Colin Cowherd Podcast - Lakers Gm 2 L, Draymond Suspension, Suns Achilles, Russ Revival w Jason Timpf

in about seven or eight days too. So I saw the story where Tua quarterback Miami Dolphins acknowledged and admitted that he strongly considered retirement this past year when he dealt with concussions, and that's something Had it happened to me, it happened to a family member, you should consider retirement. You know, we get into these things in sports, these tunnels where everybody's afraid to get canceled and called out, and so people don't acknowledge stuff which is like obvious.

And I felt like three or four years ago when I brought up that Kyler Murray was a little too small for my taste or that size mattered at quarterback, I got a lot of pushback on this stuff, and it's like, now, can we all admit it that Bryce Young size is a little concerning out of Alabama, and it should be that Tua is small and Jalen Hurts is not ideal, though I wouldn't classify him as small, he's been dinged up. And that Baker Mayfield, I know for a number one pick. Baker's six feet tall and

not a great athlete. Tried to size up a safety after an interception, banged on his shoulder, got hurt. Never the same quarterback. We have to be honest about this stuff. Is that Mahomes and Herbert and Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow and Josh Allen, these are bigger than average men. It matters. Go look at the list of Hall of Fame quarterbacks. You're John Elways, your Brady's, your Peyton Manning's, your Big Bends, your Joe Montana's, and Steve Young's. Not

a lot of five ten guys there. So and I think it's a I think it's a real concern about Bryce Young. It's why there's a quarterback for Tennessee that may go in the second round, Hendon Hooker. The knock on him is that he had an ACL injury. But he's a big, strong kid who throws a beautiful football. He may be your best bet. He may be your best bet in this draft. I don't know that to

be true. But he is big, he's strong, he's got a big arm, and you know, he's older, so he's a more mature kid, right than your average twenty one twenty two year old quarterback coming in. He's he's you know, he's been around a while. So this stuff with Tua is you know, he's got an extension possibility coming up. I just I couldn't give it to him. I just couldn't.

You know the way I look at Tua, great kid, great high school and college career, limitations at the pro level, and I said, we're to a point now where the media is not going to give you a pass on concussions. And not only are they not going to give you a pass concussions, the opinions will be swift, they'll be punitive. And I think the Miami Dolphins, if Tua has a concussion, you can't plan for a month minimum. I mean if third week of the year, September concussion, if you plan

before Thanksgiving, you're going to get hammered by people. It's the one injury where the media is relentless and no company wants to get banged on by the media for eight to ten weeks. They don't, all right, So it's a bummer like some guys. You know, I've seen it at every position in the NFL. Some guys are built for high school and college. It's not quite built for the NFL. And I don't know if Tua is. I mean,

he has admitted before. Now he's admitting he thought about retirement, and he's admitted before he struggles at times to see over the offensive line. It's okay, we can acknowledge this right like it's an adult conversation now. And it's why Sean Payton came on my show and said, be very very careful about not going prototype in the first ten to fifteen picks. Do not get an offensive tackle that's six two or sixty three. You've got to be six five and a half minimum, you know. Don't take a

small corner, don't take a smaller quarterback. So I think the Dolphins are in a really tricky situation. Two is a really good guy.

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we saw that. I think any Laker fans saw it coming, like you gotta win in Memphis, energy was low early and this team isn't you know, they're not Sacramento Young, They're not you know, they're one of those teams like they got to be engaged, like because Lebron over the last two or three years really lets the.

previous year and a half. It was more of just like everyone watching the ship crash and burn, you know. But there have been two really interesting stretches this season that I think are very very under discussed, I should say, to get the Lakers where they were, there's a stretch where Lebron James missed extended time and Anthony Davis carried the team. Actually two stretches like that, but the big one the foot issue towards the end of the year.

And then there was the stretch where Anthony Davis missed

a ton of time and Lebron James stepped in. And in each of those stretches, Lebron and ad the one that was available put forth incredibly desperate basketball, playing at the absolute top of their games to drag the team to wins, just to float things long enough until the trade deadline could happen, or until Lebron James could return, right, And every single time there has been a return, they've collectively exhaled and they don't play well as the favorite.

