November 16, 2023 • 37 mins
The Clippers are now 0-5 with James Harden in the lineup since the trade. Longtime NBA Insider Ric Bucher joins the show to talk Lakers, Clippers, 76ers and the Knicks YO. And react to Draymond Green’s 5 game suspension for putting Rudy Gobert in a head-lock.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Let's give this parties.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best
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tire buying should be well. Early in the fourth quarter,
(00:51):
the Lakers trail the Kings one oh six to eighty.
But again, it's not an in season tournament game for
the Lake. It's the second game and back to back nights.
I can't believe they didn't just forfeit. I mean, if
it's not if it's not the pageantry of an n
season tournament game, why even showing up? I mean, I
can't believe Lebron and a d are still in the game.
(01:12):
You're down twenty six and the fourth show up. I mean, really,
what are they doing?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
No, it's it.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
This is like a waste of the minutes restrictions that
we have on everybody, you know what I mean? Like no,
and I mean this with all sincerity. I know it's
a home game and Little Johnny and Susie may have
gotten to this one and it's all exciting and blah
blah blah.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Who's little john Little Johnny, Little Johnny? No man, Yeah,
but the Susie from.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
If we need it to be I mean, you guys
are up to what episode five or six of season
two we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Here, Alex, thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
We're just talking about generalizations of a popular children's name, right,
the old think of the children process of this that
you know, they might need to see a little bit
of Lebron an ad play a game. I think they
would have rather seen him in Street closed for this one,
and for the Lakers. You tempt fate with this, like
all right, we're gonna have a bunko effort, but you
(02:12):
guys are gonna play thirty some odd minutes while you're
getting drugged and I think it's bad business all around.
When a you're trying to win the n season tournament,
this isn't helping you there. And the other is you're
playing four playoffs and everything else. And we know from
history it repeats itself in this way, Fellas. Once the
(02:32):
injury start, they don't go away. So you tempt fate
when you add an extra thirty plus meaningless minutes when
you're getting thrown into the third row trying to drive
the lane.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
But isn't there a rule that the NBA will throw
out the results of games at the second of back
to back nights when the first game happens to be
an n season tournament game. I think that's a rule
that's gonna happen that. I think they said that for
the Lakers this year especially.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's good.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I like that anytime we can add an extra page
to the rules, in fine print, maybe invisible ink.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Maybe it's like one of those Harry Potter.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Things that we need to say some sort of spell
to make it work.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So far, tonight for the Lakers, Lebron has twenty one.
Anthony Davis just had a three point play that brought
him to seven. Yeah, it's one of THEO if you
keep hitting refresh going all right, they have an updated eighties,
but no seven points for Anthony Davis.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I don't know if you know this, Jason. It's not
a tournament game, no I.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Or are they not back when it's not a tournament game?
Are they? Can you not say?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Definitely not tonight?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Okay, all right? I just wanted to make sure all
right again one six eighty six Kings with the lead
ten minutes to go. The other big result of the night,
of course, the NIXT beating the Hawks. But we'll have
more on these stories with Rick Buker. But maybe the
quote of the year so far from NBA superstar James Hart. Now,
(03:59):
last Harden played a little bit better than he had,
but still the Clippers are now zero to five in
the James Harden era. They can't win. Look, we talked
about it last night. Two ball dominant guys in Harden
and Westbrook. How is this gonna start?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Right?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
You can't just assemble talent, throw it on the floor
and think it's gonna work. That was gonna struggle. That
being said, if they could figure out the end of
games a little bit more than the Clippers were gonna
be fine. But the bottom line is James Harden just
is not the same guy and he's not in shape.
And he actually addressed that following the game last night.
(04:34):
James Harden is a you know, Sports Illustrated had this
earlier today. He was very honest about the shape he
was in. Quote. I keep reiterating that I didn't have
a training camp or a preseason kind of learning on
the fly for a new team. Also, getting myself into
James Harden shape and game shape is very very important.
Tonight was definitely another step in the right direction. I
(04:57):
keep improving. I wasn't really playing five five these are
my practices. So he's getting himself into James Harden shape. Now,
first thing I want to say is this isn't this
normally James Harden shape. I mean, I don't understand. I
watched James Harden for a long time. He plays, he
gets tired in the fourth quarter, and his teams wind
up losing. That's kind of that's James Harden shape. You
(05:19):
look really good for three and a half quarters and
then you really just fall apart. This at least he's
getting into James Harden shape earlier than it is James
Harden shape. I mean if I'm if I'm like a
like Jack Llane or somebody who works out, Like if
I find like a workout person and and and you know,
then I say, hey, I want to get into that
(05:40):
kind of shape. But if I'm James Harden, I don't
want to say I get in James Harden shape. When
people go James Harden shape, who wants to be in
James Harden shape. That's like bad shape. That's that's the
equivalent of bad shape.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And who wants that?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
By the way, I do like you bringing up Jack Lelane.
Would you like to explain to the good folks who
Jack Line?
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Oh, I got play like Generation x ors who Jack
Lolaine is? Ok I gotta I gotta do that, Okay,
all right, I gotta, I gotta. Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It's like when you bring up Gary Beaman.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Okay, you know, I was in the car for a
couple of minutes and I heard the exchange of Gary
Beaman on A five A little bit.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
And I thought during the game Fred was going to
kill you. But that's a discussion for another time.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Yeah, James Hard getting into James hard in shape, I
mean he did all his usual off season stuff, and
even after the first loss right with the Clippers, didn't
we see him in video from the club and waving
and smiling and all.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Uh so, it's not much of a change.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
And to your point, yeah, it's usually by the fourth quarter,
and certainly once we hit the playoffs, there's nothing left.
He's tripping over his tongue because there there's not the
stamina to work on both ends of the court and
work those extra games. And you would think, as you're
a guy, that that's older just saying I know my body.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, I know my body too.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
I don't respond as well to four or five hours
of sleep as I did fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
That second cup of.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Coffee doesn't have the same juice that it once did.
I would think as an NBA player, as you hit
your mid thirties, with the number of weary miles on
your body, the number of hits that you've taken legit
or those that you've sold to a referee, those have
taken their toll on your body, and you're not recovering
responding the same way, which means the diet, the sleep patterns,
(07:32):
and the exercise patterns.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Have to be a little bit ramped up.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Why do you think Lebron's taken all the extra money
he can from Tonal to say, hey, look at rip
dam looking it's on my wall whenever I eat it.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Dude, It's way more than that for James Harp. This
is why trading for James Harden comes with all the perils.
He said, I didn't have a training camp a preseason. Now,
you know what, not my fault. It was your fault
that you decided I'm not gonna go to camp. I'm
not gonna go have a training camp. I'm not gonna
go have a preseason, and I'm not gonna work out
what I need to to get as close to NBA
(08:06):
shape as possible. Now, look, I get when you're working
out by yourself, you're not with a team. Are you
getting in game shape? No you're not, but you're in shape,
and it's a little bit less of an adjustment when
you finally start playing. But he's throwing out there, Yeah,
no trading camp, no preseason he made. He's he's intimating
I've done nothing. I'm just working it out right now right,
(08:27):
I'm not playing five on five. These are my practices.
I'm still I'm still trying to figure out where I
am going forward, because I just decided to sit around
and not do anything until I got traded, and I
waited and I pouted, and now I'm gonna work myself
into shape. You know what, These are big games. You're
missing already. And this is what I mean for James
(08:47):
Harden didn't care enough to keep himself in shape. So
when he got traded, when he gets ready, When I'm
working out every day, so when that trade happens, I'm
ready to go. That's not James Harden. That's sitting around waiting. Okay,
now I got what I want. Now I'll go to work.
