Hour 2 - Changes in the NBA

Rachel Nichols joins the show to talk about the Lakers new head coach, the changes the NBA are making to stop super teams and more

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Here we go. It's hour two and a Friday. Julian Edelman,
Next hour, Rachel Nichols in five minutes, Tomorrow's headlines Today
from Jmack. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening,
Thanks for making us part of your day. Jmack what today?
Want to show JJ Reddick Lakers. I love when we
drive to work. This happened yesterday five minutes after our show,

(00:49):
and you know you're gonna have a story with a
lot of branches on it. And this is certainly the
case for JJ Reddick to the Lakers. I think, as
I said the first hour repeatedly, this roster is not
a JJ Reddick roster. No Man's Land in the NBA
is right in the middle. Portland was in it for years.
They had Dame, they had a couple of other players.

(01:12):
They were Jim McCollum. Yeah, they had nice player.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
No man's length did make a conference finals.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
And the Lakers with this team made a conference finals.
Point this out, but but are never going to beat
Denver and okay, see for the next five years with
this roster.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
So Colin Cowhert spent much of this week being glass
half full. Colin very positive, relentlessly positive about a lot
of subjects.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
And then we get to the Lakers new head coach.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
It's all this roster's trash. They're not going anywhere out trash.
I need to see some positivity calling it's Friday.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Lift the energy.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Come on, it's not trash. It's right in the middle.
That's trash in the NBA now, And that's that's not
trash in the NFL. No, Because in the NFL, if
you have the quarterback you need, like I mean literally,
if you go get an edge rusher and free agency
and hit on four draft picks, I mean, it's goat.
Look at Houston. I mean they went, but this is

(02:03):
not the NFL. You don't get seven viable draft picks.
You don't have to have matching salaries for trades. So
these NBA fans, you know, all these trade scenarios. They're hard.
They're possible, but they're hard.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
It's difficult.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Nothing's easy.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
The NFL, you can turn your franchise around in one
off season. Bill Parcells wasn't even the coach. He went
down to Miami as the general manager. They went one
win to eleven. He didn't even coach. So you can
completely overhaul forty percent of your roster or you're Houston.
The league's laughing stock. They get the coach and the quarterback. Right,

(02:37):
they had a good left tackle hit on a couple
of receivers, and you're like, that's a that's a playoff team, right.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
But JJ Reddick is coming in, and if I said, Colin,
you could be an NBA coach, I'm going to hand
you a team with two All NBA players. You're taking
that job. The Phoenix Suns had two All NBA players.
The Lakers have two, one of them the Defensive Player
of the Year candidate.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
That's not a bad job. Let's stop acting like this
in Cleveland or.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Detroit, I said earlier. There are far worse situations than
the Lakers, but some of us have higher standards than hey.
Eighth best team in the West, this is not a
championship roster. It would never forget this. How limited a
coach is Spoe Kerr and Pop won a single play game,

(03:27):
playoff came out here combined one tough you can only
do so. And by the way, Kurr's a brilliant coach.
He's got Draymond Green. I didn't Klay Thompson third fourth
in the league in three's Steph Curry, a surging young
player in kaminga a great home court advantage. Okay, you

(03:50):
are what your roster is. This is not the NFL.
You cannot flip your roster in a year.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
So at the same time, though, if a year ago,
right now, if I have if I told you, hey,
the Indian Pacers are going to make the conference finals,
you would have laughed your head off. And if I
said in the West, the conference finalists are going to
be Dallas in Minnesota.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Remember Dallas didn't make the playoffs last year.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
Yeah, you would have been like Jason, you lost your mind,
Get off the show.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Minnesota bounce in the first round. Let's not talk about
the East. Making the Eastern Conference finals is winning the
Mountain West Conference. Okay, but let's talk about the West
Minnesota and Dallas both had something the Lakers don't, an
ascending superstar in their prime. Lakers don't have that. Ad
is an old thirty one who played seventy six games.

(04:36):
I would bet my four to oh one.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
K don't do that.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
He's not playing seventy six. There's an old adage, you
know by low sell high the right now a d
I mean, look what Rudy Gobert got. Rudy Gobear got
five picks, five first round picks and rotational players. I
think you have to consider this is a coach with
no experience who might Yes, is is very good with

(05:02):
guards and shooters. That's what he was. I mean again,
offensive coaches are good with quarterbacks. Defensive coaches Mike Tomlin
are not. All coaches have specialties. Mark Jackson was excellent
with the Warriors defensively. Steve Kerr made him great offensively.
Kerk couldn't defend. He had a defender, right like, all

(05:22):
coaches have specialties, and I'm talking the best coaches. Well,
I'm JJ Reddick. We don't know anything now. I think
he'll work smart, competitive, I think he'll be fine. But
I do think there's something to be said about in football.
We allow our coaches to have a huge say in personnel.
The NBA runs through coaches because often they don't let

(05:47):
give him a fighting chance. This roster is a Darvin
Ham roster length defense bigs. They were good at defense,
what were they pull at offense? They have no shooters.
How do you give JJ Reddick a roster with no shooters?

