The Bill Simmons Podcast - Curry’s Re-Apex, Jokic/Embiid Debates, Play-in Drama, and Draft Quarterbacks With Ryen Russillo

Episode Date: April 19, 2021

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to discuss this recent stretch of NBA games without superstars like Kevin Durant, James Harden, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and Jimmy Butler. Th...ey also talk about updated MVP rankings, best subplots for the play-in games, the most fun NBA playoff matchups, Stephen Curry’s incredible season, 2021 NFL draft quarterbacks, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:24 Check it out. Recipe Club, only on the Ringer Podcast Network. It's the Bill Simmons Podcast presented by FanDuel. Football is in full action. FanDuel's highest rated sports book is the best place to bet it all. We've been doing pretty well on million dollar picks this year. I love the first month of the season because you have to go into the season thinking, I think Pittsburgh's going to be good. I think the Chargers are going to be good. I think Seattle's going to be good. And then trying to back what you think in those first few weeks and then zag the other way. If you were wrong, you could bet on new and fun markets on FanDuel, like
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Starting point is 00:02:49 We did Mrs. Doubtfire, a movie that made $441 million in 1993. It was an absolute phenomenon. Very interesting rewatch. Stay tuned for that on Monday night. Long Robin Williams discussion in this one. I don't know if we ever really fully broke down Robin Williams before in the rewatchables. So we did it on this night. Long Robin Williams discussion in this one. I don't know if we ever really fully broke down Robin Williams before
Starting point is 00:03:06 on the rewatchable. So we did it on this one. Don't forget about New York, New York with John Jastrzemski. He's been rumored to be maybe having
Starting point is 00:03:16 Jacko on. I'm happy sharing Jacko, not just with America, but with JJ, especially as the Yankees are imploding. Both of them have been
Starting point is 00:03:24 imploding on Twitter. Really, mirror especially as the Yankees are imploding. Both of them have been imploding on Twitter. Really, mirror images of the Yankees this baseball season. Two huge thumbs up from me, except for the Mookie Betts part. Hey, everyone in my life, when Mookie does something awesome in a game, you don't have to text me. I know. I'm aware. I know it's happened. I know it was unforgivable that the Red Sox traded him. It was the biggest reason why I completely ignored the 2020 season. It's indefensible. It remains indefensible. You don't have to text me. If you really cared about me as a friend, as a human being, don't text me when Mookie has a diving catch to close out a Padres game.
Starting point is 00:04:06 Just don't. Leave me alone. I don't want to know. Leave me alone. Let me mourn for the end of the Mookie era on my own pace. All right. Coming up, Ryan, Rocio, and I are going to get together. We get together every other week.
Starting point is 00:04:19 That's about to change because when we get to the playoffs, which now we're suddenly a month away, we'll be going every Sunday night. But Rossell is coming up next. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, taping this close to 7 o'clock Eastern time. I'm on the East Coast. Rousseau's on the West Coast. We're trying to make sense of this, I guess, last 22% of the NBA season where there's really no lessons to be
Starting point is 00:05:05 learned other than saying, cool Phoenix, good job by them. They might get the one seed. You know, you watch these Brooklyn games. They're on national TV today. Durant gets hurt for,
Starting point is 00:05:16 it seems like the 17th time. And we just haven't seen their team together. We haven't seen the Lakers together in a million years. Giannis has been out and beads back for Philly. Um, I just don't have a feel for anything and we're getting dangerously close here to the start of the playoffs. And I, I don't have any hardcore opinions. Do you? No. And I know that's, that's what everybody loves to hear at the start of a podcast. Like I don't really, really feel all that strong about anything.
Starting point is 00:05:47 But that's kind of where I'm at. You know, why would I talk myself out of any of these teams? But then why would I give anyone the benefit of the doubt other than if LeBron and Anthony Davis are healthy, then okay, all right, that one makes sense. But with Brooklyn, you know, the Durant thing's concerning. The Kyrie part of this was why they were always kind of a tough bet. And, you know, they lose against Miami today. And Bam, talk about what an incredible shot from him,
Starting point is 00:06:07 like sizing it up like a guard and hitting a game winner. But, I mean, you're going to hold that against Brooklyn with no Harden now? So you can't. But I don't know. Maybe this is what it is now, where you just go, all right, whatever. The players seem to be more convinced that none of it matters than any of us do. So if they think they're just going to roll the ball out there and be able to win the East, I guess so. But it's hard to feel like I know what I'm talking about when I don't think I'm going to see results here these next few weeks that mean anything. I was looking at the odds
Starting point is 00:06:38 on FanDuel and they both seem ridiculous, but then also how do we know what's going to be ridiculous? Like Brooklyn is the prohibitive favorite now to win the, uh, when the title they're plus two 20 and the Lakers are plus three 50. I have no idea what we're, what we're getting from Brooklyn in the playoffs, but I also can't argue that they shouldn't be the favorite Davis and LeBron. Everybody's assuming they're going to come back.
Starting point is 00:07:03 I guess they're second. And then you look like Phoenix is 24-1 to win the title. That's the only team that has seemed like it stayed together the whole year and stayed intact with all their stars and stuff like that. But let's start with the Brooklyn thing really quick. I had some other stuff I wanted to cover because I do have some good topics. But this Brooklyn thing where Durant just every every time he plays, there's some, either it's a minor injury or it's maybe not as minor as they're letting on or whatever.
Starting point is 00:07:30 He got kicked in the leg today. And as we've covered before, he hasn't really played a meaningful playoff game in two years, other than when he came back for the, uh, for the brief finals thing in 2019. At what point do we just go, all right, this seems really uncertain. Like, yeah, on paper, Durant, Kyrie, Harden, it's great, but we just haven't seen them play basketball together. And I think to just kind of do this on the fly when they don't have the backbone of the experience of all playing with each other, I think it's a lot to ask. And I only bring this up because again, they're the prohibitive favorites right now. So you're bringing up the favorite number there. Cause I think when we're agreement that seems to be putting a lot of faith into them, right? Yes. Vegas to have that number
Starting point is 00:08:17 where you're like, man, you have them that far ahead of the Lakers. So I'm with you there. Or maybe, you know, maybe we're making it too complicated that when those three guys are playing together in the sample that we've seen seen even times they didn't have Durant and Harden was still crushing it where he was you know legitimately an MVP candidate again which seemed impossible for him after playoff failures because I think that's something voters would would hold against a player um but you know I guess the next part of it is like, so am I supposed to pick Philly? You know, Milwaukee could go undefeated the rest of the regular season. And it seems like nobody wants to buy into them at all.
Starting point is 00:08:53 Like, I feel like Milwaukee is never brought up as even an option to win the East. And that feels dismissive. Yes. They're plus three 50 to win the East. Philly is plus four 40 to win the East. Brooklyn is minus 110. So they're basically even money. I obviously most people are looking at this Brooklyn thing and you're even hearing really smart basketball people like Jackie was on my podcast the other day saying like, Hey, those three guys are out there. That's one of the best offensive teams of all time. Hard to refute.
Starting point is 00:09:35 I just don't know if we're getting that out there. But to me, those three teams I feel like have as good of a chance. And I'm with you on Milwaukee. I, they've, you know, Giannis has not involved in the MVP discussion. He had a, he missed a couple of games, so that made it a lot easier, but just in general, I think people have just pushed them to the side and that's it. And they're over there. And by the way, Denver's over there now too, because of the Jamal Murray thing, but I think that's a little more fair. Well, the Murray thing's totally fair. And you know, when you start sizing up the Lakers path, if those guys are healthy, which again,
Starting point is 00:10:05 we're all just dealing with the assumption that they're going to be healthy. Davis cleared for encore activity and all that kind of stuff. And then it's LeBron. So you're just like, all right, fine. As tough as the West could have been on paper for the Lakers, there's also a version where you look at it and go, okay, well, you really trust the Clippers against them? No. Denver, now without Murray, they're just an afterthought. They're going to be. I mean, even with Michael Porter Jr. putting up these huge scoring numbers lately. But if we take it back to the East, Milwaukee feels a little bit like Toronto prior to Kawhi getting there. And I don't know why that is, at least for me, because I felt like when Toronto wasn't good
Starting point is 00:10:40 and Lowry had those tough stretches and DeRozan and you know even when they had good records and you just were like I can't buy into this team I can never tell if like we're fair or totally unfair with Milwaukee because if you if you count this as like three playoff failures for Giannis is it really that three years ago I mean he's still really young back then two years ago it's Eastern Conference Finals they they blow a 2-0 lead and then last year's a disaster you can blame the bubble but I don't know that they've had enough failures or come up so short of their expectations other than last year. Is that different? You know what I mean? Or is it the exact same thing, and yet I was being open-minded about Milwaukee and dismissive about Toronto? Or is everybody just a little more imperfect than ever heading into these playoffs?
Starting point is 00:11:25 So if Milwaukee is a little bit imperfect, maybe it matters a little bit less than it usually does. We're a month away from the playing games right now. And I'm glad I was going to do this a little bit later, but let's do it now because it's fun. The 7, 8, 9, 10, which I got to admit, I read incorrectly. I didn't realize what the actual rule was where it's like seven versus eight is the first playing game. And then 9-10 is an elimination game. Whoever loses seven versus eight then plays 9-10. I don't know why they're not doing it seven versus 10. But anyway, Miami, who just won this game on a buzzer beater from band today, right now they're still in the seventh spot, but they would play Charlotte and then nine and 10 is basically Indiana, Chicago, Washington, two of those three.
Starting point is 00:12:11 I mentioned this because if Philly gets the one seed and then they're basically playing Charlotte, Indiana, Chicago, Washington, whoever, and then in the second round, they played the four seed, which would be either Boston or Atlanta. I think Philly would have a lot of success with those two. And the two, three seed was Brooklyn, Milwaukee, potentially. This goes back to my, how is Philly plus 440? Because to me, that would be like, I don't think Boston is beating them this year if Embiid is healthy.
Starting point is 00:12:43 I just think they have no answer for him. And we're going to say, if Embiid is healthy. I just think they have no answer for him. And we're going to say if Embiid is healthy this whole playoffs. But if he's healthy, I think they're going to make the Eastern Finals. And you have this Milwaukee-Brooklyn bloodbath, which brings it to your point. Milwaukee could absolutely be Brooklyn in a series if a couple things go their way, right? If Durant's nursing some nagging injury, if Kyrie disappears for game three. There's scenarios where Milwaukee could beat them and they do, you know,
Starting point is 00:13:09 they have holiday to throw a Kyrie. They have Giannis who, you know, is at least the best two way player in that series. And, you know, they're a good three point shooting team. So there's a case,
Starting point is 00:13:19 right? There's absolutely a case. I don't. Yeah. I think we're on the same page with this one too, but I guess they just never, we were so quick, right? There's absolutely a case. I don't, yeah, I think we're on the same page with this one too, but I guess they just never, we were so quick, right?
Starting point is 00:13:28 With any timeline of any star where, and it's going to happen to Zion. If the Pelicans don't win games in a couple of years where you go like, Hey, I thought this guy was awesome, you know? And the same thing that Giannis is going through it right now. We're like,
Starting point is 00:13:38 wait, how many won MVPs? He's putting up all these numbers, but you know, you're not them losing to the heat and it wasn't even close. Uh, still stings. And there's, there's an aftertaste there of their failure where I think it's been incredibly just like, oh yeah, whatever. Like they'll, they'll have stretches where I go, Hey, I like them again. Like I like watching them. I go, Hey, they're good. Why, why are they never ever brought up? And I, I think it is just because of last year where I would argue two years ago. I mean, it's not the worst thing in the world that you blew a lead to, to the Raptors. And you were in the Western conference finals,
Starting point is 00:14:08 you know? So, um, the playing game, are you pro or con? Anti. I've been anti it since the beginning. I think you're going to have a year where you have a seven seed who's won 50
Starting point is 00:14:18 games or something. And then, you know, something stupid could happen and then they're outside of the playoffs. So I know that Cuban voted for it. And then he said he didn't like it. He was talking about just from a minute standpoint of compressing the schedule and everything else and that
Starting point is 00:14:30 they got it wrong. Even though I agree with him that I think it's pointless. Look, if it changes tanking, okay, maybe I'm more open to it, but I don't think you should have a 10 seed that likely won't be a 500 team. It's not an equal
Starting point is 00:14:47 chance to a seven seed getting in there. But my whole point would be like, why are we playing 82 games if then we have this other thing? But people like it. They wanted extra inventory to save revenue. So I understand why they did it. I'm not freaked out about it, but I felt like I was one of the only people that doesn't like it. Yeah, I think if it's 72 games, it makes more sense. And if it was 72 games with a less compressed schedule and the playing games now, now that makes a lot more sense. Here's, here's what I think they could have fixed. I've talked to a bunch of people about this. Some people really hate it. Other people are like, Hey, the playing games are going to be fun. Sorry, I'm going to really enjoy watching Golden State play Dallas for the A-team. Sorry, I'm going to enjoy it. But I think, let's go tanking argument first. So if we didn't have these playing games,
Starting point is 00:15:41 I did all the math. I think 12 teams would be tanking. Well, it would be like 11 plus Chicago. At some point, Chicago would pack it in because they'd be five games behind the eight seed. So it's either 11 or 12. With the playing games, we only have eight teams that are tanking right now. And I'm including two teams that haven't officially started tanking at San Antonio and Toronto. Toronto's won their last two. They're not officially tanking, but I feel like they've taken the tanking gods to the bar a couple of times. They've done some drinks. They've talked about future plans. San Antonio, what do they care if they make the playoffs? It's not like anything's going to happen. So I would say probably maybe eight teams are tanking. So to me, the fact that it's eliminated, I don't know, 40% of the tanking,
Starting point is 00:16:29 that's a positive, right? No? Yeah, it is a positive. And that's the part of it that I'm good with. And I also think that tanking, I don't know if it's strictly because the playing game being there, but I think a team like Chicago
Starting point is 00:16:43 or some of these other teams, certainly Sacramento, the way Golden State talked about their season and trying to gear up for it, that even without the playing game being there, but I think a team like Chicago or some of these other teams, certainly Sacramento, the way Golden State talked about their season and trying to gear up for it, that even without the playing game, it feels like there's still a handful of those teams that were just going to try to do whatever they could to make the playoffs
Starting point is 00:16:53 to feel better about the season. Washington. Yeah, Washington. I think Chicago's in there. I think New Orleans is in there. And I watched them blow, you know, probably the 12th, 13th, 14th dumb game they've lost this season. This one was really egregious and then included Stane Van Gundy kind of throwing the
Starting point is 00:17:12 players under the bus after the game, talking about how a high school team would have remembered to guard the three-point line at the end. But New Orleans is a good example for why I kind of like the playing game. They're 25 and 32. They're the 11 seed. They'll probably get to 10. They're really talented. You know, you watch them and I don't know how many times I've watched them this year
Starting point is 00:17:33 where they're up seven with five minutes left. They're up nine with four minutes left and then they'll end up blowing it. They do dumb things. It seems like they have terrible chemistry up and down the line. It's definitely one of the... The body language doctor does
Starting point is 00:17:48 not enjoy the Pelicans. If they're in a play-in game, I'd be afraid of them. Right. No, I would be just because of the Zion factor alone. The guard stuff with them has been such a disaster now for weeks. If you're not really locked in, you'll turn on a Pelicans game going, who the hell is that guy?
