The Ryen Russillo Podcast - UConn Repeats, Zach Edey’s NBA Future, Quitting the Bucks, and the Kentucky Job With Adam Lefkoe. Plus, Best and Worst Rookie QB Situations With Todd McShay.

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

Russillo begins with his thoughts on UConn's repeat as national champions and what the future has in store for Zach Edey (0:49). Then, Adam Lefkoe joins the show to discuss Milwaukee's rough stretch, what might happen at Kentucky, and his own Life Advice questions (18:24). Next, Todd McShay is back to rank rookie QB situations and share why he thinks we’re in for some early trades come draft night (64:22). Plus, Ceruti joins for another Alliance pick (104:25) and Life Advice (102:27)! Do I want to work with my dad? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out rg-help.com to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Adam Lefkoe and Todd McShay Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's podcast, it is a packed episode for you. I'm going to start with talking about UConn's dominant victory against Purdue, back-to-back national champs and the draft prospects of the players who were paying attention to last night in a full game breakdown. We've got Adam Lefko on the NBA, hanging out with Shaq and what he thinks is gonna happen at Kentucky, a place he covered for years. And we've got Todd McShay on the best case scenarios

for number one picks, looking back at history, where the quarterbacks are drafted, how do the Bears stack up in their support for Caleb Williams, and some trade rumor stuff. We've got life advice and the Alliance. It's the Ryan Rosillo podcast presented by FanDuel. Take a shot at betting the NBA with FanDuel, America's number one sports book.

Right now, you can check out the new and improved parlay hub, filter by odds, spore and bet type to easily find the most popular parlays and same game parlays all on one page. Plus start betting the explore page and the Pulse and bet live same game parlays for every NBA game. So download the app today and bet with FanDuel, official partner of the NBA. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming.

Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. And listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 and older and President-Select states gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Think about something you're good at. Now think about how you got there. Chances are you had someone to help you get started. If you're thinking about starting to invest,

Questrade's award-winning support team is here to help you learn how to become a better investor. From placing your first trade to setting up customized stock alerts, we're always by your side. Just a few of the reasons why we are Canada's number one rated online broker by MoneySense. Get started today at questrade.com. Okay, Yukon, the Huskies, repeating as national champs. Let's talk title game. I want to talk about the game itself. Some of the things that happened. And then I want to talk a little hurly and then we'll talk a little draft stuff as well as it relates to this matchup. So UConn repeats the first time in men's college basketball since Florida did it 06-07. And then prior to that, it was Duke in 91-92.

So this does not happen a lot. Last year's open was a Yukon championship. And I spent a great deal of that time talking about the history and me going to those big East games and watching them get their doors blown off by everybody. And then talking about the location and Yukon being a blue blood in comparison to these other great campuses and awesome towns and all that stuff. And I don't need to do that again because I got something else anyway. Like, hey, Rassilla, we got it. Storrs is exactly St. Barts. That's fine. But let's start with the game. The headliner, clearly, ED, the matchup against Klingen, the way it was built on CBS. So I think

as far as like the headline players, the first time in the title game, you had two seven-footers going up against each other since Patrick Ewing against Hakeem Elijah wanted for Georgetown beat Houston. Uh, the one title for Ewing during that ridiculous run of tournament runs that Georgetown had under John Thompson. Um, so there's probably another game where there were two seven footers playing against each other, but I, you know, I was going to go back and look up every single roster to see how tall every guy was the last 40 years.

So the first thing I'm looking for is ED and how he sets up in the post, how much of a priority it is, and then ultimately like can cling and hold up and knock into foul trouble. I counted and you could probably find a different tracking of this. I was looking at not just touches for ED, but like the deep post catches and then to working off the post where he was incredible, uh, for much of the first half in this game. And I had it at nine and clearly that's the priority.

Get it down to him, let him go to work. I'm sure Purdue was just dying to get Klingon in a foul trouble. He got in a foul trouble later in the game, but at that point it didn't really matter, but in the first half he held up well and it was terrific. And they only had to cover him with one guy because Yukon and Klingon had the one thing all these other teams didn't have. It's really hard not foul Edie because whether it's his size or getting his arms into you, you got to get straight up. But the second he goes to a counter when he had that up and under where he wants to turn left shoulder, but he got Klingon going back to his right.

