March 25, 2025 • 47 mins
Colin compares and contrasts Luka Doncic and LeBron James and points out why the Lakers have been struggling as LeBron returns from a groin injury. He believes Aaron Rodgers is waiting to make a decision on where he'll play in 2025 in hopes to eventually land with the 49ers. Plus, NBA analyst Ric Bucher joins the show in studio to explain why Duke's Cooper Flagg could be better than Jayson Tatum
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowver
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Here we Go. It is a Tuesday, a lot to
talk about live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd. Wherever
you may be and however you may be listening. Thanks
for making us part of your dad. I was thinking
about this coming in in.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
What we do for a living.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Whenever there's like a big trade or like the NFL Draft,
everybody's always Jmax saying this team won the trade, this
team lost. And the biggest trade in recent memory is
Luca to the Lakers for Ad And there's a feeling
is Dallas will be terrible and the Lakers will win
several titles. But they would not have traded Luca. If
he was in great shape and was an unbelievable defender,
(01:08):
well then he'd be Lebron. You wouldn't trade him. They
traded him for a reason because they saw holes in
his game, which, by the way, he'd missed the last
two camps. He had multiple injuries. So here's what's interesting.
When Lebron leaves, they comes back and he's not at
one hundred percent, Lakers are trash. That's funny because Lebron,
(01:28):
even way past his prime. Lebron has won without ad,
has won without Austin Rivers and one without Luca, one
with bad coaches. But Luca, without Lebron or Lebron at
one hundred percent, Lakers get throttled by bad teams. Why
is that? That's why Dallas let him go? And I
(01:51):
wouldn't have but this idea that Luca was like Lebron,
elite defender, elite leader, elite offensive player, elevated every build
a franchise around him, no flaws. That's not what Luca
is and you're seeing it here is Luca without Lebron,
they've lost seven of ten. Or Luca now with Lebron
not quite in game shape, not quite at one hundred percent,
(02:14):
they're getting throttled by bad teams. And this has always
been my several year argument. If your company doesn't re
sign you even if you're talented, they see a hole
in your game. This is why I argued for years
Carmelo Anthony's a great all time player, Hall of Famer,
didn't elevate teammates, didn't play defense. Luca is a much
(02:34):
better version of Carmelo. By the way, Carmelo and Dominique,
Wilkins and Luca great scorers. None of them defend at
that level. Kobe and MJ are great scorers. They had
a different mindset, and you're gonna get points with Luca defense.
Forget about it elevating everybody. He'll elevate some players, he'll
(02:54):
take the ball away from others. Lebron's also a great
on court coach and leader. Luca's talking is often barking
at refs or trash talking. And by the way, that's
part of basketball's culture. It doesn't bother me. But Lebron
talking and Luca talking are two different things. I mean,
JJ Reddick has complained multiple times, yeah, we don't communicate
(03:16):
when Lebron's out.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Well, is it that where Lucas should step in.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Luca's game is much more individualists, you know, he is
much more an individual star, more of a lead singer
in a band who can occasionally step back, you know,
and let the bass player have his moment. But he's
a lead singer. Lebron's always been more magic than Michael
or Kobe. He's much more an orchestra leader, elevating everybody,
(03:44):
much more magic, stepping back, making sure there's a rhythm
and spacing. Lebron isn't a trash talker Luca is. Lebron
doesn't spend a lot of time barking at refs Luca does.
Lebron moves fear without the ball at times Luca doesn't.
Lebron defends Luca has very little interest, more of a
(04:06):
hobby than a vocation. And that is not to say
Lucas not great. But if you're at a company and
they're like, yeah, wait, we're gonna we're gonna move on,
it's not always the company was wrong.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Again. I'll make this argument. Charles Barkley's made it.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
When Dallas is totally healthy, probably next year they have
a chance to get to the finals. A d I mean, Kyrie,
even Max Christie can play a center rotation the kid
out of Duke.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
The minute.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Lebron's not around the minute. Lebron's not at one hundred percent.
What's JJ Reddick complain about. We don't communicate, We don't
rotate as well well they do when Lebron's there and
Luca's not. And this is the difference. Maybe this is
just the difference between like MJ and Barkley. You know,
one was always in great shape. One defended. They both
(04:59):
go a lot of points. But there is a gap
between all time Lebron and all time Luca. Don't kid yourself,
there is a major gap. And they've lost three of
they've won three of ten, and this is not one
hundred percent Lebron.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
So again, the way we do it in sports.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
This team got nothing in return, and this team got
the greatest player of all time. But it is interesting.
In the last ten games, seven no Lebron. And now
you're getting you know, a guy who missed a couple
of weeks. He's acknowledging he's not quite right defensive league,
not quite right. Cardio wise, they're not very good. And
(05:38):
here's JJ Reddick after losing to Orlando last night. I
don't know, we just like we look tired, and I
don't know what contributes to that. That happens periodically throughout
a season where the group gets tired.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
That's what it feels like right now.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
No, when they don't look tired is when braun is
playing not injured one hundred percent. You never hear that
the other team looks flat, doesn't communicate, looks tired. When
Lebron's not at one hundred percent and the Lakers look
tired and can't beat Orlando.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
It's funny how that works, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So this is something I talked about yesterday on the show,
and I don't think it's a conspiracy theory. It is
easy right now to rip Aaron Rodgers. What is he
making people wait for? So yesterday I brought this up
on the show, is that I think Aaron's too smart
to look at Pittsburgh and go this is perfect. He
(06:37):
flew there to the Steelers and he didn't leave with
a contract.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Now he may sign by the end of.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
This rant, but he didn't sign for the great Pittsburgh Steelers.
And Albert Breer had a story today that Aaron Rodgers
is telling friends. We talked about this yesterday. He's looking
for a better culture. He looked at Green Bay and
(07:04):
realizes not only a good culture, but an offensive culture.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And this is what I said.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I think Aaron Rodgers is sitting around for a couple
of weeks, and I think he's right waiting on the
Niners Brock party. I don't think the Niners are gonna
pay Brock pretty fifty nine million a year, and that,
according to his agent, is what he wants. And I
can't believe I'm saying this, but Aaron needs to go
in another darkness retreat. Aaron needs to hide, avoid commitment,
(07:30):
plan an excursion. Call your travel agent if people use
those anymore. The Steelers as fools goal Tomlin can't figure
out the offense. It's been seven years, forget about it,
and fifty nine.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Listen to this.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
It was sixty sixty year before fifty nine quarterbacks played
last year. There will be opportunities. You could argue Kirk
Cousins should have waited last year until after the draft
and not gone to Atlanta. But he signed in mar
and then Atlanta drafted a quarterback. Is it the worst
(08:03):
thing in the world for Aaron to not sign wait
on the draft, see how the dominoes fall, and somebody
could go, guys, we didn't get a quarterback. We're in
trouble here now now, I think you can fairly say,
and this isn't really a criticism of farv and Aaron Rodgers.
I mean, green Bay's pretty small and sleepy. Is that
maybe they didn't appreciate it. Grass is greener, you know,
(08:26):
friendly media, good organization. That's not a real criticist. I
can see somebody playing for fifteen years in Green Bay
and thinking, man, I'm kind of jealous of those New York,
LA San Francisco, you know, big city teams. I get
that that's not a criticism, but I'm not given brought
pretty fifty eight million dollars. In one of the reasons,
I've said this before on the show. If you wonder
if you're making a great move, you could be a
(08:47):
TV executive, You could be an NFL general manager. If
you are about to make a big move, what does
your rival think? And you know who would be okay
with Purty getting sixty million a year. Sean McVay, he'd
be really okay with that, with his young defense, little
(09:09):
Brock Purty, not a big arm Brock Purty. Sean McVay
would be just fine having Matt Stafford for two more years.
And they're locked in on a sixty million dollar a
year brock Purty deal. So it's you know, I just
look at this whole thing. Is that Aaron multiple reports
said he really wanted the Vikings offer. Why because of
(09:32):
Kevin O'Connell. It wasn't the receiver, it was Kevin O'Connell
offensive coach Aaron last year, in his last ten starts,
do you realize this, with arguably the worst coaching staff
in the league, certainly the worst offensive coaching staff in
the league, and a mediocre O line had more touchdown
passes in a higher passer rating than brock Purty with
Kyle Shanahan. I honestly think, and again, he could sign
(09:56):
with Pittsburg today.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I know you don't have to like Aaron.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
You can be entful about his vaccine status and is whatever,
but he's not a dummy. And when you see those
pictures in Malibu when he's listening to stuff, I think
he's sitting there thinking Minnesota would have been great. I
know the division, I love the coach, I love their weapons.
O line got upgraded significantly in Minnesota in the offseason.
(10:20):
I think he looks at Pittsburgh and so much of
it sounds good. Steelers defense Mike Tomlin battle line, lost
their left tackle, two high maintenance wide receivers, spend more
money on defense than anybody in the league. Is that
really a great fit? Does Aaron feel like a Pittsburgh guy?
(10:41):
He loves Malibu and he loves New York and if
the Giants were humming, he'd probably sign there. But this
Albert Breer story that Aaron is talking to people like
he wants the organization is key, not just the personnel.
And I think once Minnesota said no thanks, I think
San Francisco is something to keep your eye on again.
