The Herd with Colin CowherdColin discusses what he feels the Super Bowl will be like this Sunday
Thoughts on the Lakers latest trade after getting Luka Doncic
The Browns will never draft another defensive player as good as Myles Garrett
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Welcome into the Crescent City Live in New Orleans, a perfect setting for a Super Bowl for the ages. Jamac to my side, our guest list filling up. We are in New Orleans and this is The Herd. We have a great show, and we're gonna be here in New Orleans for a couple of days and we're gonna make it and we're gonna make it count. Jmac. Now, I was gonna lead with the Lakers, who made another move last night. For the last time I did a show that led with the Lakers, things got really fuzzy, really, So I'm gonna make that the second story. I'm a little superstitious on that. What I want to lead with is this. I thought about this last night. What is this super Bowl gonna look like? And you know what I think it is, And I think it's a pretty good comp This is gonna be the New England Seahawks Super Bowl. Remember that the Seahawks, like the Eagles, had the stacked roster. In fact, when people talk about Philadelphia's roster, they say it's the best since Seattle. You talked to Tom Brady about that Seahawks roster. I've talked to him on this show, and he's like, there were no weaknesses. Everybody was great. Safeties, corners, edge rushers, defensive tackles, there were no weaknesses. There were no flaws. That's Philadelphia. But the quarterback Russell Wilson, Jalen Hurts a little small mobile. Is he an old timer?
No?
New England is Kansas City iconic coach, maybe the greatest quarterback of all time, second best roster. But they always win close games. Anytime a game is close, any time it could go either way, anytime it's a big third down, it was Brady and the Patriot. It's Mahomes in Kansas City to win that game. And I want to talk about this because I think this is gonna be a chess match, and I think one of the chess matches is gonna be between Mahomes and Vic Fangio. The defensive coordinator for Philadelphia, who, by the way, Mahomes is eight and zero. Again, every quarterback in the league struggles with Vic Fangio, except maybe Josh Allen and accept maybe Patrick Mahomes. And I do think we have to consider this, and I don't think this is hyperbolic. If Patrick Mahomes wins and the first team, now the Packers did it, but the first team in what we consider modern football to win three in a row. He is the NFL's MJ. And I think there are real similarities MJ six for six in the finals six MVPs, but we saw as struggles and I'll get to that in a second. Mahomes is almost relentless like MJ. He didn't look great in the regular seas He's and Michael had off nights, but they both kind of shift gears. And what I've always noticed about Mahomes much like Michael, they're not burdened with pressure. It's almost like they get bored in the regular season, and Michael would put his arms around these moments like, Okay, this stuff counts. It was Tiger in his prime. Oh or finally the Sunday Final nine holes. That's Mahomes the way he shrinks Lamar Jackson, an all time great. The way he shrinks Josh Allen, maybe the most physically gifted quarterback since Marino or Lway makes me think Mahomes sometimes like MJ is bored with a regular season. He's that gifted. And when I watched the mjy and I remember this well, sitting on a couch watching the Suns Bulls final and Barkley was amazing. But he made Barkley look okay. And MJ wasn't the best shooter. He wasn't the biggest player, he wasn't the strongest player, he wasn't the best ball handler, none of that stuff, none of it with Michael. But he was six foot six of relentless. Mahomes isn't as big as Allen. He doesn't move like Jackson, he doesn't have the best arm, although he throws kind of quirky side arm. But there's just something about him. There's an it, and it's why. Remember now, Michael wasn't a number one pick. Mahomes wasn't a number one pick. That was Lebron. Lebron was on the cover of Sports Illustrated at sixteen. Lebron was the prodigy Lebron was the overwhelming number one pick. But that's not the way it was with Michael and Mahomes. Mahomes had a losing record in the Big Twelve. There's one year he led the conference in interceptions. I saw him play one college game that I remember. He was really skinny wild. It was a shootout, like all Big Twelve games, and I thought, that doesn't translate to the NFL. He's out of control. And people forget this about MJ. It's as if the archives of MJ losing have been lost. They went Bermuda Triangle? Where did they go? Nobody knows? Michael Jordan won. Is a freshman. You saw the movie Air, he hits the big shot. Remember that? Do you realize that Michael stayed in college for two more years and didn't win a title. In fact, there is a ten year gap. If you ever want to come down to the Bourbon Street and when a free cocktail and oysters bet people this from his title as a freshman at UNC to his first NBA championship, Michael Jordan had a Grand Canyon size ten year gap before he won a title. And it's like there's no footage of it. It's like the tape disappeared. So I watched Michael get beat up by the Celtics and the Pistons. I watched Mahomes be wild lead the Big twelve interceptions and because of that, they're not prodigies. They weren't on the cover, they weren't Bryce Harper, they weren't Tiger Woods. Because of that, I've watched them stumble, get beaten up, get tackled by the Pistons, and the Celtics get rolled by Oklahoma, and I think it makes them incredibly likable. But I do think this is going to look like New England Brady with a little less talent around him, though good with an iconic coach against a stacked roster and a very good coach Pete Carroll and a very good quarterback in his prime, Russell Wilson. And my guess is it ends the same way with the iconic all time quarterback on one play late winning the game. And here's Mahomes talking about the matchup with Big Fangio.
