GIMME THE LOOT

[00:00:07] Yes, you are now listening to the sound of Sports Reports As Ordered. And those sounds are coming to you live and direct from the state of New Jerusalem by a man who was born in Texas, raised in VA. He's been doing some thinking and some calculations and he done came up with. Seton Hall would beat the Nets right now. He is, Mr. Logical.

[00:00:38] And all he asks of you is that you don't bring feelings to a fat fight. Don't do it. And then it is I, E equals two five squared. Going left so much that you thought I was southpaw dunking all the things that Deontay Wilder couldn't. I am your unorthodox statistician. I am two five live from the Alamo. Do me a favor out there, y'all. Like, review, subscribe, share, rate, do all the free things. Do all the good things.

[00:01:07] Raise your liquid depths in solidarity. You know what I'm saying? We holding it down. Let's get it. So, Mr. Logical. I'm listening. All right. Before we get to the play in. I want to talk about one of the teams in the play in. True. All right.

[00:01:30] So, last week we saw Harrison Barnes stick a fork in the Golden State Warriors. And then on Sunday we saw the Los Angeles Clippers twist that fork. So, Mr. Logical. What does those two games tell us about the Warriors? Do you look at them a little differently than you might have before those two games?

[00:01:53] I think I look at them the same way I looked at a lot of other teams that are, like, successful in the regular season. Because I think sometimes we want to give credence and credit to regular season success. And then sometimes we want to pull back and say, hey, there is still a young team, whatever the case may be.

[00:02:16] So, I believe the lineup that they kind of manufactured with Jimmy Butler, that starting lineup was undefeated. Like, 12-13-0 when that lineup was whole. And then they've lost three straight at home. And if they lose this play-in game, it'll be four straight at home. And they be out. And they be out. Well, I guess they play the... They play the seven, the winner of the nine-ten game. Nine-ten, yeah.

[00:02:44] But that puts them up against OKC, who's well-rested. You know, and like I said, I've been singing the OKC praises for a few weeks now just about the lead they have in the West. Because everyone loves the West. Everyone talks about how congested the West is and how good the teams are in the West. But the team that completely ran away with the West doesn't get into conversation. It's just... It's that same thing. And I think that's what happens with Golden State.

[00:03:09] Because I believe that the 2020 championship for the Lakers on LeBron and that 2022 championship for Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, those are outlying accomplishments. It just doesn't happen for players who have a great prime and they have a great championship run and they go to multiple finals and they win a couple.

[00:03:37] They don't have like a hiatus and then go back and win again without making like major overhauls to the team or getting into some young talent that becomes now the new focal point of the team. Steph Curry being finals MVP a couple of years ago and winning that championship has kind of given like the media like this expectation that they can just overcome anything. And it's like, that's not the case.

[00:04:03] That was an overwhelmingly great year that year. And for people to have these, like not people, like the media to kind of have these conversations thinking like they were going to be a championship run. I'm like, how are you going to be a championship on a championship run when you're seventh in your conference? That just is unheard of. But yet we look at the name on the front of the jersey and a couple of names on the back and a face or two on a bench and think like, oh, they got enough to like over. Like, no, it's so where they are.

[00:04:33] It's like. It's a dilemma, but it's a dilemma that they're that you're never going to be in when you have players. That's the way your team is constructed. They have no bigs. People need to face reality instead of wishing. That's what it boils down to, because listen to this. As we go back and you were talking about how they started off, you know, 12 and 0 or whatever it was, you know, they were like 15 and 3 at one point. Well, here's what they did.

[00:05:02] Sacramento, Dallas, Charlotte, Orlando, Charlotte, New York, Brooklyn. OK, Detroit, Portland, Sacramento. So, like, there was a lot of fool's gold and cupcake up in there. Absolutely. You know, no diss to Kevin Durant. You know, saying it is what it is with a easy money sniper. But, you know, but it's one of those things, right, where once a team wins a championship, they've proven that they can.

[00:05:30] So people put extra stock in your chances based off of your accomplishments. So that's why it's easy to look at Golden State and say, well, hey, they got Jimmy Butler, who's been the two finals in the last five years. But there's only one problem with that. I just saw Kawhi Leonard on a half a leg and James Harden on a half a heart come in your place and go 26 of 42. Now, I don't have a problem with that. Great players have great games.

[00:05:59] But you can't allow that with the season and your playoff seed on the line and then tell me you got the defensive player of the year for one and then brag about how he's got. You can't let Harrison Barnes come back into. He wasn't even in that building when he was playing for the Warriors. But come back to the area, the zip code. And essentially, I think that put them out. You know, we talk about these different moments that we talked about with Memphis, like their coach getting fired, took the wind out of their sails.

[00:06:26] I think Denver, because they have such a dynamic player in Jokic, they might grind a little longer. But when their season ends up, you know, over here the next few weeks, it wouldn't surprise anyone. I think Golden State watching that three. I know we don't. No, no, no. I got the Clippers taking them out. I say next week. You talking about for Denver? Yeah, I said the next few weeks. Like, you know, whenever the playoffs start, you know, a few is two or three, however it plays out.

[00:06:58] But I think that's the issue is that the team in and of itself is not built for championship runs. We all know the elements you need to win a championship. It's rare that a team in recent years has won a championship without having, like, your basic things you need.

[00:07:20] Rent protection, a good on-ball defender, a real 3 and D guy, size, and youth. They don't have enough of that. They don't have enough of that to compete with the other teams that have all of that. James Harden outscored them in that overtime 12-8. I mean, yeah, players can get high. Yeah, you can get high.

[00:07:44] But the thing is, like, there's – because the lack of size and depth, you can't adjust to whoever gets high. Because these NBA players, like I said, you give them space, they're going to knock it down. They see a couple go through. They see that, you know, you're either sagging off of them because you can't guard them. These guys recognize all that. Well, Golden State, I don't know what adjustments they can make to, you know, exert their will on another team.

[00:08:14] I just don't think they have that. So, Steve Kerr, great coach or right place, right time? I think he's a great coach. It takes a lot to keep those kind of personalities together. You talk about Phil Jackson says it all the time. It's like you've seen other coaches with top-tier talent get fired. I mean, I get what you're saying. That doesn't – they don't make it far. You know, we've seen Doc Rivers. Doc Rivers, when he had, you know, J.J. Redick, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul. Like, that's a solid team.

[00:08:43] You got your three-point shooter, your four-league. DeAndre Jordan. DeAndre Jordan's a big – I'm talking about back in the day, like 2014, 2015, DeAndre Jordan. Okay, okay. Like, that, you know, Lob City. That was a good team. Yeah, Jamal Crawford. That was a good team. And it's like he didn't push them far in the playoffs. And he's a championship coach. So, sometimes, like, it takes – yeah, it takes a little luck. It takes a little, you know, luck with the – It takes a little Kevin Durant coming to your team in the middle of your empire.

[00:09:12] I mean, we talked about – we talked about the kind of the start of that empire was. Steph Curry, you know, having an ankle problem. I know you remember Luke Walton. They gave the deal. I know you remember Luke Walton going 39-3. Yeah, Luke Walton had a good run. But it's still – years of sustained success is not just, oh, you're right. Play it's the right time. If Steve – not that.

[00:09:37] Yeah, Steve Curry had the one – if he had the one run, but he had his time as a player. Which takes him to grant he was a role player. He has the time at executive. And then he became a coach. Hey, he's got a game winner for a championship. So, he has a sustainable resume of success. So, yes, he's been blessed with an ultra-dynamic player.

[00:10:00] And for a few years, he had two of these guys that were very unselfish that could shoot the lights out and only one crazy guy. And everybody else was happy role players. But every single year, they lose a big and they replace them with a 6'2 guy. They lose Bogut. They bring in another 6'5 guy. They try to – they run their lineup with Gary Payton II at the four. He might be my son-hite. You know what I'm saying?

[00:10:29] And so, it's like there's only so much Steve can do with that. Speaking about wrong place, wrong – or right time. How about wrong place, wrong time? And the Phoenix Suns, you know, are down another head coach. Mike Budenhoser out. Prime example. That's a lot of talent.

[00:10:47] That's – between those three guys, in theory, you should be able to get realistically 26, 24, 24, 20. You should be able to get 70 points out of those three. Bradley Beal getting you 20 and Durant and Booker getting you the other 50. Well, two of them are holding up to the end of the bargain. You should be able to roll the ball out there and get 70 points.

[00:11:16] But as a coach, when you have those kind of personalities, a lot like what Steve Kerr had to do when he go to state, you have to make that work. And then as an executive, you can't give – you have to understand that, hey, this – there's a potential that this won't work because it is not enough basketball for three guys. So you can't have contracts where a guy has no trade clauses in them because, like, you have to be able to get out of it. And they fire with three coaches. Did you see the Bradley Beal statement that – where it went wrong?

[00:11:46] He said when he wanted him to play like Drew Holiday? Yeah. Drew Holiday has two rings and a gold medal. I know. Bradley Beal has – Maybe a bronze and a fever tournament. You know, so when I look at it, right, because I got into this argument, you know, with our guy the other day. And, you know, he was trying to make the argument to me that the Suns were a super team. And if this was 2021, sure. You know what I mean?