Starting point is 00:18:04 And that's what's going on. I mean, they've had a few like, wait, what? Who's that guy, Nadja, the other night? He played like 30 minutes. Yeah, Marshall. He's actually been, I got to tell you, he's had moments where I've been impressed as a guy that is completely off the radar. Yes.
Starting point is 00:18:19 You're really a huge Xavier fan. But I think the chemistry and the lack of consistency is, is related to Zion being the go-to guy where Ingram still so talented and Ingram has moments where it's like, oh, that's why Ingram so good. And then a game like today where you go, eh, you know, it doesn't really bring it. Adam seems hit or miss all the different times, but I'm with you. I mean, that point you made about Ingram kind of like, what did he do? He hit the jumper and Stan went to high five him. It was a, he had a jumper timeout was walking back to the bench and Stan came out and he
Starting point is 00:18:51 kind of had his hand up for the high five and Ingram just was tunnel vision straight ahead. And Stan had to do the, I didn't get the high five. So I'm doing the reach over and hitting your hand thing. And it was like, oh man, this isn't good. And then of course they blew the game at the end. The Stan thing is, is, you know, it's been rough. He's, he's out of 2009 in a bunch of different ways. And, and it just doesn't seem like their games are there. Like
Starting point is 00:19:17 Lonzo, I don't know what he was doing today. Lonzo, somebody that they're talking about it. Could he get a hundred million a year in free agency he was absolutely horrific in that game and then you have Bledsoe taking more shots than Ingram and it's just game Adams is there any other coach that would play Adams 35 minutes in a game that you can think of is there one coach who would do that
Starting point is 00:19:37 yeah I just but yet if they're in the playing game Zion's really good he's scoring 63% of the time you know and then I just, I, but yet if they're in the playing game, Zion's really good. He's scoring 63% of the time, you know, and then the golden state piece is the other. I wrote down my favorite,
Starting point is 00:19:53 my favorite, uh, subplots from the playing games. Cause again, we're a month away. The number one would be Curry versus everybody. And we'll talk about Curry in a second. But,
Starting point is 00:20:03 uh, the fact that we're basically locking Curry into at least one high stakes game, to me is reason to support the playing games. Because there's a scenario where they would just be on the outside looking in because of all the dumb injuries they've had. So that's one for me.
Starting point is 00:20:19 Two is the Beal-Westbrook combo, which I've been taunting House about. House is trying to pretend he's not excited for the Wizards in the playing game. But I don't know. I'm not positive I would want to see them in a playing game just because those two guys would play really hard. And they've been, you know, but they've both been in some pretty high stakes games. So there's two. Three, the third thing I like was the Zion thing, which we mentioned.
Starting point is 00:20:44 They're 2-0. How many are they back now? Two. Oh, the third thing I like was the Zion thing which you mentioned. They're 2-0. How many are they back now? Two. Oh, man. They're four back in the lost column from the 10 seed and two back in the win column from the Spurs. And then the other one, I like Miami and Dallas complaining. I enjoyed that. I like when teams
Starting point is 00:20:59 complain about things that everybody voted for. Everyone voted for this. There was no, there was no discourse when these things came in. Everyone's like, all right, this is going to be a money grab.
Starting point is 00:21:11 Let's go. And then now we're 70% of the season and people are like, Oh, this isn't fair. Blah, blah, blah. It's like,
Starting point is 00:21:17 we knew this. We had all these discussions. You voted for this. Yeah. I think it's just hard, you know, wherever any company, i mean forget the nba any companies like hey do you want to increase revenue and then you're like yeah all right fine
Starting point is 00:21:32 no problem so you know my point when they're when these games are good when there's a steph moment here you know and we're wondering like is this guy going to get into the playoffs because of what what steph's been doing now he's going to end up leading the league in scoring with the tear that he's on. He's right there with Beal, but Beal has slowed a bit. Steph's like 35 a game since the All-Star break. His shooting percentages for somebody who has to do everything now is 52 and 46 on 12.5, three attempts per game. 12.5, and he's in the 40s.
Starting point is 00:22:04 And so Steph is having this run again here for a few weeks, and you're going, this is ridiculous. And there'll be nights where there's another guy out there that you're like, how was that guy even out on the court in a closing group here with Golden State? So the premise is not that I don't like, hey, do you fundamentally agree or disagree with the idea of playing games? Okay, I disagree for my reason that I don't think you should have to play 82 when that many games be a seven seat and have to prove yourself all over again because you got hurt with COVID.
Starting point is 00:22:30 All right. No problem. But it doesn't mean that they're not going to be fun. So like, I'm not going to tweet out, Hey, I was wrong. Game was fun. Like I get, there's always a really good chance that this is going to be fun because of the different storylines. I just think it's, it's excessive.
Starting point is 00:22:46 You're not going to be the guy tweeting about Thanksgiving and Christmas kind of throwing water on that. You're not that guy. Um, no, I don't, you know, be like, Hey, Thanksgiving overrated. Oh wait, we had, that was your boy, right? Wasn't that, wasn't that Michael Schur who just started trashing Thanksgiving and guys were like, starting their day and I think it was because he wanted everybody to stay home but it was like
Starting point is 00:23:08 one of those tweets where you wake up and you're like geez off the top rope man like he's like gravy sucks turkey's dry don't go anywhere
Starting point is 00:23:15 Thanksgiving sucks and I was like man I haven't even gotten a shower yet man Dallas Miami would be the 7-8 Golden State San Antonio
Starting point is 00:23:24 would be the 9-10 so the State, San Antonio would be the 9-10. So the dream scenario would be New Orleans passing San Antonio and we would get Dallas, Memphis, Golden State, New Orleans as the two initial play-in games. Then if Golden State wins and Dallas wins, I guess you would get Golden State for the... I think that's how it works to decide. Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:23:45 Seven plays, eight. Seven plays eight. Seven plays. Dallas would clinch seven if they win. So then Golden State would, I guess, play Memphis. But anyway, having Curry involved
Starting point is 00:23:53 would not be a bad thing. Conceivably, these could be our playoff matchups for round one. Actually, let's take a break because this is too good. This episode is brought to you
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Starting point is 00:25:25 I would Philly's winning that series, but I would enjoy it. I think Westbrook would have a couple moments with him. Bead Beal would have a game where he would score like 49. There would be some classic Scotty Brooks, Doc Rivers moments. I would enjoy the series. Your thoughts.
Starting point is 00:25:43 I want you to expand on classic Doc River Scotty Brooks moments what exactly some clogged toilet offense last four minutes some clogged toilet playoff offense right out of the you know little Brett Brown DNA in there despite maybe Doc's gotten out of that I don't know you know what though you're right this goes back to your old Mello thing that was always a great point is that you said know, if Mello's in a playoff series with LeBron or these other guys, he doesn't look at Kobe and LeBron like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm out here with these guys. I'm with my equals finally. I'm with my equal in a playoff series.
Starting point is 00:26:17 The three bulls at it again, you know. And you're like, actually, dude, you're maybe a notch below these guys. But he never thought that, which I think is a really important thing to have. Westbrook isn't thinking, you thinking, man, I'm slipping. He thinks he can win that series. He's going to be a couple of MVPs. There's been the 1986 Philly-Washington series. We get to see the Dudley Bradley shot.
Starting point is 00:26:41 We get the replays of that. I would enjoy it. Your 2-7 seed if it ended today, it would be Brooklyn, Miami. I'm sorry. That's a really good series, you know?
Starting point is 00:26:49 And if Brooklyn's not a hundred percent healthy, Miami's had kind of the year from hell. There's a world in which they just stink in the playoffs. And we're like, oh, we should have seen it. All the signs were there all year. But on the other hand
Starting point is 00:27:05 if they could heat culture it up get super physical not put Kyrie on the ground a couple times get in hard and smug that's a series I would watch can I ask you something real quick about Dragic my observation of him is he has
Starting point is 00:27:22 perma I can't believe my ex-girlfriend is out to dinner with a new guy face. Have you noticed that about Dragic? This is just the look on his face. Just the look on his face. It always looks like the look of the face of a guy who's out at a restaurant and he sees his ex-girlfriend walk in with somebody new. And he's kind of like,
Starting point is 00:27:40 who's the new one? Kendrick Nunn? No, I'm just saying Dragic in general, not like he's dating anybody but i i don't know i don't know if that replaces i think the best observation face shamit face is all-timer but that's now becoming part of evaluations like teams have told me like we we know shamit face possibilities at the end of our scouting reports but then it was the
Starting point is 00:28:00 raymond felton i slept with your mom's face so face. So I don't know which one's better because it's tough to top Raymond Felton's face where every time you look at him, he thinks like there's something he did to you. There's superiority. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to look for the Dragic face.
Starting point is 00:28:15 All right. Three stakes would be Bucks-Knicks. Now, the Bucks will win that series, but this Knicks season has been inspiring and we'll get to Randall's all-NBA case much later in this podcast. Is Tibbs your coach of the year? It's hard not to go for Monte Williams if they're going to be a one seed.
Starting point is 00:28:35 He'll get it. Monte Williams will get it. But I think, look, I'm sorry. I always geared toward the success piece of it, but the Tibbs thing, to me, that's more of a front office case, but, um, the front office for Phoenix, like you could argue the, uh, the Jay Crowder signing in the Chris Paul trade, those two alone made them contenders. So I don't know. I need to, I want to see where the records are at the end of the year. Last one would be Boston, Atlanta, which would be the worst round one loss of my life.
Starting point is 00:29:08 We've been so hard on Atlanta this year, the irony of Atlanta ending the Celtics season. But that would be the way the Celtics are playing offensively and the way Atlanta has been playing for a few weeks here and the Bogdanovich piece. And I don't know what the fuck happened with Quinn Capella, but that would actually be a really entertaining four or five series. You have those four. I think all four of those are good. Other side could be Utah, Golden state,
Starting point is 00:29:33 Phoenix, Dallas, Clippers, Portland, and Denver Lakers could be your four in the West. My point is we might have a good round one playoff series. I would like to look at the forest through the trees here. And even though this regular season has sucked,
Starting point is 00:29:48 I think the players have not liked it. It's been pretty grim. The playoffs could be good. I'm with you. When you go through all those potential storylines, I mean, granted, you know, there'll be something that we won't get. We'll Charlotte find a way to hang on,
Starting point is 00:30:01 you know, post Hayward now they can't win any of these games. So that's not really working out for them. So maybe they get lapped and they're out of here. I want to go back hang on, you know, post Hayward now they can't win any of these games. So that's not really working out for them. So maybe they get lapped. They're out of here. I want to go back to Boston Atlanta, though, because everyone that when Boston went to the Lakers game, you know, you're looking at the Lakers lineup and to be complimentary of Vogel and the Lakers, too. Like, I can't believe the record that they've had. They're still in more games without LeBron and Anthony Davis
Starting point is 00:30:28 than you would think, which is really impressive. They still defend. Sometimes there really is something to be said about a team and the culture and being like, all right, our main guys are out, but we want to figure out a way
Starting point is 00:30:37 to not have too much slippage. And the best organizations could go ahead and do that. But then you look at Boston, they're winning all these games and I can't get back. I'm still like, man, you needed 50 in overtime to beat the T-Wolves though.
Starting point is 00:30:50 So I can't tell if it's the schedule shaking out the right way and they're just winning the games they're supposed to. In April, they're top five in offense. I think they're top six in defense. But I'm with you. I'd be afraid of Atlanta because Bogdanovich has gone from 11 a game
Starting point is 00:31:04 to 22 a game. And Capella, who I always felt was Harden-dependent, has showed that he's way beyond that. Harden made his life easy, but he's doing some great things. He's doing great things defensively, too. They don't even have Hunter back, which is the thing. They're playing three guard. They're doing Bogdanovich with Young and Herter sometimes. And Bogdanovich has been fantastic.
