Best of the Week on The Herd

BREAKING NEWS: Mike Malone fired by the Nuggets 

NFL predictions for next season

NBA insider Ric Bucher joins the show in studio to tell JMac why the Mavs were justified in trading Luka and why the Nuggets made the shocking decision to fire head coach Mike Malone

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to 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 Sports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every day on the
iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.

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

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Never a dull moment in the NBA. Breaking news, The
Denver Nuggets, who won.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
The NBA championship in twenty twenty three, have fired their
head coach Michael Malone and their GM Calvin Booth.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Ladies and gentlemen. The playoffs start.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
In like ten days in the NBA. What is happening now?
I was scurrying during the break to get some information.
It's so weird because I think yesterday I alluded to
Denver being a bit of a mess, and this morning
I saw that Jamal Murray's hurt and the way Michael
Malone is talking lately, talking kind of wild, but that

(01:02):
has historically been his mo. He's a queen's guy, grew
up in the Northeast. He's a tough talker, He's a
little combative. Do you remember when the Lakers beat Deadver
one game in that series in the playoffs, and he
came back and oh, the Lakers won one game. He's
just basically, you guys are talking trash about us. I

(01:22):
can't believe it. We're gonna destroy them. He said, like,
put it in your pipe and smoke it. He was
really just aggressive and this is his nature. And there
are reports I'm reading that maybe he was kind of
sort of losing the locker room in Denver. Again, he
is a mouthy individual. There's nothing wrong with that. As
a coach, you know that that can work for so long.

(01:42):
But when you're not winning. The staff here found some
numbers for Yokich in April. Okay, this is real. He's
averaging forty five points, twelve boards, and tennysists in the
month of April. They're zero to three, Like, how are
you not winning? In crunch On, they were looking at

(02:03):
being the three seed. They could potentially fall to the six, seven,
eight maybe into the play in they don't have any
wins with Yokis putting up huge stats. Now, obviously the
Jamal Murray injury and Jamal Murray always seems to be hurt.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
That's kind of damaging. You do have who I believe is.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
The best player in the league, who I would have
as MVP, in nicolea Jokic putting up historic great numbers.
But it just doesn't seem to be working now early
in the season, and Murray hasn't played in the last
two weeks because he's he's so banged up, and obviously
that hurts. You know, Christian Brown and Russell Westbrook. That's
not a backcourt that scares anybody. But one of the
interesting things about Denver is that Malone historically doesn't like

(02:46):
playing young guys. They don't always know how to play.
There's a steep learning curve. You gotta deal with a
lot of dumb turnovers and bad shots. He likes to
lean on veterans. So the GM of the Nuggets gave
this big fat contract to Zeke Nasee, who was one
of these combined Warriors, one of these workout dudes is
like measurements through the roof, checks all the boxes. He

(03:08):
gets on the court. He can't play, and the GM
still gives him a big extension, which was a blunder.
They paid Michael Porter Junior. I don't know that he
could guard half the guys in my Men's Basketball League.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
I like Aaron Gordon a lot.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
I think he's a good piece.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
I think Jokich is obviously a superstar.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
I didn't like the Russell Westbrook move, but it speaks
to Malone having influence on the GM. Hey, man, go
get me a veteran who's gonna try hard and hustle.
Michael Malone loves a good try hard. But the narrative
of Denver trying hard is not there because they're not
stopping anybody now, So you got MPJ doesn't play defense.
Russ is a bit of a train wreck and out

(03:43):
of control. Jokich is dominating but looking around like where's
my help? And Jamal Murray's in street clothes again. So
Denver is slip sliding badly in the West. And as
the staff pointed out to me, Taylor Jenkins was fired
by Memphis last week. They were in the top five
in the West. And Ryan, who you know, a long

(04:03):
time producer. He was actually my first radio show producer
when I had a weekend show, said something smart. He's like,
you know what, It kind of sort of feels like
these teams don't think they can compete to win a
title this year, so they're getting ahead of the coaching
cycle for the summer. Hey, man, we ain't gonna win.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Let's just see if the assistant can be promoted.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
Let's see what he could do, if we could change
some of the voices in the locker room, and let's
think about the summer. So Memphis fires their coach two
weeks before the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Denver fires their coach a week before the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
The problem is Malone just won a title. He's the
winningest coach in franchise history, He's been there for ten years,
and you fire him a week before the playoffs. Now
the staff has sending me he said stuff here. According
to Ramona Shelbourne, the situation in Denver is been tense

(04:55):
and pressurized since the beginning of the year. Malone and
Booth had big ideas and strong wills.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Both are now gone again. This was a weird mix
in the locker room.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
Apparently Booth and Malone didn't really like each other and
get along. They did not talk, and they spoke behind
each other's backs. That's toxic. Man. When are we gonna
start reading about are the Denver Nuggets wasting your kitch's prime?

Speaker 3 (05:22):
I mean, that's probably gotta come next.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
Now.

Speaker 4 (05:24):
I did see one of my buddies who's a huge
Knicks fan. I mean, the body's not even cold in Denver,
and Knicks fans are like, can we get Michael Malone
for TIBs?

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Can we can we do that trade? Can we run
up move off TIBs.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
TIBs, by the way, in New York is running his
players into the ground. I think for like the top
thirty players minutes wise are on the Knicks, and you
know what's gonna happen when they get to the playoffs.
They're gonna be broken. Same thing happened to TIBs in Chicago.
Could Michael Malone, who instantly is gonna vault to the
top of every wish list around the league? Hey man,

(05:58):
I would.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Not be surprised if there's NBA team right now looking
do we love our guy? Should we go after Michael Malone?

Speaker 4 (06:06):
I mean, I don't know that the Phoenix Suns would
do it, but remember they ran off Frank Vogel, who
I saw at an event a couple of weeks ago.
Very nice guy. Does watch the Herd shout out to Frank.
They fired him after one year. Well, Budenholzer comes in
he beefs with Kevin Durant. The videos are out there now.
KD has downplayed it, but would the Sons move off
another coach two one and done's and bring in Michael Malone.

(06:30):
I don't know it's possible, but oh my gosh, alex
Any I know it's just breaking and we're trying to
get get our bearings here, but it's.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Just kind of fascinating. Fire your coach ten days before
the playoff.

Speaker 6 (06:45):
It feels weak.

Speaker 7 (06:46):
It feels weak to your fan base, it feels weak
to the organization. You're still in a playoff position. You
were in fourth in the West right now, and you
are throwing in the towel saying, I don't think we
can do it.

Speaker 6 (06:58):
I don't think we can win a championship.

Speaker 7 (06:59):
It's not the mentality you want from a franchise an organization.

Speaker 6 (07:05):
At like the most important stretch of.

Speaker 7 (07:07):
The regular season, when you're in a playoff position, you
suck like you oh man, like you tough it out.

Speaker 6 (07:16):
You tough it out, like what are you going to do.

