July 7, 2017 • 50 mins
Doug argues people need to stop saying that the Celtics still aren't as good as the Cavaliers because the Celtics aren't done building their team yet. He explains why Patriots QB Tom Brady is the most accomplished quarterback of all time, but Packers QB Aaron Rodgers is the best quarterback of all time. Plus, UCLA head coach Steve Alford joins the show and tells Doug what it is like to coach Lonzo Ball and what NBA fans can expect from him next season.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of the Don Gottlieb Show on
Fox Sports Radio Foo What Up America? Dot Gottlieb Show,
Fox Sports Radio Live and Direct from the Holy Land,
actually broadcasting live this week, last week, next week from
Israel or in Jerusalem, Israel, where I'll be coaching Sunday
(00:24):
night starting Sunday at the Maccabi Games. I'll tweet out
I'll be I'll tweet out the ways in which you
can listen to the show. I listened to the games
and watch the games. By the way, guys, I'm getting
a little bit of feedback in my ear. It's almost
like on a two or three second delay working through
things in terms of being like, look, the thing about
(00:44):
Israel is this. It is a beautiful, magnificent, spiritual country.
Whether you're Muslim, whether you're Christian, or whether you're Jewish. Um,
this is a place which is incredibly sacred in your religion.
But nothing. I've determined that Israel should have a slogan,
you know, like every state has a slogan, right, and
I think even our country like America is like home
(01:06):
Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. Right. I
feel like Israel is saying should be Welcome to Israel.
Nothing is easy. Welcome to Israel. Everything is negotiable. Welcome
to Israel. Everything is crazy expensive, but we're gonna ask
you to live here anyway. Anyway, So lots of things
to get to today. I wanted to start with the
(01:27):
Boston Celtics because they made a they made a series
of moves here in which they've had to jettison like
a Kelly Olynok. They traded away Avery Bradley today. As
if you listen to our updates, Dan Buyer just updated
you with Avery Bradley and a second round pick to
the Detroit Pistons for Marcus Morris. That's the other of
(01:49):
the Morris twins, who average about fourteen a game and
was really well regarded as he's He and Markiefe have
gone from knuckleheads who have talent to being really well
regarded professionals and and face up four men who can shoot, score, rebound,
and defend some like they are both valuable players, both
(02:09):
now in the Eastern Conference, now on teams that are
trying to climb the ladder. Marquis obviously with the Washington Wizards,
and now Marcus with the Boston Celtics, trying to climb
the ladder to beat the the Cleveland Cavaliers. But here's
the problem with people. So Avery Bradley, I think everybody
loves I love him, but he was gonna be up
at the end of this year, so too is Isaiah Thomas.
(02:31):
And every Bradley was going to command in the twenty
million dollar a year range, and Isaiah Thomas is going
to be somewhere north of that. And then you have
they had a glutton of guards. They still have all
their draft picks. They got some stuff that they had
to work through, so they got Gordon Hayward. Now they
have Marcus Morris. Remember they drafted Jason Tatum, who all
reports are he has been as good as advertised in
(02:54):
NBA Summer League. We'll get more down the NBA Summer
League a little bit later on. And all I here
from people is well, really the type of rhetoric you
heard from Colin Cowhard over the last couple of hours.
Take a listen, So tell me again about this grand
plan and this patience and it's accumulation of draft picks.
(03:18):
You do realize if you were in the West, you'd
be like a seventh seed. Congrats on not inching much
closer to Cleveland, and I don't think you are much closer.
And in all four losses in the playoffs, the average
margin was over twenty five point losses. That's Colin cow
(03:40):
heard earlier today. So look, I love that that Colin
is uh is playing this up. They would not be
a seven seed, it would not be a seventh seed.
And oh yeah, but they just add Gordon Haywards. They
have Isaiah Thomas, they just added Marcus Morris. Like that
(04:02):
is not a seventh seed. And oh yeah, by the way,
like the problems with your team you have to fix slowly, methodically.
You don't just scrap and go like, hey, we're not
the Cavaliers, let's go all for it. Are the Boston
Celtics better today in terms of their ability to compete
at the top of the league than they were at
the end of the season. And the answer is, even
(04:25):
though they've lost Avery Bradley, who's a valuable valuable player, absolutely,
And oh yeah, by the way, they still have all
three first round draft picks for next year. And they
still to this point have Jay Crowder, who's likely to
be moved, so they get another piece to the pie.
The point is this that while well, we believe things
(04:47):
happen in a vacuum, Well, do we believe that things
should be very cut and dry? There are so many
different issues to which you have to navigate that you
can't quickly make a move. Here. Here's what it's like,
Um music, Do you play chess? Not regularly? But I
(05:08):
did play a lot more chess in high school. Okay,
so you know how you know how to play chess? Right? Ramost?
Do you play chess? That would be a negative? Okay,
I am, I'm I'm not a great chess player. I
can I know how to play chess? Um music, Were
you good? You like on the chess team? No, I
wouldn't say I was good. I just I took lessons
(05:29):
like an elementary school, and then it was kind of
something that I did for a little while, and then
then it was something I did less and less of.
So yeah, I understand. So did you know what romist?
Did you know any of this about music? Did you
know that he was he was? He was a chess
dork when he was a kid. I had no idea.
This is the first on the Dug gott Leap Show.
We we did not in our pre show FaceTime meetings,
(05:49):
we did not discuss this, so I did not This
is this is groundbreaking. So there's um at the Maccabi Games.
It's like the Jewish Olympics. And like, look our claim
to famous. We have Bobby Fisher, right, like our people.
We got some athletes, right, we have Lenny Krazenberg, who's
you know. We have Mark Spitz. We got some guys
out there. But if you if you take, if you
give us a sport that requires no athletic ability and
(06:11):
and uh and and intelligence with numbers, um, we we
got it. We got a chance here, right. So some
of these are some of the most decorated chess players
in the world going at it. And when you talk
to them, they're not thinking one move ahead, They're thinking
four moves ahead. I move here, he's gonna move there,
I'm gonna move there's gonna like these are all the
things that are going on your mind. My thing when
(06:33):
I was playing chess, was I was just trying to
think one move ahead, right. I didn't have the ability. Really,
I mean music, would you could you think more than
one move ahead? No? I was too young for that
and I'm still not quite there. I mean, you could
think a couple of moves ahead, like if I sacrifice
this piece that puts me in position to then take their's.
You know, it's kind of like poker to It's kind
of like poker in the sense that you have to
(06:54):
know the tendencies of what your opponents doing also, right,
So remember when you're the Boston Celtics, you have to
navigate the fact that you have your salary cap, which
which if you're under, you have to stay under in
order to make deals with teams that are under. If
you're over, you don't want to stay. You have to
stay over in order to make deals with teams that
are over. You also have the contracts you're taken on
(07:15):
the contracts. You you have your draft picks, but you
also have penning free agents for next year. Like, there's
a lot of stuff going on, and you have a
coach who continues to evolve his own style. How do
you fit that coach of style? And remember like the
Boston Celtics have made a pledge to have high character
guys on their team, So you gotta have character, You
gotta guard multiple positions. You win with veterans more than
(07:39):
with young kids. On the other hand, you have to
navigate salaries. Marcus Morris has two years left on a
very reasonable contract. They have the Gordon Hayward contract, which
is all a new money terms, which is huge money,
but that is offset by Marcus Morris. It's offset by
the Jay Crowders and some of these other deals, and
they're trying to have to navigate it. Point being like
(08:00):
everybody wants a very quick solution. Everybody wants to play
chess with somebody and win in four moves. Like you
read a book on how to win chess in chess
game in four moves. That's not the way chess games
are played. Chess is It's it's like it lasts for days.
Sometimes you don't have the time are on you right,
You're just sitting there and you're looking at it. You're thinking,
you're not thinking about just your movie. People like, just
(08:23):
move already, would you just move? Like, look, dude, if
I move here that he can move there, then I
move here that you can move there. Like there's so
much more to it. So while while Colin was gloating,
and that was earlier today, I believe that was before
Avery Bradley was moved, that the Celtics were just inching
closer to the Calves, but not really close to the Calves.
(08:45):
The rest of the world I think should stop and
take a breath and realize they're changing, they're evolving, They're
dealing with the issues of so many different things. Four
moves ahead. How the league reacts to it, What happens
to their guys moving forward, how they're going to play.
(09:05):
Can they fit in with the with the with the
character guys that they have play for Brad Stevens. Do
they fit and play a style which they want like
this is how you have to take your time, But
that's not the way in which we want things to work.
We want people to snap their fingers and all of
a sudden be able to compete with the Cavaliers. Count
(09:32):
me in on what the Celtics are doing, not to
beat the Cavaliers just yet, but to put themselves in
position to compete. And remember, the Calves have always been
because they're so top heavy. They're always a Lebron who's
never been hurt. There ever is a Kyrie Irving who
did get hurt, you know, three years ago, and that's
why they didn't win the championship. They always Kevin Love
(09:53):
and let's remember, like even the Kevin Like trade Kevin
Love for Karmolo Anthony Like, there's a lot more to
it than just guy for guy. There's the who's gonna rebound,
He's gonna do little things, who's gonna show up in
you know, February to you know, to play hard when
when there's no real reason to play hard. Count me
(10:14):
in on the Celtics plan because as it evolves, they
have a They're just loaded with wings, guys that can
play the three and the four and occasionally the two,
the three and the four, and that's where basketball is headed.
That's what the Warriors have. That's what the Cavaliers don't have.
If anything, the Warriors aren't shooting for the moon, the
(10:38):
moon being the Cavaliers. They're shooting for the stars, which
is the Golden State Warriors. Take a hard look at
what they're putting together. They're probably a prolific shooter away
from having the type of lineup which is which is
in the conversation, uh of of the Golden State Warriors. No,
(11:02):
they don't have the they don't have the stars per se.
But Isaiah Thomas was the type of there's a lot
of Steph Curry in his own way to how Isaiah
Thomas is right. Not necessarily a true point guard does
can pass a prolific score, although undersized more so than
Staff is undersized for how he plays. I'm not telling
(11:23):
you Gordon Hayward is Kevin Durant, but I think that
he brings a lot of characteristics of a uh Clay
Thompson and Kevin Durant to to the to the fold.
He plays both ends. He can score, and he can
score at three levels. And they continue to put guys
that defend rebound play multiple positions around him. It's not
(11:45):
just as easy as quick step fix. Be sure to
catch live editions of the Doug gott Leap Show weekdays
at three p m. Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the I Heart Radio app The Houston Row.
