The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hour 2 - The NBA has a problem

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

Rachel Nichols joins The Herd to talk about the NBA possibly shortening the season, player injuries, the NBA Draft, and more Colin talks more about untradeable players in the NBA and the NFLSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is, getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is. Getting a new one put up in its place. I'm Akila Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 is about both of those things. As I was watching these statues come down, I was thinking about what it meant that I grew up in a majority black city, in which there were more homages to enslavers than there were to enslave people. Listen to Rebel Spirit season two on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to The Heard podcast. 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 Sports Radio.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. Jay Mack is back. We are flying through it today. Lane Johnson of the Philadelphia Eagles last hour. Rachel Nichols in a couple of minutes. So we had the NBA draft last night. The top 11 picks all played college basketball. All of them. This is something you heard me go on and on about this. College basketball, and I've said this for the last couple years, is having a renaissance due to the N. I'll, but I told Adam Silver this, I never liked the G-League. It was more about compensation. The NBA became paralyzed with compensation.

And if college football guys aren't getting compensated, and they have to, they get tackled for four years. Yeah, players deserve to be paid, and eventually they were. But the NBA got paralyzed. You've got to compensate players over, how about develop them? I mean, how about develop the young people? players. So I never liked the G League. I mean, go look at the playoffs this year. Where were all the great G League and overtime elite guys? Amend Thompson is the best of them and he's still unpolished.

Scoot Henderson, Cominga, Jalen Green. Kaminga can't even play with Steph Curry. He has no developed games. So again, if you want to just take a cash grab for a year, I think in the end, the G-League's regression. I mean, if you go to Kansas or Syracuse or Yukon or, you know, Arizona, or you're playing in big arenas, national TV, better coaching, and now the compensation is at least equal and maybe slightly better. So I never bought into the G-League. I thought it would.

The league was just paralyzed by it. You've got to pay them. The NBA and basketball in America is a suburb sport. The best teams are in the burbs in Los Angeles. They're in the burbs. You know, like, so, you know, this idea that, uh, other kids, you know, they can't do one year, send them to Duke, they have chefs. I talked to Gonzaga's Mark few about this.

They got chefs. They got shoes. They're treated like royalty. You hang out for a year or two in college. Go look at the NBA playoffs. Where were all the G League guys when you got down to conference finals and up? So Rick Petino talked about this yesterday on the show. Kids now choosing college basketball over international and the G League.

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 or Panathanaikos or somebody of the 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. You've got to be careful about being idealistic because it can come off as sort of misguided or silly. You know, like a socialist running New York. It sounds maybe good in principle, but in practice, I don't want the government owning my grocery stores.

So the point being is the NBA got very idealistic. This is the empirical way to help the young kids. Yeah, maybe for a year financially, but you're not developing the kid. If you really love somebody and you deeply care about somebody, you don't care about tomorrow. You care about their life. You care about the journey.

You care about their long-term viability and not just financial. You can give anybody a couple hundred. That doesn't do anything. That doesn't do anything. So I'm glad the G League is becoming less relevant because I think college basketball has been marginalized by the NBA. I think the NFL has always understood the value of college football, the coaching. I mean, you're a quarterback.

Can you imagine if the NFL had a G-League where you played in empty stadiums and you thought that was better than playing at Ohio State or Georgia? I mean, it's crazy. Part of what makes college basketball great, you know, Cooper Flagg or the kid at Baylor, those guys played in intense national TV games. win or go home games that's the NBA that kind of pressure is great um even the G league by the way sold out for the bag it used to be the D league and somebody came up and said uh uh Gatorade okay we're the G league so they they were always going to sell out with that rachel nichols

fox sports NBA analyst is now joining us so uh let me ask you about this um it's an interesting draft i said i try not to get too higher low on anything because it's a projection draft. I do think the kid that goes to Philly and Cooper Flag will play on good teams immediately. I watch them in college. Those are NBA players in college. Dylan Harper for Rutgers is fascinating because the whole San Antonio unit outside of Deeran Fox, they're kids. Yeah. They can't drink in the hotel bar. What is what is the takeaway on San Antonio's night, Rachel? San Antonio had a great night, which is no surprise, by the way. This is their third time picking in the top of four, I think, in the last four years. I am a huge fan of

Harper's like a lot of people are. I think that he is going to be a great part of that young core, and it gives him the flexibility. They obviously are heavy at that position now. The reason you have Deeran Fox there is to make Victor Webanyama feel like you are serious about winning because he is so competitive, and also to be a more veteran voice. I know we think he's young, but he is the vet on that team, and to sort of teach guys about what it is to be in the league. Eventually, our castle, is Harper, are they going to be better than him? And is Fox going to be a trade piece, possibly? But the way San Antonio is looking at all of this is they are trying to play positionless basketball.

