Sam Mitchell! - Bumper to Bumper 5/23/24 Hour Two

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Wolves Calve hits the road this weekfor the Charge Challenge Punishment. Keep up
with him on our social channels ashe makes his way from Philly to Los
Angeles. For fullest of stops andlist of all the great products he's bringing
with him, head over to cafeandot com slash road trip. Hey,
Dan, Jack from Northeast, gota question for you, at what point

(00:24):
do we start scaling back to keelAlexander just feeling as he's been in the
negative. I believe since maybe gamethree or Game four of Denver really been
struggling. I wonder what your thoughtsare about his play and maybe his future
roles or maybe future improvements that you'dlike to see from him. Takes a
ton fair question, and he's beensuch a vital part of this team's ascension

(00:49):
through the their second best regular seasonever. I don't know that you got
a lot of alternatives other than tocontinue to throw him out there and hope
he starts hitting a few shots.It seems like I feel like his offense
is in this case affecting his defensea little bit. But there's not a
lot of other options. Maybe youdo play him, you know, if

(01:11):
you can get away with it,you don't have foul issues a fewer minutes.
That might well be a way togo. But it would be very
helpful if he could, if indeedhe could get something going a number nine,
you know, usually I watched theTNT Show obviously, but I was
at the game again last night andI didn't. I think I must,
I think I dvrd it, butI didn't watch. But I'm hearing from
a lot of Texters that Irving didn'tbring it up. It was brought up

(01:36):
to him, and that Barkley madeit a bit major talking point among others.
I think, as I said,I think Stephen A. Smith did
today as well, and it itsounds like the Kyrie might have been prodded
a little bit that it wasn't asif you know, in any meaningful way,

(02:01):
he was like, wait, can'twe couldn't wait to get in front
of the jackals and go. Igot a couple of things to say about
my man, Anthony Edwards. Ilove him. I love his zeal,
I love his intensity, I lovehis enthusiasm. But so that it's the
classic, I mean, we allare vulnerable to it. That it may

(02:23):
not even have occurred to people thatit was supposed to be a story.
But then you probe and say,well, let's see what he says.
And to a certain extent, Kyrie, if you read his answer careful,
In fact I actually saw it,it did seem as if Kyrie, even
as he's chuckling about how much Ilove Ant, there was a part of

(02:45):
the quote indicated I think sort oflike, Okay, you're going to say
something like that. Now people aregoing to pay attention to it, almost
like it did in some way fuelhim. And as I said, it
might have, I'm not even denyingthat, because players they literally invent stuff
out of whole cloth to inspire themselves. I'll adhere, though, to the

(03:07):
same position, even if it ifKyrie is saying it is part of what
fueled him, I would say AnthonyEdwards has nothing in this case, I
think to regret or apologize for.In fact, in all honesty, it's
almost the It's almost like he wasstaying in the obvious because who else is
going to guard him, who elseis at least going to try to guard
him. I mean, it's thenatural matchup, and I think it's the

(03:29):
matchup that they've used from game togame as well in the regular season in
the games in which Kyrie played WillowMark Rosen's Cat I was at the game
last night. If the two bestplayers of the core continue to be the
MAVs, then we have no chance. However, if that's the case,
it also changes how I view theseason. Season will be viewed as a
success and hopefully it's just one stepat a bigger process as a hopefully develops

(03:51):
into a superstar. Long way togo. Still, though, I would
emphasize Mark Willow Mark Rosen's Cat guidethat more than anything, is Game one,
a close game at that of aseries that I think is likely to
go along against a Dallas team thatI think has been a little bit on
the underrated side by all of us, including me, until you do a

(04:14):
little more work and you talk tosome people and you read some things we
had Tim Kyle Shawn yesterday, uhand even Wilbon, and you say,
well, there's there's there's some there'ssome stuff here with that club. Obviously
they if their two best players areliterally the two best players throughout the series,
the Mavericks will win. Right Theassumption was going in that to a

(04:38):
large degree. Edwards and Luca wouldcancel each other out, and therefore it
would come down to, okay,of your second stars, who gets the
better of it at what they do, Kat or Kyrie, And last night,
like I said, you know,it was Kyrie first half, it
was Lucas second half. Those wereeasily the dominant players. I don't even

(05:00):
think the Wolves have to win thematchup of the second of the two,
you know, the number two starsfor each team. But as I said
at the start of the show,they can't lose it sixty three to thirty
five, and they can't lose itat the end of the game. So
even if Edwards or Kat don't havethe point totals to match what Luca and

(05:24):
or Kyrie does over the course ofthe game, they got to hit,
you know, and it's got tohit nine points in the last three minutes.
That's what the Stars are asked todo. They're going to have to
have stretches like that, or itcould be a cats as well. But
it was the kind of game whereyou can talk yourself into well, it
was two or three plays, andeven if you get that slam dunk follow

(05:48):
if that ends up counting on replayrather than the original ruling, being upheld.
It's a tie game at that point, and you're still very much in
position. I do believe if you'regonna have more close games, and I
think you are in this series,then we are back to Let's remember the
lessons we thought we learned that inthat when when we fail to execute at

