The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Friday Mailbag Episode: Steph-KD Warriors vs Kobe-Shaq Lakers, Giannis disrespect, Clippers a major threat?

Episode Date: July 22, 2022

Jason Timpf answers listener questions including why Giannis Antetokounmpo is sometimes disrespected by other NBA players, if the Clippers are the biggest threat to the Warriors in the Western Conference, if the Steph Curry-Kevin Durant Warriors were better than the Kobe-Shaq Lakers, and what his thoughts are on an NBA midseason tournament. #HerdSee 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.

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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 what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes,

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Today is my last full day on the lake, getting in the car, driving to Seattle tomorrow, and then we board the cruise ship, I believe, the following day. We're just spending the night in town. I've never been to Seattle. I've been told to try out the clam chowder at the Pike Place market, so I plan to do that. Just in general, this trip has been a really nice getaway. far having a good time never been to Alaska looking forward to that today we're doing a mailbag um i sent out the request for questions yesterday and we got 60 uh questions obviously not going to be able to get to

all of them i picked out about 20 that i liked we'll see how how many i can get to in the next hour or so i do want to start doing a lot more of this kind of stuff though so for those of you that i missed your question or for whatever reason i can't get to it today i promise we're going to do a lot more of this kind of thing. I'd like to have it be kind of a regular part of our show just because I want this to be as interactive as possible. I want to talk about the game the way I want to talk about the game, but I also want to talk about the game the way that you guys want to talk about the game. So we're starting with the first question. This one is, and I'm going to butcher some names today, so I apologize in advance. This one is from Panagiotis to Pachas. I'm guessing that's a Greek name.

Why is there so much disrespect on the best NBA player, Janice Antenacumpo, by other players? For example, what Andre Aguadalas said. Now, this is a recurring phenomenon throughout NBA history. Janus isn't the first guy this happened to. I mean, look at the way that the league treated Steph when he was rising. Look at the way the league treated LeBron when he was rising. It's a couple of different things. Anytime any young player or young person comes into an industry and starts to, you know, be a mover and shaker, start to elevate, especially faster than his peers, there's going to be pushback. That's a normal part of it. I think one of the reasons why it's especially tough for Janus is because he has a set of physical tools that would make any NBA player jealous. And you saw that from Andre Godala in that quote. You also saw that from James Hardin with the whole running and dunking quote, right?

Like when you're almost seven feet tall with super long arms, you know, incredibly well built, a good body type in the sense that, you know, like there are guys out there that are like lean and chiseled and then there are guys that are like a little bit doughy. You know what I mean? Like Janus is as as immaculate a physical specimen that you will see in the NBA. And it absolutely helps him in every facet of the game. And so there is going to be a certain amount of jealousy that comes with that. I do think that. people underplay how hard it is to be as good of an athlete as they are? Like, I mean, all of you guys who listened to this show that are Hoopers, you guys have probably all met a 6-7, 6-8, 6-9 type of athlete that, for whatever reason, just never materialized into much of a basketball player because they couldn't put the other pieces together. Maybe they weren't physically aggressive enough.

Maybe they didn't take good enough care of their body. Maybe they didn't become skilled enough. I think as much as Janus is very blessed. in his natural abilities, he also has worked extremely hard to get as good at the game of basketball as he is. So I don't believe in minimizing that, but make no mistake, it's a basic psychological phenomenon. He's new to the scene. He's better than everybody. Like you guys know me, I think that Janus is the best player in the league by a pretty decent margin. I'd put him in a tier by himself atop the league with the Steph, LeBron, KD, guys kind of just in that level right

beneath him. That's how good I think he is. So it's not a issue of respect. I'm just calling out what I believe is a typical psychological phenomenon. He's new. He's kicking everybody's ass, and he's got this ridiculous set of physical tools that no one else in the league has, and so a lot of people are jealous, and that's just kind of normal human behavior at this point. Well, as is always the case, just like it was with Stefan, with LeBron, he'll eventually get his due respect as he kind of has consistent success throughout the league. And also, he's just a really good person. So, I mean, there's just not a whole lot of reasons to dislike him. Secondly, this is from Mock Fraud Chowder.

What are your thoughts on the Clippers for next season? I personally believe them to be title contenders, with Kauai and PG coming back being their two big scoring wings, tons of depth, good shooters, and they go small and switch sliding Covington to the five in the playoffs. I mentioned this right after the season, but I view the Clippers as the number one threat to the Warriors to come out of the West next year.

Now, the Warriors have not had a good offseason overall. The Dante DiVincenzo signing is fine, but to lose both Gary Payton 2nd and Otto Porter Jr., who were significant role players for them in the playoffs, that's an issue. Now you absolutely need Moses Moody to come in and slide into one of those roles. I don't think Jonathan Caming is ready, and then you need Dante DiVincenzo to be what Gary Payton was for you,

which was, I don't know that he can. Gary Payton, Jr., is... Gary Patton 2nd is one of the best defensive guards that we have in this league. And I've told you guys this before, if you look on the on-off numbers for the way that the Warriors played in this playoff run,

with Gary Payton on the floor versus with him off the floor, there's a huge difference there. So I don't love the off-season for the Warriors this year, but I still think they're the favorite in the West. But I think the clippers are right there. I think they're the biggest threat.

I've talked to you guys about this before, but I view them as the quintessential modern basketball team. I think they're extremely well run from the top down. They're willing to spend money. The people that make decisions, for their basketball operations department are people that understand the game of basketball and people that actually are plugged into what succeeds in modern basketball. They're very well coached.

I'm a huge fan of Tai Liu. I think he's doing a much better job here than he did even in Cleveland. And in terms of talent, they're kind of perfectly built, very switchable, but at the same time they can run drop coverage with Zubach, Zubots, right? Like they've got guys that can pressure the rim consistently, like Kauai Leonard. Paul George has gotten a lot better at that over the years. They've got good perimeter shooting. They've got guys that can attack closeouts, guys that do the dirty work.

