April 28, 2022 • 35 mins
Jason reveals which player he would take #1 overall in this year's NFL Draft, and it's not who you'd expect. Jason and Mike believe there's one solution to the Lakers problems that they should pursue. Plus, the Cardinals have solidified their commitment to QB Kyler Murray in the easiest way possible.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Alex Heisher, I have
I have a problem right now. Hang out, dude, I
have a you got you gotta help me out. Um,
my internet is completely down. I I can't, I can't.
My internet is completely down. Thank goodness, Mike Harmon has
decided to come into work again tonight. Mike, what happened
(00:45):
in the Bulls game? I I what happened? Can you
tell me? Well? You know, they played just a little
bit more than the Nicks, the Lakers and the Nets
did today, Okay, alright, alright, and they still a little
bit more and they won. Right, It was a close
game and they won. Well, they had their moments, but
no twelve and a half was the spread? One sixteen,
(01:06):
one hundred? Your final uh as uh? Well, Janice did
whatever he wanted, much like we theorized going all the
way back. Remember game two, uh and the game they
lost and we were on air and I said, hey, hey, Jason,
why don't they just let Janice drive to the hoop?
Every time? It seems like they heard me. No Meddleton problem. Obviously,
(01:29):
Zach Levine in protocols, wasn't around Alex Caruso. They jacked
him up last time, so he was in concussion protocol
so he didn't play. But overall, just a dismal, miserable effort.
DeMar DeRozan held to just eleven points. And this one,
when the leading score for the Bulls is gonna be
Patrick Williams, I just throw up the white flag and
(01:51):
just say stopped to damn fight because I thought this
is I thought I saw, you know, Levine had like
thirty eight and it was a big lead. I thought
I saw that. No. No, I mean you might have
been watching a replay of something else. It's kind of
like when you've been looking for the Nicks during the playoffs.
That's kind of where you had to go is in rewind,
(02:13):
as Ahmad Rashad used to say. But it's look, it
was inevitable. It's like than I am inevitable with twenty
off the bench, Grace and Allen and Ellen. I don't
think he hurt anybody today, but he had thirteen points
in five boards, and they do. I think Quinn Buckner
(02:34):
had some minutes off the bench for the buck you
know what, he probably could have gotten a couple of today.
I think Brian Winters had like ten off the bench. Well,
Janice's brother got in that told you where the game was.
I think every relative Yannis had. I think he had
some distant cousins that played as well, and I think
he had you know, some in laws as well getting
the game. So it was a big night that would
be really interesting before a season. He says, all right,
(02:56):
on the extra list, you know, for you know, call
ups or whatever. I want these cousins and this guy's
my best friend, uh from growing up back in Greece.
So here's what I'm gonna need. And then if we're
up three games to one in any series, I reserved
the right to activate any three of them. M to
sit at the end of the bench before we get
(03:18):
into tonight. It's a big night for the draft. We
got Jake Glazers gonna stop borrowing a much stuff. You know,
obviously the Bucks win, nobody is surprised at this, but
just for a second, because the Bulls started out this
season looking like they're back, and I mean back, like, hey,
we can talk about them as being an Eastern Conference
finals team, like all the old Jordan and pippin video
(03:40):
and more Jordans and iPad. Look at the Bulls, it's
the first time they've been this good. Even when they
had Derek Rose, they weren't this good. I mean, they
were at the top of the East and then it
just it all fell apart, and it doesn't fit because
what they kept getting was m v P style performances
from Damar DeRozan, but they just couldn't beat me, Buddy Good.
(04:00):
You know, they had that great record. Then suddenly, okay,
now here comes to me to their schedule and anybody
that was at the top of the East they lost to.
Anybody at the top of the West they lost to.
It was stunning because it really looked like the Bulls
were about to take that next step in DeRozan is
gonna be an m v P candidate, and it all
just fell apart in the middle of the season and
they just sank like a stone, Like there was nobody
going into this playoff, even you, the biggest Bulls fan
(04:22):
I know who was sitting here and say, hey, maybe
some things can happen. It's no, we can't beat anybody.
We're gonna go out in five or six games. It's
not gonna happen. Yeah, Look, Middleton gets hurt and they
had that big game in Game two, but it's like,
is that sustainable? Can you do that and replicate that
three more times in a series? No? Would you like
to have seen a little more fight, But you knew
(04:43):
you were out outmatched and and you had no size
to match up with what Milwaukee was bringing. And in
terms of shooters, they don't exist like that. They weren't
on the court. And we watched it all year long.
It was great in theory because you could actually back
in Chicago. There was at least a holes for Chicago
Bulls enthusiasm once again, and obviously a celebration of Damar
(05:05):
DeRozan uh and his decision to come to Chicago right
that was not expected and certainly the way he played
this year, chip on his shoulder, you just hope he
keeps that going forward. I would have liked to have
seen what this team could have been if Lonzo Ball
was healthy, because he was playing some good basketball. But again,
they were beating the better teams. They were competitive, but
(05:27):
they couldn't get into the wind column. And against the
Bucks they won one game all season, right, they lost
the entire Uh they went four oh in blowout fashion
all during the regular season. And you got that big
game game to win, so they at least had that.
They got better, they got better, they lost, but they
got one game here it's a little bit better. But
(05:48):
but that's just it. Right, you finished ten games above
five hundred, and you're able to pull back and say,
all right, you got building blocks, you got de Rosen,
you've got a few other pieces that you can Okay,
going into free agency, you know, can we bring someone
else in? Right, because it was always the fear of
the shadow of Jordans hanging around, even if nobody was
(06:11):
ever going to measure up to that. But that was that,
and living in Chicago remains. Uh. Probably it was thirty
five degrees today. Man, All my friends back home and
family were complaining about, hey, it was eighty over the weekend.
Now it's again. That's how it's hard to get free
agents to come there when it's the end of April
and it's still just above freezing. But you know, in
(06:32):
most years, you're you've gone home to wherever you live anyway,
because the season's over. Put the point being that there's
at least building blocks and and some semblance of hope,
and that you know, at least in Chicago they're saying,
this isn't gonna be like that Derrick Rose m v
P year is it where it's the one off in
another run of misery? But you ran into the team
(06:54):
that you really didn't want to see right off the jump,
right is if you we're gonna match them up with
anybody's like you know, Puncher's chance, I guess with some
of the other squads, but you know with the Bucks,
just it is the wrong matchup in every way, shape
and form, and and a team that's gotten itself and
rounded into shape, and the Middleton injury, you know, the
(07:16):
extra motivation they start hearing the whispers and just say,
all right, sooner we can dispatch of these guys, the
longer he's got to rest before we have to get
back on a court. If you're a valued customer, you
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(07:37):
limitations they do apply. Uh, Denver, Golden State just underway
one nothing. Denver with the leader can step back in
the starting lineup. Buddy, Well they figured the thing out.
We're gonna start all three of them. Hey, we're gonna
start Steph and Clay and Jordan Pool and everything is
fine now. Uh So this is where we're at right now. Again,
Golden State and Denver extremely early in this game. But
(07:59):
tonight is NFL Draft Eve. We made it to the
NFL Draft. By this time tomorrow night, we will know
at least to the first few picks are in the draft.
Don't forget our Fox Sports Radio Draft show tomorrow night.
Jake Glazer again, who's gonna stop by with us, Rob Stone,
LaVar Arrington, Rick Spielman take you all the way through
the first round before they turn it over to us,
just like we do every year here on Fox. And
(08:21):
you know, the big dilemma coming into this game, coming
into this draft is who's going number one overall? And
there's been a big fight, whether it's Thibodeaux, whether it's
Aiden Hutchinson, now Walker is in the mix, and you
have any one of three players that could be taking
number one overall. Who's gonna go number one overall? And
how are the Jaguars gonna screw it up? Who's gonna go?
(08:42):
Pretty funny and that when you said Thibodeau, I'm like,
is he getting He's gonna try to sneak? And Nick's
take in on me. What do we can say I
was having I was having that moment. I was clutching
up a little bit. But if I had the number
one pick, and I don't know why, this isn't the
lockdown decision. If you have any one of edge rushers
(09:04):
that you can get that you have a little bit
of questions on whether it's motor, whether it's whether they
can bullrush guys at the next level like Hutchinson. Um,
I don't know why. And this is the guy I'm
taking number one overall because there's zero red flags. If
I told you you might be able to get the
next Derrell Revus in this draft, you're taking that guy
number one. I don't know why Sauce Gardner isn't the
(09:26):
guy that is everybody is saying should go at number one.
