Luka Doncic scores 60 in Lakers win, Brou’s Ballot, Duke's close call, Sean Payton joins, Title Pie

Live from New York. It's a show that is not watching March Man. It's not into it. What I'm into is studio television. There you go. That's what I'm into. You're watching after the show, getting caught up, seeing how your Duke team might be frauds. I'm locked into the show. I start prepping for Monday's show. Honestly, I think yesterday's game salad him on the whole team. I do. He knows they're going down. I do too. It's a little bit of a, no, slight for you, to be honest with you. What? He put Shire on the bud list. His team's like, you know what? We thought it was going to be easy. Thought they were going to lay it out. But we put him on the bud list when they were down 13. And then they came back to win. Yeah, not a slight. OK. You got it. You used to be good at taking an L when it happened. And now you just. What L is there to take? And now you just say, like, actually, Brew, you're the Duke. How about what L is there to take? We won. OK, there we go. Did we not win the game? Now we're back. Enjoy it. Now we're back. Enjoy it. Yeah, now we're back. What I have done is trick everybody to think that I'm the only one rooting for Duke. Yeah. Today, Luke and Goats for 60 Alphark and the Lakers go. Meanwhile, Duke survives. I've been on them for months. This was slightly surprising. The one stat that will make you think Duke is in trouble, historically. Yeah. And finally, a special Wemby-centric edition of title pie. No news on if we got some pies. We did get some pizza pies. Thanks to Danny Park. I heard they were late, Brew. Did you hear that? They were late. They were allowed to come down several times. But they finally arrived. They did arrive, and they were delicious. Was this a delivery issue, a pizza place issue, or a park and kitchen? I don't think Danny, you know how on the app should pay like the extra $1.99, so you're the first. I think Danny's like I paid him. No, actually, I'm doing it. $5 off. Right, $5 off. I'll be last, and I'll meet you at the corner. I think that's what happened. It's your turn next. Oh, I'm going to go. Wings, Danny did the pizza. I took everybody out for dinner. Oh, that's right. I had a lot. Seafood plateau. Mixing steakhouse. How about, when did you take people out to dinner? Nick, you were there. Remember, you left early. My brother came. You lost a bet. That's true. That wasn't kindness of your own heart. Did I take you out to dinner? I mean, kind of. No, it wasn't. I think you were obligated to do it. Did you pay anything? Did you enjoy a big steak? It was a bet. I saw it. But you also did leave. You didn't even stay the whole time. You left before the check. It was like 3 and 1 half hours. It was 3 and 1 half hours. And this is what he said. He couldn't even make an excuse. He's just like, hey, guys, is it OK if I go? I'm wrapped up. I'm good. We start in Miami. Another spectacular performance from Luca. This time he goes for 60. 60. A lot of people saying this guy's going nuclear. No. Again. 100 points in the last two days. 20 in the fourth. Lakers of 1-8 in a row. Here's JJ. It was a superhero performance. He made big shots. He made tough shots. Made a lot of right reads. When he gets it going like that, some of it is you just kind of like, let him go. And his teammates felt that. They saw that. He had the crazy step back three in front of their bench. You just go down the list. The shot making was unreal tonight. What's this version of Luca mean for the Lakers? Go in Luca. I got bad news for Ian. Spot bonus from yesterday rescinded. If he's the one who put going Lukelier. People are saying it. People are saying it. On our bar. This version of Luca means no one wants to play him. There are a handful of truisms across all 80 years of NBA history. And one of them is one guy, if he's great enough, can beat a team. And dating, you can go back as far as you want. And Luca. In the conference. Yeah, in the conference. And yeah, usually it ends around the NBA finals. But can execute a, whether it's 7 versus 2, which is not a massive upset at any round in any moment of the playoffs. And Luca does have that pedigree of a guy who, I don't know, Bruce, he was a year into his career when you called him Luca legend. And when we talked about what I think I said it would be a massive disappointment if he was not one of the 10 best offensive players of all time. Like that you saw that coming. He has some of the pelts on the wall in the playoffs. Not the ultimate pelts, but multiple. He's been great in the playoffs. And you add to it that he and this team are clutched and connected. And the thing you pointed out, KW, the vibes are through. Oh, the vibes are crazy. And nobody wants to be in a close game with them. And the company they keep amongst best record in close games, those teams, now all of those teams had better overall records than this Lakers team. But all those teams ended up in the finals. Sighted by single digits. Yeah, their record in close games. It's pretty remarkable. Now again, I'm trying to be fair to the graphic. Those teams had much better records overall, which means they never got blown out. And this Lakers team sometimes does get blown out. But like the last year's thunder aren't on there because maybe there wasn't a lot of them. No, no, no. I think last year's thunder were around 500 in single digit games. But they never got blown out. So you know what I mean? In games decided by double digits, they were 50 and 2. So when the Lakers lose, they lose. And they don't blow people out that much. It's also that. It's both things. And so, and Luca Brew, here is Luca this month, which seems almost incomprehensible is the wrong word. But he is on fire. And it reminds you, or at least reminded me, of the month of March Luca had two years ago when he led the Mabs to the finals. You put them side by side. He has done this before. And that ended with multiple road series upset wins en route to the finals. And so I think this version of Luca means the Lakers are actual contenders, not the favorites and not the team that I'm picking, but they're real contenders. Yeah, look, there's several things. This version of Luca, we already knew. I felt already he's an all-time great. But when you see this and the run he's been on, which, as far as points per game over a stretch like this, eight, nine games, it's only matched with the Lakers by what Kobe did. Or it goes back to Kobe. Then you have to go back probably to Willed or something like that. But as an all-time great with a Laker uniform on, you know what you have to do? Win a title. Win a championship. All of them have done it except Elgin Baylor. And I said it about LeBron when he went there. You got to get a ring. And so Luca has got to get a ring. That's number one. Number two, he is, even though I have some questions about his playing style, there's some things I don't like, just because he's so ball dominant. He and Yolkic can battle it out for who's the best offensive player in the world. Now, maybe it's Yolkic. You say Yolkic, he's so much more efficient. Yolkic, but those two, like Luca just as a one-on-one player, I'm not saying he would win a one-on-one tournament with all the players. He might. He might. But his defense might be issued. But he gets stops. Right. He'd have to make it. But offensively, he is phenomenal. And he played, you know, people have compared him for years to James Harden because of the Helio-centric play. He's better than Harden. Yes. Both. And I don't mean just the playoff, because he's been better than the playoffs, hasn't had the meltdowns that Harden has. I just think he's at a higher level than Harden. And he's not as hard on the whistle. And Harden's at all time great too. Harden was more reliant on the whistle than Luca. Yeah, he got a lot of whistles in going to the line. But Luca, some of the shots he makes, those threes, I'm sure we'll see something like that. How do you make that? That's just ridiculous. And so that's the other thing. And then I was going to mention, you kind of touched on it. The last time he led the league in scoring, which he's doing now and he's going to do this year, was the 2024 season when they beat Oklahoma City and got to the finals. The thing I've talked about the Lakers now, if they play San Antonio in the second round, and I will say they'll have a tough first round. If they meet Denver or Minnesota, it won't be easy for the Lakers. But if they meet the Spurs in the second round, that is going to be just a great test case for experience and what it means. Because one team has no experience, the other one has a ton of it. It'll just be great. And then if they get past the Spurs and play OKC, the one thing you know, they're not worried about it. They're not scared of OKC. LeBron, we talked last year. I thought, oh, if the Lakers get them, they'll beat them because of the experience and all that. And LeBron, I'm sure, believes he can beat OKC. Luca has beaten them in the playoffs. And so this team with Luca playing like this with LeBron, I still think as great as Luca is right now, LeBron is the key. As long as he continues playing, as you said, the Swiss Army knife role, he has to stay in that role. Now, some nights it'll be 30, like the other night. But he has to stay in that role. And if he does, then they got a solid shot. Wendy said this this morning. I was like, gosh, darn it, Wendy, that was my take-to off of the vibes. Earlier in this year, shout out to Wendy. Earlier this year, vibes on the Lakers, terrible. JJ Redick was saying our losses are louder, and he was a little short with the media. Oh, I remember he was going to make him run wins. He was like, practice tomorrow. Oh, practice tomorrow. Practice tomorrow. Hey, maybe it was. Bring an extra Gatorade. Bring an extra Gatorade. We're going to be running. Luca with the reps, always a thing. LeBron has been a little bit testy on his role in the team. LeBron last night, in these last few games, after the game winner by Luca, LeBron was just thrilled. Yeah, that was. He has been in some movies. But when he's on the court, he's not a great actor. Correct. That's why he also gets people make fun of him for the flops. Like, you're not as good of an actor. But you're not fully there. No, what you can read is emotions. He's happy. Any he must think. Yeah, that really looked good. He can do it. This isn't like, oh, we're going to make a run. This is, we can win a championship LeBron. Oh, I think, yes. I don't think he views them as the favorite. But I think he no longer views them as drawing dead. No. And it felt like earlier in the year, he really felt it. He was asked about it. He was like, what's the difference between us and OKC? He's like, they're a championship caliber team, and we're not. I mean, he flatly said it. I also, Drew, I want to talk more about LeBron and his role later. But I was, I could have lost a ton of money last night. I only didn't because when I was trying to make the bet, someone called me and thanked God, and then I forgot. Because in the morning, I was going to bet a ton against the Lakers. Because Miami was only a three-point favorite because they didn't know who was going to play. And I was like, no chance these guys are playing. They got, they swept Houston. They got into Miami at five in the morning. They have a bit of a cushion. It's third game in four nights. And listen, Austin said as much. But once LeBron said he was playing, there was an onus on everybody else to play. And I was shocked, Drew, that everybody played, and they didn't just say schedule loss. We took care of business. But I loved that mentality. I love it. I, you know, forget all that schedule, low management. It's time to lock in. I love that mentality. I also think with LeBron, because it was notable how joyous he was. I think he's obviously a student of the game. He knows the game. He knows players who can play, who can't. I think he also just is like, Luca is bad. Like Luca is a bad. Like I think he just respects how good of a player Luca is. And I think that's part of why he's so happy and celebrating and, you know, all of that stuff. And also just as you mentioned, Elgin, Luca now, this is the second time in his career, he has 100 points in consecutive games. The only Lakers to do that more than, you know, more than once. Elgin did it three times. And Will has 13 instances of it. I just thought it was noteworthy. Lakers in Orlando tomorrow night, head to San Antonio, suns up, one 10 seconds left. Wemby gets the ball, single coverage, mid-range jumper to win it. He goes for 34. Might want to put two on Wemby. You know, if you look at this play, Fox was open, wide open in the corner. And Wemby did not go to him. I liked it. He was like, I'm going to, and he could see him. He could see him in his peripheral vision. Like right there, see it? Yeah. And he's like, no, I'm taking this. And he can get a good shot anytime he wants. Nobody can disrupt his shot. Here's Wemby post game. Of course, the first instinct is to be proud of it and to love it because you're part of it. But the key for me is to try to not care because we want to attack 82 games. And I want another life. I'm scared to become complacent. So I'll be on the other end of the spectrum and try to not care at all. Are the Spurs ready to make a finals run? Yeah. They are. And they really don't have, I don't know if they look at it this way, or if they, as young as they are, even thinking like this, Nick, there's really not a lot of pressure on them. I mean, I would say certainly if they got beaten the first round by Phoenix or whoever, that would be a downer. That would kind of put a real damper on the season. If they get to the second round and maybe lose to the Lakers, I'm not saying they will, but I don't think people are killing them. I think they're like, this is what they're waiting for. Yes, this is what happens. So if they can really realize there's really no pressure on us, so let's go out here and just continue to play as we have in the regular season, then they could do something. They are 5-0, or 5-1, I should say, against, no, no, scratch that. Since February 1st, they've been the best team in the league. So we got the graphic. 