Knicks beat Spurs, Lu Dort trips Jokic, Cowboys ‘bust the budget’, Chiefs release Jawaan Taylor

I mean, she made some good points. That's what I was saying. Are you dressed this on air or no? It's up to you. That means yes. Live from New York, it's the show that Cajun is going to allow fun games at their daughter's wedding. I think it's great news. Yeah, classy games. Yeah. Classy games. Yeah, classy cornhole. Classy giant jenga. Giant jenga. Giant jenga. You should put your foot down on giant jenga. It's just a mess. It's loud. But the point is, Brew tries to act like he is Mr. Hard-nosed. Except for when it comes to his two princess twin dogs. I raised some smart young ladies. They're unbelievable women. And they convinced me. They often convinced me that their argument is right. So how many games are there? I can't wait. It's not going to be Jenga and no car playing anything like that. It's going to be classy, classy games like Darts. No. My wife is getting really mad now because she don't want games. I was supposed to be like, no games. But you can't come in. First hour, first things first. Today, all said no games. Joker not joking. Bad blood against OKC. Kind of an interesting take from Nick Wright coming up in about 12 minutes. Meanwhile, the latest comments from Jerry Jones that makes someone here want to believe in the Cowboys, perhaps strategically for their own career. And finally, it's got to be you. I'm just saying, being the crazy Cowboys fan is just open real estate. Yeah, you can have that one. I might. Okay, take it. And finally, Mahomes loses his line. She's headed in the wrong direction. Feels like it a little bit. It feels like... I almost said something very rude to you. I don't mean... Are they headed in the right direction? Well, this was a guaranteed known move for six months. So I would say they're headed in the direction they were always going to be headed. They were always cutting this off. We always head in the wrong direction. Okay, that's fine. But this... Well, like, I want to go to Grand Central. I start walking that way. I decided to walk that way. Obviously, it's been a rough year. But even had they won the Super Bowl this past year, he was getting cut. Like, this was always the year he was getting cut. You know what I would have done? Restructured his contract. You don't even know what that means. I would have moved money. You don't know what that means. I would have moved money. Don't know what that means. You pay the price down the line. That's right. Well, look at you. Two minutes into the show bringing up void here. That's for yelling at Dusty about it. Dusty did ten minutes on Lamar's pretend void here. We're starting in the garden where the Spurs' 11-game win streak ended in a whimper. The Knicks defense pulled Wemby's squad to under 90 and win by 25. Nick was in the building. Here's Wemby on the Spurs' problems with New York's physicality. Uh-oh. Take a listen. I was surprised, yeah. It feels like they're a good basketball team. They are good actual basketball players, you know. They're not like the nastiest ugly team, you know. They're not an ugly team to watch. But they made our game agree. Okay. What was the bigger story here for you, bro? The Spurs loss or the Knicks win? Definitely the Knicks win. Spurs, what do we believe on this time? Oh, yeah. These guys. 11 straight. They were due. That's for a loss. Most wins and, like, straight wins, what, 10 years? Yeah. Fourth game of an East Coast trip. So, you know, I'm not looking at them any different. But the Knicks, I was impressed. I was impressed. This was a great win for the Knicks. And what it showed, and here's why, another reason I don't look at this against the Spurs. The Knicks were very physical. But you can't say the Spurs can't handle physical play because they're 4-1 against OKC, which is very physical. they dismantled Detroit a week ago, which is the physical team. So, again, I don't look at this much on the Spurs. But for the Knicks, look, their defense was phenomenal. Unreal. Right? The Spurs are a top ten offensive team, very good offensive team, and it's not just Wimby. They've got a bunch of guards, as I've talked about, that can score. They held them not just to a season low 89 points. That's the only time, obviously, they've been under 90 points this season. But it's only the third time this season the Spurs have failed to score 100. So that defense was stout. And when you look at what the Knicks are doing now, the question for them is not offense. All right, you got Cat, who even though he's having, some people would say, a down year, is still a 20-point score. And obviously, Jalen Brunson and a host of other guys that can get you 15 to 20 points a night. The question is defense. And Mike Brown was a great defensive coach with the Cavs and then became an offensive coach when he went with Warriors as an assistant in Sacramento. And lately they've been playing phenomenal defense. First 43 games of the year, they were ranked 18th in defense, defensive rating in the league. The last 18 games, they're ranked first. They're 14-4. They've beaten Toronto, the Lakers, the Nuggets, the Celtics, the Sixers, the Rockets, and now the Spurs. All right? Those are good teams. And here's how good they've been defensively, Nick. Those 18 games, their defensive rating is 103. Okay? The leader in the league this season, Oakley C, the number one defense in the league, has a defensive rating of 107. All right, so the Knicks are playing phenomenal defense, and so they impressed me yesterday. I feel like I always thought they were obviously a contender. Early in the season, they were my pick in the East. Recently, I've started thinking Detroit, and I still rock with Detroit right now. And I think that's the one team that really gives the Knicks the most trouble. but the Knicks bolster my belief in their chances to get to the finals. All right, so a couple things. First of all, I would have lost an incredible bet on the opening segment here because Brew did all of that, which was all correct, without once mentioning who was or who were, since it's multiple people, number one on the bud list on Thursday. The whole roster. The whole point. So great restraint by you in not dusting off the shoulders. I don't like to take too much. Exactly. Right. You never took my New Year's resolution of be less humble. You're just more humble ever. So good job by you there. But everything you said is correct, which leads. And I was, listen, I was there. It was my nephew's birthday. He went there with some of his friends, got to see the game. And holding them to 89 is actually underselling how good of a job they did. Because the Spurs had 22 instantly. They had 22 midway through the first quarter. So for really like the final three and a half quarters of the game, you held the Spurs to 67 points. And I did think their physicality gave Wimby trouble. I thought Mitchell Robinson was awesome. Carl Anthony Towns, who is much maligned fairly at times, he rose to the challenge. Obviously, the Knicks offense got rolling. Jalen Brunson was great. They killed him on threes. But a lot of teams can beat the Spurs on threes and still lose the game. And so, the Knicks started the year 23-9, really 24-9, because they won the NBA Cup against San Antonio. They then had a terrible three weeks. They went 2-9 for three weeks and looked bad. But they started 24-9. They then are 14-4, to your point, since that three-week aberration, if you will. And it's not that they have dominated the best teams in basketball, but when they play the best teams in basketball, they don't only hold their own. They win a high enough percentage to be like, oh, you would beat them four out of seven. Like, they're close, good games that the Knicks win the majority of. Which brings me to a point you got to. Just a generic question for the audience. Why can't they win these? What box do the Knicks not check off to win these? They have a superstar who's excellent in the playoffs. They have, unlike previous years, they have, to my eye, depth that the coach will use. I think they might have had depth in years past, but Tibbs just wasn't into it. They got legitimate depth. They have legitimate depth. They have a legitimate number two scorer. Town's not a perfect player, but he's a legitimate number two scorer. And they have a couple other guys, most notably Mikael Bridges, who if they're hot that night the way they were, they can jump in and be your number one scorer. So I'm not acting like they're a perfect team. I'm not even saying they necessarily would be my pick. I think Tatum's going to come back, and that will probably sway me to Boston. But the Knicks absolutely can win the East. And to your point about Detroit, yes, Detroit's owned them this year. But the Knicks beat them in the playoffs last year. So with mostly the same rosters. I understand Detroit's young and getting better. But I think the Knicks are a legitimate contender as much as any other team in the Eastern Conference. If Tatum doesn't come back, are you still rocking with the Celtics? No. To win the East? Absolutely not. If Tatum does not come back, I think the Knicks would be my pick. The Knicks should win the East. Even though they're not my pick. I'm picking Detroit, at least right now. The Knicks should win the East. Detroit does not have a – Duren is a very excellent player. But he's not a reliable scorer. Right. So, like, they don't have a legit second scorer. They don't have the playoff experience or the experience period that the Knicks have. Boston without Tatum certainly isn't as good. Pritchard is really good, but they don't have a second 20-point score. And look, the Knicks beat them last year with Tatum. So Tatum coming back, again, the Knicks should be able to beat them. And then Cleveland's had as bad of playoff disappointments, if not worse, than the Knicks have. Certainly. So the Knicks should be entirely disappointing and upsetting if the Knicks don't win the East. Or just loss of the season for the Spurs. Meanwhile, in the West, we're three minutes into the game and SGA and Joker get into it. SGA throws the ball. Joker says, he's not going to throw the ball at me. Shea's first game back, he had 36. Fast forward to the third quarter. Lou Dort hits Joker with a little hip check there and then says, What? That wasn't a foul? That was the weirdest part about that. It was a foul and you're going to end up getting ejected. A fracas ensues, which Joker got very upset and released a meme of his eyeballs, really. Joker's death stare during Lou Dort and dust-up became an instant meme. That's a scary look. Yeah, you just walk away. Here's Dageno postgame thinking it's not a big deal. Take a listen. It's outrageous. I don't think anybody's trying to hurt anybody. They're just great competitors. And, you know, that's what I said. That was just boiled over. I think it was nothing more than that. I will say this. If a player gets – if J. Will is running up the floor and gets tripped, we expect a flavor or two from this point forward. You know, that's all. If that's the precedent, if that becomes a malicious play, and flagrant two is the line in the sand on that, we would expect that if it's J. Will. We would expect that if it's anybody. Okay, your reaction? I'm almost as infuriated by that press conference as I am the wantonly, obviously dirty play by Lou Dort. Because what Dagenold's trying to do, and I'll say this on front end, they're a great team, they're champions, he's an excellent coach. What Dort has made of his career from undrafted to legitimate, important player is remarkable. All that can be true, and this is outrageous, and Dagenalt pretending like, oh, they only did that because it was Joker. It wasn't so much about who it was done to as much as it was who did it. Because here's the reality, and this to me is not even opinion, on Lou Dort. Lou Dort does a ton of borderline stuff and has injured players. But almost all of the other plays, whether they're caught up on Instagram or Twitter, you see them. There's a, yeah, maybe. There's just enough of plausible deniability of, listen, the guy's tough and he's kind of a linebacker and he plays hard and it can happen. None of that exists here. This is him stopping his progress, going backwards into an injured player's injured leg. And the reason I think this is noteworthy is not just because that was an outrageous play by a player who does not get the benefit of the doubt from it. I've seen too many things where it's like, wait, after your shot, were you trying to turn the defender's ankle repeatedly? Did you run into Wimby's leg? Did you see all those things? But this felt to me, it being a national TV game, it happening to Joker, Joker reacting like that. Like a cousin of the tush-push controversy blowing up. With the announcers being like, it's so hard to officiate. And right or wrong, the Eagles were not as good at it once it became that. the Thunder get away with a lot. The Thunder play a very tough physical brand of defense that they have been rewarded by the officials because the officials seem to be like, ah, we're not going to call foul every play, so what are we going to do? I think this moment will change how they are officiated, particularly that player. And I think it will have a tangible, legitimate impact on their ability to repeat as champions. I think Dort flew a little too close to the sun with his extracurriculars, and now the spotlight is on him. And the coach being like, well, if anybody gets tripped, it's a flagrant, too, as if he doesn't know that he's got a guy who does dirty stuff as his enforcer was annoying. So I think it's a big deal. I wholeheartedly agree with you except on the point of I'm not sure if the officials will start officiating them differently. Maybe, but I don't know that this will be a turning point in that regard. But everything else, I totally agree. Like this play is upsetting, legitimately upsetting. He tripped him. Like, I don't mind. I mean, the bump was definitely unnecessary and uncalled for. But, you know, that happens. The guys run up the court. You give them a little shove. But he tripped him. And you could have injured a player, let alone the best player in the league. But you could have injured a player. This play was so bad, so dirty, so upsetting that if I was Mark Dagnall, I would talk to my team in the locker room and be like, this is not who we are. Look, we are tough. We play hard. We play physical. But we do not play dirty. And look, I get that you guys are going to be bumping. You're boxing somebody out. You give them an elbow in the gut. Something like that. This could have injured the best player. And again, not just because it's him. But it could have really injured Jokic or any player. And then the, what did I do? That is terrible. And I think Dagnall privately should have been like, and maybe he was. Who knows? But I doubt it. But if I don't want to see another player on our team ever do something like that. You can play physical. You can bump. You can toe the line. Don't you ever trip a player on purpose like that. Now, I get Dagnall kind of backing this guy publicly. I'm not saying he should rip Dort in the press conference. back him up I agree Nick this like he acts like it almost looks like and I'm look guys may get tripped just naturally in the flow of the game you accidentally trip somebody that's one thing but for him to act like if a player purposely trips Jay Williams that is not going to be a flagrant too if it's as blatant as this I would think it would be a flagrant too as well And I like Lou Dort, but there is no place for that in the game. I actually think he should be suspended for a deal. I thought the same thing. He should be suspended for one game. Because it was to me, and then I want you to go wilds, but remember when Xavier Worthy got hurt in week one and he ran into Kelsey, didn't see him? Oh, yeah. And Greg mentioned, he was like, it's just so different when you're bracing for contact versus when you don't see it coming. I put this in such a different basket than any hard foul going to the