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Welcome in What Drive with Nick Wright, Episode one e eight. You know, let's just get right into it. If the NBA starts tonight, the Chiefs are in first place in the whole league, the Bills are falling apart, and yet none of that. I had a winning weekend of Picks, even though I gave Demond's a terrible teaser advice that cost him. None of that is the lead story today. Instead, of course, we'll talk Monday Night football. First, let me get to what missed the cut not On today's show.
Caleb Williams and the USC Trojans lose again. B Jean Robinson sick, the NFL's investigating in case you had props or fantasy on it, and Nick's apology to Tyson Bagent. You'll yeah, listen, Tyson, you were better than I thought you would be. Cost you know what. My apologies in the form of how much money you cost me this weekend? Demonse, how are you doing this morning? We were texting during the game, You're calling me a hater? You were, you know you were. I think a little disappointed in me.
But be honest, before we get into the actual story. When you were watching that, did you have a moment where you're like, God, dog it. He can be annoying, he can be obnoxious, but my dad might know what he's talking about sometime.
Be honest, Yeah, I mean I think that happens all the time. It's just your delivery makes it hard to accept.
You know, that is correct, story of my life, more often than not proven correct. People though, don't want to accept it because I'm so abrasive with how I deliver the information. Speaking of delivering the information, demonsay, what happened on Monday Night football last night?
Well so brock Party lost to the Vikings twenty two to seventeen. This was in Minnesota though. Yeah, so he threw a pick at the end when he had a chance to go down there and win the game.
But that was followed by a.
Two nice passes that got them in that position. But when I were to talk about that obviously, So this is kind of falling into her eventually, right column. Do you think that the party train of the party hype has come to a sudden stop or is there a way out of this?
You think you know? Rally?
Well? No, I mean listen, I Mahomes Mountain on TV today and people were like, Oh, how far is perty gonna fall? Uh? Probably won't fall because he is who I told you he was. Oh, Nick, what more do you need to see? Well, I told you exactly what I wanted to see. Brock Purty down a score, chance to drive the field. We saw it last week down two, and on the very first play of the drive, he
threw it right Greg Newsom, who dropped it. He then threw a dump off pass to Brandon Ayuku took it forty yards and people were like, Oh, what more do you want from him? It's not his fault they missed the kick, And I was like, I don't know. Over the first fifty eight minutes of the game, not get out played by PJ. Walker just because you're down a
couple of Avengers due to injury. Then this week against the Minnesota Vikings and that defensive personnel, it's Danell Hunter, Harrison Smith and a bunch of guys all of a sudden, no debo, no Trent Williams looking awful pedestrian, and even over the course of that game he was fine. Over the course of the game, brock Purty was doing brock Purty things, throwing the open Brandon Ayuk, throwing to an
open George Kittle. He really only had one bad play early right after his best throw of the night, right as Troy Aikman was saying he threw that ball as well as anyone can throw one. He threw George Kittle a hospital ball that Kittle was lucky only resulted in him getting hit in the groin and not getting spun over on his head. But he had played well. He had a really nice scramble early in the game. It's like, oh,
Perty's doing some nice things. However, he then found himself in the exact scenario with the day after he went twenty of twenty one, and I came on this show and demonse on behalf of the entire football world said to me, what more do you want? What do you want him to do? And I said more? I said, I want to see him in a situation where the other team knows he has to pass, where they are down late, and see how he comes through. And what
did he do. He threw one of the worst picks of the NFL season, then his defense got to stop. He got the ball back and he threw another one. And the drive before that, the reason they were punting was because on third and six he had it would have been a good play, but he was scrambling, had a guy open across the middle of the field, and he skipped the ball to him. You know why, because fact of the matter is he's a physically limited guy
who couldn't get enough arm on the football. And late in that game, it is a lot of guys when everyone is exactly where they're supposed to be, when the defense is more worried about the run. When you have a skill advantage all over the field, a lot of guys can look sharp, but all of a sudden you're down. Somebody all of a sudden, the other team is teeing off against the pass all of a sudden, You've got to stand there and make throws. And it's not that
he just didn't come through. He gave the game away on the first pick, got a reprieve thanks to his defense, and gave it away again. So what more, what did I want to see from Brock Purdy? How he would respond in the exact situation that you have to be able to come through in if you're going to be the quarterback of a Super Bowl champion. And that is where the Niners standard is. And thus far, he's had three opportunities in his young career, three drives the last
three weeks, and he's over three. So I'm not here to say I told you so, And I'm not here to take a victory lap about a guy who has overachieved for the fact that he was the final pick of the draft. This is not so much about Brock Purdy as much as it is about my frustration with my colleagues, most of whom I think deep down agreed with me, but it was not a popular opinion. Well, am I really gonna go on TV and say the guy who's never lost and leads the league in passer rating.
I don't know if he's that good. Well, I don't know what what what is the job? Is the job to say literally what anyone could say if you and never watch the games as looked at the box score and be like, well, the guy's never lost, he has great stats, he must be awesome. Or is the job to actually look evaluate and give a thought on what is duplicable and what is not? Is the job to use data points? Such as Jimmy Garoppolo had similar levels
of success. He then left and now leads the league in interceptions even though he's missed time with the Vonte Adams? What is the What is the job? And it was unpopular and people were upset with me, Well, no, their job might be that. My job is to evaluate and folks, I said it two weeks ago, and I or three weeks ago, and I retweeted the clip of it so
people could see the replies. When I said I trust Genosi more than brock Party, the responses to that are unanimous in that this guy no one actually believes that. How can you take him seriously? I trust you know Smith more than brock Party. When I said, folks were writing off the Seattle Seahawks as potential division winners a bit too early. Well, you wake up this morning. The Seahawks have two losses. The forty nine ers have two losses.
