NFL Free Agency Predictions, an NBA Power Poll, and Tatum’s Return With Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, Michael Pina, and Joe House

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where we launched way to second with Jason Sepsion

a couple of weeks ago. I was on it, Chris Ryan Mazonett. Ben Lathen is on it this week. It's a hard podcast to explain, but it's about, you know, the underbelly conspiracies, the things that make you go, hmm.

Things in the news cycle. It's a really good podcast. Please check it out. I hope you're checking out CR month on the rewatchables. But it's scarier this week.

Fargo is coming on Monday to live in Diane L.A. It's going to be the third movie. And then we're having everybody vote on the fourth movie. So it's basically an all week thing. We yesterday, the goonies won the Wednesday vote.

Thursday vote is today. It seems like the other guys is going to win that one. And then we have one more vote tomorrow. The three winners will face off of the weekend. I think the goonies is going to win.

But some other people think the other guys will probably win. We'll see who comes out of the last seat. You can vote on that.

“And I think we're going to blow out CR month.”

This is where this is leading. CR month's been such a, such a smashing success. I think it's going to be maybe more like the San genera festival. Some point that what food, what musical acts will have barely recognizable actors from crime thrillers from the '90s, 2000s and the '80s, just kind of wandering around.

You just like look over and be like, I think that's remember Patrick. I'll keep you posted. Maybe next year, CR month just becomes a much bigger thing. Jason Tatum seems like he's coming back on Friday, taping this on to eight Thursday afternoon. And all signs, as I said on Sunday, are pointing to Jason Tatum coming back against the Dallas

Mavericks in seven o'clock Eastern time and Cooper flags first game in Boston, Massachusetts.

He grew up in Maine. I think the entire state of Maine is going to be at this game along with the entire Sloan conference. I don't know where they're in fit everybody. But I really hope Cooper gets a feel for the city for the arena.

Maybe he can look for apartments and condos for when he officially signs with the Celtics in 231 and comes home. We have a spot for him, but I really hope it goes well for him in Boston.

“And you know, when he's on the Celtics in 231, we'll just be like, yeah, remember that time”

when he is first game, was Tatum's first game back and now Tatum's passing the torch to him as the newest member of the Boston Celtics? Yeah, I think that's going to happen. We need Jason Tatum though. The Celtics got waxed by Charlotte last night.

Charlotte is down just a month ago. We're going to talk about them a little bit later in the podcast with Michael Pina and Joe

House, we're going to do an MBA powerful coming up first though.

The Danies, Danny Hippets, Danny Kelly or we're going to be talking about football and FL all hell break in Minnesota. These days, a couple of weeks. We're going to talk about things. We're looking for crazy predictions.

All kinds of things. We're going to take a break, Pearl Jam, and then the Danies. This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn ads. The best B2B marketing gets wasted on the wrong people. So when you want to reach the right professionals, you use LinkedIn ads.

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All right, Thursday afternoon. So if anything happens after we do this, don't play in us. The Danies are here. Danny Hippets, Danny Kelly, two thirds of the ringer fantasy football show, a great, great podcast.

Craig couldn't be at Craig's to big now. I don't know if you guys, did you hear about how are you manuals trying to turn Pat McAfee into an actor? Like an action star?

I did not see that. It was like Steven's to go all became an actor like that way.

I don't know if you guys know this, but Craig was the second choice.

Matt McAfee said no, they were just, you know, the actors get jacked, like when John Krasinski, like they're thinking Craig gets jacked.

“He just becomes the next jack Ryan, like who knows?”

Well, I, it's funny you say that because I heard at the end of your show with Matt Bellany, which was great breaking down the paramount deal. You said that you and Matt split the custody Craig. We did. I just like us.

We just get drinks. What does that make us? Yeah, you're like half brothers on a WB sitcom. We're great. Craig just kind of floats in and out of your family.

We have a lot of football stuff going on. But the only real shocker to me so far, and I don't know, I asked you guys to make a list of the top thing. Because right now, we're heading into football time right now, like trades are starting to happen.

The free agent the C is really kicking off in a week, but we know it's going to start sooner than that. Guys are getting waves, like Stefan Diggs got wave today. And we have a big picture sense of shit that's going down. Two things that happen, I asked you guys to make a list and these two things are probably

in the list. So sorry. But as to where Buffalo, getting receiver early, getting on DJ more. And then where I want to start are the chiefs. Did they care about 2026?

What was the deal with the McDuffee trade? What do you think D.K.? Like, why would you trade a star corner back in his mid 20s that you clearly need in the AFC? What is the deal?

Yeah.

First of all, look at Hifetz's body language.

He is just absolutely loving this, because Craig and I have kind of been given him shit for, we're not quite ready to write off the chiefs in 2026, but Hifetz kind of is. And so Hifetz is absolutely loving this right now at the point that out.

“I think it is, it comes down to a number of things.”

They have to redo a lot of contracts to probably have to release a bunch of guys. Half of their starting line up from last year is pretty much free agents at this point. So they have a lot of issues with their cap. And they have generally-- The paper thing from like the seven year run year on, we keep rolling the check over for dinner

and now it's dip. Exactly. And they have a history of kind of moving on from corners than developing younger guys. And so that's probably a big part of this. But yeah, basically, Hifetz kind of has been laying this out as sort of a mini rebuild this year

for that. Yeah. It's a shout out rebuild. The chiefs are shout out rebuilding in plain sight. I mean, the chiefs are equal Super Bowl from 13 months ago.

The chiefs are going to probably turn over more than half of the starters in that game. From 13 months ago. I know that she's got their butts kicked, but they still made the Super Bowl. And that team's gone. And really what I think is happening with the chiefs bill is that the tirey killed

trade gave the chiefs an extra four year window, because that was four years ago. And the chiefs turned tirey killed into a bunch of picks. Kansas City hit every single pick. Like the 2022 draft alone, Kansas City got seven starters, five on defense. And I could go through all of them.

But like, they're the guys you've never heard of.

Everyone knows my homes. Everyone knows everyone knows Kelsey. Everyone knows Chris Jones. People don't know about like Brian Cook and, you know, people Trent McDuffie made it all for a tune, but there's guys like Jalen Watson and Brian Cook and all these guys down

the line that started in a secondary for Kansas City that made free street Super Bowl's. All of these guys, the chiefs are setting back into free agency. They're not bringing any of them back. So they're kind of doing it again. We're Trent McDuffie.

The trade compensation they got isn't that far off from what they got for tirey kill four years ago. Right. They're doing the same thing where they're caching players in for a bunch of picks. And they're like, well, now we just have to hit all the picks again and we're good.

Well, that whatever you want. But if you're like, well, if we just hit all our picks again, we're a contender, I would call that a rebuild. Honestly, it's, I don't think it's a bad strategy, but the chiefs have a five year window. They're thinking about with my homes because he's 30.

And the Rams are thinking about a one to two year window because they've matched the efforts.

“So I think that's what that chiefs Rams trade was.”

Well, you left out the ACL. I mean, right. I know he's going to come back, but he's going to, we'll have a brace on. I would assume. I'll do it so you don't have to say mobility that he would have had in his mid 20s.

Bill, I'll do it so you don't have to. You have us here on Jason Tatum Eve. So thank you for that. But this is their chiefs Jason Tatum season. I won't make you make the comparison because I know everyone will get mad.

But it's a little bit like the Jason Tatum self-dicision. Well, the info ball, it seems like the ACL recovery just goes faster and I don't really know the reasons for that. For bad football versus like Kyrie's not coming back and he had his injury over a year ago. In football, we've seen these guys come back after like seven months, which I don't

think come back from. Killy's faster. Must have something to do with the, the quits and the grass, most of the time and all that stuff. Science research, the inability to catch performance and hands and drugs now that we'll

look back on later in that case, but right, maybe getting me into your wife, which we've seen in the past. Danny on Fando right now, chiefs not the favorite to win the AFC West, which has to be the first time since Alex Smith was there and they're probably even favorites. So last year he was there, chargers are plus 170 chiefs plus 180 and Broncos plus 210.

I was surprised. I thought the chiefs would be the third of the pecking order on that one. But I think it's just, you know, respect for the infrastructure.

were terribly coach last year and I just thought they seemed really sloppy all year and it went beyond just like, hmm, maybe we need some different players and I don't think that's going to change at all. I'm, I'm shorting the chiefs, so you're not shorting the chiefs yet, Danny. That's why my mind is now.

I know we, we don't have to decide to logist. To be totally clear, the argument was, who is more likely to be in the Super Bowl next year the Ravens or the Chiefs and Craig and I took the chiefs and thought, hi, if it was crazy for picking the Ravens, considering some of the ways that they've ended the season, their seasons over the last however long.

“But I do think, number one, that was the reason I think they got rid of Matt and Aggie”

and went to Eric, the enemy exactly what you were saying in terms of like the coaching. I think the enemy is known as more like a drill sergeant type coach where he's going to give him hard coaching, maybe be a little bit more on the fundamentals and things like that. But yeah, I mean, the more that we get into this and the more I look at their cap and how many free agents they have, plus the Rishi Rice News that came out recently, his future is a

little bit up in the air right now. I'm kind of my argument is feeling quite a bit weaker in terms of the chiefs ending it back up. Folks, you can it's also possible to not like either team, like I don't really like what the Ravens have brewing either.

So, all right, for you guys, I could give you seven wins or I could give you 12 and you had to pick one, which one would you pick? For Kansas City, I would cancel. You would pick seven, I would pick seven wins over 12 for this season. I think they'll get back to Super will contender if they hit their drafts, but I don't

think Kansas City should do it when team is. Do we think that Andy Reed is just over the hill as a coach or do we still believe it? I thought there were a lot of signs last year that it wasn't looking great. And we've seen these coaches hit late 60s or at least 70s, like Pete Carroll, you had an framer.

He was a really good coach. Last couple of years, you and me and we're complaining about him, me and I mean, it denies it. But she was. We have the receipts that he goes to Vegas and he's terrible and he just kind of lost it,

which I think is conceivable. I still think I'd go 12, but you would take 12 over the seven, okay. Yeah. It even turns to 28. Two extra clubs.

I feel like we're riding them off way too quickly. I mean, look at what they done the last 10 years. I'm not riding his career off, riding the season off in ACL, we're like the, I mean, even bringing Travis Kelsey back is just a legacy thing. If he wasn't as famous or as accomplished as he was, they probably might not even want

Kelsey back considering what he's done. I mean, I don't know. I think he's kind of a shell of himself, but I don't know, anyway, 68 years old and sometimes the lead passes you by. I think there's a six year window where what Andy reads really good at was the meta that

you want to win in the NFL with, but now they're back to understand it running. That's not what Andy reads good at. Well, they do have that ninth pick and you guys are diving into the draft now and I saw our friend, me and on TV, push in the running back, like, and right around where you don't want to.

I just feel like the, what happened at the Raiders last year, I've just never taken running

back in the top 10. It just would just be, I don't care if it's both Jackson.

“I think I've just landed at that point in 2026, you have to be, you would have to immediately”

be the best guy at your position for me to consider it. There's so many other ways to patch together. Anyway, I'm going seven wins for them. I, and I'm fully ready for the full roller coaster ride of Bad July. It's like, you know, I'm kind of a treat by the chiefs.

Yeah. And then I'm ready to ride on the roller coaster with them. We already have an idea for an episode we're going to do in July and it's going to be that the week, I think the Odyssey comes out in July. We're going to do the wax in our ears like we're not listening to a training camp pipe.

Like we're, we're just not listening to the siren songs of training camp. Who was the worst guy last year for the fantasy training camp pipe? Who was the guy that roped us in and then, and then drove us into a telephone pole? Maybe Justin Fields. Wow.

See, I never believed that one.

He was fantasy in particular. I would say he was a, it's a book account, even though he was great for eight weeks, and then just became a serial killer. Very good at fantasy team. Okay.

Book, there's a list of guys that I'm always like people got hurt and they don't give him credit for being hurt.

“I think in terms of like, hype being roped in, I think a frankly, I think the teams that won the”

all season last year were the Patriots and the Raiders and the Patriots made the Super Bowl and the Raiders at the first pick. And I think that's the, that's also the story of the free agency to me. It's like some teams can go in and do what the Patriots did, but she usually like the Raiders. Subjet, jetty baby was another one.

Okay. I asked her, I asked you guys for a list. Get us ready for the next. What do we think? It's really like three weeks, but it's ultimately eight days when all the shit goes

down.

When we find out like, wow, they gave Malik well, it's 90 million, oh my God, we're

going to find out. So, mate, you made a list. Let's just go from top to bottom. Who do you have number one? Hi, Fitz.

I'll be sure. I'll go first. I think I said the chief thing. I think the number one thing I think is Kyder Murray is going to sign somewhere for the veteran minimum.

And I don't know if he wild, ready for that. This is a wild story. I think. So, just the prologue of people are listening and kind of shocked, Arizona is going to cut

is like one year, $1.3 million. The cardinals are going to, it's kind of like with Russell Wilson got a couple of the Broncos and got paid basically to play for the Steelers.

Cardinals are going to basically pay Kyder's $37 million to play for the next team.

And Kyder, whatever you say, as in the words of a wise old man that I have worked for,

“I think Kyder Murray has been so overrated that he's now actually underrated.”

And Kyder Murray, for $1.3 million is a league-tilting player. It's even a release. It's done a great job writing about this at the ringer the last month where we can go through the teams. But I think Kyder Murray, I think there's four teams that make sense.

And I think the list is short. I think it's the Vikings, which is the favorite. And then there's the dolphins, the Falcons, maybe. And I actually think the Shadow team is the Steelers, but I think it's going to be one of those four teams.

It's funny because I thought you were going to say the Panthers is one of the four teams. Ooh, basically just like, is he just better than Bryce Young? What are we doing? Or are they the same type of quarterback and we could have both and just let them fight it out? You do with those four teams, Danny Hadd, DK? Yes.

I personally think Minnesota has the most hype right now and is kind of the most momentum. It kind of makes a lot of sense that he would do that because of the weapons around him. They're going to be playing in a dome. The coach in particular, I think is the big thing here, Kevin O'Connell, so the Vikings are kind of--

Yeah, he did some good for JJ McCarthy. I mean, I know, but if you look at every guy on asset, that just makes me, how bad is JJ McCarthy, if he couldn't get anything out there. Well, since they're out on him, right? I mean, a lot of the T-Leaves being dropped.