Starting point is 00:31:28 And I've said that, I said this last week, I'll say it again. The Kings should just be ashamed of themselves. To give up a legit asset for nothing in the NBA is just inexcusable. You can't do it. Like if you're a fan of that team and you're like, hey, what did we get for Bogdanovich? Nothing. You just didn't decide to match. It's not like it was six years, 190 million. It was four for like 85, like match it, trade them in four months. So I think this is the best I've ever seen him play in a wide open offense where he's had the ball. He had the ball when Trey was out for a couple games where you're kind of watching it going,
Starting point is 00:32:05 I don't know if there's any drop-off at all with this. And now that they're out there together, they've kind of figured out how to make everybody happy with it. When Hunter comes back, that team's pretty good. And I don't know whether this was Lloyd Pierce or not, but it's a pretty clear point of they switch coaches and good things happen.
Starting point is 00:32:28 We were talking about it at the time, like, oh, schedule's super easy for them. But you can't kind of argue with the results. They're really explosive offensively, and they can rebound. Defensively, eh. No, but they'll have weird stretches, though, sometimes with them defensively.
Starting point is 00:32:45 And then, you know, there's other games where I watch Danilo and I go, he's toast. And then I'll look and be like, oh, he had a decent shooting night and had 23, you know? And I'll think it wasn't that impressive. And Collins has missed some of these games here, too.
Starting point is 00:32:55 But I'm with you on the Bogdanovich thing. And it's funny, too, for people listening, like, as soon as Bogdanovich had put together this stretch, Bill texts me. He's like, what do you think you could get for Trey Young? Just hypothetically.
Starting point is 00:33:06 I did not do that. Next week. Back to Boston, by the way. I had a friend at the Warriors texted me yesterday. He's like, oh man, I can't believe we're catching you guys right now. You're so hot. I'm like, this is kind of smoke and mirrors. This is basically the same Celtics team the whole season.
Starting point is 00:33:24 It's just Tatum has played better the last couple of weeks. That's really it. And Kemba, who I still don't feel like is close to Charlotte Kemba, but he's been better. He's not a liability. He made a big shot. He made the game winning shot yesterday, which was huge, but their bench is still awful.
Starting point is 00:33:42 I think semi Grant Williams, Romeo, I think they played 54 minutes yesterday combined and had six points. So when Fournier comes back and Jalen Brown comes back, all of those minutes are gone to actual good players. And I'm ready to have the discussion. We need to see this team with Fournier, with Jalen Brown. Let's see their top seven together for two weeks before we start talking about Celtics back. But the one thing
Starting point is 00:34:09 that's undeniable is Tatum is playing harder on both ends. He had, you know, I think it was the combo of the long bubble last year. He got COVID. There's been stories out. He's had trouble with his lungs. He's had to use an inhaler, stuff like that. But he would coast during games. He wouldn't run back on defense sometimes. He wasn't playing as hard on both ends. And now he is. So he went toe-to-toe with Curry last night, and it was awesome. When those guys had the – these guys – I know you watch a ton of league
Starting point is 00:34:39 past. These guys that try to have these moments after the game where it's like, both of your team sucks. This isn't, this isn't like a, the end of the Avengers. Um, you guys aren't that good.
Starting point is 00:34:51 This, the Curry Tatum thing felt real where it was like, Tatum's kind of wanted Curry's approval and Curry gave it to him. And those guys are both really good. Um, anyway, I, I I'm with you.
Starting point is 00:35:02 I, I am a wait and see with the salts. Yeah. Look, if Kemba is going to be good, like he was against the warriors and not, you know, he's the thing with Kemba is he, anyway, I'm with you. I am a wait and see with the Celts. Yeah, look, if Kemba's going to be good like he was against the Warriors and not, you know, the thing with Kemba is he's still taking all these shots. So the nights where it's terrible, and there'll be times where, like, he's getting free, he's coming off that high screen,
Starting point is 00:35:16 he's backing up, you know, how he kind of gets back into his shot attempt, and then, you know, there'll be nights where you just go brick, brick. But you're right, like, you know, Evan Fournier not being around hurt them because then all of a sudden it's all these minutes from guys that there's usually one guy out there that you go, this guy probably shouldn't be playing this many minutes because he just looks like he's lost or he's not doing like semi. He'll have moments in the grand. He's not playing as much now, but whenever he has some big minute nights and you go, is he even shoot? Do you even think about doing anything offensively?
Starting point is 00:35:46 And those guys are just hard to survive with when the other team knows, like this is somebody who's not even looking at the basket. Well, and that's why they need Fournier because in Atlanta score Atlanta series, there's going to be a lot of points, but the kind of thing, the one thing I've noticed with him, he's shooting a little bit better,
Starting point is 00:35:59 but he just seems to be playing harder. And I'm not saying he wasn't playing hard before, but he's more hard-nosed. I've noticed, especially on defense, like he's rebounding more. There's more slash and kick from him. He's just more aggressive. And I think that guy from the first half of the season
Starting point is 00:36:18 was this passive guy who was just shooting jump shots, who was afraid to get his shot blocked, and he was a zero on defense. And that's better now. So Celtics wait and see, but Boston, Atlanta, um, I, the irony of Atlanta knocking the Celtics out, I I'm suffocating on it. Then the other, the other side where, uh, we could have Utah go and stay and there's real signs of, in my opinion, vulnerability with Utah. And the signs were there all year. The reason they had that record was because their best guys just managed to play together the most
Starting point is 00:36:52 in the first half of the year. And that was the flaw and the ointment of, is Utah really a contender? Could they be 2014 Spurs? Or is it a situation where their guys have just played a lot of games together. They seem like, I think Phoenix would have a ton of confidence against them.
Starting point is 00:37:10 The Lakers obviously would. Clippers would. But Golden State in round one, that would be... No way. No way. No, that would be a fun Steph series that he would not win, but he would be heard from
Starting point is 00:37:26 the entire time yeah unless they decided that you know they were going to make sure they just kept two of them the entire time like meet him with two with the south yeah right but you know Steph that was what turned that first championship for him. That's what Cleveland did against him. And then he just gets rid of the ball and then runs to another side of the court and then goes back and gets it. So you have to keep defending him the whole time, which I know goes without saying. But there are nights with the Warriors where I'm watching because of the Steph show
Starting point is 00:37:59 because it's one of those treats. It's one of those stretches in his career where you're like, this is so much fun. But it also is – it's also kind of like that mindset of what we've seen some of these other guys that put up these numbers where I think there were probably 10 guys in the league that go, Hey, if I wanted to do what some of these other high usage guys were doing, I get you 40. I'm not saying we're going to win the game, but like Harden's not the only one that could do this. And I think some people kind of thought maybe Harden was the only one that could do this. And I think some people kind of thought maybe Harden was the only one that could do it.
Starting point is 00:38:25 And it's not the case, but it's still, everything around it is, there's some tough groups out there with them, with Steph now, for the five or six guys. It's bad when Juan Toscano Anderson hits his head and has to leave
Starting point is 00:38:37 and you're like, oh no, what are they going to do without JTK? Yeah, like they need his minutes. And as much as I think, you know, we all appreciate dream on and he'll have nights offensively where there's just nothing.
Starting point is 00:38:50 Like, I don't know if he's doing it on purpose or what. It's weird. His shot really looks awful. He takes shots. If he's not completely set and they might go left or right. It's not just like that. He'll miss be shorter,
Starting point is 00:39:04 miss them. What Curry let's talk about him because so he's, set and they might go left or right. It's not just like that. He'll be shorter, miss them wide. Curry, let's talk about him. He tweaks his ankle with five minutes left last night. I hate when that happens. It happens a lot, especially in basketball, where somebody is just apexing the shit out of a stretch. Then it's like a dumb injury, ankle tweak, somebody steps on your foot, whatever. But in my opinion, it's the best I've ever seen him play. And I've watched his whole career, obviously. Statistically, it's pretty equal to 2015-16.
Starting point is 00:39:40 I think the thing that he added that I just don't remember him having to this degree is this herky-jerky thing he's been doing now where he has the ball in his hands a lot more than he used to. I think in 14, 15, and 16, they were running him off a lot more stuff. This time now with the ball, he's doing this kind of stop and start crossover behind the back. It's just, it's always off balance. It's almost like watching a great running back who's doing like stutter steps and it's herky jerky, herky jerky. It's like Earl Monroe. It's like those old Earl Monroe videos from 50 years ago. And it just seems like he was getting to every single spot he wanted at all times. And then he has this
Starting point is 00:40:21 hair trigger release. It's the best I've ever seen him play. The stats kind of back it up. His last nine, 39 points a game, six and five. He made 68 threes in the last nine games, 55%, 49% from three, 91% shooting. But did you notice the, I can get to any spot on the court and get the shot I want piece these last three weeks in a slightly different way, or am I imagining this? Well, I just think, first of all, you're not imagining it, but he's giving you a complete game because he knows it's the only way they have a chance to win. So whatever he was doing in the construct of the offenses over the years, where he's always the
Starting point is 00:41:00 greatest teammate to play with of the superstar teammates teammates because he still wants you to get yours. He's going to keep setting screens. He's going to keep moving around, repositioning all the time. He plays through every single possession, no matter if he has a ball or doesn't have the ball. And that's just a really rare thing. It's just what he takes pride in and he cares about doing it. And unfortunately, other guys are just like, you know, I'm going to get my 30. I'm not doing all that shit, too.
Starting point is 00:41:22 You know, and to see him now go, there's no one else I have to really worry about getting involved here. So I'm going to be looking to finish at the rim instead of kicking out. I'm going to be looking to take this as soon as I get an inch. I'm going to take this shot off a high screen. And I mean, these numbers are nuts. He's going to lead the league in scoring. As you said, it's 40 a game this month. That's 14 threes per game. And he's shooting 49% on 14 threes a game in their winning bill. And then, by the way, he's getting defended. Oh yeah. This isn't like garbage time shit. This
Starting point is 00:41:58 isn't like, Oh, we forgot he's out there. The other team is concentrating on him kind of, you know, like it's LeBron in a playoff game or something. And he's out there. The other team is concentrating on him. It's LeBron in a playoff game or something, and he's just finding these little windows. It's almost like watching some great receiver who's getting double teamed, who's still figuring out how to get open, even though the defense is like, hey, if we take that guy out, we win. Belichick would look at the Warriors and like, let's triple team Steph. let Toscano Anderson shoot all day. Steph doesn't shoot.
Starting point is 00:42:27 And Steph would still figure out how to get a shot off. It's really magical. He, and it's, we're going to do a segment a little bit tying into this, but, uh, I just love watching them. I watch as much when he's in these modes, I watch more of the warriors than I do of the Celtics. Cause I'm just like, I don't want to miss out. That's how I ended up seeing the Jamal Murray knee injury
Starting point is 00:42:47 the other night because I wanted to see if Steph was going to get 60. You know, you're watching these games that are over with three minutes left. You're like, yeah, you might take two more threes. You're sticking around. Yeah, that's how I act. I mean, I've been watching him consistently now for almost a decade. I mean, there's a couple years, Bill.
Starting point is 00:43:03 I didn't miss a Warriors game. I didn't miss one. And, you know, a couple times this year, I felt like, oh, it's going to fall off. It's going to fall off. And we're going to get to this, I know, because we have this list of guys you loved seeing play. But I don't want to do too much more on Steph
Starting point is 00:43:18 because I need to use some of this for a little bit later on. But whatever those runs that are on, that league pass alert type move, like this has been going on now for a few weeks with him. Well, right now, he's second in career threes. He is about 200 behind Ray Allen.
Starting point is 00:43:36 He'll own that record unless Dame Lillard plays until five years after Steph retires, something like that. 470 playoff threes first all time. He's also one of 47 guys who have shot 40% from three for his career, which is nuts because he's, you know, taking the highest volume of them.
Starting point is 00:43:59 There's been a lot of talk about wasting his last window here. What do they do? I saw Woj on Countdown last night talking about, There's been a lot of talk about wasting his last window here. What do they do? I saw Woj on Countdown last night talking about, do they need to get a guy, this last piece of his prime? To me, I just feel like, to me, this is like a quarterback. This isn't like a basketball player. You almost have to think about it the same way you think about Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay or something.
Starting point is 00:44:22 Steph at 37, I think will be the same guy unless there's some injury coming that we don't know about. The stuff that he does, I just think is going to age the same way it would age for a quarterback. I think the hoops IQ piece of it is even going to get better.
Starting point is 00:44:37 I think he's going to pick up little tricks and his hand-eye coordination is going to stay the same. And I think their window is a little bit longer than maybe people are giving them credit for. With that said, his hand-eye coordination is going to stay the same. And I think their window is a little bit longer than, than maybe people are giving them credit for. With that said, I still think if,
Starting point is 00:44:50 if they end up getting like the fourth or the fifth pick, um, and there's some way to rig that into a top 15 guy, they should think about it. Right. Because if they could turn Wiseman in that Minnesota pick into Beal and bring back Beal and Clay Thompson and Draymond and Steph and some buyout guys, then you have another three-year window.
Starting point is 00:45:11 And Wiseman's going to take a while. Wiseman might be Jermaine O'Neal in Portland. It might not be till age 23 for him before he is an impact guy. I still believe in him, but you might argue the asset plus that Minnesota asset is not worth as much as the impact guy. But with that said, I still feel like he's got five years left at this level. I know that's nuts, but I really do. Yeah. I don't, I don't think you mean like this month of April type of, no, no, no. I mean, but you're just 25 to 30 points a game kind of stuff. I don't know why his shooting would fall off that all of a sudden you can't get open.
Starting point is 00:45:46 You know what I mean? Like, I don't know why. Because I don't, you know, at one point, I thought he was in the conversation for best handle in the league. But I think it's pretty clear that Kyrie has probably the best handle maybe we've ever seen. It's okay.
