Hour 1 - LeBron and Luka are still figuring it out

Published Feb 20, 2025, 9:45 PM

Doug weighs in on the Luka-Lebron tandem as the Lakers played their third game with the duo resulting in a loss to the Charlotte Hornets at home. Doug welcomes former NFL team general manager Mark Dominik to talk about all of the important off-season NFL topics. Plus, Doug reacts to Kevin Durant's comments about the next face of the NBA.

 

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Welcome in, This is the Herd. Wherever you may be a however you may be listen to us today. Thanks so much for joining us on the show. I'm Doug Gottlieb in for Colin Cowherd and we got a heck of a show for you. Mark Dominic's gonna join us in twenty five minutes. Mark, of course, was a general manager with the Tampay Buccaneers. He joins me in the Doug Gottlieb Show weekly gives this real insight into the NFL, including including what's gonna happen with the quarterback market now that we're getting closer and closer two months away from the NFL Draft, and that free agency market in the NFL is now now now, now now, what happens with Aaron Rodgers, what happens with Sam Darnold what happens with some of these retread quarterbacks after the retread quarterbacks had such a good year this year on the market, We got a Herdline news Kevin Durant with some interesting comments about who should be the next face of the league, and Mark Medina will join us later on the show. Got a good show for you. Let's start with last night at Crypto where the Lakers playing a makeup game against the Hornets. And again it's not the first time we see Luca and Lebron, but now that you had the All Star break, Lebron got a couple of days off with the ankle. They got a chance to show what this version of the Lakers looks like and what it looked like up to a big lead, and then they give up a twenty two to one run in the second half. Lebron got two clean looks at a three at game tying threes. He misses both of them short and the Lakers fall to the Charlotte Hornets as they could not especially late in the game, Luca could not stay in front of LaMelo ball. Here's Lebron James when he was asked about those final two shots.

JJ talks about just the comfort and the rhythm that you had for yourself there in the fourth.

How do you feel about the looks you got?

I feel pretty good.

That's those last tools, pretty good looks. You run a set of the coaches, JJ draws up and you executed to and we executed it, which is didn't they Here.

Here's JJ Reddick talking about wanting Lebron to take that last shot.

There's there's some interchangeable parts in some of the LA game stuff, and you know, you as a coach, you're excited that you have two guys that can be the passer and be the guy who gets the pass. But felt like, you know, Lebron, particularly in the fourth just you know, found found a nice rhythm and felt really comfortable with that and we got two good looks.

Here's Luca and who's asked about Lebron taking the final shot instead of him.

Yeah, I mean both ways. You know, he had a going so obviously we're gonna go to him. You know, I think you go both ways. So one time he's going to be hanging, one time me. So I think it depends how the game's going.

And look that that's reasonable. I've never understood this like, well, who's going to take the last shot? I remember that was that the Warriors, the big thing when they got Vin, Who's going to take the last shot? Well, if I mean, it's no different than if have you watched the documentary on the Olympics, on the on the Basketball Olympics. If you have, you know, I think a lot of people made a huge deal of Kevin Durant when he threw the ball back to Steph Curry for Steph Curry's you know, final of the four consecutive threes, dagger three. But the reality is, like, that's how basketball's played, you know. You don't go like, well, listen, I know for forty seven minutes, especially for the last you know, ten minutes or so, Lebron James had it going, but we're going to go back to Luca because he's a better, you know, traditionally a better closer than Lebron. Like, that's not how we're You have two guys, whoever's hot, that's who gets the ball. But I would tell you that one of the things, one of the reasons that I think Kevin Durant wanted to stay in Phoenix and not go to Golden State is what you saw at Crypto last night, which is you just kind of have to play a certain number of games and things organically take care of themselves. Now, also pretty obvious that you know, Charlotte shot thirty six percent from the floor and still won, and late in the game, you know they they were going to LaMelo and they were clearly hunting Luka Doncik, who lives down to his reputation as a defensive player. Now some of that stuff will again organically take care of itself. In terms of Lebron or Luca having the ball late, that's something that has to has to just play out over twenty games, where everybody then just like you know, like Lebron'd been great, but we're probably gonna go to Luca. We're probably gonna go to Luca. But I mean, neither team shot it well. The Lakers shot fifty one threes and they all made only fifteen of them. Luca looked he just hasn't found his rhythm yet. He was five of eighteen, one of nine from three, had six turnovers. He looked like a guy coming back off of injury who's still not sharp, still not ready, and playing with a whole new team.

