Welcome in What's Driving Thick Right episode to ninety seven. We will today, in very short order, get to the NFC Championship Game, which somehow we had our maybe our longest pot of all time and never got to. I blame demons. He wouldn't shut up on Tuesday. I mean, my god head to all these chiefs take so many things to say, and because of it, we couldn't get to Jalen Hurts and the Eagles and Jayden Daniels and all of that. We also, I did not anticipate sometimes
I see stories coming down the pike. I did not anticipate the latest as the world turns in relation to Bronni James. So we'll get to that as well, and a little kind of playoff picks recap all that coming up shortly. Also a true media tour for me this week the Collins Podcast, Levotard Show, and Patrick's show, Just Did Pardon My Take? Invited myself onto Adam Shin's show, went on Damon Mindo Lara's show. I'm leaving some stuff out.
There is something incredibly cool happening. I don't think I've even told Demonse, and I can't Demonse call me after the show to remind there's something really cool happening next week around the time I get to New Orleans. I don't want to it's not my news, so to speak, to share it right now, and so I don't want
to share it on the air. But a lot of stuff's a little oversaturation, I suppose by me, but I I, you know, I'm too excited to talk about the Super Bowl and these games and the reps and the lunatics and all of it. Also, please like, rate, subscribe, review. Our goal was two hundred thousand by the Super Bowl on YouTube. We're at one seventy one. So we're not gonna get twenty nine thousand between now and the Super Bowl.
Maybe we get to one seventy five by our post super Bowl show, so we can do that, but also subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, all that stuff. Okay, here's what missed the cut. It's all Pro Bowl related, and demon's I can just fix the Pro Bowl situation, okay, because it's it's not actually a problem that Drake May and Russell Wilson are gonna participate in the Pro Bowl games. The problem is that they will now be called Pro
Bowlers for the twenty twenty four season. The problem is that on football Pro Football Reference and you're gonna look at the twenty twenty four season and it's gonna say Drake may was a Pro Bowler and Patrick Mahomes wasn't, and that's gonna be like, that's weird. So I actually think this is a bookkeeping solution. The solution is bookkeeping. I think the official NFL record books should go go back retroactively and moving forward and have the rule be
very simple. In order to be called a Pro Bowler, you have to make the original roster. Those are your However many it is one hundred and six Pro bowlers a year are the guys on the original roster. If you were an injury replacement or a guy who opted out replacement, then you do not get on Pro Football Reference or in the NFL record books a Pro Bowl
designation next to your name. That way, we don't have this weird stuff where it's like, wait, Tyler Huntley the year Lamar got hurt and he started four games, was a Pro Bowler. That is, that's on his record. So it's a book keeping solution more than anything. You can't ask Josh Allen to go play in this game. He's devastated. The artist hand Lamar and Derrick Henry are devastated. So
it's just that's the way you do it. The other thing that Greg Jennings brought up, which is a good point, is the Pro Bowl used to be in Hawaii and it was a vacation for your family and it was cool. Now it's in Orlando, and nothing against Orlando. People are less likely to be like, Okay, I want to spend time there as supposed to go into Hawaii. So there's
the solutions. Demons. You had an interesting idea that I think is worth throwing out into the audience before we get the NFC championship game.
Yeah, I'm mad that I didn't think of what you said, because that makes a lot of sense. But I just said that they should make the Pro Bowl to where up and coming stars in the college and the college team should be able to play. So it makes it more embarrassing for the NFL players that didn't make it, incentivizes them to make it, and gives the college players a little bit of a taste.
Well yeah, and so it maybe gives more pressure for the NFL guys to actually to make the list to make the list, but guys who made the list to participate, it's like, listen, you opt out, it's fine, but Shador Sanders taking your spot. Whatever it is, I think it's kind of it's kind of senior bullish, but would be pretty cool. All right, Right, let's get to the NFC Championship game. Go ahead, demons.
So Philly obviously watched the Commanders in the NFC Championship Game. Do you think they might have done that just to come up short next Sunday?
