May 26, 2022 • 38 mins
Former NFL offensive lineman and FOX Sports Radio Weekend host Ephraim Salaam is in for Rob, and he and Chris explain why Steve Kerr comparing Luka Doncic to James Harden shouldn't be taken as a compliment, discuss why Giannis Antetokounmpo absolutely has GOAT potential, tell us why the Los Angeles Lakers are smart by putting the needs of the franchise ahead of the needs of LeBron James, and explain why the Boston Celtics appear to be a lock to make the NBA Finals.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Odd Couple podcast. Be sure
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(00:22):
R party. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Yeah, it
(00:42):
is the I Couple. I'm Chris Bruce arn alongside my
partner Rob. Partner Rob Parker is off tonight. So wow
in his place, the one the only Eve from the
Suller that's right, that is my man. Yeah, now look
(01:06):
you stepping up in class, bro, So I hope you're ready. First,
First of all, wait, wait a minute, like you talking
to me like I haven't filled the seat before and
blew the bottom off this thing. Okay, oh oh, well
you filled the seat before. I don't know about the
second half that statement. I mean, I did the numbers
I got with Rob, and I did the numbers and
(01:27):
the you know, the shows that I co host are
there the highest rated shows. So I don't know what
that means, right, I don't know what that means because
I've been in for you and I've been in for
it for Rob, so I don't I'm just I'm not
trying to make the correlation here. I'm just saying we
got action. Hey, whatever helps you sleep at night, Bro,
whatever helps you sleeping night? Noah, my man. Welcome to
(01:48):
the show. Of course, I am excited. We always love
having you on as our win of our weekly guests,
and so I'm excited to have these next three hours.
Gonna be a lot of fun to talk about. Absolutely,
we got so many topics man, NBA, baseball, football, so
it's gonna be a lot of fun. Keep it locked
(02:09):
right here for the next three hours. It's gonna be
some great sports talk, Fox Sports Radio, the iHeartRadio app
or Serious XM Channel eighty three, however you may be listening.
Of course, we've got the I Couple crew in full effect,
DJ Alex ty Shirt on the ones and the twos.
And even though Rob isn't here, maybe you've heard Rob
(02:31):
has been inducted into his high school Hall of Fame.
I know not many people know about it. I know
he's been doing his best to be humble about it
and keep it a secret. But just in case you
didn't know, he's being inducted into his high school Hall
of Fame this week. So that's why he's not here
for sports or for for I think past achievement, like lifetimes,
(02:53):
lifetime achievements. I don't even know if Rob play sports.
Didn't have you seen his building? Um, I didn't know
if in his jersey from the rafter he said he
was a baseball player, but I think that was through
about seventh grade. Manager, maybe you know. That's fun. We
will keep these states. We will get Rob a chance
(03:13):
to respond wow, but we regulated Yeah, absolutely, I'm happy
for him. From we will do some of our normal segments,
one of them being Tysher's Tower of Trivia, which is hot.
It's a segment everybody loves. We'll do that in the
(03:34):
second hour of the show with DJ Alex Tysher. Of
course Rob g is here the super producer running things.
And on the update, we got our man, Steve di Sager.
Let's hop right into it. From the Western Conference Finals,
I think it's over. It's three one, Golden State over Dallas.
(03:55):
They played a night game five in Golden State or
in San Francisco. I expect the Warriors to close it out.
But Steve Kerr was talking yesterday, and once again he
is he has done this a few times. He did
it before the series. But once again he compared, and
so did Draymond Green preparing for Luca Dontchees or guarding
(04:19):
Luca dontches playing against Luca Dontchees. They compared it to
playing against James Harden in previous seasons twenty eighteen. Remember
that fantastic playoff series when Houston have them beat. They
were up three too, Chris Baul getting hurt, and then
the Golden State wins the next two games. But they
compared it to that. And here's Steve Kerr saying this
(04:44):
before the series, and then we'll get your thoughts. It
does remind me a little bit of Houston a few
years ago when he would play them every year with
Harden at the point, and you know, ultimately they would
get to five out space things with you know, three
point shooters surrounding the call space for Harden, the similar
sort of set of circumstances, and uh, you know, you're
(05:05):
just dealing with a lot of ground to cover and
and a guy who's got the ball in his hand,
who is playing at the peak of his powers. All right,
from your thoughts and Um, do you think this is
a good comparison, like like a positive that they're making
about Luca or a negative? Well, it's not a positive
in terms of you know, what did that get James Harden? Right? Right? Nothing? Right?
(05:31):
He wants the scoring titles, who want an MVP, But
it didn't, it didn't amount to anything. And yeah, you
know Chris Paul got hurt uh in that that that
series where they had Golden State, but they still came
out and went over twenty six from three from three.
(05:54):
So that comparison for Luca isn't something to be excite
it about because number one, James Harden didn't play any
defense at least Luka tries to play defense, right, Um,
and Harden, I think over the last few years Hardened
has tried, Well, he's tried because he's hurt. He's hurt.
I mean, you get to hear. The good thing about
(06:16):
social media and instant responses to things is you get
to hear what people are saying. You get to hear
what your contemporaries are saying, you get to hear what
everybody's saying. And I mean if you watch those Houston
James Hardens, I mean he would literally be standing in
front of somebody. They would take one dribble by him
and he would just turn and look right right, And
so I mean that's just what it was. Once you
(06:40):
become that, then something has to kick in where you're like, okay,
well let me at least put him, you know, foul
him or something, stay in front of it or try.
But for Luca, um, he's such a ball dominant player.
And that's the comparison, right, Even some of the best
scores ever in the league were like, when you look
at Steph curR, He's not a ball dominant player. No,
(07:03):
And that's one of the unique things about step in
this era in particular. And even from look, I think
it's an accurate comparison. I think Luca will go down
as better than James Harden. You know, we'll see he's
gotta win, but I you know, I think he's on
that track. But here's Mike thing, and it plays off
the first thing you said, what did that get James Harden?
(07:26):
This is what Dallas, assuming they lose this series, this
is what they have to spend their entire summer in
my view, figuring out how can we maximize Luca don
chich and a second star next to him, even if
that guy for the time being is Jalen Brunson, right,
who's not like a high tiers star, not even a
(07:49):
star yet, but you know, maybe they hope he's probably
their best chance to become that. And my problem with
what they do right now is they are a one
man show and Luca. Everything is created off Luca, either
he's shooting or he's creating it for someone else, and
(08:09):
that's a tribute to his greatness, but it has a ceiling.
Lebron couldn't win that way. Michael Jordan. Jordan did it differently,
but you know when he before Phil Jackson got there.
When Jordan was scoring all the points thirty seven a game,
thirty five a game, thirty three a game, they were
winning championships. Will Chamberlain, when he averaged fifty and forty
(08:32):
four and thirty eight and thirty seven, he wasn't winning
championships this style. No matter how good individually you are,
will not beat a talented team that plays five man basketball.
And that's why he from the Thorn and Lebron's side
throughout his career has been two teams San Antonio, which
(08:55):
played team basketball, and Golden State, which played team basketball,
and that's what so I think they need to work
on that because this is gonna get them far, but
it's not. I don't think it's gonna get them a championship. Yeah,
it says no matter how good an individual player is, right,
we're so caught up on stats and threes and the
(09:17):
percentage and analytics and what this is and what that is.