(06:13):
the end of games, we hada problem and that even our great defense
could not be enough to offset andwe saw a lot of that dysfunction.
That's why Finchy made such a bigissue of it last night and apparently has
done so again today after a filmsession. Those things I think are pretty
important. Let's take a call outout of Minneapolis from Nick. Nick,

(06:36):
you're on the fan, thanks forholding. Hey, Dan, curious to
hear your thoughts on whether Ant's performancelast night can be explained by him being
tired from guarding Tyrie or if maybehe's playing through an injury. You know,
he had that big fall in gamesix yea, laying on the ground
for a couple of minutes, andthen his performance really dropped off in game

(06:58):
seven and game one yesterday. Idon't think there's an injury to it that's
that's holding him back. But youraise Nick and thank you for the call.
Another point worth making in doing thecompare and contrast here, Let's not
forget something. Dallas Mavericks ain't askingLuca to guard the world's best offensive player,

(07:24):
not other than occasionally out of necessityor in a switch situation. Right,
not gonna happen now. Luca's defense, they tell me, has improved.
He's taken a little bit more seriously, had a nice he had a
nice steal last night. But interms of the expending of energy thing,
that's one of the advantages that Lucahas. Frankly, that's one of the

(07:46):
advantages that Kyrie Irving has because formuch of that game they didn't have Kyrie.
They did, if at all,again, other than switches, they
did not have Kyrie Irving on AnthonyEdwards. So Anthony Edwards, in fairness,
we must say, is being askedto do a lot more than either
one of the Dallas Mavericks players,and that does have to be factored in.

(08:11):
Kyrie and especially Luca are protected scorers, especially Luca. I think Luca
early was on McDaniels. We sawMcDaniels try to take advantage of that pretty
effectively. So when it comes tothe energy issue, and I'm gonna talk
to Sam about this. That's oneof the I mean, it's a burden

(08:31):
that Ant has raised his hand.He wants to do it to a certain
extent. They kind of need himto do it the way this team is
constructed. Might there come a timewhere they back away from that a little
bit. I think it might happenbecause I guess if you really do want
to be Michael Jordan, you acceptthe challenge because that's what Jordan did.
Although many times it was Scottie Pippenrather than Jordan who was on who might

(08:58):
be on the best wing play layon the other team. That was a
great advantage that Michael had. ScottiePippen was one of the greatest defensive wing
players in history, Michael's first TeamAll Defense forever. But that's going to
affect your energy in a game ina series like this, and we're talking
about wing players out, you know, perimeter players. That's a huge advantage
that Dallas Mavericks have at this point. Grant in your handtime again. Yes,

(09:20):
I still can't believe Rosie brought hiscat to the game. I'm still
thinking about no one else could dothat. I know, but he's Rosie,
so apparently you know. I don'tif he hides it in his pocket
or what he does. Yeah.Willow followed up and said that chilling under
a Rod's chair, that was theSI that makes some sense. Yes,
the the cash bit the faninbig deckdot com. I'm gonna give you that

(09:41):
shot to put a grand in yourhand at the National Cash Contest headed KFE
dot com on a keyword money forthis hour. The keyword is money KFE
dot com keyword money. We dohave a Charles Barkley rant not related to
the allegations the the silly allegations againstAnthony Edwards Worth the noting that we'll get
to after the break. I tendto agree with Charles Moore on this one

(10:05):
than I do on that other rant. And then we'll prepare for Sam Mitchell
at fourth Audio. Find our Mallof America Street team all summer long out
at our events. Ask about ourMall of America Mystery cards where everyone is
a winner. Zero will be nextat cafan dot Com Keyword Calendar. That's
cafan dot Com keyword Calendar. HeyDan, this is Jeff from Farmington.

(10:31):
I'm a little concerned about the lineupsthat Finch is using at the end of
the third quarter, in the beginningof the fourth quarter. There was a
six minute span at the end ofthe third quarter where Kat and Aunt didn't
see the floor, and then thatwent into about two minutes into the fourth
quarter where Anthony Edwards was the onlyoffense we have. We've got to have

(10:54):
a better lineup than that out therefor that long time. Thanks, Well,
it's a subject we have explored before. I tend to believe and the
head coach clearly doesn't agree that thereshould really never be much more than thirty
seconds in which one of the twomain scores are not on the floor,

(11:16):
and sometimes foul trouble dictates changes inthat regard, and sometimes you feel like,
well, this other lineup has beengood for us, and it's kind
of interesting. To paraphrase the headcoach, You're in the conference finals now,
man, I'm not interested in that. I think there should be some
pretty hard and fast rules in place. I don't think this team is good

(11:37):
enough offensively, although it's gotten alot better in the postseason, not good
enough offensively to go down that road. So I would prefer not to Charles
Barkley did go off on a tangentunrelated to Anthony Edwards, unrelated I believe
to the Wolves and Dallas Mavericks gamenumber one, and it's about Caitlyn Clark

