Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Lakers dysfunction, and the Raiders

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern,
nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one.
Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on
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Sports Radio. Ah, here we go. This Son of Tuesday

(00:26):
is the Herd. Wherever you may be and however you
may be listening, We are live in Los Angeles on iHeartRadio,
Fox Sports Radio FS one. Nick Nurse, coach of the
Toronto Raptors, will stop by, Rick Bucher, Matt Barnes, Reggie Bush,
Chris Brussard. It is great to have you, and Joey
Taylor is joining me as we start. Yesterday, we were

(00:49):
absolutely packed a Memorial Day. Joey, how are you? I'm great?
How is your Memorial Day? It was nice, went home,
hung out with the family. Wife had been gone, came back,
so it was nice, good family day for everybody, and
thanks so much for joining us. Many of you the
holiday weekend we were here, but glad to be here
because there was a lot of basketball. I'm not an
overly religious guy, But I do get a chuckle when

(01:12):
Lebron James talks about basketball gods. He says, don't tempt them.
You don't mess with the basketball gods. And you know,
I'm not overly superstitious, but I've met people and I
know people who are superstitious, and you know who. It's
like the placebo effect. If you think something could happen
and there are basketball gods, maybe it gets into your
head and maybe it does work. But when I look

(01:34):
at Kevin Durant's injury where the basketball gods talking, Not
only did Kevin Durant get injured, he got injured, you know,
against that team, Houston, And that would be the perfect
time for the basketball god to step in and say,
all right, KDMA send you a message. You're gonna be

(01:54):
fine without the Warriors, and they're gonna be fine without you.
You've missed a bunch of games. But to make this
injury right at the time, Golden State absolutely thinks they
need you. I mean, wasn't this the series that last
year Houston controlled until Chris Paul got hurt. This year
they needed all hands on deck, and the basketball god said,

(02:15):
we're gonna tweak that calf. We're not gonna make it
too serious the god Ros Pro Basketball, but we're gonna
give you about a two week tweak on this thing,
and you'll step out, and the Warriors will win without you,
against the team that they thought they needed. Everybody. And
I think about this half seriously. But Austin, Texas is

(02:35):
in Texas. It's not of Texas. I ski a lot
in Park City, Utah. It's in Utah. It's not of Utah.
Kevin Durant is on the Warriors. He's never really been
of the Warriors. Steph and Claire the heart of the team.

(02:56):
Low maintenance, low drama, early investors, Kevin Durant's high drama,
all sorts of maintenance. We're not sure he's a great fit.
He's so talented, he's good, but it's an arguable fit.
They're thirty one out of their last thirty two games
without him. Steph playing in Katie not This has always

(03:17):
been more of a fling than a marriage. I would
love to see Katie stay because I think he's smart
and I think he's great, and I say it all
the time. Don't chase money, chase good management. There's a
sea of money. There's not a ton of great management.
But let's be honest about this. Kad knows it's not

(03:38):
a perfect fit. He can feel it. And the Warrior
fans know it's not a perfect fit. They can feel it.
And Draymond argued and yell at Katie earlier this year
because he doesn't think it's a perfect fit. We're all
dancing around this thing. And the basketball God stepped in
and said, Kevin, we're gonna nudge you to New York

(03:59):
and Warriors. We're gonna nudge you to not feel guilty
about this, because, folks, anytime somebody great joined something already
really really good, you can feel when it's a perfect fit.
Dion Sanders to the Dallas Cowboys was perfect. It was perfect.
Glamour player, glamour owner, Glamor franchise as perfect by the

(04:24):
second day. Jerry and Dion were doing commercials together. When
the Rock Action Star joined the Fast and Furious franchise.
I mean that thing felt five minutes after they named it.
You're like, oh yeah, the Rock, Fast and the Furious.
That's perfect. Reggie Jackson Alex Rodriguez to the Yankees Big Stars,

(04:45):
controversial baseball and the Yankees was the perfect fit, and
you also know when the fit may work briefly but
doesn't feel quite right. Chip Kelly to the Philadelphia Eagles.
They went ten and six, ten and six, but in
a cheese steak, blue collar town, here was this Oregon
guy with a new way to play football. It didn't

(05:08):
really ever feel perfect. Bobby Valentine, quirky guy to the
tradition laden Boston Red Sox. That just didn't feel right
from day one, even in spring training. You ever see
a couple you just know, oh, that'll work, and then
you see Lyle Lovett and Julia Roberts and you're like, yeah,
they may be married for a year, but that's not

(05:29):
gonna work. Kevin Durant is a warrior, he's not of
the Warriors. He is a little maintenance. He is a
little drama. He's a late investor. It's fine, it works,
and I'm not a religious guy, but it's almost like
the basketball gods injury again and what a bizarre injury.
Nobody around him against Houston kind of nudge and Kevin, dude,

(05:54):
you're a little tight moved to New York Warriors. You
can win this series. He's against your our tribal without him,
be strong, move on. Even Durant last week talked about it.
He gets it, he feels it. It's not a perfect fit.
How have you thought about they're playing our play? Yeah,

(06:16):
I think we've been playing great. Do you feel like
there is that you'm a split where it's like you
and then it's definitely, I mean it's been that way
since I got here. Is the Warriors in Katie. You
know what I'm saying, and I understand that, And I
felt like my teammates and the organization know exactly what
I've done. But I also know that a lot of
people on the outside, you know, don't like to see
us together. And I get it. He can feel it,

(06:41):
the city can feel it, the fans can feel it,
and deep down, Draymond Green voiced an opinion that a
lot of people felt on the roster we like you,
but we can feel it too. It's never been a
perfect fit. Fling more than marriage. Let me shift to this.
This sort of fell in our lap this morning. Big
big article took a lot of reading this morning, a

(07:03):
lot of reading. Place I used to work has a
massive twenty page article on the dysfunction of the Lakers
ESPN dot com massive article a damning look at the Lakers.
It's just bad all the way around, According to nearly
two dozen current and former staffers, Magic and Polinka fraught

(07:28):
with this function on and off the court. As one
x Lakers star privately told Confidence, it's fffing crazy over there.
They talked about how they built the roster. After Lebron arrived.
We all had the same reaction that the basketball world did, like,
what the blank is going on? Not only were we

(07:48):
not getting shooting, we're also getting every basket case left
on the market. That from a coaching staff member for
Luke Walton. Current and former team staffers told ESPN that Magic,
who has many business business interests outside the Lakers, was
frequently absent. He comes off to the fan base big

(08:08):
love and a smile, said an ex Laker athletic training
official who interacted directly with Magic. But he's not He's
a fearmonger. Rob Polinka's also quoted here that and this
is very irregular for an NBA GM. He would sit
in on pregame and halftime coaching meetings. Front office executives,
including GM said that's not the way it works on

(08:31):
the GM. In the NBA. There's this Also this story
in November, so this was early in the season. Rich
Paul Lebron's agent was having lunch with Adam Silver Maverick
Carter and basically saying, this Luke Walton thing doesn't work.
I want Ty Lou So Lebron's agent in November was
looking for another coach. So I've been saying for months

(08:54):
on the air, and I get this a lot when
I walk around Los Angeles. Man, you're harding the Lakers.
I'm saying, no, it's worse than you think. It's it's
worse than you think. But I'm not in the facility
or around it, and I don't have stuff double and
triple sourced. But this is essentially proof of what I've
been saying for four months. It's worse than you think,
and this article is validation of that. But what is

(09:15):
also clear from this article it's not one person's fault. Magic.
You know everybody knew coming in. He's a busy, well
traveled guy that's got a lot of interest. Polinka was
an agent. He wasn't a GM that wasn't a perfect fit.
This is not just on raw Polinka. It's not just
on Magic Johnson. It's it's not just on Genie Buss.
It's not just on Lebron and Rich Paul. This is

(09:38):
on everybody. It's just dysfunctional. But what this article tells me,
and my wife always says this be a great example
or a horrible warning. Both actually work for kids. You'd
rather be a great example, but the horrible warning thing
could work too. Oh Dad did this. I'll never do that.
And you know at this time the Lakers, there's a

(10:02):
clear message here. Make a trade. Do not wait for
free agents to land. There's no way an agent's going
to read this article and push his player to you.
That would be a dereliction of duties. You couldn't if
my agent sent me to a company and there were
articles like this about the company, I'd be like, nah,

(10:24):
I'm not going to that place. That place is a mess.
No agent can send a player into this mess. So
this article, if you're in the Laker building, don't view
it negatively. This is great. The c just opened. You
have to make a trade to get somebody, and you've

(10:45):
got two forwards who averaged eighteen a game, Kyle Kuzma
brandon Ingram Young. You can sell that as eighteen could
be twenty three. You have Lonzo Ball and you have
the number four draft packs which appears to be fourth
best player. A kid named Garland from Vanderbilt a point guard.

(11:06):
A bunch of teams need point guards. Phoenix could use one,
Chicago could use one. Washington with John Wall out for
a year, could use one. People will view this negatively,
but what it does the translation of this article is Lakers.
They'll mess around here. You need to make a trade

(11:28):
before free As soon as you can make a trade,
change the narrative. Give up draft picks, get players. Because
there's no agent in the world that can this comes
out today can say to a player, yes, I represent you,
that's a perfect landing spot. No, that's that's when you're

(11:50):
fire an agent. So to me, you've got some assets
too young forwards average eighteen a game. Lonzo, depending on
how people value him, is a very unique point guard.
You've got a number four pick, which appears to be
fourth best player out of college is a really good
point guard. So you got a couple of point guard options.
You've got a couple of forward options. Engineer something, make

(12:13):
a deal here. It's clear you're in the deal making business.
Not the crossing your fingers and hoping of free agent
lands in your lap business. You've got to make something
happen here and again, great example or horrible warning, this
article clearly sends you off the interstate to the exit.

(12:34):
Engineer a deal. No more crossing fingers and praying for
free agents. That's done. Engineer a deal. If a deal,
then changes the narrative and can get a free agent
to go. Okay, the article's bad, but now I got Lebron,
Now I got Anthony Davis, Now I got maybe a
Bradley Beal. Okay, I'll join that. Those are highly functional guys.

(12:57):
But the articles out it is damning. It is validation
of what we've said is going on for the last
several months. Nick Nurse of the Raptors around today coming
up next. I mean there are stories. This is not
the Onion. The story I'm gonna give you next is

(13:19):
not coming from that website, the comedy website, the humor website,
the Onion, but it sounds like it. I mean, we
literally this morning had the double check. Is this real?
Is it authentic? Or is this like a comedy website
that's coming up? Be sure to catch live editions of
the Herd Weekdays in Noun Easter nine Empacific on Fox
Sports Radio FS one, and the iHeartRadio app. Some stories

(13:43):
are just hard to believe. There's this one this morning
fell into our lap. The Raiders signed I Kid You
Not controversial guard Richie Incognito to a one year deal.
I believe at this point they're just casting for hard knocks.
That's all they're doing. They just want to be the
best television show in the league. Richie Incognito has a
very troubled past, was out of football last year. He's

(14:05):
come on My show before and was on his best behavior.
But last year was an odd year where he told
people he had a gym incident, he was at a
funeral home and said he would shoot people. He had
a rough year, some mental evaluations, and you feel bad
for people that go through that. But this is now

(14:25):
the Raiders fourth plan. Any year, what's the message to
your fans, your front office, your players. Remember the first plan?
The Raiders first plan was We're not gonna have stars.
We're gonna acquire draft picks. It feels very New England.
We'll pay the quarterback, We're not paying anybody else. Let's
get young let's get inexpensive, let's pay the quarterback, and

(14:48):
let's be nimble. That was plan one. I was like,
all right, I wouldn't have traded Khalil Mack. I like
Amari Cooper. But okay, it's a plan that was there.
That was their first plan. That's what they That was
the message to everybody, right. Their second plan was just kidding.
We're gonna get Vontes Berfect, trouble. We're gonna overpay for

(15:09):
Trent Brown, We're gonna get Antonio Brown, who is a
lot of drama. We're gonna overpay for virtually everybody, Okay.
And then their third plan was our bad chemistry matters.
They go into the draft and they reach for several
picks because their chemistry guys, which I was like, okay,

(15:32):
that's kind of the initial plan. Okay. Maybe the second
plan was just somebody had too much gin one night
or something. So and now there's their fourth plan, which
is just kidding again. You have a locker room now
with Vontes Berfect, Antonio Brown, and Richie Incognito. I mean,
what's next. Are you gonna sign Gary Busey as a punter.

