The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Surprising NBA Numbers, Plus a Super Bowl Team Confidence Draft With Sheil Kapadia

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

Ryen opens the show with how the Clippers looked with newly acquired James Harden and what their fatal flaw was in their debut against the Knicks Monday night (00:59). Ceruti then chimes in and gives some numbers that have stood out so far in the NBA season (10:46). Ryen revisits NFL player trade value with Sheil Kapadia, and they do a Super Bowl team confidence draft (39:03). Plus, Life Advice! One guy lost his expensive sunglasses from a pretty girl and needs them back (01:14:52). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Sheil Kapadia Producers: Cliff Augustin, Steve Ceruti, and Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We talked a ton of NBA today, all sorts of theories, but I'm going to open with Harden's new look on the Clippers. Shiel Kapadia has his trade value column out for the NFL. Some updates there, including CJ Stroud. We'll do a confidence draft for the NFL. Life advice and recap on a trip down to Alabama. And a reminder, we're one week away from our live show at Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club next Wednesday, November 15th, before the big F1 race on the Strip.

Me, Kyle Cerruti, and our guy Todd McShay will be there as well. Doors open at 8. The show starts at 9. Head to JimmyKimmelsComedyClclub.com to grab your tickets now. Again, Wednesday, November 15th in Vegas, jimmykimmelscomedyclub.com for tickets. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no.

But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. product availability may vary by region see app for details no nba last night uh but we're still giving you hump day hoops really loves that title i don't

but i guess i'm gonna keep using it so i'm gonna bring sruti in here in a bit just run through some of the stuff the first few weeks in the season i just kind of love doing this stuff and then getting caught back up on everything after football all weekend. So I was able to get a lot of stuff done. So I went back and watched Clippers, Knicks, Harden's first game with them. Clippers are three and three. They lost this one. There's some real specific things that I was looking for because I find this fascinating, an experiment, if you will. I don't know if that's the right way to categorize it but first play center tip harden gets right in his guy's jersey new guy syndrome on 11. i saw it with anton walker when he came back to the Celtics, you know, the criticisms of Antoine and then he's

gone. Then he came back for like that last push for part of that season and how quickly he was like getting the ball and then running to the baseline and inbounding it. Cause people said he like played too slow. It's like, I'm going to show everybody. And then it all goes away. We all revert back. You know, basketball players are a lot like somebody in a relationship after a fight. It's like, all right, I'm going to take you back, but you need to be better. And it's like that first week, that's the best a dude ever is. All sorts of stuff. Be like, no, you do what you want to do. No, I won't go out. Oh, no. What do you want to do? Do you want to go to the farmer's market i'll go and then you know three weeks later you're like i don't want to look at fruit i don't want to look at fruit it's

the same it's the same outside as it is over there i don't care it isn't but you get the point so harden right into i think it was grimes right it Jersey immediately. But that's not who cares, right? I can't wait to figure out the rotational stuff because it looked like the move for Ty Lue was to have Harden play with the second unit. And so what I noticed was Westbrook was bringing the ball up when it was the four of them together to not completely impede who Westbrook has been this year because he's actually been pretty good for him um look the Westbrook problems that I have will always exist uh for the for some of the decision making and the way he sees the game but you know I don't think he's

going to shoot 38 from three this season that's what he's been doing um but the effort you know for the most part is pretty good and I actually defend him in the Utah game because I just think a guy getting a rebound two seconds left and everybody just started beating up on him again I actually wanted to defend him on that one even though look no one thinks I'm a huge Westbrook guy but it was a bit redundant with what they were trying to do or it's like all right we don't want to step on Westbrook's toes so he'll bring the ball up as the point guard because off-ball Westbrook is the worst version of Westbrook that we saw with the Lakers. So he still is on the ball, but he's not really on the ball because Harden's going to want to get the ball. So then what are

you doing with the two best players in Kawhi and Paul George? So there was a bunch of times where Harden would actually go to the elbow for like a post catch on the elbow and then would kind of turn back around and set up the offense. Now Harden is, is capable of passer. He's, I mean, I don't know if he's the number one best passer. I wouldn't, I wouldn't say he's like Jokic is a better pass than he is, but Harden's really good passer, sees things really well. But that part of it was kind of this fake overlap of, yeah, we'll let you do this still. And then, but you're going to get it over here. fake overlap of, yeah, we'll let you do this still, but you're going to get it over here.

The problem becomes when there was some stuff I saw later in the game where they would run some Paul George Kawhi two-man game with Westbrook and Harden both in at the same time. Off the ball, despite the Westbrook shooting numbers this season, I think there's some corner three numbers in the past that are decent enough to feel like you at least have to respect it a bit. But for the most part, you're not going to worry about it and hard is not going to move so in those moments where he wasn't getting an early catch and it was the other guys working hard was in the corner and that is like we saw some off ball stuff with chris paul that wasn't great i can't fathom that that's going to be what that is. And I need to go look at his catch and shoot three stuff.

It feels like he's always far more comfortable off the dribble getting into his shot. But that would be a massive evolution to Harden's game to be kind of a weak side or corner three rotational guy that you feel like is giving the defense more stress and having to play him but the Knicks specifically this one they just weren't worried about it because Harden once you know where he is he's not going to move and Westbrook would still need to shoot it better far longer for you to respect that you have to close out on it so then it's Paul George and Kawhi with like everybody looking at them like the defense is loaded to that side and even the backside guys are still looking at where the ball is and what's happening with those two players.

The substitution pattern stuff here, although Westbrook's shooting it well, he's under two free throw attempts per game for him, so we will monitor that. Harden was the first sub out of the four at five 17 of the first quarter. Uh, then Westbrook came out and Harden came in for him, uh, at two 29. And then they had Norman Powell in for Kawhi. Harden stays in at the start with the second unit.

So he was minus 18 for the game, but that's pretty unfair for Harden because he played those two pretty long stretches with the second unit. So he was minus 18 for the game, but that's pretty unfair for Harden because he played those two pretty long stretches with the second unit. I'll bore you with a bit here with some substitution pattern stuff and we'll be done with this pretty quickly. But then George comes in for Harden at 748 of the second quarter. Harden comes back in at 232 the second quarter, but then Kawhi is out of the game at 148. The fourth quarter, Kawhi comes in at 1017. Paul George comes in at 938. So there was still a little bit of that overlap. Second unit where Harden was in there. And then at 425, Tyloo waved the white flag and brought the bench in. So let's see what the rotations are. But that was an early glimpse of starting all the guys Harden's the first one to come out then Harden for Westbrook and then Harden with the second unit

and then bringing in the starter slowly then bringing Harden back in there later and then all it really is going to matter is what it looks like in the last few minutes of the fourth quarter because that's when it's a lot harder to go yeah I'm kind of getting away with some of these things but now the last six to eight minutes of the fourth quarter in a close game, we're all four of you expect to be out there. Let's see what it looks like. We already talked about the offense a little bit, but what happened in this game cannot happen, but I'm afraid it's going to keep happening. 18 offensive rebounds for the Knicks, 18.

And it's not because of the injury here to Plumlee. This is about Westbrook and Harden never paying attention to who they're supposed to be boxing out in these moments. Once Harden is no longer interested in locating who his man is, it happened with DiVincenzo twice. It happened with Grimes on another play where they're in the corner and then Harden turns to look at the basketball, loses control of anything that's happening, just standing there, and DiVincenzo just crashes in from the corner. There was another huge spot where Westbrook just decided to stop paying attention to anything. DiVincenzo just flew right past him. Westbrook never even came close. He didn't even know. DiVincenzo was five feet past him before he

even realized he had lost him. That's the kind of stuff, boys and girls, that gets me worked up. And if you're a Clippers fan, you're going to see it all the time because those dudes are not changing. And those are the kind of plays that are going to lose you basketball games. So that, I can't say, hey, it's going to get better because it's not going to get better. And now that you have two guys on the team at the same time, look, even Kawhi loses some interest every now and then too, right? Paul George wasn't very good in the game. That's not really the issue. And both those guys have played all six games. That's the issue with

certain players. When I see stuff like that and I go, oh, okay, you guys aren't, you're not serious about winning. If you're serious about winning, you don't lose your guy. And now you've got two guys that do that. Cash in on balling out this NBA season with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's $150.

Okay, there's a couple different things. I love just looking at the Wizards and Hornets. Hornets favored by 2.5 at home. The total on this one is 240. They've got this crazy payout that's 300-plus on $10 if you go over five different guys scoring. I tried to find Poole over 10 points, not on the board. Minus 600, Jordan Poole over 15 points. That kind of feels a little tasty.

But if we want to go headliner pick here, Denver at home minus three and a half against the Golden State Warriors. If you've been thinking about joining FanDuel, there's no better time to join. The app is easy to use. There's a wide range of ways to bet, including quick bets, live, same-game parlays, the Parlay Hub, and more. So visit FanDuel.com slash Ryan, R-Y-E-N, and turn dimes into dollars this season. FanDuel, official sportsbook partner of the NBA.

First online real money wager only. $5 pregame money line wager required. First online real money wager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued real money wager only $10. First deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Okay, let's bring in Cerruti.

Some early season stuff here. I know you're excited. I know we've been talking about the ESPN 25 under 25, where all of a sudden pal ben carroll like after a bad shooting week to start the season's look behind five guys that he has no business being behind but we'll uh maybe save that for a later date when we take our victory lap how about that it was a tough list i actually will reference it later uh in my topics here uh and actually in actually a decent way today no no no it's it's it's just a small nugget of a bigger picture thing.

But I do have, I have like five things here. Topics, questions, just, you know, discussion points, things that I've just noticed watching that I kind of want to run by you

and get your thoughts on. So let's start with the first one. Mavs, 6-1. Kyrie and Luka, they kind of look good together. And I caught a lot of the game the other night because they beat the Magic

and the Magic were horrific in the second half of that game. But I kind of came away of the game the other night because they beat the Magic, and the Magic were horrific in the second half of that game. But I kind of came away being like, because remember before the season, I asked you the question, and I think it was our preseason question segment, where I was like, who would be more justified in asking for a trade after the season,

Embiid or Luka? And you said Embiid, and I said, I actually think it would potentially be Luka because I just think that Mavs team is so bad. And I got to tell you, after watching, I think I might be wrong. You know, the Kyrie thing kind of works. And it's funny because Bill said on the Over-Unders pod, you know, what was the last normal Kyrie season was 2017.

And, you know, I know it's like the Gambler's Valley. She'd be like, oh, yeah, like, you know, if you're playing roulette, like, you know, it's been black, you know, 10 times in a row. The next one's going to be red. No, it's going to be 50-50 every time. And me thinking, hey, this could actually be a normal Kyrie season is probably stupid. But at some point, we're going to probably get a normal Kyrie season, right? And I don't know.