(12:01):
and some stories that have surfaced regardingI think actually Charles was playing off of
some tweets from Lebron kind of defendingCaitlin, saying people are already on her
because they her team hasn't won agame yet. Calm down, what's what's
the problem, What's what's what's what'swith all the the the resentment and annoyance

(12:24):
with her, especially this quickly,And so that may have been where Charles
first heard it. We've I Iplayed off a tweet from the suggestion that
Caitlin Clark, the entire Caitlin Clark'sstory is all about white privilege, which
is nonsense, but it's we're ina world in which we're in a performative

(12:48):
world, and it sounds like thecool thing to say. It sounds like
the thing goes whoa, oh yeah, that's right, white privilege, which
isn't the same as saying white privilegehasn't been a thing. But I think
it has almost zero to do withthe Caitlyn Clark for now phenomenon, Charles
didn't really necessary to get into therace aspect of it, but larger issues.

(13:09):
Let's listen to Charles last night.You women out there, y'all,
Penny man Hey, Lebron, youa hundred percent right on. These girls
hate known Caitlyn Clark. Y'all pettygirls. I expect being to be petty
cause we're the most instacret group inthe world. You are, y'all should
be thinking that girl for getting y'allass private charters, all the money and

(13:33):
men's a village? Is she bringingto the jem NBA? Don't be petty
like dudes. Listen what she's accomplished. Flowers got stop fan, Penny all
you women out there, she goty'all ass shot us. She bringing all
y'all is money to the table fory'all being penny like dudes. Lebron,
you are a one hundred percent righty'all girls, stop fan petty Canaan Clark,

(13:56):
thank you for bringing all that moneyand she shine to the NBA.
He nailed it, And that's oneof the great things about being Charles is
he doesn't worry about whether what kindof blowback he's going to get he doesn't.
I think Charles might be one ofa few cultural figures right now who
is not cancelable. I'm not Ijust don't think he can be at this

(14:22):
point. But in all seriousness,and I don't even know. We talked
a little bit about this yesterday withduring the show from the cage that the
number of people on the other hand, who were like, all right,
calm down, now, she's youknow, she's she's she's gonna be okay,
and some of that I thought wasalso kind of patronizing the notion though

(14:46):
that any sort of firm and Lebronmade the key point, by the way,
via Twitter, she's playing for abad team or what's been a bad
team. I think he reminded usthey've had the number one pick two straight
years now. Maybe they're starting toput some stuff together and will. But
she didn't walk into, you know, the Los Angeles Lakers with Kareem Abdul

(15:09):
Jabbar, right, she walked intoas Magic Johnson did. She walked into
a situation in which they were goingto be pretty bad. And the level
whatever the level of resentment is,it's, like I said, kind of
ridiculous. The panelists from the viewapparently got into this particular subject as well,

(15:33):
and I'm going concern seems to bethat nobody was paying attention or not
as many people were paying attention toa largely minority dominated league, and that

(15:54):
that's a problem and that's a shame, and that it shouldn't be Caitlin Clark
who makes them popular because they're alreadybetter, more established star and superstar players
who haven't gotten the same level ofattention or acclaim. I'll say it for
the tenth time. I think I'vesaid it nine more in the last few

(16:15):
months. It's the way life works. Man. If you go back to
seventy nine when Irvin Magic Johnson andLarry Joe Byrd came into the league,
they were extraordinary players, as theyproved, and for them it didn't take
that long because they walked into bettersituations than Caitlin Clark did. But guess
what, there were a lot ofother very good NBA players before they got

(16:37):
there. And yet, because thisis sometimes the way the culture works,
those two players, because they playedin the most watched NCAA championship game in
history, galvanized things. Was thatfair to the other players who were already
established. No, not the point. It's the way it works. And

(17:02):
ultimately, as I think most peoplewill now agree, everybody's profile got raised,
the league's profile, the NBA's profilegot raised because of what these two
players, with their celebrity and theirstatus, brought to it. From the
college game. The college game onthe women's side, is a more popular

(17:27):
game than the WNBA has been.Is a WNBA better brand of basketball?
Of course, it's the next level, but college basketball has been bigger.
The hope is and this is whyeverybody should be rooting for Everybody who's allegedly
resenting her should be rooting for her. Is that her presence brings more eyes.

(17:49):
It already has brought more eyes tothe game. Is that a conspiracy
against the other place? No,it's just it's a cultural moment that tends
to happen from time to time.I've even heard some just some stupid commentary
about, well, you know whowas the player who ended up spending a

(18:11):
year in prison in uh Britney GrinerAnd the quote from I think was somebody
who might have been somebody on thethe the panel for what's the show?
I just named the view said,well, as an example of how ridiculous
this is, uh and how thisis about white privilege. Britney Britney Griner,

(18:33):
you know, made so little moneyas she had that she was going
over to Russia because she had toplay there. Do you have any other
players, black, white, whateverin the WNBA for that very same reason
have had to play over there.That's not a conspiracy against them. It's
because the game was not making enoughmoney to make it easy for even Lindsey

