August 7, 2020 • 42 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon, sitting in for Doug Gottlieb, blast the New Orleans Pelicans for sitting Zion Williamson in a winnable game. The guys share an extremely hot take on Aaron Rodgers and assist the NFL in the proper way to play out the 2020 season amid the coronavirus pandemic. Finally, they speak with 10-year NBA veteran Ryan Hollins about the disappointment he’s seen in Zion Williamson!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlip
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time, that's twelve to
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for the Doug Gottlip Show at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
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Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:22):
of the Doug Gottlive Show on Fox Sports Radio. Well,
speaking of moving and shaking today, obviously day two the
p g A Championship. Will keep you updated on UH
Tiger's day as it goes for the rest of the
day today, But a big news out of the NBA
to start, and there's a couple of big points to
(00:42):
make off of this. Uh the Pelicans who in theory
are battling for a playoff spot, and I say in
theory because of what they decided to do today. I'm
doing the air quotes too, just so people, I'm doing
the air quote. Zion Williamson will rest and will not
play Friday night against the Washington Wizards. That is the
(01:03):
reason it is rest. There's no other reason. There's no
he's you know, he's out of shape. He's this, he
weighs too much. It's just rest for Zion Williamson. So
as the Pelicans, i say, allegedly try to make their
push for the playoffs, playing the second night of back
to backs, they will play without Zion Williamson. Now, this
is really the definitive thing to know about Zion and
(01:24):
the mystery around his playing time and what is happening
with him as now the Pelicans went from hey, we're
right there. We could be a team that gets into
the restart in the bubble and is phenomenal. They do
not care about the playoffs, right, Zion Williamson's health is
the number one thing they are concerned about. Everything you've
heard about Zion, why he's not playing as many minutes,
(01:45):
why he's not playing at the end of games, it's
all true. Is he too heavy and out of shape? Absolutely?
We told you when he was drafted. The biggest thing
about in his weight. When you come in the league
is the second biggest guy overall at nineteen, your weight
is going to be an issue. Right. His weights a thing,
His sta amena is a thing. The way he plays
defense is a thing. We talked to Rick Bucker on
our Night show last week he said, listen, Zion sucks
(02:07):
playing defense. Those were his exact words. Zion sucks playing defense,
so it's hard to have him out there during high
leverage defensive situations. All of these things are true. So
when you put this all in, the reason Zion is
not playing as much, not playing more, and as playing
time is such a big deal as they are afraid
that he is going to get hurt if they put
him out there for longer periods of time. He has
(02:28):
been hurt each of the last three years. Got hurt
a senior year in high school, got hurt with Duke,
got hurt coming into the league this year, he has
been hurt. And they want to obviously extend his career
as long as they can, and this is how you
do it. We we gotta limit his minutes and make
sure that this is the most important. The playoffs would
be great, but really, how far are they going to go?
They do not care about making the playoffs. If they did,
(02:50):
you would think they could put a healthy guy out
there who's nineteen years old, and you can put him
and he can and he can play, But they can't.
They are protecting his his health hope being that he
can get past these early bits of injury and frustration,
get his body under control, all things that need to happen.
And that's the number one thing. They do not care
about making the playoffs. If they did, they'd be doing
(03:12):
things a hell of a lot differently. The very least,
they'd be playing at the end of games when they
need to close things out, if you're talking about minutes.
But this is the number one thing for the Pelicans.
Every all the talk about them get into the playoffs
out the window. That's output because they do not care
about making it. Well, I mean, you can play a
little hot take nonsense with regard to what Rick Bucker
had to say and what we've watched on the court.
(03:33):
Him not being there defensively actually helps them helps them defensively, sure,
so hot take nonsense. There. He was ten of twelve
from the field in his last game as well, so offensively,
you still see the bursts, right, and he's been one
on a burst limit or whatever nonsensical term they coined
last week. And now you get to this point, and
(03:54):
it's that level of concern because obviously there there is
a big mar cantability and cap space associated with keeping
this guy healthy. I've watched it from the memorabilia and
trading card world. There's a bounty on a card that
hasn't been pulled yet that is north of a half
a million dollars. So you know, when you start talking
(04:16):
about the excitement that he's generated, nobody's coming into the
league like this since Lebron. I mean, we've had a
lot of guys that you had some hope that they
become stars. But let's face it, it's seventeen years that
we we've waited on this, and job RAN's been fantastic.
This rookie class has a number of stars. Tyler Harrow
(04:37):
Uh there in Miami is lightening it up as well.
But it's just the the magnitude of this guy. You
you're trying to wrap him in bubble wrap, but also
give people a taste, right, It's like, we can't show
you everything here. It's like teaser trailers. You're gonna love
this movie. Here's thirty seconds of it. But I want
(04:58):
it now. If it's due and the effects are done,
why can't I watch it now? It's like, no, no, no,
He's still a work in progress. So post bubble into
the next run of season where in theory. All the
workouts are in place, and you can moderate monitor everything
all the way through. Because he came in in shape,
(05:18):
or it looked like it right when they first entered
the bubble. It's like then he left and then it went.
It went downhill fast, and you see what we've We've
watched the last two weeks, and there's body language every
once in a while when the explosiveness isn't there, he
doesn't make a play. So he's got to get past that.
He's gotta get some Stewart Smalley help. I think I'm
(05:39):
good enough, I'm smart enough, and I gotta learn this
rotation so I'm actually back on defense. You know, this
is not something to say, oh my goodness, the Pelicans
are evil there because many teams aren't really prioritizing getting
to the place as we're seeing in the bubble. Certain
teams are the Blazers, Surly are the Phoenix Sun Surely
are other teams not so much because you're seeing they
(06:00):
start how much do we really are we really going
crazy trying to get ourselves to get in. We don't
either don't have the buy in. We want to go home.
There's different reasons and everybody is there for it. Even
Lebron is saying the Lakers are struggling for things that
are going on inside the bubble. But this is you know,
we we saw this with Michael Jordan's his second year
in the league. He broke his foot and when he
(06:20):
came back, I remember it was every day was that
tonight Jordan can play six minutes and that's it. And
as soon as six minutes game, they took him out
of the game, and he play a couple of games
at six minutes. The next game was okay, now he
can play six and a half minutes, and at six
and a half minutes they would take him out of
the game. Then it was six minutes and forty five seconds.
Then he could play seven minutes. And that's what the
(06:40):
button that Jordan didn't like it, fans didn't like it,
but this was the number one thing. It was. The
priority was to make sure he gets healthy. The thing is,
I don't know if Alvin Gentry survives this. That's that's
the main thing. Suddenly, Hey, you know, playing playing Zion
with all this different time, not playing him at the
end being evasive. If the Pelicans don't don't achieve the playoff.
(07:00):
I don't know if he's the guy that survives us,
that's the whole thing. And so he may be keeping
Zion Williamson healthy for the next head coach. But this
is this is the Pelicans thing. They are staying there.
They're gonna ge Zion being healthy. That's the priority number one.
What's priority number two? Keeping Zion healthy and all the
way down. That's what it is. This is not their year.
We're gonna wait, We're gonna hopefully he gets a year,
(07:21):
keeps growing into his body and he winds up staying
healthy and being a bigger competitor, and we can do
it more next year. But right now doesn't matter to
the New Orleans Pelicans. Makes no difference. Two things off
of that, I mean, you mentioned the Jordan effect and
then being the Southside Chicago native. Remember watching that in
the battles that played out, and you got to see
part of that in the last dance, they talked about
(07:43):
that fight to get back on the court. That was
going on with the front office and and everybody, so
very real and very tense, because you know, you always
have that one flash point when you have a superstar
in your in your city where it's like, all right,
is this the thing that breaks the relationship? Right, Kobe
(08:03):
nearly had it, Magic nearly had it long long before that,
I was able to get a coach fired there. Uh,
and and go on down the line. I mean, we can,
we can pick up pretty much everybody that hits that
level of stardom and dominance that that there's a flash
point that occurs, and certainly with Jordan's that was one
(08:24):
of major concern in Chicago. And eventually it works out.
He scores sixty three against the Celtics, and you know,
the the legend grows from there. But but with Zion,
you're absolutely right, you're you're trying to figure out exactly
how to best manage this for Alvin Gentry, for all
he knows, for all we know, he's already he already
(08:47):
knows the writings on the wall. You know you're got
you're the guy to bring him in, teach him up,
and then the next guy gets to to come in,
and you know you've already tapped to the bullpen to
switch sports. Uh for a second, but you're trying to
figure out your long term asset and how to keep
him healthy. And the worst part of it Jason, is
that the way Memphis has played, You've opened the door.
(09:10):
Every door had opened for the playoffs. They've opened the
door for the next to somehow get back in from
the East and back into get to the bubble and play.
That's how much they've opened the door. Yeah, I mean,
it's just been hard watching. They've lost a couple of
players to injury, uh, and that continuity hasn't been there. Look,
they've got so much talent there in Memphis as well,
so they're they're gonna be fun to watch as these
guys grow with with with Morant and Brandon Clark and such.
(09:34):
But you know, for for the Pelicans now, now we're
getting excited and going back through that Son's roster and
raising an eyebrow there. And it's certainly you and I
have talked a lot on our evening show about the
trail Blazers, and we knew about the back court, but
the four months of readying for the Bubble allowed the
(09:55):
big guys to get healthy and to come back, and
all of a sudden, that's a different team playing on
a whole other level. We saw what Damian Lillard did
last night that gained headlines all over the place, so uh,
setting up for a fun run. Unfortunately, it doesn't look
like Zion and the Pelicans will be joining us much longer. Well.
The other part of it is this is that Jason
Smith Mike Harmon in for Doug Gottlieb to Doug gotlie show,
(10:17):
Why the hell is the NBA playing back to backs
in the bubble? It makes no sense. It's the one
misstep they've had because everything else has been phenomenal. I mean,
they've shown this is how we're gonna do it right now,
this moment in time in COVID nineteen, we're doing it.
We're not talking COVID nineteen when we talk NBA anymore.
Other sports. Yeah, we're not talking it that way. Why
the hell are they playing back to backs? There's no
(10:38):
need to. You're playing eight games, and if you keep
some regular season teams in extra three or four days,
you do it. Why are you playing back to backs?
