The Ryen Russillo Podcast - The Doncic Problem, Jordan Scoring Today, and Coaching Criticism With Jeff Van Gundy. Plus Three Concerning Young NBA Players, and Life Advice

Episode Date: January 8, 2023

Russillo shares his thoughts on the Nuggets’ blowout win over the Clippers, no West teams having a winning record on the road, Mavericks-Celtics, and three promising young NBA players who are not developing as expected (0:47). Then Ryen is joined by ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy to discuss the NBA scoring deluge, Luka Doncic's ability to dissect any defense thrown at him, what constitutes a "winning player," the Nets' resurgence, fans' and media's criticism of coaches, and more (17:16). Finally Ryen and Kyle give out their favorite bets for NFL Week 18 (1:11:53), before answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:15:08). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Jeff Van Gundy Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today on the Ryan Russo podcast we are loaded for you a little NBA recap stuff from the week and also a thing on some younger players we go for an hour with Jeffy and Gundy we talk about Donch. We talk about the scoring burst. What would happen with MJ because that feels like a rule. And then we just kind of talk about basketball philosophically and then a real solid 20 minutes on just coaching and the criticism of coaches where

we agree a ton. I don't know how you'll feel if you learn anything from this, but I really love talking to that guy. Life advice and our FanDuel contest picks for the NFL. Before we get to Jeff Van Gundy, I'm going to talk a little NBA to open up the show here today. I did not do a full-blown Tales of the Couch

because I was at Pauley Pavilion. First time ever UCLA hangs on to beat SC. Unbelievable facility. A lot of history there. Although it's so new, if you had told me they finished building it yesterday, I would believe you. That was the cleanest arena I think I've ever been in. Even hung out

in Westwood a little bit. Shout out to Rocco's. So, yeah. A little UCLA experience for the guy who usually doesn't leave the South Bay. So, it's exciting. Okay. Came back, watched the games, and then watched what I needed to of Denver this morning. So Denver beats the Clippers by 31, 122-91.

They were up 32-15 in the first quarter. The Clippers closed 4-21 in the first 12 minutes of the game. At 55-23, that was the Clippers' largest deficit of the season. I don't know what to do with the Clippers. Don't know what to do with them. Paul George and Kawhi did play. They missed all their shots. There was zero energy. They were lost defensively. They missed everything offensively. And then it was just kind of a blowout. And because of the limited minutes, I thought it was kind of interesting on the broadcast there about, wait, well, if it's a

back-to-back and these are the rules, but these guys didn't play that many minutes, would that mean that they play coming forward? Yes, we know the best version of what the Clippers are in theory would be really good, but it's going to take a lot. They're basically, it's the Nets and the Clippers in a battle for a bad physical bet or a bad mental approach bet, right? Although Durant, you know, as great as he's been, you're always worried that he's going to get hurt there.

And look, Brooklyn is arguably one of the best teams in the NBA right now. So the Clippers aren't even in that category. But it's just a very frustrating team to talk about. And it was kind of interesting

they were hinting a little bit that not only frustrating for anyone that's a Clippers fan or any of us that are talking about them, but Ty Lue going, you know, this is kind of cue cards here and figuring out how to sub these guys in with the minutes restrictions.

So maybe it means something, maybe it means nothing. So then TNT started talking about Denver and their resume. Now Denver has wins against the Clippers, Boston, total control. They beat Phoenix in overtime. They beat Memphis by 14.

There was no Bain there, but all the other guys were there for Memphis, and it was two days off for Memphis. Altitude became an issue. The defensive numbers that I point out for the season, Denver defensive rating 22nd. Last 15 games, though, 13th. That's a really nice resume over the last 17 days

to be beating those kinds of teams. Really, I would say in total control of three of those games right um but they were like hey 15 and three at home but only 10 and 10 on the road all right so then i was like yeah that's kind of weird usually if you're pretty good you end up being a few games over 500 at this point on the road and end up with a good road schedule like it can be a little concerning and it's worked in the past for me when I'm trying to handicap playoff series and be like, wait, that team didn't beat anybody on the road? Or how were they against teams 500 or better? They didn't beat any. They had a losing record in both those

categories, but they're a four seed. So now what do I do? Usually that's kind of an indicator. So then I thought, is that another thing to doubt with the Denver Nuggets? It actually isn't. I'll explain. This is crazy. So I looked at Memphis, who also has the same record as them, fighting for the one seed, 15-3 at home, 10-10 on the road. It got worse. New Orleans, the three seed, 7-10 on the road. Dallas, 7-11 on the road. The four seed today with that win streak broken last night by Boston. We could spend a couple minutes on that. Sacramento, this is actually great, 9-9. That's the Kings. Your six seed Clippers, 10-11 on the road. Number seven, Portland, 10-12.

Number eight, Phoenix, 6-14. Golden State, the nine seed. 3-16 on the road. A league best 17-3 at home, and that's with the loss to Detroit the other night. I love that inbounds play to Clay, though. My God, is that beautiful.

Beautiful stuff. And Utah, number 10, 8 and 14 on the road. There's no one in the West with a winning record on the road. That is weird. We're almost 40 games into the season. I can't imagine that that's going to hold up, but it's really, really weird. The East has three teams that are winning record on the road. Boston, Brooklyn, New York.

Every single fan base, for the most part, can kind of point to the injury stuff, which becomes really selfish. It becomes about you and your team, and you're not paying enough attention to the rest of the teams and all the other stuff that's going on. That's why Boston,

even with this weird stretch of these 12 games where nobody can make a shot and nobody outside of Tatum and Brown were doing anything, and the offensive numbers, which still, for the season, register really high, have been, anybody watching them,

been a mess. The reason Boston's a really good bet here is because they're two guys play like tatum and brown as great as they are maybe the greatest attribute is that for the most part those dudes are always playing and boston's had a nice run here a health other than rob williams has missed 31 games and he clearly changes things i don't know where he is on the hierarchy of importance to the team. I mean, he is important, but there still should be enough there if we like their depth and all these other things. They shouldn't have been as bad as they were going to be.

The wake-up call against Dallas was pretty predictable, and they took care of them last night. Although Luka, 23-9 in 31 minutes, didn't play the fourth quarter. He was struggling. It was very weird when he came back to the second quarter. Luka, there was three straight possessions where he was totally fine taking himself out of the play and pointed at Dinwiddie to be like,

now you've got it, you've got it, and then stood in the corner, did nothing. And we didn't know if it was his ankle. We didn't know if it was his chest. Shout out to the broadcast that did a good job on that because sometimes I think with a TV broadcast, they can get lost and you're kind of watching it but again as somebody who did some play-by-play it's amazing like you'll you're at home going how is this guy not seeing this

and it's like yeah sometimes when you do it you have all these other moving things going around like i thought they were a little late on the zion injury against philadelphia where it was like wait wait he pulled up but if you weren't watching him and then it was a free throw and I'm like no something's wrong with him something's wrong with him there has to be something wrong with him then he got subbed out and kind of got lost in all of it Luca was still on the court while it was happening and he still actually had some moments there but you know Boston finally shot it well Dallas got off to a horrible start shooting I feel like when you kind of drive on Dallas, you could really say this for anybody, but Boston

was very locked in on the drive, the kick out, and then the extra pass. And when that's happening and guys are hitting shots, Dallas is just kind of lost, scrambling through the whole thing. So that win streak ends for them. I don't know necessarily what it means bigger picture, but I still think when you look at Boston having an NBA best record,

14-7 against the team's 500 or above, that's a really, really good sign on who they are despite these struggles. It just feels like, at least for me in Boston, it was a weird, rough stretch. Maybe there's another one coming as well, but I don't know. It's like a reversal of course here where now all of a sudden it's like, now I'm going to write those guys off. And I don't know that anybody was really doing that. Okay, a couple other things that I want to do here quickly in the open. I love watching the young guys because I spent so much time in the draft. I just like it. You know what I mean? It's almost like a weird hobby that I get to celebrate once, one night a year. The draft is my favorite sporting event. Evan Mobley, for the most part, does everything right.

But man, there were some lofty, lofty projections on what he could be. He's 59-3. He's taken less shots, which is understandable because now Donovan Mitchell's there. The three-point shooting, which was at 30% at SC, and he hit his free throws at high enough rate that you thought, this is something to really build on here. Well, he went from 30% at SC, and he hit his free throws at high enough rate that you thought, this is something to really build on here. Well, he went from 25% from three to 22% from three.

He still only takes like one game, so it's not that big of a deal. But it never looks like it's going in. Right, Cavs fans? There are times I've noticed where it feels like the Cavs are trying to force the issue with getting him involved offensively, which I like. Have him roll and get him a nice seal and see what he can do. There are moments with these jump hooks where it's like, man, that looked really good. There was this, whoa, is that going to be something that he does?

