The Dumb Zone FREE - Darrell Doucette on the adjustment for NFL players to flag football and Jared Sandler on Corey Seager's return | DZ 5-27-25 PREVIEW

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

To hear the full episode, subscribe to the show at DumbZone.com or Patreon.com/TheDumbZoneJared Sandler on the Rangers approach at the box right now, a firsthand account of a Savanah Bananas game with Eva and Sam, and Darrell "Housh" Doucette on NFL players adjustment to flag football ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hey now! What you are about to hear is a free preview of one of this week's premium episodes of The Dumb Zone. If you would like to hear this program in full, along with the full archive... Ah, shit. If you would like to hear this program in full, with the archive of all of our past episodes, you can subscribe at DumbZone.com. But now what do they do? PJ needs to play. PJ's obviously one of their best players. And in a perfect world, Lively and Flag would play with PJ.

You'd have one big and two wings. But they can't do that because they have to play a big and two bigs together. So I've heard this too from some national people that have said, and they said it early on, I think their move is to trade Anthony Davis. Well, they're not gonna do that. They're clearly not gonna do that.

And I also, so the move then is, do you wanna trade PJ Washington or do you wanna trade Daniel Gafford? And PJ Washington, I think you'd get a lot for. You know why? Because every single team in the Gafford? And PJ Washington, I think you'd get a lot four. You know why? Because every single team in the league wants a guy like PJ Washington,

but in this bizarre world you've put yourself in, he's actually less valuable to you, because you've created a lineup with fewer wing options available. Now, I would still keep him, because you cannot have enough guys like PJ Washington, but if you have to play two bigs, and they have to start Cooper Flag,

they can't bring him off the bench. So basically you've gotta make him a guard. You've just gotta make him a two guard, and why not? To start the season, put Najee at the point, and that's just, you're just gonna have to run like that, and when Kyrie comes back, it'll maybe balance. Where's Clay? The bench, coming off the bench.

I mean, he started. I thought that was a big thing, like he. He started all 72 games last year, but let's think it out. Okay, so you're starting Clay over Flag. So who's your point guard? Chris Paul. Even if you're able to go get Chris Paul, or... Lonzo Ball.

Some other fill in the blank point guard until Kyrie gets back, who's your two guard? You're gonna start Clay over Cooper Flag. What's the argument there? Clay Thompson to defender? Cooper Flag is already like levels above above clay Thompson defensively he can guard other guards yeah okay he can guard other guards he can guard other wings clay Thompson needs to see the floor sparingly no clay Thompson was a

guy who's great to play with Luca right exactly but? Exactly, but Flag can move around a little bit. He's not a ball handler, per se, but he's a playmaker. He can finish, he can cut, he can secondary play. Yeah, does the ball run through him, though? It can. Does the offense run through him? It can. And I think it's gonna have to,

sooner, a lot more than I would prefer, if I were a match man, to do that. Like, they have to totally revamp everything they were doing. But they can't, like, they have to do this on the fly. And again, the revamp would be they can't play Anthony Davis and Derek Lively together. It's a bad idea. It's always been a bad idea. Now they're trying to retrofit this New Age basketball onto this busted time machine they're trying to concoct.

And I don't know how it's going to work. If you're talking simply trade value, what value does Derek Lively have? A lot. What confidence do you have that this GM could actually extract? Well that's actually a complete other topic that until we see it actually in practice I'm fascinated by how it unfolds. How's he gonna trade with anybody? Doesn't the opposition have, again, a duty to make sure that nobody thinks they lost to Nico Harrison? Does this just result in a cold war

where the Mavericks aren't engaged in trades? I don't know. Like, could he even, it's kinda comical, but. But why would they trade Derek Lively, Dan? I don't think they should. No, and I don't mean that from a value standpoint. I'm saying because he's part of comical, but. But why would they trade Derrick Lively, Dan? I don't think they should. No, and I don't mean that from a value standpoint. I'm saying because he's part of the cream dream. The cream dream is you've got two giant players

on the floor together at all times. Okay, Niko's dream. And Kid. Okay, great. You know what I'm saying? Like that's gonna happen. The only reason I'm confident that Kid will play flag, if you care again, is cause he's huge.

