The Jason Smith Show with Mike HarmonJason and Mike give you the best fits for Cooper Kupp. Jason explains why he’s impressed with how the Chargers and Broncos have attacked free agency so far. Longtime NBA Insider Ric Bucher weighs in on Lebron James and the Lakers. And make sure you apologize to Jason if the Vikings sign Aaron Rodgers!
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Greetings, Welcome in Side hour three The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
Whatever.
I have just watched Syracuse season end. Yeah, it could not have ended sooner?
Stags. Yo, They couldn't.
I they could have said we're gonna end the season three weeks early.
Yes, go ahead. Couldn't end soon enough, couldn't it?
Oh?
Is it awful? Finish?
Oh?
Worst season than fifty years? Fifty years? But we got basketball coming up. In about twenty minutes. Rick Buker stopping by for all the latest NBA news. Great news for the Lakers today, looks like Lebron James could be closer to returning the normal. We'll break down the Thunder and the Celtics. But day three of NFL free agency and before we tell you to the teams that we liked the most so far, let me just say this, right, Cooper Cup was let go today. We knew what was happening. The Rams said, if we can find a trade partner for you, we're letting you go. Cooper Cup said, I disagree. The Rams said, that's great. We're letting you go if we can't find a trade partner for you.
So they let him go.
Already he is linked to the Ravens and the Cowboys right, already, these are the teams that are going to emerge for a suitor because he's a lottery ticket. He's a player that wow, if he's healthy, he's still terrific. Right, not too long ago, this guy was Super Bowl MVP. But that's the whole thing. When he was healthy last year he was not productive. The Rams moved on from him. In the offense, they became Puka Naku eccentric, and they decided we have to get somebody better in here, so they go get Devonte Adams. Cooper Cup is again a lottery ticket. And while I say, yes, great for the Ravens, you know whatever, for the for the Cowboys, that's it would be.
But the place where he should go.
And Frostburg's gonna hate me saying this, but doesn't Cooper Cup have Chiefs written all over him. Let me go and approve it deal to a team where I know I'm gonna get the ball in a great offense from a great quarterback, where I know Travis Kelcey one more year. He's not the same guy. Raschie Rice had his issues last year, we had some things. Davie're worthy. Who knows what's gonna happen with him? Day that injuries, day that issues. Hollywood Brown was out, Maybe me for a prove it deal in Kansas City becomes the place to go, and suddenly Kansasity would say yes, Caau's how Kansas City does things. Now, hey, we have to kind of continually reinvent our wide receiver room. We don't have money to pay everybody, so we're gonna continue to do this and get guys on one year deals and bring him back. And so so I suddenly Cooper Cup to the Chiefs where I could go and he can can easily win one of the top jobs there and play with Patrick Mahomes.
I kind of see the Chiefs where he should end.
It's in an interesting process. They did bring Brown back, You'll get Rice back. The thing with Worthy, they declined to press charges, so at least for now that's off the table. So after his big game in the Super Bowl, looking to build off of that, but certainly don't hate it. I mean, for whatever amount he is on the field, route runner, precision, move the chains right. Diana Rassini had earlier today talking about with the change of front office in Jacksonville with Joey Gladstone, I mean James Gladstone, cut it out.
They made a lot of moves right.
Early last week we had the announcement of just a ton of things that were pending the start of the new league year, and several wide receivers were on the cutting block for the Jaguars. Cooper Cup would be a really big win to help bring along Trevor Lawrence. Yeah, in theory, yes, But I mean in theory, if you're going to bring in a guy where his busy route running his business is all right, let's move chains and it's not a all right, what are you doing on the outside and pushing Trevor Lawrence in that regard, But he's safe. He's looking more for a chance. One le brass ring, right, and Ravens, A good team is gonna sign him.
Don't get up.
He's gonna wind up going to a good to a team that has some kind of deep playoff in Super Bowl aspirations, right like and and and and a big high profile team like the Ravens certainly makes sense. But okay, but wow, you really think you're gonna go in there and world on fire?
Like how much you you want to get paid? Like this?
This is where Cooper Cups got to look in the mirror, right. It's kind of like the we talked a lot with the Sam Donald thing. My old thing is Kevin, Kevin O'Connell looked in the mirror and talked about and thought about those final games against the Lions and the Rams, and your guy Sam Donald was an easy fall guy as opposed to looking in that mirror and seeing reality of I called pretty crappy games. In those games we did not adjust, kind of like the Chiefs had to.
