The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Herd - Hour 3 - Resting players

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch joins the show in studio to talk about contending in the Western Conference for a playoff run and the resting issue for star players around the leagueSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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He led the T-Wolves to the playoffs last year, got a big win last night against the Clippers. Chris Finch has been around this league for a long time, the T-Wolves coach. It's an absolute pleasure to have you. And what's fascinating about you is your team went out, and a lot of people didn't get it, but you brought in Rudy Gobert. You had a big in Carl Anthony Towns. You have an emerging young star in Anthony Edwards. And then at the trading deadline, you bring in one of the smarter guys. in the league, like a real grown-up, Mike Conley.

You're juggling them. You are juggling stuff nonstop. So I want to start with that premise. The trading deadline's interesting. I made the argument that Westbrook and Kyrie are such defined players with styles. It may have been the wrong move to inject them into a team at the deadline. Conley is different. He's really like a mentor.

One of the smartest guys. You can bring him, I think, kind of into any situation. So how do you see Conley, Aunt Edwards? Because right now, Anthony Edwards, is he lost? Where are you with him? Yeah, I don't think he's lost at all. I think this is just another evolution of his growth. Just, you know, now, you know, facing so many different defenses,

don't many different looks, all this kind of stuff. I mean, he's got to keep figuring out. Mike alongside of him is going to help him. The real, one of the real reasons that you bring in a guy like Mike at this point is when we get cat back and we have aunt, you know, he's the, we feel he's the, perfect bridge between those guys as well as bringing an existing chemistry with Rudy Gobert, which is a guy we still have yet to really maximize as a player. And to your point, you know, about the trade deadline and bringing players like,

our season has been won flux through injuries or illnesses. And that's kind of the league nowadays. I think as a coach, if you don't maintain a flexible enough system to keep integrating all the roster changes that you have, whether it be load management or injuries or illnesses or trades or whatnot. It becomes really, really hard. But fortunately, like, we've got enough guys who are able to play in a lot of different styles, and that helps us.

And by the way, we love Anthony Edwards, but I said this earlier today. In college football, you can get a 24-year-old man, and he's been hard coached for four to five years. He may have redshirted. You get an AAU kid where he may not have been coached for years, and then one year briefly of college. he's on to you at 19. And so we want our players to be great and defined.

They're kids. And so with Anthony Edwards, he got a lot. He was enormously gifted year one. Year two were like, what happened? He just appeared. Where is he in terms of, there's some hero ball going on? Is it hard for you to coach younger players? Yeah.

No, it's not hard at all to coach younger players. The ones we have are fortunate. that they like to be coached hard. They respond well to being coached hard. You know, I think Anthony's had a really good year three. For him, it's been a lot about building habits. You know, not just about what you're doing on the floor, but what habits are you building as a professional,

how you eat, how you work, how you prepare, how you sleep. These are things that most young players don't come in the league with. And teaching those habits is just as much a part of our job as a staff and an organization as it is teaching them skill and skill acquisition. Yeah. So I'm very pleased with Anthony's growth. Like he plays, if you say Hero Ball, he doesn't shy away from the moment, you know.

And that's what we love about him. Even his rookie year he was like that. Yeah. And then last year in the playoffs, going into the playoffs, I had a little concern that he would try to do too much. Right. And from that, maybe not have success. But he met the moment there.

And, you know, he still has some inconsistencies. a workout and that's again backed up by just getting better and better habits. He'll even admit to you that he's out there just playing a lot of times. He's not thinking through the game and that doesn't mean he's unintelligent. It just means he's just relying on his instinct. And he's young. And he's young. And now it's just about getting enough reps and enough situations where you can see it. And bringing in a guy like Mike who's like in his ear right now next to him. And Mike understands that, You know, he's got a lot of things that we need him to do, but first and foremost is help Anthony develop as a player.

You mentioned load management. He and I are on different sides. So Jason McIntyre believes that the reason guys play longer now is because they take nights off. I think it's because of nutrition, you know, the private jets, the training staffs. Now, and it's also not a hand check league. You don't get tackled. What bothers me, because I'm an NBA fan, is a couple nights ago, I want to watch Janice and KD.

They both don't play. And there was a game a couple of weeks ago. Celtics, Lakers, Saturday night was fantastic. All the starters play that I recall. And it was like, oh, okay, this is a feel like a playoff game. So whether you love it or not, you don't want to play or at 430 telling you don't want to play. But where do you land on load management? Yeah, I mean, it's a necessary evil in our game.