Starting point is 00:45:59 But Steph isn't far off. Whatever that next group is, that's how, I mean, honestly, Steph, the only times he screws up with his handles when he's just careless and he's kind of silly about it at times which i think he'd admit um hey can i ask you about beal yeah have we all collectively overrated beal and i know the over under stuff can get a little annoying but if he were all that wouldn't the wizards be a little bit better so i think you got to think about what the big packages have gone for
Starting point is 00:46:35 okay drew holiday he's worth more than drew holiday right and you look at what new orleans actually gave up or got for Drew Holiday. Not as great as maybe it seemed before we knew Giannis was going to sign there, right? And you have to take the Adams contract and the Bledsoe contract, stuff like that. So he's worth more than that. What was the other big trade?
Starting point is 00:46:59 Oh, the Harden trade. Harden was a bunch of picks. This year's swap too, just in case. Yeah, this year's swap. So excessive. But you could argue that Wiseman and the fifth pick in this draft is a really fair price for Beal. I'm sure Washington would want more than that. Maybe they wouldn't want to trade him at all. But do I think he's worth what the Clippers gave up for Kawhi and Paul George? No, I don't. Yeah, because now it just feels like it's mandatory.
Starting point is 00:47:28 Hey, you're going to give us four picks and a couple swaps and it could be six picks. And that way I can say I got all these picks because that seems to be the most important thing now on some of these deals. I would I'd rather be able to grab somebody like a Wiseman or then know exactly what the pick is going to be this year with a group that's pretty clearly every team I talk to. It's Suggs, it's Cade, it's Mobley, it's Green, and Kaminga. So it's those five guys. You'd know you'd be getting one of them if that's where the pick lands again. Baylor guy?
Starting point is 00:47:57 Baylor guy didn't make it a six-person list? Mitch's brother? I would say that the Davion stuff, when I asked teams about who was top five, it was right before the run. You know, it was like another week
Starting point is 00:48:11 or so of games and then they won. But somebody did tell me that they were like, oh, he's the sixth guy, so now it's a top six. You know, I don't know. Whatever.
Starting point is 00:48:20 Can I throw a fake trade at you? I don't know if I've ever done this before on the podcast with you. I was just thinking of this because in my head, it's always Wiseman has to be with the Minnesota pick. But what if they kept the Minnesota pick? What if there was some sort of Wiseman-Jaron Jackson trade?
Starting point is 00:48:42 And you send Wiseman to Memphis where he's from. Why would Memphis do that though? Because you're basically buying a couple extra years on the rookie salary with that asset, right? Because you got Jaron Jackson, eventually he's going to have a big contract coming up, but you also are going to have to pay John a couple of years too.
Starting point is 00:49:02 So you're basically resetting that. You could argue that Wiseman ceiling might be higher than Jaron Jackson. And if you're the Warriors, you're getting somebody who actually could really help you next year, who I think is excellent. Yeah. But see, the problem is with this is that everything you said is fine, except for the part where we already know that Jackson can play. Like Jackson looks like he's going to play. And as much as I like Wiseman, you know, there were some issues this year. We haven know that Jackson can play. Jackson looks like he can play. And as much as I like Wiseman, there were some issues this year. We haven't seen Jackson for a year, though. So you could argue maybe he's slightly...
Starting point is 00:49:33 Anyway, it was just a thought bubble. I can't wait to see it aggregated in some terrible blog post. Maybe that guy who hung Steve Kerr out to dry, maybe that guy could aggregate it for us. But say, Drew Schiller? Hey, Drew Schiller, aggregate my Wiseman whatever trade and then try to make it seem like it wasn't
Starting point is 00:49:50 just two guys shooting the shit on a podcast versus like I had inside information or something. I fucking hate the aggregator era. Really, it's the worst. I don't think it's ever been worse. It all makes us worse at doing these because we know... Yeah, because in the back of your head, you're like constantly tiptoeing.
Starting point is 00:50:06 Right. It sucks. I mean, it sucks. Especially if I get something wrong, fine. I'm going to get stuff wrong. But more often than not, I'll see stuff about me and I'll go, that's not even close to what I fucking said. There was a Jared Goff bust video where I did the whole segment where I was like, I'm
Starting point is 00:50:21 afraid he might be a bust, but I wouldn't say that right now. And the place, all they did was just use the deal saying'm afraid he might be a bust, but I wouldn't say that right now. And the place, all they did was just use the deal saying that I said he was a bust. And now I'm like, wait a minute, am I right now? Are you guys going to run it again? Hey, so can I ask you one more thing about Memphis? Because I've been watching them a lot lately. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:50:39 I like that they all seem to kind of know exactly who they're supposed to be, right? All their roles. Grace and Alan. Not always Dylan Brooks. Dylan Brooks. I thought you liked Dylan Brooks. He's a little heat checky sometimes. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:50:52 I think that's totally reasonable to say. But Jonas has been better. Valanciunas is a nice player. And he's good for them. Yeah. I got to say, I have him in my dad's old fantasy league. Jonas is just good. He just puts up
Starting point is 00:51:05 stats every game it's like 16 and 13 game after game and you know what he tried he busts his ass every game you know he's one of those guys he's gonna he's gonna try you know and then i guess kyle would be the other guy in the closing group and so when i watch jaw is he good or is he great? I think he's, I think he's both depending on the game. He, he can, he can look like a work in progress sometimes.
Starting point is 00:51:34 You notice that? Yeah. Cause whenever it's new and you just go, Oh wait, this guy can play. You know what I mean? Like with a rookie, I don't want to be an asshole about it. Like,
Starting point is 00:51:43 Hey, look at this guy. Look at the plays he's making. I mean, he's as exciting as any guard probably in the rookie, I don't want to be an asshole about it. Like, Hey, look at this guy. Look at the plays he's making. I mean, he's as exciting as any guard probably in the league, but then there are moments with him where I go, Oh, does he have like a bunch of bad habits here? And is it just because he's young or are these things that he needs to figure out? I don't know. I'd love to do a deep good versus great dive on him. I don't like how much he talks to the refs.
Starting point is 00:52:07 I don't like that in general, but especially with him. I feel like he's always upset about a call he didn't get. Donchic, your boys, all first team with that. Donchic is endless now. Yeah, I'm worried
Starting point is 00:52:20 Luka has been a little bit too enabled by the Mavs these last couple years. Who else? Who's having a hard conversation with him about, hey, Luca, you can't complain after every single call. You just can't. It's counterproductive.
Starting point is 00:52:36 At some point, the refs are just going to be like, fuck this guy. Also, you're great. Yeah. You know who has real like, I can't believe i have to deal with you people face is is dame time when he doesn't get when it doesn't go his way he will do this like deep long stare down where he doesn't move his face at all and then he doesn't get back on defense and he has it he hasn't like most of the guys that are really good all have this nasty streak in them now where they complain the entire game.
Starting point is 00:53:05 But Doncic is out of control, and Dame will have moments late in the game where if it's not going his way, then he's pissed. All right, we're going to play the game that Rossello mentioned, but we're going to take a quick break. So I asked Rossello to make a list of his favorite players to watch since Michael Jordan. That means we're going back since,
Starting point is 00:53:29 uh, summer of 1998 to now. And I did this off the top of my head. I didn't look it up. I didn't go through all the NBA teams to make sure I didn't miss anybody. I'm sure I missed one person, but here, here are the instructions I gave you
Starting point is 00:53:45 you can either use the player just his name or you could use a vintage of the player because there's been some LeBron seasons I didn't enjoy as much
Starting point is 00:53:54 but I really loved his middle two Miami seasons so I wanted to include that on my list but anyway this is what I wrote down and I think this is
Starting point is 00:54:04 pretty much descending order for me. My favorite players to watch since summer of 98, since Jordan left. Now, caveat, I'm not a huge everyone stands around and watches the guy go one-on-one guy. So- This is why Kobe's not on your list. Honestly, as much as I love seeing Iverson in person, it's why Iverson's way down on the list because they were years now.
Starting point is 00:54:30 It's granted the team that they put around him made it a lot less fun, but it was just like, this guy's 11 for 30 and everyone else is standing around. I like more, I like my players to be a little more inclusive. So my list started like this. I'll give you my first five, then you can give me your first five.
Starting point is 00:54:47 Curry is my favorite player to watch since Michael Jordan. Kevin Durant is second. Steve Nash is third. Middle two Miami seasons, LeBron is fourth. And Jokic is fifth. That was my top five.
Starting point is 00:55:07 I fucking love Jokic. Michael Porter Jr. should go to church three times a week and just say thank you. I don't know what I did to fucking, I could be on Cleveland right now taking 28 shots a game. I would have no idea how to play basketball.
Starting point is 00:55:24 And instead I get to be around this fucking savant. And I am literally turning into an all pro. All star. Just because I'm on the same team as this guy. I don't mean to overrate Jokic, but I am. Because I really feel like Porter's getting splashed with Jokic
Starting point is 00:55:39 juice. And when you play with somebody who's that fucking smart, we saw it with Nash, your hoops IQ just goes up. juice. And when you play with somebody who's that fucking smart, we saw it with Nash. Um, you're at your hoops IQ just goes up. It just does. Porter had it anyway, but there's stuff he's doing the last month where you're thinking like, shit, this is why, you know, Houston, that was their number one target in any hardened trade was Porter. Anyway, that was my top five Curry Durant, Nash, middle two Miami years, LeBron, Jokic.
Starting point is 00:56:08 What do you have for your top five? You already have Jokic in 20 plus years as your fifth favorite thing to watch. We're not even talking about one single year. It's been for a couple years, though. It's been a three year thing with him where it's just been an
Starting point is 00:56:23 absolute delight to watch him play basketball. I think he's certainly... Growing up, I never got to see Sabonis. I got to see pieces of Bill Walton. And now I get to see Jokic. But now you're also adding this kind of Dirk, Larry Bird-ish, Duran-ish, 22 feet from the basket scoring game on top of the passing. I don't know. He'll do some stuff, too, that unless you're watching a game,
Starting point is 00:56:50 you'll never see it, where it'll be some play that's falling apart, and then he goes and throws it behind two guys in the baseline to somebody else, and the guy wasn't even ready for it because you're like, how did you even think of throwing this pass? And Joker's the only one that saw it. He's the only one out of the other nine guys that are out there that even saw some of these angles. So I,
Starting point is 00:57:08 I like, I like their plays that don't even lead to buckets sometimes because I can't believe the stuff that he's doing. He had a skip pass where he threw it through everyone. He threw it through everyone on the other side, like not over the top or swing it. He just went from like break to break, just whipped it one hand to another guy to take a three on the other side. like not over the top or swing it. He just went from like break to break, just whipped it one hand to another guy to take a three on the other side.
Starting point is 00:57:29 And I was just like, so, you know, what's funny is that when you bring them up and you go with your five, I didn't even have them. And I'm like, yeah, that's probably a mistake, but this was hard. This was hard in a good way because there are just so many guys taking the last 20 years was going through it all. But I know because I have a couple that I'm not even sure about, but I just like bringing them up. All right.
Starting point is 00:57:44 So you want my top five? this is funny enough i don't think there's a huge amount of deviation with the two of our lists um i have steph 15 16 it's the only other year he scored 30 a game he's going to do it this year like i said he may end up passing biel here shortly um and win the scoring title but when step Steph first started shooting like this, I remember being worried it wasn't real. I was like, hey, is this just going to be this fluky stretch he has? And then the volume actually goes up and he's even more efficient, which is basically unheard of. You're not supposed to get better. You're not supposed to become more efficient as the volume of shots goes up. And Steph somehow did that. I love LeBron's rookie year.
Starting point is 00:58:26 I know statistically it's not the one that's ever going to stand out, but with all the promise and everything about him and seeing him immediately have moments where you go, this guy is going to be so special. It was fun. And LeBron was like, must see for me back in the day with those games where I'd just be like, all right, LeBron's on. Like, I just want to watch this kid play hoops.
Starting point is 00:58:44 And I remember I wrote, I wrote a magazine column about that in the moment is rookie year. with those games where I'd just be like, all right, LeBron's on. I just want to watch this kid play hoops. And it was fun. I remember I wrote a magazine column about that in the moment, his rookie year, just like, holy shit, this was better than advertised. Who would have guessed? This guy had so much hype. He's fucking awesome to watch. I'm so glad he's here.
Starting point is 00:58:57 Like you, everybody with that Nash-Sons group, so when he went back to Phoenix, the 0-4-0-5, he kind of had a weird, similar Curry thing where it's like, well, they can't be any better than they were. And then he comes back and they're, they're even better. Obviously Curry and those guys get a title Nash didn't, but that was a time where basketball needed saving and Phoenix did that. So that became, I mean, really what we're talking about here is moments in time where teams you've never had any emotional attachment whatsoever that all of a sudden you're kind of invested like i was upset and i never i've
Starting point is 00:59:28 never disliked the spurs i i respected the hell out of spurs the entire time but phoenix not winning that series bummed me out and i've never cared like why would i i mean granted i like phoenix when barkley was there but it was only because of barkley so uh that Nash group is there for me. I have Zion right now fourth. Wow. I have him on my bench. I love it. I can't get enough of it. And every possession that doesn't end with Zion touching it frustrates me.
Starting point is 00:59:58 And then my fifth one here, I'll stay with New Orleans. Chris Paul's third year in the league. That team won 56 games. They lost to the Spurs in the second round in seven games. And it was fun for me because I remember going, wait, he's already the best point guard in the league. And that was his third year in. And it was one of those Byron Scott teams.
Starting point is 01:00:19 They had Tyson Chandler. They had Peja. They had West. So it wasn't terrible. But that was an all Chris Paul production where, again, this is almost 20 years this guy doing this, where wherever he goes, he figures out a way. It's not 20, but you can understand the point.
Starting point is 01:00:36 So I loved that because it was kind of a – that third year for him was putting the rest of the league on notice that he was the best of the position, I thought. That's a good one. Other guys I loved. 2011 Dirk. was putting the rest of the league on notice that he was the best of the position. I thought that's a good one. Uh, I, other guys I loved 2011 Dirk. I love that whole playoff run.
