The Bill Simmons Podcast - USA Hoops, Harden Advice, the AFC East, and Half-Baked Ideas With Kevin Wildes and David Jacoby

Episode Date: August 21, 2023

'The BS Pod' is back! The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by David Jacoby and Kevin Wildes to discuss Team USA's comeback victory over Germany (4:02), Anthony Edwards's moment, James Harden's future (44:28), the perplexing AFC East (1:06:09), half-baked ideas (0:00), and much more (1:23:13)! Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Kevin Wildes and David Jacoby Producer: Kyle Crichton The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please checkout theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up, the very special return of me. I'm back, baby. We're next. This episode is brought to you by my old friend, Miller Lite. I've been a big fan of Miller Lite, man, since college days when I was allowed to have beer. I think nephew Kyle is a fan too. Miller Lite keeps it simple for us. Undebatable quality, great taste. Picture this. It's game day. All the gang's here. You're tailgating outside the stadium. It's a great time for beer. Or how about when you're standing at the grill and the smell of sizzling burgers is in the air? Moments like that. Or when you want a light beer that tastes like beer, that's delicious. You don't want to load up on those heavier beers and then you only have two of them.

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We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where we are launching a new election podcast that launches on Monday, actually. It is called Somebody's Gotta Win. It is hosted by Tara Palmieri. We are doing it with our friends from Puck. If you remember, we combined on Puck

for Matt Bellany's excellent podcast, The Town. So this is our second attempt to collaborate on something that we feel like can be pretty great. We're covering the election. This is not a political podcast. This is what's going on with the machine of the election, all the machinations that come with it, all the spin, the candidates.

We're just kind of trying to look at this from almost like a sports lens. Who's winning? Why are they winning? What's happening? What did this mean? Who came out of that debate? What's the spin going to be? Who's ascending? What do you expect next? And Tara's great. So I can't wait to hear her first couple of podcasts and we're diving into it. There you go. It is called Somebody's Gotta Win. You can find it on all platforms. Also, the rewatchables

coming tomorrow night, Monday night. And we're doing another 1999 movie. So that's your hint. And then after that, we're going to move into 21st century for a couple episodes. I'm very excited about the September Rewatchable slate, by the way. If you missed it, when I was off on break, we posted a bunch of

Rewatchable podcasts, the full videos on YouTube. You can find those at youtube.com slash Bill Simmons. We also put a video from this podcast on. We're spending a little more time working on the video side of things because people like it. So there you go. Last but not least, I hope you got to check out Destination NBA, the documentary we did about the G League. We spent a year with the G League crew and kind of honed in on five people that we really liked, including Gabe York, who was on this podcast a couple weeks ago. And the feedback I've just gotten from people about this doc, people just really seem to love it. And the big issue we've had battling against a whole bunch of content that's out there right now, and the fact that there's been a lot of sports doc managers over the last, I don't know, four or five years

that have been pretty disappointing or they feel like infomer you know, autobiographies instead of biographies, stuff like that. And it's a little harder to cut through and win people over with a sports doc than I think it used to be in this case. Like, I think this is a really good doc and I will, I'll plant my flag on that one. And if you give it a chance, I think you'll like it. So you can find it on Prime Video. And especially as we head toward training camp, there's a couple of the people involved that will be trying to make rosters and you can root for them vicariously. And then Scoot Henderson's in it as well, who could end up being the Rook of the Year. So please go check this out because I'm really proud of the stock and I think it's a good one. So there you go. Coming up on this podcast, the Comeback Podcast. You know, I was gone for five weeks. Didn't really miss that much. There was only a few times where I was like, oh, I wish I had a pod. It would be fun to talk about this one. But we're going to talk about a bunch of basketball stuff, some football and some half-baked ideas

with Kevin Wilds and Dave Jacoby, two of my long timers. So that is next. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, we are taping this a little after 11 o'clock Pacific time in the morning. Just watch Team USA come back and beat Germany. We knew we were going to talk about Team USA in this podcast. Didn't expect it to be so soon. Dave Jacoby is here.

Kevin Wilds is here. I'm going to start here, guys. I really like watching this USA team. You know, these guys have been in our lives now since really, I mean, when I was in college, I remember the 1988 debacle. But really really 92 is when we really started putting thought into how we put the teams together. So we have, this is a fourth decade of what do we do? What works? What doesn't work?

What kind of player works? And you see some of the guys in this team, Halliburton and Reeves come in. They're great. They can't basically take them off the court in crunch time, but it just feels like we're learning Jacoby from the history of all the mistakes we've made over the years with who we pick. Do you agree with that? Absolutely. These are not the best basketball players that are available to be on the men's national team.

And that's pretty clear. But what they've chosen, they've chosen players. They're like just about to leap into elite top 10 players like the like we're about on the fringe like mckall bridges like you're now going to lead the nets anthony edwards you're now going to lead the timberwolves jalen brunson you lead the knicks and they've chosen players that are really interesting part of their career where they're on the rise and they're not at their peak but they've got something to play for. Or the flip side, the Bobby Portis. The Bobby Portis.

I've already had my run. I have a ring. I'm just happy to be here and be a vet. Yes, but he doesn't see the floor very often, let's be honest. No, but he's out there at least. Wilds, what's your favorite thing about this team? Anthony Edwards. It felt like Anthony Edwards had...

He already is a superstar, but it felt like he was the dominant player. And I haven't watched every game, but it felt like he was the dominant player there that he brings the ball up the court. He's taken even desperation threes with the shot clock running down. It's like, this is my ball. He's making

good passes. I thought it was... I think Anthony Edwards... I put it on Twitter. What's his ceiling next year? Is he top? Could he be the eighth best player in the league? I thought you were going to go with ceiling. I thought you were going to say, what's Minnesota's ceiling?

I thought you were going to have that conversation. If you remember, they threw some haymakers at Denver. They probably gave Denver the best series of all. Those games were pretty good. They did a decent job on Yota. I don't know.

I'm excited about Minnesota. He's won one game. I think Anthony Edwards could be the eighth best player, I guess. But he looks great. Could he be top 10? Well, it's interesting. So they put together this team and they're trying to do like a blueprint of guys that have worked in the old teams, right? So they go and they tell Ingram,

like, you're our Carbello. You're not going to have the ball. Play off the ball. You're just going to be heat check, three-point scorer. Brunson, you're going to be our captain. You're like our Chris Paul guy. And then Edwards,

I don't know if they said this to him, but they're basically like, you're going to be the Jordan, Kobe, Wade in this team. Like, this is your spot. You are here. Jacobs, did you feel like he was ready for this?

Because he certainly seems like he thinks he was ready. Yeah, I feel like he was ready for this. I feel like he loves the opportunity. And I feel like we'll get to the Timberwolves conversation in a second, but it's almost watching him do this.

You're like, the Timberwolves are doing a little bit of a disservice to Anthony Edwards by the way that they run their offense and structured their team. We can talk about that in a second, but I think one name that needs to be mentioned

is Jaron Jackson Jr. Because I think I would make the case that he was more important to that win than Edwards. I would only do it in a sort of sports debate kind of a way. But he had five blocks. I'm like, first nine possessions you know what i mean like he really did like like he made it very difficult for the german team to drive and score and then he discouraged them from doing so moving forward it's not always the amount of blocks that

a player has it's how they affected the game moving forward by establishing their blocks early well this is the thing we learned over the last 30 plus years where it's like, gotta have centers, gotta have big guys. And it's like, nah, actually, this is international game. You need like the Chris Bosh type or like in 2012,

it was Kevin Love. You need like spacing on offense, a rebounder, and a rim protector. And we never totally had the perfect version of all the things you need.

And I gotta say, Triple J, if you read all this stuff, even. And I got to say, Triple J, if you read all this stuff, even during the practices and stuff, people were going, this guy's kind of dominant. This guy, like if you're looking for leaps, this might be the dude.

And he's kind of the prototypical perfect Team USA 5. Did this change your Memphis thoughts, Wilds? We have no idea what we're getting with John Moran, but are we opening the door for, are we sure John Moran is even the best Grizzly? Ooh, okay. Ja's still the best Grizzly, even though he's going to play half the games.

Triple J was defensive player of the year, so I don't know how much higher he can go. Maybe he'll win back-to-back. Also, did you see the, not to go back to switch the topic, go back to my Anthony Edwards take, but there was a clip that came out of practice where Anthony Edwards dunked on

Triple J and he said, jump, aren't you the defensive player of the year? I'm giving all of Jaron Jackson's good defense, I'm giving 10% of that to Anthony Edwards lighting a fire underneath him.

In the Kobe Jordan role, inspiring teammates, getting them fired up. defense, I'm giving 10% of that to Anthony Edwards lighting a fire underneath him. In the Kobe Jordan role. Inspiring teammates, getting them fired up. Jacobs, you were the guy who created the concept of the trust triangle. That if there's three people, one person is going to trust one of the other two more than

the second person. I didn't even know this. You don't know the trust triangle? I've never heard of the trust triangle. Because you're involved in so many of my trust triangles, I don't trust you with the theory. Fair. Oh, that's why.

See, he trusts me more. Exactly. But the cousin of the trust triangle is the trust, by the way, the trust triangle is great with wives and girlfriends and their friends and just who they trust more when they're giving information. Can I just explain it quickly? Let me just explain it quickly, Bill. Let me explain the trust triangle quickly. If there are three people and there's a secret and there are

lines drawn between each of those people and the thickness of those lines represents the strength of the relationship. If you share a secret with someone and say don't tell the other person, but their line is thicker, they will tell. The people with the strongest relationship always share the information if the information comes from a weaker relationship.

That's the trust triangle. Right. So me, Fantasy, and Chris Ryan, I just know that those guys trust each other more than me. Exactly. Anything you tell them and say, don't say, don't tell Chris. I'm not going to tell Sean this because he's going to tell him.

So I just keep everything secret. So a cousin of the trust triangle, the trust circle. And I was thinking about this during the game because I've watched a lot of Team USA. I just love international basketball as anyone who's heard this podcast. And I'm always thinking like, all right, what's our best five? I know we're starting this. I know they're trying to establish

Jalen Brunson, but what's our best five? And I have the receipts. I have texts where I'm like, our best five, Halliburton has to be out there. Edwards, Bridges, Austin Reeves has to be out there and Triple J.

And it's like at some point, they're going to realize that's the five. And then in this Germany game, that was the five. That's, I think, Jacob's the trust circle that Steve Kerr. Now, what's weird is they built a lot of this team around the Brunson. He's the captain. They want him out there.

Yeah, he's our guy. He's the captain. It was Reeves and Halliburton. They were down 14 and Reeves and Halliburton shot them back into the game in three possessions. So I think it was this particular game they ended with that finishing five. But I think Steve Kerr wants Brunson in for Reeves in that finishing five.

Yeah, but here's the problem. Wilds. NBA basketball, a little different than international basketball. That point guard spot, you can't be a defensive liability. You saw Schroeder kind of work in Brunson a little bit in the first half of that game. Same thing for Brandon Ingram. It's like, we want you to be Eric Carmelo.

Well, he's not used to playing without the ball. And I'm not sure about his defense. So when you move into that trust triangle, Reeves is perfect for international basketball because he can barrel in. He has that little stop and pop on the top of the key. He's trying to get contact. He can open threes. And then Hal Burton's great because, look, I'm not comparing him to LeBron. But LeBron, I'm going to start there.

But one of the reasons LeBron was such an unbelievable Olympic basketball player was he, he was like Swiss army knife guy and the Olympic team, right? It's like, ah, we need a four. Oh,

LeBron, can you play point? Hey, can you do this? Albertan's cool. Cause he can, he can play basically three positions and he doesn't necessarily need the ball.

