Hour 1 - The Boston Celtics

Published Mar 6, 2025, 9:28 PM

Colin explained why the Celtics are the best schemed team ever, after Derrick White and Payton Pritchard each dropped 40+ points vs the Blazers and why NFL teams shouldn’t overpay for Seahawks star WR DK Metcalf

Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in noon to three eastern nine am to noon Pacific. Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Man, do we have stuff today? We have so much stuff we may just go four hours. Call Nick right, tell him we'll have to bump him live in Los Angeles.

It's The Herd. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day. I got to get the shirt right here. I got, I mean I got. I'm doing so much Intel here today and work in the phones. I'm not even ready to go.

Jmack, I can't go to the Knicks Lakers tonight. I've got and I'm watching the game.

But I've got a little bit of a meeting. I got to go to.

Hey ed one last night too. Huh, stiff armed me.

Well, it's not about it was an Intel meeting last night. I got all sorts of good stuff.

I just happened to be with an NBA for were NBA coach last night?

Oh oh, how that?

I think you could probably get him on the show. He had some interesting things to say. Shall we say?

Yeah, I know who it was, good guy. So let's start with this.

I've been watching the NBA since the early seventies, and this year I think this is kind of funny. But I'm all of a sudden the Jason Tatum hater. And all I said about seven years ago is this kid's really good. But he may want to model his game after Kobe Bryant, but he's not Kobe. Like you got to occasionally as a star, just be selfish. Even Steph Curry, who I love, can be hey, it's my ball, stay away. And so I've said with Tatum, I look at the Celtics as a great team and he's their most versatile, talented player, but he's not always their best player. And I'm not even sure if he's their lead alpha. I think Jalen Brown is. So last night it's a great example. Three Celtics were out Drew Holliday, port is Ann, Jason Tatum, and Peyton Pritchard scored forty three and Derek White scored forty one. That's what makes the Celtics great. It's not Tatum. It's the team thing that tells you a lot about the team. In the seventies, the Sonics were great. The leading scorer in their championship year was Gus Williams nineteen a game. The Washington Bullets at the time they were called they were great. Their best player in their championship season Elvin Hayes nineteen points a game. Like the seventies, was about team construction, good coaching, won B plus plus star right then Magic Dynasties BYRD Dynasty, Shack Dynasty, Kobe Dynasty, Lebron, Steph KD MJ. Then it was the Dynasties taken over the NBA Duncan It was unbelievably other worldly all time talents. You know, guys that are on the all time starting five, first, second, third team. What the Celtics are is seventies basketball. Now, they may be the best constructed team ever, but this is not a star driven team.

Last night it's a great example.

In fact, think about this, When Yokich misses a game, the Denver Nuggets are ten points less of a team and they're like under five hundred. When Steph misses a game, Warriors are seven points less of a team. I looked it up this morning. Here's another one. When Yannis is out, the Bucks five hundred team.

Seven points less as a team.

When Jason Tatum is out the last two years, the Celtics are not only ten and two, they're eight points better without him. So you're trying to tell me he's Steph. You're trying to tell me he's a Yana. You're trying to tell me he's Jokic. The team's eight points better when he leaves. In fact, last night's the first time in Celtics history two guys scored forty plus points.

Tatum and Brown have never done it.

So it's like telling me Brock Purty should be paid like Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen and Mahomes. Jason Tatum's really good. But the story last night is what they are there. They are a master class in roster construction because Danny Ainge is a personnel savant, and so is Brad Stevens. Back to back brilliant GMS Howie Roseman level, aggressive, smart risk taker. Stevens is brilliant. He's too smart for college basketball probably, And Danny Ainge is brilliant. How many teams has he taken to the showers over the years, and they've constructed I mean, it's like they beat the NBA apron, like they have a cheat code.

They have more good players than everybody.