The fact remains that if you're a ball dominant player
ala Irison like we gotta put them. Yeah, they you
want a bunch of games, some scoring titles and MVP.
You do all of those things. But when you get
(09:37):
to the playoffs and deep into the playoffs, right, conference championships, championship,
you can't be that guy because over a seven game series,
teams will find a way, right right, find a way
to limit what you do best, and you can still score,
(09:58):
but they when you freeze everybody else out, the rhythm
is completely off. That's why I'm always in favor of
the teams that play great team defense. If you can
play great team defense, you can live with a Lucas
going forty right, you're you everybody else right, you're you're
You're good with that. You're good with Lebron going crazy
(10:19):
and having fifty uh nineteen in in twelve, You're okay
with that, but it's two and six in the flows
when he scores forty or more, because it's bigger than that.
You gotta be able to make adjustments. You gotta be
able to see what the other team is doing to you.
Don't force yourself on them, on them and make you
(10:40):
stop me no, because they're not really trying to stop you, right,
They're just trying to make it difficult for you. They want,
like Golden State wants the Dallas to continue to play slow.
Golden State loves up Temple so offensively. When they miss
one of those step back threes or one of those
long threes, they're they're running. Golden State is running right right,
(11:01):
and they're getting easy transition buckets, and they're okay with that.
What they don't want Dallas to do is run up
and down the court. And when we see Dallas play slow,
they so when we've seen Luca on the bench and
Bronson running the point, we see a more up Temple game.
First two games of the playoffs this year, Dallas was
(11:21):
up and down the court like we hadn't seen him
all year, right La, because Luca wasn't there. So here's
the here's the other thing. And you played at a
high level Division one basketball, so you know this. It
is in addition, and this goes for all of the
ball dominant players, including Lebron. It is hard to find
(11:45):
a second star and enable that second star to excel
or even get him to want to play with the
ball dominant number one. You mentioned Allen Iverson. They tried,
Verry Stackhouse was there. They brought in Chris Webber, they
Glenn big Dog Robinson I think was there for a minute.
(12:06):
None of it worked because Iversen was so ball dominant.
It is hard to and that's the challenge they're gonna
have with Luca. There are a lot of guys that
wouldn't want to play as great as Luca is, wouldn't
want to play with him. And here's the deal. And
this is why I brought up that you played Division
one ball. You know this. If I'm just Maxi Kleiber
(12:26):
and all I can do is catch and shoot, I
can't create my own stuff. I love playing with Luke
just like if I'm Kyle Korver, I love playing with Lebron, Right,
all I gotta do is spot up. He gonna find
me open and I can just hit my shot. But
if I can do something myself, I got handled, I
can go off the bounce. I can create my own
(12:47):
shot and shots for others as well. I'm a bit
frustrated with Luca because you just want me to kind
of stand on the three point line and wait for
him to do it all for me. And you notice
with Brunson when Luca's on the bench, Brunson kind of
takes lucas wrong and he's doing all that. So that's why.
(13:09):
And look, Luca's young enough. This isn't all his fault.
This is them creating this system, right, And he's young
enough where if they start to get him off the
ball a little bit, get him moving without the ball,
they can make it work. But if you go too long.
It was hard for Lebron to adjust you because he
played that way for seven years in Cleveland. And I'll
(13:30):
tell you this, that's one of the reasons they brought
Jay Kidd in. Jake Kidd was was was a consummate
point guard, who can score, who could do all of that,
but he got everybody involved. That was very important. I
remember Jay Kidd growing up in high school. We played
in some of the same tournaments, and I mean he
could he could score forty on you really because that think,
(13:52):
oh no, he can go, Like seriously, he can go.
He was just beating people off the drip. But he
wasn't shooting Jay's but he could. I mean he was
winning three point contests and dun count all of that.
Like we grew up in this in the in the
in the same circle, same era. But I but I'll
tell you this to your point. A perfect example on
the Dallas Mavericks teams, Spencer Dinwoody yep, right, what what
(14:13):
what did he look like in in in Brooklyn in
New York? Right right right? He was that guy who
fed off the flow of the game and slap. He's
so out of sorts right now. You know, everybody's like, well,
what what's going on with them here? They need when
he's getting his typically when Luca's out of the game,
and and that's the point when you have somebody with
(14:34):
at that caliber yep, right, and now he's sacrificed this game,
and what they're gonna have to do. They're gonna have
to find a young number two. Think about when when
Pippin came uh to Jordan, right young number two, willing
to learn, willing to you know, do the dirty things,
and then he evolved into that right about Chris Middleton,
(14:55):
kind of same thing. The one was growing. But yeah, yeah, nah,
that's a good point. We got plenty to get into.
And this is just the beginning. It's the I Couple.
Chris and if From and Jannis I From just did
something that neither Michael Jordan or Lebron James did. We'll
get into that next couple of Fox Sports Radio. Be
(15:18):
sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple with
Chris Broussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm Eastern
four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart
Radio app. Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour
with Ben Maller, along with my trustee sidekick David Gascon.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey. You're asking what in God's name
(15:39):
is the Fifth Hour. I'll tell you it's a spin
off of that Ben Maller show, cult hit overnights on FSR.
Why should you listen? Picture? If you will, a world
will we chat with captains of industry in media, sports
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(15:59):
you get your podcast. I mean Uncle and Baliry. That's right.
This is the odd couple with Chris Brusade and Rob Parker.
But no, Rob Parker's not here today, He's being honored.
I'm from salam Uh coming to you live from the
Fox Sports studios. Absolutely, and I love the theme song.
We'll get into that a little bit later. Get into it.
(16:21):
We'll get into it. I can't wait. But look, were
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head onto the Zone all those owns, your battery solution
and America's number one battery destination. Yeah, I from Yanni
(16:47):
significom bo. I do think he's the best player in
the world. Do you agree with that? I do agree
with that. Okay, Um, he did something I don't know
if you you heard this, but he did something this
year that no one in the history of basketball isn't okay,
so you know, he became the only player ever not
(17:13):
he made four straight All NBA First teams, which has
been done by others. But he was a unanimous choice
for the fourth straight year that has never been done.
Not Michael, not Lebron, not Kareem, not Magic, no one. Now,
(17:33):
I it baffles me how Jordan or n It's shocking,
but it happened. And here's what I want to throw
to you, Jannis, I believe is twenty seven, rob g
check that out. But I think he's twenty seven years old.
Does he have he for me? Is twenty seven? Does
(17:55):
he have gold potential? Oh? Yeah, Well when you just
look at his his sheer nature, his size, his ability.
Now if he continues to develop and take the three
point shot or the midrange jump shot, when those become automatic,
oh gosh, right, Kevin Durant, Well, and he'll never get
(18:20):
to that level. No, he'll but wait, wait, get not shooting.
The hold on, hold on the thing about shooting is
like you can become a great shooter, right, the size
and explosiveness, you know, you know what I mean, Like
you gotta be anointed a little bit for that. He
can become a better shoot and a good shot. But
(18:42):
that's all it takes, though, Okay, right, but I'm just
saying he doesn't He doesn't need to win the three
point contest, He doesn't need to do any of that.