To me, they're kind of like a perfectly constructed basketball team. The issue with them is always going to be health. Paul George just kind of seems to have issues like this all the time. It's like it used to be his shoulder. And then this year it's his elbow. You know, there's just always something going on with Paul George. And then, I mean, there's all sorts of mixed intel on the Kawhi Leonard stuff. I've heard people who are connected who have sources.

that say that his knees all messed up and is degenerative, and then I've heard people say that he's fine, so who the hell knows? To me, that's just classic Kauai keeping a tight circle, but health is always going to be their biggest problem. And then when push comes to shove at the end of any sort of tough, competitive playoff series, they don't really have fantastic playmakers.

Kaui Leonard and Paul George are great at looking for their shot. They're not great at, you know, consistently making great reads against elite locked in defenses that take away the easy stuff. They're so good everywhere around that That there's still every bit as much of a championship contender as any of the other teams in the league But that's their big weakness and we saw that against Denver in the bubble When they fell out when they came up against a real chess match chess master Nicola Yokic They couldn't go blow for blow with them and it ended up costing up

But make no mistake I think that clippers are absolutely a championship contender And I think they're probably the second best team in the west behind golden state And their biggest threat to be upset This one's from Ryan Hey Jason, Joe Lacobs says the luxury tax penalties on the Warriors are unfair. Do you agree? Absolutely, I agree. I mean, we talked about this a little bit with Colin Coward after the last NBA Finals game,

but it doesn't make sense that you can be punished for drafting so well that all of the players that you picked ended up needing large salaries. And now you get squeezed and you end up losing a quality player. you know even like a good player like gary peyton the second like nobody in the league was willing to give gary peat in a second a chance the warriors did he manifested into like a quality NBA playoff role player and they had to let him go because they couldn't afford to keep him that's unfortunate that it works that way it is what it is i don't know that there's a perfect system i've heard a bunch of different things like what if you could keep your stars in a separate salary cap conchoward is advocated for

you know your salary cap only being used on the mercenaries right like if you sign for agents, you should have a limitation in what you can sign, but players that are under team control that you drafted, maybe you can have a separate, you know, kind of salary system for that. I'm a proponent of any of those things because in general, I want to reward, you know, competence. I don't want to reward incompetence. I want teams that do the right things that hire the right people that put in the work. I want them to be able to be the beneficiaries of the system. I don't want them to be the people that get penalized by the system. So I don't like the way that it works, but it is what it is.

And it's unfortunate that it's going to end up squeezing the warriors out of some quality role players. This is from, this is a nameless account, so we're not going to give the name. The Bulls are wasting their time with their current roster. How do you think they could move things around and compete legitimately? I don't think they're wasting their time. I mean, again, guys, I've been over this with you guys before. but over the last, what, 10, I believe if I remember correctly, eight of the last 10 titles are Stefan LeBron,

and then the other two are Kauai and Janus, right? I think it's, it might be nine in the last 11, actually, is what it is. So eight of the last 11 are Stefan LeBron, and then the other three are Kauai and Yannis. So like, there's the top guys in the league are winning the trophy, and there's only like five or six of those guys. So not everybody, you know, the Bulls can't just be like a, oh, we need LeBron, oh, we need KD.

oh, we need Janice. So you got to go for it with whatever you've got. I actually like the core. De Rosen and Levine, I think, are fine. The big thing is, you know, and injuries ended up being what derailed them this year. Early in the year, when they had Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso defending on the perimeter, they were damn good. They were very good.

As I've said before, I think that perimeter defense is the most valuable skill in all of basketball. That's literally, that perimeter contain is what, prevents that initial dribble penetration that causes your defense to go into rotation where bad things start happening. So like the way that I see it, you can't really make a clear judgment of what this Bulls team is capable of until Lonzo's on the floor or until Alex Cruz was on the floor. And then in the front court, they need somebody to do that for them as well. Patrick Williams is that guy. That's what he's supposed to be for them. He's supposed to be there, 6-8, do it all forward who can guard the bigger wings and cause damage around the backline and and be an impact

rebounder and all of those things. So like, well, ideally, if I had to make one significant change, I would look to flip Vucevic for more of a dirty work type of forward, a forward that is is more capable of holding down the interior in terms of the physicality of the position. And I'm not sure what the right answer there is. I'd have to think I would like, so what I would look for is is someone in that like Clint Capella type of archetype, just a really high level athletic, rim running center that can block shots around the basket, screen and roll to the rim hard and defend and drop coverage, things along those lines. The, uh, the Vucevic is just going to get killed in that role the too frequently. And, and I don't know that,

I don't know that there's an easy answer out there, but I think if they get Caruso and if they get Patrick Williams really dialed in as their athletic forward and if they get a good, you know, athletic rim protecting center, all of a sudden that Levine and DeRosen combo is very interesting. DeRosen's a very good playmaker. Zach Levine's a very efficient score in this league, and both of them have defensive shortcomings, but as long as you have guys around them that can succeed, you got a chance.

Do I ever think they can be a top-tier contender, no. but if they do those things that I just mentioned, I absolutely think they could be in that second tier, which is like the, if things break right, we can win tier, right? Like the Phoenix Suns two years ago, they would be similar level of talent to what I just described as the idealized version of the Chicago Bulls.

They were two wins away from the NBA title, and if it wasn't for Chris Paul collapsing the way that he did, they very well could have won, right? So I'm not as low on the Bulls as that particular nameless. account is. All right, this is from Anacette Mohan, who I believe has been supporting the show for a while. So we appreciate the question, Aniket. Thoughts on Steph's comments on the Warriors being better than the Kobe Shack Lakers. So in general, I'm not a huge fan of these types of comparisons just because they're

very subjective and extremely difficult to establish parameters. Like, what rules are we playing by? How are they officiating the game? Are we going with like playoff physicality the way they did towards the end of this playoff run because if that's the case, I struggle to think that the Warriors would be able to handle Shaq and Kobe physically, right? But if it's a more open, free-flowing up and down the floor type of game, like Steph Clay and Dremont are going to run these guys off the floor with their speed up and down the floor and covering ground on the perimeter, right? So it's tough to say.

