The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - Is Lakers High-Powered Offense Enough? LeBron vs. MJ’s Legacy, Giannis Trade Value, March Madness

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Colin is joined by Jason Timpf, host of “Hoops Tonight” They start with the Lakers & the red hot play of Luka Doncic and debate whether the Lakers high powered offense can overcome their deficiencies on defense in the playoffs (4:00). Colin argues that under JJ Reddick, the Lakers now play in a highly motivated and intentional way and compliment Luka & LeBron (11:30), and Jason believes that LeBron has been uniquely focused in pursuit of a fifth ring (17:00). They discuss Kevin Durant’s comment that “MJ is bigger than basketball” and compare Michael Jordan’s legacy to LeBron’s (24:00). They pivot to Giannis and debate whether his hyperathletic style of play will age well, and what his value should be in a trade considering his age and injury history (32:30). They switch gears to college basketball and discuss where Arkansas guard Darius Acuff Jr. will land in the draft as one of the most well-rounded guard prospects in years (43:00).  Finally, they discuss how NIL has shifted the balance of power in college hoops ever further in favor of the blue blood programs and why we are seeing less double digit seeds pulling off upsets (51:15), and debate whether Gonzaga should move on from Mark Few after being upset by Texas in the tournament (57:30).  (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates!  #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was crying. You just understood.

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because I have literally sat in front of a television for 15 hours over the last two days watching the college basketball tournament. I just got back from a vacation, and I highly recommend folks. I highly recommend folks that if you're thinking and going to the Caribbean, try Anguila. not a lot of cruise ships show up. You can hide. The hospitality is amazing. They don't have a big, deep ports.

So cruise ships don't stop. And it is just a great place to take a partner. Not a lot of golf courses, one on the whole island. But if you want to take books, watch podcasts, on the volume, read, drink, and relax. I've never slept better in my life. And so it's, and I know you travel a lot, Jason, and you love. traveling. You don't, you don't head east much. You're mostly, you're mostly Rockies West, right? Yeah, well, so I've been in kind of a Pacific Northwest kick lately. I've spent a lot of time in

Seattle, a lot of time up in Vancouver, a lot of time in Alaska. Now that we just moved to Colorado, I really want to spend some time in Colorado and Montana this summer. I will eventually make my way back over there. But yeah, it's okay to not have a golf course when you're on vacation with the wife. I feel like that's a really quick way to get into some trouble. Absolutely. So let's start with the NBA, the Lakers. And I think a lot of, when a team is losing, they listen to their coach, right? And the Lakers had lost a couple of straight, had some bad late game possessions. And Luca was for the first time it's a Laker getting heat.

And I was one of the many people saying, I think LeBron's still great, but I don't think he fits with Luca and Austin Reeves. And they, LeBron's got rabbit ears. He reacted to it. He has played unbelievable. I think Lucas scored 30 plus and all of their wins, which I think is an NBA record. That's what the Laker account said. And so I think you and I would agree with this.

We know they're a great half-court offense. They have multiple ball creators. Outside of Marcus Smart, everybody's an offensive player. They have length. They have shot creators. They have excellent passing. Austin Reeves has established himself. It's no longer he's a nice number four.

Like he's a real good player. The question for us has always been, okay, in the NBA playoffs, it's the only professional league in this country where it's officiated differently. You don't get the whistle. You have to play collective defense, almost every possession of second halves, and I don't know if they can do it. Do you, and I think we've agreed on that, that they're a tremendously offensive gifted team.

The rules in football and basketball over the last decade have moved to offense for both smartly to make the game more appealing. Does this Laker team gifted offensively? Do we feel differently today? Does it translate to the playoffs? Are they maybe a little more profound offensively than maybe we thought three weeks ago? Yeah, I think there's been improvement on both ends of the floor. I want to start with JJ because I think the work that he's done has been really important.

I mean, this was a team. At one point, Colin, they had lost 12 out of 13 times against teams that had at least a 60% win percentage. Like they could not be good teams and they were just rolling over and getting killed in those games. Now they've won five of those in a row. They've won seven straight against playoff level teams because they just beat Miami and Orlando, both of which are feisty teams. And it really comes down to a handful of complete reversals. First of all, JJ has them completely bought in. When we last talked about the Lakers calling, we were talking about how they cannot win in any way other than winning with their offense. They are now generating margin in several key areas now.

Star break, 23rd in defense, post All Star 12th. Nothing to write home about, but considering their personnel, that's pretty good. Denver won a title in that space. Remember that Yokic team, they were like 13. You don't have to be a great defensive team to win a title. You have to be competent situationally. That's the formula. If you have an unbelievable, unguardable offense, then you just have to be pretty good on defense. And they've established that over the last few weeks. Secondly, and this is the big one that's been shocking to me, they are generating a lot of margins scoring off of turnovers. JJ's been way more aggressive, and this is what I think has been really smart.

