March 11, 2022 • 22 mins
On today's episode, Jason gets the party started with a deep dive into the Brooklyn Nets' blowout victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. The game was billed as 'Ben Simmons' return to Philly', but the story to come out of this one was James Harden's disappearing act in yet another big game. The Beard shot 3-for-17, further cementing his reputation as player who folds when the lights are the brightest. J-Mac has been saying since the Harden trade went down that the Sixers were overrated, and they sure looked that way on Thursday night. On the flip side, with a healthy Kevin Durant and an available Kyrie Irving, the Nets look every bit like the championship contender we thought they were. If and when Simmons returns to the floor, Brooklyn has to be viewed as one of the favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference. Later, Jason closes the show with a few thoughts on the blockbuster trade that saw the Chicago Bears send All-Pro pass rusher Khalil Mack to the Los Angeles Chargers. Mack isn't the superstar he was a few years ago, but he's still one of the best defensive ends in the NFL. What's more, with Joey Bosa on the other side, offenses won't be able to double-team his much. This trade is a huge win for the Chargers, and with stud quarterback Justin Herbert still on his rookie deal, we should expect more moves like this from Los Angeles going forward.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. What is up
straight Fire, Fam, It's me Jason McIntyre. This is Straight
Fire for Friday, March eleventh, And oh my gosh, how
good was Thursday? Oh yes, all the Sixers fans who
tuned in, I know you're so geeked. Yeah. I almost
(00:26):
just put together a string of expletives to open the podcast,
but um, yeah, a lot of good basketball. Listen if
basketball is your sport, Thursday was one of the best
days of the year. I think there were sixty one
college basketball games and not all at night and not
crap teams. A lot of stuff during the day. I know,
by the way, a big NBA game. And oh yeah,
(00:47):
another massive star, regardless of what you think of him,
now gets traded in the NFL. Khalil Mack on the move.
Huge pickup for the Chargers. Oh my gosh, Chargers are scary.
Super Bowl odds plummeting. We'll get to that, Guss. The
Bears are a dumpster fire, but they kind of had
to do it. Um, We're gonna start with what happened
in Philadelphia. Ben Simmons returns to Filthy Delphia. I'm sorry
(01:11):
I had to get filthy Delphi out. Um, you guys.
When I lived outside of Philly for seven years, nice area,
Bucks County, a lot of fun, enjoyed it, had a
good time. Went into Philly occasionally, wanted to New York
more just because we had moved from New York, so
I never really super connected with Philly. Went to several
Sixers games, went to played in a media pickup basketball
(01:34):
game at the Wells Fargo. I don't think it was
called the Wells Fargo back then. But whatever, Philly's fun.
Went to soccer games in Philly like it was a
nice city. We had fun. We just didn't go out
there a lot. You know, we were just having kids.
We were a little younger, um, but you know we did.
I got married in Philadelphia, as my wife wants to
remind me, Yes, got married in Philly, and it's a
(01:55):
good today. I have nothing against Philly. All these people
think I hate Philadelphia now, just because as I said,
I'm not a buyer on the Sixers. And all these
Sixers fans were geek. They were lubricated, all liquored up,
ready to bash Ben Simmons. Channing f Ben Simmons throughout
the game and Philly goes out and lays a colossal egg,
(02:16):
probably one of the you know in the second half
of the season. This is one of the more anticipated
games given the Ben Simmons for James Harden trade, right,
this is a hugely anticipated game. Philly comes out, gets
their doors blown off in the first quarter, giving up
a forty burger, and never ever ever made it a game.
(02:36):
James Harden in postseason form three for seventeen shooting. It's
James Harden for you, minus thirty on the game, not
his best performance, and uh listen, I'm not gonna sit
here in bash the Sixers. I have been consistent, guys.
I think this is obviously a talented team. I don't
think they were as good as the media plays them
out to be. It's pretty clear Hardened and Embibd is
(02:58):
gonna work against bad team, but good teams are gonna
I don't know, kind of shut him down. James Harden
three for seventeen, Joel and Beat five for seventeen, Like
the Sixers were down thirty for the basically the entire
fourth quarter. This team is overrated. I know everybody loves
the Sixers. In Hardening and Beats a fun story and
Tyrese max is a great story in Tyrese Maxie has
(03:19):
been very good this season. He's their third best player.
I like Tyrese Maxie. In his first really big NBA game,
he was two for seven. I don't want to say
the moment was too big. It was a regular season
game in March. But he was a total non factor,
complete non factor. And when you shoot thirty against the
Nets who are missing their best defensive player in Ben Simmons,
(03:43):
not a great look. Not a good one. So all
these people, when I did on Disputed last week, everybody said,
oh no, the Nets are garbage. The fallen from second
to seventh, and they're eight, then their ninth in the
eastday why not make the playoffs? Here's reality. Kevin Durant
was healthy, they were second in the East. Kevin during
gets hurt, they plumb it. Kyrie Irving, No, vacs can't
(04:06):
play in home games. You can only play in away games.
And I wasn't even playing in many of those. Like
they're not they were not good. They didn't have James Harden.