All teams are gonna do is sit their stars. The
Pelicans are sitting Zion Williamson tonight right, Lebron sat last night,
Lakers and the Rockets. These are giveaway games. Their teams
are gonna say, we're just gonna sit our guys, doesn't matter.
(10:59):
They haven't played a long time. We don't want them
to play a lot in a short amount of time
as we're gearing up for the playoffs. I don't get it,
S T N T. How do they feel last night?
Their Markeee game was Rockets Lakers? Oh yeah, early in
the day. Guess what, Lebron's not gonna play. Yeah, kind
of a sore growing he's gonna sit out. Oh great, thanks,
thanks for second night of back to backs doing that
for us. That that I don't understand. They try to
(11:19):
limit them everywhere else, and they're trying to do it
the last year's But now when you don't need to
do it, when you're scheduling eight games per team, you're
scheduling back to backs, you're starting games at nine o'clock
in the morning, and you're figuring, you know, you don't
need to. I love waking up going boy that games
in the in the third quarter already go. But that's
what I don't get. There's no reason to do it,
(11:40):
and yet the NBA does it, and and it's a
it's a huge mistake that they made. And I really
would like to hear why they scheduled back to backs,
because I don't know, it doesn't make any sense. I
have to wonder if in the bargaining to get players
to the bubble in the first place, this was one
of the the concessions that there was a time frame stipulated,
(12:01):
kind of like baseball, right, all right, you gotta play
all these games in sixty six days, very few days off, right,
sixty games, sixty six days. Let's go. And then obviously
you've got fallout from when teams have a positive test
or whatever else that may may have to adjust or
just have a lot of seven inning doubleheaders for the
final two or three weeks of the season. But I
(12:21):
have to wonder if that wasn't part of what the
NBA players fought for as well, knowing based on where
we were in the playoff race, right the only spot
really up for grab was that eight seed. Everybody, well
else was in just a matter of a little bit
of shuffling, that maybe that was the one of the
concessions that had to be made. Shorten it up and
(12:42):
let's get done. Be sure to catch the live edition
of The Doug gott Leap Show weekdays at three p m.
Easter noon Pacific on Fox Sports radio and the I
Heart Radio app. Look, there's been a lot of talk
this week about Aaron Rodgers and the relationship with Jordan's
Love and what's going to happen. Kyle Brandt of Good
Morning Football didn't interview with Aaron Rodgers and which he said, listen,
(13:02):
I see the reality in front of me. I see
what's going on. Their future for Aaron Rodgers isn't in
green Bay. And just to to realize what's going on
in green Bay. The Packers would cut Aaron Rodgers if
they could, but they can't obviously because they owe him
a lot of money and the backlash from the fans
would be immense. They would cut him if they could.
(13:23):
They want to move on to Jordan's Love. You don't
draft a quarterback in the first round unless you want
him to be your starter sooner rather than later. And
you can sit here and say, but Aaron Rodgers sat
for three That was in two thousand and five. That's
fifteen years ago. That doesn't happen now. And they are
making a push to get a change after a year
in which they are one step away from the super Bowl,
(13:45):
one game away, And what would you say they would
do with your quarterback playing at a really high level.
And he's still young still, you know, thirty seven, thirty
still was a few more years left before he really
hits the other side of the mountain. He's still playing
at a high level. Your team is that close to
the super Bowl, and what do you do. We take
a quarterback. We trade up to get a quarterback in
the first round rather than to get a player that
(14:05):
can fill a hole and get you to the super Bowl.
All Right, the Packers don't care about the super Bowl
as much as they care about replacing Aaron Rodgers. They
want him out and they've hit on this is what
it's gonna be. It's gonna be an awkward year. And
at the end of this year, Rodgers is gonna want
to trade. We're gonna say, okay, will allow him to
seek a trade, and he will go someplace else. It's
(14:26):
exactly what they did with Brett Farve. If they cut
would cut Brett Farve if they could have in two
thousand and seven. But what's gonna happen? You owe them money,
there's a backlash. What are we gonna do? It's it's
awkward for a few months. As Farve didn't know I'm
gonna I'm gonna stay. Do I want to stay? Do
I want to play? They tell him he's got to
fight it out in training camp with Aaron Rodgers if
he wants to come back. That pushes far V out
(14:47):
the door. So Farve walks away and the Packers go
to Aaron Rodgers and nobody really bats an eye because, well,
I can understand far of being upset, but the name
on the front of the jersey is more important than
name on the back. So okay, let's move on. This
is what's happening now. The Packers are staying silent. Rodgers
is the guy doing all the media saying it's gonna
be time for me to move on. The future is
(15:09):
not with me. When you know a divorce is coming,
It's not gonna be two three years, right, It's gonna
be this one really difficult, awkward year. And then at
the end of it, they're both gonna want to move on.
The Packers can say, Okay, some are gonna blame us
for pushing Aaron Rodgers out, but we're gonna get support.
Aaron was kind of near the end. However, it's going
to go. It's not gonna be overwhelmingly. What are the
Packers doing pushing Aaron Rodgers out the door. It's not
(15:31):
gonna be Bill Belichick cutting Bernie Kozar. And there's all
kinds of protests going on at the at the Browns
of facilities. But this is the reality for the Packers.
They want to move on from Aaron Rodgers. It's not
about Jordan's love. It's about not having Aaron Rodgers anymore.
Whether it's they're sick of his act, they're sick of
him changing the plays, they want to change the offense.
(15:51):
All of these things go into it. But they want
to move on from him, and they would do it
right now if they could. They would cut them if
they could, but obviously they can't. Yeah, I mean, we
look at what the cap implications would be for this year,
uh and we're talking north of fifty million dollars a
dead cap uh And next year it's just a paltry
thirty one point five. Biggest thing for me, you know,
(16:14):
as you as you talk about the pending separation uh
and divorce and Aaron Rodgers in another Jersey, remember the
great words of Velvet Revolver. Do it for the kids.
They say, it ain't about you anyway, which means the
Packers recognize and La Fleur recognizes George Love is nowhere
close to being ready to play NFL football. All right,
(16:36):
that is a raw talent, and I think it took
the larger approach of all right, we might have been
one game away from the super Bowl, but we were
miles away from the team we were trying to beat.
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug
gott Leap Show weekdays at three p m. Easter noon Pacific.
The Cups Cardinals game tonight was postponed after another Cardinals
(16:58):
players tested positive for COVID nineteen, and so while the
rest of the series has not been put into uh
limbo yet, the game tonight at least obviously, what's the
test going to be? As the player asymptomatic and they come,
can they play? And you know, Major League Baseball is
just going to be dragged across the finish line this season.
(17:22):
Why because they didn't make a plan for what's gonna
happen when you get positive COVID nineteen tests. For everything
Baseball did, Rob Manford, they spent so much time going
back and forth over the money that when they finally
said Okay, we want to play sixty games. They put
in a sixty game season. You're not playing in a bubble,
so you know you're gonna get positive COVID nineteen tests.
It's just a part of the population. That's how it's
(17:43):
going to be, whether it's players not being careful enough
or whether it's just simple day to day things. I
went to the grocery store and I touched a shopping
cart and then I rubbed my eyes. I mean, sometimes
it happens like that, you know, it could be that.
I was so a week ago. I was paranoid for
a day because I went to get gas and I
got gas, and and I put the gas tank back
(18:04):
and and and I like a bug flu in my
eye and I rubbed my eye. Go, oh my god,
how many people have touched this gas? Like I didn't
sanitize my hands. I was like panicked for like a
full day. But this is how it happens. It doesn't
always need to be guys around at bars. It doesn't
need to be that guys are not doing the right things.
It could just be sometimes life happens, and baseball didn't
plan for that. Because what happened as soon as you
(18:25):
saw games getting postponed, and now there's three four games
not being played at night because of the opening positive
test for the Marlins. Other teams being affected because they
can't play their games now the Cardinals positive test. You're
loading up double headers of seven innings. Major League Baseball
is making up their rules on the fly, so they're
gonna limp towards the finish. We I could even see
(18:46):
it coming where Rob Manford has said, you know what,
we gotta pause. We gotta pause for a week. We
gotta make up games that have been made up because
I can't give uh, two teams fifteen doubleheaders. I just
can't do it. I can't have teams play that many games.
Maybe they cut the number of games down, uh from
sixty to fifty five so they can fit it in
because you can't keep playing into December. But Major League Baseball,
(19:07):
that's the big thing that they did not do, was
planned for what's gonna happen if we get positive COVID
nineteen tests. This is what I'm hoping the NFL is
watching and learning right now, going, Okay, we got a
plan for this inevitability, because to have a game postponed
in Major League baseball. Look, they're still figure out a
way to make it up with double headers. If you
get one game in the NFL postponed, one game that
(19:29):
you have to add potentially a whole week to the
schedule to make it up because it may not line
up with buys. Man, you have one game postponed, and
you know there's gonna be mornings on Sunday where hey,
fifteen players have COVID nineteen or six players have COVID nineteen,
including all our quarterbacks. We can't play this game today
and we have to postpone it. It's just going to happen.
And so I would hope the NFL says, all right,
(19:52):
this is our plan. Now, Maybe what we do is
instead of playing a full schedule, we play fourteen games,
and we build in two more bye weeks, and we
have a bye basically every month where we can make
up games that had to be postponed a couple of
weeks ago. Because other than that, you're you're you're talking
about adding all kinds of time. Because maybe it's not
the different teams that have to make up games. What
(20:13):
if one team's got to make up two or three games,
then you gotta extend the season three games, what if
they're what if their their record is seven and four.
You can't just say, all right, well you're going in
by winning percentage. So I would hope that the NFL
has some kind of plan somewhere where it's okay, let's
really understand that we can have another schedule out there,
or maybe it's better off just to change in the
beginning and say we're gonna play a schedule, but we're
(20:34):
gonna build in these bye weeks so we can make
up games when we have to. It's not ideal, but
how are else are you gonna deal with COVID nineteen,
because you're gonna have it unless you're just gonna hide
the positive test results on Sunday morning. That's the only
way that's gonna happen, is that you're not if we
hide the test results and nobody tests positive Sunday morning
before a game, which gets a little conspiracy theory, but
I wouldn't put it past the NFL, especially when you
(20:57):
get the story out of Colorado State that coaches are
telling players don't report positive tests so we can keep
playing games. So there's gotta be some kind of less
in the NFL learns right away from this, saying, all right,
this is going to happen to us. Just because we
play with more players, we're traveling further than than the
other than the other teams are. Maybe it's a different schedule.
