Chris Gasper of The Boston Globe // Craig Breslow and the Red Sox // The Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown Dynamic - 4/10 (Hour 3)

the game. You know, the game is going to be a lot of fun. These guys don't and you can pretty much do it. You're in mass in perpetuity. Yeah Sports. Is this just any short sample a team that has struggled because everyone's making their plans for the summer. They're buying their tickets. They're coming to Fenway Park. They want to know is this going to be a season to go back to postseason play was this team in quicksand right? Sure. And everything we do is going to be a big thing. We're going to be a big thing. We're going to be a big thing. This is a really good team that isn't playing very well right now, and that is going to turn. Um and our job is to do everything we possibly can to try to accelerate that. With Christopher L gas for that's right. Christopher Gasper of the globe joins us now. He's brought you by premier basement water proofing. April showers are here. If you're finding water or not hearing your some pump working. Then you want to be calling out to the public. You want to be calling out to the public public. You want to be financing to get that basement water proof before you even move in to schedule with grace. Call 844 live dry or visit premier basement .net. It'll be then at what point there, Mazemary Game over for gas. Perino. How you doing? No gas. I thought I saw him farts and around on the old zoom there. What did he disconnect? He's not. He's sure he's late. He'd be late again so his! You should just read his email. Uh, Gasper says, interesting story in the globe today where Craig Breslow commented on the fact that he's not Heimbloom. He's based, he, uh, okay. That's what he said? Yeah, right, right. Um, here can I break it to you? Yeah. He's exactly Heimbloom. Pretty much. I don't think there's any difference. He's another one of these clones. Just more hated. I think it's, I think it's exactly the same. Yeah, well, he's slightly more aggressive. Slightly. So, but as we talked, is that him? Well, right. Heimbloom gets credit for the, um, sorry, Craig Breslow gets credit for the crochet move. Like he was willing to pros, deal a prospect that Heimbloom wasn't. I'm not sure about that. I think he had to be pushed into it and someone helped him with it. Or, he was just the one to execute it. In other words, I'll give him credit if they, was it Teal that they sent? Yes. Teal. Yeah. Okay. That might even been a mistake, but like, I think that he got to pick the prospects going out and the side pieces coming back. Like, but even then I'll say I don't know if he would have had the green light to trade Marcello Meyer. Remember, he just got the job, right? Pretty much. Yes. He'd been one year in at that stage. I think. Okay. So he had, he'd be, he's one year on the job. He was their 10th or 11th choice. Correct. I don't know if you would have the juice to say I'm trading Marcello Meyer. I know you just drafted this kid for overall, but he's out and Henry in the group says, yeah, okay, whatever you say, Craig. I don't think it works that way. You're probably right about that when you just have that job. So I don't give I don't think presos any different than Heimbloom. I think that the green light or the red light comes from upstairs and then they get to sort of pick and choose this the sub pieces. You know, tile ke a Kyle teal going out versus Harry Schmedlap. Okay. But I don't even know if you would have had the green light to deal Marcello Meyer Roman Anthony. I don't think so. No, he probably would not have. That's fair. I mean, usually they give the other team an option. They say you can have, you know, one player from each of these groups and they give them three groups of three and they say pick one from each. So, uh, Brezza, I want to say I think most of Heim's tenure was really spent trying to improve the state of the system to have some eye on the future said Brezza. And we are kind of now in a place where we're prioritizing wins in the present. Chris Gasper, do you think they're really prioritizing prioritizing wins in the present? No, I don't. I think it's pretty much the same thing that it was with with Heimbloom in terms of trying to do the sustainability thing and trying to balance everything. And the reason I look at it that way is that it's not just about the the way that it's going to be. And the reason I look at it that way is and this is something I heard Maz say the other day and I agree with it. But I wanted to expound upon it. It is very noticeable when you listen to Craig Breslow talk about constructing a team and this has happened over the last two off seasons. And I think he thinks it's a positive. He'll say, oh, you have to be willing to get uncomfortable or you have to be okay getting uncomfortable. But then the things he's responding to with that refrain are things like trading prospects for a proven star player or signing a mega free agent contract. Those are exactly the types of things that used to be and should be in the Boston Red Sox wheelhouse. Those exactly that should exactly be their comfort zone making those types of moves. And so I think you've really just traded one guy in terms of Heimbloom who didn't play at the MLB level for the same guy that can say he played in Major League Baseball and has that on his resume. I think they're very similar in terms of the overarching philosophy. Obviously there are things that Craig Breslow has introduced to the