The Herd with Colin CowherdJason McIntyre filling in for Colin
Thoughts on Luka Doncic returning to play the Dallas Mavericks for the first time as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers
What to make of the cryptic T.J. Watt Instagram post
Guest: Ric Bucher
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Welcome to the Herd.
On a beautiful Thursday out here in Los Angeles. Me Jason McIntyre still in for Colin Coward now.
I haven't talked to.
Him in a couple of days.
I don't know the scuba diving, parasailing.
I don't know what he's doing in uh a clear blue water area that I'm not allowed to reveal.
But I'm joined by Alex Curry. Alex is so fired up.
For today's show. Oh my gosh, last night would have to you have a date last night talking about Lucas Luca.
I felt like that was his official arrival due to the Lakers.
Like best game you saw the tears.
Which was I started crying. I was like, oh no, you did it happening. I cry when I see other people crying. I cry at everything, Like I'm a very emotional here.
I actually vomit when I see other people vomiting, which is similar. Yet it's not.
Let's not start to start.
Let's not start the show with vomiting. Let's start with the tears.
Because the tears were flowing, and then the points were last night in Dallas for Luka donc It's mom man. You know this is real. Honestly, guys, I'm not like a starstruck individual. But I did run into Steph Curry a couple years ago. I was like, Steff, I gotta get a photo. You know, there's only a handful of athletes I do that for, and Luka Doncic is right there at the top. I am so in awe of this guy to watch him crying pregame back in Dallas last night, sitting on the bench, and then he comes in and just starts dropping threse.
Folks.
It was a phenomenal event last night in Dallas. You don't see this often, and I'm so happy for Luka Doncic. You guys know I'm a Laker fan obviously, but watching him, watch that tribute video and ps, there was a lot of skinny Luca in that tribute video.
He has put on some weight, no.
Doubt about it. We'll get to Nico Harrison and why he traded him shortly, but then Luca.
Just comes out. Look at him cooking, step back.
Three ad how you like that? It was a masterclass from Luca. Forty five points his I guess you'd say his best game is a Laker. It's only game twenty seven, folks, that's like one third of a regular season with the Lakers.
Luca was cooking all night.
Lakers get the win, and I believe last night's game was pretty much a blueprint for what we'll see in the playoffs. Luca early set the tone. He's fresh. Nobody can guard him. I'm sorry, even though he's heavier than he used to be, nobody can guard Luka Doncic.
And then Luca gets his rest.
Lebron comes in late as the closer fourteen for Lebron in the fourth Lakers inch closer to that coveted third seed.
And if you look at what Luca did.
In the first half, he had thirty one points, the maps star at thirty five.
Luca was phenomenal.
And after the game, here's Luca talking about the tribute video and his return to Dallas, so many emotions.
When I was watching that video, I was like, there's no way I'm playing this vie.
But you know, all my teammates time my back.
They were really supporting me.
So I really appreciate.
That, folks.
It was an event like we haven't seen before in sports. Okay, most of these guys who leave their franchises do it willingly, voluntarily. I want out. Lebron departs Cleveland from Miami. I'm taking my talents.
To South Beach.
But when he went back to Cleveland, the vibe was hostile. The environment was tense. It was like, oh, this could get ugly. That's not anybody do anything stupid, and it was just like not a great atmosphere. Okay. And then Kevin Durant right starts his career in Seattle and then Oklahoma City, and then he decides I'm out. I don't want to be here anymore. And it was a smart move by Lebron to go to Miami. We agree it was a smart move by Kevin Durant to leave OKC for Golden State.
Many of you disagree. I think that was a genius move.
By Kevin Durant. I totally agree with it. I've defended it for years, but when KD went back to Oklahoma City, he was met with venom, bile anger, all the cupcake nonsense started by his frenemie Russell Westbrook. Folks, this is something we haven't seen before. Luca was met with an applause the second he walked into the arena. You saw Lakers Luca jerseys on MAVs fans. It was a crazy setting. And again, I mean, I can't even think of anything across any sport where we've seen this before. And for Luca to thrive in that environment. After crying, I will say I loved that JJ Reddick had them give the take foul late in the game with about ninety seconds left, just so they could sub out Luca. And then it was a round of applause right whole arena standing ovation for Luca. He gets to the bench and Lebron is leading.