Starting point is 01:00:53 And he really kicked ass. He basically took on the entire next generation of guys and ripped through them. And it was fucking incredible. Um, Duncan, as both of us have loved him, I would say probably my favorite was 07 Duncan,
Starting point is 01:01:12 where he was a little past his prime and he just kind of knew when to do it. But just Duncan, his whole career, I loved. I loved going to see him in person, the whole thing. First two Clipper years, Blake, I had on here. Yeah, I thought about it. I did. God, he was so in person, the whole thing. First two Clipper years, Blake, I had on here. Yeah, I thought about it. I did. God, he was so in person.
Starting point is 01:01:30 It was basically like, it's kind of what we thought Zion was going to be, and Zion went into a completely different direction where he's this overpowering offensive playmaker that I just thought he was going to be doing alley-oops for the first two years in the league. And he's already kind of, it's like that stage already happened,
Starting point is 01:01:51 even though it didn't. So I had him. I had 2021 Zion. I had 2017 Isaiah Thomas. No kidding. That's a good one. I wouldn't have. Five foot nine,
Starting point is 01:02:07 just battling the Giants night after night. And he was basically one of the five best offensive players in the league. He's five foot nine. That was my version of an Iverson season. So I picked him over Iverson just because he was a Boston guy. And then I have to put Manu in here. Just because I fucking loved everything about Manu. I also loved that he was like the guy who knew he wasn't the lead actor in a movie, but he could,
Starting point is 01:02:32 he was like Robert Duvall. He's like, I could lead the movie, but you're actually better having me as like Tom and the Godfather where I'm in some scenes, but in every scene I'm incredible. And then the last one I had was early 2000 C-Web. For the same reason you mentioned with Nash, I think those Kings teams were weirdly important for the league at that point because there just wasn't a lot. Sacramento and Dallas were basically the only two fun basketball teams there for like four years. And that Kings team was really important and has fallen through the cracks of history. And now everybody just remembers the Lakers series and they got boned over. But that team was really fun and has fallen through the cracks of history and now everybody just remembers the Lakers series and they got boned over. But that team was really fun to
Starting point is 01:03:08 watch and was appointment viewing on DirecTV. So, that was my list. Alright, I'll pick it up then at 6. KG coming over to Boston in 2007. Great one. I'm surprised you didn't have it. I can't point to necessarily, hey, I love the way he
Starting point is 01:03:23 switched on screens and smaller guards. But to see somebody who was basically labeled a loser overnight be labeled like the ultimate winner was kind of cool because I never thought he was a loser. He just had an awful resume. It's kind of like a big Chris Paul where, you know, I've joked with you when we did the book of basketball, Chris Paul love fest where I go, he's the ultimate winner who hasn't won. Because every time Chris Paul goes somewhere, the teams are just that much better. And with KG coming over in a situation
Starting point is 01:03:52 where it was just a different level of franchise with Boston and Minnesota, and to see it every single night, and I was still covering those teams, and how much he changed the whole vibe. I don't know. It's just like to see a guy that locked in from game one until the very end and change who a team is and buy into it was it was it was more than
Starting point is 01:04:12 just stats um i put down durant for that mid section with okc where he just you just knew okay this is this guy's 30 every single night and he's 30 in an efficient way. And yeah, I know the Westbrook stuff get frustrating and all that kind of stuff, but it was just kind of cool. I was going through all of Durant's numbers again here. He's dangerously close to now becoming a guy that we have to remind ourselves how good he is because he doesn't play that much
Starting point is 01:04:37 anymore. I mean, I know we all know, but go ahead. I would put the entire OKC Durant basically from 09 on. Except for the year where he got hurt. I loved watching him that entire time. 2011-12 Durant was really fun. His 14 MVP season was ridiculous.
Starting point is 01:04:57 2016 Durant, when he was kind of weaning Westbrook along as Westbrook's kind of breaking away and wanting to really become Westbrook along as Westbrook's kind of breaking away and wanting to really become Westbrook. Um, I liked all of those stages and, you know, there's been flashes of it this year on Brooklyn. It's just really fun to watch him get two points. He's the best scoring forward I've ever seen. Yeah. So I just felt like I had to throw him down there. I'm going to go with Jason kid. Um, you could probably pick the end of the Phoenix run but
Starting point is 01:05:25 what was really impressive is he went to a Nets team that won 26 games and then they won 52 as soon as he got there it's like the Chris Paul thing this year exactly if I had to lean one way I would because some of the Phoenix stuff because of his athleticism and everything is probably the most impressive
Starting point is 01:05:42 but when he got like Richard Jefferson and Kenny Martin those guys and they were out there running around and hell, I mean, they still went far enough, made it to the finals. That's a really good one. Cause I think he had one year doing this up top of my head where it was like Rex Chapman,
Starting point is 01:05:55 Danny Manning, that, and they won like 56 games. They, they lost in the round one, both of those years, but there was one of those sons teams. We all had really high hopes for, cause they were just so fucking fun to watch and it was because of kid yeah they you're
Starting point is 01:06:10 right they lost to the kings in the first round i mean they look they got rid of kid and they went from 51 wins to 36 i had to get rid of kids yeah yeah they had to um and they lost the lakers in the second round they lost the trail Lakers in the second round. They lost the Trailblazers in the first round. So you're right. I mean, they were getting bounced out all the time. But I just had to bring him up. AI, just the early part where you were still hopeful.
Starting point is 01:06:41 You were still hopeful as opposed to later on with AI where it felt like, all right, you're just being held hostage. You're only going to play one way and you're going to play his way and playing his way probably isn't going to lead to that many wins. For me, for me with AI, it was an in-person thing, not a TV thing. I didn't really enjoy it as much on TV in person. It was incredible. It was amazing. This one's weird, but I just remember enjoying it.
Starting point is 01:07:03 That Gilbert Arenas run with Washington. I thought about it. I had an honorable mention. No, I'm with'm with you he was having you know what I mean he would have like a couple weeks where you're like man this guy's getting 40 and he's like a guy and he's having fun with it and he's like telling people off and that series that first round series against Cleveland was a great playoff series like it was that was a really fun first round so I put Arenas there Duncan just the respect to Duncan, 11th, and then of course my all-time favorite role player,
Starting point is 01:07:30 Adrian Griffin with the Celtics, 2000- 2001. No one's ever played smarter basketball than Adrian Griffin. Yeah, there was a run with him when they were comparing him to the guys from the 70s and the Celtics. What would it have been like if he was with Cowans and Havlicek?
Starting point is 01:07:46 He's like a quicker Satch Sanders. The reason I want to do that exercise, other than it's fun to go down memory lane with some of these guys, and I also think your list kind of says what kind of basketball I like. Other people would have lists, and they would have Kobe and Iverson and Harden, and you just might be more of an ISO guy. I'm more of an inclusive. I like when the team is tied to the guy directly
Starting point is 01:08:12 a little bit more than that. But the reason we did that is because I knew Curry would be first on your list and I knew he'd be first on mine. He's my favorite player to watch is Jordan. And it was weird. And we talked about, we've talked about a couple of times on the pod over the years when there's this weird
Starting point is 01:08:29 Curry backlash and people have to shit on him for every, and then it all comes around again. Like it did these last three weeks. And then it's like a Steph Curry jerk off. It's like, Hey everybody, this is who he's been for eight years. This is who he's going to be for another five. Like there's no, there's no like, Oh man, this is a hot streak. Like this is the, this is the most one of one basketball player we've had in a long, long time. There's nobody like this person. There are people who can patch together stats that look like him, like Dame stats. He just did the blind player, a player, B thing. Dame stats would look like step stats, but Stats, he just did the blind player A, player B thing. Dame Stats would look like Steph Stats,
Starting point is 01:09:06 but it's just different to watch. And there's nobody like him. Nobody. He was like this in college. I hadn't seen anybody like him in college doing the stuff he was doing in March Madness.
Starting point is 01:09:15 And then he got through the ankle shit and he's been like this ever since. And he seems like an awesome teammate too. So we've covered all this stuff, but he's my favorite. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:09:24 The only thing I would add to it is at the beginning of this year, when you look to the roster that he had out there and you're going, you know, how's he going to look without clay and, oh, look, they're keeping two with them. You know, there was, there was this, this anti-Steph, because let's face it, if you're a Harden fan, you don't like Steph. You're never arguing for Steph. If you're a Westbrook fan, then, you know, you're doing whatever you can begrudgingly to acknowledge how special he is but you're you're you know because you know right now if you're listening this and you haven't been on board with the Steph thing you're like oh some of the stuff's cheesy or whatever like
Starting point is 01:09:57 you've been trying so there was a moment you thought you had a moment at the beginning of this year when it looked like it was a struggle and you're like hey look we still don't even know if this team's making the playoffs but for him to put together this kind of run where everyone should be only trying to stop him and there's no other you know Wiggins has been better I think Wiggins has been more engaged this year than he has been in other seasons but let's face it I mean the Wiggins congratulations yeah like right the Wiggins experience isn't all that impressive but but there was this almost hopeful negativity building around Curry, and I could see it at the beginning of the year on social media where I was like, oh, these guys are just, you know,
Starting point is 01:10:36 guys are totally exposing where they're at with different guys. And look, I'm biased for and against other guys too. Like, we all are. It's impossible not to be. But it was kind of funny where it was like, oh, there's going to be maybe some people feeling
Starting point is 01:10:47 like they're going to get a victory lap here if Steph struggles this season and said he's a borderline MVP candidate. Well, and then when LeBron had a season like this where he didn't have a lot of help, it was 2018.
Starting point is 01:11:00 If you go through that team, that team was a little more talented than maybe we gave it credit for. Go through the basketball reference roster. There was a lot of good players through that team, that team was a little more talented than maybe we gave it credit for. Go through the basketball reference roster. There was a lot of good players on that team. All right. We're going to take one more break and then come back and I have some other stuff for you.
Starting point is 01:11:19 So Jokic Embiid is going to become a thing over the next couple of weeks. I don't think we need to spend 25 minutes on it. I'm more surprised that there's enough people who think Jokic's MVP case is flimsy enough that they're willing to say, I'd rather have 75% of the season of Mbid. I think that was more valuable. Because if you break it down, Philly's 30-8 with Mbid, they're 9-9 without him. Jackie and I did some of this a few days ago, so I don't want to belabor it.
Starting point is 01:11:51 I would say the case for Embiid, if you're going to do it, is really, and I don't believe in Jokic's case, you almost have to start there before you even make the Embiid case. Denver's 36-20 as we're taping this. His offensive season that he's having, I looked it up. Bird from 84 to 87 was 27, 10, and 7 every night for four years. He won three MVPs in his fourth season, was probably better than the
Starting point is 01:12:21 three MVP seasons. Jokic is basically the same. He's at 27, 11, and 9, something like that. So he's basically having a Larry Bird offensive season with some new whiskey in there. But the durability is weirdly going to be the reason he probably wins the MVP. He was the one person in this goofy, fucked-up season who was just able to have it bounce off him. He was the one person in this goofy, fucked up season who was
Starting point is 01:12:45 just able to have it bounce off him. He's played every game. And now that they don't have Murray, this team should be falling apart. And I don't feel like they're going to because of how good he is. And then we talked about the hoops IQ splashing on somebody like the difference that he can have on guys like Porter, what you, what we've seen from Aaron Gordon, just in a short time, stuff like that. So I don't feel like there is a shit on it.
Starting point is 01:13:11 Jokic to make the Embiid case case, unless Jokic gets hurt, then we can have it. He hasn't. What, what do you think? Cause they, you could see it Thursday and Friday.
Starting point is 01:13:23 There were some people who were like, look, man, Embiid's the MVP. I just don't think it's Jokic. It's like, really? What else does he have to do? He's having the best offensive season all the way around of really any center forward from an efficiency standpoint that we've seen.
Starting point is 01:13:41 So what's wrong with that? Nothing's wrong with it, first of all, all right? Because we know that the metrics for Joker are off the charts, all right? Some of the stuff that he's doing. Off the charts. Off the charts. And he's the only guy that's played.
Starting point is 01:13:52 And so if we go over the timeline again, it was, hey, LeBron's going to win MVP. And it was, if he keeps this up and they have a good record, he plays a full season, LeBron's going to get it because it's like, hey, LeBron's owed one. Although I am looking forward to if Joker does win this MVP, somebody three years from now going, can you believe Joker won it over LeBron? Oh, that'll happen.
Starting point is 01:14:12 Because in the moment, I mean, if you said it right now, you go, no one will ever say that. You're like, I don't know, man. I mean, the way these topics have. So the topic itself is really weird because then it was Embiid. And then it was like, man, I guess Harden actually is going to get enough momentum here that it's a real possibility and he was deserving of it as well. But the weird thing about Embiid, as you point out, it's like, what did you guys think? He was never playing again. So like we write these guys off and take them out of the conversation and then they start playing again and holy shit,
Starting point is 01:14:40 they start playing really well because they've been awesome all season long. And then you're like, you have to actually see it to believe it. Like he wasn't going to be out the rest of the year. So all the Embiid momentum that happened this week with a couple of their wins, it was like, well, you know, we probably shouldn't have written him off. And you go, well, what? So then what's the point of all of this? Because basically anytime somebody's been hurt and now Harden's missed more time, he's
Starting point is 01:15:04 not brought up. LeBron's going to be missing all his time. It's going to be hard for him to win it. What was the number? You can't win. You can't miss more than 10 games in a regular season. You can't miss more than 10 or you don't get it. But what if everybody is missing time other than Joker? I mean, look, I would vote for Jokic at this point. I just think he's been good enough and a good team to back it up. And all these guys have missed time. But I wouldn't tell somebody voting for Embiid. They were nuts. I just thought it was kind of weird that we completely write these guys off
Starting point is 01:15:30 and they come back and they start playing really well because, again, they're awesome players. And you're like, hey, you know what? Embiid's still in this. Why were you convinced he wasn't, though? The case for Embiid is he's the best two-way choice. His impact on the defensive end is just better than Jokic. I think he's had the highest game ceiling.