And, you know, one of the fastest growing departments in professional sports is the performance department, you know, with sports scientists and all the people that are now giving us so much data about resting and recovering and being ready to play. You know, I personally, you know, obviously we have to lean into what they say. It's not our decision as coaches. We want to push our players to play. Anthony is a great example. Anthony's played every game this season, you know, and we feel that that matters, and particularly as a young player.

Unfortunately, in our league, and I've said this before, resting has become a bit of a status symbol. You're so good that they don't want to play you tonight because they need you later. Well, you're a team like ours, you're 500 and you're fighting for your life, you've got to play every night. And that's really what the league should be all about anyway. And so, you know, we understand like there's nights that you're going to, you know, guys might not be 100%, but give us, you know, as much as you got. Thank you.

And, you know, the thing that we can do to maybe alleviate that is to continue. to thin the back to backs. Let's take away the excuses for guys to not play. And back to backs happen to be a big one. I'm going having beers with buddies tonight. I'm going to play hurt tomorrow. Are you? Jay Mack? I'm just telling you right now, I'm going to go meet my buddies for a little bowl of pasta and a beer. Sometimes you've got to play hurt. Bad night's sleep. Okay, so when you, I argue that this is the greatest the league's ever been. Now, you're balancing some science stuff and some analytics. Whenever I hear guys don't play defense, I always kind of roll my eyes and think,

yeah, but the game is so international and European and so global, you're getting guys now. Every big can shoot. It's added a complete dimension. How do you defend the corner three? When the Warriors had Durant, I don't know how you defend it. Since you've been in the league, is that Warriors team with Durant, the greatest team you've seen? Yeah, probably.

You know, just the gravity of putting that many skilled players. is that much shooting on the floor. I think that's, the league has never been as skilled with as much shooting as ever. And it makes the defense look at times, you know, pretty mediocre.

Yeah. It's really about trying to cover as much space as possible and you can't, you know, like spread offense in football. How do you cover it all when you give optionality to really good and skilled quarterbacks? It's impossible, right? That's right.

And so now, and they've taken away a lot of the physicality, which we see come back during the playoffs. But during the regular season, the physicality is not there to be able to slow these guys. He can't ask these guys to play any two nights of Purdue basketball defense. Exactly. Yeah. So, but I think the game is fluid. It's kind of back to the, to me, it's back to the, closer to its roots.

It's interchangeable parts, positionless players, ball movement, player movement. And, you know, and Steve Currie and, you know, his staff and the Golden State Warriors are really kind of, they were at the forefront of that revolution. And like most leagues, it's a copycat league. and everybody wants to play that way when they see success. Well, if I, if I, I'm going to say, I'm going to give you a coach that you go up against. Yeah. And guys that I like, I don't know Eric Spolster really well, but I know him.

If I say Spolstra, give me a paragraph on what, what he is and what makes him hard to coach against. I mean, their teams play super physical, never beat themselves. You know what they're going to do. They do it so well that it still matters. You know, you can't really impact it. I always say whenever you play a Spoke coach team, the first time you play them, you know, you learn a lot and you learn quickly and they pretty much beat you up. When you go out and play them again, you know, it's all about making adjustments.

And, you know, obviously, he's an outstanding end-of-game situational coach. He's a great situational coach. Steve Kerr. Yeah, Steve, you know, I think when we play those, what he did is he really kind of just changed the entire way that team played when he came in. Gives a lot of freedom to his players, as you see. But, you know, he's a lot more fiery and competitive than you would think. And that, I think, is infused through his team.

Yes. So I'm going to ask you about a player. So I have been very reluctant to embrace Denver. He likes Denver. And I know Yolkitch is great. Hard guy to defend. You remember Sabonis. So I covered Sabonis for years.

Outside of Shaq, everybody struggled with him. He was a refrigerator. couldn't move him. Shack was the only guy and Shack moved everybody. Yokic has a little bit of a feel like that. Tremendous passer. Big IQ. Doesn't want to, doesn't need all the accolades. Couldn't give a rip. I worry about him defensively. I worry about if he's off or gets in foul trouble. Who's the two? Dramon's defense and the tricks don't work against him. Am I underselling Denver? Do you buy them as a playoff team? Oh, yeah, for sure, by them as a playoff team.

