The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD - Hour 1 - Adam Silver is sick and tired of tanking in the NBA, Knick are a serious contender

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

With Colin Cowherd out, Jason McIntyre steps in to cover the return of NBA action and why he still buys the Knicks as a serious title contender this season Adam Silver is cracking down on tanking in the NBA Ravens sending Lamar Jackson a message?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 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.

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on the ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown if you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole. This podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to Deeply Well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IH

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and 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 in the IHeart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. It's Friday. Welcome to the Herd, Jason McIntyre in for Colin Cowherd. I am joined today. It's a bloomy day if you're a New York Knicks fan. I'm joined today by Rachel Nichols, who is not a Knicks fan.

But she likes the NBA just as much as I do. We got a lot happening, Rachel. Oh, my goodness. Adam Silver. I know. Tanking. I know. We're going to see some big changes coming up.

We can talk about them. Allegedly. We'll see what the league does. We've got a couple great guests lined up. That's some trouble potentially ahead in Baltimore for Lamar Jackson. I don't know if you guys are seeing the quotes coming out of Baltimore. Not great. We'll get to that in a little bit.

But I have to admit, I need to start the show today. It's Friday with a bit of an apology. You got to start here. Yesterday, we talked Cleveland Cavs, getting the number one seed. We talked New York Knicks, going to the NBA finals. I neglected to mention the Detroit Pistons, who are the team with the best record of the NBA. I don't know how they've done it. It's amazing.

Cade Cunningham starts off the second half with an unbelievable performance at MSG last night. 42 points. The Pistons, ladies and gentlemen, have swept the Knicks, swept them 3-0 and beat them down. all three games this season badly. Now here's what's even more special last night. They went into MSG without two of their top seven. Jalen Duren and Beef Stew, both serving a suspension for their goonery against Charlotte last week, getting in a bit of an altercation there.

And Detroit's win last night? Holy hell. Very impressive. I saw some concerned Knicks fans. I saw some concerned Knicks media. I mean, people are clamoring. We need Janus. It's over.

We're not going to the finals. Take a deep breath, ladies and gentlemen. I love the NBA. It's also February. Coming out of the All-Star break, O.G.N. and Obie was awful last night. Mikhail Bridges, once again, quite terrible. People want to ship him FedEx anywhere.

Get him out of town. We need Yonis. And I just, I want to take a deep breath. Okay? Let's not overreact to a February loss or the other two losses to the Pistons. And I'll just remind people, this kind of thing happens often in the east.

I'm young enough to remember those Toronto Raptors teams with Kyle Lowry and Demard de Rosen. They were so dominant. 50 wins, 60 wins, crushing everybody in the regular season. And I was told, hey, they could go to the finals. This is the year. And every single year, LeBron James was in the east. He would just smack them down in the playoffs. In fact, one of them was an incredible sweep.

I remember telling Coward, I think this is the year I bought into the Raptors hype. And we go watch the game. And, of course, LeBron wins it with a late shot. and it's like, okay, sweep. And I also remember those Paul George teams in Indiana with Roy Hibbert, David West. Good teams, really good teams. Oh, they're going to break through. They're going to give Miami and LeBron problems.

No. I mean, it was a fun series, but ultimately LeBron prevailed. I mean, hell, I even remember that Derek Rose team with the Bulls. They were the number one seed. And Derek Rose was the MVP and what happened? LeBron James. This is what happens in the East. Now, I know a lot of those were against LeBron, but this next team is pretty damn good.

They're battle tested. They've been to the playoffs. I'm just not totally ready to crown the pistons like everyone else. Are they an excellent basketball team? Yes, certainly. Number two in defensive efficiency in the league. Ladies and gentlemen, they lock you up. They got the bigs.

They got the toughness. And that's one thing the Knicks appeared to not have last night. And I saw Ian O'Connor, great columnist in New York, wrote about how the Knicks need to turn back the clock. Get that 90s toughness back. Yeah, those who were. my favorite Knicks teams ever, Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, John Starks, my guy, Patrick Ewing. They never broke through Michael Jordan and the Bulls. They could never do it. And when Jordan

quit and went to do baseball, then they get to the finals and lose to Elijah won in one of the most painful series of my youth that I can recall as a sports fan. So I don't think toughness is the answer. I just think the Knicks need to, I know this is going to sound cheap and cheesy. They just need to lock in. This is a team not a lot to prove in the regular season. When you go to the playoffs, losing the second round two years in a row, then losing the conference finals, you're not concerned with February games. They did not look like a team that was like, oh, we got to have this. We got to beat the Pistons tonight. Newsflash, guys. What is this Detroit Pistons team won? I had to look this up. They haven't won a playoff series since Obama was president.

