Best of the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon

Jason Smith and Mike Harmon tell you how the absences of Joel Embiid and Paul George were immensely felt in the Sixers’ season opener. NFL Insider Jason Cole joins the show to talk Week 8 and all the trade-rumors. The Cleveland Browns announce their rolling with Jameis Winston as QB1. Plus, a visit from The Great Ric Bucher!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmon podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from 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 iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the best of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Greetings, Welcome inside.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Happy Wednesday, The Jason Smith Show with my bass friend
Mike Harmon, live from the Tirack dot Com studios. Tirec
dot com I help you get there an unmatched selection, fast,
free shipping, free road hazard protection, over ten thousand recommended installers.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Tirac dot Com is the way tire buying should be well.
Happy Opening Night two in the NBA.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
You know we go from last night in the pageantry
of the celt making twenty nine threes and tying the
all time record, the absolute history of lebron James playing
with Bronnie James first father son boat ever in the
history of the game. A lot of people still really
mad about both those things.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
We had never seen that before. We had not seen
anything like it since nineteen ninety with Ken Griffy and
Ken Griffy Sr. And now we have the second night
and the biggest highlight is the Pistons got called for
having six guys on the court.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, it's good to.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
See their in mid season. Fourth Did they learn from
Dan lanning six guys on the court? Did they think
that was gonna help him lay defense on that one
possession to maybe get him over It was pretty.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Interesting, I gotta say, pretty interesting to see. Oh no, no,
that's uh, that's six guys on the court right there. Yeah,
it's good to see the offseason worked.

Speaker 4 (01:48):
I'm counting them on one two, three guys in the
back court, one two, three.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
In the front court. Did they run drills in the
offseason where they go six on five?

Speaker 4 (01:56):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Maybe, hey, we want to make it look like.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
Where there's just like a little more frenetic pace on
the defense to make sure the feet keep moving and stuff.
I don't know, I'm trying to find an excuse for
how you can be a professional team and show that
level of an aptitude. You mean, we just we just
can't do that. We just can't put six guys out
and then it's the pistons. You know, you want to
that punchline wrote itself.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
You want a great story.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
So my freshman year of high school, uh football, we
we were terrible. I think we were what we're like
three and seven or something like that, were really bad
and we were we we won like our we won
our first game, then we lost like seven in a row,
and then we then we won and we tied or
something I forget. Anyway, in the middle of playing all
the teams that we normally play, uh, there is one

(02:41):
kid who the coaches they put them on the kickoff
team because somebody uh got hurt like right and warm
ups like I got hamstringer, couldn't play, Okay, so they said, okay,
go out there and be on the kickoff team. Okay,
goes out there, Pete, I remember Pete. Pete Bayaz is
his name.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
So Pete Baiaz goes out in the kickoff team and
and uh, you know, okay, the kickoff happens and you know,
the tackle all of a sudden, Okay, great, and I'm
on the side because I didn't ply. I didn't play
that much by freshman until the very end of the year,
and and the other team gets the ball and they
start driving down the field on us, and they're you know,
it's it's a lot of running. It's a lot they're
running the ball. It's like probably like one of those

(03:17):
ten play drives. They got the ball like their own
thirty and there, you know, here's six yards five yards,
six yards, five yards. They drive all the way down
and they get down to the ten yard line and
and all of a sudden, the coach on the other
team is frantic, and the referee throws a flag and
they throw a flair like what is it? And they said,
and they said, Curtis in my high school, Curtis High School,
twelve men on the field, and we've counted into like twelve.

(03:39):
It's like buck, come on, man twelve. And Pete was
the guy on the on the field and he didn't
play like he wasn't a guy that played. And and
they go, Pete, come on and comes off and they go,
what do you do? What you doing out there? He goes, well,
I went out there for the kickoff and I just stayed.
He goes, she went out there.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
The entire drive. And we're still getting roughed on and dominated.
The assistant coach laughed and said, well, look at it.
This one.

Speaker 4 (04:04):
We got away with it for like nine plays, and me,
even freshman year, my thought, future sportstock radio is going.
We had twelve guys on the field for the last
nine plays are on the.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Five yard line.

Speaker 4 (04:14):
We had come, We had it, and we couldn't stop
it with the extra man.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
We ran a four four four defense, like.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
We had four defensive linemen, we had four line backs.
And the thing is like that meant Pete didn't engage
on a single.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
Line la I don't understand, is that he was just
hanging out.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
We ran a four to four defense right with three
defensive backs because nobody really would throw.

Speaker 4 (04:36):
Right, so we ran four the rare tight end scene.
Yet at some point, like, don't the defensive backs have
to go? Why are there four of it? We don't
run this. This is not our system. Why are we
have Why do we have four DB's out in.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Getting run over by the pulling guard?

Speaker 4 (04:51):
And we had twelve guys on the field for nine
blaze and they drove from their thirty down to our f.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
That's fantastic. Nobody catches it on the side.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
Nobody nobody, none of the rest of the defenses looking.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Around going what the hell? Yeah, but that man you
got run over.

Speaker 4 (05:11):
But that's what I knew. I'm like, okay, yeah, uh.
Sports talk radio hosts, Hey, how bad is that? Look
at his team?

Speaker 1 (05:18):
They had twelve guys on the field and they were
giving up seven yards of play.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Even with the extra man.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
Now, what would have been funny is if all of
a sudden they throw it up and there's Pete Now
you know, Johnny on the spot. Yeah, someone does the count,
going wait, what the hell?

Speaker 3 (05:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:35):
I was like, how do you, dude, how do you
You're you know, you're not supposed to stay in the game,
but he stated he just I'm staying in, staying in
the huddle.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
Okay, right, all right is what I'm gonna do.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
How about this watching a full grid of four games,
a couple of Marquee matchups getting ready to start. They
just did a profile of McClain of the sixers up
there right, here's summer League.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Here's what he did.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
Here's all this the last thing that they put up
on his little graphic. You always got three point eight
million followers on TikTok, like it's night one man, and.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
I get it. They're getting drummed with two minutes left
by the Bucks.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
So what's gonna like, Yeah, we're gonna get we We
gotta get to that here, because that's the other big
part of.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
I whatt that Zion didn't play because he was ill
and I don't think they needed him.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
And hey, good good, good ups to the Pistons. Oh
by the way, who really fought hard tonight. And they
were leading this game for a while. And then you
know the Pacers that remembered, oh yeah, we were actually
not bad. Uh, and they win the game one thirteen,
one oh six. But the Pistons had to lead for
a long time.

