
You know Geno Smith he's not long for the NFL.
He's not a starter. I'll tell you that. And he
would argue, no, no, Gino, blah blah blah. He's got
this that the coaching staff stays blow whatever it was.
And I looked back at our test text messages and
I thought Gino Smith would be done in the NFL
in a few years. Here we are two Gino. Now, listen,
he ain't a starter. We all know that he's a backup.
(06:15):
Maybe he's a second or third string, and he's gonna
have a shot to beat out Drew Lock in Seattle.
So I text Thornton on Tuesday night, Hey, you know what,
I gotta give you props. You were right about your guy,
Gino Smith. I was wrong. Now I'm conceding, But if
it was that, if you tried to take a victory lap,
I'd be like, Listen, Gino has got like a few
more starts than I do in the NFL since we
(06:37):
last spoke. But I was happy for the guy, and
he has a couple of other clients. I will not
mention the other stuff we said in the text messages
because I'm always fishing for any kind of edge I
can get on the NFL and gambling and um, let's
just say he has a couple of clients for a
couple of teams that I'm targeting this season to be
backing at what I think will be a miss price
(06:59):
market value. I think they're on the up and up.
Um at any rate. That's a fun story on Alexander
and the Packers and the other NFL note Antonio Brown,
it's so weird. This guy was last seen disrobing his
jersey and his pads on the sideline. I think in
the third quarter against my Jets at the meadow and
(07:22):
not the meadow Lands when it MetLife, Tampa Bay was
that MetLife and Antonio Brown basically just takes off all
his gear and runs off the field, literally runs off
the field, runs to the locker room, gets in an
uber like that was. It hasn't been seen since he
(07:43):
blamed the coaching staff. They were benching him. He wasn't
going to hit his his numbers to get his bonuses. Whatever.
It was ugly. Antonio Brown's done in the NFL, that's obvious.
But have you noticed since he's officially basically been banished,
nobody wants to bring him in. He's too much of
a problem out. Have you noticed how hard he's trying
(08:04):
to keep his name in the news. He knows that
he's near the end of his career. He's sensing, damn,
it's pretty much over for me. But I've been used
to being in the news because I was a star receiver,
catching touchdowns and dominating and you know my highlights. Everybody
knew me anywhere I went. And now I'm just a
(08:25):
guy who sits in like the front row of NBA
games and occasionally pops off on a seventh tier podcast.
Antonio Brown has been desperately trying to keep his name
in the news. Let's I looked up a few of them.
One of them was he made it like a thing.
He wanted to hang out with Lamar Jackson on Super
(08:46):
Bowl Sunday. Hint, hint. The Ravens are the rivals of
his old team, the Steelers. Let me see if I
can get in with the Ravens and get back at
the Steelers to screw me over Mike Tomlin. Right, so,
he's been pumping up Lamar Jackson online hanging out with him,
said he would love to catch passes from Lamar Jackson. Okay, next,
obviously that got a ton of pickup. Former NFL receiver arrivals, Bob,
(09:07):
It's a perfect store. Next thing, you know, he comes and,
just for no reason whatsoever, just unloads on Colin Kaepernick,
a guy who has not thrown a pass in the
NFL in like six years. Who cares? But that's how
desperate Antonio Brown is. He knows if I just put
him on blast, people are gonna pick it up, and
it's gonna be aggregated everywhere social media. People are gonna
be in my mentions like these guys are addicted to
(09:30):
this stuff. So here we are this week. Antonio Brown.
I want to retire a Steeler Now. I don't want
to play for the Steelers. They just want to retire
in Pittsburgh. Bro, nobody cares. Do you think anyone cares?
What Antonio Brown? This is the height of irrelevance. And
I do worry for him just a little bit because
(09:51):
he's got a chief, very checkered history with the law.
We know off the field, he's had a lot of problems,
and I hope this doesn't spiral into something worse than
an Tonio Brown's on TMZ for the next like, you know,
ten years or worse. I just it's sad to see
a guy like this who was ridiculously talented, a career underdog.
I think he was a sixth round pick, a converted
(10:13):
quarterback in high school, could not get into college academically,
ends up at Central Michigan, turns into this pretty darn good,
you know, Swiss army knife guy, and the Steelers decide
we could put this guy in the slot and he
can eat. And he was one of the best receivers
in the league for a good I don't know, five
six years he was electric and now he's a side show.
