This episode is brought to you by Unstoppable. Discover the inspiring true story about Anthony Roebliss, who defined every expectation to become a national wrestling champion, and Unstoppable, a new original movie from Amazon MGM Studios and director William Goldenberg, evoking the excitement and camaraderie of classic sports dramas and thrilling wrestling matches. Unstoppable features an all star ensemble cast including Jerrel Jerome, Jennifer Lopez, Don Cheatle, Michael Pania, and
Bobby Canavali. Watch Unstoppable now exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
Welcome in what'ch right with Me? Great Episode two twenty seven. How'd you spend your morning? I spent mine arguing with folks on the internet. After on Tuesday I said, don't argue with people on the internet. This was a little different, though this was an anonymous strangers. This is supposed experts talking down to me. I think that there is an element of maybe because of the job I have, or how I carry myself or whatever, the reasons are that some of these folks think that I can't get down in
the analytical streets the way they can. No the idea that you're going to all of a sudden be able to outsmart me in one of these arguments. It's it would be insulting if it weren't so amusing. And that is actually where we're going to start the show when we talk about the Bills. But first, what missed the cut? Malachi Flynn and his career five point per game average dropped fifty points off the bench last night, Angel Reese declares for the WNBA draft, and Bill Nye shines in
an eclipse photo shoot. Eclipse Day is what Monday eclipse is coming up. Demon's got his eclipsed sunglasses on. Those look great. I like those better than last week's sunglass or than Tuesday sunglasses. Deman's how are you? Oh they're Victors. Oh nice Victor very good. Yeah, And I've got to get to yours before I see you next week. By the way, I keep We've referenced a few times on the show. I just want there to be no confusion.
I keep referencing a wedding that I'm having. I'm obviously married. Little personal life context before we then get to the show. Danielle and I when we got married eleven years ago
but didn't have a wedding. I then promised her, because we didn't have any money for it, that when we had the money on our ten year anniversary, we would actually I think we might have said five year anniversary, and then even at the five year anniversary didn't quite have the I thought I had the money at the five year anniversary, but I underestimated what this wedding was going to entail. So then we kicked it five more years, said all right, in your anniversary, will do the big giant,
awesome wedding called a vow renewal. Ten year anniversary came last year. It was Dior's high school graduation. We had other stuff going on, so we kicked it one more year. And now next week, my wife and I are actually getting married, even though we've already been married. We're doing it in Kansas City. So when we refer to the wedding where I'll see demanse, where demand is co best man along with Danny Parkins, he that I will see
him there and he'll get his sunglasses there. Thank you to everyone in the control room saying congratulations, it is a weird thing. Your mom not shockingly said we should do a gift registry. I said, I think that is a little improper. I think it's a little rude. I don't think we can ask people for gifts for our wedding when we've been married for eleven years. But it'll be great, Demanse, you're doing well this morning.
I'm doing great. I'm doing great. It's good to see.
Right, let's get out you as well. You look great. Let's get right into it.
Thank you, sir. The Bills contelling you to tear it down.
They just lost Stefon Diggs yesterday, as you all heard, he went to the Texans. So now Josh Allen won't be winning any quarterback debates against Patrick Mahomes with these wire receivers.
What's his wire receiver room? Look like it's his top guy's probably Curtis.
Samuel Khalil Shakir, Matt Collins, Justin Shorter, kJ Handler, Andy Isabella, Brian Thompson, Tyrrell Shavers. Right now, they'll assuredly draft a wide receiver. There's a lot of butterfly ripple effects from this that we'll get to, but go ahead.
All right, So it seems like you might have been correct about the Bills all along. No, Phil, free to scream I told everybody so, and I'll grab my avacus for when you start to talk about.
The dead cap hit for Stefan Diggs.