I mean, Peyton Richard dropping forty three, the hell's going on. No other team's got a guy like Peyton Pritchard gonna win sixth Man of the Year dropping forty three in the Stars out, So Holidays out, Porzingis is out, Tatum's out. They got two other guys that can go forty plus. So it's not a criticism. They're like the seventies team. They're not shacking Kobe, They're not Stephan kd. They're not MJ and Pippin. I mean, they're not even Duncan Parker and manob Menu Genobli. They are the greatest roster constructed team with the most depth arguably ever. If in the seventies, they would have been the team that won a second or a third title. But they're not beating Shaq and Kobe. They're not beating Mike lin Scotti or Katie and Steph. That's not what they are. And so I just thought it was great last night that I've been saying this on and on. You are trying to get me to put Tatum in this group with Jokic and Steph and KD and Lebron and the numbers due he didn't play. This is the best nineteen seventies basketball team on the planet. They just play in twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five, and I think they will beat Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals and that will be the NBA Finals. The two best teams are Cleveland and Boston. Cleveland is a load, but I think Boston. What they did last night is I don't think Cleveland can do that regularly. If Donovan Mitchell's out, it's not the same team. Tatum's out eight points better and so that don't confuse contextualization and hate. I love Tatum. He's one of those guys. He'd make every team in the league. He's a tremendous player. I think he's closer to like Klay Thompson. Now he's better than Klay Thompson. When Klay Thompson was the best two guard in the league, I had said at the time, he's the only player in the NBA you could put on every team and it wouldn't affect the team. It would just make him better. If you put Lebron, who's a better player than Klay Thompson, if you put Lebron on every single team, it would screw up some teams because he and his prime was the ecosystem for every offen. You could just put Klay Thompson on any team in the league and be like, yep, we got the best catch and shoot guy, best number two defender in the league. And so I think that's Jason Tate. I think Jason Tatum is actually closer to Clay and his prime than Steph and his prime. And I think, and you'd think that's a Clay Thompson's a Hall of Famer. Now, I think Tatum's better than Clay Thompson. But Clay fits everywhere. Tatum fits everywhere. But when Clay Thompson took the night off, Warriors were fine. Steph takes the night off sub five hundred, it's different. Joe Mizzoula on Derek White and Peyton Pritchard lighting up the world last night.

They were tremendous.

I mean, I think with guys out and playing against a really good Portland team, and we're gonna need to have guys step up. And the way those two players just shows a lot about who they are. You know, they do a lot of the dirty stuff when we're fully healthy, they do a lot of the things, and you know, for the team and to have a night like this where those two can show what they're capable of, it was big for us. So you know, we're looking to have him and it was a lot of fun to watch him do that.

By the way, before you bang on that Klay Thompson reference, Klay Thompson was a top five or six defender in the league and the best catch and show guy in the league. And it's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. So don't give me this. Jason Tatum is better than Clay Thompson.

He is.

Klay Thompson. His prime was unbelievable. It was husable.

That's I mean, when you get a nickname as a back court Splash Brothers when you're considered better than Jerry West and Gail Goodrich. Yeah, yeah, Klay Thompson was unbelievable in his prime. He can still drop twenty four in any given night. Okay, So this happened yesterday. Dk Metcalf wants to be traded. J Mack hit on this a year and a half ago, got even credit. He said, we're in a you heard a housing bubble, He said, We're at a wide receiver bubble. We're paying these guys too much, and it's really interesting.

So right now.

DK Metcalf is thirty one million dollars against the cap, and I know he's good, but I was thinking of this driving to work this morning. Jamar Chase wants forty million dollars a year. Jamar Chase played last year and with Joe Burrow they couldn't make the playoffs. Justin Jefferson's the best receiver in league history. Through five years, He's never won a playoff game. The Eagles won the Super Bowl. Jalen Hirsch threw for eighteen regular season touchdown passes. Until this Super Bowl. The Chiefs had dominated the league recycling wide receivers. The Bills got better without Stefan Diggs. The only time the Patriots and Brady had a great receiver like an all timer was Randy Moss. Didn't win a Super Bowl. The last three seasons, NFL touchdown wide receiver leaders have a single playoff win. So it's not that I don't like receivers, but I'm going to talk about something that never gets discussed. In fact, I've never seen this discust even online. I'm sure it has been what I like about wide receivers. Do they move the chains? Do they get first downs? Edelman with Brady, Amaran Saint Brown with Golf Puco with Stafford Kittled with Brock Purdy, Dallas Goddard with Philadelphia. They move the chains. I've said this about the deep threat receiver. He's the convertible sports car of the NFL.

Useless.

Flashy fun talked about useless December January. So Omaran Saint Brown has seventy three catches that resulted in first downs.

