The Bill Simmons Podcast - A Rams-Bengals Surprise, Brady’s Decision + NBA Panic Trade Teams With Cousin Sal and Kevin O’Connor

Episode Date: January 31, 2022

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal to discuss the Bengals defeating the Chiefs again to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl (1:52), “now dead arguments” after Bengals-Chiefs (21:03), the Rams’ win over the 49ers after six straight losses sending them to their second Super Bowl in four years, Super Bowl story lines (36:19), Guess the Lines, Parent Corner, and more (1:02:33). Then Bill is joined by Kevin O’Connor to draft the top six NBA “panic-trade” teams as the February 10 trade deadline approaches (1:22:55). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Cousin Sal and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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With our same game parlay that we do about the NBA Coming up, Cousin Sal and I are going to talk about the conference championships And then Kevin O'Connor is going to come on to talk about Panic teams at the NBA trade deadline What a podcast First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, Cousin Sal is here taping this a little before 8 o'clock Pacific time. Sal, I'll give you choices.

Where do you want to start? Joey Burr, Chiefs choke, Rams making the impossible dream happen, or Jimmy G is not elite? Where do you want to start? Oh, I am going off the board. Well, let's tackle that Chiefs game because I wish that was the second game, right? Did you feel like that was so great?

I think because if you didn't have a rooting interest, you were going for Joe Burrow probably for the most part. And in that second game, I felt like there were times when I felt neither team deserved to win. But let's celebrate Joe Burrow for a minute. Joey Burr. I never knew about that, uh,

that, that nickname for him. What is that? What do you keep saying? What is that? Joey Burr. It's just Joey B R R R R. Cause he's so ice cold.

Oh, wow. That's good. Nice. But he's got the burning cigar on his lips too. So that's tough. So I don't know. Yeah,

I guess he does it all. What an amazing story. I, first of all, apologies to Andy Dalton. I know today hurt to watch a franchise QB actually take the Bengals to the Superbowl, but amazing story.

I mean, two things. Amazing. One is he brought the Bengals to the Superbowl in two years. Two is that he had a major knee injury. What? Right. 14,

15 months ago. And over and over again was just willing them to. And there was that one drive when he had multiple scrambles when it seems like the Chiefs pass rush was really going to get to him.

And it just didn't. There was a confidence to him. The chase thing. The fact that he convinced him to draft chase. So I would say of the winner, even though others would say Sean McVay,

because Sean McVay went on with that Rams team, but he did such a weird coaching job today. Joey B is got to be the winner of the weekend. Definitely the big winner. And I know we like to talk big winners and losers, and I feel even worse for Josh Allen, because I think he tweeted something like, what did he say?

What was his tweet? Yeah, I forgot what his tweet was. It was just so unsatisfying to watch the chiefs lose to this team now because mostly because it's like oh man we're gonna see josh allen and mahomes for the next 10 years dozen years like no there's joe burrow and there's justin herbert and there's deshaun watson if he comes into the conference like there's no guarantee for anything and for burrow to pick it up and do what he did and just exactly what you said the elusiveness.

And when he would scramble out of a sack and they couldn't get to him, but once or twice, I forget how many sacks did they have, one or two sacks? I think they only had one. Did they have one? Yeah. They could have had zero or six, but he did what you'd expect Mahomes to do. Mahomes would hit the B button and spin and spin and spin and get out of it. And then there was still nothing downfield. In fact,

he waited and took a couple sacks doing that. And Burrow was just the opposite of that. I kind of alluded all the pass rushes and figured out. And by the way, I could say pass rush, not like Collinsworth. I'm able to say it. Pass rush. He says pass rush.

Pass rush? I said some pass rush. Pass rush? We're getting a lot of Collinsworth this week with the Bengals in there. Burrow was terrific. Joey Burr was 23 for 38 for 250. Five scrambles for 25 yards, only one sack. So on paper, it's like, wow, that wasn't that great. Same thing for last week, where if you looked at his stats

from last week, you're like, ah, not that great. Last week, he was amazing. He got the absolute shit kicked out of him for four week, where if you looked at his stats from last week, you're like, ah, not that great. Last week, he was amazing. He got the absolute shit kicked out of him for four quarters, nine sacks plus two that didn't count because of the delay of games, and never seen phased, never seen rattled.

The closest I can compare it to, Sal, is Keanu Reeves in the replacements. Especially in that last game when the offensive line collapsed and the footsteps Falco nickname was about the, oh, he just wouldn't be deterred. He kept coming. But, uh, the calmness for somebody who hadn't really been in that situation before, except

for college. And this is something we talk about. Cause I don't watch college. You do, but about how does that translate? If you come through on this big stage in college, does that translate to the pros or not? And it's all over the map. It doesn't seem to really matter.

There's no right answer, but in his case, it's very reminiscent of what he looked like in college. And they get, well, plus it gave him a terrible situation with a miserable offensive line. I couldn't protect him. It sacked 51 times this year, sacked a billion. It would have been a billion last year if he lasted the season. And, uh, and again, like he, he really like broke contain and, and just made the most

of everything. And was like my home's ass. And I can't say enough about him. And it wasn't even like chase had a great game. Like these guys like T Higgins, but by the way, T Higgins looks like he was like six 10 today. Did he grow six inches? Like, I remember when we looked like when he was like 19 years old.

He didn't seem this big a year and a half ago. Yeah, he looked like a tight end. Well, when I was growing up, the first quarterback the Pats ever had was Jim Plunkett, who they took first in the draft. And they didn't have an offensive line for him. He got the shit kicked out of him. And ended up, he was out of football by like 1977, 78.

Ended up back in the Raiders rehabbed himself and ended up taking them to the super bowl but there's been these stories over the years of these guys who got the shit kicked out of them and that's that was it they you know like like derrick car's brother it's another one but there's a guy archie manning you always heard this about him when we were growing up right burrow got the shit kicked out of him and it didn't seem effective at all. Like, at all. It actually seemed like he somehow gained confidence from all the punishment and

figured out how to become like a fucking John Wick Jedi in the pocket. It was impressive. Yeah, you figure a team that got sacked and a quarterback that got sacked nine times in a playoff game. Like, okay, even if they were just lucky enough to win that, they're going to have to get stopped the next week, right?

Or the next week, like, my God, this team is, and we know, we'll guess the line in 40 minutes or whatever, but they can win this. They can win the whole thing. This is so crazy. So nuts, this Bengals team. We talked about that we like this team. I never liked them to the point that I thought they were going to make a Super Bowl, this Bengals team. We talked about that we like this team.

I never liked them to the point that I thought they were going to make a Super Bowl. But they had moments. What was it? That Chargers game when they were down 24-0 and they kept fighting back. There's a moment today. First of all, they got that touchdown before the last minute of the first half. It could have been 21-3. They drove down, got the screen pass, bad tackling by KC. But then when they got to stop at the top of the third quarter,

because, you know, it was set up for Chiefs are going to score on both ends of the half. Right. They get the three and out from the Chiefs, started third quarter. And it was my thing. You know, I love this. The whole sideline was locked in going nuts.

And it was the first time because I'm sure like you, I had money on the Chiefs. I got to tell you, I stayed away from it. I don't know. Maybe I'm maturing as a gambler. I had both underdogs with the points and I had a few props. You didn't do parlay teams with the Chiefs?

I swear on my kids, even the ones I like, I swear on them that I didn't. Yeah. Yeah. As it went on, as we did Thursday, we did million dollar picks and I put in some bets. And then as the week went along, it, the, the gambling manifesto, there were a couple of rules that started to pulsate, which was the Bengals were clearly becoming a nobody believes in his team, but some people were banging them for the money line.

Right. And I know like Fando was telling me that there was a lot of money line Bengals stuff that, you know, not like a crazy amount, but enough. Yeah. So you had that. And then, you know, the other thing was, it seemed like everybody had a Chiefs tease

or a Chiefs parlay, right? Heading into Sunday as the first team. And that's always a red flag. Now, did it feel like a red flag when it was 21 to three and they were on the five yard line with crimson seconds left? Yeah. And they threw the one pass

that they couldn't, the outlet to Hill, like the screen pass that's going to end up in bounds. Like they, yeah, they got too cute there down early. And yeah, it killed them.

Let's kill the Chiefs. I think we did. We put in our Joe Burrow time. Congrats to the Bengals. Their defensive coordinator was incredible. I was reading some of the stats. He dropped eight plus into coverage 35% of the time. That's why Mahomes seemed so confused.

Second half, it was 45% of the time. They had eight people dropping back. And they were basically daring the Chiefs to run. And the Chiefs didn't take the bait. And that was one of the reasons they lost. Now, were basically daring the Chiefs to run and the Chiefs didn't take the bait. And that was one of the reasons they lost. Now let's kill the Chiefs. Sal, I think I think this was the biggest choke

in AFC title game history. Whoa. And I spent at least 20 minutes during the Niners-Rams game looking up all the AFC titles games trying to figure out if there was a bigger choke. And the nominees are they're in a Spams game, looking up all the AFC titles games, trying to figure out if there's a bigger choke.

And the nominees are, they're in a Spiner game, the fumble. Denver wins 38 to 33. That's a 1987. Now, I don't feel like the whole team choked, right? They're about to win. He got stripped. It was a terrible play. And he became the go to the game.

Yeah, cold weather, the whole thing. But that wasn't like an organizational collapse type of game. But anyway, that's a candidate. Colts, 2006 AFC title game. They came back from 21-3. They beat the Pats 38-34. That was a Pats team that if we had made the Super Bowl, I would have been amazed.

Like our number one receivers were Shea Caldwell. Our defense wasn't very good. By the second half, the Colts were better. You could see it. And I felt like we were more holding on than choking. And it would have been a miracle. We shouldn't have won the week before. The Chargers, remember, they got the game-winning interception.

Troy Brown stripped the guy. Well, this is therapy. You have to convince yourself that wasn't a bad loss. But yeah. No, but it was Peyton Manning. It was a horrible loss. But I never felt like, I feel like there's other Pats games

where they choked. I never felt like that was as much of a choke. It's one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Manny was awesome. He deserved it. Pats 23, Ravens 20 in 2011 playoffs where Evans was about to catch the game winner

and he got stripped. Wasn't a choke, great play, but then kind of missed the 32-yarder. Now, Pats win. I still don't feel like it was what I saw today. And then the other one was when the Pats beat the Chiefs four years ago. Casey's up by four, two minutes left. Brady drives down and scores.

No shame in that. But did have the D4 thing. I think that's right there. I really do. That's right there. Although, this has to leave. This is now number one. Yeah think that's right there. I really do. That's right there. Although this has to... This is now number one. Yeah, because they're defending AFC champs.

Super Bowl win the year before that. They've made the AFC championship four years in a row, like you said. And they have a huge lead and the best quarterback in the league. It's even worse than a huge lead. They're up 21-3. They're inside the five-yard line. They're at least getting three more points.

They somehow fucked that up. Then they have the ball right after the halftime and they give it right back. Chiefs punt. I mean, the Bengals punt. Chiefs have the ball again. Don't do anything again. They had three straight drives where it's like if anything happens, the game's over. It was kind of like the game they played a month ago, right?

They had a two-touchdown lead. They had a two-touchdown lead twice against the Bengals and blew it twice. But it was the same thing. They didn't score a touchdown in the second half in that game. And it's just like, oh my God, that's what fueled the Bengals. Like, look, we could do this because we have done this.

Yeah, we did it already. I was on multiple threads, people wondering if Mahomes got concussed during the game. Because that's how bizarre his second half was. Yeah, I was looking. I was on multiple threads, people wondering if Mahomes got concussed during the game. Because that's how bizarre his second half was. Yeah, I was looking. I was trying to figure out when it would happen. I was on one of those threads. And I was like, I just don't.

I could actually maybe see a hand injury before anything else. But yeah, the decisions were very poor. He was. The ball was sailing. The decision to throw the bubble screen basically to Tyreek Hill with five seconds left with two guys in front of him is just insane. It's an insane play. I can't believe they did that. I also can't believe Andy Reid even let him do it.

How about just forcing it into Ty Hill at the end? It was very Rodgers-esque, like what he did with Devontae Adams last week. Like this guy's open. But I got to say that dropping eight into coverage, like that's another thing that would make the Bills vomit. Like 13 seconds, you should have dropped all 11. Like we had TJ Hushmanzada on against all odds, and he said the same thing.

He's like, drop 11 against this guy. Who cares? Especially when he has four seconds to throw the ball in 13 seconds. Just get tacklers out there. Well, the Bengals did the fuck you squib kick to the Bills fans at the end of the first half. Then it worked. It knocked four seconds off. I thought they could have run. I thought every time they ran the ball, they got

five yards, it seemed like. The Bengals? No, I'm saying the Chiefs. And you think even heading into OT after things had really unraveled, but they somehow win the coin toss. And then the Chiefs have a terrible three and out. I mean, you think about it. They have, it's 20, it's 20, they're down three.

It's first and goal from since he's five. It's 24-20 on a regulation. They run McKinnon for a yard. Mahomes gets sacked for five yards. Then Mahomes has the Matt Ryan sack for minus 15. Now, Bucker has to make like a 44-yard. But gets it, goes to OT.

Then they get the thing, start a regulation. First down, don't run. Chucks it over Robinson's head, incomplete. Second down, misses Robinson. Apple drops an inter Robinson's head. Incomplete. Second down. Misses Robinson. Apple drops an interception.

Yeah. Third down. Chucks it downfield. Aaron Rodgers style. Into double coverage. Tip. Pick. And you knew if the Bengals got one first down,

the game's over because they have, you know, McPherson, who's the other than Tucker, the best kicker in the league. So, to me, that's a disaster. I mean, I think. Yeah, that's other than Tucker, the best kicker in the league. To me, that's a disaster. I mean, I think...

Yeah, that's the biggest collapse. That's the biggest collapse for sure. It has to be. And you got to think about the overtime too. I forgot to check the live lines. Of course, I sent you Chiefs minus 112 when they were down three or something because I had to. And then in overtime, they're a

two-to-one favorite because they win the toss. And by in overtime, they're a two to one favorite because they win the toss. And by the way, so they win the toss. If they go down and score, that rule is definitely changed next year. No question about it. If they could change it before the Super Bowl, they would. But now that they didn't score and win the game, everyone's probably like, oh, we got it right. We don't have to change that.