I think, you know, when you have a guy like Yokic, you know, you're always going to have a chance. He just, he's a, you basically generate so much offense all by himself. Great power. For himself and for everybody else, of course. The key is, you know, in the playoffs, everyone wants to kind of muddy up the game. They're going to go small. But the key to being and staying big when teams go small in the playoffs is, I think, think scoring. You know, can the big punish the smalls enough in the playoffs? Right. And he's going to

be able to do that. So that's why some of these teams that traditionally maybe have gone small in the playoffs to have great success, whether it be Golden State or the Clippers, you know, they might struggle and they're going to have to bring double teams. And bringing a double team to a guy who's that good of a passer is not always the best thing to do either. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the IHard Radio app. 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 IHard Radio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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

this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music.

The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking.

What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jette. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode, with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line.

We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think the best team in the league, and I think by adding Jay Crowder, they add another get-a-bucket guy.

I think Milwaukee is going to beat Boston. I worry sometimes with Boston, if Jalen Brown's off, it becomes very Tatum-centric. Marcus Smart's a solid offensive player. Robert Williams' health concerns me. I think Milwaukee's really a handful. very rarely is Janus off, but it's Middleton, it's Ingalls, it's Drew Holiday. It's just a lot of, Golden State's got this quality now. Jordan Poole can be a bucket guy.

Wiggins can. The best team I've seen on their best nights in the league to me is Milwaukee. You faced them, your opinion on them. Yeah. Well, they, and they're not even healthy. I mean, they have Middleton who's still working his way back, you know. So, you know, I agree. And they've got the experience of playing together.

That nucleus has been together. You know, they play both sides of the ball for sure. You know, Ingle's is going to help them with his playmaking and defensive versatility in the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, I think I couldn't agree more. It's going to be interesting, for sure. You know, both teams are kind of very physical. You know, a lot of the east is a little more intriguing maybe in the West right now when it's the top of the table race. Yeah.

And it's a fun one to watch, but, you know, it's hard to go against. Janice. I mean, the guy is like superhuman when you're out there. Insane. So you coached AD. You were on Alvin Gentry staff. I like him, but I do think, I think some players age more quickly than others. I thought about three years ago, that was the ceiling. There's been some slight erosion. When you play with LeBron, Kevin Love and Bosch discovered this. This has always been my theory on LeBron, is that LeBron doesn't want his big to get in the middle of the lane. Because if when he lose his confidence on his jumper.

He wants to go to the basket, score at the basket. He'll get the confidence back. But he can ebb and flow as a jump shooter with confidence. He's gone on, I mean, even this year, he's had moments. And so Anthony Davis, unlike Bosch or Love, is not a great shooter. Those guys are really tremendous. I don't know if AD and LeBron have great chemistry. I think they're both chill guys that just, they both want to win games.

What did you make of AD? He had a soft label for a while. what's the perfect way to use him? Yeah, I mean, one thing I love about AD is he'll get you 35 points and you don't have to run a single play for him. You know, he'll score all ways that you possibly can. He'll get out in transition. He'll make an occasional three.

You'll get a rim, you know, lob dunk, offensive rebound, make an elbow jumper. You can throw it to him in the post. And I think, you know, just playing kind of in the flow and not trying to force feed him and ask him to be a score, I think it's when he's at his best, you know, because he can, he's really long, athletic, he's super skilled, he's got great touch. And when he's like kind of playing just on the move and, you know,

filling space and playing off of guys, that's when I think he's really, really hard to guard because he could do all these things. And you really don't have to call his number. You'd coached Harden on the McAil staff. By the way, I just got done watching three-part series on Delta, Lakers Celtics 80s. You've seen that? Yes, yeah. It is unbelievable.

Yeah. It's so, I just forget they brought Walton back. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That was one of the great teams of Alton. Yeah, 86. So when you have Hardin, very ball-centric, very gifted, it's, and I think Dallas is going through a little bit of this with Luca. You're talking in a prolific top 10 scoring talent of all time. Kobe was a lot of this.

How do you have a discussion with a Hardener Luca in their prime? If you play this way, you're going to be exoner. exhausted by the playoffs. You have the ball too much. Was it a challenge with Hardin because he would get to the postseason and he looks shot? Yeah. Is it a challenge you think for Dallas or when you've been with one of those all time? You couldn't stop Hardin.

