The Ryen Russillo Podcast - NFL Free Agency Hits and Misses with Sheil Kapadia, Plus Chandler Parsons and How History Will View the SGA-Jokic MVP Race

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

Russillo welcomes in Sheil Kapadia to share their thoughts on Sam Darnold and Geno Smith, reveal their favorite and least favorite free agent signings, and discuss why Justin Fields still has so much hype around him (0:56). Next, Ryen compares Jokic and SGA and wonders how history will remember their MVP race (40:49). Then, he’s joined by Chandler Parsons to pick the best teams in the East and West, preview where Kevin Durant could land next season, and break down the importance of a playoff scorer (53:17). Plus, Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle (1:21:03)! How do I handle my dad dating a woman my age? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Sheil Kapadia and Chandler Parsons Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Get Game Day Deals only on Uber Eats. Order Now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What to get to on today's pod should party NFL free agencies pranking right now We're gonna get to a ton of names. Don't feel left out We'll get to some of the quarterback stuff with the Seahawks doing what's going on with fields and just some of our favorite and Not so favorite signings. NBA Open. NBA players love some things that I don't necessarily love. How that applies to Denver and OKC and the MVP stuff. Some of the long-held historic claims by the guys that have played this game at the highest level. And we've got Chandler Parsons on just taking a look at where Cleveland is in the East, the other West teams,

and then just gearing up for the playoffs, going back to a couple of his Houston runs over 10 years ago and life advice. One of our favorite NFL guests to talk to from the ringer, it is Shil Kapadia. What's up, man? Good to see you. Lots of signings.

This is my season, off season, better than in season as far as I'm concerned. Whoa, I thought only the NBA had that for you. So let's go through this barrage of signings. But I think the first thing you have to start with here is when we watch Sam Darnold, destroy game, the playoff game, potential blueprint games. What is Darnold worth on the open market?

What is he worth away from Kevin O'Connell and this receiving core and the O-line and all this kind of stuff? Well, he's worth three years and a hundred million bucks from the Seahawks, 55 million guaranteed. I think I'm scared to death if I'm a Seahawks fan. Totally agree. I would be bummed by this off season if I were a Seahawks fan.

It just goes to a lot of the things we talk. It doesn't matter the sport where it's like a guy was bad, a guy was put in a certain situation, he played better for one year, and then you're the team that pays him based off of that one year. I mean, I mean, to me, so much of this is just about the environment and the infrastructure and the moves that the Seahawks made where like you said, you don't have, Kevin O'Connell's not coming over with you.

Justin Jefferson's not coming over with you. You have offensive line issues. He's playing outside and now you're expecting him to maintain his level of play from last year or improve. Can it happen? Sure, weird things happen all the time. You know, they surprise us. So it could happen.

He's young enough. I don't think that's the most likely scenario for Sam Darnold in Seattle. I think everybody felt great about a player we all really liked. I mean, I don't know if you disliked him coming out of the draft. I liked him.

Certainly NFL teams liked him. It seems like a lot of people in the quarterback community really like him, the dude. And you know, we've heard all these different stories and I don't need to recount all of them, but, you know, liner and I've talked about it all the time or liner felt like, I don't know, year six or something is when it's like the light went off. It's like, okay, now I kind of understand it. It's like, okay, but where, where would a team, how could a GM ever sell that to his ownership? How could a coach ever, like that's just, you gotta figure it out sooner. And sure, maybe there's a couple of quarterbacks

that are out of football that had they been given another chance would have finally figured it out. I think people could hope that for Darnold, but there's so many factors based on everything you just said, maybe the last impression is too powerful, but you're like, this is what it looks like when it's disrupted. And that's with that team and with that staff.

And now you look at Seattle, like where are they? Are they looking at this as like, if we're right, we get him cheaper? Get the three years, like can we be right? But yet Seattle is a team that, you know, like Gino did a really good job there last couple of years. I'm not saying he's awesome, but he's done a good job and it feels like they're in transition and that Darnold wouldn't be the guy that would match the timeline the rest of the roster is on. Yeah, I think the case for it,

and I've heard from smart people who are like, I get it, it is that he's way younger than Gino Smith. So if you hit, you hit for a longer period of time. I mean, if he plays well, like you said, not only on this contract, but he could be your guy for the next six, seven years. He's young enough to do that. So you've got that. I think he's going to be cheaper than Gino. By all the reporting, Gino Smith wants between $40 and $45 million, and that's what he's

going to get from the Raiders. And Darnold comes in way lower than that. So it gives you resources to spend on other parts of the roster. So if you're paying him 75% of what Gino's going to make, he's younger, and you get a third round pick, that's the process part of it. Where if you just took the name out of it and said, hey, what are they thinking? I think that's what they're thinking. I just have real concerns that it's going to work out for them. I don't think this puts them closer to being a contender.

When they traded DK Metcalf and Gino Smith, I thought, all right, if they go real cheap here at quarterback and are like, hey, we need a reset year, we need to improve the offensive line, let's get some draft capital. I could have understood that logic. But when you make those moves to trade DK Metcalf and trade Gino Smith, and then you turn around and you pay Sam Darnold, that makes me a little nervous. And I just don't think, like I said, they're closer to contending now than they were at the end of the season. Do you like the DK deal for Pittsburgh? I think it's okay. I would have liked it for a contending team. The NFL trade market is so weird

where you look at some of these and I can't figure out what they're going to go for. Like the going rate for a good wide receiver, a wide receiver one who's like 27, 28 years old has generally been a first round pick. So that gets thrown out there and people are like, no way, you know, and I'm like, I don't know. That DJ Moore was essentially treated like a first round pick in that big Bears Panthers trade. So I thought a team like the Chiefs or a contending team that need a little juice on the outside. I thought that would have made sense for them.

Now the Steelers are again, they're kind of in this middle ground where we don't know who's playing quarterback for them. They've been looking for a wide receiver. And so I think teams look at it now that not only is it the draft capital, but when you have to give up the draft capital and then pay the guy, they're just really reluctant to do that. And so I thought it was a fine deal for the Steelers. He's never hurt. He's been productive. He's what? 27, 28 years old. And it's a premium position that it's just hard to find those guys out there. So yeah, I thought it was fine. I don't know that it changes my outlook on what the Steelers are going to be, but I thought it was a fine move for them. Are you with me that you hope they sign Jameson Williams at some point

and then add him to that Steelers wide receiver room? Jameson Williams, DK Metcalf and George Pickens. Yeah. Let's find out what Mike Tomlin's really got. You know, I'm with you. Maybe Antonio Brown wants to come back on a one year, something like that. You thought Antonio Brown was chatting. So actually, I don't know. I don't know if anything will compete with the end of AB's run. Speaking of trades, let's just touch on the Tuncil one here

because Houston Moves, their left tackle, considered probably their best offensive lineman for a unit that wasn't very good. And just everybody got to see it firsthand in the playoff game where it's like a disaster. Um, but it's tons of little fourth for third and seventh and obviously inheriting the next two years of that contract for Washington, 21 million at each of the next two years.

So when a team does something like this, okay, and there are certain free agents that I understand it's cap management, but like maybe even Grady Jarrett's an example of this where you go, why would, like should you be worried about paying this much money for Grady Jarrett at this age knowing Atlanta was like, we're good? Not to say that teams don't make mistakes,

but if Houston has to figure out a way to fix this whole line, what is it about Tunsil that would make them basically move out for, I mean, sure they're off the money, but asset wise coming back, all they're really doing is moving from a fourth to a third round pick. They're not even just, they're not even getting

just the third. They moved a fourth out. It's, I've gone back and forth on this in the last 24 hours because I'm with you, y'all. I always like to look at it from the other team's perspective. Like what does, Houston has more information on Laramie Tunsell than anybody else. And they have a rookie quarterback

and they have a bad offensive line and he's their best offensive lineman. Yet they're trading him at this point for, like you said, I mean, it said, it's a decent haul, but they're not getting a first round pick or anything out of this. So I do wonder what are they thinking? Now, it could be that Jeremy Tunsel's contract's up at the end of 2026, and they're saying, all right, we would have to pay him after this year, and we definitely don't want to do that. Let's go ahead and get ahead of this. But that would make me a little nervous. from the commander's perspective. It's like a boomer bust move.

There's a scenario where Laramy Tantzl is one of the five best left tackles in the NFL over the next three, four seasons. And you've got Jayden Daniels on a rookie contract. So I get the thinking from the commander's, he's entering his age 31 season. So you would think he's still got some time left where he can be a very good player, even though he's coming off a year where I think he led the NFL and penalties last season and he's not a perfect player, but he is a very talented player. So I think I would do it if I were the commanders, you know, again,

it's a, it's hard to find left tackles that are that talented who can give you that kind of play when you have a quarterback on a rookie contract. But it definitely does come with risk because of what you're saying from the Texans perspective. Maybe you just look at the tackle market and you see the number that the Titans give to Dan Moore, 82 million.

Yeah. But again, that part of it makes more sense for Washington because they're thinking, well, at least we get tonsil on the high side of this and contractual control. So on the Houston side of it, it's like, couldn't you have done this? Couldn't you flip tonsil if you were worried about the contract after one more year is off the books? And do you think you couldn't have done better in the 26 free agency period moving tonsil? But this is us flying completely blind. But then again, it would scale as much as if you're a commander, it's like, oh, this is awesome. You're like, why would they have

done this though? So I don't know. I don't know what that one means. That one's a little tough to figure out. But if you look at some of the interior, like even Aaron Banks, four years, 77 million, I guess he's going to play guard for the Packers? That's what he is. But when you look at some of those numbers, that part of it helps the Washington part. We're below market on Tunsel in comparison to some of these other dudes. Again, we're talking about banks playing a different position. Was there any deal you loved? I thought the Bucks did a great job job. They're kind of underrated where they just sort of figure it out. They end up winning the division every year. They get Chris Godwin, was one of my favorite signings, 22 million per year, which you're like, well, that's still

pretty expensive. Not if you look at the wide receiver market. That's not even in the top 15 wide receivers. And through seven weeks last season, the receivers who had more yards than Chris Godwin, Jamar Chase, that was it. And then he got injured and he's coming back from an injury, but he's done that before and played well. So I thought for the Bucs to be able to bring him back at 22 million per year, that was a nice signing.

And then they signed Hassan Reddick at one year, $12 million, where that's a nice sort of buy low. He had a disastrous season last year. He gets traded from the Eagles to the Jets. Has one of the worst holdouts in NFL history, where the poor guy just cost himself a lot of money by what he did there with the Jets. But now you get him, and this is a guy who can rush the passer. He's 31 years old, I think with sixth in sacks from 2021 to 2023. So, I thought that was a nice value signing.

So, yeah, the B bucks are kind of underrated sneaky in some of these moves that they make. I thought they did a nice job there. Okay, give me one you don't like. Give me a couple. Okay, good. What is that? I've got more there, yeah. Jevon Kinlaw to the commanders for three years,

$45 million. I do my top 50 free agents on theringer.com. And whenever a guy who's not even on there gets signed for like $15 million or more, I'm like, either I'm an idiot or that's a terrible signing. And maybe it's a combination of the both, but the commanders let Jonathan Allen go. They release him at a similar number,

and then they go out and they sign Jevon Kinlaw, who was a free agent last season and signed a one year, $7.25 million deal with the Jets. He hits the quarterback five times in 17 games last season. He was 118th in pressures last season. And now you sign him to a three year, $45 million deal. You know, I get nervous whenever there's a coach or a GM who brings in players who they're familiar with. And Adam Peters, the commander's GM was in San Francisco when the 49ers drafted Javon Kinloch. And so there's some familiarity there with those two guys. And they decided, Hey, he's still got the upside.

That was one of the biggest head scratchers I thought so far in free agency. I love that you pick in law because I'm just going to go for like full transparency. I've not broken down a ton of kinlaw tape. All right. I understand the name recognition and I figured if San Francisco had brought them in, especially at the one year, there's probably something there. Let's see what happens. That seems to be a really good front office. They seem like pretty smart guys. And I never noticed him. I never noticed him.