But at the end of the day, like, you know, everyone has heard the phrase styles make fights, right? Well, I view it more as like any style, some styles have advantages over other styles, but any style is capable of beating the other styles. It's just a question of the style that the game takes. So, for instance, if you've got a big bruising team in the Lakers and you've got a fast finesse team in the Warriors, it really just, it's up to which team kind of commands the flow of the game. If the Lakers could strangle the game, keep it in the half court, and consistently feed Shaq without him getting tired.

up and down type of game covering too much ground, I'm sorry he's just going to physically pulverize you, right? But if the Warriors can keep the game fast and loose and get out and transition a lot, Shaq is his impact is going to tank compared to what he's going to be like in a slow half-court game. So it's hard to say, I don't really have an answer to that question. If gunned to my head, I've always said that the 2017 Warriors, that KD, Steph, Clay, Draymond, Iguodala lineup, the Hamptons 5, that to me was the best back. basketball lineup, best basketball team that I've ever seen. So I personally would take them. But again, like if the game, if the series or the game takes a certain shape, the matchups could

end up swinging back towards the Lakers. This is from Rowe-Day Don. Lakers, shouldn't they try trading Tailing Horton Tucker for Patrick Beverly and Russ for Buddy Heald in some three-teamer versus going for Kyrie? Bev and Buddy are somewhat similar to Crusoe and KCP. Kyrie gets bought out, question mark. I disagree. A couple things. First of all, KCP was an excellent defensive player. Buddy Heald is not. Buddy Heald is a better offensive player than KCP, so they're not really all that similar. I do agree in the sense that Patrick Beverly could do some of what Alex Crusoe does just as a perimeter contained type of guy. No matter what, I think these guys should be fallback options. There's another question that was in,

I didn't pick it, but maybe it's in my list later on, but somebody asked me, like, what do you value more offense or defense? And I'm always going to value the offensive end more to a certain extent, even though I do value defense, because I think you can manufacture defense in a way that you can't with the offensive end of the floor. Like you can play hard and coach up a defensive player, right? But you can't play hard and coach up what Kyrie Irving can do with the basketball.

That's a otherworldly talent that is carrying him there. When it comes to a playoff setting, if you have Kyrie Irving, you can manufacture small defensive roles for players like Austin Reeves and Stanley Johnson and Juan Tiscano Anderson and Troy Brown Jr. and all this kind of stuff. It's very, it's difficult. It's going to be a challenge. Darvin Ham's going to have his work cut out for him there, but it's doable. But what you can't do is run out there with Buddy Heald and with Miles Turner and with Patrick Beverly or whoever it is and then try to manufacture. what Kyrie Irving can do. What Kyrie Irving can do with the basketball in a playoff setting is

impervious to defensive scheming. It's an unbelievable weapon to have in your bag. It can be a problem if you're the Brooklyn Nets and you absolutely desperately need him to be amazing every night, but alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis, he wouldn't need to be. I would target Kyra Irving no matter what as the primary option. If it goes south, you default to some combination of Buddy Heald, Miles Turner, or whatever role players you can get out there. The other guy I'd really look at is Boyan Bogdanovich from the Utah Jazz as just a guy who's a big forward. His foot speed struggles to cover on the perimeter against quicker guys,

but he's good at guarding bigger, stronger forwards. So with Anthony Davis on the back line, I actually think he's a nice fit there, just like he was in Utah with Rudy Gopair. But that's another type of guy I would look at. But no matter what, Kyrie, first priority, backup playing his role players. 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 I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. 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. Do you remember when Diana Ross

double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J.

And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84's big,

to me not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is from Silas. What NBA player would you compare your personal game to? So this is interesting.

I love talking about this kind of stuff. So I talked a little bit about my college basketball background in a podcast last week. But when I was in college, I was just an athlete. And I was very, I basically was a stretch four who turned into a little bit more of a three my last year. But I was very unskilled. Like I could shoot the ball in a streaky way, but I could not dribble to say. of my life, I was unskilled. But the last time I played college basketball is 2014, and I still play

just as much to this day as I do then. Like I tell you guys, I'm so in love with the game that I approach it like a professional. I train, strength train every single day. I go and do skill work. I coach high school kids, so I've access to a gym and a gun and all those kinds of things. And I take the game very seriously, not because I'm trying to play professionally. This is my job. I love doing this. But it's just something that I love to do because I love the game. I like being able to step on a basketball court and be a good basketball player. It's something that is like a personal passion of mine, irrespective of money or fame or anything like that, right?

So, like, as I've gotten older, I've gotten way, way, way better at dribbling the basketball. So those are you guys who follow me on Twitter, you've seen the videos that I do. But for the most part, it's a combination. Talk to any young Hooper out there. And those are you guys who are Hoopers that are listening, you know exactly what I'm talking about. your skill set is a combination of things you learn from all of your favorite players. Like I have a one-legged fadeaway that I use that originated from Dirk.

The one that I use is kind of more like what Kevin Durant does. But that's a move that I saw on video from those guys, went in the gym, worked on it hundreds of times to learn how to do it. My fade away over my right shoulder and left shoulder, I watched Kobe Bryant film. I swing my right leg around when I fade over my left shoulder to try to square up in mid-air. that took a ton of footwork reps, learned that from Kobe Bryant, watching tape, going in the gym and working on it. I have a very, very deep arsenal of different step-back threes off of various dribble combinations. Those are mostly from James Hardin.

My other dribble combination threes are like Paul George. You know, my form, when I'm working on my jump shot form, I try to replicate Clay Thompson as much as possible. Like everybody's got a bunch of, of, of, of, players that they look to as basically a, like a blueprint for how to develop your own skill set. And mine's always been a combination of those things. Now, if you went to the gym and you watched me play pickup, the guy that I'd probably resemble the most to you is like a Paul George.