20-2, but look at the rankings. Best offensive team, fourth best defensive team, best point differential, field goal percentage, and the three-point percentage is what you really want to know. Because outside of their just sheer inexperience, that was the one thing you could say, ah, do they shoot well enough? Do they have enough shooter? And they were 38% over the last, essentially, two months. That is basically top of the league, 38%. If they are doing that, then all they have to do is play smart. And I do think at times, I've said it before, sometimes I wish they played through Wimby Moore. In the playoffs, that may have to happen. And they've got to be smart enough to make that adjustment and go to him if they need to. But look, they also have guys that can beat you off the dribble, which is important in the playoffs. Castle, Fox can beat you off the dribble. Then they got Shooter, Champini, Vassal, Vasell, I'm sorry, and Harrison Barnes. So they have it all. The question really is just, is there enough experience there? So you and I are like-minded on this to a degree, I think. So the three-point shooting is interesting. And I put it in somewhat of a similar bucket as the Lakers being the sixth best defense during this run. That level won't maintain. But when it regresses, how much does it drop? And I'm going to use Wimby as the avatar for it. Because Wimby, this month, went from an OK three-point shooter that shot a decent amount of game to a high-volume three-point shooter that was excellent at him. So if we should look at Wimby's three-point percentage- High volume as well. Well, yeah. So look, October through February, five a game, 34.5%. March, eight a game at damn near 39%. So if March, if he is eight a game at 39% in the playoffs, they'll beat everybody. Like that. And that's interesting. Yeah, because you do want him down low a little bit more. Yeah, but at 39%, you shoot as many as you want. And so that, to me, is I don't think that level maintains. The question is, how far does it drop? And then the experience thing is just unprecedented, or at least not since the Blazers' 77. And so if you look at teams that won the title, their rotations playoff experience. Here's where the spurs would be historically. So it and 78 is misleading, I feel like, because 71 of those games are Harrison Barnes. No, for real. So Fox only has nine? No, Fox has seven. A seven. Fox has the seven game series, Light the Beam. That's it. Wow. Of the top. Now, if you do their whole team, the numbers, because they have Cornette, who doesn't play that much. They have Bismek, Beyombo on the roster, but as far as the guys who play minutes for them, you know what I mean? Big minutes. Harrison Barnes is at 71. The rest of the roster is at seven. And then you see it. So that is the yeah, but, Brew. Leave that up. The interesting thing there is every single one of those teams has a historically great player. It was led by a historically great player. Bill Walton, Larry Bird, Shay, Steph, and Elijah. So that's the thing, and we're all learning this, as maybe Winby breaks some precedents. I mean, he is something we've never seen before. Correct. And so maybe he will break some of these things that we thought were conventional wisdom. Can I ask you a question, Brew, because we kick around, playoff experience a lot. Just to get down to another level, do you think it's the schedule, the intensity, the playing one team, possibly seven times in a row? I think that's, I think that's. What is it when we talk about playoff experience? I think the intensity is unlike anything you've seen in the regular season, number one. Then when you play, they now can zero in on you. So for instance, just think last night, Miami, LA. Miami didn't really have much time to get ready for LA. The Lakers certainly didn't have much time to zero in on Miami. But when you're playing them in the playoffs, you've had a week or so to get ready for them. And then you've in between games, you're getting ready. So by game three or something, they know all your plays, all your tendencies, you know all of theirs. That's why having a guy that just, OK, you know I like to go right off two dribbles and then spin or whatever. You know I'm going to do it, but you still can't stop me. That's why it's important to have guys like that. And they got Winby and then Cassell and Fox can kind of do that too. But that's really what it is. The intensity of playing the team seven straight times is just crazy. And I think it's also if you have a single, glaring, defensive flaw, the opposing team will be like, well, we're going to run that play repeatedly until you take that player off the court. I mean, this is a guy who the audience probably only knows for his political nonsense. But Enos Cantor, when he came into the league, it was like, man, this guy is 28. And then every year his team make the playoffs and be like, oh, he literally can't play two minutes. And so that's the other thing that just happens in the playoffs that you never see in the regular season. That's happened. A few times happened in that Celtics Mavs series. That's not what happened in that series. No, the Mavs stopped scoring. That's actually not what happened in that series. They hunted him. Two great performances from Wemby and Luca. Both received MVP chance. Wemby from his teammates and fans. Luca from the road crowd. Take a listen. I got one chance before we take it in. MVP, MVP, MVP, MVP, MVP, MVP. There's the chance we were talking about. OK, lots of chance, but it's time to find out who's the real MVP on Bruce Ballet. Well, let's give the definitive list. As it stands right now, it's been changing. And it could change some more. I know Nick is really on pins and needles to see what this is. All right, at number five, he might not end up being eligible. But, Cade, this will kind of give away who's at for or who's not at for, at least. I chose him over Jaylin because he has led this team to the number one seed as the only offensive guy to create his own stuff. Jaylin's been great. No slight to Jaylin at all. We got some great players this season having great teams. That's your question. If the Pistons just go on a terrible losing streak, but he will stop being eligible. I know, but would that in your mind, would that? He can't win it to me. You're right. If they win 1-11 or whatever it is, it's still, I mean, I just think the West guys are too tough. But at number four, Nick's going to be upset. Luca Dodgecatch. All right, number four. This is his first time on the ballot. That's two. All right. Four is shocking. That he's that low? Yes. There's some other good guys doing their thing. But Luca's climbing. He's fourth and climbing. He hasn't even been on the ballot yet. All right, number three, Yolkish. And here's why. He is Nick about, and you love history. So don't get mad because he's not your long, long, Slovenian adult son. All right? He is about to become the only player ever to lead the league in rebounds and assists for game. He does lead in PR. He's dropping, but he's still at 32.9, has the highest PR ever. All right? Something. Now look at this. Here's the comparison. Because like I said, things could change. But as great as Luca's been, look at the numbers. Outside of scoring, Yolkish has him be in everything. And a lot more efficient. And then it's a three-seat Luca versus a six-seat, but it's like a three-game difference. It's not a ton of difference in terms of wins and losses. Something. But we'll see. They're battling it out. All right? At number two, look, I'd love to see him win it. It'll be interesting to see if some of the voters, you know, you never know what motivates some voters. Are they? Hey, Shay got it last year. Wimby's, you know, emerged this year. I think a lot of guys could arguably win it. But I got Wimby at two just for the jump that he's led that team to the second best record in the league. And that means Shay's number one. I just think Shay has just been so consistent, obviously, because of the wilt thing with the 20 points. But beyond that, he is just so consistent. And then, Nick, his second best player, most of us believe, has been out for 44 games, 44 or 70 games, and they haven't missed a beat. So listen, for the people care, I agree with you on Shay for the time being. I would have Luca 2, Wimby 3, Yokech 4. And this is my two pronged, quick argument. First on Luca, scoring champs on top three seeds, usually, that's the argument. This century, the only time the scoring champion on top three seed didn't win MVP was when they was competing with Pete Lebron on the heat. KD in 2012, Mello in 2013. Otherwise, that's been all you needed to do. Are you, is your team awesome? Are you the scoring champ? You win it. Like, that's what it's been. Well, Mello, are you, that's where they finish? Where they finish. I'm saying, and so the two guys who didn't win it, it was Lebron with the heat who won it. And Lebron was just so universally regards best player in the league. Now, Mello did finish third, not second, I understand. And then there is, here is my, it's not anti-Wimby argument at all, but it is just, I think we pick and choose when defense matters for this award. The last five defensive player of the years have combined for zero first place, second place, third place, fourth place MVP votes. Yeah, but who are they? They're a lot of them are role players. No, no, no. Well, it's Evan Mobley, Triple J, Rudy Gobert, Marcus Smart. The point I'm making is this. No, when it comes to MVP voting, it has never been half of your offense, half of your defense. No, that's not true. Elijah Wyne, his defense was a big part. David Robinson's big defense was a big part. Jordan's at least, somebody years was a big part. I agree that they were parts of it. I just said it's never been 50-50. But his offense is great. Well, so that's. I'm not saying it's as good as Lucas or Yoke. So here's the other thing, if we could do the Wimby blind reveal that I think will surprise people. And again, I think Wimby, they can win the title. I just said I'd have him third in MVP voting. This is Wimby this year. Do we agree those numbers on the right are, it's fewer assists this year, fewer blocks, but more efficient. But they're basically identical. Do we agree? I'm not answering questions. Just do you agree those numbers are basically identical? They're close. Here's who the guy on the right is. Wimby last year. Well, he only played 46 games. I understand, but the difference is the team record, right? And the fact that they're. So what I think is this, I don't think Wimby has gotten from like massively better from last year, but his team has and he's been more available. So can I so just just when you watch those games, like his he's more than I'm sorry to interrupt. Just anecdotally, because I think we're going to say the same thing. Stefan Castle has said I can play more aggressive defense and get steals. A lot guys up because I know I think his stuff that's not showing up. No, but I'm talking about his him as an offense. I think last year was already the best offensive player in the league. And they are my point is the they're there. But the halo effect of Wimby making the team better defensive. Yeah, but offensively, when you watch their game, his numbers do not tell the story. He could easily average close to 30 if not 30 if they play like most teams do where they they everything runs through Wimby. Right. And he's good enough where everything could run through. I agree with that entirely. But usually you don't get MVP bonus because you could be having more better numbers. There's no doubt. They're not bad. I just don't think historically 24 and 11 and the best defensive player in the league is not enough to win MVP or to beat the 33, 8, and 9 guy who's right behind you. Would you admit he's beyond the best defensive player like he's not. Oh, good defense. He's he's far and away. He's the best defensive player in the league. I agree. Teams 10 and 5 without him. I just think you say what 84 without. Welcome back to First Things First. Mike McCarthy and the Steelers may only have eyes for his old QB Aaron Rogers. Friend of the show, Bill Barnwell writing Pittsburgh has let players such as Kyler, Tua, Justin Fields, Geno, pass by, even though it would have been able to add those quarterbacks on deals that are mostly paid by their former teams. The Steelers could go after Kirk Cousins or Jimmy G. But a reunion reunion with Rogers seems inevitable. Chances this works out for Pittsburgh. Zero. Zero. Now, if working out is getting to the Super Bowl or winning it, OK, and I'm starting to believe you when you say that's not what the Steelers are about. Yeah, that's true. So if you're right, and it's just about let's get into playoff. What about? I'll say slim. And make some noise. Hold on. Can we set it at win or playoff game? Oh, that's because that has to be a huge win. That's from slim as best. But OK, so you give him a slight chance at that because I give him no chance. But go ahead. I do think they are going to. I think they're going to experience their first losing season, obviously, since time was there. I think we're going to see that Tomlin's and he had some faults. But he was holding this thing together and getting them there. Nine or 10 wins every year. Air Rogers was mid last year. Yeah. And at 42 and 43, he's not going to get better. And check this out. His last two years with Mike McCarthy, who I do think is a good coach. But his last two years with McCarthy and Green Bay, that was MVP Rogers. I mean, he wanted two years after McCarthy left two times. They were 10, 12 and one. 10, 12 and one. Rogers did miss some games because of injury the first year of this. This too. But I just it's gone. This is a terrible move by the slingers. They need to just go ahead. They should have taken their lumps this year, rebuilt under McCarthy and gone for the future. And they're going to try to win. They might win seven games, something like that. I think they should sign Kurt Cousins. Really? Yeah, I am offended on the Steelers' behalf that Rogers is just such a delicate snowflake that he can't make his decision yet. Like, you can be like, Nick, why are you then not bothered about Kurt Cousins? I don't think there is