The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Stafford, Rodgers, and Cousins Futures and Pre–NFL Combine Buzz With Albert Breer. Plus, Whether Teams Fear OKC and More With Anthony Slater.

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

Russillo is joined by Albert Breer to preview Matthew Stafford’s future with the Rams and potential landing spots if they were to trade him. Plus, best fits for Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, and Kirk Cousins and an NFL draft update (1:44). Then, Russillo is joined by Anthony Slater to break down how Jimmy Butler has fit in with the Warriors, learn why KD didn’t want to come back, and discuss whether the Thunder are respected around the league (33:15). Plus, an extended Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle (63:43)! Am I being rude when I sign off my emails? 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.This episode is sponsored by State Farm®. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.® Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Albert Breer and Anthony Slater Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias YouTube Ryen Russillo Ryen Russillo is on YouTube! Watch new videos from ‘The Ryen Russillo Podcast’ weekly. Subscribe now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode of the Ryan Russo podcast is brought to you by AT&T. I want to talk about guarantees and the lack of when it comes to windows in the sports world. I love what the Cavs did this year. They know their windows right now and there's no guarantee that extends beyond this year. We think it could, but many teams have done so in the past. History tells us your window is shorter than you think. There are no guarantees. And then there's the AT&T guarantee. It means connectivity you can depend on, deals you want and service you think. There are no guarantees. And then there's the AT&T Guarantee. It means connectivity you can depend on,

deals you want, and service you deserve. Or AT&T will make it right. Visit att.com forward slash guarantee to learn more. AT&T. Connecting changes everything. Terms and conditions apply. Visit att.com forward slash guarantee for details. I know there's been some concern, some news that we were going to become a Ty Jerome only podcast. Spotify has not agreed to that. So we will just be the Ryan Russo podcast and we'll do it the normal way until I can make that change. We'd like to make it more about Ty Jerome. But today we are going

to talk NFL Combine and Matthew Stafford with Albert Breer. So a lot of good stuff, some awesome nuggets from him as he's in Indianapolis. And how about the Golden State Warriors, the New Look Warriors, Jimmy Butler? Everybody is happy with the new Jimmy Butler and he's happy there too. Anthony Slater, who's covered the Warriors, but also covers the NBA nationally from the athletic is going to jump on. We'll talk some thunder. We'll talk some Minnesota playoff matchups, maybe a little MVP with SGA and Jokic and we got it extended just dudes hanging out prologue to 45 minutes of

life advice enjoy he has a national NFL football writer. That means he's a big deal. Si.com. It is Albert Brewer who is in Indianapolis getting ready for another combine, his 20th, I believe, that he said. So good to see you, man. What's up? It's actually 18.

I didn't go the first couple of years because I was still at the Metro West Daily News and it wasn't in our budget, but so this is 18 of them for me. Okay. I thought it was your 20th draft. My 20th, yeah, the 20th draft I've covered, yep. Yeah. All right, all right. Well, you know, I knew I had one of the numbers.

Let's start though, before we get to any of the draft stuff, because I just love talking about it, the Stafford situation. There's a timeline here that you lay out that makes it a lot more interesting that kind of goes back to like the first contractual band-aid that even puts us in this situation.

It's part of me thought like, does this just mean the Rams want to move on? Timeline wise, he's 37. You get a first form that you don't have to pay him. Like, okay, you know, maybe that's a nice little reset for a franchise that has done a really good job here in the Stafford years, not only the Super Bowl, I think this past year was an incredible playoff run.

There should be demand for him, but I think you do a better job and I want you to do it here, of kind of explaining the reason we're here appears to be just a disconnect, because I don't think Stafford actually wants to leave LA. No, he loves Southern California. I think the relationship with Sean is still on solid ground.

This is about the contract and I think a dispute over his value. They negotiated for six months last year. And I think the thing, they did a good job of keeping a lid on it. But it was a tough negotiation that came down to the wire. And is he going to report to camp or not? Really if you look at structurally what they did, it's a $5 million raise for 2024. However, that money was borrowed from 25 and 26.

$4 million from 25, $1 million from 26. Anytime a player does that, it's sort of with the understanding on both sides, he's not going to play for the lower number because if he plays for the lower number, that means he got no raise at all. So I think everybody knew they were going to have to revisit it. And it doesn't seem logical that the Rams would move on from Stafford based on what he is, who he's been, his relationship with McVay, his fit there, how much he loves it there. They were, I mean, in the red zone to beat the Eagles,

came as close to beating the Eagles in the playoffs and did it in a snowstorm as anybody. But, you know, like I, there's that issue of the contract. And I mean, Ryan, the crazy thing is, like this whole thing about him having permission to speak with other teams, he had that permission that issue of the contract. And I mean, Ryan, the crazy thing is like, this whole thing about him having permission to speak with other teams, he had that permission for almost three weeks now. And so the fact that like, he's been able to go out and ascertain his value,

and it sort of cemented his belief that he belongs, you know, in that group of nine quarterbacks that are making $50 million a year or more. And they still haven't been able to, you know, find a middle ground here, backs that are making $50 million a year or more. They still haven't been able to find a middle ground here, I think is at least a red flag and a sign that he could wind up being traded. So I think this is a critical week, critical few days that they're heading into here at the combine.

The Rams people aren't here, but they're gonna negotiate with Jimmy Sexton over the next few days. It's a very unpredictable situation right now, again, because he does like it there, he does wanna play there, but the timelines of the two sides don't really match up. You gotta win now, player with a team that's now looking at things and saying, we got a chance to be good for a few years.

And, uh, maybe we don't want to go year to year with our quarterback at that rate anymore. Whenever a team says, go ahead and like, look for your value, you know, go somewhere else and look for it. I mean, it tells you a couple of things. When you take a break with a girl, right? Like, it's like, what do you think is going to happen? You know what I mean?

Like, let's go see other people. Like, how do you think that's gonna turn out? Yeah, I mean, that's definitely, I think it'd be a little bit easier. I don't know what would upset me more. Like, who did you spend time with? Or, wow, nobody actually does wanna pay me what I think I'm worth.

I think the second one would actually bother me more. So the teams, there are teams though that are willing to meet his price. Is that right? Yeah. Um, so that, you know, and now what do you do? You know what I mean? Like that, like sort of like, okay, go like, let's see what you're worth.

And then you come back and it's like, oh, you are worth like something in the neighborhood of what you were asking for. And I do think that that makes it a little bit more difficult. And, you know, I, again, like it's like the timelines, the sides, like it's like, okay, well, if we're going to pay you 50, are you willing to say you're going to play for the next two years or the next three years? So we're pouring that money into something that's going to be here for a few years. If a team is willing to go to 50,

what are they willing to attach draft pick wise? Because a lot of times that can be a sliding scale too. Like if you're willing to pay 50, well, maybe you're less willing to give up the higher draft pick compensation. So there's like a lot of moving pieces here and it's complex. And I think really sort of boils down to again,

like Stafford getting what he thinks he's worth. And, I mean, look, like what he, the deal he signed, if we're just talking about the APY, you know, the deal he signed three years ago is now 50% behind the market. You know, he's at 40 and DAC is at 60. So, you can certainly see why he would want a market correction. What do you think's the most aggressive? I, I like the giants in this one. Um, I think the giants are closer than people think. Um, and I say that as somebody who's got PTSD from like having, having

marked them as like my surprise team last year. And, um, you know, that didn't work out real well for me. But I think if you look at it on paper, you say, okay, Andrew Thomas coming back at left tackle will make the offensive line completely different. You've got real players in your defensive front, Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns, and Kavon Thibodeau. You've got a number one receiver in Malik neighbors, and maybe Cooper Cup comes

with Matthew Stafford. Tracy looks like he's a good young back. And then you have the number three pick, which I don't know, is that Travis Hunter? You can look at it and say, okay, they could get to a competitive level fast. Dayball puts a lot on his quarterback, likes to put a lot on his quarterback mentally. Stafford clearly can handle that. And there are jobs on the line. You know what I mean? It's go time for Joe Shane and Brian Dayball.

So I think the one if here is if they're not willing to give up this year's first round pick, if it's next year's first round pick, or if it's their two, which I think is 34th overall and something else, are the Rams willing to do that? It's a little complicated, but I think they're the most likely one. And then another one that makes sense, we'll see how aggressive they are, is the Steelers, where that's another one where you look at timelines. I'm saying how the Rams timeline may not quite marry up completely with Stafford's. The Steelers have TJ Watt at going to be 31 years old.

They got Mika Fitzpatrick going to be 29 years old. They've got an offensive line that's coming together. They've got George Pickens nearing the end of his rookie contract. The Steelers are also in this window where it's like, if they're going to get over the top with, um, yeah, if they're going to get over the top with this core of players, like now sort of the time to do it. Yeah. The pick price from at 37 years old, as much as I love them, you know, some of

this stuff of like, who's out there, who's looking to make a court like nobody's, I don't think anybody's trading you a first half of the first round pick. Right. Stafford. Right. Right. Right. Right. make a court like nobody's, I don't think anybody's trading you a first half of the first round pick for Stafford, right? Right, right, right. And I think that that's the thing is like the teams

that have been involved here, the Giants pick third, the Raiders pick sixth, you know, the Browns pick second. Like those, I don't think those picks are getting traded for Matthew Stafford. That doesn't make no, I mean, just based on the history of the NFL trade, you know, like they're, they're incredible players. It's like, oh, here's NFL trade. They're incredible players. It's like, oh, here's a third.

And again, I know it's a little bit different with the quarterback, but at 37, knowing that as soon as you bring them in the building, it's north of 50 million, that's what you're saying to the Rams. You're going, okay, maybe we can do a second or something like this. But I interrupted you there a little bit.

So I don't know if you had more. No, no, no. I just think it's like, you have to be a little bit. So I don't know if you had more. No, no, no. I just think it's like, it's you have to be a little creative with it. And I, again, like if, and this is like where ownership comes in too, right? Like with Brian Dabal and Joe Shane, like ownership is gonna be looking at it and saying like,

well, we can't allow something completely reckless because these guys, because maybe my GM and maybe my head coach are looking to save their jobs, right? So like that one I think is interesting again, like I just think there's a reason for the Steelers and the Giants to work with urgency. The Browns make sense too.

I just don't know with like that $92 million guarantee that's left for Deshaun Watson. I don't know how you meet Matthew Stafford's financial demands while still having like that anchor, you know, on your books. Yeah, I don't know. All right. So if there's a vacancy with the LA Rams, the quarterback position, Aaron Rogers.

Yeah. And I think Aaron might be willing to go there for a little less. And so then if you're the Rams, the equation becomes, okay, so we have Matthew Stafford, who's year to year. We're replacing him with another quarterback who's year to year. And are we better off with Stafford at 50? Or what if Rogers will come here for 20? If Rogers comes here for 20, now we've got the extra $30 million to spend, plus we get the assets that are coming back in a Stafford trade. And that's how you can start to wrap your head

around the whole thing. You know what I mean? Now it doesn't solve the question of who's going to be the quarterback beyond this year, but if Stafford isn't going to agree to do that for you, well, you're in that position either way. Rogers is an interesting answer. I think Sean McVeigh likes Jimmy Garoppolo more than people realize. And could he go in and win with Garoppolo as sort of, you know, I use this example with Sam Darnold and potentially going to the Raiders, could he be like Alex Smith in Kansas City? You know what I mean? Like where Alex Smith

was a really, really high end bridge with a great offensive coach that got them to the playoffs four times in five years and bought them time to find Patrick Mahomes. Like I think what some of these quarterbacks that we're talking about, like that's the upside with them. And, you know, Sean's got like obviously supreme confidence in his ability to coach a quarterback up. And I do know that he thinks Jimmy's got something left in the tank and can be a starter in the league. Okay. What's up with Kirk Cousins? This is complicated, of course, by, again, the guaranteed money left. He has $27.5 million dollars fully guaranteed. He's getting that money one way or the other. If he is on the roster

through the beginning of the league year, $10 million for next year for 2026 becomes fully guaranteed. So the Falcons are looking at this and saying, okay, so you have either we're one year at a $90 million number minus the offset, which he would do what Russell Wilson did is go get the minimum somewhere. So one year at $90 million or do we keep them as our backup? And then we're talking about a two-year, $100 million commitment. And how does that affect your young quarterback?