Well, I obviously think the Chiefs are the better team, and I obviously think the Chiefs are gonna win the Super Bowl. But I also would like to give the Eagles credit because that was a tour de force rushing performance. And sometimes someone else has a take that I hear and I'm like, god, dog it, that's the right take here, and Wild's had it on this football game, which was I watched Commander's Eagles, and I was like, man, Jaden
really got let down by his role players. When McNichols, Diami Brown and Austin Eckler are fumbling the ball like that, you want if you're gonna have a bunch of mistakes as bad as painful as it is. You want it to be like it was with the Chargers or the Lions, your star quarterback kills you, because at least then it feels fair. I know that sounds silly, but you just don't want guys who are not main characters of the
story deciding your season. It's one of the reasons I get so nervous with the Chiefs kick returner Nico Romihio, who's an electric player, but he's not one of the main characters here, and just the chance of him fumbling the ball or something bad happening there. Uh So, I I was making it about those Washington mistakes, and Wild's on the show said, man, that game was over on the very first play of that Philly had the ball.
He's like, when Sakuon Barkley in the regular season destroys you, goes for two hundred yards, and then Sakuon Barkley in the second game in the regular season goes for one hundred yards in the first quarter, and then Saquon Barkley on the first play of your playoff game goes for a sixty yard touchdown. You're not beating that team. And I'm like, Okay, that's actually correct. Actually You're like, even if Washington hadn't turned the ball over, they had no
chance all year longest stopping Saquon. And that is also what I think is so interesting about this upcoming Super Bowl, because Saquon is great, and I've taken my beating on being dead wrong about him. Like there was no preseason take I had more wrong than the Eagles missing the playoffs and Saquon not being a difference maker. I was just as wrong as someone can be about a sports
take about that exact thing. The Eagles not only didn't miss the playoffs, they won the division, they got the two seed during the Super Bowl, and Saquon, as opposed to not being a difference maker, had arguably the single greatest season in the history of the running back position. Dead wrong across the board on it. With all that set, I don't think Saquon's going to annihilate the Chiefs. I'm
sure he'll be good. The Chiefs are too good at tackling, too buttoned up, too well coached to let the other team's best player ruin the game. So it's going to have to be more on Jalen Hurts. And we'll get to Jalen shortly and more on the other guys. Saquan will be good. I don't think he's going to be dominant the way he has been up to this point. The other piece of this game that I really do want to give Philly credit for is it was early and it was still close, and they went for a
fourth and five. I think the score was thirteen to twelve when they did it and not and Jalen hurts through as good of a pass as you can throw down the sideline to AJ Brown and they kept control of the game and they went on to score. That was a That was the single highest leverage, non turnover play of that football game. And it wasn't Saquan, and it wasn't something that was schemed wide open a crossing
route with a guy running naked over the middle. It was a difficult throw, it was a high leverage throw. Jalen made the throw and AJ Brown made the catch. So credit to them because that was enough. That was the first the moment of the game where it's like, oh, could Washington kind of take control here? And Philly didn't give him the opportunity. So that I think that has to be said because I've been not so much of a jail and hurts critic as much as a bit
of a jail and hurts skeptic. And again we'll get to hurts in a second, but before we do that, let's talk toush pushes tomorrow.
Yeah, you've been saying that they should Jesus, you've been saying that they should ban the toush push for years. Now you say it's bad for television. Do you think with all of those offsides or the encroachment penalties from Washington, that we've gotten closer to that getting banned?
