Aaron Torres & Jason Martin talk NBA Playoffs, Nico Iamaleava, & NFL Draft Talk

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 3 (00:27):
Jason Martin in our.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Nashville tyre Recks Studios, Aeron Torres here in Los Angeles.
We'll get you caught up on what's going on here
in Los Angeles Atcrypto dot Com Arena in just a moment.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
But jaymart how you doing, Buddy?

Speaker 4 (00:42):
Doing well?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Happy sat doing well.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
I'm glad I appreciate what's happened in this first game
because it made it a lot easier to pay attention to.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Rest Oh Okay, I thought I was gonna say, it's
a lot easier to talk about.

Speaker 4 (00:53):
Well we can do that too, but yeah, like just
just the fact that it kind of went in doubt,
oh STU made it easier not to have to pay
that close of attention to what was going on.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Okay, well, we will get to WrestleMania in a minute,
but I do think you know, I've been waffling back
and forth with should we lead with the Lakers or
wait until it goes final. I'll tell you there's still
two minutes on the clock, but it is just about
final Lakers as we speak. They just went to the
timeout or they just went to a timeout at about
the two minute mark of the fourth quarter. Minnesota one thirteen,

(01:30):
Los Angeles Lakers ninety two. Jay mart, you know I
must have missed this because I seem to remember everybody
handing the Los Angeles Lakers the NBA Championship in in
like early February, mid February. I think they won like
two games in a row after they traded for Luka Doncic,
and we just I thought we were just going to
cancel the season, but apparently the season went on, and

(01:52):
with two minutes left in Game one, the Lakers trail
by twenty one. It looks inevitable that the Minnesota Timberwolves
will get a one nothing lead win Game one in
Los Angeles. And again, we'll have plenty of time over
the next three hours to react to this. But your
first thoughts on a game in which the Los Angeles
Lakers the first playoff appearance with Luka Doncic and Lebron

(02:16):
James by the way, one of the two rows to
the occasion, Luka Doncic with thirty seven points as we speak,
Lebron nineteen points on eight of eighteen, shooting one to
five from three. What's the take on Minnesota just walking
into LA and largely doing whatever they wanted against the Lakers,
especially after the first quarter. LA was up by seven

(02:37):
after the first quarter, so you can do the math.
It's been basically a blowout since then. Your thoughts on
Minnesota now under two minutes away from taking a one
to nothing serious lead.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
All right, So I'll take a WrestleMania I'll just use
a WrestleMania term that some people listening will get. Pretty
much Minnesota decided they wanted to dog walk the Lakers,
and that's exactly what they've done in this game. All right.
So once you said the way, you kind of let
it out about how they were the champions and all this.
Everything they do is magnified, both positive and negative. The

(03:10):
NBA media, especially just the national media, is like biting
their fingernails, like, please don't let them lose, Please don't
let them lose this series because they need this to
be able to talk about this is a twenty three
point win. Let me just tell you how over reactive
everything is when it comes to the LA Lakers. I'm
looking right now at the four letter dot com. I'm

(03:32):
looking at ESPN dot com right now, and of course
the big splash screen is te Wolves one fifteen, Lakers
ninety two with one twenty one left. You can watch it.
I don't need to watch it. I've seen enough. Okay,
So the very first bullet point that was something that
was written earlier, either today or yesterday, is a is
an article with a question attached to it that is

(03:55):
what's behind this stifling, confusing, Lebron led Lakers defense. It's
one seventeen to ninety two in LA. This to me,
like I understand, yes, they've played better defense than people
thought they were going to because it's Luke and all
this kind of stuff. But regardless of all of that,
this again just shows how easy it is to exaggerate

(04:15):
what's happening in front of you and blow it way
out of proportion like this right here. Doesn't mean they're
a bad defensive team, but I don't know that we
needed an article to talk about how great they were.
Either it's like you're trying to get ahead of this,
why don't you let it play out before you actually,
you know, crown anything or overdo it, like is this
series over? Of course it's not over. But the t

(04:35):
Wolves are a pretty good team, and they showed that
last year. They don't have Karl Anthony Towns. Maybe that
trade didn't end up working out in their favor, but
they still got Anthony Edwards. They've still got a lot
of talent on that floor, and they're gonna play hard,
They're gonna play physically, and the Lakers are gonna have
to beat them. And this was kind of an indication
that it might be harder because you saw it, Oh

(04:57):
Lakers in five against the Thunder. I think it, as
Shannon Sharp said, I know he's a Lakers honk and
all this kind of stuff, but it's just like everything
has to be one hundred miles an hour or zero.
Like then that's just not reality, Aaron, That's not how
things work. The Lakers have a lot to like. There's
a lot to like about the Lakers. There's a lot
of flaws too. There's reasons for you to think it's

(05:21):
ridiculous to act like they're gonna go win the championship
like it's it's preposterous at this level. So the te
Wolves putting up one seventeen on the road, you know,
and opening up this series leading it one nothing, only
means that they're up one nothing. But mark my words, Monday,
the sky is gonna be falling and everybody is going

(05:43):
to come out for their pound of flesh or to
defend to the hilt. Oh that this doesn't mean anything
as opposed to it just being in the middle where yeah,
the Lakers can get beat, and they can get beat
pretty soundly because there are some fundamental flaws in the
makeup of that basketball team.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Well yeah, I mean they're fundamental flaws that we literally
talked about the night that Luca got traded.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
And that's right, it was.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
It was so funny in real time to see the
reaction to that trade. And then you know, again, really
not so much the trade. The trade has been discussed
and rediscussed and overdiscussed. But I just remember saying when
everybody was crowning the Lakers in February, I said, well,
wait a second, now, I still don't understand the Luca
Donta trade. That's another conversation for another day. But he

(06:24):
did wear down in the finals last year from being
out of shape. And Lebron James, who is always, to
his credit even at forty years old in shape, is
also forty years old, and I've seen him wear down
in the playoffs as they've gone on deeper and deeper.
I always go back to that Western Conference finals two
years ago against Denver where they got swept and it
was like every single game, it was like Lebron was

(06:45):
great in the first half, he just ran out of
gas in the second half because he was thirty eight
at the time. He's forty now. So yes, this team
has always been fundamentally flawed. I think what will be
interesting by the way you talk about defunning NBA media.
You talk about all of the you know, all of
the people that run to the hills to defend the

(07:06):
Lakers and prop up the Lakers and whatever. Here's what
I'm gonna be curious about. Luc at it his part
tonight thirty seven points twelve of twenty two. Listen, we
get that Lebron's forty years old, but he is still
you know, listen, he's the biggest story. Every time he
steps on the floor, he's you know, I think we
all agree somewhere whatever to top ten players in the league.

(07:27):
Still nineteen points eight of eighteen from the field, I
don't know how you can spin it anything other than
Lebron probably didn't do enough for them to win. I think,
by the way, two things can be true. One, this
is kind of why I have never really believed in
the Lakers, because you basically need a great night out
of them every single You need a great night out

(07:49):
of both Luca and Lebron every single night for two
straight months to win a title. But then two, I'm
just gonna be curious, because you know we're going Lebron
was drafted in three. I have still yet to see
the scenario where Lebron has really taken the blame for
anything that happens in the playoffs. Maybe once or twice
twenty eleven NBA Finals when he kind of melted down, whatever.

(08:12):
It's gonna be interesting to see how people spin it.
Because he was not good enough tonight. If they are
going to win the title that everyone tried to hand
them in February, he's gonna need to do better than
nineteen points on eight of eighteen shooting from the field.

Speaker 4 (08:25):
Yeah, and maybe they will come after him, because they
do come after him hard, just like they love on
him hard. They'd those that defend him will defend him
no matter what he does. Those that are the opposite
will do everything in their power to make sure that
this is magnified. On that level, the question is going
to be how do they react to Doncic's performance, because
he's kind of been the scapegoat, Like if you've watched

(08:46):
this since the trade, he's been a scapegoat this like
Kendrick Perkins and all these people that get paid a
lot of money to say nonsense on television, saying things
to the effect of this is why Dallas didn't want him,
because he's out of shape, because he doesn't play defense. All,
what are you gonna say, he had thirty seven points.
That's what Luka Doncic does. He goes out there and
he scores, and he makes clutch buckets for you, and

(09:07):
he puts you in a position to win just about
every game. That's why he was in the NBA Finals
a year ago. Nico. So you look at all of that,
you can't you can't put this on him, like, yeah,
they gave up a one to seventeen. Yeah, Luca teams
probably give up one to seventeen an awful lot. He's
not a defensive stalwart. He's never gonna be an all
defensive player. That's not what he does. You have to

(09:29):
surround him with guys that play defense and let him
be Luka Doncic. You have to build a team around him,
and that's the problem. This team has been built around
Lebron James, not around Luka Doncic. So when you look
at it from that perspective, the absence of Anthony Davis
gets magnified in LA and Luka Doncic can't cover for
what Anthony Davis used to do. So your point about

(09:50):
both of them have to be good. They both have
to be good, and Austin Reeves has to be pretty
good like for them to be able to win in
most cases. And yes, like Donovan Mitchell and Various Garland
are not good, then the Cavs are not gonna win.
If Sga isn't good, then the thunder aren't gonna win.
I understand all of those kinds of things, but there
is still not a whole lot of depth on this

(10:11):
Lakers club. But again, it's one game. They may still well,
they may full well win the series. It's gonna be
It's probably gonna be a fairly lengthy series. I just
think that everybody needs to hit the Brakes's not we
don't need to accelerate to the finish line on the
first lap. There's a long road to get to a championship.
There's a lot of talent on that Lakers side, and

(10:33):
there's a lot of you know, I mean, there's Hall
of Fame level talent in multiple spots in that Lakers
starting lineup. There's no doubt about that. But are they
gonna wear down because they don't have all of what
they did have? And you talk about the age, and
the age is going to play a factor because some
of the teams that they're gonna run into in the
West are much fresher, their bodies haven't turned on them

(10:54):
as of yet. And as greatest shape as Lebron James
keeps himself in, eventually you're just not the same as
you once were.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Listen, I'm right around the Brons and Lebron's at some point,
you are forty years old playing against twenty three year olds.
Last little thought here we can get to some of
the other games from uh from Saturday, opening day of
the NBA Playoffs. But I think that's the other thing too,
is you know, lost in the excitement.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
Surrounding the Luca trade.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
And listen, it was exciting, we were on air, we
talked about it for three hours.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
It was awesome.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
But I think the part about Anthony Davis is so
on point, and listen, he's not there, we get it whatever.
But at the same time, again, you fundamentally changed who
you were as a team and how you had to
win games. And so I don't mean to keep going
back to the Lebron Luca point. But one, both those
guys need to be great. Two the other thing is,

(11:47):
and this was gonna be the question along even if
they are great, is there enough scoring? Think it's worth
noting Austin Reeves was the only other one in double
figures tonight, and frankly, they are not a team that
has a ton of dudes that are built to get
you fifteen, eighteen twenty in a night. So listen, I
think that, yes, you don't want to overreact to game one,
but what I will say, the way the Lakers are

(12:10):
covered the way Lebron is covered, the expectations for Lebron
and the expectations for Lebron with Luca, I think it's
worth noting to me, it does feel like, again, those
two have to be great every night, and I just think,
do you have enough, even if they are great every
night to beat the great teams in this league? Minnesota
is not one of them. So I don't think like

(12:32):
we need to overreact and oh, you know, te Wolves
in five or anything like that, But I think the
counter can be true as well. The things that worried
us dating back to essentially the night that Luca was
traded to the Lakers are essentially showing up in Game one.
They put up ninety five points, they can't get stops,
and there's just one of the two was not great

(12:54):
and the guys around them were great. So again, I
don't want to overreact necessarily to just tonight Jmart, but
I do think get is a symptom for the issues
that they are going to have all playoffs long. And
it's why, you know, frankly, I've just I've never been
a believer that they're truly a title contender.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, So I was looking at the box score. The
one thing that I will look at after this thing
is over and say, this isn't a great look if
you're the Lakers in this case getting beaten by twenty
two Brian. Reason why is because I'm sorry, sorry, Yeah,
he should have had more minutes. There's no doubt about that.
Anthony Edwards, who did you know he took that fall

(13:30):
in the third quarter. He was eight of twenty two
in this game. Sure he had twenty two and nine.
He had twenty two, nine and eight. Okay, so it's
not like he had a bad game, but he had
twenty two points, like he didn't have fifty. They won
by twenty two points. Jayden McDaniels had twenty five Knas
Reed did what he does six of nine from thirty
eight of twelve, had twenty three points. He's a plus

(13:52):
thirteen in his plus minus ratio on the floor. So
you got Julius Randal gives you sixteen, McDaniel gives you
twenty five, nas Reed gives you twenty three, and then
you look up and Anthony Edwards gave you twenty two
and you won the game by twenty two points. That's
a good sign if you're Minnesota because if you can

(14:13):
win a game in the playoffs against this team on
the road, when Anthony Edward study you didn't have twenty
five in this game and you win it by twenty
plus points, that is a little bit head scratching. Like
that's when you look up and you're just like, all right,
we're not gonna let Anthony Edwards beat us. Let's see
who else can beat us. Well, it looks like a

(14:34):
lot of guys can beat you. Because you had three
dudes with twenty plus points in this game, and Anthony
Edwards with third on that list behind McDaniels and nas Reed.
That's not great for your stifling LA defense.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Well, bingo, and this is exactly what I'm talking about,
is the defense. It is an issue when Jayden McDaniels,
as said, Jayden daniels, I mean, listen, that's gonna happen
a lot on these airwaves over the next couple of months,
but our next couple of weeks. But you know, Jayden Daniel,
Jayden McDaniels, I just did for a second time averages
twelve on the season.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
He gives you twenty five.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
You know, NOAs Reed was a little bit more in line,
fourteen points so basically, nas Red scored nine more than
he normally does. Jayden McDaniels doubles his point total. It
speaks to the problem with the Lakers. They are not
good defensively. They need Lebron to be great every night,
They need Luca to be great every night. And then

(15:28):
even then, can you get the third guy? Well, tonight,
Luca was great with thirty seven, Lebron was not with nineteen,
and the third guy, Austin Reeves wasn't good enough with sixteen.
We do, of course it's final, by the way, if
people haven't figured it out, Minnesota, Yeah, one seventeen Lakers
ninety five, a twenty two point game one road win.

