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Welcome in What's Right with Nick Wright Episode two nineteen. We had a ton to do today and listen. I have not talked much about my trip to Japan. I don't know. There's conflicting opinions on if on these podcasts. You know I should dive into that at some level and demands I think needs some help with his headphones, guys. So I'll talk about this for a second. But some people would say, hey, people are opting to spend their time with you. They want to know about your life.
Other people are like, now we're here to hear about sports. So I didn't really get into the details of it, but what I will tell you is this, I had no jet lag the entire time I was in Japan, and I was like, Man, this jet lag stuff everyone's always whining about is a bunch of nonsense. Since I got back from Japan, I have gotten up for the day at three am, three thirty am, four am, and today one thirty in the morning and just can't go back.
I've been up since one thirty in the morning today and I just can't get back on like a regular schedule. So this is literally cup of coffee number seven. It's ten thirty in the morning, and I know it sounds like, Nick, if you trying to go back to sleep, why are you drinking coffee? Once I realized I can't go back to sleep, I'm still it doesn't matter. So that's that's what my week has been like. Well, I'm gonna force myself to stay up late one of these days try
to get back on schedule. So the jet lag didn't hit me in Japan, it's hitting me here in the States. But we have a ton to do today. Here's what we are not doing on the show today. Mike Tyson's gonna fight Jake Paul. That's the dumbest thing ever. George Brett wants a Kaufman Stadium urinal. George Brett's kind of an odd dude, I'll be honest with you. And Joey
Chestnut wins a Parrogi eating contest. I think the producers think I have far more interest in Joey Chestnut than I actually do, because a year and a half ago I gave an all time great right public defender for Joey Chestnut. It was, you know, it was really it was one of my more brilliant moments on the pod. But I don't really give a damn about Joey Chestnut. And he was mean to my friend DA when he had him in studio years ago, so I actually don't
even really like that fella. But I just, you know, the public defender you have to defend, do you after you defend demons? How are you?
I'm doing good, doing great?
So have you have you waded into any of the internet discussion that I spurred with our semi viral ten minute clip about the Lebron Jordan stuff.
Yeah, so I've seen much less serious arguments on it, But yes, I definitely see it.
So if I made for a moment. So our pal Bamani Jones sent out this tweet this morning and it was pretty good. He writes, I'll hand it to my buddy Nick. He gets y'all to still engage that goat debate. All his logic and theory works except for one thing. We were there, we saw it. We were there in ninety one, we were there in ninety six, and this is the big one. We were there in twenty ten
and twenty eleven. It's over. And then he writes, and yes, I turned off, replies because if I don't want to hear what my intelligent good friend has to say about this, I sure as bleep don't want to hear what you guys think about it. And then Bomani argued with people about it for an hour, because no matter how much you say you don't want to engage in the goat debate, you just can't help yourself. And here's what I'll say, Because we have a lot of stuff to get into.
The Lakers loss last night, the Warriors blew out the Bucks, the bills are falling apart at the seams, all of that, But I want to revisit, just for a moment demons. Here's the thing, man, I won the argument. And you know why I won the argument because I once again, I once again have forced people to unknowingly concede ground.
To me, this has been a multi year effort and every and I don't do it that often, but every time I engage, I attack a very specific flank of the Jordans Zelotz army and I weaken it enough to where they have to send troops that way, which weakens the overall front that they have built up over twenty five years. So this time I said, you know what,
everybody just concedes the whole peak argument. So I am going to, like a surgeon, attack with precision that And so the entirety of this week, people have not actually been debating who's the goat. They've only been debating who had the higher peak. Which the reason I say I won is because now three months from now, six months from now, anytime, is anyone going to be able to say Jordan had the higher peak. It's not debatable, uh yetkinness,
you guys spend a lot of time debating it. It's by definition debatable because you're debating it, So that's debatable, you know, what. We didn't talk anything about longevity because that is, by the definition not debatable. So now the whole, the whole idea one of the one of their last bastions of you know, unencroached upon ground, one of their last fronts that they could just you know, have a few centuries out they didn't have to worry about, they
didn't have to spend a lot of resources on. They have spent all week. Oh they they they've been calling in resources, send the memes.
Send the.
Exactly. No, they don't none of it. And you know what, you servely haven't heard a lot of talk about twenty eleven. Haven't heard a lot of talk about swept in the No, no, no, because that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about peaks. And you want to say it's not a debate, but you've spent three days debating it, so it is a debate.
If I came on this show and I said, you know what, I want to talk Mahomes v. Brady, and I think Mahomes is the better winner, just the better winner, guess what, it wouldn't cause three days of debate because that's not debatable at the moment. No, Brady's won seven Super Bowls. He beat him head dead in the plaffs. It's not debatable, but I said, I said, let's talk peak. Something you guys say is not debatable, and now you've spent all week debating it. By definition, that is now debatable.
So take that little piece of argument out of your arsenal at it to mine, and you look at the scales and all of a sudden, you're like Jesus christ Man,
we're getting outflanked all over the place. So the Overton window has moved once again on the Lebron Jordan debate, thanks to yours truly and the number of people who are angriest about this that have you know, either some type of if you whenever you see the people angriest about about the argument, a nice fun thing you can do on Twitter is go to their profile and click media and see how many tweets you have to scroll down before you see a photoshop Lebron James crying tweet
or some infographic with wildly incorrect information. And you know, people are getting nervous, and so yeah, so my work here is done. You know, in three months, four months, five months, we might re engage once again and so I feel great about it. Now to today's show demands, what are we starting with?
I'm glad you feeling great about it, Pops. But yeah, so we were originally going to talk about NBA five I hear myself in here. We're going to talk about an NBA Finals preview and nugget Celtic tonight. But you wanted to clear that out to talk about Buffalo clearing
cap space. So they just cleared I did. They cleared thirty five million in cap space by cutting a bunch of players and three of their starters and when they're safeties, Jordan Poyer, do you think the Bills are throwing in the towel or do you think they're getting ready to make a big move.
