The Herd with Colin CowherdFormer NBA star Eddie House joins The Herd to talk to JMac about the huge Lakers-Mavericks trade and why he feels Dallas won the trade
Why the Mavericks most likely traded Luka Doncic to the Lakers
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Welcome back our number two here on The Herd. Jason McIntyre in for Colin Cowhard. I heard from a lot of folks, Yes it's Colin Okay, Oh my gosh. He sounded so strange, and then I went to, well, I'm gonna do this guy.
Sorry, what's up my men's basketball men's league game last night? And a couple of the opponents were like, dude, great job filling in for Coward. That must have been so tough.
And I'm looking at him like, oh damn, these guys are watching me or listening. I gotta show up. And I had a pretty awesome game. It's over thirty five.
Leagues, so come on, anybody can buckets.
But I did have seven threes, just like our next guests coming up in a few minutes, Eddie House, who I think had sixty one and in either a college or NBA game, he could get buckets. But you guys know, I love hoops. I was trying to show out for Paul Pierce, who's on a show later today. He started a pickup.
Game out here in LA.
And yes, I'm trying to crowbar my way into that bad boy because I love hoops. And last night one of the producers said, hey, what about a top ten duo list in the NBA for tomorrow. I was like, oh, hell, yes, I'd bang that bad boy out quickly. And then I forgot a couple of people, so we had to readjust the list.
So here we go. We'll go Eddie House in like five minutes. But first, the.
Top ten duos of the NBA today as of right now.
Now.
Listen, some people got left out, and don't be upset. There's a lot of movement in the league. I know one pairing people are gonna be ticked off about. But let's get started. Number ten, top ten duos in the league. I'm going with one Binyama and de Aaron Fox site unseen.
We haven't even seen him once together.
Listen, if you have any NBA list right now, you must have one Ben Yamba.
He's a transformative player.
He's a unicorn, he is a plastic man, whatever you want to call him.
He's awesome. He's shooting one legged threes. Did you guys see that?
So now you pair him with a great point guard like de Aaron Fox? How do you stop that pick and roll?
Now it's weird.
I'm a big Deer and Fox guy, but there is like a negative connotation around his name.
You think he's awesome.
He's averaging what twenty four and twenty five points per game four of the last five years, and then you look up and you're like, oh, he hasn't won a playoff series all NBA once. How good is deeron Fox? I think we're about to find out because he's gonna play with one Ban Yamba. So that's number ten, number nine, Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley. I don't think that's gonna roll off the tongue of everybody when you guys watch this list.
But they are right now number one in the East with a bullet.
And the only reason they're not higher is because I had some pushback in my own head when I was like, so, who's Donovan Mitchell's Is it Darius Garland, who's having a fantastic season.
Is it Jared Allen. I went with Mobley because he.
Is on the come up man, This kid looks good.
They finally unlocked.
Playing mobiley next to Alan, Mobley's doubt developed something of a three point shot. The Cavs are a real threat. I don't get the whiff that this is.
Like smoking mirrors. This is a hungry team. Donovan Mitchell's a stud.
I think Mobley and Mitchell are are the ninth best duo in the NBA.
All right, let's get to number eight. Another one sight unseen Kyrie and Ad.
Now this is a tricky one because you know both of them are getting up there in age. Both are great, proven number twos. Right, Ad was the number two, second best player to Lebron for many years. In LA they won a title. Kyrie not a great one, as we saw in Boston and wherever he was after a Brooklyn he was like the guy who got that team is not a one. Now you put him next to Luca, Ooh, Kyrie, different player. He's under control, and now you wonder who's the alpha in that locker room. I think that's the big question for Dallas because again I'm not bashing Kyrie, but history says he ain't an Alpha can Ad be that guy. Is he extra motivated because the Lakers shipped him. I think they're gonna be a great duo, will work together. That pick and roll is gonna be fierce. So Kyrie and Ad Number eight, Number seven, bit of a surprise entrant here Ja Morant, John Morant and Jared Jackson.
Junior Memphis Grizzlies.
They're up to number two in the West, and Jared Jackson's having a ridiculously good year twenty three points a game. He's been out of this world. We know Jahn Morant now under control, cleaned up, is off the court stuff, he's been tremendous.
I mean, you look at this pairing.
John Morant one of ten players in the league averaging twenty and seven this season.
I know people go, oh, what if they won? Listen, they've had some playoff experience.
I would not be shocked if the Grizzlies were in the conference finals. They look very very good. All right, let's get to number six. I wanted to make a case them higher. They're my guys. Brunson and Kat in New York they it's only been half a season really working together. But Kat seems in a great spot because there's no pressure on him whatsoever. They've got a great team where Josh Hart does all the dirty work.
