Colin Cowherd Podcast Prime Cuts -  WWE CEO Nick Khan on WrestleMania 39, Vince McMahon,  Stroud vs. Young w/ John Middlekauff + Wiggins Void w/ Jason Timpf

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eight hundred gambler dot net, West Virginia. This is Prime Cuts, the best of the Colin Coward podcast. So years ago when I was very very fortunate and got a job out of college in Las Vegas working for a baseball team, the Las Vegas Stars. So I did that for a couple of years, sales, couple innings of play by play, and then I transitioned into working for a local NBC affiliate, KVBC Valley Broadcasting company. Late Jim Rogers was willing to

hire me. I was a weekend sports guy and then to a sports director and during that one of the things that I'm from the Pacific Northwest, as many of you know, that was really cool for me is sports books. I'd never been to a sports book. I'd never been to Vegas, so I hung out in sports books a lot. I thought they were real, the coolest things in the world.

I would finish my eleven o'clock sportscast on a Friday during the football season, I would go to Palace Station on Sahara, not far from my station in North Las Vegas, and I would place bets college football bets, have a ninety nine cent breakfast, meet some guys, and then I would go home, sleep in back Then you'd wake up in the morning and you know, the Florida State Seminoles will be feates and the Miami Hurricanes at nine in the morning. Now they put all the really good college

football games mostly in the late afternoon and night. But I loved sports books and I love the guys that run them, And it was very obvious there were two things where the books made a killing, and they were completely electric, NFL Sundays and March Madness. And this past year the NFL ratings were up. And what is significant about that fifty four quarterbacks or close played. Fifty four different quarterbacks played, So the ratings shouldn't be great, right,

the stars drive any sport. But the ratings were up, and the ratings were up because of gambling, the rollout of gambling in this country, and which I'm a proponent of and have been forever. So the other thing that was wild to see. So when I moved to Vegas out of college, the Runnin Robbinals, Jerry Tarkanian, Larry Johnson, Stacy Augman, Anderson Hunt most is a scurry. Greg Anthony, you know, I got to cover that team. It was wild. But I would hang out in these sports books like

everybody else, eating cheap food, drinking beer. March Madness in the NFL and other sports, certainly you'd have action, but those moved the needle and they still do. So the March Madness ratings have been really strong, you know, and people tend to have opinions that work for their agenda. If you hate the NBA, you're like, see the basketball is better. No, it's not. There's no reason college basketball is getting these ratings. Nobody knows any of the players.

I mean, if you're a Miami Hurricane fan, you'd do. But San Diego State fans don't know. Again, if you followed college basketball twenty years ago, the Stars, the Patrick Ewings twenty five years ago, Christian Latner's they came back for a third or fourth year. Now, if you go to a street in Smith and look at their All American team, it's like four freshmen they were in high school the year before. It's a very transitional sport, very transactional.

And then you throw the portal into it. Christ half the league half that. There's three hundred and sixty Division one programs. Five kids per team are transferring. It is just a non stop merry go round of one and done, players in and out of universities, in programs. There's no real emotional, visceral connection most casual fans to the teams. You know the coach, maybe, you know the brand of Kansas Archer accused, you know all the players. And we

don't watch soccer just because of soccer. The soccer that gets the most views, has the biggest stars, the biggest brands, English Premier League, and so there's no reason for college basketball. You don't watch just for passion. Little League World Series has passion. It doesn't get huge ratings. A lot of things have passion. The College Baseball World Series has passion, it doesn't get huge ratings. We bet on two things in America, the NFL and March Madness. And I mean,

I'm watching this weekend. Know any of these Creton players don't follow Creton basketball. You can pretend you do. You don't. People within one hundred miles of that school unless they went there, they don't know who plays for Creton. So I think it's great. But it shows you the importance of that connection to betting on sports, and we're really seeing it. I think it's been a lot of fun,

but I'm not gonna lie. A big part of it is you're not churning off games, even lobsided games, because you want to see if you hit the over the under of the line. It's the power. If you really look at the people that have left sort of traditional linear TV, if you look at cord cutting and cable sports rating should not be up. You can make a lot of reasons why people are are not watching stuff. College basketball, NFL, the big winners, the big winners in

the legalization of sports betting. So I watched two baseball games and two things were very noticeable. The game really moves now. The pitch clock speeds it up about twenty to twenty five minutes a game. It is very noticeable it moves. It's swift, which sports should be. And also there were more base runners. I can't prove that, but I noticed in the games I watched, more stolen bases, more activity. You know that thing people like to watch

called action. Those were the two problems with baseball over the last decade, declining attendance and declining TV ratings. The games were too long and didn't have enough activity. Hockey is over three hours, lots of activity. Football over three hours, lots of plays, fewer huddles, more activity. Baseball was getting up around three hours. No base runners, so you needed to change the defensive shift. Those outs now become singles and doubles. More runners on, more stolen bases, more first

a third, more second to home, more activity. It was noticeable in the two games I watched. But here's the thing about baseball. Football is different. I've never gone to a football game and not tailgated college or pro. Ever, I've never just shown up and gone to a game. You tailgate. It's understood you give half a day to

a full day. If you're a Patriot fan in Foxboro, you get up, you have breakfast, you're gonna tailgate, and then you're gonna go to the game, and then you're probably because Foxboro's hard to get out of, knocked down a beer or abrought before you go home. You give the day to football, so time becomes less crucial. Sundays in the fall eight home games. Those are eight sacred family and friend moments, pictures, videos, food. But the more games you have, the less it becomes an event. Basketball

forty one home games. I've never tailgated for a basketball game. Baseball eighty one home games. Too many games for the games not to be succinct. It doesn't matter if it's a Broadway play, it doesn't matter if it's a movie. You go to a movie once a month, you're gonna give it two hours. You get a bite to eat before the movie, you go to the movie. After the movie, you go out and get a glass of wine with your wife. You know you do that once a month.

If you went to a movie four days a week, five days a week, you're not going to do that. It's too costly. You don't have that time. So the diehards will bitch and complain, and that's fine. They always do. I mean, go to Twitter, go to social media for five minutes. There are people on there. Their entire feed is about complaining. I don't think it's just to get clicks. I think they're miserable. Some people aren't happy unless they're unhappy,

and so people come complain. Hey, Colin, you don't worry about it. You and the TikTok generation. I'm fifty nine years old and I think baseball is slow. I'm not on TikTok. I'm barely on Twitter. I'm never on Instagram. I have eight social media accounts. I don't have a password to any of them. They're run by my staff. I occasionally post on Twitter. That's it. Baseball was too slow and it's a killer with eighty one home games and one hundred and sixty two minimum over the course

of a season. So people are going to complain. The diehards, they're irrelevant. They're not going anywhere. They're scorpions in the desert. You can't kill them. The bottom line is keep it moving, more base runners, more fun, and about the only downside in the stadium. You know you always go to a baseball game. You have a couple of beers. You may not have time for a third. Now, beer sales might decrease slightly. I think the sport Budweiser Stella Corona will survive.