That's what I want.

Brock Bowers as a rookie tight end and the Raiders were bad at quarterback, had sixty one catches that resulted in first downs. DK Metcalf had thirty five and was also the most penalized receiver since he entered the league. So half the time because of tantrums, he's pulling you back to first and thirty or first and twenty. So it's not that I don't like him. But Jim Harbaugh's courer. Everybody's like DK Metcalf Argers. If you go look at Jim Harbaugh's career, he doesn't have dominant number one receivers. Jim Harbaugh has coached in six either conference championships in college or conference championships in the NFL. That's a lot six. Who's his dominant number one receiver. That's not who he is. So I don't think this is a fit to the Chargers. I really don't. They moved off Bosi yesterday. They're gonna draft an end rusher. I think of Hardbaugh. I think of toughness. I think of O line D line. I think of physicality, I think of risk taking. I don't think wide receiver. But it's not that I don't like DK Metcalf, but he is the most penalized receiver since he entered the league, and he doesn't get enough first downs. I like Goddard and Kittle and Puka, and who I really love is Amaran Saint Brown. Seventy three catches are first downs. I don't need four to two speed. That's awesome at the combine, I don't need it. When he was in his prime, Cooper Cup was a first down. You go to that Matt Stafford run to win the Super Bowl, Cooper Cup.

Was a first down. That's what I'm into.

Not forty million dollars a year, thirty one million dollar cap pits and really flashy and fast down the field.

End of the year.

I need to move the chains. I'm not getting sixty five yard rainbows, all right.

J Mac had a big piece of meat last night, steak house night.

Is it not settling well in your stomach? Is that why you're you.

Know, going after Jason Kato, best team of the NBA, defending champions, first Team Owl, NBA lock again.

And he's just just trashing him.

No, no, no, I'd like to say, once again, you didn't hear the compliment that the Boston Celtics are the nineteen seventies NBA. They're just better than all those teams. I go back to those Washington bullet teams, unselled Bobby Dandrich, Phil Scheneer, Kevin Greevy, Elvin Hayes.

They were outstanding.

The Sonics roster, the Blazers rosters, but they were all They had one really good player. Bill Walton was great before the injuries, but it was mostly roster construction, and then all of a sudden, Magic and Bird changed it.

Then we became the dynasty league.

People are in have a dynasty league, you have to have a superstar. Last night, Tatum's out. They're now ten and two without him. There is no other superstar in league history that leaves and the organization wins more. That's roster construction. The star is Brad Stevens and Nanny Inge. Those are the stars of the They even changed coaches, they literally changed coaches, no effect.

Yeah, I wonder how Tatum keeps getting selected First Team All NBA. Like, honestly, that means he's top two aitus position forward in the league in an arrow with Lebron and KD and like you know, Giannis and Luca something.

Something's giving him. Tatum a lot of props.

By the way, Klay Thompson made a lot of made a lot of lists.

He did.

Yeah, okay, he was who.

Was awesome and it's Prome two wi awesome great.

He was the best two guard, two way two guard in the league for eight years.

Number two, three or four? Yeah, well, I mean who was the second best the Wade he was when Wave kind of phased out and Clay took over for about seven years. He was the best guy in the league at his position. That fit everywhere. That's what Tatum is. Tatum is a great He can he can score, he can defend.

He's a good guy.

You know.

The other thing is stars at some point are are they just take the ball and say talk to the hand.

I mean, that's what they do that.

I think Tatum sometimes is too nice and it's a great quality as a human. It's not necessarily a great quality to be a basketball superstar.

Nice guys still finished last or is that like an anti thing?

No, that that's a nice guys do fine, do they? But but they're not as good as Shack you got. I think, well, I because sometimes you have to be selfish. Sometimes it's like, it's my ball, it's my team, Marcus Smart. Let's just know you gotta talk to him in the huddle. You will will not touch the ball for four minutes.

I need the ball. And by the way, that that's what you have to say. That's just what you have to But that's not what the Celtics are.

I mean, good God, Holiday, Tatum, porzingis out, Peyton Pritchard, he's good.

Man might be the second best contract in the league after Austin Reeves.

They got a couple of them. Celtics have them. Derek White, he was from about three years.

Man.

They got a great team.

