April 15, 2025 • 48 mins
On this edition of The Best Of The Doug Gottlieb Show: Doug explains why the NBA's play-in tournament has not been worth the squeeze for the juice.
Doug reacts to the odd decision by Mavs' GM Nico Harrison to have a closed media session with no recordings of his comments about the season and the Luka Doncic trade.
Doug weighs in on comments made by Caleb Williams about fraternizing with other quarterbacks. Doug welcomes NFL Analyst John Middlekauff onto the show to talk about the NFL Draft, Aaron Rodgers all of the other major headlines around the NFL.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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(00:24):
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It's the way tire buying should be. Hey, hey, hey,
welcome in, kiddos, Welcome in. You know it's tonight it's
(00:46):
the playing tournament. Hell, So we start the show today
with with more of a question than an answer, right, Like,
my job usually is to provide you with answers for things,
and I'll give you my own answer upcoming. But the
(01:10):
question is play in tournament. Now we're a couple of
years in. Does it work? Is the juice worth the squeeze?
If you will? I give my own perception and then
I'll give you the perception of I'll allow Chris and
(01:32):
Dan Buyer and of courtiations to to give their thoughts.
My thought is, okay, you had the play in tournament
that was designed to create some form of excitement and
some form of new energy towards the early part of
the regular season, right, because most people view the NBA's
(01:57):
first half of the season as something that takes place
in a vacuum that you don't pay any sort of
attention to. Meanwhile, what you do pay attention to is
Opening Night, Christmas Day, and then into New Year's you know,
post New Years and then really you know, there's there's
(02:19):
MLK Day games that are that are sort of kind
of an intro to the season, and then All Star
Game and once you get the second out of the season,
now we kind of gets interesting. So the idea of
that is people are talking about cutting back games. They
didn't cut back games. They actually added one game in,
but they did so they people want to cut games
because they were not interesting, didn't mean anything, thought guys
(02:41):
didn't play hard. Has that been a win? And the
answer to years in is no, no, because whatever amount
of money they're able to generate from it, new sponsorship dollars,
you know, new national games and whatever. I'm sure it's
cost a ton and in all honesty, you're also losing
(03:02):
some home games for some of these teams, which is
a lot of money. I don't think the juice is
worth the squeeze for this one. I think financially it's
probably a win right because you have more teams that
are close to getting into the playoffs. Even for that
ten seed, you have more home games for that you know,
(03:25):
seven and eight seed potentially to play two more games
at home before they get into the playoffs, so that's
more money for them, more money and get so I'd
say money wise, it's probably a pretty good thing, and
keeping more teams engaged is probably a good thing. On
(03:46):
the other hand, one year you lost Steph Curry and
that's not a good thing. And of course with them
falling into the play play in again, you could lose
Steph Curry for the playoffs, which is not good for ratings.
Have you hurt the overall field tournament? No? Have you
helped it modestly? Have you helped there from being you know,
(04:10):
outright tanking at the end of the year modestly to
not at all? So my estimation over this is it's
gonna stay. It is a cool structuring of it. There's
not really a penalty for losing early other than you
had to play, you know, an extra game, so they
(04:31):
need to figure out a kind of harsher penalty for
either not making the playing game or losing in the
playing game. But whatever it is, it kind of feels
like a push. Have there been some benefits? Yeah? Are
there some drawbacks? Yeah? Do I think the benefits slightly
outway the drawbacks? It does, but it also feels sort
of forced. It feels like, hey, we're trying to be baseball,
(04:55):
trying to kind of copy both baseball and college basketball
and can't be true to our own core and who
we really are. I'm kind of whatever to it. And
I know that the games tonight will be played at
a higher level. And my guess is the other part
is those seven seeds generally dominate, and you can tell
why one team belonged in the tournament and one team
(05:17):
does not. Doesn't always work that way, But I am
truly a Switzerland level of neutral to this entire thing.
Will I watch, Yes, Well, we cover it short. Do
you find out more about teams? When their backs are
against the wall and if they lose, they go home. Yeah, yeah,
(05:37):
I love that, But I also just think hey's something too.
Let's just get let's get over Let's get to the
playoffs right away. Buyer. Let me start with you. I see,
I'm sorry. Iac. Let me start with you. What are
your thoughts on the play and now we're a couple
of years into it.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
No, let's hear what Bier has to say.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
First pass the blunt.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Okay, so he has a blunt opinion of that, Yeah, okay.
I do not have a problem with the play in
tournament at all. I think that it is a band
aid on a deeper issue. When you start to need
to dress up your sport with gimmicks like the play
(06:18):
in tournament, and especially the NBA Cup, the regular season tournament,
that's a symptom that something else is wrong. I think
the best way, the best comparison I can make it
is when the Brady Bunch added cousin Oliver to the show.
That was a symptom that something's wrong and you're trying
(06:39):
to fix it. That's the equivalent of what's going on
with the NBA. If the NBA product as a whole
was entirely healthy. They wouldn't need to do something like
the play in tournament or the NBA Cup. But I
don't have a problem with the play in tournament. It's fine,
Well I don't.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I don't have a problem with it. Okay, I don't
have a problem with it. But what I again, I'm like,
there's a differency not having a problem with it and
being super excited for it. And that's where I land,
and I agree with you. I don't know what it's
symptomatic of. I think some of it is just, hey,
let's create more and more excitement and have they want
(07:18):
a little bit of what college sports has where you
have a if you lose, you go home. So I
do think it's symplematic of a problem. But I don't
know if it's an overall NBA problem or just just
a you know, baseball having a long series. They have
the same problem, Jay Stu, what do you.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Think, man? I think a lot. I went back to
twenty twenty two because I wanted to make sure that
what you said off the top, I wanted to verify
that that Adam Silver's reasoning for the playing tournament was
what you said. This was his comments in twenty twenty two.
(07:56):
We can get at it in terms of player participation.
It's creating other incentives. The play in tournament, I thought
a beginning of creating renewed incentives for teams to remain
competitive and be a fighting for play opposition, and might
be through in season tournaments or changes in format. And
that reminds me that NBA Cup may have gotten some
(08:18):
buzz first year, nobody talked about it this time. The
All Star adjustments in the format that was a disaster
this year, and then this play in tournament, by Silver's admission,
are all built in to keep players and teams engaged.
And to me, that's an indictment on your league. As
(08:41):
Isaac kind of just pointed out, you shouldn't have to
create incentives for people making eight to ten, eight to
nine figures a year or whatever. I don't think anyone
makes nine figures yet to play basketball. And then you
start thinking about the next level, Well, are they doing
it for the fans? Are they doing it to grow
(09:03):
their sport? I think the play in tournament does serve
their fans. I think NBA fans love the fact that
they could watch a couple of games the next couple
of nights. I don't know if any if your peripheral
sports fans are doing it. Same with the NBA Cup.
I think that serves your NBA fans. But I don't
think you're really growing your fan base with either of
those two things.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I agree with you. I agree with you. I don't
think you're growing your fan base, and I don't know
if that's the true intent, but I agree it's not
making people more excited about it. Okay, profet, what do
you think?
Speaker 4 (09:40):
I think?
Speaker 5 (09:41):
I think in a vacuum, the play in Tournament, much
like the NBA Cup, is a fine idea, again in
a vacuum, but it's constantly both these things, and especially now,
the play in Tournament in this year is dragged down
by the fact that it remains chained to the regular season,
which sounds obvious, but it does. I mean, you look
at the teams who are in the play in tournament
(10:02):
right now in the East, they're all three teams in
the play in tournament are five hundred. I'm sorry, the
Magic are the only five hundred teams. The other three
teams in the Eastern play in Tournament are under our
sub five hundred, and when you get into sub five hundred,
that's when it starts to really to beg a lot
of questions, like, you know, where we're putting in teams
that lose more than they win. In the West, you
(10:25):
could easily see seven to eight. Those are the Warriors
and Grizzly, Sure, great records, but then the Kings forty
and forty two, the Mavericks thirty nine, forty three. And
it's not even like teams below ten are even fighting
to get in. There's a three game gap between the
Mavericks and the Suns. There was a I think a
seven win gap between the Raptors and the Heat. It's
(10:47):
not like teams are scrambling, like we've opened up more
opportunities to get teams to fight near the end of
the season. It's still the regular season. It's still this
thing that is treated with almost all most discussed that
it has to be slogged through to get here. So
(11:08):
it's like, I get what they're going for. You want
more of the NBA Playoff, which is a great thing
and everyone tunes in for it, but it's still but
the context of the regular season is going to weigh
it down no matter what, because what we have coming
up is five of these teams have lost more than
they've won. And why would you want to watch a
(11:29):
losing Hawks team, a losing Bulls team, a losing Kings team,
the the remnants of the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
It doesn't.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
It doesn't put anything interesting on the plate.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
It does not. It really doesn't. Those teams come limping
in and then they go limping out. It's interesting. And look,
and here's the other part to it. We're all different
levels of your maybe not hardcore NBA fan, but we're
good sports fans and this these are our feelings, and
I think we are the audience that the NBA is
most trying to capture. Right the in radio, we call
(12:05):
it P one listeners. Right like the hardcore is, they're
gonna watch them out whatever you put on. Okay, the
non sports fans, you're not gonna get them on a
Tuesday night. It's the guys that like to watch sports
on TV but need to be told something interesting has
happened during the week to get us to watch on TV.