Speaker 4 (06:36):
You know, two years ago you said they were a
team on the common, they were ready to come here,
ready to rise up. I mean, somehow Kate Cunningham got
a Max deal. Hey, they were in fifteen games a
year and you got a Max deal. You gotta pay somebody,
Will you stay? What's you gonna take to get you
to stay?

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Max? Max? Okayn, the Max? Maybe maybe not. You're you're
paying me on intention anyway, So let's get it on.
You're now the.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Richest man in the state of Michigan because Harball left,
so congratulations.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
How about that?

Speaker 1 (07:06):
That's you kid cutting up. But now, because there is
good with bad, look obviously, and and you know Milwaukee
and Philadelphia is one of it. The Bucks are crushing
the Joel embiid less seventy six at this point. But
how about let's investigate him before we get before we
get into you know, boy, how bad this is. Let
let's just let's just have a moment here, an appreciation moment.

(07:28):
The Pelicans lead the Bulls right now, one eleven ninety five. Yeah,
and they're killing them. And the Pelicans are playing without Zion,
which you could say, hey, after the last four years,
they're used to these games without Zion.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
How he did play seventy plus regular season, Yes, but
he's already missed the first one. So there's that out
with an illness.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
But making his return to the NBA after nearly three
years away because of various knee and foot injuries. Lonzo
ball back tonight, and some of the plays it looked
like he has just missed a couple of weeks. Had
been Ali up Zach Levine for the Slam Zach Levine
on Cooper Cup Revenge Tour. Now, but you know, seeing

(08:07):
seeing him out there was really kind of fun. You know,
for a long time he was the best plus minus
player on the Bulls.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
Tonight he was the only guy that was in the
positives for them for a bit.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
Didn't go crazy stat wise, he was at five points
for assists for a long time.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
His minutes were down.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
Obviously, he's coming back after three years, but you know,
you remember, I mean, he's been gone a long long time,
and you know, you go back and and it was
it was that long ago where Magic Johnson said, hey,
where drafted you number two overall? We want to see
your jersey and the rafters here at some point and
then you realize, not only did it not work out,
then he went to another team, then he went to

(08:41):
the Bulls, and now he's missed almost three years before
he's come back to play. And that's some kind of
stick touitiveness to come back after that long and come
back and get back and play. And so big up
Salonso for coming back here. Well good for him. He
also did did the right thing. He had a player
option on his contract. He said, yes, I'll take your money,
so he battled back and giving them minutes tonight, He's

(09:03):
played what about fourteen to fifteen minutes in this blowout defeat.
As we sit here against the Pelicans and what Brandon
Ingram and CJ. McCollum have done. But he was a
guy that has done a disservice. Right, the last twenty
four hours had been a bunch of bloviators and hot
take nonsense. Every idiot that can climb to a higher

(09:23):
pedestal to tell you what a travesty it was that
Bronnie James found his way into an NBA game. Just
get a hold of yourselves, okay, to find someone to
give you a hug, unplug your head set, go do
something else. Go find a nice cartoon, because that's about
the aptitude you're showing here is meet.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
Hey, look, oh that coyote. The Roadrunner's gonna get him again.
It'll make you.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
Feel better about yourself. But the fact is you got
a guy in Lonzo Ball who has done a disservice.
You mentioned Magic Johnson. Obviously we had LaVar Ball, big
ball of brand and everything else. Kid just wanted to
play basketball and he was a pretty good basketball player.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
Always see him like a pretty good kid.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
And then unfortunately the series of knee injuries, so to
see him battle back when most folks would have said,
you know, I made some money, I'm good. Oh, to
show the intestinal fortitude to steal from our old pale
guerrilla Mond soon for a moment, and Jesse the body
Ventura to get back on the court and give them
some minutes, because look, this team's gonna stink, so he's

(10:27):
gonna play substantive minutes. He's gonna earn every bit of
that contract he opted into Zach Lavine, a guy who's
gonna showcase himself every night to get dealt, I think,
is what we're gonna look at here thirteen to five
and two in his thirty two minutes tonight, the arrival
of Josh Guiney. I mean, there's a couple of component
parts where you're like, all right, they've got some good

(10:47):
young talent, but what does it mean Not a whole
hell of a lot, because they're gonna.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Get buried on a nightly basis.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
So meanwhile, the third game in the trifecta, we have
the Suns and the Clippers.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
They're just getting going. Oh yeah, we've got a civil
war in the building here. Milwaukee has just defeated the
Philadelphia seventy six Ers a game that was not close.
The Bucks obviously had a huge advantage in this game.
There was no Joel Embiid and they were up by
fifteen throughout. They win at one twenty four to one
oh eight, And now the NBA has decided they're going

(11:18):
to investigate the seventy six ers. Why are they doing
this because Embiid missed the preseason and now he's missing
the first three games as he tries to come back
from his injury that limited him to thirty eight games
last year. But he did come back for the playoffs,
but they're trying to limit his minutes now and the
NBA is looking into it because what happens is when

(11:39):
you miss a nationally televised game, they always look into it.
We don't want you to miss nationally televised games, and
players are sitting out.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
So it's become a thing.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Especially in the ways comments about a couple weeks ago
with the ESPN where he said, listen, I'm suid to me,
I'm not playing another back to back ever, and the
Sixers said the other day they don't anticipate playing both
of them in back to back games. The Sixers have
just said, yeah, we know the rule, we ain't doing it.
So I get the NBA wanting.

Speaker 4 (12:05):
To do this because you look, they don't want these
big players to be missing games. Obviously, I think the
Sixers wish they had joellenbid for the opening night. Yeah,
but this is this is their best attempt.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
And this is why the NBA is so feeble, because
because Adam Silver just doesn't want to do anything, is
that the teams are still going to not play their
players in back to backs. They don't care. And the
NBA can say, and this is kind of one of
those shot across the bows. Okay, beginning of the season,
we're gonna try to get rid of this early. We're
gonna have some kind of investigation. And the six is saying, yeah,

(12:35):
whatever he's heard, he's not playing. Bad time to have
the investigation because obviously he's missing it's opening night. He
would play if they if they wanted him to play.
But this is the worst thing because the NBNBA has
empowered the players to do whatever they want when it
comes to playing and sitting out games. And sitting out
games is stupid. That's sitting out games is just stupid.

(12:55):
But teams are gonna do that because it's too many games,
and they're gonna throw back to back out there, and
the NBA is going to say, there's nothing we can
do other than shortening the schedule. And the NBA is
not gonna do that because Adam Silver is not gonna
be a commission and says, you know, less games is great.
Like what happened to Jerry maguire when he said less clients,
less money. Yeah, you're fired, Jerry, And they did it
to Cronins. So this is where the NBA is trying

(13:19):
to to to kind of assert themselves a little bit,
and it's just going to be met with a shrug
by the rest of the NBA. Yeah, okay, you want
to investigate this, fine, whatever, what are you gonna do?