Speaker 2 (06:02):
That's what he is.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Steve Kerr is an irony that Steve Kerr's teams became
great shooters. Steve no shooting. He knows offense right like
Jerry West. By the way, if you go look at
Jerry West history, what was Jerry great with finding guys
that could score? No, he went and made a big
deal for Shack. But that was a generational, once in
a lifetime town that everybody loves Shack. But I just

(06:26):
think the NBA is, you do not want to be
Portland where you've got one star. You're in no man's land.
And we both said this for years. Portland waited too
long to make a big swing. But that team was
that the owners were making big bucks.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
Right, They're in the playoffs every single year, making a
first round, second round conference finals like they're happy. It's
not the worst thing in the world to be relevant
in the playoffs every year for Portland.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Yes, the Lakers, even Lakers.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Or the Yankees, they're Texas football. There's a lot of components.
Let's bring on Rachel dive into this stuff. It's fascinating,
all the moving parts here on a Friday.

Speaker 5 (07:06):
How about friends.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Hello.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
So I won't go too long on this, but I
tend to be a believer in if you make a
hire for a leader, a CEO of Fox Sports, for instance,
you know our bosses upstairs used to work in the truck.
So every CEO I've had has had a specialty. John
Skipper was a writer. Bodenheimer sales. Our guys are very

(07:30):
good with jewel events in the truck, and so what
do we have at Vox's jewel events where you need
to be great in the truck? So we are built
for our leadership. Jim Harbaugh, what does he did? Let's
go get running backs, Let's go get tough guys. I
like JJ, this roster has no shooters.

Speaker 6 (07:48):
I would just argue that when you talk, you're completely
right about everyone has a specialty. I would argue, though,
that his specialty isn't a matter of shooters versus not shooters,
or guards versus biggs. I think as specialty coming in
his tactics. We've all talked about it now. He's shown great,
great sort of dexterity with x'es and o's. He also
really embraces analytics, not not to a fault, but more

(08:12):
than any coach the Lakers have had in recent time.
And I actually think the opposite with Anthony Davis. I
think that he has the potential to lift Anthony Davis
to places he hasn't been yet, because I don't think
Anthony Davis has played his best basketball possible and maybe
he never will.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
I think defensive has.

Speaker 6 (08:29):
Yes, but as a complete player, like the amount of
talent he has, the size he is, the way he moves,
the fact that he was a guard first, I just
think that there is it's high.

Speaker 5 (08:38):
I mean, he's a nine time All Star.

Speaker 6 (08:39):
I'm not saying that he's he's a you know, slump
in now, but I do think he could reach an
even higher level.

Speaker 5 (08:46):
And I don't think.

Speaker 6 (08:46):
That's about where you did you used to coach bigs
or do you know how to relate to them? Or
you fuzzy warm and fuzzy I think this is about
at this point with Anthony Davis, can you break down
every piece of film and say, okay, stop it, start it,
stop it.

Speaker 5 (08:59):
Okay right there, right there, that's where we need to
make a change. It's two feet on this side of
the floor. Let's do that.

Speaker 6 (09:05):
Or statistically when he does this with his left hand
on a Tuesday. I mean, all that stuff brings a
lot of you know, mirth from players, but a lot
of it works. The Boston Celtics this year were built
on that stuff.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah. So if you listen to JJ on his podcast,
he likes five out, he likes the Celtics. They have
the personnel. Yes, so you know JJ what I'm his
in poker they call to tell he's verbalizing it. Yeah,
I like teams like that. Everybody can shoot. Lakers have
no shooters.

Speaker 6 (09:35):
I mean that is ultimately and again you're hitting all
all all of the things I've thought you're verbalizing them.
Is that this coaching hire is important. It's not the
most important part of this summer.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
It's just not. It is the roster.

Speaker 6 (09:48):
They have to make some big decisions and Rob Bolinka
has to pull some several rabbits out.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Of like not tweaking like.

Speaker 6 (09:54):
A big move exactly, And until they make those decisions
and we see what comes out of the next six weeks,
it's hard to predict anything about JJ because Darvin Ham
might not have been the best coach in the world.
But you can't sit there and criticize his rotations and
not realize he didn't have different players to put in
those rotations. He was very limited in what he could do.
And if JJ becomes equally limited, to your point, you

(10:17):
can't play five out, you can't do all of those
things that teams around the league are doing, and then
he's not going to be a success.

Speaker 5 (10:23):
Whether he was good or not good.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Yeah, I saw that. Jeanie Buss was really crestfallen when
they didn't get Dan Hurley. Although I would argue Dan
Hurley there are some things. He's an East Coast guy.
He's more volume driven, he's kind of built. He's like
Nick Saban, He's almost built for college. Yeah, and that's
by the way, that's fine. Mike Krzyzewski realized that and
just would coach Olympics yep, the best and say I

(10:47):
think he wait to do it, man, that's the way
to do it. I'm just going to sample the NBA.
But I'm a college guy. Does it feel like in
the building they settled.

Speaker 6 (10:58):
Look, this was one of the most uneven, messy coaching
searches I have seen in a long time, because they
fired Darvin Ham clearly without a plan for what they
were going to do next.

Speaker 5 (11:09):
I don't believe Frank Vogel should have.

Speaker 6 (11:10):
Been fired, but the Phoenix Suns clearly had a plan
on what they wanted to do next. They brought in
a guy who had won a title from Arizona, and
they brought him in like two days later, and that
was it.