Whereas Brunson, you know, you kind of have to build the team around Brunson. So Brunson's in a great spot on the Knicks where it's like, ah, we need your Moxie. We need your experience. And you have the ball all the time. But on this team, we kind of have Anthony Edwards

for the I need the ball guy, right? So I feel like he's a casualty of the Edwards era. But don't you think Jalen Brunson, if stuff hits the fan, Jalen Brunson could be a calming influence as well. And granted, they're down 16, and Anthony Edwards brought him back. But I think Jalen Brunson's just

this nice, savvy veteran leader in the locker room. I still just love Jalen Brunson. He's a veteran backup point guard on this team. But he's fine with that. That's like true leadership. He's like, sure, I will do that. He started the game, didn't he? Yes.

I'm not sure. So my trust circle, Jacobs, Triple J, Bridges, Hal Burton, Reeves, Edwards, Brunson coming off the bench. I like Kessler on this team. I'm wondering if he's going to play more as the tournament goes.

I'll answer that question, no. You think no. I like his shot blocking. And then they need somebody from Ingram, Cam Johnson, one of those guys. Like a three-point shooter with size to be a heat check guy. Whoever that is.

And then, will we see Bobby Portis, Josh Hart, people like that? I don't know. But the big story from this team for the people catching up

is this feels like a moment for Edwards. Yes. Like something's happening. It reminded me in 2010 when Durant, I forget where they had the Team USA

and they didn't, like nobody wanted to play, and it ended up kind of being KD's team, even though it was young KD, he'd been in the league, I think, three years. And it kind of, all of a sudden, it kind of became KD's team. And KD had this moment in 2010,

and we all kind of looked at each other. I think I even wrote about it back when my fingers worked. We were like, oh, okay, this is going to happen now. And then it happened. And within two years, he was in the finals. It's not unrealistic to think that might be the case for Edwards down the road here. Can I also bring up, this game was too interesting to really just have a thought exercise during it. But the thing I like most about USA basketball is when you look back, like LeBron,

Wade and Bosch, like, yeah, we really started hanging out during the Olympics and we started kicking it around. Wouldn't it be great if we played together? And I think it was KD and Draymond. I think there's stories of them cementing their relationship during the

Olympics. So if you look around, huh, who really sort of is vibing really well with someone else? Who's a free agent? Who do you think it wants to team up out of this team? Like, you know what? Why don't you come to Minnesota? Is Wild doing aggregate

or clickbait right now? No, this is great. I mean, everybody watches. We all know the history of this phenomenon. The teams, oh, they got really close playing for Team USA, and then whoops! Now they're on the same team. So who are you guys? So Halliburton, Edwards, they got really close playing for Team USA. And then, whoops, now they're on the same team. Surprise. Surprise.

So Halliburton, Edwards, and Reeves just all showing up in L.A. in like three years. I don't know if that's the trio. I don't know if that's the trio. But there could be some like, listen, you know, the jaw thing kind of went left. And Jaron Jackson Jr. feels like he's got championship potential. And he built a really good relationship with Josh Hart.

And next thing you know, he's on the Knicks. Something like that could happen. I'm not saying that particular move, obviously. But if I'm pitching someone and watching these games, it's sort of like I don't really watch international basketball, is this team is super fun to watch. And the competition, they're level with the competition. This isn't like the Olympics where they're going to run through the whole thing and maybe they'll be tested once or twice.

They've been down in multiple games. These are close games with notable, good basketball players on both sides of the ball. And it's good basketball. This is fun basketball to watch. And second level would be the Kevin level. I kind of watch this the same way I watch preseason football. and it's good basketball. This is fun basketball to watch. And second level would be the Kevin level. I kind of watch this the same way I watch preseason football or college basketball.

Summer League, how is this going to translate to the league? How is this going to change the NBA? Is Anthony Edwards now going to be a star? What relationships are going to be formed in this trip, in this month that could potentially change the landscape of the nba and i would say that if you're not watching those are two reasons you should watch jacobs you're preaching the choir i think i overrated international basketball probably more than anybody with a platform i fucking love it i like watching it

i like seeing who ascends and whose game is like, oh, this guy makes sense because he's getting 20 shots a game on this 500 team. But now that we're actually playing basketball and there's a different pace to it and you got to know how to play without the ball. And, you know, even Paolo missing those free throws in the game today, it's like, all right, I'm filing that one away.

Like he choked on two free throws with four minutes left. It's like he's 20 years old. I'm filing that one away for, you know, two weeks from now if we're in the semifinals game and we're down to France with five minutes left. And do I want Paolo out there? Because he looked nervous shooting those free throws. So there's a little bit of a who's ready for this?

Who's been in high-pressure situations? That's why Reeves was such a great add to this. Reeves was in some really, really, really high-level, high-intensity playoff games. And they were playing playoff games down the stretch just trying to get in the playoffs. So somebody like that, Halbert, and somebody we've never seen in this situation,

he looks totally comfortable. Wilds, I don't feel like I overrate this stuff. No. You're doing a fantastic job. Don't forget, I also 5% of it, I also like to see Dennis Schroeder just cook. He didn't play great this game, but it's like

going back to Carlos Arroyo. Whoa! Carlos Arroyo hangs 35 on us. So just... Juan Carlos Navarro. Oh, he just crushed. He 35 on us. So just the- Juan Carlos Navarro. Oh, he just crushed. He was another one. Just crushed.

That's why I wanted- Jose Alvarado didn't play the other day. I was like, oh, here's Jose Alvarado's moment. But he didn't play. Well, speaking of that, another thing in this game, granted it was one game, but there was a stretch there

where Franz looked like the best guy on the court. Yeah. And then he went ice cold for 20 minutes. Yeah. But it was like, oh, Franz is looking comfortable. But it is, these countries, it's so different than where we were in 1992, where it was like, oh, that team has Tony Kukoc. I've heard of him. The Bulls drafted him too. Now you watch these, it's like, oh, there's Daniel Tice. He played big minutes in the Eastern Conference Finals three years ago.

The league is super deep. He doesn't play that much in the NBA, but he's at least a real guy. Can I ask you a quick rules thing, Bill? Do you like taking the ball off the rim? I love it. That would be a rule I would add to the NBA right now. I just love it. It's one of those rules where if someone says it to you,

you think it's going to have a dramatic impact on the run of play, but it really doesn't change the game that much. It's not as significant as you would think. If you told me, like, Rudy Gobert can just jump up and grab it the second it touches the rim, I'd be like, wow, this is really going to change basketball. But then it comes into play like four times over the course of the game. I like it, the rim, I'd be like, wow, this is really going to change basketball. But then it comes into play like four times over the course of the game.

I like it, though. I just kind of like it. I love it. I'm trying to pitch it for the NBA. This is not changing basketball that much. It's actually a tweak, not a true rule change. The flow of the game is great, too. We've talked about that forever, but it's two timeouts

too many in the NBA product. and it's just too slow. It's too disjointed. And you felt like there's, you can feel it, especially like I've been in, in the house for some of these international games and you can feel it when that clock just starts moving. I remember in 2012, when it seemed like Spain was going to beat us for a second, the gold medal game and LeBron was just at the bench waiting to come in. And it felt like it might've been two and a half minutes, but it felt like 30. And it was like, God damn, can't there be like a whistle

or something? Where's the TV timeout? It's like, there is no TV timeout. There's going to either have to be a ball go out of bounds or some sort of foul for him to come in. And we were like, oh my God, LeBron's not going to even be able to come back in this game. So there's a frantic energy to it that I really like, but ultimately like, you know, the Edwards thing, let's, let's take a break. And I just want one more Edwards, Minnesota thing, and then we'll move on to the other stuff we have. Snap into action this NFL season with FanDuel, America's number one sports book. Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. When you place a $5 bet, that is $200 in bonus bets, win or lose. And if you've been thinking about joining FanDuel, there's no better time

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First online real money wage or only $10 for surprise required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. All right. So with the Edwards-Minnesota thing, if you looked at Denver last year, Denver's odds were way too out of whack

considering that they had Jamal Murray coming back, they had a two-time MVP, and they weren't even being mentioned. Minnesota is not really being mentioned in the West, and maybe they shouldn't be, and maybe the Gobert Towns thing is going to be too weird. But that said, we don't really have a Dame Lillard trade.

And I'm wondering, I broke my rule. I didn't want to mention Dame Lillard, but now I'm mentioning him. You wonder if Dame Lillard's watching this going, you know what? Me for Towns, you just switch us. We have Gobert, we'd have Edwards.

It's kind of nice. Me and Ant together, I'd be aligned with this guy who's clearly going to be one of the best five or six guys in the league. Maybe that's a better situation for me than anywhere else, and I want to win a title, and this doesn't seem unrealistic to me. Fuck it.

Minnesota. I'm adding them to the list. Jacoby's just staring at me like a chicken. No, that's not going to happen. It's not. So you think it's lifestyle for Dame, that's it? And also Eastern Conference for Dame. There's just so many good teams in the Western Conference.

Any team that made the playoffs last year that adds Dame Lillard is like... I mean, maybe not any team that made the playoffs, but the top teams in the East. If the Heat add Dame Lillard, it's them and everybody else. They're not going to add him. Trade's not happening. Well, he's not going to be traded to Minnesota either, Bill. Carl Anthony Towns for Dame Lillard?

Wow, it's a trade that makes sense on paper for a lot of reasons for both teams. It's a basketball trade. Does Minnesota have, I don't expect you to have their draft futures totally at the ready. Oh, they're gutted. They got nothing.

Didn't they give everybody up for Gobert? So now they're going to try to do a one-for-one for Kat and Dame? Yeah. If I'm Portland, I'm like, no, where are all the picks that I wanted? I need to reload. Or I'm going, oh, cool.

I have a 27-year-old stretch five who averages basically 24 and 10 every game. And I get to put him with Scoot Henderson and my guards and I have a more interesting team. Have you been following what Carl Anthony Towns has been saying in these different podcasts? That he's

changed the game and what we did. Is this kind of a... I thought when I see them aggreg, I'm like, well, I'm going to double check this and triple check it to make sure. I'm like, what's going on here? It feels like the opposite of heat culture is Timberwolves culture. Or it's just what are you guys talking about? I wish I had them at the ready, but there were so many of these weird quotes like what we did was more impressive than like no the denver quote him comparing us then to the nuggets yeah to the nuggets yeah what are you talking about i was

totally baffled by it and it just feels like there's something in the foundation of Timberwolves culture that is preventing them from winning, maybe it's an inherent silliness. I like Carl Anthony Towns. I root for Carl Anthony Towns, but the quotes just seemed out of left field. It wasn't like, I'm going to go commit to the grind. We're going to get better.

It was just this kind of victory parade for winning one game against Denver. It was just odd. In overtime. It was odd. It was just this kind of victory parade for winning one game against Denver. It was just odd. In overtime. It was odd. It was a red flag that the Knicks, who I would say are the most Kentucky-friendly franchise in the league.

Towns, I feel like, can be had. I don't think it's a closed secret. And the Knicks, basically, like, we're good. Towns isn't on our radar. That I thought was alarming. That is very telling. And just to respond to Kevin Wilds, this goes to another Jacoby theory. Everyone's a hero in their own movie.

Everyone's a hero in their own movie. So if you ask Carl Anthony Towns about his experience in the Timberwolves, they've been in position to win he's performed great but there's been these outside these outside influences that have hurt them or if it just wasn't for this one thing we would have done blank because some people just can't look in the mirror and be like we got beat we're not good enough i'm not good enough i need to be better they want to point the finger somewhere else to the to the external villains that are chasing them and after them and that's what i think these quotes come from is like he is he's a hero in his own

movie and he has performed well and it's been other reasons for the lack of their success and i think that might be part of the timberwolves culture but but jacoby the quotes were like weren't even talking about a lack of success they were talking about it lack of success. They were talking about success. There was no like, man, we couldn't do it. It was like we did it. What we did was more impressive than what the Nuggets did. It was odd.

Yeah, the stranger he gets, the more I'm on Jimmy Butler. I was pretty hard on Jimmy Butler when he was trying to get out of Minnesota. And then same thing with Philly where he got out of there. But now you look back and you think like, man, were there two worse guys for him to play with than Carl Anthony Townsend and Ben Simmons? It's almost like a psychology experiment.

