The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hour 2 - Rick Pitino

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

Colin talks to legendary head coach Rick Pitino about Flagg and why he’s destined for success in the NFL and why Caitlin Clark reminds him on Steph CurrySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in noon to 3 Eastern, 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the herd at Fox SportsRadio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go. It's hour two. It's NBA draft night. A draft chock full of domestic players. Couple Rutgers guys. Three guys do. Cooper Flag will go number one. Arizona. You're getting big schools, big brands, very good players. Is it a great draft? I think it's good at the top. But again, it's an NBA draft. These are young players. It's not the NFL. We're not the NFL. We're not. guys come in at 23. They've been in college for three or four years. Their bodies are mature.

I mean, even Cooper Flagg right now, had he not taken the opportunity to move ahead, he would be in high school getting his diploma right now. So he shouldn't have played college yet, but he was so good out of Maine into Duke that they moved his progress up, and now Cooper Flagg's going to go number one to Dallas. The number two pick, there are reports Dylan Harper, that the Spurs, if they got an amazing offer, would move the pick. I don't think they're going to. But if somebody gets on the phone and offers you four number, you know, four lottery picks, you do it. You know, almost everybody's tradable.

Mav's the first pick. I think we know who they're going to take. I think Dylan Harper's the obvious pick for the Spurs. Dylan Harper, not getting talked about, let's be honest, we watch college basketball mostly in March. 6-6, lefty, good handles. He's a really good player, not close to what he's going to become. Where's Cooper Flagg, you feel like? You kind of know what he's going to look like.

But Harper, of the two players, he's a playmaker, can create shots for himself and others. You know, he's a smooth lefty, and he is probably in the fifth inning of his development. He's just starting. And a lot of these drafts, you know, in baseball, you can draft a college kid. So he's been at LSU, or he's been at, like, Michigan, a good programs. You kind of know what you're getting. In the NBA, you're projecting a lot. you're doing a lot of projecting on what's going to be.

So it's hard to call any draft a great draft. What you have now is a great prospect. Like Wembe was a great prospect. We thought Zion and John Morant were great prospects, and they just weren't mature enough at the time to take over a team. What I like about Cooper Flagg is he won't be asked to take over a team. He's got an A coach. They've got an incredible front line in Dallas.

I said this last year with the Nico Harrison trade with Luca. like if Kyrie and 80 didn't get hurt, this team is really good, really good. And Cooper Flag is what they need. Transition can hit a three, can be a playmaker, they need young legs, and he's a guy that needs to get out on the break, so he doesn't want, he won't have to defend the rim. Dallas has trees back there. He can sit back, get the ball, couple dribbles, past half court, ready to roll. So I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be an absolutely fascinating.

draft, one I'm going to watch. In fact, I said last year, I thought the WNBA draft was better than the NBA draft because the WNBA stars, the college basketball women stars, John, have been in college for four years. They're not leaving early. And so I watched South Carolina. I watch the women's final four. I watch Yukon play. So a lot of the draft is your visceral connection. That's why, like, whether you like Baker Mayfield or not, you'll watch them play for two or three years in college, you have an opinion on him. Cooper Flagg, you have an opinion on him. And that's what makes the NFL draft better to this point.

The NBA draft, we've seen them, and we've got strong opinions. For sure. You had mentioned, you know, one of the better prospects in the last decade with Wemby and Zion. Zion looked like an offensive lineman or a defensive unique body type. Wemby's like eight feet tall. Cooper flag looks like what an NBA player is supposed to look like, right? Right in that. 6, 6, 6, 7.

type. It just works. You know, Wemby, it might, but I mean, he's already battled some injuries. Zion has battled his weight from the jump. Like Cooper Flagg, that translates. Yeah, and I was reading some Cooper Flagg stuff like some of you have done, I'm sure, over the last couple of days, his high school career in Maine. One of the things I really like about him, and I think his comp is sort of Jason Tatum, I just like how darn aggressive he is. And I think the old school players were all fighting for financial pie, the Michael Jordans, the Larry Bird's, I mean, and Rick Petino, our guest knows that. The league was feisty.

The league had some angry players fighting for the party. Now bench guys make $15 million. They're all like friends. They do each other's charities. They go on each other's podcast. Cooper's got a little old school feisty. He's got a little old school chip. And I want to bring in many people over the years when I talk to them on or off the air.