And the rotations are different. Everything they're doing is different.

Fine, but I do think that eventually he's gonna have to be the closer, or he'll be the closer, except with exception of games and where Lebron has it going like he had it going last night and in and that those particular instances, In those particular instances, you know, Lebron gets the ball. But the Lakers aren't a perfect team. They're just not. They don't have the true ability to shut you down defensively, to turn you over defensively, to make you missshots, to keep you out of the lane. You know, the reason that they wanted Mark Williams so bad is they needed somebody to defend the rim. And now they're playing Jackson Hayes. You know, that's why they went and got Alex lenn who's you know, he was decent last night offensively, but they have to have somebody who protects the room. But you can't guard against five guys driving like it just doesn't work that way. But I thought, I just think it's interesting, right, here's a team that they're still figuring out who they are. Who gets the ball, had a big lead, Charlotte comes storming back and at the end of the day, I think a blind man could tell you that LaMelo Ball was the best player in the court late and the most confident player in the court late, and he made the most plays late. And the Hornets come in and get a win. And while we could easily say, hey, the Hornets are not a playoff team, they're not a good team, I do get the Lakers a little bit of benefit of the doubt because you're still figuring it out, still figuring out how to play with Luca, still figuring out you know what the kind of pecking order is, how they play defensively.

They haven't had a lot of time.

And the reason that I think KD who has said I didn't want to leave Phoenix because you know, I didn't want to leave my guys. Mid season trades are just hard. This is the reason they're hard. This is the reason they're difficult. Yeah, learning the plays is not that hard. Everybody has different calls for most of the same sets, but assimilating to playing with different guys, especially on the fly, really difficult. And then establishing kind of a pecking order coming into Lebron's team, and you know how it has to work early on you get to the Lebron's team, it's the bronze team. He takes the big shots. But then you don't have Austin Reeves late, you don't have any sort of interior play late, and you go with the hot hand, and Luca looks just like he's not quite there in terms of knowing where what everyone's supposed to be, nor is he completely on his game. By the way, Lebron, apparently I didn't see the stat is one of twenty nine since joined the Lakers on game tying or go ahead field goals in the final seconds of the game. That's a real stat. I saw that last night. That seemed I thought he'd hit a couple of shots with the Lakers. All right.

Coming up next, I'm Doug Gottliebin for Colin. Coming up in the Herd.

An integral part of the Milwaukee Bucks has been suspended for a banned substance, and his agent has come out with an explanation as to what happened. Do we buy it? Let's discuss next in the Herd.

Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern on a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.

Now got the for Collin this the Herd Fox Sports Radio, iHeart Radio app.

Uh.

Bobby Portos, you may have heard, suspended for twenty five games. His agent has released a statement. Well, we'll discuss in Herdline news coming up. Then Mark Dominic's gonna join us. You know, I find this time of year really interesting because obviously the NBA in the NFL work in opposite fashion. Right, the NBA they have the draft, then free agency. The NFL has free agency then the draft. And you know, you look, you look at trends in the NFL and what was trendy. Obviously you still had Mahomes, you still had Josh Allen.

Uh.