(10:36):
He's a cartoon act. It's an embarrassment, and you know,
you'd hope that this guy would have some people in
his corner to talk him off a ledge, but it's
it's getting ugly for Antonio Brown. Fox Sports Radio has
the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and
within the I Heart Radio app search f s R
(10:56):
to listen live. One quick note before we get to
uh tonight's game. I need to talk about DeAndre Ayton.
And I was unaware of this until I guess something
I said in the pod triggered something and a buddy
texted me about DeAndre And have you seen this story?
(11:17):
And Destroyer is headlined, and unbelievably it's from five days ago.
Why Phoenix sun Star DeAndre Ayton can't live without video games?
That's the headline. I can't believe he did this. He
did this story in the middle of the playoffs. Okay,
(11:39):
so essentially he invites his writer over and this writer
talks to eton years old who is a serious gamer.
Now I need to take a quick time out because
I I like video games. I know everybody likes video games.
We everybody has played video games, that's one time or
the other. I, as you guys know, and I like
to talk about it at a guest on the pod
(12:00):
last week. Who is you know, the primary owner for Nickoxa,
the Mexican soccer team I brought into Once we bought
that game, I went out and got the game FIFA
and I said, you know, let me get an understanding
of the league, the players, how the loan stuff works, um,
all that fun, exciting stuff. So I started a career
(12:22):
with my team, Nakoxa. It went well. Eventually I started
screwing up contracts because I didn't do the right number
on release clauses. You guys don't care. I got fired
from Nikaxa, and I put the game down. So then
of course the season started up again and I picked
it up and I started another season with another team
in the league. So I can get an idea and
again like, this is a big investment, uh, not the
(12:45):
video games, but the soccer team. So I want to
know what's going on in the league. And it helped me.
So then football season comes around, I have to put
down the video game. I don't play at all. During
football season. It's just it was it's unhealthy. Football season,
super busy. I'm gambling fantasy football. Fox work is is
super busy the podcast obviously, so I don't do any
video games during the season. Recently, Nickox got hot. I
(13:08):
picked up the game again. I've got this franchise. I'm
dominating obviously. I'm up to the um. You know, I
won the title the World Class twice. I'm on legendary
now and I've got this great team. I've recruited some
US national players over to Nickox at Tyler Adams, hay
SU's Ferreira, who by the way, leads the MLSON scoring.
Bottom line is I'm getting my fix of soccer frequently.
(13:33):
And I mean, like I didn't play this weekend, but I,
you know, came home from work on a Monday from
Fox and I fired up the game. Played a couple
of games, you know, I played like the six minute games,
which are pretty quick. Um the half last you know,
in real time, I don't know, maybe six and a half, sorry,
six minut half, so it's like six minutes halftime, six
(13:55):
minutes to a mint of games. They go quick, and
then once you get a good team, you could just
simul A. Bottom line is video games are cool. I
totally understand that they're a great outlet. It's mindless, it's
a great time waste. Uh. You know, obviously I like
to work out. I'll play basketball, um, soccer, um. I
subscribe to a magazine. I've got some books that I'm
(14:16):
backed up on reading. I should read instead of play
video games. Obviously, but video games are a great chill
out thing. I want to preface that before I talk
talk about DeAndre Ayton, the NBA center who kind of
a big deal here, is demanding a max contract. Last summer,
he said from the Suns. You know, he was eligible
(14:37):
for his extension. He said, I wanted five years, hundred
seventy two mill that's it. I'm not taking a cent
less Okay, no agreement. There's chatter out there, eighton. But
we like him, we don't love him. We're not giving
the guy. Quickly do the math. Hundred seventy two million
divided by five. I'll call up the old calculator, divided
(15:01):
by five thirty four million dollars a year, guys, twenty
three years old. Okay, that's what he wanted last summer.
He didn't get it. Let's fast forward to now. Just
remember I just talked about I'm into video games. My
son had a season in two k I'm cool. I
understand video games a great, great outlet. Okay, this guy's
an NBA basketball player. He considers himself a serious gamer. Okay,
(15:28):
DeAndre Ayton. According to him, this is not like alleged
or anything like that. He typically wakes up, according to story,
around six am, after only getting two hours of sleep
because he's up all night gaming. Then there's time for
a quick round of gaming after eating breakfast. Then he's
(15:51):
off to practice. Then it's back home to finish trash
talking and practicing, moves on the virtual basketball court on
game days eight and is focused, but that schedule will
still include time for video games. It's so hard for
me to sleep after long games, especially big long games.