I always say if there's a coach in college you would not want to coach against. Rick Petino's one or two. And I've asked NBA people like, Give me somebody that changed the way you saw basketball, and they often say Rick Patino. He did at St. John's, which all of us who grew up, I'm a West Coast kid. I grew up not loving the Pac-12. I love the Big East. PJ Carlissimo, Louis Carnaceca, Patino was at Providence.

That's the basketball I grew up with. Beheim at Syracuse. And Rick Patino now, who has turned St. John's around. He has the number one incoming class coming in. Rick, it's interesting. people have grumbled about the transfer portal and the NIL. And you had a really interesting take on this, which was stop grumbling about it. You're using it to your advantage.

So I want to start there. There's been a lot of changes, but you've really put your arms around all the changes, despite not being a 35-year-old. That's easy when you're 35 years old. You're an older coach. Why did you not grumble about the transfer portal and NIL and instead used it? Well, I felt the change was here. And quitting, resigning, complaining is of no value.

You have to win the day. You have to get the job done. And I just felt that, okay, we're going to use it to the best of our abilities at St. John's. So we're an urban school. We're a commuter school. We play in Madison Square Garden as a home court. How can we maximize our potential by embracing the NIL and the transfer portal? We went away from high school basketball players, although we had taken one or two a year to develop,

but by and large, we've gone after older players. Rick, I have been saying this now for a year, that college basketball is having a renaissance, that the NIL is keeping some pros in college for one more year, and you guys are also poaching international players who are really good, and that when I watched Yukon two years ago, I said, okay, college basketball's back. They got seven NBA guys. That team could compete against them. anybody. That's a real basketball team. Length, aggressiveness, perimeter defense. I think you have

gone back into college. Do you notice it over the last year or two that there's more layers to the talent in your sport? Definitely. We've found that why go to the G League when you can make $700,000, so many European basketball players if they sign on with Olympiacos, a Pannetonikos, or or somebody lower-level teams, they're going to make maybe 300,000, 400,000. They can go to college and make a lot more than that. So we're finding that the European players want to come here and attend college

and stay away from going to the pros. So you have an intricate knowledge of high school, AAU, college pro basketball. Give me two traits about Cooper Flag that you say to yourself, those are pro traits that will work immediately. Well, he's physically ready. He's extremely athletic.

He shoots the basketball. He's a tough young man. And he's maybe one of like three players that are ready to have an impact right away for the Dallas Mavericks. He's got a good inside game, good outside game. He drives with force, knows how to play the game. He actually is young. He skipped a year of high school. So he's ready for the NBA.

And I think he'll be an impact basketball player right away. So you faced VJ Edgecombe from Baylor. Okay, what did you see that you like as a pro? And is there anything he needs to work on as a pro? VJ is a tremendous athlete. Fast. He plays way, way above the rim. He's lightning quick in the open court.

He's got an average to good jump shot. He needs a lot of work on his jump shot. But that being said, most guys, when they go to the NBA, from being declared non-shooters become great shooters by the time they're in their second, third year in the NBA. Yeah, it is funny. I don't remember Ray Allen being that good of a shooter in college. In fact, I remember him being athletic, and five years later,

he's an unbelievable shooter. So I don't know why I think you're right on that. So when I look at Dylan Harper, I see a guy that's in the fourth inning of a nine-inning game. Like, he's got a long way to go. Again, I'll ask you, if many suspect he's the number two pick. Do you think he is worthy of a number two pick?

What do you see, Rick? I do because he understands the game. There are very few players out there that totally get the game and how it should be played. Dylan Hopper is someone that understands the game. He has great pace, great tempo, gets his shout off in traffic, but really understands how to make players better. There aren't too many guys in the draft that make players better. He's one of those.

You know, it's funny about the NBA where I think, it's an advantage in the NBA. People have always said, oh, you want to be, you want to be in a big market. And my take is no. If you're in a big market, Tibbs happens that the owners like, we got to win now. But in OKC, Sam Presti's doing a rebuild. It's the only game in town. They're patient. I mean, San Antonio won 34 games last year. They haven't won more than that in six years. Everybody's all in on the youth movement. Nobody has a problem. When you look, You went to Boston, which is the most pressurized East Coast market. When you look at the NBA right now, do you like where it's at as a sport?

