April 19, 2025 • 51 mins
Colin’s top takes of the week!
First, he’s joined by John Middlekauff, host of “3 and Out” and “Go Low”!
They react to Rory McIlroy finally breaking the curse and winning The Masters to complete his career grand slam (2:30). They also discuss a very up and down round from Bryson DeChambeau (10:00) and the rivalry and bitterness between the PGA tour golfers and LIV tour golfers (17:00)
Then, Colin’s joined by Jason Timpf, host of “Hoops Tonight” to break down the play-in games and preview the NBA playoffs!
They start with the Warriors surviving the Grizzlies in the play-in game, why their lack of size and supporting cast could prove to be their Achilles heel in the postseason, and why the Rockets could prove to be a tough matchup for Golden State (34:00).
They pivot to Lakers vs. Timberwolves, why facing the Lakers is the worst case scenario for the Wolves, and why the trio of Luka, LeBron and Reeves will overwhelm Minnesota (45:00).
Finally, they debate whether Jokic is the greatest big to ever play the game (50:00).
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume, I don't. I can't remember the last two
days of a golf tournament where I was more emotionally
vested in a golfer than Rory McElroy. And I wasn't
rooting against Justin Rose or Bryson Deshambeau, who I think
(00:23):
has done an incredible one eighty rehab of his brand
where he was unlikable and now is incredibly likable or
at least more likable. But I was thinking about this
John John Middlecoff, former NFL Scout three and out part
of the volume is that what makes Rory We know
he's a sensational talent, but he's got a phil Mickelson
(00:44):
quality where you can you can see him buckle, you
can see I mean when he takes that wedge from
a buck twenty five out and puts it in the
water in the creek, You're like, bro, I hit my
irons great Saturday. It's gokey country club in Chicago suburb,
Like I what is going on? And I think what
(01:05):
finds him, what makes Rory so likable, is that he
is vulnerable and he just has you know, four double
bogies short wed shot in the creek. I think that
just makes him incredibly watchable.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, I think. You know, I think every great golfer,
definitely in my life, which I've been watching for almost
thirty years now. Yea, like the Tiger Phil era is
kind of defined by their greatness or disasters in majors. Yeah,
you know, when I was a kid, Greg Norman, it
(01:42):
was a big deal to like have a shark polo
when I was a kid, wear him to school.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
When you think Greg Norman, you think a guy that
unravels and fails. You know, Phil is weird because he's
one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
He's won six majors, he's won the Masters three times,
He's won forty five tournaments. But you remember him a
lot of times for finishing second. Yes to Payne Stewart,
he blasted out of bounds at wing foot in the
mid two thousands.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Taking big risks. He doesn't need to.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
And he's like that in life. Right when he made
the comments about the Saudi's after he took their two
hundred million dollars. You know, Rory's this kind of enigma
because and I thought today actually symbolized his entire career. Yeah,
I mean, he had a couple shots that are like
the most incredible shots in the history of Masters. He
hooked a seven iron around a tree to five feet
on fifteen, and then he missed the putt, and then
(02:29):
he missed the putt. You know, and I can't you know,
Tiger's got this torn achilles. He's like, he's like a
nineteen seventies NFL player on his bed with eighteen million injuries.
Can you imagine Tiger watching this tournament and thinking, You know,
Tiger was actually pretty boring as a champion because he
didn't screw up. What was the famous quote, like dumb
loses more than smart wins. Yeah, Tiger was very conservative.
(02:51):
You know, Rory dunks into the water, he Bogei's eighteen
to send it to a playoff after he's right in
the middle of the fairway three hundred and thirty yards. Yeah,
I don't know where you stood. I thought, the emotional
roller coaster of that three and a half hours, how
could he win in well, in extra hole? I thought
he was gonna lose. Colin I didn't. I didn't have
any faith he was going to win in extra holes
(03:11):
because emotionally put yourself in his shoes. He had to
be gutted to try to gather himself and keep his
heart rate down. He probably wanted to cry.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Well, it's funny because Phil Mickelson got himself into trouble
because he was overly aggressive. But and he would buckle,
but it was a different kind. Rory loses confidence. You
can see it. And there are times on that wedge
you're like, oh, he just lost confidence. He said it
a little bit on the green jacket in ceremony in
(03:42):
the room, which I thought was really emotional. But yeah,
I just I think, you know, Tiger was such a
great leader, like he never lost leeds. If Tiger led
by five strokes going into Sunday, it was over. There
was one US Open against rock O Media, which I
found that was stirring with Tiger. Also his last Master's
(04:04):
win where he was an older golfer was stirring and
really emotional.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Well, Colin O eight was stirring with Roco because he
had a torn acl and a broken leg. He was healthy.
But yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, And I mean I just thought the whole spectacle
it was perfect weather amend corner, just the galleries or
the patrons, the intensity, you know, I kept thinking to myself,
so Bryson de Shambeau was to shambles his I mean,
he had a distance issue all weekend, but he was
(04:38):
putting great until Sunday. And it was interesting when they
interviewed him afterwards. He took a little shot, a little
projection when he said, you know, I don't remember the
Sunday greens being that fast because he was really off now.
He all weekend had sort of a distance issue, like
he was long or short, but his putting kept him close.
(05:03):
Whereas Rory's wedge and Rory's irons were either remarkable or mediocre.
Rory today, frankly, think about that, how good Rory is.
He had one of the worst shots ever the wedge
end of the creek. He blew a four stroke lead.
He hit a couple of putts, but he was hit
(05:24):
and miss off the tee. You didn't know exactly what
you were getting from Rory off the tee, and yet
he won. I mean, how damn good do you have
to be if you just if I just told you
what his round was rough off the tee, one of
the worst shots ever, gags a lead, you wouldn't think
he'd win.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Well, I thought I mean Colin he blew a. He
had a two shot lead coming in today he was
down one shot after two holes. I mean, it felt like,
is this gonna be Greg Norman John Vandervelt Immediately, honestly,
you felt bad for him, like how can this happen?
But he had a couple shots today that I would
say were phil like over trees. Yes, I mean he
(06:05):
had one shot over a tree, yeah, the bender around
the tree. Another shot over a tree from the left side.
He had another shot on the right side. He did
get a little lucky. I mean, one thing with Augusta,
you can't really hit it out of bounds. You just
there's tree trouble, but it's not. There's no rough right
so you can spray it a little bit and there's
just the golf gods are on your side. You're still
(06:26):
gonna be okay, So the golf gods are on your side.
Through the first three rounds, he was the best player
in the tournament by a mile. Bryce and yesterday hit
that like one hundred foot putt to instead of being
down three down two eighteen. But he didn't even play
that well yesterday, where Rory shot sixty six sixty six
Friday and Saturday and on front and on Thursday, Rory's
four under heading into fifteen hits it on two chips,
(06:48):
it into the water. So he kind of unravels at
the end. But he had played brilliantly and it just
shows you that, Like, to me, one thing that's fascinating
about Rory, and I always admire the Michael Jordan, the Brady's,
even the young version of Mahomes. When you win, you
win big, you make all the money, and you just
keep grinding because you're addicted to the competition. That Tiger
was notorious for this, right, Stevie Williams's caddy would be like,
(07:11):
you know, we'd win, and Tiger would call me two
days later and be like, I'll meet you at the
range of six in the morning. Stee be like, take
the week off and now that this gets the Monkey office.
But and Ry had already won twice this year. He
won a Pebble, and he won the Players. Now he's
won the Masters. He's playing by far the best in
the world. He's better and Scott he's off, you know, Bryson.
Really he's outplayed Bryson twice. He screwed up last year
(07:32):
in the putts at Viners. If Rory keeps the pedal
of the medal, he might not win every major, but
he could win like six seven times. He could have
a historic year. You do wonder watch the way he
broke down. Is he just gonna take like a month
to just like not do anything. He wouldn't blame him.
But if he keeps it down like Jordan or Tiger
or those you know, Brady would he He's the best
player in the world right now by by a pretty
(07:53):
wide margin.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
I think yeah, And I thought Bryson de Shamble. His
game is just listen, I like golf. I played it
this weekend.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
How'd you play?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
But I am hitting my irons the last year as
well as I can hit him, just as well as
I can hit him.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
You need to give Bryce in a lesson.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
His game feels loose, Bryce, I mean he didn't. He
was struggling getting the ball in the fair way. His
wedges were hitting miss. He got it in the drink
twice today. Now, his putting saved him over the weekend,
but today when his putting went, it really unveiled. The
truth about his game is the putting kept him around.
(08:37):
His Gay mentioned it after the round. His game is
just not right.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Well, I think the old adage is you can talk
to a fade, a drawer hook doesn't listen. And when
you play that drawer hook one, it goes farther and
it goes harder. And I know he's like all the
greens were harder, Bryce, and the greens that the masters
have been the same since you know, Arnold Palmer was
playing in the fifties. They're hard, they're firm. Your irons
weren't even close. And he plays this power draw which
(09:05):
today turned into the last couple of days turned into
a hook. He is you know the thing with Bryson,
he's clearly mellowed out and the YouTube thing has changed
his world. If he was a football player, I mean,
this guy is a blue chip out of high school,
out of college, like he has an elite talent, but
he is he messes with all sorts of weird shit.
I mean, he's got special made club He's a different cat.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Wikipedia Bryson Deshambo's clubs and I was reading it over
the weekend.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
It called three D.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I mean, he doesn't he uses stuff nobody else has used.
He has been very contrariant. I mean I thought it
was funny when they came out today. The build up
was like a Tyson fight. So De Shambo comes out,
he's all gladator and you know they're both power players,
but Rory plays fast and Deshambo has more pace. And
you know, like Jim Man's talked about this, he said,
(09:57):
you know, putting these two together is an advantage maybe
for Bryce and because he'll try to slow. You know,
the slower player can irk the faster player, and Rory
likes to get up, hit and go. I find Rory
very easy to watch. He's the antithesis of like Sergio
Garcia in his prime, where you just it was irritating
to watch him. So Bryson's not that slow, but Rory
(10:17):
just gets up, hits it, and again, the thing with
Rory is just how remarkable he is as a talent
to win today. I mean he is. I think he
had four double bogies.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I don't know, It's never happened before in the history
of the master Chee. That's right. Craig Stadler had three
once and one at in eighty two. That was the
only time anyone had three. The double bogee for normal
human beings happens a lot for pro golfers. It does
not happen very often, especially in a major. One can
sink you.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
The I thought I was interesting on eighteen, which is
the narrowest t shot. So here was Rory. He put
himself in a position that's where I was on. So
I flew in. So I watched every shot the last
two days and I was watching, you know, my plane
landed basically as that it at Lax as the tournament ended.
(11:08):
So Master's app is amazing. I watched every shot, just fantastic,
But that I found myself on the eighteenth because there
was a lot of tension during the last two days.
But on Saturday, it's kind of like, Okay, you can
miss shots, it's fine. When he stepped up on eighteen
and he delivered a beauty, I mean he just crushed it,
(11:29):
and I felt like, okay, it's his. And then, in
typical Rory fashion, he ended up going, you know, to
a playoff. Going into the playoff, I kind of felt
like Justin Rose was going to win it.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Do you get nervous anymore anything you do in life?
Like as often you get nervous, I don't What would
it take for you to get nervous. You think you're
calling the super Bowl or I mean, something that you
but it'd have to be something that you can actually,
you know, feel comfortable doing.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Right. I get nervous for my kids. I get nervous.
