The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Tough Night for Russillo With Harden and CP3, Booger McFarland’s NFL Draft Thoughts, Plus Mike Trudell on Lakers-Warriors

Episode Date: May 2, 2023

Russillo shares his Tales From the Couch on 76ers-Celtics Game 1 and Nuggets-Suns Game 2 (0:32), before talking with ESPN's Booger McFarland about his thoughts on the 2023 NFL draft, why he would have taken Jalen Carter no. 1, ranking the draft QBs, the Eagles' monster offseason, Lions optimism, draft steals, and more (25:07). Then Ryen talks with Lakers beat reporter Mike Trudell of Spectrum SportsNet about the Round 2 Lakers-Warriors matchup (59:01), before answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:19:53). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Booger McFarland and Mike Trudell Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

on today's episode a bummed out ryan rossillo does 30 minutes on what happened last night and yes i'm more bummed out about the chris pollinger we talked with booger mcfarland recapping the draft who can can compete with the Eagles in the NFC and why Jalen Carter should have gone number one. Mike Trudell breaks down Lakers warriors and life advice. 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. 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. Okay. Who wants to listen to me today? Not your favorite night a guy has ever had. Can't call in sick, though. We don't do that around here. All right, tails to the couch. Two playoff games. We start in Boston.

We get word, and we kind of knew this, that Embiid wasn't going to play in game one. So it looked that way at the start. Some incredible numbers from this first half and maybe even the first quarter. I think Boston this first half and maybe even the first quarter. I think Boston was actually 17-20 in the first quarter. So at the half, it's 66-63 Boston. Philly's shooting 55% from the floor, 58% from three.

Boston's 74% from the floor overall and 57% from three. So now you start to play the game. How does a score happen if Boston is doing whatever they want on offense? Well, is it free throws? No, it isn't. In a Philly game? No, it's not that. Philadelphia didn't have any free throw attempts at the half.

Their first free throw attempts were actually at 537 left in the third quarter. Boston took only two. Philly, which you always look for, is, well, how did that happen? They had nine more field goal attempts in the first half. Boston, six more turnovers. Philly was plus three

on the offensive rebounds. The Boston turnover stuff is still just weird at times. And I would say it's a Jalen Brown thing. He was bringing the ball up at one point where nobody was even on

and he almost lost it. But he was great in the first quarter. Tatum was incredible. But on the other side, Harden came out. He took 30 shots last night. They needed it from him. He absolutely delivered. We're going to go through all of his defensive assignments,

and then the game-winning shot a little bit later. Melton was huge. There was actually great offensive balance throughout this game where Melton was making everything. Maxie ended with 26. Harris had 18 points. Paul Reed played a ton of minutes. We'll get to his free throw makes late a little bit later. He had a million boards. This was an incredible, gutty, tough win from Philadelphia where they looked like the tougher team mentally, even though I thought Boston at times looked like the more dominant team of the two. I don't think that that would be much question to that one.

But with no Embiid out there, where now everything will be different when he comes back because there's defensive assignments here that I don't love for Philadelphia. Harris is not going to be able to hang with Tatum. PJ, we know how tough he is, but Jalen should be able to get him and he got him a few times on some overplays tatum got him on a switch in an overplay and then you know it's all easy

after that because paul reed is not in bead back there i mean no matter what you think about in beads deficiencies at times and defense it's usually further away from the basket him just being there it's not even the blocks it's the field goal attempts it's the, it's usually further away from the basket. Him just being there, it's not even the blocks, it's the field goal attempts, it's the intent. It's do I actually want to go there at this guy right now? And there's very few people in the league that would want to do that against Embiid. So Boston blew a massive opportunity considering how easy the offense was

for them for so much of this game. In the first interview with Maxie, they said it was about transition defense, and then Doc reiterated that at halftime. Maxie could have just been repeating something Doc had said in the timeout a little bit earlier. I did not see this as a transition defense problem for Philadelphia, because transition can be one of two things, right?

It can be just straight-up turnovers, fast breaks, two-on-ones, that kind of stuff. Guys not necessarily getting back. I mean, you're going to see players lose a couple guys. I don't care who you are in a playoff game. It's going to happen. But I just thought it was the point of attack, Boston breaking the paint, and once they were in the paint,

it couldn't be easier for them. I thought that was the bigger issue, and I don't know if all that's solvable for Philadelphia without Embiid in there. I mean, effort is a key adjustment. You can see it even in game two of Denver and Phoenix, which we'll get to a little bit later here. Effort is the greatest adjustment, right?

But in this one, it was just so easy for Boston the whole time, yet the score doesn't reflect it. Boston did get up 12 when it was 62-50, but Philly went on a 10-0 run after that. And I cannot emphasize this enough. D'Anthony Melton, every time as an outlet, wide open threes and hitting them because primarily your concern if you're Boston on defense is trying to figure out a way to contain Harden.

And despite Harden going for 45 points where he was awesome, like I went through it, of the 30 attempts, I think only six were uncontested. His shot making last night was awesome. Like I went through it of the 30 attempts. I think only six were uncontested. His shot making last night was absurd, like prime Harden stuff. He may not. Well, he doesn't move the same way as they know. Too often we kind of like, oh, I don't think he moves the same way. Oh, could it be because it's eight years ago?

Could that be a clue as to why he's moving a little slower than before? And what Harden wasn't able to do against the Nets in that first round, Could that be a clue as to why he's moving a little slower than before? And what Harden wasn't able to do against the Nets in that first round, you're like, well, that can't. Even at him diminished, you can't possibly be that bad at the rim again. And it really wasn't rim stuff. He was just great, man. He was great.

All right, so at 72-72, I wrote down the weird vibes alert because I was like, all right, this game is like a game now. And whatever Boston was getting early where you felt like, OK, 74% isn't sustainable, but this is easier for them. They should probably be able to find a way to pull away as the defense tightens up on both sides. But that's not really what happened. Now, I thought it was really interesting. And obviously, I was at home kind of chuckling a bit, because in the same possession, the same little conversation, Reggie Miller was like, I love James Harden's patience,

because patience, he started, well, his patience is how he plays. He figures out what he wants to do, dribbles, dribbles, dribbles, and obviously it's on record how I feel about that, because I do think it becomes easier to defend over the course of a playoff series. But during that happening, there was a stretch where Philly actually wasn't scoring, which is going to happen in any game.

No matter what you're doing, there's going to be this three, three-and-a-half-minute stretch where you're like, okay, this team hasn't scored any points. But what I thought was good from that, even though then Reggie, after it didn't work for a little while, was like, I think they need to go quicker. I thought Harden slowing the game down for himself, which is his preference, obviously,

I thought it slowed the entire game down. I think Boston kind of fell into that somewhat offensively, even though the defensive problem is the bigger issue for the Celtics team during the playoffs. So Boston makes it 111-107 on a smart and one. It was a baseline cut. Harden lost him. And I was like, okay, here we go.

There's the bad defensive possession there. Look at all these points. Smart gets it to four. Boston maybe still figures out a way to pull this game off. Harden miss. Tatum misses a wide open three at 228. And then it's a bit of a miss fest here. The slowing down thing was real, okay? Then there's the Maxie and one play.

Now, it looked like two officials had it different, a block or a charge. That's going to make it 111-110 if it's an and one and Maxie makes the free throw. If it's a charge, it's Maxie's sixth foul. That's the game for the most part. That's one of a handful of things, but you could sit there and say, okay, this likely is the game here, depending on how this call goes. Now, Smart actually was outside of the restricted area. Another thing to remember too, because I saw somebody, the only reason I know this is that somebody explained it to me once. If a player's heels are over the line, but raised off of the line, that's still considered a violation. It's supposed to be considered this kind of upward thing, like a plane where you

can't actually just raise your heels off the line and i've seen some people look i mean i messed up the walk in the dog thing last year while the broadcaster did a ref called it this year so um i'm not saying i'm a hero i'm just telling you that's something to look out for because you'll see it every now and then now uh i this is a philly boston thing if you're a philly guy you're like of course it was a block he thing. If you're a Philly guy, you're like, of course it was a block. He was still moving. If you're a Boston guy, you're like, hey, it was outside of the restricted area. I've seen worse remain a charge, but the call I believe in is that that's a block

because you're still moving. Me and all my charge rants, I believe that should be a block. I'm fine with it. I thought it was the right call, and it was a huge swing there. So we're at 111-110. Boston, two offensive rebounds on the next possession. Horford makes the layup. Now this is part of the smart Derek White decision late where I think it's smarts playmaking. You know, the defensive part was smart. Kind of feels a little bit more night to night because Derek White is so good defensively this year. I voted him for one of the all-defensive teams this season.

So maybe it's a strength thing against Harden, but I also think it might be the playmaking that we saw against the double team with Tatum against Atlanta where Smart made the great play to Horford. So that might be a little bit more of it. So at that point, offensive rebounds, they're up 113, 110. Paul Reed gets fouled. He's 75% from the free throw line this season. I still did not expect him to make both of these free throws. Boston's still up one. It's

113, 112. And this possession should haunt Celtics fans. You know, Boston's been to the NBA finals, the battles with Miami last year where they were the better team, and yet it still almost didn't go their way. The battle with Giannis in Milwaukee, like the MVP Giannis that we all loved, right? Not the guy that's getting dumped on by everybody now. But again, I'm being dramatic about that. So this is the whole point. This is all those scars, right? All these scars are supposed to add up to you looking more comfortable. And nobody on Boston wanted to take the shot here. Nobody wanted the ball.

The whistles started, like the refs were whistle happy at this point. If anything, just something simple with Tatum or Brown, or Tatum is the decoy to get it back to Brown, although I don't know, I want Brown taking the free throws. But something getting one of those two guys hell even Brogdon going downhill knowing the refs are a little whistle happy Smart got

one where he just flailed yard sailed himself into a defensive player at the rim I think against Reed I can't even believe he got the call and they gave it to him there so to not take a shot not have anybody look comfortable with the basketball in their hands and brogdon of all people who just usually just like hey that guy knows what's going on with a

second left he's looking to make a pass where even if the pass had been delivered to anybody it was going to be a shot clock by a shot clock violation so there's no way like didn't make any sense and then it goes freddie brown style he throws it right to maxi maxi takes the ball hits the layup everybody stopped nobody was catching maxi anyway maxi didn't travel by the way either uh and you're going well what the hell happened there and by the way i love that that that's uh that's not a shot clock violation. It shouldn't ever be. The defense should be rewarded for getting the team to screw it up. And too many times you'll see the whistle go like, oh, shot clock. They should never interfere with the defense getting a great look off of that shot clock violation. Like it shouldn't stop play.

So I was happy that that happened because I just think it's the right thing to see in basketball. So now Philly's actually up, which is kind of funny because I think people are going to forget. Boston actually took the lead back here. Tatum gets downhill, gets his free throws, makes both of them. 26 seconds left. Now, on this last play at 26 seconds, after Doc had made defensive substitutions, hey, we're going to give Doc Rivers some credit here. He puts Niang and Melton back in.

Because he wanted Niang and Maxie in. So Melton came out on that substitution. So it's Harris, it's PJ, it's Niang, and it's Maxie. Now, we understand why Doc's doing this because he wants all the spacing if Horford can get the switch that he wants. He gets the switch on Horford. Yes, I do not like how easy NBA teams allow themselves to get into a disadvantage switch. It happens all the time.