It looks like he'll have nice touch. He had a play in that Brooklyn game where he got Durant really deep, really deep at the rim and just went through him. And I was like, that's nice. Like a little aggressiveness. Granted, you could say, well, Durant's not exactly the best, but Durant's a good defender. He is.

And there was no apprehension. It was like Mobley was up for it. But it's still a very clunky-looking moment of him getting into his offense. There's these dashes of smooth with a lot of other stuff in there where I'm like, what is it about? And this is only because of one thing. This is only because of, like anything, when you have great expectations for something

and the thing is not great, right? Think about movies, right? I went to the whale the other night. I was expecting to be blown away. I wanted to feel something when I came out of there. It was all right. But I was kind of disappointed because I thought it was going to be this thing. Like, hey, I haven't seen a movie like this in forever.

And with some of the basketball players, it can be the same thing. We always expect to see something we've never seen before. We always hope to. That's why we all love the draft. That's why we all love young players. But for the most part, we rarely ever get the thing that we've never, ever seen before. You know, Doncic actually became that. With Mobley, every single team would want Evan Mobley.

I would want him. I love him. He's going to make a ton of money. He doesn't make mistakes for the most part. He's so smart. The passing is great. The rebounding, the defensive stuff that we saw. Although, I don't know. Was it better last year? Whatever. Doesn't matter.

For him to actually be the guy, which is also the argument about perimeter players and post players and how you prioritize which guys you want because the way this game is played because you're not really going to run your offense from one of these big guys anymore. It just doesn't really happen. Ask him. I'd love to see the times when he does get a chance,

it's only 10 shots a game, for it to look like, hey, this is the thing that's going to continue to blossom into these other things. Look, this is not a... Let me describe it this way. It's not an alarming development. It's just a concern, and I think that's totally fair. And this is why I like this Hollinger piece.

John Hollinger, the athletic, who wrote about this this week. Cause I was like, man, he's right. Exactly what I'm seeing because it's the same thing with Scotty Barnes. I really like Scotty Barnes. I'm a little concerned. I want to see that jump in the second year. And for somebody who has the second most touches for his team, it's not always working out. Sometimes he can overpower you. The shooting, which we knew was an issue coming out, has not gotten any better. You could argue it's gotten worse.

I still like the passing. I still like that Toronto is forcing the issue here of trying to figure out if he can develop as this guy who's bringing the ball up and get things going but i don't know it's not it's not really developing and the same thing with like you wanted to see that that jump and you could say oh toronto's a mess this season and they're not quite sure and all these different things i don't know you could also just play a little bit better and the defensive thing that I noticed where I was surprised, where I was like, wait, the Nets are running switches where they want to get Siakam off of Durant,

and they want to switch into Barnes? Like, does that make any sense? Now, Hollinger's arguing on some of the defensive stuff that that's actually like something that's regressed with Barnes. The metrics would back it up. Maybe. I mean, some of the scoring stuff for Barnes has gone down marginally every month, but whatever, that might not mean anything.

It's just we wanted that second year to show real improvement. And the last guy in this group from the same draft class is Jalen Green. I think Kevin Porter Jr. is the better basketball player right now. I'm not saying he's going to be, but that would be kind of concerning. Although Kevin Porter Jr. is the better basketball player right now. I'm not saying he's going to be, but that would be kind of concerning. Although Kevin Porter Jr. is pretty good.

Not perfect. When I watch Jalen Green, especially when I watch him against the Celtics and my Celtics buddies who only watch the Celtics are like, wait, Jalen Green's insane. That guy's amazing. If you watch that game, that's all you'd think. And he still might be really good. The counting stats, again, are better.

The shooting isn't. He has these drives where I don't know if he's doing it because he sees something or if he's doing it because he doesn't see anything. And then he just kind of drives. He's 34th in field goal attempts at less than five feet in the rim. So that means 33 players in the NBA take more shots at the rim per game than he does. three players in the NBA take more shots at the rim per game than he does. But at 56.5%,

he's in this group of those 34 guys that's at the bottom four with Oubre, Westbrook, and Terry Rozier. Not exactly what you'd want in your number one offensive option. You wouldn't want to be in that group. The Oubre thing is just sort of weird, not surprising. The Westbrook thing is the least surprising

ever. Westbrook has the worst number of anybody in those top 34 attempts at the rim. And then Rozier, smaller guard. You'd like to see that be a little bit better. None of this is defining. None of it is, hey, we know absolutely that none of these guys are going to be this good. And if you want to check out Hollinger's piece, I would recommend it because I was reading it going, hey, finally, somebody else is seeing some of these things that I think are concerning. And it really bums out the fan bases, too, because you're like, you know, you don't want any of this to be true, right? So you get, I'm sure some of you are super pissed. Don't care. You'd like to see it be a little better. And so far, halfway through the second season for these guys it isn't, it just isn't

okay last thing this D'Angelo Russell trade market stuff who trades for him? I know he's 26, I know he's talented, he's talented enough he's just talented enough to be dangerous

they gotta get him out of Minnesota. They do. I guess he unfollowed the team. I noticed, and I don't know if it's, you know, again, I try to remind everybody, I don't watch your team every night, but I noticed a substitution pattern with Russell where they took him out in the fourth quarter and then they kind of like fake brought him back in. The old lamello ball that my man Borrego used to do. He's like, I'm going to take you out.

Then once the game's a side up, put you back in. Fourth quarter, sort of. The problem for Anthony Edwards and the problem for the Timberwolves is you have two fake franchise guys. One's Towns, and I don't even think Russell is even a fake franchise guy. I think the gig is up on that one. The number of times where I watch him play where he's just not interested in being faster,

like he'll hit a big three, he'll make a sick pass, he's got this drive where if you look at the highlight package, you're like, this is amazing. And that's what Timberwolves fans should be praying for if somebody else is going to go ahead and trade him and take on're like, this is amazing. That's what Timberwolves fans should be praying for if somebody else is going to go ahead and trade him and take on his money. Trade for him. But the more I think

about Russell and even Towns to an extent, and then you get the Gobert deal. I'll just say I'm very worried about the surrounding pieces long term for Anthony Edwards, who I'm still extremely high on. Let's talk some hoops with Jeff Van Gunn.

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from the money line to touchdown scores to over, under, on yards. Our picks right before Life Advice, as they are every Friday. It's getting hot. It's getting hot. Kyle and I battling it out. The other thing you need to know, FanDuel even lets you combine your bets for a chance at a bigger

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First online real money wager only. Refund issued. It's non-withdrawable. Free bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Let's talk some hoops. One of my favorites, whenever we can get him on,

is Jeff Van Gundy. Morning. How are you? Doing well. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. I get excited when

I get to spend some time with you. Okay. We have seen a scoring barrage in the NBA. Maybe unlike, you know, everything always seems to go back to Wilt, which is its own planet. Whether it's Mitchell, whether it's the Stanchich run prior to the Boston game. It's just, it's nuts. What do you think it is? What do you think are the main factors for why we're seeing so many amazing individual performances? I think great skill and increased space on the floor because of the three-point shooting threats. I think the way the game is officiated has a big impact. has a big impact. And I think because teams are not running offense as much, I'd be very interested to see if the great players have the ball in their hands for a larger percentage of the time now. And then I think too, I think the way NBA teams practice or don't practice now, that's where you could generate your defensive habits and defensive intensity and attention to detail.

And because teams don't practice very often, I think you've seen a great slippage defensively as well. So I think it's a culmination of all those things in my mind. Let's stay on the practice thing. How often did you practice when you were the coach of the Knicks? Yeah, we practiced team practice. Obviously, everybody, even today, guys will do their individual work. But we would team practice often. Now, we also believed heavily both in Houston and in New York in days off.

So we gave off a lot of days off. You know, the obvious ones were, you know, after back to backs. And we really regulated how much contact we did. Let's say you played a game, then you had a practice and you had another game. You don't just want to regulate how long you're on the floor in my mind, but how much you hit, how much you go live, but you could still generate through drill work, clean up necessary areas, and also generate some intensity through semi-live drill work. So I think, you know, when you're in coaching, that's the art of it. No physiologist is going to say a guy's in

a red zone today and I'm going to be convinced that he should not practice. I think sometimes we have to sacrifice what may be best for an individual for the betterment of the team. And for the betterment of the team, oftentimes, and this is where I was really blessed, Ewing always did everything, wanted to do everything, but you could limit his reps, but he never came onto the practice floor, not expecting to do exactly what the 12th man would do. And I think that's a great blessing to have as a head coach, because it sets a tone that practice is important, that that's where we're going to improve. And whether you won or lost, I hear now you either win or you learn. I hate those type of cliches. You should be able to

learn from both situations. And every day is an opportunity to improve a little bit. Okay. So let's get back to the players thing here. And I was looking at it. Right now, we have 14 players averaging 20 field goal attempts per game. Five years ago, it was two. Ten years ago, Kobe took 23 shots a game. Nobody took over 20. So we're at 14. Load management isn't as excessive with the top players this season because I've tracked this stuff as it was last year. So that's part of it. I agree on the officiating the spacing certainly the skill so it's not a negative on this but I almost feel like and I don't know if it's a numbers influence thing which I actually enjoy a lot of the numbers but I wonder if teams went like with Harden hey this is how efficient we are when he's on the floor this is how efficient he is per possession so why are we forcing the issue and having other guys get turns when he's the best guy with the turns? And I can understand that argument. And I think we're seeing a lot of that.