You wake up today and all of a sudden, the idea that they are just going to run away with the division that's gone. And I'm gonna tell you one other thing right now, this moment. You know what Kyle Shanahan Demonsay saw on that football field for three hours last night.
He looked pretty sad quarterback that he wished he had.
Yeah, yeah, the and god, I have I have such a galaxy brain. Perty Kirk Cousins take that I have.
Cousins was kind of dealing too.
Well, we're gonna talk about that as well. We're gonna talk about it. But there is I might I might wait for this afternoon on TV to say what I'm thinking right now. I need to. Actually, I don't want to say it off the cuff.
I've got something I tell you guys. Oh wait, I'm not gonna tell you right now. I'm gonna tell you later.
No.
Well, so here's the thing. Here's the thing in a world of aggregation and of you know, a half dozen anonymous, totally unaccountable football Twitter accounts that post other people's clips and other people's news so they can get Elon's money for their blue check mark. I want, I don't want to say something Flip Bentley if it's an impossibility, So let me actually look into the well, listen, it's not
a bad business model. I mean there's I'm not gonna it's just all these guys and they fight with each other, these these anonymous not even necessarily real people football accounts. They're like, hey, you stole well, it's like you stole my tweet. But that tweet that you're saying was stolen, that guy just stole from someone who actually did the work. And so like the and one of them the do you see last week the news story, the news story that Caleb Williams wants an equity stake in a team
if he gets drafted. That was a story from July from Florio that got very little traction when it happened. Then one of these places posted it like it was new information right after Caleb had the brutal game against Notre Dame, and it caught on like wildfire. So I'm just gonna be caught, So I'm gonna I there is a there is an intriguing brock Purty Kirk Cousins question that applies to this season that I'm gonna make sure
I'm right on and then maybe discuss on television. Now to the kirk Cousins side of things, he was brilliant Demonsey No Justin Jefferson against an excellent defense. And I thought the way he navigated the pocket on that second on that last drive they had, they ended up getting points,
but they you know, they wound very important clock. There was a third down play where I was certain and so was Troy on the call that he was sacked, and then all of a sudden he still had the ball and he had I think it was Addison, it might have been Osborn, I'm not sure. Up on the near side of the field, he like disappeared in the pocket for a moment, then he came through with it. I thought he was excellent.
I thought that was.
Because they weren't getting pressure, correct, and it's not because they weren't getting pressure. He was. He was great man. I thought Cousins was excellent, and to do that with no George Jefferson yeah, on prime time with your season on the line, three and four. They're alive. And I don't know if you've looked at what their next handful of games are. They're at Green Bay, at Atlanta home for the Saints, at the Broncos, home for the Bears, at the Raiders. That's their next six. Yeah. Four. I
mean you've got four on the road. But none of those teams are above five hundred, None of those teams right now or and then at the end of the year year Bengals, Lions, Packers Lions. So at the end of the year, it gets hard, but they're alive, man, And maybe Jordan Jefferson comes back.
Like.
Just they're alive if they want to be. And so credit to Kirk and Jordan Addison was awesome, man, he was awesome rookie wide receiver doing that. And the really cool dichotomy of Charvarius Wards stealing the ball away from him on the very first drive of the game and then him making the biggest play of the game stealing it away from Ward before halftime.
Yeah, no, it was just really like that.
That play was kind of confusing because like I saw them all jumbled up and then he just takes off with it like it was just really cool to see in lifetime.
I thought it was.
It was more impressive than the Yeah. I thought that play was a lot more interesting and fun than the pick. Obviously he fell down immediately, Yeah, but it was just cool to see him run away with that.
No, I thought it was picked. I thought threw a pick right before the half. I also, if I'm gonna, I thought Kevin O'Connell game management wise made a bunch of errors. I thought their field goals inside the five. I thought they needed to be more aggressive. Here's the thing, though.
Yo, in the double the back to back tush push.
I mean I did that, by the way, touch push guy, but that was bad.
But here's the thing on that you had first and goal from the one and a half. You want to try it one time, so be it. Yeah, once it doesn't work, Once it doesn't work, just just be like you know what, now we're inside the one, because they did get a little bit of yardage, you're just gonna run the ball three times. We've got to be able to get a single yard like hand it off to your running back.
The So.
But what I'll say is this real quick about Kevin O'Connell being that conservative. That is, whether people want to acknowledge it or not, a bit of an indictment on Party. The fact that O'Connell felt we can take three points, we can take three points, we can punt the ball. Those think that is him saying I'm not that worried about the forty nine Ers offense. And here is also
why it is important to actually watch the games. Like, let's just say that on the first Party pick it had gotten dropped by the defender and then McCaffrey rips off a run and the Niners win. Not only did the Niners win, Purdy's stats would have looked really like, they would have looked amazing. And prior to the picks, he hadn't played poorly. I'm not saying that at all. But the only super like, the most impactful pass the game was that little swing pass to Christian McCaffrey that
was blocked up perfectly. McCaffrey takes it forty five yards to the house, like you just gotta you've got to be able to have some nuance to this stuff. All right, what's the follow up here on the Niners?
