On today's episode, Jason discusses whether or not Justin Fields has really 'shown enough' to secure the job as the Pittsburgh Steelers' Week 1 starter, the narrative that Mike Tomlin could be coaching for his job in 2024, why forward-thinking teams should always consider trading away star players (like JJ Watt, perhaps) if that's what it takes to improve the rest of the roster and the idea that Steph Curry might actually finish career with any other team besides the Golden State Warriors.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What is up straight firefam HiT's me Jason McIntyre. Straight
Fire for Friday, August twenty third. The weekend is here.
It's a big fantasy football draft weekend. We thought we'd
be able to secure a fantasy football guest, but we're
gonna have to push it to next week. A programming note.
Next week is all of a sudden, I think we'll
(00:33):
just get a bunch of guests because the herd is
going dark next week, a gift from the heavens. Finally,
a week off for I don't have to take vacation now. Unfortunately,
the kids are back in school, so I can't really
do anything exciting, probably just like, you know, play a
little hoops, maybe some beach runs, hit the gym, you know.
And I guess we'll be able to because the window
(00:55):
for recording interviews opens up big time, you know. With
the time difference, it's sometimes tough to get East Coast guys.
But so we'll do the fantasy stuff next week now.
Most I can't imagine that you'll have much fantasy changes
this weekend, as the final weekend of preseason football hits.
It's the third game and nobody plays except Russell Wilson
(01:20):
for reasons that I it almost makes you wonder, folks,
what's going on in Pittsburgh. Russell Wilson is going to
play in preseason week three? He was I don't know
if anointed the starters fair, but he was told like,
it's your job, not maybe not to lose, but you're
you have the inside track whatever the phrasing was that
Tomlin had used after they added Fields, and then it's
(01:43):
kind of been one of those summers where it's like,
what do we have in Russ? And maybe Fields is
a better fit, and then Russ has the calf injury
and the doors open for Fields. But he was kind
of clunky with a couple interceptions, taking some bad secks.
Looked like there hadn't been a ton of improvement on
the justin Fields front. But if that's the case and
Russ is the starter, why is he playing in preseason
(02:05):
week three? Does he feel like he has something to prove?
Does Tomlin want to see more? Remember Tomlin was unhappy
with the offense after last weekend, with both quarterbacks unhappy totally.
I almost think he opened up by saying, like the
punter for special Teams was their hero essentially in Week two,
and so it kind of makes you wonder like, is
(02:25):
there a quarterback controversy or they haven't named the starter?
Now the Patriots haven't named the starter. I there may
be one other team or maybe that's it. I don't know,
but it's funny. Deshaun Jackson was on the Herd yesterday
and he thinks the move is to roll with Fields,
and his logic was, let's say you start Russ and
he doesn't cook. Okay, he's okay, but you decide I'm
(02:51):
transitioning to fields. You can't then go back to Russ
later because that would just be way too awkward. You've
got a young offense. I think all of their primary
guys are like under twenty seven or something like that.
What's the point of going to Russ when fields could
be the future? We know Russ is not the future
(03:11):
in Pittsburgh. So if the future might be justin fields,
shouldn't he get the starting job? And if he flops,
oh well and you're back to the drawing board, or
you go to Russ and then you draft. You're trying
draft on a quarterback. Either way. But something didn't totally
add up, Rob, I don't have any data here about
final preseason games, and I know they recently shrunk the
preseason from four games to three. But like Aaron Rodgers
(03:34):
ain't playing, he's coming off a major injury. He hasn't
had any reps in a live game in I mean,
he had four snaps last year in the opener against Buffalo,
but he's had four snaps in something like five hundred
days in a real game. I don't want to hear
about scrimmages. So it's just a weird situation in Pittsburgh.
Thought I thought it was sorted out and Russ was
gonna be the guy. But maybe they're having second thoughts, Rob.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah. And you know what's interesting is I mean, Thursday
was a slow news day, to be frank, but one
of the biggest quote unquote Newsy stories was that Justin
Fields came out and said to the media publicly that
he believes that he's quote shown what I can do
to be considered the Steelers QB one in Week one.
(04:19):
Across two preseason games, Justin Fields sixteen for twenty three
one fifty nine with forty four rushing yards. He's also
fumbled three times and been sacked three times, so he's
shown that he is exactly who we thought he was.
Actually he's probably throwing it better than he ever has,
you know, a higher clip, just not very deep at all.
(04:39):
Justin Fields and we've said this that before in the podcast.
Through week seventeen last year before players got rested. In
week eighteen, Fields ranked last in the NFL and fourth
quarter completion percentage twenty fifth and yards per attempt twenty
ninth in fourth quarter interceptions thirtieth in QBR. Since he
got into the league in twenty twenty one, he is
(05:00):
last among qualified quarterbacks in fourth quarter interceptions thirty six,
in complete percentage thirty third in QBR. Justin Fields is
an unbelievable talent. He is a physical specimen. If this
was flag football, and we'll get to this a little
bit later, he might be one of you know, the
(05:21):
upper echelon quarterback selections because he has unbelievable arm talent.
He's quick, he's fast, he's elusive. But when it comes
to playing quarterback in the NFL, he struggles with things
as simple as taking the snap under center. He struggles
to see the field, He struggles to play with any
kind of anticipation. So if you're the Pittsburgh Steelers, and
(05:44):
I think maybe this is where Deshaun Jackson has a point.