Ultimately, I think they're going to spend the next few weeks trying to find creative ways to trade them. In the end, I don't know that you can keep Kirk Cousins on your roster. And I think Kirk at some point will probably make his feelings known on that. And then I think Kirk becomes like a, if he is cut, he becomes, he can become the solution to the Deshaun Watson problem in Cleveland. Because if you're getting him for the minimum, he's got the relationship with Kevin Stefanski from having worked together with him.

And Kevin having been his play caller with the Vikings. That is a way to work around the Deshaun Watson situation where it's like, we've got all this money we still owe Deshaun Watson, but Kirk Cousins comes in here on the minimum. We probably draft one somewhere in the first couple of rounds behind him, and now we feel a lot better about our quarterback situation. Maybe we can go to Miles Garrett with that and say, look, like we've fixed this to the greatest degree we possibly can.

Is anyone going to do like a Kirk Cousins deep dive on the contracts? Because I mean, I know everybody makes the chase Daniel jokes, but Kirk is going to be, cause I'm glad you pointed that out. Cause when it was first reported and you looked at the four year 180 with Kirk in Atlanta, you're like, okay, well where's the guaranteed money? What is in the first couple of years? And it's like, okay, they're going to be able cause I'm glad you pointed that out. Cause when it was first reported and you looked at the four year 180 with Kirk in Atlanta, you're like, okay, well where's the guaranteed money? What is in the first couple of years? And it's like, okay, this feels more like a two year, a hundred million dollar deal,

which is in line with kind of the salary structure that we've talked about already on what Stafford was looking for. But the fact that the Penex pick looks like it's going to work, cousins look so diminished physically at the end of it. Do you want to keep them around to say, Hey, we got them for two, for a hundred million when he's not going to be sweet about it. Um, which is totally fine.

Like I understand. And then that extra, so it's basically going to be 90 million for the one year. So it'll be 90 million for that one year on top of like when Minnesota kept having to guarantee the future years, remember he was like the first guy because he was like the first real free agent. Yep.

Because Washington decides we just don't want to pay you. And so he gets like a guarantee structure that is so different from the other quarterbacks because the other quarterbacks weren't necessarily like reaching true free agency. Right. And then to deal with the cap stuff. Like this is like the third or fourth time with him where he's cleaning up. You had to, and you had to, you have to give Kirk credit though. Like he had the, he had the balls to play on two consecutive franchise tags. And that's the difference is most guys will see the big second contract, even if it's

a little below market value and say, I got to take the bird in the hand. There are very few guys that will actually play out franchise tags the way that he did. And that's how he got to free agency. And now you can't tag them anymore logistically because of the way that the rules set up. And so he just has to play his contracts out and then he makes it to the market, which starting quarterbacks never make it to the market. So like he, you know, like obviously, you know, he did a good job of, you know, of taking a calculated gamble and has cashed in on it. And even like this situation, like, I don't know, like the idea that like he could go now, sort of pick his team,

you know what I mean? If they cut them and say, okay, like that's sunk cost, one year, 90 million. We need to be all the way behind Michael Pennex. Then he's gonna go to the market. He's got an edge on every other quarterback out there because money's no object because the Falcons are paying for it. You know what I mean?

So he would go out there and be able to pick whatever the best football situation is for him. It's a good example, I think, for other players of how to use your leverage. It's also like, I mean, it's like not realistic for some guys in other positions to do it that way. You know? I mean, like, give Saquon credit.

Saquon, you know, played through a franchise tag. And that's how he makes it to the market, you know? It's just, it's a tough thing. It's a tough thing to actually like look at the, look at life changing money on the table and pass it up and say, I'll wait a year or two until they actually let me go to the market. And it's, it's paid off for him his entire career now.

Well, the cap going up and then that being reflected in how much of the cap is going to the quarterback. But you're right. The two tag years of Washington, and then that being reflected in how much of the cap is going to the quarterback, but you're right. The two tag years of Washington and then it's 150 million basically. I mean, it could be off a dollar a year with Minnesota over those years. And I think every dollar was guaranteed because of the three year structure and then the two year extension and then they had to stay on it and then it's going to

be not so Hill Hill have made 90 million in one year with Atlanta when he made 150 with Minnesota. Here's the crazy thing. So if you go back, so cause those franchise tags- I'm looking at it again right now. Those franchise tags are fully guaranteed, right? So his first franchise tag was 2016. So for the last nine seasons, every dollar he's made

has been fully guaranteed before the season. Good for him. Seriously. Like I'm not, I, I still think more of these guys could have more of the contracts guaranteed and I know they always argue, Oh, well, it's actually not guaranteed in the NBA and I'm like, okay, got it. Um, let's talk, uh, is there anything here on Pittsburgh? Do we need to do anything?

Yeah. So I think Pittsburgh, I think they, I think, my guess is the Russell thing is over. There was, he was, where's, where's he going? And I don't know. I mean, that's the thing is like, I, I could see the Raiders signing Sam Donald again, it's like sort of their Alex Smith in Kansas city. And I think he's a good fit for chips offense and everything else. Um, you know, if, if that doesn't happen, could Russell wind up with Pete for a sort of their Alex Smith in Kansas City. And I think he's a good fit for Chipps offense and everything else.

You know, if that doesn't happen, could Russell wind up with Pete for a year or two, maybe? I just don't think you're not going to bring Russell Wilson in and have him in a situation where he's a backup. You know what I mean? Like, so it has to be like a team that's willing to give him a starting job. And I don't know that teams out there, you know? And I also, I mean, things were not perfect between him and other people in the Steelers building over the course of the year. And so, yeah, you know, but then you see it at the end. The crazy thing is though, Ryan, you see like the Jerry Dulac

story that came out during Super Bowl week, like about like, it was like the stuff that Russell's camp was upset about. It was like, so that stuff was getting out there. I'm like, what are you doing? Like everyone thinks this is like, everyone thinks that you're like this operator behind the scenes and now you're doing it again. Other teams are going to look at this and like say like, no, I'm not signing up for that. I don't want to be the next team that happens to.

You know what I mean? I think he's probably gone. Then I would say they want to keep working with Justin Fields. They really like Justin Fields. He is a really good fit for Mike Tomlin's program. I don't think they're going to be willing to just hand him the starting job. Maybe he would have to come as a backup if they get a higher end guy. I think Fields made a good enough impression there where I would term it as they want to

keep working with him. I think they've got bigger swings. Do they take a swing at Rodgers? They've already kicked tires on Stafford. I think they're going to look at the higher end options, but I certainly could see fields being part of the equation in some form or fashion if he can't find a starting job somewhere else. Okay. Let's talk draft.

Um, I like what you did. You had our guys McShea and then Deandre Jenner-Romaya just kind of going back and forth and talking about this draft, talking about its strengths, the depth, the D line, the depth of D tackle, the tight end class that I absolutely love. But if we start at the top, and I know you're there this week and you'll probably feel better about the information two weeks from now, but is there a momentum thing?

Is there something that's happening at the top where it feels like teams that you talk to, the consensus is going towards a certain direction, a player or some kind of trade? Yeah, so I say a couple things. Like number one, the more people I talk to, the more... So I think Abdul Carter sort of like considered the best prospect in the draft.

And it's not that he's a better football player than Travis Hunter, it's just easier to translate him to the pros. You know what he's gonna be, you know? And part of that is, you know, as you and I talked about a little earlier, the Micah thing, like that there's a blueprint for it. So I think like the momentum right now,

I would say is Abdul Carter as a very real shot may even be the leader in the clubhouse to go first overall. After that, the one thing that's sort of kind of, I would say like this consensus has sort of started to form that like when you're talking about upside and DJ used the term chasing ceiling. If you're an AFC team, you have to chase ceiling. If you're going, you know,

if you're having to climb up that mountain that Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are on, like you need to find somebody who's got a high enough ceiling to get to those guys. And Cam Ward, I think, is the one quarterback in this year's class who has it. And so, like, I think that's what separates him from the group. The Shadour thing is interesting. I think that there's a really strong consensus that Shadour is kind of ordinary physically. He's smart, he's tough, he's rugged. You know, he's got a chance to play in the league for a long time. But the more people I talk to, the more I hear he's limited physically, he's not a great

athlete, he doesn't have a great arm. And so I think that that's the battle that Shadour is going to have to fight with teams over the next two months is showing him that he's a little better physically than they think. And part of it too, like, Ryan, I know how much college you watch, like he's running for his life a lot at Colorado, right? Is he going to be able to get away from people the same way in the pros? I know a lot of people don't think he's going to be able to get away from people the same way he did in college. Yeah. I look at all his creativity and his bailing

on the pocket and the fact that they couldn't run the football for two years is positives. I understand what you're saying. You're not just going to be able to shuffle and avoid all this stuff and then reset yourself outside of the pocket the way he did. But that showed me just incredible instincts where he knew that they had serious limitations. I mean, offensive line was obviously better in the second year than it was the first year. First year was a total disaster, but they still couldn't run the football. So, you know, if I'm in the war room and I'm arguing the pros and cons, I'm like, you know, this guy, he had a lot of really good receivers and everything and no fine, but he, he just kind of, I mean, I hate to just use the cliche term of baller, but like he just, he's a baller quarterback.

Right. And it, it's very baller. He's a quarterback. Yeah. Right. And it's very clear that Cam has surpassed him. I also think there's people that kind of long-term consistently had been like, Hey, you know what? Teams do not think like Sanders is even a first-rounder. Again, there's no, there's like almost no such thing as the second round quarterback. You know?

No, I mean, it's actually true because it's like, if you think a guy is going to be your long-term starter, you're spending a first round pick on him. If he's not, you're probably not spending a two or even a three on him. You know? Yeah. So I, I don't know that it's, it's me arguing for Sanders. It's just, I think that's a positive. If there's one thing, if somebody said, Hey, what do you think it should, which you're asking me now is that over the course of those two years, that team

was screwed on so many dropbacks and he found a way to get back to the game. And I think that's a positive. If there's one thing, if somebody said, Hey, what do you think it should, which you're asking me now is that over the course of those two years, that team was screwed on so many drop backs and he found a way to turn a lot of negatives into positives. And I think that means something, but it was also one of the things I liked the most about Caleb Williams in the second, you know, like, cause his first SC year, you're like, this guy's a baller. And then it's like, that's dipping off a little bit, but maybe I'm making the same, if you don't think Caleb is going to be good, maybe you think both of those approaches are mistakes.

But I'd rather see you fight through adversity as a top draft prospect, as opposed to some of these dudes that drop back. They've got five all SEC offensive line men. There's first rounders running around all over the place. Next thing you know, Mac Jones is going 15th. Right, right, right. You got five all SEC offensive flying men. There's first rounders running around all over the place. Next thing you know, Mac Jones is going 15th. Right, right, right.

Which is like the whole, like, did you have, like how often, how often did you have to go to number three in your progression, right? Like how often, because- One wins every time, so it doesn't matter. And it's clean. Right, right. I mean, that was the Justin Fields thing.

It was like Justin Fields, it was like, like they, everybody, everybody's felt like he's smart enough to do it, right? He's a really smart kid. And like the testing showed like he's a fast processor, but he never really had to do it at Ohio State because he had Chris Olave and Jameson Williams and Jackson Smith and Jigba and Garrett Wilson. And so, I mean, it's, you know, Mac Jones, same thing. It's like, how often did you have to go deep into your reads? How often did you really have to move in the pocket?

