First Things First - Knicks beat Celtics in Tatum’s return to MSG, Title Pie, Brou’s Ballot, Can LeBron carry the Lakers?

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

(0:00) Knicks beat Celtics, Can LeBron carry the Lakers to a playoff series win? (25:05) Travis Hunter to move to CB full-time, Is Ty Simpson worth a 1st-round pick? (42:40) Brou’s MVP Ballot (47:14) Title Pie (01:04:23) Thunder resting players vs. Nuggets, How have injuries impacted Embiid’s legacy? (01:15:54) Has the league figured out Lamar Jackson? (01:24:33) Tatum returns to MSG, Will LeBron carry the Lakers past the Rockets? (01:46:40) Dontayvion Wicks traded to Eagles, What does this mean for A.J. Brown? (01:57:10) Front Office (02:07:10) Will Rory McIlroy repeat as Masters champ? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York, it's a show that's reminding you. They got Janice jerseys in the souvenir store, okay? You walk up, you say, hey, do you have a size 58? I don't know how large they make them. Suit up and start warming up. That's how you play the final home game. You can warm up and still not play. Like, you can warm up and dock.

You want Janice's final moments in Milwaukee to be with technical foul an ineligible player. Let's get in the mud. It would be, that's what it would be, it would be ugly. KW. Well, now we're just sitting here quietly. It's just over. It's over.

Well, I want to play in the NBA with my brothers one final time. That's great. It's not happening. Well, it should. That's fine, but it's not. Everyone has accepted this. There was a time when Yonis wanted to warm up and the guy's like, actually, we got to do something with the ladder.

Oh yeah? Ladder's gone. I'm still here. Today, LeBron wins without Luca. Is there a chance he can keep the lake show afloat in the playoffs? Win one round made. We're going to turn Wilde around to his preseasoned LeBron opinions. That's what's going to happen here.

In a good way, in a positive way. Meanwhile, a commander's defensive player says that the league has figured out Lamar Jackson. Are we buying this? And what's bruise take on this one? And finally, wow, double whammy. Special edition of Bruce Ballot and title pie. With a real twist of title pie that we were not expecting and might ruin the show. We have no pie?

No, we definitely have a pie. But somebody just went robe. Is it you? No, it's not me. I'm behaving. I'm doing my own thing. I don't go wrong. I'm not trying to take over other people's segments come in over the top with their own graphics.

I'm just doing my thing. Just intro in the stuff. Chris Brousard, Nick Wright, Kevin Wilde. We're starting in the garden. Tatum got a nice round of applause in his return. That was good that that happened for the first time. I heard you, Brew, specifically. You're a yelling game.

24 points with two for 10 from three. Bill of Scheherman and Josh Hart ended up hitting the huge shots in the game. Here's Tatum on his return to Madison Square Garden. It was a big moment, a big hurdle for me. You know, I was nervous and anxious. to come back here. Obviously, I wanted to win and play great, but more importantly, I just kind of want to walk off the fort. You know, I'm on two feet.

Did you feel nerves once you stepped on the floor or once the game started? Yeah. I was, especially like to start the game. It's so unique. It's parent and it's, well, look, he's already got a championship. Or I would have to say he might be too honest. I mean, you know, it's very unique to see this level of vulnerability. 24 points, 13 rebounds.

He's been a rebounding machine in 40 minutes, which is a season high. Did you like what you saw in Tatum's return? I like that he played 40 minutes. I mean, that's impressive. Obviously, he didn't get hurt, thankfully. But he looked all right. I don't think he played that well. The numbers, I mean, 24, 13, and 8, you would certainly take that.

But he's still understandably not quite. where he was. We talked yesterday is he 70, 75%. Because he wasn't creating space as much as, you know, he is when he's fully healthy. And that contributed to some of his shooting. He was just off, too. He missed a couple open shots yesterday, but you saw the 31% shooting. But overall, it was great to see him back.

Now, down the stretch, he struggled over the last eight minutes. He was 0 for two with three turnovers. So like he said, they were outscored 25 to 14 by the Knicks, and that really turned the game. They had had the lead, Boston, but with Tatum struggling a little bit, they didn't pull it out. But look, the bottom line, if you're a Celtics fan, is you're happy he's gotten through this.

He didn't play badly. He just wasn't quite as up to par as he usually is. but he's healthy and he's past these demons of Masters and Square Guard and I think if you're a Celtic train and you also like the fact that this was a nip-and-tuck game without Jalen Brown.

You know what? And I do think the benefit for Boston sitting Jalen Brown was it made it so if the Knicks lose that's pretty ominous for them heading into a potential playoff series and if the Knicks win

And it's, they can't really, you know, they can feel, again, we're talking about the Knicks in a minute. And the Knicks fans should be happy, but it doesn't feel as sturdy as if Jaylin had been there. But as far as Jason goes, like, I've liked every single thing about his return. And I am pretty stunned by, like you said, yesterday was not a great game. He didn't shoot very efficiently. He had a half dozen turnovers. But he came back March 6.

Today is April 10th, and he's playing 40 minutes. And, I mean, that is, it would have been unfathomable. If when he came back, the Celtics announced he's on, he's not going to play every, he's not going to play any back-to-backs, which he's not, he's not going to play more than three games any given week, and he's capped at 30 minutes a game the rest of the season. I think we all would have been like, yeah, that sounds about right. sounds reasonable.

Instead, he's been playing 35 minutes regularly, and since he came back, here's the list of guys averaging 20, 10, and 5. That's crazy. That's not even a while. Sometimes we cherry pick the stats a little bit. This is nice and clean. So that's why I did it,

because he's actually averaging like 22 and a little more, but I wanted it to be. 21, 7 and three steals. And so listen, the rebounding numbers are what calls. the herd quite a bit because there aren't a lot of guys who get double-digit rebounds and pass, but that's remarkable. And if we set KW to your point, like the thresholds even lower, the only other guy that pops up is Palo, another kind of guy, a big guy that can do a little bit of everything. And so I do feel like one of the

benefits of his transparency and honesty is, I do think we can take him at his word. And so I do think this was an important and needed hurdle for him to get over and one that if he, if this hadn't been on the schedule, would have been a tougher spot for him when he goes to New York in the playoffs, assuming he goes in the playoffs. So all of that, if you're a Celtics fan, I think, again, you want to win the game, but I think you're pretty thrilled

with how this is going entirely. Yeah, look, he doesn't look like he's ready to be the number one guy on a championship team, like he's proven he is. But the good news for Celtics fans is he doesn't have to be. He's the number two guy this year,

and he's clearly able to do that. Was there something, you went to the game? Was there something specific? that you saw when I watch it looks the same it looks like the same he just wasn't able to create as much space so a lot of his shots were contested

and I will say this he had a fall in the second half yes that was I was terrified I don't remember because where I was there when he got hurt but I was really up in the same spot I wasn't sure if it was the same side of the court but yeah it was this and he kind of just fell

or got tripped or something and I was like and he got up great and everything was good at that moment and probably even to him he thought about that. When you say he's not able to create as much space. I'm not saying he didn't last night. No, but do you think there's an element of, so let me, the, I'll mix metaphors a bit, there was about a few weeks ago, there was a video, like a LeBron compilation video of,

and the caption was, he's been cooking guys with the simplest dribble moves for 20 years. And the response was, yeah, because guys are so worried about him dry, like, about basically his power and speed that they have to guard him differently so he doesn't need the ball handling. The flip side of that is, is one of the reasons he's not creating spaces because he's not quite as explosive as he was. Guys are more comfortable. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's the thing he didn't have the explosion. And so guys are less worried. When he had the explosion, you almost have to play off the guy a little bit because he can get right past you if he doesn't. I think that's it. And I don't know how much, I don't think that'll come all the way. back, but I think it probably the explosion gets better and better

you know what I mean over the course of the next few weeks. Just you look at the way he's improved over this past month. Celtics host the Pelicans tonight. Tatum won't play that game. Zoom out. Knicks win their fourth straight game, trying to make a mad dash to grab the two seed from Boston will be tough.

Mike Brown got his 50 second win last night. He jumps Pat Riley for most wins ever in the first season as the Knicks head coach. What are the chances this Knicks squad gets over the hump. Well, look, I like Mike Brown a lot, have known him since he was coaching the calves

the first time there and LeBron's first stint there. Little context to that record. All right. The last two years, the Knicks won 50 plus game. So they won 52 years ago, 51 last year. They better have 1.52. All right, or whatever they're going to finish up at. Pat Riley's 51 wins.

He took them from 39 wins to 51 years. And Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Woodson, Jeff Van Gundy in his first year with the Knicks, 57 wins, Mike Woodson, 54, they have both coached a little bit in the previous season. They took over like about 23 games. That's interesting. I didn't realize that. Yeah. But they, you know, they had been interim coach.

So just a little constant. I like that. But that said, look, there feels like there's been this feeling around the Knicks this year of, man, they're not as good as we thought they were. Right. They were supposed to be better. They got more wins than last year, obviously. Last year they were fifth and offensive rating, 14th and defensive rating.

This year, they're third and eighth. So they've improved on both sides of the ball. Obviously, Brown is going deeper in the bench, which just served them well in the playoffs. I had this graphic. Oh, yeah. They're better. They're a slightly better offense,

a slightly better defense. They outscore people more. They're a better fourth quarter team. The fourth quarter number, I know I know it's season long, but that seems monstrous. Yeah, and last year they were outscored in the fourth quarter. And Brunson was great to collect last year. Kids got you're playing 40 minutes.

Legit. And we think they'll be fresher because of that point. And I'm going to say this. Look, I said yesterday, I think it's Boston, Detroit, New York, Cleveland, in the east as far as the best teams. I think the Knicks really, like, if I'm them, I'd rather play Boston in the second round than, Detroit. I think they match up better with Boston. I think they could be Boston again.

I don't know if I'll pick them because we'll make our picks when it's time, but I really think they match up really well with Boston. Several reasons. Obviously, they've had great success against them lately. Last year, beat them four or two. We're about to go up three one when Tatum got hurt, so that can't be an excuse. This year we get it, three and one against Boston, but none of those games have Brown and Tatum. But even when Brown and Tatum play, they are built to defend them better than just about anybody because they got O.G. Oninobe, Mikhail Bridges, and you can throw in Josh Hart.

Like, they have the wing defenders who can make it tough on them. So in that series last year, they held both Tatum and Brown to 40% shooting. So they can make it tough on you. And then this year they become one of the best clutch teams in the league. They're six, I believe, in clutch play. And then they've got two guys in Jalen and Carl Anthony Towns who can get double teams late in the game. And you kick it out like last night.

They kicked it out to Josh Hart and he was hitting the three. So they will be able to get open threes late because of their creators. And if they knock down the threes, they match up better, I think, with Boston than the Detroit. Well, they were built to beat Boston. one of the reasons last year I was one of the only people I think who going into the series picked the Knicks

and it was in part because I just think it's hard to defend a title and all that but it was also like man it felt very similar it reminded me a lot of the round two the previous year defending champ against Minnesota where a Minnesota team that wasn't championship caliber but had been built to beat Denver

and so and then they matched up and they and that's what happened. So I agree with that to a degree and understand it. I also don't want, like last night, we're talking about Jalen Brown missing. The other thing is this. Josh Hart, who's not a good shooter, you know, made, you know, was on fire, and that sometimes the game plan is make Josh Hart, or, you know, make player X beat us. Right, and that player X is like, okay, I'll beat you.

And that's what happens. I still think Boston is decidedly more championship caliber, and I would pick Boston in a series. With that said, I did today have a similar feeling of you, which is, man, it feels like we've all collectively been a little down on the Knicks, even though they're better than last year. Those numbers that we showed, they're going to have a better record. It's not like last year they were the one or the two C,

They weren't. Their seating was the same. And I think that was because we expected, given the injuries to Boston and what happened with Indiana, that the Knicks would run at, do what Detroit did. Right. Start the year as the number one seed and basically hold it. They didn't. But they haven't been disappointing this year by any means.

And it does feel like, and I'm, you know, I've probably been a party to it. The commentary surrounding them has been as if. They're a 46-win team. Hawks-esque. Yeah, honestly. And so. Brew, can I ask you a question of Power Rank? Yep.

The following players with the ball in their hand, you need a bucket. They are bringing it up the court. Okay. Okay. Jalen Brown, Jalen Brunson, and Jason Tatum. Jalen Brunson? Yeah. Me too.

