March 22, 2025 • 40 mins
Nick Wright breaks down how Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers have flipped the script to becoming a problem for the Nuggets with the NBA Playoffs quickly approaching. Later, he explains why Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns are in the worst position of any team in the NBA moving forward as well as why Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals will regret extending both Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to massive deals. #Volume #Herd
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the best of the Week for What's Right
with Nick Right the best takes in moments from this
week on the show. Enjoy.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
So since the start of February, they are seven and fifteen,
and like you just said, they have no injuries, so
it's kind.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Of weird whatever's going on over there.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Their preseason projected win total was set at forty six
and a half games, and it seemed like they might
miss the play in. Do you think that you think
the Suns are going to try to actually go on
a run or are they going to tank here?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well, the coach and the owner want them to go
on a run. I think the players might be over.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yea, I see him just seems more and more pissed
these days.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
He see. Yeah, Katie doesn't seem happy. Coach Bud told
Devin Booker basically to shut up the other day. That
didn't go over well. I mean, they are not trying
at all. On the defensive end, Luca was miked up
against the Suns, and Luca just said, I had kind
of been passing. I've never had so many open looks
(01:03):
in my life. Look, I've been playing professional basketball since
he's fifteen. He's like the worst defens I've ever seen,
and Lebron wasn't even out there to open stuff up.
And so uh, but the Suns, I don't know that
this is a hot take. The Suns are in the
(01:26):
worst position moving forward of any team in the league
because Mattishpia came in and bought the team and traded
away everything for Kevin Durant and then traded away everything
they had left for Bradley Beal. Beal has a no
(01:48):
trade and is not good. Durant is approaching thirty seven
and not going to get you a ton in return
and is gone this summer. And then you have Devin Booker,
who's a real asset. But it doesn't really make sense
to trade Booker because you would then be tanking and
(02:13):
you don't demonse. They do not have their own pick
until twenty thirty two. Twenty thirty two, it's twenty twenty five,
so they they traded their picks away, and then they
swapped picks, and then as part of the Beal trade,
(02:33):
they swapped the swaps. This is like a mortgage crisis,
but in the NBA. So they over the next seven drafts,
they either simply give their pick away or they are
in a three way swap with other teams, where of
the three teams they get the worst draft pick, so
(02:57):
even if they're the worst team in the league, that
doesn't help them. And they traded away most of their
second round picks. So it was again I used to
this is sorry for all these kind of non sequiturs.
Today's a show. I'm gonna be totally honest. Today's show
that is not necessarily going to go viral for a
(03:19):
lot of things, but real folks that are real what's
right or as awkward as this is to say, like
Nick Wright fans are going to really be enjoying today
because we talked hard cap, softcap, I did my basket,
my March madness rant. I'm now going to talk about
Ted Steppien for a second. So Ted Stepien was an
owner in the NBA in the eighties, and he was
(03:43):
so bad and so disastrous for the Calves. The NBA
made a rule that's called the Stepian rule. That's about
how many draft picks you can and cannot trade. You
can't trade draft picks in consecutive years. That's why teams
have to, like, you know, I'll trade you my twenty
(04:04):
five and my twenty seven because you can't just trade
away all your picks and you can only trade draft
picks like six years out. You know, those seven years out.
Those are the rules they put in to prevent an
owner from just destroying a team. And there has been
a lot of frustration from GM since then of like, man,
(04:26):
I would like full flexibility to uh, you know, run
my team as I see fit and not have these
guardrails in there. And I think at one point there
was a little momentum in the league like all right,
we're not in the tape delayed ear of the eighties.
It's smarter people running the teams. It's big money. Maybe
(04:49):
we don't need to, you know, have these guardrails in.
And then Mattishbia came along and is like Ted Steppi
and hold my beer. I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna
speed run, absolutely wrecking a decade of a team that again,
(05:09):
the Suns right before he took over, made the finals
and then where the number one seed sixty four wins
or sixty some win team, and then Luca eviscerated him,
and then they trade for KD. Then they trade for
Beal and now they're just ruined, absolutely ruined to a
point to where they even though the Mavericks are two
(05:33):
to eight in their last ten, don't have any healthy players,
their fans have turned on them. The Mavericks still have
a cushion in the standings. It's really a remarkable, remarkable
turn of.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Events month away from the playoffs. Who do you see
avoiding the play in.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So this is where our friends at tankathon are super helpful,
So where we can look at most difficult or easiest
strength of schedule left. So as a for instance, Phoenix,
who we're gonna get to in a minute, has far
and away the hardest schedule remaining. Phoenix has games left
(06:16):
against the Calves, the Thunder, two against Boston, the Knicks,
the Rockets, and the Warriors, with only two like layup
games the Spurs and the Bulls. So Phoenix, if they
were fighting for something, you'd be like, oh, they're in
rough shape. Here's why it matters. Minnesota has the third
(06:39):
easiest schedule remaining. Minnesota. Now, it's a bad loss last night,
but Minnesota is at you know, the teams they're up
against have a combined winning percentage of four thirty, and
they have games remaining against New Orleans, two of them,
the Jazz, two against the net that's one against the Sixers.
(07:02):
So you have five games remaining, no, I'm sorry, two
against New Orleans, two against the Nets, one six Ers,
one Jazz. Six games remaining against teams that actively want
to lose. So that's super helpful for Minnesota. The Warriors
are right at league average as far as their schedule remaining.
(07:23):
Their easiest games are New Orleans, Toronto, two against San Antonio,
Miami and Portland. Here's why it's to me somewhat noteworthy
that's they they own as far as teams that want
to lose. It's really only four for the Warriors as
(07:44):
far as the games they have left, and it's six
for Minnesota. So that plays in Minnesota's favor significantly. They
you know that Minnesota has two fewer games left than
Golden State. They have won more law Golden State. When
I heard Steve Kerse say, you know we are you know,
(08:08):
Steph's worn down, and that essentially we're going to take
care of Steph down the stretch and rest him tomorrow
or tonight, pardon me. Against Milwaukee. Now they don't have
the Warriors don't have many In fact, they only have
one No. Two back to back's left. They have a
(08:31):
back to back at the Lakers and then home for
the Nuggets, and then they have a back to back
a week later at Phoenix and then a home for
San Antonio. Right now, I would and this is not
going to be where Vegas would have it, but right
(08:52):
now I would anticipate that the Western Conference standings and
mark this down and see how this ages. But I
think the Western Conference standings are going to end up
Minnesota six, Golden State seven, Clippers eight, with the Kings
(09:16):
being the nine seed and then that ten seed being
just the saddest competition ever between Dallas and Phoenix, just
two teams who did not ever think this is where
they were going to end up, but it's where they
have ended up. And I talk one of the reasons, Actually,
(09:38):
what's that might need you? Oh yeah, well, they might
have to forfeit games. It's in so if people don't
to understand the forfeiting games things with the MAVs, let
me explain it. This is super nerdy, but I'll do
my best to explain it. The NBA has Here's okay,
(09:59):
I'm gonna have to talk about a few things here
hard cap, softcap. Okay, hardcap is the NFL where the
salary cap is a number and you must from the
first day of the league year until the last day
of the league year be under it at all times.