Justin Fields is who he is. He is gonna give
you a roller coaster of emotion. He's gonna give you
some highs where he breaks off a forty five yard
run down the sideline. He's gonna give you some lows
where after he has that run down the sideline, he's
gonna fumble the snapper, turn the ball over. Like that's
who he is. I don't know if he's gonna get
(06:05):
any better. I don't know if he's gonna do better
because there might be quote unquote structure in Pittsburgh, but
everything that we've seen from in the NFL tells you
that he is an uneven quarterback. And if you are Pittsburgh,
is he the kind of guy that is going to
(06:26):
be able to handle mentally coming off the bench, will
say week six, because Rush starts, Russ struggles through Week twelve,
Fields comes back in and mop up dude, like, is
he really gonna be showing you anything in that regard
or is he just one of those guys where you
know what he is, you know what he can do
where you have to throw him out there and just
(06:47):
live with the will live with whatever he does.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It's weird. I think this is an easy question, Rob,
Why isn't Justin Fields a better quarterback? I mean, you
just laid it out. But if those are his issues,
don't you find an offensive coordinator who can like work
with him? I mean that answer is not Arthur Smith,
(07:10):
that's very clear. Although he did okay with Tannehill, he
was terrible with Desmond Ritter. I just feel like he
should be doing almost exclusively RPO stuff where his legs
are at play and he's got to have to do
less read and react. But then again, RPOs are a
(07:31):
lot of read and react. Where's the safety? Can you
make that quick read instantly? And I don't know that
feels I think I'll never forget. Awesome college player, just
an incredible college resume at Ohio State, and then he
gets to the pros and it's like in the process,
I'll never forget. Someone said he had slow eyes, and
(07:53):
I was like, that is just such an indictment. That
is that sounds brutal and like it feels simple, but like,
shouldn't he looks the part like the guy walks in
a room and justin feels his big, strapping guy shoulders.
He's just a big guy, like, oh man, that's a
quarterback who's tackling that guy? And then he gets to
the league and it's just we're not seeing it now.
(08:16):
You can only play that well. He hasn't had the
right coordinator or an ad. The fit just hasn't been
You can only do that for so long before it's like, Eh,
he's not the guy.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
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Speaker 2 (08:37):
Are you of the belief that he's like, I don't know,
a coach away from a coach slash system of becoming
the right guy.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I think he either. I think it's system, not the coach,
because to a much lesser extent, they had the same
concerns about Lamar Jackson coming out of college that you know,
if everything is not geared around his specific skill set,
we don't know if he can play quarterback in the NFL.
That's why I think Bill Polling say put in my
wide receiver Anthony Richardson for all of his abilities physically
(09:09):
was not a great quote unquote traditional quarterback in college
in the traditional sense of the word. What Baltimore did
for Lamar Jackson is they built their entire roster. Forget
the offense. The roster was built around his talents. We're
going to run the ball more than anybody else. We're
gonna be smash mouth power. He's gonna be the lightning
(09:30):
to adjust it. And defensively, we are going to play
in attacking style because when we're milking clock offensively, you're
not gonna have as many possessions. You have to score quickly,
which is why we're going to be aggressive defensively in
the back end, pass rushing, so on, and so forth.
Anthony Richardson now in the Colts, the way Shane Steichen
has adjusted their offense, there are some similarities to what
(09:53):
he did with Jalen Hurts, but it's geared specifically to
what Anthony Richardson does well. He's going to be a
bo dozing power runner when he runs the ball and
throwing the ball. It's going to be a lot of
deeper things because he has a canon and it's kind
of one read too reads play action. That's where he's
at right now. And if you are willing to adjust
(10:14):
your entire system, which I think more teams should do
quite honestly, to the talents of your quarterback, and absolutely
he can have success. But to your point, in Chicago,
they didn't do that at all. And Arthur Smith I
don't believe is creative enough to design an offense that
specifically around Justin fields, if only because he's also worried
about the skill set of Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson at
(10:36):
this stage of his career is nothing close to the
physical talent that Justin fields and vice versa. They're totally
opposite quarterbacks at this stage in their careers. So unless
the team is willing to commit and live with the consequences,
take the bumps and bruises, watch the games where he's
you know, eleven for twenty seven, but he has seventy
five rushing yards. You got to be able to just
(10:58):
deal with that. I don't think teams nowadays are willing
to do that, and less than someone that they spent
high draft equity in, which obviously they didn't.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah, it's it's a difficult one because I at this
rate feels is going to be flamed out of the league.
Now you could also make that argue, Hey, why didn't
Zach Wilson work? Well, you know, Zach Wilson had a
cannon arm. He would make an occasional splash play, but
the basic shit dump it in the flat, quick out pattern,
like he just couldn't do that, you know, it just
and so now he's second or third in Denver? I
(11:25):
would guess third. And it's just it's one of those
situations where like, I don't know those quarterbacks who came
out that year, Trey Lance, same deal, right, Trey Lance.
Oh my gosh, look at this guy, strapping individual, is fast, strong,
What can't he do complete an eight yard out pattern?
Speaker 3 (11:42):
You know?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Like that's it's weird that whole draft class, either even
Trevor Lawrence, is underachieved. I don't you know. I'm not
gonna sit here and say, oh, I know what it
has to do with it has to do with the
COVID stuff. I don't know the answer. It's just a
little depressing how quickly some of these guys are flaming out. No, Rob.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah, I mean and again, and it's if there was
any one specific answer, then you know this wouldn't be
that difficult, right, But I think at its base level
is too many coaches believe that they're the reason why
a team is successful and not the players. So you know,
to go back to justin fields. Because we were talking
(12:20):
about him in Chicago, the offense they ran had nothing
to showcase his skill set whatsoever they had. Their offense
they try to fit square peg, round hole, didn't work out,
and the things he did well were not accentuated. On
the flip side. A team like Miami. Brian floor Is
obviously took a lot of heat this week for a
way he handle Tua as soon as Mike McDaniel gets there.
(12:43):
Obviously Tyreek helps, but the system they installed took advantage
of what Tua does well to a read the field
very quickly. He throws a great deep ball. He's very accurate.
We don't need him to run the West Coast offense.
We don't need him to run, you know, a run
and shoot offense. This is what we want him to do.
Brock Perdy in San Francisco, this is what we want
(13:04):
him to do. Shane Stiken when he had Jamee Harrison,
this is what we very specific things we know he
can do these things. Well, that's what's sets them up
to see it early on, and then as they develop
more and more, they can become more quote unquote well
rounded quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, it seems like it takes a little while and
a lot of clubs coaches they're on't patients like Robert Salah.
It almost feels as if Sala and Rogers have like
some a little beef and like you know, from Sala's perspective, yeah,
I don't have a fucking ton of time, dude, I'm
gonna get run out of town if we're not in
the If he's not a playoff team, it's over. If
(13:41):
they just don't make the playoffs, just Sala's gone. And
if it goes real sour like six seven wins, yeah,
I'm sure Rogers has gone. The GM's gone. So he
don't have a lot of patience. And you know, you
would think Tomlin has a lot rob of wiggle room,
But I don't know. Have you looked at how long
it's been since they had a playoff victory, like twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Wow, I didn't even realize it was that bad.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And here's where it gets even worse. If you look
at the Pittsburgh Steelers. They're built around defense. They spend
a lot of money on defense. This is what's even
crazier if you go look at their recent playoff losses.