You know, we're not asking you to play a six foot guard who just has, you know, Trey Young would have trouble getting minutes with Kid. Cooper flag is big. The problem is they're built to play an arcane version of basketball that nobody wants to play anymore. So the thought is then Gafford is going to be traded, right? Like almost has to be. Yes. Now, if they would trade Gafford and bring Lively off the bench, I guess, but if they trade

Gafford and it's for a point guard, you're still in the same situation. Wait, why bring Lively off the bench? Aren't we starting Lively and Katie and... Yeah, but I'm saying hypothetically there's a scenario where Gafford could get you a starting caliber point guard. And in a ideal scenario, you would split your bigs up and bring one of them off the bench, although you're not bringing Anthony Davis off the bench,

and Derek Lively might be your second best player. So he's gotta start. What I'm telling you is, they didn't just screw things up by trading away Luka and getting poor return. They got poor return that's hard to build around. Because Anthony Davis has to play the four at this point, I guess, per him. And when you have to have two bigs, it's still a good problem to have because

they're both two-way players, but there's a crunch on the type of players that most teams actually want to play these days. Cooper Flack. If you could, you'd have five of him. But they can't't even have two you talk about who will trade with Nico and You got to make sure you kind of get a pretty good win right away Could Nico even because a lot of people have said, you know who needs a center just Ship him right out there with LD center. Just ship him right out there with LD. Like but can he actually, could he actually give the Lakers their center as well? You know the funniest thing would

be if he did and they sent back like a conditional second. No like a Bridges style package. Like it's five first. More than Luca? Yeah and we're like he trades Gafford for more than Luca. Yeah like the league is not rigged and they're just looking at us like yeah it's five firsts for Daniel Gafford so if you look at Nico's whole hall here he's got Anthony Davis five firsts I don't know I don't I have no idea how he's gonna operate you know I don't know if they bring in you know there were those reports at one point that they were gonna bring in another executive kind of work alongside him yeah that fake? I don't I just

haven't seen any movement on it. Yeah. I don't know what happens on that front it's just think of it this way and I think I want to say this specifically to you too my friend and former Maverick fan. Cooper Cooper flag will be here longer than Nico will be. I do month. I don't know, but Cooper flag. It's, it's very interesting me to just watch how this journey happens because whatever he starts, it's like LeBron. Just imagine it like, Hey, remember LeBron was like, they tried him at center.

Sometimes he was the point guard. They tried this player with him. They tried that player with him, whether you're happy for the Mavs or not I think it's any time a team gets a generational talent and this situation is particularly unique because generational talent usually join a blank slate this one is joining a Whatever this is in process. I think that's really interesting to watch So you're totally ruling out that he could be a bust. No, and you know, what I wonder, is the NBA easier to judge that?

Like, quarterbacks can be a bust. Yeah, I think in the NBA, it's much, much easier. But back in my day, as they say, I think NBA players were often busts or we just didn't have enough knowledge or, you know, like Christian Leitner was a bust. Sean Bradley was a bust. Like, we just hear, oh, this guy's going to be great. He's the number one overall draft pick.

Danny Ferry was a bust. No, I'm not saying, Anthony Bennett wasn't that long ago. Yeah, but I don't think- I mean, what's his name from last year? But in the Anthony Bennett- I can't even remember last year's 1-1's name he's so nondescript. I don't remember hearing generational talent with Anthony Bennett's name. No. You know there are certain guys. Wait did you hear that with Leidner? No. I guess I don't know cuz I don't even know if

that term was around back then but he was the best player in college basketball they put him on the dream team, and so expectations were really high. Like, oh, this guy is gonna be great. Okay, it would be a, I mean, I don't know what else to tell you. Like, if you look at the measurables, the college production, the high school production,

the intangibles for people who talk to him, unless there's, you know, dead girl, live boy, this dude's gonna be one of the 25 best players ever. I got one. Zion. Zion is a- That was a generational talent. Yeah, for sure.