Every time I've played Coach Fangio, there's been different changeups and different things that he's thrown at us. And that's what makes him so great is he's not gonna just do exactly what you saw the last time. And so I'm sure there'll be Blitzer in the game. I'm sure there'll be times that they play coverage. It's gonna be a chess match, and you want to go up against the best, and he's one of the best defensive coordinators in the the NFL, and it'll be a great challenge for us as an offense and as a football team.
Okay, now I'll talk Lakers. Take a deep breath. I'll be fine. So the Lakers made a couple of moves, but they made another one last night to get a really talented kid that I didn't watch him in the NBA, just highlights, but I saw him at Duke named Mark Williams. Big athletic shot blocker, more defense than offense, has a nice little soft touch around the rim. That's what the Lakers needed. That's what the Lakers acquired twenty three years old, great future, and the Warriors got Jimmy Butler. Get to that in a second. But I don't know if the Laker or Warrior moves make them championship teams. Feels more possible with the Lakers, but the new CBA in twenty twenty three put up this wall of fear, and a lot of teams didn't want to make moves. But who did? Last year the Celtics drew Holliday and Porzingis and the MAVs with Gafford and they went out and got PJ. Washington and who ended up in the finals the MAVs and the Celtics. So this year trading deadline, if you're not making moves, you feel like you're not progressive, you're not competitive, you're asleep at the wheel. I mean, Rob Polenka, let's be honest about this, got himself a five year new deal, getting Luca without giving up Aufton Reeves or a second number one pick and getting Mark Williams and again not giving up Austin Reeves. And I don't know long term what Austin Reeves is gonna provide with Luca and Lebron James, but I know this. Dallas was twenty nine and twenty three last year at the trading deadline and then went twenty one to nine and ended up in the finals. So everybody was really really with a new CBA, a little self conscious, a little rigid, a little fearful on making big moves. MAVs Celtics did and were rewarded, and I think the Lakers and the Warriors did and will be rewarded. I think between Luca Austin Reeves, a rim protector, the Lakers and Luca, I think I think they went from old to young athletic. They're still not great as a perimeter defensive team. They probably need another three point shooter, but the Lakers have literally changed the feel and the reality of their roster, old to young and more dynamic. And that's a real thing in Los Angeles now. In terms of Jimmy Butler to the Warriors, I say this, I think a month ago on the air, I said, they got to make a move. If Steph's not on the floor, they're boring. And the one thing with the Warriors, you didn't have to love them. They were never boring. And it's like, he needs a number two star and he got it. And yes, they gave up Andrew Wiggins. They've been looking to move him for years. Yeah they move, but you know what they keep kaminga They got Draymond, it's Steph, it's Jimmy Butler. Now, I don't know if this takes them to a new level. But the NBA's television ratings for the last three years have had a interesting problem. And this solves the interesting problem for the Warriors and the Lakers, who, by the way, every time they play on Christmas, every time Steph and Lebron play, it's the highest rated game in the regular season, and it was this year so far, and now they both got more interesting. And whereas you know, the NBA is doing a lot of things right, but it's getting more European. It's less reliant on familiar college basketball players. So it does matter where the players play in La New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco. It matters. That's why baseball ratings Dodgers, great, Yankees, great Met's interesting, Bryce Harper, Philly's good. In the NFL, it doesn't matter. Buffalo could face Tampa Bay in the Super Bowl. You get a number baseball. In the NBA, there can be interesting problems, so you need the right stars to end up in the right places. So I look at this. I am much more interested in the NBA today than I was three days ago. That's all I know. I cannot wait to watch Jimmy Butler, Stephen Draymond and I Luca, Mark Williams, Lebron Austin Reeves. I don't know that feels like a team that can get to the finals. Mark Williams is one of those guys. He's young, he's had injuries, but when he's on the floor, and I saw him at Duke. Not a lot of NBA knowledge, but I saw him at Duke, and he is a force. He is an athletic force. So j Mack, here we are. Matt Hasselbeck's gonna be on set in twenty minutes. Drew Brees, Mark Sanchez. I will do what I always do for the biggest games of the year. I take out my yellow pad and I rate all the players, Chiefs and Eagles. Who's got the more play Generally, whoever's got the more good players wins. I will tell you it is tough. There are there are sixteen guys. I'll just tell you right now, Travis Kelsey didn't make it.