You know, Herbert had a good year this year. Lamar Jackson could have been very easily could have been the MVP. You I mean, you go through the top top five teams in the AFC, and five of the six of the top seven teams in the AFC, eight of the top excuse me, seven of the top eight teams in the AFC, and all have a quarterback that they drafted and they developed, and all except for the Texans, they're onto their second onder, the second contract, and the Texans the Broncos on the second contract. So if you want to mimic successful teams, you look at the AFC and you're like, okay, you draft the quarterback. Now you go to the NFC and it's a little different, right, the NFC, the Lions traded for their quarterback. The Eagles drafted theirs in the second round. He's on his second contract, Buccaneers is Baker right, He's on his third team and on his second or third contract, third contract. Technically, Stafford's on his second team. Darn of course, became a journeyman after being a high draft choice. Commanders and Packers all both drafted their quarterbacks. So as much as we want to sit there and go, hey, you know, it was the year of the Baker Mayfields, it was the year of the traveling quarterback like Sam Donald who found finally found a home. Reality is your best path to success is to draft and build around a young quarterback who you believe in. But it looks like there's only two that great out his first round draft picks. So what happens in the NFL with jamis, what happens with Donald, what happens with Aaron Rodgers, What happens with guys that have had different levels of success for a different amount of time, for a different place in their career. Versus do you draft guys now who you're betting on the future. You're not paying them a ton, You're trying to build a roster around them. Well that's Mark Dominic up coming in about five minutes time. Let's get to Jason Stewart with the.

News, No turns, this is the headline news.

Hello, Doug, Hello, what's up?

The NBA has suspended Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portos for twenty five games, which will take up, uh, pretty much all of the remainder of the regular season. Portis tested positive for the drug tramadel a, medication used to treat severe pain among adults. It's on the band's substance list.

Now.

Portis is a six man. I guess he's come in the top three of the last two years in the six Man of the Year thirteen point seven points off the bench, eight point three rebounds. What do you think of this development?

Doug?

So?

Okay, so so, where we're supposed to believe that he was taking twurdle and he mistakenly took tramadol Tourdoll is approved. Although we've heard things about Tordole's pay medication, he's previously.

This according to his agent Mark Bartelstein, who issued the statement this morning.

Yeah Yeah, Tramma Doll, however, is not approved of pay medication really, so added to the band's substance listess past spring. The tramadol pill he took came from an assistant of his with a valid prescription for the painkiller, which he mistakenly told Bobby was towardal This again, was an honest mistake because of the similarity in names of the drugs and the fact that they both serve a very similar purpose. Bobby was using the anti inflammatory pain reducing medication to deal with an elbow injury he has had this past fall, and believed he was taking Tordoll to alleviate some pain in preparation for last for that night's game. That is the weirdest coincidence ever, right, that's his strange. Do I believe it? I actually do, because and what I would love is I'd love for them to present those prescriptions that they have and why this assistant has a was able to get tremadol. But I love when guys you know, I look, I took something. I didn't know what it was. Whenever, at least we're getting actual names of medication, and it becomes more believable. Now there's the other side to it, which is anyone who's ever told a FIB before knows that the more facts you throw out, the more likely it is you're lying. No, no, no, what I wasn't at Stacy's house. I was at Gym's house and is down the street from Stacy's house. And then and then at eleven twenty we stopped by just because I left my car keys in my car and it was outside Stacy's house. And I don't know how it got right. It does feel a little bit like it's it's almost very hard to believe. But again, you got to give him credit for at least admitting here's what we took, here's what we meant to take, here's how it went down.

It sounds believable, and because it's not necessarily a performance enhandswer, you kind of gotta believe this. This was just to mask pain or to deal with pain. I don't know what the benefit would be on the court, but yeah, no, I kind of believe Bartleston on this now tonight, Doug, You and I don't talk a lot of hockey, and there's a reason for that. It's not a very entertaining sport. But tonight the US faces off against Canada in the championship game of the four Nations face off now Saturday night. Of course everyone remembers the game was in Montreal. The Canadian crowd booed the national anthem. There was three fights in the first nine seconds of the game. It actually, for the first time all year we talked hockey. So lots of fights equals and you put national pride in, you put some booing of the national anthem in, and I'm actually interested to see how it goes tonight, Doug, what do you think?

I am like, yeah, you, it makes it interesting.

It makes it so that it shows you some you kind of care, because that's the problem with so many of these competitions right now. Right that's the whole NBA All Star Game issue is does anybody care? But again, it's how physical are they going to be in comparison to how physical they normally would be in hockey when they're in the middle of their season. That's that's the question mark. I'm intrigued, Well, I watch No, I'm not gonna lie to you and tell you I'm gonna watch you.