(21:17):
Maybe it's it's someplace where we don't have to fly
so much. Uh. Maybe some games we can take trains
to or busses do. Whatever it is. There's gotta be
some kind of plan for when the COVID nineteen virus
hits and games get postponed. The NFL can make them
up when they have because if not, Oh but we're
gonna be in for a week NFL season. Let's bring it. Uh.
The planes, trains, automobiles, video highlights coming to you NFL
(21:41):
dot com. No question about that as well. We're road
tripping with the quarterbacks of the New York Football Jets
as they get ready to play No. Look, Major League Baseball.
They announced thirteen positive tests of the thirteen thousand samples
last week. That's coming from Bob Nightingale USA. Today, seven players,
six staffers. It's still contained two two teams, the Marlins
(22:05):
the first place. Marlin's I gotta say that every time
we do it. Uh, and the Cardinals. And so when
we look at the way you react, you pivot. And
I like the fact that the NFL is working behind
the scenes and not putting this all out for media
consumption and fan votes and hot take nonsense. Right, I.
(22:26):
I don't need the forty two plans or whatever you've
got going there, because don't tell me those schedule guys
haven't been you know, had an I V of caffeine
running through them to make sure they've come up with
alternate uh permutations to this to try to make it work. Right,
there's just so much on the line, and we know
both from a monetary standpoint, but from a health standpoint
(22:50):
and the public reaction right there, they already get no
benefit of the doubt when it comes to player safety,
player health protocols. It's trap. So that's why it was
such a big deal. And you had guys like Odell
Beckham Jr. Before they reported to camp wondering aloud, how
do we make this work? There's not a lot of
(23:10):
guys talking about that. Yeah, you had sixty six guys
opt out on the Grand Scheme. It's not a ton, right,
it's it's a eight guys from the Patriots, which is
you know, a whole other story and narrative that will
have books about when when this season passes. But sixty
six guys out of this league of contact, A lot
(23:32):
of offensive and defensive lineman. You know, guys bought in.
Whether it's the brevity of their careers, the chance to
make their money, whatever their considerations are. You just wanting
to go out and play football, right, this is what
I do. I'm in my mid twenties, late twenties, whatever,
But I I firmly believe and maybe I'm just being
(23:53):
a cheerleader, and I'm I gotta I gotta get some
bomb bombs that that the NFL is doing this right
with alternate plans. They're just not put into the public
until they need to, Right, Why why lay it all
out for scrutiny and and just the chaos that we've
seen in all these other sports. Or you don't like
that part, well we'll take that, we'll amend that. No.
(24:14):
I mean, at some point though, Mike, I understand that,
But at some point you can't just keep saying, oh,
we got it, trust us, But what's your plan? I
know we got it, yeah, but what is it? I
do know we got it in any walk of life.
Whenever you're you're planning for something, you're trying to do
something big, you want to know everything going on. And
you know, teams want to know. It's not just fans,
(24:35):
but but look in the media, but teams want to know.
Coaches want to know what's our plan? How are we
going to deal with this? What are what are we
gonna do if we wind up uh having positive COVID
nineteen tests And maybe this potentially helps positive tests being
reported and being hidden. If there's a plan in place
to make up these games and it's not what we
gotta play this game because who knows what's going to happen.
(24:56):
At some point you have to you have to assuage
everybody that everything is okay. Because wherever you are, whatever
leaders are, whether it's your your your mayor your governor
the president, whoever it is you're you're trusting all your
local and federal government, you want to know, well, you
want to know, Like if you hear a leader say,
I got it, Well, what's the plan, don't worry about it?
I got it? No, but but but but what's the plan.
(25:18):
And there's no plan, there's no mention, there's you gotta
hear it. I mean everybody, everybody wants to be put
at ease and no and have confidence that the leaders
are going to be able to take this through and
they have the plan for COVID nineteen, because clearly Major
League Baseball didn't have one. So if I'm if I'm
judging by the sports, I know it's haphazard. NBA had
a great ass plan, This plan was awesome, and HL
(25:39):
had a great ass plan. It was awesome. MLB's plan
was not that good. And this is the This is
the leader of one of the top three sports in baseball.
So hey, NFL, who has struggled with things morally for
a long time, what's your plan, because really the trust
level isn't there. Make make everybody know that what your
plan is, that we got it, that we can go
to adapt to something if there's positive COVID nineteen. This
(26:02):
is why players are talking about opting out so much
and not playing. They're not getting the confidence level and
the reports that they feel they need to from the
National football Ingage. Now most of them are and the
opt outs get a lot of attention because these are
players not playing, which is a story. Sixty six players
not playing. All right, that's a little bit more than
one full team when you think about it. But in
the end there's still you can tell because of this.
(26:24):
If you have sixty six players who are opting out,
there's many more who were nervous but are playing anyway.
At some point they're gonna have to say, all right,
this is our plan if this happens, this is what
we're gonna do, and and that's understandable, or just let
us know that a plan exists, just say yeah, we
got it. If there's a COVID nineteen interruption, there are
bye weeks we can build in. There are things we're
going to do, and that Okay, then I'll stop back,
(26:45):
sit back, and go all right, NFL's got it. There's
a plan. If this happens, they'll be able to figure
it out. It doesn't need to be in all that
much detail. Just just give us an idea and and
some crumbs that you have one and and and people
will feel better about it. Yeah, and then the crumbs
have to keep cha changing along the way. I'm I'm
just of the belief when it comes down to it, Look, football,
you you have some inherent risk, and we have all
(27:07):
these zero positive tests all these other places. I mean,
if you're gonna go the hey, the NFL can cover
things up. You don't think they can do that in
other leagues. Of course, I'm just saying, if you don't
don't have to win the NBA, you don't have to
I mean, you're not having them. How do you know, though, Well,
because if somebody if in the NBA, in the NBA,
(27:27):
if somebody didn't feel good with and they tested positive
and they were kept away from what if they feel
like if there was they were asymptomatic, they're still getting tested,
still getting tested. So but to my point, if you're
gonna say they're gonna hide positive tests in the NFL,
I say, how how can you be a hundred percent
sure these other leagues that are telling you they got
nothing are are really have nothing? Well, because the the
(27:50):
NBA has been testing for a long time, They've put
everybody in a bubble. They're not around people who have
COVID nineteen. So as long as people aren't getting in
and COVID nineteen isn't getting in, there's no COVID. Players
are gonna coming from out. Players are gonna say things
it players would have said something if they were kept
away from a team and they weren't feeling good, it
(28:11):
would be guess what and and and and people would
know that. Reporters would say, Hey, so and so wasn't
there tonight. Why was so and so not in the
bench night? We can't say, okay, that's that's COVID nineteen.
From that point that in baseball you can look into
it and say, it's the same thing. Here's a player
not with the team. Why were they not there? Because
all right, now, what's the reason? We would know that
by now, in the bubble with things that are happening,
(28:32):
we would know that that was the case. And if
it does find out, we find there could be some crazy,
over the top plan to keep everybody healthy despite code,
we would know more of that by now. But you're
talking about the NFL that's gonna test Sunday morning before
the games. You know you're gonna test during the week,
and they're gonna test before the game Sunday morning, And
could information get lost? Could things happen right there? Yeah,
(28:53):
you're talking about the NFL games. We're talking about NBA
games right now. That really don't matter to anybody that's
trying to get into the you know, the playoffs in
the Western Conference NFL Sunday morning. It's a different bit.
But we just went through the whole Matthew Stafford thing.
So there's your there's your case and point for the
other that did have did have a false positive, but
noubt the NBA. It's pretty season, so it's fine. But
what if that happens when exactly they would keep testing
(29:16):
and it would it's what you're trying to get the
bugs out of it now. Stafford would have lost the game.
The NBA, we on the lines would have lost. They
would have lost. No, no, but he would have been
out exactly. They probably would have stopped the game. Yes,
but it's good they're getting they're trying to get the
bugs out of it now, allegedly and apparently rather not allegedly.
Apparently they're trying to get the bugs out of it now.
If you want to compare the NBA to the NFL,
(29:39):
this is when it gets big. When we get to
the conference semifinals, We get to the conference semifinals and
Conference finals and NBA Finals, then we see what the
testing has done. Then our guys gonna be tested every
single day and they really gonna be tested then or
is it gonna be all it's right now. It's it's
easy to do things the right way with the NBA.
You want to make sure that our playoffs have to
go off right. So we aren't mess around with COVID
(30:01):
nineteen right now because we can't have the playoffs be
put at stake. If the playoffs are in jeopardy, that's
the worst thing. So the NBA right now is as
vigilant as it can be because they know that's the
big show. They can't They have to make sure that
it's all eradicated before we start the playoffs. Then once
the playoffs get serious, then I can see your point about,
well what's gonna happen, But right now, the NBA has
(30:23):
got to make sure that goes off. So I have
confidence that they're being as vigilant as possible for situations
like this. Be sure to catch the live edition of
The Doug gott Leap Show week days at three p m.
Easter noon Pacific. Big news out of the NBA. Today's
Zion Williamson will not play tonight as the Pelicans quote
Chase for a playoff spot, and I'm using air quotes
(30:43):
with Chase will continue without him. Uh the official reason
given his rest, nor the reason just rest. There are
many things I have missed in my life because of
rest and needing rest. It's like every other day. Uh
So what to make of this? What to make of
the NBA playing back to backs in the bubble? Who's
gonna wind getting an eight nine spot in the West?
Joining us now on the hotline former NBA star check
(31:05):
them out ten years in the league. You can see
him on NBA TV, here with us, here on Fox
Sports one, CBS, ESPN, everywhere it is Ryan Hollins. What's happening, Ryan?
How you doing good? Manute? Hey, you getting ready to go?
You're gonna go back and play in the bubble when
they call you in about a week. Yeah, Man, Zion
was a little out of shape. Man, he needs to
sell it. Baby. I was waiting for you to post
(31:28):
a video of you doing some updowns and going, look,
I'm ready, I'm in shape. I can go, I can
come play. Oh my god. It is hard enough to
find a gym as is man, especially find a trainer.