I mean that that's on him, but he makes it
seem like, hey, hey, remember I haven't had a preseason.
You know what. No, not on me, not on anybody else.
That's on you not taking care of your body and
(09:09):
not caring about what you do enough to want to
be ready for whatever new team you go to. You
knew you're gonna get to the Clippers at some point,
but you didn't care. You still said, na, no, no,
I'll get in shape when I get there. Hey, they're
expecting you to come in and play well, and you're
trying to assimilate, and maybe you're playing on the ball,
maybe you're playing off the ball. The worst. The best
thing you can do is at least be as ready
as you can to play a lot of minutes. Nope,
(09:30):
not gonna do it because I don't feel like doing it.
That's the perils, more of the perils of trading for
James Harden, which is why I don't want anything to
do with them, because my team is not gonna be
better with him. I don't know why the Clippers thought suddenly, hey,
we're gonna get James Harden's You've to watch James Harden
every stop along the way, the teams don't win and
they want to move on from him. Suddenly you think
(09:51):
it's gonna be different with you the Clippers. Good luck man,
Good luck Clippers, good luck with all of this, because
you had all the evidence telling you this is who
James Harden is. And still we're gonna give up depth guys,
We're gonna give up bigs, we're gonna give up draft picks.
We're even all up to bring in James Harden.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
You've seen the act before, right, It's the old the
old parables. You know you teach about the you know,
insert animal here, carrying other dangerous animal too across a river,
saying you know, it's kind of dangerous, and then halfway
home he gets bitten, ripped apart, whatever. It's like, Ah,
(10:27):
you knew what I was, didn't you. It's a jackassion
and the frog. Yeah, it's a scorpion in the frog's well.
But I mean I've heard it with the you know,
a serpent whatever else, But yeah, scorpion and the frog.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Let's go with that one.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
You knew I was a scorpion, and yet you took
me here into the middle of the river.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Now we're both gonna die. Yeah, but it's in my nature.
That's kind of the James Harden thing. You bring him
in knowing that it's somewhere along the way.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
It's taking a left turn. It's taking a left turn.
I really want Tyler to say what you just said.
And he brought us into the middle of the river
and we all die.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
He's not far off.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
He's stung one after another when they lost their tenth
in a row with James Harden. He brought us to
the middle of the river and he stung us and
we all die. It just gets up and walks off.
I can't talk anymore. I'm done. That would be the
most honest assessment from a coach.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
You never heed.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
You know who's close to saying that about James Harden.
Who is Kawhi Leon Man. He's getting more. You can
tell his his his looks on the court, He's ready
to fight. I'll tell you, man, this is you want
to talk about a team that could absolutely blow up,
it's the Clippers. They have so many stars on that team,
and they have so many egos to figure out. And
(11:42):
the Clippers just kept thinking, year after year, it's gonna
be different, it's gonna be different. This is what year
seventeen of Kawhi and Paul George. We're still waiting for
them to get healthy and play and play next to
each other and all this stuff. You have Kawhi who's
on his own, who's always on his own timeline for anything,
George who just goes out and plays and never takes
(12:03):
responsibility or does he seem like he really cares a
lot about winning. Now you're bringing James Harden, doesn't care
about anything. And Russell Westbrook, who's like, I can't believe
this is where I am that I'm coming off the
bench for the Lakers, and how I gotta split the
ball with James Harden. This can blow up just spectacularly.
I mean, I get the thought of and I disagree
with it, but I get the Hey, we put these
four stars on the floor, things can be really good.
(12:25):
But how is this gonna work? You have four guys,
and what are these four guys all have in common?
In the last three years underachieving? All of them have
underachieved the last four years. You put four underachievers together,
you think that's the breakfast club man. That's not gonna
win you games in the NBA? Come on exit, how
(12:46):
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(13:09):
the Clippers and the Lakers and what we've seen so
far in the Must watch NBA in season tournament, all
the big NBA news coming up next with Rick Buker.
Keep it right here, Jason and Mike. You are listening
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Speaker 3 (13:26):
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member fd I s well, the Lakers in a bit
(14:46):
of a comeback. They trail the Kings now by nine
with two and a half to go. We'll have more
on this game coming up in a few minutes, but
joining us on the hotline now, nobody better than to
discuss the Clippers with Harden without Harden, Draymond getting a
five game suspension, and the ascension of the New York
Knicks and Julius Randall. It is Fox Sports one NBA
(15:09):
insider host of the On the Ball podcast. It is
Rick Buker. Rick.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
What's happening, buddy, gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen. I'm watching Keegan Murray
personally try to give the Lakers a chance in this game.
But I don't think I don't think even he can
pull that off. And so uh, we get, we get
a little excitement here at the end, but uh yeah,
other than that, it's been interesting times. Interesting times.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I mean, look, Rick, I mean I look at this
game for the Lakers, and of course they're gonna have
a bad night tonight. They don't have the they don't
have the normal jump you get from playing an in
season tournament game. How do you go the high level
of the nd season tournament game last night against the
Grizzlies with all kinds of steaks out there, and you
(15:58):
come back for some cam in the regular season game
the next night. You can't expect the Lakers to do that,
or any team should you expect to do that.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
It's so it's so true. I think it's actually when
you miss out on the like the the garish, the
the eyeball searing court, there's something that kind of just
gets you juiced up. When you you're blinded, right, you
just you can't quite see, so you just can get
angry and you play hard and you have no idea
(16:27):
where you're going, but it makes it exciting. And then
once you take that off, it's sort of like, you
know what, I'm not feeling the pain behind my my
orbital socket the same way. I think I'm just gonna
I think I'm gonna take it easy tonight. So I
think there's there's definitely that I actually I don't I
don't have a problem against the N Season Tournament, to
be honest with you. I just wish that they would
(16:48):
and maybe maybe this is why they did it the
way they did it. I wish that they would just like, Okay,
for the next three weeks, we're gonna play the N
Season Tournament, like these are all these games part of
the regular season, but it's for the N Season Tournament.
That's what we're doing. I think the reason that they
sprinkled them in is because they didn't want to find
(17:11):
out right away that nobody gives a rats ask about
the N Season Tournament. Let me wringle it in and
then you can't write, you can't tell, And then maybe
when we get to the championship game there will be
some indication that that the teams and fans and everybody cares.
But I don't know. I'm outside of the court being different.
(17:31):
It's been really hard for me to distinguish like what
an in season, in season tournament game is and what
is a regular season game. Maybe you guys have detected
something something else. But it's a hard tournament.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Besides the garage the garage court that you refer to.
Look talked about this in the beginning of the season.
Make it mean something. Stop the regular season and for
thee for the next two whatever it's going to be.
We're playing the tournament. We're given away a big trophy.
Here's the big check for everybody. Everybody gets whatever it is.
Make it really worth something. So hey, man, the NBA
(18:07):
is playing their in season turn, but instead it's like,
oh tonight's the court shows it that way, and the
social media accounts say it's a game in season turn.
What do you do? Like, what are you doing?
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Right?
Speaker 1 (18:16):
It's Tuesday?
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Is Tuesday? Tuesday, Okay, Tuesday. So today's new seasons Okay, okay,
yeah it Thursday. Oh no, it's not an in season tournament. Okay,
uh Friday, okay, Friday. Now yeah, It's like, I don't know. Look,
anytime you introduce something new, there's gonna be growing pains,
and and I get where they want to make the
(18:39):
regular season more regular season games matter. I think they've
done a great job in terms of the uh, the
end the playing in games that obviously has stopped the
tanking at the end of the year. Uh, and they're not.