They're giving up like thirty five points a game in
the playoffs. And as I call it Pittsburgh Steelers seasons,
here here we go. So in the playoff loss of
(14:26):
the Bills, they gave up thirty one. Three years ago,
in the loss of the Chiefs, they gave up forty two. Again,
you're built on defense. They gave up the year before
that to the Browns forty eight before that, three years
before that, the Jags hung forty five on them, Patriots
thirty six. So in their last five playoff losses they've
given up thirty one, forty two, forty eight, forty five,
(14:47):
and thirty six. Like, you can't win with defense, Just stop,
move on. I'm not saying you gotta trade TJ. Watt,
but do you have to consider trading TJ. Watt to
rebuild this team? And listen, that's not gonna be a
popular sentiment for any Steelers fan, But what do you want?
Do you want to love your best player or do
you want to build a winning organization, because right now
(15:10):
there's no path to a turnaround for Pittsburgh unless the
bottom falls out and they are a five to six
win team, They're probably gonna fumble their way to seven
or eight wins and then be picking around twelve to
eighteen again, and all the best quarterbacks are likely going
to be picked through. But and again, I know this
is gonna sound crazy if you're Pittsburgh and you want
to rebuild. You know TJ. Watt twenty nine, turns thirty
(15:31):
in October. You got amazing, incredible years out of him.
He was a phenomenal player. He still is. He missed
seven games in twenty or six or seven games. I
forget when they enacted seventeen games in twenty two. He
missed one in twenty one in twenty one. Like he's
got a billion sacks. He's still an awesome player. But
if you can get Rob two ones and a four
(15:57):
for TJ Watt, is that reasonable? I know you don't
really get too. I mean Devonte Adams fetch two ones?
Right or I think it was two ones? Like, don't
you have to explore trading TJ? What's what's more? What
what is more replaceable? Finding a superstar defensive end or
finding a franchise quarterback.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Oh more replaceable the defensive end.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah, exactly. So again I like what, I'm not saying
they should, but I think you have to explore all
options if you're going to be smart. No, I mean,
you just told me that Jamar Chase is asking for
a billion dollars basically wants more than just a jet.
All this stuff, and and he's doing the mover where
he scrubs and social media Bengal stuff, and it's like,
oh no, and we know that playbook and I'll get
(16:40):
to it a shocker. I don't know if Rob even
knows this one yet, but it almost feels like, Okay,
Jamar Chase is posturing. And then at the end of
the day, I'm like, would it be keeper to cheaper
to keep T Higgins and move off Jamar Chase? I
don't know. Again, I'm thinking out loud, your borrow would
not like that, But Rob, I don't know, Rob, what
shouldn't everything be on the table if you're real smart?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
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Speaker 3 (17:13):
I'll tell you what, and this might sound like a
hot take, everything should be on the table for every
player in the NFL, including Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, whatever.
If someone says to you, hey, I want to travor
Patrick Mahomes, your first answer to not automatically be no.
If you're a smart organization, now obviously you're gonna need
(17:36):
to blow me away with something like forty seven first
round picks and swaps and three of your best players
at it like you're gonna need to overwhelm me with something.
But if you are a smart, forward thinking organization, you
need to understand that unless you are in the inner
inner inner circle of Super Bowl contenders, which realistically there's
(17:59):
probably like three. I believe it's Kansas City, San Francisco,
and then to be determined and everybody else. Right, So,
unless you're one of those teams where you feel, right
now we are a favorite, not just capable like we
can go on a running blah blah blah. No, if
(18:19):
we are play the way we're supposed to play, we
should win the Super Bowl. We should be making the
Super Bowl. Then everything should be on the table. If
someone says, hey, I want to trade for Jamar Chase.
Jamar Chase is great, he's a rookie contract. You have
at least two or three more years of cost control
before you franchise tag m YadA, YadA YadA. But if
someone's gonna offer you three first round picks for you
have to consider it. If someone's gonna call you and say, hey, TJ.
(18:42):
Watt is arguably the best pass rusher in football, we
really want him. Here's two first here's a starting wide
receiver you can tank and get your quarterback next year,
you have to consider it. I'm not saying I'm gonna
do it again, It's gonna depend on a situation. Well,
get him, but you don't automatically say no, no matter
how good the player. Again, there's maybe a few exceptions.
My mom was probably a bad example. I think Mahomes
(19:03):
But yeah, Mahomes. Yeah, it's like he's a bad example.
But the other guys like everything should be a discussion.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yeah, minimum, it's funny you say that because I saw
a video my brother sent it to me on Instagram
about this guy and his wife. I guess walking out
of like a target or costco or whatever, and this
guy comes up to him with a briefcase is like, hey,
I'll give you ten thousand dollars for a night with
your wife. And the guy's like, come on, this isn't real.
(19:35):
He's like no, and he's like no, I'm not doing it.
And the guy pulls out the suitcase and he's like,
here's one hundred thousand dollars and the guy's like, oh
my gosh. Now I ultimately think it's fake as hell.
The guy ends up saying deal, and I'm like that
that's like in decent proposal. That's gotta a it's got
to be fake. But b I can't imagine that there's
any world where the guy would accept that. Just like, listen,
(19:57):
I'm sorry if Mahomes calls, I, I don't think I'm
doing five first for Homes.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I don't like if you're Kansas City or another team.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
If I'm if I'm Kansas City, I just oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I mean, like I said, that was looking back, that
was a terrible example.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I can't wait for someone clip off and just yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
But like like Josh Allen, no, Josh Allens, Yeah, Josh
Allen's very good. They consistently underwhelming the playoffs though you
got out of them five first round picks for first
round picks, three seconds for Josh Allen. Now the problem
is Buffalo probably still says no, but you have to think,
you have to consider it.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, and they did wait like twenty years for a
franchise quarterback after Jim Kelly, right, and they found him
and they've gotten close, but maybe they don't get over
the hump. Let me wrap with this because I alluded
to it. So you said the Jamar chase, and you
know he's doing the social media tactics. Did you? I
don't know if you even saw this. Hey have you
looked at Steph Curry's Instagram? I have not, so Interestingly,
(20:58):
he removed Warriors Guard from his profile and put like
Olympic gold medalist and it's not a big deal, but
it's maybe something. Now on Twitter he still has Warriors
Guard in there. But on IG I'm guessing he doesn't
personally update his Twitter, which is why he follows me,
(21:19):
probably on accident a long time ago, fat finger. But
on ig he no longer had his new pictures him
with the flag, which is fine, and he has Olympical medals.