TikTok was not even in existence in 2008. At least best I could tell, maybe it was happening in China. But like, that's how long it's been since the Pistons were good. Three years ago, they won 17 games, worst record in the league. Okay, they've got to crawl before they can run. I'm not ready to put this team in the finals. They're very good. Are they going to win a series? They should.

They're going to be the number one seed. Be careful with those pesky lamello ball, Charlotte Squad. They're dangerous, but Detroit should be fine. But are they going to get past the Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, court. Are they going to get by my Knicks? I don't know. I still think when you break down the Pistons and Knicks in a seven game series, and I watched that series closely last year, Cade was awful from three point land, 17%. Jalen Brunson was the man in that series. I still think four of the best five players on the court belong to the Knicks. Sorry Jalen Duren,

very good player, All-Star. I trust McHale Bridges in a playoff series more than I do, Duren. And OG, of course, and Kat. And Knicks, hey, no pressure. If it fails, you just nuke the team and bring in Janus. No big deal. All right, let's pivot to a huge story in the association. And yesterday, Adam Silver, yes, Adam Silver, the commissioner of the league, reached out to the 30 general managers, general managers, not owners, he works for the owners, and said, we are going to do something about tanking.

And folks, there was a collective, yes, we did it. Populism, fans, we won. Adam Silver is going to fix tanking. And there was this huge excitement in the air over potentially the end of tanking. And I'm here to tell you, I'm very reluctant to believe that this is going to solve anything. So here is Adam Silver talking about the need to curb tanking. The league is 80 years old. It's time to take a fresh look at this and to see whether that's an antiquated way of going about doing it.

We've got to look at some fresh thinking here. I mean, what we're doing, what we're seeing right now is not working. There's no question about it. Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we've seen in recent memory? Yes, is my view. Yeah, he's not wrong. This is an anomaly. Okay, the tanking is excessive this year because this June's draft is going to rival the 1984 draft with Jordan and Elijah won,

the 2003 draft with LeBron and Wade and Mello. and the 1996 draft, which had three MVPs, which was ridiculous, Kobe and company. So it's a little excessive and everybody needs a star. But I was reading a quote from the great Charlie Munger, who was essentially the right-hand man, the wingman of Warren Buffett. And he talked about incentives, and he said, well, what's the incentive? I'll show you the outcome when you tell me the incentive. And the incentive in the NBA is to be bad to get star players, like Darren Peters.

like AJ DeBanza, like Mr. Boozer and Duke. I mean, there's a slew of really talented college players, and that is the best path to getting good in the NBA. And I talked about this, I think we talked about this yesterday. Okay, so you can tank in soccer if you want, that's fine, and you can go get the best goalie that the world has ever seen. He's not going to change your fortunes. He's one of 11 players on the field.

Yes, you'll be a better, but he's not going to do it the way a basketball player can do it. There's only five guys on the court. You get a superstar basketball player. Instantly, you become relevant. I will point out LeBron James in Cleveland. What did the Cavs done before LeBron got there? A bunch of ousted in the first round, second round, Craig Elo, Mark Price, Brad Dordy. They're good teams. You got LeBron James, certifiable superstar. You go to the moon. You got Wembeen Yama in San Antonio? Hello? There were teams tripping over themselves tanking that season. Go look it up. You got one Benyama. And they're now probably going to be on top the league for a decade.

One of my favorites, of course, is the San Antonio Spurs, who had David Robinson. I don't know if you guys remember this. And Greg Popovich was the GM. Yes, the GM of the Spurs. David Robinson gets hurt. He's out for the season. Greg Popovich fires the coach. A couple other players, Sean Elliott, they're injured.

Let's just shut it down and tank. They had won 59 games. They tank. win the lottery and get a gentleman by the name of Tim Duncan. Tanking works. They went from 59 wins to 20 wins. Tim Duncan, boom. Now, obviously, you have to supplement the roster with great draft picks like

Genoblee and Parker, who they hit on. But tanking does work. I know people hate that, but it is the best path to success in the NBA. That's how you get a superstar. Because if we're being real, like the Utah Jazz, you know, it's tough to land a Carl Malone and a John Stockton. who's going to who who's clamoring to get to Utah and free agency and that's not a knock on the city i went to Utah for my daughter's volleyball tournament salt lake seems pretty awesome downtown

is super clean seems nice i just don't know that that's where NBA players you know young 25 year old guys want to want to go sign and so the draft and tanking is the best path to success so this year we see everybody last night there was a game between the wizards and the Pacers and And normally, like, who cares these teams are out of the playoffs? I was watching just to see, like, who's going to actually play. Go look at the names. You guys know I follow college basketball very closely. I barely could tell half the guys on the court.