We got that rule right. The rule works. Yeah, everything works. Yeah, and you're right. McKinnon was running the ball. He had 12 carries for 65 yards. we got that we got that the rule works yeah everything works yeah uh yeah it was a it was a blow yeah and you're right like mckinnon was running the ball he had 12 carries for 65 yards like so it's 165 but yeah you're right like they they could have maybe kept doing that but the bubble screens are their run game too it just all fell apart i i wouldn't be surprised if we learned something too but i just didn't see any play that looked like a concussion. Well, he wasn't running either because one of my bets was Mahomes over 25 rushing yards.

He was like an 11-yarder in the first drive and then never ran the ball again. That was also weird. So Mahomes and Reed, four years together now, lost to the Pats game I mentioned earlier, won the Super Bowl, lost the Super Bowl by 22, and then the worst choke in AFC title history this year. Those are their four years together.

Pretty odd. I would say if you looked at this, knowing what we know, even in 2018, you're like over under Super Bowl is one and a half, I probably would have gone over. Yeah, I think we did have this discussion, but it's really hard to win Super Bowls.

It really is. Your boy Brady is laughing his ass off in the background. The guys have seven of these, and you guys knock yourselves out trying to get, you can't get out of your own way to get to the Super Bowl. Reid's been in nine championship round games. He's three and six. Five losses.

Is he three and six? Wow. Five losses as a favorite. His biggest playoff collapses slash chokes slash worst losses. This one. 2013, that

Colts 45-44 game against Andrew Luck. That was an absolute abomination of loss. Really bad. I think they were also up 21-3 in that. The Steelers game in 2016, they lost 18-16. They score with three minutes left to cut it to two,

missed the two point. Right. Steelers run out the clock. 2017, they lose 22-21 to Mariota. Remember that one? It was a Saturday game. Everybody got destroyed. Yep.

And then Pats 37-31. And then that Pat's Super Bowl with the 10-minute, 2-minute drill in the fourth quarter. And then that weird 2008 Cards 32-25 game when they lost to Kurt Warner where all his cards jumped right.

I mean, that wasn't a choke, but he's had some bad ones. He used to be in the playoff manifesto. It's like, don't bet on Andy Reid. I'm wondering, do I put him back in? I think you maybe put him back in. I don't know. I think I have to. They played like a team that shouldn't have gotten a bye, and they didn't have a bye.

I don't know what to expect. We were all over. I really don't know what to say, because in one instance, they should have won. They should have put him away. They should have had 28-3. Then I think we're not talking a little bit about this. We're like,. They should have put them away. They should add 28 to three. And then I think that we're not talking even a little bit about this. And we're like, oh, Joe Burrow's a year away.

Oh, but so is Josh Allen. So I don't know what we do about that. But they do blow games. They are accustomed. And again, maybe they're snakebitten against the Cincinnati team specifically. I was so delighted with myself with the Chiefs and picking them

and the bets I had with them. And I was just this Bengals team. They barely beat the Raiders. They barely be, I can't believe people thought they were going to beat the chiefs. Like just having this conversation with myself, like midway through the second quarter, I was out,

man. Now I need the Niners. And I, I had already written the game off and I had friends doing the same thing. Like, why do we ever take teasers? The Bengals, they're going to lose this game by 30. It's so stupid.

Why did you just bet that? You know, same thing. That screen pass turned it around to Perrine when a couple guys missed tackles. All of a sudden, it's 21-10. But then you think, oh, they have a minute left. The Chiefs are going to come down and score. They go all the way down.

And, you know, the key to this game was the Bengals, they have the two plays inside the, or three plays inside the five down. And, you know, the key to this game was the Bengals. They have the two plays inside the, or three plays inside the five there, two or three. And then the chiefs ended up getting nothing at the end of that half. And then same thing at the end of regulation, when the chiefs have to settle for a field goal, when really they shouldn't score a touchdown.

And our guy Romo, that was a really tough two minutes for Romo Nance. Wow. Yeah. Talking about, should that, should they let them score? And I'm like, what are you guys talking about? Like they could, they just stopped them in this an hour and a half ago. They're going to let them score. We always feel that way too. What were they doing? I was thinking it too. I know you can't let them score, but the clock is such a, we've seen so many coaches screw that up before. So

then they ran it. I'm trying to think what happened. They ran it. They got busted. Yeah. Yeah, it was McKinnon for a yard. Mahomes sacked. Mahomes sacked. You just don't count on those Mahomes sacks down there. There's a million things that could happen. Shuffle passes, everything else. You don't see the Mahomes sack because he at least as a wherewithal, they'll elude

that first wave of rushes. At least they didn't do the play where they brought the backup tight end in. Yeah. Did that whole thing. All right. We're going to take a break. Come back. At least they didn't do the play where they brought the backup tight end in. Yeah. Did that whole thing. All right. We're going to take a break. Come back.

I'm going to talk about the now dead arguments. A lot of arguments died today. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Bowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember. You'll do great things too. You won't win the Super Bowl, but your fundraising will support mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancer research. And if you don't want to grow a mustache, you could still walk or run 60 kilometers, host an event, or set your own goal and mow your own way.

Do great things this November. Sign up now. Just search Movember. Now dead arguments, potentially, just from Chief Spangles that happened. So we don't, the OT coin toss, we don't have to have that argument anymore because the Bengals won. They lost the coin toss. They won on the road. Can we not have that argument anymore? the Bengals won. They lost the coin toss. They won on the road. Can we

not have that argument anymore? Is it gone? I don't think we ever have the argument if they let both teams touch the ball. Then we don't have the argument, but it's fine. It's hard to believe it was a few years ago where a field goal won it. That was

possible as well. We knew that was awful as it was happening. Mahomes as the guaranteed no doubt about it next goat I think that's gone because now I think

we have multiple candidates for at least their generation's greatest QB I think we would have said oh it's Mahomes it's wide open now Allen's in there

Joey Burr who knows with Herbert next year we got some candidates. I'm with you. I'm with you. The AFC is loaded. And we'll get to Rodgers and Brady talk, I'm sure, in a minute.

But I don't know why any good quarterback wouldn't want to stay in the NFC at this point. But yeah, the AFC is absolutely loaded. I don't know what to make from a, from a legacy slash history standpoint of how bad my homes was for two solid hours there. And I think I was thinking about him and maybe this is just the way football has gone because it's changed so much. It's so offensive now,

but it's almost like these quarterbacks are more like basketball players. There we go. I'm sorry. Go ahead. They're more like basketball players where it's just like sometimes basketball players, all of a sudden they don't have it.

They're just missing. Like Curry in game seven against Cleveland in 2016 where it's just like nothing's going in. It doesn't mean the guy sucks. He just has an off day. It's weird with quarterbacks because quarterbacks now are so consistent.

They're always like 70%, 75% accuracy. And they finished the season with 35 touchdowns and eight picks. And when they melt down like that, it feels even weirder than it did when we were growing up. But it would make total sense if Ken Stabler had a second half like that. He'd be like, oh, of course he did. It's Ken Stabler. Yeah, and especially because we've seen so many Mahomes passes now, right? We watch every single game he's in, and we know their rhythm, right?

We know Kelsey is going to jog into open space, and he's going to find him nine yards, and then he's going to stiff arm another seven yards. What you're not used to is him passing, throwing into double coverage, right? You're not used to that shit at all. And we saw that a bunch today. Or him starting the overtime series, throwing twice to Robinson.

Yeah. Positive the Bengals were delighted by that. Right. Yeah. So weird. But I guess the defensive scheme, you know, we do a good job of shitting on things and we'll get to, there's a lot, I think, more in the 49ers Rams game to hate.

You're right when you said that Bengals defense and that pass defense, they really stepped it up. Why isn't that guy getting job interviews? The Bengals defensive coordinator. That's one of the best jobs I've seen for Menbe. Another one. The Bengals are too cheap to win.

Well, they're in the Super Bowl. We have like three scouts and two-year-old Doritos in the fast food machine in their locker room probably. The number one and number two seeds really matter in the NFL playoffs. Apparently not anymore because we have no number one or number two seeds in the Super

Bowl. First time it's ever happened. I mean, last week it was one seed is a massive advantage, right? Didn't matter. Right. But we thought maybe, okay, that doesn't matter because the Chiefs are in it and they unfortunately get a one seed. But I'm with you. Yeah.

It's mattering less and less. This one hurts. Earmuffs. Don't listen to this. Oh, no. Now dead argument. Romo and Nance are clearly the best. What? I don't know. I think Buck and Aikman,

I think they had a better day than Nance and Romo did. Why? What happened? I thought Buck and Aikman were good today. I think Aikman's been really good this year. I was never a huge Aikman fan. I think he's a lot feistier. He was openly nervous for Jimmy G that entire

game in a way that I thought really buried how America felt about Jimmy G. It was like, oh, oh, man, man, Joe, that's, you just, I'm surprised he got away with that one. You could just tell he was like, oh my God, this guy sucks. How is he going to make the Super Bowl? I feel like he's disregarding network notes and he's just letting it all out there.

I don't know. Cause he's a free agent. Yeah. Cause he's got multiple people. out there. I don't know. Because he's a free agent? Yeah, because he's got multiple people coming after him. It's like, keep everybody interested in the game. And in doing so, you can't shit on the inferior quarterback or who's losing. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Another now dead argument. Don't draft a kicker.

The Bengals drafted McPherson in the fifth round. Maybe there's going to be kicker drafting happening. All right, Another one. Studio crews need to be in locations for championship weekend games. CBS got annihilated today. They have their

halftime show, which is terrible to begin with, and now they have a country western singer blaring behind them. I love that. That's good. Now that argument number seven. Baker Mayfield should have more commercials than Joe Burrow. What?

Oh, yeah. That's a dead argument. That's dead. That's dead. Joe Burrow is going to be in there. Is he the number one commercial free agent next year? I think so. State Farm.

Call him right now. I agree. I mean, Mahomes has these commercials too. And he's like, what did he sign? Like a 10-year deal for over $500 million? For State Farm? Maybe. You can turn down a...

No, no. It's his chief's contract. Oh. So I was like, what? Can you turn down a commercial? I feel like you could probably turn down a commercial. Now, Odo Beckham Jr.'s father, Odo Beckham senior should have more commercials than a Baker Mayfield at this point. Give all the money to Joe Burrow. Yeah.

The Rams will have a good playoff crowd. I think that argument's now dead because it was like half Niners fans. They did get loud near the end, but for the most part when your own QBS use a silent count and the NFC title game at home, that's right. I don't know. I had no buddies there and they said there was a lot of red. It just seemed like everybody was rooting for everything. It was loud throughout.

Like a soccer game. Yeah. Yeah. I'm switching gears. Kyle, turn the camera. Uh-oh. Would you rather have Joe Burr or Patrick Mahomes going forward? Oh, man.

Yeah. You have to answer. I was thinking about that while you were going through this. Oh, man. I'm going to say Patrick Mahomes still. And I don't even know why. I don't know why. I also have Mahomes. I have Mahomes as well, yeah.

But if you take Kelsey out of the equation, I know that's a huge if. You're not taking Chase out of Bengals equation. It becomes very close, I think. If Kelsey normalizes, if we see those three weeks of Kelsey that we saw earlier in the year, then I don't know.

I'm not sure. Well, if you're doing duos, I think Burrow and Chase trump everybody. The combo, right? Yeah. Because I would rather have that than Mahomes and Tyreek Hill.

I don't know how many more elite Tyreek Hill years we have. Smaller receivers, who knows? They don't usually... You don't go... Jimmy G, Juwan Jennings doesn't do it for... All right.

Next year, it's going to be Jimmy G on the Saints, right? Yeah. The Saints or USFL team? I don't know. I still think Mahomes is the answer. I think Allen, if you're going to rank Mahomes, Allen, Burrow,

probably in that order. But it's way more bunched together than it was three weeks ago. Like in a way that is shocking to me, but I think Burrow out of those three is the most like, kind of like the quarterbacks we grew up with. He's like the, the lineage QB to the guys from the seventies just takes a huge pounding,

a lot of charisma, big arm, never scared. I think Alan would probably be the most fun guy to have just because he's this larger than life dude and then Mahomes is like the wild card. Well, you shit on Romo, so let me rehabilitate his reputation

a little bit. I didn't shit on Romo. I didn't think he was good today. We did talk about last week about Burrow and Romo, the comparisons and now it comes out not that it came out, like Burrow was a very good basketball player too in high school. So throw that with Romo, who was Mr. Wisconsin, I think, as a basketball player. So yeah, they're one in the same.

So I would go Romo, Burrow, Mahomes, Josh Allen. You know, I love stuff like that, but at the same time, it makes sense that these guys who are like the elite of the elite of the most expensive position in sports would also be good at other sports. Yeah, right. You would think it does make sense. Anthony Edwards on the Timberwolves was supposedly the best football player in Georgia and would be in the NFL right now if he played football. I wonder if we see less and less of that because I feel like, and I know coaches in my kids' schools are just like, no, you're playing one sport and I don't care how good you are at that other sport.

You know? Basically, assholes. Now, Ben Simmons, who doesn't look like he can wrestle if he plays football. Because football is like a year-round sport. Well, yeah. Yeah. If you're going to be in the gym. They let you do track.

That's what they do. Yeah. They don't want to tear on your body. Another question. Yep. I'm not saying ever. Mm-hmm. But in a while.

Was that the most money everyone's lost on one team slash game, the Chiefs today? You think like parlays, teasers, Mahomes props, and then Chiefs future bets plus all the people that jumped on them to win the Super Bowl after the Bills game. Oh, interesting. I feel like it was just a mammoth

onslaught of money that just went down. Like books and casinos had to have been like rejoicing that the Bengals won. We'll have to ask our friends at Fandle, but you think that's much more than the Packers? I mean, every under hit, there was no any time touchdown, any Rodgers

touchdowns, anything. There was the same spread against the 49ers team who was banged up playing on a short week and everything. I'm with you. You still could have made a parlay with Kelsey. Who could you? Kelsey and Hill scored? Did Hill score? I'm with you but you still could have made a parlay with Kelsey who could you, Kelsey and Hill

scored, did Hill score? So McAfee hit this 6-1 parlay that I think really soaked Vandal because he had like Kelsey touchdown, Tyreek touchdown and then Mahomes and Burrow 250 plus each I think

something like that and it hit, 6-1 Yeah. You could have gone Kelsey. You could have gone a Debo Samuel. You could have gone Cooper cup. You could have gone all the big, the studs to score a touchdown and they did. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Next topic. Can you trust your quarterback too much? And I say this with five seconds left, Tracy Wolfson says, Reed was going to send the field goal kicker team and Mahomes waves them off. Yeah. He waves them off so he could throw a bubble screen to Tyree kill with two guys on him and he gets tackled and they get no points. That's like the classic. We both have 16 year old kids where at some point you have to trust your kids, but then they betrayed the trust somehow.