And Zion's issues are physical. And- You think it's just all that? It's all conditioning? I think it's a lot of it. But I think what the other things that limited Zion are the flip side of that benefit, Cooper Flagg, which is that Zion was stepping into a league

that was changing. And I think he still could have and can be super, super effective, but he's kind of Charles Barkley. Whereas Cooper Flagg is stepping into a league that is morphing into him. And he is the future. So, yeah, I mean, the guy could be a bus, the guy could end up just being a very good player. But the likelihood is that he's an all NBA caliber type

players sooner rather than later. Uh, you know, is talk wrote about him on his site and you try to come up with comps, you can't because there's no combination of player defense and offense wise. You know, his defense comps are like Draymond, but his offense comps are closer to Steph. You know, and ball handlers. His offensive comps are all Kawhi and like I said Steph. There were a couple of other two guards in there. Demar DeRozan. That's who he is on offense. But he's a four or a three. I don't know. I remain interested. I certainly don't want the Mavs to win. I don't want this to work out for Nico or Dumont.

But I am interested in watching it unfold. And if they do turn out to be good, then fine. I just won't be a fan. I just can't. But I'm kind of fascinated by the whole thing, because Nico effed up his own situation. He's now in a very tough situation for how to craft this rost- roster to, to be good for, like, an extended period of time. I guess it's great if you can get the number one overall draft pick in a year that there's a generational talent, but-

Just hearing you say it out loud makes me mad all over again. Just, just that Nico locked into that. It drives me It drives me up a wall. Speaking of a wall, I do want to mention this real quick before we go. Heard from an anonymous source, my idea, that many people were talking about from yesterday of installing a real decibel meter in sports arenas, because the fake one is played out.

It's actually already been done. Where? Balmer did it at the new Intuit Dome. Oh. And it is awesome. So they really, and they go nuts? People go absolutely crazy. Yeah.

That guy seems Cuban like in his Oh yeah. knowledge on how to make a game experience fun. I mean, if you wanted to go through and do like a full... Somebody actually told me that they thought this would be a good bit, like a pre-produced bit of like Mav's therapy. Like a spoof. I mean, honestly, we didn't even really stop down to appreciate or to lament

losing an owner like Cuban fully at the time. Now in retrospect, we're like, oh my God, that was a sea change. We just, and at times we'd be like, are we sure we're talking about this enough? And then we'd kind of move on. I guess because he was still gonna be around and running the team.

So I didn't think anything. And the team would still look like his team when they play. The arena would be his, everything would still be his call. Right. He just now owns 25% instead of whatever. But going forward, that's not going to be the case.

Like do they get rid of the Maniacs? They might. They might. And if they move arenas, he's going to have very little, if anything, to do with it. So whatever version of the Mavs exists for most of the rest of my life, they won't look anything like the the team that was, you know, Dirk's team under Mark. And that's

where, yeah, some people will say like, oh, Jerry also, he's really, you know, a passionate owner who is in the weeds day to day. To a certain extent he is, but Cuban was a legit fan. Yeah. Like who bought courtside seats with his money just to scream at the Mavs and the refs and all that. And then all of a sudden he's the owner. Like this is way, like he really understood what you wanted as a fan. And-

You know what I want as an owner? Huh? You know what I want as an owner? Who's this? What? Kobe. Shaqq that guy's in charge now folks and my my thoughts on him very as well like was he just hoodwinked by Nico we'll never know we'll never know like Nico speaks

executive language right he definitely He definitely does that. If that's what, yeah, those guys. And he convinced him that Mark Cuban is probably meddling and we don't really need Mark Cuban's input on these things anymore. I'm the guy. Yeah. And he probably convinced him about this trade.

