May 1, 2025 • 42 mins
DP reacts to the Timberwolves knocking the Lakers out of the playoffs and considers the future of Luka Dončić and LeBron James in LA. Former NFL QB and current analyst Chris Simms weighs in on Cam Ward as the first overall pick and shares what's really happening in Cleveland's quarterback room. Lakers insider Dave McMenamin breaks down the Lakers' flat performance against the Timberwolves and shares why he believes LeBron's Laker tenure hasn't quite lived up to the hype despite winning a championship.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Timberwolf said, goodbye to the Lakers, the Rockets, roll the Warriors.
I walked in today. First person I see is Marvin,
and Marvin says the following, You're going to apologize I
said about what? You know what I said? No, you
know what you said? I go, wait, is this about
(00:28):
Rudy Gobert. Yes, you're called in the most overrated player
in the NBA. I'd like to take this moment. I'm
going to stare into the camera to Rudy Gobert. I
apologize for saying you're the most overrated player in the
NBA for one night.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
It's a temporary apology, very very temporary.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Rudy Gobert looked like a chem Elijahwan, he looked like Shack.
He looked like Tim Duncan. Rudy Gobert had twenty seven
points and twenty four rebounds. Excuse yes, I said the
same thing. He dominated twelve to fifteen from the floor.
He's the third player in the last fifty years to
(01:14):
have a twenty twenty in a playoff game while shooting
at least eighty percent from the floor. He was great.
The rest of the timber Wolves not so good, and
they still won. The Lakers shot better from two point
three point free throw line, and they ended up losing,
and you say goodbye to the Lakers what could have been?
(01:35):
But to Rudy Gobert, once again, congratulations on a wonderful
performance against a front line that I think I probably
could have gotten ten rebounds. But once again, I mean,
come on, Lakers had no big guy. Rudy Gobert should
have been dominating, just rebound wise, just rebounding, that's all.
(01:58):
He should have twenty rebound every game against the Lakers.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
He should have. But once again, to Rudy Gobert, congratulations
on a wonderful, wonderful performance. Did that seem sincere not
feeling the sincerity? You're not because he went out you
want to say it, well.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
For one night anywhere, you did that, and you're expected
to do that.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Anyway other than that, and you know fake sincerity. Okay, yes, Marvin.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
But Rudy's still one of the most overrated, not just
not the most overrated.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, okay, yeah, absolutely, absolutely congratulations the Timberwolves. They advance
as they dust off the Lakers for one, and as
we always do, We don't look at the team that's advancing.
We look at the team that's going off into the sunset.
The question is is Lebron going off into the sunset
as well? He was asked about his future after the loss.
(02:53):
Do you have that, Marvin?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I have?
Speaker 4 (02:57):
He talks about JJ reddicks season.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Oh, okay. I thought that he was asked about his
future there.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
I think JJ are going to continue to grow. I
thought he had a hell of a rookie campaign for
a rookie coach. That's already hard being a rookie coach
in NBA, and that's a hell of a lot harder
being a rookie head coach coaching the Lakers. That's a
whole another ball game. And I thought he handled it
extremely well. I thought he I just learned every single day.
(03:29):
He held us accountable, he pushed us. I thought JJ
and his coach Sta were great.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I thought that he had a really good regular season.
I don't think he did well in this series. I
think he was all in on the previous game and
he didn't sub out in the second half. I think
he thought, if we win this game, we can win
the series. If we don't win this game, we're not
going to win this series. That was just my feeling.
If you're watching it in real time and you're thinking, Okay,
(03:57):
they might win this game and then they didn't that
I wonder what the aftershocks would be, and we saw
that Minnesota didn't play well at all. It's just the
Lakers have no bench. Now you're really reliant on Luca
who was banged up under the weather, and you're relying
on Lebron James. And it's not fair to Lebron to say, hey,
(04:18):
you still have to be one of the ten best
players in the game. I think if he comes back,
I think you're going to have to look at how
do you monitor his minutes here? And it might be
one of those situations like the San Antonio Spurs.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Used to do.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
They didn't care about the regular season. This is about
the postseason. How many minutes you play and how fresh
are you going to be in the postseason. I think
Lebron his ego gets in the way. He wants to
prove that he can play every single night and he's
going to play as many minutes as possible.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
I admire that.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I want to see the stars play, but I also
have to factor in What is the ultimate goal, Not
to prove that you can play more games then guys
who were twenty years younger than you. It's to prove
how great you are when you get to the postseason,
because that's how he's measured. The regular season doesn't matter. Okay,
you get another All Star appearance, all right, you score
(05:13):
a couple thousand points, you add to your forty thousand
points or assist or whatever it might be. This is
about winning a championship. And I wonder how close he
thinks they really are. The West is young, okayse he's
not going anywhere. You're seeing a Houston Rockets team that's young.
Might get Kevin Durant, might be the missing piece for
(05:34):
them in the offseason, but they might beat the Golden
State Warriors. You saw last night. They weren't afraid and
they shut down Steph Curry. So you start to look
around and you go, Okay, where do we fit here?
And if I'm a Laker fan, I think we're kind
of a middle of the pack. I loved what they
were doing when they had an eight game winning streak.
(05:54):
They had a stretch there where they were playing great
defense and it felt like there was a collabor going on.
It wasn't just two players. There was a true collaboration.
But then as you get to the postseason, coaches really
start to limit the number of players who contribute. You
might go seven deep, maybe eight. But the Lakers, I
(06:19):
think JJ Reddick looked at that bench and he went,
I don't want to put those guys in. You know,
you don't have confidence in them. But if you put
him in, then they can gain confidence. So that's what
I didn't understand. But JJ Reddick he was testing. So pregame,
this is a pregame press conference, and he was asked
about what happened with the lack of substitutions previous game.
Speaker 6 (06:45):
What do you recall about your thought process in the
moment sticking with the five you stuck with in the
fourth quarter the other day? And is there an assistant
or someone maybe that you'll lean on tonight maybe to
try to get you know, some other guys involved, if
that opportunity present.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Where you saying that because I'm inexperienced and that was
an inexperienced decision that I made. Do you think I
don't talk to my assistance about substitutions every single time out?
Speaker 6 (07:12):
No, I just think there's a lot of coaches lean
on their assistance in those situations as.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Every single time. That's a weird assumption.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And then he walked out, So that's pregame tension running
a little high there. I think it's a fair question
to ask. I think you can ask it in a
better way. But I do think the topic is fair
because of what we just saw. Yeah, if it didn't
strike me as that unfair of a.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Question.
Speaker 7 (07:43):
Plus, I don't know why the reporter should assume the
other way either, the reporter should assume that he just
does everything that we think he does.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I mean, it doesn't seem like that crazy of a question. Yeah, PAULI,
I disagree just a hair.
Speaker 8 (07:56):
The phrasing of the question is fine, but it feels
like they're doing preview of the next game in this
press conference, not even the last night seem but the following.
That's that's what it's meant for for quotes for after.
And this is a three day old story, two day
old story, and Reddick is probably like, we're still talking
about this now. That said, he could have blown it
off with a pat answer easily.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, but you know that's just if you watch JJ,
when he was doing his TV work at the Mothership.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
He if he.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
If he got bored with you, or he was going
to dismiss you, he could get combative, like he didn't
suffer fools. He's like, oh God, this guy's going to
tell me about substituting. Okay, I got it.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Now.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
That makes you a great media guy, not necessarily a
great head coach. But the topic I thought was fair.
And we saw the bench scored four points. There weren't substitutions,
and I think you had a tired team. Now I
look at this a couple of different ways because you
(09:01):
have Lebron.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
How many more years?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
And Lebron said after he's not sure, he's not sure
what's going to happen here. It feels like there's one
more year there. I think I think you owe it
to the possibility of you and Luca having an entire offseason,
training camp, an entire regular season together. JJ Reddick's second year,
(09:24):
Austin Reeves is a you know, a really good player,
but you start to look at the other players on
the roster and you're going, are you going to develop them?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Can you get somebody in there? I think it's difficult.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
You know Lebron's going to make sixty million dollars and
probably sixty million dollars attached to that because he's still
playing basketball with endorsements. If you're Luca, do you want
to be the centerpiece? Are you going to be the
guy when Lebron leaves in a year? Are you ready
for that? Here's Luca after the game last night.
Speaker 9 (10:05):
I mean, it's been great, honestly. You know, the way
the fans accept to me, you know, he's been amazing.
The way the community takes up to him has been amazing.
So I'm really could have glad that I'm here. I
had a great couple of months, you know, trying to
learn about every team. I'm about the city, about the team,
(10:26):
so just trying to process everything.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
All right, So he's got one more year on his deal,
then does he want to be there? He's going to
get paid, He'll be the centerpiece there. And then you
start to look at that trade. Who won in that trade?