Do you think the forty nine Ers are still at the top tier of NFC teams, or is Philly and everybody else right now?
Philly deserves to be considered the best team in the NFC. They won the conference last year, they lost one game last year with Jalen Hurts as their starter, and they've been excellent that I don't know that they've been excellent all year, but they have found a way to win. And you know what I mean, it's to me not that the two teams that were in the Super Bowl last year, there's not a lot of games this year where they have start to finish played their A game,
the Chiefs and the Eagles. Yet they are the two teams that are six and one. They're the two teams that have found ways to win in a way that the you know, other teams haven't. I don't. I tried to Sirianni. He's annoying, but he's been excellent. He lost both his coordinators, Like, I gotta give him credit. I guess I probably feel about Sirianni the way a lot
of people feel about me. Annoying but grudgingly admit he's excell Yeah, but uh that Here's what I was trying to say when everyone was trying to just annoint the Niners and Eagles though long season guys. The Lions were the hot team a week ago, they get whacked by Baltimore. Talk about them in a bit the the There's a lot of ebbs and flows to it. No one is going here's what I know. No one's running away with
the NFC. The Eagles haven't looked so dominant that it's like, oh, they're gonna go fourteen and three and run away with the conference, not with the schedule they of coming up. The Niners desperately need their guys back. And I know you can say that about you know, every team. To a degree that's true. But they also play such a physical style of football that they are more susceptible to
injuries than a lot of other teams are. And so it is the Yes, the Niners were not going to overreact and act like they're, you know, some second rate team. But any team in all of NFL history, if your biggest question mark on your team is your quarterback, you
can always get got you just can't. And the Niners, even before last night, everyone would have had to acknowledge the biggest question mark was their quarterback and now, and this is the part of when you have nothing but success, it starts to be a ball rolling downhill in a positive direction. Now, the next time brock Purty finds himself in this situation, it instantly becomes the biggest moment of his career. And he knows it right. There is a
level of in sports. If the first time you ever take a potential game winning shot, you make it, you are so much more likely to then be good at those in the short term. And if the first time you whiff, then the next time it gets harder, and then it gets way harder, and then all of a sudden you're a guy who just can't do it. And so this is where I.
Just like pas like downfall.
No, No, I'm not No, it's just I'm not trying.
I'm not truth in the psychology to it. I get what you're saying, But.
What I this is not this is not fair, but I think it's true. It's not It shouldn't say it's not fair. It seemed well, whatever it is. If the Browns kicker hadn't made the field goal against Cleveland, party might have been better on those final drives last night. If the previous week he was in this spot and he did everything the exact same, but it had resulted in a win, then maybe he's a little less anxious on these two drives at the end. But instead the
kicker missed. Then perty made big mistakes and now we'll see, now.
We see very well could get that same opportunity in the Bengals game, I feel absolutely.
And by the way, it's gonna be another game with no debo, hopefully for them. Trent Williams is back, but another game with no deba All right, next.
All right, man, the Chiefs took care of business and they beat a struggling Chargers team that's done everything except for lock up the division. You've already hung up the banners. When has that ever gone wrong? So is your fear that for the Chiefs that their biggest threat is being too complacent or being stagnant, given that they haven't really played you know.
Super Bowl teams.
No, because that's coming. Listen. They're gonna beat the Broncos this weekend, and then they have over their final nine games four games against pardon me, legitimate teams Dolphins, Eagles, and back to back games the Bills and the Bengals, and so they're not going I would have been a little nervous about that. If the chief schedule had been reversed where the softest part was at the end instead of the beginning, that would make me a little nervous
for the playoffs, that they wouldn't be sharp. But they're gonna have to be sharp. And here's the other thing. And I don't know if you're gonna agree with me or not not, but I do truly believe this. Travis Kelcey trying to impress his new girlfriend is great for the Chiefs avoiding complacency. This is the greatest tight end ever. Who's wildly wealthy, wildly famous, wildly successful. Yeah, and thirty yes, and but now at thirty four years old, he listen,
it can go wrong, but you in that. You saw the touchdown he scored where he thought he was at the one inch line, but was at the three yard line and put the ball over his head and then somehow must have the strongest hands in football, held onto it and scored. He doesn't do that if Taylor Swift's not at the game. He was like, oh man, this might be my only chance score touchdown. I gotta do it. He when he finally didn't catch a pass and he
was so furious. Like, I do think there is, and I think that basically anyone who's ever played sports knows there is an added little sharpness. If someone that you're talking to or want to talk to is in the crowd demons, truth, listen, you played sports at a far higher level than me. True or false, there's an added something if your girl or you want to be girl.
Isn't completely correct.
And it's just really funny because I've never heard it like worded like that. But yeah, I do think you get plus three on your attributes.
Yes, if you great, If you're a great player. Now if you're not, it can go in the opposite, exact opposite direction. Get nervous if you're just like a mediocre player, Like I'll be totally I'll be totally honest. Here you were. You were a great athlete and a great basketball player.