Gosh, I love Josh Hart.
Michale Bridges really a three and D guy, and then Kat just slides in and they're not asking too much from him. It's like, play a little bit of defense. You don't have to be a room protector. Just like try on defense. Kat historically has not been a great defender, and now you get a lot of open threes because Jalen Brunson is the man.
I like this duo a lot. I wanted to make them higher than six.
It's just tough when you see these top five let's get to number five top duos in the NBA. A lot of pushback from one of the guys, SGA and Chet.
Now I know j Dubb. Some people are like, how can you not put Jay Dubb on there? Guys, he's a nice player.
But Chet Holmgren is clearly the guy if they're going to go to the finals. Here's SGA dropping somebody on the bucks line last night. I mean, Sga, he's really really good I know, I call him a free throw merchant, and it pisses off all these thunder fans. Well, I should say, not all these thunder fans, like the seventeen thunder fans there are. They hate when I say that Sga is really, really good. I still have some reservations about Okac in the playoffs.
We'll see, but.
I like chet Holmger more than a lot of people. We're just seeing a little of him because of the injury. I expect big things from chet and Okac this year. All right, let's get to number four. This one you guys are gonna hate because they have not worked well, Jannis and Dame.
It's been about a calendar year. It's not really working. So why the hell are they four?
Well?
Because Giannis is unbelievable. I mean, it's almost like Jokich is so good, Lucas so good.
SGA's on the come up.
We're forgetting. Giannis is automatic, folks. The numbers for Yannis, this is the highest scoring duo in the NBA at fifty six points per game.
The chemistry doc rivers all that stuff's not there yet.
But man, if they keep Jannis and yes, if you miss us earlier, last hour. I would not be shocked if something, you know, Jannis becomes available somehow, But right now is a deadly duo. I don't know about the Bucks in the postseason, if that makes any sense. Jannis and Dame number four. Now, I know we haven't hit on a certain pairing yet. And you guys are where are they?
Where are they? Here?
They are Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum. Now, this is a Boston team that's stacked. Porzingis right. You got Drew Holliday, I mean, Derek White. Yeah, this team is just so loaded in Boston. But for me, Tatum. You guys know, I've got a big, big Chason Tatum man crush. I would he would get my MVP voter for We're today. I know everybody's say Sga or Yokich. I just think Tatum has been unbelievable. He is an excellent basketball player. Jalen Brown. I know it's a little Lebron Wade ish and they duplicate each other, but I've got them as the third best duo.
Number two.
This one should be obvious. They've done a lot together Jokich and Murray. It is a formidable duo, especially in the playoffs. Jokic, the Dowe European is just still unstoppable.
And Jamal Murray. Jamal playoff Murray is a thing.
I know, He's still never been an NBA All Stars it, I'm sorry, has it.
Played in an All Star game.
Murray is just an excellent player, can create his own shot clutch, as Lakers fans very much know. Yeah, Jamal Murray and Jokicic without a doubt, to me, the second best duo in the league. And here we go number one with a bullet Lebron and Luca.
Yeah, oh you know it. You cannot wait.
The best player in the NBA for me, Luka Doncic and Lebron the ageless wonder at forty. I don't think people real he put up a triple double in MSG against the formidable Knicks and he didn't have a d I mean, look at the guy. He's flying through the lane. Lebron is still the man. Wait till Luca comes back from this cat strain. I've got Luca and Lebron number one.
Now.
Did Harden and Kawhi got bumped? Okay, because you know, we don't know if Kawhi is going to show up next week.
They're playing great right now, but we don't.
Know what's up with Kawhi, and I know people are gonna be upset about KD and Booker. I'll take it up with the Suns fans later. But now we got my main man, Eddie House joining the show. Eddie House, one of the real good shooters from his era, basketball analyst for Fox Sports Radio.
Eddie, how we do with my man?
I'm doing good.
How you feeling, man, I'm excellent. There's a lot to talk about, Eddie. And you're Celtics sitting pretty. They're doing great.
Second in the East. They're fine. But what just happened over the weekend with Luca and traded for Ad.
I need to know where you were when this went down and your immediate reaction, my.
Media reaction was at first, I thought like I was thinking, like Dallas won is Trey. I thought Dallas wanted trade, you know, because they were getting somebody that they're making a push right now. I don't think that the Lakers roster is constructed to make a push for the conference finals. I don't think that that's how that roster has constructed. So many defensive deficiencies, so many holes on the defensive side of the ball.