I Dallas, God, Anthony Davis, Lakers got Luca. Both are
out moving forward and this I think I would have
(10:54):
a better answer in a year if you if you
said after next year, I think then I'm going to great,
great the trade. That's not fair because we want to
great a trade right away. But if I said to you,
you could have had Luca or you could have Yanis
if you're the Lakers.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
So if you.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Knew that the Mavericks were going to move on from
Luca right because defense wins championships, they weren't going to
pay him this money. Let's say he was going to
be available in the off season. Let's say you had
Yannis available in the off season. What would you do
if you're the Lakers. Because it's not a real scenario,
(11:33):
it's hypothetical, But if you look at how this was
going to play out, then maybe that would have been
the scenario where Luca would have been available. And he's
four years younger than Yannis. But this is one of
those did they make the right deal for the right
player at the right time, And I think they did
that because now all of a sudden, you got Lebron,
(11:53):
who's on the clock.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
How many more years does he have? We can get Luca.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
We might be able to steal a championship here, because
if you don't have Lebron, are the Lakers making that move?
And the answer is probably yes, because he's one of
the top five, top ten players in the game. But
you're making that move with Lebron to win a championship,
Whereas if you didn't have Lebron, you would make that
(12:19):
move just for the future. So this would be an
experimental year. But this was about winning a championship and
you failed miserably. Now you're a three seed, so you
can't say, well, the expectations are too high. You're a
three seed and you have maybe the best duo in basketball,
and yes, you do have a rookie coach. But I
(12:40):
think JJ Reddick did a really good job during the
regular season the postseason. I think he'll look back on
that and you get together with your staff and you say,
what could we have done better? Who could we have
played a little bit more. You're seeing this with the Knicks.
I mean Tom Thibodeaux. He does this all the time
(13:00):
that he plays his players. He doesn't have a deep
rotation there. But you can only do that for so
long and then these players get worn down. That's why
the Spurs were always fresh in the postseason because Greg
Popovich he prioritized that. He was like, I don't care
if we're the first or second or third seed. I
(13:20):
don't care. I want my guys ready to go in
the postseason. And they were uh seton what's pole question
we're going to have. By the way, Lebron said, I
don't have an answer to the question about what comes next.
I'll sit down with my wife and family support group,
have a conversation with myself on how long I want
to continue to play. We'll see in the moment I
(13:44):
get the answer. I think he's going to be back
and play again. He's also got his son there. There's
a lot of money there. You're playing with the Lakers
and you get a chance to spend more time with
Luca and develop that.
Speaker 7 (13:58):
Yes seton it is crazy that that theoretically could have
been the last time we saw him play, and it
doesn't feel like that at all.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
You're right, it could be. But I think he's gonna
play one more year. I think he knows he's done,
gonna win another championship. This might just be patting your stats.
You know, get to play with Luca, get to play
with your son, but you know, currently constructed, they're not
(14:27):
better than you know, these other younger teams.
Speaker 8 (14:31):
Yeah, Pauline, it's interesting when Seaton brought up before the show.
No one's discussing even the possibility that Lebron can retire.
I think everyone thinks he would do the tour, but
there's any chance, he says to himself. I got my
son in the league. I got him on the roster.
I played basketball games with him. That was the icing
on the cake. It's hard to pick her.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
He's measured differently than anybody else in the history of
the game. So it's side goes, Hey, I got my
son in and hey, you know we made the play.
I am playing with Luke. It's it's all about you know.
Now you've got Steph Curry, who's kind of on his level.
You know, people now want to bring who's better, who's
had a better career, Stephan Lebron, like Lebron by far,
(15:13):
Like what are we doing here? Steph's a wonderful player,
but you know, now he's encroaching on Lebron because his
team's still alive in Lebron's isn't.
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Speaker 4 (16:29):
That's Covino and.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Rich bringing Chris Sims, Pro Football Talk Live co host
you'll find him on Football Night in American of course,
former NFL quarterback. How would your dad have reacted if
you did something like that with information and prank somebody
when you were a youngster.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Well, he would have gone crazy. I mean, I don't know.
He probably wouldn't have talked to me for a month.
I'd have been grounded. Right, anything I wanted, right, I
want a new pair of sneakers, Dad, I want to
go here. That he'd be like, no, no, sorry, Now
you can sit in your room and think about what
you're doing right or what you did. So it would
be uh, hey, it was a big time mistake. There's
no doubt about that, right the Jacks oldbrick kid. Yeah,
(17:11):
he got caught up and being young and friends thinking
it might be funny and lost like his you know,
humanity and like what I just heard you say, Hey,
I know other guys got prank, but Shador Sanders is
Shador Sanders. Yes, and he was sliding and it was
the biggest story in American sports. So it did seem
like piling on and agreed with what everything you said there.
(17:33):
Off of that, the NFL's at fault here too, Dan.
That's the other part of this right now. I'm you're
totally right. The GM, the head coach, the owner, that's all.
That's all that needs the information. Right we don't ever
see a defensive coordinator get on the phone when it's
a quarterback being picked or any of that. But also
within this and maybe why they didn't come down as
(17:55):
hard as people might have liked. All that is, the
NFL said a mass email that is on the waiver
wire to people, to everybody, the it guys, the equipment guys,
all of it. So there was way too many people
that had that number to begin with, and they got
to fix some of the things on their end as well.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Let's revisit the draft because I don't know how good
cam Ward is, but I do know that the draft
coverage quickly went from hey, how about a round of
applause camboard number one. Now let's talk about Travis Hunter.
I always trust your judgment, you and Orlovsky when it
comes to assessing quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
I take note and your.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Track record shows you know, you know when a quarterback
is up too high or maybe one's too low. Cam
Ward at number one, is he number one? Because there's
no other quarterbacks who were worthy of that status.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Or is he truly a number one overall pick?
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Truly a number one overall pick? Okay, you know, along
the lines of what you're saying, it's the most like
least talked about, under the radar number one pick I
think in the history of football. One because like we
kind of felt like, hey, they were gonna take them
five or six weeks ago. You never really heard any
legitimate trade chatter. They didn't get involved in veteran free agency,
(19:17):
so all signs pointed towards that. And then of course,
like you're talking about Shador, Travis Hunter, Abdul Carter, a
little injury, all that thing, all those things kind of
took center stage. But cam Ward is special. He is
that his arm is gifted. Dan, you know that. I
love talent, and again I'm into that. Yeah, the greatest
(19:37):
quarterbacks of all time had some supreme elite talent. That's
why they were the greatest of all time. Right, Joe
Montana might be the one out of the top ten
top fifteen quarterbacks of all time where you'd go, he
might not have an elite physical trade, but he had
a lot of good traits, and he had some other
intangibles that brought him over the top. Cam Ward rocket
arm right, can throw it anyway you want, side, arm,
(19:59):
over the top, whatever, phenomenal in the pocket, seize the
field well, can make plays outside of the pocket. Throws
the ball on the run as good as you're gonna find.
So to answer that question, and let's go back to
last year's draft, cam Ward would have been in the mix.
For my money up there. I still probably would have
had Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels number two. But I
(20:20):
think if I was fair to where I was at
last year in my evaluation, I think cam Ward would
have been my third quarterback in that class last year.
So that's what I think of him. He's legit, is
what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Who is the second best quarterback in this draft?
Speaker 4 (20:33):
That's the great question, right. I'm not in love with
any of them. I'm on record on my podcast Pro
Football Talk going if I was a GM, I really
wouldn't want to stake my claim or name to any
of these guys for the future of my organization. I
like Jackson Dart He's good, but I don't I'm not
like wowed by it. Same with Tyler Schuck, same with
(20:54):
Shador Sanders. On the field, I still like Shador Sanders
more I do. I'm a fan of Shador and what
he does there. But I said from the start too,
I wouldn't want to take him in the top ten.
I really wouldn't want to take him in the top twenty,
and I was very aware that he might fall and
do that. But yeah, I don't love that group. To me, again,
(21:16):
they're maybe borderline starters. I think, in my heart of hearts,
I look at him to think maybe they're great backups
as we go on here through to the future, we'll
see where it goes. But yeah, cam Mood is the
only guy I really loved here.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
What are the Cleveland Browns doing?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
It's a great question. First off, what stinks is an
amazing draft. They have an amazing draft, but we can't
talk about it because we're just going to talk about
one guy, right And you know, Chador has of course
been the center of attention here where Cleveland messes up
a lot of times, and they do a lot of
good here too. But to me, they let analytics drive
(21:53):
their organization and their team more than any other organization
in football. And I've asked Andrew Berry that flat out
and he's told me, yeah, that's fair to say, Chris,
You're not off there on saying that. And what to
me where they mess up sometimes is the human aspect.
When you follow numbers and formulas all the time, you
knew lose the fact of wait, hey, the numbers, the value,
(22:15):
that's all great, but what is it going to do
to the value of our team when every day everybody
in the locker room's gonna go, howd the quarterbacks do?
What happened? How did shadur do? How did Dylan Gabriel do? Hey?
