The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Herd - Hour 2 - Will the Celtics season end tonight?

Episode Date: May 23, 2023

More on LeBron's comments on possibly retiring Preview of Celtics vs the Heat tonight and thoughts on the series Update on Aaron Rodgers and the Jets   Guest: Nick WrightSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Wherever you may be in, however you may be listening. That's for making out as part of your day. J. Mack, probably by tonight, all these games, thankfully, have started Pacific time about 5.30. I love when these games end last night. Sat and talked about it. I'm in my little podcast for like 45 minutes after the game. Packed for my trip. It's like I was up till 10.

10 30. Hacking, what, three days in advance? That's impressive. I'm kind of a last-minute packer. No, I don't like, I don't like last-minute stuff. I'm like weirdly, I'm not OCD, but I like get stuff done. I don't like being rushed. I like stuff.

I like knowing a day ahead of time. I got nothing to do tomorrow. And then I'll make stuff for the do. My wife's like, my wife tends to be a late, but I'm early on that stuff. Impressive. It's not impressive. It's just, it's mostly because I don't like to panic. Some people like you can just kind of ad-lib your way through life.

Absolutely not. I act like I can, but I cannot. How are you at airports, by the way? Not great. Yeah, I'm not great either. That's one of my weaknesses. I don't have patience at all for lines and... I'm bad.

Yeah, I'm not. I've gotten worse. I've been told I'm not pleasant to travel with... Oh. At airports. Once we get to the destination, it's awesome, but I don't like airports. That's what I've been told. Really?

You know, we are born in January. Very similar. I've been told I'm not pleasant. to travel with. Yeah. I get that often. And like you, I'm the first one to open a cocktail once we land. Exactly.

Yes, sir. But when you're traveling with kids, yeah. And they're kids. And they start being kids. I often set up the wife and kids in one row and I'm like by myself next to them in a different row. Oh yeah.

So I'm, you know, a little distance. You guys go back. Daddy's up front. That goes over real well. So LeBron James, I don't think he's going to. retire. I do think I watched John Elway retire after Super Bowl. I watch Roger Staubach retire. LeBron like those two. Smart has his business set up. Stoback went almost became a billionaire in

commercial real estate. And obviously Elway was very, very successful car dealerships. So LeBron's set up, it'd be perfect, a clean break. I don't think he will. I think that Kyrie Irving situation is tasty and he was at crypto last night. But LeBron talked about it. Now, again, LeBron tends to be a very strategic person, and this was a very emotional moment. I wouldn't take a ton out of it. I think this is LeBron being human

and how you act after you just spent every ounce of energy in the final game of a season. We'll see what happens going forward. But I don't know. I got a lot to think about, to be honest. I had a lot to think about, to be honest. And just for me personally, going forward with the game of basketball, got a lot to think about. He's still a great player for a half or for moments.

Last night was a great example of LeBron at his best. In the first half, he was absolutely remarkable. It was the greatest game ever by an old guy. 31 points, four rebounds, four assists, four for four on threes, 85% shooting, first half. Second half, 33% shooting, and a lot of standing around and nine points. forget the numbers, the I test told you he was hiding. I mean, there were possessions, he barely moved. So LeBron can be now great for a half or great for spurts.

But that was an unbelievable performance. And so LeBron, though, has played 60 games one time in five seasons. And here's what I think is interesting. Is that when LeBron and AD first got together, they were the perfect tandem. LeBron doesn't want to hang around down low, doesn't want to protect the rim. He wants to get out on the break. and as LeBron's game had become more perimeter, more consistently, AD could do the dirty work. They're both easy to get along with guys.

