The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast Prime Cuts -  Bryce Young/Tua Take, Marcus Thompson on Wiggins Return, Draymond Suspension w/ Jason Timpf + 1st Round Reaction

Episode Date: April 22, 2023

This is Prime Cuts! The best of The Colin Cowherd Podcast. First, why he has the same size concerns for Bryce Young in the NFL as oft-concussed Tua. Then, The Athletic NBA Writer Marcus Thompson on why Andrew Wiggins Game 1 performance has the Warriors brimming with confidence despite the loss, if the Warriors will limit Jordan Poole’s minutes due to his lackluster D, if anyone on Golden State has a problem with Draymond putting out podcasts after playoff games, and if the Lakers are a serious threat to make a deep playoff run. Finally, Hoops Tonight host Jason Timpf and Colin to discuss the Lakers abysmal Game 2 blowout loss to the Grizzlies, where Memphis is better without Ja Morant in the lineup, what to expect in Game 3, if Draymond Green’s Game 3 suspension was justified, what the Warriors need to do avoid an 0-3 hole without him, if KD and the Suns are title pretenders. Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates, and check out FanDuel for the best wagering and daily fantasy action! #Herd #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 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. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Volume. This is Prime Cuts, the best of the Colin Coward podcast. So I saw the story where Tua, quarterback Miami Dolphins, acknowledged and admitted that he strongly considered retirement this past year when he dealt with concussions. And that's something had it happened to me, it happened to a family member, you should consider retirement. You know, we get into these things in sports, these tunnels, where everybody's afraid to get canceled and called out. And so people don't acknowledge stuff, which is like obvious.

And I felt like three or four years ago when I brought up that Kyler Marie was a little too small for my taste or that size mattered at quarterback, I got a lot of pushback on this stuff. And it's like, now can we all admit it that Bryce Young's size is. is a little concerning out of Alabama, and it should be, that Tua is small. And Jalen Hertz is not ideal, though I wouldn't classify him as small. He's been dinged up. And that Baker Mayfield,

you know, for a number one pick, Baker's six feet tall and not a great athlete. Tried to size up a safety after an interception, banged on his shoulder, got hurt, never the same quarterback. We have to be honest about this stuff, is that Mahomes and Herbert and Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow and Josh Allen, these are bigger than average men.

It matters. Go look at the list of Hall of Fame quarterbacks. You're John Elways, your Brady's, your Peyton Mannings, your Big Benz, your Joe Montana's and Steve Young's. Not a lot of 5-10 guys there. So I think it's a real concern about Bryce Young. It's why there's a quarterback for Tennessee that may go in the second round, Hendon Hooker, the knock on him is that he had an ACL injury, but he's a big, strong kid who

throws a beautiful football. He may be your best bet. He may be your best bet in this draft. I don't know that to be true, but he is big, he's strong, he's got a big arm. And, you know, he's older. So he's a more mature kid, right, than your average 21, 22 year old quarterback coming in. He's, you know, he's been around a while. So this stuff with Tua is, you know, he's got an extension possibility coming up. I just, I couldn't give it to him. I just couldn't. You know, the way I look at Tua, great kid, great high school and college career, limitations at the pro level. And I said, we're to a point now where the media is not going to give you a pass on concussions. And not only are they not going to give you a pass,

concussions, the opinions will be swift, they'll be punitive. And I think the Miami Dolphins, if Tua has a concussion, you can't play them for a month. minimum. I mean, if third week of the year, September, concussion, if you plan before Thanksgiving, you're going to get hammered by people. It's the one injury where the media is relentless and no company wants to get banged on by the media for eight to ten weeks. They don't. All right. So, it's a bummer. Like some guys, you know, I've seen it at every position in the NFL. Some guys are built for high school and college. It's just not quite built for the NFL. And I, I don't know if Tua is.

I mean, he has admitted before. Now he's admitting he thought about retirement and he's admitted before he struggles at times to see over the offensive line. It's okay. We can acknowledge this, right? Like it's an adult conversation now. And it's why Sean Payton came on my show and said, be very, very careful about not going prototype in the first 10 to 15 picks.

Do not get an offensive tackle that's 6-2 or 6-3. You've got to be 6.5 and a half minimum. You know, don't take a small. small corner, don't take a smaller quarterback. So I think the dolphins are in a really tricky situation. Tua is a really good guy. They want to protect him. They should.

Tua also needs to be protected like most pro athletes from themselves because they're all competitors and all want to play. But that news that Tua considered retirement, how do you not consider that if you're the Miami Dolphins going forward? How do you not? Now we bring in the great Marcus Thompson. We use him as often as we can. He's a busy guy.

I came out last week and I thought Sacramento would win the opener. I'll take the Warriors in six. My question was, how much do you get out of Andrew Wiggins? Were you surprised how effective Andrew Wiggins was having not played for two, three months? I was. I mean, he's such a freak athlete that, like, how do you do that? He's bouncing around.