And then it's Mary cat, It's Mary Kay Cabot and
every person in the Cleveland media, Hey, well the quarterback quarterback? Hey,
Miles Garrett. The hell with the rest of the team.
How did the quarterbacks then go? Today? Then it's going
to overtake their organization And this is what they've fallen
(22:37):
in that trap with Deshaun Watson lost a human aspect.
They kind of fell in that trap with Johnny Manzel,
and that to me is one of the issues. At
least I see here from the outside looking in.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I you're not winning now, I wouldn't have re signed
Miles Garrett. I think they truly tried to see if
they could trade him, but you got the Deshaun Watson
situation not going away. Travis Hunter would have been a hey,
there's the future. We have something that nobody else has
and we can we can show him off on both
(23:09):
sides of the ball. I would have gone after Shad
or Sanders in the third round instead of Dylan Gabriel.
I think, I mean, I just thought, why not try
this because you've tried other things and it hasn't worked out.
Travis Hunter, it you know you've got something that is
a tune in factor. There's no tune in factor here,
(23:29):
at least not right now. Miles Garrett's a Hall of Famer.
But I don't know if you gather the kids and say, hey,
Miles Garrett's on the field, No.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
I think you're right right now, Cleveland, everyone's going, hey, kids,
watch Cleveland. Let's see how they figure out or screw
up this whole quarterback situation with their whole team. Right now,
they're a little bit into that. I'm with you in
a little of I certainly thought, hey, maybe it's time
to tear the band aid off. Trade Miles Garrett, start
a new era, get assets, get picks, get some money
(24:00):
back because you're still stuck in the Deshaun Watson thing,
and rebuild your football team.
Speaker 12 (24:04):
Now.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
I think one they're trying to go a little bit
of we're gonna rebuild our football team on the fly
while trying to stay competitive. At least that's what it
looks like to me. And they do still have some
things on their roster where you go, that's pretty good.
But do I look at it and go, oh, you're
gonna make a run in the AFC playoffs or do
something like that. Absolutely not, I do not, So yeah,
(24:25):
I would have been more in favor of that as well.
Now the Travis Hunter thing, I hear what you're saying.
I get you, And he definitely would have been like
a household name and let's see what they do and
how he does things there too. But what they got
in that trade was pretty special. They got a trade
haul of basically like somebody traded up for a franchise
quarterback to get him, and I'm not gonna fault them
(24:46):
for that. And then they got a bunch of good
players after that, certainly, So we'll see where this goes.
But it feels like to me, they're like, hey, we're
kind of good enough. We're gonna kind of try to
stay competitive and maybe we can still sneak into the
playoffs here. But I want to go I don't know.
I think that's gonna far fetched.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Okay, but this was brought up, brought to my attention yesterday.
If I'm Jacksonville and I traded for Travis Hunter, I
basically got two first round picks with Travis Hunter. So
he's a first round pick as a receiver, first round
pick is the defensive back. I have to look at
it that way that even next year we're going to
be better. That draft pick might be twenty third, but
(25:25):
our first round draft pick next year is Travis Hunter
as the defensive back. Maybe it was Travis Hunter as
the wide receiver, don't I don't have a problem with
them viewing it that way, that they got something that
is a tune in factor.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
You're in the entertainment business.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Right, you know. Yeah, Yeah, I'm not mad at you.
You're you're saying things. I don't disagree with what you're
saying there. Jacksonville has something now that we all go,
damn Travis Hunter. Huh. And let's just not forget too.
The number one reason the guy Liam Cohene was hired
was to go, wait, fix our fifty five million dollar,
number one paid player on our team who's supposed to
carry the franchise. Yes, so within that that addresses that too.
(26:06):
Now we'll see where it all goes. Travis Hunter, though,
I will say this, Dan, I think he's a receiver
and you're hearing that right now. They're gonna let him
start a receiver that he could be a guy that
gets eighty one hundred receptions right off the bat, first
year corner. Right, He's not an outside, shut down island
man corner. He can't do that. The good receivers in
football will torch him on the outside. He's gonna have
(26:29):
to be kind of like a zone nickel safety hybrid
type of guy. Okay, right, So we'll see where that
all goes. It's gonna be interesting. It's we've seen nothing
like this before, so it's kind of awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Given what the Steelers did or didn't do in the draft,
leads you to believe what are they going to have
in the quarterback room.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Yeah, it makes me believe that Aaron Rodgers is going
to be there and that they know that, and there's
kind of a wink wink, nod nod deal. Whatever Rogers
has said, he's got some you know, off the field
issue he's got to deal with whatever it is. I
don't know, or he just going, wait, I don't need
to be there every waking moment in late April and
early May, and let me just come in a little
(27:08):
bit later and get my body right and rehab the
way I want. But yes, I think they're looking at
it and they're expecting Aaron Rodgers to be there, and
they're a team that's looking at it to go. And
what the draft told me is that they want to
be good this year and they're going to try to
make a run at this thing in the AFC. That's
what at least I see right now.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Do you think that Aaron Rodgers And I don't know
if he has the power to say this to Mike Tomlin,
but he could suggest, Hey, I'm not going to sign
until after the draft, or I'm not coming in until
after the draft. I want to make sure that you
don't take a quarterback early. You don't take a quarterback
with the twenty first pick. You don't take Shador Sanders.
(27:45):
You don't take Jackson dark because he doesn't want to
be in a situation where if he struggles, then all
of a sudden people are going to say, hey, when
are you going to put in the rookie.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
I mean, you know, I don't know. I don't think
he would do that. I don't. I think Pittsburgh looking
at it like we're in win now mode overall. And
I think two, he's smart enough. They're smart enough that
they probably led him to believe that that wasn't going
to be part of the scenario. No matter what, if
we draft a quarterback, it might be in later rounds,
don't worry, it'll be no threat to you or whatever.
(28:16):
So I think they've done whatever they've had to do.
And then yes, with the draft itself, the d tackle,
the running back, the DN from Ohio State, and of
course we know there are a damn good team anyways,
and now they got DK Metcalf and we'll see where
all that goes. I think they're being very honest and
have probably led him in the right place here. That's
why it'll happen here any day or any month here soon.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
You played.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
You were on the staff with Bill Belichick. What do
you make of his start there at North Carolina so far?
Speaker 4 (28:47):
I want to go and go, who are you? And
what did you do with Bill Belichick? That's what I
want to do. Where did the guy go that would
never do any of these things ever? And it's kind
of been a year long tour of that. And I
don't talk to the media. I'm onto Cincinnati, But now
I'm out of the game and I'm gonna be on
every media show in the world and do things that
(29:08):
I used to not like to do what people did
to me, And I'm going to dissect and question the
coach that took over for me in New England. So
I didn't love any of that necessarily, right, And yes,
it's a little awkward. I mean I don't know. I mean, yeah,
just the whole situation with his girlfriend, how it's being
handled there. I just feel like, gosh, if anybody around
(29:29):
Bill Belichick, you know, ten years ago and this was
going on somewhere else, people would be like, man, Bill
or the New England staff's like, what the hell is
this team doing with this? And the girlfriend running interviews
and all that. So it's all a little awkward to
me right now. Down there at North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Well, Rons Tucker, who played in New England for I
think two years, said that Bill controlled everything. He what's
in the monitors in the hallway or the lunch like everything, right,
he get all of his media responses all controlled.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
That's what this is.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Like a body switch movie like Freaky Friday or something
like that. Maybe maybe zac Efron is being Bill Belichick
and posing at the beach with his girlfriend.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Yeah, yeah, something like that Men in Black, some an
alien got inside there. I don't know what's going on,
but it is it seems awkward. I don't. I know,
he's the greatest coach of all time. I got that
he's awesome, and I don't doubt that they won't have
some success and he'll make North Carolina a little bit better.
But is he in it for the long haul? I
certainly think that's a fair question. And then yes, the
(30:37):
approach itself and some of the things he's done, I
just go, I've never seen Belichick act like this, talk
like this, anything like this, and it's just a little
little different right now.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
But also, if his goal is to get back in
the NFL, I think this hurts definitely. Right If I'm
an owner on what is going on.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
That's already what everybody is saying in the NFL. I
mean there's a reason also you look at it and
you go, huh. A lot of his old staff and
stuff kind of said, eh, I don't think I'm going
down there with you. I'll go somewhere else, see you later, right,
So that I think that says a lot to it itself.
And I agree one hundred percent. I don't think he's
doing himself any favors at all to get back in
(31:18):
the NFL and win over a GM or an owner
that way.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Good to talk to you, Chris is always thanks for
joining us.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Thanks buddy, say hid all those knuckleheads you got over
there with you?
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Well, Chris says, Hi, knucklehead, Hi Chris, Chris Chris Simms.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show week days at nine am Eastern six am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio w AP.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Dave mcmanhamon ESPN NBA Reporter, he was there covering Game five.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Last night, kind enough to.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Get up early, Dave, what did you expect to happen
last night?