And I have talked about this on our on our Daily show that what I love about hockey and the NHL is that they know their place there. They are kind of a niche sport who have very passionate fans, and I'll never take that away from them. I have many friends that are hockey fans and they swear by it, and they'll always say, oh, you got to you gotta see it in person. It'll change your life. And I have seen it in person and it didn't. It's just not for me. But when you put national pride on the line, I have to give the NHL credit here and in lou Of They're All Star game, they did this four nations faceoff thing and it seems to be a big hit. I wonder if the NBA could could take notes on this or is that just completely gone?

I mean I think the I like, look, you had, you had the Olympics, you have the World Cup. I just don't know what you can do middle of the NBA season.

Yeah yeah, I guess if you if you had to do like a three or four tiered tournament thing round robin, it wouldn't. So you and I speak a lot about this on our show. It's the the NFL. The quality of the product has been much worse than it ever has been, but the interest in the game is higher than it's ever been, so there really isn't any motivation to fix the quality of play. Case in point. Via David Purdham of ESPN dot com, the American sports betting industry had a record thirteen point seven to one billion dollars in revenue last year, Doug, most of that coming from betting on the NFL UH the highest revenue ever by sports gambling. Now, obviously it hasn't been legal for many years, but that's still an astonishing number, Doug. And it's more reason that the NFL has to not fix their product.

It really is. It's it's one of those things where you're, I mean, now's why we're watching Super Bowl and you're like, this is not a great football game. And how many times have you said that this year? Now to the NFL, the metrics that they track are if you were watching, how many of you were gambling, how many people were showing up? And then I truly believe that the how many of the starting quarterbacks were playing for their team in the playoffs, like all the players safety stuff is really so they don't get suit again, but also so they have the starting quarterbacks playing as much of the season as possible, and so it's a successful year.

Like how you gauge success, you have to.

Kind of predetermined And I don't think they predetermined success based upon quality of play. If they did, they'd have more practices than have fewer games, you know, and just a stunningly successful season despite the fact. And you're right Jase too, like I'm not completely to your point where you think all the games are so terrible and so poorly played.

I think a lot of it is.

And this is very similar to the NBA is that, And honestly it's the reason Major League Baseball's All.

Star Game doesn't have the same bite.

We can watch every game now, so as much as we think, man, the product isn't as good as it used to be, and it probably isn't as good as it has been at times, the fact is we watch all these games with much more of a fine tooth comb because we can, you know, without leaving our home, without having multiple satellite dishes. You can simply watch whatever game you want, wherever you want, if you truly desire to do so. And because of it, when you pay more attention to these games, you're like, wow, let's really not think of a football game. I contend that this is not as much a product of the sport being bad as we're watching the sport more closely. Same thing with the NBA, Like, man, these regular season games, there's not a lot of energy. You know, there's not a lot of energy. Well, was there a lot of energy back in the nineties when they played regular season games? We don't know, you know why we didn't watch them because we couldn't. So it's almost, you know, it's almost the curse of being able to see any game anywhere, anytime. And that's Jason Stewart with the news.

Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the herd Line News.

You know.

The other part to the Lakers losing last night is I understand there's excitement and you're like, look and Lebron, but when that move was made, I don't know of anybody who's like, well, now the Lakers are challengers now. When the Mark Williams deal looked like he was going through. Like, okay, that makes sense. They could be modestly decent defensively because he's such a phenomenal rim protector. But you know, look, last night could be a bummer. Luca didn't look like he was in shape already, LaMelo kicked their butt and Lebron missed two shots to tie it late. But the Luca trade is a long term, not short term deal for the Lakers. It's the long term. We could sit there and go like, well, are you gonna guard those guys? Like when has that ever worked in the NBA playoffs? Never? Never, So even Luca at his best and Lebron at this age, Like, expectations are not.

A championship team.