Does it mention Warrior's guard. Now it's probably nothing, Rob,
but for an organization that tried to trade for Lebron
at the deadline, they made a move on him. You know,
it didn't happen, but they made a move. They went
(21:41):
hard after Paul George did not work, and then they
made a run at Lowry markten. So that's February to
now what are we looking at? Six months of trying
to get a star alongside Curry and they lost Klay Thompson.
I just wonder will Curry signed another contract with the
(22:04):
Warriors or And it's early. It's very early. This team
that won forty six games last year and was tenth
in the West. I don't think they got better, and
Draymond's not getting younger, Andrew Wiggins hasn't gotten back to
two years ago Andrew Wiggins. There Curry missing, you know,
(22:24):
fifteen games away from being out of the not even
a playing team, Rob, And at that point, I think,
you again, we like to be early on stuff. I'd
rather be early than late. I really do wonder if
we're gonna see Curry on another team. Obviously not this year,
but next year or the year after. He has two
(22:47):
more years on his deal. You don't want to trade him.
He's the greatest player in franchise history. I get all that,
but if you can't build around have been, they sure
as hell will try. Maybe you say where do you
want to? They're still gonna build a mis statue you
but like the idea to me of you know, scrubbing
Warriors from ig. You know, this is a guy who
hung out with Lebron in Paris all summer, okay, all summer,
(23:11):
and now he's going to the Lebron bag of tricks
of social media. Oh it's nothing, but it's maybe something.
Remember Lebron's been doing this for I don't know of
a decade, but certainly close. It's using social media to
send messages to coaches, front office, other players. And I'm
not saying he's going to Lakers or anything. I don't
(23:32):
think you leave the Warriors to go to Charlotte, you
know where your dad played, unless at that point you
know Cooper Flag's emerging. You know whatever. I'm just saying,
is there a world rob where you can see him saying, guys,
we had it, we had a good run, but you
know it's over, and no hard feelings. This is not
Michael Jordan going to the Wizards. This is not Patrick
(23:53):
Ewing with the Sonics, This is not a Elijah one with
the Raptors. This is all NBA guard Steph Curry. Okay, so, Rob,
I don't know what your appetite is for a story
like this, but you know, Curry's my guy, so I
had to bring it up.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah. Could I see it happening?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Do I want it to happen?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
No? Do you mean?
Speaker 3 (24:17):
And that's coming from someone who just on Wednesday was
driving around town in Los Angeles listening to local sports
talk radio and they did what had to have been
at least twenty five to thirty minutes on the idea
of Steph Curry getting traded to the Lakers, because according
to them, at least on that Instagram post that you
(24:39):
alluded to, you know, you can collaborate with people like oh,
so and so invited you to be a color Yeah. Yeah,
Pagnan apparently it's a dual post with him and Lebron
that they collaborated together on it. Oh, I don't know.
I don't know if that's true, because again I don't
follow Steph Curry my gram like that, but that's what
they said, you know, and so urry honestly and follow
(25:00):
a lot of people, you better find out I do.
That's all I know about all your shirtless vacation picks.
But as far as Steph Curry goes, and I think
I said this before in the podcast, even if it's
to the Lakers, as a Laker fan, sure I would
love to have Steph Curry, Stephan Lebron would be dynamite,
you know, just the two of them. We saw that
on the Olympics in a small sample, that their games
(25:21):
just complement each other. And if somehow they able to
keep Anthony Davis like championship of course, but as a
basketball fan and someone who works in sports as for
a living, I still believe that there is value to
be had in guys representing their team and their market
for their entire career. Lebron, James Homie hopping from Cleveland
(25:44):
and Miami to Cleveland to la is something that as
like a sports fan, it just it doesn't sit right
with me, you know a little bit, unless the team
is so you know, unwilling or unable to build a
team around you. There should be no reason why you can.
If you're as good as everyone thinks that you are
(26:05):
can't elevate your city and your team to a certain level.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Remember hold up, Remember Lebron was in Cleveland first tour
of duty. He gave them many years. He took up
to the finals, gave him years to annie up. The
best they could do was Antoine Jamison and Aging Shack
and then he said peace, I'm out deuces.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Sure, and I don't want to go down this rabbit
hole because we don't have time for it. But in
that situation with Cleveland at the time, that's when we
learned that Lebron the GM was not a good GM
because he was just like, yes, get me players, Atoon,
Damson can do this, get me and on Jameson Shack
can do this. I'm gonna sign off on this deal.
Blah blah blah blah. You know, he tried to get
Michael Red, Michael I didn't want to go to Cleveland.
(26:46):
He tried to get Chris Boss. Chris Boss, you want
to come to Cleveland. So he had things working against him.
But it wasn't like Cleveland didn't try. Like they did
everything in their power. They made some bad moves, but
they tried to be to build a contender. Steph Curry
and Golden State last I checked, were known as the
light years Ahead franchise that they've done and spent and
(27:07):
did everything in their power to ensure that they could
build a champion championship team around Steph Curry. They were
the most expensive team in NBA history for like three
years running until last year's Phoenix Sun squad. So it's
not like they weren't trying to be good. It's not like,
you know, they made a series of poor decisions that
derailed their team. They just got old, and that happens.
(27:31):
So for Steph Curry, I know that we want to
see him back in championship contention and realistically is not
gonna have it right now in Golden State. But I
would love to see Steph Curry finish his career with
Golden State. I would love for him to be known
as the ultimate Warrior. Derk Noovinsky in Dallas, Kobe in
Los Angeles. You know, like, I think that there's still
(27:53):
some value in that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, I just I mean, I get where you're coming from.