And then I thought, I must be, I just had a moment when I saw that news, I went, is Ken Law even good? And then I just assumed I didn't know what I was talking about because it's like, well, have you really locked in on whether or not he's winning his matchups? I'm like, I have to be totally honest. Have a decent sized podcast, but I have not spent a ton of time on Kinlaw tape. I'm just so glad that you said it

because I'm like, God, that seems like a ton of money for somebody that I had never really noticed. Yeah, that was a stunner, especially they, like I said, they had a player in Jonathan Allen who was injured last year, but who has been a good player and to release him for nothing and then go replace him for Kinlaw. That's a bit of a head scratcher for me. I do have one more for you.

Is it Chase Young? It's not Chase Young. We can get- Speaking of Niner guys that hung out for a little bit, I just think three years, 51 minutes, like at least he's playing again. Yeah. But that seemed especially for a New Orleans team that had to get real creative to even figure out how to make any cap space this year.

But yeah, Chase Young I thought was destined for the De'Vion clowny, like just be a one year mercenary and rush the pass there. Because some of his pass rushing stuff, like he had some high level reps. You saw the talent overall. Like you said, he stayed healthy. He was pretty good in pressures, but I didn't think they were going to commit to him for three years. But the Saints are just like, not to pile on, but they're just so relevant that I almost am like, why do I, why am I paying any attention to what the Saints are doing? But the other guy I have here, the Chiefs, you know, our last impression of the Chiefs was their offensive line just getting steamrolled in the Super Bowl. And so you go into

this offseason, you say, all right, what are they going to do? What are they going to learn from that? How are they going to address the offensive line? They signed this guy, Jalen Moore, Trent Williams is backup with the 49ers. Okay. He started 12 games in four seasons. They signed him to a two year, $30 million deal. And now he's going to be the left tackle as you try to get to the Superbowl for the fourth straight year. So part of me is going like, I like it. You got to be creative. You know, you were, you were mentioning some of those other salaries and it's hard to find a left tackle and all right, you know, but it's putting a lot of faith in your scouting to be like this guy who the 49ers were not even playing for four years. And I think Kyle Shanahan is a pretty smart guy. We see something in him that nobody else sees. And it's not even like a lot, like if you signed him for a lower level deal and said,

Hey, we're going to try him as a starter that I could get, but two years, $30 million. And now you're basically just plugging him in. I don't know if the Chiefs offensive line is better now than they were in that Superbowl. In fact, I think there's a strong argument that they're worse. And I just feel like they continue to be an interesting team to try to figure out how hard are they going to make this on Patrick Mahomes? Because every year I'm like, it's not going to get

harder than that for Patrick Mahomes. And then the next year starts and I'm like, feels kind of harder than it was last year. And it's just the start of the off season, but it sort of feels like it's continuing that way. It felt a bit like the Matt Castle draft pick where the pats took him and like, he just never plays, but he was going to be a backup to somebody else who was already really good. If you look at Taylor, he started 12 or excuse me, if you look at Jaylen Moore, he started, I was thinking that Juwan started 12 games. I was thinking of Chuan. Started 12 games. That's kind of shocking, but it might again factor into like the pricing of this stuff.

But with the way, and I'm glad like Bill and I were talking about this a little bit at the very end of Sunday's pod, I was glad that he brought up just what we're looking at with the cap spike based on revenue and the way it's collectively bargained and that the salary cap has gone up so much, just what almost doubled in just over 10 years. So when you're looking at some of these prices, there can be this sticker shock of like that guy's 20 million a year. It's like, yeah,

but that's a $10 million a year guy. Not, I mean, I know a decade can feel like a long time, but as far as cap and the way that it's exploded, that's not a very long time to be at some of these cap numbers. And when you start looking at where a very long time to be at some of these cap numbers. And when you start looking at where the projections are going to be two or three years from now, it's clear general managers are like, even if I'm pricey, at least I'm fulfilling a need here, and I'm going to have all this extra space that I get to play with. Because that just was not a guarantee the way that it used to be with GMs. You couldn't make this many mistakes, and I think you can now.

Yeah. I think there, and there's two things that go along with that. One is the smart teams are saying, hey, let's give out these big signing bonuses. We can extend them into the future. And we know the cap's going up. So it's not a big deal if this guy's not even on our team

and we've got $5 million on the cap three, four, five years from now. Like that's something that the Cowboys aren't doing enough of. And that's why they keep looking around going, how are these teams signing all these players and able to do it? It's because they're employing that tactic that you're not employing. That's one. And then from a player perspective, I think this has been less talked about, but there are more players who just signed a deal in the last two years, who now look around and go, wait, that guy got what? I'm way better than him.

And before it used to be teams would say, well, sorry, you're under contract. When you get to your last year, we'll talk about it. But now teams have to kind of be like, if you really want the player and you're worried about locker room harmony and all that kind of thing, you have to revisit some of those things

or guarantee some money or extend or, you know, what the Eagles kind of did with Saquon Barkley. Like that's the type of thing that teams were, would not have been doing five, six, 10 years ago where now they've got to figure out who are we willing to do that with because these players are looking around just a year or two after they signed and the caps going up and they're saying I'm already underpaid. Do you like what Denver did with Greenlaw and Haffanga? Boomer bust. It feels like I did make a joke on a group chat earlier that the

a hundred snaps those two guys play together next year are going to be electric. It was mean. It was mean. It was mean. I didn't know if I should have that for public consumption, but if it hits, it's going to be really exciting. I like the scheme fit because Vance Joseph is just like chaos, blitz, creative. Like this is not a defense that just lines up and plays. They do all kinds of things.

And I think those two players specifically thrive in that chaotic atmosphere, Greenlaw and who fungus. So I hope they both stay healthy. They're both very fun players, athletic. You know, there's a chance a year or two from now we're saying, all right, they didn't really get anything from that, but if it hits, I think it'll hit in a big way. I liked it just because their defense was so good last year that, you know, you go, why not?

It's just they weren't gonna be complacent about it whatsoever and Green lost 27. He missed that last year. I guess I just look at him. I mean, he'll be 28 at the start of the season if you wanna get real technical about it. I just think he was so good. And it's kinda hard to stand out next to Fred Warner

and he did and he brings an attitude. So I like it and you look at the numbers through years 35, 20, it's 27 guaranteed and he's coming off the Achilles part of it but at least it was like this one very clear injury and then he's able to even come back. So if he didn't play the entire year, I don't even know what that number would be at. The Colts obviously throwing some money into that secondary. I guess if you look at the Byron Murphy contract

through your 66 million, 35 guaranteed with Minnesota bringing them back, is the Traderious Ward number supposed to be the same? Cause that's kind of what it was, even though I think I'd prefer Murphy. Yeah, I had them in the same ballpark when I did my rankings. I think Ward is more of like just kind of line up on a guy

and can really lock them down. Murphy's more of a playmaker. If you're playing zone, he can come up with turnovers and pass breakups. So there was a group of guys there, you know, with Charvarius Ward. It was Murphy, Carlton Davis, DJ Reed. There were kind of like four or five corners that I thought were in a similar range, depending

on your scheme and your preference there. Colts usually sit out free agency. I never know what the Colts are doing. I mean, again, they're sort of in that Saints thing where you're just like, what am I supposed to make of this team? You know, there was all this conversation about they're going to bring in competition for Anthony Richardson. And now they signed Daniel Jones and it's like,, like, what do you have if you have an

Anthony? Is that the, I mean, I don't want to say that's the saddest quarterback competition, because there have been sadder ones, but I don't know how excited I would be if I were a Colts fan. And it's like, all right, Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones here this summer, and we upgraded our second year. Where does that really leave you going into the next season or the next three seasons? So some of these teams are just sort of stuck in the middle, I feel like. Would you rather have Daniel Jones as your backup or Zach Wilson? I would rather have Daniel Jones if the price is the same. I would not even maintain a relationship with Zach Wilson's agent, not to be mean about it, but I'd be listening.

I would just be like, listen, man, I like you, but it's not happening here. Yeah, yeah. Hope everything's well. Hope the family's good, but no, that's not happening. I liked the Josh Palmer signing. I know it's a lot. It's three years, 36.

He's missed some games over the last couple seasons. I always felt like Palmer had a little more juice to him that was lost in the shuffling of all the different receiver options that were either healthy and a lot of times not healthy with the Chargers. I just like him. And I think with Alan, not that, you know, it's not like Justin Herbert isn't one of the better quarterbacks in the

league, although we could save that debate when he has a bad loss in a nationally fellowized game and everybody says he sucks again. I just feel like Palmer is a dude that has a little bit more to him that will fit, that fulfills more of a need for Buffalo being thin at that position. Yeah, I thought it was fine. I mean, the wide receiver market is nuts. And so you look at it and you say 12 million sounds like a lot. That's like wide receiver three money really, when you look at what guys get in that role. So I think he'll fill a complimentary role. They kind of proved last year that they can have an elite offense without having that number one go to wide receiver. And so they

extended Khalil Shakir. They've got Kion Coleman coming back, they've got two tight ends, they've got James Cook, and so Palmer is just like, be where you're supposed to be, catch the football, and fill that complimentary role. So yeah, I thought that was a fine move by them. Okay, give us all my Pats fans are excited. Milton Williams, four years, 104 million, 63 million guaranteed. That puts him at the third highest average annual salary at defensive tackle behind Chris Jones and Christian Wilkins. I mean, Jones is debatable that he's even at defensive tackle because he isn't. I mean, they line up all over the place.

Now one argument could be he played in Philly with all of these other studs and New England now is going to have him be the focal point of what their defensive line is supposed to be. So, give us the full Milton scouting report and expectation because this is being celebrated quite a bit in New England. Yes, I do get that sense from our friend Bill Simmons as well that it's getting celebrated quite a bit. I feel like with Milton Williams, it's sort of like the band or whatever that you liked

before they were popular. And then they get, and now everyone's like discovered them and you're like, all right, they were good. They're not like the Beatles or anything. So 20, I never thought this was within the realm of possibilities for Milton Williams, 26 million per year. Like you could have told me at any point before last season, during last season, and I would have laughed at you if you would have said he's going to be the

third highest paid defensive tackle in the NFL. He's never played more than 50% of the snaps. He had five sacks and 10 quarterback hits last year. And that was playing alongside Jalen Carter, who I can tell you from the film was getting double T the center was sliding to Jalen Carter, who I can tell you from the film was getting double T. The center was sliding to Jalen Carter all the time. It was Milton Williams versus guard. So that is if I want to pour some cold water on the Milton Williams hype. Having said that, I really like Milton Williams. I think he's really good.

And I think if you're a team like the Patriots that had all this cap space, some of their other signings I wasn't sure about. But if you want to overpay for somebody, make it someone who's in their mid-20s, who plays a premium position, who has upside. And I think Milton Williams checks all those boxes. So if you told me he really develops and he thrives with a larger role here in the next few seasons, I would believe that.

So I get the signing. I do get a little concerned when teams kind of fall in love in the off season, when it's just like, we have to have that player. And there were reports that Milton Williams was signing with the Panthers. And then the price just went up and up and up. And it felt like the Patriots got to a point

where they're basically like, we're not taking no for an answer. Tell us what the number is that you need for him to be a Patriot and we'll get there. So he gets the $26 million per year. So I understand it. I don't know if he's going to be a $26 million per year player. I don't know if he's going to be a top five

defensive tackle in the NFL, but I do think he will be a very good useful player for the Patriots and they need those guys up front. Okay. You mentioned Caleb Williams is the big winner. Um, why should he feel so good about this off season? You get Ben Johnson as your offensive coordinator, who I really like. So that is an upgrade from whatever was happening with that scheme and that offense last year.

And then I'm not positive that all their moves are going to work out, but I like when a team has a plan and they trade for Jonah Jackson, the guard from the Rams, they trade for Joe Tooney from the chiefs. And then they signed Drew Dahlman, the center from the Falcon. So three new starting offensive linemen on the interior. Again, it might not work out. We might be in week seven next year going, wow, we really overrated those moves that the bears made.