It's the only sport that I get nervous is golf.
And I felt that because, like I loved Phil Mickelson,
and there's something about the vulnerability of Rory that just
connects with me. I had been rooting for him, and
this is not anti anybody else. I was rooting for
(12:20):
him all weekend. Well.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Once once Rose basically split the fairway in extra holes,
You're looking at Rory and you're thinking, how can you
control your heart rate right now? Because you know he's
Rose has no pressure on him. If I crumble, I'm
going to be viewed as Honestly, it would have felt
bigger than Greg Norman because you had unraveled, taken the lead, unraveled,
taken the lead, unraveled taking the lead. It's I would say,
it was kind of an unlike a situation. I've been
(12:43):
watching golf for a long time. I don't ever remember
around where a guy unravels takes the lead, unravels takes
the lead and then has a chance to win it,
and then he's eighteen like he did. I thought, if
Rory snaps it into the trees or overcuts it into
the trees, it's very understandable. And then the moment he's
split the fairway, I thought, okay, this he does have.
It's obviously Phil as well. I mean, Phil, what a
(13:04):
major a couple of years ago as a fifty one
year old. These guys have I think we under rate
especially Phil and Rory because Tiger suck so much of
the energy out, like I think Brady did this with Peyton,
Like Peyton's got a lot of resolve to him as well,
you know, Rory and Phil. And then when he won it,
he almost felt like usually guys raised their hands up
or whatever. Roy's hit the ground and cried almost like
(13:28):
clearly a weight had been lifted off his entire career.
That's where I get a little nervous that, like this,
does he maintain this, because how could the same drive
because of the pressure and this has been a decade
running and think of the situations that have happened, I
mean just last year losing to Bryson like he did.
Now you just wonder like can he sustain this? And
like you talked about the Bryce and Rory thing, I
(13:50):
think what's pretty special about football is if you're in
the same conference as your foe. You know, Peyton and
Brady were both in the AFC. Well, if you both
win the division, you're gonna automatically play each other every year.
Teams are good, you're gonna play ech other on the
playoffs every lot. We get that with Josh Allen and
Patrick Mahomes in golf. How often we never really got
Tiger Phil. It just never happened right in the biggest tournaments.
(14:12):
Yet we've got Rory Bryson twice in six months. It's now.
It didn't quite play out as good as the last time,
but it does feel like I would expect this wouldn't
chuck me if we got this a couple more times.
I mean, this is it was just really cool, even
if it didn't live up to the billing. Like you
said it, it felt like like Dana White should have
been walking right behind him right the height and then
(14:34):
and then Bryson fell off. But Rory, you just felt
like the fight was still going. He's just fighting some
other guy. Yeah, that was I mean, I think we've
seen some crazy Masters. Colin, That's that's got to be
one of the more riveting multiple stretches of a couple
hours we've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Well a year ago, I mean we saw John Rahm
really struggle. He you know, he took that live money,
and which is fine. I defended live guys forever same.
I mean again, our government is in bed with the Saudi's.
Everybody is.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
There's a difference between blaming and judging. I didn't blame
any of the guys. If you want to be judgy
on them, go for it. But you'd have taken the
money too. It's like Chris Rock's joke man are as
loyal as their options. If somebody offers one hundred and
thirty million and you can play half the tournaments, you're
gonna do it. I didn't think it was interesting. On
like Thursday and Friday, you couldn't find bryceon to Shambo.
(15:25):
It was like, are you guys gonna put them on television?
And it was like, come on, guys, there is still
let's talk about this sort of division between you know,
the Masters and CBS. It's the longest running broadcast partnership
in sports. It's like NBC and the Olympics, CBS and
the Masters. How intense do you think the division is? Obviously,
(15:47):
like on Thursday and Friday it was like, can we
can we show bryceon to Shambo here? Folks, this is
getting ridiculous. How intense do you think and ugly do
you think the division is between the PGA and Live Still?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I think it's pretty bad. And I think, you know,
CBS and NBC, they're loyalty to the PGA Tour. I
mean they've been in business with them forever, right, I
mean specifically the PGA Tour. Obviously CBS has the Masters,
but CBS calls. I don't know how many PGA Tour
events during the year. I'd guess fifteen, you know. And
I think the problem is is you're dealing with a
group that I mean, Yostra has a access to a
(16:20):
piggy bank that's bigger than any piggy bank in the
history of the world. I mean, they got trillions of
dollars and so yeah, it's like they can lose a
billion dollars they don't even notice it. It'd be like
someone losing ten bucks. And I think the PGA Tour,
you know, Tiger's very involved. Well, where's his ego and
his pride is based on the history of the PGA tour.
(16:41):
That's what made him a billionaire and famous. And I
think they're just a lot of egos, a lot of
money on the line, and I think the tour could
get very lucky that some of these guys like no One.
You know, Fox just did business with Live and they're
on Fox Sports one, and I think they put the
Duru Tournament. But people just aren't watching because any time
you start something new, it's hard to get people to gravitate.
(17:02):
I don't care who you bring over. I mean, Bryson
gets more people watching on YouTube. And I just think
there's a lot of bitterness. There's a lot of money
on the line. Some of the guys on the tour
that didn't leave are bitter because those guys, you know,
Bryson got two hundred million dollars and I didn't get any.
So I don't think they're any closer. I mean, I've
heard him talk about this for two years now, and
there's no light at the end of the tunnel because
(17:23):
they're both balking and balking and balking, and I think
Live goes well. We have some demands if you're going
to take our money, and I don't blame them. I
think LIV wants to do a deal with the PGA Tour,
but they also don't want their idea that was Live
in this team golf, which golf is an individual sport,
just like tennis. It doesn't mean occasionally there's a tennis tournament.
I forget the Davis Cup where you play doubles, just
(17:44):
like there's a Ryder Cup. We like watching golf to
watch Pete Sampers play Andre Agassi, to watch Tiger Woods
play Ernie Els and Phil Michlelson one on one. That's
what golf is. And I think Live and their money
loves their idea, which again I understand sticking to an idea.
The tour wants no part of it and their players
aren't going to agree to a deal that like, well
we got to play in seven team tournaments. What they
(18:07):
got going for them is I do think you know,
at least there have been articles and rumors that guys
like Bryson and Brooks miss being in the bright life. Sure,
and there's something that Live can't bring to the table.
So when their contracts end and they've made hundreds of men.
They could just come back right And let's face it,
if you could do a draft right of the pg Tour,
(18:28):
could pick one person, and one person only, they wouldn't
even hesitate. It'd be Bryson. And if none of the
other guys ever came back rom multiple time major champion
Dustin Johnson brooks kept, I don't think it would be
that big a deal, but Bryson is. I think they
would take him. And you can't convince me that Bryson.
You gotta let him keep doing his YouTube stuff. Just
(18:48):
acquiesce the world's changed. Let him do his YouTube stuff,
let him play in the PGA Tour, and I think
everything would be fine. I think he's the key pretty
clearly because he's not going away. He loves golf, n
he's the guy.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
At any one point in my life. You know, I've
said this about all sports, baseball especially, don't listen to purists.
You got them, don't listen to purists. Speed the game up,
you know, make the bases larger, take away the defensive shift,
don't become analytic, you know, dependent like like yeah so,
(19:21):
and I feel like golf and any one time in
my life there have been three golfers I was really
interested in. And right now the four guys, if they're
on that I'm really interested in are Rory Koepka, Bryce
and Neshamba and Dustin Johnson. There's a bunch of Scotti.
Scheffler doesn't do it for me. I know, he's great,
doesn't do anything, you know, Bubba Watson had a role,
doesn't do anything for me. So it's just there. It's
(19:44):
always been about three guys, four guys. Even in the
Arnie and Jack days, there was you know, there were
a couple of players, maybe a Lee Trevino mixed in there,
Johnny Miller for a few years, but Tom Wisekough, you
know Tom Kite weren't moving the knee. So I kind
of look at it like I thought, this weekend was
(20:05):
the very best of golf. You got the Masters and
the Undulating Course, which is just and it's a picture.
It's literally, it's literally a picture, it's a postcard. And
then you had, as Jim Nance said, this is a
journey and an odyssey in one day for Rory mcelright.
I just thought it gave you everything. I thought it
gave you bad shots, blown leads, buckling, picturesque tradition. And
(20:32):
I will say this, Bryce and de Shambeau. His mood
changed by about the fifth hole. You I mean, honestly
you could see him that he started hurrying up, but
he tends to have a slower pace, like he started to.
It was at one point one of the announcers said, like,
he's just he sort of lost his personality. He's lost it.
You could just sense he was getting really frustrated. And
(20:54):
I don't know, I just thought it was the best
final round I can remember. I kept thinking about rock
O Media, Tiger Woods, US Open, That's what kept flashing
in my head.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I actually think the Masters has really really benefited the
last couple of years from Live because these guys only
get back together four times a year, and because of
the calendar, it's the first time they get back together.
And this is by far the biggest tournament of the year. Yeah,
so it's the perfect combination. And like you said, I mean,
the weather the last couple of days just look picturesque.
Having the superstars the leader board was incredible. I just
(21:26):
think that this tournament in a weird way, I hate
Live because it's just it's made my life as just
someone that wants to watch all these guys play together.
Like you said, I don't care that who makes what?
I just want to see all these guys play together.
And it's separated them. But it's made this weekend specifically
the last couple of years. I would say, it's put
it on steroids. And it's hard even for the other
(21:49):
majors to quite feel like this one because this one
is just. The Masters has always been big. It's you know,
every human being, whether you don't even like golf, knows
the green jacket. Tiger took it to another level. I
do think though the last couple of years, with them
all getting back together, it feels like there's now Bryson
is kind of I mean last year he had the
lead after a couple of rounds. He's been a major
(22:09):
factor of these last couple of years at the Masters.
Has added an element to this tournament that, you know,
without Tiger, it's just hard. I mean, the golf, this
isn't football. I mean, football wouldn't be big enough. I
remember being a kid, USFL tried to take away Steve
Young and Bruce Smith and Jim Kelly, like you need
you only have ten to fifteen to twenty guys that
really matter in golf, you probably only got five or six. Yes,
(22:31):
I can't lose two of them, right, And tennis was
very dependent on Federer, Joker and nat All for basically
fifteen twenty years.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
When I was a kid, it was Samperston agacy and
that was kind of it. Yeah, And it's like golf
is not big enough to handle this divide, but the
majors don't really care because their master's in business with
the Masters's. It works for them.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Have you ever seen what you win when you win
the Masters? So the purse this year was four point
two million. You get the jacket, lifetime membership, invitation forever,
You get all these exclusive places you know that you
can you know, only a handful off. You get to
use the locker room of Champions, which is just all
time great, but it's one of the it's it's I
(23:12):
think the only thing to me that compares to the
Masters is when the US Open is at Pebble Beach,
where I'm literally watching for the course and Pinehurst is great,
but I'm not watching for Pinehurst. Pebble Beach. US Opens
feel different, British Open feels different. Saint Andrews and I
think the Masters, those three tournament PGA Championship, to me
(23:32):
just doesn't you know again if I'm around, But it
was interesting. So I'm watching Thursday and Friday on vacation,
and I went and golf Saturday. I was just like, oh,
I'm into this beautiful day by the way, fifty degrees. Oh,
it was just beautiful day in the suburbs of Chicago.