But now you have Luca, you have the next superstar for the Lakers for the next however many years. They'll never let him get away, and they got to build a team around him. So I'm not saying that they're to the level of the Hornets, uh, but my expectations were never super high. Once for the previous roster and then this roster, like what do they have in terms of interior defense? And I don't know how you expect to play in the playoffs and play well. If that's a decided weakness as well as when you're not great at you know, guarding, inside, rebounding and defending, then you have Luca and Dallas had to do everything in their power to have multiple rim protectors because he gan guard or won't guard or a little bit of both, a little bit of both. Uh. Let's get to Mark Dominic, who joins this, of course, former gentle manager of the tamp Bay Buccaneers. He joins me weekly on the Doug Gottlieb Show on Fox Sports Radio. And Mark, last year's off season was the off season of the moving running back who wanted a multi year extension. What's what's this year's?

Yeah, this year is the veteran quarterback carousel where they're going to end up? Right, It's it's what happens with Matt Stafford? Where did Aaron Rodgers go? What about Kirk Cousins? That kind of a parislost thing is the more interesting storyline that we're going to see I think this offseason anything else?

Okay, So, so who's the first domino to drop? How does it actually work with it with a GM? Say, you're the GM of the Raiders, right, you take over and you don't have anything you necessarily want to keep. You have a draft pick, but the draft looks like there's two first round picks. What's the process like of trying to decide what you want to do.

Yeah, I think you when you go through, especially with the Raiders, and what you're trying to do is you're looking at your full football team and saying, look, I think there's hope on the offensive line, there's certainly the tight ends. I feel like we're in a good spot. Could we add a receiver, sure, you know that kind of you know, maybe a running back with defensively, there are ways away right now, and I think that you're going to focus on the overall team and not just like hone in and saying I've got to draft a quarterback in the first round. I think that's a mistake because I just don't feel like the option may be there. You're going to do your work in Kate, you know, for whatever reason, Shador's there or you know, if you fall in over somebody else. But I think you're going to look on the defensive side of the ball, take advantage of one of these defensive players, whether it's Travis Hunter, it's Will Johnson, the two corners, certainly Mason Graham's and a lot of people are talking about and then the dual Carter, but he should be off the board before they ever get near it. I think you've got to just kind of reset the culture. I think that's why they got Pete Carroll in there to try to set the culture right and try to, you know, kind of bring back the confidence and the energy to the franchise. We'll see what that does. But I think the Raiders are a tough spot in twenty twenty five just because the quarterback carousel doesn't seem to be falling in their favor.

Aaron Rodgers paid the picture for where he could play football next year.

Yeah, I've been saying it for almost a month now that all eyes should be watching what happens to me in LA with the Rams, you know, with Matt Stafford and that negotiations. Does that come together, does it fall apart? And if it falls apart, like there's been whispers and the numbers that could be. I think that he would love to play in the West Coast. I think he loved to play for Sean McVay, and I think Sean McVay would say, look, not have the quarterback of the future, but at least we've got a quarterback for twenty twenty five and we're good shape. It's gonna be less expensive than what Ma's going to ask for and how long we're going to tie into Matt Stafford. I think that's a possibility, and I also look at some other teams that could be that bridge person, and I think of John Schneider as a possibility. Obviously the general manager of the Seattle Seahawks. He has a relationship with Aaron Rodgers. He was in Green Bay back when Aaron was in his rookie deal, and so John may look at Geno and say, look, it may not be good enough. Let's try to take this up in the notch and to a gets Seattle right now. And so I think that Seattle is one of those optional teams that could be in the mix for an Aaron Rodgers as well. And you have to sit there and say, the Raiders have to be a conversation piece, just because, like I said, I don't know if the draft's gonna fall their way for the Rivers.

It does feel like though, if if Pete Carroll is going to try and recreate the Seattle thing. Does he take a guy second third round and try and build around the fact that he's not gonna be making any money.

Yeah, And I don't disagree, And I think the Dragon class is right in that range, right. I mean, I think a lot of people know that basically, like it's you know, Jackson Dark, Quinn Dors or Jalen Milrae are really going to be the guys you're talking on in that second third round. And I think that those are all good that I think teams are doing a ton of work on that we're going to get to see here next week start to throw at the combine. And I think those are the names that you know, I think everybody's familiar with, but certainly those are the guys you're trying to dissect right now with Jackson Dark and having a little bit momentum, and I think quinn yours right now is lower on people's boards and where he'll end up.