Like that's just, I can't even fathom, even at seven one, how brutal that must be to have to deal with. So then I was wondering if UConn would go small with their backup center in Johnson, which they did do. Johnson is really good on these lobs. He got two where he got behind Edie, but he also fouled out five minutes. Speaking of the challenge of trying not to foul this Purdue team. The thing that worked for Purdue that was really good was their point guard Smith. It wasn't very good in the semifinal game. Two backcourt is not what you'd expect out of your point guard leader. He was the only other play giving Purdue anything, but they do a really good job of setting the first screen. So whether it was

right to left or left to right, where they would try to get the first defender off of him, whether that was Castle, who's a terrific defensive player as a freshman as we've seen through this tournament. And then the next move would be bringing Edie up for a second screen. And then Smith is driving where Smith has a little Chris Paul in him in that he would get past the first line of the perimeter defense and then kind of know where he wanted to go and then maybe veer off to the side of the elbows and then pull up. And if you can get that shot down, that can save the mid-range kids, that can save the mid-range. But if it weren't a pull up there, Smith would continue down with a lot of force,

just getting downhill. He made some nice layups off of this. And then of course you had Edie trailing this action where then Edie either gets a deep catcher, then he had that big finish over Klingen where he just went right up over everybody. So that was the thing that was kind of working. And then it didn't just because you knew, all right, well, we've got to try to stay to fight through the first green or we're going to switch it better. Or because you knew, all right, well, we've got to try to stay to fight through the first screen or we're going to switch it better. Or in this case, like, let's also try to, it gets you in this tough spot

where you're guarding kind of two with one, but then that means the other guy has to at least come over and try to disrupt some of the ED part of it. I also thought ED got tired in this game and we'll cover that up here in a second. So Castle, I thought everybody did a better job with that Smith stuff that they were trying to do. This was also, as much as we were wondering

about Klingon against Eaddy defensively, this was a very different game for Klingon on offense where he just wasn't the same guy he'd been the last couple of games, 18 points against Bama, 22 at 10 against Illinois when Illinois clearly was trying to hope to get him in a foul trouble and instead all he did was just humiliate everybody that tried to go with the rim against him. So that part of the story was like, oh wait, what's going on with Yukon's

offense? Well, this thing that has been an incredible go-to with drives and deep cuts and dump offs to Klingon, like none of that stuff's going to happen with Edie because whatever we think about Edie defensively and what he projects at the NBA level in college, when somebody's 7'4 and just kind of standing there, it's going to make you think differently. And just that size alone is impeding so many of the other things that we've seen Klingon be able to do offensively here for UConn. The main problem in this game, the main problem for Purdue

was that the others were non-existent, all right? And that's because Yukon rarely doubled ED, really until a little bit later, especially when they had to go with that rung without clinging because of the four fouls. But for the most part in this game, and look, the Purdue player said it after the fact,

like all of those shots that then they're all season because everybody has to double the ED. UConn didn't have to double they stayed straight up if he's gonna score a million points that's fine but none of the rest of you guys are gonna be involved and that's exactly what happened and by the way are you not only not doubling ED the perimeter players for UConn are all like whether elite in castle but also like at the very worst it's serviceable. Now Cam Spencer, there's going to be some TJ McConnell comps, which is a huge mistake because TJ McConnell is an absolute motherfucker on defense. And Cam's not that, but Cam is somebody

you can trust for 40 minutes. He's not going to screw up. He's a little bigger than you think at six four. I wouldn't say he's at Pajemski level, like, holy shit, that guy got that rebound. But he's in there impacting all these different things. He just makes the right play every single time. I know he's 24. I know he's been around forever, but I think Cam Spencer has a chance to be a rotation guy in the NBA, but he's going to be compared to TJ because there's smaller white guys, even though he's, he's bigger than TJ is.

All right. So, uh, that was the problem. So at half it's 36,30, UConn leads this one. Purdue played nine players, seven players at three points or less, five players had zero points. So these shots that are open all season because they just weren't there,

that was really the story of the game. So we go to the second half and Edie on the game ends up with 37 and 10. But I thought he was tired to close the first half and that carried over even after the break in the second half a little bit. I think he went like the last five minutes of the first half without a field goal. And then he didn't have his first second half field goal until about six plus minutes in. He had 17 points the last 916, but at that point the game was kind of over. They'd been down 16 points at that stretch and then he added all those points.

You go, all right, well 37 and 10. He was awesome. He scored 17 of them later and look, he was the only thing they could really rely on other than the Smith stuff that we talked about already. So this game is not on him whatsoever, but that 37 will jump out historically, but man, he had 37 in that one. A lot of it was kind of late when I think Yukon just knew that this game was over. I thought it was weird during the broadcast where Raph and Grant Hill were.

I think they brought it up multiple times where they kept talking about like Yukon's offense struggling and every time they do it, you're like, yeah, but they're winning. And again, that's not to say that you can't watch a team struggle and then you just have to say, well, I guess I'm not right because the score is the score but Yukon's offense wasn't really an issue or maybe they're just so used to these guys flying around against other teams they were expecting the same thing to happen or not having a clinging option that we've already covered so this was a game where I'd say I don't know ten minutes

to go in the second half, you're like, this thing's over. It's not going to matter. Like the cleaners apart with clinging with the four fouls where I was like, should they just keep him in? But then if he gets that fifth foul, does that inspire hope in these guys? Or if they take him out, does that inspire hope in Purdue?