Speaker 3 (13:27):
And beads hurt. We'll see, We'll see another night. I mean,
that's how it's gonna go.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
But in the end, I mean, the owners aren't going
to give back the revenues of those added games. Right
whenever there's the let's propose it to a seventy game schedule,
It's like, all right, convince both sides.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
They want to give up billions of dollars.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
Oh and everything you've got to do to now bend
over backwards to appease your rights holders who have just
paid in for the extra amounts and parse this out
and all of these different things that you're doing in
terms of streaming and repackaging, repurposing content. You can't do
it within met It's funny, right because immediately you go

(14:04):
to well, you look pretty good at the Olympics, and
like God, love of Country guaranteed paycheck here, all of
those things that play together and the back to backs,
they've done a pretty good job.

Speaker 5 (14:19):
Right.

Speaker 4 (14:19):
Most teams only have a handful on the schedules anymore.
You're not seeing a ton of it. But you can't
eliminate them entirely unless you want to play an extra
month of a season, right, or add another two weeks,
three weeks to your regular season. No, it's already a
season that ends in June, and we're back here mid October.

(14:40):
We already had a month of preseason and everything else.
So you know the fact that it used to be
what Halloween or a little bit later. I used to
remember trick or treating with my kids when they were little,
and you'd be watching an NFL game if it happened
to be on a Monday, or Thursday, or you'd be
watching whatever the big NBA game was, Like, why is
there a crowd outside? Because you got a giant ass

(15:00):
TV and your windows open. That's why. So yeah, investigate
all you want. Nobody's giving the money back. The only
consideration is everybody crying about the fact that you forced
me to play sixty five games so I could be
eligible for an award. It's like, now you guys were
doping and agreeing to those circumstances in terms.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
Of the voting and what it means for your money
as well.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Exit out about a Fresco exit swollen dome again. Opening
Night two of the NBA. Here tonight show brought you
by the studios here the tire rec dot Com studios.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
Coming up, we got Jason Cole stopping by all the
latest news in the NFL. What quarterback said the postgame
speech this weekend was the best he had heard in
twenty years. You Aaron Rodgers. That's coming up next, Jason
and Mike. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon, Let us hope one and professionals, Help
hire your next pro. Forget about posting jobs, sitting through resumes,
interviews with unqualified applicants.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Move up to the pros.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
Go to expresspros dot com to find a location near
you that is expresspros dot com.

Speaker 4 (16:23):
Opening Night two in the NBA. We'll have more on
that coming up. However, maybe things are looking up for
the Jets. I may I'm not saying maybe they're looking
up because all of a sudden, the leader that Gotham has,
the leader that Gotham City needed, turns out to be

(16:44):
DeVante Adams.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Big story today. Adams gave a big, fiery speech following
the Jets loss to the Steelers on Sunday. Talked about accountability,
said there was no not enough celebrating, not enough joy
a big plays. Aaron Rodgers talked about that after the
game that the sideline was flat, and Rogers says, best
speech I've heard, most realist speech in twenty years in

(17:09):
the NFL. Davante Adams a guy who didn't want to
play the Raiders and said as early as two and
a half years ago.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
I don't want to be here. He's the leader the
Jets need.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
Davonte Adams shows you what kind of locker room you
got there?

Speaker 3 (17:23):
Guy, you just quit on his last team. I I
got a hamstring? Oh yes I don't. And now he
comes in and that's the speech.

Speaker 4 (17:31):
Look, he gave the most effort showing that and the
quick twitch muscles were working well after the Rogers interception
where he did make the chase down tackle at the one.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
So that was good.

Speaker 4 (17:42):
I mean, he showed a lot of heart and saw
the wizard for that play. But if that's the guy,
given your speeches, you got problem, Well maybe he always
had that. He was just waiting, waiting for the Jets
to show that he's there, really okay, joining us hero
a man who is a very good leader, very good
NFL Insider thirty third team on Twitter at Jason Cole

(18:04):
sixty two, lifelong Dodger fan. It is the Hall of
very good voter himself j Cole, what's happening, buddy?

Speaker 6 (18:16):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (18:16):
This is great. Just let this go first, sec, just
let it play out.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
It's probably better than anything you're going to say. So okay, Yeah,
that's good.

Speaker 5 (18:28):
How's your neck by the way.

Speaker 3 (18:30):
Oh, hang on, I'll bite my neck is fine? Why?

Speaker 5 (18:36):
Oh, because you watched all those home runs being hit
by the Dodgers, so you know it might have made
you crane your neck so often and you might have
hurt yourself as you were watching from those very good seats.
That your wife's guy for you.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
Hey, how's your how's your car?

Speaker 5 (18:52):
My car is fabulous?

Speaker 1 (18:53):
One good because I just keep it on the way
into work tonight. So congratulations.

Speaker 5 (19:02):
I wanted to tell your wife thank you. As a
Dodger fan, I wanted to say thank you to missus
Smith for allowing you to watch the future World Champions
up close and personal and live. That's a great thing
that you got to accomplish.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
Well.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
Look, I got both ends of the Shan Benaya spectrum.
I got the brilliance of game too, and then each
we're going to lose in game six, So I got
both of those.

Speaker 5 (19:27):
Yeah, you got that, but you also got you got
Jeff mess all the liberty. The liberty came through for.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
You, right, that's your's true. Hey, Look but traversially.

Speaker 5 (19:36):
Yess that jet that Jeff's effort, I mean, that was
just like the chef's kiss. Yeah, it it really was,
It really was. You know that the Davante Adams chase down.
That's a great one. That's really great.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
The highlight of the night.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
He's the leader we need now, I mean, apparently he's
Aaron Rodgers said his speech was the best he's hurd
in twenty years in the NFL. We just had to
wait for DeVante Adams. Now we're going to be fine.

Speaker 5 (20:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good. Yeah, what do he made
just such a brilliant call to get rid of a
guy that that people actually liked. But you know, and
now now you're listless. But okay, Devanta Adams will just
get everything going. That's good.

Speaker 4 (20:20):
Yeah, yeah, okay, now we're going to rip off ten
twelve wins in a row.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
We're good.