No it is. It isn't all now. I would argue it's an all time The Celtics aren't good. It's an all time roster construction team. I mean the Heatles didn't have a center and a good point guard. They had three great players. Yeah, they were totally.

Lobsided minimum contracts everywhere.

I mean it was I mean the Lakers, it was Shaq Kobe. You know that's some d fish.

But there was holes. There are no holes on the Celtics. There are none.

They defend the rim, the perimeter, they can defend on ball. They have no blemishes. Tatum's gone.

They're ten and two.

That is an all time roster looking at right now in the NBA. All right, Diana Russini top of next hour, Chris Brusard stopping by as well. Oh I got, I got, I got more. Steph Curry Love more Steph Curry Love.

Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays and neonon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.

You're now entering the No Bull Zone sponsored by Credible Great rates none of the bull. By the way, somebody just sent me. A friend inside the company sent me a text about this Celtic. I'm calling the Celtics the greatest roster construction. I've ever seen the fact that Tatum, Drew Haliday and porsingis can be gone, and Derek White and Pritchard last night both drop over forty. It's in that's that nobody.

Could do that. Now the Pistons, somebody sent me this.

The all four Pistons that beat the Lakers similarly did not have a superstar, although it was Ben Wallace and Rashid Wallace and Chauncey Billups a Tayshawn Prince. I think the Celtics are a better version of that, a much better offense. That Rip Hamilton was on that team as well. I think this team's better. But I would say this Celtics, those Pistons, you know, the Sonics, the Blazers, the Washington Bullets. At the time, it's just incredible.

And the other thing is.

People say, well, how come he always makes all NBA? Remember the NBA came out with that sixty five game minimum to make awards. Tatum always plays sixty five games, you know, like like like sometimes, is.

Lebron going to do that? Is Ad gonna do that? Is Yanni's gonna do that?

Is is Luca going to do that? So Tatum's going to make the lists. That doesn't necessarily mean anybody thinks he's Jokic. But if you go look at Jokic, Stephan Giannis, and Lebron when they're off, the team is noticeably worse. This team's ten and two without Tatum and scores eight more points a game. It shows you how unbelievably historic the Celtics roster is. I mean, I think Cleveland could win the championship in almost any other year in the last seven or eight. I just don't think they'll get through Boston. So I know Celtic fans think this is hate. It's like, no, this is the greatest non superstar team ever. You just keep telling me Tatum's a superstar, and I'm just telling you he's a star. He and Jalen Brown are Tatum's better. It's close.

So I love this. The other day, Shack.

Came on after Steph went into the garden and uh, you know, rocked another one. Just a great night, and Shaq came on the air and giving the ultimate respect to Steph Curry.

I demand you, fans and start putting Steph Curry in that greatest of all time conversation. Just just start putting them in a conversation, the conversation and Bron start putting stuff in that conversation. I demand it.

Why does the Big Man Alliance need to say something?

Because I am the supreme leader in manvoyce comps and listen, I played against Mike, played with Kobe, played against Anew with Lebron. They're all great, but you go, at some point we're gonna have to put Steph Curry in that category.

I think the greatest compliment about Steph Curry that I could pay him is, I think you have to consider replacing Magic Johnson on the all time starting five. I'm not saying you do it, you gotta consider it. Now we all know Kareem, Lebron, and MJ those are etched in stone. Kareem most unstoppable shot, Michael the most relentless, greatest player, and Lebron the greatest Swiss Army knife. We can argue about forwards, Duncan bird whatever you want, but we have three etched in stone. I always thought it was four. I always thought Magic was etched in stone. But if you look one of the reasons that Lebron and you know it would wear well because Lebron would be good fifty years ago, good, ten years ago, good today, good twenty years ago. Lebron's everything.

I don't think.

Magic he would be great today, but I don't think his game ages as well. I think Larry Bird's game ages better than Magic's because of the three ball. I think Larry Bird today would be I mean, what would he be. He would be Luca. I mean he would be Luca in better shape. That would be Larry Bird. He would be unbelievable pastor unbelievable score, not a great defender, but he'd be Luke in better shape. You could't stop him. He'd score whatever you want. He would score forty points regularly. He could score fifty if you wanted to. Bird ages very well. Magic's not a shooter, and it's a shooters league. That's why I don't like the Houston Rockets in the playoffs. They can't shoot. I don't want to hear about their athletes. They can't shoot. And so but if you've never seen Steph play, he'd never seen him play. Here is think about this. This is how you would describe his game. He scores faster than any human being ever. Like remember when Reggie Miller got like eight points and nine seconds. That's Steph's entire career. He scores faster than anybody.