He had three blocks. He's playing defense. He's rebounding. He's getting to his spots and it looks like normal. it is waltzy. Even if you know, like, this dude is a unique athlete. Like, really, he is special in a very, like, created in a lab kind of way, right? You can run all day before this year.

He'd never miss games. Like, he's just a guy who could just play all day. And he looked like that. It did catch up with him, right? He was winded. I think it was one for eight from three. He missed the three that would have won the game, basically wide over from the corner. So you could see, like, the effects of it.

But, man, let me tell you. you, Collar, after the game, in a loss, you could feel that they're like, oh, we got Wiggins back. Oh, okay. Like, even after a loss, they were like, oh, we got, we got Wiggins back. And that was kind of the sentiment, like, we're fine. Our whole squad is here and Wiggins looks like that already. Okay, we're pretty good. That's one of the, the words that never get down.

They very rarely get down. That's still one of the higher moments I felt in that locker room after. a loss where they felt like brooding confidence. Well, now with Comingin Wiggins, Peyton will get to him in a second and Dante DiVincenzo. They do have a seven to an eight-man rotation here of, you know, veteran players. You know, a player,

the Warriors don't have to mention Jordan Poole by name, but it's pretty obvious. Kerr and Draymond take turns to, you know, firing shots at him. Defensively, Marcus, it's a problem. Like, he's not engaged. I thought he had three or four lapses defensively, and I honestly thought it cost them the game.

Are his minutes, I mean, last year in the playoffs, Marcus, the longer they went, the fewer minutes he played. Like, was there, do you think there's real concern about what he gives up on the defensive end? He's just not engaged a lot. I don't know if it matters if he's engaged or not. He's just not very good at it. So it doesn't matter at this level, right? Like, you can be as intuitive as you want.

He made a few good plays. But in the end, he's not guard Deere and Fox. So he's not a guard Malik Monk. So the thing that is important for him is to be able to go back at you. Like, they need somebody to go back at it. They don't have a guy outside of Steph Curry who can catch the ball at the three-point line. and end up at the rim. He's the only other guy who can do it.

He's the only other guy who can dribble well enough and create. So they need him for that, but he also gives up stuff on defense. And that's kind of the catch 22 with Jordan Poole. If he's rolling and his shot is falling, all right, you've rowed with him. Like, there was a stretch where they couldn't score and it was him and Malik Muck going at each other.

And it was like, what the heck is this? Is this Michigan versus Kentucky? I know. But crunch time, you just get the sense in this series against the most efficient offense, the team that could explode like this, he probably won't be playing down the stretch. Not that much.

He didn't play that much this game. He just wasn't there. And Steve Kerr is going to lead defense. He's going to lean defense every time. They scored 123 points. They should win that game. They gave up 126. That was the problem.

What are they going to get now from Peyton who left the game, some sort of core injury? What's the latest on him? He seemed to be fine. He said he felt good. He came back in. He just, you know, Peyton is one of them dudes.

He's like a football player in a sense, like a running back. Like he's all his whole body's on the line. He's running. He's jumping. He's falling. He's playing big. And you just feel like, man, he's got a few years of this. So you need to get him.

Right. Because there's always something with him, right? He's just, he's so physical with the way he plays. And he's a, he's a reveralister. He changes everything to them. He gives him something. I feel like he might get a lot of pool. minutes. If it's not Wiggins, it'll be Gary Payton. I honestly think that Peyton's a better fit.

I think when I watch Poole on the floor with the Warriors, I feel like Draymond's body language isn't great. Sometimes Kerr isn't. I feel like they hold their breath a little with Jordan Poole. They don't trust him. They know he's gifted, but they don't trust him. I think they trust Peyton, though he's limited. Yeah, the problem with Jordan is he's just very young. And the mistakes and the stuff he's got to learn, there's literally no other way around it. Like he gets the ball at the end of the quarter in the game.

And Steph is on a court and is Jordan pool. And he goes one-on-one with Fox and he turns it over. And it's like, you got to get a ball of Steph in that situation, right? But in the same vein, he's taking that play. and he's gotten a bucket out of it. He just does so many things that nobody else in the team can do. So they got to live with it.

And you know what? Here's the reality. They created that monster, right? They taught him out to play. So if he's taking bad shots, he watched him take bad shots. He learned from them, right? He, his swagger, his confidence,

they breeded it. So this is just part of it. Like, it reminds me of like, you know, you're messing with a teenager, right? like you're raising a teenager like there's just parts of raising a teenager that are tough you got a young dude with that much talent that much confidence that much arrogance that much belief in himself and also that many flaws you just got to live with it because they can't win without them but also it's some things on the court that frustrates you and they're all 30 30 plus years old they've got

four championships they're veterans right you know they make mistakes too so they just have to live with it i feel like they just have to live with it no matter what because bottom line If Gary Payton's out there, that's one less score. And if Clay's not making his shots, like he wasn't, especially down the stretch, now it's just all on Steph. They run a boxing one on Steph. Who creates offense at that point? Now it's like, yo, you kind of need your pool in the game.