But if he can pull up in that fifteen to
twenty foot range and consistently hit that shot, brother, you
want to talk about a problem. Because the only way
people guard Yannis right now is what they back off
(19:05):
of him. They force him and they want him to
take those shots. Right. He can sit at the three
point line all game if he had seven threes and
they beat us, hey man, congratulations, Right, But what you
can do is allow him to get into the paint
and drive, so they're gonna back off. If he can
rectify that weakness in his game, he most definitely has
(19:28):
god potential. I agree, I agree, And you hit it
on the head with as good as he already is.
As good as he already is, what is he seventy
seventy five percent of the player he actually could be, right,
that's scary because if he adds what you said, he
(19:48):
is driving when defenses know that's what he wants to do.
Once he gets the mid range jumper, the three point shot,
then they're not gonna be able to just sag off
of him all the time, and then it'll open up
the driving lanes even more. He's a very good passer.
He's a very good ball handler for a seven footer.
(20:09):
His defense obviously is phenomenal, rebounding phenomenal. Has shown he
from that when the lights are brightest and the pressure
is on, he steps up. Right, He played well, I
mean he obviously they did as good a job as
you could do on him, but he still played well
against Boston. He was fantastic against Phoenix. Those are two
(20:30):
good defenses, you know last year in the finals, So
he I agree with you. Now, obviously he's going to
have to win, and win in bunches. He don't have
to win six to me, but he's gonna have to
win a lot, probably at least five this year, or
you could say he's better than Georgia. This year would
have helped his car if it would continue to play. Right,
(20:52):
if he was in the Eastern Conference finals, right and
one of this year and then you know, went on
and won the championship. Now you're starting to old man,
how many can he do? Right? Right? How many canny
can we can we go on to run? Right? So
you have to put yourself in that category before we
(21:14):
can even start talking about being in the Goat conversation,
because he to get in that conversation. Lebron went to
the final nine years in the row, right, right, So
that's right, he's in the conversation. He had to go
nine years in a row and win four of them
(21:34):
to even be in the conversation. Yep. And that's where,
like you said, this hurt him in turns of nowt
he's young, I said twenty seven. Jordan won his first
one at twenty seven. Lebron was twenty six or twenty
seven when he won his first one. So he's got time.
He does have right now, he's got and at least
(21:59):
starting now and advantage in Lebron and that his first championship.
At least it wasn't with a super team, right, Like
he didn't go Joan Daman, Lillard or somebody like right,
So that is if it ever gets to it, him
and Lebron that'll be a notch in his belt if
he gets to that level. Like you said, he's got
a long way to go before he can get to
(22:21):
that level. And from here's the other thing for those
that are into the goat conversation and Jordan and all that.
With the six, it's not just that he won six
went six for six. He did two three peaks And
here's the power of that. There have only been three
three peats since Bill Russell and that was the shot
(22:45):
Kobe Lakers and it was Jordan and the Bulls. Hard
to do, that's it, And like you said, hard to
do the various reasons, one of which is the freaking
attrition light like right, I mean three straight years playing
that many games, the mental strain, and that is tough
(23:06):
to go through. So you're right. It would have helped.
I mean, Yanni's got a long way to go, but
it would have helped this case dramatically had he, you know,
been able to win it this year, especially with Middleton
being hurt. Yep, things like that like those. That's how
you elevate yourself, that's how you people like man, well
you know Middleton went down, they still did, like you
(23:26):
have to be able to do things like that at
an extraordinary level to be even considered to go the
greatest of all time. Right, that's why, that's why Michael Jordan,
in my opinion, has never been knocked off that that
that that pedestal. And look how much basketball has been
played during his era before and years at decades after, right, Right,
(23:50):
it is tough, man. I mean you're seeing it in
this yose And you gotta credit Lebron too, And this
is why he's in the conversation. I'm with you. I
got George, but to get to ten straight or nine straight,
that's impressive, just to get physically, mentally, emotionally you played.
I've played. I can't imagine. I had college games and
(24:13):
I only played at Division three level, but I had
college games where it was knocked down, drag out, not
just physically tough, but mentally and emotionally tough. I've thought
about that, and I've been like, man, can you imagine
playing this game seven straight times against the same team
when they know everything you want to do, you know
(24:35):
everything they want to do, like it? That's tough, man,
And I that's tough. And you gotta remember and in
the Jordan era, the first what round the first two rounds?
But was it the best of five for it first? Yeah,
because they changed that, I believe in oh three, Yeah,
it was a better and that's a better chance for
(24:56):
you to be upset. Yeah, no doubt. You know what
I mean. Now, you you got to grind this thing.
I'll just think if you have a seven game series
every round? Oh yeah, Now that's tough. You want to
jump out, It's tough, all right? Speaking of the goat,
one of the guys in the conversation Lebron. Are we
sure he and the Lakers are on the same page?
(25:18):
That's next. I Couple. Fox Sports Radio has the best
sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the
iHeart Radio app. Search f SR to listen live. All right,
thank you, Steve. We are the I Couple. Chris Bruce r.
E from Salim is in for Rob Parker, and we
(25:39):
are live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. Interesting story
from that came out today. It kind of contradicts some
of the reporting before. We said Lebron James wanted Darvin Ham.
Now you know Terry Stotts, Kenny Atkinson and Darvin Ham
are the finalists reportedly for their head coaching job, And
(26:00):
like I said, the reports are that Lebron wants Darvin Ham,
who was an assistant with the Lakers for a few years.
But the report today said that Lebron is not that
high on Darvin and actually wants Doc. If he had
his Dru druthers, he would get Doc Rivers. So I don't,
(26:20):
you know, obviously it's hard to tell which reporting is accurate,
But what do your look? I think I'm sorry Doc Rivers.
If I'm the Lakers, I'm not I'm not interested in Doc.
I mean Doc has done fine. He's had a nice
(26:40):
coaching career. Obviously won a championship, and that was a
great run in two thousand and eight with that team
first year together. So you gotta give Doc credit for
that with Gardinette, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. But I
think since then he hasn't proven to be a difference
making coach, to the shock of me, and I think
(27:01):
many if they really just look at it. When he
went to the Clippers, Vinnidale, Negro was getting them to
the second round and winning fifty Summit games, and they
brought in Doc. Chris Paul went to bat for him
so that they would win a championship or at least
get close. They never got pasted the second round. There
(27:24):
were years where injuries were an issue, but for seven
years they didn't get passed the second round. And then
he goes to Philly. Bret Brown was getting them to
the second round and Doc was brought in to take
them further. Two years now. Last year they lost to
it Atlanta team that was come on one guy, Trey Young.
(27:48):
And then this year injuries were a factor, but they
lost to Miami. And so he has yet to get
them passed the second round any further than this predecessor.
So if I'm the Lakers, I'm not. I don't get
the fantasist, you know, infatuation with Doc. I think Darvin
Hams the guy. I think he's a hot young assistant,
(28:10):
former player, strong presence, been on the champion on championship benches,
most recently with Milwaukee and Mike boutenhozer Um. A lot
of the hot young assistants, Willie Green, Monie Williams, or
head coaches, I should say Willie Green, Money Williams, u
Emmy Udoka. I could go on and on ty Lou.
