July 29, 2024 • 47 mins
In this Best Of The Herd, Colin reflects on Joel Embiid of Team USA having an underwhelming weekend at the Olympics. Plus, the quarterback competition in Pittsburgh between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields is closer than we think. Later, another edition of Where Colin Was Right, Where Colin Was Wrong. Also, Spurs point guard Chris Paul joins Colin to discuss his late-career motivation, the Olympics, and being in San Antonio. Finally, former Pro Bowl wide receiver and FOX Sports NFL analyst TJ Houshmandzadeh sits down with Colin to chat about the quarterback competition in Pittsburgh, expectations for Jim Harbaugh in his first year in Los Angeles, and much more
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
noon Pacific. Find your local station for The Herd at
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Here we go. It is a Monday. We're live in
Los Angeles. It's the Herd. Wherever you may be and
however you may be listening. Thanks for megan us part
of your day, one hour from now. Where Colin was right,
Where Colin was wrong. So I sat down yesterday and
watched a ton of the Olympics. Started in the morning,
(00:49):
watching a team USA struggle early that's sort of their
m O, and then come back to beat Serbia and Jokic.
But I think it's j Mackett's pretty obvious. One player
for Team usay and you can it jumps off the
television set. One player we've been told for years is
is Shack and that one player does not fit with
(01:12):
this team. He's not a great FEVA player. That's very
clear so far. Yeah. So two years ago, the NBA media,
the NBA media voted Joel Embiid over a Jokis as MVP.
It was really an anti Jokic vote because Jokic is
a more valuable player. He's a better player, and it's
(01:32):
not particularly close if you watch yesterday, but the league's
stewards the media did not want Jokich to win a
third straight MVP, even though he's hands down the most
valuable player, and you saw it yesterday. It's why the
NBA media regularly kind of chooses cool stories over the truth,
(01:54):
and I think increasingly people want the truth from their media.
But I think it's official watching Embiid yesterday where Steve
Kerr pulled him off the floor two and a half
minutes into the game against Serbia, he is the most
over hyped, coddled and over discussed my bad player in
the NBA. I mean, you'll kitchen and bead on the
(02:15):
floor at the same time. It's not close. They're not
the same player. They're not remotely close to the same
level of player. Beyond patting his stats, Philadelphia keeps running
coaches through him and teammates through him, and in the
weaker Eastern Conference. He has yet to win a second
round playoff series. I'm not asking for much, just maybe
(02:37):
one Eastern Conference vinyls. Milwaukee was all beat up this year.
I mean, the Knicks fell apart physically, so did Miami.
Can you win a second playoff series in the significantly
weaker conference. The other thing is he's never played seventy games.
Remember his career started, he was hurt for the first
two years, never played seventy games. We bang on AD,
but AD the last couple of years is there every night.
(03:00):
He can't depend on him physically. And then you watch
this Olympics and it is the best players in the
world and he is an atrocious fit. He doesn't fit
at all. And remember the feeble rules don't call as
many fouls, and he lives at the free throw line,
so you take that element out of his game. At
the Olympics, he's not only not effective, he hurts the team.
(03:23):
And Foeba rules are good for Biggs. Jokic is dominant
eighties great BAM's great Embiid can't play here. And again,
when you watch Jokic and Embiid on the floor at
the same time, they've given him James Harden. They've given
him Jimmy Butler, They've given him, They've given him Ben Simmons.
Remember Ben Simmons made an All Star game and he
(03:44):
can't win the second round playoff series in the East.
Jokic has never had a single teammate that's been an
All Star. He's already got a trophy. And yesterday the
plus minus for Jokic, Jokic almost single handedly played even
with Team USA when he was on the floor eighty
one eighty one. When Jokic was off the floor, Serbia
(04:05):
was minus twenty six and he was only off the
floor for a few minutes. M Beid, meanwhile, was the
only American player with a minus in the plus minus category.
He's getting heckled now by French fans because he chose
to play for the United States. My only question now,
can you make trades during the Olympics. Can we get Wemby.
(04:26):
I'll give you em Bead and future draft picks. Just
give us Wemby. But we can officially now stop comparing
em Bead in Jokic. Jokic is healthy, Jokic can be
complementary in the Star. Jokic makes every teammate better. I
was thinking about this this morning. Is the only three
players in my life that I've ever watched basketball that
(04:48):
make virtually every teammate they play with better. Magic Lebron
and Jokic. Michael Jordan was great, he took away shots
from a lot of good players. Barkley was great, Steph's great.
They don't always elevate every single teammate magic Lebron and Jokic.
But this is more because we knew Jokic was great,
and we knew Jamack called it that Serbia would be
a tough out. They were for about seventy percent of
(05:10):
the game until the very end. But in the end,
this is about Mbid. Let's not put him in that
class anymore. He can't stay healthy, he doesn't win enough,
he clogs up the offense, and it was all on
display yesterday. So let's now address the elephant in the
room for Team USA. So everybody likes Jason Tatum. We
(05:35):
talked about the Celtics championship. It's the first collaborative championship
I ever remember where the fifth guy meant as much
as the number two guy. So Steve Kerr couldn't find
a spot. And Steve's a nice guy. He'd liked to
play everybody. He could not find a single minute for
(05:56):
Jason Tatum, and he wants to play him, but it
was so bad that he literally Steve wanted to address
it and apologize after a blowout win and the inability
to get Jason Tatum off the bench at all.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Jason's going to play. Every game is going to be
different based on matchups. He's a total pro. He's you know,
first team All NBA three years in a row. I
felt like an idiot not playing him. But in a
forty minute game, you can't play more than ten, you
really can't, and you know, so I just I think
he's He's an amazing guy, great player and handled it
(06:38):
beautifully and you know he'll be back out their next game.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So he's always been a player. And we said this
for years when Marcus Smart and Jalen Brown were on
the team. I think Brad Stevens the GM traded Marcus
Smart away because he layden games, was more aggress and
demanded the ball more than Jason Tatum. Now, Jalen Brown
(07:05):
always tried to make sure, you know, Tatum got his touches.
Marcus Smart didn't care. He's a defensive guy. He just
took the ball. So Brad Stevens, the GM of the Celtics,
had a problem. Jalen Brown is taking the ball away
from him, and the much less talented Marcus Smart is
taking the ball away from him. So I'll get him
(07:25):
Drew Holiday, who will be more complimentary to Tatum. I'll
get back to that in a second. But what he
lacks is that rip your heart out DNA, which most
of our great players have had Steph and Lebraun and
Michael and Shack and you know, a bird and magic,
and he didn't have it. He's highly skilled, he's a
great guy, but he's almost submissive at times. And now, now,
(07:48):
when you put it, and I've been arguing this for
years and got a lot of pushback, he's the third
best player, the fourth. No, he's not, I'd argue, he's
way at the back of the top ten players. And
when you put him around all these alphas and all
these highly skilled players, he disappears, he shrinks, and I
(08:11):
feel bad for him. He's a nice kid, but you know,
there's there's always been those kids that when you put
him around other aggressive kids, they just don't fit. And
he doesn't It's not that he lacks skill. But the
other thing is there's no part of his game when
you surround him with great players that stands out. Shooting, Well, No,
(08:34):
that's that's that's Kevin Durant, that's Steph Curry and Derek White. Defense, No,
that's that's Anthony Davis, that's Drew Holliday and Bam. Leadership. No,
that's Lebron and Staph. Athletically, no, that's aunt. There is
nothing on this team he's best at. Ant's the most athletic,
(08:54):
Lebron the great leader, Stephen K. D. Booker the great.
Even Derek White shoots. He's not a great defender compared
to these, So what is he great? He's B plus
at everything, jack of all trades at everything, and he's
a top ten ish player. He's good, he wins, he's collaborative,
he's swell. But man, you are really singing. And let's
(09:16):
circle back to Brad Stevens the Celtics GM. Why did
he get rid of Marcus Smart? Go back to that
final year and those playoff games, and we often said
it on the air, Marcus Smart, forget Jaylen Brown. Marcus
Smart is taking shots from Jason Tatum and Brad Stevens said,
(09:38):
I got to get him out of town. If we're
gonna have a guy taking shots from him, it's gonna
be either Jalen Brown or Drew Holidays, a better offensive player.
And then Stevens also got poor zingis. So Brad Stevens,
who just won Executive of the Year, has told you
everything you need to know about Tatum that in big
spots against alphas and surround by alphas, he's not gonna
(10:01):
trust him all the time. Sometimes yes, all the time. No,
In fact, he can't even trust him to get take
the shot late, forget to make it, just take it.
So I think what you're seeing is what Brad Stevens
his first NBA coach and Brad Stevens his current Celtic GM.
It's what Brad Stevens is doing. General managers tell you
(10:24):
what they think of their players by who they surround
them with, who they add, who they push out the door.
And this is not a shot at him, but Steve
Kerr is telling you, Brad Stevens told you. My eyes
are telling you. Your eyes are telling you he's not
a top five player. He's a very good player, highly skilled, collaborative,
(10:45):
a championship player. But between the Eastern Conference finals, the
finals and the Olympics, it's truth serum. He may be
the tenth best player in the game, he's not a
top fiver, and when you surround him without alpahs, he
can shrink. It's just his personality, all right.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Got a little.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
NFL camp stories percolating with the Steelers. Tua Jordan Love
both side massive contracts. You had a theory on when
they story broke on that you were saying that they
dumped it.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Yeah, Jordan Love and Tua both got massive raises and
they announced it what like four o'clock Friday afternoon, middle
of the Olympics opening ceremony.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I didn't hear either, fan base.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
Maybe you did outrage. Oh my gosh, how do we
give two of all the money Jordan Love got.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
All the people were paying attention to other stuff. The
Olympic opening ceremonies got huge ratings.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
Yeah, but I haven't even seen a real breakdown like
in granular fashion where Jordan Love ranks among icepaid quarterbacks
two and none of that stuff.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
They did a.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
Really smart job leaking it late on a Friday summer
you know, summer Friday, everybody's taken off, that's right.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And the Olympics are in full swing. Very interesting, Yeah,
no it is. We'll address both coming up.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So oftentimes with stories, you will see a drip, drip,
drip with a story. That's not your job to check
it out. We're paid to do that. You see the
little drips. Is that going to become a forest fire?