(11:04):
Kirk Cousins signed in March, he would not have signed
with Atlanta in April. Late April after the Panis they
wouldn't have signed there. Kirk Cousins now is looking for
a new team. Aaron could think, well, what if I
signed blank? What I signed with Pittsburgh and all of
a sudden somebody falls and they end up picking a
quarterback mid to late first round Jackson Dart.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
What am I doing here?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I'm just I'm saying I'm not advocating for in season ayahuasca,
but another darkness retreat is not a terrible idea for
Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Take a deep breath, go hide for a while.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So Jay Mac, I'm still I don't mean to gloat,
but fifteen of sixteen teams left in the tournament. I
couldn't sleep last night. I just had I had tom Izzode,
you know.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
In my sleep last night. Very excited. Let's sign get
into that.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Yeah, yeah, let's go back to Aaron Rodgers. I got
this stat from a Jets fan. So Aaron Rodgers had
the second most passing yards of any quarterback in the
league in the fourth quarter. And know those weren't clutch comebacks,
those who are basically the Jets getting buried after three
quarters and Rogers just stat padding. So I know you're
pumped up about those final ten games, but thirty one
(12:17):
percent of his yards, thirty one percent of his touchdowns
came in the fourth quarters.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Well, you know, when you're old, those bones take a
couple of quarters to warm up.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Yeah, excuse his excuses.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
So there is it possible that there is an unsolvable
problem and every league has one and all go over
him coming up next. Every league has one unsolvable problem?
Is that it's just baked in, embedded in the sport.
Does the NBA have a tanking issue, and there's nothing
they can do about it. And I'll talk about that next.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and neon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
All right, welcome back, Nick, right one hour from now,
about fifty minutes actually from now. So there was a story.
You know, there's been a lot of talk about load
management in the NBA. Here's the good news. The young
players like Sga Tatum at those guys.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Like to play. They play every night.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
So a lot of the old school guys, Lebron's gonna
take some time off ad for injuries, can take time off,
but the young guys mostly like to play. Yannis will
take time off, bigger guy, body falls apart a little bit.
Dame can take night. Of young guys want to play.
Tatum wants to play, Jalen Brown and those guys want
to play. But there is the other issue that we
talked about yesterday, late season tanking. So I looked at
(13:35):
the Pelicans and Sixers played last night. The starting lineups.
They're embarrassing. I mean, I would not watch them play
if they were playing in my backyard. I mean it
was just like just a bunch of nonsense. And I
think the league has tried to fix it by flattening
the lottery odds so tanking won't help you, so you
can have the worst record and not get the number
one pick.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
So the league has really tried to do this.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I think load management David Stern solved it with fines,
and I think a lot of these young guys want
to play more games, So I think load management's bad.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
But I think you can tweak it. They did this year.
They tweaked it.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
You don't win certain awards unless you play over sixty
five games. I think that's been helpful. I don't think
you can solve the tanking thing. And it's hurting the ratings.
There's no question the quality of basketball in the NBA
march on from the non playoff teams is garbage. It's
turning off fans and hurting the ratings. And maybe it's
just this. Every sport has an unsolvable issue. The NFL
(14:30):
has violence, and players get hurt sometime seriously, and there's concussions,
and they've tried to end them. They can't totally hockey.
Most of us didn't play, We didn't play as kids.
We're not connected to it. It feels like Canada's sport baseball.
There's really no urgency because the season's so long until
like late September and October. And in the NBA and
(14:53):
basketball and we know this and it's the same and
international soccer. If you get a superstar, it changes everything
in one year. I mean, I was just watching Celtic City,
the Bill Simmons Project. I watched two episodes last night.
Episode three, loved it, and then episode four with Larry.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Bird they were bad. Larry Bird arrives, they were good.
It was that fast.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
And so I think it's also just part of the
basketball culture from AAU to college to the NBA. Go
get the guy, you win immediately. And in basketball it's
different because you can spot the next great basketball prodigy
at fourteen years old. Go google when Wemby was first spotted,
(15:36):
or Luca was spotted, or Lebron was first spotted. It's
fourteen to fifteen years old. Cooper Flag two years ago, well,
let's say one year ago, he was about sixteen seventeen
years old. Everybody's like, oh, that'll be the number one guy.
That's not the case in football. Who are you tanking
for the three best players in the league are Mahomes,
Josh Allen, and arguably Lamar Jackson. They went to second
(15:59):
tier football schools. They didn't get drafted number one. They
had doubters all the way through. College football is more
about even when you're great. We've seen Patrick Mahomes get
blown out in two Super Bowls. Why left tackles bad.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Cleveland?
Speaker 1 (16:16):
When Lebron showed up. He was scoring twenty five a
night as a rookie for a horrible Cleveland franchise. He
was still a star on both ends of the floor.
So my take is Cooper Flag now is seventeen people
have known for the last year minimum get Cooper Flag.
That's the guy, and so teams can plan two and
(16:40):
three years out. I mean there was Wemby talk three
years ago. San Antonio is like suddenly started letting players go.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Remember they didn't resign, Like was it de Jontay Murray
or something? Why why wouldn't they re sign him?
Speaker 1 (16:55):
They wanted Wemby and Papavitch wasn't getting fired. So I
do think to some degree this is an unsolvable problem.
I think load management. I think the NBA has done
things like, you got to play sixty five games, so
you don't win awards. I think the young players have
seen that, and a SGA Jason Tatum. Simmons talked about
(17:21):
this yesterday. Jason Tatum, he's the first of the arena,
last to leave.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
He likes to play. It's been Tatum season.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
He's the best guy in the team, and other than
SGA and Jokic, she's been the most day to day
impactful guy in the league.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
And he's really durable, which I think.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
You know, both of us have criticized NBA players for
you play sixty five games and you call it a season,
and you take like little sabbaticals or you leave or
your nurse injuries.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Tatum's out there all the time. I've said this.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I've gone to see Tatum play four times, never in Boston.
First guy on the floor two hours before tip off
working on his jumper. So I it was shocking last
night Tatum tweak his ankle yesterday, which was shocking because
he's so durable and he plays both ends of the floor,
and so I think you can work your way around
load management. I do not think in basketball you can
(18:12):
work your way around tanking.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Find us. It doesn't.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
We get Wemby. We're gonna make He'll make the franchise.
We're two billion more dollars. Go ahead find me. Find
me fifty million dollars as an owner. Go ahead, go ahead,
find me. Well, what it was lebron Worth for the
Cavaliers two billion dollars minimum. You can't find teams enough
that tank owners don't care. But if I you know,
(18:38):
I buy a team for two billion dollars, it'll be
worth eight over the next decade.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Go ahead, find me. What do I care? I want Wemby,
I want Cooper Flag.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
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Speaker 5 (18:55):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're
Covino and Rich on Fox or Radio. You could catch
us weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to
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We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on
in the world. We have a lot of fun talking
about the stories behind the stories in the world of
(19:16):
sports and pop culture, stories that well other shows don't
seem to have the time to discuss. And the fact
that we've been friends for the last twenty years and
still work together.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
I mean that says something.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
Right, So check us out. We like to get you
involved too, Take your phone calls, chop it up. As
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(19:46):
wherever you get your podcasts, and of course on social
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Speaker 1 (19:51):
You know, it's funny you have kids, and all my
kids now except one, are in their twenties, and so
they go on job interviews, and you know, I've talked
to my kids about this, like there's certain things. You know,
I'm not going to tell you. I'm not gonna helicopter parent,
but you know I'll tell my daughter. Yeah, you probably
don't want to bring up vacation time on your first interview.
(20:13):
I have a company fifty employees, growing fast. If you're
asking about that in the first five minutes, you're probably
not built for my company. I like grinders. Sorry, there
are things you just don't say in life. Even though
you think them, you may not want to say them.
And this was a moment yesterday. It's not the end
of the world. But football is the ultimate team sport.
(20:36):
It is the ultimate team sport. Everybody plays her, everybody
plays her. You grab that rope and if there's one
loose grip on that rope, it can screw up the
whole team. One guy not committed. And I heard Pooka
Nakua yesterday at twenty three years old say this, and
(20:58):
I didn't love it.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
I want to retire at the age of thirty. I'm
twenty three right now. I'm going into year three, so
like ten years, it wouldn't even be ten years. It'd
be like maybe seven or eight. But like ad I
think of Aaron Donald, like man, like he to go
out at the top. I think it would be super cool,
hopefully like the rest of your career will go healthy.
But like Man, you have shoulder surgery, you have knee surgery,
you have ankle and be like, yo, like, by the
(21:20):
time my kids could be eighteen, I'm like, I could
be barely walking if I like, if you play the
game and like you sustain all the injuries.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Don't love it.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
You know, when Trevor Lawrence said, I'm not defined by football,
it doesn't speak necessarily for me. And my thought was, well,
that that says a lot NFL general managers.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Here's a little secret. They're not looking for work life balance.
They're not. They don't care.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
They want you to be Kobe. They want you to
be obsessed. They want you to be Brady, they want
you to be Lamar Jackson. They don't want work life balance.
And I think it actually puts a light on Pooka.
What if next year he's got more than more than
a few drops.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Is that guy committed?
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Is he putting in the time he misses a couple
games in a row. Oh, maybe he's just protecting.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
His body over team.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
You introduce questions you don't need to introduce. And I
know most you young media, you're all pro player. Oh
the humanity of it. Nobody's looking for humanity. They're looking
for eighteen nineteen games one hundred and twenty catches playing hurt,
that's what they're looking for. You ever watch the show Survivor.
You ever watch that show? Who are the people that
unravel first on Survival? They miss their bed, they miss
(22:37):
their friends, and you don't root for them, You view
them as soft. You root when you watch Survivor for
the people that are totally obsessed.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
They really want to win. They're all in.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
That's what you want to see win. And again, it's
not the end of the world. But you start talking retirement.
This has been said for years, and you're already there.
You go back and look at it. Aaron Rodgers twenty
twenty three, Green Bay quoted, I'm ninety percent into retirement.
He's never been great since Big Ben started talking retirement
(23:11):
late Pittsburgh, it ended poorly. You can think about it,
you can financially plan for it. I wouldn't discuss it.
People are not looking for work life balance. They want
their player. I mean again, the NFL is a team sport.