(15:49):
Here's the last part, j Mark, because I do want
to get some of these other games. The Lakers actually
outscored him by seven in the first quarter. So again,
and you're talking about a forty year old superstar and
another superstar who has notoriously worn down as the playoffs
have gone on. You outscore them by seven in the
first quarter, you are then outscored by I'm not great

(16:12):
at math, but that should be twenty nine points over
the final three quarters team.

Speaker 4 (16:15):
Right, So yeah, I mean the math doesn't even matter.
But you outscored him by eighteen in the second, five
in the third, and then six more in the final standards.
And let's not forget that right at the end of
the third Luca hit a half court shot. Yep, so
that could have been worse. That cut that lead. I
think the thirteen end to ending it, it would have
been about a sixteen point lead at that level. So
I mean, this thing really wasn't all that close. Like,

(16:37):
once Minnesota took advantage in the second quarter, Lakers had
no answers, and so sometimes you tip your hat and
you say, all right, we'll see you in Game two.
And that's what Lakers fans should think, because there's again,
I don't think anybody's sweeping anybody in this series, and
it could still go either way. But I do think
the reaction on Monday is going to be fascinating to watch.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
It will be fascinating to watch the Minnesota Timberwolves a
twenty two point Game one win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Shout out our boss, Scott Shapiro, biggest Timberwolves fan that
I know. Timberwolves up won nothing in this series. Of course,
with Game two coming in just a couple days on
Monday night or Tuesday night. It looks like Tuesday night.

(17:19):
Tuesday night, ten pm Eastern will be Game two the
Timberwolves take Game one. Fox Sports Radio erators Jason Martin.
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(18:03):
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Speaker 3 (18:14):
Well come back.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
We will discuss the rest of Day one of the
NBA Playoffs, the Pacers win the next win, and of
course the Denver Nuggets in overtime takedown the Clippers. What
is the most significant result of the day. We'll discuss
that next. Fox Sports Radio.

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Welcome back everybody, Fox Sports Radio.

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Speaker 3 (19:00):
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Tune into Countdown presented by bet MGM every Saturday and
Sunday morning right here on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeartRadio app. We just discussed if you missed it, the
Los Angeles Lakers getting beaten down by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
T Wolves take Game one one, seventeen to ninety five.
Game two Tuesday in Los Angeles, Jmar Other three results

(19:24):
from the day. I'll just go in chronological order. I'll
let you pick on which one you want to discuss. First,
Pacers beat the Bucks one seventeen to ninety eight, worth
noting Milwaukee did not have Dame Lillard, but he is
expected back this series. Denver in overtime beats the Clippers
one twelve, one ten. The Knicks a twenty one to
zero run in the fourth quarter gives them a one

(19:46):
twenty three to one to twelve win over Detroit. Which
one of these was most intriguing to you? The result,
the game, anything that you want to talk about to
get pick one and we'll kind of just bounce around,
all right.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
Well, I mean in terms of the game, I mean
Nuggets Clippers was a great basketball game. I mean that
was just a war. And to end on a Russell
Russell Westbrook defensive play of all things, I think is
definitely worth mentioning. But that series looks like it's going
a while. They're just pretty well matched up. I think

(20:20):
both of them have some pride on the line. You know,
you've had your issues in with LA and you've dealt
with some injuries, and then Denver of course without their
head coach, without their general manager, all the stuff that's
kind of leaked out about what was going on behind
the scenes, Jokic and the MVP and all of those
kinds of things. So I mean, I think that's I
think that's likely to be a very very good series.

(20:42):
When you look at the other ones. I won't jump
into him because we'll bounce around. But like Pacers, Bucks,
we can talk about that. You mentioned Dame. I don't
know if he's going to make a difference. The Bucks
just seem kind of broken in a lot of respects,
and I know we're going to talk more about them
as it relates to their superstar later on the show.
And then the other one, the Pistons kind of controlled

(21:03):
the Knicks for three quarters and then couldn't hang on
and the Knicks just flat out just boat raced them
in the fourth quarter and got the job done. And
that's what you expect the higher seed to do at home,
to pull that kind of move, and that's exactly what
they did. They just they had more in the tank
down the stretch, all right.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
So let's start with the first one. Clippers do lose
to Denver one twelve one ten in overtime. Obviously the
end of regulation. Westbrook hits the three then has the
weird sort of turnover, Ish doesn't get the shot Emmanuel
Sharpen the Final four like it was whatever. Let me
ask you this, It does feel like, certainly of the

(21:43):
four games that we got like it has the chance
to be the most entertaining of all the series. My
question for you Clippers fifty wins. Well, both these teams
were fifty win teams. But Clippers win fifty games. Why
am I to believe that this year is going to
be different? And I don't want to be like mister
negativity on day one they've been playing well, I get it.

(22:04):
Kawhi Leonard played forty one minutes in Game one. I
hope I'm wrong. Just to be clear, nobody ever roots
for injuries. But at the same time, Kawhi every single
year seems like he's ready for the playoffs and then
some kind of weird injury happens. James Harden, we've seen
him in big spots in the playoffs. Is it like,
do you actually feel like this could be different or

(22:26):
is this just gonna be kind of same old Clippers?
And I think, more specifically to me, it's not even
same old Clippers. It's I've seen Kawhi. He hasn't been
able to make it through a playoff since twenty nineteen.
I've seen James Harden. He melts down every big moment
in a deciding game, basically in his career. I just
don't like it's hard for me, with those two guys

(22:48):
well on the other side of thirty at this point,
to believe that this year is somehow going to be
different than pretty much every other year of their careers
that I've watched.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's the right take to have.
Is there a feasible universe where this could be different? Yes,
But is there any reason to put one cent on that?
Of course not. I think Cardon's been better in an
LA Clippers uniform than I ever thought he was going
to be when he got there. He still got his
off nights, but he still shows that there's some things

(23:17):
left in the tank there. Kawhi, you know, Kawhi is Kawhi.
Kawhi has won an NBA Championship before, probably wouldn't have
minus some injuries, but he won it, and he was
the guy that made it possible. And so you know
what he is capable of doing, but you just as
much understand what he's capable of not doing. Which is
playing because of availability issues and all those kinds of things.

(23:41):
There's no reason whatsoever to look at that Clippers team
and say, yes, this one's going to be different. I
like their coaching staff, I do like the talent on
the floor. I don't know about the depth. I mean,
and of course you know you got Ben Simmons on.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
Your BET's that's that's st playoff points?

Speaker 3 (23:58):
Is here Ben Simmons or Brownie James games?

Speaker 4 (24:01):
Yeah? Ooh Bryce James may have more points? Ooh yeah,
So no, I don't. I don't think they can win.
I don't. I there's but there's enough talent for them
to win. Yes, and you saw it. I mean if
you can go toe to toe with the Nuggets on
the road like they did, and I mean they really
had the opportunity to win that game, just weren't able

(24:22):
to complete it. And maybe this is kind of gonna
be their their best shot at it and they needed
to win this one to be able to get through
this series. But yeah, I've said before and it still
hasn't changed. Until James Harden wins, I'm not going to
believe that he can. Like he's gonna have to do
it once for me to then think he can do
it twice because he hasn't done it once yet, not

(24:45):
in the playoffs, not in a crucial situation, and that's
what it's gonna come down to in this series. And
I just there's not what confidence could you possibly have?
Would be my take?

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Yeah, And it's it's funny because I'm generally the type
of person that says, just because something hasn't been done
doesn't mean that it can't be. But when your best
player is thirty six years old, James Harden will be
thirty six in just a couple months, and Kawhi Leonard
is thirty three, will be thirty four in June, it's like,
I just we have and not all with the Clippers,

(25:18):
but but you know those two guys, Kawhi can't stay
healthy and James Harden doesn't show up in the moments
that matter in the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
So I guess I just have my doubts.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Denver, obviously, you and I we spent a lot of
time talking about the Mike Malone situation a few days
ago or last week when we were on air. They
have quietly won four straight with him. Is that with
Adamman as the head coach. Has anything changed?

Speaker 3 (25:45):
Is it just to me?

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Like the thing with Denver is I mean, they were
still a very good team. Obviously we discussed the reasons
that we believe Mike Malone was fired, but I think
the thing that stands out, I know they felt like
they had to make a change. I still think this
team and it's you look at again. We talked about
kind of the Lakers not having those guys well Jokic.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
Twenty nine to nine and twelve.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Today, Jamal Murray twenty one points, Aaron Gordon twenty five,
Michael Porter only had three, and they still win the
game in overtime. I still think despite all the drama,
despite the coaching stuff, there's still a really good team.
And again, you don't want to overreact to a win,
just like you don't want to overreact to.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
A loss for the Clippers of the Lakers.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
But I don't know, I still do really really like
this team, even with all the kind of chaos with
the coaching situation.

Speaker 4 (26:35):
Yeah, I agree with you, and I mean I think
that that's the move. Like the reason why the move
was made when it was is because ownership believed that
there was still something The salvage here. There was no
reason to just cash it in for the season and
then make the move in the offseason. It was we
still got a shot here. We still believe the West
is winnable, We still believe the NBA title is winnable

(26:56):
because we have Jokic and you know when Murray and
Gordon and Porter Junior on and of course now Brawn's
gonna get more minutes because Malone didn't seem to want
to play him very much here in this game he
had forty five compared to Russell Westbrook's thirty four, for example.
But yeah, I mean, this is a team that has
a lot of guys on it that have won a

(27:16):
championship that know what that feels like. And so you
look at that, and we just had that discussion about
the Clippers and why would this be any different, Well,
it's the same thing, Like why would it be any
different for the Nuggets being pretty competitive, Like they're almost
always going to be pretty competitive. And so the move
was made because all right, let's just let's just change,

(27:36):
let's change the atmosphere into building and let's go for
broke here, like we're not going it's not gonna get
worse if we don't win. We don't win. We don't
think we can win based on the toxicity in the building.
So let's try to clean out the building. Let's bring
in a roade, routerer, Let's bring in whoever it is
to get things moving again, and we'll see, Like, if

(27:56):
we don't win, that's the worst thing. But we weren't
gonna win anyway our own estimation. So I think that's
what it is. And so we'll see what is this
Nuggets team gonna look like throughout this postseason? Is it
gonna look any different? I don't know that it has
had time to look markedly different. But if these guys
are actually enjoying coming to work again because the environment

(28:17):
and the infighting between the general manager and the head
coach is no longer an issue, then maybe that's going
to reflect in just a little bit more fluidity, a
little bit more chemistry, a little bit more optimism, a
little more positivity, that kind of thing in the building,
and maybe that gives them a better chance really quickly.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
Nicks uh one twenty three, one twelve, twenty one nothing run.
The Pistons were yead ninety eight ninety. The Pistons were
up twenty one nothing run. Brunson was awesome. You know,
I thought Carl Anthony Towns, you know, he's been kind
of a guy that kind of hangs out around the
premier and shoots threes in his career. I thought he

(28:56):
came up with some big rebounds. It was actually Campaign
who had a bunch of big shots in.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
The fourth quarter. You know, I don't know what the
take is, is it?

Speaker 2 (29:06):
You know, the Knicks have the playoff moxie that the
Pistons don't.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
I just know that in kind of the spots that matter,
the Knicks were forcing turnovers. The Knicks were making big shots.
I love Kate Cunningham, but you know, a couple of
calls didn't go his way. He's throwing up his hands.
Knicks pull away for a eleven point victory. Again, they
trailed ninety eight to ninety and went on a twenty
one to nothing fourth quarter run.

Speaker 4 (29:35):
Look, the Pistons are a great story this year. They
haven't been talked about enough. They're just they're on a
they're on the right pathway. They're doing some of the
right things to get there someday. But that's the key point.
They're not there now. The Knicks are there now. The
Knicks are a good basketball team that's used to playing together,

(29:55):
that's gotten increasingly comfortable as this season has moved along,
and this is what they should do. They should beat
the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons didn't embarrass themselves here, they
just weren't able to finish this game. This may be
the best performance you see from them in this series,
because that probably hurt them pretty badly to have this
thing in the palm of their hands where they're up

(30:16):
eight to nine points to open the fourth quarter or
whatever it was, and then you turn around and you
look up, and then you give up twenty one in
a row. And the Knicks are going to be capable
of doing that against just about anybody because of the
way that they play. I don't think this is likely
to be a lengthy series, but I think at this
point Detroit fans don't want to hear this, but you're

(30:37):
playing with house money. I mean the fact that you're
over five hundred. You're not a laughing stock. This is
exactly what you should be hoping for from that team.
And look when you look up and the veteran on
this team, the guy that is used to being in
big games like this is Tobias Harris, and you're in
trouble because that guy has done a whole lot of

(30:57):
losing in the playoffs throughout much of his career and
keeps getting paid either way. I agree with you. I
like Kay Cunningham and he's going to continue to get better.
This is about the future for Detroit right now is
the present for the New York Knicks. That's what they
did in the offseason, is what they set themselves up
to do, and this is what you expect from them
to do. Even when they got down, they still had

(31:18):
the firepower to come back.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Bucks, of course lose to the Pacers' final game of
the day. Tell you what, though, we have waited long enough,
we got to bring in the third member of our
team first time this evening. Steve Disaga, my friend, what
is trending?

Speaker 4 (31:33):
Hello, gentlemen.