Do after the Super Bowl.
We really did a terrible job looking at what this defense was going to bring against us.
So, I mean, that's just it for Cooper Cup. It's also the look and I hope a market materialized. I want everybody to win, certainly in terms of their negotiations and finding that next role, but it's also reconciling, and I think that's it with some of these veteran quarterbacks and some of the others that have yet to find their new homes and free agency. Curious what the agents are asking out there.
For you versus you know you want to live up here, but the reality is you're down a couple.
Of pegs now, staying in where the afcus.
Because we talked about the Chiefs so far competing with the Bears, because I've told you from the beginning, I love what the Bears have done. They said, what's our biggest weakness, offensive line, Let's go get three starters. Let's go get three really good starters. Right, mission accomplished, man, I'm telling you, Caleb Williams. The breakouts happening this year. The two teams kind of vying for what they've done now the last couple of days, the Broncos and the Chargers. All right now, we talked about the Broncos a little bit with with Jason Cole. He talked about Dray green Law and Hufanga. These are two big signings and you know, green Watt's about staying healthy. But they went out and got Evan Ingram today and it was down to the Broncos and Chargers for Ingram. And I know the Broncos are nervous because he left the Broncos Monday and went to visit with the Chargers. But Sean Payton has been looking for a guy to play the joker tight end position for three years. Like they drafted Greg Dlsich out of uclanthot He's gonna be the guy.
He couldn't stay on the field.
So now they move on to a guy who is one of the top tight ends in the NFL. Yes, he's thirty, but you're looking for someone to come in right now and contribute.
The tight ends.
Generally depending on on if they're heavy usage in the running game, if they're pass catching tight ends, these guys can play pretty well till they're thirty two to thirty three years old. If you are at every downtend and you're on there to block eka, Okay, it's not gonna be as long. But Ingram's a guy that he's one of the most talented tight ends in the game, and suddenly, look, it's always a risk and free agency. But Peyton has now figured out, he's made strengths even better on defense, on defense, and now he's got the tight end that he needs because this is what helps really make that offense sing as good as it was with bow Nicks last year, they were still trying to Frankenstein piece things together. Ingram is a huge, huge get for the Broncos. I love what they've done the first three, huge upgrade, no question about it. Now he's a guy that is taken on the man told.
That used to be my annual Jason Witten Award of a guy who may or may not be allergic to the painted grass. Twenty five touchdowns in his career despite catching nearly five hundred.
Passes for a tight end.
You know that is primarily a pass catcher that's not good about ten yards per catch, and he got through some drop issues because.
He used to have.
He was perennially on the list of boy, if this guy would just figured that part out in ball security, that he'd become a monster. One hundred and fourteen catches in twenty twenty three down to forty seven last year. Injuries have derailed him at times, but certainly goes into a situation of great potential when you're looking at Sutton and Mims on the outside sweeping across the middle of the field. Safety's got to pick his poison. So you're gonna have opportunities for bon Nicks.
Uh so the Broncos and really this is where the AFC West is gonna keep loading up and loading up.
Maybe they're where they were two years ago. Look at all these great quarterbacks and then you got the Raiders with Gino.
I mean, come on, you know, but the Chargers are not just And here's Peyton who also building a culture in Denver and getting the right players, and I get that, but he's more of a Peyton's more of a pied piper, where hey, come here and trust you can trust me. I'll get the best out of You'll get You'll have career years with me because I know offense. Whereas Jim Harbaugh is a culture guy who wants his guys right, he wont He has shown you when I have my guys, I wig whether it's in college or the NFL. And that's what he's done so far. The first three days of free agency, going to get Najie Harris, who was as blue collar a running back as there is, right, not flashy, not spectacular, but he's healthy, he's good in the red zone, and he'll give you four yards a carry. Right, You can't rely on what you tried to go with. We said it last year. It's not gonna work. We want to run the football, can't do with these guys. Why did you get him from your brother? You know they're hurt all the time. So now they moved on to Naji Harris and he got back to catching the ball out of the backfield last year.
This kind of nice.
Yeah, Dante Jackson's a great ad for them as well. Mike Williams coming back because he worked in Los Angeles and worked with Justin Herbert, bringing back yet another weapon for him in the passing game.
