This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. Ah, here we go. It is a Tuesday. I'm still floating. Feet barely touching the ground. Look at Sam Darnold, Kenneth Walker in Disneyland. The happiest place on earth, the happiest people on earth. It is great to have you in. A lot of people think, oh, there's football season in America than waiting for football season. I don't buy it. Fascinating story happening in the NBA and college basketball. But I want to start about something. Because yesterday I'm kind of, you know, perusing the internet all day. I took a chill day. It's a big weekend. And I'm seeing a lot of this. Sam Darnold didn't do anything in that Super Bowl. And you are right. He did not throw a pick. He did not look nervous. He did not get rattled. He did not have a fumble. And he did not take multiple sacks. You're right. I'm wrong. He didn't do anything. For the record, the last eight Super Bowl winning quarterbacks, only one through for over 300 yards, my homes. I thought Kyle Shanahan nailed it on the pregame show when you're as good as Seattle is. You play by different rules. Yeah, Sam's a stud. And you know us have him for a year. I think we get a little too much credit for what we did. We didn't do anything for him. We just gave him a platform to where we could take the pressure off him for a year. And I think him watching that, Sam's always let it ripped. But when you let it rip all the time and you're always trying to win the game, a lot of times you keep both teams in the game. And I think that's really what's changed with him. He picks and chooses better. He's got a really good team. And when you have a really good team, you don't always have to try to win it. did not have a turnover for a month, 700 yards, five TDs, no picks and scrambled. That is exceptional quarterback play. Do you know the two super balls were Brady through for the most yards? He lost one and fell behind 28 to three in the other and needed the greatest, most miraculous catch of his career, Julian Edelman and Atlanta to win that one. Oh, let me remind you that Drake May said an NFL super ball quarterback record this, this past Sunday. Drake May threw for more yards than any quarterback in a single quarter in NFL history. Did you know that 235 in the fourth? Just think he played well. Sam Donald didn't get in the way and let's let's be totally honest why you have this opinion. Men are very proud animals. We are very proud. You thought Sam Donald was a bust. You were approved wrong and you don't want to admit it publicly. That's why everybody always talks about you ever going to the internet rigged rigged. No, you lost a bet. Your team lost. If the NFL is rigged, they're doing a terrible job. Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Matt Stafford, we're not in the Super Bowl. Sam Donald and Drake May were the NFL is doing a horrible job of rigging it. So football is the ultimate complimentary sport. And when you have a stacked roster, not having a turnover for a month is exceptional quarterback play, audible in into stuff that works and out of trouble. So you can tell me, Donald didn't do anything and I will push back by your right. No fumbles, not multiple sacks, never rattled, no interceptions, didn't do any of those things. Drake made it all of them. So you know I like Donald and you also know I like analytics. But I, but I think this is something that I'm not sure people realize this for years on this show. I've talked about analytics, not analytics. Football is much closer to UFC than it is a math class. It has a regulated level of violence and sometimes tough wins, tough, er, wins, intimidation wins. Analytics don't prove any of it. So Seattle does not go for it on fourth downs. In fact, the three teams that went for it in the NFL, the fewest times on fourth down, the sea hawks won the Super Bowl. If Bonyx doesn't get hurt, Denver's probably in the Super Bowl and the Texans. And there was a moment in this game, late second quarter, fourth and five for Seattle. And they chose to punt. An analytic said it's a go either way decision. Sea hawks led six nothing. They brought on the leagues most highly paid punter and he pinned New England deep. Analytics said it's a go either way. And as I watched it might take away us, no, it's not. It's a hundred percent punt because New England couldn't move the ball. Why would you give them a field position break? Their longest ride was 28 yards. You don't give struggling offenses. The break and the life preserver they need. That's a hundred percent punt. Secondly, it's not like the sea hawks were dominating on big offensive downs. The Patriots defense got tired, but for the first quarter and a half, they were excellent. I mean, J. S. N. was invisible. Nobody could stop him all year. Patriots did. And the third thing, Seattle went a month with no