[00:12:15] Kevin Durant is still a walking bucket. You know what I mean? But he is not nearly the same player that he was. You know, it's a little harder for him to get those points than it was. You know, Bradley Beal, you know, he flourished when he had someone like a John Wall. That year they had Russell Westbrook. Somebody that can take over the responsibility and allow him to just score. You know, so when you got Devin Booker out there putting up points,

[00:12:44] somebody's got to bring the ball up the court because they benched Tyus Jones. You know, who they brought in because last year the issue was they don't have a point guard. You go get the point guard and then you bench him. And these NBA coaches, like, I don't know if it's just because we're not coaches. So I look at things through the lens of, all right, I need a defender. I need some role players. I need X, Y, Z. So you went and drafted Ryan Dunn, who might be one of the best defenders in the draft,

[00:13:13] if not the best defender in the draft. And you barely play him. You know, we talk about this with Doc Rivers all the time. You got these young players and I guess you just don't trust them. But how are you supposed to build the trust if you don't play him, Mike Malone? Player minutes. Sometimes I believe per, like I said, Jeff Teague, a lot of his podcasts, and some other former players.

[00:13:36] Some of these minutes are kind of legislated in your initial onboarding conversation post-contract signing. Like, hey, you're here to play 16 minutes. You're here to play 19 minutes. You need to defer to this guy because this offense goes to him. It's not always the best basketball move. Because there's no reason why Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, and Kevin Durant

[00:14:04] couldn't just go out there and just get you 70. Those three guys being, like, literally, like, I don't know much about the triangle offense, but I know the idea of it was to move the defense to try to create an open shot by passing the ball with three guys on one side of the court. You have those three guys. You should be able to move them to any spot between the mid-range and the three-point line and create shooting opportunities. For Beal, it was. It was the other side of the ball, though. Because they had to trade Nerkich.

[00:14:35] They traded Nerkich. If Bradley Beal was getting buckets, he would hustle back on defense. And you got Tumani Kamara that they had in Portland now, you know, looking like he could be a defensive player of the year in a few years. You know, you got Ryan Dunn, who I just mentioned in the draft, that, you know, you didn't let him. They're completely, completely mismanaged as an organization from top to bottom. I talked about that. It matters who you have. Yeah, with the crypto money and the inheritance money.

[00:15:04] The Suns could have Jokic, SGA, and Jason Tatum right now and win 35 games. That would be very, very difficult to do, but I get your sentiment. But, yeah, Matt Ishma, or, you know, how do you say his name? I hope I got it correct. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He was probably, like, one of the first people I referenced when I talked about

[00:15:28] these new owners who made a living off of something that was an idea in their head, and it grew from an idea in my head to X amount of billion dollar valuation when I went public with my company. So I know how to build something from scratch. And then they get into the basketball game. And it's like, this is not the same as your software development.

[00:15:55] Yeah, you could probably use some of the philosophies of research and development, getting good people, hiring the right people, having the right staff. But you also need to match your temperament. You need to understand expectation management. And I don't know if they do that, considering how quickly they got their money and how they bought the teams. And that's because, like, he's literally paying three coaches. He's fired three coaches that at least made NBA finals in the last four years,

[00:16:24] including two that won a title. So he fired Monty Williams, correct? He fired Monty Williams. He fired Vogel last year. He hired Vogel after Monty Williams. I thought he hired somebody in between then. Am I tripping? Maybe. Let me look that up. I think there was a name in between there. There might have been. But, you know, but even if, like, that's three coaches that have made – no, it was straight from Monty to Frank.

[00:16:54] Monty, Frank, Brunozer. Yeah. Three coaches that have been on championship – Level team. On the championship stage. Yeah. And, you know, and, like, Monty Williams might have a championship if Giannis didn't finally decide to hit his free throws. So, silly. With, like, what, 18 for 20 that game? Something like that. Yeah, 56 points in the closeout game. So, yeah. But you want to hear something funny? Always. The Sacramento Kings, their G League team won the G League title.

[00:17:27] Oh, man. If Bronny was on the team, it would have been all over the news. Hey, Bronny finished the season minus 48, so I don't know. But, you know what I mean? But, yeah, like, the Kings – the Stockton Kings won the G League title, and I'm looking at this team going, there's got to be somebody on that G League team. There has to be someone on these G League teams that can help some of these NBA teams. Hey, remember Summer League, our guy Adonis Arms? The guy was just firing off the threes, right? Yeah. Like, you know what I'm saying?

[00:17:55] Like, they had a Summer League squad. Like, one of those players has got to be decent enough to get up to the roster. It has to be a handful of players, especially when you look around your squad. Like I said, we talked about Golden State. I said the same thing about LA. It's like, you know at some point you're going to need someone to at least divert some of these shots at the rim. Like, he doesn't have to be a great shot blocker. A seven-footer sitting in the G League. Castleton, you know, the seven-foot-two, just sitting in the G League. He can come up and get some fouls during the playoffs.

[00:18:26] Once again, like, I think a lot of stuff is negotiated down to the minutes. And it's like, hey, I only got 12 guys. I'm only going to be able to play these extra three guys 17 to 18 minutes. Right. Yeah, I think NBA teams, somebody in the building, most of these buildings, understands this is our ceiling. As long as we are not on the floor at the end of the year, it's a successful season. I think Utah does that very well.

[00:18:56] OKC, I don't remember them, like, really having, like, a quick trigger pull on, like, players. I think all their trades were to get a haul back, like, when they traded Paul George. I think there's still reaping benefits of that Paul George trade. To include the soon-to-be MVP. So, I think some teams are just really good. Milwaukee used to have that same kind of, like, yeah, let's just build. But then they won the one championship. And it's like, OK, now we have the expectation we're going to be there all the time.

[00:19:25] Well, when you win, you got to pay some people. I think the Dame Lillard move wasn't a good move for them because what they lost. I think Detroit did a good job because Detroit was bad for so long that they just had, OK, let's figure this out. Let's figure it out. OK, I think we got to figure it out. Now let's run with it. Hopefully, they stand with that because a lot of those teams, Minnesota was down for a while. They came back up. And then they started making goofy trades.

[00:19:50] It's like somebody in a room with the guy who has the phone and the checkbook needs to be able to be like, tap him on the shoulder. Chill out. It's OK to run it back. For all you first take people out there, watch this. Lakers, Lakers, Lakers. Lakers, Lakers, Lakers. You know what I'm saying? Did I do it right? Pressure, pressure, pressure. Legacy, legacy, legacy. What up, Mike? One Mike podcast in the building, y'all. Mondays and Thursdays. Holla. You know what I'm saying? And so Chauncey Billups got his extension.

[00:20:19] You know, finished the season 23 and 18 in the second half. They had a 10-game winning streak at some point. His record, though, his overall record, 111 and 211. But this year, he went from 21 wins last year, 36 wins this year. I think Portland's headed on the right path. They got the talent. Now we get to see if Chauncey can really galvanize him and get him over to the playoffs. But it's only a two-year extension through 2027.

[00:20:48] Yeah, I wouldn't have held my breath. It just seems like, from what I hear, people who visit Portland, they love this city. But as far as it being a basketball city, it just seems as if there's – that's why he only got a two-year extension. Well, he also happens to go back with the owner, too. So that helps. Yeah. Because most other people would have probably fired him. Yeah, 111 and 211.

[00:21:18] Yeah, you're probably – but the problem with the building is that I don't know what – the length of the building plans are always shorter than what's needed to construct the building. Well, think about it. Like, guys, like, most – a lot of these teams, you're at a – you're at a four-year from not being competitive without getting a monster-free agent.

[00:21:47] You're four years from being – let's say Washington Wizards right now. Right. If they were to get presumably, like, the right coach and the right draft pick. Right. That's three full seasons from here on out of, like, figuring it out. And then by season four, it should be clicking. So the coach needs a five-year deal. At the beginning of season four, maybe it turns around.

[00:22:17] Especially if you don't get a free agent. Like, you're a guy you draft in the top five, 17 points rookie year, 20 second year, third year is 24, and he's a French all-star. Now that fourth year, he gets his extension, and now he is ready to ride and he's ready to be a back-to-back guy. Well, see, but that's the thing, though. Like, when Chauncey took over, it was beyond a train wreck, right? But look at this. Check it out, though. You know what I'm saying? Man, you look at them. You got Denny Avia, you know, who's 24.

[00:22:47] You know, you got Tumani Kamara, who I brought up earlier, 24. Donovan Klingan, who they drafted this year, 21. Scoot, 21. You know, you got Shaden Sharp, 21. Anthony Simons, 25. DeAndre Ayton, even though, you know, you know how we feel about him, but he's only 26. So, you know, so they're not Houston from that standpoint of we were talking about they went and got Van Vliet, Dylan Brooks. They brought in Jeff Green for the locker room.

[00:23:16] I think that's where Portland is now, is that who are you going to bring in to solidify? Like I said, Houston got lucky because a championship coach fell into their lap. This is true. And then they drafted, they drafted like talent, like they drafted like really top tier talent. Portland didn't do that. School Henderson is not a top tier talent. So now you need time for him to figure it out.

[00:23:39] So without a free agent, without the free agent, or you just happen to draft a guy, which doesn't seem to be happening a lot recently. Like people kind of holding that hold for Cooper Flagg. But that's what I'm saying. Like if you don't, if you don't hit. The couple of years before you fire a coach and then you bring in another guy and now you get your your Dylan Brooks and Fred Van Vliet.

[00:24:06] If you don't get all of that and start running, it's a three year trial. But that's where the fit and all that comes in. Right. Because you look at it. You got to figure out. It's going to take you three seasons. You got to do like Josh Giddey, for example. Right. Who's about to be planning to play in tomorrow. You know, he left OKC Harrison Barnes style. You know what I mean? Like we lost to Dallas because you couldn't hit an open shot. You know what I mean? And now here he is. You know what I mean? Triple doubles.