So figure out what to do on defense, but that dude could go get a bucket. So Draymond does podcast right after the games. He did last year. You know, I see people take shots at him. it's not like he divulges game plans. How does it sit, though, with the team? I mean, Draymond gives you insight that literally nobody in basketball gives you he's off the floor for the dynasty.

Does it sit uncomfortably with the team? How do they feel about it? I don't think so. If there's one thing, the, I mean, first off, the only people who could possibly say something are like the OGs, right? Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Andre, right? Yeah. Anybody else, it probably doesn't matter what they say.

Is there any team more brand conscious than the Warriors? Right. Is there anything that spends as much time building, like, who they are? I mean, Clay's riding boats to games, right? Like, he's got his whole stick. Steph, you know, has his thing. Like, even Andre Agadalas, the super smart tech guy, right? Like, they look at Draymond's, that's thing.

as long as he's playing well, it's fine. I haven't heard anything negative about it, right? And, you know, Dremont is a guy who will do some things that irritates people. The podcast ain't one of them from what I can hear. It's just Dremont. Plus, I don't know how much of this is like, yo, this is Dremont. We've known this dude for 10 years now. Like, why we get mad about the sky being blue?

Like, Dremont likes to talk. He's going to talk. He's pretty smart so he knows what he's doing. It's going to be calculated. Why? Like, why worry about it? I think the fans don't like it more than the players don't. Yeah, I think you nailed it.

I think he's very measured and calculated. He knows exactly what he's saying. I love it. I find the access fascinating. But there's like a other element too to it. I think that people should probably know. Like, he's essentially putting his team on notice, right? Like, if he's out there talking, they,

They kind of got to go back him up, right? And the only reason you would complain about him doing that is if you are afraid you can't back it up. And that's just not Warriors basketball, right? They're going to go into an arena and they're going to talk. And then they're all going to back up the one who's talking. Like, that's just how it is. So I do think there's a little bit of an ulterior motive that's like, all right, I'm going to put us on notice and we're going to have to live. We're going to have to rise up to the occasion because nobody else on the team will

do that. I do feel like this is a little bit of team chemistry situation as well. Outside of the Warriors, was there any takeaway for you this weekend, Marcus, that was anything you took a step back and went, you know, once Yonis got hurt, it's going to be a different game. Celtics are going to dispose very

quickly. Philadelphia is going to dispose of Brooklyn very quickly. Anything surprised you at all? Not necessarily surprising. I thought Memphis would be a tougher fight. The liquor's kind of waxed them. I mean,

it wasn't even a broad. It was like the Rurie and and, uh, reeds, right? Like, they were cooking. The Lakers look like, uh-oh. But if you're reminded of the ceiling they had, right? They've played below it for so long. You forget they have it, but it's like,

wait a second. If this thing clicks, it might click, click, right? They could, like, if Memphis doesn't put up a fight here and the Warriors kings go six or seven of a bra of like track race right now whoever comes out of it you got to deal with the size and feel the physicality of the Lakers you could see this kind of kind of shaping up for them in a way that's a little bit like wow we just would have never thought this two months ago we would have never thought this

like they would have this ride to the you know to the uh Western conference finals I was, I'm interested in the Miami Milwaukee series. I think this was more of a blue kind of game one. Like, I think even without Yannis, the Bucks are so used to playing with them that they might figure something out. So I'm interested to see what they have left. I think this is a phenomenon. The team that comes here off the play in, usually a little bit rolling.

And now, you know, I remember I think it was Memphis, got game one against Utah after they, if you went two games, To get into the playoffs, your nice little rhythm and your playoff team that was just sitting, was just rested. I think that's a little bit of thing. So I really want to see what Miami has. Actually, they lost one and one and one. But I want to see if Miami's legit, if they could really extend the series. That changes the entire East and Milwaukee's out.

Entire East. It blows everything up. Now another team can sneak in like the Knicks into the East Finals. I don't know. I don't think they will. But going back to what you said about the Lakers, I thought they'd beat Minnesota and I thought they'd beat Memphis. But I did feel like the longer it goes, it's more of a disadvantage because if you could get in and out of this series with Memphis and five games and LeBron gets like four days to rest, then you have a real chance to win game one against whoever you play. Like I think there is a path that the Lakers need to hit to win.

The Warriors don't. A lot of the good teams don't. The Lakers do. There's a path to success, and it's getting rid of Memphis fast. But does it look feasible? I mean, like, even like, jaw got hurt, and this is becoming a thing. Jock gets hurt, right? This is obviously a thing where this is now the second playoffs in a row.

He got hurt. And remember before, they were, like, better without him. They, like, played in a way where it was like, you know, they actually lock it in on defense. But no Stephen Adams, no Brandon Clark, that's a problem. Memphis might be in trouble. Even if Joss somehow plays, you're down 0-1 and they've got Anthony Davis who could at any moment just drop 40 on you. Like they got the guy who could do it.