turnovers and a defense creating points. You punt the ball, winning the game, not winning arguments on the internet is the key to football. Too many people want to go on the internet and sound smart. Do you realize the last three Super Bowl champions each kicked four field goals in their respective Super Bowls? Take the points if you are exceptional anywhere. If you have a significantly better defense, the chiefs from 2022 to 2024 had an exceptional defense, Steve Smaagnoll, exceptional defense. They won two Super Bowls. They appeared in three Super Bowls. Do you know where they were on going for it on fourth down? Second fused in the league. You know who went for a lot? The jets and the Titans. The Dodgers aren't winning the World Series because of analytics. They've got more money and a smarter GM and they buy better players. Everybody talks about analytics in the NBA. Oklahoma City is the dominant team in the sport. They're middle of the pack. Oklahoma City is built on defense and one exceptional score and a great GM and coach. They're not winning with three pointers. Seattle is so extraordinarily uniquely coached and deep special teams, defense. They don't play by the same rules everybody does. You don't go for it on fourth and five. That's not a go either way call. That's a pin, Drake made deep. They can't put first downs together. Pin him deep. Take the points. Nine nothing felt like 24 nothing. Six nothing felt like 14 nothing. Like football is much closer to UFC than math class. Sometimes intimidation tough getting into the psyche or the head of your opponents. Drake May is an accurate thrower. You watched him in that game. He was intimidated. He didn't want to get hit. Drake May was rattled. He was nervous. He was intimidated. That doesn't show up in analytics. Pin him deep. Here Sam Darnold on not caring the load and field goals in the Super Bowl. Because of the guys in the locker room because of our coaching staff working their butts off every single day. Like, you know, that's why we're all here. You know, offense again, didn't I feel like we didn't play as good as we could have I certainly didn't play as good as I could have, but already feds out her back or especially teams out her back and we got the win. So I'm not anti analytics and not everybody can play by Seattle or Denver's rules, but all year long Denver was a remarkable fourth quarter team. And I think Sean Patens feeling was our defense is so exceptional. We're going to take the points. We're going to end drives. We're going to punt. We're not going to take big risks. I will open up to playbook in the fourth quarter. I will take more risks. Some do our demise in the fourth quarter. But there are teams in this league this year like Denver and Houston and Seattle going for it makes no sense. Kansas city for a three year period with spags defense. They never went. Oh, Andy Reed, my homes, they rarely went for it. Go for it. Why? I know everybody loves math. Okay. A lot of times in this sport momentum is huge. And Seattle's defense was in Drake, May and Josh McDaniel's head. Don't let him off the hook. Jay Mac last night is a refreshing LeBron James. Getting out and admitting we're not very good. Did you hear that? I did hear that. Yeah. They played great against OK. See fell down the stretch. Well, SGA, SGA didn't play. And either did Luca, you know, Austin Reeves coming off the bench still on a minute's restriction. Wouldn't it be nice to watch an NBA game in the stars play? I mean, listen, man, it's a long season. 82 games. What do you want? Funny because I watched the Super Bowl and all the starters were playing and they tackle each other. I mean, it's a four month season. You play 17 games versus 82. Come on. What would you bag it on the NBA for? Come on. I love to see the stars occasionally show up. Who are you? Charles Barkley here? Let's go. Come on. It's a great game last night. All right. Be sure to catch live additions of the herd weekdays in New N Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the I Heart Radio app. Stegats here. I have a podcast empire. It continues to grow and I have brought it here to Ivar. I'm also doing a live radio show from three to five PM Eastern because my wife wanted to kick me out of the house. It's called Stegats and Company Live, which is available in podcast form right when the show finishes every single day. Some of the biggest names in sports. A lot of phone calls. I love you guys. It's one of my favorites. A lot of interaction. Guys not taking themselves too seriously. Those are just some of the things that you could expect from Stegats and Company and Stegats and Company Live. So listen to Stegats and Company Live and our original podcast. Please subscribe, rate and review. Stegats and Company and God Bless football. Taylor's livelihood depends on it. Do it today and you