He's number one. I saw a lot. I felt like we got a peek at playoff Jalen Brunson, either getting a, drawing a foul or the cool like almost Marbury as fast. He'll get a little mid-range shot easy. I just feel like that passed to heart under the basket was sensational.

No, but he's, there's not many guys in the league you would put above him of that specific scenario. Like the, he's, no, he's, that's what he's best at. He's one of the best clutch guys in the league. He's one of the best clutch guys and he's one of the better small scores

of his generation. Like there's not many guys. his size who can more reliably get you a bucket. Yeah, if not, Alvarado would get more burned, you know. Raptors and Hornets to close out the year for New York. They're 4-0 against Toronto already this year, and that could be a first-round matchup. Head out to the West Coast. Lakers get a dub over the dub.

First win without Luca LeBron had 26. Here he was post-game. Take a listen. Everything. Everything. So, you know, nothing changes for me. It's back to the old ways, you know. And I got to give him my leadership, both on the floor and off the.

before. I got a lead in all fastest on the court. I got to both ends. That's what the job requires. So, you know, I look forward to it and see what we can get done. All right. News today, JJ says he's hopeful that Marcus Smart and Jackson Hayes will play against the sons.

Well, that's something. Those are the two guys they need back. They'll take them. Can this version of LeBron win a playoff series? Well, look, he's playing with an extra pep in his step. It looks to me. Like he's playing outstanding basketball.

And I'll tell you what, obviously he moves into the Luca role of handling the ball more and distributing and running the offense and stuff. He might do that better than Luca. I mean, obviously he's LeBron James. As far as orchestrate the office. Yeah, and he doesn't dominate dribble as much as Luca. So, you know, he moves it a little faster in my view.

The thing is, Luca can't go do what LeBron did a month ago and say, all right, I'm going to be off the ball. Luca just has to have the ball in his hands. And LeBron can't score the way Luca can. Not at this point. Yeah. And he's not the shooter, Luca, you know, all that stuff. But look, if they play Minnesota, which I don't think is going to happen,

but if they play Minnesota and Anthony Edwards, he's questionable tonight, it's starting to look like he's not going to be himself. If he's not himself and they face Minnesota, now Minnesota has all these. the athleticism and things like that as far as advantages. I would probably pick Minnesota if AMP plays, but, you know, maybe 80%. But I certainly give the Lakers a shot. More likely they're going to face Houston. I will pick Houston.

I think Houston just the talent discrepancy. I mean, we talk about Durant, Shingoon, Amin Thompson, Jabari. Like, they have such a talent advantage and they've got a very good coach in Udoca. I would pick them, shame on them and Kevin Durant if they were to lose to the Lakers without Luca and Reeves. That would be a disaster. But I would give the Lakers, it isn't a lot, but a 10 to 15% chance.

Well, that's something. And so that's almost exactly where I'm at, bro. I think that a lot of our discussions have been if Luca comes back, you know, could Luca immediately then win a series? This conversation is if they say Luca is out for round one, do the Lakers have a chance?

And my answer to a chance is, yeah, because, and I'm focused on Houston. Right. Because it's the most likely matchup. Minnesota's locked into the six. That is done now. So the Lakers would have to get to the three. And I don't think they're not going to end up

playing Denver in round one, even though in theory the 3, 4, 5 could all change, but that Denver's the least likely round one opponent. And I, LeBron, when he is the unquestioned best player on his team, the last two years. So again, last year he's younger, and so the, I'm not saying. Still old. But he's still, right.

He was 40 and in year 22. Yeah. Last year in games where Anthony Davis and Luca didn't play. he just goes out there and cooks on offense. Now, and you saw it last night, his defense suffers. That is where LeBron, the age has shown up for LeBron more than any other aspect of his game other than just raw. Playing both is.

Yes, is he doesn't have the energy to do that on offense and be an even good, much less excellent defender. And for the Lakers, they don't have a lot of other, you know, good defenders. but I'm kind of excited to see him try, to see what he can do. And I think the fact seeing Durant across the court, like he's, he has some history of playing Kevin Durant in a playoff series

where Durant's team's got way more talent. Now those series didn't go well for him, but he individually was excellent. And it's, he seems, I don't know if resigned is the right word, But the question, we didn't include the question there. But the question was essentially, what is your role now with this team? And he said everything, everything. And then he said the way it used to be.

So like, it's a really unique spot of a guy who, KW, at different moments of his career, has had to do this for teams. We're like, I'm going to have this final year in Cleveland. I don't ever remember him having to do. Oh, you mean take over? I'm saying I never remember him having to do what he did a month ago. No, no, but I'm saying take over and have been like.

That's just been how he's playing. No, but I mean where there have been different spots where he doesn't have another great player alongside him. So like 2018 in Cleveland, his final year in Cleveland, his first stint in Cleveland various times, and the beginning of his time in L.A., that's what his life was. And it's just going to be interesting to see how far he can pull it in the point. playoffs in year 23? Four games is a lot. I want to believe it one or two games, but four games, I can't even give it 10%.

If I do, that is such an indictment on Udoka if he can't come up with a defensive scheme. Doubling LeBron is not like a strategy. Like he'd love it if you double. Like even with bad teammates, like it's never really been a strategy because he's such a willing pass. Rockets are averaging, I think, around 119 or something in the last few weeks. They stop. That's what I'm saying. The talent discrepancy is crazy.

But look, the Lakers, if you're the Lakers, keep it close. Lakers are the best clutch team in the league, all right? Houston has not been great. But is that still, you buy that stat on a lukeless team? No, I'm saying if you're the Lakers, your best chance is if you can keep these games close and then in the last two minutes it's in the balance, I trust LeBron James more than I trust anybody else on the court. include any of those guys from Houston

to get myself a good shot or somebody on the team a good shot. I think the Lakers would sign up for that. Again, they would be massive, massive, they will be decided underdogs. I also do wonder for that Rockets team, particularly for Durant, to all of a sudden

enter a series where you are, like losing would be a catastrophe. Yeah, that's interesting. You know what I mean, where it's like it will be like you said, such an indictment on us. Like for Durant in particular, because Durant and LeBron are friendly,

I think they are actual friends, but that obviously has been a professional rivalry for 15-some years, and all of a sudden, like two weeks ago, if Durant was looking at potential playoff matchups, it was, oh, if we get the Lakers,

if I pull this off with Luca playing the way he is, those guys is, it'll be look at what KD did. I know there were actually, expectations going into the year. Getting out of the first round is like you got to. No, but it would have been enough.

But it would have, they would have been a, I think, a pretty big underdog against the Lakers. Because in a way they have been playing recently. But now all of a sudden, it's, right, it is.

And I think the Lakers will have home court. Like the, you know, the Lakers are probably going to be the four seed. So I don't know. I think Duran has felt throughout their careers that when it's even, I can beat LeBron.

He's had advantage. is over me with his teammates. So he can't lose this because he's got the clear advantage right now. From McMedaman. If the Lakers beat the Sons and the Rockets lose to Minnesota, the Lakers clinch for. I think it's either or. I think it's just they just need one of those things to happen. I think their magic numbers won.

Oh, it looks like we have a brewing McMeneman versus Nick Wright. Fude. Travis Hunter, one-way player. Next on FS1, the Fox Sports Channel on Sirius XM. We're headed into week three of the UFL. We're going to take a look back at some of the highlights of week two. Start with the DC Defenders and Columbus Aviators. Aviators Jalen McClendon hands it off to the Quandre White, their hurdle into the end zone.

Not enough. Defenders get their first win of the season. They run off the score too. They're winless, I think. Yeah, that's your squad, Columbus. Come on, y'all got a rep Ohio. Let's go. End of Birmingham Stallions, Houston Gamblers.

walk-off game winner from John Hoyland. Brew loves UFL kickers. They got some kickers. My goodness. There's no excuse for NFL teams. You got to get one of these. I do like that this feels like you're getting, it's closer to the NFL than maybe college.

The goalposts are a little bit tighter. You can, and you can take some long shots. Aren't the goalposts tighter? The goalposts are the same width in college and the pros. Well, I thought UFL was. The hash marks are tighter. I'm like, I was like, I was just going to leave that alone. I didn't know.

I think goal post. I thought it was slightly different. I thought it was. I think it's like, no, not high school. I think it's like height of the rim, buddy. I think it's pretty uniform across all. I was actually thinking pitching mound distance. Orlando storms about right.

Certainly college. Driving 12 9 against the Louisville Kings and Jack Plummer avoids the hit. Throws a pretty ball to Elijah Badger. He takes it to the house. Orlando Storm go on to win. And guess what? They're running it back. Box, UFL Friday.

They're all liable to hash marks on here. There's different rules. Two of the league's newcomers. Storm and Kings look to light it up, primetime pro football in the spring ramping up tonight at 80s turn on Fox. Welcome back to the show. Travis Hunter drafted the Jags said they were getting two players in one.

You get an offensive player, you get an offensive player, 28 catches and 15 tackles later. Plans changing. Ian Rappaport reporting, team is now thinking full-time corner and contributor on offense. Is this the right move? Coach? Well, Larry, you said this day one. I thought about this a lot and I saw a guy talk about it right before training camp and I felt like he had a lot of good things. I said, I don't know if he's available or not. It looked a lot like you too. Can we play it? We have a clip to play.

My feeling with the whole Travis, a hundred thing is that he should start on defense, play defense, and then situationally, play him on offense, third down, red zone, two minute. Then you can control his rest, and you can control him in the most high-impact situations. Hmm. All right, dude, brush him off. That's how I feel.

Go ahead, KW. So I'm wondering if this is a class half full, like, yeah, okay, great, you were right. Glass half empty, this is a bit of a disaster. No, it's a catastrophe. for my Jags. No, I don't think so. No.

What if he becomes a all-pro quarterback? It makes the process of it a catastrophe. You cannot think about when we're talking about, I'll give you a great example, trading for Miles Garrett

or Micah Parsons or, you know what I mean, these great players who either have been traded or could be traded. Nobody goes for what Travis went for. Travis went for the fifth, a future first, and a third.

The fifth overall pick, another first round pick, and a third rounder. Or third or fourth round. I don't remember. Like, that's still, it's a lot. For a, and I know you don't like

when I say this coach, I'm basing this purely off the economics of the NFL, not a marquee position. Like as far as the pay scale goes, quarterback, past rusher, receiver tackle, then corner is there with guard as far as what the top of the market makes.

That's just process-wise, it's a catastrophe. It is lessened if he becomes an all-pro, but to the point that I'm trying to make here, Trent McDuffie was literally a multi-time all-pro and went for the 29th pick and a few mid-rounders. With a big salary. Yes, with the big salary, that is true. I think you're looking at it only through the lens of he's only going to play defense. And what I had said before and what I say right now is, yeah, he'll be on defense.

That'll be his core position. But if then you use them in the red zone or in two minute or on third down and you're getting meaningful plays out of him in that situation, then it makes sense. They just switched the formula from offense first with a little bit of defense to defense first with offense. and if he's impactful on offense, now you're still getting to the same sort of, you know, general formula that they were looking, value that they were looking for. It's just structured differently than the way they started out.

I'm not trying to still coaches shine, but I felt the same way. No, it's true. No, you did. You did. I was saying, like, is he better than Dionne Sanders? Is he a better athlete than Dionne Sanders or Charles Woodson? They didn't go full-time both ways in the NFL.

I just didn't think, look, I get it. He really wanted to try. He did have success in college. So I think it was the right thing to, hey, let him go try. I agree with you on the, they obviously gave up too much. But what do you always say? Sunking cost fallacy or whatever. You got to move on.

But I just, I think you're right to give him a shot. And now he knows he got hurt in seven games. So that's the thing. He may still think he can. but I never believed he could. He's not even a big guy either. So his durability still could be in question. But I just think playing one side and then contributing on the other is the right way to go.

I don't think you can go both ways full time in the NFL. So what I, that very well may be true. What I find fascinating about this is I don't think he is the biggest reason they are making this call. like it doesn't they they said they were going to do it when they drafted him the new GM was basically like he's going to change the paradigm of football those things I don't think it's fair to say he failed at it he got hurt it wasn't going great I will admit but there's a lot of guys who the first half dozen games of their career don't go great we didn't really get proof of concept what we did get was Trevor and the offense started humming once they traded for Jacoby Myers he was he was not a longer in the lineup. And that's when Trevor ripped off the 19 touchdowns, one turnover.