All right? So that was a wild sequence. And also, I know I'm gonna sound annoying here probably I was shocked how few people knew the referees could award a touchdown. So many media members were like, I've never heard and again this is my own nerd nerd, I guess. But the palpably, I even knew the language of it. It's like, yeah, palpably unfair act it is. It is in place for
really two scenarios. One is this a guy is break so Saquon esque super long run, has nothing but daylight in front of him, and a player from the bench runs on the field and tackles that they had to have a rule in place for if someone a coach or a player from the sideline stops an obvious touchdown, that is more punitive than we'll give you the ball the one and that just intellectually makes perfect sense that if that rule was not actually written as such, then
if in overtime of a game a guy is running free, you would do that like that It would actually be the smart thing to do to run on the field and stop them. The other reason, yeah, and so it was people. When I say that, think of Mike Tomlin and Jacoby Jones. But Tomlin, like the referees could have in that situation theoretically if they thought Tomlin did that on purpose, or if he did actually trip Jacoby Jones,
awarded them a touchdown. The other scenario it's in place for is the one the referees were discussing here but not reeally, which is if a team just commits a pre snap penalty again and again and again, the game can never move forward. So I'll give you a four instance. Let's say, and this is not a likely scenario, but it's likely enough that the would have to be in place. Okay, So to Monsey, let's say In this game, Jaden Daniels
has the ball throws an interception. It's the exact golf thing where golf throws a pick and then gets annihilated trying to make the tackle, except instead of the guys scoring, the guy is stopped at the one, and the the team doctor says, oh, we have to check you for a head injury, and in fact, we have to take you to the locker room, and golf is gonna be you know, even if he's ruled eligible to play, he's not gonna be in for you know, ten to fifteen minutes,
however long that takes. Without this rule in place, the smart thing, and it's you know, Philly ball on the one, the smart thing for the defense to do would to be just encroach for twenty minutes and let him move the ball an inch, a quarter of an a half inch, quarter whatever until they get the signal, Oh, the check's done on golf, you know what I mean? Now go ahead and play defense. You're giving up literal you know, millimeters,
and what you're gaining is time. The other thing you could do is be like, screw you, we hate you. We're not letting this game end. We're just gonna clock stopped, and so that those rules, that's why that rule is there. It actually makes perfect sense that the referees have to have an ability to be like, no, screw you, it's a touchdown. I did not think it was used properly, even threatened to use properly in this specific situation, because those guys were not trying to waste time and Jalen
was doing a hard count. Jalen was trying to drop him. And I also thought the herd count was bad strategy by Philly because you want to do a hard count when you're on your own goal line, where a false start doesn't hurt you at all, and an offside really hurts the defense. Doing a hard count at the half yard line, you're gaining almost nothing and you're really putting a lot of pressure on your lineman not to make a mistake. Okay, so there's the palpably unfair act, super
nerdy eight minutes. Now, as far as the tush push, that sequence was what I was talking about when I said last year they're gonna get rid of it. They're gonna say it's for player safety. And you could even argue that there because Luo hit Jalen in the head on one of those dives. But it's just because it's terrible television. It's an entertainment sport, and that was awful
TV for a long time. Okay, And I also said last year, and I will say again, the only reason it has not been banned yet, Demons is because the Eagles aren't quite good enough at it. And by that I mean this it is a basically guaranteed one to two yards. If it ever became a guaranteed three to four yards and they could do that on first and ten and then second and six and then third and two, it would be banned immediately because the sport would be art.
They'll never do that. I mean, I'm assuming, yeah, yeah, they're never gonna do that.
Right, But so, but I think everyone this is where anyone that's like, oh, it would be so unfair to ban it, what if the Eagles got that good at it, then you would definitely it would not be more or less unfair, but it'd be like, okay, now we're if you think it's unfair to ban it now, then you would have to think it's unfair to ban it just because they got better at it.
But we would all be like, uh no, it's getting banned, like they you can't have that be the whole offense. Here's why I actually think Sunday as a whole made it more likely the tush push is here to stay because other teams can't do it. The Bills kept trying and kept failing. If the whole league, you know, could do it consistently, it's just like, Okay, well this sucks like it's not good TV. Everyone does it. There's no creativity.
I think they'd get rid of it. But when Josh Allen is flailing about can't get it, doesn't get the two point conversion, fumbles, the ball doesn't get pardon me, doesn't get the fourth and one, I feel like the league, the league looks at it and says, all right, like it's a Philly thing. They're the only ones who have figured it out. They clearly it's not even just personnel because Jason Kelsey retired. They had two different centers in this game, and they figured that they did it no
matter what. So I actually think it's probably here to stay for at least another year. All right, let's talk Jalen Hurts.
Hurts came out and said they let me out of my straight jacket a little bit, SERRANI said it was nothing. H do you think that this is something with Hurts. I think everybody's reading too deep into it. That's my opinion of it.
Okay, So why do you think he said it?
I mean because he threw the ball more. I think they were less reliant. I can't say they were less reliant on Saquan, but those probably you just threw the ball more. He was letting it rip, and I don't know if that was necessarily the style that they've been playing with all your I know aj Brown was complaining about not getting the ball thrown to him.