Because like, say you're a coach and you're trying to figure out how to get a team to play defense when you don't have good defensive personnel. You have to like track down, okay, what is the thing that we have that is a strength for our defense? And what it is is their basketball IQ. They have a lot of really smart players, including Marcus Smart, LeBron James, Austin Reeves, Luca Donchage. They have a lot of really smart.

players. And so JJ's been way more aggressive with their coverages. They're putting two on the ball more than ever. This has put an emphasis on their defensive IQ because in the four on threes that ensue after that, it's a lot of anticipating what happens next. And they're jumping a lot of those passing lanes and they're forcing turnovers. They were 17th in Steele's pre-allsar break, 11th post-allsar break. Then you have this incredibly fast attack in transition, something LeBron has been a huge part of pre-all-star break. The Lakers were losing the points off of turnovers battle by 1.6 per game. Post-all-star, they're plus 6.2. That is a huge margin in points off of turnovers that now is helping them build lots of margin for error in every single

game. They were negative in overall fast break points pre-all-star. Now they're positive post-all-star. So JJ deserves a lot of credit for just getting a very offensive-minded group to buy into finding ways to win games outside of their offense. But also their offense is amazing now, in large part because, one, Luca has finally ascended to that best player in the world level of basketball. When he, when he has it going from three especially, he just brings this combination of like the Steph Curry, I'm taking 12, 13 threes and what if I make seven of them kind of thing that he brings

to the table while also being as physically imposing as Yokic, as good of a passer as Yokage and having the mid-range shot-making piece that Sheigilders-Salx-Shea-Gelz-Alexander brings to the table. So, Luke has been unbelievable. Austin has found his rhythm finally. He's struggled a little bit with athleticism, but table that because that's where LeBron comes in. And as Austin and Luca have taken so much more of the offensive load, that has finally allowed LeBron to slot into that, like, evolutionary Draymond Green role that we've all thought he would do at this phase in his career.

But he just needed the right amount of ball handling around him. him to slot into that role. To LeBron's credit, for all to talk about him not doing enough of that stuff, Austin was hurt most of the season. He had no choice, but to step into that role. And by the way, like in the Houston games, Austin can get a little overwhelmed against some of these athletes. A men, Thompson did a number against Austin and those two Houston games. But then here comes LeBron. I can give you 30 against a smaller athletic team because he's so big and strong. That's where he can become more Carl Maloney and he can do his, do his physical bully bomb. Yeah, I mean, the downside of being gifted offensively, and there's not a lot of them.

But the Warrior team was a great example when they had Clay and Durant and Steph. The first year, they were all in every game. I mean, they just blew through people. The second and third years, it's like, there's nights like, we'll get our points. And you get caught into a cycle of, you know, defense, even if you're Raymond Green, defense is hard. It's hard for great defensive players. And to be great defensively, collectively is rare. That's usually teams that don't have offense. That's why Oklahoma City is such a pain in the ass. They're good offensively and collectively they give you such an effort.

That's rare, right? Usually even the great Spurs teams, Duncan and Bruce Bowen gave you defense. To get six, seven guys in rotation to care. But offense is different. It's easy for the great players. Offense is easy for Luca and Austin. I mean, even Rui. LeBron still, like beating people off the dribble.

LeBron's just a bully. And so I think the downside to being as gifted as the Lakers are is that it is easy to lull yourself into hang around and it's tied at 88 and we'll go on a spurt. I think this is my interpretation of what Reddick has done. He has forced them to be really focused early. They don't fall into holes. He's taken these gifted offensive players, and JJ was talented. I think they're a much more motivated team. Some of it is probably the criticism.

And I'm sure JJ has reminded them that, LeBron, you don't fit, Luca. But when I watch them play, they're very intentional. The possessions really, like they come out of the half. That's my take on the Lakers. These are stars, two of the biggest stars in the game. maybe two, the two biggest stars, Luke and LeBron, and they're complimentary. LeBron's been a great, I mean, Luke Conard the other night, he races over to him.

And I do think that's the art of coaching, Phil Jackson, the art of coaching superstars, Joe Torrey with the Yankees when he had A Rod and Jeter, being able to ride them, you know, to the, you know, just enough, push the buttons. And I think JJ's, you know, it's that Duke education, whatever it is. J.J. is really good with stars. He's a really good. That's how I, he's great at pushing buttons. I think this is as good as Lucas played in three years. I think the last eight games, that's the best LeBron's been in two years, three years. I think there, I mean, to me, Jason, there's an art to coaching stars. And not every coach can do it. Yeah, absolutely. I think, I think,

I think JJ has found a way to kind of resonate with each player on an individual level. Like, JJ obviously built rapport with LeBron through the podcast that they did together. JJ was Lucas teammate for a little while in Dallas. So like they have a little rapport from their locker room time spent together. JJ and Austin have clicked from the very beginning. I love that you brought up the criticism because I think that's an important part of this. Like it has pushed all of them to another level because all of them are sick of it. They're all sick of all the stuff that's been being said.

And all the criticism was valid, maybe not all of it, but a lot of the criticism was valid. There was, there were real areas of opportunity that needed to be brought up. And so, Luca, you're getting this unbelievable, not just his own kind of individual peak. This recent last couple of weeks is like an all-time NBA regular season run. He's averaging 40 over the nine-game win straight calling. Like he had 100 points in two games. Like, he's been absolutely unbelievable. And so.

And you know it, you know he's also, as you've pointed out, He's trash talking fans. Yes. So Luca is so gifted. He's moved off officials to some degree. He's moved into opponents and fans. And by the way, that's just part of basketball culture. Like Michael did it.

Everybody did it. Bird did it. I mean, it's just, you know, it's, it, you can't complain about that. I mean, everybody, most of our stars, Kobe Bryant chats with fans. I think, I think J.J. Redick has told Luca, I don't mind the trash talk. just directed to other people. Oh, absolutely. Like, it's actually crazy because his relationship with refs was getting borderline toxic.