Is that faucet gonna break? Officially? So keep your eye
on the Steelers. Russell justin Fields. So, according to Jeremy Fowler,
(12:34):
a lot of the media has downplayed this. Jeremy Fowler
is poking and prodding. He is not, he says, the
Steelers are, according to his sources, taking a very open
minded approach to this. Russell is now hurt and so
this is important. We've all gone into workplaces, and sometimes
you know, I've had seven or eight jobs in my life.
Some workplaces. I remember taking a job in Tampa and
(12:56):
I felt like everybody was old and I was young,
and I kind of felt like displaced and didn't really
connect in the Vegas newsroom or at Fox. It depends.
You walk into workplaces. Some are older, some are younger,
some are more alpha, some are whatever. But Pittsburgh's workplace
under Mike Tomlin is alpha, loud, drama, physical. We don't
(13:20):
think it as a brilliant schematic offensive. Kansas City rams,
San Francisco. No, no, no. They blow stuff up, they knock
you over, they punch in the mouth. I mean, yesterday,
there's a story and this is not a unique stealer
story where George Pickens, star receiver got into a screaming
match with a coach. That's Pittsburgh's culture. That's not Russell
(13:43):
Russell's focused. An adult can be sort of into Russell Wilson.
You know this is a guy who you know, you
want my phone number, go through my agent. Those are
the stories. He's kind of mature, and I think to
some of the younger players, I wonder about the fit
in Pittsburgh, which is blue collar, tough, alpha physical, you know, loud, loud,
(14:13):
and a shouting match yesterday with a receiver and a
star receiver and a coach. And so here you got.
He hasn't won a super Bowl in eleven years. Last
time he's been to one eleven years. Justin Fields is young,
cooler athletic, eleven years, younger, more athletic, and I think
he's going to connect with a lot of young teammates
(14:33):
for the Steelers. And now he's getting the stats and
Russell isn't because Russell's banged up. So you cannot convince me.
Look at that Steeler schedule. There are two game losing
streaks all over that schedule, and they've struggled to get
the offensive line right. So unless the offensive line suddenly
gets great, if the Steelers are losing games, it's not
(14:55):
going to be because of their defense or their pass
rush or their toughness. Those are hallmarks and staples under Tomlin.
They're gonna be losing because they can't get the offense right.
And who gets blamed for that the quarterback. Now Tomlin
historically has had patience with Kenny Pickett, but he didn't
have Justin Fields backing up Kenny Pickett. So you look
(15:18):
at that, they could easily go on the road and
go oh and two to Atlanta and Denver to start.
Then it's Harbaugh, Anthony Richardson dak Oh. They'll beat the Raiders,
but it's Aaron Rodgers. The next week, well they'll beat
the Giants. Well, then they're at Washington, Lamar Jackson, Deshaun Watson,
Joe Burrow, Deshaun Watson, Jalen Urge, Lamar Jackson. That schedule
the last six seven weeks, starting in like week ten,
(15:40):
week eleven, that is just land mines everywhere. So I
just think it's interesting work environments. Pittsburgh's got one of
the more alpha, tough, physical, motivational, trash talking rooms in
the league. And I'm not making a judgment on it.
(16:01):
That's just what it is. I mean, a few years ago,
Mike Tomlin was running up the sidelines that looks like
he wanted to tackle a player during a game. That's
what they are, heavy on the drama and the emotion
and physicality and alpha. I just don't feel like that's
that's not necessarily Russell Wilson here is here's Mike Tomlin
talking about the quarterback snaps right now.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
From a health standpoint, no real update.
Speaker 7 (16:26):
Russ worked partially today and expect him to get going
a little bit as we come off this off day.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
He expects me able to.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
See rest in some team periods next week.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
That's what I said.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Yeah, he's Mike. Tomlin's already getting a little short with the
Pittsburgh media.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter not a em Pacific.
Speaker 8 (16:47):
Hey, I'm Doug Gottlie. The podcast is called All Ball.
We usually talk all basketball all the time, but it's
more about the stories about what made these people love
their sport and all the interesting interactions along the way.
We talked to coaches, we talked to players, We tell
you stories. You download it, you listen to it. I
think you like it. Listen to All Ball with Doug
(17:09):
alieb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
All right, we do it every Monday. Colin Wright, Colin wrong,
plenty of both, and here we go where Colin was right.
Joe l Embiid played only eleven minutes for Team USA,
and he looked like he was getting in the way.
Steve Kerr pulled him early. I said it last week
and I'll say it again. Anthony Davis at this point
is the better player. He's better defensively, he doesn't get
(17:37):
in the way of the offense. He can also be complementary.
The USA was outscored by Serbia by twenty points when
Joe l Embiid was on the floor. That's not great.
Where Colin was wrong, I said maybe they should consider
not playing Kevin Durant because of his I was wrong.
(18:01):
He was eight for eight in the first half and
five for five on threes. Has there ever been a
player in our lives that was a more automatic bucket
if you get the ball to him, even late in
the shot clock. He was so important in the first
half as they were really trying to find their way offensively.
They finally did in the second quarter, but I thought
(18:21):
they should consider not playing him, not risking injury, and
he was vital in that first half. Where Colin was right,
I said, Jordan Love was going to sign a contract
and it was going to be big and I would
be okay with it. And Green Bay checks all those boxes.
Since Brett farbarrived thirty two years ago. In Wisconsin, this
(18:42):
is the number one offense in the league, and arguably
they do a better job of developing offensive lines. They
also higher offensive coaches. I trust the Packers with quarterbacks.
Jordan Love last year in his final ten games was
not granually better than Aaron Rodgers' last ten in Green
Bay was significantly better. I think the kid can sling it.
(19:06):
I think he's great at the podium. I think he's mature.
He checks every box for me. Where Colin was raw,
I would not have signed the TUA contract. He's small,
not overly athletic, can struggle to throw the ball deep
in colder, windy weather. And there's the injury thing again.
I like him. He's got a dat quality where he's
(19:28):
a grown up. He's mature, but this is a lot
of money, and I feel like I'd be crossing my
fingers based on his injury history. But Miami, like a
lot of NFL teams, is winning with him. They're somewhat trapped,
and so he got the bag where Colin was right.
I've said for years I like Jason Tatum, but y'all
(19:48):
got him as a top three or four player in
the league, and I'm like, it's ten eleven, twelve for me.
Around other alphas, he kind of sometimes disappears. I think
Brad Stevens got Marcus Smart out of Boston because he
was taken up late game shots by Tatum, and yesterday
Steve Kerr had to apologize for not playing Jason Tatum.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Jason's going to play. Every game is going to be
different based on matchups. He's a total pro. He's, you know,
first team All NBA three years in a row. I
felt like an idiot not playing him. But in a
forty minute game, you can't play more than ten, you
really can't, and you know, so I just I think
he's He's an amazing guy, great player and handled it
(20:34):
beautifully and you know he'll.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Be back out their next game. Where Colin was right,
Nikola Jokic should have been the MVP three years in
a row. There are very few players in league history
that make every teammate better. He's got a trophy, he
won't end with one, and he's never had a player
who's an All Star. Jamal Murray's never been an All Star.
Gordon never been an All Star. Michael Porter never been
(20:58):
an All Star. Sir was even against the United States
when he was on the floor, they were minus twenty
six when he wasn't. So it's just I gotta tell you.
He may not be pretty to watch, but in terms
of creating shots, elevating teammates, handling the ball and passing perimeter,
(21:19):
scoring butt to the basket. There's nothing like him in
the world.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Now.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Wemby may become him next year, but right now he
feels like one of one in the NBA. Where Colin
was wrong, Seventy eight percent of Dallas Cowboy fans in
a survey last week from The Athletic said they don't
think the Cowboys are a playoff team in the next
five years. That is a staggeringly high number for any
(21:48):
fan base in America, especially arguably the biggest fan base
in America. America that can sometimes get diluted, that's how
fans are. But instead of doubling down on optimism, Cowboy
fans said, yeah, we don't like it either. Jerry's driving
us nuts. We don't have enough good players. And I
(22:08):
was actually shot seventy eight percent of fans eight out
of ten. I've never seen anything like that where Colin
was right. Don Staley, former Team USA coach at the Olympics,
said what everybody kind of knows that if they re
selected the Olympic team, they would have to strongly consider
Caitlin Clark number one. She's really good and feels like
(22:31):
she's good enough to play there. Number two, she was
part of the WNBA All Star team that beat the Olympians.
And number three, she wouldn't be a distraction. She would
elevate the TV ratings, which could help all the players
potentially get more attention and more endorsements. Don Staley, tip
of the cap to you for admitting a real harsh
truth where Colin was right. How about this, Cowboys signed
(22:54):
two UFL receivers Spring Football. We've been on this for
a couple of years. Once the two leagues merge, the
Fox League and the NBC League. When you watch these games,
there are NFL players out there, especially at skill positions safety, corner, linebacker,
wide receiver, tight end, running back. I don't see a
(23:14):
ton of linemen on the defensive front who would play.
But the Cowboys going and snagging twos UFL receivers from
the Spring League. And we said all all year, if
you'll watch the games, there are a lot of NFL
players in this league. Colin Wright Colin wrong on a Monday.
And I don't think I've ever had Chris Paul in
(23:35):
the show, not in recent memory. Twenty year NBA career,
He's now entering his twentieth season, he's a twelve time
All Star or two time Olympian and Chris Paul. How
is Chris Paul? It's great seeing you. You look like
you're still young looking. You got all that energy. But
by the way, you got the goals, you got the money,
You've got the career in the legacy. You're a first
(23:56):
ballot Hall of Famer. Just up front, what key you going?
Because you could you could call it a day today.
What keeps you going?
Speaker 7 (24:06):
First of all, thanks for having me, Colin. But I
think what keeps me going is it's fun. It's fun.