I just think that stuff's over. I just want to
say Curry thrive and flourish and win a lot of
games and be dominant, and he's just not able to
do that in Golden State when he's surrounded by d
Anthony Melton and this Podzilesky fellow. Anyways, it's a it's
a weekend. It's a freaking weekend.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Baby.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I'm about to have me some fun, all right, Robby,
be safe, everybody enjoy. We're back Monday. Talk to you then,
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What is up straight firefam HiT's me Jason McIntyre. Straight
Fire for Friday, August twenty third. The weekend is here.
It's a big fantasy football draft weekend. We thought we'd
be able to secure a fantasy football guest, but we're
gonna have to push it to next week. A programming note.
Next week is all of a sudden, I think we'll
(00:33):
just get a bunch of guests because the herd is
going dark next week, a gift from the heavens. Finally,
a week off for I don't have to take vacation now. Unfortunately,
the kids are back in school, so I can't really
do anything exciting, probably just like, you know, play a
little hoops, maybe some beach runs, hit the gym, you know.
And I guess we'll be able to because the window
(00:55):
for recording interviews opens up big time, you know. With
the time difference, it's sometimes tough to get East Coast guys.
But so we'll do the fantasy stuff next week now.
Most I can't imagine that you'll have much fantasy changes
this weekend, as the final weekend of preseason football hits.
It's the third game and nobody plays except Russell Wilson
(01:20):
for reasons that I it almost makes you wonder, folks,
what's going on in Pittsburgh. Russell Wilson is going to
play in preseason week three? He was I don't know
if anointed the starters fair, but he was told like,
it's your job, not maybe not to lose, but you're
you have the inside track whatever the phrasing was that
Tomlin had used after they added Fields, and then it's
(01:43):
kind of been one of those summers where it's like,
what do we have in Russ? And maybe Fields is
a better fit, and then Russ has the calf injury
and the doors open for Fields. But he was kind
of clunky with a couple interceptions, taking some bad secks.
Looked like there hadn't been a ton of improvement on
the justin Fields front. But if that's the case and
Russ is the starter, why is he playing in preseason
(02:05):
week three? Does he feel like he has something to prove?
Does Tomlin want to see more? Remember Tomlin was unhappy
with the offense after last weekend, with both quarterbacks unhappy totally.
I almost think he opened up by saying, like the
punter for special Teams was their hero essentially in Week two,
and so it kind of makes you wonder like, is
(02:25):
there a quarterback controversy or they haven't named the starter?
Now the Patriots haven't named the starter. I there may
be one other team or maybe that's it. I don't know,
but it's funny. Deshaun Jackson was on the Herd yesterday
and he thinks the move is to roll with Fields,
and his logic was, let's say you start Russ and
he doesn't cook. Okay, he's okay, but you decide I'm
(02:51):
transitioning to fields. You can't then go back to Russ
later because that would just be way too awkward. You've
got a young offense. I think all of their primary
guys are like under twenty seven or something like that.
What's the point of going to Russ when fields could
be the future? We know Russ is not the future
(03:11):
in Pittsburgh. So if the future might be justin fields,
shouldn't he get the starting job? And if he flops,
oh well and you're back to the drawing board, or
you go to Russ and then you draft. You're trying
draft on a quarterback. Either way. But something didn't totally
add up, Rob, I don't have any data here about
final preseason games, and I know they recently shrunk the
preseason from four games to three. But like Aaron Rodgers
(03:34):
ain't playing, he's coming off a major injury. He hasn't
had any reps in a live game in I mean,
he had four snaps last year in the opener against Buffalo,
but he's had four snaps in something like five hundred
days in a real game. I don't want to hear
about scrimmages. So it's just a weird situation in Pittsburgh.
Thought I thought it was sorted out and Russ was
gonna be the guy. But maybe they're having second thoughts, Rob.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah. And you know what's interesting is I mean, Thursday
was a slow news day, to be frank, but one
of the biggest quote unquote Newsy stories was that Justin
Fields came out and said to the media publicly that
he believes that he's quote shown what I can do
to be considered the Steelers QB one in Week one.
(04:19):
Across two preseason games, Justin Fields sixteen for twenty three
one fifty nine with forty four rushing yards. He's also
fumbled three times and been sacked three times, so he's
shown that he is exactly who we thought he was.
Actually he's probably throwing it better than he ever has,
you know, a higher clip, just not very deep at all.
(04:39):
Justin Fields and we've said this that before in the podcast.
Through week seventeen last year before players got rested. In
week eighteen, Fields ranked last in the NFL and fourth
quarter completion percentage twenty fifth and yards per attempt twenty
ninth in fourth quarter interceptions thirtieth in QBR. Since he
got into the league in twenty twenty one, he is
(05:00):
last among qualified quarterbacks in fourth quarter interceptions thirty six,
in complete percentage thirty third in QBR. Justin Fields is
an unbelievable talent. He is a physical specimen. If this
was flag football, and we'll get to this a little
bit later, he might be one of you know, the
(05:21):
upper echelon quarterback selections because he has unbelievable arm talent.
He's quick, he's fast, he's elusive. But when it comes
to playing quarterback in the NFL, he struggles with things
as simple as taking the snap under center. He struggles
to see the field, He struggles to play with any
kind of anticipation. So if you're the Pittsburgh Steelers, and
(05:44):
I think maybe this is where Deshaun Jackson has a point.
Justin Fields is who he is. He is gonna give
you a roller coaster of emotion. He's gonna give you
some highs where he breaks off a forty five yard
run down the sideline. He's gonna give you some lows
where after he has that run down the sideline, he's
gonna fumble the snapper, turn the ball over. Like that's
who he is. I don't know if he's gonna get
(06:05):
any better. I don't know if he's gonna do better
because there might be quote unquote structure in Pittsburgh, but
everything that we've seen from in the NFL tells you
that he is an uneven quarterback. And if you are Pittsburgh,
is he the kind of guy that is going to
(06:26):
be able to handle mentally coming off the bench, will
say week six, because Rush starts, Russ struggles through Week twelve,
Fields comes back in and mop up dude, like, is
he really gonna be showing you anything in that regard
or is he just one of those guys where you
know what he is, you know what he can do
where you have to throw him out there and just
(06:47):
live with the will live with whatever he does.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It's weird. I think this is an easy question, Rob,
Why isn't Justin Fields a better quarterback? I mean, you
just laid it out. But if those are his issues,
don't you find an offensive coordinator who can like work
with him? I mean that answer is not Arthur Smith,
(07:10):
that's very clear. Although he did okay with Tannehill, he
was terrible with Desmond Ritter. I just feel like he
should be doing almost exclusively RPO stuff where his legs
are at play and he's got to have to do
less read and react. But then again, RPOs are a
(07:31):
lot of read and react. Where's the safety? Can you
make that quick read instantly? And I don't know that
feels I think I'll never forget. Awesome college player, just
an incredible college resume at Ohio State, and then he
gets to the pros and it's like in the process,
I'll never forget. Someone said he had slow eyes, and
(07:53):
I was like, that is just such an indictment. That
is that sounds brutal and like it feels simple, but like,
shouldn't he looks the part like the guy walks in
a room and justin feels his big, strapping guy shoulders.