In the one place that you could plug those holes was.
On the front line with Ad blocking shots and being there rebounding the basketball. Now they're going to have an issue with that. You know, you're going to be leaning on Jackson Hayes. But then you also got Austin Reeves who doesn't really play great defense.
You got Luca we all.
Know documented that he doesn't play great defense. And Lebron's defense has been declining, even though he has put possessions together, but for the.
Most part, it's been declining. So I looked at it and I was like, well, Dallas won because they got.
Ad for three more years. And then on top of the three years, you know, you got Kyrie over there.
They got two big.
Men that are solid, lively, he's going to be coming back. And then also on top of that, Ad is going to be happening because he's going to be able to play the four. So I looked at it in the short term, and then when i'm I started rethinking about it in the long term, I think the Lakers won as well.
You know, so in short short term, Dallas long term.
Lakers because they can replace Lebron James with Luka dances, which they always have a superstar. They've never been a team without a superstar. I don't know how long it's been that they haven't had somebody.
Over there that was a star player. So I think both of the teams won.
It's just about what side of the fence that you wan on on the winning side, because Luca could be there for ten years if they don't win the championship?
Did they win that trade?
If Ad and Kyrie is able to go to the conference finals, I would think that you would look at it and say, oh, okay, they kind of won that trade. And if they're able to attract some free agents over there and try to.
Do something again next year. So okay, that's where I'm at with it.
Don't get me too worked up any First of.
All, over under one and a half titles for Luca with the Lakers.
I'm going under this.
Oh my gosh, Celtics fan says, under okay, fair enough. Let me just quickly ask you on Dallas, what's your concern level with Kyrie Irving now going back into the role as the number one guy? We saw him in Boston, did not want to work with the young kids we saw him in Brooklyn. Bringing kd there did not work at all, total disaster.
Now he cleaned up.
His act a little bit in Dallas, but that was as a clear number two to Luca. Now you look around the Dallas huddle, who's the leader on that team? And if it's Kyrie. Listen, we've seen him as the number one. It has not gone well historically.
Can I ask you a question, please? Right now? Where are you at? Are you? Are you the number one? You in the driver seat right now, right because Colin's not there right?
But then any other time you're the number two, right, And it's all about growth, right. And what we can say is that we have seen Kyrie grow over these years, and we could look back and say, man, damn, you know he messed up the time in Boston. Boston's fans really don't like it because of what he did over there.
Brooklyn they feel the same way.
But in Dallas, I feel like the Dallas fans love what he's doing. You know, he went to the NBA Finals with him. I don't think the Cleveland fans hate Kyrie. I think it's just a little a couple of spots that he had a couple of blips in the map to where on the radar, excuse me, where you look at it. He's like, Okay, yeah he could have been he could have had on it better. But he was young, and I think he's mature, you know what I'm saying. And when you have kids, you know this, Ja Mack. When you have kids, you have you mature in a different way. You go from just thinking about yourself to also thinking about like, Okay, I got to make sure I'm good. So they're good. That's the main thing. And I think that he's learned from that, so I'm not worried.
I'm not worried. I think they have a good run. I think their.
Rosters right now constructed, is better than the roster in LA to make a run into playoffs.
Now.
I don't totally disagree with that. Here's my thing.
The maps are actually built Eddie to really play against Okay, see well and against Denver. This Max Christy. He's not getting talked about, but since he went into the starting lineup the Lakers are fifteen and eight. I'm not saying he's a lockdown defender, but he's long, he's twitchy. I think he could capably defend SGA, and you've got the bigs. We know Okac's weakness are the bigs. If Dallas is healthy, I.
Think you're probably right. In the postseason, they can make a run.
That's all I'm trying to say. So at the end, what are we playing for a We're planning to get to the playoffs. And I have a little conspiracy theory.
Okay, here we go. Just think about this, all right.
So Ad waved his eight percent a trade kicker, you know about six million dollars?
Okay, cool? Him and Rich Paul, they're all clutch sports. Lebron clutch sports.
Maybe they know something that may and maybe they tipped to the organization to where, hey, we got to we got to start trying to figure out who gonna replace Lebron. Lebron might not be there. Here's my conspiracy theory. Lebron possibly ends up in Dallas next year.
So that's kind of spicy because he is still tight with Kyrie. They've talked about being partners.
Oh you got me there.