As great as Mahomes is two Super Bowls, doesn't have
the right left tackle humiliated.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
You gotta play hurt. This is not baseball.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
There's a game tomorrow, There's not There's not a game
for six months. Play hurt my growing, Yeah, get over it.
Everybody's hurts. So it's it's one of those things. And
by the way, Puka's impact on the Rams, I mean,
they're they're they're very good with him. They're they're not
good without him. But in two years, by the way,
if you're sitting there on the draft board and you're thinking,
(23:56):
you know what, maybe time to go first round wide receiver.
If anything, it can hurt your leverage. So sometimes you
just got to keep things to yourself. And talking about
retirement at twenty three, I don't love it. Aaron started
talking about it four years ago, and I think green
(24:16):
Bay said, well that Jordan Love draft pick was pretty
smart after all, right, because if he talked about it
publicly in twenty twenty three, then you knew he had
talked about it privately, probably in twenty twenty one or
twenty twenty two. Because people talk privately about stuff before
they go public with stuff. They practice it on their
wives or their friends, they see their reaction from their family.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
So it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
But I don't love it because I talked to general
managers all the time and they're not looking for They're
not looking for work life balance. Nobody's interested in that.
They want you to be obsessed. Well that's not healthy.
Well it's football. It's not that healthy to begin with.
You're getting tackled by the strongest men on the planet.
Not that hell if again, protein shakes and play through
(25:04):
paid plyometrics, play through it.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
It's not the end of the world.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
But I don't I don't love when when Trevor Lawrence
says I'm not defined by football.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Actually that comment sort of defined you. You're not obsessed
by it.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
I know the young media stallions never comfortable with this topic.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Sorry, Colin, not your not your best work there. I'm
a huge fan of that take. I You're get to
catch some heat from the staff online. You know, the
creatines online that are savages. Like if you could retire
at thirty as a millionaire and not take hits to
the head deep into your thirtye don't you do that?
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, that's a no brainer. Yeah. And what did I
say to start the rant?
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Keep it to yourself, don't advertise it, don't tell everybody
in the room, your GM, your teammates, guys.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
I'm putting away a lot of money. I am out
of here.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Just just don't when you're interviewing for a job, what's
my vacation time. You can want six weeks, you'll probably
get three or four. Don't advertise it, don't talk about it.
You don't have to put every meal on Twitter. You
know you don't have to put.
Speaker 7 (26:14):
Everything on Twitter.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
You want them to lie in these media.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Absolutely all you think I tell before I negotiate with
Fox everything I'm thinking. You think they're telling me everything.
They're thinking Probably my age starts with a six. You
think they're telling me everything. You can keep secrets. That
doesn't mean it's all sinister. You don't tell everybody everything.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
It's not that.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I mean, listen, here's how you keep your job in
the NFL. Winning And by the way, as a general manager.
They all tell me this. They're already looking three drafts
down the road. You think the Rams are just worried
about this draft. They're looking at next year's quarterback draft
because Stafford interesting. But by the way, the Rams know
(26:57):
the best freshman quarterbacks in college football.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
They are three years.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I remember one time I ran into the ex president
of ESPN, George Bodenheimer, in the parking lot.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Years ago.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I think I've told this story before and George I
was talking about some plans I had and George said, oh,
I've got a five and a ten year plan.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
I said, how can you have a ten year plan?
Speaker 1 (27:19):
He goes, I know every right available over the next decade.
You think these networks are just making it up? Do
you think they're advertising it? No, Before companies let go
of three hundred people, it often catches people by surprise.
Why you don't think they knew about it six months out?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Of course they did.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
I can remember being I can remember being told a
secret a decade ago by somebody in management. He said,
you can never tell anybody this, and it was it's
a term now that's used a lot, that's overused. But
this manager said, at the other place, he goes just
this community. We were having a beer and I was,
you know, we were having a beer. He's one of
(28:00):
my friends. He said, just just don't mention this word ever, like,
don't mention it. And I said why, he goes, because
it's all we talk about in our senior advisory.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Keep it to yourself.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
At the same time, don't you think it helps the
teams prepare for as like Andrew look cut them.
Speaker 7 (28:20):
The Colts were not ready.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
They've been in a total spiral since he left Aaron Donald.
They had some time to prepare and guess what they
were so adorable?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Idealistic?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Do you think the teams tell you their plans in advance?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
They should? To the superstar, they should. You don't think
Fox runs to coward? Coward? What do you think about?
Why did you become twenty three? I forgot? Oh this idealistic?
Shouldn't shouldn't?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
I just shouldn't Players tell the teams what they're gonna
do three years out.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Not all players, but a handful of stars on the team,
the core right. I would if Joe Burrow says, hey,
I'm out of here at thirty five, you guys better
get your acting.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Get by the way.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I'll give you an I'll give you an example of
Kareem Abdul Jabbar Luel Sander at the time was in Milwaukee.
He did the team of solid.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
This is very rare. He told the Bucks owner, I
want out. Oh yeah, he would.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
He didn't make it public. He did the Bucks a
total solid. So in that instance, when you know you're
gone and you don't want to screw it, By the way,
he also kept it private because Kareem's very smart. He
knew if he let it out, the Lakers would have
less leverage. So Carmelo Anthony one time, to your point
was totally honest.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
So Jmax point is, you have to be honest.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Carmelo Anthony goes out and says, hey, I'm out of here.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Denver.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
He got screwed because everybody knew. Denver's like, we're not
gonna give the Knicks anything. So he ended up being
a ten million dollar chandelier in an empty mansion.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Keep it to yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
That doesn't mean I'm anti boss, but they're not telling
me everything.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
I'm not telling you everything. Poop of you want to retire,
I had no problem with it. A new side of Calhart, folks.
I gotta be honest.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
I gotta button it up when I'm around you now
better don't know if I can trust you with this
family Seek.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Trust, honey. How do I look in this dress? Great? Honey?
What about my new haircut? You are amazing? That's the answer,
always wisdom. I like it. Live in La It's the Herd.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in neonon Easter, not a em Pacific.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Covering the NBA since the early nineties, Fox Sports NBA
analyst our friend Rick Buker, you know it's I read
a really interesting story the other day in The Athletic
a writer I did not know, but I thought it
was an interesting point. He said, March has always been
a bad time. Late in March is bad for the
NBA because college basketball is playing with all this passion
(30:47):
and intensity, and NBA teams that aren't in the playoffs
are like Pelican Sixers last night. Who are these guys?
I had talked about this earlier, load management. Most of
the young guys like playing Tatum and s yet they
want to play one of the old guys like Jannis
want Knight's off.
Speaker 7 (31:03):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
I think you can, as they tweaked it with the
award sixty five games. You can tweak load management. I
do not believe watching Bill Simmons Celtic City with Larry
Bird last night, bad team, get Bird, great team. I
don't think you can control it. It's the unsolvable problem
we knew two years ago. Three years ago. Cooper Flag
(31:24):
was good, four years ago, Wemby was teams plan like
a three year planned by Popovitch to get Wemby. You
can argue when they didn't sign to Jeantey Murray. So
my takeaway is on all this is that there is
an unsolvable problem in the NBA. Football's got violence, you
can't solve it. Baseball's got no urgency. Is I just
(31:45):
think we have to get used to the bottom half
of the NBA is gonna tank.
Speaker 7 (31:51):
Yeah, I don't think it's the entire it's not the
bottom half. I agree with you in that the impact
of a single player is so great in the NBA
that you're never going to get rid of completely teams
at the end of the year saying we don't have
anything else to play for it, let's play for that guy.
And they're going to roll out lineups of guys as
(32:13):
you said, that you've never heard of before. But they
have done a great job of minimizing that, because it
used to be half of the league would be angling
in that direction. Now with the play in, you have
virtually like twelve teams in each conference that still have
a chance to get into the play in, And if
(32:34):
you get into the play in, then you get an
extra you know, potentially an extra game at home. That's money.
And if you get into the playoffs, now you still
have something to play for. And so those middle range
teams that their odds are long to get that number
one pick anyway, are going to say, we might as
well try. We're going to be a mid range, mid
first round pick anyway. The difference between being in the
(32:57):
lottery or being sixteen or seventeen is so minimal, why
don't we just go ahead and see if we can
make the play in. And like the Chicago Bulls right now,
normally in their situation, they'd be like, let's play for
the lottery. But if they can sneak into the play
in and they win, they have put the position themselves
(33:18):
where they only have to win one play in game
and now we're in the playoffs. That's a plus for
the front office and for everybody else. So I think
they've done as much as they possibly can. You're always
gonna have teams like Philadelphia and New Orleans that have
no hope. But again, as long as it's minimized with
a particular team like Detroit. Now Detroit was there for
(33:39):
two or three years, now they're not. They've turned that around.
They got a kid Cunningham. They've been smart in their picks,
so you're never going to completely get rid of it.
But I think they've done a pretty good job with
the play in in minimizing it.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
So there's always a honeymoon phase in relationships and in
pro sports, and the Luca Lebron honeymoon phase was points
and smiles and rainbows. And now they've lost seven of
ten and Lebron's not at one hundred percent? Is that
Is that something that could explain suddenly the Lakers looking
(34:16):
exhausted and joyless.
Speaker 7 (34:18):
But first of all, I just appreciate that the honeymoon
era with me and this show has not ended, and
it's been going on for years. I mean, it's just
it's a beautiful thing. You're welcome to America. Yes, when
when Lebron or when Luca first got there, there was
the euphoria of oh my god, we got Luka Doncics
(34:39):
and Lebron and Luca were doing their best to try
to figure out how do we play together? And more importantly,
they got everybody involved. And what happened when Lebron stepped
out is it became the Lucas Show. Yes, much like
it was in Dallas. Yes, and you heard the grumblings
for years, like lovely, great player, great teammates, but boy
(35:03):
is he ball dominant. We stand around a lot waiting
to see what he's.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Going to Jamack, are you hearing this?