Speaker 5 (20:25):
There was Salad's fault that they had to have Zach
Wilson at quarterback for how long? For Yeah, for his
entire time, except for like three games or whatever it was,
you know, five games. Yeah, that was that was all
on solid that he was stuck with Zach Wilson and
Zach's mom.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
Hey he got a new job.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Now he's he's some kind of floating coach with the Packers.

Speaker 5 (20:46):
He was I'm so glad that the Jets are paying
for the Packers to have another coach, so that you
really are contributing to other teams success. That's a great thing.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
All Smith can do it his smile.

Speaker 5 (21:10):
I'm sorry say that again, I missed it.

Speaker 4 (21:12):
Yeah, at this point, all he can do is smile
because you're hurting him with your words, just assailing him
with a body blow after body blow.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
Hey, how much more active? Well, yeah, he's close, he's teetering.

Speaker 4 (21:28):
He's on the edge here, had that Knicks loss yesterday
and it's really a bad, bad thing for him. But trades,
we've seen a bunch in the NFL. Ram's actually going
to make a bunch of moves. Is it all contingent
on Thursday night results?

Speaker 5 (21:43):
I don't think it's contingent. Look, I think they know
where they are. They're not very good and Copyeah, it's
really hard to trade a guy who's that good. But
if you know that his body is breaking down, which
for the last two years it appears that way, you

(22:04):
better catch out on that one. Now. The question I
have for them is like, does Stafford stick around for this?
Does McVeigh stick around for it because you know McVeigh
but two years ago was angling for an ESCN job.
I mean, he basically wanted to He wanted something where
he could be, you know, making eight figures by just
talking about football, and God help, we should all do that.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
Well, we blied him back onto the field because we
called it out like the going got tough and he
was going to quit.

Speaker 5 (22:35):
Yeah, and he probably should have gone. But yeah, Like
the Rams are in a really serious quandary because you
want to have some ammunition to rebuild this thing, and
you're also dealing with what did your quarterback want to do?

Speaker 6 (22:55):
Well?

Speaker 4 (22:55):
Do you believe the Stafford trade rumors that have been
out there the last day or so or now?

Speaker 5 (23:00):
Not really. I mean it sounds kind of nice, but
I think that to most teams really look at it
and go, can we really really get a guy in
here and turn our season around that quickly when he
doesn't know the guys that he's working with and doesn't
know I just like, it's such a far fetched thing

(23:22):
for a quarterback. It's one thing even wide receivers, you know,
And I'm not trying to drill on the whole DeVonta
Adams thing because this applies to you DeAndre Hopkins too.
Coming in the middle of the season, it takes you
a while to get on page. I mean, just learning
an offense. And you know, Adams has an advantage because

(23:42):
he knows the quarterback, but he's still got to figure
out some of the offense and how it works with
the players that he's got around him, and what the
role is. Hopkins has it more so now Hopkins, they
can afford to be patient because the defense is so
good that they can wait for him to kind of
work his way in and give somebody that Mahomes can
depend upon.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Right.

Speaker 5 (24:03):
But I just like, unless it's a corner you know,
cornerbacks are really easy. Defensive tackles, defensive ends, that's easy.
Running backs relatively easy. Any other position in that A
very few times I've seen a guy coming in the

(24:23):
mid season and turn a club around and really take
it to another lovel It might it might improve slightly,
but it's just not. It's not what we're talking about,
you know. Like Mike Haynes is the greatest example. When
the Raiders went and got Haynes with the Patriots, and
that's a billion years ago.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
It's a long time. Yeah, that is a long time ago.

Speaker 5 (24:48):
Yeah, I mean, well Deon Deon Sanders, you know, going well,
you know that was yeah, the forty nine Ers, that
was four weeks into the season. But again, it's a
defensive back. Defensive backs are easier to work into things,
especially when it's a man cover guy who just like,
look they'll cover that guy and wipe them out. You're

(25:08):
good And yeah, other positions. Quarterback is just so hard
to get on page.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
So as we look at it going forward, we're already
into week eight, yar J Coole. So Jason, mister Smith
and I have talked about quite a bit. How many
teams would you say are really actually good?

Speaker 5 (25:33):
Five maybe and sort of that. And the Steelers peeter
on this right because you don't know, they made the
right move to go to Russell Wilson and the defensive
championship caliber the defense. They have the best defense in
the league, and if they can get the score in

(25:54):
their favor a little bit more, it's even more dangerous.
Now Kansasity is more consistent with their defense, but you know,
they can rely a little bit on their offense to
make sure that they get a key score. The Steelers,
until I don't know that they trust either one of
the quarterbacks. Yet Wilson just did a better job, you know,

(26:15):
like he got Pickens involved, made sure that Pickens was happy,
and if you got a happy Pickens, you might get
a player out of them. I mean, that guy's such
a miserable two too. It's just unbelievable, you know, like
he he is like the worst grandfather in the world,
complaining about everything in the world, right, just a miserable

(26:36):
and the guy's like twenty three years old. I mean,
she just always complaining about something and he has been
that way since he got to you know, Georgia. It's
just ridiculous with that kid. But you know, Wilson got
him involved, and so they have what is a semi
functional offense. And I know everybody's like, oh, Justin Fields great,

(26:58):
and Russell will soon it's just a camera hog and
wants to do the interviews. Yeah, but Russell Wilson can
actually play quarterback and run an effective offense, and Justin
Field is still like two or three years away from
doing that. I mean, we all see it. I mean,
to me, other than that, Baltimore is excellent Kansas City

(27:19):
so far as the number one team because they've actually
won the games. Baltimore is the team that's really dangerous
out there. Buffalo is really good, but man, they just
do not seem all that tough on defense, and it's
gotten worse. I thought they were better on defense last year,
but it's just not very tough. Obviously. The entire NFC

(27:40):
North is good right now. I mean, we'll see how
long Chicago hangs in there. You know you're not there yet.
You know you're not with Green Bay. You know you're
not with Detroit yet. You know you're not with Minnesota yet,
but you're not. You're not that far behind. And that's

(28:02):
the cool part. Like because the quarterback over the last
four weeks and Grandy's playing lesser talent and lesser teams,
but he looks like he's functional. Now. I mean, this
is I hope Daniels plays this weekend because that's a
that's a really really fun game. But nobody in the
the NFC East Washington it's fun. I don't think they're real.

(28:23):
The forty nine ers will see if they managed to
just get healthy enough and tape this thing together. But
there's nobody else in the NFC that's like, nobody out
of the South, and so it's Kansas City, it's the
it's the three teams out of the a you know,
the AFC East that you know, you know, like because

(28:44):
Cincinnati will get better over the season, and then you
got Buffalo. I just think that it's all in the
a FC and maybe Detroit or you know, Detroit, Green
Bay or Minnesota most likely since they're healthy, come out
and it becomes a decent kind of a decent super Bowl.
But that's like what we named, like five six teams.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
That's not the Jets.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
There is nobody to tell you about who the very
good teams are in the NFL better than Jason Cole.