But I also think from just a basketball standpoint, and it's one of my favorite things I ever learned, Larry Brown, I interviewed him very early on with the Detroit Pistons, I mean, years and years ago, and I was just a young shithead. And I'm like, why is Ben Wallace getting post-ups? And Larry Brown goes, because I want Ben Wallace to enjoy playing basketball. Because if I get Ben Wallace a couple of touches and there's a few plays for Ben Wallace, I know he's going to rebound harder. I know he's going to defend harder. I know he's going to be more engaged for the minutes that he's out there. If he knows he's not going to be ignored the entire time because having the ball is fun. Shooting is and i've never forgotten that and i i believe it so much in basketball that sometimes when i look at some of these offenses where it's like well

we're most efficient when we do this and we see these massive scoring games from these unbelievable players i wonder if that's to the detriment of what you're trying to build and what the rest of the players in your rotation are actually experiencing when they play basketball. Well, yeah, to me, those are so many different type of issues, right? a guy occupy the right corner without moving for possessions on end like to me those minutes are much different than the minutes that like you mentioned when james james harden was in peak houston form having the ball on every possession and and i think what houston came to is we run a pick and roll. Maybe that's not,

you know, cause they're going to look at it from strictly a mathematical standpoint. Maybe that's not the best use. And that's why I think they went heavy isolation. I think as he isolated, I think the game had to not be as enjoyable for the other four guys. I don't care what level you're at. When you watch a guy have the ball in his hands as much as some of these guys have, and you're relegated to just standing in the corner. It's one of the reasons I'd like to see the corner

three eliminated where, you know, there's no three point shot below the corner to make that area on the floor one where you're not just planting guys, where we're basically going to force you to move by eliminating that as a three point shot. And the three-point line to me would be ended where the break is. Everything below the break, it's two-point basketball. So I totally agree with Coach Brown from an enjoyment standpoint. I think it may elevate other guys. And I also think, Ryan, their level of enjoyment for the whole season. But I've never been a believer that regular season analytics is necessarily the best way for postseason success. I think that's why you need to have more offensive balance. I think that's why the mid-range jump shot is important in the playoffs, to have an ability for one or two of your guys on your team, like Durant, like Kyrie Irving,

when they take away the basket and they push up on the three, that your best players have an alternative to go to. And so I think there's a lot of interesting things. And so I think there's a lot of interesting things. I think Larry Brown was really intelligent, obviously, as a coach, but even how it pertains to, to me, because so many teams are playing vastly similar styles, it can be monotonous at times. Yeah, look, I'm with you. I still love it so much, but I'll have nights. I felt guilty. I felt guilty about this Doncic run because it so much, right? But I'll have nights. And I felt guilty. I felt guilty about

this Doncic run because it's absurd. But then I'm always thinking like, okay, but what does it mean? And when I look at Dallas, I don't have the answer. I think it's the ultimate compliment that sometimes Doncic bores me. That's how brilliant he is. That's how easy it is for him. And I mean it as a compliment, but at times I'm like, oh, okay, he's just brilliant he is. That's how easy it is for him. And I mean it as a compliment, but at times I'm like, oh, okay, he's just going to be able to do whatever he wants. But then when I try to build that out, I go, okay, Dallas doesn't have this great team around him. We know they're missing three of the rotation guys. What's the best way to build? And then I'm like, it might be who they are now. Would it make sense to have this other initiator, which they kind of did with Brunson. And I think they did a really good job of kind of staggering how those guys work together and how they'd work without each other. We know that it takes more talent. Your number two has to be better than Dallas's number two to be a real title contender.

Doncic is so fantastic, but at the same time, I wonder, is this the right playoff approach? If everybody's involved and everybody's going, or would another team just sell out in a way and the help would be there and the rotations would be just locked in more because they know the playoffs are on the line as opposed to a Tuesday in December? Well, I think I saw this for the first time back in the bubble where the Lakers were playing Houston. Houston won game one in their series.

And Harden, you know, it was that Harden-Westbrook grouping where they had really sold out. They had traded Capella, I believe. And they were playing you know like five you know sort of smallest but the ball was in harden's hands basically every possession yeah tucker was going to be center remember like tucker was going to play center he's bad and steven adams the first round and he's in the he's in the deep corner and you know so anyway i the lakers i thought did a great job after game one of playing harden like one-on-one and then they when he was in that slot area and he's looking to go as he's measuring people with the you know 100 dribbles between the legs you know they would come

over what i would term fire and fire and double team. And it was a little bit later in the clock. And then they would rotate, uh, you know, obviously they'd be in full rotation, but instead of having the trapper, then get to the weak side, they ran the guy from the defender, from the strong side side corner all the way as the ball moved corner to corner. And I thought it was brilliant and didn't mean they stopped Harden or they stopped Houston. But I thought that one defensive adjustment really was important to slowing them, breaking rhythm, was important to slowing them, breaking rhythm, not allowing the best player just to absolutely dominate in isolation situations. To me, I'd be shocked if you didn't see that more with Doncic now. I don't think because of his great talent, even though he's an unworldly passer,

talent, even though he's an unworldly passer, that you can be so afraid of the three that you just let this guy dominate the ball, dominate the game. I think you'll start seeing against these great players more and more of these late double teams to try to break rhythm. You've seen Ty Lue and the Clippers do the same thing at times to Doncic in the playoffs. I think that's coming about. The other thing I would think about with a guy like Doncic is if he's going to handle the ball full court, I think you've got to commit another guy to picking the ball up full court, particularly in the playoffs. another guy to pick the ball up full court, particularly in the playoffs. But I would even do it in the regular season with a great player like that. I'm not just going to let them do exactly what they want. Throw it to Doncic, trot it down, run a pick and roll, get the switch you

want, and then let him go one-on-one. He's going to win that battle. Yeah, because I've seen teams, I forget which game it was, whatever. They actually tried to just sell out and trap him as soon as you cross half court. You're like, okay, you may catch him at possession, but then you bring the other guy up. He has the outlet. They're playing four-on-three.

I almost feel like with Dodgers, you've got to treat him like a great quarterback, like a Manning or a Brady, where we're going to give you every look. We're going to double you on the first movement. We're going to double you. If you catch it in the post, we're going to let you dribble, then double. You know what I mean? We can't do the same thing every single time. And I think in the course of a regular season, it's really hard. But when you have the rematches in the playoff series, I think it becomes a little bit easier and because of

what's on the line there. I mean, this is all a compliment, but I just feel guilty sometimes where I'm watching going, I can't believe how easy it is for him. And this is against the best players in the world. I mean, that's what, to me, and that's why, but I go back to the practice thing too, Ryan, in that you would devote X amount of minutes per day or per week or per month to great player defense back then. Like, OK, we know we're going to face these. If we make the playoffs, we're going to face these dudes. You know, we're not going to make it up. You know, the term adjustments, usually adjustments is going to something you already have practiced.

adjustments. Usually adjustments is going to something that you already have practiced. Those are the best adjustments, but you have to give yourself enough time in practice, but also game reps against other guys. So I think you feel comfortable in trying, you know, what you're just mentioning X, Y, Z. I wouldn't think in football, they're just making it up on game day saying, Hey, uh, hey, Brady's hurting us with this. Hey, why doesn't the cornerback, like, let's have a safety blitz. You know, that's not how it works. So I think a lot of this defensive answers, and it's probably not going back this way, could go back to some increased practice time. And I'm not saying beat on the guys. I'm not saying physically beat on them, but I think to ask guys to come in and give you a good solid hour of

work on the day between games is not asking too much. I hate to be so cliche with this, but I, I feel like I always want to ask you one Jordan question. You know what? I feel like one Jordan question is always a good idea. I mean, do you think he'd get 50 today with the spacing? Because, look, maybe you'll get upset. I feel like the physical nature of the play is a little overstated from that era, like as if no one ever got a layup, like everybody was killed. Like we see some of these Detroit highlights that'll make their way on Twitter.