I still can't believe how bad the Warriors were with it in 2016 against the Cavs. They just invited themselves into these horrible disadvantage switches. 16 against the Cavs. They just invited themselves into these horrible disadvantage switches. As much as I can say that, there are times too where you'll see a team sort of fight a switch or a guy looks like he's going to switch and he comes back to recover and the NBA players are

so good they burn you the whole time and certainly Harden is capable of doing that with his passing and his vision. Harden already knows all the stuff that you're trying to do here. But Horford gave a great contest on that shot. I watched all 30 shot attempts from Harden this morning, specifically that one.

That's a great contest. It is. Now, granted, you're dealing with the Harden part of this where he's going to look to land into your feet, so you're worried about the free throws. You know, Harden's misses last night, most of the misses were him being more concerned with trying to get free throws than it was him making the shot, which I think is something that's happened to him more and more. But he shot it well enough this season after declining the last couple of years from three. So you can't really get on for it. But, you know, as much as, oh, Harden got smoked or Harden smoked Horford, I should say, go back and look at that three. smoked Horford, I should say, go back and look at that three. And even Horford said he went earlier than I thought he did. Like the shot is up with seven seconds left on the shot clock and Harden

still going to angle himself looking for a foul on it. But he shot at me or much more pure than some of the stuff we'll do earlier in a game where he's just hoping to get the free throws. So I didn't really think it was, I don't like the switch. And then the other part is you send two. I like the idea of sending a second guy, but you know you could possibly get burned with that one. PJ sets the screen. He runs right down to the baseline to get out of it.

It was kind of crowded on that right side. So maybe you could have set a second defender over there and there was enough crowding on the right side that if Harden passed out to one of those guys, somebody could have made up the ground. And Harris is on Tatum, completely stuck in the left quarter away from everything. So sure, you can rewatch that a million times if you want and come up with different things they could have done. I'm not even saying you're necessarily wrong. I just think at times it can be a little unfair, especially when Horford got a really good contest on that shot.

especially when Horford got a really good contest on that shot. Now, going through the 30-shot attempts from Harden. Now, field goal attempts versus defender does not always tell the truth on defensive assignments here. White had three, six against Smart, six against Brogdon. As soon as Grant Williams came in, he switched on him twice. I thought Grant gave a really good contest on the first one. The second one, he tried to body up and lost him immediately on the dribble. Rob Williams, two contests.

Tatum, only two. Horford, five. Jalen Williams, three. And then Hauser, which was my favorite one because Harden jumped about three feet forward trying to get the foul on that one and then fell down. I would have posted that if they had lost, perhaps. Of the 30 again, I think it's six

uncontested, which speaks to how brilliant Harden was last night. It wasn't free throws. It wasn't an egregious amount of shots that were inefficient. It was a guy finding a way in a playoff game, which has not been on the resume, despite some of the overall numbers where he was in complete control and looked comfortable in moments where I've seen him look uncomfortable in the past. I mean, for him to hit that many shots where I really, my tracking is 24 of the 30 to be contested, including the last one. Brilliant game from him. Celtics defense. Let's talk about it. They could depend on it last season. The playoffs so far right now, I don't know what's going on. They were second in defense

last year in the playoffs behind only Milwaukee. The offense was ninth. The offense was the problem against Golden State. They looked uncertain. They didn't know necessarily who was their closer. Tatum didn't drive to contact as well. It was a big adjustment this offseason. It's made him even better. At this point right now, Boston is 12th out of 16 teams in the playoffs on defense. Seven games, sure. Small sample, sure. But teams 13 through 16 are all home right now. The last five games, Boston's given up 123 points per 100 possession. In the finals last year

against Golden State, they gave up 110 points per 100 possessions. Against Golden State in the finals. Against Atlanta, and now game one, excuse me, the last four against Atlanta and the first game against Philly, they're at 123. Yes, offense, rising tides, all that kind of stuff. The fourth quarter offense, Philadelphia through the playoffs,

I don't even know what to make of it because the Brooklyn part of it was, you know, I don't know that it was a huge challenge, but Philly did what they needed to do despite me going, I worry about them late. Some of the predictability, I know the numbers are better than I'd maybe give them credit for. Philly's third and fourth quarter offense in the playoffs.

Boston is seventh. And Doc Rivers wins the Doc Rivers rule game. And Horford talked about it. He talked about it after and said, you know, I think once we knew Embiid was out, we lightened up a little bit. Wait, don't lighten up. Fix the defense.

Maybe, but that was, you know, as we talked about with Phoenix and Denver in game one, alarming to see Boston at home in that spot look like the less tougher team. Denver, all Jokic, man. What a game. 39 points, 16 boards, five assists, nine field goal attempts in the first quarter. He knew the approach, what he was going to have to do. It was pretty clear we're going to see this rare Jokic game where he's going to actually initiate a lot of the offense. 30 shots in the game for him as well. That's a

season high, I believe. Fourth quarter, it's 73-70 Phoenix. Phoenix somehow is still leading this game. Well, that's because after Jokic, nobody was doing anything from Denver. Let's run through some of the numbers. Neither team could hit from three. Phoenix was 6-22 for 27%. Denver 4-21, 19% at this time when I wrote it down,

start of the fourth. Murray, 1-10. 1-10 with 4 points, points zero six from three at this point um you know phoenix earlier in the game had led 59 51 uh and maybe you you sense the tone in my voice here as i address this uh why do i go back at 59 5151? That's because 5-0-4 left of the third quarter. Chris Paul left the game with a groin injury. Say what you want about Chris Paul at times in the playoffs. Again, he's a diminished player. He has been in the regular season.

This is not breaking news. He was 1-7 to start the game, but he made three straight off that drop against Jokic that I talked about with Bill after game one, being like, you know, look, it's not like you're just going to have to rant, book, or watch everything you're doing. At times, even against the Clippers in game one, when they

blew that game, I was like, wait, you just, what are you going to do? Just run eight and Chris Paul stuff all the time, but two hall of famers watching the whole time. Like that doesn't make a ton of sense. However, I thought having none of it against Jokic, the thing that you're supposed to exploit against Jokic being out there and some of that drop stuff and how Denver at times, even in the regular season, like, man, they asked that guy to cover a lot of ground and blitz pretty far out at some point guards depending on what they're doing um you might want to look at it because even if chris paul's not taking that shot every time it should open up some things paul made three in a row and it felt like he was starting to feel things out and again it just makes things easier for everybody else

then he leaves with the groin injury i have no no idea. Make fun of me all you want. I guess I deserve it. It feels a little mean, a little mean spirited. I did get a text from Big Cat last night. He tweeted about it too. He was trying to pretend he was being nice, but we know that he's evil. Kyle and I know that he's evil deep down. So we're going to leave that one alone. Okay. So Jokic comes back in at 920. So just under three minutes of not playing. Now let's go backwards, right? Phoenix was up 73-70 to start. Nobody's making any shots.

Supporting Cass is helping out Denver. I don't love everything I'm seeing from Phoenix, but I'm loving the defensive intensity. I thought Aiton was better. It's not perfect. You know, some of the funny things that I was thinking about with Horford and people say, oh, he got cooked by Harden at the end I'm like man that was a pretty good contest now there were some other drops where Harden or excuse me Horford was against the screen

against Harden where I thought he was a little too deep and then it's like man sometimes we ask these centers to like get out get into somebody's jersey and it's just not realistic that that's going to happen and it happens with Aiton in game one feel like it happened a little less in game two and then the other stuff for eight and like one on one against yokich good luck man good luck more moves than a can of worms i heard an old guy say that on a broadcast um one time there's just not much you're going to be able to do with that so as i keep getting to the 73 7070 thing, that means that Phoenix was up three. That means in the non-Jokic minutes, they should be able to go on some kind of run. That's not what happened. He sat almost three minutes as we said, Phoenix lost those minutes

three to zero. They didn't score. They didn't score. Phoenix was 0 of 9 to start the fourth quarter. They were 7 of 25 overall in the fourth. After the Chris Paul injury, Durant went 4 of 12. We'll get to him. So Jokic misses this time. And now you were up 3,

and now it's tied. Okay tied okay well maybe it was only you know 240 but this is a problem this continues to be a problem look at these non-yokich minutes so far in these first two games uh yokich the sub pattern is not in stone with denver and how they want to do it but it's you know it's kind of like plays most of the first quarter, maybe all the first quarter. Jokic plays, I think, the whole first quarter last night. He sits at the start of the second quarter. It's 21-18 Phoenix. He comes back in at 7-51.

Denver wins the non-Jokic minutes 8-3. So Phoenix actually blows another lead there. Game 1. Jokic sits at 137 of the first quarter. It's 28-27 Denver. Jokic comes back in and

they actually sat him a little longer in this game. Denver won that stretch by 7 points. In the third quarter of game one, Jokic sits 39 seconds left of the third quarter. It's 93-79. Comes back into the fourth at 740. You know, interesting stuff that Malone's doing there.

Again, it depends on the game, the extra break, that kind of thing. He brings him back earlier last night than he did in game one. Granted, they had more of a lead, so that's part of it as well. Comes out up 14, comes back in up 12. So they only lost two points. So there's one sub-pattern in this entire series where it was a negative for Denver and it's only been minus two. That can't happen.

The other thing that can't happen is KD, he needs to be impossible. He needs to be impossible to deal with. And he's not that right now. He had a one foot step back from the right baseline. I was like, he actually needs to hit those absurd shots. I have no issue with Booker. The rest of the bench is a mess. We knew that. Three point shooting, so many wide open looks from this team. I do think there's a weird like, hey, what did we do wrong? Let's be better next game where everybody was on him for not taking enough threes. So they came out and take a ton of threes.

Booker was four or eight from three. The rest of the team was two or 23. Campaign had a couple, hey, look at me, threes, which I love. But now campaign is a necessity because of the Chris Paul injury. That's clearly, I've never heard older guys hurt their groin and be like, yeah, it was only like a day. I'm good.

I'm good. Unless you're Lane Johnson. I don't know if that's going to be a quick recovery, if at all. So Durant, despite the defense and the boards, not enough there. I agree with Bill on Sunday. He goes, you know, they still have a lot of that new guy vibe to them. They do. They don't really seem to know what they want to do. They definitely don't know what their rotations are.

They keep trying different stuff that doesn't feel like coaching adjustments. It feels like being lost. And the only thing you're banking on here for Phoenix, because if Chris Paul doesn't come back, again, say what you want, not having him in an early pre-depleted rotation is a huge, huge problem. If you're Phoenix, you're banking on that Durant guy. You're banking on three days off and that Denver is 19-22

on the road this season. That's Taylor Smith. The draft is over and we want to make sure we still have some time to recap this with a good friend. Love having him on. Booker McFarlane, ESPN. What's up, man? What's up, dude? How we doing?

I'm good. I'm good. Usually you have a joke or some sort of thing to get us started here, so I was going to give you the floor. I don't know if you had something you wanted to give me a hard time about. Well, not really a joke. I just noticed we still haven't gotten anything on the walls in the background, although I do see something on the floor in the corner, which looks like it needs to be put up.

But other than that, that man you are living the bachelor life in manhattan beach still i see yeah yeah we uh we don't have stuff up on the walls i guess whenever i move into a place i'll be like i'll probably move again shortly so i feel like i'm doing that for the next person you know big guy you've been there a while so like i mean you know you can't keep using i just moved in i mean you've been there a few years now you know no that's fair it's fair it's uh it's well said i don't know, you can't keep using it. I just moved in. I mean, you've been there a few years now, you know? No, that's fair. That's fair.

It's well said. I don't know. I don't know. Once it all feels like home one day, I'll do it. I'll do it up. Okay. Jalen Carter is now in Philly. You know, we know his talent.