can check all of those out on the I Heart Radio app. Apple podcast for wherever you get your podcast. So I've said that's about Rob Polenka, the GM of the Lakers, who lost last night to OKC, didn't have Luke but they didn't have SGA. He's built a regular season team. In the regular season, nobody really plays defense in the NBA. Right? So like everybody's kind of average defensively, except the really great teams like, you know, like San Antonio, Detroit, OKC, they're great defensive teams, but they even turn it up a notch in the post season and the NBA officials swallow their whistles in the post season. So defense matters a lot in the NBA, not now. So the Lakers are fools gold in the regular season. Nobody plays defense. They're terrible at it, but you don't really notice because nobody ratchets it's up. So I'm reading the LA times two days ago here in LA and watching the Lakers last night. And a couple days ago, the LA times readers, they're smart. They know what the problem is every single letter to the editor about the Lakers was we're not very good defensively. In fact, we're atrocious. The Laker fans know the problem. They've watched a lot of great basketball when they had magic is their star. They had Kareem and Michael Cooper. When the warriors had Steph is their star, they have Andre Iguodala, they have Dremon green. If your best player, Luca is a great offensive player, but but tremendously limited often hunted on defense, you got to surround him with help. Rob Polinka has the opposite issue. He is built an offensive roster where all the best players are below average defensively. LeBron used to be great, but now he's old. So I think Laker fans know the issue. They don't know the size of the wrecking ball needed. You keep Luca and JJ reddick. Everything else, the benches atrocious, athletically, they are the slowest team in the league. The slow, you can measure that now. So they're slow. They're poor defensively. They're not athletic. They don't have enough three point shooters. They have arguably the worst bench in the league. But again, you have a great young offensive coach and a superstar. You got to build this team differently. And you got to get off this Austin Reeves. Everything is on the table after Luca and JJ reddick, everything Austin Reeves last night. Do you see what OKC did? They hunted him and players shot 50% when Austin Reeves guarded them. They'll be some dope EGM in the league that thinks this guy is going to be a first ball of Hall of Famer. Get picks, move people. He's a nice player. But when Luca's your star, if you have Austin Reeves next to him, now you got two suboptimal defenders. So the three best teams in this league are the three best defensive teams in this league. OKC San Antonio and Detroit. So defense matters. And Laker fans are smart. They really are. And so is LeBron. They just don't have enough athletes. They don't have enough shooters. They don't have enough rim protection. So but in the regular season where nobody's playing elite defense consistently, you can fool people as, oh man, they're really in the playoffs. In fact, I would say once the trade deadlines done in about a month, you'll start watching the defense. As people worry about seeding is like, oh, the league changes. Then you can see a clear gap between the Lakers and OKC. Last night, OKC on the road. They got a flu on the team as GAs not playing. They still shot almost 49% from the field. But LeBron after brutally honest and he knows basketball and has been in this league for 20 plus years. You want me to compare us to them? No, I want to know where you was saying. Showed that Blake just like his team is on it. It's like that's a championship team right here. We're not. What? So I'll learn their thing. What is the biggest thing you think better keeping this team as this can't sustain energy in F for 48 minutes. And they can. That's why I want to championship. OKC is the Seahawks. They've drafted better. They're better upstairs. They've got waves of players. I mean, New England's defense is good, but you saw them at the end of the second quarter. The Patriots look tired and Seattle never did because Seattle has waves of depth that New England is still a draft away from developing. And so Seahawks and OKC are very similar. People may not always love their star quarterback and their star player who's seeking the whistle. But in the end, just layers and layered. That's why playing Oklahoma City, especially late in the season is so valuable. A measuring stick. Because I'm telling you, we're about a month, the six weeks away from NBA teams caring about defense, like even in the first quarter. And that's when you can really see the holes in this roster. And Rob Polanka has created a fun team, a good offensive team. I like watching the Lakers play. But I don't think anybody understands the