You read between the lines on everything they've said that they're not going to be relying on him this year. It's kind of like that thing where we're not giving up on him, but we're just not going to rely on him right now. Well, we-- I've been making this joke forever on pods and columns.

Your QB is your relationship. Yeah. This is like-- if Hyphitz is in a relationship right now, and if he was just like, yeah, no, it's still-- we're still-- but I'm going to date other people, but then you know it's over.

Yeah. That's what it's like with McCarthy. You can't dabble around and try to bring in all these other people while also claiming or we know how this is going to go. This was the Cold Slaster of the Anthony Richardson.

The moment they put-- the moment it was out there, it was a wrap. And this is going to be a wrap. Well, what are you saying that the Vikings, the Kevin O'Connell, giving the one-hour meetings

“with Chachin McCarthy every week, with the Yreus Al, that was in enough time?”

I think he's looking back at that now as a giant sunk cost, and he could have just played fortnight or learned to scale, maybe played the clarinet. It could have learned things, maybe. Maybe gotten a better appreciation of jazz. I don't know.

I guess I'm coming back to whether Kyla Murray is good or not.

And you mentioned the overrated underrated thing, if it's like, I've just never thought

he was the top 15 guy, like a guy you could win multiple rounds with, I still go back to that. What was it? The Rams of the Seahawks, when they lost by like 30 in that wild card game at a Monday night, and I talked myself into him as I think I had the cardinals, and he's just new right

away. It was like, oh, it's been two years ago. Well, 'cause this is a two or three years ago. There was a night football game where Sam Darnold had a game winning drive against the Cardinals, and then as a Seahawks, and then Sam Darnold went and won the Super Bowl.

I know you've blocked out the Super Bowl, and again, DK's a Seahawks fan. What's it talking about, uh, Super Bowl winning quarterback, Sam Darnold? You almost threw us three picks in the first. I had a whole really sad Pats fan text right about the three picks. We almost got from Sam Darnold early when our hard strategy was, throw us one Sam, and

he was kind of thinking about it, but just never did it. Yeah, I mean, it was the Seahawks for Super Bowl, so DK's really excited. Yeah, congrats on your first win. I don't think this is that. Appreciate it.

Definitely taste that champagne.

“Um, do any of us think you could win three playoff rounds with Kyle Murray, like honestly?”

No. Maybe. I think the Darnold Super Bowl, the Darnold Super Bowl, I think, has to be a slice of humble pie for everybody. Even I believe in Darnold, I think more than most people, and even I would have been hesitant

to say that Darnold will just win 14 games again, and win the Super Bowl, but I think what it shows is there is, is he kind of good enough to be a franchise quarterback and, you know, not even just like Patrick Holmes, Joe Burrow, but like even with Trevor Lawrence was at the second half of last season. I don't know, but I think the Darnold thing is to slice a humble pie of look what certain

guys can do when they're surrounded by elite talent, like Jimmy Garoppolo or Brock Perti with the Niners and like a different kind of quarterback. But I think, yeah, the lesson of the last five years in NFL is if you can't draft a franchise quarterback or a choir one, you need to take a swing on a top five pick that was ruined by a bad team, Darnold from the Jets, Baker may fill it on the Browns, like I kind of think

of Josh Allen had gone to the Jets he would have sucked too, and I look at the Cardinals are sneakily just as bad as those teams, but it's warm weather, so no one cares. I think like what if the Cardinals ruined Kyler Murray and like he's just one of those athletes that he was he's a top 10 pick and M.O.B. too, so yeah, it's like all the the video game clause and his contract and the studying and they see a leader, the body language

sure, but that he's getting paid a million dollars to be your starting quarterback.

We triple over ourselves to the rookie quarterback contracts.

I think he's so cheap that a team like Minnesota, I do think you change up what you do schematically to bring him in because if you'll turn it if he's JJ McCarthy or Derek

“Carl, I'm like, I think you do have to give Kyler, I just feel like it's full's gold,”

like it makes sense in August.

I always felt like you could really feel as height in some of these camps, like he can't

throw in the middle, like he just can't and a lot of the stuff has to be rolling outside to side, which is the better the defense is, it's not going to be there, and you know, it looks great when you're playing his shit team, I think stylistically it is there's some similarities to like Russell Wilson, late in his career in terms of having basically you can scheme away a big chunk of the field against their offense, whether it's color

where you're Russell Wilson, basically Wilson couldn't attack the middle of the field. Kyler's, I don't think quite as bad about that, but he does tend to spin away from pressure and try to get outside, make things happen outside the pocket, and then when you start to lose some of your speed and athleticism or just in his case, willingness to run, because I think there was a couple of years there where every preseason it was like Kyler's not

going to want to run, he's going to try and play from the pocket, you saw this with Russell Wilson throughout his whole career, like, you know, trying to cut out on the, you know, that's the first of the running QB, we're 100% out of the mar, yeah, you guys hit their late 20s and teams are like, we don't want those guys to take the hits anymore, yeah. When you have any kind of talent, when you have any kind of physical deficiency at the

level, whether it's Will Campbell with his arm length or Kyler with the height, you have these other things that make up for it, the superior athleticism, Will Campbell goes in injured reserve, and it's not a shot, it's like, oh, well, then he's a rookie 22 injured reserve returns, okay, now the athleticism you need for the arm length thing, Kyler, it's like, when you lose the crazy athleticism and your shorter, that hurts your game.

I do think, though, if, like, I look at Miami who's often to corner your spot, we slow it. They run the 40 years off. I'll see better than that.

“Yeah, they can't, like, you don't think they could have him, because I think, like, no,”

they don't have to change their offense to have him. Who else do they have? Well, Bobby slow it can't, because like he doesn't know any, like, they can't, Kyler cannot do understand her play action, like he can't do that, he needs to be shocked on outside, quick game vertical shots outside, so the dolphins, I don't think you can do it.

The team that I think can do it if it's not Minnesota, Craig was so mad at me, it's Pittsburgh, because that's a Rogers place, you don't think of Rogers and Kyler being similar, but if you look at a map where they throw, I think it makes Stephen really great. That kind of does make a lot of sense for Kyler. It does, but it wasn't his deep ball stuff, like some of the worst of this decade.

I thought that was like some really bad deep ball stats with Kyler. He was kind of, I think he's been kind of all over the place to be honest. I just think of how he played when he had Hopkins on his team, Dodger Hopkins, and kind of just really missed the throw up to him. That does kind of come to my mind, but yeah, I believe he's been kind of all over the place

with his deep ball accuracy. Hi, Fitz is allowed no more shots at any of my teams, because I'll just start making giant jokes.

I'm just laying that warning down now, DK, what's your first one?

So to play off of the Kyler Domino, I think the next big Domino is going to be where Malik Willis signs, and he's probably going to sign for 20 to 30 minutes. Let's go. Oh, he's getting it. It's starting with a three.

30 to four. It's a three. So I think this is fascinating, because if you look at some of the numbers that he's put up in limited starts, I think he has like three or four starts over the last couple of years, like six or seven appearances in games.

His numbers are ridiculous, like truly, he looks like an elite quarterback. If you just look at those numbers, obviously, it's a very small sample, and I saw this tweet from Kurt Warner the other day, basically, if you look at all of these, the dropbacks that he had as a starter in the last two years, he could, if you take out screens and quick throws under five yards, he had 28 real dropbacks.

So you're talking about a million per year per drop.

Yeah, pretty much. He was like a gimmick off and selling them for him. gimmick is maybe not the right word, but basically he was utilize in the running game a lot. They weren't putting a lot on his shoulders.

They weren't asking to do all that much in each of these starts, but he was incredibly incredibly efficient with the football. He was average, like 11 and a half yards per attempt, and was very good, you know, protect the football.

“Right, that is, his teammates seemed really in on them, which I think is important when”

you're talking about the only position where that actually really matters. I think Packers fans were on it too. Yeah. So he's a really fascinating one. I feel like on the surface, this looks like an obvious, you're going to overpay and then

he's going to progress badly, but I'm kind of, I kind of find myself thinking he might end up being pretty good in the NFL. He was the player coming into the league when you look at his scouting report, rare physical talent, incredible arm. He really fasted in athletic as a runner.

He could change the way that you do your entire run game, basically. And went to the worst possible team, and then went to a bad team. He was really wrong. That was like he was a third round pick. That was why he went so late in the draft, is he had a lot of things to clean up, and

then he did exactly what you should do, which is develop behind a good starter for a couple

Every time he got an opportunity, he did something really impressive.

I don't know. I don't know where the ideal place for him to go is right now.

“I think a lot of people are connecting him to Arizona, but it's funny that I'm old enough”

to remember every decade where we had guys like this and now hard it is to figure out. Going back to Scott Mitchell was one of the all-time best ones. There was you had the Matt Flynn situation in the early 2010s, but we had these guys. And it's like small sample size, but if you look at the mixed tape, it's like, oh, it's shit.

Look at these 20 plays. I think they do. Yes. Ben Comp urks me a little bit. I know it's both like Packers going from the Packers like quarterback factory or whatever

and turning these and Matt has to pick was another one that did it with the Seahawks. He was like a six-round pick. That was a positive one though. Yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely. But I think when Matt Flynn happened, everyone was very dubious that it was going to be real. And then when you saw him in training camp, you're like, okay, this is, he's not. Right. And when you see Millik will destroy the football, at least you're like, damn.

This guy's got an arm. Matt Flynn was, he just had kind of a noodle arm. The Matt Flynn thing I actually think represents why this might be a decent decision.

“And again, to be clear, when I look at the Millik will list thing, I look at, I think”

that that saying pessimists are often right and optimisticists are often rich. And it's like, yeah, Millik will probably won't be good in the NFL. Like, that's easy. Like it's easy to say. Like, oh, 30 million from Millik will just probably waste the money.

All right. Well, if the Cardinals won three games last year, it's like, you could argue the entire season was a waste of money. You know what I mean? At some point, every season you win three games is a giant waste of money.

So at that point, you're the most important thing is to not waste time.

And we're opportunities. So the sea ox, they decide Matt Flynn and they drastic Russell Wilson. You do everything. And they hit one. You only have to hit one at every 10 quarterbacks, you sign to have a good team.

Like the Niners, you look, don't stop shooting. So you get one. Brock Perty was a separate round pick. They were going to take a linebacker. And they decided to take a quarterback because why wouldn't we?

And I think that's the thing. You need the mentality to keep shooting, because it's disproportionate upside, wasting 30 million in one season for the cardinal, who cares if you like, honestly, it's not my who cares if it's 30 million from liquid. Well, the question is, could it be 120 million for four years or 130 million for four

years? I doubt. 30 million. It's a man. Everybody needs a quarterback.

“The upside is that he's 20, like here's the thing.”

You could share. Maybe the Cardinals go get Kirk Cousins or Derek Carr or whatever, but then you need immediately to quarterback again. At least if the 20% chance is milk, milk willus is good, then he's 26 years old. And he's the fastest quarterback in the NFL any as a cannon.

The issues were processing and a lot of the pro game stuff and that, I guess what? If the Cardinal side of Michael Flores, Matt Flores, Little Brothers, they had coached the Packers. So, Matt Flores get and all this credit for the liquid wills turning around. No one should have a better idea of how to help the liquid wills continue what he's

doing than Matt Flores, Little Brother. So I look, is it going to work probably not, but if it does, you need a quarterback. So you might as well try. One of my favorite moves would be if Vegas traded back out of the first pick, like flip picks with the jets and then signed Malik Willis because Brady was like, I've studied

his tape. I like him. I think he's a really hard one to figure out because like Mitchell had us had a sample size of some success, but when you also I test wise when you watch him, who's just really slow six foot six guy, lefty, it just, you kind of knew he's going to be a bust, right?

Matt Flaine, we barely had any tape on Steve Wash, was a good one way way back when I'm in Dallas at him and either Dallas traded for him or New Orleans was I can't remember but at some point he got a shot and he just had no arm. But we actually have tape on Willis succeeding on a good team and it's not like one game. It's like a few games and I don't know, to me, like the number of 30, what would it same

darn I'll get three for three, three years or a hundred million something like that.

I think that's a good range to like roll the dice with a QB because if you hit like Seattle did with Darnell, you have somebody on a really good price. You don't hit, you can kind of get out of it. You can move on. Let me take a break and we'll come back and finish this.

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Mikkelob Ultra, superior is worth playing for, enter now at Mikkelob Ultra.com/portside. Well we just have the whole quarter of our musical chairs, but I mean, I think the teams are certainly calling 49ers about Max Jones, but I don't think the 49ers should trade Max Jones.

I think the 49ers are saying they'll do a first.

I think they'd probably settle for a second, but I think the 90s shouldn't trade Jack Mac Jones unless it's a hypnic, because Rock Party keeps getting hurt and you need to back up quarterback, I think hanging on a rock in Max Jones.

“The electrical sub station thing is still, maybe that's why he's the man to trade.”

Yeah, exactly. What do you think? What do you think DK? Do I think he's worth the first probably not in terms of Max Jones, but I think I would love to see him get a chance to start again somewhere.

I think he's showing enough, especially in like a Shayna Handmig, they style offense. I think he's showing enough to be a starter. I think there's other guys in this group of musical chairs too, Kirk Cousins. I think is going to have a chance to be a starter this season. Kirk Car, the rumors on this, the moment of the story has, I feel like we got at least

pay attention to this, like him coming out of retirement, the Saints trading him. I've heard the jets are enough for him, I don't know if you want to go play for that. This is like the classic sports team, Nisha, where enough time pass, where nobody actually remembers his last couple years, like, "Oh, Derek Car's coming back." I know.

It's like, yeah, we had him, and he wasn't good. He's going to be part of the story at the very least, we got to watch it over the next hour along to a couple weeks, Anthony Richardson is another one that I'm very fascinated to watch. He might not be a starter this year.

“I think most likely, he's going to have to do the same to Arnold thing and sit in”

purgatory for a year or two, and then hopefully try and live that weekend. Are we talking about NFL or another league? No, I'm talking about the NFL starts soon, and I still believe in Richardson. What do you believe in? His physical talent.

It's the same as, I'm like, well, I'm like, well, it's, um, I don't see the other thing at all. Oh, I do. Well, I mean, he's going to get at least chance to give them an opportunity to see a trade.