The Luca Luca like Austin Reeves. Lebron the whole bench.
They're fired up, standing up, and the arena's backing Luca. This is Dallas. It was just a chrus See. We haven't seen that before. I don't know that we'll see one of those again. And We'll get to why shortly, but I want to hear I want you to hear JJ Reddick talk about everything that encompassed Luca going home. This is great.
The moment with a tribute video and him sitting by himself and getting to actually live that and live in the moment and allowing himself to be vulnerable, and his teammates support.
Some of his.
Teammates got emotional, some of the coaches got emotional.
It was a beautiful moment.
I thought the video was great, but I think just his ability to then go perform lights turn on. You know, he's teary eyed still as we walk out on the court for the tipball. To have the emotional resolve to then go put on that kind of performance, It's superhuman.
That's a great way. JJ Reddick is so good, by the way, as the Lakers coach love him, and I saw interesting sat from ESPN. Last night was the first time Dirk Novitski attended a Dallas home game since the trade.
Okay, he went to Luca's first game with the Lakers.
Okay, he's now this is his first game at a Dallas at the arena since they dealt Luca. What does that tell you. And this is the other angle I want to get to. I talked earlier this week about I'm a risk taker by nature, whether it's moving my family across my country, quitting my job to start a website.
You know, obviously I like gambling. I enjoy going to Vegas.
I don't know what word I would use to describe my sports gambling habits.
I like prolific. But you know, not every season is winning.
I'm a risk taker, and I think a lot of people in this industry are kind. I gotta you put yourself out there. I'm on National TV talking about how I love Steph Curry and Luka Donci's like, this isn't normal behavior, Nor is what Nico Harrison did in Dallas trading Luka dodgis.
Now.
We drilled down on this in the morning meeting, trying to figure out, like a can they rebound from this and be like where do you go from here?
If you're Nico Harrison and I started thinking about it.
I was gonna have my morning donut, but it didn't show up in the dressing room this morning. I don't know. I guess they forgot it. You know, I've been needing some sugar energy to get fired up for the show.
Cowherd's on magnesium.
I've been using donuts and I just wonder if Nico Harrison has such a bad spot right now for himself. There were fire Nico champs throughout the arena last night. It's like, Luca, Luca, we love you, Nico Harrison, Fire Nico. And then they have the video of him in the tunnel just standing their stoneface, like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do to dig out of this hole? I don't know that they can get out of it and stop with the Hey, Kyrie is gonna come back from the ACL maybe by the All Star break next year. It's gonna be fine, folks. They've got Kyrie and ad As there as. They're like they're nucleus. Those are two guys who are often injured. They've played together for twenty five minutes. That's it on the court since the trade, and I started to have this moment of clarity and I'm like, wait a minute, Wait a minute. Nico Harrison has been a big swing guy. He took a big swing for Kyrie and it worked when he was opposite Luka Doncic. Then the next year he goes out and gets PJ. Washington and uh and Daniel Gaffert and everybody's like, I don't know about those guys. They haven't done anything. Those swings worked, Dallas got to the finals. Then he took a swing he didn't need to, shipping Luca to the Lakers. Lakers fans, by the way, haven't been this excited about a star coming to town.
Since Pauga Sol was gifted to them.