(10:23):
You cannot go a dollar over the hard cap. Now,
because of the way NFL contracts are structured, you can
always manipulate that year's cap guys cap figures by turning
salaries into signing bonuses, spreading them out over multiple years,
so it can feel like a soft cap at times.
(10:45):
But the cap is the cap, and however you need
to manipulate it. You can manipulate your own guys' salaries,
but you can't ever be over it. That's why the
NFL doesn't have things like a luxury tax, because chery
tax is for a soft cap sport like the NBA,
where we have a cap, but you can go over
(11:08):
it for various reasons. You can go way over it
at times. You just pay a penalty in luxury tax.
And one of the reasons the NBA kind of has
to work like that is because NBA player contracts are
guaranteed for the most part, you can't really manipulate a
player's contract like oh, we're turning your salary into a
signing bonus. It's not how it works. So they need
(11:31):
a soft cap. Except and of course, there are certain
things NBA teams can do transactionally which triggers an actual
hard cap. So if you're an Apron team and do
a sign in trade, all of a sudden, you have
(11:53):
a hard cap. If there's certain things, we need Bobby
Marts to really explain all of it. But there are
certain things that can happen where oh no, now you
do have an NFL style hard cap. The MAVs are
a team with a hard cap. So here's why you're
hearing about the MAVs potentially having the forfeit games. You
(12:17):
must have eight healthy players ready and able to play.
The MAVs are close to exhausting their limit on two
way guys, guys from their G league team that can
call up, send down, call up and send down. They
(12:37):
have had all these injuries, and because of the hard
cap demons, they are not allowed to sign another minimum player.
They can't go over the hard cap. They are running
out of two way guys' eligibility. Even they are so
(12:59):
close to the hard cap, they don't have the space
for another minimum guy they can't sign their version of
and Alex Lynn just be like, hey, come off the
street and play for us.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
So to be a perfect situation for Browny right.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Oh yeah, or for any young player or any draft
pick right to get some burn. But they they suited
up eight healthy guys the other day. Yeah, So it
would be I've never in my life watching the NBA,
I've never seen a team have to forfeit games because
they didn't have eligible players. It would be kind of
(13:39):
the crowning achievement of what has been six weeks of
just a fever dream of terror for MAVs fans, starting
with the Luca trade, then the added pain of Ad
getting hurt, then the real pain of Kyrie blowing out
(14:00):
his knee, then the like, oh, you've got to be
kidding me. Quinton Grimes all of a sudden is a
star player in this league. We gave him away for
Caleb Martin for no reason whatsoever, and now we're gonna
have to maybe forfeit games. Unpresced in it, just unpressed
in it. But flip side of that is AD's ramping
(14:21):
up and they might make the playoffs or the play
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Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yeah so funny.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Luca actually came out and said that any team that
has Yokis is always going to be dangerous. But like
you just said, Jokis and Murray didn't play, so Luca
let them up. La Cruz that you Yeah, he's he's
looking really good. He's also had his six thirtieth point
game in a month of March. What do you think
about the Nuggets resting their guys again?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Though, so listen, Joker plays as much as anybody. Michael
Malone was correct that Jokers played I think the second
most games of any player in the last decade, So
I'm not going to kill him for it. I'm not
certain exactly why Jamal Mury, you know, Jamal Murray couldn't play.
Maybe because Jamal Murray without NIKOI Jokic, you know, doesn't
(16:31):
quite look like the Jamal Murray that a lot of
folks like to believe. He can be. I I will
say this, the Nuggets are no longer a bad matchup
for the Lakers. The Lakers are a bad matchup for
the Nuggets. And that's with or without Joker. And there's
multiple reasons for this. Uh. I understand Daniel, our producer,
(16:56):
saying Jamal was hurt last game two. I get it, man,
I'm the I'm not accusing anyone of anything, do I
Does anybody think that if this were a playoff game,
Joe Kitchen Murray wouldn't wouldn't have played. Of course not
They're not that injured, But that's totally fine. You want
(17:17):
them to be rested and healthy. You'd prefer it not
happen on a national TV game. You'd prefer it not
have to happen in back to back games. But it
is what it is, so to speak like, you deal
with it, and you, you know, you move forward. I
think a lot of people assumed that the Nuggets, because
they rested those guys or they didn't play against the Warriors,
(17:39):
that they would play in the next game. But whatever.
I'm not going to kill him for that. What I
am going to talk about is if this is a
playoff matchup, it favors the Lakers heavily because here is
the thing. The Lakers scored one twenty last night, could
have scored one forty, and I said it on the
TV show. I will say it again with this question
(18:05):
in the playoffs, if you get Lakers Nuggets, if Aaron
Gordon is primarily matched up on Lebron, who is guarding Luca?
They tried some Peyton Watson last night, how'd that work?
Luca had twenty before you turn the game on, and okay, no, no, no,
(18:27):
Aaron Gordon's gonna guard Luca? Then who is guarding Lebron?
It ain't Michael Porter Junior in his bad back, It
ain't Russell Westbrook. It certainly ain't Christian Brown. Who are
we talking about? Concr He ain't doing it, Gonna dust
off Dario, sorrych he ain't doing it. It's it's certainly
(18:50):
not the two guys who were missing last night and
Joe Kitchen Murray. The Nuggets are a bad defensive team
at this point, and having you go Kitchen Murray out
doesn't hurt their defense. And the Lakers scored at will
without Lebron. Now, the Lakers, I think are going to
actually end up being the best offense in the league,
(19:12):
and you're starting to see it where they are generating
so many great looks from three, so many wide open threes,
and that's without Lebron on the court. And here's the
other thing about the Lakers Nuggets matchup. The best thing
the Nuggets had going for them in these playoff matchups
(19:34):
is Joker, no question. The second best thing they had
going for him was Di'angelo Russell minutes. And the third
best thing they had going for him was Darvin Ham's coaching,
which is why there was nobody that was a bigger
Darvin Ham defender than Michael Malone. Michael Malone out there
defending Darvin Ham, like Darvin Ham owes him money and
(19:59):
he needs him to stay employed to get it. He's like,
this is unfair that guy took him to the conference final.