I just like the vibes with this team. Lively's good. Grant Williams looked fantastic. And I know you were the—I think you and House both had the over for them this season, just on Luka alone, and Bill had the under. But at what point—I mean, are we ready to say that Luka's a top five player and we were way too dismissive in the preseason of saying this team was going to suck? I didn't think they would suck because of him. So you're right about that. I mean,

he's maybe the third or fourth best player in the NBA. And it felt like at the end of last year in the regular season, concerns with Kyrie, which are totally justified. But Luka, on his own and knowing what he's capable of, I still think they've won enough games. They'll win enough. I'm not taking them serious as a West contender, but they'll win enough games. And it felt like the carryover of last year. I don't know that he was in great shape. Maybe he's feeling himself a bit coming off the Western Conference Finals appearance and the whole thing because the numbers are there. But I was hoping this would be a bit of a motivational reset for him because it felt like the lowest his stock had been since he had come into the league and had those incredible

playoff series against the Clippers. So part of this feels a little schedule-y though as well. The winds are against the Magic, the Hornets, the Bulls, the Grizzlies, the Nets, and the Spurs. And their only loss is to the Nuggets who they're just not even in their class. But there are things about this team that I do like. They're number fourth on offense. Defense is passable at this point. They're not going to be a great defensive team. But I'm not willing to go like, all right, all the Kyrie stuff is fine because I'll just wait for the next weird Kyrie thing.

But Luka, specific to just Luka, just felt like everybody was too low on him at the time. Lively's a great fit for this team because he is a limited offensive player, but he's playing with the best lob guy in the game because Luka can go to any square inch that he wants to get to on the floor. And if you just pay attention to him, you're going to get a lot of opportunities. And Grant's been terrific. Hardaway's always pretty steady, maybe a little underrated for them. I don't love the team. I like Josh Green a little bit, but it felt like the whole deal was very,

it's not anti-Luka, it was just too low on him because it felt like people were kind of turning the page on the guy a little quickly. I think you still look at the roster and you go, it's just a lot of really limited guys. And Luka, I guess, you have to be a very specific player to play with Luka. So I understand that's part of what the roster building is like. I mean, if this was LeBron's team, I feel like these guys would all be in trade rumors already. It's that kind of bleak of a situation. But Luka just kind of makes it work, I think, more than maybe anybody else. He's like the most specific. He just needs very specific guys to play with him and maybe i just underestimated how many of those guys and how decent they were on this team so i'm

not yeah i'm with you i'm not saying they're like a west contender but i think they're it i'm a little i'm open to the kairi uh luca thing i think a little bit more than i was early on after watching it for a couple games specifically in that magic game. Um, all right. Kyrie's Kyrie will shoot it better. I mean, he's, he's shooting it pretty low for, by his standards. If you were telling me I was just getting a Kyrie basketball season, then I'd be like, okay, you know, playing game, maybe, maybe scare somebody Luca in a game, you know, that imagine being, if that comes down to it, like they don't have the greatest record, but they're playing a team that we actually feel pretty good about. And then you get stuck with Luca and a plan like that's, that's scary. It's never been about like nobody

that doesn't like Kyrie. Nobody thinks he sucks at basketball. This is not the Kyrie conversation is not about, Oh, I don't, I don't like him as a basketball player. It's just do you expect to be smooth sailing from here until May? And the smart money has been on. No, I would love a Lakers Mavs playing game. Just just putting it out into the universe. Next one. T-Wolves number one, a defensive rating.

Go bear looks kind of like the old go bear again, which I know we just say, oh, it's a regular season player. But you know what? It's better than last year. Ant went ballistic against the Celtics. And he's still up and down, I think. But he's obviously young. But it's, again, promising signs. Towns has been all right as well. A lot of people before the season really liked him as a regular season team.

But what would you be willing to think about this team with this big three in the West? What would have to happen for you to actually take them seriously as a real top three, even team that can make the conference finals in the West? Conference finals, I'm not there yet. Here's what it would be. I'm not there yet. Here's what it would be. It would be Anthony Edwards getting to a level that when we talk about Giannis and Jokic and Luka and whatever,

Anthony Edwards doesn't seem like a weird name to be there. And I actually think he's capable of being that kind of player. And that is rare for me before it happens to go, yep, I think he actually can be one of the five best players in the nba maybe higher whatever that ranking means for him because that's how special i think he is he was so good in that celtics game the defensive play against tatum and the ball's loose he's got tatum on the ground and then he like almost went to tackle tatum i love seeing that ferocity from him and that and then he'd sit afterwards like tatum was talking shit so he's like all right whatever he scored eight in overtime. It was also his passing off of drives. He had two passes off of drives. And I was like, wait, is that, is that not that he's never passed

out of a, you know, a drive and kick situation, but the reads on them were terrific. And they both led to like huge shots at the time. I don't know if there's enough shooting on this team. The defense we know is going to be really good. And then you've got McDaniels, who when you watch how intense he is at picking somebody up early just as he crosses half court, and forget contesting the shot, contesting the dribble. That's what Jaden does on defense.

I still don't know if there's enough there offensively to feel like he's actually going to be the real piece to it. I know Kat's numbers have dipped here, and that's because his shooting splits are dreadful. He's 38% and 24 from three. It's not going to be that bad. I still think there's some substitutional stuff where they have bigs that they can throw at a bigger team. I know everybody talks about that Denver series, but I don't know. I never really felt like they were actually a real threat to put that thing to six or seven games. And I know it ended up only being five, so it'd have to be one of the other games. It would be, to answer your question, Saruti, it would be Anthony Edwards solidifying himself as one of the five best players in the NBA at some point this season. We're already putting him in

that group. And I actually think he can be that guy. The early returns are terrific and everybody else has to accept it. I don't think Towns is going to love that. He's still taking basically the same number of shots he is this year and the last year that his sister down because he's not going to have the ball. But that's like, I don't know if Towns is the kind of guy based on every interview, every clip I've ever heard of him in an interview, I kind of leave myself going like, of guy based on every interview every clip i've ever heard of him in an interview i kind of leave myself going like what what was what is he talking about so i don't know if that guy's wired to be like hey this is cool this is completely ants team but that's that's that's how it has to happen and

i think there's going to be certain nights with gobert where it looks really really good and i think as we've seen in the playoffs past there's going to be other teams based on the matchup where it's not going to look that good. But Golden State's not impossible. Phoenix still hasn't really even played together yet. So maybe they are in that kind of tier two thing behind Denver of fighting it out. All right. Tyrese Halliburton. And I'm not trying to bum out Kings fans here, but this is potentially going to bum you out. I think he's been fantastic this year. He's averaging, what, 24 or nearly 12 a game, flirting with 50-40-90.

And this is where I'll bring up the ESPN top 25 under 25. They had Luka 1, they had Ant 2, they had Wemby 3, and they have Halliburton 4. And I actually don't think that's insane at all. I had a jaw. Obviously, I had Apollo. I had a lot of other guys that are kind of in that, in that,

you know, vicinity. I'm happy that like the beam happened last year. I think the Kings are a fun team. Obviously they're very fun on offense, but the Sabonis sort of decline happened in the playoffs last year. I think it's kind of carried over into this year being like, what kind of player is he?

I saw a couple of guys on Twitter comparing him to, is he just like, you know, 2020s David Lee, which I think is incredibly disrespectful. But at some point, I kind of feel like this trade, the more years we get behind us on it, I think it's going to look like a disaster for the Kings.

Am I wrong? Because I think Hal Burton has a chance to be a legit top five point guard, superstar potential player. And they traded, the Kings traded that guy. And yes, they kept De'A they kept aaron fox i like the aaron fox don't get me wrong and i even like sabonis but they traded the best player out of all of those three players and i think hal burton has the best chance to be like a legit star guy out of all those guys and i just wonder if two three years from now as fun as this king's thing is right now we're gonna be like they traded i'm sorry they traded him for sabonis so again i don't want to bum kings fans out maybe they're gonna get mad at me but i just that's kind

of how i feel man i think he's awesome yeah i don't think it's two or three years i think it's two or three days ago okay fair but we've already done it because that trade normally doesn't happen they're like wait this guy's good and you already gave up on him and it's like no they wanted to get him away from De'Aaron Fox because they just didn't think it made sense for two guys that were so good with the ball in their hands to play next to each other. And they added somebody in Sabonis who, when you think about him, you go, man, the rebounding, the passing for somebody like him,

it fit a positional need. It made sense. Sacramento finally makes the playoffs. They fight it out with a Golden State team, which is a brutal first round matchup. There's a way you could tell the story. If you were a completely biased author, you could write about what a win this was if you focus on what's happened with Sacramento since this time. I know the record sucks right now. There's some bad Sabonis numbers that exist.

You know, the net negative stuff that I was looking at this morning. I don't know that it's super fair six games in to look at that. But then you think of Sabonis as like, what does it really mean? What does it give you? Well, it gives you nothing against Denver. It is somebody golden state just stopped defending killed yeah right and i know he had the hand injury and all those things so i you're basically asking if there's a whole new round of being bummed out again for sacramento fans if halliburton becomes not just an all-star,

but like a perennial all-star because they're running one of the best offenses in the league. The Pacers are scrappy and can put a bunch of points up on you. I don't know that anybody's scared of it in the playoffs, which will be the next test that Halliburton will have to get through. But I get what you're saying because I think people have already been shocked, bummed out, reconciled, justified, justifiably justified.

But then it's like, yeah, but we'd like you to prepare to be upset again, which I think you're right about. Well, when I say two to three years, I mean like when Halliburton's like maybe a potential MVP candidate, like winning playoff series. MVP. I don't know. I'm not. I'm not. I just I'm not putting it all i'm

leaving it on the table i think it's all fair like i think he's just that incredible to watch like i just love watching that team and it's obviously mostly led by him uh i mean the other thing too is like if you're a kings fan i would totally argue and be like dude whatever we're fun now like we were a disaster for a decade or two decades really um just shut your mouth and i'd be like you know what you're probably right like right. Like you guys, I am happy for the Kings, but man. And here's the other thing too, is it's not just Kings fans. I mean, there were all those rumors about the Sixers potentially being able to trade him for, uh, to get Halliburton for Ben Simmons, which they didn't want to do.

Apparently more. He didn't want to do. I think Toronto was in the mix. There's like a probably 10 teams that are like, wait, we could have just had Halliburton for like nothing. And now he's this guy. So it's not really just the Kings. And yes, his stock has gone up obviously since he's left and gotten his own

team but man i just i just can't help but think this is going to be it's gonna be a tough look because i like the aaron fox but he's just not halberd i just think you're taking halberd every time okay all right next next one here this is probably my favorite one and it's my favorite draft class i just want to i don't even know if I have a question. It's just an observation. I love the 2021 draft class. It's probably my favorite of the last decade or so. Because every single month, we change who the best guy in this draft is.

And I know that's the media thing. It's like, oh, it's just like this guy has a good month. Let's just hop on the bandwagon. But I honestly think it's kind of justified. So I'm talking about this is the draft with Cade, Mobley, Jalen Green, Scottie, Franz, Jalen Suggs, my guy. And because before the season, I think I had mentioned that I thought that Franz had a really good case for being the best guy in this draft.