Okay, there's two AFC teams that are super interesting.

Let's start with the Chiefs who won the AFC pretty obviously they got to reshuffle some things on their offensive line like that that it doesn't matter what you got If you can't block, you got no shot. But the rest of the roster needs some tinkering as well. There's not a lot of stark uh star caliber guys outside of Mahomes on offense, especially with Kelsey aging.

So if you're in that front office knowing what you know.

How do you work it? How do you how do you how do.

You reconfigure and sort of rebuild on the fly.

Yeah, I think you've got to do priorities, and I think Tray Smith is the priority and it's going to be a big number, right, They're big, right guard. Uh, you know it depends. You know, you said it and you felt it in this you know Super Bowl. The Chiefs have lost to Super Bowls where their offensive line is that overpowered and just couldn't handle it. And you know it's been a tough show for Homes both times. So you know, Tray Smith, albeit was in the game, I think he's still a key component to it and I think he's probably their number one priority. In terms of free agency, I think Nick Nick Bolton comes in second, probably around the ten to fifteen million dollars range. I think Justin Reads a third. I think the Chiefs are very fixable in terms of getting them back. I think to draft. Clearly, they've tried to draft offensive lineman. They've done it the last two years, taking a second and third rounder, trying to put it out there at the tackle spot. You can't stop. You got to keep so, you know, even if you feel like you're missing on those guys, you got to keep pushing picks in that offensive line because that's your life. Led like you just talked about Doug and it's perfect sense. But then they've got to get a running back. Kareem Hunt, Samarty Hurt p Ryan are both free agents. Isa Poteko I think is more of a situational type of back. So I want to back I can turn around hand to and know that I take some of the pressure off of Patrick Mahomes and they don't have that, and I think that's a key other piece of the puzzle. Receiver wise, with Rafied Rights coming back, Chi Rights and coming back, I think they're in pretty good shape. They'll get some other guys that are gonna want to play there, so I think that's a good one. But i'd think focused on, you know, the offensive line, sign and Tray Smith draft another offensive lineman. Early first or second round, and then you go to the defensive side, and I think you put your some money into Nick Bolton if you can get them around that ten to twelve per year.

Okay, how do you how do you do it? With the Bengals? Right, they're talking about, Wow, we want to hang on to t Why you know, I want to hang on to t Y Hilton. Plus they have Chase, and then you know, you look at the defensive side of the ball and your best young your defense isn't good, but your best defensive player needs a rework contract. How do you do it? How do you work it?

Yeah?

Okay? So and I agree, Tray got a big contract coming to him. I mean, here's as everybody's reporting, people are talking about. There's a lot of reports Jamar Chase is looking for forty a year, right. The problem is he's still got one more year in his contract. Is you know, it's fully guaranteed. But they were just under twenty two million dollars, which is a ridiculous bargain. T Higgins. They have the option to franchise Tag and that's just over twenty seven million dollars. So you know, the Bengals could play the Bengals here and just be like, hey, look, we can't find a way to get to forty million, so there's no And that's why I don't think Jamark shake. He can shoot for forty million, but when you're negotiatinggainst the Bengals, I don't think you're going to get there. And I think t Higgins because he wants to I think be there. In my personal opinion, he wants to play with Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase. I think you could find T Higgins north of thirty instead of the thirty five that people are reporting. I think if he goes to free agency, might get to thirty five, but I think he'd be willing to take thirty thirty one to stay there. Jamar Chase is like gonna have to come off as forty. I just don't see the Bengals being that team that's going to turn around and pay forty million parts for Jamar Chase right now, not with Joe Burrow where he is at. And like you just said, with Trey Henderson's you know obviously needing to pay rates, so you got to priority again. I know I can control him with obviously the fifth year option for Jamar, the tag for Higgins. I certainly consider doing those two things as I try to work through Trey Hendrickson, and then I come back to maybe the tag, and then I come back to Jamar at the end if I can't, you know, if they're not moving off their numbers, and you know, Jamar's got decided how he wants to play twenty twenty five. You want to play for twenty one million, pull league guaranteed and risk free agency. Knowing that there's a bag that's right around the corner for Jamar Chase too. It's it's a really good spot for the Bengals to be in because how hardball they've played, Doug and I think that's the one and those players all know that they don't have the leverage right now at all, even though they've got their credentials, and certainly the statistics.