rim. Right. So, like, if somebody's driving to the rim and you clobber them even sometimes in the head, I find that so much less egregious than this. Because the player knows contact could be coming. Like you're saying, when boxing out, there are certain things that happen in sports that almost when both players are engaged in sports combat, You know, protect yourself at all times type of stuff. This thing where a guy has no idea, it's like as if someone came from out of the stands and hit you, is not protecting himself, and that's why Joker lost his mind. I have no problem with Joker's response. No, he was, and Joker is, we've only seen him lose his mind. We've seen it a few times, and he then dirty shot Markeith Morris back years ago. but it has been when he thought someone tried to hurt him. And he reacted like, you tried to hurt me. And that's why, because he gets hit all the time. And he kept his cool. Like, he didn't go up to him and grab him by the jersey. He obviously didn't swing on him. He just got in his face to let him know. It's an intimidating stare. I mean, it's an intimidating stare. It's definitely interesting. He missed 16 games with that knee injury. Denver lost this game and then also lost to the Wolves. So, I mean, this is taking up a lot of the oxygen. But also, it's Denver. I'm going to talk about them in one minute. And they're banged up, too. Aaron Gordon is critical for them. Aaron Gordon and Wild's guy and friend of the show, Jalen Watson. Also critical for them. Oh, Peyton. Jalen Watson, I'm going to talk about later, is a free agent the Cowboys should go after. Peyton Watson is the one. All right. Their next matchup is a week from today. OKC versus Denver again. All right, let's check in the Lake Show. Snapped a three-game losing streak. They beat the Warriors without Steph and the Kings without a pulse. That's not that inaccurate. I mean, it's terrible. Remember when Nick used to make us do statements about Sacramento? Oh, I'm sorry. I try to service all sports markets, no matter how small. We had a line item in the budget for Kings. Oh, yeah. He had a team. They took the Warriors seven games. It's pretty good. Sorry, De'Aaron Fox. Remember De'Aaron Fox broke his finger? I found out in the air. I almost cried. I was so upset. I was like, why are you so upset? Take a look at the standings. Thunder Spurs, Rockets, Wolves, Nuggets, and then the Lakers are right there. Correct. In between Denver and the Suns. Lakers 2-0 weekend against not the toughest of competition. Quiet your concerns. Do you know who they play next, KW? Yes, I believe they play. Do they play the Pelicans? The Pelicans. The Pelicans up next. Rolling. So listen, I do not think the Lakers can win the championship. We've said that before the year, middle of the year, all year. I also think last week this show and the entire sports media was maybe a touch too hard on them. And I think that for two specific reasons. One is, I got new information. Usually Twitter is just a pool of misinformation and awful. But I saw this stat floating around Twitter so much that I had Josh check it. Because a lot of our premise last week was the big three doesn't work together. Yes, all the plus minus stuff. All the plus minus stuff. Net ratings. Yeah. Here it is before Christmas and since Christmas. And we're now to March. Since Christmas, that works. Well, how many games is that? Because there haven't been many games. But before Christmas, it's more games than it was before because LeBron missed the beginning of the season and then Austin got hurt. So the point is, something has, since LeBron's gotten healthier or whatever it is, is working a little bit better, at least to a degree. They still can't defend, but that then brings me to the point you alluded to. We did title pie, and nobody batted an eye at me saying, well, the Nuggets can win the championship. The Nuggets obviously can win the championship. Here's the Nuggets versus the Lakers, who, to what you just showed, they are a half game different in standard. One's 37-24, one's 36-24. The Nuggets do have a better offense. They have one of the best offenses in basketball. The defenses are the same. Like, it's 21st and 22nd in rating, and the whole idea of you can't win a championship with a bad defense, we think doesn't apply to Denver. And to just add to it, every discussion around Joker fairly is that's the best player in the world. The discussion around Luke is maybe Nico was right. Their team's... No one is saying that. Nobody's except Draymond. Draymond is flirting. Well, Draymond's somebody. Draymond's somebody. And the... And, I mean, here, again, Joker, I believe, is the best player in the world. And I've been a little disappointed with Luka this year. But this year, Luka's played more and his team's won at a slightly higher percentage. Slightly. Luka is averaging 32.5. Joker's obviously a better rebounder. I think Joker's the better passer, but I think Luka's, you know, a top three passer in the league. And, again, Joker's better and having the better season. But the discussion surrounding one is, man, it's criminal if he misses a few more games and can't win MVP. And the other one is, what's wrong with it? So I just think the conversation outpaced the panic for the Lakers. And I was a part of it. I'm not running from that. So that's my answer. Well, look, the conversation, the concerns, the criticism of the Lakers, let's put it in the context. All right. the context is as a championship team. No one is sitting here, not me, not you, not anyone who's been critical of them on any other network and saying they're not a good team. They're not a very good team. I don't know if Wildsense are a very good team. I would take off the word very. Okay, I think they're a good team. I think if they were in the Eastern Conference, they would be have a legitimate chance of getting to the finals. I don't believe that. I totally do. And I know they have been gotten beaten handily by the leaders in the East. But a lot of that, again, is they haven't been whole. Now, again, I'm I'm so when I'm critical of them, it is in that they are not they cannot win the West. It is in comparison to OKC, San Antonio, Denver. And I'll get to that. your graphic and Minnesota. All right. I even give them a chance to play with Houston if they meet in the first round. All right. So the reason is because Luka Doncic, since he got to the finals two years ago, from that point on, every season he's in his prime, it's championship or bust. LeBron has always been since, you know, his first few years in the league about winning championships. So when I judge them, even though I know he's older and out of his prime, I'm judging their team as can they win the championship or at least get to the championship. Not are they good. Their record is good. They're still a good team. All right. So that's where the criticism is. With Denver, this is why I disagree with you on Denver, Nick. One, Aaron Gordon is a huge part of their team, particularly on the defensive end. All right. So he has been out. Presumably he'll be back, supposedly and reportedly he'll be back soon. So that'll change things for them. Also, in comparison to Jokic and Luka, the problems people have with Luka or the criticism is his incessant complaining to the officials, which a lot of times leaves him on the ground or on the offensive end of the floor while his team is getting scored on. So that's part of it. That doesn't happen with Jokic. And Jokic, even though not a very good defender, because of his size, you can't attack him. Yeah, and he's the best defensive rebounder in the league, which is a part of defense. So he brings some things that Luka doesn't. And then the other thing, Nick, I, and I, you know how much respect I have for Luka's game. Like, I think he's phenomenal. but I really feel like he's going to have to adjust his style of play because ball dominance, particularly when you shoot a lot, is tough to build around. And it's tough for other players, particularly ones that have skills and can really get to the rim, create their own shot. It's tough on them. Jokic touches the ball every offensive possession for them, but he's moving it. He's getting it, passing it quickly. You know, Luka's pounding it. And that's a big difference. So I don't think Luka, obviously the statistics show it too. He's not nearly as efficient as Jokic is. Jokic is way more efficient. So I think there's a big difference in their effectiveness. The Warriors started Draymond, Santos, St. Anthony, Melton, Moody, and Pods. No one scored more than 14. The Kings have lost 18 in the last 20. But KW, do you think the Knicks can win the East? The Knicks, yes. You don't think the Lakers and the Knicks are around equivalent? No, the Knicks have had the best defense in the last 20 games, and the Lakers stink. Tomorrow is 100 days until the World Cup. It's not 100 days until the World Cup extravaganza. It's 100 days until the World Cup, and then we have an extravaganza tomorrow. The mascots are going to be in the building? Really? I think so. And Lionel Messi. He's not going to be in the building? Messi in the building? He's going to be in the audience. We'll have people lining up outside. Messi, tomorrow's going to be off. You never know. But Leo Messi is not going to be here. I'm going to put out a call. Under-promise, over-deliver. Don't promise the world's single biggest sports star. Hubbs told me he was just Messi and all around. Hubbs, Nick said factor stuff. Welcome back to the show. Drew is always wondering what is legally allowed. I mean, really. He's always like, can we? Michael Jordan will be here tomorrow. Yes, finally. Can we say that? If you can book it. You're supposed to have made that happen for years. I mean, we're talking. Now we're talking. He finally wants me. I'd love to give you back. He'd be nice. PAP is up over $300 million. Jerry Jones, that's Bob. And he's ready to spend some cash, bro. Take a listen. I can see me being aggressive. I can see us being aggressive in free agency. I would bet that we will spend more money in free agency than we have. I want to do everything we possibly can to stop somebody and to basically win some third downs more than we did last year. And so I think that would be the area that you would see me bust the budget. Hey, Josh, Jerry Jones and us locked in. Opponent third down percentage, 47%, dead last in the league, bro. Can the Cowboys make you a believer in the offseason? Well, not a believer in them reaching the Super Bowl. There's nothing they can do. Nothing? Well, there is something. But right now, no way they would make me believe they can reach the Super Bowl. Look, they haven't been there in 30 years. They got a quarterback that is 2-5 in his 10-year career in the playoffs. So Dak hasn't even been at his best all the time in the playoffs. But, Nick, could I believe that they could make the playoffs? Of course. That they could win 11, 12 games? Absolutely. Here's what they have to do. I'm going to be very clear about this. Good. For Jerry and Cowboys Nation that's listening. Number one, trade for Max Crosby. Okay. All right. Go trade for Max Crosby. You got two first-round picks. I'm not saying that's what you give them, but you got two first-round picks this year. I believe Donovan, as a rock, can improve. All right? He's a rookie last year. A lot of high hopes for him. A lot of talent. So I'm banking on him improving this year as a defensive end. I think DeMarvin overshone. He only played six games last year. I like him. So he, assuming he's healthy. All right? That has to happen. Draft a bunch of defensive players. They've been pretty good at drafting. No question. draft a bunch of defensive players, and George Pickens has to show up. Now, this is not necessarily in their control, but if George Pickens shows up, like, hey, I'm ready to roll. Franchise tag this year, all right, I'm going to go prove I'm worth. If that's his attitude and he shows up ready to play, then I would believe they could win 11, 12 games and make the playoffs and make a little bit, do what they've done, you know, in the past few years. Now, the one thing they can add to that to make me think they might actually have a chance at winning the NFC this year is if Jerry Jones said, announced, make it a big deal. It's all about football this year. I am not doing any radio interviews. What if Dak Prescott learned to fly? Once a week. I'm not doing interviews after the game in the tunnel. Brian Schottenheimer is the only voice you're going to hear outside of the player. Well, that's not happening. Leave it at that. That would make it. I have a very exciting, this is a very exciting moment. Because what is today? What is today? Is it March 1st? March 2nd, actually. March 2nd, okay. Monday. this marks the first time in the 2026 offseason we get to say a name that was so important to our show last offseason. Please don't. If it's the person I think about, please don't. Because Brew wants them to trade for Max Crosby, but then also mentions they're good at drafting, so I would like them to be able to keep those draft picks. Please. There is a free agent defensive end who is very used to playing for a team similar to the Cowboys. A lot of offense. Go rush the passer. He was injured at the end of the year. He was. Trey Hendrickson should be free agent priority number one for them If not Jalen Phillips maybe your guy Caleb on chase on a Daffy away boy A mafe. So they, they must sign over. I just think Max Crosby is going to be cost. I would, I think it's cost prohibitive for Dallas. And so that's not where I would spend. And it is so process illogical to be like, the Micah Parsons trade is good because we got two first-round picks and we saved a bunch of money to then, ten months later, trade two first-round picks and pay a bunch of money for a player slightly worse than Micah and slightly older than Micah. That would just make my – he couldn't – so sign a defensive end because I agree with you. They have some pieces there, but you need an impact player. Trey Hendrickson just happens to be there. That's a Trey Hendrickson. Yeah. I also think they need at least one, if not multiple, corners. Trayvon Diggs is gone, so that's why I had Jalen Watson on the brain. I think Jalen Watson's a really good player, one of the best corners available. He's not going to be back with Kansas City, I don't think. Jamel Dean is a possibility. Reek Woollen, Super Bowl champion from Seattle. One of those guys. and then use your draft picks on the defensive side of the ball. So I agree with everything Bruce said. You need to have an offseason, honestly, similar to what the Pats did, where we are remaking the defense, except the Pats spent their first-round pick on left tackle and their second-round pick on a running back. I think they could go just defense across the board. I do think the NFC East is wide open Because I think Philadelphia could be in for a rough year. I think Dak is obviously good enough to be the quarterback on a team that has great regular seasons. And you see what happened in the postseason. And so, yeah. But I like that Jerry, the other thing he said in there is he goes, I'm going to borrow from the future. So that's where he's talking about structuring contracts where you can overspend your cap essentially this year and pay the bill later. If they want to do that, they can do it. I'm not mad at that at all. All right, let's head to the combine, where Patriots coach Mike Grable and GM Elliot Wolfe are basically saying they're out of the Max Crosby. A.J. Brown sweepstakes. Mike Reese writing, while they'll always listen to trade possibilities, they don't view themselves as the proverbial one player away from a return trip to the Super Bowl. Thus, less inclined to send a Micah Parsons-type draft pick, Hall, Drew, you were talking about this in the meeting, two first and a starting caliber player to another team for a veteran star. Do you think the Patriots seem to go all in this offseason? to get back to the Super Bowl. Now that we don't have that easy schedule, it's going to be a tough