I get a chance to play basketball every day and say,
that's my way of life. You know, I get a
chance to take care of my family. But more than anything,
I have a family, I have my kids. I get
a chance to compete and I've been I've been hooping
(24:26):
since I was four or five years old. And yeah,
I still get a chance to do that at a
high level. And I don't take it for granted, No.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
You don't. Olympic basketball, Foeba is interesting. When I watch
the games, the court looks so small to me, the
three point line looks so close. So you were a
very good Olympian. How did you adjust your NBA game?
Because it's not people think it's just basketball. No it's not.
It's a different sport. How did you adjust your game?
Speaker 7 (24:56):
It's a different game, and you don't try not to
adjust too much, but you especially when we go over
with the Olympic team, we have such a good team,
right And I'll never forget one of the things Coach
k told us one of those years, as he said
he doesn't he doesn't want us to like dumb our
game down too crazy. He wanted us to bring our
(25:17):
egos with us because it was necessary.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
And I think it was the time that we spent together.
Speaker 7 (25:23):
I mean you, I think about two thousand and six
we had tryouts, like real tryouts, and then we were
together in two thousand and eight all the time. But
there was a trust and there was that heartache that
we felt No. Six that really made us want to
do that in two thousand and eight and twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
You know, you've played with Steph, You've played with Durant,
You've played with Booker. I had said I was wrong
on this. I said, I don't know. If I'd played Durant,
I wouldn't want to risk injury I'm Steve Kerr the Warriors.
He's a Phoenix sun. I wouldn't want the Sons to
be mad at me. I'm like, I don't want to
screw anything up for other teams. And then he's on
the floor in the first half, and I'm like, I've
joked for years, Chris, if you had an all time
(25:59):
NBA A one on one competition, he'd beat Jordan. I
don't know how you stop him. You played with him,
When you play with him and practice with him and
you're around him all the time. I'm talking about Kadi
when you're around him like you are all these guys.
Is he better than I can even see on TV?
Speaker 7 (26:17):
Yeah, KD is a basketball junkie. You know, it's a
lot of guys. It's a lot of guys in the
league like that, but few love to be in the
gym as much as he does. And he just you know,
if you talk about one on one, get to his
spots and just somebody who wants to live in the gym.
Mellow was like that too, you know, Like I said,
a lot of guys like that. But when you talk
(26:39):
about just wanting to be able to shoot the ball
and get the spots and whatnot.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
KD wanted the best to ever do it.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, you know, yesterday Steve Kerr got into a Chris
a really really tough spot where you got forty minutes.
The games fly by, These FOBA games just fly by,
and you got all All Stars. There's no bad players here,
and it's all of a sudden, Jason Tatum, he doesn't
play him, And I feel bad because Tatum's the nicest kid.
But it's weird when you look at the rotation. I
(27:07):
get he's doesn't there's what he offers. I could get
other players, Ants Moore Athletics, Steph Booker shoot better, AD's
the better defender. Lebron has got the ball in his hands.
What do you make of Tatum not playing?
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Do you think it's odd? How to other play? I mean,
what's that like when All Stars? There's always a guy
that doesn't get into rotation in the Olympics.
Speaker 6 (27:31):
Yeah, it's always tough.
Speaker 7 (27:32):
I was at my gym yesterday, my CP three basketball
academy here at home when I heard the results of
the game and that JT didn't get in.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
But I know JT. I know he's a competitor.
Speaker 7 (27:44):
I know USA basketball is always tough, you know, because
you have, you know, some of the best players in
the world. And JT is obviously one of the best
players in the world. And I always speak about our
two thousand and eight Olympic team, and that was my
first time playing in the Olympics, and I always say
that the three most important players on that team are
great players that sometimes people leave out when they're naming
(28:06):
that team, and that's Michael red Tayshaun Prince and Carlos Boozer.
And I say that because those guys were just pros
day in and day out. But you know, it's just
a different landscape now where everyone's going to talk about
it on social and all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Man.
Speaker 7 (28:21):
But I just hope that JT knows who he is
and what he's capable of and just continues to get
ready for when his name's called.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
So when you broke into this league out of Wake
for US twenty years ago, I remember you very very well, tough,
physical player, great defender, distributor, mid range shooting game. You
kind of had it all. I've said this on the
show many times. You're my point guard. I want my
guy to defend. I want him to be chippy. I
want him to be vocal. I don't care if everybody
(28:50):
on the team loves him him. I want mostly mid
range game, distribute first, score second. But when you broke
into this league there were some good European players, it
wasn't like now like I'm watching Wemby and I'm like,
what is that?
Speaker 6 (29:05):
Right?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Are you?
Speaker 6 (29:08):
I get to play as his teammate?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
I know, what do you make of that? Like when
you watch him as an all time great? What do
you make of Wemby? What's his ceiling?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (29:19):
I don't think he has one. You know, I said
this before.
Speaker 7 (29:23):
He's one of those guys that after the game this
past year, we all talked about how weird it was
to try to guard him, to try to shoot over him.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
But it just shows you how the game has grown.
Speaker 7 (29:33):
I mean, and there's an appreciation I think for you know,
American players or whatnot, of the European players. I was
watching the Greece game the other day and I saw
Nules as the coach.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
You know, I played long enough to remember him as
a player. You know, there's NBA.
Speaker 7 (29:49):
Plays that's named after him, and now he's coaching the
Greek national team. So it's dope to see how the
game continues to grow, and it just means that, you know,
people like my kids and all this stuff, you just
gonna have to get that much better.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
I actually think you work in San Antonio perfectly because
of two things. You've always been good with mature, committed players.
That's Wemby. You've always been good with coaches that are
gonna give you some ability to do what you want
to do. You know, like you're like a quarterback that's
been in the league twelve plays. You can call your
own plays. You could have gone to multiple places. Why,
(30:26):
I mean, like San Antonio to you, would this be
the final spot?
Speaker 4 (30:30):
To you?
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Is this the perfect fit for you?
Speaker 6 (30:34):
Yeah? I'm excited to who to play. Colin.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
Tell you the truth, I think I didn't played long
enough to know that you can't say this is it
or that's gonna be it.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
I think what I'm most excited about at this point in.
Speaker 7 (30:46):
My career is getting started and knowing that we got
a great group of guys. We got a lot of
young talent, Harrison Barnes being with our team.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
But I'm excited about the challenge. That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, finally you're part co owner of the Basketball Tournament,
and so it's interesting how many former NBA guys. I
was just reading this this morning. Eleven guys in the
game to night seven easternn FOX have played in the league.
Explain tonight's game. It's Louisville Kentucky, which is an intense
(31:23):
border skirmish here. These teams don't like each other. Explain
what the basketball tournament is.
Speaker 6 (31:29):
Yeah, the Basketball Tournament.
Speaker 7 (31:31):
We have a number of teams and a lot of
times there's teams that are put together, and there's a
lot of alumni teams, and it's a big game to night.
I think tonight could be our biggest game attendance wise.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
And I'm actually in North Carolina.
Speaker 7 (31:44):
At my parents' house right now, but I'm after this,
I'm gonna leave and I'm a fly. I'm actually go
to the game tonight because I've heard how big this
rivalry is and I get a chance to see a
couple of my old teammates and Eric Bledsoe and some
of these guys. But it's a great tournament, and it's
high level basketball, is extremely competitive, and as you know,
(32:04):
every game has to end on a may Buck bucket.
Montres Harrel will be out there tonight playing with Louisville
Russ Smith. It's it's high level competition. And I tell
you this, Colin, I don't know if you had a
chance to watch it yet. If not, you should because
if you remember the Chicago All Star Game, you remember that, yes, yes,
and how we did that ending where it was elam
(32:26):
ending where someone had to make a basket to finish
the game.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yep. And so is that is that what we're looking
at tonight.
Speaker 6 (32:34):
That's that's where it came from. This is where it
came from. The tvt so.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
It's called the Basketball Tournament FS one tonight starting at
seven easterns. I love that you love the game because
as I watched Lebron, he got so geeked up to
be the flag bear. And so when I watch him,
he's doing the muscle thing, he's all geeked up, and
there's something and that was Tom Brady by the way,
Chris and his last year is pumping a fist and
(32:59):
yelling at teammates, and you and Lebron share that. There
is a passion when you watch Lebron, do you ever
go I mean, you've never been a teammate of him.
I mean, I mean, you know him obviously very well.
You respect each other. What do you make of the
spectacle of Lebron at thirty nine, still has the enthusiasm
of twenty year old Lebron from Ohio Rakron.
Speaker 7 (33:20):
Yeah, I expect none less. You know, we both played
in the high school All American Game together.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
We the same age or whatnot.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
But I went to.
Speaker 6 (33:29):
College for two years. He went straight to the NBA.
Speaker 7 (33:31):
And that's just there's a love for the game, but
there's an appreciation for the commitment, right, So when you
watching people seeing the dunks, the layups and all this thing.
But I think the thing that players more than anything
appreciate and watching Broun is the commitment, the discipline that
it takes to play for this long and to play
(33:52):
at a high level for this long.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
The basketball tournament FS one tonight seven Eastern and.
Speaker 7 (33:58):
We cannot it's a million winner too, a million bucks,
million dollars, million dollars to the winner of the tournament.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
That's not that's a tournament. That's a real tournament. Hey,
it's great seeing you, and I appreciate you taking time for.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
You too, all right, no problem, appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Kylin all right, Chris Paul Wemby, that's gonna be fun.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
One more Heard. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd
to listen live or on demand whenever you like.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
TJ Hushman Zada over a decade in the NFL, that's interesting.
Some of the stuff we were just talking about we
can't talk about. But we can't talk about some stuff.
So I'm gonna throw this out to you. So if
you go look, I think Russell Wilson's better than Justin Fields.
I'll stay that. But if you go look at their
numbers the last two years, and Justin's had a defensive
(34:49):
coach and Russell's had two offensive coaches, their numbers are
pretty much even. So here's my take. Justin's younger, not rich,
more relatable, more fun, and will blow people away practice.
Russell's more quiet, adult, wealthy, not as relatable, brand new
(35:10):
in the locker room. We know his history and my
take and I could be totally wrong. My take is
is that Justin's gonna have the players, Russell's gonna have
the coaches. And after about a two game losing streak
that Pittsburgh schedule a week TN on is burrutal. Justin's
gonna get a lot more snaps than people think. Am
I nuts?