At And says, I don't know why, but I occupied
(16:12):
my time with the game. Now this part next, I understand.
I connect with some of my people from the UK, Jamaica, Bahamas, etcetera.
Whoever we just beat up on, we talked about it
and laugh. I ain't go to bed until four or
five am. There's an NBA basketball player video games every night.
Now you're wondering, what the hell, what is what is
(16:34):
this guy doing? Am I giving thirty four billion dollars
to an NBA center who plays video games every night
for until four or five am. Now you could say, hey,
j it's better than he's out in the clubs. Well yeah, um.
You also wonder, like, what's the work ethic, like if
it's video games over? I don't know, putting in Kobe
(16:58):
Bryant like ours in the gym, or Janice or Steph Curry?
How bad? How great does he want to be? I
don't know. Now the story goes on again. This is
a story you can find on ESPN. I'll give you
the title again, why Phoenix Suns star DeAndre Ayton can't
live without video games? I assume it's a free article.
This part, you know, is a little tough, and I
understand where he's coming from. So Aton, of course, was
(17:20):
in the Bahamas as a kid. He wasn't playing basketball,
And next thing you know, he's eleven years old and
he goes to a basketball camp. Within two days, the
scouts were like, yo, hey, co, come to America, come
play for our school. Right And eventually he accepts DeAndre
aten a move to the United States to pursue basketball.
(17:42):
He goes to some school in California, but he didn't
fully understand how much work the program would be. He thought,
I'm just getting a free education at a private school. Okay,
this is a DeAndre Ayton quote, and again this goes
into the full body of work on this potential franchise
center who wants a seventy two million dollars. The program
(18:05):
consisted of school. But I wasn't waking up at five
five am to go lift no weights or run a track.
We ain't sign up for that. We heard free education.
We ain't here labor. I'm like, hold on, what is this?
So he leaves his home country, his family, everybody goes
to California and he's in the school and they're telling
him to wake up and lift weights and run and
he's like, no, I'll get you had the occasion, I'll
(18:28):
play basketball. But that's it. Okay. Now that's as a teenager.
He feels alone in the country. He's got like the accent,
and then ultimately he the family he's staying with gets
him a video game console, which is great because he
can then communicate while playing video games with his friends.
And family back home. And I will applaud that that
is awesome, That is great, he needed that. That's tough.
(18:51):
I cannot imagine what it would be like leaving your
family to come to a country. Now, my dad did that,
my mom did that. They uh you know, left um
there their countries when they were young, came to America. Um,
it's got It's tough, obviously, So I get what DeAndre
went through. My thing is, he's now twenty three. What
(19:14):
is the work ethic like for DeAndre? And I think
that's a real question that not many people know. Okay,
you can ask the coaching staff. Maybe they'll say, are
they gonna throw the guy under the bush right now? No,
if he signed somewhere else or a sign and trade,
will they I guarantee you, And I'll tell you this,
my guest, right now, ain't no way. DeAndre Ayton is
(19:34):
playing another game for the Suns. And again this is
very early in the process. But I'll tell you right now,
if you are the Phoenix Suns and you consider yourself
a contender, two seasons in a row, they were one
of the best teams in the regular season, melted down
in the finals last year, melted down against the maps.
They're close. If you pay DeAndre Ayton, you're basically locked
(19:55):
into your roster. Can't do much. You already paid Chris
Paul Uh, you pay d book Bridges like That's about it.
You can't do not much flexibility if you're the Sons,
and remember their owner notoriously cheap. Also may have to
sell his team if if some of this stuff comes
out against him. Um that that's been out there. I mean,
(20:16):
obviously there's there's plenty out there against him, but I
don't see how you can take a guy number one overall,
have him in the building for what is his four
or five years now, and you gotta know what his
work ethics like. You have to the coaching staff, front office, teammates,
(20:39):
they've all got to know what this dude is like.
And now this part pretty tough rating. So remember he
had that good year and then he gets suspended for
I don't know, some kind of p E D drug policy,
some some diuretic, I don't whatever it was, but he
got suspended for twenty five games. DeAndre Ayton basically played
(21:05):
video games a lot, and I don't want to say
all the time, but you can read the story and
and he was people were talking trash to him in
the chat room. Oh, DeAndre at and suspended. He should
be working out. He's in here playing video games with us.
He said, people talk trash to him like that, and
he basically eton This is from the story again, this
is DeAndre kept pushing himself in playing condition, but spent
(21:28):
his time playing video games from four to five hours
a day. That was before the suspension too, around the clock.