But if I'm really honest, Cade is the most talented guy. And if he's right and he's healthy, I don't think it's debatable that Franz has had a better two years since they got drafted. And a lot of that is health. He won the World Cup with Germany, obviously, and Cade hasn't been healthy. But Cade is incredible. He's got an incredible start to the season,

and I think if all things are equal, he's probably the best player. But then there's been the Mowgli buzz, and he was the rookie of the year, an incredible guy. Scotty Barnes is now having the second resurgence after having a really good rookie year, a kind of weird and bad second season, and then now playing well again in his third season. I mentioned my guy, Franz, who's probably not as talented as all those guys, but I still think, is he going to be a really good player

or a star? That's kind of what the next couple of years of his career is going to be. Shang-Goon, I freaking love watching that guy. He's the best player on the Rockets. He's certainly their best young player and the guy that I would build around if I was them more than anybody else. Then you got Kaminga as the, this is his year all-star. He's certainly their best young player and the guy that I would build around if I was them more than anybody else. Then you got Kaminga as like the, this is his year all-star. Like he's every year is Kaminga's year. And I understand why people buy into it.

I don't really have a point or anything really, or a question here. I just love this draft class because it's all over the place. Yeah, it does feel a bit like all the quarterbacks after Mahomes where like, wait, would you want this guy? If Scottie Barnes is going to shoot 42 percent from three then then we can we can start changing because I went from loving him to going okay

temper that love a bit because will he ever be somebody who's going to be getting you into your offense he's going to be finished like even as an aside, like when Weminyama, he may dominate games in ways that we've never seen before. And we get a sample of that in the Phoenix one. But for Weminyama to be one of the all-time greats, you have to be like ending helpless offensive possessions in huge playoff games, creating off the dribble on your own. That's basically the test that you have to pass to be one of the all-time greats. Because we just don't, big guys aren't the same unless there's some big resurgence or be thrown in the post. I don't see how that's ever happening again with three-point shooting taking over this game. So with Barnes,

in the incredible game that he had the other night, where he's hitting all of his threes, if that's what I'm getting, if I'm getting a three-point shooting Scotty Barnes, then we have a real conversation about what he's capable with because his playmaking is incredible. The rebounding is nuts. I mean, he's 23-10-6 right now, but the previous two years, he was 30 and 28% from from three and this year he's 42 percent it's seven games so let's see but i still have always it's a bit like evan mobley like maybe mobley won't be the guy maybe barnes won't be the guy but every team would want one of those dudes barnes was fifth in scoring in the raptors last year this year he's the leading scorer uh i don't think it'll ever be called the jalen Suggs draft. No, no, it won't. But I'm telling you, I was talking about this with Bill yesterday. That dude, like just throw the box score out when you're talking about Jalen Suggs. He just does things that he's a winning player. His instincts are excellent. The shooting's never going to be great. He's probably on the

worst team for him because they need him to shoot and he can't. But that guy's going to be good and he's going to be a good player on a good team at some point yeah his instincts and some of the stuff he did his year with gonzaga because he did like when they got him in the story was they were like yeah we didn't really think he could shoot it and he and he did enough i don't i'd have to look up the college stats again but i feel like his shooting prowess was a surprise to people at gonzaga and that's why you were like well wait, maybe this will actually work out a little bit better. We didn't even mention Giddy, by the way,

who is kind of having a weird year. It seems like the Chet thing has kind of screwed where he is in the pecking order on that team because Chet's been so good that I don't know that Giddy has figured it out. They've got to play Jalen Williams. I was even noticing the other night with them that'll be a substitution pattern thing that I pay attention to um but yeah Suggs was he was like 59 percent from the floor overall

34 percent on threes and I don't I don't feel like that's what I'm watching he's gonna be low 30s right let's see here right now he might not even be there on threes yeah he's 27 for his career he was 33 last year he's 25 this year he's actually taking a tick more this year than he was last he's not afraid i'll say that no he's not afraid i mean that team has a lot of dudes that are not afraid to shoot whatsoever but i think what will happen with this is that it'll be why did we debate this with kate maybe because that's how special kate looks and the fact that he is that big doing the stuff that he's doing um i just hope jayden ivy's doing it next to him at some point my god that that is uh that is something to continue to monitor.

All right, last one. Last one. All right, here we go. Real quick question. What's the most surprising number that Steph KD and LeBron are basically at the top of the points per game rankings right now? Milwaukee being 24th in defense

or Trey Young being abysmal from the field shooting? Trey's not shooting it well. He's 27% 27 on threes he's taking six a game he hasn't been like he hasn't been shooting well for a few years though you know this isn't that new it's been it's worse but it's not that new no it's the last the previous three seasons he was 34%, 38%. Then last year was just under 34% the previous three years. The funny thing is I was looking at this. I don't want to do this because I hate when people are like, hey, let me ask you a question. There's no chance you're ever going to get right,

so I'm not going to do that. But when I think of Trey and his shooting attempts, I was like, where is he in the league right now as far as attempts per game? He's at 6.3 attempts per game from three, but it feels like he shoots a lot of them, right? Because he's always kind of like pulling up and it feels like he's the earliest heat check guy in the NBA. You actually are not hot right now, so you're not supposed to take the heat check one. But at 6.3 attempts per game from three, he hits 44th in the NBA. There's 43 guys ahead of him

taking more threes per game as of right now. Like, okay, it's early. Well, last year he was 42nd in three-point attempts per game last year. Of the guys that are in front of him, including him, he's 44, so the 43 guys that are ahead of him, there's only two guys that are

shooting it worse from three right now in the NBA, and that's Julius Randle, who's a mess at 25%. By the way, that video of him, was it the Thunder game where he didn't want to get back on defense? I understand blips. 80-game season, guy plays all the time. But combining that with me doing the one-name-one-game focus on Julius Randall against the Heat and then going, all right, I'm done. And then it was like, hey, I actually was really hurt. I just can't imagine being good enough to be a pro athlete and having a moment. And that was a huge possession where he was upset with Brunson and decides, I'm just not going to play. I'm just not going to play in this game. I'm going to check, or I'm not going to play in this play.

I'm going to check out. I couldn't understand it. So anyway, back to Trey young. So Keegan and Randall below them, whatever, like we said, it's all earlier this year, but it's still less.

He's taking less attempts per game than I think he would think when you think of Trey young. And that's probably good because his floater is maybe the best in the league. And he's taking 9.3 free throw attempts per game this season, which is a career high. I thought we fixed this NBA. I thought we fixed this shit with Trey.

Apparently you didn't get your own memo. He also might still be underrated as a playmaker. He's such a good playmaker. Yeah, it's just that I just don't think it's great when you have one guy that, you know, whatever. I've already done this segment too many times.

So the Trey thing, it's not going to be this bad. I don't think he's just going to end up shooting this poorly, even though you're right. Historically, from three, this is three out of the last four years. Well, it's not even a third full year.

So let's just, let's not worry about it. But the numbers are a little bit lower in two of the last three than maybe Well, it's not even a third full year, so let's not worry about it. But the numbers are a little bit lower in two of the last three than maybe people would expect. Milwaukee's defense, it was fourth last year. It's 24th this year.

If you go through all the net ratings on all these players that play for the Bucs, Giannis is a plus 2.6. Dame's a minus 12. Brooke Lopez is a minus 17. Five-second rounder Jay Crowder, he's a minus 10. Malik Beasley's a minus 20. Marshawn, he's a plus 16. He actually is in the rotation. They tried everything the other night against the Nets. They played some zone. They switched

everything and went small. They took Lopez out and put Portis in at center. And this got alarming in the Toronto game because I had watched Toronto before against Portland. I was like, God, this offense is struggling. And then there was a game after that, the overtime loss to Chicago, where I didn't like their offense again. I was like, is Toronto just going to be bad on offense this year?

Well, they're 25th in offense, except when they play Milwaukee. Milwaukee was, wasn't just, it wasn't that Toronto was just making shots. Milwaukee's transition defense was gross. Like a high school coach would have said, that's it, I'm just teaching chemistry. If that was the coach, if that was the team that he was coaching. There's a number here, cleaning the the Glass that teams are getting transition attempts on 43% of their live rebound chances. So 43% of the time, defensive rebound, they're getting out of transition and getting an actual attempt that still would be considered in that transition window. So we can talk about rotations and all this stuff,

get back or get matched up, figure out your cross matches, or maybe they're getting worked in some of these cross matches. I mean, look, the Drew Dane drop-off was going to be significant. It shouldn't be this bad. So there's that. at. But the most surprising thing is the age that we're seeing. LeBron is 39 in December. Durant turned 35 in September. Steph will be 36 in March. Those are three of the top scores in the NBA right now. I think it's three of the top 15. I think LeBron might be 15th right now in scoring. By the way, LeBron, despite being 39 in December and Durant 35 in September, he's played 18,000 more minutes than Durant has, and he's played about 24,000 more minutes than Steph has. So if you look at the age 35 plus seasons, Steph has the all-time points per game number. That's this year. I don't think he's going to average 35. His shooting splits are absurd. He has the all-time points per game number. That's this year. I don't think he's going to average 35.

His shooting splits are absurd. He has the highest scoring average for somebody 35 or older at 35 points a game right now. Durant's number two at 30 points per game. After a little blip of worrying about Durant and some of the shots he was settling for, I think he's been terrific again, but that team's just uncertain. And then you've got LeBron at 25 a game. The Lakers right now with LeBron, they're plus 53 of them on the court. Off the

court, they're minus 77. So this group right now, what we're seeing not even a month into the season is we're seeing the number one, the number two, and number 11 points per game scoring numbers from guys 35 or older. So three of the top 11 all time in NBA history. And LeBron has four of the eight spots. So if you think of the three of top 11, like, hey, who are the other names? Well, LeBron's got four of the other ones too. Then there's a couple other dudes. So that is, despite their resumes, to seeing those guys continue to do this.

And I know the science and all that different stuff and LeBron's missed, you know, if you go back and look at his minutes and everything, he's like 35, 36 minutes a game right now. Anthony Davis is playing the most minutes he's played in like forever. Yeah. But, um, you know, LeBron's going to miss time. He is going to miss time, but when he's been in there, he's been really their only answer a lot for them on offense when AD isn't available. Something I was thinking about this morning, because both Steph and KD are 35, LeBron's 38. Does Steph age the best out of all three of those guys? Steph close to 40, I kind of feel like he still can be close to what he's doing now. More than probably even those other two guys. Maybe, but I just don't know how you're ever going to have anyone age like LeBron.

I mean, there will be just because of science and stuff. There will be somebody years from now, maybe. But I don't know if that's 20 years. I don't feel like it's going to be five i don't know how anyone is going to age as well as lebron has in the game of basketball so i'm not going to put and i'm not i get it steph shooting whole thing handle whatever i mean steph scott so it's got like four years to go yeah i'm just saying what you're asking from him at that age of his career like I think it's just less taxing

on Steph than it is on probably the other two guys. Specifically LeBron. LeBron probably is asking the most. Absolutely. This is unlike anything I've ever seen. Okay. That was talking hoops. Hump day hoops. Let's get it. Alright. Let's talk

some football coming up next hey we talked to him this summer he had the trade value column out for the ringer and he's updated a bit shilkapadia joins us now also part of the extra point take it with ben solak on tuesdays and fridays and our main guy in the Philly special what's up man good to see you good what's going on nothing so I have a bunch that I want to get to a couple different things that we want to do but I was looking at the trade value stuff um you know at the top with the quarterbacks you know it's funny because I was looking at it and I go you know I'm just glad you did what you did because, you know, some of the Josh Allen stuff that we've looked at, I spent some time talking about it on a Monday, but I also, and look, I'm guilty of it too, but I think we're a little too obsessed of updating

the quarterback's legacies every single week. And so, you know, I'm kind of, when I looked at it, I was just kind of like, good, you know what, let's just have this. These are the tier one quarterbacks and these are who they are. And we don't need to make these drastic changes halfway through the season. So if you want to run through kind of the thinking behind the rankings for it, share that with us now. Yeah, I'm like a big sample size guy.