No, there's no big move they can make. What they're doing is they are paying the bill that has come due. And folks can say all they want and people think I want to talk about this because I want to take shots at Buffalo. That's not actually it. That's just an added bonus. I want to talk about this because my colleagues in the media have done a poor job, not all, but some on explaining what the salary cap is,
and folks think it's fake. Folks think, oh, you can always move money around, you can always you know, restructure, And that is true to a degree. But eventually all of these bills come due, no pun intended, every dollar, every single dollar that is paid to a football player by the team, at some point shows up on some
year's cap table. And because of that, the Buffalo Bills had to move on from both of their safeties Tredavious White, They had to move on from players they would otherwise like to keep because they got a little over zealous a couple years ago and signed Von Miller to an absurd contract because they said, you know what, screw We're going all in. We're going for it right now. And what they have to show for it is nothing. What they have to show for it is some really exciting
playoff losses. That's it. And the Denver Broncos, you know what, now's our chance. We're gonna go get Russell Wilson. We're gonna make a significant move. We're gonna sign Randy Gregory, We're gonna sign Frank Clark, gonna do all these things. Oh, Justin Simmons, the second best player on our team in the prime of his career three straight all pros. We
have to cut you because that bill came due. And so there is whenever you see a team go you know, start, Whenever you see a team and make a signing and you say, oh my god, how do they have the money for that? And you turn on TV and they're like, man, GMx at it again. He's a real cap magician. What that means is he's borrowing from future years and that can work. The Bucks did it when Brady was there. They won a championship. The Rams did it right when
they got Stafford. They won a championship. They then had some lean times while they cleaned it up. The problem is if you do it and don't win a championship the next year, you don't want to admit, ah, we didn't quite get it all right. Let's borrow from another Let's we were borrowing from next year. Now, let's borrow more from two years down the road. And eventually it's like, guys, we have to be CAP compliant by March thirteenth. We are forty million over without adding our draft class, without
adding free agents. What do we do? And the answer is cut players you'd otherwise like to keep and that's a tough spot to be in if you got nothing to show for it as an added bonus. And this is what with respect to the producers, they didn't understand was the real this is where it is about Buffalo. The real reason seeing the name tra Davious White was
cut from the Bills really got my heart palpitating. Is you know how the Chiefs had the twenty seventh pick and they saw Patrick Mahomes and they desperately wanted them, and so they traded that pick to Buffalo along with another first round pick, another draft capital to go get Patrick Mahomes in what is the greatest trade in NFL history.
And the flip side, you know, kind of the worst trade in NFL history for Buffalo because they had Tyrod Taylor's their quarterback and Nathan Peterman and they you know, they didn't want to draft Patrick Mahomes, the blue chip player the Bills got in that trade and he guesses who it was. Yeah, they got four players that they drafted with those picks the Chiefs traded to him Tradeavious White was the last remaining Bill and now he's gone. And so in a trade seven years.
Ago, you know they can finally start fresh.
Maybe none of that start fresh? Okay, you know that is that is a kind way to look at it. Another way to look at it is this seven years ago, the Chiefs and the Bills made a trade. Since they made that trade, the Chiefs have won three Super Bowls, been to four, beating the Bills in the playoffs three times. The Bills have done nothing. What the Chiefs have left from that trade is the most talented player in NFL history.
And when the Bills have left from that trade is sixteen million dollars of dead cap space.
Thanks.
I'm not saying it's the Babe Ruth trade because at least the Red Sox got the money to, you know, put on that Broadway show that the owner was trying to put on. It's a little worse, all right, what's next? That is true? Look it up. Demands traded Babe Ruth because the owner wanted to put on a play, needed some pack traded in the Yankees. Yeah, look it up. The truth.
So you put the Lakers yesterday on the show in the terrifying for a series or two category, which means that they're basically cooked in Cleveland and Miami. Lebron always knew the best time to leave with the Lakers. It kind of seems like he's trying to stick it out. Do you think it'd be better if they just lost to make it easier for Lebron, or like winning kind of confuse him and make him stay. What do you think Lebron should?
I got you so I know what I want him to do, and I think I know what he's going to do. But before I do that, let me go micro for a moment, because late last night, the Lakers lost once again to the Sacramento Kings. Truly baffling performance by all parties, except for, of course, Lebron, who had thirty one points thirteen assists on ten of sixteen from the field. He was excellent, But eight ad does not do well with these European sinners. Is Sabonis? I think
it's nine DeMont de Sabonis. I think it's nine to zero in his career against Anthony Davis. You guys can fact check me on that. I believe that to be true, and that Lakers have lost nine straight to Jokic. These these you know, burlier, more physical, but also great passing sinners, and it's maybe it's one of the reasons they traditionally didn't want to play center. The Lakers, of course didn't don't have an actual backup center on the roster NBA caliber.
I don't care what say Jackson Aeses, So that's a problem. Also, if you watched the Lakers Kings game last night, which last night I did not watch because, as I said, I might, I've had this wild jet leg. I felt sleep at nine o'clock last night. But luckily when you wake up at one point thirty in the morning, yeah, I got plenty of time today to rewatch it this morning.
What you saw was the Lakers got out to a great start, and this is a really important game because they're trying to catch the Kings, and the Kings are now three and zero against him this year, so if there's a if they finished with the same record, the Kings will have Tibergers. This is a bad loss. Lakers got out to a great start. The starters were cooking the Kings for the first six minutes of the game. They were up seventeen points early. The starters started and
played the first six minutes or so together. That lineup the starting five the rest of the game played zero minutes together. I mean that listen. Sometimes Darvin Ham gets over criticized and sometimes Man a week ago, Cam Reddish was in your closing lineup against Denver yesterday D and B coaches decision. I mean it is it is some tough sledding with some of these Darvin Ham coaching decisions, and so all of that, you know, is what the
Lakers are. Lebron is still great, ad He's you know, he's had trouble against the Kings and the Nuggets, but he's been excellent this year. I you know, way too much Torriyan prints in the as diet in my opinion, But what are you gonna do? So to get to your question, and the producers confirmed it, So bonus nine to zero against Anthony Davis's not great. Lebron's not gonna leave it bums me out. I wish he would, I I don't think.