Then they make the trade. The vaccination restrictions or whatever
you wanna call it, mandates get lifted and all of
a sudden, the Nets are starting to look like a
(04:28):
team that was favored to win the conference. Seth Curry
stunting all over the Sixers twenty four points four three's
I love the one he hit in the third quarter
if you can find the clip if you haven't seen
the YouTube, he hits the three. I think it was
kind of a transition three, and you know, the Sixers
(04:48):
instantly called time out and Seth Curry essentially like slowly
walks past because the three was right in front the
bench of the Sixers. He just slowly walks past, and
everybody just staring at him was like, listen, you gave
up Seth Currie, and that one's gonna sting. I mean,
I still can't believe Luca and the Mavericks gave up
Seth Curry, Like that's a bad loss. Like Seth Currie
(05:11):
is so good, guys, so good. And Kevin Duran obviously
thirty and fourteen seven assists Kyrie two And by the way,
some of the matchup numbers for Kyrie on Harden almost
make you wonder if James Harden does not want the
Kyrie Irving smoke. Now, you guys know, I've been I've
been basset Kyrie Irving for a while. Immensely talented player.
(05:33):
I didn't know we had some defensive chops. Harden found
that out the hard way when they were matched up
one on one. He Harden could not score on Kyrie.
I think he started one of seven when matched up
with Kyrie Irving, And it's like, whoa really Kyrie lockdown defender?
I was not aware of that. And folks, anyone who comes,
I know it's a regular season game in March. But
(05:55):
for everybody in their mom who's overreacting saying, oh, the
Lakers got smoked in overtime by the Rockets, and like
as terrible. They're not even a playoff team. They can't
win anything. If you're reacting that way and you're reacting
to regular season games, you have to react to the
Sixers losing by twenty nine at home and never being
(06:16):
competitive against the Nets. Now, if you're one who says,
who cares about the regular season? Fine, any way you
want to slice it though, this doesn't mean nothing, It
can't possibly mean nothing. It doesn't have to mean everything.
But this result, if this was a close game, it's like,
oh great, I can't wait for the playoff series. It's
a blowout. The environment there was great. I'm excited for
(06:38):
the playoff series. But the reality is this game had
to be a little bit. I'm not saying it was everything.
I'm not saying it was a lot. It was a
message sent by the Nets, we are better than you.
We didn't even have Ben Simmons here. And I know
some people are Ben Simmons. Come on, he's not even
any good. I'm just saying nobody can come away from
this game saying the Sixers are a better team than
(06:59):
the Nets. You can beat the hell out of them
Timberwolves and destroy all these other chumps in the East.
But when you face the Bucks, when you face the heat,
when you face the Nets, I'm gonna put Boston in
there right now. They're playing as good as anybody in
the league. Reality is gonna set in pretty quick, guys.
(07:19):
It just is. And when you combine Doc Rivers postseason
history which ain't pretty, which everybody knows, and you toss
in James Harden postseason history, which is very ugly, and
you wonder, jeez, I mean, Joel and Meads really good,
guy's never been to the conference finals. You start to
add this stuff up. You're like, wait a minute, are
we really cool recrowning these guys too early? Like, just
(07:42):
let it settle in. They got crushed in a game
that was hugely anticipated, circled on the calendar for weeks
since the deal. Everybody's been talking about March tenth, March tenth,
that game that Simmons coming back. And then you go
out and lay an egg like this, like Doc Rivers
cannot cannot There's no way he could be like, oh,
it's just March game, no big deal. Maybe they were
(08:03):
too amped, Like in no way, shape or form did
they even make a run. They were down I think
fifteen or more starting in the early second quarter for
the rest of the game, like never even made a run.
Not a good look. Now, obviously, listen, they're gonna destroy
Orlando Sunday, a couple of days to think about this loss.
(08:24):
Then they get Yokich on Monday, a game that will
be national televised. Then it's Cleveland, Dallas, Toronto, Miami Lakers.
It gets a little tougher. And I'm not trying to
poop poo the Sixers. I know they have talent. I'm
of the belief that this team, if they face the
six Sixers Celtics in the first round. Sixers a go down.
(08:45):
I'll put my money where my mouth is on that.
I will bet on the Celtics. I'm not sure that
there's too many other teams in the bottom half that
can be a major problem for the Sixers. I'm looking
at the standings now. If the season ended today, obviously
it doesn't. The seventies Sixers are the three. They would
face the six Cleveland Cavaliers. That's really who they want
(09:08):
to face, because they're better than Cleveland. Cleveland's just too young,
They're not ready. It's just I don't think I don't
think the moment's ready for Cleveland. Toronto not a huge believer.
But if the Sixers get the two and they end
up facing the seven, the seven could be the Brooklyn
Nets and guys, that ain't gonna be pretty for the Sixers.
(09:29):
That's just the reality. If the Nets get the seven,
and it's looking like they will, they're they're not missing
the playoffs. Now, I know. I saw the stat that
there's like fifteen games left and Kyrie can only play
in four of them or something like that. And if
k D doesn't play, and if Ben sives if if if, Yes,
that's all possible, got it. That being said, I firmly
believe this is a NETS team that is in great
(09:51):
position to win the East regardless of what seed they are,
because they've got pretty much the best tree oh in
the East. When you add Simmons. Now, I know some
people are like, hey, how do you know Simmons are
gonna be good? That's fair, We don't. I'm just gonna
trust He's always been a really talented player, All NBA
All Defensive team, Like he's a He's just a talented guy.