Because I think you've gotten smart, but it's also gotten really,
really interesting. I saw these quotes from Darryl Morey. So
(12:09):
remember Darryl Morey. They were second in the NBA in
points per game last year one hundred and fifteen point three.
Now they allowed a hundred and nine point six, which
is the fifth fifth worst in the NBA. And um
they lost the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals.
James Harden was just awful in Game six, but it
(12:31):
was really the loss and how they were blown out
in Game five. And what they've added is Chris Paul,
who's not only arguably the best true point guard remaining
in the NBA Mike Conley right there, but he's also
a tremendous leader. He's an outstanding defender, and he's got
great toughness. They had a p J Tucker four years,
(12:54):
thirty four million dollars they brought back to Nay as
well at a at a very UH, at a at
a minimum rate. He told Darryl Morey told Jonathan Fagan
of the Houston Chronicle, quote, this is just what this
team needs. We were able to talk with Chris Paul
and James and coach D'Antoni and say what this uh
(13:17):
and do what we need for this team. The unanimous
opinion was we need toughness, we need defense. PJ brings
that in space. We're trying to get our defense into
the top ten. Obviously, our offense was historic. Getting then
A back, getting PJ back are huge steps in that direction. Again,
this is and he said, we were closed the gap
(13:38):
on the on the Golden State Warriors. They're one of
the best teams ever. We obviously felt we need to
close the gap. We felt like we have closed that gap.
They're the ones with two rings in the last three years.
They have to you have to say, they're going to
be favorites going in and we feel like this group
can compete with them. Now, there's a couple of things
I really really like. I like that Darryl Morey who
(13:59):
is always up data based upon the idea of of analytics.
Toughness is not. That is not measurable. Our defensive statistics measurable, absolutely,
but toughness is not. It isn't it is an intangible.
It's not a tangible. Here's a guy who has always
(14:19):
done his work based upon tangibles, and so oftentimes we
think of tangibles as glamour things. Right, what tangibles is?
How many points is score? Like? No, tangibles are tangible assets. Well,
how can I measure them? How can I how much
does something way? How much just you know, how much
volume does it contain? Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Like that, those
(14:39):
are tangibles. An intangible is the what the French call
a certain genes say, right, it's inexplainable. You just have
to see it and understand it. Right. Intangible, it's it's
not measurable by any sort of calculation. It's not statistically
You can't put it on a chart and go like, oh,
(15:01):
there it is. It's an intangible quality. P J. Tucker
then used to be hilarious then and Chris Paul have
intangible qualities of toughness, defensive, grit, leadership. And so here
you have a guy who has always been the tangible, tangible,
tangible based upon here's this analytic this tells us why
(15:22):
we should shoot threes and only close twos, layups and threes. Okay, defensively,
James Harden is better than you think. Why look at
these defensive metrics when he's on the floor, based upon
who he's guarding, what the other those are all tangibles.
He has operated in that tangible world, and this is
an intangible quality. That's growth, that's evolution, that's big news.
(15:45):
And that's also kind of what the Celtics are doing,
which is that there is no perfect way to perfectly
compete with the You can't just you have your team.
You have to continue to kind of tweak your team?
What is your team? Make missing? Be sure to catch
live editions of The Doug Gottlie Show weekdays at three
pm Eastern noon Pacific. He is the two thousand and
seventeen nb D League Coach of the Year. As his
(16:09):
team part of the Toronto Raptors organization. Uh the Raptors
nine oh five won the D League Championship. He's Jerry Stackhouse.
He joined us on the Doug Gottlip Show. Stack How
are you? I'm great. Uh. Look, I'm actually coaching a
team in Israel. It's like the It's like the Jewish Olympics.
And I was just texting with a buddy of mine.
(16:31):
I was texting with a buddy of mine. His name
is Miles Simon. He's now an assistant with the Lakers.
He's getting ready for summer league tonight. He's like, man,
I'm telling you one practice and and and you know
myles like you obviously, uh you played. Um, you guys
have played against each other, like he was, like, I
learned so much. I'm just wondering and I've learned so
much during this couple of weeks with these guys, catching
(16:51):
coaching and friendlies. What's what's the one thing that you
learned early on when you're a head coach that you
didn't know during your on in story career. Well, I
mean it had to manage so many pieces other than
just the basketball. I mean, I think the best you know,
you guys think that it's just about the X and os,
but she's you know, dealing with travel and you know,
(17:12):
having to set the schedule, having to you know, set
where we stay, um, what time we're meeting, you know,
all those different things, uh, you know, and managing not
only that the players and the relationships with them, but
you know, relationship with your coaches, relationships with you you know,
the front of our office and everything. So just a
lot more to it than just being uh, like I said,
(17:35):
the player being a player, or even being an assistant
coach where you just kind of focused on the player
development and you know, maybe you've got certain teams that
you scouting things like that and that's really your primary focus.
But you know, the head coach, even though he may
not have the scouts, he has to understand all all
of that. And that's what I was able to kind
of experience last year my first year at at the
(17:57):
Helm and man it was. You know, I felt like
I got to and ten times better as as a
coach just because of that. And you know, and the
obviously that the reps from being able to make decisions
in game obviously helps and getting better on the board
and all those different things. But man, it was I'm
absolutely glad I did it. And I don't think there's
no way that you can get those experiences from just
(18:18):
being h frankly being an assistant coach and with without
getting some reps at running things. Did you like it?
Loved it? Loved it? Man, you obviously. I mean I
couldn't have scripted any better, you know, for us to
have the year that we had only you know, kind
of second year of existence. Um, you know, there was
a big thing beside. I really wanted to have this
(18:39):
component for our you know, our young guys wanted to
develop him, and we had an opportunity for like like
Bruno and Fred van Fleet. Those guys came down and
got better and was able to go back and contribute
to the big club. So that's you know, that's that's
really what they made this investment about. But we had
an opportunity for a lot of other guys to benefit
(19:00):
to you know, we're able to get called up to
the teams who didn't even have a roster spot. In
the perfect world, that's what ideally, that's what I would
like to have a roster spot for wee because you know,
have develop a guyantine develop a guy and he could
go up to the Raptors, um, you know, on a
call up. But we had guys called up to New
Orleans and UM Cleveland respectively this year. So you know,
(19:23):
overall it was a great year. And on capping that
often actually winning the winning the championship was with a
lot of fun. Jerry Stackhouse joining us in the Dugout
Live show, Like I think you're in you're still in
the spot double figures fifteen consecutive years in the NBA.
Uh and you average like thirty a game one year,
(19:44):
I remember, um, And so like, the great thing about
where you are is that these guys, even they're they're
old enough to know at least something about you, right,
Like you're not like an old head talking about back
in your day. U right, but like they but but
you like YouTube and and you know basketball rapp is like,
(20:06):
damn that guy average thirty a game, like thirty a
game in the NBA is thirty a game that's like ridiculous.
It's like the fifteen people on earth have ever ever
done that. So I'm just wondering how much more. You know,
I've always told people coaching and professional basketball so much
about respect. You have to give it as a coach,
but they have to respect you. It seems like that
would be a really easy cut through for many of
(20:27):
these guys that someday would only dream of being what
you were. How did you? How did you handle that?
I mean, it really was, man, it really is a blessing.
And I'm thankful for, you know, my playing career and
what I've been able to accomplish them because it gives
these guys who are trying to get into the NBA
and and even guys in the NBA who are trying
(20:47):
to establish themselves as rotational players, who have aspirations of
being All Stars and all those different things that I
was able to accomplish as a player. You know that
the eyes are opening, their ears are open to to
what I'm saying, and so I think that kind of
you know, that's one hurdle that I don't have to
deal with and tell them, you know, kind of just
(21:09):
just kind of follow the game play and listen to me.
And you know, and I think that I've been around enough,
I've seen it enough. I've been with enough good coaches.
I've been around enough good players understand the game of
basketball enough to help you get to where you want
to go. And unfortunately had a bunch of guys that
that bought into that and got better, you know, really
(21:29):
to play development pieces. So huge for those guys who
probably you know, they're not just the fringe guys that
they're just probably one thing away from possibly not being
a draft pick or or or not finding a way
to find a home in the NBA just from some
some small it's not a big difference between the talent
of players that's playing in the D League and guys
(21:52):
that um I probably I would say eight to fifteen
on on the NBA rosters, not you know, it's just
just a fine line of the the talent. So just knowing,
just listening and knowing that you can get there. And
that's and that's one her like said, a beautiful hurdle
that I didn't have to um deal with, that verse
that I didn't have to deal with because these guys listening.
(22:13):
They want to get there, and they trusted that I was.
I was giving them the right message. Former NBA All
Star Jerry Stackhouse Coach the Year in the NBDAL NBA
D League, joining us on the Doug Gotlip Show on
Fox Sports. Trade You obviously being a part of the
Raptors organization, you understand how they you know, went for
it this year, Uh, going out and making a big
kind of mid season acquisition with with Serge Ibaka. Uh
(22:35):
that one that that didn't work, But they're gonna continue
to try and evolve. I think there are the problems
sometimes with fans and even people in my position stack
not me in particular, but others are they just think
that you just make two or three moves and you
get two or three players, and you go after the
Calves and you go after the Warriors. Like I'm sitting
here watching the Celtics as they acquired Marcus MOR's, like, Wow,
(22:57):
he's a really good player. He's a pro. He has
fourteen a game. Like they're they're getting more wings and
forwards that can compete at a higher level. I feel
like they're smartly using their assets and managing their cap
and all those things Um, what's it like from the
from the team's perspective where the fans just want you
to go and get a couple of big guys and
chase after the big threes of the world, and that's
(23:18):
not that maybe the reality of what teams can do.
I mean, sometimes it can come together. I mean, like
you said, you didn't think it worked out. I just
don't think when you make some uh in season transactions
like that, they don't always pan out right away. But
I mean idea, but not having and having a guy
that didn't participate in training camp and having him come
(23:40):
in and you know, once he gets traded to you
the point guard who he's pretty much neat to, you know,
form and build a relationship with for us to have
that type of success that we're looking for. You know,
it was injured. Cow was injured at the time. So
it was a big window there where we were waiting
on Cow to kind of get back and everything to
(24:01):
come together, and you know, and and it just didn't
pan out. We were able to make it to the
second round. Um, but uh, you know, then you're you're
facing Cleveland. You know it pretty much decreaming the crop
in the east right now, for the last couple of years,
a few years. So I think having the training camp,
you know, getting Kyle back and everybody back in into
the to the fold. It's a lot of you know,
(24:22):
moving around the Eastern Conference this year. It's kind of
funny how things could could shape up, you know, shape up.