And that's why I continue to say, in the more days that pass, I don't understand why they're not doing it, but he could save face for himself and the ownership group by firing Nico and saying, my bad. I take responsibility for this training because the bottom line is everything should end with me. I am the owner of this team, but I was wrong to listen to this guy and he's on the streets now. And I gotta tell you, city of Dallas,

we're gonna do everything we can to get you back. And like, you just have to get the poison is Nico. You have to get him out of there. Yeah, it's not gonna happen. I've given up on it. Even Dumont's phrasing afterwards, which was terrible, you could have just said, hey, he was just trying to support his,

I support my employees, that's what we do here. I empower my employees to make moves, but you know what, when they make moves that don't work, I then have to step in and do, like he could absolutely be a hero right now. He'd be a business hero and a sports hero, yeah. That's not gonna happen. So, you know, in the meantime, I guess see if you can enjoy, again, being the flag

capital of the world. Well, speaking of that, it worked. We'll talk flag football in a minute. The Dumb Zone generic summer event presented by Qualysh Roof. You're listening to The Dumb Zone. That's right. We're bad at promoting. We should probably mention at the top of the show every day that The Dumb Zone generic summer event presented by Qualis Roofing is Saturday, June 7th. The local Shacks at Austin Ranch or on YouTube.

Yeah. You like not going places but watching it. We'll do that. That's Austin Ranch. The local shacks at Austin Ranch is in the colony, so not too far away. No puppet. Like I said, presented by Qualis Roofing, but also supporting sponsors Community Mechanical, Texas Trident, Fair Lease, and Silverback Construction. And if you'd like to be among all of those people somehow, doesn't necessarily have to be at the summer event, but you could email us, salesatdumbzone.com.

Look at all this stuff I'm doing, bro. Sounds like promoting to me. Promoting, doing business. And now we go to our next guest. We do. We've been talking about this quite a bit. There was a news last week that with flag football being added to the Olympic schedule in 2028, that the NFL is going to allow their players to play. Like the PA got together with the league and there's going to be is going to allow their players to play. Like the PA got together with the league and there's going to be at least a chance

for NFL players to play in the Olympics. We first started talking about this when the news broke a few months ago and a guy who joins us now, Darryl Doucette, did I get your name right? Yes sir. There it is. I was just gonna go with Hoosh.

Which do you prefer? In the football world, I'm better known as Hoosh. Personally, I'm also known as Darryl. OK. Hoosh because of TJ, right? I assume. TJ Hoosh-Mazada thing? Yes, sir.

OK. So I would tell you that I am a washed up flag football player, but that would imply that I was ever any good. However, I did keep playing after high school and still do now. So I feel like while I'm not any good, I've been around good versions of the game before and continue to be.

So I'm super, super interested in this whole topic. I think your stuff, your initial comments, I think I'm a better flag football player than Patrick Mahomes. That all got taken a little bit out of context. I just want to kind of hear first where you're coming from as a guy who's been the quarterback for Team USA. You find out NFL players are eligible. What's going through your mind? It was more so like the media of course wants to see those guys play, you know what I'm saying?

Y'all talk about them playing flag football more than anything, but we are the guys that's out there playing to get this sport to where it's at. So it was more so, you know, let's give the guys their flowers as well to help grow the game, not necessarily speaking bad about NFL guys. We want them to come out, you know, come compete in a grob a game even more. But for me personally, when I made that comment, it was most at the moment of, hey, I have all these accolades, I am the national team quarterback. We all know who Pat is, and Pat is great, and I hope he becomes the greatest of all time. But when

it comes to flag football, when I made that statement, what do you guys know that Pat knows about flag football? Y'all have never seen him play, you've never seen him come out and compete. So in my eyes, I'm never gonna back down to a man that I haven't seen play my sport. And if he comes out and does what he does, and I'm speaking upon all of the NFL guys,

they come out and ball out like we know they're capable of. They're in the NFL for a reason. Hey, we all trying to go and win gold for our country. We all have the same goal and then hands off to them, go win that gold medal for us. We just want our fair opportunity.