Those guys all stink and he's getting hit all the time. That's possible. But I like that they had a plan where they said, we are focusing our resources on trying to protect this guy and give him a chance with the new play caller in Ben Johnson. So I feel like if you're Caleb Williams sitting around at the end of last season and Jayden Daniels getting all this hype and Drake Mays getting all this hype and you're like, man, my situation sucked last year. Now at least you go into your second season feeling like you have a better chance to succeed again. It's not guaranteed to succeed, but I like that they at least had a plan. I got to talk about Justin Fields. I do not know who I can compare to him as far as the career arc because what you would have to do is you'd have to be a top pick. You would have to be somebody that everybody's familiar with

because of your college accolades. You'd have to be physically impressive because of his athleticism, I think the arm. And then you go to a franchise like Chicago, um, where they have no equity as far as their history at the position. So it feels doesn't work out in Chicago, like some other places in the NFL. You could, if you love fields coming out or any like quarterback with the same kind of thing we're talking about here, you could just blame that team, right? So then he goes to Pittsburgh, they have a good record because of the defense.

He gets benched, Russell Wilson comes in, it's not great, they also fall apart because the defense falls apart. And then somehow Fields becomes even better because of the way the season ended when he wasn't even playing. There's a lot of record stuff in there with quarterbacks that we should always be fighting against. And even though there are moments, I think with Pittsburgh where I go, Ooh, maybe there's

something there those first couple of weeks, like, Hey, that was a pretty good throw. There's a lot of numbers that if you really want to dig into like his EPA and value on drop back and stuff, it's, it's abysmal. Yeah. Like some of those numbers paint a picture that even if I didn't love fields, I'm like, wow, I didn't even realize it was that bad.

And he gets a deal with the jets. Now granted, you know, the money here's two years, 40 million, 30 million guaranteed. The 20 million average annual salary puts him at 21st at the position, which is like a root, like 20 million now a year for quarterback is just weird anyway, if he's not on the rookie deal. And this is being celebrated in a way that I don't know. I can't come up with a comp. Like I was thinking about Tannahill, but at least Tannahill, because it was a bit of the same things, high draft pick.

He was more of an unknown coming out, goes to Miami. Miami doesn't have the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the quarterbacks at that time. Then he goes to the Titans and he had a couple of statistical years, she'll where I'm like, Tannehill is this good. And yet I never really felt it. And then when it was over, it was kind of over quick. And it seemed like they wanted to move on from him yet.

There were some real arguments about Tannehill be like, no, you guys are disrespecting Tannehill. I'm like, I don't feel that I am. But yes, cool page on pro football reference. Fields doesn't even have that. And yet that feels like it's the expectation. So it's his third team. I don't think he's been that good and some people are convinced he's fucking awesome. I don't know if I can think of anyone in modern NFL history that

matches that. Between you saying the Justin Fields celebration and the Josh Power, I think the football hipsters have gotten to you. We need to look at your feeds on who's getting to you. You're getting the wrong influences, I feel like. Wait, do the hipsters not like Palmer? No, the hipsters love Palmer. Oh, they do. Yes.

But the hipsters, is Fields a hipster guy? Yeah, no, no, the hipsters are like, just get him in the right spot. I will not give up on Justin Fields. I think the comp is hard. There's a little bit of the Sam Darnold story, though, I would say. What do you think? When you were describing that and you said franchise, who everyone's going to blame the franchise if the quarterback's not good? Jet Spares. That fits. Everyone knew him from college, celebrated college

player, talented, arm. Hey, just get him in the right situation. He was screwed by his environment and it's going to work out. I feel like that might be the best case scenario for Justin Fields. If it works out now, Justin Fields is going to the jets, the team that had Sam Darnold. So I don't know that it's going to work out. Um, and they're paying more. You know, the Vikings took a flyer on Sam Darnold last year, one year, $10 million. The Jets are going two years, $40 million with $30 million guaranteed. I mean, I'm with you. Like, I don't get the NFL sometimes.

A year ago, literally any team in the NFL could have had Justin Field for a sixth round pick. The Bears were giving him away and no one would give up a fifth. So they took a sixth. Like I just need to recap what you said. Then he goes to Pittsburgh, gets benched after six games. They're four and two. He gets benched for the corpse of Russell Wilson. And now his reputation is like better than it was a year ago.

And you're paying him 30 million guaranteed. So it is very confusing to me sometimes how much our opinions of these guys change year over year when it's like, was I watching something different than that? Like you said, if you look at the advanced stats last year with Justin Fields, he was like 33rd in drop back success rate, which just measures like every time you call a pass play does something good happen. He was one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL. Where he improved was he didn't turn the football over.

Now do you buy a six game sample of him not turning the football over or do you look at his previous history where he was a turnover machine? So I like, like I like to watch Justin Fields sometimes he's exciting, he's talented, he's athletic, maybe it will work out. But yes, I would tend to agree with you that the most likely scenario is that you're getting, you know, below average starting quarterback play if you're the New York Jets.

The Darnold thing works where it's the top pick, it's the big time program, it's a franchise there's no equity in, right? The hipsters love Sam Darnold too. They did. I even felt like I put on a shirt for that weekend where I'd fit in going, I can't wait to see if he gets a chance to play for the Niners. Darnold, maybe it's the reverse there because Baker was there in 22 and then Darnold finishes out the season. So is that the same? But I guess I don't know that there was the hype

in anticipation of Darnold going into this past Minnesota year that I feel like I've already seen. I don't even think it's close for the hype that like people, some people think the jet like app, they fixed it, like fixed it. Like I look look maybe it works Okay, but just the same way it was for Donald to have kind of like an MVP discussion type season granny Wasn't gonna win the MVP, but you hey look what this guy's doing

They drafted another quarterback Right you have to JJ McCarthy so high not knowing that he was gonna be hurt So we weren't really even sure. So yeah, I mean, maybe people were holding out hope for Donald, but I don't know that going into this year with Minnesota, it was like, man, this is going to be awesome. The way it already is with field. So I, I don't know. I guess it's not that I'm sitting here saying, I think, well, yeah, I guess I am.

Fuck it. He hasn't been good. He hasn't been good. He hasn't been good for a really long time. So to have this level of anticipation for him seems to be completely misguided. I'm trying to think now I'm on this. Well, you have something to say, but I have a follow up to this. So just go. Yeah. I mean, I was just going to say, like I'm not crushing the jets for this. To me, it's a matter of expectations. Like you said, if you're someone who thinks they fixed this, then I think you're wrong and you're going to be disappointed. If you want to look at it and say, they had to find a starting quarterback, they had to buy some time where they could potentially

draft over Justin Fields or find someone else, it's a reasonable move in that respect. The quarterback market is so weird in that he's the only quarterback in the NFL right now making between $15 and $30 million. This is not like a middle ground that exists. Either you are, hey, you are a starter and you're over 30 million, or it's, hey, you're a backup like Daniel Jones or competing and you're under 15 million.

So it's not a crazy amount of money when you look at the quarterback market. So if you say, hey, he's gonna go in there, they're gonna run the football a lot, they're gonna include him in the run game, they're gonna try to win with defense, Hey, he's going to go in there, they're going to run the football a lot. They're going to include him in the run game. They're going to try to win with defense and they're going to continue to look for their quarterback of the future. That to me is reasonable. If you think, Hey, he's, you know, he, he got screwed by Mike Tomlin last year, cause yeah, Mike Tomlin doesn't know what he's talking about. And

he chose the, you know, the quarterback who was not going to give him a better chance to win. And you think field is going to thrive with the jets. I mean, maybe, but that part would actually would really surprise me. You're right though. I mean, after Justin feels 20 million number, if you look at, and there's still some dust that has to get worked out here, whatever happens with Gino, but it's Gardner Minshew and then rookie contracts. Yeah. Minshew at 12 million when the Raiders were like, Hey, we're going to be really creative. And I have two guys that are inexpensive before they decided, no wonder they wanted

Gino so bad, but yeah, I'm, I'm with you on this. Cause I'm trying to think of the top hipster quarterback. Cause I feel like the hipsters were trying to tell me Anthony Richardson was going to be really good as he ran it into the end zone because his OC didn't trust him to throw it on goal to go situations. So like, well, no shit. he ran it into the end zone because his OC didn't trust him to throw it on goal to go situations. So like, well, no shit. He ran it all the time and it worked, but it also was alarming.

Like, oh yes, he's going to run it again. Okay. Yeah. He was up there. I'm trying to think of who else is in that. It was also a big fantasy thing. So I don't, but I feel like the hipsters like Anthony Richardson coming out into the draft a lot too. Yes.

Were you one of those guys, Shiel? It's okay. No, I was- I get it wrong sometimes too. I said, if you watch the first 15 plays, I get it, but I would probably let someone else figure out if it's going to work or not with, I don't understand why the Colts didn't try to,

and maybe they did try to trade Anthony Richardson. They clearly hate the guy and don't want it to be their starter, but they're like, yeah, let's see, let's run it back. Him and Daniel Jones. So I was trying to get Anthony Richardson to Pittsburgh and just have them run the football 45 times a game and see what it looks like. But my plan didn't work out there. Trevor Lawrence is definitely on that list by the way of the, the hipster. So I don't know where you're at with him, whether you're confident that he's gonna bounce back. I didn't even feel like I was even being a hipster

liking him coming out. Yeah, no, now I'm leaving after, yeah. Coming out everyone I think liked Trevor Lawrence. I think everybody's, if you had confidence in Trevor Lawrence, all of us are rattled at this point. Cause then when he had the bad year, you go, well, he can't be that bad again. And then he was like, yeah. Yeah. You sure about that? Because it was easy to blame Urban.

They're like, all right, yeah, you get the right guy in there. I think that's good. More signings to come. But I think we covered it, man. That was great. Sounds good. Thanks for having me. What do you have to promote? Just the ringer.com. I'm analyzing every big signing on there, so you can see them out daily. We'll analyze those. Ringer NFL show, and then the Ringer's Philly special. All right. Good stuff, man. Talk to you soon.

Thanks. One of the best parts about the tourney is when an underdog takes down a powerhouse. And right now, those upsets can get even better because all this week on FanDuel, if your underdog bet wins, you'll land even more winnings with a profit boost. This is your chance to ride with the Longshots, the scrappy teams, the ones that refuse to go quietly. Whether it's St. Peter's in that run where it feels like the entire basketball world rallies around this team, They couldn't even name a couple weeks ago. We had NC State last season.

That didn't carry over, whether it's VCU, George Mason, or if you're of a certain age, Villanova is an eight seed winning the entire thing against Georgetown. That's what the tournament is all about. And if you've been waiting to join FanDuel, there's no better time. The app is easy to use, and when you win, you'll get paid instantly.

Just visit fanduel.com slash Ryan, R-Ycom slash Ryan RYE to download America's number one sportsbook today and back your dog of the day with a profit boost. Because after all, anything can happen in March. Must be 21 and older in present and select states or 18 plus in present and DC. Opt-in required wager of at least plus 100 odds required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply including any token expiration and max wager amounts. See terms at sportsbook.fandall.com.

Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Watching Denver win an OKC last night. Nice for the Nuggets to be able to split this. Really fun games. Just enjoy the hell out of these two teams playing each other. So hopefully we get to see it in the playoffs. So you look at the split and Denver did it with offense last night. A couple of different things that I want to get to here, but there's a bigger

picture thing, of course, that I've been thinking about. I think about a lot, but Denver scores 33 points, what 34, 33, 34, 39 in each of the quarters. They do that against a Thunder defense. We've been telling you all season long on this historic pace, based on where the rest of the league is offensively. So it's a really good split for Denver because it looked like at least in the first matchup, perimeter wise, just not a lot of answers for SGA.

Now Gordon only played seven minutes in game one. He is incredibly important of what they do. Doesn't play in game two. And to be fair, the Thunder lose Jalenlin Williams, the good one after 14 minutes. So worth mentioning all of these things, but especially for OKC once Jaylin Williams is not there to cover the non SGA minutes. And then more importantly, Denver can then start trying some other stuff to slow SGA down.