I'm a guy that is, I dribble the basketball a lot. I'm mostly a scorer. I go to off the dribble 3s often, but I have the ability to slash to the basket and finish above the rim. Not as athletic as I was when I was younger. When I was younger, I was about 205 pounds and could get my head at the rim. Now I'm a few inches below the rim. I weigh 225 pounds, more of a back to the basket. I can use that more back to the basket type of stuff.

But I try to do everything. Like I try to be multifaceted. I try to have floaters and scoop shots and back to the basket stuff. off the dribble stuff. And when I play with my men's league team on Sundays, I play with a couple of really good guards. So I work a lot of my off the ball shooting, moving without the basketball,

cutting things along those lines. I'm obsessed with the game. I know, again, I'm never going to get paid again for it. Or if I do, I have to convince my wife that I'm going to leave her for a little bit. But the reality is, to me, it's just fun. I love the process of becoming the best basketball player that I can be,

even though it doesn't really result in anything from a money standpoint. This is from Vic. Your opinion on the mid-season tournament. I don't see any value at all, but maybe you do. And do you think play-in is a fair way to decide the playoff spots? I actually like to play in tournament. It's high stakes. It's a rescue path for teams that deal with injuries over the course of the season.

No issue with the playing tournament. The mid-season tournament, I think, is stupid. I don't think you're going to be able to get guys to care about it. my main issue there too is like it's beating around the bush and failing to acknowledge the reality of the situation you guys know i'm big on self-awareness i'm big on admitting when things are not good and the reality is is the league has an urgency problem if you have just to make the math easy if you're getting a million people to watch an average regular season NBA game that's on national television and the numbers are different than that but i'm just trying to keep the math easy

if it's a million um and you're dealing with everything that that we're dealing with now. You're dealing with stars sitting out because of load management. You're dealing with injuries causing problems. You're dealing with back-to-backs and schedule losses and all of these different things that are upsetting the product. To the point now where your TNT Thursday slate is almost always involving at least one of the core teams missing players, if not all four of them, on a typical TNT Thursday night. It's a problem. That's the issue. So to me, if you can get it from 1 million viewers to 1.5 million viewers, again, I'm just using that for easy math, then that allows you to cut down in the number of games and maintain the amount of revenue as it pertains to what the advertising eyeballs that the broadcast companies can get.

So my thing is like I would shorten the season, down to 66, 66 games probably. I think if you did that, you could get down to three games per week. Every single week you have at least one stretch where you have two consecutive days off. If you did that, that basically bakes in load management automatically into the schedule. It's far more likely that the stars will play in all the games. You'll be able to have more practice time. The overall quality of play will be way better. The nationally televised games will have the stars on the floor more frequently.

It will lead to an increase in ratings. It will get people to buy into the regular season. It also breeds urgency. The 66 games makes each game worth, you know, what's that roughly 50? percent more, right? Roughly 20 percent more. So at that point, you're, you're in, you're basically injecting a ton of good and the price is you're cutting 16 games from the schedule, right? Obviously, that's a significant revenue loss. But if it's a 20% revenue loss there, all you need is a 20% increase in the quality of the product that will eventually manifest in the viewership

needed to recoup those losses. To me, the midseason tournament is a bizarre attempt to address that issue by adding games, which doesn't make any sense to me. Obviously, I think the plan would shorten the regular season to 72 games and then add the mid-season tournament. I don't see the point. Shorten it to 66. You'll get higher-quality basketball. Higher-quality basketball is what will save the NBA. The NBA playoffs are super interesting.

You want more of that. You want more high-stakes, high-energy NBA games involving the Stars. If you do the mid-season tournament, you're going to have the exact same issue with stars sitting out key national. nationally televised games. This is from DeFoust. Your reaction to Grant Williams' comments on the finals from the Long Shot podcast, a quick hitter here.

Grant Williams basically just said, I think we were the better team. They were more disciplined. Yes, absolutely. That's what I've been saying. However, what qualifies as a good basketball team? Like, I don't think better is the right phrase to explain what Grant Williams is saying.

If I was Grant Williams, what I would say is, I think we were the more talented team, which is true, guys. Like, hey, Steph Curry just won a championship with Andrew Wiggins as a second best player. That was not an ultra-talented Warriors team. They were talented. They certainly weren't devoid of talent, but they outkicked their coverage because they're extraordinarily well run from the top down. They have an owner who's willing to spend. General manager actually knows how to build a modern NBA roster around switchy wings that can do the dirty work.

A very good basketball coach. They're superstars a fantastic leader and is the second. best player in the league in my opinion, and then all the guys down the roster were completely bought into the role, very disciplined, very smart basketball players. That's why they won. That to me, though, makes them the better basketball team. So I, instead of saying, instead of what Grant Williams said, which is we were the better team, the Warriors were the more disciplined team, I would say the Celtics were the more talented team, the Warriors were the better team. But at the end of the day, that's just all semantics. Who cares? The Warriors have the trophy. This is from

my friend Joe. J.T. Do you think there is any way possible Russ actually is on the team for the first game of the regular season. Thanks. I don't think so. I've talked to some people who are connected with the situation and they say that that's the top priority. All the positive Russ talk out there strictly for leverage. Here's the reality of situation. It's the same issue with the Kevin Durant thing. You know, like Sean Marks and Josai are sick of being in the business of dealing with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Why is that? They're basketball fans. They want to see a quality basketball product and the product out there on the court wasn't good enough for them and they believe that Katie and Kyrie were distracting from that, right?

So why would you bring them back into training camp and expect to breed a new basketball focus with Kyrie who wants out and has beef with the front office and Kevin Duray who wants out? So, and may or may not have beef with Kyrie at this point. Like, we don't know, right? So at the end of the day, like bringing something like that to training camp immediately derails your attempts to start the season on a good note. This is why I'm not a huge fan of monumental mid-season trades,

like mid-season trades involving stars. Like, don't wait to the deadline to make a deal, make the deal in the off-season. Because if you can get into training camp and sit down on that first day and Darvindham can go up to the whiteboard and he can write, here are our team identity. This is our team identity.