But I think, you know, Hayward's going to Boston as
Big Morris. You know that they're they're acquiring access, but
they're losing some pieces too, And you loseing Avery Bradley,
who's a hell of a defender, you know, become a
good offensive weapon for him not having that, you know,
(24:44):
and dealing with you know, probably not the the strength
of Isaiah Thomas isn't his defense. So I mean, I
think that you know, it's it's it's a bouncing the
act to see how everything kind of plays out in
this Eastern Conference. But we feel good about where we were,
and you know, instead of trying to implode and blow
everything up, we came back with with our core guy,
(25:05):
got Kyle back in the mix, still got the mar Um.
Losing Patrick Pattison a piece like that is one of
those fours that you was talking about, kind of three
and D guys, guys that can make three and play defense.
I think that could hurt us a little bit trying
to find somebody to feel that void. But but we
feel good about who we are and hopefully we can
you know, have a training camp. Um, guys can kind
(25:27):
of mess and then come back and come together and
we'll be right when one of those teams that that's
contending for the Eastern Conference again, Stack look forward to
seeing on the NBA sideline really really soon. In the meantime,
keep up the great work. We appreciate you. Join us
on Fox Sports Radio. Thanks to appreciate you guy. Fox
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports radio dot
(25:48):
com and within the I Heart Radio app. There's a
lot of talk now because Paul George is in Oklahoma City,
Chris Paul is in Houston. Because of the dominance of
the Western Conference, the teams being so much better that
maybe maybe the NBA needs to rethink, uh the whole
(26:11):
East West. In playoff seatings seatings. Three seasons ago, Sons
owner Robert Sarver proposed seating playoffs postseason from one to
sixteen by record, regardless conference Mark Cuban, Course, owner of
the Dallas Mavericks, pitched a temporary, temporary realignment plan. The
Commissioner's office was not interested. Sarver emailed ESPN dot com
(26:34):
this week. The Eastern Conference teams don't like it. The
league has argued that schedule and balance um and and
the overlong travel make a one to six system to cumbersome.
Cuban emails, well, seven of the ten smallest markets are
in the West. I really do believe Eastern Conference teams
(26:55):
know that they can do less and still make it
to the playoffs because they are much larger, larger markets,
and they will sell tickets and advertising and get viewers,
and they will get the best of both worlds. It's
an interesting thought or possibility, and I'm sure there's a
moder crum of truth in anything, but the idea that
because of market size, the Eastern Conference teams think they
(27:18):
can do less. Like it's not accurate that the biggest
markets on the Eastern Seaboard are New York, Philadelphia in Chicago.
It's on the Eastern Sea, but Chicago, Chicago is the
second city, third biggest market, and they're now scrapping things
and starting over. The Knicks and Nets. The Nets have
(27:40):
been you know, they tried to go for it and
it didn't work, and they're a smoldering disaster of dumpster fire.
And the Knicks continue to try. Like what they signed UH.
They signed Tim Hardaway Jr. A seventy four million dollar contract.
Like it's not for lack of trying, they just haven't
been would at it. The Miami heat cleared out Miami.
(28:04):
He tried to go for it and Chris Bosh got
blood clots. Then when they got Chris Bosh the salary
off the off the UH salary cap, they went after
Gordon Heyward. They couldn't get Gordon Hayward, no matter how
much his wife wanted to live in Miami. But this
is a short term fixed to a long term um
(28:27):
a long term problem. You can't do the East and West,
mostly because the schedule and balance is a big one.
It's a big one. You know, we have this in
Major League Baseball, or you have an in balance schedule.
It's not just how many times you played teams in
(28:47):
your division, how many times you play teams in other divisions.
But as much inter league plays you play, you don't
play the exact same teams in your league. Ue schedules
are not balanced, and they'd be even more in balance
based upon East and West and the Eastern Conference teams. Frankly,
you know, if you go for it, you would get
a better seed than a Western Conference team. And though
(29:12):
travel is easier now, it's easier now than it's ever
been because teams get on their plane and there's more
space between the games. The early round games don't have
those space between games. I actually think they should get
it over with sooner rather than later. But the thing
that that nobody talks about is I said this when
(29:32):
we're talking about NASCAR. You know, like that your core
audience for NASCAR is in the Southeast, is in the Midwest, right,
That's where your core audiences. Don't over expand to California
unless you're paying extra special attention to those folks who
have tried in true NASCAR fans. And I'm gonna say
NASCAR has died, but it's definitely seen better days. Definitely,
(29:56):
it over expanded too many events, too many races, everything's
on TV, and they expanded and they forgot some of
their core audience. That happened with the NHL expand. It
forgot their core audience. Well, for the NBA, you have
(30:16):
to remember what makes you great traditionally, think about the
great series of the past, the ones we talk about
and look back glowingly. Lakers, Celtics, like the East versus West,
thing Calves and and Warriors. Now like, don't you want
to have them? You don't want to have them match
up in the semi finals because that's what would have
(30:38):
happened this year if you did one through sixteen, the
number two seed would have been the Boston Celtics, not
the Cleveland Cavaliers. East versus West just works. It works logistically,
It works in terms of stacking the games because remember
if you have uh let's say the Washington Wizards took
(31:01):
on the uh so the l A Clippers, right, the
l A Clippers in a playoff game. So the game
when in d C. And remember they have a lot
of problems in d C. Every He's like, well, they
have problems putting people in the arena in d C.
What one of the problems is the traffic so bad?
So you start a game at seven o'clock local and
it's hard to get people from work to the arena.
(31:22):
But you need to have the game started seven because
the game behind it, the West West Coast game starts
at what But that means if you're in l A,
you're watching, you're not gonna watch a playoff game at
four o'clock. You have wore o'clock. And then when they
go back to l A, who's watch a playoff game
at ten o'clock? The playoff game ends at twelve thirty
(31:45):
and the more like, you're not gonna do that. So,
in addition to the tradition of East versus West and
how it just works, the reality of those same sports
fans who you feel like, we'll show up, like they're
not gonna stay up and watch their team at twelve
thirty at night, They're just not going to, not unless
they're in the championship game. In the end game seven
(32:06):
of the NBA Finals, I understand this cycle feels like
it's a long one with the East and the West
and the West being better. And remember, the West is
great and the Lakers aren't even any good. That's what
what's crazy about it is the West is great and
the Lakers staying. Imagine when the Lakers figure things out,
(32:30):
but it'll start to work its way back right. Celtics
are starting to figure it out. I think the Raptors
have been good enough. Now the Wizards are real and
they all hang on to Bradley Beale and John Wall.
Miami will eventually get its next star. Could you take
her with some things? Yeah, But you're better off having
playoff series that have the Spurs and the Rockets. Then
(32:56):
you are having the Rockets take on the Charlotte Hornets.
You're better off with regional rivalries. Then you are trying
to somehow balance out the fact that right now we're
in a cycle to which the Eastern conferences struggling. Be
sure to catch live editions of the Doug gott Leaps
Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on Fox
(33:19):
Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. I saw
this on Pro Football Talk. Um Alicia Twerski noted that
Aaron Rodgers needs just three touchdown passes to become the
eleven passer in NFL history to throw three hundred touchdown passes.
(33:40):
The other ten quarterbacks have averaged average a hundred and
seventy one interceptions before throwing their three touchdown pay Manning
is the NFL's all time touchdown leader. I don't think
Aaron Rodgers gonna catch him five hundred and thirty nine
touchdown passes, Paymnning through a hundred fifty two interception when
(34:00):
he threw his three touchdown. Brett Farve through for five
eight career touchdowns. He had a hundred and fifty seven
interceptions when he threw his shoot me. He had a
hundred hundred seventy five interceptions when he threw his three
hundred touchdown. Drew Brees, of course, remember his career was
changed when he went to the Dome into New Orleans,
(34:20):
but when he was in San Diego early on his career,
had some arm issues. He had a hundred fifty four
interceptions when he threw his three hundred touchdown. And Tom Brady,
who many of you regard as the the greatest quarterback
of all time, hundred fifteen interceptions when he threw his
three hundred touchdown. So hundred fifteen for Tom Brady is
pretty spectacular. Aaron Rodgers is throwing seventy two interceptions. So
(34:46):
I guess here's the thing. We can have the right discussion,
or we can just have the easy discussion or the
easy argument, if you will. It's funny, you know, And
and I actually I'm really enjoying myself. But I will
tell you that there's a couple of things that are
(35:07):
specific to being in Israel. And and I don't speak Hebrew,
like I know Hebrew phrases. You know, things to say
in conversation, things to say taxi or you're ordering something,
or how to be polite. I think sort of those
things and just common everyday phrases. I know that kind
of have come back up since I've been here. But
(35:27):
when people start having a conversation like, I'm totally lost,
I have no I I have not studied, I don't
know the language at all. And so maybe it's just
they're talking loudly and with their hands, or maybe it's
just my guess is right. There's an argument every day
we get on busses to ride to whether we go
to see sites and we go to practices, and every
(35:48):
time we're there, somebody is raising their voice a somebody
else and the other is raising their voice and they're
and they're using their hands. I mean, you there, you
cannot you cannot seemingly have a conversation about a trip
anywhere without an argument, that argument, And that's how we
(36:08):
are with sports conversations. As well, like we think of well,
that's just other people, other cultures. Like now, we can't
just have a sports So the question becomes can we
have this sports discussion? Tom Brady is the most decorated
quarterback of all time and the comeback that he helped
(36:29):
engineer against the Atlanta Falcons was incredible. And remember this
is after the Atlanta Falcons ran off to a huge
lead at home in the NFC Championship game against the
team quarterback by Aaron Rodgers. But Aaron Rodgers is the
best quarterback I've ever seen play football, And so I
don't understand why why we have to say that Tom
(36:50):
Brady is the greatest of all time because his team
has won more Super Bowls, when I think everyone would
agree that Aaron Rodgers is actually a better quarterback. Now,
the similarities in Brady and Rogers in terms of statistics
and why their special is like something that gets very
(37:14):
discussed very very little. Is playing in a dome is
ideal for quarterback play, maybe even more so than playing outdoors.
Although now playing in Southern California, Drew Brees has only
played in Southern California, San Diego and New Orleans. And
while I think Drew Brees is great. I think his
(37:35):
level of great is not the level of great of others.
He couldn't play in Green Bay his whole career. He
couldn't play in New England his whole career. He couldn't.