(28:31):
They were former players, role players like Darvin who learned
as assistants first. And that doesn't mean he's gonna be successful,
but I think there's a lot going for him. So
I would go with Darvin over Doc or any of
the other guys. That's my view. Okay, well number one,
(28:55):
Doc has a job, well right, which is this is
crazy right, So people are acting like you don't have
a job. The fact that that's even a possibility makes
zero sense, Like, I mean, this man has he's employed.
Uh so we number want to take that off the table.
We're sitting up here talking about That's just like if
(29:18):
I was saying, you know, man, uh, Kevin Durant really
wants Steph Curry in Brooklyn, but he he really wants
Steph Curry in Brooklyn, that it doesn't matters going anywhere
right right right now? Are we gonna see the seventy
(29:40):
six ers trade Doc Rivers to the Lakers? That's there
are those that think that when Darryl Morria gim came
out and said docks our coach next year, that part
of it at least was because he wanted to up
(30:00):
the price. If the Lakers want him, you're gonna have
to give up something for him, a draft pick something,
and that makes it even worse. I wouldn't want him, period,
but I definitely ain't giving up nothing to get him.
That's not gonna happen. When when does the Laker have
a first round and they won't give it up to
trade Westbrook? Right, So let's just curtill that. And and
(30:24):
and in terms of the candidates that are available, I mean,
nobody stands out to where I'm like, oh, yeah, let's
do that. That that makes sense. And and Lebron one,
I think the Lakers are at the point now of
trying to do us best for the organization and not
what's the best for Lebron. Right. And we saw a
(30:46):
little bit of that, uh at the trading deadline whenever
you know, Lebron, everybody wanted Westbrook out and what one
of them gone and bring somebody else in? And Jenny
Buzz came out and saying like, hey, look, this is
the team you wanted. Figure it out. We get we
did what you guys wanted to do. Figure it out.
(31:07):
I'm not coming in and rescuing you. And if it
and they couldn't figure it out, they couldn't and so
I think they're at the point now Lebron has one
more year left on his contract and doesn't want to
go anywhere. Right, of course he doesn't want to go anywhere.
But how many more years is Lebron James planning on
plane at the level of it, at the championship level? Right? So,
(31:30):
are you gonna keep continuing to mortgage uh, control of
your your organization? You can't. Based on you? You will
fail every time, right, You'll fail everywhere. They're clearly clearly
doing it what they want to do, not what Lebron
wants them to do. And it's I mean, it's they should. Though.
(31:54):
Do you think Lebron would be like Terry Stots, Kenny
Atkinson or Darvin Ham? No? Maybe like he might like
Darvin Ham, but still this would not be the list
Lebron James came up with. No, And so, and I
agree with you, as great as Lebron is, you have
to run the franchise yourself. You gotta do it's the
(32:17):
front office as the ownership. What we saw, we saw
what happened in Brooklyn when you let your players pick
your coach. Yeah, right, k D signed off. He he
loved nobody even knew Steve Nash wanted to coach, but
because of that relationship, Steve Nash is the coach and
they got thoroughly out coached. Rights. They're just an undisciplined
(32:44):
almost a team like that's not that's not what we're doing, right,
like you? And look when Lebron was in his prime
and could get you to the could get you know me,
you Rob g and ticsher to the finals. Okay, but
at this point, at this point, no, you gotta build
a foundation that will survive a Lebron absolutely, and that's
(33:08):
the most important thing for the Lakers right now to do,
no doubt, no doubt. All Right, Miami Heat fans, don't
say I didn't try to warn you. I did. I'll
explain next. A couple of Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio dot com
(33:30):
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All right, it's the I couple. It is a TV
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(33:50):
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discover dot com Slash rewards limitations do apply. We saw
Eve from game five Eastern Conference. Look, it's not automatic,
(34:10):
but the team that wins game five of a two
two series typically wins the whole series. They do it
eighty two eighty three percent of the time. Now this
year we saw it defied twice. Right, Boston beat Milwaukee
despite losing Game five, and Dallas of course beat Phoenix.
But I think this one's going to hold true to
(34:32):
history because I think, look, I've been saying it. I
picked Boston in six before the series started. I haven't
wavered on that. I thought when it was two two
or two one, I felt they win the next three
games because I just think they're the better team, period.
But when you factor in the injuries, Jimmy Butler's clearly
(34:53):
compromised with his right knee, Tyler heroes out, Kyle Lowry's
a shell of himself playing on a bad hand hamstring,
they don't have a shot. They can't score enough. They've
scored eight eighty one points the last two games on average.
And did you know that they're starting backcourt yesterday Lowry
(35:14):
and Struss. What made one shot? One shot? Yeah, that's
not Yeah, they're They're shooting three percent from the field,
the two of those guys in the last two games.
I mean, it's it's just a matter where are you
at on the series? Oh of course it's in my mind.
It's over. Did you think did you think Boston before
(35:38):
I think about I thought about And as the Laker fan,
it pains me to say that. And I said that
even last series, right, even even in the Milwaukee series.
It pained me to say the Celtics. But what I
am is number one. I'm a basketball fan, so I
pay attention all year. Most people jump on board either
(36:01):
after the All Star or break are right when the
playoffs begin. But since January, no team has played better
than the Boston Celtics. Whatever happened, Whatever happened back in January.
It was a huge turt because they were sixteen and eighteen. Yeah,
(36:22):
it was whatever happened there. Whatever, The players are only
meeting what I don't know. I don't know what it was,
but they came out of of of that uh moment
and have been playing the best basketball. And it started
with team defense. Yep. The one thing the Boston Celtics
(36:45):
can do that, not that very many other teams can do.
Almost Golden State a little bit, but they're one through
five can guard one through five, so they can't can't
do that. They cannot do that, right. They can switch everything,
big little bit, it doesn't matter. And what that does
(37:05):
is it gives you an advantage defensively because you never
caught out of place. Right, No one's people to hunt you.
You saw Phoenix hunting Luca Done. Teams will hunt Lucas
himself is hunting Steph Curry or Jordan Poole. Who you
hunting on Boston? You can't, right. And so January twenty
(37:29):
ninth they went on one, two, three, four or five, six, seven,
eight nineteen, they went on the eleven game one streak, right,
And if you look at their record, they're putting win
and win after win after win after win after win,
and and they carry that over into the playoffs and
(37:50):
we're seeing it. Everybody's playing the role. They're doing what
they're doing. Having Williams in the middle. He was dealing
with his knee. He's fighting through it. He has a
problem defensively, Oh yeah, he Robert Williams is a real problem.
I haven't seen a shot blocker go after balls like
that since Dwight Howard first got into the league. I've
(38:13):
a lot of people would look at williams numbers and say, well,
is he really that good? I've played right. I played
with a guy in college. I played with guys in
rec leagues who didn't score a lot. They were a sinner.