But I noticed it about a month ago. I got in my car from my house to go to the grocery store. It's about an eight minute drive. It was a Dodger game, and they got through an entire inning, and I thought to myself, the late Vince Scully, what would he have done with a sport that moved so quickly his stories? There would have been no time, but Vince Scully would have made his stories more succinct to fit in to the time. I will watch significantly more

baseball this year. And by the way, die hard guy, you're not going anywhere. You'll still watch two. So baseball got both of us. The tournament's heating up. No better place to get in on the action than FanDuel America's number one sportsbook. Okay, right now download fandel use the promo code Collins c O L I n up to one thousand dollars back in bonus bets if your first bet doesn't win The promo code is always Colin. FanDuel has tons of betting options. I like the same game parlay,

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FanDuel twenty one plus in select states. Fandel's offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas dar Casino l LC Gambling Problem Call one eight hundred Gambler or visitfanduel dot com, slash RG Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Virginia one eight hundred, next step or text next step to five three three four two, Arizona one eight at eight sevent eight nine seven seven seven seven, or visit

CCPG dot org, slash chat Connecticut one eight hundred and nine wit Indiana one eight hundred five two two forty seven hundred. Visit kas gambling heelp dot com Kansas one eight seven seven seven seven oh stop Louisiana called one eight hundred and three two seven fifty fifty or visit

WWWMA Underscore Helpline dot org. Slash problem Gambling visit www dot MD gambling help dot org Maryland one eight seven seven eight Hope, New York or text Hope, New York four six seven three six nine New York one eight hundred five two two forty seven hundred Wyoming, or visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net, West Virginia. Nick Cohn, my friend and former agent, stops by the volume today from a practicing attorney to a mega agent to now the CEO of a public company w WE.

So WrestleMania goes Hollywood Saturday Sunday at so far spectacular Venue, a spectacular venue. Roman Rains takes on, Cody Rhodes, brock Lessner, John Cena, the Amazing Charlotte Flair, and others. So there are events weekly. This is your super Bowl, This is it? Is it stressful for Vince, for you, for the performers. Do you does it feel different? Well, look, I'll tell you this. I can't speak to being a performer, obviously,

it's not what I do. But going out in front of seventy five thousand fans a night, or whatever it might be. I remember hearing a story from Sugaray Leonard years ago. He said there's nothing like ringwalk. He said, you got seventy five fifty thousand people cheering for you, cheering your name. I get into the ring and I'd say to myself, holy shit, actually have to fight, which I always thought was funny. But for us, I think WW is a well oiled machine. We have almost a

thousand employees. Everyone's focus is on WrestleMania, so it's no more stressful than any other week at WW. So not that it's a playbook, but when you first came to WWE, you did things that you and I had privately discussed for years about my business, which is play the hits. You know, the top five or ten percent of any business are going to be your most dynamic revenue producers. So you have really zoned in on your brock lessners. John Cena Charlotte Flair has never had a bigger profile

Roman Reigns you even you've elevated that. So is that easy? It's what you did in your career. So was that on your note card of things to do when you became you know, the CEO? Was that one? Or were there things that I don't notice that a non WWE diehard wouldn't notice that you had to work on. Or was the system and the platform pretty solid and it just needed tweaking. I think a couple of things. Play

the hits and part I learned from you. So if you look at your content on your daily show, it's some version of NFL, NFL, NBA, Lebron big story of the day. But it's not, and we had this conversation on day one of your show. It's not let's put on this personality from baseball who's only known in a local market. We don't need to mention any names, right right, It's play the hits. What does the audience want to see?

So I think the way that Vince and team built WWE was if you get a John Cena, if you get a Rock, if you get a Roman Reigns, showcase them. And if you showcase them as long as you can build opponents consistently, and there's not one person carrying the load as big as Roman is. All of the other superstars that you mentioned, they all carry a lot of

stroke in our company. They all have big voices. So for all of those people to be on display over a two night event at WrestleMania this coming weekend, we think it might give us a winning hand. So you've always had good instincts when you were an agent, and then you go to WWE and instead of dealing with high maintenance people like me, you're dealing with a billionaire who had created something revolutionary, transcendent, and with that comes

its own challenges. Was it the transition from representing sportscasters now you had big names, herb Street names two now working alongside Vince McMahon. Was the first six months? Nine months a year? Was it difficult? Was it? You take me? How would you describe it? So I'll ask you a question back, and then I'll answer your question. When we worked together and I had the good fortune of being your agent, do you feel that I worked for you or that you worked for me? Well, it was symbiotic.

I thought we worked it was a great partnership. But at the end of the day, my belief as an agent is that I worked for you. That's how I set it up in my mind, and yes, a great partnership.

Typically you don't feel that, oh, I just worked for this guy, And it was never that way with you, But I was looked at it that way, and I always thought to myself, if I could help to deliver the goods to you, then you in return would extend the partnership and pay me commensurately or pay the agency commensorately. I took the same approach with Vince had the good fortune of starting to represent ww in their media rights ventures, so got to know him, got to triple age Kevin Dunn,

all the other good folks at WWE. So I had a really good glimpse of the company from the outside looking in. So when I started, I took the same approach. There's only one boss, Vince, so I'd certainly try to get his buy in on material things. It's no different than a client. If you have a different point of view. You and I would talk about it in private, and when we'd come out of the room, we were bonded. That was our position it wasn't a Hey, guys, bad news.

Colin doesn't agree with me, so this is what we're going to do. You had your point of view. I had my point of view. You ultimately got to make the decision. Once you made the decision, it became our decision. And I think I took the same approach to WWA the creative side. How much impact I would imagine substantial did Vince have on creative and was he willing to let you early on tweak or give strong opinions on

the creative side. I really haven't had much to do with creative, so certainly the talent deals I'm across, all the venue deals and all those things. Vince obviously created the entire company, but I think what he set up was a system in place with Triple H, with a gentleman named Bruce Fresher, where the company could keep going creatively and keep thriving even if one day. Vince obviously knew he would leave the earth at some point, as

we all will. I think the best organizations are set up so if one person, even the founder, leaves, the organization keeps moving. And I think what you saw over the last six months or so was that creative continued to thrive, Ratings continue to thrive, relevancy continued to thrive, but all credits to Vince for setting it up. Surprised me about Vince obviously smart, driven, passionate, what would surprise me?

He can be an introvert in private settings. He does not dominate a room, especially with people he doesn't know. He's a really good listener, And the rule of thumb with Vince is you can say anything you want as long as it's said in a respectful way and in private, And if you think about it, those are kind of your rules and my rules in private conversations that you and I had had about your career, I would not say those in front of a group of other people.