And it's like, you know, it wasn't like that every play. And the spacing was so bad that it congested it. But at the same time, guys weren't defending every inch of the court the way they feel like they're scrambling now. Like you drive, kick out, and if they want to swing it, it's tough to defend today's offense. So it's still Jordan.

So I don't want to like say, no, he wouldn't be able to do this. It's tough to defend today's offense. So it's still Jordan. So I don't want to say, no, he wouldn't be able to do this. He would be a better three-point shooter. He would have grown up with it. All of those things check out. I just wonder what you think of with the rules, the calls, the spacing, what it would be like if he played today? Well, if you think back, I think Phil Jackson would have been

a Larry Brown proponent in what he said. I don't think they ran the triangle because he thought it was the maximum way to score on each possession from opening night on. I think he thought it was the best offense so that everyone touched the ball, everyone felt a part of it, and everyone was most confident when the ultimate double teams did come in fourth quarters of the hardest games.

So I think it was a great offensive rebounding offense. I think it was a great offense so that everyone felt involved. I thought the flexibility that everyone had to play, you know, in the post or on the perimeter, all those things were great things. But it also, if you would give the ball to Jordan in his prime with these rules, with all the shooting, and think that he wasn't going to shoot over 50%, he shot over 50% with limited three-point shooting, so it was limited space, in the triangle offense, and the hand check or decapitation defense, you know, like whatever you employed, right? At the very least, it was hand checks. And at the highest form of physicality, you know, the Pistons or the Knicks, you know, trying to, you know, take your head off.

So there's no question he would have led the league in scoring. No question he would have played, he was shot over 50%, lived at the free throw line. And like you said, I think he absolutely would have been an outstanding three-point shooter because of, you know, practice, work, and it just being, you know, work and it just being a you know a more emphasized uh point of view now like all right that being said would he average 50 i don't know he's not averaging 50 but would he have averaged 40 that's quite possible yeah i think that's reasonable i just whenever i see 50 i'm like 50 but then i'll think about like luca's run and then I'll think about prime LeBron, you know, cause I still think the numbers are terrific. I think you're lying to yourself. I mean, he shouldn't be in his prime of year 20. Okay. You

know, just every now and then I'll have a dunk and people are like, Oh, he's still doing it. It's like, look, he's 38. He's not 68. He still, you know, he still should be able to dunk. He's a pretty big guy. But when I think of prime LeBron, I think LeBron could have done this. I think he could have had 50-point triple-doubles. If he just decided, hey, this is what I'm doing for two weeks, maybe 40-point triple-doubles. Granted, Doncic had the 60,

but I don't think LeBron is wired that way. You could argue in the second half of LeBron's career, he just had better teammates than what Doncic has. Part of it is also by necessity, too. But I feel like you have to want to do that. And whenever I think about LeBron, one of his greatest traits is that he's a high-volume player.

That wasn't his main goal ever, which is a credit to him and why so many of his teams won. Yeah, I think I agree with you. I think what Doncic is doing is out of necessity. I mean, when they lost Brunson, that was a huge loss. And then, you know, they've had other guys sit now, but if they don't run everything through Doncic, they're not winning games even in the regular season. I mean, they're just, they're an okay team.

With Donchage, maybe they're a little, you know, they're a good team. And I think Jason Kidd, you know, what you're tasked with as a coach is to try to maximize what you have. And I think he's done that, you know, very, very well. maximize what you have and i think he's done that you know very very well now at times to me i get bored uh you know i i don't love watching high pick and roll on everything i would love to see you know more action from a fan standpoint but from a coaching standpoint and from what donchich is doing as a player, I think it's terrific to watch because every one of his baskets, rebounds, assists is absolutely vital to their success because from a talent standpoint, they're a below average NBA team when you're talking about

who they surround Donchich with right now. That's not to say they're not good players. That's not a knock on them. It's in relation to who they're playing against. They're just a bottom 15 team talent-wise other than Doncic. So I understand exactly what Kidd's doing. I think he's doing a great job. And I'm actually surprised they're winning at a rate that they're winning at. I thought they'd be a sub 500 team, but I think because of Doncic's great play, they're what, four above. Okay. I don't know how... I know you're a very positive guy, Jeff, so I don't want to lead you towards negativity.

I live. What is Jalen Brunson's with immaculate vibes or whatever he says makes me laugh every time. I think the counting stats trick a lot of people. And from my all-time example was DeMarcus Cousins. I would go on TV at ESPN. I'd be out in the morning. I'd be surrounded by people being like, what's wrong with you? He's amazing. I'd be like, he's really talented and he puts up a ton of numbers, but there's way too many losing plays in between.

He won't do this. He won't do this. It's all these different things. And I just knew it. I knew I was right. And I just was like, okay, fine. Yeah. He had 13-15 last night. Awesome. I was right. And I just was like, okay, fine. Yeah. He had 13, 15 last night. Awesome. So I feel like, and I'm sure you agree that there's this category of winning players and there's losing players and there's the obvious winning players, right? The really good ones, the guys we would all want. And then there's kind of this next tier of players where I don't know what category they're in because they put up numbers. And then I feel like you don't have to say it I'll say it but when I see the D'Angelo Russell trade rumors I'm like who's trading for him like a team that doesn't have advanced scouts you know because I used to think he played with great pace

and now I've realized after years he's just way too casual he's just a casual basketball player in moments where you can't be casual again I'm saying these things jeff isn't so you know i know you're calling the games all that kind of stuff what's happened to the appreciation of the winning player and i'm not just the hey boxed out but like the guy that always seems to know like these are the things that i need to do these fill-in areas because if you don't have those players i don't't think you can win. And I think they're completely ignored today. Yeah, I think as an organization and certainly as a coaching staff, you know, you're not trying to collect talent. You're trying to build a winning team, that necessitates building around winning players and finding guys who do those things. And I was blessed with the all-time guy.

Like Shane Battier was the all-time guy. If you just looked at points, reb rebounds assists um you would have been like yeah he's okay he was an he was a great nba player in that you couldn't have won big if he was your best player because you couldn't create enough offense, right? But as your third best player or fourth best player, as it showed in Miami when he contributed to their championships, like those guys who don't make mistakes, who know exactly who they are, they play highly efficient basketball, they defend and they have mental strength. And I think mental strength is so important to being able to deal with the ups and downs, the peaks and valleys. And some of our star players are a little bit more up and down in those areas. Well,

to surround those guys with mentally strong guys is absolutely critical to get the success you want. And so it's interesting. I've loved watching the Warriors since, you know, Curry's been out. Not because I don't appreciate him, but it's just been fascinating to me you know Ty Jerome and Anthony Lamb two two-way guys I look at now exactly what you're saying they have some areas of like where they're not but maybe you know the fleet is the biggest you know they don't have a hundred different dribble moves. But they're winning type players. They play winning basketball. And so through all these injuries, they've gotten opportunities. And I'm like staring at them and I'm like, these guys are good. They're really good. And I think, you know, great organizations will always appreciate and be striving to find these winning type players

and awful organizations will always be hailing the acquisition of guys who don't help you win. That's just the difference in organizations in any sport. I appreciate, especially as a UVM guy, the mention for Lamb. I was watching

the Detroit game where Bay hit that incredible shot of the inbounds. But Killian got an ISO against Lamb. And I would bet money Killian Hayes has no idea who Anthony Lamb is. And he sees the body type. And Killian's like, all right, I got this. And he tried to shake him like three times and he couldn't. He couldn't, Lamb just held up. And then Hayes took some flailing shot. And I was just dying laughing watching it. He just looked at Lamb's body going. I don't even know if this dude is I've got the ball. It's over and he couldn't do anything with him. And you don't have like Ty Jerome. I would watch it. I would buy a Ty Jerome hour long DVD of him on offense. DVD of him on offense. Oh, he can play offense now. And you know what? Again, I used to get mad at myself. You always say you want a tough, smart team, right? In any sport, every coach is striving for a tough, smart team. Well, how do you get a tough, smart team? You find tough,

smart players. And putting a dumb player on the floor and then expecting you to be a smart team, it's not on the player. It's on the coach. So every time I put a dummy in and we do something dumb, or he would do something dumb, I wouldn't be mad at the guy. I'd be mad at myself. I know I'm willingly putting in a dummy and then to be shocked that he's doing a dumb thing, that's on me. Whereas I look at Ty Jerome and he may not shoot it well every night and he may have some foot speed issues um but tough smart players how often do they underachieve no he's still hanging around i mean that's the thing as you watch him in college you go i love him is he an nba player and then you're like oh it doesn't look like it's gonna work out like i was rooting for tyler tyler euless forever because I just loved the way he played basketball.