They were athletic, they could jump out the gym, they
could get rebounds, they could affect shots, and it was like, man,
(38:36):
we need dude. I don't care if he only scores
six points. We need him. And that's Robert Williams. All right,
two hours left. You know what to do? Keep it
locked a couple Fox Sports Radio
Thanks for listening to The Odd Couple podcast. Be sure
to check us out live every weekday from seven pm
to ten pm Eastern four to seven Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio. Find your local station for The Odd Couple
at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live
every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching f s
(00:22):
R party. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Yeah, it
(00:42):
is the I Couple. I'm Chris Bruce arn alongside my
partner Rob. Partner Rob Parker is off tonight. So wow
in his place, the one the only Eve from the
Suller that's right, that is my man. Yeah, now look
(01:06):
you stepping up in class, bro, So I hope you're ready. First,
First of all, wait, wait a minute, like you talking
to me like I haven't filled the seat before and
blew the bottom off this thing. Okay, oh oh, well
you filled the seat before. I don't know about the
second half that statement. I mean, I did the numbers
I got with Rob, and I did the numbers and
(01:27):
the you know, the shows that I co host are
there the highest rated shows. So I don't know what
that means, right, I don't know what that means because
I've been in for you and I've been in for
it for Rob, so I don't I'm just I'm not
trying to make the correlation here. I'm just saying we
got action. Hey, whatever helps you sleep at night, Bro,
whatever helps you sleeping night? Noah, my man. Welcome to
(01:48):
the show. Of course, I am excited. We always love
having you on as our win of our weekly guests,
and so I'm excited to have these next three hours.
Gonna be a lot of fun to talk about. Absolutely,
we got so many topics man, NBA, baseball, football, so
it's gonna be a lot of fun. Keep it locked
(02:09):
right here for the next three hours. It's gonna be
some great sports talk, Fox Sports Radio, the iHeartRadio app
or Serious XM Channel eighty three, however you may be listening.
Of course, we've got the I Couple crew in full effect,
DJ Alex ty Shirt on the ones and the twos.
And even though Rob isn't here, maybe you've heard Rob
(02:31):
has been inducted into his high school Hall of Fame.
I know not many people know about it. I know
he's been doing his best to be humble about it
and keep it a secret. But just in case you
didn't know, he's being inducted into his high school Hall
of Fame this week. So that's why he's not here
for sports or for for I think past achievement, like lifetimes,
(02:53):
lifetime achievements. I don't even know if Rob play sports.
Didn't have you seen his building? Um, I didn't know
if in his jersey from the rafter he said he
was a baseball player, but I think that was through
about seventh grade. Manager, maybe you know. That's fun. We
will keep these states. We will get Rob a chance
(03:13):
to respond wow, but we regulated Yeah, absolutely, I'm happy
for him. From we will do some of our normal segments,
one of them being Tysher's Tower of Trivia, which is hot.
It's a segment everybody loves. We'll do that in the
(03:34):
second hour of the show with DJ Alex Tysher. Of
course Rob g is here the super producer running things.
And on the update, we got our man, Steve di Sager.
Let's hop right into it. From the Western Conference Finals,
I think it's over. It's three one, Golden State over Dallas.
(03:55):
They played a night game five in Golden State or
in San Francisco. I expect the Warriors to close it out.
But Steve Kerr was talking yesterday, and once again he
is he has done this a few times. He did
it before the series. But once again he compared, and
so did Draymond Green preparing for Luca Dontchees or guarding
(04:19):
Luca dontches playing against Luca Dontchees. They compared it to
playing against James Harden in previous seasons twenty eighteen. Remember
that fantastic playoff series when Houston have them beat. They
were up three too, Chris Baul getting hurt, and then
the Golden State wins the next two games. But they
compared it to that. And here's Steve Kerr saying this
(04:44):
before the series, and then we'll get your thoughts. It
does remind me a little bit of Houston a few
years ago when he would play them every year with
Harden at the point, and you know, ultimately they would
get to five out space things with you know, three
point shooters surrounding the call space for Harden, the similar
sort of set of circumstances, and uh, you know, you're
(05:05):
just dealing with a lot of ground to cover and
and a guy who's got the ball in his hand,
who is playing at the peak of his powers. All right,
from your thoughts and Um, do you think this is
a good comparison, like like a positive that they're making
about Luca or a negative? Well, it's not a positive
in terms of you know, what did that get James Harden? Right? Right? Nothing? Right?
(05:31):
He wants the scoring titles, who want an MVP, But
it didn't, it didn't amount to anything. And yeah, you
know Chris Paul got hurt uh in that that that
series where they had Golden State, but they still came
out and went over twenty six from three from three.
(05:54):
So that comparison for Luca isn't something to be excite
it about because number one, James Harden didn't play any
defense at least Luka tries to play defense, right, Um,
and Harden, I think over the last few years Hardened
has tried, Well, he's tried because he's hurt. He's hurt.
I mean, you get to hear. The good thing about
(06:16):
social media and instant responses to things is you get
to hear what people are saying. You get to hear
what your contemporaries are saying, you get to hear what
everybody's saying. And I mean if you watch those Houston
James Hardens, I mean he would literally be standing in
front of somebody. They would take one dribble by him
and he would just turn and look right right, And
so I mean that's just what it was. Once you
(06:40):
become that, then something has to kick in where you're like, okay,
well let me at least put him, you know, foul
him or something, stay in front of it or try.
But for Luca, um, he's such a ball dominant player.
And that's the comparison, right, Even some of the best
scores ever in the league were like, when you look
at Steph curR, He's not a ball dominant player. No,
(07:03):
And that's one of the unique things about step in
this era in particular. And even from look, I think
it's an accurate comparison. I think Luca will go down
as better than James Harden. You know, we'll see he's
gotta win, but I you know, I think he's on
that track. But here's Mike thing, and it plays off
the first thing you said, what did that get James Harden?
(07:26):
This is what Dallas, assuming they lose this series, this
is what they have to spend their entire summer in
my view, figuring out how can we maximize Luca don
chich and a second star next to him, even if
that guy for the time being is Jalen Brunson, right,
who's not like a high tiers star, not even a
(07:49):
star yet, but you know, maybe they hope he's probably
their best chance to become that. And my problem with
what they do right now is they are a one
man show and Luca. Everything is created off Luca, either
he's shooting or he's creating it for someone else, and
(08:09):
that's a tribute to his greatness, but it has a ceiling.
Lebron couldn't win that way. Michael Jordan. Jordan did it differently,
but you know when he before Phil Jackson got there.
When Jordan was scoring all the points thirty seven a game,
thirty five a game, thirty three a game, they were
winning championships. Will Chamberlain, when he averaged fifty and forty
(08:32):
four and thirty eight and thirty seven, he wasn't winning
championships this style. No matter how good individually you are,
will not beat a talented team that plays five man basketball.
And that's why he from the Thorn and Lebron's side
throughout his career has been two teams San Antonio, which
(08:55):
played team basketball, and Golden State, which played team basketball,
and that's what so I think they need to work
on that because this is gonna get them far, but
it's not. I don't think it's gonna get them a championship. Yeah,
it says no matter how good an individual player is, right,
we're so caught up on stats and threes and the
(09:17):
percentage and analytics and what this is and what that is.
The fact remains that if you're a ball dominant player
ala Irison like we gotta put them. Yeah, they you
want a bunch of games, some scoring titles and MVP.
