All Episodes

March 25, 2025 56 mins

Nick Wright recaps LeBron James’ return to the Los Angeles Lakers after missing several games due to injury. How can LeBron, Luka Doncic, and LA get back on track following their recent losing streak. Then, Nick has his eyes set on revenge games as Jimmy Butler faces off against the Miami Heat for the first time since his trade, and the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns have a 2021 Finals rematch. Later, Nick discusses Dan Hurley's outburst following UConn's loss to Florida in the NCAA Tournament, the latest in the Aaron Rodgers free agency saga, as well as updates on college basketball stars like JuJu Watkins of USC and Cooper Flagg of Duke. Finally, as always, Nick answers your questions.


0:00 - Intro/Bronny scores 39/Missed the Cut
6:15 - JuJu Watkins out for season with torn ACL
13:55 - Cooper Flagg and the lack of upsets in March Madness
28:11 - Dan Hurley the villain
34:33 - Nick’s March Madness picks
36:17 - LeBron’s return and the Western Conference playoff push
46:03 - Why is Aaron Rodgers taking so long to sign?
48:44 - F1 Minute with Sierra Fadell
52:02 - Nick answers listener questions

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in What's Drive with the great Episode three thirteen.
Programming note demonse for I think the first time in
the history of the pod out sick today. I talked
to him this morning. He was gonna fight through and
come in. I said, take your day. So wish the
best to Demons, but a hell of an iron man

(00:21):
streak for him of not missing any time, and so
he's out today, So it will be just me, which
you know should definitely, as always promised, lead to a
quicker show because he's the one that always does the
over talking and explaining and non sequiturs and different various
rants you where you interrupt yourself. I've told him he's

(00:42):
got to stop talking so much, so we'll get right
to it. Here is what missed the cut in today's show,
and the first thing that missed the cut didn't miss
the cut is all at all? Uh. Bronnie James thirty nine, seven,
four and four for the South Bay Lakers last night
against Sam Cruz. He was a plus nineteen in his

(01:03):
thirty eight minutes. It was far and away his best
game at the professional level. And this is where I
will as I have remind everyone that twenty months ago
July twenty fifth or twenty fourth of twenty twenty three,
this kid suffered cardiac arrest. It totally derailed his collegiate season,

(01:27):
and that is evidenced by the fact that he has
now had ten professional games, one at the NBA level
and nine at the G League level that are better
than anything he ever did in college. And so when
people pointed out, like, oh my god, look at his

(01:49):
college statline and that's a player that you're drafting, it,
there had to be some math done on. Yes, his
collegiate numbers were that of a player that typically would
not be drafted, even late in the second round. But
if you throw the season away and say those numbers

(02:11):
were due to the fact that he never got his
legs or his wind underneath them because of the months
he had to stay away from the court because they
thought he might not be able to play basketball ever
again due to a congenital heart defect, then maybe, just
maybe you saw some traits that could be a successful player.

(02:33):
And Kevin O'Connor, who knows a hell of a lot
more about the draft and about college basketball than I do,
tweeted to me this morning that if they did a
redraft today he thought Bronni would be a first round pick,
and that if Bronnie can keep up this shooting, then
he's a legitimate NBA player. And again, I am not

(02:57):
trying to make too much of the G League, which
is something we never talked about previously. However, because Brownie
is a star and because he has been the subject
of scrutiny, we have to be fair in that the
expectation was that in the G League, with grown men,

(03:18):
with a lot of guys who were former first round
picks trying to make a career for themselves, with a
lot of guys who had a lot more experience than him,
with a lot of guys who were much more highly
drafted than him, that he was going to it certainly
in his first year in the G League. Really have

(03:38):
his work cutout for him now, and more than his
work cutout for him, potentially really struggle. And instead he
now after not playing well in Summer League and not
playing well in the G League's kind of preseason I
don't tip off tournament or whatever they call it, in
the G League regular season, he is now averaging twenty

(04:02):
two five and five on forty six thirty eight eighty
splits that is a great value for your fifty fifth
overall pick and shout out and credit to Brownie. And
so we're not gonna spend more time on that. But
that was in what missed the Cup, But he didn't
actually miss the cut. We did a nice few minutes
on it. Also, SVP my guy after Maryland finally gets

(04:26):
on the right side of a buzzer beater, tweets you
know he's a Dieyard Terrapin fan, and he tweets out
never a doubt, as a wise man, says shut out,
Scott Van Pelt, Ernie Johnson, Kevin Wilds the only three
people in sports media with one hundred percent approval ratings.