I was. I loved basketball. I was by no means a great basketball player, and I think I got worse at games that my girlfriend was at in high school, you know, like I do, Like I think it was it because and because I was like, ah, I'm not gonna have that many opportunities to shine. So like, maybe I tried to do too much. But if you're a star, if you're a star and you know you're gonna get the ball, you know it's gonna run through you.
Yeah.
I think it's good for the Chiefs. I do. Now. She goes on an international tour in November, so I don't know how that's gonna play out, but I but yeah, So I'm not worried about the Chiefs at all. They have the best record in football, they have the second best events in football. They have a top five dolphins in football, and they're doing it all while practicing. So I'm not worried about that in the least. All right, let's talk Eagles here.
All right.
So Philly looked dominant against the Dolphins, and a big part of it was the touch push. They used it in key moments and in some moments it even ice the game.
The vikings, we're not talking about that.
After the game, head coach Nick Sirianni said, every first I think we're gonna show a quote for those watching on YouTube, but he said, every first down is a first and nine people can't do it like we can do it. Don't ban this play. If everybody could do it, everybody would do it. Then he goes, where's the camera at? Yeah, some parlays just broke there. Some players broke their sport, like Kareem Skyhook. You got steps three and brady sneak? Is this cheating or have the.
Eagles just found a cheek code and broke in the NFL?
So it's not cheating at all, But it's going to go away like it's just so so there was there was no way to legislate out Kareem Skyhook. There is the people have talked by the way about since the proliferation of the three of if the NBA needs to tweak some things to make it less reliant on the three, but it would take such an overhaul. Brady's sneak was different than this because, while just as successful on fourth and less than one, it also looked like every sneak
we've ever seen regularly. The NFL has two kind of silver bullets here. One is they already have rules against pulling offensive players, so it is not a far stretch to tweak the rule to put back in what once was and about pushing offensive players. The other one is the NFL will put it under the banner of player safety and say we you know what I mean, that we need to get rid of this play. But as I told you guys a month ago when everyone got mad at me, the reason the NFL will ban this
is because the place sucks. It's not exciting. It takes all suspense out. It's an ugly play. That's it. The NFL changes rules all the time to make things a better television product. This is not good for TV. And I listen, I have come around in this regard. I do think Philly gets more credit given the fact that everyone else sucks at it. It does make it seem like there is more. It is more about their personnel
and their practicing. I totally agree with that. It doesn't change the fact that the NFL is going to, I believe this offseason get rid of it. And here is the other piece of it that I have said before and I will say again that I don't understand why there has not been more. Once we saw Philly in a game they're up seven on fourth and more than one on their own twenty nine in the fourth quarter, confidently go for this, and Sirianni's right. It is first
and nine for them. And if you're playing them on third downs, you can't play the sticks. You've got to play two yards short of the sticks, because if you get them to fourth in less than two they're just going to go for this and they're going to get it. But the point that I have tried to hammer that I think Philly knows, and I think because they don't
want it banned, they are not attempting this. But I wonder if they could right now, Philly can basically with one hundred percent success get one yard and with close to one hundred percent success get two yards. If they were to become able to get three yards on this play, it puts the NFL in a spot where they would maybe ban it mid season if Philly could get three
right now, they get like one and a half. If they could get three yards on this play and you're down four to the Eagles with eight and a half left in the fourth quarter, and they just run the tush push to until the clock expires, which is all you would add. Once they can get three yards, then it's just game over. You get you do it on first down, second down, third down, fourth down, new set of downs you wouldn't want to get seventeen yards. You just want to do it and be able to run
the clock out north of the six minute mark. Then it irrevocably changes football in a way that you can argue is you know what I mean, Philly's earned it, whatever it is. I'm not trying to have that argument, but it would be terrible for the sport, just terrible. Philly fans would like it. Kind of Philly fans would like it the way you you like it. If your team is doing hack a shack in an NBA game, You're like, Okay, I guess it's you know, make your
free throws. But it's not exactly fun. And so the fact that Philly is not too good at it is right now working in their advantage. But the NFL can't leave open to chance that this offseason they master it and it becomes the majority of their second half playbook. It's like, well, we can get three yards on it, I said, just running out the clock. If you could get three yards on this, and we're not that far
from it, you could run it the entire game. If you can get three yards on it, you could run it the entire game.
Go ahead, Yeah, I don't think the Eagles are going to do that. They know that that's ugly. I think they did it four times this game. That's once a quarter. I can't see them just like spamming it like they know at the end of that nobody's trying to see all that.
Come on, now, let me but right, I agree, But let me ask you a question. If they're if they've the the fact that that possibility exists, is why the NFL is going to get rid of it. Like Philly fans got so mad at me about this, I am not. Even from my own perspective. I think it's bad for the sport because it's an entertainment product and it's not entertaining. I would so, but set take take my opinion out
of it. Non opinion, just prediction. My prediction is the Eagles have ten games plus the playoffs left of this play being available to them, and maybe, you know, hopefully for them, they make the most out of it. All right, next, this.
Guy's gonna be praying for a Mahomes Tush push in a couple of years. I feel like it's still gonna be going on. You're gonna be like this.
Rule this place. It's bad for the sport, it's really ugly.
I mean, like there and there's an element of like, I don't I don't know. I compared it to seventy five years ago of baseball owner Bill Veck hired a little person I think he was two feet eleven inches tall to play on his baseball team, and he went and did he had him pinch hit. The guy had no strike zone, so he immediately got walked and then
he put in a pinch runner. And you know, whatever it is, Baseball changed the rule like that week like and so there are certain things that you can say, oh, well that's you know why, it's only it's one teams figured it out, but it's just bad for the sport, all right, next, go ahead.