We know the stories. And to see him drop to nine isn't shocking. But what did you think of him, the story, everything going into it in the pick? Well, obviously, once you dig in and you see kind of what happened, I think the fact that someone's life was lost, that he was involved in it, really played a huge role why everybody looked down on it. And I can completely understand that. I think also the fact that there were some discrepancies

in his stories kind of played a part in that because now the character is he upstanding and all that good stuff. But I think once the NFL dug into it, and I don't mean to minimize it, but when you kind of look at it, I mean, he was allegedly racing somebody and the person he was racing, you know, had an accident and they died.

Now, did he leave the scene and all that good stuff? I don't know all the pertinent details. But I think the fact that he settled that he got off with what is a misdemeanor and like a year suspended license. I think the NFL was OK with that. Now, some teams won, but overall, the NFL was like, okay, cool. He's still going in the top 10. I hearken it back, man, to a guy I played with, and that was Sapp, man. If you remember, in 95, Sapp was supposed to be

the number one pick in the draft. He was supposed to go number one. The night before the draft, there was a leak. He failed a drug test, and all of a sudden, he goes from 1 to 12, gets to Tampa. Tampa takes him, and he's a Hall of Fame player. Does Carter have that type of ability? Yes. Is he the same type of player? No. I kind of liken him to a twitched up, to use one of McShay's favorite words, twitchy, a twitched up version of Indomitian Sioux. He's a power player that has great skills. He's a little immature.

He needs to get in a place where he needed to get in a place that had people who are kind of going to have to look after him and kind of show him the ropes. And what better place when he's got half the Georgia Bulldogs in Philadelphia? So I think he's in a perfect spot. He's a little out of shape. He's a little immature. He's young. He's got plenty of money now.

So it's going to be up to those older guys there to kind of show them the road. But overall, I would have taken the number one overall. I think when you start talking about how can you look at players and see what translates from college football to the NFL,

I think it's easiest for defensive tackles, defensive linemen, because they really aren't changing a whole lot once they get to the NFL. Like, they got to change some techniques and things like that. But other than that, like, when the ball snaps, you go blow that dude up in front of you and get to the quarterback. And I think what he does translates so easily. I would have taken it first overall,

but I do understand the trepidation by some organizations. But it just wouldn't have been me once I found out and everything that went on and once he settled the case. I like the SAP comp, but I imagine at that point you would come in four years after him. So, you know, I don't know if SAP was going to listen to anybody. He wasn't going to listen to anybody else. I know your thing, as far as getting to know you, like, I just think you're a really mature person and I'm sure you were kind of like that even as a young dude.

But did you have stuff later on where there'd be like a younger player? Like how did you handle a younger player come in a lot of talent, but knowing that, you know, they needed that guidance. They needed it early to kind of salvage a career. Well, I think the one thing you can't do is force it. Like you, you can't come in and start, uh, you know, preaching to the kid and telling him, hey, man, like, follow me. When I go to the bathroom, you go.

Like, that's one thing that you can't do because then it's not authentic. And it's not something that's just kind of natural. I think what you have to do is lead by example. And, you know, you introduce yourself to the kid on the first day and you try to befriend him. But at the end of the day, you go out and you show him how it's done. I think, you know, there's an old saying, more is caught than taught. And what that means is if you show somebody how to do things, they'll catch more than you tell them what to do. And I think overall, it's going to be up to those veterans there to show him how to do it, show him how to be a pro, show him how to act, show him how to eat right.

That's what we would do. Now, we would have a bunch of fun doing that. And I was in a locker room with Hardy Nickerson and Derrick Brooks, John Lynch, and those guys. They showed me. And so when young guys came in, it was up to me to show them, yeah, it's going to be cool. We're going to work our tails off. We're going to have a bunch of fun. But you know what? When it's time to go hang out and chill, we go hang out and chill. You want to drink a cup of brews, go drink a couple of brews. But we're not going to be out to three or four o'clock in the morning. We're not going to be flunking drug tests. We're not going to be beating up women.

We're not going to be doing things that we shouldn't do because you have to start to act like a professional. And I think that's the thing that a lot of these young dudes don't understand is because you got a lot of money. You got a lot of time. There's no 20 hour rule in the NFL football. So you're going to spend a fair amount of time at the facility. But there's also time between especially now with this new CBA, man. I mean, once your season is over, let's say your season ends in December. Man, you're not coming back to work until like mid-April. So you got a lot of money. I mean, you can't count it. You're Hawaii. You're Europe.

What's the new thing now? Tulum, where the place is down south. Like everybody's going to these places now. So you just got to make sure that you are you are acting the part. And it was told to me once one time by Marty Nicholson.

He said, regardless of where you go, ask yourself this. Whatever you're about to do, how's it going to represent your name and your family's name? And if your mom found out, how would she react? And he's like, that usually is kind of a good guide to kind of deter you or allow you to go ahead and do some things. How did you have the quarterbacks ranked in order?

how did you have the quarterbacks ranked in order uh bryce young one uh cj shroud two um hendon hooker three uh will anthony richardson four and then will levis five that's how i had a month okay all right so let's dig into that a little bit um the hooker challenge i think for some teams like i was reading some profiles in the other day and it was like okay okay, but if you just develop them slowly, because there's a lot of similarities from what I understand between what Heupel runs and what Baylor, some of the same stuff. Tennessee gets their guys open. They play fast. That tells me it's a lot of half the field reads, and Hooker was incredible. There's some physical stuff with him too, but we're also talking about somebody who's 25. I think he'd be like 26 at the end of the season.

So if you're talking about somebody developmentally to step in after golf, after a couple of years to NFL him up, I'm like, okay, he might be 28 at that point. So I have to think that that was like from a quarterback standpoint, do you have him perhaps even higher than what you think he would be, but the age holds it back? The age doesn't bother me. The age actually helps because it's a position that doesn't get hit a ton. And the fact that he's got a couple years off

or he's had some time off with the transfer and all that, and now with the knee, he's probably going to have a year off. Here's where I look at that position with Salome. And I look at it a lot different than a lot of people. I don't care what you run into 40. I don't care what you run in the 40. I don't care what you jump. I don't care how far you can throw the football. That decision, that position is based on a few things.

And none of them have to do with anything physically measurable. Decision making. Can you make great decisions with the football? Processing. Can you absorb a lot of information quickly and then make a decision with that? Accuracy. Can you throw the football accurately? And do you have points? Like those things are what make the position. Think about the greatest ones in the National Football League right now. And think about those four attributes I just listed.

None of them have a height, weight, size thing on them. And I think hitting the hooker for me, yeah, he's played a lot of football. Yeah, he's a little bit older, but you know what you get with age? And I'm sure you've gotten this maturity. You get better decision making. You no longer are trying to shotgun 12 beers like when you were 21 and 27. You get a lot better decision making when you get older because you've seen some things. And so at 26, I'm cool because quarterbacks now are playing

until they're 36. Aaron Rodgers just got traded for at 36 years old or whatever he is, 38. So he's going to play probably 10 good years. And if I told you you got 10 good years of hitting the hooker, you'd sign up for it in a heartbeat. So the age really only helps me at that position.

Now, if this were a guard or tailback or whatever, you're right. But at quarterback, I love the age. I love a guy being older because he's more mature and, you know, just kind of still alive from John Gruden years ago. He's not worried about going out playing grab ass at night. Like he is a little bit older, more mature, ready to kind of handle his business and be a professional.

So you had Levis fifth. Was there a massive gap between he and Anthony Richardson for you? Not really. I just don't think you can turn the football over as much as Will Levis did. And then he goes, you know, in the postseason kind of lead up to the draft.

I didn't know if he was preparing for the draft or like Mr. Olympia, like he turned into a bodybuilder. He's posting. As a matter of fact, it's kind of funny you ask that question, because when I saw him post pictures of his delts online, I'm like, man, is he hanging out with Rosillo now? Are they bench pressing like once a week? And hey, take this picture for me so I can post my rear delts online. Like, come on, dude, you're playing quarterback my rear delts online like come on dude you're

playing quarterback not you're not the first yeah you're not the first person to make that connection i mean come on dude like seriously so like he's got to loosen his upper body up and all that good stuff i'm not gonna get like really analytical but here's what i'll say all the things that he kind of and this is where social media i I think, hurt him a little bit. Like the mayonnaise in the coffee, like all the little quirky things. Like, come on, man. Like, when's the last time we've seen our quarterback go down this road? Like, it just doesn't get a good feel when your quarterback is like super weird. Like most quarterbacks are kind of buttoned up business, like professionals, CEO, by the way, they make the most money.

How would you feel if the CEO of your company was walking around saying, you know what, hey, man, everybody get a cup of coffee. We're going to put mandates in it today. Let's do a little team bonding. Probably wouldn't go over well, buddy. Okay, see, this is actually a good transition because I want to get to Ursae and his tweet a little bit later. But, you know, Levis ends up going to Tennessee. It actually feels like a great spot for him

because whether you're in Houston pretending you're going to bring C.J. Stroud along slowly, he's going to start this year. Bryce is going to start. Anthony Richardson probably ends up starting. Where Levis, look, if Tannehill with a year left, and I know he's had his injury problem, so it'll really depend on his health

and how Tennessee's going. But there's a version of events here where Levis doesn't have to play at all this season. So it feels less. There's less of a possibility of him being rushed. So even though I agree I had him behind Richardson, if he has a chance, I think the fact that he's in this setting with a really good coach who gets it in Brable, that they're not – like, Brable has enough equity, too, where you're not going to feel like some of these coaches are going,

well, I'm going to get fired anyway, so why don't I play this young guy? And if we lose games, I can just blame that. Yeah, I think you're kind of going down the right path there. Tannehill kind of needs to play and play well. He's been injured a little bit, and so I think the motivation for him to go out and Tannehill's not going to have to worry about these two kids beating him out. Malik Willis, I think we saw last year, wasn't ready,

although I do expect him to make a big jump this offseason. And Will Levis, I think, needs to kind of sit and understand how to play professional quarterback at the next level. So to me, this is setting up in a perfect world. If you're Tennessee, Tannehill plays this year. And then the year after Malik Willis and Will Levis are battling one, two, and the losers, the backup, I think in a perfect world,

this is what they want to do because like, Vrabel is never going to open this thing up and say, Hey, let's go four wide and kind of sling it around. Like he's never going to do that. So the quarterback of Tennessee is really going to be like the quarterback of San Francisco, the quarterback of the Rams. Like it's going to be a run-based play action offense. That's going to be easily for the quarterback to decipher what to do.

And we always hear, man, the most, the quarterback with the best chance to succeed is anybody that is playing for Kyle Shanahan. And I think there's a reason for it because of how the offense is run. It will be different if you're going and playing in Detroit where the OC Johnson wants to open this thing up. So I agree Levin's is in the best position. I also agree he was the least talented of the five quarterbacks that were, quote unquote, taken early in this draft. You were with the Colts for a very short amount of time, but I don't know that anything Jim Irsay does is going to surprise any of us. But for him to tweet after they'd taken Anthony Richardson, like, hey, Colts fans, should we take Levis and have a young Montana for the franchise?

I mean, I probably shouldn't put too much into it, but can you offer any more Ursa perspective in your short time there? He beats to his own drum. He is super intelligent, super loyal. Sometimes beating to his own drum causes him to say things or do things that the people around him have to kind of walk back or they kind of question, which is why, just like most billionaires, he's got a couple of right-hand men that are around him to make sure that some of those things don't come out. But

overall, my two years at Indy, man, were great. He respected my opinions on some matters. When we went to the Super Bowl, he actually called me in his office and said, hey, what do we need to do to be prepared for what we're about to deal with when we get to Miami? He said, we've never been there. You've gone to the Super Bowl, so how do we handle it? Give me advice. Tell me what I need to tell these coaches. Tell me what I need to do.