You need to make sure.
The biggest need the Chargers had was let's make life a little bit easier for Justin Herbert. Right, Let's make life a little bit easier for him. Let's give him a couple of more weapons. Lad McConkie is terrific. Quentin Johnson has become serviceable, albeit not what he thought or it's gonna be.
He's serviceable now. Now, Mike Williams and suddenly.
Hey, this this wide receiving corps is taken shape a little bit here, and it's and it's guys that Herbert has comfort with and familiarity with, like Hardball's bringing in the right guys that these teams are taking the right approach to free agency. We're a team like the Patriots, who, yeah, they made their defense terrific, but they're just give.
Them money to everybody.
Right here, We've signed eight guys, like almost it's almost as if teams decide we won't feel we've done our job unless we bring in like nine players, right we need we gotta fill all these out Let's bring in nine players. Oh, you don't quite have to do it that way, you know you can. You can bring in and say, here's our money. We're filling three voids right here, because we're not gonna go crazy spending money. We're gonna spend our money that we want to on the players we want to, right like the Jets did the same way. Hey, what do we need right away? We need a quarterback? Good, guys, go get a quarterback. We got it, we got it. We need guys in the secondary, the number two cornerback in the safety to get number two cornerback in the safety right, and then all the other the holes they have. We'll figure that we're not just gonna throw money at guys that are backups that we want to project into being starters. So the teams that approach free agency that way, it's the kind of the new way to do it. And instead of let's save all our money and just spend it on a thousand new positions. But you're seeing teams like threes become the magic number. We go out and get three really good play. We spend our money and fill three holes in free agency, and we're not gonna dig and we're not gonna reach for the other positions. And while yes, you're gonna still get guys in the second wave of free agency, the third wave of free agency after the draft is over, that's gonna happen.
You have.
You have veterans out there that haven't signed yet. But what the Broncos and Charges have done is they've said, Okay, what do we need to do, and they've recognized aspects of this team where we got to do this right now and we're not going crazy. These are not contracts that are completely outlandish. The longest ones for three years. Three being the magic number now for free agency deals because I think over half the deals are three years, right, So now the big players aren't getting five and six years anymore, which might be a little bit of collusion, but maybe three years is becoming the maxim which is smart because three years you want to be able to get out of a deal if you have to.
Right, well, both for the ownership and for the player. Right if you're out performing, you want to get back into the market free.
Agency again, and if you're the team that's not working out, we want to be able to because it's all about the guaranteed money anyway.
So seeing the way they attack and the way the Broncos in charge of approach free agency, not only are they doing it the right way, they've got dudes, man, They got dudes.
Ready ready for Chargers well more because obviously they retain Khalil Mack or whatever else.
And they retain the guys that they like the Harbor wants.
But that's the other thing, right, With a lot of veterans here in this next week, you've got roster bonuses due which a lot of the conversations right now, are you really want to stay here? That ten million becomes five, right, so we have those. How about the Chargers bring back Keenan Allen to.
Oh why not stats for days?
He's got to come back out a minimal deal because he said he only wants play in their Chicago.
Yeah, why not?
Right?
Why not want to do it?
Get the band back together? Move those chains? Give you balance in definition. John Jefferson, Charlie Joyner, Now you're getting a little bit crazy. I don't think they can get out of their breaks them all back.
Oh, I don't know. I think they probably could.
I think I bet Charlie Joyner could still find his way over the middle.
And catch a couple of passes.
See, I'm surprised you didn't want to upgrade the tight end position and bring back Kellen Winslow at it.
Why did he bring back Antonio Gates?