It's basically what I'm saying. When when Lebron James came back, they immediately lost to Chicago because they didn't think they had to play as hard as they did. They lost that desperation and yeah, this game textbook. They go out there in Game one, they dominate that game, and it was I heard a lot of people saying it wasn't as close as it looked. I agree, But did anybody think Memphis was winning Game one or did it feel

like the Lakers controlled it throughout? They controlled it throughout right, But then after that game they flipped from being a slight underdog in the series to being a slight favorite in the series than John Morant's out and Lebron James and Anthony Davis are two players that like to do the absolute bare minimum to win basketball games. They tried that tonight. And that's a young, scrappy Memphis team that's

always played super well at home. They played super physical, really bothered the Lakers, particularly around the rim, and they got a big win.

get exposed defensively. They're usually a little I mean they're all a little thin, a little light. Westbrook was more stocky, but again he plays defense when he feels like it. But when you get these Jahn Morant type players, is they're exhilarating and ball movement slows down. You kind of stare, you kind of watch Derreck Rose perform, watch John Wall, and they're not great. They give you so much energy on the offensive end. They don't give you a ton

on the defensive end. Now, Steph Curry and the Warriors, they've built the team Draymon Clay when he was a great defender. They bring in Gary Payton. They see his weakness as they build around him. But when I watch Memphis, and I've seen this now three years, Tyas Jones plays better defense. I've seen this the last you know, ten times that he's played. They're a better defensive team. He's not a great scorer, but the forwards and the wings

move the ball really really really well. And by the way, I remember John Wall years ago a missing games for the Wizards. They won like nine or ten straight. It doesn't mean Wall's not great, but you know, everybody then feels like when the flashy point guards out, hey, I'm gonna get touches tonight, like I'm going to be included in this game plan, and you really want to play well showing the coaches, Okay, when the guy comes back, I want touches. And I think Memphis tonight played a

lot of energy, moved it really really well. Everybody just the ball moves better. And it's not a knock on John Rant. He's exhilarating. But I see this sometimes even with the Warriors, like sometimes if Draymond's not setting screens, it's a lot of guys watch and Steph do is you know Harlem globetrotter ball movement flying around And I just I looked at Memphis tonight and I'm like, they're a good team without Jaw. They're a different team, but they're a good team without him.

offensive glass, crashing the defensive glass. Just by playing super hard and having a couple of baseline pieces that you need, you can win in the NBA, especially since a lot of these NBA players are good. Like we spend a lot of time talking about role players in the Shortcomings, but a lot of these guys were all conference dudes in college and guys who average twenty five thirty points a game in high school. So if you give them close out situation, even against good NBA defense, is they're

gonna be able to score. And so if you don't guard the ball and you give give up dribble penetration, the guys are attacking closeouts all night long, they're gonna score. That's why, Like, honestly, from a schematic standpoint, watching this game, I remain extremely confident that the Lakers are gonna win the series. The only thing that really stood out to me schematically was the Jared Vanderbilt problem. And it's too

it's twofold. Half of it is Jared Vanderbilt and the fact that he's such a non threat offensively that Memphis can stick Jared Jackson on him and just muck everything up underneath the basket. But the flip side of it is Ruy Hachimura is ascending in front of us. This is something that has We've seen the two twenty point point game at the two twenty plus point games in this series, but it actually extends backwards a few weeks now. His original his initial tenure with the Lakers went a

little bit rough. You got moved to the bench after the trade. But Phil Hand he's been working with him relentlessly before games and in practice on polishing up some things in his skill set. He's been working with Darvin Ham really hard to find little areas of the game where he can impact the game. Defensively, He's become kind of a sneaky, solid help defender under the rim, blocking shots, grabbing contested rebounds.

a much more competitive team. I think they have more options. I like, I watched the night and I thought, you very early, it's like it's not going to be their night. It's not going to be their night. But they competed, they hung in the game. You know, it wasn't a blowout. They were you know, there was a little brief moment with about four and a half five left, you're.

really controlled the rest of that game. They just were a little bit too far away, especially with Dangel Russell being incapable of making a shot. Anthony Davis was missing everything around the basket. They just didn't quite have the offensive firepower tonight to make up for the hole that they dug themselves. But once they locked in defensively in

that second half, they got plenty of stops. Now the problem is, and you just said this, and this is so important this particular Lakers team, rest is going to be key for them, and andying this series quickly is

so important because there will be long series ahead. The next series against Sacramento or Golden State probably a longer series because the Lakers struggle with transition defense and the way that they run their coverage is going to leave some things open for the Kings guards and the Warriors guards. In the conference finals against a team like Phoenix or the Clippers or Denver, they're going to be in for a long series. Whoever comes out of the West or East.