Once the trade happened, I started thinking like, oh, this could be a move for him to slide over there he plays. Think about they still have Klayton Thompson over there. They'll have Kyrie over there, they'll have Anthony Davis. Lebron doesn't need the money, so he could play on a a he's not gonna get short changed now, but he's not gonna get a max deal or anything like that. And they had the money to give a max deal to Luka Dacic. Now they look like, oh, we could give Lebron. Oh okay, so now they can put something together and then you could piece the ancillary players around that, that that core of players right there, and they make a Ron for one or two years, because that's probably all that's gonna be really left for that type of run. But that was just something that that I came up with in my head. I was like, man, that's kind of so would Bronni Gonid he didn't get that trade kicker?
Yeah, does he bring his song much?
To me? Dallas, I don't know about all that.
Well.
I mean, I don't know if Lebron's gone. I don't know if Bronni is still on the roster. Crazy stat from our team here, Dalton connect is twenty four, Lucas twenty five, Like that to me is kind of mind blowing. Stuff like that. That's how young Luca Is and totally dominant. I am curious with you. You said the Lakers always magically end up with superstars, and you're not wrong. Magic Jabbar, Shaq, Kobe on down the list. Are you one of these guys who thinks maybe the league likes that? You know, wait, we got Los Angeles. We need a good team. The team in New York is finally good. Chicago's been down for two decades. We meet like Unlike the NFL, the NBA needs the big markets to have good teams. Are you alluding to something there?
No, I'm not saying that because think about it. Okay, see, he's not a big market. They got a damn good team and they got a superstar over there as shake Yildes, Alexander Kay Cunningham. Detroit is not a huge market, but they got a solid team over there and that damn good player in Ka Cunningham.
But it's the Lakers. It's just the Lakers. Uh. It's the way that the Lakers operate business.
They constantly have I mean, come on, you're you're in Hollywood, you know you're in LA You're Intenseltown.
You have to have stars because that brings stars to the game that brings people to the game.
Think about this and you say, LA, well, well, damn ain't ain't the Clippers. An't the Clippers in Las It ain't the same. It ain't the same. You have to have stars when you're with the Lakers. It's just the way that that it's been since I can remember.
So there's some stories starting to emerge that in the Dallas locker room that Luca, despite being like, the front office didn't.
Like him, maybe because of his work habits, his diet habits.
I'm just curious, did you ever in your time in Boston or anywhere else, Miami, wherever, did you experience like just seeing front office being unhappy with guys like out of shape or not being in condition that were stars and the front office like being really ticked off at them.
No, because most of the guys I played with, pretty much all of the star superstar players I played with, held everybody else accountable by what.
They did, how they came in. And it never happened in Miami.
Because you got weight and body fat check every week, you know where there was Monday Tuesday went every single week you got weight and body fat. You had to be a certain weight in body fat. If you weren't, then you were doing extra running, you were doing extra things that you had to do to make sure you got to that weight and that body percent body fat percentage. But as far as like that's the thing I think if you allow your superstar player, and I think the upper management I don't think that this. I think it's the the owners. The new ownership is like, hey, we're not gonna allow this to happen. Because the thing about it is you can't have your star player come in out of shape, everybody else in shape, and you you don't hold him accountable.
That kind of that fractures a locker room.
But when you have a superstar player like a Kevin Garnett that comes in and when you walk into the into the gym right practice is in about an hour you come, you get there an hour before he's already on the court in the full fledh sweat.
It makes you start kicking in like, oh, I got to get here a little earlier so I can put in this work.
Well, if Luca's coming in and I don't know this for a fact, I don't know at all, but if he's coming in out of shape, I know that he's been coming in out of shape, that's documented. But if he comes in with twelve minutes left before practice is starting, then I mean that you know that sets a different type of standard, like what kind of leadership are you having, what kind of leadership are you out there of presenting?
And how can you be the leader?
We know that you're really good on the court, but it's other things that you have to do to set precedent for the rest of the team.
Yeah, all right, let me last one on the Lakers. Do you think they're done making moves because there's a lot of speculation, Hey, we don't need Austin Reeves. We've got enough ball handlers who don't really defend.
We need a center.
We got to go get a room protector and Nick Claxton, a Miles Turner, and they package the pick they have left Reeves, Ruy, whatever the package is, to go get somebody.
You think they get a room protector.
I don't think they're done, Dylan.
They definitely have to go get somebody that's rem protect them because they have so many.
Holes on the defense.
You know, Luca's not gonna play great defense, Austin Reeve's not gonna play great defense. And also, excuse me, Lebron is up and down with his defense, possession of possession sometime you've quartered a quarter a half to half.
But what I believe is that they're.