sledding. Yeah, look, I'm not saying they have to give up those picks and trade necessarily for Max Crosby or something like that, but I do think their mentality should be all in. This is what teams hope for, right? Get that quarterback on his rookie deal, and he's a legitimate star. And look, the NFL is a year-to-year league unless you have a future Hall of Famer in his prime. And I mean, like, Mahomes, Lamar, Josh Allen. Like, if you have one of those guys, you know every year you're in it. Really, outside of that, maybe if you want to throw Stafford in now that he's in L.A., he obviously wasn't there in Detroit. Like, most, and Drake has not proven yet that he's that, right? But we think we've got our guy, if you're the Patriots. We think he's a future and present star. Let's build around him while he's not making the big money. And let's go out because Cincinnati, I'm sure five years ago, whatever it was that they were in the Super Bowl, would have thought you were crazy had you said, three years from now, you're not going to not only make the playoffs this year, but the next three years. You would have thought you're crazy. So the Patriots don't relax. Don't just say we're set for the future. Because not only did you not win the Super Bowl, you weren't even that competitive. Well, we were in the Super Bowl. It means competitive in the game. Okay, but if you have a media overseas, nobody's going to be thinking about that. The guy who dined for six months on a certain team getting blown out in the Super Bowl and what that means doesn't now get to be like, oh, what does it matter? We were in the Super Bowl. What does it matter? We got blown out. Like we're in the Super Bowl. Right. It's not like there's time to remake everything. No, nobody's saying remake, but don't rest on your lures. And don't act like you don't think that being blown out in the Super Bowl has some resonance. We know you do. It has a little bit of resonance, sure. Right now we're driving down the highway on cruise control. Maybe if you want to go up a little bit faster, that's fine. But I don't need to go pedal to the metal this year for the Patriots. Last offseason, I just think we should do the same thing we did last year. We signed Milton Williams. We signed Stephon Diggs. That was pedal to the metal. You spent money. That was pedal to the metal. Yeah, we spent Matt Collins. We didn't. It wasn't a ton of money. But I'm just saying all those free agents you brought. Didn't you spend like the third most of any team in free agency? Yeah, maybe. I think we had a lot to spend. Right. And now I think we're around 10th or 11th. Here's what I would like to add. A little bit of depth. So I think that the Bill Belichick drafts have kind of killed us a little bit. So when a guy like Milton Williams leaves, all of a sudden you see a real changing of the Patriots' stats. This is what we've showed you guys this before. Where all of a sudden we were a great rushing defense, and then he missed some games, and we became a bad rushing defense. They would have been able to use him against Kenneth Walker in the Super Bowl. Well, we were in the Super Bowl. I don't know. Were we not in this? There were only two teams in the Super Bowl, right? Running back. No, but I'm just saying, the Milton Williams goals are running defense. The issues took a bit of a hit when the Super Bowl MVP was a running back. You were able to play in the Super Bowl, right? We were in the Super Bowl, right? For about a month and a half. No more. You can't play in any. After we watched Kenneth Walker do his Eric Dickerson impression against you. He did a great job. Yeah. They're the Super Bowl champs. Yeah. We were in the Super Bowl. Right, but the question here is, you guys are, go ahead. I think Milton Williams is pretty good. I think he's good, too. He is good. I think he's good, too. The Patriots defense wasn't good in the Super Bowl? No, no, the Patriots defense wasn't good in the Super Bowl. I'll tell you what else's defense wasn't good. All the teams that didn't make it. Yeah. That's right. That's right. You're right. You're 100% right. Take all the college teams, all the JVs. That's what I worry. Yeah. I worry, you said you're in cruise control. I don't view that at all. Why? At all. You've got to go, go, go. No, we don't need to go, go, go. You're not a go, go. Why not? Why not? I'm not a go, go. Because I like everyone. Because I think we get naturally better with experience. I think every player gets better. Except the players who are old and get worse. Except Morgan Moses got a little bit older. Stephon Diggs. Stephon Diggs might get a little bit older and get worse. Yeah. So, sure. We'll address those things. Caleb on chase home is going to be gone, I think. I don't know. I mean, he's a free agent. I just. Nick, often you've talked about in the NFL, particularly, I think, with quarterbacks. Improvement isn't always linear. It's not all linear, and I just think you're right, KW. I am not a go-go-go guy once you've paid the quarterback. Because once, and this is what I think Drew was getting to, once you've paid the quarterback, those draft picks are gold. Because it's the only way to have cost-controlled quality players. But we have talked ad nauseum about teams who do hit the jackpot on the rookie quarterback or the quarterback during his rookie contract is already good enough to contend that that is the moment. You cash in a lot of resources while the quarterback is so cheap. So can I ask you a question? Was that the way that we should be doing things still after Darnold, who's not breaking the bank, but he's not in a rookie deal. Hertz was making $50 million. Mahomes was making real money. Stafford was making real money. The last quarterbacks to win the Super Bowl. Or is that left over from Russ's rookie deal? No, Mahomes is the only quarterback who the year he won the Super Bowl had the top cap hit in the league. He's the only one. Hurts had signed his new deal. He was still cheap. Stafford, they had traded for him. He was getting a new deal. He was not that expensive when they won it. Darnold obviously. Stafford wasn't expensive? I just assumed he was expensive for being in the league. No, not that year on that contract. Oh, I'm shocked by that. So the only quarterback with a that-year crazy high cap hit to win the Super Bowl was Mahomes in 23. Because even Mahomes in 22, it wasn't that high then. What was Hurts making? CBS told me Hurts making $50 million. I understand, but again, now it's the second time on the show. Because of the void. Wow. Sorry. Because of the way they structured the deal, his cap hit's never been crazy high. It will be in the future, assuming he's on the team. But I just, I think both of these things can be true, KW. You guys had an awesome year. Unbelievable year. And you need to improve a lot if you want to duplicate it. Yes. And I think you guys need improvement at offensive line, wide receiver, and pass rush. I think those spots, and it's not just like backwards. But that's not an all-in. Well, I think you need multiple starters. The Chiefs are saving money but losing protection. Casey will release Jawan Taylor and save $20 million in cash space. Taylor's 28 from the last year of his four-year $80 million deal. A lot of people knew this was going to happen. In his 49 games, he had 45 penalties. Not great. Led the league. How should Mahomes feel about this? Non-plus. Everybody knew this was going to happen. The day he signed the contract, it seemed like this was going to happen. It was structured so it would be a three-year deal that in year four, he has $28 million on the books, or if you cut him, it's $8 million dead. Everyone expected this to happen. Now, what is true is this. Juwan Taylor is a good player. Someone will sign him and get a good right tackle. He's not getting huge money. No, clearly nobody wanted to pay him $20 million because that's what they could have traded him for. But I bet he gets $15 million. He'll be a starting right tackle. I think he would be, we just talked about the Patriots, I think he'd be a good signing for the Patriots. He is the most penalized player in the league. And on the plays he doesn't commit a penalty, he's quite good. So like, it just, the penalties, if he never committed any penalties, or just was league averaging penalties, he'd be like an A-minus right tackle. Because of the penalties, he's like a B-minus, C-plus right tackle. Never been a pro bowler, which he says a lot nowadays. Sure. And so, I mean, I think he's a good player. That if your team signs him, it'll be frustrating, but I think he's good snap to snap. But the Chiefs have their starting left tackle set, assuming he comes back from the wrist injury that he suffered. Starting left guard is set, the best center in the league, and one of the highest paid guards in the league at right guard. Right tackle is the question mark, but they have Jalen Moore, they have Esa Pole, and Wanya Morris will all compete for it. So offensive line is not the priority for the Chiefs. And the people who think they might take a tackle at nine are out of their minds. They have four of the five positions are set. They're not taking a tackle at nine when they have so many other needs. I agree that four of the five that you mentioned, those are set. Right tackle, maybe it'll be more. Maybe. But I think it's somewhat of a question mark. Sure. with Mahomes coming off injury and we've seen you know in the Super Bowls he struggled in it's been because of the offensive line we saw the injuries last year you know to the offensive line I am not against prioritizing that offensive line in the draft I mean there's talk they could take the kid out of Utah to tackle Fano or you know so I wouldn't kill them for bolstering their offensive line because Mahomes the last two years has been sacked you know as high sack percentage of his career have each been in the last two years and number the number one priority is going to be to protect him he may not may not be as mobile as he's been in the past so that would be my number one priority obviously I I look the other four guys are really good so I'm not worried about them if they're healthy but that right guard I know it's not as important as right and left tackle but that right tackle is still important and so I I'm not concerned about losing um Jawan if I'm Mahomes I mean that just means we're not going to lead the league in penalties you know every year but they gotta bolster that position and uh I think it would be and you guys know I think Brett Veach is excellent at his job I think he is building a the beginnings of a hall of fame resume for what he's done in his short time as general manager I think taking a tackle at nine would be outrageous. I would be shocked if they do it. I guess I have to see how the draft falls, so to speak, but they desperately need help at running back and at pass rusher. And so I would just have to think either you're taking love or you're taking a pass rusher. You put the moderate ineptness of Chiefs running backs on the running backs, not the line? Correct. Correct. I mean, Creed Humphrey's the best center in the league, and Trey Smith is a great run blocker, even better run blocker than he is a pass blocker. Yes. I mean, Kareem Hunt was out of the league, and God love him, is amazing at getting you one and a half yards. Like, the best at it. The best at it. Better than the tush push. And Pacheco broke his leg and won the same. I like Isaiah a lot, but he has not been the same player post that injury. Spurs winning streak snapped. Al Harrington joins the show. That's next on FS1. Live from New York, the show that has Al Harrington on with a great suit and brew. Just assumes that everybody wears a purple tie. Roots for the Ravens. When the Ravens win. Al, thanks for joining us. A second hour of First Things First. Today, the Joker not joking around. Dust up with OKC. What does this mean for the playoffs and next time they meet? Meanwhile, is the panic over the Lakers overstated just because their stars don't play well together and they play no defense? Some people say no, but they did mop the floor with the Sacramento. The stars have played well together, as you would like to say, this year. I did not use that graph. Three games. No, it's not just three games. Was it four? I mean, it couldn't have been a lot. It just doesn't pass the eye test. That's why I didn't use that graphic. I'm not a big plus minus, but year-long guy. Al Harrington will make all the final decisions on the show. But right now, we're going to go to the Garden. San Antonio wins in New York with an 11-game win streak and then shot 27% and lost by 25%. Here's Wemby. I think they did put some physicality, but... Not even the most that we've seen, you know. And for some reason, we were somewhat hesitant. You can see that in our turnovers as well. I had seven. And lots of dumb life ball turnovers, too. We gave them life. We should have been better, especially on that run in the first quarter. I think that was it. He doesn't. He's not just giving you the random. He was pensive. Did the loss change the way you view the Spurs? No. No, not at all. They had 111 straight out. They were due. And you would know this better than us. They were in New York for several nights. They played Brooklyn on Thursday. I'm just saying. They got to New York Thursday morning. This was Sunday morning. They might have been hanging out. Maybe, you know. But I just think they clearly worked themselves. The Knicks were very physical with them. If you just watched that game as a one-off, you might think, oh, wow, physical play bothers them. But through the course of the season, they mopped the floor with Detroit a week ago, which is more physical than the Knicks. They're 4-1 against OKC, which is more physical than the Knicks. Physicality has not been a problem for them. I just think it was an off night, particularly from three. They only shot 26% from three. Now, I don't want to take any credit from the Knicks because the Knicks do seem to match up pretty well with them. They beat them in the NBA Cup. I get it. Wimby was just coming back from injury, came off the bench, only played 25 minutes. But still, that was a good win. The times the Spurs beat them earlier in the season, it was close. The Spurs won by two. They had to make a charge in the fourth quarter to win that game. So the Knicks seemed to match up pretty well with the Spurs. But overall, no, I'm not concerned. It doesn't change my view of the Spurs at all. It was good to see Wimby. I thought he played a very good game. He had the turnovers. But outside of that, I thought he played strong. Just their perimeter guys were unusually unproductive. And so I give the Knicks credit. But no, the Spurs are still a legitimate championship contender in my eyes. So, listen, I agree with you. Like, it didn't change the way I feel about the Spurs. But let's talk about the way I feel about the Spurs. I think that they're a very talented young team. I think championship aspirations this season, I think we're overreaching a little bit. So you think they're drawn dead to it? If they won the championship, you would be shocked. I would be completely shocked. Wow. And the reason why is just because, you know, I go back to first being battle-tested in their age, right? They're so young. And right now this team, in order for them to be really good, they're requiring on so many young players. Wimby's a baby. Castle, Estelle, Harper. You know what I'm saying? Some of the guys that they're relying on, they haven't been through anything in this league yet. So when you get to the playoffs and it's a seven-game series and now the scouts are getting in there and they know exactly what you want to do when they take those things away, what are those guys going to do? And then you talk about the veterans on their team. They got Harrison Barnes. They have Fox. And even with Fox, right, He's never played championship basketball in his career. So I think that this is just one of those things where they're a really good regular season team. I think when they get to