But it was just one of those things where I
(23:53):
think golf, even though you would argue it's not in
a good place, it's got a lot of alphas. There's
a little tension between all of them. They I mean,
kepkn Bryson, de Shamble aren't tight that you can sense.
It's pretty palpable. You can sense the tension between some
of these guys because they're all really guys, guys. They're
(24:17):
all very male, right, And I think, I don't know,
I just watched this weekend and I thought to myself,
golf's in a really good place at these Masters, at
these majors.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Well, I know, you know, living in Arizona, a lot
of pros live here, and you know, I play golf
at TBC where a lot of these guys practice. The
live financial boom for the PGA Tour and these guys
has been pretty incredible for the business. I mean, the
top guys have always been rich, from Arnold Palmer to
Jack to Tiger. But you know, my wife was showing
an open house a couple of weeks ago with one
(24:50):
of her colleagues. There was like four or five million
dollars and the people looking at the open house, and
the guy that was showing it is in the golf
world and knows these people, introduces himself and realizes it's
the wife of one of the caddies and she was
looking for another caddi's wife. These are four or five
million dollar house the caddies. And this is not you know,
Rory's caddy. This is a guy probably somewhere forty to
(25:11):
sixty in the world. These guys I mean Bryson or
Rory net Jets you see. Yeah, the sixtieth guy ain't
going to the commercial airport. So the wealth on the
golf tour right now has never been top down, and
it's an incredible time to be involved. As a high end,
top one hundred golfer. You are an immediate millionaire and
your caddi's doing well well your caddy.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
And also with Bryson being a YouTube sensation, everybody now
understands there's influencer potential putting your stuff on YouTube, so
showing a little personality is okay. So I think it's
it's you know, they call him influencers. I think Bryson's
an influencer, like he has the ability like a Connor
(25:54):
McGregor in his prime, that if Connor was on the card,
I would just go to I took my wife to
two uf SEE cards, so I thought it was a
great weekend. The NBA eighty two game grind is done.
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slash audio.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
All right, here we go, Jason Timpf hoops tonight. We
got a lot to talk about as the NBA Playoffs start.
All the odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook, by the way,
when we mention them. So I'm gonna pick it up set.
I'm gonna go Houston Rockets over the Warriors, And I
don't want to do confirmation bias or recency bias because
I watched them struggle against Memphis and need an inbounds
gaff by the Grizzlies to save it. But the Jonathan
(28:11):
Kaminga piece is really a problem. So we've talked about this.
It's a highly sophisticated offense. Veterans work, Iguidala kd Andrew Bogan,
they work, Steph Clay, Draymond they work. You can be
a quirky player like Draymond Green and still be a catalyst.
What doesn't work is Wiseman, Jordan Poole, DiAngelo Russell who's
(28:32):
a bit squarely when he was younger and Cominga's productive.
But you can't put them on the floor of this unit.
Kerr is it's do not play coach's decision. And they're
dying for length. I mean I watched them last night
and Zach Eaedi is a huge problem. They don't have
any length and here comes Houston. They defend the three
(28:53):
mon Thompson gave Steph fits last time they played length. Now,
Kerr's the best coach, Curry's the best player. I am
not denying that. But and if the games are close, Jason,
you'll take the Warriors. Their clutch points are great. They're
gonna win these one point games like last Night's just
a great example of how the Warriors can manipulate the
(29:15):
clock possessions and get better defensively when they have to.
I don't like this matchup. I was looking at the odds.
I don't like this matchup for the Warriors. Right now,
the Rockets are plus one sixty five again, odds provided
by DraftKings. I'm calling the upset. You think I'm crazy, size,
(29:42):
lack of depth, Curry dependent, what say you?
Speaker 4 (29:47):
I don't want to see you're crazy. I think this
is let's just put it this way. I think that
a defensive minded Rockets team is more capable of beating
Golden State than say, a defensive minded Magic team is
capable of beating Boston.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
That said, I think that the other side of the
floor is where it's going to become a problem. I
have no doubts that Houston is going to cause problems
for Golden States offense. In their last four games, they've
held them to one hundred and five or fewer, and
all four of them they've held them below one hundred
three times.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
They they have a bunch of different things that they
do that bother them. They put Alburn Shangoon on Moses Moody,
which is really smart because it allows them to put
all of their three best perimeter defenders on Draymond, Jimmy
and Steph and just switch any action that involves those three.
Aman Thompson is one of the most gifted athletes in
terms of foot speed in the league.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Absolutely, and the the Rockets have a zone look that
worked really well against the against the Warriors a couple
of weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
There.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
I have no doubts that the Rockets will be able
to drag the Warriors offense down into the mud. Here's
the problem. I think the war I think the Warriors
defense is nearly as good as Houston's defense, and I
think that they are more of doing more damage to
a Shanng Gooon, Jalen Green Fred Vanvliet led offense than
(31:07):
the Rockets can do to the Warriors on the other
end of the floor. I would not be surprised if
it's a longer series. As a Lakers fan, I hope
that it's very physical and that it wears them down.
But I just have a really hard time believing that
the Rockets are going to be able to score enough
now to beat the Warriors four times now.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
They have shot better in the second half of the season.
They have, so there was here's the thing, explain the
coaminga piece. So listen. I was told this year's ago
by an NFL executive. He says, be very careful about
the last twenty games of the season. You're going to
see teams with winning streaks. Half the league's tanking, and
half the league is resting starters for the playoffs. So
(31:44):
the Clippers go on this great last fifteen games and
the Warriors have that energy when Jimmy Butler arrives and
they're playing bad teams and they're just rolling people, and
you're like, oh my god. And I fell for it,
and I said, oh wait till Kaminga comes back. It
was about three games with kaming in this group, and
Steve Kerr's like, yeah, I'm not. I don't why doesn't
(32:06):
it work with him? Because I could argue he's exactly
what they need against Houston size, athletic ability, length. They
look small last night against Memphis.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Yeah, you know, right when the Jimmy trade went down,
one of my initial takeaways was this is the end
of Jonathan Kaminga in his time with the Golden State
Warriors in terms of just him being a meaningful contributor
to this team. The thing is is they were banking
on Jonathan Kaminga becoming that player for the Warrior, of
becoming the Jimmy Butler type of player for the Warriors,
(32:39):
the big forward that they could put next to Draymond,
that would be the scoring pop alongside the starters. As
soon as they got Jimmy, they no longer had a
role for him anymore. You want to know why Kerr
went with Gie Santos last night. It's because Gi Santos
plays the same position, but he can count on Gee
to not do anything stupid, to just play super hard,
to grab every rebound he can get, to take a
(32:59):
why open catch and shoot three. Jonathan Kaminga's upside is
on the ball if you clear the side for him
and you let him go one on one facing up
eighteen feet from the basket. He has a lot of
potential in the long term to be very good at that,
but he's not good enough at it now to take
reps away from Steph and away from Jimmy, and so
all they need from him is to play defense, to
(33:21):
knock down wide open catch and shoot threes, and to
play in their read and react in the half court.
And he's not very good at any of those three things.
And so it just is kind of like a death
sentence in that regard for his role here. And I
do think that it's probably in the best interest of
everybody involved after this season is over to look to
move on from Kminga. That said, you made a very
interesting point specifically about this matchup. I understood the case
(33:46):
for the DNPS with Kaminga for the last couple of games,
super important games. You need higher floor, lower ceiling, like
you need fewer mistakes. Yes, you couldn't take a risk
with mistakes in those games. Sounderstood that case specifically for
this matchup with Houston. They are so big and so
athletic that I think it could. I think it could
(34:08):
be a Jimmy Butler and Jonathan Kaminga type of series.
I think the two of them and their athletic advantages
could be something they have to lean on a lot,
especially if the perimeter defense of Houston wears steph down
over the course of the series. So if I was Kerr,
I would definitely give Kaminga some burn here in the
first couple games of this series, just to see what
(34:28):
he's got. Now, if he's terrible, bail on him, go
back to your rotation that you used in the last
couple of games. But I think he's an asset as
an athlete that you can't afford to keep in your
back pocket for a series like this.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
And the Rockets are first of all, they defend the three,
they got the best athlete in the series, and they
rebound really well. They're gonna get if Kaminga doesn't play
a lot they're gonna get second, They're gonna get a
lot offensive rebound. They're gonna win offensive rebounding throughout this series.
Looney's gonna play a lot. You're gonna have to play him.
If you don't play kaminga a lot, you're giving up.
You're gonna give up the glass. And you can win
(35:01):
a series losing on the you know, in the in
the world we play in now, you know, Boston can
lose the rebounding battle and hit twenty eight threes and
they win the game by fifteen. But I'll tell you,
I think Houston. I think I think Houston's really gonna
challenge him, and I think they're going to be low scoring.
I think the one advantage that is clear cut, and
(35:22):
you saw it last night with the Warriors, they're so
good with two twenty to play in a tie game,
they are they just know. I mean it's almost like,
I mean, you know, people grabbing and clutching staph and
you have to be more careful late because they may
call a foul, and it's just they just figure out
(35:43):
ways to get Steph really good looks. It's almost like
red zone offense in the NFL, where it's cluttered and jammed,
and yet the good teams find open people. I mean,
he just I watched them, and I like last night
they had a great game plan, jump out to a
sixteen point lead, eighteen point lead, twenty point lead, but
in the end, you're like, they just don't have bodies.
(36:03):
They look incredibly small. Uh, And I just think that
size is gonna make I think they're the close games
Golden State wins, but I'm gonna give Houston a couple
of games where they just dominate the glass. The Warriors
look tired and they blow them out. It'll be a
weird looking series.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
I said something similar in my series preview, like I
wouldn't be surprised if there was a game either early
in the series, like a Game one or like a
Game five with the Warriors are up three to one
where the Rockets just beat the heck out of them
and win by like twenty five thirty points that get
going in transition, they look super athletic. I'm with you
overall with the Warriors in the sense that, like there
(36:44):
was this stretch post deadline where they were beating everybody,
and yeah, the schedule was weak, but then they got
a couple of impressive wins. You beat a decent Memphis team,
you beat a Nuggets team without Jamal Murray, you beat
that Lakers team that was one of the biggest wins
that they had all season. That was a big, nationally televised,
super important game for both teams that they won. But
then after that, it's like they lose to Houston, they
lose to San Antonio, they beat Portland, but then they
(37:08):
lose to the Clippers at home in a must win game.
And then last night for stretches, they looked on impressive
as they were trailing in the fourth quarter. So I'm
kind of it up in the air with the Warriors
in general now because it's hard to tell how good
they really are when they killed everybody for like two months,
and then for the last two weeks they've looked pretty unimpressive.
So I'm kind of up in the air with them.
The main reason why I've been dropping them down in
(37:30):
terms of where i'd rank them among contenders is I
don't trust their shooting. Their shooting can go ice cold
around Steph Curry, and then as you mentioned, they're a
little bit vulnerable to size and physicality, which I think
can cause some problems for them. I viewed them as
a little bit more of a flawed contender now than
I did two weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
All Right, Lakers all odds provided by DraftKings are minus
one ninety five against the Tea Wolves. I think this
is a very favorable Laker matchup, and I think it's
pretty obvious the Timberwolves outside of He's gonna have to
score forty in a couple of these games. Julius Randall
has historically kind of the classic, plays hard, plays with energy,
(38:09):
very successful in the regular season, but everybody in the
postseason plays with energy, and he comes right back. The
regressions clear. He's a B player who plays with a
energy and that is really valuable in the regular season,
and then you get to the postseason and everybody's got
equal time off and he's a B player and doesn't
create sometimes can get a little ball selfish, go Bears,
(38:32):
not an offensive player. Mike Conley's a play initiator but
doesn't provide much offense. And the Lakers are the rare team.