Didn't we get the Statue of Liberty from like Paris or something? Gosh, I probably butchered that, but it felt like that's what they're teams are just handing the Lakers stars. Here's Pawgasol, Here's Luca don And I don't know if Nico has any way out of this. If this morning, I'm sure he's looking at some of the videos. I'm sure he can say I'm not paying attention. There's a video of Mark Cuban when the fire Nico chants are happening. Fans near Mark Cuban have a camera on him, and Mark Cuban's just like, what has happened since I left this organization as the owner? I mean, he looked like an Emperor of Rome, who would like step down, and now Rome's got this new emperor and it's just not going good at all. I mean, they were in the finals less than a year ago. And I keep coming back to this when you are a big swing guy by nature, and now your last swing is starting to be compared to the Babe Ruth trade, which is, you know, over the last one hundred years in change in sports, considered the worst trade ever. Okay, I think the Red Sox were cursed for like one hundred years. You have to sort of wonder, how does he get out of this? And it's not gonna just be Oh, Kyrie's coming back. And I started to look at the salary cap and the draft picks. Dallas does have three draft picks in the first round this year. They're obviously not gonna be great picks. But you start to wonder who was Kyrie's guy who followed him to Brooklyn, Kevin Durant. And I wonder if mister big swing Nico Harrison, hey man, we gotta do something. Do you make a move in this offseason for Kevin Durant? Now you could be compounding your mistake. You know, us investors, we love compound interest. Nico Harrison is the gambler who's down big and decides, hey, hey, can I get the car the title to my car? Let me toss that in there. Here's my watch. And he's just trying desperately to dig out of a hole. I wonder if he makes a big swing year and goes after say Kevin Durant, Hey, kd you just want to hoop? We got Kyrie, we got ad Can you come on down. We'll give up everything not bolted down and all the draft picks give us Kevin Durant. They need to do something thing because at this point this has to be a franchise low for the MAVs since you know the Roy Tarpley days back in the eighties, that was a mess. I won't even get into it, but I've always been a Luka Dancich fan. And to see him cry on the bench because they traded him, it's very clear people he did not want to go. I'm not saying he didn't want to go to Lakers, but he loved it in Dallas. He was mister Dallas. There's videos of him with the cowboy hat on Howdy Partner, like he had embraced his new city. They loved him, and then one guy or the owners. Some debate as to who was driving force, but it was pretty clear like, hey, let's get rid of Luca. And I get it on some level he does look heavier than he did in his first three years when he was cooking everybody in the league. But folks, historically, this is going to go down as one of the biggest screw ups in NBA history. I mean, you could deny it all you want. If Luca is able to stay healthy, he's on track to be a top ten player all time. That's just a fact. If you look at the numbers, he is on track to be a top ten player all time. Now, obviously, will the titles come with him, We'll see. I think they're going to the finals this year. I think the Lakers with Luca, Lebron, Austin Reeves, they're looking at the number three seed.
And I'm sure you guys saw what else happened around the league last night.
Golden State Warriors lose at the buzzer and now in the play in It's almost like the stars are aligning for Luca and the Lakers.
So Alex, you cried last night as a lake.
I'm an emotional person. And you.
When you followed that whole trade situation and you saw how heartbroken Luca was and shocked Luca was with the trade situation, you could tell how much it meant to him. And when you see like a big guy, an athlete who is all the media around him allow himself to get that emotional, how do you not get emotional? And it's just it again, like you were just talking about it. It's not an Eco, it's the ownership. I have like a way more conspiracy theory like idea to this whole trade situation, Like it's not like you don't just it's not his weight, it's it's not like his play. He's one of the greatest like futures and players right now in the NBA. Like I think it's ownership and they own casinos and they want to build a casino complex and you're not going to be able to do that.
Dallas isn't letting them do it right now. It's not working out.
So you can't like threaten to move the team or try to get what you want if you have a championship team and one of the best players in the NBA on your team, Like I follow the money like that. That's where my eye is here, Like it's they're not trying to win, like it is, trying to do the opposite situation.
But just to go off the Lucas situation, there was a really cool.
Stat I saw last night, and he's only the second player with a forty five point game four and against the same team in the NBA season. So it's Wilt Wilt chamber on the other only other players to do that.
The staff just notifi. I mean, we have sound of the fire Nico chance, and I get fired up the chance.
Guys, I don't.
Mind leading a chance on the sideline for my daughter's volleyball team.
Here's a fi fire Nico chance.
From last night.
Dude, that is insane.
You know how awkward that is when everyone around you knows, Oh man, I'm standing next to the dude. Twenty five thousand people are yelling fired the blank.
He was the one who had to make the call and make the move. But there's some debate over that comes from ownership. And you heard Mark Cuban like when he was asked about it years ago, He's like, you'll find me getting a divorce from my wife before I trade.
I don't like it's I mean, I get it. That's why I'm amazing ownership this morning. You think the owner was behind it. Yah knows that the owner's smart enough. He's just some funny guy. Nico which loves Kyrie love Zad has known them for years.
I don't I don't want to saying the money guy. They own casinos. They are one of the richest owners.
They're going to be down to nine figures ALEX based on according to an ESPN story, their merches down. The ticket sales are down.
And you want a casino complex the s finest thing that they want.
The sponsors are big matter the bad.
That's like chun change chump change form.