So he changed.

I mean, Magic Johnson may have saved the NBA, but Steph Curry revolutionized not only the NBA, international, high school, AU and college basketball. Here's Steve Kerr talking about his best player.

Steph is the most unique superstar of all time. The way he impacts the game is different. And so when you have these conversations about who's the greatest ever, you know, you automatically go to these uh you know his genetic marvels. You know Lebron and UH and Michael Jordan and you know Will chain On whoever else. Steph doesn't fit that normal mode. So I love that Shaq is bringing that up because from a skill standpoint, it's not even close. He's he is the greatest ever from a skill standpoint.

Yeah, And I just love that he's enduring and that he just he was sort of on a treadmill to nowhere. They gave him Jimmy Butler. He has just said I'm my average, I'm I'm gonna take I'm gonna take one more shot a game and average six and a half more points a game since Jimmy Butler, Rye. That tells you he just needed he needed a push, he needed a buddy to show off to, and he's back to be an all times starf of Jmack with the News.

All right, Colin, let's get started with the Dallas Cowboys. Everybody loves that we talk cowboys on this show. Of the new year is March twelfth, rapidly coming to that date, and last week Stephen Jones said the Cowboys will be selectively aggressive and trying to add free agents. Yesterday, Jerry Jones had a different description of their offseason plans.

I don't think aggressive is the right word.

I wouldn't call.

Us really void in any area void if you include what we're going to do in the draft, I wouldn't see that. So, as your question is addressing free agency, I'm not looking at free agency as a place to fill voids.

Well, I do think they're bad offensive line and run game, I do not think they're very good, But so that point I don't agree with. But I do think there's areas defensive line. They've got an interior guy they like in Micah Parsons. I think their secondary's got talent, but I mean at wide receiver they're a one trick pony and at running back they're dreadful. So I'm not saying free agency is the answer. And they reworked Dak's contract yesterday, so now they have some cap space.

Lam you know, they got fifty six point six million in caps.

I wouldn't look at a Chris Godwin if the number was right, a number two. I'm just throwing it out there. I think you could look at a number two. It's not a very good wide receiver class, and they have other needs before that.

Yeah, they got a lot of Cowboys have a lot of questions. I like how they phrased this here in the note.

Is it clear that the Cowboys have become an unseerious franchise?

This staff loves needling the Cowboys.

All right, go to the next story. Another crappy team in the NFC East, the New York Giants. Joe Shane and the Giants have promised to look under every rock to find a quarterback. They tried hard with Matt Stafford, came up empty, and now there reports that the Giants are the front runner to trade up for the number.

One pick, all eyes on cam Ward.

According to multiple NFL executives, they want to steal cam Ward from Tennessee.

Okay, so it's interesting.

So the Giants are at three, Tennessee's at one in a bad draft, how much do you give up to go from three to one? Because if this story is out there, somebody's leaking it.

One, two, maybe more, I don't know.

The problem is, so you give up next year? One in this year too? Probably? I think it's more than that. What they're telling you is they think there's a gap between cam warden Shaduur, which most people do.

Yeah, well, and that's the game.

That's the game we play, right, Hey man, Schadour, nobody wants hi he's dropping her twenty nine.

Yeah, but cam is a better athlete with a bigger arm. That's that's indisputable. Cam has got better traits, that's not even arguable. Doesn't mean it'll be a better NFL quarterback? Where do they land? But I'm asking if you're the Giant, if I run the Giants right now, and I look at it, and I think, listen, cam. We think cam is an A prospect and Chaudors beat at B minus, which a lot of people do. I would say Cam's a lower, He's an A. I seem more as a B plus guy and should or as a BE guy.

I think he'll be better than bo Nicks. I think maybe better than JJ McCarthy. Maybe I don't know that you could be Carthy has as Kevin o'clea.

So if you're the Giants and you get cam Ward in my takeaway is you're only going from three to one, you obviously have to give up next year's number one pick. The question is do I go, Okay, I'll give you, I'll give Tennessee, I'll give you Kevon Thibadeau and this year's two.