a team in the league that is said to Kurt Cousins. You're our starter. And so I think Kirk is waiting to survey the landscape in a way a lot of like the second and third way veteran free agents are. That's not this. This is like it is inexplicable bordering on indefensible why Aaron Rogers is not on the Steelers yet. If assuming the Steelers want him, which it appears they do, and this whole they haven't offered me a contract nonsense, he peddled to McAfee. I tried to be nice the day of it. And then I was like, Nick, just be honest with the audience. This is all K-Fab. This is wrestling at this point. And for some reason, he needs to be special. He can't sign in the regular wave of free agency. He can't just be a part of the regular timeline of a season. And this is four years of this now, from a darkness retreat to all of it. And I just don't know how many implausible Aaron Rogers stories I have to come on TV and pretend I believe he had a pick as a safety three months after Achilles surgery and practice squad. Don't you dare. Don't talk about the whole in one. I just I don't it is debasing. And he's not conflicted on whether or not he's playing football. He's not conflicted on where he's playing football. So why the fact that this that he is making a call it 12 billion dollar organization, wait and pretend like, no, if we have to go into the year with Bruce Guy, Will Howard as quarterback, we're prepared to know you're not because you know, he's playing quarterback for you. But for some reason, he won't sign up for it. And that on on the position in sports where leadership matters the most. That's a bad idea. So I just signed Kirk Cousins. He seems awesome. Like as far as one of the guy, you know what I mean? And so and he'll give I think he can play as well as right. That's what I think. That that I just think they should go young. But sure. But I'm saying if they if they've decided we want to compete, we don't want to go old, then I just go with Cousins. I'm going to bring it back onto the field. CD Lam sat down with Ross Tucker and talked about his former coach, Mike McCarthy, and the Steelers. So I'm going to play what CD thinks the offense is going to look like and then show you some Aaron Rodgers stats. Take a listen. As soon as you walk in the building, you're going to feel his energy and you're going to feel like what he wants to do. He wants to go vertical with the ball. I'm going to tell you that right now. Okay. So here was Rogers on deep passes. You only had 41 attempts, middle of pack. You only completed 29%. So that was 24th. Five touchdowns were decent. The pass or rating of 90 again, about middle of pack, a little bit better. So if McCarthy really wants to go down the field like you did with old school Aaron Rodgers, maybe Rogers isn't, isn't the fit. If Mike McCarthy still has an offensive game plan, maybe old school Aaron Rodgers to a plus style, you know, get it in quick dumps, isn't going to work with Steelers. Get rid of the ball. And look, the last two years in Green Bay were disastrous for Rodgers. Well, then he, no, he means last year with McCarthy, not as last two there. And we thought he was done. And then the floor comes in, changed the system and he went to MVP's. It's not going to work. They're going to try to compete. Ridiculous. It's obvious. As soon as they signed McCarthy, they're going to try to compete and they had no fire sale like the dolphins are doing. They, they're keeping everybody with respect to good friend of the show, Pittsburgh's Andrew Filiponi. I am delighted that one of the silver linings of Tomlin moving on is that in short order, we can stop the Steelers relevance is going to be dwindling. And until they, I think it take, except, hey, we have a fan base that wants to get its seventh Super Bowl and has been waiting for quite some time thinking we were close. We need to build towards it. They're just, they're just a great brand. They're not, they're not anywhere close to being a great team. And the last couple of years, they have not been a well run team. No, but they did win the division. Yes. I understand that. I, they're a third best team in that division this year. I mean, they should be, but they always seem to be. Shots fired at Bruce. We thought that Mike Evans signed with the 49ers for a change of scenery. And the idea that the bucks couldn't compete with the cash that San Fran offered bro. Well, we were wrong. According to Tampa Bay, Bucks, GM, Jason light, I don't feel betrayed. I'm in mourning. He earned the right to make this decision. We made a significantly higher offer than the 49ers. And that was just the first offer. Feel like we did everything we could. So this is a full twist on this Mike Evans story. How are you feeling? That's what I mean. This is a mate. We thought Duke would have been an L. This is a major L. I'm shocked by this. I'm stunned. If this is true, look, I think Baker is a very good quarterback. I don't see why a receiver wouldn't want to play with him. But when you start to look at why in the world would Mike Evans leave there and they offer any more money? He's been there 12 years. He's like an institution with the Buccaneers. He's not from California. He didn't play college football in California. Like he has no ties to the Bay Area or the state. I'm not from California either, but it's pretty sweet there. Yeah, well, he went to the part where the weather's not quite as nice as it is in Southern California. But and you're a receiver. You're looking at the quarterback. Yeah, but also Kyle Shannon, the offense, the Bucs have had to keep changing coordinators, Kyle Shannon, like it might be part of it. And I'm not saying it's Baker or he chose Brock over Baker. I'm just saying it's you as a receiver, you are looking at the court. But you're right, Shanahan. I think also, and I'm done, Nick, I think he may have felt like Ibuka was going to become a Bucca was going to become the number one receiver. Oh, I think that's any probably was. And maybe that was why the Niners don't have to be the number one. You know, Kittle is coming off the injury. So you probably going to be there week one. So I think, you know, to, to meet you halfway as you met me on Baker versus Purdy, Baker and Purdy swim in the same part of the pool together of quarterbacks. But I do think it'd be reasonable to be like, all right, if the quarterbacks are around equivalent, Kyle Shanahan and his focus on offense versus Todd Bowles and again, nothing in Todd Bowles, but he's a defensive minded coach. Obviously that to me is a big discrepancy. Your point on one team desperately needing a number one receiver versus the other team having drafted one who's ascending all of that. And then there is this piece of it, which is the part that I just found so baffling about Wilde's take. I this isn't Derek Jeter with the Yankees. It's Mike Evans with the box is like it's very nice. Yeah, but it's a nice. But you talk about it. It was Jeter. I mean, yes, it was this is he wasn't even that attached to it. And is he going to have a statue outside of? He's not going to have a statue. I don't think he's got a stance. He's not a. I like my. And the. I was first of all, I'm very liberal. Statue. I'm very liberal with my statue. He's like, is he the longest 10 LA to crypto? Everybody you had a nice seat made it all start. He's got a Super Bowl. The was an institution there. He was coaches change, quarterbacks change, defenses change. When I think about the modern day Tampa Bay Bucks, I think about Mike Evans. So let me bring you a different. So let me bring you a. Hold on. Let me at least a bus. So here's why I found it like I'll bring up a different friend of our show. Same division around the same age, same Hall of Fame probability. Cam Jordan in the Saints. He might not be a saint next year. Well, nobody like nobody's going to cry about that. But like Mike Evans, we all like. I didn't. I didn't understand why you thought of this as like Dirk with the men. That's exactly how I know it. Mike Evans and the box. This is so weird. There's a full generation. It's been on his box longer than Mike Evans on these. Yeah. And now we're every day. Every day we have to be crying about it. Mike Evans like I'm out of here for less money. Such a weird. No, it's not. Mike Evans is great. Mike Evans is a Tampa Bay box. But he's not. Well, I hurt my feelings. I don't even like the box. It's Mike Evans. We know, buddy. Doesn't it feel like you should be on the box? Well, it does. No, that thought is never once crossed my mind. I've always done the box for you. Well, we have. Number one, Duke, huge favorites against number 16, Sienna. They were down at half and only one by six. It's not a good sign. Here's Cam Booser. We came out here with the mentality that those can be handed to us and obviously that's not what happened. We got pushed in the mouth, so we just got to learn from it going forward. I've been on Duke for months. Everybody knows it. Yeah. Should I be worried? Shouldn't be worried. Should be terrified. I don't even know. I was coming. There is the precedent says you're cooked. The here's the one seeds that had nail biters against 16s. And what do they all have in common? None of them won the title. None of them made the title game. Only one made the final four. That famous 89 fight in the line. I team and it ain't great. It's in the last 10 years, the only team to trail. By double digits in the second half against the 16 seed was the Virginia team that lost. You know what I mean to the 16 seed. And so it is. I know the tournament has changed over the years. One thing that has been consistent throughout is one versus 16 is a buy. And it was not for you guys. And it wasn't just like Sienna got out 20 to two and then Duke was fighting back. Sienna was the better team for the first 30 minutes and then had the back to back miss Dunks and it kind of unraveled on them. But yeah, I'd be worried. Yeah. And look, you already had the toughest region in the in the group in the bracket. And I mean, when I look at now, Nick, I know you're feeling good about St. John's in this game. If they face Duke in the sweet 16, if they don't get St. John's assuming they get there, they got Kansas. Yep. So that could, you know, Kansas with Darren Peterson and with him kind of fitting in with everybody playing consistently probably better than who knows where they could go. Right. And then you got Michigan State and Yukon. And so it just they to me, they need to look great in their next game and maybe get that out of their mind. So I have an announcement to make. Oh, he's going to. Don't go to you. You're going to hedge on Yukon. Don't tell me what I'm going to do. Let's see. Duke versus TCU Saturday. They are favored by 12 and a half. Even if they win by double digits, if this is not an easy victory, I am going to change my pick to the Yukon. You're not allowed. You're not allowed. You say that like it's no big deal. I have you in town. I'm changing my. You will have we did our final four for a reason. I will have new information on Duke that they are not ready. Watching them all year. They're not ready. Well, Cam Booser said, we thought we were going to what? What? We just wait. What did he say? Hey, I thought we thought they thought we were going to they were going to give us the game. Oh, what are you talking about? He was just saying what he felt he was supposed to say. Okay. Malik Brown, a lot of us weren't playing our type of basketball. Like I said, we thought it was going to be a cakewalk going into the game. What type of preparation do we have? Is there a speech in the locker room? Hey, guys, get out, break a sweat. This one's going to be easy. What's going on? I'll tell you was not doing that. The Hurley squad. So we're locked in. No, it would be up early. We screaming at people, but right now, as of now, you as of right now, I have Duke and Yukon, no in the elite eight. Yeah. But but I will switch it out. Duke is on thin ice. This is why I've been on them for months. I've been on Duke. If Duke is doesn't take care of the horned dogs that they would pay for this. Can I can I am out? Can I add one tiny take on America's favorite polling school, Sienna? Shout out. Shot times when a P. Yeah, right. That's the best joke I've ever had. Well, I love that. It would have been well done, buddy. I'm very happy for those players and they I'm sad they didn't win, but they comported themselves well. But I hope they lose their coach to Syracuse. Oh, Jerry McNamara should go. Yeah, that would be awesome. That would be awesome. Syracuse has got turned down by a coach like I don't know what's happened to a once very proud basketball program that obviously is my alma mater. Jerry McNamara, go back to Q's. Return us to glory, please. That would be cool. It'd be awesome. I always can I just I always get a little bit nervous that eventually you have to let him go. Then you got to let him go. Still, he's at C&I. It would be a huge jump for him. Syracuse, you have to let him go. He's saying no, it's just like the Syracuse is. Live from New York, it's a show that might be on the Yukon Huskies pretty soon. It's not allowed. I am in the women's bracket. I might take integrity. There used to be something called integrity. You haven't switched your squads? No. Never. Never. Once. It's not true. No, not only will Bruno not switch his squads, his squad can be dead. And we all know he doesn't believe in them. And he'll just just be like, look to the game and be like, now the Packers are my pick. I'm not sure. But here's why Philly is gonna take integrity. Yeah, that's right. Second hour of first things first. Today, Lucas scores 60. Lakers are hot. A lot of people are saying he went Lukelier. How far can the Lakers go? Meanwhile, AJ Brown and Max Crosby to the Patriots. Strong, maybe. Maybe not. Max Crosby is just kind of a pipe dream. But AJ Brown is very real. You know, there's rumors. There's a handshake deal. I don't know if you know that's allowed, but there's rumors. Howdy. Stop bringing us stuff from Ricky the dog and Patriots Twitter. Hello. It's Hallfame adjacent and Fox employee Julian Edelman. He's not saying there's a handshake deal. He did the Patriots. He just tweeted out a wink. He told AJ Brown, we're all Patriots