So yeah, So here's so, I don't think demon's a It's like a five alarm a five alarm fire, part five alarm fire. Here's what I do think. I think Jalen Hurts feels like I'm a better player. Then you're allowing me to show. And I'm a great leader and I care about winning first and foremost. So I'm not going to make a big problem of this. But when given the opportunity, I will remind America I can do
this whenever I am given the chance. My numbers are depressed, not because of my own talent, but because it's what my coach stylistic he wants us to be. Now, I disagree with Jalen Hurts. I don't think Jalen Hurts can consistently drop back and pass the ball and that's a winning formula, but he thinks he can. And so the reason I think it's something is it is just it is similar to after the AJ Brown comments when Jalen had a big game and he said down, he was like,
so is that what y'all wanted to see? He has I think a bit of frustration that they have an offense that it's not that it's run focused on Saquon, it's that it's also run focused on Jaalen. So many designed quarterback runs, the quarterback power stuff, and I think he feels like he is in a you know, in a straight jacket, a bit that he is prevented from
showing the world how excellent he can be. Which gets me to the Super Bowl because obviously in last the last Super Bowl, it was a drop back passing game and he was awesome. I think he's gonna have to do that again for Philly to win this game. I do not think that the recipe of amazing defense, amazing Saquon Barkley, and that that would be enough to beat
the Chiefs. I think he's going to have to somewhat go toe to toe with Mahomes, not exactly, but at least some ten to nine rounds, and we'll see if he can do it. He clearly thinks he can. And I again, I think Jalen Hurts deserves massive credit for his leadership, his toughness, what a great teammate he is, his ability to protect the football. I think he deserves
credit for all of those things. I also don't think we need to or I'm not going to pretend that I think he is a great drop back passer just because the Eagles keep winning, because I don't, and so I I the I think that is a real point of contention within the Eagles go ahead to mons E.
So Neil says or asks, isn't it entirely possible that both the straight jacket comment and this is what you wanted to see is just the teen trolling the media who wants there to be more drama than there really is.
It's it's possible. I don't think it's likely. I don't think that they are intentionally creating this kind of narrative around them just and then like privately behind closed doors, laughing about it.
We got them.
Yeah, I don't. I think that's what it is. I do think there is a real tension there. I don't think it's debilitating. I don't think it's gonna have an impact on the Super Bowl. But I don't think it is that they just they win these games all year. Yes, right, And I think part of it really is I don't know that Sirianni and Jalen Hurts on the exact same page all the time. It just doesn't feel that way to me. Again, I'm not there, But I don't think
it's trolling the media. All right, let's talk about the other side of that game.
Jayden Daniels, Shade and Daniels had a rookie season. Quite the rookie season can really cause the rookie season exceeded any expectations. We've obviously seen sophomore slumps, but this guy seems pretty promising. Do you think that the Commanders are gonna be contenders moving forward? Is this going to continue?
Well? I think that contenders is to me a touch strong. They clearly have their guy at quarterback, and I think that he is going to inter next year as a consensus top ten guy consensus, and I think that some people will have him inter next year at number five Demonse. I think next year the one through four is gonna be pretty lockdown. One Patrick, two, Josh three, Lamar, four Borrow.
Maybe some people have Burrow ahead of Lamar. I won't because as much as the concerns about Lamar and the playoffs are real, the concerns about Burrow's team making the playoffs are real, So you've got to give Lamar the nod there. I think some people will then say number five is Jayden Daniels. Now, if Jalen Hurts wins this game, then I guess number five is probably gonna be Jalen Hurts. But I think that he is going to be consensus
top ten in borderline top five. I do think that if I'm the Commanders, I am having someone on my team do a real deep dive into the off seasons of this past offseason of the Texans and the Packers and figure out why those two teams didn't take a step forward the way people thought they would after their quarterbacks. I know Jordan Love wasn't a rookie. CJ was, But Jordan Love's first year starting had this type of year not quite as good as Jayden this type of year.
Say it again, injuries, I feel like was the common denominator for I mean, Jordan Love got injured directly. CJ. Strouds receivers went down one by one. Nicole Collins came back after like three games.
So listen, If it is as simple as that, then it's a you know, a pretty quick autopsy. I felt like it was a little more than that because you know, the Texans fired their offensive coordinator. They didn't you know, they they clearly felt they didn't move forward offensively the way they should have. So I I look at There's a couple of ways to look at the Commander's playoff run.
One way is literally tied the record for the furthest any team's ever gotten with a rookie quarterback, beat the one seed, and you know that won two road playoff games. That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is played a Tampa team that people liked but nobody thought was a contender, and that game came down to a couple mistakes. Tampa made a fumbled hand off early snap, and all of a sudden, you know, instead of them taking the lead, they're tying the game.