He doesn't have that same type of arm, the ability
to cut through look the same boast are Peyton Manning.
(37:55):
Remember when they when they lost to the Baltimore Ravens
because they got beat on like a seventy two yards
Jacoby Jones beat him deep for like a seventy two
yard pass. Remember he couldn't throw the ball into the
wind at all that day at Mile High Stadium. And
even though he threw for fifty touchdown passes, once they
got to the playoffs and the weather got bad, I
(38:16):
couldn't throw a football. Rogers has an unbelievable arm, equally
good legs. And while you could sit there and try
and convince me no, no, tom Brady better reading a defense,
better brain, then why is he turned the ball over
more than Aaron Rodgers? Explain that to me. I think
(38:40):
Tom Brady is great. I think Tom Brady is the
most accomplished quarterback of all time. I don't think anybody
in modern day history to win five Super Bowls and
and do so all in such different fashion with rotating guys,
and with the exception of the Randy and look the
Randy Moss here when they went won eighteen games before losing,
and they didn't even win a Super Bowl that year.
(39:01):
But that's probably the best team he ever played on
um but for the most part, didn't do it with
superstar wide receivers. Same with Aaron Rodgers. But who's more
athletic in out of the pocket, who's got a better arm,
(39:22):
who turns the ball over less? Be sure to catch
live editions of The Doug gott Leaves Show weekdays at
three p m. Easter noon Pacific. The u c l a.
Bruins were they took the world by storm in terms
of watchability, right, And I think that some of it
is Lonzo Vall, but a lot of it was also
Steve Alford changing like, hey, we have a team that
(39:46):
wants to get up and down. We have a team
that wants to play fast, Like, let's play fast. They
were thirty one and fifteen on the year, fifteen and
three in conference play, of course, led by Lonzo Ball.
And then they've kind of doubled down on that. I'm
not sure everywhere they have one of the elite recruiting
classes in the country. Coming in. Let's catch up with
Steve Alford, the head coach of u C l A
(40:08):
who joins this coach. How are you very good? How
are you good? Man? Uh? You know, I'm kind of
falling in your your wave like you switch schools a
bunch like guys which networks a bunch. Well, we still
we still love having you on wherever we are good
to be back out in Los Angeles. We gotta, uh,
you gotta treat me to a golf game. I know
(40:28):
where you play. I've heard how good you are, and
I will be your caddie sometimes or if you let
me hit a ball, I may play with you sometimes.
That that's okay. Well, you're always welcome to I always
love getting outains playing, So if you're always welcome. Um A,
Lonzo is gonna play tonight. What What's what's a reasonable
expectation to see from him in summer league? It's hard
(40:52):
to say, you know, I just know he's fun to watch.
So we're regardless of whether it's a pick up game
and a you game or or a game at or
now you've advanced all the way to an NBA Summer
League deal. He he's just always great entertainment because he
plays a game a very exciting way, and you don't
(41:14):
see day to day you don't see things that he
does on a day to day basis. You know it
could be a take the ball out into a full
court post feed, or you know you're gonna shoot a
shot from four or five behind the NBA behind and
make it. I mean, he just he's a very exciting
player to watch and I'm sure that's what we'll see
again here in the Summer League. And I feel like,
(41:38):
and you tell me because and for people don't like
you recruit him for a long time. And obviously you
have his brother's coming in this year and then his
his younger brothers eventually gonna make his way to u
c l A. So you've seen him in so many
of these made for TV or made for tournament events.
It's always felt like to me, like the bigger the game,
the better he is. Is that that a fair assessment
(42:00):
who lones of Ball is? Yeah? I think consistently you
probably see that, um and I think we saw a
U c L a um. You know, even when all
of a sudden, maybe the competition, we had a game
that most people would say, where you're gonna win this? Um,
he was so good that he could I swear he'd
(42:20):
go in the games saying okay, I'm not. It's almost
like the McDonald's game. I think the McDonald's game. Coming
out of high school. He literally tried playing that game
without shooting shot and still gonna try to be the
m v P of the king Doman he ends up
with like fourteen assists, so he can beat you in
a lot of ways. He can reapound the ball, he
can score it, he can pass it obviously. Uh. And
(42:41):
I think as our season went along he had defensively
he started to learn how he can make a difference
defensively too. Because of his learning. You know, what's what's
fascinating is like for people who don't know U c
l A has the number four ranked recruiting class in
the country coming in. Uh. Jalen Hands is a tremendous talent,
so as Chris Wilkes too. Donald's all Americans you have.
(43:01):
But I do think that because he just has this
way about and look, he was surrounded by you know,
your son and some of the other veterans on the team,
Welsh of course as well, Like you had a really
good balance of young and old, which allowed you the
young guys to kind of learn and grow. But but
there's the expectations for freshmen to play as calmly and
(43:23):
as well as he did and make the impact that
he did. Like, how realistic is that even for this
new recruiting class you have. Well, you're right, Doug, and
I think that's what we're working hard on already here
in the summer. Last year we had three freshmen. This
year we got six, so it's a it's a bigger number, um,
And you're and I think what what Alonzo did and
(43:44):
t J. Both of those guys, they played with great poise, um,
great maturity, And you don't see that a lot in
in freshmen, let alone even the one and done. You know,
I think because a lot of the more seventeen eighteen
years of age and the maturity just isn't what year
old was. And with t J and and Alonso in particular,
(44:05):
you had two very mature, very poised individuals because I
think they had a lot of confidence in our abuilding,
not just to play, but incredible basketball. I Q both
of those guys really understand how to play. You you
were an incredible shooter. Your son Bryce to graduated scored
two thousand points. An incredible shooter. Um, he makes shots right,
(44:25):
but he he has you know, the it's not just
the release points, okay, but the way in which he
gets to it. And there's some struggle going to his
right right, like there's that little hitch going to his
right where he has to step back and go to
his left. If it were you and you couldn't do
it at U c. L A. Because he can't break
down a guy's shot and build it up and such,
would you change it? I don't know if I would
(44:49):
we When we saw Alonso early on, if you see
tape of him, it's funny. If you see tape of
him as like eleven, twelve year old, he shot on
his right side, and somewhere along the line of going
from you know it's all thirteen year old to just
getting a little bit sometimes it has to do a strength. Um,
he started bringing it on the left side of his head.
And yet, as you mentioned, the release point is right.
(45:11):
It's it's right where it needs to be. I've always
told people it's like the Jim Furret golf swing. It's
probably not your most traditional swing, but an impact. This
club is square, and he ball strikes as well as anybody.
And Alonzo, though he brings it a different path. You know,
if you look at him, ends up, he makes eighty
three's as a freshman point guard on anybody else in
(45:32):
the country that you know that did that, and he
shoots and you know, so, yeah, you're right. Is he
going to have to continue to work on his game
going going to his right and pointing up without the
step back? You know? Possibly, but he's been so successful,
I guess we gotta wait and see if it works
at this level. But every level he's been, he's been
(45:52):
very successful of playing against people that it didn't matter
which way you sent him. He can pass right or
left handed. He finds a way of getting it done.
I don't know if early on I would mess with it,
because it's not broke. It's something that's been very successful
for him. If as they get into it and the
Lakers see that this is a problem, um, then I
(46:15):
think it's something you might want to do. But initially
I think I'd leave it alone. One of my best
friends is now an assistant with the Lakers, Miles Simon,
who I know you know well, um, and he's like
the player development coach, and he's just been blown away
by how coachable Alonzo is. Not that it's a surprise,
but but a pleasant one. To the point where how
coachable he is. You coached him, you also recruit him,
(46:38):
and you've dealt with LaVar and with all of with
with all of that, which sometimes appears to be a circus.
If you were to give the honest advice to Luke
Walton as to how to coach Alonzo, what would it be.
Just do what you do and be who you are,
because that's what that's what Alonzo allowed me to be. Um.
You know, he was very respectful, and when I say respectful,
(47:02):
it's not just yes or no, sir. And and how
he goes about playing, but every day he gives you
everything he's got. He doesn't take practices off, He went
to class every day. He knew he's one and done
when he got on campus. And a lot of one
and done players end up, I think, not doing the
things they need to do academically. And Alonzo was an
a B student and went to class every day, he
(47:24):
every practice. He gave us everything he had. Uh. He
communicated well to the coaches when he didn't understand something.
So I think coach Walton has just gotta be who
he is and you don't have to change anything as
far as your style of coaching. UM, I think you
do adjust to the special talent that you have and
try to figure out the best ways of using Alonzo
(47:46):
because he is a special talent. Steve Alford joining us
on the Doug Gottlip Show, what about you, I don't
we haven't caught up. Um. It wasn't always easy to
coach Bryce, but it felt like at the end, I
remember you told the story, and I'm sure you told me,
you told everybody else the story that that you when
your dad first played you in high school, he got
(48:06):
boot for putting putting you in and at the end
he got boot for pulling you out. The experience of
coaching your son, which I told people like, it's one
that to coach your son you haven't scored two thousand
pints U c l A is crazy good. And to
finish this way, uh, four years later, what was the experience? Like,
I was tremendous to be able to as you know,
(48:27):
you being in a basketball family, you understand it, and
to be able to share that as you know, your
love of basketball, and to be able to share that
with your your children and your family. It's just one
of the special blessings that come into life that uh,
you don't know if it's ever gonna happen, but then
when it does happen, it just goes by extremely fast.
(48:47):
And I think Bryce did a phenomenal job of just
how he handled things, how he told He was terrific
with the media, he was terrific off the floor, he
was great in the locker room as a teammates, and
I think but time it was all over with um.
The majority of the fans of Chile really understood that
and appreciate it that you do what you were going
(49:08):
to get out at him in his four years was
really um I think a synopsis of just incredibly consistent work.
And but as a family, we had a lot of
fun with it. Well, listen, you you put three more
one duns in the pros. Now you've got six more
new ones in right. Hey, hey, good job, coach. Now
what you do it all over again? And yeah, by
(49:29):
the way, now can you get past season's team and
get the Eleade eight final four? Could you do that
for us? Right? Like I'm sure you talked about We
talked about that as the staff of what our team
would look like today if we had e K, T
J and Alonzo. But I like it. It doesn't happen anymore,
but back in the day, and that sounded pretty good.
I like e K. I think he's got I think
(49:50):
he's got a real chance. Yeah he's he's only eight,
he's only eighteen, right, right, A young? Yes, that's right.