So when they're like, you want to update this after week six, the trade deadline, I'm like, I don't know. I'm not going to change my mind on a lot of things after six weeks here, but it was a way to get some rookies in there and take a look. But yeah, I still have, you know, and the exercise is which players in the NFL, you know, this is Bill Simmons, old NBA staple, applying it to the NFL, which guys have the most trade value in the NFL at this very moment in time. So I still left Mahomes, Burrow and Allen,

at this very moment in time. So I still left Mahomes, Burrow, and Allen. One, two, three. Still have Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, Jalen Hurts in there. The one guy I did move up was Lamar Jackson. I actually didn't have him in that top tier going into the season. I said, you know what? I want to see what it looks like with the new offensive coordinator, with the new pass-catching weapons,

and see if he can stay healthy for the whole season. But I just thought he's played well enough so far this season that I felt like he belonged in that crew. So yeah, didn't make any wholesale changes. Lamar Jackson was a big one. And then the next one was probably where do you put some of these rookies that have really impressed? But again, we're talking about less than half a season here. So when you look at it that way, what was it about Lamar specifically? And I know it wasn't like it was, you know, he was 50th before you did this, but I think the most important thing is that it's this line,

that it's the seven quarterbacks, Lamar seven, and then the line of the next tier. What was it specifically from this year? Well, coming into the season when I was doing this in August, it was like every team in the NFL had a chance to at least make a run at him. Now, many of them might have thought the Ravens are going to match the offer. There's no point in doing this. That's fine. But like if Mahomes or Josh Allen or Joe Burrow were hit with that non-exclusive franchise tag, a lot of teams would say, let's at least take a shot and see what happens. And no one did that with Lamar Jackson. So I was like, does he belong in that top tier? He's been injured in each of the past two seasons.

Now, what moved him up for me was that like, anyone who argued that get Lamar Jackson a more modern offensive coordinator and a more modern passing game and better pass catching options, and he will be in that tier. A lot of those people look really smart right now. The guy's completing over 70% of his passes so far this

season, and he's still doing the rushing stuff and he's still being creative, but he can operate in a rhythm. He can operate in a modern passing game. And I thought that was the case coming into the season, but you hadn't really seen it with Greg Roman. So I think that was probably the biggest thing with Lamar Jackson that like he's really shown that, that all those theories coming into the season, those have proven out so far in the first half of the year. I want to spend a little more time too on the Ravens just because they deserve it. And with this number one ranked defense in a, in a weird way, I think there are still a bit under the radar as far as the contenders are concerned because maybe when we feel like we look at their Cincinnati win,

we're not giving it the credit that we should because, let's face it, Cincinnati just looked different the first month than they have the second month. It feels maybe a bit like Detroit's win against Kansas City. Maybe it's more meaningful. You know, I don't know. But like Kansas City in that game without Jones, without Kelsey, and you're trying to figure out all these teams' resumes and being like, okay, give me that one awesome win. Give me that Niners win against the Bills or give me that Bills win against Miami. There's a handful of wins that we can pick at here. Detroit and Seattle, who we thought, maybe more so with Detroit, were in the conversation. It's a defense that, and you and Ben did this in your preview that I listened to, you look at the names up front, we know the linebackers. I think most casual NFL fans would

have a hard time naming guys in the D-line, and yet they're doing it again, and they've been dominant on that side of the football. Yeah, they have the best defense in the NFL. I mean, those two offenses, the Seahawks and the Lions, again, you're not going to probably say they're like elite with the star level quarterback. But I would say that most football nerds were like, these are two of the best schemed offenses in the NFL. Like they're doing more with less. They're efficient most weeks. And they completely shut them down. The Seahawks had six first downs in the NFL. Like they're doing more with less, they're efficient most weeks and they completely shut

them down. The Seahawks had six first downs in that game. Remember all those like Russell Wilson teams that were very good, but there would be those weeks where you're like, man, this offense sucks. They had never had six first downs in a game since Pete Carroll became the head coach. That's 237 games. And this was the fewest first downs they've ever had. So I think you nailed it with the Ravens.

Like, if you just went on paper and said, what's the most talented defense in the NFL, I don't think it would be Baltimore. They've got some really talented players. Roquan Smith, Marlon Humphrey, Kyle Hamilton is like a breakout star at safety. But up front is usually when we talk about these teams, like who has the best defensive line, who are the best pass rushers. Like, you wouldn't say that about the Ravens

and they're getting a good season out of Jadeveon Clowney, who's been all over the place. Justin Matabuki, this like sort of unheralded under the radar defensive tackle. I think he's got seven and a half sacks this year. They do such good stuff

with like disguising stuff before the snap, changing that picture for the quarterback. All of a sudden he looks up post-snap. It's not what he thought it was. And you get home with your pass rush. So they have been very, very well coached. And they totally changed their defensive scheme from what it was a couple of years ago

with Wink Martindale there. And they've just, I think they're the team that can really win in more different ways than any other team in the NFL. They can win offense in rhythm, passing game, offense, running the ball, offensive creativity with Lamar Jackson defensively. And then we know their kicking game and their coaching is going to be good. So yeah, they have been really impressive so far this season. CJ Stroud at 11. I can't say you're wrong it it feels like wait he's the 11th most valuable player in the NFL today you factor in the rookie contract all the other stuff uh how much internal debate was there

about where to play CJ yeah I didn't know if you were going to tell me it was too high or too low to be quite honest because when I was going through the exercise I was real I was like shield it's been six freaking games. Don't be an idiot. You're going to look stupid in December if the rookie season goes sideways. And since then, he's been even better. I mean, you honestly could make an argument that he should be higher than 11th. Some of the players I have ahead of him here, like Sauce Gardner and Patrick Sertan, right? Probably the two best corners in the NFL. Right now, straight up, Sauce Gardner for C.J. Stroud, Patrick Sertan for C.J. Stroud. Come on. The Texans are saying no to that. Like, I'm looking at this. Oh, I'm sorry.

They're right below C.J. Stroud in this. So I felt like C.J. Stroud's got to be ahead of those guys. Even a guy like I have Justin Jefferson ahead of him. If Justin Jefferson and CJ Stroud are both, you know, it's leaked tomorrow. Both these guys, I know the trade deadline is passed, but for the exercise, both these guys are available via trade. Who's getting more back?

I mean, you can make the case. It's CJ Stroud. So again, it's a small sample. And sometimes rookie quarterback seasons lie to us. I again, it's a small sample and sometimes rookie quarterback seasons lie to us. I mean, you know, Bryce Young's getting killed right now. Like you look at some great quarterbacks, they've had just as bad seasons as Bryce Young has had right now. And they've eventually become great quarterback. So I'm not selling on Bryce Young, but what Stroud's doing with that supporting cast and the way he's doing it and how smart he is and how quickly he

processes and his accuracy. I mean, honestly, I think when I do this update at the end of the season, if he keeps going this way, he might be a top five, top six guy because on a rookie contract, a quarterback who can perform as a top 10 quarterback in the NFL, that's basically the most valuable thing in the league. So you mentioned Jefferson at nine and you're right, you have CJ 11 and then Sertan and then Gardner were 12 and 13, or excuse me, 13 and 14. Cause Jamar is another receiver. So if I look at the receivers here, it's Jefferson is the first one, Chase is the second one, and then Tyreek and AJ Brown. Are we flirting with the idea of a receiver?

Granted, Jefferson's hurt. Chase wouldn't win it. But with what A.J. Brown is doing with this Eagles offense, and I still think, like, I know everybody's kind of off of Miami right now. I wonder if there'll be any kind of movement for a receiver to get MVP consideration here. Because there's nights where I watch A.J. Brown going, like he's everything for the Eagles.

And certainly Tyreek is that much of a matchup nightmare for defenses. I don't know if anybody would do it. I think they'd probably just go, hey, look, who's more valuable than Mahomes? And then he would win another one. But between Garrett and maybe an edge push, not having a defensive player win MVP forever, I'm wondering how open voters would be to doing something they haven't done in a long time.

Yeah, I mean, the NFL award system is pretty dumb like that. It should just be MVP, and then there should be some award for best non-quarterback. I mean, maybe that is offensive player of the year. I would have a hard time still. Think about if you replaced Mahomes with a replacement level quarterback right now. I mean, that offense like sucks, I think. I mean, that offense would probably be bottom 10 in the NFL.

That's even with Andy Reid. I don't know if people agree with me on that or not. But yeah, A.J. Brown and Tyreek Hill, I move both those guys up. You know, they're 19 and 21 here. Going into the season, I thought there's so many great wide receivers that I'm not going to have too many guys ahead of the group. But when you look at what those two guys have done, I mean, if Tyreek Hill is out for that Dolphins offense, it totally changes everything. A.J. Brown is such a problem solver

for the Eagles offense. Third down, red zone, need an explosive play, whatever. He can do it all. So I feel like those were the two guys so far this season that have kind of put those, maybe putting the offenses on their back is a little strong, but they've been so key in those being two of the best offenses in the NFL that I felt like they deserve to be a little bit higher than a lot of the other

receivers. TJ Watt at 22. Has that changed at all from this summer? Because you still have Bosa, you still have Garrett, you still have Parsons ahead of him. I know there was some, it's just, that position is so deep. And then you throw Max Crosby into the mix now watching him play. You almost feel like you're doing any of them a disservice having them in the twenties. Yeah. Uh, I actually think that's where I had one. I was pretty bullish on what coming into the season. I thought he was injured last season, but kind of, you know, don't forget that this guy is absolutely elite. He impacts the game every time he's in there. So I think that's where I had Crosby. Honestly, I thought about moving Crosby up even higher. Like he's,

I would say Garrett Parsons, like you don't watch a Raiders game and it's like, Oh, is Crosby like Crosby hasn't done anything. It's like second possession. They're highlighting Crosby. He doesn't come off the field. That's one thing that I think really separates him and is admirable compared

to the other guys. Like he doesn't get spelled and then goes in and out and they rotate guys. He just stays on the field the entire game. He plays over 90% of the snaps and he impacts the game every single time. So, and he's young, like I couldn't please 26 years old. It feels like he's been in our lives for much longer than that. So I think there's a case for Max Crosby to be up there even higher with some of those other edge guys. Did you want to put Jalen Carter even higher than 42? I mean, if this was based just on film and it was like film and contract, that's it, then I would have him up in the top 20 and people could make that case but I mean I can't

just like dismiss all the concerns that teams had about him coming into the draft like he hasn't had a full NFL offseason where he's proven all right there are no issues he's a full-time professional all good I mean teams had him off their board like when the Seahawks passed on Jalen Carter for uh Devon Weatherspoon at six, I'm like, all right, if they're passing on him, like Pete Carroll is not afraid to take on guys who he thinks have issues if they're high ceiling guys, when they pass on him, I'm like, all right, these, you know, the issues are legit and they've been well-documented. So yeah, I mean, he has, I don't think I've seen a defensive tackle as a rookie aside from Aaron Donald, honestly,

be as impressive as, as he's been, what he does every week has been eye-opening, but that was one where I'm like, he's a rookie, settle down. Let's let him do it a little bit longer before moving him up there. Did you start drinking at number 32? Uh-oh, what did I have? You have Price Young, Uh-oh, what did I have? You have Bryce Young, 32, Anthony Richardson, 33, Tua, 34, and then Brock Purdy, 35. So I can attack this from all different angles. Even if I, as you know, I'm kind of labeled like an anti-Tua guy. And look, it fell apart on me because after I'd said basically the the exercise was I'm going to say something out loud I shouldn't say and it was the very beginning of the year I was

like man Tua looks like a backup and then he like goes off and um it's incredible then he has the health issue and and and look we know what the offense looks like when they're not playing one of the better teams even if you're still wondering wait, is there a fatal flaw here with Tua in this offense? And I understand against pressure, there's still moments with Tua where I'm like, he's not one of those main guys. How could you have Anthony Richardson ahead of Tua? Well, see, I didn't know what angle you were coming at. I have others.