Speaker 4 (29:16):
He's on Twitter at Jason Cole sixty two. J Cole
as always buddy appreciated. Good luck in the World series.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
My friend, I am.

Speaker 5 (29:24):
I as much of an old coat as George Pickens.
That's the question, Uh, like.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
Do you both watch CBS late at night?

Speaker 6 (29:33):
Watch?

Speaker 5 (29:34):
Do we watch Fox during the daytime?

Speaker 4 (29:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Bye, I'm watching reruns of Benson on TV lauds. They
actually done exit out about a Fresca exit Swellendome always
a great visit with Jay Cole. Now we're gonna visit
with Monsey Belos, who has one eye on what's trending
and one eye on her gambling account because she has
so many many Clippers bets out tonight. She actually bet

(30:05):
at ten down to gain five million if Kawhi Leonard
plays tonight.

Speaker 7 (30:10):
I did facts facts, Yeah, you know it was it was.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
It was worth it.

Speaker 8 (30:16):
It was worth it. He came out. You never know,
you really, you really never know.

Speaker 7 (30:20):
With Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers first game at Into
It Dome, I can't wait to head out there because
it does look pretty amazing, and with three minutes to
go in the first quarter, the Clippers are on top
of the Suns twenty to eighteen.

Speaker 8 (30:34):
I am wearing a Clipper shirt, the new Clipper shirt,
the new logo. Brie is wearing her Sun's shirt, so
we'll see how it goes.

Speaker 4 (30:40):
I thought that's where the other I was was looking
over your shoulders.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
Oh that case, there was going to be a sneaker
I could reflection.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
So it's just a Clipper fan and Brionna, one of
our producers letters is a huge Suns fan. Moncey and
Brianna are best friends. Yes, they're going to fist fight tonight.

Speaker 8 (30:55):
Yeah, that's the plan. I may, I may throw a chair,
let me throw it. I don't know, guys, We'll see
how it goes.

Speaker 5 (31:02):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (31:02):
The Grizzlies are beating the Jazz sixty four to fifty
seven early in the third quarter, and late in the
first quarter. It's the Trailblazers on top of the Warriors
eighteen to fifteen.

Speaker 8 (31:11):
But we had a full slate of games ten total,
three are left.

Speaker 7 (31:14):
The Pacers officially beat the Pistons one fifteen to one
oh nine. Kate Cunningham, in a losing effort, dropped twenty
eight points, five rebounds, and eight assists, while the Cavs
crushed the Raptors one thirty six to one oh six.
Donovan Mitchell a thirty one piece in that one. The
Bucks outscored the seventy six Ers one twenty four to
one oh nine. No Joel Embiid, no Paul George for Philly.
You guys were talking about this.

Speaker 8 (31:35):
The league plans.

Speaker 7 (31:36):
To investigate the status of Embiid, who was expected to
miss the first three games of the season because of
a knee issue. The Magic defeated the Heat one sixteen
to ninety seven. Pawlo Ban Carol thirty three points, eleven rebounds.
My boy, Jimmy Butler one of eight, three points, five assists.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
No blin no no by no. Oh you bet the
over for like twenty five. Oh that's what we should
have had a couple own twenty dollars coffee. Yes, yes,
that's so true.

Speaker 7 (32:04):
The Hawks held on to beat the Nuts one twenty
to one to sixteen, Trey Young thirty points and twelve assists,
and the Pelicans with a one twenty three to one
eleven win over the Bulls.

Speaker 8 (32:13):
Nozion Williamson.

Speaker 7 (32:14):
He was scratched for New Orleans right before the game,
apparently he's sick. Brandon Ingram though thirty three points and
seven rebounds and its official to Hornets top the Rockets
one ten to one oh five after being down by
fifteen in the first half. This was Charles lee first
win as a head coach. LaMelo Ball thirty point, thirty
four points, eight rebounds and eleven assists. A little NFL
news for you, fellas, The Panthers are going to start

(32:35):
Bryce Young our quarterback Week eight against the Broncos. Andy
Dalton has a spring thumb following a car accident yesterday.
The Browns are going to start Jamis Winston on Sunday
against the Ravens. Dorian Thompson Robinson is dealing with a
jan finger on his throwing hand. The Tins are leaning
towards starting Mason Rudolph against again this week because Will
Levis is still dealing with his shoulder issue. No practice

(32:55):
today for Commander's quarterback Jaden Daniels as he continues to
deal with his rib injury, but practice today. Good news
for Colts running back Jonathan Taylor. They think he may
play actually.

Speaker 8 (33:06):
This weekend against the Texans. Oh, in a hockey game.
There's a hockey game. It's over. It's over. Capitals beat
the Flyer six three.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
I bet the over on that and I won. I
know that's right. That's how I remember that one.

Speaker 4 (33:18):
By the way, a GESPN dot com. The Bulls won
eighty one eighty. Yeah, that's been the whole time.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
Yeah, they gotta they gotta fix that. Yeah, it's sweet victory.
I'm playing it right now.

Speaker 8 (33:27):
Is it still not showing you?

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Also?

Speaker 8 (33:29):
Like the.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Nothing all day?

Speaker 8 (33:32):
It's been like that.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
Congratulations harmon victory. At seven two West Coast.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon live from the
Tirec dot Com studios.

Speaker 4 (33:41):
Coming up next, Two big quarterback changes in the NFL.
Should they be permanent? That's next Jason and Mike.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my friend Mike Harmon.

Speaker 4 (34:01):
Opening Night too in the NBA. But two big quarterback
stories to get to. We have two changes in the
NFL this weekend.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
In Cleveland, Jamis Winston takes over as a starting quarterback
following the injury to Deshaun Watson. Also, Ken Dorsey will
now call plays for the Browns first time. Kevin Stefanski
is not doing that.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
And uh, look, what's the effect of this gonna be.
I'll tell you it's gonna have the Andy Dalton Panthers effect,
in which, hey, there'll be a little bit more energy,
the offense will look a little bit better.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
But in the end, the.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
Browns are gonna lose. Right, They're gonna be big underdogs
in every game they'll play the rest.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
Of the way.