the playoffs, they'll be good, but they're going to have to go through some stuff, just like OKC did. You know what I'm saying? They're going to have to have a little bit of heartbreak, and they're going to have to realize what it really takes to be a championship-caliber team in the playoffs. I think that'll be the biggest difference. So listen, we talked about this a lot the last few weeks. NBA history agrees with you on that. The question is, can this Spurs team and Wimby kind of break the mold on that for the first team since really the 77 Blazers to go out and do it? And so it's been almost 50 years. My concern is kind of less, you know, long term and more what this game, let's just say the experience is, let's say they don't win the title and it's not because of experience. What will the reason be? And I do think we saw one major thing and one potential thing from this game. Because you're right, Brew, that the team, they have dealt well with physical basketball. But I do think physical basketball can at least throw Wimby off. When they beat the Pistons, Isaiah Stewart was not in that game. And the Thunder's physicality is mostly perimeter defenders. Hartenstein's a big, strong guy, but Chet and Wimby gets excited to play against Chet. And Mitchell Robinson is a tough guy and a great rebounder. And Cat, when he's dialed the way he was yesterday, is a legit seven-footer, big body, who yesterday I thought annoyed Wimby in a good way. And so that to me is something that over the course of a series, if I'm right, that it does get to them a little bit, teams could zero in on. And the other one is kind of more basic, but also might just be the problem, which is they just might not have enough shooting. And so here is their three-point numbers on the year, and so they're at or below league average in basically all the three-point categories. Wamby's like, I'll check some of that in mind. But here's, they will have, because Castle is right now in his career, a total non-shooter, and Harper is a total non-shooter. They're both under 30%. And Cornette obviously doesn't shoot threes. So they're going to have almost all 48 minutes at least one total non-shooter on the court. And what does that mean in a playoff series for how you are defended? That would be, I'm not writing them off at all, Drew, but I'm saying if they don't win, and it's not because we say, oh, the light's got too bright, it's just the team over the course of two weeks kind of picks them apart, I think those would be the reasons for it. A lot of teams will have at least one non-shooter out there. And the fact that their center, Wimby, shoots the three does change that a little. But I do agree that because yesterday, Ananobi was guarding Wimby, who obviously he's given up darn near a foot against Wimby, right? But he could get under him. Wimby is going to have to get his legs stronger. but I'm wondering in situations like that because Wimby even when he posts a lot of times he'll post at the free throw line or he's flashing across the lane or something I'm wondering and again he's got to get his legs stronger but sometimes in those situations you could plant him on the block if it's a 6-7 guy guarding him he can just if he can plant there and get it he's obviously going to be able to shoot no he doesn't Nobody does. Right. Jazz don't do that in the league anymore. But I'm saying for him in certain situations, when you put a younger or not younger, a smaller, stronger guy. Because that can be tough. You know how that is. Like a guy who's stronger and can get under you and push you out, that can be tough to deal with. I think in those situations, if you can just plant Wimby on the block, obviously he could shoot over OG anytime he wanted. So that's something he could add to his game. But I do think the inexperience is, to me, the only question. The shooting, I hear you, but I think they can overcome that. And I think today's game, and last year, you guys know, I thought the inexperience would stop OKC from winning it, or the youth. I know they lost to Dallas, but that was just one time, and they were the youngest team in the league. Like, San Antonio is like middle of the pack as far as age. It's just the inexperience together. But I think now with the game, the way it's played, the floor is so spread. I get it's a little different in the playoffs. But I think youth and depth and the energy youth can bring does play a little bit more of a factor. It might give a younger inexperienced team a chance to do something in the playoffs we haven't seen. Yeah, of course. I mean, anything can happen, right? Anything's possible. But I still believe, like, even with this Knick game, like, to me, the Knicks are just a better team than them. Wow. I went to the cup game too. I was actually there in Vegas and I watched it. And I just think overall when you go like pound for pound and with experience and with the players, I just feel like they're a better team. So I wasn't surprised that they won that game. And obviously in New York, whenever they have big games like that, when the city comes out, that energy, that feel, that buzz, we kind of get the best from the players in those games. So big games like that, I was not surprised that the Knicks came and responded. and especially with the Spurs playing the last of, you know, a long road trip, too. That might have affected something we're in there, too, because that last game is very tough. And then to your point, in New York, and it's the only time you're going to be in New York for a couple months, and you do want to kind of shop and hang out and see people and stuff like that, that was going to be a tough game for them in general. I feel like the Knicks did what they were supposed to do. To be fair, they did kind of take the Nets game off. You can kind of go half-speed there, walk out with a win. All right, meanwhile, in OKC, we're three minutes into the game. SGA and Joker get into it. SGA is his first game back after missing a few games. He kind of throws the ball at Joker. Joker's like, you can't throw the ball. I mean, what's going on here? He gets a tech. Then in the third, Joker's coming back up the court. Lou Dort gives him a little bit of extra here. Here's Joker after the game. It is what it is. I'm not going to comment. It's an unnecessary move and an unnecessary reaction. There is no such a thing. I think they're not supposed to be those things on the basketball floor. So it was just an unnecessary move and an unnecessary reaction by me. Okay, your reaction. Yeah, I mean, I totally agree with Joker. And I think Dort has lost all benefit of the doubt for me. He didn't have much going into it. But I have never on this show ever called him a dirty player. I would say, I'm not saying he's a dirty player. He does a lot of things a dirty player might do. He does a lot of the things that remind me of dirty players I've seen. But this is undeniably dirty. And it is targeted and it is unnecessary. And I think it has bigger impacts, Al, than the OKC-Denver rivalry. Because, to me, OKC has really taken advantage of, in a good way, the fact that old school, the mixed metaphors, Legion of Boom, Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas defense, which is, if we do illegal contact every play, are you going to throw a flag every play? Or are we going to set the standard of how we're defending at the opening tip, and the refs are just not going to grind the game to a halt? and that's been a huge advantage for them because they have so many great defenders. But I think Dort doing this, this blatantly, to the best player, if not the face of the league, the best player in the league, and then him jumping like, what did I do? Dagenholt coming out and acting like it was a regular trip. I think OKC might get officiated differently moving forward. I think this could have a real impact on them. And it does make me feel very comfortable saying, Lou Dort, at least for the time being, I do consider him a dirty player. That is an undeniably dirty play. That is so much worse than a hard foul when a guy's coming to the basket and you hit him in the head, at least to me. I mean, that was a good old YMCA trick, bro. Are we serious? They're grown men. Like, that was nothing. What? I mean, how was he going to get hurt? He bumped him and knocked him down. Like, what was he going to hurt? He was ACL? He was going to, like, how hurt did he get? I mean, I wasn't sure about that. I mean, his knee's already hurt. You're right. You're right. It's a YMCA trip, which means it has no place in close course. Listen, listen. Every professional team has a guy that is, like, stirs it up, gets it going, right? You know, sometimes, like, you need that. You need that for your team. You need somebody to kind of get us going. And every championship team has done it. Bill Lambert back in the day, Dennis Rodman, Draymond, Dylan Brooks a little bit. Even though he's not a champion, Dort's a champion now, right? And when I look at it, like, when I watch this, I think that this theory, this kind of goes back to last year in the playoffs. This has remnants of that, right? It's like a little bit of a rivalry going on right here. You know what I'm saying? And with him doing that, to me, he kind of just stirred the pot a little bit. And when things like this happen, like, sometimes we kind of see what, like, how Joker's going to respond to that. Sometimes he might get out of his body and get out of his normal, like, method of, like, how he plays the game, which he did, right? You can see how he reacted, and he came back. And at the end of the day, OKC won the game. So as a player, this is not far, far out of bounds to you? I don't think so, no. I mean, not from my era. You know what I'm saying? Maybe now. You know what I'm saying? Where it's like a little, everybody wants to kiss on the cheek and all that kind of stuff. But I don't think he did anything wrong with that. You don't know what happened throughout the game. Maybe Joker hit him with an elbow or something before that, a couple plays before. We don't know. But at the end of the day, he's standing up for his organization and his team, and he's letting people know, like, we're not about to be playing with. Period. I'm fine with the bump. I'm fine with – you were a physical player, you know, defender. I'm fine with, like, grabbing the jersey. To me, though, Al, the trip is where he went. He barely tripped him, dude. A trip is a trip. I mean, and if, like, you can injure a player, particularly when you're not expecting it. Right. By tripping him. That was where he got out of the line for me. I don't mind physical play. I don't mind towing the line, even going a little above, across the line. But when you tripped him like that, I actually think it was so bad, he should have got suspended for a game. Really? Yes. Yeah, because what if you went, you don't think you could hurt a player by tripping him like that? No, I don't even like Joker's, like, his reaction to it. Like, if you thought it was, like, that bad, right? I mean, when I was playing one time, Morris Peterson tripped me when I was running up the court in Toronto, right? And he tripped me from behind. I fell. I got up. I immediately rushed him. We got into, like, a little altercation. Isaiah Thomas came out. He's ready to fight and everything. It was just a different, like, because I felt like, you know, he did it on purpose, and it was, like, some intention behind him. That's what that was. He definitely did it on purpose. I feel like, so you would have done what Joker did. Yeah. You did do with Joker. I would have got my hands on him. Well, he tried. I would have loved him a little bit. Okay. He didn't love him. Like, I mean, that's what I'm saying. I think Joker actually kept his cool because he didn't grab him or swing on him, obviously. But I think you're supporting our point with just what you did. Like, again, even if you get accidentally tripped. But I was tripped. But I was clicked. Like, he tripped me. Like, this was kind of a bump, and his leg went back. And, Al, do you think, like, our theory was Joker missed 16 games with that knee. It feels like, and we've seen him get upset before where maybe he feels like he's trying to get hurt. And he's been, we saw him get, like, clawed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, he's tough. He's a tough player. Jurassic Park. Sure. That if Lou Dort, you can see it as, like, a little bit of an elbow. If Lou Dort took his elbow and slammed it into his stomach or sternum, I think Joker would have been like, this is rough basketball. Still a cheap play, still borderline dirty. But I feel like the knee, maybe, and like Lou Dort's like, man, I don't have your injury report. I'm just playing basketball. He's not thinking about his knee when he trips. That's what I think is the disconnect. He's not thinking about his knee when he trips. He wasn't like trying to hurt his knee. I don't even, and I agree. I don't think he was trying to hurt him. I think he was trying to trip him. And send a message. He was trying to send a message. Like, we're not scared of y'all. Y'all not coming in here. Y'all not going to out-physical us. None of that. Like, I don't know what message, because we know they're not scared of them. Right. You know, we know they're a physical team. So, I don't, like I said, I wouldn't have minded a little bump on the way up there. But if it's a suspension, TV, you can start for your O.A. No. Who are you, bro? Like, the guy I know? We used to run around. I'm like, you? Like, really? That's a significant trip, man. One game for a trip? Oh, my God. Let's get on the Lakers, who snapped a three-game losing streak. They beat the Warriors without Steph and Porzingis and the Kings, who they're not a great team right now, I'll be honest with you. Here the standings in the Western Conference OKC still at 1 Spurs Rockets Wolves then the Nuggets then the Lakers Suns Warriors Clippers and then Portland Has the Lakers' panic been overstated, Nick? Leave this up if you can for a moment, because here is my general point. The amount of vexing and hand-wraining that has been done about the 36-win Lakers compared to the 37-win Rockets or Nuggets seems disproportionate. And I will say this to you. You sound like J.J. Reddick. No. No, no, no. Their losses are louder. That was the thing. Okay, sure, yeah. But in that regard, yes, I thought you meant like smug area. Oh, I thought you meant losses are louder. And I think like you, maybe I'm wrong. I feel like if I had the take that you have about the Lakers, about the Rockets or the Nuggets, like that they're a fine team that has no chance of winning the championship. I agree with the no chance of it, by the way. You would disagree with me. And the defense argument applies to the Nuggets. The Nuggets and Lakers defense this year have been identical. Now, there is reason to believe the Nuggets is going to get better. because Peyton Watson's coming back, Aaron Gordon's coming back. So that's, and I also feel like Luka has taken a public beating for a player that is, despite his flaws, you know, the scoring champ right now along with eight rebounds, eight assists a night. And that they are 30 and 18 when he plays, which is pretty good. And so that's my defense, even though I don't think they can win the championship. but they are their best player is playing really well maybe not peak Luka but 32 and a half eight or whatever it is it's pretty good they're 30 and 18 with him six and six without him like it that's where I think it's been maybe overstated KW Al I think the reason we're overstating it or or focusing on the Lakers is because Luka has entered that phase where you gotta win a championship dude if Jokic did not have a championship I think we'd be now he doesn't complain to the officials like Luka he is not as bad of a defender as Luka so it might be a little different but if Jokic had never won a championship I think he'd be getting a lot of criticism too oh he puts up all these numbers triple double but he can't win so Luka is not the reason nobody's saying the Lakers