They were running some two-man traps in him. There was one play that looked like it was actually like a two man zone. It wasn't, but you get the point. Two men waiting for him to cross mid-court to try to trap him that soon, not to get the eight second violation, but to get the ball out of his hands. I think when you get gimmicky like that, NBA players figure it out. They get wide open looks. There was one play where Arnstein got it and he was wide open

because there was two players almost 50 feet away from the basket. But the point is, is like that was the gamble that Denver was willing to make, especially with Jalen Williams is out of the game. Uh, and also limiting the free throw attempts is a huge part of this. OKC tried to counter by bringing SGA up the ball a little bit, which smarter teams will do. Hey, this is really simple. If they're doing this to our main guy, let's not have them bring the ball up to court.

Other teams are just, I can't believe that NBA teams at certain levels will just not figure that part of it out. OKC is too smart, but it didn't really matter because like, even if we're talking about what Denver's doing defensively to Oklahoma city, they're willing to give up the open threes and OKC hit the open threes, uh, door hit eight of them. They were 40% on threes last night. OKC scored 127. So it wasn't really about some defensive strategy

even though I'm pointing out some of this stuff. It's that Denver is gonna go 18 to 32 from three, 56% for the game. You're gonna win a lot of games there. So looking at the Thunder and kind of the way they've been talked about and just revisiting a few of the moments of just great resume. And I know I'm not supposed to be doing this after they just lost, but I don't

care. I think they're awesome. All right. Okay. C's 53 and 12 last night's only the third time all season that they've lost a game by double figures for, if you want to include the lost in Milwaukee in the in-season tournament. So we've talked about this lack of fear for okay. C I don't know if it's youth.

I don't know if it's the newness. Uh, I know that I personally, when something is new and great in sports, lack of fear for OKC. I don't know if it's youth. I don't know if it's the newness. I know that I personally, when something is new and great in sports, specifically basketball, I have a hard time with it too. Golden state's one of the only teams going back to that 2015 season where pretty early on I was like, I think they are going to be this good. Which is tough. It's tough to buy in with a young group that's never really done it before. But I, I just have a hard time thinking of any like real good basketball

arguments other than that. So it seems to be kind of a general statement. And I don't know if it's because of what current and former players fear. Um, could it be something as simple as, as great as SGA is there isn't that second motherfucker, that dynamic score that may already be Jalen Williams. Okay. It could be him in the playoffs, but because he isn't that necessarily right now, is that what players are using as they're arguing to be like,

ah, cool regular season dude, but I'm not into it. Um, I think about this constantly. I bring it up, you know, a couple of times a year where here's something that I talk about for a living, something that I've watched for 40 years, something that I've talked about professionally for over 20 years, and yet there seems to be so many times where the guys that actually did it versus me that never did it,

were completely divided. How could you watch Oklahoma City all year long and you played and think they're meh? Well, let's go back a bit because if we, we think about the origin of like your journey, if you've ever played any basketball, like the first thing you've ever done, whether you were terrible at it or you were a hall of fame or the first thing you ever did or you ever cared about was scoring, right? Mom and dad, maybe they go to the games.

Maybe they don't come home. How many points you score? You tell them how many people you don't tell them anything else. Nobody's even keeping track of anything else. All you care about is scoring. So I think this is incredibly important to the guys that play and how dismissive they can be of maybe it's not even being dismissive of players or teams, but I have a couple examples, but how enamored and sometimes even blinded they can be by just the visual players that like the way Kobe

is talked about, right? And I understand Kobe's great. He's one of the all time greats, but the way that he's talked about this reverence, maybe it's because of Kobe's story in an awful end to it, but the way that he has talked about, you can see the former players freak out about it. And at no point have I ever thought that I would want Kobe

more than Tim Duncan on my basketball team. There's another one that comes up all the time, and that's the Kyrie Irving stuff. I've seen countless former players, current players talk about Kyrie, and they've said, what? You already know what I'm going to say. Most talented player to ever play basketball.

I resist that. Kyrie's handle is incredible. Is his handle so good? Is his handle so much better than Steph that it makes up for the gap between Steph's shooting and Kyrie's shooting? If Steph is considered the greatest shooter of all time, and it's about baskets, shouldn't that matter more? You wanna get in a handle? Fine, but it's not like Steph's isn't awesome.

Steph's a better passer. Defensively, I think Kyrie's had better years. I think he's had much worse years, so Steph's a little steadier. And I've also watched Steph enough, as you know. I've never seen defenses make as many mistakes against one player just because they're that freaked out by his movement.

So how is Kyrie actually more talented than Step? Like if you really want to get into it, I feel bad because he's out with the ACL right now, but if Kyrie is the most talented player ever, is his career a little disappointing? But maybe it's because the players see what Kyrie can do with a ball in his hands. And they know how special it is, his creativity. Those slow motion moments where you watch Kyrie and you see his body control and then taking off from an angle where it's like, how did he even think of that? And I would agree, and I've said this for years, I think Kyrie is the best small finisher that I've ever seen in the history of the game. And maybe that is admired more by the

former players. Maybe that visual part of it is so exciting that that outweighs just the sheer impact that Steph's shooting has had and really at a much more successful level. I think this reminds me a little bit of the Jokic-Mbeed MVP debate going back two years ago. It got weird. And I think a lot of it had to do with the visual part of it.

Mbeed looks more powerful. Um, you could argue he is more powerful than Jokic, right? He is physically so impressive. So that Embiid had the game that looked like it backed up the numbers where Jokic has a game that looks like it maybe doesn't back up his numbers. And if you want to do a little MVP stuff again, I'll do it right now. Uh, I've talked about Jokic and I talked about it on Sunday with Bill where I'll never watch any other player, at least right now, and think somebody's better than Jokic. SGA and him are the only guys

that are in their own class and the MVP kind of stuff. I think SGA is going to win the vote. I think that the former players and the current players, the way they kind of talk about it, I guess I'm focusing more on the former players that have a platform. I can already see it. Like they're gonna go with SGA. And maybe it's because they, instead of being respectful of the entire OKC thing,

are disrespectful of the team, but respectful of SGA because the scoring numbers that he's put up, knowing that he's gonna go get his buckets when the Thunder need it. Where when you look at Jokic, it's like does he even want to shoot it all the time? Even though he's still pretty high for shot attempts per game, when you look at his career. But if you're looking at Jokic just this season, his PER, yep, trust me, trust me on these numbers here. I know some of you don't like these,

but his PER is the second highest ever for a season in NBA history behind only Jokic's for a season in NBA history behind only Jokic's NBA record PER going back to 22. The win shares are 48. This is a career high for Jokic. This is the best he's ever done in the staff, which usually tells you who the special players are. Don't believe me, Jokic's number this year is 10th all time.

The other players that are ahead of him, this guy Kareem a couple of times, Wilt Jordan a few times, LeBron a couple times, including that 12-13 season where he just looked like the best version of him. Steph's got one in there. So as I'm watching last night, and I'm thinking about the MVP stuff a little bit more as an aside, Jokic is like, I guess I'll shoot it. He passed up a three, I think at 99, 93, where I couldn't believe he didn't take it. I was like sort of pissed that he didn't.

Then he took the next one and then he made it. And then he's waiting to see what you're doing on defense. He's lumbering into you. And then he's just kind of throwing it up with the softest touch for a guy his size that we've ever seen. And next thing you know, he's got an incredible stat line again.

And he completely took over the game. We're like, did he even want to take some of those shots or other guys? There's no question. Like, you know, did he even want to take some of those shots or other guys? There's no question. Like, you know, when Kyrie wants to get a bucket, you knew when Kobe was like, okay, I'm not, I'm not giving this up to anybody. This is my time.

And I think that players that know how hard that is, respect that and respect that approach where some guys it's a little bit easier to overlook. When I was thinking about the rotations last night, granted Gordon isn't playing, so that's maybe extra minutes out there for some Denver players that wouldn't normally play, but not really think about how many players played for Denver last night. Ask yourself this question.

How many would crack the OKC rotation? Would pick it, crack the rotation? No. Zeke Naji? No. Peyton Watson, by the way, great block on Chet last night out of him. Comes down, hits three, a couple of nice possessions there, some good minutes. He wouldn't play last night for the Thunder.

Would you play Christian Brown or Russell Westbrook over Alex Caruso? I know what you're going to say, Nuggets fans. I'm trying to help you by the way, but I don't know. Christian Brown's had a really nice year. There's some good numbers in there. Flame over Caruso. They had Caruso nice year. Some good numbers in there. Flame over Caruso. They had Caruso trying to defend Jokic last night.

I don't, there might even be a Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Wiggins conversation if you get a couple beers in me. But the point is, it's like, yeah. That's, that to me is part of the conversation. Now I know what you're gonna say, Thunder fans. You, I know what you're going to say, Thunder fans. You're going to say what you're going to say. Well, look, Ryan, there are 11 games behind. SGA has to be rewarded.

They're the one seed that has to matter in the MVP race. And I think a lot of former players are going to say the same, the exact same thing. And I can imagine at least the Thunder fans are going to argue that because I remember how adamantant how passionate you were that you thought Westbrook shouldn't win the MVP in 2017 because he was eight games behind the Houston Rockets and James Harden. I remember when you guys did that. So I'm kind of gearing up for

it. I feel like I'm going to be a bit on this Yocca Chiling, which doesn't seem like it's been that desolate the last few years. This is not hey, listen, Yocca, it's just good you hear the intro that he did on the pod the other day. Good stuff, riveting. But I just, it's going to be wrong. The SGA vote is going to be wrong. And I think a lot of the former players are going to be like, I'm psyched SGA one.

And you know, I, I will have moments, whether it's the Kyrie conversation or some of the Kobe Duncan stuff, or what's gonna happen with MVP, what's happened with MVP in the past, because I do actually care. Like, and I'll have moments where I'm like, how could I sit here as somebody who's never played and think these things and be in such a massive disagreement

with the guys that did this for a living and have these positions, right? They'd be like, be watching, like, I used to love the deadliest cat shows. Watch it all the time. Can you imagine being at some dive bar with a guy from the show and being like, here's something I don't understand with how you guys, your pot dispersal, I think you're fucking this up.

And I've watched a lot of episodes. Like you'd feel pretty, you wouldn't do that. You feel pretty stupid. So when I have these internal disagreements where I'm like, could I be getting this wrong? And then Tim Hardaway senior says that he thinks bowl bowl has the same abilities as women yamen. I'm totally fine again.

A little home and home for us here. Chandler Parsons joins us after I was able to jump on with he, Michelle Beatle, Lou Williams on Run It Back weekdays at 10 a.m. Eastern on Fandl TV or stream live on YouTube at Run It Back FDTV. What's up man? Good morning. How we doing? Thanks for having me on. Yeah, I appreciate it. All right. So look, the thunder split this Denver thing and I know we were talking a little bit last week, but it just, it continues to feel like, and again, I don't really care about the loss necessarily last night,

but it feels like, I don't know if it's the newness, it's the lack of like a real scary dude is the second score. But I guess I'm just surprised how many former players don't look at the Thunder as like a scary out in the playoffs. Yeah, you know, I think it's just the youth, right? It's just how young they are. They haven't done it before. They're inexperienced and as good and calm and cool as SGA is. You don't really trust the Jalen Williams yet. You don't know if Chet is going to be healthy. And they're extremely deep and they're well-coached and they defend and they have all the pieces. We just want to see them do it on a big stage before we go and trust them as much as we trust the, you know, a yolk itch and then the nuggets or, you know,

a more experienced poison that's been like that. But that doesn't mean we can just write them off. I think they have no chance just cause they haven't been there and they're young. They're a great team. And they're obviously the way the landscape of their franchise is set up for years to come is one of the best in sports. But I think this year will be a tell-all of how they handle the playoffs, how they handle adversity, how they handle going on the road and closing out a series. We'll learn a lot about the Thunder, I think, this postseason. Do you think there's actually a bad matchup in the West for them in

the playoffs? It might be the Nuggets. It might be the Nuggets. Something like that is so good offensively and as good as the, you know, the Thunderheart defensively. They gave up 140 points last night, which is the most points they've given up all year long. And that just kind of gives credit to how good the nuggets are when you have a seven foot all world point guard that kind of initiates everything. You have Jamal Murray doing, you know, bubble Jamal Murray things, giving you 34. Are they going to get stuff from those other guys, from the Browns, from the Peyton Watson's, the Julian Strauthers?

