The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hour 2 - NBA playoff predictions

Episode Date: April 19, 2024

Colin breaks down his predictions for the entire NBA playoffs as the first round is set to begin on Saturday. College Football reporter Bruce Feldman joins the show in studio to provide insight on the top QB prospects for the NFL draftSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It is a Friday live in Los Angeles. It's the herd wherever you may be. And however, you may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day. Okay, Jordan Schultz joining us from Bleacher Report. Chris Bruce Sard will join us next hour. We'll talk about the NBA playoffs. Bruce Feldman in about five minutes talking about all the stuff that's happening with these quarterbacks.

He's been talking to scouts all week. Bruce spends a lot. of time on the draft. All right, Jordan, so you used to cover the NBA, and then you pivoted to the NFL, but used to have love. You grew up in Seattle, your father, of course, formerly on the Sonics, you love NBA basketball, you played college hoots. Nice jumper, couldn't defend, nice jumper. The Matador. The only way to play. Just go ahead. Go ahead. Have a day. So let's go, let's look at the plow. I'm going to make my predictions on the playoffs. So here we go, soup the nuts, top to bottom. Let's start in the Eastern Conference. First round,

Celtics will take on the heat of the Bulls. Boston's going to win that series. Listen, they were 41 and 11 against the East. All right, they're the deepest team in the league. And Miami now, if they win, Jimmy Butler's all banged up. So that'll be a four-game series. Next up, Cavs Magic. Magic can't shoot.

Meaning, if they fall behind in this series, they're in trouble. I'm going to take Cleveland. Donovan Mitchell will be the best player on the floor. And again, Orlando is not built to come from behind. They may be in the Clay Thompson sweepstakes. They're just not built in a playoff series to come back, and you've got to be built and be able to win multiple ways. So I'll take Cleveland there. I'm going to take Milwaukee over Indiana in a seven-game series.

I think Janus will be available to the final three to four games. So the Pacers give up points in the paint. Milwaukee is really, really big and really experienced. And remember, Milwaukee was shocked last year early in the first round of the playoffs. So they got a little revenge on their mind. I think it's a very good series. Indiana is a tough matchup. Indiana is going to be a really good team in the east like OKC and the West going forward.

I think they'll lose in seven games because Janice will return. And when Yannes and Dame Ruhman is the number two duo in the NBA. So I'm in the minority here. I like the six-ert over the Knicks. I think New York is very Jalen Brunson dependent. And right now the hottest team in the league is Philadelphia. And let's be honest, they were 32 and 8 when MB played. And they have a second star in Maxie.

So, again, I think it's going to be a really good series. Philadelphia's got more good players. And at the end, they'll have arguably the best player in the series, although Jalen Brunson certainly deserves some discussion. He's a great player now. And, all right, then we go to the next round. I'm going to take Boston over Cleveland. Again, easiest team.

They average almost five more threes a game than Cleveland. So even if Boston doesn't play it particularly well, they shoot the ball well. And in playoff games, that ability, on an off quarter or an off half, to shoot your way to respectability or back in. That's one of the many things Boston does well, better than Cleveland. Milwaukee, Philadelphia, the Bucks, Philadelphia, 76ers. Because I think, let's be honest about Milwaukee.

They haven't played well since Stock Rivers got there. They're under 500. So they're not humming. I give them the win over Indiana, mostly because of experience and size, but they wouldn't have the big size advantage over Philadelphia. So I think Philadelphia finally, Maxie has become now a legitimate, 1A2. Tobias Harris, got a little buddy healed, Nicholas Baton,

got good roster. They're playing well, good roster. And then Boston, I think, extinguishes Philadelphia very quickly. That could be a sweep. I don't think that's particularly great matchup. And I think I feel pretty strongly about most of those picks. Milwaukee, Indiana,

if Yonis doesn't play the first three games, then we've got a different story. My guess is he is healthy. They sit in for the first game or two. Milwaukee draws a split. They feel good about it and go on to win the last couple of games. All right, we go out west, Thunder in the Pelicans or the Heat.

Listen, OKC is going to win this. They're a better team, first of all. And they've beaten those teams, the Kings and the Pelicans, in four straight games. So they also have the best player in that series with SGA. So that matters when you get into a series best player, OKC. I'm going to take the Mavericks over the Clippers. We don't know if Kauai is going to play. And Dallas has really improved defensively.