So then COVID hits what do you think he did? What?
I'm gonna take a guess. DeAndre and was not grinding
during COVID. He was playing video games around the clock
until five am. Folks, this guy is going to go
(21:50):
to the Suns and demand that hundred seventy two million.
He's on record saying he's not taking a cent less.
His agents are saying the same thing. Okay, there's a
lot of worse things that guys can get into than
playing video games. But given what you know about this guy.
He vanishes in game seven at home, allegedly had a
tiff with the coach on the bench, said he wouldn't
go back in. Uh. Monty Williams has not talked about it.
(22:13):
I think Aton is going to be one of the
guys for sure on the move this offseason. Now, whether
it is a sign and trade, I floated Atlanta, UM
some of the other teams. I went through and and
jotted down some teams that might make sense. Um. You know,
I don't. I don't know why the Raptors would get
(22:37):
involved with the lumbering center. But here's the reason. I
think a team like the Sons that's close doesn't overpay
for Aton. Look at the final four teams, guys, I'll
rattle off the centers. Bam At a Baio picking pop guy, Agile,
Twitchy can guard guards when he switched on to them,
(22:58):
Eton cannot um. The center for Boston is Robert Williams,
who is like Bamat to Bio Twitchy, more like a
wing than a true center. And then in the West
you've got Dwight Powell, who is exactly what that those
guys are, except he's even less of a shooter. And
then for the Warriors, you've got Draymond Green. Like there,
(23:22):
nobody has a seven footer that plays real minutes in
the playoffs. That's left in the playoffs. That's just the reality.
Nobody has a seven foot lumbering center in the playoffs.
It's a wing league. Switch on everything, make threes. That's
what the league is. Deep into the playoffs and you
want to win a lot of regular season games, great,
(23:42):
go ahead and get DeAndre and he will help you
a lot. He will give you twenty and ten, maybe
eighteen and twelve, whatever it is, and he will fill
up the statue. So if you are a team like
I don't know, Detroit, let me think about it. If
you're like the Detroit Pistons, you haven't been good in
forever and you need to get good. You have cap space.
(24:02):
Hell yeah, you'll take DeAndre Aden. Now you'll know you're
not winning no title, but you get to the playoffs.
I mean, if you're if you're okay see and you
haven't been good forever and there's no hope on the horizon,
of course, you take DeAndre and get to the playoffs,
and that's a win. That's a win getting to the playoffs.
If you're okay see, if you're Portland, did you want
(24:23):
to get back? Do you tinker with the idea of DeAndre?
I mean, I think Detroit really makes a lot of
sense because they're gonna have a super high pick, They've
got Kid Cunningham, you get three pieces in the East.
Forty five wins will get you in the playoffs. Hell,
forty two might get you in the playoffs. So yeah,
if I am one of those teams, I'm lower class,
(24:44):
I'm middle class, and I'm looking to get to the postseason.
Why the postseason? Well, extra exposure looks good for gms
and coaches. You keep your job if you get to
the playoffs. Usually, I mean you know, there's exceptions, and
more than anything, the owner sees revenue for those home
playoff games. Hell yeah. So if you're lower middle class,
if you're Indiana, you're desperate, desperate to get to the playoffs,
(25:07):
you take DeAndre in her heartbeat. Now, frankly, i'd rather
have Miles Turner, but that's another story. So if you're
a real contender, you don't want Deandred. But if you
are one of these low class, you know, not making
a lot of money. Sacramento Kings have made the playoffs,
and forever they bend over backwards for DeAndre, it will
not happen because they just traded versa bonus. But you
(25:28):
understand the point. Those are the teams that would target
a guy like eighton and pay him twenty milk because
guess what, You're not getting three ages anyway. Fox Sports
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(25:52):
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(26:12):
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(26:33):
I'm sorry, no disrespect to Detroit, but you're not getting
it in there. You know, ain't nobody going to Orlando.
None of the free agent scars are going there now.
Orlando has a couple of big men. I don't think
they'd be that interested. But what about the New York Knicks.
Straight up, if the New York Knicks come away from
this offseason with DeAndre Aden and Jalen Brunson, that's a
(26:55):
home run. They're probably going for thirty seven wins to
forty five with those two. I don't know, We'll see
what happens with Randall, but all you need is to
get to the playoffs. It's just such a massive boost
for the franchise. And that's why I think Aton could
be on the move because Phoenix has enough parts. Where
they lose Aton, They've still got John Collins, I still
(27:17):
got a lot. Let's just say John Collins was their
new center. You're not losing that much. I mean, Aten
is no great room protector. NBA is getting weird because
what works in the regular season does not translate to
the playoffs. I mean, I think I said it yesterday.