So.
I don't think Bronnie is going to go to the Pros next year, and that the Bronnie stuff is a whole different discussion, but I don't really want to have it right now. I think Bronni's gonna go back to USC. I think Lebron wants to be there. I think his wife loves LA. I think his businesses love LA. I think his family he loves l A. I Bryce is playing high school ball. I don't think he wants to.
Leave much more of the go debate. Does it silence if Lebron wins one more ring?
Well?
Do you think?
Here's the thing? I I think there are many people that are entrenched and we'll just say, okay, so now he's at six, he is at five, but Michael's at six. Obviously it would help, But I I don't think I. I think it is going to be very, very difficult. Lebron right now is at best the fifth best player in the league and at worst the tenth best player in the league. That sounds great. That guy doesn't typically win the title as the as a team's best player.
That's Jason Tatum's hurdle. Jason Tatum is at best the fifth best player in the league and at worst the eighth best player in the league. It sounds great except for when you realize usually the the title goes to one of the three best players in the league. Just go down the list of champions over everyone's lifetime ever and you can find like three instances in the last honestly forty years where that wasn't the case. So it's
just so. The reason I say that is if Lebron were to win a title as the second best guy on someone else's team, I don't think it probably moves the goat debate that much. Hell, folks, he won a title in resounding fashion as the best player on his own team, and folks said that one didn't count because it was in Orlando at Disney World. Like the idea like there, I mean, there's the idea that if he wins the title is a second option, folks and be like, well,
that does it, and so could he. What's so frustrating to me is I still think in any given series he can turn up and play like one of those three best players in the world. But I don't think he can do it for two months, and the Lakers don't have the supporting cast. So I just think he wants to stay in LA. For me, as a fan, the best thing that could happen for me is the Lakers stab him in the back, be like we don't
want you anymore, you have to leave. But they're not gonna do that, and so I just think the Lakers are I mean, they're just eh, They're just fine and it's a bummer. All right.
Next, all right, so you had a very cool, calm and collected response on TV with your co host saying that Jason Tatum should win the MVP. I think he might have walked off. But so it kind of seems kind of seems like you're trying to say that Joki should be MVP without saying that he should be it this so right now is the MVP.
Right now, Jokic is the m v P. I think no. Yeah, with the confirmation, I can develop new opinions also. But so a couple things. I was apoplectic at Kevin Wilde's about the Tatum stuff because the entirety of his argument was the Celtics have the best record, Tatum is their best player, and that is just that is not what the league MVP is supposed to be. And now it very often is the league MVP is on the best team. I get that, But the idea that we have to
Wild's who I adore. Everybody knows how much I love Wilds, So I can say this, Wild's trying to turn almost any type of award or all time ranking or goat discussion or MVP discussion or anything into some dumb man's version of QB wins is maddening. It's just then, then why have any awards. Just wait until the year's over, and whoever wins the championship, that guy's the coach of
the Year. Their GM's the GM of the Year, their best players, the MVP, their first guy off the bench is the sixth man, their best rookies, Rookie of the Year. He wants to He doesn't want Wimby to win Rookie of the Year because the Spurs don't have enough wins. It's the Rookie of the Year award. He's like, well, the Chets thunder pretty good. I'm like, give me I just and so that's what made me walk off the set. And I shouldn't talk about Wilds when he's not here
to defend himself. But when he is around to defend himself, he doesn't do a good job on this. He's just like, ah, goals to win, Like man, I know that, that's why they give a team championship trophy, but that is not the league MVP. So that's what frustrated me. It's not that I'm naturally have an allergy to Yo get or to Tatum being league MVP. The reason Jason Tatum isn't the league VP is because Jason Tatum's not the league VP. The reason Tatum's not the league MVP is because nobody
thinks he's more valuable or better than Yo get your Giannis. Nobody, literally nobody.
Probably just like the same type of thing that you have with height and quarterbacks, probably just because those guys are bigger. Jason Tatum is like three or four inches taller.
Maybe right now, are you saying if Jason Tatum were taller, he might be better. Or if Jason Tatum were taller and the exact same player, I would like him more. Which are you.
Saying that one? The second one? You'd like him more if you were that?
No, that is Tatum is Lebron's height. He No, you can be that. Silue Steph is six ' three. Steph's your side.
If the candidates you're saying should be over him, we're like four or five inches taller than him, So I'm just going off.
But they're better than him. They're also better than him, And also Shae has a better argument than Tatum, and Shay is way shorter than.
Him the Celtics. No, you're gonna drive me.
It's not It is not a Again, is there a minimum threshold of winning one's team must do to be in the MVP conversation? Absolutely well, Nick, you contradict yourself. No, of course I didn't. Because in basketball, in a five on five sport, when you play both ends, if you are truly an MVP candidate, your team's gotta win, you know, obviously more than it loses, and actually has to win at a high high light. That's why Luca, despite being thirty five, nine and nine, is not right now as
serious candidate because the team's not good enough. Yes, there's a minimum level of winning one's team must do in order to demonstrate your value, But the idea that the pool of candidates must only be players on the team with the best record is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. It just doesn't and I didn't do a good job explaining on the I got so angry I was. I couldn't say it. But we're about to have the oscars right the way some of these folks want to do
League MVP, it would just be this what's best picture? Okay? Who was the best actor in that that's the best actor. Who's the best supporting actor. That's your best supporting actor. Who's the best actress. That's that. It'd be like, well, no, but somebody acted better in a different movie that didn't win Best Picture. Oh, what's the goal? Is the goal to make the best movie possible. If that's the goal,
then what are we talking about. I mean, it's ridiculous, it's just dumb and so and again, I want to be clear, because this isn't just wilds and Wild isn't here to defend himself. I am not calling Wild's dumb. Wild is not dumb. Wild's MVP argument is the argument a dumb person would make. That's just a coincidence. All right, let's move on. Oh you know what's great about this? Hold on, let me say one other thing. What's great about this is in the All right, let me paint
the picture of the first thing's first offices. So on the floor where we work. We're not where the show is recorded, but where we do all our pre show work. You come up the stairs and there's a long, thin hallway, and at the end of the hallway is a big conference room with a bank of TVs. In that conference room is where all the producers work, where Dusty is who watches the show. In Dusty every time the pod is on, turns it on and plays it volume up.