Speaker 12 (31:55):
I thought the Laker who would come out with a
stronger efforts.
Speaker 13 (31:57):
Seeing them fall down fourteen in the first quarter was
surprising to me. The stats were on their side. I
think ESPN aired a statistic going into the game that
since two thousand and three, the home team favored in
a Game five, even when they were down three to one,
had won seventy five percent of those games.
Speaker 12 (32:19):
The Lakers made it an effort.
Speaker 13 (32:21):
They did hold a lead in the fourth quarter after
both Lebron and lucat Doncs were banged up, but they.
Speaker 12 (32:28):
Were outclassed the Wolves.
Speaker 13 (32:30):
When I was walking out the arena with a couple
of reporters last night, we were discussing the series. I
think the Wolves beat the Lakers in every single aspect
of the series, and you know that's where you get
the gentleman sweep, but.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
You also get this fourth quarter domination, and that speaks
to I think Lebron and Luca, the lack of depth
on this team. As you handicap what this team might
look like next year. Where where's where's the infantry coming,
where where are the reserves?
Speaker 12 (33:01):
Well, think about it.
Speaker 13 (33:02):
To acquire Luca, they traded two rotation pieces and Anthony
Davis and Max Christian got back one and I was
talking to Lebron after the game last night and he
was marveling at the Wolves after losing in the Western
Conference Finals last year, trading one rotation piece in Karl
Anthony Townsen, getting back to Julius Randall and Data di Vincenzo.
(33:23):
So clearly this team needs to address the middle, the
big man position, because JJ Reddick didn't trust Jackson Hayes
in the playoffs and he was already considered kind of
a backup playing above his role. And then they need
to get more depth in Game five twenty two to
four in bench scoring.
Speaker 12 (33:43):
That's not going to get it done.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Yeah, and you go back to the previous game as well.
You know, I think JJ rolled the dice and just said, look,
I'm going with these guys. We got to win this game.
If we don't win this game, we're probably not winning
this series. But can you do grade JJ Reddick differently
from the regular season to the postseason? Is that fair
to do that?
Speaker 13 (34:05):
He's a first year head coach that had a very
successful regular season, who ran into a team that even
though they were ranked the sixth seed compared to his
three seed, there's only one win that separated them. They
were in the top ten in both offense and defense.
They won seventeen out of twenty one games coming into
(34:25):
the postseason. They're one of the toughest matchups in all
of basketball. That isn't to say that JJ is not
going to be kicking himself all summer long. And wonder
if should I really thrown Maxi Kleeber out there, if
he hadn't played since January? Could I have put Gabe
Vincent in the start of the fourth quarter of Game
four to get Luca.
Speaker 12 (34:44):
Dtches two minutes to rest. He's going to go through
these things in his head.
Speaker 13 (34:47):
But ultimately there's a stat that another stat that there
is st out to me. Going into the playoffs, the
Lakers starters for Game one had played one hundred minutes
together at the regular season. The Wolves starters going into
Game one had played seven hundred and fourteen. I mean
that the amount of time those guys had to coalesce
(35:07):
compared to what the Lakers did trying to sprint towards
the finish line after Luca deal, it wasn't a comparison.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Lebron said that he hadn't thought about his future when
asked after the game, what do you think his answer
is going to be.
Speaker 12 (35:23):
I think he'll be back.
Speaker 13 (35:24):
I think, listen, he's done this similar song and dance
ever since they lost to the Denver Nuggets in the
Western Conference Finals.
Speaker 12 (35:34):
That was year twenty.
Speaker 13 (35:35):
Last year, similar kind of sentiments when the season ended,
that was twenty two, twenty one. This year's twenty two.
I think when you past two decades in the league,
you're allowed to walk away from nardurous season and be like,
I got to think things through. But he's got to
be back.
Speaker 12 (35:51):
You know, Bronnie James is on this team under contract
for the next two seasons.
Speaker 13 (35:55):
I talked to Bronni about his favorite memories from the year,
and I mentioned just the surreal idea of going to
work with his dad, and he said, I look forward
to that for years to come. So it could not
just be a swan song for lebron James next year,
but a continuation and he'll try to maximize this thing.
(36:18):
That's what he's done ever since two thousand and three.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Dave mcmanhamhon, he covers the Lakers for ESPN, covers the NBA,
What do you think Luca's future is?
Speaker 13 (36:29):
There's a little bit of a question, right would he
actually put down roots in La signed the long term extension.
Speaker 12 (36:37):
As of August.
Speaker 13 (36:38):
Second, the Lakers will be able to offer him a
four year, two hundred and twenty nine million dollar extension,
or he could opt for a three year deal worth
about one hundred and seventy five which allow him to
go for a supermax in twenty twenty eight. I believe listen,
the Lakers have rolled out the red carpet from the
moment he arrived. And I should say this, Lebron James
(37:02):
has been a very accommodating superstar teammate to try to
make that transition as smooth as possible. If you are
about star and if you are about the spotlight and
you thrive in those situations, there's no better atmosphere to
play for in the NBA than the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 12 (37:23):
It's it's a.
Speaker 13 (37:24):
Traveling show, and you're gonna get fans packing the arena
every spot you go around the country.
Speaker 12 (37:31):
It's a circle of date type of thing on the
calendar for all your opponents.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
And if your.
Speaker 13 (37:35):
Competitor who feeds off of that, which I believe Luka is,
it's a great place to be and spending your prime
in the NBA.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
But it's a certain point you look around and you go,
these guys got their titles. I'm sort of the last
of that class, Like I got to get my title.
He's not very close to a title. And the West
is pretty young. If you look at OKC, you know,
even Houston's young. Minnesota, you know it's going to be
an uphill sledding here for the Lakers, even after Lebron.
(38:07):
That's the only curious part I have with Luca. Do
I understand the location and the area code, absolutely, and
the money, but are you going to win a championship
there in the next couple of years? And I would
argue you're not.
Speaker 12 (38:23):
I think that's a fair argument.
Speaker 13 (38:25):
I think you'd also say, had he was not been
traded from the Dallas Mavericks, it's not like they were
world beaters with that roster either, and he was committed
to try to make it work.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
But they went to the finals though, Dave, of course.
Speaker 12 (38:38):
They did, but they went to the finals of the
fifth seed.
Speaker 13 (38:41):
And as you just mentioned, the other teams of the
West got better this year, so it's not like they
were in the pole position to return.
Speaker 12 (38:48):
To the finals this year.
Speaker 13 (38:50):
The Lakers have a lot of work to do to
get this roster better, so he feels better about the
prospect of being here. They didn't have a center right,
so that's a huge glaring issue. He had two lob
threat centers and Derek Lively the second and Daniel Gafford
that helped fuel that trip to the finals.
Speaker 12 (39:09):
Rob Polinka has his work cutout for him.
Speaker 13 (39:11):
He had two brilliant trades this year to get Dorian
Finney Smith, who really helped this team defensively the second
half the year, and of course the Luca doga trade.
But this roster is incomplete, and Luca is that good
and Lebron is that committed that I don't think they're
miles away from the type of moves they need to
(39:32):
make to become one of the contenders on the short
list going into next year.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
What is Lebron playing for moving forward?
Speaker 13 (39:43):
He wants another championship, he knows it's within his grasp.
He is playing for the ability to be in the NBA,
not with just Bronnie James as his teammate, but Bronnie
James a contributor on a winning NBA team, and so
he's going to be along for that part of the
process as well, and he loves basketball like It's kind
(40:08):
of simple answer, but I think there's a kinship that
he shared with Tom Brady because there was a recognition
that I'm never going to do anything else in my
life that I love as much as this process. And
I've already put in so much time to get to
this point.
Speaker 12 (40:24):
I'm not going to walk.
Speaker 13 (40:25):
Away until my mind, my body, my spirit all tell
me to so as long as I have a chance
to be part of this endeavor with a chance to win.
Because you know the year they had in twenty one
twenty two when they came in with great expectations and
it didn't even make the playing tournament that aged him
(40:45):
like ten years.
Speaker 12 (40:47):
But the winning basketball they've.
Speaker 13 (40:49):
Been playing ever since the trade deadline of twenty twenty three,
he has pepin.
Speaker 12 (40:54):
And step and he wants to keep riding this thing.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
If I said, give me, Since you make your living
with your words, how would you describe Lebron's career as
a Lakers?
Speaker 12 (41:10):
You want one word?
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Do you have one word?
Speaker 12 (41:15):
Underwhelming by his standards? Okay, it's a.
Speaker 13 (41:19):
Few more than one, but getting a championship and become
the only player in league history to win finals, MVP,
and a championship with three different franchises, Like, we can't
understate what that accomplishment was. But there haven't been deep
playoff runs. There's been a fair share of drama off
(41:41):
the court. His body hasn't been totally reliable. That again,
we're talking about the coda to what was already a
completely brilliant career. If you just took the first Calves chapter,
or just the Miami chapter or the second Calves.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Chapter, good to talk to you, Dave. Thanks for joining us.
