January 12, 2023 • 35 mins
Jason and Mike discuss the Golden Globes and how no one really pays attention to these awards shows/ceremonies and also how TV shows and movies aren’t fun anymore. Plus, NBA Insider Mark Medina joins the show to discuss all things from the Lakers and so much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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(00:23):
listening to Fox Sports Radio. Greetings, Welcome inside our two
of The Jason Smith Show with my bas friend Mike Harmon.
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(00:46):
recommended installers. Tire rack dot com the way tire buying
should be. Well before we get to big stuff out
of the NFL today, one team has decided, Hey, we
have our fall guy for the season. Um, you know
what I like that that? You know, you and I
have talked about this, uh, the last couple of the
last week or two, how underrated a movie the menu was.
(01:07):
And now it's streaming all month on HBO and it's
you know, it's come to the theater. You know, it's
come to streaming right away. And you know, it's one
of those movies where when you watch it the second time,
you pick up on a lot of stuff because the
first time you're trying to figure everything out. And you know, honestly,
if the ending was better, I really, if the ending
(01:28):
was better, it would have been like a top three
movie of last year. I we'd be talking about. But
the ending was just so look that that it kind
of takes you didn't like. I thought it was a
better ending than a lot of other movies that I've
seen this last year. I don't know that that's saying much,
because nobody knows how to do a third act anymore.
But I couldn't stand the ending. I thought there were
(01:51):
so many things wrong with it. There were so many
things wrong with the ending. And I'm saying to myself,
wait that really, wait wait wait really, oh, this is
this is how it said, okay, because every the rest
of it was so good. The rest it was so good.
It was so like, this movie is insane, and then
it ends the way it does, and and and there's
so many times when I just walk out and go
that was a letdown. And I get that sometimes there's
(02:13):
things that are so good that you get to the end,
you go, how could you possibly end it? It's going
to be impossible to have a really good ending. Nope, no, no, no,
that they find it. But this was not that movie. Now, hey,
we got to the end, how you Oh no, no, no, no,
we we we we couldn't finish this one. I'm telling you.
Outside of that top three movie last year. Yeah, there
were a couple of little parts in it that kind
of irked me, and you just kind of shrug and go, okay,
(02:36):
well they just moved the plot along there, uh, and
and decided not to add more depth to this character,
that character or the other. But then you, uh, the
the ending now, I mean you've got your Halloween costume
for this year. Yeah, that's true. Yeah you could. Yeah.
And I'm just gonna walk into the one clap like
ray find just the hope everybody's quiet after I do that. Now,
(02:58):
there are one or two things also in the plot
that you don't get, you know, the close up that
you need to be able to really do the super
slew thing of what it meant, because you really would
have to be a Jeopardy champion for one of the
pieces of background that you don't get until you go
(03:18):
and start to look for that piece of information. Hey,
when they showed this, what was the and then you
get the the basic of it and you go, okay,
and now I can research that and learn my history
and now this all makes sense and it it ebbs
and flows, but you don't get it, like you don't
get the close up that you need right the old
(03:39):
here it is in writing, But no, we're gonna give
you a quick glimpse, Like all right, I don't have
a photographic memory or do I can I scan it
to blow it up and magnify it in that moment
to read what I need. So that would be my
big complaint. But I like the end and Anya Taylor Joy,
I mean, come on, she's fantastic, you know, the everybody
(04:00):
the acting was great. It was really Ray Fines was fantastic.
Not many guys can pull that off. And everybody, everybody
else and it was really good. It's just the and
and the Also the end brought a lot of questions
about other stuff from from earlier in the movie. It
really I I don't know. I mean, I'm glad you
liked it. I just felt like for me, I'm talking
about a top three I mean, look, it's not gonna
better than Top Gun Maverick, but you'll talking about the
(04:22):
top three movie last year. Easy. Well. The other is
I mean that the guy that is the Una Taylor
Joys uh companion at the table. He's not gonna be
in Renfield with Nick Cage, so he gets to experience
that madness. So it's good. Oh uh, Hank McCoy the beast,
he's gonna be in it. Oh is that is that
who that guy? Yeah? Yeah, he was Nicholas Holt. Yeah
(04:44):
he dated He dated Jennifer Lawrence for a long time.
Look at me all this right here? Yeah, buddy, little
stalker ish there. Oh he's really what you added to
Jennifer Lawrence part to it, Like if you just said
he I know him from this role? Cool? And that's
you know, he dated Jennifer Lawris. And so I was
celebrating another celebrity birthday today. Yeah, I'm telling you everything
(05:09):
here we are today, celebrating birthday. By the way, we
talked a lot of golden globes yesterday. I gotta get
this off by chess because it was in my timeline
all day. Sure, the fact that every jackass on the
Red carpet felt compelled to bug Austin Butler and Jenna
and what's your name from Wednesday? Jenna Ortega? Jenna Ortega? Yeah,
(05:31):
the can you do the dance? Can you show me
the dance moves that you did for the movies? Like,
just shut up and interview them, leaves them alone, stopping
impersonating them. You're not a regional nine jackasses on that line,
they'd already done it. Move on. Well, listen, It's hard
for me to get upset because I want the shows
(05:53):
to have more fun, and those shows just aren't fun anymore.
I went back and watched it. It was not fun.
We're telling the speeches and and people getting drunk. I'm
telling you, dude, that you you want to go back
to to try to trace where the Oscars and the
and the Golden Globes and and Awards season has gone
from something everybody can't stop talking about too, something that
(06:17):
look at the record low right Golden Globes. Nobody watches
return of television, controversy with the Golden Globes. All of this. Yeah,
you can, you can put in a bunch of different things.
You can say, Well, the pandemic hurt a little bit. Sure,
you can say streaming hurt because now it's it's hard
to see all the movies. But you look at these shows, right,
because they always nominated movies that nobody saw and we
still loved and watched and watch the Oscars anyway. But
(06:39):
these shows are just no fun. There's the fun. I
mean I I understand and when we come on and actors,
you know, they talk about stuff that's near and dear
to their lives and their causes. And that's great, and
you can do that and you have a bit you know, hey,
you can do it on Twitter if you want to
and on social media. But here's your big here's your
big chance. When I get to give my speech or
I get to go on and I understand that, that's great.
(07:01):
You know, actors want to do that. That's awesome because
here's when when I can get a message out. But
would it kill you to put some fun in the
broadcast too? There's no fun. All the jokes were really
controversial and some of them went over. People say, there's
just no more fun in these shows, and that you
can go back to go why people stop watching the Oscars?
And why stop watching the Golden Globes because there's just
(07:21):
no fun. I don't care who's hosting anymore. I don't
care that the biggest thing was obviously Chris Rock and
Will Smith, and they've changed it from the setting of
the big amphitheater to now it looks like it's it's
it's it's in a cocktail lounge. It's just there's no fun.
The fun is gone. And I'm not gonna watch something
that's not fun because you know what, I watched movies
because they're fun. But I'm not gonna watch this because
it's just not a fun broadcast. Because I know, I'm
(07:44):
I'm gonna get they're Gonnay's gonna talk about their causes,
and that's great, but you've got to entertain me, man,
I we're watching this to be entertained, and and it's like,
you forget that, right, entertain me. You know it's enough
to say when movies come out, hey, you gotta see
this movie. It's important. No I don't because it's gonna
depress me. I got enough to get enough depression regular
day reading about stuff that's going on that really matters
(08:05):
in the world right here. You make a movie about
something great if I want to see it, great, But
but to sit here and tell me I'm just gonna
be depressed for three out. The performances are great. You
need to see them. This guy is so good. Yeah,
but I don't care if it's gonna be something that
makes me gloomy for three hours, I'm not gonna watch it.
You gotta entertain me, and you gotta bring the fund
back and whether that's you'll find the next Billy Crystal,
(08:27):
whatever it is. But there's just no more fun. And
it's like they've stopped doing that and and and watching
these shows now, It's like, why am I doing this?