He's a guy. I take it number one. I mean
he is. He is Durrell Reevs in a bigger body.
He's allowed one touchdown in three years and it was
a disputed touchdown where if you look at the tape
as well, maybe it was Gardener, maybe it wasn't. He
has had a hundred and fifteen red zone snaps. He
allowed one catch in a hundred and fifteen red zone snaps.
(09:47):
This kid has everything. He could be that next great,
great shut down cornerback. Why wouldn't you go get him?
I can get an edge rusher somewhere else, right, I
get the big knock. Well he did it at Cincinnati. Uh,
not in a bigger conference. I'd like if you did
it in the SEC, you know what. I'm sure Alabama
would have like to have a Sauce Gardner. I'm sure
other teams in the SEC he would like to have him. Uh.
(10:08):
He's a great player. You watch his tape. He he
just shuts down half the field. He's had big games
against big opponents, had a big game against Alabama. Um,
I really um stunned. This isn't a more concrete thing.
And now I'm no longer confident that Jets can even
get him at four because I've been trying to make
that happen, putting sauce to the Jets out there, sauce
of the Jet, sauce of the Jet, sauce of the Jets. Really,
(10:29):
it really surprises me that that it's not. I don't
know if it's the the long standing stigma of all
taking a defensive back that high in the draft, but
if you if you've got edge rushers a year going, Hey, maybe,
but there's an issues on him. Hey we have a
guy with no red flags who could be the next
great shutdown cornerback in the NFL. Uh? Yeah, why don't
you take him? I don't understand. He's a guy. I
(10:49):
take it number one easy. It is the fun and excitement.
Let's go to the batting lines as it stands right
now and tray Von Walker your favorite to be number
one overall, followed by Hutchinson, uh Iguanu and then um
Evan Neil would be next. Uh for your guy? Uh
Sawcy He's not even on the shortlist there, But I
(11:10):
get your point right. In the quick research of our
crack staff, Jeffacuda the last top five cornerback, uh, and
he went that was the first one when the Lions
took him out of Ohio State. And he's been no
but that that's just it right, he was since ven.
That was the first time the team took a cornerback
(11:31):
in the first three picks. In thirty years, only twelve
times has that happened inside the top five. To your point,
I think it's the do you have the building blocks?
And obviously offensive line is uh position of great depth
in this year's draft as well with some guys that
you read any of the reviews, see anything Jeff Schwartz
(11:54):
did for Fox Sports, one our teammate here at Fox
Sports Radio. Uh, the you know, the word nasty comes
up on a couple of those guys. Uh, And you
watch some of the tape, like he's on the edge,
can I can I get some of those penalties back?
And obviously defensive line, we've got some depth cornerbacks, You've
got a couple of game changers, uh potentially up there.
(12:14):
But when you're the Jaguars and you just re upped
Cam Robinson, right, three years, fifty four million dollar extension. Uh,
you solidified one side of the ball in your interior,
right saying, hey, we're keeping you around a long while. Uh.
And obviously you're you're trying to figure out where you
are on the pecking order and building blocks. Does a
(12:37):
cornerback shift you into that next level or do you
still need to build your base? And I think that's
why you see those edge rushers and the defensive interior
still higher. I like the bravado that and you are you.
I think you're an amor just by having a guy
named Sauce, wouldn't he be your daughter's favorite player? Would
(12:58):
he be Maddi's favorite player? Because she likes sauce packets, right,
so Sauce would be her favorite That's part of the will.
I mean, look, I did the you know, the pim
labs and running around the other day in the whole
UH Avengers campus, and the only souvenir I bought were
a bunch of shot classes that look like flasks and stuff.
So yes, sauce is really a big deal in our world.
(13:22):
I like your bravado, but you know, if I'm the Jaguars,
I'm not going away from from building blocks. I got
my quarterback last year, I got my offensive line starting
to solidify. I need some more work on the defensive side. No,
I get it. I understand the philosophy of it. It's
just there's if there was if there was a BOSSA,
or if there was somebody that you know, checked all
(13:45):
the boxes of Okay, well, this guy he's the next great.
He's a franchise cornerstone player. But there's questions. You got
questions about the guys like can Adan Hutchinson? Can he
run over guys in the NFL? I don't know. I
don't know if they can do that? He had he
bullrushed great at miss And I saw, I saw all
his games the last few years. Can he do that
in the NFL? I don't know. Man, And and there's questions.
(14:07):
You know, Thibodeau's motor has been there. I mean not Tom,
I mean Tom tip you know Tipsy he knows. I mean, yeah,
you get a full forty eight minutes. You got questions
for everybody. So here's a defensive back who could be
the next Derrell Reeves. Let mean, that's how good he
projects to be. I don't know why he's not someone Okay,
we can shut down half the field and take away
the other team's number one wide receiver in a second.
(14:29):
I don't get it. I don't get the question Stingley.
If Stingley wasn't hurt, I would say Stingley. But the
guy has been hurt, so it's kind of tough to go. Yeah,
injury history is a little bit. Anybody that's dinged up
and hurt in college, you're thinking, how is it? And
it may be something where hey, he just went through
(14:51):
it in college. He's gonna play in the pros. He's
gonna play great. But now you have two players and
one is healthy and one you have questions for. So
I go for the guy that's healthy. Yeah, but you've
got guys names Austin Stingly, how great y sauce is
really good. I would love to get sauce in. I'm
gonna write a letter, dear, if I don't get a
combo card of these two guys with their nicknames and
(15:12):
surnames for fully spelled out, you failed me. Yes, I'd
like the penn a with the Stingy Sauce. Yes, thank
you very much. I'd like that. 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 I Heart Radio app Fox Sports
(15:32):
Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon.
They're shooting technicals right now at Golden State, Gordon and
Draymond all getting tangled up underneath Draymond grabbing Gordon's leg.
Gordon gets called for the t Warriors lead a seventeen
What did I tell you last week? Like Rodman again, well, hey,
(15:54):
they'll take that. After the last couple of years, Will
and grabbing onto legs and technical falls him in. It
really does play and in a weird parallel universe right now,
we'll look and I'll tell you for all that the
comments we spend all the time we spend talking about
Steph and Pool and Clay and what's the right you know,
what's the right line up and how can they figure out?
(16:15):
And Steve Crows going, oh what do I do? Um?
The fact that Draymond Green decided this year to rededicate
himself to basketball, that's as big a deal because the
last two years he's kind of just floated to the
point where I thought he was done, Like like Carmelo
Anthony or Chris Paul a couple of years ago, where
so these guys are just slowly fading away where James
Harden is right now. These guys are just slowly fading away.
(16:35):
Either it's too many minutes, too much basketball, and they
hit the wall. And because that's where it looked like
Draymond Green was. But now he's back. I mean, he's
still not scoring like he was early in his career,
but he's doing everything else. He's got the leadership roll back,
and that's just as big a reason. And we don't
talk about that as much, right because it's it's the
sexiness of the threes and Jordan Pool being a star,
but Draymond Green deciding, hey, I'm cool with coming back
(16:58):
to play. I'm excited. That's that's a big difference maker.
Maybe talk about all the things that are new about
Golden State this year. Jordan Pool is a star, Yes,
the support players and the bench players were exactly what
Steve Kerr wants. Draymond Green cares again. I mean that's
your list of things that are different. Yeah, I think,
and as we discussed it, I mean, you can always
find the podcasts of our extended conversations and deep dives
(17:20):
in all this. Uh, the I Heart Radio app wherever
you get your podcast, look for the Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon and uh download and given five stars,
will love you forever. But the other part of it
being the reclamation and you know, re establishment of this
is our team right in the post Kevin Durant world
(17:42):
where Clay wasn't there for a couple of years, right,
he was gone, so one of one of the cogs
to the machine was gone, and Pool was still learning
and he came along nicely as a sophomore, but certainly
nothing like you saw this year. Uh. And then they
reintegrate Clay when he's ready. Steph missed his time due
to injury, and it all rolls, but it's their ownership
of that squad again. And I think Draymond Green is
(18:05):
the perfect example of that, right, because Steph's gonna make
his shots when he's on the court. Clay is certainly
gonna take his when he's on the court. Uh. It's
all about the guy doing the dirty work and cleaning
up the glass, agitating opponents and really just that that
pride and that opportunity to push towards the top of
(18:25):
the Western Conference again and not have everybody saying, all right,
you went and you just added another superstar. You went
and you know you were able to go to the
grocery store and based on an advantageous contract. Remember Steph
Curry signed that four year, forty four million dollar extension.