Speaker 5 (11:20):
He was the coach Boom.

Speaker 6 (11:22):
If the Lakers had hired JJ Reddick three days after
Darvin Ham was let go, I think people would feel
a little more unsteady ground about this. But the fact
that it took nearly two months that they went through
other candidates first, that Jason Kidd and Tyler's name were floated,
even though of course they were never going to come there,
it just feels messy, and I think that is kind
of projecting onto how people feel about JJ.

Speaker 5 (11:44):
Jj is a total gamble.

Speaker 6 (11:46):
There is no way to know whether he is going
to be good or not because we don't have enough information.
It could be that he becomes I don't know, Larry Bird,
who had no experience and was a great coach.

Speaker 5 (11:56):
Doc Rivers had.

Speaker 6 (11:58):
No experience his first year as coach one coach of
the Year, So it's possible. On the other hand, we
have seen Jason Kidd, we have Steen Steve Nash flamed
out from their first job.

Speaker 5 (12:07):
And these are guys who are very Steve Nash, very high.

Speaker 6 (12:10):
Basketball like you knows x's and no's, knows all of
that stuff, but couldn't get it right in that very
difficult situation at that time. So there is just no
way to look at JJ's attributes and say, ah, this
predicts to here, this predicts to there, because we just
haven't seen him do the most important thing, which is
coach a basketball team. So I just think that when
you're talking about him and everyone's saying is it's.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
A good hire?

Speaker 5 (12:31):
Is this a bad hire, there's.

Speaker 6 (12:33):
No way to make that decision right now, And frankly,
it's going to depend so much on the roster. I
don't know if you can make the decision, you know,
in any point until you see what players he's getting.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
So Trey Young put an hour Glass on social media.
I have backed that move. I think he provides playmaking
and shooting. He's a star. He plays well in New
York Atlanta. He's a big stage kay.

Speaker 5 (12:55):
He loves the spotlight.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, and he's shaky defensively, so's Luca. You can win
a lot of game games being shaky defensively from your
your wingstar. What do you make of his tweet and
what do you make of the idea he would solve
some issues you couldn't. You couldn't collapse on AD, which
you can do now on this team, just collapse on it.

Speaker 6 (13:12):
He is a shooter when you're talking about JJ Reddick,
and I think JJ Redick would be able to improve
him and in both directions. Frankly, I understand why Trey
has sort of hinted about coming here. He loves loves
the big lights, plays well under the big lights. I
think playing out in LA, playing with Lebron and AD
would feel really good to him. And the Atlanta Hawks
have kind of signaled they're going to have a decision

(13:33):
to make this summer and they may be ready to
move on from Trey Young because when he wasn't there
for the home stretch of the season. Their record didn't
really change that much. It's not like he affected winning
and losing that much. So they just saw that and
I think they they're open to a deal being made.
All of that being said, the thing with the Lakers
is none of this isn't a vacuum. If you bring
Trey Youngen, who I think would absolutely supercharge the offense, yeah,

(13:56):
what does that do to what you can do.

Speaker 5 (13:57):
With the rest of the roster?

Speaker 6 (13:58):
Because they are so financially capped in so many directions
and there is only a limited amount of money that
they can do. They're not going into the second apron.
They're not going into that kind of luxury tax, and
by the way, they shouldn't because really the second apron
that everyone keeps talking about now, the double luxury tax,
it's probably about money, but it really also limits all
the moves and roster moves you can make, and the

(14:19):
Lakers definitely don't need any limits on that. So, you know,
there's only so much money to go around. And one
of the big problems with the Lakers this year was
they didn't have the role players they had when they
won the title.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Okay, great, so I proposed and I know this sounds
very much like local radio. But I said, I don't
think this roster is built for JJ. I am a
believer that Anthony Davis will not play seventy six games.
It's the healthiest he's been in eight years. And sometimes
you got to buy low sell high. Oklahoma City is
the perfect trade partner. They're just too young and they're

(14:52):
not really they need a guy. A chet Holmgren loves
to drift outside eighty dozen, not beating Jokic. Porzingis yannis.
You start looking at these teams. The league's getting bigger,
especially so I said, Sam Presty loves the draft and develop.

(15:14):
But even teams that draft and develop, Denver and Boston
went and got Gordon. Porzingis holiday. You're not a championship team.
You have to go. You have to give up some
draft picks to get a guy. So I said, you
go get Anthony Davis. They got zillion draft picks. You
give up four first rounders. If you're the Lakers, you'd
like to get more of them next year. It's a

(15:34):
much better draft. Jalen Williams a twenty three year old,
a wing shooter. Lakers don't have any Cason Wallace is
only twenty tremendous defender shoots threes, so you'd have to
put a third team in. I know it's a hypothetical.
You'd have to figure out the money, but you can
only have so many young guys at some point. Kyrie

(15:56):
was a part of getting your finals. Absolutely, and poor
zingis I mean they're plus minus with Porzingis change the team?
Do you want to just be we draft and develop
better than anybody does this? And again you say, well,
Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis plays fifty two games next year,
you wouldn't be shocked, right, Yes, am I out of

(16:17):
my gord on that. Look.

