Colin Cowherd Podcast - Warriors Beat Knicks, Warriors Are Dangerous, NFL Combine, What To Make Of J.J. McCarthy?

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watching Dubs Nicks. We hit our DraftKings Parlay tonight our three teamer. We took the Warriors to beat the Knicks in New York without Andrew Wiggins. They win. We took Draymond Green to have over five and a half assists and Steph Curry to have over twenty seven and a half points again. Julius Randall doesn't play for the next he's been out a while. And Andrew Wiggins didn't play for the Warriors, but they've won seven straight road games.

And I've talked about this, I really have reservations. And there are a lot of times you'll see a really good young team, like Oklahoma City is really good. They're not getting to the NBA Finals. They're just too young. Sga Holmgren are really good players. But this is a man's league. In fact, that's what's interesting about the Warriors is right now they have three young players they're going to have to count on in the playoffs to some degree to win. Now. Jonathan Kaminga is a kid I

talked about two years ago. I came out of high school, went to the G League. I remember the first time I saw him, it was like a second or third game. I was like, Oh, this kid's gon special, really long, really twitchy, really dynamic. But he's only twenty one years old now and he's been in the league like two and a half years. You know, he wouldn't even be in the league yet as a college football player. To the NFL. That's why you have to be so patient.

I mean, in the NFL, if you come in and you're a quarterback, I'll give you until Thanksgiving of your second year. By that time, you know, Daniel Jones, it's not going to work, Sam Halle, It's just not going to work. Kaminga is like in year three now and he's just now flourishing because he went high school right to the G League and to the Warriors, and the Warriors have a pretty sophisticated system. James Wiseman couldn't catch on. Di'angelo Russell was there for a minute. They wanted him

out of town. It can eat up young players. Jordan Poole just to goofy for the system. Not reliable. So Kaminga is just a kid. He's a baby twenty one years old. But that dude is tonight twenty five points eight rebounds, really really good around the basket, excellent finisher, and they're going to have to He'll start and they're going to depend on him for thirty four minutes in

the postseason. And it's okay because Draymond at the other forward is gives you, like the grown up, the adult, the experience, and Draymond's very much a coach on the floor. They're also Moses Moody now has been around a little longer, a very good on ball defender. They're going to rely on him to play start or not. Also Trace Jackson Davis. Now he's a second round kid out of Indiana. He probably, you know, he'll get some bench play. He's young as well,

he's twenty four years old. Second round pick. Nice job by Mike Dunleavy Junior to find him in the draft. Interesting player. They have Sarich, they have Jackson Davis, so they've got some length. They're not as small as they were so but they're going to have to pivot from these veteran players. Klay Thompson now coming off the bench, Steph Curry Wiggins will be around, Draymond Green. Sarich has some days on his resume. But you're going to the Moody cominga and the young kid out of Indiana to

give you real minutes, and the Warriors. The small ball thing goes cracked me out. You know, there's two things in the NBA. I kind of roll why eyes at Everybody talks about how mobility works. No, it doesn't. It worked for Lebron. It worked for Lebron when he went to Miami, he got two titles. It worked from in Cleveland he got a title, and it worked. In La he got a title, and it worked for Kevin Love who joined Lebron, and Chris Bosh who joined Lebron in Miami,

and Anthony Davis who joined Lebron in Los Angeles. Mobility isn't how you build championships. That's not how it works. It worked for Lebron in three places, Okay, going to Miami, coming back to Cleveland, going to Los Angeles. It hasn't worked for Kevin Durant other than one time he goes to the Warriors. Since then, Brooklyn didn't work. Phoenix bit disappointing. So the mobility thing, you know that that's not winning titles. San Antonio mostly had a core group. Golden State they

won before KD, they won a title after KD. You know, Boston gets Drew Holliday, but that team for years was built around Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, and Marcus Smart. Now I like the upgrade Drew Holiday, but their two core guys are Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum. So I think, you know, mobility is something we talk about all the time in the NBA, and I just sort of rolled my eyes. The other thing, I kind of you know,

people talked about small ball. It worked for the Warriors because they had the three best shooting players, the best shooting backcourt tandem ever, Jerry West Gale Goodrich for most of my life was the best shooting backcourt ever, and then supplanted by Klay Thompson and Steph Curry, and then they had Kevin Durant. Yeah, they had the three best shooters of all time playing together, and they went and got bogued at one point they got Kevin Durant. They

weren't that small. There were small ball lineups that were worked for them, but it doesn't work now they're pivoting off it by getting you know, Looney, Trayvon Looney has size, Sarich has size, Cominga's long, Jackson Davis is long. He's kind of a forward center six nine six nine and a half. So they're just they're not They just more

formidable in the front court than before. So small ball worked because really the Warriors had unique players, a wing in Draymon who can defend Biggs, and Stephan Clay, the best shooting back court ever. That's your small ball. People try to duplicate it. It didn't equal titles, and mobility doesn't really work. It worked with Lebron several times. I think the Warriors are really dangerous. I really do. I