Speaker 7 (35:12):
And so when Lebron stepped out, it became the Lucas
show and it looked like Dallas. And the reason that
you had everybody defending as hard as they were because
they were touching the ball. They knew that if they
ran the floor, the ball is going to be passed
ahead and I might get a fast break legs.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Lebron.
Speaker 7 (35:33):
Lebron has done as much of that as anybody said.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Lebron's always been more magic than Michael hundred percent. Is
the leader of an orchestra one hundred percent. Luca is
the lead singer.
Speaker 7 (35:42):
One hundred percent. But this is the tricky party here
where they are right now. Lebron at forty can't do
all the things. He doesn't draw double teams, he's not
attacking off the bounce and creating havoc defensively. Luca does that.
He does it at a slower but he's still attracting
(36:03):
far more attention. And so that's where they're kind of
stuck is that Luca plays a certain slower way in
terms of getting people involved that isn't quite the same
as Lebron at his best, and Lebron can't do it anymore,
so he needs Luca to do that, but he needs
it to Luca to do it faster. And Luca was
(36:23):
doing that initially, but you take Lebron out of the
equation and now it's like and and just getting a
little more comfortable. Right, I'm going to do it my way.
I need to get the numbers. I needed to justify
why I'm here.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
First month on the job. Everybody's on that best.
Speaker 7 (36:37):
Absolutely trying to make everybody look good. Said I'm the
best teammate. Right, Look, we're paying you X amount. We
need you to deliver. Oh okay, all right, I need
to augor In. That's what you say.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
I may be a little delusional because I you know,
I loved I love Staph and I love Kerr and
the Warriors culture and Draymon. I got to tell you
cominga now, I really like the Warriors in the postseason,
I really like them, and I know I'm thinking, okay,
honeymoon phase, but actually it's different because Jimmy is a
(37:11):
better playoff guy. Yes, and Jimmy will set the hard
screens in the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Yes. Is that this honeymoon? Let's be honest. Butler hasn't
played well, hasn't shot well. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
So my take is I really like the Warriors a lot.
Is that just is that confirmation bias on a trade?
Speaker 7 (37:29):
I love They're better, They're better, and they're more potentially
lethal than I thought they would be. I thought that
Jimmy Butler would give them a little bit of a bump.
I think it's more than that. But it still stands
on And this is for everybody in the Western Conference.
Who do you get matched up with and when do
(37:50):
you get matched up with them? Because the size is
still going to be an issue for them, even with
Jimmy Butler. If they see Denver or see Minnesota, there's
potential trouble there because they just don't have size. Not
at their best Jimmy Butler playing the four and then
(38:13):
Draymond Green playing the five like that's sort of them
at their best. And so it just depends on who
they see and when they see them. But there are
plenty of teams out there. The Houston's, the memphisis the
OKCS even where I like the Warriors chances, But that's
(38:35):
with everybody, Like there's just certain teams that are built
to play smaller and faster, and there are teams that
are bigger and like Denver can't necessarily play fast, and
so it's going to be a chess match there in
terms of which wins out.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
So we had this topic a week ago, and you
may have put this in my ear. Maybe I heard
you say it somewhere else. I don't recall. Sorry if
it wasn't Rick, but somebody had said on the platforms
that I listen to that every time Giannis gets brought up.
Buck fans hate the national media because it's always, hey.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
When's he going to be a Nick or a Warrior?
Speaker 1 (39:10):
But I think there's a bigger issue, and I thought
I saw this when the Bucks played the Warriors, is
that this league changes fast. I mean, Dwight Howard's unstoppable
and now he can't play like we don't need rebounders.
Can you hit a three? This is a cruel league.
NFL has always been tough guys, blocking and tackling, and
(39:31):
at the heart of it in baseball, throw strikes get
people out basketball changes and with your kitchen Wimby coming
into the league, who can hit the point centers, Yannis
with no jumper looks a little limited, and when Draymond
shuts him down, You're like, damn, that was fast from
(39:55):
the next kareem to kind of a limited player, who,
by the way, can I shoot free throws? Even though
he's at the line constell And it does feel like
he's aged quickly, right.
Speaker 7 (40:06):
Yeah, Well, look, if you think about where he started,
he's grown immensely unbelievable, right, I mean, his game has evolved.
But when we saw him at twenty four and twenty
five and now he's playing in the finals and he's
winning championships or winning a championship, the thought was he's
going to continue to evolve, and quite honestly, that hasn't
(40:30):
happened at the rate that we expected. I'm not so
much worried about the three point shot as I am
the mid range. He has to have a reliable mid range,
and that hasn't happened, and he has to be able
to consistently knock down a free throw. And I am
just it is. I sometimes just watch Giannie's free throw
(40:52):
form through the course of a season, and it changes
like eighteen times. He's trying something different like every two weeks,
and and and there's no consistency in doing that. And so, yes,
you make a great point in terms of we have
these bigs. Now we've you know, we've evolved from point
(41:13):
guards to point forwards to now point centers. And Yannis
ultimately in today's game, should be that. But he's for
him to be and I don't think he's a great passer,
but for him simply to operate in that mid post
area where he can get everybody involved, he has to
(41:34):
be a scoring threat from there, and right now he's not.
And so yeah, Yannis looks dated. The Milwaukee Bucks look
dated overall because they are older, and they they don't
have the athleticis stars.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Game looks a bit antiqoated.
Speaker 7 (41:50):
But it's also Yanis is at the heart of it.
If Yannis develops a mid range, just a consistent mid
range I can knock down free throws, the Milwaukee wouldn't
look nearly as old and out of contention as they do.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
What are your NBA scouts and executives and people in
your ecosystem saying about Cooper flag.
Speaker 7 (42:14):
He's the complete package, and that the beauty of him.
I would I would compare him to Pallo Benkaro in
terms of a guy coming in who can play, who
has the individual game, and yet also knows how to
play within a team. It's not all him right right,
and a game, very mature game, understands it and knows
(42:36):
how to play within a team, knows how to move
without the ball and be able to play with it
in his hands and be a playmaker, and obviously has
the size and athletics. Yeah. So look, is he on
the freakish level of a Wemba Yama? Not quite better?
Speaker 3 (42:53):
I'll throw this at you.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
He's Jason Tatum, but more developed at this age that
he does every thing well. I don't know if he's
great at anything, he's very good at everything.
Speaker 7 (43:04):
I would agree with that. And I think he's got
a little more grit than Jason.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
I think he does too. He's got a little nasty
and it exactly right Jason edge.
Speaker 7 (43:13):
Jason doesn't have it. I have to say, I was
so gratified to hear I saw a clip of Jason
Tatum's dad saying, you know, can your dad? He was asked,
can your son evolve and he was like, yes he can.
He needs to get a little more and he used
different words, but he needs to get nastier. And I
was like, thank you for all those knuckleheads out there
(43:36):
who are like.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
You have been so negative about Jason Tatum, He's got
no no, no.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
It was like, no, he's too nice of a guy.
Speaker 7 (43:44):
His dad is saying he's too nice of a guy.
So if you're complaining about anybody who points that out,
sit the bleep down.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
Thank you. And by the way, we both love Jason
Tatum without question.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Great king.
Speaker 7 (43:58):
I thought he should be there. I thought he'd be
the finals MVP. He was there, do everything.
Speaker 3 (44:03):
Guys have his best year ever.
Speaker 7 (44:05):
I know Jalen I know. Look, Jalen Brown has that
I want to be the closer, has more of that,
has more of that nasty. That's the that's the one
thing he has over Jason Tatum. But Jason Tatum does
everything for the Boston Celtics. I'm not worrying. He has
the sprain. That's a little questionable.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
Yeah, he never gets hurt.
Speaker 7 (44:24):
Never gets hurt, and it looked like a high sprain
which takes longer. But they can get through the first
round without him the way the Eastern Conferences. So he's
got a good four weeks. I think they're okay.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
Do you play the brackets at all?
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Uh?
Speaker 7 (44:38):
The with the NBA or the NC double A, NC
double A, n C double A and UH. For the
first time ever, I know the least about college basketball
this year, I'm in last I checked. I was tied
for first in my in my bracket. I've filled out too.
One is in last place, the other one's in first place.
So you can tell me I went wild on one
(44:58):
and I went convention on the other. And conventional is
that's a whole other subject. Conventional now is the way
to go because all of the star power, thanks to
the money is being allocated.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
It's funny when NIL came out, there was you know,
there was different opinions on it, but what it's done
is the same thing AI is going.
Speaker 7 (45:21):
To do and centralize things.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Yeah, it's just the big dogs will win, like AI.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
It's going to be six companies that that very cross
soft and control it and you know Google will have.
Speaker 7 (45:32):
Theirs and everybody thinks it's going to spread the wealth
and it's going to make it make an equal It's
going to do these act opposite. It's going to consolidate.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Good stuff today. Bring it. Met your son as well.
He's a football player on the East Coast. Let me guess.
Let me guess linebacker bingo.
Speaker 7 (45:48):
Very good, well done, he's got shoulders. Yeah, I have
to I have to uh negotiate my weight with him now.
I can't put him in his place.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
That's my life experience, everything which negotiation. And I mean
that lovingly.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
All right, good stuff. Rick Bulkerl live in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
It's to her.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon eastern non am Pacific.
Speaker 5 (46:12):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're
Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
You could catch us.
Speaker 5 (46:19):
Weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to four
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Speaker 3 (46:25):
Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.
Speaker 5 (46:27):
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Speaker 3 (46:44):
So check us out.
Speaker 5 (46:45):
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Most interactive show on planetar.