Wilds's office is like halfway down the hall, and wild has only ever seen the podcast by accident. He's never watched it except for when he walks into the conference room and says something and it's on. So right now, at first things first, what I think is happening is Wild's is likely kind of somewhat hearing his name a lot, and probably somewhat curious what's being said, but doesn't want
to actually engage. And the producers in the room, my guess, are a stifling a little laughter as to not insult Wilds, because again I am not Wilds is a very smart guy and the key to the show, and I'm incredibly grateful for his to work with him and for his friendship, and I'm not calling him dumb. He just makes a lot of the same arguments dumb people make and they frustrate me because he's better than that. And so that's all okay, all right, now, let's move on, go.
Ahead, all right, Well, speaking to Luca, he's having a really good season having Kyrie are obviously gelling together, I guess now, obviously because they've lost five of their last six games and they're eighth in the West. So if the MAVs don't turn it around, do you think it's possible that Luca ends up calling it splits with the Mavericks.
Well, I mean that's everyone's biggest concern, and that's why they made the Kyrie trade, was to be like, no, Luca, we're serious. But that's what I tell you guys the day after they made the Kyrie trade. When Luca eventually leaves Dallas, this will be one of the primary reasons go ahead.
What would be one of the primary reasons. What would be one of the primary reasons.
Them trading for Kyrie?
Yeah, because I thought the way that you I remember you speaking of the Kyrie thing, it's just like, oh, you just got to sit and stand by until something else happens. But it's not. Do you think Kyrie is the problem here?
No, So that's a good point. Kyrie has been on great behavior and has conducted himself well. But this is one of the other reasons I was so against the trade, even without Kyrie, even with him on his best behavior. They used all their last remaining assets to get somebody who is not at all what they need. If you have Luca, you don't need a point. One goal is not have another, you know, scorer that needs the ball in his hands. That And so you make a good point.
Kyrie hasn't done anything wrong, and Kyrie's having a great season deserves credit for that, but it just doesn't fit. And what we've also know about Kyrie, and I'm not trying to take shots here, is he's He's never contributed to winning in any environment except for the three years he played with Lebron before Lebron got there. They didn't contribute to winning. With Brooklyn, he didn't, and here he's not.
So I just thought, so, even if you know everything works out with Kyrie, which it has, the winning's not gonna come. And I think Luca's gonna want to win. So Luca has two years left on his contract, right I I'd start getting nervous after this year.
He has two years.
If I were Dallas, I'd start getting nervous because now Luca's obviously got to own some of this and take some accountability for this. He needs to be better on the defensive side of the ball, all these things, but Luca is by any metric one of the at worst five best players in the league. In my opinion, he's the third best player in the league, and there's no reason for the team to be for the second straight year as mediocre as it's been. So yeah, i'd be
nervous if I were Dallas. All right, that finals preview. They wanted to start the show with, we'll do that. Oh, go ahead, What were you about to say?
You were? Yeah, so it seems like you were right about what's going on on the third floor. Back to the base.
Oh, Dusty, Dusty chimed in, appreciate that, dust all right, Finals preview? Next, what's right? All right? Welcome back in. We'll dry with the great episode two nineteen. All right, demons, let's get to what should be one of the best games of the NBA season night.
Go ahead, Yes, So the defending champs are playing the best team in the NBA as of now, in the Celtics, and the Celtics are going to bounce back after they blew a lead to the Cleveland on Tuesday. Do you think this is a finals preview or what are we watching it. What are we watching for?
Well, listen, I mean Vegas thinks it's a finals preview, and I think Denver is incredibly likely to end up in the finals on the western side of the bracket. By the way, I just thought of this because I was trying to think, is there a scenario where you could get to go to a finals game? So I'll
just make this commitment here. If the either LA team makes it and Boston makes it, I'll get you some bad tickets to one of the games so you can, oh, yeah, the let's do it the the Clippers, the Clippers are your better bet to end up making the finals than the Lakers are. But if either one of her playing, Yeah, what do you think? I was saying, Well, I mean, how else could we do it? How else can they be playing the Celtics? I was saying, because you're a
Celtics fan. I was saying, if they and there's you live in l.
As the Clippers going to face up with the Nuggets, and how are the Lakers gonna We saw how that went last year.
No, right, well, listen, I was they to when I made this multi thousand dollars commitment out of nowhere. That is I'm probably not gonna have to come through on it, but I'm not not saying if it, I'll fly you to Denver. I mean they're they're more likely to make it, But if it were to happen, I did this for uh Man. Sometimes I get myself in trouble with this one of them, and then I'll do the finals preview thing. I was very confident that the Knicks were totally cooked
last year. Let me see what game it was. Hold on. I want to get this right. So we have on the TV show.
A.
When I say die hard, I mean the most die hard sports fan I've ever met. I've ever met under any circumstances, for any team.
Uh it's huge.
This this when I so this gid we talked about him on the show some not this kid's name Ramsey. He's a great producer. I shouldn't say kid, but I think he's your your age so kid to me and he when I say loves the Knicks, I mean I think and he's such a nice guy, gets angry when like I snub one of the Knicks from the the NBA Medals. He used to sit next to me in the office. He still sometimes does, and I glance over and he's just watching like Obie topping highlights from when
he was on the team. I mean a true die hard, like a legitimate true die hard. And I thought the Knicks were cooked and I don't even know what it. No, it definitely was the playoffs, so I'm I'm trying to remember.