wrecking ball. This thing needs Jay Mac with the news. This is the heard line news. All right, we'll be to the NBA shortly. But let's start with the Super Bowl. Call an interesting nugget here from Devon Witherspoon, the great defensive back from the Seahawks. Obviously, Seattle's defense dominated the Super Bowl for three turnovers, Sack Drake May six times. But they saw a tell defensively and pounced on it. Here's Witherspoon. We kind of knew what they was going to do, how they was going to attack us and how they was going to get featured who is serving people at the ball. So we had a great game plan like that. We kind of knew how they tackles and guards are going to sit and serve past pretensions. And we went out there and attacked it. And you know, they they were they was kind of struggling in his playoffs a couple of times. You know a couple of people got out there. So we knew what we was going to do. How are we going to attack them? I tell like in poker, there's a tell something they do. Yeah. That nobody in New England's aware of they have to scout themselves. But Seattle could call their own defensive plays in the last second. There was a tell. Well, I'll tell you this left tackle needs to be upgraded. Oh boy, we'll Campbell getting roasted on the internet. Forget it. Just a embarrassing performance. I know that they're saying maybe he was injured. Maybe we had some knee thing. Yeah, it's interesting how convenient. Remember he was made out of shot after the game. We heard nothing about it in the days. Well, and remember fairness to Will Campbell. He was came in with arm length issues. It was one of the weaker drafts in the last decade. He was servicing. He was a serviceable left tackle. It's very possible that you move him inside or to right tackle. And he could have he could flourish in all fairness. He also faced the Texans. Khalil Mac. I mean, if you start looking at the Broncos, I mean, the Broncos, not Khalil Mac. I think he's on the other side. Not sure right now. Chargers, yeah, chargers. But I mean, he faced four or five of the best pass rushers in the sport and got gobbled up. Yeah, all the time. Just got obliterated. They need to fix that short up in the offseason, but they got money. They're going to be fine. I don't think they're going back to the Super Bowl. Would you agree? I agree with you. Yeah, I think they're going to be really good. I don't think because there's like a Dan Marino thing. Remember, Dan Marino goes to the Super Bowl year two. Everybody's like, Oh, Marino's got never got back. And with Don Chula, the winning his coach and league history. If I gave over under half another Super Bowl appeared, we'll drink. Make it back. I think you'll get back to a Super Bowl. Absolutely. But I think the AFC was weird. Kansas City had a rare down year. Baltimore had a rare down year. I mean, it burrowed all of us. You know, and I think you and I both believe that Denver and the chargers are both better next year. I mean, I think the chargers are going to look. If Bo Nick's isn't missing that game, they probably beat the Patriots in a very fair or so. So like, I'm not, I know Patriots fans are hate or no, I'm being a realist. Your schedule was a joke. Yeah. And you looked off on the post. All right, let's go to the NBA column. Listen, this was kind of ugly last night. Pistons hornets hornets are hot. They had won nine straight and then this happened. Jalen Duren back and down the moose. They go face to face. Duren moushes him and it was on and poppin. Oh my goodness. Swings. I mean, this got ugly. And then Miles bridges jumps in as you'll see here. And then after he does that, you know, Isaiah Stewart, AKB Stu gets involved. This was harkening back to the days of the Detroit bad boy pistons that just feels like. Hey, Detroit is a good watch. And they are a good team. Pretty good number. And they're missing these right now. Okay, drafted and developed. They've done it the okay. See way. Not flashy. Good GM drafted and developed. You know, we watched them last year. And what do we say last year? They're a year away. They don't know how to win yet. Well, they do now. I kind of like the attitude. Interesting. Look at that. Miles bridges saying, oh, you stepping on my guy. Miles bridges, of course, is that is a nice one. You like this? I want my NBA teams to care. How about you can care, but not throw punches. I don't I don't get Robinson's like, come on. What do we? I don't love. I mean, most of these NBA guys, I mean, they talk a big game, but they, you know, yeah, I don't, you don't want this, man. I don't want it. But it's not the end of the world. I like my teammate, defending my guys. I'm just saying, I don't think it's the end of the world. I think it is. NBA because of the mouse and the palace is terrified of this stuff. Yeah, this doesn't look good, man. Well, it was great