Colin Cowherd Podcast Prime Cuts -  Ty Dunne on Post-Rodgers Packers, McDermott Doubts + Jason Timpf on KD/Suns Fit, AD Lakers Future

Super Bowl in the Book's Baby. NFL insider Tyler Dunn stop by details on what he's hearing in Buffalo trouble brewing, the story behind Josh Allen his beef with Stefon Diggs. Also so Hoops the night host Jason temp Katie to the Son's AD's future lack there over the Lakers first though, my top takes of the week. All Right, So I want to start with this. If I get upset with my kids or my wife and I express my disappointment, the reason I do that is because I want to

be heard, and I want you to respond. I want some sort of visceral connection. I love you, I'm committed to you. Are you committed to me? I want to be heard, and everybody wants to be heard. That's why I've never taken criticism personally. If I don't want to go to a restaurant anymore, I don't write them a letter. I just stop going. When people really leave my show, they just stop listening. They don't form me of it. I thought it was interesting that the Super Bowl had

its biggest rating in years. One hundred and thirteen million people watched it, third most watched TV program in American history. This comes, of course, after the boycott from Colin Kaepernick taking a knee. All I heard for eighteen months and the words used by all the boycotters I'll never watch the NFL again. They didn't say they'd come back. Eventually, they said I'll never watch it again. They all came back. What are you going to do for twenty Sundays in

the fall? What do you guys, farmers? In the end, it's the NFL. We bet it, we watch it, we love it. Many of us played it not particularly well, but you wanted to be heard. Conservatives overwhelmingly wanted to be heard. Remember when the CEO of Goya Foods. G Oya Foods backed Donald Trump. There was a boycott. Liberals were outraged by the comments, we are going to boycott Goya Foods. Actually sales went up twenty two percent. In the following weeks, Goya reported sales of some beans apparently

Goya loves their beans rose four hundred percent. I remember when Kaepernick did that first Nike ad ooh. People wanted to be heard. I will never buy Nike again. The stock price at the time was sixty eight. It is now eighty four percent higher at one hundred and twenty six. Actually rose to almost one seventy. Nike's never been stronger.

NFL's never been stronger. Goya Foods is fine, by the way, Because of the platforms, the number of platforms I'm on today, I get more hate, more ugly comments, more threats, more boycott tweets than ever before. January was my most watched, most listen to, most downloaded month of my thirty year career. And that's okay, yell scream, call me an idiot. People want to be heard. Liberals wanted to be heard with Goya Foods. Conservatives wanted to be heard with Kaepernick and Nike.

In the NFL. That's why I don't take things personally. When people really leave brands, restaurants, leagues, TV. By the way, teens do not watch linear TV. Teenagers don't watch it. It's down seventy four percent from I think like a decade ago. You know what I've never received in the history of social media, a teenager saying I'm no longer watching linear TV. I'm out. They just leave. To all my media brethren don't take the insults personally. Roger Goodell doesn't,

the CEO of Goya Foods doesn't. Phil Knight at Nike doesn't, all of us. When you're connected to something, when you've been a customer, a fan, of viewer, a listener, sometimes you just pissed and want to be heard on the same way. So Aaron Rodgers is about ready to go on his darkness retreat for four days. According to reports from legitimate sources, he's considering filming it little irony there, an isolation trip. Hey, let's make sure the camera guy's

got it. The light guys over here. It's supposed to be isolation. Thinking you by yourself. Aaron wants attention, ripping Adam Schefter, ripping Ian rappaport the vaccine. Aaron Rodgers wants attention. He wants to feel important. Right, No, kids, never married, may not have a pet. It's why he needs to do these weekly hits. Aaron needs to be the center of attention. It just cracks me up. Like when you go on these retreats, you go to oh Hi, you're

looking for peace. You're not supposed to be making another state farm commercial during your isolation trip. You know, people myself included, have odd habits. I tend to be a creature of habit. You know, three or four things for breakfast, my entire law fruit, early, fish, late. I eat the same way, I exercise, the same way, same time of the day. Very much a creature of habit. And I understand not everybody has the same habits. You know, my

kids are quirky. I'm quirky, and I've had friends that have you know, mannerisms or things that are I consider odd. But the one thing I've dropped friends and people in my social circle over high maintenance slash neediness. Fuck, Aaron is needy. He is really really needy. Okay, we bring him on a few times a year, Tyler Donne. He has that newsletter. Sign up for it at go longtd dot com. Through the years, he's been spot on on a number of Packers stories. He's got a Packer story