They are really going in that direction. And they are also embracing defense. And both of their picks in the first round last night were defensive-minded guys, guys who were aggressive defensively. You have the player who is the consensus projection for defensive player of the year, again, in Victor Webbenyama. If you have guys who want to play hard in defense around him, even if you're not quite there yet offensively to compete with the top of the West, defense wins championships, man.

And I think they can go a long way with two guys who have a defensive mindset as well as wanting to score. So let's talk NBA, because we're going to kind of wrap it up today for our NBA coverage for a while. One of the things that I think needs to be addressed, I think you would agree with this because you have a history of covering the NFL. The one thing the NFL does really well, they will change a rule in midseason. Yep. Like they had a Super Bowl between, I was at New England and Philadelphia, and the catch rule changed during the game. You know, bobbling touchdown.

And my take is you have to act urgently when you have billion-dollar games. And I think eight ACL tears, three in the playoffs, I think the game is faster, the pacing's better. I mean, Draymond Green said this the other day in a podcast. He said, he goes, no offense, but guys used to walk it up the floor. That's over. and I think the NBA Halliburton's out for the year, Tatum's out for the year. I think they need to address it now, first round five games. Your takeaway on Adam Silver and what is a problem that I think's only going to increase.

Yeah, these Achilles injuries, they're not as devastating. They don't end careers the way they used to, but they end teams plans. I mean, just look at what the Boston Celtics have been doing over the last couple days. They're unraveling what was a championship level team because of Jason Tatum and that Achilles injury. I asked Adam Silver at the beginning of the finals, what are we thinking right now about shortening the regular season? Where is the thought process? And he was adamant again, that there is no move to do that. There is obviously a lot of advocates who will tell you, if you keep the dates of the NBA season the same, but you play fewer games, you give guys more

of a chance to rest between games, take a little bit of a break from that physical bumping around. Draymond is absolutely right. It's not just they used to walk it up the floor. They cover about 10% more miles in a game than they used to. The speed of the game is measurably different, and the physicality of the game is measurably different. We all remember 90s basketball and talk about it lovingly, but someone has gone and charted how many times these guys hit the floor, and it's the highest now that it's ever been. So we just have to have the rules and the schedule catch up with that. And if they possibly, what I asked Adam was, if they possibly have some expansion documents,

coming in in the next few years. Maybe use that to soften the blow of fewer games. Because, of course, we all know the reason there aren't fewer games because it's less money. Yeah, that's a great point. You know, I was saying this the other day, it used to be a guy blew his ACL. It was an old guy injury.

Like an old guy plays handball with his college roommate at 58 and blows out his ACL. Now it's young guys. So that is just fatigue and wear and tear. And it's okay. Like Michael Jordan, in the first. Prime of the NBA played a five-game first round. It's okay. So, you know, it's well chronicled that when James Dolan was building the sphere, he was removed from basketball on the day to day, and all of a sudden the Knicks got pragmatic and patient and profoundly productive. He's back. They run off Tibbs. Okay, what are we talking about now? Can we have an update on the Knicks coach? Well, I was very interested that Nico Harrison said last night, Jason Kibb will be coaching the Mavericks next year. You guys played the clip a few minutes ago. That's all well and good for him to say that.

If, and I have no idea if he has, but if Jason Kidd decides to go to the Mavericks and say, I don't want to be here anymore, do you want that guy coaching your team? Do you want a guy who doesn't want to be there talking to the media every day, dealing with your players every day? So I think Jason Kidd does have some agency in this situation,

and there are a lot of things that are attractive about the Knicks job. I got to disagree with what you said earlier in the show, Colin. I think the next job could be more attractive for Jason Kidd. Here's the first reason. Money. Here's the second reason. Money. Also, money. Jason Kidd is the 10th highest paid coach in the NBA. He earns about $8.5 million a year. Steve Kerr earns $17.5 million a year. James Dolan could top that if he wants. If he really wants to go out and get Jason Kidd, he could decide, I'm going to make you the highest paid coach in the NBA. So that is one big factor. The other big factor is, yes, James Dolan's ownership has kept some people away. But Jason Kidd played for James Dolan. He understands the spectacle of New York, and the ownership for the Mavs has not proven itself

to be wonderful in these last six months either. So I don't think that's a detriment. I think the Knicks can be kind of a little bit of a dream job for Jason Kidd. And in terms of competitiveness, yes, Dallas is going to be way more competitive than we expected because of Cooper Flag. However, they are still in the West.