Speaker 6 (31:34):
All the NBA and NHL playoff openers are done, and
the late game in baseball apparently is about done. As
San Francisco leads three to two at the Angels with
two outs bottom of the ninth Halos with a runner
at second, Mike Trout with two home runs tonight he
flew out deep to lead off the ninth. The Minnesota
win over the Lakers in LA was one seventeen to
ninety five. Anthony Edwards twenty two points, eight rebounds, nine

(31:57):
AUSI is just one turnover. New York would that twenty
one zero run second half and beat Detroit one twenty
three to one twelve. Jalen Brunson thirty four points. Indiana
down Milwaukee with these one seventeen to ninety eight despite
thirty six points from Jannis Antennacumpo and Denver led the Clippers.
Trailed the Clippers, I should say by fifteen in the

(32:18):
first half, wound up beating the Clips in overtime one twelve,
one ten, leading one game to none in the first round,
best of seven to the NHL Playoffs. Two games tonight
to open the Stanley Cup postseason, Winnipeg, with three goals
in the third period, defeated Saint Louis five to three.
Colorado a five to one winner at Dallas. That game

(32:38):
was two to one with about seven minutes to go.
The New York Rangers fired coach Peter Lavia led after
missing the playoffs. Anaheim fired coach Greg Cronin. As for
Major League Baseball, Atlanta beat Minnesota four to three. The
A's were three to one winners at Milwaukee. They just
finished in Anaheim. Giants do win three to two over
the Angels, so everything's vital. Tampa Bay on a walkoff

(33:00):
homer in the tenth down the Yankees ten to eight.
This is after four runs in the bottom of the
ninth by the Rays to tie the game against Yankees'
new closer Devin Williams. Boston in ten innings edged the
White Sox four to three. White Sox have lost six straight.
Seattle won in twelve innings at Toronto, eight to four.
Washington won twelve eleven at Colorado. It was twelve to

(33:22):
two in the seventh inning. Philadelphia won eleven to ten
over Miami, which has lost five straight. Marlin's got six
runs top of the ninth to get close. Texas, in
a Great Ballgame on Fox TV, edged the Dodgers four
to three on a two run homer bottom of the
ninth by Adolas Garcia, and the losing pitcher was the
Rangers All Star closer last year, Kirby Yates. Baltimore hit

(33:44):
five home runs and down Cincinnati nine to five. Wins
for the Mets and the Cubs Detroit and Cleveland with victories.
Guardians a three to nothing win at Pittsburgh, beating Paul Skeins,
who did pitch seven innings just two runs allowed. But
Skeens is two and two. Season NASCAR off tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
Back to you. Thank you very much, Steve Sager.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
This is Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday for another
eighteen minutes.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
On the East Coast.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Aaron Towris Jaysmartin broadcasting live from the Tyreck dot Com studios,
will come back.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
We're gonna switch gears.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
NBA playoffs weren't the only big event of Saturday, wrestle Mania.
We're gonna let JAMRT get us caught up on everything
we missed at WrestleMania. Quick Break WrestleMania Next, Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (34:30):

Speaker 3 (34:33):
Welcome back everybody. Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
By the way, NFL Draft, which we'll be talking about
at the top of the hour Thursday night. Fox Sports
Radios Draft coverage throughout the first round on Thursday is
brought to you by Dollars Shave Club, your place to
get everything you need to stay smooth and smell great.
Visit dollarshaveclub dot com slash Draft and use promo code
Draft for twenty percent off your order of twenty dollars

(34:59):
or more plus free shipping. That's dollarshaveclub dot Com Slash Draft.
Be sure to tune into Fox Sports Radios Draft Night,
which is Thursday, eight pm Eastern through the entire first round.
Insider Jay Glazer, former Jets GM Joe Douglas, college Football
Hall of Famer LeVar Arrington, and Fox Sports League College
Football reporter Jenny Taft. We'll have you covered for all

(35:20):
thirty two picks with predictions and reactions. That's Thursday, eight
pm Eastern through the first round of the draft live
on right here on Fox Sports Radio. And also remember
live video simulcast on the Fox Sports Radio YouTube page.
Brought to you by Dollar Shave Club. NBA Playoffs are final.

(35:40):
NHL Playoffs are final four Saturday for NBA results, the Pacers,
the Knicks, the Nuggets in overtime, and the Lakers win.
There are excuse me, the Timberwolves win Game one. NBA
Playoffs not the only big event on Saturday, WrestleMania at
Allegiance Stadium in Loss Vegas. J Mart worked for the

(36:04):
WWE four years. J Mart, I'm basically gonna give you
the floor here to tell us what happened at WrestleMania
what we need to know. I know there's a huge
audience that loves this stuff. Not my area of expertise,
but I know it is yours. The floor is yours,
my friend, go ahead.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
All right? Correction didn't work for WWE worked in pro
wrestling for many, many years. Just to throw it out
there anyway, UJIT Stadium, I think sixty one thousand is
selling it out. That's what they claimed was sixty one
for I think, but as of Saturday morning they were
setting up for a fifty seven thousand max. So they
probably padded that by about four thousand. They probably put

(36:41):
about fifty seven thousand into it. Still a really nice crowd. Obviously,
I'm not going to spoil it because if you haven't
seen it yet, you probably still want to. It's all
about the main event. It's all about the triple threat
match with Rowland, Rain, Seam Punkin, seth Rawlins, and that's
all basically coming down to where does Paul Hayman aligne

(37:02):
And so I will say this that's worth your time.
Is a very very just good match. The only real
problem with it is that because you are waiting to
see the alignment, anything that happens before Hayman gets involved,
it's kind of hard to buy. So the idea of
a false finish is kind of completely erased until that point.

(37:22):
I know, I'm just speaking hieroglyphics right now, a foreign
language to you erin, but throwing that out there for
those that understand kind of where I'm coming from. But
either way, it was gonna be made or broken by
that match, and that match was excellent, and it had
a finish that's gonna last and lead to a whole
lot of things in the future, as we kind of
thought that it would. Overall, though it's a two night event,

(37:44):
of course, there's an entire you know, another six matches,
including the big one with Cody Rhodes and John Cena
to come on Sunday night. But overall, kind of a
forgettable night. Not a bad show, just not a tremendously
memorable show. Like when you think about the matches on
this show, you're gonna remember that main event, and that's

(38:04):
really about it. I thought Tiffany Stratton and Charlotte was
a fine match, but not anything spectacular. I even thought
guth and jay Uso, even though the moment itself afterwards
was very well done and the fans really enjoyed it,
that match was It was a very good match, but
there was nothing particularly memorable about that match. So there's

(38:27):
a lot of room for them on Sunday to surpass
what they did on Saturday. But weirdly enough, on paper,
the Saturday lineup looked stronger. So we'll see what they do.
Maybe they're gonna have some surprises. You expect that there
are gonna be a couple of things that pop off
tomorrow that maybe you weren't planning to see. Maybe you're

(38:48):
gonna see the return of Becky Lynch tomorrow. That's a possibility.
With the Bayway injury angle that they shot before the
show tonight. Steve Austin is in Vegas. We know that
because he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for
his match with Brett Hart. Does he get involved in
the main event? If the Rock gets involved in the
main event, do they do something there and try to
bring that nostalgia back? And then you have Randy Orton

(39:09):
doing an open challenge, and there's some guys that have
not actually debuted back on TV that they have re signed.
One of them is Alistair Black, but he will show
up on Friday SmackDown, I believe. But Russeph is a
guy that could potentially answer that challenge, or they can
keep it safe and be solo. So CoA. But so
if I'm trying to rank Saturday Show main events off

(39:29):
the charts, you got to watch that if you're a
wrestling fan at all. Everything else, I thought it was decent.
It was fine, maybe a seven out of ten, somewhere
in that neighborhood. I expect Sunday Show to probably be
better from starting to finish. This one was a little
bit of a slog with an all time great kind
of main event with an incredible angle to finish it off.

(39:52):
So that's why you would watch. And that's your WrestleMania review.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
There you go, WrestleMania Night two, Sunday, Allegiance Stadium from
Las Vegas. But one story in a busy week of sports.
Speaking of which, a busy week NFL Draft. We'll discuss
it next. Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Welcome in everybody our two tours and Martin Fox Sports
Radio we are broadcasting live. Yes, we are live at
midnight Eastern from the tirack dot Com studios. Tyrack dot com.
We'll help you get there. An unmatched selection, fast free shipping.
Free road has a protection over ten thousand recommended installers.
Tyrec dot com. The way tire buying should be. Four

(40:34):
NBA playoff games are in the books. Sure you know
by now, but Indiana takes care of the Milwaukee Bucks early,
Denver beats the Clippers in overtime, The New York Knicks,
thanks to a twenty one nothing run in the fourth quarter,
beat the Detroit Pistons, and the Minnesota Timberwolves a twenty
two point win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game one.

(40:57):
Talk to NBA Playoffs in hour one. We will get
back to it in just a moment. But NFL Draft
on Thursday, and by the way, if you've missed it,
we will have coverage first round, Jay Glazer, LeVar Arrington,
Jenny Taft and of course, on top of that, Joe
Douglas with our coverage live from Green Bay simulcast on

(41:18):
the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel. So we appreciate everybody
who's gonna tune in. We're gonna have great coverage, Like
I said, first round and tirety of the first round,
Jay Glazer, Joe Douglas, LeVar Arrington, and Jenny Taft. Speaking
of the draft, j Mart, it is Thursday, first round.

(41:40):
Of course, I have some like kind of like conversational questions.
But is there any big picture thing that you kind
of want to lead off with? I mean, we talked
a little bit about Shador last week. I'll say this,
it feels like outside of Shador, doesn't feel like there's
a lot of meat on this this draft bone obviously
the Travis Hunter he played both ways, won't he But

(42:02):
it kind of feels like, Okay, we know cam Ward's
going one. I think at this point it feels pretty
obvious that well maybe it's not obvious, but I don't
think the Browns are going quarterback at two. So is
that Abdul Carter is a Travis Hunter?

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Whatever?

Speaker 2 (42:15):
And then really, outside of Shdor, it feels like there
aren't a ton of storylines.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
Now, storylines will emerge on Draft night.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
They always do, but anything really stand out to you
about this draft outside of the obvious, or or maybe
it is the obvious that we just need to discuss
a little bit.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
Yeah, I mean I think it really And we talked
about this a few weeks ago that the reason Shador
keeps coming up is because there isn't much else. Yep,
And you think about it, it's kind of an odd
feeling because the draft is Thursday, and usually you just
feel like you've been drafted to death. It's just ad
nauseaum for week after week after week. We talk about

(42:51):
it a ton. Every show talks about it a ton.
We get deep in the weeds and all this stuff.
It's just not that way this year, Like it doesn't
feel like we're ready for the draft yet. But that's
not the case. Like the reason why is just because
the intrigue right now is just kind of it's just
kind of lacking. Like there's the Chadure story and that's

(43:13):
kind of it, Like you sort of know, like I'm
looking at these at the top ten picks and it's
just like, well, what are they gonna do? What are
they gonna do? We still got the Aaron Rodgers thing
hanging out there. Is that gonna be a storyline? What's
going to emerge in a couple of days before the
draft and who's gonna get drafted, it's gonna make an
established star blank and things like that. I think there

(43:36):
may be some storylines coming out of the draft, but
entering the draft, it really is just where is Shador
Sanders gonna land? And I know we talked about this
prior to the show this afternoon, you're kind of bouncing
around a few things. You know, are there a couple
of guys that are being talked about that probably don't
need to be and won't be again in the same

(43:57):
fashion as soon as the draft comes around, Like there's
names that seem like they're being manufactured right now because
of a dearth of like reality, like we have to
create something else. So we're going to talk about X
and we're going to talk about why when this really
is just about Shador. Because there's no question at the
top that cam Ward is going to Tennessee. Like there's

(44:20):
no question at all. And I think we've known it since,
you know, the free agency and all those things opened
up and what the Titans did and did not do,
it made it pretty obvious what they are going to
do unless they get an insane haul, which isn't going
to happen. So that takes a little bit of this
sting out and so the next thing you talk about
is the second quarterback on the board, and there you

(44:42):
just kind of don't know. Although I still don't think
he's getting out of the top ten, so.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
I don't either. We'll get back to Shador in a second.
But instead of talking about the second quarterback off the board,
let's talk about the third quarterback off the board. Yeah, yeah, right,
and in all seriousness, because you know, I think there
are some years where like we talk about a lot,
like like you go back to last year, we talked
about all these quarterbacks, but it felt like, Okay, Michael

(45:07):
Pennix is going in the first round. But forget k
Lob and Jadon Daniels. We knew they were going early.
Like Michael Pennix, were talking about him a lot, But
he's gonna go in the first round. Is he gonna
go to Atlanta? Nobody obviously had that projected, But he's
gonna go in the first round. Bow Knicks, he's gonna
go in the first round. And I remember even talking
to you because it felt like the night of the draft,
people tried to make it into wow, did bow Knicks

(45:28):
go to Hot It's like we knew all these teams
needed quarterbacks. We knew they were all coming off the board.
It didn't feel surprising to me. What I'll say is this,
I think there have also been years past where we
try to create narratives around quarterbacks that don't exist. Will
Levis a few years ago. You know, listen, you and

(45:51):
I are certainly not the only ones that said it,
but we did say it. There was nothing watching will
Levis in his time in college that made you feel
like he was a first round pick. You go back
years and you know, I think about.

Speaker 4 (46:02):
Wait, wait, wait you want how about just a few
years ago, same team, I covered him daily, So I
remember this Malik Willis great call. Remember the hype about
Malik Willis and where Malik Willis was actually drafted, Like
is this guy gonna go top five? Is he gonna
go top ten? Is he even gonna go on Day two? Guys?
Because it turned out it was a way later than

(46:23):
we were told it was gonna be.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
Well, so let's talk about it. My bold draft prediction.
We're spending all this time talking about Jackson Dart. We're
spending all and maybe it's not bold, all this time
talking about Jackson Dart, all this time talking about Jaylen Milroe. Apparently,
now we're in the draft news cycle where we're talking
about Tyler Shuck, a soon to be twenty six year

(46:46):
old quarterback who had I believe, and I'm not trying
to be meant about it, it's just a fact. I think
he had three to four season ending injuries. Started playing
college football in twenty eighteen. Actually, turn on a TV
show this week that said, is Tyler Shuck a franchise quarterback?