That's a six or seven games. So if they could buy it little tiny chunks of like three or four days off, you're there for Lebron and Anthony Davis to rest ending this series in five would go a long way towards that. So, Colin, everyone was accusing us of backing up our volume guy, which I think is ridiculous because it's just I don't I don't know what's gotten into everybody, Colin, because I feel like this is the most reasonable opinion in the world, and every everyone's calling

me immoral. You know how it goes. But I could see the case for the I could see the case for the ejection. Now I disagreed with it, but I could see the case, and the case was Draymond's history fair. I thought the decision to suspend him was completely outrageous. Where did you land on that?

why they threw him out for the next game. I believe at my core because Sabonis a started it and played the remaining seven and a half minutes.

He It's like, no way, we're not going there. That Even though I defended the players in Malice of the Palace because if you went back and looked at the people and the fans involved, many of them had criminal records. They were just there to be trouble. I defended run our test. I defended the players because I would have been terrified to be in an arena, an opposing arena. But it does matter what arena it is. You can't do that on the road in a hostile playoff environment, Jason,

you just can't do it. You know, there's the old saying you can't yell fire in a crowded theater, you can't. So I think silver being there, And because you know, when Draymond's doing that, Adam's hearing those fans and he's seeing those double birds and he's like, I'm not going there repercussions. And again, Draymond's a veteran, he's not a rookie. Like you could see a rookie losing their shit.

may have been Sam Amck. He just said, you know, if he's just run through the tunnel, it would have felt different.

his team. That goes like regardless of what the decision making process was, the risk was willingly took on by Draymond with his behavior and especially what you're talking about after the time out, because again, like and I think I think it's a complicated topic, and I know you've talked about this a little bit on your show, really, but like the dynamic between the fans and players is super complicated because like, you're heated, you're super competitive, and

you're riled up, and now some dudes saying some wildly disrespectful stuff from to you, like twenty feet away, and there's really like this barrier between you that extends beyond the distance. It's also like Adam Silver standing there between you because it could literally mess up your entire season and everything that you and your team are trying to build towards. But again, like there's a difference between I think I personally would not have suspended him that said,

that's a debate. That's a fair debate. There's no question that Draymond brought it on himself, at least through his decision making process and knowing what kind of history he had. Now with this series gets really interesting from here. I don't think it's overcallin and I'm still pretty confident that Golden State's gonna win. I know it sounds crazy, but

a couple of different things. They kind of started to figure out some stuff in Game two that I believe might have led them to a victory had Draymond been able to stay in the game. When Andrew Wiggins is on the floor and when Gary Payton is on the floor, they have straightforward matchups for Fox and Monk and they are actually doing a decent job containing him there. Then they have to go to pick and roll to get rid of the on ball defender, and Draymond is blowing

all of that stuff up as the screen defender. At the end of the game, they had to go to Looney and then they went to pick and roll, and Looney couldn't stop anybody at the rim, so that ended up being the problem. But functionally from the lineup, you can kind of see the two teams finding their five that works. The Kings are going with Davion Mitchell because he can guard Steath credibly right, and then they're going with Malik Monk and Deer and Fox with Harrison Barnes

and Demanta Sabonis. With the Warriors, it's Draymond with Andrew Wiggins and then Gary Payton Stephen Clay. That's where they've got their lineups that are working. That's where these two teams are going to go down with the ship. If the Warriors can survive Game three, which is totally possible with how well they play in front of their home crowd even without Draymond, especially against the King's team that

cannot be overly physical sometimes. If they can survive Game three, Draymond comes back for Game four, I believe they will win that game on the road. In Game five, as long as they can stay in it long enough to get to their core lineup at the end, I think they have a really good chance to win this series. As bad as Golden State was on the road in Sacramento, expect Sacramento to look just this is bad in Golden State in my opinion, Well.

bunch of new parts. And I think, I think when I watch the Warriors with Draymon's Steph Clay on the floor, man, there are times.

you got a great defender. Now and he's not on, you get him sometimes a suboptimal ball handler and defender. So his game doesn't necessarily you'd think, because he's a catch and shoot guy, his game would age well.

Now I'm gonna go and taunt the crowd. Come on, you're a mid thirty year old player, like like, I have a right to be mad if I'm on the air and somebody doesn't roll the tape and I'm barking, But three minutes later, I've got to go, Okay, we have a show to do. Take a deep breath, get over yourself. Let's do the show. So I that part, I'll defend Draymond in the moment one guy grabs your foot, you stomp him back. I'll defend him forever on that.