I mean, Boston may be the only team in the
league that does this, that has three playmakers and three
play initiators and at any one time can have the
three best offensive players playing well on the floor. I
don't think it's a good matchup for Minnesota at all.
(38:52):
This was the bad draw in my opinion for the
t Wolves. What do you think?
Speaker 4 (38:57):
I totally agree. I think there's a basic talent argument
you can make for LA, which is like, who's better
at or Luca? You're taking Luca. Who's better Lebron or
Julius Randall? You're taking Lebron. Who's better Austin Reeves or
a Jaden McDaniels or a Rudy Gobert or Dante DiVincenzo.
You're taking Austin Reeves. So I think I think the
Lakers top three guys are just better, and I think
(39:18):
that that could be enough to make the case. Where
I think it gets really interesting is the Timberwolve's greatest
strength on defense is their combination of perimeter defenders and
Rudy Gobert at the rim, and the Lakers can neutralize that. Unfortunately,
as we saw in the Western Conference Finals last year,
the best perimeter defender on Minnesota, Jaden McDaniels, can't guard Luca.
(39:41):
He's too skinny. Luca can just throw him around like
a rag doll. None of the perimeter defenders on Minnesota
make Luca uncomfortable, and the Lakers with their five out
groups with Dorian Finney Smith instead of Jackson Hayes, they
can space Rudy out to where he cannot protect the
rim without conceding a wide open three. When Rudy's on
the perimeter, he's still a good defender, but he's not
(40:03):
the transcendently impactful defender he is when he can sit
right underneath the basket, So I think they neutralize him there.
On the other end of the floor, the Lakers have
struggled against spread out shooting like against Boston and really
smart teams with speed like Golden State. Those are the
teams that have really caused the Lakers issues post Lucatrade.
You know who the Lakers have not struggled with post
(40:25):
Luca trade. Defensively, the teams that they can load up on.
You can load up on the Timberwolves. They are not
a good spot up team. They are a team that
you can put two on the ball with ant and
not get burned. That's high level playmaking. It's just I
look at this as a series where just all of
the strengths and weaknesses line up in a way to
where I think the Lakers just have a big advantage.
(40:46):
This was one of the few series that I picked
in five games. I think the Lakers are gonna beat
him in five.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah. I feel the same way and the Lakers I
could be wrong on this. I think they play as
to defense as they need to. I think that when
I watch them play out there are times I'm like, Oh,
this is one of those games they really care about.
And then there are other times I'm like, they're just
(41:10):
not talking. This is one of those. They either all
went out and had a nice dinner last night and
bomba bino.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
They're just not that.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
When I watch them, I think they're as good as
they want to be. Defensively, I don't think they're great,
But like Denver's got limitations, there's just things, I mean, Jokic,
there's just limitations. I think the Lakers actually have some
pretty good lengthen defensive personnel outside of Luca. I think
they'll they'll play good defense in the playoffs because they'll
want to. They''ll want team when they want to. I
(41:36):
think they're pretty capable.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Yeah, And when you're as good offensively as they've been
with their best groups. And by the way, that group
with Dorian Finney Smith and Ruey next to Lebron, Luca
and Austin has been torching everybody for a long time.
Now that unit can really score the ball, so they
have some margin for error on that side of the floor.
It really is about Lebron. Lebron as like the orchestrator
on the back line. He plays that Draymond Green esque role,
(41:59):
just telling everybody where to go, calling out the plays
as they're starting to take shape. And then Jared Vanderbilt,
Ruey Hotchmura, Dorian Finney Smith. It's just a lot of six'
nine rangy athletes that can cover. Ground i'm not gonna
Lie colin like The lakers certainly have an uphill, climb
and there are gonna be multiple series where there'll be
an underdog if they get to the third and fourth.
Round but this could not have broken better for them
(42:22):
than it. Did now you only have to play one Of,
DENVER okc and The. Clippers those are three of the
most dangerous teams in The. West they only have to
play one of. Them SO i think it actually broke
really nicely for them. Here if they can take care
of business against The timberwolves and beat whoever comes out
of That Warriors rocket. Series they're right there in the
in the Against Okay see in the conference. FINALS i
(42:43):
think they've got a really good.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
CHANCE i said this the other. DAY i had actually
somebody come up to me on the street Any it
was a Former. Laker it Was sasha AND i, SAID i,
SAID i, said the best Center i've ever. Seen complete
Players kareem AND i grew up with. It he was
a fourteen to fifteen Time All Defensive team ran the
(43:04):
floor when he was, young, rebound, unstoppable offensive, force, cerebral
prickly but could throw on. Elbow you, know Ask Kent.
BENSON i think the player he went, after he could
give you. Everything he was, wiry but he could be.
PHYSICAL i think because of that defensive, prowess he is
better Than. JOKIC i Think jokis is the second most
(43:26):
gifted center of all. Time now people would Say, wilt
But wilt was. Flaky you didn't know what the effort you.
Got he wasn't easy to play. With you got different
variations Of wilt depending on the night. Before And wilt
was kind of Into wilt WHERE i Think jokic is
actually a really good team. PLAYER i just think he's
not engaged defensively all the. Time BUT i outside Of,
(43:48):
KAREEM i mean generally with a, CENTER i can say shack, power, russell,
defense a team, FOOTWORK i can say. SOMETHING i look
At jokic And i'm, like, like If, KAREEM i, mean
If kareem Or vetus s the Bonus Bill walton had a,
(44:11):
baby it's, like you, KNOW i Think Bill walton is
the one, player very, briefly not the Old walton with The,
celtics who was, great but he wasn't as good as
THE ucla or The Portland. Walton there was a time
When Bill walton was like the best passing big, ever
the best mid range, jumper ran the, floor could be super,
physical kind of. Weird BUT i Think jokic. IS i
(44:36):
just don't Think i've ever quite seen anything like. Him
that's my. DAD i don't know If i've ever seen
anything like.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
Him he's the best offensive Player i've ever. Seen Colin
wow AND i have watched and rooted for two of
the greats that have ever done that or rooted for.
AGAINST i should SAY i Think lebron is on the
short list of guys who are in that. CONVERSATION i
Think steph is on the short list of guys who
are in that. Conversation having rooted For lebron and then
(45:03):
being terrified Of steph and rooting against him over the,
YEARS i know what it's like to be on the
other end of a player who like legitimately creates a
great shot almost every time down the. Floor jokic makes
it look even easier than those guys. Do it's the
top tier playmaking piece that you get From, lebron the
inverted spacing that you get From steph that creates all
(45:25):
the dunks and layups right underneath the. Basket but mixed
in with the lack of variants because Like, steph Like
steph will have games where he just can't make a shot,
right you, know that doesn't happen With. Jokic like if
he gets into the five to ten foot, range it's
going in two out of three, times like, Clockwork he's
gonna make. It and so there's a lack of, variance
there's a power element to. It he can kind of
(45:48):
audible into different, players like it's, like, Okay i'm playing
The Spurs i'm just gonna post up every single time
down the.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Floor watch.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
It watching This clippers, series we won't see as Much
jokics post. Ups it's not his, advantage but guess. What
he can run inverted ball screens and like literally play
pick and roll as the handler out on the. Perimeter
he can run two man game With Jamal. Murray his
versatility and dependability night, tonight mixed with all the inverted
stuff he does with the, SPACING i have never seen
a player make it look easier on offense Than Nikola jokic.
(46:17):
Did like it's it's rooting against him is absolute. Hell
having had to do that over the last couple of.
Years he deserves a good amount of criticism for what
happened to their defense this, year especially in the second
half of the. YEAR i thought he just straight up
mailed it, in and you made some good points about
how that might have had something to do With Mike.
MALONE i agree with. You but even if you just
(46:40):
take that and set it, aside he still had one
of the greatest seasons in the history of the league
because he's the greatest offensive player to ever touch the.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Floor yeah it. Is you, know it's funny Because luca
and him have kind of similar body types where they're
in great shape probably you, know relative for the type
for the, type But lucas got a lot Of hirk
And jerkins start and stop to his game that gets.
Open he's he's very good At he's just keeps you
(47:06):
constantly on his hip and off. Balance you're never quite
sure he's not, fast but he is kind of quick
for his, size and he's always bouncing off you never
loses kind of composure or the ball while there's. Contact
but it's a start stop game that's. Hard you, know
that's hard to. Defend jokis just sort of rolls into,
(47:27):
you AND i think a lot of players they're Like
draymond has said, this there's no real book on him
because it's it's you, know in THE, nfl there's always
that they always talk about that bad body offensive. Lineman
Donald penn was known as this for The, raiders bad
body so, effective like there was no weak. Spot he
(47:47):
was weirdly, long and he had a weird ass and
his shoulders were, huge and it was like a bad
body offensive lineman where it's, like, yeah it's just defensive
players couldn't quite figure out a weak. SPOT i think
there's nobody else kind of quite built like, him that
plays like, him so you, KNOW i mean there are
certain guys in this. LEAGUE i mean just think about.
(48:09):
It if you do the, silhouette nobody else had a,
Skyhook nobody quite moves cardio wise Like. STEPH i think
part of what he does is no other Big when
you play, him it's just, okay this is there's no warm.
Up this is the only guy that plays like. This
And i'm not saying the league is, similar but there
(48:31):
are a lot of, twitchy, long athletic guys who have
similar moves that they've learned from camps and, coaches right
and certain step. MOVES i Think jokic is a disaster
to defend the. BODY i mean a lot of times
he just leans in and you get trapped under him
around the. BACK i ever see this when these big
(48:53):
guys get trapped and he gets like three looks and
you just Can't you can't get your hips aligned to
box him.
Speaker 4 (49:00):
Out you can't jump when you're connected with. Him that's the.
Thing this is why boxing out is so. Important when
you box a player, out it keeps him groundbound so
that you can come in from behind to get the
rebound elsewhere on the. Floor, Similarly jokic does the same
thing to defensive. Players he's constantly dislodging you and putting
you in these situations where you are not athletic because
he's disrupted your base so you can't, jump and then
(49:22):
that way he just finds these little angles for these
little release. POINTS i love the point you made about
how the league is, changed BECAUSE i found this to
be really. Fascinating so part Of Michael jordan's dominance was
that the league was so big and, slow and so
he was this lightning quick guard that he just cut
through everyone like. Butter, similarly With, jokic the league is
(49:43):
so thin and, fast yes that he's just a bowling
ball that's just knocking everybody over on his way to the.
Rim in a weird, way like part of it is
just the timing of the. Era but to his, credit
because this is the. Thing there are a lot of
big centers that can't play in THE nba today because
they can't do this or they can't do. That they
struggle with, this they struggle with. That jokicic because he's
(50:04):
good enough in all of these other areas to be
a USEFUL nba, player can weaponize his, size and all
of a, sudden it's, like oh, man there's four hundred
and fifty players in this, league And Joel embiid might
be the only guy big enough to actually deal with.
Him and he's not even healthy all the, time so
he just has a mismatch every single. Night because of
the era that he plays, in.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Well it's Like Derreck, henry the running back for The.