There was an article I read about it last week,
Uh that I think was a good reminder to folks
(18:45):
of how that came to pass. Right, all of those
moves and that era, well that's long gone. So it's
it's back to basics, and you know, the the hunger
when you're you're told you're done, and you're you're already
started your podcasting career. And he's got a podcast and
he's been more than happy to chime in on social
(19:05):
media debates. Going on a long time, Jason, So what's
the best way to fuel that into the next few years?
Go back and win again and be relevant. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey,
it's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast
(19:27):
Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes of piping hot
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Whether you believe in analytics or the I Test, We've
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So do yourself a favor and listen to Inside the
Parker with Rob Parker on the I Heart Radio app
(19:49):
or wherever you get your podcast. Well, how about a
big time NBA hot take from a developing story involving
everybody's favorite team that didn't make the playoffs. No, it's
not the Knicks, the Lakers. Uh. Internal reports are that
the Lakers are blaming Clutch Sports and Lebron James and
Anthony Davis for the signing of Russell Weston. Didn't we
(20:13):
do this three months ago? As in theory, it's all
before the All Star Game and we did this? What? What? What?
I what? What I'm wondering here is is this like
they needed a deposition, Like when you have to get
like if you were you were a witnessing a car
accident and someone's gotta pay and you're like, well, no,
this is what I saw. This thing happened months ago. Yeah,
I know, but I was there. Yeah, Okay, of course
(20:34):
we know Clutch Sports wanted to get Russell Westbrook. There,
we know that Lebron and Anthony Davis wanted Russell Westbrook, right.
Doug Gottlieb told the story I did. I did a
show with him a couple of months ago. He said, listen,
they had the choice. It was either gonna be Russell
Westbrook or Buddy Healed. And they let Lebron and A
D decide, and Lebron and A D said, okay, it's
it's it's Westbrook. Now the Lakers were on board with it,
(20:55):
but clearly it was well, maybe we could go either
way here. But the final decision, of course, was Lebron
in a D s. So, yeah, I get it. And
and this just shows you two things. The first thing
is that it's always going to be Lebron versus the Lakers.
It's not He's never gonna get accepted fully as a Laker.
It's always gonna be at arms length. He was brought in. Hey,
(21:16):
he's gonna put on as as Kobe Bryant once said
in an interview here on Fox, you put on that
purple and gold arm or something happens to you. Not
so much. Lebron came here for the Lakers brand, and
I delivered a championship. Done done, so I I did
what I was supposed to do. He's never gonna be
beloved when he keeps sitting out games and when the
Lakers have chances to make the playoffs. That doesn't play
(21:37):
well because everybody remembers Kobe playing until he absolutely couldn't
do it anymore, no matter what the situation was. I'm playing,
I'm playing. I'm playing. I'm not sitting out. I'm not
doing it. It's a different way to do things, and
Lebron is much more of a businessman when it comes
to it. So, hey, I want to make sure I'm
I'm saving my legs. I'm gonna play when when we
feel like it. I'm gonna play when we need it.
(21:58):
It's a different thing, and it's never going to be Hey,
here's the big hug. We all love each other. Right.
It's Lebron and Clutch Sports versus Lakers. It's like a
big nighttime soap opera with Lebron and Clutch Sports wanting
to kind of take over and shadow run the Lakers,
the like Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant say they're doing
with the nets right, now we're working together with Joe
and Shawn Marks, and yeah, you know we're running the
(22:19):
show right now here in Brooklyn. It's ridiculous, right, So now,
of course it's going to be that way no matter
who you want to believe. It's Lebron versus the Lakers.
Now you want a great hot take, You want a
great hot take. Who doesn't love great hot takes. Lebron's
got one more season left on his contract, right, And
then it's it's under the assumption the Lakers are gonna
(22:39):
off from a two year deal extend and he's gonna stay.
What if you don't, what if this is it? And
you say, okay, Lebron, good luck, because is it really
gonna get better for the Lakers. And you let Lebron
go and say, hey, good luck trying to find a
team and play in your last year with Brawny. Good
luck because you can see the Lakers aren't going to
get better. Lebron's not going to get better. I mean,
you had a team here where Lebron led the team
(23:02):
in scoring and they were fifteen games under five hundreds, right,
it was that they could They couldn't even get in
the tenth spot in the Western Conference, things are gonna
get better. How you don't have money, you don't have
any resources to make it better. You don't have draft picks,
don't have anything. It's just gonna suck for the Lakers,
right That's why, Hey, let this year be one of
those years where we clear the decks. We trade Russell
(23:22):
Westbrook for an expiring deal, whatever it's going to be,
and after this year, then hey, we're moving on. And
then maybe it's no Westbrook, maybe it's no Lebron, and
you've got lots of money to completely reinvent your team
right away. Why wouldn't you do that? Why would you?
Why would you lock in for another couple of years
with Lebron when you don't know that it's gonna get
any better. Because honestly, Lebron is at the point in
(23:44):
his career where he's kind of like Kevin Durant. I've won,
I've won, and he's won way more than Kevin Durant.
As I've won. I've won, I've won championships everywhere I've been,
I've been to the finals. Now I'm about my personal legacy.
For Kevin Durant, his personal legacy is a little bit
it's it's the bar is very low. It's I want
people to say nice things about me on social media
(24:05):
and television. For Lebron, it's I want to be the
NBA's all time leading scorer and I want to play
with Brawny. Right, that's what he's about right now? Is
he still about finals and trying to win? I don't know, man.
And if I say I don't know to Lebron, why
are you spending forty five million dollars a year for
the next two years to try to find out? Right
when when you're not getting guys to come to Los
Angeles to play with Lebron, you have a better luck
getting free agents of Lebron. Wasn't there, Hey, Lebron's not here, man,
(24:27):
you got you. You two guys can come and we
can figure it out and this is gonna be great. Okay, great?
Hey now here, we're Lakers and we're rolling. Um. If
you're the Lakers this year, instead of saying let's extend Lebron, uh,
why not let him play out and move on? Think
about that for a second take hot take, No, I
think it makes absolute business sense and basketball sense, right
(24:49):
unless from the business side, I guess I would love
the behind the scenes of you know what, what can
they attribute in terms of advanced revenue based on Lebron
James still being in a Lakers uniform, right when you
talk about ticket sales and all other ancillary items to that, Right,
that's number one, And let's do the trickle down. Uh.
(25:11):
Is it good for the company because on the court
hasn't been there for a couple of the years, And yeah,
you got your title to your point of you know,
will he ever be embraced? No, he's one elsewhere. It's
just one stop of many. Right, It's not like he
came here and he was gonna play a decade of dominance.
(25:33):
There you go. That sounds like the greatest hits album
probably is for some band, but the the idea being
that going forward, you know what Russell Westbrook is. You know,
Anthony Davis when he's available and whenever you have to
put that disclaimer on a player you've lost when he's available,
dot dot dot, And it's not disparaging, it's just spinning truth. Right.
(25:58):
I still disagree with you on Kevin Durant. I think
he really wanted this experiment to work. Uh, and right
now he's he's being pretty good at holding his tongue
instead in instead of throwing everybody under the bus. He
he was no doc Rivers in his comments on Twitter
or anywhere else, although he did start replying to folks today,
do you respond to positivity more hate? And he just
wrote back hate. So you know that that kind of
(26:21):
stuff is all fun and and good. But for the Lakers, yeah,
this this is no revelatory circumstance. Right the letter from
the to the Yankees, we can all complain about, you know,
cheating in Major League Baseball. We knew what was happening.