All right, man.
So my guy, Lamar Jackson definitely embarrassed Detroit. You've been having this team of the Week thing going on. I'm pretty sure Detroit was the team of the week and it's all been falling in line. They beat them, Lamar obviously looked phenomenal. Is Baltimore the real deal or are they just the next team to beat? Do you think they're bound for an upset?
Well, I mean, listen, they're playing at the Cardinals. So I don't you know that would be a horrific loss, right They then they Seattle Cleveland Cincinnati in the next three weeks. Then you know what I mean, all in Baltimore. By the way, those should be three good games. Uh. I think I missed on the Ravens this year. I think I missed on it. Lamar looks you listen, I'll give you credit, Lamar, Lamar looks great.
Looks great, great. He looked really good, man. His decision making.
I think there was a bunch of times where he it looked like he was about to runoff.
It looked like he was about to get sacked, and he.
Played around in the pocket a little bit longer, and he did the dink and dunk passes that you say that he's kind of like been very missy on. He was hitting the short ones, he was hitting the long, extended played ones. He looked really good, man, He looked really good.
That first point you made, Demanse is exactly what jumped out to me as well, which was there were at least three times in this game where in the past he would have taken off running and instead he kind of just stayed not necessarily in the pocket, but behind the line of scrimmage with his eyes downfield, and then either made One time he made a deep pass to the end zone. One time it was a little over the top pass, I think, or maybe I'm not sure. No, regardless,
uh he there. You know, the RPO is the run pass option, and he's been a lot more r than P in his history on those plays. This week he was key. And No, the Ravens are scary right now. And the defense, despite the injuries, is allowing fourteen points per game that you appears you nailed that one and he and listen, I'm not gonna all of a sudden
act like I don't think the Lions are good. The Lions are good, and the Lions defense had been playing well this year and Lamar cut them up, and the Lions offenses golf hadn't had a terrible game in a year, and he was bad. Like, No, the Ravens are legit, they gotta stay healthy, but they're a scary team.
Just so everybody knows that Lamar and the Ravens that's my team. I know I've been advocating very heavy for the Niners and Party, but that's just because I'm all for a good story.
My heart.
That is Demanse's team. That was Demande's Madden team, that was his team in the offseason that he announced. No, no, no, the Ravens are Demanse's team. That is true.
You can have too.
Yeah, So how stupid does it seem that these teams wouldn't trade to first? For Lamar and the Lions, the Falcons, the Colts, the Patriots, Jets, Panthers, Commanders.
I would say they wouldn't trade to first. Demonse is that they proactively like release statements like we're not interested, we don't want to be involved. It's crazy.
It is crazy.
How that looks right now is crazy. Even if people think, well, the Ravens would have matched and you wouldn't have gotten him, Okay, so be it. At least then you tried, like the could the Patriots right now be five and two instead of two and five if Lamar was there instead of mac Jones, of course they could. All right, take quick break reminder, you guys can ask questions in the chat. We'll get to them, do a little NBA preview, and then get to your questions. All that to next Well, that's right.
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All Right, believe it or not, the NBA season starts tonight. It doesn't really feel like it, but it does. Demand's let's talk a little NBA here. This show is gonna stay mostly football until February, but we can do a little NBA season preview here.
Go ahead, all right, let's talk a little Dylan Brooks so NBA season. The NBA season tips off tonight, and the raining champs are facing the Lakers.
Lebron and the Lakers to be specific.
Now, Denver has been talking a lot of trash ever since the sweep Los Angeles Lockings for revenge, What do you expect out of the new look Lakers on ring night in Denver.
I want to see Austin Reeves.
Look.
I want to see how Austin Reeves looks the you know, is Austin Reeves going to transition from really good story to legit third option? If he does, the Lakers are right. They are a cut below Milwaukee, Boston, Denver, but a cut above everybody else. And that just means you need Denver to falter a little bit. And so I, oh, this game tonight, obviously, I think has more of an emotional heft for the Lakers than it does for the Nuggets.
And there is an element of the I go back to those Western Armburence finals and Jokic was unbelievable, but Jokic was believably unbelievable, Like Jokic's numbers were not shocking by Jokic standard, which speaks to, you know, you know, what a great player he's become. The player who played outside of his mind was Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray, just for the record in in the Western Armours finals was thirty three, six and five on fifty two forty ninety five.
Splits Just a little context there that is more points per game in a conference finals than Michael Jordan ever averaged, then Kobe Bryant ever averaged. Then I think it's everyone other than Amari Stodemeyer and Lebron James and there's one other guy I can't remember are the only people to ever at Maybe that might be right. Actually I'd have to look, but that might be right to ever average in conference finals. The reason I say that is everyone's like, oh,
what's the Lakers answer for Jokic? They in order to have made those conference finals more competitive, they didn't need a different answer for Jokic. They needed Jamal Murray not to turn into prime Dwayne Wade, which is what he was in that series. And Jamal Murray's an excellent player, but he had literally one of the greatest conference finals ever. And so that's what I So, I'm intrigued to watch
that the Nuggets are mostly the same team. The Lakers are not the same, but they have, you know, some tweaks around the edges, and that you know, Lebron takes the court tonight. It's not only year twenty one, which only six other guys have ever gotten to, but now that Iguidala has retired, demon's he's the oldest player in league. In the league, Lebron is literally not like the oldest guy who plays a lot. No, he's the oldest player
in the league. And the fact that the expectations are still that, yeah, he's around, you know, a top ten player. There's no context for that. There's no The best year twenty one season ever is like seven points a game, and people expect Lebron to average twenty seven. So I'm excited to watch all of that.