LeBron could just drop 40 on you and you're in trouble. Yeah, I mean, they were trailing by four. That was an offensive foul on Jha. The Lakers were getting the ball and were hot. And by the way, the Lakers had their best quarter of the season in the third quarter and John was on the floor. So he wasn't stopping anybody. I thought the Lakers got so many good looks. I mean, the first half, the whole game they got him, they just didn't hit him in the first half.

But they were getting phenomenal looks. Their ball movement was excellent. That's the part, though, that makes you think, how real is this? I mean, is Rui hitting all those the whole series? He won't. No. You're not sold on the Hachamura bandwagon. You're not hopping on?

You're not ready for the 24, average of 24 for the series for Hachamor? I'm signing up. Rory Hachamur is averaging 24 for this entire series. Put me down. Yeah. But I will say, their third leading score, Russell, Rui, Reeves. they've got a collection of guys who are all, I mean, DeAngelo Russell is capable to drop 26 points.

He's going to give you a game, right? Yeah, no question. No question. He can be a little. Dennis Schrooter? Yep, Dennis Schrooter. By the way, the playing game, Dennis Schrooter was their third guy. So they don't have a nail down three.

But, I mean, listen, the Celtics got to the finals last year, and Marcus Smart is hot and cold. You don't know exactly what you're getting offensively from Marcus Smart. So, I mean, they're, If you have two legitimate scores, I mean, what's impressive... You can do the number three by committee, right? You can kind of do it by committee. So, all right, so you still feel good about the Warriors before we let you go.

I still think they won it in six. I mean, this is how I played it out. Like, I think they'd lose the first game. I just felt like Sacramento was going to make everything. This was like everybody to be like Sherman Club, right? This was 35 years of wanting and wanting. Like, they've been waiting for this moment forever. I felt like they were going to make every shot.

And there was a stretch when they did. And now the adjustments happen. Let's see if they can handle it. I feel like Warriors get game two, hold serving home, and we go back. We either go back to Sacramento Tide 2-2, or we go back to Sacramento with them playing for their lives to stay alive. That's how I see it shaking out. I wouldn't be shocked, though, if Sacramento won.

Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clipper Taylor, the Fulfield. forth. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football,

or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told,

and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. I think any Laker fans saw it coming. Like, you got to win in Memphis.

Energy was low early. And this team isn't, you know, they're not Sacramento Young. They're not, you know, they're one of those teams like they got to be engaged. Like, because LeBron over the last two or three years really lets the game come to him. He didn't, I mean, the first quarter is for LeBron. It's like a boxer in the first three rounds. He feels the game out, right? He's basically hoping somebody else does the heavy lifting early.

He's conserving energy. So when Anthony Davis can't hit shots, and LeBron's sort of working his way into a game, and it's like, oh, we trail by 15. Okay. Like, that's where the game became very quickly. Yeah, you put it perfectly. Every Laker fan saw this coming.

This has been a, you know, this Laker season has been such a bizarre journey, Colin, because everyone's going to focus on the fact that they've been really good since the deadline. And they have. And like so good that they've deserved the attention that they've received in a way that they may not have deserved the attention they've received in the previous year and a half. It was more of just like everyone watching the ship crash and burn, you know. But there have been two really interesting stretches this season that I think are very, very under discussed, I should say, to get the Lakers where they were. There's a stretch where LeBron James missed extended time and Anthony Davis carry.

the team, actually two stretches like that, but the big one, the foot issue towards the end of the year. And then there was the stretch where Anthony Davis missed a ton of time and LeBron James stepped in. And in each of those stretches, LeBron and AD, the one that was available, put forth incredibly desperate basketball playing at the absolute top of their games to drag the team to wins just to float things long enough until the trade deadline could happen or until LeBron James could return, right? And every single time there has been a return, they've collectively exhaled and they don't play well as the favorite is basically what I'm saying. When LeBron James came back, they immediately lost to Chicago because they didn't think they had to play as hard as they did.

They lost that desperation. And this game textbook, they go out there in game one. They dominate that game. And it was, I heard a lot of people saying it wasn't as close as it looked. I agree. But did anybody think Memphis was winning game one or did it feel like the Lakers controlled it throughout? They controlled it throughout, right? But then after that game, they flipped from being a slight underdog in the series to being a slight favorite in the series.

Then John Moran's out. And LeBron James and Anthony Davis are two players that like to do the absolute bare minimum to win basketball games. They tried that tonight. And that's a young scrappy Memphis team. That's always played super well at home. They played super physical and really bothered the Lakers particularly around the rim. And they got a big win. Well, and the other thing is there are a better defensive team, Memphis is, when Jaws not on the floor.

and the ball moves better. And I've said this before. I said it today on FS1. I said flashy point guards like sports cars. They're not built for bad weather or a trip cross country, but God, they're fun. Really fun. Trey Young. I'll throw even Steph Curry in.

Steph Curry. Trey Young, John Wall, John Morant, Derek Rose. They are players that get exposed defensively. They're usually a little, I mean, they're. they're all a little thin, a little light. Westbrook was more stocky. But again, he plays defense when he feels like it. But when you get these John Morant type players,

is they're exhilarating. And you, ball movement slows down. You kind of stare. You kind of watch Derek Rose perform. Watch John Wall. And they're not great. They give you so much energy on the offensive end. They don't give you a ton on the defensive end.