You know, people are like, they should only play sixty
games whatever, Like, Yeah, that would be a a solution.
(19:01):
It would also be a huge chunk of revenue that
you're giving up. And so I honestly don't see where
they're going to change the number of games that they
play in a year anytime soon. They're going to try
to find other ways to make all of them matter,
and they just they haven't figured it out for this
(19:21):
part of the season play yet.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
And then you have the thought of whether Netflix decides
to jump in with the giant pile of money.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
That's always the next entry to this.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
But Rick, you mentioned you know how difficult it is
to try to get things together when you know it's
a first iteration. We've seen this act with James Harden before,
and now well the losses are mounting, Tylo is aging
rapidly to why Leonard is looking like he's ready to
I don't know, go hulk a mania in the eighties
(19:52):
on the rest of his squad. How much time do
we give this before we call it a failure.
Speaker 6 (19:59):
I'm glad that you noticed that the aging of ty Lou.
My god, has he gone great. He's gone gray faster
than some president.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
That president he's like when you saw Obama right before
and then it was like, oh look at that.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
Oh yeah, yeah. I think George Bush went through the
same thing, like he was oh he was dark haired,
and then he was he was old silver fox by
the time he got done with his term. And uh,
and we're seeing we're seeing the snow gather upstairs on
ty Lou, that's for sure. I here's the question, like
(20:33):
you said, when when do we decide that the experiment
has failed? Like, I don't know how many people came
into it thinking that this that the experiment was going
to succeed. Uh, And and then if we're going to
talk about it, it's succeeding. Were we really thinking that
they were going to be a championship caliber team, that
(20:53):
that adding James was going to make them better than
the Denver Nuggets or the Boston Celtics or I just
you know, we can go down the line. I think
this is a great issue, and I don't want to
put it all on James because I don't know that
there would have been anything dramatically different with this team
if they hadn't made the deal for Harden. But in
(21:16):
making the deal and having four guys that you have
to play the kind of minutes that you have to
play when they're they're caliber. Now you have less minutes
for the energy guys and the worker bees, and those
are an important part of any successful winning team is
you need those guys who can play and affect the
(21:37):
game without the ball. Well, can we say that about
Kawhi Leonard. We couldn't his heyday because he was really
good defensively. He doesn't put the same energy and effort
at the end of the floor. James Harden can't stay
the same. Russ Westbrook can't stay the same. Paul George
is really the only player that I can look at
(21:58):
and go, you know what. He still has times where
he looks like a great player. The other three guys
look like good players. And so I think our expectation
is because of the names and what they've accomplished in
their careers, that these are four great players, and they
think that they are four great players. And when you're
(22:20):
not great, you have to do the little things. You
have to execute, you have to share the ball, you
have to like you have to be efficient, you have
to follow a game plan, You defensively have to be
on a string. And these guys think they're like they
can out talent people, and they don't have the talent
to do that at this point. So what they're going
(22:41):
through right now as a result of they had a
certain way of playing, they've gotten comfortable with it. They had,
you know, essentially the same team back from last year,
and they had a way of playing. And then you
bring James in and James is you know, as he
told us coming in, I am not a system player.
I am the system. You got everybody trying to acclimate
(23:03):
to a new system that doesn't necessarily work. And you
don't have other guys who necessarily look at themselves as
system players. You can only have like you got to
have a hierarchy. Not everybody can be at the top
of the organizational charts. And that's the way the Clippers
(23:24):
not only are built right now, but that's the way
that they think of themselves. And it just you know,
whether it's having for presidents or no president and for
vice president, how do you want to ever want to
look at it? So those those kinds of corporations generally
don't get a whole lot done. And that's what I
would say the Clippers are.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Rick.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Let me ask the quick obvious follow up to this,
because we could put it on a Wikipedia. How would
you describe James Harden's shape?
Speaker 6 (23:57):
God, you know, it's the have you ever seen in
smoking lounges you have like a leather couch? Okay, the
kind of overstuffed leather couchs where every every everything has
sort of a curvature to it, and it's a little
(24:19):
soft and pillowy, and it's very comfortable. It's like buttery soft.
Like I'm sitting on I have a little leather coach.
The couch in my in my studio, I'm sitting on
one right now. The couch, my couch right now feels
like Jane's Harden.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Look good luck putting that on Wikipedia.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah, well, you know what I.
Speaker 6 (24:47):
Did my power rankings for Fox sports dot Com this week.
My lead was the Philadelphia sin The Philadelphia seventy six
ers have soared ben Sword like a hot air balloon
since cutting loose the human sandbag that is James Harden.
(25:08):
So if he's not a cout, if he's not a count,
he's literally a sand bag.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, Oh that's an image right there. You really paid
a picture there, Rick Beu.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
We're gonna we're gonna clip this off Rick, and we're
gonna send it to ty Lou and then then we're
gonna videotape him opening it and listening to it and
watch him age as he's actually watching and see the
gray hairs just grow even more.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
I feel I do feel bad for Tyleru. I think
he's a very very good coach. I do question, you know,
I I've asked people. I don't know that he's been
great with these stars at holding them accountable. I think
the best coaching that ty did was when Kawhi and
(25:57):
PG were hurt and the and the and the Clippers
are still winning, when they went to the Western Conference
finals at Kawhi out and I think a big part
was that Tie was comfortable making demands and holding the
line with the complementary players. And whether it's still kind
(26:17):
of a you know, a a result residual effect of
not being a star player as a head coach, as
being that guy that Alan Iverson stepped over like that
that he just doesn't for whatever reason, doesn't feel like
he can go at these guys the same way that
(26:38):
that's a missing part of this. And so I think
one of the other issues that they have here is
they may have a little bit of a mismatch between
the coach and all that star power, and maybe nobody
else could get it done either. But I'm going to
put a little bit on his plate as much as
(26:59):
I respect him as coach, because I do not think
that those guys have been held accountable to the level
that they need to be.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Rick. At some point, does Kawhi Leonard say something, does
he step or whether it's public behind closed doors and go, hey,
we've been trying this man for a while. Nothing is working.
We've been trying this for a long time. Or does
does he try to get everybody in line? Is it
is there something that could come a bolt out of
the blue something like that.
Speaker 6 (27:25):
Well, he kind of built this thing. I mean it
really they've they've done his bidding to this point in
terms of how they've built this team, the core of
this team, and uh, you know, whether it's bringing Russ in,
he signed off on that, bringing James in, he signed
off on that. And I think, honestly, the real question
for me is because you got you know, I don't.
(27:49):
Everybody's like, hey, the Clippers, we know what's gonna happen
with the Clippers. Kawhi and Paul George are you know,
potential free agents? And my first thought was where are
they going to go? Like I found the Clippers, the
question for me is not can I keep Paul George
and Kawhi Leonard. The question for me is the Clippers
is do I want to keep Paul George and Kawhi Leonard?
(28:12):
And if so, at what price? Because to your point,
like it hasn't worked to this point, do I want
to spend the next three four years still chasing the
same dragon that I chased for the last three four
years With these guys. I mean, they've they've had a
(28:33):
pretty good runway to try to make something happen. And
I know how I felt when they first put it together.
I was like, hey, wow, this is like fun of
the Clippers could be meaningful. But it has not worked.
And so the real question I have is do you
you know, do you stay with it or you do
you tear the band aid off and go you know what,
we thought it was gonna work. We went and got
(28:55):
guys that would never be Clippers as free agents before.