You know, they played great in the playoff game. And I view this, honestly, more about we found a formula that works on offense, and we don't want to mess with it. And so we are going to have Travis focus exclusively on defense where we do need help, and then we'll see. But I don't, I mean, he looked like he. at best he be mediocre on both sides. I said all along,

him being, the best chance of him being a star was one way. And I'd rather him be a star on one side of the ball than mediocre on both. And I also think, Nick, I mean, Brian Thomas didn't have a great year. So maybe they expected him to bounce back. But Jacobi Myers, they did play well with him,

but you're not like putting all your chips. No, I agree. It's just he was, they, they ended up really being their best. passing attack when they stopped worrying about Travis and to some degree Brian Thomas and just, you know, kind of Trevor threw to the open guy and that's what they did. Mike, I just don't, you're right, he didn't look great.

But there's a lot of guys who end up being great players who the first six games of their career look like, oh, man, this guy's in way over his skis. And then it clicks for him. I just don't know if he's going to get that opportunity. And I think you can not disrupt what. has right now offensively while still incorporating me into the offense. You have a 10 or 12 play package that he's part of and he knows he practiced it consistently, everybody practiced it, he comes in, he runs those plays.

Now you may get another weapon in those key moments. It doesn't disrupt Trevor at all. It's not changing their week of preparation. This is what you do all the time. Now it's a supplement that could be a really positive thing for Trevor as opposed to what it probably was last year. very disruptive because you're trying to justify what you gave up for this guy. Also, before I move on, I don't ever copy off your notes ever. However, I can see everybody's notes and I have very good vision.

Coach takes very fastidious, long typed notes. Only brew does chicken scribe. It's paragraph after paragraph for the whole show. His entire prep for Travis Hunter was, I called this a year ago. That's all. Everything, Ty Simpson were about talking about six graphs.

I called this year ago. Fair point. Fair point. You need to work on that one. For our first episode of Ty Simpson, questions about. Is he a first round pick?

Is he a second round pick? And hold on. Look at this comp. Jeremy Fowler quotes an unnamed. And I don't think you need to be unnamed. You know, it's a compliment. Well, Well, it's very interesting.

Nobody wants to win. Jared Gough and Mac Jones. Here's the, because you would love a player who's rookie year Mac Jones. Yep. And rest of career, Jared Gough. Rookie year, Jared Gough, and rest of career, Mac Jones, worst quarterback in NFL history. So it really depends on what we're like. Mack Jones is sought after.

It is so like, which comp, which, which, which, which, which, when are we getting? Are you in the head or the tail? It's a very big problem. Is Ty Simpson worth a first round pick? In a league that's so star for quarterbacks, I can understand why someone may go and get him. And the idea of getting him in the first round, you get that extra year, that fifth year option,

and that's oftentimes why people will trade up late in the first round to get a guy is to have that extra year on the contract. Where I struggle with him is, you know, you look at late in the season against Georgia and Indiana, they had a combined 10 points. And those are two very good defensive coaches, two very good defensive schemes, more in line with probably what you're going to see in the NFL. And for that little production, that's a concern. Started off hot, didn't really end that way.

And then when you watch his throws down the field, there just aren't the same level of throws that you see with Mendoza. And I'm not saying Mendoza is this elite passer, but you're not seeing enough of a body of. working with those throws. The other thing that concerns me is they talk about how developed he is, which can be a really positive thing. And his dad's a coach and all that's good. But you want a guy who actually isn't that close to a ceiling coming into pro football because now there's going to be growth and what you've got in college. There should be a jump. And if he's that developed right now, the way they talk about him processing, reading defense, all those things, is this the finished product.

And if it is, I don't necessarily think that's going to be what you're looking for necessarily. Yeah, I don't think so. He's got, what, 15 starts in his college career. He's six feet tall, so he's a smaller guy. And obviously, as you said, it was up and down, his 15 starts. And the teams that really need a quarterback are at really high in the draft, Arizona, the Jets, you're not taking him two or three. After six, Cleveland's six.

and they obviously going to give Shadour or whatever a shot. After six, there's really nobody. I know the Jets have another pick, but there's really nobody that needs, they either have their own franchise quarterback or a young guy. Or they've just drafted. Yeah, might be able to become one.

And then you look at next year's drafts supposed to be good. Like the Jets have Gino, and they have a lot of needs elsewhere. Maybe they go and try to fill needs elsewhere. And word on the street is Gino's going to lead them to the promise land. So why they go draft somebody? Listen, I think this is, I want to be, I don't want to be disrespectful to the young man.

I think it's a ludicrous discussion. I think that, I think there are, this is, and it's weird because it's consecutive drafts. No, not even last year. Last year he wouldn't have been higher than Jackson Dart. So this is the only draft of the decade. Wow. Where he would be a top two courts.

The Kenny Pickett draft maybe, I guess, as well. So, you know, I'm playing fast and loose with that. But in a regular, in a typical quarterback draft, he's the fifth best quarterback available. And people are looking at him as a flyer in the third round. Because he is pretty consensus considered the second best quarterback in this draft. Like, Ty Simpson's value as a player or career. should not be impacted at all by whether or not Dante Moore went back to Oregon or the year Archmanning or whomever, like, graduated high school. But if either one of those guys, and I'm not even the biggest Archmanning guy, but we're in this draft class, no one would be like, oh, is Ty Simpson, are we going to have a four quarterback first round?

It's just because it's so rare to only have one quarterback going the first round, and we know who it's going to be, and we know where he's going, that, in my opinion, these conversations are happening. I don't think hardly anyone watched Alabama last year and was like, that guy, that's a first round pick quarterback. Not after the first few names, you know. I wonder outside of yours, but I wonder if your drafts are even colored by this, it felt like recently we've had maybe just last year a bad read on quarterbacks in the draft, where it was talk about like, hey, is it Cam Ward or Chador at one or two? Well, Shador fell rounds. Yeah.

Could Jackson Dart, jump to her? Jackson Dart turns out is really good. How about Tyler Shoke? Like, is he going to be any good? Turns out he might be excellent. He might end up. Good to great, yes. We'll see.

So I just can't tell. It feels like a little bit like a weatherman who has been telling me it's going to be rain and it keeps on being sunshed. But how much. But how much. But the track's always get elevated in the draft, the Trey Lance draft. I mean, who are those first few guys? I mean, the Prince is pretty good player. It was the Prince, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Mac Jones.

I mean, there are four guys that. It's just top of the quarterback. It's just top of the quarterback. That's right. Five guys that. Yeah, I really don't. I mean, I don't know why you're doing the six, seven thing about the prince. I mean, he's top five.

I wasn't doing the six seven thing. It sure looked like you are. Thank you for making me socially relevant. I don't know, KW, I think what happened last year was everyone across the board got the Shador thing specifically wrong. Like, I don't, I think that the, I think the mock draft community as a whole, not just because I'm a new member of it, actually does a pretty good job of having the general range of players. Like the consensus mock draft, when you compare that to the actual draft, It's pretty rare that a guy is, you know, 25 or more spots drafted different. Shador was.

Now that Belichick's out of the league. Shador was 100 spots different. But even I wonder if that's even insular. What do you mean? If the noise from the mock drafts penetrates decision makers. Not really. You may, you look at mock drafts just to try to see where your opponents might be. be thinking, but you're evaluating GM's history of drafting, head coaches' histories of draft.

You're trying to look at it from a more analytical standpoint as opposed to just what the mock drafts are saying? Maybe the mock drafts as far as who's going where. I do think, and I think there's some real evidence that there are certain front offices that really do value the overall kind of wisdom of the crowd as far as the ranking of the players. Like the old, like the, the, well, nobody wants to come out the day after the draft and have their draft rated as an

F. Right. That's why I'm, because the owners, the owners still see that. Yeah. It's like, well, why do we have such a terrible draft?

And the reality is you can't evaluate a draft for two or three years down the road anyways. We do it. And the Fs, yeah, we do it. We do it. We do it. And the next day.

And owners are probably the most susceptible to being impacted by that. SGA clinched the one seat sitting out tonight's game against Denver. Can Joker make them move up the ballots? Let's find out in the final edition of Bruce Ballot, final edition of the year. Yes, this is it. Voting. I think they'll send us the ballots Tuesday. They got a rule on Lucas appeal first. I know. Look, I'm disregarding that right now. Got guys who I think will be eligible. Number five, Jalen Brown. All right, just great season by him. Showed he could be a number one guy, career high points, rebounds, assists. Obviously, they needed all of it. All right. At number four, Luca,

fantastic year. Kind of historic numbers, I mean, very few guys have done what he did, 38, 8, 38 and 8, basically. But it's just a great field of candidates. Yolkich stays at number three. He's been strong. They've won 10 straight. Wimby got hurt. But he's only played one more game than Wimby. And the thing is we get, a lot of us may get swayed by what happens at the end of the year. But you got to look at the totality. Not me. November is important too. Locked in post all starting. All right. But Wemby didn't really turn it on until January. I thought he still played great. I mean, he was great the whole year. As was Yolich, they all were great in the whole year. But number two is Wemby. This was part of it. You see we got a graphic here for the plus minus.

these are one, two. The Yokic and Wembe and the plus minus. Even Nick, when Wembe, they went four and one against OKC. And he only played 25 minutes a game, came off the bench two of those games, if not three, still had a plus 50, a team high plus 50 in those five games. So just the sparse minutes he was playing, he was turning those games. And number one, Shea, I think he's going to win going away. I think it would be even bigger than the last straw pole

where it was like 88% or something. Well, I think Joker is going to, I think Joker's going to cut into it. He might get second. I don't know if he'll, I don't know how many first he's going to get, but he might move, you know, replace Wimby in second. But look, Shay, his splits are crazy. 55% from the field for a guard. 39% three.

He's really become a great three-point shooter. And 88, 89% for the free throw line. best clutch player in the league could win that award this year and doesn't turn the ball on like he's a great player I have some it feels like number one is solid SGA the battle is between two and three could they flip the the athletic player pole had Wemby pretty far down at like six six was it really now athletic player poll oh the player poll the but it was players voting for MVP is what it was yeah he was Sixth, yeah.

Now, yesterday during the... Who was in the day of K? Sorry, it was... Jalen was... It was... No, it was Shea won. It was Joker 2. It was Luca, Jalen, and it must have been Cade.

Tide for third. And then Wimby 6th. Go ahead. Sorry, that was all just a setup to say that the power of suggestion is very powerful. And although I've been trying to say this is not a thing, people are now making things. Thank you. You guys, we go to break.

Godzilla versus Mopra. That one looks great. No, it doesn't. That one looks great. It looks like Wemby's. Wemby is Mothra and Joker is... No, that's not Wembe. It's like a distant cousin of Wembe.

Okay, well, and guess what? And that's not Joker's face either. That doesn't look anything like Joe. Yeah, I mean, that's not what I'm saying. Well, exactly. He gave Wimby some muscles. I agree with you. November matters too and December matters too.

I also think head-to-head huge games. both guys going for it at the end. Like that would have been enough for me to jump. Listen, Luca dropped for me. My ballot won, four, and five would have been the exact same as yours, assuming Luca's going to be eligible. Luca dropped from two to four because he missed time and it's just how it works. That matchup against Wemby would have been enough for me to move Joker up.

Where I'd go, Shea, Joker, Wimby, Luca. Maybe Joker put you on. It's like taunts Wemby. That's taunts SGA while he sits on the bench. scared to play. That's going to be a fantastic play. I think Drew's ballot is going to be how it finishes. Really?

I think that's how the voting will finish. Live from New York, the show that's reminding Yonis to just suit up and start playing. It's the second hour of first things first today. Why one defensive player says that the league has solved Lamar Jackson. That's a wild quote. But I'm interested in discussing it. Meanwhile, the Thunder are sitting nine players tonight. What gives?

I mean, I know why. I'm interested to see what you guys are going to say. Right now, you're in for a real treat, literally. Time to cook up the most delicious segment in all sports. Which teams have the recipe for success? Which teams are hungry for a championship? In which teams, should we put a fork in? They're done.

Put a fork in on there. We get it. Speaking of. Featuring up. A pie, Brew's Fave, Mississippi mud, often requested, rarely purchased. This isn't pie, bro. This is a brownie. That's a pie.

It's a circle. It's in a pie tin. There is no pie quality. A baked good in a circle. It has crust. It's clearly a pie. No, Brew, this is just a. Thank you.

We're Falcons theme. I mean, this is. We would give you some, but you got to talk, so. And remember, the next five minutes. Yeah, we tried it. without a pie. Didn't work. It didn't work.