I actually dug into the numbers because I was curious. There was a 12-game stretch around November, December, where Luca was attempting 13 free-throw attempts per game because that was what he was doing every game. It was like entirely a ref game. Every play was a ref, like a foul-baiting type of, he was just along the lane line, trying to draw contact and jawing with officials. And it was like producing a lot of free-throw attempts, but it wasn't, producing a lot of impact in terms of what he was bringing to the game. Now he's focused on

making shots and talking shit, which has been amazing because not only is it way more entertaining to watch, because he's got this like energy to him that's almost infectious, but it's also causing him to focus on all the right things because now you got to back up your trash talk, right? And so he's like, even when Luke Kinnard hit that game winter last night, everyone's mobbing Luke and Luke Godaches is literally blowing a kiss to the crowd because he's having a moment at the crowd's expense. It's so funny. But which takes me to LeBron because I think the LeBron thing is fascinating here because LeBron, there's an energy I see with him that I think stems in a lot in a lot of ways from the Luke apiece. LeBron has won four championships. And in every single one of

his four championships, maybe AD was close to his level in 2020, but LeBron was the best player in the world in 2020. He should have won MVP that year. Janus robbed him of it. So LeBron knows you've got to be one of the guys. Like, you've got to be at a special level to hoist the I think LeBron looks over and goes, this is the luke I can win with. This is the Luca that I am actually capable of reaching this dreamed fifth ring that he wants so bad, right? And so I'm seeing a level of focus and engagement from LeBron because I think he believes that this group has a shot now in a way that he probably hasn't felt since 2021. Because he's known that either he didn't have the juice or AD didn't have the juice because he was old and because AD had been. kind of underwhelming as he entered that phase of his prime.

So you have a LeBron that is doing things defensively fighting. Like even that late play last night, he forced the turnover on Palo Boncaro that that led to the eventual game winner. And it's like, I haven't seen LeBron flying around denying the basketball on an inbound play like that in forever. Some of the rotations he's making at the rim on defense, the effort that he's putting in possession to possession. LeBron is locked in.

I don't know if you saw the quote from the Miami game. early second quarter, they're down 15. JJ calls a timeout. He gets in the huddle and he's like, hey, guys, I know we're tired. And LeBron steps up and goes, I'm not tired. And all of a sudden, like, everyone's looking around like, well, if this dude's not tired, like we've got to meet this level.

There's a level of engagement with LeBron that I haven't seen in a half decade. And so it just made this team, like, this team, Colin, this team was such a chore to watch a month ago. And now it's like, I can't wait for the Monday night game against Detroit. Like, it's just there's so much more fun to watch. now because there's an energy that is coming from the top down that is making them play with a very entertaining brand of basketball. Well, and I think, you know, LeBron is always, and I say this respectfully, is that LeBron's

very aware of the media. He listens. He reads. He's one of the smartest players of my lifetime. I mean, he may be the smartest player. Magic Johnson had the ability to not be a little bit of a part-time psychologist. You know, Magic had to deal with the stoicism of Kareem. And, you know, the Norm Nixon stuff, Byron Scott, there was a lot of stuff.

Jerry Buss, the Playboy owner, you know, magic's coming into his own, feeling his oats, like, you know, the fabulous form, the women, the magic kind of balanced it all. It kind of showed his layered ability to be great at several factors, as a teammate, right? As a player, as a spokesman. A lot of egos back then in Los Angeles with the late. and West and Riley and Kareem and Magic and Jerry Buss, the owner. And, and, and, and LeBron has that ability. LeBron understands the world's watching.

The Lakers are the biggest, I mean, he didn't move to L.A. because they had the best ownership group and the best front office. He moved here because it was great for business and he figured he could power through it and move Anthony Davis here. So what I find interesting about this streak is that we're all pointing to Luca, but in large part, it's LeBron. His IQ is understanding. I bet you, I mean, I don't know this, but I bet LeBron's been unbelievable at practice.

I bet he's been unbelievable on the team playing. I bet he's been unbelievable at dinner. Like, I think LeBron understands. He's like the old Justin Verlander is a pitcher. He didn't have to pitch to have value in the locker room in a playoffs. He's like he'd seen every batter, every moment. And I think there's a greatness. one of the things LeBron was criticized early in his career, and I thought it was totally unfair,

he always did the right basketball thing. He always made the right pass. It was always about winning the game. And over the nine-game winning streak, you don't have to necessarily see all of it. I guarantee you, LeBron, behind the scenes has been magical. Coaching, practice, you know, communication, dinners. Well, today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet, Florida Sportsbook. How much fun is this tournament been?

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I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And, well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys.

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So I want to pivot into an interesting comment this week, and it wasn't a shot at LeBron, but obviously you think of LeBron when KD said, Michael Jordan is bigger than basketball. And I've always said, Magic and Bird saved the NBA. Michael made it global. LeBron made it mobile. And it was thinking about that.

And I want your thoughts on this. First of all, your thoughts, because I have one, your thoughts on KD saying, like Michael Jordan's above basketball. They'll always be great players. They'll never be Michael. Your thoughts. Yeah, I mean, like you talked about the,

saving of the NBA with Magic and Bird. They brought it back from the brink, but MJ was what made the sport as culturally resonant as it is now. He made it cool. Yeah. And like I know that you know, you hear a lot of like LeBron versus MJ stuff in the media.

You hear a lot of LeBron versus MJ stuff from fans, but talk to basketball players. You're not going to find a basketball player that doesn't revere Michael Jordan. Like there's it's just such an important part of your basketball development, watching his foot. Like I was a LeBron fan.