organization that weren't there with Heim. I think there are strengths that Heim has maybe on the position player side that maybe Craig Breslow doesn't have and Craig Breslow I think has done a good job of the pitching development pipeline. But the overall philosophy for both guys and I don't think it's just ownership. I know that ownership wants this in terms of the sustainability that's important to them. But I don't think it's just that. I really do think that they approach it from very similar angles and I just have to go back to that whole idea of the way he frames the exact type of significant maneuvers and additions that the Red Sox should be making a team with the Red Sox resources should be making the fact that he frames them as being willing to get uncomfortable is really concerning to me. Chris is right and for people that don't remember this because I do remember Chris said something a couple of years ago might have been a year ago where I thought well that's a great thing to notice and a great thing to focus on. I almost said Breslow at one point said something of the effect of well we're going to have to be prepared to bleed or hurt a little bit. I can't remember if he said bleed or hurt and Chris said why is it that anytime he has to give up a prospect it's painful. But this is the same point it's the same point. It's a good one. Which is that they view it as pain. They don't view it as we're going to get better. We're going to turn some of these prospects into something that could win us a world series. They're like no no no that's going to hurt don't give me the injection now. Why did how come it doesn't hurt the fillies to try and win now? Because they understand the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is for your big league team to win. Does it hurt the rams when they trade do you think they're hurt by trading draft picks? 9 first round picks in 10 years. You know what I mean? No they're not because they get it. Because they get it. So Chris he's dead on with this. So you know to me it's a absolutely you don't remember a quarter of that one year at the end of the season with Bloom made a comment about like it's not about having the best ranked prospect system or something like that. We're sort of still stuck there. It's a little bit better. A little bit. And they got an ace from the White Sox who's 26 so they gave him a big contract. Fine and even then it's not that big of contract. It's not 300 million or 350. It's 170. So they're comfortable doing that. But ask him to go out and give an eighth year to Max Fried and they'll freak and put their tails between their legs and run in the other direction. They have no interest in taking risks anymore. Zero. Gasper your thoughts. Yeah. And just to pull back a little bit more on that the 30,000 foot view. I think it is sort of consistent with what we've seen for at this point I would say 15 to 18 years with the Red Sox organization which is that they tend to pinball between these ideological extremes. Well we're not going to give any long term contracts to guys over 30. Remember when they weren't going to do that. Well now we're going to load up for this huge contract for David Price. We're going to have and it was successful with Dave Dombrovsky. He's a guy that's going to spend a lot of money and trade a lot of prospects and we're going to do that. No, now we're spending too much money and we're trading too many prospects. So now we're going to go 180 degrees in the other direction of sustainability and really tamp down the spending and try and develop our minor league system. The problem is not so much what the different philosophies are. It's that they create these absolutes when you should really be blending the best of all of these philosophies and you should be willing to be flexible and adaptable but they get themselves in these modes where this is it. This is the Silver Bullet philosophy. Like I said, nobody over 30 gets a long term contract. No, we're going to spend like this. Now it's about sustainability in the minor league system. You just have to have some flexibility built and I thought that was what Theo was great at and you know this better than I do Mads because you covered him. You know, I think back in the day in his heart of hearts if he were really an ideological purist like Theo wanted to build it from the ground up with prospects and do it that way. But he also knew that that's not the only way to build a team and that when you're the general manager of the Boston Red Sox there are certain other things you have to do and other avenues you have to participate in because that's your advantage. You can participate in avenues that other teams can't and I thought he did a really good job of that and he was really good at being able to steer the organization and I would give the late Larry Lucchino a lot of credit for that as well. Unfortunately now, like I said, I think they just get in these ideological ruts where it's this is it. This is the one one size fits all way that we're going to conduct business. I mean, you know, we've said it a million times here over the years, but the essence, Chris has got it right. He's got it right. You know, if the left lane is free agency and the right lane is your player development, just stay on the road. Okay. Sometimes you're going to be on the left. Sometimes you're going to be on the right, but the path is still to one to the championship and that's the one in the middle. So you nudge every once in a while one in the other, not