There there's no give back for me. There's gonna be
nothing to talk about the next day, there's gonna it's
it's not helping at all. You've forgotten the fun. You
get back to the fun and you put skits in
and you let people like Will Ferrell give out, give
(08:47):
out rewards everything else. You you gotta you gotta figure
out a way to make people say I gotta watch this,
I gotta watch this, and they don't and it's just work.
It's gonna it's like they've gotten the motive. We're gonna
put this broadcast out there, and it's just gonna be
a little bit worse than last year, and it's gonna
be a little bit less fun, and less people are
going to watch. You know, how about how about some
kind of radical change just to the show, not to
(09:08):
the movie, just to the show, would make it more fun.
Give me fun, man, You've got all kinds of time.
I don't care if it's four hours long. I'll watch
it if you're entertaining me. I don't care how long
it is, but you gotta give me more fun. You
said fun so many times you like Ralph Wigham during
the fun Zo want fun? Fun? Fun? Yeah, fun? What
do you mean? Heyme? It fun? Do you say what
(09:30):
I fun? One more time? Ralph fun? I want fun?
You choose to choose me, Okay, go ahead, Sorry, buddy, No,
I know that's all I had to say. You did
your Ralph Wigham no like. You had a bunch of
speeches that were great. I I highlighted the Colin Farrell one.
I really enjoyed, uh that movie the band Cheese and
(09:52):
his speech to Brendan Gleeson and their collaboration and everything.
It just strikes to the heart of you know, French
hip in the relationship you build at work and the
folks and how they become part of your lives and
well in in the movie how you don't want to
be part of your lives anymore. But it's it's one
of those kind of things where you had a couple
(10:13):
of good moments there, but everything else seemed forced. Ton Drive,
I mean, Eddie Murphy. One the night is Frostburg alluded
to yesterday is three rules for leading a successful life.
Really it's good advice. Uh that. Jason smithser with Mike
Carmen live from the tirerac dot Com studios. Now, let's
(10:35):
let me just say this now because here here's a
big NFL story we got. We got some big NBA
stuff coming up in a bit. Um. Apparently the Broncos
are going to talk to everybody about being their next
head coach. Alright, so here we we got everybody, right,
everybody's on our list. We're gonna talk to Jim Harbaugh.
The interviewed former Stanfred coach David Shaw earlier today. Um,
I got a feeling this is going to be the
(10:55):
opening that Hey, we got a lot of people that
want this gig because it's still a pretty good opening.
The Broncos are a pretty you looked the team is
pretty good. They got a lot of weapons. You can
get credit for remaking Russell Wilson and turning him back
into being a superstar. And I feel like I feel
like they're just gonna talk to everybody. We're gonna talk
to every single We'll talk to Rex Ryan, We're gonna
(11:16):
talk to everybody about this game before we make a decision.
It's one of those Hey, we're gonna have a nationwide
search for our next head coach, right like you see
in the in the in our business all the time,
it's hey, uh you know, you know ninety three three
the Flamethrower looking for their next great Afternoon drive star
nationwide search for this, send your resumes, send your demo tapes.
(11:36):
And it takes like eight months because all we're gonna
take so much time going through this because we gotta
find And that's like, we have no idea what we want.
That just tells me a team has no idea what
that when you talk to so many different people, it's
we really don't know what we want. Hey, he's available,
talk to Jim Harbody's talking to everybody we'll talk to
David Shaw. Okay, they're gonna talk to everybody. They're they're
gonna do one of those nationwide search things. Well, and
I think part of it is you're you're trying to
(11:58):
figure out how much, if any, input you should allow
Russell Wilson into this process, right, because part of the
big part of it is that outbatross, that is his
contract and trying to destermine how broken Issy or did
you see something in those Kansas City tapes that lead
you to believe that this was an aberration and that
(12:19):
with some tweaking, some better game management, because look what
once they did take the reins away from Hackett, Look
how much more effective he was. Look how much more
effective and efficient that offense was once you went to Rossberg, right,
bringing him in as an efficiency expert after that debacle
against Seattle, and you didn't hand them the reins at
(12:41):
that point, which he probably should have had more input
given his history and pedigree, but he was there at
least to kind of be the grown up in the
room and those down distant situations and to allow Hacket
to focus on in theory, the bigger picture and what
what needs to be done and well, clearly that didn't work.
But in those final games, their their pre snap penalties
(13:02):
were down, their their passing yards or like the better
their down conversion. Right, all of these things worked to
their benefits. So he's a guy that I would be
looking at, perhaps on the larger scale to that, you know,
if you can't make the big splash. But yeah, I
think a lot of it is bringing in different opinions
because you're you're not football people. You you run, you
(13:26):
run Walmart, I mean, you know, I mean like you
run a massive business that you know, one of the
chief operating things is to forecast how many garden homes
you're gonna need to give in spring period, which is
which is important stuff. You don't want to run out
of those. But my point being operational efficiency there doesn't
necessarily translate to football acumen. And when you've already kind
(13:49):
of neutered in the way you've talked about it publicly,
you've already neutered the guy that's your GM, Well what
else can you do but go to a larger, larger
perspective because you want to have all those that input
because how do you get smarter, talk to more people,
get those perspectives, see where the the overlying uh and
(14:10):
overarching themes in their speech of well here's what I
would do. Get those presentations and elevator pitches in and
maybe you come to consensus. Is that way one or
two people and taking the best sell might not be
the way to go. I'm telling you four interviews in
three days and they have no idea what they want.
(14:30):
That and that. That's all when you talk to that many,
but all we're gonna go. We're no stone unturned. It
sounds like, hey, they're really serious about this, but it's
really we don't know what we want and we're hoping
someone comes in and blows us away and say, oh, yes,
we're gonna give you the job they have. The Broncos
have no idea what they want. That sounds like buying
a house. You go and look at a lot of
them before you pick one. Twitter at how about a Fresca?
(14:51):
Mike gets swollen dump. Yeah, but you're you're buying a
eight seven on a coach. Jay uson Smith Show with
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(15:13):
Bundle and save at Progressive dot Com. Well coming up next,
all the big news in the NBA coming You are
a way. Can we really put Jalen Brunson in the
m v P discussion? Yes, yes, yes, yes we can, yes, yes,
yes we can all that more keep it right here,
Jason and Mike Fox. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at
(15:34):
ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app Fox Sports Radio. The
Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon live
from the tire rack dot Com studios here at Fox
Sports Radio. Where it's time now to make room for
a brand new name at the top of the m
(15:56):
v P list here and joining us now as a
guy who's gonna have ten thousand words on it tomorrow.
You can follow them on Twitter at mark g Underscore Medina.
That's at Mark g Underscore Medina, Mark Medina, NBA dot
Com insider Who's going to have a big column tomorrow
on why Jalen Brunson is the NBA m v P mark.
Congratulations mean the first person to write that article. Hey,
(16:19):
I gotta I gotta address some disinformation here this survey.
Jalen Brunson's nowhere near. Nicole Yokich is at forty pent
for m VP, and Luca donches is three percent. The
only category that the New York Knicks or ever in
this discussion was when I pulled different writers, Hey, what
(16:40):
what was the top performance? And it was Luca Donchess
triple double against the Knicks as well as you know,
top play category Lucas put back to force over time.
So it's always uh, you know, in the headlines for
the wrong reasons with them. So you know, but I'm
looking at it as you say, you say yo and
dodges at, I see Jaln Brunston at Yeah. Yeah, it's
(17:05):
like a it's like a hundred and fifty. That's why
percent column there. So it's you know, well, we'll we'll
recast the ballot and until it gets the result that
you want, uh, we'll continue to do it. I thought
that was the poll of the voices within your own brain.
That's that's he's got it. Harm he's got It's just Hey,
(17:28):
we'll just keep doing the poll until you get the
result you want. Thank you. That's all I want that.