Nothing's gonna happen here other than hey, you got a
letter and they had a fine whoopee moving on. Likewise, this, yeah,
(26:42):
we knew they were at odds. He had the Ramona
Shelburne story going back towards you know, the trade deadline
and the reports that the front office fought back saying
blank you you guys made the bed, you gotta lie
in it. Figure it out. So this is this is
nothing new, but it doesn't advance the narrative to how
do you fix it? Let it all burn to the
(27:04):
ground this year and then start over, go figure out
who wants to be the next guy and start recruiting there. Yeah, look,
it's it's it's not it's not a far fetched solution
to say, well, next year is gonna suck anyway, right,
I mean, you're not gonna you're not gonna get anybody.
If if you if you could have if you could
find a way to move Russell Westbrook and get really
(27:27):
good players and not just here's John Wall who hasn't
played in seven years. Okay, if you could, if you
could remake those roster, that roster and move people around, Okay,
why not go for it another year with Lebron in
a dncy. But you can't, and no one's gonna come
play with Lebron because nobody knows if he can lead
you to the Promised Land anymore. Am I gonna really
want to be the number three guy in Lebron show? Yeah?
(27:49):
I don't know. You have to trade for a guy,
all right, and you don't have the resources to trade
for a guy, so you're stuck. So if you do that,
think about after this year, when you're freeing up ninety
million dollars in salary, you can easily open the doors
and say, who wants to make this their team again,
and and this is still with a d. This is
still keeping Anthony Davis and still bringing into other guys
(28:11):
that are younger and better, and maybe you get other
players who are okay coming to play there. It really
makes sense, all right. I mean, if if you were
if it's just just a year where a Lebron it
just didn't work out. No, you had Lebron. Look, he
sat out games, But these are the games he's gonna
he's gonna make and miss the rest of his career. Right,
He's not gonna suddenly start playing in seventy five games
a year. Again, this is Lebron you're going to get.
(28:33):
Is this Lebron gonna get you a championship? It's not.
So this year is gonna stink. So you make this
year all about passing Kareem for number one in the
scoring list, and you do stories on it every single day.
Here's how many points he is behind. Here's a fun
little uh piece, a little feature we're doing on the
Lakers television channel for all of this, And make this
(28:53):
year all about Lebron going for the going for the record.
And then you've used up everything you need out of Lebron.
He's already giving you a title, and Lebron could go
on to play the last two years someplace else, that
that would be the best solution for the Lakers. It's
it's I never thought we'd get here, but then look
at look at how bad a year this was, and
look at the future. See. I like that. That's good. Sell, sell,
(29:15):
sell lots of merchandise. Tie ins. Here's an extra T
shirt for you and for you, uh, and get Kareem
to sign off on it so you can use him
his images as well. Yeah, no, that works, that works.
I like this Twitter and how about a fresca Mike
gets swollen to on the Jason Smith Show with my
best friend Mike Harmon. There you go. Let Lebron become
(29:38):
a free agent, let him go again anywhere you want
to go anywhere or something like that. Right, yeah, he'll
get it, probably right around game fifty five this year,
so he's gonna get it this well, be before the
trade deadline. We got what we needed. See, you want
to go to a contender, Go to a contender. Let's
work out a date. He passes cream and they hand
(29:58):
him the jersey of the team. They trade at him
to here you go here's your Sacramento Kings, Jersey Lebron
good O. You sent them to Sacramento. Oh you did
him dirty on the way out to dar you eight seven,
seven ninety nine on Fox Jason and Mike coming up next,
back into the National Football League. Boy, we got quarterback
drap of the night before the Draft. This is Fox.
(30:20):
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 i Heart
Radio app Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with
my best friend Mike Rman Live from the Fox Sports
Radio Studios Tomorrow night, NFL Draft Night one. Jake Laser
(30:43):
and the Gang, Rob Stone, LaVar Arrington, Rick Spielman gonna
be here breaking down the entire first round with you
before they make way for us here like we've done
the last few years here on Fox and uh. While
we're still taking a look and teams are getting their
board set for tomorrow, one situation with a quarterback seems
to have been solved, as the Arizona Cardinals have officially
(31:06):
picked up the fifth year option on Kyler Murray. Now,
Murray was entering the last year of his deal. Now
they got him for this year and next year. So
everything seems to have been solved for the time being.
Whether or not Kyler Murray is upset, he wants in,
he's out. Um, the Cardinals made the right call because
it was this guy's good. Is he great? Let's give
(31:28):
him two years and see. Let if he's that great quarterback,
of course we're going to sign him. Right. This is
kind of like a Dak Prescott light type situation where
the Cowboys were always gonna pay Dak, but hey, we
can try to win a Super Bowl with Dak on
a rookie deal, and of course the Cowboys couldn't do
it because the Cowboys can't get out of their own way.
Then they had to pay Dak Prescott. Now good luck.
(31:48):
But this is kind of the same type of thing. Okay, well,
Kyler Murray on his rookie contract, we're bringing players in,
we're trying to compete for a Super Bowl. We want
to extend it. This serves both uh Will's here, which is, hey,
we see if the guy is really good for two
more years, then we have no problem give him a
big contract. And it also helps us with some financial flexibility.
Now his last year of his deal is gonna be
(32:09):
twenty nine million dollars. It's not like he's getting like
four million, but still twenty nine million for Kyler Murray.
All right. By the time it's free agency, the top
guys are gonna be getting over fifty million a year.
So it's just the right move by the Cardinals and
it shows you that they get exactly what the modern
NFL is. You don't pay a quarterback until you have to. Now,
(32:30):
you never have to pay You never want to pay
a guy till you have to because there's so many variables,
but quarterbacks especially because if you get that wrong, that
sets the entire team back. You don't pay a quarterback
unless and until you have to. Then you give them
all kinds of money. Right then it's okay, hey, you've
done it. Now we need to lock you up. We
gotta keep you. But that's the You don't pay a
guy until you have to. And the Cardinals have made
(32:51):
the right call all the way through with this. Yeah,
you obviously have the franchise tag still hanging out there
for you going forward and can have fun with that
as you need to. But for Kyler Murray, as we've
talked about a lot and and Steve Kim You know,
I know some of our friends in the Arizona media
did the golf clap because he finally did something right,
(33:13):
the inevitability of the picking up the fifth year off.
She's like, yeah, he did that where else you're working
on the roster here. But he also extended h Kingsbury.
So you've got those two the their tied. But what
do you need to see from both of them play
in the second half. You need to see Kyler Murray
stay healthy. There's a lot of positivity with his game.
(33:35):
I don't know that anybody stands for him harder than
I do. I think he's a hell of a player
when he's right. Problems he hasn't been able to stay right.
Part of it is roster construction, right, lack of depth
on the offensive line and getting trucked with some regularity.
You know, you're you're looking at moving to the outside
and being able to use your legs to scramble. You
know what that ankle injury really established the second half
(33:58):
of the season. They still were able to put up
some big games, and he had a couple of big runs,
but they weren't as frequent and defenses didn't have two
key on him as a runner the same way. So
you know, with that gone and obviously no new copkins
can't be discounted. Christian Kirk got his king ransom to
go down to Jacksonville. Again, not his fault people. They
(34:20):
offered him a giant bag and he took it. Good
on him. Uh. And it didn't really inform any other
wide receiver deals out there, except you know for that
moment of conversation that had to do. I get some
of that. You know, look what he's done. It's like, no, no, no,
that's the Jaguars. Just ignore that. That's an outlier. So
you moved through it. Likewise, with Murray, it's a all
right when we have to pay him, we'll get to
(34:43):
that day in the interim. Let's continue to fill holes,
uh and see if we can't uh fill fulfill the
promise of the first halfs that we've had the last
couple of years. The right thing with Kylie, the great
day for Arizona. Maybe not the greatest day for Kyler.
Bery wants a new deal, but you're getting thirty million
next year. I think it's an okay day for you. Uh.
If you miss any of our show, don't forget. Right
(35:04):
after the show is over, our best of podcast goes
up on iTunes wherever you listen to podcasts. Downloaded, rate
to subscribe. Will Love You Forever and ever and ever.