think they've won seven straight road games. They have a nice mix of young and old, and they have one of the highest IQ. They have probably the smartest team in the league right now. Between Chris Paul, Steph Curry, Clay Thomps and Steve Kerr Draymond Green, You've got I mean, you've got a lot of games. You've got a lot of games with those guys. And that's why I would take him head to head over an Oka. See, even the OKC is built for the regular season. The regular

season is it is a complete marathon. And you know for older teams who are doing load management, you know, I mean, like Lebron James has a great fourth quarter, you know against the Clippers, he would prefer not to play the following night. I mean he took the Celtic game off with Anthony Davis. These old guys pick their spots. Young guys get injured less and they heal faster. So I think the Warriors are going to be a real team, and it's a nice mix of old and new, and

I really like watching them play. It is you know, the other thing about the three point shot, which I think is overstated. I think so much of analytics in baseball and in the NBA is based on regular season games, and you know there these are long you play. The averages analytics are averages over the course of time. But when you get into playoff basketball or playoff baseball, you

just got to get outs. You go into a series, you're going to bring starters on three days rest, You're gonna use them in late innings as starter if you have to win a game six or a game seven. So the analytics go out the door. You manage differently, you use your bullpen differently, you use starters differently on fewer days rest. And at basketball, playoff basketball becomes very situational.

It becomes very much about get a basket. That's why Kawhi Leonard has been when he's healthy, a very good playoff performer. Get a stop, get a basket, doesn't have to be a three. And so I think this Warrior team is obviously going to lie a large part on Steph Curry hitting threes, but They've got a lot of guys that can get you too. Now is Kaminga is a guy that's really good around the ten. They've got size, they don't have to shoot the ball as well. Pods

is a nice rook. He's the next play, but can be a little bit of a slasher, which I like. I don't think you have to rely on threes. And I think small ball was overstated just due to unique generationally gifted players for the Warriors that other teams rosters couldn't duplicate. I think the NFL Combine this week, let's talk about that. The combine really isn't about the measurables

and the performance. What it really is is a chance for general managers and personnel people in the NFL to get together and a lot of late nights, a lot of beers, a lot of cocktails. And it's like they say, a lot of business gets done on the golf course,

a lot of stuff gets done at the combine. I thought my guess was that Justin Fields would be moved from the Bears to Atlanta around the combine that you just you know, you get a couple of beers, guys sit down and what my guess the way Justin Fields would work is that, Yeah, I don't know exactly what you do, but like the Bears have the ninth pick, Atlanta's got the eighth pick. Maybe you swap those and

a third round or something like that feels reasonable. So the Bears move up one slot and get a third round or that feels like something you can do for Justin Fields. I don't think he's going to be a superstar in Atlanta, but I do think you can argue he'll be the most talented quarterback in the NFC South, where he's just not He's not as good as Jared Goff, and I don't think he's I don't think he at this point is trending to be nearly as good as

Jordan Love. So if Kirk Cousins comes back for two years, Kirk Cousins right now is a more efficient quarterback than Justin Fields, and so he would be the fourth most reliable quarterback in the division. That's not a good place for him. I think it's a much better place for him to go to Atlanta, where you know Baker and Derek carr are. You know, they can win a lot of games, especially Baker. He's won a playoff game. You know, he's a playoff quarterback in the AFC and the NFC.

But in terms of overall size and talent whip arm, you know, Justin's pretty special player. So the combine to me, and we sent John Middelcoff there for the volume. The Combine's really a relationship. It's like a camp for football grown ups where you get all the gms and the personnel people and they screw around. They have steak dinners, and you get a lot of business done. I don't care much about the players testing, you know, it's like

these personal workouts and testing. I do think, you know, there's a trend over the last several years that quarterbacks don't throw at this thing. I think every draft has a really interesting player. I mean, I think without question, everybody knows it's good wide receiver, good offensive tackle class, really good three or four really high end receivers, three or four really good offensive tackles. You could have six offensive tackles taken in the first round. That's a huge

number the quarterbacks. There's a lot of talent, but I think the most interesting player in the draft is going to be JJ McCarthy for Michigan, who had a great coach, a great old line, a great run game, and a great defense in a conference. Frankly, that's kind of Ohio State and everybody else outside of Michigan. I mean, that's about the only team Michigan face that has equal talent in the SEC. Even though Alabama can be great. There's Georgia, There's LSU. There's a lot of teams that can stack

up athletically, three or four teams at the top. Ohio State and Michigan just looked different than everybody else, and McCarthy benefited from that. Now, he won a lot of games, but they didn't really rely on him. He didn't throw many touchdown passes, as his biggest games were off and against I mean he had I think it was half of his touchdown passes against three teams, all of them awful East Carolina, Michigan State, in Indiana he had half of his touchdown totals and he only had one game

with three touchdown passes. I believe Pennix had ten, bo Nicks had seven. I think he had one game with either was it three hundred yards passing or three touchdown pass My big concern is he's really slender and let me give an example. So I've used this before, is that Aaron Rodgers and I are the same height. And I've seen Aaron a couple times up close. He doesn't look thick. He weighs two hundred and twenty five pounds. I'm the same height and I weigh one ninety five.