Speaker 3 (47:03):
Let me let me give you a preview. No, he's not.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
Okay, So my bold NFL prediction. We talk quarterbacks because
it's obviously the most interesting and important position in sports.
I think it's all for nothing. I think we're getting
two quarterbacks. To your point, I think Schador is going
into the top ten and we can get back to
Shaudor in a minute. I think Schor is going in
the top ten and I don't. By the way, you
know another good example of this. Remember Kenny Pickett. Oh

(47:29):
you know Kenny Pickett, and he ended up going twenty one.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
I think I think that was the Malik Willis draft.
As a matter of fact, there you go.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
So my prediction is we get two quarterbacks in the
top ten, none other. Maybe Jackson Dart sneaks into the
back half of the first round.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
I don't think Jalen Milroe is a first round pick.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
I certainly don't think Tyler Shuck is a first round pick.
Where do you stand on QB number three in this draft?

Speaker 4 (47:56):
Jmark about where you do? I think Jackson Dhart doesn't
go BEFO twenty five at the earliest. Maybe he doesn't
even get in the first round. We will see. Let
me tell you, I don't think Jackson Dart thinks so either.
And the reason why is because he's pulled out of
being in Green Bay for the drafting. The fact that
he was going to be one of the guys that

(48:16):
was going to be in a green room. It doesn't
necessarily mean it, but I just read I read that,
and I say to myself, Jackson Dart doesn't want the
possibility of that not going his way. Sure, and like
we know he's gonna get drafted, he's going to get
an opportunity in the league. There's no reason to subject
yourself to that when it's not a given. But yeah,
we're trying, We're trying to create something around Dart. We're

(48:39):
trying to create something around Schuck. We're trying to create
something around this it position because this draft just doesn't
have it. It has cam Ward, who we all want
to see what he's going to be able to do
in the pros, and we know he is the best
quarterback prospect in this draft bar none, and then you
have kind of the only meat on that bonus shade

(48:59):
or so here comes Jackson Dart out of nowhere. Not
that he didn't do anything at Ole Miss or whatever
like that, but like Jackson Dart was exactly the example
of the guy that wasn't being talked about it all
before the season when it came to NFL prospect, this
guy's gonna be an absolute stud, all of this kind
of stuff, and then by the end of the year

(49:20):
we've talked ourselves into this, and usually that doesn't work
out for that person. But in this case, I think
it'll be fine because I don't think that you're getting
a Zach Wilson move here. I don't think you're getting
a guy it's gonna be drafted into top ten or
the top fifteen and all this. I think it'll be
fine because he's probably gonna sit on the bench for
a few years, and if he's gonna get his opportunity,
he's not gonna be forced into action immediately. He's gonna

(49:41):
be drafted by somebody to be a backup most likely.
So And in terms of Shuck, I mean he'll go
on Day two, I guess, but I don't even know
if you will go in the second round. I don't
know if he's gonna be maybe into triple digits or
somewhere in that neighborhood. I think that there's gonna be
a a lot of teams are going to be hesitant
to use a very high draft pick on either one

(50:05):
of those guys because they're probably just like well, I mean,
we could probably get them later, and if we can't,
are they that much better than the other quarterbacks that
we could potentially get later in this draft. I don't
see a franchise in Jackson Dart. I don't see a
franchise in Shuck. I don't see a franchise. I mean, possibly,
but I don't really see a franchise in Shadur. So, like,

(50:28):
are team's going to wager the form on question marks?
Does somebody have a high enough grade on one of
those guys outside of Shador. I'm sure a few teams do,
but like, do teams really have a high enough grade
on a Tyler Shuck that this media created narrative is
actually legit because I just don't buy it.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
So let's get into Shador.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
So I am a little bit higher than you, and
I haven't really heard the reason that you're maybe a
little bit lower.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
I think that to me.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Listen, I think there's a lot of you know, there's
there's a lot of the stuff that you know, the
watch stuff and you know, the the whatever, and like
I think this is the nil era. I think whatever.
But I also think that, listen, bottom line was very accurate,
very accurate quarterback. You know, he's not an A plus
plus athlete, and I do think, you know, as the

(51:21):
league has changed, I don't think you can be Eli anymore.
But he's not Eli, but he's you know, he's not
Lamar either. I think he's very accurate. I think the
O line was abysmal. I think the run game was abysmal.
And I think, you know, I'll say this, I think
he's to blame for some stuff. You know, the sack
numbers are really high. Some of it was the O line,

(51:43):
but some of it was him holding on the ball
too long, but I just think when you're that accurate,
when you throw that many touchdowns, I was gonna say,
do you have so much success that you get your
jersey retired?

Speaker 3 (51:53):
Which we might discuss before the end of the show.
You know, I just think that. Listen.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
I understand he's not the perfect quarterback, but I mean,
we are talking about a guy that in the last
two seasons through four a combined sixty four touchdown passes,
thirteen interceptions and completed about seventy two and a half
percent over the last two seasons. I know the big
twelve isn't the SEC but it's still really good. I

(52:18):
do like him, I think to the point that you said,
I actually don't think he falls out of the first
round or for the top ten.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Excuse me.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
I could see the scenario where the Giants take him
at three, even though they have Russell Wilson and Jamis Winston.
I certainly think the Saints could take him as well.
I know you're not as high on him, but I'll
be curious, One, why are you not as high? And
then two, what do you think now that you've said,
do you think he goes in the top ten, what
the most likely landing spot is.

Speaker 4 (52:42):
Yeah, so I don't. I'm not really low on him.
I'm more low on the situation he's likely to go to.
I think that where he goes it actually needs to
be a proper fit. But that fit needs to extend
past just the guys on the field and into the office.
So he goes to the Giants. I have no confidence
in that situation at all. I don't know about Dable,

(53:06):
I don't know about anything that's going on there outside
of I like the league neighbors, and I think Tracy's
a decent running back. But like I'm just I'm just
not sold there. You go to the Saints, the Saints
and the most boring team in the world. They should
draft to Shad or Sanders like that would be at
least interesting. I like what he could potentially do, But
you talked about his own line. His OWD line is
likely to be terrible. That's generally the case. That's why

(53:30):
teams are drafting as high as they are. I think
that he certainly, Like I said, I don't, I'm not
as low on him as most are. Like, you've got
guys that are out here on television telling like begging
teams not to draft him and all this. I do
think that there's a little bit of extra that comes
with him that maybe that gets it a higher bus potential,

(53:52):
just because everything he does is likely to be under
a microscope a little bit more, and kind of his
attitude and stuff, he's going to have to find a
way to navigate through some of that. And like if
he goes to New York, for example, that media circus
surrounding that, I don't know if that's best for your
football team. If he goes to New Orleans, I think
he'd be fine, for example. But like, I think he

(54:14):
can play, and I do think that there's a possibility
that his ceiling is high. I'm just afraid his floor
is kind of I think it's I think his floor
is low. I think the difference between one of the
big differences between him and cam Ward is I don't
see the scenario where cam Ward is not at least
pretty good. I think there's a possibility, in the wrong
situation that Seduur could just kind of be one of

(54:36):
those kind of what if stories. I don't I don't
sinse that with cam Ward's I think that's really it.
But in terms of like where he would land, I mean,
Cleveland can't take him because Deshaun's coming back for all
his haters this year. That's what he said. Yeah, he
said that last week. He said he's coming back to
prove the haters wrong and all this other kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
It's just like, all right, buddy, Joe Flacco is in
a better quarterback than him at this point.

Speaker 4 (55:02):
Yeah, yeah, how about just play decent football first before
calling out anybody. Giants at three is probably the most
likely that I see right now. I think the Saints
is probably next. Like I think that for example. The
other thing is is somebody willing to trade up because

(55:22):
they really like him? Is there somebody we're forgetting that's
in the teams or the twenties that actually wouldn't mind
bringing him on board and has some question marks of
their own at the quarterback position. I think that's possible.
So it's highly possible. It's not a team that's actually
currently with a top ten pick, But if I had
to just pick right now, I would say three to

(55:44):
nine because whoever gets him, I think is going to
play him. I don't think he's going to be somebody
that sits the bench, because maybe if he was, you
could look at the Raiders. But the Raiders need some
help otherwise, and they just paid Gino to kind of
be a stop yeah, for a few years at least,
So I kind of don't think it's going to be them.

(56:04):
Seems like maybe it's gonna be Ashton Genty potentially, if
they wanted to take him at six, So three and nine,
I agree with you are probably the most likely spots.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
Real quick, just a minute or so, Ashton Genty, do
how listen? Great story? He is also a five to
seven running back, and I understand what he did at Boise.
I understand how incredible his season was, and I understand
by the way the value of a good running back
Derek Henry. This past year, Saquon Barkley certainly was the

(56:34):
biggest reason the Eagles won a championship. Where are we
at with with Ashton Genty.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
I read an article that said that the Raiders that
this is this is Pete Carroll wanting to bring in
his Marshawn Lynch, And I'm like, dude's five to seven,
Like it's not exactly the same. This is not an
apples to apples comparison. I have kind of hoped in
the back of my mind that maybe he would still
be there for Denver because that's a position of need
for my Broncos. I don't think he's going to be there.

(57:04):
I understand like his highs are pretty high, but it's
a it's a man's league, and he does have size issues,
so I don't know what that looks like. Maybe maybe
he ends up being fine, or maybe a lot of
the things he was able to do at Boise he's
not going to be able to do uh in the NFL,
So I think it's very possible. For example, if if

(57:25):
the Raiders draft him at six, I think that's probably
an overdraft. I think that's probably a reach, but it
might be the guy that they feel like they need
at a position of need for them. I don't know
exactly how to answer that, but I'm sort of I'm
gonna be very weight and see. When it comes to Ashton,
Genty and Scatibo, for example, like I don't I don't

(57:46):
see the running back that's just a guarantee given here.
I do see a lot of talented backs, and especially
when you look at Genty, there's a lot to love,
but I'm gonna need to see that on the NFL
level before where I can really feel comfortable.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
NFL Draft is Thursday, and remember everyone, calm the chaos
with the shipping software that delivers. Use code Sports for
a free trial at shipstation dot com. That's shipstation dot
com code Sports, and be sure to tune into Fox
Sports Radios Draft Night Live, which is Thursday, eight pm
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(58:23):
Jay Glazer, former Jets GM Joe Douglas, College Football Hall
of Famer LeVar Arrington, and Fox Sports lead reporter Jenny Taft.
Why have you covered for all thirty two picks with
predictions and reactions. That's Thursday, eight pm Eastern through the
first round of the Draft live right here on Fox
Sports Radio. And remember we have a live video simulcast

(58:44):
on the Fox Sports Radio YouTube page, brought to you
by Shipstation. Well come back. We will talk from the
biggest NFL stories of the week to the biggest college
story Nico Iamaliava Boy, Oh boy, oh boy? What's next
for that cat? Discuss that next? Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 5 (59:02):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot Com and within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
Welcome back everybody, Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
Eric Tors Jayson Martin broadcasting live from the Tireck dot
com studios. Did you know you can now stream this
show and all of our Fox Sports Radio shows live
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Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app to stream
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Radio as one of your presets, just like presets on

(59:37):
a radio dial. So be sure to preset Fox Sports
Radio in the iHeart app and it will always pop
up at the top of your screen. Want to talk
a little bit about the fallout this week of the
NICO Eamliava situation at Tennessee. Before we do those second
time this evening, let's get into the news desk to
seger my friend, what is trending?

Speaker 4 (59:56):
Well?

Speaker 6 (59:57):
All the NBA playoff openers, Well, we got four four
tomorrow and we saw some good basketball today. Not in
the first game, Indiana all over Milwaukee won seventeen to
ninety eight, but then Denver down fifteen in the first half,
beat the Clippers in overtime. Then the Knicks had that
twenty one to zero run fourth quarter and beat Detroit,
and Minnesota largely dominated the Lakers in LA in the

(01:00:19):
late game, one seventeen to ninety five. Some Laker players
were saying afterwards, we need to be more physical in
this series. Lukadanjich thirty seven points in the loss. Apparently
that's tied for second most in a Laker postseason debut.
Shack had forty six points in his first Laker playoff
game in nineteen ninety seven. The NHL Playoffs got underway

(01:00:39):
with two games tonight, Winnipeg five to three over Saint Louis, Colorado,
with late scoring made it five to one at Dallas.
Baseball's late game in Anaheim had the Giants holding on
three to two over the Angels. Might trout two home
runs for the Halos, but he flew out deep in
the ninth Atlanta four to three over Minnesota Chrissale and
no decision. He did have eight strikeouts in four and

(01:00:59):
a third innings for the Braves. Alex Verdugo, now with Atlanta,
had four hits. The A's were three to one. Winners
at Milwaukee. The win the Luis Severino pitched eight innings.
The Brewers offense went three to thirty, no walks. Even
Houston defeated San Diego in a comeback three to two.
The Padres record fifteen and six. The Dodgers are fifteen
and seven after losing a good ballgame on Fox TV

(01:01:22):
today at Texas. It was the Rangers four to three
over La on a two run homer in the bottom
of the ninth by Dolus Garcia. The loss went to
former Rangers All Star closer Kirby Yates. Dodgers starter Roki
Sasakia no decision despite six innings of work. Sho Heyo
Tani out again, still on paternity leave.

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
He just became a dad.

Speaker 6 (01:01:41):
Ten inning win for Boston for Tampa Bay, twelve inning
win for Seattle. Washington won twelve eleven at Colorado, and
Philadelphia held on eleven ten over Miami.

