SPRING CLEANING

[00:00:00] Yes, you are now listening to the sounds of Sports Reports As Ordered. And we got the even kill. Born in Texas, raised in VA, representing New Jibous, dedicated father, dedicated vet. Do not bring feelers to a fat fight. Don't do it. Give your P's and Q's in line.

[00:00:31] He is Mr. Lodge. And then of course it is I, your unorthodox statistician, gone left so much that you thought I was Southpaw. Bam! Watch for the hook. From one and only to five. And tonight we're going to talk about it. We might as well talk about it.

[00:00:51] Tomorrow the end is here. The Celtics put their foot down and they said, no more of you Dallas. And then we're going to take a little case study. We're going to do it a little differently tonight.

[00:01:07] It started on Jason Tatum, but I think we could apply it across the board. So take this journey with us. Like, subscribe, review, share, email us, insta us, tweet at us, all the things. Do it for free. Let's get this thing started. We'll get it off my chest.

[00:01:27] So I will take the lead on this one. You know what I'm saying? Cause I know Mr. Lodgel going to dig, he going to dig into his soul. You know what man, my soul hurts. It's going to be a lot of just four letter words. Yeah.

[00:01:42] My getting off my chest is pretty lighthearted. You know, I am serious about it, but it ain't that deep. You know, we'll see if Mr. Lodgel has heard this story yet. So once upon a time, actually it was just this afternoon, you know, as I was doing my

[00:01:58] daily scrub of CBS sports.com, I ran across something that caught my eye. You know, usually, you know, like there's some kind of eye candy involved there, but you know, this one was a statement, usually Tracy Wolfson, but not today.

[00:02:16] So as I was looking, the big 12 is in preliminary talks with their athletic directors of taking money from companies for their naming rights. So like, for example, the Baltimore Ravens play at MNT bank stadium. You know, the Carolina Panthers play at Bank of America stadium.

[00:02:45] So in this particular piece, they were quoting Pete Thabel from ESPN who was saying that Allstate, the insurance company may try to give the big 12 a billion dollars in investment to create either the Allstate 12 conference or the big Allstate conference. Wait, naming the conference after a company? Yes.

[00:03:12] I thought it was like the stadium or like maybe the thing on the jersey. I didn't think it was going to be like naming the, okay, keep going my bad. Yeah, yeah. So the point of this for the big 12, for example, is that their teams, their football teams

[00:03:28] only bring in 31.7 million dollars with their TV deal, but you're competing against a conference like the Big Ten who's bringing in 75 million with this new deal that they just signed last year. So it sounds like Allstate or whoever this company will be wants 20% of the big 12's

[00:03:49] earnings once they make the investment to get the naming rights. But then that gives the big 12 more money to give to their schools to try to compete with the Big Ten as far as NIL, you know, trying to create playoff contenders, infrastructure,

[00:04:07] so on and so forth, so they can try to build a competitive level versus being behind where they are right now. So of course the only problem with this is if it's a success, then what stops the

[00:04:20] Big Ten and SEC from doing the same thing and just leaving you back in the dust where you were? So that's first and foremost. Second of all, what happens in 10 years when the Big 12 commissioner, current commissioner

[00:04:35] Brett Yermark, is probably not the Big 12 commissioner anymore because he's moved on or something else. Now, the new commissioner is stuck with whatever this is. What if it doesn't work? What's the contract here? Are we going to have the Allstate 12 conference one year and then have the Texaco

[00:04:54] conference next year? Two years it'll be the Chick-fil-A conference after that, you know, so it'll be the 7-11-12 conference. They already got the names for the ball games. This is getting excessive, man.

[00:05:08] Yeah. So we're going to end up at a point where these schools have too much money, which they already do, then they know what to do with. And I get the idea behind it in some ways because I know like, you know, in

[00:05:20] soccer, you have the UEFA and all this kind of stuff that are sponsored like McDonald's and so on and so forth. But that's a tournament, you know, individual teams. There's not like eight teams and the English Premier League that are sponsored by British Petroleum.

[00:05:40] They get like extra money from BP and the other 10 teams don't, you know. Right. And that was going to be the next step. So since you said that, that was going to be the next step of my, here it

[00:05:51] comes, my soliloquy because I was thinking about this, you know, how do you split up the money? You know, because you got teams like Oklahoma State, for example, that have been in the Big 12 since the Big 12 creation.

[00:06:04] But then you have a school like say Utah, you know, who has been the back to back Pac-12 champion and all of that, you know, before this season, they are coming into the Big 12 this year, probably going to be one of the

[00:06:17] favorites, but this is your first year in the Big 12. So if this goes through, is there seniority in place? Like how do we make the split? Does everybody split it equally? Are there certain criteria or parameters that you have to meet? Best bet.

[00:06:33] You got to split it equally, just like the owners do with the revenue and every sport, the Jaguars owner gets the same amount of money as the Panthers. Well, but in college football we've seen, you know, USC and UCLA got

[00:06:45] with the rest of the Pac-12 schools didn't get, Texas and Oklahoma got with the rest of the Big 12 schools didn't get. We're currently talking about is Florida State and Clemson going to get something different from the rest of the ACC schools since they're

[00:06:59] the ones that draw the eyeballs. So this can go anywhere and I'm here for it to see how this ends up because everybody was mad when the players were able to get money and get paid and it was going to ruin the sport.

[00:07:12] What do you have to say now? They're going to get crazy. If I got a billion dollars, I'm buying every five star position. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, the med, if I get that much money, you, you won't score a touchdown on me. We win in every game.

[00:07:37] As a wise man sitting across from me once told me is no fun when the rabbit got the gun, is it money? Damn money. Yo, I'm telling you, man, like a lot of people we, we, we had

[00:07:53] conversations earlier this week and a lot of people talk about like socioeconomic status. We were talking about like where you live, living conditions, education, but it boils down to sadly surely is reason we do the show that we do in this format. Like it's money.

[00:08:08] If we had more money, like if we had the same money that JJ Reddick and LeBron put into their podcast, we could fly, fly meeting LA of meeting New York or meeting some winery in Dallas and record there because they just have, it's not what they know.

[00:08:26] Cause what they know we could study that like you can get two high school basketball coaches that probably know all about the plays that they ran for their 10, 15 years. They've been high school basketball coaches and they could sit in a

[00:08:37] room and have the same podcast as JJ and LeBron, but they just have the money, the money allows them to access to, to gain people. Then people who want more money use them to access people, to get

[00:08:48] more money in the money is really the money turning people into a monster. Like Mick Mills said, it's like the money turned the noodles in the noodles in the pasta, like it's literally changing the fortunes to the point where.

[00:09:03] If you just want to play football, if you want to play basketball and like all you want to do is just play college sports, you're probably going to be better off going like D2, D3 or some kind of Juco and

[00:09:15] just, just continue your playing because going to one of these other schools that get all this money and you're a four or five star recruit, you roll that ankle and you can't play for three weeks, man. You might as well go shut it down. Yep.

[00:09:28] But yeah, that's my, get it off my chest. You know, like, you don't say, and I've been seeing it all over Twitter. So it wasn't or X. So it wasn't my idea, but you know, big 12, you got to be the Buc-E's conference, the Buc-E's 12.

[00:09:42] Yo, can we get the YY E-star? There you go. There you go. I'm already buying into this. This is what money does. Money makes you change. I hate it. You said it. I hate it. I'm like, this is awful.

[00:09:54] So as soon as I, soon as I got the gist of what it makes at first, I thought it was like the NBA because at first I didn't like the NBA having like the, the advertising on the jersey. Yeah.