(18:56):
Whalen, for God's sake, tosay, I'm I'd said I'm not going
to play over but the whales ofthe world accepted it, not necessarily because
they always wanted to do it,but because they wanted the extra money.
They needed the extra money. Infact, if you recall late in that
in her career, she backed awayfrom that in part, I think being

(19:17):
prodded by Cheryl Reeve to say,we need you to concentrate here, on
on on on us. If youcan and you can get away with it,
that's my recollection. Anyway, ifif Lindsey's is listening, she can
text me and refresh my memory.But the idea that this has just happened
to Britney Britney Grinder. No,this happened to all players because the league

(19:37):
is ascending, but it's not yetin that place. It is growing.
We talked about that with with CherylReeve when she joined us before a Wolves
playoff game, let before I thinkDenver Game six, the game she guaranteed
that the Wolves would win. Sothere's no conspiracy here. And I have
no problem with veteran players in thetrying to school her. None. That's

(20:02):
part of the that's that's part ofthe right of passage. People shouldn't cheap
shot her. I think that's kindof biting the hand that to a certain
extent feeds you. And Charles Barkley'sright about that. So you could be
unhappy about it, but you butyou can't deny that she has brought more
eyes to this game immediately that weren'tthere before, and that to that extent,

(20:27):
everybody wins. And if you can'thandle that, I mean, then
you don't understand how I think lifeworks culturally speaking, and even how sports
works. There often in every sportthere have been players who, because of
their notoriety, because they seem tobring something different. In her case,
it's shooting from mid court, beingone of the most successful college players individually

(20:52):
in the history of the sport.You know, the Steph curization of the
game is because that's kind of whatshe represented in terms of range. Did
people care whether she was black orwhite? Yeah, there's probably some who
do, and even some who willsay, well that that's more relatable for

(21:14):
me. We talk about what's relatable? Does it is? It got to
be relatable that you're looking at somebodywho's the same race as you. Maybe
for some people it is. Idon't know, But her numbers speak for
herself, for herself. The thethe the the dominance does as well.
And even if you think she's slightlyoverrated compared to some other college players,
she crossed over. She crossed over. It was the perfect store, more

(21:40):
television, people showing up at games. It builds on itself. There's nothing
to apologize for here, So akudos to Charles Barkley for, as he
often does, just laying the thingout and not worrying about any blowback or
any consequence. As Sam Mitchell is, Game two of the Western Commerce Finals

(22:02):
tips off tomorrow at seven thirty.You can hear it right here on FM
one hundred point three kfan and anywhereyou go on the free iHeartRadio app presented
by scar Audio Elevate your Ride Today. Sam Mitchell is back with us.
It's been great having extended visits withSam through this whole run, and hopefully
it will indeed continue for the nextseveral weeks. He joined us via the

(22:26):
Connectico Water Systems Highline. Sam,do you think it's a coincidence that the
year the Wolves decide to re connectwith this station, Cafe and my station,
they go on this run that hasthem in the conference finals. I'd
like to take some measure of creditfor you think one thing has anything to
do with the other. Absolutely thatyou would like to think so, Yeah,

(22:51):
because we all like to say howimportant we are, but in the
big scheme of things, probably not. I've come to the realizationday and that
we're not important at all. Yeah. Yeah, that's why I like having
you on. Sam. You bringus down just enough to where we stayed
a little humble, you know,a little bit of humility as well,
which is not a bad thing atall. All Right, So what give

(23:11):
me your number one takeaway from Gameone of this series? Well, I
think it was a learning experience forAnthony Edwards. I think it was a
learning experience for the timber Wolves.They just came off a tough Game seven
in Denver where they won a gamewhere no one gave them a chance to
win it, and I think theywere feeling themselves and they just got a

(23:33):
little bit ahead of themselves. Theyplayed. They didn't play bad, right,
They just let Dallas do some thingsthat they got to tighten up.
They got to come to some typeof conclusion with that drop coverage. Yeah,
they took away Dallas threes, butDallas, I think they scored sixty
some points in the paint correct.So that's something with Rudigo bad Car at

(23:55):
the times you just don't want tohave as a coach. But I think
the Wolves abound. In fact,you know, Kyrie and Luca made some
big plays as that Edwards got gassed. He was tired, you know,
chasing Kyrie around and then trying toscore twenty five thirty himself. But he
realizes that he's gonna have to takehis game to another level and if he

(24:17):
wants to be on the same level, I'm not saying compare comparison, but
if he wants to be on thesame level mentally as Michael Jordan and Kobe
Bryant. Then he has to rememberthose two guys played both sides of the
ball. They were all first teamAll Defensive players and they were first team
All NBA. And so that's tough, man, because when you're the man,

(24:40):
you get everybody best shot every singlenight. And I think with asking
his running he's running that he's Look, he's only twenty two years old.
I know we like to think thathe's plays like he's twenty seven and twenty
eight, but he's only twenty twoand he's gonna learn from every single experience
and he's gonna get better. ButI expect Tim to bounce back in Game

(25:02):
two and do better. You know, it's interesting that subject, because we
were talking earlier. There is somethingyou could argue a little bit unfair in
comparing the stars in this series,because as you well know, Mavericks don't
ask Luca to guard anybody unless theyhave to. They really don't ask.
They didn't ask Kyrie to guard AnthonyEdwards that much last night as well.