Speaker 7 (07:18):
Someone's not going to come in and make it better
right now the last week of the regular season and
into the postseason. But it also because we were talking
about Russell Westbrook's body language yesterday when he was talking
to the media, and now it all kind of makes sense, like, oh,
things were like not good behind closed doors, and you
might have thought that might have been the case, and

(07:40):
he was kind of giving that energy and vibe off
and this is just whoo. It just I don't agree
with when you are in a position to win, and
you are in a playoff position, a high playoff position, like.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Why would you do this something weird?

Speaker 6 (07:59):
Why would you There's something more that we don't know.

Speaker 4 (08:01):
I've been waiting for the Memphis story to come out
on Taylor Jenkins and nothing's come out. It's been a week.
Maybe they're still waiting to do the TikTok, but and
not TikTok, the app like the story of day to day,
hour to hour.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
So we're still we'll wait for that on Malone. But
here's another interesting note.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
So the owner of the Denver Nuggets is Stan Kronky,
and he also owns the Rams. What do the Rams
have a really unified front with McVeigh and Sneed.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
They're like a tandem. They go everywhere together.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
They seem to get along great. They have a shared
unified vision.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
It doesn't appear.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
And I again, I don't know one hundred percent if
there is a shared unified vision between Booth and Malone,
but it sounds like Booth wanted to mix in some
young guys and Malone was like, eh, no, thanks, I
want veterans. Remember he was reluctant to play Christian Brown
at all. And I watched a video clip during the

(08:53):
commercial about Brown meeting the media and he just he
looks young. Okay, he's playing with Yo Kich, Westbrook, Aaron Gordon.
These guys have been around a lot of playoffs. And
Brown looks still kind of wide eyed and kind of
shook and rattled. And I don't know if your coach
in the GM are not on the same page, it
ain't gonna work. Listen, if Alex and I are not
getting along or we totally disagree, this is gonna look awkward.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
And I think the audience is gonna tell yeah.

Speaker 7 (09:18):
But again, like then, let the GM go right now,
fire the GM, but keep your head coach.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
Yeah, Malone has once.

Speaker 7 (09:25):
So much like it was a twenty twenty three you
wont an NBA championship. He is your winningest coach in
franchise history. He's been with the team for ten years.

Speaker 4 (09:33):
His story coming from the Kings where he got run off. Yeah,
were again. He is a combative guy, and listen, you
can only battle with management long enough when you're winning. Yeah, right, Hey,
I'm gonna say what I want. I'm gonna do what
I want. We're on top. I don't give up. You know,
now you're certainly losing, sliding in the standings, and all
of a sudden, maybe the locker room. Then it's easy

(09:54):
to move off of them, and you just make it
a package deal.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
Let's get both of the hell out of here.

Speaker 6 (09:57):
But no, right now, right, doesn't your singer in fourth place?
You still have a winning record.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
There was video of Malone talking about Jamal Murray and
talking about his team, and I think there was a
loss a Monday to the Pacers. That was what it
was on Monday. And he came out and is basically like, yeah,
nobody watches their minutes on film.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Nobody watches film. He's like taking shots at.

Speaker 4 (10:23):
His players, like I'm trying to teach he's got to
watch film. They don't want to watch film. Hey, listen,
it's tough to teach at old dog new tricks.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
Now, I'm sure it's difficult to tell.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
Veteran Russell westbrookho's been in the league for like fifteen years.
Hey man, let's watch some film together. Hey, I'm an MVP,
I'm a triple double machine. I'm going to the Hall
of Fame. I'm good on the film. Carmelo Anthony ran
into some of this at the end of his career
when he's bouncing around. It's tough to teach old dog's
new tricks, and it's like, I don't know, I'm not
ready to side with Michael Malone yet. Obviously, more information

(10:54):
is gonna come out. This literally just broke eight minutes ago.
But the Denver Nuggets have fired their head coach to
one championship. It been like twenty twenty three. Yeah, twenty
twenty three is like within the last two years. Ye, unbelievable.
So we'll obviously talk about this next hour. We got
an NFL running back in studio.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
That should be fun.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
Got a love one breaking news hits right, I'm gonna
go get another coffee, Get ready for the Power Hour.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon. Easter not a em Pacific. Welcome to the Herd.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
It's Wednesday.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
Jason McIntyre still in for Colin Cowherd joined today by
Alex Hurry.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Alex, it was a.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
Phenomenal night in the NBA.

Speaker 6 (11:37):
It was so much fun. Also like watching Lakers.

Speaker 7 (11:40):
Okay, see, I'm like, this would be such a fun,
spicy series when and if they meet in the playoffs.

Speaker 8 (11:46):
Yes, yes, yes, very exciting show today. We got a
couple one guest in studio. We got an NFL gambling guest.
I'll do some over unders later in the show. Obviously,
some more NFL draft talk for folks.

Speaker 4 (11:59):
I have to dart with that amazing night in the NBA. No,
I'm not talking about the Timberwolves blowing a twenty four
point fourth quarter lead. I'll get to my Knicks. Yes,
I can call them my Knicks. Another gut wrenching loss
to the Celtics.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
Folks, I've got to.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
Start with the Los Angeles Lakers. Did you see what
went down in the dust Bowl last night? Lakers at
OKC and we saw a phenomenal basketball game with one
of the softest ejections I can recall in the NBA
this season.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
It was laughable. Folks, it's the Lakers against the world,
and it's official.

Speaker 4 (12:36):
You see Luca putting in this one handed shot there
in the lane that put the Lakers up one with
about eight minutes left in the game, and then Luca
got ejected. You can see the official there tossing Luca.
Luka made a basket and just talk trash to a fan.
Now this fan is, you know, the typical meat ball
in the stadium who's always there. He has a history
of talking to players, including Luca, and Luca let him know, Hey, man,

(12:59):
I made that. Luca said some choice words, but the
official happened to be right there.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
And what went down in Okasee last night.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
After Luca was ejected, I saw it, and we have
our narrative for the postseason.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
It's the Lakers against the world. Okay. See, fans went crazy,
the OKAC players were excited.

Speaker 4 (13:16):
Luca got run and then if you went online and
check the temperature, folks, everybody hates the Lakers, and it's official.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
It's the Lakers against the world.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
Here's Luca talking about his ejection last night, which was laughable.

Speaker 9 (13:31):
Yeah, I mean, you can see it. That happened. But
you know, I never got a fan of jact to never,
but if he's going to talk, I'm going to talk
back like always, so that they had nothing to do
with the rest. So I didn't really understand. I mean
it was tough. I mean we were right there. I
think we fought the whole game. You know, we were
down eight at halftime, came we came back in the

(13:53):
third quarter, and we were fighting.

Speaker 4 (13:55):
Man.