Well, I mean, yeah, why not he get delay that Hall of Fame inducttion a little while longer. So there you go to the Bears have killed free agencies, so have the Broncos, and so have the Chargers exit. How about a Fresco exit swelling dome. Jason Smith Mike Harmon Love from the tire rack dot Com Studios coming up next a visit from Rick Bucher. We break down tonight's big game with the Thunder and the Celtics under one. The spoiler is Lebron on his way back sooner. All the big news train ahead right here. Jason am I Fox Well, another week, another three pounds. I've lost on phdweight loss, over thirty pounds overall, six inches on my waist. Mike's lost over thirty pounds as well. PhD clients lose weight the very first week. It's faster, easier, and healthier than popular weight loss drugs. No nasty drug side effects, no cravens for junk food, no injuries, no plateaus are failing. You'll learn how to eat, keep the weight off, and look and feel ten to twenty years younger. The first thing Doctor Lashy Lucas told me, You're gonna feel at least ten to twenty years younger. That's the first thing she told me when we talked about phdw weight loss. If you're thinking of losing weight and have questions about anything, give phdweight Loss a call. It's entirely virtual over the phone, designed to be convenient and flexible to your schedule. Just call say to get matched with an expert nutritionist, call eight sixty four sixty four to four nineteen hundred. That's eight sixty four sixty four four nineteen hundred. Tell them Jason and Mike Senth you and get two additional weeks free including meals myphdweightloss dot Com. That's m WA phdweightloss dot com. The phone number eight six four six four four nineteen hundred. Eight six four six four four nineteen hundred. That's eight six four six four four one nine zero zero.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app Live from Canadian Radio. It's Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon Fox Sports Radio.
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
You're a big fan of your show. Hey, I can't escape this song here. You won't when I'm on.
In Canada, Final NBA Game of the Night, Nick's trying to hold on against the Blazers. Just over a minute left to go. They lead it one oh four ninety eight. The next game to stop coming on the heels of mckel bridges and maybe some mixed players say, Hey, Timbs, how about some less minutes for the starters?
Well, you know we tried to lobby for them.
Joining us now on the hotline Fox Sports one NBA insider extraordinary. Check out the On the Ball podcast with him as well. He's on Twitter at Rick Buker. It is Rick Buker. What's happening, man?
How are you?
Oh?
I'm good. You know we'll start here.
The game is still going on, and you know mckel bridge is saying today, Hey, Nick, starters need to play fewer minutes. I'm like, okay, that's great. I've been saying that for a few months now. But I want to say, really, we gave up five bleep in first round picks for you and you have just nothing but under a chieve you're lucky at getting the minutes you are on the court, and yeah you want I'd love for you to have let's minutes somebody else can get out there and actually play better.
Wow, Jason Smith shooting the messenger.
Why is he like if can't say it ain't playing, But that's gonna be for Karl Anthony Towns. It's got to's and it's kind of you're somebody there for more than five seconds.
You know, I'm allowed to say it, but you're not allowed to say it. I've been a Knicks fan for years. Don't you know how much we gave up for you? As if Mikal Bridges said, hey, look, the only way that I'm going to come to the Knicks is if you give up five first round picks, and like you gotta sell the farm in order to get me, I'm not going to blame him for what.
It costs to get him, even if they overpaid.
And but this is the funniest part, This is the absolute funniest part of all this. Dims was asked about that conversation in Portland. He said, that never took place.
No conversation, And I'm only guessing that maybe Michale said something and Tibbs was in within earshot.
And that doesn't qualify as an actual conversation with you, or he's heard it so many times but he just it doesn't count, like it just goes right past him.
Yeah, yeah, okay, whatever you say.
Okay, get out there and play forty five minutes.
I'll take your word for him. What does that mean? They're all going to play forty five doesn't matter. It makes no use. We're bullying these five guys.
But see here's the thing. This is where it works.
And I think this is why you're starting to hear it. And I would imagine McHale's not the only one who made this case. Is when you're when you're trying to get paid, you're less likely to complain about the minutes or whatever, because the more minutes you get, the more the better your numbers are going to be, the better chance you are of getting paid. Well, Ellen Brunton's in paid, Josh Hart isn't paid, oz Anonoby has been paid. So they're like, Okay, we got what we wanted out of this, and Michale Bridges is probably looking at it. Look, look man, I play every game, but you're asking me to play forty five minutes and we have no rim protection behind me, which means I've got to play even harder. I I get where he's coming from, and I don't think that the minutes are.
The achilles heel that I've seen.
It really comes down to you're asking Jalen Brunson to not only be your closer, but your playmaker, and that's just a lot to ask with six two one ninety pounds point guard in today's in today's game, it's where like they're really good and he can be really good. But when you're talking about with and where Jason and every other Knicks fan.
Wants the Knicks to go, it's.
It's just not enough. You're gonna have a great regular season, you'll win a round or two in the playoffs, but if Jalen has to fill both of those roles, I just don't see them being good enough to contend for a title.