(25:23):
It happened a few times, butnot a lot, and yet Anthony is
being asked and once he said allof it, which is and is another
level man. I mean that someof the great offensive players do get to
save themselves a bit because there's notthe same expectation that you're going to guard
either the best scorer on the otherteam or the second best scorer. But

(25:48):
Dan, when you get to thisstage and there's only four teams, then
you can't hire guys anymore. Youcan't. I mean, at some point
it's only five starters. You gottaguard somebody. And if you're the best
player on your team and you're askedto guard the best of the second best
player on the other team, it'sabout compete for a championship. You gotta
do it, y'all. Doing theregular season, we hire guys, We

(26:11):
try to express guys out and putmore on their play. But come playoff
time, this is why you paythose guys what you pay them, because
you expect more. You expect themto be able to guard another all star,
accountable player and to still get yours. That's what's gonna come down to
who wins the championship. Sure,look, as much as we love our

(26:32):
others and they've played well to supportingcast. If the Timberwolves, if the
Dallas Mavericks. If the teams thatare left, if they stars don't step
up, then you may have arole player that make a shot or play
here and there, but carry theweight, carry the water. It's gonna
be your stars. That's what they'repaid for. Did the club the club

(26:56):
had? The Wolves had great successearly on threes. The percentage was good.
Obviously Jaden McDaniels picked up right wherehe left off, but they shot
a much greater number of threes.This a good three point shooting team,
but hasn't been a volume three pointshooting team. I felt like they fell
in love with it too much,in part because the interior Dallas defense did

(27:18):
discourage everybody else say everybody really AnthonyEdwards mainly going downhill. He talked about
that after the game. I thinkyou got to mix and match, got
to find a way even against thedefense that's making it tough to either get
to the basket a little more often, go downhill or get to the free
throw line. Anthony had two attemptsand Carl also had only two attempts from

(27:41):
the free throw line last night.But Dan, when you put scores on
other scores, they came to forgetsome of the offensive games, right,
because they're so focused on the otherguy. Especially the way time we started
the game. I mean, hetook anthony focus away from offense. It
had focus on defense. And thenthat fourth quarter, man until he hit

(28:03):
that three Actony was trying to considerhimself. He was standing in the corner
like, look, man, I'mtired because I gotta go down. And
he did the right thing. Danis the old saying, if you're gonna
take a blow doing a game,you do it on offense. You never
do it on defense. And sohe told and at that time, sure
Carl was going, other people wasgoing. So he picked and chose the
right moments to problem is that thatdamn Luca Dantage. I mean, I'm

(28:29):
still trying to sit there and watchthis guy. He looks twenty pounds overweight,
he don't jump, he don't doanything quick, but he just destroys
everybody each and every single night.And he's a classic example of I tell
kids all the time, if youwant to learn how to play, watch
Luca, watch the Joker. Don'twatch these great athletes. You're not gonna

(28:49):
have the bounce in the body ofLebron James. That's one in seventy million
people. You didn't get that,but any everybody can do with the Joker,
and some of the other guys aredoing that. Were lies strictly on
Luca, that preside strictly on skill. So again it's gonna be tough for

(29:11):
the Wolves, but this is ahuge game game too. They got to
bounce back and get this one becauseI think it'll be asking too much to
go down oh two, yeah,and then winning two games in Dallas.
You know, Luca to your pointon Luca last night was a good example
too of where you know. Youmentioned he and the Joker, and there

(29:32):
there are, even though they playvery different positions, some similarities, and
one of them is Luca. Almostevery Luca assists last night was at the
rim, at the basket because hesees it so well and obviously if you
come after him, you come outto him, he's either gonna shoot it
anyway or he's gonna find the openman. And so many of his assists

(29:55):
were dunks, right, that's thoseare fairly high percentage shots. And that's
obviously Joker at his best when hehe's distributing. But that's the the I
think the sneaky part of what Lucadoes beyond hitting some you know some,
is creating space for himself very artfullyto get shots off. Well, Dan,
the Wolves were playing that drop coverage, and when you play drop,

(30:17):
it gives the guard a chance toget inside yep, the defense inside the
top of the key, and thenit puts that defender because some point that
defender's got to make a decision onwhen does he draw the line and play
defense. Like, you can't dropall the way under the basket, so
at some point you got to decidewhere you're going to take your stance.