Then they had to go to Caravan as a small center. But at that point, you know, that's what we've already talked about with ED closing with all these points. But U Yukon just has a bunch of different stuff that they can go to. Even if they don't have the prototypical like NBA prospect off the dribble kind of score, it's just a smart, really tough basketball team that was dominant throughout this tournament.

They finished as a plus 40 in point differential in the tournament. That's the best in tournament history. Uh, Hurley, I imagine if you go up against him, you can't stand him. Every one of you would love him to be your program's head coach. He feels like he's related to Jim Calhoun somehow, where it's like me against the world type of shit with him. And you can tell with the way these guys played. And it even was apparent to me when I saw him live against Stetson, where

they're destroying him and everybody was playing like it was a tie game. When they were up huge you know like guys can talk about wanting that. What is a lot harder to actually get everybody to buy in and the standard that he has set whether it's through history whether it's the certain kind of guys that he's trying to recruit. through history, whether it's the certain kind of guys that he's trying to recruit, they respond. They respond to whatever it is that he's doing. And that team is a bunch of fighters. And Saruti was saying like, it's funny because you think about how Calhoun carried himself. Like there's some real similarities there with Danny Hurley. But think about this Yukon run. They beat Illinois. All right. Illinois in that game, it was tied 23-23. Illinois went 50 real minutes, not scoring a point.

It went from 23 to 53. Illinois's first points were at 12-39 in the second half, and that was against the number 13 team in the country. So let's talk drafts a little bit, because we know it's a bad draft. People have been talking about it being a bad draft for a really long time. As we've already seen, there's little tidbits being like, yeah, this draft isn't as bad as everybody says that will happen more.

I promise you. Plingen has gone from late lottery to I think I saw him on ESPN as the third pick in this draft as good as he is to really succeed. And maybe I shouldn't say like, Oh, to be worth the third pick in the draft. You have to be all these things. Well, if you're the third pick in this draft, it's probably a little bit different than being the third pick in other drafts. And I loved watching him this year, but there's no shot really to build on.

He took eight threes. So does he have to hit threes in the NBA to be like a guy valuable of this kind of, you know, worthy of, I should say of this high of a pick, it'd be nice. But he's also 55, 56% from the free throw line for his career. So that's a little alarming. Cause you go like, if he's in the seventies and I got something to work with, that's what the teams will tell you all the time. Um, but you don't have that with him.

And then you go, okay, is he good enough to's in the seventies and I got something to work with, that's what teams will tell you all the time. Um, but you don't have that with him. And then you go, okay, is he good enough defensively? I think at the rim, the defense is really good, but they're going to move them around and move them out. And I thought Alabama showed some times where it got a little predictable, where if they got Klingon on one side of the drive, he was just always going to retreat, he wasn't going to go out and contest. So I thought that there were some more opportunities for Alabama in that game.

Um, but it looks like he's going to go like top five here. Now, Edie's a first rounder. No question. He's worth taking him somewhere in the first round. Just go, Hey, you know what? Like if we're going to be wrong, let's be wrong with him. Let's give him a chance. Maybe there's a way we can use him.

But I think the problem is, is against specific matchups, he's going to be a liability defensively. He just is. I mean, there's big guys that are guys getting minutes now. There's still liabilities. I don't know if it'll get to the, and his canter phase where once canter was completely exposed and switching into pick and roll, it was just over for him.

He thinks he's not in the league for other reasons. I would argue that it's his defense on switches. So with Edie offensively, it might not be about his defense. We're talking about him as a prospect. It might be about, well, what's he going to be on offense and how's the team gonna use him? I thought in the NC State game, when he was getting doubled more,

like some of the doubles, he made some nice passes and some of the doubles I didn't love the way he reacted to it all the time. I wouldn't say he's incapable of figuring that part of it out, but there was still at this stage of his career, some stuff that I didn't like seeing. But it's more about, as I already talked about, like, how would you use them?

Because you're just going to, what are you going to do? Run post-ups in today's NBA, you need to get him down on the block and run your offense that way. Even if he's coming off the bench, I mean, how many touches is he actually going to get? And he's terrific at it. All right. But if you look at the way the game is played today, let's share some numbers here. Using the tracking data from second spectrum,

Jokic leads the NBA in post-ups per game. The number's 8.2 post-ups. Now his are weird. They're not just straight traditional post-ups and he kind of catches it from all over the place. So with this tracking data works like legit, Hey, back to the basket, catch post up, right? We all know what we're talking about here.

So they're being very specific. They're not just giving you like an elbow catch touch pivot thing. I don't think they're counting that kind of stuff. And bead is at number two with only five post ups a game. He's more of a catch and face guy. Catch, turn, face, then do his work from there. Get him beat, catch, free throw line without a double, forget it, just put two on the board.