There is an outrage and Michael Malone now of a sudden,
Lakers got real coach. And by the way, are we
done with that demands? I haven't checked the scoreboard. Is
JJ Reddick now just Lakers head coach? Or is he
still you know Lebron's podcast buddy, or now that everybody
(20:21):
knows he's a great coach, or we just saying no,
he's a Lakers head coach, because I know if he
wasn't a great coach, it would be Lebron's podcast, Buddy.
It'd be like, I'm I just again, I'm not sure
the exact rule, right, and I'm not sure about the
rules of any of this stuff. What I do know
is this Nuggets are in real, real trouble and the
Lakers are real, real dangerous.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
You don't think, Anya, you're just like resting there guys strategically,
like the same thing Golden State did with Steph Curry.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I think that's a game they wanted to win that
you're fighting for seating. I I don't right now. The
Western garment standings go like this, Oklahoma City has locked
the one seed. It's so bananas they they have lock
(21:12):
locked up the well, I guess technically they're their magic
number for locking up the one seed is one game
with fifteen or how however we eat thirteen games remaining. Uh,
they have fifty seven wins. No one else in the
conference can get to fifty eight. So Oklahoma City's locked.
(21:34):
And then it gets interesting. The Rockets have twenty five losses.
The Lakers have twenty five losses. The Nuggets have twenty six,
the Grizzlies have twenty seven, the Warriors have twenty nine,
Clippers thirty, Timberwolves thirty one. So four five six, I'm sorry,
two three four five two games apart, two three four
(22:00):
one loss apart, and I don't think the Nuggets want
to give these games away. Say it again, it would be.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
In their best interest being one game.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
I mean they were tied before last night and then
not absolutely.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
And the other piece of it is because of last
With a win yesterday, they would have locked up the
season series three to one, which would have given them
the head to have tybreaker if they finished with the
same record. Now it's two to two, so I'm not
even sure what tybreaker it goes to. Now the Nuggets,
do they get Portland next, then Houston Chicago? Like I'm
(22:43):
just looking at their easy, tough games. I think they
When we went to Tankathon before and we checked it,
I thought the Nuggets were league average essentially remaining strength
strength of schedule. They have a little tougher than league average.
They have the eleventh hardest strength of schedule left the
Lakers by the way of the third hardest strength of
(23:06):
schedule left Houston tenth hardest. I'm just doing the teams
fighting for this seed, Memphis seventh hardest, Golden State with
the easiest of the group with the eighteenth hardest. So
but here's the other piece of it. For the Lakers,
as I said the other day, you can now kind
of definitively say, even though they lost those first three
(23:29):
without Lebron, they have survived his injury. They I said,
if you miss ten games, going six and four would
be a great result. And six and four is now
very on the board, and I don't know that he's
gonna miss four more. But the Lakers are three and three.
(23:50):
Lost to Brooklyn, bad loss, lost to Milwaukee, lost to Denver,
and what would have been an unbelievable win when Denver
had all its guys and Lakers without six of their
time eight and then blue out Phoenix, blew out San Antonio,
blew out Denver. And now the next four home for Milwaukee,
tonight home for Chicago at Orlando, at Indiana. Can you
(24:16):
go three to one in those four You should be
able to even if Lebron's not back. And that's the
other piece of last night, the blowout being awesome Luca
only played thirty two minutes. Reeves probably played a little
more than he needed to, but so be it. And
so the Lakers are really well positioned. Houston keeps winning. Houston,
(24:38):
to their credit, has really taken advantage of the absolute
softest stretch of their schedule imaginable, and they have won
more soft game Friday against Miami. But their schedule during
this winning streak has been the following teams for Houston,
New Orleans, New Orleans, Orlando, Phoenix, Dallas, Chicago, Philly, Orlando.
(25:04):
So those are the worst, like some of the worst
teams in the league, plus Orlando, which has been really
bad for months, and Phoenix, which hates itself, and now
you have Miami, and then it gets way tougher for Houston.
So I because after Miami, Houston goes Denver, Atlanta, Utah, Phoenix,
Lakers Utah Oka see Golden State Clippers Lakers Denver. What
(25:27):
a final stretch for Houston final five games Oka see
Golden State Clippers Lakers Denver. I wonder what OKAC is
gonna do down the stretch because they will have locked
up the one seed and with the Cavs losing all
of a sudden as of Lake, they won't you know,
they're gonna be in a good position for the number
one overall seed. But I expect Houston to drop back.
(25:49):
And I am the Lakers got a real shot at
the two, a real shot at the two, and so
I you know, I think And Daniel tells me LA
is the tiebreaker because they win win their division. Oh,
the stupid divisions are the next tiebreaker. Oh well, then
(26:09):
last night's game was even bigger for Denver because now
if they finished with the same record, Lakers have the tiebreaker.
That's noteworthy. That's really really noteworthy. All right, Ask what
are the follow ups here?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Pal, Well, who do you think needs to adjust more
when Lebron does come back, because you know, Lucas obviously
getting into a groove. So Lebron Luca, Oh, Lebron's Lebron.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Lebron can do more different things. Lebron can play so
many different ways, So it wouldn't make sense to ask
Luca to adjust because Lucas not going to be great
at other things. Lebron can be great at playing almost
any style of offensive basketball. So Lebron should and will
look like And so that to me is not even
(26:55):
a concern, and one of the benefits demonse you having
every single statistical record in NBA history already accomplished, you
don't have to worry about your stats as much like
when you already have all the records, you already have
all the all nbas, all the points, all the all
(27:17):
of that you can, you don't really have to necessarily
put that first and foremost in your mind. Now, I
will tell you this a sneaky stat that Lebron cares about.
That is such a silly one.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
The double digit what oh.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Well, no, no, no, that one's not sneaky. That one's definitive.
The thirteen hundred straight games of at least ten points.
But he doesn't have to try to get that one.
It's that he has averaged at least twenty five points
per game to the tenth of a point in every
single year of his career except for his rookie season,
(27:58):
twenty one straight years. And the reason I know he
cares about it is a few years ago, post ankle injury,
going into the final game of the year, he needed
a bucket. I think he knew the exact amount of
points he needed, and he needed a bucket late and
went and got it, so he finished that year averaging
twenty five point zero zero zero. Right now this moment,
(28:24):
Lebron has played fifty eight games and has scored one
thy four hundred and fifty points. So let's just do
the math on that fourteen point fifty divided by fifty eight,
that is twenty five point zero zero zero zero zero.