Yeah. So like, I think should do it was like, you know, like, like you said, like sort of the reverse of that where he had to be the best player on the field pretty consistently, you know, I think that's like Drake May last year, like Drake may for that North Carolina team. He'd tell you now like his May for that North Carolina team, he'd tell you now, like his third year at North Carolina, registered sophomore, like he learned a lot because he had to carry the team, you know, and that's experience that's applicable to what you have to do sometimes in the NFL. So, yeah, like I think that definitely applies.

I also would say this about the quarterbacks, Ryan, I don't, like I think for some teams, about the quarterbacks, Ryan. I don't, I think for some teams, the gap between Cam and Chedur might be similar to the gap between Chedur and Jackson Dart. Like I think Jackson Dart might be a little closer for some teams to Chedur than people realize. So that would make them a first-rounder, Jackson. Or those teams view Chedur as a second-rounder and Jackson's right there with them. So if I gave you the overunder, but seconds, the rounders don't exist. So, I mean, look, a quarterback will go there, but I just, I think with a team sitting there and they like a guy enough, and even if they have them 50th in their player rankings in a second round graded quarterback, and then it's a need, you

know, we know what happens in this draft. It's, it's so much more of a need based draft than the NBA ever has been. Yeah. You know, um, I mean, I think like, I think once you get past, once you get past Carter and Hunter, it almost immediately becomes a need based draft, which is really rare that it happened that high. You know what I mean? Um, so that's kind of the message.

Is that the messaging that you're getting? Not just from McShay and DJ and your thing is that teams around the lead are going, this is a starter's draft, not a starter. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, so there might be teams that look at it and say, we have a similar grade on Mason Graham, Will Campbell, Ashton Gentie, um, you know, Jalen Walker. So like, let's just take what we perceive as the most important position or our biggest

need. Like, I think like once you get past the two at the top and DJ thinks Genti is right there with those two, by the way, which I thought was interesting. It's the first person I've heard say that. With Hunter and Abdul, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's just, he's a running back.

So like, how high do you take them? You know, but I mean, coming out of a year where Barkley, Jacobs, and Henry sort of changed the dynamic of the position for three of the best teams in the league, maybe you do look at Ashton Gent a little differently than you would have a year or two ago. You know? the best teams in the league, maybe you do look at Ash to Gentile a little differently than you would have a year or two ago. Anyway, so I think that the consensus would be Carter and Hunter up here. And then after that, you've got a clump of players and need could wind up dictating who goes four, five, six, seven, which again is like, I think an earlier point of the draft

than it usually happens. That's really interesting because I actually hate that stuff. I hate when it's like, hey, look at who the final four teams were in the NFL playoffs. So let's draft the running back because these teams just did it. Maybe running backs are having a moment. Maybe this is the time in history where people go back towards it. Maybe it's a countering to some of the defensive stuff that we saw at the beginning of the year. Right? Maybe, I mean-

It is a really good draft class in the position though, because you have Hampton, who I don't think is that far off from Gentey. And then you have the two Ohio State guys, Judkins and Henderson. And I think Henderson is really going to be helped. This is one thing that like a bunch of teams have told me, like Jameer Gibbs' success in Detroit is really going to help Trevion Henderson. Because that's going to be the vision for him. But Judkins is a good player, Caleb Johnson from Iowa.

And then you have good backs after that too. You know, so. What about Omari too, right? Yeah, Hampton. I'm saying Hampton's right out. Oh, okay. Omari and Hampton right after Gentian, then probably after those two, you got the two Ohio State guys in Iowa.

I'm sorry, I misunderstood. Maybe, I'm all for it, because maybe, Bert, the running back Zoom call a couple years ago. Worked. Maybe it worked. People were quick to judge. Maybe the payoff has happened.

That didn't happen as quick as everybody needed to, but maybe we're there. We're good, we're good. Maybe we're gonna win a 30 on 30, 30 for 30 on the running back Zoom call in 10 years. I'm telling you, man, we need to, I want the oral history on that thing. Jaylen Walker, I'd expect him to be somebody

that teams fall in love with more and more. Yep. Like I guess I'm surprised that it's Abdul. I mean, who didn't watch Abdul this year going, that guy's a freak, even when he was hurt in the last game he played. I just, I think maybe it's George's front where you lose track of which guy you're falling in love with.

Yeah. You know, of the three guys this year, but I felt like he jumped out the most to me. Maybe teams see it differently. And you have to like, and like, I think you just have to, with him, like wrap your head around the frame. Like he's not a traditional edge rusher, you know, like where Mike Al Williams, the other Georgia guy is like, looks like he came out of like a defensive end lab. You know what I mean? Like, sure. That like Jaylen Walker's more like the Micah Parsons build, which I know like, again, like, and just to explain to people, like, I think Micah Parsons almost generated a new genre of player where you're seeing Abdul Carter was used that way

at Penn State like Micah was. And then, you know, you're seeing Abdul Carter was used that way at Penn State, like Micah was. And then you're seeing it with guys at other schools. And Jalen Walker is a good example of somebody you can have on the line, have off the line. And where maybe the league didn't know what to do with a guy like that when Parsons came out because it was such a unique way to use a player that can be that good in both off the ball and on the end of the line. Now there's that blueprint out there.

And so it's actually like, I think for Carter and Walker, it's now a positive. It's not like, okay, what are we gonna do with this guy? It's actually seen as a plus for them. Enjoy the combine, man. And you can also enjoy yourself some more, Albert Brewer, if you check out the MMQB podcast. they go through the quarterback carousel as well. And I'm sure you guys will be all over the latest from, uh, from Indianapolis.

Thanks, man. All right. Thanks, Ryan. The new look warriors. So, uh, let's do some more. Let's do some big NBA stuff too. So it won't all be on golden state, but he originally covered the warriors and now it covers the NBA as a national writer for the athletic.

It's Anthony Slater. All right. Um, this Butler stuff's been good, man. Uh, whether it's a vibes check with this team, the on off stuff that I want you to get to with Butler, there's six on offense. There's six on defense. Uh, we get to some of the scheduling part of it, but there seems to be whatever it is with this Butler acquisition.

There's just some juice to this team that seemed to not be there we get to some of the scheduling part of it, but there seems to be whatever it is with this Butler acquisition, there's just some juice to this team that seemed to not be there for months after the great start. Yeah, I would, you know, I credit Mike Dunley for seeing it was needed. Cause honestly, like throughout the months long process, whatever you want to call the Jimmy Butler thing, there was a lot of skepticism, locker room coaching staff

wise of like, sure, you sure you want to do that? And I would say the warriors, um, you know, again, coaches and players have been kind of protective of this core. And I think sometimes the outside perception is just the front office. You know, they did do the two timeline plan. They deserve some criticism, uh, for, for executing that poorly, you know, at least the lottery picks. But I think the last couple of years, they've been a little bit more itching

to to kind of try to, you know, get this that shake this thing up even at last deadline. And I just think the way that the Warriors were playing the veterans at the time were like, you know, don't do anything rash. And I think there was a little bit of that feeling early this season. You know, don't do anything too crazy. And I think it just got to the point as the deadline came closer. It was like, even if a Jimmy Butler acquisition blows up,

what are you blowing up? You're blowing up nothing that is going well. And so they, you know, especially for the price tag and you know, all the, they sacrifice Wiggins, which, you know, I mean, good player, but clearly if you're just trading out Butler for Wiggins, it's a huge upgrade that, you know, Mike Dunleavy knew that he played with Butler in Chicago.

And then the 2025 protective first, they just didn't really love this draft from like 11 on. So they're like, if we're giving up 11th or beyond in this draft, how big of an asset is that really? Okay, so was Dunleavy on an island here? I mean, granted, Lakeup has to sign off on this because that's the way ownership works for any sports franchise.

And they have to sign off on doing an extension for somebody that I'd be scared of death. Scared to death of giving the extension, but I mean, I guess you're arguing, hey, you're really only giving them one extra year based on the existing player option. But I was reading your stuff and obviously asking around because Butler shoots down the idea that he would even go there. The pursuit is basically directed towards getting the pieces together for a Durant trade until the Durant thing falls through that I want to spend a couple seconds on here, but

Is it is it done levy by himself convincing everyone around him? I think there's People within his front office that were you know kind of on his side on on Butler and again we could talk like you know in the numbers people some of the You know, I guess lower level, like assistant GMs and, you know, I think Joe Lakeybs grander vision was the swing bigger. And you mentioned the Durant we can get into that, but like Joe certainly wasn't a no on Butler. It was like, you know, big game hunting. Now I think perception wise, Kevin Durant would have been the bigger splash. Like, Oh, you know, I think this like, Oh my gosh, they got them back. They're about to shake up the league.

Um, but you know, like they were made aware later in the process, uh, then I thought they liked that, that Kevin wasn't interested. Uh, and then once, once Butler was there, I think he had a consensus from office wise. And then as we filter down, I would say Steve was a little bit more separated from the process. I think purposely, I think, especially the way he like cares for the guys in his locker room. And, you know, he almost was crying at the podium talking about Andrew Wiggins and what Andrew Wiggins meant, you know, personally and to the 2022 title. So I think he was kind of separated to like, I don't think he gave the green light or didn't give the green light. I think he was just letting it happen.

And then I would almost say the same about Steph. He was, you know, he was involved in the process of Dunleavy was keeping him up to date. But I think Steph purposely, just because of the teammate he wants to be, doesn't want to be the one, you know, pulling the ultimate trigger and pulling the levers. He doesn't want to be seen by that. It's almost like, you know, uh, if you're innocent to, to what went down, then, then nobody can blame you for pulling the trigger. Okay. Let's talk basketball. The on-off stuff for Curry, I think is the really

important number here. Um, what does it meant for this team and the turnaround with these Butler non-Curry minutes? And then ultimately like, it's just, I don't want to get carried away after a couple of weeks, but it, you know, I like this team. I watch them a lot. They get off to that great star and it's like, man, they've got like two lines of basketball players and they're playing such hard defense. You're like, really? Is everybody going to just keep making this many shots?

And then it's, then it just falls off a cliff. They've got some injury stuff as well. And then I felt like Curry, you know, was taken. And I've already said this too many times, but I haven't talked to you yet. I'm like, you guys are going to bitch about Curry's shooting numbers. Like, look at what he is doing, how he cycles through these possessions. And then it's like, hey, please take the shot again and again and again. Like, I just didn't feel like I think there's numbers that are inefficient

for certain players that don't reflect, don't perfectly reflect their approach to the game. And, you know, Steph is one of those guys. And now it feels, I can't believe how good it's already been. So go any way you want to, because I went in a million different directions on that. Yeah, look, he, as far as Steph struggles, like he often has like a month dip at least. And it was like at that normal time of the year, right? He kind of like, you know, uh, you know,

spent a lot of his energy early in the season, got to 12 and three. He was like adamant coming into the preseason, like hot start, hot start, right? Need the vibes good. And I think maybe he peddled, you know, off a little bit and, and then they, they hit the dip. And sometimes it's hard to regenerate that, um, some, you know, late game, you know, I guess misfortune or just, you know, some of the droughts they had, the knee tendonitis that he was dealing with was a thing, you know, Draymond Green suddenly going through a calf thing. They're older in their career. The, the, the marathon wears on them more, which is something they learned as far as, you know, what's changed.