Speaker 6 (16:18):
This past season was the first time he played more
than sixty two games for the Lakers, first time, and
he's been here what seven years, So there's no question
that he is a risk.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
However it is you do.

Speaker 6 (16:30):
Have to You can't quite live just in that. I
don't care about money. I know it would be complicated world.
You have to think about what it would actually mean.
And there's a couple of things going on here. First
of all, you can pay your own players more then
you can pay someone coming in, so they would give
that up. In terms of with ad they can pay
him more and not have to sacrifice with the role
players as much, whereas if they brought someone else in

(16:51):
that wouldn't be the case, which again cuts into your depth.
And the Lakers big problem in my opinion right now
is they don't have the depth that they used to
have and need to have. Look at the Celtics right
they had death death up the wazoo. That's not happening
with the Lakers right now. So I definitely think that
that's a hindrance. And then they've changed the CBA. They've
changed the Collective Bargaining Agreement that you can't bundle salaries

(17:12):
in the same way that you did before. So the
trade for Damian Lillard to Milwaukee, the trade for Drew
Holliday to Boston, neither one of those could happen starting
next year.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
So some of this, like we said before, these are
the key pieces you'd have to work out the money.
The league really is trying to avoid what the Celtics did.

Speaker 6 (17:30):
They they're trying to avoid having all the superstars on
three teams.

Speaker 5 (17:35):
That's the biggest thing the Celtics.

Speaker 6 (17:37):
You know, Look, the Celtics, by the way, will go
into the second apron I spoke to Wick Grossbeck the Knight,
the owner the Knight, that they won the.

Speaker 5 (17:43):
Title, and he's like, oh, this is great. We're bringing
everyone back.

Speaker 6 (17:46):
By the way, Derek Waite is going to be very
expensive to bring back relative to White. They're already paying
Jason and Jalen three hundred million plus each.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
So that's that's it. Let's pivot to that. I have said,
they didn't this Tatum and Brown without Derek White and
Borzingis and Drew Holliday, We're just disappointing us. Derek White's
much more essential because of Poorzingis's health and Drew Holliday's age.
That Derek White is a huge piece. My take is

(18:16):
the market like an Orlando.

Speaker 6 (18:17):
But here's what he said to me, and I think
that this is really key, is he said, I will pay.

Speaker 5 (18:23):
We're going to bring the whole team back.

Speaker 6 (18:25):
So first of all, I love that because I think
too many owners start penny pinching after they've won a title,
and I never understand it, because no, he didn't. But
we saw it a little bit in Miami when they
got rid of Mike Miller. We've seen that a little
bit in Denver, right, I mean, they should have kept
Bruce right, and they didn't, So I just feel like
that we've seen owners try to get away with stuff
sometimes after winning a title, and in this case, he

(18:48):
is doubling down, just.

Speaker 5 (18:49):
Like Joe Lacob did.

Speaker 6 (18:50):
And the other reason he's able to double down is
not only does he have the money to do it,
which is nice if you're him, if you're Steve Baumer,
he has the team that you can't really build right
now anymore, and that they're set if they fall into
those rules of the second apron where you're no longer
going to be allowed to trade certain draft picks, You're
no longer be allowed to do this with salaries, You're
no longer going to be allowed to do all the

(19:10):
things that would make it very difficult to be one
of those teams. It doesn't matter because he's got his team,
these guys are young. As long as he keeps everyone,
they don't need to make any more trades, they don't
need to sign any free agents. So I just think
that for some teams that's a great idea and you
can keep everyone, But Lakers are not one of those
teams because their roster needs a lot of.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
Help, a lot What's realistic for JJ Reddick, I think
five hundred if you take twelve start from ad Off
and ten for lebron Off. Sure, I think Austin Reeves
is what he is. I don't think he has a
huge ceiling if you just brought this roster back had
draft picks who wouldn't play. To me, five hundred realistic
when you peel off between eighty and lebron twenty starts.

Speaker 6 (19:53):
I think what's hard is just how good the West
is going to be. I mean, it was great this year,
but it's going to be better. And it's not just
oh my gosh, Malahoma City, who already, by the way,
finished number one in the West and just added Alex
Gruso and I think we'll add someone else this summer
is going to be better.

Speaker 5 (20:07):
It's the team's close to the bottom.

Speaker 6 (20:09):
Houston is going to be better, which means some of
those easy wins that help the record aren't going to
be there anymore. So the Lakers are looking at a
record with JJ, without JJ, where they don't seem to
be going into the top four, maybe even the top
five in the conference.

Speaker 5 (20:23):
So if they end up in the sixth seed, is
that going to feel so much better than ending up
in the eighth seed. Maybe maybe it will.

Speaker 6 (20:29):
It kind of keeps you out of that play in situation,
but you're still if you're the sixth seed, going to
have to play the number three seed. So I think
right now, what is limiting JJ's potential success is again,
they don't have the roster to match up with these
other teams. You just said a few minutes ago. They
don't have that young ascendant star. They don't have a Luca,
they don't have an Aunt. You know, Lebron is exceptional

(20:49):
and playing at a level that we've just literally never
seen before at his age. But he has gotten a
tick slower and a tick you know, not as good
as some things every year, and that's just going to continue.

Speaker 5 (20:59):
That's how aging works.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, it's fun. I mean I said yesterday, I'm loyal
to interesting.