[00:24:35] You know, looking like a true value Luca. You know what I mean? But OKC developed. They had they got the trade. They were just kind of working, working, working, working, working. But I think Spood is still young enough and had a good enough season this year that you can offload him for some value because, you know, people saw the potential this year. But that's the thing. Those kind of teams can't afford to offload. They have to keep who they draft in the building and make it work.

[00:25:05] They can't operate like other teams and think you're because you're not creating value when a guy you draft in the top three and you go two years and you win less than 36 games both years. It's like he's supposed to get you. He's supposed to be 18 wins just off his own effort. Like, you know, we drafted you one or two. You're supposed to be able to come out here and drop 27 points when we need it. You need to have that every once in a while.

[00:25:33] I know you're young in the league, but I need I need star. I need superstar flashes every so often with this young team. If you're not giving me that, either I have to keep you and develop you because your trade value is non-existent. If I got to get rid of you in two years after I drafted you and we can see what your numbers are. Right. So you have to like this way you have to commit to keeping like, hey, we drafted a guy. He might not be the guy, but we're not going to blow money on free agents.

[00:26:01] We're going to develop the guys we have, bring some of the guys up, keep the coach and just and roll the ball out there and see what we can do. But a lot of teams. All I know is all I know is I know they're winning right now. They're in route to playing the Boston Celtics. But if Orlando doesn't call about either Scoot or Anthony Simons, they wrong. And I'm going to just leave it at that. But Mr. Logical, do you know what time it is?

[00:26:29] It is time for the second annual Sports Reports is Ordered NBA Awards show. Brought to you by Mr. Logical, 2-5 and Liquid Death. So, Mr. Logical, you know what I'm saying? We got some awards to give out. You know, it's that time of year.

[00:26:50] You know, we try to do this before they actually get voted on so that way we can talk about who we think should win the award, who we think are going to win the award. Because there's a couple of these categories like MVP that I usually have a problem with. You know, obviously there's no problem this year. There's just two dudes out there that, thank you, sir, that are both worthy of the MVP award. Coach of the Year, there's a lot of great candidates this year. A lot of candidates.

[00:27:20] You know, like you look at Defensive Player of the Year and even though one guy has a podcast where he's trying to, you know, get his own shout outs going on Joel Embiid style, you know, saying I ain't giving Draymond that type of love right now. You know what I'm saying? So, let's get right to it. I'm going to start off with the coach of the year. You know, saying we'll get to the MVP in a segment. I'm going to start off with the coach of the year. So, you know, if we look at this, there's, like I said, there's a lot of great candidates. You got Kenny Atkinson at Cleveland.

[00:27:49] Mark Dageno, who, you know, won it last year at OKC. You know, he deserves it again to some degree with, you know, 68 wins. Can't top that. You know, you got, you know, J.B. Biggerstaff, you know, who, you know, ended up out of Cleveland and into Detroit. You know, you got Joe Mazzula. You know, like, you know, so like there's a lot of ways that you can slice this up. Yeah. Yeah. That you can slice this up.

[00:28:18] You know what I'm saying? So, with that being said, Mr. Logical. Yes. Who is your coach of the year? I mean, you would like to say Mazzula. No, I wouldn't. No, I wouldn't. I like, uh...

[00:28:42] I know I'm torn because it's kind of the same way I feel about the MVP. It's like one guy is kind of in the position because best team, best record. But I like him. I like what he's doing in Houston.

[00:29:10] Like I said, I was really not on with that team because I felt like they weren't constructed, you know, in a way that made sense. But I think taking what he was doing in Boston, bringing that intensity down to Houston, I like him. I don't think he's going to win. But if I had a vote, I would go with him. Who do you think is going to win? I think Kenny Ackerson is going to win because Cleveland is number one.

[00:29:40] The OKC head coach as well. I keep forgetting his name. Mark Dagonal. Yeah. Dagonal. I think he should probably... But because they were... Which just doesn't make it... I know that it makes sense, but it doesn't make sense at the same time. Right. Because they were number one... Or they were like... They were number one last year, right? Or number two. They were number one last year. By a couple percentage points. So you improved on it, but you didn't go...

[00:30:09] Like you can't go... I mean, they won 68. They ran away with the West. He should be considered, but it's like you already had a number one caliber team. And your star player was such a star. It kind of gives this perception that you don't even need a coach. They even improved by 11 players. Like that. Yeah. But it's like you have a guy playing like that. He's the reason you won 11 additional games. That's just how I feel the voters look at it. Whereas Cleveland...

[00:30:38] Donovan Mitchell's never been like the guy to carry the team. There is Garland. Mobley, you know... The jury was still on him for the past couple years. So for him to come in and then get Cleveland to over 65 wins is like, okay. That's going to ring more bells than... You know, you're going to your team number one two years in a row. Yeah. I think that Kenny Atkinson is going to win it as well. You know, I think that's just the way we are.

[00:31:07] And I mean, I'm not even going to sit up here and act like he doesn't deserve it. You know, Kenny Atkinson is the favorite at minus 325. JB Biggerstaff plus 200. You know, so... So he definitely deserves it. Like, you can't have that type of turnaround, especially your first year on the job. And, you know, like, I think he's going to be in that situation. Is a turnaround more impressive than sustained? Like, because I know, like I said, I picked...

[00:31:36] It just depends on how you want to look at it. Because we were talking about the Warriors earlier, right? Like, Steve Kerr had nice things to maintain, you know what I'm saying? Versus some other people. Like, what's his name? Missoula right now? You know, he has the ultimate maintenance job. Yeah, he just... All he has to do is clap when they fight and say, you know, Aesop fables during press conferences. So I'm going to ask you one question.

[00:32:07] Knowing me how you know me, who do you think my coach of the year is? Ty Lue. Ty Lue! Ty Lue! I don't know why. I just felt like he would go with Ty Lue. Ty Lue is my guy, you know what I mean? No Paul George, you know, to be one of the core pieces of this team. You know, Kawhi only played 37 games. They traded Terrence Mann at the trade deadline.

[00:32:34] Norman Powell somehow became an all-star, or like, should have been an all-star if LeBron would have did the right thing. But even with that being said, Norm Powell still missed 22 games. They had to rely on Chris Dunn, you know, like, who was nearly out of the league. We ourselves missed the logical. Yes. Left them for dead. Absolutely. And here they are with 50 wins. You know, a win at the Chase Center to knock Golden State into the play-in?

[00:33:04] Give me Ty Lue all day long. So, look, J.B. Biggerstaff, right? In the real world, like, he should be the right answer. You know, we're talking about a guy that got fired, you know, from a playoff team. Went to a team that had only won 14 games. Had been in the top five picking in the draft the last couple of years. And people are out here picking Detroit to beat the Knicks in the first round of the playoffs.

[00:33:32] You know, because of the culture that he installed with them. And when you look at it, a team like Detroit, you know, they have Cade Cunningham. They don't necessarily have what people would consider to be a lot of firepower. So, what did he do? He said, hey, we're going to play defense. We're going to grab rebounds. We're going to slow the game down. We're going to churn it out. And here we are. You know, the sixth seed didn't even have to get into the play-in.

[00:33:59] So, J.B. Biggerstaff, 100%. Especially when you consider the fact that Asari Thompson had the blood clot issues to start the year. Ron Holland is playing a big role. You got to control Isaiah Stewart somehow. You know, there's a lot going on in that Detroit locker room. You know, so he 100% deserves all the credit. Dagonal, he is one of my blind spots.

[00:34:25] But, you know, like we all have some kind of bias that we try not to exhibit. But it's just there. You're not sure how much he's coaching. Well, no, it's not even that. But for me, it's more like usually when I look at awards like Coach of the Year, I'm looking at who did I have low expectations for? And, you know, you came through. So, like Detroit, right? You know, I picked Detroit to make the playoffs this year. But I didn't think they were going to look this good.

[00:34:53] So, like you came from the bottom, got it out the mud, and then look at you now. So, I'm biased to that versus a guy like Dagonal who has all the talent. Now, granted, you know, they had players missed time too. You know, but when I look at Dagonal, OKC was my pick to win the title. So, to some degree, you could say I'm holding that against him unfairly. Yeah, it's a tough – the argument should – it shouldn't be an argument.

[00:35:21] It should be like how we used to do our promotion packages. Everybody deserved to get promoted. You just had to put your paperwork together, your surf, your last four or five EPRs, whatever awards, your PT tests, you had to put it together. So, when it got to whatever board it was on, you know, for me, like I said, it was crew chiefs. You had to look at it like, you know what?

[00:35:49] I think this is a promotable package based off this information. It wasn't like, oh, this guy isn't better than that guy. It was like, hey, this is the standard we're going to go with. Open it up. This person meets that standard. And then you move forward. That's how I feel about a lot of coach here. It's not like Dagonal did anything wrong. Right. It's just that everybody – everyone is deserving of it.

[00:36:15] You just have to figure out, okay, what element are you going to lean more towards? Are you going to look at sustained success for two years in a row, elevated success among you, or are you going to look at what seems to be more difficult to do, which is going from worst to first or worst to competitive? He won 68 games. NFL happens every year.