The West is going to be crazy next year. While the East, the Knicks are going to be a favorite to at least reach the conference finals. They got to game six of the conference finals last year. The team they played, their star blew out his Achilles, and the team before that blew out his Achilles. So I just think there are so many things about that New York job that could, could make Jason Kidd say, I don't want to be in here anymore, Dallas. And then Nico Harrison can say whatever he wants, but I just don't see him staying on the team where he doesn't want to be coaching. Rachel Nichols, Fox Sports.

You know, I did this earlier in the week, and I was surprised the pushback I got. I said, we've got seven champs in seven years. And I said, here's the order, and I think it's pretty close. But I got amazing pushback when I put the Lakers number one. And Nick Wright also pointed this out. The year the Lakers won, LeBron was close to his prime, and AD was on his prime. And of the other remaining teams, nobody had a one-two as good as those two. And before COVID, the Lakers were 24 and 3 and would have been the home court favorite.

Go back to that. So you're a good person to ask. You grew up in the east, but you live out west. People thought I was an abject home or I'll make folks. They had the best one-two combo. They were an unbeatable team that year, and they got home court stripped from them. Go back to that 2020 season. you were in L.A.

Tell people about the lay. Everybody thinks COVID was a break for them. I'm like, no, no, no, it was a negative for them. Colin, I was in the bubble. So I can tell you from living there that that championship was as earned as any other championship. I think it is ridiculous, this national conversation of, is there an asterisk?

Is it the Mickey Mouse championship? Alex Caruso even made a joke about it after the Thunder One saying, oh, now I've got a real one. I don't understand that at all. It was one of the toughest environments I have ever seen. No crowds there, no home court advantage to sort of get you riled up. You had to withstand a day-to-day that made several other teams just quit. I watched the Clippers just quit, give up and say, we want out of fear. So there is no question to me that 2020 was a real

and hard-earned title. Now, on your list, I would personally put the 24 Celtics above the 2020 Lakers. I just think that that was one of the most complete teams I have ever seen play basketball. between what they could do offensively five out with the way every single guy in that team could play really strong defense. And the talent level of Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown that's shown in that series and that finals just impressed me so much. So I would put them actually at the top of that list. But the 2020 Lakers championship, I'll fight those people, Colin. I'll fight them. That was no joke.

Yeah. And the following year, the Lakers were the number one seat as well until LeBron got hurt. So they had about a year and a half where they were really, really. rolling defensively and they could score KCP and Caruso. Rachel Nichols is always good seeing you. Great to see you, Colin. So you see, Jay Mack, you think it's always anti-Lakers. But Nick came on Tuesday and I said sometimes you'll do a rant or a list or something

and people just are adamant. And it's like, guys, anybody in America, you know this, Jay Mack, anybody in America in any field that succeeded during COVID, I mean, Jim Harbaugh, Michigan just gave up. Belichick's like, no, we're just, I mean, like elite people, elite restaurant tours, elite, I mean, people in tech, hands in the air. It was, I just, people are missing out on how good that team was. Yeah, well, by the way, what was his take on having the Thunder 6th out of 7?

Because I think the Raptors might have been more impressive. They took down a Sixers team with Embed, Jimmy Butler, and they, and Ben Simmons when he was actually good. Like, that was a strong team. This Thunder team rolled some weak teams. A lot of guys were injured. I was unimpressed with the Thunder title and the fact that the celebration wrapped up at 11 o'clock at Applebee's earlier this week.

I'm sure you saw that. Last call is like 11 o'clock in OKC. Okay. We don't need to take any shots. Yeah, we do. Live in Chicago, it's The Hurt. One more HARD? The HARD streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week,

within the IHeart Radio app. Search her to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Hi, this is Jay. I'm the producer of the Paul and Tony Fusco show. Usually in these promos, they ask you to listen to the show. I'm here to ask you, please don't listen to this show. The host are two absolute morons who have the dumbest takes on sports imaginable. Don't listen to this show so it can get canceled.