We'll see if he does that. And then the other guy to include here is Tyson Bayesian of the Bears. But there's basically just a bunch of-- Now, I'm intrigued. I know.

Who was going to get cut? Kirk Cousin's going to get cut. Andrew Rogers, if he ever lets us know what he's going to do. Tyson Bayesian intrigues me legitimately because of the gushing quotes from everybody last

to training camps, basically, but I never knew if it was trying to get Caleb more excited

to compete or whether they genuinely felt that way. What do you think I've had? It's 50 feet. The Bears love Tyson Bayesian. Yeah.

That's how it feels. The Bears love him. Ben Johnson at the Combine was, was a Paul that the idea that they might trade him. Yeah.

“I think some teams just love their back up, and they know, the Bears are obsessed with Tyson”

Bayesian. They believe that a Caleb got hurt. I think they-- Every team's like, we have one of the best-- we're two of the best 32 quarterbacks. So if you ask the teams, it's like there's 60 top 32 quarterbacks.

But the Bears actually do think they could keep rolling with Tyson Bayesian. Which either of you trade the 33rd pick for Mac Jones, which belongs to the New York football jets. I would think about it if I'm the most aggressive person about this. I actually would think about it.

I think that's a really-- I would think about it for both sides. Yeah.

Because ultimately, like, you're paying Brock Perti so much money.

It almost becomes like a fantasy football thing where you've paid so much for, say, Juan Barclay or whoever, it's like, well, if he gets hurt, I'm screwed anyway. I would think about it. It would be fun to have back Jones on the jets, too. After Sam Darnl beat the Patriots in a Super Bowl, I think all demons could be--

Yeah. I'm not afraid of any demons for former Pat Scooby or Pat's rival, either. Uh, we're going to talk about DJ more getting traded to the bills. Yeah. I think-- so this is a kind of indicative of a, you know, this is what Hifus has been

talking about railing on the post-cheap's arms race. Basically, the chiefs are down right now. Maybe this is going to be a mini-rebuild year, and everyone else kind of wants to go for it. No one expected a team like the Seahawks to win the Super Bowl. No one expected the Patriots to make the Super Bowl.

It's enticing. Yeah. And so they're like, that could be us. We could do this. And I think, you know, I think the bills in particular are the-- among all the teams in

NFL were like, man, we freaking blew it last year. We've missed our opportunity. We missed our window. And a lot of it had to do with our receivers are just not very good. The swings that they've taken at receiver, Keon Coleman, it just didn't work out in multiple

ways. And so-- That's the thing they did. They tried to address it. They just didn't do it.

Just right ahead. Yeah. And Keon Coleman, I don't know what happened with him.

schematically.

“I think because he was-- he was a healthy and active a bunch of times like--”

Well, it's also professionalism in these things. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, they just missed. But this one, I think, makes a lot of sense for the bills.

I do think they probably overpaid to get a, you know, they sent a second rounder to get--

and took on a bunch of his contract to get an old receiver coming off his worst season. And there's a miracle trade for Chicago. Right? I mean, this is like-- I mean, they probably couldn't say yes and hang on or fast enough.

A hundred percent. Because they were happy with DJ Moore like 30 times over the last three years. I mean, we made a big joke of it all of last year, basically DJ Moore at one point left the field. Yeah.

So I had a 24 season and then was that last year, 20, 24, hi. It's 20, 24. I've gotten like I was reading a DJ Moore something that had nothing to do with football story once every six weeks for the last couple of years. He just didn't have a good connection whatsoever with kill blames.

It felt like they hated each other. Just kind of one of those things. And so obviously, getting a second rounder for him is great for the bears.

“But I think the bill's this does make a lot of sense for him.”

He could play outside. He still got juice as an after the catch runner. He can get deep. I think this is get by far the best quarterback he's played with in his career. I mean, if you look at DJ Moore's history of quarterbacks, it's a whole bunch of very bad

quarterbacks and then depending on how you feel about kill Williams last year, kill Williams. Right. So he has an opportunity here to have like a Lake River in a sense. I think he's 28 or something like that.

And I thought a second was too much.

I did too. And the other problem is it sets a market for AJ Brown who's just a better player who I thought teams thought they'd get a second for him. And now you be like, well, you've got to be more in that. DJ Moore went for a second.

Yeah. DJ Moore does have history with Joe Brady from the time of the Panthers together. I believe. And so yeah, I mean, there's some, I think the bills, or sorry, yeah, I do think the bill's got better.

But it was an expensive decision. I think I'm calling it what it was. It was a panic trade by the bills 100%. The bills really hit all the time we can't be local, the altar with no wide receiver. We got to get somebody, oh, DJ Moore, let's just do it now.

And I think it was really risky. And I don't know, they've had kind of slightly unreliable guys the last couple years that didn't go over well. And now they're just part of another one. So you didn't like it either?

No, the bills are tilting. I mean, Andrew grew to dark with a piece of the ringer when all the bills stuff went down. It was absolutely tilting and the bills totally lost a good will of the fan base in like 10 days, really 10 hours when the album comes out and does the press conference and is like,

oh, this is just a very rich, very angry man.

“And the truth is that the bills lost to the cheese.”

I think four times in the playoffs, the last six or seven years. And then the home status is ACL on the cheese route. And the bills still can't make the AC championship game. And I think that that sometimes really is painful. And so they're tilting.

Well, then you like to go bad the paths were in the Super Bowl and you're like, oh, my god, like everyone's freaking out the bill. The Broncos with the Bonix injury, the Jaguars, the Texans, the bills. All these teams are looking at the Patriots, no offense. The Patriots help bad the ball.

It's not offended after I remember it. Super, but yeah, no, I think the bills are just the top of the line because they lost the division of the Patriots too. And so yeah, I think this is very much a panic back with deal. That joke you made about that, that could be us.

That would be a fun power rankings. Because I think the number one that could be us team is the Atlanta Falcons. Right, new coach, all the advanced metrics are really favorable to them last year. I haven't done any football homework yet. But it just felt like they were the best team in that division.

It's kind of stupid. They didn't win it, they could make the team better in a bunch of different ways.

They don't have the first round pick unfortunately because they traded it to a guy that

might not be playing next year. But they saw a bunch of talent. And I just felt like they underachieved. And that is a, that could be us team because they're in a weird division. Who also do you have, and then that could be us sweepstakes, Danny?

For 2020. Are the giants in there? The giants are going to be the popular pick. Yeah, because they don't have a very easy schedule in the end of 60s. Oh, my God.

Easy schedule. Patriots, blueprint, keep checks and guard healthy, get another top five pick, spend some money. Try to get anything out of Abdel Carter. That's not just weird stories about what him falling asleep.

And he practices. He's going to be super awake. He's going to be so alert under Jonathan. It's Vegas that that could be us teamers that just too weird over there. I thought that athletics story this week was strange about how we got out of the room.

Wait, Dica. Was the joke you made the, like, the, the, the, the rest of development. There's a whole episode about a surrogate father who walks around with a camera on his head to help out with George Cinear from prison. He's basically like Tom Brady's eyes and ears on the ground when he's off to what

whatever he's doing. He was a big reason why the Brady stuff fell apart with Belle checked. I know.

And nobody really understood what his role was. And yeah, he's like some sort of weird, shaman thing. Check that out. Because on paper, the raiders do check a lot of the boxes, right, for the, the big leap team next year.

Ben, those is good right away. If their coach is good right away, fourth skill players, they have skill players. They're going to trade max cross, be blah, blah, blah. I don't know. No, I, I mean, does it, I love you to say that.

I don't know about the Patriots last year, right? But Hendrik May is rookie year one, one game, in games he actually started and finished went like one in seven in games. And then the year two, the year one, the year two, I mean, the rookie quarterback turning around a team like that.

I mean, does this like 30 years old, so maybe you got a fact that it's college forever? What's your next thing on the west? Well, speaking of the raiders, I mean, Max Crossby, I think is going to get traded. I think D.K. Can I lean toward A.G. Brown just not get traded at Patriots?

Patriots. Patriots. I think it seems like there's a bidding where, honestly, there's a chance Max Crossby's dealt with the time where this show goes up. But I think Max Crossby does get dealt before free agency opens Monday.

And I think there's a lot of teams that make sense for, I think the Bears should be all in. I mean, they just free up the money. How much money do the Bears have? They've had a million draft picks and they've spent crazy free agent money. I don't understand how they had this unlimited funds.

There's always money in the banana stand.

“Like teams can always create it if you need to.”

And I think the Bears, because Caleb Williams and the rookie deal, you have Colson loves a rookie deal. If they trading D.G. more, like now you have Roman Dunes, he's going to rookie deal. Luffy Bergen's going to rookie deal. The left tackle, obviously, he dropped it low until he got hurt.

He's going to rookie deal, like they have all these guys, even to our melt, right. The right tackle. Yeah. The rookie deal. So they need to fund a defense center.

Yes, they did. So they need a center now. But I think they need to fund a defense with the, so I mean, the front seven, the Bears is a terrific. But Max Crossby is, he's, I don't know, I think he's, there's very few points.

I'm going to see more in a contender. He's a jump off the TV. It's been doing it. Feel that way about Garrett. There's like nine players in the league.

They are like, holy shit. That guy's good. He's also, he's also kind of a culture guy, too, because he plays so hard. Right. And he plays every snap.

You know what I mean? Same thing. Yeah. Maniac. I love that.

“I think I'm really hopeful with the paths on this one, because they have to give up.”

Two variables. Well, they have the 31st pick, right? That's the centerpiece of something.

I don't know if they would give up a first and a second.

They have two thirds. Oh, they're going to get two first for pros and cons. You think he's two first? I mean, he is going to be 30. I don't think it's just the same Parsons kind of pool.

Well, you guys were just saying the Netflix, you were in Matt Bellany, we were just saying the Netflix Paramount thing. How much was Paramount going to pay $17 a share? Right. So you think the bidding were bumps it up?

I just thought, yeah. The Parsons thing, he was four years younger, right. And the fence events once you start hitting your 30s, that's the fear with Hendrix and playing B is you sign Hendrix and I hope you can get to really keep yours at him. Right.

Keep your first outpick. That would make a lot of sense. You would vote for that. You know what, you know what I think is an interesting variable here. And I don't know if the NFL will learn this lesson, Bill, you mentioned what went

wrong with Ash and Gentile last year in the running back and taking running back in the top 10 and whether the NFL will learn from that. If you look at two of the big ticket trades for last year as Micah Parsons for two first and sauce gardener for two first and Parsons tore his ACL and sauce got hurt with an Achilles injury and kind of, you know, didn't play the last part of the season.

I'm wondering if teams will be like, man, trading to first is really, really risky. I wouldn't do it to first super elite player. You know what I mean? I just want to do it. That list of guys that would trade to first for is pretty small and leave it to 25.

I'm in, but 29, I'm only getting a few years from. Yeah. So. You agree with that? I do.

I mean, I joke on our team, our show all the time that I feel like, I mean, look, I am not

a step on the NBA as you are NBA staff, but I always feel like I look at the NBA and I see

what the Oklahoma City Thunder have done. And if it was just what the sixers had finished with the process, we'd be like greatest rebuild ever. Yeah. And like this is the best rebuild I've ever seen in any sport in my lifetime for the Thunder.

And I feel like no one's learned any lessons from this whatsoever. Well, I see, you know, do you mean I see teams like, oh, like the rims, we got to go all in now. The Thunder just created the largest window possible and almost were freed by the inability to attract for agents to their city and they're like, all right, we're going to have a ton

of picks. And I see that with the NFL too. I leaned more toward what the chiefs did where you're like, I'd rather get four picks for this guy that we got five years out of that makes more sense. But across me though, you also, if you're certain teams, you do want to get a guy like

that on the team. He's really special.

“I really think he's, I don't know what if I made a list of the top 12 best players that”

I think are in the league that just watching week to week, he would be in the top 7 or eight for me. Sir, you noticed the playing every game and he's getting double team. He's just, I'm the present quarter after quarter. You notice him every sport has guys that languish on bad, great players that languish on

bad teams. You know, like I wish they were on a contender and you're like, I'm glad you didn't ramse

You know, every team has guys like that.

“And I'm like, that's why I'm still kind of mad.”

And then I was Garrett decided he was a record in 4 million.

I'm like, couldn't you've gotten trained and gone to I wish Miles Garrett would play meaningful football ever and for Premier League 36 million year. But I don't know. I'm sure there's a ton of bad guys like that. Illuminate in though, right?

Like at some point, and the way he had how badly he wanted the sack record and him taking the contract when he knew that team stump, like, kind of tells you a little bit. To me, Crossby is like, I just want to win. I don't care where I go. Yeah.

Please put me on a winning team. I can't take this anymore. I didn't genuinely mad that they shelved them. Oh, yeah. Like a tank for a QB and he was like, fucking furious about it.

It's like I'm a football player. Football players play football. What do you have for the next one, DK? So just in terms of things to watch the next week, guys, that can change teams. There's a lot of guys that have free big name value and excitement value that are potentially

going to be changing teams in the next couple of weeks. Ken Walker, I think is one that, especially for me, I'm going to be really bummed to see if he leaves. Wow, it's like you, you got over the hump with this. That was another roller coaster ride, right?

And then all of a sudden, it was like a great roller coaster and you're just going to lose them.

“It was simultaneously the best thing that could happen to the sea ox and the worst thing”

that could happen to the sea ox because he got really hot at the right time. And truthfully, they probably won't have won the Super Bowl without him.

He, he made some incredible plays in the NFC Championship game.

Yeah. He was the Super Bowl MVP, literally. So yeah, I mean, it's going to be a bummer to see him go if he does end up going. He's going to have to take a discount stand Seattle. I think that's how it looks.

So it's like what 11, 12, 13 is kind of the market and somebody will pay a little more than that to get him. Yeah. It'd be like 15 year. Yes.

And it's going to be a man. It's going to, I understand this from the CX point of view, like they have a lot of free agents. They have to get big, big money deals to chase and in a couple other guys over the next couple of years.

So I understand it. But it's going to be sad to see him go for like a difference of 2 million a year or something like that. I understand that's kind of just how the business works. It's super Bowl.

I mean, I remember we won the three and four years and then they traded the on branch to you. I know. And it cost us literally cost us the Super Bowl because they were China. It was like, oh, he's getting too expensive and was the biggest mistake balance check made

in that whole 2000s. It's a fine line to walk for sure.