the Red Sox. Nope. They get off on the exit and they want to drive east Tiger Woods driving down the road. Yeah, it's just it's you know, they can't they don't they can't navigate it. And look, I'm not telling you it's easy. It can be tricky, but you know, you have to have a knack in a sense for, okay, you know, when have we traded too many prospects? We got a downshift a little bit. Or when do we have the inventory there to be a little more aggressive and start passing people and then go that way. And they they really they can't they don't do it. I mean, they can. They should be able to do it right now and they can't or they won't. More thoughts on this coming up. Gasper as well with thoughts on the Celtics after that game last night in New York and the Celtics are all coming away after these words. Yeah, thoughts calls, emails. I get my child. He's on I do. I'm not a good person. Good. Felgar and 98 five the Sports Hub. Celtics down six 12 seconds to go. Richard into the front court gets rid of it towards Vuchovic. He drops it has it back. Vuchovic went out of five seconds to go. It's easy. It's no good. It will go out of bounds with five tenths of a second to go and the next will survive the game and the Atlantic division two seed race for at least one more night inbound to Shamet clock hits triple zeros and we're just the fourth time in the last 25 years. This next have beaten the Celtics three times in a single season. The final score New York one 12 Boston 106. My biggest take away from that game last night is, you know, 15 16 games, whatever it is that we are into the reintegration in the return and comeback of Jason Tatum that is the Celtics go into the playoffs. Jalen Brown has to be the closer. He's the closer. I think that Tatum as well as he's played and it's good as he looks. I think he's 85 90% of what he was before the injury, but that extra 10 to 15% is his ability to perform and close consistently in the fourth quarter, which we haven't really seen. I've seen a couple of games. I think there was the Hawks game at home, the Hornets game in Charlotte, but not consistently and he struggled in this fourth quarter. Now, I don't know if part of that was mental again, first time back on that court where he was fell with the Achilles, but he was not what he needed to be or what they needed him to be in that fourth quarter. Two of five, six points. He had one rebound one assist three turnovers. It really could have been more. I mean, I don't know if you guys remember the game. It's all calling for Mike Brown to challenge one time where it literally looked like just tripped over himself. He got lucky on that they called it. Yeah, they called the foul and Jalen Brunson, so it could have been more turnovers than that. There might come a time in the playoffs because the playoffs are it's a long run. It's multiple months, we think for them. They're probably going to play, you know, if they go to the finals and everything, you know, 23 to 25 games where he has to take over and does so in a fourth quarter. But as you enter the playoffs, if you have to close the game, you know, if you're going to play for the first three, it has to go through Jalen Brown because he's just not there yet. And I'll give you some numbers too. Since he's come back, he's shooting 39%. This is Tatum in the fourth quarter. You know, just by comparison, Jalen Brown is at 46.4% in the fourth quarter. It's always harder to score in the fourth quarter down the stretch in NBA games because that's really sort of game deciding time. But that's one element of Tatum where I feel like he's not all the way back. And I'll just give you quickly another example to where I feel like he knows it too. So late in that game, they're down at 106-104. And they get exactly what they want, which is a switch that has Jalen Brunson guarding Jason Tatum with 113 to go. Tatum should cook him, absolutely cook him. And he sort of gets by him and Josh Hart hedges a little like not a full double, but he kind of feigns he's going to double and Tatum immediately gives it up to Derek White for a three. It's not a bad play. Like it's not like he made a mistake, but pre-injury Tatum, he gets to the basket and scores that. He does. He cooks Brunson. And if there's a half-hearted double or nobody really comes to help Brunson, he's taking him to the hole or he's taking him to a spot and the paint and it's a mid-range jumper and you can bank it. And instead, it's like at the first sign of a guy maybe doubling, he gives it up to a guy who's over for the night from three on one of the most important possessions of the game. He knew it. Chris, he knew it. He's like, I can't close. He knew it. I'm going one step further and that is when Tatum is 100%, I still want Brown being the trigger man or goes through him or however you want to put that. I just think his play style is more conducive to coming through in those kind of possessions. You know, the, the, I meant to mention this earlier. I think that's another thing we learned last night. It's, it's just better when it goes through Brown in those moments. You know, if Brown, if Tatum is feeling it, then like obviously you can toggle back and forth between the two, but those tough possessions, you know, another thing. So you mentioned that sequence where Tatum got a lucky call. He sort of tripped on himself and there was a time out and you thought that Nick's my challenge. They didn't. They came right back out of the time out and Brunson immediately committed a foul. Like if not on the inbound really quick on that next possession out of the time out, it was the Nick's fourth team foul. Seltzer effectively in the bonus there and there's 647 left on that Brunson foul. Seltz didn't shoot another free throw. You had him in the bonus and I just think if Jalen Brown is there, he's attacking the paint, the high paint, the low paint, whatever. He's drawing contact and he's getting to the line and Tatum, the way that he plays, it's not, he doesn't do that as much as Jalen Brown. It should go even when Tatum's 100% Chris, it should go through Jalen Brown is what I think. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, we'll see. Look, for I would say for the rest of this season, it should go through Jalen Brown. I don't know what next year is going to look like, but I think going into the playoffs for this year, it goes through Jalen Brown. One of the reasons I have like a little bit of a caveat on it is when it went through Tatum, there were still games during long runs to the finals where in a particular game at the end, it would go through Brown because it was his night and I still think you could see that in the playoffs for Tatum. I just don't think that you can start out and say, well, we're going to go to Tatum like we used to and that's the default. I don't think you can do it that way. I think he's done a very nice job of sliding into this 1a role. He's been really good at it. I think they found sort of an equilibrium here and when you look at a game like last night, you know, that type of opponent you could face in the playoffs and I'm with you. I think you have to go through Jalen Brown and operate that way and it's not just how difficult it can be to score or to get to the spots. You know, there was another instance. I know Tatum wanted to foul late. He went up for the layup and he couldn't finish and he thought he got fouled. They didn't give him that. It was one of those. I know I wrote it down. It was one of those typical out of control kind of soft where he doesn't attack the rim but he gets in there kind of falling away. Maz, as you said, falling away didn't really have a chance down the right side, if you will. And I know exactly what you're talking about. That's just to kind of play you anyway that I see from Tatum too much. Go ahead. No, no, I mean, that was you feel stronger. I do also the cross court pass to Peyton Pritchard that he threw away yet another one to Neemey and this is you know, I'm picking on him a little bit, but it's just that's the extra 10 to 15%. So now this is where we get into the hyperbole zone is when people say he's back. He's back. You know, oh, he's the same. It's like he never left. You know, all these like crazy calls you get at the end of games from from announcers where it's like it's like he never left. Oh my, you know, it's no, he's he's he's done a very good job of getting back. He is to be commended for what he's done. But to sit here and say he's the exact same guy. Are you watching the games? Did you watch last night? He's not the exact same guy. And it's that extra 10 to 15% that's missing that makes it challenging for him in the fourth quarter and makes it so it should go through someone else. Chris. I don't know how great of a closer he's been on his best day. No, so that's true. Yeah, that's true. And I'll tell you, Chris, one of the things I like about Brown because I'm starting to come around on this myself and I've always believed Tatum is the superior player in terms of sheer pure talent. He can shoot over people. I like him better when he shoots over people and he's taking turn around from 15 feet. He's not going to do like that rather than out on the line. But Brown is way better in the paint. Way better. And he just, and when I say in the paint I'm just talking about when the game gets physical and you have to fight for space, Brown will fight for it. Tatum won. Bulls his way in there. Plays off at two feet as he says. I get exactly what he means. Tatum plays off a one. He does. That drive to the rim is exactly what you know that that means. So Chris, why are the Knicks such a tough matchup for the Celtics? I think I'll start with this and this is not a technical point at all. I just don't think the Knicks are intimidated by the Celtics at all. It's a little bit of it's not quite what what Marry used to say about Miami the way they look at the Celtics. Which is how much they back when it was Jimmy Butler and like the heat. Yeah, yeah, bitches. Yeah, they did. I mean, that's definitely how they treated the Celtics. No, no, there is there's something to be said for that mindset ahead, Chris. No, no, I don't think it's quite to that degree, but they're like we can go toe to toe to this team with this team. And also there's an element I think with the Knicks they feel like as a group collectively. At some point the Celtics will kind of let up a little bit. You know, they'll get happy with the way they're playing or they'll say like we just delivered our best shot. You guys are just going to stay down. You know, from a more technical standpoint, I think it has to do with the size. It's because you have Carl Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson and the size, the ability to rebound towns is not. He's kind of disappointed me throughout his career, but you saw he hit that three late. He's a guy you have to worry about throughout the entire sort of offensive zone for a basketball team. And then the other element would be Brunson. I think Brunson is very good at