It's not the offense. It's defensively. Dallas has been playing well since the All-Star break, and the Clippers right now have a lot of questions, and they're just kind of a murky team right now. I'm going to take Dallas. T-Wolbs, Sons, this is a tough one. I'm going to go Sons.

They were 3-0 against the T-Wolbs. They match up well. Listen, I get K.D. and Booker and Beal has played his best basketball to season late. Grayson Allen, not that he had a renaissance, but has it been better than we all thought off the bench. I think they're going to shoot their way. I like Ant.

Ant's not a great shooter. He's a great score. So I think the shooting, the perimeter excellence here, they beat him three times this year. I'll go sons. That's an interesting series. Lakers, Denver. I think the Lakers match up with them, but the best player in the series is going to be Yokic. And who are we kidding here?

They were 3-0 against the Lakers. In fact, let me check here. They've won eight straight against the Lakers. Most of them have been close. But an older Laker team with high altitude? Nope. I'm going to take him in five, Denver. Let's go back to the top.

I'm going to take Dallas over OKC. The reason being, you know, Lucas having his best defensive season and the Thunder are, I mean, they're just too young. Second least experience in the NBA playoffs could be a very fun series. I think Indiana and the East and Oklahoma City in the West are going to have a great six, seven years. I just don't think they're quite ready yet. And outside of the bubble season, young teams can struggle in the playoffs. Sons Denver is interesting. I think Phoenix can give Denver some issues

and they'll shoot their way to a couple of wins. But in the end, I'm going to take Denver, best player on the floor is Yokic. But I will say, Bradley Beale and Grace and Allen's emergence makes this really tasty. And remember, the Suns had a very tough late season schedule and they aced it.

So Phoenix is healthy, Beal's finally playing great. Phoenix Denver is tasty. That's a sixth gamer and Phoenix shoots their way to a couple of wins. I'm going to take Denver over Dallas. I just think overall they're the better team. That's a big argument there. Again, entertaining. I think Phoenix, though, may give Denver more trouble than Dallas because of matchups.

And then we have the Nuggets and the Celtics and the finals. The deepest team in Boston, to me, the greatest player in the world in Yokic. I think it is a six-game series. I'll take Denver. And again, what I'm really interested in, Jonas's health. I think my big takeaways, Philadelphia finally delivers. They got the right coach, Nick Nurse.

Embeded is mostly healthy. So Philadelphia, in a really weak, middle-down eastern conference, finally answers a lot of the critics. They've been playing well. I think Darryl Morey's built a roster with some depth on a second star. I worry about Janice's health. The Knicks are a better story, in my opinion, that a team and in the West, Phoenix is the wild card. Grayson Allen, Beal, Booker, Duran. Those guys can all hit a three, and there'll be nights when they're all hitting threes.

And if Denver's going to get beat, it's not going to be because a team is necessarily got a better player. It's going to be an onslaught. It's going to be, uh-oh, Phoenix hits 11 of 13-3. So that's the way to beat, and that's why Boston has a shot. against Denver because Boston can hit threes. They can get hot. So there's my... There's not a lot of gambols here.

You were chalk heavy. But I will say the Phoenix... You like Phoenix. Last nine, ten games of the year. Look who they played. Good teams, played well. And when Grayson Allen came over, everybody was like, whatever. That ended ended up being more substantial than

people think. He got a huge deal, and they put a deal a little bit more at the point, which has helped him. It's big stuff. All right, let's bring him on. Bruce Feldman covers everything except the NBA, and we're done talking it right now. Bruce, it's good as always to see you, buddy.

Bruce Feldman, Fox Sports College Football Reporter. So you spend a lot of college football reporters cover the draft, but you have a lot of sources on this, and there's a lot of interesting things here. For instance, we've said from the beginning, J.J. McCarthy, much like Alabama quarterbacks, played with a lead, a great run game, usually the best coach, usually the best roster,

outside of an occasional Ohio State or Georgia game. He was playing downhill. I tend to like quarterbacks who either give me huge numbers, like a burrow at a football factory, or their overcomers. They carry people. Mahomes or, you know, those kind of guys in college where they're asked to carry people.

He didn't really do either. You didn't give me huge numbers. Didn't carry anybody. That's what worries me. When you talk to scouts on JJ, what part of his game, Bruce, is under the radar? The biggest part really is is athleticism. I don't think people give him enough credit for just what a dynamic athlete he is.