Do you think they're doing a good enough job taking your college players and developing them? Or do you think sometimes it's a rush job? The mistake I think people are making is they're too much into young players. For instance, Walter Clayton Jr. Yeah. Walter Clayton, who I recruited at Iona, he won two high school championships back to back. Comes with us, wins a Mac championships. He's the MVP at a league. Then he goes to Florida as a transfer, elevates his game, wins a national championship. Right away, very similar to, I look at him like a smaller version of Murray from Denver.

Walter Clayton Jr., because he's a little older, if I'm a coach, I want a Walter Clayton, Jr., because I know he's a a knock down shooter. I know he makes free throws. He's an unbelievable foul shooter. He knows how to pass. He has good verticality. He does everything I want as far as a winner. But they say, well, he's a little older,

so we'll draft the younger players. It's almost like it's an excuse for the general managers and the scouts to draft a really, really young player. So if he doesn't make it, they'll just say, well, he's young. It's a built-in excuse. Yeah. You know, it's, we were just talking.

talking about Sean Payton earlier and all the roadblocks he was able to overcome in Denver. And I said, yeah, Sean can be a little overconfident and he's direct. I said, but get over that. People are either good. So is your orthopedic surgeon. People are competent or they're not. I don't have to love my pilot. Can you get me through a lightning storm?

And my take away is you have been able, and I'm not even going to tell you who told me this. I'll just say, I talk to two coaches who I respect. and they said, here's what Patino does. One of them was, man, their practices, Rick's going to work you. Those are tough practices. If you were scouting Rick Patino, and don't be humble here, what do you think, Rick, what is your belief? What are the two things that have made you capable of, I thought St. John's, they've been trying for 20 years to turn it around. What is your secret sauce?

A couple of tenants from that. Well, we have player development sessions every morning, Monday through. Friday where we go three to four different sessions with four players. And we try to take players like Donovan Mitchell and Terry Rozier, who maybe is not ranked top 20, 25 in high school. They've got a little bit of a weakness. Donovan Mitchell had a weakness with the arc on his jump shot. Everybody's got a weakness coming out that's not top 10. So we try to take those player development sessions and make the players better. Our practices, yes, are very difficult, but I will say this. They're not long. We don't go more than two hours, but we go hard for two hours. We're up and down for two hours.

If I make a comment, a correction, it's going to be within 12 seconds, and then we're moving on, because conditioning is a gigantic part of our style of play. Yeah, no, no, I heard that at Louisville as well. So I've got to ask you about Caitlin Clark. So I've always tried to defend general managers in the NBA and the NFL. It's not an exact science. A kid becomes a pro. Now, he gets money. You don't know how he's going to react. He may miss home if he played at Alabama. Now he's playing in Seattle. You just don't know. I've got kids. You just don't know. Gino Oriama said, hey, Caitlin will be fine, but give me a break. She won't be that good. Well, Gino knows basketball pretty well, and he undervalued her. When you watch Caitlin Clark, what do you see that you go,

wow, that is special. I mean, she can shoot, obviously. What else? Well, she's a great passer. She reminds me of Steph Curry when Steph Curry came into the league. She's doing what Steph did early on. She has unbelievable range. She has great vision. She's a terrific passer. You know, she's physically a little weak.

But she'll get stronger as time goes on. But she really understands how to play. And she reminds me in a female version of Steph Curry. Incredible range. Yeah, she really does. I want to go back to the NIL. Well, here's my only knock on the NIL. Transfer portal, I think sometimes it's the Wild Wild West.

I don't think my take is you should not be able to transfer. Once you go to a school, 18 months you can't transfer. Everybody always says, well, the coaches leave. No, they don't. No, coaches aren't leaving in the middle of a city. Coaches aren't leaving that much. The bottom line is most of you guys never want to leave. The athletic director asks you to leave.

And also, managers, and my bosses have things at Fox that I don't get. They should. They're responsible for Fox. because I'm just responsible for my show. So I do think coaches are different than players. But here's what I don't like about the NIL. Is that, I'm not going to fight through it. Louisville wants me.