Now, Steph Curry and the Warriors, they've built a team, Drame on Clay, when he was a great defender, they bring in Gary Payton. They see his weaknesses and they build around him. But when I watch Memphis, and I've seen this now three years, Tyos Jones plays better defense. I've seen this the last, you know, 10 times that he's played.

They're a better defensive team. He's not a great score, but the forwards and the wings move the ball really, really, really well. And by the way, I remember John Wall years ago, a missing game for the Wizards that they won like nine or ten straight. It doesn't mean Wall's not great. But, you know, everybody then feels like when the flashy point guards out, hey, I'm going to get touches tonight. Like, I'm going to be included in this game plan.

And you really want to play well showing the coaches, okay, when the guy comes back, I mean, I want touches. And I think Memphis tonight played a lot of energy, moved it really, really well. Everybody just the ball moves better. And it's not a knock on John Morant. He's exhilarating. But I see this sometimes even with the Warriors. Like sometimes if Draymond's not set in screens, it's a lot of guys watching Steph do his, you know,

Harlem Globetrotter ball movement flying around. And I just, I looked at Memphis tonight and I'm like, they're a good team without jaw. They're a different team, but they're a good team without him. The way you broke it down is perfect. Like it's, there's a, there's a baseline kind of like fundamental list of things that if you do well as a basketball team, you have a chance to win no matter what.

Right? Like even without a top tier superstar, if you can protect the rim really well, if you compete really hard in all of the effort and energy parts of the game, like sliding your feet defensively on the perimeter, beating guys to the rim on help situations, crashing the offensive glass, crashing the defensive glass. Just by playing super hard and having a couple of baseline pieces that you need, you can win in the NBA, especially since a lot of these NBA players are good. Like we spent a lot of time talking about role players and the shortcomings. But a lot of these guys were all conference dudes in college and guys who average 25, 30 points a game in high school. So if you give them closeout situations, even against good NBA defenses, they're going to be able to score. And so if you don't guard the ball and you give up dribble penetration and guys are attacking closeouts all night long, they're going to score. That's why, like, honestly, from a schematic standpoint, watching this game, I remain extremely confident that the Lakers are going to win the series. The only thing that really stood out to me schematically was the Jared Vanderbilt problem. And it's not, it's twofold. Half of it is

Jared Vanderbilt and the fact that he's such a non-threat offensively that Memphis can stick Jared Jackson on him and just muck everything up underneath the basket. But the flip side of it is Rui Hachamura is ascending in front of us. This is something that we've seen the 220 point point game, the 220 plus point games in this series, but it actually extends backwards a few weeks now. His initial tenure with the Lakers went a little bit rough. He got moved to the bench after the trade. But Phil Handy's been working with him relentlessly before games and in practice on polishing up some things in his skill set.

He's been working with Darwin Ham really hard to find little areas of the game where he can impact the game defensively. He's become kind of a sneaky, solid help defender under the rim, blocking shots, grabbing contested rebounds. He's big. He's big. He's huge. They're going to slide him into that starting lineup at some point in this playoff run,

maybe even in game three of this series. And I think they're going to cut way back on Jared Vanderbilt's minutes. That was really the only schematic thing that bothered me or concerned me, I should say, about the Lakers. Yeah, but I will say they didn't play well, started slow, we're on the road, AD didn't give you much offensively. And they were in the game with two minutes to go. I mean, when the Knicks play poorly, they get rolled. Miami, not even Janus on the Florida nights, getting rolled. Lakers were on the road without or with John Morant.

Memphis is a very upper echelon team, and they competed. And they really didn't play their best basketball. It was like, since the trade, I think they're a much more competitive team. I think they have more options. Like I watched the night and I thought very early, it's like, it's not going to be their night. It's not going to be their night. But they competed. They hung in the game.

You know, it wasn't a blowout. They were, you know, there was a little brief moment with about four and a half, five left. You're like, oh, okay, we got to, it's six. So my takeaway is go back home, win both games. Jaws not going to be playing much in this series. And the faster you can close it out, the better. because this is, LeBron James is old and you can see it. Like, he can't go seven-game series or they'll pay for it next series.

Yeah, I think the way you broke it down is perfect. Like, there's a competitiveness that you'd like to see when a team loses that shows them that they're just a victim of, victim's not even the right word, but just shows them that this is a natural ebb and flow in the series. From the point that the Grizzlies went up 66 to 46, they were up 20, this was the early third quarter. I thought the Lakers really controlled the rest of that game.