[00:10:05] Then I believe the WBA they had, they had it like soccer where it was like the whole front like soccer jerseys. I think like the Barcelona, I think their jersey still says Qatar airways on the front. Yeah.

[00:10:18] But it just becomes like a part of like what you see. So it's not the same. Whereas like you said, that's an individual team too. Yeah. And I, but I grew up seeing the, you know, the bears logo or the word Lakers across or Celtics.

[00:10:34] So it would blow my mind if it was like Bumble. I mean, like it just, it wouldn't look the same. Whereas when I look at a European team, a team I had never followed growing up and it's, you know, Coca-Cola to me is okay.

[00:10:49] That's just that's Bayern Munich. I don't think that's Bayern Munich's label, but like whatever Bayern Munich's on the front of Jersey, if it's Coca-Cola, if it's, you know, Sprite, whatever it is, that's their jersey. I didn't grow up seeing that, but like the Kansas Jersey behind you,

[00:11:02] if it said like, you know, Mountain Dew, but that's weird. That'd be weird to me. So that's what I thought it was. But when you said they're going to change the name of the conference to Mountain Dew West, come on. Okay. You know what? That's perfect right there.

[00:11:18] The Sierra missed West, you know, all that stuff. But yeah, that was, that was my get it off my chest. So like I said, something light, but it was just something that stood out to me. Yeah. Uh, my girl, my chest is a long standing, uh, battle and

[00:11:37] relationship with, uh, the good old Atlanta Falcos down there in Georgia. And the Mercedes, uh, dome, like the fact that they named their Mercedes Benz when the saints still had that name that bothered me. Uh, something I did like, I liked the cheap prices that they had on

[00:11:57] like the food and the concessions. Um, but they had a Chick-fil-A in the stadium, which is cool, but they play most of their games on Sundays and Chick-fil-A's not open on Sunday, so I was like, well, that's stupid.

[00:12:10] I know I was like when I was up in there. So sometimes I like idea than I hate it. And like the idea and I hate it. And some years back, I believe maybe like it's probably like 10 years now

[00:12:22] Atlanta got fined for pumping in like crowd music and sound into the stadium, they lost like a fifth round pick with that stupid, but then this Kurt cousins tampering thing that occurred, they got fined $250,000 to the team, 50,000 to the GM, which I imagine that the team is probably

[00:12:45] going to pay on, I don't know if they're going to make me pay out of his pocket. It just kind of puts the, uh, puts the cupcake and then the dynamite stick in the top of it for how you sum up how poorly you can construct an

[00:13:02] off season when you had like a clean slate in front of you. Like I say this to my bar, I have a haircut appointment tomorrow, right? Haven't had a haircut a couple of weeks. My hair is getting kind of thick. So my barber's like, yo, I like me.

[00:13:15] You go a couple of weeks, you know, two or three weeks because that way I got like this new canvas. I can come with some idea, whatever, whatever, like when I have this much hair, especially for me, you can mess it up because I only really get a

[00:13:29] couple of different kinds of haircuts. So it was like, you have a great opportunity. You know what the hairline grew back in the park, grooves back in. So you can get a different design, whatever the case may be is like the world is your oyster.

[00:13:41] Atlanta had a good young core running backs, good young core, good young physical receiving core. And they knew we need to get a quarterback. We need, we need to get a head coach. We need to get a quarterback and we need to make moves with

[00:13:58] these drafts that we have. They go get a retrick coach that they could have hired a couple of years ago and they didn't, they let walk. And he didn't have success in other places. So they bring him back. Okay, cool. I'll lean on that. I'm good to go.

[00:14:17] Then you go get a quarterback. That's fresh off of Achilles tear that happened in November. And then you give them $45 million a year. It was like, okay, he's in his thirties, but you know, maybe we get a few good years out of them.

[00:14:32] That's the going rate for quarterbacks. Now, like you rationalize it. Then the draft comes is like, all right, bet we paid Jesse base slash in the all season. We're going to get a nice defensive piece or we're going to go all in

[00:14:45] greatest show on turf, I like Kurt Warner, Isaac Bruce, Torrey hole Ricky parole, like we're going to go that way with it. Marshall Falk, we just go like, you know what? We're going to hit them with waves and try to get 28 to 31 points

[00:15:00] a week and hope the defense can keep the score under 24. And we go, you know, 13 and four, nah, nah, nah. We're going to go get the backup for the guy that we need three years. And then we get fined for talking to the guy early.

[00:15:16] So it's like, so you went out, you jumped out the window and risk $300,000 in a draft pick because now they only have six draft picks next year, which they've been butchering the last few years. Like they've been picking players on the wrong spot.

[00:15:31] They haven't made any good trades. It's like just a, just a cataclysmic, just fallacy of just trust and just everything, just, just falling apart. It's literally falling apart before it begins. And I know what's going to go bad. No one's going to get fired.

[00:15:49] And I'm at the deal with this same thing next year when we're still doing this show, hopefully from a bigger studio with a bigger audience, but I'll have the same complaints because you go out here and risk getting fined for

[00:16:04] tampering just to get a guy, just to immediately piss him off six weeks later, six months before the season starts. And as soon as he goes to the stadium and it's 70,000 seats, but it's 32,000 to 42,000 fans and he throws a game ending pick against Pittsburgh,

[00:16:26] which is likely because we are right. Tackle is terrible and TJ Watts going to kill them and Cameron Hayward is going to kill on the inside because our right guard is awful. The left tackle isn't great either.

[00:16:37] So the, he's going to get pressure in his face all day long with 30 something year old quarterback. Then he gets to go to Philly the next week. They're going to be packed cussing them out. I want to go to the game.

[00:16:48] I don't know if I can stomach it. So they're going to get Molly walked in and then they get the chiefs at home. So you, you butcher the entire all season. You don't get the coach in place.

[00:16:59] You get the wrong, like I'm a call now you got the wrong quarterback in place because you already have an idea of replacing them and now you're going to put them out there. Oh, and three and getting started on for the whole conversation is going

[00:17:10] to be why you had this guy and no one's going to lose their job. No one's going to lose anything. I'm just going to be sitting here yelling at my computer. Oh, I'm not going. Don't worry about it. I'm not going.

[00:17:25] I'm not going to, I'm not crossing the border in the Philly to see that game at all. That is a dive bar. But how, how Falcon is it? It's the most to get penalized for tampering with a dude in rehab.

[00:17:42] Um, a 40 year old dude, a dude that could have been in high school with us, a dude that could have been catching the bus with us in high school, damn near or real close. Tap around, what you called Kirko chains.

[00:17:55] And then, and then going out and getting, they could have just got Michael Pinnix and they wouldn't get, we wouldn't have the tampering problem. We will still have the 90 million dollars. Maybe we could have kept Kalei's Campbell and gave him a little bit.

[00:18:12] He could have stayed or maybe, I mean, it's just so many, you could have traded down to like 11 maybe like you could have done so many things with his like, you could have got a better coach. I'm not a starter or something. I'm not knocking Raheem Morris.

[00:18:27] I think everybody deserves their shot, but you already gave them a shot. And then you had an opportunity to keep them and then you didn't. And it's like, how much more did he learn from Sean McVay? When he came back, he was a different dude. Right. Yeah.

[00:18:44] So I hate to, you know, take a lot of time on this, but it just, it just goes to show how we talked about our case study of like how teams just continually put themselves behind the eight ball. Like this is the kind of thing.

[00:18:55] And it's like, this is what we're getting publicly. I have no idea how to contract negotiations work. I have no idea if guys are sitting down and their market value was 12 million dollars a year, but we're offering them eight and a half. Right.