They'll pay me more. I don't, I mean, I look at Michael Jordan's career, and it's really steeped in failure early, which makes him great. The NIL worries me that we're taking away the hurtling and the bulldozing of obstacles. But it's just easier to go make twice the money. I mean, because let's face it, if you play at Syracuse and they recruited you,

you can go down a level and get more money potentially because you're a great player. That part bothers me. Does it bother you? Yeah, I think that's the weakness of the NIL. You know, during the year, we would meet with a general manager, and he would say to me, yeah, this young man is thinking of transfer. I said, wait a second, it's January, and the guy's killing it. He's having a great season.

Why would he think about transferring? Well, he's just not happy he can make more money elsewhere. And that's the bad thing of the NIL. It's so many agents out there on negotiating during the year to get a player more money. And who's involved in this now? I will say this. More so than any period of my 51 years in coaching. I have never seen parents as involved in this whole thing like I'm seeing in the last

four to five years. I first started recruiting 30, 40 years ago, parents, you go in the home, you meet them, and that was the extent of after the campus visit, parents were really in the background. Today, total opposite. The parents are on the forefront of everything. And the reason being, the money is so substantial that now agents, handlers, the parents, everybody's involved in all of this. It's never a situation.

I never have to go into a home anymore. They visit campus, and you should see. the legions of people that come to these kids. Yeah, let me ask you, it's interesting about this. When you look at this draft, I said this earlier, you can look at the NFL and go, that's a good draft, because they're 23-year-olds. I got four years of tape. I don't think we're ever going to have great drafts again.

I think we're going to have great prospects in the draft, like Cooper Flag. But how would you categorize, if you were a scout in the NBA, how would you categorize this? draft can you have a great NBA draft anymore with all the youth well I think this draft is not as strong as others I think this draft certainly the players from Duke are terrific I look at how they can contribute not only right away but down the road who has great upside and there are players here that have upside especially the European basketball players for some reason France is now an untapped country they are really developing

outstanding basketball players. And it's gotten very competitive. And so you don't know about the foreign players. They come in, they may have more upside because they're not seen as much as the college kids. Yeah. You threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium. If you were not a basketball coach,

where is baseball in your life right now? Were you a baseball fan? Well, I grew up. I lived in the Bronx in the summertime with my grandparents. and I would my two girl cousins, I was about 10, 9, 10, we would take one subway stop to Yankee Stadium and I would watch Man O'Maris, Quebec, Cletus Boyer, Bobby Richardson, Moose Scarrant, a Whitey Ford on the mound. And so I became a huge Yankee fan from those days as a youngster. And today I'm, I bought four season tickets right behind the Yankee dugout.

There's nothing better for me than just sitting there. having a cold beer and watching the plays at Yankee Stadium. It's really a great moment. Yeah. You can just sit there and relax and decompress. Yeah. Every other sport has a certain level of urgency, and baseball is the one that doesn't have the clock.

And I find myself, when you go to a baseball game, it feels different. You can have a conversation with a friend. Just make sure when Aaron Judge comes up, if he fouls one off, you're paying attention. You know what's funny? when I first broke into business, the NBA and the NFL will like this.

College football, college basketball, were on equal terms. Today, the NFL and college football have just raised the bar so high that we're not even in

a bad Saturday college football game will outdraw an NBA playoff game. So football has just reached a level where six days a week all the talk shows are just talking about. the NFL. And I'm sure the gambling component has a lot to do with it

one game per week. No question about it. But the popularity of football today just blows me away from where it was 30 years ago. You know, I did, you know, and I'll tell you this, and I told Adam Silver this, I think the NBA marginalized college basketball.

The NFL's always understood its best friend, its ally is college football. It microwaves the stars. And I think, and I've told Adam this, and I love Adam, but I thought, it's like, We're going to do the G League. And I'm like, timeout. The coaching's better in college.

The environment's in college get you ready for the NBA. You go play at Kentucky. You go play at Syracuse. That's an NBA environment, a playoff environment. You don't get that in the G League. And I think they found out. I think they found out that college basketball, that March tournament, it's free advertising.

And the coaching's better. So if you looked at the finals, Rick, O'KC and Indy, you know what you didn't see? G-leaguers. It was actually not only college guys, it was Obie Toppins. It was T.J. It was multiple years of college basketball. I thought the NBA finals was an advertisement for college basketball, and I loved it. Yeah, and Adam Silva's thinking about it.