He's just a big guy, like, oh man, that's a
quarterback who's tackling that guy? And then he gets to
the league and it's just we're not seeing it now.
(08:16):
You can only play that well. He hasn't had the
right coordinator or an ad. The fit just hasn't been
You can only do that for so long before it's like, Eh,
he's not the guy.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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listen live.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Are you of the belief that he's like, I don't know,
a coach away from a coach slash system of becoming
the right guy.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I think he either. I think it's system, not the coach,
because to a much lesser extent, they had the same
concerns about Lamar Jackson coming out of college that you know,
if everything is not geared around his specific skill set,
we don't know if he can play quarterback in the NFL.
That's why I think Bill Polling say put in my
wide receiver Anthony Richardson for all of his abilities physically
(09:09):
was not a great quote unquote traditional quarterback in college
in the traditional sense of the word. What Baltimore did
for Lamar Jackson is they built their entire roster. Forget
the offense. The roster was built around his talents. We're
going to run the ball more than anybody else. We're
gonna be smash mouth power. He's gonna be the lightning
(09:30):
to adjust it. And defensively, we are going to play
in attacking style because when we're milking clock offensively, you're
not gonna have as many possessions. You have to score quickly,
which is why we're going to be aggressive defensively in
the back end, pass rushing, so on, and so forth.
Anthony Richardson now in the Colts, the way Shane Steichen
has adjusted their offense, there are some similarities to what
(09:53):
he did with Jalen Hurts, but it's geared specifically to
what Anthony Richardson does well. He's going to be a
bo dozing power runner when he runs the ball and
throwing the ball. It's going to be a lot of
deeper things because he has a canon and it's kind
of one read too reads play action. That's where he's
at right now. And if you are willing to adjust
(10:14):
your entire system, which I think more teams should do
quite honestly, to the talents of your quarterback, and absolutely
he can have success. But to your point, in Chicago,
they didn't do that at all. And Arthur Smith I
don't believe is creative enough to design an offense that
specifically around Justin fields, if only because he's also worried
about the skill set of Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson at
(10:36):
this stage of his career is nothing close to the
physical talent that Justin fields and vice versa. They're totally
opposite quarterbacks at this stage in their careers. So unless
the team is willing to commit and live with the consequences,
take the bumps and bruises, watch the games where he's
you know, eleven for twenty seven, but he has seventy
five rushing yards. You got to be able to just
(10:58):
deal with that. I don't think teams nowadays are willing
to do that, and less than someone that they spent
high draft equity in, which obviously they didn't.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah, it's it's a difficult one because I at this
rate feels is going to be flamed out of the league.
Now you could also make that argue, Hey, why didn't
Zach Wilson work? Well, you know, Zach Wilson had a
cannon arm. He would make an occasional splash play, but
the basic shit dump it in the flat, quick out pattern,
like he just couldn't do that, you know, it just
and so now he's second or third in Denver? I
(11:25):
would guess third. And it's just it's one of those
situations where like, I don't know those quarterbacks who came
out that year, Trey Lance, same deal, right, Trey Lance.
Oh my gosh, look at this guy, strapping individual, is fast, strong,
What can't he do complete an eight yard out pattern?
Speaker 3 (11:42):
You know?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Like that's it's weird that whole draft class, either even
Trevor Lawrence, is underachieved. I don't you know. I'm not
gonna sit here and say, oh, I know what it
has to do with it has to do with the
COVID stuff. I don't know the answer. It's just a
little depressing how quickly some of these guys are flaming out. No, Rob.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah, I mean and again, and it's if there was
any one specific answer, then you know this wouldn't be
that difficult, right, But I think at its base level
is too many coaches believe that they're the reason why
a team is successful and not the players. So you know,
to go back to justin fields. Because we were talking
(12:20):
about him in Chicago, the offense they ran had nothing
to showcase his skill set whatsoever they had. Their offense
they try to fit square peg, round hole, didn't work out,
and the things he did well were not accentuated. On
the flip side. A team like Miami. Brian floor Is
obviously took a lot of heat this week for a
way he handle Tua as soon as Mike McDaniel gets there.
(12:43):
Obviously Tyreek helps, but the system they installed took advantage
of what Tua does well to a read the field
very quickly. He throws a great deep ball. He's very accurate.
We don't need him to run the West Coast offense.
We don't need him to run, you know, a run
and shoot offense. This is what we want him to do.
Brock Perdy in San Francisco, this is what we want
(13:04):
him to do. Shane Stiken when he had Jamee Harrison,
this is what we very specific things we know he
can do these things. Well, that's what's sets them up
to see it early on, and then as they develop
more and more, they can become more quote unquote well
rounded quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, it seems like it takes a little while and
a lot of clubs coaches they're on't patients like Robert Salah.
It almost feels as if Sala and Rogers have like
some a little beef and like you know, from Sala's perspective, yeah,
I don't have a fucking ton of time, dude, I'm
gonna get run out of town if we're not in
the If he's not a playoff team, it's over. If
(13:41):
they just don't make the playoffs, just Sala's gone. And
if it goes real sour like six seven wins, yeah,
I'm sure Rogers has gone. The GM's gone. So he
don't have a lot of patience. And you know, you
would think Tomlin has a lot rob of wiggle room,
But I don't know. Have you looked at how long
it's been since they had a playoff victory, like twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Wow, I didn't even realize it was that bad.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And here's where it gets even worse. If you look
at the Pittsburgh Steelers. They're built around defense. They spend
a lot of money on defense. This is what's even
crazier if you go look at their recent playoff losses.