All right. So hey, dude, so what is it with
with Zion? I I look at this situation, I go
it's obvious. The Pelicans are treating his health number one overall,
they would play him more if they didn't think he
(31:51):
would get hurt. And if the playoffs they make it great,
But if not, they're not gonna go crazy and play
Zion extra minutes because the playoffs don't mean as much
as keeping them healthy. It's a disgrace, man, it is.
I hope that we can get to the point where
Zion understands how important he is to the league. If
(32:12):
I'm going to diagnose the situation, I haven't spoken to anybody,
uh in the Pelicans organization. I don't. I don't have
any specific This just means a professional speculating from the outside.
He came in on a heavy minutes restriction. He was upset.
I'm sure uh, player, coach, agent probably talked to a
bunch behind the scenes. He played some heavier minutes with
(32:32):
the weight. Uh. He looks like he's dark. He looks
like he's done. There added you know, fifteen and twenty pounds.
Uh during COVID and I'm sure that Knie flared up
or he just he didn't feel great after the game.
So they're gonna do a smart thing instead about the
disgrace here comes when you're looking at Zion not knowing
how important he is to the league. Because guys like
(32:53):
that have to make sacrifices. Whether it's the Kobe's, uh,
the Lebrons, the Charles Barkley's, the Jordan's, all those guys
sacrifice their bodies to be able to come out and play.
And there's a lot of little things about being a professional,
uh that that you have to go through to succeed.
I played with DeAndre Jordan. DeAndre Jordan was chevy his
(33:14):
first couple of years in the league. When he lost
the weight, got with a nutritionist, everything else changed. DeAndre
Jordan has never has never been in the same likes
or or ballpark as Zia Williamson. If his hype and
his expectation that that DeAndre is not a good player.
So it's disappointing to see that he hasn't figured it
out yet. And it's not about the team, It's not
(33:35):
about all. I'm out the house sitting around. I don't
have the best, you know, the best of you know
things around him. Janice went through COVID, UH, Marcus Saul
went through COVID. He improved. Nicola Yokich lost weight during COVID.
You know, there are a number of guys who took
this time to come and get better. So hopefully Zion
gets it and he can actually understand his importance to
(33:56):
the NBA. Well, they added all those teams of the bubble,
so we get to play in Memphis watching them now
they're struggling. They opened the door, Ryan, they opened the
door said come on and come get a big fella,
hey brother. And when you look at the Pelicans, uh,
you know down the line, their their their matchups. They've
got all nothing but under five teams. I mean, heck,
(34:18):
that loss to the King's I mean that was the
Docker and Buddy Hill didn't even play heavy minutes that
that that's says flat out disappointing. So uh, they have
a real opportunity at him. You would hope that they
somehow squeeze in. And it's not like the rest of
the league has been looking great. But if they had
the sense of urgency of Devin Booker and the Suns,
or or or a couple of or even the Pacers,
a number of these other teams that are saying, man,
(34:39):
we're gonna come out and make the most of the situation,
and you gotta look squarely on Zion. You heard Josh
Hart come out and say it and the number other
guys that, hey man, you have Zion for this entire season,
they'd be sitting comfortably probably in the seventh or eighth
or pops possibly even six fots in the Western Conference.
He's that box office and five box office, and he
gives the Pelicans something that they don't have. He's really
(35:01):
intriguing as a player. He's got a quick second jump,
he's got a high i Q and he can just
finish around the rim with with the most of the
best of them. And honestly, Zion coming in, he's exceeded expectations.
I didn't think he'd be this effective this early, but
he's that done good. But he's got a stay in
shape well defense. So we got that. They gave up
(35:21):
a buck forty uh and Jason and I were talking
about this before. Ryan, how much you know? Does this
now wig on and what Alvin Gentry may or may
not be for this team long term? It shouldn't weigh
in on on Alvin Gentry. But you know what what's
ugly is that when you have a star like Zion Williamson.
Alvin Gentry has got one job. Now, that's good. On
(35:42):
the same page with Zion. Now, obviously you've got guys
like Josh Hart, brandon Ingram JJ Reddick who are just dogs.
Those are workers. Those are guys that if you never
question them or gave him a summer workout plan, they're
gonna come out and they're gonna improve from season season.
But you're looking at Ion and a Zion doesn't just
reach his potential. If he's got on the same page
(36:03):
with Alvin, I was back going to be there too
much longer, even though he's a he's a he's a
coach that yeah, I played for album before. Alvin has
the strips in the league. No one can question what
he's done. But if he's got on the same page
with Zion, they're gonna be looking to, you know, build
around him and keeping mind Zound is the guy you
trade Anthony Davis for Anthony Sinking Davis. Okay, that's the
top ten or top five wherever you want to rank
(36:26):
up talent in the in the in the UH, in
the NBA, And if your Zion is supposed to fill
those shoes, you know everyone else is gonna go before
you kind of give up on this kid. So you
don't draft a guy's box office and Zion Williamson and
then you give up on him. Unfortunately, you give up
on the general manager of the coach and all the fighters.
(36:47):
You know. The other part of this conversation is, Okay,
Zion sitting out, then you get a little bit larger.
He's sitting out the second night of back to backs.
Lebron sat out last night, second night of back to
backs against the Rockets, and with a sword growing ten,
you must have loved that. Hey, we got Rockets Lakers. Dude,
why are they playing back to backs in the bubble.
There's no reason to your scheduling eight games in the playoffs.
(37:10):
Why are we even having back to backs for when
you don't have to worry about travel for to What
else are these guys doing for three There's a lot
of money that we're trying to make up, baby, there's
a lot of money you're trying to get back for
the league. And if you're an NBA player, you're not
equipped to play it back to back. And at this point,
after you had three months off, there's really no excuse.
And I get it, guys, I understand this was not
(37:32):
the ideal three months off. Okay, this was not the
you know, go go to the Bahamas, enjoy yourself and
then come back and train for the next you know,
a couple of months and then come and playing the bubble.
This is you sitting at the home at home, you know,
scrivaging for gems or trying to do you know, workouts
in your basement. Guys, we call them the jail workouts.
Do you ever see the jail workout? It consistent? You know,
(37:53):
push ups and sit ups and you know the Marit
squads you know, so, um, I get it. They're not
the best the situations workout wise, but hopefully these guys
will have the ability to uh, you know, make make
the make make the most of it. But you know,
as a pro, you you gotta come in ready to go.
I remember the closest thing I can't say real quick, guys, Um,
(38:14):
when we had to lock out and we came back,
we had triple headers that we had to play. They
were back to back to backs that we had to
play to catch up with the league schedule and do
as best as we can, uh to to really make salaries.
So um, back to back should that should not bother
any player. Alright, So we've watched the Lakers, all right,
(38:34):
you got Phoenix in Portland's on the come. We'll get
to them in a minute. But Lakers with their shooting
percentage and Lebron with this cryptic it's just some things
you can't control. That's here that I don't really want
to talk about. That's off the floor. What do you
make of that? Passive? Aggressive? Lebron is back. We didn't
want to see it. We wanted to hype um up.
(38:55):
We want to show men with Michael George. You guys
know I'm gonna throw them in with Michael George. Whether
whether it should have should happen. Okay, guys, I'm just
gonna do that. But you do not want to see this.
I'm not sure what's going on behind the scenes with
the Lakers organization. Uh. And it's and it's every single
team has essentially been hit by COVID. I mean, the
Phoenix Suns come out on fire and the Pacers come
(39:17):
out of fire. There's a couple of teams who made
the most of it. The Rockets have they look they've
looked really good. But I understand, man, you you couldn't
control Avery Bradley joining the bubble. You know, region Rondo
hurting his fist or wrist or whatever. That was within
the first couple of days of training camp. You know,
I get it, Lebron, but you're not gonna have the
same excuse as Kevin Durantt is no longer on the Warrior.
(39:40):
Stephan Clay are both interned and sitting out. They're not
even in the bubble right now. So le Bron, you
gotta get it to go out a baby. Were passive aggressive,
passive ACCROUSSI lebroncast he met guys all right. Lastly, Ryan,
we talked about those teams at the bottom of the
West and getting in and and I look at when
I say who to these this, this horde of teams
(40:02):
that are all within the game of each other, is
gonna get in that eight nine game. You know the
team I know it seems kind of obvious. Well, I'm
gonna go with Portland and Phoenix because these are the
teams I know that have come into the bubble saying
we want this, We're ready for this restart, we want
to win. We're looking at this as a second chance.
And other teams are kind of like, Nah, we've got
Mad from Memphis, We've gotten mass so far from San Antonio,
(40:23):
Mad from the Pelicans. So that's who I'm going. Who
are you going with is your eight nine teams? I
hope Phoenix can get in there. They would definitely deserve it.
This this is the excitement that we had all season before.
Uh you know, Uh the big fellow DeAndre Aiden had
his you know, drug thing. I'm not sure what it was.
I'm not gonna speak on it, but if you look
(40:44):
at the roster, uh, Phoenix is a solid team. Devin Booker,
uh can can play. We we know what with DeAndre Aiden,
we know his type of talent. And then got a
bunch of long lanky devenders, acronic perimeter and Ricky Rubio
we know what he does with the internet, asking the ball,
Ricky kimballd Man, I love playing and uh competing again
within against Ricky Rubio. So that was the team that
(41:07):
you have marked down on the roster wise that had
enough talent. I'd like to see if go out to compete.
But I think it's all about Portlands. When you look
at this Portland squad, Damon Lillard is easily a top
five player in the NBA and the best point guard
that we have in the league. Two day, guys, quote
me on that. And then you have C. J McCullum.
That squad is coming in healthy, skinny mellows on a mission. Baby,
(41:29):
he's hitting dagger buzzer beaters and then they're go and
knockoff Houston, who was arguably the hottest team at the time.
That was really making noise. So if you're if you're
looking at Portlands, uh, nightmare matchup for Lebron James in
the first round. Absolute nightmare, guys, We're gonna be talking
about that. And Charles Barkley does not look as crazy
(41:49):
as he once did saying that Portland could beat the Lakers.
He is on Twitter at the Ryan Hollins that is
at the Ryan Hollands. Hey, hit him up for all
your workout needs in a vice. He will be able
to tell you what kind of squats and what jail workouts. Man,
dude as always man. Great catching up and then we'll
talk to you soon. Always fun. You got to do
(42:13):
those jail workouts. I'm like, okay, push up, sit ups?