Did Jimmy Butler earn whatever Jimmy Butler says about other people goes? He's like, we're going to win this game. We're going to win. He's like, we're going to do it. We're going to be back. I'm like, surprise, surprise, we're going to win. He's like, we're going to do it. We're going to be back. Like, surprise, surprise. You're back. The guys remember,

remember he was at the game going Tobias Harris over me. Tobias Harris over me. Turns out Jimmy Butler was right. Oh, guess what? Ben Simmons. Turns out Jimmy Butler was right. What's going on in Minnesota?

What Wilds pointed out is Wolves culture. Turns out Jimmy Butler was right. And I was like, Bill, I was critical of him after all of this he seemed like he like sort of burnt down three straight teams in four years and it's i thought he was the common denominator and he was the problem but as wilds pointed out turns out jimmy was the

solution you know what i'm gonna go buy nickel ob ultra i'm gonna go buy some big face coffee probably worth it no turns out jimmy beller was right turns out jimmy beller was right he had a quote that he's now researching um methods and beans to make the 20 cup of coffee worth 20 and it sounds crazy but maybe he's right yeah probably he's like those historical figures that were telling us things were going to happen and took a lot of shit, and then it turned out. Wilds, just to put a bow on this, Carl Anthony Towns in 2021-22,

he averaged 25-10. He shot 41% from three and 53% field goal. Last year, he was 21-8, but that was playing with Gobert. I actually think he's underrated and I, and I know what Portland's going to do. They're just going to go into the season with Dame. They're going to bank on the fact that he wants to play basketball. And then they're going to know that a better trade will be available in December. They're not going to take that crappy Miami thing.

Uh, but I do think the towns, the townspeople is interesting. I'm glad you brought up the podcast. Cause I had this on my list for you guys. I thought of this when Dwight Howard was on a podcast talking about his relationship with Kobe with this like, yeah, the thing and made it seem like that it was a better relationship than it was. And it was like, I was alive in 2012 and 2013. I know none of this is true. Like none of it. Like Kobe couldn't stand him. It went terribly. And then he went and signed with Houston.

And I was just thinking like, like kudos to all the players and being in the media. This is not a shot at new media. I'm just saying as a fan of basketball, was it better the old way when we didn't have any of these podcasts and there was more mystery

with some of this stuff versus like everybody now or or it's like professional wrestlers just going on each other or comedians when they go on each other's podcasts and it's like here's what happened and it's like i don't know what's true and what's not true the mystery was almost more fun than hearing carl anthony towns going on five podcasts and being like here are my takes i kind of not positive i wanted the takes i just kind of wanted to watch the basketball now hearing Carl Anthony Towns going on five podcasts and being like, here are my takes. I kind of, not positive I wanted the takes. I just kind of wanted to watch the basketball. Now I'm having trouble separating the takes from the basketball.

Oh, I like the takes, dude. So you like it. You like the Sarah Moore. Well, look, I like, I just think, I have a healthy appetite for basketball media and sports media in general and okay i specifically there's a lot of i'm trying to do a pie chart of the podcast that i listen to a lot of it is nostalgia which is fine for like cruising through instagram it feels like

i don't want i don't want to do anybody a disservice if i miss anybody it feels like draymond stuff that it's like the immediacy of like, hey, here's the game. Like, that's awesome. That's never been done in media at all. So that is just tremendous. So Draymond stuff is awesome. JJ is now just like a traditional analyst.

So I guess he's on the outside, but he's so fresh out of it. He's kind of a larger figure in the podcast world. But I guess I just put him in traditional media. But I guess Draymond's stuff is amazing. I also have, Bill, my top three guests that I like on podcasts. Would you like to hear it? Oh, let's hear it. Oh, I know one for sure.

All right, hold on. Make sure I have it in the right order. This is based really off of just one story that he told, but I still liked it. Oh, it's Jeff Teague. No, at number three, the bronze medal, and rising out of nowhere is Jeff Teague. Jeff Teague.

What a star turn for Jeff Teague this summer. I love Jeff Teague. I did enjoy the Jeff Teague thing. Did you know you loved Jeff Teague before this summer? I had no idea. I love Jeff Teague. I didn't know you loved Jeff Teague before this summer. I had no idea he had a personality. I love Jeff Teague. I want to be friends with Jeff Teague so bad. Jeff Teague, if you're listening to this, I want to be friends.

He's fantastic. All right, number two, and this is really based off of just one story. Chandler Parsons in the story that he told about playing Kobe, and then he went he went to the club and there was a twenty thousand dollar bill and then kobe had paid for it paid for it like via phone can i speak quickly i always like it when people do nice things that are disrespectful you know what i mean it's like it's core at its core it's like kobe did a really nice things for chandler parsons but there's also a little bit of like you're my son you are a child i sent you away and i paid for the bar for you like you're not a peer of mine you need my help that's that's i always like i always like when when the gift or the favor is like 10% disrespectful. I like that. Number one, Amon Shumpert.

Amon Shumpert just goes on podcasts and just crushes. He's so good. Any podcast, Amon Shumpert is like how Johnny Carson used to have like Don Rickles come on. Like, here we go. Just get ready to crush. Sandra Bernhardt night on David Letterman. Eight minutes, this guy's just going to roll.

He's so good. He's fantastic. I don't know why he doesn't have his own podcast. Maybe he does. He's crushing other people's podcasts. He's fantastic. That's my top pick. The stuff I like... The stuff I like, I like

some of the stuff Draymond did in the moment I thought was pretty good, like breaking down games. I like the weird stories like the Chandler Kobe where where I get off the bus is the revisionist history about your own career and where it's like we we actually had writers and people covering stuff when this happened and now you're just kind of giving this different version of the version that we actually know is the version. That's where, that's where I get a little dicey.

Do you feel like Trey Young was on a podcast? I forget which one it was. And I think it was Paul, Paul George. Oh, I think you might be. I think you're right. And he said,

yeah, like Luca and I are basically the same guy. We do the same stuff. And everybody on the internet was like, what, what are you talking about? And basically the same guy. We do the same stuff. And everybody on the internet was like, what? What are you talking about? And I looked it up. I'm like, oh, Trey Young, you're right.

You're both kind of defensive liabilities. The numbers are very similar. The playoff appearances are similar, if not the same, on how far you guys have gone. Like, oh, but we put Luca here and we put Trey Young there. So I think it's good that Trey Young's just like, hey, by the way, go to basketball reference. Type in StatMuse, Trey Young, Luka.

And it's like, oh, wow, you don't watch, you don't know the games. You don't know the pin downs that Luka can do with that Trey cat. I don't care. I'm just saying the numbers look the same. So shout out to Trey Young. So you like when in the player pods, when they actually make you tilt the way you looked at their career,

because there was a stat. There's this Twitter account, NBA university. It was percentage of field goals made that were unassisted last season. Unassisted. Okay. So bring the ball. Okay.

Somebody scored a a scored a basket that nobody helped them with who do you think was the leader and what do you think the percentage was jacobs well it's a trick question because i really want to say luka donchich but we were talking about trey young which brought to this so i'm gonna go with trey young the answer is luka donchich what do you think his percentage of unassisted field goals made were last year? I'm going to say north of 70. I'm going north of 70. Let's see if Price is right. What do you got? Give me an

actual number. 73. Wilds, are you going over or under? I'm going 79. 79. Okay, Wilds. Over or under? I'm going way under. Way under. Correct answer. 84.7 that's ridiculous he doesn't like

catch and shoot like he doesn't he dribbles and dribbles and dribbles and dribbles and then 596 field goal nobody helped him with nobody

I want to know what happened to those other 16% because I didn't see those it should have been 100 so SGA was 79% he was second

and Trey was 78.7 Jha 76 Fox 76rey was 78.7. Ja 76. Fox 76. Harden 74.7. Then it starts trickling down. Finishing last. Any guesses?

Finishing dead last? Dead last. Uh-oh. 331st. Oh. Is this guy a scorer, though? No, it's going to be a lob catcher. It's going to be a lob catcher center. This guy played, like played a pretty big 25 minutes

a game for a team you've heard of. A team I've heard of? It was Reggie Bullock. Reggie Bullock, 4.7%. Alright, flipping this. A team I've heard of. Highest

percentage of field goals made that were assisted among 20-point game scorers. This was another thing on the NBA University account. Who do you think led that? Most percentage of their points assisted. Oh, no. It's going to be a lob catcher.

Just a rim runner. Like a Mitchell Robinson. 20 points a game, though. He didn't average 20. Oh, so I didn't get 20 points a game though he didn't average 20 I would assume it's Embiid it's not Embiid? no give me a second Clay Thompson 81.7%

second Laurie Marketing 75% third my guy Chris Tapps Porzingis 71% plantar fasciitis. Yeah. He's already injured, Bill. Already injured. Already injured. He's fine.

He's not fine. He's not playing basketball. He's not fine. He's not okay. He's not fine. Why are you saying he's not fine? You're going to regret this. You're going to hate Chris Tapps Porzingis. Because he has plantar fasciitis. He had it like three months ago. Why is that a tiny thing. He had it like three months ago. Why is that a good thing?

He still has it three months ago. LeBron had plantar fasciitis. He played 48 minutes in the deciding member game. Before or after Thanksgiving, will you start getting hate tweets from, I mean, hate text messages from Dr. Bill, your dad, about Chris Asporzingis before or after Thanksgiving? The first two months of this trade are not going to go great. Marcus Smart is going to show up

and he's going to be like Denzel in Equalizer 3. Yes. And he's going to be in amazing shape and he'll die for every loose ball and he's going to be an absolute maniac. And then Porzingis is going to be in street clothes

and the Boston fans are going to fucking lose their minds. Oh, God. It's going to be great. It's going to be the complete opposite of Sean O'Malley last night in the Boston Garden winning the Bantamweight title.

I'm not sure if you saw this. You're not going to believe this, but the entire Boston crowd was rooting for Sean O'Malley. The O'Malley fella? They're treating it like it was Larry Bird in 1986. They're so sad. All right.

So, player pods. Wilds is pro. Jacoby is pro. I'm pro, but I just want to raise the cons All right. So player pods, Wilds is pro, Jacoby is pro. I'm hard pro. Hard. I want to hear from the players. I just want,

I just want to raise the cons of the, everybody be just kind of creating their own narrative that didn't exist. I don't, let me make my case. This is a small case for player pods. We all work in traditional media and we've all done interviews with current professional basketball players. They are inherently going to talk to their peers that play basketball in a dramatically different manner and that's the way i prefer to hear them speak okay in a more casual in a more not naked in a locker

room with a microphone in front of them yeah yeah or just like we've got four minutes with such and such after the game like i want to hear the real them and you're going to get the closest to the real them you possibly can in a not media conscious setting than when they're talking to one of their peers. I have another basketball topic for you. Great, go. So they announced the schedule, which I always think is funny,

the NBA schedule release, which really people just want to know who the Christmas games are. And even there, I'm fine not knowing until December 22nd. They're like, oh, here, opening night. Here's what we got. It's like, cool. But it's

always interesting to me who gets the most games and who has the least games. Did you guys see who has the least games? You mean national games. The least national games out of the 30 teams. Who do you think it was? Magic.

Who do you think it was? Charlotte Hornets. So they were second. They have four national games. Finishing last, the winner of the Nobody Cares Award for 2023-24. The Toronto Raptors. Oh, you know what?

That might be a cook the books thing because the ratings don't show up domestically for Raptors games. Oh, like they're less sexy because of the Canada thing? No, you don't get the numbers. You don't get the Canada numbers. They're called national games for a reason. Yeah, sorry to interrupt. So whoever has it,

they were last. So who said, oh wait, so the second to last is the Hornets? Yeah. Oh, shout out to the Magic,

made for Steam Magic. Yeah, I think the Wiz were, the Wiz were around four too. I think there was a couple Jordan Pool Warriors games they probably wanted to throw on there.