That's amazing. Well listen, Uh, we'll take a bow for
the season you had. And I get back to work
and maybe sometimes I gotta I gotta stop by and
uh and see the new facility that's going up. And
I appreciate you join us inside in Lonzo. I appreciate it. Thanks, thanks,
(50:14):
thanks for having me on
This is the best of the Don Gottlieb Show on
Fox Sports Radio Foo What Up America? Dot Gottlieb Show,
Fox Sports Radio Live and Direct from the Holy Land,
actually broadcasting live this week, last week, next week from
Israel or in Jerusalem, Israel, where I'll be coaching Sunday
(00:24):
night starting Sunday at the Maccabi Games. I'll tweet out
I'll be I'll tweet out the ways in which you
can listen to the show. I listened to the games
and watch the games. By the way, guys, I'm getting
a little bit of feedback in my ear. It's almost
like on a two or three second delay working through
things in terms of being like, look, the thing about
(00:44):
Israel is this. It is a beautiful, magnificent, spiritual country.
Whether you're Muslim, whether you're Christian, or whether you're Jewish. Um,
this is a place which is incredibly sacred in your religion.
But nothing. I've determined that Israel should have a slogan,
you know, like every state has a slogan, right, and
I think even our country like America is like home
(01:06):
Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. Right. I
feel like Israel is saying should be Welcome to Israel.
Nothing is easy. Welcome to Israel. Everything is negotiable. Welcome
to Israel. Everything is crazy expensive, but we're gonna ask
you to live here anyway. Anyway, So lots of things
to get to today. I wanted to start with the
(01:27):
Boston Celtics because they made a they made a series
of moves here in which they've had to jettison like
a Kelly Olynok. They traded away Avery Bradley today. As
if you listen to our updates, Dan Buyer just updated
you with Avery Bradley and a second round pick to
the Detroit Pistons for Marcus Morris. That's the other of
(01:49):
the Morris twins, who average about fourteen a game and
was really well regarded as he's He and Markiefe have
gone from knuckleheads who have talent to being really well
regarded professionals and and face up four men who can shoot, score, rebound,
and defend some like they are both valuable players, both
(02:09):
now in the Eastern Conference, now on teams that are
trying to climb the ladder. Marquis obviously with the Washington Wizards,
and now Marcus with the Boston Celtics, trying to climb
the ladder to beat the the Cleveland Cavaliers. But here's
the problem with people. So Avery Bradley, I think everybody
loves I love him, but he was gonna be up
at the end of this year, so too is Isaiah Thomas.
(02:31):
And every Bradley was going to command in the twenty
million dollar a year range, and Isaiah Thomas is going
to be somewhere north of that. And then you have
they had a glutton of guards. They still have all
their draft picks. They got some stuff that they had
to work through, so they got Gordon Hayward. Now they
have Marcus Morris. Remember they drafted Jason Tatum, who all
reports are he has been as good as advertised in
(02:54):
NBA Summer League. We'll get more down the NBA Summer
League a little bit later on. And all I here
from people is well, really the type of rhetoric you
heard from Colin Cowhard over the last couple of hours.
Take a listen, So tell me again about this grand
plan and this patience and it's accumulation of draft picks.
(03:18):
You do realize if you were in the West, you'd
be like a seventh seed. Congrats on not inching much
closer to Cleveland, and I don't think you are much closer.
And in all four losses in the playoffs, the average
margin was over twenty five point losses. That's Colin cow
(03:40):
heard earlier today. So look, I love that that Colin
is uh is playing this up. They would not be
a seven seed, it would not be a seventh seed.
And oh yeah, but they just add Gordon Haywards. They
have Isaiah Thomas, they just added Marcus Morris. Like that
(04:02):
is not a seventh seed. And oh yeah, by the way,
like the problems with your team you have to fix slowly, methodically.
You don't just scrap and go like, hey, we're not
the Cavaliers, let's go all for it. Are the Boston
Celtics better today in terms of their ability to compete
at the top of the league than they were at
the end of the season. And the answer is, even
(04:25):
though they've lost Avery Bradley, who's a valuable valuable player, absolutely,
And oh yeah, by the way, they still have all
three first round draft picks for next year. And they
still to this point have Jay Crowder, who's likely to
be moved, so they get another piece to the pie.
The point is this that while well, we believe things
(04:47):
happen in a vacuum, Well, do we believe that things
should be very cut and dry? There are so many
different issues to which you have to navigate that you
can't quickly make a move. Here. Here's what it's like,
Um music, Do you play chess? Not regularly? But I
(05:08):
did play a lot more chess in high school. Okay,
so you know how you know how to play chess? Right? Ramost?
Do you play chess? That would be a negative? Okay,
I am, I'm I'm not a great chess player. I
can I know how to play chess? Um music, Were
you good? You like on the chess team? No, I
wouldn't say I was good. I just I took lessons
(05:29):
like an elementary school, and then it was kind of
something that I did for a little while, and then
then it was something I did less and less of.
So yeah, I understand. So did you know what romist?
Did you know any of this about music? Did you
know that he was he was? He was a chess
dork when he was a kid. I had no idea.
This is the first on the Dug gott Leap Show.
We we did not in our pre show FaceTime meetings,
(05:49):
we did not discuss this, so I did not This
is this is groundbreaking. So there's um at the Maccabi Games.
It's like the Jewish Olympics. And like, look our claim
to famous. We have Bobby Fisher, right, like our people.
We got some athletes, right, we have Lenny Krazenberg, who's
you know. We have Mark Spitz. We got some guys
out there. But if you if you take, if you
give us a sport that requires no athletic ability and
(06:11):
and uh and and intelligence with numbers, um, we we
got it. We got a chance here, right. So some
of these are some of the most decorated chess players
in the world going at it. And when you talk
to them, they're not thinking one move ahead, They're thinking
four moves ahead. I move here, he's gonna move there,
I'm gonna move there's gonna like these are all the
things that are going on your mind. My thing when
(06:33):
I was playing chess, was I was just trying to
think one move ahead, right. I didn't have the ability. Really,
I mean music, would you could you think more than
one move ahead? No? I was too young for that
and I'm still not quite there. I mean, you could
think a couple of moves ahead, like if I sacrifice
this piece that puts me in position to then take their's.
You know, it's kind of like poker to It's kind
of like poker in the sense that you have to
(06:54):
know the tendencies of what your opponents doing also, right,
So remember when you're the Boston Celtics, you have to
navigate the fact that you have your salary cap, which
which if you're under, you have to stay under in
order to make deals with teams that are under. If
you're over, you don't want to stay. You have to
stay over in order to make deals with teams that
are over. You also have the contracts you're taken on
(07:15):
the contracts. You you have your draft picks, but you
also have penning free agents for next year. Like, there's
a lot of stuff going on, and you have a
coach who continues to evolve his own style. How do
you fit that coach of style? And remember like the
Boston Celtics have made a pledge to have high character
guys on their team, So you gotta have character, You
gotta guard multiple positions. You win with veterans more than
(07:39):
with young kids. On the other hand, you have to
navigate salaries. Marcus Morris has two years left on a
very reasonable contract. They have the Gordon Hayward contract, which
is all a new money terms, which is huge money,
but that is offset by Marcus Morris. It's offset by
the Jay Crowders and some of these other deals, and
they're trying to have to navigate it. Point being like
(08:00):
everybody wants a very quick solution. Everybody wants to play
chess with somebody and win in four moves. Like you
read a book on how to win chess in chess
game in four moves. That's not the way chess games
are played. Chess is It's it's like it lasts for days.
Sometimes you don't have the time are on you right,
You're just sitting there and you're looking at it. You're thinking,
you're not thinking about just your movie. People like, just
(08:23):
move already, would you just move? Like, look, dude, if
I move here that he can move there, then I
move here that you can move there. Like there's so
much more to it. So while while Colin was gloating,
and that was earlier today, I believe that was before
Avery Bradley was moved, that the Celtics were just inching
closer to the Calves, but not really close to the Calves.
(08:45):
The rest of the world I think should stop and
take a breath and realize they're changing, they're evolving, They're
dealing with the issues of so many different things. Four
moves ahead. How the league reacts to it, What happens
to their guys moving forward, how they're going to play.
(09:05):
Can they fit in with the with the with the
character guys that they have play for Brad Stevens. Do
they fit and play a style which they want like
this is how you have to take your time, But
that's not the way in which we want things to work.
We want people to snap their fingers and all of
a sudden be able to compete with the Cavaliers. Count
(09:32):
me in on what the Celtics are doing, not to
beat the Cavaliers just yet, but to put themselves in
position to compete. And remember, the Calves have always been
because they're so top heavy. They're always a Lebron who's
never been hurt. There ever is a Kyrie Irving who
did get hurt, you know, three years ago, and that's
why they didn't win the championship. They always Kevin Love
(09:53):
and let's remember, like even the Kevin Like trade Kevin
Love for Karmolo Anthony Like, there's a lot more to
it than just guy for guy. There's the who's gonna rebound,
He's gonna do little things, who's gonna show up in
you know, February to you know, to play hard when
when there's no real reason to play hard. Count me
(10:14):
in on the Celtics plan because as it evolves, they
have a They're just loaded with wings, guys that can
play the three and the four and occasionally the two,
the three and the four, and that's where basketball is headed.
That's what the Warriors have. That's what the Cavaliers don't have.
If anything, the Warriors aren't shooting for the moon, the
(10:38):
moon being the Cavaliers. They're shooting for the stars, which
is the Golden State Warriors. Take a hard look at
what they're putting together. They're probably a prolific shooter away
from having the type of lineup which is which is
in the conversation, uh of of the Golden State Warriors. No,
(11:02):
they don't have the they don't have the stars per se.
But Isaiah Thomas was the type of there's a lot
of Steph Curry in his own way to how Isaiah
Thomas is right. Not necessarily a true point guard does
can pass a prolific score, although undersized more so than
Staff is undersized for how he plays. I'm not telling
(11:23):
you Gordon Hayward is Kevin Durant, but I think that
he brings a lot of characteristics of a uh Clay
Thompson and Kevin Durant to to the to the fold.
He plays both ends. He can score, and he can
score at three levels. And they continue to put guys
that defend rebound play multiple positions around him. It's not
(11:45):
just as easy as quick step fix. Be sure to
catch live editions of the Doug gott Leap Show weekdays
at three p m. Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the I Heart Radio app The Houston Row.
Because I think you've gotten smart, but it's also gotten really,
really interesting. I saw these quotes from Darryl Morey. So
(12:09):
remember Darryl Morey. They were second in the NBA in
points per game last year one hundred and fifteen point three.