“In addition to Ken Walker, I think we'll make any team that he goes with a lot better.”

Mike Evans. I think is a really interesting one. Even how old he is now. He's going to science or I mean, look, the Patriots might actually make a lot of sense for him.

I know. I know. I wish I knew he was going to play 17 straight games. I know. That's why we should play off.

Like there's going to be five in the middle there that he's just gone. Yeah. Devo Samuel, David and Joe Gouder, Cleo Mack. I'm just aiming big names that people will be like, whoa, oh, yeah, he's on a new team. Troy Hendrix and we mentioned, Mike, Mika Fitzpatrick, maybe AJ Brown, if he gets traded.

So I'm just excited to kind of see where all these guys go. Travis, ETN, another free agent out there is kind of exciting. Who was at that pretty effective last year? Yeah. I think ETN and Travis, ETN and Ken Walker are going to get

decent deals for running backs because also the draft class isn't great at running back this year. There's Jeremiah Love at a Notre Dame who's amazing. He's like a Jimmy Gibbs. He's probably maybe a better prospect than even Gentie was last year.

But then the second best running back in this class decaying, you know, your draft expert here. We have the NFL draft show. And we're like, is the second best running back in this class Jeremiah Love's backup in Notre Dame?

Very nice. It's not a good running back class. So teams are like, unless you get Jeremiah Love, there are no starting running backs in this year's class, where last year there was like eight Kalmanunga for the bear. This is a seventh round pick.

So the ETN and Ken Walker, all these teams also, they feel like the nerds were wrong because teams were back to running the ball so they want to establish the run against. So I think the ETN and Ken Walker are going to need to center pieces. I mean, look at it. Look at the David Montgomery trade.

You know, the sex was created three picks. I think are two picks. That was nice. Yeah. Two picks in a player to grab a running back, who's 28 years old, almost 29 years old.

Oh, they have Woody Marx who had moments last year. To me, that was that just tells you this class is not great. At all the guys you mentioned, I think Hendrickson is the most intriguing. As one year's maybe two at a high level, it rides me a little when the paths got Corey Dillon.

But in basically, got one good year out of him, won the Super Bowl, but the next year he got old and Henderson, I think he's 32. You know who kind of reminds me of? A little bit. Different type of player.

The C-hawks traded a guy named, or signed a guy named Markets Lawrence in Frigency late last year, and everybody kind of thought he was washed. They're like, this guy hasn't, you know, he's getting up there in age. He's more of a run defender.

He was critical for C-hawks all year.

He was awesome. He had like a second wind. There's a famous interview with him prior to the season where he was like, man, I didn't want to leave Dallas, but I just know I'm not going to see the Super Bowl in Dallas. And, you know, obviously, Cowboys fans took great offense to that guy.

Mike Parsons took great offense. Yeah. They were like John on Twitter about it. Markets Lawrence was like, watch. Yeah.

But I can see Hendrickson having sort of a, I mean, not that he needs a run.

Yeah.

“But, you know, it's not like he's totally falling off, but I think he's the type of guy who”

everyone kind of remember in 2025. I don't know if C-hawks could be that way. Because he got hurt last year too, but I, there was some impactful moments with him. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, um, can we talk a little back back to the beers? Oh, I was hoping that happens. Can we talk AJ Brown and do it?

So your theory is they're going to dangle him, but ultimately not trade him sounds like

where you, you two have landed. I think that because, well, I don't know, I kind of am back and forth on it. I think they know that they're better with him on the roster and they want to go for it this year. With the same conversation we're having with, you know, the bills driving, uh, DJ more.

Like they know that AJ Brown makes them better this year and they have a chance to go out and win a Super Bowl. So I think they're going to ultimately stick with them, but I don't like rule anything out. Hi, Fits.

I think that the Eagles will probably trade AJ Brown, but I don't know if it happens the next week. They totally could.

“But I believe that they structured AJ Brown's bonus were basically, they're able”

to pay, they're able to, the money that they would have to pay AJ Brown is able to be done. I think closer to August, even the beginning of the season. So it might be like the weird timing of the George Pick and straight last year, which was after the draft and because the 2027 draft might be deeper than 2026, the Eagles, if they're

going to lose AJ Brown, they might be looking at it as, if we are offered it, they said

they want to quinting Williams heel first to the second, no way.

If the Eagles are trying to hold out, I think, for a first rounder and if they don't get offered one, I think they'd rather wait and see if they could get someone from one to 2027, then flip AJ Brown for less than they want. So you'll see what people offer. Well, now it's time for me to give you my take.

The Mike Rable reunion, you're doing good. May have been on a few threads about this over the last couple weeks. I don't like it. And now the Pat's traded 31 for him and probably like a third next year or something. That would probably be the price, right?

Something like that. And it'll be like he was a Pat's fan growing up. He paid for Mike Rable, Mike Rable loved him. When they traded AJ Brown and drafted Berks, that was the beginning of the end for Mike Rable and Tennessee.

He didn't want that trade to happen. Now they're reunited. He knows how good he is. He wasn't happy and filly. He's going to love Drake May.

I'll talk myself until it in five minutes. I just don't think it's what they should do. I would much rather slightly overpay peers from the cults and keep my first round pick.

“I think Pierce is like, I know that the advanced stats back me up on this.”

I think he's really good. And I think he's been saddled for the most part with ship quarterbacks. And we only saw a little bit when Indiana Jones got hot there as Jason Garrett called him for eight weeks. But he was in a quarterback wasteland and watching the cults that did got open every

game. And I just feel like there's a lot more there. And if he was the focal point, I'd much rather pay him what's he going to get? Like over 20, right? It's going to get too much probably, but I think, you know, would you pay him a hundred

for four years? Like, I would rather do that and keep my first round pick. And if it's a little over the top, so be it. If you're talking 30 range, now I'm a little more nervous. But 25 years for Pierce, I'm doing that in five seconds.

Doesn't it feel like he would fit just perfectly with Drake May? Exactly what we need. Yeah, May is such a elite deepball passer, Alec Pierce has been one of the best deepball receivers in the NFL. Param with booty, who's also very good deep down the field.

But he was like, they put the Pierce deepball thing. He's also good at pretending he's going for the deepball and cutting off. Like, he basically has, I don't know, I really liked him last year. That makes out by preference. Don't you usually draft your white receivers for the Patriots in the seventh run?

We're going to try and do it. It's a new strategy. It's a new strategy. Yeah. It's a new strategy.

But don't forget, it's he one of the five best deepball guys, one of the best three. Like, where is he in the deepball receiver rankings? He's got to be out there. I mean, he's bigger longer plays than him last couple years. I mean, I in terms of just like, I mean, obviously, I'm not going to compare him to like

Justin Jefferson or Jammer Chase. But I think I was not going to start that out enough. Yeah. But I think that Alec Pierce, I do think that in the beginning it was like, oh, I mean, frankly, he's huge.

He's like, six, three feels bigger than that. Play's bigger than that. He runs like a four, three eight or whatever. He's like, it started. I was like, oh, he's a great deep guy.

He's like, they've got the most yards per catch in the league. I actually think he ran it out to a three-level receiver. I think he can win quick. I totally agree. I think he can move all over.

So I agree.

I think that if you have the cap space, it's always dangerous to have than a couple other

teams have. Yeah. And then all the deals are two years anyway. Every single, I mean, it's time to three-year deal. And then you got cut today to save money.

So I think that every free Asian contract's only going to be two years anyway. So I agree, because Asia is round. I'm a little concerned. I also am concerned that on one hand, I think Asia Brown's right, because every criticism

And maybe he'd be great somewhere else and he's under-undervalued. I also fear the fact that Asia Brown said he won a Super Bowl and went to his locker and said he felt nothing, because he wasn't really a huge part of the game. Yeah. So it wasn't what the Patriots, he was heartbroken.

He's the one who made that favor team. Yeah.

“I would rather, I really value the pick, because I think with these trades sometimes, you're”

getting a guy that you already have to pay, but you also lose this other asset, right? So you're basically turning a first round pick that's, especially late in the round is when the best asset you could have when you're building a franchise, you're losing that.

You're basically turning into a $29 million, $30 million, $35 million a year guy, whereas

I could pay Pierce, $27, but then I also have this awesome 31st pick asset and the combined ads up to Asia Brown. Why wouldn't I do that? Also, EGLE's, how he rose been right now, if it's just poker, you know, with the line from rounders, it's like if it's been 30 minutes at the table, you don't hear this

sucker. Yeah. If how he rose been, been trying to deal Asia Brown for somewhere between two months and two years, and then suddenly you're on the phone with him trying to get a first. It's like don't make it, like just hang up the phone, like just don't make a deal with,

like, do you know much more information how he rose been has about the situation than you? Like, I don't think any team is going to be in an advantage doing that deal. So I agree, I probably wouldn't pay the price, which is why I kind of think that one's going to give him a first in the next week or so. When we got Moss, we give up a fourth form.

Yeah. Right. And it was that crazy.

“Didn't want to give a first, but his reputation was in tatters, right?”

And they were just kind of stole them and figured they can rejuvenate him with Brady.

But, okay, before we go, hyphids, give me your single craziest prediction you can possibly make that actually has a chance to happen for the NFL for the next week. NFL. And for the next three weeks, the single craziest offseason thing that might actually happen. Yeah.

It has to have a chance of happening. So it's not like the liquid signs and then is good, you're talking about a move that could be made. Okay. Yeah.

I would say the craziest thing is, like the Eagles bring in competition for jail and hurts. It's like the Eagles bring in. What a great answer. How was the Eagles bring in big games?

Yeah. Yeah. The Eagles bring in Anthony Richardson or the Eagles bring in the league with us and Eagles are like, hey, like, you know what? We had Wenson, Jalen Hertz came in and you know what, Jalen, you can deal with it because

you dealt with to it Alabama and you know what, Jalen, like all those things, you always

sell the time competition, you know, I'm sure he goes on in Kyler Murray. Yeah, the Eagles bring in the Eagles, like we're quarterback factory, which they don't want to sell out anymore. Oh, that's true. If he's sweet.

They can get rid of Jalen Hertz in his contract yet, but we don't know where this is going.

“I think the Eagles should add a quarterback of some kind and I would be fascinated to see if”

the Eagles actually added a quarterback. Really, why shouldn't they other than, uh, would look bad? Well, the Tanner McKee bandwagon, they're still picking the survivors out of the, out of the crash. That was really tough.

That game. That. Any. His terrible form. It saved us from, uh, entire off season of Wonder where there should be the quarterback.

DK, do you have a, do you have a crazy prediction that might actually happen? There's a couple that came to my mind immediately because of the way that coaches and GMs have talked about these players number one. And the Broncos trade bonics, because of all this, uh, Sean Peyton, Nick's sort of drama that's happened, even though it's not probably not really that much drama.

And it didn't feel like nothing. Yeah, that's kind of my point is, and even at the combat, we went to the, the Peyton Presser and he was, you know, kind of getting in, like fights with the beat reporters there about like the whole thing, like put one of the beat reporters and time out during the presser. And it was like, this is kind of weird, man.

And then Bo Nixon's coming out and talking about, like, how Sean Peyton shouldn't be talking about his medical history. Oh, let's call it. What's called what it is, Sean Peyton has acted really fucking weird this whole season. And then the off season.

I think it's not just one thing. You could point to like seven different things, right? Just a weird, like you're supposed to be the most stable person in your organization. And then he's not the railing given's quote from just to fight with us like you'd run into an asshole in the morning, you're running an asshole, you run an assholes all day,

you know, maybe you're the assholes. And Russell Wilson is calling out Sean Peyton. Right. All the Shanahan tree coaches hate Sean Peyton for what he said about Nate Hackett and Beacon Bay before, which you don't say out loud, it's like let other people say

that for you. And like the amount of people that Sean Peyton has started beat his own starting quarterback has serious beef. And I do really do think that that Raiders Broncos Thursday at football abomination, that the Broncos won like 96 or 6 nothing, whatever it was.

There was real beef between Sean Peyton and Bo Nixon that game. And I think it was papered over by a 12 game winning streak, winning solves everything. So no one looked at it, but then they lose one game. And then suddenly it's like, oh, the quarterback and coach, you're mad at each other again. So I agree.

I think there's a very strange dynamic there. That's what this is. I'm obviously not being like 100% serious, but since we're making wild predictions, I think there's a element of Sean Peyton just wants to prove that he can do it with any

You know what I mean? Like that was like the whole AFC championship game. That was the whole game was him trying to be the hero, which seems to be what he wants. The other one that came to mind. Can I do one more Sean Peyton thing quick?

Cause I'm going to claim this corner of the off season. Yeah, yeah. Sean Peyton just might be a dick. And he did Fox for what? A year or two years.

So like Schrager, shout out to Schrager. But like all those guys are Sean Peyton, great, great hand, great dinner guests. Like, got suspended for the entire season for Bounty Gate. Left the Saints and fucking shambles, right? He all he did was like pay their salary cap credit card for years and years to the point

that the dinner check was coming, the waiter was coming over and he's like, I'll see you guys later. And we just gone. And that was it. And I think he's been it.

He seemed like a huge prick the last year or so. So he said, I don't think it's a true Billboard sales guy. And that's why.

“I've said the whole time that I think Mike Vrable is like the one, the only bellot check”

to cycle. But Vrable actually is a lot common with Billboard sales.

Because I think, well, Billboard sales was the confrontation guy and bellot check never

was. The one Peyton is like the alpha confrontation guy, like the same way that Billboard sales could handle Lawrence Taylor, like Sean Peyton is that kind of coach. Like, I'm trying to dominate every room. But the video is growing.

It's crazy. I'm glad you brought this up. Because Bellachek always got the reputation as being this huge asshole. You mean like Sean Peyton? Like, what is Sean Peyton better than Bill Bellachek?

I don't know. Anyway, what was your other thing, Danny? Oh, I was just going to say, any time you have a GM or coach sort of like strongly come out against like a news story, I, it kind of peaks my interest. And the CJ Strowd Nick Serio, Nick Serio was asked about whether they're going to, I don't

know what the question exactly was. But he was like, all the CJ Strowd stuff is moronic and like went totally in on even the notion that CJ Strowd would not be part of their future plans or whatever. Like, obviously his, you know, they're, they're going to have to make a decision on him sooner later here.