But I'm like, is this ever going to happen? And then it was like he was still kicking around for a little while. So we're on the same page there. Okay, let's transition this into this then. Because I've been critical of Trey Young. I kind of went off a couple weeks ago once these things got out because I felt like, based on my experience, and I wasn't knocking the reporting, but the league sources thing felt a little motivated to maybe be coming from one side.

And I'm thinking like, wait, you're not happy? How would you handle, and it doesn't even have to be specific to Trey, go any direction you want to, or maybe, I don't know, I don't remember necessarily every season where it was like, did you have one superstar where they felt like, you know, you're trying to do everything you can and it's still not working out. How would you handle that situation? Yeah, it's so much tougher now for coaches, players, um, front offices, because,

you know, social media has such a, uh such an important part in these people's lives. And it used to be that these stories were local stories. You know, Player X is unhappy. Beat writer comes around, interviews coach player x front office and you know you could have issues but it was it was localized now social media and our inability to divorce ourselves from the noise that it creates um is like an accelerant on a fire. And so sources, and you don't know how reliable they are. They may be, they may not be, I don't know, can put it out there.

And then you're asked to answer for something that's source-driven versus on the record, a player said, you know, this, now you're asked to respond to it. That's far different. And so I think what you have to try to do from day one is educate your players and your front office that there are going to be these situations. There's going to be both positive noise and negative noise. And as I was told early on in my coaching career, if you don't let the praise define you, you won't let the criticism diminish you, you can't take the bait on you. And we all do. We all want to read the good stuff about us, but not the negative. I think you have to divorce

yourself from both. And you have to try to continually educate your players. And it's going to be a hard battle because family members get involved. Agents are now much more prominent in these things. Our ability to be offended and thin skin is at an all-time high. And so you have all these components as a coach that you have to deal with. And I think, again, the more direct you can be and the more out front of these issues, knowing that they're going to come about that you can be, the better chance you have to mitigate the damages they can do to your team. Because you cannot have really good players be sideways. It just is going to impact your whole program. It's going to impact not only that player's attitude and emotion, but it's going to have an overall drag on your team. So these things are going to come up. They're going to come up

constantly. And I think you have to be prepared as a coach uh to be out in front of it as much as you can i was listening to something you did on nba radio uh this year we're talking about nash and i'll probably let this nash topic go after this point uh there are smarter basketball people than me i've heard them talk about how he was getting outcoached all the time. I would always ask for specifics. I feel like I never got specifics. If people want to tell me Jacques Bond's 10 times the coach he is, okay, all right, no problem.

But now that everybody's playing, and it's now retroactively was a Nash issue, that one blows my mind. That one blows my mind. The guys are all playing. I don't know if Ky like the guys are all playing i don't know if kairi's doing it now i don't know if we're gonna have smooth sailing with kairi that's a bad bet to make based on history uh it seems like simmons is is providing some level of value as opposed to what we saw when he first came back and durant's in the mvp conversation and i really like the

rotation i like the i like that they have a few. I'd like maybe one big guy in case there's a weird playoff matchup, but for the most part, I think they're terrific right now. I know you have kind of gone off on this, so you agree with me on that. You must die laughing when you hear people like me on TV or whatever talk about coaches getting outcoached because I never hear, I'm telling you, almost never, let's say 99.9, I never hear anything specific about why the guy was outcoached from the person saying it. I always go back to, well, first of all, I totally agree. It drives me nuts. And for me, I got to just let it go because a lot of it is done at our own network, you know. And I love the term adjustments because that's what everybody's accused of either making great ones or not making them.

And just interrupt, like it's in both sports sports too is that the guy will come on and say they made the better adjustments i go feel free to share with us one one time what the adjustment was and we never hear it go ahead yeah no so you know usually i say i would say the first adjustment that you usually should look for in basketball is guys playing a lot harder and shooting better. That's usually adjustment number one. I think if you wait, it kills me. If we're getting beat in a height like some pick and roll situation and in the first quarter, do you think coaches are saying, hey, you know what? We're going to take care of that at halftime. We're going to keep getting crushed on this.

But at halftime, then we're going to give the correction. Like, why would you wait to halftime? It drives me crazy. Like, you know, they're so good coming out of halftime like really i mean it just it it's it's mind-boggling the term adjustments because coaches are criticized or praised usually for increased intensity by a player or a team and better shooting by their players you know like the other one that kills me i don't know if it it bothers you you don't hear it as much in the nba today but you used to but you still hear it in college broadcasting the ball moves guy shoots a three oh you can't and it doesn't go in you can't settle for threes you got to attack

the rim the same exact play the the ball moves the open guy he makes it oh great ball movement like so we're gonna judge while the ball's in the air we don't know if it's a good shot yet like it i hate the term settle could we say that maybe that's that is actually a good shot like can't settle what does that mean and again there's no truth like when you're talking like how are you coming to the to use the word settle? Is it if you shoot two in a row, three in a row? I don't get it. And adjustment's the other one. And I just, listen, Steve Nash, getting back to your initial premise, I thought did an excellent job in Brooklyn.

Last year they got swept in the playoffs. And if Kyrie either doesn't go for a steal in game one on the last play or actually gets a tip and doesn't allow Tatum to catch and shoot an uncontested layup they may win game one every game in that was close their team is a lot better like you said their talent um Curry's back. Simmons is back. Irving is back and playing well. Joe Harris is back. And they're not having to play a bunch of really tiny, tiny lineups. And I think Jock Vaughn's done a fabulous job. See, two things can be true at the same time. I thought Steve Nash did an excellent job and he had to navigate some really difficult situations. And I thought Jock Vaughn did an excellent job both in the bubble situation and in this situation.

And so coaching to me has not been the issue in Brooklyn. It's been like it normally is. We say it's a player's league, Ryan. We always say it's a player's league. Well, every league's a player's league in every sport. But we always say in the NBA, it's a player's league. And then when you have your first sign of struggle, you know who everybody wants to talk about?

The coach. What? I thought it was a player's league. Why aren't we talking about the players when it goes bad? Yeah, I'll admit, you used to annoy me when I felt like you never blamed a coach ever. I think in an interview once, I was like, is it ever a coach's fault? And you were kind of like, not really. It was the best comeback because you were kind of right.

Like, I couldn't do anything. I would say this. You definitely make mistakes as a coach like to say you're flawless you absolutely make mistakes and you make mistakes sometimes that lead directly to losing okay but most of those mistakes are either covered up by great players like i made a ton of mistakes when i went by my first couple years with the knicks but it was covered up by great players so i may have made mistakes in a game plan or maybe we practiced too long all right can i can i ask you that though like yeah what is being out coached in a game like take me through a moment where you i

don't even know if it's true or not or if it's ever happened did you ever have a moment on the bench where you're like i can't do anything against this guy no no you mean the other coach no no that's why when i used to like you know coaching matchups what are you talking about i'm coaching my group. He's coaching yours. I would say the biggest mistakes you can make is playing too many guys, right? Getting caught in a bad matchup that was predictable and you stayed with it. going to too many isolations, that may not be as big a thing today, but I thought back then you could go to it too often, which brings down the energy of the others. And maybe, maybe you're hitting a home run for three or four positions but at some point you got to involve everybody um and then i think you know particularly in the playoffs like allowing a run particularly on the road to go one basket too long

okay so those are like like those would be like mistakes that you would go back and look at like man why did i go to nine guys eight would have been better um but you don't hear that you hear about that's not what people talk about they talk about you know adjustments you know like guess what there's not a lot of great um possibilities against the dodge a tie pick and roll you know you could trap it you can switch it you can show or hedge um you can switch and then fire back on him i mean you got probably you can ice it you can drop it guess what he's gonna he's gonna hurt all of them and so whichever one you pick right the critic on the outside is going to be able to say the pick and roll defense is stinks yeah against most great players it usually does right and and then you can change you know and you know throw the whole like

you know smorgasbord but you may be going to your fourth best coverage and this may be irrespective of what your your guys involved in the pick and roll are actually good at so we always focus from an offensive standpoint what's dodges good at maybe the guys you have in the game because they give you your best chance offensively aren't't really as capable of switching a pick and roll. So there's a lot to me that goes into coaching. Very little of it is analyzed in a smart way from a broadcasting perspective. And that's why when I go to,'m a texan season ticket holder right right i'm the only person in my rope who never questions anything from a coaching standpoint because i know i spent my whole life studying basketball and even then there were these 50 50

decisions that were tough but i know the people yelling about it afterwards, the ones that didn't work out. I know they didn't study it as long or as hard as I did. And so I know my row at the Texans when they complain about, you know, should we have run or passed? You know, like I always get like, here's one that I have to share with you. I know I'm going long winded, but in my neighborhood, Bill O'Brien was a Texans coach for five years or six years, maybe, maybe even. They won four division championships. Right. And. They're up 24 nothing. On the Kansas City Chiefs, the year the Chiefs win the Super Bowl, 24 nothing. year the Chiefs win the Super Bowl. 24-0. They go up 24-0. We, the Texans, try a fake punt.