(28:45):
So here's the point I'm making. I do think Lebron
will want to make sure when he comes back he's
still getting twenty five at night. I haven't talked to him,
but I think that is a sna niki one that
he would be annoyed if he missed it by a
couple one hundredths of a point.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
So to make the adjustments with Luca like him getting
twenty five points isn't like a stretch like.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I don't think that's no aim.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
I actually think his scoring might go up with the
new role, because I think his assists will plummet, and
scoring go up a bit, and rebounding go up a lot.
That's what I would anticipate is gonna happen here when
(29:41):
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Speaker 3 (31:51):
Bengals Bengals bangles Man so, Jamar Chase and T.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Jiggins are now the highest paid non quarterbacks in history,
and Hey is the highest highest wide receiver two so
for their cap is going to those players. Put your
gam hat on. How would you fix this? Oh, my goodness,
they're screw me.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
They don't well, I mean they don't think they're screwed.
I think it's an insane way to run a team.
And I think it's a low So here's what Higgins becomes,
as Demant said, the highest paid wide receiver two in
the league, Chase becomes the highest paid non quarterback in
the league. And Burrow's got a huge salary as well.
(32:32):
It's not that you can't win with three huge contracts.
It's that having all of your huge contracts just be
about the passing game doesn't make a ton of sense,
and having all of your resources debt like it's a
low key insult to Burrow. And I know it's what
(32:57):
Burrow wanted, so he doesn't view it this way. But
here's what I mean. It operates as if you're not
gonna have an elite passing game unless you have both
of these elite weapons. And I think Joe Burrow's better
than that. I think Joe Burrow would be just fine
(33:18):
with just one of these guys. And I think that again,
the example people use as a defense of this is
Peyton's Cults. But here's the problem with you. Because Peyton's
Cults had Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison. The problem with
(33:40):
using that as an example is they also had Dwight
Freenian Robert Mathis as bookend defensive ends. But the other
problem with that is Peyton's Colts with respect underachieved. You
had thirteen years of Peyton manning, eleven of those are
(34:04):
peak Peyton Manning years. You made two Super Bowls one
to one. Compare that to the Broncos who had four
years of Peyton Manning only three of those peak Peyton
Manning years. They also went to two Super Bowls and
one one by building a well rounded team. Compare it
(34:25):
to the Chiefs who had a choice to make a
few years ago. We are not going to be able
to pay Tyreek and Chris Jones, so you know what,
We're gonna move Tyreek to save the money for Chris
and ask Patrick to do more with less. And they've
(34:45):
been to every Super Bowl since then and so and yeah,
mahomes last two years as numbers of DIP. Now his
first year without Tyrek, he won the MVP at the
most yards of any player in a season ever, first
player win League MVP and Super Bowl MVP since Kurt Warner.
But set that aside, Uh, it is just to me
(35:06):
the wrong approach to building a team. So what would
I have done? I would have a year ago, A
year ago traded T Higgins when I could have gotten
a first round pick for him and dedicated more resources
to the defense. But here is what I'll say about it,
demonse I Burrow wanted this, and it's fine. But he's
(35:30):
a smart guy and he understands the resources are limited.
He understands what this means. It kind of removes a
little bit of the if next year goes how last
year went, where Burrow's numbers are unbelievable, the Bengals offense
is excellent and they missed the playoffs because the defense
(35:54):
is terrible. It's not quite as an accomplishment for Joe
Burrow as this year he got MVP votes because it
was like, oh my god, he's doing his job. What
can he do about the defense being awful? Well, when
you go on every talk show imaginable and say you
(36:16):
need Higgins and Chase back and you understand what that
means about your ability to improve your offensive line in
your defense, well, now it probably is a little more
fair to at least put some of potential Bengals struggles,
even if they're defense related, at the feet of their quarterback.
(36:36):
I know that sounds odd, but I just think it's
I think it's probably the wrong approach. To building a
sustainable champion, and it also is it It is to
me certainly not the right approach to win that division.
And the problem with that is, I don't think you
(37:02):
have any shot of winning three straight road AFC playoff
games that'll probably be outdoors, probably in cold weather cities,
with a defense that looks like the Bengals is going
to look for the near future. So I just think
I think it's a mistake, even though it's fun. All right,
(37:24):
let's talk Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Oh yeah, Aaron Rodgers still does not know where he
wants to go.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Talks are if the Vikings don't want him, he might
retire or do you think you see Aaron Rodgers going?
Speaker 1 (37:36):
I mean probably the Steelers. But Rapaport reported this morning
that he might not decide until after the draft. The
draft drafts in like forty days, and I understand actually
why he would wait until after the draft, because he
doesn't want to pick Pittsburgh and then see you know,
(37:57):
as a for instance, Schaedor drop and then the Steelers
draft a quarterback and he's like, what the hell, so
or pick the Giants and then they draft shot or
at three like who knows? But I am I'm over
the Aaron Rodgers story in this regard. I just I
(38:18):
don't think the twentieth best quarterback in football is worth
this time or attention. And I really don't understand why
the Vikings would be entertaining this Demond's unless they are
unless they have undisclosed news about JJ McCarthy's injury that
(38:41):
they sum. But the only way that even makes sense
is if they got this news somehow in the short
window of time between when they let Donald walk and
you know this last week, which was only a few days.
Because now that we have the actual Sam Darnold contract details.
Another one up to the sports media on Budsman by
(39:02):
the way, who said, instead of all these tweets just
giving love to the agents that negotiated the deals, can
we please get accurate contract info. For a week we
were told Sam Darnald got fifty five million guaranteed. Turns
out he got thirty seven million guaranteed. Turns out the
contract Sam Donald got is essentially one year, thirty seven
(39:23):
and a half million dollars and then two team options afterwards.
Who to funk it. If that's all it was going
to take to keep Donald, they could have gotten him
essentially for one year forty million bucks. If you're worried
about JJ McCarthy, then do that. Yeah, he's better than
Rogers at this point, kind of a.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Like why would any team want it?
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Like just not even a football standpoint, just him as
a I'm not trying to attack his.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Character or anything, but he just he ruined stuff.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Well, yeah, I mean I think it's fair to attack
his football character and yeah, leadership and also like why
is he taking this long? I think because he can,
and because it is a good way to make it
clear who has the upper hand in the relationship from
the moment the relationship starts, like if if you can
(40:18):
make some an entire organization, Wait, poor Russell Wilson's like,
I can't even sign with a team until this guy does,
like and so it's just asserting asserting dominance, I guess,
is what some would say.