Speaker 5 (21:05):
One hundred percent.

Speaker 6 (21:06):
Look again, he could be a great success. There's coaches
who have never coached before who have been great success.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
No, we used this earlier, you know it well. Aaron
Boone broadcaster, Yeah, big brand owned by the children of
a legendary owner, had one star. Aaron Judge ad Both
come from athletic families. Kind of struggled Aaron did with
the pitching staff first couple of years. I mean, he

(21:33):
got criticism whether he struggled or not. I think JJ
Reddick will have some turbulence, but I would love to
see him just take a swing and help him. I
think football does such a good job of at least
giving the coach a shop, like go get the big
receiver for the offensive coach, Go get the pass rusher
for the defensive coach. You got to give JJ some pieces.

Speaker 6 (21:53):
I also just think they've got to give him time,
which is something the Lakers have not done. So they
fired Frank Vogel, who won them a title less than
two years after that title. They fired Darvin Ham a
season after he brought them to the Western Conference finals,
And there were reasons X and Y and all this stuff,
But the fact is this is their seventh head coach
in thirteen years, eighth if you count the fact that

(22:14):
they had an interim for not a small amount of
time for five months somewhere around there. So this is
a team that has been quick trigger with its coaches.

Speaker 5 (22:22):
And that's just not going to work. It's not how
you win in the NBA.

Speaker 6 (22:26):
It is not a coincidence that some of the most
successful franchises have the longest tenured coaches, and if they
do the same thing with JJ Reddick that they did
with Frank Vogel with Darvin Ham, They're not going to
get anywhere. So the patience is also a huge, huge.

Speaker 5 (22:42):
Part of this.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yeah, Rachel Nichols, so good to see you. You could
have already been home. You came back into the show
for us. I mean on a Friday, You're.

Speaker 5 (22:49):
Gonna go on vacation soon.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
I gotta get I've never had a two week vacation.

Speaker 5 (22:53):
I gotta get it, you know, I gotta get my appearances.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
I don't even know if I can handle it. Next
Monday I may call and just be like, I gotta
come home. I can't hike, can't. I can't handle it.

Speaker 6 (23:01):
I mean, you've got you've got quite a substitute skipper
steering the ship.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
Are you ready for Monday show? You got USA Bolivia Copa,
that's a big.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
We got Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese on this weekend. You
know you want to come in Monday, you know, and
always make.

Speaker 4 (23:15):
Room for you.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
Hey, did you see that you see the ticket prices
for that game?

Speaker 5 (23:19):
Highest ever.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
No, that this thing is hitting, this is this is
becoming for the w NBA. That Bird Magic thing like
it was like it hit pretty quick.

Speaker 6 (23:27):
You got to give Angel Reese some of this credit
though she said it herself and she said, oh, every
year needs a villain.

Speaker 5 (23:33):
She used that word villain.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
You don't have.

Speaker 6 (23:35):
It was just Magic Johnson and no Larry Bird. You
would not have had the boost that the NBA.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
No question, Wait, who was the villain in Magic and
Larry It depends on which.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Well Larry was. The truth is the rivalries word, but
they had very different styles. Caitlin and Angel have very
different styles. So again, nobody in Hollywood will make a
movie without a villain. You got to have conflict. And
I think that's okay. That's why I lean into Angel rees.
I think she knows what she's doing. I think we're
struggling to deal with what she's doing. I don't think
she's having any problem at all.

Speaker 5 (24:04):
And by the way she's playing.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
Yo, she's having a year.

Speaker 5 (24:09):
Now is that looks really and.

Speaker 6 (24:12):
It's just it's an injury that takes almost a year
to behad from which just throw this is.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
This rookie class like Angel and Caitlin are good, fast,
good Senia. When it comes to protecting those that matter
most your family, you need a home security system you
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Speaker 2 (24:32):
One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search her
to listen live or on demand whenever you like.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
For hot water that never runs out, try a new
high efficiency tankless water heater. They're called Navviyan fifteen year warranty.
Go to Tanklessmade Simple dot com. J Mack with a.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Turn on the news, this is the Herd Line News.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
I thought i'd let you know.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
Early returns on my Instagram are people are fifty three
percent Liker Anthony Davis trade at hell.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Now, Wow, I thought it'd be like six.

Speaker 7 (25:12):
Same.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
But I mean they really do need wing defenders and shooters.
That's the league. Yeah, I mean, you got you're going
up against these Lucas and these Ann Edwards, Tatum Brown,
Anthony Davis sitting there in the back. Is great. The
League's there's just stuff right now. The Lakers are not
equipped to compete on a nightly basis offensively, Darvin Ham,
this was a good roster for him. Limited offensively, good defensively.

(25:36):
JJ Reddicks are are Steve Kerr in La. You got
to give him shooters and pieces at work.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
That's that helps Christie making the come up for the Lakers.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
How about Alex Caruso to okay, see that talk about
that here in like three minutes.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
All right, let's get start with the NFL Arizona Cardinals.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
They added rookie wide receiver Marvin Ers Junior to join
your guy Kyler Murray. Kyler spoke about his expectations for
the offense with a new weapon in the fold.