Speaker 3 (01:01:53):
Back to you, thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
Steve de Sager to segall be back in just about
ten minutes or so from now to discuss everything else
that we missed throughout the day across the world of sports,
says Fox Sports Radio Ern towards Jason Martin broadcasting live
from the Tireck dot Com studio. Should mention also shortly
after the show, our podcast will be going up. If
you missed any of today's show, be sure to check

(01:02:15):
out the podcast. Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you
get your podcasts, and be sure to follow and review
the podcast. Give it a quick five stars. Again, just
search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcast, and
you'll see the show posted after we get off air.
Jaymart So, the big story not only the week in
college football, but you know, I think it largely became

(01:02:37):
at least the front end of the week, maybe the
biggest story in sports. And it was something we talked
about a lot last Saturday. Nico Iamaliava, of course, when
we got on air, had entered the transfer Portal Tennessee.
Former Tennessee quarterback. We know the situation was set to
make about two point four million dollars this year at Tennessee.

(01:02:58):
His camp basically went to the Tennessee you collective, the people,
the money people, and said, hey, the market has changed
since we signed this deal. Originally the best players are
getting four four million or so we want four. Tennessee
told him to kick rocks well, by now we know
the updates to this story. Not only did Nico hit

(01:03:19):
the portal, but right now, as we're seeing it does
not appear as though there is much of a market
for Nico, and certainly not at the price that they
were hoping for our own Colin Cowhard reported that Nico
will end up with the UCLA Bruins. Have not seen
anywhere yet that it says that that's technically necessarily official.

(01:03:41):
Not that I don't believe Colin, just that it hasn't
been official by either Nico or the school. I bring
it up because whether Nico ends up at UCLA or not,
this is what we talked about you and I last week.

Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
I think we were a little bit ahead of this.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
Is that we talked about the fact that he was
either going to end up in a much worse football
situation or a which worse financial situation, and it looks like,
for all intents and purposes, it could be both. Now
it is worth noting, of course, that Nico's camp is
saying it is not about money, it has to do
with the offense. That'd be a little confusing as to

(01:04:14):
why you'd go to the one hundred and eighteenth ranked
offense in college football, although when you have no options,
maybe you don't really have much say. But anyway, I
have kind of given all of the particulars your thoughts
on where we are with Nico right now.

Speaker 4 (01:04:29):
What I don't really have is anything like new in
terms of changing what I said last week. Neither do you,
Because we both said we didn't think this was Nico
making this decision. We both said this wouldn't end well
for Nico. We both applauded Tennessee and said they did

(01:04:49):
exactly what they should have done. Even if this hurts
them in the short term, and it likely will in
terms of what they're able to do on the field
this season, but the we kind of felt sorry for
Nico in this situation. I haven't changed any of that.
Nothing that I've seen this week makes me dislike Nico anymore.

(01:05:10):
And look, I'm in Tennessee. I do the show here
in Nashville. I covered the balls daily for several years,
and even though I don't do that now and I
don't consume local media here, everybody that came up to
me this week, or anybody that asked me or talked
to me about Tennessee, We're happy that Nico was gone,

(01:05:33):
and we're looking forward to seeing the numbers not be
what he thought they were going to be. And that's
generally what it's happened. Like what you've seen out there,
whether or not it's true, is like one point seventy
five million or something like that at UCLA last week.
I told you I thought Ucla would be the play
and Disager said the right thing. He said, they don't
pay their coaches. How are they going to pay How

(01:05:53):
are they gonna pay Nico? And of course we know
they have revenue issues and joined the Big Ten, but
they still own you know, California Berkeley.

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
They still forgot about there. I actually forgot about that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:04):
Yeah, yeah, so I mean they all of that, but
they do have a lot of private money, a lot
of guys to have a ton of money, just like
any other collective, and maybe they're able to do whatever
they need to do from that perspective. But the biggest takeaway,
just reading the Front Office Sports article that I sent
you earlier today, we were dead right. Like if you

(01:06:26):
look at his representation, his family members and non official
agents and all this and the stuff that they are saying.
First off, the thing about money, know all we wanted
was wide receiver and a better offensive line. And we
went to Hypel and we said, Josh, we want to
be here, but you need to build the team around
Nico and protect him because he got sacked a lot

(01:06:48):
and he got hurt multiple times last year and all
this other kind of stuff. Give us some more weapons.
Let's go out there and win. All this kind of stuff.
I don't doubt that. And it even says in the
article that Nico said, hey, man, if if you just
make sure that I can stay upright, put me in
the best position to win, I'm going to be here.
But that idea that there was no money involved on

(01:07:09):
the side of his representation, that just doesn't wash. Man, Like,
just looking at it, you can tell that's a lie.
You could tell that that's just not true, especially even
how they reacted to it. They're cursing people and all
this other stuff. I just look at this and I
feel increasingly sorry for Nico, because Nico made a horrible decision.
But I don't even know if it was his decision

(01:07:31):
to make. And I don't think that those that were
kind of moving the goalposts around and changing kind of
how this was going. I'm not even sure if Nico
knew every step of what was happening behind his back
to try and I don't know, maximize this or maximize that,
or create this market that didn't exist and all of
these things. I feel bad for him because I think

(01:07:53):
he almost became pawn in this situation. But he has
looked at like a super villain in this state of Tennessee.
Based on the conversations that I have had this week,
everybody wants to see him fall on his face. And
I felt bad for that.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
Yeah, I as somebody who's just been around college sports,
even in the pre Nil era. You know, I always say,
is that whenever there was that weird recruiting story of
oh why did that kid commit there? And usually there's
an adult in that person's life that had maybe the
kid's best interest not at heart. And you could probably

(01:08:30):
guess some of those scenarios, and you know, sometimes it
doesn't really even work out in a negative way, but
a lot of times it does, and a lot of
times the adults making decisions don't have what's in the
best interest of the kid. Now, I'll say, in the
defense of the Nico camp, it's not really a defense.

Speaker 3 (01:08:46):
I just I don't think they thought.

Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
It would get to a point where Tennessee actually balked
and said that we're not coming back with the money
that you expect. Now, that doesn't make it any different.
And I'll say this, I do you feel bad for
the kid? I know, there's the whole argument of oh,
he's twenty years old, he's going to be twenty one.

Speaker 3 (01:09:04):
Make this.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
You know, listen, we were all twenty twenty one years
old once. And I'll also say the adults in his
life got him in a position where he was making
two million dollars a year at Tennessee, so he probably
had no reason to think that he wasn't going to
get what he was asking for.

Speaker 3 (01:09:19):
But you know, just I don't know. I'm going to a
lot of different directions.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
But I would also say, like, it wasn't him, It
clearly wasn't him.

Speaker 3 (01:09:27):
It was clearly the adults. They clearly overplayed his hand.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
And the one thing I will say, j Martin, I
think this has become a little bit of a talking
point this week, and I think that it should be.
I do think you know, when we were on air
last week, it felt like an inflection point in the
NIL era of oh my god, like the whole world
is seeing how crazy this is and how some sort
of structure needs to come into place. I think it's

(01:09:51):
almost become an inflection point in the other way as well,
of got to be really careful what you wish for
and what you ask for. And I thought it was
interesting this week. It was not only the Nico situation.
But I don't know if you saw this, but you
see the fran Brown quote. Fran Brown, the Syracuse head coach,
basically their best player was a wide is a wide receiver.

Speaker 3 (01:10:09):
Was a wide receiver.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
He entered the portal and they asked fran Brown, why
did he enter the portal that fran Brown was like,
he thinks he's getting two million dollars and I am
paying a wide receiver two million dollars.

Speaker 3 (01:10:18):
Basically wow. Yeah, And and I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
The point that I'm trying to make is that I
do think the Nico thing is an inflection point in
the other way as well. Of listen, we're paying you
guys a lot of money, and listen, it's great whatever,
blah blah blah, but there is a downside to this.
You have to perform and you have to deliver and
just because you ask for it doesn't mean you're getting it.

(01:10:43):
And so I think Nico very well could be a
cautionary tale. As I said, unless I miss something. I
haven't seen anything official from either Nico's camp or UCLA
saying that he is officially a Bruin, But I think
this is an inflection point of he is going to
be an a war situation, the money is going to be
as good, and this is very much a cautionary tale

(01:11:04):
of be careful what you wish for in this nil era.

Speaker 4 (01:11:07):
Yeah. So I mean like if you've ever bid on
something on eBay, if you've ever made an offer actually
on like a buy it now kind of deal, but
you can also make an offer. Do you put out
the offer for the most money that you were willing
to spend when you actually send that first bid to
the person that has the item that you want, and
of course not you go about seven eight dollars less,

(01:11:30):
and then he's going to go high. He's going to
stick out pretty high. But the number that you actually
are willing to pay or the number that you want
to pay, is somewhere in the middle there. So I
think the issue is if you shoot for four million.
If four is the max, are you telling me that
four was going to be the sticking point that Tennessee's
going to come back? And Nico's camp was so arrogant

(01:11:53):
that they thought Tennessee was going to balk and then
they didn't just back off at that point and realize, Okay,
we didn't have the cards we thought we did. And
then the other thing is this, dude, just go out
and play and you'll get your four mil. If you
go out and play and you ball out, you can renegotiate.
The biggest problem for Nico is that his play was

(01:12:14):
not consistent or high level enough to dictate terms for
him to go out there and ask for more money.
And I say him because ultimately it's going to fall
on him. His camp is not going to be the
one that the story is told about ten fifteen years
down the road. If you look at comments sections from
other fan bases when it involves Nico, it's he's a diva.

(01:12:34):
You don't want that problem like. It may not be
Nico at all, it may be all the other people,
but it's going to be the consequence that's going to
fall on him. It's not going to fall on anyone else.
So what we have to learn from this, Nico is
in the future, tell your camp to kick the same
rocks that Tennessee did and make your own decisions and

(01:12:55):
make them based on reality, not on Fantasyland, and not
on what Carson and Beck is getting at Miami. Make
a smart decision for your football future. Understand that if
you're playing at Tennessee and you're gonna be in a
college football playoff again this coming year, that you're going
to have an opportunity to make plenty of money. Two

(01:13:15):
million dollars is enough right now for you because it
puts you in the best situation. You go to UCLA
and you don't win. What are we talking about, Nico
next year taking less money to go to some Midwest
school that isn't gonna pay as much like what's gonna happen.
The fact that you left and you're probably gonna end
up with less money. That is such an l for

(01:13:39):
Nico to take, and it should be on his camp
and he should be furious about that and hopefully he
learns from it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:46):
There's nothing else to really add.

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
You feel bad for Nico, but this is a situation
that the camp and he put himself in h we
expect him to be a UCLA Brewin. But good luck,
by the way, last, last, last, last, I I'm just
gonna say this too, is like talk about misjudging, you're
leveraged and the other thing I forgot And we might
have discussed this last week, but I forgot it in

(01:14:07):
the moment. Can't transfer to other SEC schools in the Springs,
So there's a rule in the SEC that you can't
take players from another SEC team. So there goes fifteen
bidders right there. Hypothetical bidders. I know plenty of them
have quarterbacks situations set. It's just a disaster all around. Nico,
I think needs to have some adult talks with the

(01:14:29):
people making decisions for him because it has been a
total train wreck. Fox Sports Radio Er towards Jason Martin,
broadcasting live from the tirek Dot Com studios. We will
come back. We will toss it over to Saga. He
has his extended update everything you've missed from throughout the
day in the world of sports. That's all next. Fox
Sports Radio, Welcome back, everybody. Fox Sports Radio Aer towards

(01:14:50):
Jason Martin, broadcasting live from the Tirek Dot Com Studios
Fox Sports Radios Draft Night Live throughout the first round
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(01:15:11):
or more plus free shipping. That's dollarshaveclub dot com Slash Draft,
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(01:15:35):
first round of the Draft live on Fox Sports Radio
with a live simulcast on the Fox Sports Radio YouTube page.
Brought to you by Dollar Shave Club. Let's get over
the new desk immediately. Disager a little bit short on
the extended update. I apologize, but flor is all yours.

Speaker 3 (01:15:49):
My friend.

Speaker 6 (01:15:49):
I cannot wait for the Thursday Night show, an annual
thing here at Fox Sports Radio, and of course Jason
Smith is on right after the first round ends. Thursday's
draft is in Green Bay. Sixteen pros will be in attendance,
including quarterbacks Cam Ward and Jalen Milroe. Round one Thursday night,
Rounds two and three are the next night, Rounds four
through seven on Saturday, the twenty sixth. By the way,

(01:16:11):
Dallas and New Orleans each started their voluntary offseason workout
programs this past Monday, so that includes meetings, conditioning, rehab
work the five other teams with new head coaches that
began workouts last week, and twenty five other clubs are
beginning this thing next week. Program reminder, NASCAR's Cup Series
off Sunday for Easter. It'll be on Fox TV the

(01:16:33):
next Sunday. IndyCars next race is until May fourth in Birmingham.
All the IndyCar races this year on Fox, so that
includes the Indy five hundred in late May. Fox had
UFL Spring football tonight. It's replaying on FS one right
now and an update from Matt Carral's team is Birmingham
Stallions all win at Houston twenty three to sixteen Corral

(01:16:54):
two touchdown passes, one interception, and he had fifty two
yards rushing on the ground on ten carries. The late
MLS game, five to three, Kansas City beat San Jose.
As for the MLB action today, we had a twelve
inning game where Seattle won eight four at Toronto. Rowdy
tell is a late Grand Slam, but what a finish.