Welcome to the best of the Week for What's Right
with Nick Right the best takes in moments from this
week on the show. Enjoy.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
So since the start of February, they are seven and fifteen,
and like you just said, they have no injuries, so
it's kind.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Of weird whatever's going on over there.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Their preseason projected win total was set at forty six
and a half games, and it seemed like they might
miss the play in. Do you think that you think
the Suns are going to try to actually go on
a run or are they going to tank here?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well, the coach and the owner want them to go
on a run. I think the players might be over.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yea, I see him just seems more and more pissed
these days.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
He see. Yeah, Katie doesn't seem happy. Coach Bud told
Devin Booker basically to shut up the other day. That
didn't go over well. I mean, they are not trying
at all. On the defensive end, Luca was miked up
against the Suns, and Luca just said, I had kind
of been passing. I've never had so many open looks
(01:03):
in my life. Look, I've been playing professional basketball since
he's fifteen. He's like the worst defens I've ever seen,
and Lebron wasn't even out there to open stuff up.
And so uh, but the Suns, I don't know that
this is a hot take. The Suns are in the
(01:26):
worst position moving forward of any team in the league
because Mattishpia came in and bought the team and traded
away everything for Kevin Durant and then traded away everything
they had left for Bradley Beal. Beal has a no
(01:48):
trade and is not good. Durant is approaching thirty seven
and not going to get you a ton in return
and is gone this summer. And then you have Devin Booker,
who's a real asset. But it doesn't really make sense
to trade Booker because you would then be tanking and
(02:13):
you don't demonse. They do not have their own pick
until twenty thirty two. Twenty thirty two, it's twenty twenty five,
so they they traded their picks away, and then they
swapped picks, and then as part of the Beal trade,
(02:33):
they swapped the swaps. This is like a mortgage crisis,
but in the NBA. So they over the next seven drafts,
they either simply give their pick away or they are
in a three way swap with other teams, where of
the three teams they get the worst draft pick, so
(02:57):
even if they're the worst team in the league, that
doesn't help them. And they traded away most of their
second round picks. So it was again I used to
this is sorry for all these kind of non sequiturs.
Today's a show. I'm gonna be totally honest. Today's show
that is not necessarily going to go viral for a
(03:19):
lot of things, but real folks that are real what's
right or as awkward as this is to say, like
Nick Wright fans are going to really be enjoying today
because we talked hard cap, softcap, I did my basket,
my March madness rant. I'm now going to talk about
Ted Steppien for a second. So Ted Stepien was an
owner in the NBA in the eighties, and he was
(03:43):
so bad and so disastrous for the Calves. The NBA
made a rule that's called the Stepian rule. That's about
how many draft picks you can and cannot trade. You
can't trade draft picks in consecutive years. That's why teams
have to, like, you know, I'll trade you my twenty
(04:04):
five and my twenty seven because you can't just trade
away all your picks and you can only trade draft
picks like six years out. You know, those seven years out.
Those are the rules they put in to prevent an
owner from just destroying a team. And there has been
a lot of frustration from GM since then of like, man,
(04:26):
I would like full flexibility to uh, you know, run
my team as I see fit and not have these
guardrails in there. And I think at one point there
was a little momentum in the league like all right,
we're not in the tape delayed ear of the eighties.
It's smarter people running the teams. It's big money. Maybe
(04:49):
we don't need to, you know, have these guardrails in.
And then Mattishbia came along and is like Ted Steppi
and hold my beer. I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna
speed run, absolutely wrecking a decade of a team that again,
(05:09):
the Suns right before he took over, made the finals
and then where the number one seed sixty four wins
or sixty some win team, and then Luca eviscerated him,
and then they trade for KD. Then they trade for
Beal and now they're just ruined, absolutely ruined to a
point to where they even though the Mavericks are two
(05:33):
to eight in their last ten, don't have any healthy players,
their fans have turned on them. The Mavericks still have
a cushion in the standings. It's really a remarkable, remarkable
turn of.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Events month away from the playoffs. Who do you see
avoiding the play in.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So this is where our friends at tankathon are super helpful,
So where we can look at most difficult or easiest
strength of schedule left. So as a for instance, Phoenix,
who we're gonna get to in a minute, has far
and away the hardest schedule remaining. Phoenix has games left
(06:16):
against the Calves, the Thunder, two against Boston, the Knicks,
the Rockets, and the Warriors, with only two like layup
games the Spurs and the Bulls. So Phoenix, if they
were fighting for something, you'd be like, oh, they're in
rough shape. Here's why it matters. Minnesota has the third
(06:39):
easiest schedule remaining. Minnesota. Now, it's a bad loss last night,
but Minnesota is at you know, the teams they're up
against have a combined winning percentage of four thirty, and
they have games remaining against New Orleans, two of them,
the Jazz, two against the net that's one against the Sixers.
(07:02):
So you have five games remaining, no, I'm sorry, two
against New Orleans, two against the Nets, one six Ers,
one Jazz. Six games remaining against teams that actively want
to lose. So that's super helpful for Minnesota. The Warriors
are right at league average as far as their schedule remaining.
(07:23):
Their easiest games are New Orleans, Toronto, two against San Antonio,
Miami and Portland. Here's why it's to me somewhat noteworthy
that's they they own as far as teams that want
to lose. It's really only four for the Warriors as
(07:44):
far as the games they have left, and it's six
for Minnesota. So that plays in Minnesota's favor significantly. They
you know that Minnesota has two fewer games left than
Golden State. They have won more law Golden State. When
I heard Steve Kerse say, you know we are you know,
(08:08):
Steph's worn down, and that essentially we're going to take
care of Steph down the stretch and rest him tomorrow
or tonight, pardon me. Against Milwaukee. Now they don't have
the Warriors don't have many In fact, they only have
one No. Two back to back's left. They have a
(08:31):
back to back at the Lakers and then home for
the Nuggets, and then they have a back to back
a week later at Phoenix and then a home for
San Antonio. Right now, I would and this is not
going to be where Vegas would have it, but right
(08:52):
now I would anticipate that the Western Conference standings and
mark this down and see how this ages. But I
think the Western Conference standings are going to end up
Minnesota six, Golden State seven, Clippers eight, with the Kings
(09:16):
being the nine seed and then that ten seed being
just the saddest competition ever between Dallas and Phoenix, just
two teams who did not ever think this is where
they were going to end up, but it's where they
have ended up. And I talk one of the reasons, Actually,
(09:38):
what's that might need you? Oh yeah, well, they might
have to forfeit games. It's in so if people don't
to understand the forfeiting games things with the MAVs, let
me explain it. This is super nerdy, but I'll do
my best to explain it. The NBA has Here's okay,
(09:59):
I'm gonna have to talk about a few things here
hard cap, softcap. Okay, hardcap is the NFL where the
salary cap is a number and you must from the
first day of the league year until the last day
of the league year be under it at all times.