Maybe you in front of Anne other close confidants, but your business. So if I had a different point of view than we talk it through in private. So it's all the stylistic thing. He's also extremely generous and has financially helped He won't say it, he doesn't like to take credit for that, but has financially helping a whole lot of people, which you know, not that many people know about, but I've seen that side. It's a very

sweet side. Does he still you know they used to say the late great Bill Russell throw up before every game, which is hard to fathom, but that was the kind of anxiety. He viewed it as a real positive, like when I stop being nervous. Steph Curry has talked about this, There is an anxiety even as the best shooter in the world. What's Vince like on WrestleMania night. Definitely not the throw up guy, but definitely we got to be

laser focused here. So Russell minga night going into the show, that's not the night to be cracking jokes, right, And anybody who wants to do that. If you're going into a quarterback Super Bowl game, you want to go crack jokes with a quarterback, give him space, let him breathe. If he wants you to come around and say, hey, let's crack some jokes, you come around and crack some jokes. But it's not that sort of anxiety with him. He doesn't operate that way. Yeah, he's such an iconic figure.

I wonder if part of what made this whole thing work and continues to work is that Vince still works out. He understands the life, the physicality of the wrestler. When I look at Vince, it's such a Dana White. By the way, similarly, totally you know Vince, to me, I feel like he's an athlete to this day, is he? Yes? And look, I think even think about your own life. From my point of view, you've never been a big drinker. I'm not Maybe when you were at twenty well last

night and and I went outfferent, that's different. You're with your wife, you're having a good night, that's different. I'm talking about in business settings or that part of why I've never seen you be a big drinker. You got to work the next day and you got to have the goods. And in our business, collective business, you got

to earn your keep every day. So the hey I'm tired, I can't do it today, Okay, maybe you can have one day like that, but if you have a week like that, you have a month like that, you're gonna have a problem. I think it's the same way with the Vinces of the world, with the Danas of the world. They got to go every day, so whatever they need to keep themselves fresh and clear headed is what they're

going to do. There's never been a moment since I've known the guy, Vince or Dana, where I've ever spoken to either one and they're like, ah, I'm just tired. I'm feeling a little down today. Never, it's the same opening of a phone call with each of them. Hey, Hey, are you doing good? How are you doing? You have time to talk business? Yep, whom we talk business. There's never an eye you know, my kids. So everyone has

their problems, and you know this trill. If you really want to get ahead, you got to understand no one really gives a fuck about other people's problems. We've talked about this before, Like, I'll call him my flights delayed. You know it's another album. Just call me when you land, man, Like I don't know how to tell you, Like, we all got problems. Even I shouldn't rush to Twitter and complain about Delta. People do that. They do it all day, and I get it. They're trying to get Delta's attention.

I get it's frustrating. Yeah, when you flying things a late, no one gives a fun It's sort of like, you know, in the middle of the night, if you've ever stubbed your toe on your bed, right, you tell the person the next day. You should see my toe. No one, no one gives a shit. And I don't mean about serious things in life. Yeah, if a friend's really sick or whatever, of course you care about that. When someone's like, oh I have the flu, Like, okay, take some fair flu.

Call me in three days, man, Like we got to move here, Vince is that way? Dana's that way? John Cena, Charlotte Flair obviously, brock Lessner, Yes, who again is such a unique physical presence? Just finally does how the audience reacts not just ratings, but do you watch how the audience reacts to your wrestlers? Did not elevate or puncture a career. To us, that makes our breaks, our performers. So if the audience is into someone, even if us folks in the back of the house haven't seen it,

we're going to give that person a push. If we think someone's a big star and the audience, now, we'll stick with it for a while. Early on with Roman reigns, it wasn't working the way wwe thought it would work. They stuck with it, They stuck with it, they stuck with it. Finally, when he went heo again the villain character, it worked like wildfire, and you hear the audience's reaction to him the head of the table. They acknowledge me whatever you know it is that he's saying. They react

no matter what someone once told me. They say, you know what the opposite of love is? And I said, I don't know hate And they said, no, apathy. They said love and hate are close cousins there, right, So if you love our performers, that works. If you hate our performers, that works. If you don't care about the difference,

is the killer the killer? That's the killer. Aaron Rodgers, this Jets thing, you know, it felt I don't know why it did, like it was just going to happen when free agency and then when you went on McAfee would all just kind of come to fruition. And that clearly is not the case. Now nothing is actually happening right now, right, there's no practice, there's no OTAs, nothing

really happens till after the draft. And really it feels like the timeline right day one of the draft, because if they want that thirteenth pick, and if the Jets are hesitant, because both of them feel like they're in a little bit of a staring contest. If you're the Jets, I'm not going to give you that thirteenth pick till the last hour, when, in my opinion, I would capitulate and give you the thirteenth pick, but that'd probably be it.

Give you pick thirteen. Maybe some conditional next year, but that's it, and maybe they're trying to give some package of like a two and a two next year or something. But that's where it feels like we might have another thirty days of this before the draft. We're just kind of sitting here looking at each other. That would feel like you and I also think. I mean, Green Bay has got their quarterback at practice ready to go. They can stall all they want. They don't need a quarterback.

He's in the building. So their takeaway is we want two firsts. We're going to get a tight end and a receiver, two big needs that could go the rush of the draft after that could mostly be defense. They're going to be stubborn. And you know, it's like I've been in enough contract negotiations in my career, probably twelve where sometimes I've had a little average, sometimes i haven't, but it usually wraps up pretty quickly because we both want it done. I do think, and maybe it's only

ten to fifteen percent of it. I think green Bay is going to say, you have been put screwing around with us for three years, so welcome to your party. And so I think a little bit of this because green Bay, come on, they say what you want. But I mean I would give up as for Aaron Rodgers, I wouldn't give up much after that, maybe a conditional third. They can't be that far apart John they can't. I mean, nobody thinks he's worth two wants at this point because

nobody knows if he's gonna play for two years. He just said a chance he was going to retire three weeks ago. So that, honestly, that kind of hurts the Packers in the sense that this whole situation is just kind of a sad ending to a weird situation these last couple of years because he had so much individual success win those MVPs and those two flameouts are just I mean, they're pretty historic losses, both at home the Niners game, I mean the Niners in score an offensive

touchdown and that Tampa game loss. I mean, those are just it's just been a bizarre way to end a career that you had so much problem and had high highs, but they were mainly in the regular season. Well also not everybody. I mean, you were in the scouting game. You obviously were good at it. You loved it. Some guys are lifers. You looked at it and thought, probably hard to make money here. I don't like the travel,