Does does the media, fans, social media, because the points you point out are the parts that you know. We've come to realize is that as much as it feels like, well the players can sit out, it's like there's nowhere you're going right.

We own your rights. There's no you're not. We don't have to give in to you.

At all. And this is a team that traditionally does play hardball. Now they traditionally also pay their own guys, the guys they draft. That's that's what they do. They don't go get free agents. Does the pressure of the outside noise matter at all in Cincinnati?

See, you think it would, you know, with the family and so entrenched in the organization for so many years, you know, they're so used to, you know, having tough times of Cincinnati and great times of Cincinnati, that the noise doesn't get to I don't think. I just don't think it does. I think they're they're they're affected by Wow, what's going on here? Instead they can kind of the pictures like we're just trying to keep this team together. They can play the what was us. We're doing the best we can to try to find ways to get deals done with our guys, but right now we just can't seem to get it done. So I don't think the noise is going to be too much for him, you know, I think if you're an agent for Jamar Chase, certainly T Higgins, you're pointing at Joe Burrow said you did him after three years. I don't understand why you wouldn't do my guy. Now, that's as kind of leveragees you can use based off those two guys going into you know another tag and his fifth year. But again they have all the leverage. The only thing a player can do is, you know, dougas suddenly a little bit of a footspring. You know my ankle hers, I like I twisted my achilles a little bit and I can't make it this week. That's the only downside is the player can slowly kind of pick and choose even when he's gonna play, but he's not going to sit the season out.

Mark, great stuff as always, man, Really appreciate you joining us. Look forward to talking to you as the draft gets closer and closer. Thanks so much for our guest on FOSH Sports Radio.

Yes sir, Next week Combine, looking forward to it.

Next week is the Combine in India. Doug Gottliebin for Colin. This is the Hurt Fox Sports Radio, iHeartRadio app and coming up next. Wait to hear what Kevin Durant said when he was asked about who he believes the next face of the NBA is. That's next time, Doug Gottlieb, this is the hurt.

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Doug Gotti, Bin for Colin, this is the Herd. Fox Sports Radio, iHeartRadio app. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome in. You know, there's a lot of talk about what happens when Lebron and Steph Curry retire, cause you know you have and I do think this the Olympic Team documentary is you know, doing a good job of highlighting just how special it is to have Kevin Rant, who's he's the best score of this generation. Steph Curry, who has completely changed the way we look at shots and the game, and and and the dynamic of players who don't fit the stereotypical size and positional kind of ideas of the past. And of course Lebron James, who's just been a physically dominant player since the day he arrived in the NBA. Now we're twenty plus years into it, right, so when those three go, and we'd admit that Lebron's the most famous, probably polarizing, Steph Curry's incredibly popular, Kevin Rant a little bit polarizing, But I do think people are a little bit just resigned to he's awesome.

I don't know if I love him or not.

But who's the next face of the NBA, Especially when you're considering of the elite players in the NBA. Jason Tatum's like, how many American born players are there? And there's some thought that, well, you can't have a foreign born player. Luka Doncic a joker, you know. Obviously Jannis he's I think in that realm of he's obviously slightly younger, but of Lebron and KD. And though he's beloved, he's not and probably will never be the face of the league. Here's KD on who he thinks should be next.

I keep hearing that what is the face of the league? Like, what does that entail? What do you do when you got all the face of the league.

I understand what.