That's not that out of a take.
Come on, not top ten in this game.
He's pretty good.
By the way, you see money coming in on the Eagles here. Line's coming down a little bit. Probably gonnahead toward pick.
Them this weekend, all right, well, people make mistakes all the time.
They do not, they do not the public state at the Crescent city of Bourbon Street, beautiful place. This place is called Mason Bourbon It's a it's a jazz home, which, as you know in New Orleans, is something that's your special. Coming up next among our other thoughts is there is a secret sauce and a familiarity with the Eagles and Chiefs that isn't getting discussed much. We'll talk about that next.
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App down of the bull were of the present city in New Orleans on Bourbon Street. So the great philosophers and quotable philosophers of our time or any generation. There's Shakespeare, there's Aristotle, and of course Tony Soprano, and that Tony Soprano says one time, remember when is the lowest form of communication? Or in other words, look through the windshield, not the rear view mirror, remember when I gotta be honest. There's a lot of talk about Brady and mahomes goat talk. I think it's due I think football, in my life has always been the one sport that is constantly changing. There's an old saying in sports. The NBA thinks of it, Baseball makes the most money from it, and football gets it right. They tweak, they change, they alter even during games during the playoffs, they'll change a rule to make it better for the fans. You cannot compare Brady and Patrick Mahomes. You can't compare them. I mean, Brady had a defensive conservative coach who could not draft wide receivers. Mahomes has the greatest offensive coach, maybe next to Bill Walsh, ever, and he has a surplus of almost everything. Now, they had to get rid of one wide receiver. But they always find talent, they always find creative play design. They're different players in different eras. You go back to when Brady broke into the league. What you could do to wide receivers, Jammingham, what you could do to quarterback, how you could hit people upstairs. None of that's allowed. That gets you thrown out of games. Now, that is not a knock at Mahomes. It is the reality of a sport that is constantly fluctuating and constantly changing. It's different. Bob Gibson, the great Saint Louis Cardinal pitcher. He would get people out if he was pitching today. So it's Sandy Kofax, it's pitcher against hitter. You can make changes to the rules that goofy, defensive shift that was implemented then retracted, and some stuff changes like analytics where now ground balls or troubles strikeouts are okay. They talk long jangle and stuff. Nobody really outside of baseball cares about. Football is just changing all the time. Overtime rules, regulation rules, the kickoff is different, the pat is different, and you can't do nearly what you can do as a defender that you could do twenty years ago when Tom Brady broke into this league. Stylistically, they're two different players, Mahomes and Brady. The coaching is different. And I think, to me, all the great quarterbacks in my life, you can go to Bradshaw to Stabler, to Aipman, to Marino, to Elway, to Mahomes to Brady, like all of them. I feel like the all time great to have two things in common. Franchise stability, Like he kind of had the same people in the building mostly for a long time, and you had a really strong coach. It could be Chuck Knowle, it could be a Madden, a Belichick, and Andy Reid, Shula Shanahan. That's it. A strong coach who in his era is among the top two or three, and stability in the organization. So comparing Brady and Mahomes, it's a little bit like comparing currency to cryptocurrency, Like I know you can pay for stuff with both, but one I don't know what to do with and the other I know exactly what to do with. And Mahomes is just entering as prime. I don't know what it's going to become. And I think, I mean, the Goat talk to me. Are we just filling content? Are we filling sections? Are we filling space? It's like in college football when a writer's in October early October talking Heisman talk about the games. Nobody cares about an award that's regional at best. Here's Mahomes on the Goat talks.