(15:57):
We're gonna sign Charlie Sheen as a Sam linebacker. I mean,
come on here, what's the plan? Where are you going
accumulate draft picks? No stars? Just kidding, we're overpaying for
everybody we want, good guys. Just kidding again. The Raiders logo,
they should just put a penalty flag next to the Pirates.

(16:21):
That should be the Raider's new logo. Or if not,
give the Pirate two eye patches, blinded everything because I
can't figure out. Like the good teams in this league,
you can see the plan. New England will pay Brady undermarket.
It's not that we won't pay anybody, but we don't

(16:42):
want the highest paid anybody in the league at any position.
The Colts, we're creating a culture quiet, good dudes. Leaders
like the Rams, We're gonna go for big free agents.
We're in a glamour city. We're gonna go for some
big free agent sometimes one year contracts like in Dominican sue.

(17:03):
Whether I agree with your direction those teams. Rams have
a direction, Patriots have a direction, Colts have a direction.
I don't know what direction. I don't know what the
messaging is saying here. It's just very confusing. Character guys.
Wasn't that the whole plan of the draft character guys,

(17:24):
I don't know. I'm lost and this division's no day
at the beach. Good luck Kansas City's loaded Chargers are loaded.
Denver's got now the big strong Flacco. I think they'll
potentially be better. Good luck Raiders. Joy with the news. No, no,
this is the herd line news. Another day, another report

(17:45):
about the dysfunctional Lakers. Their front office is probably as
dysfunctional has ever been in its seventy two year history,
and a new ESPN reports from this morning reveal that
the hiring of Magic and Rob Polinka made it a
bit or dysfunctional, so sources who feared reprisals the stripe
Pelinka and Johnson as managers who made unilateral free agent

(18:07):
free agent acquisitions triggered a spate of tampering investigations and
fines berated staffers, including Wallen, and created an in house
culture that many say marginalized their colleagues, inspired fear, and
led to feelings of anxiety severe enough that two two
staffers suffered antic attacks like jaction, not the best working environment,

(18:31):
not great. Look, I feel like if you take anything
from this report, like whatever you believe, you believe some
of it. You've got to believe all that because you
can't really go through like well, I think you know,
I'm gonna pick this side of this story of mass dysfunction.
The bottom line for me, the biggest takeaway is Magic
saw this coming and removed himself from the situation. So,

(18:53):
for whatever you feel about how this environment was, how
negative it was, he was aware that this was either
coming or he felt like he had had enough of
the dysfunction himself. My issue is, well, I agree with
you about they need to do a trade as soon
as possible. Polinka is still there. So what's changed, Well, nothing,

(19:13):
I mean, nothing's really changed. It remains dysfunctional. But if
you trade for people, at least don't give the opportunity
for people to choose you. You go choose them and
bring them in because you've got after this article, you've
got to now change the public narrative on that market.
And the only way you can do it is get
a good guy like Bradley Beale or you get an
Anthony Davis considered good guys. We know Lebron's good dude.

(19:37):
And then at least because my takeaway now is no
agent could send any player to this mess. The bottom
line for me with the Lakers is if you look
across any organization, but let's just stick with sports, if
you talk more about the owner and the front office
than you do about the actual product that is on

(19:57):
the court of the field, you have a dysfunctional franchise.
The best run franchise is never talk about their owners
other than saying, this is a good owner the end.
That's the full sentence. This is a good owner that
spends a lot of money the end. That's the full sentence.
There is no butts or end after that. You don't
talk about the owner, and you don't talk about the
front office. They're anonymous or just irrelevant other than just

(20:20):
being giving the proper people the resources that they need
to do their jobs. All we talk about is the
front office and the ownership. With the Lakers, any organization
we do that with this a problem. If we talk
about the coach a lot, it doesn't necessarily mean that
they're a bad team. And if we talk about the team,
it doesn't mean that they're a bad team. We should
not be talking about the people. I can't tell you

(20:42):
who own I mean, seriously, could you could you tell
me what the Spurs owner looks like no, or the
Cardinals owner through the years. It's like, to be honest
with you, Steve Ballmer and Mark Cuban are fairly visible.
But if you go through the history of the league
and when we're talking about Cuban, is it necessarily a
good thing? No? No, And what we're saying about see Bomber,

(21:03):
He's cheers a lot. We don't talk anything about how
the goings on of the organization. He's hired people to
run the organization. There's plenty of visible owners, but if
we're having discussions about them, it's a problem. It has
to stop. That's that's the number one problem for me.
So Clay Thompson didn't make the All NBA team this season,
which means no Supermax contract for him when he hits
free agency this summer. But his father, Michael says it's okay.

(21:26):
He told the Athletic Yeah, it's a lot of money.
But when you're talking about the astronomical numbers that the
best NBA players make, you can't quibble over it because
you're still making generational changing money. Too many people out
there are struggling in the world to make ends meet.
For anyone to be whining about not making thirty billion
dollars more perspective. He also said he's very happy in
Golden stated that that's a great spot for him. This

(21:49):
is perspective and it is his father, and Clay Thompson
is going to make go around one hundred and ninety million. Yeah,
there's a lot of money. That said, I still would
be irritated over losing thirty million dollars off of not
making the ll NBA team. If we play Thompson, I'm
going to give him a pass that it's still thirty
million dollars. Yeah, like he's worth fifty eight. There's a

(22:10):
difference between annoyed and consumed. You can be annoyed by
stuff just sometimes, but I don't think he is consumed
by it. I mean, I don't know. But first of all,
he found out in a press conference, which is not
the way you could find out that you dismissed out
on thirty million dollars. But it is respective. It's just
for me, I just feel like that's not really I
don't know if I like that that rule even exists.

(22:30):
Obviously it's it's in the CBA. So I have a
higher regard for Clay Thompson. If you told me I'm
gonna give you a player, a plus shooter in twenty nineteen,
a plus defender, no drama, I'd be like, there's like
four of those in the league, Kawhi, Leonards the other Like. Honestly,
I could make an argument the closest thing to Kauhi
in terms of can shoot, can play defense, no drama.

(22:52):
I could argue it's Clay. It's very consistent physically. They
can match up with small forwards Clay or guards, Clay
and Collars. We always talk about, well, now Katie and
then Steph and Draymond, or with Steph and then Draymond,
And it's always Clay last in this group of the
elite in Golden State, and he is just as important

(23:14):
to their success as all of them, if not the most,
because when he is not consistent, it's a problem. So finally,
five star prospect and consensus top five pick in the
twenty twenty NBA Moss Drafts R. J. Hampton is skipping
college basketball to play professionally for the New Zealand Breakers
in the NBL. This is a surprising decision that comes

(23:34):
after he reclassified his high school graduating year from twenty
twenty twenty nineteen. Earlier this spring, he believes playing in
New Zealand will best prepare him for the NBA, and
he told ESBM, my number one goal is to play
in the NBA. I wanted to be an MBA player
before I ever wanted to be a college player. This
is about getting ready for the next level faster and
more efficiently. You can always go back to college, but
there's only a short window as an athlete where you

(23:55):
can play professional basketball, and I want to take advantage
of that. I think that challenging yourself on a daily
basis is the best way to improve. As long as
players have options, I love it. A kid can go
GE League. Ye, you can go to Duke. I don't
think Duke hurt Zion. You can go to G League.
You can go overseas. I had options coming out, like
all I want for kids coming out of high school,

(24:17):
trade school, junior college, major college, private college. This kid
has options. He chose the international option. I'm all good
with it. I think that's what the NBA wants to
GI League to essentially be. Is this option right? And
they have a lot of development to do before it
gets to that level. I'm with you. I have no
problem with with kids having the ability to make their choice.

(24:38):
What I don't like is that they have to go
to college and that's the only way that day gets
to the NBA and the way lots of people in society.
I mean, I've gone to high school with people like this.
They're not college people. They don't want to do college.
You mean an artist and they're like, why do I
want to go to a four year state school? Anything
is not for everybody. And this is not saying that
you shouldn't get education. And he mentioned that both of
his parents are master's right. They're very they're very serious

(25:02):
about school. But he's might, you can go back to school.
It's the college will always be there. This will always
be available for you if you want to be a chef.
My stepson's a chef, and he wanted to be a
chef when he was sixteen. Why go to Ohio State
for four years? He went to a culinary institute, NAPPA,
Then he went to one in New York. That's what
he wanted to do. And he's having a great career.

(25:22):
Like it's not going to colleges and for everybody. He
wants to play basketball. So if you look at that,
if you look at a trade school education like that
him playing in New Zealand. Yeah, essentially trade school school,
that's what he's doing. Yeah, Joy with the news. Well
that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the herd Line.
New voice of the NBA on this network, Chris Brussard,
let's bring him in. We have all sorts of stuff. Okay,

(25:44):
my theory, Chris Brussard. When you read that article at
HESPN about the dysfunction, my first takeaway it's not just magic,
it's not just Polenka, it's just holistically, it's a bunch
of everybody. It's everybody. So I'm not gonna blame that Lebron. Actually,
Lebron is getting on a criticism a few months ago.
Here's the guy that was on the sidelines in his pool. Now,
you guys can call me when it's over. Let me

(26:05):
just say this, though it does, there is something about
this article that I would like if I was the Lakers.
It gives us a clear path. I'm not crossing my
fingers for free agents. Do you know what it tells me?
I got Lawnzon and number four pick. I got two
young forwards average in eighteen. I'm gonna change the narrative.
I'm gonna bring somebody in. I'm not gonna sit there
and wait for somebody to read that article and have

(26:26):
to choose me over the Celtics. I find the Lakers.
I'm like, Okay, this article is so bad, let's be aggressive.
Changed the narrative. Make a trade. If you're sitting there
now crossing your fingers on Jimmy Butler, if i'm his agent,
I'm not sending him into that. Well, everything you said
sounds rational, but everything we read in that article things
they're not gonna do the rational thing. I mean, I

(26:48):
get what you're saying, because here's the thing. First of all,
this shows you I said it on this couch. This
is why Jeanie bus when Magic stepped away, she had
an opportunity clean it up. The first call should have
been Massiah Jerry called David Griffin, bring in a legitimate
basketball executive to rerun things like at this point, right now,

(27:11):
what are we a month before free agency? Essentially, your
front office should have been revamped, set with a real
basketball person. Your coaching hiring shouldn't have been the drama
that it was. Like all that should have been taken
care of, and this story would have been irrelevant. It
would have been nice reading, Oh the drama, but it
wouldn't have been relevant anymore. That's what they should have done.

(27:34):
Obviously they didn't. You made a good point about agents,
the Rich Paul, you know, trying to run the organization.
I look at that like as a report, like he's
doing what a lot of agents would love to do.
Get that power. Right. But if I'm a reporter and
I'm like the quote about Rich and players know he's
trying to trade you and coaches know he wants you fired,

(27:55):
that was from another agent, a competitor. Like, if I'm
a reporter and another report has this great access, he's
breaking all the stories that I don't have access to,
I'm gonna be upset about that too. So other agents.
I don't blame Rich Paul for trying to do that.
I blame the Lakers for allowing him on the plane
and all that stuff. But other agents, to the degree

(28:16):
that they can influence their players, they're going to say.
Number One, they obviously don't trust Rob Polinka. They obviously
used to compete with Rob Polinka. So when they break
their presentation to their place because they're gonna break down.
Here's what the Lakers can offer, you know, money, everything else.
Here's what the Raptors have, Here's what the Clippers have,

(28:37):
so on and so forth. They're going to say, you
got a president. You can't believe a word he says.
He says, Kobe Bryant had dinner with somebody who's deceased.
You know, so you're not gonna yet that Kobe Bryant
had dinner with Heath Ledger who was dead at the time.
You know, so you got that he are you gonna
be able to believe him when you say he says

(28:57):
he's not gonna trade you, then they will not want
them because if Riches got that much juice and on
the plane and everything, the players are gonna be like,
this is the guy like there, it's tempting. Agents are
always stealing other players from people. So that's where an
agent will feel like, I don't want him there. So

(29:19):
you make a good point about you engineer the deal right,
don't don't wait for Jimmy Butler to maybe land. Now.
I do think you could get Butler. Look, I think
you're not getting KD anyway. Kevin Durant I don't think
you were getting Kauhi. Clay's gonna stay in Golden State. Kyrie,
he's one who I don't think he was coming anyway.