And, like, he was, like, to me that said something because most billionaires or most people got to be the smartest person in the room. They don't know how to stoop down and say, okay, here's what I don't know. Let me ask somebody. And for the owner of the team to kind of ask, I mean, I just got I know I've only been there six months or five months. And he's like, hey, can you help me? So to me, that showed me a lot about his personality and gave me a little glimpse inside what makes him up a little bit. But overall, yeah, he's kind of what you see is what you get, man. I think he's been through a lot, even though it's been, what, it's been over a decade since I played there.

Anytime I see him, it's family. Like, it's super cool to see him, to see kind of where he's at now compared to where he was. And as you saw with the Jeff Satterby situation and with the Peyton Manning comments a lot, like he's super loyal to the people that have worked for him. And to me, that's a great thing because that shows you the appreciation he's always had

for the people that work for him. And maybe he's a little weird. He's not like the other owners all buttoned up, but guess what? We're all different. And at the end of the day, I respect him for the business that he's built and some of the challenges he's overcome. Okay, I want to ask this specific to you, though. And again, this kind of gets into us knowing each other a little bit. But did you work on having any kind of relationship with ownership? Because that can be seen as like a weird thing in the locker room. But I can also understand, especially in Ursae, I don't know how it was in tampa for you but you were there a lot longer you were really important

part of that what is that what's the level of like priority for you to have any kind of correspondence with the person that's cutting the checks well it's got to be a little organic number one um my rookie year i didn't't even know who the owners were in Tampa. I had to kind of figure out like they would come to practice because like the Glazer family, there was the dad and you had three sons and a daughter and then you had some handlers. I'm like, well, who's who? But over the years, I learned who was who. I learned who were the decision makers. I learned who were the ones that were just kind of there hanging out. And, you know, here we are. I mean, I got drafted in 99 and it's 2023. And if I need to pick up the phone and call Joe Glazer, I can. The daughter, Darcy Glazer

Cassowitz, I did an event for her this year over at the new Bucks facility because there's some rapport there. And over the years, the relationship has not soured. Are we best friends? No. But I've had several conversations with those two in particular. And Joe kind of runs the football side and Darcy's kind of the community side. So those are the two people that I've gravitated to. But early on in your career, man, you're just trying to figure out where to live, where to go. What's the right spot to eat at. Now, when I got to Indy, because Indy traded for me and because Indy was such a veteran team and because Tony Dungy was there,

there was a heightened level of pace to get to know Mr. Irsay. Because, again, hey, we're trading away a second-round pick. Who's the guy we're getting? The little short nose guard from Tampa? Okay, I need to meet him. I need to know him. I need to talk to him. And then when I got there, hey, come're trading away a second round pick. Who's the guy we're getting? The little short nose guard from Tampa? Okay, I need to meet him. I need to know him. I need to talk to him. And then when I got there, hey, come sit in the office.

Hey, whatever we need. Because he was trying to win a championship at that point. So that was, I mean, he was super competitive. He wanted to know everything that he didn't know about winning a title. And so that relationship kind of was escalated due to that. And, again, like I said, even now we can still, you know, I can pick up the phone and call Jim and, like, hey, And so that relationship kind of was escalated due to that. And again, like I said, even now, we can still, you know, I can pick up the phone and call Jim and like, hey, I need X.

And he might not treat me the way he treats Peyton, obviously, but he's going to answer the call. Yeah, the Peyton thing I can understand a little bit. I think that's fair. Let's dig into the NFC. Your man, Graney, has added again this weekend. You know, he looked at the Eagles draft and he said they're the best team

in the NFL and it's not even close, which is always the big giveaway that it's probably somewhat debatable. But it's, there's no denying, you know, not only are they stacked

on the roster, they're adding depth. They already, you know what I mean? They're already planning the replacements. That's the beauty of having a really good football team

is you can kind of look at some picks as a luxury item as opposed to a need. So we all love the Eagles. I think it's pretty fair to say that they'd be in the mix. How many other teams do you think are even at that tier, though, in the NFC? San Francisco is going to be there. They've shown, regardless of who the quarterback is,

they're going to be there, man. It's what they do. It's their program, how good they are defensively. They're there. I do like what Dallas has done. You know, Dallas gets the defensive tackle. They get to tight end a little later. I like what they did.

I'll give you a surprise that I'm sure is going to be the sexy pick as the summer goes on. It's a Detroit Lions. That's going to be the trendy, sexy pick this offseason. They finished the year very strong. I love their draft. Love what they've done. Their draft wasn't prototypical based on everybody's mock. And I didn't see the Rosillo mock draft or the Cerruti mock draft,

but I'm sure you guys did one. But for them to take a running back and then a 6'5", 240-pound linebacker from Iowa, and even though he won the buckets, people are like, well, who is this dude? But it fits Dan Campbell. It fits who they are. Like, you know, you get Jameer Gibbs, you get Jack Campbell. I like what they did. Overall, I think their team is built

the right way. Their team, if they can just get a couple breaks and get things rolling early on, their team has football character. It's mentally tough. That's one of the things that's hard to do. If you go back years ago, when training

camp was training camp, that's the part of the season that's hard to do. If you go back years ago, Russell, when training camp was training camp, that's the part of the season where you became mentally tough. And most teams don't get that now because training camp is soft. And so I think Detroit still gets that mentally toughness from Dan Campbell. So, yeah, I like them. Who else in the nfc um green bay no even though i think they're still talented defensively um philly dab the giants i'm not a daniel jones guy um that's about it man i mean you know it's

not a long list like we would agree here on this one but i you know it's it's football it's the nfl there's going to be a couple nfc teams at some point that look like they're actually hanging with the eagles even we think from a talent standpoint and before we have free agency finished here so it's a little early to do any of this kind of stuff but i'm glad you said detroit because the jameer gibbs is nasty as he is and he's nasty like i wonder you know i'm I'm anti the running back thing. I'm not changing my mind about all that stuff. But he was.

Tell me why. Tell me why are you anti running back? I'm going to tell you right now. It's like having a great post player on an NBA team. It's awesome that you can do all those things. And it's really cool. We're never passing it to you. And running backs cannot control a team's game, the outcome of game.

They can't control the season the way they used to, the way we grew up. You could have an okay quarterback and an awesome running back, and they could carry you. It doesn't happen anymore. Adrian Peterson's the last guy to do it. You could argue Derrick Henry a little bit, I guess. Peterson, to me, is the final. That year that he had with that Minnesota team and made them competitive,

I think they got into the playoffs that one year, and I'm like, this team sucks. And it was all him. I just don't think the game is played in a way that prioritizes a dominant running back that way on third and four, you're not handing off anymore in this league. So let me push back to you on this.

Okay. Because you, because you brought up the basketball analogy and, and I love this. So if we take a look at the best player in the world, arguably Giannis Antetokounmpo, he doesn't, I mean,

most people would say he doesn't have a great jump shot. Okay. Will he shoot it occasionally? Yes. Will he shoot it at a high percentage? Yes. But he's going to score

all of his points paint toward the rim. Now, because he's so athletic and because he can do like a ton of different things and he can get to the rim and run the floor he's so athletic and because he can do a ton of different things and he can get to the rim and run the floor and all that good stuff, we don't look at him as a traditional big. We look at him

as a guy who I don't know, people call him a wing. To me, he's a big. But when all hits the fan, they know they can give the ball to him and he can make a play. If you look at Jameer Gibbs, you look at Christian McCarthy, you look at Alvin Kamara, you look at running backs of that Austin Eckler,

guys in the NL, to me, I don't look at them as running backs. To me, they're weapons. And I can give them the ball and they can make a play, regardless whether it's out of the backfield, regardless whether I throw them a swing pass, regardless of how they get the ball. To me, it's not about carries. Because you said something earlier.

You said, third and four, I'm not going to hand the ball off. You're right. You may not have handed off. But on third and four, I may put you out at the slot and throw you a little swing pass, and now you're in space. And so I would equate the running back very similar to how you equate a guy like Giannis. Because Giannis is a big, but he's not the post-up big. But still, he's a guy who I also wouldn't consider a wing either. Like, he's a big, but he's not the post-up big, but still he's a guy who I also wouldn't consider a wing either.

Like he's a big, but he's a different type big. Does that make sense? It does. But I, and see, here's the thing is, Jameer's going to have some runs early in his career where the reaction on Sunday is going to be, wait, I thought everybody thought this pick was bad. It's like, no, it actually has nothing to do with him because he is that nasty. But I also

kind of like think about, you know, receptions wise, granted, Georgia Tech's not going to throw the football. You know, 44 catches at Bama last year. I think we do that a lot with these playmakers where we'll say, all right, we'll just go out and be a wide receiver for 10 plays a game. And not everybody's the same with it. Some guys just are not comfortable, especially when they get the NFL, like turning and having to catch. I don't know enough about that part of his game and how that'll translate to the NFL, but I

still feel like the running backs that are real threats in the passing game, it ends up being a shorter list, and we just assume everybody can do it. So, anyway, I'm glad you brought up Detroit. Yes. All right, keep going. No, yes, it is a short list.

He's, to me, he's the only one in this year's draft because if I put him up, like he's kind of Camara, Marshall Falk type. He's got that type of acceleration. So literally, I can go back and show you, I can line him up on the single receiver side and throw him a hitch, and it's going to be trouble for the DB. He's got that kind of wiggle out there,

and he's also got the acceleration to run it out of the backfield. So to me, he was the only one in this year's draft that I would put in that category. And if you don't believe running backs can change things, go back and look at when the 49ers traded for McCaffrey. Changed everything they do. Changed everything that they do.

So to your point, I hear you traditionally, especially when you start looking at Leonard Fournette and Ezekiel Elliott, guys that were drafted super high, and they've kind of played out. But this dude's different, man. Like, he's different. And I want to just make sure I don't sound like I'm saying he can't make those catches because that's not fair. Because he really is.

He's an absolute playmaker. But I feel like teams, whenever they have that wide out or tight end, like, that's what they end up doing. And you're going, okay, we used the first round on this. But I am glad you said Detroit because they get Laporta later on. Branch, the safety from Alabama, was one of my favorite players in college this year, and Martin, that beast of a tackle from, what, Western Kentucky.

So I think Detroit's overall draft. Do you have anyone else defensively that you really love? Who did I love defensively? I love the guy that the Bucs drafted, Kalijah Cansey. Little defensive tackle. Reminded so much of me. Like six foot 280. They said he's too small.

He's the best interior pass rusher in this draft. Not Jalen Carter. He's the best interior guy. If somebody told me I got to take somebody from the 2023 draft and they got to line up and win a one-on-one inside, I'm picking him. Loved him. Who else? I love the kid, Will McDonald, that the Jets got.

I like the DB, Cam Smith, out of South Carolina. Very aggressive, ball-hawking type dude. Just going through the list here. I'm going to throw another one at you because I'm going to ask because I really like Seattle's draft. And I don't know if it's a flaw in my game, but I feel like I always end up liking one defensive lineman from Auburn every year where I'm like,

oh, I think this guy can do some things. Like, am I nuts to still believe in Derek Hall? No, you're not. Again, what, a 6'2", 6'3", 250, can turn the corner, like how he's built? Yeah. Like, he's that corner central rusher now. There are more guys, which is why,

and we can do this one day, like, we can really geek out and talk about defenses in college football. More teams in college football now are playing 3-4 defense because it's easier to find 6-2, 6-3 guys that are 250 than it is to find 6-5, 290-pound guys. So Derek Hall, Will McDonald, Will Anderson, like all those guys that are 6-2 to 6'3, 245 to 250 that can run. Nolan Smith.