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon Straight Ahead. We're
gonna play a little quarterback matchmaker for first round of
the NFL Draft tomorrow. Where are they going, We'll tell
you Fox
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Alex Heisher, I have
I have a problem right now. Hang out, dude, I
have a you got you gotta help me out. Um,
my internet is completely down. I I can't, I can't.
My internet is completely down. Thank goodness, Mike Harmon has
decided to come into work again tonight. Mike, what happened
(00:45):
in the Bulls game? I I what happened? Can you
tell me? Well? You know, they played just a little
bit more than the Nicks, the Lakers and the Nets
did today, Okay, alright, alright, and they still a little
bit more and they won. Right, It was a close
game and they won. Well, they had their moments, but
no twelve and a half was the spread? One sixteen,
(01:06):
one hundred? Your final uh as uh? Well, Janice did
whatever he wanted, much like we theorized going all the
way back. Remember game two, uh and the game they
lost and we were on air and I said, hey, hey, Jason,
why don't they just let Janice drive to the hoop?
Every time? It seems like they heard me. No Meddleton problem. Obviously,
(01:29):
Zach Levine in protocols, wasn't around Alex Caruso. They jacked
him up last time, so he was in concussion protocol
so he didn't play. But overall, just a dismal, miserable effort.
DeMar DeRozan held to just eleven points. And this one,
when the leading score for the Bulls is gonna be
Patrick Williams, I just throw up the white flag and
(01:51):
just say stopped to damn fight because I thought this
is I thought I saw, you know, Levine had like
thirty eight and it was a big lead. I thought
I saw that. No. No, I mean you might have
been watching a replay of something else. It's kind of
like when you've been looking for the Nicks during the playoffs.
That's kind of where you had to go is in rewind,
(02:13):
as Ahmad Rashad used to say. But it's look, it
was inevitable. It's like than I am inevitable with twenty
off the bench, Grace and Allen and Ellen. I don't
think he hurt anybody today, but he had thirteen points
in five boards, and they do. I think Quinn Buckner
(02:34):
had some minutes off the bench for the buck you
know what, he probably could have gotten a couple of today.
I think Brian Winters had like ten off the bench. Well,
Janice's brother got in that told you where the game was.
I think every relative Yannis had. I think he had
some distant cousins that played as well, and I think
he had you know, some in laws as well getting
the game. So it was a big night that would
be really interesting before a season. He says, all right,
(02:56):
on the extra list, you know, for you know, call
ups or whatever. I want these cousins and this guy's
my best friend, uh from growing up back in Greece.
So here's what I'm gonna need. And then if we're
up three games to one in any series, I reserved
the right to activate any three of them. M to
sit at the end of the bench before we get
(03:18):
into tonight. It's a big night for the draft. We
got Jake Glazers gonna stop borrowing a much stuff. You know,
obviously the Bucks win, nobody is surprised at this, but
just for a second, because the Bulls started out this
season looking like they're back, and I mean back, like, hey,
we can talk about them as being an Eastern Conference
finals team, like all the old Jordan and pippin video
(03:40):
and more Jordans and iPad. Look at the Bulls, it's
the first time they've been this good. Even when they
had Derek Rose, they weren't this good. I mean, they
were at the top of the East and then it
just it all fell apart, and it doesn't fit because
what they kept getting was m v P style performances
from Damar DeRozan, but they just couldn't beat me, Buddy Good.
(04:00):
You know, they had that great record. Then suddenly, okay,
now here comes to me to their schedule and anybody
that was at the top of the East they lost to.
Anybody at the top of the West they lost to.
It was stunning because it really looked like the Bulls
were about to take that next step in DeRozan is
gonna be an m v P candidate, and it all
just fell apart in the middle of the season and
they just sank like a stone, Like there was nobody
going into this playoff, even you, the biggest Bulls fan
(04:22):
I know who was sitting here and say, hey, maybe
some things can happen. It's no, we can't beat anybody.
We're gonna go out in five or six games. It's
not gonna happen. Yeah, Look, Middleton gets hurt and they
had that big game in Game two, but it's like,
is that sustainable? Can you do that and replicate that
three more times in a series? No? Would you like
to have seen a little more fight, But you knew
(04:43):
you were out outmatched and and you had no size
to match up with what Milwaukee was bringing. And in
terms of shooters, they don't exist like that. They weren't
on the court. And we watched it all year long.
It was great in theory because you could actually back
in Chicago. There was at least a holes for Chicago
Bulls enthusiasm once again, and obviously a celebration of Damar
(05:05):
DeRozan uh and his decision to come to Chicago right
that was not expected and certainly the way he played
this year, chip on his shoulder, you just hope he
keeps that going forward. I would have liked to have
seen what this team could have been if Lonzo Ball
was healthy, because he was playing some good basketball. But again,
they were beating the better teams. They were competitive, but
(05:27):
they couldn't get into the wind column. And against the
Bucks they won one game all season, right, they lost
the entire Uh they went four oh in blowout fashion
all during the regular season. And you got that big
game game to win, so they at least had that.
They got better, they got better, they lost, but they
got one game here it's a little bit better. But
(05:48):
but that's just it. Right, you finished ten games above
five hundred, and you're able to pull back and say,
all right, you got building blocks, you got de Rosen,
you've got a few other pieces that you can Okay,
going into free agency, you know, can we bring someone
else in? Right, because it was always the fear of
the shadow of Jordans hanging around, even if nobody was
(06:11):
ever going to measure up to that. But that was that,
and living in Chicago remains. Uh. Probably it was thirty
five degrees today. Man, All my friends back home and
family were complaining about, hey, it was eighty over the weekend.
Now it's again. That's how it's hard to get free
agents to come there when it's the end of April
and it's still just above freezing. But you know, in
(06:32):
most years, you're you've gone home to wherever you live anyway,
because the season's over. Put the point being that there's
at least building blocks and and some semblance of hope,
and that you know, at least in Chicago they're saying,
this isn't gonna be like that Derrick Rose m v
P year is it where it's the one off in
another run of misery? But you ran into the team
(06:54):
that you really didn't want to see right off the jump,
right is if you we're gonna match them up with
anybody's like you know, Puncher's chance, I guess with some
of the other squads, but you know with the Bucks,
just it is the wrong matchup in every way, shape
and form, and and a team that's gotten itself and
rounded into shape, and the Middleton injury, you know, the
(07:16):
extra motivation they start hearing the whispers and just say,
all right, sooner we can dispatch of these guys, the
longer he's got to rest before we have to get
back on a court. If you're a valued customer, you
deserve a simple gesture of appreciation from your credit card company.
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You're in the end of your first year discover exceptionally
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(07:37):
limitations they do apply. Uh, Denver, Golden State just underway
one nothing. Denver with the leader can step back in
the starting lineup. Buddy, Well they figured the thing out.
We're gonna start all three of them. Hey, we're gonna
start Steph and Clay and Jordan Pool and everything is
fine now. Uh So this is where we're at right now. Again,
Golden State and Denver extremely early in this game. But
(07:59):
tonight is NFL Draft Eve. We made it to the
NFL Draft. By this time tomorrow night, we will know
at least to the first few picks are in the draft.
Don't forget our Fox Sports Radio Draft show tomorrow night.
Jake Glazer again, who's gonna stop by with us, Rob Stone,
LaVar Arrington, Rick Spielman take you all the way through
the first round before they turn it over to us,
just like we do every year here on Fox. And
(08:21):
you know, the big dilemma coming into this game, coming
into this draft is who's going number one overall? And
there's been a big fight, whether it's Thibodeaux, whether it's
Aiden Hutchinson, now Walker is in the mix, and you
have any one of three players that could be taking
number one overall. Who's gonna go number one overall? And
how are the Jaguars gonna screw it up? Who's gonna go?
(08:42):
Pretty funny and that when you said Thibodeau, I'm like,
is he getting He's gonna try to sneak? And Nick's
take in on me. What do we can say I
was having I was having that moment. I was clutching
up a little bit. But if I had the number
one pick, and I don't know why, this isn't the
lockdown decision. If you have any one of edge rushers
(09:04):
that you can get that you have a little bit
of questions on whether it's motor, whether it's whether they
can bullrush guys at the next level like Hutchinson. Um,
I don't know why. And this is the guy I'm
taking number one overall because there's zero red flags. If
I told you you might be able to get the
next Derrell Revus in this draft, you're taking that guy
number one. I don't know why Sauce Gardner isn't the
(09:26):
guy that is everybody is saying should go at number one.