Look, Jimmy Butler, I think they're like first in the league and made free throws. And it's a six game sample, but like they find the last six game sample. They were anywhere near the top, like five in the league and free. So there were bottom four in attempts, you know, from the line since he got here. So clearly he's doing that better. He's a low turnover guy, which like it's Steve. Kurt's got like the heart, eye emojis about like the way, like Jimmy Butler had a quote the other day about how he just wants shots on goal. And like Steve Kerr was talking about how great a quote that was. And it's just, I mean, it's what they wanted Chris Paul to be. Right. I don't know if you

remember when they brought him in, like that was, you know, Steve Kerr's idea that he could bring this, you know, he used to call Andre Iguodala a chaperone on the court. And it was just the guy, I don't know. Did you watch any of the Iguodala Jersey retirement the other day? I did not. Okay. He was just talking about the genius of eguedala in the dynasty was the craziness of Steph and clay in the shot selection and just like the Ferocity of Draymond. They always just needed an adult to come in at frantic times of the game where Steph was in clay. We're getting too wild with the shots. Maybe Draymond's yelling at the refs and just slow everything down and just control the game. And like, I believe they think Butler is

that kind of a supercharged version of that with, with more of a scoring mentality. So he just does a lot of stuff that they didn't do. They've called them each other, Steph and, and Jimmy opposites, opposites attract kind of thing. And then the other thing you mentioned it, like, I don't know that, especially early in the process, they wanted to give him any type of extension, but I think the front office, it would seem now smartly just bought that final year, gave him that final season really for now because he has come in with such a motivated, you know, happy to be here mindset. And if you didn't know anything about Jimmy Butler's past, you'd be like, man, this is why I like best teammates in the league and, and, and the best leaders,

you know, just as far as like, if you've just been around them the last two weeks, who knows how long that's going to last. But I think they bought that with the extension. Yeah, right. And sometimes if you're just buying yourself the window, then you don't really care about the cost because, you know, to your point, what were you blowing up? I mean, there was no window. So now you can start thinking like, all right, and this is what I want to ask you now.

Although I was reading your piece and I was reading all the Butler quotes this morning and I was just laughing. I was just sitting in my kitchen reading every quote because every quote was perfect. And I'm not talking about like one or two, it was like five or six Butler quotes in a row and you're like, he is absolutely nailing this, which I think sometimes is a little scary because you're like, you're so good at saying the right thing, but none of that matters. 27 doesn't matter, 26 doesn't matter.

The playoffs and 25 matter. How good are they? I think that they're dangerous. I believe, I've been saying it for about a week now. I think they're the favorites for the sixth seed, if you look at what's going on around them. The Clippers now with Norman Powell's, and Kawhi just missed some games. They're only one favorites for the sixth seed. If you look at what's going on around them, the Clippers now with Norman Powell's, you know, and Kawhi just missed some games.

There's only one back of the Clippers. They're scheduled, the Warriors schedule's really easy. Like I'm looking at this road trip I'm about to cover coming up. First of all, they end the home stand tonight against the Hornets. Then it's at Orlando, at Charlotte, they have a Brooklyn game,

they have a Sixers game on this road trip. They come back home, you know, I think there's some Portland games mixed in there. Like there's just a lot of likely wins coming up and that has nothing to do with their ceiling. But if you just really look at how the teams around them are playing and their schedule to me, I think it's it's as long as they stay healthy. I think they're very likely to get into the playoff mix without having to get into the plan, which I think it's huge for them to get that week off to prep for a series because they're going to have to win these series where they're going to get into the plan, which I think it's huge for them to get that week off to prep for a series, because they're gonna have to win these series

where they're gonna be on the road and not favored by just like scheming up sharply and figuring out a way to small ball these teams to death. Because right now Jimmy Butler's the tallest guy in the starting lineup, which he was laughing about the other day, six foot seven. They're gonna have some trouble, I think scoring, and particularly scoring at the rim against good defenses.

I don't like them to like go on some deep run into the late May or June, but I do think if you're, if they get the six, you know, we can name the type of teams that might be sitting there at three. Like, sure. I'm giving them a, you know, probably a 50, 50 shot against most of those teams. So if we ran through it though, um, you know, there are the nine right now, but I mean, it's so bottled up between six and kind of 11 really that's only four games of separation between the Clippers and the Suns.

Would you pick the Warriors against Oklahoma City? No, I wouldn't pick anyone against Oklahoma City. We can get to that, but no, we're going to get to it. Right. Would you pick them against Denver? No, that would be probably the team. I think they should want least at three if they get six. I would agree. What about Memphis? Yeah,

maybe that's because I've just seen them like kind of, you know, toy with Memphis over the years. The 2022 playoffs come to mind. They went in, they stole game one. Uh, it would be like kind of a fierce series with a lot of like the Taylor Jenkins, Zach Edie, Draymond stuff. And it would be fun. I think we'd all enjoy it. But I've seen Memphis's depth not play as well in a playoff series against the Warriors. Yeah, I really, I like their depth. I think there's guys on the team that don't get enough credit. And I think, you know, bringing along some of the guys that haven't played, they'll have minutes

now with Laravia being out, you know, they, but that's asking a lot of like Gigi or Vince Williams to be like, Hey, have huge moments for us in a playoff series against a team with dudes with attitudes like Draymond and Butler. And then, you know, whatever you think of, of Steph. Um, yeah, I mean, Gigi's played 15 games. Vince has played only eight games coming back, but they both been out there. I already kind of know, like we're probably both saying, yeah, I think I'd pick them against Houston. I probably pick him against Memphis. I bet you're not going to pick him against the Lakers.

No, because I think if the Lakers are the three seed, that tells you the type of final month that they had, right? Oh, Lucas probably in rhythm and they're motivated and they're playing well and they got up to the three and it's starting in LA. But man, I mean, how about that first round series? Because that would also mean the Warriors had a pretty good final month being at six. Like they would be, you know, it would just be star driven, the LHA center back to backs and it would like, I would take the Lakers though, just because of the, the,

the two stars, but I will say this. I've had a few people say, Hey, look, it feels like the worries are one player away. Jonathan coming is about a week away from returning. I don't know how that integration is going to go. It could be a little clunky, but that is their ceiling. Their ceiling is meshing coming into this really well. And then they might be a little bit scarier to people.

And Pajemski has been better again. I'll tell you, it feels like. Do they get more frustrated with him than anybody right now? Has he replaced cominga on the frustration scale? Oh man. Uh, yeah, probably. Um, although like they have not been frustrated with his final month, his first month of the year was a lot more frustrating than coming.

Because, you know, I think, I think you always say coming. It gets more frustrated with them than the other way around. But Pajamski, as you know, and again, blame the Warriors, blame the Warriors organization and Joe Lake of going on summer league broadcasts, saying future all star and then, you know, basically like it wasn't at like they didn't protect him in the Lori marketing talks quite as much as like, you know, the reporting and like the the legend of these Lori marketing talks would say it wasn't like it was Pajemski or no deal and they were at the one yard line and the Warriors pulled back.

It just never got close. But they vowed him to valued him to an extreme level this summer and still value him to an extreme level to the point he came into camp. He was talking about taking eight to 10 threes a game. I'm going to replace Klay Thompson shooting. Oh, Chris Paul's gone. I'm gonna do more play making like he thought it was like year two of like a Jalen Brunson type trajectory here. And he got humbled early in the season. Uh, and there was like bad moments. I remember a game in, in Denver.

He threw it a really bad alley, open a two on one that got picked off. I was there for that. Okay. And that's why watching it in person. It was like, man, they are like, when Steve gets upset with him. Remember seeing him yelling at him on the sideline in that game. And honestly, even worse, do you remember the, you might not even have seen it, but Steve comes to the press conference and he's like, we got guys out here trying to get sports center top 10 plays.

And he was like, he really went off on Pajemski and then started naming him and saying, I hope he's listening to this. And then Pajemski, who I will say, by the way, broke his nose in the last game of preseason got sick early in the season, which is a really weird first month for him, but he missed about 12 games with an ab injury. and he almost like got away. He was out of the public consciousness. Nobody was even talking about him for a while. I think it mentally reset him.

You look at his numbers since then he's the rookie version of himself plus. Um, and I mean, he's not at least the lead a team and plus minus again, he's plus one Oh nine, the last six games. Uh, and it's not just those type of numbers. It's like he has 17 and 13 the other day. He's shooting a three well and he's really fitting with Butler and yeah, right now he's really been their third, fourth best player over the last month at least.

Before I go into the OKC stuff, coming off of last night's collapse, which again, it's just they beat Minnesota two nights ago. They played them three times in 11 games. So I'm not gonna look at last night's blown lead and collapse is like, Hey, is there a bigger picture thing here with okay. See, I just want to finish up on the Durant stuff. Like I think I know you have more info than I do, but just, I remember that day

it was like, yeah, there was a deal in place. Doesn't want to come here. Yeah. So, I mean, you talked to, I remember talking to Steph after the Butler trade when he was just absorbing like,, wow, we actually did it. And I kind of asked him about the Kevin aspect of it all. And he was like, he had... So the trade deadline is always on a Thursday.

If I have the timing right, he had talked to him basically like the Saturday-ish range before somewhere around there. And he was like, yeah, Kevin doesn't want to go here. I know this. But the front office, as it has been told to me, kind of underestimated that aspect. And within talks were kind of being signaled from Phoenix aside that like, no, it's fine. You know, like, and then by the end, it was like, OK, like, let's let's make sure here. And then they were given a much colder view of it from the Durant side of like, oh, no,

he really doesn't want to be here. And I think they had a lot of 2019 flashbacks going through their mind of like as good as that 2019 team was, remember how miserable that was. And they just didn't want to replay that. And it was clearly Kevin's wishes not to replay that. So they pulled out of it, but you mentioned it from, from what I understand, like deal was almost, I mean, it was basically agreed upon except for that last checkpoint. But, you know, I think both front offices should have got that checkpoint out of the way

a lot earlier, because then I think if you're a Phoenix, you're looking back now, like, you know, you may have ruined a relationship where you could have got that answer a lot earlier. Let's talk thunder. As I mentioned, up 25 last night, they lose an overtime to Minnesota. Rudy's not playing last night.

Randall's been out, Deven Jensen has been out for a really long stretch. But the weirdest part about it is like Ant had a calf thing and then he came out late in the game and they didn't even bring him back in until like a minute or so into overtime. They were up 16 under four. So Oklahoma City's the second team since 2003

to lose a game up 16 or more with 345 or less to go. It was a really like one, it was incredible what was happening with the bench guys, Dillingham, Shannon, Clark, and then they put them with non Jada McDaniels when Ant was out. So they played small. I think Finch was just really good. He talked about his trapping against SGA and they were selling out and trapping him with McDaniels and Alexander Walker. And so there was a defensive adjustment that Finch had talked about. You could just see it

because they were playing zone a lot. They were trapping and also Oklahoma city, I think missed every single shot. Okay. Like wide open threes. So like the shots you would want off of that trapping were there and they didn't make any of them. And you also can see a basketball team in the thunder of being like, we just beat these guys. They don't think they're going to lose this game.

I think they turned it off somewhat. And it's just a credit to like what Shannon did last night, 17 to 10, you know, Clark's a defensive matchup guy where I think Finch got pissed at him on a foul, but then brought him back in, didn't shut him down for the game. Cause I think with this, you know, injury situation they have,

they can't start limiting minutes of guys that are in the rotation right now. Here's my point. My point is like twofold. Let's start with the Thunder. Winhorse had a really interesting quote just the other day, basically, and I'm paraphrasing that the people around the NBA don't really respect the Thunder or they're not afraid of them, which when you think about who they are defensively, like this is all time stuff.

The depth is there. They're getting chet back. You want to talk third score that you rely on in a playoff game. I would allow it. I've talked about it before here. Do you think that's players being disrespectful? Cause I have a hard time believing coaches

watching the film of this, not respecting what they see. I would just say from my conversations with people with, with people, I guess, lower in the West bracket, it is more players that seem to be like, they're beatable, you know, and I think it's a complete offensive thing. I don't think any, nobody I've talked to is like, Oh, that defense is fake. You know, Oh, like, you know, they're, they're not going to be, you know, they're going to be easy to score on. Nobody is saying that to me.

It's always been, there's a belief that in the playoff setting, you can scheme up against S G a little bit. I mean, you kind of laid it out with what Minnesota did last night, but you could just, you take two weeks. You're just scouting them. You're just highly focused. All your veterans are highly focused. And you can just focus, you know, you can put all your attention on what's the best defense to bottle up Shea and force Jaylen Williams and the rest of the team to score enough. Now look, Oklahoma City could say, you know, that's fine.