Oh yeah, Wizards. There was a couple ones where OKC was on TV more than New Orleans, which I thought was interesting. I think the networks were just kind of burned on, alright, enough with this. Is Zion going to play or not thing?

Because when he doesn't play, not great. So OKC got a couple more. Next topic, NBA related. Who would be the funniest guys to have on Team USA right now? Just do a draft. The funniest? The funniest in terms of

Americans going, wait, why the fuck is that guy on the team? I'm going to go first. Ben Simmons. I think he wins yet another draft. He's from Australia. What are you talking about? draft. He's not a fair kid. First of all, he's from Australia. What are you talking about? No, he's passed for U.S. Citizenship

to be on our team. That's not fair. What if it was Kyrie and Harden as the backcourt? Jordan Poole coming off the bench and Dwight Howard is somehow involved. Does anybody watch this team? I'd love it if Dwight Howard's on team.

Yeah, please. I would like, if we're just going off the wall ideas, I haven't kind of fleshed this out yet. I am obsessed with Royal Rumbling everything. Every part of my life, which is involving theme music and then someone rushing in and coming out. Oh, oh. I think it could happen in a

lot of ways like hey let's go out to dinner and we like we book a dinner and then all of a sudden i just play on my phone like oh my god and just comes screaming in oh my god this is this is your best half-baked idea ever that's a good idea there was a point when we were like anthony edwards is bringing the ball up a little. He just wasn't pushing the break. He's like, here's the plan. I'm going to bring it up. Austin Reeves kind of run along the sideline. I was like,

what if you just heard the glass breaking? It's like, oh, it's Kyrie Irving. How did he get on this team? My God. He's here. He just immediately checks into the game. He just starts going 1,000 miles an hour. It? My God. He's here. Oh, and he just immediately checks into the game and he just starts going a thousand miles an hour. Oh, it'd be great.

That's good. I like the Royal Rumbling stuff. All right, we're going to take one more break and then we got to talk about James Harden. This episode is brought to you by Prime Video. You know me, I can't go a day without sports. I really can't. And now Monday nights are all about hockey.

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They're all on Prime. Prime Monday Night Hockey. It's on Monday. It's on Prime. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Bowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember. You'll do great things too. You won't win the Super Bowl, but your fundraising will support mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancer research.

And if you don't want to grow a mustache, you could still walk or run 60 kilometers, host an event, or set your own goal and mow your own way. Do great things this November. Sign up now. Just search Movember. All right, coming back. I can't believe we've done almost 40 minutes of basketball and we're about to go back for more, but we got to talk about James Harden. Jacoby, I asked you an

assignment. What did James Harden's next three years look like? So we're going from August 23 all the way through July 2026. Walk us through what teams does he play for? Where does he live? How much money does he make? It's just everything James Harden. What do you have? Can I throw in something real quick?

Absolutely. He's going to be 34 in two weeks. Copy that. Happy birthday, Jimmy. So birthday's coming up. Happy birthday, Jimmy. Happy birthday, Jimmy Harden. And it's like an older 34, like when 50 Cent turned 34. It's like he's 34, but it feels like 39.

Well, let me start by this. You also asked if you had to give James Harden advice, what would it be? Because I think that is very important to what the next three years look like. Because if James Harden called my phone, I was like, guys, hold on a second. Pause the pod, Kyle. I have to talk to James Harden because he wants my advice. I would strongly, strongly suggest that he play basketball well for $35 million for the Philadelphia 76ers. I think that is clearly the only path for him to get what he wants, for him to get paid handsomely to play basketball after this year. If there is any sort of repeating of what he's done in Houston and what he's done in Brooklyn here in Philadelphia, he's costing himself maybe a hundred million dollars. But here's how I predict it will play

out. I predict he will show up and play for the Sixers and he will not give a hundred percent or he will not give the same effort he gave last year. He will not perform the same numerically. And I believe that he will be traded at the deadline, before the deadline, for 60 or 70 cents on the dollar for some pieces. I don't think that Daryl can really do anything right now that makes them a better team without James Harden. There's no trade out there that makes them better. If you trade James Harden,

make the better move is to hope he comes back and is somehow happy. But if you want me to predict how it plays, he comes back and he is unhappy. So unhappy at which it becomes a situation where you can add by subtracting him from the locker room and you get 60 cents on the dollar. And then he plays the end of the year for that team becomes a free agent and then has his agent sweep the landscape for interested teams and finds out that what's out there for him is 30 40 million dollars in two

years maybe with oh yeah i don't even think that much look at what happened to russell westbrook russell westbrook went down to 3.8 million this year he went from 47 to 3.8 it goes fast i don't even think that much. Look at what happened to Russell Westbrook. Russell Westbrook went down to 3.8 million this year. He went from 47 to 3.8. It goes fast. Let's not forget the year that James Harden had last year on the basketball court. Let's not forget the three teams he quit on. He was good. He led the league in assists, and he adapted his game to playing alongside MVP Joel Embiid.

They went on streaks during the regular season that he had a lot to do with, and they looked like a good basketball team. And even the Celtics series. We all remember that game, game one. Sure. I also remember game six, game seven. I think the off-court stuff with James Harden has muddied our vision, blurred our vision about what the on-court stuff with James Harden has sort of has, has muddied our vision, blurred our vision about what the on-court stuff is.

With reason. I still think he has value, but I think it plays out like this. He gets traded before the deadline. He plays for a team, whether it's the Clippers or not for the rest of the season. He does not resign with them. He becomes a free agent and gets like $30 million for two years that day.

If you want. And I don't know what team that is, but it's going to be not that sexy. The team doesn't exist. It's a team in fantasy land. Wads, what do you think? That's how I see it. Do you want to hear a ridiculous idea or a serious analysis?

Let's go serious first, and then we'll go ridiculous. I think that he would be doing a disservice to Embiid, who he seems to have a real relationship with, if he shows up and doesn't give 100%. So I think if he does show up, he's going to play. But the Daryl Morey is a liar stuff is not great. And if there's any sort of like this kind of rumors that there was a handshake deal, a wink wink deal

that like, hey, take this pay cut and I'll get you later. Turns out, I'm not going to get you later. He has a right to be upset and I saw Woj's reporting they're kind of looking into salary cap circumvention if that actually happened.

They already did what? Looked into it? I already debunked this on Twitter. He thought he was going to Houston. I did it like four days ago. He thought he was going to Houston. Yeah, and email doka got there first. All the reporting.

There was ESPN Woj on Christmas Day reported it. In March, there was this big athletic story about what the bond between Houston and Harden. And then in May, same thing. Houston, Houston. That's where Philly thought he was going and they didn't feel like he had any loyalty to them. My question is, if he felt like he was promised

this wink-wink contract from Philly, then why was all the Houston shit being reported for six months? What really happened is Zadoka came in. He got the job at the end of April. And they were like, what about James Harden?

He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. We can talk about it. And then as soon as he got the job, he was like, I don't fucking want that guy. And he threw his body in front of it. And they went from Harden to Fred VanVleet.

That's what happened. Harden thought he was going there. He thought he was getting a big contract. That's why he took a little less money to help them Philly win for one year because he knew he was probably going to leave. That's my theory, and I think I'm right. Once that Houston thing got pulled out,

and Daryl says to him, we're going to trade. Yeah, we'll trade you this summer. And then he looks around and nobody fucking wants James Harden. Sorry. Clippers wouldn't even offer Terrence Mann for him. And then go through around and nobody fucking wants James Harden. Like, sorry. Clippers wouldn't even offer Terrence Mann for him. And then go through the league. Who has space for a guy making $35 million? Like if you're Miami, would you trade Tyler Hero for him? No way. You're not doing that. Just go through the league. Try to find me the James Harden trade.

All of a sudden you're looking at Charlotte with Gordon Hayward and a protected number one. Why would Charlotte do that? Why would Washington trade Jordan Poole for him? Go through every team. There's no James Harden trade. Philly knows it. They've told him that. And whether he fully realizes that or I don't know. I mean, he's always had a weird kind of circle situation. Palenka left a while ago and he's had no agent. He's gotten help from different agents. He always seems like he has a shifting team. It just seems like he's getting bad advice. I agree with that.

I agree with that. Do you, do you think going back to what I was saying about player narratives, if I was to come in and I was like, Hey James, here's the thing. The narrative around you is that you're the highest usage rate guy in the league who scored 36 points a game, 34 points, led the league in scoring, all that, draw the fouls, do the whole thing. You're not that guy anymore.

You're actually a super unselfish guy who has brought his scoring down to 21 points a game, who took a $14 million pay cut, who led the league in assists, and bought your buddy a Rolex when he won MVP. So all you have to do is somehow spin the quitting on the third team to cement this new narrative that you're actually an unselfish player that is the narrative is that you're the most selfish player the quitting on the team certainly doesn't help but he needs to spin the third time needs to go out there and

spin that for him all right playing on selfish and he took he took 14 million let me just say oh it's a 14 million dollar pay cut oh sure that's no big deal. Aaron Rodgers did it, and there was a seven-day parade. James Harden did it. Like, oh, that was good. Oh, sure, that's nice. $14 million. And then they hired his friends, Tucker, Trez, and Daniel House, and then they got docked for tampering for a couple of picks.

And they went through all their emails and everything. So that's why there's another investigation. Also, see, nobody remembers this, but Minnesota lost five first round picks when they did a wink wink thing with Joe Smith. The league's really harsh on that thing. You'd have to be crazy to do that in 2023, especially with all the different ways they can keep receipts on things. And I just think it's too risky for Philly. Jacobs, if Harden comes to me right now and he says, I like your podcast. I don't really like anybody around me in my life. What should I do? I would do exactly what you laid out. Go back to Philly.

You know what? Play great. Just apologize. Just look at the big picture you're you're in a contract there anyway that you opted in on that's the other thing he fucking opted into the contract so because he couldn't get another one right so you opted in that was your decision look at the landscape boston if this poor zingas god only knows what's going on but there's a chance boston's gonna be worse there's a chance mi's going to be worse. There's a chance Miami who lost Gabe Vincent,

they lost Strews, and they might not get Dame Lillard, and they're older. They might be worse. Milwaukee is a rookie coach. You're just going down the line. It's like, you guys might actually be the one seed. If you just come back with Nick Nurse and you're happy, I actually

think they could be the one seed, but he could also torpedo it, and it could be a disaster, but what is the better situation for him? You're going to go to Clippers and play with load management Kawhi? You're going to play with, you know,

this goofy Clipper team that's never done jack shit? That's a better situation than playing in Philly with Embiid and Nick Therese? I don't get it. I think it's really weird. It's weird that he doesn't see that it's the best situation, which makes me not trust him as like a basketball entity

where does he want to win a title? I don't even know. Cause if he wants to win a title, stay in Philly. Well, it's not like I'm doing Daryl's dirty work, but I'm not, I just know, I just think it's common sense. It's not wanting to win win a title let's say that he just wants to maximize his earnings over the next three years the there's the the number one choice to do so is to play good basketball for the philadelphia 76ers this season and there's a huge gap before you get to number two a huge gap so it's like even if even if it's not about winning a title which is like as fans it's what we want players to care about the most let's say that he's like i'm trying to get as much money because i see the twilight of my career there is only real one real option there and that is to play good hard

basketball for philadelphia and if you're philadelphia there's a whole mb thing because this is getting messy and you know and there's a whole and bead angle like there's a lot of damage control you have to do with joel and bead when you know james harden's talking to 15 year old chinese kids about daryl mori what was the question that was asked that led to that statement was someone in the crowd like how do you feel about daryl mori yeah it was also kind of fucked up because that you know daryl's not exactly beyonce in china no and it it just felt a little intentional and before i don't want to sound like i'm defending Daryl's not exactly Beyonce in China. No. And it just felt a little intentional. And before, I don't want to sound like I'm defending Daryl because I think his infatuation with Harden

is going to end up, you know, really damaging like the big picture of his career. Like the fact that over and over again, he just kept getting sucked in by this guy. And, you know, like the Ben Simmons piece where Indiana offered Sabonis. Sabonis got turned into Halliburton and healed, which makes me think, I think it's pretty fair to say that they could have turned Ben Simmons into Halliburton and healed, which is a way better basketball trade,

but they just really wanted Harden. He vouched for the guy and now blow up in his face. And I, you know, he, he, he wanted to bring in a guy that had quit on two teams, which is on him. At what point, Bill, do you think Embiid, who seems to love Philly with all his heart, says, you know what? I had Ben Simmons. You told me it was going to work. And then he left. I was playing with Jimmy Butler. And he left. And I had James Harden and you guys screw that up.