Well, Rick, that second round is going to be the Celtics or the Cavaliers, Like, I mean, that's the second that's it's one. That's the second round, no matter how you look at unless they opped out of the playoffs, that's the second round for the Knicks.
Yeah, yeah, And so I don't see them. And look, I think both of those teams, oddly enough, maybe the well both of those teams, with both Cleveland and Boston have flaws.
It's just the Knicks aren't built to take advantage of them.
And so yeah, it's second round and out.
If you're good with that.
At some point, the question is going to be, we've invested so much money in this and we expect to go a little bit beyond the second round, and I just don't I don't see that happening as constituted and the way their money is invested.
Now, Jason himself will be fine because it'll become Mets season. Rick, if it hasn't already, there you go.
So it.
He'll be just fine, all right, Oklahoma City, Yeah, gotta have it out, no question. Thunder with a six point win over the Celtics tonight, good job defensive. What they have seven guys in double figures on the Thunder. Is it time for folks to just finally accept how good this team really is and put them firmly in that title talk.
Yeah, I mean, I think we've accepted that they're really good, but it's going to be a mat I mean, we can't answer that question until we get to the postseason and we see how those young players respond to the pressure of a Game three or a Game five, and.
As they move forward.
And have to play teams that have just have more collective experience under pressure in the postseason. I think that they are built to do that. I think that they have enough experience now, and they have enough talent and versatility. But you know, chet Holmgren, who's been a good part of the season, Like, what's he going to be able to give you? I think that Isaiah Hartenstein is a great addition and is going to be a meaningful piece in the postseason. But uh, if they don't have home grin, then then they're lacking a certain degree a certain amount of size, and so I you know, I think on the other side, but with Boston tonight, thought, what we saw from Boston to night is exactly why I hesitate in saying that that they're the team to beat or that they're you know, that they're just a juggernaut. And it's a couple of things. One, no matter how they're how well they're shooting the three, they're still going to shoot the three and they're gonna shoot a.
Ton of them.
And then the other part is they don't really have, you know, outside of Dathan Tatum and Jalen Brown taking turns trying to get to their spot. If you can make them live off of their mid range, and they're just they're good, but they're not great, and they can beat they can have tough nights, as Jalen Brown did tonight and after that without Christaps Brezini's there, you really don't have anybody that's gonna score.
Consistently in the paint.
And so that's where when the three is not falling for them, they can become vulnerable. And so I still think there's that vulnerability there that stops me short of saying that they are the team to be.
Rick Buker with us, Jason Smith, Mike Harmon live from the Tirac dot com studios. All right, Rick, much to Charles Barkley chagrin, let's get to the Lakers and Lebron. So we find out today good news for Lebron James coming back to Los Angeles. Treatment on is groin. Everything is good. Looks like he's gonna come back within a couple of weeks. Now on the heels of the lor marketing story today where the Jazz got fined because they didn't make him available for games and suddenly marketing can play.
What are the odds that this.
Lebron injury was probably only a couple of games, But oh, we can find a way to give you. Make it two weeks off here, give you a nice little break before the stretch run into the playoffs, and let rest those that forty year old body that we're going to just absolutely run into the ground if we try to make a run into the Western Conference finals. Because I start, you know, I start thinking about this and going, I don't know that this is such a bad story for the Lakers, like Lebron's gonna need some time in as long as this is not serious. We've gotten every indication it's not serious. Two weeks off from Lebron right now not the worst thing in the world.
I would I would say I would agree with you, except in looking at their schedule and the number of games that they have, and that it means that there's presumably going to be more put on Luka Doncic's plate.
But we also saw dealing.
With a with a bad back. So I just I'm sure that the two weeks can benefit Lebron. I don't know that playing without Lebron for two weeks is going to benefit the Lakers overall, because they've got what two games coming up against the Buck there's another two games against another top team Denver maybe or Minnesota one of those another, and and they're playing they're playing Phoenix, who's can be a handful. Even they though they've had a tough season, so I just look and you know they're going to come and play hard against against Luca, that that that's a grudge match. And they have I think seventeen games in the next thirty three days. So I just see this, you know, everything that that that happened in the Boston game. We see Luca ailing Lebron daling Like this is the vulnerability of the Lakers, which is you look across the league at all of the duos that the contenders are are built on, and they're all in their prime. I think dodss may. I mean, Nikola Jokic might be the oldest of them at thirty. And I'm not counting, not counting the Warriors duo because I don't really have them as contenders yet.