Speaker 4 (35:31):
No, you aren't.
Speaker 9 (35:32):
And the coaches would want to go with Russell Wilson
just because he's done it before, He's won a Super
Bowl before, So we're gonna can Can he recapture his
old self with us? Can he do that? But if
he can't? And the Russell Wilson we've seen, I mean,
Russell Wilson didn't play bad last year.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
The defense for Denver was terrible.
Speaker 9 (35:55):
They didn't play He didn't play bad last year, but
the year prior would hack it he was awful. And
so now it's can Russell play? Was it Pete Carroll?
Was it his system? Then that defense that really made
Russell Wilson look better? Justin Fields is talented. Can he
throw an anticipation? Can he throw a timing and not
(36:18):
hold the ball? If he can do that? Because the
new officer coordinator is a really good coach Smith Arthur
Smith being a former head coach, but if you look
when he was in Tennessee with Ryan Tannehill, Kenny Hill
was really good.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
And yes, and so you want to run the ball.
You want to play action.
Speaker 9 (36:38):
You have a receiver out there, and George Pickens that's
gonna win his one on ones the jump ball with him,
they fifty fifty balls, they're eighty twoitty with George Pickens.
And so Tomlin and that coaching staff will want to
go with Russell Wilson. But if he falters it any bit,
I can see justin Field starting eight nine games this season.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
I can too, especially in the back end of that schedule.
And also not not that Pittsburgh would fire Tomlin, but
I could see. I could see Tomlin he'll get a
lot of heat. He's got it increasingly. He was a
little more patient with Kenny Pickett when most of us
bailed after about ten starts. So I just I just
think it's something to keep your eye on because you've
(37:17):
been in locker rooms before. Sometimes. I mean, you tell
me all the year's Bengals, Seahawks, Ravens, Raiders is the
locker room all was absolutely sure that the best quarterback
is playing well for me? Yeah, you had.
Speaker 9 (37:34):
Carson, Yeah, we had Carson. So it was no question.
And I go to Seattle, was Houselbeck is no question?
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Okay?
Speaker 9 (37:40):
And so I will say this, as players, you know
who you feel should be playing. I mean, I've seen
some guys get cut and I'm like, whoa they cut him?
Speaker 4 (37:51):
This dude could play.
Speaker 9 (37:52):
Yeah, but at the quarterback position, if you're winning, you're cool.
Start losing games because there's all ways three or four dudes.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
In the locker room.
Speaker 9 (38:02):
They don't care who's around, what coach, the owner. They
just say whatever. I mean, I play with dudes that
literally will tell a coach at halftime of a game,
you don't know what the hell you doing. This dude
ain't even playing like you just get players. They just
don't care. They have no filter. They just say whatever.
And so if you start losing, guys will start talking
(38:24):
and say I feel like Field should be playing, and
then it's just it's a snowball. Yeah, yeah, you right,
I do think he should be playing. And if you
start to get that, you're gonna separate the locker the
locker room, and it can become a problem. But in
that division, you got Joe Burrow, you got Lamar Jackson.
If Deshaun Watson returns the form, it's an uphill battle.
(38:45):
Pittsburgh has that defense that will keep them in games.
But it's an uphill battle for the Steelers.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
So you spent some time with the Chargers. So Jim
at San Diego, Niners, Michigan, this is what he does overnight.
He turns it around like a coaches. Even Saban took
like three years for them. His second year he got
waxed by Utah. Most great coaches take two three years
(39:09):
to turn it around. What's the secret sauce with Horrba
to do it. He took over a mess at Michigan,
a mess with the Niners instantly good.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
He's smart.
Speaker 9 (39:19):
He can relate to players, anybody that goes to their practice.
He has his Jordan cleets own and he might get
under center sometimes and participating in practice. They do a
lot of post practice lifts and runs. He's doing it
with the players. You think he out there, baby Dan Campbell,
you know he's doing a lot of that stuff. Let
you in on a little There's a lot of coaches
(39:41):
in the league that teach you football, but when it
comes to getting you better at your position, there's not many.
And we as players, you know that when you have
a coach like Harball, you believe in him, you trust
when he tells you this is the look we're going
to get, and this is how we're I need to
handle that look. You trust and believe it, you don't
(40:03):
second guess it. So as soon as you see that look,
what you've gone over in practice second nature, you believe it.
You go certain coaches you don't believe it, You second
guess it, And so it just doesn't smoke flow as smoothly.
The play doesn't go off the way you want it
because you're not believing it. And if I'm not believing it,
the guy next to me probably isn't. The guy next
to him probably is it. And so when you have
(40:26):
somebody like Horrorball that everybody knows what you just said,
University of San Diego, Stanford, Michigan, the forty nine Ers,
now the Chargers, he's going to turn it around. So
when he tells you something, you're going to believe it
and you trust it because his track record is proven that.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
So Jamar Chase not practicing of Brandon Ayuk is but
he's unhappy a hold in. Does that stuff? Does it
affect anything the players talk? Or is it just same
old He'll be back.
Speaker 9 (41:00):
It can become a problem, it can It really depends
on how the player handles it. Meaning if Jamar Chase
is not practicing because he wants a new deal and
he's just kind of cool about it, but he's just
not practicing, it's fine. But if you start having bad
body language, you start saying certain things to certain players,
then it will become a problem.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
And I just don't understand teams. I don't I don't
understand teams.
Speaker 9 (41:29):
If I know somebody is in my future, if you're
going to be on my team for a long time,
the sooner I sign you, the less expensive it is
for my team corporate, I don't understand why they wait.
The Eagles are the best at this. The Eagles get
guys signed like Jrey Jones. You didn't think Ceedee Lamb
was gonna be a part of the future. Sign him
(41:49):
a long time ago. Now you gotta give you more.
And the same thing with Dak. You better sign Michael
Parsons now because somebody's gonna leap fraud what he wants
and now you're going have to give him more than that.
And so back to Jamar Chase and BA, if he's
a part of your future, just pay him. Because we're humans.
You walk around there's days you have good days, you're
(42:11):
gonna be pissed off like bro like bad body language,
and the coach is not gonna say like coach is
not gonna say anything to you if you're the player
that will snap back because certain guys they're just not
going back down for it, no matter who the coach is.
So now you've created a problem because the player wants
to get paid. So it really depends on if the
player can be a true professional and handle it each
(42:34):
day the way he should.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
But that is very hard to do.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
So you've had you've made multiple predictions through the years
on quarterbacks that you've trained with, or you know, you're
the one that said Justin Herbert's going to be a star,
Joe Burrow's going to be a star. So you know,
Josh Allen, you called all these guys. So we got
five new quarterbacks this should We got Bonenecks and Michael
Pennix and JJ McCarthy and Kayleb Williams and Jaden Daniels
(43:00):
and what's the kid at North Carolina Drake May Drake May?
I think he's a project. Give me a jet. If
I said, you don't have to tell me where you
get your information. But if I said to you this
blank guy is gonna work and it may work quick.
Speaker 9 (43:17):
I'll give you two guys that I believe will work
and work quick. Is Cayleb Williams and bow Knicks?
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Interesting, Cayleb Williams and Bonick. So let's start with bow
because that may surprise people. Why is that going to
work quickly?
Speaker 9 (43:30):
You're what a coach that has always had success with quarterbacks,
and he's started so many games in college.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Yeah, sixty one.
Speaker 9 (43:41):
He started so many games in college like four years,
like every year, and then the COVID.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Year by the way. Two conferences, so he had a
bunch of different coordinators. So I mean bow Knicks has
dealt with three coaches, five coordinators, two conferences.
Speaker 9 (43:58):
He's going to be sick successful because he's seen a lot.
He's ready to play right now. And you're with a
coach that has proved I can win with almost anybody.
I mean, Sean Payne was winning games with Teddy Bridgewater,
Taysom Hill and at a high level.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Yeah, and so I believe bow Knicks will be fine.
Speaker 9 (44:19):
He has Troy Franklin, a familiar face as a receiver
that he played with in college.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Also, for the record, I think MEM's in Courtland. I
think Courtland Sutton. He may be a lower end one,
but I love Courtland.
Speaker 9 (44:29):
I mean he kind of held out he wanted more money,
which I didn't understand.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
But he's a good player.
Speaker 9 (44:34):
But he's a good player. But bow Knicks is I
believe he's going to play well. I mean, if you
look at the amount of starts he had in college,
very rarely with a guy with this many starts at
the highest level of college football on the SEC in
the Pac twelve, which was the best conference last season.
I believe he'll be successful. In Kayler Williams, he just
speaks for himself. Duke can just play and you.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Know Lsu well. I think Jaden Daniels has a lot
little Lamar Jackson. I think he's probably more refined at
this point in his life in the pocket, but not
quite as fast. What is he a little finn? What
do you make of it?
Speaker 9 (45:09):
Jay and Daniels can play man Uh trained with us
the entire last year. I mean Jake Daniels probably two
hundred and ten pounds when Jayden's first started, probably one
seventy five. He's accurate. You want to play Wooding as
a player. The way he carries himself, you want to
(45:29):
play wood him a personable dude. The only concern I
would have is with dan Quinn being a defensive coach,
is he gonna be making some of the cause, meaning.
Speaker 4 (45:40):
Hey, I just want to run the ball. Here, we'll
punt ball.
Speaker 9 (45:43):
And yeah, he's not calling the play, but you, you
technically are calling the play. Just what kind of leash
are you gonna have or you gonna let him play
or you're gonna try to play game safe and hope
your defense can win it. And so that may be
my my only concern.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
I heard Cliff Kingsbury really pushed hard for Jade and
Daniels with a number two pick. That Cliff was like,
that kid's good.
Speaker 9 (46:05):
When you look at the improvements that he made each
year in college is remarkable. If LSU has a good defense,
state they're playing in a college football playoff last year.