And they lose a Lions game where the other team turned the ball over five times and you turn the ball over zero, and then an Eagles game where you got annihilated and allowed fifty five points. So kind of glass half full, glass half empty. So I think that
Jaden's excellent and he has exceeded anyone's realistic expectations. I also do fear for the Commanders that they are going to be the trendy pick, similar to how the Packers or the Texans were, and you know, as Ben Solac says all the time, and poor Ben getting killed on the internet this week. In the NFL, progression is not linear always. It's not always here and then there and
then they're like the NBA is like that. The NBA, it's usually like you're a bad team, you fight to be five hundred, you make the playoffs, you go on one deep playoff run, and then you're a contender. That's really how it works in the NBA. Typically the NFL, it's a lot of fits and starts up and down, like trying trying to move them. So I'm not trying to pour cold water on the commander's season, but I wouldn't going into next year, I would anticipate Detroit is better than them. Philly.
Saying that them losing the Philly like if they obviously had to eventually play Philly sounds like that, like kind of undid everything that they did.
Like it's not, no, it's not that it undid everything they did. It's that in the NFL, every year, really you are starting from scratch, and this idea that, well, we got so far last year, therefore you know you're you're you're really truly starting over. And when I look at the roster, I do think Detroit will be better next year. I do think Philly will be better next year. And if we want to say they're right there, then
with everyone else, I don't know it. Maybe I mean I think that for Washington next year, the expectations should be let's make the playoffs again. I think anything past that is probably a little too strong. All right, let's go to the AFS. You think that's fair, right.
Yeah, no, no, no, that's very fair. I don't think I wouldn't say, like they're going to go win the super Bowl next year, I would say that. Well, that's why to.
Me is like every year there are five or six what I consider contenders. Now that doesn't mean those are the only teams that can win the super Bowl, but they're the only teams that if they won the super Bowl, it wouldn't be shocking, right, And going into this year, the I think the consensus six teams were Chiefs, Bills, Ravens. Well, maybe the Bills weren't won. They were to me, but
maybe they weren't to the general public. Lions, Eagles, Niners, and I know the Niners fell apart, but they were say it again.
No I was gonna throw the Bengals in there, but oh yes, no, no, no they were.
You're the Bengals probably were where I had the Bills in my head. Like, and then there's the next group of teams that to me this year, Texans, Packers were you know, two of them where it's like, okay, we expect them to be good, but I'm not ready to call them contenders. All right, let's do Chiefs.
Uh So you and Brew had wildly different takes on why the Chiefs have become villains. Wild's actually discreet with both of you guys and said that they're not villains at all. What do you what's your what's your take there?
So yeah, first let me Wilds thinks that the Chiefs aren't hated, and I think that's an insane opinion. Personally, He's like, look at hown and people watch the games all this stuff. I think the Chiefs are well. He also says hate watching is a myth, and that might be true, but I think sports it doesn't really work. Is hate watching. It works as rooting for the other team, you know what I mean? Like, so the you are deeply invested in the game, you're not hating watching the
names rooting for the other team. I think the Chiefs are simultaneously the league's most popular team and the league's most hated team. I think amongst young people or super casual fans, the Chiefs are probably the most popular team in America. I think amongst people that have Sunday ticket, the Chiefs are the most hated team other than your team's number one rival. So like that's you know, if you're a Steelers fan, I think you hate the Ravens
and your number two hate is the Chiefs. I think if you are a Vikings fan, you hate the Packers and maybe the rest of the NFC North, and your number two most dislike team is the Chiefs because of the success and other things, and the other things is doing a lot of work there, and I'll get to it in a second. Bru's answer was they're not exciting anymore, that they went from being a high flying team and now they're not. And I think that is absolutely wrong.
I think that maybe they would So here's where I think Brew is kind of right. If they were still scoring forty points all the time, I think they would be less hated. But not scoring forty or even more than thirty all year did not make them hated. What made them hated was the success combined with the conspiracies, and you, I do not believe you can close success, correct, It's the it's that all these games are close. It
feels like they're vulnerable when they're not. And then you add to it the level of conspiracy associated with them, and I think that I think the ref stuff has taken on a totally different tone and feel over the last six weeks to where it is the overwhelming sentiment for a lot of people that the games are not on the level, and I feel like that is driving the villain narrative more than anything, because you look at the other like the Patriots were villains, yes, the success,
but then you add to it that they did have two separate, documented, adjudicated cheating scandals. You then add to it that Belichick embraced that villain role with his gruff demeanor and kind of shadowiness. The Chiefs are none of that.