The segment didn't work. But now you guys just keep, can we stop with the zoom in? It doesn't work, dude. That's what we're trying to say. It doesn't work. We carry the segment. Half a percent. Nick, it is delicious.

I believe it. Let you know. Go to the pie, please. Half a percent and give me the next half a percent as well. KW, you asked for it. Modern Medicine Miracle. Both of them need it. them need it.

Impeed needs the fastest appendectomy recovery ever and the Lakers need some real Spanish medicine. They got something going on over there in Europe. We know. Austin's got to go over there.

I mean, it's crazy. There's something's going on in Europe. I'm giving them both half a percent because maybe they're in the Sixers case former MVP and the Lakers case future MVP He gets back in time, so I can't write them off entirely. Fair.

But they're in roughshade. 1%. I just can't quit the Clippers. Why? Respect for Qua. Wow. It matters to me. He is playing brew at the high.

This is the best start to finish regular season he individually has had in his Clippers career. And unlike Danny, I don't have a, you know, a person. personal family blood feud with Darius Garland. I think Ty, I think Ty Loo is a good coach. I forgot about it. And so I'm giving them 1%. And also they might end up with the baby Spurs in round one.

And again, the Spurs should clock them. But it's possible that the experience is not even 1%. 3% the Cavs. Caves fans. I understand what used to be tight. I love that casino downtown. We've had many a great finals weeks together. I see your notes.

What more can the Cavs do to get more respect in tears and title pie? And the answer, sadly, is nothing. The trade for James Hardin was, to me, the push I needed to be like, I don't believe in you. Despite the fact that my sport coat matches

the color of your slice of the pie, almost exactly. It's a Cavs color. I just really, as much as it's a piece, I want to believe in you, I can't. Down? Because I don't know what's going on

with Anthony Edwards' name. To 4% the Minnesota Timberwolves. I don't love it. No. I do love that Anthony Edwards has decided, you know what? I'm going to push this no dress code thing on the bench as far as I can. I like

that. I like Anthony Edwards showing up in undershirts, whooping for his team. I like him. a lot and I like the way he carries himself a lot and he's a great player. But I don't think they know if he's going to be 100% and I certainly don't like, and I know they beat him in the playoffs before that they now are almost assuredly going to get Denver in round one. None of that sounds great so they're down to 4%.

Up to 4%. Rockets. Hello. They just keep winning. Not only do they keep winning. They are a huge favorite to be in round two. And I would imagine if Anthony Edwards comes back that the Rockets are a bigger favorite to make round two than Denver is.

The Rockets will be bigger favorites over what's left of the Lakers than Denver will be over Minnesota. You know what, even if we... If Ant comes back and it looks like himself. So the Rocks are up to 4%. Biggest slice maybe of the season, or certainly of the last month and a half for this team. The New York Knickerbockers.

Huge. This is a huge game. Well, it's not just this game. They also, they had the really bad week a few weeks ago. Yeah. Pardon me, since then, they've been steady. They look like they're going to be healthy going into the postseason. Jalen's doing his thing.

Nick's up to 6%. You think last night really swayed or something. Well, can I stop you down really quick? Stop down, yeah. No, just for one second. Hubbs, do you have any milk for, thank you. What is this? It wasn't about, it wasn't about the pie, thank you.

Keep going, sorry, we just wanted it a little. Just stop, just to bring a big thing of milk out. What? We thought that the pie really carried the segment. Up to 8%. You didn't even bring brew a glass. I didn't know if he wanted any. Up to 8%.

the Detroit Pistons with the return of Cade Cunningham, with Jalen Duren. Brew, I hope he's going to be on one of your all-MBA teams. Oh, good, yeah, yeah. It's weird now because you don't have to have three centers, but he deserves a spot. And give an extra look to Dennis Jenkins. Up to 8% the Detroit Pistons.

Up all the way to 9% the suddenly terrifying Denver Nuts. Hello. And while everyone understandably is focused on Joker's unbelievable statistical season, Jamal Murray having, I think he's going to be on one of your all-NBA teams, having the best season of his career, Aaron Gordon coming back from injury and being awesome immediately, still a little nervous about Peyton Watson. Cam Johnson maybe coming on at the end.

Remember, they moved on from Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson, hoping to get more reliable playing in the playoffs. We'll see up to 9% Denver Nuggets. Down a tick to 10% of Spurs. Down purely because I'm just a little nervous about Wimby. Very fair. I mean, he got banged up. They say he's going to play tonight just for the 60th.

Just for, they're not saying it, but in my opinion, just for award eligibility. Fine, I don't begrudge him that. but just a little anxious about the weirdness of the injury. Like watching it was weird, where he grabbed was weird, what it was. And then him staying healthy through three or four rounds. Exactly. And now, to their credit, we miss games, they win. They're, I think, now 13 and 5 when he doesn't play.

Like, they're fine against. They have shown the ability to win games without him. And Castle is going to, Castle certainly is going to make an all-defense. team and might make an all-MBA team and hitting on who's eligible. But they obviously need a full go wimby to win four rounds. Two teams left more than half the pie remaining.

Down just a percent, the Boston Celtics. This is not about last night. This is about Cade coming back and the Knicks looking stronger. So this is one of the reasons the Celtics had such a big slice was that I thought

their path through the east was going to be relatively speaking easy. But Cade coming back as early as he did in the one series they wouldn't have home court advantage in, changes that. Can I give one, not joking. Jalen has missed enough time, just a handful of games with this Achilles tendonitis. That it's not an Achilles, but foot, ankle. Yeah, I think you have to be. I mean, maybe he could have gone last night and part of me thinks it was a Missoula game plan.

like you just outlined earlier. But he's missed a few of these, and I am not in a shocking development. I'm almost more worried about Jalen's availability than Tatum's availability. Well, listen, if he has a real injury, that changes things to me. To me, they just named,

they called it something they gave him the night old. And then up to 30% Oklahoma City. There was, for every other edition of Title Pie, we've had to be open to the possibility of, Wait, could the Spurs catch them? And the answer is no. The Spurs didn't catch them. And we now know they're not going to play their guys the rest of the year.

So they will go into the playoffs, healthy, rested, and as the number one overall seed. That is the latest edition of Title Pye. Yeah, look, this. Nice zoom in on the pile in the middle. You can have some now. I'm all right. Really? Why would I only?

You got a break down. The idea behind the second, I guess, is somewhere. does the pie and the other people eat pie. So I can't, I do the pie, so I can't eat the pie. Look, this pie, this colorful pie you created, it's a participation trophy pie. That was cute for the first, you know, 75 games or so. Because we want to, you know, give you a chance.

Yeah. But now that the playoffs are about to start the play ends next week, we're right there around the corner. Eliminate everyone after. the Knicks. Because none of those teams are going to win the championship. Not Houston, not Minnesota, not Cleveland, not the Clippers, not the Lakers or the six.

I mean, do you really think they got a chance? The Pacers had a chance and they were, they did not, they didn't have a huge slice of the pile after. Thank you, KW. Great taste. That was last year. Well, I mean, what do you want to do? And I will give you that.

Last year was a bit of a, that was crazy that the Pacers. got there. But not this year. Cut all those teams off. Here it is. OKC 30%. You're doing your own pie? You're just supposed to say here's my wait. OKC 30%

yellow. That's a more realistic pie. That's what it is. Boston and San Antonio 20% each. Denver 15%, Detroit 8% the next 7%. That's the pie. Not. No Charlotte. No Houston.

None of those squads. Atlanta. You made your own pie. I'm not supposed to make your own pie. It's just not how the second is. If he, if hubs all of a sudden brings out an apple pie. If you would eat pie while I made my pie,

it would have been eating. You know what, Brew, I have something. I have a confession. I've been hiding. You got a ballot, Nick's ballot or something like that. Even better. I've got a bud list.

See now. There it is. There it is. Number three on my underdeme. Who leaked it? Number three on my underdress list. Bruto, the worst graphic in sports TV. First of all, that is not Bruto.

He doesn't like that one because the pants not there. The chest and the faith. What's up with that expression? Number two on Nick's Underst List. This off-brand Wesley Snipes want to be character. And number one on Nick's Underdress List, Cowboy Brew. That old favorites at KW. Who leaked it to Nick that I had a pie?

He's in with the whole staff. That's where he preps. Yeah, but it's text. We're not texting. They should. But it's collaborative and then he picks it up. You can't be doing it. You can't do that.

It's unbiolation. Y'all just going to make me do it more. Can I go back to? I'm feeling dangerous. Dust, can I go back to either pie? No, my pie. Go back to my pie. The pie is up.

I'm making the pie larger. This is all I'm saying, okay? I unlike the MVP ballot where I have to look at the entire year and remember during football season, how teams did in October or Halloween. I don't do that. All-Star game to now is, I think, is a clearer indication of who you are. Hawks and Hornets, split a slice. That's all I'm saying. Split it.

Since the All-Star break, the Hawks are super hot, the Celtics we believe in, the Hornets are hot. The Cavs have a slice. Have a slice. The Knicks have a slice. The Knicks have a slice. The Hornets have been playing some good defense. Hawks are having some fun.

I don't know how good of a defensive team is. What I'm having some fun? Is that what you said? They're playing with joy. Oh, got you. Okay. I'm a vibes guy. Yeah.

They also are hitting threes. Hornets are just. filling the stats sheet up with threes. Hawks are shooting the three well. I'm just saying you steal a game here or there. Interesting things can happen. Game one of the finals last year, the Pacer shot

46% from three. All of a sudden we're like, hold on a second. We've got a real series. I just think that these teams can steal a series from someone. But it's not series pie. It's championship pie. But if you steal one series,

all of a sudden... You actually think the Charlotte Hornets could win the championship. I think they could win. Look, I think they could steal a series. Then next thing you know, uh-oh, what just happened? Did they still four series? Someone's injured. Oh, you get Tyrese Hallibur and hit a shot and it bounced 30 feet.

They're not as good as last year's Pacers. They're not. And they don't have the playoff experience that last year's Pacers. Right, they had experience. The Pacers had been to the playoffs before. They had two legitimate all-stars. Yes, they, yeah, I mean. Hey, I'm not asking for 20%.

I'm not asking for half a percent. What I'm talking about you? Split a slice. See, this is what happens when it's a participation trophy. Now, everybody wants one. What is this? The Sixers can get one and their best players gone. Why can't the Hawks get one?

That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. You know you know don't believe all those teams can win. This is a good pie. This is the real pie. That's a good pie. I'm sorry.

This is the real pie. Yeah, I like that pie. All right. You know that. This is two for two on pies. Can I just say something? Can I, what is it, KW? What am I breaking?

The fourth wall, but we are kind of always do that in the show. So it doesn't really works better for six. If I did title pie the way Brew wanted me to, then it would be like Brew's and it would be like Brew. I don't know if you guys have noticed Bruce ballot the last month. It's the same five guys in the same. order. Yeah.

Maybe not a month. It's Wemble. That's the old under two. It's Wemby. I mean, it is. Why it is? Well, I know, but we need a little

check it up a moment. You want me to, you want, you want mayhem. That's Nick's tears. No. Where Danis Jenkins is one of the 20 best players in the league. That's the mouth, not tears.

But regardless, no. What I want, where Bam out of bio is the third best player in the league. You know, that's what that's what. Lurking in the periphery of MVP? Oh. Bam. No, I don't know somebody.

Oh, yeah, the mountain. I'm glad we did it. Just eating, yeah, she's out here. Pyes. You got to have some. You eat ale salad every day. You know what? I think that's backfiring.

Turns out I'm starving. Thunder are taking the night off. Saturday night, baseball night on Fock. Buckle up. Red Sox, who have finally started to win games, taking on the Cardinals or you might see Giants taking on the Orioles. That's tomorrow at 7 o'clock only on Fox. Welcome back to the show.

Thunder are in Denver. Nine players are out for the reigning champs. Denver is favored by 12 points. Here's a list of guys you won't see suiting up. Your reaction to whatever team the Thunder is going to field and early take from old KW. I'm interested in this. Oh, why?

I just, it's everything to lose for Denver, and the thunder are just going to go out there and have a blast. Oh, you mean, you say everything to lose. Keep 30. Right, because they can drop in the standings. I, listen, I do not begrudge OKC this at all because, you know, I'm a big believer in number one seed should be able to pick their playoff opponent.