He was that good last year and so you statistically
it was better than what Joe Burrow did. Joe Brow
just had a ton of NFL guys on defense, whereas
(46:27):
Jade Daniels didn't. And you can look at it and say, man,
this guy's gonna play. We know two or three of
these guys aren't gonna play well, but if I had
to pick two, it would be those guys because of
the situation that bow Knicks is in, and you look
at the weapons that Cayleb Williams have and that he
has to play with, and Chicago's defense was very good
(46:49):
down the stretch last season.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
TJ Houshmanzada, He'll be on a speak today at five
Eastern on FS one. Great Seniors, Always, buddy, always, thank you,
appreciate you having me. Oh I love
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
noon Pacific. Find your local station for The Herd at
Fox Sportsradio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Here we go. It is a Monday. We're live in
Los Angeles. It's the Herd. Wherever you may be and
however you may be listening. Thanks for megan us part
of your day, one hour from now. Where Colin was right,
Where Colin was wrong. So I sat down yesterday and
watched a ton of the Olympics. Started in the morning,
(00:49):
watching a team USA struggle early that's sort of their
m O, and then come back to beat Serbia and Jokic.
But I think it's j Mackett's pretty obvious. One player
for Team usay and you can it jumps off the
television set. One player we've been told for years is
is Shack and that one player does not fit with
(01:12):
this team. He's not a great FEVA player. That's very
clear so far. Yeah. So two years ago, the NBA media,
the NBA media voted Joel Embiid over a Jokis as MVP.
It was really an anti Jokic vote because Jokic is
a more valuable player. He's a better player, and it's
(01:32):
not particularly close if you watch yesterday, but the league's
stewards the media did not want Jokich to win a
third straight MVP, even though he's hands down the most
valuable player, and you saw it yesterday. It's why the
NBA media regularly kind of chooses cool stories over the truth,
(01:54):
and I think increasingly people want the truth from their media.
But I think it's official watching Embiid yesterday where Steve
Kerr pulled him off the floor two and a half
minutes into the game against Serbia, he is the most
over hyped, coddled and over discussed my bad player in
the NBA. I mean, you'll kitchen and bead on the
(02:15):
floor at the same time. It's not close. They're not
the same player. They're not remotely close to the same
level of player. Beyond patting his stats, Philadelphia keeps running
coaches through him and teammates through him, and in the
weaker Eastern Conference. He has yet to win a second
round playoff series. I'm not asking for much, just maybe
(02:37):
one Eastern Conference vinyls. Milwaukee was all beat up this year.
I mean, the Knicks fell apart physically, so did Miami.
Can you win a second playoff series in the significantly
weaker conference. The other thing is he's never played seventy games.
Remember his career started, he was hurt for the first
two years, never played seventy games. We bang on AD,
but AD the last couple of years is there every night.
(03:00):
He can't depend on him physically. And then you watch
this Olympics and it is the best players in the
world and he is an atrocious fit. He doesn't fit
at all. And remember the feeble rules don't call as
many fouls, and he lives at the free throw line,
so you take that element out of his game. At
the Olympics, he's not only not effective, he hurts the team.
(03:23):
And Foeba rules are good for Biggs. Jokic is dominant
eighties great BAM's great Embiid can't play here. And again,
when you watch Jokic and Embiid on the floor at
the same time, they've given him James Harden. They've given
him Jimmy Butler, They've given him, They've given him Ben Simmons.
Remember Ben Simmons made an All Star game and he
(03:44):
can't win the second round playoff series in the East.
Jokic has never had a single teammate that's been an
All Star. He's already got a trophy. And yesterday the
plus minus for Jokic, Jokic almost single handedly played even
with Team USA when he was on the floor eighty
one eighty one. When Jokic was off the floor, Serbia
(04:05):
was minus twenty six and he was only off the
floor for a few minutes. M Beid, meanwhile, was the
only American player with a minus in the plus minus category.
He's getting heckled now by French fans because he chose
to play for the United States. My only question now,
can you make trades during the Olympics. Can we get Wemby.
(04:26):
I'll give you em Bead and future draft picks. Just
give us Wemby. But we can officially now stop comparing
em Bead in Jokic. Jokic is healthy, Jokic can be
complementary in the Star. Jokic makes every teammate better. I
was thinking about this this morning. Is the only three
players in my life that I've ever watched basketball that
(04:48):
make virtually every teammate they play with better. Magic Lebron
and Jokic. Michael Jordan was great, he took away shots
from a lot of good players. Barkley was great, Steph's great.
They don't always elevate every single teammate magic Lebron and Jokic.
But this is more because we knew Jokic was great,
and we knew Jamack called it that Serbia would be
a tough out. They were for about seventy percent of
(05:10):
the game until the very end. But in the end,
this is about Mbid. Let's not put him in that
class anymore. He can't stay healthy, he doesn't win enough,
he clogs up the offense, and it was all on
display yesterday. So let's now address the elephant in the
room for Team USA. So everybody likes Jason Tatum. We
(05:35):
talked about the Celtics championship. It's the first collaborative championship
I ever remember where the fifth guy meant as much
as the number two guy. So Steve Kerr couldn't find
a spot. And Steve's a nice guy. He'd liked to
play everybody. He could not find a single minute for
(05:56):
Jason Tatum, and he wants to play him, but it
was so bad that he literally Steve wanted to address
it and apologize after a blowout win and the inability
to get Jason Tatum off the bench at all.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Jason's going to play. Every game is going to be
different based on matchups. He's a total pro. He's you know,
first team All NBA three years in a row. I
felt like an idiot not playing him. But in a
forty minute game, you can't play more than ten, you
really can't, and you know, so I just I think
he's He's an amazing guy, great player and handled it
(06:38):
beautifully and you know he'll be back out their next game.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So he's always been a player. And we said this
for years when Marcus Smart and Jalen Brown were on
the team. I think Brad Stevens the GM traded Marcus
Smart away because he layden games, was more aggress and
demanded the ball more than Jason Tatum. Now, Jalen Brown
(07:05):
always tried to make sure, you know, Tatum got his touches.
Marcus Smart didn't care. He's a defensive guy. He just
took the ball. So Brad Stevens, the GM of the Celtics,
had a problem. Jalen Brown is taking the ball away
from him, and the much less talented Marcus Smart is
taking the ball away from him. So I'll get him
(07:25):
Drew Holiday, who will be more complimentary to Tatum. I'll
get back to that in a second. But what he
lacks is that rip your heart out DNA, which most
of our great players have had Steph and Lebraun and
Michael and Shack and you know, a bird and magic,
and he didn't have it. He's highly skilled, he's a
great guy, but he's almost submissive at times. And now, now,
(07:48):
when you put it, and I've been arguing this for
years and got a lot of pushback, he's the third
best player, the fourth. No, he's not, I'd argue, he's
way at the back of the top ten players. And
when you put him around all these alphas and all
these highly skilled players, he disappears, he shrinks, and I
(08:11):
feel bad for him. He's a nice kid, but you know,
there's there's always been those kids that when you put
him around other aggressive kids, they just don't fit. And
he doesn't It's not that he lacks skill. But the
other thing is there's no part of his game when
you surround him with great players that stands out. Shooting, Well, No,
(08:34):
that's that's that's Kevin Durant, that's Steph Curry and Derek White. Defense, No,
that's that's Anthony Davis, that's Drew Holliday and Bam. Leadership. No,
that's Lebron and Staph. Athletically, no, that's aunt. There is
nothing on this team he's best at. Ant's the most athletic,
(08:54):
Lebron the great leader, Stephen K. D. Booker the great.
Even Derek White shoots. He's not a great defender compared
to these, So what is he great? He's B plus
at everything, jack of all trades at everything, and he's
a top ten ish player. He's good, he wins, he's collaborative,
he's swell. But man, you are really singing. And let's
(09:16):
circle back to Brad Stevens the Celtics GM. Why did
he get rid of Marcus Smart? Go back to that
final year and those playoff games, and we often said
it on the air, Marcus Smart, forget Jaylen Brown. Marcus
Smart is taking shots from Jason Tatum and Brad Stevens said,
(09:38):
I got to get him out of town. If we're
gonna have a guy taking shots from him, it's gonna
be either Jalen Brown or Drew Holidays, a better offensive player.
And then Stevens also got poor zingis. So Brad Stevens,
who just won Executive of the Year, has told you
everything you need to know about Tatum that in big
spots against alphas and surround by alphas, he's not gonna
(10:01):
trust him all the time. Sometimes yes, all the time. No,
In fact, he can't even trust him to get take
the shot late, forget to make it, just take it.
So I think what you're seeing is what Brad Stevens
his first NBA coach and Brad Stevens his current Celtic GM.
It's what Brad Stevens is doing. General managers tell you
(10:24):
what they think of their players by who they surround
them with, who they add, who they push out the door.
And this is not a shot at him, but Steve
Kerr is telling you, Brad Stevens told you. My eyes
are telling you. Your eyes are telling you he's not
a top five player. He's a very good player, highly skilled, collaborative,
(10:45):
a championship player. But between the Eastern Conference finals, the
finals and the Olympics, it's truth serum. He may be
the tenth best player in the game, he's not a
top fiver, and when you surround him without alpahs, he
can shrink. It's just his personality, all right.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Got a little.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
NFL camp stories percolating with the Steelers. Tua Jordan Love
both side massive contracts. You had a theory on when
they story broke on that you were saying that they
dumped it.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Yeah, Jordan Love and Tua both got massive raises and
they announced it what like four o'clock Friday afternoon, middle
of the Olympics opening ceremony.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I didn't hear either, fan base.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
Maybe you did outrage. Oh my gosh, how do we
give two of all the money Jordan Love got.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
All the people were paying attention to other stuff. The
Olympic opening ceremonies got huge ratings.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
Yeah, but I haven't even seen a real breakdown like
in granular fashion where Jordan Love ranks among icepaid quarterbacks
two and none of that stuff.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
They did a.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
Really smart job leaking it late on a Friday summer
you know, summer Friday, everybody's taken off, that's right.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And the Olympics are in full swing. Very interesting, Yeah,
no it is. We'll address both coming up.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So oftentimes with stories, you will see a drip, drip,
drip with a story. That's not your job to check
it out. We're paid to do that. You see the
little drips. Is that going to become a forest fire?