Can those guys kind of give you those eight to 12 points and good solid minutes off the bench? We'll see. But matchups are definitely a thing. And I was jumbled up the standings are, it'll be interesting to kind of see where that falls because you got teams like the Warriors that are going to be a tough out. You got a team like the Los Angeles Lakers that are aren't just gonna lay down. They're gonna be tough to beat four times so there are

a lot of interesting matchups that could go either way for them. Can you help me understand Michael Porter Jr. because I think we understand what the good version of it is right. He's this huge player. He's so important what they do is shooting some of the shots that he can get into to like where it's off the dribble. It's not just the three points stuff like there's some shot making that he'll have over the course of the game. You're like this is really, really special. There's other times where I feel

like whether it's he's not aggressive enough because he he does have moments where he's not one of those players where I look at and say, okay, he's just never aggressive because that's not true with him. But I don't know if it's playing off of Jokic, but there's also been different sub patterns, especially with some of the injuries beginning of the year where I felt like, okay, they really need him to kind of lead the offense. And I don't know if he's that guy. I don't think he's a lead the offense type of guy. I think he's a great, you know, piece to space the floor to not allow guys to double team Jokic, to not allow guys to blitz Jamal Murray and pick and roll.

I think he's kind of found that craft for, he does seem a little timid sometimes when he picks and chooses when he wants to be aggressive. And I feel like he's the one guy on the floor that he can frustrate Jokic when he does take those early bad threes and he kind of sees some hand gestures from Jokic sometimes where he doesn't make the swing swing. And I think that goes back to high school where he was just the guy, right? He was the number one player. Obviously he had the back issues at Missouri and stuff, but he was in a highly, highly touted dude that's always been the guy.

So when you have someone like that and now you're basically a role player playing with the best player in the world, it's probably hard to adjust. You probably think you could be doing more. And he's honestly the guy that I thought that they were going to move off of this trade deadline. And obviously they didn't. He's back. But I like him. He's a great rebounder. He's a great rebounding wing. He can defend, and he can really shoot it. I think he just, you're right. He picks and chooses when he wants to be aggressive.

He can't really create for others off the dribble either. So he's kind of turned into this six, eight, six, nine spot up shooter. So who knows, can he go somewhere else and do more? I don't know if we'll ever see, but he's definitely interesting to me. Cause I do part of me think that he could expand his game more, but then sometimes I think

he just is who he is. Yeah. And I would say, you know, not that I'm gonna spend 10 minutes on the projection of Michael Porter Jr's career, even though he's still young, you get this many years in a league playing this way, I think it'd be hard to say, okay, now show us the full,

the full like version of what you could have been. And the aggressive thing, I'm totally with you because when I get frustrated with him, I'm going like, oh, he's playing soft. And then there will be this moment, I'm like, okay, there is something in him that shows it'd be super easy to just write him off and go, okay, well, I don't see enough

of these peak aggressive moments, so this is just who he is. I think it's just kind of this up and down and knowing it, you know, not that the contract is the most important thing, it's irrelevant to what we're talking about for them with the playoff run here, but I think at like 40 million the next couple of years,

you go, you know, it'd just be something, it'd be great if I could bank on you a little bit more, especially if Jamal has those, at least the beginning of the year, when you needed more out of somebody else offensively when Jamal didn't have it. Yeah, no, I totally agree. And again, I don't know if he's that guy where you, you know,

you'll kitchen Murray or out. Are you going to go play through Michael Porter? And I don't know if he has that kind of game. I don't know. And I'm sure he's capable and he's erupted for these big nights where he can shoot the piss out of the ball. And yeah, I mean, he could put the ball in the basket. No doubt. He's still athletic. He's bouncy. He's so long. Like I said, he's huge for his position is an act for offensive rebounding. So like he does provide a lot of production for this team. I just don't know if you're a small market team. You're going to go and pay this guy 25, 30 million to be the guy. Like I don't know if he's got that in him, but he's extremely talented and he can shoot

the shit out of it. Do you like Cleveland better than OKC? Oh, we're just going right for it. We're just going there. I. We're just going right there. I kind of do. Is it crazy to think that? Like I kind of like Cleveland and Boston more than OKC. And that's not a knock on OKC.

I think Cleveland started off in the season and no one really believed, right? And look back to last year, David Biggers has, he's my guy. I'll ride for him. When they were healthy, they were really good last year. They were doomed last year at the injury bug. And as good as Kenny Atkinson has done at the job this year, they've been extremely, extremely healthy. I think Max Truce has been out of the lineup.

Ty Jerome has been out of the lineup. But for the most part, they've been very healthy and they are very, very good when they're healthy. And the growth of Evan Mobley has been impressive. They have great guards play. They have great, they're extremely deep. And then the addition of Deandre Hunter to me was like, dude, it was like the icing on the cake.

He's that three and D wing that, you know what, we got to go through a Tatum and Brown. Let me go get a lockdown three and D wing defender that can help us do that. And so I do, I like them a lot. I love SGA and I love the thunder. Jalen Williams went down last night too. I don't know how serious that's going to be. And they also have a lot of deep, versatile pieces on the bench, but it's tough. I thought the West was gonna be the conference this year

and they're a lot deeper. Now I look at the league and the two best teams to me are in the East. I'm with you on Cleveland. Like I love them. And whether it's kind of figuring out what they wanna pick from, from the menu of players, where I think there's an old

school way of looking at it. It's like, here are five and then these are our next three. And then maybe there's a ninth if there's foul trouble or we want to give somebody a taste of some outside shots to make the defense think differently about what we're doing. But with Cleveland, I think all of it, all of it kind of works. And that's that's what I love about how adaptable they should be in the playoffs. Let me ask you about the J.B. thing, because I think that's really interesting. They had that 17 and one stretch last year. And, you know, maybe is, you know, maybe it's back to the ESPN stuff

and the national show where you feel like you'll watch all this league pass stuff and it'll be local broadcastersters local markets just mad at the national media for not talking about them enough and that was happening with Cleveland you're kind of like all right 17 and 1 but what do you want me to do say you're better than Boston like I don't believe that right so you know I'm sorry guys but I still don't I still don't yeah see this this last these last few weeks it's not just the comeback these last few weeks I'm kind of looking at it as a coin toss. We're in the past. I would have just been like, look, I'm not going to pick Cleveland against Boston just because of history and because of some of

the perimeter matchup stuff. Now I'm I'm I really think you could pick either one. You wouldn't be wrong. But JB going from Cleveland to Detroit to fixing Detroit while it feels like Kenny, granted with all the pieces of being healthier, what is it about Bickerstaff that you liked so much that maybe their seeds of it are still in Cleveland and it's worked here in Detroit? Because I think some people would look at that and maybe go like, if he's so good in Detroit,

how come Cleveland is this much better? I want you to tell me a JB story basically. And if Atkinson was so good, so good in Cleveland, how did he not have success in his previous jobs? The coaching pool is such a cesspool in the NBA. You hire and fire everybody and you switch out, you know, yearly it feels like. But to me, Jamie Biggs is a player's coach.

He has this personal relationship with you or he understands you. He could jump you and you don't take it personal because he spends the time to get you to know you and your family and everything about you. Which is crazy to me is that I heard, you know, there were some personality issues with him met not mesh with the guys in Cleveland last year. And that just didn't make sense to me because I've had him as an assistant. I've had him as a head coach. He's very consistent.

He's very solid. He's smart. You know, he's very defensive minded. He's great at a timeout executing plays. So I couldn't be a bigger, a more bigger fan of JB Bickerstaff. And Kenny Atkinson is credit. He's probably going to win coach of the year. He inherited a great, great team and situation.

He's getting the best out of them. No doubt, no knock on him, but look at that roster in Detroit and look at the success they've had. I think that's more of an impressive job. What Detroit is doing than versus Cleveland's. Yes, they're on record base. Yes, they're the number one seed. Yes, they've had a great year, but no one expected the Pistons to be relevant this year. Everyone expected the Cavs to be good.

So I think that's the difference. I think Kenny's going to get it and it's well deserved. But I think J.B. Biggerstapp is right there. I think J.J. Reddick is right there. What he's done with the Lakers, but it's, it's, they both done a fantastic job, but isn't it great? Like how, how does that work? How does it, this guy gets fired for being so bad and not being on, and then he goes and just turns this, this dumpster fire

around into a, a, a playoff team like the next year, like the coaching search of the NBA just always boggles my mind. Yeah. The JB one is, it's pretty crazy how the story goes. Cause I was at one of the NBA just always boggles my mind. Yeah, the JB one is pretty crazy how the story goes because I was at one of the Cleveland Boston games in the playoffs last year. And granted again, Cleveland didn't have all their guys and it felt like it was kind of a bad spot for JB. It felt like a lot of the players were trying to help him.

And it's cause those guys were in street clothes. So it was like really tough sitting so close to it. And I was like, man, these guys feel like they're kind of checked out on this dude. And I don't know if that's just, I think players in general, after a while, you just kind of move on past a coach and having a voice like JB Post,

Monty Williams clearly works for Detroit here. Back to the West though, last night, I don't want to spend a ton of time on Phoenix because we probably have already spent too much time on a team that's just not relevant at this point, but that's a bad loss in Memphis for Phoenix last night. No Jaren Jackson being the primary reason. If you look at some of the big rotational stuff

that Memphis ended up having to do last night and they hang on and Jav had a very Jav fourth quarter, couple of possessions where I'm like, what is he doing? And then he ends up one huge bucket and then kind of the game winning bucket. So depending on the standings, you know, any day you look up Memphis could be the two seed. They're not today, but I guess I'm,

I don't want to say I'm off of Memphis, but it has to be a cleaner version of John for me to take them seriously in the West. And at this point, I just don't see enough consistency with it. Yeah, it's tough, right? Cause Ja is so fun to watch. He's must see TV. He's so explosive. And like you, sometimes I watch it. I'm like, man, this dude is a top four point guard in the NBA. And sometimes I watched, I'm like, he's not top 10. Like he, he, and I don't know how, you know,

when he starts losing that step, when he loses this, let us in. I don't know if his game is going to translate, look across the league, all these elite point guards, which now point guards are all scores pretty much. They can all shoot and they can all shoot at a crazy clip and from deep and they're efficient. John Moran, he's got to work on his outside shooting. I think number one, cause when he does lose that burst and that step, you can already see now guys are guarding him. They're going under screen. They're making him use dribble handoffs and screens

by going under and forcing him to basically shoot the three. And he's not shooting it at a high clip right now. So I think he is obviously the key. He's the head of the snake. Jaren Jackson out is obviously a huge blow, but it seems tough. They're well-coached as well. They have depth.

I love like a Gigi Jackson, but he's still coming off an injury. Aldama, he's been banged up. He's had, he's been having a great year. They still have pieces. Desmond Bain kind of been up and down all season long. So they still have pieces. But when I look in the West, I'm with you. I don't, I don't really trust them in the playoffs. I think the Lakers are better. I think the Nuggets are better. Like I think the Timberwolves could end up beating them in a series. You know what I mean? So it's, it's one of those teams I just, I just don't, I don't trust. They don't think they have enough. And, and, and John Moran, it's interesting cause he's obviously their guy. He's an all NBA type player, but it's, it'll be really interesting to see how his future

goes with just how the NBA and how the, how the system of shooting so many threes and playing so fast has changed. Yeah, and they've been in so many close games, the last 20 plus, and they've won three in a row here, so at least it's something to point to there. But again, on the Phoenix side of it, when you're looking at the minute dispersal for what's going on with Memphis

and what you think they'd be able to attack. But no Beal last night. You know what, one Phoenix thing then. Where would you want to see Durant next year if he's not with Phoenix? Phoenix to me is great. Phoenix, me and Lew Will always talk about, that was our team.