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Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowver
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Here we Go. It is a Tuesday, a lot to
talk about live in Los Angeles. It's the Herd. Wherever
you may be and however you may be listening. Thanks
for making us part of your dad. I was thinking
about this coming in in.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
What we do for a living.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Whenever there's like a big trade or like the NFL Draft,
everybody's always Jmax saying this team won the trade, this
team lost. And the biggest trade in recent memory is
Luca to the Lakers for Ad And there's a feeling
is Dallas will be terrible and the Lakers will win
several titles. But they would not have traded Luca. If
he was in great shape and was an unbelievable defender,
(01:08):
well then he'd be Lebron. You wouldn't trade him. They
traded him for a reason because they saw holes in
his game, which, by the way, he'd missed the last
two camps. He had multiple injuries. So here's what's interesting.
When Lebron leaves, they comes back and he's not at
one hundred percent, Lakers are trash. That's funny because Lebron,
(01:28):
even way past his prime. Lebron has won without ad,
has won without Austin Rivers and one without Luca, one
with bad coaches. But Luca, without Lebron or Lebron at
one hundred percent, Lakers get throttled by bad teams. Why
is that? That's why Dallas let him go? And I
(01:51):
wouldn't have but this idea that Luca was like Lebron,
elite defender, elite leader, elite offensive player, elevated every build
a franchise around him, no flaws. That's not what Luca
is and you're seeing it here is Luca without Lebron,
they've lost seven of ten. Or Luca now with Lebron
not quite in game shape, not quite at one hundred percent,
(02:14):
they're getting throttled by bad teams. And this has always
been my several year argument. If your company doesn't re
sign you even if you're talented, they see a hole
in your game. This is why I argued for years
Carmelo Anthony's a great all time player, Hall of Famer,
didn't elevate teammates, didn't play defense. Luca is a much
(02:34):
better version of Carmelo. By the way, Carmelo and Dominique,
Wilkins and Luca great scorers. None of them defend at
that level. Kobe and MJ are great scorers. They had
a different mindset, and you're gonna get points with Luca defense.
Forget about it elevating everybody. He'll elevate some players, he'll
(02:54):
take the ball away from others. Lebron's also a great
on court coach and leader. Luca's talking is often barking
at refs or trash talking. And by the way, that's
part of basketball's culture. It doesn't bother me. But Lebron
talking and Luca talking are two different things. I mean,
JJ Reddick has complained multiple times, yeah, we don't communicate
(03:16):
when Lebron's out.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Well, is it that where Lucas should step in.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Luca's game is much more individualists, you know, he is
much more an individual star, more of a lead singer
in a band who can occasionally step back, you know,
and let the bass player have his moment. But he's
a lead singer. Lebron's always been more magic than Michael
or Kobe. He's much more an orchestra leader, elevating everybody,
(03:44):
much more magic, stepping back, making sure there's a rhythm
and spacing. Lebron isn't a trash talker Luca is. Lebron
doesn't spend a lot of time barking at refs Luca does.
Lebron moves fear without the ball at times Luca doesn't.
Lebron defends Luca has very little interest, more of a
(04:06):
hobby than a vocation. And that is not to say
Lucas not great. But if you're at a company and
they're like, yeah, wait, we're gonna we're gonna move on,
it's not always the company was wrong.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Again. I'll make this argument. Charles Barkley's made it.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
When Dallas is totally healthy, probably next year they have
a chance to get to the finals. A d I mean, Kyrie,
even Max Christie can play a center rotation the kid
out of Duke.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
The minute.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Lebron's not around the minute. Lebron's not at one hundred percent.
What's JJ Reddick complain about. We don't communicate, We don't
rotate as well well they do when Lebron's there and
Luca's not. And this is the difference. Maybe this is
just the difference between like MJ and Barkley. You know,
one was always in great shape. One defended. They both
(04:59):
go a lot of points. But there is a gap
between all time Lebron and all time Luca. Don't kid yourself,
there is a major gap. And they've lost three of
they've won three of ten, and this is not one
hundred percent Lebron.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
So again, the way we do it in sports.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
This team got nothing in return, and this team got
the greatest player of all time. But it is interesting.
In the last ten games, seven no Lebron. And now
you're getting you know, a guy who missed a couple
of weeks. He's acknowledging he's not quite right defensive league,
not quite right. Cardio wise, they're not very good. And
(05:38):
here's JJ Reddick after losing to Orlando last night. I
don't know, we just like we look tired, and I
don't know what contributes to that. That happens periodically throughout
a season where the group gets tired.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
That's what it feels like right now.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
No, when they don't look tired is when braun is
playing not injured one hundred percent. You never hear that
the other team looks flat, doesn't communicate, looks tired. When
Lebron's not at one hundred percent and the Lakers look
tired and can't beat Orlando.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
It's funny how that works, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So this is something I talked about yesterday on the show,
and I don't think it's a conspiracy theory. It is
easy right now to rip Aaron Rodgers. What is he
making people wait for? So yesterday I brought this up
on the show, is that I think Aaron's too smart
to look at Pittsburgh and go this is perfect. He
(06:37):
flew there to the Steelers and he didn't leave with
a contract.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Now he may sign by the end of.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
This rant, but he didn't sign for the great Pittsburgh Steelers.
And Albert Breer had a story today that Aaron Rodgers
is telling friends. We talked about this yesterday. He's looking
for a better culture. He looked at Green Bay and
(07:04):
realizes not only a good culture, but an offensive culture.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And this is what I said.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I think Aaron Rodgers is sitting around for a couple
of weeks, and I think he's right waiting on the
Niners Brock party. I don't think the Niners are gonna
pay Brock pretty fifty nine million a year, and that,
according to his agent, is what he wants. And I
can't believe I'm saying this, but Aaron needs to go
in another darkness retreat. Aaron needs to hide, avoid commitment,
(07:30):
plan an excursion. Call your travel agent if people use
those anymore. The Steelers as fools goal Tomlin can't figure
out the offense. It's been seven years, forget about it,
and fifty nine.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Listen to this.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
It was sixty sixty year before fifty nine quarterbacks played
last year. There will be opportunities. You could argue Kirk
Cousins should have waited last year until after the draft
and not gone to Atlanta. But he signed in mar
and then Atlanta drafted a quarterback. Is it the worst
(08:03):
thing in the world for Aaron to not sign wait
on the draft, see how the dominoes fall, and somebody
could go, guys, we didn't get a quarterback. We're in
trouble here now now, I think you can fairly say,
and this isn't really a criticism of farv and Aaron Rodgers.
I mean, green Bay's pretty small and sleepy. Is that
maybe they didn't appreciate it. Grass is greener, you know,
(08:26):
friendly media, good organization. That's not a real criticist. I
can see somebody playing for fifteen years in Green Bay
and thinking, man, I'm kind of jealous of those New York,
LA San Francisco, you know, big city teams. I get
that that's not a criticism, but I'm not given brought
pretty fifty eight million dollars. In one of the reasons,
I've said this before on the show. If you wonder
if you're making a great move, you could be a
(08:47):
TV executive, You could be an NFL general manager. If
you are about to make a big move, what does
your rival think? And you know who would be okay
with Purty getting sixty million a year. Sean McVay, he'd
be really okay with that, with his young defense, little
(09:09):
Brock Purty, not a big arm Brock Purty. Sean McVay
would be just fine having Matt Stafford for two more years.
And they're locked in on a sixty million dollar a
year brock Purty deal. So it's you know, I just
look at this whole thing. Is that Aaron multiple reports
said he really wanted the Vikings offer. Why because of
(09:32):
Kevin O'Connell. It wasn't the receiver, it was Kevin O'Connell
offensive coach Aaron last year, in his last ten starts,
do you realize this, with arguably the worst coaching staff
in the league, certainly the worst offensive coaching staff in
the league, and a mediocre O line had more touchdown
passes in a higher passer rating than brock Purty with
Kyle Shanahan. I honestly think, and again, he could sign
(09:56):
with Pittsburg today.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
I know you don't have to like Aaron.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
You can be entful about his vaccine status and is whatever,
but he's not a dummy. And when you see those
pictures in Malibu when he's listening to stuff, I think
he's sitting there thinking Minnesota would have been great. I
know the division, I love the coach, I love their weapons.
O line got upgraded significantly in Minnesota in the offseason.
(10:20):
I think he looks at Pittsburgh and so much of
it sounds good. Steelers defense Mike Tomlin battle line, lost
their left tackle, two high maintenance wide receivers, spend more
money on defense than anybody in the league. Is that
really a great fit? Does Aaron feel like a Pittsburgh guy?
(10:41):
He loves Malibu and he loves New York and if
the Giants were humming, he'd probably sign there. But this
Albert Breer story that Aaron is talking to people like
he wants the organization is key, not just the personnel.
And I think once Minnesota said no thanks, I think
San Francisco is something to keep your eye on again.
(11:04):
Kirk Cousins signed in March, he would not have signed
with Atlanta in April. Late April after the Panis they
wouldn't have signed there. Kirk Cousins now is looking for
a new team. Aaron could think, well, what if I
signed blank? What I signed with Pittsburgh and all of
a sudden somebody falls and they end up picking a
quarterback mid to late first round Jackson Dart.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
What am I doing here?
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I'm just I'm saying I'm not advocating for in season ayahuasca,
but another darkness retreat is not a terrible idea for
Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Take a deep breath, go hide for a while.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So Jay Mac, I'm still I don't mean to gloat,
but fifteen of sixteen teams left in the tournament. I
couldn't sleep last night. I just had I had tom Izzode,
you know.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
In my sleep last night. Very excited. Let's sign get
into that.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Yeah, yeah, let's go back to Aaron Rodgers. I got
this stat from a Jets fan. So Aaron Rodgers had
the second most passing yards of any quarterback in the
league in the fourth quarter. And know those weren't clutch comebacks,
those who are basically the Jets getting buried after three
quarters and Rogers just stat padding. So I know you're
pumped up about those final ten games, but thirty one
(12:17):
percent of his yards, thirty one percent of his touchdowns
came in the fourth quarters.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Well, you know, when you're old, those bones take a
couple of quarters to warm up.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Yeah, excuse his excuses.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
So there is it possible that there is an unsolvable
problem and every league has one and all go over
him coming up next. Every league has one unsolvable problem?