It was perfect. Now it's kind of problematic because LeBron now is given you about 55 games. So it's hard when the other guy who's a star is also giving you about 55, 60 games. And where LeBron can now be great for a half, and great in spurts, AD offensively is great every other game and needs rest. You don't kind of know what you're getting from AD who disappeared last night and was overwhelmed by Yoguch much of the series. So whereas the tandem was great initially, I think LeBron, LeBron are we perfect with Jason Tatum,

right? Like theoretically, kid plays 70 games, plays hard, he's still ascending, plays on both ends. if LeBron's off, Tatum can start. Now, that's never going to happen. And Anthony Edwards. But now they're both incapable of 70 games, back to back to back, great nights. That's why the Kyrie Irving piece is fascinating. Because Kyrie A is exactly what the Lakers need.

What he does, they need. The other thing is what Kyrie is doing in Dallas, even his strength, he's being criticized for in Dallas. He's got the ball too much. Why is he taking so many shots? What the Lakers need is when LeBron is off for somebody else to run the offense and take the shots. Well, in Dallas, he gets ripped for being a bad defender. Lakers don't need him to be a great defender.

They get a rim protector. So even when Kyrie flourishes, and he led the NBA in fourth quarter scoring this year, even when he flourishes in Dallas, hey, man, you're taking the ball away from Luca. he could join the Lakers and be exactly what the doctor ordered. AD could miss 20 games. LeBron could miss 25 games. So could Kyrie. If you had three stars, you'd only need two on a nightly basis.

So the Kyrie piece, and I'm not a huge fan now, is fascinating. And I don't think LeBron is retiring. He said after, I'm better than 95% of the league. He is. Nick right now joining us co-host, first things first. You're smiling. So something I said tickled you. What did I say that you?

Oh, well, no. I mean, you're just always delightful and entertaining. Also, I did find it hilarious that you pretend you go to regular airports and stand in security. Is there a lot of security when you're flying private? I'm not sure. I never have. But I don't imagine it's quite the same process J-MAC and I go through. But that's neither here or there.

I have figured I was going to get my comeuppance on the Lakers and I know we'll get to it, but I do want to respond to your Kyrie Irving fascination. Colin, the idea that you are encouraging the Lakers to just go all in on Kyrie Irving is so baffling to me. Kyrie Irving, I apologize for the dehumanization of the analogy, but the pet tiger of the NBA, fun, exciting, cool, and guaranteed to end in disaster.

And when it ends in disaster, you can't be like, who could have seen that coming? Mold somebody. I could have never, Colin, Kyrie has not had a relevant playoff moment past round one in six years. Why would we think that solves the Lakers' issues when in order to get him,

you are going to have to get rid of any of the depth that you have. So the only reason a team should get in at this point that Kyrie Irving business is if they are desperate. And the Lakers should not feel desperate right now. They're not good enough. And they ran into a team in Denver that has been underrated by many, including myself, all year. And a player in Nikola Yokic, who is playing up to his multiple regular season accolades this postseason, and they deserve credit. But the Lakers should not pull a parachute when they're not in free fall. And that's what trying to go after Kyrie Irving would be.

But I would say this. There's three elements to this. So LeBron next year won't get younger. Austin Reeves won't get more athletically dynamic. And there's a really strong possibility. Anthony Davis will not go this long without even a nick. Like we know his career. Like you say Kyrie's got history, so is AD.

So nothing really gets solved with your three best players. Austin Reeves is not ascending. This is what he is and it's a nice piece. LeBron's not ascending. AD's not ascending. And he also doesn't come into camp in great shape. AD plays himself into shape. So my takeaway is if you're LeBron, you're elegant, you're Elway.

I mean, this is this is Arnold Palmer retiring. It's just like you don't want to do some charity tour, some retirement tour. Why not just retire now? Well, listen, I don't think it's impot. I don't think we should dismiss him openly contemplating retirement for the first time ever as nothing or as just strategy or angling. I think this is on the board of possible outcomes. On TV yesterday, I said we need to recognize that tonight, meaning last night, we might be watching the final playoff game of LeBron's career. That's on the board.

I don't think it's the likely outcome, but I also think LeBron is going to have the first surgery of his career this offseason. Does he want to do the full rehab associated with that? I would imagine, once he has some time removed from it, he might. but for the Lakers, where I disagree with your analysis on a couple things. One is, the young players, one of the benefits of young players, Austin, Rui, Vanderbilt, is you should expect improvement. LeBron is obviously descending and AD you hope to maintain. All the other guys, you should expect marginal, if not significant improvement. So that helps the team.