Ravens as linebackers and safeties have gotten smaller because the
game is. Faster linebackers are two twenty. Five Derek henry's to,
Fifty so you, know twenty years ago linebackers were as
big As Derrick, henry and now guys can't They Just
derek is a physical mismatch and he gets a running.
(50:42):
Start AND i do think That i've said. It the
league over the last twelve years has become kind of
the skinny jeans Euro, League like it's a lot of
centers that weigh two forty three and he's just a load.
Physically the
The volume, I don't. I can't remember the last two
days of a golf tournament where I was more emotionally
vested in a golfer than Rory McElroy. And I wasn't
rooting against Justin Rose or Bryson Deshambeau, who I think
(00:23):
has done an incredible one eighty rehab of his brand
where he was unlikable and now is incredibly likable or
at least more likable. But I was thinking about this
John John Middlecoff, former NFL Scout three and out part
of the volume is that what makes Rory We know
he's a sensational talent, but he's got a phil Mickelson
(00:44):
quality where you can you can see him buckle, you
can see I mean when he takes that wedge from
a buck twenty five out and puts it in the
water in the creek, You're like, bro, I hit my
irons great Saturday. It's gokey country club in Chicago suburb,
Like I what is going on? And I think what
(01:05):
finds him, what makes Rory so likable, is that he
is vulnerable and he just has you know, four double
bogies short wed shot in the creek. I think that
just makes him incredibly watchable.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, I think. You know, I think every great golfer,
definitely in my life, which I've been watching for almost
thirty years now. Yea, like the Tiger Phil era is
kind of defined by their greatness or disasters in majors. Yeah,
you know, when I was a kid, Greg Norman, it
(01:42):
was a big deal to like have a shark polo
when I was a kid, wear him to school.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
When you think Greg Norman, you think a guy that
unravels and fails. You know, Phil is weird because he's
one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
He's won six majors, he's won the Masters three times,
He's won forty five tournaments. But you remember him a
lot of times for finishing second. Yes to Payne Stewart,
he blasted out of bounds at wing foot in the
mid two thousands.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Taking big risks. He doesn't need to.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
And he's like that in life. Right when he made
the comments about the Saudi's after he took their two
hundred million dollars. You know, Rory's this kind of enigma
because and I thought today actually symbolized his entire career. Yeah,
I mean, he had a couple shots that are like
the most incredible shots in the history of Masters. He
hooked a seven iron around a tree to five feet
on fifteen, and then he missed the putt, and then
(02:29):
he missed the putt. You know, and I can't you know,
Tiger's got this torn achilles. He's like, he's like a
nineteen seventies NFL player on his bed with eighteen million injuries.
Can you imagine Tiger watching this tournament and thinking, You know,
Tiger was actually pretty boring as a champion because he
didn't screw up. What was the famous quote, like dumb
loses more than smart wins. Yeah, Tiger was very conservative.
(02:51):
You know, Rory dunks into the water, he Bogei's eighteen
to send it to a playoff after he's right in
the middle of the fairway three hundred and thirty yards. Yeah,
I don't know where you stood. I thought, the emotional
roller coaster of that three and a half hours, how
could he win in well, in extra hole? I thought
he was gonna lose. Colin I didn't. I didn't have
any faith he was going to win in extra holes
(03:11):
because emotionally put yourself in his shoes. He had to
be gutted to try to gather himself and keep his
heart rate down. He probably wanted to cry.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Well, it's funny because Phil Mickelson got himself into trouble
because he was overly aggressive. But and he would buckle,
but it was a different kind. Rory loses confidence. You
can see it. And there are times on that wedge
you're like, oh, he just lost confidence. He said it
a little bit on the green jacket in ceremony in
(03:42):
the room, which I thought was really emotional. But yeah,
I just I think, you know, Tiger was such a
great leader, like he never lost leeds. If Tiger led
by five strokes going into Sunday, it was over. There
was one US Open against rock O Media, which I
found that was stirring with Tiger. Also his last Master's
(04:04):
win where he was an older golfer was stirring and
really emotional.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Well, Colin O eight was stirring with Roco because he
had a torn acl and a broken leg. He was healthy.
But yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, And I mean I just thought the whole spectacle
it was perfect weather amend corner, just the galleries or
the patrons, the intensity, you know, I kept thinking to myself,
so Bryson de Shambeau was to shambles his I mean,
he had a distance issue all weekend, but he was
(04:38):
putting great until Sunday. And it was interesting when they
interviewed him afterwards. He took a little shot, a little
projection when he said, you know, I don't remember the
Sunday greens being that fast because he was really off now.
He all weekend had sort of a distance issue, like
he was long or short, but his putting kept him close.
(05:03):
Whereas Rory's wedge and Rory's irons were either remarkable or mediocre.
Rory today, frankly, think about that, how good Rory is.
He had one of the worst shots ever the wedge
end of the creek. He blew a four stroke lead.
He hit a couple of putts, but he was hit
(05:24):
and miss off the tee. You didn't know exactly what
you were getting from Rory off the tee, and yet
he won. I mean, how damn good do you have
to be if you just if I just told you
what his round was rough off the tee, one of
the worst shots ever, gags a lead, you wouldn't think
he'd win.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Well, I thought I mean Colin he blew a. He
had a two shot lead coming in today he was
down one shot after two holes. I mean, it felt like,
is this gonna be Greg Norman John Vandervelt Immediately, honestly,
you felt bad for him, like how can this happen?
But he had a couple shots today that I would
say were phil like over trees. Yes, I mean he
(06:05):
had one shot over a tree, yeah, the bender around
the tree. Another shot over a tree from the left side.
He had another shot on the right side. He did
get a little lucky. I mean, one thing with Augusta,
you can't really hit it out of bounds. You just
there's tree trouble, but it's not. There's no rough right
so you can spray it a little bit and there's
just the golf gods are on your side. You're still
(06:26):
gonna be okay, So the golf gods are on your side.
Through the first three rounds, he was the best player
in the tournament by a mile. Bryce and yesterday hit
that like one hundred foot putt to instead of being
down three down two eighteen. But he didn't even play
that well yesterday, where Rory shot sixty six sixty six
Friday and Saturday and on front and on Thursday, Rory's
four under heading into fifteen hits it on two chips,
(06:48):
it into the water. So he kind of unravels at
the end. But he had played brilliantly and it just
shows you that, Like, to me, one thing that's fascinating
about Rory, and I always admire the Michael Jordan, the Brady's,
even the young version of Mahomes. When you win, you
win big, you make all the money, and you just
keep grinding because you're addicted to the competition. That Tiger
was notorious for this, right, Stevie Williams's caddy would be like,
(07:11):
you know, we'd win, and Tiger would call me two
days later and be like, I'll meet you at the
range of six in the morning. Stee be like, take
the week off and now that this gets the Monkey office.
But and Ry had already won twice this year. He
won a Pebble, and he won the Players. Now he's
won the Masters. He's playing by far the best in
the world. He's better and Scott he's off, you know, Bryson.
Really he's outplayed Bryson twice. He screwed up last year
(07:32):
in the putts at Viners. If Rory keeps the pedal
of the medal, he might not win every major, but
he could win like six seven times. He could have
a historic year. You do wonder watch the way he
broke down. Is he just gonna take like a month
to just like not do anything. He wouldn't blame him.
But if he keeps it down like Jordan or Tiger
or those you know, Brady would he He's the best
player in the world right now by by a pretty
(07:53):
wide margin.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
I think yeah, And I thought Bryson de Shamble. His
game is just listen, I like golf. I played it
this weekend.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
How'd you play?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
But I am hitting my irons the last year as
well as I can hit him, just as well as
I can hit him.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
You need to give Bryce in a lesson.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
His game feels loose, Bryce, I mean he didn't. He
was struggling getting the ball in the fair way. His
wedges were hitting miss. He got it in the drink
twice today. Now, his putting saved him over the weekend,
but today when his putting went, it really unveiled. The
truth about his game is the putting kept him around.
(08:37):
His Gay mentioned it after the round. His game is
just not right.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Well, I think the old adage is you can talk
to a fade, a drawer hook doesn't listen. And when
you play that drawer hook one, it goes farther and
it goes harder. And I know he's like all the
greens were harder, Bryce, and the greens that the masters
have been the same since you know, Arnold Palmer was
playing in the fifties. They're hard, they're firm. Your irons
weren't even close. And he plays this power draw which
(09:05):
today turned into the last couple of days turned into
a hook. He is you know the thing with Bryson,
he's clearly mellowed out and the YouTube thing has changed
his world. If he was a football player, I mean,
this guy is a blue chip out of high school,
out of college, like he has an elite talent, but
he is he messes with all sorts of weird shit.
I mean, he's got special made club He's a different cat.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Wikipedia Bryson Deshambo's clubs and I was reading it over
the weekend.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
It called three D.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I mean, he doesn't he uses stuff nobody else has used.
He has been very contrariant. I mean I thought it
was funny when they came out today. The build up
was like a Tyson fight. So De Shambo comes out,
he's all gladator and you know they're both power players,
but Rory plays fast and Deshambo has more pace. And
you know, like Jim Man's talked about this, he said,
(09:57):
you know, putting these two together is an advantage maybe
for Bryce and because he'll try to slow. You know,
the slower player can irk the faster player, and Rory
likes to get up, hit and go. I find Rory
very easy to watch. He's the antithesis of like Sergio
Garcia in his prime, where you just it was irritating
to watch him. So Bryson's not that slow, but Rory
(10:17):
just gets up, hits it, and again, the thing with
Rory is just how remarkable he is as a talent
to win today. I mean he is. I think he
had four double bogies.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I don't know, It's never happened before in the history
of the master Chee. That's right. Craig Stadler had three
once and one at in eighty two. That was the
only time anyone had three. The double bogee for normal
human beings happens a lot for pro golfers. It does
not happen very often, especially in a major. One can
sink you.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
The I thought I was interesting on eighteen, which is
the narrowest t shot. So here was Rory. He put
himself in a position that's where I was on. So
I flew in. So I watched every shot the last
two days and I was watching, you know, my plane
landed basically as that it at Lax as the tournament ended.
(11:08):
So Master's app is amazing. I watched every shot, just fantastic,
But that I found myself on the eighteenth because there
was a lot of tension during the last two days.
But on Saturday, it's kind of like, Okay, you can
miss shots, it's fine. When he stepped up on eighteen
and he delivered a beauty, I mean he just crushed it,
(11:29):
and I felt like, okay, it's his. And then, in
typical Rory fashion, he ended up going, you know, to
a playoff. Going into the playoff, I kind of felt
like Justin Rose was going to win it.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Do you get nervous anymore anything you do in life?
Like as often you get nervous, I don't What would
it take for you to get nervous. You think you're
calling the super Bowl or I mean, something that you
but it'd have to be something that you can actually,
you know, feel comfortable doing.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Right. I get nervous for my kids. I get nervous.
It's the only sport that I get nervous is golf.