And granted it was different regimes screwing it up. Yeah. Like I'm kind of done with this. I don't know if he's ever going to get to that point because it feels like he's really in the fabric of Philadelphia at this point. I think it'd be shocking if he left, but I think if, if it was happening to somebody else, somewhere else,

he would be the first one to ask out. He would be the superstar to ask out this year. You know what I would say to him if he said all that stuff to me? Play good in the playoffs, sirs. Ah, my knee hurt.

I got hit in the face. Just kick ass for four straight weeks in April and May. Ah, I was trying to get MVP. Just do it once. I had a broken face. I'm not saying you can't do it. Just do it once. Was he awesome in the Boston

series? What's the excuse for that? He seemed pretty healthy. Bad matchup. Bad matchup? It's the MVP. Tatum killed us. Tatum just went on fire. What do you want me to do?

I wouldn't bet on this, but I think there's a Tatum killed us. Tatum just went on fire. Who could guard him? Yeah, what do you want me to do? I wouldn't bet on this, but I think there's a 10-1 chance. Nah, 20-1. But I could see Harden in China next year not getting anything... No, I'm serious. Not getting anything close to where he thought he was going to get money-wise

from the NBA and just saying, I'll go to China, I'll take a huge check from them, and then maybe February, March, I'll go to China, I'll take a huge check from them, and then maybe February, March, I'll come back and I can play NBA and basically double dip. Because Jacoby thought he was like two for 40. I don't see it. The only reason Kyrie got that money is because Dallas was already kind of pot committed to that terrible trade they made and they had no choice. What

are you going to do? You have to keep Luka.airi was some form of asset and you just got to keep your fingers crossed and hope it works out but you know if they had to clarify who's doing it to clarify he is if he plays well this year he's two for 30 or 40 when he's a free agent that that's okay that's so you're saying he's what i'm saying the hypothetical scenario in which he plays well for Philly this year and then leaves Philadelphia, that's the type of deal I would expect him to get. That really makes me nervous. All right, let's move.

Oh, I had one more NBA thing for you guys. This is a half-baked idea. Oh, good. Half-baked idea. NBA and Bravo should combine for an end-of-the-season reunion show

like what we get with Real Housewives when they all get back on stage. Yeah, of course. I knew you'd love this. It goes big stage. And then it's like Jordan Poole is over on the left side

and Draymond's on the other side. And who else did I have? Oh, Katie and Kyrie. They're both there. Ben Simmons shows up halfway through. You need disgruntled fired coaches. That's what you need. We have, yeah, Doc Rivers. Doc Rivers. Simmons shows up halfway through. You need disgruntled fired coaches. That's what you need. We have Doc Rivers.

Doc Rivers. He comes in halfway through. Marcus Smart and Missoula are just kind of on both sides. It's like, so what happened with you guys? And it's just Andy Cohen just trying to pour gasoline on the fire for two hours. The amazing television. Pay-per-view it. I'd watch it.

Pay-per-view it. It's a great half-baked idea. No chance in the world. It's pretty good. It's a good half-baked idea. No chance. It's pretty good. Not like my half-baked idea. Are they all wearing cocktail dresses? What was your hilarious Harden take, by the way? You never gave it to us. You gave us the serious

trying to impress Nick Wright take. You didn't give us the hilarious take. I think that he should either say that he's turning over a new leaf of not being a high usage player. He needs to either grow the beard

super long like Chris Anderson. Longer? Like a wizard like Gandalf. You have to have a line in the sand in your look. I'm not this guy anymore. Am I Chris Anderson, undrafted player? No, I'm Birdman, NBA champion with a bunch of tattoos.

Like, oh, gotcha. Sorry, I thought you were a guy from Berlin College. Like, nope, I'm an NBA champion, Birdman. David Letterman, when he left the late 80s, I'm not on TV anymore. Here's this huge beard. I'm a different guy now. I'm doing my own thing. So if he could either go super long with the beard or shave it down, it would be a line in the sand. Like, hey, by the way, everybody, don't forget, I led the league in assists and took a $14 million pay cut. I'm actually super unselfish, despite what your blogs and your Twitter stream has told you.

What about like a mustache and like just a little chin hair thing and that's it? Career needs a save. Face needs a shave. That's done. Yeah. Done. That sounds like a whole business. Good stuff, guys.

We're moving on the NFL. That's a great transition. Good stuff, guys. We're moving on the NFL. That's a great transition. Good stuff, guys. Coward does that. It feels like slightly insulting. Good stuff, guys. Good stuff. I felt a little insulted. Jacoby, good work. That was

a Jim Rome thing, too, way back in the day. Good job. Great takes, guys. I like that. Wow. Is Tom Brady coming back? I don't think so. Are you monitoring it? Is there a Twitter account I should be following? Where's the coverage?

You know what? I have my finger on the pulse of it. I don't think he's coming back. I saw the Instagram when he was promoting the Brady brand protein. He says he's looking around for a training camp to attend. Here's the thing. He is coming to week one Patriots-Eagles. They're going to do something in halftime. I think that is going to be, has the potential to be, I should say,

very awkward. If Mac Jones doesn't come out and ball against the Eagles in their line, which now they're on solid turf, not like the Super Bowl, if they get after Mac Jones and Mac Jones plays poorly, and now for halftime, everyone stand and talk about Tom Brady. Oh my, can you imagine?

He's like, you know what? Give me a pair. Give me a pair of shoulder pads. He takes the, you know, they always give a frame jersey. Give me that thing. Punches the glass. Oh, it's crazy. Belichick's like, we've only been carrying 52.

Oh my God, it's the extra quarterback rule from Brock Purdy. Real rumbling. Real rumbling. Bill Jackson behind it all along. I don't think he's coming back. I would have brought him back. Yeah, week five, New Orleans felt like a better Tom Brady comeback to Foxborough.

Yes, he'll do week one against the Eagles. Week one, Philly? The best pass rush in the league? No thanks. I'm a little bit nervous for my guy, Mac Jones. But I don't think he's coming back. But it would be awesome. Jacob, you know what made me think it's possible? pass rush in the league? No thanks. I'm a little bit nervous for my guy, Mac Jones. But I don't think he's coming back. But it would be awesome.

Jacob, you know what made me think it's possible? The story that came out about Kyle Shanahan calling Phillip Rivers during the playoffs last year.

I love that. I love how interested he was in potentially coming back. Dude, Andrew Luck still needs calls. The year before

Drew Brees, remember they kicked the tires, I forget what team it was, remember they kicked the tires. I forget what team it was, but they kicked the tires hard with him to come back. Every year there's some smart coach looks at him and goes, that guy's bored. I wonder if he'd come back. Yeah.

Let me just kind of by saying last year was that year. Like he sort of was reported to be retired a year ago. And then last year was the like, all right, one more go year. Like, I don't think there's a two more go year. You know what I mean?

The thing with Brady is he's also the guy that I could see retiring for like three years and coming back at like age 47. Yeah. Like his version of Jordan in his 40s, basically. Mid-40s. It's like, you know what? People think this can't be done, but I'm in the best shape of my life.

Like when Ali fought against Holmes. No. Did you see the video this week that was resurfaced of Magic Johnson buying a team in Greece and then playing on it? No. Do you remember this? Magic Johnson?

Our guy? Magic Johnson. Google this. I just saw this on my Twitter? Our guy? Magic Johnson. Google this. I just saw this on my Twitter, or sorry, X feed or whatever. It was like, hey,

remember when Magic Johnson bought a team in Greece? I think it was Greece or Spain and then suited up for them and then there's this video of like, it's, you know,

a little heavier Magic Johnson, but he's doing Magic Johnson stuff. Like he's in the break throwing look away bounce passes to like, you know, dunkers. Like, something like that could be possible, but I think brady has played his last football and i think that um you two are both little tom brady obsessed and just kind of want this to happen and

talk about it but it's not gonna happen i mean there's so many bad quarterbacks there's 10 there's at least 10 guys this year who just have no business being a starting quarterback so it's hard not to look at it through that prism. The last time he played, it just seemed like he bailed halfway through the season and was just like, I'm throwing the ball in 1.5 seconds every time I touch it. Every time he touched the ball,

he threw it under two seconds just so he wouldn't get touched. Like, it's not happening. No chance. All right, we're going to take a break and then decide who's going to win the what truly matters. Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations, or visit SecurianCanada.ca. Securian Canada, insurance designed for life. So I was basically out for five weeks and did just a shitload of

football preview content. Nice. I love when you do this And I don't want to step on a lot of that because I'll be doing that over the next couple weeks. That's why we're doing basketball today. There's so much time to do football. I got to do the big win total over under with Cousin Sal and I. A lot of pressure this year because we actually crushed it last year. Hopefully, we can keep it going. The hardest division to figure out for me is the AFC East. And one of the reasons

is I am one of the few people who think the Patriots are actually going to be really good this year. Let's go! It's me. It's Kevin Walsh. Shocker. Surprised. Last year I was telling everybody they were going to suck and I picked the under and bet on it.

I'm pretty realistic about the Pats. They're 8-1 underdogs, right? Are they 8-1 to win the AFC East right now, Wilds? 8-1. That's like what the Arizona Cardinals should have. First of all, they were 8-9 last year. They were third in defensive DVOA. They just had one of the best drafts in the history of the franchise they absolutely loaded up

they fucking crushed it they actually hired a real Jacoby just dropped his phone they hired a real offensive coordinator who has like a playbook and plays we're gonna have plays this year Wilds no expectations

at all. None. Zero. And I just don't understand why they're not being discussed. You go through the teams. Buffalo. Season. Jacoby's got a pill.

Buffalo ends the season last year. They get the shit kicked out of them in the playoffs. They haven't really added anything. And nobody's been able to explain to me why they're just slam dunk favorites other than they have Josh Allen. The Jets, they have, I don't know, top five worst offensive line in the league. They have Robert Sal as coach.

Everybody's just penciling them in because Aaron Rodgers is good on hard knocks for three weeks. And they haven't beaten us in 14 tries. Keep going. Dolphins, Armstead's already hurt. Jalen Ramsey's out for at least half the season, and they have a quarterback who had three concussions last year.

I feel like the division's wide open, Wilds. I don't think I'm crazy. Thank you. Can I give you some more reasons? I'll dig down a little bit. Yeah, let's keep going. First of all, we can't beat Tua. I think Tua is 4-0 against us, and we haven't beaten

Josh Allen since the Blizzard game. The same rationale that I use for the fact that the Jets won't be able to beat us, I have to use the same rationale that we can't beat Josh Allen or Tua. That being said,

we brought everybody back on the defensive line. We're third in total sacks last year. Uche had 11.5, Judon had 15.5. We added Trey Flowers and Keon White, so that's great. Rodgers, I'm not worried about because the pass rush will be all over him. I think the pass rush will be all over Josh Allen. Maybe we split with them, and hopefully

we try to... We always split with Miami. That's just... We're always going to split. I'd be happy. It's always a split. Zeke, I think, great. Had 12 touchdowns last year. That's just, we're always going to split. I'd be happy. It's always a split. Zeke, I think, great. Had 12 touchdowns last year. He's not going to break any big runs. But like everyone's saying, he's a veteran, smart guy.