[00:19:10] And it's like, is this why we're losing corners? Is this why we can't keep a solid defensive core? Because you only offer big money to the top free agents that are out there. And if you get them, you do.

[00:19:22] But like, you know, it's just, like I said, the stuff that we see publicly is like, it's a personification of idiocracy. But yet what are we getting behind the scenes? Like the whole point we're trying to explain the draft pick.

[00:19:35] They've been trying to explain the draft for like the two weeks after the draft is like, dog, you're not fooling anybody. You're smart, but you're not doing anything. You're not doing anything smart. Shout out. And that's the thing, but it's like you're you're roomful.

[00:19:51] And I think the problem is there's a room full of smart people and no one wants to tell the other smart person, like, yo, you did the dumbest thing imaginable with the last six weeks and with 200 million dollars because you got to pay penance.

[00:20:03] Finance probably got like 30 or 40 million right at eight. Cause I think the tackle, the tackle that went to Tennessee, I believe at seven, right? Yep. He got 32 million. So you figure the quarterback at eight got 30. So you put $210 million and one guy, you don't want to start

[00:20:22] and the other guy you can't bench and they blew $300,000 in fines. Facts. Shout out to the longest, get it off my chest and show history. You get history on sports reports is ordered. You know, it's like how, like it's like we're going to talk about

[00:20:42] as we transition NBA finals and this conversation for the rest of the game is like, we're just fans of sport. Right. I've never been an intern in any organization. The closest I've been to like the nuance and the minutia

[00:20:56] of an organization is being like a volunteer board member on my son's youth football. And those conversations about money and equipment and practice schedules and training and you know, health waivers and insurance. So we're having like real conversations, but we're not having

[00:21:12] like in depth conversations about the defense and how to, how to build a team. We're just trying to get kids in, get the equipment, get the stickers on the helmet and make sure the Jersey matches the helmet, you know, getting

[00:21:24] concessions, we're getting all this stuff put together and we're a group of people are full time jobs, multiple kids that play for the teams. We do everything else. And we put on flawless events. Every single opportunity we get shout out to norther brothers, greenhouse, win championships.

[00:21:39] Like we're, we're, we're over here in this area for playing football. And it's like, cause we sit around and we have common sense discussions. Who's having a who's the, when, when, when these, when these picks come in,

[00:21:52] like I'm even go back to the Daniel Jones at six for the giants. They had six and 17. No one was looking for Daniel Jones. You could have got the best player available at six and still got Daniel Jones at 17 or move 17 up to 10.

[00:22:06] If it looked like somebody was trying to creep up, but you could, you could have bolstered your defense and still got your guy. Cause that was original conversation we had earlier about, you know, quarterbacks, but that'll, that'll be a part of the criticism. And I'll tie it in.

[00:22:19] Like it's just, I don't understand how you and I can have a conversation as someone listening, watching on YouTube. Me like, you know what? Those two guys are making a lot of sense, but yet the people who get paid $200, $300,000 a year, butchered both of mine. Complacency, bro. Complacency.

[00:22:36] You know, so, so transitioning on, you know, I remember back in 2011, uh, there used to be this joke about how, you know, you can never get a dollar from LeBron because he only gives you three quarters.

[00:22:53] So as I transitioned to the NBA finals, looking at Luca Donchich here, indulge me for a second, Mr. Logical. So Luca Donchich, right? He hasn't had much help in the NBA finals in this series. You know, like it's easy to see, you know, whatever the case may be.

[00:23:12] But in the first three quarters in this series, he has 81 points on 32 for 59 shooting, which comes out to 54%. In the fourth quarters, eight points, three of 15, 20%. So what I thought of watching this is James Harden from the standpoint of all season long, you know, back.

[00:23:40] And I'm talking about Houston James Harden. So those of you that'll see the thumbnail, that's why it's Houston James Harden, because that's what I'm talking about. But, uh, but when I look at Houston, James Harden all season long, he was good for 40 point triple doubles, 50 point triple doubles.

[00:23:56] Might've even had a 60s. Triple double 14 assists. It was something crazy. Yeah. Wins MVP, all this kind of stuff. And then the late great Kobe being Bryant came out and said, you can't win a championship playing that style of basketball, but we get to the

[00:24:14] playoffs and then James Harden has had some things, you know, I always talk about game six against the Spurs, Kawhi Leonard didn't even play. And James Harden went two for 10 and an elimination game, you know, against the warriors, you know, 27 straight miss threes, not all him,

[00:24:35] but you're the leader on the floor. Damn it. Yeah. You know, two for 13 game seven last year against the Celtics. So when I look at Luca Donchich, that's what I see is this person that is all everything.

[00:24:50] People like Dakota, AKA Dallas Mike in the comments was talking about how Lucas should have been MVP this season because he was averaging 35 damn near a triple double, you know what I mean? But the problem with dudes like Luca is they play how they play. They don't adapt.

[00:25:09] They don't change anything regardless of what the defense is throwing at them. They just say, I'm good enough to keep throwing shit at the wall and eventually it won't slide anymore. And it's not true. And that's what we're seeing partially in this NBA finals is as I said,

[00:25:28] and before game one, Boston just has too many options. Yeah. Too many green lights, all those green jerseys, a lot of green lights. Uh, one thing that I heard yesterday, Kavan Loonie was talking about being a role player and Luca need to get the role players involved early.

[00:25:46] And I get it. And like I said, the same thing, cause we talked about LeBron does it. A couple of other players do it. Let these guys get their shots off early. Just keep feeding in the ball. Luca knows he has the green light to put up 28 shots.

[00:26:04] He can put up, he can come down and shoot seven shots in a row if he wanted, if they worked the ball around and got back to them, they're trying to someone's going to try to get it back to him.

[00:26:13] You can take as many shots as you want. But early on just get like, I don't think Dallas runs any pick and roll for anybody else other than Kyrie Luka. Like no one, no one's in any real basketball action when they have the ball in their hand.

[00:26:28] It's three, the two wing guys are. Pick and pop or spot ups. And then the big is slash to the hoop, look for the lob or get the rebound. That's it is like, there's no, there's no one else that really gets any action.

[00:26:45] If you look at Boston, Pritchett's in the pick and roll. Horford is involved in the pick and roll. How's there's your pick and pop guy, but he's normally coming off. Somebody else is setting the screen like a new back screen.

[00:26:56] You're coming off off of that Tatum obviously is in the pick and roll Browns in the pick and roll drew house in the pick and roll Porzingis when he put like, there's so many guys that put Denver and the Dallas defenders and into action Boston just stands

[00:27:09] there and just waits for Luca to call for his one. And he wants like, uh, what's the guy was out there? Um, they got it. They got from Memphis and the trade that hit the one three corner till

[00:27:21] men, he would call for Tillman until it was like, all right, cool. I'm going to just stay seven feet away from you. If you shoot this 27 foot three and make it then that's fine, but

[00:27:31] I'm not gone, do you up, let you blow by and let you kick it out. It was like, okay, there's a single coverage. So he has to recognize that, yo, they're not going to double me. You guys got to do something on the backside.

[00:27:45] Lively, you got to set the screen for no Derek Jones, you, somebody, somebody you got to help somebody else get open, but you have to recognize that cause like we're watching it. We see it. The people on TV are talking about like, Hey, they're not doubling

[00:27:58] Luke at all. Like someone has to be able to say, Hey, you're not getting doubled. The reason you're not getting doubled is because they want to do this. We need to figure out something else that's going to make the move at a minimum.

[00:28:12] If you set a screen on, you know, whoever's covering Tim Hardaway, if you put him in the game and he gets a wide open look, yeah, he's been off, but eventually if you get them for those, he's got to get you one or two.