Okay, all right so the case for anthony richardson uh over two and it's 33 and 34 so we are splitting hairs a bit here uh tua has his fifth year option next year and then you're paying to uh over 50 million dollars per year i mean that's just like what it's going to be if he's still in the league and still a starter for the dolphins that he's going to get paid over $50 million a year. So that's, we're looking at 2025 here. Anthony Richardson, I had no idea what to do with. I mean, the guy, he finished one game this season. When I watched him, I was like, oh man, I really like what I see from Anthony Richard. Like what a team right now based on Richardson, has literally finished one game in the NFL,

and the Colts said, you know what? We're not fed into him. Like, we're going to go ahead and trade him. What would teams trade for Anthony Richardson? It would be a first-round pick plus something. He still has three years left on his rookie contract after this, making nothing compared to a guy like Tua, and then you're going to have the fifth-year option after that. So I think just based on that small sample, and I don't even know how many

dropbacks it was, I was like, I think a team would give up more at this exact moment in time for Anthony Richardson than Tua. So it's not financially based. I understand all the financial stuff of it, but I still think seeing somebody do it, whatever level you think Tua is capable of doing it at. And that's why I could come from the other angle where it's like, okay, wait, Purdy's only a slot behind Tua. And if, I mean, you're going to win.

Well, I don't know if it's winning the argument, but you're going to counter anything I say based on the financial investment that you're going to have to make in Tua. I get it. It's the same thing as the NBA stuff, rookie contract versus the guy who's on his seventh or eighth year into his career, has the full extension and all that kind of stuff. And then balancing out even more so in the NFL, because you're just like, well, look at all the things you can build around this. The same way you look at what Philly's been able to do with with with Hertz deal.

But I don't know that that feels dismissive of Tua and no one would think that I have a jersey of him at my house. I don't think there's a big this. I don't know if this is controversial or not. I don't know that there's a huge difference in how I view Tua and Brock.

If you put Brock Purdy and that Dolphins offense, you think it's a big step back this year. I sort of think like they operate pretty similarly as they've operated so far. Plus again, not to sound like a broken record, but now you're getting Purdy on a rookie contract for two more years here. He's making peanuts in the seventh round.

I don't know if those two teams called each other. Let's just try it this way. If you're running the Niners and they both made the exact same amount of money and I'm running the Dolphins and I call up and say, hey, I'll give you two for Purdy right now. What do you say? I have to think about that. I don't know that I would do it.

I mean, with Tua, with the concussion history, the injury history. And I know you're saying if they make the same amount of money, just to be clear for listeners before they rip me, for my exercise on TheRinger.com, it wasn't, you know, you're taking the money into account. I would have to think about that. I might not do that. You would do it? exercise on the ringer.com it wasn't you know you're taking the money uh into account i would have to think about that i might not do that you would do it you're thinking about it too see it's not that easy the trade value no i would i would rather have i would rather have tua at quarterback and brock purdy if we're talking about the finances i can't win the argument yeah but i don't see a huge difference just just perform. I actually think both offenses, I think if you swap them right now, I think both offenses would perform

pretty similarly for the rest of the season. Okay. A month ago, would you have said the same thing? If you include the finances a month ago, you, you would have been an NFL team. You probably would have felt like, hey, all right, we've got our guy. We're good with this. Or were you still doubting it when they were putting up the numbers they were putting up? I had questions about both guys. I didn't have either guy on this list coming into the season. I wanted to see more. I needed to see Tua stay healthy. I needed to see what the ceiling was going to be. Purdy, I didn't even think about putting on the list coming into the season.

Honestly, I thought I'm not going to make it. It's based on eight starts and he's coming off of an injury. Like I'm not, you know, I don't think anyone would trade for that guy right now. But, you know, he's had bad quarters. He's had bad games. I do think there's a thing with Purdy where everybody want, like, if you don't like Purdy,

the minute Purdy has a bad game, and I'm not like a huge, like, I feel like I'm coming off as like a huge Purdy backer or a huge Purdy guy. I'm really not. But the second he has a bad game or a bad quarter, everyone's like, see, you know, told you, like, Purdy stinks. It's like a lot of, like, who's the quarterback this year

who has not had a game or a quarter like that? They have the best offense in the NFL based on DVOA this year. I know the scheme and the system and all that, but I think overall he's exceeded my expectations for the season. So a month ago, yeah, you're probably right. I probably would have maybe leaned towards Tua a little bit, but before the season, I probably would have been kind of where I'm at right now, where, I don't know, I have questions about both these guys this also can be my own evaluation of anthony richardson too where i think a lot of the nfl people really fell in love with him and i probably watched him

too much in college where you know i just shrugged with the quarterbacks now. I just go, okay, maybe it works out. But from what I saw in the games with the Colts, it was somebody that was relying on his legs, and it was really impressive, and it was fun. But I didn't see enough. I mean, look, he barely played. So a certain conclusion on him, good or bad, is irrelevant because it doesn't matter.

And I like some people could be looking at Bryce Young going like, are you kidding? Like, how would you have him ahead of those other guys? I think that would be totally unfair to be writing off somebody who I don't think is going to be this bad at quarterback. But you know, when you, when you dig into some of the Miami stuff, cause I just always appreciate how into this you get, and I don't want to put you on the spot by looking up the true media expected points added stuff or whatever. But with Tua, are you seeing this as a fatal flaw? Is it something against, you know, is it the pressure numbers that we've seen where he's a completely different guy once the timing is thrown off? Is that sustainable for defenses to keep throwing them off?

Is it a front that they're using? I know Booger McFarlane was talking about it before even the Kansas City game, and then he talked about it with Philly. He's like, it's a bare front. They're doing steel, or they bring up all these defensive linemen, and if they disrupt that, disrupt the rushing attack,

then they're completely predictable, or they're just not efficient, and all these different things. What's the one standout thing that you've seen to either have two at 34 doubt Miami? Like it feels like everybody is right now. Yeah, I do think when you stop the run against the dolphins on early downs and get them in, in third and long situations, you would normally say they should be able to handle that, but they haven't handled that well. Cause then you can play more, uh, cover two and you can commit resources to, uh to stopping those guys downfield

and it becomes a little bit easier. And I think that's what's happened a lot to the Dolphins recently. I know on that Eagles film, they were, I think, behind the sticks. Like they had like a down in 13 and 15 on like five straight possessions to open the game and they didn't handle that well.

With the passing game, I think everything they do is based on Tua trusting it. It's going to be there. Throw it. Don't think twice. Just throw it, and it's going to be there. And I think when you play that way, sometimes you're not going to be like, ooh, that defender's coming down, or they changed their look post-snap,

and I didn't see it, and I'm going to hesitate in the pocket. It's like, just throw it. And I think that leads to some turnovers that you've seen here. I still think probably it's gone too far. Like you just mentioned, a lot of people are kind of, you know, out on the dolphins right now. I think it's probably gone a little bit too far in that direction. I still think over the course of the game against most defenses, maybe not the elite teams, but they can withstand a turnover, two turnovers, a negative play, a sack, and then they can score so quickly. And it's like only a matter of time before they kind of figure you out and

they get going. Like even this last week, you know, it wasn't the perfect game against the Chiefs, but they had the ball in the fourth quarter with the chance to win the game. And then, you know, some dumb stuff happens there. So I don't know that I would describe it as a fatal flaw. Like I still think they're going to be a very good team. I think they're going to give most defenses trouble in the second half of the season. Offensive line is not great. They're going to have some turnovers, I think,

because of the way they play. But I do believe in McDaniel. I think he's shown coming into this year, he kind of had a plan B, and I feel like I trust him to sort of figure out some of their issues. Was there a team that didn't have anyone? I don't think I have a Patriot on here.

Yeah. Honorable mention, Christian Gonzalez, the rookie corner who's hurt. Right. And then with Arizona, you have Kyler, but you have it in its own tier of no one is trading for this quarterback. Yeah, I don't think so. No, I do have a Cardinal. I've got their Parrish Johnson. I just put their tackle on there. It's a small, you know, he was a top 10 pick. I think someone would give up a first round pick for him.

But yeah, I think he was the only one to a team with nobody on there. I'm looking at it now. I think you have Judon. I didn't have Judon on there no he had gotten injured so it's like at this point no one's given up a first round pick for uh because again it's the exercise is this exact moment in time so uh i didn't have him in there the titans have jeffrey simmons they got a guy uh on there the raiders you got a couple guys on there broncos have uh patrick Sertan on there. Do I have a giant on here? Yes. The left tackle, Andrew Thomas. And I think I had Thibodeau on

towards kind of the lower end of the list. So it could be just even the Bears. I had DJ Moore on there. I think DJ Moore probably gets a first round pick if he's made available right now. What about Christian Barmore? I mean, maybe. I think most people on this list would get a first round pick, and I love Barmore. I think he's had a good season, especially coming off of last year. So yeah, he could be sort of an honorable mention see how the record because he's still on that rookie contract uh that could be someone to take a look at um you know when i update it after that's all right we don't need to spend more time we're okay we've got it one to a half hour on the whole patriots roster and what the draft

compensation would be we could do that maybe youtube only or something i think i think we're good i think we're good on that okay last thing that we're going to do here we're going to put our our confidence to the test here uh we're going to do we could call it super bowl winners but then you get to like pick eight nine or ten you're like they're not winning the super bowl so let's just give us the exercise is this is super bowl appearance confidence draft we'll go through 10 teams five each you have the first pick all right so they okay so this is to make the super bowl the team i'm most confident in to make the super bowl is that right yeah that's the exercise yeah okay let's see um you know what let's for content's sake let's go let's take a swing here i'm gonna

go cincinnati bengals i mean listen you might you might say what are you talking about uh they're Let's for content sake, let's go. Let's take a swing here. I'm going to go Cincinnati Bengals. I mean, listen, you might say, what are you talking about? They're five and three. They were my pick to win the Super Bowl coming into the season. I love how they're playing right now. I love Burrow. He's healthy right now. Their defense in any one game situation.