Starting point is 01:15:54 So, I mean, he's just like he had 45-16 against Miami, 42-10 and 30-11 against Boston, 40-19 against Utah, 36-14 against the Clips, 39-13 against Brooklyn. He had a game the other day against Boston and 40 and 19 against Utah, 36 and 14 against the clips, 39 and 13 against Brooklyn. He had a game the other day against Boston, 16 for 20 from the free throw line. It seems like in these bigger games, there's a real alpha dog thing going on, which has to be considered with the MVP. Um, I think he has been at his best, the most alpha doggy of anybody this season. He just hasn't played enough of it. And
Starting point is 01:16:25 Bill Walton was the one that is the go-to for this, which was a similarly fucked up season, the 77-78 season, where there really just wasn't another candidate. They went 50-10 with Walton and people decided, fuck it, that's enough. Other than that, they had this percentage of games played lowest thing on countdown last night. And Giannis in 20 and 19, Iverson in 01 and Harden in 18 were basically like 86, 87% of the games. Embiid would be at best 75% and maybe even 74. And look, if Jokic had missed 15 games, I would have been fine voting with Embiid. But the fact that he has been so durable in a season when nobody's been durable, I hate using durability as an MVP point, but it has to be this season. He's survived an
Starting point is 01:17:18 unsurvivable season and thrown this Nuggets team on their back. By the way, they're fourth in offense for points scored. They're fourth in assists. They're third per 100 possessions. They're third in field goal percentage. And they're eighth in rebounding. Who do you think is doing that? That should matter too.
Starting point is 01:17:36 Philly is 13th in points. They're 24th in assists. They're 13th in per 100. They're just not as good offensively. So, I don't know. To me, it's like, it's Yoke. We shouldn't even be talking about it. And we've already probably spent too long.
Starting point is 01:17:55 I guess I just didn't want to be so dismissive of Embiid, but yet I don't know. I don't want to be either. Right. Because I think you have to include the defensive part of this too. Like Embiid, for all the shit he gets, and I like Shaq on the post-game show. I do. there right because i think you have to include the defensive part of this too like in bead for all the shit he gets like and i like shack on the post game show i do you know i think it took me a
Starting point is 01:18:10 while to like shack on the show and those guys i appreciate that they they can be they can be like really impressionable though too right i think for the the media because everybody just loves that tnt show so much so if one of those guys comes out and they're you know they're always like i'm bead you gotta do it every night gotta do it every night big fella gonna do every night and beads kicking the shit out of people every night yeah so are we are we now like off his case a little bit yeah he's gonna look a little tired he's a human he's an enormous human being but you know they did i didn't i don't think I brought this up because it was one of those weird games with Carl Anthony Towns like two weeks
Starting point is 01:18:48 ago. And look, you know Embiid doesn't like him. Towns doesn't like Embiid. And I actually was impressed with Towns because he was getting his ass kicked and he fought back. And I was like, hey, you know what? I like this. They lost the game. But I go, Towns is pissed and he's fighting back here. But at the same
Starting point is 01:19:04 time too, some of that stuff that's nasty and physical, you know, I can, I can have moments where I think like the Pat Beverly and Dwight Howard stuff are cheap shots, but with Embiid, I'm like, no, this guy's like, he's mixing it up and he's letting you know, like, don't come in here and some old school shit. And I just appreciate it. I, you know, I really, I enjoy watching him play. He's, he's probably one of my favorite guys in the league because when it's right it's stupid it's just stupid that there's nothing you can do with him and even now when people don't go for his up fake all that much anymore you know doc is just better you know what i mean that's the other thing too is you realize with brett brown like
Starting point is 01:19:37 doc's like hey this is what we're going to do with you we're going to get you more touches there and it's going to make everybody's life easier and And even somebody like Tobias Harris, who I would argue can disappear for long stretches, he's been really good for them. So I think Embiid just makes everybody's life better because they're running a better offense. Embiid's had an awesome season. He's only played 1,224 minutes so far. I looked up the fewest amount of minutes played by an MVP. Number one was 1999 Carl Malone, the 50-game season.
Starting point is 01:20:06 That was 1832. And then 1978 Bill Walton was 1929. Jokic is headed toward 2000 already. Unfortunately for Embiid, he was, I think, the dominant player of the season, but he just missed too many games and that's the way it is. But have you looked at his per 36 numbers? He's 33.5 points a game, 12.4 rebounds a game per 36. So that neighborhood is seven wilt seasons, three Elgin seasons, one Kareem season and one McAdoo season. That's it. It has not happened for a long, long time. We're talking like 40 years where somebody
Starting point is 01:20:47 put up per 36 like that. And the eye test matches it too, because he's doing some, you know, this, that weird step where it seems like he's taking like this dinosaur step, where it's like, he takes a step back 20 footer, but he was 15 feet from the basket when the step back started. I love how he gets to the line in big games. He really has a thing with the Celtics this year. And that's why if he's healthy, I just don't think the Celtics can beat them because I just think he's tired of losing the Celtics. And if he plays them in a series, he's going to go to the free throw line 20 times a game. He's the only player right now in the league that I think could just physically overpower a team.
Starting point is 01:21:31 Now, you could say the Lakers potentially could do it if LeBron and Davis are out there, but we haven't seen it. But what LeBron and Davis were able to do last year, they just physically overpowered everybody. Embiid is the only guy who can do that in the league right now, unless the Lakers can do it, in my opinion. Yeah, and he's getting his work. I've watched like three of their games,
Starting point is 01:21:52 so they're all kind of blending together here in the last week because they've just been doing games I wanted to watch. He's kick-dressing all of them. Right, but immediately you're looking up and he's at 20 points for like six minutes to go in the second quarter. Easy. They're easy 20 points. Right, and there's at 20 points for like six minutes ago in the second quarter. And you're easy. Okay. They're easy. 20 points. Right. And there's helpless,
Starting point is 01:22:06 like a helpless opponent going. There's nothing. We can't do anything with him right now. Um, him versus Brooklyn, the Aldridge thing. Look, I,
Starting point is 01:22:21 I thought he was pretty washed, but he was a body and he was six fouls and he has size. And from a size standpoint, look, could Brooklyn beat Philly in a series if Embiid averaged 39 a game in the series? Yeah, they absolutely could. I just don't think they have anybody to guard him. It's not going to be Blake Griffin.
Starting point is 01:22:39 Claxton's too small. DeAndre Jordan, I just think, is at a different point of his career. And at crunch time, they're going to want to have to play Durant. They're going to be so nervous to rely on Durant in any situation when he can't stay in the court that Embiid's going to feast on that team. It might not matter, but it's worth mentioning. Okay. A couple more things. MVP rankings. So Jokic and Bede, Giannis is kind of out. We're just down to two candidates here
Starting point is 01:23:10 with four weeks left, I think. Is that fair? Steph's not going to get it, but if he, we got another month to go here. Could he finish third? They're one game under 500 right now. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:23:24 It's pretty tough. I'm just talking about, I'm not talking It's pretty tough. I'm just talking about, I'm not talking about him winning it. I'm just saying simply like third. And then I think, you know, the Chris Paul traditional stats just aren't going to be enough, but maybe we should focus more on the fact
Starting point is 01:23:34 that what he does. But now I'm arguing about guys that are going to finish third. So, you know, I'm kind of wasting everybody's time. Yeah, but on the other hand, I have to put five guys on my ballot. So after he did Yo Kitchen and Bede, well, that's what I five guys on my ballot. So after he did Jokic and Embiid.
Starting point is 01:23:45 Well, that's what I was going to ask you. So I had like, depending on how many games Giannis misses, he's probably third. I think Dame is in there somewhere. I think Curry's in there somewhere. I think CP3 is definitely in there somewhere. And then you kind of move to, you're going to laugh. What would the Knicks record have to be for me to consider Julius Randle for
Starting point is 01:24:07 the five spot? Undefeated the rest of the way. He's awesome. Like, what if they were 30? What would 40? How many games are 72? So it'd have to be like 42 and 32 or no 42 and 30 41 and 31 they're not they're
Starting point is 01:24:28 probably not going to do that right they're not going to do that yeah no they're they're four games over but randall's 24 11 and 6 and you can't name one other player on that team who you can rely on game to game you'd be like rj Oh, RJ Barrett's getting good. Okay. I've watched games where RJ Barrett's gone two for 15 and has been a zero the entire game. So I got Derek Rose is good. All right. Do you trust Derek Rose? Ah,
Starting point is 01:24:53 quickly. He's been really good. Look at quickly stats. The last couple of weeks, he's shooting like 30% for like a month. Um, just go on through. There is no reason that team should be over 500.
Starting point is 01:25:03 If you're going to give me the Curry case, the Randall case, I think is stronger than Curry's because their record is actually better than the Warriors record. And I'm really impressed by him. I think he's a good creator for other guys. He's not just like this black hole. Like he makes good, even in the game today
Starting point is 01:25:20 in New Orleans, when they came back, he passes up shots to give somebody a better shot. That's inconceivable. You never would have guessed that he could have done that two years ago. I'm stunned by his season. No, the biggest thing is the assist numbers. You're right. That's why I would give Tibbs coach of the year. That team isn't that good.
Starting point is 01:25:38 And they've defended all year. There were some fluky things about their defense that hasn't now come back to bite them. They've gone on this stretch you know as you mentioned I kind of lost track of them being this many over 500 because I feel like every time I look at the standings be like oh they're 500 one below one above okay whatever no big deal
Starting point is 01:25:53 31 and 27 right now right they've won six in a row just FYI no but I think I would say stuff over Randall when we're talking about conferences because the East after those, after those three teams, you know,
Starting point is 01:26:08 Atlanta is going to end up being a four seed. You know, Atlanta is 31 and 26. Yeah. I had Clint Capella as my ninth pick. Um, I, uh,
Starting point is 01:26:19 I'm kidding. I was like, wait, what? If the season ended today, I would probably go Yoka, Jim bead, Giannis. I would put Chris Paul fourth.
Starting point is 01:26:29 And then you're in that Curry, Dame, Harden, Randall group. Yeah. Let's see what happens with Harden the rest of the way. Because the same way that everybody was like, oh, hey, Embiid's still good. That's what the week felt like. You're right to point that out. Because I was like, wait, why is thisiid's still good. That's what the week felt like. You're right to point that out because I was like, wait, why is this coming up as if we're supposed to be surprised that he's playing well again?
Starting point is 01:26:50 I think the same thing could happen. He was the best player of the first half. It's not a shock that he was good when he came back. Right, and so I think Harden, again, they're probably done. Joker's going to get it, but I do think that, hey, can I ask you something? Because this was making the rounds this week too. Was Houston constantly emailing voters about Harden all the time back in the day? Because I remember somebody was talking about it recently saying that actually
Starting point is 01:27:15 probably worked against Harden in the vote because they were so annoyed how often Houston was emailing voters about Harden. I think there was a lot of stealth PR on the Rocket side that maybe was counterproductive. Yeah, okay. Here's the thing with the MVP vote. And there's, we still have basically 14, 15 games left. Chris Paul cannot be lower than fourth.
Starting point is 01:27:42 And I don't care what the stats say. Don't give me stats with him. Just don't. They're 40 and 16. They're going to be a one seed. I think they're going to get the one seed over Utah. They win 80 to 90% of their games. They started at 8-8.
Starting point is 01:27:57 They've basically been winning 85, 90% of their games since. And he's put his imprint on all. He's made every guy on that team better. They play in his style at his pace. They're really good at the end of games. And that stuff should matter to me. It's like a little bit like the KG 2008 thing, not that they're going to win the title like the 08 Celtics did,
Starting point is 01:28:17 but he went to this franchise that had him in the playoffs for 11 years that had most of those guys there already. And he taught everybody what to do and you can't overstate it. So I, he has to be fourth with all the injuries, but the thing is the season sucked because we've had too many injuries and the whole thing. All right. Um, I have a couple, couple, uh, non basketball things for you. One, you had Chris Sims on this week.
Starting point is 01:28:44 Yes. Who's excellent. Who has a really good track record for talking about QBs. He had Zach Wilson over Trevor Lawrence on his board and made this whole case for it. And I'm at one of my daughter's soccer things as they're all warming up, listening to my headphones. And 10 minutes into the thing, I'm like, yeah, Zach Wilson. Why isn't he? He just had a way of everything he said, I was just in. And then he was really not enthusiastic about fields. And there's just been enough of these smart people who are just picking apart fields now that my head's just spinning with this draft. We're now 10, 11 days away.
Starting point is 01:29:25 I don't even know what I want the Patriots to do anymore. I'm my head. I'm being pulled in nine directions. It does seem like there's going to be at least one quarterback there at 15. It would be stupid to trade up, but like the stuff he said about Kellen bond, who everybody has in the second round, I've read cases on the internet.
Starting point is 01:29:41 I've watched YouTube clips where you just look at Kellen bond. And he was like, does this guy just have bad PR? Is this just unfortunate that he was at a school and he was in the mix, but not in a cool way? Well, because he wasn't... Honestly, Bill, I've watched Kellen his whole career and he was much better this year, but he was always this guy that you felt like he was going to let you down a little bit
Starting point is 01:30:04 in the previous years. And then when Sims was like, you know, he's a little stiff, I'm like, he's a little stiff. Like, everything with him is super stiff. So why is that going to go away? Because then Mond was making the point to him. He's like, well, you know, they had me in this offense and I had to do all these things and whatever. It's like, okay, so now you're going to get to the NFL. You're going to be way more relaxed.