Is that faucet gonna break? Officially? So keep your eye
on the Steelers. Russell justin Fields. So, according to Jeremy Fowler,
(12:34):
a lot of the media has downplayed this. Jeremy Fowler
is poking and prodding. He is not, he says, the
Steelers are, according to his sources, taking a very open
minded approach to this. Russell is now hurt and so
this is important. We've all gone into workplaces, and sometimes
you know, I've had seven or eight jobs in my life.
Some workplaces. I remember taking a job in Tampa and
(12:56):
I felt like everybody was old and I was young,
and I kind of felt like displaced and didn't really
connect in the Vegas newsroom or at Fox. It depends.
You walk into workplaces. Some are older, some are younger,
some are more alpha, some are whatever. But Pittsburgh's workplace
under Mike Tomlin is alpha, loud, drama, physical. We don't
(13:20):
think it as a brilliant schematic offensive. Kansas City rams,
San Francisco. No, no, no. They blow stuff up, they knock
you over, they punch in the mouth. I mean, yesterday,
there's a story and this is not a unique stealer
story where George Pickens, star receiver got into a screaming
match with a coach. That's Pittsburgh's culture. That's not Russell
(13:43):
Russell's focused. An adult can be sort of into Russell Wilson.
You know this is a guy who you know, you
want my phone number, go through my agent. Those are
the stories. He's kind of mature, and I think to
some of the younger players, I wonder about the fit
in Pittsburgh, which is blue collar, tough, alpha physical, you know, loud, loud,
(14:13):
and a shouting match yesterday with a receiver and a
star receiver and a coach. And so here you got.
He hasn't won a super Bowl in eleven years. Last
time he's been to one eleven years. Justin Fields is young,
cooler athletic, eleven years, younger, more athletic, and I think
he's going to connect with a lot of young teammates
(14:33):
for the Steelers. And now he's getting the stats and
Russell isn't because Russell's banged up. So you cannot convince me.
Look at that Steeler schedule. There are two game losing
streaks all over that schedule, and they've struggled to get
the offensive line right. So unless the offensive line suddenly
gets great, if the Steelers are losing games, it's not
(14:55):
going to be because of their defense or their pass
rush or their toughness. Those are hallmarks and staples under Tomlin.
They're gonna be losing because they can't get the offense right.
And who gets blamed for that the quarterback. Now Tomlin
historically has had patience with Kenny Pickett, but he didn't
have Justin Fields backing up Kenny Pickett. So you look
(15:18):
at that, they could easily go on the road and
go oh and two to Atlanta and Denver to start.
Then it's Harbaugh, Anthony Richardson dak Oh. They'll beat the Raiders,
but it's Aaron Rodgers. The next week, well they'll beat
the Giants. Well, then they're at Washington, Lamar Jackson, Deshaun Watson,
Joe Burrow, Deshaun Watson, Jalen Urge, Lamar Jackson. That schedule
the last six seven weeks, starting in like week ten,
(15:40):
week eleven, that is just land mines everywhere. So I
just think it's interesting work environments. Pittsburgh's got one of
the more alpha, tough, physical, motivational, trash talking rooms in
the league. And I'm not making a judgment on it.
(16:01):
That's just what it is. I mean, a few years ago,
Mike Tomlin was running up the sidelines that looks like
he wanted to tackle a player during a game. That's
what they are, heavy on the drama and the emotion
and physicality and alpha. I just don't feel like that's
that's not necessarily Russell Wilson here is here's Mike Tomlin
talking about the quarterback snaps right now.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
From a health standpoint, no real update.
Speaker 7 (16:26):
Russ worked partially today and expect him to get going
a little bit as we come off this off day.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
He expects me able to.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
See rest in some team periods next week.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
That's what I said.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Yeah, he's Mike. Tomlin's already getting a little short with the
Pittsburgh media.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter not a em Pacific.
Speaker 8 (16:47):
Hey, I'm Doug Gottlie. The podcast is called All Ball.
We usually talk all basketball all the time, but it's
more about the stories about what made these people love
their sport and all the interesting interactions along the way.
We talked to coaches, we talked to players, We tell
you stories. You download it, you listen to it. I
think you like it. Listen to All Ball with Doug
(17:09):
alieb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
All right, we do it every Monday. Colin Wright, Colin wrong,
plenty of both, and here we go where Colin was right.
Joe l Embiid played only eleven minutes for Team USA,
and he looked like he was getting in the way.
Steve Kerr pulled him early. I said it last week
and I'll say it again. Anthony Davis at this point
is the better player. He's better defensively, he doesn't get
(17:37):
in the way of the offense. He can also be complementary.
The USA was outscored by Serbia by twenty points when
Joe l Embiid was on the floor. That's not great.
Where Colin was wrong, I said maybe they should consider
not playing Kevin Durant because of his I was wrong.
(18:01):
He was eight for eight in the first half and
five for five on threes. Has there ever been a
player in our lives that was a more automatic bucket
if you get the ball to him, even late in
the shot clock. He was so important in the first
half as they were really trying to find their way offensively.
They finally did in the second quarter, but I thought
(18:21):
they should consider not playing him, not risking injury, and
he was vital in that first half. Where Colin was right,
I said, Jordan Love was going to sign a contract
and it was going to be big and I would
be okay with it. And Green Bay checks all those boxes.
Since Brett farbarrived thirty two years ago. In Wisconsin, this
(18:42):
is the number one offense in the league, and arguably
they do a better job of developing offensive lines. They
also higher offensive coaches. I trust the Packers with quarterbacks.
Jordan Love last year in his final ten games was
not granually better than Aaron Rodgers' last ten in Green
Bay was significantly better. I think the kid can sling it.
(19:06):
I think he's great at the podium. I think he's mature.
He checks every box for me. Where Colin was raw,
I would not have signed the TUA contract. He's small,
not overly athletic, can struggle to throw the ball deep
in colder, windy weather. And there's the injury thing again.
I like him. He's got a dat quality where he's
(19:28):
a grown up. He's mature, but this is a lot
of money, and I feel like I'd be crossing my
fingers based on his injury history. But Miami, like a
lot of NFL teams, is winning with him. They're somewhat trapped,
and so he got the bag where Colin was right.
I've said for years I like Jason Tatum, but y'all
(19:48):
got him as a top three or four player in
the league, and I'm like, it's ten eleven, twelve for me.
Around other alphas, he kind of sometimes disappears. I think
Brad Stevens got Marcus Smart out of Boston because he
was taken up late game shots by Tatum, and yesterday
Steve Kerr had to apologize for not playing Jason Tatum.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Jason's going to play. Every game is going to be
different based on matchups. He's a total pro. He's, you know,
first team All NBA three years in a row. I
felt like an idiot not playing him. But in a
forty minute game, you can't play more than ten, you
really can't, and you know, so I just I think
he's He's an amazing guy, great player and handled it
(20:34):
beautifully and you know he'll.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Be back out their next game. Where Colin was right,
Nikola Jokic should have been the MVP three years in
a row. There are very few players in league history
that make every teammate better. He's got a trophy, he
won't end with one, and he's never had a player
who's an All Star. Jamal Murray's never been an All Star.
Gordon never been an All Star. Michael Porter never been
(20:58):
an All Star. Sir was even against the United States
when he was on the floor, they were minus twenty
six when he wasn't. So it's just I gotta tell you.
He may not be pretty to watch, but in terms
of creating shots, elevating teammates, handling the ball and passing perimeter,
(21:19):
scoring butt to the basket. There's nothing like him in
the world.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Now.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Wemby may become him next year, but right now he
feels like one of one in the NBA. Where Colin
was wrong, Seventy eight percent of Dallas Cowboy fans in
a survey last week from The Athletic said they don't
think the Cowboys are a playoff team in the next
five years. That is a staggeringly high number for any
(21:48):
fan base in America, especially arguably the biggest fan base
in America. America that can sometimes get diluted, that's how
fans are. But instead of doubling down on optimism, Cowboy
fans said, yeah, we don't like it either. Jerry's driving
us nuts. We don't have enough good players. And I
(22:08):
was actually shot seventy eight percent of fans eight out
of ten. I've never seen anything like that where Colin
was right. Don Staley, former Team USA coach at the Olympics,
said what everybody kind of knows that if they re
selected the Olympic team, they would have to strongly consider
Caitlin Clark number one. She's really good and feels like
(22:31):
she's good enough to play there. Number two, she was
part of the WNBA All Star team that beat the Olympians.
And number three, she wouldn't be a distraction. She would
elevate the TV ratings, which could help all the players
potentially get more attention and more endorsements. Don Staley, tip
of the cap to you for admitting a real harsh
truth where Colin was right. How about this, Cowboys signed
(22:54):
two UFL receivers Spring Football. We've been on this for
a couple of years. Once the two leagues merge, the
Fox League and the NBC League. When you watch these games,
there are NFL players out there, especially at skill positions safety, corner, linebacker,
wide receiver, tight end, running back. I don't see a
(23:14):
ton of linemen on the defensive front who would play.
But the Cowboys going and snagging twos UFL receivers from
the Spring League. And we said all all year, if
you'll watch the games, there are a lot of NFL
players in this league. Colin Wright Colin wrong on a Monday.
And I don't think I've ever had Chris Paul in
(23:35):
the show, not in recent memory. Twenty year NBA career,
He's now entering his twentieth season, he's a twelve time
All Star or two time Olympian and Chris Paul. How
is Chris Paul? It's great seeing you. You look like
you're still young looking. You got all that energy. But
by the way, you got the goals, you got the money,
You've got the career in the legacy. You're a first
(23:56):
ballot Hall of Famer. Just up front, what key you going?
Because you could you could call it a day today.
What keeps you going?
Speaker 7 (24:06):
First of all, thanks for having me, Colin. But I
think what keeps me going is it's fun. It's fun.
I get a chance to play basketball every day and say,
that's my way of life. You know, I get a
chance to take care of my family. But more than anything,
I have a family, I have my kids. I get
a chance to compete and I've been I've been hooping
(24:26):
since I was four or five years old. And yeah,
I still get a chance to do that at a
high level. And I don't take it for granted, No.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
You don't. Olympic basketball, Foeba is interesting. When I watch
the games, the court looks so small to me, the
three point line looks so close. So you were a
very good Olympian. How did you adjust your NBA game?
Because it's not people think it's just basketball. No it's not.