Maybe we scored 99 in this game, but maybe you score 91. Just with the way they're gonna play. And I think the way they can turn you over, it's like they can get a lot of, you know, fast break transition type stuff. So I don't subscribe to the theory that they're as beatable as others seem to be. But I do understand. I covered that thunder Mavericks second round series last year. Uh,

Jaylin Williams wasn't quite ready. They've tried to, you know, give him more on ball responsibility, pull ups, you know, playmaking responsibility this year to try to get him readier for, for, for those types of series. Chet Holmgren, I think, you know, we're going to see how much rust or not he's going to have from, this was a bad injury to have, you know, a multi-month absence. So I want to see how ready he is. But the reality of that second round series last year, they probably should have won it. Uh, or at least it was close. I mean, it was a very much a toss up series. Josh Giddies minutes go look at his minus. I mean, that was such

a drag on them. That whole series. They clearly obviously wiped that out. And it's such a glaring like, by the time like the second or, I always love like the second or third game of a series where you go, okay, you have decided this guy does not matter. And everybody's like in tune, like you can go in a night to night and go,

hey, this is somebody we're gonna help off of, this is something we're gonna do. But like over the course of a regular season, like a lot of that stuff can get lost. That's why I still think that LA's preparation and execution of what they want to do defensively against Denver on Saturday night was so impressive because it was like a very specific, like this is what we're doing for this matchup. But yeah, like to the giddy stuff, like some of these games, it

becomes alarming who the guys are that are being ignored offensively. And that's not, those minutes are just not going to happen now. Yeah. Um, I w I want to see the Hartenstein, uh, the Holmgren minutes the rest of the season, because I think they want, they believe that like that's their best five man group. And that's the one that they're probably going to win with. Uh, the, you know, the two centers out there, you could say Chet's a power forward. Um, but they just haven't had much data or, with it. But, you know, I like

what Aaron Wiggins has become. Obviously, Caruso's look, I thought Caruso look good last night. You know, they're deeper. Again, I'm not among those that are doubting or believing, hey, they're going to get upset in the second round or whatever. But I do understand that that theory is out there. And again, I just think it's a lot of people that think they can defend that team when it comes down to it in a playoff setting. Would you pick them to win the West right now? Yes. Yes, I would confidently too.

I don't know where you add on. I mean, I would have no issues saying, I think they're pretty, pretty big favorites. Yeah. I think that defense is serious. It's just, there's certain nights that I watch those guys defensively and there's no, there's no like issue. There's nothing with that roster with the player personalities where I go, Oh, what if this guy like, you know, has, and I would just think that

Jaylen Williams is second times through a playoff that he's just going to be a better player because it happens all the time. It happened with SGA, which I point out all the time in that Houston OKC series when Chris Paul was still on the, well, when he came back to the Thunder and they took it to seven, like SGA didn't look super comfortable and now the guy might win MVP. Speaking of, you have an MVP vote, I have an MVP. Well, we believe we'll have one for this year so we don't want to we don't jinx it yeah where are you on this because it is a two-man race yeah I mean I've I've had Shay above the Yoko for you know basically a few months now and I would still have that yes the Yoko is just definitely close the gap but I you know I know like the

nuggets getting closer in the standings is relevant for sure. They probably gonna end the season as the three, maybe the two seed, but it's like we can't, we need to talk about how big a gap between one and two. It's going to be how big a gap between one and three, whatever. I don't know. You might have it up right now, but it's at least eight, nine games. Eight and a half. Yeah.

They're eight games better than nuggets. We can't just look at the seating here when we talk about, you know, I guess, you know, team success. I do think the team success matters. People if Shay does win it, anybody that's arguing for Jokic is going to make the voter fatigue case, which is probably true. You know, I mean, I guess from the human element, like, you know, you want to reward the thunder and Shay for, for, you know, what, what they've done.

But if you're just cold hard looking at the stats, you know, Jokic might have, you know, a slightly better case just because of counting numbers. The on-offs I know are very similar. Um, I, you know, I don't know exactly what they're at. Maybe you have those up, but, uh, you know, Shay, I think this really matters within this conversation. Like he, Yolkich is a fine defender. I'm not even disparaging him on that end, but Shay is like a very rare high usage guard. Who's like a sturdy defensive piece of this best defense in the league.

And I don't think that should get lost within this. Like he's, he's a really good defender that doesn't get picked on and is not a weakness out there, which is very rare for, you know, his player type. Yeah. Um, the last time I saw like the, the net rating stuff, they were like, right there with you. So I don't want to mislead the audience here because I haven't looked it up and I don't have my cleaning the glass account open on this desktop as I do on my laptop in another room. So I can't log into it really quickly here. I'm surprised a little bit. I mean,

look, we all have our different criteria with it. But I think the the game standings. I'm surprised a little bit. I mean, look, we all have our different criteria with it, but I think the game standings. I don't know that I would put as much into that. It'd be one thing if Denver was a playing team, maybe, but if you're the two seed, I mean, granted, I can probably make the, hey, Jamal, and then Gordon misses that time. And we already went into the team knowing that the roster wasn't all that good. Although some of the on-off stuff with Jokic was so weighted, one because he's the best player, but also because of how bad the depth is, like it looks even more egregious with the on-off stuff for him. So it's a really good statistical argument in his favor, but one that you can kind of look to and go, well, it's even worse because of who they were putting out there and those non Yokochimans all the time that start of fourth where you're like, is the lead

eight, when can you bring them back in? And all the times where it felt like they would lose that in the past. Um, yeah, I guess I hadn't really thought of it as like a games behind thing because I just feel like Oklahoma City's the better basketball team. For sure. I just, I think sometimes people just talk seeding more than like, if there's that big a gap. No, it's a good point.

Like if you're six out, but you're the sixth seed, isn't that actually better? Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know that I would put as much into that. I'm still on the Jokic side of the argument as of right now. I mean, look the Jokic side of the argument, as of right now.

I mean, look, if you were to ask me, who's a better player, I would probably say Jokic. So maybe I'm speaking out of both sides of my mouth, but I just, the season that Thunder are having, I don't know, I'm kind of a reward that type of voter, maybe, and just the seriousness with which they've taken the season. And I mentioned it, maybe I'm waiting it too much, but like the cog he is within this defense

that we're talking about, like I just don't think that part of it can be ignored. You hear quotes coming out of Oklahoma City about how important it is to them that their best player defends the way he defends and is willing at times to switch on the guys and like, you know, dig in and bend his knees. And like, obviously he's part of that turnover machine that they have there. Like, and I'm not trying to say Yocic is not, you know, a better defender than maybe even his reputation suggests. But I just think what Shea does on both ends matters, not

just, you know, his scoring numbers. Last thing is there anything. Is this Minnesota thing, man? Like, you know, it's funny because the defensive numbers, what, like a week or two into the season, it's like, man, you know, can you believe they're this bad defensively? If you go through it month by month, go last 15, like their defense is not an issue. They're fine. I do think people attack Rudy down in a way that I don't know that I've ever seen before. Um, I don't think it's the same amount of fear

that's there, but they still have all these perimeter dudes you could throw at us. So the defensive thing is not an issue. It's really been about the offense. You can even point to some of the offensive stuff last year. So now they are not healthy. And I don't know, do we feel better about them now

than we felt? It's just such an odd team to evaluate because I never want to rule them out because of Ant. But then you think, okay, but if everybody's back, is that the best version of them? Because I'd say it's coming off of last year's momentum. It's been underwhelming. I think Di Vincenzo is a swing player for them. And getting him back and like, you know, him being like that high volume, you know, good percentage three point shooter, like I think he adds a dimension that they're missing right now that can help them at every level of the playoffs. I just like his game and like how he fits there.

We were really talking about Randall, right? As far as like, you know, if everybody's healthy, you know, does this, is this the best, you know, fits about Randall? Yeah, right. I mean, even Jenzo fits into any situation, so that's fine. And anybody can use more and more shooting. And I'm not even like, so down on Rudy that I wouldn't want him in matchups, but it's, it's pretty clear that like, it's going to be matchup specific for them in the playoffs.

Like you could see Rudy getting limited in a way that you wouldn't see, um, certainly during last year's runners, some of the prime Rudy defensive years. Yeah, this is, I mean, it's probably one of the tougher coaching jobs the rest of the season and Chris Finch deciding on lineups, yeah, lineups down the stretch and even the, even the personalities that play here, right. You know, and like, you know, maybe telling Julius Randall, he's a, you know, 20 minute per night guy who's mostly second unit, um, and, and, you know, okay, benching go bear, although, you know, look, go bear. I took it on the French team, right?

I mean, which is probably might even mean more to them. I would imagine. So I think Rudy can probably understand it a little bit, but yeah, it's gonna. And in game three of a series that they, that they feel like they need to win. Like Chris, Vince is probably going to make a choice. It's going to take off a few people, but I think we all know in sports, like if you just win the game, then it's tougher for guys to complain. Always good stuff, man. Great catch up with you and we will talk to you probably

sometime around the playoffs. Alright, sounds good. Thanks for having me. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. State Farm helps you score an affordable price when you choose to bundle home and auto insurance with the personal price plan. You can choose the insurance coverage that fits your needs at a price you can afford. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and save with a personal price plan like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are

selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts, and savings, and eligibility vary by state. 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. The email address is lifeadviceRR at gmail.com. Got a little room here, room to explore the space. So a couple of follow ups. Saruti had something he wanted to bring

to the group's attention. Well, you called me this morning and I was getting out of, I had some blood work because you know, you get your annual physical and then afterwards you go get some blood work done a couple of days after. And I had kind of a bad experience I'm fine I'm having at the blood work test results back but I have like a golf ball size like well on the inside of my elbow and you know I've had some bad ones before where like I just don't think the person doing the blood like really gives a shit and this was like the all-timer and like I get in there and this guy's like,

kind of doesn't really want, they're kind of busy. He doesn't really want to deal with me. So he passes me on to this other woman who I think is also kind of busy. And she's just kind of like mumbling, not rude, but like clearly isn't like super pumped that I got passed on to her. She puts the arm thing on me, like the rubber band thing.

It's way too tight, way too tight. She starts slapping my vein. I thought I had pretty good veins, maybe not. Not gonna let jazz concert tonight, yeah. Yeah. And so time to stick the needle in. She sticks it, I'm not a doctor, not, you know, no news there. You just know it's a miss.

You just know it's a miss. She just sticks it in way too far. I knew it, and then she pulled it back out, and you know, the blood starts coming out, and that's always kind of a weird experience but it like kind of hurt and I was like that was kind of strange so I get home I take a shower I get out of the shower I just have this giant golf ball on the inside of my elbow and it freaking hurts man. I just there just seems to be way too much variance in like who's good at drawing blood or not like I've had some

good experience and this is by far the worst but is there no like baseline for this at all like does nobody take any pride in this and I'm gonna I'm sure there's gonna be people be like hey suck I've had some good experiences, this is by far the worst, but is there no baseline for this at all? Does nobody take any pride in this? And I'm sure there's gonna be people who'll be like, hey, suck it up, pussy, it's not that bad. I don't know, it was jarring to me. So here we are, my elbow legitimately hurts. Yeah, it never goes well.

I think two years ago, she couldn't find the vein, and to make it, we were like, all right, that's a wash, and I couldn't pee in the cup. I just couldn't do it. And I just like, I was like, I'm just the worst patient in America. Yeah, I don't know. I tried, I drank so much water. I went back like three times and they're eventually like,

all right, I guess you can just leave. And I was like, God, really, that really hurts. Orgon dialed up the camera. Uh-oh. Yeah, in the lead up to the marathon, I had pretty bad shin splints. So I go to the doctor and they're like, all right, we're gonna give you some cortisone shots.

So she's like, you're gonna get two shots, like one here, one here. She puts the first one on my leg, immediately pass out. Whoa, not a needle guy? Not a needle guy. Okay. Did you know that you were not a needle guy? Yeah, I know.