Starting point is 01:30:23 Like, that doesn't make any sense. Can I call him Kellen Bond or Kellen Mond? You've called them both, but I think you're covered in case there's a bond. My dad will call him Bond for his entire Patriot career. I don't like the stiff. I don't like the stiff part.
Starting point is 01:30:40 The Fields thing where the Reed thing has been pretty much the first Reed thing has been pretty much debunked. But when he's talking about how he's an elbow thrower, that concerns me because I just kind of think at some point you are who you are with your thrower mechanics. You can tweak them. But if you just throw the ball a certain way, that's a really hard thing to change. And now he's in my head with Fields, who I was like 100% in on.
Starting point is 01:31:04 And then the Zach Wilson thing, I'm listening to it. I sent it to Fantasy. I'm like, you got to listen to this Chris Sims thing talking about Zach Wilson. So Fantasy was like, fuck this. I don't want to hear it. I'm like, don't, just listen to it. So then he listens to it. He's like, fuck this.
Starting point is 01:31:18 This is a reverse jinx. Like Jets fans are just whatever the outcome, they're just going to assume the worst. But how ironic would it be if they nailed the Zach Wilson pick and the Jets actually did something smart for once? It'd be unbelievable. Now, I'd heard Wilson to the Jets the whole time. Like, that was back in January. That's what you were hearing. Like, hey, this guy's going to go too. And the funny thing is, even if you were Urban Meyer and you were hearing like hey this guy's gonna go too and the funny thing is even if you were urban meyer and you were evaluating this and probably like if a couple guys at a roof were
Starting point is 01:31:48 like you know i think we like zach better you can't take them like you can't right you have to take trevor lawrence you can't be the team that like overthinks it then again i don't know i mean are you talking yourself into something so you don't have to ask yourself that really tough question but there's also another thing that'll happen in the draft process where I watch a lot of it on TV because now, because Fields is getting dinged, now there's a bunch of people sticking up for Fields. All right?
Starting point is 01:32:11 And be like, hey, what the hell happened? Like me. And I don't even know him. And one of the things I can't stand is when people will say, what's he done since the end of the season to now to drop like this? You're like, is this your first fucking draft? Have you not paid attention to how these work when cam newton went one that was a build-up over weeks of like yeah i'll probably go top 10 oh seven he could go seven and then as you get closer to the draft it's like oh no actually like they think he's the guy and they're just gonna go ahead and
Starting point is 01:32:40 take him number one there are all sorts of times like all of the scouting is not done as soon as the last college football game is over. So if you have professional teams finally putting together all their scouting reports that are a couple months removed from the actual season being over, and then they start sharing more of their information with other draft people or other reporters, like you can have not played a game and then have everybody talking about you in a certain way now that they've done all the prep work that they didn't even have done back in January and December. So that's what can happen. You know what I mean? So like the idea that Fields is this, it's unfair in the process and like what happened to him? No, I think it's just that more and more people finally were like,
Starting point is 01:33:18 okay, before my opinion on him, that my opinion was not completed. I wasn't ready to share it with anybody back in December and January. Now that I've gone back and watched the film, I don't like it as much as I thought I liked it when I was watching the season. So I think it's pretty normal. I'm just always surprised by how many people that act like it's this atrocity, like, oh, the guy hasn't even played
Starting point is 01:33:34 and now he's falling off draft boards. I'd be like, no, do you not know how this works? I just explained it to you. It seems like everybody's wrong with college quarterbacks all the time. I remember all the people who said too, it was like the best college quarterback they've ever seen. And then,
Starting point is 01:33:51 then it's like, well, how do you even judge somebody when they have the best offensive line and three first round picks that they're throwing to, and then the best offense, how do you project that? Conversely, how do you,
Starting point is 01:34:04 how do you project it with Wilson? Because everybody talks about what a garbage schedule he played in BYU. And it's like, well, of course he looked good in the BYU games. Blah, blah, blah. When he jumps a level, we'll see. But wasn't that the case we used against Josh Allen?
Starting point is 01:34:19 And then he was able to... I just don't know how you do this. And you're going to bat 50% regardless of what your strategy is. Basketball is so much easier, it feels like, to decide who's good. I just think it's like that kid from Baylor. I didn't watch a lot of college basketball this year, but I watched some March Madness.
Starting point is 01:34:36 I'm like, that kid's going to be a good pro. Like, I'm in. I know the things that he's good at translates to the NBA. I don't know what pick he's going to go, but he will be a good pro. I'm positive. Whereas quarterbacks, it's like people just,
Starting point is 01:34:51 even Trevor Lawrence, sure thing, generational talent. And then you'll see stuff like, ah, it doesn't really love football. Could take it or leave it. It's like,
Starting point is 01:35:00 well, those are red flags. Don't we know that's the red flag or red flags? Doesn't really love it. Isn't that the one thing we're looking for here? I would have loved it when I signed with a ringer, like the quote I give him, like, I'm not sure that I'm that into this,
Starting point is 01:35:13 but didn't have a lot of options. And, you know, figure I'll just kick the tires on this experience for a little while, but can't wait to get started. We're like, Priscilla doesn't really love audio. Yeah, he does. It doesn't really love it. Like when somebody's saying that about a quarterback, I just get nervous.
Starting point is 01:35:28 I'm sorry. I don't care what, how good his physical tools are. You know, it's always funny though. Whenever I hear about big guys, be like the rule with big guys in the NBA is that big guys don't love basketball. And then I remember like thinking it was so terrible when I would hear about some big guy that doesn't love basketball. And then I was like, man, I'm actually surprised now when I hear about a big guy that does love basketball. Like that's one of the
Starting point is 01:35:46 things I love about Embiid is I think Embiid loves beating up on guys and showing how special he is. Yeah. Right. He's just different. So I almost don't think of him as, as a big, big, but then when I'll hear a story about some other guy, I'd be like, what's the deal with him? Like he hates basketball, man. He hates it. And so that's, that one almost makes sense. Cause you're like, Hey, you're huge. You're going to be seven feet. Here's a basketball and some shoes. And now you're going to be on all these travel teams and we're going to see if we can get you into college. And you're probably like, all right, whatever. I guess I'll just do this. But if you're a quarterback and it's true about you, um, I don't know, man, I've watched all those Clemson games. I never felt like there
Starting point is 01:36:22 was a moment where I go, this kid's not into it. He was a fierce competitor. He was giving his body up all the time. He's a sick athlete. You know, Dilfer said, Hey, you know, all you guys that act like he's super clean, like he's a little long in his throw, but I don't even think I care about mechanics anymore. Because whenever anybody says like, Oh, look at his footwork and look at his mechanics, I'll be like, yeah. Okay. But how many times do you get to plant and like follow through perfectly with these clean throws? You actually don't. So it really does come down to arm talent and arm strength and this baseball thing. Everybody's in love with Post Mahomes, which is what
Starting point is 01:36:54 Wilson has is all these weird angles and bad platforms and getting the ball out. And I know that I have been convinced I'm right about a quarterback and I was unbelievably wrong and I don't think it's getting any better as you said and I've done it I may even do it again this week on my pod just run through it if you're being nice it's 50 busts you know you have five guys going to class and three years later half the class is going to be somewhere else and no one's getting any better at this position like no one's ever getting any better at evaluating this thing.
Starting point is 01:37:25 Because I think the things that people always talked about for years, you know, I had draft stories on, right? So Chris Sims was talking about Kyle Bowler. Do you remember when we were younger hearing about this Kyle Bowler dude who could throw it through the uprights on his knees from 70 yards out? And you were just like,
Starting point is 01:37:39 Oh my God, that's amazing. Not realizing how incredibly relevant it is. Like, Oh, okay, cool. Like you, you have the circus trick and it doesn't fucking mean anything so i think the hardest thing with that position is all
Starting point is 01:37:51 the stuff that you used to look at and think about and now with even more stats and every possible video and all the information you can have and no one's getting any better drafting position just proves how hard it is not that the guys are bad at it i've i remember when i was at espn and grantland doing a whole thing about charisma in the qb position how maybe that's what they should be looking at more than our what was the premise like give me what the was in the first paragraph just asking god this is so long ago because this isn't even a terrible idea actually you know what i mean like i'm you know what it was it was whatever mark sanchez when whoever was the espn analyst was something like there were five qbs in that draft and he said something like if if you were going out with those five qbs you're gonna toss the car keys to
Starting point is 01:38:38 one of them you toss them to sanchez he's got it and I did it. I vaguely remember doing a whole thing in my column about like, yeah, that kind of should be what counts as a QB. Like who's got that weird leader thing that you can even see with like little kids. You can see with eight-year-olds, like somebody kind of takes charge. Somebody is kind of the alpha and you kind of need that with the QB position for whatever reasons. The ones that make it, they usually seem to have it. They usually seem to have that quality.
Starting point is 01:39:10 Even Josh Allen kind of has it. You know? And I think people knew coming out of Wyoming that he had it. But I wonder like maybe that should be more important than some of this other stuff.
Starting point is 01:39:22 Granted, I sound like an idiot right now, but I'm just saying. No, but I'm up for it. I'm up for this. I like this. I would take so much credence in the interview with these guys.
Starting point is 01:39:34 Like the three hours I got to spend with Zach Wilson about the Jets would be more important than any game film. I would really be curious about what are his people skills like? How does he carry himself? How confident is he? Does he have answers for everything we're giving him?
Starting point is 01:39:49 Because as we've talked about a million times, that position is the hardest thing to do in sports. And if you're not completely confident in yourself, you're going to suck at it. You just are. Well, the problem is, though, your example immediately brings up like everybody loves hanging out with mark sanchez all right everybody loves him guys that i know that i hung out with
Starting point is 01:40:10 him he went to new england and beat the patriots like he wasn't a bust you know and maybe he didn't have the talent but he had enough confidence charisma that he won some big playoff games so maybe that was a piece of it yeah but then why did it flame out because i don't think it was that good when it was over for him it. Yeah, but then why did it flame out? Because I don't think it was that good. When it was over for him, it was over. All right, so then the charisma thing would screw you up there. So you would be like, hey, what do you do on Fridays during the offseason? Take me through your Friday.
Starting point is 01:40:38 I'd be like, you're LA Kings guys. I'd be like, listen, I know this is weird. I know this wasn't what you're expecting from the job interviews, but I'm going to have you hang out with Matt Green and these guys that used to play in the Kings five, six years ago. They're just going to take you for 24 hours and I'll see you on Sunday at six o'clock. And then I would trust those guys more than my scouts. Like, what'd you think of him? How'd he do? Did he talk to everybody? Like, Hey, I think that's the QB position. Look at Brady. And the other piece is the work ethic.
Starting point is 01:41:10 And I think the work ethic piece with basketball and football is the piece. I don't know how you scout it, judge it, guess for it. How do you know who has and who doesn't? But this is why I thought RJ Barrett was going to be good a couple of years ago because everything I read was like, this is the kid who will be in the gym all day until he fixes the things he's not good at. And you've already seen in two years, he's gotten better at certain things, right? The work ethic piece, I don't know how you know that with the QB and who do you trust? Did the college coach tell you? Can you trust the college coach? It's like the draft day Kevin Costner movie, right? Where he's like, oh, why didn't anybody show up to the dude's birthday party?
Starting point is 01:41:52 Whatever the quarterback he was going to take. I didn't see the movie. I didn't. Daryl Morey. That was like a big plot. Daryl Morey said that it wasn't that true. He didn't like the plot. So I was like, well, if Daryl doesn't like the plot, then I'm out darryl doesn't like the plot then i'm out
Starting point is 01:42:05 yeah but like i don't know it's trubisky if you i think guys like i think guys like trubisky but i knew i knew trubisky had serious problems because i asked uh fedora off the air so it was right before that draft and fedora was like i go hey what's the deal with mitch he goes man he's got a lot of talent i was like yeah he goes you know the right system give him the throws you trust you know protection's good a couple guys on the outside you know balance with the run game don't ask him to do too much and i'm like oh my god you think he stinks like he wasn't saying anything but he wasn't going to tell me he wasn't good. Um,
Starting point is 01:42:47 and that's the job. Like I asked Josh McCown on the air once when he was with, uh, Hackenberg, Hackenberg was on the jets. And I asked McCown, I go, what's up with Hackenberg?
Starting point is 01:42:57 He goes, Oh, all the talent, big arm, big kid, big, big arm, big arm.
Starting point is 01:43:02 I go and I'm going, I'm like, he doesn't think he's a good i go and i'm going code for run i'm like he doesn't think he's any good and uh you know josh is such a nice guy that i don't think he was going to ever sell anybody out but it's a really good point because i felt like belichick for years trusted too many guys like he trusted urban meyer on everybody you know and alabama and rutgers right right it's like hey you love Rutgers guys there for a while. He liked Pat Hill's guys for a while. I think, um, by the way, that thing Sims said about, about Belichick, I thought was really astute. Yeah. So what he said was they, they, you,
Starting point is 01:43:36 you do it. You, you say, he just said, Hey, they want smart players. That was the old line. The, the sign up in Peole's office. If you want a smart team draft, smart players, he goes, I think that they err on the side of smart too often. He goes, so there'll be a guy out there that, you know, 100 plays makes a couple mistakes. Who's 100 times more talented than the other guy. 100 plays never makes any mistakes. And you're like, okay, fine. That's cool.