[00:36:38] A team goes from worst to first in NFL every division every year, so it's kind of hard to gauge because it happens all the time. It rarely happens in basketball. We've looked at so many teams that have been down for something like New Orleans with Zion and some other top talent. They're either in the play-in or getting swept early in the playoffs. I mean, realistically, any other year – and I know this is crazy coming from me – but any other year, J.J. Reddick would be probably near the front of the race. You know what I mean? Any other year. Any other year.

[00:37:08] But you know there's a lot going on right now. Yeah. You know what I mean? So, all right, let's get to it, Mr. Logical. Most valuable player. Who wins it? Who do you have winning it in your MVP vote? Ironically, even though I didn't say his coach is coach of the year, I think it's SGA. I think he's maintained this the entire year. Excuse me. Kept his team afloat.

[00:37:37] And he had something like 50, 30-point games. He had a Jordan-level offensive season this year on top of the fact that leading in blocks, like going to top guard in blocks and steals, anchoring the defense of his team, dealing with the pressure of being the youngest team in the league,

[00:38:02] the expectation of, you know, kind of falling short last year and then running it back and running away with the West. Like I said, we all agree that the West is, you know, loaded with top-tier talent either as an organization or individual talent. We think the Clippers have a lot of individual talent and the organization kind of get it together, just injury-prone. The Lakers, they have an older star and they're working in a new star. And they got a couple of emerging stars out of that.

[00:38:30] Golden State, you know, we know their history and their lineage. Even Phoenix with all the talent they have. Like, so we understand that the talent in the West and these teams in the West are stacked. And for them to run away with it and for him to perform at that level for this whole season, I got to go SGA. Honestly, I've never, ever said this in my life. Never, ever in my life. You know what I mean? This would be the year for a co-MVP. This would be the year. You know what I mean? Because, look, SGA, right?

[00:38:59] You know, Chet missed 50 games this year. You know what I mean? Like, Hartenstein missed 25 games this year. You know what I mean? SGA, 33-6-5. You know, he has one less block on the season than Giannis Antetokounmpo. He's second in steals in the league. He has 72 straight games of at least 20 points. The only two players in NBA history that have more are Oscar and Wilton.

[00:39:28] Oh, by the way, his 72 is tied with Kevin Durant and Michael Jordan. So, like, you can't take anything away from SGA except this MVP award because I'm going to give it to Nikola Jokic. And I know Denver faltered coming down the stretch. You know, they fired their coach, all those things. And that was independent of Jokic because they wouldn't have been... You think the turmoil helps his MVP case? I think it kind of does. I think it has to, to a certain degree. Because this is the thing, right?

[00:39:58] Because when you look at the West, and you were talking about it earlier, but when you look at the West, all these teams have wins. You know what I mean? Like, so they're the four seed. But you know what I mean? Like, they're not 42 wins or something like that. You know? Like, it's one of those things where when you peel it back and look at it, you know, Denver literally is tied with the Lakers, who are third with 50 wins.

[00:40:28] There are only two games behind the Rockets who finished in second. You know? But then when you look down the list after that, the Clippers, who are their fifth seed, have 50 wins. Minnesota at six has 49 wins. Golden State and Memphis are in the play-in with 48. So, you know what I mean? So, I don't want to knock Denver for being in fourth place when you just look at the word you used, I believe, was congested. When you look at how congested the West is. You know? But on top of that, first center to average a triple-double.

[00:40:57] Third player in NBA history to average a triple-double. You know, he turned himself into a three-point shooter, 42% from three. Number three in the league in three-point percentage. You know? That's not Carl Anthony Towns. This is Jokic that we're talking about. You know what I mean? Like, they have the number one rated offensive rating when he's on the court. Last when he's off the court. The thing that hurts Jokic, though, the thing that hurts Jokic,

[00:41:26] is that Denver has the worst defensive rating in the league. So, and, you know, obviously he's a part of that. So, you know what I mean? If you value both sides of the ball, you got to consider that. OKC, the seventh team in NBA history to win 68 games. They've trailed by at least 10 points in 28 games this year. They went 18 and 10 in those games. And in all of NBA history, Oklahoma City has the number one margin of victory over the course of a season. So that's why SGA is going to win it in real life.

[00:41:55] But I got to give it to Jokic myself. It goes back to your same piece with the coach of the year. J.J. Reddick would have gotten a lot of consideration if Detroit played to their normal standard, if Cleveland had an average year, I think J.J. Reddick would be your coach of the year. Maybe Dageno because they had such a great run.

[00:42:23] Maybe Missoula and Boston, but coming off the championship. So I think 50 wins for J.J. would have gotten coach of the year if two things didn't happen. It's going to be the same thing for Jokic. Honestly, I'm kind of torn that the voters still might vote for Jokic. I don't know if it's voter fatigue or if it's just some of the stuff that we've seen. I think that 60-point triple-double a few weeks back is going to be the same

[00:42:52] that these voters are going to have fresh in their mind. Especially considering that they lost that year. SGA was simply just super consistent, but it was consistently great that you don't think about, oh, yeah, 50 games and 30 points. That's difficult to do. But once he got the 15 games, you just expected him to get 30. Whereas Jokic had Russell Westbrook.

[00:43:21] They had the coach firing. They seemed like the role players didn't fit. It seemed like it was a lot of animosity kind of building up throughout the year. You could tell the coach is getting fed up for weeks before you got fired, but yet he still was going out there. See, I don't do the number one seed thing. I don't do that. I don't do the best player, best team thing. You know, because if that's the case, then we're saying that Donovan Mitchell should be in this conversation too.

[00:43:51] And it's not that it doesn't matter, Mike. I think that – see, this is what I don't like. Me and you always have this conversation, Mike, about the things that I don't like. I don't like when we do this hyperbolic thing. It's not that it doesn't matter anymore. This is an individual year that we're talking about. Next year it might matter. You know what I'm saying? But I think that for the purpose of this conversation, and to your point, Dirk's MVP was what, 18 years ago?

[00:44:18] You know, Steve Nash's MVPs were 20 and 21 years ago? And they never made the Steve Nash mistake again. Right. He clearly wasn't MVP. He was valuable to Phoenix, but he wasn't the league MVP. Right. So I think that it all matters. It's all a part of a story. You know, like, because SGA, you know, like I said, like the way that they dominated the West in the standings is similar to how Boston dominated the East last year.

[00:44:45] You know, and I forgot to even mention that OKC is 29 and 1 against the East this year. Yeah. And no one from, I don't think anyone from Boston got MVP votes. But I think SGA was MVP last year. So I think that this might be a makeup year as far as the media goes. You know, I think like it was that Embiid thing, right? There were a lot of people that felt that Embiid should have won it a year before he did.

[00:45:12] And then he did the crybaby thing and got it the year he shouldn't have cried. Yeah, and I thought Jokic probably should have got it that year. Yeah, he led the league in scoring. But we're talking about a dude that averaged a triple double. You know what I mean? That's more than just scoring. You know what I mean? And like Jokic's average, like, yeah. Two steals a game as a center. You know what I mean? Yeah, SGA averaged 32.7. I think Jokic is like 29.8. So it wasn't like that far off as far as the points go. Yeah. I agree with you, Mike. It does seem like, but it's not.

[00:45:41] But to your argument, when you add in Jokic's assist, he's providing a lot more value. Yeah. Listen, I get it. I know we argue over value. I think that the – I think SGA should win it this year. I just have a sneaky feeling that the triple double by a center on a team that was kind of, you know, in flux could influence people.

[00:46:11] And like Mike's point – Well, think about it. Jamal Murray was out half the year. Number one seed in the West. They absolutely dominated the NBA all year. Just it wasn't a daily conversation as much as it should have been. I just think – I think the Jokic MVP conversations on sports media, like the outlets that I did watch and when I did see these conversations,

[00:46:40] a lot of it was is Jokic having a better MVP season than Shea, but then the whole conversation would be about Jokic. It wouldn't be about Shea. It would just be like – they'd have a couple of blurbs about Shea, but then the whole conversation would be about is there going to be voter fatigue for Jokic? Is the seeding – so like the whole – even the conversation, you know,

[00:47:07] surrounding like the pros and cons of Jokic winning the MVP, that was the whole conversation. I think that conversation happened more on the national news, national sports news circuit than OKC's dominance of the West. Like I said, when we looked at it a couple weeks ago, and I was watching what they were saying on TV, like, you know, who's the biggest threat to this team in the West? Who's the biggest threat to this team in the West?

[00:47:35] And I looked and I was like, OKC is 64-14. There are no threats. How are we not asking who's the biggest threat to them? Like that's the threat. They're 50 games above. I dare to threat. They are the threat. They are the great white shark in the water. They are not the hammerhead. You know, they are the great white out here chopping people up. And it's like, nah, we're not going to talk about them. All right.

[00:48:04] So Mr. Logical, defensive player of the year, you know, as I've been checking the odds throughout the week, it flip-flops every couple days. One day it's Draymond Green. One day it's Evan Mobley. What say you? I like a man Thompson. I've watched Evan Mobley. I watched him. Hey, to me, when I started. What's up, pick? Well, listen, we do this show for all these years. Eventually, like these wavelengths are going to cross up.

[00:48:34] But if I look at. I've watched like Evan Mobley in some of these games. And that's what I've been. I'm like the last month or so, because I've been wanting to pick Boston. I was like between Boston and Cleveland, Boston, Cleveland. I was like, okay, I think Boston's role players do better. And I think defensively, I'm not sure. Mobley.