(04:49):
And very nice of Scott to include. You know, obviously
my trademark tattooed came up with first person ever use
it phrase never a doubt. Very nice of him to
use that in celebrating an all time Marilynd moment. More
on the tournament in a second, and I guess that
is one way to put it. I did invite myself

(05:11):
on the Kelsey's pod. The Kelsey's tweeted, should we have
an NFL salary cap expert on the show? And I
just responded, I got you. I mean, you know that
way it could be said, because obviously I'm a salary
cap expert, but also we could talk other things and
it would be interesting because you know, Eagles fans tend

(05:32):
not to like me that much, but Jason, I would
imagine does I don't know, but if we could get
a What's Right with Nick Wright New Heights crossover, that
would have to be good for the burgeoning What's Right brand, which,
by the way, YouTube's like rate, subscribe review on all
platforms YouTube just crossed one hundred and ninety thousand, so

(05:55):
we appreciate you guys for that. We're the slow climb
towards two hundred thousand continues. But also we'd really like
you guys to subscribe on either iTunes or Spotify wherever
you guys get your podcasts. All right, so we have
to lead this morning with just a huge bummer, which

(06:16):
is a young woman who I truly and I said
this last year. I think, well, and I'm not going
to use past tense, but I had said this in
the past, and I still believe it has a chance
to be the greatest women's basketball player ever. I truly

(06:38):
believe that. I believe that I when everyone was talking about,
and I obviously was a huge part of the talk
as well about the phenomenon that is Caitlin Clark. I
think you guys heard me say a couple times on
the show that I thought Juju Watkins at USC might

(06:58):
end up being even better better than Caitlin and even
better than everybody her size, her athleticism, her basketball IQ.
It is elite of the elite, and a player that
can do everything, a player that recently put up a
stat line that had not been put up in men's

(07:20):
or women's professional or college basketball this century. When I
think she had thirty eight points, eleven rebounds, five assists,
eight blocks, and again a forty minute college game, she
tore acl last night, and it's just devastating for a

(07:44):
bunch of reasons. It puts it. I would imagine on
the board that she doesn't play college basketball again. Now
I would think she does. I would think that the
playing is for her to miss all of next season
and then come back for what would be her senior year.

(08:07):
I guess red shirt junior year and continue to play.
And with nil and the WNBA salary structure, I would
have to imagine Juju can potentially make far more money
at USC than she would at the beginning of her
WNBA career, unless something drastically changes with the rookie salary

(08:29):
scale there. But this is just an ultimate bummer because
getting we got in the final four last year Page
versus Caitlin, and we were basically assured that we were
going to get Page versus Juju in the Elite eight,

(08:53):
and it was I talked about how I didn't love
that they put USC in Yukon in the same region
because that felt like it should be a final four
inter national championship potential matchup, and it ends up that
it's going to be, and USC should still get they
should be able to win next round without Juju, but
not past that. They absolutely can't beat Yukon without Juju.

(09:17):
And you just feel sick for this young lady who
is has the real potential to be a true superstar,
a true crossovers not just great player. She's obviously going
to be well, she already is a great player, and
she and a torn acl you know, is not career

(09:39):
altering the way it once was. But she needs a
great NCAA tournament run just to catapult her celebrity the
way Caitlin had and the way honestly Angel Reese, who
no disrespect to Angel Reese, but Angel Reese is not
nearly the caliber of player of Caitlin, or of Juju,

(10:04):
or of Page for that matter, and they have all
had these great tournament runs. Juju, this was going to
be that this year, and if not this year, next year,
and now out for I would imagine all of next season,
which is just such an absolute bummer. And here is

(10:27):
the thing about acls the way I have seen them
over the last decade. Acls are different in that they
used to truly be career altering and these days they
are not. Meaning people typically come back one hundred percent

(10:49):
to their pre ACL tear ability, strength, speed, quickness, all
of that, but they are not quick injuries. It usually
is a minimum of the calendar year that you are out,
and usually a little more than that until you look
like your old self. So a huge bummer. Not really,

(11:12):
this is put this in the huge story not a
great topic category, and I mean that's kind of what
it is. There's not much to say. It's massive news,
but it just sucks. There's no real take to have.
And so Juju Watkins out and I have to you know,

(11:34):
Yukon's now, I'm gonna look it up on DraftKings. I
just can't. Maybe you guys can put in the dock
for me. I mean, I know they're the favorite, but
I just wonder what they are now? Is Yukon women
to win that region? To win the region, I have

(11:55):
to imagine they are minus huge money. I'm not able
to pull it up right now. If you guys can
throw it in the dock whenever you can find it,
just put what they are to win the championship and
what they are to win the region, because I do
not see who possibly could stop them. Certainly now listen

(12:17):
UCLA South Carolina. Those are legitimate championship level teams. But
I Yukon's in the final four and they're now plus
one sixty to win the whole thing. We can't find
them to win the region. But it's not gonna be
I mean they it's not gonna be much of a question.