Those are the people that are not capturing. And again,
(12:30):
I don't necessarily know how you do it. I don't
think this is the way, but we'll see. I could
be wrong, This could continue to grow. But it's like
when the when the team who's in sixth place then
falls the seventh play thing, like, uh, they got to
play in the play in. It's almost like check your shoes. Ugh,
(12:50):
that's who played the play in? Is the one who
stepped in it. It's not a great it's not a
great perception of the play in tournament.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
This is the best of the done dot lead show
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Hey, what up with you? Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio,
Coming to you from the tyrat dot com studios tyrag
dot com. Would we get there? An unmatched selection, fast,
free shipping, free road as protection over ten thousand recommended
dollars tyraq dot com. It's the way that tire buying
should be. Do do doo doo doo doo doo. Um. So,
(13:27):
Nico Harrison hasn't and I can't necessarily blame him, hasn't
had a media session. I don't think since the trade, right,
since the trade of Luka Doncik in in return they
got Anthony Davis. He had a closed door meeting with
or closed door session with reporters today and there were
(13:47):
no recording devices allowed in eilough. You have more of
the details of that meeting, share them if you would.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Thanks to a hard working employee with the Dallas Morning
News Mike Curtis, who transcribed the entire news conference, which
is a difficult thing because, as you said, no recording
devices were allowed. Perhaps mister Curtis took a stenography class
(14:17):
in college as an elective. It paid off today.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Baby.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
All right, So let's start with some of the key
things that he said. First of all, regarding any regrets
about the Anthony Davis trade, he said, yeah, there's no
regrets on the trade. Part of my job is to
do the best thing for the Mavericks, not only today
but in the future. Some of the decisions I'm going
(14:41):
to make are going to be unpopular, and that's my
job and I have to stand by it. One last thing.
I'll also add that every trade I've done has been
met with high scrutiny, and so eventually I'll earn the
trust of this community back. Some of these trades are
going to work out, and they have at a high level.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah. Uh so, why are you laughing.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at him.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Did he do a good job putting it in a
team went to the NBA Finals last year.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
What have you done for me lately?
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Baby?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
But I'm willing to I'm willing to go with your
line of thinking.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
No, you're not. You're laughing at him for stating something
that he's doing. What you know. It's like, I don't
understand why so many have lost track of this. Look again,
I will restate my feelings. I completely understand without knowing
(15:40):
so many of the details, why they felt the need,
why they were ticked off at h at Luca right,
Like again, we got the same thing on a different
level here right, There are guys where and the season
they come in asking for money or more money than
whatever they were getting last year, and you're like, dude,
(16:03):
you didn't have that good year. You didn't practice nearly
as much as you could have, Like, why am I
signing up for that? The reality is some of those
guys know they're hard to replace, and Luca is impossible
to replace. Impossible. So there's a lot we don't know.
But his point should be well taken, which is like, hey,
(16:25):
all the moves we made last year ended up in
the NBA Finals, So I lose all credibility because I
make a trade that you don't like and we don't
actually get a chance to see the short term outcome
from our side of the trade because Anthony Davis was
hurt and now Kyrie Irving is hurt. I don't understand.
(16:49):
If you're trying to reearn trust, though, why would you
not let cameras in there? Dingo, Chase Stu. Can you
hypothesize over that one, like what the thinking would be
or what you know? I don't get that one.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
So the last time he spoke, remember it was that
awkward exchange right after the trade with Jason kitt and
he made some comments, just strange comments. It was something like, yeah,
and if it doesn't work out, you guys could kill
us or something, and it was it was just weird.
So I'm guessing the closed session was a result of
(17:24):
like people making his comments go viral and the memes
and making fun of him and dragging his team through
the mud. Because no matter how you position this, I
don't think anybody from Nico Harrison to Mark Cuban to
anybody thought it was going to go this far south.
(17:45):
The fan reaction in Dallas, I don't think anyone anticipated that,
so his lack of acknowledging that in this is really strange.
I think him saying that he's he plans to live
out his contract for the next three years. Yeah, he
plans on that, but I mean, you know, he'll also
take the buy out. I'm sure if the fallout becomes
(18:06):
worse it was, But the decision to do it closed
so that he couldn't become a viral meme like it
did the last.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Time makes sense. Profet, What do you think.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
On on Nico?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, I just it's.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
I just keep thinking about how much faith has been
blown up with Dallas Mavericks fans, and I don't know, I.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Feel like this.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
If I was in the shoes, I would probably not
have decided to close off recording devices because it just
it sends a message, and it more than anything, it
throws a gauntlet at journalist's feet and says, all right, well,
I'm trying to restrict you in this way and make
you work harder, and as we just saw from Ilo,
someone did work harder on it and just sends him
message that like I'm not saying he's scared, but like
(19:03):
it does send a message that, like you want this
level of control, and you know, and control over over
a narrative that quite honestly has been beyond your purview
for a very long time. Yeah, they looks small. It
looks incredibly small, if nothing else.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
I actually, I mean I hadn't thought of it in
the way in which Chase two presented it, And I
think sounds pretty accurate, right, Like, if you're going to
have an open discussion, why don't you do it because
you don't want to become a meme? Yeah? I think
(19:44):
the problem is here's the here's the interesting part of
Mavericks fans. They don't actually matter now. They'll matter if
they stop showing up, if they don't buy season tickets
next year, if there's a massive revolt over any do
you want to buy season tickets. I don't think that'll
actually be the case, because you'll still have Kyrie Irving
(20:05):
and Anthony Davis next year and probably add somebody else.
But that's the only way. See in college sports, they
if they stop supporting you, that doesn't matter. If they
stop supporting you with money, now of a sudden, you
have no chance, right, And that's really the donors in
the NBA, local average fanboy doesn't actually matter. It doesn't
(20:30):
you know, the readA doesn't have to be completely full
because that's like seventh in the revenue stream. They make
most of their money off of TV and other things,
of corporate ads. Now, if they lose the corporate ads,
they lose all kinds of you know, nobody goes to
the games, all those things. Then, Yeah, now you've got
a big problem in your hand. You got to get
rid of your GM. But in the meantime, this feels
(20:51):
like a lost year. You get Kyrie back, you try
and build a championship caliber roster in the upcoming off season,
and you're just gonna have to let history play out
and hope that the thing turns. That's the only thing
you can do. I don't like that they has no regrets,
(21:14):
not that it's his fault that Anthony Davis got hurt
or originally or that Kyrie Irving got hurt. I would
have worded it differently. I would have said I think
regrets as strong. I think are there things that I
wish would have happened or would have happened? Since? Absolutely absolutely,
and we learned from everything we do positively and negatively.
(21:36):
So are there some things? Yeah, do I wish we
could have gotten a little bit more Sure, Do I
wish Anthony Davis wouldn't have gotten hurt? And maybe we've
played him too soon before he was ready Initially? Absolutely?
Do I wish Kyrie Irving hadn't gotten hurt? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (21:50):
Do?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
I think in my mind, gosh, if we had held
back on playing Anthony Davis early on and he had
been healthy, had had Kyrie, would Kyrie have been hurt?
So yeah, there's regrets. But do I regret making the trade? Again,
I can't speak to you. I can't speak for it.
I don't think that's the situation in which he can
say I regret making the trade, because that that would
(22:13):
tell Anthony Davis. He doesn't think Anthony Davis is as
good as his perception of it, which one I don't
think is true, And two I don't think now that
you're in business with Anthony Davis, you want to do.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Hey, Doug, as a sports media veteran, and I'll add
Jason and Chris to this, have any of you either
ever heard of a scenario in which a player or
an executive or a coach had a news conference with reporters,
but cameras and recording devices were not allowed. I have
(22:46):
never heard of that in a sports media sense. I
don't even think Gorbachev did it back in the eighties.
Have you guys ever heard of anything where cameras and
recording devices were not allowed for a media opportunity?
Speaker 1 (23:00):
No, I have not, And all things being.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Equal, I'll pose this as well, real fast. Oh no,
go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
I wanted to answer before you move on that one
time the newt Rockney told us that you're not going
to have recording devices or cameras in the locker room.
That was the only time it was on a train.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
It was on a three day train ride to a
road game at usc But also throw this out from
a perception standpoint. Let's say this trade was made, same
basketball trade, but it was handled from a pr and
optic standpoint as well as you possibly could have. Let's say,
all things being equal, it was like Steve Kerr the
(23:42):
head coach and Bob Meyers, the former general manager of
the Warriors, or someone highly respected doing everything publicly the
right way. But the basketball part of the trade was
still exactly the same. What would the perception publicly among
the fans be if at least it was handled as
best as it could have optically.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
How would you have handled it differently optically.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Any any way better than the Mavericks presently handled it.
Because you have the trade itself, but also kind of
the smug public optics that the what's confiscating signs and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I don't know if that's that. I don't know if
that's smug. I do think yes, they've been overreactive to that.
I just again, if you're willing to make the trade,
you gotta be willing to hear the pushback. It's the
same thing where if you're willing to play professionally, you
gotta be willing to get booed and jeered and all
this other stuff. So I don't know if that's smug,
But I don't think that has to do with pr
(24:46):
with the trade, the trade itself. I actually think, you know, again,
supposedly they called all these other teams with star players.
I would have waited till the off season, but for
whatever reason, they felt like the urgency was now, and
I do think had Anthony Davis been healthy, they might
have had a chance to get back to the NBA Finals,
a greater chance than even with with Luca Healthy playing
(25:10):
for the Mavericks this year. But I would agree with
you that the taking away the signs is not a
smart way to do it.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
I think if there's just anything that really needs to
be quashed. And I'm not even sure how the Mavericks
or Nico does this, but this almost feels like an
ownership thing that you have to reaffirm your position in
Dallas because right now the big conspiracy going around, and
it's got enough legs on, like people are still trying
to figure out the logic of trading away Luca, and
(25:43):
while there is some rational explanations for it, it has
left enough oxygen in the room of hey, we're tanking
everything so we can try to move this team to
Vegas because ownership wants this hybrid arena slash casino that
they're not getting in Dallas. It's like, Dallas is the
third largest television market in the country.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
It doesn't make any sense, I know.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
But that's light crad No, there's not stop.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Don't do that. Don't do that. We can find a
conspiracy in everything, Chris, Like, that's what we give oxygen
to with all these idiots that are now in office.