you know, I'm guessing I didn't like it. I am more addicted, and so I think I've had more success doing this what I've been part of as a podcaster. It comes more naturally to me. I can control more that. I saw the addiction in Howie Roseman and Andy Reid and bread Beach, and I went, I don't know if I love it as much as those guys do, and if I'm going to be in the industry and want to go, I'm gonna get capped. And it's hard to do that job if you're not an addict. Well, it

really is. It's why Tom Andy Belichiack, I mean, Saban, the best are Mark Few, Mick Cronan. I mean, these guys are addicted to the game. Listen when I got when I got out of college, John I Gotta, I was very fortunate. I got a Triple A baseball play by play job. So I did sales in an ending of play by play, which became two Winnings, and I travel a little bit, but I thought that's what I

wanted to do. And then about year three, I work with you know, like Ken Korak is the voice of the A's yeah, and it has been forever O yeah. And there were guys like that in the league and guys. You started meeting these guys and you're like, they loved baseball. John Miller loved baseball, and I liked baseball, but I liked football, and so and this this circles back to Aaron Rodgers. I think he really likes football, but he's not UM. I don't think he UM. I don't think

he's addicted to it. And so what's happening is all the great young quarterbacks are addicting. You know, they're ascending and they love it. And he likes it. And you see his offseason workouts. Last year, I just didn't think he played particularly well. So, you know, it's like in my whole career, I've seen guys. I'm pretty addicted to this job. It's hard to stay at the top of anything. You can do it on some natural talent. But as you age, if you're not addicted like Aaron, you start

eroding really fast. Like like I thought Cam liked football, he eroded really fast. Big Ben. His off seasons were legendarily soft right beers and as Jake Glazer said, beers and camping with the kids. Right. So, I think you aged really fast in athletics if you're not addicted to it.

Lebron's addicted to it. He's aging gracefully. And that's why when you look at the young quarterbacks like the Mahomes, Josh Allen, contract situations Boom handled, Trevor Lawrence, that thing will be handled quick, Herbert will get some Joe Burrow. It'll just be smooth. And this Lamar situation last week. My theory is this, these gms on these teams are getting calls from someone they don't know and they don't trust.

They do behind the scene deals all the time with the Rosenhouses and the Tom Connins, but the level of trust they've been working for decades. You're calling me asking about trades. I don't know you. I'm not going to lose my team's second round draft pick over tampering or with something, and this situation has jumped to shark now

and part of it is on Lamar. And I'm not super pro age not anti if Richard Sherman with the Niners handled his contract himself and it was fine, but in this situation they got a problem on their Lamar's camp like that they need to kind of rein this in if they want to get out of there, if

they want this money. You can't operate trying to get one hundred and fifty two hundred million dollars with this level of direction because it's not going well well if you When I watched the Error movie with Michael Jordan, one of the things Michael and his mom are really good at is making these big decisions. David Falk, Phil Knight, Sonny Vaccaro, Dean Smith, Michael's mom and Michael were really good big decision makers. Lebron By and large chose pat

Riley and d Wade and Eric Spoelstra. Then the Lakers brand has enormously helped his business. But some athletes are gifted. I'll give you Carmelo Anthony. So when Carmelo was with the Denver Nuggets, he demanded the trade to the Necks. It actually screwed him. He made it so public that the Knicks were trapped. Had to give up a ton to get him. He gets to New York, they don't have anything, right, he's the he's the ten million dollars

chandelier in the empty mansion. And so he Carmelo didn't surround himself with good people that should have said, don't do this. So Lamar's kind of the classic. He just he doesn't have the right people around him to give him guidance. By the way, most people don't. I didn't get twenty four, like, like, I get it. Michael was so great. The league made sure, probably you get the right people, right. Yeah, there's a lot of greatness there. Or Lebron James, like the NBA made sure, let's steer

you to the right to the right people, right. But I feel like Lamar, yea, all of us need guidance, especially at twenty four to twenty five. I just don't think he has the right people around him. Well. I saw Richard Truman and set on his podcast on the volume check that one out to Calvin Johnson about these guaranteed contracts and for most players, because the guaranteed number kind of hovers between. You know, let's just say forty to sixty million. But these quarterbacks, even low ones, are

one twenty one, forty one fifty. You basically play out your entire contract always because the way it works on the cap, they can never cut it. It took Matt Ryan until he's like thirty eight years old to finally get cut. Carson Wentz, Jared Goff, they have played their entire time on that contract that we said was terrible

like four years ago. So if you just sign the two hundred twenty million dollar contract with one hundred and forty five guaranteed, the likelihood you're gonna see ninety percent of that is really really high. Just Derek Carr played out his entire contract on the Raiders until they kind of messed with it last year to kind of do an extension and then boom, he gets another eighty million dollars. So I mean, as a quarterback, you are in the

driver's seat. So they're arguing it feels like over kind of nominal stuff in the big picture of what he's ultimately gonna make. Yeah, and again, if he had a really good team of managers around him, he'd get it. You can't ask athletes to be great athletes and like financial wizards. I mean, look at I've negotiated twelve contracts or been part of twelve negotiations. I have great people around me. I would get taken to the cleaners. I'm

not a lawyer, I'm not a litigator. So it's like, I just I just feel like And also I've said this before, I said it last week. Kawhi Leonard and Lamar have this sort of unorthodox personality. They're not trusting. So Kawhi uses you know, as Dennis uncle Dennis, right, which is I'm and then you know m Lamar used his mom. Well again, it's not the end of the world, but I think it comes down to both are not trusting.

Lamar was overlooked by a lot of people. He watched himself in high school and college be dominant, and yet he falls he didn't trust people. Kawhi Leonard was overlooked by a schools even though you know he was dominating guys in an early age. And so you know, they come into the sport. They're kind of unique personalities, they're non trusting, they take an unorthodox agent stance or route. It's it's I've said this before about Kauhi. I'd love to have him on my team San Antonio Toronto. When

the cultures built, you can't build around him. He walks into the facility. I've been told three forty five, I'm not playing tonight that yeah, so he can't be your one, and I you know, I listen. I'm rooting for Lamar to sign because he makes the league better. He's a fascinating player, and I think he's already good guy. But you know, man management has an advantage if you don't

have equally strong management surrounding you. You think there's been a lot of talk Frank's history with bigger quarterbacks in Carolina. They make the trade obviously last week Peppers. Yeah, I mean it's his team, but he's going to all these pro days. He's right by. You know. I heard you say, you know, just kind of a way to get make sure we're bring a huge contingency here. See how he handles himself. Clearly, CJ's a pretty high level guy. You

do the same with Bryce. Do you think they already know who they're going to take, because that's what it feels like, they're going to take CJ. Strout, But you know, this I've been in these meetings. There's still a lot of debate going on, especially when the other guy in Bryce is a really high character guy at the highest level also and has had so much success. So I could see the conversations, you know, running right up for the next three or four weeks up until the draft. Well.