I'm trying to be the greatest patron of Homes that I can be. I mean, that's obviously a goal of anyone's is to be the greatest of their profession. But in order to do that, you thin be the greatest that you can be every single day, and if that's on the field and not the work ethic got put in or off the field, and the father and then the husband, and I am I'm gonna try to be the greatest in that way. And whenever I'm done with the football, and if I leave everything out there the way that I feel like I have so far as far as effort and mentality, I'll be happy with the results and I'll let others talk about who the greatest is of whatever profession.
That is, all right, don't forget thirty five minutes from now, I'm gonna give you the top ten players. I do this for every championship, the biggest games of the year. I'll give you who I think are the ten best players in order. Yeah, Mahomes is probably number one. And here's j Mack with the news.
Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.
Probably number one.
All right, super Bowl is upon us Colin Eagles hoping to kind of turn the tables. After that Super Bowl fifty seven loss, Jalen Hurts was asked about how that defeat impacted him.
Here's what he had to say.
I'm not so much, you know, it's it's the same as any other game. And you know, I think the moments are the moments by how some of the you know, every game has his lessons good, better and different.
So he's been able to.
Become wiser, grow and mature and take all these lessons in for the next season and the next game.
So Hurts was spectacular in the last Super Bowl. Three hundred and four yards passing, seventy on the ground, four touchdowns. He did have a phone in the pocket that Bolton scooped up and scored on. The kind of got the Chiefs reinvigorated. What's your vibe on Hurtz, who's had an up and down season.
Remember they kind of rained him in early.
There are splits that are really interesting. When he has time to throw, he is spectacular. When he's pressured, he is below average, like near the bottom of the league. So it's pretty clear what the game plan is for Kansas City Spags in the second, third, and fourth quarters. Kansas City is a top five pressurizing team. I think you're gonna see a lot of blitzes, a lot of pressure. I think what Kansas City doesn't want to happen is Philadelphia's dominant O line in run game, puts Patrick Mahomes on the sideline as a spectator for three and a half hours. So I think Spags is gonna take big risks and say, you know what, Jalen beat us over the top. We're gonna put Trent McDuffie on AJ Brown. We feel good about it. Beat us in big plays. What we're not gonna let you do is have nine minute drives and we get out of rhythm offensively and we can't stop you defensive.
Interesting, you know, I actually have a Hurts ticket to win MVP of the super Bowl simply because of that strategy.
I think he's gonna be blitzed, and.
I think Hurts is going to deliver. I believe in him. I know he's had his ups and downs. I don't think this Chiefs.
Defense is as good as everybody's making it out to become.
They cannot stop the run.
Well, they're they're not as good as last year. And again, once you pay a quarterback what Mahomes makes, you have to make choices. Remember they got rid of Snead yep. But but I will say this Spags his defense like Mahomes in big games, they tend to ratchet it up a little bit. He's a little more exotic with his blitzes. They take more chances. I mean, I don't know what Philadelphia's game plan is, but I feel like Kansas City has a way to win, and that is to make Jalen Hurts uncomfortable. You can't blitz Mahomes, so that doesn't work with them. What you want to do, and Jalen Carter is sick and he's not going to be one hundred percent potentially hopefull.
He doesn't have what you had yet, well, yeah, would not be good.