Speaker 8 (26:03):
That takes us to another level. When you've got a
guy out there that is capable of, you know, win
at one on ones, obviously he's got to go do it,
and you know he knows that, we all know it.
But as far as you know, manipulating coverage and stuff
like that, like, you got a guy out there that
can do that, and even if he's not open, he's open,

(26:23):
you know. So I'm excited to you know, be able
to build that with him. But if he you know,
when he does what he does yet I fully expect
our offense to be, you know, top of the league.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Watch out Arizona Cardinals.

Speaker 8 (26:38):
Right.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
You know there gonna be seven new playoff teams this year.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
You know are they gonna be one of them?

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Well? I got Washington is my shock of the league.
And I'll be honest with you. Do you watch the
way Arizona played last year?

Speaker 3 (26:51):
They played hard.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
Ah, they pulled up the schedule. I was just gonna
request this, okay, hard early. They open with five of
their first six games against playoff teams from last year. Yeah,
and then the Chargers and Herbert and Harball and then
Miami in Miami, Colin. This is a brutal schedule to
start the season. They could be one and six.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Okay, they're not a playoff team, but they're gonna be
a spoiler. They play hard. I like their coach. You
just keep your eye on this team knocking some good
teams off. They get a lot of those go either
way games at home. They get Detroit at home, but
Washington at home, the Chargers at home, Bears at home,
Jets at home. A lot of those games are at home.

(27:34):
A lot of long flight for the Jets to go
cross country.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
Listen, if you want to make a wager, now, I
will do it.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Let's do it right now.

Speaker 4 (27:42):
You know I need to hold off until I know
Aaron Rodgers is.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Let's make the wager. What's the over? Okay, I'll make it.
I'll make it wager round.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
I'm sure the Jets are favored by like two and
a halfs.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Okay, I'll take the points. Week ten, I'll take Arizona
and the points against the Jets.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
And the Jets win. You have to do a sport
with me of the of my choosing. No, what if
I was gonna say.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
We'll go bowler, didn't play pick a ball, steak dinner,
pickle ball. I'll make the bet right now.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
We get live stream it on Instagram.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
I already have my jet skis purchased. I'll put a
couple of Crispondi's on that. Arizona. By the way, the
Johnny Liner with the points, well, give me the point.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
Okay, Yeah, that's what I thought. Arizona.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
You are okay?

Speaker 1 (28:27):
All right?

Speaker 4 (28:27):
Now let's get to uh NBA. We had a trade
yesterday afternoon. The Bulls are shipping two time All Defensive
selection Alex Caruso aka.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
Alex carus show great nickname.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
Uh he's going to OKAC in exchange for Josh Giddy.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
This is weird.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
This is a straight up bo's got a higher ceiling. Uh,
Caruso is better today.

Speaker 4 (28:50):
Well, no draft, how there were reports that Alex Caruso
could have been had for a first round pick or
two first okay.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
At the deadline and the bullstrip nothing.

Speaker 4 (28:58):
Now they're taking Josh Giddy, a non shooting guard who
was gonna not be starting next year for OKAC anyway.
I mean, it looks to me my sniff of this
is that the Bulls are starting Operation dump Salaries. We're
gonna tank for Cooper Flag, who's the best high school
cook player in the country right now. And if the
Bulls can reboot around Cooper Flag next year in the draft,
that would be good.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
I think Zach.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
Levine's next, and then I think DeMar Dea Rosen probably
will be elsewhere next season. I know you're all in
on the Bulls, but this feels like the beginning of.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Tank Erosia reboot. Yeah. Well, I mean there is a
transcendent player in next year's draft, the duce Kid.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Everybody loves Cooper Flag.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
He's like a big six ten seven foot kind of
guy who's just utterly dominant, good handle, can shoot it.
Here's what's interesting, OKC, Right, you want an Anthony Davis
to go there?

Speaker 3 (29:48):
They can now start Caruso and Luke Dort.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
Side by side.

Speaker 4 (29:53):
Those are two elite wing defenders for guess what, Kyrie
Irving and Luka Dancic in the playoffs. Caruso perfect defender
for Jamal Murray. Okasey's starting to build something good. You
got check Holmgan coming back. There's something here. I don't
know if they're I think they're probably one more piece away.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
Right, yeah, if they're a big physical center like Anthony
Davis away.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Okay, let's say the Lakers say you cannot have Anthony Davis.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
Would you be interested Jared Allen of the Cats, who
was an All star shot blocker. If the okase can
get Jared Allen in, sometimes that's good good. I don't
know what Okac being good does.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
For the low kse is. You know. The remind me
of a little bit Danny Ainge. Celtics. They wanted to
win every trade, but in the end, Brad Stevens came
in and just said, let's just get better. Players. I
don't think you can win that championship with all the
draft developed stuff and winning trades. And that's all great
for the vanity stuff, but at some point, Sam Presty,
who does really well at the draft, the draft gives

(30:51):
you about six guys that can play a year. Like,
at some point you gotta go get you gotta go
get an overlook Derek White or a little bit of
an injury riddled but talented Unich and Porzingis. You gotta
take some swings on current NBA dudes.

Speaker 4 (31:04):
I like your comparison to Ange and the Celtics because
remember they had offers.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
They could have got Kevin Durant for Tatum.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
They say, wait in every trade and accumulating picks and
at some point get Tatum and Brown dudes around it.