We give oxygen to things that are just not real,
Like they're not moving the Dallas Mavericks to Vegas. It's
not happening. The NBA is going to hand out a
new franchise to somebody. Do you know why they make
(26:30):
more money that way with more teams not going to
vacate it because they're not getting their way with a
new arena. Like that's just not gonna happen. And there's
no way to tank a team in order to get
Anthony Davis. So did they make Kyrie Irving get hurt?
That doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
So what's what's what's the downside then of just reaffirming
your commitment to Dallas? What's the downside just saying that,
what do we have.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
To reaffirm your commitment to Dallas? Is again, this is
like the they got to reaffirm your commitment to the
United States? What reaffirm what commitment?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
By the way, I just googled Dallas and conspiracy theory
and I got a whole lot of results.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
Oh my god, there's no magic bullet.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, but if you don't, you don't understand the logic
in trading away Luka donc.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
He's a patsy.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Sorry, masking on his question. Chris like, oh, you're asking
me this. He refused to get into shape on a
yearly basis, it was probably getting worse, not better.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
I understand all that. I I I know the logical
reason for it.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
But no, you kind of dismissed it. You're like, well,
they can come up with if we lay back the tape.
It sounded like you don't buy any of it, and
that what you do buy is, hey, there's just this
conspiracy theory out here that you could you could kind
of see.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
No, you can't, No, I buy I buy that what
they would get rid of Luka don just because of
all this stuff about not being the shape. I disagree
with it, and I think it's a very dumb decision
to get rid of him.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
And at least Chris allowed himself to be recorded, unlike
Nick go.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
Good point, Yes we're recording, but I will say this
so it kind of makes you rethink this the way
that they've handled this pr wise And I just thought
of another misstep along the way. By the way, remember
Jason Kid last week said it was really cool. It's
kind of like the Babe Ruth trade.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, that was an all times but perfect did you
hear that one?
Speaker 4 (28:20):
They're just bungling this thing.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I mean that one was that wasn't Oh you got
to go google show them where that is in the system.
He's like, hey, people compared this to the Babe Ruth trade,
which I think is pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
Okay, I remember this, Jason.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Jason, that's actually not who you want to be compared to.
It's like, uh, it's like the old other than that,
Missus Lincoln. How is the show? Oh? Yeah, Abraham Lincoln.
He loves watching plays like you. No, no, not the no,
not this one.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Today's the anniversary of that.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
By the way of Abraham Lincoln being assested by John
Wick smooth mm hmm. That that resonated the Uh.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
This is my point. Was this a call by ownership
for either not wanting to commit that kind of money
and whatnot. And they basically said, Nico, make the trade
behind closed doors. Nobody knew about it. All the insiders
were completely in the dark. Make this trade, just make
this go away, and then you you take the bullets
(29:28):
and this closed door thing doesn't happen. This is can't
be Nico's call, because I think the conversation for the
next twenty four hours and you can count on this.
It's going to be how he ran from the media.
He wasn't stand up. Nobody closes doors in this day
and age. Something he's hiding something. That decision had to
(29:49):
come from the head of communications, who who answers to
the ownership because this whole thing is strange. So maybe
that was it. Maybe we always thought that this was
just an Nico Harrison move, right, Well.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
I think Nico has had an infatuation with Anthony Davis
from his time at Nike. Like he thinks Anthony Davis
and you know, if you go back and watch the
Lakers when they want an NBA title, Anthony Davis was
the biggest reason they won those those that title. Right
Whereas I do think that there's a between Nico and ownership.
There was a Hey, this upcoming off season, we either
(30:23):
have to pay this guy three hundred and fifty million
dollars and if we pay three hundred fty million dollars
to a guy who making half of that doesn't even
want to get in shape drinks a ton in the offseason,
then we're the dumbest people ever, right, recommitting to somebody
who has not committed to off season conditioning and to
really getting after it. So yeah, I mean again, do
(30:48):
I see them there being a world where the owners
are like, I'm not paying I'm not paying you know,
top dollar for that guy. I'm not doing it. And
then Nico had to figure it out. Sure, I don't know.
I was with you with the logic with one to
avoid being a meme or having his having his picture
or those quotes beyond every TV, every sports TV show
(31:12):
in America. But now you're gonna have quotes, and now
you're gonna have the downs. Do people check out the downside?
Because the downside to not having the TV cameras in
there is stuff like this where now we leave it ambiguous.
We don't know how things were said and what got
into that conversation, as opposed to if it was a
press conference RAND Live, we'd at least be under able
(31:33):
to understand context.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Fox Sports Radio had the best sports talk lineup in
the nation yet catch all of our shows at Fox
sports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
It's the Doug Gottlieb Show Fox Sports Radio. So Caleb Williams,
obviously people freaked out about Catlebilliams had painted nails last
year and other stuff. He did an article with Esquire magazine.
He thinks the NFL's quarterbacks are probably great guys, but
that becoming close with players and other teams is a
(32:06):
good way to lose the edge that he wants to
have over them. I think the NFL game has become
very friendly, and I don't think I don't necessarily want
to be friends because I want to keep a competitive advantage.
Williams says. It's a really interesting discussion, right, like were
you going to be friends with them anyway? And it
is kind of an old school Hey we're playing against shather,
(32:28):
we don't we don't need to be buddies with one
another sort of look. But do we really think that
takes away from your competitive advantage. I just think it's
annoying when guys, you know, they win a game and
they come over and they like want to pat the
younger guy in their head, like you're gonna be great someday,
Like stop it, stop it. But to have a young
(32:54):
guy who comes in is like, I don't need any friends,
and I'm sure older guys are, like we saw you
play last year. You need every friend you can have.
Is it's just it's maybe the opposite of what we thought.
We thought the younger generation all wanted to be kumbaya
and like each other. In this particular case, that's not
(33:16):
the case. Start got Leap show here on Fox Sports Radio.
John Middlecoff's our guest three and Out podcast on the
Volume podcast network. He's the host. Now, John, you're not
coming to the drafting Green Bay next week? I'm not though,
So you're not coming to my event Tuesday night at
the Legacy Hotel. Frank Caliendo me, Dan Patrick, you don't
(33:39):
want to be there for that.
Speaker 6 (33:40):
That's a pretty good one. Actually, maybe I can make
that happen there.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
You go, let it. Let us know. I know a
guy or two guys we'd love to have you. Okay,
help me out here, Shadoure. It felt like based upon
how he can married himself for the combine, everything we
heard it was like they were trying to position themselves
(34:05):
for one or two teams. Now of a sudden, in
the days leading up to the combine to the actual draft,
they're going out and seeing people on their turf. What
do you think is behind this different strategy?
Speaker 6 (34:19):
Uh? Well, I think you just kind of gain information
and realized there's no guarantee that you know he's going
to be the number two quarterback off the board. And
I think that's any time that you know you have
a draft, that this up in the air. I mean,
everything's on the table. So you start seeing, well, if
I'm not the second quarterback off the board, and this
(34:39):
isn't a great draft if I'm what if I'm not
going really high? And listen, I know he comes from money,
but there is a big difference of getting drafted third
or six, or in the top ten and in the twenty.
So I think that you just do everything humanly possible.
I always thought, you know, the draft interview process, it's like,
(35:01):
why would you not just put on your best face
with everyone you're talking to the league? People change over
so fast, people talk, and I think clearly, and listen,
I Dion has been pretty quiet I think during this
time in terms of like saying he can go here,
he can't go there, He hasn't done any of that.
So I think they're pretty clearly open to wherever.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Where do you think he ends up?
Speaker 6 (35:29):
A great question. I mean I would say all the
teams that knee quarterbacks, you know, I do think two
and three are just in play, right, I mean, what
are the Browns gonna do just not draft a quarterback?
Same with the Giants. Now, could they take guys on
the second day?
Speaker 1 (35:45):
For sure?
Speaker 6 (35:46):
I think the Raiders would definitely be in play. I
mean his connection with Tom Brady. I just think that,
you know, it's a starred driven community in Vegas. Pete
Carroll's done this before where he paid Matt Win and
then drafted Russell Wilson. Now it wasn't the third round,
not in the first round, but I think that all
these teams are in play. I wouldn't be shocked, but
(36:08):
I wouldn't be confident putting money on where these guys
are going to go. And that's you know, this draft
lacks a lot of sizzle relatives of last year, which
was just it doesn't get much better than that. Right,
Six quarterbacks in the top twelve, all of them really
famous quarterbacks, the compass quarterbacks. That is just not the
case here. It just lacks at a little pop. But
(36:32):
I do think the drama of I mean, there are
gonna be a couple of guys drafted in the top ten.
The casual people are like, who just got picked? And
I think that's where it's shaping up to be interesting.
Just the craziness. Craziness that's going on a little bit
like last year with Pennix with eight, but that was
kind of it that there wasn't that much. Oh my god.
(36:53):
I think it's going to happen constantly in this draft
because if you just pull five GMS, you would get
the list of their top ten players. There'd be a
lot of different names in those lists.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
No question about it. Steug Gottlieb Show here on Fox
Sports Radio, Okay, you said there'd be a couple of
guys who go early that people haven't heard of. Who
will they be?
Speaker 6 (37:14):
Oh, that's a good question. I think anytime that you
have a draft like this where there aren't sweet quarterbacks
and honestly the skilled players, you know, I think the
wide receivers are very up for debate, you get offensive linemen.
So like one thing Howie Roseman has shown in the
league is, you know, just when all all sales go line,
(37:35):
I would imagine in the top fifteen picks, the eighty
percent of them are O line and D lions. So
obviously LSU guy, Missouri guy. But I think you're going
to get some random offensive lineman, and you could also
get like a guarded center that typically those type players go,
you know somewhere between fifteen and thirty. Those guys get
drafted higher in a draft like this. In defensive linemen,
(37:58):
you know, like the Steward, the defensive lineman from Texas
A and m absolute freak show, tested out of this world.
But he wasn't very productive in college. And I'm always
heasitent with players like that because I think the drafting
really high because the risk of I was always thought
like you either land the quarterback or you don't. So
guys that are starters in college that have low sack
(38:20):
numbers are always a concerns kind of older school people.
