Tough Cover Show: Phillies, NBA Playoffs, Kentucky Derby, and More - 05/03/25

Mark Henry Jr. and Sean Barnard talk #Phillies, #NBAPlayoffs, #KentuckyDerby, and more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you can wager on it.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
We're talking about it.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's the gambler.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
You want to talk right down to that and a
language that everybody here can adily understand.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
We gas the coality, I.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Dreams.

Speaker 5 (00:52):
Let's come to personality. Hello and welcome to the Tough
Cover Radio Show. I am your host, as always, Mark
Henry Jr. You can follow me on Twitter at Mark
Henry Junior, NFL. And I think Nick Bacone, who was
one of the only people who watched our little our
technical difficulties first try at this, pointed out that I

(01:15):
think I said my Twitter handle wrong at the top
because we got.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Hey second time is to troun for all of us,
say Mark.

Speaker 5 (01:19):
He perfect perfect, but at Mark Emry Junior, NFL. Go
over there and give me a follow on Twitter where
it's streaming. We're also streaming this on YouTube. We're streaming
this on iHeartRadio. And as always, back in the studio
on the ones and twos, the fixer over there, Sean
Bernard Scott Foster, I think, is usually the game fisted

(01:41):
fixer to get at the game seven. Sean Bernard is
the fixer to get us on the air four game
seven days today and who better to talk Game seven
with than Shauan Bernard, our NBA guy here at the game,
but you can follow on Twitter at Shawnaerscuer, Bernard one Sewan.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
How we doing, Yeah, doing well? Mark Henry Jr.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Nothing to get the little you know, intensity of blood
boil a little bit, trying to figure out a little
bit of stress to get settled. But we're back, We're
settled in and ready to talk sports. So it has
been a straight up awesome start to this NBA Playoffs.
I've been thrilled a ton of high level basketball that
is being played, including a result just like last night,
one of the more shocking victories that I've seen, a
big boy win by that Houston Rockets team. Of course,
Game seven tonight and another Game seven so can as

(02:17):
for much more there we have in our roller coaster
with the Phillies as well. We're going to get into
I know you were there last night, so excited to
dive into it all.

Speaker 5 (02:24):
Was it a big boy winn or an old man
long We'll get into when we talk about that. A
lot of stuff to talk about in the NBA world,
obviously Game seven tonight, Clippers and the Nuggets I think
you could argue that's been the best series, maybe the
best first round series we've had in a really long time.
I can't, maybe, Sean Bernard, if you want to do

(02:47):
some research over there, at like seven game first round
series in recent memory. I can't remember a game seven
in the first round that I was as jazzed up
for as I am.

Speaker 6 (02:58):
For Clippers Nuggets. And part of that's four or five.

Speaker 5 (03:00):
Part of that is like, honestly, you look at Minnesota,
Golden State, Houston, the potential teams coming out of that
bottom of the bracket for the Western Conference Finals, feels
like whoever Oka se sees out of the winner tonight
is the toughest series, Okay S's gonna have in the West.

Speaker 6 (03:16):
Is that fair?

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah? Absolutely?

Speaker 3 (03:17):
And kind of crazy like the lack of basketball that
OKAC has played in recent games to kind of lay
out like just how much that they have been off.
It's basically like they've had back to back like spring
breaks are bye weeks here that they sat. The Oklahoma
City starters to be precise here have not played between
four eleven and four nineteen, so over a week there
they played game one on four to twenty. They obviously

(03:38):
swept finished up on four to twenty six, so April
twenty six there, and then it'll be May fifth by
the time the Game one takes off, so almost two
weeks in between each of these.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Sort of breaks here. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
I'm not gonna be the rust guy to be skeptical
of that. I think Oklahoma City just has the talent
and certainly has the hunger there. But it's gonna be
a great matchup. I mean, I'm excited regardless of how
tonight's go, but that Oklahoma City team then they look
as dominant as could possibly ask for in that opening round.

Speaker 5 (04:04):
I will say memphiscrazy stick family. I don't want to
take away too much from that OKAC series. By the way, Okay,
see's unbelievable. They won sixty eight games or whatever it was.
They were unbelievable, and I think if you're okayc you
have to feel good. Whatever people want to say about
the Lakers, I think people were probably there were probably

(04:26):
still some people out there that didn't want to see
Luca and Lebron in a series, and you see how
they fell apart and how they didn't have a good
enough roster. You see Golden State, regardless of if they
get out of the series or not. I think you're
probably feeling worse about Golden State right now than you
were before the playoffs started. Houston, I don't think you're
afraid of them. If you're OKAC at.

Speaker 6 (04:46):
This point, if you're OKAYC, you've got to feel pretty.

Speaker 5 (04:48):
Good about how the West has looked outside of your series.
I think, and even with Nuggets Clippers, neither of these
teams were dominant enough clearly to take over that series.
And you know, be have some rest going into that
OKAC series, So gonna be interesting.

Speaker 6 (05:06):
I think it's gonna be a great game.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
Today.

Speaker 5 (05:07):
We're gonna break all that down. We're gonna break both
Game sevens down and break down the two NBA matchups
we do have for the second round Celtics Knicks and uh,
what am I.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Missing in the East or West? In the in the East?

Speaker 6 (05:20):
Oh, I guess both these. Yeah, that's how it works.

Speaker 5 (05:22):
We have both these. We have Pacers Pacers Calves, duh
and Pacers Calves play tomorrow.

Speaker 6 (05:27):
We'll talk about that game because I actually have a bet.

Speaker 5 (05:30):
On Sunday that I really like for Game one, I
think Sean Bernard knows knows where, knows where my mind
might be heading with the Calves team that I've kind
of been, you know, maybe a little more skeptical than
someone We're gonna do some NFL draft clean up in
the second hour. It's stuff to just kind of big
picture takes that I have coming out of the draft.
Some teams that I'm keeping an eye on who I'm

(05:51):
a little higher on them, can set to some teams
who I think might be headed towards potential Iceberg seasons
as what I'm calling them a little tight reference out there.
But let's get it started with the team that I'm wearing.
The jersey I wore last night, I had to throw
it back on in honor of my guy Kyle Schwarber

(06:12):
taking over and leading off the game, or not leading, well,
not leaving off the game, but his first at bat
double to the wall later on game tying home run.
He has just been. It is hard to fathom where
this Phillies team would be without Kyle Schwarber. I think

(06:36):
the more and more you think about and the reason
I think about that.

Speaker 6 (06:39):
Is because this guy's a free agent.

Speaker 5 (06:41):
This guy is not locked up after this year and
There's a lot of players on this team, Boom, Kepler, JT.
Alvara or I think Alvarado is actually two years Strom ranger.
But the biggest one is obviously is obviously Kyle Schwarber,
and it's going to take a lot of money to

(07:01):
keep him. It doesn't matter how much money it takes
to keep him, because this team and we're going to
talk about things we feel better about, things we're nervous about,
and I'll just give away the pony right now. The
thing that I'm most nervous about is power. This team
doesn't have enough power. The third bat is where the
problem is. You need a third bopper, preferably right handed,

(07:24):
next to Bryce and Kyle, and they don't have it right.
Isn't that Nick, Isn't that Boem, Isn't that Kepler? Isn't
that whoever? You want to say?

Speaker 6 (07:33):
They have a lot of six hitters.

Speaker 5 (07:34):
There are a lot of guys who would look good
as the sixth hitter in the lineup. They don't have
a lot of guys you want to put in that
top four. They don't have a lot of guys you
feel great about around Bryce and Kyle at the top
of the lineup right handed bats wise, what I will
say is the power problems that I have, the power
problems I'm worried about. I can't even fathom what that

(07:55):
would feel like and look like without Kyle Schwerber.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, no, one hundred percent there.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
And I think a lot of people have sort of
lost the plot a little bit with this Phillies team
because it was designed to be this power hitting monster
that they were going to match home runs. That was
how it was constructed a couple of years ago when
we started sort of this era of Phillies baseball, and
that sort of has not played itself out whatsoever this year.
That entering this week, there were twenty third in home runs,
the bottom ten and slugging percentage. Basically all the power
metrics that you look for here don't play in the

(08:21):
Phillies favor. And to this team's credit, like I do
think that they've tried to embrace a little bit more
small ball, and I do agree with the premise that
there has been too much all or nothing in past years,
but you still got to have some of that all
in your ability that you can have a guy just
clear the bases like Kyle Schwarber does and first Schwarber
specifically was particularly refreshing to me. You just know what
you're getting from him every single night and on a

(08:41):
Phillies roster and lineup when that is not the case
with a lot of these guys, from Trey Turner to
Bohm to Nick Costiana's you can go down the list here.
The fact that there is that stability in Schwarber is
so refreshing to me. It is not a coincidence that
every team that he's on wins and everyone loves him.
You will not find a guy to say a bad
word about Kyle Schwarber. So he must be in Phillies

(09:01):
pinstripes this time next year pretty much regardless of the cost.

Speaker 5 (09:04):
In my mind, Yeah, there's just no scenario where I mean,
you need to keep kylesh Rober and you need to
go out and add somebody. And Bryce has been pretty
vocal at this point that Kyle Tucker is a guy
he would like to see come to Philadelphia. I think
Kyle Tucker is one of the five best hitters in baseball.
I think the clubs are probably going to throw five

(09:24):
hundred million now maybe not.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
He's probably MVP. If season ended right now.

Speaker 6 (09:29):
I'd have to look at that.

Speaker 5 (09:29):
I haven't thought about that at all. It's a good call.
He's been unbelievable. Something interesting. This is a tangent, but
something interesting that I saw and I think I sent
it in the chat, and really people will look at
it as a Mets stat. It was earlier in the
week where it was a chart of how many teams
above five hundred? How many games with teams above five
hundred have you played at this point? And for the Mets,

(09:51):
twenty of their twenty nine games at the time of
this chart where against teams below five hundred, and three
of the other nine games were against the A's, three
of the other nine were against Dust and then three
of the other nine were against I think Arizona. So
they really hadn't played like an elite team yet at
that point. And everybody was crapping on that or were
saying like, oh, they they're taking care of business.

Speaker 6 (10:13):
How do you talk about that?

Speaker 5 (10:15):
The Phillies have fifteen on here, so they're only five less,
ya da ya, YadA. Everybody starts arguing about the Mets.
The stat on that chart that interested me the most.
Through twenty nine games, the Cubs have played zero games
against teams that were below five hundred.

Speaker 6 (10:30):
Wow, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (10:31):
I don't know who they've played the last couple of days. Actually,
i'd have to look at that. That's a crazy stat
and they're sitting there with a.

Speaker 6 (10:37):
Pretty good record.

Speaker 5 (10:39):
So I saw I did see someone quote tweeted it
like everybody's looking at this as a Mets stat, but
this is a Cub stat. Like the Cubs, maybe we
should be taking them seriously as a as a World
Series contender.

Speaker 6 (10:50):
And Kyle Tucker's that good.

Speaker 5 (10:52):
He's really leveled them up despite they've lost a couple
of pitchers due to injury, and they're still they're still
kind of chugging along despite a really tough schedule. But
let's get it back to the Phills. They need that
third bat, they need that third power guy that can
hit thirty plus owners it's eight twenty oh ps plus
whatever you want to say. And my concern is that

(11:16):
that BET's not coming into the deadline, It's coming in
the off season.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's valid. And I have a
hard time having this conversation without acknowledging Trey turner Man
and I get it, like we kind of got to
accept the reality he probably is never gonna be a
guy that lives up to those dollar figures in that contract.
I personally will sit on the take right now that
I would argue Trey Turner is a worse contract with
the Phillies than Tobias Harris ever was with the Sixers.
I think we're at that level with Turner. The fielding stuff,

(11:41):
the salary cap is yeah, yeah, different, true fair. But
at the same time, like when the trade Turner signing
was made, he was very much looked at to be
one of these guys, like a co star, a guy
a running mate with Bryce Harp in a way that
he's just not as baseball player, and I got, I
get he's been better than when he first got here.
The fielding stuff really forts me. Man, He's just not
like a legitimate shortstop option. He can't finish his career

(12:04):
as a shortstop, and I think, like that's going to
be a losing battle that they fight throughout his career here.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
But like he's none of the solution here.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
And I think the investment made in him, that was
the entire expectation that he could be one of these guys,
one of these Mount Rushmore faces of this Phillies team,
and I just don't see it ever changing that he's
going to grow into that.