So go ahead, I've got a little stat and you're saying you're excited for the opener.
So the Lakers haven't won an opener since twenty sixteen.
That was versus Houston. They haven't won an open on the road since two thousand and five, and that was also an overtime win against Detroit.
Oh yes, oh five. That would mean the defending champion Pistons, And that would also be the without Shack. That would be the Lakers right after they had traded Shack to the Miami Heat. Because the four Pistons beat the Do I have that right?
Yeah?
The four Pistons beat the four Lakers and five in the finals. Then Shaq and Kobe officially broke up. I don't really care about the opener stats. I mean, I appreciate you giving them to me, but that's not like this is to me a different spot And I am curious, like you know, I Jokics doesn't seem like the type of guy who gets like extra motivated by stuff. And Jokics, to his credit, didn't talk any trash. It was all
Mike Malone in tertiary pieces that we're talking trash. I'm excited to see it, all right, next.
All right, so we talked about opening night, Let's talk about the season. The Suns obviously built a super team. Is this Kevin Durant's fourth or fifth super team?
Do we not count?
Okay, see because it was like natural, but the Sons obviously built a super team. Dame is playing with a freshly paid Giannis, and Wimby's finally in the league, and sure Lebron's going on number twenty year twenty one with.
Another super team. It's probably his third super team. What's the number one thing?
How are the Lakers a super team?
I might have right there.
They've they've got a the what's the number one thing that you're excited to track?
This NBA season.
I know it's got to say. I mean, I'm pretty listen. I have been the pump the breaks on Wimby Guy. The preseason got me pretty excited for him. I mean, it does look the I I still believe the offense is going to be a major work in progress. But defensively, I don't even know what the ceiling is. I just don't know. I mean, it just seems impossible some of the stuff that he's able to do. So I'm super excited to watch that. I don't know if you saw it.
People got very mad at me last week. The internet hated this opinion speaking of Boston Reeves when I said, we were talking Suns versus Lakers because Bleacher Report did a best duos in the league and they had Katie and Booker ahead of Lebron an ad and I said, I flatly think that's wrong. I think Lebron is still better than Durant and you the argument against Lebron versus certain guys is, yeah, okay, he's better, but he misses twenty five games a year. But you can't use that
argument in a Durant discussion. Lebron has been healthier than Durant. You know, over the last three years ever since Durant blew his achilles. Even if you remove that season, Lebron has played more games, they score the same amount, and Lebron is to me just better over player. And so I said, I thought ad was better than Booker. I think Lebron is at the very least dead even with Durant. So I thought they were the better duo. And then Wilde said, okay, we'll find somebody said, I don't know,
it's wild to brew I want to misquote him. Yeah, but then the Suns have the better trio because Bradley Beal versus Austin Reeves. And the Internet killed me for this, I said, And I said, I disagree with that. I said, I would rather have Austin Reeves as my third option. Now, there is a very specific point I'm trying to make here, which is I think Bradley Beal. If you were like, hey, one of these guys has to be the best player
on your team, obviously you'd rather have Bradley Beal. If your team's best player is Austin Reeves, you're in real trouble. But if one of if the question is, one of these guys has to be the clear cut number three on your team. I have more faith and reason to believe that Austin Reeves can play that role at a high level than Bradley Beal, who's never even been the number two option on a team. He was the leading scorer in the NBA, and I now I I'll also
say this that people disagreed with. I think both the Lakers and the Suns would be better if Beal and Reeves switch places. I think if Reeves were on the Suns and if Beal were on the Lakers, both teams be better. I think Beal adds things to the Lakers shooting that they need, and I think Reeves adds things to the Suns being able to contribute without having the ball in your hands. And just you know, no, no,
not humbleness. It's not that. I just I think there are like, let me put it like this, here's a different way to look at it. Take Austin Reeves and the Lakers out of it. Would the Denver Nuggets last year have been better off with Bradley Beal or Aaron Gordon? The answer is obviously Aaron Gordon. Is Bradley Beal better than Aaron Gordon? Sure? But as far as being the third option guy doing different things, Aaron Gordon was perfect for that team. Now, with all that said, Bradley Beal's
already out for tonight with a back injury. So a Sun team that is you know, health is a major question mark, in depth is a major question mark. Already isn't gonna have their full complimented guys. Uh But if Pool.
Goes and averages forty points this season, this is I know this isn't going off on a tangent here, But if he goes off and average is like, all right, not call it forty thirty to thirty five points? Do you think any Do you think success from Pool this season gets the guy fired that made the trade? I just think I really want that trade to end up looking really stupid.
I got a lot of sweat.
In Then, in what universe can Jordan Poole average thirty to thirty five.
Points in this one?
What do you mean that doesn't exist? The guy can't average thirty to thirty five said, he's on the Wizards. He's not averaging thirty plus Jordan Poole.