and AJ Brown winked. That's newsworthy. Okay, let's do this. Time now for title pie. Dusty, I'm trying to do football. Okay. There's no pie here. I'm talking about AJ Brown. There's no pie? No. There's no pie. We got rid of the pie. We didn't know. It's oddly, we did have pizza pie earlier. We did have pizza pie. It was late. Yeah, that's right. Time for title pie. That's it? We don't know how to intro. There's no pie. Time for title pie. Okay. I mean, he's not even explaining to the audience what it is. It's a pie. Of teams. Ever seen tears? Make it circular. It's not one. One of them and died. For Zint chance. The same as tears. It's not though. It's a circle. It's not. I remember square cake. Cut off the edges. Now it's circular. No, it's all different cake. All right. It's a sheet pan cake. Can I do this? What do you say? Percent chance to win the title. We haven't done this in a few weeks. So we let you know if teams moved up or down. You'll see it. You'll understand it. 1% the Houston Rockets. I thought about putting them at zero. Gosh darn it. However they are, like a game out of having home court in the first round. They still have Kevin Durant. I think it's fair to say Ema Udoka's coaching rep has maybe taken a little hit this year. Oh yeah. Like it feels like he has been. He was the reason for their turnaround and like and all of that. Now it feels like we're like, wait, why is he not adjusting with that? So 1%. It's dropped. Alongside them in 1% Philadelphia. Now folks might say they also deserve 0%. Yeah. I think by Bru definitely would say that. Absolutely. They if they're healthy entering the playoffs, they have about as much front end talent, frontline talent as any team in the East. It you know, it indeed comes back. Paul George office suspension. Maxi, who's been the best player on that team for a couple of years now, plus VJ Edgecomb, it's like, oh, my pal, you know, my son's pal Quinton Grimes, other guys on the team. Like, oh, it's interesting. So they give him a one in a hundred shot. It really probably should be lower. They've moved up since last time from half a percent to 2% despite the fact that they are on a bit the last week of a losing streak. The Clippers put him at 2%. That is somewhat bolstered by the fact that I no longer, I feel like the sons and the Clippers, sons, by the way, who are not going to be represented here. Um, they don't have to worry about getting popped in the play in there. You know, one of them is going to be playing an elimination game. I'm just not worried at all about the Blazers or the Warriors as we sit here. And Kawhi banged up now, but has been playing some of the best ball of his life. 3% same places last time. The Cavs not going to dismiss them entirely. They just spite my reservations about Hardin, especially now that I found out from Danny, they have a big four. I don't know how many teams have a big four. They stay at 3%. This one's a bummer and it's nobody's fault, but down to 4% the Detroit Pistons. I, I was listening to our pal Vincent Goodwill on Wendy's pod talk about how the most optimistic timeline for Cade Cunningham is that he is cleared to return the day before the playoff start. That it's two weeks of nothing than a week of cardio than a week of basketball activities, which would put him on April 15th and the playoff start the 17th slash 18th. So now again, maybe he can use round one to ramp up and then be okay by round two. But it's still, it feels like it put them behind the eight ball staying at 5% Minnesota. I the back to back conference finals appearances are doing a lot for this team's the belief we have in this team, but and is still phenomenal. I like their head coach. Obviously Julius Randall isn't having the year, particularly after the trade rumors that that you would have hoped I still even at 5%. Down to 5%. The nuggets that was at the jet. Who do they just lose to the other grizzly grizzly? Sorry, they lost to one of the tankers. The defense is just not going to get better. And it is here is the biggest knock through on Joker's MVP case. They have been terrible in the clutch, which is where they like so much a little bit of that's got to be on everything runs through Joker. I know how great he is. I'm not knocking him. But as far as like it's bizarre to see that team be that bad in the clutch when his I don't think Michael Porter Jr. was the one holding it all together. Like they had been really good. I asked you a question about Denver before you move on. It's because I'd like to get back on the Denver bandwagon, but I'm having a hard time. Do you put any credence into the idea that they're running at a marathon pace and not, you know, 10 K pace that it seems like some, you know, the pistons are running. So here's I would like to believe that. But if that were the case, they would be able to snap in to 10 K pace in the final two minutes of games. You know what I mean? Because it's a lot of games that they have been in in the final moments and then blown like the Lakers game. Listen, that was a little unlucky. They had it won. Austin makes the great play, but then they couldn't win an overtime either. Like because I do think there is a big difference between being the three seed and the five seed. If you're them and you know, maybe they're like, I won a championship. Maybe they think seeding doesn't matter. But I'm sure their priority is just getting healthy. Yeah. But you get also the wins matter enough to where you shouldn't lose to the Grizzlies. Yeah. You know what I like? The those games should be lost proof. All right. Now we get to well, 6% down just a tiny bit. The New York Knicks. Again, I think they were at 7% last time. So not down a lot. I think they are. They have the best resume of every team that's been on this screen thus far. And but I'm worried about what's going on. Mikhail Bridges, because I think he's very important for them and was important for them in that in their playoff run last year. And here's the other thing. There's only four teams left. And as you can see, almost three quarters of the Pire left, because I think there's only four teams that actually can win the like, I shouldn't say can, but the vast majority of the time, one of these four teams wins the title and all the way up from half a percent a month ago, 11%, one in nine times. The Los Angeles Lakers. The fair slice. Yeah, I don't I don't think that's overdoing it. But with Luca playing at this level, the defense figuring out how to at least not kill them. Lately, it's been helping them. But I think at least it's stabilized. And LeBron singing, seeming springy, fresh and optimistic while accepting his role. That's a scary team to see on the other side of the bracket. And another team whose slice got bigger, but a team who I think we're going to see play them in round two. The San Antonio Spurs at 15%. So their slices gotten bigger from the last time. It would be even bigger if not for the fact that I think the Lakers versus them is a 60 40 series and a 60 40 their way. But I do care. I wouldn't be as worried about their lack of experience if they were staring at a rocket round two matchup. Right. I care about it a lot in a Lakers round two matchup. However, still have the pie left at 22% the same time, same slice. Oklahoma City. It is not the biggest slice because they are going to have to play to get to the finals. One of those two teams behind them. Meanwhile, the biggest slice up to 25% the Celtics, who I just don't think there is anyone in the east that is the caliber of. The Lakers or the Spurs to play in the conference finals. So I think the Celtics are so much more of a likely to be in the finals than anybody in the west. And that's why they have the biggest slice and Tatum's only getting better. That is the latest edition of title pot. Not bad. Not bad. Um, I think the Knicks, I'm fine with their percent, their placement, but I do think they can get Boston to run for his money. Okay. I think in Detroit, if, yeah, I mean, it's hard to believe in them at this point, but I think the Knicks can give Boston a run. It's going to be hard to beat them two years in a row with Tatum. So I probably would favor the Celtics in that series, but I think the Knicks can be right there. But I also, and I get your reasoning, but I would move OKC and San Antonio give them the biggest two slices. Okay. I think OKC should be number one, San Antonio number two, Boston number three. And I say that for several reasons, but one, those teams have handled Boston recently. And I know Tatum, you know, has been out for much of that, but the Spurs are two and O against them. The second time they beat them with Tatum and OKC has beat them twice this year, I think without Tatum, but then beat them last year too. So they won three straight against them. Missoula can't win in OKC. It's weird. Yeah, I just, I think those, I think whoever comes out of the West, even if it's the Lakers, because by that point, everybody will be believing in the Lakers. If they get through the West, I think the Western champions going to be the favorite. So I would give, yeah. That's interesting. I think you don't think OKC would be favorite over Boston. Oh, OKC definitely. No, but that's what I was trying to figure out. I don't. Like if they get through the West, it's going to be like, oh, they've proven it. You know, the flip side there is if by the time the finals were all around, if Tatum looks like 90% of Tatum, the and how much again, if the cell, if OKC, if the San Antonio gets through the West with like back to back long series wars and the Celtics are winning. So I don't know. But OKC definitively would be the favorite is going to be the favorite over everyone. I don't know who would be the favorites in a Celtics Spurs series. I'm pretty sure the Celtics would be the favorite against the Lakers. All right, KW. I think they would be bonus take. Well, you didn't do a lot of bonus takes. Bonus take just because you're giving out 1% slices and with Cades injury. And I know this team, I think right now is at the 10. Why don't you get a little slice to the my Charlotte Hornets? Just a little slice. The tight. It's title pie. It's not when a playoff game pie. I understand that. But last year at this time, would anyone say, oh, you know, who deserves a little slice, the Pacers? Yeah, they had a slice last year at this time. Yeah, they weren't the 10 seed, buddy. 10. Yeah, I thought you thought the Pacers. I'm I guarantee they had at least a percent. Well, that's exactly that's what I think the Hornets should have. And I'm a small percent. They started off slow. I get it. That's why they're the. Hold a bit as of late to post all star. They have the number one offensive rating. That's all I'm saying. If you have the post all star, if you have the number one offensive rating, the number 60 offensive rating, number three net rating, and you've made the most threes, you deserve to have a slice. It just so happens that that resume is that of the Charlotte Hornets, who at times can seem like a silly team. If they stay the 10 seed, they're not going to make the playoffs. You don't think so. You don't think they can win two games? No, I don't. If they're the 10 seed, I do not think the Hornets are going back to back road elimination games. I don't. I do. Especially if you get the Hawks. So if the Hawks, we don't throw the Hawks are hot. The Hawks are going to be out of the playing. Right. He's saying he'd rather play Orlando or Philly or Miami. Yeah, rather play Philly than the Hawks. Yeah. The Hawks are scorching out. Okay. Yeah. I don't buy it. Is it time to start talking about the Hawks? No, it's not. It's getting quickly on the thunder. Uh, post all star, they're 13 and one. I just also feel like they should have a humongous slice. And then I know you're in the Celtics guy now. Who the fuck? Yeah, you kind of took the Celtic. I thought it was like rude. I thought he should have given me a heads up. Sorry about that. Now you're like wearing green outfits. Head to toe. Seems like something you should have talked about. Defending champs lose 70 games. This is because everyone yells at me that we have no more repeats aren't in vogue. They all lose in round two. Lakers lost in round one. The argument is that see that 55 right there. Yeah. That none of these teams are quite as good as this year's thunder. Who have been playing without General Williams? The Raptors were 51 and 19 without Kawhi. I did that blew my mind. I had no recollection of that. Now those two seasons where the Lakers and the Raptors were affected. Yeah, Demar and Lally. Yeah. And they were in the East. No, they didn't have Demar. They traded Demar for Kawhi. So who was leading them? I don't know. It's a see it was Siakam. Wasn't it? Yeah, that's that I had no recollection of that. Good for them. Yeah, but both under are better. Yeah, no, the thunder are excellent. And I think the thought I would be stunned if the thunder don't break that ceiling of second round for defending. If the thunder get clipped before the conference finals, that will be stunning. But I understand people didn't have the records, but everybody had massive confidence in the Celtics, in the Nuggets, in the Bucks, that the Warriors not, not as much that they could just repeat. Yeah. Yeah. So people thought. Well, we're due. OK. True by the due dates. I do buy it. OK. So there you go. Another successful episode of title pie without a pie. I don't love when you do the there you go. That's a signal to us in the audience that you thought that segment was. Every time. I don't love it. That was sick. I love that. No, he has some tough shots out there. I get is what it is. I know it's like the being that mode. As people can see, it's not easy to get 80. Through your reaction to BAM's comments on Luca, BAM all but one to say. I got 80. All right. I scored 83. All right. We were raving about 60. Like BAM. Look, I'm happy for BAM. Obviously, I defended him against some of the haters like you. So what? But BAM was talking there like, you know, yeah, like he does. I do. Like he's averaging 32. Yeah. You know, so. Scores like me. Right. Right. Right. How hard this can be. Can I? I almost felt bad for BAM. Why? To hearing that. Because it felt like on top of Spoe saying I'm not apologizing, which was a weird defense of what was supposed to be a great moment. Correct. If BAM had, and I don't know what number would have been right. But if you if you didn't do the intentional follow, you'd score 77. I think without the intentional foul, without the intentional fouls, without the purposely missing a free throw, without some of the stuff that started to feel funky and it was 77, 75. Heck, you'd get applauded for 60. It would have just been universally loved and not remembered at all. So that's the thing. The list is like. We will remember 83. That's my point. We will read that. That's my point. Like there's you can never have everything. 