I talked to an NFL GM this week who told me will Levis has the fewest there's three or four key traits that you have to have, and that will Levis had the weakest of the four because he was reckless accuracy issues. This GM said, of the top four quarterbacks, he has the fewest traits you really want, so take will Levis out, so it comes down to the final three. I think the size fairer not is something as a number one pick. I mean, Kinder was a little small,

he didn't want to get hit anymore. Baker was a little small Manzelle was a little small. Two was a little small. We got a history here. You take a small guy up top, the hits land differently, So I think there are concerns about Bryce Young. I think they wanted to see C. J. Stroud, They wanted to meet him and look him in the eye, and they think

that CJ. Stroud has some of Bryce Young's accuracy and experience, and they kind of just wanted to see what's he like as a kid, because I think they look at CJ. Stroud and say, well, big school with NFL receivers, really good coach, you get hard coached, very accurate, very composed, doesn't make a lot of mistakes. CJ didn't have a lot of big interception games. I think he had one or two big bad games in bad weather in the

Big Ten. So my guess would be they wanted to go CJ and say, hey, does he have enough of the Bryce Young kind of cool confidence composure, and if he does, we get three and a half more inches and twenty more pounds because if you look at their college stats, there are some similarity as an accuracy of delivering the football. And remember Frank Reich's history, He's a polisher. He takes guys that can be a little wild Anthony Richardson, yeah,

and polishes them up. But I don't think Anthony Richardson like he didn't feel like a one year I mean he could be a two year build, and I don't think Frank wants to wait two years to have a guy ready to play at a high level. Yeah, I think the outlier, and Josh Allen has really kind of skewed everything. But most of these guys tend to be in the history of the game more Malik Willis than

Josh Allen. I went to a spring training game yesterday and it was the Dodgers against the Royals, and it's Dustin May the Dodgers, the big redhead kid who throws ninety eight six fives and then well he's on the probably the eighteenth hole of his career. This guy's made three hundred and fifty million dollars. It was Zach Grankie, who's a small player, and it kind of hit me, like everyone's banking on May to have this long career make all this money, but it's just potential size. He

got rocked in the game. And then you see granky who, when I googled, three hundred and fifty million dollars in his career was incredible for a large percentage of it. And small guys, if they are special, can dominate now their floor. Like you know, if Bryce Young's gonna hit, he's gonna be really good. But it's much harder for him just to be And this is where I think

people talk themselves out of it. If it doesn't go perfect, How does he just be like Jared Goff, you know, or Alex Smith, because there aren't just Usually the small guy isn't just solid. Look at Kyler, he was either going to be really good or he's gonna stink. There's not just like slow and steady. So that's where I

think the debate on Bryce is legitimate. But if you do believe he's going to be special, and there's only a small percentage of those guys, doesn't even just because you were special in college does not translate to the pros. You know, we have a long history guys that are great in college that can't play in the NFL. I tend to think he's gonna be an incredible player just because I heard Bucky Brooks and Danner Jeremiah talking about this that we talk a lot about small guys getting injured.

Most quarterbacks in recent memory, they get hit, get hurt, you know, I mean, Trey Lance's big, Jimmy Garoppolo's bigger. That you get hit, you get hurt. With the size of these defensive linemen and linebackers, coming into the game, so it's more about just protecting your quarterback. Herbert broke some ribs last last year, so well, Stiffer's falling apart. He's thirty four years old, so you Russell's breaking down.

He's had knee surgery. You know, he's what Russell Wilson is thirty three, thirty four years old, so you know, I would take Bryce Young, but I do understand the argument on the other side of the ledger on the small thing though, if you hit with a small that this guy can be And from the character stuff, you know, Kyler was a questioned coming out by the people internally christ Bryce's character just like CJ's is really I think these guys are very very well liked from a character

teammate football intelligence standpoint well. And also Bryce was a rock star at high school at fifteen in LA and then he goes to Alabama and he's a rock star right out of the shoot, so like he's been on the spotlight forever. So I feel like c J. Strale's personalities a little more, at least I've heard he's a great has great leadership qualities. But I feel like Bryce Young as a number one pick would be unaffected completely. Yeah, he was the best high school. I mean he was.

I can remember talking to somebody when he was a sophomore on the USC staff and they're like, oh, yeah, it ball comes out different. Then he goes to you know, his just sort of spatial awareness, pocket awareness. It's way beyond. I talked to Frank Reich. I can't give away too much we talked about, but he asked me about some quarterback stuff and I said, listen, I saw. I saw a lot of Bryson High School, a lot of tape, and I'm like, coach, he just sees the field different,

like his head is just all over the field. Whereas c J. Stroud Lancer line, his dad works in the NFL. Lance does a good job for NFL dot com. He said to c J. Stroud as Jared goff shirt And by the way, that's not terrible, no, And he's more athletic than Jared too. The East is going to entirely come down to matchups and who plays who in any of those teams has a chance should they catch the right matchup. You're right, though. The Western Conference is so

much more wide open. I Denver starting to get it together a little bit, but I still fundamentally, I still fundamentally don't like some of their core basketball identity things with the fact that they don't have a great defensive front court. We talked about an hour last show about how in NBA history you just need to have at that four or five position all time great defensive players

to have a fighting chance, and they just don't. And Jamal Murray runs hot and cold, which is concerning, and I think that knee it kind of continues to flare up for him from time to time. Sacramento is actually taling off and their defense is getting worse and worse as time goes along. Memphis again, they're getting it together, but without Brandon Clark, it's a depth issue. And I

still don't trust their half court offense. And then again, it really just everything points me back to the Warriors and the Lakers, and I keep coming back to two things for each team. For the Warriors, can they win without Andrew Wiggins? And for the Lakers, I don't think they can. I just don't think they can. You know what's interesting is with the Wiggins piece in particular, like and it's almost a testament to how great that core is.