I heard him talk about it about going global, having a Euroleague overseas, and I think that would be great because then you could take you young Europeans or maybe college guys that aren't ready, put them in a professional environment like the Euroleague is over there, and to get them ready for the NBA. I think it's something that we're looking at down the road. Rick, what a real pleasure for us. You've got a mind that is rarely rivaled in your sport, international, domestic NBA. And I just appreciate you taking 20 minutes.

You're a busy guy. Good luck to St. John's. I found, I said it last year. I don't care who gets in. I want Cooper flagged, Tom Izzo, and Rick Patino. in the final four. Whoever else makes it, I'm good. I was fascinated by your story,

and your team this year with the incoming class looks great. So congrats. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me. You bet. Rick Patino, who has turned,

I mean, listen, man, St. John's is a great story. They're playing at the garden. You've got a great coach. He knows the NBA. They've some of their boosters. They've got a couple boosters that got money.

St. John's basketball is good for college basketball. With Patino in the garden, it feels big. That was cool. Yeah, that guy knows his stuff That was cool One more herd The herd streams 24 hours a day

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Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an

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

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I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Jenchian win. I mean, she went down in three to Rovachina, but I'm delighted. Yeah, she's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lennar Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface.

Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. All right, welcome back. Rick Petino stopping by a real treat. Julian Edelman last hour had our bold. predictions in the NFC already and here is

John Middlough with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well, speaking to Edelman, speaking to Edelman, the Patriots, they've had it pretty good. And not too many bad years since Robert Kraft bought the team back in 1994.

Obviously it felt like they made the playoffs every single year with Belichick and Brady. Won a bunch of rings. And things fell off a little bit. Obviously, the last couple seasons, 4 and 13, Belichick's last year, last year with Gerard Mayo. And speaking at Fanatics Fest, Robert Kraft admitted that the last two years were the worst in his run as an owner, vowing that things will change this season.

Well, for the first time since Belichick and Brady's last year, I feel I have an A-coach and a coach and an A-quarterback, at least potential prospect. And this is a coach-quarterback league. I think hiring Jared Mayo was still a connection to Belichick. And I think when legendary coaches leave, you have to break type. I think you can't say, we're going to get somebody that reminds me of Belichick. He's like, no, no, no. If Pittsburgh, if Tomlin goes, go to an offensive coach.

You had a great defensive coach. So I think what happens in a dynasty, it's hard to let go. Because for 20 years, everything worked with a defensive culture and defensive mindset. So you're like, well, Gerard Mayo embodies a lot of those. Gerard Mayo, we're not even sure. Like, six weeks in, you're like, I'm not sure, especially with a rookie quarterback in a division with Josh Allen. Like, was he going to be a guy that was ever going to succeed?

Yeah, I think with Belichick, it was always going to end, a little rough. Once Brady bounced and the Mack Jones thing and then Josh McDaniels left. I do think Patriot fans, Robert Kraft included, it doesn't get. any, we're never seeing that again. The 20 plus years of the two guys, even Coach Reed and Mahomes, I mean, Coach Reed's in his mid-60s. You know, when Belichick, when they started that, I think Bill was about late 40s, early 50s, so he had a longer runway.

And, you know, life was pretty good. And I think they got a little sense of, this is the NFL. Sometimes you make a bad hire, you make a bad draft pick. Obviously, Bill made a few. You picked the wrong quarterback. Yeah. That's what you get. And I think it's got to be humbling for them.

dominating that division and now seeing Buffalo turn into the Patriots, right? I mean, they are just running away with that division every single year. Well, it generally works that way. Peyton Manning to Andrew Luck is a total outlier. Farve to Rogers is an outlier. The dynasty usually ends and somebody else gets the quarterback. And I also think the league pivoted the last couple of years in Bill's coaching with Brady. It pivoted to an offensive league and the Patriots couldn't draft skill players.

So I think the last couple years of, and Tom Brady saw this, because he said he was going to leave a year out before he left, it was starting to crumble in that last year Tom was in New England. Well, I'll give Robert Kraft and the Kraft family credit on this one. They made a bad mistake in Mayo, and they pivoted immediately, and they went and got Brable who was available. I don't know if it's lucky, but it's going to work out, I think, pretty well for the Patriots. Okay, on to the NBA, where the draft obviously tips off tonight with the Mavs expected to select Cooper Flack. with the number one overall pick. Dallas got extremely lucky landing the pick after trading away Luca mid-season

and Flagg was asked about the pressure of succeeding Luca Donchich. I wouldn't look at anything as pressure. I think, you know, any going into whatever situation I go into, I'm just going to try and be myself all the time and I'm going to push myself to be better and better every single day and I make the most out of every day.