I don't want anything. I just want that the proper
hashtags will get it to the right audience to get
you where you need to be. Uh, as we go through,
and what was the most surprising thing that you found
in the media survey? Was there something that just came
out of left field on you as you pulled people. Yeah,
(17:49):
the two things that were most surprising that m v
P race. I didn't think it was gonna be neck
and neck between Luca and Yokich. I thought that there
were gonna be, you know, more votes for guys like
Jason Tatum and honest and Kevin Duran. I thought there
would be, you know, a lot more parody of a
top five. But it's clear that you know your kitchen
Luca or neck and neck, and you know they're almost
(18:10):
coming at from different ways, Like, no doubt both guys
are playing really brilliant basketball. But you know, Lucas on
a Mavericks team that even though they're technically ranked fourth
in the Western Conference, there's a lot of feeling that, hey,
they're not They're no more good than a planned tournament
team or a first round exit, or the Nuggets. You know,
they're seeing as a team that could make the NBA
(18:32):
Finals and so ultim away, will voters, you know, reward
a player for being on a winning team or is
it going to be about most valuable if you remove
that player, how that team look without him? So that's
gonna be a tough thing. And then I would say
the other surprising part is that, uh, you know, there
was thirty four percent of voters I thought that the
(18:53):
Clippers were due for this strong second half run. Um.
You know, the Clippers have been so opened down that
haven't been health the and for their of them to
have a lot of optimism still about these guys, I
thought it was revealing because as much as I know
that they're about the long game and they feel like
they can plug and play, I think at some point
continuity has to matter. So, you know, I don't share
(19:16):
that same level of optimism, But there's still a lot
of voters that do, a lot of people that refused
to admit that they were wrong. I'm just gonna stick
with it until the mathematically he eliminated, and then I'm
going on vacation, all right, so I can take that
take all the way to the end with me all
right now now now this this midseason. You can find
(19:37):
it on on Mark's Twitter page again at mark g
Underscore Medina uh thirty beat reporters and insiders talking about
the storylines for the first half and second half. You know,
you hit one. That's really that That's what that to
me is one of the most interesting things there is
that you talked about of the people you talk to,
all the insiders say the Clippers are poised to make
a big second half run, but that pales and con
(20:00):
Harrison to the team that everybody thinks can make the
big second half Runent say it's gonna be the Warriors.
Now they know the Warriors have to play games away
from home, right, the NBA hasn't changed anything that says
the Warriors gonna play every game at home, because they don't.
They're not winning at home either, Jason, Yeah, but they
still have a great record at home. I can I
can be with that there if they think that could
(20:20):
be the run. Yeah, well, I thought it was interesting
is that they thought that the Golden State Warriors could
make a big second half run. But we're winner always
seem like it would amount to anything. I mean, when
I pulled all these voters, thirty of them total, the
Warriors only got one eighth place vote and two tenth place. UM.
As far as like game to the NBA Finals, I
believe there was only one voter that predicted that the
(20:43):
Warriors would get to the finals, and incidentally that they
would just lose to the Bucks anyway. And so I think,
you know, not just with the Warriors, but with the
totality of the West, it felt a lot more spread
out in wide open worthy East. It just felt like, Okay,
it's between Boston and Milwaukee and percents going to the
Celtics going to the Books. UM. As far as he's
(21:05):
gonna be in the finals. In the West, it's just
unless you pick, you pick whatever came out of a hat, Clippers, Nuggets, Grizzlies, Warriors, MAVs. UM.
I think that there's unlike last few years, there's a
lot more um competition in the East and a lot
stronger teams than there have been historically. So I do
(21:25):
wonder if to what extent that played the factor in
as well. Fox Sports Radio Jason Spitschell with Mike Carmen
here from the tire Act dot Com studios on the
hotline with us as he joins us regularly NBA writer
NBA dot Com. You've seen his work USA Today, Mercury News,
The l A Daily News. Uh, and you find him
on Twitter at Mark g Underscore Medina. We're talking about
(21:47):
his latest up on NBA dot Com. I've just retweeted
it at Swell and Home, Fox Sports Radio at Fox
Sports Radio, should say, etcetera. One that I'll correlate to
from the East. You know, need to talk about the
depth Mark is, you know, talking about the personnel moves
from last summer that made the biggest splash in Cleveland.
(22:07):
Sent yet in the Eastern Conference, who's representing them in
the finals? Uh, they don't even sniff It's just Boston,
Milwaukee and Brooklyn. Yeah. Uh. And I think here's the thing.
There's a lot of I think strong impressions from Cleveland,
but there's a feeling that they're probably only good for
(22:27):
the second round and maybe they have to play weight
my turn for next season. And I think that highlights that,
you know, there's a lot of continuity from Milwaukee and
Boston's then and with the nets, what I found interesting
is there's a lot of there's like a strong division.
There were firm believers that think that this really strong
push that the Nets have had it means that they're
(22:49):
back into championship contention mode, and that there are a
lot of voters that thought, you know what Kyrie and
Kevin Kyrie's do for another, uh, you know, drama filled
to excuse for wi Is on the lineup, and Ben
Simmons might be inconsistent again and Kevin Durant might have
some injury concerns moving forward. So it was really like
you're either voting them for first place or for six um.
(23:13):
And when you remove that, it's just really heavy on
the Celtics and the Bucks because they have basically the
same personnel from last season. And the Celtics they added
Malcolm Brogden in the books, you know, they added Chris
Middleton in terms of him being healthy, and so that aside,
it's like, hey, pick up right where you left off,
and let's see how those two teams battle on the
(23:35):
East Finals that presumably through seven games. You know, I
think one of the things that a question that you
answered that has been something that's kind of been, you know,
on my mind all all the first half of the
season long, just seeing how the the overall love for
the Celtics and Milwaukee and more for Brooklyn is that.
The question for me is is the Western Conference just
(23:58):
so good and everybody is just beating up on each
other or is it just competitive and and and really
all the talent is in the East, And judging by
what everybody that you talked to for this survey is,
it's yeah, the Eastern Conference is great. Those teams at
the top are far and away better than anybody out
of the West. The West is just more competitive than
(24:18):
it is really good. Do you agree with that? Yeah?
I agree. I mean, look, the Western Conference, it's not
scrub teams. Uh you know, maybe the San Antonio Spurs
are in the Houston Rockets. But I think you hit
on a good point. It is competitive. They there's a
handful of teams that you think, okay, they're decent to
make it to the second round, but not much beyond it.
But at some point you have to choose a team.
(24:41):
And so I think, you know, there was a plurality
of voters that are still leaning on Hey, if the
Clippers are healthy, they're the best team. But that's a
huge if um. And when you look after that, you
look at the Denver Nuggets, you look at the Memphis Grizzlies,
you look at the Golden State Warriors, the Dallas Mavericks.
There's a lot of different reasons why those teams are
(25:02):
in the mix, but there's a lot of different reasons
why these teams are vulnerable. With the Nuggets, they got
obviously one of the leading m VP candidates in Yokich.
They got Jamal Murray back and Michael Porter Jr. Back.
They got good coaching and depth, but health has always
been tenuous the last few seasons with them. The Grizzlies,
they're young, brash, up and coming team, but are they
ready to make that next step where they're not just
(25:24):
a team that can make playoff noise, but can they
be a team that makes championship noise. The Warriors, I
think there's this adage of, hey, you don't bet against
them because of their championship equity, But this whole timeline
of two timeline approach of leaning on the all stars
and the young players as of now during this regular
season hasn't really worked with the Mavericks. I mean, Luca
Dodgers can win games on his own, but can he
(25:47):
do it for all? A D two probably asking for
too much. So with all that a lot of enticing basketball,
it's very much up for grabs, but there's not that
predominant team like the Warriors once were in the West
where felt like, Okay, it's inevitable they're going to be
in the finals. So who's the speed bumps and other
teams that are going to try to make it more
challenging for them? So in some ways it makes it
(26:09):
more entertaining because of the unknown of who's gonna win.
But on the other hand, I think that you're also
seeing less quality of play because of how good the
teams are or lack thereof. Let me back it out further.
We talked a bunch about the Clippers, as we are
based in l a the inevitable. Let's talk about Lebron
and the Lakers because they are only a half a
game out of the ninth slot, which shows the crowded
(26:32):
nature of the back end of the standings. There Lebron
playing some ridiculous basketball when available, the wishing wanting, hoping
that Anthony Davis gets back on the screen UH and
able to play soon, and then well, Russell Westbrook shows
up in your your poll there as a guy. Hey,
he's almost he's in the almost receiving votes for six
(26:52):
Man of the Year. He got votes out of it.