They're giving up like thirty five points a game in
the playoffs. And as I call it Pittsburgh Steelers seasons,
here here we go. So in the playoff loss of
(14:26):
the Bills, they gave up thirty one. Three years ago,
in the loss of the Chiefs, they gave up forty two. Again,
you're built on defense. They gave up the year before
that to the Browns forty eight before that, three years
before that, the Jags hung forty five on them, Patriots
thirty six. So in their last five playoff losses they've
given up thirty one, forty two, forty eight, forty five,
(14:47):
and thirty six. Like, you can't win with defense, Just stop,
move on. I'm not saying you gotta trade TJ. Watt,
but do you have to consider trading TJ. Watt to
rebuild this team? And listen, that's not gonna be a
popular sentiment for any Steelers fan, But what do you want?
Do you want to love your best player or do
you want to build a winning organization, because right now
(15:10):
there's no path to a turnaround for Pittsburgh unless the
bottom falls out and they are a five to six
win team, They're probably gonna fumble their way to seven
or eight wins and then be picking around twelve to
eighteen again, and all the best quarterbacks are likely going
to be picked through. But and again, I know this
is gonna sound crazy if you're Pittsburgh and you want
to rebuild. You know TJ. Watt twenty nine, turns thirty
(15:31):
in October. You got amazing, incredible years out of him.
He was a phenomenal player. He still is. He missed
seven games in twenty or six or seven games. I
forget when they enacted seventeen games in twenty two. He
missed one in twenty one in twenty one. Like he's
got a billion sacks. He's still an awesome player. But
if you can get Rob two ones and a four
(15:57):
for TJ Watt, is that reasonable? I know you don't
really get too. I mean Devonte Adams fetch two ones?
Right or I think it was two ones? Like, don't
you have to explore trading TJ? What's what's more? What
what is more replaceable? Finding a superstar defensive end or
finding a franchise quarterback.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Oh more replaceable the defensive end.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah, exactly. So again I like what, I'm not saying
they should, but I think you have to explore all
options if you're going to be smart. No, I mean,
you just told me that Jamar Chase is asking for
a billion dollars basically wants more than just a jet.
All this stuff, and and he's doing the mover where
he scrubs and social media Bengal stuff, and it's like,
oh no, and we know that playbook and I'll get
(16:40):
to it a shocker. I don't know if Rob even
knows this one yet, but it almost feels like, Okay,
Jamar Chase is posturing. And then at the end of
the day, I'm like, would it be keeper to cheaper
to keep T Higgins and move off Jamar Chase? I
don't know. Again, I'm thinking out loud, your borrow would
not like that, But Rob, I don't know, Rob, what
shouldn't everything be on the table if you're real smart?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Team Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup
in the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports
radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR
to listen live.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
I'll tell you what, and this might sound like a
hot take, everything should be on the table for every
player in the NFL, including Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, whatever.
If someone says to you, hey, I want to travor
Patrick Mahomes, your first answer to not automatically be no.
If you're a smart organization, now obviously you're gonna need
(17:36):
to blow me away with something like forty seven first
round picks and swaps and three of your best players
at it like you're gonna need to overwhelm me with something.
But if you are a smart, forward thinking organization, you
need to understand that unless you are in the inner
inner inner circle of Super Bowl contenders, which realistically there's
(17:59):
probably like three. I believe it's Kansas City, San Francisco,
and then to be determined and everybody else. Right, So,
unless you're one of those teams where you feel, right
now we are a favorite, not just capable like we
can go on a running blah blah blah. No, if
(18:19):
we are play the way we're supposed to play, we
should win the Super Bowl. We should be making the
Super Bowl. Then everything should be on the table. If
someone says, hey, I want to trade for Jamar Chase.
Jamar Chase is great, he's a rookie contract. You have
at least two or three more years of cost control
before you franchise tag m YadA, YadA YadA. But if
someone's gonna offer you three first round picks for you
have to consider it. If someone's gonna call you and say, hey, TJ.
(18:42):
Watt is arguably the best pass rusher in football, we
really want him. Here's two first here's a starting wide
receiver you can tank and get your quarterback next year,
you have to consider it. I'm not saying I'm gonna
do it again, It's gonna depend on a situation. Well,
get him, but you don't automatically say no, no matter
how good the player. Again, there's maybe a few exceptions.
My mom was probably a bad example. I think Mahomes
(19:03):
But yeah, Mahomes. Yeah, it's like he's a bad example.
But the other guys like everything should be a discussion.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yeah, minimum, it's funny you say that because I saw
a video my brother sent it to me on Instagram
about this guy and his wife. I guess walking out
of like a target or costco or whatever, and this
guy comes up to him with a briefcase is like, hey,
I'll give you ten thousand dollars for a night with
your wife. And the guy's like, come on, this isn't real.
(19:35):
He's like no, and he's like no, I'm not doing it.
And the guy pulls out the suitcase and he's like,
here's one hundred thousand dollars and the guy's like, oh
my gosh. Now I ultimately think it's fake as hell.
The guy ends up saying deal, and I'm like that
that's like in decent proposal. That's gotta a it's got
to be fake. But b I can't imagine that there's
any world where the guy would accept that. Just like, listen,
(19:57):
I'm sorry if Mahomes calls, I, I don't think I'm
doing five first for Homes.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I don't like if you're Kansas City or another team.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
If I'm if I'm Kansas City, I just oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I mean, like I said, that was looking back, that
was a terrible example.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I can't wait for someone clip off and just yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
But like like Josh Allen, no, Josh Allens, Yeah, Josh
Allen's very good. They consistently underwhelming the playoffs though you
got out of them five first round picks for first
round picks, three seconds for Josh Allen. Now the problem
is Buffalo probably still says no, but you have to think,
you have to consider it.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, and they did wait like twenty years for a
franchise quarterback after Jim Kelly, right, and they found him
and they've gotten close, but maybe they don't get over
the hump. Let me wrap with this because I alluded
to it. So you said the Jamar chase, and you
know he's doing the social media tactics. Did you? I
don't know if you even saw this. Hey have you
looked at Steph Curry's Instagram? I have not, so Interestingly,
(20:58):
he removed Warriors Guard from his profile and put like
Olympic gold medalist and it's not a big deal, but
it's maybe something. Now on Twitter he still has Warriors
Guard in there. But on IG I'm guessing he doesn't
personally update his Twitter, which is why he follows me,
(21:19):
probably on accident a long time ago, fat finger. But
on ig he no longer had his new pictures him
with the flag, which is fine, and he has Olympical medals.