I don't know where they found these dudes. It was essentially a tank off and both teams are trying to lose. And I know that does sound bad. And the 15,000 people in the arena probably didn't enjoy it. But let's remember it. Sports are entertainment for fans. the owners, they got one goal and that's to make money hand over fist.

And here is Adam Silver one last time talking about tanking. He's going to do his best. Here he is. If you step back and the fundamental theory behind a draft is to help your worst performing teams restock and be able to compete.

The issue is if teams are manipulating their performance in order to get higher draft picks even in a lottery, then the question becomes, even if teams were rewarded for draft picks purely according to the predicted odds of the lottery, are they really the worst performing teams? So it's a bit of a conundrum.

He's not wrong. Now, here's the funny thing. This happens every year. Just the extent is significant this year. But I'm a Jets fan in the NFL, and I watch my Jets try out a quarterback who had no business starting so they could tank and get their. the number one pick. They failed because the Raiders out tanked them. But weirdly, you didn't read a lot of that in the media, but it was a 1,000% tank by both those teams. This happens in all sports.

Why is it heightened around the NBA? I can't answer that, but I can't answer this. If Adam Silver tries everything, and some of these ideas are not terrible, I don't love the idea that you can't pick top four in consecutive years. I don't know. Rachel and I can discuss that later. But like, there is an incentive to get the best player. To do that, you need to lose games. Until you can somehow fix that, and I don't know that you can. I mean, we could try like, hey, owners, if you don't want to try to win, get out of here.

We can try a lot of stuff. But I can tell you this, you will never fully expel tanking from the NBA. It's just not going to happen. So I do love that story. Rachel, I know you're passionate about tanking. You know the NBA well. We'll get into it later. Are you happy with Adam Silver's comments yesterday?

I just think that tanking is a symptom. not the problem, right? So as long as that's the case, you've got to fix the problem first. Because, yes, we all don't enjoy watching teams tank, but that's not the problem. The problem is there aren't that many avenues for bad teams to get better.

Until you give people more avenues to get better, they're going to tank. Do you think that any team in the NBA wants to lose for five months in a row, alienate their fans, teach their young players how to lose? Nobody wants to do that. They're doing that because

they have to. So you have to give them other ways to do it. And maybe we'll solve tanking later in the show. I don't know. It's possible. But coming up next, folks, Lamar Jackson, Jesse Minter, the new OC. What is going on in Baltimore? Listen, it is a brand new organization. They got the sender who's not signed. I don't know, folks. Ravens, Potential trouble. That's next year on the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, F.S1 and the IHeart Radio app. Fox Sports Radio is taking over YouTube,

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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. 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, 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. 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

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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. 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,

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And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Very exciting. Friday, got the college basketball slate tomorrow, Michigan Duke, Arizona in action. You know I love college basketball. March Madness right around the corner. I want to talk about the Baltimore Ravens for a sec.

Not really on my radar. It's funny. After the Super Bowl, you get like a week of, okay, this coach is going to go here to be a coordinator and blah, blah, and you have a couple moves. And then you get two weeks out from the Super Bowl, and football kind of gets quiet before the combine ramps up. So I had kind of sort of missed what was going down in Baltimore.

So the Ravens have a new head coach in Jesse Minter. We love him. He had been in Baltimore, went to the Chargers, the coach with the other Harbaugh, defensive mastermind, just an unbelievable season, and then Minter comes back and lands in Baltimore as the new head coach replacing John Harbaugh. Okay, we'll talk about John Harbaugh's exit in a second. So then they need to hire an offensive coordinator.

Minter's a defensive guy. Now, historically, you know, we don't love, by say we, I mean like this show, we don't love hiring defensive guys because if you hire an offensive coordinator and he's a smash hit, everybody's going to want him, and the next logical move for that guy is to be a a head coach. So within a year or two or three, he gone. And you're going to have to start the cycle over either with his offense or a new offense. It's just never pretty. It can work, but it doesn't always work. We'll see, Seattle's a perfect test case as McDonald's, a great defensive coach. Kubiak pops. He gone instantly. Okay? So Baltimore goes out and hires a guy by the name

of Declan Doyle, 29 years old. Yes, the same age as Lamar Jackson, who is 29, just turned 29. It's like, wow, OC's same age as the quarterback. Well, that could work. They could be, you know, young guys together. Gen Z. Gen Y. I don't even know the Jens. You can laugh what you want. Maybe that will work. And I read some quotes about, oh, my gosh, what a big loss, Bears players. Declan Doyle's a huge loss. He didn't call plays in Chicago. That went to Ben Johnson, according to everything out of Chicago. And Declan Doyle did not call plays before that when he was in Denver with Sean Peyton. So he was with a proximity to greatness does not equal greatness.