Speaker 4 (34:44):
They'll be a little bit more competitive, but this season
is over, right, they've already sent the message we're gonna
continue to start when he was healthy. We're continued to
start Deshaun Watson and the team is not going anywhere,
and it's just done. They're just punching the clock now
till the end of the year. But this move should
be a little bit better. It should, it should juice
the offense up a little bit. But you've already traded

(35:05):
your best receiver away. Uh, and more trades coming.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
I am sure.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
David and Joku is also rumored to be on the
on the trading block. Teams looking for a tight.

Speaker 4 (35:13):
End guys on the defensive side. There might be two
or three pieces. Yeah, I mean Jameis wins. Look, they'll
have a little bit more offense, right, so if you
have Brown's fantasy players, maybe you'll get a little bit
old guy opportunity disappeared. But targets, it's it's just gonna be.
It's just gonna be more of the same. They'll score
a few more points, maybe they'll win a game or

(35:33):
two the rest of the way, but that's kind of
how it's gonna end. This team is gonna end with
a three to fourteen record. They'll be picking in the
top three in the NFL draft, they'll get their quarterback
to replace DeShawn Watson.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
We talked about the other night. Because when you're drafting,
don't have to worry about you pay another guy.

Speaker 3 (35:47):
We can't pay. No, you got money for your draft picks.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
And and Shadora Sanders or Carson Becker whoever is going
to be their quarterback next year.

Speaker 5 (35:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:54):
You look at their next six games. They got a
date against the Ravens this week.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
That's an L. Chargers defense. That's another L. That's gonna
be an L. Following week it's the Saints.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
Yeah, okay, so maybe that's a maybe one. That's one
of the maybe against Nick Chubb.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
Yeah. Well, the Kamara got paid. He's done. Oh well, yeah,
I got I got get good. I'm good, good, good
point a two year deal at twenty nine. Wait wait,
I'm good good waiting. Then you get the Steelers, that's
an L. Then you get the Broncos. They're off.

Speaker 4 (36:27):
Yeah, their defense is really yeah, I mean you look
back and start Wayne and one more. Yeah, the Steelers
you get so like there'll be two and ten, two
and eleven, Right, that's how it's gonna go. It'll be
a little bit more excepsing. It's like in a Few
Good Men when Kevin Bacon says, oh, you know, Lieutenant.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Caffy's gonna dazzle you with stories of Code reds and
and illegal.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
Things going on. He'll have no evidence, mind you, not.

Speaker 6 (36:51):
In the end.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
It'll be entertaining, but it's not going to escape the
fact that Santiago's dead and Dawson and Downey did it right, Like, hey,
it might be fun. Hey, maybe some high wire acts here,
here's Winston, a couple of touchdowns with the Yet the
Browns are gonna lose. Well, I'm glad you reversed normal course,
you brought up the dead guys, so that's good. Well,
but he was a fictional dead guy, so it's okay. Well,
it's a movie, and you checked in on that's a movie.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
I think wow. If he is, then then shame on
you for bringing I think he's all right. I don't
know anyway.

Speaker 4 (37:21):
The point, dude, that we're trying to make here is
that it'll be fun and Jamis will give us some
great speeches because now he's actually the starter. Remember he
was doing all the speeches in the third string Guy.
He wasn't even a backup at that point.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Meanwhile, in Carolina, speaking of Andy Dalton, all the best
wishes to Andy Dalton his family who were involved in
a car accident earlier this week. Everybody is okay, and
that was the best news we saw. But Andy Dalton
did sprain his thumb in the car accident and the
Panthers and Dave Canalis are hoping that he can serve
as the backup quarterback. But Bryce Young will be back
under center this weekend for the Panthers. And look, it's

(38:00):
it's hard because its the week Randy Daalt was in
a car accident and all all that. Like I said,
all the best to him, but you're looking at the
you know, it's it's it's bigger than him, the.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
Panthers have going on.

Speaker 4 (38:09):
If Bryce Young comes in and and has shown any
sort of hey, I get it a little bit more.

Speaker 3 (38:15):
He's got to be the quarterback the rest of the way.

Speaker 4 (38:17):
I mean, I know you've see him, like you feel
like you've made your decision on him and you're moving on.
But boy, why not just be really really sure you're
not going anywhere You'll be drafting a quarterback again?

Speaker 3 (38:27):
When when? When?

Speaker 4 (38:28):
The off season comes and you're gonna move on. Maybe
Bryce Young will play well enough or just well enough.
You could trade him this.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
Year at the deadline, somebody could be looking for Bryce Young.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
But if he comes in and it's not just absolutely abysmal,
you really want to make sure about a first number
one overall pick before you say, okay, we're done, pack
it up. So if he does, if he plays a
little bit better, yeah he should stay the starter because
you're not playing for anything else.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
So then what do you have in the future here
in Carolina.

Speaker 4 (38:55):
So if it's awful and it's abysmal, and it's another
no touchdown three and or seven, he throws for sixty
five yards, yeah, okay, back and he's finished. But if
he shows a little bit, he needs to stay the start.
But even if he if he's terrible, right, even if
he's shown no growth whatsoever, he was a diminished product
anyway in terms of trade values and whatever else. And

(39:17):
you're gonna be sure that going into next year that
you're gonna lose as many games as possible because Andy
Dalton hasn't won y game, so you got one win
on the year. But he gives you the danger that
you might win just enough to get yourself outside of
that window.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
Of the top quarterbacks. So yeah, I don't know, no, no,
but that's my point.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
Right, even with whatever he juice he was bringing you,
he's still only got one win.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
On the year. So at this point, what the hell's
the difference?

Speaker 4 (39:46):
You're circling the drain and creeping up towards the top
picking the draft again anyway, So yeah, might as well
roll through.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
Yeah, I look, and you still all the bears a
if you, by the way, pile on whoa? Yeah bringing
up good that's not even nice, man, that's not even nice.
You run it to dead guy exit.

Speaker 4 (40:05):
It was a fictional dead guy. It was fictionally died fictionally.
That means he's still alive.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
He finished. The movie. Wasn't a snuff film. They were
whoa line? Who happened?

Speaker 7 (40:16):
Good?

Speaker 5 (40:17):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (40:17):
Coming up next? Speaking of trades, A big one went
down today? Does this make the Chiefs even better?

Speaker 2 (40:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
The Jason Smith Show with My Best Friend Mike Harmon,
how about home Off Live from the tire rack dot
Com Studios, Night two of the NBA Warriors thumping the Blazers.
One sixteen eighty eight, twenty two for Buddy Healed off
the bench, seventeen for Steph Curry Blazers namely the kind

(41:00):
of just watching that's kind of how it's going. Yeah,
but big night tonight the seventy six Ers lose Opening
Night to the Bucks. They play without Joel Embiid. There's
a lot of drama going on right there. Also Clippers
on top of the Suns right now ninety one eighty four,
six minutes to go in the fourth quarter. But let's
break down what we've seen so far the first two nights.