aren't a good team but we are saying I'm saying they're not a championship team and when Luka Dodonches is in his prime putting up these humongous numbers. And LeBron James, obviously not in his prime, but still a good all-star level player. And then Austin Reeves is all-star caliber player. I'm holding them to a high standard. Now, honestly, I don't think Houston can win it either. But I don't have as high of expectations for them. Houston can't win. The Lakers can't win. The Spurs can't win. I think the Thunder, the Spurs, and the Nuggets could win the West. Right. I agree. That would be my list. Well, your Spurs are on, I thought. No, no. Oh, sorry. Yeah, right. OKC, Denver. Oh, I'll throw Minnesota in there. Oh, Minnesota's going to be in there. I'll throw Minnesota. Yeah, that would be my three. But to your point, like, it's the Lakers, right? Like, they're expected to win championships every year. So it reminds me of almost like the Cowboys, right? No matter what sports show we watch, they start with the Cowboys, right? Just because of that expectation, right? We like to start with Trey Hendrickson. Right. Sorry, go ahead. No, but I think that with the Lakers, right, I think they are a good team. I think right now, obviously, they're winning the last two games or against, like, not really good teams right now. So nothing to get excited about. I think that the only way for them to be able to excel in the playoffs, they're not to outscore teams. They are not going to play defense. That team is no— Is that possible? We say that a lot. Like, can that be a path to stick that to success in the playoffs? The reason why I say it could happen is because when you get into the playoffs, it becomes a defensive matchup, right? And it's about who can score and who can make tough shots, who can create shots out of nothing. And when you got those three guys over there, I mean, Luka a 60-point threat in any game, LeBron a 40-point threat in any game, and AR a 30-40-point threat in any game. So when the fact that you have three prolific scorers like that, you have a chance. Now, do I think they'll get it done? No, right? I think there's other things going on over there, besides what we're just talking about and what we're watching them play. I think that Luka maybe and J.J. aren't really seeing eye to eye. It's a weird moment on the bench. And shout out to Jared Vanderbilt. Great awareness. So Luka and J.J. got into it. J.J. walked down to the end of the bench, said something to him, and then turned around and walked away. And Luka popped up to go after him. And Vanderbilt stood up and started clapping. But it started before that. So he was coming in the game. LeBron tried to give him five. He missed that. Then J.J.'s grabbing him. He walks him down. He starts talking to him. Now I play with J.J. Reddick. And he's definitely a no-nonsense kind of guy. He's very straight and to the point. But he's also petty. So watch. After he says whatever he says to Luka, look, Luka's going to reach out to give him five. And watch J.J. Oh. Oh, so he doesn't do it. And now watch Vanderbilt. So that's what started it. Right there. You know what I'm saying? That's so good. So Luka had to give himself five. You know what I'm saying? He's a five part. Yeah, he went to give him five after whatever he said. I didn't realize that at all. I just was focused on Jared Vanderbilt being like, I'm going to earn my spot. I know this is going to make fun of me because it's not the deepest analysis in the world. It just doesn't look right. The Lakers just don't look right. They don't play like a championship team. The ball doesn't move like a championship team. The body language doesn't feel great. It doesn't. The whole thing just has an air of next year. And I will tell you this as a player, as an ex-player, like every team has dysfunction. Don't get it twisted. OKC has an issue in that locker room, believe it or not. It's something, right? It might not be a big thing, but there's always stuff going on. You can tell from the beginning of the year, like what kind of season you're going to have. And I just feel like with the Lakers, man, it's just from the beginning. And it just hasn't been like one of like championship. Energies. Vibes. It just hasn't been there. Hell, thank you. I say that and they laugh at me. I say the vibes are off. Like this guy. Vance plus mine. Vibes are off now. You know why? Why? Dusty killed Weird and Wonder. One of the weird ones. Oh, yeah. It's been a long time. It's a long time. Cubans controversy in Minnesota. That's next. Thank you very much. That was fun. Thanks, brother. The stage is set for a weekend where IndyCar and NASCAR back-to-back. On Saturday, IndyCar. Alex Blow going for back-to-back wins. And then on Sunday, right here on FS1, Tyler Reddick. Four in a row, bro. We're going to have to update the... Jordan Brand is rolling in NASCAR. Oh, my goodness gracious. He's going to be on the most to win list. Most to gain. Most to gain. Welcome back to a quick no huddle. Starting in Minnesota, where once upon a time they brought in a veteran named Sam Darnold behind J.J. McCarthy. That QB has since won the Super Bowl, and the Vikings are back to the same spot. They're looking to bring in a veteran behind or to challenge J.J. McCarthy. Is this the right move, Nick? I want to say this in the beginning. I did not like J.J. McCarthy as a prospect coming out of Michigan. Yeah. I said, if you guys remember, that the other quarterbacks, the people, the scouts who liked him would be like, man, his arm talent and his athleticism. J.J. McCarthy would be like, this young man looks you in the eye and shakes your hand. That worries me. I know. That was all that. So I have not liked what I've seen from him. A nine notwithstanding. Despite that, I believe he must be the Vikings starting quarterback, at least through Thanksgiving. Wow. You have to, you cannot, in my opinion, organizationally make a decision. We have hit our ceiling that we can get to with good quarterbacking. Kirk Cousins. And then double down on that decision by saying, Sam Darnold, 14 wins, 4,000 yards, don't care. Don't care at all. And then pull the ripcord on this decision 10 games in. Because, and again, I do not think he is going to be a good, much less great player. But he wouldn't. There have been plenty of other quarterbacks who threw 10 games, which is all he's played, looked awful, and turned into something far greater than awful. Josh Allen, through 10 games, was worse than J.J. McCarthy. Sam Darnold, now it took him a while, but maybe that was a Jets problem, through 10 games, was worse than J.J. McCarthy. And so I just think, unless the only person who wanted him was Queffy, the GM, Queffy, pardon me, who's now gone, If Kevin O'Connell was agreed, we need to give ourselves a chance to be great at quarterback. Then all of a sudden, binging him 10 games into his career so you can sign Aaron Rodgers or bring back Kirk Cousins or whatever it is, the process is so bad. So I think you've got to give him, maybe not the entirety of next season, but the bulk of next season as the starter to see. I totally disagree. and I'm not saying just throw him out we're done with him I'm saying I'm bringing somebody in to compete with him and if he's better he's better this is professional football JJ McCarthy as you said to a lot of us he didn't show us a ton at Michigan I know they won the national championship but he was handing the ball off a lot alright so he had a year to sit I get it. He's not an all-time great. But he was behind Sam Darnold. So you got to see, you know. Sam Darnold is a Super Bowl champion. I know. But it's not like sitting at the feet of Aaron Rodgers. No, they got the same amount of Super Bowls. Yeah. All right. But I'm saying he was in the system for a year, was obviously in the classroom, was seeing Darnold, was learning. Then, Nick, and the difference to me with Josh Allen and Darnold, they went to bad organizations or teams at that point. Buffalo was okay, but they didn't have a great receiver, maybe the best in the league, a legitimate number two in Jordan Addison, a very good tight end in Huggins. Like this team is built to win. Now, very few young quarterbacks, rookie quarterbacks, are put in this position where, oh, the team is really good. Now, I'm not comparing him to Mahomes, but Mahomes went to a good team and then took them to the next level. So I just think that this is about competition. And if we bring somebody in and J.J. McCarthy melts emotionally, he's not my guy. And he wasn't good enough to even get an attitude of how dare they. So that's what I'm worried about. I'm not worried about him melting and I'm not worried about him being offended. I just think if you bring in a veteran, that guy will obviously be better, and so he'll obviously win the job. And I think you need – I don't think you can spend that type of draft pick on a player when you are fine at the position because you want to give yourself a chance to be great and not see that decision out. Now, San Francisco did that with Trey. San Francisco did that with Trey only because they had a player same age who came in because Trey was injured, who turned into a star almost immediately. And it's like, okay, the upside we thought we were getting from Trey, we now are getting in Brock. If there was, as crazy as this sounds, if they signed Anthony Richardson and he beats out J.J. McCarthy, I would actually be more okay with that. What about Kyler Murray? Do you understand what I'm saying? Because then it's like you have the same upside, the same age. But if they sign Geno. What about Kyler Murray? Kyler's young enough that I guess I wouldn't be as offended by the process of it. Because, Kyler, at least you think maybe there is still a higher ceiling. Right, maybe your guy. But, like, the real veteran quarterback that we're taught, the Andy Dalton archetype, which Kirk Cousins is in at this point of his career, Rodgers, which you know is a one-year thing, that to me feels like you could have just stayed on the Kirk Cousins train, And when you got off that, you could have stayed on the Sam Darnold. But they know Cousins wasn't great in the big games, right? And you felt because of what you've seen with him over the years, there's a playoff ceiling. He's just not going to get us over that hump. I think they're looking at it like if we get some good quarterback play, we could get to the Super Bowl. I think that's what they're thinking. Whether people agree with it or not, they're looking at it like our defense is Super Bowl caliber, we think. Obviously, we got enough offensive weapons. Darnold's year there, we know he melted down late in the season and in the playoffs, but maybe that was just because it was his first time as a good quarterback. And so they may be thinking, I agree, I don't think Cousins gets them to the Super Bowl or anything. But bringing in a Kyler Murray or somebody like that that has upside. Kyler is interesting. They feel like they can win now. You said Thanksgiving. Yeah. What's the difference between 10 games and 10-plus however many games until Thanksgiving? What do you mean? Don't you just have to ride with him the whole year? No, no, no, no. Here's the reason I said that. Because I do think you can be 20 games into your career and in year three, and if you have shown no improvement, then okay, then it's Josh Rosen. And Josh Rosen didn't even get that many games. It's like, okay, this guy's just not going to be it. Not the guy. So I'm not going to sit here and say they must give him all of next season. But I think the plan has to be to give him next year or else it's just. That's almost given up. I mean, again, maybe it'll be good. But that's almost given up a year, another year. The decision to let Sam Darnold is going to ruin the franchise for a little while. But you don't get to make that bad of a decision and pop back and be like, How can we get back to another guy? My defense of that decision, KW, is that it had nothing to do with the decision to let Sam Darnold go. It was the decision to let Kirk Cousins go. Kirk Cousins also won 14 games and threw for 4,000, or 13 games, it might have been 14, and threw for 4,000 yards with that team. I felt like Kirk wanted to go. Maybe I'm wrong. I thought that the whole Kirk to Atlanta, like Kirk was pushing to go. No, I think Kirk wanted to go once he saw they didn't want to resign him to big money because they were ready to move on. Once you decide to move off your one quarterback who you think has a limited ceiling, even though he put up great numbers and took you to the 14 wins in the playoffs, to draft a quarterback, you can't then not move off the next guy because that quarterback got hurt. So I understood that decision. They have to see that decision through, I think. Tough one. A tough one. Some bad decision making. Should teams look at Kyler over Tua next? That GM's gone. A little KOC too. World Baseball Classic. I might get a World Baseball Classic jersey. I might start wearing baseball jerseys. Drew, I have a major announcement. USA Brazil Friday, 8 o'clock on Fox. People joke about the show's unlimited budget. we are going to have a world baseball classic correspondent live from Tokyo. Really? Named Nick Wright. Who will be there next week. We should fire you up. That's right. I'm going to the game. We're not on during the show. I'll call in after. I'll call in live from the game's file report. Love it. Kyler and two are likely going to be released. We'll work it out. A few teams are either looking for starters or veterans to challenge their incumbent QB. Who would you rather have, Kyler or Tua, bro? I would rather have Kyler. Look, I know what Tua is. And first of all, the injury situation with the concussions. And obviously, it's just an unfortunate situation. But that's always a question with Tua. And then we even saw this year how him going, which is probably smart, maybe what he's even been told. But going down sometimes a little prematurely to avoid the big hits because of the possibility of concussion. That's always there. Beyond that, we've seen, I think, the ceiling with Tua. We saw him with a great play caller, Mike McDaniel. We saw him with two great receivers. Maybe Tyreek Hill at his height. People were saying at that point, Tyreek's like a top five receiver of all time. But Jalen Waddle, good running game with A-Chan. We've seen him at his optimum level, I think. And it was okay. It was better than Kyler. And to his defense, it would be, you're right, we've seen his peak. But his peak is higher than Kyler's. For a full season. Because Kyler, I think a question mark with him, obviously you've got the study habits. You've got the attitude. So you've got some question marks. but no but also yeah he'll be he might be great for 10 or 12 yes it can he do it for a whole season so i get i do feel though nick like the ceiling is higher for kyler and again just the injury issue which could happen to kyler too but is bigger for tua i just think that the upside for Collar is much more than Tua. I've decided to buy all the Tua stock you guys are selling. Wow. You still own a lot. I still own a lot of it. A lot of it. Here's the thing. You picked this to be the Super Bowl one year. That was probably. Dalton Cardinals was the year Super Bowl. One of the issues was the Super Bowl was in Arizona, and previously the teams that were hosting the Super Bowl made the Super Bowl. That being said. Nice logic. At one point, it was old and old. Tua has, in his career, has led the league in yards, has led the league in passer rating, has led the league in completion percentage, and now he's just going to be released. Like, I'm not sure I do know who Tua is. I would throw the guardian cap on and be like, you know what? I need a fresh start. I can throw the ball. He's going to get better receivers somewhere? He's going to get a better play card? I am not willing to buy into the narrative that Tyreek Hill made... What? This is about to be a sentence that has never been uttered on sports TV. So I want everyone... We let's all be quiet. And I have