Going to go out there try to find somebody, and like you said, if it's a Knicks Claxton or Miles turn I really think Miles Turner would be a good fit for him because he could kind of stretch the floor a little bit, and he could protect the rim, he remounts the basketball. He's a younger guy. Nick Claxon is a younger guy too. But if they do that, does that move the needle? And to me, that doesn't move the needle, that doesn't make them all of a sudden be like, oh yeah, they're contenders.
They're gonna have to make another big time deal for a big time player.
No disrespect to those guys that I'm talking about, because they all can hoop, you know what I mean. I'm not disrespecting nobody in the league like that, But they're gonna have to get somebody that could do what Anthony Davis does. And that's twenty seven and twelve, and maybe you get a couple guys that are able to put that together to make it work.
But what I'm looking at right now, they rostered that, ain't it.
Yeah, let me ask jim you've spent time in Miami. What the hell is Jimmy Butler's problem? Like he was such a good soldier, got them the two finals. It's all falling a part. He's getting suspended. He doesn't want to go to Golden State. He only wants to go to Phoenix. I love Jimmy Butler.
I don't know what's happening. Man, how do you think this ends.
It's not gonna end good for him, as that's how I'm feeling.
Knowing Pat Robby and knowing the business of basketball when you start and you know Pat, pat Robby's the godfather, so people are gonna lend they hear more to him than they.
Will listen to Jimmy Butler's agent. Okay, or what's going on? And the one thing I can say is that this has kind of been a pattern with Jimmy.
You know, in every place that he's been to he has usually left disgrundled and upset.
He got upset at something.
But I think the main thing is that when Pat said he didn't want to trade him. It wasn't the fact that he was trying to tell him, you can't go nowhere. I think it was like, no, we want you here. We're not gonna trade you. Because we want you here.
We signed you. You got another deal. I want to say.
It's fifty one or fifty three million dollars for next year that he could opt into. Okay, we didn't give you extension because we don't see it, and okay, and that's fine, but they gave you a great deal. You're about to play for fifty million dollars. And I'm not counting nobody pockets looking at nobody pockets or counting nobody money. But what I'm saying is that you have an obligation when you are under contract. And I don't know if you watched any of the Heat games. When he came back from suspension, he took a one legged three point shot from the corner.
That he never takes ever. You never seen Jimmy Butler ever take a shot like that.
Then he threw the ball on the entry pass straight out of bounds, and then he did had lackluster effort getting back on defense. So now it's showing me you don't really want to be here, and you're a detriment to what we're trying to do, the culture that we have. So I don't think that he helped himself, you know, in the way that he handled this. Can Jimmy Butler still help a team?
Yes he can.
So we'll wrap up with this Eddie. So Luca got traded, and Anthony Edwards was like, man, I'm scared. Nobody's safe. If Luca can get traded, maybe I'm next. Obviously, we don't think Anthony Edwards is getting traded, but I floated two names. Let's start with Kevin Durant in Phoenix. The Sons are like tenth in the West. Jimmy Butler wants to be there. You can't trade Bill. Maybe Kevin Durant had shipped and the other one. And I've been on this for a while. You know, I'm a Steph Curry guy. They're eleventh in the West. They can't pull off a trade for anybody. At some point, do the Warriors say we got to reboot and trade Steph Curry so we can at least maximize his final years. I mean, Kaddy, you saw at the Olympics he was dominant and now he's on the eleventh place team in the West.
The league can't have that.
Yeah, you can't trade Steph Curry Man. That's a guy is I feel that he should. He's one of those guys should be a lifer with that team from where he came from to where they were at when he got there, to where he put him and where they're at right now. And his and his status as a basketball player and not only a basketball player, but a pillar of.
The community as well.
Does a lot of work out there in the BA area, whether it be in Oakland, whether it be in San Francisco or anywhere else in the Bay Area.
He does a lot of work of philanthropists work. And to me, you you can't trade him and uh for Jimmy Butler.
No.
And if you try to get Jimmy Butler, now think about what you.
Have on your team. You got two guys. You have a.
Draymond Green that you know could be unstable with times and does great for the team.
He's perfect for what they try to do.
Then you got Jimmy Butler, who could be you know, a wild card at times as well.
So I don't think Steph plays well with that.
I think Steph just loves to go out and play hoop and when it's all the other distractions like that's going on right now, I think that that's where it kind of does bothering. And I know Steph is getting a little older, but now he has to be a Golden State Warrior for life unless he doesn't want to be.
Well, that's the Is there a way to politically pull that off? I do, We'll see, all right, Eddie House, great stuff, keep up the good work, and you know, hope everything's well with your your kids who are awesome basketball players.
Appreciate it, man, Thank you all right.