So this is the problem.
And you also saw like as when Lebron was out, it then became the daunct show and he played very much like he did in Dallas, where it became very ball dominant, became very a much slower pace, and that's not what has made the Lakers so dynamic since Luca got to La. So I mean, look and look at the West and the Minnesota's coming, the Warriors are coming.
Like I know that that.
You know, a couple of days ago, Lakers were in second place.
They could end up in sixth or.
Back in the play in in a heart beat if they have a bad week or two. So that's the other part is like I think there's this is going to be a real fist fight to the end among Devin teams in the West to see who can grab those first six spots.
Yeah.
Down to four games difference between the Lakers and the Tea Wolves, and then.
Another game and a half to the Clippers.
M hm.
Kawhi Leonard, I mean that was more energy and excitement than I think I think we've ever seen from him.
Rick after he hit that big shot the other night, did you hear the post game crazy right?
Oh my god?
He was practically effusive. Like I was like, oh, who is this guy?
Yeah?
No, I This is the thing I think that people don't understand about Kawhi because he is so quiet, is and is that somehow I think he's a guy who likes to play. I think he's I don't think that he's a malingerer. I don't think he's milked injuries. I think all of it has been legit and that he wants to play and he wants to be part of this, and he is appreciative of everything that Steve Ballmer has done, you know, in spite of all the games that he's missed, the injuries and the dissip appointment they re upped him. And I think there's a part of Kawhi Leonard that is appreciative of that and wants to pay back in kind. And so when he gets the opportunity to do that and you get the chance to play and be a meaningful player again, I really think he misses that, and so I get where I get where his enthusiasm comes from.
Not used to.
Seeing Ye wait, he's on Twitter at Rick Buker. That is at Rick Buker. Don't forget check out the on the Ball podcast.
What's on MEO TV this week? What do you got?
Oh?
What do I have this week? Uh?
It's going to be the quad Shot. We're going to get into some of the vulnerabilities with the Celtics as well as well as all the Top fourteen a little bit of I gave a preview here of what the next podcast is actually going to be. I'm just going to go a couple level levels deep if you don't mind.
Check it out there the link on Rick's Twitter page at Rick Buker.
That is Rick Buker. Rick is always buddy appreciated.
Man.
We'll talk to you next week.
Have fun chatty kawhi yo? See was that not out of character?
We got that? We had to laugh, that's all we got. I know, I was absolutely right.
Now we are looking at the final NBA game of the night, Nix and the Blazers.
How are things rolling well? Well?
Be able to talk to Martin Weiss in a couple of seconds, you can tell us. But the Knicks and Blazers are now tied at one oh six apiece after a loose ball foul puts the Blazers at the free throw line. The game looks like it could be headed to overtime, and it is the Knicks with a big three point air ball by Miles McBride. Soboddy hits the weights.
Nix and the.
Blazers going overtime tied at one oh six apiece.
Now look, here's the thing. There's no power on that shot. Whatsp you know? You know I hear this. It's it's a great thing.
And I'm glad that finally the Knicks have said, hey, this is too much for us, Like Tims, we need the bench needs to play, and it's kind of falling on deaf fears. Michael Bridges is not the guy to say that, Hey, I just lot time, dude, you've been here for five seconds. Okay, let's just you know, really, you've been terrible this year. You've not been at all what the Knicks have wanted you to be. There's games where I can barely tell you're on the court, and still you get minutes. Like, okay, you want left, I'm okay with you getting less minutes. Let's let's give more minutes to someone off the bed. I'm fine with that.
Man.
If you get less minutes, I'm okay with it.
Well, if he's the guy being the mouthpiece, guess what Tim's gonna be like, I'll accommodate you.
That's such it's insane.
Come on, But I mean, look, but this is where you know, I come back to reality for the Knicks little bit, and that's where Hey, every night I see these three look and I don't think there's any team. I'm not scared of any team outside of the top three in the NBA, Like the Knicks and the Lakers. I'm fine, the Knicks and the and the Bucks, the Nicks and the Nuggets, I'm okay. But when you're talking about the Thunder and the Celtics, and and you watch the Cavaliers what they do last night, their second fifteen game win streak of the season, it's just are we all just fooling around like with how we think all these other teams are gonna do? Where these are the three best teams, Like I say it all the time, like it's a reality check. It's like they're living up here and everybody else we're all living down here.