What else is he gonna throw in? You do lunges
a little bit of walking. It's gotta gotta do those workouts.
That's how it works. Be sure to catch the live
edition of The Doug gott Leap Show weekdays at three
pm Easter noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
I Heart Radio a app
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlip
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time, that's twelve to
three Pacific un Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for the Doug Gottlip Show at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:22):
of the Doug Gottlive Show on Fox Sports Radio. Well,
speaking of moving and shaking today, obviously day two the
p g A Championship. Will keep you updated on UH
Tiger's day as it goes for the rest of the
day today, But a big news out of the NBA
to start, and there's a couple of big points to
(00:42):
make off of this. Uh the Pelicans who in theory
are battling for a playoff spot, and I say in
theory because of what they decided to do today. I'm
doing the air quotes too, just so people, I'm doing
the air quote. Zion Williamson will rest and will not
play Friday night against the Washington Wizards. That is the
(01:03):
reason it is rest. There's no other reason. There's no
he's you know, he's out of shape. He's this, he
weighs too much. It's just rest for Zion Williamson. So
as the Pelicans, i say, allegedly try to make their
push for the playoffs, playing the second night of back
to backs, they will play without Zion Williamson. Now, this
is really the definitive thing to know about Zion and
(01:24):
the mystery around his playing time and what is happening
with him as now the Pelicans went from hey, we're
right there. We could be a team that gets into
the restart in the bubble and is phenomenal. They do
not care about the playoffs, right, Zion Williamson's health is
the number one thing they are concerned about. Everything you've
heard about Zion, why he's not playing as many minutes,
(01:45):
why he's not playing at the end of games, it's
all true. Is he too heavy and out of shape? Absolutely?
We told you when he was drafted. The biggest thing
about in his weight. When you come in the league
is the second biggest guy overall at nineteen, your weight
is going to be an issue. Right. His weights a thing,
His sta amena is a thing. The way he plays
defense is a thing. We talked to Rick Bucker on
our Night show last week he said, listen, Zion sucks
(02:07):
playing defense. Those were his exact words. Zion sucks playing defense,
so it's hard to have him out there during high
leverage defensive situations. All of these things are true. So
when you put this all in, the reason Zion is
not playing as much, not playing more, and as playing
time is such a big deal as they are afraid
that he is going to get hurt if they put
him out there for longer periods of time. He has
(02:28):
been hurt each of the last three years. Got hurt
a senior year in high school, got hurt with Duke,
got hurt coming into the league this year, he has
been hurt. And they want to obviously extend his career
as long as they can, and this is how you
do it. We we gotta limit his minutes and make
sure that this is the most important. The playoffs would
be great, but really, how far are they going to go?
They do not care about making the playoffs. If they did,
(02:50):
you would think they could put a healthy guy out
there who's nineteen years old, and you can put him
and he can and he can play, But they can't.
They are protecting his his health hope being that he
can get past these early bits of injury and frustration,
get his body under control, all things that need to happen.
And that's the number one thing. They do not care
about making the playoffs. If they did, they'd be doing
(03:12):
things a hell of a lot differently. The very least,
they'd be playing at the end of games when they
need to close things out, if you're talking about minutes.
But this is the number one thing for the Pelicans.
Every all the talk about them get into the playoffs
out the window. That's output because they do not care
about making it. Well, I mean, you can play a
little hot take nonsense with regard to what Rick Bucker
had to say and what we've watched on the court.
(03:33):
Him not being there defensively actually helps them helps them defensively, sure,
so hot take nonsense. There. He was ten of twelve
from the field in his last game as well, so offensively,
you still see the bursts, right, and he's been one
on a burst limit or whatever nonsensical term they coined
last week. And now you get to this point, and
(03:54):
it's that level of concern because obviously there there is
a big mar cantability and cap space associated with keeping
this guy healthy. I've watched it from the memorabilia and
trading card world. There's a bounty on a card that
hasn't been pulled yet that is north of a half
a million dollars. So you know, when you start talking
(04:16):
about the excitement that he's generated, nobody's coming into the
league like this since Lebron. I mean, we've had a
lot of guys that you had some hope that they
become stars. But let's face it, it's seventeen years that
we we've waited on this, and job RAN's been fantastic.
This rookie class has a number of stars. Tyler Harrow
(04:37):
Uh there in Miami is lightening it up as well.
But it's just the the magnitude of this guy. You
you're trying to wrap him in bubble wrap, but also
give people a taste, right, It's like, we can't show
you everything here. It's like teaser trailers. You're gonna love
this movie. Here's thirty seconds of it. But I want
(04:58):
it now. If it's due and the effects are done,
why can't I watch it now? It's like, no, no, no,
He's still a work in progress. So post bubble into
the next run of season where in theory. All the
workouts are in place, and you can moderate monitor everything
all the way through. Because he came in in shape,
(05:18):
or it looked like it right when they first entered
the bubble. It's like then he left and then it went.
It went downhill fast, and you see what we've We've
watched the last two weeks, and there's body language every
once in a while when the explosiveness isn't there, he
doesn't make a play. So he's got to get past that.
He's gotta get some Stewart Smalley help. I think I'm
(05:39):
good enough, I'm smart enough, and I gotta learn this
rotation so I'm actually back on defense. You know, this
is not something to say, oh my goodness, the Pelicans
are evil there because many teams aren't really prioritizing getting
to the place as we're seeing in the bubble. Certain
teams are the Blazers, Surly are the Phoenix Sun Surely
are other teams not so much because you're seeing they
(06:00):
start how much do we really are we really going
crazy trying to get ourselves to get in. We don't
either don't have the buy in. We want to go home.
There's different reasons and everybody is there for it. Even
Lebron is saying the Lakers are struggling for things that
are going on inside the bubble. But this is you know,
we we saw this with Michael Jordan's his second year
in the league. He broke his foot and when he
(06:20):
came back, I remember it was every day was that
tonight Jordan can play six minutes and that's it. And
as soon as six minutes game, they took him out
of the game, and he play a couple of games
at six minutes. The next game was okay, now he
can play six and a half minutes, and at six
and a half minutes they would take him out of
the game. Then it was six minutes and forty five seconds.
Then he could play seven minutes. And that's what the
(06:40):
button that Jordan didn't like it, fans didn't like it,
but this was the number one thing. It was. The
priority was to make sure he gets healthy. The thing is,
I don't know if Alvin Gentry survives this. That's that's
the main thing. Suddenly, Hey, you know, playing playing Zion
with all this different time, not playing him at the
end being evasive. If the Pelicans don't don't achieve the playoff.
(07:00):
I don't know if he's the guy that survives us,
that's the whole thing. And so he may be keeping
Zion Williamson healthy for the next head coach. But this
is this is the Pelicans thing. They are staying there.
They're gonna ge Zion being healthy. That's the priority number one.
What's priority number two? Keeping Zion healthy and all the
way down. That's what it is. This is not their year.
We're gonna wait, We're gonna hopefully he gets a year,
(07:21):
keeps growing into his body and he winds up staying
healthy and being a bigger competitor, and we can do
it more next year. But right now doesn't matter to
the New Orleans Pelicans. Makes no difference. Two things off
of that, I mean, you mentioned the Jordan effect and
then being the Southside Chicago native. Remember watching that in
the battles that played out, and you got to see
part of that in the last dance, they talked about
(07:43):
that fight to get back on the court. That was
going on with the front office and and everybody, so
very real and very tense, because you know, you always
have that one flash point when you have a superstar
in your in your city where it's like, all right,
is this the thing that breaks the relationship? Right, Kobe
(08:03):
nearly had it, Magic nearly had it long long before that,
I was able to get a coach fired there. Uh,
and and go on down the line. I mean, we can,
we can pick up pretty much everybody that hits that
level of stardom and dominance that that there's a flash
point that occurs, and certainly with Jordan's that was one
(08:24):
of major concern in Chicago. And eventually it works out.
He scores sixty three against the Celtics, and you know,
the the legend grows from there. But but with Zion,
you're absolutely right, you're you're trying to figure out exactly
how to best manage this for Alvin Gentry, for all
he knows, for all we know, he's already he already
(08:47):
knows the writings on the wall. You know you're got
you're the guy to bring him in, teach him up,
and then the next guy gets to to come in,
and you know you've already tapped to the bullpen to
switch sports. Uh for a second, but you're trying to
figure out your long term asset and how to keep
him healthy. And the worst part of it Jason, is
that the way Memphis has played, You've opened the door.
(09:10):
Every door had opened for the playoffs. They've opened the
door for the next to somehow get back in from
the East and back into get to the bubble and play.
That's how much they've opened the door. Yeah, I mean,
it's just been hard watching. They've lost a couple of
players to injury, uh, and that continuity hasn't been there. Look,
they've got so much talent there in Memphis as well,
so they're they're gonna be fun to watch as these
guys grow with with with Morant and Brandon Clark and such.
(09:34):
But you know, for for the Pelicans now, now we're
getting excited and going back through that Son's roster and
raising an eyebrow there. And it's certainly you and I
have talked a lot on our evening show about the
trail Blazers, and we knew about the back court, but
the four months of readying for the Bubble allowed the
(09:55):
big guys to get healthy and to come back, and
all of a sudden, that's a different team playing on
a whole other level. We saw what Damian Lillard did
last night that gained headlines all over the place, so uh,
setting up for a fun run. Unfortunately, it doesn't look
like Zion and the Pelicans will be joining us much longer. Well.
The other part of it is this is that Jason
Smith Mike Harmon in for Doug Gottlieb to Doug gotlie show,
(10:17):
Why the hell is the NBA playing back to backs
in the bubble? It makes no sense. It's the one
misstep they've had because everything else has been phenomenal. I mean,
they've shown this is how we're gonna do it right now,
this moment in time in COVID nineteen, we're doing it.
We're not talking COVID nineteen when we talk NBA anymore.
Other sports. Yeah, we're not talking it that way. Why
the hell are they playing back to backs? There's no
(10:38):
need to. You're playing eight games, and if you keep
some regular season teams in extra three or four days,
you do it. Why are you playing back to backs?
All teams are gonna do is sit their stars. The
Pelicans are sitting Zion Williamson tonight right, Lebron sat last night,
Lakers and the Rockets. These are giveaway games. Their teams
are gonna say, we're just gonna sit our guys, doesn't matter.