Is that it's just baked in, embedded in the sport.
Does the NBA have a tanking issue, and there's nothing
they can do about it. And I'll talk about that next.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and neon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
All right, welcome back, Nick, right one hour from now,
about fifty minutes actually from now. So there was a story.
You know, there's been a lot of talk about load
management in the NBA. Here's the good news. The young
players like Sga Tatum at those guys.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Like to play. They play every night.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
So a lot of the old school guys, Lebron's gonna
take some time off ad for injuries, can take time off,
but the young guys mostly like to play. Yannis will
take time off, bigger guy, body falls apart a little bit.
Dame can take night. Of young guys want to play.
Tatum wants to play, Jalen Brown and those guys want
to play. But there is the other issue that we
talked about yesterday, late season tanking. So I looked at
(13:35):
the Pelicans and Sixers played last night. The starting lineups.
They're embarrassing. I mean, I would not watch them play
if they were playing in my backyard. I mean it
was just like just a bunch of nonsense. And I
think the league has tried to fix it by flattening
the lottery odds so tanking won't help you, so you
can have the worst record and not get the number
one pick.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
So the league has really tried to do this.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I think load management David Stern solved it with fines,
and I think a lot of these young guys want
to play more games, So I think load management's bad.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
But I think you can tweak it. They did this year.
They tweaked it.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
You don't win certain awards unless you play over sixty
five games. I think that's been helpful. I don't think
you can solve the tanking thing. And it's hurting the ratings.
There's no question the quality of basketball in the NBA
march on from the non playoff teams is garbage. It's
turning off fans and hurting the ratings. And maybe it's
just this. Every sport has an unsolvable issue. The NFL
(14:30):
has violence, and players get hurt sometime seriously, and there's concussions,
and they've tried to end them. They can't totally hockey.
Most of us didn't play, We didn't play as kids.
We're not connected to it. It feels like Canada's sport baseball.
There's really no urgency because the season's so long until
like late September and October. And in the NBA and
(14:53):
basketball and we know this and it's the same and
international soccer. If you get a superstar, it changes everything
in one year. I mean, I was just watching Celtic City,
the Bill Simmons Project. I watched two episodes last night.
Episode three, loved it, and then episode four with Larry.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Bird they were bad. Larry Bird arrives, they were good.
It was that fast.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
And so I think it's also just part of the
basketball culture from AAU to college to the NBA. Go
get the guy, you win immediately. And in basketball it's
different because you can spot the next great basketball prodigy
at fourteen years old. Go google when Wemby was first spotted,
(15:36):
or Luca was spotted, or Lebron was first spotted. It's
fourteen to fifteen years old. Cooper Flag two years ago, well,
let's say one year ago, he was about sixteen seventeen
years old. Everybody's like, oh, that'll be the number one guy.
That's not the case in football. Who are you tanking
for the three best players in the league are Mahomes,
Josh Allen, and arguably Lamar Jackson. They went to second
(15:59):
tier football schools. They didn't get drafted number one. They
had doubters all the way through. College football is more
about even when you're great. We've seen Patrick Mahomes get
blown out in two Super Bowls. Why left tackles bad.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Cleveland?
Speaker 1 (16:16):
When Lebron showed up. He was scoring twenty five a
night as a rookie for a horrible Cleveland franchise. He
was still a star on both ends of the floor.
So my take is Cooper Flag now is seventeen people
have known for the last year minimum get Cooper Flag.
That's the guy, and so teams can plan two and
(16:40):
three years out. I mean there was Wemby talk three
years ago. San Antonio is like suddenly started letting players go.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
Remember they didn't resign, Like was it de Jontay Murray
or something? Why why wouldn't they re sign him?
Speaker 1 (16:55):
They wanted Wemby and Papavitch wasn't getting fired. So I
do think to some degree this is an unsolvable problem.
I think load management. I think the NBA has done
things like, you got to play sixty five games, so
you don't win awards. I think the young players have
seen that, and a SGA Jason Tatum. Simmons talked about
(17:21):
this yesterday. Jason Tatum, he's the first of the arena,
last to leave.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
He likes to play. It's been Tatum season.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
He's the best guy in the team, and other than
SGA and Jokic, she's been the most day to day
impactful guy in the league.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
And he's really durable, which I think.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
You know, both of us have criticized NBA players for
you play sixty five games and you call it a season,
and you take like little sabbaticals or you leave or
your nurse injuries.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Tatum's out there all the time. I've said this.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I've gone to see Tatum play four times, never in Boston.
First guy on the floor two hours before tip off
working on his jumper. So I it was shocking last
night Tatum tweak his ankle yesterday, which was shocking because
he's so durable and he plays both ends of the floor,
and so I think you can work your way around
load management. I do not think in basketball you can
(18:12):
work your way around tanking.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Find us. It doesn't.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
We get Wemby. We're gonna make He'll make the franchise.
We're two billion more dollars. Go ahead find me. Find
me fifty million dollars as an owner. Go ahead, go ahead,
find me. Well, what it was lebron Worth for the
Cavaliers two billion dollars minimum. You can't find teams enough
that tank owners don't care. But if I you know,
(18:38):
I buy a team for two billion dollars, it'll be
worth eight over the next decade.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Go ahead, find me. What do I care? I want Wemby,
I want Cooper Flag.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd
to listen live or on demand whenever you like.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're
Covino and Rich on Fox or Radio. You could catch
us weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to
four Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course the
iHeartRadio app. Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on
in the world. We have a lot of fun talking
about the stories behind the stories in the world of
(19:16):
sports and pop culture, stories that well other shows don't
seem to have the time to discuss. And the fact
that we've been friends for the last twenty years and
still work together.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
I mean that says something.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
Right, So check us out. We like to get you
involved too, Take your phone calls, chop it up. As
they say, I'd say, the most interactive show on Fox
Sports Radio, maybe the most interactive show on planetar. Be
sure to check out Covino and Rich live on Fox
Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app from five to seven
pm Eastern two to four Pacific, And if you miss
any of the live show, just search Covino and Rich
(19:46):
wherever you get your podcasts, and of course on social
media that's Covino and Rich.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
You know, it's funny you have kids, and all my
kids now except one, are in their twenties, and so
they go on job interviews, and you know, I've talked
to my kids about this, like there's certain things. You know,
I'm not going to tell you. I'm not gonna helicopter parent,
but you know I'll tell my daughter. Yeah, you probably
don't want to bring up vacation time on your first interview.
(20:13):
I have a company fifty employees, growing fast. If you're
asking about that in the first five minutes, you're probably
not built for my company. I like grinders. Sorry, there
are things you just don't say in life. Even though
you think them, you may not want to say them.
And this was a moment yesterday. It's not the end
of the world. But football is the ultimate team sport.
(20:36):
It is the ultimate team sport. Everybody plays her, everybody
plays her. You grab that rope and if there's one
loose grip on that rope, it can screw up the
whole team. One guy not committed. And I heard Pooka
Nakua yesterday at twenty three years old say this, and
(20:58):
I didn't love it.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
I want to retire at the age of thirty. I'm
twenty three right now. I'm going into year three, so
like ten years, it wouldn't even be ten years. It'd
be like maybe seven or eight. But like ad I
think of Aaron Donald, like man, like he to go
out at the top. I think it would be super cool,
hopefully like the rest of your career will go healthy.
But like Man, you have shoulder surgery, you have knee surgery,
you have ankle and be like, yo, like, by the
(21:20):
time my kids could be eighteen, I'm like, I could
be barely walking if I like, if you play the
game and like you sustain all the injuries.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Don't love it.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
You know, when Trevor Lawrence said, I'm not defined by football,
it doesn't speak necessarily for me. And my thought was, well,
that that says a lot NFL general managers.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Here's a little secret. They're not looking for work life balance.
They're not. They don't care.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
They want you to be Kobe. They want you to
be obsessed. They want you to be Brady, they want
you to be Lamar Jackson. They don't want work life balance.
And I think it actually puts a light on Pooka.
What if next year he's got more than more than
a few drops.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Is that guy committed?
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Is he putting in the time he misses a couple
games in a row. Oh, maybe he's just protecting.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
His body over team.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
You introduce questions you don't need to introduce. And I
know most you young media, you're all pro player. Oh
the humanity of it. Nobody's looking for humanity. They're looking
for eighteen nineteen games one hundred and twenty catches playing hurt,
that's what they're looking for. You ever watch the show Survivor.
You ever watch that show? Who are the people that
unravel first on Survival? They miss their bed, they miss
(22:37):
their friends, and you don't root for them, You view
them as soft. You root when you watch Survivor for
the people that are totally obsessed.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
They really want to win. They're all in.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
That's what you want to see win. And again, it's
not the end of the world. But you start talking retirement.
This has been said for years, and you're already there.
You go back and look at it. Aaron Rodgers twenty
twenty three, Green Bay quoted, I'm ninety percent into retirement.
He's never been great since Big Ben started talking retirement
(23:11):
late Pittsburgh, it ended poorly. You can think about it,
you can financially plan for it. I wouldn't discuss it.
People are not looking for work life balance. They want
their player. I mean again, the NFL is a team sport.
As great as Mahomes is two Super Bowls, doesn't have
the right left tackle humiliated.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
You gotta play hurt. This is not baseball.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
There's a game tomorrow, There's not There's not a game
for six months. Play hurt my growing, Yeah, get over it.