Comes with that, because it seems like it's just more than basketball. So when we talk about I want to know, you got to answer for me. I think it's a little bit more than that, because I mean from because playing great ball and they said he's not fit to be the face of the league, or Luca's playing great and sometimes people don't and then they say that international players can't be the face. Like I don't understand what the face of the league is and what that entails. I think all of these guys have impacted in their culture of basketball. So many players are probably watching Victor or Luca and trying to emulate what they do every day, and they also watching them off the court and see what they do is in their personal lives as well, you know. So with the access, I think so many guys got an opportunity to make a huge impact as the face of the league, you know, because they're inspiring so many people so easily, so quick. You know, the access is there for everybody to watch and see what they go through. So yeah, I don't even know what that When people say that term, just throw that term out. I need an explanation or definition of what that truly means, because a lot of these guys, regardless of where they come from, are impacting people all around the world. You know what I'm saying. It's not just one guy, it's not just two guys. It's this whole generation and era of players is going to impact the world in a different way than the guys before them. So I just think that's a term we use just so we can have conversation.

I actually think Kad nails it. I kind of thought he nailed it right, like those guys people with the access people have, we can pay attention to everything and anything about these players. And he talked about some of the guy that kids are watching and emulating what they do and how they do it. I mean, Shay Gildas, Alexander's probably, I mean, should be the MVP of this league, right and because he played in the States in college, because he has you know, he's though he doesn't represent our country in the Olympics. Heck, if the President has his way, maybe he's an American by the end of in the next four years.

Anyway, I don't know. I don't think that's likely, but it's possible.

It's a it's actually a great question, like what is the face of the league? It reminds me a little bit of kind of the discussion we started the show with, which is it's like who's going to take the game winning shot for the Lakers, Like, well, who's hot in that given day and who's open. But I do think that Kad nails it in that the face of the league is not just about who the best player in the league. And I think what people are wondering, and the reason they're saying face the league is we've been through this before. We've been through this before. If you're in your mid to late thirties and really beyond and into your forties and fifties, you remember when Jordan retired, there was more talent then there was kind of late in his second run, right there was when the league expanded and they created the Hornets, and the magic there was it was a little bit water down. There's a little bit, a couple too many teams, and then slowly but surely the international players started performing very well and those voids were filled. But when he left the league, it was Iverson, Rashid Wallace, Vince Carter, Grant Hill, like Jason Kidd, those are the next guys, and some of it, some of it is going to be on each one of those guys. Grant Hill couldn't stay healthy, Vince Carter was never on a great team. Allen Iverson off the court was was sort of messy, and you know, he was like the people's champ, but he didn't play a lot of defense and he was an inefficient player. Kobe Bryant it took them a while before it was Kobe and Shaq, right, they were all part of that, all part of that, that kind of dry area there where the Spurs won titles and they were seen to be too boring, the game was too physical, the Knicks were boring, whatever. But I think we're preparing for that. What happens when Lebron and Steph go bye bye? Can anyone be as.

Popular as successful as talented and.

Oh yeah, by the way, neither of those guys anything negative off the court? Is that possible? Right? So if it's if you have to, if you have to take in the off the court, that cuts John Morant out of it, and then you start having to go through like can Luca be that guy? I don't think. I kind of think we're past the part of it having to be an American player. Jase Due, maybe you're you're the best guy to call out on this, not because you're a xenophope. Thank you for that, I said, not because you are. Yeah, I know, but I think that you have in your mind, Hey, I doesn't have to be an American player. And I guess the question is, like, I mean, we saw we've seen this with soccer where these guys come over late in their career and they're crazy, crazy popular. Now maybe it's because the image they established before they played in the United States. I don't know, Like why can't Luca be the face of the league?

I just think that there has been like a general a backlash among the public. And we're talking like diehard MBA fans that just want to see one of their own, an American born player, be the face of the week. I just think that that exists mostly in Middle America.

Well, it's interesting. I mean again, I don't think Anthony Davis says the dynamic as a person, He's just not something he's ever loved in terms of the spotlight. But he's amazing. He's American born. Jason Tatum just one NBA title For whatever reason, only people love that.

I don't know. Let's get back to that the top of the hour. I'm Doug Gottlieb.

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