But I think guys like him just are a lock
to go high just because of the crop.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
It's the Doug Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports Radio.
That's the voice of John Middlecoff. John has the three
and Out podcast, which of course you can hear on
the Volume Podcast Network. One of the maybe the team
that surprises most that should or did visit was the
Pittsburgh Steelers. There was a story a couple weeks ago
(38:52):
that it looked like Aaron Rodgers was creeping closer to
becoming a Pittsburgh Steeler. Now, Crickets, where are we with
Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 6 (39:01):
I wonder if at this point he's just at first,
I thought a couple of weeks ago, it's like, well,
he's just wait until McAfee's deal. And then Macafee's like, yeah,
he's not showing up. I even got pat like, I
bet he's Lyons. So it makes it even crazier than
it came and went and he didn't show up. So
I'm like, no, it wasn't lying. He had nothing to
do with it. I think at this point he's clearly
just wait until the draft, and you know, you saw
(39:21):
last year. I mean, it's a different circumstance. I don't
feel bad for Cousins at all. I mean, he took
the most money by a mile, and then they drafted
a quarterback, but he chose the Atlanta Falcons. So it's like,
I don't like the fault, you know, I don't give
him a reprieve, like, oh I made a mistake. No,
he took the ninety million dollars. But I think Aaron,
you know, this is probably his last season. Just he's
(39:44):
come this far, you might as well, just wait till
next Thursday and Friday and get a landscape. I'm like,
did the steel A draft a guy, because if they didn't,
then it's why it feels inevitable. Maybe the following week
after the draft. But I do wonder if Shador Sanders
or Jason Dart or one of these quarterbacks because one time,
one thing we scene is the day and age for
guys to get red shirted is pretty slim. Now, obviously,
(40:07):
if you have Rogers on your seam, that guy's not
going to beat him out. But I wonder if Rogers
just avoids And the other thing is what if he
is waiting for OTAs, Like what if it doesn't go
well with JJ McCarthy's coming off the knee injury. Last
time we saw him was really slim. Even the coach admitted, like, yeah,
you know, we wouldn't be doing our right by the
(40:27):
organization if we didn't look into this. We believe in JJ,
but there's a lot of unknown and I still think
that's on the table until we start playing real football.
So in fairness to Aaron, it's not the craziest thing
given his age and given what's happened recently to kind
of let this play out. It's not like he's given
(40:47):
up a lot of money, right, It's not like he
would have had some three year, one hundred and fifty
million dollars deal on the table a month and a
half ago and now he doesn't.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Yeah, stet got leeb show here on Fox Sports Radio.
What a NFL guys think of Like the Tennessee quarterback
right where he's a freshman, he plays and then he
agrees to an nil extension or a new deal and
then he does a sit in. You know, there are
people that want to want to draw a parallel to
(41:15):
NFL guys whoever a year left on their contract doing
a sit in to get a new deal. How the
NFL people actually view it.
Speaker 6 (41:23):
I think the difference is, you know, Nito did not
play well last year given the hype. He threw one
touchdown in their important games Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, Georgia has
to say, one total touchdown, So he was very underwell,
like they were a running pam defensive team. Like if
he was coming out in this draft, for example, I
think there'd be a lot of question marks on the guy.
(41:43):
He's so young, he might still be there for a
couple of years. I think these guys are kind of
numb to the whole nil thing that they view it
as separate from what they're about to experience because a
lot of their experience when these guys getting paid, it
hasn't been bad. Like they've drafted these guys and they've
had excel. I think they just look at this player like,
he's not that good right now, so they go, wait,
(42:04):
you just gave up two million dollars to be a
starting quarterback and one of the best teams in the country.
Is that a good idea? And by all accounts, I'd
be like, where's he gonna go? He can't transfer into
the SEC right because he's not gonna sit out a year.
All those good teams in the ACC and the Big
Ten look like they have quarterbacks. He's gonna go to UCLA. Like,
(42:26):
I'm sorry, that's a huge downgrade from a football perspective
in UCLA ain't exactly paying, so, like, let's face it.
I think it's pretty clear that it's hard to even
blame the kid. He's clearly just following his dad, which
is a tough spot. At eighteen nineteen years old. Dad
made a terrible decision and you know, pigs get fit,
always get slaughtered. It felt like they were really greedy.
(42:47):
They acted like they just were Johnny Football year one
and won the Iceman. I thought he had a pretty
average season at best, and he's being highly compensated. So
it's a pretty win win deal here.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Yeah, so Doug got Leeb show here on Fox Sports Radio,
John Middlecoff is our guest. Travis Hunter says, you'd rather
not play football then only have to play one side
of the ball. Yeah, that one is an odd one
to me as well, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 6 (43:18):
I just think these teams are, you know, kind of
like how it happened in college forever. They're like, yeah,
we're gonna let you play quarterback, right, it's like move
him to safety. You're like, yeah, we're gonna let you
play wide receiver, and then immediately move the gay to corner.
I think these teams it's like, yeah, I say, whatever
you want, we'll let you get to the NFL. What's
you gonna do?
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Quit?
Speaker 6 (43:36):
Because I think most of these teams, when it comes
to Travis Hunt, are going to go in pretty open minded.
But I would imagine if you talk to the teams
all drafting in the top five, and I said, hey,
Mike brabl or, hey, you know who Kevin Sapansky, Like,
You're gonna have a one position situation and then utilize
him if as possible on the other side of the ball,
(43:57):
but you're not starting both ways. I would be stunned
if week one, let's just say the Browns draft him
at two, he is their starting wide receiver and starting corner.
Now that doesn't mean he won't touch the field for
both sides of all week one, but if you just
tell me that he plays one hundred plus snaps going
both ways, that would be insane. Do you agree with that?
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (44:22):
And I don't envision it happening, But he just talk
right now, we'll see. I think what's more than likely
is they try to start him at corner and give
him some plays on offense. But yeah, you know part
of part of you know some of these guys that
did that, I think it's really easy. Like a lot
of like Odell Beckham and DeShawn Jacks, they were returners,
(44:44):
so it's like early on in their career they got
to return and play wide receiver. Dion was like one
of the fastest humans in the history of the league
ran go routes, right, Well, this guy's not. This guy's
more of like a wide receiver running like intermediate routes.
It's not like you can run them bring them in
on offense. To run go routes, he'd has to actually
(45:04):
have to play, you know, run normal routes where if
he's playing defense as well, like part of the reason
justin Jefferson, Jabar Chase, whoever. All these good wide receivers,
every single day they go to the wide receiver room,
They hit the judge machine, they work on their routes
like they spend every day of their professional life working
on the craft. Where it's like, if you spread yourself thin,
(45:27):
there's no way to get better at the rate of
all the top guys in the league. And when I
draft you really high, I expect you to play at
that level. Even you go to the other side of
the ball, they're stingingly break out in your huge contract. Well,
for the last three years of the Houston Dexans, every
single day he goes to the DV room, he watched
the DV film. He goes to practice with the dbs,
(45:49):
you know, they go to team he covers the wide
receivers totally works on. So it's like eventually it kind
of comes to fruition and it's like, wow, this guy's
become a saw. Yeah, it's all the work you've been
putting in. It's like, well, how how could you possibly
do multiple things?
Speaker 7 (46:02):
If I have Patrick Mahomes like, hey have to practice times,
You're just gonna go over here with the kickers like well,
you know, and not do quarterbacks stuff, it would be
his rate of improvement would slow down.
Speaker 6 (46:15):
And at the highest level against the best of the best,
I think, and in the day and age when you
know you got union members on the on of the
players turn you in. If you go extra practice time,
you got to really really take advantage of the efficiency.
I mean, you know, as the coach, like you only
get so much time, especially physically to practice football. Metal
game is huge, but the physical practice, the small amount
(46:38):
of time you have during the offseason and definitely during
training camp and then the season is extremely important because
you practice way more than you play.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
That's the voice of John Metocoff. Three and Out is
the podcast Uh before You Let You Go, John. We
talked about it in the opening of the show. I
just want to get your thoughts because you are a
huge hoops fan and a Warrior fan. The Warriors is
falling back to playing the playoff game. We're a couple
of years in. What do you think of the playing tournament?
Speaker 6 (47:05):
Well, if you look at the matchups beside the Warriors,
all the teams like don't do anything for me, And
I would imagine I kind of speak for the casual
fan like pretty boring. Like are people getting into the
Sacramento Kings in the Chicago Bulls teams that are just bad?
Pretty lucky to have the Warriors. Now, they've been multiple
times in this game. I mean, Steph Curry needle mover.
I'm a little nervous tonight. I mean they just they've
(47:27):
been running on fumes a little bit. You know, step
the older player. Jimmy's an older player, banged up. The
other thing, Jimmy is not used to playing a lot
till the playoffs, so it's like they've been putting a
lot of models on him. Very very important they win
this game. But I haven't watched that much regular season basketball.
I did a couple of weeks ago watch the Warriors
(47:48):
play the Rockets, who they would have to play, and
they threw the Thompson Brothers that they got on Step
and it looked like Darrell Reeves or you know, Deon
Sanders in his prime to not get away from the guy.
I mean, he blanketed him like a dB.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
It was.
Speaker 6 (48:04):
It was it looked like early on a STEP's career.
Remember when Chris Paul was like the prime in the
end of Mark Jackson era. It was just a really
tough matchup. Then Step kind of took off. But this
guy's so long and athletic. I'll be honest, I didn't
know that much about the Rockets. Besides, they were having
a good season athletically, I know they struggling offense. Everyone's
all the Warriors will take care of the Rockets. I
(48:26):
don't know that that the athleticism they're thrown out, But
specifically it's Step and their coach. You know, he might
be a menace, you know at the bar late night
with people's wives, but he can coach. So I think
even if they win tonight, the Rockets are going to
be a major problem for the Warriors.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
That's Jamminokoff three now is the podcast. You go also
get a little golf from him and always get some
hoops from as well. Thanks so much for joining Us'll
talk to you draft week.