(10:59):
They haven't played a long time. We don't want them
to play a lot in a short amount of time
as we're gearing up for the playoffs. I don't get it,
S T N T. How do they feel last night?
Their Markeee game was Rockets Lakers? Oh yeah, early in
the day. Guess what, Lebron's not gonna play. Yeah, kind
of a sore growing he's gonna sit out. Oh great, thanks,
thanks for second night of back to backs doing that
for us. That that I don't understand. They try to
(11:19):
limit them everywhere else, and they're trying to do it
the last year's But now when you don't need to
do it, when you're scheduling eight games per team, you're
scheduling back to backs, you're starting games at nine o'clock
in the morning, and you're figuring, you know, you don't
need to. I love waking up going boy that games
in the in the third quarter already go. But that's
what I don't get. There's no reason to do it,
(11:40):
and yet the NBA does it, and and it's a
it's a huge mistake that they made. And I really
would like to hear why they scheduled back to backs,
because I don't know, it doesn't make any sense. I
have to wonder if in the bargaining to get players
to the bubble in the first place, this was one
of the the concessions that there was a time frame stipulated,
(12:01):
kind of like baseball, right, all right, you gotta play
all these games in sixty six days, very few days off, right,
sixty games, sixty six days. Let's go. And then obviously
you've got fallout from when teams have a positive test
or whatever else that may may have to adjust or
just have a lot of seven inning doubleheaders for the
final two or three weeks of the season. But I
(12:21):
have to wonder if that wasn't part of what the
NBA players fought for as well, knowing based on where
we were in the playoff race, right the only spot
really up for grab was that eight seed. Everybody, well
else was in just a matter of a little bit
of shuffling, that maybe that was the one of the
concessions that had to be made. Shorten it up and
(12:42):
let's get done. Be sure to catch the live edition
of The Doug gott Leap Show weekdays at three p m.
Easter noon Pacific on Fox Sports radio and the I
Heart Radio app. Look, there's been a lot of talk
this week about Aaron Rodgers and the relationship with Jordan's
Love and what's going to happen. Kyle Brandt of Good
Morning Football didn't interview with Aaron Rodgers and which he said, listen,
(13:02):
I see the reality in front of me. I see
what's going on. Their future for Aaron Rodgers isn't in
green Bay. And just to to realize what's going on
in green Bay. The Packers would cut Aaron Rodgers if
they could, but they can't obviously because they owe him
a lot of money and the backlash from the fans
would be immense. They would cut him if they could.
(13:23):
They want to move on to Jordan's Love. You don't
draft a quarterback in the first round unless you want
him to be your starter sooner rather than later. And
you can sit here and say, but Aaron Rodgers sat
for three That was in two thousand and five. That's
fifteen years ago. That doesn't happen now. And they are
making a push to get a change after a year
in which they are one step away from the super Bowl,
(13:45):
one game away, And what would you say they would
do with your quarterback playing at a really high level.
And he's still young still, you know, thirty seven, thirty
still was a few more years left before he really
hits the other side of the mountain. He's still playing
at a high level. Your team is that close to
the super Bowl, and what do you do. We take
a quarterback. We trade up to get a quarterback in
the first round rather than to get a player that
(14:05):
can fill a hole and get you to the super Bowl.
All Right, the Packers don't care about the super Bowl
as much as they care about replacing Aaron Rodgers. They
want him out and they've hit on this is what
it's gonna be. It's gonna be an awkward year. And
at the end of this year, Rodgers is gonna want
to trade. We're gonna say, okay, will allow him to
seek a trade, and he will go someplace else. It's
(14:26):
exactly what they did with Brett Farve. If they cut
would cut Brett Farve if they could have in two
thousand and seven. But what's gonna happen? You owe them money,
there's a backlash. What are we gonna do? It's it's
awkward for a few months. As Farve didn't know I'm
gonna I'm gonna stay. Do I want to stay? Do
I want to play? They tell him he's got to
fight it out in training camp with Aaron Rodgers if
he wants to come back. That pushes far V out
(14:47):
the door. So Farve walks away and the Packers go
to Aaron Rodgers and nobody really bats an eye because, well,
I can understand far of being upset, but the name
on the front of the jersey is more important than
name on the back. So okay, let's move on. This
is what's happening now. The Packers are staying silent. Rodgers
is the guy doing all the media saying it's gonna
be time for me to move on. The future is
(15:09):
not with me. When you know a divorce is coming,
It's not gonna be two three years, right, It's gonna
be this one really difficult, awkward year. And then at
the end of it, they're both gonna want to move on.
The Packers can say, Okay, some are gonna blame us
for pushing Aaron Rodgers out, but we're gonna get support.
Aaron was kind of near the end. However, it's going
to go. It's not gonna be overwhelmingly. What are the
Packers doing pushing Aaron Rodgers out the door. It's not
(15:31):
gonna be Bill Belichick cutting Bernie Kozar. And there's all
kinds of protests going on at the at the Browns
of facilities. But this is the reality for the Packers.
They want to move on from Aaron Rodgers. It's not
about Jordan's love. It's about not having Aaron Rodgers anymore.
Whether it's they're sick of his act, they're sick of
him changing the plays, they want to change the offense.
(15:51):
All of these things go into it. But they want
to move on from him, and they would do it
right now if they could. They would cut them if
they could, but obviously they can't. Yeah, I mean, we
look at what the cap implications would be for this year,
uh and we're talking north of fifty million dollars a
dead cap uh And next year it's just a paltry
thirty one point five. Biggest thing for me, you know,
(16:14):
as you as you talk about the pending separation uh
and divorce and Aaron Rodgers in another Jersey, remember the
great words of Velvet Revolver. Do it for the kids.
They say, it ain't about you anyway, which means the
Packers recognize and La Fleur recognizes George Love is nowhere
close to being ready to play NFL football. All right,
(16:36):
that is a raw talent, and I think it took
the larger approach of all right, we might have been
one game away from the super Bowl, but we were
miles away from the team we were trying to beat.
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug
gott Leap Show weekdays at three p m. Easter noon Pacific.
The Cups Cardinals game tonight was postponed after another Cardinals
(16:58):
players tested positive for COVID nineteen, and so while the
rest of the series has not been put into uh
limbo yet, the game tonight at least obviously, what's the
test going to be? As the player asymptomatic and they come,
can they play? And you know, Major League Baseball is
just going to be dragged across the finish line this season.
(17:22):
Why because they didn't make a plan for what's gonna
happen when you get positive COVID nineteen tests. For everything
Baseball did, Rob Manford, they spent so much time going
back and forth over the money that when they finally
said Okay, we want to play sixty games. They put
in a sixty game season. You're not playing in a bubble,
so you know you're gonna get positive COVID nineteen tests.
It's just a part of the population. That's how it's
(17:43):
going to be, whether it's players not being careful enough
or whether it's just simple day to day things. I
went to the grocery store and I touched a shopping
cart and then I rubbed my eyes. I mean, sometimes
it happens like that, you know, it could be that.
I was so a week ago. I was paranoid for
a day because I went to get gas and I
got gas, and and I put the gas tank back
(18:04):
and and and I like a bug flu in my
eye and I rubbed my eye. Go, oh my god,
how many people have touched this gas? Like I didn't
sanitize my hands. I was like panicked for like a
full day. But this is how it happens. It doesn't
always need to be guys around at bars. It doesn't
need to be that guys are not doing the right things.
It could just be sometimes life happens, and baseball didn't
plan for that. Because what happened as soon as you
(18:25):
saw games getting postponed, and now there's three four games
not being played at night because of the opening positive
test for the Marlins. Other teams being affected because they
can't play their games now the Cardinals positive test. You're
loading up double headers of seven innings. Major League Baseball
is making up their rules on the fly, so they're
gonna limp towards the finish. We I could even see
(18:46):
it coming where Rob Manford has said, you know what,
we gotta pause. We gotta pause for a week. We
gotta make up games that have been made up because
I can't give uh, two teams fifteen doubleheaders. I just
can't do it. I can't have teams play that many games.
Maybe they cut the number of games down, uh from
sixty to fifty five so they can fit it in
because you can't keep playing into December. But Major League Baseball,
(19:07):
that's the big thing that they did not do, was
planned for what's gonna happen if we get positive COVID
nineteen tests. This is what I'm hoping the NFL is
watching and learning right now, going, Okay, we got a
plan for this inevitability, because to have a game postponed
in Major League baseball. Look, they're still figure out a
way to make it up with double headers. If you
get one game in the NFL postponed, one game that
(19:29):
you have to add potentially a whole week to the
schedule to make it up because it may not line
up with buys. Man, you have one game postponed, and
you know there's gonna be mornings on Sunday where hey,
fifteen players have COVID nineteen or six players have COVID nineteen,
including all our quarterbacks. We can't play this game today
and we have to postpone it. It's just going to happen.
And so I would hope the NFL says, all right,
(19:52):
this is our plan. Now, Maybe what we do is
instead of playing a full schedule, we play fourteen games,
and we build in two more bye weeks, and we
have a bye basically every month where we can make
up games that had to be postponed a couple of
weeks ago. Because other than that, you're you're you're talking
about adding all kinds of time. Because maybe it's not
the different teams that have to make up games. What
(20:13):
if one team's got to make up two or three games,
then you gotta extend the season three games, what if
they're what if their their record is seven and four.
You can't just say, all right, well you're going in
by winning percentage. So I would hope that the NFL
has some kind of plan somewhere where it's okay, let's
really understand that we can have another schedule out there,
or maybe it's better off just to change in the
beginning and say we're gonna play a schedule, but we're
(20:34):
gonna build in these bye weeks so we can make
up games when we have to. It's not ideal, but
how are else are you gonna deal with COVID nineteen,
because you're gonna have it unless you're just gonna hide
the positive test results on Sunday morning. That's the only
way that's gonna happen, is that you're not if we
hide the test results and nobody tests positive Sunday morning
before a game, which gets a little conspiracy theory, but
I wouldn't put it past the NFL, especially when you
(20:57):
get the story out of Colorado State that coaches are
telling players don't report positive tests so we can keep
playing games. So there's gotta be some kind of less
in the NFL learns right away from this, saying, all right,
this is going to happen to us. Just because we
play with more players, we're traveling further than than the
other than the other teams are. Maybe it's a different schedule.