Like, that should be the reward. rather than just be pure seating. But I think it can only be viewed through the lens of they want Denver and San Antonio to play each other in round two and make that side of the bracket as hard as possible and they do not want Denver to fall to four and all of a sudden that's their round two matchup like it was last year. I don't, I will not go as far as to say,

Brew, they're scared of Denver, but they are intentionally trying to make it so they don't play Denver in round two. You don't think this is just a rest like we just closed? Not at all. No, I think this is targeted to, I think maybe you would give some guys the night off if they were playing almost any other team in the league. I think they specifically want Denver to win this game, which goes a long way to Denver locking up the three seats.

That's the only way I view it. Yeah, look, I'm generally. against trying to finagle your playoff matchups because I just think that that's given the other team motivation and, you know, just go out and play all out. There's talk that Cleveland wants to stay in for and play Detroit in the second round and all that. But this, I agree with you, Nick.

This isn't, obviously they know Denver would be a tough series. They went seven last year. You can argue that if Aaron Gordon doesn't injure his hamstring, maybe Denver wins that series. And even this year, they're 3-0 against Denver, O KC. And then you look at the other teams that they could meet in the second round. They're 4-0 against the Lakers, 2-2 against Minnesota, and 2-1 against Houston. So I agree with you.

I don't think this is so much, certainly they'd rather play one of these three than Denver. But it's not certainly not a fear of Denver. It is, though I think we'd like Denver. and San Antonio to beat each other up for seven games, soften whoever wins that series up for us in the conference finals. And I do think they would love for Denver to knock off this. That's what I was going to say. That is probably the most important thing.

Because the Spurs, I mean, you said. Yeah, and Jalen Williams admit it right now they're better. Shea said it at one point before they eventually beat them one time. So, and they're a young team, even though they're champions, they are themselves a young team OKC so maybe the way San Antonio played against them got in their head a little bit and they would love for Denver to take them out.

That's wild. Yeah, I agree with that last part the most. I think it is less fear of Denver and more. We love for the spurs to get clipped and if not we want some serious body blows against them in round two. And they also see

that the Rockets are a flawed team and the Lakers are on, you know, as injured as anybody. So having all those teams on one side of the bracket and then you're on the side with whoever comes in second in the play-in plus Lakers Rockets is the ideal scenario

for Oklahoma City. Now, it can blow up in your face of all of a sudden, good God, is that Lucidantzsche's music in, you know, game two of the first round, then all of a sudden, your round two can get harder. But they, you know, they beat that. They beat the hell off. Yeah.

Then Denver said it's on it. Very interesting. Head to Houston where the Sixers lost to the Rockets and Embeded lost his appendix. Some reports say a month. Some reports say two weeks. We haven't heard from the Sixers. Everyone's a little bit different. How have injuries impacted Embedeed's legacy?

I think I now put him in. not the Bill Walton bucket because Walton was a champion proven playoff great player. Like Walton had no question marks at all except he got hurt. And Embed, even healthy, obviously had underachieved and underperformed

in the playoffs. But in that very next tier of biggest all-time greats careers derailed by injury, he, to me, is jumps ahead of Grant Hill, Penny Hardaway, those guys as best players I've ever seen who careers just wrecked it all, like more than Derek Rose even. Oh, so you think he would have been better than Grant Hill and Pinney?

Yes. I mean, I'm going to show you a stunning, I think stunning graphic. Here are the all-time leading points per game guys in NBA history. He's fourth. And then look at the minutes played per game. So, Luca's the lowest at 35 other than Embedde. So Embededed was 0.8, 8.8 points per minute for his career.

He is, by that metric, the best scorer ever. Like, I don't think he's the best score ever. But as far as nobody in the history of the league has scored more on a per minute basis. than him. He has three top two MVP finishes. Only 14 guys in the history of the league have more, and it's, you know, 12 of the greatest 15 players ever and a couple other all-time greats. And we're just never, like this one brew is the unluckiest of them all. Like, you can get appendicitis at any point in the calendar, except for right now, and it's not that big of a deal, and instead it probably ends his season.

And then look at some of his other injuries. Was it last year, the Bell's Pauzy? I mean, that just is out of your control. And the orbital fractures, I mean, obviously it's contact, but that's not your fault. I would not put him, I think Embed is phenomenal. I think he would have been a top 10 center of all time had he had a healthy career. He's one of the greatest scores that we have. I mean, his, I would always get bothered by him earlier in his career.

because I thought he should have been on the block more. He ain't playing inside more. But he is a phenomenal jump shooter. Like, I mean, as far as just real big men, not a Kevin Durant, not a Dirk and Vistee. He's the best jump shooting center ever. Incredible shooter. I mean, a phenomenal shooter, especially in the mid-range. But I would not put him ahead right now of Grant Hill and Penny.

I think they obviously would have been historic players as well. and it is like Bill Walton. That's really what this is. Walton, though, to your point, capitalized. It was early in his career. Walton only started 60 or more games one time in his career. And he capitalized on it and won the championship, 1997, and then never his health was a problem the rest of his career.

M.B. will be a Hall of Famer. Really? Yeah. Walton made two all-star teams. Only two. Now, a lot of, you look at some of the older guys that made the Hall of Fame, and they had shorter primes, you know, than even Embed. MB made seven All-Star games, five all-NBA, I believe, one in MVP.

Like he, and the NBA Hall of Fame is a little easier to get into than some of these other. So he's getting in and rightly. So I don't, I'm not shocked at your response because I think a lot of people would be like, really? But when you look at his career compared to some guys that are kind of legends, you know, he had played more than him and had more accolades than him. So I think he'll definitely get in the Hall of Fame. So in that regard, we're just, he's robbed and we're robbed of seeing how great he could have been.

But at least I believe it's clear he'll still be a Hall of Famer. I know we were joking around in Title Pie. You put the Sixers and the Lakers at Medical Miracle. And again, I'm not an expert on appendectomies, but I think it's like you have to kind of cut through your abdomen to get to the appendix. If he can come back, if your Luca comes back, you're very optimistic about the Lakers. If he can come back, we're optimism for the Sixers.

Yeah, well, listen, I have been probably more optimistic about the Sixers than anyone on the show just because, listen, people can do side-eye at how they got here, but Paul George is fresh in playing the best basketball who's played in a couple years. I really like Maxie. Edgecone's been an excellent, you know, young player. I like the supporting cast. And Embed, where the injuries have taken the biggest toll on Embed other than games missed is he used to be a dominant defender.

He is not as dominant of a defensive player anymore. Or rebounder. Right. But he still is just a great score. Just drop him in. He's going to give you 26, you know, ish points a night. So, yeah, I would give them, you know, a puncher's chance in almost any series. but I don't think he can get to the heights that Luca can,

as far as how I feel about the Lakers. And it is true that he hasn't been at his best in the postseason. There have been circumstances, but he has a very ignominious distinction of the list of MVPs who haven't won a title is short. The list of MVP's who haven't been to the finals is Embed, Nash, Derek Rose. The list of MVP's who haven't been to a conference finals is him.

And I just don't know when he gets the opportunity. I feel sick for him. Yeah, and he hasn't delivered in the playoffs, but I do think a lot of that. I think the majority of that is he's always, even when he played, he was 80%. He'd miss every fourth game or something like that. So he just hasn't been healthy even in the playoffs when he's played.

Going to the NFL, has Lamar been figured out? One defensive player says yes. That's next time first. Of course. Of course. It's obvious. Afternoon headlines presented by Afrin. You get ridiculously fast nasal congestion release.

You think it's fast. It's ridiculously fast. Charles Menehu from the commanders thinks defenses have solved the riddle that is Lamar Jackson. Here he is talking about Josh and Lamar. Take a listen. This is the thing about Josh Allen that, like, I don't think people,

I don't think the league has truly figured him out. Lamar, honestly, you bring a five-man arrest on him and collapse that pocket. He's drifting backwards. And unfortunately, he might make a play that isn't going to be the best play

for the Ravens. I just think people, I think he figured out Lamar. You come after him, bro. Okay. That's fair or foul? I'm going to be nice to Charles a minute who. Super Bowl champion, Charles.

Yeah, I'm going to be nice to him. I can understand how he, as a member of the Chiefs, for the last three years, feels like we have Lamar figured out. Now, I think some of that also was just Lamar not playing well in the big moments, but the Chiefs have had their way with Lamar. Even last year in the regular season, they've beaten them. Josh has obviously played well, lost in shootouts. to the Chiefs or beat them in the regular season.

But it's just ridiculous to say the leagues. Two years ago, Lamar had 41 touchdowns, four interceptions, a 119.6 pass. Pre-figured out, though. So that's what I'm wondering. When did they figure out? So last year in the first four games, remember, he had nine touchdowns. This was against Detroit, Buffalo. The Buffalo game, he was great, and Derek had refumbled and, you know, they collapsed.

Detroit, he played with. Well, he had nine touchdowns, zero picks in the first three games. Kansas City, again, plays so-so. Then the next two games, he has like five touchdowns, no pick. So he had 15 touchdowns, one pick last year in the first six games. Then I think where he struggled was the injuries, the sicknesses, you know, he's not practicing. And then when he comes back late in the season and he's healthy, we think, he plays well. You know, the Pittsburgh game, three touchdown passes, obviously makes the great throws to like Isaiah likely, Zay Flowers.

They have a chance to win, and then the kicker misses the field goal. So, I mean, I get it. Lamar was down last year, but I think to say the league's figuring him out, obviously is ridiculous. But as a chief, I understand why he would put Josh ahead of Lamar. Yeah, you could talk about that way, about any quarterback that's had a down season. Has the league figured out? Patrick Mahomes? Maybe they have because he's had some down season.

So I guess he's been figured out. And look, if you can keep Lamar in the pocket, that's the best case scenario. But one of the things about Lamar is his unpredictability is the hardest thing because you don't know what he's going to do with the ball. You don't know when he's going to escape, when he's going to stay in, when he's going to buy time and throw it down the field. It's not, he doesn't follow a consistent pattern. So to say that maybe that's what he's saying is, is.

You know, you're attempting to get consistency out of them, but there's a lot of times defensively where you're trying to do certain things. And, you know, you think that as long as you do that, you're going to be in great shape. I don't know how many times I've said to Nick, you know, you've got to keep Mahomes in the pocket, but he finds a way to do it. So maybe they just haven't had as much success, you know, keeping Josh Allen in the pocket. And that's why they haven't figured him out. it just seems a little unfair on a down season to now give them the moniker of they figured them out and you cite all those numbers

and there's other good quarterbacks that have had down seasons where people haven't said, oh yeah, we've got the formula to stop them. Well, I think a lot of guys, when they had their first time they have a down year, people say the blueprints out. I remember the blue, when we were still in boxes, the blueprint was out on Mahomes. Three Super Bowl appearances in MVP ago. It's like, ah, you've been playing too high.

So people saying the blueprints out is not unique to Lamar. And I, listen, I think this is painted in two broad of strokes. But what he described, we can all visualize exactly what he's talking about. And it's not just games against the Chiefs, where Lamar does start prematurely backpedaling the playoff game against Buffalo and set the ball on the ground. But their playoff games. Which is to the point of him and big games. So is it figured out? Is it in the playoff games he gets tight individually?

I'm not sure, you know, everyone can have their own opinion. There's not a ton of regular season games. No, there's not. But the point I'm making is what he is specifically describing, we all know exactly what he's talking about and can think of multiple moments like that from Lamar. And if you listen to more of it, he does say he's like, But if he breaks through, like he's gone, and that is to me the question mark for Lamar going into next year because this past year, and a little bit the year before, but certainly this past year, he was just so much more hesitant to be like stop and put his foot in the ground and go run because that was, he did take more kind of odd or devastating sacks than the typical. great quarterback, but it was because he also broke off more 30-yard out-of-now-where runs than any other

quarterback in the league. And Charles also said he's like, now what Josh will do is Josh will have some bad fumbles. Like, I don't think he was really trying to play favorites in that. But I think this is overstating it, but I agree with the analysis of, I do think Lamar is easier to game plan than for Josh. And I do think the best defenses and the best coordinators have a better plan for Lamar than they do for Josh. I do feel that way. And now maybe it is reasoncy bias of Lamar coming off a bad year and Josh playing really well.

But I think that's accurate. But what makes Lamar so difficult is his unpredictability and trying to practice all the plays that break down. And it's not the standard defense. It's all the defense that you have to play after things aren't standard. So, yeah, if you can just keep them into the standard plays and keep them in the pocket, yeah, that's a really good formula. But that applies to a lot of guys who have the type of ability that Lamar has. And do you think it's fair to say that people have figured out Mahomes?