Speaker 6 (12:21):
Dude, No he's not.

Speaker 5 (12:24):
So here's my thing with Trey, Like I go through
phases with him, and I think mostly where I'm at
with Trey is kind of where you started, where it
is what it is.

Speaker 6 (12:34):
You kind of just have to accept this is a
guy who probably.

Speaker 5 (12:36):
Gonna hit around three hundred, which is in the past
like we would have been like, oh my god, that's amazing.
But now we know more and we know that we
can look at the ops and the slugging, and we
the fielding is a problem. The fielding should just should
just be taken off of his is so stupid that
Stot's not playing short and Trey's not playing second and
whatever reason you want to throw me, I don't care

(12:57):
what it is. He's making X amount of money. He
can be happy playing second base. It's a joke that
he's that we're just like putting up with it, and
I'm someone who doesn't really fielding to me, is generally
overrated in baseball. It's just like you look at the
end of the year, like the best fielders and the
worst fielders and the amount of runs they've seined and

(13:20):
saved and gained, and it's like, it's not that different.
So I generally kind of skew towards offense, which when
we first started this whole era was our kind of idea.

Speaker 6 (13:29):
It was like, I don't care Shore or Cassidy, Bryce Reese.

Speaker 5 (13:32):
Like, let's just throw a bunch of guys in the
lineup and it'll work out, which I kind of We
went to the World Series with that, and I kind
of still feel that way a little bit. And you've
heard me kind of complain and moan like why do
we have to lockch for we're into be a dh
We made the World Series with him playing outfield, even
though he's not a good outfielder. Sometimes you need some
of that positional versatility. I will say watching Trey play

(13:54):
shortstop is just so frustrating because.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
He's basically and it like the the ones that go
between his legs or it's just a basic play that
he fumbles up all that and the thing that I'll say,
like I overall agree with your premise. I certainly think
offense is a more important factor, and it's much more
difficult to find guys who are high level at the
plate than high level in the field with it. But
I also feel that whenever there is that sort of
fielding mistake, and we've seen it on full display with

(14:17):
this Phillies team already this year, it does tend to
come back to bite you. Whether that is just extending
it with that picture on the mound, whether it is
providing an extra base run and it leads to another run.
It just feels like that is an achilles heel that
whenever there is an issue in the field and error
a mistake, it comes back to absolutely haunt the team,
and I feel that all too often with Trade Turner.

Speaker 5 (14:35):
Well, I mean, I think the biggest problem with Tray
right now is that he's on pace for five home runs.

Speaker 6 (14:39):
Like he is one home run through twenty nine games.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
As well with zero six foot five has zero home runs,
zero power in his body.

Speaker 5 (14:46):
Yeah, I mean, that's where it's like Trey is obviously
paid a lot more. He was supposed to be the third,
third guy. Trey is supposed to be the second guy. Yeah,
not the first guy when they signed him. But I'm fine,
like not freaking out every day about him because I
just don't know what good it does. Because we know
he's not that guy, Like at this point, he's just
gonna be a three hundred hitter. Hopefully he can be

(15:07):
that eight hundred plus ops guy that he's been the
last couple of years. But I don't think he's probably
gonna keep getting worse. But he's very much a startable player,
Like he's a seven to fifty ops guy, even right
now with one home run hitting around three hundred, like
the Boom thing. He goes through long stretches where he's

(15:29):
not playable, and right now is probably not the right
time to talk about it because he's actually over the
last fifteen games been pretty down, pretty dark good and
even still in that stretch, he's hitting for absolutely no power.

Speaker 6 (15:42):
So I to me, people love to freak.

Speaker 5 (15:45):
Out about the bullpen, and I want to get into
that in a minute. To me, and people want to
freak out about individual players, individual situations. If they just
had one more legit eight hundred plus ops bat thirty
plus home runs, preferly fee from the right side. Yeah,
I don't care what position you make it work, and

(16:07):
it would slot everybody one spot down.

Speaker 6 (16:11):
Everybody one spot down feels a lot better.

Speaker 5 (16:13):
Nick is your fourth or fifth best hitter, Trey is
your fourth or fifth best hitter, Kepler slots down to
maybe be in like an eighth hitter. Everything just makes
a lot more sense and feels a lot better if
you just had one legit bat.

Speaker 6 (16:25):
I just think that that's probably coming in the off season,
not the deadline.

Speaker 3 (16:28):
Yeah, And I think that is probably the unfortunate reality
there that like we've kind of seen, like, for all
his reputation as a gun slinger and this guy ready
to make these big moves, we've seen Dave Dombrowski sit
on his hands far too often from my liking, particularly
at the deadline, that he's kind of dug through the
bargain bins to get the Carlos's stabs and guys that
you're taking a stab at that like, it has not
been difference makers for this Phillies team here. And to

(16:50):
your point about Alec Bohm, I know you've never been
particularly a bom guy here. What we're seeing is, yes,
he's back in the sense that he looks like Alec
Bohm again, But even the best version of Alec Bohum
is still kind of a flawed baseball player that he
does not have any sort of power any sort of juice.
He's a gap to gap hitter, and even that comes
and goes as far as inconsistency, like the average will
be fine, his numbers will look pretty at the end

(17:10):
of the season, but he isn't ever going to be
a guy that's like they need him to be a
power back for this team to fully function. I think
that is like the upgrade spot that you got to
search for, but it's also really hard to find that.

Speaker 5 (17:21):
I'm at the point where just whoever the guy is,
I don't care what position he plays, figure it out
and Clarity can play left, you can play center, you
can play right, shift Nick the left, like figure it out,
and honestly, the way where we're at right now, like beside,
I think catchers the biggest problem. If you want to
say like a point like that, you're not getting a fix,

(17:42):
like there's not enough good catchers out there, And even
like JT right now is like I think I saw
the other day, he's like still like the twelve best
catcher in fantasy.

Speaker 6 (17:50):
And he's been horrible.

Speaker 5 (17:50):
Yeah, it's just greats to show like catchings. They're not
a lot of offensive production out of that position, which
is why I generally don't like to pay catchers, but uh,
part of it's just you just have to take whatever
comes available, because I don't think there's that big of
a gap between the problem of Boom or the problem
of Kepler or the problem of Rojas and center, like

(18:14):
Ross has stepped up to a degree where he's on
the level of those guys.

Speaker 6 (18:17):
Kepler, Yeah, is to me, I think I look at.

Speaker 5 (18:21):
Him more like more important than I do Boom or
whoever's playing center at this point, even though he's shaky
at times. Big home run for him last night, but
he sees a lot of pitches. He walks a good amount.
But he's also sixth seventh batter. He's not someone in
the middle of the lineup. It's just like, make it work,
figure it out. Whoever makes sense. Whether it's I've thrown

(18:41):
a couple names out. I don't think it's Reese, but
if it's Brian Reynolds, that would be awesome. If it's
Brian Reynolds from.

Speaker 6 (18:49):
Pittsburgh, I think that makes some sense. If it's.

Speaker 5 (18:55):
There's definitely some other names. I The one that I
love is orj Sol from the Angels. I don't think
Brent Rooker is a possibility really with the age eighteen fifteen.
I love Brent Rooker, but they're playing better baseball and
he's young. I could see them wanting to hold on
to him. But one thing I wanted to talk about,
and everybody loves to freak out about the bullpen anytime

(19:17):
any player has a bad outing, the bullpen is going
to be just fine. In my opinion, and I've talked
about it before. When we get to the postseason, we
are having two or three starters of Ranger, maybe Lozardo,
maybe Painter, maybe Taiwan Walker. I don't know if he's

(19:38):
a bullpen guy personally, but you're going to immediately get
a lot more depth in the bullpen as soon as
we get.

Speaker 6 (19:48):
To the playoffs.

Speaker 5 (19:49):
But don't peak out now, Jose Ruiz these last six
sittings come back season, Jordan Raman, I'm trying to get
all the recent stats for all the guys pulled up.
Jose Ruiz in his last six appearances and six point
two innings has given up one earned run, He's got

(20:10):
seven strikeouts, one to eleven batting average against a guy
who I think he stinks. I'm not not Jose Ruiz
the next guy I'm gonna talk about I think stinks,
but I will say Tanner Banks has been has been
pretty good. He's getting outs, even if I think his
stuff makes no.

Speaker 6 (20:28):
Sense and I don't know how he gets outs.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
In the MLB, he.

Speaker 5 (20:32):
Has nine point one innings allowed. He's got three eight
e ra in his last in his last eight appearances,
he is holding the line. That's all you need from
those middle of the line guys. Jordan Romano has given up.
Since his blow up on April nineteenth, He's only had
the one bad outing against the Mets. He's had three

(20:52):
other pretty good outings on the twenty second, the twenty seventh,
in the second He's another guy. He still don't really
buy this stuff, but I look at him as the
middle of the pack guy. Now the thing I want
to yell and scream about about the bullpen, and I
don't understand the way.

Speaker 6 (21:08):
This guy's covered, the way this guy's talked about.

Speaker 5 (21:11):
We treat Oriyan Kirkering like he's pitching his third game
in the majors and like he's this is his first
time up, and oh, if he's not good, we better
send him right back down. Ryan Kirkering had sixty four
appearances last year and was one of the thirty best
re leaders in baseball with a two two ninety RA.

(21:33):
That's after coming up the year before as a rookie
and having three appearance as a three ERA pitching in
the playoffs and big spots in his first you know,
his first time up in the majors.

Speaker 6 (21:44):
This is a kid who.

Speaker 5 (21:45):
Has shown at multiple points that he is a legit
high leverage arm. He is a legit electric arm, and
we want to give up on him because he's had
three bad outings in his first fourteen this season.

Speaker 6 (22:00):
Like, I get that the era's five to four.

Speaker 5 (22:03):
That's what happens when you give up three runs one time,
two runs another, and four runs another.

Speaker 6 (22:07):
Like he's blown up a couple times.

Speaker 5 (22:09):
I am not giving up on Kirkering after three bad outings,
after he was one of the best relievers in baseball
last year. I still very much look at him as
one of the top three guys in our bullpen. I
think he's gonna be absolutely fine long term. I'd like
to see him at a third pitch. I get that
you can be over reliant on either pitch when you
have two pitches, but he was over relying on those

(22:30):
pitches last year when he had a two two nine era.

Speaker 6 (22:32):
I love the kid.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
I'll buy all the Kirkering stock anyone's selling.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, I'm not worried about Kirkering.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
I think my concern with that is I think he's
probably the only right handed arm that I feel like
one hundred percent certain of, So I get the case
for adding another right handed arm.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
Bob.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
Beyond that, the Kirkering thing, like to put it in,
Why I think it's the case that he's looked at
like that is it's still kind of the accelerated rate
that he got pushed up to the majors. Like I've
never really seen a guy get pushed through at that
rate and then be counted on. It's like a fairly
high average reliever in the playoffs after I think he
pitched three regular season games in his rookie season before
that opportunity present itself.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Now just look at him for this year.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
I will say, like, I haven't seen quite the same
bite on the slider, and that's something that, like again,
isn't a major concern.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
I think it'll come back.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
I think he'll find it throughout the season, But I
think there are fair things to nitpick here, But as
far as the larger bullpen, I mean eleven innings scoreless
streak here, Joe Ross another name that you I have
not mentioned here, a guy that I he's on eight
and two.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Thirds I believe scoreless inning streak there. So there's well
I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah, there's guys returning, coming back to the normal a
little bit. I think it was a really bad start
to the season that inflated all these numbers and then
it's you got to kind of battle to get those
back down. And that's the stage that we're at currently.
So my hand has shifted a little bit farther away
from the panic button on the bullpen overall.

Speaker 5 (23:46):
And it's something that my buddy Pam Moran, who you know,
brought up to me and we've been kind of really
complaining about the power of me and him. We agree
that that's the big problem and the biggest and I
think it actually you don't think about.

Speaker 6 (24:00):
Oh, how does the power affect the bullpen.

Speaker 5 (24:02):
How it affects the bullpen is every freaking game we
play is close. Every game we play is three to two,
four to three, five to four. We're not scoring six, seven,
runs very often, and if we do, it's usually like
an explosion in the eighth or ninth inning, like yeah,
after we've had to use bullpen arms to like get
to that point to like end close games. Like we

(24:22):
every game we play is a grind it out slog
and most of the time it is like three to two,
four to three because of our rotation and how good
our rotation has been. And Bob Blankele pointed it out,
and I want to I should have had that tweet ready,
that's a that's a bad job by me. We're gonna
definitely have Bob Blankele on soon. He's been awesome.