Like that was like our dark horse. That was our team to get to the finals. They're home, but like I was so all in on that big three and Irkich and then they had Tyus Jones and Monte Morris. I thought last year putting down Booker, our point guard was the issue. Now they bring in two solid point guards. That doesn't help anything.

So there to me, I don't get it. Heaven Durant, Lakers, Dallas. I think Dallas could really save a lot of Nico Harrison's problems that he's dealing with right now. But he's not in a situation where he wants to go to Spurs, I think, to where it's kind of on the rise. I've heard San Antonio, but I don't think they're going to win a championship in the next two or three years.

And we don't know how long KD is going to play. So I think immediate to go to a contender, I can see LA. I could see Dallas, you know, teaming up with Luca on the Bron or AD and Kyrie. I think that'd be a good fit. He still has a lot of good basketball to play. And clearly you can just see, I feel like it's just not happening. And then Phoenix, him and Bud have been going, I was at two games this year with Phoenix and both times it's just, they just go at it.

They're chirping, they're chirping during the game. They're brushing each other off. There's the simple body language. Again, maybe I'm overreacting, but it just doesn't seem like there's a mutual respect and level of trust there where it's definitely coming to an end. I think he's 1000% on another team next year. It's crazy too, because you know during that Clippers comeback,

the Colin Gillespie game as historians will remember it. Yeah, you're right. Like there's a lot of stuff you can see with Durant where I would go out, you know, to your point, like here's another example, potentially of this being over. But to be totally fair to Durant, which I want to be, is there were some moments where he wasn't even in the play and he was going so hard celebrating, like so into it. Where I've seen like really good players, you know, when somebody else is doing something, like they don't have that level of energy

because they're not involved with the great play. And Durant was like really locked in. It was a really nice win. It was a fun night. And then look, they go to overtime and he hits the overtime, the three to send it to overtime against Denver. And then Denver just kind of steam rolls him

in overtime there. So I was almost surprised, maybe like pleasantly like, oh, look, there's something about at least trying to salvage what's happening this season. But you're right, there's a lot of other clips from other stuff. I know the one that made the rounds where Bud grabs his arm,

but then they showed another version of it where it went on later, where he and Durant looked like they were kind of working it out. But I mean, collectively, again, last night's another example. You'd expect no Jared Jackson, you expect the center situation with Memphis, Phoenix is going to get

that game and then they don't. You know, it's crazy. I was like, when you look at the stand, they're they're what two and a half games behind Dallas who couldn't be more banged up and they couldn't be more trouble. And they somehow pull out the game last Sunday against San Antonio. But if you're a Phoenix, that's kind of your only hope, right? Your only light at the end of the tunnel was that we could get into the play and

there's no reason for them to tank. It's not like they're going to sit. Like Kevin Durant doesn't want to tank. He doesn't want to sit. He doesn't care about their pick next year. He's not, he's not, he's not going to be there next year. Bradley Beal is probably not going to be there next year. So I think they do make one last push for these, you know, 20 whatever games left and

maybe sneak in the play in. And then they're thinking what I was thinking for the last two years, but we have enough on paper, if we could just figure out how we can turn it around. Anything can happen. But I think that's the only light, you know, the tunnel is that they get into the plan and somehow squeak into the playoffs. Let's talk a little playoffs. Cause I was going back through some of your matchups when you were with the rockets.

Let's, let's start with this. You know, the first year you're with the Rockets. Let's start with this. The first year you're with the Rockets, it's a good team, makes the playoffs, losing the first round. The second year, I think you were like mid fifties wins. You're going up against Portland. How different was it for you, at least the way you saw yourself? Now granted, look, you still lost in the first round, but that's not really the important part. I want to get into how you saw yourself. And granted, look, you still lost in the first round, but that's not really the important part.

I want to get into kind of how you saw yourself, how you saw the team building off of getting a taste of it the year prior. Yeah, it's the first year that was against the Thunder. And that was when Pat Beverly, when Westbrook, what's it called, the timeout, he tore his meniscus. And that was almost like a just happy

to be there type of thing. We were out man. They had a better team. Yeah. And but it was fun. We had James Harden and he was going back to Oklahoma City. And there was a lot of headlines and we were we were almost this team on the rise like the thunder, kind of like the calves were obviously worth the number one seat. But we it was OK if we lost that series. The following series like, OK, we got Portland.

We feel like we're a better team than them. We feel like we should win this series. The following series, like, OK, we got Portland. We feel like we're a better team than them. We feel like we should win this series. And it's just a different kind of confidence when you go into that series, just thinking you're going to win rather than just happy to be there. And then it was just completely different scenarios. And obviously, Dave Lillard kind of ended my career as a rocket and hit that game winner to win that series. And we were just thinking, go, let's get it back to Houston. Game seven. It's ours.

We're advancing. And he's obviously a hell of a player made a hell of a shot. But it's just a different mindset you have from just happy to be there to actually thinking we can survive and win and advance. Do you think like when you go into that series again, and it was a really fun first round series, like obviously you were in it, so you don't remember, but like that was one of those series

where I just remember having so much fun watching it play out and like Dame taking it to this level that was just kind of a little bit of a tease of like, okay, this is what this dude's gonna be, even though the funny thing is is Lamarcus actually averaged 30. Like Dame. I knew it was unbelievable.

Lamarcus scored more in that series than Dame did. So I want to get into kind of the prep part of it. What were you talking about? Like this is for game one and whatever the adjustments are, but our priority defensively is to try to do this against that kind of scoring duo. It's tough because who's who's who's hands and take the ball out of it, right? Especially in the Marcus Aldridge. How's it going?

I remember we were throwing different guys and we started Dwight Howard on him. I guarded him. We put smaller guys on a big guys on and we tried to switch one through five. So you kind of throw all these different kind of coverages and schemes to them. Then you take the ball out of his hand. Then Dan Lillard goes nuts. That team was balanced. I remember it was like West Matthews and Nicholas Batum. And they take the ball out of his hand. Then Dan Lillard goes nuts. That team was balanced. I mean, it was like West Matthews and Nicholas Batum. And they had a lot of different guys that gave them a lot and they were well coached and they defended.

So they were tough. And that last play, the Damian Lillard shot, man, first of all, I love Kevin McHale. Why the hell am I guarding Damian Lillard on that in-bounce play? We have Patrick, Patrick Beverly right there. And I remember we were supposed to switch everything. And you could, if you have the clip, I was on the bottom. So technically that was supposed to, someone was supposed to shoot out there.

That was the one thing that could beat us. And just obviously a huge mental lapse there, but the great players make great shots like that. If you told me we lost by a 30 foot fade away, Damian Lillard, buzzer beater, you know what? It's just a pill we gotta swallow, but it was tough. And then like you said, LA, Lamarcus Aldridge, he was unbelievable that series.

Some of the shots he was hitting were just incredible. So is there, I always kind of feel about like, like last year I think a good example was the Clippers Dallas series. And I'll bring up the speed so I don't feel like I'm putting you in a spot here. But there's all these players where I'm like, man, Clippers are this motivated to bring Hardin in now

at this stage of his career, or, you know, even Dallas, like all the risk that was involved in the Kyrie acquisition, which has totally worked out for Dallas and Kyrie has been awesome for them, obviously out now with the injury. But I was talking about it where I said, this is why the scoring ability of these players, these special players, this is why no matter

what the bumps are in their career, other general managers are gonna go, you know what, even if I know the issues, that guy can get me some playoff buckets. Can you help us understand the difference between the playoff bucket getters versus the guy who's getting 20 points a game in the regular season?

Because I think they're asked to solve so many bad possessions that that's kind of where you make your name in this game. The game is more physical. The game is slower. You're playing more half court where possessions are way more valuable. So you get in the half court offense and yeah, you want a James Harden that can kind of create contact and get to the free the line and can kind of control the game with the ball in his hands.

So well, as opposed to a player that's kind of averaging 20 playing up and down during the regular season, taking early threes. And he might make 35, 40% of them, but those possessions don't exist in the playoffs. And I think just from a general manager aspect, it's a fickle job, man. So you want guys that can help you win right now. So if I'm Nico or if I'm the Lakers front office, I still, yeah, I want Kevin Durant this summer because he can help me win right now with LeBron James and Luka. I'm Nico. I'll pair him with a healthy AD and a healthy Kyrie. I'll take that risk because I know come playoff time now, I have three options. I have three

threats that are experienced that have been there before that we trust. And it's just more comfortable than some of these younger up and coming stars that have never done it before. They've never been there. So I think you'll always see teams kind of be aggressive to acquire the James Hardens, even the Westbrook. Look how well he's playing now in Denver. He's just very comforting when you look down the bench, you see Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul and San Antonio. Those guys, they've been there so many times. It's like clockwork. I talked about this. I've talked about it before. I talked about it in the open today.

So I'll, I'll share this with you and that, you know, somebody who spends their life watching this game and never played, uh, at any level, anyone would ever care about. And when I hear the former players that played and I completely disagree, not saying you specifically, but like the example that I use is Tim Hardaway senior, like when he's coming out and talking about bowl bowl and comparing it with Wim Benyama, you're just like doubled down on our show. Yes, you.

I know. I go, Tim was a lot better hoops than I was, but, um, do you, do you think the players and the scores in particular? Do you think the players and the scores in particular, like there's a love and respect that is almost too outsized, and I'm not even talking about bowl, bowl anymore here, but that there are players that the players may be like too much because they're so enamored

with their scoring ability. Yeah, well, also I think all these arguments are generational, right? Like I play golf with John Barry all the time, who had a great long MBA career. Nothing crazy, nothing special, but he was 14, 13, 14. He thinks like John Ablicek is better at basketball than like Damian Lillard. Like it's just, it's all genera- he's not. Like it's just watch him play and then watch him play.

Like I don't care the way it's officiated. I don't care. It's it's it's not even a fair argument for the guys back then because of the amount of resources and medical advances that we have now. Like, it's a stupid argument. So I think a lot of it stems from that and nostalgia, like the era you grew up in and what you what you think is the best. And I think that'll never change. I think that's the beauty of it. When you go to the MJ LeBron argument, I don't think there's a right or wrong answer, but

my eyes don't lie when I watch these freaks play now versus back in the day. And again, the strength, the explosiveness, the athleticism, and again, the game is called so differently now where you can't really, well, I guess we'll never know, but it's, it's, I never understood. It's fun. It's silly. It's, it's, but it's just, I guess the thing people like to debate, but to me it's generational. Yeah. But I mean, it'd be one thing, I guess, if Tim were saying,

manupal on the generational part of it, but he's just, he's all in on. Yeah. I mean, I, I get what he was saying, like the intangibles, the side, like you see bo-bo like Jesus Christ is seven, five and long and can handle it. Like I, I see what he's saying and the potential of what bo-bo could possibly be one day.

She had, we haven't seen him turn into that yet, but we're comparing him to wimpy like the guy that's I guess physically I think is where he, where it stemmed from, but not why you mean to watch. What are we doing? Yeah. I mean, just his movement defensively it's, it's too completely different, but again, we're not, we're not here to relitigate that one. But yeah, he doubled down on that one.

You can check out Chandler every day, 10 a.m. Eastern on Fandl TV and run it back with Beadle and our guy Lou Williams. Thanks, man. Appreciate it, buddy. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Uber Eats is delivering game day deals because you can't watch eight hours of basketball a day on an empty stomach.

From burgers to wings, pizza to chicken sandwiches, whatever you're craving, Uber Eats has deals on all your game day favorites so you never have to miss a single buzzer beater. Get game day deals on all of your favorites, only on Uber Eats. Order now. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.

Life Advice, our email address, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Before we get to the dudes here, just want to remind everybody that Ringer has a new 100 best sports moments of this century. Okay, so not 100 years, 2000 on. And I did a little video on that. And my submission, because I think Bill's probably touched on the 2004 Red Sox comeback against the Yankees. Couple times. In attendance for those, yeah, Bill had done it.