[00:48:58] Mobley is going to be able to consistently step out and defend the three-point line when needed. In the pick and roll situations, I watched him kind of get on his heels a lot. Maybe he's good at the rim or he's good with like these other bigs. But not a lot of bigs are really trying to score the basket because most of them are trying to shoot. I'm not sure if he has to play any interior defense.

[00:49:24] I don't know if he can stop Horford in the paint or on the post, you know, if Horford decides to come down low, you know, on like a pick and roll or something like that. I like him in Thompson. Anytime you hold Steph Curry to three points in a game where he played the whole game, you're doing something different. And every time you look at him, he's getting the highlight still off Cade Cunningham, passing to Jalen Green for a dunk. I just feel like he's so active. And that's a lot of that's half the battle.

[00:49:52] Draymond, he does a great job of like anchoring the defense. LeBron does the same thing. LeBron doesn't always run out to the corner. But he'll stay on that side of the paint. So if I do have to get to the corner, I'm already right here. But he doesn't like follow the ball across and like, you know, do that because it's like, you know, it's just smarter. He's just smarter with it. And Draymond does the same thing. Like Draymond sees that they're trying to switch, you know, a big guard onto one of their smaller guards.

[00:50:22] He'll push that guy to the guy that he knows not getting the ball and he'll take him. So he does all of that stuff. I think of men just he just goes out there and he just kind of just does what he does with the limited knowledge that he has. And so he's getting this information on the fly and to be able to do that on the fly and play on a team that well. Tina second in the West was like, you know, like I said, the head coach, coach of the year, preaches defense. Am I like some my coach of the year? I like a man.

[00:50:52] All right, Mike, I'll get to Dyson Daniels later. He did leave. He did lead the league in steals and everything. But let me I'm gonna get to him later. Yeah, I'm taking I'm in as well. Not just Steph Curry, but, you know, he guards everybody every night. You know, he guards the best player of whoever they're playing, as long as it's not Jokic or somebody like that. You know, so Draymond Green, right? Draymond Green is a tale of three seasons. You know, he started the season very hot.

[00:51:19] You know, like like after the first, I'd say, 15 to 20 games, he was easily the defensive player of the year. But then he coasted. He chilled. You can see it, you know, and then now this last 25 games or so, he looks like the best defender all over again. But I value being that way the whole season. And that's the problem with Draymond. And I also don't like when players lobby for it. Another one of my biases. You start lobbying, you start going down my list.

[00:51:49] Evan Mobley. I think Evan Mobley absolutely deserves it. He's another one that absolutely deserves it. But I just think that it's the Wimby argument almost where like you're such a great defender, but I don't see it in your team. You know, like I don't see your impact. Yeah. Rudy Gobert. That's what I'm saying. I don't see your impact on everything else. I feel like it's because when you play these different teams, different nights, you can make these impacts.

[00:52:18] Like I said, I watched, you know, a lot of Cleveland games recently. I just feel like he's going to be the guy that they're going to pick on in the playoffs. The way that they went after Gobert. It's just, it's weird because I think bigs that aren't just traditional eye block shots and rebound bigs.

[00:52:42] It's hard for me to consider him defensive player of the year because so much has to happen for you to be an impact. Like you got to get, people got to funnel this person to you. They got to come through the lane. You got to rotate over. You could be a great rim protector, but I never thought Rudy Gobert was defensive player of the year because if he switched out on Luca and actually defended him. We saw that. But like, and actually won that defensive matchup, I would rock with it. Wimby wins it because of his length.

[00:53:13] But if you get him away from the basket far enough, then like, you know, he's like there's no impact. I mean, look, I ain't going to hold you. Like, like I was tempted to say Wimby was still defensive player of the year even though he hasn't played. I was like, that's how great he is. Yeah.

[00:53:27] So I just think that like the Rudy Gobert big Wimby is anomaly because Wimby can block your shot or you could pass it and he can take a couple of steps back towards the rim and still be able to defend the other guy who got the ball because he's, you know, 12 feet tall. Yeah. And, you know, after all that shit, you know, I lost that game by 25. Man, this is it takes a lot of work to come back.

[00:53:55] You know, they might rest a couple of guys on the team that has the lead. You exhaust yourself and they bring these guys back in. They go on the 8-12 or run or something like that. 8-10-12. And now you dejected again because you're back down 16 at the ground of your way back. All right. So, yeah, like I said, I like all ball defenders as far as my defensive play of the year because they're they're putting more they're on an island more with some of the better scores in the league. I think that just you should you should get more credit for that.

[00:54:22] I do have one guy that I want to mention before we or two guys that I want to mention before we move on. So next year, keep your eye on Tumani Kamara for this race and then the sleeper for this year. I feel Zubac has earned some votes as well. But I think in real life, Draymond is going to win it just because like he's just vocal about it. He's in the media now. So I think they're going to look out. Is he liked enough by the media for them to.

[00:54:52] Because we know some players are, you know, they're kind of loved by the media. I don't even know if it's that, but it goes back to what to something that I said earlier. Right. Like once you win championships, you know, people just bestow things on you. You know, it's sort of like rookie on a number two seed team. No, just because he's a rookie. So I think it's like rookie. Yeah. I think it's like, you know, like Mace was talking about. I was listening to Mace one time.

[00:55:20] He was talking about how you walk up in the dealer and, you know, they just give them the car. Like we know you good for it. You know what I'm saying? So like, I think that when you win championships to the level that teams like Golden State has or players like LeBron has, well, LeBron's probably not the best example. But but I think that the media just looks at you a certain way and like, well, if he's in the conversation, he's got to be the best because I don't know how many of these people are watching the games in the first place. You know what I mean? So let's think Houston sitting at two.

[00:55:50] It definitely helps. It definitely helps. So I think that would probably have me and I mean, and for the nerds talk about the voters, voters get a spreadsheet. I think they get emailed a spreadsheet with all of the players that they feel are nominees and like where they rank and and war and PR and OPP. Yeah, I was going to say this is a stat that I heard from Kevin O'Connor the other day. I mean, with Van Vliet and Shea Goon on the floor.

[00:56:20] Houston is still a top four defensive rating and with. I might I'm in on the floor. One hundred and seven points per one hundred possessions. So that's what I was talking about. Evan Mobley, like where's your impact to that degree? Because obviously with those bad defenders out there, I mean, is doing more than holding his weight, if you will. You know, so I said I was going to like hold off on Dyson Daniels.

[00:56:48] That's because Dyson Daniels is going to be my most improved player of the year. You know, I think Cade Cunningham is going to win it in real life. I don't think Cade Cunningham should even be in the conversation, but that's a whole nother discussion. I love first of all, I love I just learned this today. Dyson Daniels is nickname. Because, you know, he's Australian. The great barrier thief.

[00:57:15] And I know that a lot of what I'm about to say sounds like he should be defensive player of the year. But the reason I gave him most improved instead is because he also upped his points per game average by about nine points. But here's some of the things that Dyson Daniels has done this year, Mr. Logical. Let's hear it. The most steals in the NBA since Allen Iverson in 2003.

[00:57:39] You know, his total steals is top is a top 20 season in steals of all time. The first player to average three steals a game since 1989, 1990. On the season, he had 443 deflections. So, most improved player for me. Now, Cade Cunningham. I'm not doing the thing where he was the number one draft pick so he can't be most improved.

[00:58:03] What I'm doing is I don't see much difference between Cade Cunningham from last year to this year. He was just on the court this time. So, like, I don't want to give you an award because of availability. Because of health. Right. And, you know, and don't get me wrong, you know, Sam, like, he is going to be a great one. And we'll see how he does in Madison Square Garden next week. Obviously, Zubach, I just brought him up for defensive player of the year. He's another guy I had my eye on for this award.

[00:58:31] Career highs in points, rebounds, and assists, 63% from the floor. And I already talked about all the games that the Clippers missed. You know, so his impact on that team. And then I got two more names for you. I'm not going to get into depth because I don't want to take up all the space here. But Christian Braun and Austin Reeves. I'll throw those names in there as well. I said, your Dyson Daniels argument makes a lot of sense. And it does fit the ratings because right now he's a minus 1250.

[00:59:00] And if you're a gambler, that means you would have to bet $1,200 to win $100. Whereas Cade Cunningham is plus $400. So $100 wins you $500. So he's looked like he's going to be the runaway for most improved player. I like your Austin Reeves addition. But a lot of these awards can kind of go to anyone.

[00:59:29] I think a guy like Peyton Pritchard could be considered because of his impact. But he is probably in the running from another award that we're going to talk about here in a second, I'm sure. So there's so many players that fit this category. Because a lot of guys improve from year one to two to three to four. Like you said, Cade Cunningham's availability. You say you don't want to reward him for availability because when he was out there healthy, he looked the same way.

[00:59:59] Yeah, he looked the same. Yeah, I feel the same way because I think that's like when Joe Burrow got comeback player of the year. It's like he just got injured. He just it wasn't like he was out of football or dead like DeMar Hamlin. Yeah. Like he just got injured in the season early. Like I don't think you get comeback player of the year, but I get it.

[01:00:27] Austin Reeves, like the trust that J.J. Redick has in him. If Dalton Kinnett could just ignore that trade that happened and just simply focus on. Focus on what Austin Reeves is doing. Like, yo, you could be the next American born white boy that's out here balling like that. But, yeah, I think Dyson Thames probably a runaway. All right.

[01:00:54] So then you got your sixth man of the year, you know, saying you got I think it's a two man race, you know, between Peyton Pritchard, who you mentioned and Malik Beasley. So. I think the bombs away three is a 40 point game. I think we had like 10 threes in that game. Him and Derek White. Like, yeah, first teammates to ever do that. And he's consistent. Not even stepping clay. Yeah.