Gosh, this is bad.
They want to move locations.
Yeah, they're coming out next year. On The Herd, did one NFL superstar give us a sign yesterday he could be on the move.
Not good news for an AFC team that's next.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and Neon Easter non a em Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
You are now entering the Noble Zone sponsored by Credible Great Rates with none of the bull speaking of bulls U t J. Watskond of a bull right, Gosh, I love that guy. He's a He's an animal coming off the edge, one of the best edge rushers in the league. If Max Crosby the Raiders is watching, sorry, I think TJ watch just a little better.
I need to keep saying that because.
We got Raiders guys on staff who are like J mac Layoff. When you tell me to do something, I'm gonna do the opposite. Anyways, Anyways, TJ. Watt's a really good football player. Man. I'm the idiot who last summer hosting the Herd for Colin came on and said, you want some hot takes for the summer. I would trade TJ Watt. I would start over, we don't have a quarterback.
We're going nowhere.
Trade them get a hole before you got to pay him, before he gets too old, before he gets injured. Again. Steelers fans did not like it.
And then the season came.
And Justin Field started good and Russell Wilson was cooking, and all I'm getting is just an avalanche a torrent.
Of You're an idiot?
Why oh you are poop emoji? You don't know anything. You don't know ball all that stuff. Okay, fine, So here we are in April of twenty twenty five, and if you follow TJ Watt on the Gram, he posted a cryptic ig story and here it is on the screen, TJ Watt throwing up the deuces peace. What does it mean? Does it mean I'm out? Does it mean hey, what's up people, I haven't checked in in a while. I'm alive. What could it mean? Well, I don't know.
It could mean a lot of things.
Could also mean that he's pissed off that he doesn't have a new contract and Miles Garrett just got paid. And I looked into this last night, folks.
TJ.
Watt is grossly underpaid as an edge rusher. Okay, some of these guys making as much as him, or more than him. He's like fifth or sixth highest paid heading into this season. And just so happens, this is his final year in Pittsburgh, so he's angling for a new contract. This would not be new ground. We've seen wide receivers, running backs, quarterbacks, everybody. Kyler Murray scrubs his Instagram. By the way, we're doing a Kyler Murray topic later. You're gonna love it. Kyler Murray scrubs his Instagram basically just associating himself with a team. He gets his new deal, Michael Parson's angling for a new deal, Miles Garrett asked for a trade, got his new deal. Trey Hendrickson in Cincinnati. Oh that's a mess. So TJ.
Watt wants a new deal.
So you know, we're batting around some ideas on the Steelers, and wouldn't you know it, their last playoff win came in twenty seventeen January of twenty seventeen. They beat the Dolphins and their quarterback was a gentleman named Matt Moore. I just hired him to do my taxes for this upcoming season. Okay, Matt Moore, that was who the Steelers last beat in a playoff game. They haven't been a legitimate super Bowl contender in about fifteen years.
I love TJ.
Watt.
He's a menace off the edge. They should have traded him a year ago.
You guys know, one of my favorite quotes about rebuilding, Hey, when's the best time to rebuild? Last year? It's like when's the best time to plant a tree? Last year? They're late to the party now and Pittsburgh kind of up the creek without a paddle. Guys, have you looked at what what is gonna command? He's gonna want thirty million. So the idea of trading him, Hey do you want TJ. Watt? Sure we're not giving up a first and then pay him thirty million dollars a year. No way.
So now the value is down.
Listen, I beat up the Cowboys with this yesterday. At some point these teams have to get smarter and realize, oh, this is coming down the road. Let me nip it in the butt. I've gotta not wait until the end because when you wait, you end up paying more. And I just I don't know that Pittsburgh has it easy out here. You don't want to anger TJ. Watt, who I think clearly is the most popular player on the team. I don't think his trade values sky high. And you guys are gonna scoff at that, but I'm sorry, that's the reality the economics are. I'm not giving up the number three pick or the number eight pick or whatever it is, and then I've got to pay this guy thirty million dollars a year. That's financial suicide. So I think the Steelers are kind of stuck here. They're waiting for Aaron Rodgers. They're trying to get TJ. Watt done. Mike Tomlin, hey, maybe you should have left last year instead of come back to this mess. The Steelers right now could be could be right down there with the Browns in one of the toughest divisions in the AFC. Let's go to Alex Curry with the news.