(10:23):
You cannot go a dollar over the hard cap. Now,
because of the way NFL contracts are structured, you can
always manipulate that year's cap guys cap figures by turning
salaries into signing bonuses, spreading them out over multiple years,
so it can feel like a soft cap at times.
(10:45):
But the cap is the cap, and however you need
to manipulate it. You can manipulate your own guys' salaries,
but you can't ever be over it. That's why the
NFL doesn't have things like a luxury tax, because chery
tax is for a soft cap sport like the NBA,
where we have a cap, but you can go over
(11:08):
it for various reasons. You can go way over it
at times. You just pay a penalty in luxury tax.
And one of the reasons the NBA kind of has
to work like that is because NBA player contracts are
guaranteed for the most part, you can't really manipulate a
player's contract like oh, we're turning your salary into a
signing bonus. It's not how it works. So they need
(11:31):
a soft cap. Except and of course, there are certain
things NBA teams can do transactionally which triggers an actual
hard cap. So if you're an Apron team and do
a sign in trade, all of a sudden, you have
(11:53):
a hard cap. If there's certain things, we need Bobby
Marts to really explain all of it. But there are
certain things that can happen where oh no, now you
do have an NFL style hard cap. The MAVs are
a team with a hard cap. So here's why you're
hearing about the MAVs potentially having the forfeit games. You
(12:17):
must have eight healthy players ready and able to play.
The MAVs are close to exhausting their limit on two
way guys, guys from their G league team that can
call up, send down, call up and send down. They
(12:37):
have had all these injuries, and because of the hard
cap demons, they are not allowed to sign another minimum player.
They can't go over the hard cap. They are running
out of two way guys' eligibility. Even they are so
(12:59):
close to the hard cap, they don't have the space
for another minimum guy they can't sign their version of
and Alex Lynn just be like, hey, come off the
street and play for us.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
So to be a perfect situation for Browny right.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Oh yeah, or for any young player or any draft
pick right to get some burn. But they they suited
up eight healthy guys the other day. Yeah, So it
would be I've never in my life watching the NBA,
I've never seen a team have to forfeit games because
they didn't have eligible players. It would be kind of
(13:39):
the crowning achievement of what has been six weeks of
just a fever dream of terror for MAVs fans, starting
with the Luca trade, then the added pain of Ad
getting hurt, then the real pain of Kyrie blowing out
(14:00):
his knee, then the like, oh, you've got to be
kidding me. Quinton Grimes all of a sudden is a
star player in this league. We gave him away for
Caleb Martin for no reason whatsoever, and now we're gonna
have to maybe forfeit games. Unpresced in it, just unpressed
in it. But flip side of that is AD's ramping
(14:21):
up and they might make the playoffs or the play
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Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yeah so funny.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Luca actually came out and said that any team that
has Yokis is always going to be dangerous. But like
you just said, Jokis and Murray didn't play, so Luca
let them up. La Cruz that you Yeah, he's he's
looking really good. He's also had his six thirtieth point
game in a month of March. What do you think
about the Nuggets resting their guys again?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Though, so listen, Joker plays as much as anybody. Michael
Malone was correct that Jokers played I think the second
most games of any player in the last decade, So
I'm not going to kill him for it. I'm not
certain exactly why Jamal Mury, you know, Jamal Murray couldn't play.
Maybe because Jamal Murray without NIKOI Jokic, you know, doesn't
(16:31):
quite look like the Jamal Murray that a lot of
folks like to believe. He can be. I I will
say this, the Nuggets are no longer a bad matchup
for the Lakers. The Lakers are a bad matchup for
the Nuggets. And that's with or without Joker. And there's
multiple reasons for this. Uh. I understand Daniel, our producer,
(16:56):
saying Jamal was hurt last game two. I get it, man,
I'm the I'm not accusing anyone of anything, do I
Does anybody think that if this were a playoff game,
Joe Kitchen Murray wouldn't wouldn't have played. Of course not
They're not that injured, But that's totally fine. You want
(17:17):
them to be rested and healthy. You'd prefer it not
happen on a national TV game. You'd prefer it not
have to happen in back to back games. But it
is what it is, so to speak like, you deal
with it, and you, you know, you move forward. I
think a lot of people assumed that the Nuggets, because
they rested those guys or they didn't play against the Warriors,
(17:39):
that they would play in the next game. But whatever.
I'm not going to kill him for that. What I
am going to talk about is if this is a
playoff matchup, it favors the Lakers heavily because here is
the thing. The Lakers scored one twenty last night, could
have scored one forty, and I said it on the
TV show. I will say it again with this question
(18:05):
in the playoffs, if you get Lakers Nuggets, if Aaron
Gordon is primarily matched up on Lebron, who is guarding Luca?
They tried some Peyton Watson last night, how'd that work?
Luca had twenty before you turn the game on, and okay, no, no, no,
(18:27):
Aaron Gordon's gonna guard Luca? Then who is guarding Lebron?
It ain't Michael Porter Junior in his bad back, It
ain't Russell Westbrook. It certainly ain't Christian Brown. Who are
we talking about? Concr He ain't doing it, Gonna dust
off Dario, sorrych he ain't doing it. It's it's certainly
(18:50):
not the two guys who were missing last night and
Joe Kitchen Murray. The Nuggets are a bad defensive team
at this point, and having you go Kitchen Murray out
doesn't hurt their defense. And the Lakers scored at will
without Lebron. Now, the Lakers, I think are going to
actually end up being the best offense in the league,
(19:12):
and you're starting to see it where they are generating
so many great looks from three, so many wide open threes,
and that's without Lebron on the court. And here's the
other thing about the Lakers Nuggets matchup. The best thing
the Nuggets had going for them in these playoff matchups
(19:34):
is Joker, no question. The second best thing they had
going for him was Di'angelo Russell minutes. And the third
best thing they had going for him was Darvin Ham's coaching,
which is why there was nobody that was a bigger
Darvin Ham defender than Michael Malone. Michael Malone out there
defending Darvin Ham, like Darvin Ham owes him money and
(19:59):
he needs him to stay employed to get it. He's like,
this is unfair that guy took him to the conference final.