He's a little stronger if he does get it. But I think what pressurizing Mahomes only works if it comes on a four man rush man. If you start adding extra people, it's like Brady and his product just he'll eat you a lot so you can bletch hurt and he regresses. You can't do that with Mahomes. It's a different level player.
All right, Let's move on to another quarterback who you like. That's Justin Herbert. Phenomenal regular season, got his team to the playoffs, but he was not spectacular.
Actually, he was terrible in the loss to Houston.
Had four interceptions, barely through any all season, but then imploded in the playoff game. Herbert's now zero to two in the postseason, and of course you got meat balls all over the internet of criticizing him. Here's Derwin James clapping back at the haters.
Can we please start trying number ten? Man, I'll stop disrespecting him, bro, I promise you, like, I can't wait for y'all to see man like this next season, when I know what we're gonna do, what we do for y'all really get to see the real team. Man, I know how are you work? No, I would ready. I know what a quarterback, bro? You played against him? You know how good of a player is?
Guys? Kind of what Derwin James here? Right? Yeah? I think I think Justin Herbert has a little bit of a Lamar Jackson issue. Is we know you're super talented, we know you're worth a lot of money. We know you're a top seven to eight guy, we know you're a franchise quarterback. But this is not baseball where stats are king, and it's not basketball where aesthetics and optics matter. Right, Carmelo, you don't hold it against him. He didn't win a lot, but he was a great scorer. This is pro football. But if you don't win in January, then we look at you differently. I mean, Dan Marino maybe the most towned quarterback ever. I mean seriously that good. Dan Marino went to a Super Bowl and you're true, never got back and it's absolutely held against him. If John Elway at the very end of his career didn't win Super Bowls. I mean I grew up with Elway. He was getting blasted in playoff games. He was getting blasted in Super Bowl before Terrell Davis. So it does matter in this sport. I mean, Barry Bonds did not have a lot of postseason success. It doesn't matter. We talk about some steroids, but we don't Ken Griffy He's still the natural. But football is different. You have to win in January.
Yeah, this whole member.
Peyton Manning struggled his first I believe, four years in the league, couldn't win a playoff game. Can you imagine what social media would have done to Peyton Manning, who's one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
Final story, Colin is the Packers.
This is a little spicy.
They brought in Josh Jacobs to.
Give Jordan Love a weapon in the run game of Jacobs, who was awesome thirteen hundred yards fifteen touchdowns. Jacobs, though, is now offering a request for the Packers front office.
Obviously we got a really yard group of tay re severs. All can be really, really really specially enough.
But I think personally we need to die as proved mun be a number one already, so somebody that's gone and that we know is gonna be a little bit more consistent that maybe played hard before.
Would be coming at the right.
The slot.
I don't know about it completely, absolutely dis Yeah, I'm with you.
This is players. Players love wide receivers because they're fun, they're athletic, they're the most interesting players on the field personality wise. There's an argument Kansas City is better without Tyreek Hill, Buffalo's better without Stefan Diggs. Dak Prescott got better without Des Bryant. And my take is the let you you do, not what you need is sub weapon. It can be Saquon Barkley, it can be Travis Kelsey Grom.
You need a.
Dependable weapon, and it can be anything. It can be Christian McCaffrey. I think Saquon Barkley is the weapon. I mean, AJ Brown is reading on the sidelines like he's Devontae Smith has disappeared. I think wide receivers have a purpose, but these games late and once again running backs, everybody said it was going away wide receivers as the weather gets cold, and all these northern teams that play outdoors do not have the post season value of Josh Jacobs to the Packers. Josh Jacobs actually changed green Bay more this year. Derrick Henry to the Ravens, changed them more than his A Flowers would do. So I this is how players view it. But that's why players are not GM's I don't think I think the green Bay receivers are more than adequate.
They got Dobbs, Read Watson, Wicks, a.
Good group, one of the deepest groups in the league.
Jacobs has been in Green Bay for a year. How's this going to go over in the locker room? Dude, you just showed up. I know you're renting a house we bought.
We've been here, we were drafted by the teeth.
This is not good news.
Yeah, yeah, totally disagree with that. Take Jmack with the news.
Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the herd Line News.