The game has changed. 10 years ago, our man, our main man, Al Jefferson, led the NBA with 20 post up touches a game. 20, that's only 10 years ago, 13 20 post-up touches a game. That's only 10 years ago, 13-14 season, 20 a game. Dwayne Wade averaged 3.2 post-ups per game. That would be 11th in the NBA today. We have 11 players this season getting three or more post-up touches a game.

10 years ago was 60. So even if you like Edie and you go, all right, defensively, we're going to have to protect him, we can't expose them in certain ways, this is going to be nights where he gets attacked and maybe we have to take them off the floor. We didn't think he was going to be our guys starting at center for 30 minutes a night, but what are you going to do with them on offense? If nobody's doing any of that stuff that he's really good at right now, it was a weird tournament as far as the NBA projected talent as bad as his draft is,

there's going to be a couple of guys and none of us really realize we do a bad job and they end up being terrific NBA players. Like you're not going to go 0 for 30 on the first round. But if you look at some of the projected lottery guys, Dillingham, Reid Shepard were gone with Kentucky, lost to Oakland. Dalton Kinect was incredible for Tennessee, 37 against Purdue in that Elite Eight game. He's projected as a lottery guy, a little bit older, better around Cody Williams, Colorado. He was barely a factor in the tournament despite them winning a couple of games.

Walker at Baylor, they lost in the second round. Yukon with Stephon Castle. I've talked about his defense. He was great offensively against Illinois. You get a couple threes from him, you're stealing. I'm not even sure Yukon needed castle to win another title. That's how good everybody else was. But he's kind of before Klingon had this rise here, there was some stuff projecting

castle to be going higher than Klingon did. Uh, and that's saying something because if you're telling me they're, they're at one point best NBA prospect now, second best NBA prospect is somebody they didn't even need, and that's just my opinion. He second best NBA prospect is somebody they didn't even need. And that's just my opinion. He certainly helps, but I'm not sure they even needed him. That's how dominant this run was for Yukon in repeating this year.

Get in on all the NBA buzzer beaters, ankle breakers and tomahawk jams at FanDuel America's number one sports book right now. New customers get 150 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. If you've been thinking about joining FanDuel, there's no better time to get in on the action. We feel great about today's four legged,

the Alliance Parlay, we get it a little bit later. Kyle has his pick. We're talking Boston at Milwaukee. The app is so easy to use and there are so many different ways to bet, like same game parlay, live same game parlays. Find bets in the new explore tab, make a parlay in the parlay hub, the best way to find popular

parlays and more. So visit Fandual.com slash Ryan and make your first bet a layup. Fandual, official partner of the NBA, must be 21 and older and present in select states. Gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. First online real money wager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is non-retributable. Bonus bets expire seven days after receipt.

Restrictions apply, see terms at sportsbook.fandual.com. He is a big part of NBA's coverage on TNT. It is Adam Lefkoe who also was involved with the tournament and And then of course the cohost of the big podcast with Shaq. It's every Wednesday. There's a lot of different stuff that I want to get into here. And I know that you have a life advice for us gym related, which is kind of our, our wheelhouse, but let's just kind of start with. This season is you're gearing up for the final week here, trying to figure

out making sense of all this stuff. And before we get to the contenders I'm with you like we were kind of talking before Like I don't want to give up on Milwaukee, but this is brutal. They're one in six in their last seven There's all sorts of numbers I can share here at the end What do you take from what has been? Probably one of the most disappointing stretches from a team that we still would have in the contender class unless you just written them off entirely. The run that they had for like four or five games after the All-Star break where

people were still on, man they're not as good under Doc as they were under Adrian Griffin, I thought that the ship had been right. And then this last run of Washington and Memphis and some of just the worst teams in the NBA and the splits when Lillard is there and when he's not there and all of this is happening during an Historic Yana season of 30 10 60 percent, which we've never seen before. I think we're coming to a very interesting crossroads where I applauded the Bucs for making the move from the perspective of they avoided the sunken cost fallacy.

They realized that Adrian Griffin wasn't going to be the guy that got them there. They listened to their team and they went and they got a guy that thought that could and they were willing to pay all of the money to coaches to not be on their staff. That takes a lot of risk. And at the time I understood why they made the move. But if this goes the way it's trending right now, to where somehow Milwaukee takes on a Miami or a Sixers team in that first round, and they shockingly lose again, and they just gave Doc like a four-year contract, I think that they are facing a wild circumstance where what happens if Giannis comes out after the season and comes to ownership and goes

He's not the guy either What do you do? And so it doesn't look great. They're taking on Boston tonight You remember last year that Boston Milwaukee game really changed a lot of our perspectives with the blowout in that game But it it doesn't look great. Nothing looks great. The offense, the defense, they just look scrambled, Rossello. And at this point, I don't know how you can have confidence going into the playoffs.