No, that's what That's what I'll be tracking is the usage of Chris Paul over in the in the Warriors, and what Jordan Poole does over there in Washington.
Traded up, Jordan pulls in.
Jordan Pool's in a perfect spot. He can put up empty numbers on a bad team. I get that, but he's still not gonna average thirty plus. I mean, give me a break. I mean, he's the He's not. I mean, I don't even know what to do that. That take took me by storm. The now here is the The other most interesting storyline right now in the NBA is obviously what's gonna happen in Philly. People have written off the Miami Heat, maybe a touch prematurely because they didn't
get Dame. And then do the Warriors have one last running them? Which I'm fascinated by. I know you said they traded Jordan Poole for a fossil. I don't even know if Chris Paul is gonna be on that team all year? But do they have one more running them? And then one last thing in the West? Like who who is? Who? Do we know is gonna be bad in the West? Okay, I'll start Portland. After that, the Spurs will be bad but fun to watch, and the Rockets will be bad. Every other team is trying to win.
Maybe the Jazz will be bad. But take those four teams out. Here are the other teams, the Pelicans, the MAVs, the Nuggets, the Warriors, the Clippers, the Lakers, the Timberwolves, the Suns, the Kings, the thunder the Grizzlies. Okay, so that's eleven teams. One of them won't even make the playing three of them won't make the playoffs. The Grizzlies are an interesting one to watch with Steven Adams being
done for the year. I the Clippers are an interesting one to watch given their health concerns, and the Pelicans, given their health concerns, are an interesting one as well. But there are gonna be some teams in the West just devastatingly disappointed on how this season goes.
All right, next, All right, it's time for a game we haven't played in a while, Public defender, the time has come.
Bring back what's right? No, no, no uh. The first off, we're gonna start off with you encouraging me to bet the Bills last week. I think you encouraged me so much.
That that team wasn't even in my teaser, and you had me take a team out and put them in because you were just that's correct.
I felt Patriots, you know what. I felt terribly about that until I realized your teaser died because you didn't like yeah, because you had the Lions plus thirteen. I really felt sick about that. And then I looked back at it, I'm like, oh, you screwed yourself before the Bills even did it.
But go ahead, all right, so counselor defend your client Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills for losing to the famished Patriots.
All right, you know what I entered. This is one of my favorite games. But in a day where we've had Monday Night football and the Brock Party stuff in an NBA season preview, and we're this late, I'm gonna do a half hearted effort at some of these. I have no defense of Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. They are exactly what the actual Nick Wright said they were. I'm not engaging on this. They are an up and down team that is untrustworthy that under this iteration, missed their window. Next.
Justin Herbert is twenty seven and twenty eight as a starting as a starting quarterback in the NFL he's able to hide behind the incompetence of his coach. But Joe Burrow overcame Zach Taylor, and Tom Brady overcame Bill Belichick. This guy might just be the Philip Rivers were kids, counselor defend your client.
Justin Herbert.
Yeah, so once again, I'm gonna recuse myself from this. Listen. I said it before and it was one of the best compliments Demons ever gave me when I just said something and he just goes bar and I was like, oh, he liked what I said. Justin Herbert is not the problem. But he's paid to be the solution and he hasn't been. And he's had back to back bad games right after getting paid. And we listen, he is Justin Herbert is a good to very good player. He should be better
by now. This is on the undeniable.
Some of the throws that I'm seeing that he's not making has got nothing to do with coaching.
It's Justin Herbert, correct, That's correct. And listen, he's got a rocket arm and under better circumstances, like you know, maybe things are going differently for him. But it is undeniable that up to this point he's been slightly disappointing given how Grady looked as a rookie. I understand I'm not really playing the public defender game right now, but that's because we're short on time, so I can't even really mentally fully get in character right now. But go ahead.
Yeah.
So we complain about the refs every year, but the refs had a huge role in the Rams, Steelers and Brown's cults and Eagles Dolphins finishes, not to mention how every single call goes the way of the Kansas City Chiefs. Counselor defend your client, NFL refs.
Listen, these are old guys. They're all I mean. Here is what I will say. I'm glad folks are now recognizing. It's like, oh wow, look at that every nationally televised game has an egregious missed call, if not more than one. It's not about the Chiefs always getting the benefit of a the whistle. It's about the fact that the Chiefs, because they're the Chiefs, are in standalone nationally televised games more often than other teams, so it seems like it disproportionately impacts them.
But every game so far, the Chiefs have come dude, Like what you just said.
I know it's wild, I know it's an insane thing, but it's true. Uh but every game that you watch all the way through, you're like, oh, well that was terrible. That was terrible. Like there's a right. The officiating in the NFL this year has not been good. There's no way around it. Just flat lee hasn't been good. And then you wanted me to defend myself for betting the Bears Raiders game. I'm not gonna do that. It was one of the worst bets I've ever made in my life.
Quick break right back, answer your questions. What's right? All right, demanse, Let's ask some questions her.
Go ahead, all right, Austin are asked, Nick, when are we gonna hear your wife's take on Taylor Swift now that she's inspiring Kelsey to play out of his mind?