That they've managed to win as much as they have, but they they're coming back from major deficits in all of these games. Like they beat the Pelicans, they were down twenty. They beat the Sixers, they were down eleven in the fourth quarter. They came back and almost beat the Timberwolves. They were down nine early in the fourth quarter in that game. You know, even that Bucks game, like they were down eight with two minutes left, Like Steph and Clay and Draymond and Steve Kerry. They're just

grinding out wins. And it's crazy because when you're looking from the standpoint of the standings, you're like, they're actually in good position to potentially get the five seat. Especially with the Clippers remaining schedule, they might end up getting the five set. And I actually like their matchup with Phoenix because Phoenix is such a bad perimeter defense team. But the thing is is when they get to those higher level, high pressure situations and late rounds of the playoffs,

you just need Andrew Wiggins you do. One of the most underrated parts of their playoff run last year was the job he did on Luca don chich In, the job that he did on Jason Tatum and taking him out of that equation makes everything so much more difficult for them. And I want to so bad believe in what they can do. But here's the thing. If Wiggins isn't coming back, I just don't think they can do it well. And also, Jason, is Wiggins in shape? No sot so I was told he wasn't going to play

for the regular season. He was. Nobody knew about the playoffs, and nobody knew at the time I reported it, nobody knew they're gonna make the playoffs. Right, So let's say he comes back and is not in shape. This is the NBA. It's hard enough in November to enter this season not in shape. You can't play yourself into shape in the playoffs. And he's the best on ball defender, high IQ, super twitchy, I mean Jason. They have no

front court scoring none, so I mean Weisman. They moved off him eventually because you know, he just didn't fit the time. Everything with them, I've been told, cursed feeling is as long as Steph is great, They're gonna do whatever it takes for Steph to have a chance to win a title. The organization, I've been told Steve feels we owe Steph just as many titles as we can give him. So they're gonna make moves in bail on young guys. Now. The good thing about Wiggins out is

Kuminga has gotten more of a chance. But he's so raw, he's so inconsistent. I mean, that's the different between talent and wisdom. Jordan Pool's good but has bad nights. You kind of know what you get from Steph Kominga again, crazy twitchy, but there are nights you get sixteen minutes and six points and he's just not there. So I think in the building they know they can't win without Wiggins. I've been told they know that it just doesn't work. Yeah,

with the communicay thing, it's funny. I I always joke like, as a young basketball player, every time you have a good game, you kind of look back and you think about what caused you to have a good game, and you kind of commit that to memory. And every time you have a bad game, you kind of think about what caused you to have a bad game. You know, this specific process thing that you did poorly, or this specific thing with your form that got out of whack.

In Over the years, as you become a more experienced player. That's what causes you to become more consistent as you learn how to avoid the things that lead to bad games and you learn how to replicate the things that lead to good games. And that's the thing. Cominga has actually done a lot of Wiggins esque stuff. He's done some isolation scoring at the end of shot clocks. He's done a really good on defense, like he did a pretty damn good job on Luca the other night when

he was guarding him. And then he's working really well in the Warrior system, cutting and finding ways to be impactful offensively. But the problem is is then he'll have a night where he goes one for seven and gets to trust a little bit off the ball. So that's the inconsistency piece. The Suns are undefeated with Kevin Durant

in the lineup. Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and DeAndre and if I have played one hundred and fifty four possessions together and they are outscoring teams by thirty points per one hundred possessions and they're amazing on both ends of the floor. Are you buying Phoenix. I'm a little bit worried about them. Being thin and it's easy to push them around a little bit. And then their perimeter defense is a legitimate concern from a matchup standpoint.

But whatever I'm saying, the scoreboard says they're kicking everyone's ass. So where are you at with Phoenix? Their bench scoring is tenth So they have Warren Craig t Ross. It's okay, it's not dynamic, but you know this, go to the finals last year. Seven guys for the Warriors and seven guys for the Celtics got big minutes. You shrink that thing fast. I think the concern Chris Mannox was on my show today and I think he's right. My concern

is they have a lot of elements. I like an experienced coach, two dynamic scores, semidecent length and rim protection. The issues Chris Paul like there have been nights like he's not close And this happens to NFL wide receivers. They hit thirty four and it's like, who's that. You can't separate, Like that's a position where you fall up a cliff fat It's gradual for a left tackle, you know, Andrewworth for the Rams, it's very slight, very gradual. Receivers

fall off cliffs. Chris, Like, if you went into a series and you took a one oh lead, there's an argument to be made you could rest him in game two for game three, like it, don't you almost get to a point where you lead a series three one you just rest him. So and by the way, this is, I mean, I can remember great players. Barkley at the end just wasn't the same. He needed an extra day's rest. So the question is they can win a series like that?

Can they win three? Probably not because but everybody's got a little bit of this. Robert Williams for the Celtics, huge concern right in terms of health, k d and Chris, Paul, big concern Kawai and Paul George. I mean, Denver's one of the few teams we don't really worry about that most of your yeah, I mean most of your good teams in the league. I mean I'm one of those. You know embiid it's always a finger crosser to me, like he I've seen it, the way he plays fast

and hard. And Anthony Davis right, so i'd like most teams in this league have a guy that is a health or age liability. And I think that's the Phoenix issue. I think the bench is good enough. Yeah, you know, Chris Paul has actually become a target. I remember I was watching a game like a week and a half ago or so where I was watching Joe Ingles just

barbecue like he couldn't keep Joe Ingles in front. And then I was like, oh, like, this is a this is a problem, and that is going to be the big question mark I think this offseason is whether or not they're better off trying to use Chris Paul's salary as a vehicle with which to bring back some higher level role players for a team that needs more, you know, kind of like an adult in the room ball handler. So I'll be interested to see what they do there.

The one of the major concern I have with Phoenix is they do not generate rim pressure. All three of their guys, Chris Paul, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant are driving to pull up, so when they come over those ball screens, they're constantly getting that ten fifteen foot area and they're trying to pull up. And the inability to have a guy on the roster who's relentlessly attacking the rim which collapses the defense and creates close out opportunities

for your teammates. That's the one thing that kind of concerns me because when you're a heavily Let's just put it this way, the Suns were already team that took the second most pull up jump shots in the entire league off the dribble jump shots. That was before Kevin Durant came. And Kevin Durant is the most prolific pull up jump shooter in the league. So the thing is is if they're pull up jump shots don't fall, do they have a second punch, And that'll be the one

that if they do lose. I think that's how it'll happen. It'll be all their pull up jump shooting going cold, probably in a physical matchup where guys like Devin Booker and Kevin Durant gets fatigued by constantly having to fight for every inch of position and them not getting enough lift on those shots and not knocking them down. Before we move on, I wanted to ask you, did you see that quote from Charles Barkley directed towards kd or

he said he is sensitive. It's weird. I said to you for three or four years now, I'm not sure why he reacted to it. Again, I don't care where it goes. He's a great, great player. I think he's a good guy too. He's sensitive, and I'm not worried about it. Did you did you see that altercation between those two guys. Yeah, I've always thought, you know, I've got kids, so some people are just more sensitive. Like when I was in my twenties, like I didn't get it.