[01:01:24] He's consistently like, you know, he fulfills the role. If you can have if any team in the NBA is like this, if I get my sixth man to come off the bench and play like him. That's I think that's any any coach would sign up for that. So I think that's he's like the gold standard for six man right now. It's like old school Lou Williams or Jamal Crawford. I swear, Mr. Logical.

[01:01:53] I'm not trying to be too five. I'm not trying to be too five. You are. You are. You are. You are. Give me Malik Beasley. Um, so look, look, everything you said about Peyton Pritchard is true. You know, Peyton Pritchard 100% showed what he can be this year. I think that Malik Beasley's contributions were needed more.

[01:02:23] You know, I think I think they were needed more for his team to get to where they got to. Um, so so that goes back to what I was saying earlier, where low expectation, you kind of overachieve a little bit, because I think people came into the year and slash in the middle of the season. And it became the Peyton Pritchard award. You know what I mean? Like, I think that that was just the talking point and it stuck, you know? And, um, so Malik Beasley, right?

[01:02:51] 319 threes this year, you know, second most in the league behind Ant, you know, which is shocking, um, you know, that it wasn't. That is shocking. Yeah. Um, you know, but Pritchard did lead all bench players in points three and three pointers made, you know, saying like as far as guys that didn't start very, like, cause we easily started 18 games. So, you know, so let's get that out the way. He did start 18 games.

[01:03:17] So, um, I don't know how you feel about that as far as, is there a certain limit of games that the six, 64 games off the benches? Is your six, man. Okay. Okay. 32 games up the bench. No, but 64 games up the bench. Yeah. You're. Yeah. So I just, I just like Malik Beasley's contribution because the Pistons needed those three pointers. Whereas Peyton Pritchard was more of a luxury. Like he was great. Don't get me wrong.

[01:03:45] But you're saying Hauser could have hit those threes if Pritchard wasn't there. Yeah. And you know what I'm saying? But I think Pritchard is going to win it. You know what I'm saying? I just wanted to take a second to shout out Malik Beasley, you know, because I know that he got shitting on, you know, when he was on a certain team, you know what I'm saying? But we're going to leave it at that. And then finally we got rookie of the year. Mr. Logical already know where I'm going with this. Cause it was the only dude I talked about during the draft last year. Well, go ahead and say it.

[01:04:15] Stefan Castle. Home cooking over there. Yeah. No home cooking at all. Like, so, so, so honestly, honestly, just full disclosure, right? If Jared McCain had not got hurt. Oh, easy. He'd have walked away with it. He would have walked away with it. He would have averaged about 22 points. Yeah. Especially with Maxie been hurt a lot of the year too. He would have been getting minutes. And he was, he was, he was, he has like a, like an NBA body for like a smaller guard.

[01:04:45] Cause I think he's six, three. Yeah. But he was like, he was stocky. So you can't get him off his spot. You know, like, yeah, he was, I think he was built. He was, he was built to have a great season. Yeah. He was built for to have a, have a great season. Yeah, he was. You know what I mean? So I know a lot of people that I've been talking to over the last, I'd say week have been on the Risha Shea train. And, you know, Risha Shea has come on post all-star break, but it goes back to my Draymond point. I want to see you do it the whole year.

[01:05:14] He, he had a 33 point game earlier in the season and it was like, okay, number one draft pick. You know, we don't know anything about him. He's here now. And then after that, it was like nine points, eight points, 12 points, 8 points, 17, nine. So, you know, after the all-star game, after they made some trades, he started to come on. But I'm going to go with, I'm going to go with Castle, you know, especially considering the step up that he took.

[01:05:43] Cause he was already playing probably the best out of any rookie, not named Jared McCain. But when Wimby and Fox went out, you know, the team kind of became his and he just put his stamp on it, especially even on the defensive side of the ball. But I want to give a shout out to Jalen Wells, you know, saying who, you know, unfortunately got tooken out the other night, but he could be in this race too. But he didn't have the responsibility that some of these other guys had.

[01:06:10] So I want to reward the responsibility of team trusted you as a rookie during the end of the season. If you want to just go off of the last month, you can make an argument for Bozelis. And then one other guy. I thought he was going to be good. I felt like his confidence was really high because he did an interview talking about Alex Sar. He was like, yo, Sar don't want to see me. He was real calm about it. He was like, he don't want to see me. I'm hoping he gives us a show tomorrow, you know, in the play-in game. I hope he gives us a show.

[01:06:39] But one last name I wanted to mention. If this guy would have played earlier in the year, going back to the whole coaches are kind of stuck in their ways, then I think Isaiah Collier could have been a part of this conversation as well out in Utah, you know, because he pretty much took Keontae George's spot for the most part. And I love Keontae George. So, you know, it's just one of those things. They won't get them Cooper flag out there winning games. I know.

[01:07:06] We can't have IU excelling and scoring and helping us win games. We need to get Cooper to the beehive state. Right. So then, you know what I'm saying? So that's our awards show for now. You know what I mean? And then, of course, we got one more piece of news or items to get to. So, simply. Shout out to LeBron for being an MVP consideration when he's 40 years old. That's kind of like, it's dope. I know we talk about him a lot, but that's a lot. That's a lot. Shout out to the king.

[01:07:36] I mean, old James. I'm out of here. You know what I'm saying? Bean pies, apple pies. Lakers are five. All right. So, Mr. Logical, I'm just going to put it on the screen. You ready? Yeah. So, over in Knoxville the other day, Nico decided to leave.

[01:08:01] You know, there were some rumors that had came out saying that he was trying to renegotiate his NIL. He saw what Carson Beck was making. He saw what Darius Mensah was getting. And he said, I want some of that, too. Then he decided not to show up to spring practice for the spring game. And, you know, and then there was a report that came out from Pete Nicos, was one of the reporters from The Athletic. Or, I'm sorry, from 0-3. And he brought this up.

[01:08:29] And then Nico's dad responded by saying, well, I don't know exactly the verbiage of the sentence, but basically he called him a bitch and said he was lying. You know what I mean? And then only for Nico to do exactly what Pete Nicos said that Nico was going to do. So, Mr. Logical, where are we in college football right now? All right. Well, I had this conversation at work earlier, kind of like trying to mold my conversation for the show.

[01:08:56] Luckily, I took my blood pressure pill as soon as the show started. I think it was both, Mike. I think it was both. I think it's a good thing. Two things can be true. I think he made a bad business move. I think the timing was bad. I think what he was looking at was, I don't know, it just felt like, don't count their pockets.

[01:09:25] What can you do here? You're about to be in your second year in this program. The SEC, a lot of talent has moved. Bama lost some players. Bama's going to be bringing in a new quarterback. George is working in a new quarterback. Then you have Florida. You know, like, you're probably a more complete team than you were last year. And you made it cause for a playoff last year. So I think riding that momentum onto the field would have made more sense.

[01:09:55] Now, as far as this narrative that what he did was so selfish and it's going to ruin, you know, college football is ruined. That's a little hyperbolic and that's a little too far. Tennessee, as a school, announced, didn't even hide it. They announced it.

[01:10:20] We're raising ticket prices and prices associated with getting to the game 14.5% for the 2025-2026 season. So they called it the talent fee. So they can pay NIL money. So you have a player at your school who is your, he's your big fish.

[01:10:47] He's probably the biggest recruit that you've gotten definitely from California to come to Tennessee, probably in the history of the program. Number one overall quarterback, consistent number one quarterback. You get him to come from California to Tennessee. You use money to get him there. What do you think he's going to do when you are increasing the money and calling them talent fee? He views himself as a talent. He wants them to go renegotiate considering he feels like I'm probably better than Carson Beck.

[01:11:15] I'm better than the guy that did Tulane and all those other guys. I think Utah paid a quarterback. UNLV, I think, ended up paying a quarterback. A lot of guys are getting these quarterbacks. Well, UNLV didn't pay their quarterback. That's why he left. I think they, I think the next guy they did, they paid him. They probably didn't pay him the same amount of money, but they paid him.

[01:11:33] So I just feel as if people are acting as if and behaving as if college football hasn't exploited their monetary advantage over players for eons. Now players get to capitalize on that. And name, image, and likeness is. It ain't the only school either. Yeah, and they literally called it a talent fee. They were the first ones, and they called it a talent fee. Yeah, they added it to the season tickets.

[01:12:01] I think it was, if I remember correctly, it was something like 11%. 10% for the season tickets. And then 4.5%. 5% for single game tickets. Yeah. Correct. So for a total of 14.5%. 100,000 souls in that stadium every single Saturday, single Rocky Top. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So. Neyland Stadium. Mm-hmm. So when people are acting like, oh, these guys asking for money, you can't do that. I can't.

[01:12:30] Listen, if you are hosting a radio show for ESPN, and your show's on at 1 o'clock, and another show comes on at 2.30, and the guy at 2.30, his ratings aren't as high as yours, but he's getting $4 million a year. You're on at 1 o'clock, and you're getting $1.2 million a year, your ratings are higher. You're like, we're in the same basic time block. My ratings are higher, but why is he getting double what I'm getting?

[01:13:00] Yeah. You would negotiate that. It's like when Dilly wrote those songs for Lil Wayne. Yo, cut my check. And so when it comes to name, image, and likeness, the school's not supposed to be able to recruit you off a name, image, and likeness. Your name is supposed to come from the fact that you're playing at that school. Right. You're on the billboards, and the money comes from boosters. We know how it works. We know how the logic is supposed to work. Right. But college football for years has always had a monetary hierarchy.