It's a different sport. How did you adjust your game?
Speaker 7 (24:56):
It's a different game, and you don't try not to
adjust too much, but you especially when we go over
with the Olympic team, we have such a good team,
right And I'll never forget one of the things Coach
k told us one of those years, as he said
he doesn't he doesn't want us to like dumb our
game down too crazy. He wanted us to bring our
(25:17):
egos with us because it was necessary.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
And I think it was the time that we spent together.
Speaker 7 (25:23):
I mean you, I think about two thousand and six
we had tryouts, like real tryouts, and then we were
together in two thousand and eight all the time. But
there was a trust and there was that heartache that
we felt No. Six that really made us want to
do that in two thousand and eight and twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
You know, you've played with Steph, You've played with Durant,
You've played with Booker. I had said I was wrong
on this. I said, I don't know. If I'd played Durant,
I wouldn't want to risk injury I'm Steve Kerr the Warriors.
He's a Phoenix sun. I wouldn't want the Sons to
be mad at me. I'm like, I don't want to
screw anything up for other teams. And then he's on
the floor in the first half, and I'm like, I've
joked for years, Chris, if you had an all time
(25:59):
NBA A one on one competition, he'd beat Jordan. I
don't know how you stop him. You played with him,
When you play with him and practice with him and
you're around him all the time. I'm talking about Kadi
when you're around him like you are all these guys.
Is he better than I can even see on TV?
Speaker 7 (26:17):
Yeah, KD is a basketball junkie. You know, it's a
lot of guys. It's a lot of guys in the
league like that, but few love to be in the
gym as much as he does. And he just you know,
if you talk about one on one, get to his
spots and just somebody who wants to live in the gym.
Mellow was like that too, you know, Like I said,
a lot of guys like that. But when you talk
(26:39):
about just wanting to be able to shoot the ball
and get the spots and whatnot.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
KD wanted the best to ever do it.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, you know, yesterday Steve Kerr got into a Chris
a really really tough spot where you got forty minutes.
The games fly by, These FOBA games just fly by,
and you got all All Stars. There's no bad players here,
and it's all of a sudden, Jason Tatum, he doesn't
play him, And I feel bad because Tatum's the nicest kid.
But it's weird when you look at the rotation. I
(27:07):
get he's doesn't there's what he offers. I could get
other players, Ants Moore Athletics, Steph Booker shoot better, AD's
the better defender. Lebron has got the ball in his hands.
What do you make of Tatum not playing?
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Do you think it's odd? How to other play? I mean,
what's that like when All Stars? There's always a guy
that doesn't get into rotation in the Olympics.
Speaker 6 (27:31):
Yeah, it's always tough.
Speaker 7 (27:32):
I was at my gym yesterday, my CP three basketball
academy here at home when I heard the results of
the game and that JT didn't get in.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
But I know JT. I know he's a competitor.
Speaker 7 (27:44):
I know USA basketball is always tough, you know, because
you have, you know, some of the best players in
the world. And JT is obviously one of the best
players in the world. And I always speak about our
two thousand and eight Olympic team, and that was my
first time playing in the Olympics, and I always say
that the three most important players on that team are
great players that sometimes people leave out when they're naming
(28:06):
that team, and that's Michael red Tayshaun Prince and Carlos Boozer.
And I say that because those guys were just pros
day in and day out. But you know, it's just
a different landscape now where everyone's going to talk about
it on social and all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Man.
Speaker 7 (28:21):
But I just hope that JT knows who he is
and what he's capable of and just continues to get
ready for when his name's called.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
So when you broke into this league out of Wake
for US twenty years ago, I remember you very very well, tough,
physical player, great defender, distributor, mid range shooting game. You
kind of had it all. I've said this on the
show many times. You're my point guard. I want my
guy to defend. I want him to be chippy. I
want him to be vocal. I don't care if everybody
(28:50):
on the team loves him him. I want mostly mid
range game, distribute first, score second. But when you broke
into this league there were some good European players, it
wasn't like now like I'm watching Wemby and I'm like,
what is that?
Speaker 6 (29:05):
Right?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Are you?
Speaker 6 (29:08):
I get to play as his teammate?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
I know, what do you make of that? Like when
you watch him as an all time great? What do
you make of Wemby? What's his ceiling?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (29:19):
I don't think he has one. You know, I said
this before.
Speaker 7 (29:23):
He's one of those guys that after the game this
past year, we all talked about how weird it was
to try to guard him, to try to shoot over him.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
But it just shows you how the game has grown.
Speaker 7 (29:33):
I mean, and there's an appreciation I think for you know,
American players or whatnot, of the European players. I was
watching the Greece game the other day and I saw
Nules as the coach.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
You know, I played long enough to remember him as
a player. You know, there's NBA.
Speaker 7 (29:49):
Plays that's named after him, and now he's coaching the
Greek national team. So it's dope to see how the
game continues to grow, and it just means that, you know,
people like my kids and all this stuff, you just
gonna have to get that much better.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
I actually think you work in San Antonio perfectly because
of two things. You've always been good with mature, committed players.
That's Wemby. You've always been good with coaches that are
gonna give you some ability to do what you want
to do. You know, like you're like a quarterback that's
been in the league twelve plays. You can call your
own plays. You could have gone to multiple places. Why,
(30:26):
I mean, like San Antonio to you, would this be
the final spot?
Speaker 4 (30:30):
To you?
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Is this the perfect fit for you?
Speaker 6 (30:34):
Yeah? I'm excited to who to play. Colin.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
Tell you the truth, I think I didn't played long
enough to know that you can't say this is it
or that's gonna be it.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
I think what I'm most excited about at this point in.
Speaker 7 (30:46):
My career is getting started and knowing that we got
a great group of guys. We got a lot of
young talent, Harrison Barnes being with our team.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
But I'm excited about the challenge. That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, finally you're part co owner of the Basketball Tournament,
and so it's interesting how many former NBA guys. I
was just reading this this morning. Eleven guys in the
game to night seven easternn FOX have played in the league.
Explain tonight's game. It's Louisville Kentucky, which is an intense
(31:23):
border skirmish here. These teams don't like each other. Explain
what the basketball tournament is.
Speaker 6 (31:29):
Yeah, the Basketball Tournament.
Speaker 7 (31:31):
We have a number of teams and a lot of
times there's teams that are put together, and there's a
lot of alumni teams, and it's a big game to night.
I think tonight could be our biggest game attendance wise.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
And I'm actually in North Carolina.
Speaker 7 (31:44):
At my parents' house right now, but I'm after this,
I'm gonna leave and I'm a fly. I'm actually go
to the game tonight because I've heard how big this
rivalry is and I get a chance to see a
couple of my old teammates and Eric Bledsoe and some
of these guys. But it's a great tournament, and it's
high level basketball, is extremely competitive, and as you know,
(32:04):
every game has to end on a may Buck bucket.
Montres Harrel will be out there tonight playing with Louisville
Russ Smith. It's it's high level competition. And I tell
you this, Colin, I don't know if you had a
chance to watch it yet. If not, you should because
if you remember the Chicago All Star Game, you remember that, yes, yes,
and how we did that ending where it was elam
(32:26):
ending where someone had to make a basket to finish
the game.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yep. And so is that is that what we're looking
at tonight.
Speaker 6 (32:34):
That's that's where it came from. This is where it
came from. The tvt so.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
It's called the Basketball Tournament FS one tonight starting at
seven easterns. I love that you love the game because
as I watched Lebron, he got so geeked up to
be the flag bear. And so when I watch him,
he's doing the muscle thing, he's all geeked up, and
there's something and that was Tom Brady by the way,
Chris and his last year is pumping a fist and
(32:59):
yelling at teammates, and you and Lebron share that. There
is a passion when you watch Lebron, do you ever
go I mean, you've never been a teammate of him.
I mean, I mean, you know him obviously very well.
You respect each other. What do you make of the
spectacle of Lebron at thirty nine, still has the enthusiasm
of twenty year old Lebron from Ohio Rakron.
Speaker 7 (33:20):
Yeah, I expect none less. You know, we both played
in the high school All American Game together.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
We the same age or whatnot.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
But I went to.
Speaker 6 (33:29):
College for two years. He went straight to the NBA.
Speaker 7 (33:31):
And that's just there's a love for the game, but
there's an appreciation for the commitment, right, So when you
watching people seeing the dunks, the layups and all this thing.
But I think the thing that players more than anything
appreciate and watching Broun is the commitment, the discipline that
it takes to play for this long and to play
(33:52):
at a high level for this long.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
The basketball tournament FS one tonight seven Eastern and.
Speaker 7 (33:58):
We cannot it's a million winner too, a million bucks,
million dollars, million dollars to the winner of the tournament.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
That's not that's a tournament. That's a real tournament. Hey,
it's great seeing you, and I appreciate you taking time for.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
You too, all right, no problem, appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Kylin all right, Chris Paul Wemby, that's gonna be fun.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
One more Heard. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd
to listen live or on demand whenever you like.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
TJ Hushman Zada over a decade in the NFL, that's interesting.
Some of the stuff we were just talking about we
can't talk about. But we can't talk about some stuff.
So I'm gonna throw this out to you. So if
you go look, I think Russell Wilson's better than Justin Fields.
I'll stay that. But if you go look at their
numbers the last two years, and Justin's had a defensive
(34:49):
coach and Russell's had two offensive coaches, their numbers are
pretty much even. So here's my take. Justin's younger, not rich,
more relatable, more fun, and will blow people away practice.
Russell's more quiet, adult, wealthy, not as relatable, brand new
(35:10):
in the locker room. We know his history and my
take and I could be totally wrong. My take is
is that Justin's gonna have the players, Russell's gonna have
the coaches. And after about a two game losing streak
that Pittsburgh schedule a week TN on is burrutal. Justin's
gonna get a lot more snaps than people think. Am
I nuts?
Speaker 4 (35:31):
No, you aren't.
Speaker 9 (35:32):
And the coaches would want to go with Russell Wilson
just because he's done it before, He's won a Super
Bowl before, So we're gonna can Can he recapture his
old self with us? Can he do that? But if
he can't? And the Russell Wilson we've seen, I mean,
Russell Wilson didn't play bad last year.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
The defense for Denver was terrible.