This is the first time that in the Western Conference
(27:39):
in like a decade that the number one and number
two seeds are both balanced before the finals. Sons and
Grizzlies both done both great great regular season teams. Phoenix
Aton did not work in the playoffs. Now, Memphis, you
could use the excuse the jaw injury because they were
kind of close with the Warriors. Um, but even in East,
(28:00):
UM three Bucks, injury to Middleton, four sixers, you can
blame it on injury to EMBID. But you know, back
to the West, you look at Yokich, Tell where are
the bigs? Rudy Gobert, total non factor, Yokich, really good player,
good stats. Did they did they win one game? I
think they might have want one to get. Yeah, they
wouldn't want to get the Warriors. But where are the centers?
(28:22):
They're all at home? And I think that's the overriding
theme for me of these final four teams. All right,
let's get to what I think should be a good
game tonight, Boston and Miami. I'm not gonna do anything
on the draft lottery. Um, we'll do it after obviously
that that's exciting. I'll be doing a mock draft for
(28:43):
Fox Sports. Um. They are fun, they're exciting. But for
this Celtics heat game. By the way, Celtics favorite in
the series, Heat favorite in game one. I think out
of principle, you kind of have to play Miami in
game one. The line was two and a half. It's
come down to two. I'm seeing one and a half
in some places. I have to take Miami at home
in Game one. Um, same theory that Boston in Game
(29:06):
one against the Bucks. Um, exhausting exciting series. You take
down Kevin Duran and the Nets. You show up in
Game one and you lay a major egg against the
Honest I think the same will be true. Exhausting, exciting
series against the Bucks. And the Celtics come out, um
(29:26):
with only one day off, and I think they I
don't know if they lay an egg, but I think
Miami's defense will surprise him, and I think the heat
get him. I will I will be betting the heat tonight.
I haven't totally looked into player props yet. Um, I'm
very Game one almost is like a feel out. You
know how in the first quarter of the Super Bowl,
it's like always low scoring because you're just trying to
(29:48):
get a feel for what the heck is going on. Well,
I don't really know what Miami's gonna do offensively. I'm
curious again. I did that gambling show with Cowherd on Monday,
and he'd just doesn't think Miami's gonna have in any
offense and you know he's got some points. It's like,
I mean, really, Victor Oladipo gonna give you twenty? We
know Butler is good for points after that, Like what's
(30:11):
up with Lowry is Duncan Robins are gonna play Tyler hero?
Is he gonna give you twenty? Bama to Bio, I mean, honestly,
they leaned heavily on Max Strusce. I mean, I think
he was my waiter three weeks ago, and now he's
in the NBA Playoffs on a starring role. Max Struce,
Gabe Vincent, Miami at home. Boston will not have home
court advantage for the first time in the playoffs. Miami
(30:35):
did get him in the bubble a couple of years ago.
I just think the Bam Butler defense um is gonna
be is very, very difficult. Now, if you guys think
Grant Williams is gonna put up another I don't know,
twenty seven points and have the greatest game of his
life on the heels of the greatest game of his career,
go for it. But I can see Boston struggling to
just figure some things out in this in this first meeting,
(30:58):
So I will be betting the Heat tonight, I would
look at the under as well. I mean, maybe Miami
shooting carries over. I don't know, but I just right now,
everybody's picking the Celtics to win this series. I think
everybody's kind of picking the Celtics to win the finals
at this juncture. Like, you know, Warriors look susceptible. Mavericks
are kind of the only team really with with just
(31:22):
a one guy show, you know, like Curry has Clay
into a lesser extent, Jordan Pool, Tatum has to a
lesser extent. Tatum, I'm Tatum has I'm sorry Brown, and
then Jimmy Butler has like Bam and Hero. But really
it's Luca. I mean again didn' wood. He was a
zero until the final two games. Brunson has been touching go.
(31:42):
So I'm very excited um for the for the final four.
Kyle Lowry out tonight, that means more. Gabe Vincent, I
do like the ability for Miami to throw p J. Tucker,
Jimmy Butler and Bambata Bio Bambata at Boston on the switches,
(32:02):
and I think that's going to give Boston problems. Give
me the heat tonight should be a good one. We'll
talk to you tomorrow.
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