[01:13:29] Ohio State, even before you could legally pay players or let them get paid or let them go to car dealerships and sign jerseys and take pictures next to Chevy Tahoe's, they had money to where you brought a recruit in. You could put that recruit in a nice facility. You can get them a nice ride from the airport on this high school visit. You can bring a couple of family members. We're going to feed you all week. We're going to have you meet with this person, this person.

[01:13:59] We're going to walk you through our state-of-the-art locker room and weight room with all the weights, have Ohio State Buckeye emblem on it. And then you're going to look out to our practice field that we have just for kickers and our practice field we have just for special teams and our practice field we have for seven-on-seven drills. That's all money. We talked about Toledo. Toledo doesn't have all of those options. Akron doesn't have those. But in the state of Ohio, Ohio State has that money.

[01:14:26] So, like, people make it seem like just the players getting the money directly into their bank accounts is like this new – no. The money was already there. The advantage is already there. And we look at our national championship. It was Ohio State versus Notre Dame. So college football isn't going to change. It's just a handful of players are going to get million-dollar NIL deals. Your Arch Mannings. If you look at other sports, Libby Dunn is going to get her money.

[01:14:54] The young guy that just helped Florida win the national championship, he got a little bit of money. Mark Sears at Alabama, he got a little bit of money. Cooper Flagg got about $5.7 million. $5 million. BYU paid a guy. $7 million. He ain't even stepped on campus yet. He ain't even stepped on campus yet. So the money is going to flow for a handful of guys. But for the thousands of athletes, it's going to be what's my scholarship looking like? Can I go to this?

[01:15:23] Can I set up my own NIL deals with some kind of gaming company or whatever this case may be? But for the most part, it's not going to extrapolate across all kinds of football programs because all kinds of football programs won't have this problem. All right. You ready for this, Mike? Here we go. So, you know, what made Nico's request so – I ain't going to call it dumb.

[01:15:45] What made it so out of bounds was, you know, the people that are writing your checks probably know the things that I'm about to say. You know what I mean? And they're going to use that against you to not give you the money. Right? Okay. Here we go. So we talked about it the other day. Nico, 19 touchdowns, five interceptions, 2,600 yards. Okay.

[01:16:07] Out of those 19 touchdowns, 13 of them came against Chattanooga, UTEP, Vanderbilt, and Mississippi State. Against Bama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Florida, and Ohio State. That's five games. Two touchdowns, two interceptions. He threw for 45% against Ohio State, 52% against Bama, 59% in the game that they lost to Arkansas.

[01:16:35] So peel all that back, and you got to look in the mirror, son. So that's first and foremost. Yeah. All right. So number two, you know, I don't think that college football is ruined because players are getting money or because Nico did this. I think that people are overreacting because they think there's going to be a floodgate. But it all depends on how this plays out, right?

[01:17:00] If Nico ends up at, I'm going to just say, say UCLA, and he gets three and a half million from them. Maybe he didn't do so bad. He got an extra million off of it. If he ends up at Memphis, FedEx money and all, but only gets 2.7 or 2.8, then it's like, what you do all this for? You know, and you're not even in the power four anymore.

[01:17:24] But college football has never been clean in the first place because when we go back and look through the history of college football, this is why Georgia Tech's not in the SEC right now because Bear Bryant was hoarding all the players. They would oversign players, have 130 people on their roster, so you couldn't get them. That's why Tulane is not in the SEC anymore because Tulane said, you guys don't care about academics at all, and these are higher academic institutions. So we're out of here.

[01:17:54] So college football has always been dirty to a certain degree. But just the logical, I don't know how much this correlates, right, because correlation doesn't equal causation. But if you go back and look at it, you brought up Notre Dame and Ohio State in the national title game. That sounds great for college football. Yes. You know, ratings down 12% in the title game.

[01:18:15] You know, last year's title game was the lowest, or I'm sorry, third lowest since the college football playoff started. You know, and when you go back to the playoffs, the playoffs, I mean, the semifinals lost 4 million viewers as compared to last year. So I don't know if people are. Well, another mistake that has nothing with the NIL, I believe people felt there was too many teams. Definitely. I think the 12. But they turned out more football.

[01:18:45] But that college football crept into the NFL, the meaty part of the NFL season. I mean, so it was like you were. We got our fills, but there was a lot of blowouts. Right. There's a lot of blowouts. And then people didn't like the way it was set up. It was looking like the Grizzlies right now. Yeah. So the Grizzlies getting blown out. Yeah. They're down 16 right now with about 736 left in the second quarter. They're trying to get. They're trying to end their season.

[01:19:15] They're trying to go on vacation. They're trying to. They're trying to be down in Cancun with me in a few weeks. Drinking. You know what I mean? Cranberry mojitos. Yeah. Well, like what we were talking about, though, is that the problem isn't necessarily Nico asking for the money. It's not players asking for the money. The problem is, is that you don't have things in place in the first place.

[01:19:35] Because like what we talked about during the pre-meeting was that, you know, when you take a job, like just us regular people, when you take a job, you know, you talk about salaries and incentives, you know. So, hey, your salary is $85,000. If you have to travel out of town for work, you get X. Per for per diem, just like in the military. Right. We got per diem based on the locale that we were going to be in. Then you had, you know, then this is what we pay for overtime. This is our holiday rate.

[01:20:05] So these are things that you already know going in. So as you're comparing jobs, you can decide, OK, I like that or that ain't going to work for me. Whereas in this situation in college football, it's just the wolves feeding themselves. You're just going to pay me whatever you're willing to pay me. And the school is not on the hook for it. Yeah. Yeah. And once again, the school is never on the hook. Well, they will.

[01:20:30] When Reggie Bush lost his Heisman, I don't think USC lost their national championships. I don't think Pete Carroll had to kick back any of his NFL money when he left. They got some probation for it. They did get some probation. I know Penn State got him for the paternal race. They took his Heisman from him, but they didn't take the national championship for the games that he played. Oh, they tried to say, oh, it didn't happen a year that he won an Heisman. It was his entire time in college. The player always takes the heat.

[01:21:00] And then subsequently, we as fans always knock the player for the player asking for more money and not the institution, either the billionaire, singular billionaire, governor of a team or the board of governors for a college that, you know, understand and control the money at the university. I was talking to a coach today when I was doing announcements at the lacrosse game at senior night. And I was talking to him about the show.

[01:21:57] You're probably never going to be in a room with a billionaire rubbing elbows, cracking jokes. You're very likely to be in a room with an athlete of your aunts, you know, your cousin or something like that, or like your kids you're tutoring or mentoring or something like that. You're more likely to meet someone who's in a position to negotiate one of these kind of contracts. But yet we always bash them for trying to get their money.

[01:22:26] Meanwhile, you let the billionaires hoard the money and not give it to them. Like I said, Tennessee increased their prices with the actual name of talent, a talent fee to pay for the talent on the field. Yes. Did he misstep? Probably. Should he have tried it earlier and just see, hey, can we negotiate? Or did he have to look at somebody else's pocket and say. Well, there were the rumors that he almost sat out the playoff game because he was trying to get paid.

[01:22:55] Now, like I said, rumors, rumors, rumors. Yeah. And I need I need that stuff to get reported. And if he's getting his advice, I personally, when I first heard he was going to Tennessee, I was like, you should stay at the school in California because I've been to major states with a lot of stuff going on. And I've lived in states where there's not that much stuff going on.

[01:23:16] And if. If I was recruiting, if my son wants my son wants to play college football and all he knew was Jersey, like if we grew up, he lived here, he lived his whole life. And they were like, hey, we think Wyoming is a great fit for you. It's like, dog, it ain't nothing out there. So you'll play a lot of football. But when football is over. It's not much out there. Hey, you're a California kid.

[01:23:46] Beaches, diversity. In all aspects, food, people, cars, music, lifestyle. You got it all there in Cali. It's not much that Knoxville because that the football is over. It's just books. Books and some parties. That's it. It's some parties, you know, some sororities and you can be big man on campus, but it ain't much. Well, see, so Tennessee fans are in a tough spot.

[01:24:13] You know, like the last time they beat Georgia was 2016 when Josh Jobs threw a Hail Mary to Juwan Jennings on the last play of the game. The last time they go to Bama this year, the last time they won in Tuscaloosa, Mr. Logical, I was 22 years old. Jesus. Full head of hair. So Tennessee came into this year. I think fans had a lot of hope, you know, that Nico was going to take a leap forward. Maybe they could win nine games in a good year.

[01:24:42] You win 10 and sneak into the SEC title game. You know, now you might not even make a bowl game, but I'm glad you brought up California because I got a couple of places that I think Nico could end up. Now, I know one Mike out here thinks that Nico might find himself to be blackballed, you know what I'm saying? And not anywhere. But we'll get our answer shortly because the transfer portal opens tomorrow. And like I told you earlier, right? It's too early to say whether he made the wrong move or not. Did he go about it the wrong way? Sure.

[01:25:11] But did he make the wrong move? We don't know until this plays out. So if he ends up at UCLA, which is one of the schools I'm going to tie him to, and he gets 3.5, like I said, then, you know, you got something. But if he ends up not even in the power four and right around the same money that Tennessee was going to pay him, then, you know, you did this without a backup plan, which was stupid, too. Yeah.