Right. Right. Like your kid leaves the door of the car open and loses everything in the car. Even though you told them a hundred times, like make sure you lock the car and you leave stuff like that. Oh my God. Um, but that the trust he showed in my homes was just the wrong trust because with

five seconds left, that's gotta be a fade in the end zone to Kelsey. And if you don't get it, you kick the field goal. There's no other play you can run there unless you're going to say, fuck this and run it and try to get the touchdown. Right. But what you can't do is the bubble screen

of Tyreek Hill or whatever that screen was. The worst play possible. They're definitely in toying with them mode versus let's score some more points and get the ball back and score. You know, because if you score three there points and get the ball back and score. You know, because if you score three there and then get the ball back and score another three, it's almost the same as getting seven right before the half, right? But if you get nothing before the half and nothing on the ensuing opening kickoff of

the second half, that's bad. All the momentum is going Cincinnati's way. I still had to get a pick and some luck the other way. I mean, Burrow almost got picked that second time. Who was it that dropped that? That was, uh, because he was in bounds. He just dropped the pass. The linebacker, yeah. Yeah, the one who

returned it for the touchdown against Denver. Is that it? Yeah. I would have been happy 24-10. I also would have been happy if they said, fuck this, we're trying to score a touchdown. I also would have been happy if they just threw a fade to Kelsey. The two plays I don't want are anything going sideways. Like whether it's a sweep or whether it's a screen, because it's just like too many bad things.

He shouldn't have even been there. You're enticing him to throw it to you there. Like just run out of bounds, Hill. It's funny because this season lasted really forever. It's still going. It feels like we've been talking about the Chiefs for 19 months in a row and we had that whole

two month stretch where we were like are the Chiefs dead? what's going on? are they done? what's going on with them this year? I don't think they're going to turn it on look at all these turnovers and then they turned it on and they're good again and they're the Chiefs and then they're up 21-3 and Mahomes is like 13 for 14.

It was like, oh my God. This is like the best anyone's played this position. I can't. And then all of a sudden they reverted back to the Chiefs from the first eight weeks. Yeah. He was such shit. Arguments that are not dead. Are the Chiefs dead?

Mahomes, not the next Brady. I would say closer to the next Rogers. That was a Rogers-esque Rogers-esque loss. So, Burrow, seventh quarterback to make the Super Bowl within the first two years in the league. Can you name

the other six? I'm brain dead right now from all the action, but Marino, right? Yeah. Brady. You're brain dead. Yeah, there's two. Joe Burrow, there's three.

Burrow, three. Let me see, let me see. Hustle Bustle? Oh, yeah. Wilson, okay. Keep going. Kaepernick. Right.

Second year. Big Ben Kurt Warner I wouldn't have gotten that yeah that's a weird list right Marino Warner

Brady Big Ben Kaepernick Wilson Joe Burrow but if you go third through five we looked at this

almost all the others yeah like it's Almost all the others. Yeah. Like it's almost all the other rounds. Yeah. Yeah. What was Aikman? Was he year three?

Yeah. Because they went one in 15. Okay. He might have been four. 91, 92. Yeah. Joey Burr. All right.

We'll take another break. Then let's do some 49ers Rams. All right, the Rams. So I didn't really realize this until they won. But it's the most fun of the four teams to get in the Super Bowl with all the stuff that it brings. Because... Let's hear it.

Matt Stafford, fun story, right? Toiled away with the Lions forever. The Lions fans, they're in with the Lions forever the Lions fans they're in that pathetic spot like the Boston fans were with Ray Bork when he finally made it

with the Avalanche and we had him win in 15 years and we were like ah we're gonna root for Ray Bork we all went to a bar and watched Ray Bork try to win

so the Lions he's bringing the Lions fans with him for the Super Bowl oh really I think this pisses them off no no they're rooting for him the Lions fans are rooting for him.

The new stadium. So they spend $5 billion. Way too much money. So much money that God only knows how they ended up paying for it. But now they get to show off their new stadium

and the Rams are actually playing in it. You've been in that stadium, right? I still have not. Oh, you haven't? Yeah, I'll be there for the Super Bowl. I think I'm getting old.

I was there for the Kimmel bowl, the Jimmy Kimmel ball. Right. And, uh, Oregon state, Utah state. And I know this is how it is at, uh, step up staples or crypto at the basketball arenas, but there, the arena itself is beautiful and it's great. And we got a lot, we went to the wrong entrance. And so we were actually a mile away from our seats, but it got us. We were able to walk the perimeter of the stadium inside. And it was great.

Everything's high tech. Everything. When you get in there, it's, you can even hear it from the telecast. They fill every single second with noise. Every single second. I think they let the play play out. They play the actual play play off. And then it becomes a strip club in Englewood.

And it's like, let's hear some noise. Our Rams are a minute and 40 away from making the Superbowl. It's like, like a pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,

pop. I'm like, Oh my God, what have I done here? So, uh, it's great. I wonder if they like that.

They have to tone that down. I, I don't know. I guess. Right. It's funny you mentioned that. Cause I could hear that in the telecast today. Yes.

That's what I was saying. Like it bled through today. And I was like, Oh good. I that because I could hear that in the telecast today. Yes. That's what I was saying. Like it bled through today and I was like, oh, good. I'm glad everyone could hear that. Maybe it'll scare him away from the Super Bowl and prices won't be too crazy. Well, so you have Cooper Cup. He gets his shine for two weeks as the best receiver in the league. Donald gets his shine as the best player in the league. And then McVay, who went all in.

Like, they kind of had to make the Super Bowl this year and they actually did it. So he gets his whole victory lap. Meanwhile, he was pretty terrible in the second half of this game. All those challenges.

Giving away challenges left and right. I mean, they had no timeouts. It was like, they're a four and a half minute drive away from this. They're done, right? If Jimmy G does this right. He's like, it's fine.

Jimmy G's on the other side. We've got this. That other fumble, that fumble challenge was awful. Like, who's giving them any advice to do this? I don't know. I don't know what they're saying. Stafford and Burrow would be fun. But yeah, I think the Rams, I got more excited about it as

it got closer. I saw our friend Larry Wilmore tweeting from the Rams game. Yeah. Tweeting his excited, uh, video from it, but just in general, it's just weird.

Like I think Niners Bengals would have been weird. I think Chiefs Niners, we already had it two years ago. And then Rams Bengals is fun. We, Joey Burrow, he gets to get in there as like a kind of the new guy. And then the Rams.

And I was trying to think of the storyline. So Burrow, you got a lot of the LSU stuff, right? You got Burrow, you got Chase, you got Beckham. So they'll talk about that forever, all the LSU stuff. You got Zach Taylor. And when I met McVay, I know you know him. He's on the ringer and everything. But when I met him, it was a few years ago, and I was like,

what's going on? I like you guys over 10 and a half. Of course, I'm talking gambling right away, which you're not supposed to do. I was like, what's going on? I like you guys over 10 and a half. Of course, I'm talking gambling right away with a coach, which you're not supposed to do. I was like, you got some easy games on your schedule. You have Cincinnati. Now it's Zach Taylor's first year. It's like, oh, no, Coach Taylor's good.

You watch. That's one of the games I'm afraid of. And I think they killed Cincinnati that year. But still, so you got the assistant, Zach Taylor, who's McVay's assistant. Yeah, I think it'll be pretty good. I will say, I don't know why, but when the 49ers were winning, I was like, I'm taking the 49ers in the Super Bowl.

Not at the Rams today, I'm not sure. And we'll go over the line in a second. I don't know why I was more confident in that crap bag 49ers team than I am these Rams, who should be dominant. Here's how confident I was. They go up by 10. Yeah. As you know, I had. They go up by 10. Yeah. As you know,

I had them to win the NFC. Today was not a good day for me. I tell you, try to figure out how to hedge. Did you, did you figure out how to hedge? Well, there was a great way to hedge.

Yeah. The live line when they were up 10 was, um, was Niners minus six. Right. So I looked at it and it was Rams plus six. Yeah. And I'm like, this is so easy. I could actually

really easily middle this. The Rams are about to get the ball. It was minus six and the Vig was minus 120. And I'm like, ah, minus 120, a little high. I know how this ends. So I'm trying to figure it out and I'm staring at it. And then I'm like, ah, I'm just seeing a couple more plays. Rams come right down and score. And now it. I'm staring at it. And then I'm like, ah, I'm just seeing a couple more plays. Rams come right down and score.

And now it's Rams plus 150. So now I'm like, Now you're mad at the bet. Now you're mad. Yeah, now I'm like, all right. So now I'm thinking, you know what?

I've come this far with the Niners. I believe in the Niners. They go down. They get a first down. They're inside the 50. Big run. It's like second and one and a half

feeling great they're almost in field goal range worst case scenario they get a field goal they're up six now I can do my live bet they run it right into seven guys

now it's third and one they run it right into seven guys again now it's fourth and two McVay challenges it for reasons that remain unclear They run it right into seven guys again. That's fourth and two. McVay challenges it for reasons that remain unclear. Challenge not overturned. They were in punt formation before the challenge, which was dumb.

Fourth and two. Timeout. You should always try to draw them off sides, especially since you already did with the head bob. Like, what are you doing? So they've already fucked it up once. Now we come out of timeout, and they're like, Shanahan's got the offense on the field. I'm like, this is great.

Please go for it. I guarantee they can get these two yards. Just do one of their cool plays. They're going to get this. Aikman's all excited about it. He's going up. They spent a lot of time in the huddle. Joe, I actually think they're going to go for it here.

No, they did the stupid try to draw them off sides thing. And they punt. And that's the game. They didn't want to go for it. And I actually think they should have gone for it because if you looked at the plays

and whatever the Rams had, they'd run like 25 more plays than the Niners at that point. They had way more yards than them. Yeah, the Niners had five first downs. Yeah, the Rams should have been winning and it was like a miracle the Niners had the lead. And I don't say they should have been first downs. Yeah. They should have been up. The Rams should have been winning. And it was like a miracle. The Niners had the lead.

And it's like, you got to grab the game by the balls. That's a case. We always talk about this advanced metric stuff. This is a case. Like, I don't care what the percentages were. This is like,

this is a grab the game by the balls moment. They had to do it. If you don't get it. All right. So they punt guy catches that at the 17. It's like, what is it? It's like 24 yards of field position. Different. Who fucking cares? Yeah. Go for it. If you don't get it. All right. So they punt guy catches that at the 17. It's like, what is it? 24 yards of field position different. Who fucking cares? Yeah. Go for it. I don't know.

I was 50, 50 on that only because they had the, first of all, a Shanahan offense with those running the dynamic schemes. He should have 20 plays available, but he ran whose check right on, on short yardage play with Williams pulling. That was bad. I was like, oh man, maybe they don't know what they're doing here. And they weren't running the ball at all. They had, I mean, if I'm going to, if I'm going to pump up one unit out of these four and these four teams, it's the Rams rush defense. Yeah.

They were great. I'm trying to think what they had. Like they had Mitchell at 20 yards rushing. Debo only had 26. It seemed like Debo had like 55 yards. Some of yards rushing Debo only had 26 it seemed like Debo had like 55 yards because some of them were like screens and stuff yeah well he was seven for 26 he could barely stand up so he had that so it was a little tough but um but yeah that is why they lost that game I mean if you look at the stats and you're like all right Jimmy G 16 for 32 32

two touchdowns one interception and the Rams have no sacks. Like, I'm going to take the 49ers here. I like my chances here with the 49ers. But they couldn't run the ball at all. That was the missing piece. Second and two, two straight runs into just a pile of guys. And at that point, they were really getting pushed back. And I just think, like, that's a really interesting part of the field

in big games like this. And I was thinking that Brett Favre thing. We talked about it last week when the Vikings game. And they were on the 41, and you knew they had to get further. With Robbie Gould, you need to get to the 36. It's like one more first down. Now it becomes the Rams can only beat us in the touchdown. You have to get to like the 15.

But yeah. Yeah. And that second and one, I'm just like, I'm running my two best plays on that second and one. If I, like two plays that aren't me just running in the middle. But, you know, yet again, Shanahan has just sucked in some of these fourth

quarters. It's not like McVay was much better. No. Well, how about this? I think I'm going to crystallize everything you've been saying. I think Debo caught like a screen pass with 12-42. I like calling him Debo, like I know him. With 12-42 left in the game,

he caught a screen pass. Guess how many times he touched the ball from that point on? Probably zero, right? Yes, that's a good... You win. And where was Kittle? Where was that Kittle over the middle play?

Yeah. I mean, the Rams had Eric Gudle out there. He was doing what we're doing four weeks ago, right? Why aren't they attacking him? Weddle was a star, like a secret star. He had nine tackles. Yeah, he was good. I would have liked to have seen him try to cover people, but Shanahan, it was tough and Shanahan inside a few of these now.

Yeah. You know, um, I mean, he was almost at 500, right? He tried to do this against your team. They were trying to give that game to you guys. They were up 14 in that game. I know. I wanted to be able to say the Cowboys are the second best team. Now it's, I mean, I'll still say it, but.

I thought they froze. What did you think when Skowronek dropped that pass? Did you think that was it? I mean, Skowronek is just usually has ice water in his veins. I had him on my playoff fantasy teams. Skowronek, when the way his arms were wailing just to try to not lose his balance. My God, there's no way he's getting this. But really, that Chukwiski tart drop was the worst of all.

Because they're down three. The 49ers are up three. That's when it was like 17-14, right? And it's such an awful play. It felt like that could have been... I mean, it's... That would have killed the Rams. It's one thing.