The thing the Lakers need to recognize to me is twofold. One is this. Do you know when the Lakers lost this series, in my opinion, Colin? I'll tell you when I thought they lost it. Yeah, tell me. It was that two-minute heater by Jamal Murray, and it went from one point to 12 points. They outplayed the nuggets. The crowd was subdued.

They had the game. They had their momentum. And Jamal Murray did what occasionally young great players do. He went two minutes, couldn't miss, and it felt like, oh, that's my mind. How about you? I think that's smart. I'm going to take it a slightly different tact. I think they lost this series in November.

They lost this series with the two and ten start. And here's why. People are looking at this and saying, oh, LeBron and A.D., they ran out of gas. They didn't have two months of playoff basketball in them. I look at it differently. They did have two months of playoff basketball in them. because of the two and ten start, because they weren't a real team until the deadline, their playoffs started a month earlier than everybody else.

They were in playoff mode from mid-March and then a play-in, then overtime in the play-in. And so they ran out of gas in what was the end of their 10th week of playoff basketball, when for the Nuggets it was their sixth week of playoff basketball. Everything has a cost in this league. Yeah, Ime Udoka has an infidelity scandal. Looks like the Celtics are fine. They start 18 and 4. That bill is coming due right now.

Your guy punches Jordan Poole. Maybe they're going to be okay. That bill came due and they said it afterwards. The Lakers screwed around and said, ah, we'll start the year with a broken roster. We'll overwork LeBron. We'll figure it out later. That bill came due.

in the second half of all four Western Conference Finals games, two, three, and four, when the Lakers didn't have any juice left. So, yesterday was, bar none, the greatest playoff game by an old guy in NBA history, there is not a close second. And I understand the broadcast wanted LeBron to do more. And I love Jackson and Van Gundy. I love them.

But they evidently play NBA 2K with the fatigue sliders off when they are openly opining, why is LeBron not driving every play? I also think he should guard Nicola Yokin. He needs to be involved in more of the action. He had played the whole game, age 38, 20 years in there, like, he should do more. Meanwhile, Anthony Davis on the bench. But the point I'm trying to make is this. Tim Duncan, at the end, was still a great player, and he played 30 minutes a night.

Yeah. And guys at the end, the Lakers need to figure out, how can't. we function if LeBron plays 55 to 60 games and plays 30 to 32 minutes at night? That's right. So he has some gas left in the tank for entire playoff games instead of, as you're saying, playoff spurts in an unprecedented year 21. Okay, so not like you need more confidence, but you did pick the heat to beat the Celtics. I don't want to spend.

Who could have seen that coming? Who could have seen that coming? That was such a crazy pick, such a wacky pick. Best coach versus worst coach, and they have the best player. But go ahead, I'm sorry. Now, we had talked on this show. We thought Spoh would win two games. I thought it would go six.

But the more interesting part, because they're so obnoxious and unapologetically confident, it's fun when Boston teams unravel. It's really fun. I mean, I'm just saying, you know, their teams, you know, like the Yankees, I like when they win. I like when New York teams win because it feels big. With Boston teams winning, it doesn't feel nationally big. When they unravel, it's a great tire fire.

You have to drive by it and look over there and stop your car. So I look at the Celtics, and this has been my knock, is that LeBron and Wade weren't a perfect fit, but they were so damn good and confident, they made it work. But they were both kind of the same. It was that Tatum and Jalen Brown are a less talented version of that. not a great tandem either, but they're not gifted enough to just overcome it and blow through the league. So you can bring it back, but Robert Williams is in bubble wrap. Horford's old,

the coach is an elite. Like, you can keep bringing this back. Denver could be better. Laker, I mean, what would you do with Boston because they're going to lose tonight? I think it's really tricky because I understand that I think the gut reaction is going to be fire the coach and see if it fixes it. And again, I feel badly for Joe Mazzula. He's 34 years old. It's not like he was coaching waiting. That's right. Will Hardy gets poached. Udoka. If you remember, Udoka was not fired, he was suspended. Yes. So because of that, they couldn't go out and hire a full-time coach. Because theoretically, Udoka was going to be back in a year. And so this guy is just not, you know, is clearly not ready for this moment against the best coach.