(41:22):
Joining us down the hot line another year, another longtime
friend of the show, Fox Sports one NBA insider.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
He's on Twitter at Rick Buker. It is Rick Puker.
What's happening, Buddy? Happening? Opening Night? Part two?

Speaker 6 (41:37):
You or were you?

Speaker 5 (41:39):
Where you guys been?

Speaker 6 (41:40):
You're a day late? The season started yesterday?

Speaker 3 (41:44):
No, it didn't that. That Nick Celtics game was the
final preseason game.

Speaker 4 (41:49):
Yeah, yeah, you thought he was gonna find your number yesterday, No, no, no,
final preseason game. Ye say, luckily, you know, hey the
Nicks know, hey, you have to defend the three a
little bit better. So it's good to know that going
close down in the fourth though.

Speaker 6 (42:04):
Uh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, all that all that. By
the way, what do you think is more painful to
watch the s Portland Trail Blazers or Mason Plumbley shooting
streets us.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Ooh wow, you know what, I'm gonna have to stick
with the Blazers because the beginning of the hour, Harmon said, hey,
here's your score. You know, the Warriors up by twenty
seven over the Blazer in the fourth quarter. And I said,
you know, that's gonna be a very popular sentence this
year in the NBA. He said, what I said, team
blank blank blank up by large number over Portland.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
That's gonna be a very common phrase all season long.

Speaker 6 (42:38):
Probably the Washington Wizards as well. Those are two very
challenged teams. And by the way, Mason Plumbley four for
six from the retro line. Yeah, it's what I's what
I've got. So yeah, it's not it's I mean, it's
not pretty, it is not pretty, but it's effective. So
we'll go with it, and we cannot say that about
the Portland Trailblazer. You're pretty nor effective.

Speaker 4 (43:02):
I will look, we'll get to the Lakers. We'll get
to MBID in a second. But look, you know, coming
off of last night, since you so definitely brought it up,
you know, I said, I don't know how much trouble
The Knicks looked like they were having with their new
players and assimilating. They shot pretty well, but the Celtics
just didn't miss. Like, I don't know that I can
take anything away from that game other than wow, the

(43:22):
Celtics are really motivated to play that game. And thanks
Steve Kerr for motivating motivating Jason Tatum for this season.

Speaker 6 (43:29):
Yeah, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say the Holy
Olympic thing is going to be the driving force. It
might be for a game or two, but I don't
and particularly when they play the Warriors.

Speaker 4 (43:38):
Maybe.

Speaker 6 (43:38):
But I look, I think Jayson Tatum did some clearly
did some work on his on his three point shooting.
It was eight p eleven in the game. His stroake
looked completely different. I was really impressed. But no, I look,
this is my I as you guys know, I've been

(44:00):
pretty bullish on the Knicks for a little bit over
a year now, excited about what they have, excited about
what they're building. But this was my concern as I
watched them in the preseason, which is that the cost
of getting the cost of getting Karl Anthony Towns and

(44:22):
free agency, they lost Isaiah Hartenstein, Julius Randall, and Dante
de Vincenzo, And even though Julius didn't necessarily show it
in their opening games, those are three out of what
I would say are the four toughest players that the
Knicks had on their roster last year. And this was

(44:43):
the type of game where you kind of had to
dig in and they didn't have anybody who was willing
or able to do that. Dylan Brunston obviously is tough
in his own way, but I mean guys who are
just going to do the blue collar work and when
you need to really get into guys defensively and kind
of change the momentum of the game. You know, Carl

(45:04):
Anthony Towns is going to have to understand that he's
going to have to be a more physical presence, He's
going to have to be a better rebounder, he's going
to have to do more work in the paint and
uh and I didn't see a whole of that, a
whole lot of that. Now, all that said, this is
what the Celtics have as an advantage over the Nicks
is just the Knicks aren't just small because Carl Anthony

(45:27):
Towns is their center and Mitchell Robinson is injured. I mean,
you look across the board compared to the Boston Celtics,
Dylan Bunsen is an undersized point guard, Josh Hart is
an undersized or best average shooting guard, Michale Bridges undersized
wing oj and a Nuby and an Obie's undersized power forward.

(45:51):
And you're going up against the team that, even without
Christops for zingis at four out of those five positions,
they've got like six, five, six, six, six, eight sixty
nine guys. And so they were just shooting over the
top of the Knicks. And look, if the Celtics shoot

(46:12):
nearly fifty percent from three and they take sixty a game.
If they do that, I don't know that they lose
a game this year. But I don't expect there that
that is going to happen. I think they got on
a heater. And I think that the Knicks right now
are trying to figure out what is our what what
is our calenter, particularly when it comes to the Boston Like,

(46:34):
where's our advantage against Boston? And I would say it
should be Karl Anthony town with the way they're constituted,
because if you watch that game, anybody who had Al
Horford on them, they they torched Al Hortwood consistently. They
needed this game to be close and be able to

(46:55):
take advantage of the Karl Anthony Towns matchup, and they
simply couldn't get there because it was it was, It
was out of hand fairly early. So I do think
there's some issues there. But and I do think that
Boston is the team to beat and they're going to
be tough even without Forzingis. But I don't take last

(47:15):
night as a full reflection of where either team is
for the better part of the season.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
Yeah, I was telling Smith to take the one line
out of that the Celtics will not lose a game
this season.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
Tweet that out at Rick Baker.

Speaker 4 (47:29):
But you talked about heart and determination, toughness, all of
those things, Nick Show. Meanwhile, the NBA can investigate the
participation of one Joe l embiid, are we opening up
you know the Pandora's box here when we start talking
about this, Yes.

Speaker 6 (47:50):
Yes we are. And can we just say it's from
until further notice? Just because of last night. It's not
nix yo, it's nick Oh.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
It's okay, it's okay. We were looking past them to
the Pacers on Friday night.

Speaker 3 (48:08):
It's fine. We're looking at the Celtics opening night.

Speaker 6 (48:10):
It's fine, nick oh.

Speaker 3 (48:14):
All right.

Speaker 6 (48:14):
So yeah, when it comes to Joel MB it's a
weird Honestly, it's a weird report in that they're going
to investigate the fact that he's missing time. What are
you investigating? The report doesn't say, like, what is the
issue here? I'm sure that Philadelphia seventy six ers want

(48:38):
him playing and are not sitting him to open the
season for again, what what are you investigating? What is
what would be the purpose of doing that?