[00:28:25] Speaking of which are you aware that Tim Hardaway hasn't hit a shot since May 18th? What? A lot of English. He hasn't had a shot since May 18th. Since May 18th. That was the last time he had a shot.

[00:28:39] Now he hasn't been playing very much and he's only taking seven shots in the finals, but still. But did you see when Derek White tried to follow him when they had to file a give? He even told the ref like, and he put his hand up and the

[00:28:51] ref was like, the ref was like, nah, let's get out of here dog. He grabbed him by, he grabbed him by his arm with both hands and then Tim Hardaway was wide open because everyone stopped thinking about it and missing is like, dog, you're not making a case.

[00:29:10] Like I'm trying to advocate for you on my podcast. And then I see the thing happen. I'm like, dog, you had no one running at you. I mean, granted the clock is running down and you've got to hit the three,

[00:29:22] but I think they were down seven at that point, maybe eight. And he just, and he, and he missed it. And it's like, and then Missoula was mad at the ref like, yo, I know you saw that happen right in front of you.

[00:29:32] And the ref was like, we're done here as a ref. What are you looking at? That's the thing that hurts. I think that hurts boss. If that three goes in, then it's, you know, granted. Yeah. So it's still miracle of the metal lands kind of like, you know,

[00:29:45] miracle of Madison square garden. They make it happen. But what they were trying to do was to make them take the ball back out and reset up and burn more clock, not give up a free open look

[00:29:54] three granted to the guy who has made a shot in three weeks. Like, you know, the whole big joke is we've done with the eighties. You know what I'm saying? But this series made me want the eighties for a second from the

[00:30:11] standpoint of last night, for example, Kyrie and Luca took 55 combined shots. Dallas as a team took 86. The problem that I have, you know, cause I'm the stat guy. So the problem that I have is Derek lively, shooting 70% in the series. You know, Gaffer shooting 80%.

[00:30:31] And I'm not saying that they're doing anything remarkable. That's on 25 total shots in three games, first of all. But last night, but last night when I looked around the floor, you know what I did not see? I did not see a seven foot three unicorn.

[00:30:48] You know, Sam, what, what we have for six, nine, six, 10. I'll give him six, nine. I'll give him six, nine, but I didn't see a seven foot three unicorn. What I did see at times was Gaffer with Tatum near him being the

[00:31:02] closest defender at times, you know what? Put your back on him. I'm not saying that you even got to take the shot, you know, but act like you got to move, let the defense collapse on you. Get an easier shot for bums. Like there's Washington and Derek Jones.

[00:31:20] The plan. If, if I'm looking, if I'm defensively and I'm scouting Dallas, plan a is Luca, Luca, get the ball create where you think a play can be made, whether it's you in the paint, you shooting a three or you kind of

[00:31:42] kicking out to a guy in a corner or whatever the case would be. So that that's planning. Plan B is Luca, give the ball to Kyrie, go stand in the corner and take a break because you're being like hunted defensively.

[00:31:55] So save some energy, which is realistic is like, cause LeBron did the same thing when he had Kyrie on the scene. KD did it when he was out there with Golden state. Uh, Steph never stops moving. He's always moving.

[00:32:08] Shaq did the same thing when he had Kobe was like, all right, I'm out here, I'm played defensively for three or four possessions. You take over the offensive end. I'll be a big man. You could pick and pop off of me.

[00:32:19] And then plan C is scramble off, get, try to get offensive rebound and scramble off of that. Any one of you other guys available? You can get, you can take a look after that, but plan a Luca plan B

[00:32:33] Kyrie plan C is you other guys create off the rebound because no one like it's not even a time where a different guy brings the ball up. It's not like, cause Boston's not pressure and they're not trapping in that full court press and they're not doing their defense.

[00:32:48] Isn't like Minnesota where it's just like, it's hounding. Like Chris, we saw it said it was like a bunch of kids from the hood playing a bunch of kids from the suburbs. Like that's how Minnesota plays defense. Boston just plays defense smart.

[00:33:00] Like they just move like together because use their feet on like Luca because Dallas is basically just letting them play Dallas is letting them play with, you know, for a football reference, letting them play

[00:33:15] with eight in the box, man to man on the outside and the safety is creeping down and it's like, y'all not going to check to just a go route to one of these guys I hear in man to man coverage and see if it works.

[00:33:27] Like, all right, Dallas, y'all not going to check to like get lively, a screen for him at the paint at the free throw line and let him get the law from Luca like Derek Jones. You should when Tatum is the guy at garden Gaffer or the closest

[00:33:41] defender, he should be screening him like a little back screen roll off that and throw the lot, even if he doesn't catch it at least make Boston look for a different option. Cause right now I'm looking at Lucas standing in the corner when

[00:33:53] Kyrie has the ball, Kyrie doesn't look for Luca to get him the ball back. He doesn't look for Luca the way Luca looks for everybody else on those little dribble drives like Kyrie is looking to score because he's looking to create space. So Luca just stands there.

[00:34:06] So it was like, okay, for this possession, we'll just leave Pritchard out there on Luca. We don't need any help cause Kyrie is not looking for him. And even with that, they still in these games.

[00:34:17] Cause Boston just for some reason just won't go to the paint when it's when the team, when you have a 21 point lead and it gets cut to 10, your next possession needs to be. I need to get to the free throw.

[00:34:28] I want to say that lead evaporated in less than five minutes too. Yo, like it was crazy cause I was driving, right? I got in the car third quarter ended at left where I was at got in the car and my daughter's in the backseat. She's driving.

[00:34:40] She wants to watch the migration on my phone while I'm driving. I'm like, hold on. Let me check the score of the game. If it gets out of hand, I'll give you the phone. It's like a 35 minute drive, get in the car, get the stream started.

[00:34:54] They're down 21 all of a sudden. I'm like, well, it's 15 at the end of the third. They already hit two threes. I'm okay. This baby about to watch migration here in a few minutes. And then all of a sudden it's 18 that is 16 that is 13. And then it's 11.

[00:35:10] That's the timeout. Like you should have called the timeout at 16. And then it gets down and then when it gets down to like single digits, like three, two, like one in that range, I was like, did they pause, blow their load, trying to get the game back in?

[00:35:26] But then Luca gets the two files. And I was like, yo, you can't try to make that move with, especially a guy like Jaylen Brown, Jaylen Brown is playing like it's. One-on-one. If he gets by you, you're a non-factor. Whoever's in front of him.

[00:35:45] I'm trying to dunk on you. I'm pulling up on you. Like he is not playing Dallas as if they're game planning to stop him. He's literally looking at like, all right, you're done. I got by you. You're done. You can't jump me.

[00:35:58] I'm dunking this and that's how he's playing. And he, and Luca should have just let them come down now. So let them blow by, but cut them off with your feet instead of trying to take the charges like it's just such a bang bang, especially with five files.

[00:36:13] Yeah. What's five files? Yeah. Four minutes left in the game. Five files. And it's like no IQ. It is. Any, any looks at the bench. You better challenge that. And it's like, but the thing, you know what, just come sit your ass

[00:36:28] beside me, he I think his frustration and we often refer back. I know we're talking a lot about Dallas, even though Boston is winning their private women in the NBA championship. He did the same thing in game one against OKC where he just was yelling

[00:36:41] everybody else, but he came back out game two, like your I'm Luca Dodgers, I'll come look with the rant out here. He hasn't had that snap yet. And I think maybe game two, because he played, he played, they played hard in game two and still lost.