They've had no Patriots for the reason that the Chiefs are aided what do you mean? You know, because maybe back then when they were doing all that cheating and they were winning, it's like, oh, the Chiefs must be cheating, that's why they're getting all these wins. The the three p oh I like that.
Take that it's the audience has been conditioned to think the only way to win at this level is to break the rules. Okay, maybe, but you know, Andy Reid is not Bill Belichick personality wise, and and Mahomes is just visually objectively talented in the way Brady wasn't. That it's captivating for the audience, so you wouldn't think that they should be hated. But I think it I the other and I didn't talk about this on the show
because it was just too unwieldy. But the other the non ref non style, non all of it, part of some percentage of the Chiefs hate is I'm sorry, hate to go here with it, but it's true, is actuallyogyny and it's anti Taylor Swift being shown for eighteen seconds on the show. On the games, it is a reflexive allergy to why are you showing this woman cheering for this team as often as you are during my football games?
That was You saw a lot more of that last year when people were freaking out over what when they documented it was forty two seconds of airtime that Taylor would get during the game's cheering. But a lot of that just feels like, really just kind of old school. This is my sandbox. Get out of my sandbox, you know what I mean? He man woman hater type of nonsense. All right, speaking of nonsense, I did not see this one coming, but Bronnie was a super hot topic on
a bunch of shows yesterday. Your friend Colin Coward, when I was on his pod last night, led the pod talking about Bronnie, and I told him I totally disagreed with him. I know it was a big topic on ESPN, So go ahead, let's let's do the Bronny discussion.
So Bronni got some real minutes in that Philly game the other day, even first quarter minutes in fact, he struggled, and JJ went on the podium and said that he kind of blamed himself, put him on national television. Stephen A even came out and blamed Lebron or or said that Lebron has a serious role in it. What's what's your whole take on the situation?
I was shocked at the reaction to this game. Shocked. Now, Listen, Bronni did not play well. He was oh for five, he had three turnovers. There's the there's no denying. And Bronni now is one for sixteen shooting in the NBA. I think oh for seven from three, and that's brutal for a number of reasons, but not the least of which are he's gonna play so little now, even if he has a couple decent, you know, two three minute stretches in garbage time, his numbers are gonna be horrifying.
And so you know that that just you know, is life of a late second round pick into the bench Guy. Where I was shocked was there has been so much disingenuous commentary surrounding the Lakers and surrounding Bronni and folks immediately resuming it after being quiet on all fronts for a month. The moment Bronni gets some more NBA minutes and plays poorly, it just struck me as transparent. So let me go to the Lakers piece of it, and then the Bronni piece of it. I know you all
saw it. It was TV commentary and also very popular social media posts where they would show the Lakers record last year with Darvin Ham through ten games, twelve games, twenty games, twenty four games, and then their record this year with JJ Reddick. Show last year they won the in season tournament with Darvin Ham. This year they even qualified for it with JJ Reddick, and it was, oh, everyone blamed Darvin, but now look at them now. And then the Lakers got hot, moved up to the five seed.
The records are wildly different. They're five games over five hundred earlier than they have been in any year in the last few years. And all those accounts and takes went away, and the exact same thing happened with Bronni. So, Bronni started off in the G League struggling, and you would see his stats and his plus minus and his all of it publicized all the time. And then the last few he is crushed in the G League. Last three games in the G League twenty three six and
five averages a career. I had thirty something the other night, forty three percent from the field, forty six percent from three, eighty nine percent from the line, and all those accounts went away entirely, We're not talking about it. So I was like, well, that's just shitty, you know, like the and so there was because there was so much of oh, my goodness, I know this is what lebron wants, but is it good for Bronni? Is he you know, is
so much of that. And then when Bronni was cooking in the G League, which now people are gonna be like, oh, anybody can cook in the G those the general conventional wisdom was he's really going to struggle in the G League. Guys. He didn't play that well at USC. It's grown men in there fighting to, you know, get a roster spot, and he had a bit of a slow start, but overall, on the year, now in the G League, and don't show the stats of the other guys yet. Just stay
stay with me on this. He's sixteen four and four and again in the last few weeks twenty three points at twenty three points per game, six rebounds per game, five assists per game, two steals per game on forty three forty six eighty nine splits. And the other thing you were hearing, you heard a ton of right after he was drafted, was it's unfair to the guys. You know, he took someone's roster spot, he took someone's draft position. He you know, this is this is nepotism at its worst.