He's a guy. I take it number one. I mean
he is. He is Durrell Reevs in a bigger body.
He's allowed one touchdown in three years and it was
a disputed touchdown where if you look at the tape
as well, maybe it was Gardener, maybe it wasn't. He
has had a hundred and fifteen red zone snaps. He
allowed one catch in a hundred and fifteen red zone snaps.
(09:47):
This kid has everything. He could be that next great,
great shut down cornerback. Why wouldn't you go get him?
I can get an edge rusher somewhere else, right, I
get the big knock. Well he did it at Cincinnati. Uh,
not in a bigger conference. I'd like if you did
it in the SEC, you know what. I'm sure Alabama
would have like to have a Sauce Gardner. I'm sure
other teams in the SEC he would like to have him. Uh.
(10:08):
He's a great player. You watch his tape. He he
just shuts down half the field. He's had big games
against big opponents, had a big game against Alabama. Um,
I really um stunned. This isn't a more concrete thing.
And now I'm no longer confident that Jets can even
get him at four because I've been trying to make
that happen, putting sauce to the Jets out there, sauce
of the Jet, sauce of the Jet, sauce of the Jets. Really,
(10:29):
it really surprises me that that it's not. I don't
know if it's the the long standing stigma of all
taking a defensive back that high in the draft, but
if you if you've got edge rushers a year going, Hey, maybe,
but there's an issues on him. Hey we have a
guy with no red flags who could be the next
great shutdown cornerback in the NFL. Uh? Yeah, why don't
you take him? I don't understand. He's a guy. I
(10:49):
take it number one easy. It is the fun and excitement.
Let's go to the batting lines as it stands right
now and tray Von Walker your favorite to be number
one overall, followed by Hutchinson, uh Iguanu and then um
Evan Neil would be next. Uh for your guy? Uh
Sawcy He's not even on the shortlist there, But I
(11:10):
get your point right. In the quick research of our
crack staff, Jeffacuda the last top five cornerback, uh, and
he went that was the first one when the Lions
took him out of Ohio State. And he's been no
but that that's just it right, he was since ven.
That was the first time the team took a cornerback
(11:31):
in the first three picks. In thirty years, only twelve
times has that happened inside the top five. To your point,
I think it's the do you have the building blocks?
And obviously offensive line is uh position of great depth
in this year's draft as well with some guys that
you read any of the reviews, see anything Jeff Schwartz
(11:54):
did for Fox Sports, one our teammate here at Fox
Sports Radio. Uh, the you know, the word nasty comes
up on a couple of those guys. Uh, And you
watch some of the tape, like he's on the edge,
can I can I get some of those penalties back?
And obviously defensive line, we've got some depth cornerbacks, You've
got a couple of game changers, uh potentially up there.
(12:14):
But when you're the Jaguars and you just re upped
Cam Robinson, right, three years, fifty four million dollar extension. Uh,
you solidified one side of the ball in your interior,
right saying, hey, we're keeping you around a long while. Uh.
And obviously you're you're trying to figure out where you
are on the pecking order and building blocks. Does a
(12:37):
cornerback shift you into that next level or do you
still need to build your base? And I think that's
why you see those edge rushers and the defensive interior
still higher. I like the bravado that and you are you.
I think you're an amor just by having a guy
named Sauce, wouldn't he be your daughter's favorite player? Would
(12:58):
he be Maddi's favorite player? Because she likes sauce packets, right,
so Sauce would be her favorite That's part of the will.
I mean, look, I did the you know, the pim
labs and running around the other day in the whole
UH Avengers campus, and the only souvenir I bought were
a bunch of shot classes that look like flasks and stuff.
So yes, sauce is really a big deal in our world.
(13:22):
I like your bravado, but you know, if I'm the Jaguars,
I'm not going away from from building blocks. I got
my quarterback last year, I got my offensive line starting
to solidify. I need some more work on the defensive side. No,
I get it. I understand the philosophy of it. It's
just there's if there was if there was a BOSSA,
or if there was somebody that you know, checked all
(13:45):
the boxes of Okay, well, this guy he's the next great.
He's a franchise cornerstone player. But there's questions. You got
questions about the guys like can Adan Hutchinson? Can he
run over guys in the NFL? I don't know. I
don't know if they can do that? He had he
bullrushed great at miss And I saw, I saw all
his games the last few years. Can he do that
in the NFL? I don't know. Man, And and there's questions.
(14:07):
You know, Thibodeau's motor has been there. I mean not Tom,
I mean Tom tip you know Tipsy he knows. I mean, yeah,
you get a full forty eight minutes. You got questions
for everybody. So here's a defensive back who could be
the next Derrell Reeves. Let mean, that's how good he
projects to be. I don't know why he's not someone Okay,
we can shut down half the field and take away
the other team's number one wide receiver in a second.
(14:29):
I don't get it. I don't get the question Stingley.
If Stingley wasn't hurt, I would say Stingley. But the
guy has been hurt, so it's kind of tough to go. Yeah,
injury history is a little bit. Anybody that's dinged up
and hurt in college, you're thinking, how is it? And
it may be something where hey, he just went through
(14:51):
it in college. He's gonna play in the pros. He's
gonna play great. But now you have two players and
one is healthy and one you have questions for. So
I go for the guy that's healthy. Yeah, but you've
got guys names Austin Stingly, how great y sauce is
really good. I would love to get sauce in. I'm
gonna write a letter, dear, if I don't get a
combo card of these two guys with their nicknames and
(15:12):
surnames for fully spelled out, you failed me. Yes, I'd
like the penn a with the Stingy Sauce. Yes, thank
you very much. I'd like that. 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 I Heart Radio app Fox Sports
(15:32):
Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon.
They're shooting technicals right now at Golden State, Gordon and
Draymond all getting tangled up underneath Draymond grabbing Gordon's leg.
Gordon gets called for the t Warriors lead a seventeen
What did I tell you last week? Like Rodman again, well, hey,
(15:54):
they'll take that. After the last couple of years, Will
and grabbing onto legs and technical falls him in. It
really does play and in a weird parallel universe right now,
we'll look and I'll tell you for all that the
comments we spend all the time we spend talking about
Steph and Pool and Clay and what's the right you know,
what's the right line up and how can they figure out?
(16:15):
And Steve Crows going, oh what do I do? Um?
The fact that Draymond Green decided this year to rededicate
himself to basketball, that's as big a deal because the
last two years he's kind of just floated to the
point where I thought he was done, Like like Carmelo
Anthony or Chris Paul a couple of years ago, where
so these guys are just slowly fading away where James
Harden is right now. These guys are just slowly fading away.
(16:35):
Either it's too many minutes, too much basketball, and they
hit the wall. And because that's where it looked like
Draymond Green was. But now he's back. I mean, he's
still not scoring like he was early in his career,
but he's doing everything else. He's got the leadership roll back,
and that's just as big a reason. And we don't
talk about that as much, right because it's it's the
sexiness of the threes and Jordan Pool being a star,
but Draymond Green deciding, hey, I'm cool with coming back
(16:58):
to play. I'm excited. That's that's a big difference maker.
Maybe talk about all the things that are new about
Golden State this year. Jordan Pool is a star, Yes,
the support players and the bench players were exactly what
Steve Kerr wants. Draymond Green cares again. I mean that's
your list of things that are different. Yeah, I think,
and as we discussed it, I mean, you can always
find the podcasts of our extended conversations and deep dives
(17:20):
in all this. Uh, the I Heart Radio app wherever
you get your podcast, look for the Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon and uh download and given five stars,
will love you forever. But the other part of it
being the reclamation and you know, re establishment of this
is our team right in the post Kevin Durant world
(17:42):
where Clay wasn't there for a couple of years, right,
he was gone, so one of one of the cogs
to the machine was gone, and Pool was still learning
and he came along nicely as a sophomore, but certainly
nothing like you saw this year. Uh. And then they
reintegrate Clay when he's ready. Steph missed his time due
to injury, and it all rolls, but it's their ownership
of that squad again. And I think Draymond Green is
(18:05):
the perfect example of that, right, because Steph's gonna make
his shots when he's on the court. Clay is certainly
gonna take his when he's on the court. Uh. It's
all about the guy doing the dirty work and cleaning
up the glass, agitating opponents and really just that that
pride and that opportunity to push towards the top of
(18:25):
the Western Conference again and not have everybody saying, all right,
you went and you just added another superstar. You went
and you know you were able to go to the
grocery store and based on an advantageous contract. Remember Steph
Curry signed that four year, forty four million dollar extension.