And the guy gets nipped like he's about to make it. And this guy for the Chiefs trips him up, comes up short. We end up losing, right? I think it was 52 to 30 something. I'm not sure. Anyway, the next day, everybody's going nuts about, oh, why did they try the fake punt at up 24 at this point? And I'm like, tell me when a fake punt has failed that someone says, you know what? It didn't work, but that was a hell of a thought. It never happens. Never. Every fake punt that is successful is brilliant. Every fake punt that fails is idiotic. My point is, we always say it's about the process, not the results, but then we judge it totally on results and not process. They probably got the look they wanted. They tried it. The other team gets paid too. They made a good play. We didn't, but I'm

just, I'm fascinated by the, we look, we always judge coaching things by results, not process, even though we always say it's got to be about process, not results. And so then we go backwards. We're able to coach backwards and we say, if something works, it was stupid. Or if it didn't work, it's stupid. If it does work, it's brilliant. It's neither. It's like some things are well thought out and work. Great. Some things are well thought out and fail. It still are well thought out and fail it still doesn't make it wrong and then some things and we never are stupid i watch games all the time total miss shot like wide open awful coverage miss shot and we say they got another stop no

they didn't the other team just missed it wasn't a stop i i just you've got me on a like a something i'm i'm about to lose my mind because i don't think anybody understands coaching what goes into it how to do it from the outside and in any sport and i'm always amazed at the critics who criticize coaches in every sport they're're like, you know, they know college football, pro football, pro basketball, college basketball, baseball. Like, you really have studied it that hard that you can be critical of coaches in all those sports?

Fascinating. Yeah, I'll tell people this all the time. Like, the one year I spent as a broadcaster in minor league baseball was the best experience for me. It was my first year on the air. It was 20 I spent as a broadcaster in minor league baseball was the best experience for me. It was my first year on the air. It was 20 years ago. So I was with the Trenton Thunder and I was the second announcer. And I became really close with the manager, Ron Johnson, great guy. And he was like, whenever you have questions

about what I'm doing with the lineup or whatever, he's like, just come and ask me. And then sometimes they let me sit in on the lineup meetings, right? Because I used to put together these stat packs for him. I would go, hey, look what's happening the third time through with this guy. I was doing it for my own prep work. And then he saw what I was doing. He was like, make up those packets for every series now for the rest of the season. And he's like, I'll let you sit in with us a few times. The main broadcaster didn't exactly love that. But anyway. a few times. The main broadcaster didn't exactly love that. But anyway, and I go, why are you hitting, you know, cause I'm just so confident. I'm 26. I know everything. And I'm like, why are you doing this? He gave me four reasons that I had never even thought about. He's like, well,

cause of this. And then I also, this, and I got to worry about this. And then this is also something else. And I was like, oh my God. Right. And then there'd be some bullpen decision. I'd be like, well, you know, cause we're all experts at bullpen stuff because it's the same thing with baseball. When somebody comes out and it doesn't work, it's like this manager's an idiot. Or if he doesn't use a guy when we have no idea why he didn't use the guy, it could be all these other things going on and why he didn't use the guy. The guy could tell him that day, I don't have it. They don't use the guy we thought they should have used. And then we're like, the manager's an idiot for not using the guy that we assumed would have made it work out,

as opposed to the guy that gave up the runs late. And so it was actually this template for the way I look at all this stuff now, 20 years later, because I'd be like, there's so much that I don't know. The idea that you're getting outcoached because you haven't adjusted to drop coverage, and everybody loves using the term drop coverage because we actually know what it means. I admit all the time, because I didn't make it far enough for high-level coaching that a lot of the NBA terminology stuff, I still don't always know what, what do you mean? I sat next to Tibbs once and I was like, do I know anything about this sport? It was humiliating, right? It was, it was humbling, but that you'd be sitting there with nine assistants as a head coach in an NBA game

going, well, they're dropping and I don't know what to do now. We're lost. I'm not telling everybody to take it easy on the coaches. We are clearly aligned on all this stuff. I just think the way it's always talked about, it's the day-to-day, it's to the people in the building like you. Do you understand which buttons to push? The Missoula stuff that I'd read after they beat Dallas,

it made a lot of sense to me. He went to the roll guys and goes, look, I can't keep yelling at Tatum and Brown. Like, you guys need to step up. You're all missing shots. You need to support them. They're doing fine. And it was like a nice message to remind the stars, like, I can't beat up on you guys after every loss here.

And it motivated the other guys. They were kind of due, so I wasn't shocked to see the Dallas win. I think there's a lot of stuff that we never talk about that's way more important than whether or not a dude called a timeout. Because we get on the guy when he doesn't call a timeout or does, and it doesn't work because it's an identifiable thing, right? It's like the fake punt. We can go, Ooh, Ooh, wait, I don't really know what I'm talking about, but there was a timeout decision

that didn't work. That's what I'm talking about tomorrow on the show. And that's the way it works. It's it. I totally agree i totally agree and and you know i used to work when i was an assistant with the knicks under pat riley i worked with a guy named dick harter and i thought dick harter would have been a good coach in any sport can't call them all right dick harter he was like just foul them coach. The thing he said once to me that I thought was really interesting, I think it goes right to the Celtics, what Joe Mazzullo was saying is he was the first coach of the expansion Hornets in Charlotte. He said, you can't beat up a bad team. You can beat up a good team, go right at them because they're always getting positive results. But with a bad team,

if you go at them all the time for their failings, usually we're talent deficient failings, you'll lose them. And so stuff like that to me is the coaching stuff. I'm reading this great book. I don't know if you've read it. Joe Madden did a book with Tom Verducci, I think is how you pronounce his name. Yeah, Verducci. And it is brilliant for coaches.

I mean, brilliant. And how the game of baseball and managing has changed in Major League Baseball with the advent or the power structure changing, the heavy reliance on analytics and i mean it's it's brilliant but to me that's more of the it's more of these like issues like like you said it's not really technical basketball issues i guess it could be sometimes and they're you know you could disagree with a coach on who to play or maybe that you know i would trap donchich in the post and not let him play one-on-one or whatever. But most of those are very well thought out with reams of information, so many different points of view. It's trying to get guys, as Bill Walsh, the great football coach, to me, this is a driving force of coaching philosophy. coach, to me, this is a driving force of coaching philosophy. He said, the essence of coaching is get guys to do what they don't want to do in order to achieve what they want to achieve. Meaning in basketball, get them to pass, get them to cut, get them to guard,

and get them to sacrifice for the team. They may want roll X, 40 minutes, the ball in their hands. You're asking them to play 18 and shoot four times a game, right? So it's the essence of coaching. And I think that's what every coach is trying to do in their own way. And yet, because it's not identifiable, because it's not in the limelight during the game, we talk about coaching in such sophomoric ways as to not really understand the everyday essence of what coaching truly is. but this is the segment called Help Jeff Van Gundy Prep for His Game. He's got Miami at Phoenix tonight on ESPN. That's seven Pacific, so 10 Eastern time. We are now almost 40 games in the season.

Denver's 10-10 on the road. So I thought to myself, and I said this in the open, I was like, hmm, that's interesting. That's not a contender profile. Memphis, who has the same record, one and two seed battle here. Also 10 and 10 on the road. So I was like, wait a minute. What do we have here?

New Orleans, 7 and 10. Dallas, 7 and 10. I've already run through this, so people are going to hear it again. Sacramento, 9 and 9. Clippers, 10 and 11. Portland, 10 and 12. Phoenix, 6 and 14.

Golden State, 3 and 16. Utah, 8 and 14. Bottom five remorse. There is no team in the West at almost the halfway mark with a winning record on the road. So feel free to use that one. And that's why the Eastern Conference has the best teams right now.

They have teams, to me, and that's not to discount the ability of one of those teams you mentioned from the West making a jump but there's no clear-cut favorite in the west and i would say if you my top three teams in the league to win it all um and maybe even four teams might be from the East. So I know last year the Warriors had their struggles. These are pronounced struggles. And so I might give them a pass out of that group because you don't ever want to discount Curry and, to me, what he's been able to do.

But I just think the better teams are in the East. I think they're more balanced. They're deeper. They're more talented. But someone's going to come out of the West and they're going to be a hard out, obviously. But I think the best teams this year are in the East. And I think

your stats right there would prove why. Enjoy the game tonight. Thanks so much for the time, Jeff. You got it. Anytime. Take care. Before we get to live device, we continue on our FanDuel NFL contest. We do have updated standings. Kyle?