he's working on. He's also been writing about the Buffalo Bills. We have been highly critical of Sean McDermott on my radio and TV show. In an offensive pivoting league, they really feel like they're playing nineteen eighty three football. Let's first start, though, with your Green Bay updates. So there are certain things that are already out that the Packers are willing if Aaron wants out to move, they are happier today than a year ago. With Jordan Love, they

would send him to the AFC, not the NFC. That stuff's all out. Mark Murphy said last week, we'd like him to give us a decision sooner than later. Those four things are all out. My take has been a pretty simple one that if Jordan Love is a B level quarterback, that this is a pretty good roster. With an additional first round pick, maybe a third, Packers have to develop at a pretty high level. They need an

edge rusher, another tight end. They're pretty good, so any apprehension would lead me to believe they have huge concerns about Jordan Love. So let me start with this. From what I can tell, it does feel like they feel pretty good about Love as a potential starter. Is that is that what you garner from you know, recent discussions?

You know, I've tried to talk to as many players as I possibly can these last couple of weeks, Colin, because it does harken back to what two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, when Green Bay went from Brett fare to Aaron Rodgers. They could make that move. Ted Thompson saw it every day in practice. And if anybody knows if Jordan Love is ready, it's those players. It's the teammates, It's it's who sees this quarterback day in and day out, because they haven't really seen much on

game day. What they have seen has been they're really promising to that Philadelphia game and to a man, player to player, guys who have been on the scout team have faced him in practice. They insisted Jordan Love as ready to be a starter in the NFL. Um and I guess it kind of dates back. Even a Jamal Williams, who was just with him that that rookie season, he held up his hand when I saw him in Arizona. He's like, look at this pinky and it's all busted

up because yeah, that's from Jordan Love. You know, he's zipped it to my finger there. As a rookie, they got the guy can sling it. He's got some rare physical gifts. That that's the reason they drafted him. That that's what popped. But since that point forward, I think he's learned the offense and I think he's learned how to read defenses and he's putting it all together. You saw in that Philadelphia game he hit that backfoot and

the ball was out. He can run Matt Laflour's offense. Yeah. Um, you know there's concern in San Francisco that Trey Lance, it was reported this week, isn't as athletic as San Francisco hoped and he struggled with accuracy. My takeaway, Jordan Love right now is a more refined Trey Lance. He is athletic and he is accurate. Now does he have the juice? The it? Very few do? Right? Like that's like eight on the planet. Um. I also believe, and I don't have this sourced. Um. I did see two

different packers at the Super Bowl. I'm not ready to go public with what one of them said yet. I may soon, so I'll hold off, but I'm not ready to go there yet. But um, the Packers were an irrelevant franchise for most of the seventies and eighties, and I do feel like there's there's almost a fear in the building to be irrelevant. I I sense that. But I'm on the outside. You tell me you used to

live there. You still cover him this this feeling of oh, and I argue tie the NFC, even the two loaded rosters. Philadelphia has got so many free agents. Niners don't have the quarterback. Probably in September, this is the time to rip it off. This is not the AFC with five or six seven generational quarterback towns. Do you think that fear is just holding them back from ripping the band

aid off? I think it absolutely has been. How Mark Murphy, Malafloor, Brian Good against everybody back from just if moving on. And we've talked about this for two years. I thought they should have done it. You know that that first summer when Aaron is kind of dragging the team out to the public square and you know, dispatching his legion of surrogates and allies to flaw green Bay. I mean that for four or five months, all you heard is how could Green Bay let it get to this point?

But they begged, they pleaded. Your Matt Lafloor at the podium is just every possible way begging Aaron Rodgers to come back. They have that meeting, they have some backdoor promises. They give him a seat at the table, They trade for a washed up Randall Cobb. You know, they do all these things, give him what he wants because of that fear. I think they're terrified of life on the other side of Aaron Rodgers. And you do see a

lot of teams that live in that purgatory. But I'd argue, I mean, look at the New York Giants hanging on to Eli Manning and maybe a year too long. The Pittsburgh Steelers hanging on the Ben Roethlisberger a year too long. That's the bigger mistake is it's just tricking yourself into thinking that this guy might pull off a Tom Brady. There's one Tom Brady. There's one quarterback who can go to forty five doing what he did, And we saw it last year with Aaron Rodgers the inevitable physical decline.