These are our rules. These are our goals. This is the tone we're going to set. And from day one, you establish that and everyone is bought in. that's how you get seasons like the 2022 Warriors or the 2020 Lakers who from the start of the regular season are just whooping everybody's ass. Like the Warriors started 11 and 1 I think, right, or 14 and 1. And the Lakers in 2020 started 24 and 3.

You know, like they were incredibly dominant from the start of the season because from the opening moment of training camp, they were just completely and totally locked in. Bringing Russell Westbrook back when everyone knows you've, been trying to move him. With all of the issues that he's having, all that does is kick your season off on the wrong note. So I would be absolutely stunned if the Lakers brought Russ back. My guess is if they struggle to trade him that he'll be waived or something along those lines bought out. This is from George. I think Ham is now LeBron's eighth coach in the NBA. Any advice for him, especially being a head coach for the first time. He won with Vogel, but seems he tuned him out in just

two seasons after that. A couple things. First of all, LeBron's in his 20th season, so I don't think, like if LeBron tunes him out when he's in his 22nd season, that's who cares at this point. The idea of a group buying into a coach and then eventually buying out, that's just normal. It's fatigue. Anytime that a person is in a leadership role over you and they have disciplinary authority

over you, it can get fatiguing. That'll happen in every workplace. That's why people like that. changes the scenery. That's why you look for a new gig at your job or you look to transfer to a different location or things along those lines. It's authority fatigue. So that's normal. I don't have, I'm, I'm, I'm, look, Darwin Ham already has way more coaching experience than I could ever have. So there's nothing that I could offer Darwinham as advice. My opinion on coaching based on my brief coaching experience with high school kids and being around all the college

coaches that I was around in my life. My opinion is, don't be, be reticent of, of clinging to your core philosophy. Basketball can be played, coach, taught in so many different ways. I've never tried to tell you guys that my belief system about basketball

is the, you know, the unimpeachable, perfect way to go about the game of basketball. This is just my belief. This is the way that I see the game. this is the way that I coach, this is the way that I would manage a team, or this is the way that I would coach in the NBA, or this is the way that I would play in the NBA.

That's just my opinion. That's all it is. You know, so with coaching, you have your core philosophy, which is what I just described, but then you have your roster. And your roster is going to have distinct strengths and weaknesses, and it's far more important for you to cater your coaching philosophy towards your strengths and away from your weaknesses, than it is for you to inflict your core philosophy on people.

Like, for instance, you guys know I'm huge on switching. I hate traditional bigs. I'm a big believer in, I'm a big believer in, I'm a big believer in driving kick, five out basketball, not having someone in the dunker spot. I'm a big believer in targeting players that are, you know, bigger rim pressuring type of guys. You guys know how I see the game. but if I was running the Lakers this year, I would look at it like, we don't have great wings.

We have Anthony Davis and two pretty solid backup center type of players, right? And I've got LeBron James. And then I've got a boatload of small, thin guards. So I don't know that we can do a ton of switching with this group. So even though my core philosophy is to switch, I think you've got to run drop coverage with this group. and you've got to try to funnel everybody to Anthony Davis, you might even have to play big and keep Anthony Davis at the four a lot because they don't have enough guys on the roster that are 6-6 or taller, right?

So it's very important for my core basketball philosophy not to cause me to inflict a poor strategy on my group. And so what'll be really interesting to see, and we don't know what the final roster is going to look like with the Lakers, but let's take a look at how Darvin Ham cultivates his personal basketball philosophy, but adjusts it and changes it to fit with the group of guys that he has with the Lakers. This is from King Control. Who's the best LeBron James teammate? Dway, Kyrie Irving, or Anthony Davis, not peak just when they were playing together.

To me, this is so cut and dry to Anthony Davis. LeBron James has won four championships. He's won 10 conference championships. I have never, ever seen him get consistent support the way that he did from Anthony Davis. I have never seen the game look as easy for him as it did in 2020 alongside that group, largely because of what Anthony Davis does. The first three championships that LeBron James won have become massively underrated over the years because you think of the Wade-Bosheed as like a super team and you think of the Kyrie, Kevin Love, Cavs as a super team. They weren't. The Miami Heat were a bona fide super team in the first season in 2011, which is,

why that 2011 finals was such a disappointing collapse. But after that, Dwayne Wade fell off a cliff, just wasn't even close to the same player, especially by the time they got to the 2012 postseason. And Chris Bosch, you know, in that third role, was never really a reliable score. And by the end was basically just a stretch big. Not undercutting what those guys did in their careers, it's just the reality of what that Miami Heat team was. The 2012-2013 heat were a lot closer to the 2022 Warriors, very well coached. very well run, very bought in, very disciplined, very smart,

but they weren't the most talented team. That's why the 2012 Thunder were picked as the favorites in Vegas to win the 2012 finals. That's why the 2013 spurs were the favorites in the 2013 finals. No one viewed the heat as high talent. Same goes with the Cavs. Kyrie Irving, basically a scoring guard that's undersized not great defensively. And Kevin Love was just downright bad a lot of the time when he was in Cleveland. So, like, to me, the 2020 Lakers with this real bona fide top-tier superstar next to LeBron with really quality role players, that was his best team.

That was their most comfortable and easy playoff run as a result of that. Anthony Davis was by far the best player that he played with. Let's see. We have time for a few more here. This is from Joe. What's your opinion on the Denver Nuggets? You haven't talked about them much yet, so I'm curious. I think they're a top four team in the league in the West when they're healthy.

I absolutely think they're top four. I'd actually put them third behind the clippers. If the Lakers do close the Kyrie Irving deal, I'd put Kyrie Irving above them. But I'm a huge believer in what Denver does. I love the KCP signing. I think KCP is going to be a fantastic fit alongside that group. I think he's a better defensive player than Will Barton.