(30:37):
And at that point, if theoffensive center gets behind you, then you're
so susceptible to the lib And peoplethink about, well, these guys can
jump, and just to play theball, Dan, you know this,
you can't jump when you're moving backwards, right, So, and that's what's
happened that would happened the game whenLuke and Kyrie they called Gobat and the

(30:59):
timberwools on the heels and they couldn'tThey didn't pick an early enough spot to
stop the ball, and then theweak side wasn't doing a good job coming
over bomping that guy, knocking themoff rhythm not letting him get to the
front of the rim so easy becausethey were so afraid of the three.
The Wolves did a great job oftaking away the three. But what it
showed them and what they should learnfrom last night is that come playoff time,

(31:25):
look, the Wolves made more threesand lost the game. So that
right there should tell you use analytics, and it's proper too, but you
shouldn't coach and base everything off analytics. What's so what? And so strategically
all right, do you say yougotta you gotta eliminate the drop coverage or
mix it up more? What?What? Strategically you got to mix it

(31:48):
up? Okay, you got tomix it up. You cannot give Luke
and Kyrie a study died of thesame thing, can't. You can't give
them the same defense because they're gonnafigure it out. So you got to,
you know, one one time,maybe you drop, maybe one time
you trap them, glit them.Maybe one time the guard goes over the
top. You know, you justchange up the coverages, you bring the

(32:10):
bigs up sometime. You gotta changeit up, because if you give them
a steady diet of one thing,they're gonna figure it out. And just
hurt you time and time again.After the game, Kyrie was asked about
some comments from Anthony Edwards after theywrapped up the Games seven victory over Denver.
I want you to hear can weplay that again? Brett Blakemore,

(32:35):
mister Blakemore, he's not even Idon't think Blakemore is paying attention. Are
you on? Are you with me? Oh? He's looking for it now.
Watching the first two games of thisseries against the Dallas Mavericks. Early
thoughts on playing the maps, It'sgonna be fun, man. You know,
my matchup gonna be Kyrie. Sothat's gonna be finn. We're gonna
see what what I can do versusappreciate your time, all right, Sam,

(32:58):
that has been viewed. I guessCharles Barkley to a large extent,
and I know several ESPN people aspoking the bear. You're calling Kyrie irving
out and that because Kyrie didn't discouragethe notion in the post game last night
when he met the reporters that thisis another young player mistake, showing too

(33:22):
much bravado and you just can't givea great skilled player like Kyrie the extra
juice to which you say what sayHogwise? First of all, it was
then saying anything disrespectful? God?What did he say? He said,
I'm gonna I guess I'm gonna bematched up against Kyrie Irving, a great

(33:43):
player, and I guess I willsee what I would do. He didn't
say I'm going to destroy Kyrie.He didn't say I'm gonna do this and
do that. He said I'm gonnasee what I can do against him.
I mean, what else can hesay? Dad? I mean of it
rolling over and bow down and kisses. But I mean all he said was

(34:04):
I'm playing against a great player,and I guess we're gonna see what I
can do against him. He gota taste in game one. Yeah,
make adjustin in the game two andagain this is part of his groote.
But I like what Kyrie said.Kyrie wasn't that Kyrie understands what is the
guy supposed to say, they giveme the play against you. I'm afraid
I hope Kyrie just don't get ahundred on me. I mean, what

(34:28):
what is supposed to be accidentamical?And two, well, you tell me
why the so? Why in mybusiness do these stories get oxygen and perpetuated
it's it's such an easy itch toscratch and it and and sometimes I might
get it, but this isn't oneof them. It just it drives me
insane. I don't understand why there'snot an ability to distinguish between quotes.

(34:51):
You know, just that that thathe brings up a player's name, even
if Kyrie doesn't totally discourage the possibilitythat yeah, you know, I mean
we we watch, didn't we Wepaid attention to it. That that means,
oh my god, that that thatthis this kid has crossed something against
the great area. Yeah, andI guess we're gonna see what I'm gonna
do against Yes, plus I toldit, didn't we then say I'm gonna

(35:16):
destroy Kyrie. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do that. He said,
We're gonna see what I can doagainst it. These are the same
commentator Sam who also lawed up andcoming players. When they say I want
all the responsibility of being the mainguy. I want to take on the
toughest guy in the other team.They, on the one hand, they

(35:37):
laud it, and then he doesthat and again doesn't in any way predict
what was gonna happen, and he'sstill getting ripped because Kyrie had a ridiculous
first tap. Here's another theory that'sbeing offered to me via the text line,
and I think there could be somethingmore to this if this is accurate.
Do you think there was something toKyrie's answer that he wasn't selected for

(35:58):
the Olympic team and Aunt was oneguy who took his spot because you and
I, in fact, earlier todaytalked about, you know, whether Kyrie
should end up on the Olympic teamor not. Now I could see him
not holding that against Ant, butbeing a little bit extra motivated regarding the
spot or why he isn't already onthe team and using that. To me,

(36:19):
that makes more sense for a playerto grab onto that than to be,
you know, necessarily be bothered byanything in particular that Anthony Edwards said,
especially when what he said was SaulVanilla and people are just looking for
something because you gotta look for astoryline. Dose. Guys got to have
something to talk about in the freegame, right, Yes, they gotta
have something to talk about. Butlook, the I think Kyrie is Kyrie