and basketball. But I do think we run into this question now. Jalen Brown, five years, $290 million. A year from now is Tatum five years, $310 million. So that's going to be your team. New CBA makes it very hard to be flexible once you have two guys under a super max. That's right. That's going to be your team. Is that your best path forward? and not to mention Jalen has given two separate interviews this year about some concerns he has, about living in Boston, about the culture in Boston, and then you also have, again, to go back to the theme of everything has a cost, you float this guy in trade rumors year after year after year, he seemed to be bothered by that understandably. So would I consider trying to

retool around Jason Tatum via a Jalen Brown trade, I would. Do I think that they have to do that? No, I don't think they have to, but I think you're going to need a perfect storm for this team to be able to win four

rounds. And I know people are like, oh, Jordan and Pippin were two wings. LeBron and Wade were two wings that won a title. If the two examples you can get to of two wings are the best player ever and Michael Jordan, then I don't know that that is a fair comp or example for them to follow.

Yeah, I think the LeBron D. Wade wasn't a perfect fit. They were just so great. They made it work. They also had a great coach. This tandem's not as great. They're very good, and the coach isn't ready. All right, Nick Wright, so the series isn't over. It's great to see you.

First thing's first today. And, you know, I'm not going to needle you on the Lakers because, I just think they lost by two, five, and six. They were competitive. Here's the thing. Everyone's like, oh, people tweet to me. Oh, Coward's going to kill you today. Here's the thing, America.

In order for anyone to really be able to kill me, be it my co-host on First Things, first Con, coward, anyone, show me the receipts of anybody that said, you know what? Nuggets Heat. That's my pick. Give me a break. Ain't nobody in the world get these finals right. That's right.

I at least picked Heat over Celtics. Listen, Lakers 7 seed, they fell short. And can I say one thing about Yokic real quick before we go? Yeah. Because I have been a vocal, Yokic skeptic. Yeah. The questions, those of us, that were not prepared to give him a third straight MVP, that were skeptical even about him winning a second straight MVP,

we wanted him to do what we made every other multiple MVP, except for Steve Nash, do before they started winning all the MVPs. Go on a dominant postseason run. Right. He has now done that. He also has one big weakness in his game. That's the defensive end. And by the way, he was more than capable defensively in this series.

Yokic now has fair claim for all the accolades. Everyone always wanted to give him, in my opinion, prematurely, because we hadn't yet seen this, a deep dominant playoff run, which is what it takes. But now that he's done it, if folks want to go out and say he's the best player in the world, that, to me, sounds a lot more legitimate now than it ever has before. And the standard of, show it to me deep into May in the postseason is not a Nick Wright invented standard. That's always been the standard in the NBA. And now he's done it in credit to him.

By the way, I said this about the Denver Nuggets yesterday, Nick. And I said, it's not disrespectful to respect history. I'd seen K.D. Westbrook Thunder, hardened Chris Paul Rockets, early 2000, Sacramento, King's, Lobb City, and Nash. So I had seen teams get close and not rise to the moment. And I was skeptical on Denver's young guys in the moment. They passed the test. So did Yok it.