(21:17):
Maybe it's it's someplace where we don't have to fly
so much. Uh. Maybe some games we can take trains
to or busses do. Whatever it is. There's gotta be
some kind of plan for when the COVID nineteen virus
hits and games get postponed. The NFL can make them
up when they have because if not, Oh but we're
gonna be in for a week NFL season. Let's bring it. Uh.
The planes, trains, automobiles, video highlights coming to you NFL
(21:41):
dot com. No question about that as well. We're road
tripping with the quarterbacks of the New York Football Jets
as they get ready to play No. Look, Major League Baseball.
They announced thirteen positive tests of the thirteen thousand samples
last week. That's coming from Bob Nightingale USA. Today, seven players,
six staffers. It's still contained two two teams, the Marlins
(22:05):
the first place. Marlin's I gotta say that every time
we do it. Uh, and the Cardinals. And so when
we look at the way you react, you pivot. And
I like the fact that the NFL is working behind
the scenes and not putting this all out for media
consumption and fan votes and hot take nonsense. Right, I.
(22:26):
I don't need the forty two plans or whatever you've
got going there, because don't tell me those schedule guys
haven't been you know, had an I V of caffeine
running through them to make sure they've come up with
alternate uh permutations to this to try to make it work. Right,
there's just so much on the line, and we know
both from a monetary standpoint, but from a health standpoint
(22:50):
and the public reaction right there, they already get no
benefit of the doubt when it comes to player safety,
player health protocols. It's trap. So that's why it was
such a big deal. And you had guys like Odell
Beckham Jr. Before they reported to camp wondering aloud, how
do we make this work? There's not a lot of
(23:10):
guys talking about that. Yeah, you had sixty six guys
opt out on the Grand Scheme. It's not a ton, right,
it's it's a eight guys from the Patriots, which is
you know, a whole other story and narrative that will
have books about when when this season passes. But sixty
six guys out of this league of contact, A lot
(23:32):
of offensive and defensive lineman. You know, guys bought in.
Whether it's the brevity of their careers, the chance to
make their money, whatever their considerations are. You just wanting
to go out and play football, right, this is what
I do. I'm in my mid twenties, late twenties, whatever,
But I I firmly believe and maybe I'm just being
(23:53):
a cheerleader, and I'm I gotta I gotta get some
bomb bombs that that the NFL is doing this right
with alternate plans. They're just not put into the public
until they need to, Right, Why why lay it all
out for scrutiny and and just the chaos that we've
seen in all these other sports. Or you don't like
that part, well we'll take that, we'll amend that. No.
(24:14):
I mean, at some point though, Mike, I understand that,
But at some point you can't just keep saying, oh,
we got it, trust us, But what's your plan? I
know we got it, yeah, but what is it? I
do know we got it in any walk of life.
Whenever you're you're planning for something, you're trying to do
something big, you want to know everything going on. And
you know, teams want to know. It's not just fans,
(24:35):
but but look in the media, but teams want to know.
Coaches want to know what's our plan? How are we
going to deal with this? What are what are we
gonna do if we wind up uh having positive COVID
nineteen tests And maybe this potentially helps positive tests being
reported and being hidden. If there's a plan in place
to make up these games and it's not what we
gotta play this game because who knows what's going to happen.
(24:56):
At some point you have to you have to assuage
everybody that everything is okay. Because wherever you are, whatever
leaders are, whether it's your your your mayor your governor
the president, whoever it is you're you're trusting all your
local and federal government, you want to know, well, you
want to know, Like if you hear a leader say,
I got it, Well, what's the plan, don't worry about it?
I got it? No, but but but but what's the plan.
(25:18):
And there's no plan, there's no mention, there's you gotta
hear it. I mean everybody, everybody wants to be put
at ease and no and have confidence that the leaders
are going to be able to take this through and
they have the plan for COVID nineteen, because clearly Major
League Baseball didn't have one. So if I'm if I'm
judging by the sports, I know it's haphazard. NBA had
a great ass plan, This plan was awesome, and HL
(25:39):
had a great ass plan. It was awesome. MLB's plan
was not that good. And this is the This is
the leader of one of the top three sports in baseball.
So hey, NFL, who has struggled with things morally for
a long time, what's your plan, because really the trust
level isn't there. Make make everybody know that what your
plan is, that we got it, that we can go
to adapt to something if there's positive COVID nineteen. This
(26:02):
is why players are talking about opting out so much
and not playing. They're not getting the confidence level and
the reports that they feel they need to from the
National football Ingage. Now most of them are and the
opt outs get a lot of attention because these are
players not playing, which is a story. Sixty six players
not playing. All right, that's a little bit more than
one full team when you think about it. But in
the end there's still you can tell because of this.
(26:24):
If you have sixty six players who are opting out,
there's many more who were nervous but are playing anyway.
At some point they're gonna have to say, all right,
this is our plan if this happens, this is what
we're gonna do, and and that's understandable, or just let
us know that a plan exists, just say yeah, we
got it. If there's a COVID nineteen interruption, there are
bye weeks we can build in. There are things we're
going to do, and that Okay, then I'll stop back,
(26:45):
sit back, and go all right, NFL's got it. There's
a plan. If this happens, they'll be able to figure
it out. It doesn't need to be in all that
much detail. Just just give us an idea and and
some crumbs that you have one and and and people
will feel better about it. Yeah, and then the crumbs
have to keep cha changing along the way. I'm I'm
just of the belief when it comes down to it, Look, football,
you you have some inherent risk, and we have all
(27:07):
these zero positive tests all these other places. I mean,
if you're gonna go the hey, the NFL can cover
things up. You don't think they can do that in
other leagues. Of course, I'm just saying, if you don't
don't have to win the NBA, you don't have to
I mean, you're not having them. How do you know, though, Well,
because if somebody if in the NBA, in the NBA,
(27:27):
if somebody didn't feel good with and they tested positive
and they were kept away from what if they feel
like if there was they were asymptomatic, they're still getting tested,
still getting tested. So but to my point, if you're
gonna say they're gonna hide positive tests in the NFL,
I say, how how can you be a hundred percent
sure these other leagues that are telling you they got
nothing are are really have nothing? Well, because the the
(27:50):
NBA has been testing for a long time, They've put
everybody in a bubble. They're not around people who have
COVID nineteen. So as long as people aren't getting in
and COVID nineteen isn't getting in, there's no COVID. Players
are gonna coming from out. Players are gonna say things
it players would have said something if they were kept
away from a team and they weren't feeling good, it
(28:11):
would be guess what and and and and people would
know that. Reporters would say, Hey, so and so wasn't
there tonight. Why was so and so not in the
bench night? We can't say, okay, that's that's COVID nineteen.
From that point that in baseball you can look into
it and say, it's the same thing. Here's a player
not with the team. Why were they not there? Because
all right, now, what's the reason? We would know that
by now, in the bubble with things that are happening,
(28:32):
we would know that that was the case. And if
it does find out, we find there could be some crazy,
over the top plan to keep everybody healthy despite code,
we would know more of that by now. But you're
talking about the NFL that's gonna test Sunday morning before
the games. You know you're gonna test during the week,
and they're gonna test before the game Sunday morning, And
could information get lost? Could things happen right there? Yeah,
(28:53):
you're talking about the NFL games. We're talking about NBA
games right now. That really don't matter to anybody that's
trying to get into the you know, the playoffs in
the Western Conference NFL Sunday morning. It's a different bit.
But we just went through the whole Matthew Stafford thing.
So there's your there's your case and point for the
other that did have did have a false positive, but
noubt the NBA. It's pretty season, so it's fine. But
what if that happens when exactly they would keep testing
(29:16):
and it would it's what you're trying to get the
bugs out of it now. Stafford would have lost the game.
The NBA, we on the lines would have lost. They
would have lost. No, no, but he would have been
out exactly. They probably would have stopped the game. Yes,
but it's good they're getting they're trying to get the
bugs out of it now, allegedly and apparently rather not allegedly.
Apparently they're trying to get the bugs out of it now.
If you want to compare the NBA to the NFL,
(29:39):
this is when it gets big. When we get to
the conference semifinals, We get to the conference semifinals and
Conference finals and NBA Finals, then we see what the
testing has done. Then our guys gonna be tested every
single day and they really gonna be tested then or
is it gonna be all it's right now. It's it's
easy to do things the right way with the NBA.
You want to make sure that our playoffs have to
go off right. So we aren't mess around with COVID
(30:01):
nineteen right now because we can't have the playoffs be
put at stake. If the playoffs are in jeopardy, that's
the worst thing. So the NBA right now is as
vigilant as it can be because they know that's the
big show. They can't They have to make sure that
it's all eradicated before we start the playoffs. Then once
the playoffs get serious, then I can see your point about,
well what's gonna happen, But right now, the NBA has
(30:23):
got to make sure that goes off. So I have
confidence that they're being as vigilant as possible for situations
like this. Be sure to catch the live edition of
The Doug gott Leap Show week days at three p m.
Easter noon Pacific. Big news out of the NBA. Today's
Zion Williamson will not play tonight as the Pelicans quote
Chase for a playoff spot, and I'm using air quotes
(30:43):
with Chase will continue without him. Uh the official reason
given his rest, nor the reason just rest. There are
many things I have missed in my life because of
rest and needing rest. It's like every other day. Uh
So what to make of this? What to make of
the NBA playing back to backs in the bubble? Who's
gonna wind getting an eight nine spot in the West?
Joining us now on the hotline former NBA star check
(31:05):
them out ten years in the league. You can see
him on NBA TV, here with us, here on Fox
Sports one, CBS, ESPN, everywhere it is Ryan Hollins. What's happening, Ryan?
How you doing good? Manute? Hey, you getting ready to go?
You're gonna go back and play in the bubble when
they call you in about a week. Yeah, Man, Zion
was a little out of shape. Man, he needs to
sell it. Baby. I was waiting for you to post
(31:28):
a video of you doing some updowns and going, look,
I'm ready, I'm in shape. I can go, I can
come play. Oh my god. It is hard enough to
find a gym as is man, especially find a trainer.
All right. So hey, dude, so what is it with
with Zion? I I look at this situation, I go
it's obvious. The Pelicans are treating his health number one overall,
they would play him more if they didn't think he
(31:51):
would get hurt. And if the playoffs they make it great,
But if not, they're not gonna go crazy and play
Zion extra minutes because the playoffs don't mean as much
as keeping them healthy. It's a disgrace, man, it is.