You're around Sean Payton, you're around Ben Johnson. Doesn't automatically mean you're going to be a smash hit, but you clearly learned a lot. So then I'm like, oh, maybe Declan Doyle was like some big time quarterback. And he will have that connection with Lamar. No, no. He was a standout youth baseball player in Iowa. Huh? And then he switched to become a football coach, according to the Ravens website?

What's going on here? And underlying all of this, you've got Lamar Jackson, who essentially ran off John Harbaugh. By the way, I'm still waiting for the goodbye. You guys know you love a good goodbye when you work with someone for a long time. And then you leave most quarterbacks, coaches say goodbye, shout out on social media. Obviously, Tua, McDaniel, Kyler Murray, Gannon, a lot of these guys.

Haven't seen anything from Lamar on John Harbaugh. Maybe I missed it. Maybe it's possible I missed it. I'm not online all the time. But Lamar wants a new contract now. Remember how the last contract went, right? The last negotiation was ugly. Didn't have an agent.

His mom was negotiating the deal. Wanted the Deshawn Watson contract. Was not thrilled. He got a really nice deal, but he didn't get the Deshawn Watson contract. And so you add all this up. And you're like, well, hmm, how are things going to go? And then Declan Doyle said this about Lamar. Take a listen.

I think there's a number of things that you watch that I think that he can get even better. I think there's even a higher ceiling to his game. You're looking at a guy who's been the MVP twice, and yet I still think that just like all of our guys, but I think he still has room to grow as well. I think that any player it takes really being able to work with them, hands on, be able to watch him, figure out what he does best, and then be able to shape and build this offense around what those things are.

Really, that trust is going to be earned through time. You know, it's not like I can call up Lamar and say, hey, I need you to trust me. We'll earn that over time, and it's really going to be a two-way street. He's got to earn my trust. I have to earn his trust. Hmm. I like that. That sounded good.

Great sound bite. Well-spoken individual. So you got rookie head coach and Jesse Minter, rookie OC and Declan Doyle calling plays, veteran quarterback who's won two MVP's, and depending on who you read, just ran off the head coach. Then two days ago,

Declan Doyle talking about OTAs, we expect everyone to be here even though it's voluntary. And of course, the staff this morning reminded me, oh yeah, Lamar, he don't like those voluntary workouts. He's blown them off. He's been fined in the past.

ESPN had a story about how Lamar really doesn't feel the need to show up for those, doesn't go to them. What's brewing in Baltimore? I don't know the answer. Maybe this is all excellent, and you get the new head coach, the new vibes, you get rid of the old staff and things are great. But I'm starting to wonder. I even saw that Tyler Lindenbaum, their center is a free agent.

And the quote we've got is there's still a lot of work to do on his contract, folks. They're not going to let Linderbom go, are they? The last three years, I think he's been a pro bowler. Are we doing this? new head coach, new OC, new play caller. I think you've probably got one of the youngest staffs in the league. I don't know what word to use to describe Lamar, two-time MVP coming off a rough season where he was injured.

New head coach, new culture. You want everything started on the right foot? Lamar, you're going to show up to the voluntary workouts? I'll be watching. Let's go to Rachel Nichols with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

I don't want to plant any seeds. You're just causing trouble. I'm just asking questions. We're allowed to be there, right? You get the impression they're going to ask Lamar, you know, hey, do you want to be better than you were last year? Do you want to actually break through in the playoffs? Can you be a leader and show up? Are you wearing purple?

Is that, is that? That is not, no. That's not purple. This is blue. Come on. Colorblind? I need new contacts. Let's go across the country to another team, the Rams.

Sean McBaeigh and the Rams promoting Nate Shieldhouse from passing game coordinator to offensive coordinator. Schillhouse interviewed for five head coaching jobs this offseason, so he has been in demand, but they convinced him to stay, returned to what was, of course, the NFL's top offense last season. I don't think it hurts that MVP Math Stafford has also said he's coming back because Schillhaus and he are tight.

What do you expect to see from this new Rams OC? Well, it's interesting because I thought they hired Cliff Kingsbury. They did but to be under him. What? Yeah. That is crazy. Yeah. Kingsbury is an OC with your Washington team?

Yeah, and a former head coach. Former head coach and now he's below. How do you say his name, Shielhaus? Shealhaus. I don't know. That's interesting. But McVeigh's still there. Stafford still.