Well, the dead CAP's pretty simple. It was gonna cost them twenty eight million on the cap for him to be on the team. Instead it's gonna cost them thirty one million for him to be off the team. And it's the highest dead cap hit for any non quarterback ever. But that's not the story here, and DEMAND say, you're right that the story for our listeners is that I told you so about the Buffalo Bills. But that is
not how some are taking it. So I want to take you to the Twitter streets this morning that I was arguing with again, folks who make their living writing about football. So it started with Temo Risk from Pro Football Focus Pro Football Focus, which is plastered all over
Sunday Night football their teams use their ratings. This is a real expert, Okay, he is talking down to Warren Sharp, calling Warren Sharp a casual for dunking on the Bills, explaining how the Stefan Diggs initial trade and era was actually good for the Bills, which, by the way, it might have been. Like if you want to say that the Digs four years Alan elevating his play. You paid Digs twenty million a year, You traded a first for him, that turned into Justin Jefferson. That part's not great, but
you got him in the building. Alan all of a sudden elevated to the best play of his career that first year with him. You were a relevant team, You had excellent regular seasons, you had excruciating postseasons, and now eventually you're gonna get a second round pick back for him. Fine, but I thought that it was dismissive of Warren Sharp. So I quote tweeted it because in that tweet, one of the things Temo said is elevated their fringe playoff
team status to quote being eight. Well, he said, Ann, but I won't be a grammar, you know, sick of fan there being a perennial super Bowl contender, And I write quote perennial super Bowl contender. In the four years with Digs, the following teams got closer to winning a Super Bowl. And what I'm about to tell you is unimpeachable fact that for some reason folks are still in denial about. So the Bills had Digs for twenty twenty
twenty one, twenty two, twenty three. In those four years, the Chiefs, the Rams, and the Bucks all won a Super Bowl. Chiefs won two. Do we all agree that winning the Super Bowl is closer to winning the Super Bowl than not? Okay? Yes, check them off. The Niners, the Bengals, and the Eagles all played in the Super Bowl. Do we all agree that playing in a super Bowl? By the way, they all lost close Super Bowls, as did the Chiefs lost the Super Bowl in this run
as well, but they got blown out. Do we all agree that playing in a Super Bowl is closer to winning a Super Bowl than not winning than not playing in a super Bowl? Yes, now we're at six. Okay. What's the closest you can come to making a Super Bowl but not making it well? Playing in the conference championship game and losing on a heartbreaker? Okay? Or losing close? Detroit played a nail bier conference championship game, was up
seventeen and lost by his score. Green Bay played a nail bier conference championship game that came to down five. Have a third down against Brady, get off the field, but flag comes. That's close. Baltimore driving to be down three, leaping for the goal line fumble the football is that close? Okay? The Bills in this time frame played in one conference
championship game got beat by three scores. All right. So that is Kansas City, the Rams, the Buck the Niners, the Bengals, the Eagles, the Lions, the Packers, and the Ravens. Nine teams in a thirty two team league. So more than a quarter of the league got closer than the Bills did. That's what I wrote, and this is now
where I get fired up. Timo replies to this, Oh yeah, I also did a cursory rankings, and let's stay there and then I'll get to this other part, cursory rankings of teams and their success over the during the Digs Allen era. The Chiefs, obviously in first place right, won two Super Bowls, went to a third. Tampa second place, two trips to the divisional round and won a super Bowl. The Rams third place, multiple playoff appearances and won a Super Bowl. The Niners fourth place, three trips to the
conference championship game, including a Super Bowl appearance. The Bengals fifth place, two trips to the conference championship game and a Super Bowl appearance. The Eagles sixth place, multiple playoff appearances three I think maybe four three, four doesn't matter,
went to a super Bowl. Baltimore seventh place, multiple trips to round two of the playoffs and a close conference championship game, Green Bay eighth place, a conference championship game loss, another and then two other appearances in round two, and then Buffalo ninth place, Dallas tenth place. If you want to parse Green Bay versus Buffalo, fine, so they would
be either eight, nine or ten somewhere in there. The Bills resume is one trip to the conference tadle game where they got blown out, a close round two loss, a blowout round two loss, and then another close round two loss. So I write that, and Timo says, here is a list of teams, and this is where I lose my mind. Who were considered among realistic potential Super Bowl winners when January arrived every single year over the last four years, Chiefs Bills. End of list, end of story,
end of any reasonable discussion. So let me set aside the patronizing tone and let me explain this.
Unfortunately I missed this.
Just because you speak it, just because you say it, does not make it true. Just because you decided that the Bills were realistic super Bowl contenders does not mean they were this year. The Bills team that started six and six was never a realistic super Bowl contender. I know you so desperately pleaded and claimed they were. But they weren't. And you saw it in their first playoff game. You saw it in Week seventeen or whenever it was, when they struggled to beat who the hell was East
and stick in the Chargers. You saw it in their first playoff game when they struggled to beat Mason Rudolph. And you saw it when they lost another home playoff game last year, when a Bills team at home got annihilated by a team that then lost in the next round in Cincinnati. They were not a realistic super Bowl contender.
In twenty twenty, when they almost lost to ancient Philip Rivers and the Colts in round one and then got annihilated by the Chiefs in round three, they were not a realistic super Bowl You said they were, but they weren't. Twenty twenty one, they were a realistic contender. They didn't get there. In fact, they lost to a team that then lost in the next round and the team that won that game then lost in the next round.
I'm gonna jump they came with a go ahead.
You say, it's just because you say it doesn't make it true, because like there was a chance that they could get there and buy off chance, you know, win a couple of games in a row and magically be in the Super Bowl with with a little bit of luck. But like people were saying that they were a Super Bowl contenders because of the the folks that they had on the team, and like they got so they just can't get it.