You would see him make and create and run when they really needed him to. You saw that against Ohio State in some critical situations. You saw it actually in the playoff where he would do some really athletic things. The sample size is much smaller, even though he played a lot of games. You remember, he was not in – there was a handful of games in the Big Ten. He was not even in in the late – in the third quarter. he wasn't in the fourth quarter. I just think what you're getting with him,

everybody likes him in the interviews. They're impressed by how he conducts himself, how football smart he is. I think there's an aura about him they like. You'll hear some comparisons a little bit like, oh, he's kind of a Brock Purdy kind of quarterback in terms of what they think they're going to see in terms of what he was asked to do.

But he's in terms of like he's much more athletic than Kirk Cousins. Yes, yes. So I think those comparisons, I don't think they're spot on. I can see some of the overlay for that. He is a guy from one of the coaches I talked to in the NFL this week who felt like both JJ and Drake May, they were guys who were going to need a little more time,

especially Drake May, but both of them. Look, and they're both younger players. They're not Michael Pennix. They're not Bo Nicks who had been in college football for six years, and it played a ton. These guys hadn't played that much. And I think that's what's going to be interesting to see, you know, how high he goes and where he goes. Yeah, we said yesterday, if he is, if JJ is Kirk Cousins with mobility and inexpensive, that's a

quarterback in the NFL. I mean, Kirk is a borderline A. You lack a little bit of juice moving, and he's expensive. That limits the roster. Well, if he's got juice moving, as you say, and he's cheap, that's pretty good quarterback. For the record, Sam Darnold, probably the starter if they got McCarthy, much like McCart. has a little juice athletically. So you'd have kind of quarterbacks

who play the same style, so that's interesting. I think the other part was Sam, and it's good to mention him, was, you know, I think you and I are both very high on him coming out of college. Really good athlete. I think temperament leadership was really good. He went into a bad situation, and I think he buckled with that. I mean, there's the famous clip from Ombstian ghosts, yeah.

And I think that's the challenge and the risk with all these young quarterbacks. if they go into a really bad situation, you can ruin them. And I think that's why, you know, it's maybe 50-50 on the quarterbacks who get drafted. I think almost all of them have a lot of talent. Yes. It's just, I think people tend to forget. Patrick Mahomes, you know, sat for a year behind Alex Smith,

who was a guy he could really learn from and learn the right things. And then he's an Andy Reid system, you know, whereas you go someplace else. You don't have, you're forced to play. Maybe the quarterback room is not very good. there's nobody can lean on. And then also there's no Andy Reid. You're with a defensive guy or a first-time offensive coordinator. It's a really kind of like fickle dynamic that they're walking into.

So Jaden Daniels, I was told, is Washington they believe is the best fit. So Cliff Kingsbury has used quarterbacks who are mobile and accurate. And I like Jaden a lot. I watched them at Arizona State. He was really thin. He's still pretty thin, but he's developed. the numbers are pretty profound. Is there anything, I see a little Lamar.

It looks good in the pocket. Brian Kelly can be tough on quarterbacks. He ran through him, but he loves this kid, and this kid just got better. I mean, if you look at the two years with Brian, he got better, so he's coachable. Are there any concerns with Jaden? What do the scouts say that you hear?

Scouts really like them. The stuff I heard from coaches, especially, it's like, first of all, the Arizona State part, three offensive coordinators in three years, that program was in disarray around him, right? He continued to physically develop. Love how he grew at LSU. You know, he was very good as a transfer his first year,

and then he made dramatic improvement as a pass or how he saw the field in 20, 23. Yeah. You know, there is some Lamar. I mean, he's not as physically strong as Lamar. I think the little bit of, the only hesitation you get on some people is, you know, in terms of outside the number throws,

he has a good enough arm. It's not an elite arm. But he's accurate. He has a work ethic that people love. And then his ability to extend plays. And you see him show up in a lot of big games. You know, you watch what he did against Alabama. You watch what he did.

And granted, he has two first-round receivers he was throwing, too. But he was going up against a lot of big-time athletes. How about Arizona State against Herbert and Oregon? Wild shootout. You look like you're watching two first-year. ground quarterbacks years ago. And he's in a bunch of those, right? And I think that he is a guy to me, the more people you talk to, the more you're like,

oh, there's a lot of people who actually feel more comfortable with him than any quarterback in this draft. So let's talk about Caleb Williams. He is going to Chicago, obviously. I have, maybe because I know him a little bit and I know a lot of people around him. My take has been the fingernails, the jumping into his mom's arms, even people, some people pushback. He's a little cocky with you in the interview. I'm like, first of all,

anytime you're the first anything, it's difficult. He's the first NIL superstar. In a major market. Let's give him a little pass if he got into his feels a little. I mean, I know at 21, when I got a new pair of shoes, I thought I had gay. A. Kid was making $4 million, more than the assistant

coaches. So I just think we, you know, L.A., money, NIL, I can get over fingernails. I think he has a sense of humor. I've talked to him three or four times. I think he's a bright, quick, kid, very confident. Any of that stuff were even Chicago, though, all the stuff, the peripheral stuff? I don't know how much it worries Chicago.