[00:36:55] And I think it's, I don't, I don't picture him or really remember him kind of engaging with the refs as much in game two and game one was definitely letting them play. And, and, and that was, that was the issue that I think a lot of people

[00:37:11] had with that call following him out because it definitely was a foul. You can't argue that it was not a foul, but I think a lot of people were just looking at it as you've been letting them play all night.

[00:37:23] Luca been getting beat up half the night and then you're going to follow him out on that, even though Luca tried this damndest to jump into the floor a couple of times to draw a fouls and he wasn't getting those either.

[00:37:36] And, and we have to think about this too. It's not like baseball. We can just use a laser and say if this is a ball or strike and not and completely get rid of the, the referees, but you can't keep

[00:37:52] cussing somebody out for three hours and expect them to do your favorite thing in the game. Like you can't just be barking at me all night long and like, and then think that I won't try to get you a body here because first of all, it

[00:38:07] wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't the brightest of plays, but it wasn't egregious either. It was, you call a charge on Jaylen Brown and Missoula challenges it. I don't think they overturned it either. No, it didn't look, it just, I think the foul got called

[00:38:23] because Jaylen Brown hit the floor sideways. Like if you would've gone through Luca, but I think the fact that it was like he's going to the basket and he fell towards the free throw line and

[00:38:38] you fell the other way is like, okay, you cut him off because he's going this way, he's allowed that space. You cut him off from going that way. Cause you fell the opposite direction. But if you were there, he would have gone, he would have toppled over you.

[00:38:53] It's something, in some form or fashion, it would have been like a little bit more direct, but the fact that he fell going opposite direction, maybe he sold it, but you know, we talked about the bang bang play in 2018 with KD and Lebron

[00:39:06] that blocked charge, the rent went through Lebron and they both fell straight back. The fact that they reversed it was like, you know, that was mind blowing. But with the Luca case, it's like, yeah, you definitely cut them off because he, he fell this way.

[00:39:20] Like you bumped him out of his path. Yeah. It just, it was a bad, it was a bad, it was a bad night and it was a bad night to have a bad night. You know? Yeah.

[00:39:29] And I mean that's what happens when you're, when you're a petulant cry baby, you tend to make mistakes. You tend to do things out of frustration that bite you in the ass. And that's what happened. Luca got bit in the ass.

[00:39:45] So, you know, as far as Boston goes, you know, um, I mentioned earlier, they have too many options because Dallas, I would think would like to funnel Boston into the paint where you got those trees down there.

[00:39:59] Like they had the committee waiting for Anthony Edwards in the last series. But the only problem is that no, no, I know. But the problem is, is that Boston has too many ball handlers, too many capable shooters and too many people that are willing to make the pass.

[00:40:14] So I'll come halfway down there, but as soon as you react to me like that, you can, Oh, that left handed pass that drew holiday made to dark white, you know, for the three, there's no defense for that. And then all hand,

[00:40:30] Boston, Boston has given Jason Kidd and the Dallas Mavericks a different look. Every, almost every time the ball gets taken out, you have, there's times where Drew holiday brings a ball up. Tatum brings a ball up. Brown brings a ball up. White brings a ball up.

[00:40:52] Pritchett brings a ball up. So it then with that immediately off that action, it's how's her in Pritchett running action at the, on the wing, which is way different than how it looks with Tatum and, and, and Horford or Brown. It as if they're the starters.

[00:41:10] There's no hesitation. It's no, not thinking about it. They just like boom, jab, jab hook. It's like we all in the gym boxing that dudes are pro. I'm an amateur. I'm in here trying to get shape, get in shape, but we all run it through the same drill.

[00:41:24] We're all hitting the bag at the same speed. We're all going for three minutes until the bell rings. Whereas Dallas, those guys don't look like they have any other responsibilities other than catch and shoot, try to knock down open threes because you're an NBA player.

[00:41:42] Like there's no, if the three doesn't go in for green side, a lot of colored names in this series. But if the, if the, I don't use the word colored anymore. If the, if the shot doesn't fall for him, like what does he give you?

[00:41:58] Like, I'm not saying that he hasn't contributed, but it's like, if he, if he does, he's not a good on ball defender, he gives you hustle. But that hustle is negated. If I know drew holiday is going to be in the corner, like you can have drew

[00:42:15] holiday and Prichard out there at the same time and they, one will guard Kyrie or if you put drew holiday on the bench, Lucas on the bench, you got Prichard garden Kyrie. How's this out there just trying to guard whomever like, like maybe

[00:42:29] hard away junior or they're like, just it's like, okay. Uh, I'm going to pop. I'm going to pop this three when I come back down, like I got, I got 11 minutes on plan. I'm supposed to get up as many threes as I can in 11 minutes.

[00:42:42] Like, so that's what I got. Prichard was supposed to get me the ball. I put a three or I get him the ball. He puts up the three. We go back to the bench drew holiday or wharf or come back it. Like that's the real plan.

[00:42:54] Let me ask you a random question. Um, I wasn't planning on asking this question, but since you said, Hey, you know, we're up here talking about the ball, you know, we're up here talking about Dallas. Let me ask you a question about Boston.

[00:43:07] So, so obviously in the moment, you're going to have a view, right? Boston had this easy path to the finals, whatever people saying 15 years from now, when we look back at this Celtics team, what will we say? 15 that's long. 10 years, 10 years. What will we say about this?

[00:43:26] Like I said, like the, the way people kind of speak is that's coached on. Now I'm saying the man, Mikey Joe, Missoula gave us credit. Depends on, I think what Boston did with their team in the off season and how they are utilizing their guys in this playoff

[00:43:56] friend, what throughout the season, that becomes more of the standard for teams that have depth. Every team is going to have eight guys that you'll allow. You give the green light to shoot threes like Boston does. I think Boston probably like an eight or nine, I believe.

[00:44:13] Cause you got to start in five. That includes Horford. So all five of those guys have green lights, Howser, Pritchard, Prozingis. Yeah. So you got to, but eight guys that can shoot the three.

[00:44:25] If more teams go to that core star and then allow them to role players to play a real role in the game, then I think, I think it'll be like the shift in the influence. It'll be like the new upgraded version of the, of the, that, that,

[00:44:43] that piston runs that kept going east to conference finals. They just didn't have the firepower. They had the defensive prowess. But if other teams follow that model, then I think this would be like that transition would be like, yo, Boston showed the league that.

[00:44:58] You can do this if you have these types of players, you could do it with a young coach. You could do is shooting a lot of threes. They just, I don't know if every team is going to be able to do it.

[00:45:09] I don't think they'll ever mention them with the greats because we're going to talk about this criticism when we, when we transition the case study, I just don't think that people are going to view either Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum season as a, an all time great season.

[00:45:23] Nor will they view Mike, AKA Joe Missoula as a great coach. Okay. I don't think he has, I don't think it has a personality that really like, like people when Spohle won in Miami and when Billy Donovan won in Florida, then he went to OKC.

[00:45:40] Like, I think he, you know, some kind of, some coaches kind of bring that personality, you know, I think people will rock with him. He's a big figure, like a pose. I think he's like six four. He played in the league. He didn't back down on LeBron.

[00:45:53] We saw that this year. He may as like six, eight, six, nine. Not I think he's smaller. He's shorter than he just got that, that NBA retirement body. I got him listed at six, six, like a six, six or six four.

[00:46:09] But Hey, since you brought it up, I mean, let's just go ahead and, uh, go there, you know what I mean? Like, uh, we were talking about this case study from the standpoint of. What is too much criticism? What is not enough criticism? There's a thin line.