Speaker 9 (35:55):
They didn't play He didn't play bad last year, but
the year prior would hack it he was awful. And
so now it's can Russell play? Was it Pete Carroll?
Was it his system? Then that defense that really made
Russell Wilson look better? Justin Fields is talented. Can he
throw an anticipation? Can he throw a timing and not
(36:18):
hold the ball? If he can do that? Because the
new officer coordinator is a really good coach Smith Arthur
Smith being a former head coach, but if you look
when he was in Tennessee with Ryan Tannehill, Kenny Hill
was really good.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
And yes, and so you want to run the ball.
You want to play action.
Speaker 9 (36:38):
You have a receiver out there, and George Pickens that's
gonna win his one on ones the jump ball with him,
they fifty fifty balls, they're eighty twoitty with George Pickens.
And so Tomlin and that coaching staff will want to
go with Russell Wilson. But if he falters it any bit,
I can see justin Field starting eight nine games this season.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
I can too, especially in the back end of that schedule.
And also not not that Pittsburgh would fire Tomlin, but
I could see. I could see Tomlin he'll get a
lot of heat. He's got it increasingly. He was a
little more patient with Kenny Pickett when most of us
bailed after about ten starts. So I just I just
think it's something to keep your eye on because you've
(37:17):
been in locker rooms before. Sometimes. I mean, you tell
me all the year's Bengals, Seahawks, Ravens, Raiders is the
locker room all was absolutely sure that the best quarterback
is playing well for me? Yeah, you had.
Speaker 9 (37:34):
Carson, Yeah, we had Carson. So it was no question.
And I go to Seattle, was Houselbeck is no question?
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Okay?
Speaker 9 (37:40):
And so I will say this, as players, you know
who you feel should be playing. I mean, I've seen
some guys get cut and I'm like, whoa they cut him?
Speaker 4 (37:51):
This dude could play.
Speaker 9 (37:52):
Yeah, but at the quarterback position, if you're winning, you're cool.
Start losing games because there's all ways three or four dudes.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
In the locker room.
Speaker 9 (38:02):
They don't care who's around, what coach, the owner. They
just say whatever. I mean, I play with dudes that
literally will tell a coach at halftime of a game,
you don't know what the hell you doing. This dude
ain't even playing like you just get players. They just
don't care. They have no filter. They just say whatever.
And so if you start losing, guys will start talking
(38:24):
and say I feel like Field should be playing, and
then it's just it's a snowball. Yeah, yeah, you right,
I do think he should be playing. And if you
start to get that, you're gonna separate the locker the
locker room, and it can become a problem. But in
that division, you got Joe Burrow, you got Lamar Jackson.
If Deshaun Watson returns the form, it's an uphill battle.
(38:45):
Pittsburgh has that defense that will keep them in games.
But it's an uphill battle for the Steelers.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
So you spent some time with the Chargers. So Jim
at San Diego, Niners, Michigan, this is what he does overnight.
He turns it around like a coaches. Even Saban took
like three years for them. His second year he got
waxed by Utah. Most great coaches take two three years
(39:09):
to turn it around. What's the secret sauce with Horrba
to do it. He took over a mess at Michigan,
a mess with the Niners instantly good.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
He's smart.
Speaker 9 (39:19):
He can relate to players, anybody that goes to their practice.
He has his Jordan cleets own and he might get
under center sometimes and participating in practice. They do a
lot of post practice lifts and runs. He's doing it
with the players. You think he out there, baby Dan Campbell,
you know he's doing a lot of that stuff. Let
you in on a little There's a lot of coaches
(39:41):
in the league that teach you football, but when it
comes to getting you better at your position, there's not many.
And we as players, you know that when you have
a coach like Harball, you believe in him, you trust
when he tells you this is the look we're going
to get, and this is how we're I need to
handle that look. You trust and believe it, you don't
(40:03):
second guess it. So as soon as you see that look,
what you've gone over in practice second nature, you believe it.
You go certain coaches you don't believe it, You second
guess it, And so it just doesn't smoke flow as smoothly.
The play doesn't go off the way you want it
because you're not believing it. And if I'm not believing it,
the guy next to me probably isn't. The guy next
to him probably is it. And so when you have
(40:26):
somebody like Horrorball that everybody knows what you just said,
University of San Diego, Stanford, Michigan, the forty nine Ers,
now the Chargers, he's going to turn it around. So
when he tells you something, you're going to believe it
and you trust it because his track record is proven that.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
So Jamar Chase not practicing of Brandon Ayuk is but
he's unhappy a hold in. Does that stuff? Does it
affect anything the players talk? Or is it just same
old He'll be back.
Speaker 9 (41:00):
It can become a problem, it can It really depends
on how the player handles it. Meaning if Jamar Chase
is not practicing because he wants a new deal and
he's just kind of cool about it, but he's just
not practicing, it's fine. But if you start having bad
body language, you start saying certain things to certain players,
then it will become a problem.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
And I just don't understand teams. I don't I don't
understand teams.
Speaker 9 (41:29):
If I know somebody is in my future, if you're
going to be on my team for a long time,
the sooner I sign you, the less expensive it is
for my team corporate, I don't understand why they wait.
The Eagles are the best at this. The Eagles get
guys signed like Jrey Jones. You didn't think Ceedee Lamb
was gonna be a part of the future. Sign him
(41:49):
a long time ago. Now you gotta give you more.
And the same thing with Dak. You better sign Michael
Parsons now because somebody's gonna leap fraud what he wants
and now you're going have to give him more than that.
And so back to Jamar Chase and BA, if he's
a part of your future, just pay him. Because we're humans.
You walk around there's days you have good days, you're
(42:11):
gonna be pissed off like bro like bad body language,
and the coach is not gonna say like coach is
not gonna say anything to you if you're the player
that will snap back because certain guys they're just not
going back down for it, no matter who the coach is.
So now you've created a problem because the player wants
to get paid. So it really depends on if the
player can be a true professional and handle it each
(42:34):
day the way he should.
Speaker 4 (42:35):
But that is very hard to do.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
So you've had you've made multiple predictions through the years
on quarterbacks that you've trained with, or you know, you're
the one that said Justin Herbert's going to be a star,
Joe Burrow's going to be a star. So you know,
Josh Allen, you called all these guys. So we got
five new quarterbacks this should We got Bonenecks and Michael
Pennix and JJ McCarthy and Kayleb Williams and Jaden Daniels
(43:00):
and what's the kid at North Carolina Drake May Drake May?
I think he's a project. Give me a jet. If
I said, you don't have to tell me where you
get your information. But if I said to you this
blank guy is gonna work and it may work quick.
Speaker 9 (43:17):
I'll give you two guys that I believe will work
and work quick. Is Cayleb Williams and bow Knicks?
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Interesting, Cayleb Williams and Bonick. So let's start with bow
because that may surprise people. Why is that going to
work quickly?
Speaker 9 (43:30):
You're what a coach that has always had success with quarterbacks,
and he's started so many games in college.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Yeah, sixty one.
Speaker 9 (43:41):
He started so many games in college like four years,
like every year, and then the COVID.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Year by the way. Two conferences, so he had a
bunch of different coordinators. So I mean bow Knicks has
dealt with three coaches, five coordinators, two conferences.
Speaker 9 (43:58):
He's going to be sick successful because he's seen a lot.
He's ready to play right now. And you're with a
coach that has proved I can win with almost anybody.
I mean, Sean Payne was winning games with Teddy Bridgewater,
Taysom Hill and at a high level.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Yeah, and so I believe bow Knicks will be fine.
Speaker 9 (44:19):
He has Troy Franklin, a familiar face as a receiver
that he played with in college.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Also, for the record, I think MEM's in Courtland. I
think Courtland Sutton. He may be a lower end one,
but I love Courtland.
Speaker 9 (44:29):
I mean he kind of held out he wanted more money,
which I didn't understand.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
But he's a good player.
Speaker 9 (44:34):
But he's a good player. But bow Knicks is I
believe he's going to play well. I mean, if you
look at the amount of starts he had in college,
very rarely with a guy with this many starts at
the highest level of college football on the SEC in
the Pac twelve, which was the best conference last season.
I believe he'll be successful. In Kayler Williams, he just
speaks for himself. Duke can just play and you.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Know Lsu well. I think Jaden Daniels has a lot
little Lamar Jackson. I think he's probably more refined at
this point in his life in the pocket, but not
quite as fast. What is he a little finn? What
do you make of it?
Speaker 9 (45:09):
Jay and Daniels can play man Uh trained with us
the entire last year. I mean Jake Daniels probably two
hundred and ten pounds when Jayden's first started, probably one
seventy five. He's accurate. You want to play Wooding as
a player. The way he carries himself, you want to
(45:29):
play wood him a personable dude. The only concern I
would have is with dan Quinn being a defensive coach,
is he gonna be making some of the cause, meaning.
Speaker 4 (45:40):
Hey, I just want to run the ball. Here, we'll
punt ball.
Speaker 9 (45:43):
And yeah, he's not calling the play, but you, you
technically are calling the play. Just what kind of leash
are you gonna have or you gonna let him play
or you're gonna try to play game safe and hope
your defense can win it. And so that may be
my my only concern.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
I heard Cliff Kingsbury really pushed hard for Jade and
Daniels with a number two pick. That Cliff was like,
that kid's good.
Speaker 9 (46:05):
When you look at the improvements that he made each
year in college is remarkable. If LSU has a good defense,
state they're playing in a college football playoff last year.
He was that good last year and so you statistically
it was better than what Joe Burrow did. Joe Brow
just had a ton of NFL guys on defense, whereas
(46:27):
Jade Daniels didn't. And you can look at it and say, man,
this guy's gonna play. We know two or three of
these guys aren't gonna play well, but if I had
to pick two, it would be those guys because of
the situation that bow Knicks is in, and you look
at the weapons that Cayleb Williams have and that he
has to play with, and Chicago's defense was very good
(46:49):
down the stretch last season.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
TJ Houshmanzada, He'll be on a speak today at five
Eastern on FS one. Great Seniors, Always, buddy, always, thank you,
appreciate you having me. Oh I love
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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