Turn on the news. This is the herd Line News.
Well, let's start in New York with your Jets.
Right, Yes, yes we do, because they signed Justin Fields to be the new starting quarterback and it created a union reunion with this former Ohio state wide receiver, Gerett Wilson. Fields and Wilson at work twenty and two with the Buckeyes, and Justin says, it's good to be back together.
It's awesome.
Of course, you know we played together in college, and you know, when I saw him, it's really just like the old days. So I don't think our relationships gept the beat. So of course I'm definitely excited to play with him. Guys like RUHK and you know, Josh Myers, so I'm excited for that, and of course things that can that we can do to help you get each other better, just you know, get get back on the same page as we were in college.
Now, this is a make or break situation for Justin Fields, right because it wasn't the right fit for him in Chicago.
He kind of got a little.
Bit of a window chance in Pittsburgh where he went four and two when he was starting, but then got benched obviously for Russell Wilson. And we've seen this happen before with other first round pick quarterbacks. Sometimes they just need the right fit of a different franchise and coach and they can kind of turn their career around. We saw it with Baker Mayfield, we saw it with Sam Darnold.
Do you think.
Justin Fields is your guy that's going to be able to do that with the Jets?
Can I go maybe? Is that a cop out?
I mean, I feel your heart's been broken the last two years wore and well, I'm just saying with Rogers it was really really high and it just got absolutely smashed expectations. So now you're tempering your expectations.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
What do you think six and a half? Is there wind total? No, it might be five and a half.
Actually, I when you have that kind of chemistry though with a quarterback wide receiver, like that's already a positive kind of going into a new situation.
Okay, there is breaking Jets news.
Alex is going down right now, Alan Lazard, you wanting.
To take a pay cut, just stay.
With the Jets. Oh my gosh, huge development something, it's something.
So I'm just gonna ask you.
Okay, quarterback on his third team in three years, what does that tell you?
Well, like I said, like, we've seen this with a couple other guys.
Wasn't Baker like that too?
Yeah?
Because it was.
Rams.
There might have been another team in there for Carolina. Yeah, he was there.
Yeah, and he just you just need the right He wasn't.
Number one overall picks. Heels was like fifteen.
It doesn't matter. Still a first rounder. Sam Darnold another situation.
We really didn't see him actually take off until last year with the biking. You're right, there is there is a possibility here if it's the right coaching, franchise, match team chemistry.
He is from Detroit. He was a Ben Johnson guy. Now, so I don't know that he's ever called plays in his life. I won't even try to. Voldemort is his last name. I'm kidding, that's not his last name. It's something similar to that.
But I was like Jerry Potter, I wonder it's kind of a black Fox.
I don't know what to expect from Fields. He could be really good, like you're saying, yes, Donald, or he could just you know, beat Justin Field, who has a big.
I don't know.
Positive you leaning on the positive side.
You're a winning positive?
Are you going with the winning season? Let's start there.
Nine wins?
You think you're having a winning was shocked if they won nine? Okay, well, let's move to Indy. The Colts signed Daniel Jones to compete with Anthony Richardson for the starting quarterback job. Now, despite that, Indy had a private visit with Texas quarterback Quen Yours. Now, we still haven't seen a full healthy season from Anthony Richardson. Daniel Jones is another one where he's looking to kind of prove he can still.
Be a starter.
But the Colts have a lot of question marks, a lot of question marks.
Now they have draft picks.
Their first round is fourteenth overall, second round is thirteenth. In the second round, just forty fifth overall and yours isn't. It's not a bad option to like, I don't think you can be too rich at the most important position in the NFL, especially if you don't know for sure if you have your guy yet and you know, Quinn's been to the culture will playoff in back to back years. He's had the success. He's probably a second round pick. That would be a good second round pick. You're high on him, I like, yeah, it's weird.
This was a five star kid who was like I think it might have been the number one recruit in the country, leaves early for Ohio State. He was the first like big nil guy and then leaves Ohio State goes to Texas. Is a little cocky. Remember he had like the mullet. By the way, I will have a bullet. Love mullet. I'm going to be getting a mullet soon because my son is in middle school and like, everybody has a mullet. So he got, well, they're cool, and so I'm like, I'll match your mullet.