(12:40):
I saw. I got the I had the privilege of
watching the Yukon women in person from court side seats
thanks to Fox. The game was on Fox beginning of
the year, and I left that game saying I don't
know how anyone's beating them. Now, Ucla and South Carolina
is obviously a juggernaut, and USC had shown, oh no,

(13:01):
they're of that caliber, and Yukon lost a few times.
But I feel like you can put probably in pen A,
Yukon Ucla final four on your left side of the bracket,
and you know, thoughts with Juju, it absolutely sucks, just
absolutely sucks that she's done for the year and potentially

(13:23):
done for next year. One note, and I'm sure this
will happen because Page is such an awesome athlete and
awesome person. From all accounts, Page dealt with an ACL
and missed a year, and so I would imagine if
she has not already, Paige is going to reach out
to Juju and try to help her through it. But

(13:47):
really really sucks for basketball fans, for USC fans, for Juju,
all right to the men's side of the tournament. So
there's a lot of different things I want to hit
here before we get to the Lakers losing streak, the
Rogers stuff. We'll get all of that later. But our
college basketball coverage on this show burns hot, bright and fast.

(14:11):
Like the rest of the country. We have somewhat of
a tepid interest in it. I shouldn't say everyone's like this,
but at least for me, a tepid interest in it
throughout its regular season and then are living and dying
with the tournament and the storylines come March. So I
am not going to act like I am Mark Titus

(14:35):
or Big Cat or John Fanta or John Rothstein. The
people who are, you know, who know all of these
teams in and out. I do not. However, I do
watch the tournament non stop for you know, twelve consecutive hours,
four consecutive days, and you feel like that, plus a

(14:56):
passive interest throughout the year, you have a good feel
on things. And the people who had been watching all
year who said Duke's way better than everybody, they appear
to obviously be correct. Now you might be like, Nick,
didn't you pick Tennessee to win it all? I did
because upsets happened, and that's a fun one and I

(15:16):
think Tennessee is really really good. But right now there
are seven guys left in the tournament. Seven left in
the entire tournament that are consensus first round picks, meaning
guys that are high enough picks that they are included

(15:41):
in every mock draft, you find out there these seven
guys are in all of them, Duke's got three. The
rest of the tournament has four. Now, again, there's three
or four other guys in the tournament that might end
up being first round picks, maybe even four or five others.

(16:02):
But there's seven players right now in the NCAA tournament
that are what you would consider minus huge money to
be first round picks, and Duke has three. There are
five guys that are currently projected lottery picks left in

(16:23):
the tournament, and Duke has three. Now, that doesn't guarantee
you anything, but it does give you an idea of
what a talent edge this team currently has and why
it would be absolutely, at least to me, shocking if
they do not make the final four. Now, in the

(16:46):
final four coming out of the region, beneath them on
your bracket will either be Houston, Kentucky, or Tennessee, and
any of those three teams could beat them. And you
guys know, I'm picking Tennessee. I like the odds on it,
and I think they have a I really part of that,

(17:08):
if I'm being totally honest, probably has to be that
a disproportionate amount of the college basketball regular season and
conference tournaments. Games that I watched involved Tennessee because we
have a close friend that's a big Tennise Tennessee volunteer fan,
so we watch some games with her, and so I
thought this team had high upside. But I so, you know,

(17:30):
bake that in to my analysis of this. But Duke
is obviously the most talented team in the country and
Cooper flag is as advertised. Now, I do find the
Cooper flag hype is the wrong word, but because hype

(17:51):
almost sounds like unwarranted. But I I am curious, like
a take the temperature of what are fair Cooper flag
expectations when it comes to how he stacks up amongst
number one picks. So if we just go the last decade, right,

(18:19):
I think that So the number one picks the last
decade are Karl, Anthony Towns, Ben Simmons, Markel Foltz, DeAndre Ayton, Zion,
Anthony Edwards, Cade, Paolo Wimby, reesa Chet. If you were
to rank them based on NBA, you can't really rank

(18:45):
based on NBA career because there's you know, Carl's played
a decade, Wimby's played a year. But I think you
would probably slot them. Like if you did a draft
of number one picks, Wimby would go one again the
last decade, Aunt would go to Towns three, Kaid four,

(19:10):
and then Zion Polo five six. When I watched Cooper Flag,
I put him right ahead of Powlow and right behind Zion.