getting them good looks down the stretch. He's very good at creating his own shot and he's what was he one was it last year he won it, you know clutch the NBA clutch player of the year award that he ended up winning. He is really good in those spots and he was good last night at creating the right looks and the right you know, the right sort of shots for the next down the stretch. So I think it's all that stuff. It's the match up with it. It's having the bigs. It's Brunson being a guy who can coordinate and I think it's the mentality of, yeah, these guys are good, but they're not as good as they think they are. I think that's absolutely a part of it as well. You know, you in a clutch and late the next probably think we have these guys is how it goes. Casper has some thoughts on another big NBA topic that has been kicking around the league this week. I'm going to force him to give me a Vrabel Racini take that's coming up later on this hour as well. First an update from Big Jim Murray. Now for Felger and Burge on the Sports Hub We have arrived at the tanking Super Bowl. I think it merits what we have to watch tonight. We've worked for months to get here. The teams have worked hard. We have arrived. I give you the Memphis Grizzlies versus the Utah Jazz a game that nobody and I mean nobody wants to win. If Memphis wins this game they could lose 7% chance at the top four. If Utah wins this game, they could lose 10% If Utah has gone through, they could lose 10% OK. So here's what's going to happen. Memphis has 12 players out tonight. They did a Gip might be 13. And another who's listed as doubtful 90% of their salaries are on the bench tonight. Utah has 8 players out tonight. Peter, you think I am kidding. What am I about to tell you? I am telling you if you showed up on the bench and dressed in a jazz or grizzlies jersey, the coach would not only put you in the game but he would run plays for you. This game today is going to be an embarrassment and this game is the epitome of why the NBA is talking about changing the rules involving tanking and involving trying to have rapid deflation. Memphis have 12 players listed as out. Utah has 8 more doubtful Ridiculous. Winner said that 90% of Memphis's payroll will be out of this game and Bontem says this is why the NBA is about to change the rules involving tanking. We are all in favor of it unless Gasper is not. Chris, what is your take on this? I am not in favor of any of the changes that I have seen that have been proposed to be honest. I am not as offended by tanking or teams trying to reset as I think you guys all are. It doesn't bother me as much. It is sort of part of the circle of life of sports and I think this year is a little bit unique based on how deep the draft is and some injuries around the league. A team like Utah for example they went out and made a move and they gave up draft capital to get Jaren Jackson ironically enough from Memphis and then he had a knee injury and they ended up shutting him down. Danny is obviously in Austin trying to do their maneuvering but I disagree with Adam Silver and other people who think it is so much worse than it has ever been. I will just say I don't trust the NBA to fix this. I look at the 65 game rule which I think is well intentioned but we talked about this I think I talked about it on this show or that you know Mar-A was Gasper and Mar-A we talked about it there was the report that Tom Haberstrah had that even with this rule like 33% of stars are playing in the naturally televised games and in the meantime there are guys like Cade Cunningham who I know is back now Anthony Edwards and Luca who are not going to be eligible for awards. It's dumb. It's dumb that those guys are not out so once again to me this is the NBA saying oh there's this little mosquito buzzing around that's annoying. What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Oh we're going to try and kill it with a bazooka and I just don't trust them to get this right. What would you do? I don't like any of the proposals I've seen. Do you have a Gasper proposal? No it's not a Gasper proposal it's one that I saw Kevin O'Connor from Yahoo wrote about that apparently came up in a recent Board of Governors meeting which was that you would take you wouldn't really change what's happening now in terms of the 10 teams that don't make the playoff slash play in it would just be those 10 teams eligible for the pick but what you would do is the three teams that finish with the three worst records would actually get slightly worse odds than teams who finish four through ten. So you'd be taking away the incentive to sort of finish in the top three. What's going with that? No that one I like. That's the one I've seen that I like the most. But that's not one of the ones that's been released by I say by the league. Like kind of leaked by the league as a serious proposition. I don't like the one with the 18 teams and the flattening of the odds. Can you imagine can you just imagine the Celtics are where they are and I thought they'd be better than a lot of people did but even I didn't think they'd be this good but let's say they were bad. This was like a full gap year bridge year. By bad I mean by bad I mean a play in team. Yeah let's say they were a play in team and under the proposal that seems to have the most traction in NBA circles the play in teams now get thrown into the lottery odds and it's all flat. So everybody is the same odds. So all of a sudden the Celtics with Jason Tatum and Jaylin Brown get the number