Yeah, Nolan Smith, 6'3, 238, whatever. Those guys are going to play a long time, dude. So, yeah, like that pick. Like that pick a lot. Okay. Everyone in New England, all my buddies are asking me about Boutte. They're like, wait, wait wait what happened to this guy uh let me let you go first and we'll see because he was he was lights out two years ago and for him to go in the sixth round that is a dramatic fall

two years ago he was lights out but I think everything since then has been handled very, very poorly. If you look at when the new regime came, there were questions about whether he was going to still be there with the new regime under Brian Kelly. I talked to people down there, including Coach Kelly. They didn't see the explosiveness, the ability to get open one-on-one. They didn't think that the suddenness was there, especially compared to some of the other guys that were in the building. And I was like, okay, well, that doesn't sound like the guy we saw that just lit up some teams a year before.

And so as the season ends, it's getting ready to end, and I understand him missing the game and that he had a kid born. And it was just kind of rumblings that he wasn't maybe is he going to opt out? Is he not? He never got great favor with the with the regime there. So now you go to the postseason testing process. He didn't test well. He so you add film that's not great. Starting at Florida State when he couldn't get open. You add film that's not great throughout the season to a postseason process that wasn't great. He didn't test well. Coaches that really don't know him because the entire staff is gone. It's a new staff there. So now when the NFL teams

come in, tell me about K-Shan. I don't know. Kind of what you see is what you get. So it was kind of a perfect storm of all those factors that led to him being picked where he was picked. Yeah, his drop rate was pretty bad last year. I think it was around 11% in the beginning of the year. Well, that's not even analytics. It's just, you know,

it's I think it was, you know, I think he was his own worst enemy this year. Like he let all of it get to him, you know, when Jaden couldn't make the plays. Like, because, you know, Besh, who I thought was a real playmaker at tight end, you know, he's a TCU now, and I know he had more of an injury issue, but I think a couple of the guys that were established,

and then Jaden's not getting the football consistently enough, for sure, Kayshaun checked out. He was looking back at him in the Florida State game. He didn't finish a couple routes off. So there's some bad tape on him. But it would have to be him deciding, you need to get over how uncomfortable you were last year. Because as much as everything that happened last year is real,

I have a hard time believing two years ago was fake. You know, I just, he was an absolute stud two years ago. So for him to be in the sixth round, I know he's not huge. And then the testing adds to it. And you're right. Like the new regime isn't going to sit there and talk to all their NFL contacts and start raving about this dude. Because they're not committed to it. And that's one of the most damaging things that can happen to you as a prospect.

It's like you start talking to people as a prospect. It's like, you start talking to people in the building, be like, tell me about your guy when it's like, eh, I mean, you can drop rounds, especially when you're not six feet running a four,

four. Yeah. And, uh, yeah. So, I mean, I,

I think in new England, um, obviously it's going to be coached hard, coached well. Um, I'm not necessarily sold on Matt Jones, so I'm not sure that's a great situation for him. However, yeah, it's a humbling experience. And I think for him, and I know a lot of guys feel this way, when you get to the NFL, like, that's a lifelong dream, man.

And regardless of what round you pick, I know this past weekend, everybody's celebrating all that. But once you get to the NFL facility, man, that don't matter. Because guess what? You're going to get in line, and it's going to be 10 receivers in a line, and you're going to get your opportunities, and you've got to count every rep. And you've got to make every one of them count. And I think he's got an opportunity now.

And if you would have told him five years ago, you're going to be on a team, you've got an opportunity. Sure, you want the upfront money that comes with being drafted higher. I get that. But if you would have told him five years ago, you're going to be on a team. You got an opportunity. Sure, you want the upfront money that comes with being drafted higher. I get that. But if you would have told him five years ago, you're going to be on an NFL team with an opportunity to make a team and earn a living, man, you take that all day. As a competitor, that's the way he's got to approach it.

But I do also, not to get into college football, but I do think it's going to show you just how deep next year's draft will show you just how deep LSU's receiver room really is. Because I think you're going to have two or three guys that have the opportunity to go pretty high because the talent was just a little different. And I think they're going to test well and they're going to look the part and they're going to. Jaden has made a ton of improvements. a little different. And I think they're going to test well, and they're going to look the part, and they're going to, Jaden has made a ton of improvements. I was down in the spring, and it's amazing.

And it's like nothing physical. It's all mentally, and it's all like the confidence, man. And the coaching staff loves him. And yeah, man. So I'm looking forward to this football season as I know you are. Hey, thanks as always, Booger. Appreciate it, man.

Anytime. season as I know you are. Hey, thanks as always, Booger. Appreciate it, man. Anytime. Let's talk Lakers Warriors, and we're going to do it with one of the best Lakers reporters in the business, Mike Trudell on Spectrum. He's been with the team a long time. How many seasons is this

now for you, Mike? 2008 was my first, so, man. Housing crisis. Yeah, it's getting up there. Okay. All right. was my first so man housing crisis yeah it's getting up it's getting up there yeah okay all right um this feels a lot like a lot of the other series in the playoffs this year where either outcome is not going to be uh that surprising to me uh i'm really impressed with the lakers have been able to do with this rotation part of me and picking golden state feels like maybe the memphis thing maybe they were such a mess that

it was an easier test than maybe we realized for it. But then there's the AD factor where, look, if AD is going to be, he wasn't even great in this series, but the best version of him is still a lot harder to deal with than most players in the league. So I'll ask you your pick and all that kind of stuff, but going into it, like, where are you in your certainty on the outcome? Well, it's a little tricky to look at the regular season matchups because Steph didn't... So the Lakers won three games after the trade deadline once

they had this new team. And it is a new team. Essentially, Ryan, there's the Russ era. Then before that, there was LeBron AD and guys that fit around them. And then there's Russ and then there's the post-Russ era where LeBron AD and now guys again that fit around them if in a little bit of, and then there's the post-Russ era where LeBron, AD, and now guys again that fit around them, if in a little bit of a different way

from the team that won the title in 1920. So when they match up against the Warriors, AD is still the player that is kind of the swing guy where the Warriors don't have a great answer for him. And that's while acknowledging that Draymond Green can defend one-on-one

better than most players in the league, even on AD. But that doesn't necessarily deal with the way that they can get him rolling to the rim once Golden State starts some of their switching stuff like that. And he's also the answer to what they didn't have to face against Sacramento in terms of not just a rim protector, but probably the best rim protector going right now in the NBA and a guy that can still switch out to the perimeter. So what they essentially did against the Warriors in the regular season was top lock and just, OK, go out, extend to the three point line, encourage them to basically drive into where

Anthony Davis is. And that's just going to make it more difficult on what Golden State does from an offensive perspective than most teams, especially Sacramento, where you have kind of an open rim. You have an open lane, especially once they went small with DeMontis Sabonis not even playing a lot. And so I like the matchup in terms of just what you see X's and O's. But I also think, Ryan, and I'd love to get your take on this too, when you're a defending champion like Golden State was, I don't know that the Lakers saw their A game in those three games,

and certainly the ones without Steph just throw them away. But it's just a team that I think was trying to get to the postseason I saw it happen with that we you mentioned I said in 2008 I started with the Lakers well the next year they add Ron Artest and he was the guy that kind of kept that that team with the pedal down alongside Kobe and you yet and still you didn't see that a game a ton until you needed to once you got to the postseason. And I didn't even feel like we saw the Warriors A game a ton against the Kings. We saw Steph's a couple times, but they weren't to me clicking on all cylinders.

So it's a little bit different from how the Lakers entered it, where it was, where are LeBron's legs at? Can he get there four out of seven times? And he certainly did to get there four times. It's not going to be every game. So a lot going into it. I think matchup wise, there are some real positive points for the lakers but you certainly can't underestimate the warriors picking their game up a level even from where it was in round one the whole lakers season uh like almost none of the numbers really matter you know because it's

it's one of the best in season you know I think as far as what Boston did last year, like in-season going, look at all this talent. They know who they're supposed to be, and they're totally lost, and then they turned it on from January on. The Lakers is different in that they completely reinvented themselves. Boston was basically the same guys playing differently, and yet the Lakers, who had this awful stretch of the roster from three on down, four on down, depending on what you want to argue about, and creating this on the fly is And again, he wasn't even that good against the Memphis series. He was up and down.

The one that they lost there was really an awful game, but I felt like I'd agree with him that the looks were still pretty good. He just was off the entire night. They're both very hard teams to think you know them absolutely. Even the Warriors' road record, it was so bad, and the defense was so bad. I was like, is that number even real? And then they win a game seven in a really tough spot in Sacramento.

Not that Sacramento is perfect. We know their defensive struggles. But after Sacramento gets them in game six, you're thinking like, okay, you have to take this really seriously. So I still feel like the Golden State challenge is better. But that can be, you're right, it can be deemed a little irrelevant when you're trying to match up the two. can be, you're right, it can be deemed a little irrelevant when you're trying to match up the two. I still feel like the Lakers aren't 100% sure what they want to do with their rotation stuff, which is also one of like four or five teams that started the playoffs. What do you think you know about what they want to do and how they want to close and what they want to do with Vanderbilt

on certain matchups? And then I think despite how great Russell was in the closeout game against Memphis, I think there are other times where maybe maybe Darwin wasn't always in a hurry to let him kind of run everything and I can even see times where he and LeBron like late LeBron will be like I'm not throwing it back to you now which again I don't blame him for I think the I think they finally figured it out with the rotation and it basically is what you saw in game six where they were going to the second unit and in trying to rest ad a certain amount and they were playing lebron at the center which in one in some instances ryan isn't bad over the course of the series because it's going to save his legs a little bit more when he doesn't have to rotate out to the perimeter but what you saw

in game six beasley out of the rotation rounds out of the rotation at least for that game Gabriel in for some of the minutes when AD wasn't on the court and that basically just fixes everything because then you're tighter defensively you're a little bit better on the backboards you're a little bit better in terms of not making certain types of errors in the perimeter that would kill you against Golden State and you know AD you mentioned that he had he was inconsistent certainly offensively but he was ridiculous off defensively for the entire series and that's locked in so he's i think his net rating was like 13.6 now some of that's because of that that final blowout but they just when when

the starters were on the floor and it's reeves and russell skill guys around lebron and ad and then a hustle kind of do everything player in v Vanderbilt which by the way you can always bring Hachimura in who has really kind of brought his game up if Vanderbilt shot isn't going in etc that's a that group kind of has a lot of angles covered you know that's it's a and the one thing the one thing I think that's key for it that was different in game six from earlier in the series is that it wasn't LeBron top of the key, dribble, dribble, you know, wait and isolate. It was,

he let Russell and Reeves initiate some of those actions against Memphis is not top defenders in that context. LeBron waiting to cut on the weak side, you know, ad setting a scroll, setting a screen and maybe slipping even if they're trying to switch. Like that's to me, the Lakers team,

that's really difficult offensively. And the one that I think if golden state, when they start to get into their switching stuff that's the way they can play i think to really get some advantages will they put vanderbilt on curry and see how it goes i you know i would expect to to start with reeves on curry but you don't want to just have one guy like with any superstar but you don't want to just have one guy, like with any superstar. You don't want to just give him, hey, you got Steph this year. It's good luck, buddy. We'll see you at halftime.