(10:13):
He's got to work his way into the lineup and
fit in. Heat are excellent. You know, I was bullish
on the Heat before anybody. I said they were one
of the best teams in the East. People scoffed. Milwaukee
Bucks obviously are very good. Right now, I'm putting the
East at NETS one Heat to Bucks, three, Celtics four,
after that probably Sixers and then Bulls, and you know,
(10:35):
it's a bit of a crap shoot. Also for the
Joel and Beat is the m v P crowd. Yeah,
I'll just leave it at that. 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 I Heart Radio app search f s R
to listen live. College basketball was great, but I can't
(10:56):
spend too much time on college hoops simply because, um,
you know, there's a million games today. The gambling was
outstanding until the night game. From the first half, the
first half strategy listen, I gave it out here. If
you guys took those first halves. If you went to
my I G stories, you saw the slate of first halves,
if you took them, and just the just the first
(11:17):
half of like the games up until like you know,
six o'clock or whatever you cleaned up. It was an
awesome run. At the nighttime. There was a little regression
as expected, but I would say there were a couple
of massive upsets before I get to Khalil Mack. This
Baylor team and Casey Jacobson, the former Stanford grade. He's
an announcer. He's on the Pack twelve tournament this week.
(11:37):
He was on this pod last week and we talked
about it and he is let's so let's just remind people.
He was saying Baylor, due to that injury to their
big just not the team. They were obviously last year
or even earlier this season. They lose to Oklahoma. That's
a bad loss. I'm having some some cell thoughts on
(11:59):
Bailor at this moment um. Duke struggled, but Duke is
very good offensively, man, they got some horses. Now, they're
not a great defensive team, just outside the key that
you want to be for the tournament. Top twenty in
offense and defense that historically has automatically put you in
the mix to win the championship. Top twenty automatically, and
(12:21):
that's not top twenty ranking top twenty offensive and defensive efficiency.
Seventeen of the last nineteen champions finished in the top
twenty in both offense and defense seventeen of nineteen. So
your odds go significantly up now as of this moment,
and obviously that will change this weekend as we record
this Friday morning. Gonzaga, U c l A, Houston, Arizona,
(12:45):
and Baylor fit into that. Now. Baylor will drop a
little bit once the new Ken Palm offensive numbers come
up this morning. Baylor is on the outside looking into me.
They're they're not as good as they were last year
and then the next just outside the top twenty, Auburn
twenty two offensively, Kentucky defensively, Duke seven, Illinois twenty nine, Kansas,
(13:10):
and Villanova. So that's like the second tier. But if
you said, Jay, I'd rather have I'd better bet on
Duke than Baylor to win the title, I would agree
with you. And if you said, Jason, give me Kentucky
over Arizona, Arizona did it suffered a bad loss. Their
point guard. Uh, this kid from Estonia had a bad
ankle turn. It looks like he's out for the rest
(13:30):
of the Pack twelve tournament. And Arizona has a good
team with some pros. They'll be fine. But that's a
bad loss. And I don't know that he's gonna be ready.
This point guard, I'm not even gonna try to say
his name. It's Umcrease or something like that. He is.
He's very good. He's not like they're that first, second,
or third best player. Maybe he's the third best player.
(13:51):
But it's obviously a big loss. And if he's out
the first weekend, Arizona may be susceptible a little bit.
So if you said, give me Duke in Kentucky instead
of those uh, Arizona, Baylor, I would be fine. Auburn
is the team to watch. I want to see how
they play at the SEC Tournament this weekend. Auburn is bouncy.
I like their coach. I'm I'm big on Auburn now
they they're they're freshman is a superstar Jabari Smith. Can
(14:15):
you lean on a freshman forward as opposed to a
freshman point guard to ride the wave and and and
make a run. Obviously, Monday will have a ton on
the brackets and I'll be just draped in college basketball weekend.
Hit you can hit me on the Graham. Uh. A
little less responsive on Twitter, but I'm there if you
(14:36):
want to chat about questions about the tournament and the
bracket and it's just gonna be fun. We'll do be
doing shows for Fox exciting stuff. 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 I Heart Radio app search f s R
to listen live all right. Unto the quick NFL trade
(14:58):
and what a week for the NFL, Huh, I mean
trades glory. You add Russell Wilson Tuesday. You had Carson
Wentz on Wednesday and on Thursday, you had Khalil Mack
going from the Bears, dobb Bears to the l A Chargers.
Now this is not a massive surprise, but another thing
(15:19):
we've talked about ad nausea, and we've been ahead of
the market on this for a couple of years. When
you have your quarterback on the rookie deal, you go
out and spend money. A lot of teams spend on
a wide receiver, luxury item to help your quarterback. Some
people decide, hey, let's go over pay for a edge
rusher that's also a premium position. Khalil Mack sixty three
(15:41):
million dollars over the next three years. He's already thirty one.