Yep, you are now up to, you're down to 43% because two of your three picks did not hit this week. But yeah, you went from 44% to 43%. I went up to 37% from, I think, 35%. And I didn't make that many picks, so I'm making two picks this week, and I'll go after you. But if I hit them both and you miss all your picks,

I think I'll be dead even with you so there's hope i'm adding a pick this week all right um what's the overall record for me at 43 at 43 you are 12 and 16 he's all right so we gotta we gotta pick it up then all right here we go uh we're gonna go save same method here. This is always a dangerous week to be betting. It's always a tough one. A lot of lessons taught in week 17. Now, week 18.

Okay. Our kids, imagine all our kids are going to be like, man, week 24 is a tough one to bet. I'm going to take my space car. All right. Let's see here. I'm going to take my space car. All right.

Let's see here. I'm glad you appreciated that. Okay. Let's go to the first game here. Everyone likes the Panthers plus four at the Saints. You might see that one at plus four. You might see it at plus three and a half. So let's go Saints plus three and a half so let's go saints minus three and a half 76 of the public betting on the panthers okay this giants eagles game has been a mess as

far as trying to figure out what the line is well now we know because the giants were getting a point and a half in the open um they're now getting 14 points because they're resting everyone. So that means everybody's betting the Giants because it's like, man, 14 points. We'll take the Eagles minus 14. That doesn't feel great out loud in an NFL game. Down 14 points at kickoff. Doesn't feel great. And finally, a lot of people betting the Rams here plus six and a half.

They like that six and a half. They like that six and a half against the Seahawks. I think on FanDuel you can find Seattle minus six. Let's go Seattle minus six. There you go. We've got the Saints at home, the Eagles at home,

the Seahawks at home. That means we're playing three favorites too. Maybe this is not the week we're getting back to 500. Kyle, take it away. I hope it's not because if I hit these two, I'm jumping to 44%, which is where you're sitting today. And just ever after Cerruti is 57%.

So I'm taking the Packers. I'm taking the Lions plus four and a half versus the Packers. I like it. I like it. I like it a lot. Also, my Stidham faith just kind of came out of left field last week, and it turned out it worked. So I went with something a little funky.

I went just an Adams anytime touchdown. Devonta Adams anytime touchdown versus the Chiefs. That's plus 115. So those are my two picks, and I feel pretty good about it. I'm ready to break into 50% territory in the playoffs here. Okay. Sounds good. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari, three 55 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 life advice rr at gmail.com all right we got a couple good ones here we've had some great ones uh there's like a ton in the uh the old q if you know what i'm saying it's like when you go and buy your music at the frolic room speaking of speaking of stan of Stanford Steve in town for the National Title Game from ESPN and he's been I think a regular at the 900 Club. Probably racking up

my tab pretty good. And he was like let's go to UCLA, USC and he goes the best move will be for us to both go to the Frolic Room before the game. And I was like I can't go to the Frolic room before the game. And I was like, I can't go to the frolic room at three o'clock.

I can't, I got shit going on. And so that meant Stanford, Steve went to visit Kyle. So I don't know, man, this is, this is bad for me,

dude. He rolled in there and like, I swear he cast like a shadow over the already dark room. I was like, I just, something changed. Like in my peripherals. Like I think Stanford Steve is here because he said he was coming. There he was.

He fit in perfectly. He wasn't surprised. He wasn't like disgusted. He was just like looking around like, yeah, pretty crazy. It's right next to a theater. Like he, you know, he was cool. I will say he drank that first beer faster than I've ever seen anyone drink a beer. And then he wasn't like pounding him the whole time. But I think something about that first beer for him, he must, he must be

into, but it was, uh, my bartender, the bartender, Troy, who's one of my good friends, like put it, put down the beer. And then like, he walked to the other end of the bar and was walking back. And Steve was like, Hey bud, can I get another one? Do you get a chance? And the bartender was so shocked. He's like, are you talking to me? He's like, yeah. He was like, holy shit, dude. Um, so I guess, I guess Steve. So I guess Steve could put it down, but he was super calm after that. I just was like, hey, man, you got any stories? Because when you see somebody drink a beer like that,

you must have some stories. But he was great. He fit in, asked him a bunch of advice, how to deal with you, how to befriend you, all that stuff. So I think I got some good tips, and he told me i could call him whenever so thanks so much steve well i feel like i have to follow up on that a little bit what was what was the most insightful thing he said about me um i mean hey he said stuff

i already know like hey don't take it so personally and stuff like that it's like yeah i'm way past that we're kind of joking about that at this point. Um, insightful. Like I just asked even like, how does this guy, like, does he want like help? I didn't think so. But then Saruti came in and Saruti is so helpful, you know, Bill sort of a hands off sort of guy. And I was just like, I'm just trying to find that weird thing. And he's like, dude, imagine, uh, if it was radio and you had, and you're having, uh, let's say a spirited disagreement for 45 seconds or whatever. So he just made it seem like it, dude, it's fine. Don't worry. It's all good.

You're doing a, you're doing a bang up job. So it's all good. Yeah. I, you're, you're doing great. I don't, I don't need anything else from you. So Rudy, you know, it's great having him around, but so Rudy's my pitch guy. So Rudy's my, Hey, I have an idea. I'm going to pitch it to you right now. And so Rudy's

going to sit there and listen to me go for like 10 straight minutes uninterrupted. And then so Rudy kind of tells me whether he's feeling or not. Do I need that? Nope. Do I like it? Yeah. So you know, I honestly, this whole dilemma post big cat

is a huge, I was thinking about it last night because I knew I was going to get shit because I didn't go to the Frolic Room. Again, at two or three, like, sorry, folks. I think it should be good news that people don't think I can go to the Frolic Room every day at two or three. And by the way, side note,

Steve's Scouting Report, best drinker I've ever seen in my entire life. All right. Okay. So, yeah. So, the Kyle part of this where i feel like big cat did something shitty but he did it in the name of content yes okay because he brought it on you and you knew you sent the text after a few libations and that's like totally off limits as far as i'm concerned i don't think i would

agree and he set it up he knew he was going to do it the whole time he didn't tell me he was going to do it he knew he was going to do it he embarrassed you for the sake of content and that's not fucking cool right but the win in all of it is a huge win for kyle that he is so earnest and he's such a good person and that he wants us to be closer that he was reaching out to somebody that i'm close with to just be like hey so it was actually further removed from it as i thought about me being i'm not doing this purposely i'm not going i don't want to hang out with anyone i'm of course yeah that's not exactly what i'm doing the other side of the highway it's how it works right it's just what it is it doesn't it doesn't like it's la nobody goes anywhere when

you first move here i was going everywhere i was inviting everybody everywhere i was like yeah i'll go there i'll do that and then you're like oh so nobody does this and you're like no shit nobody does this this is a total challenge it's a pain in the ass i'm out i didn't go north of venice i think for a year and a half we're talking about the other day the big cat thing actually turned into antonio brown showing tom brady's nice DMs and everyone's like what's the problem Tom Brady exactly guy so big cat is Antonio Brown in this situation yeah and you're Tom Brady which is what you've always wanted to be always wanted it's been Halloween for three years three years I've been Tom Brady for Halloween didn't know that yeah all right so that's what I was thinking about last night because it was this full circle thing of like I still can't

believe I haven't gone and now I'm'm going to get shit. Cause I didn't do it yesterday. We're all going to air it out though. Not a big deal. Steve was on my case two nights ago. He's like, you have to go. You have to go. I was like, I can't do that at that time on that day. It's a non-starter. I'll see you at the game. Okay. And I was like, I can't really go after because I'm going to miss this stuff. Cause I get a tape where, you know, I'm up at six getting ready for this thing. It's just it is honestly i think people at this stage of my life would prefer it's like hey sorry we start taping at noon fucking thursday bender right sorry you know joe van gundy we're canceling so you know anyway the point is uh when i started thinking about your role in the Big Cat thing, I go, this actually

is a huge, like it's another thing that you add to the positive column for Kyle, because Kyle was feeling this way, shared it, because he wanted to be an even better friend to someone. So where's, he should only feel

great about this. So it took us a few months to get there, but yeah, here we are. And now I get guys like Steve rolling in just because. And so thanks again, Big Cat. Thanks again, AB. Yeah. Thanks, Big Cat, for making us all closer. You dick.