Coming up next here on the Herd, how big of an impact is the Lucas signing for La Wait until you hear what Rob Polinka said just now at the Luca presser.
That's next, one more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you like.
Back here on the Herd.
Good stuff from Eddie House, former NBA gunner, Celtics Heat. And you know, we know that the Luca and Rob Polinka of the Lakers met with the media this morning, and Rob Polinka showed up dressed up like he's in Hollywood, which he is technically.
And if you listen closely, you.
Remember when I mentioned Otani earlier in the show that like parallels between Otani and Asia and the Dodgers and money, and now you've got Luke and Europe and the Lakers and money. Here's uh Luca. Let's start with Rob Polinka. Rob Polinka on the impact of Luca coming to La. Listen closely to the verbiage.
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.
Globe, World International, all the right buzzwords.
I know, it's popular.
Hey, let's let's bash. The NBA ratings are down. You know, I don't know, you guys, remember Colin did a rant on the ratings and then you know, two weeks later, Adam Silver's on the show like I just think it's such an overblown story about down NBA ratings, Like, who cares they signed a billion dollar deal?
Why do you Joe Bob on Twitter, why do you care about NBA ratings? You should? Players don't.
They got their money, The league got their billions. Maybe you know, TNT and ESPN should care, but do they?
I don't know.
But the point is, why do you care about the ratings? And the big thing that the NBA has going for it is the global audience.
Everywhere in the world.
People love basketball. Anybody can play basketball around the world. Like, you know, you go on a trip to uh I don't know, let's pick us Tokyo. You know, you walk by a playground and there's people play pick up basketball. If you've got your sneakers, you just light them up. Hey, who's gotten next? Let me get in pick up basketball?
Everywhere. It's just a thing. People love basketball. It's easy.
You just need sneakers and a ball and hoops are everywhere. Like, the popularity among basketball globally is massive. And I know the influx of you know, European players to the league has kind of hurt the domestic product as the domestic players and we've been over this, you know, I don't know a lot I hosted I think it was last summer and we had Chris Bouchard on them. We kind of went back and forth about this, and it's like, listen, AAU basketball as lucrative, lucrative as it has been capitalism America, it has hurt the product. You get these guys coming in down, they can't shoot, they can't play in a system. They pout when they're not getting playing time, they pout if they're losing.
They want to play with their friends.
Ultimately, AAU is kind of mucked some things up, but a lot of people are profiting off of AAU basketball, which is fine, that's capitalism. But the league has to figure out a way to make these domestic stars matter, because.
Let's be real.
Zia Williamson, I mean, it's been a bust. You know, he's eating his way out of the league. He's hurt all the time, John Morant can't stay straight off the court, Guys doing stupid things, getting in trouble like these were supposed to be the next domestic stars. As Curry and Kad and Lebron ag into retirement, and you look around and it's like maybe it's Anthony Edwards. Maybe he's got next and the Wolves have kind of pulled back.
And just a weird small thing.
But I love Anthony Edwards, but every interview he gives after games now he's saying curse words, and I know who cares. It's just a bad word. But like the guys who are buying stuff for these kids? Are these kids. They're buying the sneakers, they're buying the merch, they're the ones wearing the jerseys, they're on TikTok following all these players, and you just curse it. Like the domestic us guy's got to clean it up. Sure, you've got a one off like a Devin Booker who not only is like a big deal on social media, but then he's dating Kendall Jenner and he's a good player, so like, but he's kind of quiet, you know, he's not one of these out there Lebron larger than life figures. So you've got all these European guys coming in. It's Luca, it's Jannis, it's Jokich, and they're great players.
They don't want to be the face of the league.
So domestically, we've got to clean up our act and listening to what Polinka was saying is he's like, guys, we've got American fans. That's fine, We're not we don't care if we have a smaller audience than college football or any We don't care about that.
We're building globally. We're looking big picture.
And Luca, you know, to his point, don't I don't know that he cares where he is, but here he is on his excitement of becoming a Laker.
I'm just excited, you know, to be here to start this new journey, journey and obviously at some point I knew this was going to happen, but I would say I always take the high road. You know, I had my amazing moments in Dallas with all my teammates, coaches, and the most importantly defense, you know that always supported me, and it was it was an amazing Jodney.
I know we talked about it last hour, but I love that. Listen, Luca could have unloaded on those guys. You guys know how hard it is to bite your tongue when you get.
Screwed.
I mean, it's so it would have been so easy for Luca to unload on Nico Harrison and Michael Finley just to totally trash them up and down for a twenty five year old. Do you guys know how dumb we are at twenty five years old, Like we just say and do dumb things. We're guys, we're men, so we do. And Luca just he was a total consummate pro right there. He could have unloaded on those guys and I would have laughed, we all would have loved it.