Is he at thirty one? Can we expect production from
Khalil Mack like he had in the past, Well, I
know Bears fans are going to be our way out
on him. Four years in Chicago, his his numbers pretty
much went down every year. Twelve and a half sacks
that first year he was incredible, Bears get the playoffs,
(16:04):
eight and a half sacks, the second year, nine sacks
in year three, and then this past year he only
played seven games injured. The injuries kind of mounted, but
the other thing to watch is when Khalil Mack was
on the field for the Bears. He was the primary
pass rusher ro Kuan Smith grade linebacker. They had a
good hicks in the middle, but they you were able
(16:25):
to easily will just double team Khalil Mack. Well, you
can't do that when he's on the Chargers because on
the other side you've got Bosa. You can't double Mac
and double Bosa. This is a significant pickup. Assuming Mac
can stay healthy. This is massive for the Chargers. I
absolutely love this. And in my mock draft for Fox
(16:47):
Sports this week, I had the Chargers, who, by the way,
didn't even give up a number one pick in the
trade give up but number two, Like, that's that's a
that's a heist, Khalil Mack. Are you kidding me? I'm not.
I'm not saying that. Like von Miller was awesome all year,
but guess who showed up late in the season when
he was traded to the Ramps. Von Miller. All you
(17:10):
need is like one or two games where he shows
up and makes a couple of splash plays and boom,
He's worth his weight in gold. Like again, we're talking
about Khalil Mack he could. He used to wreck games
by himself. Now I know that was three years ago.
He's not the player he was. I get it. You
got Bosa, you got Mac kidding me, secondary gets healthy.
(17:32):
A f C West is making some moves, folks. This
is just division is so loaded. Like remember the Chargers
missed the playoffs. Not only not on the last game
of the season, On the last play, last play of
the season, kicker hits a bomb for the Raiders when
it looked like the Raiders were playing for the Tide,
which would put the Chargers in the playoffs. They kick
(17:53):
at Chargers miss the playoffs like I would. I think
that everybody and their mom is gonna have the Chargers
in the playoffs next year. We talked about everybody. I
think we'll have Denver as well. Everybody will obviously have
the Chiefs Raiders. Kind of s o l here, guys,
But the a f C West is just completely stacked
now about the Bears, and we don't really talk about
(18:15):
the Bears anymore because they haven't been good in forever.
You kind of feel a little bad for Justin Fields. No,
he goes there. It's like what do we have? Like,
what does Justin Fields have around him, who quickly, who's
the second best player in the Bears. And it's not
Alan Robinson. We know that because he's gone. Is it
the running back Montgomery? Is it ro Quan Smith a linebacker?
(18:37):
I don't know, guys, I'm a little worried about the Bears.
Aaron Rodgers has to be excited at this. Oh I
don't have to see Khalil Mack twice a year. Oh splendid,
that is just great news. But there is a Bears
team totally in rebuild mode. It feels like a tear down.
You almost wonder, Okay, we don't have a first round pick.
(18:57):
We are in a bad place salary cap wise. What
do we do? I think you just start unloading dudes, right.
You build the offensive line. You've got the quarterback on
the rookie deal, still got Robert Queen who's pretty good.
You got Hicks, ro Kuan Smith. We like you know,
the secondary is getting a little old from when it
was really good Eddie Jackson and company. I just I
(19:21):
don't know. I'm really The Bears feel to me outside
of um like a miracle season from Justin Fields just
putting the team on his back. You know, that's six
win team, maybe seven. Now the division stinks, but the
Vikings are better than them. We know the Packers are
the Lions. They were plucky last year. I just it.
(19:44):
It just doesn't look good for the Chicago Bears. I
don't really know if they're there, you know they're Excuse me,
I don't know the Bears are expected to contend this
year or even next. But um, one of the stats
and all these people in Chicago were like, oh Mac
did nothing? Forgot about that guy. Just I'm just gonna
point this out. Over the last five seasons, Mac and
(20:05):
Bosa both rank in the top four in total defensive pressures.
So like we could say, oh Clo Max lost the step.
He's not the guy he was. That's fair. Still the
body of work over the last four seasons, he is
one of the premier pass rushers in the league. Is
he as good as t J. Watt? No, he's obviously
not Aaron Donald the defensive tackle. He's not as good
(20:27):
as either of the Bosa brothers. But like, it's not
the worst thing in the world. If you're still like
a top twelve pass rusher in the league, is it now?
I know you want to say this this the money, Oh,
it's costing your I'm in the leg. As I said,
you've got the quarterback on the rookie deal. Did you
see they signed Mike Williams to a long term deal.
They can give the money. Give the money, Keenan Allen,
(20:48):
pay all the positions you want to get justin Herbert
in position to succeed. That is kind of what the
model has been. Mahomes did it, Russell Wilson did it
back in the day. It's just one of those situations
where like smart teams doing smart things, and the Rams
did it with Golf and when he was on the
(21:09):
rookie deal, the Browns tried it with Baker Mayfield. You
gotta swing for the fences. It is a little disappointing
that my Jets have done Jack squat Zach Wilson entering
R two. Why am I not hearing about big splashing moves?
They're fine cap wise? Can they not get anybody to
their team? What are we doing overpay for some talent?
I think I've told this story before, but like when
(21:32):
you are not a desirable franchise, some people may not
want to live in New York. That's fine. Most of
the players live in Jersey anyway. The move is, Hey,
we gotta overpay people to bring them in, right we
nobody wants to come play with the Jets. They stank.