I think they can come up with a creative game plan to give great quarterbacks trouble. And so it's probably not the smartest pick because they're not going to have the first, you know, the one seed in either conference. But I'm going to go ahead and just say Cincinnati. There you go. So you went Cincinnati number one. Yeah. Why not?

You know, we're in the content game here. You know, mix it up a little bit. Okay. Yeah. Why not? We're in the content game here. Mix it up a little bit. Okay. I did not expect to have the Chiefs. I don't care. I'll just take Mahomes. Okay. Are you concerned about...

What's your concern level with the Chiefs? Mahomes is in its own category. It does not matter. We're talking about five straight conference championship games. I just, and look, finally the defense is really good. So I understand your concerns about the offense. They barely moved the football in the second half against Miami. I just, I think this game is, is kind of simple sometimes. I think there's five to seven teams that suck. I think there's 15 to seven teams that suck. I think there's 15 to 17 teams that win the turnover margin and they win a game that you don't expect them to,

or they lose one they're not supposed to. And then I think it's the handful of quarterbacks that are in the conference championship games every single year. If you go through it, you're like, oh yeah. And then there's always the one San Francisco will have their guy in there. And then there was Tannehill. And then it's the rest of the guys that we all expect that we spend so much time talking about. So I'm going to just take Kansas City because I have an absurd faith in Mahomes that I don't know that I've ever had

other than Brady for the NFL. Yeah, I think it's the best defense they've had with Mahomes and probably the worst offense they've had with Mahomes and probably the worst offense they've had with Mahomes but they still have uh they still have Mahomes there uh I'll go with the Eagles at three they're eight and one they have a nice lead over the rest of the NFC they're probably uh they're in good shape at least to have that one seed they're 22 and two with Jalen Hurts as the starter the last two years, which is an absurd number. So I think Eagles and Chiefs were probably the chalky one picks there.

So I'll go ahead and take the Eagles here. Okay. I'm going to do something kind of dumb, but I'm stubborn. I'm going to take the 49ers. Okay. but I'm stubborn. I'm going to take the 49ers. Okay. No, I think that, uh, yeah, I, I think that makes sense. I think they've got to be considered, uh, in that, in that next group of teams, I will go ahead and take the team. We just, uh, we're talking about and T and take the Ravens. They've got to prove it in the playoffs. Lamar Jackson has to stay healthy, but man, they lead the NFL in pretty much every statistical category.

And I think they're really good. Okay. I'll take Jacksonville with no hesitation. Really? That's interesting. So you're in on them. I think if you look at this team and who they've been and the carryover of last year into this year, this is a really good football team. But it gets lost in the what's up with Buffalo, the Kansas City part of it, Cincinnati, even the excitement of Miami, Baltimore's push for this whole thing.

And I just think Jacksonville is the absolute afterthought of all those other teams. And I don't, I don't know that there's this gap between them, uh, that, that maybe exists perception wise. Yeah. I thought their defense was going to stink coming into the season. And it's been, uh, it's been really good this year. I feel like their offense hasn't peaked yet. And so I do think they have upside in the second half of the season. I'm going to go ahead and say, don't bury the bills yet with my next pick. I'm buying the bill stock specifically on offense. I think there's a chance Josh Allen just puts the team on his back in the second half of the season and wins MVP.

I don't believe in their defense, but I do believe in Josh Allen. There's just too many metrics and data and points of analysis that tell me this team is not as bad as their record has shown so far this season. And I actually still think they have a shot here to turn their season around. I love that pick. I have him here.

I just really, really starting to get worried about that defense because, I mean, they lost three great players early, and I know the defensive line depth is enough to get maybe past the Jones loss, but the Milano loss is a serious loss, and then you find two other guys limping off the most recent game. So we'll see how many starters they're going to have on that defense towards the end of the year. But I would have still taken them maybe with the next pick, but I'm glad they were going to be taken at some point. I'll, uh, I love the value with

Dallas in the eighth pick, you know, look, say what you want. I thought they were so competitive in that Philly game that it was like, you can't write them off. I know, I know the Niners game was humiliating and we can chalk the Eagles thing up to just be in the division deal, but whatever. I just, I think that much of Philadelphia that I was actually still impressed with Dallas in a loss, despite the concerns of, you know, who Dak is in certain scenarios. Yeah. I just finished watching that film for Philly special and the Cowboys offensive line in that game. I think that's like the best performance I've seen anyone against the Eagles pass rush in two years until like the last, you know, two minutes of the game. They were awesome. Dak was awesome. So they're right there for me. I'm looking at the next two here. I'm debating between two teams. two here. I'm debating between two teams. I'm going to go with, I think I'm going to stick with Miami. I'm going to go with Miami. I was debating between Miami and one other team here. Just the offensive upside is there. Their defense has played a lot better in the last few weeks

here. They're getting healthier. And so I don't know if it's going to happen for them, but at this spot in the draft, I do think they still have that upside. Okay. That leaves me Detroit. I think that's the only other obvious pick. Is that who you were debating? Yep. No doubt. All right. So we had the same 10. And I didn't think it was that the only other team I considered, like if you, I didn't think it was that, what did you think? Was there a team off the top 10 where you're leaving them off? Like I thought if someone wants to make the case for Seattle at like 9 or 10 I wouldn't kill them but I don't know I felt like it was pretty easy to come up with the top 10 no I think Gino's year last year was an awesome story good for him but and the thing is it's like

there's certain throws on Sunday you're like, whoa. I mean, they're incredible throws. But Seattle is one of three teams with a winning record with a negative point differential. Now granted, the Ravens, still halfway through the season, you can have just a completely lopsided game that can maybe tell you something that isn't there. But when I see Pittsburgh at 5-3, but a point differential of minus 30 which is like worse than the chargers i mean it's worse than the jets it's worse than atlanta um it's worse than the rams it's just steelers aren't good so i don't i'm not taking them and then cincinn Cincinnati has a negative point differential, but I think it's two completely different seasons

within the season, within a half season. So I don't know how much truth is being told in some of Cincinnati's numbers. So I'm more dismissive of their stuff. So I really think there's, did we just discover that there's 10 teams and then that's it? I think that's right. Yeah, I mean, I didn think there's, did we just discover that there's 10 teams and then that's it? I think that's right.

Yeah. I mean, I don't, I mean, I, I didn't think that I have to think that hard about it with like 11 and beyond. No, these, I'm not taking any of these teams. Yeah. I mean, you can fiddle with the order, but, and even those, I mean, we could argue about some of them, you know, how confident are you that lions, that Lions, some of these teams actually deserve to be there? But I think they do. I think they probably, there are scenarios where those teams

can get to the Super Bowl. But yeah, I think that's the right 10. Okay. That's Yoko Patia. You can check out the Ringer Trade Value column on theringer.com and of course on podcasts throughout the week good stuff man all right thanks for having me you want details bye 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 what is up to kyle and steve i didn't

spend a lot of time uh recapping anything from bama really because we were on a massive time crunch we had availability issues and then i had to get out of a hotel and make it to a flight to get back to the west coast anyway so i didn't really talk too much about bama but i wanted to do a little rosillo on the road for it um i love making it down to the south it's i have this weird relationship with it once i'm down in the south i just love it but then i'm like okay now i now i can leave you know i don't know that i would ever i would ever live there that's how i feel about new york city i'm like oh this is awesome and then i'm there for three days and i'm like, I can't live here. This sucks. I got to get out.

New York is, I know, I think there was a younger phase where I was like, oh, maybe I'll do it. Maybe I thought I would have to eventually in the job that I have. And there was an offer one year where my contract was up and NBC had made me an offer and I was going to take it and I was going to move to New York city. I was like, okay, I'm going to actually do this and see how it goes. And I know now like that would drive me crazy. Like it's, it is, I like New York city, but I, I could not live there. You have to start talking about all the best restaurants and stuff. Like, like you've been going there since you were five. what's your favorite pizza spot yeah yeah which areas are cool you don't try to be a guy yeah i like my reading situation a lot better here uh in manhattan beach than going yeah all right i guess i'm

gonna go find a park bench and read outside so um i may be older i don't think i'm old enough for that move yet in new york city so the south is different though because i don't you know i can't ever envision a scenario where i would be be living there but just being around the sec part of it the football thing the whole deal and it was chris long's first sec game so he kind of you know after a couple hours you know just taking it all in he was was like, geez. And I was like, yeah, that's, that's what I try to explain to everybody there. But something interesting happened that I think is always a good lesson for all of us on, um, you know, who we're interacting with when we're interacting with strangers, especially with how many people like to talk

to strangers on social media and everything. And so if you go to LAX and you check into one of the terminals, because there's been a lot of construction in some of the new terminals, you can kind of check in one place, but then your departure gate can be a decent hike away. Like you have to kind of cross over the international check-in

and then you end up in this back maze and, you know, the shops and restaurants are really nice and all that kind of stuff. But it can be a bit like, wait, where's my gate? Tom Bradleyley can get messy tom bradley gets messy it's like am i actually terminal four or three or b or whatever but yeah yeah i want to go and nobody knows nobody knows where you're going when you ask them i go to sweden like wait where's where's this so it's not for everybody especially when when you realize it once it happens you're kind of

like thrown off but for the most part you know people make their flights so i'm making my way back to the gate and there's this woman and i'm trying to be delicate about how i would describe her um Not desirable. We just put it that way. Not just on appearance, but personality. The sample that I got in just a few minutes. Total package was just not great. Yeah.

Wasn't one thing. She was on the phone just ranting to somebody. And she was holding a dog. Oh. to somebody and she was holding a dog and and she was like irate because she had to walk all right and she wasn't old and you know no one's here to necessarily assume anyone's medical situation uh but she's on the phone and she's like and i have asthma and they did not help and i can't find my inhale and i'm not trying to dismiss as my there's a kid named craig who had asthma he had he had to move to arizona we were kids shout out to craig great kickball man um you know asthma

when you were kids you're like dude what's you know everybody always talked especially when you're from the northeast be like yeah i think we have to move to arizona so it's serious business but i don't know i got asthma what the fuck you you guys never had this should we move to arizona i don't know what you're talking about yeah i've never i've never heard that in my life no one i knew that has asthma had to leave so wait you've never i'm wondering maybe the inhalers got better or whatever i swear to you as a kid for my age the we may have to move to arizona conversation you're like you would hear about it you would hear about this so i don't i know i'm not making it up i just for you guys to like, what the hell are you talking about? That might've been a generational thing.

Maybe there's older people listening. Yeah, but you guys had polio back then too. Polio. A lot of stuff. These guys. All right. You guys are. Come on. I didn't expect a polio reference

because I had a polio line here and then Kyle jumped in with it. Ah, sorry. So she has asthma. She's very upset. The gate is far away from where she checked in and she has a dog and when she said to whoever she was talking to that she was upset that they would not drive her in a cart to the gate and she's like i'm out of breath i'm not gonna make it

she's like they wouldn't give me or prince a ride and that was the name of the dog yep and um it made me wonder did she ask for the dog to get its own ride i don't think so right but the way it was we both have asthma she was like i'm out of breath and so is he and that was the one where i just like i lost it walking by laughing not like i waited until i could be out of i mean i was gonna pass her obviously pretty quickly based on her pace but she was just like and he's out of breath and and she was caring so maybe the dog had asthma maybe they were flying arizona who knows i feel like i'm about as pro dog as anybody i've got two dogs love them both they're great but the dog at the airport thing i just so i was on a flight i think it was when we were coming back i was coming back from la

and there was this woman she was kind of younger but yeah she had a dog and she was always holding the dog whether it was in line or literally on the plane or like she was doing like, you know, back and forth up and down the aisle holding the dog. She also like was standing with the dog next to her seat and was completely oblivious to other people trying to get by her. And I'm just like, I know everything about you. Like, I kind of feel like based on your actions here. And unfortunately, again, I'm a dog person. I'm not saying I love dogs, but dog playing person, and especially somebody who's very aggro about the respect that their dog should get on a plane.