So Colin, I'll just point to the Bryce Young trade as be careful trading up. Okay, Carolina didn't have a great roster to begin with, gave up DJ Moore. They had nothing. They've been total garbage since then. The Giants don't have a good roster. Do they They got a couple of good defenders. Offensively, they're challenged.

On the line.

Now the Jet neighbors and nobody. The Jets are a bad team with a good roster. The Giants are a bad team with a bad roster.

Could trade up right and still have some some good players. I don't think the Giants have enough good players to trade up. They would be then in the Carolina spot.

No, I think you may a good argument.

I do.

I get Aaron Rodgers instead, Like, what are your choices?

Straight up from?

I mean, that's why they went, you know, they went after Stafford. It's like it's funny. I don't think Vegas is going to be very good, but I think they've got things I really like going forward. I don't know what the Giants do. I don't trust the GM.

They don't have a quarterback Russell Wilson.

Does that do anything for you? Come on, is he the fourth best quarterback in that division?

Then?

Yeah, Jaden hurts.

Jack, Yeah, probably not great at all. Speaking of quarterbacks, let's go to round it out here, Colin. The Raiders are in the hunt. And we said yesterday Max Crosby was hot for Aaron Rodgers.

I laughed at that. Raiders fans are murdering me online. They're angry.

However, However, Diana Russini says the Raiders are not interested in Aaron Rodgers, and the Raiders are looking at Russell Wilson and Sam Darnold. Diana, I think it's coming on the show later. I don't know if I buy Russell Wilson reuniting with Peakle.

I don't either.

I think I think teams like Darnald they'd love two to three years, and Sam's agent probably wants four.

I think Sam Sam would take two years with the Viking. Yeah, with the Viking.

But I don't think Sam's going to leave the Vikings if you're only going to give him two to three. So I think the Vikings could get a team friendly deal because he loves the coach, he loves Justin Jefferson, he likes the city. Sam's not a flashy guy. Minneapolis is great for Sam. He loves everybody. Okay, I'll sign for two team friendly deal in Minnesota to stay.

I don't have to learn a new system.

Or pay me big Tiders.

If you want me in Vegas, if you want me in some other area, I want four. I'll give you decent numbers, but I want four. And that's what I would do if I was Sam, I'll take two in Minnesota. Well run, great coach, great weapons, nice ownership, a division he's familiar with, but I would leave. But if I'm going to go to a Raiders, you got to give me four.

Doesn't it feel like the Raiders are possibly sol here just they're gonna get stuck with maybe Kirk Cousins, the corpse of Kirk Cousins.

Hey, come on down, Kirk. We got nothing else like justin field. Sounds like he's staying in a Pittsburgh. We'll get to that later. I don't think anybody's very excited for Rogers, or.

I'm surprised more people aren't excited for Donald I really am. I mean, Steve Kahin was on yesterday.

I mean he's been in the league for what like six seven years, and he had one really, really outlier of a year.

No question.

I'm not saying again I've said he deserves a Baker contract. I don't even think you could argue he didn't even deserve a Daniel Jones deal at forty forty two. Well that was but I mean again, I'm a Sam Darnold advocate. I've always thought he's a great athlete with a big arm, mobile he checks a lot of boxes. But Gino Smith also checks a lot of boxes too. He's Biggie moves, he's got a nice arm. So there are guys like a Gino or a Donald that check a lot of trades, but they throw too many picks.

And I don't love him. I situationally like him, all right.

J mckle the news, you're hearing a lot about trades, and there's a lot of people work in trades. Some of that is because it's not a good free agent class. Us more criticism of Shador Sanders. You know, I saw something yesterday that happened. It was like a blizzard. It happened boom boom, boom boom boom with three high end star players in the NFL. Not superstars, but star players. And it speaks to why we love the NFL and why baseball, but more significantly, the NBA can sometimes be.

A hard follow. Talk about that next.

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One Diana Russini, top of the hour.

So I saw this, Yes, they made me think. Is you know my show has always been kind of the same for about six and a half months. It is heavy NFL and some college football and some playoff baseball. September, October, November, December, January into February, take a couple of weeks off, come back, get into NBA March Madness Free agency Draft, then back into NBA and take.