And so that I'm just curious to see, I guess my production would be that maybe there's a chance he does get moved because of how strongly they came out. If this is how it happens every year, but the combine, you're like, there's no way we're moving in. We don't, we're not even thinking about that.

And then like a week later, it's like he's traded in the bucket of the craziest thing that might happen. Right. Like, because the, the C.O.C. is Russell Wilson, Pete Carroll, just basically is like, how dare you?

You know what, a good way to follow the T leaves on that story.

You always followed the defensive guys.

That was where you started to know, Russell Wilson, when the defensive guys started taking shots at him in the mid 2010s and there was like real resentment. I haven't seen that yet with the Texan stuff. No.

“And I don't, I don't, I still am sort of in the believer camp for CJ Strowd, but I think with”

the way that things have gone in the last couple of years, it's obviously just something that's worth monitoring. And so we're saying like, you're ready for the will Anderson GQ interview, where he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. We felt like we had the best team in the league, but only on one side of the ball.

And it's just like shots, but we could just score one touchdown. If our quarterback had been able to do anything, we, like, just one of those, then there's like blood in the water. All this sort of. We even just not do anything.

If CJ Strowd had just like gone down every time, I, I think the president, if he throws it in the dirt three times in a row and punts like they're better off. Well, before we go, we're about to go and I kept you guys 20 minutes longer than that thought. I want to give you my list of things that I don't care about.

Oh, Aaron Rogers, I don't care if you're playing or not next year. There's one George Pickins, whether you're a franchise tag, they're traded or whatever. I just don't care of, let me know and late August, what happens? Because what's probably going to happen is you're in a franchise tag, you're going to hold out.

And then Jerry Jones will get to be on first take for four straight months with the George

Pickins thing. I just don't care. He's going to end up on the team. And that's it. And then last but not least, the Brady Vegas, I'm sure there's going to be more stuff

about this. I'm really trying hard to like Tom Brady, the guy that brought me six super bulls. All of these stories are making me like him last, so I'm going to file that into my own care care. This is my three things.

What I do care about is I still want to know what happened to Drake May and whether he was injured or not. And I still want to know what happened to my left tackle and whether I can count on them next year. I can't.

The CX defense is better. I'm so all right, will Campbell was a rookie 22-year-old tackle when an injured reserve and everyone's somebody's arm to the tournament was the only two. Again, he's a rookie came back from a twin MCL wasn't on the injury report. His knee was not healed.

Drake may. It's like that was the best. The CX of the best defense in years. It's like Mike McDonald. What he does.

We did one play is that we ran with him all year because I don't think he could run the plays. Something was wrong with him. Probably. I mean, if they will Campbell's not on the jury board, imagine what was going on the

court mission and once you lie about it, you can't then tell people after.

“You just kind of stuck with the lie classified, right?”

Like the CX also blitz the crap out of the Patriots in that game. It was a bad thing. They knew what the plays were.

a tell from the offensive line that they were going to be passing a running. So yeah, listen, I hold no grudges against Danny Kelly. Nina Times, Sam Donald, the city of Seattle. I still want to do a rewatchable's there. Oh, there it is.

Is that the hat? Oh, wow. Yeah. I just had to bring it on. That's funny.

How many did you get? I got four different hats and you know, probably still going to be in the market for a few more.

“That's the best thing about winning the Super Bow is the Super Bird Championship.”

That's crisp. Yeah, that's nice. This is what they were wearing on the parade and everything, so and post game stuff. DK last question, what does she eat get? Because it sounds like he's at a Seattle.

That's a great question. He likes a like a Cooper Cups money last year type of thing. I think a little bit. 39 for three. Yeah.

Like maybe a little bit more. I think he's a rater, Rishi Cheat. That's a Patriot backup, too. Like I don't know. I like the heat.

I think he was just figuring out how to use him as the season went along. I'm surprised. I mean, keep them. Truthfully, it's the same story as like 10th Walker. He won them a couple of games in the season.

She did. I mean, if you look at the way that what he was doing on special teams, the return game. He was incredible. Like sometimes they would have him, and anytime they needed an exposed supply, I feel like she would come up.

They dial him up. Yeah. The Ram Seahawks Thursday in a football game, which was the best game of the year. Like the sharp and a two-point conversion flips everything, the Seahawks get home field because of that.

That way. Point returns. Sit up that whole game. Well, that's the other thing. You lose Walker and you don't have Sharber Nass, and now you're in the running back

market, which you just said, the drafts are not good. I don't know what they're going to do. Tyler L. Gier, maybe?

“I think you end up with Ken's Walker, maybe.”

I hope so. I hope so. I hope so. I hope so. I hope so.

That's where we plan. All right. The Danny's great to see you. Say hi to Craig for me, though. I'm going to probably see him in a couple days.

A pleasure as always. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. All right. Mid Thursday afternoon, it seems like we were a pretty certain Jason Tatum

is coming back for the Friday Dallas game. Michael penis here, Joe Houses here, Michael Pena, what are the minutes like for you? What do you think, what do you expect for minute limit for Tatum before we get into the powerful? Yeah, we were just talking about this right before we went on.

I would anticipate short stints for him. I would anticipate him obviously starting, and then, you know, something out after maybe

the first TV time out, but so you're going to start interesting.

You don't think he'll start? I didn't think about that. I thought they might be a little more careful, but maybe you're right. Maybe he starts, but then you get into a hole who's the last guy as a hammer, Jalen Browns. Like, I was the last guy.

No, I don't know. Maybe you bring them off the bench, it's easier. Bill, you made a really good point. I don't know when it was recently about how Baylor Shiremen was kind of like a slotting in the minutes and the role that you thought might fail.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I've shiremen's been great. I don't even think he should be removed from the rotation at all. He's been terrific.

But I think that that will eventually be kind of the ramp up goal for him just kind of those minutes. Yeah. We'll see. I mean, this is kind of uncharted waters in a lot of ways.

I thought in my head, I thought they'd go like five minutes into the first quarter.

And just play him in the shorter stance. The person who doesn't care about this at all, then the gambling standpoint is Joe House, who doesn't want to have sex conversations at all. Well, the top of the same fucking content. Talk about this from the gambling standpoint.

Did this change your perspective of the Eastern Conference that Tatum is actually going to probably be back here? As it became clear that he is going to play basketball this season, I immediately jumped into the Fandall sports book and bought the Boston Celtics to win the Eastern Conference. I bought Joe Mozilla to win Coach of the Year, and I bought the Boston Celtics to win the NBA

title. Just to put your stank on us.

“You have to have, well, I mean, yes, for sure.”

But also this team with Tatum in any kind of capacity, 80% Tatum, 85% Tatum, they can win the East. And if they win the East, then that means they're in the final and then, you know, let's see. But they did some luck with Charlotte would have to have an injury because Charlotte, I mean,

they might go 12 and no, and the Eastern Conference playoffs this point. Both, both, both. They're just rolling through the league. That way.

We're going to do a powerful in a second.

And I had the, I sent you guys the records and the net ratings for the last 30 games, which is basically July 1st and Charlotte's in the 11th, being a plus for plus rating. Like, this is like 2017 Warriors territory, do you understand it at all?

you compare them to the, the Warriors because I have this crazy stat that I saw last night, but they've won six straight games by at least 15 points, which hasn't happened since the 2018 Warriors, right?

And that's tied for the second longest streak of that kind in NBA history, the Detroit

Pistons in 2004, the only team that top them, eight in a row. So they're just demolishing people at a rate that's ridiculous. I mean, the starting lineup is, everyone kind of knows this already, but it's historically great.

“And I think aesthetically, when you watch them play, you know, you talked about this in”

your deep dive a few days ago, but the way that they have so much randomness in their offense with the small, small screens, the slip screens, go screens, et cetera. It's really reminiscent of how the Indiana Pacers played last year to me, and would give me hope if I was a Charlotte Hornets fan that this could be like a truly magical season for this team.

I think they're terrifying, they absolutely destroyed the Celtics last night, and it out of all the makings, like Fandle wanted me to do a bat yesterday, and I didn't want to pick a winner for the game, because that was really worried about the game, the Celtics had played a bunch of games the last two weeks. And Charlotte, basically, looked like a better, faster version of the Celtics.

They have a similar style in some ways, right? Charles Lee was with Missura, they, they push it more than the Celtics did. La Mello week by weekhouse, just started to see more sophisticated with it, like he's not seeming like he's trying to play in an all-star game anymore, he's actually in real time looking like a guy who's running a team again, and then the Miller Concombo, they're

terrifying. I mean, as a seven or eight seed, this is terrifying now house.

So I'm not terrified, and you just hit on to me what is the most important ingredient, which

is the development of Mello Ball, is he going to end up when it comes to be playoff time, and they, they are up against Detroit or Boston or the New York Nix, are they going to present as a serious basketball team with Lamello Ball at the, at the tip of the spear. That's, that's the big sort of open point. What you do be is said this, it sounds like, well, you know, for a couple of reasons,

in the first place, teams like this that that pull it all together in the kind of the second half of the season, and you know, go on to run a regular season, run like this, they, they tend to like lose in the first or second round, and the second, but think about that

“though, second round would be like an amazing achievement for them, that's what happened”

with the Curry Clay Warriors that first year when they upside Denver, that's my point. I get a second round as a second, it would be significant. I don't think there's anybody on Charlotte that is as good as Steph Curry, that's all. What do you think Peter? Are we sure that they're not going to get the six seed?

It's in play. Right. Point, it's they would have to basically chase down Philadelphia, and there are a couple of us behind them, yeah, and they'd have to leapfrog Miami and Orlando, there's some interesting future bets with them too, like how, do you think it's realistic in any way

shape or form that they could upset the next Cleveland Boston, whoever is in that one two spot. The only one that would surprise me is the trait, but I do feel like they could, I don't know, I'm just not ruling it out, I guess, is my point.

“And there were bets on about how far teams go in the playoffs, I'm looking up the, to be”

towed vans to the, this is one of the Raheem favorites bets. So for them to advance to the Eastern finals, I'm just saying, I'm just giving you the odds. Oh, let me guess. I mean, is it, it can't be less than 30 to one.

It's 10 to one. Get out of here. It's 10 to one on Fando. Well, for them to be good for them to advance, for them to advance to the second round is plus 360, like these are relatively low eyes.

That's not the, you're getting a thing that we're ward for that house, you can, you can laugh. He has been watching it sounds like you've been watching it sounds like you've been watching from there. Very good.

Yeah, they, you're off the bandwagon. Screw you. I mean, I'll just say up the top, both my kids wore Moussa dee about day jerseys to school today and the compliments that drop off were through the room. So like, you're really good.

This man is, every incredible, like, net rating when he's on the court since January

first is like plus 23 or something like this. He tried to fight Jalen Dern, like he's really bringing it all at the table. He's, he's very aggressive, but this team rebounds, like they're lead the league in defensive

They're first or second in offensive rebound rate, like they do things that win in the post season. Like when you talk about Lamello, Lamello's playing his ass off on defense for the first time in his life. He's selfless with the ball.

He's moving it. So I, I'm really high on Charlotte and I, you know, we'll see how kind of the matchups take her out, but an upset in the first round probably wouldn't even be an upset based on how well this team is playing. And it would be interesting to see if it gets to the point, depending on where they land,

whether teams are like, "Ah, we'd rather play these other guys." And we start doing like the top seed jacking at the end of house to put it in perspective.

So the powerful thing we're about to do is the last 30 games, only that I'm going to get

to record the net ratings. And they are a plus the limit point nine, which is first by three points for net rating. They're 21 and nine in their last 30 games, they're 12 and 3 in their last 15. And to me, that all the stuff really matters, because the sample sizes of just throw away the first two months and really look at this stuff.

Anyway, quickly, go through the powerful, because there's some teams we just don't have to talk about. Going from 30 to 1, there's a whole group here, tank up lose of 206. Brooklyn is 30. And I was surprised.

I thought Sacramento was going to be 30, but Brooklyn's 3 and 17 in their last 20 with a minus 16 point one net rating, minus 16 is aggressive. They're not trying to win neither Sacramento at 29 or Washington at 28. Utah at 27. I just want to interrupt you.

Yeah. Washington is trying to win. We're taping this on Thursday tonight with the franchise debut of this fellow right here. That's the number of tray young who's going to make his debut.

And they are, they host the Utah Jazz. What a time to come. Ooh. Well, and Utah, to its credit, played very admirable the last night against the Philadelphia 76ers.

This is a back-to-back for them. They've already, I haven't checked the injury report in the last 10 minutes. But, you know, county George was doubtful. I mean, you know, marketing. I like you.

You were going to see a. But in pinchment. We'll get to see the worst in pinchment in some, and somebody's there was Washington's Smash spot. If anybody, they won't help anybody for listening to this tomorrow, I'm telling you.

He didn't treat him. He didn't do your expected tanking of a team that's 3 and 12 in their last 15. But their net rating is only minus 4.4. It really means they're trying to take care of the first three quarters and then just throw on the last quarter away, right?

I will say the Washington Wizards are playing guys who don't have head shots for their player page on MBA.com.

“Like that's how anonymous some of these lineups are like, "Juju Reese, I had to Google”

him and I couldn't see his photo and I had to search for it." Like that's kind of what we're dealing with here with the Washington Wizards. So yeah, that's it. We'll see how trading. What a battle.

All right. You taught 27. Chicago's 26. They are 21, 13 in the last 15.

There's been some amazing stuff with the tanking teams that unless they're playing another

tanking team, they're just losing every game. And if you're doing like Parlez, I'm different teams and you have like a case like last time like the Clippers against Indiana, just throw the Clippers money line in there because these tanking teams don't want to win. Well, that's at number 25 in Indiana, number 24.

Dallas is 21, 13 last 15 in Indiana, is 4 and 11 last 15. But two teams that don't seem like they want to win, but also our frisky as well. Like I almost feel like I feel bad putting them in this tier. But this is what they're showing us with win loss. But when you watch them, like, I don't know.

“Like I feel like Seattle still gives a shit, right?”

When you watch some of these guys, flags come back for dust. And then Memphis is the last one, they're 20, number 23, they're 21, 15 or 21, 13 in their last 15. So from a tank of clues, a standpoint, Sacramento is still up a game and it's just going to be a slug fest.