Even though I don't think he's as skilled offensively, particularly putting the basketball on the floor, I do think he's better at specific things that he'll need to do alongside Jamal Murray and Nicola Yokic. That's spot-up shooting and slashing. KCP is actually sneaky, one of the best close-out attackers in the league, because he's such a good one-leg leaper. It's really good at jumping off of his left leg,

and that's a specific skill for extension. When you're being pursued by a shot blocker, you want to get the ball to the rim as fast as possible. He's very, very good at not only knocking down spot of threes, but beating close-outs, ripping through to the right, in finishing with his right-hand lay-up off the glass. He made a ton of huge plays in the NBA finals that were a huge part of why the Lakers won the title.

I thought it was a great get for Denver. Loved the extension that they signed for him as well. He's worth every penny. Love that deal. Michael Porter Jr.'s health is obviously a concern. But just the core of Jamal Murray with Nicolioch it, and Aaron Gordon. I don't know why they picked D'Andre Jordan. I have no idea why D'Andre Jordan keeps getting deals.

I asked some people about it in Vegas. and the people that were all plugged in and connected say it's because DeAndre Jordan's excellent in the locker room. Maybe that's what it is, but I mean, he'll probably end up playing minutes. But I'm just being nitpicky there. I think Denver is easily the third best team in the West. Absolutely in that second tier of contenders where if some things break right, they can win.

I would just put the Lakers ahead of them if they got Kyrie. This is from Kevin. What do you think is the biggest problem basketball-wise with the NBA today? I talked about it a little earlier with, with players being available. But in terms of like the actual product, the on-court product, I would probably go with officiating and fallibating. Not going to dive into that right now

because it's something I've talked about a lot over the course of the playoffs. But the league needs to find a way to incentivize players playing basketball rather than trying to dupe the referees. It'll just make for a better television product which will increase the ratings. And honestly, it's basketball blasphemy

and I think it's bad for the game. The one thing I would say in terms of overall basketball development. Just in general, I think that players, especially in the youth basketball, are not building well-rounded enough basketball skill sets, particularly in the mid-range and the short range. You know, there's a good reason why analytics is, the analytics movement has dissuaded teams from being heavily relying, heavily relying on mid-range jump shooting. I get all of that. But, every time the league does anything, the league evolves with it. If you look at offensive ratings throughout NBA history, average offensive ratings,

they kind of cycle up, and then they cycle down, they cycle up, and they cycle down. And the main reason why is physicality from the refs, like how much the refs allow, how liberal they are with the whistle. But another big part of it is the defense has evolved too. The offense can come up with, you know, high volume three point shooting, five out attack, all these different things to try to generate quills. offense in the NBA, and it will work for a little while, but then the defense will adjust. And one of the big things that you're seeing a lot right now is in the same way that

offenses are geared towards generating high-quality three-point shots and high-quality rim attempts, the NBA defenses are giving up driving lanes at the expense of chasing guys off the three-point line. So if you have a good funneling system, the Utah Jazz are actually really good at this in the regular season before all the, before they got blown up. But the idea is there is if you can chase a guy off the three-point line and you can, got Rudy O'Barre waiting under the basket, and as long as that guard can then rotate to the next guy, you're fine. Everything's covered. And so now there's this big opening in the middle of the floor between five feet and 25 feet where there's just nothing going on. There's not a whole lot of

defense there. Rotations not even trying to pick you up there. And so there's a shortage, there's an area of opportunity there for the best mid-range scores in the league to get high-quality these shots. When you look at the math, yes, a wide open three simply mathematically is worth so much more than a wide open mid-range jump shot that it makes no sense to take the mid-range jump shot. But if all of the three-point shots are contested because that's what the defense is geared towards taking away and the rim is occupied, then the mid-range shots, even though in a vacuum they're less valuable, if they're open, higher-quality shots, the shot quality goes through the roof and those might actually be your best shots. I'd like to see more young basketball players building out

the well-rounded game because you don't know what's going to happen over the course of the over the years while you're trying to get to the league, how the game might change. You might need to be good at a specific thing and you don't want to be caught, you know, with your pants down in the league because you're not ready for it. So I would like to see players get a little bit better in the mid-range. This is from Leo. Why do you think MJ is the goat? I agree he is the goat Better score, better defender And more of a team player in terms of fitting in a scheme than LeBron

So to me I disagree on a handful of levels I think MJ is a more polished score LeBron's a more effective score I actually think LeBron's a better defensive player in terms of his versatility But make no mistake The reality is is the results favor Michael Jordan There's an argument there that is almost

unbeatable. If you've won six championships in eight years and you're so much better than all of your peers that just to mention one of them in your name, in the same sentence with your name is like blasphemy. Like if someone said to you, I thought Hakeem was better than Jordan, you'd laugh them out of the room. If someone said, I thought Charles Barkley was better than Jordan, you'd laugh them out of the room. If they said that about any of the half dozen players that were competing with MJ at the top of the league that time, none of them were even in the same breath. And I thought LeBron was the best player this era and the vast majority of people would agree but there were significant stretches where it was like hey kd's kind of right there or hey step's kind of right there hey janus is kind of right there right

like the lebron only really in the i would say 2012 2012 2013 and then maybe 2017 2018 depending on who you ask there i don't ever really there wasn't really a consistent stretch where he was just monumentally better than everybody. And so to me, that's not something that I'd hold against MJ. LeBron Vans will be like, that's because MJ played worse competition. Your competition is your competition. And the reality is, is MJ could have worked hard enough to just be a little bit better than those guys.

That's not what happened. He worked so psychotically hard that he was monumentally better than all of them. And as a result, he had the most dominant run in modern NBA history. six championships and eight tries. You guys know I'm a huge LeBron fan. LeBron got me to fall in love with the game of basketball. That's literally why I do what I do. I was raised on baseball and football.