They should be fine. His job previous to this is a very important job in the system. In that whole like Shanham McVeigh system, they start the writing of the plays. So he's got a guy. This guy has a lot of promise. He's already got more experience than you might think he does just from the titles. And you have to wonder. two if he interviewed for five jobs.

There was a little bit of McVeigh saying, hey, we'll promote you to this. And if you succeed as the Rams offensive coordinator, I mean, look at what the Rams offensive coordinators have gone on to do. They've had four OCs under McVeigh, and all four are now head coaches. And by the way, this is good for the league, too, because Shellhouse is black. There's now only three offensive coordinators. There are 21 new offensive coordinators in the NFL, and he is the third now. who is black, which is better than two, I guess.

But it is good because if you have McVe putting them in position to get a head coaching job, you know, we obviously had this cycle this year where you had 10 openings, no black head coaches, and it's a problem. So this at least is a step both for him personally, hopefully a good step for the Rams if you're a Rams fan and for the league at large. And any Rams fans think I'm questioning this move. They're my Super Bowl pick for next year. I don't know how you can't pick them.

Yeah. Still think they were better than Seattle, but that's not the other. Let's talk a little bit about the Lakers expecting Luca, LeBron, Austin Reeves. They're all going to be in the lineup together. Wow. They're all going to be there. It's only the 11th time this season, which is kind of surprising to me. Reeves will be off his minutes restriction from that calf injury.

Luca's expected to fully recover from a mild hamstring injury. So generally health, right? They sit at fifth in the west right now, Jason. So this is it. This is the final kick, right? What do you expect from them going forward, assuming these three guys can stay healthy? Well, I surely expect them to win tonight, right? And I can't believe you.

You said 10 games together? 11. Oh, this will be the 11th, yeah. I mean, at what point do we have to bake that into handicapping the Lakers? I mean, Luca got here last February. So in a calendar year, I bet they haven't played 60 games together, that's true. So what's a little hard right now with the NBA when you talk about, oh, can these guys stay healthy and are we baking that into a playoff run?

The moment there is anything to do with a hamstring or calf injury, these guys are pulled off the board because nobody wants to get in Achilles and knock you out for a year. So in a playoff situation, I don't know if they're getting pulled off the board that quickly. So I just don't know if it's as much of an indicator health-wise as it may have once been.

Okay, and I see that the Clippers played last night, beat the Nuggets, so they're on a back-to-back against the Lakers. Kauai played heavy minutes, All-Star Weekend, played 33 minutes last night. Lakers got to be. I haven't seen a line on this one. Lakers got to be favored here.

They should win. They should be favored. They have the 10th hardest strength of schedule going forward. The Lakers always have like a backloaded schedule because I want to put them on prime time after NFL season's over. But they are playing a bunch of tanking teams. I counted like six or seven games against teams that are tanking. What's your ceiling on the Lakers standings-wise? Because that Clippers win last night knocks the nuggets down a peg.

Aaron Gordon looks like he's still at least two weeks away. The Lakers are fifth, but they're literally one game out of the game out of the game. of third. Yeah. Like Houston's there. We saw Houston get a win last night. Nuggets are ahead of them, but they've got the injuries. Peyton Watson still hurt.

If the Lakers could just get healthy, I mean, can you imagine them at the three playing Minnesota again? Yeah. I mean, look, right now they play the Nuggets. That hasn't gone that well for them. I don't want to see the Nuggets. I do not want to see that. I'd rather play Houston than the Nuggets, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Look, I think the West, the way the bracket works out, and this was true last year, too, is going to be the biggest indicator of who gets to the Western Conference. You have so many teams in a clot who could beat each other. And it's just who runs into who win. So you have a matchup that could be in the conference finals, but instead we see it in the first round.

And whichever team loses, it's going to be considered a failure for that season. Yeah. When it could have been a conference finals matchup. So it's just, I think, you know, every win is so important right now. And how that bracket ends up is really what's going to determine more even than how good the team is.

The only thing we know is OKC and the Spurs are going to be one, two, in some order. It's not a lock that OKC's won. Spurs could steal one. Yep. After that, it's, like you said, a log jam. I don't see the sun's coming up. Curry is out for another, what, two weeks? The Warriors are cooked.

Man, that West playoffs, that first round is going to be so good. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. All right, let's move on to the Eagles. A.J. Brown. I feel like we've talked about A.J. Brown and the Eagles so many times this past season. Definitely felt, again, destined for a divorce once the season was over. But, you know, Howie Roseman, he keeps saying, Jason, you don't trade good players.