(29:40):
But a lot of what he didn't like he wanted
to get away from with Lebron was just the circus
atmosphere and right like and whether it's Lebron's father, just
the atmosphere around Lebron because he's so big. At least
in Cleveland, you had a competent gem in David Griffin,
who could you would think control it to some degree.

(30:01):
Now Kyrie may look lobraso big. The circus is still there,
and now there's no front office to even control it. Yeah,
I think I think Kyrie's a I think it's I
think it's a pipe dream. I think it's a I've
been saying this for months. I think it's a Hail
Mary for Jimmy Butler. But I I think Butler they
could because yeah, I do think he would love to
be in Hollywood and Ye City. And let me just

(30:24):
throw this out there, I said a couple of months.
I said this several months ago, and many laughed. I said,
the guy that I think fits is Bradley Beale. Is
that we see this all the time in sports. If
you have a guy in sports, I'll take Eric Ebron
the tight end for the Lions. He's in a dysfunctional
organization Lions. You put him in a more functional organization,

(30:47):
the Colts with Andrew Locke. Eric Ebron goes from bus
to star. Victor Oladipo little dysfunction with Russell Westbrook in
the back court. You put him in the highly functional
Pacers and he flourishes. Bradley Beale the is a twenty
point of game guy Wall gets hurt John Wall, who

(31:07):
can be dysfunctional. He ever just twenty seven without him.
I think we're looking at a Victor Oladipo more talented though.
I think we're looking at an Eric Ebron situation where
you have a very talented guy, but in a dysfunctional
environment he is somewhat suppressed below his market value. I
think Bradley Beale only twenty five, very high basketball IQ,

(31:29):
completely committed, did have some injuries earlier in his career.
But I think so, I just throw it out to you,
they need guard would be perfect, They need Lonzol ball,
they need they need guards and draft picks and young
player here's the problem. We don't know what, like who's
running the Wizards right now. They don't have a front
office yet, so I don't know where the they want

(31:51):
linesough for Beale came from because who's the g They
don't have a president yet. Ernie Grunfeld stepped away or
he's got fired. So until we know who's running them,
we can't be certain that they're gonna give up Bradley
Bill or that they even like Linzo Ball. Let's see
who the new guy is, you know. So that's the

(32:11):
first challenge. But that being said, I'm look if they
could get Bradley Bill for Linzo Balls in a heartbeat.
Bradley Bill had an argument to be on that third
team all I actually had Clay on mine instead of Kimba.
But Bill was in that conversation he'd be great when
Lebron can shoot the basketball, can make plays, and just

(32:32):
say we'll give you a Lonzo have your pick Kusma
Ingram and give you the draft pick. And I agree. Now,
obviously that takes you out of the Anthony Davis, okay,
but that's by I contend that the better fit in
twenty nineteen is not a big but it's a shooting guard.
Lebron has proven he plays great with guards, he struggles
at times with bigs. I've been on this Bradley Bill
thing for months. I think he's a perfect fit. Lebron

(32:55):
plays with shooters and high IQ guys. This past year
the Lakers had no shooters and crazy guys. It was
the exact opposite of what Lebron works with, wasn't it. No, Look,
I like Bill. I still would try to make a
push for Anthony Davis, but I like Bradley Bill a lot.
And if and we'll see who runs the Wizards, if
they if they like Linzo that much, because Alvin Gentry

(33:16):
likes Linzo Ball and Brandon ingram and if they liked
that fourth pick as much as that third? Did this
article surprise you forty seconds that it surprise you? No,
It really just kind of confirmed everything that we were
hearing and surmised from all that's going to Genie's kind
of lost with the way things are going. Mom and
Pop Operation. Linda Rambis has an inordinate amount of power.

(33:38):
Rob that's his rep true or not that he's you know,
a serial line? How about this coaching staff member said
about the Lakers off season we all had the same reaction.
The basketball world did, like, what the blank are we doing?
Not only we're not getting shooting, we're also getting every
basket case left on the market, and we're all saying right,
that was the feeling of the basketball world. It was like,

(34:01):
what in the world is going on? Chris Bruce, are
great stuff. Matt Barnes, good seeing you, Bud coming up next.
I'm analytics, but I like my analytics, and something's happened
in the NBA Playoffs that I really appreciate. That's next.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter not a Empacific. Great to have you
in today. I like analytics basically, analytics are if you're

(34:25):
playing the long game in life, use analytics for the
most reliable way to win games. I also think analytics
matter that and I've told Darryl Moore of the Rockets
this over lunch. I like analytics, but sometimes I just
need a bucket. And I don't care about threes. I
don't care about season averages. I got two minutes left
in the fourth quarter. I need the best athlete in
the floor to get a bucket. I don't care if

(34:46):
it's a mid range jumper. And the analytics crowd, they
get very defensive if you're not all in on analytics
all the time. But once the playoffs start, and I'm
a big believer in analytics. With baseball in the NBA,
you have these long, long seasons where if you play
the averages over time, it is best served to use them.

(35:07):
But who are the two really talented teams, one in
baseball and one in the NBA that are really good
in the regular season, very analytic driven, but come up
short in the playoffs. The Dodgers and the Houston Rockets.
They can never deviate from the math. They can never
deviate from the calculator they're going to. Here's the thing

(35:30):
I get. It's like a four oh one K. The
four oh one K is the most reliable and safest
method over the course of forty years for you to
be a millionaire. Pay off your house and invest the
maximum in your four oh one K. But the richest
people in the world didn't save their way to wealth.

(35:53):
You can't. That's an old saying in finance. You can't
save yourself to wealth. You can save yourself to successful
and comfortable content. But Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. They
got wealthy because they put everything. All the chips in Amazon,
all the chips in Microsoft, they went for it. Four
oh one k is don't make you wealthy, they make

(36:14):
you successful and content and comfortable. It's the same with cars.
The prius is the most reliable, it is the most efficient,
and for Monday through Friday driving you'll get the most efficiency.
But the NBA playoffs, my friends, are not a paved road.
You got to go four wheel and there's obstacles and

(36:37):
detours and crashes and bumps and strife and drama. You
need a V eight, you need a four wheel drive.
It's not a paved road. The Dodgers in the Rockets
are analytic mavens, but they do at times struggle to
put down the calculator. What I've noticed in these NBA playoffs,

(36:59):
and I know all the Matthew people in geometry whizz
as will hate this, but Kawhi Leonard won the East
off a mid range jumper. That's what he wanted off.
He wanted off the midrange jumper. And the Warriors, who
you are absolutely sure led the world in three point
shots of the sixteen, now listen to this of the

(37:22):
sixteen NBA playoff teams three pointers. Warriors were tenth, and
that's with the world's two best shooters, Steph Curry and
Clay Thompson. What I've really loved about these playoffs analytic
people put down the calculator when it comes to baseball playoffs.
I don't give a rip about analytics. I need an out.

(37:45):
I want Justin Verlander. I don't care if he pitched yesterday.
He's a horse. I don't care if he's a starter.
It's the seventh inning, it's game seven. Get Justin Verlander
on the mound. I don't care what analytics say. I
don't care it's not his position. He'll get me an out.
I don't care about any math. They're just guys. I
wanted the plate, and there's guys I want on the

(38:08):
mound to get an out. And I don't care what
the math says about mid range Kawhi Leonards, like a
fifty five percent mid range jump shooter, were tied two
minutes left fourth quarter. I don't give a rip about
season averages. We're not in the regular season. I don't
need a tesla. I gotta go off road. I'm getting
chased by a mountain lion. A tesla's doing me no good.

(38:29):
I did a four wheel drive. And I know, I
know all the analytic mavens are just beside themselves. But
the NBA playoffs have really shown us that what works
for the season average, and that's not the same analytics
don't work. They do. The four oh one k works.

(38:50):
The prius is the most reliable, but NBA playoffs are
completely different. I get a face the same people over
and over and over. I know all your plays, I
know all your tricks. There are no surprises. Will make
shifts over the course of a series. But bottom line is,
you know my best moves, I know yours. Who's the alpha?

(39:13):
Who gets the bucket? Everybody's equally arrested. Everybody knows everybody
else's plays. I'm not into season averages when the season's
got two and a half minutes left. By the way,
all the analytics for the Milwaukee Bucks went out the
window when they're trailing ninety seven ninety two against the
Toronto Raptors and they had back to back possessions and

(39:35):
looked scared. Did the analytics? The analytics have the fear
percentage in there because Milwaukee looked petrified. Nobody wanted to
take a shot. I mean seriously, And there were moments
early in these playoffs when the Toronto Raptors were playing
hot potato with the ball? Is that analytics? Heart? Soul? Fear? Confidence?

(39:55):
Does that show up in analytics? I mean Kawhi Leonard
Stole Jannis's confidence. That doesn't show up in regular season analytics.
But I'm watching that game, I'm watching game six, and
I'm like, Yannis has lost confidence, Kawai feels like he's
the next version of MJ And that didn't show up
in regular season analytics, not at all. By the way,

(40:18):
don't skip meals. Use soilent a complete meal on a
bottle designed with plant protein essential nutrients. Go to soilon
dot com. Code HERD twenty HERD two, Oh, get twenty
percent off your first case. You know, it's funny about
Steph Curry. Steph Curry's better than d Wade. But why

(40:40):
do we like d Wade more than Steph Curry? Yeah?
I said it, and yeah I believe it, and I
can back it up. Why is that? I'll explain that
coming up our two. Matt Barnes, Reggie bush Rick, Bucher,
Nick nurse, Toronto Raptor head coach. All coming up. One
more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app Search Herd

(41:00):
to listen live or on demand whenever you like. Ah,
this is the Herd, wherever you may be, however you
may be listening. We're live in Los Angeles on a Tuesday,
I Heart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS one. Joy
Taylor is joining me for our two hour one flew

(41:21):
by Joy. How are you good morning? Chris Haynes just
reported Kevin Durant will travel with the Warriors to Toronto
for Games one and two. Now, you say to yourself, well,
of course, but he did not travel to Houston for
Game six after the injury. He did not travel to

(41:41):
Portland at any time with the injury. He is traveling
to Toronto, which means he's getting close to playing, which
means he'll probably play in the series at some point.
I still contend, I know this sounds very manipulative. I
still contend, if you're Kevin Durant, is it okay for

(42:01):
me ethically to root for us to lose Game one?
But you want your team to win the series? Because
I still contend the best thing for Golden State and
for Kevin durant legacy is for the Warriors to lose
Game one of the Raptors, Durant feel much more needed
and necessary. He puts on the cape, swoops in, they

(42:23):
win this series, they win the next four games, and
people go, Okay, see we really were better. It's good
for Katie's brand. He can win a third title. Everybody
will be satisfied. He can go to New Yorker stay,
and it's just good for his brand. It's good for everybody.
Wouldn't you like to see a nicer ending than Katie
pulls a calf muscle and doesn't play the rest of

(42:45):
the year. It's too slight. It's a good movie with
a bad ending. I'd like to see us have a
little better ending for Kevin Durant. I like Kevin Durant.
I think he's the best basketball player this morning in
the world. So I think ideally Warriors lose Game one,
Kadie now seen as needed, swoops in, and they win
the next four or four out of five. It certainly

(43:05):
would be a better ending than him walking off the
court with a cap strain. But I don't think he's
gonna come back this series at all, I'm gonna say
he is. I don't know. That's a tough injury to
rush back from. All right, So there's the story anyway,
Chris Haines reporting he is coming and traveling with a
team to Toronto. I want to talk about this for

(43:26):
a second, people, And I think this is I I've
probably been like this in my life. I think we're
all threatened by new and different. We're all like whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa whoa. I mean, isn't it crazy we only have
really two political parties, Like, shouldn't we have a bunch?
I mean, in Europe they just added a third and
at one. I mean, it's like we just don't like new.