He's going to be fantastic. And then, now here's the fun part. Hold on. Zeke underrated. Yes, at this point, underrated. Pollard was so good the last two years that people were like, oh my God, how did they not play Pollard over Zeke? Zeke last two years that people were like oh my god how did they not play Pollard over Zeke

Zeke's washed up it's like Zeke's definitely not washed up like he's still one of the best pass blockers in the league he's still a really good short yardage guy and he's like a beloved

teammate so great we have him for 3 million bucks awesome love it I can do a big thing on Mac Jones but first I'll go to the fringes

Malik Cunningham is Taysom Hill what yeah get focused on that oh yeah I'll go to the fringes. Malik Cunningham as Taysom Hill? What? Yeah, get focused on that. Oh, yeah. We got packages. Yeah, what position does he play?

I don't know. All of them? Quarterback? He plays football player. Remember Julian Edelman playing defense that one game? Doing everything. And Pop Douglas? Hello. This guy looks like the steal of the draft. Everybody's a steal of the draft more than I'm a Patriot.

He's fantastic. So I feel oddly optimistic. Oddly optimistic in the AFC East. Go ahead, Jacob. Jacob, is Mac Jones' comeback completely unrealistic to you? Semi-realistic or realistic? Oh my God.

Don't get me started on... Go ahead, Jacob. I know that you two don't believe what you're saying. You on. Go ahead, Jacoby. I know that you two don't believe what you're saying. You want to believe what you're saying. I do. I've already bet on 100%. You do not believe what you're saying. Career is tied to it. They're the worst team. They're the worst team

in the AFC East. Why? Why? Yeah, tell me why. Because the other three teams are better, right? Do they have the worst quarterback in the division? Well, we have a quarterback that's going to play for four months. Do they have the worst quarterback in the divisions? Are you saying you'd rather have Tua than Mac Jones?

Yes. When Tua, one more hit from, we might not see him play football again. I just don't understand how that variable is not discussed when people talk about the Dolphins. He had three concussions last year. I mean, it's sad. I feel bad for him. One more bad season for Mac Jones, we might not see him

again. He's had a really good training camp. He's had an amazing training camp. He only had one offseason because he had a defensive guy calling his plays. The playbook was half of the size when they showed up. They were like, where's the rest of the playbook?

That's it. That's all Matt has gotten to. Oh, my God, Matt Patricia, what are you doing? Jacob's last year was an all-time organizational disaster from a coaching standpoint. It was one of the craziest situations I've ever seen in all my years following Boston sports teams. And who orchestrated it? Who was the head coach? The aging Bill Belichick. Hey, the maverick. Okay. So here's the thing. When we're

discussing who's going to win the AFC East, the question shouldn't be, why isn't it the Patriots? Okay? It shouldn't be the lead question. Because I would say that I would pick the Patriots to finish last in the AFC East. And I would pick the bills to win the AFC East because let's not forget a year ago.

How did we feel about the bills? They were like top three teams in terms of super bowl. Asses kicked in the playoffs. Okay. Let me tell you why. Cause Josh Allen got hurt in the jets game and was not right for the whole second half of the season. Like. Let me tell you why. Because Josh Allen got hurt in the Jets game and was not right for the whole second half of the season.

Like, he just not was himself. And we all saw it on the field. It was one of those things where it's like, oh, look, he got a little hurt in this one game and it completely changed

for the rest of the game. You said they haven't added anybody. Does Josh Allen play defense? I forget. Oh, wait. Oh, wait. He doesn't?

So when the Bengals just completely manhandled them offensively and just overpowered them and everybody was like, whoa, the Bills defense. Man, they look really small. They just got overpowered and then they fired the defensive coordinator

and now this year it's like, the Bills defense still really good. It's like, is it? With Vaughn Miller coming back, I am a little bit nervous. Is he going to come back? He's like in his mid-30s and and he had like a serious injury last year. Losing Edwards is a bigger problem for the Bills' defense than the health of Vaughn Miller because he was a big part of what they did in linebacker.

And they're leaning on Milano a lot. And their cornerbacks aren't the best, but their safety, I'd say Hyde and Poyer, you know, that's one of the best safety combos out there. Cool. That's the least valuable position in football. Okay. It's like that and guard. But you say they didn't add anybody.

They added Dalton Kincaid. Cool. Give me all the rookie tight end stats. It's like Gronk and maybe one other guy who've had really good rookie seasons. I've heard all of these arguments, Chakops. It's just the only argument is Josh Allen has 11 wins every year,

and it doesn't matter who's on his team. So if you're going to make that argument, I don't have a counter. I don't have a counter. No, it's just like if Josh Allen and his prime, that's 11 wins. But that seems to be everyone's bills argument. Yeah, I know, but that's a fair argument.

It's a fair argument. I'm having trouble with the comeback. I can't come back. We can't beat the guy. We can't beat him. We can't beat two of the quarterbacks. I'm working on that part of my defense. All right.

He's really good. Here's the only thing. If Josh Allen, if they decide, and I don't think it actually, they always say this every year. If Josh Allen decides actually not to do any of these runs anymore he becomes a far less effective quarterback i think that's just something you say

in training camp like ah we're gonna limit his runs like he's still gonna run but we're gonna have it oh we got everybody covered like surprise surprise josh allen goes for 17 yards and like a back breaking like third and 15 and it like breaks the game and we lose. I can see that happening as well. Jacob's bottom 10 offensive line. The Bills. Okay. Is that true?

Yeah. Top five rushing defense for the Bills. Yeah. Back on you. James Cook. Break out you. Jets. I already did a little on the Jets, but they can't block. The Jets can't block. Seems like a problem.

All the Rodgers stats are like, when he's under pressure, he's actually not very good. Okay. Well, they can't block. And then Robert Sala, who last year, I mean,

if you're going to make a list of coaches from one to 32, not you guys, but people listening, you'll be surprised where Robert Sala ends up on that list as you're making it. You're like, well, he's not in the top 10. He's not in the next 10 either. Now it's like, all right, he's like 24th, 25th.

I don't know. I thought coaching and blocking mattered in football. You throw in all the hype and all the press they're getting. To me, there's more red flags than green flags with them. Oh, I like that. Really good defense.

The defense would be good. You ever drive down the highway and you're sort of outside of urban areas and you just see one of of those giant American flags, like huge, giant American flags that looks like it weighs a thousand pounds. The Jets don't have a lot of red flags. They have one of those size red flags, which is the offensive line and protecting because they're often their skill positions. I mean you can put up against any skill position in the league their defense they've got they've got like studs at every level it's just the offensive line and it feels a little bit like kind of like the Bucs last year we're going into the season we're all like everything looks good for the Bucs Super Bowl champs

coming back but there's some questions about the offensive line and we saw how that played out like that would be my confidence I have serious questions about the coach I have Salah as like a bottom eight coach. Yeah, you start wondering like, would you rather have Dan Campbell or Robert Sala? Like you start asking

those kind of questions. I'm going to, I'll just read, I'm going to read you coaches and stop me when you, when it's somebody you'd rather have Robert Sala than. Ready? Andy Reid, Mike Tomlin, Kyle Shanahan, Bill Belichick, Sean McVay, John Harbaugh, Sean Payton, Pete Carroll, Mike Vrabel.

All right, we're at nine. Sirianni, Brian Dayball, McDermott, Peterson, Zach Taylor, Matt LeFleur. We're in that. Okay, we're good. I think we're there. Mike McDaniel. I don't know. No, we're not there.

Frank Wright. I like Mike McDaniel a lot. Kevin Stefanski. Kevin O'Connell won 13 games last year. Arthur Smith in Atlanta. Dan Campbell. Okay, now we're there. Now we're there.

Push my button. Push my button at Arthur Smith. I'm pushing my button at Arthur Smith. I missed the 20 guys. He's never had a quarterback. And he may have mismanaged the Zach Wilson thing terribly. I thought it was bad to bring Flacco in because I felt like

Flacco wanted to compete for the job and that hurt his growth. I sneaky became like a Zach Wilson defender just because I thought he was being mistreated. You see that run? The Zach Wilson thing wasn't great. Yeah, I just two red flags to them. Miami's got the two thing. Miami's the team I'm the most

afraid of. With this division, Miami Miami Tua could just play for four months, not take a bad hit, and they might be really good. You can just close your eyes and see Tyreek streaking down the field. Like, oh, I saw this one coming. Yeah. Buffalo's plus 270 not to make the playoffs. Not to make the playoffs. You know what? Just remember

this, okay? The Patriots will finish last in the AFC East. I'm confident. I'm confident about that. To his health is obviously a big question mark, but I'm putting the Patriots as last in the AFC East. I think the draft was a potentially franchise transformative draft.

Gaten Gonzalez, a cornerback, who I think is going to, every year there's one or two rookie cornerbacks who immediately are real guys. Like Glass Jerry with Sauce. Yep. Who is Terrell on Atlanta. Like these guys, Sertan and Demmer.

Sertan, love Sertan. These guys can come in and right away, they're really good. And I think he's going to be that good for them. Watch out for the Jets. It's going to get early late for the Jets. The first six games are tough. The Monday night game against

Buffalo is going to be immediately there's going to be like people with their hair on fire right away for whatever team loses that game. Would you see their schedule the first four? Their home for six. At Dallas, home to England, home Kansas City,

at Denver, which will be like the Sean Payton Super Bowl, and then Philly, and then bye week, and then week eight at the Giants, who I think the Giants, that's another one that teams, people are just writing off. I think it's weird to play in New York and then when you're, I always think that's an odd game when you're in your home stadium,

but most people are cheering for the other team. What's going on here? And then Chargers week nine. But what's interesting about a lot of those early games is pass rushes. Dallas has one. Dallas is probably the best defense in the league. New England. Eagles.

Kansas City has Chris Jones. Yeah. Denver's defense might actually be good. Philly has probably the second best pass rush in the league. New England. Eagles. Kansas City has Chris Jones. Yeah. Denver's defense might actually be good. Philly has probably the second best pass rush in the league. And the Giants have a bunch of pass rushers

and the Chargers have Bosa. So, we're going to find out fast with that Jets offensive line. But there's a scenario where, you know, it just goes sideways for them. All right.

We're going to take one more break and then we have a bunch of tiny topics. Hey, we're supported by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV. If you're a displaced fan like myself living 3,000 miles away from my favorite team,

the 2023 AFC East Champs, the New England Patriots, NFL Sunday Ticket, a must-have to let you keep up with all your favorite teams out of market Sunday afternoon games. It is right on YouTube and right on YouTube TV.

The thing I'm most excited about, guys, is the four box because our previous Sunday ticket person decided that the four box should actually have a bunch of stuff on the left side and on the bottom. So it was four boxes there. YouTube TV is like, here are the four games. We got nothing else.

These are just four awesome games. And Jacoby, how many games can you watch at once now that we're over? Because remember back in the old days when you used to come over for Sunday football, when you lived here, we would have the big TV and then I would have the three other games. I felt like I could watch everything. Now I feel like three is my max probably. For me, it's audio driven. And one thing I like about the four boxes, you can cursor between the different games and listen to that audio because I find watching and watching is way different for me than watching and listening because it's for me, there's, there's one game I'm watching and listening to. And then there's a bunch of games I'm just monitoring to see if i want to listen to so what i like about the sunday experience

is switching which is sort of like my number one at that moment if you see a touchdown if you see someone in the red zone you can toggle over and listen to that audio that's my favorite thing about the experience what about you lads i think the cooler answer would be like man i watch i could watch eight i do two double boxes and i have two you know what the real answer is like one and a half i can't do it i'm like i will have it all up and like what happened i'm like did that happen what game was that i'll just be totally lost it's the same reason i don't go to the movie theater and like go into one movie. Like, I'm going to go check out the other movie.

I'll be right back. Like, no, dude, you're going to miss it. I like three. I like having the main game, two others, static, and then toggling on the main game during commercials. Well, thanks to NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV for sponsoring this segment. Truly the best place to keep up

with all your favorite teams out of market Sunday afternoon games right now. Get $50 off your subscription when you sign up at youtube.com slash BS. That is youtube.com slash BS. Tap the banner, visit this episode's page to learn more. Terms and blackout restrictions apply. Offer ends September 19th.