Looks like Jordan Pole is gonna got that sixth man
over us. It's just the idea that they have played
at least for the last couple of weeks, and we
can take shots at the schedule, but you play was
on the schedule, uh, that that they've won some games.
Lebron with some of his chat of the last week,
(27:13):
what do you what do you make of it? Of
the the d n A and the winning and and
the way he's speaking right now. Yeah, well, I think
what we've seen with Lebron is what we've seen for
most of his careers. Hey, that he's dominant and be
that you never bet against him because if you do,
you wind up leasing money. Right, But I think that
there is still a disconnect of Okay, you might not
want to get bet against Lebron, but that doesn't mean
(27:36):
you should bet on the Lakers. Um. Yeah, no doubt
they're improving a lot better, partly because of Lebron, partly
because Russ has you know, for the most part, succeed
in this control, and Darvin Ham's had found a good
rotation of role players, most notably with Thomas Bryant, with
Mittiga in the absence with Anthony Davis. But the thing
(27:56):
that fascinates me, it's clear that whether Lebron's waning pay
since waning or not, and he's publicly debated that, it's
clear that he wants the front office to get off
its high horse of hey, we're going to protect our
first round picks for the future. He wants them to
go all in because that's how he's been operating his
entire career. When he's on a team, they have a
chance to win a title, and therefore they make moves
(28:18):
to put themselves into contention. And look, Lebron is a
GM or an influential player. As an organization has had
a checkered record as far as personnel moves. But I
think that philosophically, the lakership at least that he did
the credence that when you have a superstar on your
team that's still producing, it's your obligation to pour those
(28:39):
chips in. But where the Lakers have been, they only
want to do it if it's for a move that
puts them into championship contention, and that reason hasn't changed,
or that that that thought process hasn't changed, but the
circumstances had. At first, it was, oh, we don't want
to do that because we have optimism of how you know,
uh uh, a full new season with russ a d
(29:02):
and Lebron will look under coach Darvin Ham. And then
when Anthony Davis got hurt, it was, well, we don't
want to do that because we might be so far
behind in the standings that what's the point of going
all in when this might be a rebuilding season. And
now it's almost like, hey, well what we have has
been good enough, so we don't need to do anything more.
And I think that's very much of a full's erin,
(29:23):
because through the highs and lows in the Lakers season,
they're no better than a team that's barely above or
below five h Philosophically, things aren't going to change, and
so I think that they still have to have this
idea that they've got to make a move before the
trade deadline so that they at least improved their odds
of getting in that title picture, no matter how slimmon
(29:45):
might look. Because they're the Lakers, and you know what's
the alternative? Just battling for the planned tournament. That's domb
and boring and very unlike how the Lakers have usually
uh you know, marched their own drum. But you know,
I guess times have changed. He's NBA dot COM's Mark Medina.
Check out the midseason media survey the select group of
NBA Beat reporters as they answer the big questions of
(30:08):
what we've seen so far in the first half, what
we'll see in the second half, big takeaways, big predictions,
team's poised to make a big second half run, representing
each conference in the finals. What's the best game of
the season, the best play of the season, most surprising
storyline of the season, Top fifty best nick storylines of
the season. I mean one of those. It's not in there.
(30:30):
Uh Marc has always thanks a bunch of checking out.
It's on his Twitter page as while the link is there,
Mark g underscore Medina also on NBA dot Com. Take
it easy and we'll talk to you next week, buddy,
have a go on. Hey, thank you guys. Maybe next
and say there will be some next results, but I
doubt it, you know, you know, way to go, Mark Wow. Okay.
(30:51):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific Fox Sports Radio. On The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Rman Live from the Tireraq
dot com Studios. Tonight, shob brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable and get a multi
(31:12):
policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, a TV,
and more all your protection in one place. Bundle and
save at Progressive dot Com. All right, other story. I've
been avoiding it all day and all night, but we
kind of have to talk about it. It's a big deal,
and in the end I have a bit of advice
for the people involved in this. We now know who
(31:34):
is getting blamed for the jets horrendous offense this year,
and yes it's Zack Wilson, but it's also now former
offensive coordinator Mike Lafleur, who was fired, then he wasn't,
then he was fired, and then it was reported the
met the Jets and he are mutually parting ways so
we can go look at other opportunities. So it was
(31:55):
he was fired, then he was easier alive or he's dead,
or to cops he's fired or he's not. They let
him go, and the Jets went out of their way
to thank him for all his service and say, hey,
this is nobody's He had opportunities that people around the
league called to see if he would be available. We
(32:16):
want to be able to give him those opportunities. So
we agreed to allow him out of this and he
can go move on. You know, this is the thing
about the Jets, and I will say this, you gotta
just start holding people accountable, all right. Robert Salo wants
to hold everybody's hand through all of the horrendousness. And
(32:38):
it shows. Right, Zach, what what does he say about?
Zack's great? Zach is awesome. Zach is so good. He's
great in practice. He's a monster. We're getting him back. No, No,
we're just giving a little bit of reset right now. No, No,
Zach is great. Zach is great. Right. Joe Flacco is great. Oh,
he's so great. He's throwing the football, he's slinging it.
It's great. Our offensive quarter Mike Laflour, he's great. No,
(33:00):
he said two days ago. No, Mike Lafleur, he's he's fantastic.
We're going forward trying to figure this out. The system
we have is great, everything is great. You know what,
how about instead you preach some bleeping accountability and then
maybe maybe you won't get really bad personal foul penalties
that cost you games, or you won't have so many
flat performances when the playoffs are at steak. There's no
(33:23):
accountability with the Jets. There's none. There's absolutely none, because
everything is presented with this positive a Everything is fine.
So when you do that to people really think, hey,
my job is at stake something that I gotta give
that extra hundred and fifty percent. We talked to Jason
Cole all the time NFL Insider saying, you know what,
Zach Wilson looks like a guy that's not working hard.
If he's working harder, he'd be better. And and that's
(33:46):
Robert Sala. He's so much the players coach. You know what,
At some point you gotta just call it like it is.
Zack's been disappointing and he knows it, and he's not
gonna play until he figures things out. There's gotta be
some kind of accountability. Because as much as people like
playing for Robert Sala, why are they so flat? And
in games that are such big deals at the end
of the season, why are they so flat? He got
(34:07):
to give a little bit more accountability than he has
over the course of the last couple of years. People
have to know we're at a results oriented business and
you gotta if you're not getting it done, then I'm sorry,
but I gotta call it like it is, and maybe
then people will straighten up and they won't just be
players who like playing for the head coach, they will
play hard for the head coach at the same time. Yeah,
I think you know, a lot of it was the
(34:27):
raw ron. He's very good at the shouting down at
the externalities, but if you're not taking care of the
house inside, it doesn't matter, right. It's the appearances, you
know from from the outside. So what the hell is
going on in there? I haven't seen these people in weeks, uh,
And like everything's fine. You people just want to cast
dispurgeons on us to tell us we don't know what
(34:49):
you're doing. Now. The truth is you really didn't know
what you were doing. Uh. And I like the loyalty,
I like the attempt and even with La Fleur the
way they tried to handle this, but you knew some
and had to fall for it. So what do you do?
You say, all right, you were in charge of his
development and you failed. Not putting it on Zach because
(35:09):
it goes back to the same thing, and I disagree
with it, but it's the age old Well, if we
push it too hard, we're going to lose him. Nonsense.
It's like, well, if he's that guy, then he's not
your guy, is what I've always argued, and I stand
with it here with Zach Wilson. If his feelings are
gonna get hurt over this too, damn bad. I'm telling you,
(35:29):
just just have a little bit of hey man, you
gotta get it done because you stink right now. It's okay,
you're the head coach man. Just a little bit of accountability,
a little bit of it Twitter and how about a fresca.