Whoa, whoa, what the hell are you doing in our studio? Get him, Paulie! Ignore that fool. Listen to the Paul and Tony Fuscoe show on the IHart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast. He's still moving. Hey, it's us to 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 it. 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 Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And, well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, hey, Jonas.

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

retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear.

The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicalife-12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth.

He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levin this went to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know.

Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Based on a comment by Josh Cronkey, who's the president of the Denver Nuggets, he brought up the idea of trading, it would be, you know, last resort of trading the Joker. They were talking about the aprons and the new cap. And I said to me there are seven untradable athletes in America today. Caitlin Clark, Patrick Mahomes, I think are at the very, very top.

I think it's Shohei Otani, Yokic, the best player in the NBA. Josh Allen, Aaron Judge. And I think Jaden Daniels is the next, I think he's going to be the Patrick Mahomes, although stylistically he's more Lamar Jackson. I think he's going to be the Mahomes of the NFC. And people bring up Wembe, and I'm like, listen, miss 40 games, big guys at 7-4 historically,

they don't last that long. Blood clot issue worries me. I saw that. I think that was Chris Bosch's issue. People say Lamar Jackson, Lamar Jackson's pass rating in the playoffs is like low 80s. Josh Allen's is over 100. Josh has been a great playoff performer. Lamar hasn't.

There are critics. I think he's wonderful, but there are critics. Joe Burrow, if Joe Burrow got another significant injury, if Josh Allen got hurt tomorrow bad, so what? If smaller Joe Burrow did, who's had multiple injuries, you'd have to draft another quarterback. You wouldn't if Mahomes or Josh Allen got hurt. You wouldn't do that.

So I think there's, I think there's seven. And again, I'm projecting. Cooper Flag is somebody I wouldn't trade either, but he hasn't played a game yet. We don't know. The one that I think I can see everybody saying, J. Mack, is Steph Curry. Yeah. But Michael Jordan was the face of the league, a better player in a bigger media market, drove a higher rating, and he got moved.

Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. He got moved or he quit for the second time? Well, they told him, this is the last dance. They were moving off him. And so, I mean, if Michael Jordan, I always said this, if Belichick and Andy Reed can get fired, anybody can get fired in the NFL. If Michael Jordan can be escorted out of the city, like, we're done. Okay. Then it's Steph Curry.

I'll ask you this. If tomorrow there was a private conversation and somebody said, we'll give you a Wembe, Stefan Castle, and our second pick in the first round for Curry. That's not realistic. that's just not, come on. Well, I'm just saying, nobody, the Dodgers, you can give them Aaron, Judge, and Garrett Cole. They would not move off Shohei Otani. Well, no, he's a moneymaker, the market, everything lines up. But I'm just telling you, I just got a text from this gentleman named Wardell Curry, and he said, WTF is Colin talking about, they are not trading me under any circumstances. Colin, he is their franchise. They're not moving off Curry. By the way, I'm sorry. I know he's old, and he's probably got one year left. under no circumstances are the Lakers trading LeBron James.

That's just not happening. There's no way. It's not happening. They're not doing it. The point is you don't know that. You could trade LeBron. Well, theoretically, you could trade Patrick Mahomes. If somebody says, hey, we got six first round things.

No, no, no, no. This isn't sports talk radio, right? This isn't like call from an anonymous phone. You can't trade Mahomes. You could absolutely trade LeBron tomorrow for Yokic. and Mark Walters would do it in one second. Okay, well, let's get Walters on the phone. There's no way they're trading LeBron.

By the way, has LeBron ever been traded? Against his will? Has he ever been 41? Doesn't matter. He's still LeBron James. He's printing money for the Lakers. The Lakers sell out during Kobe's awful last four years. You couldn't get a ticket.

L.A. is a bunch of star, you know whaters around here. They love LeBron. If he's healthy, they're showing up. Jay Mack, you can't. do this. You couldn't. The Lakers have lost Magic Kobe. Shack. They traded Shaq.

They traded Shaq. They had Kobe. Yeah, yeah. They did. The Shaq was unbilled. He was way more popular than Kobe. Shack was the unmovable force. They moved off him and didn't lose a season

ticket holder. Well, they also had Kobe and they were Kobe and him were beefing. The Lakers have Luca. If Luca and LeBron beefed, I guess, yes. I suppose. Well, there's the argument. There's a way. You can trade LeBron tomorrow.