All right, we're going to do half-baked ideas. Before we do that, wow, it's just zoned out for like 30 seconds. Jacoby, I just need your take on Marcus Jordan now engaged to Larsa Pippen, which I think is like kind of secretly the weirdest sports story we've had

in a while. I just don't understand it. Explain this to us. You've dabbled in the underbelly of this world from time to time of dabbled celebrities athletes page six relationships it's yeah i don't want to call it your wheelhouse but it kind of is what's going on here this is this is really more of like a story about love because you look at larsa pippen and when this first started happening you're like well this is clearly some sort of vengeance situation and that um her actual natural love for this human being does not exist but you have to spend time with someone even if you are in a vengeful

relationship and then you have to wonder like maybe this relationship started with sort of nefarious intentions, but to be engaged, is that just a grab for another headline and she has no intentions of marrying this person? Or are they actually sort of like accidentally in love with each other? That's sort of what this headline said to me. Like the rom-coms that we grew up with. Yes. Oh, you have to go on one date with her. I'll pay you $200. It's like, fine, I need the money. But then you're like, I kind of like this person. Do I think that's the case? No. I think this is actually like, hey, we need to do something to

generate another headline to get back into the news cycle. I would say that's probably 75% the truth. But there is a 25% of me that does believe in the fact that these two people got together sort of for the wrong reasons, but accidentally enjoyed each other to the point where they're in a real relationship. And, you know, I don't think that they'll spend the rest of their lives together in holy matrimony,

but there is a part of me that wants to believe in like the human spirit and they accidentally fell in love. It's a great rom-com. So in a rom-com at about the hour and 15 minute Mark, Marcus would find out that Larsa wanted to start dating him just to make Scotty Pippen mad. Exactly. He would get some,

like some cell phone video of her talking about it with a friend from like eight weeks ago. And then his feelings would be hurt. They'd break up and then she would show up at his door and there would be playing like boys to men song and we'd be ready to roll. They'd get back together and then the wedding. Yeah. Okay.

Again, do I think that is the case? No, but it, but it makes me think about that potential. Wilds. Yeah. I didn't,

I didn't have this on the agenda for you. Oh, penalty kicks. I think we've all lost our minds. I didn't have this on the agenda for you. Oh. Penalty kicks. I think we've all lost our minds. You know what works with the penalty kick? Just kick it in the top left corner. Nobody stops it.

A friend of mine texted me about this, and I was like, whoa, he's totally right. The amount of overthinking now with penalty kicks where it's like, I'll kick it straight at the keeper. They're going to dive one way or the other. I like that one. I'm going to do a stutter step, whatever. It's like, you know what works? Just blast it in the left top corner. I've never seen anyone stop left top corner ever in the history of soccer.

Just do that. As hard as you can. Just blast it. Just a hard kick the left corner. That works. Now we're doing this like, it's like I'm playing chess now. They think I'm going right i'm gonna pretend i'm going right i'm gonna stutter step left and then kick it straight i do come on i thought there was some terrible terrible women's world cup kicks all right you

have not taken that uh how about this twitter can i just celebrate the the goalie jumping jack i like when they do the jumping jacks before like look how big my arms are see my gloves this is my this is my catch radius. Careful. Also, you see it over and over again. Sometimes the goalie just comes off the line and they don't call it. And then there's times they call it. It's like block charge.

We almost need Steve Jaffe to come in and just tell us what happened. Is Twitter dead alive or on life's long clouds? Come on. Twitter is still the most efficient way to get sports news highlights and opinions. It might not be perfect, but maybe I've manicured my Twitter account

to the point where it's still very efficient. And it's like, oh, it's buggy. The videos aren't playing. I don't know. The Ellie Dela Cruz highlight played for me. I'm getting my Shingun highlights from FIBA. I'm feeling fine. But I know you thought it was actually dead.

I feel like if no one told me about everything, I would think it's the same exact experience. I feel like it's losing steam in a real way. It's just harder to find the tweets from the people I want to hear from, the ads in there and just over and over again sending me to the For You page.

It's like, I just want to be on the page with the people I follow and that's it. And then tweets popping up that I've already seen and I don't know. It just doesn't feel like we're in a great spot. And maybe that's for the best. I feel like we're in a great spot. And maybe that's for the best. I feel like Twitter 10 years ago was like a really fun Friday night at a bar where you're just talking to different people and you're singing along to the music and you're talking to strangers and everyone's having a good time.

And it just seems like, hey, we're all the same. It's like Studio 54. We're all just here and we come from different backgrounds and we're all just here to party together and have a good time. And now I feel like it's that bar when you know there's going to be a fight where there's just mean mugging each other. There's just a negative energy to it where if you look at the wrong person or say the wrong thing, there's just an energy to it that's very negative

and very like I have to be on eggshells you know like it just seems like the under the undertone of it all has gone from positive to negative over the past decade and that's one of my concerns about twitter so it's still pretty positive turned into the beacon hub 25 years ago yes but i will say this at one third in the morning as much as i can criticize twitter like the numbers, the quantitative data is the quantitative data. It's the first thing I push with my thumb when my phone opens and I scroll on.

And I spend a lot of time on it. For me to criticize it, but my behavior is probably the most true opinion I have on it. And I'm on Twitter often and a lot. Yeah, we love Twitter. Sounds like you should buy some Twitter stock. true opinion I have on it. And I'm on Twitter often and a lot. Yeah.

You love Twitter. Sounds like you should buy some Twitter stock. Next topic. How much money should Otani make next year? Well, I read the pitching and the hitting contracts.

If you broke them both out, it was around $7 i think um i think steve cohen should just not only he needs to have a big splash as the mets owner it's also just the ultimate flex to the other owners in baseball it's like don't forget everybody i have way more money than you guys i would go and even $900 million. I think you got to go a billion if you're going to do $900. Just go a billion.

I've made it to the first billion dollar baseball player. Let's do it. Done. A billion dollars. I gave him a billion dollars. 11 years for a billion dollars. A billion dollars. You're welcome New York City. Also, if you buy the Mets, you've got new york city and there's and also if you buy the mets you've got the yankees like constantly there it's like ah the yankees why were the yankees so good like

they always spent the most like now you go spend the most yeah ghetto tony huge he's a literally everyone throws around generational supers like wow once in a generation like another quarterback in the draft is generational? Four years ago. I can't have this many generations. Literally generations. Get him. Put him in New York City for 11 years. A billion dollars.

He's not going to play in New York City. He wants to be in the West Coast. I vote for the Giants. I think the Giants are the most fun for him. You're on the West Coast. I think the Giants are the most fun for him. You're on the West Coast. No, I just think it would be the most fun. San Francisco. San Francisco kind of needs a boost.

I don't know if you've seen what's going on there the last couple of years. Put him in the same city with Steph Curry. Put him in Pac Bell. We get to watch his balls just sailing into the water. That's the most fun for me. That would be cool. I would say a trade for him.

Left-handed home run hitter. The kayaks go a long way. Lots of kayaks. A lot of kayak markets. The Dodgers don't need him. The Dodgers are already like, we should buy a kayak company stock in San Francisco now

in anticipation of Otani going there. I shouldn't have said that out loud. Inside of training, sorry. Yeah, like the Dodgers would be such, I mean, it'd be great for them, but such like, the Dodgers are already awesome anyway. Yeah.

And they're already interesting anyway. Like, we need him to make a team that isn't that interesting, but still has some sort of value that will be in the postseason that's in a big city. And it just seems like it should be San Francisco. Last topic

before we get to have big. Dropping your kid off for college. Oh, yeah. Kind of overrated. Great take. Yeah, thanks. Helping people move is never fun. Regardless.

Moving, not fun. But also, you know, when my dad dropped me off at Holy cross in 1988, we didn't have FaceTime. We didn't have texts. We didn't have emails. And it was like, if we didn't talk on the phone, he didn't know what the fuck was happening with me. Like he, he left and he's like, I don't know what's going to happen. My daughter, it's like I just text her, hey, what's going on? I can see her on Life360. I know where she is.

She can FaceTime me whenever she wants. It's not that traumatic. I thought it was going to be way more emotional. And it's sad to say goodbye, but it's not like she's in the Middle East. She's in a big city. She can fly to see us. And I just know where she is at all times and can talk to her whenever I want.

I mean, I'm going to go. Can I just throw something out, Jacoby? I'm going 90% denial on this one. No, it's like 98%. I disagree. This is where I've landed as I was flying home. As I was traumatized that my little girl is 3,000 miles away. I was like, you know what, overrated.

I told Libby, I'm like, hey, I'm going to do a pod with Bill. He's coming back from Boston. He just dropped Zoe off at college. And me and Libby started to get emotional about Zoe going to college. I think I'm doing a great job, guys. I hear you, but I like where I was. Overrated. Not emotional at all.

It hasn't affected me at all as far as you guys know. Ben refused to wear clothes for two or three years. I didn't go into her bedroom at all yesterday. Just stare sadly at the dark made bed. No way. Overrated. I missed the pile of clothes that were there. It was totally fine.

It's going to be like one song while you're driving. I'm doing great, guys. If we keep going, we'll make him cry. We can make him cry if we keep going. There's going to be songs that you heard together drive certain highways that you used to take to soccer road trips.

This is going to be great. I was at Whole Foods Friday night and waiting for Ben's bus to drop them off after the game that they got destroyed 28-0. And I was buying groceries and I reflexively started buying her kimchi.

Because she loves it. I just kind of froze for a second. I was like, there's no one in the house that likes kimchi anymore. Oh, wow. Yeah, she was the only one that ate the kimchi. Same thing for the pickle house. I was like, yeah, don't really need to get her pickles. God, she really likes pickled vegetables.

She's a very strange eater. All right, Wilds, it's half-baked ideas. Let's go. Wilds has been giving half-baked ideas on this podcast since it was at ESPN way back when in the 08-09 range. Maybe 2010. I don't remember when it started. He throws half-baked ideas at us and Jacobi and I will react. What's your first one? Let's see. The rollout

of it, it's like an album. What do you want to start with? Do you want to come out with a banger or do you want to just set the mood of the album? This, I titled these ones, You're Sitting on a Gold Mind. Oh, I like that. Good theme. And I'll start with a little bit of a story. And this is not when we were growing up. I wasn't working on the coal mines, but there was a little bit of a struggle with bouncy castles. When there was,

when we were growing up, Jacoby, you'd be on a bouncy castle for eight minutes a year. You would go to the carnival, take off your shoes, bounce around for eight minutes. The guy would be like, out of the bouncy castle. See you in 1987. Like, okay, thank you. Now they're ubiquitous.

Every birthday party's got a bouncy castle. Bouncy castle Tuesday at Tommy's. My they're ubiquitous. Every birthday party's got a bouncy castle. Bouncy castle Tuesday at Tommy's. My kids are over there everywhere. So this is an example of something that everybody loved and it just wasn't it wasn't distributed enough. There weren't enough of them.

So I looked for other places like that. Here's the idea. Lazy rivers everywhere. I love lazy rivers. Everyone loves lazy rivers, just tons of lazy rivers all around the country. Get the real estate, get a backhoe, build yourself a lazy river, get some tubes in the P it'll be like field of dreams. If you build a lazy river, they will come. It should be like Starbucks. Hey, what are you doing?

Lazy river. What are you up to? They should be like bars. They should be like shops in the city. All of a sudden, there's zero and then all of a sudden, there's 500. Also, there should be a public transit lazy river that takes you from A to B and also goes from B to A.