So I'll be getting to five month. I haven't talked to Harry yet.
Ruth, she's she's not committed to it, but we'll see, so I don't know. I kind of like the cultures here and I kind of like when you wers. I'll leave it at that.
Okay, all right, well let's end in Cleveland here.
Brown's owner Jimmy Haslam made some shocking statements earlier this summer when he finally took ownership of a team's decision to sign to Sean Watson and admitting the two hundred and thirty million guaranteed contract was a mistake and Watson has two years left on that deal, and responded to the critics, you know.
The performance comes when you know your back gets the walls. It comes better because you kind of got to really lock in. You know, you don't have anything pretty much to lose. And I feel like that's why I'm at right now. You know, everyone's down me. You know, everyone don't believe in me. Everyone don't think that I can get back to.
Where I was and where where were you?
Like in your three years too playing with the Browns nine and ten, nineteen passing touchdowns, seventeen giveaways, an eighty point seven passer rating. I just ownership finally accepted that they made a mistake. I think you kind of need to accept the fact that you're probably done. You made your mark on the NFL. It wasn't a good one.
You were in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
He's twenty nine years old, he's had multiple lower body injuries, Like, that's not something you just bounced back from, especially with the reputation that he has, so no one wants to take that on.
Let me ask you, how awkward is it that a week ago the owner of the team said we swung and miss movie it was duck, And now he's coming out on a video saying I'm going to be back way better than Oh, you're not. No, you're not. I just can't imagine if Fox publicly came out and said, hey, swinging a miss with McIntyre and then your mound air, I'm going to dominate more than everything.
It just would feel weird.
It is.
I know, it's.
Like, I don't like Shina light on someone who's had as discussing his allegations as he has off the field.
It's just hard. It's like, you're not, you haven't. It's not no, just I'm done.
I'm done with them, all.
Right, We're done with this.
Alex Scurry with.
The news Well, that's the news and thanks for stopping by the heard line there.
Coming up next, the great Rick Buker coming on to talk Lakers. You know it's gonna pain him to talk about Lebron and Luca dominating. That's next year on the Hurt.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays and Noone Eastern nan am Pacific.
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.
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Back here on the Herd, joined by the great Rick Bucker, Fox Sports NBA analyst. He's been covering the league for since Michael Jordan was a factor. That's how long it's been, Rick, I've never seen a night.
It's always good to start the show with Shane.
I gotta do some shade of mj not you, of course, I've never seen a night like that before. Luca crying that drops forty five. They want to fire the GM. I mean part of me wants to ask, do you have Nico's number? We call him up, I do him on the spot.
He's such a coward.
He doesn't want to meet the media once and now he's like just standing down.
I'm not going to pile on Nico one because ownership didn't want to pay the three hundred and forty five million, and he had to be the guy that did the dirty work. And you know, I'm not saying that he didn't on some level agree with the move, but.
And it remains to be seen.
You know, as dramatic as last night was, as impactful as it was, I will say this, it was. It will go down in history as one of the most heart tugging moments in sports history because the trembling lip and the I mean that was it. The close up and the trembling lip and the tears made you realize how much.
Luca loved being a Dallas Maverick.
And to have a great player like that who's that tied to a franchise, That's that's what people will not forget.
And that's what made it so powerful.
I don't even know that he had to have a great game, but the fact that he then had forty five and did all the Luca magic things that he does, that's.
That's what just that buried it for him.
By the way, how was Anthony Davis last night for the MAVs? Huh? How's that trade working out for Dallas?
Why do you say that with such a bleed?
I like a d but you know him and play Thompson had to be like, what do we do to deserve this?
No?
Yeah, well you need Kyrie Irving to play the role. I mean, essentially it's the Warriors without Steph Curry. And then you'd be looking at, you know, Jimmy Butler going what did I do to deserve this? This isn't what I signed up for. So I think that's that's part of it. And look, the change between Luca and Anthony Davis. The thing that always bothered me and still bothers me is that we're rewriting this now with him and the Lakers that he you know, he just never became the player that Lebron needed him to be for Lebron to go win another championship.
That's out there that's being said like saying that.