His legs really aren't there, his arm is average to maybe above average. He wasn't really willing to work with those young receivers until it was too little, too late. Hey, look when Patrick Mahomes has bringing guys down to Fort Worth, what was Aaron Rodgers doing. I don't know. I was good taking trips and hey, we can mock OTAs all you want. I talked to one player who said it would have been really nice to have Aaron Rodgers's OTAs

they were working on stuff, because they got it. They turned that corner, but by then they were what three four games below five hundred. To answer your question, I'm shocked that it's taken this long, but I think that the court of public opinion has kind of changed. I think fans by and large are getting a little tired of Aaron Rodgers act and the drama and you know him saying, oh, I didn't know that this Darkness Retreat was really going to take off like it did get

out of here. I think that fans are smart enough to kind of read through it, and they saw it. Most importantly, they saw what Jordan Love could be, just like they saw what Aaron Rodgers could be in that Dallas game in two thousand and seven. So the fact that it's kind of turned, you know, remember it's it's community owned, the fans owned the team. It's a little

different with the Packers. The fact that that's kind of changed, I think it's going to kind of be let me get Murphy and Good against La floor to a spot where they finally once and for all trade Aaron Rodgers. Maybe my egos too big, but I feel like words matter. And when Aaron said I'm gonna go on a retreat, a darkness retreat, which is fine, meditations, fine, that will get me closer to a decision, that's kind of FFing with people. That would be like telling my wife, listen,

I'm either way in the marriage. I'm gonna go on a four day Vegas trip with the boys. That'll get me closer to a decision. She would say, bullshit, I want an answer when you get back. Like, we know Aaron's petty, we know he cares, he's thin skinned. That kind of feels like to me, tie, he's kind of

offing with him. It really does. You would never tell somebody you were in business with, hey, listen, I'm gonna Mark Murphy came out publicly and said sooner the better, and you're like, yeah, I'm gonna go hide for four days. It'll get me closer. Like, to me, that's you've moved into poking in the ribs. That's what it feels like to me. It would align with previous action. I mean that this is what he's done for a few years now.

So yeah, we have to read between the lines because he's kind of speaking in code and beating around the bush and nobody really knows and he's going on the darkness retreat. I had the same reaction to this. It feels like he's kind of messing with the team at this point, delaying it when you know, there's that scene in Seinfeld where George Constanza's telling you know that the

girlfriend I invented the it's not you, it's me. That the team and Rogers are kind of going back and forth in this like well, I don't I don't really want to trade you, but I want to trade you. I don't want to be here, but I kind of want to be here. Somebody's got to step up and be like enoughs enough. The Packers they have that power. They could go on the offensive here hell and do something talk to teams while he's on this darkness retreat. They haven't done it to this point. They're trying to

be delicate. They know he's a future Hall of Famer, he's been the face of the franchise. I get all of that, but at some point the lines were going to cross. Right. This isn't the first time that Aaron Rodgers has done some things that have ruffled feathers and you know, made management think a certain way, coaches think a certain way. But he's been winning MVPs, he's been taken to the conference championship game. It's always been worth it.

Now that ability isn't there, that talent isn't there, at some point, you don't tolerate it, right, I mean you tolerate it because he's so damn good and he's been good for so long. I think those lines have crossed now, and that management, if I you know, if you read what Murphy has said with the team has said, with the kind of leaked to the media, it seems like

they're ready to move on. And I say that gingerly because you never really know, but I think that maybe even the Packers are a little tired of this act, and then they are in a spot too once and for all move on to a different quarterback. He's not as mobile as he was three years ago. He's also not quite as committed in the offseason. Has anybody inside the organization ever hinted or acknowledged to you that they do see a decline in his overall ability now turning

thirty nine soon. No, it's hard to get people to that spot, you know, even even for background. I think it's it's been hinted that. And when they talk about Jordan Love and how excited they are about Jordan Love, how the ball just spins off his hand, how he's so athletic and fluid and as a command of the offense, because let's face it, teammates people in the organization. They're they're scared to say a negative word about Aaron Rodgers because they don't want to be cast off to the wornfield.