They just were a little bit too far away, especially with D'Angle Russell being incapable of making a shot. Anthony Davis was missing everything around the basket. They just didn't quite have the offensive firepower tonight to make up for the hole that they dug themselves. But once they locked in defensively in that second half, they got plenty of stops. Now, the problem is, and you just said this,

and this is so important, this particular Lakers team, rest is going to be key for them. And ending the series quickly is so important because there will be long series ahead. The next series against Sacramento or Golden State, probably a longer series because the Lakers struggle with transition defense and the way that they run their coverage is going to leave some things open for the King's Guards and the Warriors Guards. In the conference finals against a team like Phoenix or the Clippers or Denver, they're going to be in for a long series.

Whoever comes out of the West or East, that's a six or seven game series. So if they could buy little tiny chunks of like three. three or four days off here or there for LeBron and Anthony Davis to rest. Huge. Ending this series in five would go a long way towards that. So, Colin, everyone was accusing us of backing up our volume guy, which I think is ridiculous because it's just, I don't know what's gotten into everybody, Colin, because I feel like this is the most reasonable opinion in the world and everyone's, everyone's calling me immoral.

You know how it goes. But I could see the case for the, I could see the case for the, I could see the case for the Now, I disagreed with it, but I could see the case. And the case was Dremont's history. Fair. I thought the decision to suspend him was completely outrageous. Where did you land on that? The reality is if I went up and punched you and you punched me back and you knocked me out and I just grazed you, you could say, well, he started it. And that's a real defense. If you broke into my house and I shot you and you had a terrible injury and maybe, maybe I didn't need to be as violent against you. I would say he broke into my house, right?

Sabonis got a technical and initiated the circus. Draymond pulling out, then added to it. But that's a real defense, which is, you know, he swung first, or he broke in, or he grabbed my leg. So to me, that's not why they threw him out for the next game. I believe at my core. Because Subonis A started it and played the remaining seven and a half minutes. He was fine.

Again, if there would have been an injury, then there's a different component. But I think, and I don't blame Adam Silver for this. Deep in the DNA of the NBA, the malice at the palace was their darkest moment. And when Draymond got up as a road player and started talking. haunting the crowd and Adam Silver's in the building. I think that's a non-starter. If you're at Chase Center, it's different. But if you're on the road, Adam's there.

He hears those fans. He sees the double birds. It's like, no way. We're not going there. That even though I defended the players in Malice of the Palace, because if you went back and looked at the people and the fans involved, many of them had criminal records. They were just there to be trouble.

I defended run our test. I defended the players because I would have been terrified to be in an arena, an opposing arena. But it does matter what arena it is. You can't do that on the road in a hostile playoff environment. Jason, you just can't do it. You know, there's the old saying. You can't yell fire in a crowded theater. You can't.

So I think Silver being there and because you know when Draymond's doing that, Adam's hearing those fans. And he's seeing those double birds. And he's like, I'm not going there. Repercussions. And again, Dremont's a veteran. He's not a rookie. Like you could see a rookie losing their shit.

I mean, seriously, a 19-year-old kid gets worked up. This is a wise NBA sage. You know, Draymond's been in these wars forever. So I think it's like resume, road, incite. because I'm with you. If you do something first, you do have a right. A cheap shot to me, you do have a right to cheap shot back. And that would have easily been two technicals keep playing.

But that crowd and that even somebody said it today on my show. I forget who it was. But it may have been Sam Amick. He just said, you know, if he just run through the tunnel, it would have felt different. Just I'm out, out. it was like 90 seconds of, come on, you want a piece of me? I didn't like it. Well, there are things that are debatable about this and there are things that are not debatable.

Like, the debatable side of it is, should he have been suspended? Sure, you know, like we can go back and forth about that. Here's what's not debatable. Draymond brought this on himself and his team. That goes, like, regardless of what the decision-making process was, the risk was willingly took on by Draymond with his behavior. and especially what you're talking about after the timeout. Because again, and I think it's a complicated topic.

And I know you've talked about this a little bit on your show. Yeah. But like the dynamic between the fans and players is super complicated because like you're heated. You're super competitive and you're riled up. And now some dudes saying some wildly disrespectful stuff to you like 20 feet away. And there's really like this barrier between you that extends beyond the distance. It's also like Adam Silver standing there between you because it could literally mess up your entire. season and everything that you and your team are trying to build towards.

But again, like, there's a difference between, like, I think I personally would not have suspended him that said, that's a debate. That's a fair debate. There's no question that Draymond brought it on himself, at least through his decision-making process and knowing what kind of history he had. Now, with this series gets really interesting from here. I don't think it's over, Colin, and I'm still pretty confident that Golden State's going win. I know it sounds crazy, but a couple of different things. They kind of started to figure out some

stuff in game two that I believe might have led them to a victory had Draymond been able to stay in the game. When Andrew Wiggins is on the floor and when Gary Payton is on the floor, they have straightforward matchups for Fox and Monk, and they are actually doing a decent job containing him there. Then they have to go to pick and roll to get rid of the on-ball defender. And Draymond is blowing all of that stuff up as the screen defender. At the end of the game, they had to go to Looney. And then they went to pick and roll, and Looney couldn't stop anybody at the rim. So that ended up being the problem.