(19:30):
When Zion when it comes to like potential coming out
of school. Now again, if you were re redrafting based
on hype or expectation, it would have been Wimby one,
Zion two, Karl Anthony Towns three, But we've now seen
Zion didn't quite live up to it. When I hear

(19:51):
some of the draft experts talk, they they go further
back and they say, basically number one picks the last
two twenty years, basically number one picks post Lebron, that
they have Cooper. They that it's Wimby one, Anthony Davis two,
and they would have Cooper Flag three. I had a

(20:14):
ky ahead of everyone I just mentioned, plus Kyrie and
Dwight and Blake d Rose, all those guys that strikes
me as ambitious. Now again, as I've said now for
the sixth time on this show, I am not a

(20:36):
college basketball expert. The way some are, but I it
felt to me like the absolute Anthony Davis was such
a overwhelming, obvious numbernumber one pick, franchise changer, the likes

(21:04):
of which, again Lebron's in his own category, we hadn't
seen in you know, the four or five years prior
to him or after him. Wimby took that up to
another level because of just the absolute kind of freak
nature of what his upside potential could be or would be.

(21:32):
And so set those two guys aside. I don't I
don't think Flag is a better prospect than Zion was now. Zion,
it turned out, had his own things. He had to
deal with, injury issues, some weight issues, so maybe some

(21:53):
personal kind of off the court stuff that has derailed
him a bit. I was wrong about how good Ant
and Caid would be. I thought Ant was a good
but not gonna be a superstar. And Ant is a superstar,
and so I am very interested to see how Flag

(22:15):
looks over these next He's gonna play at least two
more games, and the odds are he's gonna play four
more games. How he looks, and if he has a
dominant tournament moment the way Zion did the way Anthony
Davis did, the way a lot of these guys who

(22:36):
were number now Anthony Edwards obviously didn't. The guy didn't
make the tournament, but a lot of the number one
picks who went to college Paolo had won, a lot
of those number one picks who went to college had
those kind of signature tournament moments. Cooper hasn't needed one yet.

(22:58):
Andy's coming off the injury, but I I'm very excited
to see him in the final four against Houston, Tennessee
or Kentucky and what that looks like. Now. The other
story of this tournament so far has been that, you know,
no Cinderella, Nils, you know, nil is the death of

(23:22):
college basketball. Let's all please pump the brakes just a bit,
just a tiny bit, if we could. Okay, on first
of all, one year is not a trend. This is
one year where we've had no mid majors in the

(23:43):
sweet sixteen. Second of all, would we are we saying
we would feel drastically different if the queen kid from
Maryland hadn't made his buzzer beater and all of a
sudden there were there was a there was a Cinderella

(24:05):
or a mid major in the Sweet sixteen that would
make us feel like, oh okay, everything's fine. No, probably
not right, And so I don't really subscribe to the
idea that because it happened this year, this is what
every tournament's going to look like from here on out,
especially because it literally almost didn't happen this year in

(24:29):
that Maryland needed the first buzzer beater of the tournament
to keep a mid major out of the Sweet sixteen. Now,
I'm not a fool, and I do understand that the
transfer portal and guys who are really good at smaller
schools than transferring two bigger schools, and one of the

(24:51):
things mid majors had going for them was guys sticking
around together for three or even four seasons and growing together.
That gave them a chance against the more talented teams.
You are going to see less of that. But what
I think that could lead to, and maybe I'll be

(25:15):
proven wrong, is more of the true deep cinderellas, guys
that are from single bid conferences. You're fourteen or fifteen
seeds who are not going to get poached because of
nil stuff coming in and having real Cinderella runs. But

(25:37):
even if we have less Cinderella stories in the NCAA Tournament.
The upside is having a bracket as it stands now
where the games are as follows two versus six, four
versus one, four versus one, three versus ten, but the

(26:00):
ten is Arkansas coached by John Calipari. Two versus six,
two versus three, one versus five, and one verses four.
What that creates, what it should create is an unbelievable
weekend of college basketball. On Friday, the spreads are three

(26:21):
and a half, four and a half, seven and a half,
eight and a half. On Thursday, the spreads are five
and a half, five and a half, six and a half,
nine and a half. And we should have eight games
where six are super competitive. And I'm good with that
because people don't you like the story of the Cinderella.