If Luca went to the front office and said he's out, he's out. It's over. Lucas said that that's like my hero in basketball. I know we can create these scenarios, but come on. Come on. These guys, you can't take phone calls. In fact, I'll make the argument if you called, if Baltimore said, you know, we can almost see you guys from here. We're right across the Potomac.

We'll give you Lamar for Jaden Daniels. You don't do it. No, Jane Daniels is strong as rookie deal. Of course you don't do that. And I would argue in the pocket, he may be better than Lamar right now. Can we pump the brakes? He hasn't played 20 NFL games yet. Maybe he's not 21 games or whatever.

The brakes on this car don't work. I'm not even taking a call on him. Tomorrow, if Luke is just like, I can't do it with LeBron. They don't even hesitate to move LeBron. So again, what's the argument that they would trade Wembe from the Spurs? What is that again? Just run it by me? No, I'm saying.

I'm saying right now, I always use this argument. Let's throw out a crazy hypothetical. He misses another 40 games this year. You are going to look at him differently than you did two years ago. Yeah, but that's in a hypothetical. Let's deal in reality. No, it's not. No, it's not.

Biggs that get hurt in the first two years, we have a 25-year history. They get hurt again within two years. Technically, he didn't get hurt. He had a blood clot, a medical issue. Sorry to get all, you know. Well, there's not a lot of pro athletes at 21 that have major blood clot issues. It was an outlier. It was just random.

This isn't Greg Oden, okay? I'm not saying you would, but I'm saying there is a history of bigs and medical concerns early. I was said six years ago on Mb'd, I'm like, guys, he can't say healthy. I was right on that. You know, listen, I had fun four days watching my daughter play volleyball. I forgot how much fun this is, Colin.

Oh, my gosh. Geez, I just love arguing with you, man. J-Mack for the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, no argument here. You're Denver Broncos.

Everybody loves them. Bo Nix Center year two after having probably the second best rookie quarterback season after Jayden Daniels. In a recent TV appearance, Broncos left tackle, Garrett Bowles spoke highly of his quarterback. Bow was a tremendous football player. Man, I'm so grateful I get to protect him and, you know, being his blind side protector and, you know, giving them all. the time in the world you know he's he's a freaking ancient you know you look at the numbers that he put up last year you know you know between him and j t dam knows you know those with the two young quarterbacks that's going to be very successful and you know i have one of them behind me and

you know his demeanor his composure his you know his work that's it you know just always wanting to get better and um you know his arm talent and just the way he sees he has swag man he really does you know it's funny half the gms were not bownix fans Isn't that amazing? Well, he's like a Jack of All Trades Master of Nun. He's not a special player in any category. He's just good at everything. I mean, he's a rookie.

He threw for 3,800 yards and had 29 passing touchdowns. As a rookie in a division with Harbaugh and Andy Reed, and the Raiders actually defensively, we're okay. So for anybody who thinks Bo Nix could have a sophomore slump, he opens against the Tennessee Titans crap defense, and then the Indianapolis Colts average at best. Then he has the Bengals in week four, and they haven't played defense in a few years.

So there is a world where Knicks comes out hot, and honestly, Denver starts three and one are people like, ooh, is this maybe a Super Bowl team? Like this schedule, I know the Chargers game will be difficult out here at SoFi, and then that Eagles jets back to back on the road is tough. But the New York Giants don't have a defense, the Cowboys defense doesn't scare anybody.

You know, the Texans defense is good, not elite. I don't think. Sorry, Greg. I think there's a world where Knicks does not have a slump in Denver's an 11-win team. Yeah, I mean, it just was interesting. I remember going. I saw Bo Nix play twice live. And I remember the second time I went to Utah.

It was in Utah. And I got a seat in the second row. And because I wanted to be behind the Oregon bench. He was literally going, talking to his offensive lineman, barking. Like, it was like he was a coach. The first thing you noticed, he's way more ripped in person than you think. Like, he is jacked up. Not Will Levis, where it looks like he's, you know,

kind of infatuated with a mirror, but just kind of in shape. And then the second thing is, dude, that guy coaches on the sideline. Like, he is barking at college guys. So it's just funny that in the NFL, where quarterback's the number one position, a big chunk of the league with 61 games on tape, two major conferences. About half the league wasn't into him. I just don't get.