So I was like, well, if he's not gonna do it, then I should do it, because I still think, yeah, I'm a little biased, but considering it never happened before, and the history of those two cities, why was it, what was number one, Saruti? Like that to me is still number one. It's the helmet catch.

Well, I guess I'm giving it away, but it's the helmet catch. Yeah. Gross. Which Bill did do a video on too, so go ahead and watch that. He wanted to do the helmet catch. How was that number one? Well, I didn't get a vote.

Agreed, agreed. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? Didn't get a vote. What was number two, Simone Biles or something? Yeah. It was the block, LeBron 2016 finals. All right.

You know what the tie re catch considering the pats were undefeated and the moment, if you're going like the singular moment, that makes more sense. But LeBron blocking Iguodala to win the NBA finals and ignoring the animosity of a century between New York city and Boston with those two baseball teams. I don't, I just don't. It's the most Shakespearean thing you could ever possibly imagine. So. You'll appreciate this one. The kick six was in the top five. I didn't expect there to be any college football in there.

So now it's a well-rounded messy, the World Cup, messy. Argentino over Mbappe is number eight. So there's, we, it's, it's a well-rounded messy the World Cup messy Argentina over Mbappe is number eight So there's we it's it's a diverse group of things Do you think they'll amend it for Zuby edu for on? Saturday probably not 98 maybe Honorable mention Hey, I'll go to cow wrote a blurb for the site. He just want to get this make sure we all knew about this want to get this make sure we all knew about this. It's cool. Right. The thing is really cool. You should check it out. It's awesome. Yeah, the live videos are up. So I just remember I was at game three also and I just it was starting

to wane a bit. It started happening 2003 when I was doing the show every day in Boston and again, the oddity of caring that much about the outcome of those games. And then once everything started going the Red Sox way was slowly starting to matter to me less and less. So I got like screwed twice over on that relationship, but game three stung. Game three Fenway 04, just, I was like, are you serious? Like they're going to get get swept, just got embarrassed. And then over to the wood, let's see what Rooney's doing

at the baseball tavern, which is always a great decision back in the day. All right, couple little feedback ones. Alone Alaska, excuse me, Alone Australia sucks. Alone Alaska was good. I love Alone, I've seen every season, it could not finish Alone Australia. They seem to have picked people

who like to go camping occasionally and not actual survival experts like on the regular show and the location sucks. It's just a mud pit and the fish they catch look gross. Worst season ever. Not a great review, but it was so efficient, we had to read it. Australia is one of those places, I don't have any interest in Australia.

Too many snakes, spiders, it's just snakes. It's like the- You're just out, the whole thing you're like snakes. I will say the spiders are ridiculous. Yeah, like you gotta like check your shoes every time you put them on. Like there's snakes crawling up the freaking toilets. Like what?

That's a good saw. I'm good, man. With the distance with the, yeah, the distance with the like, there's probably more misses if you just put your finger on a map in Australia than hits. So I don't know, the distance combined with that. You don't go, you don't get dropped off. I know, I know, I'm just saying.

You don't have to do a walkabout, Kyle. Yeah, yeah, you're right. I'm going to do the live show. Then we're gonna go looking for snakes. Melbourne? Good. Really, really good job. That was good, Saruti. All right.

Let's get into, there's one that's a little on the grosser side, but I mean, you know, just science. It's really long. I don't know. Maybe I'll read it again before I want to decide. It feels like I, you know, with the new Tuesday, Thursday thing, I feel like I don't see you guys for the longest time, which is, which is sort of true because instead of Friday and Monday, it's Thursday to Tuesday and it's like, oh,

we do see you on Sunday. We just don't, we just don't do it. We're off for me though. Yeah. Yeah. Camera's been off for you for a while on that show. What's the inbox looking like? All right, let's get to it.

Father dating a woman my age, six foot two, one 80 D three and lower level foreign pro league experience. and lower level foreign pro league experience. All right. Think Denny Avdia or Salon, Pickupcom. Depends on the run. Matched up in Beach and Mall, Crawford and Joe Alexander in pickup games. The video with Joe is attached, man.

Joe Alexander, dude's just still giving that guy shit after the high lottery pick. He was so good during that tournament run. Was eight, yeah. Yeah, my father works in academia and lives, works in China. He's been living in China because his previous misconduct at work is the reason he isn't working stateside

or married to my mother. That's kind of what it is. Got a way load of situation. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, he actually, good instincts, Kyle. He's 62 years old. Recently started dating a resilient woman, two months younger than me. I am 28.

So let's just say depending on the birthday, she's 28. I understand this happens sometimes. However, he's a man who lacks soft skills and is not in great shape. They met through Facebook. Apparently she wrote her undergraduate thesis on his math work. Oh, well that's a real connection. So he's a man who's not in great shape. They met through Facebook and apparently she wrote her undergraduate thesis on his math work.

Oh, well that's a real connection. I'm not even trying to be funny. I'm serious. No, no, I agree with you. Yeah. Cause if it was just like some only fans check, you'd be like, oh, this is like, I don't know. Maybe they do love each other.

They love math. They have common interests, yeah. Wait, so she found his work first or they hooked up and he did her homework for her Not the second one. I don't think yeah. Okay. Okay sounds like she was legit I don't think you just get to write a thesis by doing nothing. So unless Yeah, I mean that maybe I'm wrong Yeah, she's not even on a generational runs in high school She just loves thesize.

Yeah. What's the plural? Like she's not even in, it's a hobby for her. No, I'll read this sentence again. They met through Facebook and apparently she wrote her undergraduate thesis on his math work. Okay. That seems to be-

So that's maybe where she became aware of him. Okay. Well, obviously she wrote a thesis about it. Okay. That seems to be. So that's maybe where she became aware of him. Okay. Mm-hmm. Well, obviously she wrote a thesis about it. They recently visited his family in Israel. I guess we're not worried about him tracking this one down. I think at this point we'd be able to connect a lot of dots. Meeting his family in Israel

and she had very little meaningful interaction with his mother and two sisters. She had no interaction. He's had no interaction with her family in Brazil at all. They're now trying to get married in Hong Kong. Her American visa was denied and it seems likely to me that he is being financially scammed. It's hard for me to tell him this without animosity

regarding the way he treated my mom or the way he felt short in parenting. Is there a way to warn him empathetically about what I see as a careless deep dive? It appears to me he is blinded by lust. Thank you, I love the show and recommend it to all my friends. Okay, yeah.

Is it a scam when this is the age gap or are all parties sort of, did they all sort of read the disclaimer? I feel like, I don't know, man. I honestly, this seems like less egregious than some other ones that we've seen where like, you know, just like, Hey, I'm just waiting for, you know, the check after death and that'll be great.

Like she seemed at least they got some common interests, but I don't know. I think the, I think the using thing is weird because like financially, yeah, she may be benefiting from this transaction, but it's, we love to ignore the fact that like maybe this guy's lonely and he needs some emotional support He just wants somebody to be there with him even in the 60s. He's he's getting something out of this transaction so like I don't know I I I kind of hate when people talk about it that way because it It's almost like the guy part is forgotten. I go he's just being used Well, he's also kind of using her because you know, the only reason that this is happening is because he needs companionship

So, I don't know if he's happy. I think he just got, he's 62. Like let him just let him live. Yeah. I think the age gap and the hotness gap, you know, resemble each other, uh, in a, and they're large, I think everybody's pretty much abreast of the situation. So I don't know. He is not hot. I would guess that.

Yep. Right. No, he sent a picture in. He's not a Tom Cruise 62. He's a normal 62. He's a math guy that other people would do their thesises on. Sometimes that's kind of hot though, you know, like the professorial thing. Although I guess you're saying it's not that either.

Yeah, no, it's not that either. I mean, he's got a fucking tough look going here. It's like a gym selfie with her taking the picture, obviously. And then he's got a fucking tough look going here. It's like a gym selfie with her taking the picture, obviously, and then he's got. No picture of her now. No, she's next to him taking the picture. And he looks happy, I bet, right? He looks super stoked.

The smile on his face should be illegal. Right. Okay, there you have your answer. Can't put a price on a smile like that. Yeah, there's nothing you talk testosterone treatment, getting your vitamins levels, right? There is nothing that I think older men can just be injected with sure.

Like just sheer pure happiness than a younger woman being interested in them. And even if they know the math on it, like this guy would, because it's his lane, he probably doesn't really give a fuck. So I think Sarutti, you make a really good point off the top, is like, this is all transactional. Like most of this is all transactional

for every single one of us. And why should we be giving this guy a hard time? However, however, I don't know what your dad's financial situation is. I don't know what your financial situation is, right? If my father had some coin and let's say projecting out average lifespan, he was gonna be dead in 16 years

and some fucking family in Brazil was gonna have all of the cash, that wouldn't sit well with me. I wouldn't be psyched about that part of it. But it sounds like this relationship is pretty strange. So like the superpower of this woman that she has over your father, you could say all the right things. You could be right about every point

that you're going to make and he's not going to care because he's probably feeling a happiness that he hasn't felt before, I doubt. Anyone has ever been this attracted to him. that you're going to make and he's not going to care because he's probably feeling a happiness that he hasn't felt before I doubt anyone has ever been this attracted to him. Or look, I'm not trying to diss your mom here, but you get the point. Like this is probably something,

unless this is just his move and he's a worldly guy and this is kind of what he's prioritized. But I can see this a lot with older guys feeling like this part of their life never really went the right way You mentioned his misconduct. So maybe this is just sort of the way he's wired here a little bit Yeah, I mean this guy's basically out of the country because of some of the stuff that you're alluding to here So as has there ever been a moment that he was going to listen I guess I'd ask the email or like what are you really looking for? Are you looking to protect your dad? Are you looking to let him know how you finally feel?

Because if he's been able to operate this way for this many years and this is where he's at now, it might feel good for you to say it. I doubt he's gonna listen to you based on the behavior you've outlined in his just absolutely raging happiness that he's feeling. Having a 28 year old be physically attracted to him, and he doesn't give a shit about being used at all.

It's got the elixir of life, you know? Yeah, I'll just say finally, I'm sorry you have to feel this way. Like, you know, there's some life advice we do that I feel like I can apply to my own life later on. It's like, I told this guy what I would do in that situation. Maybe I'll try it. It helps me with like saying no to things and, and, you know, making like split second decisions and low stakes things. I hope I never have to figure out how to deal with this. So just sorry you're dealing with that. I'm sure it's a gross feeling. Well, you could probably still say though, to your dad, like, just make sure you protect

yourself. But at the end of the day, he's going to do what he's going to do. Yeah. It's like Ryan said, are you trying to protect him or are you trying to protect your inheritance a little bit? And if I think whichever way that is, maybe that's how you attack it from. You might respect where you're coming from more if you're a little bit more honest about what you want. All right, let's read it. It's long, but I'm gonna go with it.

I just, I'm afraid it's fake, but there we go. 5'11", 170, 40 years old. I live in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area DMV. No player comp, but I've been told at various points of my life, I look like Manu Ginovoli. Last weekend, my girlfriend and I went out for ramen. Just for the non athletes out there, just tell us who you look like. That's not that bad.

Come on. No, it's not that bad, but I don't know. Not what I would pick. You think you look like Bobon Bogdanovich. Like, let me think. Maybe I'm thinking late. Genoble. Yeah.

Probably. All right. Wait, you think boy on Bogdanovich is ugly. Uh, the, the seven foot four guy. Yeah. I was getting confused. Bobon. Bobon, yeah. Yeah, wait, yeah.

Not the former Nick. That's a different one. Yeah, he's not, although he's not bad either. I don't know. There's some side profiles of genobly that look all right. Nevermind, I take it back. He's an Argentinian man. Yeah, you can do it.

Probably has some Italian heritage. Yeah. There you go. The Italians love, love Genoble. Well, the South American Italian heritage thing is just fascinating. I mean, well, we don't even need to get into that, but. Yeah, we don't have to, we can just fast forward. Nope, we're gonna pass with that one slide.

Just started reading a book on Argentina. Can't wait to share it. A lot of. Phil on Sundays. A lot of second acts. In Argentina. Yeah, look, people have seen the X-Men. All right, so last weekend, my girlfriend and I went out for ramen.