It doesn't really matter regardless. I said kind of flippantly that if the Knicks were in a position to where they had a big playoff home game, not like you know they're gonna get swept or something, a big playoff home game, I was like, Ramsey, I'll buy you a ticket, and I was being dead serious, but I also did not think it was going to happen. And then the Knicks split the first two in Cleveland, and then they had a game three at the Garden. I think that's
what it was. Whatever it is, I know the Knicks one. I know I bought the ticket, and I know Ramsey said it was the greatest sporting of it he'd ever been to in his life. But that was an example, so I felt good about it. It was it was a cool thing, but also I yeah, exactly right. But it was also similar to this, which is when I said it. I didn't actually think that they gonna get there, and then they got there, so hey, maybe maybe the Celtics will win the East and one of the LA
teams will be in the finals. We'll get to go to it. But now to the topic. I here's my concern about Boston. They suck at the end of close games, and they have for a couple of years. And this is also some of my trepidation about Tatum. Tom Haberstrow, who has a sub stack. You gotta pay for it, but it's like sixty bucks for the year. If you're a big NBA fan, you know it's five bucks a month. I think it's worth it. He did an article on
Tatum yesterday that is galling. As far as okay, MVP candidates and their effective field goal percentage in the clutch this year, Shay sixty two percent. Again, effective field goal percentage showed incorporates three is are worth more than two? But just it's fine. Jokic sixty one, Jannis fifty nine percent, Luca fifty four percent, Tatum thirty eight percent. Okay, is that outlier. Tatum's effective field goal percentage in the clutch
two years ago thirty eight and a half percent. Last year thirty eight point three percent, this year thirty eight percent. Tatum three point shooting in the clutch nineteen percent. So and this is.
All happen in those moments, I notice.
Correct, So that is that's exactly right. His shot selection is very poor, and this is where and so just just for the for the context here of everyone in the league that's over the last three years taking at least two hundred clutch shots, all right, there's only one, two, three, eleven or twelve guys, and here's who they are. Number one, shout out Daniel Jokic. This effective field goal percentage at fifty five percent. Number two steph fifty three percent. Number
three DeRozan, shout out Damar fifty two percent. Number four Fox fifty one percent. He just won Clutch Player of the Year. Number five Embeid fifty one percent. Tied with Lebron at fifty one percent. Number seven Shay forty eight percent, Number eight Durant forty seven percent, nine Trey Young forty six percent, ten Dejante Murray forty five percent, eleven Donovan Mitchell forty four percent, twelve Tatum thirty eight percent. So of there's twelve guys that have taken a lot of
these shots. He last by a lot. And you say shot selection, demanse, that is the problem. This is where the idolization of Kobe can bite you a bit. Yeah, so two things on Kobe. One is, and this is gonna end up being at least a partial compliment. Kobe took terrible shots. What made him special was he could
make them. But even Kobe, who was as good of a bad shot maker as the league has ever seen, was not that efficient because nobody is super efficient on the on hard tough shots, you know what I mean, on a tough shot. So if we just take Kobe's peak, right, if we take from Kobe's basically O two season through his last championship, even just that peak, Kobe was a forty five percent shooter because and thirty four percent from three.
For his career, he was around the same, actually forty just under forty five percent of the field and just under thirty three percent from three. But he was taking impossible shots. Tatum is a really really good player, and he's taking similarly in.
Boston shots, right.
So that's the other thing. And the thing when you take contested jumpers, you never get to the line you know at the end of games you're not. And so that's my concern for Boston is I don't know they're gonna blow everybody out. And if these games are close late, do you trust Jimmy Butler in the heat more? I do? Do you trust Milwaukee more?
Maybe now the defense in any situation though they have that going like at the end of the day, I mean, Miami's Miami's defense isn't Boston's defense. But but I get what you're saying, like when it comes to late that makes mistakes taking the right shot.
But also Boston is truly they're not trying to make the finals. They're trying to win the title. And Denver, their late game execution is the best of the Jokic gets them a good shot every time. It doesn't mean Jokic is taking it, and when they have it, and the few times Denver has a bad possession, Jokic just throws up that horse over the head tree and he banks it in more than any guy I've ever seen
in my life. I understand that that is a little confirmation biased, but sweet Jesus man, that guy makes more buzzing shot ending just the demoralizing, nonsense shots. And so I tonight will be interesting to watch, But I don't I trust gun to my head, Miami and Milwaukee out of the East more than Boston, despite Boston his home court, despite Boston, all these things. So we'll see. But yeah, tonight should be fun. I oddly, I think Boston is
gonna sound unfair. I think Boston it would be better for them to win a close game than to blow Denver out. I think if you if it's a nip and tuck game and Boston comes out of it, that's actually better than them blowing Denver out. Exactly right, All right, let's play right ends.
All right, playing right ins today. So we're gonna talk a little bit of NFL before a free agency. So you know, on Tuesday we discussed, uh, Justin phil Oh that's a new one. So on Tuesday we discussed Justin Fields and Russell Wilson. But there are plenty other huge dominoes so in today. So in today's right, and you're gonna predict the future about these free agents. So first off, yep, we got Baker. Tampa remains the favorite for Baker, but Baker has been rumored to be in the solution for
a few teams, including New England. Baker will sign with.
Listen, I think he's gonna sign with Tampa. I think he's probably gonna get three years, one hundred million thereabouts, with like sixty five million guaranteed. But the New England thing is interesting. If I were New England and I were trying to unless I absolutely loved at least two of the quarterbacks other than Caleb, because thing is, you don't know who's gonna be there at three. You can say, oh, I love Jaden Daniels or I love Drake May. You
don't one of them. You don't know which one's going to be there. Now. If you love JJ McCarthy, you watch different tape than I did, or listen, I'm different. I shouldn't say tape. I'm not watching the all twenty two college football, but you watch different Michigan games than I did. That's fine. He'll be there. If you love one of them, that's fine. But there is an argument to be made with the Giants seemingly wanting a quarterback.
Minnesota is gonna want a quarterback. There's there's gonna be these trade up trade teams that want to trade up that if you're New England at three and you can trade with the Giants at six and get an extra first round pick, and then at six you draft either Molik Neighbors, Roma Dunsay, if you want the wide receiver, maybe Marvin Harrison. Juniors there are almost assuredly not he's probably going Ford Arizona, Joe Ault, the franchise left tackle.