So I don't think it's disrespectful to be respectful of history and precedence. And I think you and I are both saying, it's a good team, not going anywhere. They passed the test. Many young teams did not. It's fun. Exactly right. And listen, Anthony Davis was theoretically the defense. defender in the league best suited to give

Yokic trouble and Yokch played great and the Lakers were not able to torture Yokic in the pick and roll the way they did a few years ago in the postseason. That is what this is. It's about young players and ascending superstars

getting better improving and getting over the hump. I was a little bothered that we were going to give Yokic accolades that had been given out once in 65 years before we had seen him get over the hump, but now we have more power to them. Happy for everyone in Denver, except for Mark Schlarith, who's really sending me a lot of mean tweets. It's unnecessary, Mark. It's unbecoming of a

three-time Super Bowl champion. I'll tell you that much right now. All right. Nick Wright, good seeing you, buddy. Appreciate it. See you, Colin. Yeah. We're just, listen, we've watched Nash's sons. We watch KD. and Westbrook. We watch Lobb City. We watch Chris Paul and Hardin get a 3-1 Lee, and then these teams just early 2000 Sacramento Kings, many you don't remember that 22, 23 years ago. That team was good. That team was good and deep. And Rick Adelman, I think, was the coach, well coached.

And they got to a game seven. Game six was poorly officiated. Lakers won. They went to a game seven. And they unraveled. And it's like, we've seen it's a million times. So we were waiting for Denver, not that we were skeptics, but you see something. It's like, okay, breakthrough.

This was their breakthrough moment. But just to be clear, we don't think that the. Nuggets could become one of those sons teams or the King's teams where they fall off a cliff, right? No, no, no. I think they're very San Antonio Spurs. A star who's got no interest in the ego, no interest in endorsements, like Tim Duncan, just leave me alone.

I'm going to live in a suburb. I don't want to deal with this crap. Stats and awards. Yeah. So Yokic, very quiet. That's Yokic. Then you have second players. Tony Parker, never quite given the respect until later.

Jamal Murray, never quite given the respect until this series. Then you have other guys like Manu Genoobli is the best player arguably ever off the bench. Michael Porter, we keep waiting, waiting. Now he's a, Gordon and Porter, nobody outside of Denver talks about them. And then you watch them in this series and go, oh, crap, they're really good. So there are some. You also had a younger Popovic, not younger, but you had Popovich. You had a hard, high volume, intense, push the refs.

Mouthy coach. Well, it's not bad. It's good. Malone, very loud, very intense, created his own culture. The one thing that the Spurs weren't was a big box office draw. I don't think Denver is either.

For TV ratings. And if you look at it, like that Spurs, Pistons finals where the games were like 81.76. Here's this thing about TV ratings. Is that if the NBA is on the market, there'll be a bidding war. Obviously.

Everybody is trying to fill the tunnel. You know, everybody needs content, right? Content's king, as everybody says. So we talk a lot about ratings. Hockey signed huge contracts in Canada and America. Hockey. Most of us never played it. As I've said before, the best thing on ice is vodka.

It's hockey. So basketball is part of, it's ours. It's part of our culture, right? NBA is going to make a lot of money. The whole ratings thing, I mean, just use this as an example. I'm streaming. I'm on podcasts.

We're on radio. We're on TV. The idea is staring at a linear TV number and getting caught up in that. There is so much money for all these leagues and all these players. I don't, the TV ratings just don't matter like they used to. The perspective that they do matter is we talk about what people care about, right? We talk about NFL. We talk about college football.

We talk about NBA. Right. You know, like I like college hoots, but we don't talk about it maybe during March Madness. So if the people out there don't care a lot about the NBA finals to watch, are we going to do two hours on Nuggets Heat every day after the finals? No, I mean, I think clearly we, I mean, if you really broke down, not to bore people, but broke down our show. We don't even talk NFL. We talk about 12 NFL teams. We talk about six to seven college teams.

We talk about two UFC fighters, two golfers. And in the NBA, we don't spend a lot of time on the Rocky Mountain time zone. That's why Denver doesn't get talked about, right? we go Big East, Miami, or Big West. So we've always picked our spots even within leagues. So is it possible we won't talk Denver much? But Denver could play the Knicks in a final. I mean, Knicks are a player away.