Well, I think that... Because he had a down year? Well, he's had statistically a few down years in a row. Right, so it must be figured out. I think that, yeah, I personally think and people can say it's a double standard, but it's a deserved double standard. standard. If one guy's been to five of the last eight Super Bowls and has every individual, no matter what his level of play in that regular season is, he is elite statistically every single postseason, then I don't think the guy's figured out. So like that's, I do,

I judge Patrick differently than all these other guys because the year in 2022, his last MVP year, he was unbelievable statistically in the playoffs. And in 2023, the year, nobody could catch and it was his worst statistical year. He was unbelievable. individually in the playoffs. So if people had figured out Patrick, that would show up more often than once every three years in a Super Bowl. And so no, I don't think that. I think Lamar is, the, Lamar's postseason resume is the exact inverse of that. And because of that, I think he is more open to criticism and more susceptible to criticism. But do you think that's more of a function of Lamar hasn't figured out how to play in the playoffs, as opposed to defense is figuring out how to play Lamar? I think maybe a bit of both. Like, to play. you're talking about we all remember Buffalo he scrambled the back and just basically drop the ball. Yeah, they got pressure on

him, which happens. But him dropping the ball is not them figuring it out. No, but it's the same play he made in each of the last two games, one regular season one postseason against the Chiefs. Same exact type thing. Is that a defensive solution or is that a Lamar problem? Right, right.

I guess I don't know. And the same thing with Patrick, where Patrick excels in the playoffs, maybe that's a, you know, Patrick Mahomes' strength as opposed to a defensive weakness. Live from New York, it's first thing's first overtime. Today, can LeBron carry the Lakers to a first round playoff victory? We discussed. Meanwhile, Travis Hunter, more with less.

Is anyone a fan of him playing offense and defense? Not anymore. That used to be in. I am. I used to be in vogue. I am. I don't know. I don't believe in giving up on something.

On both sides. Wow. You know, you have to do it. What? What? You're like, you're like trying to act like you're better than us. No, I was not trying to do that. Winters have to resolve.

And finally, Mahomes need more weapons. We get ready for, is this a war room segment in? Or is it we getting ready for mock draft 2.0? No, we're in the war room. The Chiefs War Room. Ooh. Yeah. It's one of the most interesting things.

teams in the draft. Their first time having a top 10 pick since 2013. Nope. You don't have needs all over the play. No, they certainly have, I don't, they certainly have needs. I reject the idea that they have, you know, way more needs than your typical team.

Like Swiss cheese. I don't think they have, like, let me put it like this. I have a crazy outtake. I don't think the chiefs have more obvious needs than the Patriots. I don't. See? And he thinks that's crazy.

What? I don't. Well, they don't have their starting defensive back field. There's one knee. Mithra big. Yeah. The Patriots don't have their, the Patriots don't have the wide receivers or offensive line. We just got Romeo Dobbs from the Packers.

Okay. I don't think that solves it. I don't think taking the Packers fourth option solves it. He's good. It's good. See, I knew. Nick's win. Playoff atmosphere in the garden.

Mike Brown. It was a great atmosphere. Gets to 52 wins. Brew was there. It was. It really was great. Annie was talking about he and I going. They saw ticket prices.

Watch on TV. Rudy. That's what you said true. No. I have friends. Yeah. We're in the league for 40 years. Are we viewing the Knicks as a legit threat in the east?

No. Why? I've been consistent. How dare you call the calves a legit threat not the Knicks? How dare you? It's outrageous. I absolutely like the Cavs ceiling over the Knicks ceiling. Now, listen, I think Balls.

Austin is the heavy favorite. And if you want to define four teams as the favorite, that's fine. Or as legit threats. As legit threats. Yeah, you can't have four favorites. That'd be weird. No, as legit threats, then sure. But I do not see a realistic path.

But mainly, I don't trust them. And I'm the Knicks. And I'm surprised you guys do. This team is a flawed in how it's constructed. But put it aside if you don't believe. like I do, that when you have to play Brunson and Towns, big playoff minutes together, that that is going to be a problem defensively for them in the playoffs. Put that aside.

Just this year, they have been streaky. They have not been consistent. Since New Year's Eve, this is how they have played basketball. Lose 9 of 11, win 8 straight, play 500 ball, win 7 straight, lose 3 straight, win 4 straight. I mean, that happens. Oh, okay. But that seven game win streak from March 11th to March 24th, all against tanking teams, every single game. And you say it happens, that's fine.

But compare it to the other top three seeds in the East and the West. How many three-game losing streaks do the legit contenders have this year? One and zero across the board, except for the Knicks that's four. They are not a consistent, they are not a consistent back. basketball team. So can I go real quick, Brew? I love when Brew hates. I don't.

I don't. Well, if you hadn't picked the calves, I might feel a little better about what you said I picked the calves before Tateham came back. It looked like primed out. So you are backing away so much from that cast. He's turning and running from it, but that's fine. So listen, I don't. I want to be clear.

Let me check out title pie. Yeah. I gave them a 6% chance. It's too high. So that's where I don't think. any of us right now are picking the Knicks. And I don't think any of us right now have the Knicks over Boston or Detroit. I don't know.

I still confuse why we saw the Knicks beat the Celtics and now the Knicks are better and the Celtics. Hold on. What are you saying? Last year. Hey, last night and last year. So the Knicks are better. The Celtics are worse.

And we're like, yeah, Celtics over Knicks. Hold on. Jason Tatum is recovering from an Achilles dare. No, well, so I think that the Celtics. The fact that the Celtics are, last year they were the two-seed, this year they're the two-seed, and this year they played the vast majority of the season without Tatum speaks to the fact that the other guys around it must have gotten better,

that those guys ascended. You think this year's team's better than last year's team? I think that the players outside of Jason Tatum are all better. A lot of them are untested in the playoffs. Sure, but Sherman, no doubt. But Jalen Brown is playing better. I think that, you know, Derek White has played at a very high level last few years, but I think he's playing a little better. I think, and so I also think that it is harder to defend a title than it is to have your season end in late April as opposed to mid-June and then come back, all those things.

But the point that I was trying to make is I don't, Brew and I are going to yell at Danny and then also say we don't have them ahead of Boston or probably Detroit. But I do think a team that last year made the conference finals, this year is deeper and at least it plays more, it plays deeper. They have a slightly better offense than last year, a slightly better defense in last year, and a better record than last year. And they are a way better fourth quarter team. And I do think that, listen, Tibbs and Mike Brown both have their own strengths and weaknesses. but wondering whether or not your big question about Detroit, which I think is a fair one is, have they been playing playoff basketball for six months

so they don't have an extra gear to get to? That was a fair critique forever about Tibbs teams. Trust me, I know. Right, exactly. But that's not really the critique on Mike Brown. And so for all those reasons, I just think dismissing them is a bridge too far. Yeah, I've got, look, I don't like them against Detroit at all.

And maybe I'm putting too much into the regular season. Obviously, they beat Detroit last year. But Detroit wasn't that good last year. And they gave the Knicks all they wanted. Knicks won in six, but I actually think Detroit could have won that series. It was that nip and tuck. But, Danny, I'm giving the Knicks a solid chance to beat the Celtics again. Because while you did say it, the Celtics aren't as good as last.

I don't think they're, because Jason Tatum is just not going to be no fault of his own. what he was a year ago. And the Knicks are better. Nick just showed the stats. Knicks are top 10. They're not a ton of type teams that are top 10 offense and defense. Their third offense, eighth defense. And they have wings that can guard the Celtics wings.

They're built to match up with the Celtics. Right. With Anobie and Bridges and Hart. They held Brown and Tatum the 40% shooting last year in that playoff series. when they upset them. They've got, they're good in the clutch. They're top six team in the clutch. And you got Jalen, you got Kat that can draw double teams.

And then if your guys will hit the open threes that you get them, you can win close games. So I'm not, I don't know who I'm going to pick at this moment in the Boston Knicks series in the second round, assuming that's what we get. But I think the Knicks, I like Detroit in Boston, but the Knicks are right there with them. And definitely, I think, ahead of your calves. I still think.

that Boston last year, listen, the Knicks beat him, they beat him in six, and I was very surprised then. Some of it is they were built to beat him. Boston also went cold. Well, but that's what they do. They should live and die. Live and die by it, but I will bet on them making their shots more often than not. I'll trust the offense over the defense. I do trust Boston's offense. Hold on before I move on. You're not allowed to have that take KW. That way, they live and die on threes. KW. Not like the horn. KW. KW. Last year. He's going to pick the Knicks. During the series, when Boston was going to go back to back and you were all in on the Celtics, and I had the audacity to pick the Knicks in that series, every game the Knicks won,

you came in and called it a fluke. And after Tatum went down and they were down 3-1, you came on and said the Celtics were still going to win the series. In for a penny, in for a penny. I respect it. Take integrity. So all of a sudden, you can. can't be like live and die with the three when you believed in them last year. I feel like you can pencil in a bad shooting night lost for the Celtic.

Sure. It's like I got to lose four. Well, they did. And they lost the game where both teams were cold. Remember that one game like the Knicks were ice cold too? They lost that one as well. The Celtics series against the Knicks last year, listen, it's very hard to repeat as champions,

but also it was that Missoula I think has turned into a great. coach. I think that series was much like JJ Reddick learned, like in Missoula's accomplished more as a champion. But JJ Redick, I don't think ever again will be like, hey, second half of a playoff game, what if we

don't sub? I think Missoula might have from that Nick series been like, I know what our general hundred game philosophy on three point shooting is. Maybe 18 point second half playoff games. Second half leads in playoff games, we can

dial back the bombing from three. I don't know. I mean, it would be smart, but he seems to be like this is what we do. Yep. And we're going to live and die with it. All right. We'll talk more about the Celtics right now. They lost.

Tatum cleared a mental hurdle of coming back to the garden. There was no Jalen Brown. Here's Tatum post game. It was a big moment, a big hurdle for me. You know, I was nervous and anxious to come back. here. You know, obviously I wanted to win and play great, but more importantly, I just kind of want to walk off the fort. You know, I'm on two feet. Did you feel nerves once you stepped on the floor or once the game started? Yeah. Yeah. I was, especially like to start the game.

He's unbelievable. I'd be like, heck now. His candor is really refreshing. Amazing. We're your press of Tatum. I continue to be blown away by it, honestly. There are stories that just happen, and it just makes you have to rethink things because athletes progress and evolution and sports science. He came back after rupturing his Achilles in 298 days, right? It was, well documented.

And that was roughly a month ago, right? You said he came back March 6th, here we are, April 10th, so 35 days. Five days ago. 35 days, five weeks. And he's playing at this level. He's had great games. He's averaging 22, 10, and 5 on a team that I think we all think is going to win the Eastern Conference. That means that if that's the new precedent for the world-class superstar athlete who gets the surgery the next day and then rehabs it and attacks it like that,

that if the Pacers were good, Tyrese Halliburton could suffer that Achilles, injury in game seven and 298 days from game seven last year is next Thursday. You know what? It is a, it makes, it makes me rethink what is the, the Achilles injury for a basketball player was supposed to be a year and a half injury before you could start to see it. And I know you talk about Dominique historically. I was going to say, like, that was how long ago, Dominique, 35 years ago. Almost 40 years ago. Yeah. Just, I think it's just going to be, Look, I'm not trying to take anything from Tatum. This is remarkable.

But in the 1990s, Dominique Wilkins did this, came back a few days, right, sooner, I think, than Tatum. And went back to averaging 30 points a game. So I just think it might depend on the athlete. And, you know, Durant just a few years ago took almost two years. But I mean, we saw Halliburton yesterday saying he was playing five-on-five basketball. I mean, obviously the medicine and the... the science and all that is better, but it would appear all Achilles' tears might not be equal.

And I don't think, I think that if the general public takes your view of it, that'll be unfair to the next group of guys that tears their Achilles. I mean, listen, I'm amazed by it. It's remarkable. It just, anything's possible? But I also, to me, there is the element of it happened in New York City. maybe the world's greatest surgeon for these injuries was here. He was able to get it within 12 hours of the injury happened. Right. And so there's a lot of things.

And again, way over my skis, I'm even guessing about medical stuff. But unlike other Achilles tears like Durant or Halliburton, where there was clearly something going on with the calf strains repeatedly leading into it, Tatum's was a fluke snap out of nowhere thing. that he's talked about that no doctor's been able to tell him why it happened. There wasn't anything leading into it. Does that make the repair? I have no idea.