(26:49):
But the actual games, especially once we get Sweet sixteen
and certainly to the Elite eight, are usually not always.
Sometimes Butler makes back to back national finals, the games
are usually not as good as one would have hoped
for because that team is just so outmatched. I don't

(27:12):
look at any team this weekend as insanely outmatched. I mean,
the biggest underdog is an excellent Arizona team, and that's
because they're playing Duke on Sunday. I'm sorry. On Friday,
the biggest underdog is a Michigan team that absolutely can
beat Auburn. And so I I think it was a

(27:37):
little too fatalistic saying that college basketball is just in terrible,
terrible shape because we're not having Cinderellas when A it's
one year and b it is probably going to lead

(27:58):
to a more compelling Elite eight in Sweet sixteen than
we've had in recent history. And my last NCAA tournament
take before we get to the lakers losing streak in
the Western Commends playoff race some other things is you

(28:22):
can't ever get everything in life. And this is about
Dan Hurley and the Connecticut Huskies. So Dan Hurley is
a great coach. I don't think there is a single
person in the sports world that thinks anything other than that.

(28:46):
Danny Hurley also is intentionally I think provocative and kind
of wants to play the villain role a bit or
he thinks it either helps him or or helps his team,
whatever it is, that's fine. What I don't love and

(29:10):
I gave credit to Mark Titus for this yesterday on
the TV show, and I will do it again because
I think he put it absolutely perfectly, which is he
compared Dan Hurley to the wrestler that takes the stage
at a show in Wichita and then makes fun of Wichita.

(29:34):
It's like, oh, you're a bunch of rednecks, or and
makes fun of the local teams and does all this
stuff in order to catch heat and get booze, except
that wrestler then does not act wounded or like he
is being unfairly maligned when he catches heat or gets boot.

(30:01):
It's what he's going for. And so having Danny Hurley
walk off the court their first time they lose an
NCAA tournament game in more than two years and blame
the refs and then say to the local media after

(30:25):
his press conference, thanks to you guys for being fair.
The national media skip Bayless wannabes were not is to
me trying to have it both ways to a degree.
You cannot try to play the villain and then get

(30:47):
upset when you get treated like a villain. And I
also would like to know who are the national media
folks that were unf What was said that was unfair?
Was it that the way you acted in Maui or
was it Maui. I don't even know if it was Maui,

(31:08):
the court, Bahamas, whatever, it was the preseason tournament where
you were a game into the year absolutely losing your
mind with the officials, and then your final game of
the year blamed the officials when Baylor's trying to take
the court was criticizing that unfair? Was it the people?

(31:31):
And I don't know who these people would be. The
people in the national media who do talk college basketball
all season said, ah, this Yukon team is not as
good as their ranking early in the year, or this
Yukon team is not a real contender. Those people who
were proven one hundred percent correct. Was that unfair? What

(31:55):
was unfair about it? And I said this on the show,
and Wilde seemed to not only disagree, but to think
I was crazy for saying it. But when you then
hear that the Yukon sports information director confronts a local
journalist who got the video of Danny Hurley yelling, I

(32:21):
hope they don't f you like the f dos Baylor.
I hope they don't f you like the fd us.
The Yukon sports information director going to that journalist and saying,
if you don't take that down all quote ruin your life.
I do think that that is because of some of

(32:46):
the culture that is set by the head coach. I
absolutely think that, and I think that is not great.
And so we can hold multiple thoughts in our head
at once. He is a great coach, they are an
unbelievable program, and he also runs so hot and is

(33:17):
so brash in their success and does not seem to
handle the little bit of on the court adversity that
they've had this latest bit that well at all. That
that typically is a cocktail of a lack of likability,

(33:42):
and he might not care at all how well liked
he is. But Yukon fans acting like people are unfair
to their coach, or him acting like the media is
unfair to him, I think is a little much. And
so listen, unbelievable run by Yukon the last two year

(34:06):
or the previous two years. And man, they sure help
with a scare into Florida. But they did not lose
that game because the officials. They lost that game because
from the seven minute mark to thirty seconds left in
the game, they made one basket they could have won.
They stopped hitting shots, and that's not only officials. When

(34:30):
it comes to college basketball in March Mania, one thing
is for sure. Nothing's for sure. Upsets, buzzer beater, Cinderella
is advancing, top seeds going home early. It all could happen,
as it happened in this tournament. Not a lot of
Cinderella's advancing and not a lot of top seeds going
home early, which should make the next few rounds great.
But we did get an unbelievable buzzer beater in one

(34:54):
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(35:15):
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(35:39):
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co slash b ball. All right, so now to the NBA.
The Lakers lost again, and it was when you were

(37:08):
looking at this schedule for the Lakers you probably had
penciled in even before you knew Lebron was coming back,
but certainly once you heard Lebron was coming back. Wins
against the Bulls, the suddenly red hot Bulls, by the way,
who won again last night, and the Magic, whose offense

(37:29):
is just impossibly bad. The Bulls instead scored one forty
six and the Magic scored one eighteen. And so what
I am concerned about, what I'm not concerned about, what
I'm not concerned about is this, It always takes guys.