(01:17:14):
With Tampa Bay they're playing in the Yankee Spring training
Stadium this year. The Yankees are visiting there this weekend.
The Rays got four runs bottom of the ninth to
tie it against the new Yankee closer, Devin Williams, and
then a walk off homer in the tenth won the
game ten to eight over New York, even though the
Yankees Aaron Judge had three more hits, three RBIs, and

(01:17:35):
he's batting three to ninety seven. The Red Sox won
their fourth in a row, a ten inning win at
home against the White Sox, four to three. The White
Sox have lost six in a row. They're zero to
eight on the road and four and sixteen overall. It's
a very good nl Wes Giants took the late game
three to two at the Angels despite two homers from
Mike Trout. Houston came back to beat San Diego on

(01:17:58):
FS one tonight three to two, so the Pod record
fifteen and six, Dodgers fifteen and seven. After giving up
a two run homer bottom in the ninth at Texas
for to three Rangers at Dolus Garcia, the hero Washington
was a head at Corsfield, Colorado, twelve to two in
the seventh, but of course it's Colorado, so the game
wasn't over. Twelve eleven is the final. Rockies have lost

(01:18:20):
seven in a row. They're three and sixteen this year,
and yeah, they're in a pretty good division. Meanwhile, Philadelphia,
at home today held on for an eleven to ten
win against Miami, which has lost five in a row.
Marlin scored six times in the top of the ninth
to get close. Cleveland won three to nothing at Pittsburgh,
beating Paul Skens Detroit three to one over Kansas City.

(01:18:41):
The Royals have lost six in a row. In fact,
Casey's two to ten on the road, while the Tigers
are eight in one at home. The Cubs played a
truly crazy game against Arizona Friday, a little more normal
six to two final over the Diamondbacks today the loss
to Zach Gallon one in three era over five and
the Diamondbacks offense was just four for thirty two in

(01:19:01):
this game. The Mets at home are eight and one.
They beat the Cardinals three ninzing Cards on the road
one and eight so far. Code Is Sega the winning
pitcher for the Mets three and one, the save to
Edwin Diaz. Cardinals offense went three for twenty nine and
Baltimore hit five home runs and beat the Reds nine
to five the loss to Hunter Green. As far as

(01:19:21):
the NBA playoffs, yes, the Lakers were creamed by the
Minnesota Timberwolves one seventeen to ninety five. Luka Doncic did
have thirty seven points the rest of his team twenty
one of sixty one shooting from the floor. Minnesota's lead
mid third quarter was eighty to fifty four. Minnesota from
three point range twenty one of forty two. Here the

(01:19:42):
last month and a half Timberwolves record is eighteen and four.

Speaker 2 (01:19:46):
Thank you very much, Steve di seger Sis Fox Sports
Radio Air Tours Jason Martin broadcasting live from the Tyrek
dot Com studios. We got one hour left till we
hit it off to Bernie Frado, and there is still
plenty to discuss. We are going to hit on Night
one of the NBA Playoffs. We're gonna talk a little
bit about Aaron Rodger're gonna talk a little bit about
Kevin Durant, the coach Killer.

Speaker 3 (01:20:08):
That's all next. Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:20:10):

Speaker 2 (01:20:14):
Welcome in everybody, our three tours and Martin Fox Sports Radio.
We are broadcasting live for the tyrack dot Com studios.
Tire rack dot com will help you get there, and
I'm matched election fast free shipping, free road as a
protection over ten thousand recommended installers.

Speaker 3 (01:20:31):
Tyrec dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:20:32):
The way tire buying should be er tors Jason Martin,
we are taking you up until two a m. Eastern time.
Bernie Frado of The Bernie Frado Show follows us. Cannot
wait to hear what Bernie has to say about what
was a busy, busy, busy week in sports and a
busy week to come with the NFL Draft ahead, Jaymark,

(01:20:57):
let's talk about Day one of the NBA Playoffs.

Speaker 3 (01:20:59):
Four games our final for Day one.

Speaker 2 (01:21:02):
By the way, Day two of course, will open UH
four games on Sunday as well, the first one Memphis
at OKC one PM Eastern Orlando at Boston, Miami at Cleveland,
and the late game Golden State at Houston. But we
will focus on what happened on Saturday. The four games
that did happen. Indy beats the Milwaukee Bucks one eleven

(01:21:24):
ninety eight, Denver in overtime beats, the Los Angeles Clippers
won twelve to one ten. The New York Knicks, thanks
to a twenty one nothing run in the fourth quarter,
beat the Detroit Pistons one twenty three, one twelve. But
we got to get to the big one in Los
Angeles at Crypto dot Com Arena, the home formerly of

(01:21:47):
all these Lakers greats.

Speaker 3 (01:21:49):
Uh yeah. Anyway, this is a terrible transition.

Speaker 2 (01:21:51):
The point I'm trying to make one seventeen ninety five
was the final score. I was gonna say, you know,
the home of will toon, the home of this Then
I realized that they didn't actually play there. But the
point I'm trying to make long illustrious history for the
Los Angeles Lakers.

Speaker 3 (01:22:03):
By the way, I.

Speaker 2 (01:22:04):
Believe this was the first game one that Lebron of
the Lebron era that was played in Los Angeles. Point
I'm trying to make did not go well. The Minnesota
Timberwolves a one seventeen ninety five win. The crazy part
was the Lakers were up by seven after the first quarter,
meaning that the Lakers were outscored by twenty nine points

(01:22:27):
in the final three quarters. Jmart, what did you make
of a game one defeat for the Lakers a game
one win for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Speaker 4 (01:22:35):
Well, look, man, this is what's gonna happen when Lebron
doesn't play. Oh oh wait, I was looking at that. Whoa,
she actually did play?

Speaker 3 (01:22:42):
No, that was Bronny. You were thinking of Bronni. I
don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:22:45):
I'm just thinking of how how are you supposed to
explain this media, How are you supposed to explain such
a lack of daisical performance. It had to be because
Lebron didn't play, because I mean, Luca has to be
the one too. He had thirty seven. Yeah, this is
a problem. You don't overreact to this. But contrary to

(01:23:07):
popular belief, the Lakers are actually going to have to
go win these games. They're not just going to be
gifted to them the way they are in the press.
Like they're actually going to have to beat a team
that and Disiger made an excellent point when he gave
that factoid during the segment at the end of the
second hour. This is a team in the t Wolves.
It's pretty hot. They were eighteen and four in their

(01:23:29):
last twenty two games, and this is a team that
was in the Western Conference finals a year ago. This
is a team knows what they're doing. They've got a
dude that has serious confidence in Anthony Edwards, and then
they have nas Reed who seems to be super clutch,
especially in these big kind of moments like this. They're
going to have to beat this team. It's not going
to be handed to them. The t Wolves are not

(01:23:52):
just going to bow down to them because they have
Lugadancic and certainly because they have Lebron James on the floor.
Lebron's gonna have to be better than he was in
this game, don't it. I mean, if he gives you
thirty seven every night, you know that's that's what you
brought him there to do. But you give up one
hundred and seventeen points in this thing, in a game
where Anthony Edwards didn't even have twenty five I think

(01:24:14):
he had twenty two in a game. I mean, that's decent,
But I mean you expect that for the Tea Wolves
to be able to beat this Leviathan that is the Lakers,
he's got to have forty five at night. In the
fact that he had twenty two and they won by
twenty two, that says a lot. They're going to have
to win these games erin. And I'm certainly not saying

(01:24:36):
that they're not going to, but this has got to
be a wake up call to them real quick that
oh okay, all right, this is harder than it looks
like the media and I'm saying them, I'm not talking
about the Lakers. I'm saying to the media, like, stop
crowning them and don't bury them on Monday either. You
don't have to always hit the extremes. This is a

(01:24:56):
team that can win. But guess what they can look
And that's what happened on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:25:02):
Yeah, you and I joked when all this happened.

Speaker 2 (01:25:05):
I remember calling them the greatest dynasty that never was
because everyone had just basically handed them the championship after
they went like two to zero after the Luca trade.
But I think, to me, again, you don't want to overreact. Listen,
I would still suspect that the Lakers would at least
win this round. You don't want to overreact. But the

(01:25:26):
counter to that is the issues that I think anybody
who was really looking at this unbiasedly and not looking
at it as somebody that was trying to, you know,
jack up their numbers by hyping up the Lakers, all
those issues were at came into fruition on Saturday night.
The truth of the matter was the night the trade happened,
you and I were on air and we talked about, Okay,

(01:25:49):
well you're gonna have to score a lot more because
the defense is gonna be a lot different without Anthony Davis. Well,
you give up one hundred and seventeen points. Then on
top of that, and this was the part that I
kept going back to superstars one who basically were led
to believe got traded because he is out of shape
and me not melted down, but he wore down is

(01:26:09):
probably the right way to put it. In the NBA
Finals last year, well he was great, but are you
gonna be able to get thirty seven from him every night?
Because listen, I'm not a professional athlete. Okay, but I'm
also not getting paid thirty forty million dollars a year.
Luca does not look in shape to me. Are you
gonna get thirty seven from every night? We'll find out.
But then Lebron James, listen, he's an all time great.
This isn't the night to you know whatever. But at

(01:26:31):
the same time, he's forty years old, and I have
seen it the last couple of years in the playoffs
where he can look like Pete Lebron for a half,
for two and a half, quarters, maybe three, but at
some point that age shows up. He's forty years old,
and it's hard to ask him game over game, week

(01:26:51):
over week, month over month in the playoffs to be
great every single night. And this has been my issue
from day one with the Lakers. Out of shape, young guy,
old guy that is battling Father Time in a way
that we've never seen before. And I just think it's
unrealistic to expect both of them to be great every
single night when they're not. You have a situation like

(01:27:12):
tonight where you only score ninety five points, you're not
great defensively, and then you still need that third guy
to step up. Austin Reeves was okay on Saturday Night,
but not great with sixteen points on five to thirteen shooting.
It's just like, you know, what almost reminds me of
j mart is that first remember the year that Katie

(01:27:33):
got traded to the Suns, and like they played the
Nuggets that was your the Nuggets won the title, but
it was like the first like three games of that series,
it was like Katie and Booker both went for forty
every night and they still lost every It's like they
don't have enough help around them. And that's what I
feel like with the Lakers is you need a great
night from Lebron every night. You need a great night

(01:27:53):
from Luke every night, and when you don't get it,
every game is gonna be up in the air.

Speaker 3 (01:27:57):
And even when you do get it, every game going
to be up in the air.

Speaker 2 (01:28:00):
They certainly didn't get a great performance from Lebron and
they are now trailing the Timberwolves zero one in that series.

Speaker 4 (01:28:08):
Yeah, and again, everything they do will be magnified in
both directions, and I think you can take away multiple things,
one being that this is a team that can win
and it's also a team that can lose, and a
lot of it is going to hinge on these superstar performances.
I mean, you just can't count on the role players,
especially not on this team, because they're just not that

(01:28:28):
good or they're very very young, and so you can't
trust them yet in these moments. And so you look
at the t Wolves. I mean t Wolves are coming
off a Western Conference Finals run last year, so they
know what it's like to be in this situation. The
larger point is this, if they win a championship, they're

(01:28:49):
gonna have to go through about seven weeks of this. Yep,
they're gonna have to go through like six and a half.
Seven weeks is the NBA Finals. I'm sure starts, I
don't know, somewhere, probably around like June seventh, June eighth,
I'll have to it up, but somewhere in June. So
and we know this because we've heard this said by
every legend in this game. Playoff basketball is a different

(01:29:10):
animal in terms of what it takes, the fatigue on
your body, the physicality involved, everything surrounding playoff basketball is
just completely different. And it wears on you. And you're
talking about one dude that's forty and another dude that's
not imperfect, not not certainly in ideal conditioning, and you're
counting on those guys to get you there. Can it happen? Yes,

(01:29:31):
But there's a reason why you and I have been
skeptical from moment one and said, you know, this is
not a championship contender this year. When that trade was made,
I still don't believe that it is. I think that
this team is not built around its superstar right now.
It's still built around Lebron James. It was built around him,
and to a lesser extent, Anthony Davis. Problem was, Anthony

(01:29:54):
Davis was built to work with Lebron James and to
do those things, blocking shit, getting rebounds, getting put backs,
all those kinds of things, and certainly being defense a
very solid defensive player on the inside. And you just
don't have the same thing. And you look at all
of this. I'm not gonna say the t Wolves are

(01:30:16):
going to win the series, but if they do, no
one should be surprised. The media may act like this
as the sky's falling, but this is more of what
should have happened. This is more, honestly what you should
have expected after this trade to happen, because this t
Wolves team they have a lot of pride, they have
a lot of moxy. They have guys that make big
shots and guys that went on deep playoff runs either
there or elsewhere last year, and they're ready for this moment.

(01:30:39):
And I think that they kind of been pushed to
the side like they don't matter entering this year or
entering this playoffs, like this isn't a team that's coming
in being talked about all season long. And that's perfect
for them because Edwards, I think does his best work
when people aren't really paying attention around him, because he's
that kind of players that's special. And even on a

(01:31:01):
night when he got knocked out after a hard fall
in the third quarter and only had twenty two to
twenty three points in the game, they absolutely dominated this
thing on the road. This has got to be a
little bit frightening for Lakers fans to look at this
and say, man, what went wrong here and how can
we fix it? Because there's a lot of things that
I'm not sure are on your roster to be able

(01:31:23):
to fix.

Speaker 2 (01:31:24):
Great point by you, Anthony Edwards finishes with a very
solid but not spectacular twenty two points, and again, the
defensive concerns McDaniels. Don't want to mess that one up again.
Jayden McDaniels average twelve during the regular season has twenty
five on Saturday in Game one. Also on top of that,
Nasri too average fourteen a game, had twenty three. So

(01:31:45):
we will see what happens. Game two in this series
not until Tuesday. By the way, for the conspiracy theorists
who believe that everything favors Lebron and the Lakers, they
get the extra day off before they take the court again.
Game two will be Tuesday night. Denver Clippers and New
York and Detroit are Monday, really quickly. Speaking of those

(01:32:06):
two games, Detroit loses Game one at New York. Denver
wins in overtime against the Los Angeles Clippers, and the
Indiana Pacers basically routed the Milwaukee Bucks. They were up huge,
Milwaukee makes a run.