Well, I got to ask her about that, and maybe it's evolved. I'm not sure what I will say is I think I so Wilds has the best take on this, and Wilds hasn't said this on television yet, so I just give him credit. I don't know if he's going to and his take on this is that life is high school, that all of your whole life is just high school. And so what's happening here is Taylor Swift in high school was the band kid, the music kid, and and the idea of like dating the star football
player was like the coolest thing imagining. And now she can. And she's wearing his letterman jacket, hanging out with the other star player's girlfriend wife and brisng time and truly having the time of her life. And I think this is genuine man. She is genuinely excited during these games, genuinely rooting for him, and you can tell there is a great There is a great image from this weekend's game when Mahomes throws to Kelsey in the end zone.
He doesn't catch it, but he gets the past interference flag and there's Taylor Swift and Britney Mahomes side by side in the box and Taylor jumps up, puts her hands on her face and is like devastated, and Britney is momentarily upset, sees the flag and then starts celebrating and Taylor's confused, and it's like, oh, this is like a learning football moment too. Like Britney, who by the way another. As Wilde says, another example of this is
high school. Patrick Mahomes had a crush on this girl as a ninth grader and it's just been madly in love with her ever since. Just loves her. But she's she's been watching football forever and she's like, oh, flag, we got it. Taylor doesn't understand what's going on. I think it's delightful. I like it. And people are like,
oh yeah. And the fact that Kelsey another thing that was asked me yesterday, They're like, do you buy the story that Kelsey bought a new house because of this, like the relationship, because that was reported, like lightly reported, and I'm like, totally seems plausible in this regard. People don't understand Kan City. Kent City has like two gated communities in the whole city. There's like two places you can live where someone can't just like come knock on
your door. My guess is I haven't been to Travis's house, but my guess is Travis was living in a normal, nice house in Kansas City, probably in the plaza somewhere where just literally anybody can come ring up exactly right, correct, And so I think it's like, man, like that, and so I think that's probably what happened, all right.
Next, sorry, gronky mister chance.
TOC three K said, the brotherly shove is no different than when the Bears used to snap it to the fridge. Nick Perry was getting the yard, no question, Why would the league ban the modern day version of that play. It's a lot funner than a touch push dude.
Okay, so no, but that's also this is where people I have TOC three K not your fault. I apologize, but I'm gonna go ahead and say, you don't know what you're talking about. First of all, because the guy's name was Richard Perry or William Perry. Richard Perry, Now I don't know what I'm talking about. His name was
William Perry, first of all, not Nick Perry. So and I'm going to I'll check it in a moment, but I'm gonna guess William the refrigerator Perry has fewer than ten career rushing attempts and fewer than five career touchdowns. The idea that the Bears in the eighties, who had Walter Payton at running back, were regularly giving it to their three hundred pound d tackle because it was funny. Is just it is just not what the historical record is,
and it certainly wasn't Nick Perry. All right, well who is Nick the So hold on, I.
Think I've heard the name before.
I think he's a musician, Nick Perry Blackers actually, now that I think about it.
Now that you think about it, Okay, So here's William Perry's career numbers. All right. William Perry in his career has eight rushes for five yards and two touchdowns. So, first of all, decidedly did not always work. Second of all, they did it eight times ever five and one year. And then you add in the playoffs. He did it once in the Super Bowl. So his entire career, William
Perry had three touchdowns. So no, it's not quite the same as the tush push, which was done successfully more on Sunday Night than every carry of William Perry's career. Go ahead, producers.
Producers asked.
Joe Lacob said the Warriors should retire thirty five for KD.
Do you agree?
So just so you know it's lake ub Yeah, he won. Yes, he won two finals MVPs for you, and then came back early from an injury. Because you guys put a little pressure on him and uh and popped his achilles. So yeah, I do agree. I agree you should retire his jersey. He won two finals MVPs for you and was excellent for you for three seasons, So yeah, you retire his jersey. By the way, it's not a statue. Like the statue question is going to be an interesting
question for the Warriors in this regard. Is it just Steph or do they give one to Steph play and Draymond? If they do that is Steve Kerr on the statue? Is it one giant statue? Do they all get their own in that? Like Iguidala to me is a retired jersey. He's a retired jersey, not a statue. That's in my opinion, that's Iggy. Obviously Steph is a statue. I feel like Clay and Dragon.
What I feel like if yeah, I feel like Kurr. I think it should be Steph, Clay, Kurr, Dre.
I mean all their own statue or one giant one the four of them. I don't know. Gether that to me though, almost like if they they want to do that and then also a Stephan statue, So Steph gets too like Stephan needs some special treatment there. Yeah, but I'm also I'm a believer that you know, I think Lebron should have a statue in all three places. I the he obviously Cleveland. The Lakers have a lot of guys with statues. It's you know what I mean, they
have a whole stat monument partner. No, I mean he wanted he brought they misplayoffs six raight years. He wins him a championship. He also broke Kareem's record in your jersey. He's played for the Lakers longer than he played for the Heat at this point. And obviously the Heat. What the the the the again, Like the coolest statue that they could make for the Heat would be a statue of the famous iconic Way. Yeah, but that to me would like be giving Wade a short shrift like you
do that. Then he also still needs his own standalone statue, you know, because Way he's the greatest player in the history of the Miami Heat franchise because of what he did totality of his career. All right, really, good show, I gotta run. We don't have to answer any more questions. I'll see you guys on the herd. In about ninety minutes. See you on First things first at three o'clock. See if I unveil my purty cousin's take, we'll do it. We'll do it all later today. See you guys. What's right