And what I'm saying, and what I'm saying is, at some point the games have to matter. At some point the results are in. And in twenty twenty, you weren't that close because you got dog walked in the conference championship game by a team that then lost lost the Super Bowl by three scores. Right in twenty twenty one, I do think you were really close, but you lost a coin flip game, that's the thirteen seconds game to a team that then lost in the next round to
the Bengals. And then that Bengals team lost in the next round. So your best team lost to the team that lost to the team that lost to the team. The next year you got annihilated by a team in Cincinnati in your building that then lost the next round. And this year you were which was your worst year, and you were injured all that you got beat in your building by a team that ended up winning the Super Bowl. So no, they weren't one game away in any of these spots. Flip a result and explain to
me why they then win the Super Bowl. They weren't a game away. Three of the four years they didn't even lose to the eventual champion. The one year they did. This year they lost the eventual champion and it was in there building in round two. So I replied to that to get back to the perennial Super Bowl contender discussion. Oh wait, no, that's not even what I want to go to here, because that's not what really got me fired up. Kevin Cole, who I was like, where do
I know this name Kevin Cole from? And he used to be with Pro Football Focus now he does other football stuff. But it was because he condescended to Steven Ruiz on Twitter a few months ago, and I jumped in because Kevin Cole asserted with all of his chest that Lamar Jackson actually not that valuable. That was where I knew him from. So I'm gonna all I can hold on. I'm gonna get read it to you, so you guys know I'm not making this us up. The the tweet was uh, and the this was when we
were talking about the MVP discussion. You can make all kinds of legitimate arguments that Lamar has outplayed his numbers, but I wonder how many people recognize the ground truth can't really be disputed. Plays he's been involved, he being Lamar Jackson, he's been involved in haven't been particularly valuable this season.
Okay, I mean Lamar Jackson is who Josh Allen who People say Josh Allen are amazing during the season.
Quarter this amazing. Well, here's the thing. Josh has had some really good playoff games, some really good playoff games, and they have they both have their strengths and their weaknesses. And we'll get to Josh in a moment. I'm still arguing with people on the internet and I want to get back to it. Kevin replies to this guy and
says he might not know what perennial means. He is me in that context, and uh, and then Timo replies, it's weird how someone would take the word perennial and then look for examples of teams with a quote higher noisy peak in terms of a single year playoff run. And then he replies, it's not weird when you factor in the feedback he gets. If your audience reacts on vibes and not facts and logic, you'll lean into going for vibes and not addressing actual arguments. Okay, so a
number of things here. First of all, if you consider the goddamn NFL playoffs and the results of the games a noisy peak, then go and do something else for a living. If the results of the playoff games are just ah, noisy, statistically unimportant data set, then do something else. It's single elimination pro football. You're never going to have an adequate sample size to prove or disprove any of this. It's all a little based on vibes and gut and
what you think. Because it's not one hundred and sixty two games. You can't run a million simulations and believe it or not, you're absolutely sacricynct. Algorithms might not be able to fully factor for everything that goes into winning
or losing football games. So that's first point. The second point is, don't condescend to the audience or to me and the idea that oh, his dumb audience of people who watch and enjoy football, those dumb people that look at football as a form of entertainment, they react to this stuff. Us smart guys understand it's far more than it. Then what is it? Is it just preseason Super Bowl odds? Is it just Super Bowl win expectancy as spat out
by the five thirty eight computers in September? And everything else is just noise, like the arrogance to believe your preconceived notions, once proven wrong, were actually right and you just didn't have the right number of simulations to prove it. Get out of here some of us, some of us saw a team who was overly reliant on a superhuman at quarterback who tended to still trace back to some
of his most juvenile mistakes. Folks for years have poked fun at the fact that I still bring up that Josh Allen, in the waning moments of the first playoff game he ever played in, threw a ball backwards over over his head because he panicked, and that I said that tells me a lot about who he is. Folks like, oh my god, Nick, are you serious? And then you're still bringing that up.
Well.
Five years later, in the biggest game he ever played against the Kansas City Chiefs at home, the third play of the game, he panicked and threw a forward pass when he was seven yards past the line of scrimmage to try to get a third down. That ended up
working because the refs missed it. And two hours later, in the fourth quarter of that game, before the missed field goal, he panicked and tried to stretch for an extra yard and fumbled the ball and it was bouncing to end the game and end the season, and luckily a Chiefs player foolishly tried to scoop and score and
the Bills got it back. I don't know how you account for those moments, but they're real, just like it was real and not accounted for in any of your juvenile fast sile keep them in a damn lab preseason win probabilities. You know what was real? Stefan Diggs doing this on the sideline to Josh Allen. That was real. You know what was real, Sean McDermott doing this, How concerned. Am I very concerned. I'm concerned about Stefan Diggs. You know what was real, Stefan's brother saying get him out
of there. It's all real. And this is maybe even more than an argument against the bills or against those dopes that I argued with on the internet. This is kind of an argument against artificial intelligence, the thrust of AI and robots into our lives versus what human beings know. You watched the bills and you said, ooh boy, Sean McDermott looks nervous, ooh boy, Josh Allen and Stefan Diggs.
I I can't tell you why. Specifically, it felt in my gut that Diggs and Alan's sideline interactions were more worrisome than Travis Kelcey literally assaulting Andy Reid on the sideline. But something in my heart and my head tells me they're different. I can't prove it to you, but I know Travis and Andy love each other and it's gonna be fine. And I can't prove it to you, but I know Stefan and Josh are not on the same page. And here we are, and the bills just got worse.