And I felt that because, like I loved Phil Mickelson,
and there's something about the vulnerability of Rory that just
connects with me. I had been rooting for him, and
this is not anti anybody else. I was rooting for
(12:20):
him all weekend. Well.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Once once Rose basically split the fairway in extra holes,
You're looking at Rory and you're thinking, how can you
control your heart rate right now? Because you know he's
Rose has no pressure on him. If I crumble, I'm
going to be viewed as Honestly, it would have felt
bigger than Greg Norman because you had unraveled, taken the lead, unraveled,
taken the lead, unraveled taking the lead. It's I would say,
it was kind of an unlike a situation. I've been
(12:43):
watching golf for a long time. I don't ever remember
around where a guy unravels takes the lead, unravels takes
the lead and then has a chance to win it,
and then he's eighteen like he did. I thought, if
Rory snaps it into the trees or overcuts it into
the trees, it's very understandable. And then the moment he's
split the fairway, I thought, okay, this he does have.
It's obviously Phil as well. I mean, Phil, what a
(13:04):
major a couple of years ago as a fifty one
year old. These guys have I think we under rate
especially Phil and Rory because Tiger suck so much of
the energy out, like I think Brady did this with Peyton,
Like Peyton's got a lot of resolve to him as well,
you know, Rory and Phil. And then when he won it,
he almost felt like usually guys raised their hands up
or whatever. Roy's hit the ground and cried almost like
(13:28):
clearly a weight had been lifted off his entire career.
That's where I get a little nervous that, like this,
does he maintain this, because how could the same drive
because of the pressure and this has been a decade
running and think of the situations that have happened, I
mean just last year losing to Bryson like he did.
Now you just wonder like can he sustain this? And
like you talked about the Bryce and Rory thing, I
(13:50):
think what's pretty special about football is if you're in
the same conference as your foe. You know, Peyton and
Brady were both in the AFC. Well, if you both
win the division, you're gonna automatically play each other every year.
Teams are good, you're gonna play ech other on the
playoffs every lot. We get that with Josh Allen and
Patrick Mahomes in golf. How often we never really got
Tiger Phil. It just never happened right in the biggest tournaments.
(14:12):
Yet we've got Rory Bryson twice in six months. It's now.
It didn't quite play out as good as the last time,
but it does feel like I would expect this wouldn't
chuck me if we got this a couple more times.
I mean, this is it was just really cool, even
if it didn't live up to the billing. Like you
said it, it felt like like Dana White should have
been walking right behind him right the height and then
(14:34):
and then Bryson fell off. But Rory, you just felt
like the fight was still going. He's just fighting some
other guy. Yeah, that was I mean, I think we've
seen some crazy Masters. Colin, That's that's got to be
one of the more riveting multiple stretches of a couple
hours we've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Well a year ago, I mean we saw John Rahm
really struggle. He you know, he took that live money,
and which is fine. I defended live guys forever same.
I mean again, our government is in bed with the Saudi's.
Everybody is.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
There's a difference between blaming and judging. I didn't blame
any of the guys. If you want to be judgy
on them, go for it. But you'd have taken the
money too. It's like Chris Rock's joke man are as
loyal as their options. If somebody offers one hundred and
thirty million and you can play half the tournaments, you're
gonna do it. I didn't think it was interesting. On
like Thursday and Friday, you couldn't find bryceon to Shambo.
(15:25):
It was like, are you guys gonna put them on television?
And it was like, come on, guys, there is still
let's talk about this sort of division between you know,
the Masters and CBS. It's the longest running broadcast partnership
in sports. It's like NBC and the Olympics, CBS and
the Masters. How intense do you think the division is? Obviously,
(15:47):
like on Thursday and Friday it was like, can we
can we show bryceon to Shambo here? Folks, this is
getting ridiculous. How intense do you think and ugly do
you think the division is between the PGA and Live Still?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I think it's pretty bad. And I think, you know,
CBS and NBC, they're loyalty to the PGA Tour. I
mean they've been in business with them forever, right, I
mean specifically the PGA Tour. Obviously CBS has the Masters,
but CBS calls. I don't know how many PGA Tour
events during the year. I'd guess fifteen, you know. And
I think the problem is is you're dealing with a
group that I mean, Yostra has a access to a
(16:20):
piggy bank that's bigger than any piggy bank in the
history of the world. I mean, they got trillions of
dollars and so yeah, it's like they can lose a
billion dollars they don't even notice it. It'd be like
someone losing ten bucks. And I think the PGA Tour,
you know, Tiger's very involved. Well, where's his ego and
his pride is based on the history of the PGA tour.
(16:41):
That's what made him a billionaire and famous. And I
think they're just a lot of egos, a lot of
money on the line, and I think the tour could
get very lucky that some of these guys like no One.
You know, Fox just did business with Live and they're
on Fox Sports one, and I think they put the
Duru Tournament. But people just aren't watching because any time
you start something new, it's hard to get people to gravitate.
(17:02):
I don't care who you bring over. I mean, Bryson
gets more people watching on YouTube. And I just think
there's a lot of bitterness. There's a lot of money
on the line. Some of the guys on the tour
that didn't leave are bitter because those guys, you know,
Bryson got two hundred million dollars and I didn't get any.
So I don't think they're any closer. I mean, I've
heard him talk about this for two years now, and
there's no light at the end of the tunnel because
(17:23):
they're both balking and balking and balking, and I think
Live goes well. We have some demands if you're going
to take our money, and I don't blame them. I
think LIV wants to do a deal with the PGA Tour,
but they also don't want their idea that was Live
in this team golf, which golf is an individual sport,
just like tennis. It doesn't mean occasionally there's a tennis tournament.
I forget the Davis Cup where you play doubles, just
(17:44):
like there's a Ryder Cup. We like watching golf to
watch Pete Sampers play Andre Agassi, to watch Tiger Woods
play Ernie Els and Phil Michlelson one on one. That's
what golf is. And I think Live and their money
loves their idea, which again I understand sticking to an idea.
The tour wants no part of it and their players
aren't going to agree to a deal that like, well
we got to play in seven team tournaments. What they
(18:07):
got going for them is I do think you know,
at least there have been articles and rumors that guys
like Bryson and Brooks miss being in the bright life. Sure,
and there's something that Live can't bring to the table.
So when their contracts end and they've made hundreds of men.
They could just come back right And let's face it,
if you could do a draft right of the pg Tour,
(18:28):
could pick one person, and one person only, they wouldn't
even hesitate. It'd be Bryson. And if none of the
other guys ever came back rom multiple time major champion
Dustin Johnson brooks kept, I don't think it would be
that big a deal, but Bryson is. I think they
would take him. And you can't convince me that Bryson.
You gotta let him keep doing his YouTube stuff. Just
(18:48):
acquiesce the world's changed. Let him do his YouTube stuff,
let him play in the PGA Tour, and I think
everything would be fine. I think he's the key pretty
clearly because he's not going away. He loves golf, n
he's the guy.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
At any one point in my life. You know, I've
said this about all sports, baseball especially, don't listen to purists.
You got them, don't listen to purists. Speed the game up,
you know, make the bases larger, take away the defensive shift,
don't become analytic, you know, dependent like like yeah so,
(19:21):
and I feel like golf and any one time in
my life there have been three golfers I was really
interested in. And right now the four guys, if they're
on that I'm really interested in are Rory Koepka, Bryce
and Neshamba and Dustin Johnson. There's a bunch of Scotti.
Scheffler doesn't do it for me. I know, he's great,
doesn't do anything, you know, Bubba Watson had a role,
doesn't do anything for me. So it's just there. It's
(19:44):
always been about three guys, four guys. Even in the
Arnie and Jack days, there was you know, there were
a couple of players, maybe a Lee Trevino mixed in there,
Johnny Miller for a few years, but Tom Wisekough, you
know Tom Kite weren't moving the knee. So I kind
of look at it like I thought, this weekend was
(20:05):
the very best of golf. You got the Masters and
the Undulating Course, which is just and it's a picture.
It's literally, it's literally a picture, it's a postcard. And
then you had, as Jim Nance said, this is a
journey and an odyssey in one day for Rory mcelright.
I just thought it gave you everything. I thought it
gave you bad shots, blown leads, buckling, picturesque tradition. And
(20:32):
I will say this, Bryce and de Shambeau. His mood
changed by about the fifth hole. You I mean, honestly
you could see him that he started hurrying up, but
he tends to have a slower pace, like he started to.
It was at one point one of the announcers said, like,
he's just he sort of lost his personality. He's lost it.
You could just sense he was getting really frustrated. And
(20:54):
I don't know, I just thought it was the best
final round I can remember. I kept thinking about rock
O Media, Tiger Woods, US Open, That's what kept flashing
in my head.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I actually think the Masters has really really benefited the
last couple of years from Live because these guys only
get back together four times a year, and because of
the calendar, it's the first time they get back together.
And this is by far the biggest tournament of the year. Yeah,
so it's the perfect combination. And like you said, I mean,
the weather the last couple of days just look picturesque.
Having the superstars the leader board was incredible. I just
(21:26):
think that this tournament in a weird way, I hate
Live because it's just it's made my life as just
someone that wants to watch all these guys play together.
Like you said, I don't care that who makes what?
I just want to see all these guys play together.
And it's separated them. But it's made this weekend specifically
the last couple of years. I would say, it's put
it on steroids. And it's hard even for the other
(21:49):
majors to quite feel like this one because this one
is just. The Masters has always been big. It's you know,
every human being, whether you don't even like golf, knows
the green jacket. Tiger took it to another level. I
do think though the last couple of years, with them
all getting back together, it feels like there's now Bryson
is kind of I mean last year he had the
lead after a couple of rounds. He's been a major
(22:09):
factor of these last couple of years at the Masters.
Has added an element to this tournament that, you know,
without Tiger, it's just hard. I mean, the golf, this
isn't football. I mean, football wouldn't be big enough. I
remember being a kid, USFL tried to take away Steve
Young and Bruce Smith and Jim Kelly, like you need
you only have ten to fifteen to twenty guys that
really matter in golf, you probably only got five or six. Yes,
(22:31):
I can't lose two of them, right, And tennis was
very dependent on Federer, Joker and nat All for basically
fifteen twenty years.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
When I was a kid, it was Samperston agacy and
that was kind of it. Yeah, And it's like golf
is not big enough to handle this divide, but the
majors don't really care because their master's in business with
the Masters's. It works for them.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Have you ever seen what you win when you win
the Masters? So the purse this year was four point
two million. You get the jacket, lifetime membership, invitation forever,
You get all these exclusive places you know that you
can you know, only a handful off. You get to
use the locker room of Champions, which is just all
time great, but it's one of the it's it's I
(23:12):
think the only thing to me that compares to the
Masters is when the US Open is at Pebble Beach,
where I'm literally watching for the course and Pinehurst is great,
but I'm not watching for Pinehurst. Pebble Beach. US Opens
feel different, British Open feels different. Saint Andrews and I
think the Masters, those three tournament PGA Championship, to me
(23:32):
just doesn't you know again if I'm around, But it
was interesting. So I'm watching Thursday and Friday on vacation,
and I went and golf Saturday. I was just like, oh,
I'm into this beautiful day by the way, fifty degrees. Oh,
it was just beautiful day in the suburbs of Chicago.
But it was just one of those things where I
(23:53):
think golf, even though you would argue it's not in
a good place, it's got a lot of alphas. There's
a little tension between all of them. They I mean,
kepkn Bryson, de Shamble aren't tight that you can sense.