See, we hate, you and I hate when coaches make bad decisions, decisions that we wouldn't make, right? Like you and I, like, all right. Yeah. 50-year-old, slow white guys, doesn't matter. We would know how to coach. We know two-minute drills, right? Yeah. When a guy throw drops a pass like I could have probably caught that. That gets

me mad when my eight year old, I have a catch with my eight year old and he could could have caught that pass, that interception that lofted up there forever. Now it's a different ball game. It's like, oh, my God. And now I know the Rams dropped the pick after that. So it kind of evens out, but that was an awful one. That guy is not sleeping until June. Well, it felt like the combo of not getting that first down and then getting that gift of a pick right after. And the guy drops it.

And then Beckham gets a 20 yard catch and they add 15 for the late, terrible late hit. The ridiculous late hit. Yeah. That looked like that was called in by Ward and Stan Kroenke. Yeah. I want an unnecessary roughness

the first time one of my guys get hit. By the way, though, the Rams, can I just say, I don't know why the Rams get three seconds added to the play clock, but how many times did they snap it on triple zeros?

Yeah, it was, there was some fishiness going on. I wish New York could call down for that. The other thing, if he caught that pick. Yeah. He had a lot of territory in front of him. Right.

Yeah. I think that was why he got excited. Yeah, that was rough. Fantasy texted at one point in the second half when McVay just seemed like he was unraveling. McVay has Marty Schottenheimer energy. Remember Schottenheimer on the sidelines of some of those Chargers playoffs, Chiefs playoffs losses, where it just seemed like he was like the guy from skaters.

That's funny. And McVay did seem like that for a while. So I thought that I was like, oh, McVay, then you're Schottenheimer. But then he had some bad call. Just the fact that they got a field goal at the end there, not at the very end, but the third and three screen to Sonny Michel. What are some of these plays I'm watching here? Well, if you're a Niners fan, you have 17-7.

Basically, you get to 20, you probably win. You couldn't score again after 17-7. You blow that second, third, fourth down sequence. You drop a pick. And there was one point, like midway, you realize Jimmy wasn't going to do anything. I don't know if this solves the Jimmy thing or not for people. I still like him, and I think that Rams front line

combined with the fact that the offensive line just wasn't doing well. It was a bad situation for him. We've seen him come through in those situations. So I don't know. Everyone's like, they're going to write them off and I'm sure he's going to get traded out. It does pave the way now for my guy, Tom Brady. And I, and I do think this is why to go to San Francisco. Yeah. I think, I think this is why he didn't want to announce the retirement yet because I think he kind of wanted to watch

this weekend is my guess would that be worse than what NBC did to Leno with Conan with Leno would that be worse I think like no you have the job no just hang in there you'll get the job I think it's because he gets

15 million dollars if he waits a week to announce it don't you maybe if he waits a week to announce it. Don't you? Maybe. If he's on the roster February 4th, doesn't he get like $14, $15 million? I mean, he's rich, but he's no idiot. I don't know. I think he's done in Tampa Bay, and I think he's probably going to retire.

But would it shock me if he was the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers in September? No. But why would you do that? All you have to do is stay away from the West. The NFC East sucks. The NFC North sucks. Who the hell is going to win the NFC South if Brady is not the quarterback of Tampa Bay? All you have to do is stay away

from the West. You think he needs a challenge? You could argue there's only one other good team in the West. It's the Niners and Rams, but from what we saw from the Cardinals, are you getting fired up for them? Maybe. I don't know. It's tough to beat twice in a year. Seattle's going to be rebuilding.

Yeah. I guess. I don't know. So that's your pick right now. You can find odds on 40. My pick is I think he's going to retire. You do. But I think if he plays again, I think it's for San Francisco. If he changes his mind or if he's like, oh never thought i was gonna do this but i think san francisco makes sense because they can trade jimmy g they'll get like a second rounder for him

and then he signs he does one year i'm gonna finish my career where i grew up in the bay area this is my dream we had season tickets as a kid but really the reason would be this team has a chance to win the super bowl and I know I can win here. I got Debo Samuel and George Kittle and all these guys. Are you on the conspiracy wag with the whole, he doesn't like Schefter, he doesn't like the way Schefter handled

the flake gate. Someone leak it to Schefter, then I'm retiring and then we'll pull the plug on it, make him look stupid. I don't think he decided. I love the theory and I love the anti-ESPN stuff, but I just don't think he had decided yet. He didn't.

So where did it come from? I think the Bucs expect him to retire and probably told people, but I don't think it came from Brady's side. Because the way it was came from Brady's side. Right. Because the way it was handled from Brady's side where they seemed surprised and they were feuding it,

it's just weird. I don't like the shenanigans. Let Aaron Rodgers do this, right? I don't want to hate Brady like everybody hates Rodgers. Just make a decision. Here's my prediction. I think on Tuesday,

so I'm going to say on Tuesday, he is going to announce that he's going to retire. I think there's a 10% chance that he announces he's not going to be on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next year and he's probably going to retire.

And a 90% chance he just retires. Why Taco Tuesday? I just think on Tuesday, he settles all to retire. And a 90% chance he just retires. Why Taco Tuesday? I just think on Tuesday, he settles all family business. All right. I thought it was like the fourth or something that he had to... Well, he can say on the fourth, I'm retired. The Bucs will take care of him. They'll pay him the money.

I see what you're saying. But yeah, if you're him, wouldn't it be more fun to play one last year on the Niners? It'd be more fun to play on the Jets and beat Belichick twice. I mean, that would really do the old man in. The Jets. Yeah. That's a good one. Do it.

What about Aaron Rodgers in San Francisco? He had a great game in MetLife. What about him going where? Aaron Rodgers in San Francisco. Yeah. I mean, right? A Bay Area guy. I just want it to happen. I don't want to talk about Aaron Rodgers for San Francisco. Yeah. I mean, right. A Bay area guy. I just want it to happen.

I don't want to talk about Aaron Rodgers for the next four months. I know you love the, like the basketball stuff or where it's a good landing spot for Russ, but like there are, when you do look at it, we went over this, like there are like a dozen teams that could win the super bowl with Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers next year.

And I'm not including like a whole, like the chiefs or the Chargers or the Bengals, the teams that have quarterbacks. There are teams like the Raiders and I don't know, the Titans and the Colts. I think there were seven in the

AFC and five in the NFC that could really turn around. I mean, the Bengals won four games last year, right? No, Barlow was out, but anyone could really do it. And if you look at the personnel around a lot of these teams, it could be done. Well, it seems like Vegas might do something because they're going to hire McDaniels. We'll see if he's good. We'll see if McDaniels is good? Yeah, we'll see.

I know you want him to fail. I know you want him to fail. All these guys do anyway. The whole, the tree, the coaching tree is a disaster. I don't want him to fail, but I don't think Brady's

gotten enough credit for, you know, when you're, Brady's offensive coordinator, that's a pretty good place to be. Brady hasn't gotten enough credit. No, for, for like the Josh McDaniels thing

where they, we saw, we saw Josh McDaniels last year and this year without Tom Brady. Trust me, I was there. I didn't really love it that much. But what do you think is going through McDaniels' head? He must be like, all right, the Patriots, you know, wink, wink, promised me this job when

Belichick steps down. But do you think he's looking at it like, shit, Josh Allen's in this division. He's as good as anyone. What the hell am I waiting for if I ever get this job? Let me take the Raiders. Listen, I'm not the only Pats fan looking at it this way.

I know. You're all terrible people. Thank you. The fact that nobody has hired Flores yet is getting me more and more excited. Because if we can get Flores to come back as the coach inin-waiting, get him in for like two years and make him the highest paid assistant coach in the league

with the understanding he'll take over, that's the guy I want. Because I think he has a chance to be special. Yeah. And whatever, he made his mistakes in Miami. He's too abrasive sometimes, whatever the story was. But that guy, the dude's played hard for him.

And I just think his next team, he'll learn from whatever mistakes he made in Miami. I cannot believe he didn't get hired yet. Yeah. Well, by far, he was the number one candidate. Too abrasive is not going to fly into England. So he really, really better change his tone. Did you have any, you want to say goodbye to Tom Brady? 22 years.

Are you up or down because of Tom Brady financially? I think I caught it. I mean, I was way down. Just even that Rams Patriots game took me probably three or four years to come back from. But I hit him more times good than I did bad in the, in the past. Although it's like, I will say when you lost to the Titans, I lost a lot of money. Like I lost to the dolphins, like the, the dynasty crushing moments. I was on the losing end of all you have to be up. Right. You have to be, I think I'm up. I, I think that three team tees we had in 2004

when we won like 10 straight weeks of three week teases and then they lost the Monday night game in Miami. That put a dent in it. When you can call

one game out, you're good. Remember how bad we were? I think we were on the phone for like a half hour after that. They're up 10 with five minutes left.

Still one of my worst losses. What was the Denver one? We needed a two point conversion out of Gronk. Was that an AFC championship game? That was a playoff game, yeah. It was a playoff game against Manning. That one hurt.

Yeah, I remember losing a lot there. Yeah, that one hurt. I mean, coming back and winning the Falcons game is still probably the greatest football bet I've ever been on the winning side of. On top of it was my actual team. But to be down 25 in a playoff game and win the bet.

And they covered in OT, which was, what was the line? It was like three and a half? It was three and a half. They won by six. Actually, it was three.

I bought it to three and a half for Atlanta and they won by six. He did have a weird thing in playoff games where they would like barely squeak them out

in the early, the 1.0 version of Brady in the 0-3-0-4 range. Remember, they would win, they always won by three. They won the Super Bowl. Yeah out in the early, the 1.0 version of Brady and the 0304 range. Remember they would win. They always went by three. They won the Superbowl. Yeah. All the three Superbowl.

It was like, yeah, they never had like, they had some decisive, uh, playoff games, but for the most part, incredibly reliable and teases,

right. Parleys and stuff like that. Um, there was, I think one of my favorite Brady gambling was, remember the Tebow year when Tebow beat Pittsburgh? And then the next week, the line, I think, was under 10. And it was Tebow in New England. And it was like, pats by nine. It was like, oh my God, this is the gift from the gods. Tebow's going to come in and beat Tom Brady? What are we doing?

Listen, there's no secret to it. We bet three-team teasers. We bet Moneyline parlays. And Brady was a gift. Take some of the playoff games aside. But on a week-to-week basis, that was a gift. The Patriots or Brady, you know, Moneyline

or taking seven points off the spread, guaranteed gold, pretty much. Well, you know, the GOAT stuff, and there was some of it over the weekend and people talking about, this guy's the GOAT, seven rings. Like, to me, it's like, it's beyond the seven rings.

Like, the sheer amount of playoff games that he won, I'm looking at his final, so he was 35-12 in the playoffs. Like, nobody's touching that. I don't see that one. Like, do you think Mahomes can get the 35 playoff wins? He'd have to stay healthy for a while. Yeah.

No, it's not doable. Yeah. But he had 35 playoff wins, but we also had the buy. Like what? There was at least, I would say 12 or 13 round ones that we just didn't play in. So if you counted the round ones buys as wins, now he's at like 47 and 12. Right.

So yeah, pretty crazy. Did you talk to Hench about this or did he just bend our ear about it for two and a half hours today? If you split Brady's career, the 22 years and 11 and 11, he's a, he's a hall of famer for the first 11 and a hall of famer for the second

11. Like it's not even close. And who else can you say that about in any sport? I think, I think Gretzky is the only one, right? Gretzky is like plus minus was like, like minus 69 or something in his last seven or eight years.

I think you might be able to say it about LeBron. If you split LeBron up. Yeah, even if you did LeBron just the four Cleveland years and he's Laker, he'd probably have a tough 50 that. But maybe like split it right in the middle of the Miami. 11, maybe a baseball player I'm missing. But probably tennis, right? Serena. There's not too many, though. There's really

not too many that you could do that with. I really wonder what his life's going to be like. Jake Paul, maybe. Go ahead. What's his life going to be like? His whole life revolves around playing football. All he does is...

I'm shocked by this. You and Traeger, you call... I thought... I was telling you last week. I know, I know. But I believe him. First of all, you should never believe him. He's a liar.

He threw his phone away and deflated Gates. So there's that. But he said he's going to play until he's 50. Why wouldn't he? Of course. I don't know. Just play again. Play another year. Throw for another 5,300 yards with 43 touchdowns. Why not?

That's what I'm saying. The Niners are right there. His parents are in the Bay Area. This is where it should end. It should end with the Niners. I don't want him to retire yet. And I do wonder, I think the whole thing's weird. So maybe on Tuesday he retires and that's it. And that would be what I would bet on. But I still think the Niners need a quarterback. Trey Lance is not going to be ready next year. And he could just come in for one year and take over this awesome Niners team. And that's a great way to go out. And then he could say he played at 45. What if he went in there for like a million bucks a year? He was like, you know what? I don't even need, I'll go, I'll play the minimum this year. That'd be a lot of fun.

I'll make it back in endorsements. I just wonder what is his life going to be like when 365 days a year, all he did was like, get ready to play football. Right. He was like 5,300 yards. He's not done. He shouldn't be done. So Elway did this,

but Elway was pretty banged up. I mean, kale smoothies are gross. And I don't know. If you're filling the time with more kale smoothies, not worth it. I was thinking how funny it would be if he's like, thank God I don't have to drink this crap anymore. Yeah. I'm going to do Chick-fil-A and Brady just gained

like 45 pounds. He's actually eating Subway sandwiches. It's not just a commercial. We saw Brady again six months ago. He looks like early from lost. Like facial hair. Right. All right.

Let's take a break and then we'll guess the lines. All right. Rams, Bengals. What? Come on. They're going to fix that. They're going to make them a Holmes Rodgers. Something will happen in the two weeks, right?

What do you think this was before the year? Well, I know the Bengals, you can get 120 to one. Are you talking about the matchup? Before the year, the Bengals were 120 to one? The preseason odds were 1-21 for the Bengals. They won four games last year. What was their over-under? Seven wins this year? Well, as you know, we both did a bunch of over-unders

and props and stuff before the season. One of my over-under bets was the Bengals would go under seven wins. That's an actual bet I made. The Bengals would win less than seven games. It is weird, though. You and I an actual bet I made. The Bengals would win less than seven games. It is weird, though. You and I, we bet a lot. We have a lot of money on these dumb games. Because this was one of the few times I was on the Bengals,

I got to appreciate them. I feel like I couldn't appreciate them because in my head, I have to be mad at a team that I bet against the Jets and they lost to the Jets. I have to be mad at a team that I feel like they went through a crap division that none of the other quarterbacks in that division, starting quarterbacks, can make it to the finish line. And the one that did, Roethlisberg, was probably the worst of all of them.