I think that it'll be some Reeves. They'll throw Vanderbilt on him for some time. Dennis Schroeder, to me, might actually be the best in terms of lock and trail, chasing Steph around, not losing him. Schroeder always battles and always hustles, and he's kind of their key bench guard. So I think it'll be all of the above, not just going to be one guy there. I'm glad you said that about Dennis because he deserves a lot of credit for like, he'll still

keep fighting through the possession despite some nights where it looks like he doesn't have it. Where Russell, that's always my biggest knock on Russell, but he feels like he's, he was great in game six. He made a million shots. But I wonder, I would imagine Ham wants to stay away from that. And we all know too, that Steph's going to pass with the primary defender off of him and then he's going to run around and, you know, it's going to end up changing anyway. I think the thing you like a lot, if you're a Lakers fan is you're going LeBron having to defend Draymond.

Like that's just great. Cause it's not a ton of movement unless Draymond is going to want to run the whole time. And you never know with Draymond, that's just great because it's not a ton of movement unless Draymond's going to want to run the whole time. You never know with Draymond. He's really smart. He's going to figure it out. I don't think he likes LeBron so much now that he would take it easy on him. That's a joke. But it's

probably something when you're looking at the defensive matchups, you're like, okay, there's not really that big wing that LeBron's going to be stuck with having to deal with that's going to deploy you know to plenish his reserves in this series yeah i was debating this with uh lake of film room podcast with with my guys pete and darius we were just we had like a 30 minute discussion on this like who's going to guard whom and why and, my kind of sellout point on it was, well, LeBron knows.

Like, he knows this Warriors team better than most. Played him in the finals four times. He's going to know the best spot for him. And I don't want to say to hide, but it certainly makes sense early in the series to not have him involved in every action. And the one thing you do get with Draymond, if you're defending Draymond,

you're going to have to, like, he's involved all the time. He's moving, He's setting screens. He's getting the dribble handoffs like he's running around. So in that context, you could actually have LeBron on Mooney at times. You could have him on Wiggins at times if Wiggins isn't as involved. And I think that's the thing, Ryan, with the matchups, the series like it's these teams are both so fluid in how they play that I don't know that you're going to see a lot of just one-on-one

and sticking to certain guys like the lake it's not you're right I mean you know none of this we're sitting here acting like it's going to be 48 minutes of it you're absolutely right I mean things are going to change constantly go ahead I interrupted no no but but you're right and that is kind of the key part what like when we the way that we grew up thinking about basketball and it's like mano a mano and things have just evolved so much since then but i i just get back to i think there will there will be some games where where the lakers get stuck in the half court um in terms of their offense and golden state has a great plan for it but that's where i think from the lakers standpoint their coaches they trust that lebron specifically is just going

to identify the best places to attack and then and basically call that out on the court and to me the best place to attack even if he's not making all of his shots is anthony davis right now he just he is such an advantage creator ryan and like when he's been healthy and that's you know since he's come back from that five and a half week absence he's been actually very solid throughout the whole time um a couple games where he doesn't shoot well, but like he's really, I think that he I don't want to say he's surprising people, but like it surprises me that people don't identify how good

he is when he's on the court. And like a lot of the numbers reflect that this season. His energy and effort against Memphis though, you're right. I mean, even the game where he's missing shots, I think he had five blocks in the first half and it was just like he's swallowing up everything. And dude, even the game where he's missing shots, I think he had five blocks in the first half. And it was just like he's swallowing up everything. And dude, every Taylor Jenkins press conference, it's like he started the first thing out of his mouth is like Anthony Davis.

It's like there you could just tell they they don't like what are we supposed to do with this dude? What are we supposed to how are we supposed to get to the spots in the court that we get to? And that's kind of what broke the series. You've watched LeBron his entire Lakers career up close every single game. You talk to him after everything. Where is he right now in your eyes as a player well it's this is one of the things you're looking at basketball reference and you're like how many players actually played in the playoffs in year 20 and the answer is one it was Kareem like Robert Parrish had I think 18 total minutes um and Udonis Haslam this year, you know, he had that one game

where he actually came in and he did some things, right? Udonis was kind of fun. But so that's the place that you start with it. And then you think, all right, well, he does have maybe the best NBA physique of all time.

Like he would be the guy that could go to this length. But to me, it's just the it's the mental understanding that separates him now where he's he knows that they're OK. If there are seven games um i have to find a way to get myself in this team through four of them and you saw that in game one versus game two where game one at memphis he had he did have the proper energy and the rest and he's able to deploy that defensively game two he's not getting

out to corner three point shooters and it's like it's not because he doesn't want to. I think that's part of what's so interesting about LeBron. He really does have the whole series mapped out in a sense. And I just think that it's going to be interesting, Ryan, to see now how does this happen against a Golden State team that also knows LeBron, against Steph, against Steve Kerr. But it's just hard. Until you see him not be able to come through in those situations,

given that the roster has requisite talent, which I think this one does. It certainly did not before the trade deadline. They always had that trade chip, though they knew what was going to happen.

They were going to make a move at some point. And so he, to me, is probably the biggest reason why I think it's not hard to buy into the fact that the Lakers could win this series,

knowing that LeBron's going to figure out what he has to figure out and that his body is going to be good enough for four times out of seven. How does he talk about Steph when he talks about him with you guys? He just talked about him yesterday. And now it's really evolved, like, blowingly. Like, he loves Steph. And I think that this is part of where I don't think it's calculated at all. I think that Steph at a certain point,

one, his respect, what LeBron said makes the difference is like, he's a guy that obviously just watch him play his put in the work. And he continues to put in the work. Steph is somehow better now. And I think it's almost, you've talked about this on your pod before the pod,

by the way, the, the evolvement of him physically you know he's he's he can take contact now and bump guys off going into the lane that's not what used to happen so i it's like that's that evolvement of steph to lebron i think shows this guy is in the gym he's like he's working he wants to be great and when guys eventually go at each other enough that mutual respect I think comes, I'm sure Steph feels the same way about LeBron.

And honestly, I think it's pretty cool. Like it's these, it doesn't mean you don't want to kill the guy, by the way, when you're on the court. If anybody that has a brother, you know, it's like you're, you could be, you might love your brother, but if you're playing ping pong,

like that's the guy you want to beat more than anybody, at least for me. So it's a respect that's been born over the years. And I think now does legacy stuff get involved? I don't know a little bit. It almost seems like they're past that. Like both legacies are so secure. I don't think LeBron's like if if the Lakers lose this series, all of a sudden it's going

to make people change the way that they talk about me. And maybe that's also part of the reason why he's he's able and willing to keep all of the praise upon stuff it sounds like uh that you're picking the lakers but you're also not sure no i so i do what so what i've seen this season i watch a lot of the warriors like i i did a radio show for years with with michael thompson and so i've the warriors were always good when the lakers weren't and it was this whole it, even the fan bases don't hate each other, like nearly as much as a lot of these Western teams do. So point being, I've watched a lot of the Warriors,

and I just like the matchups a little bit more for the Lakers. And I think that Davis at this level is the one player that can kind of really impact the way the Golden State attacks. So, yeah, if I had to make a pick in the series, I would say Lakers. I am curious for your pick, though, as a clear neutral. No, I'm definitely not neutral. Let's not kid ourselves. I mean, I love Steph.

I love him. You know, Sunday was another one of those moments. I'm like, I'm just happy I get to watch this guy. You love Steph, but you're not getting, your life isn't changing for the, you know, you're not going to go against your basketball instincts, are you, to pick that? There can be a little, and I'm just admitting this, there can be times too, like when it's 50-50 for me, I'll just pick the team that I know I don't want to root.

I'll be like, well, I'd rather... That's sensible. I don't want to pick the Lakers and then root to be right when I... So I'm going to pick the Lakers and then root to be like right when I, you know, so I'm going to pick Golden State. Uh, I, I'm not super confident in the whole thing. You know, if Golden State were to lose, I'll get on with my day. I'll admit though, I think the 1819 Rocket Series, those I emotionally cared about the outcome for a bunch of different reasons on that one. So yeah, I'm not sold. I'm not sold because of the Anthony Davis thing, but I'm also constantly worried. I'm always worried about him.

I'm always worried about him. I think D'Angelo Russell will have probably one or two games where it's like, how does Minnesota get rid of him? And I think he's going to have another couple of games where you're like, oh, that's why Minnesota got rid of him, which is I think very much what we saw in the Memphis series. That was a very unsurprising stretch of D'Angelo Russell games for me because we do not give enough credit to the players that lock in all the time. Even Jamal Murray, you're watching him game one going, man, we don't talk about this guy enough. And then it's a credit to the LeBrons.

It's a credit to the Currys. It's a credit to those dudesBrons. It's a credit to the Currys. It's a credit to those dudes that are at the top of their game that their worst playoff game is still a lot of production. And that's, you know, when it's all said and done for LeBron, like that's the part that I will think about the most. Sure. A mistake here. Didn't have it, but like, look at his worst playoff games. They're, they're still, there's still games that we would start a podcast on with other dudes, and then there's this other group of players who are really,

really talented, but can have an absolute playoff dud. That's what I'm fired up about with this series, knowing that for the most part, LeBron, Steph, you already know what you're getting. You're just wondering if it's going to be that next level, like the kind of game that you're going to remember years after they're retired. Both have given us a lot of those and steph just gave us one

this weekend it's a fair point so the thing i think that is lebron and ad now together in the postseason or something like i don't know i think it's like 24 and eight or nine or something and the thing that i've i've come to to like about nba is that, and this is where Davis kind of comes to the top, there's always the baseline level defensively. And so even on the night where he's, sometimes he's not attacking enough, he's not being aggressive enough on offense, he's settling.

That's happened a little bit less lately. And I think that that wasn't what happened in Memphis. Like Jaron Jackson Jr. is awesome. And they were basically not guarding Vanderbilt so he could wait in the paint to give AD another body. That's to me the biggest reason why he didn't get some of those shots off. But like if if you're a superstar and you're only giving it on one end of the court, you know, you just mentioned Jamal Murray. I wouldn't say superstar, but he hasn't even made an all-star game.

Donovan Mitchell, like some guys that even even as somebody as great as Lillard, like if you can't also bring some of the requisite energy on the other side of the court, as hot as you can get on offense. Again, that's the baseline with what this Lakers duo of LeBron and AD have done, where they can impact the rim on both ends. And so you're going to get some baseline there, and if they make shots or

not, the team can still find ways to win if the requisite talent is there. And that's where Reeves and Hachimura and Russell, those guys come into play. The energy and aggressiveness from AD, though, has consistently been higher. And you're right. There's games when he's super aggressive. I'll never forget that

Memphis regular season game where he took a million free throws. I don't know. You remember that one a few years back? It was like his second game, yeah. Yeah, I reference it every now and then and I'll go, God, that dude that night. That's great. You're not going to get that every single night, but you'd like to see stuff that's closer. I think his energy has been great. I think it's going to be a—Loonie, I never want to doubt about anything because he's so adaptable to everything that's going around,

but that's a big ask for him on top of all the other stuff that he has to deal with. Draymond will probably get him a few times there, too, to see him not be a jump shooter anymore, to see those numbers, maybe it makes it a little bit easier on the defensive assignment. But if he's aggressive, he's just so much bigger than the guys he's going up against most of the time. I will not be shocked if this series were done in six games where AD just ate them all up.

That's not going to be a surprising outcome to me at all. It's funny because Looney's so good, and he's going to punish them on the offensive glass some, but AD can just go over the top. That's what I thought. Some of that lobs, that screen roll action or when he's slipping or if Golden State wants to switch out, he's a good couple inches

taller and much longer than both Raymond and Looney. And that's what they did some in those regular season games. It's certainly going to be interesting. Enjoy the series, man. I always appreciate the time. We'll catch up soon, all right? And I understand that people are fast-forwarding through this to get to life advice.

I get it. I always want to see what Kyle has to say. Shout out to Cerruti, too. Well done. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet.

What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice is brought to you by Modelo. Let's face it, life can be hard, but Modelo believes that you are fighters and you deserve a beer that's brewed for those with a fighting spirit.