Speaker 9 (13:55):
So it was tough to see that with this kind
of situation that happened. And you know that's on me too.
I can downla that.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
So the narrative is built.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
It's official, right, Luca is whiny and complains a lot.
We don't like him. That's official around the league. And
now he's a Laker, which compounds matters. And then Lebron
also has the same. Oh he whinds, he flopped. He
complains he's better than Jordan, but I don't like him.
And so now you put those two together, toss in
a little Lakers history, and they're the biggest villains in

(14:27):
the NBA. This Lakers team since the Curry Durant Warriors
when they steamrolled the league and were unstoppable for two championships.
I think you could even compare this Luca Lebron, pairing
to the hate that Lebron and Wade got with the
Heatles back in the day. If you guys remember that squad,
this is a Lakers team. People just don't like them.

(14:48):
People don't like them because they're great. I think they
have the best one to two punch in the league.
And I think if you watch these last two games
against the thunder guys, it's pretty obvious the Thunder do
not match up well with Luca Ron and Austin Reeves.
And yes, I'm tossing Austin Reeds in there now. I
do want to add one other note. If you look
around the West, when I say the Lakers are villains
and they've got targets on their backs, remember Dylan Brooks

(15:10):
of the Rockets has gotten into it with Luca and
Lebron in the playoffs. Desmond Bane of the Grizzlies, he
wants to go at Lebron. They've gone at it. We
know Draymond Green and Lebron are friendly, but when Draymond
and Lebron are on the court, it gets heated.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
Folks.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
You can pick any team in the West and there's
beef with the Lakers or Luca and then you toss
in the referee factor. And I had to look this
up during the meeting this morning. Guys, Luca does not
lead the league in technical fouls.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
Oh but that's right.

Speaker 4 (15:41):
He missed about I don't know, thirty games due to injury,
and he's still near the top of the technical foul leaders.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Lucas averaging like a technical foul game.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
So you've got opposing teams don't like Luca and Lebron,
Fans clearly don't like the Lakers and Luca and Lebron.
And oh, we're now going to toss in the refe
who seem to have it out for Luca, who.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Is prone to doing some jawjacking.

Speaker 4 (16:04):
That's his thing.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
But folks, nobody hates the Boston Celtics, the defending champs.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
They just don't.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
Nobody hates the Thunder.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
They're kind of still irrelevant despite being a sixty some
odd win team. And I don't think anybody hates the Calves.
They just kind of exist. So I think all the
attention now is going to be focused on the Lakers
and Luca and Lebron, and it's shaping up to be
a pretty glorious NBA playoffs I want to shift my
attention now to the NFL, and oh boy, here we go.

(16:36):
A phenomenal headline on Yahoo Sports. The Cowboys have a
brilliant scouting network. They also have Jerry Jones. That's genius
headline work. Give that man a promotion and it's really
spot on. You could look at the Dallas Cowboys draft history, folks,
the Cowboys in the last five or six years have

(16:57):
drafted so well. In the middle round, when you're kind
of sort of throwing darts, they got over shown in
the third round. He has been a home run. I
know he's injured, but he was great. Dron Bland fifth
round pick. You look back a little further their center,
Tony Pollard, Dalton Schultz. Those two guys have moved on,
but they've drafted really well. And the Cowboys had a

(17:18):
great run under McCarthy, right, three straight years, eleven plus wins,
and you're like, damn, you're great at drafting. But then
you look around and Tony Pollard's gone and Dalton Schultz
is gone, and all of a sudden, you start looking
around that roster and it's like, we're getting kind of old.
We're losing some players. Jerry's negotiating tactics. Not great with DAK,

(17:42):
not great with CD, certainly not great with Michael Parsons.
And it reminded me of that Jerry Seinfeld episode where
he goes to the rental car place and Jerry's like, hey,
I got my reservation for the car. They're like, oh, yeah,
we have your reservation, but we don't have any cars.
Jerry Seinfeld kind of loses his mind. He's like, wait
a minute, you took my reservation. That's why I should

(18:05):
have a car. And they're like, we know how reservations work,
and Jerry Seinfeld, you don't. If you do, if you
did know how the reservations work, you'd have my car.
And there's kind of a parallel with the cowboys here
because they know how to draft well, they just don't
know how to keep their guys. Folks. You could go
through the entire roster. It's kind of devoid a talent.

(18:26):
I mean, eventually, you know, this summer, after the draft
happens and everything, people break down the rosters by position
group and I'm just telling you right now it's bleak
for Dallas. You know, you look at their skill position players,
they're at least average or below around the league. Their
offensive line got old quickly. It is below average. You

(18:46):
look at the defense and they do have a couple
nice pieces, but by and large they're front seven mid
at best.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
The Cowboys don't.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
Know how to hold on to guys, and there's really
the finger to only point at one guy, and that's
Jerry Jones, who keeps botching these contracts, I mean worse yet,
he's compounding matters by trading away the valuable picks that
they continue to hit on. Remember mid round picks in
the NFL, guys, they're tough. You're kind of sort of

(19:15):
throwing darts. The smart move is give me more picks
because if I get ten, I'm probably gonna miss on six.
If I hit four, that's amazing. And Jerry Jones is
trading away picks, folks. He gave up a fourth round
pick for Joe Milton, the quarterback. He traded for Trey Lance,
who's no longer on the roster. What about picking up

(19:38):
Mingo the wide receiver who did nothing.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
He's giving away valuable picks for guys who aren't really
gonna contribute.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
It's really a bizarre situation for Jerry Jones and the Cowboys,
and I'm gonna be honest with you, like we're gonna.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Do over unders later in the show.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
And I really thought long and hard about the Cowboys
under it is below where it has been under McCarthy.
And you see these images here on the screen of
fans kind of unhappy with Dallas. And then, as I said,
you look at that roster and you're like, are these
guys that good? I mean, the Cowboys are priced a
little bit ahead of the Jets and Giants, as they
should be. They have a quarterback in Dak Prescott and

(20:14):
a couple other pieces, but you look under the hood
and there's just not much there. And it reminded me,
so I talked about this on the show. I coached
this girl's basketball team. We entered this tournament. It was
a bunch of sixth graders. We had like an all
star team, but we only had like one practice together.
And we roll up to the tournament and our first
opponent comes out. The coach has a boombox on his shoulder.

(20:37):
He's playing music all loud. The crowd is excited. We're
like kind of wide eyed, like, what's going Gee, what's
going on? What do we get ourselves? Into the opponent.
They've got these jerseys that are all made up. They
looked like they knew what they were doing. They score
the first basket of the game, and I'm like, oh jeez,
we're down oh two.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
What do we get ourselves into?