Speaker 5 (48:50):
Now?

Speaker 6 (48:51):
I do think that it does raise a great issue
because you've got Paul George. You're adding to the equation
you got joelenb. Paul George is supposed to supposedly going
to miss time. He's not going to play back to back.
I know that we discount the regular season now, but

(49:11):
when you're taking players that are that instrumental and have
never played meaningful to games together ever, and you have
your eye on winning a championship, I don't see how
that's possible. I mean, it's the investigation for me would be,
are you guys just conceding that you're not going to

(49:31):
win a title this year? That would be my investigations,
they would they would be asking that question because I
just don't see how you get there if you were
going to load management, load manage these guys to this degree,
and there's no look EMB's history would tell you that.
I understand why you're concerned about him being able to

(49:53):
make it through a season. What I don't understand is
why he played in the Olympics and there wasn't any
talk about protecting him then, and then supposedly he had
a great summer preparing for training camp, and there was
no indication that there was any injury or set back

(50:17):
during training camp. So how did we get to a
place where we weren't, like, weren't expecting that he was
not going to be ready for the start of the season.
I guess that would be my investigation, but investigation has
such a negative like we're suspicious of what they're doing.
I would just say, you know, the league is wants

(50:40):
to look into what happened here, and even that, like
what's the league going to do? What are they what
are they looking for? I would the people who should
be investigating it or asking questions are the Philadelphia seventy
six ers fans because there was no indication from the
team that this was going to be the state of affairs.

(51:02):
And but as far as I can tell, like their
fans are the only ones that are are put at
a disadvantage as a result of this decision.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
I'm I'm Rick Buker investigator. You tell me the truth
right now with a big hat on, got the got
the fedora on, you tell the big long trench coat.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
Yeah, you tell me what happened now?

Speaker 6 (51:25):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, I'm I'm all that and gump shoes.
Don't you have you have to have gump shoes, right sure?

Speaker 8 (51:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (51:32):
No, I'm an investigator in the big city that is
following a guy you've been missing work and there you
are go karting.

Speaker 6 (51:40):
Do I get the big magnifying glass too? Actually, actually
you know what it's Uh, if I could live the
Colombo life, I'd be okay with that. In fact, probably
been accute of that sometimes, Like where Nuker, where are
you going with this question? I'll figure it out eventually.

Speaker 4 (52:02):
He's the Columbo of NBA Insiders. Rick Buger our guest
here the Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon. All right,
so investigate this Rick. We watched the debut of Bronnie
James last night. He played three minutes alongside lebron. It
was about a perfect a debut as the Lakers could expect.
The Lakers played well, there was no drama.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
Is this kind of how we're gonna see it going forward?

Speaker 4 (52:23):
Hey, you'll play a few minutes here and there, then
slowly into the G League when they start playing. Because
I feel like it's gotta kind of be a game
by game thing, and it's gonna be little bits of
Bronny for a little while.

Speaker 5 (52:34):
I hope not.

Speaker 3 (52:35):
I hope not.

Speaker 6 (52:36):
I mean the whole thing, And I wish you could
tell it. Like with Tant. They just basically said, okay, Shack,
you gotta stay a few words and then we're not
gonna talk about this anymore.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
Yeah, let's go back to Anthony Davis and talk about him.

Speaker 6 (52:50):
They took a hard left turn. I mean, Chuck didn't
say anything, Kenny didn't say anything. They just let Shack
say a few words and then and then they moved on.
And I I feel as if we all should and
that we will look back at this. We will look
back at this, you know, years from now, and the
takeaway will be man lebron had so much power and

(53:14):
influence that he got his kids traded and I mean,
excuse me, got his kids drafted, and then got him
into the first regular season game so that they could
be the first father son duo to do that both
in the preseason and a regular season game, because there's

(53:35):
no other reason for Bronni to be there if there's
no reason for them to have drafted him out of USC.
There's nothing you did at USC, there's nothing you did
in the summer league. There's nothing that he did in
the preseason that would suggest that he deserves to be
coming into a game in the second quarter. And the
fact that he only played three minutes was the damning part.

(53:58):
It was like, we're just doing this to say that
we set the records like that's it. You know. It's
almost like you know the Guinness Book of World Records,
where people just kind of do they go hunting for
things that they can do like ten thousand times so
that they can get their name in the book. That's
what this fields like. And I'm not even field like,

(54:20):
that's that's what this this was. And so I could
only hope, like for every other guy on that Lakers
team and for JJ Reddicks authority and credibility, that we're
not going to continue with this now. It's so it
worked out. The Minnesota decided to come not come out

(54:43):
and play hard, and Anthony Edwards as much of a
knucklehead as we've ever seen him, and so they had
a lead, they had they had a little bit of
a cushion.

Speaker 5 (54:52):
You could tell. As soon as.

Speaker 6 (54:54):
Brought it came in, the momentum completely changed. But I
just I look, it's not it's it's it's not fair
to anyone. And look, all the power to Lebron that
he was able to do it, but I really think
that it's a disservice to the game. The one and

(55:14):
people will say, well, there's there's nepotism all over the NBA.
There sure is there's no question, you know, the one
place that it never touched so was on the court.
No matter who you were, no matter who your dad was,
no matter who you were related you were related to,
you couldn't get on the floor. That was sacred ground.
And I feel like that is what has been viol

(55:38):
violated as a strong word, but I think that's that's
what's been broken here because I've never I've never seen that.
You know, plenty of like video coordinator, guys, assistant, gms,
like the front office, everywhere, right, it happens. I'm not
saying that it doesn't happen, but the floor was the
one place where you were only there because you earned

(56:01):
it and you deserve to be there, and there was
a clear reason that someone believed that you were capable
of helping the team win. And no one can tell
me that Bronnie James was on the floor because the
thought was by JJ Reddick or Rob Palinka or anybody
else that he was there because he was capable of

(56:23):
helping them win.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
He's on Twitter at Rick Buker, that is at Rick Buker,
Fox Sports One Insider, Latest on the Ball podcast What
the NBA can learn from the w NBA Finals.

Speaker 4 (56:36):
It is a great listen and it's not the obvious. Hey,
if you let the star players travel five steps on
a final play, it's great. No, no, no, much more
nuanced than that.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
Again, a great listen on the Ball podcast What the
NBA can learn from the WNBA Finals.

Speaker 4 (56:50):
Rick is always buddy, appreciate it. Looking forward to another
great year Man, We'll talk to you.

Speaker 6 (56:55):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (56:58):
Welcome home. Rick up Mix