In fact, let me tell you what green Bay needs. So because the Deshaun Watson situation in Cleveland's such a mess, and because ownership's been chaotic, Miles Garrett is now available on the market. Miles Garrett's like, I don't want to be a Cleveland Brown And by the way, they had some success with him, just not last year. So Miles Garrett is a once. The Cleveland Browns will never draft another pass rusher as good as Miles Garrett, and the Giants will never have another LT And that's just the reality of it. Miles Garrett, to me, is one of six, maybe five defensive players in the league. Max Crosby's probably one that I would pay for, Chris Jones of Kansas City is one. I think. Jalen Carter is probably one. I would just open the checkbook. I don't care what he costs. There are two teams that need to go make aggressive runs at Miles Garrett, the Buffalo Bills and the Green Bay Packers. So let's think about Buffalo with a good defense and Sean McDermott. I've watched this thing over and over with Mahomes. You can't stop him. He's dropping thirty five plus. It doesn't work. You have a defensive coach Josh Allen in the defensive culture, you can't stop Mahomes. You're not gonna find him in the draft. There's nobody sniffing Miles Garrett in this draft. There's nobody close to us. Guy. There's about six six to eight first round players that scouts think are really, really elite. It is a very watered down mostly second and third and fourth round picks. Go get in Green Bay. You're facing the best offensive line arguably in football in Detroit, and if you get past them, the next great offensive line is Philadelphia. The only way to beat of Philadelphia or Detroit with those old lines if you're Green Bay, because Jordan Love is gonna make mistakes, is an unblockable rush in And so I look at Buffalo and I look at Green Bay. Guys, I'm look at what you're surrounded by. You're not beating Mahomes unless you buy a disruptor. And you're not getting through Detroit and Philadelphia's old lines with Green Bay's current pass rush. And because Buffalo and Green Bay are the two smallest markets, you know, the media is more supportive. That doesn't mean it doesn't have any bite. But the Buffalo media and the Green Bay media, it's a little bit like New Orleans. They're kind of on your side a little bit. If the New York Giants are the Jets, for instance, New York teams with an angry, loud New York media, if they were this far from the Super Bowl, radio stations, newspapers, the media and fans in New York would be demanding you get Miles Garrett. But Green Bay and Buffalo, and I've been reading some of the local articles there on the Miles Garrett. Then it's like, well it'd be a pretty decent fit. No, No, you're not beating Mahomes. You can't stop Mahomes. Von Miller's getting older, like it's over. You're not beating Mahomes and green Bay. You got to take a big swing on this because Jordan Love is good, but he can be reckless. You're gonna be in close games with Detroit, Philadelphia, the Improving Rams, the Niners are still around. Who knows what Washington is. So to me, you get one Miles Garrett in a franchise history. He is an outcome changer and there's maybe six guys in pro football today, and there's a lot of great players. There's maybe six. Two of them Jared Versus and Jalen Carter. I'm not there yet, but I think I'm close that I would pay for Max Crosby's won whatever, give me the checkbook. But like Miles Garrett, there are two teams Buffalo and Green Bay. You really gotta think long and hard about your future. Do you want to change outcomes? Listen, when you had Farv and Rogers, you got one super Bowl. You're not a free agent hub like players. Don't go and think Buffalo and Green Bay on average, not sexy markets. You gonna make it happen. And you're a guy like Miles Garrett may never show up in the market for the next five years. The guys like him just don't show up on the market. Teams don't let them go, go get him.