I grew up a LeBron fan. LeBron is the reason I fell in love with basketball. You don't have any idea how many times I went and watched Michael Jordan's top 100 plays on YouTube. Like it's just the way that that like shaped my entire love for the game of basketball. It's just there's a certain, there's a certain aura in a history that surrounds him that is insurmountable for even a guy like LeBron. And I think there, I think we've seen that with LeBron almost manifest and in, I don't

want to call it insecurity because it just it manifests in like a reaction from him where like he'll often like promote himself as if as in some sort of effort to try to reach that level but the reality is is there's there's a certain amount of like he was the first guy like that and there will never be another first guy like that and so Michael also there was no social media so part of what makes Michael fascinating was that we didn't know about his private life. There weren't the platforms. So you needed his basketball and his fashion. That was your gateway to knowing Michael. His basketball, you didn't know about his marriage. You didn't know about his private life. We get so much of LeBron now, right? Like, I know so much. I don't really live. And so it doesn't feel special. It's like Jack Nichols

Nichols and always had a theory. Don't go make people go to the theater to watch a while. work. Don't go on Johnny Carson. Don't go on Letterman. Make him go to the theater. I don't know if Michael thought about that, but you had to either buy Michael's shoes or go to his game. That's how you saw Michael's greatness. LeBron's everywhere. And so I do think there's a mystery that there's nothing LeBron could have done about that. It's just, there's a mystery about Michael and a uniqueness where I can watch the Laker game, go to YouTube, watch the highlights, go to TikTok, watch the extra highlight. Like with Michael, think about it, I mean, when Michael first came into the league, you couldn't watch their games. You didn't get, I mean, if he played certain nights, Michael

scores 48. How do, unless Sports Center gave me like three baskets, I couldn't even watch the highlights until the playoffs. So I don't think you can, you know, I just think Michael had in a strange way a privacy advantage that made every time you saw him play special. That's not a bronze fault. extend that to what's happening on the court in the sense that like can you imagine if michael jordan's two washington wizard's years took place during twitter and every time he took a defensive possession every time he got back cut every time he didn't box out every like like that's the crazy part is lebron has had his entire like age 38 39 40 41 seasons right be micro analyzed on a possession to possession basis through clips on twitter and it's like i it it

the reality is, is we're seeing something completely unprecedented for a guy his age. But because it's being micro-analyzed in many ways, it's like, oh, here are all the ways that LeBron's dropping the ball. Here are all the ways that LeBron is not coming through for his team. And I almost feel bad for him in that sense because I just can, I can only imagine if I micro-analyzed every possession of Michael's wizard's tenure, how ugly it would have been at times. Well, I've always said there's one 30 for 30.

There's one great sports documentary left. And it's Michael Jordan with the Wizards. His teammates hated him. The coaches hated him. I mean, everybody's doing, they'll do Andre the Giant. They'll do 30 for 30s on international soccer stars. I watched him play twice live with the Wizards. And you could, the body language of his teammates, everybody hated him.

And I also think Michael's a little like Marlon Brando. Is Marlon Brando the best actor ever? I don't know. But he's largely viewed as one of the first method actors, where you're go deep into the character, right? Like, and he had such influence over Pacino, Bob De Niro. You could argue Bob De Niro's greater than Marlon Brando, but Marlon Brando is considered like the start of method acting.

Like, if you watch acting pre-brando and post-brando, acting's better post-brando. It's less mechanical. I mean, you feel like the people, which must be an incredible daunting experience, where you like become the character. You live the character. And so Brando, when you talk about acting, like Brando's here. And then it starts with like Ralph Fines or Christian Bale. It starts after Brando.

I don't necessarily think Christian Bale's less of an actor. But there is something to be said about Brando's the creator or the amplifier of method acting. Michael was not only great. I mean, there was a pre-Michael. It was called David Thompson. I watched him at North Carolina. state. There was Dr. J. I'll argue if you have a minute YouTube clip of every player ever, Dr. J's highlights are more amazing than Jordan's. They don't even look human. I mean,

it looks like a spider playing basketball. It's like the hand size. His college stuff at UMass is like the hell is that. I haven't even seen anything like that. I've still never seen a reverse layup like the Dr. J reverse. No one can replicate it. It doesn't look any. It just looks weak. dunk. Yeah. When he swoops in and dunks with no dribble or one dribble. You're like, what? So it's like one of those things where Michael was the first basketball player, the shoes,

the brand, the commercials. He wasn't the first guy that hung in the air. David Thompson, David Thompson and Michael and Dr. Jay predated him. But Michael was like good looking, brilliantly dressed. And let's be honest, six for six in the finals. It just, it's mythical. It's magical.

And because we don't have a lot of Michael, I mean, there's a handful of pictures of Michael sitting in a hotel room by himself smoking a cigar. He didn't really know what he did until tip off. He was just kind of doing his own thing. So, and you are right. If he was with a Wizards, I mean, it was, he was not that vertical of play. He had a fallaway jumper with a wizard. He wasn't jumping over, dudes.

He was falling back. LeBron was sixth in MVP voting last year. LeBron was sixth at MVP voting. And like at age 40, like, and I just, I just can't even imagine it's, it's crazy to me how often those two stints are compared to each other. And it's like, this is not the same. What LeBron is doing right now has never been done before. So I got into this discussion with a friend. I didn't, I watched sports because even in Anguila, you can, you know, watch domestic TV.