(43:47):
People don't like new. I'm not gonna I couldn't remember
the first day I worked in a newsroom in Las
Vegas and they brought computers in and I had the typewriter.
I'm like, these are stupid. I would like to be
a dinosaur. And about two days later, I'm like, wow,
these things are fast. These typewriters are relics. But my
initial reaction was I like my typewriter. I like my
new computer. It makes me learn new stuff. And Steph

(44:10):
Curry is unique and different. I mean, it's just different.
We never have a superstar that way, one hundred and
seventy five pounds that you could just push around. And
Steph Curry's resume is amazing. He's got three rings, two
MVPs in the regular season, one unanimous six time All Star,

(44:31):
most threes ever in a season, part of the greatest
team ever, the seventy three win season, most playoff threes ever.
The only thing really missing on his resume is a
finals MVP, and he did have one great finals. He
could have won it, but they give it to Andrea
I Guadala. But that's kind of the icing on the cake.
MJ's got six, Magic's got three, Shacks got three, Lebron's
got three, Katie's got two, Kobe's got a couple. He

(44:52):
doesn't have one, and he has favored This morning, I
see that he is the favorite to win the MVP,
and I'd love to see it because I think just
a wonderful kid and a wonderful player. But it's funny
about this. K D and staff have something in common.
K D is not embraced by the fans because he

(45:14):
joined a great team, and Staff is not embraced by
many of the players because they feel he needed to
recruit another star. So there's this layer of disrespect both
feel and you can argue there're two of the top
three players in the game. Kadi's not respected by fans

(45:36):
because he had to join somebody to win a title,
and Steph A lot of players pushed back on Staff.
There's more respect for Westbrook in the league than Staff.
All those steps a much better player because you know
he had to go recruit somebody. That's that's not what
I do. Derrek Roe said, I don't have to recruit Westbrook.
I'm not going to recruit John Well. I'm not going
to recruit Staff's like, oh, I'm all for recruiting. I

(45:56):
watched Lebron do it for recruiting and this is funny.
It just goes to show you how threatened people are
by new Dwayne Wade is much more respected by players
than Steph Curry, and Steph Curry is better than d Wade.
Steph Curry won a title and didn't have another star.
D Wade had Shack for the first and then Lebron

(46:18):
for the next two. D Wade's never been the best
player on a championship team. Now, he did win finals MVP,
but Shack was the better player at the time. D
Wade was young and really talented. We also know that
d Wade, you don't think he helped recruit Lebron and
Chris Bosh. Of course he did, but that doesn't stick

(46:39):
to him. Like Steph Curry inviting k D and even
though it was Draymon who sent the original text to
k D saying come on over. But d Wade never
changed this game. He was just great. Steph Curry is
like human automation. He's eliminating jobs. He's like those robots

(47:00):
going around the world. He's eliminating positions and jobs. But
Steph is unique. He's not an Alpha. He's new school,
not old school. He wears those shoes that looked like
a pharmacist would wear them. He grew up with some money.
He didn't have the struggle a lot of kids had.
He's non physical. He's got a game that bordered on

(47:21):
initially weird. Who can shoot from thirty four feet? Whereas
d Wade is your classic tough Chicago, tough neighborhood, old
school hit the deck, get in your face, almost inartistic.
But Wade, we've seen Wade before. Wade is old school

(47:41):
and by the way, first Bellot Hall of Famer love him.
But he's you know, we've seen his personal narrative. Grew
up in a tough Chicago neighborhood, overcame it. We've seen
that story. We liked that story. He's tough. We like tough.
He's alpha, we like alpha. Steph's just so different and
so unique. Players struggle to quite get their arms around it.

(48:02):
That's why people love Westbrook. Westbrook's got a lot of
old school. I'm not recruiting anybody. I'm not friends with anybody.
I hate my rivals. That is very old school. Steph's like,
oh hate anybody, Oh like everybody. I'll will go recruit
other people. And so just know if you choose in

(48:22):
life to be unique and to be a little different,
and they have kind of contrarian views of the world regardless,
if you have three rings, two MVPs, six All Star Games,
greatest team ever, most threes ever, there will be people
that are threatened by you. Steph's resume and he's got

(48:43):
five six years left minimum. He can shoot until he's fifty.
His resume is just absurd. It's in a very unique class,
and still he gets pushed back. Kad gets it because
fans don't respect him. Steph gets it because the players
don't all respect them. I will say this again, there

(49:09):
are a lot of people listening to my show, and
there are a lot of people watching this show, or
we'll hear it on Podcaster Digital Serious XM eighty three.
You're really, really talented. Your boss doesn't catch you. I'm
not speaking personally. I feel great, but I've been in
situations where I'll just tell you. I worked in Vegas, Tampa, Portland,

(49:35):
ESPN and Fox. Bosses got me in all but one place,
and that place was Tampa. It was an old CBS,
it turned into a Fox. They brought in some new,
outspoken people. I was one of them, and everybody else
was sixty and seventy and I was this outspoken, edgy kid,
kind of cocky guy. I just didn't fit and I

(49:56):
was like, guys, this is just not working. And there's
a lot of people out there. Most of my career
it's been great. That was a rough couple of years,
good people, couple of years with management. There's a lot
of people listening to the show that feel like, God,
I just my boss doesn't get me. I'm a little suppressed.
If you're the Lakers. A story came out today very
damning about the front office, Polinka, Magic, Genie, all that stuff.

(50:18):
Is that I believe that you occasionally find these great
athletes and they're in a bad organization. Wes Welker in Miami,
they just didn't get him. Patriots are like, oh God,
he's perfect, He'll be a Hall of Famer. Miami was
too dysfunctional. The coaches didn't get him. By the way,

(50:39):
Victor Oladipot, it just didn't work with Westbrook. You move
him to Indiana. He's an all star in the East.
Eric Ebron Detroit, chaotic, new new coach, new coordinator, Matt Stafford, inconsistent.
You take Ebron, who was a bust, you put him
with the highly functional Andrew Luck Frank Chris Ballard. He

(51:01):
was a pro bowler. He had thirteen tds. Last year
he had eleven and four years. This speaks to what's
happening all over America where you have these people who
are super talented, but maybe they work in a company
they don't fit. They have co workers that don't get them.
They have a boss or management that doesn't understand their
value and they just need a better fit. I believe

(51:26):
Bradley Beale. This is my opinion. Bradley Beale. There's a
story out today the Lakers and the Wizards could make
a Bradley Beale deal happen. The Wizards like Bradley Beale.
The Lakers are considering it now. This has been the
guy Joy You've been on the show. This has been
the guy I've been talking about for six months. I
love Bradley Beale. He is perfect for Lebron. Lebron's one
of the smartest guys that's ever played this game. Very intuitive.

(51:49):
Bradley Beale, super smart, totally committed, not out screwing around
off in nightclubs. He's a grown up, he's only twenty five.
He takes care of his body. But like Victor Oladipo,
like Wes Welker, like Eric Ebron, John Wall, albeit very talented,

(52:10):
is a tougher guy to play with. John has had
some maturity issues, not a classic leader, has had some
injury issues, and Bradley Beale, though his career averages you know,
twenty twenty two a game, Wall got hurt and his
average went closer to twenty eight. And then I don't
think Beale and Wall have ever been as good as

(52:30):
they should be together individually. I think they're both pready good.
Bradley Beale this would be. And he's not like Ebron.
We think a bust. He's not like Oladipo. Nobody's heard
of him. But I think Bradley Beale's the guy in
the league that if you inserted him, there's a there's
some Ray Allen. He reminds me a little array Allen

(52:51):
that he is Yun was perfect with Lebron, just perfect
with Lebron, Shane Battier perfect for Lebron. Bradley Beals only
twenty five. And I believe after this article today that
you go get Bradley Beale, a high functioning, smart, driven,
focused kid who can shoot sort of matters now, and
you put him with Lebron and whatever it is Washington needs.

(53:14):
As long as you can keep one of your forwards
Kuzma or Ingram. What you do is change the narrative,
because the narrative this morning after that article on ESPN
is Lakers are a grease fire. You can't send the
player there, so you gotta change that narrative. You gotta
land Beale in the next seventy two hours, and everybody's like, hey,
you see what's going on out there. Yeah, it's a

(53:34):
little dysfunctional. I got Lebron and Bradley Beale, and I
got Kyle Kuzma. Then then just wait, then just wait,
because that team will make the All Star That team
will make the playoffs. Lebron, Bradley Beale and one of
those forwards Frank Vogel Jason Again, that team will make
the playoffs. Then you just wait. Maybe the Anthony Davis thing,

(53:57):
you wait till twenty twenty, s Anthony Davison. I'll stick
around for you. You wait to twenty twenty. But I
don't believe you wake up this morning and cross your
fingers and go, oh my, got Kyrie your vic Kyrie.
Jimmy Butler, Jimmy, that's not a game plan. That's hope.
That's not a plan. That's just praying. I got nothing
to get religion. But that's not a plan. A plan
is let's get Beal over here, give up a four pick,

(54:19):
maybe give up brandon Ingram, give up what we gotta get,
change the narrative. But I think this kid is special.
I'll put my reputation on it. This is the guy
I think, and I said this six months ago, that's
the kid I'd want with Lebron, Biggs, Bosh, Kevin Loved,
Tristan Thompson, haven't always worked, Anthony Davis, they haven't always
worked with Lebron. And in the times they've worked, they've

(54:41):
been weird. Bosh Lebron. I mean, Chris Bosh had to
give up sixty percent of his game. Kevin Love had
to give up a lot of his game. Bradley Beal's game.
You're not giving up any of it. It will flourish
with Lebron, all right. I got who we got. We
got Matt Barnes around the corner. I got Rick Uker
today flying in Nick Nurse, Reggie Bush, Don't go anywhere.

(55:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app, Sleep Cool, Uncomfortable, Casper
dot Com Code Heard special offer breathable Foamscasper dot Com Code.
H E r D played for a decade and a
half in the NBA, including that championship Warriors team, and
I'll get to that in a second. With Matt Barnes,

(55:24):
I want to start, Matt, was something that I just
wouldn't know because I've never been on a team plane.
It used to be NBA teams traveled, they got on
a plane at six in the morning with regular folks,
and then about fifteen years ago they moved into team plane.
So there's a story today about the Lakers dysfunction, and
a lot of it is you know, it's we all

(55:44):
knew it was mostly confirmed, a chaotic situation. There is
a there is a point in the article where they
talk about rich Paul lebronze agent being on the team plane.
So let me start with this. Have you ever seen
an agent on a plane. I don't recall an agent
being I mean I could be wrong, you know, because
they sit in a completely separate area then we sit,
But I don't recall it. That would Here's my problem

(56:07):
would be Okay, if I'm a player and I tell yeah,
Lebron's agents on the plane, I'm thinking, as an agent, oh,
you're recruiting my guys on the plane. That's access to
my players and my clients. I don't think it would
sit well, I mean, what do you what do you
make of it? I mean, you open the door to

(56:28):
two situations where you know, if it's him, why can't
someone else's agent come. But then at the same time,
you know Rich was the center of the ad noise
and trying to trade, you know, be a part of that.
You know, the Lakers trading three or four or five
young pieces to get a d there. So it's kind
of a it's a slippery slope, you know what I mean.
You open the door to situations like that, but at

(56:49):
the end of the day, it's not something It's just
another distraction. You know, I'm not mad at Rich Paul
if they're going to open the door to the plane
and let him come on go, you know what I mean.
But I think that says more about management than it
does about you know, what he's doing or moving around
in there. When you were on the Warriors team, the
championship team, just just give me a list of who
was on the team, plane, team coaches, trainers, owners, important players, players,

(57:13):
But see that the Warriors are a little looser from
a standpoint of the One thing I did love about
the Warriors as far as family, like our family can
travel whenever we want, And so I had the twins
flying with me, sitting up where the players sit during
the finals, and practicing, and you know, so they're very
Their main thing is you handle basketball. We handle absolutely
everything else. So it makes our focus singular. And you know,

(57:33):
they helped put them in hotels and they can travel
with us. And there's always buses to the games and
buses to practice, like team family dinners after games. It's incredible.
They feed you and whoever else you want to bring
with you. You know, they'll close a restaurant down after
the game, and so it's second to none, you know
what I mean. But you don't hear agents are different.
You don't hear agents around and that close. But like