I hope that we can get to the point where
Zion understands how important he is to the league. If
(32:12):
I'm going to diagnose the situation, I haven't spoken to anybody,
uh in the Pelicans organization. I don't. I don't have
any specific This just means a professional speculating from the outside.
He came in on a heavy minutes restriction. He was upset.
I'm sure uh, player, coach, agent probably talked to a
bunch behind the scenes. He played some heavier minutes with
(32:32):
the weight. Uh. He looks like he's dark. He looks
like he's done. There added you know, fifteen and twenty pounds.
Uh during COVID and I'm sure that Knie flared up
or he just he didn't feel great after the game.
So they're gonna do a smart thing instead about the
disgrace here comes when you're looking at Zion not knowing
how important he is to the league. Because guys like
(32:53):
that have to make sacrifices. Whether it's the Kobe's, uh,
the Lebrons, the Charles Barkley's, the Jordan's, all those guys
sacrifice their bodies to be able to come out and play.
And there's a lot of little things about being a professional,
uh that that you have to go through to succeed.
I played with DeAndre Jordan. DeAndre Jordan was chevy his
(33:14):
first couple of years in the league. When he lost
the weight, got with a nutritionist, everything else changed. DeAndre
Jordan has never has never been in the same likes
or or ballpark as Zia Williamson. If his hype and
his expectation that that DeAndre is not a good player.
So it's disappointing to see that he hasn't figured it
out yet. And it's not about the team, It's not
(33:35):
about all. I'm out the house sitting around. I don't
have the best, you know, the best of you know
things around him. Janice went through COVID, UH, Marcus Saul
went through COVID. He improved. Nicola Yokich lost weight during COVID.
You know, there are a number of guys who took
this time to come and get better. So hopefully Zion
gets it and he can actually understand his importance to
(33:56):
the NBA. Well, they added all those teams of the bubble,
so we get to play in Memphis watching them now
they're struggling. They opened the door, Ryan, they opened the
door said come on and come get a big fella,
hey brother. And when you look at the Pelicans, uh,
you know down the line, their their their matchups. They've
got all nothing but under five teams. I mean, heck,
(34:18):
that loss to the King's I mean that was the
Docker and Buddy Hill didn't even play heavy minutes that
that that's says flat out disappointing. So uh, they have
a real opportunity at him. You would hope that they
somehow squeeze in. And it's not like the rest of
the league has been looking great. But if they had
the sense of urgency of Devin Booker and the Suns,
or or or a couple of or even the Pacers,
a number of these other teams that are saying, man,
(34:39):
we're gonna come out and make the most of the situation,
and you gotta look squarely on Zion. You heard Josh
Hart come out and say it and the number other
guys that, hey man, you have Zion for this entire season,
they'd be sitting comfortably probably in the seventh or eighth
or pops possibly even six fots in the Western Conference.
He's that box office and five box office, and he
gives the Pelicans something that they don't have. He's really
(35:01):
intriguing as a player. He's got a quick second jump,
he's got a high i Q and he can just
finish around the rim with with the most of the
best of them. And honestly, Zion coming in, he's exceeded expectations.
I didn't think he'd be this effective this early, but
he's that done good. But he's got a stay in
shape well defense. So we got that. They gave up
(35:21):
a buck forty uh and Jason and I were talking
about this before. Ryan, how much you know? Does this
now wig on and what Alvin Gentry may or may
not be for this team long term? It shouldn't weigh
in on on Alvin Gentry. But you know what what's
ugly is that when you have a star like Zion Williamson.
Alvin Gentry has got one job. Now, that's good. On
(35:42):
the same page with Zion. Now, obviously you've got guys
like Josh Hart, brandon Ingram JJ Reddick who are just dogs.
Those are workers. Those are guys that if you never
question them or gave him a summer workout plan, they're
gonna come out and they're gonna improve from season season.
But you're looking at Ion and a Zion doesn't just
reach his potential. If he's got on the same page
(36:03):
with Alvin, I was back going to be there too
much longer, even though he's a he's a he's a
coach that yeah, I played for album before. Alvin has
the strips in the league. No one can question what
he's done. But if he's got on the same page
with Zion, they're gonna be looking to, you know, build
around him and keeping mind Zound is the guy you
trade Anthony Davis for Anthony Sinking Davis. Okay, that's the
top ten or top five wherever you want to rank
(36:26):
up talent in the in the in the UH, in
the NBA, And if your Zion is supposed to fill
those shoes, you know everyone else is gonna go before
you kind of give up on this kid. So you
don't draft a guy's box office and Zion Williamson and
then you give up on him. Unfortunately, you give up
on the general manager of the coach and all the fighters.
(36:47):
You know. The other part of this conversation is, Okay,
Zion sitting out, then you get a little bit larger.
He's sitting out the second night of back to backs.
Lebron sat out last night, second night of back to
backs against the Rockets, and with a sword growing ten,
you must have loved that. Hey, we got Rockets Lakers. Dude,
why are they playing back to backs in the bubble.
There's no reason to your scheduling eight games in the playoffs.
(37:10):
Why are we even having back to backs for when
you don't have to worry about travel for to What
else are these guys doing for three There's a lot
of money that we're trying to make up, baby, there's
a lot of money you're trying to get back for
the league. And if you're an NBA player, you're not
equipped to play it back to back. And at this point,
after you had three months off, there's really no excuse.
And I get it, guys, I understand this was not
(37:32):
the ideal three months off. Okay, this was not the
you know, go go to the Bahamas, enjoy yourself and
then come back and train for the next you know,
a couple of months and then come and playing the bubble.
This is you sitting at the home at home, you know,
scrivaging for gems or trying to do you know, workouts
in your basement. Guys, we call them the jail workouts.
Do you ever see the jail workout? It consistent? You know,
(37:53):
push ups and sit ups and you know the Marit
squads you know, so, um, I get it. They're not
the best the situations workout wise, but hopefully these guys
will have the ability to uh, you know, make make
the make make the most of it. But you know,
as a pro, you you gotta come in ready to go.
I remember the closest thing I can't say real quick, guys, Um,
(38:14):
when we had to lock out and we came back,
we had triple headers that we had to play. They
were back to back to backs that we had to
play to catch up with the league schedule and do
as best as we can, uh to to really make salaries.
So um, back to back should that should not bother
any player. Alright, So we've watched the Lakers, all right,
(38:34):
you got Phoenix in Portland's on the come. We'll get
to them in a minute. But Lakers with their shooting
percentage and Lebron with this cryptic it's just some things
you can't control. That's here that I don't really want
to talk about. That's off the floor. What do you
make of that? Passive? Aggressive? Lebron is back. We didn't
want to see it. We wanted to hype um up.
(38:55):
We want to show men with Michael George. You guys
know I'm gonna throw them in with Michael George. Whether
whether it should have should happen. Okay, guys, I'm just
gonna do that. But you do not want to see this.
I'm not sure what's going on behind the scenes with
the Lakers organization. Uh. And it's and it's every single
team has essentially been hit by COVID. I mean, the
Phoenix Suns come out on fire and the Pacers come
(39:17):
out of fire. There's a couple of teams who made
the most of it. The Rockets have they look they've
looked really good. But I understand, man, you you couldn't
control Avery Bradley joining the bubble. You know, region Rondo
hurting his fist or wrist or whatever. That was within
the first couple of days of training camp. You know,
I get it, Lebron, but you're not gonna have the
same excuse as Kevin Durantt is no longer on the Warrior.
(39:40):
Stephan Clay are both interned and sitting out. They're not
even in the bubble right now. So le Bron, you
gotta get it to go out a baby. Were passive aggressive,
passive ACCROUSSI lebroncast he met guys all right. Lastly, Ryan,
we talked about those teams at the bottom of the
West and getting in and and I look at when
I say who to these this, this horde of teams
(40:02):
that are all within the game of each other, is
gonna get in that eight nine game. You know the
team I know it seems kind of obvious. Well, I'm
gonna go with Portland and Phoenix because these are the
teams I know that have come into the bubble saying
we want this, We're ready for this restart, we want
to win. We're looking at this as a second chance.
And other teams are kind of like, Nah, we've got
Mad from Memphis, We've gotten mass so far from San Antonio,
(40:23):
Mad from the Pelicans. So that's who I'm going. Who
are you going with is your eight nine teams? I
hope Phoenix can get in there. They would definitely deserve it.
This this is the excitement that we had all season before.
Uh you know, Uh the big fellow DeAndre Aiden had
his you know, drug thing. I'm not sure what it was.
I'm not gonna speak on it, but if you look
(40:44):
at the roster, uh, Phoenix is a solid team. Devin Booker,
uh can can play. We we know what with DeAndre Aiden,
we know his type of talent. And then got a
bunch of long lanky devenders, acronic perimeter and Ricky Rubio
we know what he does with the internet, asking the ball,
Ricky kimballd Man, I love playing and uh competing again
within against Ricky Rubio. So that was the team that
(41:07):
you have marked down on the roster wise that had
enough talent. I'd like to see if go out to compete.
But I think it's all about Portlands. When you look
at this Portland squad, Damon Lillard is easily a top
five player in the NBA and the best point guard
that we have in the league. Two day, guys, quote
me on that. And then you have C. J McCullum.
That squad is coming in healthy, skinny mellows on a mission. Baby,
(41:29):
he's hitting dagger buzzer beaters and then they're go and
knockoff Houston, who was arguably the hottest team at the time.
That was really making noise. So if you're if you're
looking at Portlands, uh, nightmare matchup for Lebron James in
the first round. Absolute nightmare, guys, We're gonna be talking
about that. And Charles Barkley does not look as crazy
(41:49):
as he once did saying that Portland could beat the Lakers.
He is on Twitter at the Ryan Hollins that is
at the Ryan Hollands. Hey, hit him up for all
your workout needs in a vice. He will be able
to tell you what kind of squats and what jail workouts. Man,
dude as always man. Great catching up and then we'll
talk to you soon. Always fun. You got to do
(42:13):
those jail workouts. I'm like, okay, push up, sit ups?
What else is he gonna throw in? You do lunges
a little bit of walking. It's gotta gotta do those workouts.
That's how it works. Be sure to catch the live
edition of The Doug gott Leap Show weekdays at three
pm Easter noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
I Heart Radio a app
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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