And this draft is really, do you get in the draft peanut, do you care? Or do you just get into it after the season? After the season. I can't watch college basketball. Yeah, too much.

How's that? I don't know about I'm watching a ton of college basketball because I want to see who

the first six or seven guys might be.

It was the least surprising thing of 20, 26 that when you had your conversation was it last week with Jake Harman, yeah, and take, and take about guys that you like. And when you, when they, you said, there's one guy that's caught my eye and I knew it. And I just knew it was that A-Coff kid because he's that he's that guy, he's that's the kind of kid that catches your attention and my attention.

“And I think he's going to be an impact player in the NBA.”

How soon I have known each other since 1988?

we've been batting like 97% on this. It was like that last year for us. Yeah, just like that. That was another one. Yeah, A-Coff.

So there's these guards, and this is why the clippers pick is so interesting, where they get between five through nine from Indiana, right, if the ping pong ball's fall, they would get five, six, seven, eight, or nine. All of those picks are guys who can score and really interesting guards, there's some guards besides, there's some smaller sort, but all of these guys are like potentially like

a lead offensive player. So we'll see. All right. This gets dark fast here in the power pole, no man's land, where we have New Orleans,

“who's 11 and 19 there last 30, and I think of the 19 losses have come down to the last”

minute, and like 17 of them. And now they have Murray back to, and they really look like a confident NBA team. So I feel like they're going to probably play themselves out of the bottom eight. And that pick that Atlantic gets, unless some sort of miracle happens, will be somewhere between nine, 10, 11, and that dare queen train will then not be as bad, right, Michael?

Still bad. Maybe not. Maybe they escaped. How bad it was. Maybe.

Maybe. Maybe.

First of all, just like watching them digiante, Murray coming back and watching

him run pick and roll with Zion Lamson and kind of seeing what Zion has missed as someone who can string and roll and create havoc has been really nice to see for the New Orleans Republicans and the fact that they finally split up the Derek Queen Zion Williams in tandem in the starting five and they sent Derek Queen to the bench was very necessary if they're

“trying to win basketball games because I was the worst front court tandem in the league.”

But no, I mean, this is a, there's players on this team, but they're just not very good is how I was sum it up. It's a collection of that. It's like a fantasy basketball team and not an actual team, and I saw the same thing with Zion and Queen.

It's just two guys that just should not play basketball together. I don't know why they didn't realize this last year, but I, my guess would be Zion's not on the polka in the next year. Could he be on Charlotte, maybe he'll try to jump on that. I don't know.

Melal had this quote about him the other day about how when they throwing alley-oops to him

and they played together one time, how amazing it was, it's like, whoa, just throwing that

out there. Number 21 Milwaukee, and probably the next time we do a powerful, there would be probably in the mid-20s. Yeah, on this comes back in the team falls apart anyway. One of the weirder seasons, the chemistry looks bizarre.

They were eight and three out of 11 games and one stretch, and then, yeah, on this comes back, and they look where I, I don't want to figure them out, I, I do have a seat warm for Doc though for the playoffs. I can't wait for him. Melal gets out of the playoffs now, they're like, this is a wrap.

They're not going to make it up. They're fine. Yeah, it's over. It's done. And then I have Golden State at 20, Golden State is the eight seed right now.

We're taping this before the game tonight, they're 31 and 30, Quippers are 30 and 31, Portland, 30 and 33.

“House, would you put on this season if you're a gold state?”

Just tell Steph Curry, actually, don't come back. Haven't they already? I mean, aren't we watching the punt night tonight in the way that they play, the match-ups that they have, what they did with Kamanga, like, felt like a punt to me, training for a guy

who seems to have some mystery illness that's never going to go away, and then being surprised

that it can't play. Seems intentional. I don't feel like it was his surprise. Well, do you blame him? Butler terraces ACL, like, do you blame him like, oh, no, they, they, they made a gamble and

they lost. They, they tried with Butler and, you know, he got hurt and that happens. So the right thing for them to do is to find themselves away into the lottery, and that means losing in the play in because they're not going to drop below the ten seed. It's not possible.

And so to get that 12, 13 range and then do, right from there, what, what rationale could they're possibly be for Steph Curry to play in that play in game? That's, that's the question that I pose. When they start doing the at least with the number, when they're, it's like, he'll be back in 10 days, right, that's definitive.

When they start doing the, it's going to be at least another 10 days, I just assume the guys not coming back, like reading through the NBA, tea leaves of how they talk about injuries. I don't know. What do you think, Michael? I just, I mean, this team obviously wasn't built to withstand the loss of Jimmy Butler

and then Steph and Curry. I mean, almost every team that has a worse offense than Steph went out 10 or 11 games ago is in that tank tier that we just were talking about. So Steve Curry's kind of grasping a straws trying to figure out lineup combinations, but

I mean, it's just that, there's no answers, so I don't, I don't see a point to be honest

with you. Well, let me give you this stat. Golden State, their last 30 games, they're 15 and 15 with a net rating of plus 0.0. They're literally dead even in every respect. All right.

Next category is the water treaders, number 19 Portland, number 18 Orlando, number 17 Philly, and number 16 Atlanta, who is quietly 17 and 13 in their last 30.

“How's do any of these teams intrigue you in any way?”

No, sir. Okay. The one I'm interested in, the most is Portland because I do like that young thing that they have going there and I'm a deep, then the obvious guy loved that he loved his time here in Washington.

We don't know if he's coming back. He said, I know. I know. I know.

That will be the thing that sinks them and maybe it makes sense for him to not come

back, right? Maybe maybe they should get one more asset. It's a tough one because I watched him play Charlotte on Saturday and I thought they played really well and I thought they handled Charlotte's offense, the best I'd seen anyone handled Charlotte's offense, they just kept throwing wings and defense and they could protect

the ram. Plus, how it is playing really well is that what do you think Michael, you intrigued by them at all? That game against the hornets, they were very physical. Yeah, that was good.

Yeah, to your point, they just kind of ran out of gas and they can't shoot. And so, I mean, they're offensive, terrible without any, without shade and sharp, who's also out and it just feels like a cursed season and a lot of respects for the Portland Trail Blizzard. Because they're coach left after one game and this is another one.

That is a factor, yes, but it, I mean, as soon as Scoot comes back, like the guy who's the best player in the team goes down, so I just, I don't know, it's, it's tough. Scoot's had a pretty rough roller coaster right here. I have a question. Werno texted us from the Memphis game was not, not pumped about what Scoot looked like

in person. I've seen him another game. I don't know what to make of it anymore. Yes. Werno gave us a sell order.

He put himself as I did. I've already, this has already been a huge loss. Thank God, I have all my share of the Hornets stock. Here's my question. When you vote for awards, like for coach of the year, do you, right, or do you put, how

many names do you write down?

“I think it's, is it three for coach of the year?”

I think it's three. Three. Yeah. Damn. If it was five, I think, Yago splitter, yeah, yeah, what he's done with this team under

the circumstances deserves a recognition of some sort. What would be your three right now, Michael? Great question. Mazula, for sure. Probably Jordan, is it's got to be in there?

I think God has to be there. I think, honestly, Charles Lee needs to be in this conversation. I think that's the three. And I actually would have to turn around. I'd probably have Charles Lee won, Mazula, too.

What? Three right now. Becker Steph. What are you talking about? I didn't walk in, you know, with a 60-wint team this year.

This Detroit situation, it's amazing. Becker Steph. I've devoted Becker Steph last year, love Becker Steph. I thought the Pissons would be pretty good. Didn't think they'd be this good, but it's not, it's not that stunning to me.

I would say the Western Conference version of that is Mitch Johnson with the San Antonio Spurs. And you could kind of have those two cross each other out if that was kind of the logic there. The thing to me with Detroit, the reason there's so much better than they were last

years, is it just comes down to Durin, night to night, would have absolute fucking Beastie is. Well, Durin. We were talking the other day. I was talking to a friend of mine about them.

He is like the guy's post college house, the 90s guys, where we had a bunch of these guys.

And it always seemed like if they ever got no fight, like the world would end, like

the Davis brothers and Oakley, like Kevin Willis. He's big ass macho dudes, and he's like a throwback to that air.

“He just comes in, he sets the tone, like he really, I think, intimidates some of these”

teams. He's just really, really physically daunting, night after night, plays really hard. And between him and Kate, it's just a tough ass team, and he thrown the other dudes. I'm surprised they're this good without Stewart. I thought they would fall back.

Yeah, so bigger staff, you're right house, so it's probably those four and Mitch Johnson, I think has to be in there too. You're not intrigued at all by Atlanta, neither of you? I'm so out. That's it.

They've cost me so much money. I know. That's how I feel. Every year, we say, oh, this is what was the over under 46 man? I know.

47. Some number that was near 50. I don't think that it's a fun. I think it's fun. We get it.

I mean, yes, the injuries and everything, and we over what, over enthused about the

So the posing is in a W combo as a layer and it's crazy that they nailed the NAW thing

and still somehow stayed in the same spot. I don't know. They've been worse since they traded tray. There's no part of you that's like, when filling gets Paul George back, and in Beads Healthy, they're going to be scary because there's no part of me.

I won't be in the stands for this because I'll use bad words. Yeah, I was so close to writing a why not the Sixers column right before they lost to the zombie Denver nuggets, and then, and Bead goes down, Paul George just gets suspended, and they make this trade at the deadline to get under the tax that signals to me and to everyone on the team.

I would assume that we're not good enough this year. So I'll look at what Darrell Murray did, and I'll read that as how he assesses the team right now. I just also think that that was like a bad trade for Philadelphia. Jared McCain is just wrecking things in Oklahoma City right now.

It was a weird one. I understood the logic. I did not like the trade because I think they're thinking, we need trade pieces for this summer for whatever we're going to do. It's easier for us to trade the first run pick in these seconds than it would be just

to have Jared McCain.

“I just wanted to trade it up because all you have to do, if you're even unfair in the”

Cusp of trading them, go back one more time, sit in a dark room, and watch five games from last year when he looked fucking awesome. And remember that he's 21 years old. Yeah, who you're going to get that's better than him. Yeah.

Like, well, that's the point of the stupid picks. And the reason that they have to do this is because they extended fucking and Bead unnecessarily with a huge goddamn contract that didn't make sense, then and still doesn't make sense

and will never make sense.

I think at some point, I'm going to really try and get you to do the last 15 years of the front office of the Philadelphia 76. Oh, that'd be a fun podcast. It is not very good. It is.

And we, I mean, you know, even with our friends along for the ride here, has this wound up today from Tray Young Night at the Business Center. All right. Next category, delusions of Granger, three teams, number 15 Phoenix, number 14 Miami, number 13 Toronto.

Two of those teams are 17 and 13 and Miami is 16 and fourth and then in the last 30. All of them, you can become slightly intrigued by if you think about it along enough, Phoenix has the Brooks thing.

He's basically out until right for the play-off start.

The booker who knows when he's come back, Miami, I don't know what to make of them, but that went over the rocket sailor night, at least made me go, okay, I'm not going to throw you in the garbage yet. And then Toronto, to me, just seems like a regular season team that it's hard for me to think they're going to do anything in a round one.

“At of those three, which one would you bet on to upset somebody in a round one, Michael?”

Ooh, that's rough. Definitely not the suns because they're in the west. Yeah, that's just not going to happen. I think that Miami heat are feisty, respectable. They play defense.

The Kaleleware Bametabio duo is starting to take off a little bit, they're playing them more and there's been a little bit of success in a small sample size, which is nice to see. I don't know if you watched this game house, but when they play the wizards, bam, dunked on Kaleleware and then flexed on him because he didn't realize it was his own teammate.

And that was just like one of my favorite moments of the entire season. It really tells the tale of Kaleleware. Does it be us? We went to the Celtics hosting the heat in a game, an early February, where the heat got out to a hugely Boston came out in that game super flat up in Boston, a home game.

They were down. And 25, they were definitely down 20, and Boston came all the way back, but we were so underwhelmed by Kaleleware. We were like, he was, we've got he was even in the game and dressed. Yeah.

And then every time he came in, the Celtics would go on like a 7-0 run. Yeah. But I agree with Pena, Miami to me, here's the ingredient I'm interested in. I feel like hero is there's something coming together. I love you, but it's a ran. I thought that was a sign that he must be feeling healthy again.

Hero, Norm Powell, and out of bio with Eric Spolstrom, like, you dismissed that team at your own parallel.

“I feel like I think what's scary about them is the hero, Powell, combo of you just never”

know when one of them is going to go nuts. You know, in a playoff series, I say this every year, and it's both the dumbest point

new advance. Right?

This is the problem with the Lakers.

The Lakers could win a series in seven, four games to three, and the three losses will be by 22, 28, and 31, and the three wins will be like three, four, seven, and two. But that's the thing. Your base could to be barely above 500. And when you have these two guys who can go off in any game, who don't seem to care

where they play either, it could be road home doesn't matter.

“And I think they're the scariest out of those three.”

Anyway, very quietly, they're their defense again, top five defense. Yes. So, net rating in the last 30, they're plus three and a half, which is a decent sign. And we'll see what the defense of that keeps going. I think Mitchell's scary, like, as of full court, make your life miserable, defender, like

he's really tapped into something. So, there you go.

And Toronto, we just want to ignore Toronto, I'm going to give them credit for the success

of the season. They have validated the corner that they turned, like we're going to try. We're actually going to try this year. We have some guys. We're going to try and play this style of up tempo, push out, try and force turnovers.

They are so soft. So that, I mean, I applaud them going for it the way they have. They have no size or strength, they will down the stretch, but good job doing what they did. So, it's a glass have full for me, but nothing interesting about them in the playoffs

for my humble. Yeah, they've been fairly average for two and a half months there. And Pena's just ready to move on. I can just see it. Do you just agree?

“No, I think Toronto beats up bad teams and loses to good teams.”

That's kind of for the right now.

They're the NFL team that House and I always, we call them the good bad team in the NFL.

It's like cool. Yeah. All right. Next category. Actually, let's take a break for we get the next category.

All right. Next category. The LA and Nigma is, we have the LA Quippers who are 2010, they're last 30. And the LA Lakers who are 17 and 13 and they're last 30, Clippers 12, Lakers 11. I'm very focused on this Clippers Renaissance because I just know the Clippers playoff

bills. Now, they're like great. We can bill everybody and you're paying for all four rounds and then we'll refund you if we don't make it. There was a need or hazard thing happening with the Clippers.