(57:56):
I said, I could be wrong. I just was never
really paying attention to it. Let's let's talk and move
off the Lakers dysfunction. I want you to take my audience,
our viewers, and our listeners. When you're with the Warriors,
I was saying in the break, it's like it's like
traveling with a great successful band like the Eagles in
their prime, or you too. It's going to be sold out.
You're very successful. There's a certain confidence you had so

(58:19):
much success on stage before of all your travels, Clippers, Lakers,
King's Magic, Grinn's son Nick Nick's tell me about traveling
with the Warriors during the playoffs, knowing how great you were,
knowing the success you'd had, just traveling on it and
mostly about the players. What was it like? I just
never see anything like it. It was, you know, obviously

(58:39):
a situation with the team they've acquired in the superstars
and the personalities, but the fan the fanfare was incredible,
you know. But at the same time, it was always
you know, focused on what we had to do or
the team had to focus on business. You know, it
was it was never distraction off the court going out
before a game. But like they knew that they were
in the finals to win a championship. That's the only

(59:00):
thing the matter. So going on the road, I know
for a fact doesn't matter. This team they understand. You know,
Toronto's a tough place to play. It's a young crowd
and you know there's people are still talking about Drake
whatever situation may be. But they know they're going in
there to win two games. You know, most teams think
we're gonna go win one game. Golden States Corner and
they're talking about we're gonna win both games in Toronto,
and it's a confidence, it's not a cockiness. They just

(59:20):
they've been there, they've done that, even though they're shorthanded.
It's the next man up mentality, and these guys will
be ready to play on Thursday. It's weird sometimes. I
noticed this year with the Warriors, they had some ugly
losses at home. I almost wonder if playing on the
road in a weird way doesn't galvanize you. It's just
more focused. You know, you got everyone against you. You're
not as comfortable. You know you have to come out

(59:41):
and know that you're the Warriors and you're getting everyone's
best shot. In the crowd is always you know, the
the opposing crowd is always going to get on you.
So I think it's just the process. You know that
they've had a couple, you know, thirty point losses and
shrieks of losing during the season. Oh, this is not
the same team, This is not These people have just
they've been they know they're gonna be playing till June
everything the year, So it's a it's a marathon, not

(01:00:03):
a sprint. And they know now is what they've been
waiting for all season. You know, it's funny now that
the playoffs we have the finals. I like Anthony Davis.
Unlike most bigs, he's great at the free throw line.
He's a great free throw shooter, but like great touch.
But like most bigs, he's not a ball hand where
he's not controlling tempo. And I don't trust him shooting outside.

(01:00:25):
And I watched Jannis get marginalized and I watch him
go and I've seen this with Duncan, I've seen it
with Shack, I've seen it with all the greats. Yet
in these postseason free throw moments, I just don't trust him.
And it's not that I'm anti Biggs, but could I
make the argument Carl Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, Anthony Davis, Yannis.

(01:00:47):
There's a little shine off it when you watch Yannis
get kind of pushed around by Kawhi. Kawhi be so trustable.
Late Jannis really erode at the line. I'm not anti Biggs,
but I wonder if you look at Anthony Davis today,
do I say to myself, I've seen that act in
the playoffs. That thing's not getting past the second round,
like do you still would you still want a Bradley

(01:01:10):
Beal or an Anthony Davis given a choice if you
were the Lakers. See I'm a Beal guy. That's a
tough call. That's a real tough call, because Bill's really
come into itself, you know, since Wall has been down
and shown and he's really been able to almost carry
that team. Yes, you know, his definitely show. But I'm
still I like Anthony Davis if he can stay healthy
because I think that you know, the things you mentioned,
you don't trust him with his ball hailing. I know

(01:01:30):
he works very hard on that and shooting, and I
know that's something he works very hard on. To me,
he can hurt you in several different ways, you know, attacking,
similar to Yannis being able to throw the ball down
on the block to him pick and pop, and like
I said, he's working on this three point shot. And
I think that's what hurt Yannis down the stretches once
they clogged that pain up and put Kawai made it,
you know, elbows and shoulders for the defense. He didn't

(01:01:52):
have anywhere to go, you know, he didn't have a
mid range to wonder will pull up to go to
or a pick and pop three. Although he hit a
couple threees, you can tell he's not very comm fit
in with it. You know, he wants to get to
the basket every time. If he's still are Janice is
still a piece even though he was dominant. Oh yeah,
he's still will work in progress. Yeah, it's going to
be tremendous. And when I said the other day, like
last time I was on Fox, I think I said,

(01:02:12):
he's a star becoming a superstar, and people like, what
do you talk about? He's MVP, but he's still not
to where he's going to be. When he's there where
he's going to be, he will be a superstar, probably
the best player on the planet when it happens. But
when he develops the rest of his game. That's what
I meant, not taking anything from him because he's probably
going to be the MVP this year, he's still a
work in progress and it's scary how good he's going

(01:02:33):
to be. I think this is actually I said the
other day, this reminds me of a little Dallas Mavericks
against the Heat. Toronto does have some ingredients that work.
Good coach, bunch of crafty veterans. They're not going to
be intimidated by the moment and as superstar, so there's
no indecision, all right, who's taking the shots? That's a
lot of Dallas, Dirk, Rick Carlyle. Now, I still don't

(01:02:56):
think you can win a title without a dependable number
two score, but I think it's an interesting finals. I
do think they win a game in Toronto. I mean,
what do you foresee? I think it's going to be interesting.
I think the fact that the warriors that have just
been there and guys are are ready for these moments.
This is this is new to some or most of Toronto.
You know, h kwisim in there. You need to see

(01:03:18):
a lot from dating Green. I think he's going to
be keen. This st struggled last serious. But he's gonna
be guarding Steph and Clay a lot, and then he's
also probably gonna have step on him a lot, so
he's gonna have to make Steph work on the defensive end.
It would be interesting to see how Affecti Marcosoli is
or if they go to Sergei Bacca, because you know
Draymond is gonna be playing the five a lot. They're
gonna be picking and popping and can Mark stay up
in the picking rolls and you know, be back or

(01:03:40):
whatever their coverage are. Can Mark handle all that. So
I think there's some interesting matchups. But I think Toronto
for everyone's gonna have to play really well for Toronto
to be able to keep up with what Golden State
is doing. But I wouldn't be surprised if Toronto got
a game. Um, I think you brought up an interesting
point that nobody's talked about. But this is true. Toronto's
crowd is young, people are louder. Is that when you

(01:04:02):
get to these classic like when I go to a
Laker game, it's a lot of fifty year old people
who have had tickets forever. It's like going to a
Michigan football game. Michigan has been good for a hundred years.
It's not a very loud stadium. When you go to Oregon,
which got good about twenty years ago, Oregon's rowdy and
they're lubricated and there. I remember even in college, Oregon
which lay the Ducks, was one of the loudest places
we ever played because they weren't good in the fifty sixty, seventies, eighties.

(01:04:23):
So the season ticket holder base is younger, more youthful.
Toronto's a real hard love Toronto and the fact that
they get people to stand outside in that little mezzanine
area when it's freezing outside, going crazy like there. I
love what Toronto's doing. I love the fact that, you know,
Drake has really got behind them and rally the city.
I think it's what basketball needs, you know what I mean.
Everyone talks about Golden State's dominant, but everyone's really excited

(01:04:46):
for Toronto. It'll be interesting to see what happens. And
with more interesting to see is if they have success
or what they win or lose. What does Kawhi do
next year? Is getting to the finals enough or is
he coming home to La regardless? So I think it's
gonna be a you know, a fun situation to good stuff.
Matt Barnes, Good, see anybody Joey with the news? No, no,

(01:05:07):
this is the herd Line news. So Shack played in
six NBA finals during his nineteen year career with six
different teams, and he's had a lot of teammates along
the way. But Shaq also has a pretty incredible street
going that was continued by Danny Green. He has thirty
six straight NBA finals that have featured players who are

(01:05:27):
once Shock's teammates. What come again? Thirty six straight NBA
finals have featured players who were once Shock's teammate. We
have the list of them here. We're gonna put up
a sixty. Started in nineteen eighty four, So from nineteen
eighty four to twenty nineteen, every NBA finals has had

(01:05:47):
a player that played because side. Okay, so some of
those guys in eighty four eventually landed on a Shack too.
We have this list, isn't it um? Yeah? It's pretty incredible,
including Matt Oh you were you were Phoenix. He's a character, boy,
it's the kind of it's kind of incredible though, like
the reach that Shack is, I would share the Phoenix

(01:06:09):
was an interesting stop form because he worked, but he
wasn't what we thought. But he actually that was the
last time. That was the last bit of good Shack. Yeah,
and then he kind of fell apart physically. He still
played wool for us. Yeah, out there just a not
his style of team obviously. That's right, National Mare, you
know all those guys. Yeah, and he's still having an
effect on the NBA. So this morning stumbled across the

(01:06:31):
list by the Action network of the most important players
in the twenty nineteen NBA Finals, which raises an important question,
who are the most important players in the series by
their ability to impact and win or lose the series
for their team. So their list, it's Steph balled by
Katie Kauai, Clay Siakam, Draymond Kyle, Marcasol, and then Andrea Gudala.

(01:06:55):
I switched it around a little bit. I actually think
it's Steff then Kawhi. I have Katie way down because
I don't think Katie is gonna play in the series.
I don't. I don't think he's going to be healthy
to play in this series. I think it's big time
wishful thinking. By the way, Andrea Guadala, if if you
both have Andre Wadala about nine, what's fascinating is he's
such a good situational player. I'm not saying you're wrong,

(01:07:17):
but to show you the depth of just Golden State's talent,
Andrea Guadala is that classic baseball player who's a two
seventy hitter, but he always is great in the postseason.
Edgar Rentaria used to be that guy. You're like, how's
Edgar Rentaria? So good? Now? Iggy is gonna get a
Hall of Iggy's gonna be a Hall of Fame player,

(01:07:37):
And I think you're right. See I would put Onregwadala
ahead of most of the Raptors outside of Kawa. Well,
for me, it's it's both sides, right like as it's
not just if you're just assuming that Golden State's gonna
win the series, then you would put all of them higher.
But I think that Kyle Lowry is hugely important to
the Raptors having a chance in this series. Kyle Lowry

(01:07:58):
has to have a huge series to have a chance
as well. Well. So all I'm saying is this is
what has to happen in order for it to be
a competitive series and go to Game seven if we're
thinking that's going to happen. But it's interesting how you
rank everybody. I do think that nine day break for
the Warriors, that for andre Aguadolla was massive because he

(01:08:21):
will end up Step two. Oh sure everyone needs a
break at that point, but you know STEP's been playing
injured as well. Finally, Lebron James Junior officially has his
own Instagram account. King James has a warning for all
you trolls out there, Yesterday, Lebron welcomed his son Brownie
to Instagram, saying everyone welcomed the heir to the throne
to Instagram. Rio Brawny told him three years ago, the

(01:08:42):
summer of twenty nineteen, I let you get let him
get one. Damn time flies. Anyways, let's get it. Ronnie
ps keep y'all hating acids off its comments? Are we
pulling up? That's funny. It's a nice warning. I don't
unfortunately the trolls not discriminate on age or anything else. Um,
but it's crazy like that. He is. He's going to

(01:09:05):
be the next James that we follow like we're we're
already his career. He's fourteen. Um, yes, yes, he's fourteen. Boy.
He's got nice left hand there, hold on him and
Wade Son okay left Wow, he's got a good left hand. Yeah,

(01:09:28):
I love it. I guarantee you. That's Lebron. You don't
have the Instagram conversation with your with your kids yet.
My son is not interested. He likes the information of Twitter.
He thinks Instagram is you know, silly and celebrities. And
my daughter loves Instagram. She thinks Twitter's vile, mean, an
awful and vulgar. Well, she's not wrong about that. And
my son thinks Twitter's funny. He's a little more acerbic

(01:09:51):
h and thinks it's full of information. He loves that
that he can learn stuff on Twitter and reach stuff.
But he thinks Instagrams for girls and stuff. It's like
it's weird. It's like that was like conversation that I
have when I got my first cell phone at sixteen.
Would you imagine telling a kid he's getting a cell
phone at sixteen? Now that's crazy. Actually, I got my
kids a cell phone like at twelve to thirteen for