What didn't they see? He's more athletic. then I think people realize, maybe just people didn't watch enough Oregon, you watched them play in college, dude is an athlete. It's okay to say that the NFL still struggles at times to identify who's going to work in the NFL, a quarterback, and who won't. Next up, Colin, let's go to the Cowboys. Not talking about them a lot because there's really nothing to say,

but the wide receiver room is legit. They've got the one-two punch of pickings and CD Lamb. And listen, Brian Schottenheimer's first run as a head coach could be impressive. according to pro football focus, you can't find a better one-two punch at wide receiver. It's always operated best when they have a vertical threat that opens up the space to allow CD Lamb to work underneath. And you know what? I still think to this day, I think they're the winners right now of the George Pickens trade. I like this trade on their end. They can decide whether to extend him later. But he was one of five receivers in the NFL with a perfect 99.9 deep receiving grade.

The threat that Pickens gives you one-on-one deep down the field is going to open things up for Lamb, underneath, and I don't think you could pick two receivers that complement each other better than those two. I'll throw this at you. I'm going to name, I think there's about eight teams every year that could win the Super Bowl. And I'll name them and you say yes, if you believe it. Okay. Kansas City.

Yeah. Buffalo. Yeah. Baltimore. Yes. Detroit. Yeah. Rams.

Yeah. You like San Francisco. I'll put them in there. San Francisco. Yeah. I think the Chargers are going to be in that space. My personal opinion, Chargers, you may be yes or no.

Yeah, your Super Bowl bubble is going to be huge. Well, right now, and I think Denver's better than people think. So what do they all have in common? They all have good coaches. Like, it's interesting to watch Cowboy fan. There's an argument you have the worst staff in the league. I'm not saying coach is bigger than quarterback. But this Brian Schott and everything is going to unravel

by mid-October. He struggled to keep jobs as a coordinator. I've interviewed him. He has a reputation as a nice guy. He was a bounce-around guy at coordinator. Tell me the last bounce-around-the-league coordinator that became a great head coach. It doesn't exist.

Yeah. So it doesn't matter how Goods Piggins is. Mid-October, there's going to be rumors. I mean, never forget this, that Mike McCarthy left the Cowboys. That was before Pickens. I'll just say the variance with Pickens is going to be massive. I mean, Colin, he's playing for a contract, right? He's opposite CD Lamb.

And if him and Dak click, and he's like, man, I could be a big money guy, maybe Pickens keeps his, stays in line and isn't like a locker room disaster, like in Pittsburgh. I mean, doesn't that exist? That scenario? The only scenario I see is five and 12. That's it or less. This team does not win six games. All right.

I'm convinced of it. Yeah, we have a trade in the NBA, Colin. Holy cow. Here we go. The Los Angeles Lakers have traded up from the 55th pick in the second round of tonight's draft to the 45th pick. Now, it's unclear if the Lakers are targeting someone specifically or they are lining up a trade. There is a lot of stuff floating around right now about your guy, Austin Reeves, because he's in line for a four-year 89 million.

million dollar deal. But if he's traded to another team, he could make 182 mil, basically a lot more money if he goes elsewhere. Now, he's going to command a big, big contract. Do the Lakers trade him to get someone else to get in front of having to pay him? There's also reports, tell me would you do this, okay? Would you do Rui Hachimura, Dalton Connect, and a 2031 first round pick for Derek White? Yes. say it again to the audience Rui Hachimura, Dalton Connect, and a 2031 first.

LeBron will be long gone. Luca will be like 31 or something. For Derek White. Absolutely. Absolutely. Changes the Lakers. You would have a nucleus of Reeves, White, Luca, LeBron. That's formidable, but no size whatsoever.

Okay. That is a top three to four team in the West. You and this, they have no size, which is fine, because Derek White isn't sized. But Luke is a big guard. Derek White's an elite defender. So you would have four guys,

four, that can create shots or hit threes. You may not win a championship. You'd still have to make a size move. At some point, you have to, with the trade deadline, get size, because Jackson Hayes and Reddick, don't work. They went after Mark Williams from Charlotte. Well, he got traded to Phoenix. I wouldn't get him.

I think that's the easiest move you've ever proposed on this show. I didn't propose that. Hold on. hold it. That's a report. That's not mine. I'm on the fence on this deal. Order. So if that deal goes through, give me your top four players on the Lakers in order. Well,

I would say LeBron, Luca, Derek White, Austin Reeves. Derek White above Austin Reeves. Derek White's an elite defender. Austin Reeves is this chair. Oh, get the hell out of it. Stop disparaging my guy. All right?