Speaker 6 (24:44):
And yeah, and he actually has this other set.

Speaker 5 (24:46):
The Phillies bullpen era has dropped from twenty ninth to
twenty fifth this week, and interestingly, they're actually thirteenth in
bullpen war, eleventh in bullpen k per nine, eleventh, and
k to walk ratio in the bullpen. And the biggest
thing is they're twenty fifth in babbit, which means that
they're mostly just getting bad luck on balls hidden play,

(25:07):
just hit to the wrong spots grounders.

Speaker 6 (25:09):
I feel like Lozardo, Actually.

Speaker 5 (25:12):
This isn't this is unrelated to the bullpen Lozardo got
really babbitped yesterday.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah, slavin.

Speaker 5 (25:18):
Yeah, just a lot of unlucky grounders, like the one
went off the guy's glove to the other guy, but
then it was slow and Corbyn Carrol beat out a
single like that was a pretty close play. That probably
not a great play by Trey. There was just like
there's a lot of unlucky kind of breaks for Lozardo.
I felt like yesterday, I felt like he was just
as good as always yesterday and kind of just nibbled

(25:41):
a little bit and got unlucky. Still gutted it out. Yeah,
still still kind of hung tough.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
But I love Lozardo, man, And that's kind of the
point that I wanted to hit on beyond just the
stuff which he does. Absolutely have the slidder and you
know he has those get out pictures as well, But
there's like a grittiness to this dude on the mound
that like he competes and I'm all in on the
Hazy's Lezardo experience here. He's a guy that, like I
think when you mentioned him as a bullpen arm, I
think when things are said and done, there's a pretty
likely chance that we're counting on him as a starter

(26:07):
and he will deliver in that moment here, So we'll
see when we get there to that point.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
But I love Lazarta.

Speaker 5 (26:11):
I mean I view him as our second starter. Yeah
right now, Yeah, I'm with you. I'm totally with you.
It's just someone has to go to the pen. I
don't argue. Maybe we should have an Aaron Nola conversation
down the line, but that that's that's totally different. I
love Nola, so I don't even want to be that guy.
It just comes down to an issue of what Painter is.
When Painter comes up to be honest, how special is Painter. Yeah,

(26:34):
we don't know.

Speaker 6 (26:34):
Painter's the big kind of the big X factor looming.
It feels like, and.

Speaker 5 (26:39):
I've said for a long time, I would have just
made Painter the closer at the beginning of.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
The six seven.

Speaker 5 (26:45):
I would have loved it. I think it could have
been electric. I think it also would have limited his
innings pretty good. Like I think they want to get
him on a regiment and get him in the routine
of being, you know, the starter that he's going to
be forever. But I think that would have been the
best way for him to impacted the team the whole way.

Speaker 6 (27:01):
But these stats and.

Speaker 5 (27:02):
The starters were second among starting rotation FIT second x FIT,
which is expected fit first, ERA fifth, expected the RA
first K per nine first innings pitched fourth. They are
by every metric, one of the best starting rotations baseball.
So because all those other teams you look at those,

(27:23):
they're going to have one of those or two of
those where they're way low on the list. If those
are the only rotation who are top five in every
meaningful stat when it comes to rotations, so in my opinion,
it means they're the best rotation in baseball and they're
the reason that this team's eighteen and fourteen and the
offense should be ashamed of themselves. That hasn't that they're
not better than eighteen and fourteen because with the performance

(27:44):
they've gotten from the arms. Tiwan Walker, I mean.

Speaker 6 (27:48):
Really, is really that a great start to the season.
I don't buy it at all.

Speaker 5 (27:52):
But he's really had a great start to the season
and we have not capitalized enough on how good are
starting pitching is Ben.

Speaker 6 (27:57):
You could say that's on the bullpen too.

Speaker 5 (27:59):
Again, though, I think the bullpen has been put in
just like exponentially more close games than most teams in
baseball are. I almost want to do a little research
on that and get back to it a little later
and see just how many close games we've had compared
to other teams. I do know Jose Alvarado's on pace
for like a thirty saved season. He's not even the

(28:21):
guy we're using as like our everyday closer like so
I think that says a lot. But Alvarado what an
absolute beast. Princeton Bailey, the good luck charm so cool.
I've mentioned on the show before, but I have a
I have a nephew on the spectrum, so seeing all
the stuff that the Phillies did, pulling out all the

(28:42):
stops for that kid who went viral. If anyone hasn't seen,
I'm sure you have, but imitating Jose Alvarado, and then
they brought him on the field, Jose signed, signed some gear,
gave him some game war and gear. Jose truly like
one of the nicest guys ever, so really really.

Speaker 6 (29:01):
Awesome to see.

Speaker 5 (29:01):
And then he was in the building again last night
and Jose h one two three ninth inning. I think
I think it was one two three, Am I right? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm pretty sure he was one, two, three, Uh, and
he looked filthy at least I know on the last
batter the guy had no idea what was going on. So, uh, Jose,
it gives even if there is bullpen troubles when you

(29:22):
have a guy like Jose at the top and Strom
the way Strom has been most of the time, Uh,
it's it's hard to get too concerned. I think, and
I think when we get to the playoffs, we might add,
you know, one right harm I think do I do
think we should add one right handed reliever at the
at the deadline, honestly, just to get us through the
season more than anything else. But you get you add

(29:44):
one right hand Estevez type reliever where you don't have
to give up much, but he can slot in and
be a closing option or be a six to seventh
inning guy. You probably put painter and ranger into the bullpen.

Speaker 6 (29:58):
You're immediately talking about an.

Speaker 5 (29:59):
Elite, top level, top five bullpen in baseball if you
have Alvarado Strom, in my opinion, o Ryan an Estevez
level addition ranger and painter, and then we can get
into whoever proves themselves out of Joe Ross, Jose Ruiz, Tannerbanks,
Jordan Romano, whoever you want to say to fill out

(30:19):
the rest of that. And I think at that point
we're looking at it like, oh, we're probably freaking out
a little bit too much about the bullpen. But if
they don't make any lineup ads, I think we'll be
looking at the lineup as the reason that they lose
in the playoffs or don't get to the playoffs more
than anything relating to the bullpen.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
And speaking of the lineup here, I do have to
stick up for my guy Johann Rojas a little bit here.

Speaker 6 (30:40):
Yeah, we have to get there for sure.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
All right.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
First off, like, let's give him a little bit more
love for massive improvement at the plate. I get he's
never going to be a power guy, although he does
have a home run one more than Alec Boom, and
you know, kind of I've been impressed with Johan Rojas
this year.

Speaker 6 (30:55):
He has the same amount of homers as Trey and
Boom combined.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
Look at that.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
Look at that exactly there, and the average he's hitting
over three hundred. He's second on the team in batting average. Though,
what I'm particularly frustrated about is him being benched yesterday
for essentially the base running mistake. I know Rob Thompson
said that's not the case, this was a plannedday whatever.
I think that was absolutely the case. Like I think
that was let's keep things internal. But yeah, I'm benching
this guy. That is absurd that you're making an example

(31:19):
for Johann Rojas here.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Now what I get.

Speaker 3 (31:22):
I understand the exact situation, which was in the bottom
of the ninth with the Phillies down two runs, him
stretching out a double into a triple. What blows my
mind is the amount of people freaking out about him
getting thrown out at third base when he did not
get thrown out at third base. He was successful in
stretching a double into a triple here and mind you,
the game ended one pitch later when Rafael Marshawn flew
out to center field in a very non competitive at bat.

(31:45):
Just first pitch, swing away and fly that one away.
I understand the principle. This Phillies team is not the
highest IQ baseball team and certainly have their fair share
of base running mistakes, but I think it is absurd
for Rob Thompson to be making Johann Rojas the example
of this, I feel like I see Bryce Harper get
thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double
on like a weekly basis that we've seen Alec Boham

(32:06):
have his base running issues.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
There are plenty of people that you can kind of
bring their hammer on if you want to set an example.
I think it's like bizarre and kind of wrong that
Johann Rojas is the guy the Topper seems to be
coming down on.

Speaker 5 (32:21):
I don't I don't really have a hard line stance
on it either way.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
He was saying, I.

Speaker 5 (32:28):
Get your opinion on not wanting to punish him. I
also don't necessarily think he's like an everyday player who
can't get benched for a day.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
Yeah, I'm not saying that, Like I he's he's johannro
Like we understand who he is and who he isn't.
Kind of to this point, I find way more value
in continuing to build this guy up, keep his confidence
going again.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
He is improving.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
He's gotten miles better at the plate than when he
first got to the major leagues here, and that's something
that you should continue trying to grow here. I don't
think there's any benefit to have him sit down and
be punished for once again being successful and stretching out
a double to a triple. Sure my tone would be
different if the game ended on that exact play here,
and again, I still get the overall principle that this
team does need to clean up some of his IQ

(33:13):
and base running issues here, but I just think it
is the right message, wrong messenger kind of conversation. And
like Rojas, I think he should get a little bit
more credit for his start of the season than has
overall been the case.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
Oh, I definitely agree with that. I think he saved
them from the Marsh situation. Yeah, which is really a
shame because and people don't want to hear this, but
part of the lineup problem with not having the third
elite guy, and people are.

Speaker 6 (33:40):
Going to roll when they hear this. Marsh was like.

Speaker 5 (33:43):
An eight to fifty plus ops guy against Righty's for
like long stretches. I think in twenty twenty three he
might have been like nine hundred against Radis. That was
your third elite guy against Righty's. He got on base
at at an insane rate, walked at an insane rate,
and right hand and pitching and now you don't have
that Rojas is helping make up the kind of the.

Speaker 6 (34:07):
Difference of that.

Speaker 5 (34:08):
The weird thing with Rojas is it does and he
was The play he made last night, to me, was
the moment of the night. I thought he should have
got the interview after the game instead of Shurever. But
I it does feel like he's made a lot more
like dumb mistake this year than he had in years past.
I don't know what that is. Maybe this is Topper

(34:30):
seeing a trend of those and just kind of making
sure he locks in, and this is kind of just
a lesson.

Speaker 6 (34:36):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (34:37):
I don't have a hard stance on it.

Speaker 6 (34:40):
It was dumb to.

Speaker 5 (34:41):
Try to stretch it into a triple. I don't know
if it's worth benching him. But if it's like a
trend of things that Topper's noticing where he feels like
he's not locked in, maybe maybe that it's worth it.
But again, I think it comes down to like knowing
you guys. I think Topper is generally pretty good at

(35:02):
that kind of stuff.

Speaker 6 (35:04):
So I don't think he's gonna lose.

Speaker 5 (35:06):
Johan by benching him or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
No, I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
And I think that's sort of why he picked Johan
because he is the guy who when you, you know, look
at the totem pole here that like it doesn't have
kind of to say to I need to be on
the field every day.

Speaker 5 (35:18):
He does this to Boom, he benches boom anytime boom
as a tantrum.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
Yeah, that part's true. I do think Topper like straight
up hates Boom like. I think that's definitely the case there.
I don't think that is the case with Rojas. But
I guess my entire point here is like, based on
our current situation in center field, I see no better
pathway than allowing this guy to continue to play through
his mistakes and hope for the best.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Here.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
Maybe marsh can turn things around when he comes back,
when he's fully healed or whatever the case may be.
But a point h nine to five batting average doesn't
lie to you, and frankly, the at bats have looked
even less competitive than that number indicates there. So for me, like,
stick with the guy, go through the growing pains that
could have been just a conversation, and keep it moving.
In my mind, I didn't like that he got sat
down after that.

Speaker 5 (35:58):
I do want to try to get Marsh summit bats
just to see if we can get something out of
him and something going. I don't know who it necessarily is.
It's also, you know, it's one hundred and sixty two games.
We're gonna have injuries, you know, Nick, Max Johann aren't
gonna all stay healthy for the entire season, just in likelihood.
So I'm sure there will be there will be times
where it opens up and then it feels like we

(36:20):
have too much Marsh or too much of whoever. So
that'll that'll work itself out. Let's real quick run through
our picks before my picks for the day. I don't
know if Sean has any uh, well, we'll we'll save
the NBA because we're gonna go full NBA second hour.
I don't know if Sean has any non NBA picks
for the day.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
My I'll to you first, nothing nothing from me.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
I did hear plenty of Kentucky Derby chattering in this place,
there and everywhere. I'm disappointed my guy Rodriguez, who I
I picked with, you know, obviously very well informed horse
racing expert myself right here, I picked with Sean Brace
earlier this week he got scratched so I'm out of
luck there. I do hear plenty of good things about journalism.
The Dick Girardi, our very own dictorardy quote is I
don't think he just wins. I think he wins by

(37:01):
a lot today. So journalism seems to be the heavy favorite,
and for good reason.