They could play the Celtics again. They could play the crazy Looney Sixers again. Just because remember, people bad, when Jordan play the Utah Jazz, all the experts said nobody's going to watch that. It's the highest rated NBA final because you had this close. classic small market underdog, Stockton Malone, Jerry Sloan. And then you had this legendary iconic MJ, got to the end of his career. You had dramas like the, you know, is he sick game or what, you know, it's the high fever game.

Nobody thought that would rate. Everybody conversely thought the Mets and Yankee subway series 20 years ago would be huge. It died because nobody, West of the Hudson, gave a rip. So everybody keeps telling me Denver, Miami's not going to be interesting. The people who love the NBA will watch it. the people who don't will lament it and criticize it, it'll be fine. Yeah. And I'm going to talk about it.

That's a fair take. People were fatigued with the Patriots at the end. Yeah, I mean, this whole thing about looking at a linear TV rating and going, that's who cares. Bologna. Yeah, I had to watch a game on my phone in Costco last night while I was going around while I was chauffefering the kids around. I'm watching the game on my phone in Costco.

Like, that doesn't count for a rating, but of course I'm not missing the game. Best part about Costco. Everybody needs a drum of mayonnaise in the house. Oh my God. Costco is... If we're ranking stores, Costco's my number one, it's not even close. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart radio app. Search herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged.

It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying.

Yep, that's me. Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from Bats. basketball to college football or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

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Following the win, Michael Malone had this to say about the Joker. No one ever could have seen that he'd be a two-time MVP passing Wilts Chamberlain. It seems like every other night. And that speaks to his dedication to his craft, getting in great shape, and understanding for him to fulfill his potential, he had to work harder. And he's done that. And I think Nicola has gone through three rounds now where he's averaging a triple double in the playoffs. Have you seen any stat padding out there?

I'm serious. Like enough of the silliness. Like the guy is a great player. Give him this damn respect. Stop chopping him down at the knees, man. He's a great player and give him the respect he deserves. It's interesting, and I don't know this to be true, but it just popped into my head. Because we've never had a player this good in the second round.

And people forget, back in the 70s, I think the NBA had like seven rounds. And then all of a sudden they figured out there's not enough players. But the game was very domestic. It was totally domestic then. As the game has gotten more global, Obviously, it's harder to scout. It's a larger footprint. It's just you're going to have guys that are playing in Dusseldorf.

You can't see everybody. And so, I mean, it's harder to scout. It's easier to scout in football. I get three or four years of a college career. So basketball, you've got guys playing one and done. You get very little, you don't know if it's the coach, the system. So as the league gets more global, are we going to have more of this, which is more second round stars?

Because it's just harder. You see this in baseball. It's just harder. to scout the globe than it is just, you know, like in, I don't know, I don't follow hockey enough to know, but hockey tends to be a global game. Are there more sleepers in hockey because you're scouting the globe? But it seems to me in basketball, as the sports become more global, there's just, it feels like there's more like second round guys that can really play. And the undrafted guys, the Miami Heat are winning with a bunch of dudes who, I mean,

Struce and Vincent, Duncan Robinson was a division three player, then transfer. to Michigan, like some of these guys are coming out of nowhere. Have you seen the clip floating around about Yokic last night? He kept running the two-man game with Jamal Murray. And the Lakers literally tried everything. We'll go over the screen. We'll go under. We'll do the hard double on Yokic.

He solved all of it. Like it was too easy. Like it was a Rubik's Cube. And he was just going through everything. The Lakers, they didn't play badly last night. That's what probably really ticks off LeBron. No. Three of the games, they were in it until the final minute, right?

And in those close games with the Warriors or Memphis, their guys could make a play. And I think the reality check with LeBron and AD is they made the plays late because they're ascending in their prime players. I thought AD last night was disappointing. He was invisible for large stretches. I know Lakers fans, look at the counting numbers. He had 22 and 13 or whatever it was. He was invisible for like an entire quarter. And by the way, Yolkich is dominating at both ends.