And I can't respect this team. So I wish we could be like the Collins words and the Romos of the world where you just watch greatness and appreciate it and the Romo's of the world. We just watch greatness and appreciate it and not have to worry about your bets, but we're not wired like that. But 121 would have wired me a whole different way. I bet against them all three rounds and lost all three rounds. Right.

And that's the thing. It's like you have to pick your horses going into the playoffs I really like the Niners I thought it was going to be Chiefs-Niners It was not Super Bowl line I'm going to guess the Rams By four and a half over the Bengals

What did you have? Let me set the stage because this is the last one We don't do the Pro Bowl We're not true degenerates if we don't do the Pro Bowl. Bill Simmons is up nine weeks to eight weeks to four. I would need this to tie for the season. That's the best I could do. You are saying, what did you say?

Four and a half? I said Rams by four and a half. I put this in the Vegas zone. Mm-hmm. All right. I need a miracle line change on this because I checked it after I guessed. Oh, you're.

After I guessed Rams minus three. Yeah. It's at least Rams four. I still don't know what it is. I haven't seen it yet. It's four. You got it. Congratulations.

I want another year. You want another year. Suck it, Jacoby. When am I going to get good at this or cheat or something it was it opened at three and a half it went to four and then four and a half and now it's bounced back down to four i think that's fair i think uh well i'm trying to think so so where do you think it ends i think it ends at four and a half it ends with me losing a lot of money on dumb props. Oh, um, yeah, I think it'll go up a little bit.

I don't know what'll happen in the next two weeks. We don't have to worry about any injuries, right? Pretty much. There was nothing to speak of. Um, they're not, uh, they're, they're treating it like it's a home game though. Right. Everything I hear is like, well, Rams will be coming home. I don't know about that. Maybe the 49ers fans won't leave. We're game though, right? Everything I hear is like, well, Rams will be coming home. I don't know about that.

Maybe the 49ers fans won't leave. We're both going, right? I think so. You're going to go for sure? I'm going. So we're going to be doing our podcast. I don't even know how many hours after the game ends. It'll be a late night.

Screaming public address announcer. I just can't take it that guy's gotta we have to get him we have to pay for him not to show up somehow it's so funny you mentioned that

in the back of my head I was being annoyed by him but I was so focused on the game so into the Niners trying to will them to somehow make it

four quarters and he was just this annoying background he's gotta go away well let's have him on the podcast next week or something. We got to figure something out.

I think it's the classic, there's not enough noise in this building. We need to fill the noise strategy. Yeah. And you can let the big moment die. Imagine they did this at baseball games. That's what's great about playoff baseball, right? Yeah. Shots, the cutaways to the fans, the dugout

and everything. Imagine if they filled it with the Soundgarden drops. I'd lose my mind. I'm excited to go. Kyle is going to take my Ben Simmons. Really? You have

tickets already. Yeah. You're going. going nice I'm going I'll be I'll have picked the team at that point I'm probably going to pick the Bengals just for them because they've cost me so much money the last three weeks I might as well

jump on the bandwagon but I don't know what was the last one you went to last one I went to you Last one I went to... You didn't go Patriots-Rams, did you? No, my last one was... No, after the second

Pats-Giants, I vowed never to go to another Pats Super Bowl. So was the last one you went to... The last one I went to was the Kaepernick-Ravens blackout game. And we did a bit afterwards where I hugged the losing fans. Yeah. The last one I went to had a blackout.

Right. And then literally a blackout with Dave Jacoby at Harris Casino. Friday and Saturday night before the game. He'll be getting a lot of shout outs. Three straight blackouts. Yeah. And now he's a superstar TV star. Yeah.

Unbelievable. Some people shouldn't spend more than 48 hours in New Orleans and Dave Jacoby is one of them. He's amazing and would show up with a tie the next day ready to go. Produce whatever at 6 in the morning. Unbelievable willpower by that guy. Yeah, that was my last one. What was your last one?

I'm trying to think. I mean, I feel like I've been in the city of the Super Bowl and then I go home right before. Yeah, that's what I did when Fox had the Super Bowl Chiefs 49ers. I didn't stay for the game. But I think the last one I attended was the one with you. That one. The second Pats Giants one broke me.

That was it? Watching the Pats Seahawks a few years later, so happy I wasn't at the game when it seemed like they were going to lose after that Jermaine Kearse play. And then the Malcolm Butler play happens. Right. We were together. We watched that. Our cousin's house.

Yeah. Yeah. But I was so happy I wasn't there because there's just nothing worse than being there when your team loses the Superbowl. There might be nothing worse than being there. Period. Because I don't want to, I want to talk to, are you and Kyle leaving right after this to go to the game?

Cause you're going to have to beat traffic. You know how they do. They like cattle. You have to get there like two and a half hours before the game. And you go through this crazy big security line. Right. Yeah. I think getting out.

How are you going to get there? You know, like segue there. Yeah. How am I going to get there? I don't know. How am I going to get there? You better think about that. So you don't want me to go. You think I shouldn't skip it? I don't know how am i gonna get there you better think about that so you don't want me to go you think i shouldn't skip it i don't know man i'm worried for you kyle we're not going give ben the tickets ben and his friends sam just ruined it i don't

want to go anywhere i'll delete the whole podcast you have a nice tv you're fine kyle texts me today where are our seats? I'm like, what are we talking about? Yeah. Your seats are in the living room. Like they are every week. I just say,

I watch with Carolla and his son, Sonny is a huge Rams fan. Right. And he's like, what are we doing for the Superbowl? He says in front of everyone, I'm like, well,

you're taking your son to the game. The freaking game is seven miles from, you know, your son's favorite team. He's like, Oh no, no, no, Sonny.'re taking your son to the game. The freaking game is seven miles from, you know, your son's favorite team. He's like, oh, no, no, no, Sonny. We're not going to that game. Sonny, you went to Denver with me a few months ago. You're good. Denver and the Super Bowl in the same year.

No, you can't. You can't do that. You got to stay home. So Sonny, I took you to Sarasota that time. I had that comedy show. Come on. I let you sit in my Paul Newman supernova. Come on.

What was that? What was Corolla's big obsession this weekend? What was his 45-minute rant? Mayhem. You know that guy with the Allstate commercial? Yeah. Mayhem. He made everybody look up because I think the guy had personal problems

or drug problems and he was gone for a couple of... He's the guy with the tattered clothes in the Allstate commercial that's screwed up. No, he's not the guy. He's Ryan O'Reilly from Oz. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, right, right. Mayhem.

Yeah. I had to look... Everybody had to look up what's wrong with Mayhem. What happened to Mayhem? Like, what? I need an answer on mayhem. So that's it. So that's who's invited to the Superbowl party.

Wow. Mayhem and Sonny, who's, who's hometown team is in the Superbowl. Sorry, Sonny. You shouldn't have gone to Denver with your dad. Well, how did the St. Louis Rams fans feel about this? Did they just like pretend this never happened they're like the first wife yeah or really the second wife is john ham a rams is i can't tell

he's rams right not chiefs i thought he was chiefs oh he's chiefs but he was rams he was never rams he's not even watching he's calling all the people on apple tv trying to yeah you're right to tom hanks and i can't i don't want to say anything bad. He has voting kick-out power. And I have a feeling you or I are on the chopping block. Why are we on the chopping block? I just think he thinks that'll be funniest.

I just think he thinks... I don't know. He's the best act of our generation. I don't want to... I fucking love Beirut. I thought that was such a good movie. There you go. See? Madman, the best.

Everyone buy a Mercedes. Yeah. It is time for Parent Corner. And Parent Corner is presented by CarMax. Our listeners know that the folks at CarMax are on a mission to end buyers' remorse with their new Love Your CarMax. Our listeners know that the folks at CarMax are on a mission to end buyers' remorse with their new Love Your Car guarantee. It gives you a 24-hour test drive

so you can be sure you're in love with your car before you buy. Learn more at CarMax.com. CarMax, car buying reimagined. What'd you do for your son's car, by the way? You know, I just got a, I went to the Toyota dealership across the street and I was like, just get me,

I don't even care if anything's safe. Just get me. I need something because there are no cars out there. There's zero. Unless you go to CarMax. But you did that before we knew we were back with CarMax. I know. Just think how great that would have been if you'd gone to CarMax because it would have been CarMax car buying reimagined.

All right. What do you got for parent quarter? Story of my life. Well, I have to say, I'm trying to figure out how I want to set this up, but like, there's very few events that, you know, you have like traditions in your family, right? Like you open gifts together, right? Yeah. Uh, and you know, Thanksgiving, right? Yeah.

I mean, you open Christmas gifts together, Thanksgiving. And I'm trying to think of like the only instances where the family gets together to do things. And it's those two things, opening gifts, Thanksgiving, everything else. I have to scream at the kids like, Hey, get down here to eat, get down here to say hi to this one. Hey, hurry up, get down here. We're going here. But the only other one that everyone gladly assembles in the living room together is the Royal Rumble. Oh, I mean, it's the greatest. And I don't know how you do it or if you have a pool. I know you watch. I know you're a big fan. It's just me and Ben. We went evens, odds evens. Oh, you did odds and evens. So there were five of us. We had our

cousin Michael here. It was about seven. and so there's five of us so we each picked six names for the Royal Rumble I did one through thirty and you picked six that's more fun because you have to wait and then like somebody terrible runs out like Johnny Knoxville oh it's the greatest it's the greatest because that's a loss yeah you look in the ring like oh I have five guys and none

of them have a chance to win like who what the hell what am I doing with Chad Gable and Dominic Mysterio and fricking ricochet and Damien Priest. There's no way I'm going to win. And then, but we're getting, we're at each other's throats and it's like,

ah, every time someone's thrown over the top rope, it's like the greatest thing. It's like the great, I'm back in high school again and I can make fun of kids and, and they're making fun of me. And, uh,

and our little cousin, our cousin Mickey's son, Michael, who couldn't care less, had Brock Lesnar who comes in at 30. He's in for like three minutes, cleans house and wins and he's going crazy. And we created another wrestling fan in him. He couldn't give a crap about this before. So he's in. He's in. You got him in. And the Royal Rumble will do that. I think it's the great... I don't know. It's one of the...

I think it's a top three spawning event. I really do. I don't know. I'm trying to think. The Super Bowl, March Madness, and the Royal Rumble. I might put it in the top three. It's terrific. I remember when I was in college, my buddy the Birdman, Mark Thurston,

we had a Royal Rumble party. When did it start? It was like late 80s, somewhere in there? Yeah. We had a Royal Rumble party and we did it with the numbers. We had people like Jacko who had numbers who didn't know anything. It was just the absolute funniest thing. It'd be like, all right, had like numbers who didn't know anything. And it was, it was just the absolute funniest thing when,

uh, you know, it'd be like, all right, number 18, I have number 18. And it's like, and it's tugboat.

And he's like, Oh, who the fuck is this guy? And he gets so mad. It's so good. It's like, it's like fun. Remember the let's make a deal where they'd reveal the prize.

And it would be like, Oh, some woman milking, milking a cow. Like, oh my God, what? That's my guy? Yeah, it's terrific. I remember I'd get a pasty white guy who looked like he weighed 180 pounds carrying an umbrella to the ring. I'm like, that's my guy? What? And we just make fun of it. It's the greatest, the Royal Rumble. And this one wasn't even that great. And it was great. Yeah. Ben and I had a bet where it's just, we just make fun of it. It's the greatest, the Royal Rumble. And this one wasn't even that great. And it was great.

Yeah. Ben and I had a bet where it was like, if he won, he won money. And if I won, he had to do all these chores, right? Oh, all right. And he was going nuts because the odds were just coming through. All the good guys were the odds. And the evens were just, it was a slew of like Dominic Mysterio type guys that you just had no chance.

And then, so I was like, 30 is always the best one. I don't know why you're complaining. He was getting mad. He was like punching things. And then we heard the Brock Lesnar guitar and I was like, oh my God, this is, this is 30. Is 30 the best one? I feel like 30 doesn't win a lot. I feel like 26. Yeah. Somewhere in 29 or 30, but you just kind of felt like the winner hadn't come out yet. Right. So, it started to feel like it was going to be 30. I had Omos. Yeah. He should be better. Yeah, I just don't understand why he doesn't come in and destroy everybody.

Teach him three moves. Let him be as good as everybody else. Let him be like Diesel was way back when, where he's like, who is this guy? He seems intimidating, and he didn't really have to wrestle and he got a huge push anyway. I don't know why that can't be a must. He should have eliminated nine guys. And Knoxville, what a disgrace. It lasted like

90 seconds. I lost a lot of money on that. I thought he did a good job pretending to actually sell the moves and stuff. Somebody did jump on him. No, he did. He took a good bump to the groin. He's good. It was good.

I have no idea why they would have Brock Lesnar lose the main event, but then win the Rumble. So now he's in the WrestleMania main event. Just have him win the main event originally and then have somebody else win the Royal Rumble. Well, Bill, I guess he tried harder in the Royal Rumble when he had the main event. Yeah then have somebody else. Well, he brought a rumble. Well, Bill, he just, I guess he tried harder in the Royal rumble.

Is that the main event? Yeah. What are you talking about? Have him win. What do you, I don't understand this stuff. Good point. Yeah.

Um, that was great. I'm not even doing a parent corner. Cause I felt like we both had that. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Well,

the one I really want to do, I just like, I, I must want to retire a parent corner. I can't do any of them anymore. I have like seven good ones for you, but they're all ones I have to tell you on the phone. This is relationship, daughter relationship. Yeah, it's all the stuff. Son, like, I guess the one good thing is my son, remember I told you he made those t-shirts?

He decided he wanted t-shirts with these different rappers that he loves and he couldn't find the right ones. Oh, wait, you got them. Weren't you supposed to get them this week? Yeah, they came in the mail. Right. And I haven't seen them in this excited a while. And he unveiled them.

And now he's going to wear them every day for the next four months. And he's like, I'm on the cutting edge. I should sell this. I should start my own store. And he's like, sorry, I could be a millionaire with these. Or without them. Yeah. He was very focused on, I could go to fairfax right now and

open a store and people would buy these i'm like what you're 14 what settle down get him a pop-up aren't these pop-ups the big things now just to try it out maybe i'm gonna put kyle in church kyle's like i need guaranteed super bowl tickets before I entertain any of this nonsense. Yeah, Kyle wants to know where you're sitting. What section am I in? I was like, I have no idea. You're sitting at Ben's pop-up. All right.