NBA games last night. Baseball teams fight NFL teams fight. Yeah, we make fun of that stuff. No, we don't. Morons charging the mound. Maybe it hockey. Why can't NBA guys a couple times a year fight? Okay. Now the fans are slow. Men, dude. What are we doing? Throw a five punches? Well, what do you think there in the NFL? Children morons throwing punches on guys with helmets in the NFL. That's even dumber. Listen, I don't there. You go go watch an NFL training camp when you have two days of Ravens playing commanders. Yeah, they think okay. Multiple. Yeah, I mean, this is pro sports. Detroit is trying to set an agenda. You're not going to play around with us. Okay. Hey, just Detroit. Be ready. Somebody ruffs up Cade cutting him in the post season because you guys are acting like this. Be ready for it because I'm telling you, they're going to come ahead hunting for Cade cutting him. He's like the only guy Detroit has offensive. I like the pistons as a regular season team. Okay. Nicks are better. They're nicks are coming out of the east. You want to put some cheddar on that we can. It ain't going to be the piston. Sorry guys. Final story. We're sticking in the NBA juicy scoopier. What? Colin. So the Dallas Mavericks. Obviously, Mark Cuban had sold the T is portion of the team back and then to Patrick Dumanth in 2023. Yeah. We're reports are indicating that a Dallas investment group wants to pair with Cuban and buy back the team largely because Patrick Dumanth is such a disaster as owner of the Mavericks. Well, that was a weird. I mean, listen, Cuban was brilliant to sell it. Okay. But this happens a lot. You sell a company and then you leave the company and the companies are wrecked because you are a huge component to this. You guys just don't care as much. They don't. I would love to see Mark by it. Can you imagine letting Luca donches go? That's how it showed the guy doesn't care. I have. He trusted the dude. Nico Harrison has been fired. I think he's working at Outback stay counts right now in Dallas. We have to take shots. I'm sorry. I mean, bottom line is he ruined everything. And I'll say this. Cooper flag is amazing. And you know that he is the future of his league. He needs good ownership. I have never seen a 19 year old as complete as Cooper flag. He has literally no elite defender, great size, aggressive, catch and shoot, handle the ball, play point slash floaters. T. They got like a 28 year old game. Yeah. He's amazing. He is amazing. Amazing player. You know, Adam Silver. I haven't spoken to Adam Silver. He'll be out here obviously for all star festivities. I'm guessing he would like Mark Cuban back in the league because Mark Cuban is an aggressive owner. He's passionate. He's sit front row at every game. Cares deeply. And I think he would be a good steward for Cooper flag. I just want to see Cooper flag a good teammates. Yeah. I just want to see him get his guy roster right now. I think because the NBA makes trading difficult. I don't like that they did that. Listen, we both like Adam Silver. First of all, stop being paralyzed with tanking. It's happening now. A third of the league's tanking. If you want to tank, you can't get over it. I mean, it's just like you can't there's certain things you can't stop speeding in America. So raise the speed limit. People are going to go 65 drive in home in the 405. They're not going to go 55. They want to get home and see their kids. Stop it. Don't be paralyzed by it. Faster. Doesn't mean more accidents. Strangely because cars are built better than they were in the 50 60 70s. 80s. The second thing is stop worrying about tanking. The bottom line is you want bad teams to get good. Let them get that last year's draft. This year's draft. I want I want Utah because Utah looks like they're not interested in winning a title. I want to see them get the kid from Kansas. That's a great basketball community. And so that's the number one thing. The second thing is they make trading very difficult in the NBA. The reason you can go from 4 and 13 to 14 and 3 in the NFL, you can go buy and trade players all the time. And so like I like the NBA, but it's so hard to go from bad to good NFL. You can do it in six months. Well, you could say OKC had Durant and Westbrook and Hardin then went to the bottom. You drive to Chet Home Grid. Well, they did. They did. They did. They did. They did. They did. They did. They did. They did. The Celtics and the OKC Thunder didn't really bottom out. Why? Because they have brilliant GMs. Well, OK, it says they sank. They didn't bottom out. Detroit bottomed out. Detroit was horrible for 15 years. Got kid cunning him and now they're the number one. But like you do need that superstar. And that's a problem with the Lakers. You know, we can get to them later. But like Lakers, they just want a title five years ago. It's tough to stay on top