You're not gonna win anything. You're in the Patriots Division. Fine,
so you gotta give them more money whatever. You could
(21:53):
do that with Zach Wilson on the rookie deal, don't.
It's just a little disappointing that my Jets are unable
to capitalize the way I see teams like the Chargers
making big, splashy moves. All right, that's it for this week, guys.
I hope you enjoyed the college basketball chatter the NBA.
The guests were good guests. Next week pretty much wall
to wall college basketball outside of NFL free agency, and um,
(22:17):
I'm excited for it. I'm ready for it. We'll talk
to you then,
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. What is up
straight Fire, Fam, It's me Jason McIntyre. This is Straight
Fire for Friday, March eleventh, And oh my gosh, how
good was Thursday? Oh yes, all the Sixers fans who
tuned in, I know you're so geeked. Yeah. I almost
(00:26):
just put together a string of expletives to open the podcast,
but um, yeah, a lot of good basketball. Listen if
basketball is your sport, Thursday was one of the best
days of the year. I think there were sixty one
college basketball games and not all at night and not
crap teams. A lot of stuff during the day. I know,
by the way, a big NBA game. And oh yeah,
(00:47):
another massive star, regardless of what you think of him,
now gets traded in the NFL. Khalil Mack on the move.
Huge pickup for the Chargers. Oh my gosh, Chargers are scary.
Super Bowl odds plummeting. We'll get to that, Guss. The
Bears are a dumpster fire, but they kind of had
to do it. Um, We're gonna start with what happened
in Philadelphia. Ben Simmons returns to Filthy Delphia. I'm sorry
(01:11):
I had to get filthy Delphi out. Um, you guys.
When I lived outside of Philly for seven years, nice area,
Bucks County, a lot of fun, enjoyed it, had a
good time. Went into Philly occasionally, wanted to New York
more just because we had moved from New York, so
I never really super connected with Philly. Went to several
Sixers games, went to played in a media pickup basketball
(01:34):
game at the Wells Fargo. I don't think it was
called the Wells Fargo back then. But whatever, Philly's fun.
Went to soccer games in Philly like it was a
nice city. We had fun. We just didn't go out
there a lot. You know, we were just having kids.
We were a little younger, um, but you know we did.
I got married in Philadelphia, as my wife wants to
remind me, Yes, got married in Philly, and it's a
(01:55):
good today. I have nothing against Philly. All these people
think I hate Philadelphia now, just because as I said,
I'm not a buyer on the Sixers. And all these
Sixers fans were geek. They were lubricated, all liquored up,
ready to bash Ben Simmons. Channing f Ben Simmons throughout
the game and Philly goes out and lays a colossal egg,
(02:16):
probably one of the you know in the second half
of the season. This is one of the more anticipated
games given the Ben Simmons for James Harden trade, right,
this is a hugely anticipated game. Philly comes out, gets
their doors blown off in the first quarter, giving up
a forty burger, and never ever ever made it a game.
(02:36):
James Harden in postseason form three for seventeen shooting. It's
James Harden for you, minus thirty on the game, not
his best performance, and uh listen, I'm not gonna sit
here in bash the Sixers. I have been consistent, guys.
I think this is obviously a talented team. I don't
think they were as good as the media plays them
out to be. It's pretty clear Hardened and Embibd is
(02:58):
gonna work against bad team, but good teams are gonna
I don't know, kind of shut him down. James Harden
three for seventeen, Joel and Beat five for seventeen, Like
the Sixers were down thirty for the basically the entire
fourth quarter. This team is overrated. I know everybody loves
the Sixers. In Hardening and Beats a fun story and
Tyrese max is a great story in Tyrese Maxie has
(03:19):
been very good this season. He's their third best player.
I like Tyrese Maxie. In his first really big NBA game,
he was two for seven. I don't want to say
the moment was too big. It was a regular season
game in March. But he was a total non factor,
complete non factor. And when you shoot thirty against the
Nets who are missing their best defensive player in Ben Simmons,
(03:43):
not a great look. Not a good one. So all
these people, when I did on Disputed last week, everybody said,
oh no, the Nets are garbage. The fallen from second
to seventh, and they're eight, then their ninth in the
eastday why not make the playoffs? Here's reality. Kevin Durant
was healthy, they were second in the East. Kevin during
gets hurt, they plumb it. Kyrie Irving, No, vacs can't
(04:06):
play in home games. You can only play in away games.
And I wasn't even playing in many of those. Like
they're not they were not good. They didn't have James Harden.
Then they make the trade. The vaccination restrictions or whatever
you wanna call it, mandates get lifted and all of
a sudden, the Nets are starting to look like a
(04:28):
team that was favored to win the conference. Seth Curry
stunting all over the Sixers twenty four points four three's
I love the one he hit in the third quarter
if you can find the clip if you haven't seen
the YouTube, he hits the three. I think it was
kind of a transition three, and you know, the Sixers
(04:48):
instantly called time out and Seth Curry essentially like slowly
walks past because the three was right in front the
bench of the Sixers. He just slowly walks past, and
everybody just staring at him was like, listen, you gave
up Seth Currie, and that one's gonna sting. I mean,
I still can't believe Luca and the Mavericks gave up
Seth Curry, Like that's a bad loss. Like Seth Currie
(05:11):
is so good, guys, so good. And Kevin Duran obviously
thirty and fourteen seven assists Kyrie two And by the way,
some of the matchup numbers for Kyrie on Harden almost
make you wonder if James Harden does not want the
Kyrie Irving smoke. Now, you guys know, I've been I've
been basset Kyrie Irving for a while. Immensely talented player.