That is it for Parent Corner brought to you by CarMax. Sometimes buyer's remorse happens, but at CarMax, you're covered. After you buy, they'll give you a 30-day money-back guarantee up to 1,500 miles. Learn more at CarMax.com. CarMax car buying re CarMax Car Buying Reimagined. What are we doing next week? By the way, I like the idea of CarMax

executive getting on the phone with Jeff Chow tomorrow. I'm like, hey, Bill says he's thinking of retiring parent corner. We just signed up. Is this true? Is this happening? No, I need to adopt another kid or start doing my own parents. Or maybe my mom still hasn't talked to me. It's like, oh, no.

Come on. Take our advice. Now it's like, now it's going to last. I got about 20 emails on your behalf. Like, hey, tell Bill life's too short. I was like, yeah, that's exactly what I was trying to tell him. What do you want me to do? I got to bring them driving to each other's house?

My mom won't talk to me. My dad just got three feet of snow in Boston. Oh, yeah. That's bad. And he's just completely buried under snow. So that's my parent's situation right now. That's my parent corner. Oh, wow.

What are we doing for next week? We'll do some props. You want to do a week from Tuesday? Want to do some props? A week from Tuesday instead of Sunday night? Yeah, let's do that. That's usually when they come out. Is media day Monday or Tuesday that week? It's Tuesday. You going to media day?

No, I don't care. Sometimes some nonsense comes out of that. It wouldn't affect anything. Maybe we'll do Tuesday. We'll just do a half hour props instead of doing this Sunday night. What do you got to plug? Nothing.

We have, you know, Fox Bet Live is tomorrow. All your gambling needs are taken care of on extrapoints.com against all odds. By the way, not that this isn't going to ruin anything, but I think Harry is getting engaged

on our podcast sometime this week. And I think it's probably the first, we try to figure out the, the first engagement on a sports gambling podcast ever. Wouldn't you, wouldn't you think, are you ruining it for the, nah,

she's not going to listen. She's believe it or not. I don't think she listens. Is it somebody he's met? Yeah. Yeah. It's someone he's met. Yeah.

Yeah. No, he's been with her for a while and they're in Hawaii and I think he's got a ring and I think he's going to pop the question on, I don't know why he, this is his idea to do it on the podcast. So, I mean, he's a romantic, you know. What podcast is this? Which, the Tuesday one?

Against a lot. Yeah. So, I don't know which day, but. All right. We'll get him. Jesus. You seem like you're gel. Like, you know, what, what it's.

I mean, that's, I didn't, if you had told me, we maybe Carmack sort of wanted to get oh i say yeah would have driven driven the ring over to wherever he's popping someone would have run him over so are there going to be little harrys like what what what are we looking down the road oh i didn't even think of that no what is brad mulcahy think about this we should have him on to comment about that he slept a good two and a half hours today. There's two playoff games left. He slept in and then woke up and ate

a whole can of Pringles. It's a really long season. You can't blame him. That's true. As always, good job by you. Good job by you, buddy. A week from Tuesday. All right, let's do it. All right, Kevin O'Connor is here. we had the trade deadline coming up in about 11 days

you have a pretty euro beard i gotta say you look like uh like you're from latvia you're like a 13th man on the calves i like it yeah just got it just got a recent haircut recent trim it was getting a little too crazy getting a little too uh you know, I don't know. I couldn't go with the full grizzly bear look like I had a couple years ago. It was too much, Bill. I wasn't going down that path again. Might have to send you the Miami Vice beer trimmer razor from the 80s, see if you can get that

nice and tight. KFC and I are going to play a little game called Panic Teams at the NBA trade deadline, but that's not the game. The game will be called the panic team draft. We're going to draft teams,

go back and forth on who we think is the most panicked right now as we head into the last week and a half of the deadline. KFC, you're the guest. You can go first. It's the Wizards.

10-3 start, Bill. 13-23 since. Bottom 10 offense. Bottom 10 defense and like with them when i think about like panic for the wizards it's they're not panicking because they just need to make a trade they're panicking because it's unclear of what they should actually do you have bradley beal who is struggling this season compared to what he did the last two years months away from being able to sign a super max and free agency they have few players

on their roster of significant trade value they can't trade a first round pick until 2028 since they owe a protected one to okc and that doesn't convey until 2023 at the earliest or until 2026 at the latest and with beal this season averaging 23 points on 19 shots only 30 from three he's not a natural point guard. He dribbles, dribbles, dribbles into nothing way too often. Plays crappy defense. Not a natural leader. The team sucks.

And to stay, he wants $235 million over five years, $47 million annually. Are the Wizards sure, totally sure they want to give Beal that money? Is Beal totally sure that he wants to stay rather than take a four-year max deal somewhere else? Because I don't know, man. I don't know the answer to either of those questions, but I do know if I'm a Wizards fan right now, I'm feeling totally lost at this point. Joe House, resident Wizards fan on this podcast and in my life. He's been kind of out on Beal for a while. A long time. Basically saying, second banana, he's not an alpha. He's not a leader. Why would I give him the super max when he can't even be the best part of his own team?

The season has borne that out and Beal's been for him. Not good. I think people in their heads think he's like a 50, 40, 90 guy and he's not even close. They've blown some games. I don't like the whole him acting like it's Washington's privilege to pay him $250 million. Basically, they're going to have to show me. Are you going to? All that stuff. It's like, how about, you know, you made round two once with John Wall, right? Against Celtics.

That was their one time they ever had any sort of run. He's been in the league a while. He's still like younger than you think. It feels like he's, you know, been in the league for a decade and he's still somehow like 26, 27. But I'm looking at it like, is this a Ben Simmons team? And is this a Golden State goes all in team? I don't think so with Golden State because of the tax and they're already so far above it. And I think they like the team they have. But when you start thinking about Simmons and Philly and the window with Embiid and Brooklyn coming down hard on this Harden thing,

Beal Simmons as the framework of something, I think it's interesting. I'm more bullish on it than I was three weeks ago. What about you? It's definitely interesting. I mean, I think from Washington's perspective, you extend the life of a star if you get ben simmons back for bradley beal and that that has inherent value in doing that

under contract for yeah exactly so i mean you you continue you continue having like a star presence on your team maybe you you recalibrate and build around him you might get a high draft pick still anyway right you could miss out slide out of the playoffs even more in the two three weeks of a ramp up ben simmons is going to need to get back on the court you know you could lose some more games it could be a value for you but even then though how much else is philly going to give up in that situation like we know philly would give a lot more with ben simmons to get james harden harden you know would want to go there like more get more likely to sign long-term with Philly. And Beal, I don't know if that guarantee is necessarily there because that's the fear for

Washington. Yeah, you're right. Beal wants the Supermax, just like Kemba Walker wanted the Supermax when he was leaving Charlotte. That turns into a sign-and-trade. And that's the fear I have for the Wizards because who's going to trade for Beal now with the uncertainty moving forward? There's not a lot of teams that would feel comfortable doing that. And if he goes to restricted free agency, or rather unrestricted free agency with his player option for next season,

he can go anywhere he wants to, as we saw Jimmy Butler do with getting to the Miami Heat for the sign and trade for Josh Richardson going back to the Sixers. So more potential situations and opportunities pop up for Beal if he drags this into the summer. Whereas for Washington,

that hurts their leverage a lot. And then maybe you're ending up with like, I don't know, like Fournier and Burks and a first round pick in the sign and trade for Beal or Forford and Langford plus a first from the Celtics. That's what it could turn into. And that's a worst and trade for Beal or Horford and Langford plus a first from the Celtics. That's what it could turn into. And that's a worst case scenario for Washington

unless the actual worst case scenario is giving him the five-year Supermax deal because that might not be the path you want to go down either. I wonder if Washington said to Philly, yeah, we'll talk Beal Simmons. You got to take Bertans. He's got to be in the deal. And you can give us Danny Green's expiring back or however you got to take Bertans. He's got to be in the deal. And you can give us Danny

Green's expiring back or however you want to make it work. But if you're getting Beal, take Bertans too. And then if I'm Daryl, I'm looking at it thinking, well, Embiid, I want to surround him with shooters. Bertans was a dead-eye shooter two years ago. Not sure what happened once he got paid, but maybe on our team. And then you start talking yourself into it. I think there's something there with Bill Simmons. No inside info. I think it's something that's logical, especially with the way Brooklyn, and I think we both have a lot of the same intel. Brooklyn has really cracked down on this Harden thing. They're like, look, we're not helping this happen. We want James to be here. This is how we want it to play out. So enough with...

And there's a lot of behind-the-scenes maneuvering and finger-pointing about how some of this stuff has come out. But I think Brooklyn is pretty emboldened on the FU stance with the Simmons-Hardin trade. Is my take. Understandably so. And if that's the case for Philadelphia, you do wonder how soon this turns to Bradley Beal as the next target.

It's Damian Lillard. And then it's James Harden. Does it soon become Bradley Beal? Is that, is that what it's going to be this week? And ultimately though, like everything that you hear about the wizards with the people you talk to around the league is that Beal would like to stay and sign the super max and

that the wizards are shopping. I mean, you hear, definitely no doubt about that. You hear a. I'm sure he would. I mean, you hear, yeah, definitely. No doubt about that. You hear a ton about Spencer Didwitty. I mean, even he just the other day was saying like he wanted to be the leader early in the year and was told to stop.

And there's been a lot of talk recently. I believe I said on the mismatch last week. Like, yeah, he's the guy that could be on the way. Teammates don't love him there. So, but like, what are you going to get back for Spencer Didwitty? What are you going to get back for some of these guys? Daniel Gafford's out of the rotation now.

His Thomas Bryant's back. The team just... I just don't know what you can do to properly build around Bradley Beal as the second best player on your team. How do you get to that point where it's hard enough to find any star at Beal's caliber, never mind somebody better that puts him into the idealized

role for him? It's hard to do. That's why I think trading Beal, if it's there, that's the path to go. I don't, to me, I don't see Beal any higher or lower than Sabonis. So that's another trade that I think I would think about if I was both teams, actually. Because I think they're around the same. I don't think either of them is a top 25 guy, but if you're going to expand the list to top 40, top 45, they're in there. There's one more fun thing about a Beal Simmons thing.

What's more, you've gotten to know Joe House over the last six years. I kind of foist them on everyone that works for us. You're on text with him. You've gotten a feel for his personality. What's more fun

than the thought of Ben Simmons on Joe House's team? From a comedy standpoint, what's going to be better than that? The text would be amazing. It would be incredible. I can't wait. I can't wait. I think knowing House as I have for 34 years and counting, he'll throw himself into Simmons initially and pretty quickly turn on him. That's how it's going to go. All right. I am now up with the second pick in the panic trade deadline draft. I'm glad they're still on the board.

There's no way they're getting a number three. They have lost at the time of this taping six in a row, including one by, I'm doing some math. Ooh, 53 points. That's a tough loss. The Sacramento Kings. I watched them. I don't know why the team was constructed the way it is.

They have too many point guards. They have guys that don't really make sense. They have a team that doesn't seem like it loves playing with each other half the time, clearly needs some sort of a move. I think the vultures have been circling them for two months. I think everybody's trying to steal Hal Burton from them. I think they're smart enough to steer people toward Fox while claiming they don't want to trade Fox. That's my first thing with them. And you can answer this. Is Fox even a trade asset at that contract

where you're paying somebody, not max, but under the max, but still big money to basically be a bottom half of the league starting point guard? And I'm throwing away the stats. I just don't think if he's your point guard, for that money, that means he has to be one of your three best players. And if he's one of your three best players, I think you're

500 or worse. What do you think? I think with Fox, it's similar to the names we just mentioned about the Wizards. It's like a Sabonis type. Or maybe even a Brandon Ingram as a surprise name, something like that. You could also go the other way and say maybe Sacramento should trade

Fox for multiple pieces and multiple picks rather than the one big name player like a Ben Simmons because for a long time, that's what it was. Everybody's talking Fox for Simmons and you get the Woge report saying they've pulled out. They don't feel like it's realistic to get Ben Simmons. Are you buying the Woge report saying they've pulled out. They don't feel like it's realistic to get Ben Simmons.

Are you buying that? Or do you think they could easily just slide right back into the Simmons sweepstakes? I am way more down on Fox as a trade asset than others. In other words, Fox can't even get them into it. You're saying they're going to get picks for him? I don't

see it. I think Ingram, Sabonis, Beal, I think he's a level below that with the contract. I agree with you for what it's worth. So like the Celtics, if I wake up tomorrow and it's like, we've traded Marcus Smart, Jason Richardson, and Aaron Neesmith for De'Aaron Fox, I would like flip out. I'd be like, what are we doing?

Why are we doing that? I love the Jason Richardson shout out. Oh, yeah would flip out. I'd be like, what are we doing? Why are we doing that? I love the Jason Richardson shout out. Oh, yeah. Josh Richardson. My dad calls him Jason Richardson and now I'm doing it. He's infected me. It's rubbing off. So I do think, though, they should trade. They should try to trade

Fox if they can. The Knicks, who will be coming up in this draft, are another panic trade candidate who need, you know, I could see them trying to move on Fox. But you go around the league and it's shocking how many teams are happy with their point guard, you know. And I think that's the biggest problem when you're trying to trade somebody like Fox is like, here's a guy who's making big money at the most stacked position in the league. Like Dallas, everybody seems to think they're going to trade Jalen Brunson or they might. And if I could have Jalen Brunson

for what he's making this year, and then I can sign him to like a four for 60 or four for 70, I'd much rather have that than De'Aaron Fox for like 35 million a year. So I think they're a little handcuffed because everyone's just coming for them for Halliburton. And I think they're smart enough to realize we shouldn't trade this guy if this many people are asking about him. I wouldn't trade him.

Would you? I would not trade Halliburton. I wouldn't. I would not feel good about even trading him for Ben Simmons for that matter. Me too. I just wouldn't feel good about that. I think Halliburton is one of those guys who has all the winning qualities you look for. I mean, you see him taking some of those sidestep three-pointers that he's been hitting the last month or so, especially over the weekend. This guy is showing flashes of being more than

just a good defender, a good passer, a good spot-up shooter. He's showing the flashes of a guy who can generate a shot for you at the end of the clock. Like one of the best players on your team. And with Fox, look, Fox is a good player. And I believe we've talked about him before is like, we, neither of us love him as a player, but he's a good player.