You do all of those things. But when you get
(09:37):
to the playoffs and deep into the playoffs, right, conference championships, championship,
you can't be that guy because over a seven game series,
teams will find a way, right right, find a way
to limit what you do best, and you can still score,
(09:58):
but they when you freeze everybody else out, the rhythm
is completely off. That's why I'm always in favor of
the teams that play great team defense. If you can
play great team defense, you can live with a Lucas
going forty right, you're you everybody else right, you're you're
You're good with that. You're good with Lebron going crazy
(10:19):
and having fifty uh nineteen in in twelve, You're okay
with that, but it's two and six in the flows
when he scores forty or more, because it's bigger than that.
You gotta be able to make adjustments. You gotta be
able to see what the other team is doing to you.
Don't force yourself on them, on them and make you
(10:40):
stop me no, because they're not really trying to stop you, right,
They're just trying to make it difficult for you. They want,
like Golden State wants the Dallas to continue to play slow.
Golden State loves up Temple so offensively. When they miss
one of those step back threes or one of those
long threes, they're they're running. Golden State is running right right,
(11:01):
and they're getting easy transition buckets, and they're okay with that.
What they don't want Dallas to do is run up
and down the court. And when we see Dallas play slow,
they so when we've seen Luca on the bench and
Bronson running the point, we see a more up Temple game.
First two games of the playoffs this year, Dallas was
(11:21):
up and down the court like we hadn't seen him
all year, right La, because Luca wasn't there. So here's
the here's the other thing. And you played at a
high level Division one basketball, so you know this. It
is in addition, and this goes for all of the
ball dominant players, including Lebron. It is hard to find
(11:45):
a second star and enable that second star to excel
or even get him to want to play with the
ball dominant number one. You mentioned Allen Iverson. They tried,
Verry Stackhouse was there. They brought in Chris Webber, they
Glenn big Dog Robinson I think was there for a minute.
(12:06):
None of it worked because Iversen was so ball dominant.
It is hard to and that's the challenge they're gonna
have with Luca. There are a lot of guys that
wouldn't want to play as great as Luca is, wouldn't
want to play with him. And here's the deal. And
this is why I brought up that you played Division
one ball. You know this. If I'm just Maxi Kleiber
(12:26):
and all I can do is catch and shoot, I
can't create my own stuff. I love playing with Luke
just like if I'm Kyle Korver, I love playing with Lebron, Right,
all I gotta do is spot up. He gonna find
me open and I can just hit my shot. But
if I can do something myself, I got handled, I
can go off the bounce. I can create my own
(12:47):
shot and shots for others as well. I'm a bit
frustrated with Luca because you just want me to kind
of stand on the three point line and wait for
him to do it all for me. And you notice
with Brunson when Luca's on the bench, Brunson kind of
takes lucas wrong and he's doing all that. So that's why.
(13:09):
And look, Luca's young enough. This isn't all his fault.
This is them creating this system, right, And he's young
enough where if they start to get him off the
ball a little bit, get him moving without the ball,
they can make it work. But if you go too long.
It was hard for Lebron to adjust you because he
played that way for seven years in Cleveland. And I'll
(13:30):
tell you this, that's one of the reasons they brought
Jay Kidd in. Jake Kidd was was was a consummate
point guard, who can score, who could do all of that,
but he got everybody involved. That was very important. I
remember Jay Kidd growing up in high school. We played
in some of the same tournaments, and I mean he
could he could score forty on you really because that think,
(13:52):
oh no, he can go, Like seriously, he can go.
He was just beating people off the drip. But he
wasn't shooting Jay's but he could. I mean he was
winning three point contests and dun count all of that.
Like we grew up in this in the in the
in the same circle, same era. But I but I'll
tell you this to your point. A perfect example on
the Dallas Mavericks teams, Spencer Dinwoody yep, right, what what
(14:13):
what did he look like in in in Brooklyn in
New York? Right right right? He was that guy who
fed off the flow of the game and slap. He's
so out of sorts right now. You know, everybody's like, well,
what what's going on with them here? They need when
he's getting his typically when Luca's out of the game,
and and that's the point when you have somebody with
(14:34):
at that caliber yep, right, and now he's sacrificed this game,
and what they're gonna have to do. They're gonna have
to find a young number two. Think about when when
Pippin came uh to Jordan, right young number two, willing
to learn, willing to you know, do the dirty things,
and then he evolved into that right about Chris Middleton,
(14:55):
kind of same thing. The one was growing. But yeah, yeah, nah,
that's a good point. We got plenty to get into.
And this is just the beginning. It's the I Couple.
Chris and if From and Jannis I From just did
something that neither Michael Jordan or Lebron James did. We'll
get into that next couple of Fox Sports Radio. Be
(15:18):
sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple with
Chris Broussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm Eastern
four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart
Radio app. Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour
with Ben Maller, along with my trustee sidekick David Gascon.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey. You're asking what in God's name
(15:39):
is the Fifth Hour. I'll tell you it's a spin
off of that Ben Maller show, cult hit overnights on FSR.
Why should you listen? Picture? If you will, a world
will we chat with captains of industry in media, sports
and more. Every week Explorer some amazing facts about a
human nature and more. Let'sten to the fifth hour with
Ben Maller on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever
(15:59):
you get your podcast. I mean Uncle and Baliry. That's right.
This is the odd couple with Chris Brusade and Rob Parker.
But no, Rob Parker's not here today, He's being honored.
I'm from salam Uh coming to you live from the
Fox Sports studios. Absolutely, and I love the theme song.
We'll get into that a little bit later. Get into it.
(16:21):
We'll get into it. I can't wait. But look, were
brought to you by all those own So if you're
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head onto the Zone all those owns, your battery solution
and America's number one battery destination. Yeah, I from Yanni
(16:47):
significom bo. I do think he's the best player in
the world. Do you agree with that? I do agree
with that. Okay, Um, he did something I don't know
if you you heard this, but he did something this
year that no one in the history of basketball isn't okay,
so you know, he became the only player ever not
(17:13):
he made four straight All NBA First teams, which has
been done by others. But he was a unanimous choice
for the fourth straight year that has never been done.
Not Michael, not Lebron, not Kareem, not Magic, no one. Now,
(17:33):
I it baffles me how Jordan or n It's shocking,
but it happened. And here's what I want to throw
to you, Jannis, I believe is twenty seven, rob g
check that out. But I think he's twenty seven years old.
Does he have he for me? Is twenty seven? Does
(17:55):
he have gold potential? Oh? Yeah, Well when you just
look at his his sheer nature, his size, his ability.
Now if he continues to develop and take the three
point shot or the midrange jump shot, when those become automatic,
oh gosh, right, Kevin Durant, Well, and he'll never get
(18:20):
to that level. No, he'll but wait, wait, get not shooting.
The hold on, hold on the thing about shooting is
like you can become a great shooter, right, the size
and explosiveness, you know, you know what I mean, Like
you gotta be anointed a little bit for that. He
can become a better shoot and a good shot. But
(18:42):
that's all it takes, though, Okay, right, but I'm just
saying he doesn't He doesn't need to win the three
point contest, He doesn't need to do any of that.