You know how, I know they got worse. Their general manager had a press conference yesterday and said, we're worse. That's how I know. And so I I'm here to tell you that some of this was not that hard to see coming. And the idea that the Bills had an era is an insult to eras they were a pretty good team for the last four years. They were a touch in this timeframe better than the Cowboys and a touch worse than the Packers. That's it. They weren't
some juggernaut. It was never Brady Manning, Mahomes Allen. It's an insult to everyone in that conversation to say that they weren't the Chief's biggest threat. You know how I know because the team with the better quarterback and the I can't believe I'm saying this steadier coach with a defense that instead of every year being great in the regular season and falling apart in the playoffs, was mediocre in the regular season. Next in the playoffs in Cincinnati,
that team actually beat Kansas City. And I understand that the AFC title game results are you know, a noisy peak, but it's the way we measure athletes and teams, guys, and now here is the thing. I will tell you there is a chance for the biggest Josh Allen fans demons to be able to get their get back and to be able to use a lot of my quotes against me.
And you know how by Josh Allen performing huh.
Well yeah, now it's a fair fight, right to Alan Mahomes Mahomes Allen one A one B one B one A. Okay, how would Patrick Mahomes do if his all Pro wide receiver was traded in the offseason? Well, I don't know, could that ever happen?
Oh?
It did happen. Oh did they replace him with a number one receiver?
Oh?
No, they just had to draft somebody or somebody's So how did that go?
Oh?
He won the league MVP and then and was the highest scoring team in the league and won the Super Bowl. And then the next year with what was considered the worst receiving corps, not just in the NFL, but in years of the NFL. That's what I was told all year the Chiefs team, the receiving corps is so bad that a team with Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes in a great defense, that receiving corps is so bad it will tear, pull the entire team down. Won the Super Bowl again.
So now this is a great moment for all of the folks who have argued Mahomes Allen is a real debate. Now you don't have to deal with the distraction of Stepan Diggs, you don't have to deal with any of that. Go do it. I'm excited to how this turns out. So here's a question I have for you, Demanse before we move on to the Texans. And I texted our group today that was gonna try to go a little fasterday. We went twenty five minutes on the first topic. Can
we put up that Stefan Diggs tweet? So here's my question, and I don't know the answer. So Stefan Diggs the night before he was traded, replies to a tweet from a couple days before saying, does Josh benefit from having a top tier receiver? Yes? Is it essential to Is Digs essential to Josh's success? No? And Digs on Tuesday night tweets you sure, question Mark Wednesday morning, he's traded. So here's my question to you, Demanse. There's not a wrong or right answer here. I'm just kind of doing
like a one person straw pole. Do you think Diggs knew the trade was coming when he sent this or do you think him sending this was the last straw that then initiated them to pull the trigger on the trade.
I think knew he was getting traded.
So you think he already knew?
Yeah, so go ahead, Yeah, No, I think he I think he already knew. I mean, I feel like Stefan Diggs has wanted out for a while, and I don't think I don't know if he tweets that like and knows in the back of his mind there's a chance that he could still be on the bills, I just don't think he'd do.
That, so so I think it. So here's the part of it. I think you're right. But what I find intriguing is if he knew. They did a really good job of keeping it quiet, because there were no leaps that this was coming before it happened. It wasn't like, you know what I mean, potential. You're right that people thought Digs at some point could be moved, but it wasn't like there were reports the night before where agents.
Does to strike. He was the type of guy to do it a little little sly like that.
Yeah, maybe think I mean, okay, so that's where you're at. All right, let's move on now to the Texans side of things. Listen, the Bills, congrats guys on your three consecutive AFC bronze medals. We'll never see a team like you again. Uh oh, we got to oh this See that's not nice. I mean, that's not nice. It is what it is, all right, next.
All right, So on the other side of it, the Texans now have Stefan Diggs obviously c J. Stroud on his rookie deal, and they've got Joe Nixon or Joe Mixon and the running game, and they've beefed up the defense a little bit. With that said, do you think the Texans are the number one threat to the Chiefs the AFC?
I think you can make a really strong case the Texans are the best team in the AFC other than Kansas City. So I want to talk about the Texans, but I don't want to forget about the butterfly effect part of this that I said, So you want to know my galaxy brain like butterfly effect of the Digs trade demonse, What's something that now I now believe the Detroit Lions are going to trade for t Higgins. So you might say, why what are the dots there? So
the Lions, I think, believe they need a receiver. The Lions are drafting twenty nine. The Bengals are obviously shopping Higgins. They were going to trade Higgins or I shouldn't.
Wait, I should We're going to trade something happened with Brown.
No, but they want a second receiver. They just yeah, it's just they Jamison Williams hasn't really worked out the way they had hoped, and I you know, they they were connected to whatever exactly right. No, they have amenros because to be honest, I think they need some help defensively. But offensively, the offensive line's great. I'm on ros. Great. They just drafted Gibbs. They like golf. They Laporta's excellent.