I don't know how focused you guys were on this, but they traded, I'm locked in. I'm locked in.

“The traded zoo bots, they really, because they got an awesome trade, but also I think”

they like Neeterhouse and wanted to play them and you watch them and I've been to a couple corporate games. He just says that he's trying to block everything, like literally everything. He's trying to get to chase down blocks, challenging, he's a maniac. So of course, I love him right away.

I'm like, I'm claiming this guy, I'm buying stock and I, a house on his island, all that stuff. But the fear was, this guy is so crazy, he's going to get hurt. He's jumping after literally everything and at some point, this is going to backfire. And then, of course, last night, the stupid Indiana game that they're winning by 30, he's

trying to block somebody from behind lands on somebody and seem like he's spraying his ankle. I think he's going to be okay, but they got Garland back, they're relying on Garland and Kawaii who weren't exactly Cal Ripkin and Lou Gehrig. But I think their team's pretty good and they also have the thing you would look forward

in an upset situation is best guy and the floor possibly who Kawaii, right? Top 78 when he's healthy, has to be talked to yourself into the cuppers at all from an upset standpoint yet or no? Oh, absolutely positive, yes, sure, yes, definitely, because they have over, it really since, you know, January, 24 and 10 over their last 34, it's the version of the team that

we imagined when we sat down in October and I was like, can this team win 50 games? I felt like, yeah, they can win, well, there's your proof, 24 and 10, that's the thing to exceed 50 games. The thing that is the straw in the drink that I'm interested to see the stirring is Mathrain, because you just described the effort of Neeterhausen all that all over

the place, this motivated Mathrain is a thing and that's an ingredient that I'm interested in seeing and I still trust Tai Lou, I still trust this team to come out, yeah, they know what they are. I don't guys like Miller too, I think, I think Miller is good. I like Mathrain more before Jay to McDonald's snatched his soul from his body with me in

person last week and actually made a stew out of it.

fan duel, that sounds like the right price, see that's a fair price, I don't have many issues with that, I already have, you know my bet, we did it together, peanut were you with Darius Garland Gyer now? I wasn't when he was in Cleveland because of how that roster was constructed and I thought the overlap with Donovan Mitchell just would not work in a postseason series.

That's a little different in L.A. where sure his size is his size but there's a lot of great individual defenders and there's a lot of size and depth on the wing, so I like it a little bit more and also they need him, they need someone who can push the pace, they need his shock creation, they need a ball handler, they have no point guard without him and it's just like Kawai Leonard running, picking rolls and Chris Dunn running around with his head

chopped off.

“So I, you know, he's looked a little indecisive so far, but I think he'll settle in and”

be pretty important for this team and I'm extremely high on the Los Angeles Clippers as per usual, that's just my, my M.O. in life, unfortunately. When you say they need him, I can't overstate that because going to the games and especially Minnesota did this, they don't really have a point guard, so they're like a lot of the times the offense runs through either Kawai or Matherin, ironically, Chris Dunn, you can't run,

he can't run the offense and they don't really have anybody who can just take it in bounce pass and dribble up the court and sets that up, so Minnesota was like, cool, we're just going to make your life miserable and they had I/O and Ann McDainos like picking everybody up full court and they were just taking them off from the Quippers, so just to have somebody who actually knows how to bring the ball up, dribble through his legs, do a spin move,

get over half court, set like they don't have anybody like that anymore and Harden did all of it, so I've always liked them. I grew through that the fit was in great with Mitchell, but on the other hand, that team was awesome last year, with those two guys together and he just has it been healthy, I thought it was a good gamble for them. Lakers 17, 13, they're in their last 30, D. Carehouse. I do not. I am ready for this legacy movie out of our lives.

They don't want to lose in the first round. Yeah, they don't care either, that's the most important

thing. They have the point-to-reft differential of a 32 and 2019. They play like a team that's barely above 500. They have that ridiculous clutch, you know, whatever they are now 17 and five in clutch time, but when they play games that end in double digits, they're 18 and 19. That's that's who this team is. That's the Lakers. They play teams. Athletic teams are nightmare for them. Yeah. They played Charlotte that they would be in like severe trouble.

I'll get, did you ever figure out Michael Wither? Why they just kind of punted at the trade deadline under that Luke and Art thing when there were guys out there? Why didn't they feel like

“they didn't even have a punch or chance it didn't seem like? Was there strategy?”

Well, it was strange. Well, Rob Polinka said that Luke canard was, quote, clearly right now, the game's best shooter. So you would have anticipated he would have moved the needle for them. Yeah, hasn't worked out that way. No, I don't, I mean, there's just another case of a team that clearly did not believe in itself to make a run and deservedly so. I think they're very average in, you know, how's said those great numbers? One that I don't, I don't know if this

is a number that matters, but in losses, they have the worst net rating in the NBA. So that's, you know what I call those? Loud losses. That's a problem. If you catch one of their bad games, you think they're like the worst team in the world and trade everybody. And then the next night they went by three and guess what? They went one and one in those two games.

But you saw that first game. You're like, that team fucking sucks. Oh my god, I can't

play about bad. They are. And then it's like the next night they beat Phoenix because, you know, Brooks and Booker aren't playing lurking. We are now in the top 10. Well, before we get to the top 10, where would you have put a Charlotte house in the top 10? Best

“10 teams right now. I would have had, I would have had them 10. Okay. How about you, Michael?”

I like where you have them. I don't think we want to spoil it right now, but that's probably where I would put them. Okay. Fair. Lirking. I have four teams in none of them are Charlotte. Did you send rockets? 18 and 12 in their last 30. 10 and five in their last 15. Minnesota. 19 and 11 in the last 30 plus 4.9 rating impressive 11 and 4 in the last 15. The Celtics are 21 and 9. I have them number 8 plus 9.3 rating. I'll explain why I have them eight

in a second. New York 17 and 13 plus 5.8 and New York is a classic catch them on the right

they're going to trade everybody except Jaylon Brunson after the season. I'll go in order, Houston. Signs of life are still too flawed for you, Michael. I think the book has been written on this

team and once Stephen Adams went out, that was it for me to be honest. He was so critical to their

identity on both ends and they still grab a bunch of offensive rebounds, but they don't grab half of them. He was so integral to how they played and you combine that with obviously the loss of Fred and I just think it's too much over come for this team. Couldn't agree more. And I know how to increase because we've texted about it regularly. And and and but accordingly yes. Number nine Minnesota. I still feel like I felt this way all year that there was value in

Minnesota and that people just weren't on Minnesota correctly from checking the prototype of

“if a team is going to actually win the title, what do you need to have? I need to have one of the best”

seven players in the league. I need to be able to play defense at a really high level. I need a couple of heat check guys. They do check all of it. It's been a little disjointed. But even now, how's their 33 to one win the title? That just seems out of whack to me. Yeah. I mean, they don't really want to bet it either. But it just seems like that. When we're done on betting that, you have to bet it. They made it what is nuts. That's they made the Western conference finals

two consecutive years. Like that there there. You know, when we've had teams ahead of them in both of those years. Yeah. Top 10 on in both offense and defense rating wise. And you know, it's kind of the the same team. We're waiting around. They are incentive to get to the three seed, I think, because you definitely want to play whoever it ends up in the six. Yeah. Well, and they have a really not afraid to play Denver at all. It's that ends up being the matchup. Like

they play the fight. They're like in welcome it. Yes. I agree with that. And which the way this is lining up, what's that going to be the four five? I mean, how's you could argue wherever they end up three four five six. They're feeling really good about playing the lakers. They're feeling really good

“about playing Denver. Milwaukee Houston. Like pick it. I'm not Milwaukee Minnesota. What am I doing?”

I'm blanking Houston Denver or the lakers would be the three right? Yes. Yes. Well, we're an old guy moment. I just said I just said Milwaukee. I mean, I'm in the west. You caught yourself. That was great. But yeah, all three of those teams, peanut would they be afraid of any of those three no way. Definitely not the lakers. You know, if the sun's where to somehow get up there at the get six and Minnesota goes up to three. Just like there's a lot of great matchups for them.

I will talk about this later, probably, but I personally would not. I don't want the Denver

nuggets in a seven game series. Like the healthy Denver nuggets. I just don't want that in the first round.

Well, I mean, I can't wait to talk about Denver, but the question would be, are we getting a healthy Denver nuggets in the very fair tomorrow? So Fando has the Timberwolves plus 100 to advance to round two, which is a line that I thought was not as good as I thought it would be. But they must be building in. They think they have a chance to get the three seed. I'm scared of Minnesota. As I said,

“I saw them in personal last week, and I think with I/O and Ant and McDaniels all out there together,”

it's a truly scary defensive team. We go bare behind them. Like I really think there's a high ceiling for them to defend. Celtics number eight. I don't want to talk about them. Number, we just, it's just, we don't know what we're getting with Tatum. I just, it's like we might as well talk about the Middle East and try to figure out what's happening there. Number seven. Bill, can I give you, can I give you a quick Celtic stat before we have on?

So their defense in January first with Derek White on the court is the exact same number

as the spurs with Victor Women Yam on the court. Derek White just won the defense player the month for the Eastern Conference, and he's just, he's so phenomenal. I just wanted to shout out Derek White. His season has been so terrific. He's like a paint protecting guard. One of the best paper detectors in the NBA. It's wild. He is, I think, in that offense, a pair of the year of conversation, if Wemby doesn't get the games. I don't think it'll win it,

but I do think when people write the pieces, he'll have to be mentioned now, right? Because of all the advanced stats, and then I will absolutely write that. Yeah, yeah, you know what's crazy house? I was used to tell House, one of the easiest great bets. If you're doing a parlay, was to put the Derek White one block in, any semi-important or important game, he was just getting a block. It's fine. The market is finally adjusted. He's down like minus 340 to get a

plus 105. And now they treat him like he's, you know, really go bare. It's hilarious. Because he

always gets it. He gets it. And he gets it early. It's like he blocks somebody from behind, and the

first performance of the game. It's like, yeah, we won. Well, we'll see what happens. We're not we're talking about. Then too much unknown. Not a lot of unknown with the next at this point, 17 and 13 in their last 30, plus 5.8. You know, Sunday they look great against the spurs. It was also an afternoon game on the East Coast at MSG and in San Antonio could make a shot. I still don't love how Brunson dependent they are. I still don't understand the Mitchell

Robinson, can't play back to back thing, although if they're saving him for the playoffs. Great. The Bridges part is weird. The part where nobody guards Josh Hart really at all. If it's a

good team, like that's part of the strategy. So there's some things going against them. I've

seen anything that makes you think that they're a realistic final steampina. I don't want to come across as a next hater. I just, when your two best players are so weak defensively, it is really hard to win for playoffs series. I was watching the Oklahoma City Thunder game, but they just lost the other night. You watched Crunchtime in that game. And I have a theory that Mike Brown is playing Landry Shaman in Crunchtime so that teams will hunt Landry Shaman instead

of Jalen Brunson. That's something that is going to happen over and over and over again in the

“playoffs. We see it every year. I think that when you run up against the team, like if they were to”

play the Cleveland Cavaliers, James Harden would bring him into the action every single possession. So it's just it's tough. It's really tough. You've got to have a lead shot making. You've got to be really cohesive with your defensive rotations. And, you know, Mitch Robinson's only playing like what 20 minutes a game. That's his limit. So it's just, it's really difficult. There's just not a margin for error. House is in a huge fan. I am. You're wrong. I am. Did you become a huge fan?

No. I have futures on the next. I think that they especially after watching that Oklahoma City game. That was like validation for me. That felt like a very high level of play validation of the next being able to get in and go with anybody. Now, I know no Joe J. Dubb for okay. See, did he retire with Jacob ever? But Nick's have the best since the January. They have the best defense in the NBA by almost a full point per 100 possessions. The next. So there's

something inside the chemistry there that is happening. And when we just watched a 100 to 3 to 100

“games. And they were two two missed 3s. That's toe to toe with the team that I think is still”

the best team in the NBA. I have the next up there. I think they're too low in this powerful.

One of the things that I don't like about them surface last night is they get their down three rebound waist 10 seconds. And then called the timeout. So they're six seconds left. And it was just like, I just don't think they have one of the best coaches in the league. I would just say that. We've said we've had a lot of bad bats with Mike Brown. He's solid. He can take it to the game seven around one. But it was just like such an obvious call the timeout. Seven seconds for you call

that. And the irony is they ended up getting good threes and missed the threes. But I really like to end an OB down the stretch in that game. You know, Zach and I talk Sunday about the best perimeter guys. And we're talking about the two top scents. I had J to McDaniels,

“Doran Carruso. And then I think we had an OB and I think we probably had an OB to low. Because”

that was it was really interesting watching Shay try to unlock him. They Shay trying to get all the stuff he normally gets. But trying to solve this taller guy who's just a nightmare. Yeah, I'm probably little too low in the next. I just think they've been too erratic. Like every time I start to buy into it, you turn it on and they're down 17 and like, you know, freaking it later or something. Um, that was my toughest one. So I had them seven. I had the wild cards,

Charlotte six, Denver five. The Charlotte thing is just to peer going on the history of when teams go to this level in January and February. And we have a tendency not to take that seriously enough. And I'm just taking it seriously. Like I just think they've proven that they're a really good team. They're young, they're healthy. I like having younger teams going into the playoffs. We talked about them already. Pina, you just wrote this huge piece about Yokech who I have number five. They're

Yokech guy has concerned me that his stats, the stats that really made him special, especially this year, are going a little sideways because I update my stats every every week for the MVP and all

NBA and stuff. And he was always 60% field goal this stuff. All the sudden the stats were

looking a little more normal for him than they were. And it's because since he came back, he's not quite the same guy. And you laid this out in the piece today. So for the audience, tell them what you found. Yeah. I mean, his shooting numbers from the floaters zone, which is his bread and butter, the spot-up threes that he gets on the pick and pop with Jamal Murray. Even his free throws, just everything is down kind of dramatically from what it was pre-neendry. And

that doesn't even begin to talk about like the defense, which I've always thought he was a little bit of an underrated defender. And right now, it's just, it's tough. I mean, there's some just

peak madador situations. I mean, the game begins. The Minnesota Timberwolves with Anthony Edwards

just kind of skating past him on the perimeter was really rough. Even like Kianta George. And when they nearly lost the Utah Jazz, the other one, Kianta George is just going to the rim left and right.