Speaker 4 (20:55):
And then of course we proceed to full court press
them and steamrolled the We win like twenty nine to seven.
The parents comes up to me afterward and says, Jason,
that whole boombox thing, and this team they look good.
You know what they say about Cowboys, right, all hat,
no cattle, That's what that team was.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
They look good, they look the part, but they don't
really can't back it up.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
And I thought about the Dallas Cowboys instantly, the all hat,
no cattle, And that's kind of where we are, folks.
I'm just telling you, you look at the roster for
the Cowboys. I don't know that it's better than say,
the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have no quarterback right now as
we wait for Aaron Rodgers. Still, I'm keeping it real
with you. My New York Jets match the rosters together. Sure,

(21:39):
the Cowboys have a quarterback, and they have Michaeh Parsons
and they have Cee Lamb after that, I mean, the
Jets have more talent. The Eagles blow away, completely blow
away anything the Cowboys have. The Niners lose like six
starters this offseason. Go put the Cowboys next to the Niners.
Go look at those rosters, and you tell me who's
got a better one. Dallas is real sliding downhill and

(22:01):
Jerry Jones is the only one to blame. You can't
blame the scouting department. They're doing their job. Jerry isn't
doing his job. So, Alex, we got a spirited show today.
I'm very excited. I do also want to get to
talking to you about White Lotus.

Speaker 6 (22:17):
Oh you finally watched you know, I'm old final Now
I got.

Speaker 4 (22:20):
To watch like half of it one night.

Speaker 7 (22:22):
No no, no, no, you were flying home when the
finale air.

Speaker 6 (22:25):
Yeah, so you had an excuse. Yeah, it took you
how to catch up.

Speaker 7 (22:28):
I'm happy you finally got there because it's like major
Star Wars ending theme, which I didn't see coming.

Speaker 6 (22:35):
I don't want to Yeah.

Speaker 4 (22:36):
Yeah, I grew up on the East Coast, so watching
sports on the East Coast is tough. Lakers and Warriors
when they're on it's like eleven thirty and it's like, oh,
come on, but out here those games are done at
like eight thirty nine. Then you yes, set it, Sure
you could fire up the White Lotus. But coming up
next here on the show, one NBA contender still has
a major flaw. I'll tell you who it is that's

(22:59):
next here on the Hurt.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and neon eastern non am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 10 (23:09):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're
Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 11 (23:15):
You could catch us weekdays from five to seven pm
Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
of course the iHeartRadio App.

Speaker 10 (23:22):
Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.

Speaker 11 (23:24):
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on
in the world.

Speaker 10 (23:28):
We have a lot of fun talking about the stories
behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture,
stories that well, other shows don't seem to have the
time to discuss.

Speaker 11 (23:36):
And the fact that we've been friends for the last
twenty years and still work together, I mean that says something, right.

Speaker 10 (23:41):
So check us out. We like to get you involved too,
take your phone calls, chop it up. As they say,
I'd say, the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio,
maybe the most interactive show on planetar. Be sure to
check out Covino and Rich live on Fox Sports Radio
and the iHeartRadio app from five to seven pm Eastern
two to four Pacific, And if you miss any of
the live show, just search kovin no on Rich wherever

(24:01):
you get your podcasts, and of course on social media
that's Cavino and Rich.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
Let's start with the tears, because the tears were flowing,
and then the points were last night in Dallas for
Luka donc It's mo man.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
You know this is real.

Speaker 4 (24:14):
Honestly, guys, I'm not like a starstruck individual, but I
did run into Steph Curry a couple years ago. I
was like, Steph, I gotta get a photo. You know,
there's only a handful of athletes I do that for,
and Luka Doncic is right there at the top.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
I am so in awe of this guy to watch
him crying.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
Pregame back in Dallas last night, sitting on the bench,
and then he comes in and just starts dropping threes. Folks,
It was a phenomenal event last night in Dallas. You
don't see this often, and I'm so happy for Luka Doncic.
You guys know I'm a Laker fan obviously, but watching him,
watch that tribute video and ps, there was a lot

(24:49):
of skinny Luca in that tribute video. He has put
on some weight, no doubt about it. We'll get to
Nico Harrison and White. He traded him shortly, but then
Luca just comes out. Look at him cooking, step back
three ad how you like that? It was a masterclass
from Luca. Forty five points his I guess you'd say
his best game is a Laker. It's only game twenty seven, folks,
that's like one third of a regular season with the Lakers.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Luca was cooking all night.

Speaker 4 (25:13):
Lakers get the win, and I believe last night's game
was pretty much a blueprint for what we'll see in
the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
Luca early set the tone. He's fresh.

Speaker 4 (25:22):
Nobody can guard him, I'm sorry, even though he's heavier
than he used to be, nobody can guard Luka Doncic,
And then you know, Luca gets his rest. Lebron comes
in late as the closer fourteen for Lebron in the
fourth Lakers inch closer to that coveted third seed.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
And if you look at what Luca did in.

Speaker 4 (25:38):
The first half, he had thirty one points. The MAVs
starters at thirty five. Luca was phenomenal. And after the game,
here's Luca talking about the tribute video and his return
to Dallas.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
So many emotions.

Speaker 9 (25:51):
When I was watching that video, I was like, there's
no way I'm playing this minute. But you know, all
my teammates time my back.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
They were really supporting me.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Issue the folks.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
It was an event like we haven't seen before in sports. Okay,
most of these guys who leave their franchises do it willingly, voluntarily,
I want out. Lebron departs Cleveland from Miami. I'm taking
my talents.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
To South Beach.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
But when he went back to Cleveland, the vibe was hostile.
The environment was tense. It was like, oh, this could
get ugly. That's not anybody do anything stupid, and it
was just like not a great atmosphere. Okay. And then
Kevin Durant right starts his career in Seattle and then
Oklahoma City, and then he decides I'm out. I don't

(26:36):
want to be here anymore, and it was a smart
move by Lebron to go to Miami.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
We agree it was a smart move.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
By Kevin Durant to leave OKC for Golden State. Many
of you disagree. I think that was a genius move
by Kevin Durant. I totally agree with it. I've defended
it for years. But when KD went back to Oklahoma City,
he was met with venom, bile anger, all the cupcake
nonsense started by his frenemy Russoll Westbrook. Folks, this is

(27:02):
something we haven't seen before. Luca was met with an
applause the.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
Second he walked into the arena.

Speaker 4 (27:08):
You saw Lakers Luca jerseys on MAVs fans.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
It was a crazy setting.

Speaker 4 (27:15):
And again, I mean, I can't even think of anything
across any sport where we've seen this before. And for
Luca to thrive in that environment. After crying, I will
say I loved that JJ Reddick had them give the
take foul late in the game with about ninety seconds left,
just so they could sub out Luca. And then it
was a round of applause right the whole arena's standing

(27:36):
ovation for Luca. He gets to the bench and Lebron
is leading the Luca Luca like Austin.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
Reeves, Lebron the whole bench.

Speaker 4 (27:44):
They're fired up, standing up, and the arena's backing Luca.
This is Dallas. It was just a crush. We haven't
seen that before. I don't know that we'll see one
of those again, and we'll.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
Get to why shortly.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
But I want to hear I want you to hear
JJ Reddick talk about everything that compass Luca going home.
This is great.