You know. The only spot on the offense you really look at is receiver and then some help on defense for Aiden Hutchinson. Okay, so I think the Lions were planning at twenty nine to draft a receiver. Well, who drafts at twenty eight Buffalo? Now Detroit knows Okay, obviously Harrison Neighbors and a doonsay are gone in the top ten. After that, you have Ady Mitchell, you have Brian Thomas from LSU as the fourth and fifth or fifth and
fourth receivers. Buffalo is definitely taking a receiver. So now we're down to drafting the fifth receiver. Pittsburgh is a potential receive team. Cincinnati, if they trade T Higgins elsewhere, is a potential receiver team. We could be sitting there at twenty nine and at best get the fifth receiver and maybe get the sixth or seventh. So I think Detroit now is more likely to trade for T. Higgins. So that's a little kind of butterfly effect piece of it. Now to the Texans, I have seen a lot of
oh my goodness, the Texans. This is a blueprint every team should follow. Okay, Well, I mean if the blueprint was draft a quarterback at two and higher the Niners decordinator as your head coach, then the Jets would be in great shape because they followed that blueprint and they're
a disaster. Okay. So also the Texans blueprint of be truly horrific for three consecutive years, and in those three years, go through four different coaches before you finally get the right one, and oh yeah, by the way, pull off an all time trade heist in getting three first round picks for Deshaun Watson. My point is that part of the blueprint is not really duplicable. You can't really be like, all right, here's the play boys. We're gonna get one
of the greatest trade halls ever. We're then going to be truly awful for three straight seasons to get even more blue chip picks, but not quite awful enough to ever have the number one pick of the draft. But the team drafting number one is gonna take the smallest quarterback who's ever played in the NFL. So we're gonna
get the right guy at number two. And by the way, we're gonna be able to get the hottest coaching prospect on the market because he's a legend for our franchise who played middle linebacker for us and wants to come save the team he played for. That is not something a lot of teams can file. It's not like you're in Carolina, You're like, all right, boys, here's the plan. We're just gonna be all for a number of years, and then Luke Keikley is gonna come in and save
us along with a quarterback we draft. That's not a plan. But the part of the plan that is replicable, I should say, is if you've gotten that guy at quarterback, spend, spend, spend, spin spind. Yes, while he's cheap, go put talent around him. And I think Diggs will be awesome this year. A motivated Stepan Diggs. I think you'll be really good for at least one more year. Age is catching up to him a little bit. But you have Nico Collins, you
have Tank Dell coming back from the injury. You have Stefan Diggs, you got maybe the best left tackle in sport and tunsl you're building the defense. Like I think the Texans are excellent, excellent. Before this trade, I had them neck and neck with Cincinnati as the biggest threats in the AFC outside of Kansas City. And you know what that means, demanse, Oh my goodness, I'm so excited for it.
What is that? What does that mean?
Because you've got it, You've got one.
Go ahead.
I've got a question. Now, I've got a question for you, but I'm gonna let you finish your Oh okay, do you think okay?
Go ahead?
It's bad Okay, yeah, So do you think the Prince will ever win an AFC South Game South game again, or well a seulth title?
Uh vision Listen, I this offseason not been good for my guy, right, they're not gonna lie. I don't like the moves the Jags have made. The Jags so like. The Jags had the number one pick the next in, took Trevor the next year so bad, got the number one pick again, and they've squandered the whole thing. They're out of here, signing Gabe Davis to thirteen million a year,
Trent Bulky keeps getting jobs and keeps being terrible. So yeah, I mean, I think I think Trevor's awesome, but I think that right now they are not the favorites in their own division, that's for sure. I agree with that piece of it.
Uh.
It's not good for my guy to have this Texans team and CJ in his division. There's no way around it. But to be fair, you're supposed to have at least two excellent quarterbacks in each division. The AFC East right now doesn't. And I for all this trash I talk on trash is the wrong word truth I tell about Josh He's obviously an excellent quarterback. I don't think they
have another excellent quarterback in that division. But the AFC North has Lamar and Burrow, the AFC West has Mahomes and Herbert, the AFC South, it's fair for them to have Stroud and Trevor. But that's not what I was going to get to. What I was going to say is this, so the initial so we had Brady Manning.
Brady Manning was the thing, right, and then a couple of years into Mahomes's career after he won the MVP, and shout out to Pete Sweeney for doing the screenshots of all of these exact conversations over the last five years on TV, but we got Mahomes. Watson is that the new Brady Manning, and then Mahomes annihilated him in a twenty four to nothing playoff game. Down twenty four ended up, you know, I think winning fifty one to thirty one, and then you know, his career kind of
went askew after that, crossed him off the list. Then Lamar unanimous MVP. Lamar beat Mahomes in the regular season Mahomes. Lamar is that the new Brady Manning and then Lamar had his own postseason struggles, seemed to be over him and then lost to Mahomes in the playoff game. Cross him off the list. Then it was Mahomes Allen, that's the new Brady Manning. And then Mahomes played him three times in the playoffs to beat him all three times,
crossed him off the list. Then it was Mahomes Borrow, Oh my god, Burrough actually won a game, and then Mahomes being the AFC title game. Unfortunately Joe Burrow got hurt and see mister the playoffs, cross him off the list. We're about to get Mahomes v. Quarterback ATX version five point zero. Mahomes Stroud is that the new Brady Manning.