And A.J. Brown is a good player. AJ, on the other hand, has been linked to New England and his former coach, Mike Brable, who he had a good relationship with. And he's explaining a little bit why here. Take a listen. I want to make sure that you're staying engaged. And he's going to go over the keys to the victory of the week. And he's going to, and you better know him, like, to the back on your hand. And so I used to write in my notebook because at the time, I didn't really like Brab.

I didn't really like him. I admit that he knows that. And so I used to write, I hate Brab, I hate Ray, I hate Ray. When I say he holds every single player accountable from top to bottom, I don't care who it is. Like, that's who he is. And it makes the team come together because nobody, nobody's bigger than the team. Nobody's bigger than the program. So you have to respect it.

So largely he's saying, I used to hate it, but then I realized the bigger picture, and now I really like him. And that obviously sparks, oh, is he going to the Patriots rumors, of course. But, I mean, do you think the Eagles should hang on to him? Because there's a lot of chatter out of Philadelphia right now that the Eagles want to keep him. That's weird. Because during the season, when it was ugly, we got to get him out of town. Now that there's been like no games for the Eagles for, what, two months? Well, in fairness, Roseman never said, we got to get him out of town.

His line over and over was you don't trade elite players. Yeah, yeah. I just meant like the vibes with him talking and being unhappy and petulant. I'm looking at the numbers. There's been a little bit of a drop-off, right? He was a 1,400-yard kind of guy in the first two years in Philly. Last two years, closer to 1,000. Turning, what, 29 here in June?

Yeah. We just saw the dolphins get off Tyreek Hill because, I mean, he's hurt, but still. Bit of a headache. I was saying. Right. We've seen teams move off Stefan Diggs. Do you want the headache, Rachel? It feels, I mean, look, I'm not in that locker room. It feels to me like A.J. Brown is more emotional than he is a headache, right?

Those are two different things. I like that. Right? So sort of, you know, it's the end of the world when he's not getting the targets he wants and they lose and all that stuff. And it's great when it's all working together. I think the Eagles know he's still so talented, right? I mean, you say 29, like he's 40. He's 29.

Fair. And also they've got a new offensive coordinator coming in. And, you know, that continuity could be good for hurt. So I wouldn't be surprised if he stays. And also you do have the new OC who's supposed to bring in more of those, you know, it's all in vogue, the McVeigh, you know, Shanahan principles. And it's possible those two have had a heart to heart as well because they did talk. I mean, you guys had the Terry McLauran situation in Washington last year, right? He was unhappy, won his contract, got it.

Yeah. This season went sideways. Yeah. He's about, I think he's a little older than A.J. Brown. Yeah. I don't, I just. You've worked with some headaches, I imagine, in your time? No.

I've never worked with any. Fortunately, never work with any headaches. Yeah. But I just would rather not, if I didn't have to, you know? Like, if you can get it. Is that headache? Is that headache getting you 1,400 season? No, but what if I could get a draft pick and someone via trade that give you,

you 80% of AJ Brown minus the reading a book on the sideline stuff. Right. That gets all the headlines and has people in the locker room. They put a freaking Easter Bunny in the locker room, didn't they? Yes. Like, what is that crap? You don't see that normally. Is that partially due to AJ Brown?

Like, what spurred that stuff? Look, here's what I know. I think how is the best of personnel in the entire NFL. I think he is the best. And I think this will be a combination of what offer do they get if they have the feeling out there. Are you getting that offer

that you just said? I take him for X. If you're not getting that offer, then you keep him. Yeah. Right? If you feel because you know the locker room, you need that continuity. If Jalen Hertz comes to you and says, I need that continuity, like, they keep him. If they get a blockbuster offer that they're not expecting, because there's a lot

of teams in the league right now that could use a really good wide receiver, then maybe they do it. I just think that this is probably not a black and white situation. I don't think it's a we have to get rid of him situation, and I don't think think on his part, just listening to what his teammates say, it's a he hates to be here situation. It's just to your point, do we need the headache? Do we need a guy who's emotional every week?

Well, it depends what we could get for him because we do need the yards. We do need the touchdowns. I mean, and the draft is a crapshoot. It's easy to say, go find puka and a good guy. Okay, what about Keon Coleman? Yeah. At the Buffalo Bill. You know, like, you just don't know totally what you're going to get. Rachel, with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lye News. So yesterday we talked about this potential farewell tour for LeBron. Lakers fans are all about it. Oh, bring us Janice.

And we get the LeBron Farewell Tour. But now we're getting some pushback. Can you have a farewell tour and compete for a championship? Can that possibly be done? We'll talk about that next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers. And guess what?