You can't stop Luca. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think for me, the challenge is this. Like when you have a guy who was kind of that ball dominant and that's, you know, can create that much offense and so much relies on him. those teams those types of players can make average teams really good but how do you make a good team great

and that's all about sharing the floor you know how do you share the floor with the talent that's around you you know and what sacrifices do you make because again in the playoffs which everything gets ramped up in the playoffs as it does in all in all these sports and the reps follow the whistle the refs the whistle the game planning goes to another level adjustments come a lot faster you know as a staff we have a hard line on what we're willing to live with, what we're not willing to live with. And at that point in time, you know, it's a lot easier to say this guy is not going to beat us because, you know, if you take away his impact, which is 90% of the game, you know, now this team has to play in a wholly different way than they've done all season long. Yeah. It is, you have a fascinating team.

So you've got guys who are not as gifted offensively go bare, but you need to figure out a way to get him the ball. You have an ascending superstar. You have a veteran guy in Mike Conley. And then you have Carl Anthony Towns, who is gifted as heck. He can drive me not sometimes situationally. But it feels like your team, it's not a talent issue. It is a lot of personalities. Yeah.

I always said Joe Torrey. I didn't know if he was a great baseball manager. But he was the stepdad. You never wanted to tick off. So he could balance Jeter and Arod and egos and the media. Your team feels like there's a lot of personalities. age gaps, international, domestic. Is it a hard team to coach, the balance?

Yeah, I mean, when you put it that way, it seems like it would be hard. But fortunately, they're all good guys, you know, and they want to make it work. But we do have a lot of different players at different points in their career, or as we talk about their timeline, what timeline are we on here. But I also, you know, feel that the pieces do fit together. We've not really seen what we can do because of the cat injury. We've played 45 games without. them. We do know that there is a good chemistry between Kat and Rudy. And the Rudy trade, listen, when your best player at the time is Carl Anthony Towns, you're not going to go small.

You're not taking him off the floor. So we thought, well, the rest of the league is, you know, zigging. We might zag and see if it works. Like, you know, we're probably not better as a small ball team than the golden states of the world. So let's try to be different. And Rudy was a guy who who basically plugged a lot of needs, and we feel that he has done a great job in that. And now it's just rounding out those pieces around that fit with Rudy, Kat, and Ant. And that's really our core that we're prepared to move forward with.

Okay, so Draymond Green, strangely, I have a podcast company, and he's one of my employees. He's very coachable. Way, incredibly coachable. He's a great employee. He drives people crazy. So I always like that, guy. There was a guy named Bobby Jones, who was a much better offensive player than like a Dennis Rodman.

But he was just, Jerry Sloan had this element. It's just a pain in the budget guarded you. And Rodman and Draymond Green. Coaching against Draymond Green. Does he drive you insane? Where do you land on Draymond? I mean, he's a great player. He's a winner.

He's one of the all-time winners that we've had in the league. You know, he does all the things necessary to win and also cements that team together. He's happy to walk away with 14 assists if that's what it takes. Or guard the best player every night or he's always in the right help spot. It feels like when you're playing the Warriors, there's two Draymond's out there. There's the one that's guarding the ball and there's the one that's guarding everybody else. And so for a long, long time, if you don't have the right personnel and you go up against those guys and having Draymond on the floor, he's so smart defensively, he literally is like having a six man out there. And by the way, if you ever had to tell a player, okay, we're playing Draymond tonight.

do not let him get in your head. Oh, for sure. I mean, I've seen, I mean, I've been in games where he's gotten into people's heads and taking them right out of the game. Really? And usually after they've had, you know, a little bit of their way with him. So then he just moves to the psychological warfare. He's so good.

Yeah. Chris, what a pleasure to have you. And you're always welcome on our show. J-Mack, your sixth grade team. Did you pick up any pointers here? There's a real pro. Lots of stuff. You know, he's, I don't know about the originator of it, but putting the big man at

elbow and having him operate. I was watching a lot of the plays on YouTube that you drew up. Really smart stuff, obviously. Well, I appreciate that. I've been lucky to work with good skilled bigs. I work with Yokic in Denver as well. Anthony Davis. Anthony Davis, yeah. So, DeMarcus cousin. And when you always got to try to, you know, play through your best players, no matter where they are or who they are. Yeah. Great meeting you. Yeah. Appreciate. Thanks for having me on. Of course. Congrats on the win over the Clippers last night. Chris Finch, T. Wolves. If you're not a fan, you should be. I'm going to come back, do updates with you after this.

Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. This is Steve Kavino and Rich. And together we are Kavino and Rich. Kavino and Rich. Thanks, buddy. That's right. Kavino and Rich, Fox Sports Radio's newest hit show. Heard weekdays from 5 to 7 Eastern 2 to 4 Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Every Kavino and Rich show is available as a podcast.

Just search Kovino and Rich. wherever you get your podcast and subscribe. I'm such a rocking dude. The show features our unique take on sports, injected with some fun, humor, and relatability. Listen to Covino and Rich five days a week on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Covino and Rich, get me a hell, yeah.

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. 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. Clipper Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes

of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space. For honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little kill? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English.

Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line.

We also have AIDS on the table right now. Now you're finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Consumer Cellular.com slash the herd.

25 bucks off your whole pack. What a show today. J-Mac with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the Herd Line News. Timberwolf talking to the show, huh? You know what?

Interesting franchise. And also just a guy that's coasted in Europe, he's been all over. It's fun. Get a lot of knowledge. And I love asking these guys questions about the league and getting insights. Chris had a great line. It's become a status symbol not to play. That's a problem.

You load management guys. That's a problem. You heard him. The performance analytics department has a lot of power in these organizations. Analytics took over baseball. It's starting to creep in the NFL, and now NBA is massive. How about this? Take a nap in the afternoon and play.

Take a nap. I'm exhausted every day. Do you wear a device that tells you if you had a good night's sleep and all that stuff? You know what tells me I didn't? It's called coffee. Stop it. No, you should start. I wear one.

And I tell the wife, when I wake up, that's one of the first things I look at. I didn't have a good night sleep. I need a nap today. And I know that at like 7 a.m. It knows my body better than me. I don't wear that device, and I know when I need the nap. Why don't you need a device to say I'm a little tired of two? I'm going to close my eyes for 15 minutes.

I trust the numbers. I don't trust myself. Does that make sense? I trust myself. Numbers are nonsense. Oh my gosh. All right. That is nonsense.

Start with the Seattle Seahawks who are working on resigning Gino Smith. The GM said they've had positive conversations with him. But remember, Colin, Seattle has a fifth pick in the draft. Pete Carroll says the team is doing. their diligence on quarterbacks. Here's a quote. We are totally connected to the quarterbacks that are coming out. It's a really huge opportunity for us.

It's a rare opportunity. I've been drafting in the low 20s for such a long time. You just don't get a chance with these guys. So we're deeply involved with all that. You know what's going to happen, Colin? Seattle. You know, the kid five. They're franchise tag Geno Smith, and we will draft Anthony Richardson. I think that's an interesting one.

That's interesting. Anthony Richardson has got a lot of Josh Allen vibes. only completes 55% big strong moves. I watched him play twice last year. I mean like Satin really watched him. There's something there. He throws the ball well when he's moving. Big. And I mean

like six four and a half heavy big kid. He looks kind of like physically like a Cam Newton type player. I mean I think Cam might happen by an inch, but physically, I'm telling you this is the underwear Olympics, the combine this week. When he's sitting there working out, you're going to see this guy shredded. He's a beast.

And he can make big throws. I said yesterday. Bryce Young's the most naturally gifted. Anthony Richardson's the most fascinating. And Stroud and Will Levis are good enough to succeed, but they have to get the right fit. They're not like as talented as it Trevor Lawrence. Yeah. Now, how will Gino Smith take that? Hey, we're going to franchise tag you. Draft your replacement. I think Gino Smith, to his credit, has grown and is so grateful for the Seattle opportunity. He's waited a decade to have a season like he just had.

But he was immature when he came and he's not going to get a long-term deal. Well, he's going to get a couple years of big money. Is he or a franchise tag of one year? They got a lot of draft picks. I mean, I would, I think Gino Smith with a franchise tag would be appreciative. That's a lot of money. A franchise tag is a lot of money in a state with no state tax. One year, $30 something million.

Taxes, so chop that in half. Agent takes a cut. No, Seattle's got no state tax. Washington does it. Oregon's got a big. one. Washington doesn't. California's got a big. West Coast got a lot bigger. Nevada, Washington, save some money. How about the California taxes? Oh, we're not going to talk about this. Okay. By the way, Gino Smith's career earnings, 17 million. You're going to tell me that $30 million

he's going to go, double your career earnings, basically. That's, that's some. When you see guys like Dak Prescott getting all the money he got. Well, he's not, he hasn't been as consistent as Dak Prescott. Okay. That Prescott came into the league very mature. Gino wasn't quite there yet. Dak came in as a grown man, very mature. He'd let a college franchise. Dack was different.