I mean, if you're honest enough to say what you really think, hell to just relive your experiences literally, just say what happened in a game against the San Francisco forty nine ers like a person you know very well. And Greg Jennings. He might just call you, call your names, call you this, call you that, and next thing you know, you got Packer fans at your neck for the next five to ten years. So players, they tread very lightly

in that department. I do think though, and how excited they are about Jordan Love that kind of tells you everything you need to know. So you live in upstate in New York, right, so you cover the Bills. I think two things are happening with the Bills. One, the Chiefs are relentlessly getting better. They're drafting better, They're rebuilding the offense receivers. They pay all of their receivers combined twenty mi million dollars Tyreek Hills making you know that

and more. Just with the Miami Dolphins, they rebuild their old line overnight. The Bills four or five years with McDermott still can't get the old line right. So that's part of it. And they're losing, right, So they're losing big games. But I really thought, and you have, you've been writing about this the Skylar Thompson game in the two A game, and they both came to Buffalo and they both ended the third quarter. In the fourth, you had a real game on your hands, warm Weather, Miami,

cold Weather, Buffalow Skylar Thompson. Game was bizarrely competitive in the second half, and I felt like in both games Mike McDaniel worked Sean McDermott. He was more clever, more of an identity. I still don't think the Bills have an offensive identity. I think they just called plays how They're winning a lot of games. But how much heat is on McDermott. I think the fear is that Sean McDermott is Marty Schottenheimer, Marvin Lewis. You know a coach

who is a good offensive mind? Yep, Chuck Nahaks, there's a good one, right, go right down the list where you know John Fox not a bad coach, right. He turned the defense around a big picture that that building needed to be fumigated. I mean it got really bad, really fast with Rex Ryan, and so they did need a pendulum swing to somebody who was more of a disciplinarian, who wasn't wasn't gonna put up with you know, certain types of players, certain type of personalities. So that that worked.

They ended the drought. They build a winner, but at some point the franchise is identity needed to change from Sean McDermott disciplinarian defense ball control to holy hell, we have Josh Ellen. This transcendent talent that's six five two forty seven leaps over your line backers and is something we've never seen at the position. And they're still kind of operating in that old mindset. Look at this. Look

at every single playoff game that they've lost. I mean, the same stuff repeats itself over and over and over again. The AFC Championship game, the chip shot field goals. I mean, you kick a field goal from whatever it was, the one or the two before halftime to cut into twenty one to twelve against the Chiefs, only to get waxed in the second half thirteen seconds the end of that game. I was told didn't want the squid, he wanted the touchback. Whoops. And then you have your dbs lined up in another

zip code. It's it's very not to lose. It's it's not aggressive, it's not a tenacious we're gonna win this game mentality. And then you saw it again against the Cincinnati Bengals. They're gonna lose that game. Ten out of ten times they didn't come ready to play. I just talked to a player today who said we were not ready, like we had no energy, we were lethargic. But Sean McDermott again, fourth down, end of the first half, a chance to get a two for one. You're in Cincinnati's territory.

Your defense can't stop anybody, but you have a chance on fourth down to go for it, score touchdown, to get the ball at the start of the third quarter, re dictate the terms of this game into a shootout. And they punted, and Joe Burrow almost Scott the midfield courage and edit the fourth quarter, fourth and two deep in your own end, you punt, I get it. The game ends right there if you don't get it. But you're not gonna get two stops in the fourth quarter.

That isn't gonna happen. You haven't stopped the nosebleed all games, so I don't know. I mean, for if the Bills are ever gonna get over this championship hump, Sean McDermott has to change the way he coaches in the playoffs. I'm worried it's not going to happen. I think that they left. They let the better coach in Brian Dable leave the building. I think Brian Dable will win Super Bowls and then Sean McDermott. I have a hard time