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with the green flag at 3, only on Fox. All right, yesterday I went deep into the idea that LeBron could have a farewell tour with the Lakers. a streaming service would get involved. It sounded awesome and tasty, and Lakers fans loved it. Bit of a problem. Something not considered

that someone brought up in the morning meeting. So, J. Mack, you remember that Michael Jordan farewell tour with the Wizards? Yeah, they were a disaster. They couldn't get to the playoffs. Do you remember the Kobe Bryant farewell tour? It was awesome watching Kobe go off.

The Lakers were not a good basketball team. They didn't win 40 games. someone also referenced a Dirk Novitsky farewell tour. They did not make the playoffs. The only one that I could find of the big time farewell tours to make the playoffs was Kareem Abdul Zabbar. Now that's not to take anything away from Kobe's. Kobe's was spectacular. Everybody in L.A. remembers that vividly.

Final game. I mean, just the stuff dreams are made of. Unbelievable. Okay. If LeBron wants to do a farewell tour with the Lakers and the Lakers, and the Lakers want to get Yannis. Now, there is a report, according to the athletic, that the Lakers are preparing an all-out pursuit for Yannis,

should not surprise anybody. Can they serve both masters? Can they do the farewell tour for LeBron and all the hoopla that's involved with that, every arena you go to, all about the king, and also try to go for a championship? Because you don't remember the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar one in 1989.

The Lakers had had an amazing run in the 80s. they were kind of petering out at the end. And Jabbar was like a 10.5 rebound guy. You know, Cap. My dad's favorite basketball player of all time. He had the goggles. He wasn't like the centerpiece of the team or anything. He wasn't even like an integral 30 minute a game guy.

I think he was playing like 20 minutes a game. And so this would be unforeseen to try to have LeBron still be one of the key players on the team while doing a farewell tour. And oh, by the way, going for another. championship. That's crazy. And then, and this is the part that I also had not considered, this is why I love feedback. Does Janus want to get involved in something like that? Hey, Janus, come to L.A., play with Luca. Awesome. Sick. Are you keeping Austin Reeves too? Nice. We got a squad. And LeBron's going to stay, too, on the cheap end do a farewell tour.

Huh? How are we going to pull that off? It's going to be, you mean I'm coming to L.A. and it's going to be all about LeBron? Because if we're being. Being honest, I know the Lakers want Luca to be like, it's Luca's team. Lucas's been there for a year. How could it be his team? It's not like they drafted him. They traded for him. I mean, it's not as much Yonis' team, but like it's barely Lucas team.

If anybody's, it's LeBron's. So these are questions that we've got to answer. And that's why I know some people are like, oh, the NBA tanking, blah, blah, blah. These are the subplots that have me up at night, like dreaming of cool fun scenarios. and what's going to happen? Because I'm going to be honest with you guys. This whole Janus, oh, I saw the Miami Heat want Janus.

Okay, great. Are they giving up Bam out of bio? No. So they're giving up everybody but Bam. So you're telling me, Janus is leaving a bad situation, non-playoff team in Milwaukee, and he now wants to go to Miami to play with Bam out of bio and do what exactly?

Where are they going? If anything, you want to play with LeBron. Now, obviously, you know, LeBron has, there's a lot that. comes with that. By the way, LeBron was asked this weekend this past weekend about his future, and I kind of like his answer. Here we go. I want to live. When I know you guys know, I don't know. I have no idea. I just want to live. That's all. And how is your personal uncertainty for the summer and beyond for your career play as a factor in your urgency here?

No. This is we gained as we geared him as towards the post season. So it has not. It has not. nothing to do with that. Same motivation, same mind factor. Just, you know, this is, we've got past the marathon and now the sprint is about to start. Gosh, he's good. So, like

these other scenarios for Janus, I keep looking at him. There's nowhere great, guys. Miami doesn't make sense. The Knicks kind of does, but if you've got to give up OG and Kat, can Janus, Brunson, Bridges, Hart, is that a championship team? Probably,

probably in the east. But if you're honest, you're going to Jalen Brunson's team. They traded for him. They love him. He's the man in New York City. And I don't know how much that stuff matters because I'm not, you know, on the ground floor there. But if we're being honest, when Kevin Durant went to Golden State, that was a thing. That was a talking point.

He was asked about it. You're going to Curry's team. Now, Kevin Durant's a little different. I think we're going to talk about his burner. Maybe later in the show, hopefully. I think we'll talk about that. But like, not everybody's built different. Maybe Janice doesn't care if he goes to Jalen Brunson's team.