(05:33):
I didn't know we had some defensive chops. Harden found
that out the hard way when they were matched up
one on one. He Harden could not score on Kyrie.
I think he started one of seven when matched up
with Kyrie Irving, And it's like, whoa really Kyrie lockdown defender?
I was not aware of that. And folks, anyone who comes,
I know it's a regular season game in March. But
(05:55):
for everybody in their mom who's overreacting saying, oh, the
Lakers got smoked in overtime by the Rockets, and like
as terrible. They're not even a playoff team. They can't
win anything. If you're reacting that way and you're reacting
to regular season games, you have to react to the
Sixers losing by twenty nine at home and never being
(06:16):
competitive against the Nets. Now, if you're one who says,
who cares about the regular season? Fine, any way you
want to slice it though, this doesn't mean nothing, It
can't possibly mean nothing. It doesn't have to mean everything.
But this result, if this was a close game, it's like,
oh great, I can't wait for the playoff series. It's
a blowout. The environment there was great. I'm excited for
(06:38):
the playoff series. But the reality is this game had
to be a little bit. I'm not saying it was everything.
I'm not saying it was a lot. It was a
message sent by the Nets, we are better than you.
We didn't even have Ben Simmons here. And I know
some people are Ben Simmons. Come on, he's not even
any good. I'm just saying nobody can come away from
this game saying the Sixers are a better team than
(06:59):
the Nets. You can beat the hell out of them
Timberwolves and destroy all these other chumps in the East.
But when you face the Bucks, when you face the heat,
when you face the Nets, I'm gonna put Boston in
there right now. They're playing as good as anybody in
the league. Reality is gonna set in pretty quick, guys.
(07:19):
It just is. And when you combine Doc Rivers postseason
history which ain't pretty, which everybody knows, and you toss
in James Harden postseason history, which is very ugly, and
you wonder, jeez, I mean, Joel and Meads really good,
guy's never been to the conference finals. You start to
add this stuff up. You're like, wait a minute, are
we really cool recrowning these guys too early? Like, just
(07:42):
let it settle in. They got crushed in a game
that was hugely anticipated, circled on the calendar for weeks
since the deal. Everybody's been talking about March tenth, March tenth,
that game that Simmons coming back. And then you go
out and lay an egg like this, like Doc Rivers
cannot cannot There's no way he could be like, oh,
it's just March game, no big deal. Maybe they were
(08:03):
too amped, Like in no way, shape or form did
they even make a run. They were down I think
fifteen or more starting in the early second quarter for
the rest of the game, like never even made a run.
Not a good look. Now, obviously, listen, they're gonna destroy
Orlando Sunday, a couple of days to think about this loss.
(08:24):
Then they get Yokich on Monday, a game that will
be national televised. Then it's Cleveland, Dallas, Toronto, Miami Lakers.
It gets a little tougher. And I'm not trying to
poop poo the Sixers. I know they have talent. I'm
of the belief that this team, if they face the
six Sixers Celtics in the first round. Sixers a go down.
(08:45):
I'll put my money where my mouth is on that.
I will bet on the Celtics. I'm not sure that
there's too many other teams in the bottom half that
can be a major problem for the Sixers. I'm looking
at the standings now. If the season ended today, obviously
it doesn't. The seventies Sixers are the three. They would
face the six Cleveland Cavaliers. That's really who they want
(09:08):
to face, because they're better than Cleveland. Cleveland's just too young,
They're not ready. It's just I don't think I don't
think the moment's ready for Cleveland. Toronto not a huge believer.
But if the Sixers get the two and they end
up facing the seven, the seven could be the Brooklyn
Nets and guys, that ain't gonna be pretty for the Sixers.
(09:29):
That's just the reality. If the Nets get the seven,
and it's looking like they will, they're they're not missing
the playoffs. Now, I know. I saw the stat that
there's like fifteen games left and Kyrie can only play
in four of them or something like that. And if
k D doesn't play, and if Ben sives if if if, Yes,
that's all possible, got it. That being said, I firmly
believe this is a NETS team that is in great
(09:51):
position to win the East regardless of what seed they are,
because they've got pretty much the best tree oh in
the East. When you add Simmons. Now, I know some
people are like, hey, how do you know Simmons are
gonna be good? That's fair, We don't. I'm just gonna
trust He's always been a really talented player, All NBA
All Defensive team, Like he's a He's just a talented guy.