Or maybe if you're New England and you're like, you know what, we need a lot of stuff, so we're gonna go from three to six and get an extra first, and then we're gonna go from six to eleven and get another extra first, and now we're really cooking to take best player available there and then sign Baker as a stopgap. That might be the best team building move unless you adore multiple of these quarterbacks in the draft.
But I think Baker's gonna I think Kirk Cousins is probably, oh, we're doing that.
Next.
I think Baker's gonna sign with Tampa for probably three years, one hundred million bucks.
All right, next, all right, you thought Atlanta was crazy for considering Kirk Cousins over Justin Fields, but someone is gonna give this guy another huge contract, So it might even go back to You might even sign with Washington. Where do you think the Cousins will go?
Well, I guess Washington theoretically could do the same thing I'm talking about the Patriots doing, which is trade the number two pick for an absolute bounty, signed Kirk and go from there. I don't think that's gonna happen. The Atlanta thing's interesting because evidently Cousins' wife is from that area. Her in laws are there, and that's one of the reasons he might want to be there. He's such a family guy. So I didn't know that until yesterday. That's
an interesting wrinkle. It seems from the people that know these things, it seems like everybody thinks Kirk's gonna go to Atlanta, and that Atlanta's gonna draft a quarterback. And I'm sorry that Minnesota's gonna draft a quarterback. Pardon me, I said that wrong, That that Kirk's gonna go to Atlanta, Minnesot's gonna draft a quarterback. That's not what I would do if I were Atlanta. I don't think you're close enough to try to, you know, sign a thirty six
year old post Achilles. But I think that's what's gonna happen. All right, go ahead.
Yeah, So there are reports that the Cowboys were considering Saquon Barkley, but their cap as it stands is already pretty high or over there over the cappon will sign with.
Well, I don't know where he's gonna sign. I know the teams that so the Cowboys signing sake, in my opinion, would be silly. That is not their position of need, and the Cowboys this offseason should not. The Cowboys were the highest scoring team in the NFL last year, they were third highest year before, they were the highest theear before that. They don't need a shiny toy in the you know what's going to be the most expensive running back in the league, all Right'm sorry in this free
agency period, not the most expensive running back in the league. Also, it does warrant mentioning that this is from somebody posted
Ah Taylor Doll posted this on Twitter. The last ten Super Bowl winners, their running backs have made the following eight hundred and seventy thousand, seven hundred thousand, one point eight million, one point one million, one million, four hundred and eighty thousand, seven hundred and sixty thousand, nine hundred thousand, seven hundred and seventy thousand, four hundred and.
Twenty Thousand's big thing last year was getting paid.
Right, and he's gonna get I don't know what the market's gonna be. I know that Saquan's gonna get the most money of any of this running back market, so that but that doesn't mean he's not a useful player, win healthy. The team that if I were them, I would say, you know what, I don't mind paying extra a little running back tax. I've got the money. I'm trying to really juice the window right now is the Houston Texans with your guys with CJ. They need a
running back. They have the money, They've spent draft picks on the wide receivers. Like the Texans to me make sense. Another team that I would say, you know what, I don't mind spending the money. I've got it, and I'm gonna have a young quarterback that I want to support. The Chicago Bears. Chicago Bears draft Caleb signed Saquan draft a wide receiver at nine, and now you really or maybe Brock Bauers if he's there, now you're really cooking.
People have attached him to Dallas and Philly. Dallas and Philly need to address obvious defensive weaknesses with their cap dollars, not go sign an expensive running back. So that's so, I would say, team with a quarterback on a rookie contract or the other kind of interesting one. They don't have the money for it, but I could see him doing it. Is he is, almost said Michigan because of Harrball. But the Chargers, but they don't have the money. They
could use him, they don't have the money. All right.
Next, so we talked about Saquan So let's talk about some other free agent running backs. Who've got Drrick Henry, Tony Pollard, Austin Eckler, Josh Jacobs, and if the reports are true, possibly Joe Mixon. Which free agent running back would you sign?
None of them?
None of them? No, you know, the Chiefs don't need a running back.
No, I know. But I just wouldn't spend real money on veteran running backs unless they're Christian McCaffrey. I just wouldn't. Uh, it's just not you can find them in the draft. Nick Chubb is amazing the brown he went down. The Browns running game was still great. The Ravens lost like three running backs. They were they let this running game is still great. The Pacheco was a seventh round pick. Like, it's not just the Chiefs. So that's just not where I would spend my free agent dollars.
All right, Next, all right, the Oscars are this Sunday. I'm not sure if you've had any time to watch any of the Best Picture nominees with all the time you've been spend spending studying dead capitules. But if you have, again, I.
Don't have to spend a lot of time studying. It's very it's just people choose to be ignorant about it.
But go ahead, if you have the best movie of this year in your opinion, was all right?
So, first of all, the Oscars going to ten picture nominations was a terrible decision. Terrible Have it be five when it was five? Effort to make sure I'd seen all five. No, it's like, okay, there's five. That's digestible. It's ten movies. Who can see ten movies? Unemployed people like what? People without kids? I guess people without kids can do it. I saw seth Rogen. This might have been hold on killing him about fake news?
No, I don't think. Yeah, it was about him staying in smoking weed on Saturdays with his girl or his wife. If they had kids, they wouldn't able to do this, that whole thing. Yeah, yeah, I think that was a.
Real Idertand oh yeah, and you also don't like people killing him for it because he's describing your dream. I get it. I understand, not like living in the Hollywood Hills, being rich, having no responsibility, just hanging out, understand it. I'm not. I'm not killing them for it either. Uh so I that so I do under it's not just unemployed people, but people without without either without you, if you gotta, if you're gonna be able to cram in ten movies, you can't have kids and a job. You
just can't. It's not possible. So and I love movies. I like I You know, that sounds like a weird thing to say, but I love great movies, love them like I was making an effort when Killers of the Flower Moon came out to go back and watch every Scorsese movie. I started that project, if you will, four months ago, whenever Killers flower Moon came out. I've gotten through two. I watched Taxi Driver and I watched Killers of Flower Moon. That's it.