Speaker 3 (01:32:20):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:32:21):
What is to you the single biggest story that came
out of Day one of the NBA Playoffs outside of
what happened in Los Angeles, I.

Speaker 4 (01:32:29):
Don't know, other than I mean, the Knicks are going
to be a tough out and I like them in
this postseason. Probably the biggest takeaway is just that the Bucks.
It just doesn't look like it's going to be there
for them this year. I don't know, And I think
there's a larger conversation certainly to have about Janni Santa
Tacompo and his long term future there and just kind

(01:32:49):
of looking at how this has gone over the last year,
year and a half or so. But I just kind
of look at that. I mean, that Indiana team was
on the cup of you know, the NBA Finals a
season ago, kind of in a when nobody was expecting
it to happen, and this Bucks team coming in banged
up Lillard, who always tends to be banged up. It
seems like at some point in the postseason, it just

(01:33:11):
things just haven't played out the way that they thought
they were going to. Some of these decisions have gone awry,
And so I look at that and I just kind
of feel like the Bucks may just kind of go
quietly into this good night, like this may just not
be this may not be a long run for them
at all. I understand it's one game, and you don't
want to overreact to one game, but they looked they
look kind of outmatched in that game in a way

(01:33:34):
that was sort of unexpected. Not that they could lose,
but that they lost in a way that seemed not
unlike the way the rest of the series could go.
If that makes sense, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (01:33:45):
Dame Lollard, of course, had the very scary blood cloud situation.
It appears as though he will be playing at some
point in this series. I'm not a medical expert, but
seems as though there's been a breakthrough in kind of
how they treated that that situation, and he looks like
he's gonna be better. Indiana will host Game two on
Tuesday night, game three on Friday, and so yeah, I mean,

(01:34:09):
we'll see how this series goes, but think there could
be some bigger conversations about the Bucks in their future
when we get back on air next Saturday. Tell you what, Jmart,
we will come back when we do. Do want to
talk a little bit about one team that is certainly
not in the playoffs, and it is certainly a story
the Phoenix Suns. Another coach out the door. What does
it mean for Kevin Durant and for that team That

(01:34:32):
organization will discuss the next should mention by the way,
calm the chaos with the shipping software that delivers use
code Sports for a free trial at shipstation dot com.
That shipstation dot com code sports, and be sure to
tune into Fox Sports Radios Draft Night Live, which is Thursday,
eight pm Eastern throughout the first round of the Draft.
In Saturday, Glazer, former Jets GM Joe Douglas, College Football

(01:34:55):
Hall of Famer LeVar Arrington, and Fox Sports Lead college
football reporter Jenny Taff will have you covered for all
thirty two picks with predictions and reactions. That's Thursday, eight
pm Eastern throughout the first round of the Draft, live
right here on Fox Sports Radio and with a live
video simulcast on the Fox Sports Radio YouTube page, all
brought to you by Shipstation. We'll come back continue the

(01:35:17):
NBA conversation. Phoenix Suns not in the playoffs, Kevin Durant,
what's his future? And I have a stat that will
blow you away on what has happened and what has
not happened for Kevin Durant since he left Golden State.

Speaker 3 (01:35:31):
That's all next.

Speaker 4 (01:35:32):
Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 5 (01:35:33):
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 3 (01:35:44):
Welcome back everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:35:45):
Fox Sports Radio, Eric Torris, Jason Martin brodcasting live fromntirerect
dot Com studios. Be sure check out the Fox Sports
Radio YouTube channel. There's a ton of great videos for
many of our Fox Sports Radio shows. To search Fox
Sports Radio on YouTube and you'll see a whole bunch
of video highlights from our shows. And be sure to
subscribe so you always have instant access to our Fox

(01:36:07):
Sports Radio videos on YouTube. Jmart want to get to
some KD stuff in a minute. But one thing I
don't know that we talked about it necessarily last segment,
but we did hit on it in our one is
the idea that we're going on twenty plus years of
a Lebron James career that he has never once been
blamed for anything. Well, nineteen point performance on Saturday Night,

(01:36:34):
I would say, you know, frankly, it's probably one of
the worst playoff games he's had in a while. You
were watching some a separate broadcast and what was the
big takeaway? How hard did they go on Lebron James
on them?

Speaker 4 (01:36:47):
All? Right? So I did this during a break. I
actually rewound it because it was happening during our segment.
During the commercial. I rewounded on the on the screen
here so I could see because I mean, when Kendrick
Perkins talks, I need.

Speaker 3 (01:37:02):
To pay atten not a good way.

Speaker 4 (01:37:05):
Yeah, because that's that's that's what we got in our
in our post game, that's our one on one so
that we can break down this game with analysis. And
so Perkins, to his credit, said it was a team
lost for the Lakers, and he said that Austin Reeves
is the most important player on the Lakers, and that

(01:37:26):
Reeves needs to have twenty a night. They were twenty
seven to nine in the regular season when he had
twenty points or more. Even though Luca and Lebron are
the two best players, Austin Reeves is is the most
important player. So because Austin Reeds has sixteen, you can
kind of readbetween the lines as to what that means.
But the guy that he went after the most was

(01:37:47):
JJ Reddick, and it was about defense, and it was
that JJ Reddick and their skill and their defensive schemes
in the past two months have been centered basically on
blocking off the album is blocking off the inside and
forcing teams to shoot threes, and that Minnesota has professional
guys that can really shoot the three and they were

(01:38:07):
twenty one to forty two in this game, And so
then he was like, what kind of adjustments are you
gonna make? JJ? Because your defense wasn't good enough. Essentially,
it's just like we understand that, right it was one
seventeen to whatever. But to your point, all he basically
said about Lebron during the entirety of this segment was
he's like, what kind of adjustments you're gonna make? Are

(01:38:28):
you gonna stop doing small ball so that you can
get Lebron a little bit more involved? And basically he
was saying that JJ needs to find a way to
make Lebron more effective in addition to JJ being at
fault because of no defensive adjustments, and that now he's
gonna have to make a mid series adjustment because Minnesota

(01:38:49):
is isn't going to bow down to the defense that
he's been running for the last two months. So Lebron
James was not at all to fault for this loss.
It was JJ Reddick first and it was Austin Reeves second.

Speaker 2 (01:39:05):
Interesting since Austin Reeves had three fewer points on five
fewer shots in Lebron James. Also worth noting Lebron James
outscored by Nas Reed and Jaden McDaniels, as well as
Anthony Edwards by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Speaker 3 (01:39:19):
So that's interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:39:20):
Also interesting, of course, because JJ Reddick tried to give
me a lecture on defense one time on social media,
told me I didn't know what I was talking about.
Apparently you know, I'm not gonna side with Perk here,
but you know, once seventeen allowed. We were on air
a few weeks ago when the Lakers gave up one
forty six to the Chicago Bulls.

Speaker 3 (01:39:38):
So we'll see what happens there.

Speaker 2 (01:39:39):
Lakers again Timberwolve's game two on on Tuesday night in
Los Angeles, Fox Sports Radio air towards Jason Martin. Tell
you what, j mart why don't we come back? And
when we do, we will talk about Kevin Durant. Do
have an interesting thought on him. With Mike Budenholzer out,

(01:40:00):
we will discuss that next but first final time this evening.
Will get you out a few minutes early tonight to Seger,
my friend, what is trending?

Speaker 6 (01:40:06):
Let's start with the Minnesota playoff opening win in LA
over the Lakers one seventeen to ninety five by the way.
Pretty much every playoff team in the West won about
fifty games this year, and that includes the Timberwolves and
the Lakers. Anthony Edwards twenty two points tonight and eight rebounds,
nine assists, just one turnover mid third quarter. Minnesota led
this game eighty to fifty four. Luka Doncic thirty seven

(01:40:29):
points in the loss at New York a twenty one
nothing run for the Knicks in the fourth quarter. This
it will win against Detroit one, twenty three to one
twelve Knicks. We're down eight with about nine minutes to go,
but they take game one. Jalen Brunson thirty four points,
eight assists, nineteen turnovers for the Piston, six by Kay Cunningham.
Then there's the Clippers twenty turnovers blew a fifteen point

(01:40:53):
first half lead, lost in overtime at Denver, won twelve
one ten by the way, seven turnovers from Kawhi Leonard,
James Harden and defeat thirty two points, eleven assists. Nikola
Jokic finished with twenty nine points, nine rebounds and twelve assists.
The day started with Indiana's easy Game one win over Milwaukee,
won seventeen to ninety eight. Pacers were up in the

(01:41:15):
third quarter seventy seven forty nine, Giannisan Tenacumpo thirty six points.
Damian Lillard was still out. It sounds like he's coming
back next week. NHL playoffs two openers Tonight's Winnipeg with
a game one win against Saint Louis in a comeback
five to three, three goals in the third period. Colorado
won at Dallas five to one. That game was two
to one with about seven minutes left. The New York

(01:41:38):
Rangers fired coach Peter lavio Let after missing the playoffs.
Anaheim fired coach Greg Cronin a reminder, NASCAR's Cup Series
is off Sunday for Easter. It will be on Fox
TV the next Sunday. To Major League Baseball. Philadelphia eleven
ten over the Miami Marlins, who've lost five in a row.
Washington twelve eleven winners at Colorado, which is low seven straight.

(01:42:01):
Cleveland won at Pittsburgh three nothing, beating Paul Skeins. Detroit
is eight and one at home after its win against
Kansas City three to one. The Royals have dropped six
in a row wins at home for the Mets and
the Cubs, and for Baltimore, which hit five home runs
and beat the Reds nine to five in the game
on Fox TV. For Texas, a Doulas Garcia a two
run homer bottom of the ninth to beat the Dodgers

(01:42:23):
and former Rangers closer Kirby Eights four to three. Seattlee
in twelve innings won at Toronto eight to four. Rowdy
tell Is a late Grand Slam Boston and ten innings
edged the White Sox four to three. White Sox have
lost six straight. Tampa Bay and ten innings beat the
Yankees on a wide walk off homer ten to eight,
and this is after the race scored four times in

(01:42:44):
the bottom of the eighth to tie the game. Houston
a three to two comeback winner over San Diego. Victories
for the Braves, A's and the Giants, who took the
late game three to two over the Angels despite two
home runs from Mike Trout.

Speaker 2 (01:42:55):
Back to you, thank you very much to Seger to Sigur,
have a great evening back on Sunday. I enjoy the
time with Chris Plank and whoever the heck he's hosting
with tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (01:43:06):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:43:06):
I'm kidding Arnie Spanier, Chris Plank also Mark Willard Ephims.

Speaker 4 (01:43:11):
Yeah, the biggest Bryce James fan.

Speaker 3 (01:43:14):
Oh that's you know.

Speaker 2 (01:43:15):
He texted me because Yukon's playing home and home with
Arizona and they're playing in in Connecticut this year.

Speaker 3 (01:43:21):
And he's like, you gotta drive down Torres. I'll meet
you there. I'm like, you're not going stop? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:43:27):
What was the thing to saying? Or he had never
been to Fenway Park or something like that. He's been there, like.

Speaker 6 (01:43:31):
Kep Sano, the Knicks are gonna have a big game.

Speaker 3 (01:43:33):
I gotta drive down.

Speaker 6 (01:43:35):
I'm going to Boston.

Speaker 3 (01:43:36):
They had a big game. I'm wondering about tickets.

Speaker 6 (01:43:38):
Oh, the NCAA tournament's gonna be in New England.

Speaker 3 (01:43:40):
I gotta drive down.

Speaker 4 (01:43:41):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:43:41):
He never goes to it, That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah,
he when I was working with him, he had been
there like ten years. Like I rather gotta get to
Fenway Park. I'm like, yeah, you do, buddy. It's like,
what are you doing in Vermont on a Tuesday that
you can't drive to Boston, which is like two hours away.

Speaker 6 (01:43:54):
They could play a March Madness game in Burlington, Vermont
And I'm guessing and he has a pass. He may
not darken.

Speaker 2 (01:44:02):
It well, and it's amazing to Arnie's in the darkness
or treated all well.

Speaker 3 (01:44:08):
It's funny because.

Speaker 2 (01:44:10):
I don't know what he does all day because the
second something relevant happens.

Speaker 4 (01:44:14):
Not shovel snow. We know that he.

Speaker 3 (01:44:16):
Does his shovel snow.

Speaker 2 (01:44:17):
He uses the workout machine that his wife got him
as a hangar. And uh, every time something relevant happens
in sports, he's the first person to text me. So
I don't know if he just sits on Twitter all
day or whatever.

Speaker 6 (01:44:31):
Arenie a lot of channels, I guess yeah, I mean
he must does listen to our network.

Speaker 4 (01:44:37):
Right now.

Speaker 3 (01:44:38):
He might be listening right now. Hello, we'll talk to
you tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:44:40):
Yes, all right, well, Disagre, thank you so much. Arnie Spanier,
Chris Blank will be out at eleven pm Eastern and
Disagrea will be with the crew before that. All right,
j Martin, Let's let's go on and dive in because
it was interesting. So, uh, Mike Budenholzer was fired this
week Phoenix Sun's head coach. Why is that relevant? It
is because this is the third straight year that a

(01:45:02):
Phoenix Sun's head coach has been fired. This is also
the third year that Kevin Durant has been in Phoenix.
Obviously got traded during the twenty two to twenty three season.
That was when Monty Williams was the head coach. He
gets fired. Last year, they bring in Frank Vogel. Well,
he's an NBA champion, he'll stick it out there for
a while. Nope, he gets fired after one year. Mike
Budenholzer comes in, he's the answer. Nope, they missed the

(01:45:24):
playoffs and he gets fired after this year.

Speaker 4 (01:45:27):
And weird. I thought Phoenixes were supposed to rise from the.

Speaker 3 (01:45:29):
WHOA, Well, not these ones, I'll tell you that.