one pick and pick like AJ DeBonse or you know booze Cameron Boozer or whoever you want it to be Darren Peterson people would lose their minds. You just be swapping one problem for another. So I think it's a little bit short-sighted the proposals they have on the table now. This one I saw Kevin O'Connor tweet out about I could jump on board with but the ones they have now which have been come up with by the NBA by the Board of Governors by some really smart people that know basketball. I don't like any of those because I think you're just swapping one problem for another problem and you're overreacting to a short sample size of tanking this year because there are teams that are bad if had injuries and because it's a deep draft and let's not lose the plot all together here which is why do we have why is the setup the way it is to begin with? Why do the worst teams have the highest probability of getting these picks because they need the most help and because the league is the NBA is a league that's supposed to be built on or they want it to be built on parity and the only way you're going to get some of these star guys to some of these markets for them to be drafted. So if you set this thing up in a way where those markets can't get these players through the draft then you're completely erasing what you were trying to do in the first place. When you were complaining to me three years ago about everybody only wants to go to Miami New York or LA and that was the big complaint and that's what ushered in this CBA which punishes the Celtics for having two super max players. So the NBA just ping pongs from one issue to the next and never actually solves these problems. It just creates new ones in the process. Okay so look Chris whatever they settle on I'll agree with you that there is no perfect solution. They're always going to be elements to it that follow it all up. But why do you call this a mosquito of a problem? Because that's what you said at the beginning right? They're trying to kill a mosquito with a bazooka. Why is this a mosquito? Don't you think it is reprehensible that people who buy season tickets go to games or that partners who go to games and don't see a legitimate competitive effort or that partners who not that they care about the networks but they bid the NBA rakes in billions of dollars over TV deals and the star players play in one third of those? One third. Don't you think that that is a consumer fraud? Well yeah I don't like that and that's sort of more about the 65 game rule and scheduling which the NBA could do a better job of than it is about tanking. I mean some of these teams were talking about Washington, Utah. Memphis traded guys away. They traded Desmond Bain before the season. They traded Jaren Jackson during it. John Moran is kind of like the Tiger Woods of the NBA but swap guns for cars. So by definition a lot of these teams were talking about don't really have stars. Like what stars, I know the wizards during the season traded for Trey Young but like what stars are really on the Washington wizards? If these teams had stars they'd be better teams and I also don't think tanking the thing that bothers me is the NBA sort of buying into this idea of tanking is worse in their sport than it is in some of the other sports. I really don't think it is. I think and almost all the major sports if you look at teams like the White Sox and the Rockies and baseball or how the Astros got good or how the Orioles got good or even how Theo's Cubs got good you wouldn't say that was tanking. The difference is there's just no prospect industrial complex you can point to to pump it up as something other than what it is. And so that's kind of what bothers me about it is this idea that it's so much worse. I mean when you look at what the Jets were doing what did the Raiders do to get the number one pick with Max Crosby? That's not tanking? No it is. It happens in sports. Yeah but again I don't like it in any of the sports Chris. I'm not talking just about the NBA so here's the other one I would ask you what about financial penalties for teams that finish last? I just think jumping in I think the thing that you said Ian O'Connor proposed is close what if you made it so if you finished 30th 29th or 28th if you finished in the bottom three you can't get the first pick. You know anything that would incentivize jockeying that involves winning I think would help solve the problem you know? Sure. So yesterday would be jockeying then to be 27th but at least you'd have teams trying to win down the stretch versus doing what's happening tonight in Memphis in Utah and I think that I'd like to see that. The worst team can't get the first pick. The bottom three teams can't get the top three pick. Something along those lines I think might do it. Yeah look I'll take anything that reduces the problem. Don't reward sucking the worst. I also you know the more I think about it and I know it'll never happen but the financial penalties I love what owner wants to pay 50 million bucks if he finished with the worst record in the league? I just think that takes it off of I don't know fans care less about the owner getting fine than they do my team's trying to win tonight when I'm watching but the owner's going to put the pressure on if the owner if you know he's going to put the pressure on the organization to make sure the money stays. For the fans I know I get it but for a fan it's going to mean more if we win tonight we could get the first overall pick. The fan cares the fans going