But we're gonna have to find another way because this
this formula, this blueprint, did not work.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
He's on Twitter at Rick Buker, That is at Rick Buker,
Fox Sports One Inside to check out the On the
Ball Podcast. On the Ball Podcast, your new one, Julius Randall,
the Resurgence.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
What what do you got coming up?
Speaker 6 (29:17):
I got I got a few other things I gotta
get to first. So yeah, that's somewhere on the list.
I just uh, I can't quite see that far down,
all right, very I'll let you know when it's when
it when it comes into view? Is it?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Draymond and Professional Wrestling first to know?
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Thanks of b Jrick. We'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 6 (29:39):
Peters Joe.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Great stuff from Rick Buker, as it always is The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon live from the tire
Rack dot Com Studios. Mercifully for the Lakers. It is
over at the Crypt for the latest on that game
and the rest of the night. In sports, we had
What's Trending Rick Brian Fenley BF The Jase smithser with
Mike Carmon live the Tirack dot Com Studios. Coming up
next the biggest story of the day. In the NBA,
(30:06):
we got a big suspension for one of the biggest stars.
Is it right? That's straight ahead right here, Jason and Mike.
This is Fox Sports Radio, newned.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
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.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon,
I Hate that song Live from the tire rack dot
Com Studios where we'll get to a big NFL story
coming up in a few minutes, an injury that maybe
changes the course of the season. But before the action began.
In the NBA tonight, we got the big hammer falling
(30:48):
on Draymond Green. Warriors forward got a five game suspension
for almost for his actions last night in a brawl
against the Minnesota Timberwolves. In case you missed it, and
just because we love to play the t Wolves call
of this play, uh, this is what happened after the
opening tip last night between Minnesota and Golden State that
(31:10):
resulted in Draymond Green's ejection and now a five game suspension.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Tom more than an Indianapolis and.
Speaker 7 (31:19):
The chances gets hit the ball is loose and it's
a live But I'm.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Gonna hear Tom Moore's name the rest of my life
and not I've hear someone say Tom or Tom Moore
and think but fumble, but fumble, that's gonna happen to them.
He's gonna fumble. Yeah, it's gonna happen to me. Rest
of my life's gonna forklift and just what Reggie White
used to do to people, forklift them.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Thanks guys, Thanks Alex, Thanks Justin appreciate.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
That you appreciate you for mentioning it.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Mike, Thanks, This is what what's happening and how it
went down last night.
Speaker 7 (31:53):
Just after Tipple Aunt pulls up on a straightaway three,
it's off the front rim no and the rebound of
Draymond greens Ant did not have all and Jade McDaniels
and Klay Thompson, I'm throwing punches at one another. They
got to be separated. How someone's got Rudy in a headlock.
It's Draymond. Someone get that dude in a headlock. Two
teams have to be separated. Jaden is hot, Rudy got
(32:13):
tackled to the floor somehow Draymond just got Rudy around
the neck from behind. But if he couldn't hate Draymond
Green anymore, just add this to the list.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Everybody hates Raymond so much, And now add this to
the list. Wolves Radio Network on the call, and Draymond
gets a five game suspension. We said last night it's
got to be a long one because he was out
of control and he jumped in the middle of this.
He flew in from behind, moving faster to put Rudy
Gobar in a headlock. Then he's moved up court while
(32:47):
the clock was ticking in a game in probably about
five years. I don't think I've seen him move that
fast in quite a long time. But Draymond gets a
suspension and the official statement he was suspended five games
without pay for quote escalating an on court altercation forcibly
grabbing Rudy Gobert around the neck in an unsportsmanlike and
(33:08):
dangerous manner.
Speaker 7 (33:10):
Way.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
When have you ever grabbed a guy by the neck
in a sportsmanlike manner?
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yeah? Yeah, Usually when you read that, there's no sportsman
like what you buy.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
The neck You literally would need to be in an
MMA or wrestling match for that to meet quote sportsman
like and even then Grilla Mont soon might be a
little upset at you, or I'm trying to demonstrate to you,
like like a Napoleon dynamite, grab my arm, the other arm,
my other arm.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
I mean, unless you unless you're doing something like that. Yeah,
you're always forcibly grabbing someone by the neck. I think
this is absolutely just by the NBA. And you like
the five I like the five games. It's early in
the season, and you know, look it's an in tournament,
in season, tournament game, so maybe you have tempers are
(33:56):
flaring a little bit more. They helped them out a
little bit on that, but it's early in the season.
You give him five games. It gets his attention, it
gets the league's attention. He knows the next time I
get suspended, it's gonna be way more. It's gonna be
ten games or more. So Yeah, I'm okay with it.
It's a lengthy suspension. I was. I thought the NBA. Look,
I said it needed to be long, and the NBA
would come up and say one or two games, and
(34:17):
Draymond's gonna appeal and it would be some mousey kind
of way. The NBA sort of puts out a little
bit of jurisprudence. But no, I like the five games
all of that going into it early in the season.
It's Draymond. Everybody sees it. He knows. No, I kind
of dig the five games.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
I think they did it right.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
Yeah, I think it just comes back to are we
doing full blank slate or does your history.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Come with you?
Speaker 4 (34:39):
And no, I'm not including the punch of Jordan Poole
because everybody seemed to be okay with that from last
preseason and then obviously with this with Rudy Gobert and
I neither side seemed terribly concerned with breaking it up.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Whatever, it's like, there's Draymond being drama.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Because people don't like Rudy Gobert. Doesn't mean that it was.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
They have a liking problem with.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
Him, still having issues they look, you look at guys
walking alongside. It's like, come on, just let him go,
let him go, come on, instead of forcibly trying to
remove him. But yeah, five games, about eight hundred grand
when it's all said and done, I thought it would
have been a little bit more, again owing to the
history of Draymond, but he is a star.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
It is early in the season.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
You have him accumulated a ton of points slash technical.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Files or whatever to this point.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
And let's face it, you want all stars on the
game and people that move the needle whenever you can.
So you got that because Steph was in street close.
You mentioned the stat earlier. What is that seven of
the last eleven Steph has missed. Draymond's gotten himself kicked out.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
I don't want to stay, man, We're not gonna win
this game.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
What am I doing here?
Speaker 1 (35:56):
I could I could be, I could be, I could be.
I could be showered, change and ready to go for
a nice postgame meal, maybe go to that great sushi
place we like, Hudah. But I'll be ready to go
right after the game. Is don't have to talk to
the media, not to do anything else. I'd be ready
to go right after the game. Boom, we're out. We're
in a car, and we're gone right after the game.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
I'm not working with these damn kids. I'm done.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I need no proper veterans up in here.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Man.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Nobody tells me Steph is not gonna play until I
actually get on the floor. Like Steph is dressed in
his uniform and Draymond goes out there for warm ups
and then Steph changes back into his street clothes. Hey,
I'm not playing tonight, man. I just just want you
can't rest too, because if I rest, so, uh, you
guys gotta go play?
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Oh no, no, I rest? What if I wanted to rest?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Well, see Ricky Bobby, how could you rest if I rest?
Speaker 2 (36:44):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Like like, I gotta rest, so you gotta play.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
So that that's how it goes.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
I gotta rest, you gotta play. So uh exit out
about a Fresca exit swollen dome. The Jason Smith Show
is my best friend. Mike Carmon Lot from the tire
rack dot Com Studio. We'll have more NBA coming up
next hour, but straight ahead, we got a double barrel
of big NFL stories coming your way. We have yet
another development on Aaron Rodgers and coming up next, a
(37:11):
huge injury that could affect the playoff chase in a
large way or will it? That's next Tireck dot Com
Studios Here on Fox
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Let's give this parties.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon live from the tire rack dot Com
studios tyrack dot com. We'll help you get there an
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over ten thousand recommended installers tyrack dot com. The way
tire buying should be well. Early in the fourth quarter,
(00:51):
the Lakers trail the Kings one oh six to eighty.