Speaker 12 (28:03):
The moment with a tribute video and him sitting by
himself and getting to actually live that and live in
the moment and allowing himself to be vulnerable and his
teammates support.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
Some of his.

Speaker 12 (28:23):
Teammates got emotional, some of the coaches got emotional.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
It was a beautiful moment.

Speaker 12 (28:30):
I thought the video was great, but I think just
his ability to then go perform lights turn on. He
you know, he's teary eyed still as we walk out
on the court for the tipball. To have the emotional
resolve to then go put on that kind of performance,

(28:50):
it's it's superhuman.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
That's a great way. J. J.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
Reddick is so good by the way, as the Lakers
coach love him, and I saw interesting set from ESPN.
Last night was the first time Dirk Novitski attended at
Dallas home game since the trade.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Okay, he went to Luca's first game with the Lakers.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
Okay, he's now this is his first game at a
Dallas at the Arena since they dealt Luca.

Speaker 3 (29:17):
What does that tell you? And this is the other
angle I want to get to.

Speaker 4 (29:20):
I talked earlier this week about I'm a risk taker
by nature, whether it's moving my family across my country,
quitting my job to start a website. You know, obviously
I like gambling. I enjoy going to Vegas. I don't
know what word I would use to describe my sports
gambling habits. I like prolific. But you know, not every
season is winning. I'm a risk taker, and I think
a lot of people in this industry are. You kind

(29:42):
of got to you put yourself out there. I'm on
National TV talking about how I love Steph Curry and
Luka doncons like. This isn't normal behavior, nor is what
Nico Harrison did in Dallas trading Luka dodgeons. Now, we
drilled down on this in the morning meeting, trying to
figure out like a can they rebound from this and
be like, where do you go from here?

Speaker 3 (30:03):
If you're Nico Harrison? And I started thinking about it.

Speaker 4 (30:06):
I was gonna have my morning donut, but it didn't
show up in the dressing room this morning. I don't know.
I guess they forgot it. You know, I've been needing
some sugar energy to get fired up for the show.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Cowherd's on magnesium.

Speaker 4 (30:15):
I've been using donuts, and I just wonder if Nico
Harrison has such a bad spot right now for himself.
There were fire Nico champs throughout the arena last night.
It's like, Luca, Luca, we love you, Nico Harrison, Fire Nico.
And then they have the video of him in the
tunnel just standing their stoneface like, oh my gosh, what

(30:38):
am I gonna do to dig out of this hole?
I don't know that they can get out of it
and stop with the Hey, Kyrie is gonna come back
from the ACL maybe by the All Star break next year.
It's gonna be fine, folks. They've got Kyrie and ad
As there as. They're like they're nucleus. Those are two
guys who are often injured. They've played together for twenty
five minutes. That's it on the court since the trade,

(31:01):
and I started to have this moment of clarity and
I'm like, wait a minute, Wait a minute. Nico Harrison
has been a big swing guy. He took a big
swing for Kyrie and it worked when he was opposite
Luka Doncic. Then the next year he goes out and
gets PJ. Washington and Daniel Gaffert and everybody's like, I
don't know about those guys. They haven't done anything. Those
swings worked, Dallas got to the finals. Then he took

(31:23):
a swing he didn't need to, shipping Luca to the Lakers.
Lakers fans, by the way, haven't been this excited about
a star coming to town. Since pauga Sol was gifted
to them. Didn't we get the Statue of Liberty from
like Paris or something. Gosh, I probably butchered that, but
it felt like that's what they're teams are just handing
the Lakers stars. Here's Pawgasol, here's Luka Doncic. And I
don't know if Nico has any way out of this.

(31:46):
If this morning, I'm sure he's looking at some of
the videos. I'm sure he can say I'm not paying attention.
There's a video of Mark Cuban when the fire Nico
chants are happening. Fans near Mark Cuban have a camera
on him, and Mark Cuban's just like, what has happened
since I left this organization as the owner? I mean,
he looked like an emperor of Rome who had like

(32:07):
stepped down, and now Rome's got this new emperor and
it's just not going good at all. I mean, they
were in the finals less than a year ago. And
I keep coming back to this. When you are a
big swing guy by nature, and now your last swing
is starting to be compared to the Babe Ruth trade,

(32:28):
which is, you know, over the last one hundred years
and change in sports, considered the worst trade ever.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
Okay, I think the Red Sox were cursed for like
one hundred years.

Speaker 4 (32:38):
You have to sort of wonder, how does he get
out of this and it's not going to just be Oh,
Kyrie's coming back. And I started to look at the
salary cap and the draft picks. Dallas does have three
draft picks in the first round this year. They're obviously
not going to be great picks, but you start to
wonder who was Kyrie's guy who followed him to Brooklyn,

(32:58):
Kevin Durant. And I wonder if mister big swing Nico Harrison,
Hey man, we gotta do something. Do you make a
move in this offseason for Kevin Durant? Now you could
be compounding your mistake. You know us investors, we love
compound interest. Nico Harrison is the gambler who's down big
and decides, hey, hey, can I get the car the

(33:20):
title to my car? Let me toss that in there.
Here's my watch, And he's just trying desperately to dig
out of a hole. I wonder if he makes a
big swing year and goes after say Kevin Durant, Hey,
kd you just want to hoop? We got Kyrie, we
got ad Can you come on down. We'll give up
everything not bolted down and all the draft picks give
us Kevin Durant. They need to do something because at

(33:43):
this point, this has to be a franchise low for
the MAVs since you know the Roy Tarpley days back
in the eighties, that was a mess. I won't even
get into it, but I've always been a Luka Dancis
fan and to see him cry on the bench because
they traded him. It's very clear people he did not
want to go. I'm not saying he didn't want to
go to the Lakers.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
But he loved it in Dallas. He was mister Dallas.
There's videos of.

Speaker 4 (34:06):
Him with the cowboy hat on Howdy Partner, like he
had embraced his new city.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
They loved him, and then one guy or the owners.

Speaker 4 (34:16):
Some debate as to who was driving force, but it
was pretty clear like, hey, let's get rid of Luca.
And I get it on some level, he does look
heavier than he did in his first three years when
he was cooking everybody in the league. But folks, historically,
this is going to go down as one of the
biggest screw ups in NBA history. I mean, you could
deny it all you want. If Luca is able to

(34:37):
stay healthy, he's on track to be a top ten
player all time. That's just a fact. If you look
at the numbers, he is on track to be a
top ten player all time. Now, obviously, will the titles
come with him, We'll see. I think they're going to
the finals this year. I think the Lakers with Luca
Lebron Austin Reeves, they're looking at the number three seed.

(34:58):
And I'm sure you guys saw what else happened around
the league line. It's Golden State Warriors lose at the
buzzer and now in the play in it's almost like
the stars are aligning for Luca and the Lakers.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
So Alex, you cried last night as.