I was feeling myself a little bit more than usual, so I went for a spice level five instead of my usual three, a wrist, but a tenable one. Crazy. Kyle knows. Kyle, this is where Kyle shines. It was delicious. I felt fine. Nothing out of the ordinary stomach wise after consuming it. We walked home from the restaurant and upon returning, I decided to take

our dog out to the local park across the street from our apartment just to get it out of the way for the night. At this point, my stomach felt slightly off, but no big deal. Many minutes passed as I waited for our dog to do her business in a light drizzle. That's when my stomach began to feel not great. I shrugged it off, but became increasingly worried. I told myself I would use the restroom when I got home and everything would be fine. But then matters escalated.

The dog had not finished yet, but I started to bring her back to our building as quickly as I could, about a minute from the front door with other dog owners in the vicinity. I began taking smaller steps. Worry too much movement would jar things loose and I would not be able to stop. Swindled a little bit, yeah. Then things escalated again, my walks slowed to a crawl.

I crushed as hard as I could, I crushed my life. There were people nearby, did not want to do any of this, but it was no use. I shit myself. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. The dog began sniffing me. Confused.

I reached for my phone to call my girlfriend to help, realizing I'd forgotten it upstairs in our apartment. I panicked, worried the other dog owners would see my destroyed designer sweatpants. Zara sweatpants. He admits Zara, maybe he's not top of the line. So we're just editing here. So I immediately retreated across's not top of the line. So we're just editing here. So I immediately retreated across the street,

back to the park. I did not know what to do. I went back to my building. I feared I would be found and outed as a pants shitter. And it was clear that what I had done to myself, I might be trapped in the elevator with an other dog owner, which would be horrible for everyone. So I improvised, I sat in a big rain puddle.

Oh man. I mean, I don't know. Maybe you think maybe that'll do something. And then the mud, hoping this would help conceal my accident. Hopefully the smell, if anyone looked at me funny, I would say I fell. After a few minutes of wallowing, I again crossed the street and waited nervously outside my building for the lobby to be clear, then made a dash to the elevator hoping I would not run into anyone nor the front desk person would notice me. Other than of course briefly bumping into a neighbor I know who seemed confused by my parents, I made it all the way back to my apartment without further incident. Upon opening the door, I screamed to my girlfriend to bring me a fresh trash bag.

Excuse me, he says trash bag. I think trash bags are generally considered, a new one would be fresh. So let me reread that, because I just think every detail should be to the utmost level here. I screamed to my girlfriend to bring me a trash bag, take the dog and to not ask any questions. I made my way to our guest bathroom, threw all my clothes away, including my shoes,

got in the shower, began cleansing process. Of course, my girlfriend came in and asked what had happened as I showered. So then came my dilemma. Normally I would just tell her what happened. She said, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I my shoes, got in the shower, began cleansing process. Of course, my girlfriend came in and asked what had happened as I showered. So then came my dilemma. Normally, I would just tell her what happened. She's super cool, but it occurred to me

that we had a special night planned at a hotel the next night. I did not want to do anything to make her even temporarily less attractive to me and to potentially jeopardize the proceedings, but I knew she had to have smelled the foulness that had circled me when I entered our apartment, so my options were limited.

Was it less attractive if I did this to myself or less attractive if I was covered in the shit of another? I made my choice. I told her I slipped and fell into a pile that some drifter must have left in the park. After showering vigorously and using every cleansing soap, every cleaning soap we had available

in our guest room shower, even accidentally using the dog shampoo at one point, we sat down on the couch and she was very concerned. I'd fell in someone else's feces. It's possible. It's probably not healthy, diseases, et cetera. So eventually I came clean, you tried at least, and told her what really happened.

I expect her to be completely turned off and she definitely was. But what I did not expect was she would be hurt, hurt because I did not tell her the truth the first time. Everything seems okay now, although I wonder if she's still hurt that I didn't tell her the truth right away. The dog is traumatized. That is my story. I'm not looking for advice.

Just solace. I've never looking for advice. Just solace. I've never been that guy. Um, also it was my birthday. Thank you. If you have a day in between that like resets, you know, that's okay. If it was, if you guys were checking in later that day, maybe I would think about lying about this, but one day, yeah, I'll tell it. You're in a panic. People are going to freak out But you're in a panic.

People are going to freak out. They're going to lie. You know, like you, you have to cover your tracks. Uh, yeah, at the whole point, I thought we were going to be telling him, like eventually she will get over and she should get over it because you're in an absolute panic and you're freaking out. And when something like that is about to go down and you're trying to prevent this awful scenario that you just went through, um, you know, you're making

quick decisions. I mean, this is ultimate like flight combat training. You gotta think quick, you know, like, what do I do? And the fact that you didn't want to immediately share with her everything that had just happened to you, which is just science because you went level five, dickhead, um,, no, she should understand that. She should understand. She should be happy that you cared enough

about your impression to her that you weren't running in telling her immediately door open. Hey, can you help grab a brush? You know, that the relationship is so desensitized that you're not even worried about how she perceives you. I mean, that's really the win. And I would take that advice, even if you didn't want any, to kind of get in there with it. But yeah, I don't, I mean, look,

nobody's having a good time when the body decides you're losing tonight. Did they say, is his girlfriend not his wife, right? Girlfriend, yeah. So yeah. Live in though, live in, right? Yeah, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, Did they say their girlfriend? That was wife, right?

Girlfriend, yeah. So yeah. Live in though, live in, right? Yeah, I think there is a, that is a pretty big difference though. I mean, with my wife now, I mean, we've had a kid, I was in the room for the birth, I'll be in the room for the second one.

Good for you. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be. I think I feel like years of people telling me like, oh my God, you're gonna be north or south. And and it was like never heard it never heard a good story about it Yeah, I have a good story actually was it was alright. I don't maybe just cuz I went Williams went fishing Good for him, you know different time different era Anyway, I say all that to say that You know, there's not a lot of secrets between me and my wife

So if I did do something like this, there's absolutely no way I wouldn't tell her right away. If we were living together, even if it was a few years, I'd probably try to have some sort of decency and keep some mysteries about our relationship. I had a close call on Target last weekend, it's your story. I just had a coffee, didn't really eat a ton and was looking at some t-shirts, and it just kinda happened. I texted my wife, who was in a different section.

I was like, hey, could you bring the cart over? I gotta drop my stuff off, it's in emergency. She came right over, knew what the deal was, and I used the service as a target, but it was a close call. Yeah, I think the bond is stronger. Live in, you probably thought about it for a while, especially this day and age, right?

People are moving a little slower. If you moved in, I think you bond is stronger. Live in, like you probably thought about it for a while, especially this day and age, right? People are moving a little slower. If you moved in, I think you, you know, your skill points are up there. You've unlocked a new tier of the tree where you could share this sort of stuff. I mean, we moved in, my wife and I moved in during the pandemic in 2021 and it was the move-in day and we just got everything done.

Nothing was unpacked. And I just, I was like, guess what just happened? It was like, are you serious? Like we don't have anything unpacked. It was like, not the first night you want. And you know, we weren't married until like three years after that. But I mean, I just was like, we're living together now.

And what a strange first day, huh? But I was, I was okay with it. Just ripped the bandaid right off day one. Yeah, I was actually just like, do you know where the stuff is? Cause we've got like, we didn't have a shower curtain up yet. What are we gonna do here? Yeah.

Yeah, that was like the first pilot lesson I ever took where, you know, we're off the ground. And I mean, I took us off the ground. First lesson. The guy's like, you're gonna pull back on the yoke. Like are you fucking serious? I was outside of this thing 10 minutes ago and I'm like liftoff, right? So I hear you Kyle. Can I give you a funny one? Cause I don't think we'll ever be on this topic again.

It'll be the last time. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I don't want to make this a normal thing. Yeah, no, but this is a good one that, you know, I don't think it will ever come up. So I was a camp counselor probably back in like 2010, 2011. And I was taking summer camp, you know, just a day one, no one was sleeping, sleeping over anything. And this kid, he was like six years, seven years old, he crapped his pants and I'm bringing

him to the locker room. It was like a country club thing, Casper Kills shout out. And I was bringing him to the bathroom and I'm like, all right, I guess we'll figure out what to do here. And as I opened the door to the locker room for him, I also crapped my pants. Totally like had no idea it was coming. It wasn't like a race to the finish.

It just happened. And I had to call my dad. It was like airborne. It was crazy, dude. It was just like, what are the chances? And I had to call my dad who was like five, I don't know, five minutes in the air. We live really close. And so the kids all like fixed up

and he's like, all right, we can go back. I'm like, hold on, just wait a few minutes. And he's like, the kid is confused. And then my dad opens the locker room because it was like a shared locker room for like the people that were at the pool in the country. And he just like, Hey, Hey Kyle, I got your new underwear and shorts for you because you crapped your pants.

He thought it was funny. And I was just like, dad, there's like a camper in here, but that's like, you know, dad humor anyway, I thought that was ironic and funny. Yeah. It's a tough one. I never forgot it. I certainly never forgot it. You just sit your pants in solidarity.

Come on. You got something for us. Never again, dude. Come on. I don't think I really got much. Sorry, guys. All right. Glad to come on. Good talk.

All right. Yeah, I think that'll do it for us. And yeah, you know, I stay away from level five, dude. Come on. Especially Asian cuisine. I mean, if it says spicy on the menu on door dash and just like, well, that's not for me, if they're saying it's spicy, you know, they'll say mild and it'll be more than I can handle just that the Asian spice, I think scale is just. Not calibrated for me.

Yeah. You know, what's crazy about that is I got- Their Scoville's are off? Their Scoville's are way off, yeah. I got like a mango curry from this Thai place that we really like, and it was the first time we ordered where they asked like one through five what level we want. We just usually get whatever they provide us.

They got some complaints. So my wife was like, what do we get? Cause we got the same thing. I was like, well, three's like right in the middle, a little spicy, whatever. Dude, three was like, I couldn't even believe Cause we got the same thing. I was like, well, three is like right in the middle, a little spicy, whatever. Dude, three was like, I couldn't even believe it. I must've been getting a one the entire time cause it was unreal.

Yeah. It was a struggle. If you were married and the wife was like, I'm sorry, I'm out, I'm leaving you, could you sue? People probably sued for dumber reasons. Although this guy admitted, he admitted that he went for the level five. So like in Sarutti's case, anyway, look, uh, that'll do it for us.

Thursday. Maybe we'll ask Sarutti why he's buying his t-shirts at Target. No, like undershirts, you know, the undershirts. Do you don't don't hate on Target? Target's a good spot, but now they were like the white undershirts, the white teaser right now. All right. All right. All right. My bad. Yeah, I thought But now they were like the white undershirts, the white teaser right now. All right. All right.

My bad. My bad. I thought I thought you were like. Check out the graphics. Well, they got really got her March. The summer lines already out. Dude, they brought the ACDC one. Better get no light t-shirt. Yeah. All right. Thanks to Serenity.

Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Oregon, thanks to Jonathan Frias. Our podcast of course now is a full video podcast up on the Spotify app, so when you listen to us, you can watch the entire episode and see the moments where I forget that we're being filmed. You can also see our YouTube page where on Friday we'll be releasing, are we just doing a straight up mailbag again? Mail it in Friday? I think we're gonna do a mail it in Friday,

so maybe some over, under properly rated, and then potentially a Rossello history fact, if you wanna provide one for us? Because you haven't done it yet. Yeah. Kyle and I have. You've been reading it. I've been reading a ton.

A ton. I'm so into this civilization book right now, everybody should be reading it. Everybody. I've got two more volumes to go though. So 2,400 pages this year. I don't know if I'm going to get to it all. With other things that pique my interest. All right. This is the part of the podcast where I look at my library and see the to-do stack. So we'll move on. So we will have that. So subscribe to our YouTube page and as always check out the podcast. Ryan Roussel over in the respect. ["The Daily Show"] Must be 21 and older.

Present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC. Gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts,

or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.