(37:52):
I think one of the things we in the media
do a very poor job, even though we see it
time and time again. But one of the things we
do a very poor job of recognizing or accounting for
is when athletes tell us, man, there is nothing to
prepare you to play professional basketball. Like playing professional basketball,

(38:17):
we should believe them. And by that I mean every
single one of these great players when they are coming
from an extended layoff, take two or three games to
look like themselves. Luca his first few games with the
Lakers after the being out for a while with injury

(38:40):
before and then during the trade, was so rusty. There
was a brief oh, maybe Nico was onto something renaissance,
and then of course it went away. Luca got to
being Luca again, sticking with the Lakers. Austin reeves, he's
not a great player, but a good player. His first
few games back from his injury, he didn't look anything

(39:02):
like himself. Then he immediately ripped off the best basketball,
the best stretch of his career. So Lebron not playing
quite up to Lebron's standards last couple games is not
something to panic about. And here's the other piece of it.
We'll get into this more in a bit. The entire

(39:22):
Western Conference, except for Oklahoma City, is on a losing streak.
Spots one through nine or two through nine in the
standings have lost. The Rocket against streak is too much,
but had lost their most recent games. The Rockets lost
their last game, The Nuggets lost their last game. The

(39:43):
Lakers lost three in a row, the Grizzlies lost three
in a row. The Warriors, Clippers, Timberwolves all lost their
last game, and the Kings lost three in a row.
Of those teams, obviously, Houston had one nine in row.
They were playing great. Golden State had won eight of nine.
They were playing great, and the Clippers had one eight

(40:05):
of nine. They were playing great. And the timberlves had
won seven of nine. They were playing really well. But
the teams the Lakers are really jocking for in positioning
Denver and the Grizzlies. They've lost six out of ten.
The Grizzlies have lost five out of ten, which is

(40:25):
why the Lakers losing seven out of ten has not
killed them, And so it has opened up the window
potentially for one of those teams, Denver, the Lakers or
the Grizzlies to drop to the six if the Warriors
keep winning. But that the Warriors, you know, Steph dealing

(40:49):
with his injury, and the Warriors just took a loss,
so they you know that they cooled off a bit.
We'll see how they look and Jimmy's return to Miami.
But so standings, Wises hasn't killed So those things I'm
not worried about. Here is what is a legitimate concern
and what has to be said, And I think JJ

(41:12):
has alluded to it, and he's correct. This Lakers team
is not good enough defensively to hold anyone under one
point fifteen if they are not locked in, dialed and
connected on that end of the court. In the last

(41:35):
few games, they have not been there, and so I
do not think it is the sky is falling for
the Lakers. I do think that I said yesterday on
the show that over their next five they should expect
to go four and one. The next five were Orlando, Indiana, Chicago,

(41:58):
Memphis home Houston. That was the five. Well, they just
lost the first one, and so four and oh with
one back to back at Indiana at Chicago might be
a tall ask, but it's what the expectation should be.

(42:21):
At Indiana after back to back bad losses, you must
win that game at Chicago after even though Chicago again,
what is Chicago won. I'm looking at it right now.
Eight of ten I think that is. Yeah, they've won
eight of their last ten. In one of those losses

(42:43):
was a heartbreaker to the Rockets at Chicago. After you
just let Chicago and Kobe White embarrass you, you must
bounce back and win at Memphis. With Memphis, we'll see
if they're still dealing with all those injuries, a game
that I'll be at. Actually, that's a game that you
absolutely gotta find a way to win. And then home

(43:07):
for Houston in a game that, if you have any
chance of catching Houston in the standings, you must win.
That'll be the kind of pivot game. But these next
two games for the Lakers at Indiana and at Chicago
there and Indiana's good. I'm not trying to downplay Indiana,

(43:28):
and Indiana is hot right now. I think they've won
five in a row. Those are games you absolutely, unequivocally
must win. And I'm really interested to see how the
Lakers are able to guard Halliburton because obviously Kobe White

(43:49):
had that monster game against them. It's forty six or
something and Orlando scoring one eighteen when Orlando cannot score,
and Franz and Paolo combining for sixty two. It's problematic.
So not panicking. Those are a couple bad losses. One

(44:14):
of the reasons you don't panic is, again, if we
talk about the Western Conference playoff situation, and I alluded
to it, a lot of these teams are in again,
Houston is not, and the Warriors are not. But Nuggets, Lakers, Grizzlies,
some because of injuries and some just because of like
a march malaise, just don't seem to have it all together.