There was an article I read about it last week,
Uh that I think was a good reminder to folks
(18:45):
of how that came to pass. Right, all of those
moves and that era, well that's long gone. So it's
it's back to basics, and you know, the the hunger
when you're you're told you're done, and you're you're already
started your podcasting career. And he's got a podcast and
he's been more than happy to chime in on social
(19:05):
media debates. Going on a long time, Jason, So what's
the best way to fuel that into the next few years?
Go back and win again and be relevant. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey,
it's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast
(19:27):
Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes of piping hot
baseball talk, featuring the biggest name to newsmakers in the sport.
Whether you believe in analytics or the I Test, We've
got all the bases cover. New episodes drop every Thursday,
So do yourself a favor and listen to Inside the
Parker with Rob Parker on the I Heart Radio app
(19:49):
or wherever you get your podcast. Well, how about a
big time NBA hot take from a developing story involving
everybody's favorite team that didn't make the playoffs. No, it's
not the Knicks, the Lakers. Uh. Internal reports are that
the Lakers are blaming Clutch Sports and Lebron James and
Anthony Davis for the signing of Russell Weston. Didn't we
(20:13):
do this three months ago? As in theory, it's all
before the All Star Game and we did this? What? What? What?
I what? What I'm wondering here is is this like
they needed a deposition, Like when you have to get
like if you were you were a witnessing a car
accident and someone's gotta pay and you're like, well, no,
this is what I saw. This thing happened months ago. Yeah,
I know, but I was there. Yeah, Okay, of course
(20:34):
we know Clutch Sports wanted to get Russell Westbrook. There,
we know that Lebron and Anthony Davis wanted Russell Westbrook, right.
Doug Gottlieb told the story I did. I did a
show with him a couple of months ago. He said, listen,
they had the choice. It was either gonna be Russell
Westbrook or Buddy Healed. And they let Lebron and A
D decide, and Lebron and A D said, okay, it's
it's it's Westbrook. Now the Lakers were on board with it,
(20:55):
but clearly it was well, maybe we could go either
way here. But the final decision, of course, was Lebron
in a D s. So, yeah, I get it. And
and this just shows you two things. The first thing
is that it's always going to be Lebron versus the Lakers.
It's not He's never gonna get accepted fully as a Laker.
It's always gonna be at arms length. He was brought in. Hey,
(21:16):
he's gonna put on as as Kobe Bryant once said
in an interview here on Fox, you put on that
purple and gold arm or something happens to you. Not
so much. Lebron came here for the Lakers brand, and
I delivered a championship. Done done, so I I did
what I was supposed to do. He's never gonna be
beloved when he keeps sitting out games and when the
Lakers have chances to make the playoffs. That doesn't play
(21:37):
well because everybody remembers Kobe playing until he absolutely couldn't
do it anymore, no matter what the situation was. I'm playing,
I'm playing. I'm playing. I'm not sitting out. I'm not
doing it. It's a different way to do things, and
Lebron is much more of a businessman when it comes
to it. So, hey, I want to make sure I'm
I'm saving my legs. I'm gonna play when when we
feel like it. I'm gonna play when we need it.
(21:58):
It's a different thing, and it's never going to be Hey,
here's the big hug. We all love each other. Right.
It's Lebron and Clutch Sports versus Lakers. It's like a
big nighttime soap opera with Lebron and Clutch Sports wanting
to kind of take over and shadow run the Lakers,
the like Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant say they're doing
with the nets right, now we're working together with Joe
and Shawn Marks, and yeah, you know we're running the
(22:19):
show right now here in Brooklyn. It's ridiculous, right, So now,
of course it's going to be that way no matter
who you want to believe. It's Lebron versus the Lakers.
Now you want a great hot take, You want a
great hot take. Who doesn't love great hot takes. Lebron's
got one more season left on his contract, right, And
then it's it's under the assumption the Lakers are gonna
(22:39):
off from a two year deal extend and he's gonna stay.
What if you don't, what if this is it? And
you say, okay, Lebron, good luck, because is it really
gonna get better for the Lakers. And you let Lebron
go and say, hey, good luck trying to find a
team and play in your last year with Brawny. Good
luck because you can see the Lakers aren't going to
get better. Lebron's not going to get better. I mean,
you had a team here where Lebron led the team
(23:02):
in scoring and they were fifteen games under five hundreds, right,
it was that they could They couldn't even get in
the tenth spot in the Western Conference, things are gonna
get better. How you don't have money, you don't have
any resources to make it better. You don't have draft picks,
don't have anything. It's just gonna suck for the Lakers,
right That's why, Hey, let this year be one of
those years where we clear the decks. We trade Russell
(23:22):
Westbrook for an expiring deal, whatever it's going to be,
and after this year, then hey, we're moving on. And
then maybe it's no Westbrook, maybe it's no Lebron, and
you've got lots of money to completely reinvent your team
right away. Why wouldn't you do that? Why would you?
Why would you lock in for another couple of years
with Lebron when you don't know that it's gonna get
any better. Because honestly, Lebron is at the point in
(23:44):
his career where he's kind of like Kevin Durant. I've won,
I've won, and he's won way more than Kevin Durant.
As I've won. I've won, I've won championships everywhere I've been,
I've been to the finals. Now I'm about my personal legacy.
For Kevin Durant, his personal legacy is a little bit
it's it's the bar is very low. It's I want
people to say nice things about me on social media
(24:05):
and television. For Lebron, it's I want to be the
NBA's all time leading scorer and I want to play
with Brawny. Right, that's what he's about right now? Is
he still about finals and trying to win? I don't know, man.
And if I say I don't know to Lebron, why
are you spending forty five million dollars a year for
the next two years to try to find out? Right
when when you're not getting guys to come to Los
Angeles to play with Lebron, you have a better luck
getting free agents of Lebron. Wasn't there, Hey, Lebron's not here, man,
(24:27):
you got you. You two guys can come and we
can figure it out and this is gonna be great. Okay, great?
Hey now here, we're Lakers and we're rolling. Um. If
you're the Lakers this year, instead of saying let's extend Lebron, uh,
why not let him play out and move on? Think
about that for a second take hot take, No, I
think it makes absolute business sense and basketball sense, right
(24:49):
unless from the business side, I guess I would love
the behind the scenes of you know what, what can
they attribute in terms of advanced revenue based on Lebron
James still being in a Lakers uniform, right when you
talk about ticket sales and all other ancillary items to that, Right,
that's number one, And let's do the trickle down. Uh.
(25:11):
Is it good for the company because on the court
hasn't been there for a couple of the years, And yeah,
you got your title to your point of you know,
will he ever be embraced? No, he's one elsewhere. It's
just one stop of many. Right, It's not like he
came here and he was gonna play a decade of dominance.
(25:33):
There you go. That sounds like the greatest hits album
probably is for some band, but the the idea being
that going forward, you know what Russell Westbrook is. You know,
Anthony Davis when he's available and whenever you have to
put that disclaimer on a player you've lost when he's available,
dot dot dot, And it's not disparaging, it's just spinning truth. Right.
(25:58):
I still disagree with you on Kevin Durant. I think
he really wanted this experiment to work. Uh, and right
now he's he's being pretty good at holding his tongue
instead in instead of throwing everybody under the bus. He
he was no doc Rivers in his comments on Twitter
or anywhere else, although he did start replying to folks today,
do you respond to positivity more hate? And he just
wrote back hate. So you know that that kind of
(26:21):
stuff is all fun and and good. But for the Lakers, yeah,
this this is no revelatory circumstance. Right the letter from
the to the Yankees, we can all complain about, you know,
cheating in Major League Baseball. We knew what was happening.