Speaker 5 (37:06):
I have a take on that. I'm not an expert.
Dick Gerard is an expert. I've been reading Dick Girardi
in the in the newspaper since I was I was
in diapers.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
But what I would.

Speaker 5 (37:16):
Say about that is I hear that and Randy Moss,
who not that Randy Moss, but the other end, the
horse racing Randy Moss. He goes, I'm part of my
take every every year for the Kentucky Derby. He was
kind of saying the same thing about journalism about how
could this horse? Is my opinion, that's entirely too much

(37:37):
confidence in an animal. Well, you're running on a track.
I don't think any any horse should be his faith.
I think sometimes in general in sports, we have a tendency,
as experts on whatever sport we are experts on to
really overrate the elite.

Speaker 6 (37:58):
Teams or players or individuals in those sports.

Speaker 5 (38:02):
Like I always notice this in hockey, and I always
do really well in betting on the hockey playoffs, especially
in round one asn't Actually I haven't done it as
much this year, but there's always like one seeds in
two seeds in the hockey playoffs who these NHL teams
or NHL sharps look at and they're like, oh, these
teams are so much better than the rest of the teams,
and they're gonna be minus two point fifty against these

(38:24):
eight seeds and seven seeds, and you can make good
money betting plus one and a half against that, because
hockey playoffs end up becoming really random and goalies get
hot and scoring goes down or up in some cases.
But and to the point where I think that hockey
sharps and people inside the bubble can overvalue the dominant
and elite teams.

Speaker 6 (38:44):
I think that happens in.

Speaker 5 (38:45):
Golf a lot, where if you go tune into like
a Thursday where someone's talking about the Masters, and it's like, oh,
I can't see anyone but Sheffield. I can't see anyone,
and then it's like, Okay, there's like one hundred and
fifty guys in the field. He's like plus six hundred,
the favorite, or whatever you want to say. Like, I
think sometimes in the bubble of the sport that you're
an expert in, you can get so caught up in

(39:08):
whoever the best is and think, oh, there's no way
anybody else wins.

Speaker 6 (39:11):
We saw a guy, We saw a guy a horse,
saw a horse.

Speaker 5 (39:15):
Get added to the field two years ago or three
years ago who wasn't in it like hours before, and
then he won.

Speaker 6 (39:20):
It's like one hundred to one.

Speaker 5 (39:22):
Gimme luxter, a luxer cafe, an American pharaoh's son. I
like it, give me, give me luxer cafe. I like
the bloodlines.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
I don't hate it. I have no argument against that there.
I definitely agree with your overall premise. We do get
some tunnel vision when we're looking at the top dogs,
and I do think that applies to just about every
sport there. So they play the games for a reason.
As a quote, I like to rely on that, you
got to check rock, playball, or in this case run
the race, so you cannot win a game on paper,
or a competition or race whatever you want to talk
about here. So yeah, I do think people get way
too locked in in the favorites all too often.

Speaker 5 (39:55):
Let's take it actually we were real quick. I'll throw
my Luxe Cafe ten to one. The other two MLB
picks that I have today small one two fifteen. I'm
taking the Mets minus one and a half. I've really
been fading the Cardinals a lot. I just don't think
this team's very good. They're fourteen to nineteen, and honestly,
I think that record is actually better than they I
think that'd be on pace for they probably would be

(40:16):
on pace for like seventy five wins.

Speaker 6 (40:17):
I think they're gonna win less than that.

Speaker 5 (40:19):
I think this is like a sixty five to seventy
is shwin team that really really will drop off. I
just they just don't have a lot of talent. I
think they're they're actually a pretty good organization. They're managed
pretty well, and they're overachieving. I look down and up
the roster and I don't I don't get it. So
the in Vegas seems to give him a lot of respect.
Give me Mets minus one and a half at plus

(40:39):
one twenty. Then my big bet, my biggest bet of
the day is the Dodgers minus one oh four. Now
you can actually get it plus one hundred at even
money at Atlanta against the Braves, Rookie Sasaki against Spencer Schwellenbach.
I actually likes Schwellenbach. I think it's probably a wash
of a pitching matchup. But I'll take the Dodgers anytime
they're out even money anytime, and I'll take them as

(41:01):
the best bet of the day anytime they're at even money.
This is a twenty two to ten baseball team who's
going to win one hundred plus games. I'll take their
chances in any game, unless there's like a they have
a terrible pitcher, which is probably never gonna happen, y
going against a really good pitcher, then maybe I wouldn't
feel good about it, But love the Dodgers in that one.
And then at eight o'clock, little Marky Pucks Action, give me.

(41:24):
Give me the Dallas Stars plus one forty five on
the money line. Give me the team total over two
and a half. There they've hit that in five of
the six games the team total over too or four
of the six games team total over two and a half.

Speaker 6 (41:37):
So that's another one.

Speaker 5 (41:38):
The Avalanche, they're on the road, it's a game seven.
They're minus one fifty bubble, I think hockey. They're too
deep in the bubble. Avalanche of wan to Ring, we
know a lot of their names. Break the Bubble, Dallas Stars,
money line over.

Speaker 6 (41:55):
To two and a half. Those are my picks for
the day.

Speaker 5 (41:57):
Any takes on those big, big hockey guys Sean Bernard.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Yeah, a big hockey guy here. Not a ton ton
from me overall.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
I even haven't even normally all casually you flip on
an NHL playoff game just when there's nothing on. I've
been so glued to every NBA action that I've I
haven't watched hardly a second of hockey, and you know,
it is what it is.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Maybe I'll tune in for Stanley Cup finals.

Speaker 6 (42:16):
They've been fantastic. We got a game seven tonight.

Speaker 5 (42:18):
You won't watch it because you got the other the
real game seven. Yeah, with Clippers Nuggets, which is what
we're going to talk about on the other side. So
on the other side, back after this talking about James
Harden Legacy game Game seven Clippers Nuggets. On the other side.
Number one on your car radio preset hand the new
and improved Diehard Radio w D yes and WD two

(42:39):
seven pree d Philadelphia is Fox Sports Radio The Gambler.
Welcome back to the Tough Cover Radio Show. We've got
a whole lot to talk about, and of course I

(43:01):
had a video that I wanted to pull up for
the screen and play and did not get it done
in time during the commercial break. But we've got two
of the most magical words in sports to talk about today,
and we've got two of them.

Speaker 6 (43:17):
I guess right. We've got what time.

Speaker 5 (43:19):
Is the Warriors Rockets.

Speaker 3 (43:21):
One on tomorrow eight thirty, So it's six o'clock for
Pacers Cabs in eight thirty four?

Speaker 2 (43:26):
Game seven there, all right, So.

Speaker 6 (43:28):
We have the we have the video here.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
I mean.

Speaker 5 (43:34):
This is for the video listeners. I don't know how
many people have seen. This is one of my favorite
clips in the history of sports.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Here very curious where you go here.

Speaker 5 (43:44):
It's the little guy named Zaza Pachulia when he was
on the Atlanta Hawks. There's a legendary for the people
who listen to No Dunks, very good basketball podcast out there.
Used to be called The Starters the Basketball Turns. This
is a famous drop they play anytime there's Game seven.
So Kim and a lot of people say, shock the world.

(44:06):
I call it just do not talk about pulled it
all in at the end.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
There nothing easy, nothing easy. We got to care and
some baby.

Speaker 6 (44:21):
Good seven gout.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
That's great stuff right there. That's it. I just wanted
to play though I love it. I love it.

Speaker 6 (44:31):
Nothing easy, nothing easy. I had to had to go there,
I had to play.

Speaker 5 (44:36):
But nothing easy for the Clippers, the Nuggets, the Golden
State ra and the Golden State Rockets, Golden State Warriors
and the Houston Rockets.

Speaker 6 (44:43):
Because we've got two of these bad boys. I'll tip
it off first. You said you're conflicted on Clippers Nuggets.
Why are you so? Why are you conflicted?

Speaker 3 (44:53):
Well, it starts with the man that I know you're
gonna be backing right here, and that is mister Uno himself,
James Harden. I watched Game five James hard Man and
I had flashbacks to Game six versus the Boston Celtics
in Afildelphia seventy six ers uniform. I was talking this
dude attempted four shots at halftime in that game, finished
with I believe nine shots on the game.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
That is just not good enough.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
And to bring in Kawhi Leonard in the same conversation
here that in that same matchup, Kawhi Leonard and James
Harden combining for eleven shots at halftime. That's just unacceptable
in that game, and beyond like the Harden that you're
gonna get the ups and downs, the makes and misses.
The fact that he looked as disinterested as he did
really concerns me. And I've been pretty like vocal about
like I thought this Clippers team had a support system

(45:32):
I guess, you know, built to have a cushion for
the James Harden experience. Still sort of feel that way,
and frankly like the Clippers absolutely have the more talented
roster here, but there is something about being home in
Denver with Nikola Jokich, who has been the best player
on the floor, and that's going to be the case
in just about every floor that he does walk on here.
I think it's going to take Kawhi Leonard having one
of those performances for the Clippers to get the job done,

(45:53):
and I haven't really felt that pulse from him throughout
this series.

Speaker 5 (45:56):
We're talking about the James Harden who had twenty eight,
eight and six in Game six.

Speaker 3 (46:02):
Correct, No, that I can't am I thinking about Game
five then well what was you said?

Speaker 6 (46:07):
No, you were right, you were right, you.

Speaker 5 (46:08):
Said game five. But I'm saying, why are we talking
game five? You know recently, Bias, what have you done.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
For me lately?

Speaker 2 (46:14):
Sure? Okay, all right, yeah I got six.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
You know.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
He did, he played well, he.

Speaker 6 (46:21):
Was great, He was fantastic in game six.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
But that's like the duality of James arden man and
we've this has been him forever, his entire career with it,
like I've more so than anything, the shots are gonna
come and go, You're gonna have that.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
It has to be James harden playing aggressive.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
That has to be him from opening tip in in
tonight's Game seven, or I don't think the Clippers have
a real chance here that can happen. I think this
is gonna be a battle. It's beautiful, it's Game seven.
We should celebrate every second of it here. But I
do feel like this is a straight up coin flip
game in my opinion.

Speaker 5 (46:49):
Just give me what he's averaging in the series, and
I think they win the game. Like I'm saying, if
he goes out and goes twenty one and nine on
on forty five percent, shooting thirty eight percent from three
like fifteen and a half attempts per game, six seven
attempts from three per game. Like, if he does what
he's been averaging to do in this series, then I

(47:11):
think the Clippers are going to win this game.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Yeah, And I.

Speaker 5 (47:14):
Honestly, even if he has like eighteen and eight, I
think he'll they'll probably win the game.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
And the problem with Harden is averages are like distorted
when talking about him because he'll give you thirty eight
and then he'll give you eleven the next day, and
it's kind of that roller coaster. It has been quite
that drastic in this series. I mean he had eleven, fifteen,
twenty eighteen, thirty two, and then twenty eight in the
most recent game there, I do want to give a
shout out Nikobatum Man. I love him, I absolutely love
him as basketball player. Might have had the loudest six

(47:40):
to six and five game I've ever seen in the
last game. He really was a difference maker for that
Clippers team. Was only the third time all season he
played more than thirty minutes and he was excellent. I
mean the block on Russell Westbrook that essentially sealed that
game with a minute to go. He had a really
big block on Jokich. I believe in that fourth quarter
as well, he was awesome. And I think that five
man unit that they closed on, which is James Harden, Kawhi,

(48:01):
Leonard Norman Pal, Niko Batum and a Vika Zubac, it
does not get much better than that. So if they
bring their a game, the Clippers absolutely win this matchup.
There's just a little bit of skepticism that I have
if that actually happens.