His intangibles were a grown man. How many playoff wins is Zach Prescott? Oh, good. I mean, did Gino have? It's like one nothing, I believe. I'm pretty sure. Dack has one playoff. Dax's been a more consistent player.

Dax a better quarterback. I would agree. Okay, fine. Don't give me DAC money. Give me half of that. He's going to get like a third of Dax. Why do you want to sign Gino to some long deal? I'm talking from Gino's perspective.

Well, yeah, but Gino doesn't run. doesn't run the franchise. I'd say here's a franchise tag. It's a ton. And we're giving you double your career earnings for a year. I'm not signing you some long-term deal. And then Gino says, oh, you're going to draft by replacement. Okay, got it. I see how it is. All right. I feel bad for the guy. I got no problem as a GM, hurting feelings. I don't want to hurt my owners feelings. You don't hurt whose feelings? My owners. I don't want my owner of sat with me. The player occasionally grumbles. I can live with it. All right. Next up, Jonathan Gannon left the Eagles to become the head coach of the Cardinals.

I think we questioned that move here on the show. At the Combine this week, he was asked what went wrong for Philly's defense in the second half of the Super Bowl when Mahomes lit him up badly. Gannon said he could have done a better job, but safety, C.J. Gardner Johnson called out his former coordinator. He deleted the tweet. Here it is. You ain't put us in position to make plays. Oh, that's so spicy right there. Now, he did delete it. By the way, the Chiefs rolled the Niners and the Eagles in the second half. Nobody stopped the Chiefs this year.

No good team stopped them. They scored on everybody in the second half. They went to the Santa Clara and the Niners couldn't stop them. The Niners defense has Hall of Famers. All their units, they got Pro Bowl. Couldn't stop them in the second half. Either could the Eagles. Sometimes it's reading Mahomes and Kelsey and schemes.

What if a producer would drop a tweet about Cowherd will not put us in a position to succeed and then he deletes it? How do you feel? I get over it. Okay, so maybe Gannon's over it. He's in Arizona. Alex, that doesn't mean you should go to Twitter. He's dealing with new problems in Arizona. All right. Final story. Let's go to your favorite team in the AFC, the Cincinnati Bengals.

A lot of young stars. They need to lock up to extensions soon. Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase, obviously at the top of the list. But a lot of speculation about T. Higgins, you know, we saw the chiefs have to drop Tyreek Hill. Maybe the Bengals have to part with T. Higgins. However, Director of Player Personnel, Duke Tobin made it clear at the combine, they're not letting Higgins go. He's exactly what we're hoping for when we draft a guy.

A guy that comes in, develops, fills the role, helps us win in a lot of ways, does it the right way, fits into our culture. T's an exceptional football player. And, you know, I envision him being part of what we do going forward. I'm not in the business of making other teams better. I'm in the business of making the Cincinnati Bengals better. And so trading T. Higgins is not on my mind.

That's their problem. They want a receiver. Go find your own. In my opinion, T. Higgins is a good piece for the Cincinnati Bengals. And when Jemar Chase... The trade stuff is a little ridiculous right now. So when Chase went out, Higgins stepped up.

He was fantastic. So he's the best two, arguably, in the league. When he had to be a one, he looked like a one. Well, for instance, New York Giants are dropping Kenny Goliday. That's out there. Everybody knows that. If you're the Giants, you don't want to get in the T. Higgins business? They're not giving him off.

I will overpay him to take him from Cincinnati. Well, Cincinnati's going to overpay him because he's T. Higgins. They're going to pay Burrow Higgins and Chase? What's that? I don't. No, no, I'm not interested. You know it gets tough when you give the quarterback the big money. Sacrifices must be made.

I would, you know, I would, I think it's a pretty good vibe that Joe Mitzin will be gone. If I was T. Higgins, and I can play with Burrow or Daniel Jones, I'll take a little less money. Same. Jay Mack with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lye News. Don't mess with my Bengals.

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So much fun today. We'll see you tomorrow. It's the herd. 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 I-Heart 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.

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A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators,

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