Speaker 4 (31:15):
But see what's crazy is they nailed ground and Tatum
I think third overall, and if you look at the
guys that went before him, it's like Markel Folts Lonzo Ball,
like they could have easily landed on one of those
land mines. And then the Celtics are like a forty
one team. They nailing those top picks is not easy.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
No, the Celtics did it and the thunder have done it,
but the Celtics only got a title in the easier East.
Remember that's easier over there. But the Celtics finally realized
we need two more all star level players. I mean, hell,
Derek White makes it almost three. So I mean again,
the draft and developed stuffs adorable. Danny Ainge was doing wonders.

(31:51):
It wasn't working, Danny. I think it was Danny that
made the move on Who made the move on Kyrie Irving?
It missed?

Speaker 3 (32:00):
I think that was age.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, okay, I'm pretty sure, but that was a swing.
I appreciate the swing, Like I said, Kyrie Irving, Dallas,
I appreciate the swing. But this whole thing about you know,
draft and develop, it's got limitations. This is not pro football.
You gotta go to.

Speaker 4 (32:14):
True you say, okay, see with the picks. Does that
hold true for the Knicks as well, who have a bit.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
Of a ward.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
The Knicks took a swing on Jalen Brunson. They went
and got somebody else's player, so they didn't do just
to Villanova Goy, but de Vincenzo was around the league
that Yeah, they made a lot of moves of guys
that were. The Knicks are not a bunch of babies.
They got veteran players here. Oh geez, young Jalen's kind
of young, but they're not. Okay. See, they went and
got a really good player that was playing, that was

(32:41):
just undervalued by Dallas.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
So should the Knicks then consider a lot of those
picks and say, hey, Paul George will do a sign
and trade.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Come on, I think Michale Bridges is the fit in
New York. That's my take. He's a Villanova guy. If
it's their culture, everybody wants a big swing. I don't
think the Knicks are that far off if if you
could keep I'm s they were.

Speaker 4 (33:00):
A game seven loss away from and they fell apart
well injuries.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, so I mean if they were healthy in the
postseason and you added to Michale Bridges, no doubt in
my mind the Nicks could get to the Eastern Conference finals.
And physically they wouldn't shoot like the Celtics, but they
would be a physical team that could give them problem. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:17):
The final story is Clay Thompson Colin.

Speaker 4 (33:19):
I feel like he's going to be a topic pretty
much every day on the show for the next two weeks.
So The Warriors reportedly offered Clay a two year deal.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
Clay is saying no, no, no, no, no, I want three.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
You gave Wiggins four, you gave Draymond four. Where's my four?

Speaker 3 (33:34):
So they're they're holding firm at two.

Speaker 4 (33:36):
Clay once at least three, and I don't This is
this is really interesting.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (33:43):
The Magic have been heavily linked to him and Scham's
reports there's mutual interest from clay side.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
Well, they don't have any shooters. Orlando's a great place
to go. Yeah, they could not make threes against No, no,
no that Clay and Orlando's that perfect things, not one
of them.

Speaker 4 (33:56):
This is like a chem Olajah want ending his career
with the Patrick ewing with the Sonics. No, Clay is
a Golden State Warrior going to Canada.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Frigid weather is not the same for a key, you
know what I mean? No, going to Orlando, no State packs,
beautiful winter weather, wonderful places to live for two years,
is not going to Canada.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
But a laj one was drafted.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
He's a Rockets guy through and through for fifteen years
and then ends his career in Toronto.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
No, you racted by the Knicks ends up wearing a
Sonic steirt. It was a goofy.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
I think Orlando in the weaker East with Clay Thompson.

Speaker 3 (34:40):
Is he adding three wins?

Speaker 1 (34:42):
No, he's adding three point shooting, which they don't have.
And by the way, what I don't know. I think
the Orlando Clay thing is not that terrible two years
of your life. You don't live in California. I think
it'd be fine. I'm telling you Orlando for a couple
of years. I lived in Tampa for a couple of years.
I was in a Orlando every weekend. It was great.

Speaker 3 (35:02):
I thought that the whole like his. He's Warriors culture.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
He's bit with curb hurry, you just want to rotate,
you want to just way, Let's move on, Let's reboot
all the time.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
No, when players have three hundred million multiple trophies, stop
the love fest. Move on. So the NBA, it's pro sport.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
I saw the Warriors paid a luxury tax close to
one hundred eighty million dollars day to write a check and.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
They did not make the playoffs. I don't count the.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
Play Yeah, I think Joe Lacub's over it, and he
should be. He paid for Clay and he was paying
a massive.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
This is what we do.

Speaker 4 (35:36):
We chew up our athletes and we lord service.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
Enjoy the cast.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
We're moving on where somebody would spit me out and
have a three hundred million networth. What a terrible life
that would be shooting a basketball. What a terrible life.
Oh I got to live in Orlando and make twenty
five million a year. Terrible life tax free too.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
You I know you're big on that tax free.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
You know who else is big on that? Agent and accountants.
Back with the news.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by. What's
the Herdline news?