Yeah, this stretch where they're one and six, they can't shoot. They're 29th in three point percentage. They're 12th on the season. That's a massive departure from who they normally are. The Lillard games is maybe you look at it and go, okay, one in seven without Lillard. So let's not focus too much on who we've been through this. Like once we have everybody, we're going to be fine. The defensive numbers, we knew how problematic it was considering

this team is always good defensively. They're 19th overall. Before the All-Star break, they were 17th. After the All-Star break, they're 16th. The numbers All-Star break, their 16th, the numbers have improved. That would tell you they've gotten a little bit better, but across the board, all defensive numbers are up with the way the game is being officiated. And you're right about the coach thing. Griffin's got this terrific record, and yet you knew at least kind of what you'd heard is like, Dame was out on it, and then Brook was out on it. And then eventually, Giannis was like, okay, I'm out on it too. And the problem is as

you know, because you sit next to these guys all the time if you give players a reason to doubt you they're going to take it and it's much like all of us like if you give somebody an excuse, they'll use it and when it's somebody who doesn't have the cache of Doc, it's like, okay well, it has to like things are different and it has to be him. I don't really know what Dame's biggest issue was. He just wasn't used to not being in control of every single offensive possession, which was the whole point of this is that finally Dame was going to have somebody that he could lean on

and Giannis could have someone that he could lean on and that they should be really great complimentary pieces. I still hold out hope for it, but if you're coach bud, you've got to be like, oh, I was the problem. If you're Adrian, you've got to be thinking, oh yeah, no, no, it's me. And because of the Doc playoff history, which I think, I like Doc, I think he's a good coach.

I'm sorry, I'll just say it over and over again. But this is turning into something that not only the cost know, I like Doc. I think he's a good coach. I'm sorry. I'll just, I'll say it over and over again, but this. This is turning into something that not only the cost part of it that you're bringing up, like it's, at some point it has to be on the players. It has to be on the players this season to play to a level that I, I guess I'm stubborn on this one and maybe it's the rest of the East other than Boston, but I'm like, are you guys like, would you really lose to Miami again after what happened last year? You think like, even if

you're trending in opposite directions, you'd be so motivated to revenge, you know, I should say avenge that one eight loss last season. Like that should be enough, but they're just, they're just a tough watch right now. I was thinking about this last night. I mean, everybody remembers that Giannis had a crazy fall and hurt his back in that Miami series. Like we talk about it as though Miami just straight up went in there and beat them and it was game one, Giannis was a shell of himself.

And I was like, why did they move on from Budenholtz? Like I understand that like it was a crushing loss and they lost in the first round and it's been disappointing and there were probably issues that were lingering, but why is that not factored into why they exited? And I understand that Giannis has always had a fascination with Dame and the combination of them in the pick and roll. I believe that this is the greatest offensive season

in the history of the Milwaukee Bucks. So from that perspective, I'm sure that's been great, but you look at Drew Holiday on Boston now, and I'm having a hard time, and it's easy in retrospect to say, but understanding why it was such a rush to move on from Booth and Holzer and Drew. When I just spent two and a half weeks with Jay Wright,

who is better than advertised, like one of the greatest human beings you'll ever hang out with and who also has been involved in team USA basketball now for two decades with popovich and Kerr and he has stories on all these NBA guys And when I was talking to him about the USA team about like who how does it work? Like who do you guys call first the The first name he said was Drew Holliday. He said, that's the guy that we had to get because he's the tone setter. He's the model citizen. He's the one that comes in and sets the tone.

And so when I hear that from Jay, and it's just like a fusing praise, and I think about that Janis injury, I just, I look back and I don't understand why the change. Who, who said I'm not doing this unless there's a change? I have an idea, but I don't know. It just seems kind of crazy to me. Well, I'm glad you brought up the Janus thing because it'll always be forgotten. He played half of the available minutes in that playoff series. And that's a factor when you're talking

about one of the three best players in the league, but it still was so weird at the end to watch them just be done. Like mentally they seemed like they were shot, a conference shot. It was like, wait, you're really, this is really going to happen. And then of course that was the, the intro into what Miami was going to do in the playoffs last season, which I still think is one of the most unprecedented runs that we've seen in modern history. But considering like what Bud had gone through personally too, and they still were like, nope, we're good. It's very easy now that we have

the results to replay the history of it. But I think there was always a stubbornness with Bud that you just knew exactly what it was going to be. And clearly it worked well enough. I mean, the guy's going to ring. But when they were losing, that stubbornness seemed to be something they just couldn't get past. They go with something that we've seen a lot with franchises where it's like, let's get a younger guy in here. Somebody that played, uh, who's been an assistant like that, spend the trend for a lot of off seasons here and then see how it works. And then as soon as they were checked out on him, um, I look, I'm just more of a,

Hey, it's on the players than it is the coaches. In football, it's entirely different. College football sets the tone with the guy who's your CEO. In the NFL, we've seen it too many times where somebody can come in, a couple tweaks here, a couple turnovers there, and then all of a sudden he's turned this thing around. In the NBA, you don't have somebody just take over a 30-win team and then all of a sudden they're a contender. But when I look at them, part of my hope is still like, what am I supposed to do

with the Knicks? What am I supposed to do with the Cavs? I like Orlando. I don't love their closing offense in a tight playoff game. Maybe it's Philly with Embiid, but I don't think Embiid even looks close. I think it's remarkable he's even out there right now and maybe he works himself into shape of working himself in his shape in the playoffs when he hasn't been successful.