evidence from NFL films. Go ahead. I do not believe that Tua's success is all because of Tyreek Hill. And none of Tyreek Hill's success is because of Tua. There's clips on NFL films mic'd up when it's Tyreek Hill who's running the wrong route that Tua adjusts and hits him. That's all I'm saying. Okay. I'm just glad that's been said. I wouldn't say all of Tyreek's success either or Tua's success, but a lot of it. A decent amount. So, I mean, I have never. Can I come back real quick? I'm not done. Yeah, please. This is great. Tua wins. The guy wins games. Not in cold weather or against good teams. Against good teams? Well, look, that's something that can be worked on. When Tua left that team and they had another backup quarterback in there, throw the ball down, try and kill. He's great. He can make it all work. Skylar Thompson's not as good as Tua. I can do that. No, and the thing where I'll defend Tua on the cold weather thing is that might have been a Miami Dolphins problem. Like, did you guys see the NFLPA report? We didn't spend much time on it. Yeah. Oh, I love it. This is a great take. You should have saved this one. No. I know you're going to say it. Ranked too high? Yeah, the Dolphins. It was like everything's so perfect. The locker room's great. The owner's great. The food's great. And I just feel like it kind of all leads to a team that doesn't necessarily do as well as you want in bad elements against those things. So I'm not going to put that all on Tua. I'm not going to put that all on Tua. And I've never really been a big believer in either of these guys. You guys know that. There was a year when Kyler was his last undefeated team. I didn't believe. However, you guys also know how much I love rivals ratings and pedigree. Kyler's the greatest player in the history of Texas high school football. The greatest. Two and two and one. Again, he's the greatest player in the history of Texas. If I had to pick one, I would take a bet on Kyler. That's what I would do. Live from New York, it's First Things First Overtime. How should Patrick Mahomes feel about the offseason moves with the Chiefs? Here he's getting sacked, but he lost an offensive lineman. Here he's getting the ball batted down. That's a great catch. Oh, look at that. The Texans. Why are all these negative highlights? Because it's offensive line stuff. Wow. I'm telling you. Who cares? I'm just saying who cares. The Broncos pass rush. Meanwhile, Al Harrington joins Danny to talk about Giannis coming back tonight. Welcome back, Giannis. Can the Bucs sneak into the... No. Oh, they could be playing. I thought you'd go straight and make a little noise. Everyone's on my Charlotte Hornets corner. I like Charlotte. I like Charlotte. I like Charlotte. I like Charlotte. I don't. Yeah, I'll stay off. What do we make of Jerry Jones saying he's going to go over budget this offseason? Very interesting take from Jerry Jones. We get some Frank Hendrickson news in. Alongside Chris Bussard and Kevin Wilds, Nick Wright, and Danny Parkins back from vacation. Danny. We were saying, how was your vacation? Was it all marred by the fact that we were ripping Herbert while you were gone? I didn't watch the second of the show. Savvy. I'm sure it was great. I heard Brew did an okay job sticking up for Justin Herbert. Don't worry, I'm back. I think I took him from me. You took him from me? That's right. Do you have him as MVP next year? It's not predictions week. Boom. Herbert's your guy. Whoa! Herbert's your guy. I can't take another day off. Danny, you're going to have to be the Bo Nix guy. Congratulations. Oh, no. He's not bad. Yeah, it's a statistical line. We start in the garden with the Spurs' 11-game win streak. Ended in a whimper. Knicks defense holds Wemby's squad to under 90. They end up winning by 25. Here's Wemby's postgame. I was surprised. Yeah. It feels like they're a good basketball team. They are good actual basketball players, you know. So they're not like the nastiest ugly team, you know. They're not an ugly team to watch, but they made our game again. All right, Danny, did this win? It's just one win, but still, did it change how you view the Knicks? No, that was the best win of the year for a Knicks team that I am convinced cannot win the title. And I also don't think they can win the East. Now, is there a one in whatever chance of them winning the East? Sure, but I would put them behind Boston, behind Cleveland, and behind Detroit. I think what they are doing recently defensively is very impressive. I just don't believe in it. Why? Because in the playoffs, your rotation shrinks. Yeah. Right? And they're playing more depth than they ever did under Tibbs. and Mike Brown is a great defensive coach, but Tibbs is also a great defensive coach. And in the playoffs, you're not going to take Carl Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson off the floor. They're your two best players, nor should you. But those guys are not good defensive players. Cat played well in that game against the Spurs defensively, and I will give him credit that at times and in stretches of this season, it has seemed like he has played with more effort than he normally does defensively. I will give him credit for that. but he still has lost defensively often. And I was trying to figure out the best way to quantify it. And so I just did, you can follow this, I think. Good teams, players who play a lot of minutes. Those are the filters that I put on it, right? So teams with 35 or more wins, players on those teams who are playing more than 30 minutes per game. Got it. Worst field goal percentage allowed based on the guy who's shooting closest to them. They're two of the three worst players in the league. And we've all watched the Knicks with these guys in the postseason. They get targeted. And so I think it is a fundamentally flawed assembly of talent. And I can't even think, and you guys are great NBA historians, so maybe you have an obvious comp for this that I just can't come up with. When your best players are not two-way players, I think it's really tough to win in the postseason. And so I think that puts a ceiling on this team. And that doesn't even get into the fact that this has been a very streaky team this year. They started 23-9. Then they lost 9-11. Then they won 8 straight. Then they lost 4-5. Now they're on a good stretch right now. I just don't trust this team to be consistent. And I really don't trust their two best players on the defensive end of the floor. So if you are going to build a team with those two guys as your offensive centerpieces, this is the exact team you would build, though. That everyone else in your rotation is an excellent defensive player. Robinson, Hart. Josh Hart, he had a really rough shooting night yesterday. He cleaned it up a little bit at the end. But he does everything other than shoot. O.G. Ananobi is an excellent defender. Mikael Bridges is a very good defender. Mitchell Robinson is a great rebounder, a good defender. And so your guy Alvarado is good in those spots. So that is the type of team you would build out. My immediate reaction to your question, two best players, neither are great defenders. I thought of the 11 Mavs. They're kind of an aberrant champion. Dirk, obviously not a defender. The problem is, did they have a definitional second best player on that team? I mean, maybe, probably Jason. Oh, Jason Terry, yeah. I thought you were going to say old Jason Kidd, but it probably was Jason Terry. And you filled in the blanks elsewhere. But I don't know. You said that I look at their season a little differently. They started great. They had a bad three weeks, and they've been great again. They were 24-9 to start the year, 23-9 technically, but the NBA Cup should count. Yeah, sure, that's fair. 14-4 over the last 18, 2-9 in the middle. And Danny, when they played the best teams in the league, they haven't dominated them. But that's winning more than four out of seven. They've got dominated by the Pistons. Who they beat in the playoffs last year. Yep. But I mean, this is the top five in each conference. They're 12-7. And the fact that they're 0-3 against the Pistons means they're 12-4 against the rest of the best teams in the league. And I could understand you saying you have them fourth in the East. I don't have them fourth in the East, but I could understand you saying that. If you were saying fourth in the East, and therefore I give them a 20% chance of coming out of the East, that it's 30%, 25%, 25%, 20% for the teams above them, I don't know the argument as to why the Cavs will win the East and the Knicks can't win the East. I don't see it at all. Well, listen, I think, obviously I like the Cavs more, But I'm just saying in terms of power raking them, I would have the Celtics, especially since it looks like Tatum is coming back, ahead of this team. And I would also have Detroit ahead of them. So if you want to say the fourth best team in the far lesser conference can also win the championship, that just seems like a... It just seems like that's what almost happened last year before Halliburton blew out his Achilles. Yeah, no. They were the fourth best team in the lesser conference, and they're winning game seven of the finals before their star player goes down. Like, it literally, we are maybe this far from it happening last year. But you don't think that's arguing the exception over the rule? I don't think that's about to become the norm in the NBA. I don't. No, but I think, look, as far as the defense, of course, most teams that win championships or even come close are very good defensive teams. The only team this year that's a legit contender that's not near the top ten defensively is Denver. And they're the best offensive team by far. Right, exactly. Now, they did win it with Jokic, who's not a horrible defender, but not a good defender. And Murray, as their two best players, so two. And an undersized guard, so two guys that aren't great defenders. You mentioned Dallas. I mean, Golden State has Steph, second best player. Claire Draymond was obviously a great defender. But I look, I think the only team that I will put ahead of the Knicks in the East is Detroit. And even some people can legitimately say, well, they beat Detroit last year. And I think Detroit's gotten a lot better. I think that Detroit team last year wasn't whole like this year's team should be. And so I and I think Detroit's too physical for them. Anybody else? I mean, they beat Boston last year. So even with Tatum back, particularly if he's not quite what he has been in the past initially, they should be able to beat. They can be Boston and Cleveland's had all types of playoff problems. And so is Harden. So and that's another team. Harden and Donovan Mitchell, not great defenders, too. So that you could put that your problem with the Knicks on to the Cavs as well. But the Cavs, you talk about Towns and Brunson, they haven't been off the floor in these past 18 games. I mean, their defensive rating best in the league, and it has been 103. Like, that is an incredible session. OKC is the best defense in the league with a defensive rating of 107. So the Knicks have played far better than OKC over the last month and a half. and here's some of the teams they beat. Toronto, very good, or good. The Lakers, Denver, Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, and San Antonio. And so, look, I'm not here to say the Knicks are about to win the championship, but I definitely give them a very good shot. I'll even say, Danny, they should win the East. They should, like, they... Listen, they fired their coach after making it to the Eastern Conference Finals, so they came into the year... I don't mean emotionally. I mean, if you just look at the teams on paper, Boston, even with Tatum back, we're just going to give him, like, he's going to be 80%, not quite his full self. Maybe it's even a little chemistry issue because you're bringing him in now. Detroit, still young. One guy that can create his own shot, one legitimate score. And then Cleveland, Harden, we know, struggles in the playoffs in the big game a lot of the times. and their team has been soft in the playoffs Like on paper the Knicks should win the East this year I got to give them a shot Listen I would just push back on the Cleveland thing I think Mobley their second player and he obviously an excellent defensive player So I think they are a more well-rounded team than the Knicks. And I said it on the front end. If you think that this stretch of basketball from the Knicks defensively is what they're going to be, then they can win it. I am very skeptical that they will translate this regular season defensive prowess where they're playing deeper guys and playing very hard into the playoffs. I will be surprised. I just want to add one last thing before we move on. It is correct and historically accurate to say you can't win four rounds without a very good defense. The outlier is one of the Lakers teams when they were sleepwalking because they had already won a championship and they knew they could turn it on. That is historically true. What is also true is these teams that have a history of postseason success surprise us in the regular seasons they've had. And the one question we have about them is, man, but they sure struggle to create offense outside of one guy. Not only don't win championships, often get clipped early in the playoffs. That was Houston's story last year, and that would be my concern about Detroit. is that Detroit is, to win four rounds, you need an excellent defense. Because what's baked in is, to get to the fourth round, you've had a pretty damn good offense along the way. And I understand Shingun and Cade are very different players, but it was one guy on Houston that kind of was the hub of all offense last year. And then in that playoff series, all of a sudden it's like, man, you're living and dying with Jalen Green or with guys who just can't create their own shot. That would be my concern with Detroit. Mike and Sherman, Cleveland's well-founded, similar as yours. I think Boston, if Tatum comes back, and he might be coming back this week, will be the team to beat. But right after them, I would have the Knicks. Largest loss of the season for the Spurs, courtesy of the Knicks. All right, head out to the West. We're three minutes into the game. SGA and Joker get into it a little bit. SGA is back. He had 36 on the night, but overshadowed by a little bit of a scuffle in the third quarter when Joker's headed back up the floor. and gets hip-checked by Lou Doord, who was shocked that he got called for a foul. It would be even more shocked. He got thrown out of the game, and Brew wants him to be suspended. One game. Take a listen to some post-game sound. I don't think anybody's trying to hurt anybody. They're just great competitors. And, you know, that's what I said. They just boiled over. I think it was nothing more than that. I will say this. If a player gets – if J. Will is running up the floor and gets tripped, we expect a flagrant two from this point forward. You know, that's all. You know, if that's the precedent, if that becomes a malicious play, and flagrant two is the line in the sand on that, we would expect that if it's J. Will. We would expect that if it's anybody. Okay. Your reaction, Danny? That was an interesting way for Dagedall to approach that postseason. I almost wondered, like, they're a very smart organization, maybe the smartest organization in the league. I've almost wondered if he was told to say something like that as a defense. I think he knew what he was doing. Exactly. To try to shift the conversation away from the fact that Lou Dort is trying to take the mantle from Draymond as the dirtiest player in the NBA. Whoa, that's the meanest thing anyone's said about Dylan Brooks in years. Also in the conversation. Listen, it's an indefensible action that I also, to be totally candid with you, and maybe this makes me a bit of a sports neanderthal, I don't care about all that much because I watched those two teams play in the playoffs last year. It was an incredible series. I hope we get it again this