But again, it's not an in season tournament game for
the Lake. It's the second game and back to back nights.
I can't believe they didn't just forfeit. I mean, if
it's not if it's not the pageantry of an n
season tournament game, why even showing up? I mean, I
can't believe Lebron and a d are still in the game.
(01:12):
You're down twenty six and the fourth show up. I mean, really,
what are they doing?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
No, it's it.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
This is like a waste of the minutes restrictions that
we have on everybody, you know what I mean? Like no,
and I mean this with all sincerity. I know it's
a home game and Little Johnny and Susie may have
gotten to this one and it's all exciting and blah
blah blah.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Who's little john Little Johnny, Little Johnny? No man, Yeah,
but the Susie from.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
If we need it to be I mean, you guys
are up to what episode five or six of season
two we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Here, Alex, thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
We're just talking about generalizations of a popular children's name, right,
the old think of the children process of this that
you know, they might need to see a little bit
of Lebron an ad play a game. I think they
would have rather seen him in Street closed for this one,
and for the Lakers. You tempt fate with this, like
all right, we're gonna have a bunko effort, but you
(02:12):
guys are gonna play thirty some odd minutes while you're
getting drugged and I think it's bad business all around.
When a you're trying to win the n season tournament,
this isn't helping you there. And the other is you're
playing four playoffs and everything else. And we know from
history it repeats itself in this way, Fellas. Once the
(02:32):
injury start, they don't go away. So you tempt fate
when you add an extra thirty plus meaningless minutes when
you're getting thrown into the third row trying to drive
the lane.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
But isn't there a rule that the NBA will throw
out the results of games at the second of back
to back nights when the first game happens to be
an n season tournament game. I think that's a rule
that's gonna happen that. I think they said that for
the Lakers this year especially.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's good.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I like that anytime we can add an extra page
to the rules, in fine print, maybe invisible ink.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Maybe it's like one of those Harry Potter.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Things that we need to say some sort of spell
to make it work.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So far, tonight for the Lakers, Lebron has twenty one.
Anthony Davis just had a three point play that brought
him to seven. Yeah, it's one of THEO if you
keep hitting refresh going all right, they have an updated eighties,
but no seven points for Anthony Davis.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I don't know if you know this, Jason. It's not
a tournament game, no I.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Or are they not back when it's not a tournament game?
Are they? Can you not say?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Definitely not tonight?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Okay, all right? I just wanted to make sure all
right again one six eighty six Kings with the lead
ten minutes to go. The other big result of the night,
of course, the NIXT beating the Hawks. But we'll have
more on these stories with Rick Buker. But maybe the
quote of the year so far from NBA superstar James Hart. Now,
(03:59):
last Harden played a little bit better than he had,
but still the Clippers are now zero to five in
the James Harden era. They can't win. Look, we talked
about it last night. Two ball dominant guys in Harden
and Westbrook. How is this gonna start?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Right?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
You can't just assemble talent, throw it on the floor
and think it's gonna work. That was gonna struggle. That
being said, if they could figure out the end of
games a little bit more than the Clippers were gonna
be fine. But the bottom line is James Harden just
is not the same guy and he's not in shape.
And he actually addressed that following the game last night.
(04:34):
James Harden is a you know, Sports Illustrated had this
earlier today. He was very honest about the shape he
was in. Quote. I keep reiterating that I didn't have
a training camp or a preseason kind of learning on
the fly for a new team. Also, getting myself into
James Harden shape and game shape is very very important.
Tonight was definitely another step in the right direction. I
(04:57):
keep improving. I wasn't really playing five five these are
my practices. So he's getting himself into James Harden shape. Now,
first thing I want to say is this isn't this
normally James Harden shape. I mean, I don't understand. I
watched James Harden for a long time. He plays, he
gets tired in the fourth quarter, and his teams wind
up losing. That's kind of that's James Harden shape. You
(05:19):
look really good for three and a half quarters and
then you really just fall apart. This at least he's
getting into James Harden shape earlier than it is James
Harden shape. I mean if I'm if I'm like a
like Jack Llane or somebody who works out, Like if
I find like a workout person and and and you know,
then I say, hey, I want to get into that
(05:40):
kind of shape. But if I'm James Harden, I don't
want to say I get in James Harden shape. When
people go James Harden shape, who wants to be in
James Harden shape. That's like bad shape. That's that's the
equivalent of bad shape.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And who wants that?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
By the way, I do like you bringing up Jack Lelane.
Would you like to explain to the good folks who
Jack Line?
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Oh, I got play like Generation x ors who Jack
Lolaine is? Ok I gotta I gotta do that, Okay,
all right, I gotta, I gotta. Okay.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It's like when you bring up Gary Beaman.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Okay, you know, I was in the car for a
couple of minutes and I heard the exchange of Gary
Beaman on A five A little bit.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
And I thought during the game Fred was going to
kill you. But that's a discussion for another time.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Yeah, James Hard getting into James hard in shape, I
mean he did all his usual off season stuff, and
even after the first loss right with the Clippers, didn't
we see him in video from the club and waving
and smiling and all.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Uh so, it's not much of a change.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
And to your point, yeah, it's usually by the fourth quarter,
and certainly once we hit the playoffs, there's nothing left.
He's tripping over his tongue because there there's not the
stamina to work on both ends of the court and
work those extra games. And you would think, as you're
a guy, that that's older just saying I know my body.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, I know my body too.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
I don't respond as well to four or five hours
of sleep as I did fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
That second cup of.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Coffee doesn't have the same juice that it once did.
I would think as an NBA player, as you hit
your mid thirties, with the number of weary miles on
your body, the number of hits that you've taken legit
or those that you've sold to a referee, those have
taken their toll on your body, and you're not recovering
responding the same way, which means the diet, the sleep patterns,
(07:32):
and the exercise patterns.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Have to be a little bit ramped up.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Why do you think Lebron's taken all the extra money
he can from Tonal to say, hey, look at rip
dam looking it's on my wall whenever I eat it.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Dude, It's way more than that for James Harp. This
is why trading for James Harden comes with all the perils.
He said, I didn't have a training camp a preseason. Now,
you know what, not my fault. It was your fault
that you decided I'm not gonna go to camp. I'm
not gonna go have a training camp. I'm not gonna
go have a preseason, and I'm not gonna work out
what I need to to get as close to NBA
(08:06):
shape as possible. Now, look, I get when you're working
out by yourself, you're not with a team. Are you
getting in game shape? No you're not, but you're in shape,
and it's a little bit less of an adjustment when
you finally start playing. But he's throwing out there, Yeah,
no trading camp, no preseason he made. He's he's intimating
I've done nothing. I'm just working it out right now right,
(08:27):
I'm not playing five on five. These are my practices.
I'm still I'm still trying to figure out where I
am going forward, because I just decided to sit around
and not do anything until I got traded, and I
waited and I pouted, and now I'm gonna work myself
into shape. You know what, These are big games. You're
missing already. And this is what I mean for James
(08:47):
Harden didn't care enough to keep himself in shape. So
when he got traded, when he gets ready, When I'm
working out every day, so when that trade happens, I'm
ready to go. That's not James Harden. That's sitting around waiting. Okay,
now I got what I want. Now I'll go to work.