(10:13):
He's got to work his way into the lineup and
fit in. Heat are excellent. You know, I was bullish
on the Heat before anybody. I said they were one
of the best teams in the East. People scoffed. Milwaukee
Bucks obviously are very good. Right now, I'm putting the
East at NETS one Heat to Bucks, three, Celtics four,
after that probably Sixers and then Bulls, and you know,
(10:35):
it's a bit of a crap shoot. Also for the
Joel and Beat is the m v P crowd. Yeah,
I'll just leave it at that. 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 I Heart Radio app search f s R
to listen live. College basketball was great, but I can't
(10:56):
spend too much time on college hoops simply because, um,
you know, there's a million games today. The gambling was
outstanding until the night game. From the first half, the
first half strategy listen, I gave it out here. If
you guys took those first halves. If you went to
my I G stories, you saw the slate of first halves,
if you took them, and just the just the first
(11:17):
half of like the games up until like you know,
six o'clock or whatever you cleaned up. It was an
awesome run. At the nighttime. There was a little regression
as expected, but I would say there were a couple
of massive upsets before I get to Khalil Mack. This
Baylor team and Casey Jacobson, the former Stanford grade. He's
an announcer. He's on the Pack twelve tournament this week.
(11:37):
He was on this pod last week and we talked
about it and he is let's so let's just remind people.
He was saying Baylor, due to that injury to their
big just not the team. They were obviously last year
or even earlier this season. They lose to Oklahoma. That's
a bad loss. I'm having some some cell thoughts on
(11:59):
Bailor at this moment um. Duke struggled, but Duke is
very good offensively, man, they got some horses. Now, they're
not a great defensive team, just outside the key that
you want to be for the tournament. Top twenty in
offense and defense that historically has automatically put you in
the mix to win the championship. Top twenty automatically, and
(12:21):
that's not top twenty ranking top twenty offensive and defensive efficiency.
Seventeen of the last nineteen champions finished in the top
twenty in both offense and defense seventeen of nineteen. So
your odds go significantly up now as of this moment,
and obviously that will change this weekend as we record
this Friday morning. Gonzaga, U c l A, Houston, Arizona,
(12:45):
and Baylor fit into that. Now. Baylor will drop a
little bit once the new Ken Palm offensive numbers come
up this morning. Baylor is on the outside looking into me.
They're they're not as good as they were last year
and then the next just outside the top twenty, Auburn
twenty two offensively, Kentucky defensively, Duke seven, Illinois twenty nine, Kansas,
(13:10):
and Villanova. So that's like the second tier. But if
you said, Jay, I'd rather have I'd better bet on
Duke than Baylor to win the title, I would agree
with you. And if you said, Jason, give me Kentucky
over Arizona, Arizona did it suffered a bad loss. Their
point guard. Uh, this kid from Estonia had a bad
ankle turn. It looks like he's out for the rest
(13:30):
of the Pack twelve tournament. And Arizona has a good
team with some pros. They'll be fine. But that's a
bad loss. And I don't know that he's gonna be ready.
This point guard, I'm not even gonna try to say
his name. It's Umcrease or something like that. He is.
He's very good. He's not like they're that first, second,
or third best player. Maybe he's the third best player.
(13:51):
But it's obviously a big loss. And if he's out
the first weekend, Arizona may be susceptible a little bit.
So if you said, give me Duke in Kentucky instead
of those uh, Arizona, Baylor, I would be fine. Auburn
is the team to watch. I want to see how
they play at the SEC Tournament this weekend. Auburn is bouncy.
I like their coach. I'm I'm big on Auburn now
they they're they're freshman is a superstar Jabari Smith. Can
(14:15):
you lean on a freshman forward as opposed to a
freshman point guard to ride the wave and and and
make a run. Obviously, Monday will have a ton on
the brackets and I'll be just draped in college basketball weekend.
Hit you can hit me on the Graham. Uh. A
little less responsive on Twitter, but I'm there if you
(14:36):
want to chat about questions about the tournament and the
bracket and it's just gonna be fun. We'll do be
doing shows for Fox exciting stuff. 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 I Heart Radio app search f s R
to listen live all right. Unto the quick NFL trade
(14:58):
and what a week for the NFL, Huh, I mean
trades glory. You add Russell Wilson Tuesday. You had Carson
Wentz on Wednesday and on Thursday, you had Khalil Mack
going from the Bears, dobb Bears to the l A Chargers.
Now this is not a massive surprise, but another thing
(15:19):
we've talked about ad nausea, and we've been ahead of
the market on this for a couple of years. When
you have your quarterback on the rookie deal, you go
out and spend money. A lot of teams spend on
a wide receiver, luxury item to help your quarterback. Some
people decide, hey, let's go over pay for a edge
rusher that's also a premium position. Khalil Mack sixty three
(15:41):
million dollars over the next three years. He's already thirty one.
Is he at thirty one? Can we expect production from
Khalil Mack like he had in the past, Well, I
know Bears fans are going to be our way out
on him. Four years in Chicago, his his numbers pretty
much went down every year. Twelve and a half sacks
that first year he was incredible, Bears get the playoffs,
(16:04):
eight and a half sacks, the second year, nine sacks
in year three, and then this past year he only
played seven games injured. The injuries kind of mounted, but
the other thing to watch is when Khalil Mack was
on the field for the Bears. He was the primary
pass rusher ro Kuan Smith grade linebacker. They had a
good hicks in the middle, but they you were able
(16:25):
to easily will just double team Khalil Mack. Well, you
can't do that when he's on the Chargers because on
the other side you've got Bosa. You can't double Mac
and double Bosa. This is a significant pickup. Assuming Mac
can stay healthy. This is massive for the Chargers. I
absolutely love this. And in my mock draft for Fox
(16:47):
Sports this week, I had the Chargers, who, by the way,
didn't even give up a number one pick in the
trade give up but number two, Like, that's that's a
that's a heist, Khalil Mack. Are you kidding me? I'm not.