(36:43):
one e twelve best players. Comeon, man, that's not even a
question that's not even He may beour most skied player, that's not even
a question. Did his past havesomething to do with him being left off
the Olympic team? I would sayso yep. But the last two three
years, man, this guy's beenunbelievable ambasketed for basketball. I think he's

(37:05):
been everything that Dallas Mavericks could havehoped for and more. I think he's
been a credit to the league andto the fans. The way he deals
with the reporters. I think he'smatured in a way that everybody is just
so happy because we're seeing the bestof Kyrie. Now that being said,
I think he should have been onthe Olympic team. I think he's one
of our best players. And Dan, I'm concerned because I don't know if

(37:29):
Joel ANDBII, if you're the PHILLADPTINseventy six, are you gonna sign up
on Jeel and b playing with theinjuries that he'd had, the way he
struggled in the playoffs with injuries,I mean, and maybe some other guys.
So it's gonna be interesting to seewho's actually on that team. Asted
and done. And then Dan,we're sending an old team, the older

(37:52):
team to the Olympics, And Imean, have we not learned anything about
the playoffs? First far? Lookat the teams that are the final four
teams, A bunch of young guys, young team fresh leg quicker. So
I don't know, man. Imean, we're sending a great team with

(38:15):
guys who've had unbelievable korebs. Butyou got to look at you got guys
in in year twenty year, seventeento eighteen and then with a lot of
injuries. And so if I'm theteam that's paying these guys freight, do
I really want to see? Imean, you can't stop them. But
what is Kevin Durrass still playing inthe Olympics? Yower right, he's got

(38:36):
gonna medals. I mean, Ineed him at his best to earn this
fifty million dollars. I got toput him that year good. I mean,
that's just my personal feelings. Ithink we got so many young guys,
and I like what kg attitude waswhen he played in the Olympics and
won a gold medal. He said, been there, done that. Let
somebody else play. Why do thesame guys gotta play want to play every

(39:00):
time? Let all these other youngguys get a chance to play. Sam
Mitchell is our guest. I Iwant to finish up with a couple less
things, a thing, a coupleof things about this series. So do
you buy the notion that the Wolves, you know, the Wolves are not
a cheap shot team. I'm notasking them to be to be that,

(39:20):
do you believe in the in thenotion that they do maybe need to knock
the perimeter guys around a little bitmore and make them feel them. Is
there a way to do that withthat? It makes a difference with Kyrie
Irving and or Luca get a littlebit more, you know, bump them
a little bit, because I don'tthink they got bumped off by any of
their spots quite much that last night. And that of course part of the

(39:43):
strength of this team is really gooddefense and not again hurting people. But
I think making making the other team, even the other team's best players,
feel you a little bit, well, I think you You may it do
that with some of the other guys, but j mav is a pretty big
team man. WI Yeah, Imean, who's gonna bump Bluke around?
Nobody really? Thank you? Andthen I think you if you ask Anthony

(40:07):
that was Tyl. If you couldcatch Kyrie, he might bump him.
You gotta catch him speed man,catch him, dude, it's speeding.
Ball. Handling is second to none. And as far as Gafford and some
of the other guys, them somewell put together guys. Look, man,
the one thing I looked at andI watched that game, I was

(40:29):
amazed at the skill level, howskilled all those players were, and the
way they played and shot the ball, and some of the passes they made
and some of the things that theydid. That being said, man,
look, I just think the Wolvesgot to tighten up a little bit.
This is gonna be an offensive series. I think the defense is gonna you
gotta pick and choose your moments whenthe defense is gonna be able to kick

(40:52):
in. But the Wolve's gonna haveto score in this series, and they're
gonna have to figure out some kindof way to get the ball out of
Luca hands. And once they getit out of his hands, they gonna
have to try to keep it outof his hands, because I mean,
he just kind of went along lastnight pedestrian and then all of a sudden
in that late third quarter, fourthquarter, man, he just came alive

(41:15):
and the shots he made those atough shot, but you know what,
he makes tough shots each type guyyou just came in to shoot at all.
You're I think one hundred percent rightabout The Wolves are more a defensive
team than offense. But the lasttwo minutes you got to execute better because
these are gonna be close games.I don't think there's gonna be a lot
of routes in this series. Anddown the stretch out you had a McDaniel's

(41:38):
turnover, you had that tough offensivegoaltending call on Cat. We can argue
about that. Then Conley makes abad pass. They had down the stretch
way too many mistakes. And evenat the end of the first half they
got a chance Sam to go upnine and instead Anthony turns the ball over.

(41:59):
Kyrie gets a three point play andso it's it. Instead of being
up nine and a half, you'reup three. So all those little things
in close games, they show up, right, that's why you do it
have to. I think that's whyFinchy was pretty unhappy with the offense last
night. And damn, I thinkone thing the Wolves can do they gotta
they gotta explore the match up withCarl after Towns against PJ. Washington.

(42:23):
Can't God, car can't do it. And they got it. They gotta
They got it. And and mypoint, Carr got to get closer to
the basket. I mean, hecan shoot three and I wouldn't want to
take that away from him, buthe's got to punish PJ. Washington and
and the Wolves got to make aconcern effort to get him the ball.