to cheer that more than oh my owner gets to save 50 million you know what I'm saying? Sure. So that's the other thing about this though is like I just don't believe and I could be wrong but I like for the fans in Indiana for example are they like this season's been disappointing for them obviously they knew Halliburton wasn't going to be there but do they feel like they're being ripped off or are they like the true fans or are they sort of like oh man I hope we get a good draft pick so we can compete for a championship. I don't know if fans care about this as much as the league or media people care about this and I'll also say this I don't think tanking is the number one problem in the NBA. I think the two biggest problems in the NBA right now are that the Terry Rozier, Chauncey Billis stuff happened and they haven't made any changes that I know of or that they've made public that make that less likely happen and that stuff happened after they had done an investigation of Terry Rozier and basically come up with nothing and then it took the federal government to really uncover it so to me that's a much bigger problem the manipulation of prop bets and then the second problem they have that's bigger than this is awful officiating and inconsistent officiating which also ties back to the first problem which I know is one of your big causes Felger the Tim Donahe thing like who's to say that couldn't happen again okay I think the way bigger problems than tanking I think but they don't want you to think about those so they want you to get all riled up about the idea of you're getting ripped off because the terrible Utah Jazz aren't playing Lowry Markin and they'd much rather distract you with that than the fact that there could be real integrity questions about their product okay I don't dispute that I think the biggest problem is on the high end the best players don't play enough in the big games you know it's just you get it marky matchup and it's never best on best exactly someone's always out that's not tanking but that's Denver resting Murray because they're on a back-to-back or it's you know and I know he was legitimately hurt but Brown you know Celtic you're playing back-to-back so Brown's out last night he's in tonight Tatum's out you can never and lastly it's a big playoff preview and you don't get all the guys out there and that happens over and over and the Celtics have had like I want to say less than five games against these big teams where everyone played for them and everyone played for you okc here at home last week or the week before was like one of the few times that's happened all year that to me is like the biggest problem but Chris you're filibustering I'm not going to lie to do it when we come back Chris on Vrabel and Racini right after this breaking news the New York Post spots Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and the athletics NFL insider Diana Roussini getting cozy together in Arizona today the New York Post posted photos of the Patriots head coach along with the athletics NFL insider getting cozy at a boutique resort together in Arizona now Vrabel and Roussini both told the New York Post that while it may look like something they actually were in the same place like something they actually were both their vacationing with their own set of friends that they had other friends who just weren't in the picture sure he's been sniffing around this one for a while I feel he's taking a little bit of a picture lap on this one Gasper your thoughts on this story go ahead you are not muted you are up go ahead please nice try oh you guys can't hear me no we can't hear you I'll give you my thoughts on this story if you can give me 15 seconds Felger on Amanda Batula and West Wilson sure I don't know who those people are oh you still don't know come on I brought this up on the show you know the Scamander thing West Wilson Amanda Batula how can you not are you not reading your Us Weekly's on the plane I must have dropped them I must yes I've let it lapse I don't remember you bringing this up I did Scamander Scamander so here's what I'd say I know Diane a little bit I think she's a very good reporter obviously I know Mike I'll just evaluate the situation strictly from a journalism news standpoint and what stands out to me so you have this report from the New York Post I actually don't think these photos are terribly incriminating relative to what they're saying in other words what they're saying is this is some romantic rendezvous there's no clear proof of that in the you don't hold hands with friends like that so I go ahead I'm sorry there's no clear I don't see anything there that's clearly romantic so I look at that and say okay they don't have them they don't have it all the way can I just stop you for one one second Chris I know if that was your wife if you just opened up page six and that was your wife how would you feel about that what depends on who the friend I mean if it's some of the male friends that I know that she has I'd be okay with it okay based on you know some of the male friends that I know that she has and if she told me she was going ahead of time so that's one question I have I agree with that I agree with that the spouses know they were going ahead of time okay that on this trip whether it's you know people so here's the problem I think for Vrable and Diana both of them are saying there were other people there there's no photos with anybody else if you look at you know social media and I happen to follow one of these