The problem is... Austin Reeves, if he is your friend, Four, that's a conference final potential team. If you're not getting that. Let me just remind you, Rudy Gobert had like 27 and 20 in the clincher. Okay, this trade does nothing to help them against a big. Derek White's 31 and was on the team USA last year. He's better than Austin Reeves.

I got news for you. Austin Reeves against the T-wolves when they put athletes on him. Hello, anybody seen him? Where do you go? Oh, man. That would be a man. First of all, who's proposing this trait? I don't know.

It says report here. Listen, I'm not giving up the Japanese Jordan, aka Rui Hachimura. Without a fun. He's good. He's very valuable. And listen, first round picks down the road, I don't know where the Lakers are going to be in five years. I do think they're going to be good with new ownership, but we'll see. If that is available, make the move.

Derek White's your three. Now, in Boston, when they won a title, he was somewhere between a four and a five, but they're not Boston. They're not. And the East is easier than the West. But if Derek White's your three, and Austin's your four, that is a multiple potential, if everybody's healthy. And Luke is supposed to be in decent shape. That is a multiple series winning Western team. Lakers become the favorites in the West over-rated O-KC?

No, no, no, no. No. No. OKC. is better. Houston's probably better. Okay, C. But Dallas, I think, is pretty good. But I've said this for years. It's not about your star.

Who is your fourth best player? When the Warriors dominated the league, think about how this team. You had KD1, step two, Clay 3, Draymon 4. Draymond's the best defensive player in the history of the league. Okay, when that's your 4 and he's an offensive catalyst, that is an all-time team. If you go to Jordan, Pippen, I mean, Kooch at one point was great. And then Rodman, you start going to when your fourth guy is like a Hall of Fame level player, Derek White is a Team USA guy, tremendous shooter, smart guy, worker, and an excellent defender.

Boy, are the Celtics cleaning house or what? Why would they want? Dalton Connect. Get off money. Well, Dalton Connect is a gunner. Just like your boy, he loves to fill it up from downtown. Doesn't play a lot of D though. And those new Celtics owners are going to be shedding some payroll.

They're going to be down to Jalen Brown and a bunch of, uh, wicker furniture. What's what's going on here? They're dumping the whole franchise. J-MAC with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News.

Getting all fired up for that, J-Mack. J-Mack says, well, they're called reports. Well, who? Who's reporting? I'm interested. Joey Bagged Donuts in Boston, according to that. That was too specific for you to just make up. There's something there.

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So I had said the other day that I think Caitlin Clark maybe stylistically plays like Steph Curry, but I think she's really Michael Jordan, is that, you know, Magic and Bird, people say save the league, but Michael made it global. Michael really made a lot of guys rich, his ability to sell merchandise. That's why that movie air is so good. Damon, Ben Affleck, it's such a good movie. And that's her. She has moved merchandise up 500%, ratings 50%. Jordan's the only pro athlete in my lifetime that literally had half the league viewership in his pocket. And then she arrived. Michael, his second year, broke a bone in his foot and didn't play much.

And because the league was getting very, very physical. And in college basketball players, you know, you go from 30 games to play in 82 plus the playoffs in preseason. So now Caitlin Clark has banged up. She will not play again tonight. So the physicality, she's getting roughed up. the league has an off-season. How do we defend her? Well, it's pretty obvious how people want to defend her.

They're trapping, double-teaming, getting very physical, and now she's banged up. So her first six games, she was Caitlin Clark. In her last three games, she's averaging 12 a game and shooting 27 percent. She is not healthy. So this is where she's a lot like Michael Jordan is the physicality of the league. And basketball has always been this way. If you can't figure out how to stop somebody, Steph Curry faced some of this. In basketball, the answer is always, get physical with them.

Make them uncomfortable. Rick Bettina was on yesterday and talked about Caitlin Clark. 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 at a female version of Steph Curry. Incredible range. So you may or may not know this. So when Michael Jordan was getting beat up

by the Detroit Pistons, J-Mack, you're probably too young to remember this. Jordan finally decided, and from this point forward, he lifted weights day of game every day. Jordan got bigger and stronger. We've seen this with NFL quarterbacks. Like Jaden Daniels apparently,