But functionally from the lineup, you can kind of see the two teams finding their five that works. The Kings are going with Davion Mitchell because he can guards death, credibly, right? And then they're going with Malik Monk and Deer and Fox with Harrison Barnes and Demandah Sabonis. With the Warriors, it's Draymond with Andrew Wiggins. and then Gary Payton, Stefan, Clay. That's where they've got their lineups that are working. That's where these two teams are going to go down with the ship. If the Warriors can survive game three,

which is totally possible with how well they play in front of their home crowd, even without Dremont, especially against the King's team that can not be overly physical sometimes. If they can survive game three, Dremont comes back for game four. I believe they will win that game. On the road in game five, as long as they can stay in it long enough to get to their core line.

up at the end, I think they have a really good chance to win this series. As bad as Golden State was on the road in Sacramento, expect Sacramento to look just as bad in Golden State, in my opinion. Well, what I worry about without Dremont, he's a great passer on the offensive end. He's also a great screen setter. And he's, he, now they have plenty of smart players, but he does add an intellect. He's just got a real good sense. I mean, it's all this sort of intellectual bandwidth the Celtics play with. When you got four guys who were on the floor for six years, like the Celtics passing is excellent, whereas Atlanta's got a new GM, a new coach, a new system.

I mean, it's just a bunch of new parts. And I think when I watch the Warriors with Draymond, Steph, clay on the floor, man, there are times. It's just they can really read each other's minds. And that's the kind of capital that load management eats a way out. It's what, I mean, we've talked about this. It's why the clippers sometimes and a half-court set are pain. to watch. There's no play

together. So I, if they can get through this game, I agree with you. But man, sometimes without Dremont, the passing's not as crisp. The ball movement's not quite as good. You know, Clay's not a great ball handler.

And now he's not a great defender. So you get two different versions of Clay. There's catch and shoot and he's hot at home, Clay. Great. And then there's on the road struggling, handling the ball. guys blowing by him. You used to kind of know with Clay

that if he wasn't on, you got a great defender. Now when he's not on, you get sometimes a suboptimal ball handler and defender. So his game doesn't necessarily, you'd think because he's a catch and shoot guy, his game would age well, but he's got to play better.

He and Jordan Poole have got to help Steph. Jordan Poole's been awful in the series. Awful. I agree. The Dremont thing is certainly a threat. And this is where I fundamentally disagree with the suspension. Like, make the Kings go earn the damn series. Make them go beat Golden State in Golden State.

Make them beat them with Dremont. Like, especially on, like, especially, I'm getting on my soapbox again. I didn't like that suspension at all. Like, because now if the Kings win the series, it's going to feel a little cheap. But it is. You know, Jason, I've always felt I will always give an athlete a pass in the moment. Tom Brady yelling at a coach. Peyton Manning barking, I'll always give an athlete.

They can leave their body. It's an out-of-body experience emotionally. I mean, your testosterone's going. You've been put... So the Draymond kick, it's like, I get it. That's his style. He's the bouncer at the nightclub. He's a tough guy.

It's the, okay, I've been ejected. Now I'm going to go and taunt the crowd. Come on, you're a mid-30-year-old player. Like, like, I have a right to be mad if I'm on the air and somebody doesn't roll the tape and I'm barking. But three minutes later, I've got to be. got to go, okay, we have a show to do. Take a deep breath. Get over yourself. Let's do the show. So that part, I'll defend Draymond on the moment. Guy grabs your foot, you stomp him back. I'll defend him forever on that. But you got to know better as a 34, 35 year old guy on the

road to get that crowd riled up. Like, that's just not the play. I can't argue with anything you're saying, Colin. So I'm going to change my take. As a basketball fan, I'm annoyed that Dremont's not playing in game three. How about that? Right. We'll just go. with that. So, uh, if that's, I do, I do still think, I think that, uh, if the warriors can survive the Dreymont suspension in game three, I think they still have a very good chance to win the series. So Clippers versus Sons, this is the series that I have been most wrong about in my, um, pre-playoffs previews. I expected the Clippers to get swept. They very much did not as they went into Phoenix and stole game one. You know what's interesting about this series, Colin? The, the numbers coming out of,

of the like kind of shot profile stuff does not look good for Phoenix. This is wild. So the sons have attempted just 17 shots, excuse me, 19 shots in the restricted area in this series. And the clippers have attempted 37. So like almost double. And then in wide open threes, which by MBA.com is factored in as defender at least six feet away, the clippers have also generated about twice as many.

as the Sons. The reason why the Sons won game two is what's the other shot that's available? So if you're not scoring at the rim and you're not making these kickout threes to guys that are wide open, it's contested pull-up off-the-dribal long jump shots in the mid-range, right?

What's crazy is the Sons shot 35% in effective field-go percentage on pull-up jump shots in game one, and they lost. They shot 61% effective field-go percentage on pull-up jump shots off the dribble in game two, and they won. And so everything for me for the Sons comes down to, can they continue to knock down these tough, contested pull-up jump shots?