I'm not saying that. Like von Miller was awesome all year,
but guess who showed up late in the season when
he was traded to the Ramps. Von Miller. All you
(17:10):
need is like one or two games where he shows
up and makes a couple of splash plays and boom,
He's worth his weight in gold. Like again, we're talking
about Khalil Mack he could. He used to wreck games
by himself. Now I know that was three years ago.
He's not the player he was. I get it. You
got Bosa, you got Mac kidding me, secondary gets healthy.
(17:32):
A f C West is making some moves, folks. This
is just division is so loaded. Like remember the Chargers
missed the playoffs. Not only not on the last game
of the season, On the last play, last play of
the season, kicker hits a bomb for the Raiders when
it looked like the Raiders were playing for the Tide,
which would put the Chargers in the playoffs. They kick
(17:53):
at Chargers miss the playoffs like I would. I think
that everybody and their mom is gonna have the Chargers
in the playoffs next year. We talked about everybody. I
think we'll have Denver as well. Everybody will obviously have
the Chiefs Raiders. Kind of s o l here, guys,
But the a f C West is just completely stacked
now about the Bears, and we don't really talk about
(18:15):
the Bears anymore because they haven't been good in forever.
You kind of feel a little bad for Justin Fields. No,
he goes there. It's like what do we have? Like,
what does Justin Fields have around him, who quickly, who's
the second best player in the Bears. And it's not
Alan Robinson. We know that because he's gone. Is it
the running back Montgomery? Is it ro Quan Smith a linebacker?
(18:37):
I don't know, guys, I'm a little worried about the Bears.
Aaron Rodgers has to be excited at this. Oh I
don't have to see Khalil Mack twice a year. Oh splendid,
that is just great news. But there is a Bears
team totally in rebuild mode. It feels like a tear down.
You almost wonder, Okay, we don't have a first round pick.
(18:57):
We are in a bad place salary cap wise. What
do we do? I think you just start unloading dudes, right.
You build the offensive line. You've got the quarterback on
the rookie deal, still got Robert Queen who's pretty good.
You got Hicks, ro Kuan Smith. We like you know,
the secondary is getting a little old from when it
was really good Eddie Jackson and company. I just I
(19:21):
don't know. I'm really The Bears feel to me outside
of um like a miracle season from Justin Fields just
putting the team on his back. You know, that's six
win team, maybe seven. Now the division stinks, but the
Vikings are better than them. We know the Packers are
the Lions. They were plucky last year. I just it.
(19:44):
It just doesn't look good for the Chicago Bears. I
don't really know if they're there, you know they're Excuse me,
I don't know the Bears are expected to contend this
year or even next. But um, one of the stats
and all these people in Chicago were like, oh Mac
did nothing? Forgot about that guy. Just I'm just gonna
point this out. Over the last five seasons, Mac and
(20:05):
Bosa both rank in the top four in total defensive pressures.
So like we could say, oh Clo Max lost the step.
He's not the guy he was. That's fair. Still the
body of work over the last four seasons, he is
one of the premier pass rushers in the league. Is
he as good as t J. Watt? No, he's obviously
not Aaron Donald the defensive tackle. He's not as good
(20:27):
as either of the Bosa brothers. But like, it's not
the worst thing in the world. If you're still like
a top twelve pass rusher in the league, is it now?
I know you want to say this this the money, Oh,
it's costing your I'm in the leg. As I said,
you've got the quarterback on the rookie deal. Did you
see they signed Mike Williams to a long term deal.
They can give the money. Give the money, Keenan Allen,
(20:48):
pay all the positions you want to get justin Herbert
in position to succeed. That is kind of what the
model has been. Mahomes did it, Russell Wilson did it
back in the day. It's just one of those situations
where like smart teams doing smart things, and the Rams
did it with Golf and when he was on the
(21:09):
rookie deal, the Browns tried it with Baker Mayfield. You
gotta swing for the fences. It is a little disappointing
that my Jets have done Jack squat Zach Wilson entering
R two. Why am I not hearing about big splashing moves?
They're fine cap wise? Can they not get anybody to
their team? What are we doing overpay for some talent?
I think I've told this story before, but like when
(21:32):
you are not a desirable franchise, some people may not
want to live in New York. That's fine. Most of
the players live in Jersey anyway. The move is, Hey,
we gotta overpay people to bring them in, right we
nobody wants to come play with the Jets. They stank.
You're not gonna win anything. You're in the Patriots Division. Fine,
so you gotta give them more money whatever. You could
(21:53):
do that with Zach Wilson on the rookie deal, don't.
It's just a little disappointing that my Jets are unable
to capitalize the way I see teams like the Chargers
making big, splashy moves. All right, that's it for this week, guys.
I hope you enjoyed the college basketball chatter the NBA.
The guests were good guests. Next week pretty much wall
to wall college basketball outside of NFL free agency, and um,
(22:17):
I'm excited for it. I'm ready for it. We'll talk
to you then,
Host
Jason McIntyre
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