Oh.
But it's like, you know, we talk with Rick right, the Thunder, it's all right, let's see it when it becomes the seven game series and it's not part of the eighty two game slate.
Haven't been there with your Knicks. You shorten rotations anyway come the playoffs. So if you didn't have to do it for.
The eighty two games, it would probably work the teams advantage.
Sure.
Unfortunately, not so much time how to find out what's trending in the wide world of sports from Martin Wise.
But he got for us man I got overtime.
Yeah, I got a little overtime little as basketball for your New York Knickerbockers one o six to one oh six at the end of the fourth quarter of going to overtime, both teams going twenty nine points in the fourth right there, Michael Bridges with twenty eight to lead the Knicks. So far, He's got eleven for seventeen, four rebounds and four assists. Ogn Andovan Karl Anthony Town's adding twenty three and twenty one respectively for the Trailblazers. Scoot Henderson with twenty eight points off of the bench and a big three pointer as as time was winding down to go ahead and push this game into overtime five minutes left. Jason Smith will keep you updated on the rest of that one. Just to hear any squeals from him. That's because Trailblazers probably just hit a bucket. Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Denver Nuggets one fifteen to ninety five. Anthony Edwards finished with twenty nine points on ten for twenty two from the floor. Julius Randall added twenty five himself. Nicolaiokis with thirty four points, eight rebounds and four assists, and he was the only the only Nugget to have over twenty Russell Westbrook coming in with nineteen NFL news I'm sorry, actually still in the NBA. The thunderbeat the Celtics one eighteen to one twelve. Shake Gildess Alexander finished with thirty four points seven assists. Chad Holmgren had a twenty three point fifteen rebound trip. Okay see the first team in the West to clinch a playoff spot. Rockets beat the Suns one eleven to one oh four. Jalen Green with twenty nine points seven rebounds of three steals. Houston, Steven Adams and Phoenix and Mason Plumbley were ejected in the fourth quarter of this game for fighting. The Mac Jones backup quarterback for the Jaguars is going to join the forty nine Ers with a two year, seven million dollar deal, five of that million guaranteed he'll earn up can't earn up to eleven and a half million dollars, and wide receiver Mike Williams rejoining the Chargers after a short stint with the Jets then the Steelers. He'll be back in Los Angeles, team he played for two seasons ago, one year deal worth up to six million.
Jason and Mike back to you guys, Thanks a bunch red line Mike Williams knowing that red line is red line.
Red line. Coming up next, we get back into NFL free agency and one fan base is gonna owe me a huge apology if something that's rumored to happen actually happens tomorrow.
That's next, right here, Jake.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific, Fox.
Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon Lockfthtirack dot Com Studios.
And we're still waiting.
The two biggest dominoes and NFL free agency are going to be Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson when they make their decision or the decision is made for them. And uh, you know, it's funny because the last couple of days, look our our big take on Sam Darnold and the Vikings letting him go for nothing has gone completely viral on social media. Vikings fans hate me. Oh it's awesome. I can never go to Minnesota again.
But that's okay. How many is it up to you?
Now?
Oh, let's see Minnesota. So I was like forty Minnesota and oh are you kidding?
No, dude, that thing's like nearly half a million. Well then you must have really found a whole new Uh.
There's yeah, it's a bit. It's a bit. I't checked it in a minute light.
So anyway, so the thing is and and the way that Vikings fans are so mad because oh, we got a compensation but oh, that's you a compensation pick for a guy that's through thirty five touchdowns, four thousand yards. You were fourteen and three, did everything you wanted. That's a fair thing. You could have franchised him and dealt him. You could have done it whenever you wanted to. You didn't have to do it the day waned free agency. But it doesn't matter. All the Vikings fans hate me. I'm going to say this the big rumor for Aaron Rodgers right outside of the Giants and the Steelers. We've seen this from a few pundits and insiders that Rogers could be waiting to try to get in with the Vikings, which I don't understand why. I mean, really, you want to do exactly what Brett farre did. Seriously, you want to do that, Goo Packers. I'm upset, Jets. It doesn't work out Vikings, right, Why would you want to go there? In theory, they kicked Sam Darnold out because they love JJ McCarthy.