Accept Dave McManaman
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Timberwolf said, goodbye to the Lakers, the Rockets, roll the Warriors.
I walked in today. First person I see is Marvin,
and Marvin says the following, You're going to apologize I
said about what? You know what I said? No, you
know what you said? I go, wait, is this about
(00:28):
Rudy Gobert. Yes, you're called in the most overrated player
in the NBA. I'd like to take this moment. I'm
going to stare into the camera to Rudy Gobert. I
apologize for saying you're the most overrated player in the
NBA for one night.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
It's a temporary apology, very very temporary.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Rudy Gobert looked like a chem Elijahwan, he looked like Shack.
He looked like Tim Duncan. Rudy Gobert had twenty seven
points and twenty four rebounds. Excuse yes, I said the
same thing. He dominated twelve to fifteen from the floor.
He's the third player in the last fifty years to
(01:14):
have a twenty twenty in a playoff game while shooting
at least eighty percent from the floor. He was great.
The rest of the timber Wolves not so good, and
they still won. The Lakers shot better from two point
three point free throw line, and they ended up losing,
and you say goodbye to the Lakers what could have been?
(01:35):
But to Rudy Gobert, once again, congratulations on a wonderful
performance against a front line that I think I probably
could have gotten ten rebounds. But once again, I mean,
come on, Lakers had no big guy. Rudy Gobert should
have been dominating, just rebound wise, just rebounding, that's all.
(01:58):
He should have twenty rebound every game against the Lakers.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
He should have. But once again, to Rudy Gobert, congratulations
on a wonderful, wonderful performance. Did that seem sincere not
feeling the sincerity? You're not because he went out you
want to say it, well.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
For one night anywhere, you did that, and you're expected
to do that.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Anyway other than that, and you know fake sincerity. Okay, yes, Marvin.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
But Rudy's still one of the most overrated, not just
not the most overrated.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, okay, yeah, absolutely, absolutely congratulations the Timberwolves. They advance
as they dust off the Lakers for one, and as
we always do, We don't look at the team that's advancing.
We look at the team that's going off into the sunset.
The question is is Lebron going off into the sunset
as well? He was asked about his future after the loss.
(02:53):
Do you have that, Marvin?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
I have?
Speaker 4 (02:57):
He talks about JJ reddicks season.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Oh, okay. I thought that he was asked about his
future there.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
I think JJ are going to continue to grow. I
thought he had a hell of a rookie campaign for
a rookie coach. That's already hard being a rookie coach
in NBA, and that's a hell of a lot harder
being a rookie head coach coaching the Lakers. That's a
whole another ball game. And I thought he handled it
extremely well. I thought he I just learned every single day.
(03:29):
He held us accountable, he pushed us. I thought JJ
and his coach Sta were great.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I thought that he had a really good regular season.
I don't think he did well in this series. I
think he was all in on the previous game and
he didn't sub out in the second half. I think
he thought, if we win this game, we can win
the series. If we don't win this game, we're not
going to win this series. That was just my feeling.
If you're watching it in real time and you're thinking, Okay,
(03:57):
they might win this game and then they didn't that
I wonder what the aftershocks would be, and we saw
that Minnesota didn't play well at all. It's just the
Lakers have no bench. Now you're really reliant on Luca
who was banged up under the weather, and you're relying
on Lebron James. And it's not fair to Lebron to say, hey,
(04:18):
you still have to be one of the ten best
players in the game. I think if he comes back,
I think you're going to have to look at how
do you monitor his minutes here? And it might be
one of those situations like the San Antonio Spurs.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Used to do.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
They didn't care about the regular season. This is about
the postseason. How many minutes you play and how fresh
are you going to be in the postseason. I think
Lebron his ego gets in the way. He wants to
prove that he can play every single night and he's
going to play as many minutes as possible.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
I admire that.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I want to see the stars play, but I also
have to factor in What is the ultimate goal, Not
to prove that you can play more games then guys
who were twenty years younger than you. It's to prove
how great you are when you get to the postseason,
because that's how he's measured. The regular season doesn't matter. Okay,
you get another All Star appearance, all right, you score
(05:13):
a couple thousand points, you add to your forty thousand
points or assist or whatever it might be. This is
about winning a championship. And I wonder how close he
thinks they really are. The West is young, okayse he's
not going anywhere. You're seeing a Houston Rockets team that's young.
Might get Kevin Durant, might be the missing piece for
(05:34):
them in the offseason, but they might beat the Golden
State Warriors. You saw last night. They weren't afraid and
they shut down Steph Curry. So you start to look
around and you go, Okay, where do we fit here?
And if I'm a Laker fan, I think we're kind
of a middle of the pack. I loved what they
were doing when they had an eight game winning streak.
(05:54):
They had a stretch there where they were playing great
defense and it felt like there was a collabor going on.
It wasn't just two players. There was a true collaboration.
But then as you get to the postseason, coaches really
start to limit the number of players who contribute. You
might go seven deep, maybe eight. But the Lakers, I
(06:19):
think JJ Reddick looked at that bench and he went,
I don't want to put those guys in. You know,
you don't have confidence in them. But if you put
him in, then they can gain confidence. So that's what
I didn't understand. But JJ Reddick he was testing. So pregame,
this is a pregame press conference, and he was asked
about what happened with the lack of substitutions previous game.
Speaker 6 (06:45):
What do you recall about your thought process in the
moment sticking with the five you stuck with in the
fourth quarter the other day? And is there an assistant
or someone maybe that you'll lean on tonight maybe to
try to get you know, some other guys involved, if
that opportunity present.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Where you saying that because I'm inexperienced and that was
an inexperienced decision that I made. Do you think I
don't talk to my assistance about substitutions every single time out?
Speaker 6 (07:12):
No, I just think there's a lot of coaches lean
on their assistance in those situations as.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Every single time. That's a weird assumption.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And then he walked out, So that's pregame tension running
a little high there. I think it's a fair question
to ask. I think you can ask it in a
better way. But I do think the topic is fair
because of what we just saw. Yeah, if it didn't
strike me as that unfair of a.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Question.
Speaker 7 (07:43):
Plus, I don't know why the reporter should assume the
other way either, the reporter should assume that he just
does everything that we think he does.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I mean, it doesn't seem like that crazy of a question. Yeah, PAULI,
I disagree just a hair.
Speaker 8 (07:56):
The phrasing of the question is fine, but it feels
like they're doing preview of the next game in this
press conference, not even the last night seem but the following.
That's that's what it's meant for for quotes for after.
And this is a three day old story, two day
old story, and Reddick is probably like, we're still talking
about this now. That said, he could have blown it
off with a pat answer easily.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, but you know that's just if you watch JJ,
when he was doing his TV work at the Mothership.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
He if he.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
If he got bored with you, or he was going
to dismiss you, he could get combative, like he didn't
suffer fools. He's like, oh God, this guy's going to
tell me about substituting. Okay, I got it.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Now.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
That makes you a great media guy, not necessarily a
great head coach. But the topic I thought was fair.
And we saw the bench scored four points. There weren't substitutions,
and I think you had a tired team. Now I
look at this a couple of different ways because you
(09:01):
have Lebron.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
How many more years?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
And Lebron said after he's not sure, he's not sure
what's going to happen here. It feels like there's one
more year there. I think I think you owe it
to the possibility of you and Luca having an entire offseason,
training camp, an entire regular season together. JJ Reddick's second year,
(09:24):
Austin Reeves is a you know, a really good player,
but you start to look at the other players on
the roster and you're going, are you going to develop them?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Can you get somebody in there? I think it's difficult.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
You know Lebron's going to make sixty million dollars and
probably sixty million dollars attached to that because he's still
playing basketball with endorsements. If you're Luca, do you want
to be the centerpiece? Are you going to be the
guy when Lebron leaves in a year? Are you ready
for that? Here's Luca after the game last night.
Speaker 9 (10:05):
I mean, it's been great, honestly. You know, the way
the fans accept to me, you know, he's been amazing.
The way the community takes up to him has been amazing.
So I'm really could have glad that I'm here. I
had a great couple of months, you know, trying to
learn about every team. I'm about the city, about the team,
(10:26):
so just trying to process everything.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
All right, So he's got one more year on his deal,
then does he want to be there? He's going to
get paid, He'll be the centerpiece there. And then you
start to look at that trade. Who won in that trade?