But he was subtle.
He didn't come out and totally trash him, but he kept it real. Hey, I knew this was gonna happen. It's very clear from Luca's comments. He was cool with the players, he loved the fans, he loved Jason Kidd and the coaches. The front office kind of sort of did him dirty. And and this isn't just like shipping him out. Luckily they didn't send him to Siberia.
He has to go to La you know, I know, the taxes out here or brutal. Oh no, the taxes in La Versus Texas. Oh my gosh.
You know, guys, the Supermax would have paid him an extra one hundred and fifteen million dollars.
Even if you want to remove the taxes.
Okay, he just the map just cost him what eighty million dollars, seventy million dollars, whatever the number is, Like, he's got a right to.
Be ticked off.
And I hope, and we talked about this was Roychel Nichols yesterday. I hope that, Lucas says man, Atlanta Hawks, they could have had me in the draft.
They traded me.
The Sacramento Kings chose Marvin Bagley over me, and then Dallas where I was drafted.
I thought I spent my whole career there. They traded me.
That's three teams bailing on me or saying no to me. And I haven't even turned twenty six years old. Yet the numbers say I'm one of the great players already in NBA history.
And again go look it up.
His numbers at this age, dwarf what Michael Jordan has done all around rebounds, this is everything. Okay, they totally dominant what Luca's done early in his career, and three teams have passed on him. If this isn't motivation, along with playing next to Lebron James, who.
Is like mister fitness.
And I think I've told you guys this I go to a gym out here in LA and you know, I see this big six or five guy playing basketball.
I'm like, oh, geez, who the hell is that guy? He looks amazing.
They're like, oh, he's Lebron's body double. He does all the He's at every commercial and all these movies. Lebron is has a body double and that's him. So of course I've come friendly with this guy and he starts telling me about Lebron. He's like, this is he's the nicest guy ever. And oh, by the way, yeah, Lebron. Uh, he doesn't put any he doesn't need any food that unless it's cleared by his nutrition. He's got like a team around him. He get guy gets massages all the time. He keeps his body and tiptop shape. He's not out there eating a raka ribs. You know, Lebron has his act together. And now Luca's next to him. Folks, I know people like, oh, under one and a half titles. I'm just saying, Luca and the Lakers. Sky's the limit, all right? Coming up next, two huge NFL stars are in the trade market. I'll tell you why and where I think they'll land next.
Here on The Herd.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio App.
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together We're Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.
You could catch us.
Weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course, the iHeartRadio App.
Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's.
Going on in the world.
We have a lot of fun talking about the stories behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture, stories that well other shows don't seem to have the time to discuss. And the fact that we've been friends for the last twenty years and still work together. I mean that says something, right, So check us out. We like to get you involved too, take your phone calls, chop it up. As they say, I'd say, the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe the most interactive show on planetar. Be sure to check out Cavino and Rich live on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio App from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific and if you miss any of the live show, just search Covin on Rich wherever you get your podcasts, and of course on social media that's Covino and Rich.
This week, we are headed to New Orleans.
The Herd and the entire FS one lineup will be live from Bourbon Street on Thursday and Friday as we get ready for Super Bowl fifty nine. Friday, we have a Super Bowl special ad for Eastern on Fox. We'll be joined by special guests all week counting down to the big game. Very exciting. Colin promises he will be back. He did text me during the show. There were some expletives now that we're not He doesn't.
He's not like that. I am He's not, by the way.
I know some of you are disappointed and know Nick Right today he used comes on on Tuesday, and I know you were fired up. Oh shucks, Nick, combative Nick Right against argumentative Jason McIntyre. That was like a showdown for the ages. And Nick had a commitment so he couldn't make it.
But I don't know. I'm sure we'll chop it up.
He is mister Chiefs and I'm mister public enemy number one with Chiefs fans, which I don't mind.
I embraced that role. I don't mind being that guy, all right.
So we had on Albert Breer earlier talking about obviously the Super Bowl.
He's down in New Orleans.
By the way, if you were watching on FS one, there was all these people randomly walking by Breer during the interview. I find that stuff funny because you can see all of them kind of side eye to see what's going on.
I just I don't know, that's just me. I find that stuff funny.
Anyway, So Breer was talking about the super Bowl and we got into this Miles Garrett trade request.
Garrett obviously wants out of Cleveland, because who doesn't. Here's what he said. Listen closely to what he said about Detroit.