So I'm still like looking at the rest of the teams going, I'm supposed to pick them and throw Miami in there as well, who's now healthy again. I'm supposed to pick one of them against Milwaukee and I don't think I'm gonna do it as bad as this has looked. No, it's just all signs point to Boston. But I agree, like I really want the Knicks to make a run because I think it would be a lot of fun to watch.

I think I'm in the minority in that everyone was talking about how crushing of a loss it was to lose Julius Randall. I'm more focused on OG Ananobe. I think, and I came up with them saying this publicly, Julius Randall is like one of my least favorite watches when I'm watching NBA, especially when you see how that team was performing in January with OG Quickly. Julius Reynolds, like one of my least favorite watches when I'm watching NBA, especially when you see how that team was performing in January with OG and the flow that they had on offense and the emergence of D. Vincenzo. I know playoff basketball is different. I agree with you with Orlando.

I mean, they could get the two seat. Orlando takes on Milwaukee two times in this. Yeah. I mean, they have a chance to still get it. But I'm like, their lack of three point shooting, their lack of clutch ability, like in those last five minutes, shows itself time and time again.

And what Miami did last year puts that doubt in all of our minds where it's like, we don't wanna speak definitively because it was so improbable. I mean, it still doesn't make sense to me what they did, but that's why I think we're all focusing on the West constantly because the East looks like just bet on Boston and then call it a day because everybody else is just average at best. Okay, so let's go to the West. This is a big time Dallas push. So when I look at the clutch numbers,

I was looking through it again, because you just keep track of it. They're 23 and nine in clutch games and it feels very real. Like sometimes the clutch stuff can be a little fluky, but you're like, okay, well wait, why are they good in the clutch? It's like, okay, because they know they're gonna get

one of the best looks imaginable at the end of games with Luca. Like he's just going to get you an incredible look. And I think the list is just Ian and Jokic as far as like, okay, tight game. I need a good look. Just at least give us a chance. I think it's those two guys and then I think it's a gap.

But then when I look at the rest of the clutch records, like the Lakers have a great clutch record. Denver has one, Boston, OKC. And you're like, okay, well that makes sense. They're just the better basketball teams this season, even though the Lakers won a bit of a surprise. So, you know, Cleveland had their ridiculous run. The Knicks had their really nice run. The Clippers.

Do you think this is the full like version of Dallas that is real and is right behind Denver? Or do you think this is just their good run at this point in the season? I, I, there's definitely truth to that. Remember when the Clippers, you know, from like January one were like the greatest team of all time and everybody was picking them to win I I just go back to when they made that Western Conference finals run That ended against the the Warriors when they won it all and they had that offense where it was Luca or Brunson And they're dishing out to a litany of three-point shooters and it was we have picked a style of play that if we're

Hitting you have to hit more than us and we don't think you can But the way they built around Luca this year the trades that they made PJ Washington and gaffer Getting some backup centers so you're not relying on cleaver all the time Because that that's a style that can win you certain points of a game. I don't think it can win you most of the game. And look, I was there with everybody else thinking that giving this contract to Kyrie was more about possibly trading him to the Lakers than it was actually making it work with Dallas. And now there's actually a flow going on.

The reason that I think I'm really confident in them is, I know with this like NCAA tournament stuff, I kind of like their path. I'll take the Mavericks over the Clippers all the time. That's just a matchup that Luka owns. I think the Clippers are kind of a mess right now, and I think they've owned it throughout the season. And because if Denver ends up in the two and right now they're tied with Minnesota, they would avoid them until the Western Conference

finals. And so then you're getting a Minnesota team, let's say if they win, which you're saving Denver. So I just like the path for Dallas if that happens. But everything that you've said, the numbers, the only thing that scares you are will they be cooling down or is this a case of they're hot at the right time? That would be like my, if I was still doing a pod, would be like, what is the right time? What is the dates that you want to be good? Because right now Dallas is in it,

but it's like, ooh, is it two weeks early? Because what we saw from Miami last year, they almost started theirs in the play-in But I I love the possible journey and I love this the system around Luca I mean I saw an interview with Luca recently where he's like, you know It took them three years and they finally got me my backup center and so it's it's almost like we had the GM with LeBron and And we just talked about Janice and what he's doing. There is a part of me that looks at Luca and I'm very biased at the way he sees the floor that maybe there's a chance that he sees roster construction