You deserve Modelo, the mark of a fighter. A rich Mexican lager made with premium hops for a crisp and refreshing taste. The perfect reward is celebrate perseverance no matter what life throws your way. Life advice. Lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Check in with Kyle. get a cool shirt on party just getting ready ocean city maryland bachelor party next week baby four days wait so not this weekend next weekend but you're already

debuting some of the wardrobe for it yeah i was just you know rooting around the closet seeing what i got that's not new then no no no no it's a classic i think we need to update the audience uh there was a rumor i was going to make it to willie nelson's 90th birthday party how about being 90 and can you imagine crazy yeah like i think of an old relative at like 80 going imagine giving that guy a guitar and a microphone in front of a few thousand people i granted what's he gonna say yeah right in between songs wonder if he has thoughts on things like the logan roy concern wreck new york so uh i did not go denver phoenix a shame yeah and because i knew denver phoenix and i was like i'm gonna have to get up because the game started so early on sunday and bill and i taped early

but i don't know if kyle i'll ask did we at least have a moment this weekend because there was an attempt at coordinating if things worked out oh my blood was pumping dude i was in frolic room the air conditioner was on but i was getting warm i was like guys this shit might happen um it didn't but uh it definitely we we were planning stuff and it really felt like you know you were gonna try so um hey that's that's we're moving it moved the needle for me so people well this is what happened is chris long hits me up and goes is kyle your guy and i was again did you reach out to chris independently of us yeah because you were like chris long's driving the bus i'm like oh i just got to get chris long to come here and then ryan will come here and then uh i i just texted i was like yo pre-game at frolic before the whatever and he was and then i

never hit him back and i didn't uh you know what because i used to get um like notifications when a verified dude would message me so i was like you know that's how i would talk with like stanford steve and and like the other like like big cat i would get a notification when he you know messaged me and stuff like that on twitter and then i just assumed that i would get one but i forgot the whole badge thing went away so i didn't get like uh you know a notification or anything so i just basically was like come to frolic room uh and that was it so right you want like you wanted if i was going up to pre-game for willie nelson at because you were like i don't know chris long sort of doing this whole thing that's what it was chris long's driving the bus and i was like oh okay great so all you

gotta do is get chris long to do the bus over to frolic room before the bowl and i just never i just totally never answered and then i left but uh it was wow well he wasn't gonna let's be honest he was just like what is that place is it close and uh i just never never got back to him but is it close pretty quickly right is it close is never a great response because it just it is close though is it that close to hollywood bull oh dude it's it's hollywood and vine and uh hollywood bulls hollywood and highland basically so yeah it's right there okay well i knew that those guys were pretty fired up about the willie nelson thing and then as i was trying to pull it off and then i was like well i'm not even going now. So I blew him off.

It should make you feel better, Kyle. It does, actually. And then Kyle was like, wait, why aren't you going? And I was like, well, because of Denver Phoenix. And he was just Kyle was like. He was like, what? Denver Phoenix, just just tape it or whatever. And I yeah but if I tape it then I'm in a hurry and I'm trying to get caught up and I knew we were going earlier on Sunday uh I did see the guys

late we did we did a little late tour of the local spots um oddly enough one of the places we went to ended up being the LA Kings like post-season rap thing and the bar was like hey if you're not on the team like beat it and i was like actually who's in there no no no i was like i want it no no to be honest with you i was like i don't want to be the guy that like stays because i think i only know two players and i don't even know him that well so okay that's a culmination of a full season having to go up against mcjesus and dry sidle so i was like let's make sure we get out of here because chris was like i don't want to be here and i was like i don't want to be here either like i feel like this went from like a cool hang to

now get out of here and so yeah, yeah, like what do you say? Actually, we got two Super Bowls over here, buddy. And this pod is doing pretty well. So broken arrow. So anyway, Kyle and I talked on Saturday when he was at the frolic room and I was like, I'm trying to figure it out. I'm trying to figure out. It didn't happen.

But there was a moment where he was like this call, just this call though, means something. And I was like, okay, great. So I wanted to let the audience know because it wasn't my deal. It wasn't my show. It wasn't, it wasn't any of those things. So I was like, all right, I don't know what's going to happen. And then I didn't. I didn't go to either one of them. I didn't go to either show. So, okay. Let's get to the questions here. What's up, Kyle, Ryan, Saruti, 26 years old, 5'5", weight, none of your business, gym stats aren't impressive, but I swam a mean individual medley. That's the IM back in the day.

Still have my high school record. Oh, wow. NBD. medley that's the im back in the day still have my high school record oh wow nbd okay my boyfriend and i are currently living in chicago but i'm sick of this weather and want to move somewhere warmer uh this email what okay is this a woman with the nbd weight thing did we okay yeah just out of your business wait just to let the audience in on everything here the the email was from a mail name and so i was like oh okay you know i didn't know if it was gonna and then it's not it's it's the girlfriend using the guy's email address or whatever sure i don't know i mean i buy it that way the weight none of your business is my first

question right yeah because i mean again i just i didn't know which direction we were going here and then you're like you know i don't know it's because it's like oh hey did you hear priscilla pod they i read that email about the gay couple that fucking pod's cool man pod gets it like nope we do get it we do get it but this is uh this is a this is a female emailing us about her boyfriend okay a female there we go wow nice very good kyle that was good that was good females the one we're not supposed to say right correct it's just kind of harsh yeah i don't know yeah is it i would have said harsh yeah, I get what he's saying. They just told me not to, so I don't.

Yeah, harsh seems harsh. Okay, my boyfriend, let's call him Joe, currently living in Chicago, but I'm sick of this weather. I want to move somewhere warmer. Okay, we met at a Big Ten school. Been dating for over five years. Living together for almost two, things are pretty serious, but I just don't think we have a future in Chicago.

We both moved to Chicago for work after graduation, but neither one of us is originally from here. And we both have jobs that we could do in any midsize or larger city in the country. My boyfriend said he's open to moving, but we'll only consider cities in the mountain or central time zone because it's quote the ideal time zones for watching sports. Is this something guys really taking a consideration or is he being crazy for not even considering all the great cities in the eastern time zone as someone who's lived in new england for a long time and now lives in southern

california i feel ryan is uniquely qualified to weigh in on the situation okay uh wow yeah guys definitely care about this i mean your guy really likes sports right your guy really likes sports uh the east is not a better time zone the east is the worst of the time zones to watch for most people i prefer it but i'm i'm bowing to consensus on here when you have a nuggets first round game tipping off at like 10 10 eastern time on a sunday night that's criminal okay that's it's fucked my life shout out to rudy playoffs yeah it's not it's not great um you know it's up till and the problem too is like it's not even like you just go to bed when the game's over like you're i'm kind of wired for like another hour or so so you're up until one two sometimes we're doing

pill pods after it's a it's a fucking disaster if i'm being honest yeah i don't i think the east is easily the worst even though i preferred it i preferred it because i needed that gap from getting off the air until the game starting of like three hours i don't like the west coast and everybody else does i don't like the nfl and college football starting at 9 a.m on saturdays at 10 a.m i don't like i don't like waking up rushing to the gym and then being like okay it's 9 a.m., time to get to it. I don't like it. I liked Sundays on the East Coast where I felt like I could do some stuff, get out of the house for a little while, maybe even go for a walk, go to the bookstore, check out some home furnishings, anything.

And then be like, okay, now I'm back here at one, even though I would start to hate everything week 12 Sunday night when it was the Giants during their stretch of not being able to do anything on offense. But cool, the Giants are on again. So that rant is documented. It's out there if you need to go back and look at that one. So I'm the rare person who doesn't like the West Coast thing because I think most people have families and stuff. And I didn't mind staying up late. And I don't like having the weather be amazing and then running inside at 345 to catch a four o'clock tip. Most people would say just don't watch as many Pistons games, whatever. This whole thing pays for all this stuff.

So boat owners, I don't think love the early times. People will argue the mountain time zone is the move. Yeah're not yeah because what that's 11 o'clock sundays or is that 12 no it'd be 11th nfl right right and you know there are moments too like in a lighter nba night when it's all over and you're like oh my god it's like 9 15 i could i could maybe even go do something. If you left the house, that'd be a good thing. There've been some Fridays where it's like worked out where I go, hey, I'll meet up with you guys later. Like I'll be done at 9.30, 9.45. And you're like, oh, this is great. So the Western mountain time zones are actually better

than East is easily last, even if I'm telling you I prefer it. Then Central. I think Mountain is maybe number one. And I think the Western time zone for people with real nine to fives, that's where it might be a little inconvenient. And that's why I go Mountain time zone number one. Yeah, that's my ranking for it, even if my personal preference is different. Having games on, I feel like the West Coast thing, like having games on at four when you're like, yeah, when you're still commuting or in the evening,

that early evening, that to me blows. That's actually the worst time of day to have games start. So yeah, all the people that think the West Coast is the best, they're totally wrong. I'm not saying the East Coast is awesome because it's not, but that doesn't seem like it's fun to me at all. Because then you're like, you're either, you miss the start of games,

you miss the start of playoff games because you're at work or you have to like watch while you're eating dinner. I'm not a fan. So is the life advice is this guy normal? Like, is he like, is this should I be concerned that this is what how he's basing his life decisions? Is that what she's saying? Or is she like, what do I say

to this insane person? You're suggesting we haven't done anything here except ramble about time zones and haven't answered any questions. And you might be right. That is fair. I forgot what the question even was.

We did just rank the time zones if that's what you wanted. Yeah, honestly, I think we answered a question that guys do care about this because we spent a good 10 minutes going through them all. Basically, your guy's awesome, so lock him up yeah i don't think i'd be in a relationship where i would say as much as i like sports i don't know that i ever would have gotten to a point where i would have said hey i'm into you but this time zone thing i think it's gonna work out i only love you in the central and mountain time zones.

Right. So I don't, I don't, I mean, maybe this means you just have to move to Bozeman or Boulder, Salt Lake's available. Isn't Boise blowing up? Boise is blowing up,

but I don't. Idaho's got a weird, weird deal where it cuts through it, but Boise may be in the Western. Do we look it up? Oh, is it? Wow. Did we get? Well, honestly, to be fair to you,

Idaho has a confusing time zone thing. No, this says it's in the mountain time zone. Boise? Yeah. Isn't it Boise, by the way? Boise? Yeah, what am I doing to see? Yeah, it's mountain time zone. It's 10 a.m. it Boise, by the way? Yeah, what am I doing? A Z? Yeah, it's around time zone. It's 10am right now. There. Good for them.

Okay. Yeah, it looks like there's a western part of Idaho that may... We don't need any follow-ups. We can see them. Arizona is its own thing. Yeah, I mean... Which nobody knows what goes on there.

I kind of respect it. Yeah. Nobody, they don't even know. Scholars are not into daylight savings. No, I mean, look at the time zone map.

They have like a weird shade. Well, cause they're not into it. They're not into daylight savings, right? They're just like, yeah, we don't do that.

So that gets confusing as well. Jonah Ryan, he was onto something. So yes, men do consider it. We've spent far more time on it than I thought we would. But I think he's being a little, wait,

did he say just to double check here? Did he say he preferred the Eastern time zone? No, no. He said he wanted not moving out of the mountain. The central time zone. Yeah. Is he being crazy for not considering all the great cities in the eastern time zone?