Speaker 7 (35:11):
A I'm an emotional person, and you when you followed
that whole trade situation and you saw how heartbroken Luca
was and shocked Luca was with.

Speaker 6 (35:23):
The trade situation, you could tell how much it meant
to him.

Speaker 7 (35:25):
And when you see like a big guy, an athlete
who is all the media around him allow himself to
get that emotional, how do you not get emotional? And
it's just it again like you were just talking about it.
It's not an eco, it's the ownership. I have like
a way more conspiracy theory like idea to this whole
trade situation. Like it's not like you don't just it's

(35:46):
not his weight, it's not like his play. He's one
of the greatest like futures and players right now in
the NBA. Like I think it's ownership and they own
casinos and they want to build a casino complex and
you're not going to be able to do that.

Speaker 6 (36:00):
Dallas isn't letting them do it right now. It's not
working out.

Speaker 7 (36:02):
So you can't like threaten to move the team or
try to get what you want if you have a
championship team and one of the best players in the
NBA on your team, Like I follow the money like that.
That's where my eye is here, Like it's they're not
trying to win, like it was trying to do the
opposite situation.

Speaker 6 (36:20):
But just to go off the Lucas situation, there was
a really cool.

Speaker 7 (36:23):
Stat I saw last night and he's only the second
player with a forty five point game four and against
the same team in the NBA season s. It's Wilt
Wilt Chambers on the other only other players to do that.

Speaker 4 (36:35):
The staff just notified me we have sound of the
fire Nico chance, and I get fired up to chance. Guys,
I don't mind leading a chance on the sideline for
my daughter's volleyball team. Here's a fi fire Nico chance
from last night. Dan, dude, that is it's insane. You

(37:08):
know how awkward that is when everyone around you knows.
Oh man, I'm standing next to the dude. Twenty five
thousand people are yelling fire the blank.

Speaker 7 (37:18):
He was the one who had to make the call
and make the move. But there's some debate over that
comes from ownership. And you heard Mark Cuban like when
he was asked about it years ago, He's like, you'll
find me getting a divorce from my wife before I trade.

Speaker 5 (37:31):
I don't like it.

Speaker 4 (37:32):
I mean, I get it there.

Speaker 6 (37:32):
That's why I'm the meeting and ownership this morning.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
You think the owner was behind it, yea. I don't
know that the owner is smart enough. He's just a
funny guy. Nico which loves Kyrie loves a d has known.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
Them for years. I don't.

Speaker 6 (37:44):
I don't.

Speaker 7 (37:45):
We're saying he's a money guy. They own casinos. They
are one of the richest owners.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
They're going to be down alex based off according to
an ESPN story, their merches down. The ticket sales are down.

Speaker 7 (37:55):
And you want a casino complex that findest thing that
they want.

Speaker 3 (37:59):
The sponsors are the matter bad.

Speaker 6 (38:01):
That's like change chump, change form.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
Gosh, this is bad.

Speaker 6 (38:04):
They want to move locations.

Speaker 4 (38:05):
They won't come out of next year. On the herd,
did one NFL superstar give us a sign yesterday? He
could be on the move not good news for an
AFC team that's next.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and Neon Eastern not a em Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
App Back here on the Herd, joined by the great
Rick Bucher, Fox Sports NBA analyst. He's been covering the
league for since Michael Jordan was a factor. That's how
long it's been, Rick, I've never seen a night.

Speaker 5 (38:37):
It's always good to start the show with shade.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
I got to some shade of.

Speaker 4 (38:41):
Mj not yous. I've never seen a night like that before.
Luca crying that dropped forty five. They want to fire
the GM. I mean part of me wants to ask,
do you have Nico's number? Can we call him up?

Speaker 5 (38:52):
I hear them on the spot.

Speaker 4 (38:53):
He's such a coward. He doesn't want to meet the media.
Talked to him once and now he's like just standing down.

Speaker 5 (38:58):
I'm not gonna pile on Nico one because ownership didn't
want to pay the three hundred and forty five million,
and he had to be the guy that did the
dirty work. And you know, I'm not saying that he
didn't On some level agree with the move, but and
it remains to be seen. You know, as dramatic as
last night was, as impactful as it was, I will

(39:21):
say this, it was it will go down in history
as one of the most heart tugging moments in sports
history because the trembling lip and the I mean that
was it. The close up and the trembling lip and
the tears made you realize how much Luca loved being
a Dallas Maverick. And to have a great player like

(39:45):
that who's that tied to a Franchise's that's what people
will not forget. And that's what made it so powerful.
I don't even know that he had to have a
great game, but the fact that he then had forty
five and did all the Luca magic things that he does,
that's that's what. Just that that buried it for him.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
By the way, how was Anthony Davis last night for
the MAVs?

Speaker 4 (40:08):
Huh? How's that trade working out for Dallas?

Speaker 5 (40:11):
Why do you say that with such a bleed?

Speaker 4 (40:14):
I like a d but you know him and Klay
Thompson had to be like, what did we do to
deserve this? No?

Speaker 5 (40:20):
Yeah, well you you need Kyrie Irving to play the role.
I mean, essentially, it's the Warriors without Steph Curry and
then you'd be looking at, you know, Jimmy Butler going
what did I do to deserve this? This isn't what
I signed up for. So I think that's that's part
of it. And look, the change between Luca and Anthony Davis.

(40:40):
The thing that always bothered me and still bothers me
is that we're rewriting this now with with him and
the Lakers that he you know, he just never became
the player that Lebron needed him to be for Lebron
to go win another championship.

Speaker 4 (40:54):
That's out there that's.

Speaker 5 (40:55):
Being said like saying that that's the suggestion is that
he was holding Lebron offensively and now you see what
Lebron is still capable of doing. Right well, of course,
because Luca is a playmaker. Anthony Davis, you know this
this whole we're gonna play through a d and all that,
and he's Lebron's gonna take a step back and ady,

(41:17):
he's gonna take a step forward offensively. That was never
gonna work. You were asking Ad to be something that
he's never been. He is a defensive backbone and he's
a great stretch for he can do a great offensive rebounder,
but don't ask him to like orchestrate your offense because
he's never done that.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
It's weird. I don't know who said it. It might have
been Broussard, but like.

Speaker 4 (41:40):
This, people were saying that Kyrie was the best wingman
ever for Lebron or most skilled player maybe, And I'm
just like, Lebron's never been with a playmaker like this.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
Kyrie and Wade were scores. Yeah, you know, Luca's basically
just carried the first half.

Speaker 4 (41:54):
Luca do everything, and what happens late Lebron fourteen points
in the forts because he looks fresh as a daisy
and he can attack the rim and get that.

Speaker 5 (42:00):
Yeah, and he's not I mean he's playing off the ball,
and he's playing off of all the attention that Luca
is creating. He gets to be the number two now
and take advantage of that. And you got Lebron James,
even at forty as you're number two, you're in pretty
good shape. I mean he's look, he's been around forever.
He's he's really smart. I will say this, he deserves

(42:21):
tremendous credit. I never I didn't know if Lebron could
play off the ball as well as he has, but
his ability to move off the ball, ability to catch
and shoot, it's it's been very impressive.