Forget the fact that with an end of the second round pick, if someone said, hey, here's the deal. There's a kid who was a legitimate, top high school prospect who had a massive medical event that derailed his freshman year of college. However, his you know, at the NBA combine, his shooting was off the charts. Everyone says his intangibles as far as characters suffer, off the charts, and oh yeah, one just added bonus, he literally has the same DNA
as arguably the greatest athlete of all time. Do you think he's worth a flyer. I think a lot of people are like, yeah, sure, fifty to fifth pick, fifty six pick, why not? None of that commentary was there at the time, and then he was kind of validating the belief by his playing the G League. And then he gets these minutes against the Sixers, and Steven Aid
pleads with lebron to stop this. As if, guys, if you have an older team like the Lakers, and you are on a back to back, it is totally reasonable and expected that the coach might then say, hey, kid on the two way, who we drafted, who's playing the best ball of his career. This is a game you might get some minutes. Be ready. Now, again, Bronni played very, very poorly, but for that to then be a controversy
is absurd. But here's what really bothered me were if we are going to recite Bronni's current NBA stats, then let's put them in context. So he was taken fifty fifth. There were fifty eight picks in this year's draft, because there were picks taken away. The guy taking fifty sixth has not played because he had knee surgery. So we will compare Bronni's NBA stats. The guy's taking fifty seventh and fifty eighth, We can put them on the screen.
Bronni averaging three minutes a game, point three points point four rebounds, point three assists. That's can you imagine something being worse? Well, I don't know, man. The guy taking fifty seventh, that's averaging point eight points one rebound, point three assists. And the guy taking fifty eighth, who's played double minutes per game. All the other Bronni and Ulbrick, pardon Ulric three and a half minutes when he's played RILs with seven and a half one point six points,
one point eight minutes point four assists per game. They're all the same. What about their G league numbers? And this is where people are really disingenuous. So Bronni's G league numbers twenty eight minutes per game, sixteen four and four. The guy taking fifty sixth has not played because he had ANEE surgery. Fine guy taking fifty seventh six points, seven rebounds, one assist. The guy taking fifty eighth six points, five rebounds, point six assists. So what the hell are
we talking about? It was such a narrative, wasted draft picks service of Lebron's ego unfair. Okay, So the guy like, let's just assume the Lakers board was what everyone else's board was. The three guys taken after him again. Put the G League numbers up again, because I think it's worth noting. Lebron's played twenty Bronni's played twenty eight minutes a game. The guy taking fifty seven has played twenty four minutes a game. The guy taking fifty eight is
played twenty two minutes a game. So Bronni is getting a little more opportunity. Bronni's averaging sixteen a game. The other two guys are averaging six point six and six point seven. Brian's getting you four point two rebounds a game, the other two guys getting you seven point five and five point seven. Brian's getting you four point two assists a game. The other guys are given you one point one in point six. So here's why I bring this up. The little bit of data we have suggests, oh, that's
a fine draft pick. It's totally in line. In fact, he is slightly outperforming the guy's taken after it. So to have that data and then seizon ten bad minutes against the Sixers and do an impassion plead to Lebron or to the league or to the Lakers to stop this, like it's a farce, is to me just wild. And the fact that all of these people were so quiet in the weeks leading up to it when he was cooking in the G League. Now again he might be like, oh, Nick,
nobody's gonna talking about the G League. I'd be fine with that, except they were when he first started in the G League and was playing really poorly, And so I just think it's bullshit, And I think there is a lot of I don't like Lebron, and therefore I am going to be wildly disingenuous about his son from folks on social media and some folks in the media, in the actual media, and I'm no big fan of it.
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All right, demons, we'll obviously go to next week. I think we will do like a prop special uh show, But let's just do a quick recap of where we're at. My quest for an undefeated postseason. Died early, so then I side quest ten win postseason. I can't. I needed to go undefeated last weekend, and I got the Washington game very wrong. So so here so recap my record if you would please.