But his thing seems to be very unique. And what is certainly unique is that he's excellent again already. Now, he's not vintage Tatum, but he is definitely in all. He wasn't last night. Well, last night he turned the ball over too much and was inefficient. But he still did these other things. 24.13. The minute he's playing and.

Since he came back, there's two guys in the league, giving you 20, 10, and 5. Him and Joker. Like that, and he is, he is averaging, I'm not taking shots here, but he's averaging more minutes per game this season than Wembe. Like he is already, like he is, even when you incorporate his, like, you know, buildup, he's now, he's on no restriction. The only restriction he has is one that doesn't apply anymore, no back-to-back. Tonight's they're only back to back.

They're going to have the rest of the way. And I really do wonder what he will look like, Brew, with now this week off he's going to get in between the regular season, during the play-in time, before the playoffs start. Yeah, he's playing great. I mean, like, he is playing at an all-star level right now. Yep.

And I think he's not ready. He's not what he was. The explosiveness isn't quite there. We couldn't create as much space like last night. But he's clearly showing you he can be a number two guy on a championship team. And that's what the Celtics need right now because Jaylon Brown is the number one guy. And so if you're a Celtics fan, you're certainly encouraged by the way taking him. There's an element of a mental hurdle to that too.

If you've been the number one option since you were probably deuce's age, all through Duke, you're the number one option. Immediately in the Celtics, you were the number one option. I don't think he had ever come off the bench in his career. No, but his first year with Boston. That first year. Oh, Kyrie's. But that's, you can accept that. This is a guy that's already in the league.

He's a star. But I get what you're saying, but he seems they've accepted it. Like LeBron took a step back. He took a step back too. Well, I think it's smart. They're not making a big deal out of it. They're not coming out and say, yeah, Jalen's our number one guy or anything. He's been so great that if they don't win the East, they'll actually get criticized.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, but I think that. We would have never said that three weeks ago, four weeks ago. Who's going to criticize them? I mean, they're the heavy favorite to win. I know, but I don't think we would. We don't know if they should be over for. But I don't think Boston Media would.

You don't? Oh, Boston Media? So far on, with Tatum? Hold on. Are you saying Tatum will get criticized or the team will get criticized? The team. He's saying the team. No, not Tatum.

They are expecting to win the East. But I don't think it's like, I think you're always. overstating it a little, because I give a lot of respect to Detroit and the Knicks. If they lose to the Knicks again in round two, I agree. They will get killed. Yeah, even if it's not directed at Tate. No, I don't think it'll be directed at Tateau. All right, head out to Golden State.

Lakers win. Steph sat. LeBron scored a bunch of points. Smart and Jackson Hayes supposed to be back tonight against the Sons. Do you think LeBron can carry the Lakers past Houston? Very, we did this, a version of this question earlier. of optimism on the table. The highest we got was 15%. Well, if I said, you know what, 15% chance it rains, you're going to pack an umbrella. Eh, probably not, actually. But go ahead.

You're going to have Dusty's rain pants. You were only 15%. Brew was at 10 to 15%. I didn't give a number. That's a public 15, too. Privately. We're at like 20. Yeah, so I don't, but I'd want to watch it. Well, yeah. Because if he steals game one and he, he, he's, he, he, he's. He's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, Houston dysfunction, which has been a little weird there and they get tight. It could just become interesting. But if we just did an impromptu draft right now of Lakers and Rockets players and Luca and Reeves are not eligible to be drafted. Where does LeBron go in that draft?

Because we know that the only top, the only guy in the top five that's on the Lakers is LeBron. Probably top six. But where, okay, but where does LeBron go in that draft? That's a good question. Third? My only question, I mean, he could go first. But my question about first is just his age,

the deep, although not, Shagoon's not defending. And Katie's not defending great these days. Just the idea of him for seven games. Yeah, can you do that for seven games? He's got more on his shoulders than the Durant will have. Yeah, but if that, but I look at, so if you were to, because I agree with you, it would be, you would. Everybody else would be a rocket.

Right, everybody else would be a rocket. Lady Shangoon, Thompson, Reed, and Jabari. There's no doubt about that. The reason, I think, aside from Rockets' dysfunction, the only reason that they would have the 10 to 15% chance is if LeBron would be the number one pick in that draft. And is if you think that LeBron is, because I guess I look at it as, and I know you hate this KW,

but like you put LeBron and Durant's role on the roll, rockets. I think the rockets are worse? No, I don't think they're worse. They're different because LeBron's not a, you know, jump shooter the way KD is. But I actually think for a lot of ways, they're a lot better. And a lot of the dysfunction they've had wouldn't have happened. But LeBron, the last two years, as a 40-year-old, when he has been the primary option, he's excellent. And again, and so that's, you know, when AD was out or when Luke has been out post-Luca trade. Now, to be fair, a good handful of those games, he did have

Austin Reeves. So he had another you know scoring threat there. But I would not put them, I would put them at zero percent against the nuggets in round one. But I would, you know, with just LeBron. So they couldn't beat the nuggets. The real question, here's the interesting thing.

And you see it in these last few games with LeBron. He's out there playing with House money. Yep. I mean, nobody expects anything from them. He was in a lesser role just a week ago. And now you can see how free he's playing. If he doesn't play it, have a great game. Nobody's killing him.

So he's just free. That's how he's going to be this whole series with Houston. The whole first round. Like, nobody expects them to win, which is rare for him in his career. And so all the pressure is on Houston, because if they don't win, shame on them. What's your sweep percentage? High. Sweep.

Sweep. high. 40. Oh, 40. Okay. Yeah. So I'm surprised by that. I mean, I actually, and I know this conversation was not about, you know.

I'm going to say 30 to 40. Okay. This conversation is not about Luca coming back. I think, because I think Luca might come back, I actually think the Lakers having home court might not be good. Because your first two of. You lose your first two. Yeah, you're right. You lose your first two at home.

Yeah, but Luke and Texas. I get it, but you know what I mean? Like, if all of us, if it's like, hey, Luke is expected back for game four, it's like, all right, that'll be a home game, get one of those. And so it's so that part of it. But no, I think they could, listen, the Lakers, I think will be an atrocious defensive. Oddly, losing Luke and Austin Reeves killed their defense. To stop them defensively.

They're not going to be. Eagles make a trade to help Jalen Hertz. That's next on first things first overtime. hanging out with us on the O T. We got Coach Mangeny and Willie Colon out here. We have breaking news in Philadelphia where the Packers have traded wide receiver Dantavian Wix to the Eagles in exchange for a 2025 fifth and a 2027 sixth round pick. Also being reported that they will sign Dantavian Wix to a one year 12.5 million dollar reaction. So that comes after the Hollywood Brown move that they've also made this offseason.

I know Willie, you and I have disagreed on this, but I think it is inevitable, and these are precursors to an AJ Brown trade post-June 1st. Coach, what's your reaction to this breaking news? Yeah, when you trade two draft picks and then make the extension, you have a pretty strong feeling that guy is going to be there. And the same thing with Hollywood Brown. They gave him, I believe, $5 million with the potential to get $6.5 million. So the odds are he's going to be there as well. I've always felt that Philadelphia was one of the best team in the league of if they saw a week, They've really, they aggressively addressed it in the off season through free agency.

And they typically want to do that, obviously prior to the draft so that they're not forced to fill a must or a need with a draft pick. So then they can really take best player available. They can really take best player available. So I see this as maybe it doesn't directly mean that AJ Brown is out, but it fills a lot of needs and maybe gives them the potential to move on if they want to. And it also gives them potential to take the best player available because they've filled that void. Yeah, I think unfortunately, Danny, I'm a bend the knees. Yeah? This feels like this did it for you?

Well, they're loading up, right? You get Hollywood Brown. You also got to, you signed Elijah Moore in March, right? But I also want to let Eagles fans know, this isn't a comp. Like, he's nowhere near the type of player AJ Brown is. I think that has to be stated. No doubt. But, you know, I've been on the, I've been at the desk set at time after time.

AJ Brown makes the Eagles better, right? He makes them dangerous. When you lose AJ Brown, you lose that fear. And right now, it feels like now you can say, all right, if AJ Brown's going, Devante Smith is now your true number one. You can build Wix at 2, and then you can build from there, Hollywood Brown, that's your 3.

And the Eagles still are a relevant, competent outfit with that core. But I don't think anything is going to happen to AJ Brown to after June 1st. Yeah, so the money piece of it for AJ Brown just had it here so that we can edit exactly. Trading AJ Brown before June 1st cost the Eagles $43 million. bucks as a dead cap hit versus just 16 million if he's traded after June 1st. So this is not going to be something that happens April 23rd during the draft. But to your point, if you know you're doing it in June, but the next time you could sign

players or get players is in April in the draft, you want to have as much positional flexibility there. I expect A.J. Brown to be a patriot the first week of June. Yeah, I don't have a total conviction that he's gone because the Eagles have. have said and historically have been willing to keep a lot of good players. And to add, we're not talking about adding players of AJ Brown's caliber to Willie's point, but those are solid players. And if you improve that wide receiver room, now you feel like you've got an extremely strong room,

maybe that's the approach you're going with. But doesn't it, and I don't mean to cut you off, Coach, but like two draft picks, albeit late round picks, you know, fifth and future sixth and 12.5 million bucks, feels like a lot for a third or fourth wide receiver? Right, but now you're talking about $12 million in dead money this year, and that $46 million total doesn't go away. It just gets pushed off in the next year, so you're losing $46 million of availability to make your team better

over the next two years and losing a really good player. So to say that it's definite, I just don't have that conviction. Do I think that it may be the best decision for a lot? everybody for him to have a new new home? Yeah, I felt that way for a long time, but the Eagles don't always follow that pattern. Yeah, and I want to be clear. I do not think this makes the Eagles better for this year. I think that this is an acknowledgement that losing A.J. Brown, adding Hollywood Brown and Dantavion Wicks, getting whatever future draft capital they can get for A.J. Brown, plus the money that gets freed up, and just not having to be.

deal with it again. Yeah. I know you always rolled your eyes at it because A.J. Brown seemed to be supported. It just seems like they didn't want to go through it again and sell as high as they can on the asset that is A.J. Brown. Yeah, but I also think, like, you go into this year knowing that you have one more year of guaranteed money designated to Jalen Hertz, right? If you keep A.J. Brown, you now say, all right, who's the culprit?

Is it Jalen Hertz or is it A. Joe Brown? And if it is Jailen Hertz, you say A.J. Brown, you were right. We may have a problem at quarterback. You know what I mean? So there's waves are going into the season with an open lens. And there is the thought process of addition by subtraction. So if the problems in the locker room are so great that they don't think they can overcome it for another year, then, yeah, you may have to bite the bullet and move forward.

Well, and remember, there's that ESPN piece that came out about Jailen Hertz, you know, a week or two ago when you and I were doing the show. And a lot of the reporting or interpretation around that was this is sending a public message to, to Jalen Hertz. They're like, hey, pressure's on. There's not a lot of future guarantees here. You trade A.J. Brown, okay, it's on you. I assume they will get a future first round pick for A.J. Brown. So then they would have...

You don't make the deal less of... So then you would have, you know, let's just say it's New England. You'd have your first round pick and New England's first round pick for next year's draft to either load up around Jalen Hertz or potentially get ready to replace Jailen Hertz if you need it. So this is another... It's a big year. This is a big year for Jalen Hertz.

And in fairness to AJ Brown, he sent public messages to Jalen Hertz all last season and the year before. He's not been subtle. He was ahead of the curve, I guess, for the organization, if that's the... Yeah, there's a little bit of a shooting the messenger here thing, right? Sorry, we're sending you to Foxborough, but you were right. Yeah, and then we're going to send a public message now. It's a tough business. Let's go to Jacksonville, though.

We're reports now. Travis Hunter is going to be a cornerback. Coach, I guess you maybe want to take a victory lap on this one. Oh, Coach was big on this? Even though I hate this story. Go ahead. I don't think it has to be a victory lap, but let's just see what was said. I don't know if we have that available.

Okay. Wow. Back in July or not. Really? You know, my feeling with the whole Travis, a hundred thing is that he should start on defense, play defense, and then situationally, play him on offense, third down, red zone, two minute. Then you can control his rest. you can control him in the most high impact situations. I got to say, I'm kind of proud of you,

because that's a very me move. Why? Look how right I was. Roll the tape. Yeah. So take good job by you. Look how right I was. It was the right decision that should have been made a while ago. Because it is true.