I know there are people in the draft process who love his talent, but have some concerns about him in terms of like you're going into, you know, I just mentioned the chief situation. He gets compared to Patrick Mahomes a lot, fair or unfair. Patrick Mahomes got to be behind, got to be behind Alex Smith for a year and watched him. that's not this situation you have Tyson Vagint and you're going to have Brett Rippin that's not Alex and a defensive coach and also yeah defensive coach who you know is definitely you know maybe he'll get another year after this year but it's not like the ideal situation right

you have a first time offensive you know a new offensive coordinator who's going in there then on top of that you know you don't have the Andy Reid factor of a guy who knows exactly what he's doing right running an offense and running a team so I think there's a lot of stuff that's TBD. Now maybe Keenan Allen becomes the guy he can lean on and say hey, you're supposed to do it this way. Because look, he won a Heisman at USC and he had a great, but like this past year

was a borderline disaster for USC. Yeah. Right. They should have, they shouldn't have been that bad. Right. And so I think some of the stuff about okay, you know, is he going to be the team guy? Is he going, is he going to listen to the people around him? Who is he listening to?

I think those are things that people have legitimate concerns. I don't think it's like, oh, the fingernails or whatever. Like a lot of that stuff I think is more anecdotal and separate. But I think the bigger things are, you know, how is he going to respond to, you know, real adversity, but also trying to be the face of a team and going into a locker room. And, hey, we're all about winning games, not about, you know, all this other stuff that was going on with him at USC.

Is there a player? because none of these quarterbacks are quite ready. I saw a quote yesterday from Bill Belichick. He said the only player he's ever had in his career that was ready week one, year one, was Lawrence Taylor. He said it doesn't work. There's definitely no Lawrence Taylor in this draft. This is not a good defensive, you know, front line draft.

Is there a player, I kind of think it's Harrison that's just ready to be productive right away? Yeah, I think Harrison and Adunze are really polished and character-wise really solid. Now, the guy who I've heard the most stuff, so this past, you know, a couple of weeks, I've been talking to a lot of NFL position coaches and scouts. The one, because I would have been saying the two of them are the closest thing to can't miss in terms of character. They're really polished. They're both good-sized guys.

But it's the one who is the wow guy is actually Malik Neighbors. I mean, there are NFL receivers coaches I talk to who think Malik Neighbors is the number one. A lot of yards after Cali. match potential. Just incredibly explosive, just has this dog mentality, and is so dynamic. And one of the receivers coaches I talked to two days ago said he's the best receiver coming out of college in a long, long time. He said, I would have said since Jamar Chase and Jamar Chase had great film, I actually think he's, he is more explosive than Jamar Chase. Now, he's not quite as physically strong, but he's not that far off it.

Um, you know, it looks like to me it's a quarterback left tackle draft. I think all drafts are now receiver drafts. I just think they all are because. But this one's much better than the one last year. You had Quentin Johnston whose hands were spotty. You know, you didn't have a lot of big guys. This draft is much better than last year receivers. I don't remember a draft with eight left tackled, like early.

Is that, is that the position? Joe Alt, I've been told. I've heard there's a lot of people. Alt doesn't have a huge ceiling, but it should be good really quick. you know, he'll be a two-time pro-Boulder, not Trent Williams. That's what I would heard from an executive in the league. They like Alt. They don't love any of the tackles, but they like about eight of them to ten of them.