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In Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero stop in Louisiana one hundred seven oh seven and one one seven for confidential help in Michigan on eight seven seven h Ope, n Y. Or techs Hope, n Y. Six seven three six nine in New York, Tennessee Redline eight nine nine Tennessee visits one eight hundred gambler dot in West Virginia. His name is Jason Temp. We were able to grab him a couple of years ago. He's gonna be with us for a long time. Hoops Tonight podcast

on the Volume Network. So I was talking about this Jason about the Kansas City Chiefs. If you were gonna beat him, it probably should have been this year. Kind of a makeshift Receiving Corps six rookies played. UM old line is still pretty young, not great at tackle. UM. Now this year they've got eleven draft picks, all the rookies at running back in the secondary, we'll have a year under their belt. Mahomes is only getting better. And you know, this could have been the vulnerable year, right

because they were very, very young. And I feel the same way about the Warriors last year Clay Thompson at seventy young guys weren't ready to play. Now they've got Peyton, he'll be ready by the playoffs. Clay's better pools emerged as more consistent. Dante de Vincenzo's actually a perfect fit for that system. Now they're actually really deep in the next two months, really really deep, and Kuminga is at

least now a contributor. And so as they go back and forth, we know they're not the same team without Steph Curry. But I really believe Milwaukee's the best team in the league. And I really believe in two and a half three months, Golden State, a team that's in Boston's head, will be second. How much of a believer

or a cynic are you of these Warriors going forward? Well, generally speaking, I'm always going to be very bullish on championship cores that still have their core that we've seen show what they can do on that level, because the NBA regular season is so monotonous and boring, and they've had issues, like even the core of this team has struggled to close games this year, which is super unusual for a team that you'd expect to execute super well.

And obviously they've had issues with the bench. But college did you know that there are twenty seven five man lineups in the NBA this year that have played at least two hundred minutes and Steph Clay, Andrew Wiggins, Raymond Green, and Kevan Luney are still by far the best in the league. They're outscoring teams by twenty two points per one hundred possessions, five and a half points better than Denver starters, who are treating this season every game like

it's the last game of their lives. Now, again, the bench was a little concerning, but at the end of the day, there's two things that give me optimism there. First of all, Gary Peyton will be available for playoffs. Last year, in the playoffs, they outscored teams by three points per one hundred possessions when Gary Payton was off the floor, and by sixteen points per one hundred possessions

when Gary Payton was on the floor. So you know, to their credit, they made the Wisemen mistake, but they were like, hey, we're gonna undo two mistakes in one move here and bring back Gary. Now. It sucks that he's not going to be available for this next stretch of the regular season, but if he's available for the postseason, that solves a lot of problems. And then Jamichael Green.

There's been all this talk about them going after a backup big, but he's shooting the laces off the basketball since he returned from injury, and that kind of alleviates that issue. Give me Gary Payton, give me jem Michael Green, give me Jordan Poole and Dante di vincenzo. With that starting lineup we just talked about in a Western conference, that's super flawed. I mean, as anybody is safer bet

no I And that's what I go back to. I do think when you have a veteran team and you have a long playoff run, you're talking about twenty more intense games. This is not Tuesday against the Pelicans at home Oracle right like these are these are play forty minutes of playoff basketball, and so I don't think it's surprising. The Warriors were flat defensively, frankly awful defensively until about,

I would say, about two weeks ago. It feels like there's moments now I think they've gotten They're not great, but they've gotten better. Probably his Kur's been barking at him, Draymond's been barking at him. But I tend to I'm with you on this, until you have a ring, teams play really hard. Those Chicago bull teams with Derek Rose, Jesus, every game was Game seven. You'd go into the United Center and Lebron would go in there, and then the

playoffs show up and Lebron shut down d Rows. Speaking of Lebron, I had a scout I trust say the body language by Ad wasn't a coincidence. He's had, as you've pointed out on your podcast, a series of bizarrely ineffective games, like strangely ineffective first half against the Warriors was weird, like not there. And I had a scout tell me last week, Dallas is going to make a

run at him. Anthony Davis has sort of kind of believes he's lost the trust of Lebron, That's what I'm hearing, and that they're going to try to get their way into the playoffs. And I do think if you, if you gave me Lebron and that roster seven gamer play, let's get that's a series against Denver, I'd take my chances with Lebron. What do you believe of somebody that watches every minute for the Lakers? What do you make of the last five to six games of Anthony Davis.

The Anthony Davis thing is truly bizarre because all of the intel is is that his foot is fine. Now generally speaking, with foot injuries, there's a difference between fine and I trust myself to explode off of this foot when I need to. The numbers are really bad. So he's back for nine games, twenty two points and thirteen rebounds, which is the weird thing with Lebron and a d there's always such a disconnect between what their box score production is and what you actually see on the floor.