he's put on 15 pounds. Lamar Jackson got, you know, thicker. But Jordan, after getting tackled for two years, was finding himself getting worn down by the NBA because they couldn't stop him. So let's tackle him, the Celtics and the Pistons. So Michael put on size. So my take for Caitlin Clark is she has to get more cut. Right now, she's a great basketball player. She's not terribly strong. And you can see it. Players push her around. She fell to the floor off kind of a semi-body check. And it's like, so I think it's very much an MJ comp in terms of influence and merchandise and strength. It's a step comp in that her style, you know, her stylistically, she plays much more stuff than she does Michael Jordan. But I think

this is, I don't think it's problematic. I think it's the reality. This is why they went and got Sophie Cunningham. Yeah. She needed a Charles Oakley. That's why they went and got Charles Oakley in Chicago to protect Michael Jordan. Okay. So that's what you're seeing. So first of all, that Jordan's story, so much has been made of it. Oh, I had to get in the weight room and pump iron. after the Pistons beat me up. Let me just remind people, the Pistons went to the finals three years in a row. The final year, they knocked out the Bulls, and that's what Jordan said, I got a lift. So, of course, the Pistons are gassed.

The next year, the Bulls sweep them. So there's this narrative. Michael just got stronger and then kicked Detroit's butt. And not really. But to Curry, Colin, interestingly, early in his career, remember he had ankle injuries? Yeah. And he was not going to get the big bank money. That's right.

And he ended up getting on like a cheaper contract. I know it sounds cheap, but it was like 80 million instead of the real big money. Yeah, relative to what he could have had. Right. So he was on like one of the best deals ever, and that's when they got hot. But some of these guys, you're right, they're a little wiry. I don't, what are you, expecting Caitlin Clark to like get on creatine and gain like 10 pounds? No, but I do think when I watch Caitlin Clark, I mean, Jordan went from 195 to 215.

Yeah, I don't, I don't know that that works with women's bodies in basketball. The way she plays, I don't know that that's... When you look at her, you don't see a ton of definition. No. It works with anybody. Like, Asia Wilson, if you watch her play, she's physical. This is, like, different frame. But let me ask you this.

Maybe the WNBNB and Ains to step up and referee her in a way that says, that's the face of our league. We can't have people drop in her all the time. We need to protect our stars the way the NFL, you know this. The NFL protects quarterbacks. Remember, there was a while. You breathe on. Brady, you breathe on my homes. You're getting a flag. You go back to hockey's history. Hockey had an

era when scoring went down and you were able to clutch and grab and hockey stepped in and said, this is bad for the game. It's slowing it's down. Yeah, I wouldn't have a problem doing that. And the NBA went the other way. NBA says our game, our players are so skilled, we have to make the game more physical. Otherwise, it's 138, 130, and people hate now the All-Star game. So the NBA skill is so great. They want a more physical game, but NBA guys can jump over you. Yeah. WNBA players, it's not a vertical league.

So I do think you may have to consider, like hockey did or like the NFL is done, okay, we're like quarterbacks are sitting targets, a lot of them. Yeah. I do think it's something you have to consider, which is we're going to officiate the WNBA at the trade deadline or whenever they hit it. differently than we've done before. I don't think that's radical. Colin, remember, she got bumped, poked in the eye and then bumped. Since that game, she's won for 23 on three-pointers. I don't think it's a coincidence that she's been kind of rattled and shook.

I don't know that they injured her in that game, but something seems off clearly. She doesn't look like herself. Think about what's happened in American sports. Baseball has made four to five changes. They've all worked. All of them. Yeah. The NFL, they changed their kickoff. They've changed their PAT.

Now, I love the PAT change. Kick off, I'm not sure. The NBA's never been reluctant to make changes. I think they should shorten the playoffs, from 10 weeks to like eight, seven gamers to five games, maybe until the finals. But I do think the WNBA has had to sort of modify or shift the sport based on having their first superstar, a global superstar. So I think the knock on the WNBA is,

You weren't prepared for her. And Christine Brennan has a book out. Yes. And it's very interesting. I talked about this the area. Caitlin Clark had a game against Michigan when she was a sophomore and dropped 46. And Christine Brennan says people who were at the game said, this is one of the great games in the history of women's basketball.

This player is different. That was like Luca at 15 was having games where people were like, this Luca guy, we've never seen anybody offensively. like this in Europe. So I do think the WNBA, maybe now to get the critics off their backs, should modify officiating to, and you say, well, it's pandering. No, it's not. It's keeping your assets healthy. Yeah. Protect the moneymaker, baby. Yep. All right, two hours, flying by. It is a Thursday. Hour three coming up. It's the hurt. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what?

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