[00:46:27] So like, for example, the reason why this conversation came about is because, you know, as I hang out with cups in the gang, you know, say as I, as I make my rounds, you know, as I'm watching TV,

[00:46:42] uh, people have told me and others that we criticize Jason Tatum way too much. Um, and I think that to some degree we don't criticize Jason Tatum enough. And it's not even about Jason Tatum. It's more so bending rules and logic, you know, for individuals

[00:47:04] that you don't do it for others. So for example, get me on your side, you know, no, no, not at all. Not at all. You know, I don't know. But it's the same way that I'm saying it.

[00:47:17] But it's the same way that, you know, Jason Tatum is an MVP candidate. You know, uh, probably considered a top 10 player in the league. You know, so therefore sometimes though unfair, he gets criticism that comes along with being in that territory.

[00:47:35] But in the same breath, I could criticize Luca that same way. I can criticize Jokic that same way. I can criticize James Harden that same way that I just did a few minutes ago.

[00:47:49] And a lot of people won't bat an eye, but for some reason you say Jason Tatum, it turns into everything else. He's young, he's got to grow X, Y, Z, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, yo, Luca younger than him. You know, like, like,

[00:48:05] I'm gonna argue all different points without, no, no, I know, I know, but the point being is what is that line? Because if you're considered a superstar or star, you're considered to be a top 10 player, you're considered an MVP candidate. Why is criticism off limits? All right.

[00:48:26] I don't think criticism is off limits. Um, but to the Jason Tatum point, like we talked about earlier, I think the criticism is not tempered. So I'm trying to get this right. I don't, I don't think the criticism is warranted as far as like be comparing

[00:48:44] him to guys like James Harden, Luca, or like when things go have gone poorly for other stars, mainly because the only reason he even has the expectation that he does is because the team that he's been on Boston, he got drafted before Jalen Brown, Jalen Brown.

[00:49:04] I dropped in next year. No, no, it was first in Brown. It was Brown first, wasn't it? Nah, I was taking Tatum's first and then they got Brown the following year. For some reason I thought it was the other way. Yeah.

[00:49:16] So they had, they've had such success and they've been on the proverbial doorstep. And for some reason there's this expectation that because one year it was Brown first. It was Brown first. Yeah. That's why we have a show. So Brown was first, shout out to Cal.

[00:49:37] Um, and then they got Tatum out of Duke. So they, they, they built their core and he grew into a great player, but they've had such team success every year, like they haven't had a poor year together since they've been in the league six or seven years.

[00:49:56] They haven't had a bad year. They haven't had one of those years where it's like any off season, you're really considering who do you move? Who do we bring in? Who's available? They've been the Eastern conference finals.

[00:50:08] It was just like six out of eight years or five out of seven years. Some belong to five out of eight and then NBA finals now two out of last three years, two years ago when Steph Curry dropped 43, 44 points in game four Tatum and Brown only dropped 44 combined.

[00:50:24] That was a game where you need it to step on someone's neck because that was your moment, not necessarily because you were due because you were overdue because we, we had you as an MVP candidate and people had given you these, he wasn't an MVP candidate.

[00:50:39] Yeah, but it was just two years ago. You know, so like, you know, no one's giving you these arbitrary rankings of top 10, top five, top 15 in the league. All these things haven't been levied on you, but you were just in the position to go up three one.

[00:50:53] You should have gone up three one. That's how I measure him. I think the criticism we talked about this before is like, I don't think just because a person has been in the league X amount of years,

[00:51:04] like they talk about with Luca, Luca has been in the league this many years, he needs to get his team to the championship. Like, no, he needs to get a championship contending team. And then that team needs to go to the championship.

[00:51:15] This year, Jason Tatum has two years ago, even last year, but Miami just has like a thing where they can just kind of just wreck the East and they, and they done it a couple of times.

[00:51:24] So it was like Miami's done this and that's, that was their MO. Their MO was like, we're going to come through and shock the world. Boston caught that flag last year. And then with the role in game seven, he couldn't do anything about it.

[00:51:35] So like this year, game three, last night, 31 points. He came out early 18 points in the first half. He got the dunk at the end of the first quarter that made the game 31 30 Dallas played their heart out, but because he was making so many plays when they went

[00:51:51] into to take that break between the first and second quarter, no one on the Dallas bench felt like that first quarter was, was as great as it was. 31 points in the court is a great quarter, but because the way he came

[00:52:02] out early set the tone, that set the tone for the rest of the game. It may, I think that frustrated Luca because at no point they were up 12 in the first quarter. The audience was going, but I think the score was 20, 20, no, 13 to 25 to 12, 25, 12.

[00:52:17] And then you go into your break between quarters, 31 30. And you look up and Tate them and everyone's high-fiving because he got the dunk at the end. It was like the whole game shifted off for that. This is the year that I think all the criticism, all the people

[00:52:33] were in favor of him and all the people who are criticizing him. This is, this is the year where you really had all the evidence to prove either he is clutch or he isn't, or he isn't a top player.

[00:52:45] Or he is because this year they had the team. So if he would have fallen, like if they would, if they were down all three right now, playing the way that he played and not having these big moments, then he'd be like, you know what?

[00:52:57] This is your second finals in three years. It's not about age. It's about now, now you have the experience. This team won 64 games. You were clear of the second place team. I like what 10 or 11 games you were clean. You beat everybody by 11 points.

[00:53:15] This is the year where you got to win it, but the seed, like to your point, right? Like something that you always say is I have my opinion until the evidence changes or whatever. And then I change as the evidence changes as the fact change.

[00:53:29] Good as my opinion. Shout out to my God. Yeah. Yeah. So, so, so if, so if you're talking about an individual game, so like, you know, game one, you know, in my eyes, Jason Tatum didn't have a great game one or whatever.

[00:53:43] So I'm like, so I'm like, Hey, you know, he didn't play well tonight. You know, this is what I want to see from him going forward. Okay. Game two comes, he gets the assist. He gets the rebounds. You know, he goes six for 22.

[00:53:59] And then I say, yo, in game three, like, I need him to come out, put his foot down, announce himself X, Y, Z. Game three happens. He does that. I say, that's what I needed to see from Jason Tatum.

[00:54:14] This is why he's the best player on the team because he's the player on the team that can do these things. But in the end in between all it is, is you're being harsh. You're a hater. You know, it's like, no, I'm talking game to game.

[00:54:29] I'm not trying to define his career, just game to game in a moment. You aren't playing well. I don't think there's nothing wrong with anything to say about that. So whereas to whereas you know, you being a LeBron fan, for example, you know what I mean?

[00:54:44] Any moment within a game, not even a whole game, any moment that LeBron does something like pass the ball to Kyle Korver is a referendum on how soft he is, how unclutched he is all, even though he has more game winners than anybody else that's hate.

[00:55:03] You don't understand like, but what I'm talking about in this particular game, you know, as an MVP candidate or as a person that's being told to me is on Lucas level or on Yannis level or whatever the case may be, this is

[00:55:21] the moment where you show that he did it last night. So I have no, so I have no criticism for him last night. But, but, but that's the point is that we pick and choose though, not like

[00:55:32] we, as in me and you, but the sports community at large chooses whom gets these criticisms, Matt Brian, right? Uh, 28 to three, you know, uh, Tony Romo is viewed as a choker, even though we saw games where he put up 48 points and his team obviously gave up

[00:55:52] more than that for him to lose. And yes, he made a bad play late that Colts, I mean, uh, Bronco game. They lost 52 to 48. He threw the pick after the two minute warning. That's what people take away from the game.