I was kind of a relentless, full steam ahead. Then you have kids in your real life. I got six two biological four steps. Some kids are more sensitive. You know. Aaron Rodgers is really sensitive to criticism. Kyler Murray and his people are Kevin durant Is It's okay. He's in touch with who he is. I have a soft spot for Kevin Durant. I think he's I think he is the only player in the league takes centers out. If you had a one on one tournament in the history

of the league. I think Durant's the only person that would beat Lebron and Michael Jordan. I think he's just. I think he is just. He can put it on the deck, you know, take centers out. You know, I don't want to see Kareem against Ray Allen or something. He is insane. But if you're talking like you know, Dirk Nabitski, Durant, be honest or the high end. I think Kevin's one of the greatest scorers. He's also a willing defender. I think he's really smart. But he's a

different cat. You know his upbringing. He's just different. And it's like, I'm going to accept that everybody comes from different backgrounds and Barkley's you know, listen, I think about this all the time. If I was a pro basketball player and literally one of the greatest players ever was ripping me on television and all my friends are dming me, like Adam Silver said a year ago, because my players are miserable. So I'm old. I don't I don't care right like, and I don't sit on the internet. But

I didn't. Generationally, Jason grow up with a phone. I'm not on it all the time. I mean, I Friday, when I leave work till Sunday, I'm not even on my phone. I got my staff said, I'm not even closed to it. That Kevin grew up and that you did in the iPhone generation, it's a magnet. My kid's eyes are on it all the time, and he gets a little beat up by it. So I'm sympathetic. He is sensitive, but I'm going to embrace that. I would love to see him went in Phoenix. I really would

love it. I think it would be it would valid date a lot of because listen, we both knew this when he left Golden State. It was a it was a really bad career decision. I've compared it to Mahomes saying I've got a buddy, I'm gonna go to the Jets. No, don't do that, don't. It was the same thing. But in basketball, we tend to give the star a little bit more of a mobility edge, the shoe sales. It's more of an individual game. There's not the team construct.

You know. We Lebron leaves. Of course he does Mahomes leaves. You're like, why, So I find myself I'm not supposed to root, but I find myself sort of rooting for Kevin to succeed. I'm rooting for him too. I think I think it's such low hanging fruit to be like

the only one with Steff. Therefore, he's not a real champion, like to me, Kevin Durant has always been a phenomenal basketball player who just got partnered with two extremely volatile point guards Russell Westbrook on the floor Kyrie Irving off the floor. That ended up being kind of what submarined

a lot of great point's. Great point Yeah, and I and I am rooting for him to have that legitimizing title, just like I rooted for it with Steph in last year's playoff run because a lot of people undercut some of his success because of Kevin Durant, which I thought

was ridiculous. You know, Katie went after the whole concept of these older players being disrespectful, and you know what's so interesting to me about that, Colin is like, usually there's a camaraderie with the players, like our job by virtue of our need to be authentic demands that we criticize. That is part of what we have to do. But what's interesting is players in the league are typically pretty

tight knit with criticism. For instance, Russell Westbrook was objectively awful with the Lakers for a year and a half. You couldn't find a player in the league who would throw him under the bus every time someone would interview them and they'd be like, what do you think about Russ with the Lakers? Russ is a former MVP, is in Hall of Famer. Love that guy, you know, I'm

rooting for him. He's like, no one would criticize because like there's this tight knit like respect among the players were generally speaking, they speak positively of each other in a way that the media has a little bit more free reign to be critical. That's what's so weird with this older generation. And I'm so glad Kevin Durant's going

at it. It is bizarre the sheer amount of these older players that are being outwardly disrespectful of these players, they do not feel the same level of obligation to kind of keep that tight knit like kind of mutual respect. And I do find that super interesting. Do you buy Kevin Durant when he says that he doesn't care about legacy anymore? No, every No, he cares. Everybody cares. I mean, I, you know, legacies a lot of vanity, but and I don't spend a lot of time on it. But I

don't want to end my career poorly, right. I want to end it having some control, you know, being part of the volume when a network kicks me off the air because my hair is even grayer than this. So I think, I think everybody you know, as you age, you just you think about that stuff. And you know, Brady at the end wanted to have more control, wanted to end it, so he picked a team with a bunch of good receivers and an offensive coach. I mean,

he knew what he was doing. He Tom Brady figured out. Listen, I can't carry the load anymore. I'm on the routine with a bunch of really good receivers in Tampa, really good tight ends. Bring Antonio Brown and Gronk, and I'm not going to have to lift as much like Matt Stafford got old. Oh, i got McVeagh as a coach. Oh,

I've got Cooper Cup. Oh, I've got like I think, you know, as you age, you still have it, you just don't have it forty eight minutes a game as an NBA player, or seventeen games relentless as a quarterback. So I think I think Kevin is aware of his legacy, and his legacy is going to be a better version of Dirk Navitsky. I mean to me, He's going to be a more well rounded version of Dirt Navsky, a more lethal version with more titles, and that's a pretty

good spot. Dirk's an Alteimer. He's going to be a better version of that, sort of like Michael's a better version of Kobe. It's a pretty good space to be. That's an Altheimer. Yeah, you know, I buy him to a certain extent, Like I do think he cares about legacy at least a little bit, but I do believe him that he I think he's just the way I would describe it is similar to what we go through

as members of the media. You obviously with a million a ton more experience, but you know how like I'm not sure what it was like for you when you first got into the business, because I know there wasn't social media, but like, obviously I came in right with the Twitter trolls and the relentless social media harassment. So I've got lots of people that would DM me and

talk shit and say all these awful things. And what's funny is like it pretty quickly, within about a year, I realized, like, oh, like there's a significant segment that you will never satisfy, Like you're just there. They're gonna hate you no matter what you say, and you can never win. So just focus on doing your job and look at the results. There's way more people who support you than than don't. And I think I think Kevin

Durant has kind of come to a similar realization. I think he realizes now that there is a segment of people that no matter what he does, no matter where he wins, no matter how much he succeeds on the basketball court, they'll call him a cupcake, and they'll say that he doesn't defend, and they'll say that he jumped on steps bandwagon. I think Kevin Durant has just come to terms with the fact that he's never gonna be

able to satisfy everybody. And I think that he's I really do believe that he has come to the other side of things where he's like, I'm just gonna play the best I can and I'm going to win as much as I can, and whatever happens in terms of the legacy is clearly outside of my control. So I'm at peace with that. I do think he cares about his legacy, but I think he's at peace with the fact that he can't control it. Yeah, and I think. I mean, the most criticized player in the NBA is

Lebron James. I mean I always said this about Barack Obama. You didn't have to agree with his policies. You can't get worked up because once he wore a Baize suit. It was a beautiful family, smart guy. If that really ruins your day, fuck out of here. You're just a miserable person. Like that's just not good enough, right, You

don't have to like his policies. But he wasn't weaponizing social media, So you know, I think I always figure, like, you know, like we forgot about Joe Montana very quickly, and I mean went from you know, Montana was the goat Brady beats Atlanta. We've never talked Joe Montana since. It went like Brady to Mahomes and Joe Montana's out there. Hey, I got four right. But I think Joe Montana is

so happy in his personal life. If you ever see him around his wife, they're like teenagers, cud league kiss this cutest couple. And I think the happier you are in your personal life, none of that stuff matters. Joe knows who he is. I mean, we literally went from Brady we talked Rogers Mahomes. It is like Joe Montana never played. It's insane. And I think as Kevin ages, I think young people tend to think they've got it made. They're not married, no kids, they're happy in their twentiest.