I saw LeBron playing basketball in 2006, fell in love with the game. I've given it everything I've had for the almost two decades since then. That's how much I respect LeBron. Huge fan of his, he's not MJ. He wasn't his dominant. He wasn't the level of player that he was. LeBron very well might be a better basketball player

and as the game has evolved, I'd probably say that's true. LeBron's probably a better player. If you plucked the peak of LeBron versus the peak of M.J. But the game of basketball is evolving. MJ was so far ahead of the curve that he was dominant. LeBron was slightly ahead of the curve

and was slightly less dominant. To me, he's the second best player of all time. He'd have to win one or two more and continue to dominate for longer for me to kind of move him into that conversation. This is from Bradley. why you always given up a franchise is future slash present. This is funny.

For all-star players, when you have no certainty that that player will bring you a ring, now instead of planning for a future where your young players are supposed to be the top brass, you have your ass in your hands. Basically saying that he disagrees with my ideology of being aggressive and pushing your chips in the middle. Look, man, that's just the way that I see it. Like, if I was running a team, I would push my chips into the table. go for a title. As soon as I realized that it was a lost cause,

I'd sell the house and accumulate assets, and then I'd push all the chips in the middle. I'd make a run, and then I'd pull back and I'd accumulate assets. That's just the way that I would do it. And the reason why I would do that is because I believe that is the most consistently successful. I think the warriors are the exception to the rule.

I think that they are lucky in the sense that they have players who are loyal. Steph is loyal. Clay Thompson is loyal. Jermon Green is loyal. So many times it ends up like the thunder where you get James Harden with a wandering eye, Kevin Durant with a wondering eye,

it ends of not materializing. So I think the idea of building organically through the draft and building that long-term, you know, continuity, even though I think that's absolutely what's best for the league, even though I want the league to try to structure the CBA, to try to make that a little bit more feasible for the teams, I'm pro that. But in terms of under the current predicament,

under the current rules, if I was running a team, how I would try to win is pushing my chips into the middle because I think that's the most consistently successful. You literally saw that with the Raptors in 2019. You saw that with the Lakers in 2020. You saw that with the Cavaliers when they pushed everything in for LeBron. You saw that with the Miami Heat. There are these little spurts there, but no one's wrong. Like if you want to go the other way, you're right there as well. It worked for the 2014 spurs. It worked for the Golden State Warriors. Again, like I talked about earlier, this is just my philosophy on the game of basketball

based on the current rules. If the rules change, I'm never married to a strategy. This is just the way that I see the game. There's no right or wrong answer. This is from Joshua. Remember when you said Steph can... I added some trolls in here. Remember when you said Steph can no longer average 30 on great efficiency

and the only people who believed he could do it again were Steph fans? Not to be rude, I enjoy your content. So, again, and I have Warriors fans still commenting under my YouTube videos. Like, you picked against us in the conference finals. And it's like, and I've had people that say that I picked against them all four rounds, which definitely didn't happen. I picked the Warriors to win the first round. I picked them to win the second round.

I picked them to win the finals. Just against Dallas, I didn't have a good feel for the series. I didn't know what to make of it. Dallas just beat the best team in the league. like beat the living shit out of the best team in the league in game seven in Phoenix. And Phoenix was like eight games better than everybody in the regular season. As much as I believe in the Warriors, they weren't the most talented team in the league. Like we talked about earlier with the Boston Celtics,

like Steph's best teammate was Andrew Wiggins. Like I just, it wasn't an anti-Warriors take. I'm just trying to predict something that's completely unpredictable. You guys know I'm a huge fan of Steph and I'm a huge fan of the way the Warriors run their team. Don't ever take a prediction personal. predictions are really hard to do if i had to uh if i could make predictions for a living i wouldn't be doing this i'd be in Vegas and i'd be making money gambling on sports that's not the case i do my best to make predictions because that's kind of what this job requires but i i don't

think we should put that much weight on it um as far as step goes like guys like he had a 40 i think it was like a 41 game sample size where he couldn't shoot like it wasn't it was the longest extended significant slump of his career and nothing else was close and he's a small guard who is now I believe 34 years old so that's the only reason why I said that stuff I was like step may be on the decline but what did I say after the finals I was wrong I said that step is at the peak of his powers I said this is the best I've ever seen him look I thought this was his most impressive playoff run and he very and I said very clearly what happened during the regular season was clearly a blip and not a trend. I'm going to be wrong about a lot of stuff, guys. Like, I,

I'm going to do the very best I can. The one promise I can make you guys is I'm not going to be a stubborn asshole. If I'm wrong about something, I'm going to admit it and move on. I was wrong about Steph declining too fast. It was never an anti-Stef thing. I was reacting to data. There was a significant chunk of data where he didn't shoot well. And then when I watched the games with my eyeballs, I was seeing Steph not getting as much separation, not, I was, not getting quality looks and then wasn't making them when he was getting them. That was just the reality. And if here's the, you Warriors fans at the time,

if you were confident, if you were thinking, Steph will be fine, you weren't basing it on what you were seeing. You were basing it on faith in Steph. Faith is an invincible thing. There's nothing I can do to convince you guys when you have that kind of faith. It's amazing that Steph turned it around. I was wrong. Don't ever take anything like that personal.

I don't have any sort of beef with anybody with the Warriors or stuff. All right, let's do three more. This is from Felipe. What's more important in your opinion, offense or defense? Talked about this earlier. Sorry, I won't go too much further into it, but I believe offense is more important strictly because it's something that you can't coach up or convince players to do by playing harder or anything along those lines,

especially when you get to the NBA postseason. The defensive end, you absolutely can coach up. you absolutely can make up for a lot of limitations with effort and things along those lines. So if you have a supreme offensive talent, that's always going to beat a supreme defensive talent, in my opinion. This is from Jared. What was the toughest lesson that you've learned as a hooper? This is a good question.