(42:44):
Again. We talked about this,that that side Piggy Roe action that they
get to at the end of theirplay where they normally have Anthony was in
Carner Anthon Towns on one side,and it forced Denver into some tough switches.
They need to run that same offenseagainst Dallas and seeking they get the
matchups that they want on car becausethink about it, that's no one on

(43:07):
Dallas team can really guard call fifteenfeet. Then, because Carl is bigger
than gafferd Yep. I appreciate he'sbigger than the young center. He's taller
and bigger than Gaffer. I reallydon't think there's a matchup for Carl to
me, and we talked about thatas an X factor, that that's a
matchup you got to exploit better thanthey did. Now he had to know.

(43:29):
He just missed a lot of shots. That was part of it.
But look, the big two versusthe big two, it doesn't to me
have to be that the Wolves winthat matchup, but they can't lose it
sixty three to thirty five in points, right, That to me, the
gap can't be that big, correct, No, No, it can't be

(43:50):
that big. It's got to becloser. And again, this is the
thing. This is west tug.Luca just kind of guards and floats around
Kyrie k does the same exactly.But when you're guarding those two guys,
because they got the ball every freakingtime every time, and their offensive designed.
If Luke and Kyrie come down andthey take the next fifteen to twenty

(44:12):
shot, no one says a word. No one says the word. No
one gets upset. That's true,No one says the word. It's just
how their team functions. And that'sanother thing. How does your team function?
Every team can't function that way.So those are the type of things
that Wolves kind of understand that thosetwo guys can go five for thirty going

(44:36):
into the fourth quarter and they stillcan take every shot and it's okay.
That's a great point. And theycan get hot too. By the way,
as we wrap up, we hadMike Wilbon Michael Wilbon on yesterday.
He said to say he went outof his way to say hello to you.
I didn't know you, and Wilbonwent went back aways. He seemed
very fond of Sam Mitchell. ButDan, when you in this business man,

(44:59):
and it's crazy. I've done TVloan than I have coach. I
coached for ten years. I've doneTV then, I've done it long enough
to where I'm eligible for my picture. Nice. That's pretty good. I
didn't know that. I was like, gee, wid, i gotta give
me a coach job. I've beendoing TV so long I'm eligible for that's

(45:23):
pretty good. Well, Will Bond, you know, he and I go
way back from the old newspaper daysand uh and he still does such a
such a cornheidy man. And thething about it what I like about Mike
he stands up for what he thinksinjustice, right, you know? He
he went after Lebron in ad bout. I'm still trying to figure out why

(45:44):
Darvin Ham and JV bigger stuff comeout. I'm with you that bigger staff
was announced today. I mean,when your best, when your when your
best, When your two alls oneof them don't play at all in the
series and the other one only playsin two or three games? What are
you? What? What? Whatyou expected? And again, Dan,
I'm one of those people. Ilove and respect what the Knicks did.

(46:06):
But really did you think the Knicksif they would have got passed Indiana,
which I didn't think they could withall the injuries? Do you really think
as beat up they were, theywere going to beat the Boss and Celtics.
Let's stop. No, No,I don't. I don't even know
that they're roster is configured correctly becauseI'm not sure there's much sign that Garland
and uh and what's his name canplay together? You know, it seems

(46:28):
like they It just doesn't seem Hey, Dann, think about it. Dada's
Garland makes the All Star team asa young player. Guess how you rewarded
him? If I prayed it forDonovan Mitche say the ball out of there.
That's true, that's true. Imean, dude, do you know
how hard that is to coach ateam when you got a young player who
just came into his own that youdrafted, that you you developed, and

(46:52):
you wanted him to beat that guy, and he became that guy. And
then you turn around the very nextyear that summer and trade for a guy
just gonna take the ball out ofhis head tough. I have a wonderful
Memorial Day weekend, and we'll tryto reconvene next week. Dan, I'm

(47:12):
kind of already started, minds.I was sitting outside on the deck man
having a cold. One nice didyou guys call it a little windy?
It's hated two degrees and it's niceand with a nice breeze. So I
was sitting outside at the side walkcafe with the missus having a cold.
That sounds pretty good to my carbecause the guy in the breeze I didn't
want to, you know, Iperturb you get it your show. I'm

(47:36):
very sensitive, Sam. You knowthat better than most way too. Even
after all these years, I haven'tfigured out how to outgrow that that problem.
Uh, have a wonderful weekend.Thanks as always, you're the best
man. Thanks for the time,all right, Dan, have a good
one. Sam Mitchell outstanding every timewe have him on. It's so valuable
to us and so much appreciated thathe takes the time to talk to us,

(47:57):
because at this point he really doesn'tneed us at any point. Top
five and five. I'm sorry wekind of cut into it a little bit,
but what are we gonna get to? Yeah? What are you gonna
do? Uh? Well, checkin with the baseball club. There's news
out of Rob Manford's office, andthere's an update from Dateline Louisville, Kentucky.