There's a kid at Duke that can go inside, outside. Oregon State Kid. People say it's like, as good a run blocker, you'll see it tackle. You just won't see him any better anywhere on the planet. Is that the best position in this draft, do you think? I still think it's receiver because I think you have three elite players at the top of it. You know, Joe Alt to me is maybe in that realm. I don't think

he's as far. You know, you can get guys, offensive linemen also, where I think there is, not to the jury quarterbacks, but there is kind of a boom or bust feel to some of them. Right? So you know, you mentioned Oregon State, Troy

Fottano at Washington. Similar kind of player where really physical, there's coaches in the Pac-12 who actually thought Troy was a little better than Talisi from Oregon State. but they're both, you know, they're bruisers, their physical guys who I think can play outside, but also if you need them are good enough to play inside as well

and versatile and smart and tough. There's a couple of, I don't want to say real boom or bust guys, but Tyler Guyton from Oklahoma, Bill Beedombo is the old line coach there. He was with Lincoln before. He's an old leech guy. He has cranked out a lot of star NFL linemen. Oklahoma's got a lot of alignment.

Guyton might be the most talented guy he's ever worked with, but he's really raw. So you may be getting a couple of, years where he's got to work through it. He, you know, he kind of came to offensive line really late. And then you have a guy in Amarius Mims at Georgia is this enormous guys, you know, 6-8, 340. You know, people worry, I talked to in the NFL, worry a little bit about just in terms of durability when somebody is that big. Sure. He's only started seven or eight games. But there are a lot of offensive tackles that are interesting. You just don't know, you know, do they go in the

the 18 to 30 range. You know, Barton from Duke, people like him because he can play so much. I don't think anyone loves him in anyone's spot. He can play three spots. Yeah. Is he going to be a lead at any of them? I don't know. You know, you have a really good center from Oregon and Jackson's Power Johnson.

Zach Frazier is a really good center that people really like. West Virginia, yeah. So I think it's a good offensive line draft. Yeah. Finally, Dion Sanders, 14 players leave. I said earlier, transfer portal, 90% of the players that you get are leaving are not foundational. Quarterbacks matter more than any. I don't look at this is he's got a sales pitch.

Some kids fall in love with the pitch and move on. What do you make of what's happening to Colorado? I think it's kind of reflective of a lot of what's going on actually around the country just to not to the same degree. And I don't want to say this is the exact, this is a CU thing. But I think one thing I'm hearing a lot of in this cycle is you're seeing a lot of kids go back into the portal. and after not being in there very long, and what is happening is a lot of players are finding out that the things they're being told they think they're getting

aren't exactly what they're getting. They're not getting that much, because they may be told, yeah, it's going to be $400,000 or it's going to be $200,000, but it's a car that you're getting a rental. You're not, you don't own it. So it's not like you or I could turn around and sell it, right? It's a house that you have access to,

but you don't own it. So there's some of those things that I think are are tough for a lot of the kids to figure out right now. They think they're getting one thing. They're not. There's a lot of times I've heard stories of guys who think they're getting $8,000 or $900,000. They maybe end up with $200,000. So you get some frustration on that end. Again, I don't think this is, you know, in Dion's case at CU, they were so bad when he got there.

And he made us, you know, a huge overhaul of the program. And I think a lot of it is, now you've had a handful of assistance. Sean Lewis's offense coordinators now, the head coach at San Diego States. You've had some people come and go. I suspect, you know, especially with Shador there, they will go as they go into a new league. From one win to four wins, at least I think eight. You know, I get it. I think there will be, you know, significantly better.

I don't know how much better than eight. But, you know, I wouldn't, you know, you're going to see a lot of guys, especially with grad transfers, come and go. And I just think that people are looking for the right fit. And sometimes people are constantly hitting the reset button, like the kid on the video game who doesn't like the start of it. And then all of a sudden they're like, let me start that all over again. Good seeing you, buddy, as always, Bruce Feldman, the Atlantic Fox Sports.

You've upgraded your shooting guard here, I think. I've seen. I know Jason fancies himself as a shooter. No, you couldn't have J-Mack and Jordan in the same back court. It would be, it would... It would basically be a black hole. It would be no passing. Bad shots.

It would be high volume. And Kobe White. You'd be fun to watch, but I'm not sure you defend anybody. I think there's more Jordan Poole going on. Yeah. Bruce, you too kind. The brilliant EQE-SUV from Mercedes-B available digital light technology.

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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 I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to bowl your mind on the Iheart 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,

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And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. All right, good stuff with Bruce Feldman, Jordan Schultz, without further ado with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, Colin, let's start with some basketball, USA basketball. announced their roster earlier this week for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The most notable names included Steph Curry and LeBron James.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Steph explained his decision, quote, I think the timing is just right. I'm later in my career. This is probably the last opportunity I have to pay. I have to play. Colin, I wasn't here for the discussion earlier in the week, but people are comparing this team to the 92 Dream Team.