I'm not worried about living up to certain players' expectations or things like that. I'm just going to be myself and really just try and get better every single day that I can. I don't think he has to replace Luca. Luca is viewed as a mistake by the general manager. That player is tied forever to Nico Harrison.

That's not a Jason Kidd problem. That's not a Cooper flag-replace problem. Cooper's a fresh start after what's perceived as a mistake by ownership and the front office. I don't look at it and think, oh, kid, you better be as good as Luca. Luca was an international player.

Luca should still be there. So I don't see him as replaced. I think it's a just, I think, and I also think Cooper's a different player. He's much better defensively. He's a domestic player. We watched him in college. Like, Luca came from nowhere unless you were a diehard basketball. I don't see the correlation.

Not chubby. No, I mean, it's like, that's not an issue. Like, Luca is just an all-time prodigy offensively. Whereas we think of Cooper Flagg is, he's not an all-time prodigy. He's a highly well-rounded Duke player. I also think it's a little easier. Obviously, the Mavericks are a big NBA brand, but they're the second brand in their city

with the Dallas Cowboys going into the fall. This is not like a situation if the Lucas situation had been on the reverse to the Lakers or to the Celtics where the NBA team is king. He kind of gets to ease in. And like you said, fans aren't mad at him. He had nothing to do with it. If anything, if I'm a fan, I was out,

now I'm kind of creeping back in. Yep, I agree. Okay. Okay, last but not least, sticking with the NBA. The Thunder. They are off. Obviously winning the NBA championship, big game seven, win over the Pacers. Despite raising the trophy, a recent report indicates that Sam Presti is looking to trade up into the top 10 building a package around a bunch of picks, 15, 2444.

Colin, crazy to think the Thunders could add a top 10 pick after winning the finals? No, this is exactly what you should do. I want to take you to a football thing. Remember years ago with Marty Schottenheimer, when the charge. had like 12 pro bowlers. And AJ Smith, the GM, gave up all these picks for the safety from Utah, Eric Weddle. And I remember AJ Smith saying, they're not four kids in this draft that can start or play for us. We need a safety.

That guy's great. So my take is they have such depth now. You could draft four guys. Two may not make the roster. You're much better off going and getting the sixth pick and saying, this guy is immediately a rotational player. I think when you're good and young, and it's very rare, you're not usually this good and this young,

but when you are, they don't need a bunch of youth. What they need is the best player they can get out of this draft. How many guys in this draft could make their roster? Five less. And I would say less with their current picks. But if you can get the fifth pick or the sixth pick, okay, that guy's going to play next year. Now, he may be the third guy off the beach.

bench, but there's such an advantage. It's so rare historically for a young team to win a title. They don't need more youth. They need the best of the youth. Can I give you another football example? Thomas Dimitrov once upon a time when he had Matt Ryan. Belichick said, don't do it. He said, I'm trading

way up for Julio Jones. Now, I don't know if there's a Julio Jones at pick five or six in this NBA draft, but I think that logic, especially when you factor in the money, I think the question was Sam Presley, who just nails draft picks, is his incredible GM. This owner in your backyard here with the Lakers, all that money.

I mean, he's the top dog. They're going to come after him pretty consistently, I would imagine. I think you're right on. John Middlough with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Line News. Cleveland Brown quarterback situation.

And it's not Shadour who is turning heads. Remember, we're off Shadour. And there's a rumor the Spurs are going to trade the number two pick. I'll have thoughts on that. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a... We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey, Hey Jonas, guys. I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it.

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

and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for... remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the

Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. They're locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions

everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicle Life 12 and the TikTok podcast now. work on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris, every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenchian win. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French, me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably

the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Saturday, it's baseball night in America on Fox.

In two of the league's best, face off as Kyle Tucker leads the Cubs against Jose Altuve and the Astros. For the Phillies, take on the Braves. Check out local listings for the game in your area. Saturday at 7 Eastern on Fox. I've said in the east, one of the teams I like is Orlando, Bangcaro, Wagner, Jalen Suggs, and then they go get Desmond Bay and they've got their core four. And I think these days you kind of need a core four.