Okay. Life advice. Lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Ryan and Kyle. 6'1", 200 pounds, 27 years old would certainly prefer to be closer to 190 but hey, no man is immune to the holidays that's right, writing with an urgent

question about a quickly approaching bachelor party one of my core guys from college is getting married this March and I have the honor of being a groomsman they're Penn State sweethearts, a great couple I couldn't be happier for them, are they redheads but god damn, this wedding is costing me an arm and a leg. Bold font.

They're having a destination wedding in gorgeous Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It would be amazing to escape the cold New York City winter for a lovely Mexico beach vacation. The only problem is this fucker is having his bachelor party at an all-exclusive resort in Cancun next weekend. Oh, this is time sensitive. Well, I think you should have made a decision by now, man. But we'll see how this goes. I just crunched the numbers. And between both flights and hotel for the wedding,

the all-inclusive resort for the bachelor party and the groomsman suit, I had to buy for the wedding. I'm already in for $3,060.89. So we're talking just north of three grand. I'm also paying for my girlfriend's portion of the hotel as well, like a true gentleman or a dude with a girlfriend who's going to his friend's wedding most of us do that right so it's an sae reference i don't think the groom gets this

frankly he's richer than all of us he and his fiancee make more money than the rest of us the guy only wears designer clothing he bought a pair of yeezys to be his beater shoes to wear in dirty situations well maybe you got him dirty situation maybe he got bought a pair of Yeezys to be his beater shoes to wear in dirty situations. Well, maybe you got him. Dirty situation. Maybe he got the Yeezys recently. They were a little cheaper. Fast forward to the present.

The bachelor party group chat is trying to arrange a night out for us at a club during the bachelor party. They want to buy a table, bottles, etc. I'm just about ready to put my foot down. How lame is it for me to say no to this group club activity? I don't want to be a wet blanket, but I also don't feel like shelling out a few hundred bucks to stand around some sleazy, sweaty, crowded Cancun club not talking to girls. Because our man has a girlfriend that he's paying for a hotel for the wedding. This frustration is exasperated by the fact that we're staying in a bold font all-inclusive resort. Why pay for bottles of the club when we have free in a bold font all-inclusive resort why pay for bottles of the club when we have free drinks waiting for us at the hotel am i crazy it's having a destination

wedding and a bachelor party as ridiculous as i think it is am i wrong to complain about having to take two mexico trips am i being a bad friend by pulling out of certain activities despite already shelling out over 3k or should i just roll with this and worry about my credit card bill later thanks for your advice love the pod keep up the good work. Okay. Look, this is how you feel. So I'm not telling you that you're wrong, but I'm also telling you that you're wrong. Okay. You're seriously going to go to a bachelor party and you guys are 27 and you think guys in their late twenties are like, Hey man, let's just have a chill three or four day deal because we're at an all-inclusive resort. Of course, you're going to the club. Of course, you're going to the club. I will warn you. I will warn you to you dudes

in their 20s that are a little bit more fiscally responsible than the other guys in their 20s because I'm not being dismissive of the money that's out of pocket. The destination wedding part of it, I get sucks, but what's our rule about destination weddings? Sometimes they exist because they don't want people to go to them. His right. His bachelor party was going to be somewhere else. So like when you start really thinking about flights and travel and all this stuff, we can have this image in our head where it's like, man, I'm going to spend all this money. I got to go to Cancun. We're doing this. You know what?

Rent a house in the Cape in the summer. You know what I mean? Like the mileage is a lot shorter and it feels like it's not that much of a reach, but you add up all the expenses to the end of it. The shit ends up all being the same anyway, unless you're going to fucking Santa Pe, which I would recommend. So, I disagree with you. Doesn't

mean I'm right, but I disagree with you. You guys are in your late 20s. You're going to go out. Nobody sits around at this age at a house for a bachelor party. The house could be sick. It could all be inclusive. But if you're going to be the cheap guy going into it and you're going to bring it up, that could have lasting impact on the dynamic.

Because from that time I stayed in Vermont while all my friends graduated, because that's what most people do when they graduate. They fucking move. All right. I stayed. I didn't really know what I was doing. I was having sort of fun, but also miserable bartending. And then I didn't really have enough money. And I started pulling myself out of the events that took years to fix. Because then I realized like, shit, my boys still talk about stuff and all these memories. And I'm like, where was I in that window? I didn't get invited to any of this stuff. And it's like, where was I in that window? Like, I didn't get invited to any of this stuff. And it's like, well, because you started not doing it or you were worried about cost or you just couldn't pay or you go dark because you were embarrassed that you couldn't pay

for it. And then eventually you find your way out of the invite group. I don't know that that's going to happen to you here. You're a groomsman in the wedding and all these different things. But if you are the first guy that at this bachelor party says to the rest of the guys being like, hey, why don't we just sort of chill and not get bottle service? No one's going to be on your side.

You're going to get voted out. All right. And what are you going to do? Stay home that night. You're not going to do that because you're 27. So it sucks that you're worried about the cost. And I mean that as like I'm sympathetic to it, right?

Not everybody is the same about money and spending all their money and are doing all these different things. I'm just telling you, if you bring that, let's stay in vibe to Mexico with you for a 27 year old bachelor party, prepare to be overruled with violence. Yeah. It's also not going to be the,

the first like oxymoronic decision that's going to get made that weekend too so if you're like why would we do this when we could do this like there's going to be plenty there's going to be more than one of those sort of decisions that you think seems stupid but everyone's going along with and i mean you i my thing is you went to the bachelor like you've you've subscribed to the bachelor party you kind of have to roll with it i think i mean i skipped the bachelor party this summer because it was like i don't know it was like a month before the wedding and i was just like uh i can't make it and the guy understood there was actually like eight other dudes at that bachelor party it sounds like this guy's going because when i first read it i thought

that's what i mean right yeah yeah you said you're going you you the time for you to like be you know think about all this stuff uh in the way you're thinking about it was before you said i'm going and then also going to your wedding i think I think now that you've decided to do this, you kind of, kind of is what it is and you can roll your eyes. I think there's probably at least one dude at every bachelor party who's probably thinking the way you are and just doesn't say anything because he doesn't want to be that guy. And so, yeah, I think your position is not new, but it should be a silent position. Unless, you know, there's one guy who's riling people up for this bottle service table thing at a club and you can sort of tell in the

group chat that nobody's really said anything. Like maybe one guy put a thumbs up next to his thing. But if it's not like a unanimous thing, you could, you know, if it's just a guy who's got an idea, you could also be a guy who has an idea. Maybe you could try to put a different idea, but not just say, let's just stay where we are. I don't know. Just a thought. I think if the vibe... Don't come down hard against this to look like the guy who's

got a big issue with this. Don't look like a wet blanket. If you want to try to put your spin on this to either... It's sort of like yes and instead of a no way, dude. If you want to try to put your spin on this and see if you can get it going in a different direction, that's cool, but then you have to totally back off if it's sort of like yes and instead of a no way dude so if you want to try to put your spin on this and see if you can get it going in a different direction that's cool but then you have to totally back off if it's not well received that's my point dude they're going to cancun and they're

in their late 20s it's just not you've heard this war is over before it started man i agree you yeah when you showed up you kind of signed the waiver that says i'll do all this and don't don't do the seed planning out loud thing like i've got a couple you know we i've been around long enough now like we'd show up we rented a house to do the thing and then one guy's like hey i was kind of thinking like don't you think like that would be great and you're like no stop it i'm cutting the momentum don't i'm not allowing you to have any momentum no one agree with them it's a fucking dumb idea we all know it's a dumb idea and like you're just doing it for your own little reasons in this case it's not wanting to spend money and i'm not trying to be dismissive if you're not wanting to continue to shell out all

this money your money issues uh your limitations however i should you know what i mean like it would be way cheaper if we all went ziplining or something right no man come on yeah be like no be cool we just kind of like just went to the grocery store and just just kept cooking all week nachos fuck off you know and you could you could be the guy that goes and is like all right well i'm just not kicking in for the bottle service if that's your move all the time like i've i have so many of those guys that i've known over the years again it's not like it's happened anytime recently but you're like oh guess who didn guess who didn't throw in? Guess who didn't offer again? Guess who never went to his wallet? And I think that's like one of the worst things you can have in a scouting report, that murder.

All right, there you go. I hope everybody had a great week. We loved the feedback that we got on the pod, especially with the Foxworth stuff. On Wednesday, we tried to handle that in a way that made it a conversation that you would remember, and that was kind of the point. And Foxworth is really special when it comes to that kind of stuff. So thanks for everything. This week, happy new year.

Enjoy the last week of regular season NFL. And we'll be back before the title game on Monday, and then we'll do a little recap of it with Dilfer, as he had said last Tuesday. So I think we're going to have a bonus episode for you next week. So please subscribe. Thanks to Kyle and Ryan for this little podcast from your Spotify. Thank you.