Did I hear that right? Well, I mean, I think the best players on this team are LeBron and Steph. Okay. Very old players out of their prime, where I still make an argument where the 92 team had the best player in the world in his prime, Scotty Pippen in his prime. There was a lot of, I don't know, I don't think there's anything that compares to the 92. Nothing. I think our domestic basketball talent, if you took LeBron and Steph old guys off this roster, it's pretty limited. Go back to look at the Tokyo

USA Olympic team. It's a pretty limited team. So, I mean, this team works because of LeBron and Stefan Duran. Our young domestic talent is, you know, Bamada Bayou's averaged over 20, like, one time. He's a good player. Drew Holliday's more about defense.

Tyrese Halliburton's excellent, but he's a kid. Anthony Edwards is dynamic, but there's some limitations to playmaking and shooting in defense. So it's our domestic product is up against it right now. The world's overall talent at the very top is really, really good. And the best player in this draft is arguably a French player, a French guard. Our 92 Dream Team squad in Barcelona. I mean, David Robinson, the Admiral, a first ballot guy, was coming off the bench.

Barclay struggled to get minutes sometimes. I mean, that team was insane. Stockton? The best shooter in the world at the time was arguably Reggie Miller didn't make the team. The best pure point was arguably Isaiah Thomas didn't make the team. The human highlight reel, the Aunt Edward of his generation, Dominique Wilkins, did not make the team. David Robinson seven times scored 23 or more a game. Bam's been over 20 or 21 one time, and that's the difference.

Now, I mean, the game's different. The bigs now can shoot threes, most of them. But it's, again, it's more of an international talent. in the NBA is winning all the MVPs. And by next year, the two best players, the three best players in the NBA next year. By the All-Star break could be Yokic, Yonis, Wembe, Luca, and then maybe Yonis and SGA, all European players. Canadian, yeah.

Four Europeans, one Canadian. And that's not a stretch. That's probable. Wow. I would say the 92, actually, that team spurred a lot of this. That spearheaded a lot of the international games. Yes. So that was awesome, but now we're paying the price as a USA team in the Olympics.

Now to the NFL, the Houston Texans shocked everyone last season, winning their division behind stellar play from rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, rookie of the year. There's a lot to be optimistic about with this Houston team going forward. But GM Nick Casario says last year's success doesn't mean a thing. Frankly, it's kind of laughable. I mean, it's so early. I mean, we haven't done anything. So what happened last year has no bearing on this year.

So we're focused on right now. We're focused on the present. We're focused on improvement. And I think the player's focus is just on their attitude, their effort, and their commitment to being a good player. So outside of that, I mean, the rest of it is just a bunch of garbage. Well, here's what's not garbage. If you said the five most important things for an NFL franchise,

quarterback, check, coach, check, left tackle, check, edge rusher, check, weapon check. Five for five. So, I mean, right now, because not all positions are equal, they could use another corner, so could the league. But, I mean, Diggs gives them a receiver, C.J. Stroud, Laramie Tunzel, got the coach. Added DeL Hunter, lost Grenard, added Hunter, brought in Joe Mixon, Pro Bowl back. Yeah, so they, it's not, like I always say in the NBA, it's not that you have a star, you have the right star. Right. A committed star.

Amelmael was a star, not really committed defensively, you know, not committed. into the three-point shot. We're an Olympic player. But it's about do you have the right players at the right places? And Houston now has all of the boxes checked. Even Stingley, the corner is good. So you could argue if that's the sixth most important position, they got that too. Yeah, plus great, you mentioned the coach.

I mean, I cannot say enough good things about D' Demico. I do wonder, we talked yesterday on Speak about C.J. Stroud's success and how that could potentially hurt someone like Caleb Williams because the expectations are so high. But what C.J. Stroud did last year, Colin, was literally a unicorn. First rookie ever to throw for 4,000 yards and win a playoff game. That's how good C.J. Stroud was. So now we're talking about Caleb Williams being generational, the next Mahomes.

Let's pump the brakes a little bit. What Stroud did was incredible. Yeah. Sticking with the NFL, Trevor Lawrence has shown some flashes, some flashes of greatness since being drafted. First overall in the 2021 draft. Now entering his fourth year in the league, Lawrence is eligible for an extension. This week, GM Trent Balke was asked about the progress on those contract talks.