There is an outrage and Michael Malone now of a sudden,
Lakers got real coach. And by the way, are we
done with that demands? I haven't checked the scoreboard. Is
JJ Reddick now just Lakers head coach? Or is he
still you know Lebron's podcast buddy, or now that everybody
(20:21):
knows he's a great coach, or we just saying no,
he's a Lakers head coach, because I know if he
wasn't a great coach, it would be Lebron's podcast, Buddy.
It'd be like, I'm I just again, I'm not sure
the exact rule, right, and I'm not sure about the
rules of any of this stuff. What I do know
is this Nuggets are in real, real trouble and the
Lakers are real, real dangerous.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
You don't think, Anya, you're just like resting there guys strategically,
like the same thing Golden State did with Steph Curry.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
I think that's a game they wanted to win that
you're fighting for seating. I I don't right now. The
Western garment standings go like this, Oklahoma City has locked
the one seed. It's so bananas they they have lock
(21:12):
locked up the well, I guess technically they're their magic
number for locking up the one seed is one game
with fifteen or how however we eat thirteen games remaining. Uh,
they have fifty seven wins. No one else in the
conference can get to fifty eight. So Oklahoma City's locked.
(21:34):
And then it gets interesting. The Rockets have twenty five losses.
The Lakers have twenty five losses. The Nuggets have twenty six,
the Grizzlies have twenty seven, the Warriors have twenty nine,
Clippers thirty, Timberwolves thirty one. So four five six, I'm sorry,
two three four five two games apart, two three four
(22:00):
one loss apart, and I don't think the Nuggets want
to give these games away. Say it again, it would be.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
In their best interest being one game.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
I mean they were tied before last night and then
not absolutely.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
And the other piece of it is because of last
With a win yesterday, they would have locked up the
season series three to one, which would have given them
the head to have tybreaker if they finished with the
same record. Now it's two to two, so I'm not
even sure what tybreaker it goes to. Now the Nuggets,
do they get Portland next, then Houston Chicago? Like I'm
(22:43):
just looking at their easy, tough games. I think they
When we went to Tankathon before and we checked it,
I thought the Nuggets were league average essentially remaining strength
strength of schedule. They have a little tougher than league average.
They have the eleventh hardest strength of schedule left the
Lakers by the way of the third hardest strength of
(23:06):
schedule left Houston tenth hardest. I'm just doing the teams
fighting for this seed, Memphis seventh hardest, Golden State with
the easiest of the group with the eighteenth hardest. So
but here's the other piece of it. For the Lakers,
as I said the other day, you can now kind
of definitively say, even though they lost those first three
(23:29):
without Lebron, they have survived his injury. They I said,
if you miss ten games, going six and four would
be a great result. And six and four is now
very on the board, and I don't know that he's
gonna miss four more. But the Lakers are three and three.
(23:50):
Lost to Brooklyn, bad loss, lost to Milwaukee, lost to Denver,
and what would have been an unbelievable win when Denver
had all its guys and Lakers without six of their
time eight and then blue out Phoenix, blew out San Antonio,
blew out Denver. And now the next four home for Milwaukee,
tonight home for Chicago at Orlando, at Indiana. Can you
(24:16):
go three to one in those four You should be
able to even if Lebron's not back. And that's the
other piece of last night, the blowout being awesome Luca
only played thirty two minutes. Reeves probably played a little
more than he needed to, but so be it. And
so the Lakers are really well positioned. Houston keeps winning. Houston,
(24:38):
to their credit, has really taken advantage of the absolute
softest stretch of their schedule imaginable, and they have won
more soft game Friday against Miami. But their schedule during
this winning streak has been the following teams for Houston,
New Orleans, New Orleans, Orlando, Phoenix, Dallas, Chicago, Philly, Orlando.
(25:04):
So those are the worst, like some of the worst
teams in the league, plus Orlando, which has been really
bad for months, and Phoenix, which hates itself, and now
you have Miami, and then it gets way tougher for Houston.
So I because after Miami, Houston goes Denver, Atlanta, Utah, Phoenix,
Lakers Utah Oka see Golden State Clippers Lakers Denver. What
(25:27):
a final stretch for Houston final five games Oka see
Golden State Clippers Lakers Denver. I wonder what OKAC is
gonna do down the stretch because they will have locked
up the one seed and with the Cavs losing all
of a sudden as of Lake, they won't you know,
they're gonna be in a good position for the number
one overall seed. But I expect Houston to drop back.
(25:49):
And I am the Lakers got a real shot at
the two, a real shot at the two, and so
I you know, I think And Daniel tells me LA
is the tiebreaker because they win win their division. Oh,
the stupid divisions are the next tiebreaker. Oh well, then
(26:09):
last night's game was even bigger for Denver because now
if they finished with the same record, Lakers have the tiebreaker.
That's noteworthy. That's really really noteworthy. All right, Ask what
are the follow ups here?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Pal, Well, who do you think needs to adjust more
when Lebron does come back, because you know, Lucas obviously
getting into a groove. So Lebron Luca, Oh, Lebron's Lebron.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Lebron can do more different things. Lebron can play so
many different ways, So it wouldn't make sense to ask
Luca to adjust because Lucas not going to be great
at other things. Lebron can be great at playing almost
any style of offensive basketball. So Lebron should and will
look like And so that to me is not even
(26:55):
a concern, and one of the benefits demonse you having
every single statistical record in NBA history already accomplished, you
don't have to worry about your stats as much like
when you already have all the records, you already have
all the all nbas, all the points, all the all
(27:17):
of that you can, you don't really have to necessarily
put that first and foremost in your mind. Now, I
will tell you this a sneaky stat that Lebron cares about.
That is such a silly one.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
The double digit what oh.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Well, no, no, no, that one's not sneaky. That one's definitive.
The thirteen hundred straight games of at least ten points.
But he doesn't have to try to get that one.
It's that he has averaged at least twenty five points
per game to the tenth of a point in every
single year of his career except for his rookie season,
(27:58):
twenty one straight years. And the reason I know he
cares about it is a few years ago, post ankle injury,
going into the final game of the year, he needed
a bucket. I think he knew the exact amount of
points he needed, and he needed a bucket late and
went and got it, so he finished that year averaging
twenty five point zero zero zero. Right now this moment,
(28:24):
Lebron has played fifty eight games and has scored one
thy four hundred and fifty points. So let's just do
the math on that fourteen point fifty divided by fifty eight,
that is twenty five point zero zero zero zero zero.