I Dallas, God, Anthony Davis, Lakers got Luca. Both are
out moving forward and this I think I would have
(10:54):
a better answer in a year if you if you
said after next year, I think then I'm going to great,
great the trade. That's not fair because we want to
great a trade right away. But if I said to you,
you could have had Luca or you could have Yanis
if you're the Lakers.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
So if you.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Knew that the Mavericks were going to move on from
Luca right because defense wins championships, they weren't going to
pay him this money. Let's say he was going to
be available in the off season. Let's say you had
Yannis available in the off season. What would you do
if you're the Lakers. Because it's not a real scenario,
(11:33):
it's hypothetical, But if you look at how this was
going to play out, then maybe that would have been
the scenario where Luca would have been available. And he's
four years younger than Yannis. But this is one of
those did they make the right deal for the right
player at the right time, And I think they did
that because now all of a sudden, you got Lebron,
(11:53):
who's on the clock.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
How many more years does he have? We can get Luca.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
We might be able to steal a championship here, because
if you don't have Lebron, are the Lakers making that move?
And the answer is probably yes, because he's one of
the top five, top ten players in the game. But
you're making that move with Lebron to win a championship,
Whereas if you didn't have Lebron, you would make that
(12:19):
move just for the future. So this would be an
experimental year. But this was about winning a championship and
you failed miserably. Now you're a three seed, so you
can't say, well, the expectations are too high. You're a
three seed and you have maybe the best duo in basketball,
and yes, you do have a rookie coach. But I
(12:40):
think JJ Reddick did a really good job during the
regular season the postseason. I think he'll look back on
that and you get together with your staff and you say,
what could we have done better? Who could we have
played a little bit more. You're seeing this with the Knicks.
I mean Tom Thibodeaux. He does this all the time
(13:00):
that he plays his players. He doesn't have a deep
rotation there. But you can only do that for so
long and then these players get worn down. That's why
the Spurs were always fresh in the postseason because Greg
Popovich he prioritized that. He was like, I don't care
if we're the first or second or third seed. I
(13:20):
don't care. I want my guys ready to go in
the postseason. And they were uh seton what's pole question
we're going to have. By the way, Lebron said, I
don't have an answer to the question about what comes next.
I'll sit down with my wife and family support group,
have a conversation with myself on how long I want
to continue to play. We'll see in the moment I
(13:44):
get the answer. I think he's going to be back
and play again. He's also got his son there. There's
a lot of money there. You're playing with the Lakers
and you get a chance to spend more time with
Luca and develop that.
Speaker 7 (13:58):
Yes seton it is crazy that that theoretically could have
been the last time we saw him play, and it
doesn't feel like that at all.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
You're right, it could be. But I think he's gonna
play one more year. I think he knows he's done,
gonna win another championship. This might just be patting your stats.
You know, get to play with Luca, get to play
with your son, but you know, currently constructed, they're not
(14:27):
better than you know, these other younger teams.
Speaker 8 (14:31):
Yeah, Pauline, it's interesting when Seaton brought up before the show.
No one's discussing even the possibility that Lebron can retire.
I think everyone thinks he would do the tour, but
there's any chance, he says to himself. I got my
son in the league. I got him on the roster.
I played basketball games with him. That was the icing
on the cake. It's hard to pick her.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
He's measured differently than anybody else in the history of
the game. So it's side goes, Hey, I got my
son in and hey, you know we made the play.
I am playing with Luke. It's it's all about you know.
Now you've got Steph Curry, who's kind of on his level.
You know, people now want to bring who's better, who's
had a better career, Stephan Lebron, like Lebron by far,
(15:13):
Like what are we doing here? Steph's a wonderful player,
but you know, now he's encroaching on Lebron because his
team's still alive in Lebron's isn't.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
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Speaker 4 (16:29):
That's Covino and.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Rich bringing Chris Sims, Pro Football Talk Live co host
you'll find him on Football Night in American of course,
former NFL quarterback. How would your dad have reacted if
you did something like that with information and prank somebody
when you were a youngster.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Well, he would have gone crazy. I mean, I don't know.
He probably wouldn't have talked to me for a month.
I'd have been grounded. Right, anything I wanted, right, I
want a new pair of sneakers, Dad, I want to
go here. That he'd be like, no, no, sorry, Now
you can sit in your room and think about what
you're doing right or what you did. So it would
be uh, hey, it was a big time mistake. There's
no doubt about that, right the Jacks oldbrick kid. Yeah,
(17:11):
he got caught up and being young and friends thinking
it might be funny and lost like his you know,
humanity and like what I just heard you say, Hey,
I know other guys got prank, but Shador Sanders is
Shador Sanders. Yes, and he was sliding and it was
the biggest story in American sports. So it did seem
like piling on and agreed with what everything you said there.
(17:33):
Off of that, the NFL's at fault here too, Dan.
That's the other part of this right now. I'm you're
totally right. The GM, the head coach, the owner, that's all.
That's all that needs the information. Right we don't ever
see a defensive coordinator get on the phone when it's
a quarterback being picked or any of that. But also
within this and maybe why they didn't come down as
(17:55):
hard as people might have liked. All that is, the
NFL said a mass email that is on the waiver
wire to people, to everybody, the it guys, the equipment guys,
all of it. So there was way too many people
that had that number to begin with, and they got
to fix some of the things on their end as well.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Let's revisit the draft because I don't know how good
cam Ward is, but I do know that the draft
coverage quickly went from hey, how about a round of
applause camboard number one. Now let's talk about Travis Hunter.
I always trust your judgment, you and Orlovsky when it
comes to assessing quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
I take note and your.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Track record shows you know, you know when a quarterback
is up too high or maybe one's too low. Cam
Ward at number one, is he number one? Because there's
no other quarterbacks who were worthy of that status.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Or is he truly a number one overall pick?
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Truly a number one overall pick? Okay, you know, along
the lines of what you're saying, it's the most like
least talked about, under the radar number one pick I
think in the history of football. One because like we
kind of felt like, hey, they were gonna take them
five or six weeks ago. You never really heard any
legitimate trade chatter. They didn't get involved in veteran free agency,
(19:17):
so all signs pointed towards that. And then of course,
like you're talking about Shador, Travis Hunter, Abdul Carter, a
little injury, all that thing, all those things kind of
took center stage. But cam Ward is special. He is
that his arm is gifted. Dan, you know that. I
love talent, and again I'm into that. Yeah, the greatest
(19:37):
quarterbacks of all time had some supreme elite talent. That's
why they were the greatest of all time. Right, Joe
Montana might be the one out of the top ten
top fifteen quarterbacks of all time where you'd go, he
might not have an elite physical trade, but he had
a lot of good traits, and he had some other
intangibles that brought him over the top. Cam Ward rocket
arm right, can throw it anyway you want, side, arm,
(19:59):
over the top, whatever, phenomenal in the pocket, seize the
field well, can make plays outside of the pocket. Throws
the ball on the run as good as you're gonna find.
So to answer that question, and let's go back to
last year's draft, cam Ward would have been in the mix.
For my money up there. I still probably would have
had Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels number two. But I
(20:20):
think if I was fair to where I was at
last year in my evaluation, I think cam Ward would
have been my third quarterback in that class last year.
So that's what I think of him. He's legit, is
what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Who is the second best quarterback in this draft?
Speaker 4 (20:33):
That's the great question, right. I'm not in love with
any of them. I'm on record on my podcast Pro
Football Talk going if I was a GM, I really
wouldn't want to stake my claim or name to any
of these guys for the future of my organization. I
like Jackson Dart He's good, but I don't I'm not
like wowed by it. Same with Tyler Schuck, same with
(20:54):
Shador Sanders. On the field, I still like Shador Sanders
more I do. I'm a fan of Shador and what
he does there. But I said from the start too,
I wouldn't want to take him in the top ten.
I really wouldn't want to take him in the top twenty,
and I was very aware that he might fall and
do that. But yeah, I don't love that group. To me, again,
(21:16):
they're maybe borderline starters. I think, in my heart of hearts,
I look at him to think maybe they're great backups
as we go on here through to the future, we'll
see where it goes. But yeah, cam Mood is the
only guy I really loved here.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
What are the Cleveland Browns doing?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
It's a great question. First off, what stinks is an
amazing draft. They have an amazing draft, but we can't
talk about it because we're just going to talk about
one guy, right And you know, Chador has of course
been the center of attention here where Cleveland messes up
a lot of times, and they do a lot of
good here too. But to me, they let analytics drive
(21:53):
their organization and their team more than any other organization
in football. And I've asked Andrew Berry that flat out
and he's told me, yeah, that's fair to say, Chris,
You're not off there on saying that. And what to
me where they mess up sometimes is the human aspect.
When you follow numbers and formulas all the time, you
knew lose the fact of wait, hey, the numbers, the value,
(22:15):
that's all great, but what is it going to do
to the value of our team when every day everybody
in the locker room's gonna go, howd the quarterbacks do?
What happened? How did shadur do? How did Dylan Gabriel do? Hey?
And then it's Mary cat, It's Mary Kay Cabot and
every person in the Cleveland media, Hey, well the quarterback quarterback? Hey,
Miles Garrett. The hell with the rest of the team.
How did the quarterbacks then go? Today? Then it's going
to overtake their organization And this is what they've fallen
(22:37):
in that trap with Deshaun Watson lost a human aspect.