He said, quote, you try not to force anything. We've had some great talks and great conversations. I spoke with his agency again last night. We're working, but you can't force this stuff. Colin, if you were the Jags, are you throwing the bag at T-Lock? Yeah, because it's not a great NFL market. So you have to be viable to even sell the tickets. This market's one of the weaker NFL markets in terms of merchant.

So you have to be really fun to watch to sell tickets. It's a college football market. It's not like Baltimore. They're going regardless of the quarterback. So, I mean, I think he's got a lot of leverage. What's this franchise for 25 years? When they had Brunel, they were interesting, Tom Copland and Brunel, and now they're interesting with Doug Peterson and Trevor Lawrence.

So this organization is fighting an uphill battle in terms of game day revenue, merchandising, getting on television. They're throwing games over to England or wherever they're Europe anytime they can. So I think you have to sign it. What's the alternative? What's the alternative? And there's nothing on the market like this. No.

I mean, the only other cop would be Dallas, what's their alternative to DAC? But they have Big D. That's arguably the most important franchise in the league. That's the difference. Finally, Colin, let's get to the draft. We're less than a week away. The Broncos are among plenty teams looking for a quarterback as we discussed. earlier. We've really focused on the top six

QBs throughout this draft process, but now Broncos GM, George Payton, is suggesting there might be more quarterbacks than that. I do think it is a good quarterback class. There's seven, eight quarterbacks that we like that think can play in the league one day. I'm not going to get into

how we have them rated, but it is a good quarterback class. It's been fun getting to know them, you know, seven or eight of them. And so we think we can get a quarterback early. We think mid-rounds. We think there's going to be quarterbacks, you know, throughout the draft that are interesting to us. So if you're saying, A, that would include Sam Hartman at Notre Dame.

And Michael Pratt at Tulane. Yeah. Hartman, I feel, like, is a fifth, fourth, fifth round. Best. Yeah. Good player. Good player. I think after the six, I think Pratt's probably the next guy.

Tulane. Two lane. And from what I've been told, B plus arm, potential starter, probably a backup to begin his career, certainly left in the first couple of years. but good player. Hartman you mentioned coming from Wake Forest had some success in Notre Dame but Colin seven or eight starters would be historic on every level yeah no I don't see it uh Jordan with the news well that's the news and thanks for stopping by the herd lie news so there is um we've talked about how Europe international players are absolutely

winning the MVP's they're the best players in the world wemby will be a top three player in the league next year I would guess aunt Edwards could be the most dynamic domestic player, American player. But I've got a theory on how he's just going to be Dominique Wilkins. Great. Perhaps not in the conversation, 15 years after he's done. I'll give you that next. And I like him.

But I like the sons to win that series. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. On Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Two NBA insiders podcasting twice a week to plug you right into the NBA great vibe. All happening in only one place. This League Uncut. The new NBA podcast with me, Chris Haines. And me, Mark Stein.

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A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football,

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So, T. Wolf's Son's first round, I'll take Phoenix. Good series, though. Anthony Edwards, 22 years old, was asked about his game in the series, and he says, I think in three years, two years all be the best. player in the NBA. And it's interesting. Different position, but I view him, my guess is he will end up being the Dominique Wilkins of my era.

An All-Star, a lot of points, highlight real, absolutely spectacular, but no titles could never get past better players or better teams. So he's not going to have the defensive impact or close to it of a Wembe. He is not as, I would say, a good, a two-way player is SGA. who's an MVP finalist and a better defender. He doesn't score like Luca. Luca's also a better creator for others, and he's not as good as Yokic.

The Celtics could be the team of the next 10 years, or it could be OKC that's stacked, or it could be Denver. Nobody thinks right now it's Minnesota, and I'm not saying he's not great. But if you look at Wembe, there's an argument to be made by the All-Star game next year. He and Yokic are the two best players.

and Lucas 3, and Janus is 4, and SGA is 5, and most of them are really good at a multitude of things, all of them arguably better than Aunt Edwards on defense, and a couple better in shot creation for others. So again, that's not to say that Dominique Wilkins wasn't great, but he's not really in the conversation anymore. It's like Dan Marino was great, but he wasn't as great as contemporaries in terms of wins, playoffs, Super Bowls, so I can like him, but the Celtics are going to be the next five years along with Denver. Those are the teams. So you're not going to have the team success.

And I just, I kind of start looking at Ann Edwards, and he's going to score a lot of points, and he's going to be on many nights the most spectacular, and he's a very, very good player. I don't think he'll ever be the best player in the league. He'll win a scoring title or three. Dominique Wilkins was often the most exciting, the most fun to watch.