[00:56:05] Not the fact that Dallas gave up 52 points, but yet, you know, when I'm looking at dudes like say Philip Rivers or Drew Brees or whoever. When they fail it's, but they didn't have a defense, but they didn't have

[00:56:22] this, they didn't, the logic isn't being applied across the board is the problem. Not it's, what does it say? Heavy, heavy as a head that wears a crown. We talk about Jason Tatum because every season that he's been in the league, the season started in October.

[00:56:41] His team is still playing into may pretty much every year for the last five or six years. Right. And now at this point, the last couple of years into June. So when there's nothing else on TV is basketball wise, he's on TV. Jaylen Brown's on TV.

[00:57:02] Steph was on TV. Yolkage is on TV and be that just, you know, he was in TV or in the playoffs and then he's not there. But then the conversation, he's always part of the conversation because during a regular season, he's just so dynamic.

[00:57:17] Certain players is get that attention. We talked about this in the pre-meeting. I'm pretty sure Brandon Ingram can probably shoot dribble pass and, and scored a basketball just as efficiently as Jason Tatum, but we don't have conversations about him because his team with his costar being Zaya

[00:57:40] Williamson, they don't, they're not on TV in May, they're not in prime time games. So. We don't have that. We stop it, Mike. We'll get around the football too. So we look at Jason Tatum like, Oh, he needs to be putting up these

[00:58:00] legendary numbers where, Oh, actually, he is just part of a great team. And then him as a person and the unit that they have, he's not a detriment to his team. If I said something along the lines of like, I can see Brandon Ingram

[00:58:15] chucking up four or five shots in a row and I give will not want to give the ball to Zaya with no information. I have no inside information. You can look at it like, you know what? I've watched the games.

[00:58:24] It does seem like something he would do, but Jason Tatum, they did the whole Jason kid, you know, that whole bump me when he was holding the ice thing, you know, he's a, he's a mental tactic, you know, tactician, Jaylen Brown is the best player on the team.

[00:58:39] Tatum didn't come out and like try to prove by not passing the ball or dribbling and having like seven, eight, nine, 10 turnovers. Like Luca did look at like eight turnovers in game. You're now like 10 or 11, it's just be an eight turnovers.

[00:58:53] And then on top of the, like, you know, some of the bad shots and everything else. So Tatum doesn't do that. So the criticism is often levied upon them is kind of related to those guys and they don't, he doesn't fall apart like that.

[00:59:08] He doesn't hurt his team that way. Guys are going to have games where they go seven for 24. Dirk game six against Miami when they won a championship was like seven for 20, not for 27. That means it was like Jason for MVP, damn it. And he won finals MVP.

[00:59:25] So it's like, it's just a matter of if your team wins, you're not going to get viewed the same way, but as far as criticism, I think a lot of it is when we talk about Lamar Jackson, it was the criticism of him in

[00:59:39] the draft was so ridiculous and so visceral that when he won his MVP, people went back the other way. And now you can have an honest conversation. Like for instance, his numbers last year were indicative of a typical NFL MVP season.

[00:59:58] The matter how you slice it, Josh Allen's numbers were, but he gets so criticized because he's in more playoff games. He's played more playoff games in Lamar. So when he comes up short in these playoff games, then the criticism is

[01:00:14] more visible because he's closer to the championship rounds, losing the AFC championship game or getting beaten the second round or winning is the vision and you know, winning a playoff game. So he's played in more, you know, quote unquote big games in Lamar.

[01:00:27] So his criticism was just harsher because the expectation is you got to get to the next level because last year you were here. No, 100%, 100%. But as teams lose, we say things like they ran into, he had to play.

[01:00:42] I've never heard nobody say, but Josh Allen ran into Patrick Mahomes. What you want them to do? No, like I don't even think, I think people look at it like the kicker literally missed a game time, like a chip side game time field goal for an NFL kicker.

[01:00:55] I mean, McCole Harman fumbled at the goal line. They got the ball back. He got him in the field goal range. I mean, Tom Brady's first three super bowls were him getting kickers in the field goal range.

[01:01:04] So like getting, getting your team to a position where you can score points is what quarterback's supposed to do is just that he's always. He's always in, he's always playing games in late January that matter. And we see it.

[01:01:20] You don't see Trevor Lawrence and a lot of these, and a lot of in his, this first few years plan, meaningful playoff games. He had the one run against Kansas city when they lost or, you know, he had the foreign exceptions beat the Chargers and came back

[01:01:34] lost against Kansas city, but you see Josh Allen in the playoffs every year. Every year since they started making a playoff, he's there every year. Double digit wins every year. 30, 40 touchdowns combined between rushing the passion every year.

[01:01:48] So his criticism is because he's knocking on a doorstep, which is fine. But you get a lot of guys that don't get criticized at all because they don't get to the point where people actually watch, you know, people don't watch the regular season, even in football.

[01:02:04] They watch the prime time games. That's why everyone keeps an eye on prime time games and how great it is for the prime time games and prime time records. But when it comes to actually studying a guy and having like

[01:02:15] an analysis of his position in this play, people just wait. They just wait to see what everyone else says in his group. They can, it's regurgitated. And then when someone hits him with the facts, then it's an argument. Handsome VPs.

[01:02:27] And that's why I like, like, just like with your point, uh, with Lamar Jackson, right? Um, Lamar Jackson. I've compared him and Jason Tatum in that way before. Uh, but another comparison that I like to do with Lamar Jackson is

[01:02:42] Chris Paul from the standpoint of, like you mentioned his numbers, you know, not being typical for MVP. And, and this is where you get into definitions and expectations. So like Lamar Jackson has an argument for being MVP of the league because

[01:03:06] the Ravens are DOA without him, you know, and the things that he does keep the Ravens where they are, keeps them alive, so on and so forth. You know, but when you don't have that statistical framework, you know, to go by this is what previous years, MVPs did.

[01:03:24] Yeah. That's where it looks like he's not the MVP. Like I like steak, but like you need, you need all the Kutramont that go with it as well. It can't just be like, Oh, this is a great steak. Like, okay, there's rice, the mashed potatoes, asparagus, you know,

[01:03:39] we're on the onions and mushrooms on the state. We just like, Oh, it's a great steak. It's a great steak as well. Season is cooked well, but we need the whole meal. So that's, that's, that's the, you know, it's like I said, it's not,

[01:03:53] it's not a knock, but in the same sense, you're allowed to, to, to articulate that if you can do it, you know, you know, qualify and quantify it. Right. And that's where I think that Josh Allen season, it just

[01:04:06] was rocky in the middle, but I think coming down the stretch, the crunch time of the year. Cause we talked about teams that either limp into the playoffs or teams that, you know, come into the playoffs hot.

[01:04:18] Well, what's, if you're six and six and you got five games left and you win all five of them, you're still hot. Yeah. You had a mediocre run for your first 12 games, but, oh, they had to

[01:04:33] win all five games that win the division yet, but they also won the last game against the division opponent who could have won and they were on the road on the road. So it was like, they won this game. They won all these games.

[01:04:44] They were number, they were number two C, you know? So it's like they did what they were supposed to do. They hosted Kansas city. They just got beat by a better quarterback, a guy who's just more clutch another criticism piece.

[01:04:55] I talk about real quick, we'll come to this football. Patrick my homes, like Rob Parker literally brings up Patrick my homes, Superbowl passing stats as if he hasn't won three Superbowl MVPs, like he talks about like, well, you know, I mean, look

[01:05:14] at these numbers, there's nine touchdowns and five picks and four Superbowls. I'm like, yeah, but three of them, he won and he was MVP of those three. And it was like, well, he only has this many yards. Well, they had the punt return.