They kind of fell in that trap with Johnny Manzel,
and that to me is one of the issues. At
least I see here from the outside looking in.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I you're not winning now, I wouldn't have re signed
Miles Garrett. I think they truly tried to see if
they could trade him, but you got the Deshaun Watson
situation not going away. Travis Hunter would have been a hey,
there's the future. We have something that nobody else has
and we can we can show him off on both
(23:09):
sides of the ball. I would have gone after Shad
or Sanders in the third round instead of Dylan Gabriel.
I think, I mean, I just thought, why not try
this because you've tried other things and it hasn't worked out.
Travis Hunter, it you know you've got something that is
a tune in factor. There's no tune in factor here,
(23:29):
at least not right now. Miles Garrett's a Hall of Famer.
But I don't know if you gather the kids and say, hey,
Miles Garrett's on the field, No.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
I think you're right right now, Cleveland, everyone's going, hey, kids,
watch Cleveland. Let's see how they figure out or screw
up this whole quarterback situation with their whole team. Right now,
they're a little bit into that. I'm with you in
a little of I certainly thought, hey, maybe it's time
to tear the band aid off. Trade Miles Garrett, start
a new era, get assets, get picks, get some money
(24:00):
back because you're still stuck in the Deshaun Watson thing,
and rebuild your football team.
Speaker 12 (24:04):
Now.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
I think one they're trying to go a little bit
of we're gonna rebuild our football team on the fly
while trying to stay competitive. At least that's what it
looks like to me. And they do still have some
things on their roster where you go, that's pretty good.
But do I look at it and go, oh, you're
gonna make a run in the AFC playoffs or do
something like that. Absolutely not, I do not, So yeah,
(24:25):
I would have been more in favor of that as well.
Now the Travis Hunter thing, I hear what you're saying.
I get you, And he definitely would have been like
a household name and let's see what they do and
how he does things there too. But what they got
in that trade was pretty special. They got a trade
haul of basically like somebody traded up for a franchise
quarterback to get him, and I'm not gonna fault them
(24:46):
for that. And then they got a bunch of good
players after that, certainly, So we'll see where this goes.
But it feels like to me, they're like, hey, we're
kind of good enough. We're gonna kind of try to
stay competitive and maybe we can still sneak into the
playoffs here. But I want to go I don't know.
I think that's gonna far fetched.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Okay, but this was brought up, brought to my attention yesterday.
If I'm Jacksonville and I traded for Travis Hunter, I
basically got two first round picks with Travis Hunter. So
he's a first round pick as a receiver, first round
pick is the defensive back. I have to look at
it that way that even next year we're going to
be better. That draft pick might be twenty third, but
(25:25):
our first round draft pick next year is Travis Hunter
as the defensive back. Maybe it was Travis Hunter as
the wide receiver, don't I don't have a problem with
them viewing it that way, that they got something that
is a tune in factor.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
You're in the entertainment business.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Right, you know. Yeah, Yeah, I'm not mad at you.
You're you're saying things. I don't disagree with what you're
saying there. Jacksonville has something now that we all go,
damn Travis Hunter. Huh. And let's just not forget too.
The number one reason the guy Liam Cohene was hired
was to go, wait, fix our fifty five million dollar,
number one paid player on our team who's supposed to
carry the franchise. Yes, so within that that addresses that too.
(26:06):
Now we'll see where it all goes. Travis Hunter, though,
I will say this, Dan, I think he's a receiver
and you're hearing that right now. They're gonna let him
start a receiver that he could be a guy that
gets eighty one hundred receptions right off the bat, first
year corner. Right, He's not an outside, shut down island
man corner. He can't do that. The good receivers in
football will torch him on the outside. He's gonna have
(26:29):
to be kind of like a zone nickel safety hybrid
type of guy. Okay, right, So we'll see where that
all goes. It's gonna be interesting. It's we've seen nothing
like this before, so it's kind of awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Given what the Steelers did or didn't do in the draft,
leads you to believe what are they going to have
in the quarterback room.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Yeah, it makes me believe that Aaron Rodgers is going
to be there and that they know that, and there's
kind of a wink wink, nod nod deal. Whatever Rogers
has said, he's got some you know, off the field
issue he's got to deal with whatever it is. I
don't know, or he just going, wait, I don't need
to be there every waking moment in late April and
early May, and let me just come in a little
(27:08):
bit later and get my body right and rehab the
way I want. But yes, I think they're looking at
it and they're expecting Aaron Rodgers to be there, and
they're a team that's looking at it to go. And
what the draft told me is that they want to
be good this year and they're going to try to
make a run at this thing in the AFC. That's
what at least I see right now.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Do you think that Aaron Rodgers And I don't know
if he has the power to say this to Mike Tomlin,
but he could suggest, Hey, I'm not going to sign
until after the draft, or I'm not coming in until
after the draft. I want to make sure that you
don't take a quarterback early. You don't take a quarterback
with the twenty first pick. You don't take Shador Sanders.
(27:45):
You don't take Jackson dark because he doesn't want to
be in a situation where if he struggles, then all
of a sudden people are going to say, hey, when
are you going to put in the rookie.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
I mean, you know, I don't know. I don't think
he would do that. I don't. I think Pittsburgh looking
at it like we're in win now mode overall. And
I think two, he's smart enough. They're smart enough that
they probably led him to believe that that wasn't going
to be part of the scenario. No matter what, if
we draft a quarterback, it might be in later rounds,
don't worry, it'll be no threat to you or whatever.
(28:16):
So I think they've done whatever they've had to do.
And then yes, with the draft itself, the d tackle,
the running back, the DN from Ohio State, and of
course we know there are a damn good team anyways,
and now they got DK Metcalf and we'll see where
all that goes. I think they're being very honest and
have probably led him in the right place here. That's
why it'll happen here any day or any month here soon.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
You played.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
You were on the staff with Bill Belichick. What do
you make of his start there at North Carolina so far?
Speaker 4 (28:47):
I want to go and go, who are you? And
what did you do with Bill Belichick? That's what I
want to do. Where did the guy go that would
never do any of these things ever? And it's kind
of been a year long tour of that. And I
don't talk to the media. I'm onto Cincinnati, But now
I'm out of the game and I'm gonna be on
every media show in the world and do things that
(29:08):
I used to not like to do what people did
to me, And I'm going to dissect and question the
coach that took over for me in New England. So
I didn't love any of that necessarily, right, And yes,
it's a little awkward. I mean I don't know. I mean, yeah,
just the whole situation with his girlfriend, how it's being
handled there. I just feel like, gosh, if anybody around
(29:29):
Bill Belichick, you know, ten years ago and this was
going on somewhere else, people would be like, man, Bill
or the New England staff's like, what the hell is
this team doing with this? And the girlfriend running interviews
and all that. So it's all a little awkward to
me right now. Down there at North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Well, Rons Tucker, who played in New England for I
think two years, said that Bill controlled everything. He what's
in the monitors in the hallway or the lunch like everything, right,
he get all of his media responses all controlled.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
That's what this is.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Like a body switch movie like Freaky Friday or something
like that. Maybe maybe zac Efron is being Bill Belichick
and posing at the beach with his girlfriend.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Yeah, yeah, something like that Men in Black, some an
alien got inside there. I don't know what's going on,
but it is it seems awkward. I don't. I know,
he's the greatest coach of all time. I got that
he's awesome, and I don't doubt that they won't have
some success and he'll make North Carolina a little bit better.
But is he in it for the long haul? I
certainly think that's a fair question. And then yes, the
(30:37):
approach itself and some of the things he's done, I
just go, I've never seen Belichick act like this, talk
like this, anything like this, and it's just a little
little different right now.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
But also, if his goal is to get back in
the NFL, I think this hurts definitely. Right If I'm
an owner on what is going on.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
That's already what everybody is saying in the NFL. I
mean there's a reason also you look at it and
you go, huh. A lot of his old staff and
stuff kind of said, eh, I don't think I'm going
down there with you. I'll go somewhere else, see you later, right,
So that I think that says a lot to it itself.
And I agree one hundred percent. I don't think he's
doing himself any favors at all to get back in
(31:18):
the NFL and win over a GM or an owner
that way.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Good to talk to you, Chris is always thanks for
joining us.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Thanks buddy, say hid all those knuckleheads you got over
there with you?
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Well, Chris says, Hi, knucklehead, Hi Chris, Chris Chris Simms.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show week days at nine am Eastern six am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio w AP.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Dave mcmanhamon ESPN NBA Reporter, he was there covering Game five.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Last night, kind enough to.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Get up early, Dave, what did you expect to happen
last night?
Speaker 12 (31:55):
I thought the Laker who would come out with a
stronger efforts.
Speaker 13 (31:57):
Seeing them fall down fourteen in the first quarter was
surprising to me. The stats were on their side. I
think ESPN aired a statistic going into the game that
since two thousand and three, the home team favored in
a Game five, even when they were down three to one,
had won seventy five percent of those games.