It's pretty palpable. You can sense the tension between some
of these guys because they're all really guys, guys. They're
(24:17):
all very male, right, And I think, I don't know,
I just watched this weekend and I thought to myself,
golf's in a really good place at these Masters, at
these majors.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Well, I know, you know, living in Arizona, a lot
of pros live here, and you know, I play golf
at TBC where a lot of these guys practice. The
live financial boom for the PGA Tour and these guys
has been pretty incredible for the business. I mean, the
top guys have always been rich, from Arnold Palmer to
Jack to Tiger. But you know, my wife was showing
an open house a couple of weeks ago with one
(24:50):
of her colleagues. There was like four or five million
dollars and the people looking at the open house, and
the guy that was showing it is in the golf
world and knows these people, introduces himself and realizes it's
the wife of one of the caddies and she was
looking for another caddi's wife. These are four or five
million dollar house the caddies. And this is not you know,
Rory's caddy. This is a guy probably somewhere forty to
(25:11):
sixty in the world. These guys I mean Bryson or
Rory net Jets you see. Yeah, the sixtieth guy ain't
going to the commercial airport. So the wealth on the
golf tour right now has never been top down, and
it's an incredible time to be involved. As a high end,
top one hundred golfer. You are an immediate millionaire and
your caddi's doing well well your caddy.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
And also with Bryson being a YouTube sensation, everybody now
understands there's influencer potential putting your stuff on YouTube, so
showing a little personality is okay. So I think it's
it's you know, they call him influencers. I think Bryson's
an influencer, like he has the ability like a Connor
(25:54):
McGregor in his prime, that if Connor was on the card,
I would just go to I took my wife to
two uf SEE cards, so I thought it was a
great weekend. The NBA eighty two game grind is done.
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slash audio.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
All right, here we go, Jason Timpf hoops tonight. We
got a lot to talk about as the NBA Playoffs start.
All the odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook, by the way,
when we mention them. So I'm gonna pick it up set.
I'm gonna go Houston Rockets over the Warriors, And I
don't want to do confirmation bias or recency bias because
I watched them struggle against Memphis and need an inbounds
gaff by the Grizzlies to save it. But the Jonathan
(28:11):
Kaminga piece is really a problem. So we've talked about this.
It's a highly sophisticated offense. Veterans work, Iguidala kd Andrew Bogan,
they work, Steph Clay, Draymond they work. You can be
a quirky player like Draymond Green and still be a catalyst.
What doesn't work is Wiseman, Jordan Poole, DiAngelo Russell who's
(28:32):
a bit squarely when he was younger and Cominga's productive.
But you can't put them on the floor of this unit.
Kerr is it's do not play coach's decision. And they're
dying for length. I mean I watched them last night
and Zach Eaedi is a huge problem. They don't have
any length and here comes Houston. They defend the three
(28:53):
mon Thompson gave Steph fits last time they played length. Now,
Kerr's the best coach, Curry's the best player. I am
not denying that. But and if the games are close, Jason,
you'll take the Warriors. Their clutch points are great. They're
gonna win these one point games like last Night's just
a great example of how the Warriors can manipulate the
(29:15):
clock possessions and get better defensively when they have to.
I don't like this matchup. I was looking at the odds.
I don't like this matchup for the Warriors. Right now,
the Rockets are plus one sixty five again, odds provided
by DraftKings. I'm calling the upset. You think I'm crazy, size,
(29:42):
lack of depth, Curry dependent, what say you?
Speaker 4 (29:47):
I don't want to see you're crazy. I think this
is let's just put it this way. I think that
a defensive minded Rockets team is more capable of beating
Golden State than say, a defensive minded Magic team is
capable of beating Boston.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
That said, I think that the other side of the
floor is where it's going to become a problem. I
have no doubts that Houston is going to cause problems
for Golden States offense. In their last four games, they've
held them to one hundred and five or fewer, and
all four of them they've held them below one hundred
three times.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
They they have a bunch of different things that they
do that bother them. They put Alburn Shangoon on Moses Moody,
which is really smart because it allows them to put
all of their three best perimeter defenders on Draymond, Jimmy
and Steph and just switch any action that involves those three.
Aman Thompson is one of the most gifted athletes in
terms of foot speed in the league.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Absolutely, and the the Rockets have a zone look that
worked really well against the against the Warriors a couple
of weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
There.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
I have no doubts that the Rockets will be able
to drag the Warriors offense down into the mud. Here's
the problem. I think the war I think the Warriors
defense is nearly as good as Houston's defense, and I
think that they are more of doing more damage to
a Shanng Gooon, Jalen Green Fred Vanvliet led offense than
(31:07):
the Rockets can do to the Warriors on the other
end of the floor. I would not be surprised if
it's a longer series. As a Lakers fan, I hope
that it's very physical and that it wears them down.
But I just have a really hard time believing that
the Rockets are going to be able to score enough
now to beat the Warriors four times now.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
They have shot better in the second half of the season.
They have, so there was here's the thing, explain the
coaminga piece. So listen. I was told this year's ago
by an NFL executive. He says, be very careful about
the last twenty games of the season. You're going to
see teams with winning streaks. Half the league's tanking, and
half the league is resting starters for the playoffs. So
(31:44):
the Clippers go on this great last fifteen games and
the Warriors have that energy when Jimmy Butler arrives and
they're playing bad teams and they're just rolling people, and
you're like, oh my god. And I fell for it,
and I said, oh wait till Kaminga comes back. It
was about three games with kaming in this group, and
Steve Kerr's like, yeah, I'm not. I don't why doesn't
(32:06):
it work with him? Because I could argue he's exactly
what they need against Houston size, athletic ability, length. They
look small last night against Memphis.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Yeah, you know, right when the Jimmy trade went down,
one of my initial takeaways was this is the end
of Jonathan Kaminga in his time with the Golden State
Warriors in terms of just him being a meaningful contributor
to this team. The thing is is they were banking
on Jonathan Kaminga becoming that player for the Warrior, of
becoming the Jimmy Butler type of player for the Warriors,
(32:39):
the big forward that they could put next to Draymond,
that would be the scoring pop alongside the starters. As
soon as they got Jimmy, they no longer had a
role for him anymore. You want to know why Kerr
went with Gie Santos last night. It's because Gi Santos
plays the same position, but he can count on Gee
to not do anything stupid, to just play super hard,
to grab every rebound he can get, to take a
(32:59):
why open catch and shoot three. Jonathan Kaminga's upside is
on the ball if you clear the side for him
and you let him go one on one facing up
eighteen feet from the basket. He has a lot of
potential in the long term to be very good at that,
but he's not good enough at it now to take
reps away from Steph and away from Jimmy, and so
all they need from him is to play defense, to
(33:21):
knock down wide open catch and shoot threes, and to
play in their read and react in the half court.
And he's not very good at any of those three things.
And so it just is kind of like a death
sentence in that regard for his role here. And I
do think that it's probably in the best interest of
everybody involved after this season is over to look to
move on from Kminga. That said, you made a very
interesting point specifically about this matchup. I understood the case
(33:46):
for the DNPS with Kaminga for the last couple of games,
super important games. You need higher floor, lower ceiling, like
you need fewer mistakes. Yes, you couldn't take a risk
with mistakes in those games. Sounderstood that case specifically for
this matchup with Houston. They are so big and so
athletic that I think it could. I think it could
(34:08):
be a Jimmy Butler and Jonathan Kaminga type of series.
I think the two of them and their athletic advantages
could be something they have to lean on a lot,
especially if the perimeter defense of Houston wears steph down
over the course of the series. So if I was Kerr,
I would definitely give Kaminga some burn here in the
first couple games of this series, just to see what
(34:28):
he's got. Now, if he's terrible, bail on him, go
back to your rotation that you used in the last
couple of games. But I think he's an asset as
an athlete that you can't afford to keep in your
back pocket for a series like this.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
And the Rockets are first of all, they defend the three,
they got the best athlete in the series, and they
rebound really well. They're gonna get if Kaminga doesn't play
a lot they're gonna get second, They're gonna get a
lot offensive rebound. They're gonna win offensive rebounding throughout this series.
Looney's gonna play a lot. You're gonna have to play him.
If you don't play kaminga a lot, you're giving up.
You're gonna give up the glass. And you can win
(35:01):
a series losing on the you know, in the in
the world we play in now, you know, Boston can
lose the rebounding battle and hit twenty eight threes and
they win the game by fifteen. But I'll tell you,
I think Houston. I think I think Houston's really gonna
challenge him, and I think they're going to be low scoring.
I think the one advantage that is clear cut, and
(35:22):
you saw it last night with the Warriors, they're so
good with two twenty to play in a tie game,
they are they just know. I mean it's almost like,
I mean, you know, people grabbing and clutching staph and
you have to be more careful late because they may
call a foul, and it's just they just figure out
(35:43):
ways to get Steph really good looks. It's almost like
red zone offense in the NFL, where it's cluttered and jammed,
and yet the good teams find open people. I mean,
he just I watched them, and I like last night
they had a great game plan, jump out to a
sixteen point lead, eighteen point lead, twenty point lead, but
in the end, you're like, they just don't have bodies.
(36:03):
They look incredibly small. Uh, And I just think that
size is gonna make I think they're the close games
Golden State wins, but I'm gonna give Houston a couple
of games where they just dominate the glass. The Warriors
look tired and they blow them out. It'll be a
weird looking series.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
I said something similar in my series preview, like I
wouldn't be surprised if there was a game either early
in the series, like a Game one or like a
Game five with the Warriors are up three to one
where the Rockets just beat the heck out of them
and win by like twenty five thirty points that get
going in transition, they look super athletic. I'm with you
overall with the Warriors in the sense that, like there
(36:44):
was this stretch post deadline where they were beating everybody,
and yeah, the schedule was weak, but then they got
a couple of impressive wins. You beat a decent Memphis team,
you beat a Nuggets team without Jamal Murray, you beat
that Lakers team that was one of the biggest wins
that they had all season. That was a big, nationally televised,
super important game for both teams that they won. But
then after that, it's like they lose to Houston, they
lose to San Antonio, they beat Portland, but then they
(37:08):
lose to the Clippers at home in a must win game.
And then last night for stretches, they looked on impressive
as they were trailing in the fourth quarter. So I'm
kind of it up in the air with the Warriors
in general now because it's hard to tell how good
they really are when they killed everybody for like two months,
and then for the last two weeks they've looked pretty unimpressive.
So I'm kind of up in the air with them.
The main reason why I've been dropping them down in
(37:30):
terms of where i'd rank them among contenders is I
don't trust their shooting. Their shooting can go ice cold
around Steph Curry, and then as you mentioned, they're a
little bit vulnerable to size and physicality, which I think
can cause some problems for them. I viewed them as
a little bit more of a flawed contender now than
I did two weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
All Right, Lakers all odds provided by DraftKings are minus
one ninety five against the Tea Wolves. I think this
is a very favorable Laker matchup, and I think it's
pretty obvious the Timberwolves outside of He's gonna have to
score forty in a couple of these games. Julius Randall
has historically kind of the classic, plays hard, plays with energy,
(38:09):
very successful in the regular season, but everybody in the
postseason plays with energy, and he comes right back. The
regressions clear. He's a B player who plays with a
energy and that is really valuable in the regular season,
and then you get to the postseason and everybody's got
equal time off and he's a B player and doesn't
create sometimes can get a little ball selfish, go Bears,
(38:32):
not an offensive player. Mike Conley's a play initiator but
doesn't provide much offense. And the Lakers are the rare team.
I mean, Boston may be the only team in the
league that does this, that has three playmakers and three
play initiators and at any one time can have the
three best offensive players playing well on the floor. I
don't think it's a good matchup for Minnesota at all.