the same. And maybe he really did build help build the perfect roster around him. But I love that they have an identity and they know their identity. And though they have the three point shooters, but unlike a few years ago, those guys can also defend. It is not Bullock. It is not Dave Davis for tons. It is guys that can actually go both ways. And they're not reliant on Powell as the only backup. Yeah, they've done a really good job, you know, figuring out the five thing, whether And they're not reliant on Powell as the only backup pick. Yeah. They've done a really good job, you know, figuring out the five thing, whether it was keeping the pick, you know, if lively

we're still the guy as much shit as Dallas took at the end of last year, it's like, all right. But I mean, I know, I know it's kind of gross, but they wanted to try to keep the pick and lively was a plus for them. And now Gafford is, is really helped. And we've covered a lot of the stuff there. 11th defense since the all-star break, but I liked it. It doesn't feel as five out and four guys standing around watching Luca.

I think it's hard to take that from the regular season and then into the playoffs and go, we're going to do this. And as you talk about owning the Clippers, I'm sure Clippers fans are going like, okay, yeah, but for all the love Luca gets in those series, he lost both of them, but, uh, it's, it's just the Kyrie part of it. Like it clicked for me when I was like, Lucas totally fine playing off the ball and letting Kyrie go here a little bit. And sometimes that can be difficult where it's the, my turn, your turn.

I remember like when Jimmy Butler came back and then Derrick Rose was healthy again. It was like, wait, like I thought this was my team. And Jimmy Butler's like, no, I'm just better than you now. It's, you know, whether it's Iverson or Anthony in Denver, where you're like, okay, what you have these two talented scorers, but is it complimenting each other or is it just one guy gets to go and the other guy gets to go and. If it were gonna work with Dallas that's what you would see but it's it's working is kairi gets start the fourth quarter he's fresh is going up against some of the carry over backups. And then once luca comes back in it's like he feels and trust kairi more than anyone he's ever played with where he's fine like he's still basketball happy out there watching Kyrie have possessions in a way I don't

think he's ever felt about any other teammate. And Kyrie looks happy and we both know that that's not gonna last forever so let's not pencil this in as like a final solution but we've hit the happy Kyrie window and that shouldn't be looked over. I know a bunch of people in that organization and they all love him. And to me, it's, I think it's interesting. It's a little bit like Doc, where you know that there's a runway of happiness and eventually people are going to sour. And I think with Doc, it's because he says things and then a year later you realize that

he's just talking. And with Kyrie, it's because he says things and then a year later you realize that he's just talking and with Kyrie It's like who the heck no, it's usually the October when things start going crazy But it's a happy Kyrie window and it's again happening at the perfect time and again all this being said I'm taking Denver, you know, like it feels the same way that you were just talking about the East and I'm taking Boston You know, like it feels the same way that you were just talking about the East and I'm taking Boston Just because how do you not like it's that's been the hardest part for me as like a media person And like helping like the producer come up with the shows and like the rundown and stuff is all roads lead to Denver, Boston But how do you have like fun basketball conversations and celebrate? You know the Anthony Edwards and the the Shea Gilders, Alexander's without being like, yeah,

but like, come on, man, you're not beating your kitchen a seven game series when Murray's healthy and the rest of them right now and they're going to be fine. Like it's, everything leads to that. What I like about it though is where in the East you go, well, this is going to be pretty weird as somebody other than Boston comes out of the East. And it'd also be like incredibly disappointing for this group in Boston, where you go.

Like wait, like I still think Boston of any team in the NBA has the most pressure to win this whole thing because how close they've been, you know, the way this team is built this year with the starting five, like I'm not that worried about their depth, especially with the time off the playoffs. It's just not really the same sport because you can manage it a little bit better. And even though I would agree with you on defaulting to Denver, because of Jokic there's other teams where it's like, okay, but if something were to happen, you know, like the Clippers part, I agree, but I watched that game the other night against Cleveland and it's like, all right, this is the Clippers team.

I'm going to write off in the first half, they gave up 80 points to the casual Mitchell. I'm just like, what, what am I supposed to do with you guys? But then, you know, granted the Denver things a little different with Murray being out, so I don't put a ton into Denver, not looking the way I'd expect them to look offensively because Murray's just so important as an on-ball creator that Denver just doesn't really have any of those guys. I look at it and go, okay, but what if Minnesota, what if aunt goes crazy?