Mike gets swollen on The Jason Smith Show with my
best friend Mike Harmon. Coming up next, we got a
big head coaching development to tell you about. Fox
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmen podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on
the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R. You're
(00:23):
listening to Fox Sports Radio. Greetings, Welcome inside our two
of The Jason Smith Show with my bas friend Mike Harmon.
Broadcasting line from the tire rack dot Com studios. Tirect
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(00:46):
recommended installers. Tire rack dot com the way tire buying
should be. Well before we get to big stuff out
of the NFL today, one team has decided, Hey, we
have our fall guy for the season. Um, you know
what I like that that? You know, you and I
have talked about this, uh, the last couple of the
last week or two, how underrated a movie the menu was.
(01:07):
And now it's streaming all month on HBO and it's
you know, it's come to the theater. You know, it's
come to streaming right away. And you know, it's one
of those movies where when you watch it the second time,
you pick up on a lot of stuff because the
first time you're trying to figure everything out. And you know, honestly,
if the ending was better, I really, if the ending
(01:28):
was better, it would have been like a top three
movie of last year. I we'd be talking about. But
the ending was just so look that that it kind
of takes you didn't like. I thought it was a
better ending than a lot of other movies that I've
seen this last year. I don't know that that's saying much,
because nobody knows how to do a third act anymore.
But I couldn't stand the ending. I thought there were
(01:51):
so many things wrong with it. There were so many
things wrong with the ending. And I'm saying to myself,
wait that really, wait wait wait really, oh, this is
this is how it said, okay, because every the rest
of it was so good. The rest it was so good.
It was so like, this movie is insane, and then
it ends the way it does, and and and there's
so many times when I just walk out and go
that was a letdown. And I get that sometimes there's
(02:13):
things that are so good that you get to the end,
you go, how could you possibly end it? It's going
to be impossible to have a really good ending. Nope, no, no, no,
that they find it. But this was not that movie. Now, hey,
we got to the end, how you Oh no, no, no, no,
we we we we couldn't finish this one. I'm telling you.
Outside of that top three movie last year. Yeah, there
were a couple of little parts in it that kind
of irked me, and you just kind of shrug and go, okay,
(02:36):
well they just moved the plot along there, uh, and
and decided not to add more depth to this character,
that character or the other. But then you, uh, the
the ending now, I mean you've got your Halloween costume
for this year. Yeah, that's true. Yeah you could. Yeah.
And I'm just gonna walk into the one clap like
ray find just the hope everybody's quiet after I do that. Now,
(02:58):
there are one or two things also in the plot
that you don't get, you know, the close up that
you need to be able to really do the super
slew thing of what it meant, because you really would
have to be a Jeopardy champion for one of the
pieces of background that you don't get until you go
(03:18):
and start to look for that piece of information. Hey,
when they showed this, what was the and then you
get the the basic of it and you go, okay,
and now I can research that and learn my history
and now this all makes sense and it it ebbs
and flows, but you don't get it, like you don't
get the close up that you need right the old
(03:39):
here it is in writing, But no, we're gonna give
you a quick glimpse, Like all right, I don't have
a photographic memory or do I can I scan it
to blow it up and magnify it in that moment
to read what I need. So that would be my
big complaint. But I like the end and Anya Taylor Joy,
I mean, come on, she's fantastic, you know, the everybody
(04:00):
the acting was great. It was really Ray Fines was fantastic.
Not many guys can pull that off. And everybody, everybody
else and it was really good. It's just the and
and the Also the end brought a lot of questions
about other stuff from from earlier in the movie. It
really I I don't know. I mean, I'm glad you
liked it. I just felt like for me, I'm talking
about a top three I mean, look, it's not gonna
better than Top Gun Maverick, but you'll talking about the
(04:22):
top three movie last year. Easy. Well. The other is
I mean that the guy that is the Una Taylor
Joys uh companion at the table. He's not gonna be
in Renfield with Nick Cage, so he gets to experience
that madness. So it's good. Oh uh, Hank McCoy the beast,
he's gonna be in it. Oh is that is that
who that guy? Yeah? Yeah, he was Nicholas Holt. Yeah
(04:44):
he dated He dated Jennifer Lawrence for a long time.
Look at me all this right here? Yeah, buddy, little
stalker ish there. Oh he's really what you added to
Jennifer Lawrence part to it, Like if you just said
he I know him from this role? Cool? And that's
you know, he dated Jennifer Lawris. And so I was
celebrating another celebrity birthday today. Yeah, I'm telling you everything
(05:09):
here we are today, celebrating birthday. By the way, we
talked a lot of golden globes yesterday. I gotta get
this off by chess because it was in my timeline
all day. Sure, the fact that every jackass on the
Red carpet felt compelled to bug Austin Butler and Jenna
and what's your name from Wednesday? Jenna Ortega? Jenna Ortega? Yeah,
(05:31):
the can you do the dance? Can you show me
the dance moves that you did for the movies? Like,
just shut up and interview them, leaves them alone, stopping
impersonating them. You're not a regional nine jackasses on that line,
they'd already done it. Move on. Well, listen, It's hard
for me to get upset because I want the shows
(05:53):
to have more fun, and those shows just aren't fun anymore.
I went back and watched it. It was not fun.
We're telling the speeches and and people getting drunk. I'm
telling you, dude, that you you want to go back
to to try to trace where the Oscars and the
and the Golden Globes and and Awards season has gone
from something everybody can't stop talking about too, something that
(06:17):
look at the record low right Golden Globes. Nobody watches
return of television, controversy with the Golden Globes. All of this. Yeah,
you can, you can put in a bunch of different things.
You can say, Well, the pandemic hurt a little bit. Sure,
you can say streaming hurt because now it's it's hard
to see all the movies. But you look at these shows, right,
because they always nominated movies that nobody saw and we
still loved and watched and watch the Oscars anyway. But
(06:39):
these shows are just no fun. There's the fun. I
mean I I understand and when we come on and actors,
you know, they talk about stuff that's near and dear
to their lives and their causes. And that's great, and
you can do that and you have a bit you know, hey,
you can do it on Twitter if you want to
and on social media. But here's your big here's your
big chance. When I get to give my speech or
I get to go on and I understand that, that's great.
(07:01):
You know, actors want to do that. That's awesome because
here's when when I can get a message out. But
would it kill you to put some fun in the
broadcast too? There's no fun. All the jokes were really
controversial and some of them went over. People say, there's
just no more fun in these shows, and that you
can go back to go why people stop watching the Oscars?
And why stop watching the Golden Globes because there's just
(07:21):
no fun. I don't care who's hosting anymore. I don't
care that the biggest thing was obviously Chris Rock and
Will Smith, and they've changed it from the setting of
the big amphitheater to now it looks like it's it's
it's it's in a cocktail lounge. It's just there's no fun.
The fun is gone. And I'm not gonna watch something
that's not fun because you know what, I watched movies
because they're fun. But I'm not gonna watch this because
it's just not a fun broadcast. Because I know, I'm
(07:44):
I'm gonna get they're Gonnay's gonna talk about their causes,
and that's great, but you've got to entertain me, man,
I we're watching this to be entertained, and and it's like,
you forget that, right, entertain me. You know it's enough
to say when movies come out, hey, you gotta see
this movie. It's important. No I don't because it's gonna
depress me. I got enough to get enough depression regular
day reading about stuff that's going on that really matters
(08:05):
in the world right here. You make a movie about
something great if I want to see it, great, But
but to sit here and tell me I'm just gonna
be depressed for three out. The performances are great. You
need to see them. This guy is so good. Yeah,
but I don't care if it's gonna be something that
makes me gloomy for three hours, I'm not gonna watch it.
You gotta entertain me, and you gotta bring the fund
back and whether that's you'll find the next Billy Crystal,
(08:27):
whatever it is. But there's just no more fun. And
it's like they've stopped doing that and and and watching
these shows now, It's like, why am I doing this?
There there's no give back for me. There's gonna be
nothing to talk about the next day, there's gonna it's
it's not helping at all. You've forgotten the fun. You
get back to the fun and you put skits in
and you let people like Will Ferrell give out, give
(08:47):
out rewards everything else. You you gotta you gotta figure
out a way to make people say I gotta watch this,
I gotta watch this, and they don't and it's just work.