Hey, what do you tell Wait, I'm confused because I know about taxi drivers. I'm confused about what you're talking about.
Like, uh, the director, Oh, just his movies. No, oh, no, his movies. Yeah. So Scorsese has done some weird, uncomfortable and so he did. But demand say, he's done some of the greatest movies ever. And I've seen some of them. I mean, he did Good Fellas, he did The Departed, he did Raging Bull. Uh, he he did. I mean he's done a million. He did Wolf of Wall Street, which I've seen, he did Kill his Flower Moon. He's done, and I'm I'm leaving. I'm leaving out a million of great,
you know, great movies. I've seen some, but I wanted to see all of them. So the only Oscar movies I've seen is Oppenheimer, Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon. I didn't see Killers Flower Moon until the flight back from Japan, so I just saw it three days ago.
Uh.
That movie is phenomenal and it's a true story and it makes you sick about you know. It's another one of those pieces of American history that just sucks. But it is a phenomenal movie. I Oppenheimer. I saw in the theaters and then watched again when it when it was on on demand. I love but I like Nolan a lot. Nolan no the main character for the movie Silly and Chilean Murphy Blinders. Guy Nolan's the guy Nolan Nolan. Nolan made inception, which I have time story about that. We told it on the air.
I do. I believe it's possible we've told it, like maybe you told me for the first time. I just heard it. But yeah, it was.
Hold on, I got to see what inception came out. I gotta see because if I haven't.
I mean, I was like twelve or thirteen years old.
All right, So, yeah, so you were you were twelve, which so I was twenty five? This is not so I in my defense, I was the age Demand is. Now think about that? How crazy? Is that?
Man's wild?
Isn't that wild to think about it is?
So?
Yeah, all right, I'll just tell the story. I don't care. Demand's twelve, I'm twenty five. I'm at this point. I've been Your mom and I have been together at this point for two years, maybe a year and a half. I'm not sure. We're not engaged yet. Uh, but we're I don't know if we are. I think we had just started living together. But yeah, but it doesn't matter if not we were. We were all together as a family all the time. And I really wanted to see Inception.
And this was back when I also still occasionally smoked wheat and Demanse was with me, and I was like, man, I'm not gonna get high and drive to the theater, you know, with what am I gonna do? But I really want to see this movie. And everyone says, like it mess with your brain. I used to smoke wheat. So we go to the theater, go in, get our popcorn, whatever, sit down. I tell Demanse, I gotta go to the
bathroom or something. The movie hasn't started yet. I go outside, hit it joint a couple times, come back in watch Inception. My mind is blown. I loved it. Is visibly bored and annoyed and we walk out of there and I'm like, what did you think? He was like, that was one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen. Can't believe you took me to it? And I was like, I thought it was great. Man, Well you're twelve years old, have you watched it again as an adult.
I haven't, I really think so. I think that I still don't like it, and that was the last time I saw it.
But but now you might like it more well whatever mind frame, but certainly now being able to understand it. But I didn't tell Demanse that until recently, that that that little piece of it.
But yeah, so Whipenheimer.
But regardless, So I'm not qualified to give an answer to this question. Of those three, I think Killers of the Flower Ohon was my favorite. I liked Barbie a lot. I thought Barbie was really well done and really smart, and I watched that with Deanna at the house. But I don't, I don't know. I'd like to say people love Mastro, the Bradley Cooper movie, and there's a bunch
of these movies people love. But ten's too much. I'm not gonna be able to watch all ten, but there were five, I'd be able to watch it, all right. I'm kind of having a little regret about telling that story on the air. I'm not gonna lie quick break right back, what's right?
All right?
I anticipated at this pod being a fast one because I thought I was gonna be exhausted instead of this POD's been outstanding and long, even by our standards. But let's get to some listener questions before I get to work.
Go ahead to Mosey. All right, So there's some speculation that you made a Bernard to ask yourself this question. Curtis Matthews said, question for Nick. When it's all said and done, for both athletes and their respective sport, who will be the bigger goat Patrick Mahomes in the NFL or Lebron James in the NBA.
I think it's actually more likely to be Mahomes because I don't think there is What has worked against Lebron is vocal contingents that were against him shortly after he entered the league in the Kobe Bryant diehards and the Michael Jordan diehards. They identified him as a threat. He also had some public ape, very public failure, and you know what I mean, and it was they were so entrenched.
I don't think many people hate Mahomes. Hey, you starting to see some of it bubble up, some of it, but there's too many.
Go ahead, there's a I noticed they're already doing it, but they show they're showing a bunch of clips of Brady getting the crap tackled out of them. They're saying Mahomes didn't have to play in this era that's already started.
Yeah, oh no, there'll be some of it. But the other thing that I think is going to I think Mahomes is going to catch Brady in the winning I do, and the numbers are going to be the one of the things Jordan has, you know, Jordan, I understand Lebron caught him in all the numbers, but in the accolades, Jordan does have five MVPs. Lebron's four. Brady and I put this in quotes, only only won three league MVPs. How many do you think Mahomes gonna end with five?
What Peyton has five? You know what I mean? And so it's just so there are I think that I also think there are fewer people. Who's the other thing that works against Brady is Brady unlike these other guys that we talk about as goats, whether it be Lebron, Michael, Kareem, Gretzky, you know, Babe, Ruth Babyoo's hard as one hundred years ago. But all of those guys, no one debated during the first you know, ten years of their career, were they
the best player currently playing. It's like, oh no, this is Jordan's league, this is Lebron's league, this is Kareem's league. Those things. Brady, the Brady Manning and then Brady Rogers thing was a real debate for the first fifteen years of Brady's career, and then the last seven years Brady separated from everybody. So for all those reasons, I don't think Brady's gonna have the stickiness of the goat stuff that Jordan has had, So I think it's probably Mahomes all right.