Speaker 4 (42:35):
Yeah, you know, Luka Doncics almost become a polarizing figure
the way he yells at reps. He was ejected from
the OKC game and I kind of but did you
see him last night? They were sent it to tech
last night. By the way, did you see that right
before the game? I know that's technical.

Speaker 5 (42:50):
Did you see him during the game last night? He
did not say a peep. Oh, yes, Like when he
did approach the referees, it was he was almost like whispering.
It was, yeah, that like this is this is the thing. Look,
there's a lot of a lot of the reasons that
the Dallas Mavericks decided we didn't want to We don't

(43:11):
want to invest in him in the in the for
the long term. We're legitimate chronic injuries, never in shape,
like gains weight in the off season, like all of
those things. And I and I understand that you go
to the finals against Boston and you're harping on the
referees and you're not being able to defend at a

(43:34):
high level and you're conditioning, whether that was because of
injury or whatever. All of those cost you a championship.
And you come back and you're not demonstrably a different player.
You're doing all the same things. You're not in shape,
you get injured again, you're still harping on the referees.
So if you lose a championship because of those things

(43:55):
and you don't change, it's like, well, is he ever
going to change? But here's the thing. Now that he's
had this, Oh I'm expendable or I don't rule the roost,
like all of this may inspire him to change, but
I don't know if it ever would have happened if
he had stayed in a Dallas Maverickle.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
For that's fair. I totally get that.

Speaker 4 (44:17):
But Rick nothing, all those negatives, I all that negative
stuff you just said, and he still took them to
the finals last year.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
So it's like, oh, he's overweight an okay, he still
got them to the finals.

Speaker 5 (44:30):
But they're not paying him for what he did. They're
paying him the three hundred and forty five million for
what he's going to do over the next five years.
And that's why, as pens. Look the visuals last night.
I'm almost ready to say, no, matter what happens, it's
a bad trade because of what we saw last night.
But that said, the true measure of whether of just

(44:53):
you know, how bad this trade was is going to
be determined over the next five years, not last night.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
It's always a great selling point. Hey give us five years.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
Hey, you know these tariffs that we're going to implement,
it's a long term play.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
Just be patient.

Speaker 4 (45:09):
Trust the process has been going for what a decade? Now,
this stuff, you can't sell that to NBA fans. Hey,
No you can't, No, you can't.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
I want answers now. I want to get back to
the championship.

Speaker 5 (45:19):
Now, I get that. I get well. And they were
hoping that Kyrie, a healthy Kyrie and a d and
all the other pieces that they play in there, Rick,
they'd be able to they'd be able to get that done. Look,
I'm not defending it. I'm just explaining the logogic behind it.
And you can't forecast injuries. And I know what you're
gonna say, Well, with Kyrie and Ad you can yeah, okay.

Speaker 4 (45:41):
So okay, So sell me. If you're with the Mavericks
front office. You know your boys with Nico and this
governor clown. Go ahead, sell me.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
I'm a fan. Hey, patience, give me, give us a
few years.

Speaker 4 (45:51):
Go ahead, let me, let me hear it. Let's just
I just don't think anything.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
Is going to play. Cay, No, you can't.

Speaker 5 (45:58):
You're right, you're right, right, But again it's it's I'm
not trying to say the deed is done. They can't
sell you on anything. At this point. I would just
I'd point to a Joel Embiid, I'd point to a
Zion Williamson. I would say, look, there are teams that
had players not as good as Luca, But what does

(46:21):
it matter if the guy's injured and not available and
they load up on him, and then now where are
you stuck? You're stuck in purgatory.

Speaker 4 (46:28):
Okay, so that's that's giant Embiid. You're right out of shape, constantly,
never took a team to the finals. Lucas games played
seventy sixty six, sixty five, sixty six. That's not like
Chop Liver. That would still qualify him for all NBA.
He's not missing a full season. I mean, Zion is
a mess. I'm sure you saw the latest story.

Speaker 5 (46:46):
Look, I'm not making a straight line comparison again to
what they've done as opposed to what you're looking at
going in the future. Lucas twenty five, twenty six years old,
So there's two ways to look at that. One twenty
five and twenty six years old, and he's had the
same calf injury three times within a year, not great
and missed and missed games.

Speaker 11 (47:07):
Right.

Speaker 5 (47:08):
The flip side is he's twenty five, twenty six years old.
You know what he's going to mature, He's going to like,
he's going to get his act together, and you don't
want to miss out when he gets his acting.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
When did you get your act together? Because I know
I didn't until I was like mid thirty.

Speaker 5 (47:21):
It took me a little while, right, I'm right there
with the late twenties early thirties. Okay, but the shelf
light we've you know, we've got a little more runway
than an NBA player.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
All right, So you were on Monday, but we did
not cover it. Mike Malone fired INWN. This NBA sees
has been crazy between it has a trade, firing the
Memphis coach and now firing the Nuggets coach. It sounds
like the GM and the coach hated each other. I'm
reading Cold War.

Speaker 5 (47:48):
Oh yeah, there's no question. The problem that Michael Malone
had was as as a GM texted me the morning
it happened, you go, I said, like, what's going on?
Taylor Jenkins and now Mike Malone. He goes, when you
don't get along with people and you're losing, you put
yourself in harm's way. And Mike Malone, in spite of

(48:10):
being there for ten years, never really cultivated any He
didn't and nobody had his back. He didn't cultivate relationships,
so he and Calvin Booth completely at odds from almost
the start, and that worked against Mike because the guys
that were that were Mike advocates in the locker room.

(48:32):
Bruce Brown, I'm told was a Mike Malone guy, KCP
was a Mike Malone guy. Like all those guys got
moved along, and what happens is your ratio changes. You
may have some guys in there that aren't feeling him,
but as long as you have enough of them that
are that are backing the coach, then you can kind
of work through that. But when it becomes the ratio

(48:54):
becomes so unbalanced. Now it's now you've got a quorum
in there that are that are chirping about the coach's
and then you start losing.

Speaker 4 (49:02):
Yeah, that's a probably some big words here, quorum educating
the audience.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
So Nuggets last night, first game without Malone.

Speaker 4 (49:10):
Oh that's right, I forgot. You're a big time writer.
Russell Westbrook, fewest minutes he's played in months, and Jalen
Pickett started and played pretty damn good. Like seven people
listening to the show know who Jalen Picket is. It
seems like the old versus young guys was a bit
of an issue there. Malone doesn't trust the young guys
like the veterans, which I get, you.