It's gonna it's like they've gotten the motive. We're gonna
put this broadcast out there, and it's just gonna be
a little bit worse than last year, and it's gonna
be a little bit less fun, and less people are
going to watch. You know, how about how about some
kind of radical change just to the show, not to
(09:08):
the movie, just to the show, would make it more fun.
Give me fun, man, You've got all kinds of time.
I don't care if it's four hours long. I'll watch
it if you're entertaining me. I don't care how long
it is, but you gotta give me more fun. You
said fun so many times you like Ralph Wigham during
the fun Zo want fun? Fun? Fun? Yeah, fun? What
do you mean? Heyme? It fun? Do you say what
(09:30):
I fun? One more time? Ralph fun? I want fun?
You choose to choose me, Okay, go ahead, Sorry, buddy, No,
I know that's all I had to say. You did
your Ralph Wigham no like. You had a bunch of
speeches that were great. I I highlighted the Colin Farrell one.
I really enjoyed, uh that movie the band Cheese and
(09:52):
his speech to Brendan Gleeson and their collaboration and everything.
It just strikes to the heart of you know, French
hip in the relationship you build at work and the
folks and how they become part of your lives and
well in in the movie how you don't want to
be part of your lives anymore. But it's it's one
of those kind of things where you had a couple
(10:13):
of good moments there, but everything else seemed forced. Ton Drive,
I mean, Eddie Murphy. One the night is Frostburg alluded
to yesterday is three rules for leading a successful life.
Really it's good advice. Uh that. Jason smithser with Mike
Carmen live from the tirerac dot Com studios. Now, let's
(10:35):
let me just say this now because here here's a
big NFL story we got. We got some big NBA
stuff coming up in a bit. Um. Apparently the Broncos
are going to talk to everybody about being their next
head coach. Alright, so here we we got everybody, right,
everybody's on our list. We're gonna talk to Jim Harbaugh.
The interviewed former Stanfred coach David Shaw earlier today. Um,
I got a feeling this is going to be the
(10:55):
opening that Hey, we got a lot of people that
want this gig because it's still a pretty good opening.
The Broncos are a pretty you looked the team is
pretty good. They got a lot of weapons. You can
get credit for remaking Russell Wilson and turning him back
into being a superstar. And I feel like I feel
like they're just gonna talk to everybody. We're gonna talk
to every single We'll talk to Rex Ryan, We're gonna
(11:16):
talk to everybody about this game before we make a decision.
It's one of those Hey, we're gonna have a nationwide
search for our next head coach, right like you see
in the in the in our business all the time,
it's hey, uh you know, you know ninety three three
the Flamethrower looking for their next great Afternoon drive star
nationwide search for this, send your resumes, send your demo tapes.
(11:36):
And it takes like eight months because all we're gonna
take so much time going through this because we gotta
find And that's like, we have no idea what we want.
That just tells me a team has no idea what
that when you talk to so many different people, it's
we really don't know what we want. Hey, he's available,
talk to Jim Harbody's talking to everybody we'll talk to
David Shaw. Okay, they're gonna talk to everybody. They're they're
gonna do one of those nationwide search things. Well, and
I think part of it is you're you're trying to
(11:58):
figure out how much, if any, input you should allow
Russell Wilson into this process, right, because part of the
big part of it is that outbatross, that is his
contract and trying to destermine how broken Issy or did
you see something in those Kansas City tapes that lead
you to believe that this was an aberration and that
(12:19):
with some tweaking, some better game management, because look what
once they did take the reins away from Hackett, Look
how much more effective he was. Look how much more
effective and efficient that offense was once you went to Rossberg, right,
bringing him in as an efficiency expert after that debacle
against Seattle, and you didn't hand them the reins at
(12:41):
that point, which he probably should have had more input
given his history and pedigree, but he was there at
least to kind of be the grown up in the
room and those down distant situations and to allow Hacket
to focus on in theory, the bigger picture and what
what needs to be done and well, clearly that didn't work.
But in those final games, their their pre snap penalties
(13:02):
were down, their their passing yards or like the better
their down conversion. Right, all of these things worked to
their benefits. So he's a guy that I would be
looking at, perhaps on the larger scale to that, you know,
if you can't make the big splash. But yeah, I
think a lot of it is bringing in different opinions
because you're you're not football people. You you run, you
(13:26):
run Walmart, I mean, you know, I mean like you
run a massive business that you know, one of the
chief operating things is to forecast how many garden homes
you're gonna need to give in spring period, which is
which is important stuff. You don't want to run out
of those. But my point being operational efficiency there doesn't
necessarily translate to football acumen. And when you've already kind
(13:49):
of neutered in the way you've talked about it publicly,
you've already neutered the guy that's your GM, Well what
else can you do but go to a larger, larger
perspective because you want to have all those that input
because how do you get smarter, talk to more people,
get those perspectives, see where the the overlying uh and
(14:10):
overarching themes in their speech of well here's what I
would do. Get those presentations and elevator pitches in and
maybe you come to consensus. Is that way one or
two people and taking the best sell might not be
the way to go. I'm telling you four interviews in
three days and they have no idea what they want.
(14:30):
That and that. That's all when you talk to that many,
but all we're gonna go. We're no stone unturned. It
sounds like, hey, they're really serious about this, but it's
really we don't know what we want and we're hoping
someone comes in and blows us away and say, oh, yes,
we're gonna give you the job they have. The Broncos
have no idea what they want. That sounds like buying
a house. You go and look at a lot of
them before you pick one. Twitter at how about a Fresca?
(14:51):
Mike gets swollen dump. Yeah, but you're you're buying a
eight seven on a coach. Jay uson Smith Show with
my best friend Mike Harmon Tonight Show. Brought to you
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a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV boat,
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(15:13):
Bundle and save at Progressive dot Com. Well coming up next,
all the big news in the NBA coming You are
a way. Can we really put Jalen Brunson in the
m v P discussion? Yes, yes, yes, yes we can, yes, yes,
yes we can all that more keep it right here,
Jason and Mike Fox. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at
(15:34):
ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
and the I Heart Radio app Fox Sports Radio. The
Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon live
from the tire rack dot Com studios here at Fox
Sports Radio. Where it's time now to make room for
a brand new name at the top of the m
(15:56):
v P list here and joining us now as a
guy who's gonna have ten thousand words on it tomorrow.
You can follow them on Twitter at mark g Underscore Medina.
That's at Mark g Underscore Medina, Mark Medina, NBA dot
Com insider Who's going to have a big column tomorrow
on why Jalen Brunson is the NBA m v P mark.
Congratulations mean the first person to write that article. Hey,
(16:19):
I gotta I gotta address some disinformation here this survey.
Jalen Brunson's nowhere near. Nicole Yokich is at forty pent
for m VP, and Luca donches is three percent. The
only category that the New York Knicks or ever in
this discussion was when I pulled different writers, Hey, what
(16:40):
what was the top performance? And it was Luca Donchess
triple double against the Knicks as well as you know,
top play category Lucas put back to force over time.
So it's always uh, you know, in the headlines for
the wrong reasons with them. So you know, but I'm
looking at it as you say, you say yo and
dodges at, I see Jaln Brunston at Yeah. Yeah, it's
(17:05):
like a it's like a hundred and fifty. That's why
percent column there. So it's you know, well, we'll we'll
recast the ballot and until it gets the result that
you want, uh, we'll continue to do it. I thought
that was the poll of the voices within your own brain.
That's that's he's got it. Harm he's got It's just Hey,
(17:28):
we'll just keep doing the poll until you get the
result you want. Thank you. That's all I want that.