And is like, you can yet I don't know if you can cross him off yet. Aget he did like the Chiefs beats them last time.
Yeah, you know, listen, and it's hard to go undefeated, you know, against the team in the playoffs the way the Chiefs said with the Bills, and so credit to the Bengals. That's fine. I think that Burrow is now all of a sudden coming off a lost season and is probably gonna not have t Higgins. But we'll see like that that. My point is Stroud's the next man up. But as I told you guys over the last few years, and I will say again, it is not a Brady
versus Manning scenario. It is a tiger versus the field scenario. And you can pick which of these quarterbacks is VJ. Singh, which one's David Duvall, which ones aren't he L's, and which one's Phil Mickelson. But it is not Brady Manning. It is tiger versus the field. All right, let's take a quick break, come back, talk a little Lakers, and play a little right ends. We'll do all that next.
What's Right? All right, welcome back in What's Right with Nick? Right, a little breaking news Julius Randall having season ending shoulder surgery, which is I mean, listen, he has been not a good playoff performer. But that's brutal for the Knicks because they did look really good when they were after the Og trade, when they were at full strength, and now you're not going to see that team again, So that's
brutal for them. So that's some breaking news for the show. Also, shout up to this show for prematurely being correct about the lsu IOWA rating. So if you were listening Tuesday, we had the breaking news of this show of lsu Iowa doing twelve point two million people. We brought it to you before anyone had it, including Nielsen, because we misread a tweet about something else, but we reported it as twelve point two million.
Oh we didn't correct.
Man, by the way, that was Meg's doing.
Okay, well, exactly a premonition by Meg. So we then apologized because we thought, oh man, we got tricked that the official numbers aren't out. Then the official numbers came out, there's twelve point three million, So we thought Meg had it first, then didn't have it, and then was had it. Definitely had it first and was right. So unlike this, so unlike the uh, the lsu IOWA rating, this is news.
We have triple check verified. But it turns out we didn't need triple check verify the lsu IOWA rating because we were just ten hours before everyone on it. Good job by us there, all right, Demansey, Let's do Lakers.
Thank you Megs for damas.
The Lakers have been the hottest team in the NBA the past couple of weeks, but they're still at the nine seed currently, do you think they have a path out of the play in or do they at least have a path to avoid being the bottom of the play in.
Okay, So this is what's so interesting. The MAVs, Sons, and Pelicans have forty five wins. The Kings and Lakers have forty four wins. So it sounds super close, but it's not. Because the law you can make up wins, you can't make up losses, right, So the wins don't matter that much. What matters is the losses. The MAVs have thirty losses, the Sons, Pelicans, Kings have thirty one losses. The Lakers have thirty three losses. Okay, and the Lakers
are the nine seed. So the question is, can't the Lakers cannot realistically pass two teams and get out of the play in. But you guys know how important I think it is for them to be in the seven eight part of the play in? Versus then can they catch one team? So you go through it and you realize it's harder than you think. So the Kings are the team that I think folks believe they have the best chance of catching the problem with the Kings is
the Lakers lost the tiebreaker to them. So if the Kings and Lakers finished with the same record, the Kings get the higher seed. Right the Suns, the Lakers have the tiebreaker with, but they're playing great basketball right now. They had this really tough stretch of games, but then you know, they got Denver without Jokic and so that that made it not quite as tough. Are they gonna the Suns Probably not gonna catch them. So the people
need to be watching is the New Orleans Pelicans. The Lakers right now have the tiebreaker with New Orleans, and in the final game of the year, they play New Orleans. So what the Lakers need is to play one game better than New Orleans the rest of the way and have and then beat New Orleans in the final game of the year. So if you think the Lakers can go, they've got five left, four and one right. So they're home for Cleveland, home for Minnesota, home for Golden State,
at Memphis, at New Orleans. Say they lose Minnesota, which is the second night of a back to back, and they win the other games and they're forty eight and thirty four. What that means is you need New Orleans to lose two of the following home for San anton at the Suns, at the hopeless Blazers, at the Kings at Golden State on the second night of a back
to back, and then they obviously play the Lakers. So if you're trying, if you're hoping, the Lakers can move up from nine at Phoenix, at Sacramento at Golden State, those three games for New Orleans, you need them to lose two of them, and you need the Lakers to take care of business and only lose once more the
rest of the way. If that happens, they can move up to the seven eight game, and I think go on a real run if they are stuck in the nine to ten spot and they have to win just to move on to game two of the play in and then win a road game just to move on to the actual playoffs, to then play a rested for a week one seed no matter who that is, that path I think is not viable. They've got to move
up at least one spot. If you are in the nine ten spot, what you basically have to do is win six of nine to get out of Round one. You're back to back playing games and then four of seven without home court advantage, you know, without arrest advantage at all against a one seed. Too hard. So the Lakers are playing great, Lebron is playing out of his mind. But that start to the season twenty four and twenty
five right now looms incredibly large. And the Kings, all those Kings games that they just absolutely Game three of the season they lose in overtime to the Kings game, then they lose. The Kings beat him by fifteen, The Kings beat him by ten, The Kings beat him by thirteen. Going zero to four against the Kings could be the difference in the whole year. You'll win one of those games and you're tied with the Kings and the standings. You win two of them and you're the five seed
right now. Just a brutal spot, all right, Demon's what's next?