Quick word on Jamal Marie. Do you remember when Deerrin Fox went off in the first round and I said, who would you rather have Deeran Fox or John Morant? That was obvious. Deeran Fox. I'm going to ask you now, Jamal Marie, zero-time All-Star, doesn't have any of the endorsements of John Moran. Who would you rather have running your point, John Morant or Jamal Murray? Jamal Murray.

And here's my takeaway. I've said this. What concerns me about John Morant, he's a 175-pound guy that has to score explosively. He's on the floor all the time. the great players in this league, 80 to 90% of their baskets, I mean, I was never a Carmelo Anthony fan. But, I mean, Carmelo gave you 27. It barely broke a sweat.

John Morant, if he scores 28, 24 feels spectacular. It's very Derek Rose. And so Jamal Murray's body, he's a bigger, thicker player, and he doesn't have to score at the rim. These guys that can score a lot of their points on the perimeter, they avoid contact. Marant's impossible to stay in front of. That's why I have suggested they allow the hand check.

It's counterintuitive. You think it makes the game more physical. No, it doesn't. It makes the game less physical. It keeps the little guys out of the lane and they don't get hurt as much. Wow. That's an interesting thought. Jamal Murray, the ability to shoot threes, which Jamerant cannot do.

You now space the floor with Murray, Michael Porter Jr., KCP. You've got to guard them at the line. and now Yokic is all alone in the lane. He's unstoppable in the lane. I mean, Colin, this guy is, we know he's good. We've been hyping him for a while. But I think he's best player in the world. Would you agree?

Yokic, yeah. It's not a slight to Yonis. I mean, Embed's not in the discussion. We would agree. Yeah, I mean, Janus, I think, was the previous two to three years, but he once again regressed into terrified to have the ball in his hands late because he didn't want to get to the free throw. All right.

Let's get to the NFL. DeVante Adams, big. Big topic on this show yesterday. Devante Adams, obviously one of the league's best receivers. He feels CD Lamb of the Cowboys is on a similar path to success and possesses the same qualities that made Devante a three-time All-Pro, saying, I like CD Lamb a lot. I'm not picking it off of just the most attractive and what people want to hear.

And if you watch the way CD plays and I think he's going to keep growing, he reminds me a lot of myself as far as the way he moves. I talked to him this offseason a couple times. Bro, just keep doing what you're doing. Keep staying on what you're on right now. Because this is going to give you the type of credit and respect you deserve moving forward. Yeah, you and I aren't as high as Vegas is on the Cowboys. I think they're going to become very seedy lamb and DAC dependent on offense.

But Vegas likes them more than you and I do. A lot of people like the over. And the reason people like the over is if you look at who the Cowboys face at quarterback, there's a lot of matchups that their defense could shut down. Well, I look back at this San Francisco game. I didn't realize he was this good. 10 for a buck 17. It's a pretty good game against an elite defense.

No touchdowns. But Citi's a... He's good. He's a one. It's just tough for me to talk him into being in top five with Justin Jefferson, Chase. No, he's not. But he's somewhere between 6 and 12.

Probably closer to 6 than 12. He's probably like in the 8-9 category. I mean, I like him a lot. You know, there's good Dallas team. Not great, though. Final story. DeAndre Hopkins, man, what an off season. trade rumors throughout.

Earlier this month, he responded to the rumors by saying, who said I wanted to leave and then showed up at the facility. But in an appearance on the I Am an Athlete podcast, D. Hop named a number of quarterbacks he would like throwing to him, and none of them were Kyler Murphy. One of my favorite quarterbacks that I've been watching since he came in the league is Josh Allen. Josh Allen, he reminds me of an old school or of a little-school

or with a new school Andrew Lowe. Jalen Hertz. You know, man, he's Houston kid, your dog, Patrick Mahomes, obviously. Oh, my goodness. Number four, I'm going to have to go with, not a lot of people. People respect this guy, but, you know, as a thorn quarterback, Lamar Jackson, obviously.

Man, I'm going to have to go with my dude in San Diego. Herbert. Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert. No mention of Kylo Murray. So that's now, let's see. Buda Baker, not a fan. Larry Fitzgerald, definitely not a fan.