I don't want anything. I just want that the proper
hashtags will get it to the right audience to get
you where you need to be. Uh, as we go through,
and what was the most surprising thing that you found
in the media survey? Was there something that just came
out of left field on you as you pulled people. Yeah,
(17:49):
the two things that were most surprising that m v
P race. I didn't think it was gonna be neck
and neck between Luca and Yokich. I thought that there
were gonna be, you know, more votes for guys like
Jason Tatum and honest and Kevin Duran. I thought there
would be, you know, a lot more parody of a
top five. But it's clear that you know your kitchen
Luca or neck and neck, and you know they're almost
(18:10):
coming at from different ways, Like, no doubt both guys
are playing really brilliant basketball. But you know, Lucas on
a Mavericks team that even though they're technically ranked fourth
in the Western Conference, there's a lot of feeling that, hey,
they're not They're no more good than a planned tournament
team or a first round exit, or the Nuggets. You know,
they're seeing as a team that could make the NBA
(18:32):
Finals and so ultim away, will voters, you know, reward
a player for being on a winning team or is
it going to be about most valuable if you remove
that player, how that team look without him? So that's
gonna be a tough thing. And then I would say
the other surprising part is that, uh, you know, there
was thirty four percent of voters I thought that the
(18:53):
Clippers were due for this strong second half run. Um.
You know, the Clippers have been so opened down that
haven't been health the and for their of them to
have a lot of optimism still about these guys, I
thought it was revealing because as much as I know
that they're about the long game and they feel like
they can plug and play, I think at some point
continuity has to matter. So, you know, I don't share
(19:16):
that same level of optimism, But there's still a lot
of voters that do, a lot of people that refused
to admit that they were wrong. I'm just gonna stick
with it until the mathematically he eliminated, and then I'm
going on vacation, all right, so I can take that
take all the way to the end with me all
right now now now this this midseason. You can find
(19:37):
it on on Mark's Twitter page again at mark g
Underscore Medina uh thirty beat reporters and insiders talking about
the storylines for the first half and second half. You know,
you hit one. That's really that That's what that to
me is one of the most interesting things there is
that you talked about of the people you talk to,
all the insiders say the Clippers are poised to make
a big second half run, but that pales and con
(20:00):
Harrison to the team that everybody thinks can make the
big second half Runent say it's gonna be the Warriors.
Now they know the Warriors have to play games away
from home, right, the NBA hasn't changed anything that says
the Warriors gonna play every game at home, because they don't.
They're not winning at home either, Jason, Yeah, but they
still have a great record at home. I can I
can be with that there if they think that could
(20:20):
be the run. Yeah, well, I thought it was interesting
is that they thought that the Golden State Warriors could
make a big second half run. But we're winner always
seem like it would amount to anything. I mean, when
I pulled all these voters, thirty of them total, the
Warriors only got one eighth place vote and two tenth place. UM.
As far as like game to the NBA Finals, I
believe there was only one voter that predicted that the
(20:43):
Warriors would get to the finals, and incidentally that they
would just lose to the Bucks anyway. And so I think,
you know, not just with the Warriors, but with the
totality of the West, it felt a lot more spread
out in wide open worthy East. It just felt like, Okay,
it's between Boston and Milwaukee and percents going to the
Celtics going to the Books. UM. As far as he's
(21:05):
gonna be in the finals. In the West, it's just
unless you pick, you pick whatever came out of a hat, Clippers, Nuggets, Grizzlies, Warriors, MAVs. UM.
I think that there's unlike last few years, there's a
lot more um competition in the East and a lot
stronger teams than there have been historically. So I do
(21:25):
wonder if to what extent that played the factor in
as well. Fox Sports Radio Jason Spitschell with Mike Carmen
here from the tire Act dot Com studios on the
hotline with us as he joins us regularly NBA writer
NBA dot Com. You've seen his work USA Today, Mercury News,
The l A Daily News. Uh, and you find him
on Twitter at Mark g Underscore Medina. We're talking about
(21:47):
his latest up on NBA dot Com. I've just retweeted
it at Swell and Home, Fox Sports Radio at Fox
Sports Radio, should say, etcetera. One that I'll correlate to
from the East. You know, need to talk about the
depth Mark is, you know, talking about the personnel moves
from last summer that made the biggest splash in Cleveland.
(22:07):
Sent yet in the Eastern Conference, who's representing them in
the finals? Uh, they don't even sniff It's just Boston,
Milwaukee and Brooklyn. Yeah. Uh. And I think here's the thing.
There's a lot of I think strong impressions from Cleveland,
but there's a feeling that they're probably only good for
(22:27):
the second round and maybe they have to play weight
my turn for next season. And I think that highlights that,
you know, there's a lot of continuity from Milwaukee and
Boston's then and with the nets, what I found interesting
is there's a lot of there's like a strong division.
There were firm believers that think that this really strong
push that the Nets have had it means that they're
(22:49):
back into championship contention mode, and that there are a
lot of voters that thought, you know what Kyrie and
Kevin Kyrie's do for another, uh, you know, drama filled
to excuse for wi Is on the lineup, and Ben
Simmons might be inconsistent again and Kevin Durant might have
some injury concerns moving forward. So it was really like
you're either voting them for first place or for six um.
(23:13):
And when you remove that, it's just really heavy on
the Celtics and the Bucks because they have basically the
same personnel from last season. And the Celtics they added
Malcolm Brogden in the books, you know, they added Chris
Middleton in terms of him being healthy, and so that aside,
it's like, hey, pick up right where you left off,
and let's see how those two teams battle on the
(23:35):
East Finals that presumably through seven games. You know, I
think one of the things that a question that you
answered that has been something that's kind of been, you know,
on my mind all all the first half of the
season long, just seeing how the the overall love for
the Celtics and Milwaukee and more for Brooklyn is that.
The question for me is is the Western Conference just
(23:58):
so good and everybody is just beating up on each
other or is it just competitive and and and really
all the talent is in the East, And judging by
what everybody that you talked to for this survey is,
it's yeah, the Eastern Conference is great. Those teams at
the top are far and away better than anybody out
of the West. The West is just more competitive than
(24:18):
it is really good. Do you agree with that? Yeah?
I agree. I mean, look, the Western Conference, it's not
scrub teams. Uh you know, maybe the San Antonio Spurs
are in the Houston Rockets. But I think you hit
on a good point. It is competitive. They there's a
handful of teams that you think, okay, they're decent to
make it to the second round, but not much beyond it.
But at some point you have to choose a team.
(24:41):
And so I think, you know, there was a plurality
of voters that are still leaning on Hey, if the
Clippers are healthy, they're the best team. But that's a
huge if um. And when you look after that, you
look at the Denver Nuggets, you look at the Memphis Grizzlies,
you look at the Golden State Warriors, the Dallas Mavericks.
There's a lot of different reasons why those teams are
(25:02):
in the mix, but there's a lot of different reasons
why these teams are vulnerable. With the Nuggets, they got
obviously one of the leading m VP candidates in Yokich.
They got Jamal Murray back and Michael Porter Jr. Back.
They got good coaching and depth, but health has always
been tenuous the last few seasons with them. The Grizzlies,
they're young, brash, up and coming team, but are they
ready to make that next step where they're not just
(25:24):
a team that can make playoff noise, but can they
be a team that makes championship noise. The Warriors, I
think there's this adage of, hey, you don't bet against
them because of their championship equity, But this whole timeline
of two timeline approach of leaning on the all stars
and the young players as of now during this regular
season hasn't really worked with the Mavericks. I mean, Luca
Dodgers can win games on his own, but can he
(25:47):
do it for all? A D two probably asking for
too much. So with all that a lot of enticing basketball,
it's very much up for grabs, but there's not that
predominant team like the Warriors once were in the West
where felt like, Okay, it's inevitable they're going to be
in the finals. So who's the speed bumps and other
teams that are going to try to make it more
challenging for them? So in some ways it makes it
(26:09):
more entertaining because of the unknown of who's gonna win.
But on the other hand, I think that you're also
seeing less quality of play because of how good the
teams are or lack thereof. Let me back it out further.
We talked a bunch about the Clippers, as we are
based in l a the inevitable. Let's talk about Lebron
and the Lakers because they are only a half a
game out of the ninth slot, which shows the crowded
(26:32):
nature of the back end of the standings. There Lebron
playing some ridiculous basketball when available, the wishing wanting, hoping
that Anthony Davis gets back on the screen UH and
able to play soon, and then well, Russell Westbrook shows
up in your your poll there as a guy. Hey,
he's almost he's in the almost receiving votes for six
(26:52):
Man of the Year. He got votes out of it.