(01:10:12):
that would have three numbers on it, like emergency. Yeah,
good stuff. Joy with the news, Well that's the news,
and thanks for stopping by the herd Line News. I
will give you this is This is one of the
rumors today. I want to throw this at you, rumor
that Brooklyn nets are very interested in trading for Anthony

(01:10:34):
Davis um My two. I think I'll just say this.
I think Brooklyn is a fascinating landing spot that nobody's
talking about. Everybody's talking about the next everybody's talking about clippers.
Keep your eye in Brooklyn. I'll just leave it at that.
But It is interesting with Anthony Davis. And I'm not

(01:10:55):
anti big. I think Anthony, unlike most bigs. I trust him.
Late at the free throw line was always my knock
on Shack. What do you do with Shack with four
minutes in the game? The best closure in the game. Oh,
and that's why teams devised Hackashak. But if you look
at the postseason and you look at this past year,
just think about bigs when everybody talks about Anthony Davis.
So you had Joel Embiid injured, inconsistent, a lot of drama,

(01:11:17):
and then you had Yo Kitchen, Denver, good player, but
Denver went seven and seven in the playoffs. Denver Rudy
Gobert can't get out of the first round. Karl Anthony
Towns can't get into the first round. Jannis was a
free throw liability late and shrunk to some degree in
the playoffs. I'll just say this, I'm not giving up
the farm on Anthony Davis. I'm not so sure. If

(01:11:40):
you're a Laker fan, I'm not so sure the best
way to go about this engineer a trail, a trade
to get Bradley Beale, and if you can have Lebron
Bradley Beale and one of your young forwards because Washington
will want one in a trade, and then you just

(01:12:00):
wait for Anthony Davis. If I wait for Anthony Davis
and don't have to give stuff up, I'm comfortable with
Anthony Davis and Lebron, But if I have to give
up four guys and nine draft picks, I'm not doing it.
I'm not doing it. I like Anthony Davis, but I
think you can have him in a year. I think
you can have him in a year. You have to

(01:12:22):
engineer a trade for Bradley Beale, change the narrative, get
Lebroun a shooter. You know it's twenty nineteen. I'm not
anti big, and Anthony can shoot a free throw at
an eighty percent clip. I loved that about him. But
when I see all these stories about Anthony Davis, if
you're gonna bring in Anthony Davis, I'm not giving up
the farm on him because you better have shooters and

(01:12:43):
ball handlers around him, because I've seen these bigs when
they don't have it, and it's just not as special
as you think. Reggie Bush around the corner on the Raiders,
What in God's name are they be sure to catch
live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine
am Pacific. Played for over a decade in the NFL,
five for the Saints, couple, Dolphins, Lions, Bills, Niners, Super

(01:13:05):
Bowl champ back in two thousand nine, Number two put
out of USC one of the most dynamic college football
players of all time, as part of our new Fox
Saturday College Football broadcast, Yes with Urban Meyer, Maddie Liner,
Brady Quinn, Rob Stone, and Reggie Buck. I need that picture,
by the way, I keep saying every time I come
up here, where I look, I try to google it.
I couldn't even find him. Look at that. That is tight.

(01:13:27):
So I got a couple of running back questions. Number one,
Zeke Las Vegas. There's nobody around him, He's by himself,
there's no security. Yeah, what do you make of the trouble?
And what do you make of him? Well, that was
what you just said, because I watched the video and
I'm like, wait, who's with him? Like he's just wondering
around at DC and he's by himself. And listen, my

(01:13:50):
boys would never allow me to be in an event
like as big as DC wondering by myself and you
know clearly you know him and the girl he's with
into it, and he kind of pushes the guy down
and it's not like, you know, he barely touched the guy,
but that it's the spectacle of it, right, And it's
a spectacle of him having to get handcuffed after that.

(01:14:10):
Did you when you went to events like this at
the Peaky or start him? He was always with a
group of people, always always with a group of security,
since security sometimes too depending on where we were at.
I've been to etc. Before with a group of people.
I would never go to something that big like that,
especially where he is right now. I just read an article.
They said they wanted to make him the highest paid

(01:14:32):
running back in the history of NFL. And you think
about that, think about all the great running backs that
have come before you. Just think about the one that
came before you in Dallas, right, DeMarco Murray. I thought
DeMarco Murder was playing great football and Jerry Jones got
rid of him, right, Emmett Smith, Walter Payton, Marshall, falk Berry, Sanders.
The list goes on, and they want to make you

(01:14:53):
the highest paid ever. And this is now what we
turn on and we see and so to me, he
needs help because I've always for the last couple years,
I said that Zeke is the best running back in
the NFL because the guy doesn't get hurt like and
it's not because a lack of touches or carries. He
is extremely durable. And I've been through injuries after injuries

(01:15:15):
with way less touches than him, and so finding a
running back like Zeke to be able to produce like
he does as consistent as he does and not get
injured and still be great and now they want to
make you the highest paid and this is what we
what we see. To me, he needs he needs an
og in his ear, and he needs he needs Earth.

(01:15:36):
He needs Michael Irvin. He needs a guy who's been
through a lot and who's still has been able to,
you know, beat the odds and still has been able
to do well with life after football. To me, he
needs a guy like Michael Irvin in his ear. And
I'm not saying Michael evern is not already in his ear,
because I've had the pleasure of working with Irv last
couple of years and I know he is a voice
for that team for a lot of times for guys

(01:15:57):
when they go through things, and so I think he
just needs an og in his ear to set him
straight and make him understand and listen. It's a privilege
to play in this game, and if you mess up
this opportunity, it's not coming back to you. Right when
the NFL is done with you, is gone. Right. And
I remember when I got cut. The first time I
got cut, that was that woke me up. I was like, wait,

(01:16:19):
you guys are cutting me like when I was in Detroit,
because I still like, I felt like I had good
years to play. And you know, when when team stopped calling,
it's a tough pill to swallow. Man. You also had
an interesting perspective on Todd Gurley his story. Jay Glazer
confirmed this week he's Gurley's got some arthritis in his
knee and the Rams are concerned. But how did that
land for you? Everybody has arthritis in the NFL, every

(01:16:42):
running back, every player, Nobody goes through this game without arthritis.
Um I had micro fracture surgery after my third year
in the league, and people writers would say that he's
probably got another two three years left. I ended up
playing another seven seven years, you know, And so to me,
it's just a matter of tid Gurley, you know where
it's his pain tolerance, because you're not going to escape

(01:17:03):
this game without pain, without any kind of having a
play through torture or whatever it is. And tig Eurley,
he gets a lot of carries, He sees a lot
of touches. I love what they did by bringing in C. J.
Anderson last year because that took some pressure off of him.
I think if they that can be a good route
to go find another back to compliment him so he
doesn't have to take the bulk of the carries, right

(01:17:23):
and so that you can keep him relatively fresh for
the postseason. And that's where you want to That's ultimate
goal I think for most coaches is how do I
keep my best guys healthy for the postseason? Yeah, I
mean New England basically if you watch New England September's
experiment time post Thanksgiving when they lock it all in. So, no,
I think spot running backs, No, they're yeah, I mean

(01:17:46):
I'm always reluctant to pay running backs a ton. I
do think if you have a rookie quarterback like a
Sam Donald or a Baker Mayfield, and you can give
a guy a weapon for like two years. But the
time Lavy and Bell's contracts done, you gotta pay Donald
Jared Goff. I think I would pay money for Girly White.
Goff is young, but at some point you got paid Golf,
and I don't want my backfield having the two biggest contracts.
The same situation for the Cowboys. Absolutely. Yeah. So let's

(01:18:09):
go to this Richie Incognito, who have had on the show.
We confronted him about some of his stuff. You know
what it was like t o. I confronted him, he
pushed back. At the end. I liked him. It's like Baker.
I confront him, he pushed his back. I'm not looking
to win stuff. I'm like, here's what I said, hammer
on me. Let's be adults, and I'm not gonna hide
from it. So Richie came out and I thought he
did well for himself. He had a very rough year

(01:18:31):
last year mentally. He got signed by the Raiders. I
don't know what the Raider's plan is. This is a
there's some real young players. There are vontz berfect disruptive players.
Like when you heard the signing, You've played with Richie,
play with Richie and um you know, just seeing that

(01:18:51):
combination of Perfect ab Ritchie and at the end of
the day, um, you know, you want, like Richie's a
great player on football field, great players as mean, as
mean as hell. I love running behind him. When I
was in Miami, I played with him for two years.
I had my two most productive years of my career
running behind Reaching Cognito. So I think he's a great

(01:19:11):
player on the football field. And obviously, um you know,
but just having that combination with Perfect and then Ab
and I don't know if Ab and Perfect still have
beef from the hit where he almost took his head off, yes,
and then you had reached in there, And all I
can think of is, Man, I hope Hard Knocks has
the Raiders this year, Like I hope it has to
be the Raiders this year. Like I don't want to

(01:19:32):
see no other team on the Hard Knocks other than
the Raiders. I think my biggest problem with the Raiders
is I tend to like teams that have a plan,
and I can see it like New England. It doesn't
seem like New England. Everybody's taking a cut. We're not
making any even Tom Brady take Colts. It's all about
We're not going to bring in Lavian Bell anybody with
a little wiggle that we don't like. It's team Rams,

(01:19:53):
by the way, are all into free agency and big personalities.
I'm okay with that if that's your culture exactly exactly.
It just seems like there's no direction or culture right
now because they let go one of the best defensive
players of all time and then overpaid for Trent Brown.
I don't get it to the choir. Reggie Bush College
Football on Fox that'll be starting up in September. Good

(01:20:13):
seeing you, buys all right, lively last hour. Rick Buker,
Nick Nurse, Toronto Raptor head coach. Good stuff. Reggie Bush
played golf with Tiger this weekend. I get to that
next time. We'll see you next time. One more Heard.
The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days
a week within the iHeart Radio app. Search Herd to
listen live or on demand whenever you like. Yeah, well,

(01:20:38):
the same point. Some of the toughest, meanest guys on
the yard. They'll tell you, I'm never going to a
self help roma, but I'll play some basketball inside one
of the most notorious prisons in the world. Some of
these guys miss they call it. They should have been
on a Division one basketball team. Basketball gives a small
ray of hope to the otherwise hopeless. It gives us

(01:20:59):
a sense of purpose. Is well free q Ball Mate
twenty eight on FS one in the Fox Sports Up.
Q Ball is the story of the San Quentin prison
basketball team, part of Fox Sports Iman nominated Magnify documentary
series by executive producer Kevin Durant, tonight at nine pm
Eastern on FS one. By the way, Rick Buker's our

(01:21:20):
guest senior writer Bleacher Report, a friend of the show
now FS one employee as well. Let me you've seen this, Yes,
I saw an early showing in San Francisco at the
Castro Theater. It is impressive. Okay, so it's interesting. So
I know Alcatraz is San Quentin, the one north Okay, Yes,
it's not that far. No, it's not that far from

(01:21:42):
from San Francisco. Isn't that amazing? It is interesting story?
So watch that all right. So, by the way, during
the break, we got we got real estate icon here.
So you just dropped this casually like this just says
nothing and you didn't take much from it. Maybe, but

(01:22:02):
you know, it's always talk about Ka D and he's leaving.
He's going here. All right, let's talk real estate. What's
going on with this house in the Bay Area. So
the house in the Bay Area is up for sale,
and he has purchased a place in New York and
I believe it's New York City. They just said, I

(01:22:22):
was told New York. But keep in mind when it
comes to selling the place in the Bay Area, everybody
is selling their place in the Bay Area because they
need to move from the East Bay to the Peninsula.
Steph is selling his house and actually moving close to
someone I know, so with a golf simulator because the

(01:22:45):
arena is moving. People don't want to fifty five minute drives. No,
it's just it's it's too challenging. So and I've been
a number of their practices this past week. Every practice
I go to assistant coaches, people are coming up to
me saying, now, where where do you live? And where
do you think I should live? So they're all and
it is one of those elements that people don't take
into account, like when when an arena moves, Oh yeah,

(01:23:07):
it changes everything for everybody's involved. And that's the case.
Now it is interesting timing that kad is not only
putting his house up for sale in the Bay Area,
but that he's also a purchasing purchasing a place in
New York. The reason I don't immediately jump to oh,
that's it, it's it's done, is because when you have
the wherewithal and the money that KYD has, and you're