Speaker 12 (32:19):
The Lakers made it an effort.
Speaker 13 (32:21):
They did hold a lead in the fourth quarter after
both Lebron and lucat Doncs were banged up, but they.
Speaker 12 (32:28):
Were outclassed the Wolves.
Speaker 13 (32:30):
When I was walking out the arena with a couple
of reporters last night, we were discussing the series. I
think the Wolves beat the Lakers in every single aspect
of the series, and you know that's where you get
the gentleman sweep, but.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
You also get this fourth quarter domination, and that speaks
to I think Lebron and Luca, the lack of depth
on this team. As you handicap what this team might
look like next year. Where where's where's the infantry coming,
where where are the reserves?
Speaker 12 (33:01):
Well, think about it.
Speaker 13 (33:02):
To acquire Luca, they traded two rotation pieces and Anthony
Davis and Max Christian got back one and I was
talking to Lebron after the game last night and he
was marveling at the Wolves after losing in the Western
Conference Finals last year, trading one rotation piece in Karl
Anthony Townsen, getting back to Julius Randall and Data di Vincenzo.
(33:23):
So clearly this team needs to address the middle, the
big man position, because JJ Reddick didn't trust Jackson Hayes
in the playoffs and he was already considered kind of
a backup playing above his role. And then they need
to get more depth in Game five twenty two to
four in bench scoring.
Speaker 12 (33:43):
That's not going to get it done.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Yeah, and you go back to the previous game as well.
You know, I think JJ rolled the dice and just said, look,
I'm going with these guys. We got to win this game.
If we don't win this game, we're probably not winning
this series. But can you do grade JJ Reddick differently
from the regular season to the postseason? Is that fair
to do that?
Speaker 13 (34:05):
He's a first year head coach that had a very
successful regular season, who ran into a team that even
though they were ranked the sixth seed compared to his
three seed, there's only one win that separated them. They
were in the top ten in both offense and defense.
They won seventeen out of twenty one games coming into
(34:25):
the postseason. They're one of the toughest matchups in all
of basketball. That isn't to say that JJ is not
going to be kicking himself all summer long. And wonder
if should I really thrown Maxi Kleeber out there, if
he hadn't played since January? Could I have put Gabe
Vincent in the start of the fourth quarter of Game
four to get Luca.
Speaker 12 (34:44):
Dtches two minutes to rest. He's going to go through
these things in his head.
Speaker 13 (34:47):
But ultimately there's a stat that another stat that there
is st out to me. Going into the playoffs, the
Lakers starters for Game one had played one hundred minutes
together at the regular season. The Wolves starters going into
Game one had played seven hundred and fourteen. I mean
that the amount of time those guys had to coalesce
(35:07):
compared to what the Lakers did trying to sprint towards
the finish line after Luca deal, it wasn't a comparison.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Lebron said that he hadn't thought about his future when
asked after the game, what do you think his answer
is going to be.
Speaker 12 (35:23):
I think he'll be back.
Speaker 13 (35:24):
I think, listen, he's done this similar song and dance
ever since they lost to the Denver Nuggets in the
Western Conference Finals.
Speaker 12 (35:34):
That was year twenty.
Speaker 13 (35:35):
Last year, similar kind of sentiments when the season ended,
that was twenty two, twenty one. This year's twenty two.
I think when you past two decades in the league,
you're allowed to walk away from nardurous season and be like,
I got to think things through. But he's got to
be back.
Speaker 12 (35:51):
You know, Bronnie James is on this team under contract
for the next two seasons.
Speaker 13 (35:55):
I talked to Bronni about his favorite memories from the year,
and I mentioned just the surreal idea of going to
work with his dad, and he said, I look forward
to that for years to come. So it could not
just be a swan song for lebron James next year,
but a continuation and he'll try to maximize this thing.
(36:18):
That's what he's done ever since two thousand and three.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Dave mcmanhamhon, he covers the Lakers for ESPN, covers the NBA,
What do you think Luca's future is?
Speaker 13 (36:29):
There's a little bit of a question, right would he
actually put down roots in La signed the long term extension.
Speaker 12 (36:37):
As of August.
Speaker 13 (36:38):
Second, the Lakers will be able to offer him a
four year, two hundred and twenty nine million dollar extension,
or he could opt for a three year deal worth
about one hundred and seventy five which allow him to
go for a supermax in twenty twenty eight. I believe listen,
the Lakers have rolled out the red carpet from the
moment he arrived. And I should say this, Lebron James
(37:02):
has been a very accommodating superstar teammate to try to
make that transition as smooth as possible. If you are
about star and if you are about the spotlight and
you thrive in those situations, there's no better atmosphere to
play for in the NBA than the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 12 (37:23):
It's it's a.
Speaker 13 (37:24):
Traveling show, and you're gonna get fans packing the arena
every spot you go around the country.
Speaker 12 (37:31):
It's a circle of date type of thing on the
calendar for all your opponents.
Speaker 4 (37:35):
And if your.
Speaker 13 (37:35):
Competitor who feeds off of that, which I believe Luka is,
it's a great place to be and spending your prime
in the NBA.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
But it's a certain point you look around and you go,
these guys got their titles. I'm sort of the last
of that class, Like I got to get my title.
He's not very close to a title. And the West
is pretty young. If you look at OKC, you know,
even Houston's young. Minnesota, you know it's going to be
an uphill sledding here for the Lakers, even after Lebron.
(38:07):
That's the only curious part I have with Luca. Do
I understand the location and the area code, absolutely, and
the money, but are you going to win a championship
there in the next couple of years? And I would
argue you're not.
Speaker 12 (38:23):
I think that's a fair argument.
Speaker 13 (38:25):
I think you'd also say, had he was not been
traded from the Dallas Mavericks, it's not like they were
world beaters with that roster either, and he was committed
to try to make it work.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
But they went to the finals though, Dave, of course.
Speaker 12 (38:38):
They did, but they went to the finals of the
fifth seed.
Speaker 13 (38:41):
And as you just mentioned, the other teams of the
West got better this year, so it's not like they
were in the pole position to return.
Speaker 12 (38:48):
To the finals this year.
Speaker 13 (38:50):
The Lakers have a lot of work to do to
get this roster better, so he feels better about the
prospect of being here. They didn't have a center right,
so that's a huge glaring issue. He had two lob
threat centers and Derek Lively the second and Daniel Gafford
that helped fuel that trip to the finals.
Speaker 12 (39:09):
Rob Polinka has his work cutout for him.
Speaker 13 (39:11):
He had two brilliant trades this year to get Dorian
Finney Smith, who really helped this team defensively the second
half the year, and of course the Luca doga trade.
But this roster is incomplete, and Luca is that good
and Lebron is that committed that I don't think they're
miles away from the type of moves they need to
(39:32):
make to become one of the contenders on the short
list going into next year.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
What is Lebron playing for moving forward?
Speaker 13 (39:43):
He wants another championship, he knows it's within his grasp.
He is playing for the ability to be in the NBA,
not with just Bronnie James as his teammate, but Bronnie
James a contributor on a winning NBA team, and so
he's going to be along for that part of the
process as well, and he loves basketball like It's kind
(40:08):
of simple answer, but I think there's a kinship that
he shared with Tom Brady because there was a recognition
that I'm never going to do anything else in my
life that I love as much as this process. And
I've already put in so much time to get to
this point.
Speaker 12 (40:24):
I'm not going to walk.
Speaker 13 (40:25):
Away until my mind, my body, my spirit all tell
me to so as long as I have a chance
to be part of this endeavor with a chance to win.
Because you know the year they had in twenty one
twenty two when they came in with great expectations and
it didn't even make the playing tournament that aged him
(40:45):
like ten years.
Speaker 12 (40:47):
But the winning basketball they've.
Speaker 13 (40:49):
Been playing ever since the trade deadline of twenty twenty three,
he has pepin.
Speaker 12 (40:54):
And step and he wants to keep riding this thing.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
If I said, give me, Since you make your living
with your words, how would you describe Lebron's career as
a Lakers?
Speaker 12 (41:10):
You want one word?
Speaker 3 (41:11):
Do you have one word?
Speaker 12 (41:15):
Underwhelming by his standards? Okay, it's a.
Speaker 13 (41:19):
Few more than one, but getting a championship and become
the only player in league history to win finals, MVP,
and a championship with three different franchises, Like, we can't
understate what that accomplishment was. But there haven't been deep
playoff runs. There's been a fair share of drama off
(41:41):
the court. His body hasn't been totally reliable. That again,
we're talking about the coda to what was already a
completely brilliant career. If you just took the first Calves chapter,
or just the Miami chapter or the second Calves.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Chapter, good to talk to you, Dave. Thanks for joining us.
Accept Dave McManaman
Hosts And Creators
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Dan Patrick
Patrick "Seton" O'Connor
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