Now they allowed a hundred and nine point six, which
is the fifth fifth worst in the NBA. And um
they lost the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals.
James Harden was just awful in Game six, but it
(12:31):
was really the loss and how they were blown out
in Game five. And what they've added is Chris Paul,
who's not only arguably the best true point guard remaining
in the NBA Mike Conley right there, but he's also
a tremendous leader. He's an outstanding defender, and he's got
great toughness. They had a p J Tucker four years,
(12:54):
thirty four million dollars they brought back to Nay as
well at a at a very UH, at a at
a minimum rate. He told Darryl Morey told Jonathan Fagan
of the Houston Chronicle, quote, this is just what this
team needs. We were able to talk with Chris Paul
and James and coach D'Antoni and say what this uh
(13:17):
and do what we need for this team. The unanimous
opinion was we need toughness, we need defense. PJ brings
that in space. We're trying to get our defense into
the top ten. Obviously, our offense was historic. Getting then
A back, getting PJ back are huge steps in that direction. Again,
this is and he said, we were closed the gap
(13:38):
on the on the Golden State Warriors. They're one of
the best teams ever. We obviously felt we need to
close the gap. We felt like we have closed that gap.
They're the ones with two rings in the last three years.
They have to you have to say, they're going to
be favorites going in and we feel like this group
can compete with them. Now, there's a couple of things
I really really like. I like that Darryl Morey who
(13:59):
is always up data based upon the idea of of analytics.
Toughness is not. That is not measurable. Our defensive statistics measurable, absolutely,
but toughness is not. It isn't it is an intangible.
It's not a tangible. Here's a guy who has always
(14:19):
done his work based upon tangibles, and so oftentimes we
think of tangibles as glamour things. Right, what tangibles is?
How many points is score? Like? No, tangibles are tangible assets. Well,
how can I measure them? How can I how much
does something way? How much just you know, how much
volume does it contain? Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Like that, those
(14:39):
are tangibles. An intangible is the what the French call
a certain genes say, right, it's inexplainable. You just have
to see it and understand it. Right. Intangible, it's it's
not measurable by any sort of calculation. It's not statistically
You can't put it on a chart and go like, oh,
(15:01):
there it is. It's an intangible quality. P J. Tucker
then used to be hilarious then and Chris Paul have
intangible qualities of toughness, defensive, grit, leadership. And so here
you have a guy who has always been the tangible, tangible,
tangible based upon here's this analytic this tells us why
(15:22):
we should shoot threes and only close twos, layups and threes. Okay, defensively,
James Harden is better than you think. Why look at
these defensive metrics when he's on the floor, based upon
who he's guarding, what the other those are all tangibles.
He has operated in that tangible world, and this is
an intangible quality. That's growth, that's evolution, that's big news.
(15:45):
And that's also kind of what the Celtics are doing,
which is that there is no perfect way to perfectly
compete with the You can't just you have your team.
You have to continue to kind of tweak your team?
What is your team? Make missing? Be sure to catch
live editions of The Doug Gottlie Show weekdays at three
pm Eastern noon Pacific. He is the two thousand and
seventeen nb D League Coach of the Year. As his
(16:09):
team part of the Toronto Raptors organization. Uh the Raptors
nine oh five won the D League Championship. He's Jerry Stackhouse.
He joined us on the Doug Gottlip Show. Stack How
are you? I'm great. Uh. Look, I'm actually coaching a
team in Israel. It's like the It's like the Jewish Olympics.
And I was just texting with a buddy of mine.
(16:31):
I was texting with a buddy of mine. His name
is Miles Simon. He's now an assistant with the Lakers.
He's getting ready for summer league tonight. He's like, man,
I'm telling you one practice and and and you know
myles like you obviously, uh you played. Um, you guys
have played against each other, like he was, like, I
learned so much. I'm just wondering and I've learned so
much during this couple of weeks with these guys, catching
(16:51):
coaching and friendlies. What's what's the one thing that you
learned early on when you're a head coach that you
didn't know during your on in story career. Well, I
mean it had to manage so many pieces other than
just the basketball. I mean, I think the best you know,
you guys think that it's just about the X and os,
but she's you know, dealing with travel and you know,
(17:12):
having to set the schedule, having to you know, set
where we stay, um, what time we're meeting, you know,
all those different things, uh, you know, and managing not
only that the players and the relationships with them, but
you know, relationship with your coaches, relationships with you you know,
the front of our office and everything. So just a
lot more to it than just being uh, like I said,
(17:35):
the player being a player, or even being an assistant
coach where you just kind of focused on the player
development and you know, maybe you've got certain teams that
you scouting things like that and that's really your primary focus.
But you know, the head coach, even though he may
not have the scouts, he has to understand all all
of that. And that's what I was able to kind
of experience last year my first year at at the
(17:57):
Helm and man it was. You know, I felt like
I got to and ten times better as as a
coach just because of that. And you know, and the
obviously that the reps from being able to make decisions
in game obviously helps and getting better on the board
and all those different things. But man, it was I'm
absolutely glad I did it. And I don't think there's
no way that you can get those experiences from just
(18:18):
being h frankly being an assistant coach and with without
getting some reps at running things. Did you like it?
Loved it? Loved it? Man, you obviously. I mean I
couldn't have scripted any better, you know, for us to
have the year that we had only you know, kind
of second year of existence. Um, you know, there was
a big thing beside. I really wanted to have this
(18:39):
component for our you know, our young guys wanted to
develop him, and we had an opportunity for like like
Bruno and Fred van Fleet. Those guys came down and
got better and was able to go back and contribute
to the big club. So that's you know, that's that's
really what they made this investment about. But we had
an opportunity for a lot of other guys to benefit
(19:00):
to you know, we're able to get called up to
the teams who didn't even have a roster spot. In
the perfect world, that's what ideally, that's what I would
like to have a roster spot for wee because you know,
have develop a guyantine develop a guy and he could
go up to the Raptors, um, you know, on a
call up. But we had guys called up to New
Orleans and UM Cleveland respectively this year. So you know,
(19:23):
overall it was a great year. And on capping that
often actually winning the winning the championship was with a
lot of fun. Jerry Stackhouse joining us in the Dugout
Live show, Like I think you're in you're still in
the spot double figures fifteen consecutive years in the NBA.
Uh and you average like thirty a game one year,
(19:44):
I remember, um, And so like, the great thing about
where you are is that these guys, even they're they're
old enough to know at least something about you, right,
Like you're not like an old head talking about back
in your day. U right, but like they but but
you like YouTube and and you know basketball rapp is like,
(20:06):
damn that guy average thirty a game, like thirty a
game in the NBA is thirty a game that's like ridiculous.
It's like the fifteen people on earth have ever ever
done that. So I'm just wondering how much more. You know,
I've always told people coaching and professional basketball so much
about respect. You have to give it as a coach,
but they have to respect you. It seems like that
would be a really easy cut through for many of
(20:27):
these guys that someday would only dream of being what
you were. How did you? How did you handle that?
I mean, it really was, man, it really is a blessing.
And I'm thankful for, you know, my playing career and
what I've been able to accomplish them because it gives
these guys who are trying to get into the NBA
and and even guys in the NBA who are trying
(20:47):
to establish themselves as rotational players, who have aspirations of
being All Stars and all those different things that I
was able to accomplish as a player. You know that
the eyes are opening, their ears are open to to
what I'm saying, and so I think that kind of
you know, that's one hurdle that I don't have to
deal with and tell them, you know, kind of just
(21:09):
just kind of follow the game play and listen to me.
And you know, and I think that I've been around enough,
I've seen it enough. I've been with enough good coaches.
I've been around enough good players understand the game of
basketball enough to help you get to where you want
to go. And unfortunately had a bunch of guys that
that bought into that and got better, you know, really
(21:29):
to play development pieces. So huge for those guys who
probably you know, they're not just the fringe guys that
they're just probably one thing away from possibly not being
a draft pick or or or not finding a way
to find a home in the NBA just from some
some small it's not a big difference between the talent
of players that's playing in the D League and guys
(21:52):
that um I probably I would say eight to fifteen
on on the NBA rosters, not you know, it's just
just a fine line of the the talent. So just knowing,
just listening and knowing that you can get there. And
that's and that's one her like said, a beautiful hurdle
that I didn't have to um deal with, that verse
that I didn't have to deal with because these guys listening.
(22:13):
They want to get there, and they trusted that I was.
I was giving them the right message. Former NBA All
Star Jerry Stackhouse Coach the Year in the NBDAL NBA
D League, joining us on the Doug Gotlip Show on
Fox Sports. Trade You obviously being a part of the
Raptors organization, you understand how they you know, went for
it this year, Uh, going out and making a big
kind of mid season acquisition with with Serge Ibaka. Uh
(22:35):
that one that that didn't work, But they're gonna continue
to try and evolve. I think there are the problems
sometimes with fans and even people in my position stack
not me in particular, but others are they just think
that you just make two or three moves and you
get two or three players, and you go after the
Calves and you go after the Warriors. Like I'm sitting
here watching the Celtics as they acquired Marcus MOR's, like, Wow,
(22:57):
he's a really good player. He's a pro. He has
fourteen a game. Like they're they're getting more wings and
forwards that can compete at a higher level. I feel
like they're smartly using their assets and managing their cap
and all those things Um, what's it like from the
from the team's perspective where the fans just want you
to go and get a couple of big guys and
chase after the big threes of the world, and that's
(23:18):
not that maybe the reality of what teams can do.
I mean, sometimes it can come together. I mean, like
you said, you didn't think it worked out. I just
don't think when you make some uh in season transactions
like that, they don't always pan out right away. But
I mean idea, but not having and having a guy
that didn't participate in training camp and having him come
(23:40):
in and you know, once he gets traded to you
the point guard who he's pretty much neat to, you know,
form and build a relationship with for us to have
that type of success that we're looking for. You know,
it was injured. Cow was injured at the time. So
it was a big window there where we were waiting
on Cow to kind of get back and everything to
(24:01):
come together, and you know, and and it just didn't
pan out. We were able to make it to the
second round. Um, but uh, you know, then you're you're
facing Cleveland. You know it pretty much decreaming the crop
in the east right now, for the last couple of years,
a few years. So I think having the training camp,
you know, getting Kyle back and everybody back in into
the to the fold. It's a lot of you know,
(24:22):
moving around the Eastern Conference this year. It's kind of
funny how things could could shape up, you know, shape up.