I mean that that's on him, but he makes it
seem like, hey, hey, remember I haven't had a preseason.
You know what. No, not on me, not on anybody else.
That's on you not taking care of your body and
(09:09):
not caring about what you do enough to want to
be ready for whatever new team you go to. You
knew you're gonna get to the Clippers at some point,
but you didn't care. You still said, na, no, no,
I'll get in shape when I get there. Hey, they're
expecting you to come in and play well, and you're
trying to assimilate, and maybe you're playing on the ball,
maybe you're playing off the ball. The worst. The best
thing you can do is at least be as ready
as you can to play a lot of minutes. Nope,
(09:30):
not gonna do it because I don't feel like doing it.
That's the perils, more of the perils of trading for
James Harden, which is why I don't want anything to
do with them, because my team is not gonna be
better with him. I don't know why the Clippers thought suddenly, hey,
we're gonna get James Harden's You've to watch James Harden
every stop along the way, the teams don't win and
they want to move on from him. Suddenly you think
(09:51):
it's gonna be different with you the Clippers. Good luck man,
Good luck Clippers, good luck with all of this, because
you had all the evidence telling you this is who
James Harden is. And still we're gonna give up depth guys,
We're gonna give up bigs, we're gonna give up draft picks.
We're even all up to bring in James Harden.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
You've seen the act before, right, It's the old the
old parables. You know you teach about the you know,
insert animal here, carrying other dangerous animal too across a river,
saying you know, it's kind of dangerous, and then halfway
home he gets bitten, ripped apart, whatever. It's like, Ah,
(10:27):
you knew what I was, didn't you. It's a jackassion
and the frog. Yeah, it's a scorpion in the frog's well.
But I mean I've heard it with the you know,
a serpent whatever else, But yeah, scorpion and the frog.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Let's go with that one.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
You knew I was a scorpion, and yet you took
me here into the middle of the river.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Now we're both gonna die. Yeah, but it's in my nature.
That's kind of the James Harden thing. You bring him
in knowing that it's somewhere along the way.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
It's taking a left turn. It's taking a left turn.
I really want Tyler to say what you just said.
And he brought us into the middle of the river
and we all die.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
He's not far off.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
He's stung one after another when they lost their tenth
in a row with James Harden. He brought us to
the middle of the river and he stung us and
we all die. It just gets up and walks off.
I can't talk anymore. I'm done. That would be the
most honest assessment from a coach.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
You never heed.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
You know who's close to saying that about James Harden.
Who is Kawhi Leon Man. He's getting more. You can
tell his his his looks on the court, He's ready
to fight. I'll tell you, man, this is you want
to talk about a team that could absolutely blow up,
it's the Clippers. They have so many stars on that team,
and they have so many egos to figure out. And
(11:42):
the Clippers just kept thinking, year after year, it's gonna
be different, it's gonna be different. This is what year
seventeen of Kawhi and Paul George. We're still waiting for
them to get healthy and play and play next to
each other and all this stuff. You have Kawhi who's
on his own, who's always on his own timeline for anything,
George who just goes out and plays and never takes
(12:03):
responsibility or does he seem like he really cares a
lot about winning. Now you're bringing James Harden, doesn't care
about anything. And Russell Westbrook, who's like, I can't believe
this is where I am that I'm coming off the
bench for the Lakers, and how I gotta split the
ball with James Harden. This can blow up just spectacularly.
I mean, I get the thought of and I disagree
with it, but I get the Hey, we put these
four stars on the floor, things can be really good.
(12:25):
But how is this gonna work? You have four guys,
and what are these four guys all have in common?
In the last three years underachieving? All of them have
underachieved the last four years. You put four underachievers together,
you think that's the breakfast club man. That's not gonna
win you games in the NBA? Come on exit, how
(12:46):
about a Fresca exit swollen Dome. The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Carbon Live in the tirec
dot Com Studios. Tonight Show brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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(13:09):
the Clippers and the Lakers and what we've seen so
far in the Must watch NBA in season tournament, all
the big NBA news coming up next with Rick Buker.
Keep it right here, Jason and Mike. You are listening
to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
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member fd I s well, the Lakers in a bit
(14:46):
of a comeback. They trail the Kings now by nine
with two and a half to go. We'll have more
on this game coming up in a few minutes, but
joining us on the hotline now, nobody better than to
discuss the Clippers with Harden without Harden, Draymond getting a
five game suspension, and the ascension of the New York
Knicks and Julius Randall. It is Fox Sports one NBA
(15:09):
insider host of the On the Ball podcast. It is
Rick Buker. Rick.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
What's happening, buddy, gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen. I'm watching Keegan Murray
personally try to give the Lakers a chance in this game.
But I don't think I don't think even he can
pull that off. And so uh, we get, we get
a little excitement here at the end, but uh yeah,
other than that, it's been interesting times. Interesting times.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I mean, look, Rick, I mean I look at this
game for the Lakers, and of course they're gonna have
a bad night tonight. They don't have the they don't
have the normal jump you get from playing an in
season tournament game. How do you go the high level
of the nd season tournament game last night against the
Grizzlies with all kinds of steaks out there, and you
(15:58):
come back for some cam in the regular season game
the next night. You can't expect the Lakers to do that,
or any team should you expect to do that.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
It's so it's so true. I think it's actually when
you miss out on the like the the garish, the
the eyeball searing court, there's something that kind of just
gets you juiced up. When you you're blinded, right, you
just you can't quite see, so you just can get
angry and you play hard and you have no idea
(16:27):
where you're going, but it makes it exciting. And then
once you take that off, it's sort of like, you
know what, I'm not feeling the pain behind my my
orbital socket the same way. I think I'm just gonna
I think I'm gonna take it easy tonight. So I
think there's there's definitely that I actually I don't I
don't have a problem against the N Season Tournament, to
be honest with you. I just wish that they would
(16:48):
and maybe maybe this is why they did it the
way they did it. I wish that they would just like, Okay,
for the next three weeks, we're gonna play the N
Season Tournament, like these are all these games part of
the regular season, but it's for the N Season Tournament.
That's what we're doing. I think the reason that they
sprinkled them in is because they didn't want to find
(17:11):
out right away that nobody gives a rats ask about
the N Season Tournament. Let me wringle it in and
then you can't write, you can't tell, And then maybe
when we get to the championship game there will be
some indication that that the teams and fans and everybody cares.
But I don't know. I'm outside of the court being different.
(17:31):
It's been really hard for me to distinguish like what
an in season, in season tournament game is and what
is a regular season game. Maybe you guys have detected
something something else. But it's a hard tournament.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Besides the garage the garage court that you refer to.
Look talked about this in the beginning of the season.
Make it mean something. Stop the regular season and for
thee for the next two whatever it's going to be.
We're playing the tournament. We're given away a big trophy.
Here's the big check for everybody. Everybody gets whatever it is.
Make it really worth something. So hey, man, the NBA
(18:07):
is playing their in season turn, but instead it's like,
oh tonight's the court shows it that way, and the
social media accounts say it's a game in season turn.
What do you do? Like, what are you doing?
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Right?
Speaker 1 (18:16):
It's Tuesday?
Speaker 6 (18:17):
Is Tuesday? Tuesday, Okay, Tuesday. So today's new seasons Okay, okay,
yeah it Thursday. Oh no, it's not an in season tournament. Okay,
uh Friday, okay, Friday. Now yeah, It's like, I don't know. Look,
anytime you introduce something new, there's gonna be growing pains,
and and I get where they want to make the
(18:39):
regular season more regular season games matter. I think they've
done a great job in terms of the uh, the
end the playing in games that obviously has stopped the
tanking at the end of the year. Uh, and they're not.