Maybe it's a goofy idea to even say it's Jalen Brunson's team. So I keep coming back to listen. What's wrong with the Lakers? It's not like Luca is the guy, but it's not his team. Does that make any sense, Rachel? Well, I think you kind of, I don't think it's a comparable situation to KD and the Warriors. So KD hadn't won yet. Had not won, yes.

And he went to the Warriors who had already won. and in fact had beaten him in the previous playoff series. And so the accusation was, oh, you need to go to the guy that beat you to actually win and that sort of thing. In this case, Janus is the one who has won, right? Whether he goes to play with a co-star in Luca or a co-star in Jalen Brunson, the Knicks haven't won anything. Nothing. Right? In, what, since 73 or whatever it was?

Before my time. So if Janus goes to the Knicks, just as an example, right? and they win the story if you want to play one of those story lines if you want to get into the Who Help 2 which I personally think is a little ridiculous but I do know that's how an NBA narrative's work like it will be that Janus brought

championship mentality and championship whatever and whatever and he got them over the hump and all of that same thing by the way a little bit with Luke although less so just because the Lakers won a title in 2020 you know I think your question about sort of what is Janus one to do and does he want to be on the team with the LeBron farewell tour or something like that

is important only because we've talked about all this hemming and hawing that Yannis has done. It has accomplished one very important thing. It has gotten the ball kicked down to this summer. And this summer, the bucks are going to say, do you want to sign a contract extension on October 1st? And if he says no, right, they're going to have to trade him. And at that point, he will only have one year left on his contract. So he's going to have enormous say. over where he goes, where he wouldn't have had, even in this last trade deadline,

he's going to have pretty much ultimate say because the bucks want a big trade package. And in order to have a big trade package, you have to know Janus is going to be on your team for more than a year. Not many people want to do the Toronto-Qaeda thing. No. So in that case, is LeBron on the team for a farewell tour? What's going on with the Knicks and what personnel will they have left? What's going on in Miami? Janus and his people are going to be considering that just as much as the Bucks are going to be considering,

how much are we getting back? So if Janus is considering all that stuff, why would he go to Miami? Like Minnesota would have to give up everything except Ann. So do you want to go play with Ant in Minnesota? Will you sign there? Because I keep coming back to this and the reporters won't talk about it. Ultimately, they could say,

Yonis, we got a package to send you to Miami. Sorry, guys, I don't want to go there. I'm not signing long term there. Do you think Miami would have the appetite to try the Kauai thing? No. So now it comes back to, If Janus could just say, I'm signing with the Lakers like Anthony Davis, I'm going there, make the deal happen. Sorry.

Is he willing to be that bad of the guy, though? I don't think that makes him a bad guy. That is business as usual. That is business as usual in the NBA. Look, Janus is a little bit less of a do what I say guy than, I don't know, James Hardin or someone like that, right? I'm just doing for extremes. You know, and it's possible if the Nicks and Lakers both have good packages, he'll be like, I'll go to either. Yeah.

One thing he said last summer that got a little lost in the shuffle is he's like, oh, I like big cities. I like big cities, he said. And that's a little bit where the New York, L.A., Miami thing. Well, Minnesota's a big city, isn't? Yeah, absolutely. But I'm just saying that I think that when the lure is the lure of playing with Luca or the lure of going, by the way, whoever goes to New York and wins a title there is going to be a hero in a way that we haven't seen in the NBA in a long time because it's the biggest fan base in the NBA. NBA and they are the thirstiest and you are one of them, Mr. Well, I am, but I also know like if you go there and don't win, like I remember what

they did to Patrick Ewing. Like, and that was my guy. Growing up, it was Magic and Patrick Ewing. Those are my two favorite players. So do you think he has the best chance to win with Luca, Austin Reeves, than anyone in your team or anywhere else? Okay, well, then it's got to be Luca in Austin. There you go.

And then that brings up the question you started this segment with is, and by the way, it's not just a farewell tour. It's LeBron's defense isn't what it used to be. He's going to be even more of a target next year if he plays because it's going to be an older and age. Can you pull him off the floor in the final minute for defense purposes? Right. Right. I mean, are you pulling him off the floor at the end of a championship situation or something like that? And how is he going to feel about that? And is that bad vibes in the locker room? I mean, it's just, you know, also you get someone else in that position.

It's, it's, there's a lot to consider if you're the Lakers. See, we can find positive topics besides tanking. See? It comes to the NBA. All right. Now, I will preface this coming up next at the top of the hour. So we struggle badly. Rachel's already laughing because she knows. We struggle badly to narrow down this list. But we have the top 10 American NBA stars to build around.

Kevin Durand is not on this list. That's just a heads up. Steph Curry is. Oh, boy. It's going to be fun. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe.

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