But I think, you know, Hayward's going to Boston as
Big Morris. You know that they're they're acquiring access, but
they're losing some pieces too, And you loseing Avery Bradley,
who's a hell of a defender, you know, become a
good offensive weapon for him not having that, you know,
(24:44):
and dealing with you know, probably not the the strength
of Isaiah Thomas isn't his defense. So I mean, I
think that you know, it's it's it's a bouncing the
act to see how everything kind of plays out in
this Eastern Conference. But we feel good about where we were,
and you know, instead of trying to implode and blow
everything up, we came back with with our core guy,
(25:05):
got Kyle back in the mix, still got the mar Um.
Losing Patrick Pattison a piece like that is one of
those fours that you was talking about, kind of three
and D guys, guys that can make three and play defense.
I think that could hurt us a little bit trying
to find somebody to feel that void. But but we
feel good about who we are and hopefully we can
you know, have a training camp. Um, guys can kind
(25:27):
of mess and then come back and come together and
we'll be right when one of those teams that that's
contending for the Eastern Conference again, Stack look forward to
seeing on the NBA sideline really really soon. In the meantime,
keep up the great work. We appreciate you. Join us
on Fox Sports Radio. Thanks to appreciate you guy. Fox
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports radio dot
(25:48):
com and within the I Heart Radio app. There's a
lot of talk now because Paul George is in Oklahoma City,
Chris Paul is in Houston. Because of the dominance of
the Western Conference, the teams being so much better that
maybe maybe the NBA needs to rethink, uh the whole
(26:11):
East West. In playoff seatings seatings. Three seasons ago, Sons
owner Robert Sarver proposed seating playoffs postseason from one to
sixteen by record, regardless conference Mark Cuban, Course, owner of
the Dallas Mavericks, pitched a temporary, temporary realignment plan. The
Commissioner's office was not interested. Sarver emailed ESPN dot com
(26:34):
this week. The Eastern Conference teams don't like it. The
league has argued that schedule and balance um and and
the overlong travel make a one to six system to cumbersome.
Cuban emails, well, seven of the ten smallest markets are
in the West. I really do believe Eastern Conference teams
(26:55):
know that they can do less and still make it
to the playoffs because they are much larger, larger markets,
and they will sell tickets and advertising and get viewers,
and they will get the best of both worlds. It's
an interesting thought or possibility, and I'm sure there's a
moder crum of truth in anything, but the idea that
because of market size, the Eastern Conference teams think they
(27:18):
can do less. Like it's not accurate that the biggest
markets on the Eastern Seaboard are New York, Philadelphia in Chicago.
It's on the Eastern Sea, but Chicago, Chicago is the
second city, third biggest market, and they're now scrapping things
and starting over. The Knicks and Nets. The Nets have
(27:40):
been you know, they tried to go for it and
it didn't work, and they're a smoldering disaster of dumpster fire.
And the Knicks continue to try. Like what they signed UH.
They signed Tim Hardaway Jr. A seventy four million dollar contract.
Like it's not for lack of trying, they just haven't
been would at it. The Miami heat cleared out Miami.
(28:04):
He tried to go for it and Chris Bosh got
blood clots. Then when they got Chris Bosh the salary
off the off the UH salary cap, they went after
Gordon Heyward. They couldn't get Gordon Hayward, no matter how
much his wife wanted to live in Miami. But this
is a short term fixed to a long term um
(28:27):
a long term problem. You can't do the East and West,
mostly because the schedule and balance is a big one.
It's a big one. You know, we have this in
Major League Baseball, or you have an in balance schedule.
It's not just how many times you played teams in
(28:47):
your division, how many times you play teams in other divisions.
But as much inter league plays you play, you don't
play the exact same teams in your league. Ue schedules
are not balanced, and they'd be even more in balance
based upon East and West and the Eastern Conference teams. Frankly,
you know, if you go for it, you would get
a better seed than a Western Conference team. And though
(29:12):
travel is easier now, it's easier now than it's ever
been because teams get on their plane and there's more
space between the games. The early round games don't have
those space between games. I actually think they should get
it over with sooner rather than later. But the thing
that that nobody talks about is I said this when
(29:32):
we're talking about NASCAR. You know, like that your core
audience for NASCAR is in the Southeast, is in the Midwest, right,
That's where your core audiences. Don't over expand to California
unless you're paying extra special attention to those folks who
have tried in true NASCAR fans. And I'm gonna say
NASCAR has died, but it's definitely seen better days. Definitely,
(29:56):
it over expanded too many events, too many races, everything's
on TV, and they expanded and they forgot some of
their core audience. That happened with the NHL expand. It
forgot their core audience. Well, for the NBA, you have
(30:16):
to remember what makes you great traditionally, think about the
great series of the past, the ones we talk about
and look back glowingly. Lakers, Celtics, like the East versus West,
thing Calves and and Warriors. Now like, don't you want
to have them? You don't want to have them match
up in the semi finals because that's what would have
(30:38):
happened this year if you did one through sixteen, the
number two seed would have been the Boston Celtics, not
the Cleveland Cavaliers. East versus West just works. It works logistically,
It works in terms of stacking the games because remember
if you have uh let's say the Washington Wizards took
(31:01):
on the uh so the l A Clippers, right, the
l A Clippers in a playoff game. So the game
when in d C. And remember they have a lot
of problems in d C. Every He's like, well, they
have problems putting people in the arena in d C.
What one of the problems is the traffic so bad?
So you start a game at seven o'clock local and
it's hard to get people from work to the arena.
(31:22):
But you need to have the game started seven because
the game behind it, the West West Coast game starts
at what But that means if you're in l A,
you're watching, you're not gonna watch a playoff game at
four o'clock. You have wore o'clock. And then when they
go back to l A, who's watch a playoff game
at ten o'clock? The playoff game ends at twelve thirty
(31:45):
and the more like, you're not gonna do that. So,
in addition to the tradition of East versus West and
how it just works, the reality of those same sports
fans who you feel like, we'll show up, like they're
not gonna stay up and watch their team at twelve
thirty at night, They're just not going to, not unless
they're in the championship game. In the end game seven
(32:06):
of the NBA Finals, I understand this cycle feels like
it's a long one with the East and the West
and the West being better. And remember, the West is
great and the Lakers aren't even any good. That's what
what's crazy about it is the West is great and
the Lakers staying. Imagine when the Lakers figure things out,
(32:30):
but it'll start to work its way back right. Celtics
are starting to figure it out. I think the Raptors
have been good enough. Now the Wizards are real and
they all hang on to Bradley Beale and John Wall.
Miami will eventually get its next star. Could you take
her with some things? Yeah, But you're better off having
playoff series that have the Spurs and the Rockets. Then
(32:56):
you are having the Rockets take on the Charlotte Hornets.
You're better off with regional rivalries. Then you are trying
to somehow balance out the fact that right now we're
in a cycle to which the Eastern conferences struggling. Be
sure to catch live editions of the Doug gott Leaps
Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on Fox
(33:19):
Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. I saw
this on Pro Football Talk. Um Alicia Twerski noted that
Aaron Rodgers needs just three touchdown passes to become the
eleven passer in NFL history to throw three hundred touchdown passes.
(33:40):
The other ten quarterbacks have averaged average a hundred and
seventy one interceptions before throwing their three touchdown pay Manning
is the NFL's all time touchdown leader. I don't think
Aaron Rodgers gonna catch him five hundred and thirty nine
touchdown passes, Paymnning through a hundred fifty two interception when
(34:00):
he threw his three touchdown. Brett Farve through for five
eight career touchdowns. He had a hundred and fifty seven
interceptions when he threw his shoot me. He had a
hundred hundred seventy five interceptions when he threw his three
hundred touchdown. Drew Brees, of course, remember his career was
changed when he went to the Dome into New Orleans,
(34:20):
but when he was in San Diego early on his career,
had some arm issues. He had a hundred fifty four
interceptions when he threw his three hundred touchdown. And Tom Brady,
who many of you regard as the the greatest quarterback
of all time, hundred fifteen interceptions when he threw his
three hundred touchdown. So hundred fifteen for Tom Brady is
pretty spectacular. Aaron Rodgers is throwing seventy two interceptions. So
(34:46):
I guess here's the thing. We can have the right discussion,
or we can just have the easy discussion or the
easy argument, if you will. It's funny, you know, And
and I actually I'm really enjoying myself. But I will
tell you that there's a couple of things that are
(35:07):
specific to being in Israel. And and I don't speak Hebrew,
like I know Hebrew phrases. You know, things to say
in conversation, things to say taxi or you're ordering something,
or how to be polite. I think sort of those
things and just common everyday phrases. I know that kind
of have come back up since I've been here. But
(35:27):
when people start having a conversation like, I'm totally lost,
I have no I I have not studied, I don't
know the language at all. And so maybe it's just
they're talking loudly and with their hands, or maybe it's
just my guess is right. There's an argument every day
we get on busses to ride to whether we go
to see sites and we go to practices, and every
(35:48):
time we're there, somebody is raising their voice a somebody
else and the other is raising their voice and they're
and they're using their hands. I mean, you there, you
cannot you cannot seemingly have a conversation about a trip
anywhere without an argument, that argument, And that's how we
(36:08):
are with sports conversations. As well, like we think of well,
that's just other people, other cultures. Like now, we can't
just have a sports So the question becomes can we
have this sports discussion? Tom Brady is the most decorated
quarterback of all time and the comeback that he helped
(36:29):
engineer against the Atlanta Falcons was incredible. And remember this
is after the Atlanta Falcons ran off to a huge
lead at home in the NFC Championship game against the
team quarterback by Aaron Rodgers. But Aaron Rodgers is the
best quarterback I've ever seen play football, And so I
don't understand why why we have to say that Tom
(36:50):
Brady is the greatest of all time because his team
has won more Super Bowls, when I think everyone would
agree that Aaron Rodgers is actually a better quarterback. Now,
the similarities in Brady and Rogers in terms of statistics
and why their special is like something that gets very
(37:14):
discussed very very little. Is playing in a dome is
ideal for quarterback play, maybe even more so than playing outdoors.
Although now playing in Southern California, Drew Brees has only
played in Southern California, San Diego and New Orleans. And
while I think Drew Brees is great. I think his
(37:35):
level of great is not the level of great of others.
He couldn't play in Green Bay his whole career. He
couldn't play in New England his whole career. He couldn't.
He doesn't have that same type of arm, the ability
to cut through look the same boast are Peyton Manning.