That's the suggestion is is that he was holding Lebron back offensively and now you see what Lebron is still capable of doing. Right. Well, of course, because Luca is a playmaker. Anthony Davis, you know this this whole we're going to play through a d and all that, and he's Lebron's gonna take a step back and Ady's gonna take a step forward offensively. That was never gonna work. You were asking ad b Ad to be something that he's never been. He is a defensive backbone and he's a great stretch for he can do a great offensive rebounder. But don't ask him to like orchestrate your offense because he's never done that.
It's weird. I don't know who said it. It might have been Broussard, but like this, people were saying that Kyrie was the best wingman ever for Lebron, or most skilled player maybe, And I'm just like, Lebron's never been with a playmaker like this.
Kyrie and Wade were scores. Yeah, you know, Luca's basically just carried the first half.
Luca do everything, and what happens late Lebron fourteen points in the forts because he looks fresh as a daisy and he can attack the rim and get every rebound.
Yeah, and he's not I mean he's playing off the ball, and he's playing off of all the attention that Luca is creating. He gets to be the number two now and take advantage of that. And you got Lebron James even at forty as your number two, you're in pretty good shape. I mean, he's like he's been around forever. He's he's really smart. I will say this, he deserves tremendous credit. I never I didn't know if Lebron could play off the.
Ball as well as he has.
But his ability to move off the ball, ability to catch and shoot, it's been very impressive.
Yeah, you know, Luka, Doncic has almost become a polarizing figure the way he yells at reps.
He was ejected from the OKC game and I kind of.
But did you see him last night?
They were sent it to Tech last night. By the way, did you see that right before the game? I know that second technical see see.
Him during the game last night.
He did not say a peeph like when he did approach the referees, it was he was almost like whispering. It was, yeah, that like this is this is the thing. Look, there's a lot of a lot of the reasons that the Dallas Mavericks decided we didn't want to We don't want to invest in him in the in the for the long term. We're legitimate chronic injuries, never in shape, like gains weight in the off season, like all of those things.
And I and I understand that you go to the.
Finals against Boston and you're harping on the referees and you're not being able to defend at a high level, and you're conditioning, whether that was because of.
Injury or whatever. All of those cost you a championship.
And you come back and you're not demonstrably a different player.
You're doing all the same things.
You're not in shape, you get injured again, you're still harping on the referees. So if you lose a championship because of those things and you don't change, it's like, well, is he ever going to change? But here's the thing, now that he's had this, Oh I'm expendable.
Or I don't rule the roost, like all of.
This may inspire him to change, but I don't know if it ever would have happened if he had stayed in the Dallas Maverick.
That's fair. I totally get that. But Rick nothing, all those negatives, all that negative stuff you just said, and he still took them to the finals last year. So it's like, oh, he's overweight, Okay, he still got them.
To the finals.
But they're not paying him for what he did. They're paying him the three hundred and forty five million for what he's going to do over the next five years. And that's why, as peths look the visuals last night, I'm almost ready to say, no, matter what happens, it's a bad trade because of what we saw last night. But that said, the true measure of whether of just you know, how bad this trade was, is going to be determined over the next five years, not last night.
Well, it's always a great selling point. Hey give us five years. Hey, you know these tariffs that we're going to implement, it's a long term play. Just be patient. Trust the process has been going for what a decade? Now, this stuff, you can't sell that to NBA fans. Hey, No you can't, No, you can't.
I want answers now.
I want to get back to the championship.
Now, I get that. I get well.
And they were hoping that Kyrie, a healthy Kyrie and a d and all the other pieces that they play in there, they'd be able to they'd be able to get that done. Look I'm not I'm not defending it. I'm just explaining the logogic behind it. And you can't forecast injuries. And I know what you're gonna say, Well, with Kyrie and ad you can yeah, okay.
So okay, so sell me. If you're with the Mavericks front office, you know, your boys with Nico and then this governor clown, go ahead, sell me. I'm a fan, Hey, patience, give me, give us a few years. Go ahead, let me let me hear it. That's just I just don't think anything is going to play. Kath No, you can't.
You're right, You're right, you're right. But again it's it's I'm not trying to say.
The deed is done.
They can't sell you on anything.
At this point, I would just I'd point to a Joel Embiid, I'd point to a Zion Williamson. I would say, look, there are teams that had players not as good as Luca, But what does it matter if the guy's injured and not available and they load up on him, and then now.
Where are you stuck? You're stuck in purgatory.