80. You don't think we'd are like. No, I think 80. He would have remembered, but he wouldn't have gotten to the 80 without the chicaner. OK. And so the I mean, it was somebody mentioned the other day that was it Devin Booker that scored 72. Seventy. OK, guess what? I do this for a living. I had forgotten. I remember because he lost. Oh, you scored. OK, yeah. And they did the 70. I like that he lost. It's right. And I I remembered Lucas 60 point triple double where he did the Austin Reeves. He intentionally missed a free throw, got it, scored himself and then they in overtime. I remember that because the next day, Bru and I were talking about how impressive it was. And because I think he had 20 rebounds with it while just like who cares? Right. So when he I remembered that the only way. But Luke also had a 70 point game that I don't remember all the details to. It was it is historically resonant because we all know the 80 pointers. Will Kobe and bam. And now maybe the Goldilocks zone would have been exactly 80. So the Kobe sick of fans don't get angry because he was supposed to check out of the game and thank Kobe on the way out. I don't know. But I it was he stopped fouling the wizard. He got the he got the record in a similar way that will got his 100. And I mean the modern era record, I should say, but that was a funny quote where he's like, yeah, man, it's hard. I also what we do. Yeah. Sounds like reporters are not giggling. Well, bam was giggling enough. Yeah. All right. More on this game, but on the LeBron side of things, he was responding to some of the noise and the plus minus numbers around how the Lakers were playing better when he was sidelined or sitting. Remember we had all those graphics is like, look at the AR. Yeah. Here was his response last night after another triple double. Just trying to figure it out, you know, and then I was out a couple of weeks ago and was able to come back and see how I can best fit the, you know, fit those guys because they were just playing so dynamic off one another. So I mean, it sells, I mean, it sells papers a lot easier and clippings and podcasts. If you say LeBron, but their team is better off without him. It's a lot of people who try to like view it. So I get it. They're absolutely wrong. Yeah. I mean, he's, I think he's right on every account. I he's right that. I. There's no team in the league that is better without a top 20 player than they are with them. Like it, there just isn't. Now it doesn't mean that there can't be adjustments that need to be made and figuring it out, but holistically, you would rather have a really good player than not. And it is true that it did take some tweaking and some adjustment and credit to LeBron for being the one willing to adjust. And we get the plus minus that you're alluding to is this, you know, this piece. First 29 games. It wasn't working with him on the court much. And the last 20 games, it has. And again, those aren't like John and crazy numbers in either direction. 29, 56, five, I 29 means the average game. He was like minus 1.9. And this game is like an, you know, plus 4.0 essentially, but still that's a big delta there. Right. And almost six. And then there is the stuff that I keep hammering, which is a bought in LeBron. The tax of having the, the one of the two greatest players of all time on your team in a pressure and this and media attention way, but then also the benefit of what it does for other guys, psyches. And I thought Austin had two great quotes about this yesterday. So we'll play one sound for you. And then the other one is just going to be a quote that we didn't have a sound for, go ahead and play. When he said he was playing, I was like, I can't let a 41 year old play and I not play. So signed up to play and started Luca and went grounded and went out. It's not an easy one, especially with the pace that that team plays up. So, and then Austin also said, I remember there was a time out early and JJ came over and was like, I know y'all are tired. And Brown was like, I'm not tired. So I was like, I'm not tired either. So yeah, follow the leader. That goes along with the belief that we're talking about like that stuff really matters for a team trying to win a championship. Yeah. And last week when you were on vacation, Nick, no, working vacation, whatever it was doing international relations for the show. And the numbers were the numbers, right? Cause they would, they started this win streak without LeBron. And I said, I still, you'll remember this in the playoffs, like whatever the number is saying in the regular season, in the playoffs, they will be better off with LeBron than without him. No matter, even if this had not turned around, I still would have rather had him in the playoffs for all his experience and obviously his ability and skill and everything too. But yeah, and LeBron's in the media now. So he understands what sells and stuff like that. What's, what's moving newspaper? Yeah, yeah. Podcast and all that stuff. But he has adjusted. That's why it's working. It may not have ever started working had he not adjusted, but credit to him, like you said, for sitting there and watching the team without him and seeing how they were playing and knowing that he could do the things that Austin and Luca can't. So even if he feels like I still could be handling the ball, running the offense through myself, he knows Luca and Austin. What would they do if they don't have the ball in their hands a lot? And so he adjusted to that. He once told me, this is years ago, I can play any way that I need to play. And he was saying, this is where it's first stint in Cleveland. He said, if I had gotten drafted by the Pistons instead of the Cavs, and that was when the Pistons had all those guys, Rip Hamilton, Chauncey, they had four, you know, Rashid and Ben Wallace. He's like, I could have just fit in there. And I was thinking, you weren't just going to be a role player there, but he's showing that he could adjust. He has never adjusted this much. Like in Miami, he didn't adjust this much. Dwayne Wade said, look, it's your show. I'll play off you. You adjusted some for Kyrie. A little, but I mean, he still had the ball a lot. It was now another guy that had the ball, but he was used to that with Wade. Yep. And so, but this is really showing that whatever I want to do on the court, I can do it. And that's kind of what I was saying earlier. He's playing some center. He can do that, particularly in today's NBA, where there aren't a ton of big guys, certainly not that plant down on the block and you've got to defend that all night. So he can play center and he's doing some of that. He can run the floor. He's doing that. He's in the corner, you know, for as a spot up shooter, he's, you know, picking and rolling something. He's catching lives from Luca. Like he is doing everything. And he, as Luca's the best player, obviously on the team right now, but LeBron buying in is their key because it not only doesn't help the team out, but everybody else to Reeves is quote, is going to buy it. Like you said yesterday, maybe DeAndre Aitton now is like, look, man, all for one and one for all. LeBron is buying in, playing his role. I can play a role and Rui and smart and all these guys. And so maybe that's why the vibes have changed. But it's, it's, it's great right now. During the win streak, Luca is averaging 41 points. That'll work. That's pretty good. Once that comes down to even a Luca level of 33, 33, 33 is what he's averaging for the year. Pretty good. Yeah. Does, do we see another version of LeBron? So I listen to Reeves hasn't been scoring much lately. Right. So Reeves is it kind of what I find really interesting about last night and some of these games this win streak is Reeves has been cold in some of them. And look, it's not like LeBron has been like, all right, never mind. Yep. Oh, he has, he has, you know, trusted the process and that, Hey, this how we're going to play, then it can't change because Austin is four for 13. Like this just has to be how we play. And I, I happen to think LeBron might be enjoying this more than he thought. I don't think he would enjoy it for years on end. Right. But you're that level of player. But I think it's, there is an element of a new challenge or working a new kind of, you know, basketball muscle that I think is probably when you've got to, he, last night he tied Robert Parrish for the most games ever played. He's played more minutes. He has that had that record for years. There's not many new things for him. And like there, there are certain parts of it that like, I know that some people might be watching this and roll their eyes talking about me marveling at this. But like when we saw yesterday first that he was playing and then the, the Lakers reporter that said he was playing showed, you know, whatever time it was. Like first one to the arena. That stuff to me is amazing that he's still that at this point in his career. Still like, no, I'm not going to shortchange this or any of it. And I'm going to do it while not getting the glory of that I'm the guy that they're always interviewing after the game. But I'm the best player that I'm. And so I do think that type of leadership is truly infectious. And to your vibes point, he is like a, and he says this, but like a big kid in a lot of ways, but the way he's just kind of, I don't know, like a, I was going to say like a goof, like the little silly stuff he's doing. I think in a long NBA season that like that can keep people engaged and, you know, on the same line. And I'm not trying to take a shot. He's fun. But it just feels so different. It's fun. It's a fun. What's happening in blast. Oh yeah. And the vibe. God, he has no burner account. Well, yeah, but I mean, but it just, but even the burner accounts aside, just like the body language, but it's our joyless team. Right. Watch them. It's just, and he's, he's, he's averaging 12.9 shots a game this month. The lowest ever for his entire career in a month. Oh yeah. That's probably by a decent amount. Yeah. Yeah. Cause the other months are like four games or, you know, but for a full month, yeah, he's probably never come close to this. Brady is back on the football field with Gronk and Joe Burrow and OBJ and a Seyquan highlight that I said, not allowed. Oh, Seyquan doesn't know the rules. Okay. Oh, flag football. No jumping is going to give a flag. Is that true? Our YouTube page has all sorts of behind the scenes clips, original content that Gian has been working. Oh wow. Subscribe to. So great G. So she's just got the camera rolling. We're, we're none the wiser. We know. I like that. We've done all these. I like that. I said, remember Giannis, I said you should just be rolling. Yeah. That brew wants to have that. You never know what you might catch. I think, I think just clear it with us. Hey, brew, can I use this? I saw you doing. I hear naked. I like it, Giannis. I'm a fan. What's your idea? Is checking on the Patriots. It's gonna work. Brew wants to be a streamer. Yeah. Check it out at patriots nfl.com suggesting that the Patriots trade for Max Crosby, if he ever wants to leave Las Vegas. Meanwhile, lots of smoke around these A.J. Brown rumors. Paul of Fame adjacent patriot legend Julian Edelman retweeted this clip where he says we're all patriots and A.J. Brown winks back at it. That does look pretty good. Thank you. I'm Nick. I gotta admit that. Thank you. There's something there. Can I guess what? It was retweeted by Christian Gonzalez. Who might be in the know? Can I ask you a question? Do you think Julian Edelman has inside information that Schefter and Rappaport and Glazer don't? Do you honestly think that? You're asking me a very tricky question that I'm going to take a second to think about before I answer. Oh, I didn't mean to put you on this. Do I think that Julian Edelman is in a position to do wink, wink rumors where perhaps professional journalists who have to go 100 for 100 or the reputations are at risk? I think I know that's totally fair when both of those things might be. If this ends up not happening, right? No, nobody can. Hey, you don't think that's it. Julian Edelman. So that. So what do you? So I guess my question. I think that I think that. Do I think there's any credence to the rumor that AJ Brown, it is financially disastrous for the Eagles if they trade him before June 1st, that perhaps with the draft coming up, you know what, AJ Brown to the Patriots, we can't quite paper it yet, but perhaps that agreement is further along than just ice, cold, nothing. Okay. That's that I think is. Totally in play. And maybe this is not the sports media on Budsman time, but I would say if Julian Edelman knows that one, a shifter or a rapper, you're allowed to report exactly that. Well, maybe you're allowed like to say, Hey, this is all signs are pointing towards those that that that's not there. Patriots are very in Eagles. It's very interested like I just wouldn't. I hijacked this. I didn't mean to know that's okay. Did you have a question you were going to ask? I know I'm here to talk about AJ Brown to the Patriots. No one thinks it's interesting. He's always like, Oh, I'd love to go back with my label. I'm excited. No, I think it makes sense. I think the deal makes sense. And I think you guys need a receiver. Well, let me ask you this because Crosby, there's been talk about that. Should they go after, should they prioritize AJ Brown or Max Crosby? I would say AJ Brown, but I don't think we're giving up a number one pick either way. Well, you can't get Max Crosby without giving up a number one pick. I the