You have to let people know, because if they gotta catch you I Was laying down thing, but I wake up and there's like a bunch of people in the room and I was just like No idea what happened But good times. Hey, I'm a quick question for the marathon. Is that a PED? mmm Sure. Sure. Let's say it is Yeah, okay. It's a it is. Yeah. Okay.

It's a steroid, right? Kinda. Yeah. I don't know if you'd want to do that down at Disney. Just something to think about. Yeah. Next time do a clean. Yeah.

I too just had blood work done and I had the awesome experience where I was in New Orleans and I got a phone call that I missed because I miss all my phone calls and they were like, you need to call us back immediately. Second hand. Yeah. And I went, great. And then of course you call them back. It was like, hey, what's the deal? She's like, well, can't tell you right now. Great. Sick. Awesome. So this is going to be a fun week. And that's why I went to the World War II Museum,

because I was like, I might die soon. Put things into perspective. Yeah. So I spent, I think, two and a half days down there without knowing. And then the doctor called and was like, everything's fine. He's like, what did they say? I was like, they made me like, I was like, just tell me,

just tell me. She's like, I can't tell you. And he was like, I don't know why. He was like, I don't know why. Why can't you tell me? Yeah, right, right. He's like, I don't know why. It's the second time this has happened to me

where it was like, just tell me now. And she was like, I can't tell you. And then he gets on, he's like, no, everything's fine. It's like, I don't know why they left a voicemail like that. I was like, great. The other one's a much longer story. I don't know if I'll ever share, but it was awful. I got a call from the doctor at three 55 on a Friday before I'd finished the show at ESPN. So I missed the call.

I head to the gym a little Friday West Hartford routine. And I call back and it was like, you need to call us immediately. And it was, they were closed and they were closed until Monday morning. So just you alone with your thoughts for the weekend. Right, right. And everything worked out.

So there's a lesson in there. And then they say, if it's an emergency, please call 911. You're like, I'm not sure if this is an emergency. I have no idea. Yeah, yeah, just, I'm just, you know, for the doctors that listen to the show. Get a script or something for your people. Yeah, yeah.

Or don't call. The New Orleans one wasn't even close to as bad as the one years ago in Connecticut. Because I knew, I was like, great, I called immediately, I was in the car, I was leaving the ESPN. And, you know, it's like the office is closed until Monday, 9 AM. I'm like, just sweet.

Like, great. I called like three more times just hoping. So I just think there needs to be something at these med schools where you go, hey, when you call somebody about their results, if there's nothing wrong, leave that in the message. Leaves the head. Yeah. Well, that was, that was like when, you know, there's kind of nothing worse than

like a, an unknown medical possible concern and just you and your thoughts. Cause that was like me with the bat thing. I was like, I didn't think it was a big deal. And then like somebody. Are you good by the way? Yeah. I've got all four of my rabies shots and you know, right? That's right the rain the two years. Yeah, but like you know, I call good people

I call doctors more often. Yeah, I'm free to go and then whatever anybody's addict whatever you want me to do But you know nobody like looking no doctor No, see the CDC no one would just give me an answer of like should I get this shot or not? Like no one wants any of the I mean I get it You don't want any of the liability but it's like just can somebody just give me an answer of like should I get this shot or not? Like no one wants any of the I mean I get it You don't want any of the liability But it's like just can somebody just give me any sort of counsel other than like maybe you could have it probably not Like is there any gray area like give me a lean. Nope. Nobody wants any any liability. Okay, so I ended up getting four shots Good times. Well, you're good. I think it's just good. I think it's for the neighbor Morgan

Could you do four shots? No way. No way you could do four shot. He would just have rabies Yeah, there's no way I'd be asleep You guys put me out for these shots. I fainted after the first one. She gave me the second one good You're out. Oh, wow. Nice homie move Where was the shot was in the arm in my leg? No, it was in my leg. Oh, in the leg. Okay. Right. Yeah. Oh, damn. Like in the muscle. Yeah. No, we know this. We know this, even though there's some PD questions, we'll never be able to confirm that he's a steroid user. Unless it's oral.

Does it count if he was unconscious when he got the steroids? I don't think it does. Right. Against my will. Maybe that'd be great in front of Congress. Do that. The Rafael Palmeiro finger whack at Disney. I passed out. I'm not here to talk about the shots. He didn't knowingly take it, you know? Can we just, I've been thinking about this, by the way,

like how unfair the PED outrage was towards baseball. Like the second somebody hit too many home runs, and granted they were doing it, but that league takes a beating. And then if anybody in any other sport is like outperforming and nobody even knows like, how are you gonna judge a guard who's outperforming in the NFL? That guy's had way more pancakes this year.

What's wrong? Nobody even thinks about it in any of the other sports. And now I think we're so just desensitized to all of it. And I think moving forward, there'll be just kind of these stigmas that are gone, because you'll say, this might actually be good for you as you age out or whatever. But I just, I just think there's things that happen in other sports that no one ever says anything about. And yet we just dumped thousands and thousands of hours talking about it, baseball for like a two decade stretch.

And then we all just kind of stopped anyway. And we just abandoned baseball nationally. It was like, all right, we're good. and then we all just kind of stopped anyway. And we just abandoned baseball nationally. It was like, all right, we're good. We just left it bloody in a parking lot. It's like nobody moved our body yet. Our job is done here. A lot of strikeouts, very few balls in play,

home runs are down, thank you. That's like some people like, my job is done here, but what have you done? All right, that's good. That's good. All right. Let's read a couple of emails here. We're obviously milking this a little bit just because we know we have the time. Although Kyle, do you have an out today? Oh, no, I'm good. I'm good after you're done. So I'm good. The out is the out. Yeah. What feeling is what you're saying ceiling is the roof. What you're saying. Ceiling is the roof. Is that that game?

Yeah, it's the one. Yeah, we're there. Breaking up every time we talk about this. Look, so we got another Josh Allen checking in. 29 years old, 5'8", 145, basketball comp, TJ McConnell with only about 20% of his hustle, maybe 10% of his athleticism in Arizona. As an Arizona grad, I have to shout out my NBA Wildcats.

Bear down. Look, love TJ McConnell. I'm currently listening to the Friday pod, the life advice segment. Had to do a double take when I heard you start to read the Josh Allen email about being named Josh Allen. I've been thinking about emailing you guys the exact same email.

For a split second, I thought I actually wrote that and somehow forgot I sent it in. I figured another Josh Allen brethren shared my hour experience, but it was quite hilarious to hear it from another Rosilio pod listener. I'll share my experience and I'll try to keep it brief. I echo all caps, everything emailer Josh Allen stated. My experience has been quite exactly the same, which I guess isn't too much of a surprise. I constantly get nice game you played Sunday or you won me my fantasy week man during the season. I received five texts from random family and friends

during the AOC championship game, all saying some version of rooting for you against Mahomes. That's kind of funny. These are all positive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Your name is not to Sean Watson or, uh, or somebody who's not good. Yeah.

I was going to, this might be too far, but remember, I shouldn't even say this. I marked this. Nevermind. Come on, we have time. Remember, remember the, uh, it had to feel like enough time has passed. Remember the Jerry Sandusky thing? Yeah. And there was another Jerry Sandusky thing? Yeah. And there was another Jerry Sandusky who was like an in the media in sports media.

It's like, man, one of all times they have the Jerry Sandusky name. It's like, that's a, that's so it could be way worse, dude. That was a tough one for that guy. Strangers I'm introduced with always go with, Oh, like the quarterback or shouldn't you be in Buffalo when I was in Maui? I like that one. You like that one? That's going to use or shouldn't you be in Buffalo? When I was in Maui. I like that one. Yeah, you like that one?

I was gonna use it in meets one. Like I wish I could just meet a Josh Allen one day and use that line. When I was in Maui with my wife on our honeymoon, the hostess of the restaurant hit me with an ah. I thought the reservation was for the Josh Allen. Honestly, it doesn't bother me that much, but it does blow my mind that everyone seems to think

they're the first person who has made the joke to me as if I haven't heard it a hundred times before. Okay, see, this is where I would agree with you. And this kind of gets to whenever I see just the same video on X that was posted like four days before and then somebody else and like some of these accounts would just feel like unless they've shared the thing that everybody's already seen and they've really offered nothing to society and they have all sorts of followers. So I guess it's monetized somehow. Um, so I don't resent the monetization. I, I resent, you know, I don't even resent the joke that

necessarily is, I'm not offended by the joke. I'm offended by that. You think you're actually contributing something here. And I think of anything, it just shows that a lot of people like to just be a part of the conversation. You know, the, if you say something positive about a woman and I've done it, you know, a few times, um, yeah, right. No, but like if it was a coworker, right. A coworker who's female or a woman.

Yeah, right. No, but like if it was a coworker, right? A coworker who's female or a woman. And the guy that goes, I hope she sees this dude. She's not gonna fuck you. You know, and you're like, you saw that 700 other times and you thought it was funny. Cause you're like, oh, you know what some people do is they tweet this when a man says this about a woman.

And I'll be like, oh, oh, reading this gave me a stroke. Oh, you know, so it's like the same stuff. Like the first time I saw reading this gave me a stroke, I laughed, I chuckled. I was like, that's pretty funny. And then it's not that anybody's coming up with it. They're just like, man, I'm just part of this whole thing. And that's generally like what I've learned

about a lot of people is that they just kind of want to be a part of something. So this is what you're a victim of, both you and Josh Allen, the other guy that emailed. You're just victim of people that probably aren't that creative and want to feel like they're having their little moment and they always ignore the fact that this moment has happened to you

so many different times. So, you know, there you go. I've yet to come up with a good response besides something lame like, I'm the original Josh Allen muttered in a slightly disparaging tone. I've also given the blank stare. Yeah, the yeah, you're right, Kyle. I don't think it does hit the condescending. Haha. Yeah, I'm glad to hear at least one other Josh Allen shares this conundrum. I can only wonder how many more are out there. There could be a series. It'd be a Netflix thing. They just get in a room.

Now look at each other. And one guy goes, I thought you were supposed to be in Buffalo. One last funny story. I have the user name. Um, that is basically Josh Allen on a popular social media payments app. I frequently get friend requests from Bill's fans for requests for hundreds to thousands of dollars from losing sports gamblers. I'll attach a few.

Um, I started you in the playoffs and you let me down. This guy requests a hundred bucks. Um, John requests $6,000. Save a fan's ass. Congrats on your contract. So happy to have you with us. Let's go Buffalo. What a super fan that guy was.

Hey, can I get six grand? Good season. Yeah, I don't think. Probably never gets anything when Josh Allen makes some plays and wins parlay. No one ever sends money, right? They always come looking for it. That's just society though. There's nothing he could do about that. I told you about the friend who the guy picked out as Chevy Silverado.

Just sent him the link on an Instagram DM asking if he could buy it for him. It was like totally serious. He just mapped it all out. It was like, I know life has been good to you and I know you'd like to. Like bullet points as to why. Would anyone actually ever do that? Like if you just DM Vince Vaughn, you're like, I've got it all picked out. It's a Jeep Cherokee, you know, good gas mileage.

It's down the street, South Bay Jeep. Well, loved you in old school. Yeah. I don't know, maybe somebody famous would do it to then say they did it to show that everybody did it. That is true. Look at how good I am. I was thinking for the Josh Allen guy,

what if he was just like, my dad's name's Woody, so it's not that bad or something. you could, you could do something else. Like there's a joke that's not, that's not bad. Kyle, right. I just came up with that, like Woody, cause that you don't want to be Woody Allen, right? So maybe, uh, maybe that works. But then you're also like, my dad's, my dad's Tim, you know, I don't know. Uh, there, there might be something there.

Just a new, a new way. Just explore new stuff. Did you like Home Improvement as a kid, Kyle? Yes. A lot. Did. Did like it a lot. Tim Allen. Great voice. And then I learned later about his early troubles. That's pretty cool. Yeah, a few bumps in the road.