[01:25:33] And I don't think there's a lot of solidarity amongst these colleges because, like, I know Mario Cristobal got on TV talking about, if you don't want to be here, you're going to go. Yeah, but you gave Carson back $4 million. Yeah. And he is an average QB at best. So don't get out here acting all holier than thou. You gave this dude who's still injured $4 million. So don't front like you're not out here trying to break this bread off, too. So I'm going to say this real quick, Mr. Logical, then I want you to respond to what Mike said. All right.

[01:26:03] So these are the schools that I think that he could find himself at for various reasons. So UCLA, you know, they did bring in Joey Aguilar from Appalachian State this year. They still have Ethan Garbers, but add a B to his name, and that's what he really is. You know what I mean? And then, you know, so UCLA, California boy. I think Louisville, you know, I think Coach Brom probably got on the phone real quick and hit him up. Tulane, you know, they lost Mensa to Duke. They need a new quarterback.

[01:26:32] Texas Tech, they're spending all the portal money right now. Now, I've seen North Carolina mentioned, but I know North Carolina has Max Johnson, son of Brad, you know, injured off last year coming back. So they are also in talks with, apparently with Gio Lopez, the quarterback from South Alabama. It seemed to be the front runners for him. Last two schools on my list. So Maryland, not because I'm from Maryland.

[01:27:00] Just because they have Pep Hamilton on staff. So if you want to go somewhere and get an NFL perspective, maybe some what you've seen, what you feel is NFL preparation. You know, you can go to Maryland and go with Pep Hamilton as your offensive coordinator. Or you could go to UCF where the one and only McKenzie Milton is on the offensive staff there. And why did I bring up McKenzie Milton?

[01:27:27] Because just last year he was on Tennessee's staff as an analyst. So there's a little history there. It's not what you know, it's who you know. So that could be an option. I agree, Mike. You know, Bill Belichick, when I think of Bill Belichick, he ain't dealing with that shit. But then again, I never thought Bill Belichick would be a college football coach either. He signed Antonio Brown. Yeah, that too. So Mr. Logg. He signed Antonio Brown. He signed Randy Moss.

[01:27:53] Randy Moss was not this beloved character that we see on TV now. Randy Moss had all of his issues leaving Minnesota. And they felt like he played half-ass in Oakland. On the goalpost, you know. Yeah. He went to New England and caught 23 touchdowns. Talent versus tolerance. I like your, you know, example out of him. I don't want to say no because I have no idea if there's a vindictive nature amongst college football coaches

[01:28:21] or whatever level of solidarity it is. Well, apparently Dan Lanning was the one that tipped him as well. Yeah, because he probably didn't like – Dan Lanning probably offered him a deal. It was like that ain't enough. So he was like, all right, bet. Let me ruin Tennessee's chances of going back to – I don't think there's a lot of solidarity amongst these coaches. I think we've probably seen more coaches beefing with each other at midfield during the handshake

[01:28:48] in college football than any other sport that we could think of. Yeah, and Ryan Day – Lane Kiffin doesn't like anyone. Ryan Day and, you know, like I think there's always some kind of – What are you talking about? He's never dyed his beard before. Cap. Cap. Cap-tastic. Cap-a-donna. Just cut it out. Cap Regis. So if he fits the part that we think – Like if they think his frame is big enough and his arm is strong enough

[01:29:17] and his brain is smart enough to run their offense and he can be the piece that gets them over the edge, he will be signed to a team at a good dollar amount. If he doesn't do that, it's unfortunate. But if Arch Manning were to leave Texas, someone would sign him the next day. Yeah. So it's just a matter of like you could try to ignore it. Like maybe he's overplaying his hand. Right.

[01:29:46] But we're going to find out because you need a quarterback. You do. You absolutely do. You don't need it to the point where you need to sell out your philosophy. But if you have an opportunity to get a good one and it's not going to tear the fabric of your philosophy is, that's fine. Like I said, Tennessee can get out of here in front. But like I said, they kept – They got to get into portal too. They kept a lot of players on it.

[01:30:13] Every team, every organization keeps a guy around because the measurables, they can't be taught. And you think you can work on his attitude or you ignore his attitude as much as possible and let him play. And as long as the boosters are happy, then the coach is happy. When the boosters are no longer happy, they don't give a damn about the coach's integrity.

[01:30:41] They don't give a damn about how many kids graduate. They don't care how many walk-ons get scholarships. If this place isn't singing Rocky Top at the top of their lungs, all 105,000 people in here because you're not putting a good product on a deal. You're out of here. And we're going to bring in somebody who might do this every once in a while when it's a player when the character email comes in

[01:31:10] or they see something out of pocket. Like, I just see that penalty. And they're going to keep winning football games because talent versus tolerance. A lot of times talent with Trump tolerance, especially in the cutthroat world, that is college football. It is not this beautiful amateur world. It is a cutthroat competition. People like winning and winning at all costs. And college football is the prime example of that. And Tennessee, you know, they got to get into the portal probably.

[01:31:40] You know, you go from Nico to a redshirt freshman and a true freshman. And you know what I mean? That obviously – I wouldn't be surprised they brought him back. Bring Nico back? Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised by Friday they come to some – because once again, you said they got to get in the portal. You think another guy who wants 2.5 or $3 million is going to want to go to Tennessee this week? I don't know. But –

[01:32:09] Because we talked about – Maybe how we talked about that. I told him not to come back. I think that's kind of the door slamming in his face. Yeah, until Hypo sits down with a booster and he's smoking a cigar. He's like, sit down, Josh. Let me talk to you for a minute. They don't even call him coach. They call him Josh. I think if Nico didn't go about it the way that he did and he had just left and went in the portal, yes. But – because you can always come back home. But after the way it went down, I don't know if that door is open. Listen, when your next valuable option is some six-foot quarterback

[01:32:38] that's transferring from Kent State, you're going to go back to the six-foot-four, six-foot-five, number one rated quarterback. Well, this is where you start to tamper, right? This is where you start to tamper, right? Hey, where Malik Murphy at? Oregon State? They can't pay what we could pay. You know? Like, you start calling around. You're like, nah, man. I see what y'all just did to Nico. Players have leverage too. No, but that's what I was talking about. That's what I was talking about, though. Like, it's not about Nico. It's about the future. Because now that players have seen you take that hard line,

[01:33:09] now you've got to spend an extra few minutes with that recruiting now. Yeah, but now, like, I think this week is going to be tough. If you're a quarterback that's looking to transfer and you're looking to get $3 million, if that's your number, if that's the number you think you're going to get because some agent or you feel like the market ebbs and flows have led you to this number, it's going to be hard for you to reach out to Tennessee. But Tennessee's going to have to reach out to someone. Somebody.

[01:33:38] Reach out and touch someone. They're going to have to. Like I said, once they get out there. Maybe you see something that looks like a trade. You know? Like, Nico goes somewhere, and that quarterback goes to Tennessee. Yeah, listen. There's going to be a lot of moves, but when it comes down to it, you've got to strap those. That's why I'm interested to see what's going to happen. Cleats in the grass and belt the ass. All of this litigation, all this information, I got that from Jalen Collins on the Raw Room, a former Atlanta Falcons quarterback. He's like, you've got to put this cleats in the grass

[01:34:08] and belt the ass. Yeah. So that's what it all boils down to. It's like, if you could do that, you're good to go. If you're a coach and you can't get your team to do that, then you will be out of there. So you're going to deal with some stuff. Well, that's why I said I'm interested to see how this is going to work out. You know, it's unprecedented. You know, now we've got the revenue sharing, so we're going to see how that works out because, of course,

[01:34:34] they're going to change that two or three times because it's set up for 10 years and it goes up annually. So we'll see how that works. Memphis cut it down to nine with 250 left. So, yeah, I think that's a – it's definitely something to keep an eye on. The portal opens tomorrow, so you know I'm going to be all front and center, you know, waiting to see what happens. And, you know – He's going to get picked up just because – just because he's the prototype quarterback.

[01:35:02] He's your prototype pocket passer, big body. Granted, probably could use a little bit more weight, but he's been playing – he's been skinny his whole life and been successful. He isn't, like, an unconventional quarterback that you have to work on. You just got to, you know, get a good system. Oh, another thing that I have forgot. So his brother, his brother Madden, you know, was actually committed to UCLA at one point.

[01:35:29] So that was why I brought up UCLA as a part of why he might go there. But now his brother is the backup at Arkansas. So, you know, so we'll see. You know, we'll see. You know what I'm saying? It is what it is. But, hey, we will be back on Thursday, you know, to preview some NBA playoffs. Mr. Logical going to tell you why the Pistons are going to beat the Knicks. Nobody from New York will be able to go to the games in Detroit, though.

[01:35:59] Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I miss the Palace at Auburn Hills, you know, saying I'm old school like that. But, you know, join us. And then, you know, we're going to have a discussion about the play in, you know, Memphis trying to make this a game. So like, review, subscribe, share, rate, do all the free things. Do all the good things while you're doing the free things. Have you a liquid death, but do not under any circumstances.

[01:36:23] I repeat, there is no sex in the champagne room and you do not bring feelings to a back fight. Don't do it. You know what I'm saying? Thank you for joining us. We love you. Shout out Northern Lacrosse. Yes, sir. Don't say I'm one mic podcast, Mondays and Thursdays. Hotbox Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday, 7 Eastern. Pursuit of forever. Pursuit of forever.

[01:36:53] Every other Wednesday, 630 Eastern. Holler at my boys. Peace.