Looks like Jordan Pole is gonna got that sixth man
over us. It's just the idea that they have played
at least for the last couple of weeks, and we
can take shots at the schedule, but you play was
on the schedule, uh, that that they've won some games.
Lebron with some of his chat of the last week,
(27:13):
what do you what do you make of it? Of
the the d n A and the winning and and
the way he's speaking right now. Yeah, well, I think
what we've seen with Lebron is what we've seen for
most of his careers. Hey, that he's dominant and be
that you never bet against him because if you do,
you wind up leasing money. Right, But I think that
there is still a disconnect of Okay, you might not
want to get bet against Lebron, but that doesn't mean
(27:36):
you should bet on the Lakers. Um. Yeah, no doubt
they're improving a lot better, partly because of Lebron, partly
because Russ has you know, for the most part, succeed
in this control, and Darvin Ham's had found a good
rotation of role players, most notably with Thomas Bryant, with
Mittiga in the absence with Anthony Davis. But the thing
(27:56):
that fascinates me, it's clear that whether Lebron's waning pay
since waning or not, and he's publicly debated that, it's
clear that he wants the front office to get off
its high horse of hey, we're going to protect our
first round picks for the future. He wants them to
go all in because that's how he's been operating his
entire career. When he's on a team, they have a
chance to win a title, and therefore they make moves
(28:18):
to put themselves into contention. And look, Lebron is a
GM or an influential player. As an organization has had
a checkered record as far as personnel moves. But I
think that philosophically, the lakership at least that he did
the credence that when you have a superstar on your
team that's still producing, it's your obligation to pour those
(28:39):
chips in. But where the Lakers have been, they only
want to do it if it's for a move that
puts them into championship contention, and that reason hasn't changed,
or that that that thought process hasn't changed, but the
circumstances had. At first, it was, oh, we don't want
to do that because we have optimism of how you know,
uh uh, a full new season with russ a d
(29:02):
and Lebron will look under coach Darvin Ham. And then
when Anthony Davis got hurt, it was, well, we don't
want to do that because we might be so far
behind in the standings that what's the point of going
all in when this might be a rebuilding season. And
now it's almost like, hey, well what we have has
been good enough, so we don't need to do anything more.
And I think that's very much of a full's erin,
(29:23):
because through the highs and lows in the Lakers season,
they're no better than a team that's barely above or
below five h Philosophically, things aren't going to change, and
so I think that they still have to have this
idea that they've got to make a move before the
trade deadline so that they at least improved their odds
of getting in that title picture, no matter how slimmon
(29:45):
might look. Because they're the Lakers, and you know what's
the alternative? Just battling for the planned tournament. That's domb
and boring and very unlike how the Lakers have usually
uh you know, marched their own drum. But you know,
I guess times have changed. He's NBA dot COM's Mark Medina.
Check out the midseason media survey the select group of
NBA Beat reporters as they answer the big questions of
(30:08):
what we've seen so far in the first half, what
we'll see in the second half, big takeaways, big predictions,
team's poised to make a big second half run, representing
each conference in the finals. What's the best game of
the season, the best play of the season, most surprising
storyline of the season, Top fifty best nick storylines of
the season. I mean one of those. It's not in there.
(30:30):
Uh Marc has always thanks a bunch of checking out.
It's on his Twitter page as while the link is there,
Mark g underscore Medina also on NBA dot Com. Take
it easy and we'll talk to you next week, buddy,
have a go on. Hey, thank you guys. Maybe next
and say there will be some next results, but I
doubt it, you know, you know, way to go, Mark Wow. Okay.
(30:51):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific Fox Sports Radio. On The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Rman Live from the Tireraq
dot com Studios. Tonight, shob brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable and get a multi
(31:12):
policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, a TV,
and more all your protection in one place. Bundle and
save at Progressive dot Com. All right, other story. I've
been avoiding it all day and all night, but we
kind of have to talk about it. It's a big deal,
and in the end I have a bit of advice
for the people involved in this. We now know who
(31:34):
is getting blamed for the jets horrendous offense this year,
and yes it's Zack Wilson, but it's also now former
offensive coordinator Mike Lafleur, who was fired, then he wasn't,
then he was fired, and then it was reported the
met the Jets and he are mutually parting ways so
we can go look at other opportunities. So it was
(31:55):
he was fired, then he was easier alive or he's dead,
or to cops he's fired or he's not. They let
him go, and the Jets went out of their way
to thank him for all his service and say, hey,
this is nobody's He had opportunities that people around the
league called to see if he would be available. We
(32:16):
want to be able to give him those opportunities. So
we agreed to allow him out of this and he
can go move on. You know, this is the thing
about the Jets, and I will say this, you gotta
just start holding people accountable, all right. Robert Salo wants
to hold everybody's hand through all of the horrendousness. And
(32:38):
it shows. Right, Zach, what what does he say about?
Zack's great? Zach is awesome. Zach is so good. He's
great in practice. He's a monster. We're getting him back. No, No,
we're just giving a little bit of reset right now. No, No,
Zach is great. Zach is great. Right. Joe Flacco is great. Oh,
he's so great. He's throwing the football, he's slinging it.
It's great. Our offensive quarter Mike Laflour, he's great. No,
(33:00):
he said two days ago. No, Mike Lafleur, he's he's fantastic.
We're going forward trying to figure this out. The system
we have is great, everything is great. You know what,
how about instead you preach some bleeping accountability and then
maybe maybe you won't get really bad personal foul penalties
that cost you games, or you won't have so many
flat performances when the playoffs are at steak. There's no
(33:23):
accountability with the Jets. There's none. There's absolutely none, because
everything is presented with this positive a Everything is fine.
So when you do that to people really think, hey,
my job is at stake something that I gotta give
that extra hundred and fifty percent. We talked to Jason
Cole all the time NFL Insider saying, you know what,
Zach Wilson looks like a guy that's not working hard.
If he's working harder, he'd be better. And and that's
(33:46):
Robert Sala. He's so much the players coach. You know what,
At some point you gotta just call it like it is.
Zack's been disappointing and he knows it, and he's not
gonna play until he figures things out. There's gotta be
some kind of accountability. Because as much as people like
playing for Robert Sala, why are they so flat? And
in games that are such big deals at the end
of the season, why are they so flat? He got
(34:07):
to give a little bit more accountability than he has
over the course of the last couple of years. People
have to know we're at a results oriented business and
you gotta if you're not getting it done, then I'm sorry,
but I gotta call it like it is, and maybe
then people will straighten up and they won't just be
players who like playing for the head coach, they will
play hard for the head coach at the same time. Yeah,
I think you know, a lot of it was the
(34:27):
raw ron. He's very good at the shouting down at
the externalities, but if you're not taking care of the
house inside, it doesn't matter, right. It's the appearances, you
know from from the outside. So what the hell is
going on in there? I haven't seen these people in weeks, uh,
And like everything's fine. You people just want to cast
dispurgeons on us to tell us we don't know what
(34:49):
you're doing. Now. The truth is you really didn't know
what you were doing. Uh. And I like the loyalty,
I like the attempt and even with La Fleur the
way they tried to handle this, but you knew some
and had to fall for it. So what do you do?
You say, all right, you were in charge of his
development and you failed. Not putting it on Zach because
(35:09):
it goes back to the same thing, and I disagree
with it, but it's the age old Well, if we
push it too hard, we're going to lose him. Nonsense.
It's like, well, if he's that guy, then he's not
your guy, is what I've always argued, and I stand
with it here with Zach Wilson. If his feelings are
gonna get hurt over this too, damn bad. I'm telling you,
(35:29):
just just have a little bit of hey man, you
gotta get it done because you stink right now. It's okay,
you're the head coach man. Just a little bit of accountability,
a little bit of it Twitter and how about a fresca.
Mike gets swollen on The Jason Smith Show with my
best friend Mike Harmon. Coming up next, we got a
big head coaching development to tell you about. Fox
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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