So I watched Thursday, Friday. I sat and watched a lot of college basketball on the beach. And, and I was texting a buddy. about some NBA stuff. And we were talking about Yonis. Yonis is, so he's a Knicks fan, my friend. And he said, what would you give up for Yonis? And I said,

Janus is fascinating. Like certain people, Tom, Brady, and LeBron just don't get hurt much. They just age brilliantly. And because they're so committed to being in shape. I mean, it's not a coincidence. Anthony Davis got hurt a lot. He was rarely an elite.

shape, right? And so, but Janus appears to be in great shape. He increasingly gets hurt. His game doesn't age particularly well. So I told my friend, I said, well, Yonnas can't shoot outside of 16 feet. So he needs the ball. Well, I don't want him taking the ball to Brunson's hands. Like, absolutely not. So can he play off ball a lot? And I'm like, actually the guys that can, you'd have to give up to get Janus. And I thought I'd just kind of a thinking piece on Janus. Not everybody ages the same way. You know, we've talked about this.

You and I maybe have, but Middilkoff and I have, about Cam Newton did not age well because he was hyperathletic. I don't think Westbrook is aged particularly well. Steph, the shooter, age well. Kobe, the shooter, age well. But hyperathletic players in all sports don't necessarily age well. And I said to him in the honest, I said, yeah, I'd give up probably three, firsts, but God, I'd hate to give up OG.

I'd be a hot, but that's what, that's what Milwaukee wants. What is the value? Because when you make a trade like that, if you're giving up three first round picks, then he has to be great for those three years. You can't give up picks for four years and you get two great years. What is Janus worth today for the next four years? You run the Knicks, Jason Timp. What do you give up for him?

Well, the league tells you the answer to this sort of thing, right? Like, I thought it was really fascinating the teams that were in on Janus when he became available around the deadline. There was the one, take Minnesota and set them to the side because that was the one team where I was like, why? Why, why does Minnesota want Janus? Like, you've got this 23-year-old guy that is the first dude who's ever kind of replicated some of MJ's aura. Why are we trying to pair this dude with like an early 30s power forward that's falling apart? But you look at Golden State completely desperate, literally no young player on the horizon that could take them into the future,

just Steph Curry, who's going to be 38 years old, who just turned 38 in March, right? And then you had Miami, who's been destined to go nowhere for the last several years, and New York, who everybody knows deep down because of Carl Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson probably can't win, right? So, like, those were the other teams that were in on it, right?

And like, so the lower leg injuries freak me out a little bit. And the outside of the 2021 series where he wins the championship, right? In 2022, where I will say that second round series against Boston was one of my favorite star playoff performances ever. Because that was the year that Middleton was hurt. And Janus just almost single-handedly beat that Celtics team. And Janus deserves a ton of credit for that. But he hasn't played in a second round playoff series since then. Like he's missed playoff games with injury.

he's had additional playoff rounds where he's been healthy but hasn't been able to take his team out of the first round as recently as last year. Right. So like as we've seen time and time again, Yannis is really, really good, but he's clearly on either the very bottom end of the top tier superstar tier. Like you're not going to find a single GM in the league who's going to take him over Luca, Shea, Wembe, Yokech. Like he's clearly below those guys if not even in the tier below. And these lower body injuries, they just keep piling. up. It's calf strain here, knee injury there, calf strain here, knee injury there. And so when you factor all of that in, he is now officially an extremely high risk asset. And so you, the whole point with Golden State, for example,

is like they, I think they put four first round picks on the table, for example. You put four first round picks on the table for Janus, and you bring Janus in and he gets hurt and you lose in the second round. Everyone's like, well, we had to. We had to go for it. Like, what we're going to do, lose with Steph

by himself or lose with Steph with Janus, right? So like, you have no real choice. Miami, again, not going anywhere. New York, if they were able to pull off a Carl Anthony Town swap, now it's interesting, to your point, OG and An Anobie, you get rid of O'G and Anobie and you make a move for Janus and Janus gets hurt. That team is getting killed with Carl Anthony Towns, Mikhail Bridges, and Jalen Brunson. So the risk factor is extremely high there. Now, if I was the Knicks, I would include an OG and And Anobi just simply be for the same reason what I was talking about with Golden State. What do you have to lose if you're the Knicks, right? Like, yes, Ogen, Anobie is this deeply valuable role player, but he's a deeply valuable

role player that makes a hell of a lot of money, ties up a huge chunk of your cap. And again, if I don't, if I'm a Knicks fan, I'm looking at the East right now and I'm like, do I think we can beat Cleveland? Yeah. Do I think we can beat Boston? Yeah. Do I think we can beat Detroit? Yeah.

But like, can we beat two of them? it gets a little more sketchy. If I'm a Knicks fan, I'm not going into this playoff run thinking we're finals bound. Like I'm thinking maybe like we can. You know what I mean? So like at this point, if I'm the Knicks and it gets to the summertime and I have the ability to turn OG and an OB in a first round pick into Janus, I do it. But it's simply because of the fact that I don't think that team necessarily has any sort of clearly defined ceiling that they're missing out on if they give them up. But where I draw the line is like Minnesota.

So, for example, like, if I'm Minnesota, Jayne McDaniels keeps getting better every year. He's become a very good three-point shot. I said a month ago, I said the Lakers need about three players in the offseason. And then I said, before I went on vacation, I said, if you just put Jaden McDaniels on the Lakers, doesn't need the ball, catch and shoot, excellent. Guard the other team's best player. Yeah. Excellent.

I'm like, if you just put him on the Laker roster, you're like, oh, that team could make the finals. Like, like, so it's, I'm glad you mentioned it because I'm like, that guy is, there's always a player in the NBA. Clay Thompson used to be this that doesn't need the ball can give you 24 in any night that would work with every roster in the league. It was Clay Thompson for about eight years, defended, catch and shoot, good teammate, not a, and would defend like real players. Jayden McDaniels has become that guy. Like, he works with every roster in the league overnight. Yeah, absolutely. And the difference between the New York thing and the Minnesota thing is like, if you really dig back in NBA history, there are exceptions like Boston, for example, they didn't have a real number one guy, but they had two guys that were close. Tatum and Brown were both like right there, right? Like if I'm New York, like Jalen Brunson is clearly off of that top tier. So like if I'm getting Janus, my whole thought process is Janus gives me a guy who can go a guy. against the guys in the NBA.