Raiders, I think will just run it back with him. Okay. Rather than if they had two ones on the board and brew, thanks for asking the question. They got that up there. That's what I was. Ah, that's why I just felt like Max Crosby is kind of a brainstorm fun idea for the Patriots who ended up getting to the quarterback in the playoffs. But AJ Brown is a real need. So, but why do you so I might. So if he's a real need and he's an excellent player and he's, you know, not in his thirties and we just saw Trent McDuffie go for the 29th pick and stuff. Jalen Waddle, who I think you don't believe to be as good as AJ Brown. No, Jalen Waddle is not as good as AJ Brown. Go for the 30th pick and stuff. Why should you be able to get AJ Brown for less than a one? That's a good question. Maybe we do have to give up a one. OK, maybe if Jalen Waddle is the benchmark. Jalen Waddle went for the 30th, a third and a fourth. And if AJ Brown loves the Patriots, but he doesn't decide where he goes. He's done plenty. And I don't know that he loves the Patriots. He loves Mike Vrabel. Pretty sure he loves the Patriots. He seems like a patriot. Oh, oh, you mean he grew up rooting for the Patriots. Like he loves like he gets Patriots jerseys and he like breaks out like a little kid. OK, he should be the priority. I mean, you got a top tier quarterback, getting my top tier. And you spend a bunch of money on defense last year. And like, no, I would agree. I just don't think. You're great. I I think that if Jalen Waddle goes for the equivalent of the 25th pick of the draft, which is what all those were trying to get AJ Brown for the 50th, then you're going to work. That's all. Maybe. But he's also a patriot. So. Yeah. Live from New York. First things first. Overtime today. Is anyone willing to join Chris Prasad and his proclamation that Wembe is the best player in the entire universe? Meanwhile, Sean Payton Broncos coach. But now he's Tom Brady's coach coaching fanatics like football game this weekend. He joins the show to talk to Danny Park. Then you do you want to see some of my flag football places? Show him to Sean Payton. Oh, I would love that. I'll send you some. Yeah, that'd be great. You should coach your kids too. When they get there. Yeah, we're doing basketball and never too early. OK. And finally, the Patriots adding not one, but two superstars. How many first round picks do we have? Maybe if that new rule gets through. So alongside Chris Prasad, I'm Kevin Wilde, Danny Parkins and Nick Wright, who was complaining about the lateness of Danny Parkins pizza order, which I thought was very kind, but because Nick was not happy. You know, Deva, Deva, huge Deva. Oh, I think wanting warm pizzas, not like the pizza was or just wanting. You know what? I'm old fashioned. I just think you should keep their word. I think if you're going to text everyone, I think you're in text everyone. Pizza's going to be here at 12 0 5 and it's 12 45. And you're like, it's on 41st and 9th. I think that is. Why'd you say the text? All right. You were asking when one was people get lunch at a certain time. Yeah, I'm not worried about. I'm sorry. I'm worried about our staff. They've been here since nine in the morning. Staff was happy. It was complaining. Pizza guy. Others complaining. You guys are all thieves. Great performance from Luca. 60 points. He's got a hundred in the last two games. A lot of people, you know, people were saying. What went nuclear? Have you heard that? Right. I saw it on the bottom line. That's exactly right. You're the title. I get parkings. The limit. Thunder Celtics Spurs Denver Cavs. Cavs told you. Nick's Pistons and then the Lakers tied 40 with the wolves. That seems that seems too much. What's too much? OK, what's your take on that parkings? OK, a little bit of nuance here. 40 to one does seem like a bet that I would be interested in putting a little sprinkle on and if you line shop around, you might even be able to find 45 to one out there. But do I actually think they can pull this off? No. Wow. Because like game it out. Like let's say the playoff started in three or four days. Right. Standings held. I would. That's exactly what I hope happens. OK. So you've got to go. You you you have home court in the three six matchup against Yokech and Denver, who are the only is one of the only offenses that is playing at or above your level in terms of offense rate. The only Lakers lost this month is to Denver. They've played twice. One was a close win. One was a close. They've also played great against Denver since they got Luca. I understand that. But. They're not feel good about that. That's not an easy round one matchup would you pick. Denver. What? Then why do we play the games on? Well, I don't. I don't hate that. I don't hate that. I think I picked the Lakers the way they've been looking lately. But I think Denver never. I think that that is a six or seven game series. I think that is a six or seven game series that is roughly a coin flip. And I will put more stock on what Denver did in the playoffs last year. You can disagree with that. But Denver is a proven playoff team. Fair. Then round two. You lose home court advantage and you have to play a younger, deeper, better defensive Spurs team. And if you get through them, you have to go to Oklahoma City to play a younger, deeper, best defensive team to only have a chance to get through them to if it was right now, also not have home court advantage against presumably the Celtics in the NBA finals. It's a it is just a very tough road for a team that is playing out of its mind right now. Luca is playing amazing. I said yesterday to be my third pick for MVP. I'm not I'm not knocking them. And I would bet it at 40 or 45 to one. I do think it's better than a 2% chance of happening. But a Yokech, Wemby, Shea, Tatum path, not having home court in three of the four series, not being the better defensive team in any of the series, except Denver, is that that is a very tough. Of course, spoiler alert, America, every path to a championship is a tough one, except for maybe the last years. The there is they are all difficult. And I think we're doing a little the threes the standings now, which is where of the three teams that could be the six seed, the one that you think is the hardest is the six seed. But you said you would want to. No, no, no, I just wanted to want Houston. Which is but by the standings metric, Houston's ahead like Houston right now is a better team than Denver. Right. But you would want Houston or the I would want Denver over Minnesota for whatever it's worth. I don't think Denver is the same team this year. And I think that Denver has had massive trouble with Luca. And so I would be OK with it. I also think the fact that the Lakers have been the best clutch team in the league by a lot. And Denver has been a bottom 10 clutch team will matter a lot come the playoffs. But hubs do this in the other order. You said Luca is playing out of his mind. No, he's not. He's just being Luca Donchich. He's averaging for the year 33, 9 and 9, which is what he's averaged three of the last four years. And you'd be like, well, but this month, when it was this month, he's playing over his skis. This is what he did the last March. He carried a team to the finals. Yes, this is four and a half more points. But then he was averaging more rebounds and assists that the field goal percentages are a wash. The record is close to a wash. Like this isn't as if it's unsustainable by Luca 37 a game is. But 33 and a half is what he averages for the year. Like Luke averaging 37 for a month is when you average 33.4 for the season is not. You know, it's not like impossible to sustain. It's what he's been doing. I just I I reject the idea that it is, you know, you bet it because it's two, you know, you get 40 to one. But anything more, the that's the only reason it's reasonable. Whenever you have a guy who might be the league MVP certainly has an argument that he is playing the best basketball of anyone right now. Plus, Bron plus a team whose defense is playing better and your path involves a team with no playoff experience at all in round two. You got a shot. Just from from Danny's path, you would play a championship MVP, a final, you know, finals MVP, and then you would play maybe the best player in the world. Then you would play the reigning champs and then you go to the East and play. Well, yes, that would honestly that that would be one of the if it is Denver. To me, that'd be one of the hardest roads we've seen in a while. I I agree. But what I don't think we can do is be like the seedings hold except for when the seedings hold would make it easier because Boston's not the one seed. Detroit is. But they were putting Boston there. I mean, favorites. So what? Yeah. The and then the. So let's look at it though the other way that the Pacers last year. It's like, yeah, I mean, if the Pacers get through round two, though, then Boston's the defending champion. Boston is waiting for him. No, they weren't. So like that. And we haven't had we can say it's a fate, a complete that if the Lakers get through the spurs, they're going to have to go to OKC. But we're seven years running where the defending champion has not shown up to the conference finals. And so the things can break. You're setting it up as if nothing breaks the Lakers way. Every single thing you said is it all breaks as hard as possible. And those are also then we don't know who they meet in the first round. But if it's Denver, those are the most logical things happening. It's like they're going to meet San Antonio second round. They're going to meet OKC in the conference finals if they get there. I mean, that's just a difficult path. And it's just why the odds are so hard. And you said it in title pie while you had the Celtics is the biggest piece of the title. And the reason why I'm saying it in the title pie is because of the path. You guys can make fun of me for Cleveland all you want. And maybe I can look to the odds makers a little bit more than anyone else here. But if the Lakers are 40 to one and Cleveland is 13 to one, it tells you how much easier the path is through the East than the West, even if it is Minnesota and then someone else and then the Thunder. Like it's just it's a much harder path for a team that is top heavy without a lot of depth. Listen, the Lakers are not my pick to win the title. They're not my pick to win the West. And the reason that I am making is I think it is flawed analysis to act as if the only that they are drawing so slim because they are drawing so slim against the hardest possible path as opposed to. Yeah. And then what if what if like let me paint the other scenario because we think Houston's, you know, falling apart and doesn't like each other. They fall to six. And because San Antonio has no playoff experience whatsoever and the Clippers have shown at various points this year, they can be as good as anybody for a huge clip. The Clippers beat the beat the Spurs and all of a sudden the Lakers path to the conference finals is a Rockets team that doesn't like each other and the flawed Clippers. Now can I say they can win the title? Sure. Like that. So my answer to the question is they can. Now I've got OKC, Boston and San Antonio favorite over them. But I think they could win the title if they're going to keep if LeBron will stay in that Swiss Army knife role as Nick calls it. And Luca, Luca has been phenomenal in the playoffs. And if he continues to do that where nobody can really heck, he ate up Kawhi and Paul George in their prime. He's the last guy to beat Shay in the playoffs. So they have a shot, but they wouldn't be my pick. LeBron responding to some of the conversation around the idea that the Lakers might be better without him, either when he's on the bench or when he was sidelined. Here was his response. Take a listen. Just trying to figure it out, you know, and then I was out a couple of weeks ago and they were to come back and see how I can best fit the, you know, fit those guys because they were just playing so dynamic off one another. So I mean, sales, I mean, sales papers are a lot easier and clippings and podcasts. If you say LeBron, their team is better off without him. It's a lot of people who try to like view it. So I get it. They're absolutely wrong. Dana, you're surprised how much LeBron has adjusted his game. A little, but it's really fun to watch. I think it's always a little surprising to see the best player for two decades do something entirely different in real time. I think you have to at least be a little surprised by it. But he's a basketball supercomputer. He's the smartest player in the history of the sport by a probably considerable margin. Wow. And means you disagree? Yeah, I think magic is up there. Yeah. I mean, listen, magic obviously. Certainly would say like a considerable margin. If you argue between those two, the difference in and listen, magic played center to game. I understand that. But just the the length and the duration of which we've seen LeBron and the different variations of what he's been able to do over his career as the athletic system has kind of dipped in the different teams he's been on, the different teammates. It's pretty remarkable. So we were looking at how how to quantify this. And this is just how best we could come up with in the eight years LeBron has been in LA. If you look at what's happened, he's scoring the least with the ball in his hand, the least shooting basically as much from two as he ever has. Certainly, like the attempts are the highest, the percentage second highest and the second most free throws. That is it's fascinating to watch ball not in his hand operating out of the paint, operating at the rim, doing it with maximum efficiency. He's not a great defensive player, but if he's operating with less energy on offense, he has whatever the peak of his capabilities are at 41 on defense because he's got more energy there. So it's fun to watch. I don't think they're going to be a top six defensive team in the playoffs, which is another part of my skepticism for the Lakers. But this stretch has been remarkable. It's been it and LeBron is not the biggest reason. I would say Luke is the biggest reason. But LeBron is the second biggest reason