Speaker 1 (36:06):
NFL expanding the season. It's happening soon next.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noone eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 9 (36:21):
Hey it's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast,
Inside the Parker for twenty two minutes of piping hot
baseball talk, featuring the biggest names of newsmakers in the sport.
Whether you believe in analytics or the I test, We've
got all the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday,

(36:42):
so do your sofa favor and listen to Inside the
Parker with Rob Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever
you get your podcast.

Speaker 4 (36:51):
It's Baseball Night in America on Fox as Matt Olsen
powers the Braves against Aaron Judge and the Yankees, or
the NL Central leading Brewers battle to padres all be
give that seven Eastern on Fox.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
Check for the game in your area.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
Great job by Fox last night, A historic night. Reggie
Jackson with some comments that was a pretty magical night
of baseball. Tip of the cap to everybody involved. So
this story has come out per league source eighteen games.
The players involved in the union know eighteen games is coming.

(37:28):
The goals to figure out what to request in return.
So they want bigger rosters, they should get them, more
players in uniform on game day, they should get them.
They also, in my opinion, deserve a second by so
I believe in that. So one more game, one more buy,
more players getting jobs. That'll be sixty four games played.

(37:49):
If you had two players per team, fewer preseason games.
Does it dilute some of the urgency? Yeah, probably a little.
But college football is going to a twelve team playoff
and it will set television records with more games. The
WNBA's ratings are up. It recently expanded. The UFC has
more fights. They've never made more money. The NFL expanded

(38:12):
recently to games. The ratings are up. Formula one expanded.
It's growing. So sports is not a bowtique business. It
is a scale business. More equals better. Even the NBA
just added a couple of games, but they had the
play in games. They've added the Ncason Tournament. It's working,
like people have a demand for it and a want

(38:35):
for it. Advertisers want more games. Sports is working. Growth
is inevitable. So you can, you know, you can be
old school, but ninety three of the top one hundred
shows in America on television last year were football games.
And so there are some things where more works, and
you know, does it dilute things a little bit? A

(38:56):
little less urgency. The twelve team college football Playoff is
going to elevate the ratings in college football by ten
to fifteen percent. That means Auburn Alabama probably won't mean
as much as it used to. We'll all get over it.
More is better for the record. Jets favored by three
over the Cardinals. I will take the Cardinals plus three

(39:17):
in Week ten against J Mack. In my bet so
JJ Reddick is the new coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Yesterday,
Coach K talked to Fox Sports John Fanta on the
Lebron excuse me on the Lebron JJ Reddick pairing.

Speaker 7 (39:33):
I know Lebron and JJ are friends. It's not just
about being friends, it's about being partners. You have to
be partners in this. And well, Lebron wants to win,
you know, he wants to win. I know JJ wants

(39:55):
to win. And then it's a matter of them and
the people that they're working with to figure that out.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
Yeah, I said before, I worry about the Lakers lack
of patience and their competency and drafting. Smart competitive people
tend to work as long as they're not stubborn. You know,
if you look at I mean, coach K would admit
he got stubborn on one and done and then quickly
he started getting beat by teams that had players who
were one and done, and then he got less stubborn

(40:26):
and had a great last ten years of his career.
So as long as you're not a stubborn person, smart
and competitive with not quite enough experience, I'm good in
any field. With that, you'll learn. I had a friend
get a job years ago at Google, and she said,
just bailing water for six weeks. Like literally thought, I'm

(40:49):
completely over my head. But smart people figured out had
a great career there. Every job you'd take, and I've
preached this for years, you should be bailing water a
lot little bit, or you didn't challenge yourself. If you
take a job and you're comfortable day one, week one,
you didn't challenge yourself. You're not gonna grow unless you're
challenging yourself. So JJ's could have stayed making millions a

(41:12):
year doing a podcast in broadcasting, Steve Kerr could have
kept broadcasting. Smart people want to challenge themselves. Steve Kerr
had a great life, did not need to be coach
of the Warriors. JJ Reddick's got a great life, does
not need to be coach of the Lakers. The money's
not the issue. Smart guys want to be challenged. Smart
people want to be challenged. So I'm here for it

(41:32):
forty one and forty one if they make no moves. Though,
this is a Darvin Ham roster, not a JJ Reddick roster.
You think that's negative, I think that's realistic.

Speaker 4 (41:41):
Currently it's a Darvin Ham roster, Colin, but they're gonna
reshape it. Remember last year they went into the season
with like six new guys in the rotation. Remember because
they had Russell Westbrook and all these other dudes. They're
constantly evolving the roster. Let's not overreact because you don't
love Tayshaun Prince and Ruin Mora and the I don't

(42:01):
even know Jackson Hayes is going to be back.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
Like, let's take a deepense.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
They built a roster with length for Darvin Ham. They
gave Darvin a fair shot. He didn't work, but they
gave built a roster.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
Wa wait a minute.

Speaker 4 (42:13):
They got to the conference finals two years ago as
a play in team. Let's not say like he didn't
there wasn't some success right conference finals.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
I was I thought they should have retained him. I
was not a Darwin Ham basher. I didn't think his
rotations were great. Yeah, the road, but offensively, that's not
his gifts. His gifts were defensive. He was good at
that part. JJ needs shooters, that's what he knows.

Speaker 3 (42:39):
Go get Luke Luken Art. Can we steal him?

Speaker 1 (42:42):
He's a shooter Okay terrific Our three necks,