No, he's not. When it comes to sports, he's not wrong about that. Again, I think most people would have it last. Unless you want to hang out. I mean, I liked it. Just kidding. Just kidding. I guess if it matters, if you want to be on the east coast,

I guess you could just make that your sticking point and you guys could fight it out or just you know put the time zone filter on Zillow or maybe they can maybe you should ask them to make one but I think you're wanting to be on the east coast is just as valid you know so but I don't know

good luck it's funny that he said that out loud I think I don't know if he is he funny at all or is he super serious um that's right Idaho has two time zones split the northern part observes pacific time southern Idaho

um and Boise is mountain yep good call Sruti one hour ahead of Sunnyvale. In case anybody else needed. Okay. I don't know if that might. I can't tell if that was one of the worst ones we've ever done or average.

All right. I think we did like 40 minutes on HOAs one time. I think that was probably the worst one. People like that, though. People did enjoy that. Yeah. I think a lot of the first time when we had like 10 minutes on it. I think when we did the callback like months when we had like 10 minutes on it, I think when we,

I think like when we did the callback like months later and we did 45 minutes on it. And I think it was mostly Ryan. I think Ryan had like 35 of those minutes. High usage rate. Yeah. I was hardened in that. Although I wasn't as good as hard.

I wasn't as good as hard and wasn't game one. That's for sure. All right. That, that one, I went so hard on that one, I think I may have even called Cerruti back being like, hey, that was a lot. That was too much. Alright.

Sister wants new boyfriend to come to graduation. Hey guys, 6'26", former college soccer player. Shout out to all the former athletes checking in. 4'55", deadlift, 370 squat. 270 bench. Huge fan of the pod. Could use your input. I'm graduating

from law school at the end of the month. Not a flex. It pertains to the story. I really wish people would stop apologizing for stuff they did that's awesome. We're in a weird mode right now in society where it's like, oh, you did something awesome?

Fucking shut up. I think it goes both ways. I think either sometimes people, they want all the congratulations for stuff that's stupid, and they go from the top. Or they don't want any credit for something that's actually awesome. There's no middle ground, and that's the problem. Yeah, yeah. No, you're right. You're ground. And that's the problem. Yeah, yeah.

No, you're right. You're right. It definitely goes the other way too. But like, I feel like there's a lot of people just out there busting their ass, doing good stuff, feeling good about their accomplishments. It's like, I better not tell anyone this. We just want your resume, man. It's no problem.

370 squat law school. Sound great, dude. Killing it. Yeah. All right. My parents and my girlfriend of just over a year planned out a huge graduation weekend for me. Lots of celebrations with family and friends. I never go to college graduation because I graduated in 2020.

Thanks, COVID. So this is my first graduation since high school. My sister's been dating a new guy for about a week. I don't know. Well, no, this email's not that old they went on two dates two months ago called things off for about a month then after marathon monday oh we could be talking about bean town here went on another date and he asked her to be his girlfriend people do that i don't know i thought they did that in like the 1950s let's just get married uh i don't know i don't know if that still happens yeah but this is a girlfriend thing i don't even know how guys do that anymore do they do it's like sruti at one

point when you're now with your wife you're like okay this is real what was what was that especially with you i could just see you being like yeah that's cool i definitely would not have a comment it would just be implied. So, you know, and then she's going to have to bring up the conversation. And she did. And that's how we did it. That's the one.

How long are we? How what? How long in? A while. A good amount of time. Yeah, if I'm being honest. Like a year? No, no, not a year.

But, you know, I don't know. Both of us were just kind of having fun at the time and i think we were okay with it and then you know it's like what what time at what point does somebody kind of want to lock this down exclusively and i i was i was already being exclusive i wasn't like going around hooking up with other people but i just didn't think it needed to be said she wanted to have a conversation about it we did and then here we are one kid later love it yeah i mean that's that's always like if everything is totally normal as if it's boyfriend girlfriend and it's serious and you're hanging out all the time

and then it's like seven months later you're having the conversation and then one of them's like oh yeah i don't want to do that like wait it's like this awful moment where you're like what have we actually been doing be like no you no, it's just chill. Like, what? Or I remember this dude pulled this magic trick on a girl that we were working with once where he was like, I'm just not super into labels. I was like, oh, you fuck around all the time. That's what you're saying.

I was like, oh, I was like, you just all right. Okay, so back to the email. A couple dates a few months ago. He says, hey, do you want to be my girlfriend a week ago uh they've been dating for less than a week i don't want my graduation to coincide uh with my family and friends meeting my sister's new boyfriend of less than a week for the first time so he doesn't want all the worlds colliding with new boyfriend of the week uh my i don't mean like she has a new boyfriend every week you understand what i'm saying here i just want to be delicate about it

my sister has yet to ask me about this she She has talked to my girlfriend and my parents, but has not reached out to me at any point. She already knows. She already knows that you want to say no to it, so that's why she's not reaching out to you, which is kind of lame. But given that this is my graduation, I think it's fair to expect her to ask me. I messaged our family group chat, since my sister seems incapable of texting me, and said basically, hey, this has nothing to do with this guy. I don't know him. I don't have anything against him. I i'd be open to meeting him but i don't want to meet him for the first time of my graduation and i don't want him there my family has since said that they are quote sad disappointed and upset with me they've accused me of prejudging him and not being open to meeting

him i think my stance is a fair one maybe we don't bring new boyfriends of less than a week to a celebration of a person's biggest accomplishment up until this point of their life but maybe that's just me. Good writer. What do you guys think? Am I the asshole here? Thanks for reading. I'm on your side, dude. I just am.

New guy alert to be at something. You know what sucks about these things? Granted, picture's a little different than back in my day. But he's going to be in pictures. Not all of them. but some of them.

Like I remember there was somebody I was hanging out with and it wasn't real serious. And she's in one of my sister's graduation pictures at my house and it was up forever. And I would always be like, this is the only one we have of this and maybe i'm putting too much emphasis on the picture that the changing of history inaccurately recording history by having this dude in there with now everybody with camera phones and like you're going to take a thousand pictures so he's not going to be in every one of them

i don't love it i am i'm against it uh there was a time where it kind of happened with me uh in my life where you know again we've got the two Christmases at home and this new guy was at the Christmas Eve pre-fest the Christmas morning exchange and then the Christmas dinner and I was like hey do we gotta go three for three with this fucking guy? Like, I'm never home. He can't lay out. Can I get a break from him? But here's what I think you need to understand about your sister. And this can be the case for this situation.

Is sometimes you'll have somebody, you know, whether it's a sister, it's a brother, where this other person is this amazing buffer for them. Now, it could be that your sister, I don't know. I don't want to say anything bad, but it could just be that this is her deal, and whoever she meets, she's totally into it and goes full throttle immediately. That could be it. But I do know there are other... Another reason I think people get married is that they can go to family events with somebody who's not a relative. So they're like, I have an exit strategy. I can focus on this person. It's actually kind of cool if you really like your wife or your husband and you have some stress

about family gatherings. And it's like, okay, at least I have this person that's with me. And then when I leave, I get time with this person that I care about. I'm not necessarily saying that's what's happening here, but there definitely is something to be sensitive to. And I don't understand any of the family dynamic, obviously specific to you, but there are people that are way more comfortable at these things actually bringing an outsider. And it's some kind of like this comfort thing, this cozy blanket of emotions that helps them get through some of these things. Now, if everybody gets along and you're all cool, and it kind of sounds like you didn't

give us any red flags or anything that everybody gets along, like, I think it can be actually a little selfish, but also can be a little selfish to not think about why the other person is doing that. Because I know somebody in particular who does it every single time, does it every single time does it every single time and i'll ask him and be like why are you doing that and he's like well i do this because it just helps me cope and i was like oh okay that makes sense boys i think i wouldn't give a shit i really don't care like we're already like inviting some people to the wedding that we're like wow this could be a fucking disaster huh but it's like uh you know you want them to be there or whatever um and also to your to your like photo point like i mean i've i've used i've told you before i used to like you

know whoever i was seeing like even very briefly or even just like you know like a one two time thing i would bring over my house so there's like a photo album from like there's there's there's a photo album from like 2010 to 2015 there's like seven different women just like in the family cookouts i know dude like i can't even like i can't even like show like my wife isn't gonna be able to even like look through that photo album with me like well who's that one it's like that was november what's going on this one's dated september who the fuck is that it's like why are they on the couch what's going on by the grill over there i don't know so i don't i don't really give a shit what is going on with my point i'm just i'm just i'm just saying uh i i wouldn't care about

this and and i i granted i've never graduated from law school but um i don't know like i just think uh like the point of the gathering's like yeah they are to they are like to celebrate you but it's really just to like get together you know what i mean like it's like just so everyone has a good time and you know if you're not going to not have a good time because this person is there i just really wouldn't worry about it because now you're you got your parents who aren't aren't really getting it and like it's a it's a celebration yeah like it's for you but it's really just like a gathering so just remember that man i don't know i would i wouldn't make like the juggalos at all i could see what well you just kept saying the gathering oh is that an insane clown posse thing okay i just mean like

it's just it's not all about you it is about you but it's more about like the reason it's all about us being together no i don't know i wouldn't i wouldn't take that approach but god you're easy going waves you're easy going to make waves I are a little bit more uptight. Cerruti's going to want nothing to do with this guy. Well, I feel like I'm easy going. I wouldn't say anything, but I would be silently mad about it to the point where people knew I was mad about it. And I think that's your right.

I don't know. This is one of those things where I just feel like your sister has a complete lack of awareness, and that pisses me off. You should be aware enough to be like, like this isn't the time this isn't about me because he's right like it's going to be about everyone's gonna be like hey who's this guy you know tell me about yourself and not that you don't it doesn't mean that you're selfish if you don't want this guy around it just means that like I don't know it's supposed to be about me like can we just could I just have a normal time with my family without some like kind of like outsider

who again I may like but I don't care about right now. And in this setting, you're, it sucks because some people are gonna think you're a dick for this and some people aren't. And I completely think you're in the right for being like, can we just use some common sense here and not have the one week boyfriend come? I mean, the way you described it, like, I think you're right, Ryan. Like there's a lot of people who, and I'm probably one of them. I love that my wife comes to different family events because she's way more like conversational than I am.

She's kind of like the social butterfly. And I'm more of like the, I don't know, I just kind of hang back and don't really talk a ton. So it's great. She'll just talk to people that I haven't talked to in a while. I remember at my high school reunion, my wife talked to more people than I did, just the way it is. And it's great. It's awesome. It feels great. But do you really need an emotional... Essentially, the way you describe it, it's like an emotional support boyfriend to hang out with your family at your, at your brother's, you know, uh, law school graduation. That thing, that's just the bridge too far for me. I don't like it.

I think it's rude. And I think it lacks self-awareness. Yeah. The one week thing is I think the point you're like, what? And by the way, why would he want to go? Which is actually another element to this. I'm like, he wants to go. You've been dating a week. You hooked up a couple of times like two months ago. And then he's like,

yeah, I'd love to go to your brother's graduation because I made you my girlfriend on Friday. And let's go to law school. That's awesome. Super impressed. Can't wait to meet him. I mean, unless this guy is checking every single box, he's a one of the winklevi while he's still at harvard you know like yeah i met this guy you're like okay you know and then you're like this is going to be amazing and he's the best he's super locked in i just i don't like it i would say no the fact she hasn't asked because she knows you're going to say no that's another another part of it. Yeah. Yeah. So guys, I'd say pop up fun Hawaiian shirt out of your closet and just fucking relax, dude.

Enjoy your accomplishments. That's all I've got. You're probably right, Kyle, but I don't like it. I don't know. Life advice has been brought to you by Modelo. The fighting spirit means never giving up,

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Shop, delivery, or pickup options for Modelo near you at OrderModelo.com. Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, Illinois. That's life advice. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Steve.

Ryan Russo of the podcast. We're here to talk. Outro Music