Nothing's gonna happen here other than hey, you got a
letter and they had a fine whoopee moving on. Likewise, this, yeah,
(26:42):
we knew they were at odds. He had the Ramona
Shelburne story going back towards you know, the trade deadline
and the reports that the front office fought back saying
blank you you guys made the bed, you gotta lie
in it. Figure it out. So this is this is
nothing new, but it doesn't advance the narrative to how
do you fix it? Let it all burn to the
(27:04):
ground this year and then start over, go figure out
who wants to be the next guy and start recruiting there. Yeah, look,
it's it's it's not it's not a far fetched solution
to say, well, next year is gonna suck anyway, right,
I mean, you're not gonna you're not gonna get anybody.
If if you if you could have if you could
find a way to move Russell Westbrook and get really
(27:27):
good players and not just here's John Wall who hasn't
played in seven years. Okay, if you could, if you
could remake those roster, that roster and move people around, Okay,
why not go for it another year with Lebron in
a dncy. But you can't, and no one's gonna come
play with Lebron because nobody knows if he can lead
you to the Promised Land anymore. Am I gonna really
want to be the number three guy in Lebron show? Yeah?
(27:49):
I don't know. You have to trade for a guy,
all right, and you don't have the resources to trade
for a guy, so you're stuck. So if you do that,
think about after this year, when you're freeing up ninety
million dollars in salary, you can easily open the doors
and say, who wants to make this their team again,
and and this is still with a d. This is
still keeping Anthony Davis and still bringing into other guys
(28:11):
that are younger and better, and maybe you get other
players who are okay coming to play there. It really
makes sense, all right. I mean, if if you were
if it's just just a year where a Lebron it
just didn't work out. No, you had Lebron. Look, he
sat out games, But these are the games he's gonna
he's gonna make and miss the rest of his career. Right,
He's not gonna suddenly start playing in seventy five games
a year. Again, this is Lebron you're going to get.
(28:33):
Is this Lebron gonna get you a championship? It's not.
So this year is gonna stink. So you make this
year all about passing Kareem for number one in the
scoring list, and you do stories on it every single day.
Here's how many points he is behind. Here's a fun
little uh piece, a little feature we're doing on the
Lakers television channel for all of this, And make this
(28:53):
year all about Lebron going for the going for the record.
And then you've used up everything you need out of Lebron.
He's already giving you a title, and Lebron could go
on to play the last two years someplace else, that
that would be the best solution for the Lakers. It's
it's I never thought we'd get here, but then look
at look at how bad a year this was, and
look at the future. See. I like that. That's good. Sell, sell,
(29:15):
sell lots of merchandise. Tie ins. Here's an extra T
shirt for you and for you, uh, and get Kareem
to sign off on it so you can use him
his images as well. Yeah, no, that works, that works.
I like this Twitter and how about a fresca Mike
gets swollen to on the Jason Smith Show with my
best friend Mike Harmon. There you go. Let Lebron become
(29:38):
a free agent, let him go again anywhere you want
to go anywhere or something like that. Right, yeah, he'll
get it, probably right around game fifty five this year,
so he's gonna get it this well, be before the
trade deadline. We got what we needed. See, you want
to go to a contender, Go to a contender. Let's
work out a date. He passes cream and they hand
(29:58):
him the jersey of the team. They trade at him
to here you go here's your Sacramento Kings, Jersey Lebron
good O. You sent them to Sacramento. Oh you did
him dirty on the way out to dar you eight seven,
seven ninety nine on Fox Jason and Mike coming up next,
back into the National Football League. Boy, we got quarterback
drap of the night before the Draft. This is Fox.
(30:20):
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 i Heart
Radio app Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with
my best friend Mike Rman Live from the Fox Sports
Radio Studios Tomorrow night, NFL Draft Night one. Jake Laser
(30:43):
and the Gang, Rob Stone, LaVar Arrington, Rick Spielman gonna
be here breaking down the entire first round with you
before they make way for us here like we've done
the last few years here on Fox and uh. While
we're still taking a look and teams are getting their
board set for tomorrow, one situation with a quarterback seems
to have been solved, as the Arizona Cardinals have officially
(31:06):
picked up the fifth year option on Kyler Murray. Now,
Murray was entering the last year of his deal. Now
they got him for this year and next year. So
everything seems to have been solved for the time being.
Whether or not Kyler Murray is upset, he wants in,
he's out. Um, the Cardinals made the right call because
it was this guy's good. Is he great? Let's give
(31:28):
him two years and see. Let if he's that great quarterback,
of course we're going to sign him. Right. This is
kind of like a Dak Prescott light type situation where
the Cowboys were always gonna pay Dak, but hey, we
can try to win a Super Bowl with Dak on
a rookie deal, and of course the Cowboys couldn't do
it because the Cowboys can't get out of their own way.
Then they had to pay Dak Prescott. Now good luck.
(31:48):
But this is kind of the same type of thing. Okay, well,
Kyler Murray on his rookie contract, we're bringing players in,
we're trying to compete for a Super Bowl. We want
to extend it. This serves both uh Will's here, which is, hey,
we see if the guy is really good for two
more years, then we have no problem give him a
big contract. And it also helps us with some financial flexibility.
Now his last year of his deal is gonna be
(32:09):
twenty nine million dollars. It's not like he's getting like
four million, but still twenty nine million for Kyler Murray.
All right. By the time it's free agency, the top
guys are gonna be getting over fifty million a year.
So it's just the right move by the Cardinals and
it shows you that they get exactly what the modern
NFL is. You don't pay a quarterback until you have to. Now,
(32:30):
you never have to pay You never want to pay
a guy till you have to because there's so many variables,
but quarterbacks especially because if you get that wrong, that
sets the entire team back. You don't pay a quarterback
unless and until you have to. Then you give them
all kinds of money. Right then it's okay, hey, you've
done it. Now we need to lock you up. We
gotta keep you. But that's the You don't pay a
guy until you have to. And the Cardinals have made
(32:51):
the right call all the way through with this. Yeah,
you obviously have the franchise tag still hanging out there
for you going forward and can have fun with that
as you need to. But for Kyler Murray, as we've
talked about a lot and and Steve Kim You know,
I know some of our friends in the Arizona media
did the golf clap because he finally did something right,
(33:13):
the inevitability of the picking up the fifth year off.
She's like, yeah, he did that where else you're working
on the roster here. But he also extended h Kingsbury.
So you've got those two the their tied. But what
do you need to see from both of them play
in the second half. You need to see Kyler Murray
stay healthy. There's a lot of positivity with his game.
(33:35):
I don't know that anybody stands for him harder than
I do. I think he's a hell of a player
when he's right. Problems he hasn't been able to stay right.
Part of it is roster construction, right, lack of depth
on the offensive line and getting trucked with some regularity.
You know, you're you're looking at moving to the outside
and being able to use your legs to scramble. You
know what that ankle injury really established the second half
(33:58):
of the season. They still were able to put up
some big games, and he had a couple of big runs,
but they weren't as frequent and defenses didn't have two
key on him as a runner the same way. So
you know, with that gone and obviously no new copkins
can't be discounted. Christian Kirk got his king ransom to
go down to Jacksonville. Again, not his fault people. They
(34:20):
offered him a giant bag and he took it. Good
on him. Uh. And it didn't really inform any other
wide receiver deals out there, except you know for that
moment of conversation that had to do. I get some
of that. You know, look what he's done. It's like, no, no, no,
that's the Jaguars. Just ignore that. That's an outlier. So
you moved through it. Likewise, with Murray, it's a all
right when we have to pay him, we'll get to
(34:43):
that day in the interim. Let's continue to fill holes,
uh and see if we can't uh fill fulfill the
promise of the first halfs that we've had the last
couple of years. The right thing with Kylie, the great
day for Arizona. Maybe not the greatest day for Kyler.
Bery wants a new deal, but you're getting thirty million
next year. I think it's an okay day for you. Uh.
If you miss any of our show, don't forget. Right
(35:04):
after the show is over, our best of podcast goes
up on iTunes wherever you listen to podcasts. Downloaded, rate
to subscribe. Will Love You Forever and ever and ever.
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon Straight Ahead. We're
gonna play a little quarterback matchmaker for first round of
the NFL Draft tomorrow. Where are they going, We'll tell
you Fox
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Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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