(37:55):
Remember when they when they lost to the Baltimore Ravens
because they got beat on like a seventy two yards
Jacoby Jones beat him deep for like a seventy two
yard pass. Remember he couldn't throw the ball into the
wind at all that day at Mile High Stadium. And
even though he threw for fifty touchdown passes, once they
got to the playoffs and the weather got bad, I
(38:16):
couldn't throw a football. Rogers has an unbelievable arm, equally
good legs. And while you could sit there and try
and convince me no, no, tom Brady better reading a defense,
better brain, then why is he turned the ball over
more than Aaron Rodgers? Explain that to me. I think
(38:40):
Tom Brady is great. I think Tom Brady is the
most accomplished quarterback of all time. I don't think anybody
in modern day history to win five Super Bowls and
and do so all in such different fashion with rotating guys,
and with the exception of the Randy and look the
Randy Moss here when they went won eighteen games before losing,
and they didn't even win a Super Bowl that year.
(39:01):
But that's probably the best team he ever played on
um but for the most part, didn't do it with
superstar wide receivers. Same with Aaron Rodgers. But who's more
athletic in out of the pocket, who's got a better arm,
(39:22):
who turns the ball over less? Be sure to catch
live editions of The Doug gott Leaves Show weekdays at
three p m. Easter noon Pacific. The u c l a.
Bruins were they took the world by storm in terms
of watchability, right, And I think that some of it
is Lonzo Vall, but a lot of it was also
Steve Alford changing like, hey, we have a team that
(39:46):
wants to get up and down. We have a team
that wants to play fast, Like, let's play fast. They
were thirty one and fifteen on the year, fifteen and
three in conference play, of course, led by Lonzo Ball.
And then they've kind of doubled down on that. I'm
not sure everywhere they have one of the elite recruiting
classes in the country. Coming in. Let's catch up with
Steve Alford, the head coach of u C l A
(40:08):
who joins this coach. How are you very good? How
are you good? Man? Uh? You know, I'm kind of
falling in your your wave like you switch schools a
bunch like guys which networks a bunch. Well, we still
we still love having you on wherever we are good
to be back out in Los Angeles. We gotta, uh,
you gotta treat me to a golf game. I know
(40:28):
where you play. I've heard how good you are, and
I will be your caddie sometimes or if you let
me hit a ball, I may play with you sometimes.
That that's okay. Well, you're always welcome to I always
love getting outains playing, So if you're always welcome. Um A,
Lonzo is gonna play tonight. What What's what's a reasonable
expectation to see from him in summer league? It's hard
(40:52):
to say, you know, I just know he's fun to watch.
So we're regardless of whether it's a pick up game
and a you game or or a game at or
now you've advanced all the way to an NBA Summer
League deal. He he's just always great entertainment because he
plays a game a very exciting way, and you don't
(41:14):
see day to day you don't see things that he
does on a day to day basis. You know it
could be a take the ball out into a full
court post feed, or you know you're gonna shoot a
shot from four or five behind the NBA behind and
make it. I mean, he just he's a very exciting
player to watch and I'm sure that's what we'll see
again here in the Summer League. And I feel like,
(41:38):
and you tell me because and for people don't like
you recruit him for a long time. And obviously you
have his brother's coming in this year and then his
his younger brothers eventually gonna make his way to u
c l A. So you've seen him in so many
of these made for TV or made for tournament events.
It's always felt like to me, like the bigger the game,
the better he is. Is that that a fair assessment
(42:00):
who lones of Ball is? Yeah? I think consistently you
probably see that, um and I think we saw a
U c L a um. You know, even when all
of a sudden, maybe the competition, we had a game
that most people would say, where you're gonna win this? Um,
he was so good that he could I swear he'd
(42:20):
go in the games saying okay, I'm not. It's almost
like the McDonald's game. I think the McDonald's game. Coming
out of high school. He literally tried playing that game
without shooting shot and still gonna try to be the
m v P of the king Doman he ends up
with like fourteen assists, so he can beat you in
a lot of ways. He can reapound the ball, he
can score it, he can pass it obviously. Uh. And
(42:41):
I think as our season went along he had defensively
he started to learn how he can make a difference
defensively too. Because of his learning. You know, what's what's
fascinating is like for people who don't know U c
l A has the number four ranked recruiting class in
the country coming in. Uh. Jalen Hands is a tremendous talent,
so as Chris Wilkes too. Donald's all Americans you have.
(43:01):
But I do think that because he just has this
way about and look, he was surrounded by you know,
your son and some of the other veterans on the team,
Welsh of course as well, Like you had a really
good balance of young and old, which allowed you the
young guys to kind of learn and grow. But but
there's the expectations for freshmen to play as calmly and
(43:23):
as well as he did and make the impact that
he did. Like, how realistic is that even for this
new recruiting class you have. Well, you're right, Doug, and
I think that's what we're working hard on already here
in the summer. Last year we had three freshmen. This
year we got six, so it's a it's a bigger number, um,
And you're and I think what what Alonzo did and
(43:44):
t J. Both of those guys, they played with great poise, um,
great maturity, And you don't see that a lot in
in freshmen, let alone even the one and done. You know,
I think because a lot of the more seventeen eighteen
years of age and the maturity just isn't what year
old was. And with t J and and Alonso in particular,
(44:05):
you had two very mature, very poised individuals because I
think they had a lot of confidence in our abuilding,
not just to play, but incredible basketball. I Q both
of those guys really understand how to play. You you
were an incredible shooter. Your son Bryce to graduated scored
two thousand points. An incredible shooter. Um, he makes shots right,
(44:25):
but he he has you know, the it's not just
the release points, okay, but the way in which he
gets to it. And there's some struggle going to his
right right, like there's that little hitch going to his
right where he has to step back and go to
his left. If it were you and you couldn't do
it at U c. L A. Because he can't break
down a guy's shot and build it up and such,
would you change it? I don't know if I would
(44:49):
we When we saw Alonso early on, if you see
tape of him, it's funny. If you see tape of
him as like eleven, twelve year old, he shot on
his right side, and somewhere along the line of going
from you know it's all thirteen year old to just
getting a little bit sometimes it has to do a strength. Um,
he started bringing it on the left side of his head.
And yet, as you mentioned, the release point is right.
(45:11):
It's it's right where it needs to be. I've always
told people it's like the Jim Furret golf swing. It's
probably not your most traditional swing, but an impact. This
club is square, and he ball strikes as well as anybody.
And Alonzo, though he brings it a different path. You know,
if you look at him, ends up, he makes eighty
three's as a freshman point guard on anybody else in
(45:32):
the country that you know that did that, and he
shoots and you know, so, yeah, you're right. Is he
going to have to continue to work on his game
going going to his right and pointing up without the
step back? You know? Possibly, but he's been so successful,
I guess we gotta wait and see if it works
at this level. But every level he's been, he's been
(45:52):
very successful of playing against people that it didn't matter
which way you sent him. He can pass right or
left handed. He finds a way of getting it done.
I don't know if early on I would mess with it,
because it's not broke. It's something that's been very successful
for him. If as they get into it and the
Lakers see that this is a problem, um, then I
(46:15):
think it's something you might want to do. But initially
I think I'd leave it alone. One of my best
friends is now an assistant with the Lakers, Miles Simon,
who I know you know well, um, and he's like
the player development coach, and he's just been blown away
by how coachable Alonzo is. Not that it's a surprise,
but but a pleasant one. To the point where how
coachable he is. You coached him, you also recruit him,
(46:38):
and you've dealt with LaVar and with all of with
with all of that, which sometimes appears to be a circus.
If you were to give the honest advice to Luke
Walton as to how to coach Alonzo, what would it be.
Just do what you do and be who you are,
because that's what that's what Alonzo allowed me to be. Um.
You know, he was very respectful, and when I say respectful,
(47:02):
it's not just yes or no, sir. And and how
he goes about playing, but every day he gives you
everything he's got. He doesn't take practices off, He went
to class every day. He knew he's one and done
when he got on campus. And a lot of one
and done players end up, I think, not doing the
things they need to do academically. And Alonzo was an
a B student and went to class every day, he
(47:24):
every practice. He gave us everything he had. Uh. He
communicated well to the coaches when he didn't understand something.
So I think coach Walton has just gotta be who
he is and you don't have to change anything as
far as your style of coaching. UM, I think you
do adjust to the special talent that you have and
try to figure out the best ways of using Alonzo
(47:46):
because he is a special talent. Steve Alford joining us
on the Doug Gottlip Show, what about you, I don't
we haven't caught up. Um. It wasn't always easy to
coach Bryce, but it felt like at the end, I
remember you told the story, and I'm sure you told me,
you told everybody else the story that that you when
your dad first played you in high school, he got
(48:06):
boot for putting putting you in and at the end
he got boot for pulling you out. The experience of
coaching your son, which I told people like, it's one
that to coach your son you haven't scored two thousand
pints U c l A is crazy good. And to
finish this way, uh, four years later, what was the experience? Like,
I was tremendous to be able to as you know,
(48:27):
you being in a basketball family, you understand it, and
to be able to share that as you know, your
love of basketball, and to be able to share that
with your your children and your family. It's just one
of the special blessings that come into life that uh,
you don't know if it's ever gonna happen, but then
when it does happen, it just goes by extremely fast.
(48:47):
And I think Bryce did a phenomenal job of just
how he handled things, how he told He was terrific
with the media, he was terrific off the floor, he
was great in the locker room as a teammates, and
I think but time it was all over with um.
The majority of the fans of Chile really understood that
and appreciate it that you do what you were going
(49:08):
to get out at him in his four years was
really um I think a synopsis of just incredibly consistent work.
And but as a family, we had a lot of
fun with it. Well, listen, you you put three more
one duns in the pros. Now you've got six more
new ones in right. Hey, hey, good job, coach. Now
what you do it all over again? And yeah, by
(49:29):
the way, now can you get past season's team and
get the Eleade eight final four? Could you do that
for us? Right? Like I'm sure you talked about We
talked about that as the staff of what our team
would look like today if we had e K, T
J and Alonzo. But I like it. It doesn't happen anymore,
but back in the day, and that sounded pretty good.
I like e K. I think he's got I think
(49:50):
he's got a real chance. Yeah he's he's only eight,
he's only eighteen, right, right, A young? Yes, that's right.
That's amazing. Well listen, Uh, we'll take a bow for
the season you had. And I get back to work
and maybe sometimes I gotta I gotta stop by and
uh and see the new facility that's going up. And
I appreciate you join us inside in Lonzo. I appreciate it. Thanks, thanks,
(50:14):
thanks for having me on
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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