(44:38):
On the other hand, the Thunder just keep handling their business.
They win basically nine out of every ten games they
play for almost any sample of the season, that's really
like eight and a half out of every ten games
they play. They're on another ho hum six game winning
streak with a point differential for the season of thirteen.
That team is excellent. I know, breaking news the Thunder

(45:01):
or excellent, but that team is really something, and it
might you might be like, well, then, Nick, why aren't
you picking them to win the championship. I'm very interested
to see how they can deal with Luca and Lebron
in a playoff series, But if the Lakers defense doesn't

(45:22):
tighten up, they're not gonna get the opportunity to go
against them in a playoff series. This episode of What's
Right is brought to you by Daya Pizza featuring dairy
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updates and recipes. All right, before we get to the

(46:54):
f one minute after an awesome race weekend. Here is
the Aaron Rodgers. Florio floated the idea because evidently I
didn't know this, but McAfee is hosting a live show
in Pittsburgh April eighth or ninth, and Florio floated the

(47:14):
idea that Rogers is holding off on signing with the
Steelers so he can announce it at McAfee's live show,
which would be so perfectly on brand and also just
so perfectly outrageous that I almost think it's gonna happen.

(47:35):
No one has explained to me, because no one can explain.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
To me.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
Anything positive as far as the Steelers' chances of breaking
forget winning a championship, blake breaking their nearly decade long
drought of not winning a playoff game. No one has
explained to me how Rogers wait like this helps them,
and the reason is because they can't. All it does

(48:04):
is either feed rogers ego, help Rogers assert power within
the organization, or give, if he really really drags this out,
give Rogers the excuse to not be a part of
an offseason program. Those are the only benefits that come
from this, and none of that is good for Pittsburgh.

(48:27):
Which is why I I and there is no there
is no quo like Rogers clearly wants to play, and
the Steelers are clearly his only real option. So there's
no reason for this to be going on except for
the fact that the Steelers don't have the right now

(48:49):
institutional courage to tell Rogers, hey man, we need to
know by Friday if every other free agent in the
league has been able to make their decision. You obviously
want to play. The Vikings aren't interested that the Giants
have finally, you know, begrudgingly turned to the page at

(49:09):
least a bit. You want to come here anyway, Let's
just get this done. But I I don't. I don't
think they're gonna do that, and I think Rogers is
going to continue to drag this out, and I think
we're all, myself included, kind of playing into it all.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Right.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
Before we get to listener questions, a reminder like rate,
subscribe and review, and also a reminder that it is
now racing season, so time now live from Miami or
plausibly live from Miami. The F one Minute was Sierra Fiddel.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Welcome back to F one Minute. I'm cr Furdell and
I'm be covering the biggest news following the Chinese GP
and Shanghai. Now, Oscar Piastri started from pole position for
the first time in Formula One history. George Russell was
in P two and Lando Norris in P three. Now,
on lap one we had some dicey action between the
Ferrari boys. The clerk picked up some front wing damage

(50:10):
and then around lap four Fernando Alonso dnf again, but
not because he crashed into the wall, just because of
break failure. But I feel kind of bad for him
because he has yet to follow through an entire race,
but in Japan were ruining for him. A major talking
point of this GP was tire preservation, though a vast
majority of the teams tried their best to maintain tire life,

(50:32):
leading up to most of them only making one pit
stop over fifty six laps, so it wasn't the most
thrilling strategy race, but a strategy race nonetheless. In the
end it was another McLaren won two, with Piastre taking
the dubs, securing his third victory in his Formula One career.
Lando Norris finished at P two and then George Russell
in P three. Now the biggest news from this GP

(50:54):
came after it already ended, and that is that Lewis Hamilton,
Charles Leclerk and p Air Ghastly were all disqualified from
the Chinese GP for failing post race technical checks. Now,
it was a fairly accomplished weekend for Ferrari. They had
their first ever sprint win thanks to Lowis Hamilton, but
they also had their first ever double disqualification in the