Research shows you get happier as you age because there's less societal pressure. You kind of prune your tree. You don't really care who cares about you. I think as as Kevin is aged, this is very human. He's he's more comfortable with who he is and it's been clearly defined who he is. He is, you know, I would say this, he's one of the ten best basketball players I've ever seen, and I've I've been watching since Wilton

in nineteen seventy two seventy three. He's one of the ten best basketball players on his good nights I've ever seen. Injuries have not helped him in the last four or five years. He is brittle now, so it's it's it's hard to put him on that top five or six. He's probably would say top twelve, but he is really he's kind of a one on one. I mean, he's he's a unique I mean Mark fu coach gun Zag he coached on those Olympic teams, and I think I've

told this story. I was talking to him one time about what it's like, and I said, anybody surprised you? He said, even among great players, Kevin Durant's ridiculous. Like, even among all the great players, they got to work to get their shot. Durant just gets it, gets a great shot, not a good one, a great one against our greatest players. Every time down the floor. He's like Colin. I've seen a lot of basketball. There's just nothing like

Kevin Durant. Yeah, the putting him all time all time list gets so convoluted by centers because they're just they play. I take him out almost me too. I keep a completely separate list. It's like, just here's all the best perimeter players of all time, and I think Kevin Durant is clearly one of the ten best perimeter players of all time. How do you even compare him to someone like Wilt. It's a completely different sport. I think you make an interesting point though. It's it's really this simple.

Have you become secure in who you are and what you've accomplished, then you're never going to allow some stranger to convince you you're something less than that. And again, I do believe that Kevin Durant in a previous version of himself, you know, five seven years ago, I think he did buy into that stuff a little too much and he let the noise get to him a little bit.

But I do believe him he's made a little bit of a transition into a new phase where he's more kind of at peace with the fact that he can't control that stuff. So I want to talk about the Lakers for a minute, because Colin, I'm gonna be honest with you, every time I watched them, especially with Lebron, with him being back, I am so tempted to pick them to come out of the West. They are four

and one when Lebron is played post deadline. That one loss was a loss to the Bulls that they immediately avenged and kind of kicked the shit out of him. And and in that game, Anthony Davis had a weird game. He only took eight shots. It was just a weird loss for the Lakers. On Sunday, they are outscoring teams with Lebron on the floor by twenty points per one hundred possessions. Since the deadline that is the same type of number that I was giving you with the Warriors

in their top five starting lineup. Metric now againt a small sample size, but they've been dominant. Here's a crazy staff for you. The Lakers starters against the Bulls, by the way the Bulls came into that game, is the fifth best defense in the league. They are an amazing perimeter defense. They contain the basketball better than just had any team in the league. The Lakers starters scored at a rate of one hundred and fifty five points per

one hundred possessions against that Bulls unit. With that starting lineup, the combination of amazing off ball offensive skill with guys like Austin Reeves and D'Angelo Russell, and then Lebron James and Anthony Davis just being two of the biggest walking mismatches in the league. How awesome is that that? It's like, Oh, our guards are struggling with the Bulls ball pressure. We'll just have Anthony Davis bring the ball up the floor because Vussovic can't guard him, and then we'll post up

Lebron James on Alex Cruzoe and get fantastic shots. Every single time. I think they're going to get mismatches like that in every single series in this playoff run. Should

they stay healthy? So, I again, there's two things that concern me Lebron's health Anthony Davis is inconsistency and health, because he is the kind of guy that'll take eight shots one night against the Bulls, even though he's being guarded by like Derek Jones Junior, and then take twenty shots and score thirty eight against the same team the

next night. That's definitely a wild card. But I do think when they're clicking on all cylinders, I think they have a higher two way ceiling than any of these teams in the Western Conference. Am I too high on them or do you agree? Well, there's one thing they do exceedingly well, and this is where they're the opposite of Phoenix. They're gonna get a lot of free throws. Anthony Davis attacks the basket. Lebron attacks the basket. Usually

Austin Reeves attacks the basket. So they're the opposite of Phoenix. Phoenix is always bitching about free throw opportunities. Lakers are going to get to the line. Everybody's gonna say it's rigged. Now, this is what they do. They don't pull up Reeves. He's a contact machine. He's always eliciting contact. You know again the other night, I mean, Anthony Davis shot one three. He gets to the line, but Lebron puts his mind to it. He does, so they're gonna get a lot

of free throws. The downside is that's a lot of contact. Anthony Davis hits the floor, so I kind of know what I see. They're gonna get people in the foul trouble. Darvinham is an excellent defensive coach. The minute Westbrook left, he got buy in from the role players and their defensive efficiency went through the roof. So they play real defense. They have a defensive coach. Vogel is a pretty good defensive coach. Defensive coach, they have guys that attack the basket.

They're gonna get free throws, meaning they're gonna be fairly consistent on offense. What I see is the liability, and I don't believe role players win titles. Molik Beasley, where did he go? Ruey can play twelve minutes and give you one shot and no points. I mean, he's just That's why he moves their bench at times. Is just not there now. They tend to be guys that will commit on the defensive end. But I think you're going to get a very consistent effort. They'll play good defense,

they'll get to the free throw line. They're gonna be in games. Absolutely going to be in games. Whereas you watch, you know they're teams like if Phoenix doesn't hit shots, they don't get to the line as much. They're gonna get blown out. By the way, the Warriors don't get much front core scoring. They settle on jumpers. They're gonna have nights. They don't get to the free throne line. So anytime. The Lakers actually have the worst style, considering

they have injured players, they're constantly in contact. Their players create it. So the good news is they're gonna get to the free throne line. And if you do that, you force other teams to make substitutions, you get them out of their game because of foul trouble. So I think the Lakers will be really a really consistent team.

And you just cross your fingers on health Reeves. You know, when it first started, I thought, is he Jeremy Lynn a limited player who's getting minutes because they just because Carmelo's out, Jeremy Lynns. They just need his energy, right, And I thought, okay, Lebron that they just need his energy. But he really is an excellent passer, gets the free throne line commit He's a willing I always say, is he a willing defender? Westbrook's a terrible defender, Kyrie's a

terrible Lucas a terrible defender. Reeves is gonna stick. He's a real player. He's a starting NBA player. The volume. Make sure to check out The Draymond Green Show. I brought Draymond Green into the volume because one of the more entertaining voices in sports. Unique perspective understands behind the rope. Also chops up with guests like Gary Peyton, Zach Levine, Tracy McGrady. Make sure download The Draymond Green Show wherever you get your podcasts, only on the Volume podcast Network.