(28:45):
So here's the point I'm making. I do think Lebron
will want to make sure when he comes back he's
still getting twenty five at night. I haven't talked to him,
but I think that is a sna niki one that
he would be annoyed if he missed it by a
couple one hundredths of a point.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
So to make the adjustments with Luca like him getting
twenty five points isn't like a stretch like.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I don't think that's no aim.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
I actually think his scoring might go up with the
new role, because I think his assists will plummet, and
scoring go up a bit, and rebounding go up a lot.
That's what I would anticipate is gonna happen here when
(29:41):
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Speaker 3 (31:51):
Bengals Bengals bangles Man so, Jamar Chase and T.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Jiggins are now the highest paid non quarterbacks in history,
and Hey is the highest highest wide receiver two so
for their cap is going to those players. Put your
gam hat on. How would you fix this? Oh, my goodness,
they're screw me.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
They don't well, I mean they don't think they're screwed.
I think it's an insane way to run a team.
And I think it's a low So here's what Higgins becomes,
as Demant said, the highest paid wide receiver two in
the league, Chase becomes the highest paid non quarterback in
the league. And Burrow's got a huge salary as well.
(32:32):
It's not that you can't win with three huge contracts.
It's that having all of your huge contracts just be
about the passing game doesn't make a ton of sense,
and having all of your resources debt like it's a
low key insult to Burrow. And I know it's what
(32:57):
Burrow wanted, so he doesn't view it this way. But
here's what I mean. It operates as if you're not
gonna have an elite passing game unless you have both
of these elite weapons. And I think Joe Burrow's better
than that. I think Joe Burrow would be just fine
(33:18):
with just one of these guys. And I think that again,
the example people use as a defense of this is
Peyton's Cults. But here's the problem with you. Because Peyton's
Cults had Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison. The problem with
(33:40):
using that as an example is they also had Dwight
Freenian Robert Mathis as bookend defensive ends. But the other
problem with that is Peyton's Colts with respect underachieved. You
had thirteen years of Peyton manning, eleven of those are
(34:04):
peak Peyton Manning years. You made two Super Bowls one
to one. Compare that to the Broncos who had four
years of Peyton Manning only three of those peak Peyton
Manning years. They also went to two Super Bowls and
one one by building a well rounded team. Compare it
(34:25):
to the Chiefs who had a choice to make a
few years ago. We are not going to be able
to pay Tyreek and Chris Jones, so you know what,
We're gonna move Tyreek to save the money for Chris
and ask Patrick to do more with less. And they've
(34:45):
been to every Super Bowl since then and so and yeah,
mahomes last two years as numbers of DIP. Now his
first year without Tyrek, he won the MVP at the
most yards of any player in a season ever, first
player win League MVP and Super Bowl MVP since Kurt Warner.
But set that aside, Uh, it is just to me
(35:06):
the wrong approach to building a team. So what would
I have done? I would have a year ago, A
year ago traded T Higgins when I could have gotten
a first round pick for him and dedicated more resources
to the defense. But here is what I'll say about it,
demonse I Burrow wanted this, and it's fine. But he's
(35:30):
a smart guy and he understands the resources are limited.
He understands what this means. It kind of removes a
little bit of the if next year goes how last
year went, where Burrow's numbers are unbelievable, the Bengals offense
is excellent and they missed the playoffs because the defense
(35:54):
is terrible. It's not quite as an accomplishment for Joe
Burrow as this year he got MVP votes because it
was like, oh my god, he's doing his job. What
can he do about the defense being awful? Well, when
you go on every talk show imaginable and say you
(36:16):
need Higgins and Chase back and you understand what that
means about your ability to improve your offensive line in
your defense, well, now it probably is a little more
fair to at least put some of potential Bengals struggles,
even if they're defense related, at the feet of their quarterback.
(36:36):
I know that sounds odd, but I just think it's
I think it's probably the wrong approach. To building a
sustainable champion, and it also is it It is to
me certainly not the right approach to win that division.
And the problem with that is, I don't think you
(37:02):
have any shot of winning three straight road AFC playoff
games that'll probably be outdoors, probably in cold weather cities,
with a defense that looks like the Bengals is going
to look for the near future. So I just think
I think it's a mistake, even though it's fun. All right,
(37:24):
let's talk Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Oh yeah, Aaron Rodgers still does not know where he
wants to go.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Talks are if the Vikings don't want him, he might
retire or do you think you see Aaron Rodgers going?
Speaker 1 (37:36):
I mean probably the Steelers. But Rapaport reported this morning
that he might not decide until after the draft. The
draft drafts in like forty days, and I understand actually
why he would wait until after the draft, because he
doesn't want to pick Pittsburgh and then see you know,
(37:57):
as a for instance, Schaedor drop and then the Steelers
draft a quarterback and he's like, what the hell, so
or pick the Giants and then they draft shot or
at three like who knows? But I am I'm over
the Aaron Rodgers story in this regard. I just I
(38:18):
don't think the twentieth best quarterback in football is worth
this time or attention. And I really don't understand why
the Vikings would be entertaining this Demond's unless they are
unless they have undisclosed news about JJ McCarthy's injury that
(38:41):
they sum. But the only way that even makes sense
is if they got this news somehow in the short
window of time between when they let Donald walk and
you know this last week, which was only a few days.
Because now that we have the actual Sam Darnold contract details.
Another one up to the sports media on Budsman by
(39:02):
the way, who said, instead of all these tweets just
giving love to the agents that negotiated the deals, can
we please get accurate contract info. For a week we
were told Sam Darnald got fifty five million guaranteed. Turns
out he got thirty seven million guaranteed. Turns out the
contract Sam Donald got is essentially one year, thirty seven
(39:23):
and a half million dollars and then two team options afterwards.
Who to funk it. If that's all it was going
to take to keep Donald, they could have gotten him
essentially for one year forty million bucks. If you're worried
about JJ McCarthy, then do that. Yeah, he's better than
Rogers at this point, kind of a.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
Like why would any team want it?
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Like just not even a football standpoint, just him as
a I'm not trying to attack his.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Character or anything, but he just he ruined stuff.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Well, yeah, I mean I think it's fair to attack
his football character and yeah, leadership and also like why
is he taking this long? I think because he can,
and because it is a good way to make it
clear who has the upper hand in the relationship from
the moment the relationship starts, like if if you can
(40:18):
make some an entire organization, Wait, poor Russell Wilson's like,
I can't even sign with a team until this guy does,
like and so it's just asserting asserting dominance, I guess,
is what some would say.
Host
Nick Wright
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