Speaker 6 (48:52):
Better know
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
three to five Eastern twelve two Pacific on Box Sports Radio.
Find your local station for the Doug Gottlieb Show at
boxsports radio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching f ASR boom Up
America Doug Gottlieb Show, Bye Sports Radio. Coming to you
(00:24):
from the tyrag dot com studios tyrag dot com. We'll
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It's the way tire buying should be. Hey, hey, hey,
welcome in, kiddos, Welcome in. You know it's tonight it's
(00:46):
the playing tournament. Hell, So we start the show today
with with more of a question than an answer, right, Like,
my job usually is to provide you with answers for things,
and I'll give you my own answer upcoming. But the
(01:10):
question is play in tournament. Now we're a couple of
years in. Does it work? Is the juice worth the squeeze?
If you will? I give my own perception and then
I'll give you the perception of I'll allow Chris and
(01:32):
Dan Buyer and of courtiations to to give their thoughts.
My thought is, okay, you had the play in tournament
that was designed to create some form of excitement and
some form of new energy towards the early part of
the regular season, right, because most people view the NBA's
(01:57):
first half of the season as something that takes place
in a vacuum that you don't pay any sort of
attention to. Meanwhile, what you do pay attention to is
Opening Night, Christmas Day, and then into New Year's you know,
post New Years and then really you know, there's there's
(02:19):
MLK Day games that are that are sort of kind
of an intro to the season, and then All Star
Game and once you get the second out of the season,
now we kind of gets interesting. So the idea of
that is people are talking about cutting back games. They
didn't cut back games. They actually added one game in,
but they did so they people want to cut games
because they were not interesting, didn't mean anything, thought guys
(02:41):
didn't play hard. Has that been a win? And the
answer to years in is no, no, because whatever amount
of money they're able to generate from it, new sponsorship dollars,
you know, new national games and whatever. I'm sure it's
cost a ton and in all honesty, you're also losing
(03:02):
some home games for some of these teams, which is
a lot of money. I don't think the juice is
worth the squeeze for this one. I think financially it's
probably a win right because you have more teams that
are close to getting into the playoffs. Even for that
ten seed, you have more home games for that you know,
(03:25):
seven and eight seed potentially to play two more games
at home before they get into the playoffs, so that's
more money for them, more money and get so I'd
say money wise, it's probably a pretty good thing, and
keeping more teams engaged is probably a good thing. On
(03:46):
the other hand, one year you lost Steph Curry and
that's not a good thing. And of course with them
falling into the play play in again, you could lose
Steph Curry for the playoffs, which is not good for ratings.
Have you hurt the overall field tournament? No? Have you
helped it modestly? Have you helped there from being you know,
(04:10):
outright tanking at the end of the year modestly to
not at all? So my estimation over this is it's
gonna stay. It is a cool structuring of it. There's
not really a penalty for losing early other than you
had to play, you know, an extra game, so they
(04:31):
need to figure out a kind of harsher penalty for
either not making the playing game or losing in the
playing game. But whatever it is, it kind of feels
like a push. Have there been some benefits? Yeah? Are
there some drawbacks? Yeah? Do I think the benefits slightly
outway the drawbacks? It does, but it also feels sort
of forced. It feels like, hey, we're trying to be baseball,
(04:55):
trying to kind of copy both baseball and college basketball
and can't be true to our own core and who
we really are. I'm kind of whatever to it. And
I know that the games tonight will be played at
a higher level. And my guess is the other part
is those seven seeds generally dominate, and you can tell
why one team belonged in the tournament and one team
(05:17):
does not. Doesn't always work that way, But I am
truly a Switzerland level of neutral to this entire thing.
Will I watch, Yes, Well, we cover it short. Do
you find out more about teams? When their backs are
against the wall and if they lose, they go home. Yeah, yeah,
(05:37):
I love that, But I also just think hey's something too.
Let's just get let's get over Let's get to the
playoffs right away. Buyer. Let me start with you. I see,
I'm sorry. Iac. Let me start with you. What are
your thoughts on the play and now we're a couple
of years into it.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
No, let's hear what Bier has to say.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
First pass the blunt.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Okay, so he has a blunt opinion of that, Yeah, okay.
I do not have a problem with the play in
tournament at all. I think that it is a band
aid on a deeper issue. When you start to need
to dress up your sport with gimmicks like the play
(06:18):
in tournament, and especially the NBA Cup, the regular season tournament,
that's a symptom that something else is wrong. I think
the best way, the best comparison I can make it
is when the Brady Bunch added cousin Oliver to the show.
That was a symptom that something's wrong and you're trying
(06:39):
to fix it. That's the equivalent of what's going on
with the NBA. If the NBA product as a whole
was entirely healthy. They wouldn't need to do something like
the play in tournament or the NBA Cup. But I
don't have a problem with the play in tournament. It's fine,
Well I don't.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I don't have a problem with it. Okay, I don't
have a problem with it. But what I again, I'm like,
there's a differency not having a problem with it and
being super excited for it. And that's where I land,
and I agree with you. I don't know what it's
symptomatic of. I think some of it is just, hey,
let's create more and more excitement and have they want
(07:18):
a little bit of what college sports has where you
have a if you lose, you go home. So I
do think it's symplematic of a problem. But I don't
know if it's an overall NBA problem or just just
a you know, baseball having a long series. They have
the same problem, Jay Stu, what do you.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Think, man? I think a lot. I went back to
twenty twenty two because I wanted to make sure that
what you said off the top, I wanted to verify
that that Adam Silver's reasoning for the playing tournament was
what you said. This was his comments in twenty twenty two.
(07:56):
We can get at it in terms of player participation.
It's creating other incentives. The play in tournament, I thought
a beginning of creating renewed incentives for teams to remain
competitive and be a fighting for play opposition, and might
be through in season tournaments or changes in format. And
that reminds me that NBA Cup may have gotten some
(08:18):
buzz first year, nobody talked about it this time. The
All Star adjustments in the format that was a disaster
this year, and then this play in tournament, by Silver's admission,
are all built in to keep players and teams engaged.
And to me, that's an indictment on your league. As
(08:41):
Isaac kind of just pointed out, you shouldn't have to
create incentives for people making eight to ten, eight to
nine figures a year or whatever. I don't think anyone
makes nine figures yet to play basketball. And then you
start thinking about the next level, Well, are they doing
it for the fans? Are they doing it to grow
(09:03):
their sport? I think the play in tournament does serve
their fans. I think NBA fans love the fact that
they could watch a couple of games the next couple
of nights. I don't know if any if your peripheral
sports fans are doing it. Same with the NBA Cup.
I think that serves your NBA fans. But I don't
think you're really growing your fan base with either of
those two things.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I agree with you. I agree with you. I don't
think you're growing your fan base, and I don't know
if that's the true intent, but I agree it's not
making people more excited about it. Okay, profet, what do
you think?
Speaker 4 (09:40):
I think?
Speaker 5 (09:41):
I think in a vacuum, the play in Tournament, much
like the NBA Cup, is a fine idea, again in
a vacuum, but it's constantly both these things, and especially now,
the play in Tournament in this year is dragged down
by the fact that it remains chained to the regular season,
which sounds obvious, but it does. I mean, you look
at the teams who are in the play in tournament
(10:02):
right now in the East, they're all three teams in
the play in tournament are five hundred. I'm sorry, the
Magic are the only five hundred teams. The other three
teams in the Eastern play in Tournament are under our
sub five hundred, and when you get into sub five hundred,
that's when it starts to really to beg a lot
of questions, like, you know, where we're putting in teams
that lose more than they win. In the West, you
(10:25):
could easily see seven to eight. Those are the Warriors
and Grizzly, Sure, great records, but then the Kings forty
and forty two, the Mavericks thirty nine, forty three. And
it's not even like teams below ten are even fighting
to get in. There's a three game gap between the
Mavericks and the Suns. There was a I think a
seven win gap between the Raptors and the Heat. It's
(10:47):
not like teams are scrambling, like we've opened up more
opportunities to get teams to fight near the end of
the season. It's still the regular season. It's still this
thing that is treated with almost all most discussed that
it has to be slogged through to get here. So
(11:08):
it's like, I get what they're going for. You want
more of the NBA Playoff, which is a great thing
and everyone tunes in for it, but it's still but
the context of the regular season is going to weigh
it down no matter what, because what we have coming
up is five of these teams have lost more than
they've won. And why would you want to watch a
(11:29):
losing Hawks team, a losing Bulls team, a losing Kings team,
the the remnants of the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
It doesn't.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
It doesn't put anything interesting on the plate.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
It does not. It really doesn't. Those teams come limping
in and then they go limping out. It's interesting. And look,
and here's the other part to it. We're all different
levels of your maybe not hardcore NBA fan, but we're
good sports fans and this these are our feelings, and
I think we are the audience that the NBA is
most trying to capture. Right the in radio, we call
(12:05):
it P one listeners. Right like the hardcore is, they're
gonna watch them out whatever you put on. Okay, the
non sports fans, you're not gonna get them on a
Tuesday night. It's the guys that like to watch sports
on TV but need to be told something interesting has
happened during the week to get us to watch on TV.