I think you just watched Oklahoma City, you got SGA, you got like a Chet Honger and a J-dub. You've got, you know, either Lou Dort, Crusoe, you've got your core four. maybe Hartenstein's that fourth guy. So there's a report today that the San Antonio Spurs, they've already got Wembe, so they got their big, they got Stefan Castle, so they've got their combo guard, they've got Jeremy Sohan, who's a quirky player, but he's their Rodman, he's their forward, he's their, you know, kind of a unique player. I do not think they're going to trade the number two pick and Dylan Harper.

I think he is going to be their core four. Now, somebody comes on the phone, there's a report that they would accept. up the trade with a ridiculous hall, you always pick up the phone unless you have Patrick Mahomes or a Josh Allen. You pick the phone up. So I think the two things the Spurs have going for them. Number one, the San Antonio community trusts them. There's so much equity with the five titles since 99 that they'll be patient. It doesn't matter that they're young. The fans and the media are all in. And number two, advantages, they're the only game in town. Like in Los Angeles, they'd be like, Trade the pick.

You got the Dodgers winning. Harbaugh's in town with the Chargers, the Rams, USC and the Big Ten. In Los Angeles, you know, you got, you got, they've got too many options. San Antonio, if you got money, you're a season ticket holder. So I think the Corps four is going to stay. I don't think they're going to trade him. I mean, San Antonio, with Wemby, only won 34 games last year. They only won 22 games in year one with Wemby.

In six seasons, they have, I think, 34, wins his tops. So nobody's screaming in the media, nobody is screaming in the fan base, that you got to move this pick and get a veteran. I think they're going to keep Dylan Harper in the pick. I think they're going to move Deerrin Fox. That's what I think they're going to do. So my protection, my prediction is they keep the pick. Harper's not ready to be great. He's probably in the third or fourth inning of what he'll be, but he's got a lot of traits. Rick Bettino was on talking about that. And again, you pick up the phone, but San Antonio has so much equity. built in the organization

that there is no immediate need to win. You can be young. People feel like in San Antonio, it's the only game in town. You're along for the journey. You know your team better than anybody else does. You're not getting, you know, San Antonio two years ago is not getting on national TV.

They're accumulating picks. We don't know how good SGA is going to be. So I think they keep the pick. They've got, you know, pop is not coaching. They've got a new coach. People will be patient. One of the things that really hurts New York, Chicago and L.A. teams is impatience.

I mean, how many games is Russell Wilson going to get before they play Jackson Dart? Four? You know, in the smaller, everybody was always afraid of big markets. I don't like, slow down. I said for years, New York teams are bad, the Bears are bad, Washington was bad. The pressure that talk radio and the owners listen to that and the relentless newspapers and the fans have multiple options. They'll go watch the baseball team or the NBA team or the NFL team or the local college team.

They've got things to do. And these big cities, a lot of people make it. money got a second home, they'll go to the beach. And I've always said this about Los Angeles. If you don't win, people don't give up their season tickets, but they just go to Vegas or they go to the beach and they move on. Los Angeles is lucky that a lot of stars want to play here because of the winter weather is so nice. But I think San Antonio has such an advantage of equity, only game in town.

It doesn't matter if next year they went only 40 games. Nobody's calling for anybody's head. Okay. So I saw this story. And I know he's a little flaky, but Brown's wide receiver, Deontay Johnson, a little flaky, believes that one Kenny Pickett will emerge as the team's starting quarterback. So it is time for our first edition of the Kenny Pickett Press Gazette. Extra Extra.

Read all about it. High praise from the very trustable Deontay Johnson. I'm also told Kenny Pickett drives the speed limit and comes to a complete stop at every opportunity. This is what I like to see, a veteran supporting a young man, a trustable veteran supporting Kenny Pickett. I know Deontay can be a bit of a headcase. Do not attack the messenger.

I trust Deontay Johnson's opinion. Kenny Pickett is now the quarterback of note. the quarterback we will discuss first edition of the Kenny Pickett Press Gazette. Apparently he has looked very good. I, you know, I haven't asked you. Who do you think wins this

quarterback? Competition. Do you know what team Deontay Johnson was on last year? It's called the Waver Wire. That's where he was. I think we've got to be careful. I think Joe Flacco will win it, but you know, one of the rookies will be in. And you and I have talked about this.

coaching staff wanted Dylan Gabriel from Oregon, right? That's why they drafted him in the third round. The owner wanted the other guy in the fifth round. Now I think the coaching staff can push back a little bit after a couple. We told you so. A couple tickets, but he's still on the team. They're not going to cut him. So bizarre situation, but it's the Cleveland Browns, and that's what tends to happen.