(38:52):
This was the bad draw in my opinion for the
t Wolves. What do you think?
Speaker 4 (38:57):
I totally agree. I think there's a basic talent argument
you can make for LA, which is like, who's better
at or Luca? You're taking Luca. Who's better Lebron or
Julius Randall? You're taking Lebron. Who's better Austin Reeves or
a Jaden McDaniels or a Rudy Gobert or Dante DiVincenzo.
You're taking Austin Reeves. So I think I think the
Lakers top three guys are just better, and I think
(39:18):
that that could be enough to make the case. Where
I think it gets really interesting is the Timberwolve's greatest
strength on defense is their combination of perimeter defenders and
Rudy Gobert at the rim, and the Lakers can neutralize that. Unfortunately,
as we saw in the Western Conference Finals last year,
the best perimeter defender on Minnesota, Jaden McDaniels, can't guard Luca.
(39:41):
He's too skinny. Luca can just throw him around like
a rag doll. None of the perimeter defenders on Minnesota
make Luca uncomfortable, and the Lakers with their five out
groups with Dorian Finney Smith instead of Jackson Hayes, they
can space Rudy out to where he cannot protect the
rim without conceding a wide open three. When Rudy's on
the perimeter, he's still a good defender, but he's not
(40:03):
the transcendently impactful defender he is when he can sit
right underneath the basket, So I think they neutralize him there.
On the other end of the floor, the Lakers have
struggled against spread out shooting like against Boston and really
smart teams with speed like Golden State. Those are the
teams that have really caused the Lakers issues post Lucatrade.
You know who the Lakers have not struggled with post
(40:25):
Luca trade. Defensively, the teams that they can load up on.
You can load up on the Timberwolves. They are not
a good spot up team. They are a team that
you can put two on the ball with ant and
not get burned. That's high level playmaking. It's just I
look at this as a series where just all of
the strengths and weaknesses line up in a way to
where I think the Lakers just have a big advantage.
(40:46):
This was one of the few series that I picked
in five games. I think the Lakers are gonna beat
him in five.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah. I feel the same way and the Lakers I
could be wrong on this. I think they play as
to defense as they need to. I think that when
I watch them play out there are times I'm like, Oh,
this is one of those games they really care about.
And then there are other times I'm like, they're just
(41:10):
not talking. This is one of those. They either all
went out and had a nice dinner last night and
bomba bino.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
They're just not that.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
When I watch them, I think they're as good as
they want to be. Defensively, I don't think they're great,
But like Denver's got limitations, there's just things, I mean, Jokic,
there's just limitations. I think the Lakers actually have some
pretty good lengthen defensive personnel outside of Luca. I think
they'll they'll play good defense in the playoffs because they'll
want to. They''ll want team when they want to. I
(41:36):
think they're pretty capable.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Yeah, And when you're as good offensively as they've been
with their best groups. And by the way, that group
with Dorian Finney Smith and Ruey next to Lebron, Luca
and Austin has been torching everybody for a long time.
Now that unit can really score the ball, so they
have some margin for error on that side of the floor.
It really is about Lebron. Lebron as like the orchestrator
on the back line. He plays that Draymond Green esque role,
(41:59):
just telling everybody where to go, calling out the plays
as they're starting to take shape. And then Jared Vanderbilt,
Ruey Hotchmura, Dorian Finney Smith. It's just a lot of six'
nine rangy athletes that can cover. Ground i'm not gonna
Lie colin like The lakers certainly have an uphill, climb
and there are gonna be multiple series where there'll be
an underdog if they get to the third and fourth.
Round but this could not have broken better for them
(42:22):
than it. Did now you only have to play one Of,
DENVER okc and The. Clippers those are three of the
most dangerous teams in The. West they only have to
play one of. Them SO i think it actually broke
really nicely for them. Here if they can take care
of business against The timberwolves and beat whoever comes out
of That Warriors rocket. Series they're right there in the
in the Against Okay see in the conference. FINALS i
(42:43):
think they've got a really good.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
CHANCE i said this the other. DAY i had actually
somebody come up to me on the street Any it
was a Former. Laker it Was sasha AND i, SAID i,
SAID i, said the best Center i've ever. Seen complete
Players kareem AND i grew up with. It he was
a fourteen to fifteen Time All Defensive team ran the
(43:04):
floor when he was, young, rebound, unstoppable offensive, force, cerebral
prickly but could throw on. Elbow you, know Ask Kent.
BENSON i think the player he went, after he could
give you. Everything he was, wiry but he could be.
PHYSICAL i think because of that defensive, prowess he is
better Than. JOKIC i Think jokis is the second most
(43:26):
gifted center of all. Time now people would Say, wilt
But wilt was. Flaky you didn't know what the effort you.
Got he wasn't easy to play. With you got different
variations Of wilt depending on the night. Before And wilt
was kind of Into wilt WHERE i Think jokic is
actually a really good team. PLAYER i just think he's
not engaged defensively all the. Time BUT i outside Of,
(43:48):
KAREEM i mean generally with a, CENTER i can say shack, power, russell,
defense a team, FOOTWORK i can say. SOMETHING i look
At jokic And i'm, like, like If, KAREEM i, mean
If kareem Or vetus s the Bonus Bill walton had a,
(44:11):
baby it's, like you, KNOW i Think Bill walton is
the one, player very, briefly not the Old walton with The,
celtics who was, great but he wasn't as good as
THE ucla or The Portland. Walton there was a time
When Bill walton was like the best passing big, ever
the best mid range, jumper ran the, floor could be super,
physical kind of. Weird BUT i Think jokic. IS i
(44:36):
just don't Think i've ever quite seen anything like. Him
that's my. DAD i don't know If i've ever seen
anything like.
Speaker 4 (44:42):
Him he's the best offensive Player i've ever. Seen Colin
wow AND i have watched and rooted for two of
the greats that have ever done that or rooted for.
AGAINST i should SAY i Think lebron is on the
short list of guys who are in that. CONVERSATION i
Think steph is on the short list of guys who
are in that. Conversation having rooted For lebron and then
(45:03):
being terrified Of steph and rooting against him over the,
YEARS i know what it's like to be on the
other end of a player who like legitimately creates a
great shot almost every time down the. Floor jokic makes
it look even easier than those guys. Do it's the
top tier playmaking piece that you get From, lebron the
inverted spacing that you get From steph that creates all
(45:25):
the dunks and layups right underneath the. Basket but mixed
in with the lack of variants because Like, steph Like
steph will have games where he just can't make a shot,
right you, know that doesn't happen With. Jokic like if
he gets into the five to ten foot, range it's
going in two out of three, times like, Clockwork he's
gonna make. It and so there's a lack of, variance
there's a power element to. It he can kind of
(45:48):
audible into different, players like it's, like, Okay i'm playing
The Spurs i'm just gonna post up every single time
down the.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Floor watch.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
It watching This clippers, series we won't see as Much
jokics post. Ups it's not his, advantage but guess. What
he can run inverted ball screens and like literally play
pick and roll as the handler out on the. Perimeter
he can run two man game With Jamal. Murray his
versatility and dependability night, tonight mixed with all the inverted
stuff he does with the, SPACING i have never seen
a player make it look easier on offense Than Nikola jokic.
(46:17):
Did like it's it's rooting against him is absolute. Hell
having had to do that over the last couple of.
Years he deserves a good amount of criticism for what
happened to their defense this, year especially in the second
half of the. YEAR i thought he just straight up
mailed it, in and you made some good points about
how that might have had something to do With Mike.
MALONE i agree with. You but even if you just
(46:40):
take that and set it, aside he still had one
of the greatest seasons in the history of the league
because he's the greatest offensive player to ever touch the.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Floor yeah it. Is you, know it's funny Because luca
and him have kind of similar body types where they're
in great shape probably you, know relative for the type
for the, type But lucas got a lot Of hirk
And jerkins start and stop to his game that gets.
Open he's he's very good At he's just keeps you
(47:06):
constantly on his hip and off. Balance you're never quite
sure he's not, fast but he is kind of quick
for his, size and he's always bouncing off you never
loses kind of composure or the ball while there's. Contact
but it's a start stop game that's. Hard you, know
that's hard to. Defend jokis just sort of rolls into,
(47:27):
you AND i think a lot of players they're Like
draymond has said, this there's no real book on him
because it's it's you, know in THE, nfl there's always
that they always talk about that bad body offensive. Lineman
Donald penn was known as this for The, raiders bad
body so, effective like there was no weak. Spot he
(47:47):
was weirdly, long and he had a weird ass and
his shoulders were, huge and it was like a bad
body offensive lineman where it's, like, yeah it's just defensive
players couldn't quite figure out a weak. SPOT i think
there's nobody else kind of quite built like, him that
plays like, him so you, KNOW i mean there are
certain guys in this. LEAGUE i mean just think about.
(48:09):
It if you do the, silhouette nobody else had a,
Skyhook nobody quite moves cardio wise Like. STEPH i think
part of what he does is no other Big when
you play, him it's just, okay this is there's no warm.
Up this is the only guy that plays like. This
And i'm not saying the league is, similar but there
(48:31):
are a lot of, twitchy, long athletic guys who have
similar moves that they've learned from camps and, coaches right
and certain step. MOVES i Think jokic is a disaster
to defend the. BODY i mean a lot of times
he just leans in and you get trapped under him
around the. BACK i ever see this when these big
(48:53):
guys get trapped and he gets like three looks and
you just Can't you can't get your hips aligned to
box him.
Speaker 4 (49:00):
Out you can't jump when you're connected with. Him that's the.
Thing this is why boxing out is so. Important when
you box a player, out it keeps him groundbound so
that you can come in from behind to get the
rebound elsewhere on the. Floor, Similarly jokic does the same
thing to defensive. Players he's constantly dislodging you and putting
you in these situations where you are not athletic because
he's disrupted your base so you can't, jump and then
(49:22):
that way he just finds these little angles for these
little release. POINTS i love the point you made about
how the league is, changed BECAUSE i found this to
be really. Fascinating so part Of Michael jordan's dominance was
that the league was so big and, slow and so
he was this lightning quick guard that he just cut
through everyone like. Butter, similarly With, jokic the league is
(49:43):
so thin and, fast yes that he's just a bowling
ball that's just knocking everybody over on his way to the.
Rim in a weird, way like part of it is
just the timing of the. Era but to his, credit
because this is the. Thing there are a lot of
big centers that can't play in THE nba today because
they can't do this or they can't do. That they
struggle with, this they struggle with. That jokicic because he's
(50:04):
good enough in all of these other areas to be
a USEFUL nba, player can weaponize his, size and all
of a, sudden it's, like oh, man there's four hundred
and fifty players in this, league And Joel embiid might
be the only guy big enough to actually deal with.
Him and he's not even healthy all the, time so
he just has a mismatch every single. Night because of
the era that he plays, in.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Well it's Like Derreck, henry the running back for The.
Ravens as linebackers and safeties have gotten smaller because the
game is. Faster linebackers are two twenty. Five Derek henry's to,
Fifty so you, know twenty years ago linebackers were as
big As Derrick, henry and now guys can't They Just
derek is a physical mismatch and he gets a running.
(50:42):
Start AND i do think That i've said. It the
league over the last twelve years has become kind of
the skinny jeans Euro, League like it's a lot of
centers that weigh two forty three and he's just a load.
Physically the
Host
Colin Cowherd
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