So they have Aiden Hutchinson coming back off the and they're gonna pay Aiden Hutchinson. What better way to kind of make sure that he has some runway and coming back off the injury and the defense has a real strength to build off of. Then you get Aiden Hutchinson back from injury, you'll have Allayne mcnehill coming back from injury. And then oh, by the way, you've got Miles Garrett out there.
I like it.
I know Lions fans are fired up.
It was a disappointing end of the season for the Lions, and now you lose both coordinators. It's funny not to reveal too much, but you know, I think I've mentioned this. Jared Goff lives near me out here in LA and you know, he's got the supermodel wife or maybe sports illustrated swimsuit wife, whatever she is, and I see.
Them sometimes around town.
I've never talked to them, obviously, but Jared Goff is building this like massive house right on the same block as some of my friends. And somebody was in Target, which is also near me, and Jared Goff walks into Target. So Budd, Hey, text me, Hey, Jared Goff just walked into Target, and I was like, ask him about ask him about the Lions off seas and what the hell's going on there. I will not reveal what was said, but I'm just saying right now, there's pressure on the Lions to do something. Okay, they don't want to step back. They were, you know, a pretty morbid franchise for a long time. Woke up with Dan Campbell Golfing Company, and now it's like, can we get to this.
Can we get over the hump?
And I feel like there's a pullback coming speaking of the Lions and the NFC, I don't know why this Cooper Cup story is not getting more attention.
And I know some people say, oh, he's just a receiver, he's kind of washed.
I think we I think this deserves a little more detail. So Cooper Cup is very close with Matt Stafford. They are buddies. Do you guys remember within the last two years Matt Stafford's wife went on a podcast and was like, Matt Stafford.
Hates the locker room. He can't relate to any of these guys. Everybody's on the phone. He's an old man, he's got kids. His guy is Cooper Cup.
Stafford and Cupper close the way that the Rams are moving off Cup to me, I don't exactly know what it is, but it's something.
It feels strange. And then in the morning meeting, you know, we got a sharp group, a lot of smart people.
They pointed out, well, Jay, remember this is a kind of a cutthroat RAMS franchise. They moved off of Jared Goff, they moved off of Gurley, they moved off of Ramsey, pretty easily.
I was like, they can't move off Cup. Look at the.
Numbers on the screen, and then I call up j Cooper Cup stats and this is the weird part.
This is crazy. I did not realize this. Cooper Cup's been in the league, what seven years? He has two one thousand yard seasons and one of them was extraordinary. He won the Triple Crown one.
Hundred and forty five catches, nineteen hundred yards, sixteen touchdowns.
That was the year they won the Super Bowl.
And I look around, I'm like, oh, that's I didn't realize Cooper Cup. Really they had two amazing years. I start thinking, hmm, what is happening with the Rams? Breer alluded to it. They talked about restructuring Stafford last year.
It was ugly, it was messy. They ended up keeping him.
I'm just saying I think it bears watching what's going on with the Rams. Obviously Cowherd knows the franchise. Well, maybe he'll have something on it later in the week, but it just feels like there is something afoot.
I don't know what. I can't put my finger on it. But a fun game I like to play.
It's easier with the NBA because their reporters say stuff and don't care. In the NFL, everybody's really buttoned up and doesn't want to irk the owners.
Something. I don't know what it is, but something's going on with the Rams.
And Breer actually said, if I'm the Steelers, I make a call to the Rams about Matt Stafford. And I was like, oh, now that is interesting, and you know, we love interesting on the show. Again, I like Cooper cuple lot. I do think he's gonna thrive somewhere. Breer alluded to Washington, which makes a hell of a lot of sense. And I know the parallel of white guy, white guy with Adam Thielen is a little goofy, but let's be real. Like Deeling possession receiver, Cup possession receiver. Both guys run awesome routes. They're not gonna wow you with speed or down the field, but they can play. And I think Cup is gonna have revenge on his mind. Just the way the Rams are moving off of him. It just doesn't seem like a nice move. Like Cooper, Cup's a great guy in the community on social media, he looks like a family guy. He's not getting in trouble he's Stafford's boy. It feels weird, like a weird time for the Rams. I would not be surprised if the Crosstown Chargers made a play for Cooper Cup. Hey man, you love La, you can stay out here.
We'll take you. We could use receivers. And again, Cup's out a number one anymore.
He's closer to a two. Very interesting stuff going on with the Rams. Obviously, Miles Garrett is a big deal. That's a bigger story because he's a high impact player. But it feels to me like the Cooper Cup situation bears watching with the Rams, all right, coming up next the Chiefs.
Have they already become the Patriots? That's next year on the Herd.