You get to control offensively what you want to do where you can't defensively. You're always responding. So if he works on defense first, then as an organization, you can absolutely control what situations he can impact the offense on. Yeah, I mean, I like the decision by the Jaguars because I think it takes the circus out of the situation. And I think this man only played seven games. Now we're talking about a knee issue. So now we're talking about durability, which is a, it was just a problem.

And on top of that, if you're looking at his job, like they expect him to be an elite corner. If you're an elite corner, that's a heavy job. I mean, as you're going against the Justin Jefferances of the world, the Jamar Chase, To the coach's point, all attention need to be on that because you have to study tendencies and how they attack you and how they attack your defense. It's hard to be that elite corner if you now have to worry about motions and where you need to be in reference to spacing. I like the fact that the Jags chose winning over trying to debunk the neocerosy.

It was like, oh, we have a two-way player who could be this and that. Yeah, he brought a lot of hope. But to coach's point, it wasn't realistic, right? I think we fell in love because Dion did it one day. Why can't Travis Hunter? because Dehoun was a generational all-world player. Travis Hufford looked like that in college, but this is a different dog at a meat level.

Here comes Cincinnati Bengaldani. Okay, okay. All right, listen, I do love offense, but that's not, maybe it's fair. How about having a little conviction? You're a new general manager, Gladstone. You're the young guy. You make this hyper-aggressive trade to trade up from five to two. You say this is a player who can change the sport.

You don't trade up from five to two for a cornerback. You do when you're coming off a knee injury. Okay, but he, let's show what they did last year in the seven games that Travis Hunter played. Seven games. He played more offense than defense. And so now they're flipping it off of a sample size of seven games, and they're treating it like he was a failure on offense. He wasn't.

Last year's working class of receivers was good, right? Ted McMillan was very good. Abuka was very good. Luther Burden came on. On a per game basis, Travis Hunter was fairly productive for a rookie. To abandon your plan that you traded a future first for after seven games, you should have never drafted the kid in the first place. I disagree. They're not saying he can't play both ways. They're saying that the most effective way for him to play both ways is this way. And I don't think it's a lack of conviction.

after you get someone and you get to know them and you understand their strengths and weaknesses, you may have to adjust the way that you use them. And I think it would be silly if they felt as a staff that this is the best way to use them to continue to use them the other way just to justify where they drafted them. That to me is just putting good money after bad.

I mean, I apologize. I mean, coach hit it on the head. At the end of the day, this defense set a standard of getting takeaways. If they want to play relevant football in January, they need him to be the lead point. Have some conviction, Jaguars. Don't be scared.

We are 13 days away from the 2026 NFL draft. We want to bring you inside the OT War Room, where every day we talk the biggest storylines ahead of the big day. Eric Manjini, three Super Bowl rings. Willie Cologne has his. And we're talking about a team with a lot of rings of their own, frankly.

This is going to be a little bit more straightforward, gentlemen. We're just pretending we're inside the Chiefs War room. Okay. Because it's a unique time for the Chiefs. They have two first round picks, the ninth and 29th overall. This is the first time entering a draft, holding a top 10 pick since 2013. You remember they traded up to the 10th overall pick

to take a guy by the name of Patrick Wilms. That one worked out pretty, pretty well for them. So coach, maybe you'll say this is crazy and dismiss it out of hand. It would not be the first time. I would think there is extra pressure on Brett Veach to nail this draft because of how rare of an operative opportunity it is for them to be drafting this high and have this much draft capital when they have Patrick Mahomes.

I don't think there's extra pressure on him drafting this high and hopefully they won't be in this position again. But what it does do for a guy like Brett Beach is it gives him a lot of ammunition. So maybe it's maybe it's not saying it not. Maybe it's trading back and getting some other picks and trying to fill multiple holes because unfortunately for the chiefs right now, there are some holes in a lot of different areas that they can address. So I don't think it's necessarily the pressure of we may not be here again as much it is, hey, how can we maximize this extra capital that we haven't had historically and really turn it into something special?

How do you view it? Well, listen, I'm going to be honest. If, you know, you're saying that number nine, the biggest need for me when it comes to the chiefs is you have to feel some holes defensively. You know, they lost a lot of key guys in the secondary we talk about. McDuffie, Watson, Cook, Brian Cook went to the Bengals. But I think from the edge rush standpoint, that's what you really have to hit. The Chiefs only got 35, required 35 sacks last season.

That's not good. So if you're a spagged, you need somebody who's fast, violent, who's free. And that's why you need to possibly trade up coach and go get a guy by the name of David Bailey out of Texas Tech. I love this younger man. He's ferocious, man. He gets after, he made a big leap after he left Stanford, Atlanta, and Texas Tech, had 14 sacks on a season. I think if you spags, you need an ed rusher that can have an immediate impact.

I believe in David Bailey can do that for you. So, Coach, you mentioned traded back. I'm going to trade up. You mentioned trading up and defense. Do you, any direction on, like, offense defense or back or forward? Look, I agree. They could use help at rushing the past. They were 22nd overall.

But that hole in the secondary, it's huge. Those three guys that left came in together in 2022 and have accounted for over 8,000 snaps in that secondary. So it's not just the production, but it's all the scheme work that they had together, all the reps that they built up together, that level of communication. And now you're trying to fill that hole with a safety that they picked up,

which has been a little bit of a journeyman. They've got a young corner that they kind of like who may be able to plug in as one of those starters. But three starters and the secondary is a gigantic gap. All right, so a warm room is a place for debate, right? People throw out ideas after you. I'm going to throw one at you guys because you guys have both kind of highlighted the defensive side of the ball. And there's no question.

You trade away McDuffie. Chris Jones is getting older. You mentioned the pass rest production. I feel like you owe it to Mahomes with the ninth pick to say, we're going to give you something on offense. Okay. He has signed this team-friendly contract. He is the best player in the history of your franchise, and he's on his way to being arguably the best player in the history of the sport. He has not had a great statistical.

regular season since 2022. He was obviously unbelievable in 2023 playoffs when he won Super Bowl MVP. But if we just look at the production that they have gotten, we can start with the wide receivers. Xavier Worthy was injured. He has had bursts of looking good. But since the Tyree kill trade, this is the level of production they've gotten from wide receivers. Rishie Rice, he looks like a number one, but do you fully trust Rishie Rice,

off the field to be able to stay on the field and maximize. He's been cleared. No, I understand, but he, he, there's, what he has done on the field has been inconsistent and then you have these issues off the field. And now if you also look at it, like they addressed Kenneth Walker, but it's kind of amazing that they haven't had a 1,000 yard receiver since Tyree Kill and a 1,000 yard rusher since Karim Hunt. I would think we will address defense with 29, but with 9, whether it's Carnell Tate,

whether it's Kenyon Sadiq, whether it is Jordan Tyson, like we're going to give Patrick Mahomes a young weapon to build with. Yeah, I'm with coach, man. There's so much need on the defensive side. I did not sway. All right. Well, I just, listen, the reason why the Chiefs went to the Super Bowl wasn't it just off the shoulders off Patrick Mahomes

and Travis Kelms and Company. It was because that defense was elite. That's secondary to what coach is talking about. And how they played the brand of football that Spax can go to work with was elite, right? But does it strike you? Like a team that traded away Ligarius Sneed and Trent McDuffie and let these guys go. They seem to believe that they can develop secondary places. Like are they really going to turn around and then use first round graph capital there?

I just believe Patrick Mahon can erase some deficiencies. It's hard to erase deficiencies on defensive in the ball because so much equity has to be built and playing together and being an immediate impact player like David Bailey or Caleb Downs. If he happens to slide to the number nine. So I think you just have to address the knees defensively first. And you say developing players, there's no guarantee that the number. number one is going to hit and play, you know, right away and be impactful. You're hoping that's the case.

And when you look at this, do you really want to become the Cincinnati Bengals? When you've got a quarterback like they have, to whom much is given, much is expected, and you have to carry the offense and you've got maybe your receivers aren't the elite receivers, but the expectation is that because of how well you play, you make everybody else around you better. And organizationally, they're in a position to compete for a championship every year. So they need to address things holistically as opposed to saying, hey, we got to pour all these resources in the offense. But I completely understand what you're saying.

They don't have a great, maybe Rice is the number one, but having two legitimate receivers would be fantastic. The tight end situation, getting another young tight end knowing that we're at the end here with Travis Kelsey, that's not a terrible idea either. But holistically, the biggest hole is probably in the secondary. The second biggest hole is probably past rusher. They've traded Peters. They've traded McDuffie. Sneed leaves in free agency. It'll be very interesting to me if they then turned around and use one of those draft picks immediately to fill that void.

And you mentioned producing early. Receivers have been producing early. Like Ted McMillan and Abuka last year, Malik Neighbors the year before, Garrett Wilson, Jamar Chase. We have a lot of examples now of receivers coming in and being immediate contributors. But, Willie, you went through the draft process, obviously, and we wanted to kind of give you the assignment of This is a lot of resources. A top 10 pick and another pick in the first round. What is the ideal outcome if you're Brett Veach, the perfect draft for the Chiefs?

Well, I think realistically what we've been talking, you attack defensive knees, but you also have knees on the officer line you've got to address too. You lost Jawan Taylor. Jawan Taylor, who's now just signed with the Atlanta Falcons, but if you have an opportunity to go get a young guy by the name of Blake Miller out of Clemson, who I think is phenomenal, extremely athletic finishes at the point in attack, can bend, can run. Like, he's one of those true office. of guys that he's just nasty, right?

He reminds me a lot of Schwartz and who has the other left tackle that came. Mitchell Schwartz? Yes. For the Chiefs? Right. So what I like, but I like this kid because what you see out of him, man, he not only a finisher, but he can finish on the second level. He can run.

There's not too much he can do. And if need be, he could play on the left side of the line too. So if you need to help Patrick Mahomes, go get him some protection up front. He's your guy. So that would be the pick the latter half of the first rush. So you would do pass rush early and then offensive one. offensive line late. David, David Bailey, man. That's that's trading up, right? You assume that is a, that is a trade up move. I think it's a legitimate need. Like you only 35, you only have 35 sacks. Coach talked about this on the back end, but you need somebody that can help Chris Jones.

Like Chris Jones is, I mean, he's double team, triple team. They need somebody to take some of that pressure off him. You get another edge rusher who's violent and can make plays and get home to the quarterback. That helps out that defense alone. We see how this conversation is going. So we've talked about cornerback. We've talked about safety. We've talked about right receiver. We've talked about offensive line. There's so many different positions. That's why you start thinking, hey, do we trade back and try to add some some extra picks to this mix? And the debate goes on deep into the draft process. I remember my first year, we were talking about DeBrickell Ferguson and then Vernon Davis. And we discussed that up until the night before the draft. And at the end, I really wanted Vernon. At the end of the day, we had such a

big hole at offensive line at left tackle that we went with DeBerkesel Ferguson. But these conversations are ongoing and what you feel is the biggest need and what Andy feels the biggest need it's it's a constant debate and at the end of the day you're trying to just get to consensus of who's going to add the the most value and my guess is the defensive backs coach is arguing for a secondary player every position coach is arguing for for a player yes so have have Mahomes voice be like I want a receiver well his voice matters his voice has to matter a little bit he doesn't want to be picking himself off the turf with a bad knee

either. All right. That's true. Or having to score 50. But we'll bring a receiver in to the war room next week. Greg Jennings will be here next week talking best weapons in the draft. And at some point, his evaluation of Carnell Tatee. Gentlemen, this weekend I will be parenting in the morning and watching golf in the afternoons.

Rory McElroy got the monkey off his back. Finally. Last year, completing the career Grand Slam. Seems to have unburdened him at Augusta after. There are a lot of chokes and top five finishes and near misses. Started today, three under through four, eight under. Patrick, what a great leaderboard. Patrick Reed, a former champion.

And you know what would be really cool? Justin Rose and Rory were in the playoff last year. If that was relevant again on Sunday. You got a favorite coach? Look, I think once McElroy got over the hump last year, now the flood gates were open. I think he's going to pull away again. Yeah, I think Roy has a shot. I think it was impressive.

I think the opening is 67. He had five out of 14 fairways, right? But got out of all the bad situations. Like, when you start watching that, man, this is why you fall in love with the Masters this time of year. But he also, he's clearly comfortable. After the round, he was like, they were like, what are you going to do after the round?

He was like, I'm going to go into the Champions Lounge and have a cocktail. A whole different perspective after you win one. Go to the Champions Lounge, put in my green jacket and have a cocktail. Go get one, Rory.