Because I think he's been bad by his standards. He's shooting just sixty one percent in the restricted area since coming back, which is awful for a big that's that's okay for a point guard. To give you some perspective, DeAndre Ayton is shooting seventy nine percent in the restricted area this season, So he's just getting manhandled around the basket. He's not running up and down in transition. He's losing box outs everywhere right and left. Now, I if he's

dealing with something up here. The reality is is this roster is so talented now because they've they've really addressed their two biggest weakness backcourt offensive skill size on the perimeter with the with Ruey Hatchmer and Jared Vanderbilt. So yeah, if they if they get Lebron back and he's playing at an MVP level, at a certain point, ad will have no choice but to lock back in. And I believe that he will, But you know if he does not, because one of the biggest subplots of this Laker's era

is Anthony Davis's inability to remain at his ceiling. Since the twenty twenty playoffs, It's been like two games against the Suns in the first round where he looked really good, like maybe ten fifteen games earlier this season, but that's about it, and if he can't stay at that level, the Lakers will have to look seriously at whether or not he can be a foundational piece for them. Well, the source told me, Dallas will make a run on him because Kyrie and Luca have huge defensive efficiencies and

they don't trust Christian. Would it would make sense. What can you get in your opinion for an Anthony Davis at the end of the year. Man, Okay, So if he does not ever in this season return to Form, I think he becomes He's got similar value to Lebron James, meaning like you're looking at him and you're like, yeah, like, I might get some top tier superstar production here, but I also might not. I'm not going to give away three four first round picks and two three swaps and

a good young player. I was. I actually pitched this idea to Ryan, our producer, earlier today. But like, if if Ad cannot return to Form, you start to look at potentially him being the vehicle for a Kyrie Irving sign in trade, which kind of which satisfies both needs. Maybe you get a Josh Green out of Dallas as well. Maybe you get one other first round pick and the two. You know, Jared vanderbuilt such a good work hard forward

for them. If they can get one other center, you start to look at them as a more offensively focused team behind Kyrie and Lebron. And Lebron when he's surrounded by really good ball handlers and shooters, he does devote more energy to the defensive end of the floor and he can be really impactful there. Just look at the twenty sixteen calves. So that would be an interesting direction for them to look if Anthony Davis can't return to form.

And here's the thing. Call it if I ask you, what are the percentage chances that Anthony Davis returns to MVP form before the end of the season. It's like a coin flip or worse. Oh, as Saluli, it is. And I think, as you pointed out, it may be a little physical, some of it's mental, and I think that's where he struggled. You know, there's some things you

can teach and some things you can't. Passion like Patrick Mahomes visibly in intense pain during the Super Bowl and sprints for twenty six yards in my opinion, his greatest moment as a pro player, and he is wincing pain tolerance as a skill, playing through injuries as a skill. Dwyane Wade was banged up almost the last ten years of his career. He was constantly on the deck. So let me start with this premise. I think Milwaukee when healthy is the best team in the league. Do you agree?

I do. I just don't trust Boston to close games. And then everybody in the West is significantly more flawed, and Milwaukee kind of flowed under the radar as they were consistently near the top of the standings despite Chris Middleton being out Andrew Holiday being in and out of the lineup, like Jannis has been sneaky, like a favorite, one of my favorites for MVP this year and not getting enough credit for it because he's been floating a really limited roster. And so yeah, I again, it's to me,

it's about the safeness of the bet. And I just can count on Milwaukee in a way I can't anybody else out East. So that brings me up too. And you watch the NBA and a more consistent level, because I'm kind of a generalist than half the cherry pick stuff. But I've watched the Celtics. I get on a Treadmill, and I watched them as much as I can. I'm going to watch them tonight when I we hang up here and I'm gonna go watch their backups play Milwaukee.

My daughter's actually at that game totally. Abo. Hew, things aren't starting anybody. So one of the things I've noticed, and a game that a lot of people watch, was the Laker game, which was a fantastic night of NBA basketball. It felt like a playoff game. Is that I think Golden State remains in Boston's head is even though they won that game and that had a playoff feel to it. This is and you played college basketball at a high level. We're good late in the shot clock, in late in games.