Everybody's hurts. So it's it's one of those things. And
by the way, Puka's impact on the Rams, I mean,
they're they're they're very good with him. They're they're not
good without him. But in two years, by the way,
if you're sitting there on the draft board and you're thinking,
(23:56):
you know what, maybe time to go first round wide receiver.
If anything, it can hurt your leverage. So sometimes you
just got to keep things to yourself. And talking about
retirement at twenty three, I don't love it. Aaron started
talking about it four years ago, and I think green
(24:16):
Bay said, well that Jordan Love draft pick was pretty
smart after all, right, because if he talked about it
publicly in twenty twenty three, then you knew he had
talked about it privately, probably in twenty twenty one or
twenty twenty two. Because people talk privately about stuff before
they go public with stuff. They practice it on their
wives or their friends, they see their reaction from their family.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
So it's not the end of the world.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
But I don't love it because I talked to general
managers all the time and they're not looking for They're
not looking for work life balance. Nobody's interested in that.
They want you to be obsessed. Well that's not healthy.
Well it's football. It's not that healthy to begin with.
You're getting tackled by the strongest men on the planet.
Not that hell if again, protein shakes and play through
(25:04):
paid plyometrics, play through it.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
It's not the end of the world.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
But I don't I don't love when when Trevor Lawrence
says I'm not defined by football.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Actually that comment sort of defined you. You're not obsessed
by it.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
I know the young media stallions never comfortable with this topic.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Sorry, Colin, not your not your best work there. I'm
a huge fan of that take. I You're get to
catch some heat from the staff online. You know, the
creatines online that are savages. Like if you could retire
at thirty as a millionaire and not take hits to
the head deep into your thirtye don't you do that?
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, that's a no brainer. Yeah. And what did I
say to start the rant?
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Keep it to yourself, don't advertise it, don't tell everybody
in the room, your GM, your teammates, guys.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
I'm putting away a lot of money. I am out
of here.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Just just don't when you're interviewing for a job, what's
my vacation time. You can want six weeks, you'll probably
get three or four. Don't advertise it, don't talk about it.
You don't have to put every meal on Twitter. You
know you don't have to put.
Speaker 7 (26:14):
Everything on Twitter.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
You want them to lie in these media.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Absolutely all you think I tell before I negotiate with
Fox everything I'm thinking. You think they're telling me everything.
They're thinking Probably my age starts with a six. You
think they're telling me everything. You can keep secrets. That
doesn't mean it's all sinister. You don't tell everybody everything.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
It's not that.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I mean, listen, here's how you keep your job in
the NFL. Winning And by the way, as a general manager.
They all tell me this. They're already looking three drafts
down the road. You think the Rams are just worried
about this draft. They're looking at next year's quarterback draft
because Stafford interesting. But by the way, the Rams know
(26:57):
the best freshman quarterbacks in college football.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
They are three years.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
I remember one time I ran into the ex president
of ESPN, George Bodenheimer, in the parking lot.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Years ago.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I think I've told this story before and George I
was talking about some plans I had and George said, oh,
I've got a five and a ten year plan.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
I said, how can you have a ten year plan?
Speaker 1 (27:19):
He goes, I know every right available over the next decade.
You think these networks are just making it up? Do
you think they're advertising it? No, Before companies let go
of three hundred people, it often catches people by surprise.
Why you don't think they knew about it six months out?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Of course they did.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
I can remember being I can remember being told a
secret a decade ago by somebody in management. He said,
you can never tell anybody this, and it was it's
a term now that's used a lot, that's overused. But
this manager said, at the other place, he goes just
this community. We were having a beer and I was,
you know, we were having a beer. He's one of
(28:00):
my friends. He said, just just don't mention this word ever, like,
don't mention it. And I said why, he goes, because
it's all we talk about in our senior advisory.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Keep it to yourself.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
At the same time, don't you think it helps the
teams prepare for as like Andrew look cut them.
Speaker 7 (28:20):
The Colts were not ready.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
They've been in a total spiral since he left Aaron Donald.
They had some time to prepare and guess what they
were so adorable?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Idealistic?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Do you think the teams tell you their plans in advance?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
They should? To the superstar, they should. You don't think
Fox runs to coward? Coward? What do you think about?
Why did you become twenty three? I forgot? Oh this idealistic?
Shouldn't shouldn't?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
I just shouldn't Players tell the teams what they're gonna
do three years out.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Not all players, but a handful of stars on the team,
the core right. I would if Joe Burrow says, hey,
I'm out of here at thirty five, you guys better
get your acting.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Get by the way.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I'll give you an I'll give you an example of
Kareem Abdul Jabbar Luel Sander at the time was in Milwaukee.
He did the team of solid.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
This is very rare. He told the Bucks owner, I
want out. Oh yeah, he would.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
He didn't make it public. He did the Bucks a
total solid. So in that instance, when you know you're
gone and you don't want to screw it, By the way,
he also kept it private because Kareem's very smart. He
knew if he let it out, the Lakers would have
less leverage. So Carmelo Anthony one time, to your point
was totally honest.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
So Jmax point is, you have to be honest.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Carmelo Anthony goes out and says, hey, I'm out of here.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Denver.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
He got screwed because everybody knew. Denver's like, we're not
gonna give the Knicks anything. So he ended up being
a ten million dollar chandelier in an empty mansion.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Keep it to yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
That doesn't mean I'm anti boss, but they're not telling
me everything.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
I'm not telling you everything. Poop of you want to retire,
I had no problem with it. A new side of Calhart, folks.
I gotta be honest.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
I gotta button it up when I'm around you now
better don't know if I can trust you with this
family Seek.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Trust, honey. How do I look in this dress? Great? Honey?
What about my new haircut? You are amazing? That's the answer,
always wisdom. I like it. Live in La It's the Herd.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in neonon Easter, not a em Pacific.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Covering the NBA since the early nineties, Fox Sports NBA
analyst our friend Rick Buker, you know it's I read
a really interesting story the other day in The Athletic
a writer I did not know, but I thought it
was an interesting point. He said, March has always been
a bad time. Late in March is bad for the
NBA because college basketball is playing with all this passion
(30:47):
and intensity, and NBA teams that aren't in the playoffs
are like Pelican Sixers last night. Who are these guys?
I had talked about this earlier, load management. Most of
the young guys like playing Tatum and s yet they
want to play one of the old guys like Jannis
want Knight's off.
Speaker 7 (31:03):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
I think you can, as they tweaked it with the
award sixty five games. You can tweak load management. I
do not believe watching Bill Simmons Celtic City with Larry
Bird last night, bad team, get Bird, great team. I
don't think you can control it. It's the unsolvable problem
we knew two years ago. Three years ago. Cooper Flag
(31:24):
was good, four years ago, Wemby was teams plan like
a three year planned by Popovitch to get Wemby. You
can argue when they didn't sign to Jeantey Murray. So
my takeaway is on all this is that there is
an unsolvable problem in the NBA. Football's got violence, you
can't solve it. Baseball's got no urgency. Is I just
(31:45):
think we have to get used to the bottom half
of the NBA is gonna tank.
Speaker 7 (31:51):
Yeah, I don't think it's the entire it's not the
bottom half. I agree with you in that the impact
of a single player is so great in the NBA
that you're never going to get rid of completely teams
at the end of the year saying we don't have
anything else to play for it, let's play for that guy.
And they're going to roll out lineups of guys as
(32:13):
you said, that you've never heard of before. But they
have done a great job of minimizing that, because it
used to be half of the league would be angling
in that direction. Now with the play in, you have
virtually like twelve teams in each conference that still have
a chance to get into the play in, And if
(32:34):
you get into the play in, then you get an
extra you know, potentially an extra game at home. That's money.
And if you get into the playoffs, now you still
have something to play for. And so those middle range
teams that their odds are long to get that number
one pick anyway, are going to say, we might as
well try. We're going to be a mid range, mid
first round pick anyway. The difference between being in the
(32:57):
lottery or being sixteen or seventeen is so minimal, why
don't we just go ahead and see if we can
make the play in. And like the Chicago Bulls right now,
normally in their situation, they'd be like, let's play for
the lottery. But if they can sneak into the play
in and they win, they have put the position themselves
(33:18):
where they only have to win one play in game
and now we're in the playoffs. That's a plus for
the front office and for everybody else. So I think
they've done as much as they possibly can. You're always
gonna have teams like Philadelphia and New Orleans that have
no hope. But again, as long as it's minimized with
a particular team like Detroit. Now Detroit was there for
(33:39):
two or three years, now they're not. They've turned that around.
They got a kid Cunningham. They've been smart in their picks,
so you're never going to completely get rid of it.
But I think they've done a pretty good job with
the play in in minimizing it.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
So there's always a honeymoon phase in relationships and in
pro sports, and the Luca Lebron honeymoon phase was points
and smiles and rainbows. And now they've lost seven of
ten and Lebron's not at one hundred percent? Is that
Is that something that could explain suddenly the Lakers looking
(34:16):
exhausted and joyless.
Speaker 7 (34:18):
But first of all, I just appreciate that the honeymoon
era with me and this show has not ended, and
it's been going on for years. I mean, it's just
it's a beautiful thing. You're welcome to America. Yes, when
when Lebron or when Luca first got there, there was
the euphoria of oh my god, we got Luka Doncics
(34:39):
and Lebron and Luca were doing their best to try
to figure out how do we play together? And more importantly,
they got everybody involved. And what happened when Lebron stepped
out is it became the Lucas Show. Yes, much like
it was in Dallas. Yes, and you heard the grumblings
for years, like lovely, great player, great teammates, but boy
(35:03):
is he ball dominant. We stand around a lot waiting
to see what he's.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Going to Jamack, are you hearing this?
Speaker 7 (35:12):
And so when Lebron stepped out, it became the Lucas
show and it looked like Dallas. And the reason that
you had everybody defending as hard as they were because
they were touching the ball. They knew that if they
ran the floor, the ball is going to be passed
ahead and I might get a fast break legs.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Lebron.