Speaker 5 (48:13):
The Clippers feel like the better team to me, and
they felt like the better team to me this whole series.
And the thing I'd say I'm most nervous about, if
I'm being honest, is the fact that Jeans had twenty
eight eight and six, Kawhi had twenty seven to ten
and five. They were both really efficient and they won
the game by six points. Yeah, now, I'll be honest.
I wasn't super locked in on that game, so I

(48:37):
don't know exactly how the game script was. Were they
kind of in control when Denver came back, or was
it close the whole way.

Speaker 6 (48:43):
I'll throw that to you.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
It felt like Clippers were in control of that one
for sure.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
I thought they held them at a distance, relatively throughout it,
I'm like, I mean, it wasn't like a convincing It
wasn't in hand for the Clippers. It always felt like
Denver had this sort of run coming and it never
really happened there. But the Clippers, to their credit, absolutely
can roll that game.

Speaker 5 (49:01):
It does make me nervous that that wasn't kind of
a blowout which Joy Kawhi and Harden played. So I
have the Clippers and taking the money line. There are
three unit played, and I the Dodgers are bigger. They're
my best bet. The Clippers are right behind Mark and
Hollywood Mark in Tinseltown, but I'm going with going with
the Clippers. Where are you? Are you gonna raw dog

(49:24):
this one from a gambling standpoint and not and watch
it from an entertainment standpoint?

Speaker 6 (49:28):
Or are you going to make a bet?

Speaker 3 (49:29):
So I'll throw out some player props I like here.
I do like Jamal Murray over twenty one and a
half points here minus one thirty odds on DraftKings for
that he's been excellent series.

Speaker 5 (49:39):
There better not be a disrespectful player prop colming here.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
No, I'm not going under on Harden.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
If you're wondering that the other guy that I do
want to throw out and for some reason not showing
on DraftKings any of the three point stats right now.
I like Niko Batum for two threes that I do think,
like the minutes upgrade is legitimate, that he's been pretty
excellent in this series, and a guy that I think
clearly is there in the trust of you know, TYLERU
and every single team that he he's on there. So
I do think Niko Batum shows up. I like the
two threes, and that has been plus money for most

(50:04):
of this series. It wouldn't shock me if that changes
after the previous game, but you should be able to
get that in roughly the plus one fifteen range. That's
when I will be taking as well.

Speaker 5 (50:13):
I this is random, and this is a James Harden aside,
because I spend a lot of my time on James
Harden's basketball reference. It is an absolute travesty and a
joke that James Harden did not win the twenty eighteen
twenty nineteen MVP.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
That was the rest Russ Westbrook here, No, that was
Janni's first one.

Speaker 5 (50:34):
Okay, he averaged thirty six, seven and a half and
seven with two shields on forty four, thirty seven eighty
eight shooting. Wow, it's unbelievable that a guy averaged thirty
six points and did not win MVP when a guy
averaged like twenty eight. It's disgusting the level of disrespect

(50:55):
for James Harden throughout his entire career. He's been robbed
of like two MVPs. Should have been placed higher in
multiple MVP votings than he was. I just the reason
that I so badly want Hardened to have some a
big moment tonight or even just whatever beat okayc if
they were or like that.

Speaker 6 (51:14):
I don't think that's gonna happen, but I want the.

Speaker 5 (51:16):
Run so badly for him, because I truly do think
there's he's gonna get lost to history a little bit
and it just can't happen. We can't let it happen.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
I'm in agreement with you that he's absolutely like underrated
in these conversations, that he doesn't get the credit he deserves.
I do think history will remember James Harden well when
we start to reflect on some of these statistical outputs
and some of the absurd stuff like that just straight
up stat line for a season that you read like
that's one that is going to stand the test and
test of time. There's gonna be very few players that
touch that. So I think when we reflect back on
this era that James Harden is gonna get I think

(51:48):
he's gonna be a guy that when we flash forwards
several years from now, he's remembered a little bit higher
regard than we currently speak about him.

Speaker 5 (51:55):
I hope, so, I really hope so, because not many people,
I'll just be honest, James harden Is should be higher
on the all time list of basketball players than Palen Iverson.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
Yeah, oh yeah, he's better than AI.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
Like and the difference being here, Like I mean, AI
just had like the natural connection and like the personality
and the Philadelphia and him and all, like he was
so connected with that.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
I don't think James has ever found that.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
And I think some of that is just him switching locations,
switching teams and all that thing. But as a basketball player,
straight up, like, there's no denying this dude has been
a three time scoring champion, two time assist champion, if
I'm not mistaken, very few players. I think there's seven
guys all time that have won both those awards. There
and completely changed his game throughout his career. I mean,
we've seen this guy just be one of the most
elite ISO scorers ever to turn into a guy that

(52:43):
is one of the best pure point guards ever, And like,
that's a pretty absurd just pathway to take throughout your career.
And I do think from like a personality standpoint, he
gets a worse reputation than he deserves as well. Like,
I don't think he in his heart is a bad
guy by any means, And I do think that there
is something in him that wants to win and wants
to put in self in the best basketball location, even
when there has been some drama sort of surrounding just

(53:04):
about every destination that he has kind of landed in.

Speaker 5 (53:07):
Yeah, I I really hope Pardon has a has a
good nights and that's what I'm watching hoping for more
than anything.

Speaker 6 (53:13):
And obviously I have my own kind of thing.

Speaker 5 (53:15):
With him with the Sixers, and I really didn't want
to get rid of him, and I really do think
it could have worked out and.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
Certainly would have been no doubt about that.

Speaker 6 (53:26):
Yeah, for a lot of reasons. It's it's I really
do think that we.

Speaker 5 (53:30):
Got robbed of what should have been an amazing era
with Harden and Joel, with the pieces around him and
the coaching and a million things.

Speaker 6 (53:37):
But that's that's a different topic for a different day.

Speaker 5 (53:40):
Let's so, if you had the better side on the game,
who wins.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
My heart's leaning Denver right now. I won't lie that
I have leaned in that direction.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
We'll see.

Speaker 3 (53:49):
I certainly can see this and agree with your point,
like the Clippers are the better basketball team, but I
do think tonight is going to be a game where
it comes down to there's two three minutes to go.
You got to generate the best looks possible, and I
do think there's something towards Jokic currently performing at a
better level. I think it will take Kawhi Leonard having
that sort of throwback performance and be ready to take
over down the stretch for the Clippers to win, which
is certainly possible, not rolling it out. But I haven't

(54:10):
felt that level of control that I sort of expected
from him coming into the series. He's been fine, but
not like this superstar Kawhi that I hope for.

Speaker 5 (54:17):
It's very funny that James Harden and Jamal Murray are
just like the most opposite players in the of basketball,
where like Jamal Murray will not make the Hall of
Fame because he stinks in the regular season.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
It's never even been an average. Yeah, he shouldn't.

Speaker 5 (54:30):
He should never have been. Also, like there hasn't really
been a year where it's like, oh, he got screwed,
like he just he's a playoff riser in an unbelievable way,
Like he just becomes a completely different play in the playoffs.
And James Harden's the inverse of that. My dad commented
along making fun of me about me liking to talk
about Harden, But it's just me in general, always liking
to talk about guys who I think are unfairly unfairly

(54:53):
talked about and whatever sport that is, if it's positively
or negatively Harden, it's like number one on that list
that that video that gets sweeted out every time he
has a bad game of that announcer like crapping on
him is like the perfect example of the hate on
James Harden is so undeserved and so stupid in my opinion.

(55:13):
But whatever, a different, different topic for a different day.
Let's talk about Warriors Rockets the other game seven that's
going on tomorrow night. I haven't gotten I haven't gotten
a look at the spread. I'm assuming we're talking.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
I think he since the favorite, slight favorite.

Speaker 3 (55:28):
Yeah, two and a half in the favor of the
minus two and a half yeah, minus one forty two
on the money line, Golden State plus one twenty on draftings.

Speaker 5 (55:36):
Yeah, it's hard to back Golden State after how they
looked in Game six. But I do think Golden State
wins the game and finds a way to get to
get it done.

Speaker 6 (55:45):
I don't think they blow the three to one lead.

Speaker 5 (55:47):
I think they figure out a way to get it
done in game six or game seven.

Speaker 6 (55:50):
Here, I thought they'd figure out a way to get
it done in game six.

Speaker 5 (55:53):
But I do think that it's so easy to look
at Golden State and see the flaws, and they have
three legitimately good players, and they might have a fourth
in Jonathan Kaminga And nope, he's not allowed to play
Steve Kerr for DMPs for Kaminga in this series, which
we kind of knew was gonna be a thing coming in.

(56:15):
I think this is just Steve Kerr is doing a
terrible job. Udoka is absolutely coaching the pants off of them.

Speaker 6 (56:22):
I think Golden State's the better team.

Speaker 5 (56:24):
I think they're more talented in terms Ofston's a lot deeper,
but Golden State has the more top line talent. They
have the first and second best player in the series,
and I think Steve Kerr is coaching them out of
the series.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Yeah, I think that's fair.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
I'll say this, I became a Rockets convert last night
watching that game that I was blown away with sort
of just the big boy, grown up win that they
produced there.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
That was my takeaway.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
They were bigger, they were tougher, they were more physical
and basically better at every facet of basketball. And totally
agree with your coaching point here. I did not expect that.
That was the biggest surprise me. Emai Yudoka had an
answer for every single thing that the Warriors did throw
on the floor. The Steven Adams adjustment. He's been such
an X factor in this series, and the numbers don't lie.
I believe they're plus forty six points per one hundred
possessions with Steven Adams on the floor in this series.

(57:07):
That is absurd stuff, and it is that size discrepancy.
There were three plays last night where they went to
the hack of Steven Adams technique, which, by the way,
I think completely ruined the warriors entire flow. That this
is a team that needs to build energy, needs to
get a flow, needs to get up and down the floor,
and the fact that you're just stopping the game on
every other possession there made zero sense to me. And
Steven Adams hit about a fifty percent rate of the

(57:29):
free throw line, which you live with. In addition to
two second half of the free throws that he missed
that Albern Shangoun came up with offensive rebounds.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
That can never happen. If that's your game plan.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
If you're intentionally putting a guy at the line believing
that he will miss, you better be buckled up and
ready to get a rebound.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
And they fell short of that twice.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
One of them ended up with the Shingun put back
right away, the other day fouled Shangun on it and
he went to the free throw line for two. That
kind of stuff loses you basketball games, and that's what
we saw now. I kept waiting for that run from
Golden State to happen, but it did really feel like
that the Rockets just hadn't answered the Both teams played
a ton of zone last night, which was kind of
surprising to me. But the Rockets just found such a

(58:04):
clear way to manipulate it that they had shing Gun
checking up to the free throw line, they had cutters
coming in both sides, and they were just picking it
apart possession after possession. I don't see an answer for
Golden State for what they have here. They just don't
have enough guys around the Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry
of this, and I'm siding with Houston. They raised to
a defensive level that I don't think Golden State could match,
and I don't see a well where there's a counter

(58:26):
for Golden State in this situation.

Speaker 5 (58:28):
I just think it was Golden State shot thirty percent
from three and Houston shot forty percent a little bit,
and I thought us still got away with a lot
on Steph more than they've been the rest of the series.
They really mauled him the whole game with doubles and
were really really just fouling the crap out of them
and there and then to call it, and they kind
of weren't. But to me, it was Golden State kind
of shriveling, yeah, and not having a third option or

(58:50):
fourth option on offense. I think if they just shot
a little better, like Buddy went over four from three,
they just didn't get anything from.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
As a tough Buddy game last night, brutal he gets. Yeah,
he's a guy, like what's madding to me? And we
felt this in Philadelphia as well. Here is this is
game six of the NBA Playoffs and this dude is
just jogging around out there like this is a regular
game in December, like and that's sort of Buddy, Like
he's just in his own world. That's how he operates here.
But like I was frustrated, like watching him for Golden

(59:18):
State last night. I and he to his credit, like
he's overall been good in this series, but it was
a pretty brutal night for him last night.

Speaker 5 (59:25):
Yeah, I just I think that the Houston guards when
it looks good like Fred Banby had that night last.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
Night and three straight three straight that he said, I
believe six plus three pointers.

Speaker 5 (59:39):
I just I don't buy into that as like a
long term thing. And he's had him I had brutal
games to start this series as well. So I think
we get a flip from Fred VanVleet where he isn't
hitting everything he touches and getting fouled on threes.

Speaker 6 (59:55):
We've seen Jalen Green.