For all of you young kids out there that are trying to play one day, however good you think you need to be in order to be good enough to succeed at the highest levels of college basketball and things like that, you just need to get so much better than you would even. think. There is a, if you think you're a good shooter, you're, I'll give you, I'll give you some basic parameters. Like, you need to be able to go on the gun, the, the, the, the rebounding machine, or when you have rebounders, and you need to be able to consistently hit between 70 and 80% of your threes when you're by yourself. Like, when you're at the gym, standing alone on the court, 70 to 80% of them need to go in. That's, that's when you know you're a really good shooter. I had a coach once that would say, are you a shooter,

or are you a maker? Everyone's a shooter. Makers are guys that can, in the gym, knock down 70 to 80% of them when they're open. That will translate to you shooting 40, 45% in a game setting. Ball handling. Like, ball handling is extremely tedious. It takes a very long time.

The progress is so difficult to track because it happens so little by little, and it's boring. No one likes to just go up and dribble a basketball. You'd rather shoot or play basketball, like play pickup and things along those lines. Take the time. to develop your ball handling. It is by far the most valuable skill if you want to be a high-end

basketball player, not a role player. Any athlete can be a role player like I was in college who can grab rebounds and defend and do things like that. But if you want to be a meaningful offensive fulcrum on a basketball team, you have to be able to dribble the basketball, take the hours and hours and hours that it takes to develop that skill set. And then most importantly, Alex Caruso said this a long time ago talking about the G league understand the job you're trying out for like chances are you're not going to be so so so good that you can be mr all-American that does everything offensively and then the rest of the team does the dirty work for you chances are even if you're very good you're going to have to be reliable in the little things

understand the position you're trying out for you're not trying out for a guy who scores 20 points a game. You were trying out for a guy that can consistently run the coach's defensive scheme in all the elements of it and all the different spots on the floor. The guy that knows all the plays and runs them correctly. The guy that turns and boxes out a man every single time, gets back in transition defense, sits into defensive stance and contains on the perimeter. Those are the things that coaches in particular are obsessed with. Never, ever, ever let the fun stuff, which I love the fun stuff. I love working on turnaround jump shots and stepbacks and things like that. Never let the fun stuff distract you from the fact that you have to be a good

all-around basketball player to contribute to any sort of good basketball team. Let's see. I'm going to do one more, but I'm going to look for an interesting one here. And I plan, I try to read the YouTube comments as much as I can for feedback. So anytime you guys have other things you want the show to talk about or questions, comments, feedback, anything like that, drop it in the YouTube comments, drop it in my Twitter mentions. I also have my Twitter DMs open. You can send stuff to me there um let's see okay i'll do i'll do two more two more fun ones here this is also from philippe does your girl hoop too so my wife my wife was a very good high school basketball player and uh we went to the same high school didn't know each other it's kind of weird uh we met

for the first time many years after uh after high school um i shouldn't say many years i believe it was five years after. So my wife and I in August will have been together eight years. In October, we will have been married for four. She right now doesn't do anything with the game of basketball, but she actually played in college. She played a Hamlin University up in Minnesota. She only played for a half of a season, got sick of it, and got out.

One of the most interesting phenomenon that I've seen. I talked about this a little bit with Rachel Damedo when we had her on the show. but I never get sick of the game and I see so many people get sick of it. My wife was one of those people that was devoted to the game of basketball from the time she was 12 to the time she was 20. And then just one day she was like done with it. And so she's not involved in the game anymore, but she understands it really well because she played in college.

And so that's kind of nice for me because I think she just, she doesn't have the obsession that I have obviously, but I think she understands my obsession, which is what allowed her to support me doing this. I did 152 episodes of State of the Lakers before I did this. So I've done hundreds and hundreds of post-game shows up late at night, affecting our social life, things like that. She just gets it.

She digs it because she understands where my heart's at. And every once in a while we go out and shoot around a little bit, but she doesn't really come close to the game anymore. Last one. Favorite character in all of Star Wars. So I am a huge Star Wars fan, always have been. I actually have a Star Wars podcast that I just launched about two months ago. It's called Two Suns podcast.

You can find the, I typically tweet out the links to that. But you can either find it on my Twitter or just Google Tucson's podcast. It's supposed to be a play on words because we're also from Tucson. I do it with my best friend, a guy in Tucson who's a doctor. and him and I have just both been big Star Wars fans forever. We started covering the Obi-1 series to have a really good time with it. I'm like one of those nerds that gets into the expanded universe and stuff. My favorite Star Wars character has always been Darth Bain.

And if you've never read it, you absolutely have to read the Darth Bain trilogy. It's the best piece of expanded universe content. The only reason I'm accepting this as a legal answer here is because Darth Bain technically is canon per the Clone Wars cartoons. But Darth Bain was the original Sith Lord who discovered that there couldn't be hundreds of Sith because they would always group

together and betray the more powerful among them and the Sith were becoming progressively weaker as they would betray each other. And so basically he went on a pilgrimage and went to all these different Sith temples and stuff and came back and was like, I

have discovered that we need to only have two Sith. The master and the apprentice, the one that teaches, blah, blah, blah, blah. But that whole book trilogy and that character, it's a very cool look into the Sith and just how ruthless they are and how different the dark side is from the light side of the force. So there you go, little window into my second passion, which one of my many passions, but my fan for Star Wars, like I said, if you want to hear me talk more about Star Wars, you just got to look for that Tucson's podcast. All right, that's not bad. I think we went about an hour. That's our first ever mailbag, mailbag podcast.

I really enjoy that. I want to do that more frequently, even if it's either just like one that we do once a week or if it's one that we do as a segment at the end of the show. Maybe I can talk to the producers and maybe they'll be down for something like that. But I definitely want to gear the show more towards something that's a little bit more interactive with you guys. I know that it is eventually a plan to try to potentially do something where we can have you guys call into the show, kind of like we used to do on Twitter spaces back when I was working with Raj. No show tomorrow, because I'm getting on the show.

the cruise ship. Actually, this one might actually end up being released tomorrow. But on Friday, I believe I'll be able to record again. Not sure what we'll do then. Who knows if someone will get traded at that point. But anyway, that's all I got for today, guys. I sincerely appreciate you guys as support and I'll see you in a couple days. The volume. 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 headwriter, 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 I-Heart 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 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 I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football, or my career in sports media. Well, 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 athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. 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. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.