It's kind of like Ryan's old thing back in the day where you should just wear something, your main point in life on a t-shirt, just so I know, hey, we're probably never going to be friends. I knew I was never going to be friends with that person. The service chihuahuas and the service Yorkies, it's just, I'm not against it as a whole,ies it's just it i i'm not against it uh from like as a

whole but it's just me a lot of times to me it seems like you know you took your grandma's handicap placard and you're just like running errands and shit it's just like come on you know what you did you know what you did like just because you wanted to bring this dog to the farmer's market like come on what service is it? But I guess there's a whole mental health aspect to it, but come on. Yeah. None of us are telling anyone that has an emotional support dog that legitimately needs it. Okay. Like I'm not saying that's wrong. What I'm saying, just like the handicap pass is that like, it feels like 80% of you that have this are working the system yeah you got that on amazon you didn't go through the county website like you just went like can i can i get

a service it's like from amazon i don't have to bring the dog to the kennel i could just bring on the plane all right yeah there you go where's the 12 bucks done yeah ask me about it see what happens right i'm gonna get really mad so there was that part of it it just made me think like imagine if that person were a dude who was like you don't respect the clippers and i was like well i don't i don't get in arguments on social media to begin with like i might throw throw something back at a dude once or twice a year maybe and yet i'll think like if you want to do engage all the people that disagree with you or whatever, it was like sometimes that's like the snapshot that you need to remind yourself of. Like imagine debating that person on anything. I couldn't believe she said her dog was out of breath. I was like, man, that dog is that dog is stressed out, too. It was it was it was being anyway.

get stressed out too. It was, it was, it was being anyway. Um, so there was that part of it. Shout out to the Moe's in Tuscaloosa. We've talked about the tipping options at takeout before. Uh, there was that one high end Denver cafeteria that a few years ago absolutely blew my mind where it was a really nice cafeteria. It was, it was a modern one, but then not at the place that served you the food, just the place that checked you out. They had like a 35% tip option. Right. Starts at 20. Right. Right. This guy's not afraid to tip at all. But that one, I was like, whoa, I think I may even ask, like anybody ever hit the 35? And people get weird about, Moe's and Tuscaloosa went the other way.

They had a 1% tip option. Never seen that before. Jesus Christ. Would you like to round up to charity? I even said something to her. I was like, 1%? I'm like, what? What's going on?

And she's just better than that. Yeah. Yeah. She shrugged. food delivery i think we went oh for three when i was in the hotel room watching football getting ready for stuff so you know there's sometimes the southern hospitality and then there's also the other end of it where it's like this isn't going to work out where's the urgency yeah yeah this isn't going to work out and then final uh piece of this is ran into shane gillis who i think

is the best comic going right now and he had a friend it was a friend of a friend thing so it wasn't like we were meeting up there but seeing him deal with guys like i may get the hey don't you think jordan pool's underrated thing from a guy or shouldn't you do more on this or how come you're not paying enough attention to the Mac or whatever the one guy went up to him with like a routine and now after we did the Bargatze thing where that was part of the thing to make it uncomfortable and then it was like maybe okay I don't know that I'm ever going to do that ever again with a comedian because then there was like a guy that went up to him to use a fake name to try to like get a laugh out of him and then it went awkward as it would because he came up with like a fake name he then

went back to explain why he used a fake name and why it was always something he was going to do when he saw him and then everybody just kind of stands there like awesome dude so it was always something he was going to do when he saw him. And then everybody just kind of stands there like, awesome, dude. So it was like freestyling for rappers? Like, no, not now, not now, not now. Yeah. He was great. He was a lot of fun. His friends were great.

And, you know, wasn't locked at the hip necessarily all weekend thing, but got the hang of it. And obviously he was excited to meet Chris Long. He's a huge Eagles guy. Big football guy. So big football guy. And just as funny, I'm not going to share everything,

but there was, there was something he had asked me and, you know, it was, it was like hysterical, just the, what he said, the way he delivered it,

the whole thing. And so it was, it was cool to get to spend some time with him because I've been a big fan here now for, for about, I don't know how long, but the recent special was incredible too. So there you go.

A little recap of Trip Down South. Future guest Shane Gillis or you'd never put him in that position? I would do it, but I think Bill was going to get him or something. So I'm not quite sure how that works out but yeah i may just go see him i was gonna say i think probably not i think we know how it works out yeah probably not you then probably not you then uh well said yeah that was

that was good okay let's get to a couple uh questions here uh we might do a little little mystery solving here we actually were thinking about having a another a branch of the podcast called the rossillo lost and found service run those maybe once every other month because that's what we're doing right here but i think we need to we need to help this guy out i don't think it's going to work 5 11 190 30 years old former power five walk-on what's up nba player comp john starks well if you were a walk-on corner and i'm looking at your name here i'm gonna make some kind of guess you got you got some fighting yeah all right i live in austin was down on sixth street taking in some college football, little wood drills. After some failed efforts, I locked eyes with a cute blonde. Her name was Shannon.

We're using real names here, apparently, because this is part of the Lost in Sound deal. Yeah. A couple of shots and drinks later, it was on akin to Brady running the two-minute drill with a receiving core of scrappy lacrosse players. She later playfully takes my $300 designer shades, puts them on in the midst of our flirty frolics,

straight from the I've Known You for 30 Minutes playbook. Right as Oklahoma State knocks off Oklahoma, I check my win probability with Shannon, and every model had it hovering around 99%. No big deal. She's CJ's strategy here then. They must have neglected to include the excessive drinking on an empty stomach. No big deal. She's CJ Strouded you here then. They must have neglected to include the excessive drinking on an empty stomach.

Empty stomach, man. Fast forward to 2 a.m. I wake up on my couch alone, sunglassless. I feverantly scour my phone for any traces of contact with Shannon. Turns out that in my drunken hubris, I neglected to get her phone number, which leads to me seeking advice. Do we think this is a playful misunderstanding or rather a calculated effort to score a sick pair of shades? If you know Shannon in Austin who was at Woodrow's on Saturday, would you please forward me her number? At the very least, I would settle for the return of my shades.

Also, Sir Rudy. Two words. I bleached my hair in May and just cut the last highlights out of it last week. It's never too late. I'm jealous. Damn it. I love this guy. So is he saying he blacked out?

Sounds like it. Yeah. So he blacked out. He's wondering if there was this elaborate scheme or if you lost your sunglasses. Well, let's not let's not judge Shannon like that yet. I mean, we don't know. We don't know. I was going to go the other way. I think it it's not shannon blacked out then like that's kind of on you man i it's the stumbling fool we're talking about here right it's uh i'm on your side i've lost a bunch

of stuff um and i've been told about myself before too i mean the nice thing is nobody's telling you about yourself but like you probably you you probably lost track right i don't think this was a scheme i think this was you know you fumbled, dude. I don't know if we're keeping with the football references. Like this was the Cam Newton fumbling for the Patriots as he was about to run it into the end zone. Like this is, it was all going well. And then it was just inexplicably bad, but I think it's your fault. Have you thought about Facebook? Are you, do you want to get these back so bad that you'd be willing to look up look her up with the information you know about her on facebook or

instagram and request it like are you is it is is it sunglasses tunnel vision now like are you willing to be like the weirdo that's you know searched for you with the 2023 internet tools to get these sunglasses if yes that's what you do i think you email a popular podcast and hope it works out we've never done this okay shannon's not like a crazy popular name i mean i feel like you could just do shannon and then austin texas although who knows like maybe she doesn't have austin in there maybe she's like a suburb or something and you're screwed but it's probably where i'd start you don't have like any buddies or friends or anybody who could because i would want to know like how the hell did I get on my couch?

Like, I'm not saying it's going to be like a hangover situation where there's so much of pictures that tell you what the night story was, but you don't have any other evidence. You just woke up on your couch and that's it. Because again, that's not on, maybe she was like being kind of shady, but that's kind of on you, man. Yeah, he lost his sunglasses. I mean, just, hey, Kyle, right?

Chalk it up to the game. It's all part of it. I just wonder if he wants the glasses more or her number more. Well, you can kill two birds with one stone, maybe. Like, this is, you know. Right. Now, that's the thing is if some people would be fine that you, you know, went out and maybe even typed it into LinkedIn or something. If you remember anything she said about herself. There's not. It's too big of a city he doesn't have enough info there's that'd

be really really hard and i i don't know i think you're having an old guy moment i don't think it's actually that hard if you're just looking at avatars you know i think as a guy who searched before you know before i found my lovely wife but just like oh who is that let me see if i could oh there she is on page two of the search or whatever but how did you do that you had like friends in common i'd imagine like there seems like there's no six degrees there's not even one degree of separation here like you just don't know who this person is now you can just keep going back to that bar and hoping she shows up i don't yeah i don't know how you're going to do this other than the creepy internet search, right?

It might not be creepy. If the other person doesn't find it creepy, it's not creepy. That's the only thing I can think of. It's not creepy, though. It would only be creepy if you're going after her to date her or whatever. You have a legit reason, like your sunglasses. I don't think it's creepy, but it's

just going to be really hard. Yeah. All right. ever you have a legit reason like your sunglasses so you're actually i don't think it's creepy but it's just gonna be really hard yeah all right i guess he could look at woodrow's instagram and see if anybody posted pictures there and tagged the place that are public and then you go through the whole thing um i mean that's part of it or said, if we find out, we'll get back to you, man. Okay. I love this one and also hate it. NBA comp, Tony Kukoc. The title alone is terrific because at first you're like, what? Mentor's dangling carrot is rotten.

Wow. You get a real. Well written already. Yeah. Real Douglas Copeland on our hands here. All right. A family friend whom I've known my whole life and would consider a second father figure told me a couple of years ago that he was planning on retiring in early 2025 and wants to give me half as much as the

parent company will allow of his lucrative book of business. Training would have started next summer for me to learn the ropes. In an adjacent deal, he sold me his house for at least $50,000 to $75,000 less than market value earlier this year. There was a catch. I had to let him stay at the house for roughly seven months rent-free while he waited for his new house to be built. And I would pay him $30,000 when he gave me the book of. So we'd both have skin in the game in getting me the job. Okay. Cut to now. My wife and I are happily living in the home.