I mean, like if you're, if you're getting creative here for Sacramento, when you're panicking, you don't feel good about what you have. What, what is it that you might be looking for here? Cause like,

I'm thinking about like the teams that might need a point guard could it be like maybe new orleans somebody like that like what more are you giving with dearon fox to get brandon ingram like how much more does it take to close that gap that's the type of stuff that i'm thinking about if i'm a kings fan like how could we trade dearon fox into something better that fits this team. Fox reminds me of a super rich man's version of my issue with Dennis Smith Jr. when he was on Dallas and everybody was telling me he was an asset. So he's averaging 21 and five this year, right? I think there's a lot of guys in the league. I call this the Jeremy Grant role. If you're going to get the minutes and the possessions and the shots, there's a lot of guys who I think can get to 20 points a game. He's shooting 24.8% from three.

When you watch him at the end of the games, I never liked the decisions that he makes, you know? And I think if your point guard can't shoot, you just become way easier to stop. So I'm like, let me ask you this. If they went, let's say they wanted to just get out of the contract because they're going nowhere anyway. And they go to Houston and they say, Fox, John Wall, give us Shangoon, give us some sort of

pick swap, you know, next four years, something like that, or one of those Brooklyn picks. And they basically just like, here, take De'Aaron Fox. He's a good point guard. You'll like him. You don't really have a point guard, but really it's a way just to get out of that contract for overpaying for it. I think they like Fox more than that. But I would honestly be thinking about stuff like that with them. I mean, that's similar to what I was suggesting, I think, with player-pick combination. So rather than the one big name, not Sabonis, not Simmons, it's like a salary filler in return with the pick or a young player I think almost like taking back a mistake or a semi mistake with the picks you know well I mean like the thing is is like everything we're saying here

you don't want to do that deal like you don't feel good about doing that deal if you if it comes to that and what the Kings have a lack of options that's the way I feel about both these teams we've talked about the Wizards there's really a lack of teams that would's the way I feel about both of these teams we've talked about. The Wizards, there's really a lack of teams that would feel great about dealing for Beal. Same thing with Fox.

For different types of reasons, Fox already has the contract, Beal wants the contract. But with either of those guys at a stacked position for that size player, that point guard, shooting guard player, I just don't know how many teams out there would feel good about trading

for either of them right now. And that might just keep them in the situations that they're in because you don't feel good about anything. For the people listening, Fox is 28.1 this year, 30.3, 32.6, 34.8, and then 37.1 in 2025-26.

That's rough. Sacramento, I think Barnes is, I think they should trade a Barnes a year ago. I think they would've gotten more for him, but you know, it's no secret Philly wants to get off Harris. And I'm wondering if you're Sacramento and you're in no man's land and you can't really tank cause you have too many guys, you know, who are, who you're not in the situation like that Houston's in, for example, do you go the other way and maybe go Barnes and Bagley as an expiring for Tobias? And then if you're Philly, you know, that a year from now you're paying Barnes 24 instead of Harris 38. And that gets you a little closer to opening up room for Harden, especially because you can

probably flip Barnes this summer. No? Yes? Maybe? Well, in that case, what else is Sacramento getting here? They're just getting Harris. Getting Harris. That's it. Just Harris. They're like, Harris is a good player. 20 points a game. But also, he's a long-term salary.

I'd want more back in that case. They're screwed anyway. You might as well pay Fox and Harris I want more than that I know what the Sixers are angling for here they can give out more give me more than that Darryl all right come on get some picks too all right how are they still on the board the Los Angeles

Lakers wow everybody's panic about right now 24 and 27 and so know, I was watching them. Is Frank Vogel trying to lose his job? Like sometimes that's just comes to my mind watching him. He starts DJ and Wayne Ellington the other night. Can you blame him? I mean, he sits on

starting Avery Bradley every game. He plays 20 minutes every night. Bradley can't stop anybody anymore. He's nowhere near what he was in his prime, which is a shame to say. I used to like watching Avery Bradley. I know. A lot of of him i just again with the lakers some of the lineup choices i also like you said can you blame him what options does he really have um but playing austin reeves more than every rally on a nightly basis would be nice not starting deandre jordan would be great uh not playing wayne ellington at the three would be a start as well. So with this Lakers team, though, again, I just don't know what the moves are.

You can only trade one first, not until 2027. Where are the moves that are available for the Lakers? I don't know what the options are here for them, but I am panicked because the team does need changes. Did you love when they gave Westbrook the let's scratch LeBron NAD and let Russ cook and see if it improves his trade value? Game the other day? I love that.

You think that's what it was there, Bill? Improving his value for who? For which team? I don't know. I don't know who would even be watching. By the way, I was listening to Zach's podcast with Bobby Marks. Shout out to Zach.

He's got some family stuff going on. Hope everyone's better on that front. They were talking about the Lakers are offering Taylor Horton Tucker in the 2027 first round pick. And they were like, this needs a name, this pick. I was thinking it should be called the THT 2027. Because it sounds like a pill. Or it sounds like a pill or it sounds like, like an erectile drug or something. Like I took the THT 2027. I feel much better. That's

what they're offering around. I'm kind of, I, one of them said this and I think I agree. I'm not against the 2027 Lakers pick. Like I wouldn't like just dismiss that, you know, Davis will be 34 at that point. Who even knows who's going to be on that team? I do think that isn't the worst thing. I just don't like THT, but you know, if, if I had somebody, you know, like, let's say they offered that to the Celtics for Marcus Smart, I wouldn't do it, but I'd at least have like a meeting about it. You know? So I don't think that offers nothing. Other than that, like you said, what are their moves?

Because unless the Knicks talk themselves into Westbrook as a way to dump some of the free agent mistakes they've made over the last two years, I don't see a path for them to trade Westbrook. Houston's not going to take them. That's stupid. They're trying to tank. Unless they get that 2027 first.

Stein reported that they would love to take. Unless they get that 2027 first. Stein reported that they would love to take Westbrook in that pick for Wall. Unless that is the move. Yeah, but if I'm the Lakers, why am I doing that? That's not helping me close. They're a nine seed right now. I think it would be far fetched for them to win the title anyway.

You're only doing that if the intel is so strong and so reliable from Clutch that your interests are aligned. Oh, definitely could trust Clutch. They've been so trustworthy. If it seems like Wall could be the better fit than Westbrook, then maybe you do that.

But even then, you gave up so much to get Russ, and then you'd be giving up a 2027 first which you're right about that that first could have value we don't know what who's going to be on this team at that point Luca could be on the team at that point for all we know oh my god you have no idea we don't know so they could be a championship

contender led by Luca and Zion I have no idea it's unpredictable at this point but they could also suck and I think there's definitely value there LeBron has a neat I have no idea. It's unpredictable at this point, but they could also suck. And I think there's definitely value there. LeBron has a knee thing now. He's been a little quiet on this. He's missed a couple games.

He's old. This is what happens with old people who play basketball. We saw this is what killed Jordan on the Wizards. This is what killed Kobe down the stretch with the Lakers the last few years there. His knee started to go on him. This is what happens with old guys who played a lot of minutes. He's over 60,000,

and they had to put a lot of minutes on him just to kind of stay in the top 10 in the West. And maybe they put too many on him. I would not, if it's Wall for Westbrook in the 2027 first, I'm not doing that. Plus, we have no idea if Wall can even play up the ball as a point guard. I would be more focused on

what can I get from the Knicks. And then if I'm the Knicks, who you took the Lakers, I'm taking the Knicks in the four spot in our panic draft. They got to do something. Isn't Westbrook

kind of an interesting move for them? The Knicks fans are pouring gasoline on themselves right now. No. Bring them in. He'll get some stats. He'll re-energize MSG. It's better than what we've seen. Him and Randall making rolls?

No. No, I'm not that panicked with the Knicks right now. Okay. I'm feeling calm because R.J. Barrett has looked really good this past month. And with New York, I'm mostly concerned with the development of their younger guys, Quentin Grimes, Obi Top, and Emmanuel quickly. And of course, RJ,

23 points this last month, 40% from three, over six free throw attempts per game, good defense. It's one of his best stretches of his entire career. And I think despite the fact that Evan Fournier is underwhelming, Kemba, Julius Randle looks like the former guy before he signed this max contract last season when he was rightfully all NBA. He does not look the same.

But the youth is what matters. And I think with New York, some of these other pieces, these bad contracts are really just placeholders for potential sign and trades in the years to come. Westbrook expires next year. So you could argue that's an even better placeholder because it's this giant expiring. And maybe that could be the logic in doing it where it's like, okay, we get this fun guy here for a year. Fun with an asterisk. Yeah, quote-unquote fun.

Fun for a little while the idea is fun but in theory you're really just gonna be face palming a lot as you watch him play and brick shots off the glass but with like he does expire you're right in 2023 so maybe if he thinks you open up a whole bunch of cap space instead and you roll those dice again and hope somebody wants to come to your team and maybe 2023 would be better timing than it was when they tried it with Katie and Kyrie because now RJ Barrett looks better and some of these other young players could look more appealing to share the court with to a star.

Well, I hadn't seriously thought about it until Bobby Marks brought it up on that Zach pod I was listening to and I almost drove into a car. I was driving because I was like first I was incredibly jealous. I hadn't thought of it. And then second, I started talking myself into it. I see who's making the case.

I was like, yeah, all right. If you're the Lakers, you're getting multiple guys who might be able to help. And more importantly, you're getting off Russ. Who were the names you mentioned? Like Fournier, Randall, that type of thing? Like a Fournier, Kemba, Burks. Those three. That's it.

Jeez. I mean, you traded like Kuzma, said goodbye to Caruso. Yeah. Well, you made a mistake. Sometimes in life you make mistakes. But see, this is my thing like this is my thing and and like with russ can't why is it so unreasonable to expect him to change though

like isn't isn't that your best bet isn't that a better bet than getting kemba and alec burks that russell westbrook takes like five shots per game in the playoffs and puts his whole heart into defense and screening and cutting and just like five years. I know. Why can't he start? Why can't he start again? Like, why can't he change who he is? I just I don't

I know. When my wife decides my son's finally getting in, he cleaned his room yesterday and then like a week later, you go in there and it's like a bomb went off in there. You know, with the other interesting thing

with the Knicks fans, they're really surly about Randall. I have a few Knicks fans in my life. And it's not just that he's regressed to like Randall from three years ago, but the body language, like the non-leader stuff

and they just don't like watching him and they don't like the way he's acted and carried himself. And they can't trade him to wait, wait. Cause they gave him the extension. When is he? I think it's like a week before the deadline he's eligible. Right. I believe, I believe it's like February 2nd, 3rd. That's the date. Well, he reverted back. I don't, I don't know what happened to him last year. I believed, as did you. It seemed like something

clicked, and now it's unclicked. Who do you have with the fifth pick? Fifth pick in our panic draft, the Utah Jazz, 4-12 in 2022. Quinn Snyder said it the other day. He had a pretty good quote talking about their small ball lineups.

He says, we're 30th when we're small and we're first when we have a center. And I mean, it's kind of true because like this team is just, we have seen this past month how horrible this team is without Rudy Gobert. And like when you remove that center from this team, they just have nobody else that can stop the ball on the perimeter. And if Gobert, even if he is on the court, we saw what happened with the Clippers last year when teams space him out and take them out of

their typical pick-and-roll defense where Gobert's near the paint. And you look at this team, they've been so close for years in terms of getting to the third round in the NBA playoffs, but now it's at a point, and unfortunately, Joe Ingles, even before, what looked like a serious injury on Sunday, we don't know what happened yet. I mean, he's had a point, and unfortunately, Joe Ingles, even before what looked like a serious injury on Sunday,

we don't know what happened yet. I mean, he's had a long time. That looked horrible. Yeah. And he was not good before that. He looked like a total shell of his former self, which is unfortunate to say after he was so good for so long with the Jazz. But that speaks to where they are right now with their perimeter defense. Jordan Clarkson can't stop anybody.

Mike Conley hustles. Daniel House signed a 10-day contract. He's looked pretty good. Royce O'Neal is solid. But other than that, the effort or the ability just isn't there in the perimeter. And unless the Jazz can find something on the trade market, a la Josh Richardson from Boston,

somebody like that I've heard they have interest in, but that was prior to the Ingles injury. For the Utah Jazz, they got to find somebody who can be a stopper on the perimeter. Jeremy Grant maybe from Detroit put together some assets for that, but they have to make changes or else this team is going to just be a complete pretender again, except even worse than the past. I think I was at the fork in the road game for them that Clippers game last summer. And that I think I was at the fork in the road game for them, that Clippers game last summer. And that was why I was down on them this year.

I thought that was, that felt like some sort of moment. And now I think, you mentioned how Ingles had looked old even before he got hurt. I was thinking like when they call boxers, when they say he's an old 33 when you're a boxer, old 31 means you've been fighting since you were like 15.

I'm starting to think Australians might be like that. Joe Engel's 33, but he's Australian. It's an old 33. We don't know what's going on. Physical Australian pickup basketball is probably putting a lot of miles on it,

but I'm with you. Della Vadova. Della Vadova winning championships out of the league before we know it. Andrew Bogut just gone at like age 32. Yeah, so there were some Clarkson buzz with them too

that they were kind of quietly figuring out what he was worth out there. And they definitely seemed like everybody on this team was available except for the top four, Gobert, Mitchell, Conley, Bogdanovich. I think everybody else was gettable. But now with Ingles out, now

ironically, he's an expiring contract. So, you know, in a weird way, now he just becomes this vessel used to get somebody else. But could this be the place that the Celtics dump Jason Richardson?