Did you know that there was a Home Improvement video game? I just learned that because I follow a bunch of nostalgia accounts. I think it was NES or something. I thought it was Sega or yeah, Sega Genesis maybe. Which all those Sega Genesis games back in the day were the exact same game just with different things. You know, like they were that you all just kind of go in a zigzag upward motion. You throw stuff and you jump over stuff, but it was like there was a home improvement video game. They were just licensing anything back then. Yeah. and you throw stuff and you jump over stuff. But it was like there was a whole improvement video game.

Pretty sick. They were just licensing anything back then. Yeah. Yeah, I remember OutRun, my little brother, was like the car just stays in the middle the whole time. And the screen moves or something. Yeah, and he destroyed the game for me. I was like, he's right.

Damn it. The way little kids can just see stuff in a way that's not contaminated. And then he's like, no, the car's just staying there. I'm thinking, oh, no way, he's right. Yeah, there was like something in the Toys R Us. There was actually, there was a pretty big commercial run, probably when I was like maybe eight or nine.

And I was like, all I want for Christmas is this robot. It's called Emilio. And it was like pricey. Like everything that was electronics and a little bit cool back then was so expensive compared to like what it is now. And my dad was just like, come on man, you don't want that. And I was like, dad, the commercial says

he'll do the laundry for us. And like, there's all this, you know, it's like, it was a remote control thing, but it was, I don't know, like the size of it. Did you really think the robot was gonna do your laundry? Dude, I hate to say it, but yeah, I did. Yeah, I did.

And to this day, we got it, and I was just like, halfway through Christmas day, I was like, this thing's a piece of shit. And he was like, I told you, I told you. And he still jokes about it to this day. I never, never get over it. He's like, oh, is he gonna do your laundry for you? Like when I got my Mustang or whatever,

it's like, he'll find a way to like, you know, just like dig. So yeah, Emilio, that was my- The home improvement video game, that must have been the worst present ever. That would be the uncle, like a great uncle. Who likes Tim Allen. Yeah.

It's like, hell yeah. I don't even know if he likes Tim Allen, but he'd be like, you know, they still had those in stock and you're sitting there and you're like, what's the concept of the game, Sarutti? It looks like- So I am, I don't know what the overall, like what the goal is,

but there are apparently dinosaurs that shoot lasers. So I don't know- Whoa, I don't remember that episode. I know what that is, it's like home improvement, but yeah, I'm on a Reddit thread about that. So I can't find like a game score. I don't know if they did that back then. It was Super Nintendo, by the way, not Sega. I had Sega, I was one of those kids that, I don't know. What's it called? I don't really know a game score. I don't know if they did that back then. It was Super Nintendo, by the way, not Sega.

I had Sega. I was one of those kids that, I don't know. I can't totally know what they were doing. Sega? Yeah, okay. Did I say it wrong? No, I got it. Let's see here.

You wanna do some normal ones? Let's do it. Yeah. 20 minutes in, why not? Take a flyer at a normal one. Please advise, rude or boss bitch. All right. Hello, I'm representing the portion of your audience

known as the wives who listen to the car with their husbands. No gym stats. Just had a baby though, so congrats to me on the sex. Nice. All right. She sounds cool. In conversation with my husband tonight, he just informed me that ending an email with

please advise is considered rude, passive aggressive or too direct. Is this true? I went back through my sent emails and would say, I use the phrase daily. I often pair it with direct questions and get the answers I need, but now I'm second guessing that I need to ease up a bit.

For context, I'm an interior designer who frequently works with construction trades and male dominated fields, so do I really care if they think I'm rude? Not really frequently works with construction trades and male-dominated fields. So do I really care if they think I'm rude? Not really, but I was shocked when my husband told me this revelation. Let me know what the crew think. As an aside, I actually love listening to your travel pods. I find your ongoing search for the perfect American steak in European countries hysterical.

I think it's more about the salad dressing rants personally. I haven't caught the Henry the seventh, what do we got? Henry the eighth pod yet. Well, we haven't done that. We did Henry the fifth, but she likes to listen to history pods. Please advise.

She says, here's the question I would ask. The questions you're asking in the email. I know personally, I don't think it's like that rude, but do you feel like if you don't say please advise they're just going to ignore your questions? Right. Possibly. It's worth exploring new words. I think I've said it a couple times usually only when I'm dealing with ad people like I'm not I'm not emailing Saruti and then be like please advise. Do you think I could have off next

Sunday? I'd like it. That's not it. Please advise. That's not it. That's not it. But I've done it with like some ad people. And honestly, you know what? You're maybe right because I've done it when I'm like pissed off at some ad people.

It's not real. Like it's like, all right. Whoa. We're going back and forth over this thing that probably shouldn't have been a really conversation in the first place. And it's like the fourth response. And I'll be like, please advise maybe.

But yeah, I think, I don't know. It's better than what do you guys think? yeah, I think I don't know there's there It's better than what do you guys think? So, I mean, I don't know what though. I don't know what it is But I think yeah, you could try thoughts sure Yeah, I think you could try something else. Just see if you like it It sounds like you just you know, you're going through the motions and it feels right But you know, maybe you just got to fix your jump shot There are way more aggressive and douchey, I feel like email phrases. I mean, please advise.

It does feel a little bit redundant, obviously, because if you're sending an email in the first place, you're looking likely for something or a solution to something or a question. But to your point, Ryan, I do think there are people who you can send an email to and you don't get the answers that you want. So if you want a specific answer on something,

you say, please advise. I think it's just all about the tone, the relationship with you want. So if you want a specific answer on something, you say, please advise. I think it's just all about the tone, the relationship with the person. You know, like if you do the whole like per my last email, like that's a dick, that comes off as dickish, right? But I don't think please advise is in that group. All right, I got some alternatives here. Thank you.

These aren't good. These aren't good at all. Read them off. May I get your advice on the matter? This is just Google's like Gemini throwing stuff at me. I would appreciate your guidance on. I don't hate that, but I don't like it better than please advise.

I'm waiting for you to respond. Jesus, that's worse. I don't know. I don't, please let me know your thoughts about. I don't know. Could you provide guidance maybe? I don't know. I still think please advise is probably one A or one B

on the list that I've seen here. I've never liked, yeah, I've never liked please advise more.'ve never liked Please Advise more. I mean, you read all of those. I get her point though. It's, she wants it to be a little direct, right? You know, if there's some of these other ones who are like, let me know what you're thinking.

Well, you know, let me know what you're thinking. I'm asking you like for specifics here. When are the materials gonna be ready? Like when could you have this install done? Like, are you going to be good to go on to this stuff? So she doesn't want to be like open ended. She doesn't want to be too passive with it, but I still think there's probably something a little bit better than please advise. If anything, when I read this email, I started realizing like, I don't know that

anybody ever sends me rude emails. Um, so Rudy, did you have a rude email experience at ESPN? I'm sure I don't really remember specifically, but I'm have a rude email experience at ESPN? I'm sure, I don't really remember specifically, but I'm not a big email guy to begin with. I just don't really like it. I'd rather use Slack. Slack's the new way. Yeah, because it's more direct

and it's like texting kind of in a way and it's a little bit, I don't know, maybe there are like less boundaries because it's basically just like a version of texting on your phone. It's like instant messenger back in the day before work. Totally. I like it. So when you send me an email, I'm actually probably less likely to respond to it than

if you just Slack me. So to my coworkers, I guess if anybody's listening, that's probably the best way to get a hold of me. Also, my Slack doesn't say I have 15,000 unread emails. So it's usually like one or two Slacks that I have to check out. So I just, I can't tell you how many times I screw up an email account. So many times I've got now four Like just through my whole breadth of Emailing I've got my original like Yahoo from back in the day. I've got a gmail. I've got my spot I know they all I did have a hotmail as a backup for something

I don't know if I can even get into that coupons also ahead of the Another gmail that I don't want to say the name of but every single one of them No matter what I try it's gonna be different. I look up a couple years have passed and it's like 15,000 already emails I don't know how the fuck it happened couple years have passed. Why do you even check them anymore? No, I'm not saying I'm just saying like, you know to a couple years I'm using the email for things using it But then I just wake up one day and I just see I see I notice it It's like goddamn it. I let 15,000 emails slip by me again.

See, I have to, I think I don't, I don't check the promotional, but like when they sneak those little things, when you're like in order to sign up or to pass it, you have to uncheck the box that says, I don't want promotional stuff. Sometimes that one gets past me and you know, you think about it. I don't know how enterprises probably set me like, you know, I rented a car once. I probably have 500 emails from them from two years ago. So yeah, I usually probably want to be on America. Not me. It's people walking around some enterprise.

Keep firing it though. See if they remember that guy. See, I'm the opposite though, Kyle. Like I read, I have to mark all mine red, unless it's something I'm going to go back to. So if I have like 11 emails, it's 11 things that I need to like go back and make sure I handle and then I do once a week I'll do it on subscribe sweep of things that get into my I feel like that doesn't work

I've unsubscribed from the same thing at least three times There is one company that that really has been pissing me off and I thought about hitting them up and I won't mention them but they Like I don't describe all the time and it's like cool. Do you just not listen to me? That's fun. People use life advice to subscribe to stuff. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. We should even get your emails read guys, just so you know, if you're doing that,

I guess you're probably going to try to answer a couple of these. All right. Uh, huge potential move with a baby on the way. Do we read this one already? I don't think so. Comp is wizards. Paul Pierce to, uh, two 76, two, twoch, 455 Squat, 405 Deadlift. It's a game though.

Yeah, I love that. Love that game. All right, I try to keep it short. My wife and I live in a small college town outside of metropolitan area that boasts a Kermit voice prodigy that could become the goat. What? I've lived here my entire, it's talking about my homes.

Lived here my entire life. My parents live here, graduated from the university here, and my wife and I now work at the university. We do what I would call really meaningful work and have done so together for the last three years. We've also been married the same amount of time. My wife moved here to be with me a semester

before I graduated from college. She's originally from the upper Midwest. A few weeks ago, I returned from a business trip to my surprise, an announcement from my wife. She's pregnant. I've been trying for the last four months and I couldn't be happier. Congrats to you guys. This past summer, we were approached with a job offer to do the same kind of work, but on a greater scale in what Anthony Bourdain called one of the two greatest cities in all of America. By the way, I read Kitchen Confidential over my time.

I had never read it. It's good. Incredible. Yeah, incredible. He's a really great writer. He just, a very theatrical way of describing stuff. And it's not shocking the book did so well and that he was so great. As a television host, no longer with us.

On the surface, this move is a no-brainer. We'd leave my family but be very close to my wife's family. The position itself comes with a ton of upward mobility on top of it all. I love the city. We went for an interview a couple of weeks ago and ever since have gotten great feedback, whether from the people who interviewed us

or from mutual connections. The job hasn't been offered to us, but there's still a couple more potential candidates, but all signs point to this being a real opportunity. Despite all the positives, there's still some obvious things for us to consider. We recognize this will be a huge move. Not only will we be learning to adjust to the work-life transition that a newborn represents, but it also being a new environment that neither of us have ever been in before. We'd also be leaving behind a situation that for all intents and purposes we love. We love the work we've done. We love the people here.

We've been really successful. Moving would mean that we were practically hitting the reset button on everything we've built up to this point. Whatever happens, we'll be perfectly content. But at this stage in my life, I feel like if there's any time to make a move, it is now before we have kids, before we lay down solid roots, et cetera. I'm an ambitious guy and I love the idea of doing impactful and meaningful work, but what is more important to me is that it's the best decision for my family,

both in the short and long term. With me being a consistent, longtime listener, and by proxy, my wife, I figured I'd write to fellows and see what they think. I appreciate you guys taking the time to read this. Look, I mean, my approach to this is always pretty standard. You love where you're at. You've got this awesome, you know, dynamic, um, you can always go back to it. It'll likely always be there for you.