Next, Ethan Williams, what do you recommend? What do you recommend doing slash eating in Tokyo?
All right, Well, listen, Tokyo is a bigger city than New York City. So what to do is it's too much to list. If you're into history, travel around Japan and go see the different shrines in the different castles. The bullet train is unbelievable. Things that take a six hour drive are a less than three hour train ride. It's affordable. Their subway system and train system is immaculate, so that's the best way to move. As far as eating, Here's what I will say about the food. Obviously, the
sushi is what people are gonna be excited about. I the just average sushi in Japan that I ate, just like you don't have to go to like the best place in the just the regular sushi spot there is going to be better than any sushi place anywhere in America except for the very very best sushi you can get in LA or New York. So like if you now, sushi is a weird thing because at the very top of the top, everyone's getting the same fish, you know what I mean, And there's not a lot of preparation.
So the very I'm not gonna the very best sushi spots here in New York are on par in my opinion, with the best spots that I ate at in Tokyo. They are, They're on par. But the difference is almost any other city in the country other than LA, their best sushi spot would be the worst place by far that I ate while I was over there. But my favorite food stuff was the Kobe Steak. I had Kobe's Steak in Kobe and but the Kobe Steak also in
Osaka or anywhere in Japan. It's expensive, uh, but it's the best food I've ever had in my life that that And now listen, I eat some of that sometimes. I there's some places in New York you can get that. It's it's exorbitant. I mean, it's an absurd amount of money in New York spent on food. In Tokyo it's a little cheaper. It's still a lot of money spent on food. But that's what I like to spend my money on, is good food. But demons, did I did
the Kobe steak? At one of these places, they give you a certificate of authenticity for the cow that has both of the cow's parents, all four of his grandparents, and the cow's nose print. Buddy, the cow's nose print on the piece of paper, and it's signed like it's.
Like this buddy.
Yeah, Well, because the the what makes Kobe beef Kobe beef is the cows get massaged, they feed beef your chamber, you know what I mean. It's a whole thing, and then you get slaughtered.
And you eat the certificate.
Yeah, it was pretty great. Oh. The other thing is the ramen. Ramen is phenomenal, Like yeah, here you go, all right, the let's go to jellybean.
Uh, mister Kai Jellybean said, Nick, how was Japan anything you noticed culturally that was different from the US? And I went in October and I loved it.
Well, what everyone's gonna say is that there's just no litter. It's just no litter. It's just not a thing. And there's also what's crazy is there's no trash cans on the street. You're they're not there. And so you might be like, why is there no litter? And it's the answer is and this is what I realized.
People don't eat.
You're not allowed. No, no, you're not allowed. And in fact, in like the touristy area is where they're selling like street food, they have little enclaves where you have to eat it. Like even at like a little like Kiosk, It's like you can buy food from here, you have to eat it right here because it's just not part of the culture, right, it's just not part of the culture to eat while you're moving.
Uh.
A lot of the streets were no smoking and so like there were just you would just go. But the that's what everyone notices, and it is it is just different. But the thing that I noticed that I could not believe when I say to mons, there is no jaywalking. I mean, there is no jaywalking. It is it is just the it is, yes, like there you can be at an intersection, it can be a side street, there gonna be no cars anywhere. Everyone waits and the light changes and everyone goes. It's just so there are just
certain things. It's very it's just unique. And so I'm not the So those are the two things that jumped out to me more than anything. Was the the the just how different that was. Yeah, it's just a real like a real yeah, it's just a real cultural difference.
And yeah, the but the it was stunning that the and I know, the no jaywalking things sounds silly, but I mean there was at one point we'd been there like five days, and your mom and I had I had gotten a little turned around on Google Maps trying to walk to a subway station, and then I realized, I'm like, oh gosh, it's right there, Like I can
see it, it's right there. And the but we were dead in the middle of like it was probably a three minute walk in either direction to where the crosswalk would be in the subway stations right across from me. And I said to your mom I was like, are we gonna do this?
She's like, what do you mean?
I'm like, I'm like, I have real guilt right now, Like I feel like I'm being I was like, and I did it, of course because I'm an ugly American. But I'm like, let's just go go go go the street. But I but I it took me five days. No, I don't know. But regardless, My point is, it only took five days for me to actually like think twice about it now, not enough to like inconvenience myself to where I'm gonna walk it extra three minutes. No, but it's still it was. So that was that was something
to me. All right, Uh, the go ahead, let's read William Jackson's and then we can move on.
William Jackson suggests nick walking of grass barefoot to get back to your sleep rhythm.
I gotta look that up. If that's real. That feels really close to that very annoying thing people now say on the internet all the time, which is tell people to touch grass and they're like, you're a go touch grass. I don't know when that became a thing people said to people, but now everybody says it. I don't totally follow. You don't totally follow, I mean I follow. I just don't know how it became like the the go to phrase.
Yeah, because everybody's in the house. But I do think that you should trust William Jackson. I think he's given you good intel.
Okay, sale k r U sent a very nice comment. I appreciate that, and Magic Johnson asked have I seen Done two yet? I have not, but everyone that I've talked to that has seen it says it's great. I saw Dune one and I loved it. Msr ass my favorite sports memory with demnse. That's too long. We can do that another day. I don't want to give that a short end of the stick, and we've talked about it a little before, but I the that'll take longer than the end of the show. To Monse, great job today.
Today's show was awesome. We're a little longer than expected, and I really wonder when I'm gonna crash, having been up since one thirty in the morning. But I haven't yet see you guys on first things, first day. I hope it's a good show. Three o'clock, see you guys. What's right now? Hey, it's Nick right, Thank you so much for watching. Please do us a favor click subscribe. It helps my ego and Demansey's got a financial bonus writing on a number of YouTube subscribers, so help him out.
And also click the bell. I don't know what the bell does, but they tell me to tell you to click the bell. And your audio listeners, people that have commutes, drives, whatever it is, subscribe to the podcast as well. Wherever you get the podcast, same show, just you know, just in your ears instead of through your eyes. All that check it out, appreciate you.