But I recently talked to him and he says that he's pushing back his retirement for roughly three years because the house he built was much costlier than anticipated. Meanwhile, I've not been trying to advance my career searching for other jobs for two years because i thought i was jumping ship soon anyway i haven't told my wife yet because she's already starting to distrust him due to several small things that have added up like taking the refrigerator and washer dryer from our house to his new house even though that wasn't in the contract does that have to be in the contract uh yeah i mean if you're going to take out a fridge in a house washer dryer can get a little dicier i'm sure people will argue this not super interested but um if you're going to take a refrigerator out of the house i mean granted this all is in the different paperwork all these, but there's things that are kind of like standard operating procedure. I've let 95% of it slide due

to the job offer, and he's been very generous to me throughout life. While I don't doubt that he will eventually follow through, I'm worried he could postpone his retirement date again as he lives a luxurious lifestyle and is only in his late 50s, early 60s, or the job may not be as compelling as he says since nothing is on paper and the parent company could further limit or change their percentages at any time. Should I put my career on hold for at least another two or three years in hopes he follows through on his word

or should I give up on it and look for other opportunities? Note, his job is in the field I want to be in whereas now I only partially work in that area. My main responsibilities are soul-sucking and time-consuming. This jump would increase my salary roughly 25% from what he's told me

but again, nothing is written in stone stone so there's something very significant here that starts the first line of this whole thing is where you say you consider him a second father figure okay so we're not talking about somebody who's just down the hallway so on paper it sounds like he did you a huge favor on the house transaction if you know the numbers are right here 50 to 75k right but you paid him 30 which you know makes that number maybe look a little bit different okay um so he's he's out of the house the fridge thing whatever but here's here's the most important, like there's two main things that I want to hammer here. One is this is going to happen to you a lot. And this carrot that he's dangling you, like he, in his mind had projected where he thought his head was going to be at years down the road, which is going to present you this opportunity that you've already compensated him

for, um, which is concerning. But in his head, he may be like, well, yeah, you paid me part of this, but I already hooked you up with the house part. So you're still up in the game based on the numbers here. So that argument's going to be tough. But back to the point that I need to make. The real point is this, is that even in my career, and it's going to happen to most of you in all these different walks of life, is that there's going to be the older persons that are telling you how they want to retire all the time. And they don't want to, hey, I don't want to be doing this forever. I heard it all the time, even at ESPN. They'd be like, well, this guy's not going to be here

forever. And this guy, and guess what happens? The guy who at 50, who thought he was going to walk out the door at 55, looks at his options at 55 and says, you know what? It's still better money than I'd make anywhere else. I like having a job. I don't need to be retired. Like when you're 20, you think 35 is old. When you're 35, you think 50 is old. And when you're 50, you're like, you know what? I'm not that old.

You know, it's just the way it works, man. And so not that you fell for this, but it is like Josh Brown, downtown Josh Brown, right? Our financial guy came on, did financial life advice. It was one of the best things he ever said we've had on any life advice episode. We should probably have him back on and do another one of those. There was an email that wrote in who said, Hey, I'm, I think the guy was like in his twenties. He's like, I'm grinding away. The job isn't that great.

But the guy who runs this office is telling me he's going to give me his book of business down the road. And Josh like stops. He goes, he's not going to do that because guys don't do it. I'm not saying it's never happened. Don't argue exceptions. But more often than not, like I'm, I'll tell you, I will have an idea in my head of where my head is going to be at down the road. And then once I become that age, everything I thought I was going to think is wrong.

Because then I'm like, whatever, like this isn't so bad. So whether it's your guy being in the present and realizing that his projections were wrong or the added piece that you gave us that this guy apparently likes to spend money. And when it's somebody who likes to spend a ton of money, they're usually not in a hurry to hand over something that was making them the money in the first place. Like there's some serious problems here. Now, I think the best piece of advice that I could give you,

other than just for anyone that's listening, it's okay to have a little faith in somebody. And you clearly have a much more intimate relationship with this person, as you mentioned, second father figure here. But be ready for it not to work out. And that's not just to the emailer, that's to everybody. Because we constantly pretend we know how we are going to feel in the future about something. And then it changes when it becomes the present day.

So what i'd say to you is this is what you want to do but you mentioned that it's what a 25 pay bump which is significant but it might not be life-altering um you're not in the field that you want to be this is the field that you want to be i don't think you can just blindly bank on this option anymore, but I would try to keep it alive while also preparing for it not to work out. And that's as simple as I can say it is don't sabotage the option because you're pissed about feeling like you were lied to because that's something that I've done where you

go, wait, what? And it's like, no, no, keep it in play. Keep it in play. I'm like, nope, flame on. Right? Yeah. Don't do that. Like be as pissed at him as you want to be. But I'm telling you, this is not great information for your timeline and your plans because they're completely dependent on the whims of somebody else who told you years ago they wanted to walk away when way more, not more than 50%. It feels like 90% of the time, you know, we just get older and we go, I'm not ready to leave this, or I don't really have that many other options, or I don't want to make way less money, or I didn't save enough. And in this case, this guy bought this house.

He's like, shit, this is really expensive. That's why he stole your fridge. Yeah, I think, you know, plan for the worst. Be pleasantly surprised. That's really that's a great way to do anything, I think. Right. And then then when good shit happens, it's not like I was waiting. Finally, it's like, holy shit, look at this. And then, you know, even without the house, I mean, my dad is going to be 60 in three weeks. His wife, my stepmom, longtime teacher, he's an IBMer. Their plan has changed from two years to four years. She's gone from three years to two years. And he told me, I don't know, two years ago, he's like, I just watched 100 grand disappear

from my slowly pushing the rock up the hill style savings retirement account. And it just boom. And that just, it just, boom. And then he changed his plan by two years. So house or no house, I think to decide to stop working and get out of that field that, you know, has provided you this way to, you know, live. And also, you know, I think everyone at that age is so concerned about like, did I do this? Do I have enough? Cause then it's done. Then I get this, you know, this fixed income check from that plus the social security and like, that's it. And so I think, I think that's, it's really scary. So try to keep that in mind when you're like, this guy's jerking me around. Cause like house or no house, you know, you don't know

how his, how his stuff is stacked up and something could have happened to, you know, one of his major points in that thing. And it's just like, he might've lost more than he thought anyway. You know? So I think it's just, I think it's really hard to just take that, not even like, what am I going to do with myself? It's like, do I have enough? You know, there's no one, there's no one to rely on other than yourself at that point, really. So I think it's probably not. And the other thing is you already got the first carrot, right? He has a pretty good track record. You know, you'd be as mad or, you know, perturbed as you want about the fridge, but you got the house. There's no more strings attached to that house, right? Like you he's out he's so like not only did he sell you the thing he also moved out

when he said he was going to move out so he's like good on his word it's not like he's not a guy who just says shit to say it right like you're not getting super bowl scammed here i think like you know you you at least have like this guy is truthful and this is i think this is a completely under you could be a little more understanding than you are about this guy's position right sure hope i mean i mean if you're an outsider you're listening to me like wait so you paid less on paper for this house are you sure but then you also paid him 30 grand for this thing that hasn't and that has already been paid right the 30 grand has been paid it's not like it's not like when when we transfer the book you give me that last 30 grand and we you know shake hands and be done uh no it sounds like it's done yeah it was part of the house sale i guess

okay i mean if if you haven't given him the 30 grand then what are you even complaining about right now about his wife waiting for him to get a different job i guess i know it says i would pay it says i would pay him 30 grand when he gave me the book of business so so this guy's even better than we thought yeah uh that's the way i'm reading that then he hasn't paid it he couldn't have paid it to him yet so he's not even like he's not even doing a sleight of hand here with that 30 grand so i think this guy's pretty good guy and you should try to be a little more understanding with how hard it is to actually walk away when you're, you know, you're trying to make sure you have enough money for the rest

of your years. In business alone, even if you didn't have this super close relationship, anybody that's worth anything should understand your position. You go, hey, man, this is kind of what my expectations were. This is the timeline you mapped out. Those things have changed. I need to adjust off of that. Like, do you have anything for me? You don't? Okay.

But if you're this close, then he should be even more understanding. Even two people that don't like each other. That's business. That's like, hey, this is this is what you said this is the reality i can't i can't just wait here the whole time and i i just don't like waiting you know i really don't like waiting on other people in general and what is waiting couldn't you just do do your best in the career you have if you didn't have this great opportunity like unless you move right and you probably wouldn't you just bought a house like what's the issue with you like leaving that job if this ever comes up like i don't understand

yeah you're right you're right no so what exactly would he even be waiting on it sounds like he's just like wish more good stuff would happen sooner right it's not like it's not like you can't do anything because you're waiting on this right well because he's he's moving into a house he's got his own life he's got his wife his wife thinks they have kind of a plan i mean it's not it's not great and she's probably thinking hey if they were that close this guy wouldn't do this and delay it all on him that much but ultimately even though this guy told you that like that's not even being selfish that's just hey guess what the thing i said we could do i can't change yeah i can't do yeah i think the thing you said ryan initially though

about like you know not yeah you're i feel like the future of your career should never be dependent on one single person yeah um and you know and if it does get screwed up and you kind of only have one person to blame and that's yourself, you're still in the, you're still in the black area. Like you're still, I mean, even if nothing happens, like you still got this house for a discounted price. Yeah. Like your career might be screwed up. And like, to your guy's point about, you know, I'm sure they've, they've sort of, when you, when you think you're going to get some sort of promotion or whatever, like you already start planning about like, all right, well, here's the next vacation we can go on. Here's like the different car we could buy. So you're that stuff

is already like in your head of yours. So when that gets delayed, like I understand the frustration of that, but you really haven't lost anything yet. And you actually got a pretty good bump with this house. So I would say I think your only option really is just like, all right, you don't like the thing you're doing, but you got to keep doing it. Right. And if it gets delayed by a couple years and this guy, because I don't think anything you said about this guy makes it seem like there's any malice. I think he's just, you know, he's already kind of hooked you up. So I don't think there's any reason to believe that he's going to just all of a sudden never let you do this. I don't know what the book of business is, though. Like, is it like,

it's not like a dentist's office where like, you know, you're just transitioning whoever the main dentist guy is. Like, I don't know if it's real estate. I don't know what it is. Like, I wish I knew a little bit more about what the actual industry is to say more about how i feel about it but i don't know i i without knowing this guy at all i don't think there's any reason to think he's not trustworthy yeah i i just think you have to you're just going to tell him you just tell him hey this isn't going to work for me maybe it works in the future but i need to start pivoting a bit from this um and as soon as you tell your wife like you can't be dragging that out. Like originally the email says the guy said he was going to retire in early 2025.

So we're not, we're still over a year from where she thinks the timeline is. And that's obviously already been adjusted to. So whatever. All right. That was enough time. Trey Lockerbie 1.2 It doesn't sound that bad really when you when you really read through it twice it's like wait what's the issue you're anticipating a problem but now that i thought now that now that we know he didn't pay the 30 grand right now i'm like i

don't even know what the problem is like i i know i know i'm not i'm not diminishing it's frustrating i get it but like yeah you you made out here no matter what happens yeah yes yeah i mean some people probably hear it and be like, if he really sold you the house for that much under value and you haven't paid him yet, like this guy's still totally hooked you up. Can I get screwed over too? Yeah.

It's awesome we know this guy. Is this the line to get screwed over? That'd be great. All right. That'll do it for us. Thanks to Cliff and Kyle and Steve. We will be back on Friday. Please subscribe to the Ryan Russillo Podcast for your spot. Must be 21 and older in present select states.

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