(01:23:29):
from the East Coast, it is reasonable to think that
he might be buying a place in New York just
to have a place in New York. Yes. The Europeans,
rich Europeans. Yes, they all have a place in New York. Yes,
So that doesn't that Yes, I think that it's the timing.
It is the timing. Now, now there's been a lot
of Kevin Durant Kyrie talk. Yes, you have any insight

(01:23:55):
on Kyrie, because two months ago, if I said k
D yes, you'd say I read k D yes. Okay,
So they're both having weird endings to the season. What's
the latest on Kyrie? The latest that I've heard is
that it's between Brooklyn and the Lakers. Wow. And I've
heard that the Lakers and Kobe Bryant. Now, Kobe told

(01:24:16):
me or indicated to me that he was not involved
that he was Hey, that's their deal. I'm not I'm
not part of it. But I was told in the
last twenty four hours Kobe has been busy recruiting Kyrie,
in particular to try to get him to the Lakers. Now,
everything that I've heard, I would still expect that Kyrie

(01:24:37):
is is going to go to Brooklyn. That's that's the
odds on favorite. He grew up in Jersey like the Nats.
And if we're going to continue our real estate, he
just bought a place in South Orange. Okay, So how
do you where do you find out where? Who's your
who's your realtors? It's not it's not it's not realtors,

(01:24:57):
it's it's people that know what they're doing business wise.
So I'm not even because we're gonna go out to
dinner tonight, I'm not even gonna give you. I'm not
even gonna give you my address. Just find it, Okay, Okay,
I don't care if that's where you're living. I want
to know where you're going. All right, So let me
let me move into the before we get into the
final stuff. Because you cover the Warriors and the NBA,

(01:25:18):
you live in the Bay Area, I theorize this, yeah,
that we I have an agent and I've had it,
not because I just need it. Because I'm negotiating against
massive companies and lawyers. I need somebody to represent me.
If my agent ever said, hey, he's a company. I
know it's getting terrible pressed and it's completely dysfunctional, but
that's why I'm gonna send you, I'd be like to

(01:25:38):
my agent, I need a new agent. The Lakers story
comes out today on ESPN dot com. It's a circus.
My takeaway is you have to engineer a trade to
take back the narrative. If you can engineer a trade
and get a Bradley Beal Lebron Bradley Beal, then the
narrative is it's a little circus in the front office.

(01:26:00):
They got two guys because I think right now I
would be the idea that that article's out, yeah, and
an agent's gonna say, oh, it's a terrific landing spot.
Yeah no, no, Rick, no, I'm with you, And they
do need to change the narrative, and getting a player
to pair with Lebron would help change that narrative. A

(01:26:21):
good player, but the ability to get that player, because
even if you're trading. You need to work with other agents.
You need to and you need to know that the
players coming in want to be there and want to
be part of this, and that's what they're fighting right now.
And for me, this is for all of us who

(01:26:41):
respect and appreciate what Genie Buss has done. This is
from us to Eugenie. You need to step up and
take charge of this franchise right now. There is nobody
who is demonstrating who's in charge, who's in charge, who's
making the decision. She was not quoted in the piece

(01:27:02):
that just came out. She hasn't addressed any of this,
and so you have a dumpster fire and you're looking
at it saying, when is somebody going to take charge
and say, yes, all this has happened, or this is
what's being said, but this is how I'm going to
lead you out of the fire. This is where we're
going to go. There's none of that happening. So everybody
looking at this summer who's making their plans on where

(01:27:24):
they want to play and what they want to do,
are looking at this saying I don't want any part
of that, Like, what are my other choices? Exactly as
you said, at the very beginning, why would I want
to go to the Lakers. So don't you have to
engineer a trade, like let's say I'll throw this. I
love Bradley Beale, and I made the argument earlier there's
a lot of people in America who are really talented,

(01:27:46):
but there's some sort of duress or chaos and an organization.
Eric Ebron for the Lions dysfunctional Lions goes with the
highly functioning cults and becomes a pro bowler. Victor Oladipo
Westbrook's hard to deal with. Put him in Indiana, make
him the guy he flourishes. I think Beale's numbers are good.
I think John Wall can be difficult to play with,
kind of an immature player. Initially, I'm not sure if

(01:28:08):
he's the world's greatest backcourt tandem talented. I think Beale
with a highly functioning Lebron would be a much better player.
He's a really good player. Could he become Klay Thompson.
Where we're in the conversation of top twelve thirteen guy
in the league, Washington would jump out to a team
that would you like a draft pick number four? They
kind of want to rebuild. If I said to you,

(01:28:30):
what is a trade that, just in the Rick Buker
mind of basketball, you could make with this Laker team.
You got two young forwards both score eighteen Lonzo on
the four pick? What worked? That's not enough to get
Anthony Davis? In my opinion, no, it's not. You wouldn't
have to give as much up. Again, I keep coming
back to Chris Paul, and apparently Lebron and Chris Paul

(01:28:52):
have gotten together recently. They already have a connection. You
wouldn't have to give quite as much up to get
him because his feeling is as Houston has to has
to hit Chris Paul. Well, I'm you're you asked what's realistic?
That to me is realistic. If I'm the Wizards with
a player like Bradley Beale, I'm not only trying to

(01:29:13):
get off of that. I'm trying to get off at
John Wall's contract. Now, how much money can you take back?
And what can the Lakers give me? Because Bradley Beale
is an established star in this league. Who whatever I'm
getting at the number four pick, I don't know that.
But if you give me, if you give me Kyle
Kuzma a four, Kyle average eighteen, number four Pick. You're

(01:29:35):
trying to talk See you're trying to talk me into
this Lonzo, Kyle Kuzma and the four that's not worth
Bradley Beale for a team that wants to rebuild that
by number four Pick is that point guard from Vandy.
For as good as Bradley Beale is, I would be
I would I would think that I could do better. Wow,
He's Look, this is the biggest thing is that when

(01:29:56):
you have a guy who was established that he's capable
of doing what Bradley Beale is doing, and you know
that he's been in this kind I don't want to
say toxic, but in this difficult circumstance. Everybody's seeing that too.
If I pair him or I get him out of
this situation, man, he's going to bloss So everybody sees it.
So everybody's looking at it. At that's saying Bradley Beal
would be a great gut And as the great Don

(01:30:18):
Nelson once said, all I'm looking for is a rich
man in trouble. Ted leonsis right now is a rich
man and he's in trouble. He needs to make a
decisive move. Largely because of that, John Wall contract and
the possibility that he's all done. Rick Buker, Senior writer,
Bleacher Report, all right, two things. Katie's traveling with a team.
What's that mean? He's going with him to Toronto. So

(01:30:39):
there's two ways to look at this. One. Either it
means that he's close, because normally you would stay home
and you would continue to rehab. Yeah, so this is
almost like whoa wow. If he's going, maybe he's almost
ready and he could play in game two. So game
one Thursday, game to Saturday or Sunday, Saturday Saturday. Okay,
So I mean if he left today. But the other

(01:31:01):
is he's so far away it doesn't matter. There's no
rehab to be done, because there's no rehab that's going
to get him ready for this series. From everything I've heard,
I'm inclined to believe the latter. He's going just to
be there and to be present and to be part
of it, not because he's ready to play. I do
not expect to see him play in this series. Oh

(01:31:22):
and none of it. Oh I don't. I don't expect.
Look when I was when this originally happened, I was
told and said that it was going to be three
to six weeks. Then the Warriors came out and said
it's more serious than we originally thought, which leads me
to believe it's closer to the six weeks than it
is the three weeks. Three weeks is tomorrow from the

(01:31:44):
date of the injury, so now we're talking another two weeks.
The series is gonna be over. The Game six is
in two weeks from Thursday, So I just don't see
a way in which he's going to be able to
get back and play in this series. And I would
think the same with the RCAs cousins. I don't think
either one of those guys are going to play in
the series. So this is small ball for ten days,

(01:32:06):
two weeks, yes, which I believe is going to make
the series more interesting than people. So let's go to
your prediction. I'm saying the Warriors in six, but I'm
I would love seven, and I think it's going to
be I'm hoping. I mean this might be wishful thinking,
but I believe it can be a competitive six games.
By the way, the Maverick team that beat the favored

(01:32:27):
Heat with three stars, yes, had a good coach crafty
veterans go to Star No. Indecision in the possession and
the game. And they've beaten him twice in the regular season,
and they faced a team in Miami that had some drama.
Isn't that the Warriors now three stars? Oh? No, no drama.

(01:32:48):
You don't think this, Katie thinks a little drama. No drama,
no drama. I've been around them, I've talked to them.
They are as locked in. And by the way, Steph Curry,
step Steph Curry on his left hand has two little
pieces of black tape. And I saw him shooting the
other day. He was in a zone. He was shooting
left handed, twelve foot floaters and dropping them with his damaged,

(01:33:09):
his injured, injured hand. I think he's dialed in. I
think they see the finish line. How's Eggy's healths Iggy's
physical health is great. Like he's had a lot to
carry as far as keeping this team together, like, for example,
the whole Clay Thompson thing not being named all NBA.

(01:33:31):
He's not upset with the thirty million. He's upset over
the idea that you're saying that there's six guards in
the league better than me shoulder, And so what happens
is that can kind of vier a guy and wanting
to prove something. This is not time to prove anything individually.
And Andre has been one of those guys in the
locker room, has always made sure that everybody stays on

(01:33:52):
the same page. Livingstone, Iggy, A're gonna just nine days
helped Golden State more than tru Oh my goodness. I
mean it's and starting on the ruw. Steff pointed this
out to me the other day, goes, this is the
first time we'll go to the finals. We'll start on
the road. We gotta get on a plane to start,
and we're not playing in Cleveland. And they were so
used to this is our hotel, these are the restaurants,
this is how long it takes to get to the arena.

(01:34:13):
This is what the arena feels like. I mean, it
was it was a second home for them. This is
going to be completely different. That said, I believe it's
exactly what they need because I think that they were
starting an oracle and they're looking at the raptors. They'd
give away a game, they would It's just been their
tendency all year long. I think having to start on
the road, they're going to be more dialed in than
they normally would. Good see anybody, good, see you tonight.

(01:34:35):
We gotta go get some fish. Sounds good. Rick Buker
and I Seattle Kid Bay Area joy with the news. No, no,
this is the herd line news. Me a lobster guy,
or no, I'm not. I'm kind of a whitefish guy
salmon or whitefish savich sometimes a little I got my

(01:34:56):
guy can do cod, I can do sea baths. I
can do snapper. Love oysters. I grew up next to Oysterville,
Well hometown, next to my hometown. So another day, another
report about the dysfunctional Lakers. Their front office is probably
as functional as it's ever been in their seventy two
year history, and a new ESPN report this morning revealed
a lot of things and talked a lot about magic

(01:35:19):
and Rob Polinka. It said. Sources who feared reprisal described
Polinka and Johnson as managers who made unilateral free agent acquisitions,
triggered a spate of tampering of investigations and fines, berated staffers,
including Wallen, and created an in house culture that many
said marginalized their colleagues, inspired fear, and led to feelings

(01:35:41):
of anxiety severe enough that two staffers suffered panic attacks.
Now everyone pretty much has an opinion about this story
at this point, and it kind of sides are being taken.
Now there's another part of the report talking about Rob
Polinka making up a story about Kobe and Heath Ledger,
and Heath Ledger was deceased at the time. With this

(01:36:01):
alleged dinner happen, it's all bad. But the bottom line
is there's no direction with this, and when a lot
of times when you put people into positions of power
who don't necessarily have the experience, there can be some overstepping.
But in general, that's why you need good ownership. And

(01:36:21):
I'm not saying that this is all Genie Bus's fault,
but Genie Buss has the power to clear all of
this out of the way. She can snap her fingers
and everyone can be gone, and you can put people
in place that have this experience and can run the organization.
We should not be talking about the owner and the
front office of the Lakers. Anytime you talk more about
the ownership and the front office of an organization than

(01:36:44):
you do the actual team, no matter what sport it is,
it means there's this function. Think about the franchises that
are out there that are consistently competitive and excellent. We
never talk about the ownership ever, and very rarely do
we mention the front office, if not just to say
they have a good owner in a good front office mess.
You just read the articles. There's it's I'm not even

(01:37:07):
picking sides. It's there is. It isn't one person. It's
just no, I don't think here's a side to take
anymore because mab Pelinka is still there. You can't just
pick and choose what parts of the article you want
to believe. It's it just it just needs to be
fixed or make a major trade, because if I'm a
free agent, I am not getting involved in that. So
five star prospect and consensus top five pick in the
twenty twenty NBA mock drafts is RJ. Hampton, and he

(01:37:29):
is foregoing college basketball to play for the New Zealand
Breakers in the MBL. This decision comes after he reclassified
as high school graduating year from twenty twenty to twenty
nineteen earlier the spring. He believes playing in New Zealand
will best prepare him for the NBA. He told ESBM,
my number one goal is to play in the NBA.
I wanted to be an NBA player before I ever
wanted to be a college player. This is about getting

(01:37:52):
ready for the next level faster and more efficiently. You
can always go back to college, but there's only a
short window as an athlete where you can play professional basketball,
and I wanted to take advantage of that. I think
the challenging yourself on a daily basis is the best
way to improve. We just had a baseball player do
the same thing, essentially, say I'm gonna go to Japan
and I'll be a free agent by twenty five instead

(01:38:13):
of like twenty nine. So we have a baseball player
and a basketball player saying, hey, I know what I
want to do. I'm gonna skip steps and be a
professional sooner, and I'm for it. Well, it's not necessarily
skipping steps, it's just a different route. I mean, we
have European players come over all the time. It didn't
play college basketball and assimilate right into the NBA culture.