But you got to know better as a thirty four to thirty five year old guy on the road to get that crowd riled up, Like, that's just not the play.

pre playoffs previews. I expected the Clippers to get swept. They very much did not, as they went into Phoenix and stole game one. You know what's interesting about this series, Colin. The numbers coming out of of the like kind of shot profile stuff does not look good for Phoenix. This

is wild. So the Suns have attempted to seventeen shots or excuse me, nineteen shots in the restricted area in this series, and the Clippers have attempted thirty seven, so like almost double and then in wide open threes, which by NBA dot Com is factored in as defender at least six foot six feet away. The Clippers have also generated about twice as many as the Suns. The reasons why this, the reason why the Suns won Game two is what's

the other shot that's available. So, if you're not scoring at the rim and you're not making these kickout threes to guys that are wide open, it's contested pull up off the dribble long jump shots in the mid range.

jump shots. And I'm just not. I believe they'll make enough to beat the Clippers, But I after two games, feel less confident than ever that the Sons can get out of the conference because they're just not generating enough easy shots.

I'm like, Okay, they're a finals team. I almost think they're tentative defensively because they know they can't get into foul trouble. Chris Paul's backup is her and he may not play in Game three. Booker doesn't really have a backup. They don't really have backups for their stars, and it almost makes them a little tentative defensively, Whereas the Clippers have depth, play really hard defensively. Westbrook gets in foul trouble,

you can throw in man Norman Powell, they go. They've got depth, So I think it makes them play a little more tentative defensively. Monty Williams knows that we can't go to the bench early.

three years ago, Like just Chris didn't miss those. So I feel like I feel like to get Kevin Durant, they had to give away a bunch of picks and three dudes. If they give away two, they could be more aggressive on the defensive end. You could rest guys. I mean, they're gonna have to play Durant and Booker, They're gonna have to play them forty minutes. That's who they are now, that's who they are.

spot alongside Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul Deandraton. They're gonna be able to pitch that position like that using the mid level exception or whatever contract they decide to offer, and they are going to get some massively underpaid forward that can play on both ends of the floor that wants to just win a championship next to the two of them. They're gonna get two or three more veteran minimum contracts that kind of follow a similar, similar mold,

and they're gonna be awesome next year. I feel very strongly about that this team is kind of playing with house money a little bit because I think that I think the expectations are a little lower on them because

of that. The minutes thing is complicated because I'm less concerned about it on the offensive end, because workload matters, like splitting a heavy duty shot creation workload between just Kyrie and Lebron that can get a little fatiguing, and you need an other worldly athlete like Lebron to survive that. But like all of a sudden, you throw a third guy in there, and it's like they're hand they're splitting those duties three ways, it becomes a little more suitable.

The defensive end is where is where you hit the nail on the head. You can't win a title in the NBA without playing elite defense. You can't play elite defense without committing to devote physical resources to it. And when you devote physical resources to it, to the two forty four minutes a night, one of two things is

going to happen. They're either going to not devote the necessary physical resources to it and coast and not reach the defensive ceiling they need to reach, or they're going to pour in the necessary effort for forty four minutes to get stops and they're gonna suffer on the offense and end when they're fatigued. So like, that's where it gets difficult, and I don't really have a good answer

for them. Kevin Durant famously said this after they lost to the to the Bucks in a crazy Game seven, that well, where he took his toe is on the line. I don't know if you remember the turnar on Tipper he said that. He said this after the series. He goes, everyone thinks, if I was won inch further back, we would have won the championship. He's like, that was the second round. He's like, He's like we had He's like James Harden was playing out a bad hamstring. Kyrie was

completely unavailable. I had to create every single shot. He's like, we were winning the title that year. Like it's just too much to ask a guy to do that that much without any depth behind him.

at the end of his career. So and they Jay Crowder got moved in that Brooklyn deal. So it's like, so, you know Michale Bridges, yes, and then you start moving a couple other pieces and you look up and it's like, oh, Cam Johnson dropped almost thirty against Holly, and you're like, they need that so bad. But you know, interestingly, here's Denver playing tonight and nobody's watching and we're all just like, ah, God.

And it's funny because the NBA knows by putting him on late at night, they're not going to get East Coast viewers. And I said, Denver reminds me of the Milwaukee team before they want a title an NBA. They got on the noon NBA TV game during the bubble. It's like the league's like, where can we hide them? And I feel like the NBA is doing the same with Denver.