Speaker 2 (01:45:34):
And you brought up an interesting point in our our
pre show kind of group chat, which is just basically,
you know, at some point, like we know, Kevin Durant's
an all time great, but been kind of sketchy in
the post the post Golden State era. So I went
ahead and looked it up. He left Golden State after

(01:45:55):
the twenty eighteen twenty nineteen season, that is six seasons ago.
In the six seasons that Kevin Durant since he left
Golden State, which by the way, just feels like a
long time. But anyway, six seasons, he has now had
six different head coaches, Kenny Atkinson, who he never actually
played for, because Kenny Atkinson was the head coach when

(01:46:18):
they went when him and Kyrie went to the Nets.
By the way, ironically, if you remember, Kevin Durant said,
I like the culture that he's built. Well, he didn't
like it so much because he got fired after year,
brought in Steve Nash.

Speaker 4 (01:46:28):
How's he doing now, by the way, I think he.

Speaker 3 (01:46:31):
Won some award the last couple of days or so much.

Speaker 4 (01:46:34):
I think he was named NBA Coach of the Year.

Speaker 3 (01:46:35):
Oh that the award, Okay, so yeah, that's the one.

Speaker 2 (01:46:38):
So Kenny Atkinson fired, which, by the way, that's relevant,
was the NBA Coach of the Year. Steve Nash comes in.
Doesn't work out that was their hand picked coach, although
if you remember Kyrie Irving saying, we don't really need
a coach. Some nights, I'll be that coach some nights,
Steve Nash would be the coach some nights, Katy because so, yeah,
Steve Nash. Steve Nash gets fired, they bring in Jock

(01:46:58):
Vaughan as an intern, ends up getting traded to Phoenix
and as we mentioned Monty Williams, Mike Budenholzer, and then
in between was Frank Vogel a year ago. Six coaches
in six years, by the way, kind of worth noting.
I believe his last two years in Okase he had
two different coaches Scotti Brooks than one year of Billy Donovan.

Speaker 3 (01:47:16):
So my math is right.

Speaker 2 (01:47:18):
Eight coaches in the last eight seasons not played in
the Golden with Golden State. I thought it was a
great point by you, very talented player, but Kevin r
had a coach killer.

Speaker 4 (01:47:31):
If he's not a coach killer, I think he might
be a culture killer. Because who outside of Golden State
was already good before he got there, had already won
championships before he got there. Who who has flourished with him?
And I mean on the floor or off really, I
mean like Booker certainly had a good start, but Phoenix

(01:47:52):
was already built in a different way. And to acquire
him you got rid of all your defense. But back
into the nets situation and everything else. I mean, the
common denominator with all these coaches is they all lost
their jobs with Kevin Durant as the player, and Kevin
Durant even when he was in Oklahoma City, and as
a thunderfan, I'm gonna tell you this, it was a

(01:48:13):
lot of hero ball. It was a lot of dudes
standing around watching both Durant and Westbrook and sometimes when
they got the ball they didn't know what to do
with it because they weren't familiar with it. And I think, like,
he can be your best player because he's almost always
going to be on any roster that he plays on,
he's probably the best player. But do you flourish around him?
If you're a role player, does he make you better

(01:48:37):
on a consistent basis? And for a coach, it just
seems like you should be able to win with him,
But there's always baggage, right, there's always an injury, or
there's always something where it just doesn't click right. And
it's not about his ability. He's one of the greatest
players to ever lace up shoes, like he's one of
the greatest basketball players to ever live, but that doesn't

(01:48:59):
necessar mean he's a great teammate. And you really look
at everything that has happened. Whose culture has been better
for Kevin Durant being there, and then how has that
culture been after he left. It's almost like he leaves
a blaze and then he goes and he starts a
fire somewhere else, and it's I think a lot of

(01:49:21):
it is his discontent and his constant search for happiness
and being way too in his feelings on social media
and all of these other things. But coaches take the
blame for him because he's Kevin Durant. You should be
winning with that guy. It's got to be on you,
but that's not the case. Like the reason he's he's
not winning, I think largely is because he's hard to

(01:49:45):
win with because of the way he plays. He has
to be as dominant as he is. He loves the basketball,
and not that he's selfish, but just the manner in
which he plays is more isolation and it's more I'm
going to find a way to make this thing work.
And I think that that doesn't play as well as

(01:50:05):
some of these other guys, Like there's a there's a
chemistry issue there on the floor, but the biggest thing
is whatever the attitude is and whatever is going on
behind the scenes, like you are not long for this
coaching world in your current job. If the rant is
there and it just seems like it gets reflected like
there's something off here. But the fact that this has

(01:50:27):
happened so often, I have a hard time just saying
this is a coincidence because it's gone on too long,
There's been too many coaches. There's got to be something.
He's either a coach killer, or he's a culture killer,
or he is some version of both. But something is
off because he should have won more by this point.
It's not all injuries. Injuries certainly harmed him, but there's

(01:50:49):
something else here, and I don't know specifically what it is.
It's just a theory. I threw it out to you,
but I feel like something for a long long time
has been wrong with the Kevin Durant experiment.

Speaker 3 (01:51:04):
So a couple of things.

Speaker 2 (01:51:04):
One, I think you'd even argue he was a pseudo
coach culture killer in Golden State. I mean, it was
a you know, happy you know, everybody gets along, and
then that first year they win the title, and then
he doesn't feel like he's getting the credit that he deserves,
and then he comes back in the next couple of years.

Speaker 3 (01:51:21):
It seemed like it was miserable.

Speaker 4 (01:51:23):
I mean, we know that Drake Draymond had fight.

Speaker 3 (01:51:25):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:51:26):
Draymond called him out, and so I think even in
and then oh, by the way, Golden State won a
title without him a couple of years later. So it's like,
I think you can even argue that that he was
a culture killer in Golden State.

Speaker 3 (01:51:36):
To a degree.

Speaker 2 (01:51:38):
But then on top of it, I think it's exactly
what what we've I think we've talked about on this
show for years, which is that there's just something about
incredible talent that just seems like, no matter what happens,
he's just never happy man. And it's like, you know,
part of the reason that he's a coach killer, culture killer,
whatever is that, you know, he's so kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:52:01):
Like seat of the pants, and it's like you look.

Speaker 2 (01:52:02):
At the the the the Brooklyn experience. First of all,
like we said, Kenny Atkinson's there, he doesn't want Kenny
Akinson anymore, brings in his own coach. Then he wants,
you know, James Harden, Then he wants this, then he
wants that, you know, James Harden gets traded whatever, and
then he wants to go to Phoenix and and you

(01:52:23):
know it's easy to forget now, but like when he
demands a trade, uh, the only team he really wants
to go to his Phoenix, and they got to trade.

Speaker 3 (01:52:30):
They got to trade everything.

Speaker 2 (01:52:31):
They have to get them, and so it's like, I
don't know, man, I I in some ways I feel
bad because he's incredibly talented, but I just think, like
the like the I don't even know the right way
to put it, because he's clearly, uh, incredibly talented. I
think he's an incredibly smart guy. But it's like the

(01:52:52):
decision making in the way that he gets there, the
the the players that he's aligned himself with the decision
to get traded to Phoenix where that's the only place
he wants to go, they have to trade everybody. I'll
be quick.

Speaker 4 (01:53:04):
That's the biggest problem. That's I mean, that's the biggest
issue is the Phoenix he wanted to join wasn't going
to be the Phoenix he joined because of what they
had to get rid of to bring him there. Yes, like,
unless he just thought it was going to be me
and Booker and that was going to be enough, or
it was gonna be me and Booker and Chris Paul
and that was going to be enough. First off, I mean,
that's very naive if that's the case, because again and

(01:53:26):
then Bradley Beal, like, what are we doing here? Like Bradley,
all you have is three dudes that don't want to
play defense on a consistent basis. Like Durant at times
commits on the defensive side, but it's not really his
skill set now, it's not what he's going to commit
most of his time to, especially as he's aging. And
Devin Booker wants to shoot the ball and Bradley Beal
wants to shoot the ball. And that's it. And you

(01:53:48):
get rid of Bridges, and you get rid of these
guys that were doing some of that dirty work. You
get rid of the blue collar guys that you need
that actually make that team more of a family as
opposed to the Harlem Globetrotters or something like that. And
that's what it is. It's like, Yeah, I want to
go join Phoenix, but I want to find a way
to join them where they don't have to get rid

(01:54:08):
of any of the assets that are there, because I'm
the perfect piece to add to all of what is there.
That's not how things work in a sport that has
a salary gap, how things work when there's a luxury
tax and all these other things. And it's certainly not
like the nets. We're just going to say, yeah, you
can have Kevin Durant. All we need is I don't know,

(01:54:29):
you guys, I have no idea what's available, and all
we need is Arnie span your back. We need something
from Arizona back, so we'll take him. That's not how
this works. So Kevin Durant, I think makes some knee
knee jerk decisions without fully considering the ramifications. Yeah, we
could go on and on.

Speaker 2 (01:54:48):
I'll say this, Listen, I know everybody loves to take
victory laps in our business. Two things that I never bought.
One was the idea of exactly what you just said
that I understand why you want to trade for Kevin,
but what they gave up eliminated what made the Suns
the desirable location that they were. The second one, when
Bradley Beal got traded, everyone gets so excited, and I

(01:55:09):
remember saying at the time, this is just a slightly
more functional, slightly less out of control Katie Kyrie and
James Harden. We just saw that three stars and no
one around them does not work. And it's the same
thing in Phoenix. Mike Budenholzer out sounds like Kevin Durant's
gonna get traded. Sounds like they want to trade Bradley

(01:55:31):
Beal and nobody wants them. It is a mess. In Phoenix,
Fox Sports Radio eritors Jason Martin. We will come back
wrap the show, look ahead to Sunday's NBA games and
of course the NFL Draft Thursday.

Speaker 3 (01:55:42):
That's next. Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back, everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:55:45):
Fox Sports Radio erit Torris Jason Martin broadcasting live from
the tire rec dot Com studios. Fox Sports Radios Draft
Night Live throughout the first round of the NBA Draft NFL.
The no NBA Draft WNBA Draft was this week. We
are talking about, of course, the draft on Thursday night.

(01:56:06):
It's brought to you by Dollar Shave Club, your place
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or more plus free shipping. That's dollarshaveclub dot Com slash Draft.
Be sure to tune in also to Fox Sports Radios

(01:56:28):
Draft Night Live, which is Thursday, eight pm Eastern throughout
the first round of the Draft insider j Glazer, former
Jets GM Joe Douglas, college Football Hall of Famer LeVar
Arrington and Fox Sports lead college football reporter Jenny Taft
will have you covered for all thirty two picks with
predictions and reactions. That's Thursday, eight pm Eastern throughout the

(01:56:48):
first round of the Draft, live right here on Fox
Sports Radio and with live video simulcast on Fox Sports
Radio's YouTube page. Brought to you by Dollars Shave Club
Jay Martins. We wrapped the show. Let's look ahead a
little but to this week really quickly, NFL Draft. What
do you think all the great shows that are on
Friday morning and of course Thursday night Jason Smith will

(01:57:09):
be following, Uh, you know, Jay Glazer, Joe Douglas, Jenny Taft,
and LeVar Arrington. What do you think the biggest story
coming out of Night one of the NFL Draft.

Speaker 4 (01:57:20):
Will be Shadre Sanders. H Shaudre Sanders to the Giants?
Who that's actually that's what's gonna happen. I Like, I
was about to say the Saints, but I just feel
like Shadoor Sanders to the Giants, even with Russell Wilson there,

(01:57:43):
it just makes too much sense. I'm not saying the
right pick necessarily, It's just exactly what I expect the
Giants to do in this situation. And maybe it offers
a chance for Brian Dable to argue, Yeah, give me
a chance with a new quarterback that I can you've
seen what I was able to do with Josh Allen,

(01:58:03):
or he can point to that kind of time and
find his way back there. So for some reason, I
just I think they're going to take Shad or Sanders
at three.

Speaker 2 (01:58:12):
So I actually think both things that you said. I
think that the Giants are taking Shad Door at three,
and I think it's gonna be the biggest story obviously
of the opening night of the NFL Draft.

Speaker 3 (01:58:23):
I'm with you. I think there's been a lot of smoke.

Speaker 2 (01:58:25):
I think that, you know, everybody's trying to throw everybody
else off. I think all season long, everybody thought Schador
was a first round pick, and now you know, and it's.

Speaker 3 (01:58:34):
Funny, have it.

Speaker 2 (01:58:35):
You know, I had family in town this weekend and
we were talking a lot about this is like, you know,
it's crazy to me, it is, but it isn't how
one report can just catch like wildfire. You know, like
you see these reports, so you know, according to so
and so, they talked to a an NFL scout who
says that shit or could be a second round pick.
And it's like, so one scout said one one thing

(01:59:00):
like and that's you know, that's just a fact, like
is the scout drafting in the first round or they
need a quarterback if they evaluated them whatever. So I'm
with you with Shador really quickly. For NBA games on Sunday,
we mentioned him a minute ago. But for people that
need to know, Memphis, OKC, Orlando, Boston, Miami, Cleveland, Golden State, Houston.

(01:59:21):
We got about ten seconds. But which one are you
most looking forward to?

Speaker 4 (01:59:24):
It's the last one. It's Golden State Houston. I actually
think the first three could all be pretty close to
blowouts in favor of the home team. Houston. Golden State
is interesting to me because Golden State can be very
hot or very not and Houston is one of those
teams that's very unproven.

Speaker 2 (01:59:40):
I totally agree on that. I'm actually most intrigued by
that game. As we'll tell you what we got to
get out of here. I want to thank the crew.
Mary Mack on the board producer Brie also Ian I
think Steve Seger from a part ofer Jason Martin on Meritors.
Make sure to download the podcast. Coming up next, Sarti
Fratto of The Bernie Fratter Show. This is Fox Sports
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