The body language tells me that Jalen Brown is really the alpha. He wants the ball. He's more aggressive seeking the ball. Now when they design or set screens for Jason a play, he'll come get it, but he won't take over a possession. I always feel like Jalen's the alpha. Tatum's more talented, and I think when you get into these huge games that may only rear its head three

possessions in the last six minutes. That's the difference between beating the Warriors and not there's something it's almost like Tatum's two nice a guy. That's my takeaway. It's like, I don't want that. When Steph wants to score, there's nobody else on the floor. Steph. Do you see this ever with the Celtics in big possessions, in key spots, some of it is skill set, Like I think Jalen

Brown is much more of an improvisational score. He can score in the sense that, like every basket looks different than the last, Jason Tatum is very much your modern MBA analytical offensive approach. Like he's he's toned way back on his mid range jump shooting, He's taken a ton of threes, he's finishing better at the rim than he used to be. But he's kind of becoming a more predictable offensive engine. And at the end of games, nothing

goes the way you want it too. There's so much contact that goes on called there's random double teams and weird schematic things, and having a player that's an improvisational score, a guy that can take and make weird shots ends up being a huge advantage there. And I think that's a huge part of why Jalen Brown thrives so much in those settings. But it's funny because I would agree with you that Golden States in their head when the even when they won this last game, they kind of

backed into that win. Yeah, they won, because Golden State also made a bunch of mistakes, like even on that final possession when Jalen Brown got open, it was a transition cross match and Jordan Poole got lost and they left Jalen Brown open. Like again, we talked about this earlier, but Golden State has struggled with like game execution. Jason Tatum was awful down the stretch and regulation of that game, including having Steph Curry on a switch on the left wing.

No double team, dude, you've got the advantage, and he ended up just like kind of like trying to step sideways into a three, and Steph was all over it and he ended up turning the basketball over. And you could tell there's something going on up there. To be clear, Boston's even better than they were last year. Malcolm Brogden. We talked a lot after the NBA Finals about them meeting. Backup ball handling Malcolm Brogden was a home run trade.

He's been amazing for them. But at the end of these games, if I would feel so much better about Boston if they just kicked Golden State's ass in those two games, I would be in a completely different places mentally with them if they just close the deal in those two games emphatically, and instead they lost one and they fell asked backwards into a win and the other. And so that just puts me in the same position where it's the same type of flaw when they get

to that big stage. Yeah, and that's why Golden State. Golden State picks its spots the Boston game, that Memphis game. You know this, there's about for defending champions. There's about six nights a year their national TV games or they're the cocky upstart Memphis. It's like, okay, guys, don't have to be talked into it. So I think everybody, I've probably seen Phoenix play six times this year. Chris Paul is not what he was two years ago. Let's start

with that. Mkaal Bridges really valuable wing defender, no question, that's where they're not as good. Kevin Durant remains, however, when healthy about the best easiest bucket in the league. Tend to think it's going to work because in the NFL, I always feel in pro football an offense needs an identity can overcome lack of personnel. If you have a New York Giants won a playoff game, they knew what they were and what they weren't, I don't worry about that.

In the NBA, what I worry is, do you have elements? Two great wings, a big that runs the floor, a smart distribution, veteran point guard, a respected coach. Situationally, I look at Phoenix and I think there's a lot of elements here. I like, now, they're not deep, but you know, Golden State plays eight guys like depth is a tad overrated. I think Phoenix could mow through some of these teams in about five six games. I think the Suns it works for me. But now in three years this could

be a disaster if they fall apart. But just for this year, does it work for you? Well? Overnight they have the most talented top four in the NBA. In my opinion, I'm putting them ahead of Philly in Boston. There's also schematically a supernatural fit for Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant has been by far the very best pick and roll ball handler. This year, he is having one of the very best pull up jump shooting seasons in NBA history.

In all pick and roll coverages in the NBA concede pull up shots, so every team in the league has just been like, let's just double KD and play four on three in the back end, which is why the Nets have been so good this season. When he played, Phoenix is the pre eminent pick and roll team in the NBA. That's what they run every single possession down

the floor. They run a variation of it called Spain pick and roll, where they include a shooter that replaces to the top of the key while eighton is rolling. So KD offensively is a just an incredibly natural fit with him. He's also probably the best plug in play star in NBA history because his off ball offensive talent is every bit as effective as his on ball offensive talent, and he makes quick, predictable decisions, like compared to lou where it's like there's nine seconds of dribbling and you

don't necessarily know where he's going. That can be tough to play with sometimes, but when you're playing pickup basketball and there's that dude where you know exactly what he's gonna do and he makes that decision quickly. It makes it easy to play with that type of guy. So that's why he plugs in so well. On the defensive end of the floor. He's actually having one of his better defensive seasons of his career as a help defender on the back line with his length and DeAndre Ayton.