Speaker 7 (35:33):
Lebron has done as much of that as anybody said.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Lebron's always been more magic than Michael hundred percent. Is
the leader of an orchestra one hundred percent. Luca is
the lead singer.
Speaker 7 (35:42):
One hundred percent. But this is the tricky party here
where they are right now. Lebron at forty can't do
all the things. He doesn't draw double teams, he's not
attacking off the bounce and creating havoc defensively. Luca does that.
He does it at a slower but he's still attracting
(36:03):
far more attention. And so that's where they're kind of
stuck is that Luca plays a certain slower way in
terms of getting people involved that isn't quite the same
as Lebron at his best, and Lebron can't do it anymore,
so he needs Luca to do that, but he needs
it to Luca to do it faster. And Luca was
(36:23):
doing that initially, but you take Lebron out of the
equation and now it's like and and just getting a
little more comfortable. Right, I'm going to do it my way.
I need to get the numbers. I needed to justify
why I'm here.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
First month on the job. Everybody's on that best.
Speaker 7 (36:37):
Absolutely trying to make everybody look good. Said I'm the
best teammate. Right, Look, we're paying you X amount. We
need you to deliver. Oh okay, all right, I need
to augor In. That's what you say.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
I may be a little delusional because I you know,
I loved I love Staph and I love Kerr and
the Warriors culture and Draymon. I got to tell you
cominga now, I really like the Warriors in the postseason,
I really like them, and I know I'm thinking, okay,
honeymoon phase, but actually it's different because Jimmy is a
(37:11):
better playoff guy. Yes, and Jimmy will set the hard
screens in the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Yes. Is that this honeymoon? Let's be honest. Butler hasn't
played well, hasn't shot well. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
So my take is I really like the Warriors a lot.
Is that just is that confirmation bias on a trade?
Speaker 7 (37:29):
I love They're better, They're better, and they're more potentially
lethal than I thought they would be. I thought that
Jimmy Butler would give them a little bit of a bump.
I think it's more than that. But it still stands
on And this is for everybody in the Western Conference.
Who do you get matched up with and when do
(37:50):
you get matched up with them? Because the size is
still going to be an issue for them, even with
Jimmy Butler. If they see Denver or see Minnesota, there's
potential trouble there because they just don't have size. Not
at their best Jimmy Butler playing the four and then
(38:13):
Draymond Green playing the five like that's sort of them
at their best. And so it just depends on who
they see and when they see them. But there are
plenty of teams out there. The Houston's, the memphisis the
OKCS even where I like the Warriors chances, But that's
(38:35):
with everybody, Like there's just certain teams that are built
to play smaller and faster, and there are teams that
are bigger and like Denver can't necessarily play fast, and
so it's going to be a chess match there in
terms of which wins out.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
So we had this topic a week ago, and you
may have put this in my ear. Maybe I heard
you say it somewhere else. I don't recall. Sorry if
it wasn't Rick, but somebody had said on the platforms
that I listen to that every time Giannis gets brought up.
Buck fans hate the national media because it's always, hey.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
When's he going to be a Nick or a Warrior?
Speaker 1 (39:10):
But I think there's a bigger issue, and I thought
I saw this when the Bucks played the Warriors, is
that this league changes fast. I mean, Dwight Howard's unstoppable
and now he can't play like we don't need rebounders.
Can you hit a three? This is a cruel league.
NFL has always been tough guys, blocking and tackling, and
(39:31):
at the heart of it in baseball, throw strikes get
people out basketball changes and with your kitchen Wimby coming
into the league, who can hit the point centers, Yannis
with no jumper looks a little limited, and when Draymond
shuts him down, You're like, damn, that was fast from
(39:55):
the next kareem to kind of a limited player, who,
by the way, can I shoot free throws? Even though
he's at the line constell And it does feel like
he's aged quickly, right.
Speaker 7 (40:06):
Yeah, Well, look, if you think about where he started,
he's grown immensely unbelievable, right, I mean, his game has evolved.
But when we saw him at twenty four and twenty
five and now he's playing in the finals and he's
winning championships or winning a championship, the thought was he's
going to continue to evolve, and quite honestly, that hasn't
(40:30):
happened at the rate that we expected. I'm not so
much worried about the three point shot as I am
the mid range. He has to have a reliable mid range,
and that hasn't happened, and he has to be able
to consistently knock down a free throw. And I am
just it is. I sometimes just watch Giannie's free throw
(40:52):
form through the course of a season, and it changes
like eighteen times. He's trying something different like every two weeks,
and and and there's no consistency in doing that. And so, yes,
you make a great point in terms of we have
these bigs. Now we've you know, we've evolved from point
(41:13):
guards to point forwards to now point centers. And Yannis
ultimately in today's game, should be that. But he's for
him to be and I don't think he's a great passer,
but for him simply to operate in that mid post
area where he can get everybody involved, he has to
(41:34):
be a scoring threat from there, and right now he's not.
And so yeah, Yannis looks dated. The Milwaukee Bucks look
dated overall because they are older, and they they don't
have the athleticis stars.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Game looks a bit antiqoated.
Speaker 7 (41:50):
But it's also Yanis is at the heart of it.
If Yannis develops a mid range, just a consistent mid
range I can knock down free throws, the Milwaukee wouldn't
look nearly as old and out of contention as they do.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
What are your NBA scouts and executives and people in
your ecosystem saying about Cooper flag.
Speaker 7 (42:14):
He's the complete package, and that the beauty of him.
I would I would compare him to Pallo Benkaro in
terms of a guy coming in who can play, who
has the individual game, and yet also knows how to
play within a team. It's not all him right right,
and a game, very mature game, understands it and knows
(42:36):
how to play within a team, knows how to move
without the ball and be able to play with it
in his hands and be a playmaker, and obviously has
the size and athletics. Yeah. So look, is he on
the freakish level of a Wemba Yama? Not quite better?
Speaker 3 (42:53):
I'll throw this at you.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
He's Jason Tatum, but more developed at this age that
he does every thing well. I don't know if he's
great at anything, he's very good at everything.
Speaker 7 (43:04):
I would agree with that. And I think he's got
a little more grit than Jason.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
I think he does too. He's got a little nasty
and it exactly right Jason edge.
Speaker 7 (43:13):
Jason doesn't have it. I have to say, I was
so gratified to hear I saw a clip of Jason
Tatum's dad saying, you know, can your dad? He was asked,
can your son evolve and he was like, yes he can.
He needs to get a little more and he used
different words, but he needs to get nastier. And I
was like, thank you for all those knuckleheads out there
(43:36):
who are like.
Speaker 4 (43:37):
You have been so negative about Jason Tatum, He's got
no no, no.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
It was like, no, he's too nice of a guy.
Speaker 7 (43:44):
His dad is saying he's too nice of a guy.
So if you're complaining about anybody who points that out,
sit the bleep down.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
Thank you. And by the way, we both love Jason
Tatum without question.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Great king.
Speaker 7 (43:58):
I thought he should be there. I thought he'd be
the finals MVP. He was there, do everything.
Speaker 3 (44:03):
Guys have his best year ever.
Speaker 7 (44:05):
I know Jalen I know. Look, Jalen Brown has that
I want to be the closer, has more of that,
has more of that nasty. That's the that's the one
thing he has over Jason Tatum. But Jason Tatum does
everything for the Boston Celtics. I'm not worrying. He has
the sprain. That's a little questionable.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
Yeah, he never gets hurt.
Speaker 7 (44:24):
Never gets hurt, and it looked like a high sprain
which takes longer. But they can get through the first
round without him the way the Eastern Conferences. So he's
got a good four weeks. I think they're okay.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
Do you play the brackets at all?
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Uh?
Speaker 7 (44:38):
The with the NBA or the NC double A, NC
double A, n C double A and UH. For the
first time ever, I know the least about college basketball
this year, I'm in last I checked. I was tied
for first in my in my bracket. I've filled out too.
One is in last place, the other one's in first place.
So you can tell me I went wild on one
(44:58):
and I went convention on the other. And conventional is
that's a whole other subject. Conventional now is the way
to go because all of the star power, thanks to
the money is being allocated.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
It's funny when NIL came out, there was you know,
there was different opinions on it, but what it's done
is the same thing AI is going.
Speaker 7 (45:21):
To do and centralize things.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Yeah, it's just the big dogs will win, like AI.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
It's going to be six companies that that very cross
soft and control it and you know Google will have.
Speaker 7 (45:32):
Theirs and everybody thinks it's going to spread the wealth
and it's going to make it make an equal It's
going to do these act opposite. It's going to consolidate.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Good stuff today. Bring it. Met your son as well.
He's a football player on the East Coast. Let me guess.
Let me guess linebacker bingo.
Speaker 7 (45:48):
Very good, well done, he's got shoulders. Yeah, I have
to I have to uh negotiate my weight with him now.
I can't put him in his place.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
That's my life experience, everything which negotiation. And I mean
that lovingly.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
All right, good stuff. Rick Bulkerl live in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
It's to her.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon eastern non am Pacific.
Speaker 5 (46:12):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together we're
Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
You could catch us.
Speaker 5 (46:19):
Weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to four
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.
Speaker 5 (46:27):
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on
in the world. We have a lot of fun talking
about the stories behind the stories in the world of
sports and pop culture. Stories that well, other shows don't
seem to have the time to discuss. And the fact
that we've been friends for the last twenty years and
still work together. I mean that says something, right.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
So check us out.
Speaker 5 (46:45):
We like to get you involved too, take your phone calls,
chop it up. As they say, I'd say, the most
interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe the.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
Most interactive show on planetar.
Speaker 5 (46:54):
Be sure to check out Covino and Rich live on
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