In theory, if the.
Vikings bring in Aaron Rodgers because supposedly Rodgers waiting hopefully to make this work. If the Vikings bring in Aaron Rodgers, then every single person that has either said bad things about me or whatever it is, you need to apologize to me and then leave Twitter. Because if this is what the Vikings do, we love Sam Donald. Sam Darnald comes in and does an incredible job at twenty seven years old, and we're gonna let him go because we love JJ McCarthy.
Okay, I disagree, but we love JJ McCarthy. No, no, no, We're still gonna.
Bring in Aaron Rodgers to play while JJ McCarthy gets used to it, and maybe he plays this year, maybe he doesn't. That is where anybody making a decision for the Minnesota Vikings you have to have some kind of intervention to go. So you didn't want Donald, you didn't get anything for him. You kicked him to the curb because you love JJ McCarthy, But you're gonna play Aaron Rodgers until he's ready. In what world does that make sense? And Aaron Rodgers at the end, in what world does that make sense? And you apology and leave social media? And that's that's a big purget X because that's a lot of people that decided yeah, Jason, yes, yeah, that's a lot of people are gonna oh man, yeah, I mean.
Part of it.
Still, you didn't want to get left holding the bag. It's a seven million dollar difference between that and or more what Gino was asking, et cetera. Look, Aaron Rodgers said he's ready to mentor he's in that phase. I want to play, but I could be that good mentor. I could be that guy to help. I mean that was what he was doing when he was begging to stay with the Jets. Whatever you do, I'll be that guy. I'll be a great teammate, I'll be a great leader. And JJ McCarthy, what that tells me is you you don't want to commit to the quarterback with the full freight, but you're not one hundred percent invested on JJ McCarthy right now, No, no, no, well but it's Sam. Maybe maybe maybe he thought he tapped out.
And again, you know, you didn't want to commit the forty million on the franchise tag and potentially not have a suitor, right because all of it, you know, plays in and teams coming to the marketplace for Sam Darnold might have had that thirty three, thirty five million whatever, but that extra five changes the changes the poker game changes that hand immensely. So now now Aaron Rodgers completing the Brett Favre trilogy would be really good theater.
It's a good thing.
I never cracked that bottle of champagnecause I always knew he was coming back. Remember when he left the division, I had that bottle of champagne.
Yeah, just I really don't drink a whole lot anymore. But there he is.
I mean, just think about that philosophy of here's a guy that's everything. We were lucky. We thought he was going to be a backup. And he comes in and he done. He's twenty seven, and he does and he out does every quarterback we could have possibly brought in. He's a Pro Bowl quarterback to one of the top three quarterbacks in the NFC. It is an incredible game, an incredible season for him, and we let him go. Okay, all right, but we really liked the guy we took, right j JJ mc arthy is our guy. We love you heard you heard Kevin O'Connell say that the entire end of the season into the office.
We love I love it, but we love him. We love JJ, We love JJ, We love JJ.
If this is an error, if this Aaron Rodgers comes into play ahead of him, like really, you have to say, what the hell are you doing? Like, what the hell are you doing? I mean maybe the Vikings are attacking the studio right here, right now, we're getting some kind of alert. I've kind of alert all our phones in uh mute mood?
Did matter? So getting the beep? So yeah, they're mad at you.
Then those five hundred thousand strong What if it's this the you didn't want to commit because if Sam Darnold was good again, now you're in no man's land because you never see the field with JJ McCarthy, which means his value is Hey, that guy had a couple of knee surgeries since he was in college. And remember there were a lot of evaluators, including yourself. They didn't think he had any business being drafted in the first round, So you had that part of it. The other is Kevin O'Connell looking in the mo and that's why he got rid of Sam Donald's like, all right, he's a fall guy. Nobody's casting his spursion on my plate going. But he's also got the eyebrow raised like the rock going. If I could do that with the guy, nobody could get anything good out of Imagine what I could do with a four time MVP.
How about that exit out by the Fresco exit swollen down the Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike car made me an apology and leave social media, not just twist.
Leaves loser leaves town match. Yes, that's what's gonna happen at WrestleMania.
We got more on Aaron Rodgers coming up next, as well as Mike Russell Wilson have played.
His final down in the NFL.
This is Fox Sports Radio.
You Aaron Rodgers