Okay, so that's why that's giant Embiid. You're right out of shape, constantly never took a team to the finals. Luca's games played seventy sixty six, sixty five sixty six. That's not like Chop Liver that would still qualify him for all NBA. He's not missing a full season. I mean, Zion is a mess. I'm sure you saw the latest story.
Look, I'm not making a straight line comparison again to what they've done as opposed to what you're looking at going in the future. Lucas twenty five, twenty six years old. So there's two ways to look at that.
One.
He's twenty five and twenty six years old, and he's had the same calf injury three times within a.
Year, not great and missed and missed games.
Right.
The flip side is he's twenty five, twenty six years old. You know what he's going to mature, He's going to like, he's going to get his act together, and you don't want to miss out when he gets his act.
When did you get your act together? Because I know I didn't until I was like mid thirty. It took me a little while.
Right, I'm right there with the late twenties, early thirties. Okay, you with the shelf light, we've you know, we've got a little more runway than an NBA player.
All right, So you were on Monday, but we did not cover it. Mike Malone fired in Dewn. This NBA sees has been crazy between it has a trade, firing the Memphis coach and now firing the Nuggets coach. It sounds like the GM and the coach hated each other. I'm reading Cold War.
Oh yeah, there's no question.
The problem that Michael Malone had was as a GM texted me the morning it happened, I said, like, what's going on?
Taylor Jenkins and now Mike Malone.
He goes, when you don't get along with people and you're losing, you put yourself in harm's way. And Mike Malone, in spite of being there for ten years, never really cultivated.
Any He didn't and nobody had his back.
He didn't cultivate relationships. So he and Calvin Booth completely at odds.
From almost the start.
And that worked against Mike because the guys that were that were Mike advocates in the locker room. Bruce Brown, I'm told, was a Mike Malone guy, KCP was a Mike Malone guy. Like all those guys got moved along. And what happens is your ratio changes. You may have some guys in there that aren't feeling him, but as long as you have enough of them that are that are backing the coach, then you can kind of work through that. But when it becomes the ratio becomes so unbalanced. Now it's now now you got a quorum in there that are that are chirping about the coach's and then you start losing.
Yeah, that's a probably some big words here, korum educating the audience. So Nuggets last night, first game without Malone. Oh that's right, I forgot. You're a big time writer. Russell Westbrook fewest minutes he's played in months, and Jalen Pickett started and played pretty damn good. Like seven people listening to the show know who Jalen Picket is. It seems like the old versus young guys was a bit of an issue there. Malone doesn't trust the young guys like the veterans, which I get, you.
Know, yeah, no, no, no, no, I mean, look, Mike's an old school coach. Yeah, and you have a team that's in transition and it works with a guy like Jokic. You know, for those people out there that are like, well, they they wouldn't have fired they wouldn't have fired Mike without you know, Jokic's approval and as Joki said, they came in and told them what they.
Were going to do.
They didn't ask right because Jokis grew up in Serbia. Like over there, the coach is king, but it's not player empowerment. Over there, you like the organization, the coach, they run the show and you are fortunate that you're a player.
And so that's his mindset here.
He wasn't about to walk into Josh Cronky's office and say, hey, it's either me or him. That's just not in the DNA of any European players.
So we got about a minute left. Warriors lose it the buzzer last night. Yeah, last week, not just lost, lost to of former Warriors.
That they moved out in order to bring kd in.
So beat Memphis last week, Curry goes off beat the Lakers, beat the Nuggets, and everybody's champion in Golden State as the team.
All of a sudden, now they lose to the Rockets and the Spurs.
Do we know if this team is dangerous?
Rick, Well, they just they have to have all hands on deck, and thirty seven year old Steph Curry being as essential as he is, is.
A little troubling. They don't have a margin for error.
But I would also say this for everybody out there that is taking all these games, whether it's the Lakers in OKC, or it's the Warriors losing to the Spurs or whatever, let's not lose sight of what they've done over the course of the year.
For the last few games of the regular season.
That's a great point, Rick Buker, Fox Sports NBA analysts always fun stuff, always got good info.
Uh, we make a good quorum here, Core.
I feel like I'm smarter just Rick Buker sits on the sofa.
Generally, Jay, you are when I come one.
Yep, coming up next?
Which NBA players are under the most pressure this postseason? I'll tell you that next