and you're not drafting at the top. They got no good young players. They don't have a single elite defensive player. OKC has got eight. That's an issue. Yeah. J Mac with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd lie. Oh, uh, top of next hour. Five up, five down. Five teams that will absolutely inarguably better. Be better next year. And it's not all just wins and record. They'll look better. They'll feel better. They'll be in the right direction. Five up and five down. And some of the five downs are good teams now. But they've caught breaks. Their division's getting tougher. They're pulling back. Um, yeah, listen, yesterday and Sunday. Everybody is beating up on Drake May. And I wanted to add perspective here because he seems like a nice kid. So Drake May faced Seattle and Houston's defenses. The two best defenses in the NFL. They look different. And between the two, we got sack 11 times and had six turnovers in the pass or rating of 87. It was bad. But I want to remind everybody that one year ago Sam Darnold faced the Rams in the playoffs. Horrible protection. And Darnold was sack nine times two turnovers in a pass or rating in the 70s. A year later, Sam Darnold is great. A year later, Sam Darnold a month ago faced the Rams. Three touchdowns. No picks. 346 yards. 128 pass or rate. So further record New England plays the Seahawks next year. Regular season. Don't be shocked. If Drake May, they upgrade and buy a left tackle. They move, will Campbell inside. And that's one of the great things about the NFL every six months. I mean, you see massive changes. Go look at the Chicago Bears operation. Three weeks after Ben Johnson took over. It was like the language changed. The attitude changed. I mean, I can make an argument. The best team in the NFL was Seattle. The second best team was the Rams. The third best team at the end of the year. Am I wrong? It was either Denver, the Bears. The Rams had to play a perfect game offensively in Chicago to beat the Bears. And over time, the Bears were a circus a year ago. The Patriots four and thirteen to fourteen and three. So Drake May faces the Seahawks probably early. They'll probably that could be your first Thursday game. And don't be surprised if they upgrade the offensive line. He's a 100% healthy. So outside of Matt Stafford, the Seahawks defense made a lot of good quarterbacks. Look totally inept. Here's how good Seattle's defense was. Twice in a three week period. They made Christian McCaffrey invisible. Invisible. Four times in seven eight years has Kyle Shanahan been totally stymied. Two of the four times were against Seattle this year. They made a lot of people not named Matt Stafford. Look inept. So starting quarterbacks against the Seahawks this season, including the playoffs. If you take Stafford out, had seventeen touchdowns, 21 picks, and a passer rating at 74. If you just take out staff, well, Drake May is not at Stafford's level right now, especially with their leaking left tackle left-o-line space. So it just just defending Drake May. What makes this league great Sam Darnold one year ago was a trotious against the Rams because he got sack nine times. And Seattle upgrades, you know, that minute, I was Minnesota. Then he goes to Seattle. He's got a better defense. He's got a better defensive coach. He's got JSN. I mean, the left side of the offensive line, Gray's able Charles Cross. He's got Walker. The running back and all the sudden Sam is like, oh, the face of the Rams have played his best game as a pro, I think, against the Rams. Last time he faced him. Oh, coming up next, people are freaking out because the best college basketball player arguably is never available. He's missed 11 of 24 games for Kansas. They won despite his absence last night over a really good Arizona team. I'd probably pick today to win it all, but should you draft him? What do you do with him? He's never available. Does he love basketball? That's next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in New N Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Tonight on FS1, it's a huge college basketball triple header. First 13th ranked Purdue takes on 7th ranked Nebraska at 7 Eastern. Then 5th ranked Iowa faces TCU at 9. And in the mountain west San Jose State battles, UNLV at 11. It all tips off tonight on FS1. So the upcoming NBA draft will be pretty special. It's got three or four great players. One at BYU, one at Duke and and Darren Peterson plays for Kansas. He's the closest looking player I've seen to Kobe Bryant. He's a jump off the television player. They played Arizona last night. It was in Lawrence, Kansas and Kansas one, but Peterson didn't play. It's a huge win for Kansas. Arizona's outstanding. Peterson didn't play. In fact, he's missed 11 of their 24 starts cramping last night. He had flu and there's a lot of concern. Whoa, I'm hearing