“So I think they're trying to lose. And they still almost hit the burger. So I think the defense”

tanks and that's tough. But for me, it's health is just a huge component here. And I think the way that they play is different without, you know, the guy in the dunkers spot, like Gordon or Peyton Watson to threaten space the floor like that. So I think when they get healthy and they get bigger, like, I just, I love Yokech. I can't quit this guy. He's still so phenomenal. That

gave me head against the Celtics without Jamal Murray in the second half was just like, I'm the best

player to plan it. So that's why I wonder, like, how much of this is rust and how much of this is health? Because if you watch that South the game, he looked like Yokech. I didn't, I wanted to put them higher than five in the sample size was just too big. But I also think they don't have paint Watson who turned into this super sub for them. And then I've Gordon who's the third most important guy in the team in the guy that swings them from a first or second round team to a final

team. So five seemed okay, how see, we have some Denver bets. Are you concerned at all? No, I'm not concerned at all because I believe that these guys that have been suffering these injuries, laboring, you know, to get back, we'll get back and that we will see the full version of

“this team right as the playoffs get going. And that is exciting. That's what we're after. I think you”

have Denver and exactly the right place, even though they are behind both Houston and Minnesota in the standings right now, it's the potential, it's the pedigree. And I think it's right to give them that respect, given that nod, even though, you know, the game against Utah. Like they, it's really, well, there's there's short on wings, Cam Johnson's who I was probably too hard on the other night because I think he's hurt and certainly it seems to be like cutting it out,

but at the same time, like there's a piece of Denver, Murray's been so good this year, and Yoke Javasus Yokech. And I do wonder if it's tough sometimes, Gordon figured it out, Gordon has figured out exactly when he's healthy, had to play with those guys, had to get all his shots on the right things. But I do wonder sometimes with some of these other wing dudes and supporting characters, like somebody like Peyton Watson, who was doing a lot of the stuff that he was doing

without Yokech or Cam Johnson, who doesn't touch the ball for 40 minutes, and then all of some of his being asked to take the two biggest shots of the game. Yokech is both awesome to play with, but also in the last five, six minutes where these two guys are doing everything, and then all of a sudden it's like, okay, can you, can you, can you make this one shot? And so I haven't touched ball in an hour. I just, you bring a Gordon back, you're bringing Watson back, and you're just doing

“this in real time as the playoffs are starting. It really makes me nervous. I think they have some”

stuff to figure out, and I don't think Yokech is 100% every game, is the other thing. Mid their monkey games or maybe his knee is a little more sore than the other games. You know, like the stuff that game he was great. If he's playing back to backs, if you're playing, you know, especially when we have those series where you're just playing every other night for two weeks, and he's not 100% healthy, that makes me nervous. Okay, the contenders. Clevver number four, Detroit number

three, and San Antonio number two, how's do you agree with that order? Yes, no issue with it whatsoever. I would have the Nixon here, ahead of Cleveland, but I don't have any. See you would move the next

Hmm, interesting. I didn't quite have the balls to do that, but I do feel more comfortable.

If it was a better life situation, it's 55, 45 to me going toward Cleveland to make the finals over Detroit. If those are my only two picks. Yeah, Cleveland was just in Brooklyn the other day, and someone there at the game told me that they were just completely unafraid of the Detroit pistons, and they had just lost to Detroit without Donovan Mitchell and James Harden in an overtime game, but they should have lost it into Detroit. And then they beat them with Harden after that.

“And I just think that this team is just ridiculous. I think they have so much shooting,”

so much wing depth. And I, you know, the Harden thing is the Harden thing. We'll see how that goes

in the postseason. No, the Harden thing. The thing of sucking when the put win the game's

most matter. I would say this is, you know, not to make excuses with this is probably the best situation that he's been in for a variety of reasons. And Florida, David Mitchell being there, and yeah, I don't even need to go through it, but it's a good situation for him. Honeymoon Harden, a Joe House favorite. 17 and five since Virginia, where there's Cleveland team and something outstanding since the all-star break since the acquisition of Harden, right? Like the only one or two

of the rating is outstanding. I love this Cavs team, but we are already getting these little old Donovan Mitchell's got to grow. We saw Harden with the thumb and Jared Allen left the game,

“like, you know, high ceiling in these. I think I've talked about this a couple of times in the”

pot already, but the the the the trait just really only having K at the end of these games. I don't think it's sustainable for three straight playoff rounds. This is great as he is. Like they just don't have that extra guy who I can trust to create a shot. And that's one of the things with Charlotte you know, where Charlotte plays the trait around one. Charlotte has five guys who can create a shot. You know, and if they're going to go toe to toe, they're going to be able to at least feel comfortable

doing it. I just feel like we're going to see Charlotte versus Detroit and Ramon. I think that fight was like a pre it. There's some sort of weird, carmic thing. I feel like we're going to see it. I don't know. And I think Charlotte could beat them. San Antonio number two here. And I would say probably a half a level above these two teams for me from a ceiling standpoint. The youth from the I don't know. I just really value having been there before we've been watching

this forever. It's so rare for our team to just be like we're here. Oh, now we're beating everybody.

Like it's never works out that way. We've really only seen that with the 86 rockets.

“Even the 95 magic the year before they got a taste of it. I think if I'm remembering it,”

correctly, but I don't know. I just for them to just win the title this year just seems so foreign to my brain. Do you have a take on this Michael? I think they're definitely a title contender. I'm really interested to see their next seven games. I think it is. They have pistons, clippers, rockets, Celtics, nuggets, hornets. And then back, they go on the road. Those are all homens. They go on the road to play the clippers again. So I want to I want to see that stretch. I

want to see if they go five and two, six and one. Really assert themselves. Really care about winning those games. I don't know. We'll see. But they're definitely a championship contender for me. They're especially since they change their starting five. Moving champagne and Harrison Barnes, they've been absolutely terrific. So yeah, I mean, when B is Wendy, I mean, he's absolutely insane on defense completely controls basketball games without touching the ball.

They're their championship contender for sure. 13 and two in their last 15, plus 7.5 rating in their last 30. And how's I? We haven't really talked about it. But I love Harper. I don't know. It's weird to call him the X-factor, the playoffs because I don't even think he's one of their four best players. But I've been so impressed by the defense with him and just the athleticism and I don't even know what he's going to be. I really almost want to like study him in these next

two weeks. I don't know what his ceiling is is a player. I don't know who to compare him to. But he's just, I just like everything he does. I just think he's like a pure basketball player who gives a shit who's multi-scale to who can play with or without the ball and it's just additive. I really like him. I think it's literally the very best possible situation for him to have landed in the draft. Like for him to arrive with this group, the way that this group has come together,

minus touch move. The champagne, anything like underrated, but like look at what an impact it has. And Basel and Castle, it's just such a tough team. Like so capable of imposing their own

“physicality on teams. I just love the way that they go at OKC. They could play if you want to”

let skip to the Western Conference Finals and let me have a 15 game series of a OKC against San Antonio. That I'm here for it. Time you up. What a cool series. What a great thing for the lead. That would be. And this is why when we talk about the face of the lead and all that stupid shit. Like

the leagues I was going to be fine. There's always going to be the next team coming. And there's always

going to be a rivalry we couldn't have expected. Shampooing. Start it out of Filly by the way, House. Would you put that in your 15 years of negligent filly moves that they had champagne briefly? I mean, it doesn't rise to the level of the Paul George signing. Or the Bridges trade. It's not quite up there with moving bridges at the draft. But how San Antonio 550 to minus 550

“make it at the round one. And then to advance to the Western finals. What do you think those odds are?”

San Antonio to be in round three to make it to the Western finals. And less and less and minus. No, not minus plus plus 160. Any idea, Pina? I'm out of my depth right now.

Oh, with the game. Sorry. There are minus 105 to make round three. Basically,

either not to win two series. I got. I was like, it has no play. I've gone. Yeah. That's the reason for hurt me catch myself. I was about to say like minus one was like, no, there's no way. But that's the thing. And that's I think that the bigger point of the season is some of these teams, like Charlotte, San Antonio, they might just might just be ready to win some playoff games. San Antonio certainly Charlotte may be. And then we have OKC number one. I don't know. Like, I'm sure

Jade up. They're taking everything easy. I think big picture when you have these five six-year runs where you're playing 100 games a year. It's probably a good thing to have these guys not playing 80 game seasons than doing these playoff runs. But have you seen anything from OKC? They're 2010 and they're last 30. Have you seen anything from them in the last two months that made you nervous, Michael? Not nervous. No, I mean, heart and strength as a heart and

strength is recurring injury also that you want to keep an eye on. Alex Caruso fell on his hip last night against the mix and he's just one of the more reckless players in the league and he had to leave didn't come back. So injuries are kind of a factor here for this team. And obviously JW said is a big one. That's kind of a mystery right now. So what is this injury at the hamstring? Takes forever. Yeah recurring. Yeah. So that's a tough one. But they just keep winning games.

They still have an elite defense. They have Shay who makes every single shot he takes. So I'm not too worried about them. House? I loved that game against the mix. I loved them going into Madison Square Garden for a prime time. Like the whole league is watching. And the way that they they came out and took advantage immediately of, you know, claps into the middle and and chat home and getting touch after touch after touch and knocking them down. That was like a championship

pedigree kind of matchup. And to the next credit, I mean what the next didn't the third corner was awesome, gave it right back to them. But I that was that was like very reassuring. Like a restored my faith. And so like what they're capable of, what their next level looks like. And we're all

“the guys come in. Wiggins had a dunk. I was like, yeah, remember? That's how they, that's what they do.”

That's how they do it. And so yeah, I was fired up from that game. Plus their America's villains and Shay were a giant like weird fur coat thing while whatever the hell that was. Like they're just weird. The thunder like just getting their weird on. Well, what's that? There's such strange if you had to help chat with his hair facial hair situation, how's what would you recommend? Say anything differently he could do. Would you go bigger beard?

No, you got beard is it your song or like, shaggy or hair? No, no, no, no, no. Shay said I would

shave it shorter up top. I would bring it down because the problem is it looks like his, his head and

it feels like you got, you know, almost almost a full yard, almost a full full ball yard to get for the top of the anyway. I would try and tighten it up a little bit. I think I would go tighter on the hair and I think I would go beard but longer. I'd go longer face like you sag. It's like your face looks too long. I go longer with the beard and really try to look more intimidating. Could us a new maybe a handlebar type of type of thing. Just trying to think of like I was watching

shot call our last week. Some of the looks in that movie like maybe because ultimately like his

“toughness is going to be the key to the team, right? You want people like, oh shit, chat, he looks”

like a badass. They might have to find the pistons. You know, Jayle and Darren just just coming in like, okay. Okay, you don't break any, any facial hair construct is going to take bull duren off the case. How's did you have an opinion on a con cannip on like them before we go? Two K was awesome. We're going to do two K for con cannip on. You want to do bull duren. Those are two like modern guys. Did you like the good learn now? Yeah, sure. Let's go with that. He's kind of like a

one name person though. You don't mean like couldn't we all know who we're talking about or gone. Yeah, I'm fine. Yeah. Got he had one of those flare screen last night's where I don't know how many

guys in history have been able to run that play with the half-second pick where they just get a

three off. It's basically him and Clay, right? And not counting Curry. Curry doesn't count for any of these

“things. But you know what I mean? Like, I'm talking. I'm talking normal guy. Ray Allen. I don't know.”

Talking normal players. Okay. Okay. I don't even have to say don't even know if Ray Allen got it off like this. But who else is on that list? Con canniple is just, I don't even know what to say. His shot release isn't sane. I don't understand it. He's like a, the fact that he's not in his 90th year is like makes my brain melt out of my ears. It doesn't compute the fact that this is a rookie. His thing about how he was playing in men's leagues when he was 14 and that's one of the reasons

because he's used to playing basketball with grown men and knowing where to go and what to do and get the ball. It's like maybe he stumbled on to some new way to like maybe we need to dump a you and just put 14 neurons and mens leagues and that's the new strategy. That's the advantage of the international players. Danny Obdia was playing with you know, bro, grown men, right? Or back guys. Who knows? Best network out of the league. Who's good to ask? Gotta give out my, my, my,

I'll do right. We're going to talk about quick releases. Gotta do it. That's a good one too. Well, you know, it's almost weirder when the guys 6, 7, 6, 8, 6, 6, 6 and just needs like a half

second. I don't know, it's going to be really interesting. I thought how Portland defended him was probably

the blueprint and the playoffs where they just like crashed every, every top of the line screen. They just put bigger guys on them or guys that were the same size and they really were determined not to let him get off. But then Miller got going. That's probably that team. How some admitting defeat on Brandon Miller versus Scoot Henderson. Rare draft loss for me. I'd still think I'm in the winning side of these lottery pick ones. But that's going to be it. It's going to be

now. Okay. I remember making fun of KFC about it on my pod that he was wrong and I might have gotten freaked out by the car accident, whatever, half or not, the car with a, was there gun? There was some sort of bad Brandon Miller. So I forget. Very bad. Yes. I didn't like that. To get that might have been an over action. I've learned some lessons there about maybe not overact to an incident. But yeah,

“I think that was fun and loss. All right. Michael Pina, you can read him at the ringer.”

Listen, I'm on a bunch of our podcast. Joe House. We're in gambling show fairway wrong. Going to the players next week. Yeah. We're going to be down on TPC saw grass with all the big boys unbelievable with the greatest video game golf course of all time. The 17th. The 17th. The 17th. The best. All right. Thanks, guys. Good to see you. Thanks, Bill. All right. That's it for the podcast. Thanks to the dannies. Thanks to House and Pina. Thanks to Gahoundard Wardo as well. Don't forget

to vote for C. R. Month on the rewatchables Instagram feed. Don't forget about new rewatchables coming on Monday, Fargo. And if you missed the one we did this week at Sucario, I'm going to be back Sunday night with Zach. Well, we're going to be coming on live on Netflix right after the rocket spurs game, which should be a really, really good game. But we're going to find out what Jason Tatum we think looks like. We're going to find out what Cooper flag thought about playing in Boston. Five years

So can't wait to can't wait to do it. And good luck to Jason Tatum. I'll see you guys on Sunday and

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