But if he can pull up in that fifteen to
twenty foot range and consistently hit that shot, brother, you
want to talk about a problem. Because the only way
people guard Yannis right now is what they back off
(19:05):
of him. They force him and they want him to
take those shots. Right. He can sit at the three
point line all game if he had seven threes and
they beat us, hey man, congratulations, Right, But what you
can do is allow him to get into the paint
and drive, so they're gonna back off. If he can
rectify that weakness in his game, he most definitely has
(19:28):
god potential. I agree, I agree, And you hit it
on the head with as good as he already is.
As good as he already is, what is he seventy
seventy five percent of the player he actually could be, right,
that's scary because if he adds what you said, he
(19:48):
is driving when defenses know that's what he wants to do.
Once he gets the mid range jumper, the three point shot,
then they're not gonna be able to just sag off
of him all the time, and then it'll open up
the driving lanes even more. He's a very good passer.
He's a very good ball handler for a seven footer.
(20:09):
His defense obviously is phenomenal, rebounding phenomenal. Has shown he
from that when the lights are brightest and the pressure
is on, he steps up. Right, He played well, I
mean he obviously they did as good a job as
you could do on him, but he still played well
against Boston. He was fantastic against Phoenix. Those are two
(20:30):
good defenses, you know last year in the finals, So
he I agree with you. Now, obviously he's going to
have to win, and win in bunches. He don't have
to win six to me, but he's gonna have to
win a lot, probably at least five this year, or
you could say he's better than Georgia. This year would
have helped his car if it would continue to play. Right,
(20:52):
if he was in the Eastern Conference finals, right and
one of this year and then you know, went on
and won the championship. Now you're starting to old man,
how many can he do? Right? Right? How many canny
can we can we go on to run? Right? So
you have to put yourself in that category before we
(21:14):
can even start talking about being in the Goat conversation,
because he to get in that conversation. Lebron went to
the final nine years in the row, right, right, So
that's right, he's in the conversation. He had to go
nine years in a row and win four of them
(21:34):
to even be in the conversation. Yep. And that's where,
like you said, this hurt him in turns of nowt
he's young, I said twenty seven. Jordan won his first
one at twenty seven. Lebron was twenty six or twenty
seven when he won his first one. So he's got time.
He does have right now, he's got and at least
(21:59):
starting now and advantage in Lebron and that his first championship.
At least it wasn't with a super team, right, Like
he didn't go Joan Daman, Lillard or somebody like right,
So that is if it ever gets to it, him
and Lebron that'll be a notch in his belt if
he gets to that level. Like you said, he's got
a long way to go before he can get to
(22:21):
that level. And from here's the other thing for those
that are into the goat conversation and Jordan and all that.
With the six, it's not just that he won six
went six for six. He did two three peaks And
here's the power of that. There have only been three
three peats since Bill Russell and that was the shot
(22:45):
Kobe Lakers and it was Jordan and the Bulls. Hard
to do, that's it, And like you said, hard to
do the various reasons, one of which is the freaking
attrition light like right, I mean three straight years playing
that many games, the mental strain, and that is tough
(23:06):
to go through. So you're right. It would have helped.
I mean, Yanni's got a long way to go, but
it would have helped this case dramatically had he, you know,
been able to win it this year, especially with Middleton
being hurt. Yep, things like that like those. That's how
you elevate yourself, that's how you people like man, well
you know Middleton went down, they still did, like you
(23:26):
have to be able to do things like that at
an extraordinary level to be even considered to go the
greatest of all time. Right, that's why, that's why Michael Jordan,
in my opinion, has never been knocked off that that
that that pedestal. And look how much basketball has been
played during his era before and years at decades after, right, Right,
(23:50):
it is tough, man. I mean you're seeing it in
this yose And you gotta credit Lebron too, And this
is why he's in the conversation. I'm with you. I
got George, but to get to ten straight or nine straight,
that's impressive, just to get physically, mentally, emotionally you played.
I've played. I can't imagine. I had college games and
(24:13):
I only played at Division three level, but I had
college games where it was knocked down, drag out, not
just physically tough, but mentally and emotionally tough. I've thought
about that, and I've been like, man, can you imagine
playing this game seven straight times against the same team
when they know everything you want to do, you know
(24:35):
everything they want to do, like it? That's tough, man,
And I that's tough. And you gotta remember and in
the Jordan era, the first what round the first two rounds?
But was it the best of five for it first? Yeah,
because they changed that, I believe in oh three, Yeah,
it was a better and that's a better chance for
(24:56):
you to be upset. Yeah, no doubt. You know what
I mean. Now, you you got to grind this thing.
I'll just think if you have a seven game series
every round? Oh yeah, Now that's tough. You want to
jump out, It's tough, all right? Speaking of the goat,
one of the guys in the conversation Lebron. Are we
sure he and the Lakers are on the same page?
(25:18):
That's next. I Couple. Fox Sports Radio has the best
sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our
shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the
iHeart Radio app. Search f SR to listen live. All right,
thank you, Steve. We are the I Couple. Chris Bruce r.
E from Salim is in for Rob Parker, and we
(25:39):
are live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. Interesting story
from that came out today. It kind of contradicts some
of the reporting before. We said Lebron James wanted Darvin Ham.
Now you know Terry Stotts, Kenny Atkinson and Darvin Ham
are the finalists reportedly for their head coaching job, And
(26:00):
like I said, the reports are that Lebron wants Darvin Ham,
who was an assistant with the Lakers for a few years.
But the report today said that Lebron is not that
high on Darvin and actually wants Doc. If he had
his Dru druthers, he would get Doc Rivers. So I don't,
(26:20):
you know, obviously it's hard to tell which reporting is accurate,
But what do your look? I think I'm sorry Doc Rivers.
If I'm the Lakers, I'm not I'm not interested in Doc.
I mean Doc has done fine. He's had a nice
(26:40):
coaching career. Obviously won a championship, and that was a
great run in two thousand and eight with that team
first year together. So you gotta give Doc credit for
that with Gardinette, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. But I
think since then he hasn't proven to be a difference
making coach, to the shock of me, and I think
(27:01):
many if they really just look at it. When he
went to the Clippers, Vinnidale, Negro was getting them to
the second round and winning fifty Summit games, and they
brought in Doc. Chris Paul went to bat for him
so that they would win a championship or at least
get close. They never got pasted the second round. There
(27:24):
were years where injuries were an issue, but for seven
years they didn't get passed the second round. And then
he goes to Philly. Bret Brown was getting them to
the second round and Doc was brought in to take
them further. Two years now. Last year they lost to
it Atlanta team that was come on one guy, Trey Young.
(27:48):
And then this year injuries were a factor, but they
lost to Miami. And so he has yet to get
them passed the second round any further than this predecessor.
So if I'm the Lakers, I'm not. I don't get
the fantasist, you know, infatuation with Doc. I think Darvin
Hams the guy. I think he's a hot young assistant,
(28:10):
former player, strong presence, been on the champion on championship benches,
most recently with Milwaukee and Mike boutenhozer Um. A lot
of the hot young assistants, Willie Green, Monie Williams, or
head coaches, I should say Willie Green, Money Williams, u
Emmy Udoka. I could go on and on ty Lou.
(28:31):
They were former players, role players like Darvin who learned
as assistants first. And that doesn't mean he's gonna be successful,
but I think there's a lot going for him. So
I would go with Darvin over Doc or any of
the other guys. That's my view. Okay, well number one,
(28:55):
Doc has a job, well right, which is this is
crazy right, So people are acting like you don't have
a job. The fact that that's even a possibility makes
zero sense, Like, I mean, this man has he's employed.