Speaker 5 (49:31):
Know, yeah, no, no, no, no, I mean look, Mike's an
old school coach. Yeah, and you have a team that's
in transition and it works with a guy like Jokic.
You know, for those people out there that are like, well,
they they wouldn't have fired they wouldn't have fired Mike
without you know, Jokic's approval. And as Joki said, they
came to and told him what they were going to do.
They didn't ask him, right because Jokics grew up in

(49:55):
in Serbia. Like over there the coach is king, but
it's not player empowerment. Over there, you like the organization,
the coach, They run the show and you are fortunate
that you're a player. And so that's his mindset here.
He wasn't about to walk into Josh Cronky's office and say, hey,
it's either me or him. That's just not in the

(50:16):
DNA of any European players.

Speaker 4 (50:18):
So we got about a minute left. Warriors lose it
the buzzer last night.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
Yeah, last week, not.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
Just lost, lost too of former Warriors that they moved
out in order to bring kd in.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
So beat Memphis last week.

Speaker 4 (50:31):
Curry goes off beat the Lakers, beat the Nuggets, and
everybody's champion in Golden State as the team.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
All of a sudden, now they lose to the Rockets
and the Spurs. Do we know if this team's dangerous.

Speaker 5 (50:42):
Rick, Well, they have to have all hands on deck,
and thirty seven year old Steph Curry being as essential
as he is.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
Is a little troubling.

Speaker 5 (50:53):
They don't have a margin for error. But I would
also say this for everybody out there that is taking
all these games, whether it's the Lakers in OKC, or
it's the Warriors losing to the Spurs or whatever. Let's
not lose sight of what they've done over the course
of the year for the last few games of the

(51:13):
regular season.

Speaker 4 (51:14):
That's a great point, Rick Buker, Fox Sports NBA analysts
always fun stuff, always got good info.

Speaker 5 (51:19):
Uh, we make a good quorum here, Core.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
I feel like I'm smarter just Rick Buker sits on
the sofa.

Speaker 5 (51:25):
Generally, Jay, you are when I come on.

Speaker 4 (51:30):
Note yep, coming up next, which NBA players are under
the most pressure this postseason? I'll tell you that next.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in neon eastern non am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 4 (51:46):
Let me start this hour with the five players under
the most pressure in these upcoming NBA playoffs.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
Okay, now, this list.

Speaker 4 (51:54):
It was a difficult one to make because I had
some guys in here in the staff's like WHOA, no way,
no way, j Mac and well let's start. We'll countdown.
We'll go five to one. Let's start at number five.
I think Jimmy Butler is under a fair amount of
pressure in these playoffs forces his way out of Miami,
where he took the Heat to the finals twice. Okay,
initially didn't want to go to Golden State. Then they
ponied up big money and he's like, all right, I'll

(52:16):
check it out. Initially they're awesome, and Butler's kind of
finding his footing. Remember this is a locker room where
he's usually an alpha, and they already have one in
Draymond Green. So how does Butler fit in? He has
to step up when Curry is held in check. They
don't have a number two, guys, Podzenski ain't hitting eight
threes ever again in a game like he did against
the Lakers. I think Jimmy Butler. Who you guys don't

(52:37):
have a big fan of Butler. He's under a lot
of pressure in these NBA playoffs. Number four Shah murrant boy.
Just when you think John Moran has cleaned up his act. Okay,
so last week he points at the Warriors bench with
a gun thing forward buddy heel and then they're told
him don't do it. He does it again, and then
he pretends to lobberate grenade. They told him, please, don't

(53:01):
do that anymore.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
It's like bro, what are you doing? John Marian got
them into.

Speaker 4 (53:06):
The playoffs several years, then he's been hurt, then he's
got the off court issues. Somebody pitched me the idea
that John Morant wants out of Memphis and he's starting
to make noise.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
Was he involved in getting their coach fired recently? I
don't know.

Speaker 4 (53:20):
I don't know what's happening in Memphis, but maybe John
Morant's not long for that city. I think he's under
a lot of pressure to at least win a series
with the Grizzlies next up.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
And this is a divisive topic.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
Jason Tatum at number three, Okay, Coward would have him
number one, obviously.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
You know that.

Speaker 4 (53:37):
I'm a Tatum guy. I know his trainer a little bit.
I'm a big Tatum fan. Before I get to the negatives,
I'm gonna remind everybody he's.

Speaker 3 (53:44):
Gonna finish fourth.

Speaker 4 (53:45):
In MVP voting, He's going to be first team All
NBA and in the playoffs last year he led them in.

Speaker 3 (53:51):
The playoffs in points, rebounds and.

Speaker 4 (53:52):
Assists, and in the finals he led them in points,
rebounds and assists.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
So why is he under pressure?

Speaker 4 (53:58):
Jay?

Speaker 3 (53:59):
Well, there is.

Speaker 4 (54:00):
The situation that happened in the Olympics last year where
Jason Tatum, the all NBA guy who's a perennial top
five MVP candidate, kind of got benched and then in
the finals he didn't win finals MVP, and if you
want to draw a parallel, Steph Curry when they won
their first title, did not win the MVP. It went
to Andrea Agudala for his defense on Lebron, which is

(54:22):
a little suspicious because Curry still had a pretty damn
good series. So then they lose the next year, then
Curry gets KD KD is the finals MVP, and then
you have this whole like, is Steph Curry really the
best player? Like I didn't love that topic. Then he
won his finals MVP and everybody backed off. He's a
top ten player all time. Listen, Tatum is still a

(54:43):
young guy. He's the best player on that team. No
disrespect to JB, but there is some pressure for him
to act and show that he is an elite top
five guy in this league, which I think he is.
Next up. Oh, Karl Anthony Towns my main man. You
guys know, I'm a big Knicks fan. They're not going
to run Brunson out of town. If the Knicks lose

(55:05):
to the Celtics in the second round, Bridges ain't going anywhere.
They love og and Andobi. There will be a fall
guy if the Knicks fall apart. Now, if they get swept,
it could just be Thibodeau. But I have to worry
about Karl Anthony Towns, who lands in New York. Couldn't
defend this share that I'm looking at here in the studio.
Can score a lot, but when you don't defend.

Speaker 3 (55:25):
He was benched in the.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
Playoffs last year by the Timberwolves because he can't guard anybody.
So Carl Anthony town is number two, and obviously at
number one, Shay Gilgess Alexander he's gonna win the MVP.
I don't think he should. He's a great player. We
know that he gets to the line. He's mister free
throw merchant. But folks, you can't win the MVP. You

(55:47):
can't talk all the trash and dance around like okay.
So he's been doing all season. You win sixty five
plus games and then you shrink in the playoffs. You
will see what the path looks like. But I'm just
saying it not now. You're not blaming Jay Job. If
they don't deliver, you're not blaming chet Honder. This is
going to be on the MVP, and historically guys who
win the MVP don't deliver in the postseason SGA without

(56:10):
a doubt, under the most pressure of any player in.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
The upcoming NBA Playoffs. By the way, Trey Young just
missed the list for me.