Or Josh Richardson? One of the two. Maybe. Maybe. And maybe you get something back in addition to that. Yeah, maybe you get like a late addition maybe you get like a like a late first that they could take a guy who will never protected late first yeah something like that exactly something that could be combined in other deals to get get you a good return for yourself it's

there bill i don't know i mean i don't know what the options are for utah there's there's not a lot out there in terms of wing defense because everybody wants wings who can shoot threes and get stops. Everybody wants them. I'm already dreading the Donovan Mitchell starting to get itchy stories. And by the way, Danny Ainge, I was watching them the other day and there was some terrible call that went against the Jazz and they're cutting to somebody yelling. And in the background, you can see Danny Ainge wearing a mask, very upset about the call. How about that? That he pulls with the Celtics the whole, yeah, I'm done. I'm just worn out. I'm done. I'm retiring. And all of us are like,

his buddy's buying the Jazz. He's going to go work for the Jazz. Like, I'm done. It would honestly be like if Joe House bought the jazz and I'm like, I leave Spotify. I'm like, I'm done. I'm washed up. I got nothing left. And they're like, all right, good to see you. And then eight months later, I'm working for the jazz. That was Danny Ainge. And if I'm the Celtics, I'm upset about it because I think they did them a solid.

They hired a son. You know, I think they took care of him. And now all of a sudden he's on the Jazz? It's kind of weird. They should give us Joe Ingles in a first-round pick for Richardson to make up for it. Besides the Celtics or a team in Los Angeles,

which team would you most want to run? Oh, that's a great question, KFC. I'd want one of the needier franchises where if you came through for them, they'd really appreciate you. Hmm. Right? So let's see.

What will you go? I'm going to think. What would be your dream team? Besides LA or Boston? Yeah. Huh. Hmm. Who's needy?

Who's looking needy? What fans would be super grateful? I look at it like whenever I would pick teams in franchise mode and Madden or 2K, it was always about the team that would be a fun project

to make it work. I think Portland would be a lot of fun to me. Oklahoma City with all their picks. Just imagine how what a good time you could have with all of those picks. You could get any player you want

that's available on the market. That would be a good time to run the Thunder. Do you have to live there? What was that? Do you have to live there if you run OKC? Remote work is pretty great these days. Oh, I got one. I'll be

on the road a lot still in college. I wrote a column like 15 years ago about how I wanted to take over the Bucs because I like Milwaukee. I think the Bucs will be good. You get Giannis for the next 10 years. I know their GM is a good one. So do you want a needy team though, Bill?

They already have won the title. Minnesota would be the one because needy franchise and you get Anthony Edwards, who's just an absolute delight. Oh, yeah. I just absolutely love... I saw him on one of the NBA shows this week.

Just a delight. Great interview. Like watching him play. Irrational confidence guy. Facts it up. I'd most love to run the Knicks, though. The Knicks would be number one. That would be fun.

Yeah, that would be amazing. But do you have to work for Dolan? Yeah, sure. Right or wrong, he lets his front offices do what they want for the most part. That's how some of the Phil Jackson mistakes happen. That's how it's become Team CAA with Leon Rose.

I mean, if he lets them do what they want, I'd want that freedom from an owner. That's fair. Last pick of the draft. I'm taking the Celtics. I tweeted this on Friday night that they're basically 500 since the playoffs started in the bubble, but they're 500 in a crazy way. We're in the playoffs. They're 11, 11 last year, they went 36 and 36. And yesterday until when they beat new Orleans has changed, but they were 25 and 25. So it was like the definition of mediocrity

for almost 300 games or 150 games. Tatum-Brown thing, who knows? Everybody says, no, no, no. And I'm good with it. On the same time, who knows? We've learned never to rule anything out in sports. My guess would be Marcus is a more likely one if they're going to break the team up.

They might try to do stuff around the fringes with the Richardson contract, which goes to next year. Schroeder there is clearly going to get traded at some point. And then Time Lord, who knows? But I know they can't be happy with the nucleus as is. So what do you think? Yeah, no doubt about it.

I mean, with Boston, I'm keeping Tatum and Brown together. Who knows, as you said, but I'd love to keep those guys together, at least for one more calendar year. Yeah. Until maybe next year's deadline or next offseason. One more year with those two and see how you can figure it out around them. I mean, to me with Boston, I think a lot of their potential changes could happen over the summer when you have some non-guaranteed deals

or upcoming expiring contracts. That could be the time for them to strike with something that actually makes notable change for the team. Because right now, with the state of the trade market, I'm curious what you're hearing in terms of how...

Do you think there's going to be a lot of impactful movement, needle moving trades that happen because at the moment it's it's really unclear for me when I'm thinking about these teams with what the the good options are I just don't see a lot of great options out there for a team like the Celtics to move Marcus Smart I think Indiana is going to absolutely do stuff we didn't mention them as a panic team because they're in a good spot.

They're not really panics. Yeah, they're going to be like a bottom seven team. They know they have to trade Sabonis and probably Turner. To me, Brunson is the most interesting piece out there from an asset standpoint because I don't even know how

to properly quantify the asset. Right. This year he's making 1.8, but he's an unrestricted free agent because of this deal he signed. They have the ability, I think to sign him for like four for 55, but other teams, if they signed him and if they maneuver their cap and their tax correctly,

they could pay him more than the four for 55. And I think there are teams that like him and think if this guy was an actual run the team point guard on my team, he might blossom. And he looked really interesting when Luca wasn't in there. You know, so if you're the Knicks, you're the Celtics,

a couple of these other teams, and that's the thing with Brown and Tatum. And I've said this before, like, I just want to see them with a point guard who knows how to actually run a team before I decide they can't play together. And there was a story this weekend about Marcus smart takes umbrage when people say he's not a true point guard. Marcus,

we love you. You're not a point guard. You're not. Sorry. You're not. You don't know how to run a team. You just don't. So Brunson,

I think has that. I think he has the DNA and I, I think he's a really intriguing asset I don't know if the Celtics are the team that have the stuff to give back but I'm assuming

you would have to take back at least one contract you know whether it's Klieb or Powell I don't know I don't even really know what Dallas would be looking for

but it doesn't make sense to me if they think they're gonna lose him to not trade him and it's always been a weird fit with him anyway. So what do you think about Brunson? I mean, I love Brunson.

Me too. And if I'm Dallas, I'd want to make it work with him and Luka. I mean, like you said, Brunson had a great month with Luka out. He was averaging 21 points, seven assists. He did a good job running that offense. He's been solid on defense for that team. The cohesion between him and luca could build over time as luca gets more acclimated playing off ball i'd love to see luca do more

of the stuff that he did back for riel madrid like just pull up clips of him he'd be bouncing around off ball staying attentive and focused and cut to the rim like luca luca for riel madrid if he can just take take some of that back and bring it into what he does now, he could be a threat with and without the ball. And having a point guard like Brunson next to him would be ideal. For Dallas, though, there's definitely fear in keeping him. And a team like the Knicks, the connections there are definitely strong. But maybe that's why a team needs to pounce on him now. And with Dallas, this is unrelated to brunson i've heard

they like john collins with atlanta they pursued him in his restricted free agency he's a guy that they want to target so maybe maybe if you're getting let's just say if you have the intentions of getting john collins a big like that and you're flipping a dorian finney smith and a maxi cleaver something like that if you're then flipping Brunson elsewhere, there's a need for ball handling. There's a need for a wing. And Boston's pretty interesting there when you consider if you are giving back a Marcus Smart or a Richardson or a Schroeder,

whatever it might be, there's some pieces there that could work. But ultimately, I think Brunson's going to have strong enough of a market. I don't see Boston having enough assets to get it done, unless they go over the top with picks, because that could be appealing for Dallas, too, so they actually have ammo to make other moves. Well, it could be. We haven't established that Atlanta might like Marcus Smart, right?

That's been out there. We haven't established that they might trade John Collins. So maybe there's something that has Marcus and something else and John Collins to Dallas and Brunson and a contract to the... Something... I just feel like something will happen with that

because if they can only pay him $455,000, it reminds me a little bit of the Harden-OKC situation 10 years ago where they could only pay him four for 60, but he knew if he went out there, he'd get like five for 90 from Houston or whatever. And he just knew there was more money if he didn't stay. And I think this is a similar situation. But the X factor, this is Dallas is playing well, you know, and do they even want to do anything or do they want to just try to talk him is playing well. You know, and do they even want to do anything

or do they want to just try to talk him into staying? Or, you know, who knows? Could it be like when Cuban worked some of his chicanery? Like when he had Dirk playing for half of what he was worth for like five years. We still don't know what was going on. But who knows? Maybe he could pull something off.

All right. Who should we apologize to that weren't panic trade teams? We didn't say Atlanta, but Atlanta has been winning lately. Yeah, they won like seven in a row. Yeah, I don't think they count as a panic team anymore. Yeah. I'm going to throw one last one out and then we'll go. I'm really interested to see what happens with the Clippers

because I do not believe the Paul George stuff at all. I think they're full of shit. I don't think he's coming back this year. He has a legitimate elbow injury that if he played other sports, he'd be out for a year. I don't see why he would come back if he needs surgery.

The only way he would come back is if he felt like he had a chance to make the finals, but that would hinge on, can Kawhi come back? We haven't heard anything from Kawhi. It's like, oh, he's doing better. If I'm them, I'm going the other way.

I'm a seller right now. I'm shelving Paul George. The reason I bring this up is I got my season ticket renewal thing really early this year. January 31st was the deadline to whatever before get in now. And I'm like, January 31st? We have three months of the season. When is it usually? When is it usually for season?

Later. Definitely have never gotten in January before. And they're like, Oh, we have the new stadium coming in 2025. You're going to want in on this. And I'm like, Oh,

you guys must be nervous that guys aren't coming back. I would be a seller. I, to me like Morris, Reggie Jackson, maybe even Canard. They have guys that I think could net them some stuff and maybe they could recoup some picks and they could even recoup some picks and just toss away this year. What's going to happen this year? They're not winning the title this year. What do you think of that? Yeah, so I'm writing about the Clippers on Monday for the ringer. Oh, there you go. In that I mentioned, so you mentioned Reggie Jackson. I've heard he's a guy they prefer to keep, like they like him on the team.

But it sounds like Ibaka, Bledsoe, and Morris are the three most likely veterans on that team to be dealt. But really though, Morris is the only one of those three that would interest a contender or a team with playoff hopes blood so maybe not so much ibaka not at this stage of his career right now um but you know those salaries are interesting canard has some value like you said canard could maybe you combine a young prospect like keon johnson um into a trade to have some value there but for the clippers I'd be looking for picks as well in return, though. I do want to raise this question for you. What about John Wall? Also a free agent in 2023.

The Clippers are looking for a point guard. You could combine Bledsoe plus Ibaka plus Morris to get to 43 million, which is right there for John Wall at 44 million. If you're the Clippers, you're not getting Brunson. What does Schroeder do for you? Dragic, there's probably too much interest league-wide. And somebody like him, Kemba doesn't do anything for you. John Wall might present the highest upside

for the Clippers with any options out there. And he doesn't necessarily make you better the rest of this regular season either. So you could, you know, you could, you know, maybe not. it doesn't matter if you put it this way it doesn't matter if you lose right now because you don't have your pick it doesn't matter if you win right now because you might not be getting kawaii and paul george back this would be about getting john wall right for next season or april when those guys do end up returning right now now, they're a seven seed. They're 26-26. Portland is 21-29, so they're

well behind. I mean, there's a world that they can alternately tank and stay alive, at least for the playing game. But nobody's been able to explain to me how Paul George is playing again this year. You have a torn UCL. How do you come back from that? And if you can play in pain with a torn

new sailor, why aren't you playing now? So that's why I think they're rope-a-doping us a little bit here with this. And I do not think we're going to see him again. That might be the case, but ultimately for them, there's no incentive to lose. Unfortunately, you just don't have your...

Well, they don't have their pick. It doesn't matter, but for them, I think they're in a position where they're just in an evaluation phase. They don't have your you know well they don't have their pick right so it doesn't it doesn't matter but for them i think they're in a position where they're just in an evaluation phase they they don't have to play to win they don't have to play to lose um they're just about like figuring out who's going to stay who's going to be a part of this team moving forward and how how are they going to build around leonard and george and like that again like with so many of these teams what are the options John Wall might really be one of the better options for the for the Clippers and Stein

said it last week on his sub stack that they have interest that there's a buyout Kelly Iko at the Athletics said that they expressed interest in trades earlier this summer earlier this season so they've at least indicated some level of interest in Wall as a point guard to target for that team.

That'd be quite a risk, but there's some upside there. Lesser role for John Wall playing next to Kawhi and Paul George might not be so bad. I don't care about not having my pick and what my record is this year if I can't win the title anyway. Because that pick's gone. I thought actually that was one of the smarter things Brooklyn did when the Celtics had all their picks. At some point, they're like, what are we going to do? Those things are gone.

But what can we do that's the best for our team right now? And if you're the Clippers, the best thing they can do is kind of get rid of some of these expensive role guys and try to at least get a couple assets back for them. Totally. You look at Clippers in Houston, Walls making 44.

And if you just did Bledsoe and you did a Baca and Morris. Yeah, I guess all it takes. Yeah. But then you lose Morris. Like I would want Morris for next year. Right. You could do Jackson in place of Morris. But if you lose Morris. Like, I would want Morris for next year, right? You could do Jackson in place of Morris.

But if you do Morris, theoretically, let's say he slides into, I don't know, like a trade exception for the Pelicans. Maybe you get a pickback or something like that as well. Or something of value. But what if you rerouted Kennard to somebody else? And that's a possibility too. Like, there's different combos for sure.

And they gave you some pick back and then you took that, whatever the expiring contract is. Like they can send Kennard to Utah or the Celtics or whoever and just send whatever contract they're getting back. Anyway.

Don't you want to keep Kennard if you're the Clippers? I like Kennard. Maybe. He's been a little feisty lately. Yeah. I like the combination of those guys if it works the way it could on paper.

All right. All right. This was fun. KSA, I look forward to reading your guys if it works the way it could on paper. All right. All right, this was fun. KSA, I look forward to reading your Clippers piece. Good to see you. We can hear in the MISPatch three times a week. And next week you're coming out and we're doing an all-day trade deadline thing, which is going to be next Thursday.

So 10 days away. Try to hydrate, work up, maybe put some oil in your beard so your beard looks nice and spicy. Get some water right here. Yeah. All right. right here. Yeah. All right. Good to see you.

Thank you, Bill. That's it for the podcast. Thanks to Sal. Thanks to KFC. Thanks to Kyle Creighton for producing. Thanks to Dylan Berkey and Steve Cerruti. I will see you on the Rewatchables on Monday night and I'll see you on this feed on Tuesday.

Until then.