Does it mention Warrior's guard. Now it's probably nothing, Rob,
but for an organization that tried to trade for Lebron
at the deadline, they made a move on him. You know,
it didn't happen, but they made a move. They went
(21:41):
hard after Paul George did not work, and then they
made a run at Lowry markten. So that's February to
now what are we looking at? Six months of trying
to get a star alongside Curry and they lost Klay Thompson.
I just wonder will Curry signed another contract with the
(22:04):
Warriors or And it's early. It's very early. This team
that won forty six games last year and was tenth
in the West. I don't think they got better, and
Draymond's not getting younger, Andrew Wiggins hasn't gotten back to
two years ago Andrew Wiggins. There Curry missing, you know,
(22:24):
fifteen games away from being out of the not even
a playing team, Rob, And at that point, I think,
you again, we like to be early on stuff. I'd
rather be early than late. I really do wonder if
we're gonna see Curry on another team. Obviously not this year,
but next year or the year after. He has two
(22:47):
more years on his deal. You don't want to trade him.
He's the greatest player in franchise history. I get all that,
but if you can't build around have been, they sure
as hell will try. Maybe you say where do you
want to? They're still gonna build a mis statue you
but like the idea to me of you know, scrubbing
Warriors from ig. You know, this is a guy who
hung out with Lebron in Paris all summer, okay, all summer,
(23:11):
and now he's going to the Lebron bag of tricks
of social media. Oh it's nothing, but it's maybe something.
Remember Lebron's been doing this for I don't know of
a decade, but certainly close. It's using social media to
send messages to coaches, front office, other players. And I'm
not saying he's going to Lakers or anything. I don't
(23:32):
think you leave the Warriors to go to Charlotte, you
know where your dad played, unless at that point you
know Cooper Flag's emerging. You know whatever. I'm just saying,
is there a world rob where you can see him saying, guys,
we had it, we had a good run, but you
know it's over, and no hard feelings. This is not
Michael Jordan going to the Wizards. This is not Patrick
(23:53):
Ewing with the Sonics, This is not a Elijah one with
the Raptors. This is all NBA guard Steph Curry. Okay, so, Rob,
I don't know what your appetite is for a story
like this, but you know, Curry's my guy, so I
had to bring it up.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah. Could I see it happening?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Do I want it to happen?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
No? Do you mean?
Speaker 3 (24:17):
And that's coming from someone who just on Wednesday was
driving around town in Los Angeles listening to local sports
talk radio and they did what had to have been
at least twenty five to thirty minutes on the idea
of Steph Curry getting traded to the Lakers, because according
to them, at least on that Instagram post that you
(24:39):
alluded to, you know, you can collaborate with people like oh,
so and so invited you to be a color Yeah. Yeah,
Pagnan apparently it's a dual post with him and Lebron
that they collaborated together on it. Oh, I don't know.
I don't know if that's true, because again I don't
follow Steph Curry my gram like that, but that's what
they said, you know, and so urry honestly and follow
(25:00):
a lot of people, you better find out I do.
That's all I know about all your shirtless vacation picks.
But as far as Steph Curry goes, and I think
I said this before in the podcast, even if it's
to the Lakers, as a Laker fan, sure I would
love to have Steph Curry, Stephan Lebron would be dynamite,
you know, just the two of them. We saw that
on the Olympics in a small sample, that their games
(25:21):
just complement each other. And if somehow they able to
keep Anthony Davis like championship of course, but as a
basketball fan and someone who works in sports as for
a living, I still believe that there is value to
be had in guys representing their team and their market
for their entire career. Lebron, James Homie hopping from Cleveland
(25:44):
and Miami to Cleveland to la is something that as
like a sports fan, it just it doesn't sit right
with me, you know a little bit, unless the team
is so you know, unwilling or unable to build a
team around you. There should be no reason why you can.
If you're as good as everyone thinks that you are
(26:05):
can't elevate your city and your team to a certain level.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Remember hold up, Remember Lebron was in Cleveland first tour
of duty. He gave them many years. He took up
to the finals, gave him years to annie up. The
best they could do was Antoine Jamison and Aging Shack
and then he said peace, I'm out deuces.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Sure, and I don't want to go down this rabbit
hole because we don't have time for it. But in
that situation with Cleveland at the time, that's when we
learned that Lebron the GM was not a good GM
because he was just like, yes, get me players, Atoon,
Damson can do this, get me and on Jameson Shack
can do this. I'm gonna sign off on this deal.
Blah blah blah blah. You know, he tried to get
Michael Red, Michael I didn't want to go to Cleveland.
(26:46):
He tried to get Chris Boss. Chris Boss, you want
to come to Cleveland. So he had things working against him.
But it wasn't like Cleveland didn't try. Like they did
everything in their power. They made some bad moves, but
they tried to be to build a contender. Steph Curry
and Golden State last I checked, were known as the
light years Ahead franchise that they've done and spent and
(27:07):
did everything in their power to ensure that they could
build a champion championship team around Steph Curry. They were
the most expensive team in NBA history for like three
years running until last year's Phoenix Sun squad. So it's
not like they weren't trying to be good. It's not like,
you know, they made a series of poor decisions that
derailed their team. They just got old, and that happens.
(27:31):
So for Steph Curry, I know that we want to
see him back in championship contention and realistically is not
gonna have it right now in Golden State. But I
would love to see Steph Curry finish his career with
Golden State. I would love for him to be known
as the ultimate Warrior. Derk Noovinsky in Dallas, Kobe in
Los Angeles. You know, like, I think that there's still
(27:53):
some value in that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, I just I mean, I get where you're coming from.
I just think that stuff's over. I just want to
say Curry thrive and flourish and win a lot of
games and be dominant, and he's just not able to
do that in Golden State when he's surrounded by d
Anthony Melton and this Podzilesky fellow. Anyways, it's a it's
a weekend. It's a freaking weekend.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Baby.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I'm about to have me some fun, all right, Robby,
be safe, everybody enjoy. We're back Monday. Talk to you then,
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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