Those are the people that are not capturing. And again,
(12:30):
I don't necessarily know how you do it. I don't
think this is the way, but we'll see. I could
be wrong, This could continue to grow. But it's like
when the when the team who's in sixth place then
falls the seventh play thing, like, uh, they got to
play in the play in. It's almost like check your shoes. Ugh,
(12:50):
that's who played the play in? Is the one who
stepped in it. It's not a great it's not a
great perception of the play in tournament.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
This is the best of the done dot lead show
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Hey, what up with you? Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio,
Coming to you from the tyrat dot com studios tyrag
dot com. Would we get there? An unmatched selection, fast,
free shipping, free road as protection over ten thousand recommended
dollars tyraq dot com. It's the way that tire buying
should be. Do do doo doo doo doo doo. Um. So,
(13:27):
Nico Harrison hasn't and I can't necessarily blame him, hasn't
had a media session. I don't think since the trade, right,
since the trade of Luka Doncik in in return they
got Anthony Davis. He had a closed door meeting with
or closed door session with reporters today and there were
(13:47):
no recording devices allowed in eilough. You have more of
the details of that meeting, share them if you would.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Thanks to a hard working employee with the Dallas Morning
News Mike Curtis, who transcribed the entire news conference, which
is a difficult thing because, as you said, no recording
devices were allowed. Perhaps mister Curtis took a stenography class
(14:17):
in college as an elective. It paid off today.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Baby.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
All right, So let's start with some of the key
things that he said. First of all, regarding any regrets
about the Anthony Davis trade, he said, yeah, there's no
regrets on the trade. Part of my job is to
do the best thing for the Mavericks, not only today
but in the future. Some of the decisions I'm going
(14:41):
to make are going to be unpopular, and that's my
job and I have to stand by it. One last thing.
I'll also add that every trade I've done has been
met with high scrutiny, and so eventually I'll earn the
trust of this community back. Some of these trades are
going to work out, and they have at a high level.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Yeah. Uh so, why are you laughing.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at him.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Did he do a good job putting it in a
team went to the NBA Finals last year.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
What have you done for me lately?
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Baby?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
But I'm willing to I'm willing to go with your
line of thinking.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
No, you're not. You're laughing at him for stating something
that he's doing. What you know. It's like, I don't
understand why so many have lost track of this. Look again,
I will restate my feelings. I completely understand without knowing
(15:40):
so many of the details, why they felt the need,
why they were ticked off at h at Luca right,
Like again, we got the same thing on a different
level here right, There are guys where and the season
they come in asking for money or more money than
whatever they were getting last year, and you're like, dude,
(16:03):
you didn't have that good year. You didn't practice nearly
as much as you could have, Like, why am I
signing up for that? The reality is some of those
guys know they're hard to replace, and Luca is impossible
to replace. Impossible. So there's a lot we don't know.
But his point should be well taken, which is like, hey,
(16:25):
all the moves we made last year ended up in
the NBA Finals, So I lose all credibility because I
make a trade that you don't like and we don't
actually get a chance to see the short term outcome
from our side of the trade because Anthony Davis was
hurt and now Kyrie Irving is hurt. I don't understand.
(16:49):
If you're trying to reearn trust, though, why would you
not let cameras in there? Dingo, Chase Stu. Can you
hypothesize over that one, like what the thinking would be
or what you know? I don't get that one.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
So the last time he spoke, remember it was that
awkward exchange right after the trade with Jason kitt and
he made some comments, just strange comments. It was something like, yeah,
and if it doesn't work out, you guys could kill
us or something, and it was it was just weird.
So I'm guessing the closed session was a result of
(17:24):
like people making his comments go viral and the memes
and making fun of him and dragging his team through
the mud. Because no matter how you position this, I
don't think anybody from Nico Harrison to Mark Cuban to
anybody thought it was going to go this far south.
(17:45):
The fan reaction in Dallas, I don't think anyone anticipated that,
so his lack of acknowledging that in this is really strange.
I think him saying that he's he plans to live
out his contract for the next three years. Yeah, he
plans on that, but I mean, you know, he'll also
take the buy out. I'm sure if the fallout becomes
(18:06):
worse it was, But the decision to do it closed
so that he couldn't become a viral meme like it
did the last.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Time makes sense. Profet, What do you think.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
On on Nico?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, I just it's.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
I just keep thinking about how much faith has been
blown up with Dallas Mavericks fans, and I don't know, I.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Feel like this.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
If I was in the shoes, I would probably not
have decided to close off recording devices because it just
it sends a message, and it more than anything, it
throws a gauntlet at journalist's feet and says, all right, well,
I'm trying to restrict you in this way and make
you work harder, and as we just saw from Ilo,
someone did work harder on it and just sends him
message that like I'm not saying he's scared, but like
(19:03):
it does send a message that, like you want this
level of control, and you know, and control over over
a narrative that quite honestly has been beyond your purview
for a very long time. Yeah, they looks small. It
looks incredibly small, if nothing else.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
I actually, I mean I hadn't thought of it in
the way in which Chase two presented it, And I
think sounds pretty accurate, right, Like, if you're going to
have an open discussion, why don't you do it because
you don't want to become a meme? Yeah? I think
(19:44):
the problem is here's the here's the interesting part of
Mavericks fans. They don't actually matter now. They'll matter if
they stop showing up, if they don't buy season tickets
next year, if there's a massive revolt over any do
you want to buy season tickets. I don't think that'll
actually be the case, because you'll still have Kyrie Irving
(20:05):
and Anthony Davis next year and probably add somebody else.
But that's the only way. See in college sports, they
if they stop supporting you, that doesn't matter. If they
stop supporting you with money, now of a sudden, you
have no chance, right, And that's really the donors in
the NBA, local average fanboy doesn't actually matter. It doesn't
(20:30):
you know, the readA doesn't have to be completely full
because that's like seventh in the revenue stream. They make
most of their money off of TV and other things,
of corporate ads. Now, if they lose the corporate ads,
they lose all kinds of you know, nobody goes to
the games, all those things. Then, Yeah, now you've got
a big problem in your hand. You got to get
rid of your GM. But in the meantime, this feels
(20:51):
like a lost year. You get Kyrie back, you try
and build a championship caliber roster in the upcoming off season,
and you're just gonna have to let history play out
and hope that the thing turns. That's the only thing
you can do. I don't like that they has no regrets,
(21:14):
not that it's his fault that Anthony Davis got hurt
or originally or that Kyrie Irving got hurt. I would
have worded it differently. I would have said I think
regrets as strong. I think are there things that I
wish would have happened or would have happened? Since? Absolutely absolutely,
and we learned from everything we do positively and negatively.
(21:36):
So are there some things? Yeah, do I wish we
could have gotten a little bit more Sure, Do I
wish Anthony Davis wouldn't have gotten hurt? And maybe we've
played him too soon before he was ready Initially? Absolutely?
Do I wish Kyrie Irving hadn't gotten hurt? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (21:50):
Do?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
I think in my mind, gosh, if we had held
back on playing Anthony Davis early on and he had
been healthy, had had Kyrie, would Kyrie have been hurt?
So yeah, there's regrets. But do I regret making the trade? Again,
I can't speak to you. I can't speak for it.
I don't think that's the situation in which he can
say I regret making the trade, because that that would
(22:13):
tell Anthony Davis. He doesn't think Anthony Davis is as
good as his perception of it, which one I don't
think is true, And two I don't think now that
you're in business with Anthony Davis, you want to do.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Hey, Doug, as a sports media veteran, and I'll add
Jason and Chris to this, have any of you either
ever heard of a scenario in which a player or
an executive or a coach had a news conference with reporters,
but cameras and recording devices were not allowed. I have
(22:46):
never heard of that in a sports media sense. I
don't even think Gorbachev did it back in the eighties.
Have you guys ever heard of anything where cameras and
recording devices were not allowed for a media opportunity?
Speaker 1 (23:00):
No, I have not, And all things being.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Equal, I'll pose this as well, real fast. Oh no,
go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
I wanted to answer before you move on that one
time the newt Rockney told us that you're not going
to have recording devices or cameras in the locker room.
That was the only time it was on a train.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
It was on a three day train ride to a
road game at usc But also throw this out from
a perception standpoint. Let's say this trade was made, same
basketball trade, but it was handled from a pr and
optic standpoint as well as you possibly could have. Let's say,
all things being equal, it was like Steve Kerr the
(23:42):
head coach and Bob Meyers, the former general manager of
the Warriors, or someone highly respected doing everything publicly the
right way. But the basketball part of the trade was
still exactly the same. What would the perception publicly among
the fans be if at least it was handled as
best as it could have optically.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
How would you have handled it differently optically.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Any any way better than the Mavericks presently handled it.
Because you have the trade itself, but also kind of
the smug public optics that the what's confiscating signs and
things like that.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I don't know if that's that. I don't know if
that's smug. I do think yes, they've been overreactive to that.
I just again, if you're willing to make the trade,
you gotta be willing to hear the pushback. It's the
same thing where if you're willing to play professionally, you
gotta be willing to get booed and jeered and all
this other stuff. So I don't know if that's smug,
But I don't think that has to do with pr
(24:46):
with the trade, the trade itself. I actually think, you know, again,
supposedly they called all these other teams with star players.
I would have waited till the off season, but for
whatever reason, they felt like the urgency was now, and
I do think had Anthony Davis been healthy, they might
have had a chance to get back to the NBA Finals,
a greater chance than even with with Luca Healthy playing
(25:10):
for the Mavericks this year. But I would agree with
you that the taking away the signs is not a
smart way to do it.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
I think if there's just anything that really needs to
be quashed. And I'm not even sure how the Mavericks
or Nico does this, but this almost feels like an
ownership thing that you have to reaffirm your position in
Dallas because right now the big conspiracy going around, and
it's got enough legs on, like people are still trying
to figure out the logic of trading away Luca, and
(25:43):
while there is some rational explanations for it, it has
left enough oxygen in the room of hey, we're tanking
everything so we can try to move this team to
Vegas because ownership wants this hybrid arena slash casino that
they're not getting in Dallas. It's like, Dallas is the
third largest television market in the country.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
It doesn't make any sense, I know.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
But that's light crad No, there's not stop.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Don't do that. Don't do that. We can find a
conspiracy in everything, Chris, Like, that's what we give oxygen
to with all these idiots that are now in office.
We give oxygen to things that are just not real,
Like they're not moving the Dallas Mavericks to Vegas. It's
not happening. The NBA is going to hand out a
new franchise to somebody. Do you know why they make
(26:30):
more money that way with more teams not going to
vacate it because they're not getting their way with a
new arena. Like that's just not gonna happen. And there's
no way to tank a team in order to get
Anthony Davis. So did they make Kyrie Irving get hurt?
That doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
So what's what's what's the downside then of just reaffirming
your commitment to Dallas? What's the downside just saying that,
what do we have.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
To reaffirm your commitment to Dallas? Is again, this is
like the they got to reaffirm your commitment to the
United States? What reaffirm what commitment?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
By the way, I just googled Dallas and conspiracy theory
and I got a whole lot of results.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
Oh my god, there's no magic bullet.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, but if you don't, you don't understand the logic
in trading away Luka donc.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
He's a patsy.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Sorry, masking on his question. Chris like, oh, you're asking
me this. He refused to get into shape on a
yearly basis, it was probably getting worse, not better.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
I understand all that. I I I know the logical
reason for it.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
But no, you kind of dismissed it. You're like, well,
they can come up with if we lay back the tape.
It sounded like you don't buy any of it, and
that what you do buy is, hey, there's just this
conspiracy theory out here that you could you could kind
of see.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
No, you can't, No, I buy I buy that what
they would get rid of Luka don just because of
all this stuff about not being the shape. I disagree
with it, and I think it's a very dumb decision
to get rid of him.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
And at least Chris allowed himself to be recorded, unlike
Nick go.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
Good point, Yes we're recording, but I will say this
so it kind of makes you rethink this the way
that they've handled this pr wise And I just thought
of another misstep along the way. By the way, remember
Jason Kid last week said it was really cool. It's
kind of like the Babe Ruth trade.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, that was an all times but perfect did you
hear that one?
Speaker 4 (28:20):
They're just bungling this thing.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I mean that one was that wasn't Oh you got
to go google show them where that is in the system.
He's like, hey, people compared this to the Babe Ruth trade,
which I think is pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
Okay, I remember this, Jason.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Jason, that's actually not who you want to be compared to.
It's like, uh, it's like the old other than that,
Missus Lincoln. How is the show? Oh? Yeah, Abraham Lincoln.
He loves watching plays like you. No, no, not the no,
not this one.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Today's the anniversary of that.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
By the way of Abraham Lincoln being assested by John
Wick smooth mm hmm. That that resonated the Uh.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
This is my point. Was this a call by ownership
for either not wanting to commit that kind of money
and whatnot. And they basically said, Nico, make the trade
behind closed doors. Nobody knew about it. All the insiders
were completely in the dark. Make this trade, just make
this go away, and then you you take the bullets
(29:28):
and this closed door thing doesn't happen. This is can't
be Nico's call, because I think the conversation for the
next twenty four hours and you can count on this.
It's going to be how he ran from the media.
He wasn't stand up. Nobody closes doors in this day
and age. Something he's hiding something. That decision had to
(29:49):
come from the head of communications, who who answers to
the ownership because this whole thing is strange. So maybe
that was it. Maybe we always thought that this was
just an Nico Harrison move, right, Well.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
I think Nico has had an infatuation with Anthony Davis
from his time at Nike. Like he thinks Anthony Davis
and you know, if you go back and watch the
Lakers when they want an NBA title, Anthony Davis was
the biggest reason they won those those that title. Right
Whereas I do think that there's a between Nico and ownership.
There was a Hey, this upcoming off season, we either
(30:23):
have to pay this guy three hundred and fifty million
dollars and if we pay three hundred fty million dollars
to a guy who making half of that doesn't even
want to get in shape drinks a ton in the offseason,
then we're the dumbest people ever, right, recommitting to somebody
who has not committed to off season conditioning and to
really getting after it. So yeah, I mean again, do
(30:48):
I see them there being a world where the owners
are like, I'm not paying I'm not paying you know,
top dollar for that guy. I'm not doing it. And
then Nico had to figure it out. Sure, I don't know.
I was with you with the logic with one to
avoid being a meme or having his having his picture
or those quotes beyond every TV, every sports TV show
(31:12):
in America. But now you're gonna have quotes, and now
you're gonna have the downs. Do people check out the downside?
Because the downside to not having the TV cameras in
there is stuff like this where now we leave it ambiguous.
We don't know how things were said and what got
into that conversation, as opposed to if it was a
press conference RAND Live, we'd at least be under able
(31:33):
to understand context.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Fox Sports Radio had the best sports talk lineup in
the nation yet catch all of our shows at Fox
sports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
It's the Doug Gottlieb Show Fox Sports Radio. So Caleb Williams,
obviously people freaked out about Catlebilliams had painted nails last
year and other stuff. He did an article with Esquire magazine.
He thinks the NFL's quarterbacks are probably great guys, but
that becoming close with players and other teams is a
(32:06):
good way to lose the edge that he wants to
have over them. I think the NFL game has become
very friendly, and I don't think I don't necessarily want
to be friends because I want to keep a competitive advantage.
Williams says. It's a really interesting discussion, right, like were
you going to be friends with them anyway? And it
is kind of an old school Hey we're playing against shather,
(32:28):
we don't we don't need to be buddies with one
another sort of look. But do we really think that
takes away from your competitive advantage. I just think it's
annoying when guys, you know, they win a game and
they come over and they like want to pat the
younger guy in their head, like you're gonna be great someday,
Like stop it, stop it. But to have a young
(32:54):
guy who comes in is like, I don't need any friends,
and I'm sure older guys are, like we saw you
play last year. You need every friend you can have.
Is it's just it's maybe the opposite of what we thought.
We thought the younger generation all wanted to be kumbaya
and like each other. In this particular case, that's not
(33:16):
the case. Start got Leap show here on Fox Sports Radio.
John Middlecoff's our guest three and Out podcast on the
Volume podcast network. He's the host. Now, John, you're not
coming to the drafting Green Bay next week? I'm not though,
So you're not coming to my event Tuesday night at
the Legacy Hotel. Frank Caliendo me, Dan Patrick, you don't
(33:39):
want to be there for that.
Speaker 6 (33:40):
That's a pretty good one. Actually, maybe I can make
that happen there.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
You go, let it. Let us know. I know a
guy or two guys we'd love to have you. Okay,
help me out here, Shadoure. It felt like based upon
how he can married himself for the combine, everything we
heard it was like they were trying to position themselves
(34:05):
for one or two teams. Now of a sudden, in
the days leading up to the combine to the actual draft,
they're going out and seeing people on their turf. What
do you think is behind this different strategy?
Speaker 6 (34:19):
Uh? Well, I think you just kind of gain information
and realized there's no guarantee that you know he's going
to be the number two quarterback off the board. And
I think that's any time that you know you have
a draft, that this up in the air. I mean,
everything's on the table. So you start seeing, well, if
I'm not the second quarterback off the board, and this
(34:39):
isn't a great draft if I'm what if I'm not
going really high? And listen, I know he comes from money,
but there is a big difference of getting drafted third
or six, or in the top ten and in the twenty.
So I think that you just do everything humanly possible.
I always thought, you know, the draft interview process, it's like,
(35:01):
why would you not just put on your best face
with everyone you're talking to the league? People change over
so fast, people talk, and I think clearly, and listen,
I Dion has been pretty quiet I think during this
time in terms of like saying he can go here,
he can't go there, He hasn't done any of that.
So I think they're pretty clearly open to wherever.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Where do you think he ends up?
Speaker 6 (35:29):
A great question. I mean I would say all the
teams that knee quarterbacks, you know, I do think two
and three are just in play, right, I mean, what
are the Browns gonna do just not draft a quarterback?
Same with the Giants. Now, could they take guys on
the second day?
Speaker 1 (35:45):
For sure?
Speaker 6 (35:46):
I think the Raiders would definitely be in play. I
mean his connection with Tom Brady. I just think that,
you know, it's a starred driven community in Vegas. Pete
Carroll's done this before where he paid Matt Win and
then drafted Russell Wilson. Now it wasn't the third round,
not in the first round, but I think that all
these teams are in play. I wouldn't be shocked, but
(36:08):
I wouldn't be confident putting money on where these guys
are going to go. And that's you know, this draft
lacks a lot of sizzle relatives of last year, which
was just it doesn't get much better than that. Right,
Six quarterbacks in the top twelve, all of them really
famous quarterbacks, the compass quarterbacks. That is just not the
case here. It just lacks at a little pop. But
(36:32):
I do think the drama of I mean, there are
gonna be a couple of guys drafted in the top ten.
The casual people are like, who just got picked? And
I think that's where it's shaping up to be interesting.
Just the craziness. Craziness that's going on a little bit
like last year with Pennix with eight, but that was
kind of it that there wasn't that much. Oh my god.
(36:53):
I think it's going to happen constantly in this draft
because if you just pull five GMS, you would get
the list of their top ten players. There'd be a
lot of different names in those lists.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
No question about it. Steug Gottlieb Show here on Fox
Sports Radio, Okay, you said there'd be a couple of
guys who go early that people haven't heard of. Who
will they be?
Speaker 6 (37:14):
Oh, that's a good question. I think anytime that you
have a draft like this where there aren't sweet quarterbacks
and honestly the skilled players, you know, I think the
wide receivers are very up for debate, you get offensive linemen.
So like one thing Howie Roseman has shown in the
league is, you know, just when all all sales go line,
(37:35):
I would imagine in the top fifteen picks, the eighty
percent of them are O line and D lions. So
obviously LSU guy, Missouri guy. But I think you're going
to get some random offensive lineman, and you could also
get like a guarded center that typically those type players go,
you know somewhere between fifteen and thirty. Those guys get
drafted higher in a draft like this. In defensive linemen,
(37:58):
you know, like the Steward, the defensive lineman from Texas
A and m absolute freak show, tested out of this world.
But he wasn't very productive in college. And I'm always
heasitent with players like that because I think the drafting
really high because the risk of I was always thought
like you either land the quarterback or you don't. So
guys that are starters in college that have low sack
(38:20):
numbers are always a concerns kind of older school people.
But I think guys like him just are a lock
to go high just because of the crop.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
It's the Doug Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports Radio.