The summer off.

All right, we all know the drill, but I do like the NBA, and people sometimes poo poo the NBA. You know where it's popular, LA, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, big cities. College football is big in smaller markets. Irrelevant New York, Boston, Philadelphia. Not sure how relevant it is in LA sometimes, but I do think and I'm an NBA fan since in the seventies. I love the games. I watched the games. I spend a lot of time consuming it and talking about it. But there is something about the NFL which is really great, and it's not necessarily great for the athletes. But football players are employees. Okay, they shouldn't run the league. Cooper Cup I saw a story this morning. The least likely outcome, according to the GM of the Rams is him being a Ram. Joey Bosa Chargers released, Davante Adams, Jets released. I'm not happy for that. They'll find markets, they'll find teams. But in the NFL, you do not get trapped outside of Cleveland. Nobody guarantees stuff.

Right.

You get some money up front, sometimes a lot of money up front, but you can get out of Everybody in the NFL is a sail boat. You have a turning radius, you can escape. Nobody's an aircraft carrier. It's the opposite in the NBA. I mean the Bradley Beal contract, Paul George contract, Joe Lmbeid contract. You can't move those things. Help Zach Levine and Trey Young very good players. They had no market this summer. You can't move off those contracts, and those are good players. The NFL secret weapon, there's no quicksand I mean think about this, think about the.

Eagles and Rams. This shows you the viability of the NFL.

So the Eagles and Rams use up all sorts of draft capital to get a Carson Wentz or a Jared Goff and then not only do they get them, they pay them top of the market, and then after a while they move off them. They're still paying them and they're not there, and they both won a Super Bowl right after that. Rams won a Super Bowl paying Golf and Stafford. Because the draft provides you so many good players ready to play, not eighteen nineteen year olds that take you know, it takes years and years and years for Jannis to develop or you know, a Zion to get it going right.

Like it's just a different league. But in the NBA, when you go all in, you get punished.

And I don't love that. I really don't have. I told Adam Silber this, I like trades. I think the NBA has always been afraid of things that don't exist.

Ooh, major trades.

I just I told Adam Silber this a month ago on the show, You should have more trades. Lucan to the Lakers, Jimmy Butler to the Warriors saved this NBA season. The ratings were in the tank. It saved the season. More fans love trades. Now, fans didn't love Katie going to the Warriors. That felt like unfair, but Luca and Jimmy Butler going to Biable Superstars felt great.

The ratings are up so like.

But in the NBA the Suns go all in on Kad and Bradley Beal and now it's a mess. I mean, they're a disaster that didn't happen. You can go from a laughing stock to the NFC championship if you get the coach, the quarterback, and the GM right Washington, and I think that is so powerful. In fact, last year the guys looked it up. The Broncos, the Bills, the Eagles, and the Packers led the league in dead dead cap money.

They all made the playoffs. They all made the playoffs. So I mean, think about this.

San Francisco got super aggressive and went after Trey Lance.

I mean they gave up all sorts of draft capital.

They they still went to the NFC Championship that year, and I think two years later went to the Super Bowl. So I like a league that doesn't punish executives for taking chances, making moves, and sometimes they're wrong. My buddy Steve Kyin went out to dinner with him last night. He drafted Josh Rosen. The next year, he goes, I made a mistake. He drafts Kyler Murray. Oh, suddenly they're a better team. And I think sometimes to protect the NBA player, you hurt the owner, you hurt the GM, you hurt the fans. You just don't get trapped. The worst NFL teams. I mean, like we were talking about this this morning, Tennessee is a team right now. You don't love the roster, you don't love the quarterback situation. We don't know if the coach can coach. You don't know if they get cam Ward. Would you be shocked if they won their division?

I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I think they have good enough, good enough line play that make it work.

So I think that's always been a little bit of the secret sauce is that you can move off of Bosa contract or a Cooper contract or a Davonte contract. You may still have to sometimes pay for a Cooper Cup contract. It doesn't punish you. I don't like industries that punish people punitively for taking swings, because you know who benefits when you take. The Lakers are a great example. Westbrook move did not work, ad move, did Luca move great? But the Lakers have always been willing to take swings. JJ Reddick move I mean Lakers they have been. I mean they take massive moves. Some work, some have been a disaster. Don't punish them, don't make them awful because an executive rolls to dice. I always think fans win with risk. You get in trouble when you're Cleveland and you guarantee a contract. That's why after they sign that, everybody summarily ripped the Browns.