Crazy?
So yeah, Bronni James is reportedly entering the transfer portal after the USC's coach left for SMU. Lebron didn't confirm that, but he says, Bronni's got some pretty tough decisions to make moving forward. You said you think one reason Lebron wants to stay in La is because of Bronni. So with that being said, do you expect Lebron to follow Bronnie wherever he goes.
So here's what I would say. If I were a die hard Laker fan, I would be monitoring this. One of the reasons that I think it has been just assumed that Lebron is going who's a free agent this offseason if he wants to be that Lebron is going to stay with the Lakers this offseason is because Bronni's at USC. Well, if Bronni leaves, could I see a scenario where Bronni and where Bronni's college decision and Lebron's free agency decision are correlated? Is based on no like
inside or intel, just you know, just logic. As a father. Yeah, if all of a sudden, demand was thinking about moving it from LA and I had the opportunity to pick any city to work in this summer, would I at least talk with him and be like, Hey, where are you looking at? Is there a possibility we could work in the same city? Of course, obviously, of course, and
so I think it is. I think the chances of Lebron leaving the Lakers, however small they are, increase slightly if Bronnie ends up deciding to transfer from USC All right, let's go on to write INDs.
Demon's go ahead, you where do you where could you see Bronni going?
So I don't know so that part, and I don't think he's gonna declare for the draft, and I don't I know a lot of people are connecting him to Ducaine. So if people don't know why he's being connected to Ducaine, here's why Ducaine. When Lebron was a junior in high school, Ducaine hired Frank Dambrot, the coach of Lebron's high school team, to be their head coach Ducaine University, hoping that if bron ended up not going straight to the NBA, maybe
he'd go there. Lebron's teammate Drew Joyce, the third from that high school state championship team, then ended up becoming a coach himself, ended up being the assistant at Ducaine, and just got the head coaching job at Ducaine because Dan Brot twenty years later retired this past offseason after they won their first NCAA tournament game. So because of the family, I know some people have connected Bronnie to Ducane he'd obviously be featured more there, he'd be one
of the highest ranked recruits that team's ever gotten. I don't again, so I think that is on the board. I'm not saying I think that's likely, but I do think that this is something intriguing to follow over the summer, particularly depending on how the Lakers season ends. All right, let's go to right ends.
All right, We're gonna start off with Joel Jewel.
Embiid returned to action versus I love that graphic return to action versus Okac Tuesday and came up clutchlely. Embiid was visibly exhausted at the end of the game, but Philly still has six games to get him back up to speed. The seventy six ers ceiling with embiidback is.
I mean their ceiling is winning the title. I mean that the I mean they have an excellent roster, well rounded. Maxi's, you know, great, Darryl's done a really good job of filling out the roster, and Embiid was playing the best basketball of his career before he got hurt. Now, it's gonna be a really tough putt, but their ceiling is they could win the title. Now They've never even made a conference finals since Iverson was there. But that's their ceiling, all right. Next.
Uh, if you thought the Bucks losing to the Wizards is bad, things got even worse against the Grizzlies. After back to back losses to lowly opponents, Doc now has more losses than Adrian Griffin had Milwaukee. Milwaukee's problems are.
Right now too many to count. Gosh, I mean Doc has now blamed the trainers, the bus driver, the traveling secretary for the team. Yeah, I mean he was like, we do everything bad on the road, Like from top down. Doc is finding people to blame. Dame's not playing right now, They're they're the Bucks. The upside is still there, but man, oh man, right now they look like a team that is not ready to compete for a championship. All right.
Next, the Nuggets, the Thunder, and the Timberwolves are all neck and neck in the West with only a few games left. Who pulls away the one seed in the West will be.
Well. So Minnesota has at the Suns, at the Lakers, home for the Wizards, at the Nuggets, home for the Hawks, home for the Suns. Left, that's a brutal finishing kick. The Nuggets have at the Clippers, then home for the Hawks, at the Jazz, home for the Timberwolves, at the Spurs at the Grizzlies. That is not a tough finishing kick. And the thunder they've got at the Pacers at the Hornets, home for the King's home for the Spurs, home for the Bucks, home for the MAVs, that's mediocre. What is Jamal?