Here's how good that idea was. 10 years from now somebody's gonna say to me they sold the new york jets like really they did who'd they sell them to the founder of lazy rivers.com kevin wilds my friend kevin wilds i didn't realize he just bought the jets lazy rivers everywhere all right good start this one i'm going to start with you're you i'm going to start with why you think it won't work okay you'll be like won't work wilds a i don't know if it's allowed it is allowed b it won't help you it will probably hurt and i'm telling you it's wrong basketball gloves hear me out basketball gloves basketball gloves well this started when i show highlights on the show and it's the the amount of one-handed catches amazing one-handed catches and then someone usually chimes in with like well gloves back in my day broussard's always like back in my i didn't have gloves. The gloves are great.

They're great for football. They work for football. Guess what else wears gloves? Quarterbacks wear gloves. They're like, really? Wearing gloves? Like, yeah, Tom Brady wore a glove. Baseball, wear gloves.

Now you're even wearing gloves while you're running the bases. Give it a special mitten over your glove. So baseball gloves work. Football gloves work. Golf gloves. baseball gloves work. Football gloves work. Golf gloves. Golf gloves work. So now it's like, all right. Formula One race car drivers.

Got gloves. Hockey. What does LeBron do before every game? What does he do before every game? Great take. He's constantly... I have very sweaty hands. How many times have you seen LeBron James rub his hands against his chest to try to get sweat off of them?

It's a sweaty guy. LeBron James is very concerned about the sweatiness of his hands. And I can relate. And guess what would solve that, Kevin Welch? I don't know. Do you have a word for that? Basketball gloves. Kobe wore gloves.

He broke his metatarsals. And someone made it. He wore gloves for a long time. He's dunking with a glove. It was like a fingerless glove. It was sick. It looked like a motorcycle glove. It was great. Basketball gloves. Are you buying that, Bill?

Yeah, I would at least test them out. Thank you. Two for two. Wilds is crushing. Next up. Okay. Lifeguards need to see the whole ocean. They don't stand you know eye level they get up on a lifeguard stand yeah football coaches life bill belichick up on a lifeguard

stand ground level is too short the offensive coordinator literally has binoculars sometimes they put him in the cheap seats, like past the bleachers. No, man. Happy medium, lifeguard stand, pop up, see everything. First person to do it, immediate advantage, 100% work. I don't know. And be like, well, I don't know if it would work. Well, lifeguards do it and they save people's lives.

I think you could call a blitz. I really like where you went with that. My fear on that one would be the sweep left where the guy's running, where he gets tackled kind of out of bounds and then flung and gets thrown into like the cameraman. But if he gets thrown into the lifeguard. Oh, it's reinforced.

Somewhere there's a booger mobile. There is a booger mobile somewhere in like a deep warehouse in Bristol. Oh my God. When you said the lifeguard thing, I thought you were going with referees not head coach that's good too jacoby that works too like that see this is what the best half-baked ideas are is to build upon like the tennis umpire sits up on a lifeguard chair and yeah so they can get a good view of everything a basketball referee maybe like some mad max stilts that they kind of swing back and forth on. Yeah.

No, just for doing drywall. Just an elevated... The goal line judges, at the very least, should be in lifeguard seats. An elevated view, there should be an umpire or a referee at a football game that just has a different perspective than ground level. That's fair. I wonder if they're worried it would block the fans. Hmm. Yeah.

I like it. I mean, that was a perfect half-baked idea because it intrigued me. We were able to come up with some counters to it, but there there's, that'll never happen there. I like the idea of Belichick sitting in a giant lifeguard thing. What coach would be the funniest to get knocked out of one of those?

Probably, I don't know. I mean, probably like Pete Carroll, right? Because he'd hop up. He'd be like, I'm okay. I'm okay. That was great. I knew that would happen. All right.

Ready? Yep. We got classic Coke. You got diet Coke. You got vanilla Coke. You got Coke Zero. You got cherry Coke. A got Vanilla Coke. You got Coke Zero. You got Cherry Coke. A thousand different Cokes.

You got Fountain Cokes, two liters, one liter pans, miniature Cokes. Little glass bottle Cokes. Little glass bottle Cokes. Airplane Diet Coke. Comes with a little napkin. It has a little

equilibrium on it. You can only pour it if you're sitting down. You can only drink it if you're sitting down. And it's specially formulated so however your taste buds get affected when you're in the plane and Diet Coke tastes great up there, airplane Diet Coke. It's just a quick idea. Yeah, no one bets a thousand.

I mean, no one bets a thousand on these. Okay, this is going to sound like a gimmick, but you know what? As opposed to lazy rivers everywhere. So a lot of the best ideas ever. Yeah. Basketball. Eventually someone's like, Hey, let's build the entire offense around shooting three pointers.

And I'm like, yeah, wow, that worked. How come we didn't figure that one out? That was sitting there right in front of us. And then baseball recently, you know what the big revolution was? Let's build the entire offense around hitting home runs. Like, yeah, buddy, try to hit it out the ballpark. That works.

Football, we're halfway there. Like, let's throw the ball. Sure. What do you think about this? Now, Bill, I'll throw it to you. An entire offense, not just part of the offense. This is the first drill we do. It's the 12th drill we do.

And we put our conventional plays on the fringe. An entire offense methodically drilled and based around laterals. Oh, like a rugby offense almost. Yes. Yeah. It's like, all right, now once you catch it, what do you do with it? Like Travis Kelsey was trying to do these laterals on his own.

I could see the Chiefs actually doing this. And everyone's so afraid of the people with the best hands in the entire world, and the guys who are the best catching the ball in the entire world, are afraid of having Travis Kelsey throw them a two-foot lob. An entire offense.

An entire offense, Jacoby, on laterals. So, I feel the same way about this idea that I feel about when Patino tried to do the full-court press, which I still think was a good idea. Yeah. But he just, he didn't, he forgot the part that guys make a lot of money or veterans don't want to be in a press.

But if you brought in, I wrote about this in my book, the five worst guys on your team become your press guys. And they just come in for four minutes. And it's like- Oh, I like that. For four minutes, it's going to suck for you guys. Because we've practiced this. These are our press unit.

Same thing like with the lateral. Oh, here comes the lateral package. That's great. And it's like you're at midfield. It's like, oh my God, the lateral guys are out there. And then it's just like kind of a gimmick for like, you know, five plays. And you know what the gimmick is? When they don't lateral.

Like, oh, it's not a lateral. Here's the thing. I'm for anything that makes the other team have to prepare for something during the week. Cause you always hear about how, Oh, they got to prepare like Malik Cunningham on the paths. Like he should be the third quarterback and they should run a package in week one with him.

Because then after that, every week they're gonna be like, fuck it's Wednesday. You know, they got that Malik Cunningham guy. We got at least. All right. So when he comes in, we got to practice with it. Now it's Wednesday. They got that Malik Cunningham guy. We got to at least, all right, so when he comes in, we got to practice with it. Now it's like another thing you have to worry about. I'm all for more things for people to worry about.

You're just burning hours of footage. Belichick mentioned Taysom Hill. Oh, Belichick mentioned they did this in 1947. Can someone go to the library and see if we've got that game film? He's going to be able to pull it off. Love it.

Wow. So what's your next half-baked idea? This is too boring. But you know what? It's not too boring. It's a great idea. It's so stupid. It's just a chip brand called Too Much.

Salt and vinegar. Too much. Too much salt and vinegar. much too much salt and vinegar oh barbecue sauce too much barbecue chips that's it too much oh hold on kevin can i say one of the greatest things you've ever taught me wow sure is that one of the stories was that um your i think your grandfather would order like italian subs and say give me more oil and vinegar than you think i want i say that all the time i'm like give me more than you think i want i say that all the time i'm like give me more than you think i want it's just kind of like piggybacking on like the too much like it's just like sometimes i'll order something like give me more dijon mustard than you think i want

because that's how that's exactly right people are like like wilds are you good at basketball i'm like i'm a little bit better than you think I am. Like, oh. So we were working on ideas with this person who every time they came in, they would bring food. They'd bring cupcakes or whatever. Just a really nice guy. And one time he brought in these gourmet chips that I'd never heard of.

And they were the best chips I'd ever had. So I went and bought a bunch of them because there were these different flavors. And one of them was a barbecue and it was actually too much barbecue. It was the only time I've ever had potato chips. So I'm like, wow, this is just an overpowering barbecue. My barbecue chip. My point is that's the only time I've ever been overwhelmed where I was like, wow, that's actually too much. I don't think there's too much salt and vinegar on a salt vinegar chip for me.

There's a lot of room for growth, let's just say. There is, there really is. Because I was like, how could I just make the saltiest, vinegar-est chip? But then you got to be careful. You're like, wow, we put 200 milligrams of salt on each chip. Someone's going to come in, you know, a disruptor brand and be like, we put 210. So you just go over the top.

We do like too much. Whatever the competitors got, too much. We do like too much. Whatever the competitors got, too much. We were putting too much on. Cheez-Its came out with extra toasty. You didn't even realize that toasty was a variable

in Cheez-Its. But they have extra toasty now and my kids go crazy for it. Extra toasty Cheez-Its. Mine's the most toasty. The most toasty. You know what my Starbucks afternoon order is?

No. If I'm there at Starbucks, I get the Trenta iced coffee with extra ice. Because I'm never satisfied with the amount of ice and the large iced coffee. But if you have the, if you do the Trenta and they put the extra ice in it, then it's like the right amount.

And it's still basically the same coffee. It's just colder. Isn't that just like a wine bottle filled of iced coffee? You're consuming that much coffee? It's great. It looks like a trough. I love it. I'm wired for like six hours after. It's great. I'm home. I need caffeine. I thought they took the Trent off the menu. No, Joe

House gets the Trent to red-eye. He does an iced coffee, like a giant iced coffee with two espresso shots in it. That is not true. No, it really is. Are you surprised that Joe House goes a little too hard when it comes to consumption of food and beverages? It's a lot of caffeine.

It's a lot of caffeine for House. I found this picture from February that House sent me that it was just seven eaten $10,000 bar wrappers, just the wrappers. And he was like, I'm so upset that Anthony Davis made the NBA 75 team. I ate these seven candy bars

from all of these. $70,000. Just randomly. All right. Wow. Is there more half-baked ideas? No, that's all my half-baked ideas. That's the oven is empty right now.

Or there's still some quarter-baked, but we'll see you next time on those. Jacob, do you have anything before we go? I'm just here in Detroit for the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy Golf Tournament Classic, and it's a wonderful event. If you want to support, go to jrladetroit.com.

Piston's like a little momentum for them this year? What's going on? You hear about Cade and the USA Select team in the Luka role? My very quick parting take would be this. I think we all forgot about Cade Cunningham and Chet Holmgren. I don't care about Chet. I'm big on Chet this year, and I'm big on Cade.

I think that we just haven't physically seen them play basketball in so long that we just kind of write them off as non-entities but I think they're both going to make a splash on their respective teams. I have a take off that take is I think people forget how good Derek White is. And it's like, oh, Derek

White with the car keys and the steering wheel. Wow. So when Josh Allen Allen does perform in one playoff game and you write him off for a season but Derek White all of a sudden we forgot how good he is. One playoff game? One playoff game?

It's just the red zone interceptions. Just put a pin in your the Patriots are going to win the AFC East. Just put a pin in that. Jacoby, when the Patriots are rolling, don't be like, I'm actually from Massachusetts. I always liked the Patriots.

Oh, no, no, no. I'll be alongside Westside Gunn cheering on the Bills. That's probably doing me a con way. He's like quad state Jacoby. See, he has to claim all the tri-state things plus Massachusetts. Wilds, we can watch you on

First Things First which I'm sure finally we have some content you guys are back we're back Monday

3 to 4 30 every day good to see both of you thanks for coming on appreciate it thanks both

all right that's it for the podcast thanks to Jacobi and Wilds. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Cerruti as well. And I'm going to be back on Tuesday with another one. And then Thursday with another one after that.

Don't forget about Rewatchables coming on Monday night. And then our new election podcast, Somebody's Got to Win. First one launches on Monday. Please check it out. Tell us what you think. See the wayside. I'm a person never lost. I don't have. Must be 21 plus and president select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with

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