What are you doing? This is not the NBA or baseball. Don't do that.

Here's another thing, J Mac, I'm gonna throw at hip. So sometimes cultures just change. I'll give you an example.

Wine.

Remember the movie Sideways. It kind of romanticized the wine industry. So when I you know, when I was younger, you had some wine makers, maybe Gallo or something like that, and all of a sudden, they started making movies and wine got very romantic, and I swear to God, every rich guy in America. So with some extra lettuce bought a vineyard, had a wine. And then what happened in the wine industry. And without getting too much into my personal life, I have a connection to it, to a couple of things.

Wine.

Now you have too much wine and not enough wine drinkers. Wine's not a good business. It's oversaturated. For twenty five years, Hollywood romanticized wine, celebrities and wine. Everybody bought a vineyard that had money, everybody.

It was romantic. Now you got too much wine.

Young people are drinking canned cocktails, which I don't like at all, but they young people drink that. Young people are drinking less and doing more cannabis. So between cannabis sales, young people moving to canned cocktails, and people in society all these like a zet bound and ozempic, they don't mix with alcohol. So that's become a cultural change. So you got the cannabis, you got the the zet bound and the ozempic which do not react well to alcohol, and you got all the canned cocktails. The wine industry is not a good industry, and so things change. You could own wine stores, you could own a vineyard, you could be a brilliant business person.

You just lost thirty seven percent of your market. There's nothing you can do.

And that's why, you know, they always say in business, strike when the iron's hot. You don't know what's going to happen. So you know, I was thinking about this Wishador Sanders he's getting I just saw another story today from the athletic Well, not because of the kid, but because of his dad, Don the social media stuff. It's about him, not the team that could turn people off, and it does remind me a little bit of the wine industry. Bill Parcells used to famously say, do not draft the celebrity quarterback, and Bill was right. But now it's not about if you're going to be a celebrity quarterback when you draft them, it's how are you going to deal with being a celebrity quarterback because they're all celebrities. Lamar Burrough, Josh, I mean, Herbert's done as good a job as you can do in La hiding from celebrity. But they're all celebrities. Between Nil, your dad's Dion Sanders, the quarterback positions never meant more. You know it's it used to be that bookstores were all the rage. Right Well now contents digitized, so bookstores aren't the rage. Doesn't mean you didn't know what you were doing. You may have run a great bookstore. So I think this thing, I think gms have to lighten up. I think NFL draft specialists, draft directors and NFL gms, what twenty one, twenty two year old that suddenly gets wealthy is going to be? Is going to handle that celebrity perfectly?

Nobody?

It's just not possible to ask a twenty one year old. I mean when people banged on Caleb Williams. My knock on Caleb Williams is his accuracy is hit and miss and sometimes a bit too reliant on making a huge play. And I think Mahomes did a lot of that early, but he was more accurate. I defended Caleb Williams to the end, on the fingernails, on the jumping in the stands with his mom. I never thought I talked to him three or four times, never thought he had an ego. Last time I saw Caleb Williams, he got out of his seat walk thirty feet to me, I've never seen the ego. He's a confident kid. But I think we're nitpicking all these quarterbacks. Well they're a little brash. If you were twenty one years old, your dad was a superstar and you made seven million last year, you're confident. Sorry that you don't bow down to Cleveland when they interview you. So I think yet, like like Bobby Knight's career, he would not embrace the one and done coach Kryzewski did kept winning titles. A lot of people don't like the NIL dabol Swingey. I don't like the NAL. It's hurt the program. And I like Dabbo and I like Clemson, but it's hurt the program. See you just sometimes I don't care if it's wine, bookstores or the NIL. These kids are coming out now millionaires, especially the quarterbacks, so I don't I don't think Shador has been perfect. There have been a few tweets I don't love, but we got to lighten up a little bit on these kids. This is a whole new ballgame we're dealing with, and they're coming out millionaires and they got leverage now too. Diana Russini, Chris Brussard first hour flew by

The Herd with Colin Cowherd

The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a thought-provoking, opinionated, and topic-driven journey through th 
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