Speaker 5 (59:56):
You can't rely on I just I'm going with Stephan
Jimmy to figure out in Game seven and going against
the Rockets guard play I know doesn't look smart after
the last two games, but everybody's gonna be on Houston here,
and that's kind of why I kind of am starting
to really like Golden State more and more, even if
it doesn't make a lot of sense. If I am
mad at Golden State and I think that curR is

(01:00:16):
doing a bad job, and I don't think they're very deep,
they don't have a playable big I just think the
guard play is gonna end up getting them in the end,
and then whoever wins the series is losing in five
to Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Yeah. No, I think that's fair.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
Both these teams, as you pointed out, like when we
were texting back and forth, both these teams have very
clear flaws. There's no doubt about that that they're not
complete basketball teams. In Minnesota, I think you could make
a case for the most impressive opening round across the
entire NBA right there.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
So I do agree. I think Minnesota is going to
beat either one of these teams.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
And I feel sort of how you felt going I
felt going into yesterday, how you seem to feel today
that there is this Butler and Curry stuff. You can't
deny all the playoff experience, but I mean, Houston just
has so much more depth and so many more options
that they can go with that. Like you take their
eighth man and they're probably in the starting lineup for
this Warriors team, Like that's sort of where we're at.
They just have a bunch of guys around. So I

(01:01:06):
think the depth has played a factor. I think Houston
has physically worn them down, and I think that carries
right over to Game seven.

Speaker 5 (01:01:12):
I think the depth will play less of a factor
in a Game seven where it's like do or die
than it has over like a breath of a series,
I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
But maybe carry out pull Steve Kurr and you know,
just played the start in five to the final full
second half.

Speaker 5 (01:01:25):
He should just try kuminga like it's insane to me,
It's absolutely insane. But the game that I like more
on Sunday and the game that I love this bet
Pacers plus eight and a half at the Cavs, and
I get it's game one. I think this is going seven.
I think Indiana's winning one of these first two games.

(01:01:46):
So I'm taking plus eight and a half and I'm
taking the money line all the way up to plus
two to eighty. I think Indiana can win this game.
I think Indiana is so much better than the Knicks.
I think they're so clear really the third best team
in the East. I think they're better than Golden State
or Houston. I think they're better than h No, they're

(01:02:08):
probably not better than Minnesota, and they're probably not better
than the Clippers or Denver, but they're they're right. They're
right in the mix of one of the seven or
eight best teams in basketball. And I think they're the
clear of the third best team in the East. I
think that people are in Vegas is giving Cleveland a
little too much respect for beating up on a terrible team.
I thought Indiana was mostly really impressive in that Milwaukee series.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
Yeah, I think you can make a pretty convincing case
that they've been the most underappreciated or under respected team
in this entire NBA playoff run here, And I'm not
as passionate about Game one specifically, but certainly side with
you on this series outlooked, and I think this one
goes deep that Indiana is legitimate. They're another team that
just has so many of those guys, the rotation players
that can step up and make their impacts. Mate the
Obie Toppins, the Andrew Nemhartz, the Aaron Nasmith. Here like

(01:02:53):
a deep roster Tyrese Aliburton is gonna be the X factor,
as is always the case, is he's probably the only
guy in the similar conversation to Jalen Green to me
who at his best and at his worst, there's just
such a gap in who they are as basketball players,
and that's sort of the roller coaster you gotta ride.
But he was good in the opening round, and I
do think that carries over the only reason I'm skeptical
from a Game one perspective. I do think there is

(01:03:14):
such a clear just chip on the shoulder from this
Cavs team of we're not getting the respect either, and
we saw that in the opening round as they had
as dominant of a victory literally the most the largest
margin of victory that we've ever seen in an opening
round series. So I wouldn't drop me if this is
a step on the gas in game one. But I
do think the Pacers are live dogs in the series,
and I do think the plus three thirty odds of
winning the series outright are disrespectful in this part of

(01:03:36):
the sportsbook.

Speaker 5 (01:03:37):
Seven guys averaging double figures in the playoffs and toping
averaging eight point two as well, Like you have eight
guys you feel really good about. That's without talking about
Jarris Walker and Ben Sheppard. I think the Pacers just
have so many options here. And Halliburton even the bad though,
like he's still averaging twelve assists here playoffs, like he's
still going to set up the rest of the offense.

(01:03:57):
Pascal has been in these big games before. He stepped
up in that in that first round playoff series against Milwaukee.
I love Miles Turner nemhar is averaging fifteen in the playoffs,
the same with Nie Smith averaging fifteen in the playoffs.

Speaker 6 (01:04:12):
I think they're they're deeper than Cleveland.

Speaker 5 (01:04:14):
I feel better about their top couple bench guys than
I do with Struce honestly, and Merrill and Ocuro, whoever
you want to say.

Speaker 6 (01:04:23):
I Jeromees a solid really really solid bench guy. But
I like the Spacers roster a lot.

Speaker 5 (01:04:30):
People forget they won fifty games, they went to the
Eastern Conference finals last year. I don't know which game
they're gonna win. I think they're gonna win one of
the first two.

Speaker 3 (01:04:37):
Yeah, I don't hate that, take what sover, I more
so feel I think I'm eyeing up game two a
little bit deeper here that I think that there will
be you know, calvs, this is why we're the one seed,
this is why we've been so good that it's like
a pretty clear and obviously they've got a little bit
of a rest advantage and all those kind of things there.
So but I do agree with you this is this
is gonna be a series, and I don't think everyone's
buckled up for that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:04:59):
No, I let's take a break and on the other side,
we'll come back little little draft talk, maybe NBA draft talk,
NFL draft talk, maybe a little combo of both.

Speaker 6 (01:05:08):
But on the other side, back with some draft talk.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
Spreads, totals and all the prop that's in between. It's
the Gamber. They don't know me, the same old.

Speaker 5 (01:05:35):
Mostly Welcome back to the Tough Coover Radio Show. Closing
it down here Saturday, May third, talked about all the game,
seven's talked about my MLB picks for the day. If
you missed, I'll just run down my picks for the
day now that they're all out there altogether. Two fifteen
Mets minus one and a half at plus one twenty

(01:05:55):
at the Cardinals, Cardinals, I've been feeding them constantly. Seven
fifteen Dodgers even money at the Braves at the four
unit play at seven fifteen. That's my best bet of
the day. Anytime the Dodgers are even money, I'm on it.
Seven thirty Clippers plus one oh six on the money
line at the Nuggets for three units, shout out to Uno.
At eight o'clock on the ice market Bucks Stars money

(01:06:18):
line plus one forty five team total over two and
a half.

Speaker 6 (01:06:21):
Break the break the bubble. That's my that's my term
there for the Stars. Break the bubble. Going with Dallas.

Speaker 5 (01:06:27):
And also I'm riding my I think it's plus seven
fifty plus seven hundred. I forget what it is. My
Florida Panthers. They're onto the second round. So my Florida
Panthers we meant to get I might have to get
a Florida Panthers shirt sent sent to the house here,
but full on Florida Panthers rider for the rest of
the way here.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
I got a nice Detroit Piston shirt line around that
I have no clue what I'm gonna do with for
the rest of my life after our last area. So yeah,
I still like the piss and so you know, I'll
keep going around a little bit. But disappointing how that ended.

Speaker 5 (01:06:55):
When I when I first started traveling a lot for
work and I was going to a lot of NBA
game MB games, I would always get a shirt for
whatever team I was going to see, And now I
just have like a Bull shirt and Oriol shirt, a
Hornet shirt, a Pacers shirt, all these shirts that I'm
just never gonna wear. Yeah, and we're sitting around, but
so I've stopped doing that.

Speaker 6 (01:07:16):
But let's talk a little bit of NBA Draft.

Speaker 5 (01:07:20):
It's obviously pretty good bit away, but I've been you know,
Sixers Land, not a lot going on in the playoffs.
All we've got to talk about is is college basketball.
So I think why not talk a little top ten
here for the NBA Draft and the lottery coming up
in nine days next week. On the show, we're having

(01:07:43):
Shrolbro Dude on to talk about the lottery and everything
else that's going on. That'll be the middle of the
second round at that point, so we'll break everything down
with him, and I think we're gonna break down Cooper
flag tiers of landings. I'm gonna try to figure out
my tiers of what the NBA wants or what it
would be good for basketball potentially. So we're gonna workshop

(01:08:06):
that idea for a segment with Trill. But obviously Cooper
flag number one on the board, not a lot of
debate there.

Speaker 6 (01:08:12):
The debate starts at number two.

Speaker 5 (01:08:15):
I'm an East Bailey guy. I think people have really
gotten the hate has gone too far on Ast Bailey,
the same way they hate went too far on Brandon Miller.

Speaker 6 (01:08:25):
I think eighteen year old American wings.

Speaker 5 (01:08:28):
Get picked apart so much for some reason in the
way that guards and bigs don't, And I don't know
what that is. Maybe it's because there's less control on
their own outcomes when they don't like the guard is
the one controlling the ball and getting it to them,
so they're not necessarily creating for themselves all that often.
But I think I always am more forgiving when it

(01:08:51):
comes to wings and more kind of I don't even
know what the.

Speaker 6 (01:08:56):
Right word would be. More harsh.

Speaker 5 (01:08:58):
Yeah, when it comes to great guards, because the fifteenth
best guard is so much better than the fifteenth best wing.
It's just there's so many more talented guards. Go look
at like the twenty fifth best point guard. They're pretty
good like as opposed to there's a lot of teams
that just don't have any wings and haven't for years.
Think about I always think about Memphis. Memphis hasn't had

(01:09:20):
a good wing since Rudy Gay, and it's just it's hard.

Speaker 6 (01:09:25):
They're hard to come ei, they're hard to find. The
Sixers have struggled with wings my entire life.

Speaker 5 (01:09:30):
I thought Robert Covington was an alien when he got
here because we were getting guys who could make threes
and and get steals and people hated him. So wings
to me are just so valuable. You see a guy
like Aas Bailey at his size at six ten, it's
able to do the things he's able to do. I'm
not gonna pick a part with things he's not able
to do or the things he doesn't do well yet,

(01:09:51):
because I think he still could down the line.

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
I'll ignore the little dig at my guy Desmond Baine,
who I'm still believer right out there in Memphis.

Speaker 5 (01:09:57):
But I get the guard.

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
Yeah, I guess he's hard to MEA that's fair. He's
not a true true wing.

Speaker 3 (01:10:02):
And when you picture a true true wing, it is long,
athletic wingspan guys like that, And that is ace Bally there.

Speaker 2 (01:10:08):
This is like my kind of just read.

Speaker 3 (01:10:10):
I think Ace Bailey is gonna be a guy that
drops throughout the pre draft process, that people are talking
themselves out of it more than into it, which I
disagree with. I think he's gonna get third, Okay, it
wouldn't shock me if we're talking about like in that
fourth fifth range when the board fully settles there, I
disagree with that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:23):
I'm in on Ace Bailey.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
I'm also an Ace Bally guy, and I will say,
like I had my same skepticisms coming into the season
and watching the first handful of games at Rutgers. When
I went up and watched him in person, I really
appreciated him a lot more that the motor is absolutely there.
He's a guy who never turned it off, was competing
on both ends of the floor. The whole time, and
for a couple guys that I've talked to up there
have heard nothing but good things about him as like
a personality, work ethic, all those things, and all his

(01:10:47):
issues to me are very fixable. Like shot selection is
the clear cut number one that he can't be taking tough,
fade away two pointers. It seems to be a go
two shot of his at a regular rate there. But
the tools are there, the competition factor and the motor
is absolutely there. And when you have that combined with
the guy who is real deal six nine, six ten
in athletic, I'm taking a lottery ticket on that guy.
So if if we're talking sixers specific and they end

(01:11:10):
up with that second pick, I do think Ace Bailey
should be the pick back.

Speaker 6 (01:11:15):
I totally agree.

Speaker 5 (01:11:16):
And then my number three guys also from Rutgers, which
is crazy that they have two of the top three guys,
And to me it's clear like.

Speaker 6 (01:11:22):
I think Bailey and I'm not even that high.

Speaker 5 (01:11:25):
On Harper and I have him third. But to me,
there's a massive drop off from the top three to
the rest of the draft. Yeah, So if there is
anyone out there who gets drafted above the East outside
of that top three. I think that's gonna be crazy,
and whoever that is, I think that's going to look
really dumb in the future.

Speaker 6 (01:11:40):
But I'm where are you at on Harper?

Speaker 5 (01:11:44):
Like, who do you kind of view him as or
like compare him to how high are you on Harper?

Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
Yeah, I've seen all the Baby Harden comparisons, which I
understand where you get there. I don't quite see that exactly.
I do think there's a war where this guy can
be like an all star guard and with that, like,
I think he's worth the top three pick because of that.
He's also six foot six, which I think he deserves
to be acknowledged because a lot of times he gets
chucked into like the small guard category and he's not
quite that. He's a little too ball dominant for my liking,

(01:12:10):
like he's to throw the hard In comparison, again, he
does sort of the same stuff where he just stands
around watches when he doesn't have the ball in his hands.
That is stuff that can be coached and taught over
the years. I kind of got the opposite response when
asking about him as a worker and a person compared
to Ace Bailey up at Rutgers, which was interesting. To me, again,
this is one guy's opinions, So I don't want to
cruisp by the kid or anything like that, but sort

(01:12:32):
of the raid on the situation.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
I like Harper.

Speaker 3 (01:12:35):
I'm not locked in as this guy is like a
sure fire face to the franchise type guy. I don't
think he's probably that, but I do think for this
specific draft, he absolutely should be a locked to be
a top three pick, and I think there are a
lot of franchises that should be viewing him as the
number two in comparison to Bailey, depending on the context
of your roster.

Speaker 5 (01:12:51):
I guess I just don't know what he's a lead at,
Like is it drawing fouls?

Speaker 3 (01:12:56):
No, I'll say, like he's incredibly mature in his of
the game, Like there's a comfortability with the ball in
his hands and him like maneuvering pick and rolls and
making decisions on the floor that I do trust that
you don't see in a lot of freshman guards.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
So like that definitely stood out to me.

Speaker 3 (01:13:10):
He's a guy that I think you can trust to
be the primary decision maker in an offense, which is
a pretty good starting point for a guy that will
be entering his year one of his NBA career.

Speaker 5 (01:13:20):
And then I'll throw to you who would be outside
of those top three guys, who would be your favorite
guy in the draft?

Speaker 3 (01:13:26):
Oh that's what this is where it gets tough. I
know we talked a lot about Malowack there. We've kind
of gone back and forth. I think I'm locking in
another Duke. He and Khan Canipple. It is going to
be probably my number four there, another guy who's real
deal six to seven. I think there's more layers to
his game than he's ultimately unraveled due to the all
the talent that we saw at Duke. I believe in
the shot one hundred percent there. I do think he's

(01:13:46):
going to hold up as a defender at the NBA level,
and I think there's like he can play, make a
little bit, he can rebound. I think Knepple is going
to end up being my number four locked in there.

Speaker 5 (01:13:56):
He's I'm much lower on Conna. I don't trust the defense,
and he doesn't create steels or havoc at all either.

Speaker 6 (01:14:03):
And he's not a transition guy.

Speaker 5 (01:14:05):
So I just I think there's too much that's limiting
him from reaching a high ceiling. I think he's probably
gonna be anywhere from Corey Kispert to a good version
of that. Like, I I don't know what the what's
the who's the upside?

Speaker 3 (01:14:23):
I think he's like he's not a wing in the
sense that you're gonna think of with Ace Bailey, like
flying off the page and doing all that stuff. But
I think he could be I've used Desmond Baine here,
like a little bit of Desmond Bane where he's I
think he's gonna be a high level shooter.

Speaker 2 (01:14:36):
I'll put it that way.

Speaker 3 (01:14:37):
There's no doubt in my mind that this guy's gonna
be like a floor spacing guy that you can have
is I think there's a will where he can even
play like a little bit of Robert Covington. I guess
he's not gonna get the steels and deflections that kind
of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
Yeah, yeah, but like that.

Speaker 6 (01:14:48):
I think that's so big of a part of who
Covington was.

Speaker 5 (01:14:52):
I just I really struggle, like I just hate to
be the guy comparing him to white guys like Duncan
Robinson and Corey Kisper, but like those guys are amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:15:00):
Yeah, and I was. He did have one point two
steals per game. I was just looking up that number there,
which isn't nothing there. Yeah, So like I don't Again,
I don't think he's gonna be a defensive stalwart by
any means. But there's there's a guy I think you
can make a case that like for who he's going
to be. I feel much more confident in that than
a lot of these guys in the same mix.

Speaker 5 (01:15:18):
My take on him is that I think a lot
of sixers people are coalescing around him because he's the
only guy who like, for the lack of a better word,
makes sense, Like he's just like oh yeah, and he's
right in and you can shoot. Like I don't know
if that's the right way to approach this pick or
if it's just to take whoever we think as the
highest ceiling and upside and like can hit a star,

(01:15:41):
it can be a star, and I don't think kN can.

Speaker 3 (01:15:44):
Yeah, I don't think he's that, but like, again, it's
a little bit of a high floor. Pick a win now,
pick a guy that like definitely a high floor.

Speaker 5 (01:15:51):
Pick yeah, I think because I when I said Corey Kisper,
you made a big thing. If Corek Kisper wasn't on
the Wizards, I think he'd be like a fine role player.

Speaker 3 (01:15:58):
Yeah, I think CON's like, I think he's gonna be
an NBA starter. I think he'll be an NBA starter,
which I feel okay about. Who would you have as
your number four here?

Speaker 5 (01:16:07):
Well, mine's crazy and I know I'm crazy, and people
it's Jase Richardson, who averaged seventeen to five and two
over his last fifteen games on fifty forty two eighty
eight shooting, when twelve of those games were against tournament teams.
So I just think this is a guy. And I
was reading about it too. I think it was Danny
Chow who wrote about how Tom Izzo just does not

(01:16:30):
play freshman.

Speaker 6 (01:16:31):
This is the fifth freshman since like nineteen. I forget.

Speaker 5 (01:16:34):
It might be the fifth freshman of Izzo's tenure. It
might even be longer than that at Michigan State. To
go one and done at the drug it just doesn't happen.
I think his dad might have been one of the
only other ones. But I just think I hate to
like toot my own horn.

Speaker 6 (01:16:51):
As I said last week.

Speaker 5 (01:16:53):
I tend to find one guy every draft who I
fall in love with, who it usually works out. I
think my hit rate on those guys has been pretty
darn high.

Speaker 6 (01:17:05):
MAXI was that guy. McCain was that guy.

Speaker 5 (01:17:08):
And I see so many of the things that I
attract me to that guy usually attracting me to Jace Richardson.
He remind I think he's a carbon copy of Jared
McCain without the zest, with NBA bloodlines. I think, with
a little a little more athleticism, a little more defensive
kind of a little more defensive toughness to him. But

(01:17:31):
what I'll say is a little worse of a I
don't think Jerry McCain's a lead creator or a lead
point guard, but I think he's got a little more
creativity for others than than a Jace does. One thing
I'll say about that is, though I wonder if Jace
would have if Jace would have went to a different.

Speaker 6 (01:17:54):
School, would we have gotten to see that kind.

Speaker 5 (01:17:56):
Of showcased a little bit more because is A does
not want to play freshman, let alone have freshman run
the offense, right, So I think he was fine kind
of plugging him in as a shooter and a guy
who could fill the holes and ended up becoming the
lead scorer. But he still wasn't this usge trate wasn't
very high. He wasn't the lead kind of creator for others.
I think there's untapped potential with Jase that people aren't seeing.

Speaker 3 (01:18:20):
Yeah, I think that's completely fair there. And I will say,
like it was pretty night and day the impact in
what he looked like at the end of the season
versus the start, that he was a guy that I
felt like I missed him in a lot of the
early season games for Michigan State went sort of kind
of flipping channels and watching. Then by the end of
the season like he was the guy, and especially in
the tournament, it was crystal clear like he was the
go to guy that when you need a bucket, he

(01:18:40):
will be the dude. When in the comparison to Jared McCain,
the biggest thing that appeals to be a Mount McCain,
like at the draft time and now is I feel
so confident about like the off ball movement and his
ability to create shots without having the ball in his hand,
which I think is such a valuable skill. You think
Jase has these same traits.

Speaker 6 (01:18:57):
That's what I think.

Speaker 5 (01:18:58):
That's the thing I see the most because jas walton't
controlling the ball and he still had a average seventeen
throughout the rest.

Speaker 6 (01:19:05):
I think he's so good off ball, Okay, I think.

Speaker 5 (01:19:08):
He's like that's where I see them the most similar thing.
The thing I diverge in is I think McCain had
a little bit more create for himself opportunities and a
bit more create for others opportunities.

Speaker 6 (01:19:21):
But the off ball thing, that's why I love both
of them.

Speaker 3 (01:19:23):
Okay, interesting, I'm gonna have to do a little bit
more side by side diving into that. But I did
feel stronger and more convinced that Jad McCain like that
directly translates like a true Steph Curry disciple in a
way that it has embraced that that I can't wait
to see and like it's full effect next year. And
by the way, speaking of Dad McCain, I do have
to acknowledge here that my time to pay up the
bet on the Sixers not making the playoffs is here.
So I did put out there. I believe we were

(01:19:45):
twelve games into the season at this point. It was
right after the loss of the Magic that if the
Sixers did not make the playoffs, I would recreate every
Jad McCain TikTok that is is requested there, So I'm
doing a ten day countdown until the NBA Draft lottery.
Tonight would be dropping the first one, so that be
on the timelines. Not not really my proudest moment staying
up on a Friday night recording tiktoks myself during commercials

(01:20:06):
of the Rockets Foyers game.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
But it is what it is. I am a man
of my word.

Speaker 5 (01:20:10):
Love it. I love it where that's that he was
hitting that though on there. I forget who said that
in the group draft, but.

Speaker 3 (01:20:19):
I give Jackson prabs man. That stuff's harder than I
thought it would be.

Speaker 6 (01:20:22):
Oh you kidding me.

Speaker 5 (01:20:23):
That's one of the most talented individuals in the in
the country. Jerry McCain's two sport athletes dancing in basketball
and the funny thing I just not to I'm gonna
talk about jas Richards some ten more times before the draft,
but Jase the funny thing, like he looked like a
completely different player at the end of the year. He
shot the same percentages the whole year, so he actually

(01:20:45):
shot a better percentage from three like when he wasn't
really playing that much than he did when he was
playing more, and I think that this is just entirely
like it was based on the amount of opportunities he
was given.

Speaker 6 (01:20:58):
And I think the McCain is we just saw him.

Speaker 5 (01:21:00):
Play more, and we saw him getting more opportunities early
in his time at Duke, and not the Michigan State's
low level, but Duke was You watch more Duke than
almost any team in the country, the neighbor of how
many NBA prospects they have on it, So we got
so much of McCain. It's still so stupid that that
McCain was not drafted earlier. But a guy who VJ.

(01:21:23):
Edgecombe is my number five guy, a guy who I
think there is some Anthony Edwards vibes too, as an athlete,
as a defender, as a guy in transition, a guy
who can dunk on your head. I sent that to
Trill and he dressed me down because I don't think
he's that big on VJ. And He's like, ah, he's

(01:21:43):
not even close offensively all this stuff. Trill hated the
comp I believe in it from an athleticism, defense and
transition standpoint. Vj's not there on offense. But what I
will say is Anthony Edwards did shoot twenty nine percent
from three in college when he got drafted first.

Speaker 6 (01:21:57):
Now, I know it's a different situation.

Speaker 5 (01:21:59):
Georgia was not good at all, and Tom Crean's and
Moron and Anthony Edwards took ten threes a game when
he was there. But I do think that there's untapped
potential with VJ, who's eighteen, who has all the intangibles
athleticism you would want if you can kind of mold
that offensive game a little bit, and he did shoot

(01:22:21):
thirty four percent from three, Like this isn't a guy
who's nothing in terms of the jumper, Like there is
some three and deep potential there. I really like VJ.
I'm kind of talking myself in more as we go.

Speaker 2 (01:22:31):
Yeah, I do as well.

Speaker 3 (01:22:32):
And there's been kind of this feeling watching him all
year that like, I like him more than he's fully
showing that there is something there. And I totally see
the Edwards comparison from an athletic standpoint, the way that
he glides and explodes like there is very few guys
and for a dude who's still figuring things out offensively,
you give yourself a pretty good cushion for the way
that can translate on the defensive end, and the way
you can get out and transition and find ways to

(01:22:54):
impact impact the game without being a fully polished basketball
player to this point here and as far as like
as a person like, I've watched some interviews with him.
He's a guy that if I'm making a bet for
who's the player that will for sure maximize his potential.
He's pretty up there on my list that I do
believe in him to be a guy that wants it,
will work at it, will do everything possible.