I think whoever comes out of this great Yeah, whoever comes out of this next series will be an interesting challenge for for Milwaukee.

the last couple of years. And I wonder if you've noticed the same thing. Strength seems to matter so much on this stage for two reasons. It's what allows you to play through uncalled fouls which are occurring on every single possession in the NBA playoffs, like hand checking, grabbing, holding, chucking, all that stuff. Playing through that require strength, and then it allows you to inflict uncalled offensive fouls, you know, by using your off arm and bumping people off with

your shoulder and things along those lines. Kawhi Leonard is getting wherever he wants on the floor in this series, and it's because he's throwing these dudes around like rag dolls and kd He's incredibly skilled and he's going to make shots. He made shots in Game two. I expect

him to make shots the rest of the series. I think Kadi's a better player than Kawhi, but it's so interesting to me that Kawhi has been more impactful so far through two games, and I think that strength plays a huge role in it.

doesn't have that. Kawhi is country strong, you know, Mike, Mike North Carolina strong, you know, like where you work on your own car right, Like that's different, Like Kobe grows up in Italy, it's Kawhi Leonard. If you gave Kobe Kawhi Leonard's hand size and strength, that's Michael Jordan. That's what Michael always had. Now, Kobe always had better range than Michael and at a better ball handler, I think, and I think he Kobe could have been a great passer,

but he shot. But Kobe never had Michael's raw strength or his hand size to be able to palm the ball in the air. And I think if you gave if you gave Kawhi a little better ball handling skills and a little better range on his jumper, a little quicker, slightly twitchier, he's Kobe. He's not as twitchy as Kobe without the range, and Kobe's not as strong with the

hand size as Kawhi. But Kawhi is I mean, I would have loved Kawhi is the kind of guy that if Kawhi would have guarded Michael Jordan in his prime, Michael would have been like, yeah, that's a dog. Because Michael, you know, Kawhi is like a little bit like Ron Harper where because Ron on the Bulls became kind of a third fourth score. Ron was a great scorer in Cleveland with the Clippers. Ron didn't have sort of that that quite the hand size of Kawhi. But Michael always

respected Ron Harper because he knew he basically came. He gave up his offense to be Michael's partner, right and be a defensive guy. I said a few years ago, and I and I believed it. Then Kawhi sort of disappeared. Kawhi four years ago in the NBA was the best get a bucket, get a stop guy in the league. If you just said I just need I don't need a three, I need a bucket. About four years ago, I thought he was as good as the league had I need a stop.

the last guy. I want to shout out and then we can get out of here, and I don't want to go through the whole Like fit is part of it, There's no doubt that fit is part of it. The Lakers fit was clunky. That goes without saying. The Clippers fit is much more natural, But Russell Westbrook's commitment to the effort and energy plays in this game, his point of attack defense on both Kevin Durant and Devin Booker,

and what he's been doing on the glass. Here's the thing, it's it's for no reason other than he's finally devoting his entire effort and focus to it, which good for him. But that's why it's finally working out. That said, this is what all Laker fans were screaming for when he

was in LA. If he could have just done this, if he could have devoted his resources to the defensive end of the floor trying to erase a player from the game with this point of attack defense, push the pace and just make plays for his teammates and rain in his decision making, he could be this massive positive player for the Lakers, and it just never happened because he didn't want to devote his resources towards those things.

That said, as a basketball fan, it has been so much fun watching him in this series and watching him impact winning. I don't know if he saw that play where he tried to deflect the post entry pass to KD and he kind of got out of position, yes, and Kdi took like two dribbles to the foul line, and Rush just went flying in off one leg. It just like like a humiliating defensive play from Russell Westbrook,

Like that's he's always been capable of that. He could have been the best defensive guard in the history of the league if he wanted to, just because he's that type of athlete. It just it's partially impressive to watch him in the series and partially disappoint that it took so long to see it. But shout out to Russell Westbrook.

I'm out. And then ty Lou, who was you know, tis confrontationals, like, Bro, you gotta play defense here, And then he just said, Okay, I'm gonna play defense because for the Lakers. I mean, he just he just didn't want to play defense. And you're like, he's such a great athlete. But I watched him the end of night. He's completely disruptive. He's like the guy in the YMCA you don't want guarding you. It's like, dude, you're sweating

all over me. He's in your grill. You're just like, he's just unconventional and he's just going a thousand miles an hour and it's oh those guys, I mean, oh god, it's just relentless. And Kd's just you know, Patrick Beverly did that before a couple of years ago. Patrick Beverley got into Remember when Kad was a Warrior and Patrick Beverley the first couple of games, just like and Katy's.