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So you know, it's interesting and I hear this a lot, is that when the Lakers make the move for Luca, a lot of people say, wells rig, the NBA really wants this to happen. I'm not saying the NBA doesn't like it, but there are certain markets. Miami, for instance, aqua water, great weather, best beaches in the country. Who's been the most frenetic active Eastern Conference basketball team with trade over the last twenty years to Miami Heat. They have to people are distracted, too many beautiful people, too many things to do. Los Angeles made the move to get Luca, and within a day, everybody's like, so what, you gotta go get a center or you're not gonna win any games if he goes to If Luca ended up in Charlotte or maybe here in New Orleans or ninety percent of the markets in the NBA, they're satisfied with that. In Los Angeles, the Dodgers almost draw five million. You have two NFL teams, you have great Mediterranean weather. It's why USC had to get Lincoln Riley Ucla Chip Kelly Jim Harbaugh of the Chargers. You have to make moves San Francisco. There's too many things to do. You gotta get Jimmy Butler. That's why the Warriors they went after KD. Again. Kd's like not interested. They went after Jimmy Butler. Milw We've been sitting there. Milwaukee made a move. They let Chris Middleton go, which they should have two years ago, and went and got Kyle Kuzma. But we've been waiting for that for two years. It's like, guys, let's go. But it's Milwaukee. Once the Packer season ends, what's the competition they're winning. They're pretty good, so you know, like Pete Alonso just re signed with the met It was going to be three years, that ended up being two. But there's I mean, in New York in the summer, some people are off the beach, the Hamptons, they're traveling, they got the a keys thinking. There's just a lot to do, and you are forced to make moves. So it's the reality of being in these distracted, big, aggressive markets. Rob Polinka, it was just interesting. I'm talking to Laker fans and they love Luca, but a day later they're like, but it doesn't mean anything if you don't get a Center. Okay, ninety percent of NBA cities would be like, we've got Luca, we hit the power ball, Let's wait and build next year. It's not the way it works. And here's Rob Polinka, Luka Doncic.
Joining forces with the Los Angeles Lakers is a seismic event in NBA history. And the reason I say that is because we have a twenty five year old global superstar that's going to get on the stage of the most popular and influential basketball.
Brand on the globe.
And I think when those two powerful forces come together, it brings basketball joy to the world.
But they were a bad defensive team as he was sitting there on stage. And now this morning Mark Williams, Duke Charlotte athletic shot blocker, rebounder. Now people in Los Angeles are like, good, It's almost like the Dodgers already had Freddy Freeman and monkey bets. Why get o Tawny because in the summer people are going and traveling and beach and mountains that why not If you can fund it, why not? And also, let's be honest, like a big company like Meta Oracle, Google can make a mistake and it doesn't bankrupt them. They make all sorts of the Google glasses. You know, Meta's had all sorts of stumbles that I wear stuff they were gonna do. It's okay. In these big markets, you are so capitalized, you have so much money that you can make mistakes. Okay, it doesn't penalize you forever. And I mean Lebron, Austin Reeves and Anthony Davis would have been absolutely okay for almost every franchise. I mean, go look at Boston, another city with a broad things to do in the summer. Boston was winning a lot of games with Jason Tatum, with Marcus Smart and with Jalen Brown. They were winning. I mean they were for about a four year run. They were like the team we thought was gonna win it. And that wasn't good enough in Boston. That wasn't good enough because the Patriots is at the standard. It's not good enough. You got to take a big swing. So they go get Porzingis and Drew Holiday and they moved Marcus Smart and they went that's what Boston demands. So before you yell everybody's out to see the Celtics win, or the Lakers win, or the Warriors or no, those cities have to make moves because there's so much in market competition. So I was reading a story this morning about Kansas City had a very good twenty twenty two draft. They got George car Loftis, Brian Cook, leo' chanel, Trent McDuffie's a star at corner, Isaiah Pacheco in the seventh round. And I mean carl Loftis was such a good pick at thirtieth that only one other player in that first round has had more sacks, the number one pick, Aiden Hudginson of Detroit. So they had a great draft. And if you go to Philadelphia and you look at the eagles last two drafts Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith who took a while to get it right, Quinn and mar Mitchell Cooper dejen two drafts, they went from one of the oldest teams in the league last year sixth oldest, to third youngest team in the league this year Philadelphia. So unlike baseball, where you can buy championships or at least buy relevance and wins, or you know, in the NBA, where there's kind of a reality that if you