this. Whoa, you can't draft this guy. The NBA makes trading difficult. The NFL does not. If you can get a Kobe Bryant level athlete, you draft him. Okay. It is a 3 and D league. He is a long wing who can shoot threes. He's basically what everybody in the league needs more of except maybe OKC. Lakers need four of him. Okay. You draft him. I remember years ago. Christian McCaffrey skipped the sunbowl and people are like, whoa, hey, you got to show up for your team. It was the sunbowl and he was a transformational running back talent. You draft Christian McCaffrey if he's available. One of the most talented guys has ever played position. You draft him when it comes to sports and music and entertainment. These are not like punch the clock working class jobs. You got some drama. You got some high maintenance. You've got a lot of different things that aren't involved in most of our jobs. A dentist and accountant do not have the personality of Bruno Mars. Okay. I mean, to be that creative and that that unique, it can be a different cat. Athletes are the same. They can be sometimes kind of lopsided, a little overly dramatic. Whatevs? The kid's special. You draft him. Like there's just some things that you have to deal with. Like if you live in Arizona, you need a pool. It's not going to elevate. It's going to be expensive. You'll have to resurface it. It may leak. The maintenance is a pain in the butt. Buck and you'll never ever pain in the butt. You'll never get your money back on a pool. You'll get it back on a kitchen. You'll get it back on your bathrooms. You'll never get the money back on a pool. But if you live in Arizona, you got to have one. And if you're in the NBA, you got to have this kid. Can shoot threes, can handle the ball insanely athletic, probably gets better defense defensively. Not everybody's Cooper flag. In fact, not anybody else is Cooper flag where you're 19 years old and you don't even have a flaw. Like it, it, you're, you're completely fully formed. So well, he's not always available. He's had cramping and guy skipped bowl games. Those would make it right. It's not a make it right decision. It's a, that is exactly what we need. And there's nobody like him in the sport. I would make him the number one pick. I just, I don't, he, it's funny. I was told before the season, you got to, you got to see this kid for Kansas. In fact, I forget who told me. And I said, okay, I watched four possessions. And I was like, oh my god, there's a Kobe Bryant. And then I went online and I'm like, okay, it's, it's an obvious one. You draft him. You build a pool in Arizona. It doesn't matter what it costs. It's 120 in the summer. Get a pool. Draft that guy. Here's Bill Self on the kid not playing last night and still winning. Well, we don't know if it's the flu. It's flued like tint symptoms. At least that's what I've been told. So he didn't practice yesterday. But we were hoping he could play today and, you know, he came out for shooting around and wasn't able to go. I thought he'd run on with kick in and he would go. So, and, and, you know, he was that shooter around today. I mean, he was out there, you know, but just, but just what you could just tell, he didn't feel great. But I we were all hopeful that he'd kick in and and be ready to go. So you sound like you bet on the game. So, so, but, but, but no, there, there, there was no point with that at all. Yeah. He's Jay Mac who is betting Duques basketball games and unders on a regular basis. The kid at BYU hyper athletic. This kid feels more refined. Booster at Duke feels ready to play immediately. But I don't know how you could talk yourself. He is what the league is looking for. Athletic wings who can shoot three. That's exactly. And defend and defend. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how great of a defender is. It's hard. He ate up DeBanza from BYU a couple of weeks ago. Um, in a head to head match. Okay. He was great in the first half. Um, I'm with you. I think you got to take Peterson. I remember I had a guy on my podcast. These draft analysts. I had a Anthony Edwards, Lamello ball draft. And this guy was saying, listen, Anthony Edwards, there's a lot of team saying he doesn't love basketball. He said that is he devouring tape. Uh, and Anthony Edwards is publicly like, I don't watch tape. I like football. Like I like a lot of activities. Sounds a lot like Trevor Lawrence. Remember the the knocks against him? But you still Trevor Lawrence is so skilled. It's Jacksonville. You get him Lee and Come and you're like a playoff team. So like, you can't, you know, yeah, I couldn't do that at my job. You don't have a 47-inch vertical totally different. It's just and it the other thing is he's at a position that's very necessary. Like Ben Simmons when he came out and it didn't work out, but Ben Simmons was a six, nine and a half point