I can remember being a local sportscaster. I remember this for a. an NBC affiliate. And it's how old I am. And then we used to get this feed every night. It was this like national feed with highlights. And I could remember getting Dominique Wilkins, Georgia highlights. And I'd never seen anything like them.

I'd never seen a player dunk that hard and jump that high. But we don't talk a lot about Dominique. He didn't make the dream team. And he was great. So I'm interested to watch Anthony Edwards. I'm really interested to watch him because this influx of European players, Wemby is going to be a 30-point-of-game player and the best defensive player in the league. Ant's never going to be that.

It's never going to be the best defensive player. Yokic now is arguably the best passing center, great score, rebounder. There's certain things Ant can't do. SGA is better two-way. Nobody shoots like Luca. I mean, it's like Aunt entered. It's almost like Phil Mickelson entered golf. His prime was Tiger's prime.

It's like, well, okay. What are you going to do? His prime was Tiger's prime, and it happened. I mean, there's a lot of guys in the NBA. They were in LeBron's prime, or Michael Jordan's prime. And once he got Scotty Pippet and Phil Jackson, Michael had to leave the sport for the Rockets to win. Where does Tatum fit in this?

I think Tatum is the second most dynamic domestic player. He will get success because he's part of a great Celtic organization that has a history of winning when they have the right players. So Tatum will get his. He'll eat. He's going to be in finals, the Eastern Conference. conference is weaker and to the Western Conference. He's got to get through Denver. San Antonio's going to figure it out. Oklahoma City is well-run, well-coached, loaded with draft

picks. Lakers are never down for too long. You know, Warriors could reboot. I mean, here comes Sacramento. So a lot of it is in life is what conference are you in? Who's the star ahead of you? I mean, LeBron kept a lot of good people out of the finals. Michael Jordan kept a lot of really good Western teams, Sonics, Blazers, from winning championship. Sons. It just sometimes you get an icon. And that icon, you know,

if Caitlin Clark goes to the fever and she's good as everybody says, and all of a sudden they make an eight-year run and win five titles, the second best team could have been a team that five years earlier would have won titles and five years later would have won titles, but they have Caitlin Clark in their prime. Who's the NFL comp, by the way, to Anthony Edwards? Is it Josh Allen or Burrough? Like Josh Allen. Josh Allen.

Yeah, I mean, great, but. I mean, Big Ben had Manning and Brady. But he got two. He did. He got there early. But middle and late, you know, you saw how it ended. So a lot of stuff is, you know, they always say in real estate, it's all location.

In sports, it's a lot of timing. It is a lot. I mean, by the way, I've said this before, if Andy Reed, if the NFL would have paid out the CTE billion dollar check 10 years earlier, and the league would have pivoted to offense 10 years earlier, it would be Andy Reid who would be the goat and Belichick who would be second or third. Belichick, the primary years of Bill Belichick's

prime coaching years. It was a defensive league. So you had Brady and the ability to do things you're not allowed to do anymore. Once you lose Brady, now Bill's a defensive coach in an offensive league. Pete Carroll, Mike Tomlin, they kind of feel outdated. So Andy Reed had to overcome the rules

and was still winning the NFL. FC. Now he gets Mahomes and the league pivots and Buffalo's got a defensive coach and the second best quarterback. So if Mahomes did not exist, I think Josh Allen, you'd get all you're getting now, but Super Bowl appearances. And so I mean when the Cowboys had Aikman and Jimmy Johnson, they, you know, Montana and the Niners kept a lot of good teams out of it. And so back to my initial point with Ann Edwards,

Wembe is going to be arguably the best offensive and defensive player in a year. Yokic is the best offensive player now. Luca. There's just too many good players. And Denver is still young. And the Celtics aren't young, but most of their best players are in their prime. So you're not going to be on the best teams.

And then the teams after that that we're looking at are Indiana and East, the Knicks a little, and OKC. So even the young teams who have the longest tarmac, you're not on those. So this could be, you don't know, I'm really interested.

interested to watch the T. Wolves and the Suns. I think it's a really good series, but I'm going to take Phoenix just because of how Beal has played and how Phoenix has played in the last three weeks. Really good basketball. Hour three, Chris Broussard's around the corner on a Friday. So good to have Jordan in here. Jay Max back Monday. Live in L.A., it's the heard. 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 helped make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L'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 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 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. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations, that it's really not safe to have anywhere,

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