Starting point is 01:43:55 This guy didn't make any mistakes. But you're drafting the lesser player. Like suck up a few more mistakes. Don't default to smart all the time. Which again, Chris was even admitting, hey, I was there a year. I don't really know what the hell was going on. I was doing scouting reports for those guys, so I wasn't necessarily in the draft room, but the track record
Starting point is 01:44:12 is pretty bad. The recent track record at least. I thought that was smart. It was. Do you think pitch should go any later than four? No. I don't think so. I think tight end position is incredibly important now.
Starting point is 01:44:29 And all these teams that want to talk about trying to get into the multiple tight end personnel, I can just read about it and I can say, hey, I guess that's cool. But they were... He was a problem all year, man. I mean, this isn't some hyped up freak
Starting point is 01:44:44 or whatever. He was a guy that you couldn't defend. I mean, you couldn't do anything with him. So seeing him go maybe ahead of Jamar Chase, even though I like Chase more than even his teammates, you know what I'm saying? Like the other teammates that were at LSU that are, you know, Jefferson had a great rookie year and everything like that. I still think Pitts.
Starting point is 01:45:02 If you can get one of those, I feel like the teams that are really good, have those freak tight ends that are huge matchup problems. So, you know, I'd want one of those guys. What about you? Pitch should go for, but I'm not sure Atlanta should take them at four only because I think they
Starting point is 01:45:20 could get a King's ransom for that pick if they wanted, but if they keep it, I think they should take him. I think it'd be the most fun if he went to Atlanta or Miami. If Miami somehow got him at six, that would be... Then it's just like two, you have no excuse. If you're good, we're going to find out now. Before we go...
Starting point is 01:45:39 Wait, I want to ask you one thing, though. Because I like you probably now for years. I mean, he's been going back a decade with me with the don't take a don't take a running back don't take a running back but now we're like naji harris and etienne where they're projected to go i actually think they're a little too off the radar and i was talking with yeah because it was funny because like stanford steve and i were talking because i trust him a lot on players you know he's a huge college football fan, played,
Starting point is 01:46:09 whole deal. And we were laughing about Clyde Edwards-Alaire because for Clyde, it wasn't automatic that he was a first rounder. Through the course of that season, you go, you know what? He's not going to run real well, but you can see he just makes guys miss. His footwork in traffic is incredible. And they really were going four and five wide most of the time and just allowing Clyde to get all these plays in space. space so as the season went along and I remember watching him from the end zone at some of the games I was at I was like oh okay like he's a pro and then all of a sudden it turns into like the fantasy influence where people are saying you should be the number one overall pick in all fantasy drafts and now you're like what and I know it dinged up a little bit so there was a definite decline in his numbers towards the end.
Starting point is 01:46:45 But you also thought with him and Mahomes, all this stuff. The whole reason I bring that up is like Najee feels like an afterthought. Etienne feels like an afterthought in the sense of like running backs. And if I go back to that national championship game and Najee's run, that was an insane, insane run by a running back. And I don't feel like he's really mentioned at all as an option. And I know people are off the position, but even I
Starting point is 01:47:10 who would not probably ever spend a top 10 pick on a running back feels like those guys are being completely overlooked. It's interesting. It just seems like there's 75 running backs who could go for 125 yards in a game. Yeah, you're probably right. I think that's what scares people off.
Starting point is 01:47:25 Once you get to that last 10 picks of the first game. Yeah, you're probably right. I think that's what scares people off. Okay, so... But once you get to that last 10 picks in the first round... Yeah, yeah. That's where you got to do it, right? Because then you get this cheap running back for four years who might be awesome.
Starting point is 01:47:39 I've been in Florida the last few days for a soccer thing. Yeah, what's going on? There's not a lot of masks going on here. No surprise. Florida reminds me of, it's basically Hermosa Beach if Hermosa Beach had like six drinks. It's just kind of off the rails in a good way though. I don't know. I've kind of enjoyed being here. It's just so different. It's really like being in a foreign country. That's how I feel. I don't feel like I'm in America. And I've been in Florida. Believe me, I've been in Florida a bunch of times. It's just when I come here, it's such a unique experience, but even like the, the no mass thing. And one of the soccer games, somebody in the sidelines just lit up a, lit up a stick was
Starting point is 01:48:30 smoking a cigarette right in the sidelines, sitting in a chair, like the cigarette smokes wafting on the field. I'm like, what's going on here? This is amazing. It's really, it's, it stays true to itself at all times, Florida. Does it, does it bother you or you just love observing it? I love it because it just, what you realize, especially the pandemic where we've all been stuck in the same places for a while, it's nice to just be somewhere different. It feels super different just because we've been stuck in the same places for so long. So now Florida, which I came with Ben, you know, we were here three years ago and I wasn't like, wow, this is so different. But I think from the pandemic piece of it, it just feels really
Starting point is 01:49:17 different. And I think I've always felt like Florida is kind of underrated. Yeah. You don't sound anti this at all. I'm not anti Florida. I'm maybe a little surprised. I'm not anti Florida. I don't know if I could live here for like 30 years, but I put this way, the fact that they don't have state tax,
Starting point is 01:49:36 which is like, please come live here. We don't have state tax. Like, I feel like they bring a little more to the table than that, than some of the other states that have to kind of waive state tax to try to get more people. It's nice. There's some nice parts.
Starting point is 01:49:51 That's my case for Florida. You're not in Miami, though. I know it's weird. My daughter walked by herself for like half a mile the other day, and I was like, I might never see her again. She's in Florida. If there's ever a place, you just be like, hey, what happened to your daughter? I don't know. She left the hotel, and then that was it. We never saw her again. She's in Florida. Like if there's ever a place you just be like, Hey, what happened to your daughter? I don't know. She left the hotel and then that was it. We never saw her again. Um, so I get it. It's just, I I've enjoyed it more than I thought, I guess is my
Starting point is 01:50:15 point. You're not in Miami, right? No, no, no. I'm here for soccer stuff. Yeah. Right. No, I didn't think you were like, Hey,'re going to we're going to Fountain Blue tonight I guess the the weather piece I guess would be the number one reason not to live here I've never you know there was always this time we would go through these stages we were in Bristol where we would like daydream
Starting point is 01:50:42 about options of like hey hey, could I buy a place in Miami and be there? Could I get there Friday night in time and then fly out first thing Monday morning and make a time pass? Oh, interesting. Almost like a professional athlete. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:50:58 Could I do something? So then you start looking at places and then Sarah Walsh, my neighbor, she'd be like do it do it do it like definitely get like amazing tax tax things out of that it would just all those savings would then go to the the flights yeah right then i'd be losing it because then the problem is is the hartford flight situation to anywhere wasn't ideal and there was like this one direct on so you really investigated this oh yeah yeah yeah Cause then there was another time where I was like, well, maybe I'll get a place in the city because you know, what,
Starting point is 01:51:30 what was going on with my personal life? Like at the time I thought I was, you know, going to start the adult thing and buy a house and get married and start a family and all that. And then I didn't. And because I didn't, I just bought like a very, very modest condo in Connecticut, you know? Cause I was like, Oh, I don't really need anything. And I'm not, I was gone a lot too. So I was like, you know what? You probably shouldn't get a standalone home. You should get something, even though, you know, all of us complain about HOAs and all that kind of stuff. So I was always, it'd probably be some weird Bristol stretch where I'd be like, I got to do something, man. I got to get you. And the next thing you know, you're on Zillow and you're looking at places in New York city and Sarah
Starting point is 01:52:03 Walsh. And then another female reporter were like, we'll all go in on it together. And I go, okay, I go now. I was like, now I'm out. Now I'm out because what's going to happen is like,
Starting point is 01:52:13 if it's just Sarah and I, and we can, we can, we can change the, Hey, are you going this week? No. But I was like,
Starting point is 01:52:19 we have a third person in. I'm like, next thing I know I'm going to show up and there's going to be all sorts of stuff. And the way it's decorated is like the front door. Don't. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So now I'm like, next thing I know, I'm going to show up and there's going to be all sorts of stuff. And the way it's decorated is like- The sock on the front door. Don't come in. Yeah, exactly. So now I'm like, wait, and then I'm going to be judged. So then I would always tell it would get to some boiling point with me once a year or something where I start convincing
Starting point is 01:52:38 myself of buying an escape place. But the problem is, is when you're doing five days a week, when you're doing radio, it's a completely different demand because then on top of that, I'm still watching games all the time. So what are you going to do? Are you still going to be able to watch all your games? And then you're like, okay, so I flew down to Florida so I can watch football for 20 hours
Starting point is 01:52:58 in the weekend in the fall and then go back to Connecticut? You should have done the Steve Levy. You should have lived in Boston. But I already had. I already had. have done the Steve Levy. You should have lived in Boston. Just done the... But I already had. I already had. No, but done the hour and a half trip back and forth.
Starting point is 01:53:10 But see, I did that for three years. I did that for the first three years because I was like, I'm never going to just move there until things are working out a little bit better for me. But radio is tough. So many speed traps.
Starting point is 01:53:22 Right. Radio is tough though because radio, it's not... Even some of those other TV guys that are super established sometimes they'd have stretches that are beyond three nights a week you know for me i was nine to five in it 15 hours on the air so yeah it's and i'm not gonna i'm a games guy too so what am i gonna do fly to miami and miss all the friday night nba games and then what am i gonna do go? Go out? Like, I guess. And then it's like,
Starting point is 01:53:46 all right, well, this is getting, that would have gotten old quick. You know, it would have been cool for a little bit and then you'd be going, all right. I think the Florida thing would be way better for the stories people would tell
Starting point is 01:53:57 about you living in Florida. On Bristol Lake. You know, you hear about Rosillo? I fucking bought a place in Miami. He just flies back and forth every week. What? Really? What a maniac. I think you'd dine off that for years. It'd be a talking point
Starting point is 01:54:14 to every single person you met in the campus. Well, yeah, I guess so. I don't know if work would care. They might. I don't know. A lot of people that didn't have to live in Bristol, you know, probably would be like, look, I'm not going to get on his case about it as long as the guy's getting the job done. You know, I would never worry about that. But it wasn't convenient.
Starting point is 01:54:36 It wasn't convenient because when you're off the air at four on a Friday and you're trying to get any kind of flight out your options later in Hartford, it just, it just was never, it never really ever made any sense. And honestly, it would just be a thing to distract myself, you know, from like whatever I was actually having to deal with. So I got the, uh, second shot. Oh, you did. How are you doing with it? I'm doing great. Um, it's funny though. You, I'm still wearing the mask. I'm still obeying all the habits, but you do feel like a little bit of a serenity walking around
Starting point is 01:55:11 where you don't realize it's in the back of your head like that you can, you're worried about getting it and then you compartmentalize everything and then you don't, you're trying to think about it. But then after you get the shot, because I noticed,
Starting point is 01:55:23 we talked about this when I, when my mom got the shot and I noticed this personality change with her, where she just seemed a lot happier and I didn't realize it had been weighing on her. So then I got it, the same thing where it's just kind of, there's a weird piece to it. Because I wouldn't have flown to Florida on this trip if I hadn't gotten the on this I wouldn't have flown to Florida on this trip if I hadn't gotten the shot I just would have been too worried about the planes and stuff now granted the planes are supposedly safe but um yeah there's a weird piece you haven't gotten both shots yet right no I'm supposed to uh get that started this week because I'm just if I'm
Starting point is 01:56:00 gonna get sick or whatever I've had a couple buddies I don't know if I'm going to get sick or whatever, I've, I've, I've had a couple of buddies. I don't know if I would, um, because I, I guess I'm just saying like, I want to be able to know that that week I can get all my work done in case I'm one of the guys that, that gets sick for 48 hours after having it. Cause I've had enough, I've had enough friends go like, yeah, I didn't feel great, man, for a couple of days. So just kind of bake that into your decision. So, you know, originally I knew, you know, I'm not with anybody. I'm not going into work anywhere. I never felt like I was a priority, so I wasn't going to go. But now in California, you can kind of just tell like people are, it's, it's, I don't want to say it's a free for all, but they, they want to get the shots out. Let's just put it that way. When I've heard some stories
Starting point is 01:56:41 about how the guys have gotten their shots, you're like, man, no one even said anything to me. I just went in and they did it. And it's like, they just want to make sure they're using as much as possible. Exactly. Exactly. So, um,
Starting point is 01:56:51 you know, I was going to wait until I felt like it was like at that moment. And that moment is, is probably this week. So I'll probably, I'll probably get started tomorrow. It's great stuff. Things are looking up,
Starting point is 01:57:01 man. Basketball playoffs are coming. Basketball will be fun again to watch. I can't say I've had that much fun in the last couple months with the season. It feels like a slog. It is, but you're right.
Starting point is 01:57:13 When you pointed out the playoff matchups and the storylines we're going to have, this is going to be fun. Draft's going to be really fun. Laterally will be fun because we have good draft. Good things ahead. All right right Rosillo
Starting point is 01:57:25 You have two podcasts Coming this week That's right I have two coming this week And then Rewatchables Coming tomorrow Oh nice
Starting point is 01:57:35 That's my schedule Did Mrs. Doubtfire actually Really interesting movie Incredibly successful Do you know that movie Made 441 million dollars Yeah You know what
Starting point is 01:57:44 You know what's funny? In 1993? It's like one of the biggest movies of the 90s. So Colin Cowherd says it's the greatest comedy of all time. And five guys immediately
Starting point is 01:57:55 were like, that's one of the worst opinions I've ever heard about movies. It's definitely long. There's some things that have an age vote, but it's a good rivalry. So we got that coming. All right. That's it. We will see you here on This Feed age of, but, uh, it's a good rivalry. So, so we got that coming.
Starting point is 01:58:05 All right. Uh, that's it. We will see you here on this feed on Tuesday. Check out. We're so spot as well. Thanks for so long. Thanks bud. I don't have feelings within.
Starting point is 01:58:31 On the wayside, I'm a person never wanted. I don't have feelings within.

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