And even though you're about to start a family, the newborn part of it, you're not as worried about schools. Yes, you're not going to have the same amount of help, but if you'll allow me without sharing it, um, on the email, I think I have an idea of what field you work in. I would imagine this field provides you a great sense of community. I'd imagine that your acceptance into what field you're in provides just a lot of support.

So you might have more support despite feeling like you're feeling like you're you're a stranger in a new area Then just you know, some of these other dudes emailing us in being like, hey, I'm in suburban Atlanta and I'm by myself playing video games I'm 28 and no girls like me. So Look I Am big on this. I'm and I'm just so big because you like the area I mean the other times it's hey the career part is this but I don't want to leave home or I'd rather live here. It seems like you are up for the adventure. It seems like it also potentially raises what your ceiling is, which I think is always baked

into this internal debate that you'll have with yourself when you're facing these kinds of opportunities. And look, like, I mean, not to go too zen on you, but life is about these experiences. Life is about having these experiences, like put the rest of it kind of in a better perspective. You know, and I always would tell my younger siblings whenever, you know, they love Martha's Vineyard, they're kind of in tune with the whole deal with the place. But I was always very big on like, you need to leave so that you'll come back and

appreciate this more, or you'll know that you're not missing anything. Or you'll leave and go, I'm really glad I don't live there, you know? So I'm big on telling you to go for it because of the simple part of what the first line of the answer is that, you know, the whole cliche of you can always go home. I think in this case, you can certainly always go home.

Yeah, I'm a guy that wants to go back. It's not as easy right now, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. Like I want to go back and still have things remain pretty good for me, you know. I came out here as a guy with nothing to lose and now I kind of got shit to lose. So, you know, it's got to be like a structured retreat, so to speak. So it's like- I love, I love, I get shit to lose Kyle, by the way. Thanks. But I totally agree with you. Like, you know, if you never leave and you never know, it's like, that's gross.

It seems like everyone's kind of on the same page except for like, this is good too. That also seems good. And it sounds like you can come back and maybe be, your wife can maybe be what would be her boss now or whatever. Like it sounds like you can come back and maybe be your wife can maybe be what would be her boss now or whatever. Like it sounds like when he's saying the upper mobility and like that is good for your family. And I don't know, early early children, I think, you know, if you really don't like it, you have time to get back before you know, you're not like pulling your kid out of high

school or something, you know, you have time to figure out whether this is the right move or not. And I don't know, I agree, I'd say move. It's cool that you have a place figure out whether this is the right move or not. And, um, I don't know. I, I, I agree. I'd say move. Um, it's cool that you have a place that you really love and that, you know, you see yourself coming back to one day. So, and it flies by, like just inside, I've been in LA now seven years. That's seven years. So basically like my forties will, except for the first couple, like, will

buy primarily living in Los Angeles. And some days it feels like I just moved here. And the point is, it's like, you're gonna, if you move, you know, it's gonna feel huge. It's gonna feel, you know, those first few months when you're driving around being like, oh, I really live here. Like I actually live here.

Got a new pizza spot, pizza spot. This is crazy. And then it just becomes normal. And then the years are just going to start flying by. And, you know, for me, I could never imagine living anywhere else. Maybe I'll move again. I don't know, but I'm, I'm happy I did it, but I'm not trying to like compare the same thing. I guess I'm just talking strictly in a timeline thing. Like I can't believe how fast this time has gone by since I moved from Connecticut. And my guess is if you're moving to a place that you like, it's going to go by so fast that next thing you know, your kid's going to be five.

You might have another kid, and you're going to go, all right, maybe now we have to start making some of those other decisions, but I don't really see the downside to this experience. Yeah, could be interesting to know if your parents are letting you know this breaks their heart every day, like one of my parents is doing to me. Yeah, that's a tough one.

That's a tough one, if everyone's just like, wait, you're taking my grandchild away before, you know, whatever, and I don't even have that. It's just like, you know, I get told I missed a lot and it's like, I'm doing something to this person by not being there. And that's just whatever, she loves me and whatever. But Kyle, you know what you do?

Just go, I don't want your lot. What is that from? Why do I know that? It's the beak, dude. Just made it up. Yeah, you wrote that. It's really? What is that from? Why do I know that? Oh, it's the beak, dude. Just made it up. Yeah. You wrote that. Yeah.

That's really, I would, uh, I would echo Kyle's thing about the kids. Like you, you can move kids when they're young. I don't exactly. Kids love to move in there. It could be a game when they're young, right? Yes. You actually have way more time, I think, than you think to live there, figure out if you like it, and then if you don't just move move back and like it's kind of no harm, no foul. I mean, I always like there's kind of in my head, there's like two sort of easy ways to

move. One is, you know, Kyle's example, when you just have nothing to lose, and it's like, might as well just see what this is about. And then if it doesn't work, you just kind of come back. And the other one is it just financially makes sense, and you're not going to have to worry about money. And like, it's just gonna be easy for you. And again, you could probably just move back if it doesn't work out anyway,

because you're in a decent financial position. So sounds like both of those are maybe checked off the list. So I think you gotta try it. And, you know, I, you know, as someone who, I have lived in Connecticut most of my life, I did live in DC for a period of time. I love DC. I would have absolutely loved to live there,

but it just didn't kind of work out career wise. And then I- I always forget about DC, Sarutti. Yeah, listen, I went to like 50 Nats games in one season when they were like five bucks a ticket. I was sitting in nosebleeds. I think there was a weekend series against the Marlins that I'll never forget where they were leading

in the ninth inning of every single game and lost all of them. So- Look at their attendance now. Sarutie was like, my work is done. Yeah, we're back. I basically started being a, being a Nats fan. So what's up? But yeah, so I, I just, it just didn't work out for me career wise. I would have loved to have lived there. I mean, so I don't know. Like, I think I wouldn't worry about the kid thing initially, unless, unless you're just afraid like you're going to have no help. But again,

if you have, if, if this is a good financial situation for you guys, then that's obviously gonna help you with the childcare stuff and long-terms, and maybe just kinda, hey, you have to bite the bullet for now, but I'm kind of always figuring stuff out if you can, and then you could always come back. It's not the end of the world. Would you consider moving back to DC now that the swamp is drained?

I'm just kidding. Oh! Oh! Not if you had to fill out an email saying what he did this week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. What do you do here? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So really the lobbyists like, I don't know, dude. I'll leave that alone. Uh, that was perfect. All right. Oh, that was perfect. All right. Uh, last one here. Sydney Sweeney is hurting my marriage.

Hey, is that true? That engagement got delayed. People were saying big news for people on Instagram. Sad, sad day, sad day indeed. Wait, you said what? What did you say? It's just that the engagement had been delayed. You know, the thing that sucks for celebrities

is that it could have been like a venue issue. Maybe there was a flood at the venue and they were like, oh, the engagement. And basically everybody's going like this dude's expiration date, you know? Oh, because he's older,, right? You know, right? Cause he's, cause he's older, you know, that sucks. Us older guys, we resent that kind of stuff.

I can hear it in his voice. He's like, that sucks. That's what I'm doing. I'm not even talking about him specifically. I'm just saying like, you know, it's, you can pissed at him cause he has game. I'm kind of embarrassed to know this, but I think it's that they had been engaged for three years

and then the wedding has now been pushed back is what I, what I think I read, which I think it's that they had been engaged for three years and then the wedding has now been pushed back is what I think I read, which, you know, three years plus a pushback, that doesn't seem promising, but I don't know, celebrities are weird. Maybe it's totally normal. I'd be down, I'd be like, hey, can we push this back six months? No problem.

Speaking of marriage, did you see Lana Del Rey got married to some like regular dude. Yeah, that was a while ago, dude. No, I know. I'm just saying like, it's just hope for the guys out there. You know, you never know. Shoot your shot. I love the regular dude husbands.

I don't know what I'm trying to find. What he does should have one of those guys on. Yeah, totally. Totally hit up Lana Del Ray's reps and be like, Hey, can we have her husband on? Not her. Not her. Yeah. We just ask him.

We don't care about her. There was a kid we went to high school with that we were like, here's dating the girl, I don't know if it was Gossip Girl or something, but he was dating like a legitimate star and somebody was like, how did they meet? He's like, he was working at a shoe store. Holy shit. He's an alligator tour guide. Yeah.

That's what it was. That's fucking awesome. Maybe he isn't a record dude. Yeah, it sounds like an awesome dude. Yeah. I wonder what's your licensing for that? Imagine you're just trying to follow in his footsteps. You move down to someplace, become an alligator tour guide.

And he's like, all right. When did the starlets show up? All right. So our guys, five foot seven and three quarters. Love it. 165, 185 times eight reps on the bench. I was indulging in some recreational marijuana, watching the first season of white Lotus with my amazing wife. The beautiful Sydney Sweeney was turning heads

poolside at a bikini. The tropical locale and stunning temperature overwhelmed my lizard brain and I blurted it out, I would take a bullet for you Sydney. Bro. Bro. This led to a big fight with my wife and needless to say we're not finishing,

not finishing White Lotus season one. Obviously I'm a moron, but what do I do to remedy the situation? Well, one. Is that true? Is this a true story? I can't imagine anybody would let that out, but. Let's just pretend it is. Kyle, you talk about,

when you're watching movies and TV, do you talk about how hot somebody is in front of your wife? Cause like I do, and my wife does too, and I don't really share. She will do it, I've done it maybe twice, and years have passed in between. She will do it, talk about how pretty a girl is, whatever. And I think I said it once pretty tamed,

just being like, Ed, and then there's just conventionally beautiful women, and it doesn't make sense when they're over something. And then I could see it's like, oh, still can't do this. So I'm never itching to bring it out. But if she'll say something nice about a woman on TV, how beautiful, whatever, maybe, maybe, I've done it like, I could really count like two times.

And each time it was like, yep, still isn't something I'm gonna do. So simple as that. See, it's kind of the opposite. Cause I feel like me and my wife, we like know who each other's people are. I know those people are out there. I was like, maybe I'm married to one of those people.

She'll be like, oh, that's your girl. I'm not. But she'll be like was like maybe that's your girl I'm not but she'll be like oh that's your girl Mike here right it is my girl but I don't know that I would blur it out while watching my load of something that absurd so that's why I'm like is this actually real I don't know if you if you did that's like I wouldn't do that that is kind of rude right like beat me with a baseball bat yeah like I would drink your bath water it's like what's going on right now? Like, well, too far. A little salt burn for you. Yeah. I mean, that's really specific, man.

I mean, you really, you didn't just say, oh, wow, you know, she's something else. You went overboard with it. I don't know why you said it that way either. So I can understand that she's going to be upset, but she's your wife. So there's probably something you liked about her. So she probably, you know, you're going to laugh about this at some point. I just don't know why. So Rudy or no, Kyle, you're still two years out, not laughing.

You do, you do see, you do see like the dynamic that some people were going to listen to this and go, she can compliment other women. You can't compliment other women. Like she's sitting there watching, um, she can compliment other women, you can't compliment other women. Like is she sitting there watching Chris Pine and being like, you can smash me in the head with a baseball bat. Never a dude, it's never a dude in our house.

It's always been she complimented a woman. Okay. That might be the problem. So you can compliment dudes is how I understand this. I could. Yeah, I usually save it for life advice. Every time Idris comes up, you should be like, that fucking. Yeah, I usually save it for life advice. You could, every time Idris comes up, you should be like that fucking damn.

I usually save it for life advice, yeah. Save some for the rest of us, buddy. You should have been James Bond. Yeah, I don't know. New James Bond, we might be getting one, right? Now that there's, I guess we've been here for a while, but now that they turned over the rights to choose the next James Bond strictly to Amazon we might

get one pretty soon who's not here we're saying it's gonna be Carissa Thompson people are saying that that's what I heard Wow all right thanks to Kyle thanks to Oregon thanks to Saruti the Ryan Russo podcast on video for me as well. Please subscribe. Ringer Spotify.