DeAndre Hopkins just casually leaving him off the list. The owner not a fan. Kingsbury, not a fan. No, you and I both. You liked Marie a little more than I did. I backed off once I heard some stuff last year. Are you ready to back off and be like, I'm going to distance myself?

I've said, I think he throws the prettiest ball in the league. I think he's super talented. I would have given him the contract. There's a lot of stuff I didn't know. But I also think he's got a market. If he comes back week 8, 9 and looks good to have a market. And if you're bad, I would absolutely take Caleb Williams number one. They got a bunch of picks.

You say he's going to have a market. Colin, that contract that he has is onerous. I would rather have a quarterback on a rookie deal than Kyler Murray paying him top dollar. Desperation creates all sorts of markets. A lot of desperate coaches on the hot. Look at your jets. Coach GM. We've got Aaron Rogers a Hall of Fame.

He was limping around. Limping around. Yeah, yeah, I saw that. Kyla Marie's got zero accolades. How many career playoff wins for Kyler? Boy, you are on one today. Right. Zero. He's young.

Right. Like a lot of young people that don't have all their Emmys yet. You keep thinking I'm young, but I'll take it, sure. J-Mack with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lie News. Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m.

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It's glass half full Colin today. Aaron Rogers showed up to OTAs for the Jets, limping a little. He'll be fine. But I was thinking about this this morning with Aaron Rogers. Let's be positive on Aaron Rogers. So first of all, he learned from last year's absence at the OTAs in Green Bay and young receivers. He's a smart guy. He shows up.

He learned. He made a mistake at 37 years old. He made a mistake. more glass half full column. Anytime anybody, Brady and Tampa, LeBron with new teams, anytime anybody, I can speak from experience, goes to a new company, you try to be a better person. You try to be a better person.

He's going to be a better version of Aaron Rogers. How about this? It's easily the best defense he's ever played with. Whereas he was often carrying an average defense in Green Bay and got a bit arrogant. He knows this is a Super Bowl winning defense. And he's going to play to not disappoint this franchise. Listen, in Green Bay, the Super Bowl, the MVP's. He kind of carried the franchise.

They didn't have an owner to call him out. Green Bay is a unique place. He and Brett Farr, by the end, kind of control the organization. But when LeBron moves, he's energized. When Brady moves, he's energized. People tend to want to be a better version of themselves when they take a new job. If you aggravated people at the last place, you don't want to do that in the next place. All my criticisms of Aaron, I think, have been just. But I get him. I think he's going to be a little

less snarky. He has a real owner. He's got the best defense. I think he's a smart guy that will learn from his mistakes. I think the new Aaron will play with urgency. He'll be a better teammate. He'll understand this is a tough media market. He won't have as much control. I can change my opinion based on new information. I saw a story this morning. Lamar Jackson absent from OTAs. I've defended Lamar Jackson for years. You got a new OC, a rookie wide receiver OBJ. You couldn't spend two days. Couldn't spend 72 hours. Couldn't spend three or four days with your new guys. I don't like that at all. So people make mistakes. You hope they have the self-awareness in the intelligence to learn from their mistakes.

I think I'm looking at Aaron, and my takeaway is he'll be a better Aaron. He'll be a little less snarky. He'll be better with the young guys. He'll have an owner to call him out and a major loud market media that will do the same. We're going to get a better version of Aaron. The Aaron that we all kind of loved about six years ago, before the Super Bowl, the big contract, the MVP's got a little into Aaron. That's okay.

It happens. but I'm being, I've done a lot of positivity today. So pro football focus just released their quarterback rankings for this upcoming season. Oh, they did. Just came out. Do you want to guess where Aaron Rogers is? Wow, close. Fifth.

Six is Lamar Jackson. All right. That's about right. That's pretty good for, I mean, you had him fifth in the AFC if memory serves. I don't remember that show. I heard. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends.

Me and hilarious guests. from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L'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. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grow. Tessk, others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all?

You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor. It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

Thank you.