[01:05:29] They got him to the five. They had like, like he had 30, but like he'll only bring up, he'll bring up the nine touchdowns and the five picks in the Superbowl, but not factor in that the ninth touchdown won him his third Superbowl MVP.

[01:05:50] So it was like, it's like the criticism, like the numbers are there yet, but the playoffs, he ignores the entire playoffs stats, which are like astronomical thing. He has like more wins than like most of the legendary quarterbacks that

[01:06:03] we've talked about, like from the L ways and Montana, some of these other guys and the touchdowns and everything else. But like he'll focus in on the Superbowl stats in particular, as if he hasn't won three out of four.

[01:06:16] So it just, it just a weird way that people use criticism and it's like, okay, he threw these in the sessions, but he bounced back. He threw two in the first one and then he came back and had three touchdowns.

[01:06:26] So it was like the bounce back is something that you don't convey either. So I think that's why I think a lot of the criticism is met with argument because a lot of, a lot of the conversations are simply, for lack of a better word, it just hate.

[01:06:41] It just hate or it's just you, you don't want this player to be nipping at the Hills and your great icon. So you have to nitpick, but the problem with that is that if you nitpick that way, and then I go back and nitpick your star.

[01:06:57] So if you, we talked about Larry Byrd having, you know, his first three games in one finals, like eight, eight and nine. And the first three games are the finals. Granted it was his first year, but it's like, you want to call him a

[01:07:09] legend, you know, you want to bring up somebody else's stats. Someone's going to bring that up. So it's just like, that's, that's, that's the part that I just, if, if people just kind of stuck to understand the dynamic of the conversation

[01:07:22] versus just blow via your opinion, you, you wouldn't be considered hate. Or if you, whoever you talk to was willing to listen to you say like, listen, I want this guy to do well because he is regarded as this level

[01:07:37] of player, this level of player can't have back to back games like this. But yeah, like I said, I think Tatum, I think Tatum had a great run. I think he redeemed the game for, uh, from two years ago in NBA finals,

[01:07:51] where they let stuff go bananas in their house when they could have gone up three, one to really lock it in and last night, you go on up three, oh, where it's like looking, didn't see that one.

[01:08:01] I don't want to bang on them too bad for, because like I was saying earlier when I was on the hot box, um, this series, series like this that we're watching right now show how much experience matters, like

[01:08:13] realistically, the only dude on Dallas with playoff experience or finals experience is Kyrie, like everybody else. This is their first go-round Gaffer was on the wizards. Lively's a rookie. PJ Washington was on Charlotte. Derek Jones has been a career backup. You know, that can be a jump.

[01:08:29] They experience piece is only the only person that's being average. The only person's behavior that looks like the experience is a shortcoming is Luca and Luca has what probably the most experienced behind Kyrie. Lucas one acting like he's brand new to this.

[01:08:46] The rest of these guys are just playing their standard. But that's the thing going back to the conversation you were watching earlier with Nick Wright, Chris Broussard and Kevin Wilds, Lucas putting up the points. And that's all a lot of people care about is the points.

[01:09:01] Like if you score 30 points, they don't care that it took you 27 shots to get it. They just see 30 like, just like we talk about Michael Jordan, right? Don't you do it, Mike. I'm just making a point. Just like when you talk about Michael Jordan, right?

[01:09:13] He's had games where he's had 29 points and then he went 15 of 16 from the free throw line because his shot wasn't falling, but he was drawing files, whatever, but all people see is he averaged 31, you know what I'm saying?

[01:09:29] They don't contextualize it to the point of like, you know, LeBron with the eight points in the playoff game or whatever it was, Larry bird with the eight points in the playoff game. Michael Jordan went three for 18 in a game where his team could have eliminated their opponent.

[01:09:46] You know what I mean? But you know what I mean? Like he's Michael Jordan. He did enough that that's just a blurb or whatever on his resume or what I think most guys should have that leeway.

[01:10:02] The problem is, I don't say we're part of the problem, but it is a 24 hour news cycle. It's 11 and 52 right now. We're talking about the game from last night and I'm pretty sure there's another podcast brewing up with a couple of friends who are sitting on the couch.

[01:10:17] You got to have another conversation along with some former players that have in the conversation on their podcasts and their couches and their studios, whatever case may be. So we just, we dissect these players so much, but it's so much to

[01:10:31] digest that we only really look at the guys who are playing in singular prime time moments, the playoff runs or the prime time games. So you got the prime time, Monday night matchups, you got the, you know, the Ravens chiefs matchups.

[01:10:48] You got the Monday night games where it's like real prime time matchups, not like when they have, like they throw the dolphins and the Cardinals on a Monday night football. That's not like a marquee matchup that people watch, but if it was a

[01:11:01] super bowl, then people would have that information. They would critique the hell out of Kyle and Murray to critique the hell out of two depends on who won or the coach. The point that I just want to get out to people is that if you want to

[01:11:15] put somebody on a level, put somebody on a tier, if you want to toot this person's horn, you, all I need from you is to just step back. If something goes awry or whatever, you don't have to say I was wrong about this person.

[01:11:30] Just say tonight, this person didn't play well. You know what I mean? If just like, just like Minnesota, right? You remember I was the one here, Denver in seven. Denver in seven. And then when Minnesota went up two, Oh, I didn't say, well, it's

[01:11:45] because well it's because I came on here and I said, you know what? Minnesota, I was wrong about you. Like, I apologize. Like y'all were obviously in a row and I was like, and that's the thing is like the, the, the sports cycle.

[01:12:03] I mean, it literally changes like the count, like the pages of a calendar. You got to let it play out. And I think that's the problem is that we keep doing these rejections. And then we look at anything. We look at Jason Tatum as six, eight, six, nine.

[01:12:17] We look at Paul George and say, Paul George made it this far with this kind of team. We think Jason Tatum is Paul George 2.0. He should go this far. And it's like, that's it. Like there's no like real expectation on how to get there.

[01:12:31] There's no real context analysis. Like how does Boston get to the NBA final? Nope. They, they got two top three drafts. Just like next year, right? Next, hypothetically, right? They stay the same. They don't make any moves.

[01:12:46] Maybe Horford moves on whatever, you know, they, they go to what the second round get eliminated like Denver did this year. You know what I mean? Maybe they go to the Eastern conference finals, get eliminated. People are going to say,

[01:12:59] they say Jason Tatum is a fraud because they don't have that cannon loaded from tomorrow night. Yup. They're probably going to end it tomorrow night. And as soon as he gets eliminated in the second round next year,

[01:13:08] I'm like, see, we told you last year with Fluke, it was an easy run. Yeah. Dallas took all Dallas took out all the good teams out West and they were tired when they got to the finals and Luca was injured and his chest and sternum was all separated.

[01:13:21] He was playing with a dislocated eye socket and his eardrum was blown. But Lucas still went out there and put 40 on it. It's going to be all the, all the same protection that we deal with every year. It reminds me when I watched college basketball, sometimes even college

[01:13:33] football, and you got the number one team in your place. And you know, you pull the upset and you're screaming over Raid. And it's like, you don't even realize you shitting on yourself. Yeah. Like, you don't, you know, your logic ain't true to you because

[01:13:48] you ate through to your logic. You know, that is what it is, but you know what fans we are true to you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your time. Like review, subscribe. Boston is more than likely going to close this thing out tomorrow.

[01:14:03] So, you know what that means? NFL is coming up. College football is coming up MLB all-star game before you know it. And no, I did not forget that the Stanley cups are going on right now. You don't say it.

[01:14:14] So we are, we are out here in these streets. Sports reports disorder do all the free things tell grandma. Hey, and good night. We love her. We love you. And we'll see you on Monday. Peace.