That's the voice of John Middlecoff. John has the three
and Out podcast, which of course you can hear on
the Volume Podcast Network. One of the maybe the team
that surprises most that should or did visit was the
Pittsburgh Steelers. There was a story a couple weeks ago
(38:52):
that it looked like Aaron Rodgers was creeping closer to
becoming a Pittsburgh Steeler. Now, Crickets, where are we with
Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 6 (39:01):
I wonder if at this point he's just at first,
I thought a couple of weeks ago, it's like, well,
he's just wait until McAfee's deal. And then Macafee's like, yeah,
he's not showing up. I even got pat like, I
bet he's Lyons. So it makes it even crazier than
it came and went and he didn't show up. So
I'm like, no, it wasn't lying. He had nothing to
do with it. I think at this point he's clearly
just wait until the draft, and you know, you saw
(39:21):
last year. I mean, it's a different circumstance. I don't
feel bad for Cousins at all. I mean, he took
the most money by a mile, and then they drafted
a quarterback, but he chose the Atlanta Falcons. So it's like,
I don't like the fault, you know, I don't give
him a reprieve, like, oh I made a mistake. No,
he took the ninety million dollars. But I think Aaron,
you know, this is probably his last season. Just he's
(39:44):
come this far, you might as well, just wait till
next Thursday and Friday and get a landscape. I'm like,
did the steel A draft a guy, because if they didn't,
then it's why it feels inevitable. Maybe the following week
after the draft. But I do wonder if Shador Sanders
or Jason Dart or one of these quarterbacks because one time,
one thing we scene is the day and age for
guys to get red shirted is pretty slim. Now, obviously,
(40:07):
if you have Rogers on your seam, that guy's not
going to beat him out. But I wonder if Rogers
just avoids And the other thing is what if he
is waiting for OTAs, Like what if it doesn't go
well with JJ McCarthy's coming off the knee injury. Last
time we saw him was really slim. Even the coach admitted, like, yeah,
you know, we wouldn't be doing our right by the
(40:27):
organization if we didn't look into this. We believe in JJ,
but there's a lot of unknown and I still think
that's on the table until we start playing real football.
So in fairness to Aaron, it's not the craziest thing
given his age and given what's happened recently to kind
of let this play out. It's not like he's given
(40:47):
up a lot of money, right, It's not like he
would have had some three year, one hundred and fifty
million dollars deal on the table a month and a
half ago and now he doesn't.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Yeah, stet got leeb show here on Fox Sports Radio.
What a NFL guys think of Like the Tennessee quarterback
right where he's a freshman, he plays and then he
agrees to an nil extension or a new deal and
then he does a sit in. You know, there are
people that want to want to draw a parallel to
(41:15):
NFL guys whoever a year left on their contract doing
a sit in to get a new deal. How the
NFL people actually view it.
Speaker 6 (41:23):
I think the difference is, you know, Nito did not
play well last year given the hype. He threw one
touchdown in their important games Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, Georgia has
to say, one total touchdown, So he was very underwell,
like they were a running pam defensive team. Like if
he was coming out in this draft, for example, I
think there'd be a lot of question marks on the guy.
(41:43):
He's so young, he might still be there for a
couple of years. I think these guys are kind of
numb to the whole nil thing that they view it
as separate from what they're about to experience because a
lot of their experience when these guys getting paid, it
hasn't been bad. Like they've drafted these guys and they've
had excel. I think they just look at this player like,
he's not that good right now, so they go, wait,
(42:04):
you just gave up two million dollars to be a
starting quarterback and one of the best teams in the country.
Is that a good idea? And by all accounts, I'd
be like, where's he gonna go? He can't transfer into
the SEC right because he's not gonna sit out a year.
All those good teams in the ACC and the Big
Ten look like they have quarterbacks. He's gonna go to UCLA. Like,
(42:26):
I'm sorry, that's a huge downgrade from a football perspective
in UCLA ain't exactly paying, so, like, let's face it.
I think it's pretty clear that it's hard to even
blame the kid. He's clearly just following his dad, which
is a tough spot. At eighteen nineteen years old. Dad
made a terrible decision and you know, pigs get fit,
always get slaughtered. It felt like they were really greedy.
(42:47):
They acted like they just were Johnny Football year one
and won the Iceman. I thought he had a pretty
average season at best, and he's being highly compensated. So
it's a pretty win win deal here.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Yeah, so Doug got Leeb show here on Fox Sports Radio,
John Middlecoff is our guest. Travis Hunter says, you'd rather
not play football then only have to play one side
of the ball. Yeah, that one is an odd one
to me as well, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 6 (43:18):
I just think these teams are, you know, kind of
like how it happened in college forever. They're like, yeah,
we're gonna let you play quarterback, right, it's like move
him to safety. You're like, yeah, we're gonna let you
play wide receiver, and then immediately move the gay to corner.
I think these teams it's like, yeah, I say, whatever
you want, we'll let you get to the NFL. What's
you gonna do?
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Quit?
Speaker 6 (43:36):
Because I think most of these teams, when it comes
to Travis Hunt, are going to go in pretty open minded.
But I would imagine if you talk to the teams
all drafting in the top five, and I said, hey,
Mike brabl or, hey, you know who Kevin Sapansky, Like,
You're gonna have a one position situation and then utilize
him if as possible on the other side of the ball,
(43:57):
but you're not starting both ways. I would be stunned
if week one, let's just say the Browns draft him
at two, he is their starting wide receiver and starting corner.
Now that doesn't mean he won't touch the field for
both sides of all week one, but if you just
tell me that he plays one hundred plus snaps going
both ways, that would be insane. Do you agree with that?
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (44:22):
And I don't envision it happening, But he just talk
right now, we'll see. I think what's more than likely
is they try to start him at corner and give
him some plays on offense. But yeah, you know part
of part of you know some of these guys that
did that, I think it's really easy. Like a lot
of like Odell Beckham and DeShawn Jacks, they were returners,
(44:44):
so it's like early on in their career they got
to return and play wide receiver. Dion was like one
of the fastest humans in the history of the league
ran go routes, right, Well, this guy's not. This guy's
more of like a wide receiver running like intermediate routes.
It's not like you can run them bring them in
on offense. To run go routes, he'd has to actually
(45:04):
have to play, you know, run normal routes where if
he's playing defense as well, like part of the reason
justin Jefferson, Jabar Chase, whoever. All these good wide receivers,
every single day they go to the wide receiver room,
They hit the judge machine, they work on their routes
like they spend every day of their professional life working
on the craft. Where it's like, if you spread yourself thin,
(45:27):
there's no way to get better at the rate of
all the top guys in the league. And when I
draft you really high, I expect you to play at
that level. Even you go to the other side of
the ball, they're stingingly break out in your huge contract. Well,
for the last three years of the Houston Dexans, every
single day he goes to the DV room, he watched
the DV film. He goes to practice with the dbs,
(45:49):
you know, they go to team he covers the wide
receivers totally works on. So it's like eventually it kind
of comes to fruition and it's like, wow, this guy's
become a saw. Yeah, it's all the work you've been
putting in. It's like, well, how how could you possibly
do multiple things?
Speaker 7 (46:02):
If I have Patrick Mahomes like, hey have to practice times,
You're just gonna go over here with the kickers like well,
you know, and not do quarterbacks stuff, it would be
his rate of improvement would slow down.
Speaker 6 (46:15):
And at the highest level against the best of the best,
I think, and in the day and age when you
know you got union members on the on of the
players turn you in. If you go extra practice time,
you got to really really take advantage of the efficiency.
I mean, you know, as the coach, like you only
get so much time, especially physically to practice football. Metal
game is huge, but the physical practice, the small amount
(46:38):
of time you have during the offseason and definitely during
training camp and then the season is extremely important because
you practice way more than you play.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
That's the voice of John Metocoff. Three and Out is
the podcast Uh before You Let You Go, John. We
talked about it in the opening of the show. I
just want to get your thoughts because you are a
huge hoops fan and a Warrior fan. The Warriors is
falling back to playing the playoff game. We're a couple
of years in. What do you think of the playing tournament?
Speaker 6 (47:05):
Well, if you look at the matchups beside the Warriors,
all the teams like don't do anything for me, And
I would imagine I kind of speak for the casual
fan like pretty boring. Like are people getting into the
Sacramento Kings in the Chicago Bulls teams that are just bad?
Pretty lucky to have the Warriors. Now, they've been multiple
times in this game. I mean, Steph Curry needle mover.
I'm a little nervous tonight. I mean they just they've
(47:27):
been running on fumes a little bit. You know, step
the older player. Jimmy's an older player, banged up. The
other thing, Jimmy is not used to playing a lot
till the playoffs, so it's like they've been putting a
lot of models on him. Very very important they win
this game. But I haven't watched that much regular season basketball.
I did a couple of weeks ago watch the Warriors
(47:48):
play the Rockets, who they would have to play, and
they threw the Thompson Brothers that they got on Step
and it looked like Darrell Reeves or you know, Deon
Sanders in his prime to not get away from the guy.
I mean, he blanketed him like a dB.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
It was.
Speaker 6 (48:04):
It was it looked like early on a STEP's career.
Remember when Chris Paul was like the prime in the
end of Mark Jackson era. It was just a really
tough matchup. Then Step kind of took off. But this
guy's so long and athletic. I'll be honest, I didn't
know that much about the Rockets. Besides, they were having
a good season athletically, I know they struggling offense. Everyone's
all the Warriors will take care of the Rockets. I
(48:26):
don't know that that the athleticism they're thrown out, But
specifically it's Step and their coach. You know, he might
be a menace, you know at the bar late night
with people's wives, but he can coach. So I think
even if they win tonight, the Rockets are going to
be a major problem for the Warriors.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
That's Jamminokoff three now is the podcast. You go also
get a little golf from him and always get some
hoops from as well. Thanks so much for joining Us'll
talk to you draft week.
Speaker 6 (48:52):
Better know
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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