Speaker 2 (01:23:12):
So I like VJ. Edgecomb.

Speaker 3 (01:23:14):
He's probably not quite in that top five mix for me,
but a guy that like I would be comfortable taking
and I do think is going to have a pretty
bountiful NBA career.

Speaker 5 (01:23:23):
My number five guy comes down to three guys that
are tied, and I change it every day. Basically right now,
Vj's five, but I'll the next two guys I have
basically tied, and these guys are back to back to
back on Takathon. Trey Johnson is my number sixth guy
who I could easily be swayed to five.

Speaker 6 (01:23:40):
The guy is a bucket.

Speaker 5 (01:23:43):
I mean, it's just there's not a lot to talk
about about his game outside of the scoring. But he
might be one of the best scorers in the world
right now, and it's tough to there's a situation where
his floor is really low. He might never be a
rotation guy just due to his defense, due to his
lack of maybe creation for others. I but the scoring

(01:24:05):
might be so lethal that this guy might end up
becoming like a star just based on scoring.

Speaker 3 (01:24:09):
Yeah, I mean, like for a guy that was breaking
scoring records set by Kevin Durant at Texas, says a
lot right there. He is absolutely bucket, there's no doubt
about that. And he's got a little bit of size
to him. He measures in like six six two, so
still not can't be thrown in that like small guard category.
But with that said, I don't really see a pathway
to this guy being like even a competent defender. I
think like that's gonna be my my sort of outlook

(01:24:32):
for Trey Johnson, I said, I think he probably falls
into that category of that like flame, throw off the
bench type option, which if we're talking in that top
six range, which we are here, I don't really want
to invest that for that type of player. So he's
there will be a team, and maybe he proves me wrong,
maybe I am selling I'm short. We'll see what he
ultimately develops into. But I the more I've watched him,
the more skeptical I've been of, Like, what is an

(01:24:53):
NBA role for Trey Johnson.

Speaker 2 (01:24:55):
He's just such a bucket, Yes he is.

Speaker 6 (01:24:58):
I love watching I'm.

Speaker 5 (01:25:00):
I'm afraid to just lower it. I'm afraid to not
give him enough respect because that scoring is just such
an elite trait. If you're able to just get to
passable on defense man, that's a that's a that's a player.

Speaker 6 (01:25:13):
But another guy who.

Speaker 5 (01:25:15):
I think has has high upside but a much higher floor.
So probably, honestly, I'm gonna switch this right now. I
think I'm gonna put him six and Putray seven. I've
flipped these three names ten times.

Speaker 6 (01:25:26):
Is Malluck?

Speaker 5 (01:25:27):
I have Maluck seven. I tweeted yesterday that I'm kind
of opening myself up way more to the idea of
the Sixers drafting him if they were picking at four
or five or six, just because I think it might
be the pick that most. It serves two masters, and
it's a little bit of a middle you. It helps
the current roster because We've been terrible in games that

(01:25:51):
Joel since we were terrible when he's on the bench,
and obviously I don't think he's playing eighty two games
anytime soon. Probably gonna be a lot of time without Joelle.
If things go perfect, even if we get the Joel
we want to see again and this surgery worked, then
he stays healthy for the most part, We're still going
to have a lot of games and minutes without him.
He can cover those minutes and him and Bona can

(01:26:13):
go out there and be your your second and third center.
You have multiple backup options for different matchups. You have
two guys through out there when Joel are out, and
then if Joel if the negative is you know the
scenario we don't want to talk about, where Jowell never
gets back to being himself, he continues getting hurt and
his knees are a problem forever. Then you just drafted

(01:26:33):
a franchise center for the next for the McCain, Maxy,
Grimes era, or whatever whoever you want to say, is
in that. I think Malawac's the guy that kind of
everybody looks at Kinnupple as the Cannipple is the guy who, like, oh,
he just fits right in and it makes sense, and
he starts.

Speaker 6 (01:26:52):
I look at Malawoch over all the guardy types.

Speaker 5 (01:26:56):
Because it's just hard to want to take a guard
if you're the Sixers when we have three we feel
really good about. And not to mention, I think Jared
Butler's a nice backup guard as well if they kept
him around. So I really don't want to take a guard.
I'm talking myself in more and more to Malawak.

Speaker 3 (01:27:10):
Yeah, I see the vision for sure that like I
get the case, and I do overall believe in him
as a talent.

Speaker 2 (01:27:16):
I've mentioned this to you.

Speaker 3 (01:27:17):
That final game against Houston did scare me, where he
comes up with zero rebounds as a seven foot two
center with Houston not possessing a guy over six foot seven. Now, granted,
that's what Houston does that they do impose themselves on
the board as their recipe for success and identity as
a program. So I gotta be a little bit fair
to the kid here, and this is guy that's a
late bloomer that he just picked up basketball at sixteen.
I also think it's kind of cool you can do

(01:27:37):
a little bit of comparison with Joel Embiid where they
have sort of a similar background with Malawak coming from
South Sudan coming over to America and obviously things working
out pretty well with him being at Duke and now
said to be a clear cut top ten pick at minimum.
I think probably top five pick. When this holds, met
shakes out there. Like I guess, like from a mentality standpoint,

(01:27:58):
it makes sense. It would feel a little bit like
me if they go this decision that there is, it
would say more about the Sixers belief in Joel andb
than I would like to kind of hear.

Speaker 2 (01:28:06):
At this current moment, I kind of feel.

Speaker 5 (01:28:09):
Yeah, I think that the rebounding I get the Houston
game is such a that's gonna stick with everybody, and
I've got multiple comments about that on Twitter. He's still
almost averaged twelve rebounds a game per forty and you
look at the.

Speaker 6 (01:28:23):
Games leading into that.

Speaker 5 (01:28:24):
He dominated the glass against Bamah, you know, six boards
and four blocks against Arizona, the whole acc turn. Even
the run from March first to March routeens, he had
games with ten, fourteen, nine and ten rebounds.

Speaker 6 (01:28:40):
I think rebounding is a.

Speaker 5 (01:28:42):
Strength for him. Ultimately, I know everybody's gonna just focus
on that one game.

Speaker 6 (01:28:46):
I think it was a weird game. Yeah, and I
think he's gone.

Speaker 5 (01:28:48):
I think he was soft in that game, and I
think hopefully that's something that kind of that that that
helps him kind of get better at that going forward
in this offseason heading into the NBA. So I'm in
on mala lock In. The more talk about it, I
feel like I get more in.

Speaker 2 (01:29:02):
For the Joel comparison.

Speaker 3 (01:29:03):
Like Joel's obviously like a top one percentile as far
as how it worked out in his development there. But
what I will say is you could make a pretty
convincing case to me that Malawak is a more polished
player coming out of his loans year at college than
Joel was during his Now the other caveat here is
Joel got two seasons off at the NBA level to
sort of figure out how to play basketball here, which
we're very beneficial to him. But I mean, I do

(01:29:23):
I do think that there's a lot more untapped than
this guy. When we initially started talking about him, like midseason,
we had a kind of pegged as like the Clint
Cappella bare bones center. I think there's more to him
than that. There does feel like there's some legitimate touch
in his shooting. He attempted a couple threes by the
tail of the year saw him make a couple. He's
a good free throw shooter, which is really appealing from that,
so I think there's more to him than just like
your bare bone center, which is pretty appealing.

Speaker 5 (01:29:45):
Yeah, and I think he'll be your barbones center while
he's figuring that stuff out too, Like I think he
can do the Derek Lively rim runner.

Speaker 2 (01:29:52):
To shop the dok yeah, while.

Speaker 5 (01:29:54):
He kind of sees if he can kind of reach
that potential. So yeah, I really like I have Kinnippal eighth,
which we've talked about, uh or no Kinnippal Yeah, wait four, five, six, seven, eight, Yeah,
Kinnipal eight my number nine guy. And this is the
guy that I really struggle with him, and it's casper
As shokashunis from Illinois. His first twenty three games, if

(01:30:17):
you take out his last nine games, which shows how
bad his last nine games were after he got sick.

Speaker 6 (01:30:23):
Apparently he averaged sixteen, six and six with.

Speaker 5 (01:30:27):
On forty eight thirty four eighty four shooting, and then
it went downhill from there. That's a twenty three game
sample size. I do think it's it's hard for me
to ignore how good he looked for the first couple
of months of the season.

Speaker 6 (01:30:43):
And he's a six to six guard who can create
for others.

Speaker 5 (01:30:46):
And if he's a thirty four percent three point shooter,
then we're talking about a guy who should probably go forth.
But if he's a twenty nine thirty percent three point shooter,
I'm out on guards who can't shoot. So it's hard
for me to say Jeremiah Fear stinks and I hate
him and I'm out without lowering jockashunas. So I do

(01:31:09):
think Joashunis has a lot more creation. He's taller, there's
more to him than Fears, even if they're both the
same level of shooter.

Speaker 2 (01:31:15):
I would disagree with that. I think Fear has got
a lot more juice to him.

Speaker 6 (01:31:19):
Well, he's a better score.

Speaker 3 (01:31:20):
Yeah, like taking guys off a dribble and creating shots
for himself. I think Fears is like notably better than
jacki Unis. I would say, well, what.

Speaker 5 (01:31:28):
The Fears averaged what like eighteen nineteen and Jockashuna's average sixteen? Like,
and yeah, I mean he's a better he's better at
driving to the paint. But I think Jockasunas is like
another level of creator for others.

Speaker 2 (01:31:43):
Okay, yeah, yeah, I hear you there.

Speaker 3 (01:31:44):
Okay, I kind of was more talking about like taking
guys off the dribble and like the burst that he had.
I think I'm in on fears. I get the skepticisms.
He's super young. Still, I think that the not for
the Sixers, But I think a team should take a
lottery ticket and there's a chance this dude could be
an All Star.

Speaker 5 (01:32:00):
I doally, Yeah, I think there's a zero percent chance.
He can't shoot at all. I think he stinks shooting,
And that's my whole thing. Like, I don't think Scoot
can ever make an All Star game.

Speaker 6 (01:32:13):
And I know he turned I know he turned it around.
Like I don't I view him the way I view
like Scoot, except I think Scoot was much more athletic.

Speaker 3 (01:32:22):
Yeah, he's bigger than Scoot. He's got a little bit
more size to him. Like I think that there's a
world where he grows into his body a little more
and you can squint and look at him as more
of a wing guard combo than like like Scoots, a
pure guard.

Speaker 2 (01:32:33):
No doubt, about that there, So I don't know. I
like Fears.

Speaker 3 (01:32:36):
I do think there's something a little bit special to
the burst and like when he has the ball and
the in his hands attacking there. He's still very young.
He's a long term project guy. But I'm not closing
the door on Jeremiah Fears.

Speaker 6 (01:32:46):
And then my last guy, I've got Derek Queen at ten.

Speaker 5 (01:32:50):
I think that top nine to me is far above
the rest of the draft, and then I have a
big drop off to ten, and then I have guys
like that. I'm way higher on the most Will Riley
to Hop Pettiford, Walter Clayton, Jaxe Lenborg, Nicke Clifford for
Sheer Fleming.

Speaker 6 (01:33:03):
Those would be like the next guys. I would look at.

Speaker 5 (01:33:06):
All these yeah, above Fears, above Filon, above, Colin Murdy, Broyles,
I'd be in on all those names.

Speaker 6 (01:33:14):
But I know you're out on Queen. But I know
we we were running out of time. I'll give you
just do thirty seconds on Queen.

Speaker 2 (01:33:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:33:20):
I just have like skepticism did the NBA fit, Like
I think he's going to be a tweeter in the
not good way that he's not quite big enough to
be a center, and I don't think he's quite enough
polish as an offensive shooter and just scorer to be
a power forward. So that's sort of my my doubts there.

Speaker 5 (01:33:34):
Yeah, there's there's some rand He's a bigger Randall a
little bit, yeah, a little for others also, so there
he's Yeah, you never want to get like, you know,
homeless Man's Julius Randall cops, But I think that might
be where we are. We're going to talk plenty more draft,
especially next week with our guy Troll Road Dude, so
nex tuning into the Tough Cut Radio show thanks to
Sean Bernard back in the studio, follow him on Twitter,

(01:33:56):
astron and Scorebernard one, give me a foul at Mark
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