But if I'm Minnesota, I already have that guy. He's aunt. He's ascending. He's not 27, 28. Oh, my gosh, we have a three-year window here and then it's over. He's ascending, getting way better every year. And probably in the next three to four years, going to be competing for the best player in the world title.

That's the type of talent that Anthony Edwards is, right? So, like, with Minnesota as an example, that's why, by the way, that's why San Antonio didn't call on Janus. San Antonio's like, no, thanks. We're good. You know what I mean? We got our guy. We have the roster. We have the pieces we need to be malleable and flexible over the course of the next few seasons. I just think the line is because of his injury history and because he's never really truly been as good as the best guys. Because of that, I think I draw the line at any sort of young team that already has an ascending young superstar like Minnesota. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news? Huge news. We created our own podcast. called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how did we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember.

I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, Hey Jonas, and then I wrote down on my little notepad,

Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear.

The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife-Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs' tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening. at Roland Garris, every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jen she went.

I mean, she went down to three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface, because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Let's spend about 15 minutes on March Madness. I picked Florida and Michigan to meet in the final, Michigan to win close. I still feel really good about that. Yax-L-L-Lendonborg, who's a transfer NIL, just a long runs the floor, can hit a three, six-nine, two-40. I mean, you can tell how much better college bat. And I'm glad the announcers have brought this up.

over the last three years with NIL and the American economy is much bigger than the European economy, we've got about 30 guys playing college basketball that weren't around four years ago. They were staying in Europe. Well, now we just go buy them. So, I mean, Michigan has a front line that looks like an NBA front line. Michigan's gigantic. That didn't exist in college basketball like five years ago. Teams used it look like that.

Now you can just go buy Europeans, the transfer portal. You can go buy size. So I think Michigan's the best team, but Florida is really good. But the most interesting player to me is Darius Acuff from Arkansas, who is a hyper-athletic 6-2 guard listed at 6-3, closer to 6-2. But I'm watching him with John Calapari. He's always been a great recruiter and does a pretty good job of developing players. And I'm happy for John because we've had a contentious relationship.

But John can recruit and John can coach. And overnight Arkansas is excellent. But as I'm watching A-Cuff, and I mean, he jumps off the television. You're watching a game. It's like, what in that? You can argue after Darren Peterson, you could take him number two. There's an absolute argument for that. Boozer's not great athletically.

BYU gets bounce quick. Peterson's going number one because there's so much special. But what's interesting about A-Cuff, small, not really a willing defender and needs the ball. And as I watched him, and this is just off the cuff, but my comp is a little bit of Westbrook, better shooter, but a little bit of Westbrook, a little bit of Trey Young, but a bigger, he's a stronger athlete, he's a stronger athlete. But my question is, would he be a good NBA teammate? Now, we know the NBA doesn't go through six two guards. You don't win titles that way. But he is probably the best athlete in college basketball. And he's exhilarating to watch. He's got like, like, if, John Morant would have been mature. John Morant would sell out arenas. He just couldn't get his act together.

How do you think A-Cuff as a pro works? Because I look at him and I think he is not willing to defend. And that's what's worn out people on Trey Young. Like he's just not even willing to de-up. And you know, 82-game schedule, you're giving up 38 on your end. Like, it creates resentment. Like, how? does he translate to the NBA beyond points?

So the defensive question marks are real, and I think that's what makes him clearly off of that top group. Like, DeBonson Peterson are going to go one, too, in some order. I personally would even take DeBonson number one, but some people, a lot of people do have Peterson over him, but those two will go one, two. A lot of people are high on Bozzer. I'm nowhere near as high on Bozzer as everyone else. Everyone keeps telling me that Bozor is this, like, bully ball player that has that

standing field that can, like, see the floor. but I keep seeing him get surprised by double teams and turn the basketball over. He got worked in the first game of the tournament. Yeah, I'm not as high on booze. And that's not to say that he'll go no lower than four, but like I'm not as high on boozer as everyone else's. You could argue A cup as high as number three. The thing with A Cuff is if he didn't have these major defensive question marks,

he would be a candidate for number one because he's one of the most well-rounded guard prospects to ever come through college basketball. there's usually some sort of imbalance in the sense that you'll get a guard like john morant for example that is an outstanding to the basket athlete but that cannot shoot or you'll get a tray young who's like this outstanding passer and perimeter score but that is extremely slight and struggles to beat people off the dribble and doesn't get to the basket much a cup's got all of that in spades like he gets to the rim six times a game which is an enormous number shoots 59% when he's he gets there, which for a small guard in college spacing is amazing. And then he's a dead eye

shooter from every spot on the floor. He's 49% on catch and shoot threes. That's insane. 40% on pull-up threes, really solid mid-range player, three-to-one assist the turnover ratio, a very good passing guard. Like, the dude's got all of the three-level scoring. And so in the modern NBA, if I'm a coach or a GM, I'm looking at it as like, is this a guy that I can run a bunch of action through a bunch of ball screens. Then A-Cuff also is every bit as resilient in one-on-ones, like straight isos as he is in ball screens. Like, Trey Young, for example, needs a screen to get open.