for it. Yeah, I think Luke is the biggest reason. He's the best player on the team and he's playing great. You need him to play great to have a shot. But LeBron's willingness to buy in is huge. Like we saw it when LeBron, I'm not saying he wasn't buying in, but maybe before he figured it out, as he said, before he figured out what's the best way for me to play with Luca and Austin, they weren't playing that well together. And he sat there, maybe some during the games, he was out and figured out, OK, this is the best way. So that number one and then the ability to do it. Like it is hard to switch your game. Like he's been having the ball in his hands for 20 years, 21 years. And to be able to switch and then be incredibly effective at it at his age, no less. Like look at Kevin Durant. You and I have said for years Durant should shoot more threes. But I get it. His natural growing up. He shot midrange jumpers all the time. He has never adjusted just to backing up a little bit and shooting many more threes. Maybe one or two more a game than he used to. But that should be a problem. His game essentially stays as has stayed the same. Steph played different earlier, but under Steve Curry's running around, you know, running off to like to be able to switch your game. The way LeBron has at this stage of his career is incredibly a part. I think the only legendary players that I've ever seen successfully and truly do it are Biggs. Kareem and Duncan, I think drastically changed. You know what I mean? But a lot of it was they just the teams just weren't giving him the balls much. So maybe they were very similar stylistically. They just were accepted. I'm going to get the ball less. But I mean, I was going down the list in my head of like, like, God rest his soul and God love him. Kobe never changed. Kobe, Kobe, tell me if you think I'm wrong. I don't think Michael changed even with the Wizards. He obviously didn't need change with the Bulls, but like with the Wizards, he was like, no, I'm still going to play Michael Jordan basketball. That was just like he added the basketball. I mean, they didn't have a very good team of players around him, but yeah, he still played the same way. He just played the same way. I mean, you could maybe argue magic when he came back briefly post HIV, but that was so small. Right. It was. And so it's it's pretty unprecedented or at least unprecedented to my that I was going to ask you about Dr. J near the end. But a lot of times it's just you don't get the ball as much, you're no longer the number one guy. So that's kind of how it was. And a lot of times with most guys. Right. And a lot of time it is also you are noticeably old. Like and so LeBron is noticeably down athletically from peak LeBron. But that is still a above average NBA athlete by a lot. So it's not like, oh, his body has betrayed him. It's forced him into this, which makes it so fascinating. And I do think it speaks to people joke or, you know, I don't think they joke. They poke fun at LeBron for lying about silly things, discovering the Migos. They say is a lie. The books he's read or Godfather, those types of things. One thing that I don't think was a lie was when he said a couple of years ago, everything's extra credit at this point. Now, people can disagree and say you're wrong, actually. But I think he is truly at peace with that. Oh, I think he believes I have accomplished everything I came here to accomplish and therefore is fine with, you know, trying something new that I think some guys would look at. Right. Some guys would look at his beneath them. Yeah. And he is not. And I so Luke is definitely their best player and most important. But what you said, I agree with LeBron's willingness to accept this role is the key to them having whatever chance they have. Having a chance. All right. It's head to San Antonio. Sons are up one, 10 seconds left. Wemby gets the ball by himself. Mid-range jumper wins the game. He has 34. The Spurs clinch a playoff spot. I had them making the playoff months ago. I'm in Duke. You were trying to steal. It's true. Here's Wemby post game. Of course, the first instinct is to be proud of it and to love it because you're part of it. But the key for me is to try to not care because we want to attack 82 games. And I want another life. I'm scared to become complacent. So I'll be on the other end of the spectrum and try to not care at all. Danny, do you want to join Brew or Brew? I saw his look, Danny's look when Wemby hit that shot. I think he's coming to my side. Just I listen. You're like, Wilde's tried to steal Wemby from me. Like, we all love Wemby. We're all amazing. No, you don't. I do. I do. I like... You have to say he's the best player. That's what I'm saying. I feel so boxed in here. Like, I'm not a Wemby guy. I had the audacity to say I wasn't... I didn't think he was going to win Rookie of the Year because I didn't think he'd play 65 games. And now all of a sudden I'm a scoot hinder. Every year. It's a weird thing. Brew, I love when you talk NBA history. You have a vote. I think it's cool. I ask you questions about it off air almost every day. I literally don't think it's ever happened that someone has said the best player in the world is a guy who has never played in a playoff game. Well, yeah. And so I... I... What? When... And I'm not... When Bobby Knight said Michael Jordan was the best basketball player he's ever seen, he hadn't even played an NBA game. Yeah. Sometimes when you see something, you just know it. Bobby Knight saying that is different than a guy being considered the best player in the league before he's played in the playoffs. I agree with Danny. Like, that was amazing. Anybody that has ever held the... Because even when Bobby Knight said that, it's not like everyone's like, all right, over for you, Magic and Bird. Like, it's Michael Jordan's time. Like, Jordan, I don't think was considered by the media the best player in the league. When he walked into the league, he certainly wasn't considered it by the teams drafting. They didn't even take him number one. Right. So the... Now, he certainly was considered the best player before he won a title. Well before he won a title, but I... But he had scored 63 in a playoff game early and done things. Right, which is why my answer is no. Like, but I don't mean that as disrespect. It's just based on precedent and I'd like to see him in the playoffs one time. No, look, that's fair. That's totally fair. I feel like he's going to deliver in the playoffs. So I think it's... I think you could say... Like, you could say he's not as good as other players who've been in the playoffs, who aren't in the... By that logic, guys who aren't in the discussion for best player, you could say, oh, they're better. It's not a... They've played in the playoffs. But is it not at all disrespectful to the reigning champ and MVP, who is the current favorite to win and the current favorite to be MVP in SGA, or the guy who's going to be the first ever to lead and rebounds and assists and his average of triple bobble? Danny, can I... Sometimes when you see it, you know... Can I throw a curveball at you? Because I feel like you are... Since I've met you, that you are a pretty consistent guy, not Mr. Consistency, but you're pretty consistent. I try to be. But you have a handful of caveats, let's say. Justin Herbert being the most fun one. Where Justin Herbert has popped in... There you go. Eye test. And played poorly, but you are locked in. Doesn't Wemby pass the eye test? No, of course. Can I... Of course he does. So that's your only reason. Because it's not my only reason. It's not my only reason. I... There is... You mentioned guys whose their defensive prowess was a huge part of them winning MVP. But those guys, also the years they won MVP, averaged around 30. Akeem was the best defensive player in the league. Well, Nelson never averaged close to 30. No, but I think his first MVP, I think he averaged 27. I don't think Duncan was ever that high. Okay, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. That would be the comp, because Wemby's at 24. I am totally comfortable saying this Victor Wimbenyama at 24 points a game, and 29 minutes a game, is not the best player in the world yet. I'm totally comfortable with that. When you watch him... I don't think he impacts the game more than Joker. I don't... I do, because of the... And I think, I almost don't even compare him to some of the other legendary defenders. The only one I'd really compare him to is Bill Russell. Because his height... Well, you covered Bill. I should say, I can't help you there, man. But I'm saying, his height and length... It warms the core. It's not even just the block shots. Guys aren't taking shots in the game, please. No, guys retreat. It changes everything. I 100% agree with that. But the point I'm making is, the fact to Danny's point that we don't... Well, none of us think he's going to be James Harden in the playoffs. We have no idea what he looks like in the playoffs, even if we're all optimistic about it. And the fact that he plays less than 30 minutes a game. And the fact that despite these big nights we see him pop for, he averages 24, which means he has a disproportionate number of, oh, Wimby had 10. Wimby had a lot. He was in the teens. A lot. Yeah, he looked like he had a goal. Just 6-6 in the end. So all of that is enough for me to say. I think the very least Joker's better than him. And I think Luke and SGA certainly, we can have a long discussion about it. But every game that I watch him play, it was obviously... Yeah, no. He signs an autograph. Once he plays his first playoff game, Danny will be like, okay. Yeah, no. Thanks for hanging out on the OT, Willie Cologne out here. Let's talk a little New England Patriots, because it's been 24 hours since we talked about AJ Brown. And he continues to be linked to the Patriots, which is a fun one to connect the dots on. They lose to fondigs. They need a number one wide receiver. So they've been linked to AJ Brown. There's this picture of him and Kevin Byard working out. Kevin Byard, Leather League Interceptions 4, Dub Bears. No longer a bear. I know. So there's a talk of the reunion with Mike Vrable, if Kevin Byard went back. And then there was Julian Edelman. Willie, I don't know if you saw this, but he kind of stirred the pot a little bit when he had AJ Brown. We're all... Catch that wink. See it right there. Say we're all Patriots and you got a little wink. With something in his eye. Who knows? Obviously a troll job. All right. So NFL.com also put out a peace saying they should trade for Max Crosby. So everyone's apparently trying to be a Patriot. Who would you prioritize if you were New England? Who would they be scarier with? AJ Brown or Max Crosby? I think if you're serious about making another run to the Super Bowl, you have to get Max Crosby. You have to make an attempt at that. You're talking about a defense that was ranked 26 in sacks. Had 35 on a year. I mean, he had in the last four years, he had 44 sacks in four years, right? So you're talking about immediate impact. And you know, if you're the Pats right now, you talked about Kevin Byard. You're talking about getting another guy Max Crosby. Who's a closer? I say that time after time in the fourth quarter. That's where he shows up. And he's good against the pass in the run. So, and you know, he's a culture guy. He's going to fit Graves' locker room just fine. So I think if you're the Pats and you're serious about going back to the Super Bowl, I think he's priority number one. So they're both awesome players. Caviat out of the way. They would both be huge additions. Caviat number two out of the way. I do actually think though that number one wide receiver is a bigger, pure need for them. Like they lost the fondigs. Yeah, he was a thousand-yard receiver. But he was their number two. And that's why you got Romeo Dobbs. Like, you understand the Pats were ranked, I think, in the 20th in red zone conversion, right? They weren't good in the red zone. They constantly got stopped. And the fact that if you get an AJ Brown fine, obviously you know the impact he has. But Romeo Dobbs is one of the best receivers in the red zone last year. So they fit, to me, they answered that need. If that's why you want to get AJ Brown. Yeah. I've got questions about Dobbs. I've got one, but it is a good addition. And he definitely, you know, high points the ball and is very aggressive in the red zone. I agree with you there. And maybe this is hypocritical of me as someone who was skeptical of how the Ravens did business with Crosby. But there is now some question about Max Crosby coming off of this knee surgery. And I get it. I understand why a player would side with Max Crosby on that and why you would roll your eyes at it. I completely do. And AJ Brown's questions are like, is he a little bit of a distraction? Is he going to be, but that guy, he plays. Sure. Yeah. He plays. And Crosby, he doesn't come off the field when he plays, but he has had a bunch of surgeries and he is coming off another surgery and a team did just flunk his physical. And both of these guys are going to call him. But we know why we flunked his physical. We know why we think he flunked his physical. No, come on, DP. We know why we think he flunked his physical. Okay. I agree. I am almost 100% in agreement with you. I said it the day it happened. You did. I was like, this feels dirty to me. But like, I know with 100% certainty that AJ Brown is healthy. I cannot say with 100% certainty that Max Crosby is here. But that's not something that they discovered. That's the problem. When you talk about Max Crosby, he had surgery January 7th. He was in crutches two weeks later. All reports that he's rehab is going well. He's doing a podcast for Christ's sake. He's walking around the building. So there's signs that he's going to be okay. You can do a podcast with a bad knee. I'm just saying I did radio for my whole life with a bad knee. You don't have to be in good shape to talk to him. My point is I don't think he's hiding. Right? He's not hiding. I feel like he's been very public and very out and open about his right on schedule. He's ready to play next year. All right. Let's go to Tampa here. So they lose Mike Evans to San