(01:38:33):
You're going to play professional basketball so that you can
then play professional basketball. It actually makes perfect sense. I
know people are freaking out. You know this college basketball
is going to disappear. It's not. It's not going anywhere.
Everyone is not going to take the same path to
get to the NBA. This is what he feels like
it's best for him. He wants to start playing professionally
right away, and he's a one and done player, and

(01:38:54):
one and done players, it's not like he's foregoing this
great academic experience. These one and done guys are taken
eight classes, six classes, and they're gone. Height listening with
the academic experience anyway, if you want to go to
college and have a college experience before you go to
the NBA, all four it. But you're not going to
finish school anyway. If you're a one and done, you're
always going back to school. So whatever path you want
to take to get there, I'm fine with. And he

(01:39:15):
comes from a family that believes in education, so I'm
sure he will finish it eventually when he's done playing. Finally,
Shaquille and you all played in six NBA finals during
his nineteen year career in six different teams, and he
had a lot of teammates along the way. But there's
a pretty interesting streak that Shaqa is going on here,
and it's been continued by Danny Green. Thirty six straight
NBA finals have featured players who were once Shocks teammates

(01:39:39):
Crazy going back to nineteen eighty four and so most
recently Danny Green. The list is really incredible and it's
kind of bizarre. Well, we were talking about this yesterday.
It's five men in this league have been involved in
eighty seven percent of the finals since the sixties. Red Arback,
Phil Jackson, pat Riley, Greg Popovic and Steve Kerr have

(01:40:03):
been an eighty seven percent of the last sixty two finals.
It is amazing. It's like any industry. You go to
Silicon Valley, there's probably six investors that are tied almost
every one of these companies. That's just the way the
world works. It's really bizarre. It is a great list,
good stuff. Joining the news. Well that's the news, and
thanks for stopping the Herd line Coach of the Raptors,

(01:40:27):
Nick Nurse around the corner. That's coming up. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon
Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one
and the iHeartRadio app. Let's not waste any time. A
great story, not only the Raptors, but Nick nurse first
season as coach of the Raptors after thirty years as

(01:40:48):
a coach or an assistant in college, the British Basketball
League and the G League. This is really a remarkable
story that you know, most of us don't know who
Nick Nurse is, and now he's on our TV all
the time and he is joining us live in Toronto.
First of all, Nick, thanks for coming on. I imagine
the travel is a little higher. Great in the NBA.

(01:41:09):
This is a great life for you and your your
family right now. Just a smidgeon higher, Colin, Yeah, a
little better than the Don Hall guesthouse in Port Wayne, Indiana. Well,
you know, it's funny when I when I look at you,
you are the Raptors. Who is Nick Nurse? And you
fight and you grind and listen, chip on the shoulder.

(01:41:32):
I mean, isn't there a little bit of you thinking
why did it take me so long to get here? Um?
Not really, Colin. I think you know, I used to
get that question a lot when I was coaching in
the in the G League, which was the D League.
When I was coaching in and you know, we were
we were kind of you know, having the best record
in the league and getting a lot of players called
up and people would constantly saying alcohol came you not

(01:41:54):
in the NBA. And I never really worried about it.
I just wanted the head coaching experience. I knew it
was going to be payoff someday and be valuable and
and um, you know I I loved those jobs. I
had two jobs, one in one in my home state
and Io and one in the on the on the
Mexican border down there at the Rio Grand Valley, and
I loved him both. You know. Load management became a

(01:42:15):
term this year. Uh, Kawhi and Lebron took some time off,
and I was one of those guys. I'm like, I
don't even know what that means. It sounds like an
accounting term. But I could make an argument this morning
that it helped Kawai. Um, he looks fresh. You asked
him to push up against jan Us. I mean, you know,
you look at it. Could I make the argument Nick
that for a star player that knows he's going to

(01:42:37):
go through the playoffs, missing ten twelve games is not
the end of the world. Yeah, I mean I think
you can make that argument. I think we were we
were in a situation we didn't play a lot, you know,
the year before because of the injury. And I just
think we wanted to, um, you know, slow play it
a little bit, you know, just we we didn't really
know him that well. We wanted to see what we had.
We wanted to make sure he was healthy and and

(01:43:00):
you know, like the early conversations that I'd have with
him were never about like become an MVP or or whatever.
He's just like, listen, I want I want to play
a long, healthy career, and and I'm all about winning,
you know. That's that's all he ever talked about. And
the gear that he's thrown it in here in the
playoffs as Wow, it's really fun to watch, you know.
It's also what I love about Kauai is not only

(01:43:23):
low drama, but I love the midrange jumper. I'm one
of those guys. I love it. I don't want just
guys chucking up threes. I like a guy working like
a playground for a good shot off a screen. I
like man analytics. I do. I respect analytics, but I
like something called manalytics. I need a man to get
a bucket. What do you make of the postseason where
the midrange jumpers had a little bit of a comeback. Yeah,

(01:43:46):
I think you know, there's there's certainly the argument. You know, um,
there's still there's still the polt of the guy in
the heart inside the guy, right, that's that's probably outweighs
the analytics and and um, when you got a guy
like Kawaie that hits them at that rate, you're you're
you're analytically okay, you know you still as well, you
know what I mean, And I just again, you gotta

(01:44:07):
the most important thing is that you get a shot.
You know, the turnover is what really kills you in
the analytic world. And you get it to a guy
that gets you, gets a shot, and he clears some
space and and feels pretty good most of the time.
When it comes off his hand, you're you're you're shocked
when it doesn't go in. You know, that's a that's
a good feeling for a team to have, you know,
Nick Nurse, coach of the Raptors. Actually, people think you

(01:44:28):
have an advantage because Katie won't play. I think it's
I think it's weird. You're preparing for two different teams.
You don't know if Bookie's gonna play. You don't know
if Katie's gonna play. I think that that that's hard.
That's a little bit of a I'd kind of like
to know what I have. How do you prepare for
the Warriors with Ka Deer without him? That's That's exactly
how it is every night in the D League, Colin.

(01:44:49):
You know who's gonna be on the floor about an
hour before the game, so you you know, you put
your game plans out there. You assume both of them
are gonna play until somebody tells you officially that they're not.
And then when they're not, you don't. It just doesn't
bother you, doesn't move your meter too much. Man, you
pull up your socks and get ready to go at it. Man.
You know you guys one of the reasons I'm shocked

(01:45:09):
you're here, I said, I you know, I've been watching
the NBA for forty years. I was an old Seattle
Sonics fan with Downtown Freddie Brown and Gus Williams, and
I'm like, I'm like, they don't have a second scorer
and I don't know if they can make it. And
Siakam's post All Star break is really blossomed. But did
you worry early in the season, who's getting his buckets?

(01:45:29):
After Kawhi. Uh not really. I mean it's a great,
you know question, and it really becomes to bear in
the playoffs, right, like who's your who's your number two,
who's your who's your third guy? Really? Um, But we
had a you know, we had a lot of games
without Kawhi, something like twenty two. We had something like
twenty something without Kyle Um and we just kind of

(01:45:51):
tried to play a little bit of a you know,
a move the ball, get a good shot, to move
it to the open man, you know, Like like I say,
here's what we're trying to do. We're trying to play
defense and hit the open man, you know. And it's like,
I know that sounds simple, but it's a good thing
we were trying to do. And I think it gave
a lot of guys on different night confidence from you know,
Siakam especially. We really let him have some freedom and

(01:46:14):
take the ball and run with it. Danny Green can
hit some threes, Freddie Norm surge and then we then
we pick up Gasol and Gasol. After we got Gasol,
we became the number one three point shooting team in
the NBA because we were moving it even more to
the open man. So I don't know, and we had
that was probably what excited me the most. We had
some great moments when Kawhi was in his rest periods

(01:46:35):
against Milwaukee. Yeah, by the way, I like Drake, I
don't like I don't like guys touching coaches. What did
you make of that? It became like an international story.
What did you make of it? Yeah, I'm like you.
I really like him. First of all. He's really nice,
really nice to me all the time, and he's a
huge fan. He's almost like a little kid, and you know,

(01:46:55):
when he's around our team, it's great. Um, I really
I didn't feel it in the game, I said, I
didn't know till the next morning. Somebody sent me a
picture and I said, jeez, I didn't even remember that happening.
And I said either, I said either ay, I was
really really focused, which which I probably was, or b
he has really soft hands. Answer, well, you're a great story.

(01:47:17):
I'm shocked I picked Milwaukee. Joy, my counterpart here loved
y'all year and you deserve Joy. Yeah, good job, Joy, Congratulations, Yeah, congratulations, Hey, Joe,
I feel like I know you better. Job. Nate b
Orkrand's on my staff and was with me in the
minor leagues, and he worked, he worked for your fiance, Earl.
So I feel like I know you are Earl a little,
a little more than I actually do. But thanks for

(01:47:38):
picking us. I appreciate me. Yeah, well you know you
know he support you in South and Nick. Great story,
great great North American city. We think it's going to
be a fascinating series. And congratulations to you and everybody
with the Raptors. Hey, thanks a lot calling I'm a
big fan. I just wanted you to know that. Oh,
thank you so much, thank you very much. See, even
even this year when I doubted them all year, he understood. Good. Well,

(01:48:01):
you know, he's a he's a grinder. He's by the way,
we had Fred band lead On and Nick Nurse. It's
not that I don't love Canada. I spent I went
last year to Vancouver. It's just to amy. After five
years Narov kept disappointing me. I'm like, I'm done with it.
I told you this is different. Yeah, I'm over it.
And now they delivered, and they do have a little
Dallas Mavericks feel to them. They got little Dallas Mavericks

(01:48:23):
feel good coach. A lot of veterans one star low
drama facing a favorite where there's a little uncertainty going on.
I think it is weird. Do you prep for Durant?
Do you not know it's It's gonna be a fascinating series. Hey,
Discovers going further with Miles rewards than they've ever gone before.

(01:48:45):
Discover at Miles card automatically matches all the miles you
earn at the end of your first year. Limitations apply
Discover Match for new card members only. Learn more at
discover dot com. H Slash Travel So Chris Brusard, Matt Barnes,
Reggie Bush, Rick Bucher, Nick Nurse. I gotta go, I
gotta go to dinner. I'm not gotta go. I'm going

(01:49:06):
to dinner with Rick Bucher tonight. So we're gonna have
a big piece of fish and talk about all all
his real estate knowledge, his breaking stories. Kyrie's buying a
place in Brooklyn. Katie's got a place in New York.
Katie's selling his place in the Bay Area. Let's go
to Zillo. That's my new site. I gotta hang out.
Third

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Jason McIntyre

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