year. They play again one week from tonight. And anything that injects a little bit of sports hatred and rivalry and angst into regular season basketball that will then build into the playoffs is inherently good for the sport. So, like, that is an act that I cannot defend, but as a viewer of entertainment, I'm okay with it happening. So, let me ask you this, because Brew, you know, we talked about this earlier. Brew and I are both, you know, not horrified by it, but really don't like it. You said he should be suspended. I'll be totally honest. I was going to say something similar, and I was like, Brew's going to call me soft. I'm not saying it. And then you said it. So, we're on the same page there. I'm curious if you agree with me if we push it forward. I think this has a tangible negative impact on the Thunder's ability to defend their championship. Because I think now, and the comp I used before was, the Eagles had been kind of getting away with stuff on the tush-push forever. It didn't matter. And then there was the one national television game where they're like, the broadcast, I don't know how to officiate it. Blandino came on, he's like, I'm sick of this. And it felt like they weren't as good at that anymore. They got called for a couple false starts. Jalen got called. They didn't blow it dead the one time he fumbled. It really impacted them. I think the Thunder, and Dort in particular, has been getting away with a lot of borderline stuff for years. And doing this in that game, on that stage, to that player, now is going to change how referees officiate them, which I think will have a tangible impact on their ability to go back to the finals. Yeah, I think that's way overstated. If you told me that they were going to officiate how SGA is called as a foul hunter, foul merchant a little bit, if you think that's related to Doris. I think it's all related. But Doris on Sunday, all of a sudden seeing what was advancing, somebody pushed off and Doris is like, SGA does that all the time. It just feels like the knives might be sharpened a bit for the Thunder at the worst possible time for them as we get ready to watch them try to spend their time. Yeah, but we saw it in the playoffs, though, that SGA didn't quite get the same calls that he got in the regular season and the postseason, and he figured out how to still be awesome because he's an awesome player. And they are an incredible defensive team. I think the Thunder superpower is every single player they put on the court is good at defense. Every single one. They do not have a minus defensive player at any point. There's no just like, oh, that's the designated three-point shooter who can't guard anybody. They're all good at defense. So, like, what would be, other than a one-game suspension, they immediately threw him out of the game. Like, they called the foul. It's not like, I don't know that Dort has been getting away with plays like that. Oh, Dort's gotten away with a lot of things that, he kicks his leg out, he trips guys, he kind of fell into Wemby. I'm saying that reputation is already there and surrounds him. So, if you're saying they're going to call more fouls on Lou Dort, sure, I guess that is possible and we'll see. But I don't know that that negatively impacts the Thunder, who are just an awesome defense with any five guys they put out there. Yeah, I do. This is where I part ways with you, Nick. I don't necessarily think this is going to spill over into the future. You've got other teams. Detroit is very similar. I mean, Detroit is a lot like OKC. They don't shoot it as well as OKC, and they don't have other shot creators. But, I mean, the defense is running a bunch of guys at you that defend. They play off one guy, KSGA. And there are other – there are teams that get physical in the league. So I'm just curious. I would be – that would be interesting to me. And what these teams do is they get physical from the beginning. And like you said, like you said, the refs just almost naturally is like – I can't call every – a foul down every time. So I don't think it's going to change anything for OKC. but I do think this was a dirty play. I thought, Danny, Dagnall should privately in the locker room be like, I don't ever want to see any of our players tripping a guy on purpose like that. Yeah, I don't think that they're supporting that internally in Oklahoma. I said in the front, it's indefensible, right? It's an indefensible play. You should say, yeah, I just think. He defended it. That's the weird part. I get it publicly. Coaches always will publicly defend their guys. But we don't want to see it because you could have hurt. Look, I get it. It's just a trip. We've all been tripped as kids, but you never know. We had Al Harrington out an hour earlier, and he said, you know, basically it was no big deal. And I just vehemently disagree. I think that that is so much more dangerous than a guy driving to the basket and you going for a block, just whack him straight in the head. Anticipating contact. Yes. I mean, we've seen guys nine contact injuries, so unanticipating contact. He has a knee injury. And now that, I'm not going to call Dort like an assassin. Like, he knew, oh, this is the injured part of his body. But I think the reason Joker had that type of fury in his eyes was he knew how much he was at risk. And an underrated skill of legendary athletes is their ability to avoid injuries. Like, avoid precarious spots. How to fall. How to fall, how to see where, oh, this could be a spot where my ankle gets rolled up and I'm not going in there, which is why I think he got so mad because he didn't anticipate that somebody all of a sudden was going to stop and go backwards. You could laugh funny on it. As a guy puts his foot out to trip you, you could laugh funny on that and sprain it. What is KW about to say? Nothing. What are you about to say? I didn't say anything. I was just saying I did take my dog for a walk in the woods, and I was, like, navigating the same type of stuff. I put my ankle there, and I thought you called me like a superstar, legendary athlete. That's what you were going to say. I felt nice about it. No. I felt great about it. All right. Al Harrington joins the show after the break. Talk about Giannis making his return back tonight. Is Giannis going to make a run at the play-in and then playoffs? And then all the day. Remember, Danny says he's never leaving. Never leaving. He's going to be able to get in the play-in. Milwaukee for life. Thanks for hanging out with us on First Things First. We go to L.A., where the Lakers snapped a three-game losing streak by winning back-to-back games this weekend against the Warriors and the Kings. So, you know, consider the opponents. But if we take a look at the Western Conference standings, the record on paper, not so bad. 36-24, tied with Denver, who a lot of people think can win it all. One fewer win than the three-seed Houston Rockets. So we've got Willie Colon and Al Harrington out here, made his FTF debut earlier today. Al, did the Lakers 2-0 weekend mean all is well for the Lakers? I wouldn't say that. But, you know, at the end of the day, they've been having a great season anyway. You know, they've been in the mix the entire time. I mean, they got two of the greatest players to ever play basketball. And then they got a heck of a sidekick at AR. You know what I'm saying? But at the end of the day, I have a graphic where they have a top ten offense this year. You know what I'm saying? They're shooting 50% from field goal percentage, which is first in the league. Their offensive rating is seventh. and then their attempts to game is second in the league. So if you can have that type of efficient offense, you know, you should be a tough out, you know, in the playoffs, which is what they're building towards. So I guess my question, and you played, it's very hard for me to pinpoint teams, and I was talking about this with the Knicks earlier with the guys, it's like if your best players are not two-way players, because those guys are going to always be on the floor, and it gets tougher to play great offense in the postseason, right? It's more physical, more half court, less running. I don't know that you can win when your top three guys, when none of them are great defensive players. So, like, congratulations to the Lakers for their weekend. But I still put, like, a very low ceiling on what they can accomplish come, you know, May and June. So you said three. So you're putting LeBron in there, too? As a top three guy on the Lakers? Yeah. And bad defensively right now? I mean, yeah. I don't think 41-year-old LeBron. I know he don't want to hear that. I'm sorry if you're watching LeBron. He's sensitive, man. He don't want to hear that. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is 41-year-old LeBron matching out defensively right now? I don't think so. I agree with you, man. The fact that their three best players are not locked in on a defensive end, it will be very tough for them to compete for an NBA championship this year. Their only hope is that they're going to have to outscore teams night in and night out. That's their advantage is that in the playoffs when defense do get tough, guys that can make tough shots and create shots on their own. So, yes, check, they'll be able to do that. But will they be able to do that consistently enough to actually win series? I'm not sure. Yeah, this is why I see these two wins as get-right games. You talk about Golden State, they didn't have Steph, Steph's dealing with the knee there, 8th and the West. You talk about Sacramento, it's pretty much a tank mode, let's be honest. I mean, they had 20 turnovers against the Lakers. I mean, they're god-awful. But I think if you're looking at the Lakers right now, they haven't had a statement game. You know what I mean, DP? You know what I mean? Like a game you say, hey, man, this is a game where we're going to put our flag on. Their last statement game was, I think, October 29th against the Wolves, right? And so now when you look at their schedule, they need a statement game coming on. If we're talking about this team being legit, look at the schedule coming up right here. I mean, you talk about the Nuggets twice. You talk about the Knicks. You talk about the Rockets. You talk about all these teams, the Wolves. I mean, these are all contenders right now. So if you're the Lakers, I'm looking at you like, yeah, I want to believe at the momentum, right? I want to believe that everything we've seen thus far, but you're talking about a record right now, and I have another graphic. This is what they look like against teams under 500, right, versus teams above 500. And so they feast off the bottle feeders. The top dog is where they have their trouble. So you know more than anything, when you start getting the momentum, especially in March, and the playoffs are a couple weeks away, you have to start looking like something. I just don't know what the Lakers look like. And I agree to that point. I think they need more than just one game, actually. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? With it being 16 games left, you know, I think that to your point that there are a lot of good playoff caliber teams that they'll be playing against. You know, I think they probably need to win, you know, maybe 12 out of those 16 games to kind of get the momentum that we're talking about that they can take into the playoffs and hopefully be dangerous. If they can get four out of that six, we're looking at the Lakers in a whole different light. Correct. So that's what I was going to ask. You think that, because it's a good way to put it. Like, they've beaten up on the bad teams. And so in the playoffs, you're going to play the good teams. And so it's probably going to play a part. It's a very simplistic way, but it's very accurate. Is there anything they could actually prove, though, in the regular season? Because they're going to be in the playoffs. I don't think anyone, no matter what they do in that March schedule, if they got matched up with Denver, would be like, yeah, I'm taking the Lakers to win four of seven. Certainly not against the Lakers. Maybe Houston? I'm just wondering who in the top six in the West, if they had a great month of March, would you actually pick the Lakers to beat? in a first-round playoff series. I still personally am struggling. They'd have to run the table, basically, for me to really fundamentally change how I look at them. I think, to your point, I think the only team that I think they could potentially get is Houston. Okay. Just because, for a lot of reasons. We feel like Houston isn't really a complete team, especially without having a point guard. So I would probably say that would be the only team on that list that I would say they could potentially get. But I just think from the beginning of this season, just the entire time, Like, has it just been the right kind of vibe and energy around that team that speaks that they're going to make a run in the playoffs or can even compete for a championship? Well, I think part of the problem is D.A. DeAndre Aiden has been inconsistent, right? They need him to be big. And sometimes he'll give you 20. The next night he'll give you six points. If you're the Lakers right now searching for an identity, he has to be a part of that. And he's been so inconsistent. And I see that throwing up that lineup where they're right now. We don't know. Outside of Luke and LeBron, it's a toss-up who's going to be the next big dog in that lineup. They don't have it. And to your point, I've never been a huge fan of his or whatever, but playing in L.A. and playing for a championship, he's not the guy. I hate to say that. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I think every Lakers fan expects them to be looking for a new big man this offseason. But that's the thing. How many more years left of LeBron do you have? One, maybe, probably not even that. And so it's like you have to figure this out right now. So you're not getting a new big man. Well, unless Jesus Christ is coming down and going to put on a Lakers uniform, I don't see it. Okay. Well, then I think they're in a lot of trouble. That would be a huge story. That would be a huge story. Come out here and get some money. He's where the person will go. He runs the floor. All right, let's go to Milwaukee where there is some big news coming in the NBA. Shams is reporting that Giannis is expected to make his return tonight. He's missed the Bucs' last 15 games with that right calf strain that happened back in late January on the 23rd. Also, of course, missed time in December for the same reason. So we've got a large body of work this year of the Bucs with Giannis and without. There are 500 teams with him, 15-15, 11-18 without him. So the expectations, and I'll just say this. Giannis is one of my favorite basketball players ever, and I hope he's a buck for life. And I have a lot of thoughts on this, the first of which is none of the national media has any idea what they're talking about with Giannis. What do you mean? Everyone had him being traded. I did. I wanted to be a Knick. Everyone had him being traded. He wasn't. And then when he wasn't traded, people were like, well, they're obviously going to shut him down. And he's coming back. And he's coming back. So clearly no one has any idea what they're talking about with Giannis. And this is weird timing, though, because he's coming back tonight to play the Celtics. And if he was good enough to play tonight, I feel like he should have played yesterday against the Bulls. They lost to the Bulls. And I don't know if we can show what they're in this range here. So they're the 11 seed. Right? So they're two back in the loss column of the Hornets who are playing great. They have the tiebreaker over them. They can get the tiebreaker over the Hawks. So those are the teams they really need to beat. And they just lost to the Bulls, and in two days they play the Hawks. So I would just have imagined that Giannis should have come back yesterday, beat the Bulls, sit tonight against the Celtics so that he's rested for that game against Atlanta. Because the only path that the Bucs have is catching those teams there in front of them. So I'm sure Giannis will be great, but it's probably too little too late. It's definitely too little too late. You know, it's a testament to who he is as a player. You know what I'm saying? The fact that he still wants to play at this point in the season because, you know, the kind of growing feeling amongst these players in the league is like they're quick to shut it down. They're like, all right, let's win. That's not his DNA. That's not him, man. You know, his integrity, he wants to play. He feels like if he's healthy, he's going to go out there and he's going to compete. With the Bucs in general, it just seems like they don't have a plan. like, what is the real plan? Is the plan to make the playoffs? Is it to, you know, trade him at some point? Is it to get a good player in this draft? Like, we just can't figure out what's going on there. It seems like there's just, like, just organized confusion. You know what I mean? They went all in a bunch and guys kept getting hurt. All in on what, really? You know what I'm saying? I mean, obviously you get rid of Dame Lillard and that amnesty thing, and when you did that, that eliminated you ever being able to get a really good player for the next two or three seasons. You know what I'm saying? So it's just a tough situation that the Bucs are in. And, you know, hope he doesn't get hurt. You know, I hope this calf, because these calf strains have become, you know, disastrous in regards to these guys. They end up saying Achilles and different things like that. So we hope that doesn't happen to him. But, you know, he's going to play hard. That's the one thing. You know, he's going to play MVP-level basketball. But I'm just not sure what the Bucs are trying to accomplish at this point. Well, I think they're trying to get the final playing spot. They want to rival the Hornets. I think that's the plan. And I do, you know, the reason I don't think he played against the Bulls, I think they felt they were the better team. When they had enough to beat the Bulls, the Bulls showed up in the second half and caved their heads in. Nevertheless, if you're Giannis, he's their floor chair. He's the one that everybody revolves around him. I think what's troubling right now for the Bucs, ever since this cash reign, they've been 8-7. You've got Cam Thompson. You've got some additions. You've got pretty much to be able to stabilize the team. Nevertheless, the magic is wearing off, and that's a problem. So now when you talk about is it too late that he's coming back, the bottom line is he's back. And now they can't lose any more games. Well, they're in a really tough spot. To Al's point, they don't have their own first-round pick. They have the worst of the two between them and New Orleans' pick. And the teams below them are so bad that they probably can't tank to get below them. So they may as well bring Giannis back. Because if Giannis is healthy and Giannis wants to play, he's going to play. Of course. Because then if you tell him that he's not playing, then he will demand it. Right, so they're just in a really tough spot where, okay, they're going to try to catch Atlanta, they're going to try to catch Charlotte, and they're going to hope that Giannis can pull them there. And like you said, it's probably too little too late. But I've got to be honest, I respect it. I definitely respect it. You respect Giannis on the back. Yeah, like he's a 92,000 kind of guy. Could have played in your area. Yeah, he wants to play. He wants to play the game. The game is the reward for him. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's what throws me off with these guys with all this wrestling and stuff. I'm like, you already don't practice, and then you don't want to play in the game? The game was the reason why we was doing it all, right? That's where you get the glory. That's where everybody come to watch him. You know what I'm saying? So he's one of those guys, man. He wants to put on a show night in and night out for his family, for his organization, for the fans. And, you know, for that, you know, I take my hat off to him. Yeah. So I'm sure he'll be on a minutes restriction, but he will give everything he has for the minutes that he's out there on the court. For the 11th seed, Milwaukee Bucks. Good job by Al Harrington there. Jerry Jones, first crazy quote of the offseason, Willie. A tradition unlike any other. Right on time. Right on time. Right on time. I know it was running back's name. Welcome back to the OT. There he is. Jerry's at the combine and Jerry's talking. And when he does that, he tends to say interesting things. I'm not going to lie. And so he was asked about his goals for an upcoming Cowboys season and how the offseason could lead to that. Take a listen. I am excited about doing everything we can now to really have a better record than we had last year. I would bet that we will spend more money in free agency than we have. I want to do everything we possibly can to stop somebody and to basically win some third downs more than we did last year. And so I think that would be the area that you would see me bust the budget. All right. Willie, there's a lot there to unpack. No, with the bedhead. You like that? It's a good look for him. But let's just take him at his word and face value and evaluate that, and then we can get into some of the other histrionics of Jerry. But what do you expect from the Cowboys this offseason? The Cowboys don't need to go shopping. They need to go hunting. And when you lost Michael Parsons, you got this new defensive coordinator, Christian Parker, you've got to say to yourself, I'm going into this season, if I can revamp this defense, if I can get me an edge rusher and get me some pieces in the secondary, we look different going into next year. Like the division to me is wide open. Because of the offense, a revamped defense, if you're Jerry, you say, man, we got a window where we can go get this thing. So you have to be optimistic. The problem with Jerry right now is you can't be fake aggressive. You've got to be aggressive. And if there's somebody you love and you have to give up draft capital, like a Max Crosby, then put your money where your mouth is. Like, go get your guy. And Jerry traditionally likes to stay in-house, take care of his guys. He doesn't like to spend a lot of money. But I think that's behind you. When you realize you're going to reset the market with Brandon Alvarez, you're kicking. You're going to sign George Pickens. You're going to figure out what you're going to do with Quentin Williams and Kenny Clark. Once you take care of those things and obviously restructure debt, go get your guy. Go get you an Ezra. Because ever since Michael Parsons left the building, you can't get home back to court. You can't get to the quarterback. So for Jerry Mann, attack this window. Be smart, obviously. But you have a lot of options. So when he says, like, I would expect us to spend more than we've been spending. Right. That, like, sounds really good. Sounds delicious. Yeah, because he can spend a lot of money. He's got a lot of it. But he doesn't spend it. If you look at free agency and where they have ranked the last five off-seasons, they don't participate. That is the Cowboys' rank in spending in free agency last five years. They have not been a top 10 spender in free agency since 2012. The last time they gave out a contract of $50 million or more in free agency was Brandon Carr in 2012. Wow. So they do not participate in free agency. So we shouldn't take Jerry on his work, doesn't you? What I'm saying is when he's like, we're going to spend more than we've been spending, let's just look at the top things that they've done. Their biggest free agent deal last year was $6 million per. The year before that, $3 million per. The year before that, $1.2 million per. It is the lowest of low bars for Jerry to clear for that statement, we are going to spend more than we have been spending, to be true. It would almost be impossible for them not to spend more this offseason than they've spent in the last five offseasons in free agency. So maybe they will give Trey Hendrickson $30 million. Maybe they will. And it's sure. And you are correct. They do, generally speaking. They paid Dak. They paid CD. It takes a long time. They take care of the guys. Generally speaking, they do. Micah Parsons, obviously, would be a very notable exception. But they don't participate in free agency. So this would be a huge departure from what they've done recently. But I am with you. They should do it because if not now, when? Well, not only that, I think if you're looking at what next season looks like for you, you have a top five office, bottom line. The Cowboys light up the scoreboard. Defensively, when you look in a division where the commanders are searching for a bunch of answers, you're talking about the Eagles are searching for answers. Defensively, they'll be fine. But offensively, there's still some bugaboo they've got to fix. And when you look at the way the Cowboys finished in the last season, if they would have played better earlier in midseason, they would have been in the playoffs. So if you're Jerry, you understand you have momentum on your side. Legit momentum. Not like, oh, we're diehard Cowboys fans and we're just going to hope for the best. Like, you have legit guys. Ever since the addition of Quentin Williams and Kenny Clark, you have an identity on the defensive line. Now you have the opportunity to go get a Hendricks, if Max Crosby and whatever happens with the Raiders, if you can make that work. Now you have a defensive line that resembles some of the dominant defensive lines you had in the past where you had DeMarcus Ware and Ratliff and those boys. So if you're Jerry, it's okay to have nostalgia because you were relevant when you had a defense. It wasn't always about the offense. So I think Jerry understands that. And I think if you're Jerry right now, be smart, too, because you have the 12th pick and the 20th pick in the draft. You can go defense there, right? So you can build through the draft. But make sure that you also go get one or two shiny pieces where you can make this thing go next season. I will be floored if they're in on the Max Crosby sweepstakes, only because, and Nick said it earlier, so I'll credit him, but I completely agree. I don't know how you trade away Micah Parsons. to only then trade draft picks for another Ed Rusher. It would be so logically inconsistent and lacking of a plan. And it's not the same deal, because people have been saying it's not the same deal. Crosby's older, coming off a knee. It will not cost the same, but it will still cost a lot. He's still an expensive player. You'll still have to give up premium draft capital. So I don't think Crosby makes sense for them. Trey Hendrickson and others certainly would. But every time we do a story on the Cowboys this offseason, at some point I will reference, because I genuinely think it's relevant. When that huge Netflix documentary on the Cowboys came out and the trailer dropped and Jerry said, the goal was to make us a soap opera 365 days a year. He ain't lying. But he is on the record with that is his motivation. They are a TV show that is also a football team. We can't do our job unless we talk about two friends. The Lakers are the Cavaliers. Despite what they look like or however they're playing, and that is through marketing, fan base, past success, nostalgia, celebrity. It's a million factors. So when he says that, we should evaluate it on its football merits, which we just did. But then I have to also give the caveat of he might just be talking. But it doesn't behoove him to be talking. What I'm saying is it does, because this segment happening in March plays into his hand. He has told us that that is at least partially his motivation from doing the radio shows, from doing the postgame talking, from the drama, from waiting on the contracts with Dak and with drawing out the thing with Micah. Part of it is Jerry likes the debate, the discussion, the palace intrigue, and the soap opera. So, like, while I think he's going to spend money in free agency, even though he hasn't recently, because of the window and the offense and the division and all the things in the cap space and all the things you said, I have to always leave a portion of my calculus of he might just be talking to get us to talk. But at the end of the day, if you're Jerry, look what's in front of you. Like, when you lost, let's be honest, when Michael Parsons walked out a door, people were like, Jerry, you're losing your mind. Like, with him, what are you doing? The fact that you have an opportunity right now to fix this defense, you've got a brand-new defensive coordinator who a lot of people are high on, you have an opportunity to bring something into that building. What Cowboys fans have, they're not just optimistic, they feel like there's substance with this team. Landed, Jerry. Landed. I will be shocked if they don't make some sort of move in that front, because, yes, there is a desperation element to catch the defense up with the offense. Tua, reports are swirling about what Miami's going to do with them, So what does the future look like? We discuss coming up. All right, let's go to South Florida, Willie, where there are reports out of Miami that the Dolphins are, quote, almost certainly set to release Tua with a post-June 1 designation, which helps them spread across his cap hit across multiple years. Shockingly, there was not trade interest for Tua. Of course, he was the fifth overall pick back in 2020, made the playoffs once, lost in the wildcard round. complicated guy to talk about because of the concussion history, the size, the draft pedigree, and that we have at times seen him lead a prolific NFL offense. What do you think Tua's NFL future looks like? Bleak, to be honest, I think it's a matter of fit and scheme with him. He needs to be somewhere where they have an office aligned and a running back to kind of protect him. He's not the quarterback because of the concussion injuries where he's going to make improv throws or scramble because of the risk of injuries. And he's just too inconsistent. He's too inconsistent. You're talking about 20 touchdowns and 15 interceptions last year. Not good. And then you can't build around him. So where can he land? I think a safe place for him would be possibly the New York Jets. They have an offensive line. They have a running back in Brees Hall. They have a quarterback. And they have a good O.C. in Frank Wright. That's from where you can, hey, man, he can be a bridge quarterback for us until we find our guy. Or you can send him to L.A. with Sean McVay. You know, he tends to rehab quarterbacks, right? Yeah, but so that's the thing. I don't. you cannot the concussion issue is not going to go away he is not going to get bigger he is not going to get a stronger arm right so rehabbing Sam Darnold is one thing he has all of the physical attributes I'm not sure that I mean two is like I can't sometimes I can't see the receivers because I can't see I don't buy that because I go back to 2003 I thought he was an MVP candidate like when he had Devon H. and Mercer and Tyreek Hill like he was lighting up the league I remember what week 13 or 14 when he went against the Cowboys and it was him and Dak having a shootout He was an electric. So he can get it done. I think he, from the neck up, is a little burnt out. He's been through a lot, honestly. I will be surprised if he is ever a team's starting quarterback without serious competition. It makes sense. You can't build around him. Exactly. He's played a full season once and now going on seven years in the NFL. So you can't rely on him, his size, the arm strength. But he could be a number two that could win you two or three games. No question about it. Good stuff. Good to be back. Always, brother. You look good. I'm not as pan as you are. I did well. We'll talk about that. SPF. You've got to be safe. Protect yourself from the sun.