(51:17):
same weekend. It's it's honestly crazy work. Thus, Leclerk and
Hamilton have officially earned their place in this week's drsaka
Disastrous Race Shenanigans, and that's the second time in a
row for them. But Leclerk and Ghastly were both disqualified
for their car being underweight, so basically, lighter car equals
performers advantage. Hamilton, on the other hand, was disqualified because

(51:41):
the thickness of his plank assembly was below the minimum requirement,
So lower the cars equals performance advantage. So as you see,
once the FIA finds a performance advantage, that means disqualification.
So since they all lost their finishing positions, Olkon Antonelle
albon Embarment, each moved to places and picked up some

(52:01):
more points on the way. Ghastly disqualification from Pete eleven
also meant that nixt guy Signs and Stroll snuck up
into the top ten to grab some unexpected points for
them as well.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
So that's all I have.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
For the Chinese GP. I'll see you next time for Japan.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Great job as always, man, I I guess I'm a dope.
I need to ask Sierra about this off the air,
can ye not? Just do? I'm sure they do do
a pre race inspection. This showing my own ignorance here.
Why would a car pass the pre race inspection and
not the post race And if they're not doing a

(52:40):
pre race inspection, why are they not if you're gonna
end up being disqualified? I don't know. I have to
learn more about this. I'm gonna ask Sierra, all right,
some quick listener questions. Noah says, do you see Dan
Hurley as the rich Man's nick? Sirianni? Uh that listen.
I think that's on the board. Yeah, I mean I
think that's a good uh, a good potential comp and

(53:01):
Syriana's champion now too. Uh. But Syrian doesn't seem to
think the media treats him unfairly. Oh, the our producers say,
maybe they're changing parts and pit stops. That's maybe that's it.
Maybe the cars are good pre race than during the race.
There are some shenanigans. Taylor asks, why is achilles or
an acl sometimes considered a two year injuries consistently, but

(53:25):
a literal heart attack isn't taking the same understanding. That's
about Bronni. I I think it's because we look at
things that aren't like physical injuries. Is like binary, like
is he okay? Is he allowed to play again? Okay?
Then he should be the same, when in reality it's
the time off that I think really hurts these guys

(53:47):
at times. Sixness says, what would it take for you
to get into hockey? How much skew would you need
to see in the Vegas books for betting to be
a thing for you during the NHL season? I for
this of my marriage. I don't think I can pick
up another sport that I'm into right now. Maybe at
some point in life, but I just know so little

(54:09):
about hockey. Can't sitydn't have a team. I've never been
into it, So I nothing against the sport. I just
I it's very very it'd be very, very tough for
me to tell my wife now by the way, also
watching hockey, especially because I've kind of refallen in love
with baseball thanks to Bobby Witt Junior and the Royals
being legit again. Uh all right, Alex, is there a

(54:33):
single anything the Rockets can to do? Our lasting games
make you believe that they can win a single round? Yeah,
to win a single round? For sure? There is stuff
they can do. So because the Rockets have a tough schedule,
tough ish schedule, I should say, down the stretch, so
the Atlanta Utah is their next two, but then it's

(54:53):
Phoenix who's on a fourty winning streak, Lakers, Utah again,
Oklahoma City, Golden State, Clippers, Lakers. The Rockets play well
during that stretch and hold their positioning. I certainly could
see them winning around. My fear for them is they're
gonna drop from the two to like the four, and
unless they are playing an injured Memphis team, I don't

(55:16):
think they could. Again, I think the Rockets have had
an unbelievable season as is. They're gonna win around fifty games,
But for me to believe in them to win around
in the playoffs, they have to show me more, and
Scott says, what would it take for Tom en on
the hot seat? They haven't been a true contender since
they lost to Jacksonville in twenty seventeen. Listen, he's just
got a contract sension. I think the Steelers have had

(55:39):
three coaches in fifty years. I actually think what could
be best for the Steelers and for Tomlin would be
a fresh start for both of them. But it doesn't.
He's obviously an excellent coach. I just don't know that
you can. I think he if he could have gotten
a job like the one Jim Harball got, where the
quarterback is taken care of and you build the rest

(56:00):
of it up, that might be the best. And he
just hasn't been able to figure out the offensive side
of the ball post Big Ben, or even with Big
Ben near the end. All right, demands feel better. Thanks
to our great friends at Blue Doc and DraftKings and
Day and the Volume and everyone. I will see you
guys on Thursday. What's right
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Nick Wright

Nick Wright

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