And I'm just not, I believe they'll make enough to beat the Clippers. But I, after two games, feel less confident than ever that the Sons can get out of the conference because they're just not generating enough easy shots. Well, I feel these are opposite teams. The Clippers have depth but are missing a star. The Suns have stars and are missing depth. And when they made the move to get KD, you had to give up McAil Bridges. That was the gem.

But they gave up two other players. And one of those players had 28 the other night for Brooklyn against Philadelphia. And when I watched the Suns, I feel I said this on TV today. They're a guy shy. I just said Norman Powell's on the Sons, I'm like, okay, they're a finals team. I almost think they're tentative defensively because they know they can't get into foul trouble. Chris Paul's backup is hurt. And he may not play in game three.

Booker doesn't really have a backup. They don't really have backups for their stars. And it almost makes them a little tentative defensively. Whereas the Clippers have depth play really hard defensively. Westbrook gets in foul trouble. You can throw in man, Norman Powell. They've got depth. So I think it makes them play a little more tentative defensively.

Monty Williams knows that. We can't go to the bench early. We just can't. And the other thing is Chris Paul's the one guy that needs a break. And until his backup comes in, who's been out, I know he may play in game three. But I think that's a big thing. Like Chris at this point in his career needs a spell.

And so when I've been watching Chris Paul in the second half, his jumpers are short. He's just stuff that went in three years ago is just not there. And it's, I mean, it was the other night, he missed a couple, seven, eight footers. I'm like, that was a 70% shot three years ago. Like, just Chris didn't miss those. So I feel like, I feel like to get Kevin Durant,

they had to give away a bunch of picks and three dudes. If they give away two, they could be more. aggressive on the defensive end. You could rest guys. I mean, they're going to have to play Durant and Booker. They're going to have to play them 40 minutes. That's who they are now. That's who they are. Yeah, I said this before the playoffs, and I still feel very strongly about this. Like, I have no idea what's going to happen with this son's team. But I do know what's going to happen this summer. They're going to sign somebody. And it's going to be like, hey, listen, do you want to be the starting forward, like guaranteed starting spot alongside Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul Dianj

Drayton. They're going to be able to pitch that position like that using the mid-level exception or whatever contract they decide to offer. And they are going to get some massively underpaid forward that can play on both ends of the floor that wants to just go win a championship next to the two of them. They're going to get two or three more veteran minimum contracts that kind of follow a similar mold. And they're going to be awesome next year. I feel very strongly about that. This team is kind of playing with house money a little bit, because I think the expectations are a little lower on them because of that. The minutes thing is complicated because I'm less concerned about it on the offensive end because workload matters. Like splitting a heavy duty shot creation

workload between just Kyrie and LeBron, that can get a little fatiguing and you need an otherworldly athlete like LeBron to survive that. But like all of a sudden, you throw a third guy in there and it's like they're splitting those duties three ways. It becomes a little more achievable. The defensive end is where you hit the nail on the head. You can't win a title in the NBA without playing elite defense. You can't play elite defense without committing to devote physical resources to it. And when you devote physical resources to it to the tune of 44 minutes a night,

one of two things is going to happen. They're either going to not devote the necessary physical resources to it and coast and not reach the defensive ceiling they need to reach, or they're going to pour in the necessary effort for 44 minutes to get stops, and they're going to suffer on the offensive end when they're fatigued. So, like, that's where it gets difficult. And I don't really have a good answer for them. Kevin Durant famously said this after they lost to the bucks in that crazy game seven,

the one where he took his toe was on the line. I don't know if you remember the turnaround jumper. He said this after the series. He goes, everyone thinks if I was one inch further back, we would have won the championship. He's like, that was the second round. He's like, he's like, we had, he's like, James Hardin was playing out a bad hamstring. Kyrie was completely unavailable.

I had to create every single shot. He's like, we weren't winning the title that year. Like, it's just too much to ask a guy to do that that much without any depth behind him. Yeah, I think if they get, is it, Payne, the backup to Chris Paul, I think if they get him back, I think that helps, you know, like, there's like, I don't know what he plays, 18 minutes, 16 minutes. That helps a little bit. But to your point, they'll get a couple of mid-level exemptions and they'll get a couple of

veterans that want to win. You know, like the heat did when they went and grabbed like Ray Allen. You'll get a guy like that that's like, man, I just want a title when David West came to the Warriors. There's a guy out there that can give you like 12 really good minutes in the postseason. Jay Crowder's bounced around and become kind of like that guy at the end of his career. So, and they, Jay Crowder got moved in that Brooklyn deal. So it's like, so you know,

McAil Bridges, yes, and then you start moving a couple other pieces. You look up and it's like, oh, Cam Johnson dropped almost 30 against Philly. And you're like, they need that so bad. Make sure to check out the Dremont Green Show. I brought Dramon Green into the volume because one of the more entertaining voices in sports,

unique perspective, understands behind the rope. Also chops up with guests like Gary Payton, Zach Levine, Tracy McGrady. Make sure download the Dremon Green Show wherever you get your podcast, only on the volume podcast network. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends.

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