Uh so we number want to take that off the table.
We're sitting up here talking about That's just like if
(29:18):
I was saying, you know, man, uh, Kevin Durant really
wants Steph Curry in Brooklyn, but he he really wants
Steph Curry in Brooklyn, that it doesn't matters going anywhere
right right right now? Are we gonna see the seventy
(29:40):
six ers trade Doc Rivers to the Lakers? That's there
are those that think that when Darryl Morria gim came
out and said docks our coach next year, that part
of it at least was because he wanted to up
(30:00):
the price. If the Lakers want him, you're gonna have
to give up something for him, a draft pick something,
and that makes it even worse. I wouldn't want him, period,
but I definitely ain't giving up nothing to get him.
That's not gonna happen. When when does the Laker have
a first round and they won't give it up to
trade Westbrook? Right, So let's just curtill that. And and
(30:24):
and in terms of the candidates that are available, I mean,
nobody stands out to where I'm like, oh, yeah, let's
do that. That that makes sense. And and Lebron one,
I think the Lakers are at the point now of
trying to do us best for the organization and not
what's the best for Lebron. Right. And we saw a
(30:46):
little bit of that, uh at the trading deadline whenever
you know, Lebron, everybody wanted Westbrook out and what one
of them gone and bring somebody else in? And Jenny
Buzz came out and saying like, hey, look, this is
the team you wanted. Figure it out. We get we
did what you guys wanted to do. Figure it out.
(31:07):
I'm not coming in and rescuing you. And if it
and they couldn't figure it out, they couldn't and so
I think they're at the point now Lebron has one
more year left on his contract and doesn't want to
go anywhere. Right, of course he doesn't want to go anywhere.
But how many more years is Lebron James planning on
plane at the level of it, at the championship level? Right? So,
(31:30):
are you gonna keep continuing to mortgage uh, control of
your your organization? You can't. Based on you? You will
fail every time, right, You'll fail everywhere. They're clearly clearly
doing it what they want to do, not what Lebron
wants them to do. And it's I mean, it's they should. Though.
(31:54):
Do you think Lebron would be like Terry Stots, Kenny
Atkinson or Darvin Ham? No? Maybe like he might like
Darvin Ham, but still this would not be the list
Lebron James came up with. No, And so, and I
agree with you, as great as Lebron is, you have
to run the franchise yourself. You gotta do it's the
(32:17):
front office as the ownership. What we saw, we saw
what happened in Brooklyn when you let your players pick
your coach. Yeah, right, k D signed off. He he
loved nobody even knew Steve Nash wanted to coach, but
because of that relationship, Steve Nash is the coach and
they got thoroughly out coached. Rights. They're just an undisciplined
(32:44):
almost a team like that's not that's not what we're doing, right,
like you? And look when Lebron was in his prime
and could get you to the could get you know me,
you Rob g and ticsher to the finals. Okay, but
at this point, at this point, no, you gotta build
a foundation that will survive a Lebron absolutely, and that's
(33:08):
the most important thing for the Lakers right now to do,
no doubt, no doubt. All Right, Miami Heat fans, don't
say I didn't try to warn you. I did. I'll
explain next. A couple of Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio dot com
(33:30):
and within the iHeart Radio app search FSR to listen live.
All right, it's the I couple. It is a TV
theme song Thursday, as you can tell. And with prices
soaring at the pump, discovers gout your back with cash back.
Use Discover to earn five percent cash back at gas
(33:50):
stations and target stores now through June on up to
fifteen hundred dollars in purchases. When you're active, it's a
great deal, particularly during these tough times. You're gonna more
discover dot com Slash rewards limitations do apply. We saw
Eve from game five Eastern Conference. Look, it's not automatic,
(34:10):
but the team that wins game five of a two
two series typically wins the whole series. They do it
eighty two eighty three percent of the time. Now this
year we saw it defied twice. Right, Boston beat Milwaukee
despite losing Game five, and Dallas of course beat Phoenix.
But I think this one's going to hold true to
(34:32):
history because I think, look, I've been saying it. I
picked Boston in six before the series started. I haven't
wavered on that. I thought when it was two two
or two one, I felt they win the next three
games because I just think they're the better team, period.
But when you factor in the injuries, Jimmy Butler's clearly
(34:53):
compromised with his right knee, Tyler heroes out, Kyle Lowry's
a shell of himself playing on a bad hand hamstring,
they don't have a shot. They can't score enough. They've
scored eight eighty one points the last two games on average.
And did you know that they're starting backcourt yesterday Lowry
(35:14):
and Struss. What made one shot? One shot? Yeah, that's
not Yeah, they're They're shooting three percent from the field,
the two of those guys in the last two games.
I mean, it's it's just a matter where are you
at on the series? Oh of course it's in my mind.
It's over. Did you think did you think Boston before
(35:38):
I think about I thought about And as the Laker fan,
it pains me to say that. And I said that
even last series, right, even even in the Milwaukee series.
It pained me to say the Celtics. But what I
am is number one. I'm a basketball fan, so I
pay attention all year. Most people jump on board either
(36:01):
after the All Star or break are right when the
playoffs begin. But since January, no team has played better
than the Boston Celtics. Whatever happened, Whatever happened back in January.
It was a huge turt because they were sixteen and eighteen. Yeah,
(36:22):
it was whatever happened there. Whatever, The players are only
meeting what I don't know. I don't know what it was,
but they came out of of of that uh moment
and have been playing the best basketball. And it started
with team defense. Yep. The one thing the Boston Celtics
(36:45):
can do that, not that very many other teams can do.
Almost Golden State a little bit, but they're one through
five can guard one through five, so they can't can't
do that. They cannot do that, right. They can switch everything,
big little bit, it doesn't matter. And what that does
(37:05):
is it gives you an advantage defensively because you never
caught out of place. Right, No one's people to hunt you.
You saw Phoenix hunting Luca Done. Teams will hunt Lucas
himself is hunting Steph Curry or Jordan Poole. Who you
hunting on Boston? You can't, right. And so January twenty
(37:29):
ninth they went on one, two, three, four or five, six, seven,
eight nineteen, they went on the eleven game one streak, right,
And if you look at their record, they're putting win
and win after win after win after win after win,
and and they carry that over into the playoffs and
(37:50):
we're seeing it. Everybody's playing the role. They're doing what
they're doing. Having Williams in the middle. He was dealing
with his knee. He's fighting through it. He has a
problem defensively, Oh yeah, he Robert Williams is a real problem.
I haven't seen a shot blocker go after balls like
that since Dwight Howard first got into the league. I've
(38:13):
a lot of people would look at williams numbers and say, well,
is he really that good? I've played right. I played
with a guy in college. I played with guys in
rec leagues who didn't score a lot. They were a sinner.
They were athletic, they could jump out the gym, they
could get rebounds, they could affect shots, and it was like, man,
(38:36):
we need dude. I don't care if he only scores
six points. We need him. And that's Robert Williams. All right,
two hours left. You know what to do? Keep it
locked a couple Fox Sports Radio
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