I think it's what they should have done, and it was he asked for a trade. They could have reset everything by trading Miles Garrett. Now, they were able to still make that trade with Travis Hunter. Their GM and their coach are good. I think they're a well-run organization. The owner just, he just can't help himself. He just likes to get active in football. No, I was telling somebody, the late-great Jim Ursay was a remarkable human being.

Tons of compassion, fascinating guy. And when, in the last couple years, though, I thought he got really, really impulsive. And you're kind of, as an organization, you're a little bit trapped. Because, you know, like Carson Wentz had a really good year, bad game at Jacksonville, and they're like, get him out of town. Well, Chris Ballard didn't want to get him out of town. The staff didn't want to get him out of town. Think Frank Wright was the coach there.

Like him. Like him. And so I kind of feel like, you know, Jimmy Haslam, like Johnny Mansell. The staff wanted to draft Teddy Bridgewater. He liked Deshawn Watson. Guaranteed contracts. I mean, first of all, guaranteed contracts are rare. With his baggage, you wouldn't do it.

Now, Baker is the best of all their quarterbacks. Baker's better than all these guys they have right now. But again, that was a hootspah. You know, let's go for it. I like Baker's attitude. So I do think sometimes the owners do get in the way, and I feel Cleveland's owner has gotten in the way. And I think Jim Ursay was remarkable, but I think in his last three or four years, the Andrew Luck retirement, they got a little impulsive upstairs. I think you could always scout a draft room.

You know, sometimes the owner, he's just eating sushi or a sandwich in the corner, letting his GM and coach cook. And then there's the Jimmy types that are kind of right in between the two in a chair hovering, you know, giving them their pointers, what they believe, their draft board. The worst of all time was Dan Snyder, who'd have his own draft board and implement that thing the day of the draft. Yeah. But I think the Shador Sanders, Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett is just a disaster waiting to happen, Colin. I mean, it's not going to be good. Yeah, I mean, there's last year, for one of the only times I remember, the bottom of the NFL looked like the bottom of the NBA. There were like eight teams that could not compete.

Giants. Just could not compete. Raiders. I think last year's quarterback draft class, again, takes some wobbly franchises and solidifies them, kind of modifies how I view them. I do think Cleveland, the Saints, and both New York teams are on a short list. If I had to guess today the bottom four teams showing the limitations of coaching, although it's important, I would say Saints will be the worst team in the league, giant second.

Cleveland, third, Jets, fourth. The one thing Cleveland, they have the Jags pick. Now, I don't know how bad the Jags are going to be, but they're going to have some ammo next year. And what looks like a pretty good quarterback class in college. So I would guess that they drafted two quarterbacks in 2025 and drafted another quarterback in 2006. Probably not the ideal strategy, but it's one they've implemented there in Cleveland.

Well, it did work for Arizona. Steve Kimes said, okay, we're going to go get Kyler Murray. After Rosen. Yeah. It's like, I've had a cigar or two with Stephen talked about that, and he just said, hey, man, we looked at, you know, we looked at all the film, and we just said, we're trying to catch up to the Niners and the Rams and the Seahawks, and this kid can help us catch up very, very quickly. Also, I think, I mean, the greatest coaches in the history of the league, I mean, remember Andy Reid loved Kevin Cobb? Like, it's okay to miss on this stuff. I know that internet trolls, anonymous internet trolls are never wrong. the rest of us are all the time.

And it's like Rick Patino said. You're just projected the NBA draft tonight. Outside of about six players, crossing your fingers, they're mature enough. They grow. You're projecting hour three on a Wednesday next. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers.

I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

We just contributed to it. First people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's, Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was crying.

You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, and on my new podcast, How Hard Can It Be? I call on my Gen X squad from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate Midlife's most fantastic BS. Unfiltered Conversations from Nass. night sweats to futas, to scheduling sex. Wait, what sex? Is it just me or does every woman my age want to look at Pinterest instead of having sex sometimes? They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or tears of laughter. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Tiana Maria Riva on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.