people on social media they're not shy about posting photos with other people so it's kind of weird to me that there's no like group photo there if you're saying that it was two groups of people that met up where the other where the photos with the other people the other element is where are any of these other people to speak out and say oh yeah I was there you know look they they just made that photo when it was just the two of us but actually if you look outside the shot you know I'm at the pool too has anybody come out and said that yet not that I've seen no okay so that's a little strange too and then the third part I would say and this is just me if if I'm if I'm Vrable and I look at this in the New York Post is you know page six is misrepresenting this as badly as his statement indicates that they were then I would immediately sue them I would be suing them for libel so that's a little bit of a tell I think and and let's be honest we we those of us in this industry we know that you know the patriots are not an organization that is necessarily shy about you know threatening some sort of legal action if they feel like a situation has been misrepresented or somebody within the organization has been misrepresented so the fact that that hasn't happened yet so it's hard for me to read this because again I don't think the New York Post like caught them the way they think they caught them if you read it what they wrote and you look at the pictures it's like I can see where you would infer that but you didn't catch any of that you really didn't and then on the other side there's their story and I'm like well who's backing up your story so that's how I feel as far as the patriots litigious thing I mean it's not like I've seen a website coach out doing dot com in context anything like that there's there are no websites like that Chris how big of a hit obviously is a big problem for usini and as a journalist and all of that that self evident she's good she's a very she's very good at what she does she I know you know people like to knock her even before this you know they would kind of get on her but she is a good journalist but how big of a hit does variable take that's a good question I mean coming off a Super Bowl season this fan base which is kind of like do no wrong I mean look we had let's put it in let's put it in this context and again I fully understand that in one of these situations at least you know the charges were dropped but going to the playoffs last year two players accused of violence against women didn't really seem to bother the fan base very much so I'm guessing I'm guessing that in alleged you know Trist isn't really going to bother them very much I don't think this is going to have much of an effect on on Vrable in his popularity at all okay right so the fans are the fans how about regular people if you know what I mean his fans aren't regular people his fans aren't regular people they're just going to root for the laundry yeah they're blindly loyal yeah like they're just going to do the fan thing how about normal people I don't know if normal people care enough about it honestly I mean to be honest with you normal people are still like enveloped in this command thing this is small potatoes you got to remind me this what's this command I don't know that no I looked it up but there is something called command but I couldn't tell you I vaguely remember Chris saying this I can't what is it yeah I talked about it's like a big Bravo thing summer house Amanda Batula West L.L.S.S. and it's all these people that want to show yeah I don't either I just know that it has a name that's the only thing I know but Chris it's way bigger way bigger than this Vrable but that's a tell that Chris follows this stuff is probably privately all into this oh yeah definitely Chris let me ask you a question all into what I'm not even being private about this command thing I am all into it no but you're more you're more interested in the Vrable Racini thing than you're letting on is the point so here's oh no do you think Vrable's image has been hurt at all Vrable's image has it been hurt again I say the same thing like with whom not to not to generalize the average Joe who's a casual fan of the Patriots and grew up in the Boston area no they're gonna blame it no I didn't say the fan I said the average Joe the average Joe grip in Boston is gonna blame it on Diana if it's true they're not gonna blame Vrable that's unfortunately that's always the way these things we've seen some of these things in the past right how about you connections between coaches and female media members it's all it always it's never even how about you comes out how about you your normal person how about you do you do you use a normal person you are do you look at Vrable differently today I tell you this as a normal person I'm much more into this commanded thing than I am into this I'm much more into that than this are we past five o'clock you were late you were late you were late you were four more minutes sit your ass down you're going nowhere okay Gasper Murray tomorrow 11 10 to two o'clock no thank you I got a full weekend see you Monday we we had just like James Higgins we have the day off okay you folks can call someone I know you're not afraid to talk Vrable Rossini Chris thanks for coming by we appreciate it all right good to see you guys talk about that anything else we've had on today there's a full list of things full phones are going right to you after Murray's 90 second update no commercials