Like, Trey Young's biggest question mark in the NBA is if you can switch, he's done because he can't beat people one-on-one. A-Cuff can beat people one-on-one. So, like, he is so well-rounded on offense. I would take a chance on him if I was an NBA GM at number three. And I wouldn't worry too much about the defensive stuff. the main thing with the defensive stuff that gives me just a tiny bit of optimism is one he does have some decent physical tools like he's got long arms for a small guard like he's got like

about a six five wingspan which isn't too bad and he's very very fast the reason why that matters is NBA teams have been learning how to protect small guards in their defensive schemes for years now and this is not Luca where he's so slow that you can't run some of the advanced schemes to protect him. He's so fast that you can hedge and recover with him. You can trust him to make defensive rotations potentially in the future. And so I would bet on him becoming at least a guy that you can put into a defense and be okay and trust those offensive gifts to shine through. Well, and the other thing is, Steph was never a defender. Magic didn't defend. The good GMs in this league, when you get a literally, he'd be a top five NBA offensive player with a

two years in the league. I mean, he's literally that special. I mean, there is, there is a Westbrook field to him. You're like, Jesus, he could play other sports. Like, he is just, he is just insane, but he can, he can shoot. And I think there is, it's, it's instructive that you say this, he can catch and shoot. A lot of great shoot, a lot of athletic guys that can shoot are rhythm shooters. Yep. They need the ball, right, right. Catch and shoots in art. That tells me generally, if you can catch and shoot, you have a good form. Yes, absolutely. You know, a lot of, a lot of...

You can repeat your form. It's very mechanical. Yeah, yeah. And so that tells me, okay, he can catch and shoot. A lot of great at. Derek Rose, not a catch and shoot guy in his prime. He needed to be in rhythm. Same with John Wall.

The good GMs know very... Dallas actually figure this out very quick with Luca. All right. We need length. We need rim protectors in length. Let's protect our star. This is what Bob Myers understood with Steph Curry. Like, we need length.

That's why Kevin Durant, we all talked to offense. Kevin was a great fit, Andre Igwadala, but length around Steph Curry. Clay protected him for years. You know, the Batman Robin. Clay was a great defensive player. So I just find when I watch ACuff, I just, it's just like, man, stuff like this, you just don't see players like that. This draft is really, I mean, there are three guys.

The first three guy, A-Cuff, Peterson, the BYU kid, they would be number one in the last five drafts. Like, they're all remarkable talents. Okay. So the number of double-digit seeds winning in 2016 was 10. The last two years combined, it's nine. So it's obviously the NIL money is allowed the Michigan's and the Michigan states and the Dukes to go to like a UAB or a second-tier program and just steal their, their, their,

one great player. So you can see it's a very top-heavy tournament. But I was thinking about this, is that, and we're kind of banging on it. College basketball, I've had a blast watch in the tournament. The truth is, almost every sport. I mean, we think of the NFL as sort of bulletproof, but for 20 years, the Patriots dominated it. And then for about seven, the Chiefs did. That's why this year's Super Bowl was so random, is that what's happening to college basketball is what happened to tech. It's what's happened to Hollywood over the last seven years, the Avengers's dominant sequels. It's what's happened to the almost every sport unless you legislate against. It's what's happened to tennis.

It's what happened during the Olympics. It's what happens to, you know, the top international soccer. Leaks is that the top 12 to 15% dominate. They're either better capitalized. They have geographical advantages. They have brand advantages. So everybody's kind of like, well, we don't see the upsets. And my take is, tell me the sport we get all the upsets, right? Like Serena dominated for two decades. And so it doesn't to me, I always thought March Madness, there was a lot of mythology to it. You know, there wasn't a lot of 16, 15, 14, 13s winning, maybe once a weekend. Does it, does it, does it puncture the excitement for you?

I mean, I still like watching big brands. I think there's more NBA bodies now than maybe ever. I've enjoyed the hell out of it. I don't watch for Kentucky, Michigan State. Like, I don't watch it for Coastal Carolina. I don't watch it for High Point. I don't. Does it bother you?

You still get the one or two games in the first round with, like, the Sienna Duke game, even though Sienna didn't win, was still highly entertaining. Any sort of singular basketball game can just get weird for one reason or another. Like, Camboos are struggling the way that he did or Sienna shooting as well from three as they did in the first half. Like, there's still enough variance to provide the excitement. I was literally talking about this with my wife yesterday. Like, I remember everybody complaining so much for so long about players getting paid. And now they're all getting paid.

And I'm like, this still is awesome. I'm still having fun. I don't know. Look at it still is an incredible product, right? And we do have to talk about just how insane college basketball players are getting in terms of the skill and the talent level. It's just, I was watching that high point versus Arkansas game yesterday. And I'm like, this basketball game is remarkably entertaining. And the, in the, everybody on this floor can shoot. Everybody on the floor is a freak athlete. Everybody on the floor can dribble. It's just, it's outrageous. But I think you hit the nail on the head. Like just like in any other industry, over time, as the years go by, the entities at the top kind of just figure out how to dominate, right? They figure out this is what works in this industry. This is how we kill our competitors. This is how we stay in front of the changes that are taking place in the industry. Similarly in college basketball, through the transfer portal especially and that NIL money,

the talent is just basically naturally filtering towards the top. And I would take it a step further. Like Siena's head coach just signed a deal. is going to become Syracuse's head coach, right? So like the coaches filter towards the top. The same thing goes with just basketball strategy. All of the best teams have the, with the most talent, also have the best coaches.