Uh So, your conference record right now is one in one playoff record. You are eight three and one season record fifty six forty three and three.
Yeah, so figainst the spread more importantly, and maybe this needs to be a bigger piece of next year. Touchdown Genie, I'm just the I the I don't bet the anytime touchdown stuff, but everyone loves it. And I've been undefeated on the season on the times I've given one out. I told you guys, Kareem Hunt at plus one ninety he scored the first touch round of the game. It was just a snap in your teaser ended on a sad note. It made I was I it's you know what. I don't blame you for it. I get the you
had Washington. It was the right way to tease it.
But that was a bummer, honestly, like maybe it's because I already lost the bat, but looking back on it, probably you know, honestly, though, I think that teas and Philly Beck could have been just as smart of a move. Uh yeah, but.
Yeah, I mean it was. I mean, looking back on it, it was the obvious move. However, I thought Washington could win the game. Yeah, And so what I will say is about the super line is kans City opening one and a half? Is the is fair? I'm not gonna act like it's disrespectful. Philly's been so good. I would have been annoyed if kanc City was underdogs. But it feels like Vegas is and the listener or the betters
have kind of learned their lesson there. All right, let's ask a few listener questions to Monday before we get out of here.
Indy Nick, where do you see the game? Where do you see the end game being? And the mainstream media is going to be influenced by social media.
I don't think it's positive. And I think that it's one thing for the mainstream media to be taking the temperature and the pulse of what people are talking about genuinely and having that influence their coverage. I think that's a good thing. The problem is social media is because all of the algorithms are made in a way to generate the most engagement and to usually keep people the
most angry and outraged and online. That it skews your perspective of what people are actually talking about, or thinking about or believing, and then eventually perception becomes reality. If there is a small portion of the world or that thinks something but that is amplified on social media, and that then therefore dictates what the actual media is covering, then all of a sudden it does become the story.
And so I think that there's a lot of things involving the way discussions are framed and which discussions are rewarded online that I don't know if the mainstream media has a good grap grasp on what people what the majority of the population actually care about as opposed to what the majority of their Twitter feed is talking about. All right, let's go to bref.
Uh bref Nick. Time to admit your King Kingsbury take is a category three.
It might be he maybe learned, maybe he listen. He was he was not a good head coach in college. He was not a good head coach at U Arizona. But maybe he's he's been an excellent offensive coordinator for Washington, and I do think he's gonna get another head coaching job. But this is a great year for him. All right, let's go on to Monkey.
I guess bear if there. He also added, is it more Jayden than him?
Well, he listened. Jayden certainly helps, but he helped Jayden. I think Caleb would have had a far better year than he had this year if he had Cliff Kingsbury instead of the coaching situation he had. So Cliff gets credit.
It's fair. Monkey says this takes on takes is so necessary.
Very well, that's not. Well, listen, We're gonna try to do more of it. I don't want to listen. I don't necessarily want to always be like picking fights. So I will also try to find some Yeah, I know a spot for you and so uh so I will also try to do some Hey, I saw this and thought it was really good. You know what I mean? A little balance balance. Yeah, all right, let's do Eric and then get out of here.
Eric says Bronni is getting undue criticism for a fifty fifth pick, But was he not getting undue praise slash coverage for his draft position too?
Well, listen, no, I don't know that he was getting undue praise, but obviously he got more coverage than every second round pick in the NBA history combined. But that is I don't look at those as hand in hand. I would look at it as coming into the draft, people were like Bronni and bron gonna be an unstoppable duo. He's gonna change the Lakers' fortunes. Then this level of like vitriol and criticism would be to me more warranted. But there was none of that. It was a lot
of coverage. It wasn't a lot of oh my god, this guy's gonna be amazing. I mean, I don't think anybody was more optimistic, so to speak, or positive about Bronni than I was. And I will admit, you know, I'm biased to a degree there. And I said, the goal is that in one to two years maybe he can be a role player. That was like the hot the top end of the optimism. I'm surrounding it all right,
like rate, subscribe, review some really cool stuff. Also, next week gonna be doing a live show from New Orleans, so that'll be great. Uh, see you guys there first thing, first and a few hours. Great job, Demons, a great job. Everybody will trade