guard who defended scored at the rim. Now we couldn't shoot and he had an attitude. But I, I talked to two executives in the league, two scouts. And they're like, that's as good a prospect. I love Ben Simmons. He for the record didn't make an all-star game the first year. He made all NBA like he was a really talented player. He made all NBA and then he didn't. And then he went sideways. You still draft somebody because the NFL allows you. You can trade anybody anytime. You could have traded Tom Brady in your prime. You could trade Joe Burrow tomorrow. That's not the NBA. So it's very, I mean, how long is it going to be until the Washington Wizards are good? It's been, it feels like 30 years and they had John Wall and they've had good players. They barely feel it and never good. In the NFL, the minute the Bears get the right coach, they keep the same owners, the same president, the same GM. They have the same quarterback. They just bring in a head coach. You're like, are they this are they're fourth or fifth best team in the league? So it's that that's not the NBA. You just in the NFL, you can be pickier. I mean, in the NFL, Brock Purdy's the last player taken in the NBA. This is a very good draft. You get to about the 14th pick and it's a prospect. You're kind of projecting on what that, it's probably a rotational player. Even this is a really good draft. The last draft was good. But after Ace Bailey in this last draft, and there'll be some guys that pop. But there were about five guys here like, yeah, those guys are going to be great players. And then like six through 12, you're like, those should be very good players. And then you're projecting. But again, like Yokech and SGA are two of the best guys in the league. They were not upper cross draft picks. They were not like top five guys. That's right. You could second round. So it can happen, but it's it's more rare. And look at Tom Brady, six round pick. It happens a lot in football. Okay, Jeff Goodman covers college basketball. There was an NBA GM that talked about this. He said, people are overreacting. It's not that big of a deal. We got guys in the NBA who missed too much with a strain. Hammy. A lot of guys would have shut him down for the rest of the season. Pumped the brakes. People get the flu. People also have to remember it's a small snap shot of his entire career. He's probably the number one pick. We'll see. When you watch him play, if you don't have the light college basketball, watch a half. Give it, give it 35 minutes. You'll be like, whoa. He's not Cooper flagged, but he is like a big time blue chip prospect. There's like four of them. Booser, by the way, I know you mentioned him. He's really good against UNC, though. Their length gave him problems. The big guys, you don't take earlier than the wings because the wing is the most coveted position in basketball. Yeah, right now it is like when I grew up as a when I was kid younger, it was bigs. Yeah. You had there were so few bigs on the planet. You got a big and that led for the record. That led to a ton of busts. I can find you 12 great centers all time. I can find you 40 first round center bust. Yeah. Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan. Remember in the draft, that was like one of the biggest whiffs of all time. I mean, Greg Odin going one. A lot of bigs. Yeah. Sam Bowie was remarkable. Yeah. Sam Bowie was remarkable. Go YouTube. Sam Bowie pulling up on the left wing, shooting 18 footers. Yeah. He was ahead of his time. He fell apart. Yeah. So it's I don't know. It's it's all I know is this is not you you have to think about a lot of different things like the movie Moneyball. When Brad Pitt's playing Billy Bean and he's like, you know, there's the Yankees. There's this and then we're a mile below that. You have to know what you can possibly do. And in the NBA, what you're trying to fight, let's say this kid ends up being 75 to 80% of what he could be. So instead of averaging 29, the average is 23, you get about 68 games a year. He's pretty good defensively. He's fun to watch. He's dynamic, but he doesn't quite he gets, but he doesn't quite love it like you wish he loved it. He'd still take him. Yeah. The other thing is when somebody is this gifted like LeBron was so good, you draft LeBron over Carmelo and Carmelo was a great college player for a year. It's very good. You draft LeBron because if you don't, it will ruin your career trading Luca to the Lakers, ruin Nico Harrison's career. This kid his highlight package hit you have to draft him either one or two. I would take him one, but you have to. I mean, he's just sometimes you do things to save your own bacon. You pass on this kid and he goes to a really good roster and is doing 24 and six and play off basketball. You're losing your job as a GM. This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