You know, people are like, they should only play sixty
games whatever, Like, Yeah, that would be a a solution.
(19:01):
It would also be a huge chunk of revenue that
you're giving up. And so I honestly don't see where
they're going to change the number of games that they
play in a year anytime soon. They're going to try
to find other ways to make all of them matter,
and they just they haven't figured it out for this
(19:21):
part of the season play yet.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
And then you have the thought of whether Netflix decides
to jump in with the giant pile of money.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
That's always the next entry to this.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
But Rick, you mentioned you know how difficult it is
to try to get things together when you know it's
a first iteration. We've seen this act with James Harden before,
and now well the losses are mounting, Tylo is aging
rapidly to why Leonard is looking like he's ready to
I don't know, go hulk a mania in the eighties
(19:52):
on the rest of his squad. How much time do
we give this before we call it a failure.
Speaker 6 (19:59):
I'm glad that you noticed that the aging of ty Lou.
My god, has he gone great. He's gone gray faster
than some president.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
That president he's like when you saw Obama right before
and then it was like, oh look at that.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
Oh yeah, yeah. I think George Bush went through the
same thing, like he was oh he was dark haired,
and then he was he was old silver fox by
the time he got done with his term. And uh,
and we're seeing we're seeing the snow gather upstairs on
ty Lou, that's for sure. I here's the question, like
(20:33):
you said, when when do we decide that the experiment
has failed? Like, I don't know how many people came
into it thinking that this that the experiment was going
to succeed. Uh, And and then if we're going to
talk about it, it's succeeding. Were we really thinking that
they were going to be a championship caliber team, that
(20:53):
that adding James was going to make them better than
the Denver Nuggets or the Boston Celtics or I just
you know, we can go down the line. I think
this is a great issue, and I don't want to
put it all on James because I don't know that
there would have been anything dramatically different with this team
if they hadn't made the deal for Harden. But in
(21:16):
making the deal and having four guys that you have
to play the kind of minutes that you have to
play when they're they're caliber. Now you have less minutes
for the energy guys and the worker bees, and those
are an important part of any successful winning team is
you need those guys who can play and affect the
(21:37):
game without the ball. Well, can we say that about
Kawhi Leonard. We couldn't his heyday because he was really
good defensively. He doesn't put the same energy and effort
at the end of the floor. James Harden can't stay
the same. Russ Westbrook can't stay the same. Paul George
is really the only player that I can look at
(21:58):
and go, you know what. He still has times where
he looks like a great player. The other three guys
look like good players. And so I think our expectation
is because of the names and what they've accomplished in
their careers, that these are four great players, and they
think that they are four great players. And when you're
(22:20):
not great, you have to do the little things. You
have to execute, you have to share the ball, you
have to like you have to be efficient, you have
to follow a game plan, You defensively have to be
on a string. And these guys think they're like they
can out talent people, and they don't have the talent
to do that at this point. So what they're going
(22:41):
through right now as a result of they had a
certain way of playing, they've gotten comfortable with it. They had,
you know, essentially the same team back from last year,
and they had a way of playing. And then you
bring James in and James is you know, as he
told us coming in, I am not a system player.
I am the system. You got everybody trying to acclimate
(23:03):
to a new system that doesn't necessarily work. And you
don't have other guys who necessarily look at themselves as
system players. You can only have like you got to
have a hierarchy. Not everybody can be at the top
of the organizational charts. And that's the way the Clippers
(23:24):
not only are built right now, but that's the way
that they think of themselves. And it just you know,
whether it's having for presidents or no president and for
vice president, how do you want to ever want to
look at it? So those those kinds of corporations generally
don't get a whole lot done. And that's what I
would say the Clippers are.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Rick.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Let me ask the quick obvious follow up to this,
because we could put it on a Wikipedia. How would
you describe James Harden's shape?
Speaker 6 (23:57):
God, you know, it's the have you ever seen in
smoking lounges you have like a leather couch? Okay, the
kind of overstuffed leather couchs where every every everything has
sort of a curvature to it, and it's a little
(24:19):
soft and pillowy, and it's very comfortable. It's like buttery soft.
Like I'm sitting on I have a little leather coach.
The couch in my in my studio, I'm sitting on
one right now. The couch, my couch right now feels
like Jane's Harden.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Look good luck putting that on Wikipedia.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah, well, you know what I.
Speaker 6 (24:47):
Did my power rankings for Fox sports dot Com this week.
My lead was the Philadelphia sin The Philadelphia seventy six
ers have soared ben Sword like a hot air balloon
since cutting loose the human sandbag that is James Harden.
(25:08):
So if he's not a cout, if he's not a count,
he's literally a sand bag.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, Oh that's an image right there. You really paid
a picture there, Rick Beu.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
We're gonna we're gonna clip this off Rick, and we're
gonna send it to ty Lou and then then we're
gonna videotape him opening it and listening to it and
watch him age as he's actually watching and see the
gray hairs just grow even more.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
I feel I do feel bad for Tyleru. I think
he's a very very good coach. I do question, you know,
I I've asked people. I don't know that he's been
great with these stars at holding them accountable. I think
the best coaching that ty did was when Kawhi and
(25:57):
PG were hurt and the and the and the Clippers
are still winning, when they went to the Western Conference
finals at Kawhi out and I think a big part
was that Tie was comfortable making demands and holding the
line with the complementary players. And whether it's still kind
(26:17):
of a you know, a a result residual effect of
not being a star player as a head coach, as
being that guy that Alan Iverson stepped over like that
that he just doesn't for whatever reason, doesn't feel like
he can go at these guys the same way that
(26:38):
that's a missing part of this. And so I think
one of the other issues that they have here is
they may have a little bit of a mismatch between
the coach and all that star power, and maybe nobody
else could get it done either. But I'm going to
put a little bit on his plate as much as
(26:59):
I respect him as coach, because I do not think
that those guys have been held accountable to the level
that they need to be.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Rick. At some point, does Kawhi Leonard say something, does
he step or whether it's public behind closed doors and go, hey,
we've been trying this man for a while. Nothing is working.
We've been trying this for a long time. Or does
does he try to get everybody in line? Is it
is there something that could come a bolt out of
the blue something like that.
Speaker 6 (27:25):
Well, he kind of built this thing. I mean it
really they've they've done his bidding to this point in
terms of how they've built this team, the core of
this team, and uh, you know, whether it's bringing Russ in,
he signed off on that, bringing James in, he signed
off on that. And I think, honestly, the real question
for me is because you got you know, I don't.
(27:49):
Everybody's like, hey, the Clippers, we know what's gonna happen
with the Clippers. Kawhi and Paul George are you know,
potential free agents? And my first thought was where are
they going to go? Like I found the Clippers, the
question for me is not can I keep Paul George
and Kawhi Leonard. The question for me is the Clippers
is do I want to keep Paul George and Kawhi Leonard?
(28:12):
And if so, at what price? Because to your point,
like it hasn't worked to this point, do I want
to spend the next three four years still chasing the
same dragon that I chased for the last three four
years With these guys. I mean, they've they've had a
(28:33):
pretty good runway to try to make something happen. And
I know how I felt when they first put it together.
I was like, hey, wow, this is like fun of
the Clippers could be meaningful. But it has not worked.
And so the real question I have is do you
you know, do you stay with it or you do
you tear the band aid off and go you know what,
we thought it was gonna work. We went and got
(28:55):
guys that would never be Clippers as free agents before.