When is Jamal Murray? Daniel should know this. When is Jamal Murray supposed to be back? He's questionable for tonight. So for the the Nuggets gotta get Jamal Murray back right now. My money would assuming Jamal Murray comes back, my money would be on Denver. If not, I think Oklahoma City could steal it. I also think yep. And I also think that the number one seed, because you don't get to draft your playoff opponent, the number one seed might not be that valuable depending on how the
postseason the play in tournament ends up. All right, next.
Last week we saw Luca chirp the Kings for not drafting him. Tonight he faces the Hawks, who traded his rights on draft night. Are we in store for another dominant performance tonight versus the Hawks.
Oh, I have a thirty five point triple double. The Hawks can't They're not going to guard and the Maps just lost. Lucas still is I think holding out, you know, tiny hope that he could win a league MVP. Yeah, So I think this is uh the I think this is gonna be a monster stat night for Luca.
All Right, last, the men's and women's finals four final fours are coming up this weekend. What are you most looking forward to Your favorite college headline heading into the weekend is.
Well, listen, I hope that I hope that we get it. Looks like Yukon's gonna run away with it. On the men's side of things, I think Yukon's big men against Zach Edy would be fun to watch, But I'm most interested in the women's side of things. Page and Yukon are a great story, but I'm rooting for Caitlin. South Carolina is going to annihilate NC State and then you have Caitlin against South Carolina, and I want people to understand what South Carolina has done over the last few years.
So South Carolina women's basketball in the twenty twenty two season was thirty five and two and won the national championship. Okay, South Carolina women's basketball last year was thirty six and one and the one loss was in the semifinal to Caitlin Clark. South Carolina women's basketball this year is thirty six and zero and the huge favorite to win the
national championship. Okay, So in South Carolina women's basketball's basketball, last we do the math year, seventy nine games they are, is that right?
No?
That is right? Hold on, yeah, they're seventy eight and one, and the one loss came to Caitlan, right, and they won a national title, and our police to win another one. If they end up being over the last two years, demonse, just the last two years. Right now, they're thirty six and oh. This year they make the national championship game, they're thirty seven and oh. Last year they were thirty six and oh going into the semifinal and Caitlin beat them.
If they end up the next last two years seventy three and two with both losses being to Caitlin Clark in Iowa, that will be one of the most remarkable. I mean, that is pretty unbelievable. Man. They win the title, they are then the undefeated defending national champions and she beats them in the final four. They then come back the next year, they're undefeated going into the final four. If she then beats them in the championship game to
win the title, oh my goodness, gracious be unbelievable. All right, answer listener questions next, What's right? All right, welcome back in What's Right with Nick Grady. I got a run, so we'll do this quick. The producers tell me that Luca having a thirty four point triple double is plus three ten. I mean, that's a bad that's a square bet. But I think he's gonna do it. I think I think he's gonna have thirty five points in a triple
double tonight. Again, he says, dude, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, spik dude, it's one of the things I like about him. Demon's say, read G and G productions questions because it's about Luca.
G and G production said Nick. What separates guys like Luca that plays similar to Lebron from being as dominant as he went as he was in his prime?
Well, I think Luca is as dominant as Lebron was offensively in his prime. The difference is Lebron and his prime was the best defensive player in the league, and so the and like Luca is a better rain shooter than Lebron was early in his career. Lebron obviously a far better athlete, but Lebron also, you know, Lebron didn't win championship it until he had better teammates around him. And we've seen Luca carry a team to the conference finals. So you know, I think that, uh, I think that's legit.
And then ask the follow up that the producers wrote in there under the GM.
This question, Oh yeah, is that is that why Luca hates the Sons too? Because they drafted eight and over him.
Well, I think he hates the Sons because of Devin Booker. I actually think it's just about the dislike Devin Booker. Wow. Wow, I don't like that.
I hate the Sons, but I really don't like Devin Booker, and I don't like he's He's pretty annoying.
You know what, I get it. I understand that. And by the way, Booker played great last night. He's been playing great. He had fifty the other night. He's been playing great. All Right, I gotta run, I gotta get to work. I also have to have my uh, blazer. Not my blazer, my suit jacket tailored for this wedding that I'm having. I was supposed to do that to Monsday a long time.
Ago, I imaginalize today.
It's not done yet, so I got a run. See you guys on TV today. Great job today, See you guys. What's right? Hey? Thanks for watching. If you're still here, do me a favor. Hit the subscribe button, then hit the bell so you can be notified when we have new episodes. After you've done that, one more favor, go to your favorite audio platform of choice and subscribe there as well. Don't forget. We're live every Tuesday and Thursday ten thirty am Eastern Ish ten thirty five, ten forty.
It sometimes changes, but that's why you hit the bell. You hit the bell so you're notified. You subscribe so we can get to two hundred thousand followers. We're right around one hundred and fifty thousand. We'd love to get to two hundred thousand. Get demanday another plaque, so like, subscribe rate, send a rating to do all that cool stuff. Thanks guys,