So they do all the little over time we figured out, right? Like we figured out, transition basketball is more efficient than half court basketball. So we should all just be pushing the ball at the floor as much as possible. We should all be taking more threes. Now there are some teams that have gone against that, Florida and Arizona, for example, don't take a ton of threes.

So there are counter. examples, but people are shooting more threes than ever before. People are, there's more ball and player movement. Like the, the game is getting perfected at the top, which is making it harder for the bottom to compete. And honestly, again, as I mentioned, it's not causing the product to be any less entertaining. I am having so much fun watching these games. Like, it's been a basketball renaissance in my house over the last few days. It's been unbelievable to watch. Yeah, I, I, I, the size of teams. I mean, Cal Baptist had two seven footers. Like Cal Baptist, which is off the freeway in Riverside, California. It's like, you know, it's like a for-profit university. I went to the roster. I'm like, Jesus,

seven foot, seven two, six 11, six ten. I'm like, what? The other, fine, we'll wrap it up with this. My friend is Mark Fue, Gonzaga. I love Mark. So they got beat by Texas. They didn't shoot the three well. In last couple of years, they've gotten bounced in the second round. And there was a, there have been some pushback on, you know, is it time to move off Mark Few? And my take is, okay, I actually watched John Stockton in college, come to my college, Eastern Washington University and score 42 points on us. I was broadcasting the game for a student station. John Condon was the other guard.

Condon was his name and John Stockton, but Stockton was just 42 against Eastern Washington. I was there. Before Mark Few, they won three tournament. games, and they were slightly better than 500. Now they win 86% of their games and have 45 tournament wins. And remember, this is a state and a region, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon that doesn't produce a lot of high-end basketball talent. Like, he has to convince kids to go to Spokane. And for the record, there's a late, great sports writer named Jim Murray of the LA Times. He could have been a comedy writer. And he always had a great line about Spokane, Washington. He always said,

nothing happens after Spokane at 10 in the morning. So it's like the most boring. I love it. It's great goal. But it's like for him to get international players and like transfers from big schools there. And it's just one of those things where the truth is gone. I guess still didn't have a lot of money. And it's, it's, he had success. A lot of it was pre NIL. and I think over the last couple years where, you know, Gonzaga doesn't have a guy to give him an $8 million check. And so now it's like, it's, I think not that Gonzaga, they'll continue to be just outstanding,

but it was what worked pre-NIL three years ago was great coaching and great culture. It won you a lot of games in the tournament. Now it's great coaching, great culture, and a great bankroll. And it's like, sometimes it's just like you go up against the team in Texas and you're like, yeah, I can see the money. I can see that. And so, I don't know, the pushback Mark Few is getting.

It's the first Gonzaga team in 15 years that I watched and didn't like. I didn't think they were dynamic enough at guard. They were inconsistent. I mean, their scoring was front court. They've never been a great defensive program. They never have that like Uber athlete on the wing to shut people down. They're like a really smart, well-coach culture, good offense, good spacing, good scoring and transition, good guard play, nice, bad.

balance. But your take on sort of Gonzaga's last two by Gonzaga's standards, bumpy years. Well, first of all, like, that game could very easily have gone towards Gonzaga of just a couple of shots go in. Like, Gonzaga's been a three-point shooting team that couldn't hit threes. And like, I actually just dug into the numbers because I was curious. Texas only generated three open catch-and-shoot threes in the entire game, which means they defended really well. And they went two for three. Gonzaga generated 10 of them and only made three of them. So like it was a poor shooting game. And like the kid from Texas hit that Camden Heidi hits that tough corner three.

That goes in. A couple threes missed for Gonzaga. You lose. That's basketball. That's how it happens sometimes, especially in single elimination. And you mentioned he's already at a recruiting disadvantage because he's trying to recruit kids up to Spokane. Now you have this NIL piece. And it's not like, it's not even close, Colin.

Like AJ DeBance by himself probably made about double. what his entire roster did. You know, like John Calpari's roster is probably 10 times as expensive as what Mark Few had up there in Gonzaga. So like the reality is, is like he's at a disadvantage there. And I also just look at it and go,

Mark Few strikes me as the kind of guy that if Gonzaga fired him, he would just retire. But if he wanted to keep coaching, he could go anywhere in the country. Like, do you have any of the LAA have both offered him jobs before? love Spokane. Exactly. Like, I would just be like,

it would just be such a gross mismanagement or gross lack of appreciation for what you have in front of you there. Like I just, I just think he's one of the great coaches in my lifetime watching college basketball. And I think that he's making the most out of a strategic disadvantage

up there in the Pacific Northwest. And I just, yeah, I couldn't believe some of the stuff that I was seeing flying around yesterday. Hoops tonight, Jason Timp, Lakers on a heater, good hour. Nice going, buddy. Good to see it again. Good to see you too, Colin. Looking forward to the rest of the season. The volume. Shoot your shot. Get paid double only on Hard Rock Bet. Hard Rock Bet is Florida's only legal way to bet the NBA, teams, players, points,

and more. He shoots, he scores. And when you sign up for Hard Rock Bet, your bets paid double winnings. Don't just count the basket. Count it twice. He's on fire now. Yes, new customers get paid double on your first 10 bets. Try Hard Rock Bet today. bet of $50 per bet. Offered by the Seminole tribe of Florida must be 21 plus and physically present in Florida to wager. Terms and conditions apply. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, please call 1-833 Playwise. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions.

Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was hungry. You just understood.

That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming to you. He's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every family has its secrets.

But what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an innocent man. Is everyone lying to me about who they are? I felt such desperation. I felt it was what I had to do. Listen to Deep Cover the Family Man on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.