But we're gonna have to find another way because this
this formula, this blueprint, did not work.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
He's on Twitter at Rick Buker, That is at Rick Buker,
Fox Sports One Inside to check out the On the
Ball Podcast. On the Ball Podcast, your new one, Julius Randall,
the Resurgence.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
What what do you got coming up?
Speaker 6 (29:17):
I got I got a few other things I gotta
get to first. So yeah, that's somewhere on the list.
I just uh, I can't quite see that far down,
all right, very I'll let you know when it's when
it when it comes into view? Is it?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Draymond and Professional Wrestling first to know?
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Thanks of b Jrick. We'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 6 (29:39):
Peters Joe.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Great stuff from Rick Buker, as it always is The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon live from the tire
Rack dot Com Studios. Mercifully for the Lakers. It is
over at the Crypt for the latest on that game
and the rest of the night. In sports, we had
What's Trending Rick Brian Fenley BF The Jase smithser with
Mike Carmon live the Tirack dot Com Studios. Coming up
next the biggest story of the day. In the NBA,
(30:06):
we got a big suspension for one of the biggest stars.
Is it right? That's straight ahead right here, Jason and Mike.
This is Fox Sports Radio, newned.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
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.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon,
I Hate that song Live from the tire rack dot
Com Studios where we'll get to a big NFL story
coming up in a few minutes, an injury that maybe
changes the course of the season. But before the action began.
In the NBA tonight, we got the big hammer falling
(30:48):
on Draymond Green. Warriors forward got a five game suspension
for almost for his actions last night in a brawl
against the Minnesota Timberwolves. In case you missed it, and
just because we love to play the t Wolves call
of this play, uh, this is what happened after the
opening tip last night between Minnesota and Golden State that
(31:10):
resulted in Draymond Green's ejection and now a five game suspension.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Tom more than an Indianapolis and.
Speaker 7 (31:19):
The chances gets hit the ball is loose and it's
a live But I'm.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Gonna hear Tom Moore's name the rest of my life
and not I've hear someone say Tom or Tom Moore
and think but fumble, but fumble, that's gonna happen to them.
He's gonna fumble. Yeah, it's gonna happen to me. Rest
of my life's gonna forklift and just what Reggie White
used to do to people, forklift them.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Thanks guys, Thanks Alex, Thanks Justin appreciate.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
That you appreciate you for mentioning it.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Mike, Thanks, This is what what's happening and how it
went down last night.
Speaker 7 (31:53):
Just after Tipple Aunt pulls up on a straightaway three,
it's off the front rim no and the rebound of
Draymond greens Ant did not have all and Jade McDaniels
and Klay Thompson, I'm throwing punches at one another. They
got to be separated. How someone's got Rudy in a headlock.
It's Draymond. Someone get that dude in a headlock. Two
teams have to be separated. Jaden is hot, Rudy got
(32:13):
tackled to the floor somehow Draymond just got Rudy around
the neck from behind. But if he couldn't hate Draymond
Green anymore, just add this to the list.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Everybody hates Raymond so much, And now add this to
the list. Wolves Radio Network on the call, and Draymond
gets a five game suspension. We said last night it's
got to be a long one because he was out
of control and he jumped in the middle of this.
He flew in from behind, moving faster to put Rudy
Gobar in a headlock. Then he's moved up court while
(32:47):
the clock was ticking in a game in probably about
five years. I don't think I've seen him move that
fast in quite a long time. But Draymond gets a
suspension and the official statement he was suspended five games
without pay for quote escalating an on court altercation forcibly
grabbing Rudy Gobert around the neck in an unsportsmanlike and
(33:08):
dangerous manner.
Speaker 7 (33:10):
Way.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
When have you ever grabbed a guy by the neck
in a sportsmanlike manner?
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yeah? Yeah, Usually when you read that, there's no sportsman
like what you buy.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
The neck You literally would need to be in an
MMA or wrestling match for that to meet quote sportsman
like and even then Grilla Mont soon might be a
little upset at you, or I'm trying to demonstrate to you,
like like a Napoleon dynamite, grab my arm, the other arm,
my other arm.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
I mean, unless you unless you're doing something like that. Yeah,
you're always forcibly grabbing someone by the neck. I think
this is absolutely just by the NBA. And you like
the five I like the five games. It's early in
the season, and you know, look it's an in tournament,
in season, tournament game, so maybe you have tempers are
(33:56):
flaring a little bit more. They helped them out a
little bit on that, but it's early in the season.
You give him five games. It gets his attention, it
gets the league's attention. He knows the next time I
get suspended, it's gonna be way more. It's gonna be
ten games or more. So Yeah, I'm okay with it.
It's a lengthy suspension. I was. I thought the NBA. Look,
I said it needed to be long, and the NBA
would come up and say one or two games, and
(34:17):
Draymond's gonna appeal and it would be some mousey kind
of way. The NBA sort of puts out a little
bit of jurisprudence. But no, I like the five games
all of that going into it early in the season.
It's Draymond. Everybody sees it. He knows. No, I kind
of dig the five games.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
I think they did it right.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
Yeah, I think it just comes back to are we
doing full blank slate or does your history.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Come with you?
Speaker 4 (34:39):
And no, I'm not including the punch of Jordan Poole
because everybody seemed to be okay with that from last
preseason and then obviously with this with Rudy Gobert and
I neither side seemed terribly concerned with breaking it up.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Whatever, it's like, there's Draymond being drama.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Because people don't like Rudy Gobert. Doesn't mean that it was.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
They have a liking problem with.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
Him, still having issues they look, you look at guys
walking alongside. It's like, come on, just let him go,
let him go, come on, instead of forcibly trying to
remove him. But yeah, five games, about eight hundred grand
when it's all said and done, I thought it would
have been a little bit more, again owing to the
history of Draymond, but he is a star.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
It is early in the season.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
You have him accumulated a ton of points slash technical.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Files or whatever to this point.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
And let's face it, you want all stars on the
game and people that move the needle whenever you can.
So you got that because Steph was in street close.
You mentioned the stat earlier. What is that seven of
the last eleven Steph has missed. Draymond's gotten himself kicked out.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
I don't want to stay, man, We're not gonna win
this game.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
What am I doing here?
Speaker 1 (35:56):
I could I could be, I could be, I could be.
I could be showered, change and ready to go for
a nice postgame meal, maybe go to that great sushi
place we like, Hudah. But I'll be ready to go
right after the game. Is don't have to talk to
the media, not to do anything else. I'd be ready
to go right after the game. Boom, we're out. We're
in a car, and we're gone right after the game.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
I'm not working with these damn kids. I'm done.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I need no proper veterans up in here.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Man.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Nobody tells me Steph is not gonna play until I
actually get on the floor. Like Steph is dressed in
his uniform and Draymond goes out there for warm ups
and then Steph changes back into his street clothes. Hey,
I'm not playing tonight, man. I just just want you
can't rest too, because if I rest, so, uh, you
guys gotta go play?
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Oh no, no, I rest? What if I wanted to rest?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Well, see Ricky Bobby, how could you rest if I rest?
Speaker 2 (36:44):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Like like, I gotta rest, so you gotta play.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
So that that's how it goes.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
I gotta rest, you gotta play. So uh exit out
about a Fresca exit swollen dome. The Jason Smith Show
is my best friend. Mike Carmon Lot from the tire
rack dot Com Studio. We'll have more NBA coming up
next hour, but straight ahead, we got a double barrel
of big NFL stories coming your way. We have yet
another development on Aaron Rodgers and coming up next, a
(37:11):
huge injury that could affect the playoff chase in a
large way or will it? That's next Tireck dot Com
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