get one or two players foundationally, you'll be viable and also in the NBA, draft picks are a little like croutons in your salad. They're kind of in the way you know they're there, you have one or two, but they don't really matter. You can give them away. In the NFL, this thing is still built on the draft. Free agency in the NFL is kind of for suckers. Most of the good teams wait three or four days in to get value. You start looking at the Eagles, and you start looking at the Rams, who we were told were on a rebuild two years ago and started with a playoff games. It's all foundational. It's all draft. And when I started this business years ago, I had a friend. He goes, I don't even like the draft, but he goes, he goes. You talk about it so much that now I'm kind of interested, and I said it mattered. It doesn't matter. In the NBA, I mean, Lakers are giving away draft picks and there's not a single person in LA that goes, I can't believe you gave away that conditional first round picks. Nobody cares. They don't care. And in baseball, I mean the Pirates are the Yankees farm system. Nobody cares. In the NFL doesn't matter your market size. Go look at the Chiefs twenty twenty two draft as they had to pay them homes big money. Look at the Eagles the Jalen Hurt How are the Eagles able to pay aj Brown, Saquon Barkley, Jalen Hurts? How are they able to pay all these guys Darius Slay Because they had back to back draft classes where they got stars at virtually every unit. And I think that's what separates it. It's one of my mantras has always been in the NFL. It all starts upstairs. Like I had a general manager in the NFL. It was talking about Buffalo after they lost to Kansas City and I had a discussion with him about a week and a half ago, and he said, you know, the truth is Kansas City has a much better roster than Buffalo. He goes, you think Josh Allen elevates people. He goes, James Cook is great, Josh Allen's great. They got a couple of defensive players we like, won the corner who had the concussion stuff. He goes, Kansas City's got just better players. He goes the difference between the bills upstairs and the chiefs upstairs is greater than people think. Josh Allen just fools you into believing Buffalo beat him. But when you watch that game, who made all the big plays? It was the Kansas City guys. I mean, in fact, that was one of the problems I had with Buffalo. They didn't give James Cook the ball last nine minutes of the game. It's like, dude, that's your second best player on the team. That's the second best player you got. He's probably the eighth best player on Kansas City or seventh. So j Mack here we go. I know j Matck gets fired up because anytime I ever offer slight criticism to the NBA, mister get a bucket here from the perimeter, never seen a jumper he didn't like, freaks out. But I will say this, I don't want to overreact. But when the Lakers got Luca, I thought, oh, that's pretty that's pretty interesting. I'm not sure it works. When they actually got the much lesser player today, I went, okay, Like we always talk about this in the NFL, quarterback, left tackle, weapon, pass rusher, smart head coach, Like there's there's boxes you gotta check in the NBA, as it's got bigger over the last five years. If you don't have an athletic big s, why DeAndre Aighton keeps getting paid. You don't even have to be you don't have to fill out all the boxes. If you're long, if you're athletic, that you can match up like with Wemby in the league. Now the next four years you've got to figure out how to defend that, or at least make it difficult. So I think it's interesting that Luca is the future, but if you don't get Mark Williams, they're really not a viable championship team in the West.
As excited as you are for Mark Williams, should we get a hurricane and pour some out for Dalton Connect?
Everybody's favorite player, I mean, and we lost Alton Connect in the Trader.
Well that's a big loss, But what does it tell you about the NBA? So everybody liked Dalton Connect, and I thought he was going to be a winner in all this because I thought Austin Reeves was the odd man out because he, Luca and Lebron need the ball. So I thought Austin Reeves odd man out. Dalton Connect kind of can create space. Get him off in a wing. But in the end, look how easily the Lakers move off Dalton connect because you know they were called. You know, the Mavericks and Carolina wanted Austin Reeves. He's averaging like eighteen points a game, and he's a playmaker, he gets to the line. He's all hustle and effort. Everybody wanted Austin Reeves. What Rob Poulinka did to get Luca and Mark Williams and keep Austin Reeves, that is good gmming And I'm not the biggest fan of Austin Reeves. I think in a championship team, he has to be four oh, a soft three or a really strong for like Derek White. You can win a championship if Derek White your third best player. If he's your fourth, you're really really good.
By the way, you think Luca and Lebron are scared of OKC and SGA and the Houston Rockets.
You think Lebron and Luk are scared of any of those guys.
I watched the Little SGA last night. He looked good. I think he had a fifty p Yeah, Jesus Goring Machine, the President City. You're looking live, Matt Hasselback joining US Max