One of his biggest issues is he can be a kind of up and down defensive player from his motor. From the perspective of his motor. Now, they're not a perfect team. They're going to be probably the worst perimeter defense team out of the high level playoff teams, and that will put them in some trouble against driving kick teams like the Clippers or Golden State. With Jordan Poole constantly putting downhill pressure on the rim, they're gonna have some issues. But again I go back to what I

said with Golden State. In a Western conference where everybody is flawed, you'd be foolish to write them off. And you gotta look at the buyout market, like they snatched Terrence Ross away from Dallas, will be surprised if they go after someone like Patrick Beverley as well, Like they're gonna be there, and I think Kevin Durant might be the best player in the world right now, So they're gonna be a pain in the ass for everybody. Yeah, no, I think you really put it well. He's the best

plug and play guy in the world. Like I love Lebron or Janis, but you have to sort of build around them, Luca, because he's so ball centric, you can he's I think he's a much better, not much better. He's a better version of Harden, But I mean, at his best, James was hard to play with. Like Chris Paul, for all the misgivings, kind of works in every era. He would have worked in the seventies, he works now in the three ball here and doesn't shoot him like.

He's a really effective player with a lot of personalities. I mean, Blake Griffin to me, sort of disappeared when Chris Paul left his side. DeAndre Jordan. That offense dried up. Okay, I'll give you a team. I want you to give me a team that you just don't buy. Okay. I love watching Memphis, but if Jaws off and I just had dinner of the other night, with an NBA scout, Jaws probably a better. I don't like hyper athletic guards that can't shoot. Never like John Wall, don't like Westbrook.

Derrick Rose wore me out. I think Jaws a better shooter than those guys. But Jason, he's one hundred and seventy eight pounds, He's tiny. I don't know if I buy Memphis. I just I like their depth, I like their coach. Do you I don't buy this team as a championship contender, do you? Yeah? Memphis is who I put down as my most overrated team in the league. So to give you an idea, these are the top four teams in the league and their records against teams

that are five hundred or better. Boston is twenty two and nine against winning teams. Milwaukee twenty one and ten, Denver nineteen and eleven, Phillies sixteen and ten, Memphis sixteen and fifteen. Once again against Boston. On Sunday, shortly before the Super Bowl, they competed. They were in the game, it was close late and they backed way off of Job and made him shoot threes that he couldn't make.

You went over four and on the other end of the floor, they could not contain Derek White driving to the basket, which put them in rotation, no stopping. They gave up a bunch of wide open threes and they lost. This is a phenomenon I've seen several times in NBA history where there's a team that has an outstanding regular season machine to produce wins. My favorite example this is

the twenty twenty one Jazz. They were third in defensive rating in the regular season, and then they ran into the Clippers without Kawhi Leonard and it turns out that it turns out Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell couldn't guard anybody. They gave up one hundred and twenty eight points per one hundred possessions against the Clippers and lost. And so what happens is in the regular season you can set

up a baseline scheme and you can hide guys. But then you get to the playoffs and it becomes so the game slows down and it just teams target your entry points. And what it is is John Morant is one of the easiest entry points in the NBA to a defense. If you attack him, you can quickly get them in rotation, and then it doesn't really matter what kind of personnel you have in the back end, if you're playing four on three and then on the other end of the floor, they just don't have any shot

creation behind Jaw. And so they're actually a bottom ten half court offense in the NBA according to Cleaning the Glass. And so if they can stay up and down in transition and in funnel guys to Jaren Jackson in the regular season, they're fine. But they get to the playoffs, the game slows down. It's entirely in the half court. On both ends, they're attacking Jaw, they're on the other end, they're back and way off of him. And that's why

they struggle against good teams. Those clutch situations and those games against the good teams, those are what mimic the playoffs most closely. And this is the final stat I'll give you. The Jazz are third in regular season defensive rating this year. They are twenty fourth in clutch defense this season. So when the game slows down at the end, they just can't get stops. The volume, make sure to

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