I work out every day. I'm in pretty good shape. You would view me as slender. If you looked at Aaron, you would view him as sort of slender. He carries thirty pounds more than me at the same height chest shoulders, but it's that thickness. Years ago I asked somebody about Aaron. I said, he doesn't look that big. And this person said, look at his caps, look at his butt, look at

his shoulders, look at his wrists. There's a difference. When Johnny Manziel came into the league, he just didn't he didn't have the size and the shoulders, the butt, the hips, the wrist. He just wasn't big enough. And so I look at JJ McCarthy and he's six ' three, So he is taller than Aaron Rodgers by an inch and a half. Anyways, twenty to twenty three pounds less. That is that's noticeable to me. He comes across his slender

and you know it's somebody. An NFL executive said he looks like a stretched out Bryce Young and I never thought of that, but in the context of body types, it kind of it kind of matches, And so I think McCarthy's fascinating. I know two people who I really like in the NFL. Executives think he's a Hamnegger, just don't really see it. I know somebody else, Randy Mueller, a former executive in the league works for the Athletic now really likes JJ McCarthy. Obviously, Jim Harball loves him.

He's rooting for his guys. I don't know quite what to make him him now. I didn't like Zach Wilson of the Jets out of college. I like JJ McCarthy more. I think he throws a better ball and a more consistent ball. You know. I didn't like Johnny Manziel out of college. I think JJ McCarthy's a much much better prospect. I didn't like Tebow at all at a college, obviously. I mean, Tebo couldn't throw a consistent NFL football. It's

not like I don't think he has talent. I do think JJ has talent, but the body type, it's just it's a completely different sport. I mean the NFL. I remember when Johnny Manziel came into the league and he was a run around guy, gave Alabama's great defenses all sorts of fits. And I think it was a preseason game.

He's playing for Cleveland. I think they played Washington. Is that the one where he gave somebody the finger and he rolled out and you know, he thought, I'm going to get around this defensive end and he could not outrun a defensive end in the NFL. And in that moment, I'm like, yep, not going to work because his game is movement. It's just not going to work. Lamar Jackson moves. You can't stop him. Michael Vick moves, Steve Young moved,

they got around the corner. So a lot of times, you know, you play in college, high school, in college, and what works for you does not work, does not translate to the NFL. So I'm just fascinated with JJ McCarthy to see if it does. I just don't quite see. Now. You could say Colin, you didn't see c J. Stroud, No, I said Lance Zerline, who works at NFL dot Com a draft analyst. He said it Jared Goff was his comp and I said probably ten times on the air,

that's a good comp out of college. I didn't see a lot of juice with Jared Goff, but I thought he threw a beautiful ball from the pocket. I didn't see a lot of juice until the Georgia game on c J. Stroud, But he throws a beautiful ball out of the pocket. And Zerline was on the Herd yesterday on FS one and talked about that that people give him crap for that. But if you go look at Jared Goff's second year numbers and c J. Stroud's first year numbers, CJ got a great first coach. Jared Goff didn't.

They're very similar. So JJ McCarthy's going to be really really interesting to me, you know, like this was the best Michigan team perhaps ever, and the best team in college football, I thought significantly, with a great o' line and a really powerful run game at a great coach, very Alabama like and if you start looking at all these Alabama quarterbacks, the Bryce Youngs and the tuas, you know, they looked Mac Jones. Boy, did we really like them

out of college. And then you get to the NFL behind an average offensive line and you don't really have a number one receiver. That's what JJ McCarthy feels like to me. The great coach, the great old line, the great run game, the great defense support, playing with the lead, getting very good field position, just like Tua and Mac Jones and Alabama quarterbacks time and time again. Then they get into the NFL and they trail and they don't

have a good offensive line and they're moving in. JJ McCarthy weighs six three, two hundred and three pounds, and then he probably needs twenty two pounds more with that size, so we'll see. He is to me, the most interesting player in the first round. All right, little instant reaction. Dubs picked up their seven straight road win, beat a NIXT team without Julius Randall, but Andrew Wiggins didn't play. I think it's a really interesting Warriors team that's got

a mix of old and young. They finally have some front court size, play sort of the same style, up tempo, and if you don't understand Draymond Green tonight, Draymond Green is I wrote down some of the comments on Draymond Green. That dude, this team. Since Draymond Green came back from his suspension, the Warriors lead the NBA in points and assists. Tonight he had six assists. It's like the line of demarcation if you don't get the value of Draymond Green.

I just love it all right, instant reaction. We'll see tomorrow. FS one the volume. Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast, take a moment, rate and review.