Francisco after 12 seasons. And their general manager, Jason Lick, he's distraught. Like he put up a fight, but this is what he said. He said, I don't feel betrayed. I'm in mourning. Oh, he, he being Mike Evans, earned the right to make this decision. We made a significantly higher offer than the Niners. They did. And that was just the first offer. Feel like we did everything we could. This is fascinating to me, Willie, on a number of levels. Because while I am not emotionally distraught like Wilde's is that Mike Evans left the Bucks, the Bucks did seem to have something special going with their culture. Like remember last year, Chris Godwin, he had that offer from the Patriots reportedly for way more money and he re-signed for less money to stay in Tampa. And I was like, what's going on with Tampa? They're like, Mike Evans re-signed on a one year deal. Godwin came back for a discount. You want to give Baker a shot? Sure, fine. And taxes are better in Florida, whatever the case may be. But I was like, man, they seem to have something. And Mike Evans is the best offensive player in the history of the Bucks. He had been there his whole career. He had had opportunities to leave. And when he signed that deal with the Niners, I was like, oh, the Bucks just couldn't afford that deal because they wanted to spend the money on defense. And then Lix came out and was like, no, no, no. He took less money to leave. That didn't surprise me. Do you buy this is how it all went down? I do. And I think we also have to kind of dig into crates a little bit. We've seen Hall of Fame receivers towards the end of their career go back and put on another jersey. I think Mike Evans, if we're being honest, wanted to change in scenery. I do think Jason Light came to the table and said, hey, man, we want you to retire a buck, right? Yeah. I also think right now, I don't think, and I was crazy about this. If you think about this, well, it had to be a Ty Bowles problem. Not necessarily. I think he got along with Ty Bowles well. I also think he looked at Kyle Shanahan, who's an offensive-minded head coach, and he looked at the receiver floor. He goes, hmm, George Kidd was coming off a tourniquet. Kidd, we don't know what he's going to be back. Rick and Pyrrha saw he's not enough. The Marcus Robinson, he's not enough. I need to be targeted more because think about this. Go back to it. Follow me, DP. Go back to the start of last season. This is Mike Evans' target. He was targeting the first game, 8, 11, and 9. Boom. That's how many times he was targeted, right? A little over 9 targets. He gets hurt against Detroit. Collab on boom. Comes back against Atlanta, has 12 targets. Good, right? Now, when they needed one game, one game until you get into the playoffs, right? This how many times he was targeted in those three games? 9, 7, and 2, right? So Mike Evans probably at the end of the season said, man, I don't know if Baker maybe hit a ceiling. I know I need to be the number one guy. I need to be targeted more. If you go to San Fran, he's going to average 9 to 10 targets game. Guaranteed solely because of the way that roster is constructed and all those guys in that Robertson room. Oh, listen, I think San Francisco is better than Tampa. They are in a much tougher division. By far. Not even close. A much tougher division. But we talked about the Niners the other day. If the Niners are healthy, their roster is top 5, top 7 in the NFL. And so I respect the professional challenge and the professional curiosity of I've been in one place my entire career and I can go join this outfit and try to see if the grass is always greener. I thought Mike Evans was going to be a buck for life and he's going to chase in a ring, which is fine. It's totally his prerogative. But you don't often hear general managers talk about a player leaving in free. He's like, I'm in mourning. Because he was a cornerstone. He was a pillar within the organization. Who you felt like, or you got a ring. I understand you'd chase the stats. But this is your home. You've been here 11 seasons. You've had a thousand yards in each of those 11 seasons. What else do we need to give you? More money? I'm offering you more money. And you still say no? Like it's different. It's different. And it's got to be a blow. Because Abuca is a nice consolation prize. The Bucks offense should still be, I mean, Buck Irving, Godwin, Abuca, they should still be a very good offense. Got to trade K-Dot. You got to get K-Dot. Did they get him back to it? Yeah. Oh, pretty sure they did. In fact, check that. Sean Payton, he gets to reunite with Alvin Kamara. Coach and guy by the name of Tom Brady playing flag football. Not a bad game. Not a bad game. We'll talk to Sean Payton on the other side, on the OT. Back here on the OT, talking a little flag football. OK. But not just any flag football. The Fanatics Classic takes place tomorrow for Eastern on Fox. These rosters are stacked with talent. You might have heard of some of these names, Willie. Brady, Burrow, Jalen Hertz, Jaden Daniels, you know, just to name a few. Joining us now, the head coach of the Founders FFC team, Sean Payton with us. Coach, you've coached some pretty stacked rosters. Brady was in charge of the draft. You've coached great quarterbacks. And thank you very much for joining us here on First Things First. Little nervous at all? You get to coach Tom Brady. It's pretty cool. I, you know, here's the thing. And as a coach coming into something like this, having, you know, the old Pro Bowl that was in Hawaii, if you lost the championship round, your staff had the Pro Bowl. And so in 06, my first year as a head coach, we had lost to the Bears in Chicago. And when you coach your first Pro Bowl, you're kind of acquiescing to your team like, hey, what do you guys want from this? And so I think the schedule was like a 35 minute practice. And the veterans that start looking at their watches, you know, and look, their families were there and you get it. I got it. And so I would say the difference in this is obviously the game is entirely different, but it still comes down to like, what do you guys want to get from this? Now the difference is there's going to be two teams that are made up of NFL players. And then they invited our international team who's competed and played for three years. And this would be like inviting Alabama or Georgia to the Pro Bowl. Like these guys are tired of hearing about how all these NFL players are going to take their spots in the Olympics in 28. And when it came time, like weeks before the game and you have to start looking at the film, I had looked at about 12 or 14 of these international games and realized quickly like, man, we're going to be in trouble if we don't, like if we're not on point, like these guys have done it a long time. So back to your question, the great thing about Tom and his involvement, like he's not going to do anything half speed. And so he kind of in that first practice, Galen Hertz, these guys that we have, Winfield from Tampa Bay, he's been a thorn in our butt for years in New Orleans, all these guys. And if Conom said, hey, we're going to do this thing the right way. So we had a practice yesterday, meetings, film yesterday, practice today, and it's a race to catch up to the international team. And then obviously, you know, the other NFL team. So it's been a good, it's going to be a busy week. Coach, let's get right to it. How unstoppable will the Brady and Grant connection be? Let's, let's, let's get to the sauce. All right. So the first thing I said watching film yesterday in the team meeting is I said, Grant, I don't see many players on this field built like you. Yeah. How are they going to stop Grant, coach? So everybody on this field is like corner safety receiver stature. And so I think the advantage for Rob is going to be when he fronts the defense, if you will, in the red zone, or, you know, there's one first down, which is at midfield. And so there'll be a couple of fourth down probably plays where you need a big target. And then, you know, Vaughn, Vaughn Miller is rushing the passer. And this is a different deal. This isn't like get low, beat the tackle, tackle the quarterback. Like these quarterbacks can move and you've got to get to the flag. So today we had a whole, holding flag drill circuit just, just because if you've not done that, that can be challenging. But I think, I think Gronk has, he still has a chance to be a difference maker for us in this game, particularly just like he was in the NFL in the red zone on third downs. So I know you're what we want to give the US national team credit, but it's like, I don't know, Brady, Gronk, Jenti, Kamara, like it feels like they shouldn't be able to win, coach. I don't know. It feels like you should guarantee victory. Come on. I got it. And I saw Italy in the semifinals of that baseball tournament. All right. Yeah. And so I put this film on two weeks ago. And the center snap and he's eligible. It's five on five. These guys, this, this guy from New Orleans is the quarterback. And now if you just snap it to the QB, he can't scramble and run. He's a thrower. But there, all these design plays where you snap it to someone and then it's a quick lateral to the QB. I hear what you're saying on paper. You're right. But there's a reason this team's favorite. Just about every sports book and I don't pay attention to any of that. But I do think the first thing we did in our meeting, I said, before I can explain it to you, you have to watch film. I mean, that's the only way you can learn this is to, is to watch the video of it. So we started doing that. We started seeing the multiple quarterback looks because there is one person who's Russian seven yards deep, his hands up. And as soon as the ball snapped, he sprints to the QB. But if that QB catches it and then laddles someone else, so we've got packages. We've got an Eagle package in with Hertz and Brady. We've got a volunteer package where it's Kamara who played quarterback, Hertz and Brady. When you can, when you can change up who possibly is the QB on a play with multiple threats, you can buy yourself some time versus that pass rush. And there are just enough nuances that I think make this challenging. So the game is tomorrow, four o'clock Eastern on Fox. You guys made big news for us trying to talk NFL year round when you made that trade in Denver for Jalen Waddle. What obviously he's a great player, but what element do you feel like he brings to your team that you didn't have to take that offense to the next level? But I think a couple of things. Look, man, I love the current makeup and the direction of where our locker room and where our team is going each year. We're bringing in like-minded players that are tough. You know, it. I spent a lot of time answering questions about culture and discussing it. And it really, it really gets down to the people, you know, and and I think the first thing besides the physical skill set. And so you see his speed and his explosiveness. But I think one thing that some fast players can't do some can. But if you're fast and you can stop fast, that's that's that's a really, really strong skill set. Now, a lot of guys are fast, but they may not transition that well and jail in someone who is very comfortable on those in breaking routes, very comfortable on the slot options. He can go down the field, but he can sink his hips and run some routes that are like, wow. And so then you partner that with his high competes. Man, he's been coached by some really good coaches, obviously in college with Nick. Um, as you, as you research, when you make a trade like this and you hear the term, you gotta do your homework, man, there's a dozen people you talk to relative to the makeup, the work ethic, all those things. And, and the people that I know and trust very well, um, had the same exact, like when I say the same message to, to a man, um, yeah, all those things. And, and, and look, credit Miami, George on our part, it took a while. Um, then it finally got done and look, we're excited to have him. Well, coach, good luck in the fanatics fest flag football game tomorrow, four o'clock on Fox. Apparently it's a preview for Tom Brady being the quarterback of the 2028 Olympics. So, you know, no, no pressure. I heard that. I, he was asked that question earlier. And I think he actually asked more to like, maybe I'm going to be involved in some type of a coaching role. I think the one thing guys that, that's really kind of cool to see is, is these international players that are here, um, that are all doing a great job helping us. Um, but the whole, um, foundation for our women's, you know, for our young women that want to play football, there's an avenue now. Well, coach, we'll be watching. Thank you for the time. Coach and, uh, hope to have you back on first things first in the future. Good luck tomorrow. Awesome. Thank you guys. No, he has some tough shots out there. I get his what it is. Uh, I know it's like the, the, the being that mode, uh, as people can see, it's not easy to get 80. Okay. I got to be honest as someone who, uh, was a little critical of how bam got to 80. Yep. I had no problem with how he got to 60. Not even really, I got to 70, but between 70 and 80, I got to admit I was a little critical. If he's just going to full on troll, see, Luca's 60. Yeah. That's no 80. I know. And he's going to kind of like wink and nod and do the smile. I could probably be converted pretty quick. That was funny. It's, it's weird how they, we treat 60 like, it's a simple layup in a game. Like, like it's Luca dropping 60. And by the way, it wasn't padded, right? Like it was no ushering here. I needed basically all of them. Right. And he showed up. So I, I listen, I don't know what to say about it anymore. Like I, it's funny because when I saw the 60, I, my initial reaction was like, okay. When normally I'm like, Oh my God, 60 points. Like bam is skewed at 60. Here's one. It'll help you. SGA's never had 60. So it's still hard to do. It's still, it's still, it's still a very hard, it's still a very hard thing to do. But I got to give bam credit. Like he's already in joking about it and like self-awareness mode. That's good. Enjoy the weekend. Enjoy the tournament. We're back on Monday.