What if SGA goes crazy with Jay, Jaylen Williams? What if OKC finds a way to just survive with their frontline by maybe avoiding one of the teams that you're afraid of there feels like there's realistic other options in the West that the East doesn't have. True. Man, you talking about Ant, that I get so excited to think about. We're gonna learn so much about these young guys in the playoffs. There was a, the good thing about being in Atlanta with TNT is a lot of teams come to this hotel. And so sometimes when I'm just sitting down there, you know, assistant coaches will be down there or players will be down there. I was sitting down there and there was like

a Western Conference team and I had worked with some of the guys before and just talking. And I was like, who are you guys excited about? And they're not a playoff team. And I was like, who are you guys excited just to see in the NBA, in the playoffs? And all of them said, we can't wait to see how Ant and SGA like they were saying, are they for real? And I think they, you know, they were talking about like a playoff killer. And that's not like, are they good? Like, they know they're good.

But when it comes into the playoffs in a seven game series like this is where you the wings grow and and I agree like if it is who we think he is all these Michael Jordan memes and and Hearing him mic'd up, you know like yelling back at D'Angelo Russell if if he's that guy in the playoffs and This is this I'm not trying to hum okay, it's gonna sound I was hanging out with D Wade last night because he's in town for the Masters and I was asking I was like, do you think any of these young guys could pull a you? like like second or third season in the NBA making a run run and changing your legacy, like solidifying your legacy

and never having to worry about your legacy ever again. And those are the names that come up. Like if they get it done, the conversation is wild because then there's so much potential and there's so many years left. And the champions lately have been so many already decorated guys. But those are the two for me, man,

like even just mentioning their names gets me excited because what if Ant becomes a 30 point scorer in the playoffs and just starts taking over? The NBA conversation then is so fun. I hadn't really thought of it that way, but the Wade comp is awesome because in 06 is his third year in and you're going like, wait a minute, because this guy really going to be this guy, right?

The numbers he put up against Dallas now granted, I think the free throw attempt insane. You look at the free throw now he had more free throws attempted than like the entire Mavericks for some of those games. It may have may have sent Cuban into like overdrive of trying to overhaul everything. Um, but Wade, you know, I have a very repetitive timeline on like the best players because I'm talking about aunt all season long.

He's my favorite player to watch. Yeah. And if they were to lose in the first round because of some kind of matchup thing that happens with a playing team coming in, then it just means, hey, actually you suck and now we're gonna start dogging you. And then if you get to like year six without really ever doing anything,

then it's, you know, and sometimes I do think it applies with certain playoff players. And then other guys where I'm like, okay, but he just, it hasn't happened for him yet. It will, but you're in the second window of your career where it's like the doubt window and the shows can start asking like all these questions that are just by rule, the questions we have to ask.

Right. Yeah, but Jokic didn't have the pressure. You know, Janis had it there, but you could say in a way like, thank God for Janis that he got this one in 21. Cause if he doesn't have it and they're playing like this, you're just like, oh, well, you know, this guy doesn't have any bag.

Jokic kinda did. Jokic was the MVP stat patter, getting embarrassed by Steph Curry and ISO situation. Like it was right there before he- The Suns in 401 was bad because you felt like Chris Paul just brought him up. And I'll say like at that time I was like, okay, but does he, is he such a liability on defense

that it actually doesn't matter? I don't know. I guess I didn't feel like it was, it was peak, but I could just be wrong on that one. But for Wade to get it- You may have done it a year before peak. I guess I didn't feel like it was, it was peak, but I could just be wrong on that one. But for Wade to get it a year before peak, I think you might be right. Yeah. But Wade getting it in his third year, like if an SGA or an ant gets it, then it's just right. It's not coasting necessarily,

but it kind of is because now just no one's allowed to dump on you the way that there's five guys in the West right now that I probably love. They're going to lose. Maybe they lose earlier than they're supposed to. And then those are the rules. So like if you had to go ant SGA, I don't know if trust is the right question here, but they could be, they could collide very early and the other guy gets eliminated and it has nothing to really do about or do with like what that guy's

about, it's just the other team got him. It's I'm still in like college basketball brain too because I was sitting there with like Bruce Pearl also and you know, Albert has this amazing season loses to Yale and it's so funny to talk to college basketball coaches because they know that you can coach for six months and recruit all year and load up your school, but you lose one game and you're an awful coach and nothing matters and like you can never win the big game like all of the other games don't matter. I had this one when I worked with Wade at TNT I asked him one time I was like you know what if the Ray Allen shot doesn't go in? And one time I was like, you know, what if the Ray Allen shot doesn't go in?

You know, like bro, the heat were the Beatles were a failure, man. And he's like, we talk about that all the time. How one shot determines how we are perceived for the rest of our lives. But we know that they would always talk about how you're more than just that one shot. So don't get too high and don't get too low. But in the legacy game, if you can lock in that title early, what happens then is all off season, you get championships that you haven't even won yet. Like if ant wins this year, the conversation goes, how many you think he gets? Oh,

he's going to get at least one more. So like we're already baking in us. If you win one, we bake in a second one. Oh, he's gonna get at least one more. So like we're already baking in us. If you win one we bake in a second one Oh, he's gonna get it. He's only 23. He's gonna get at least one more maybe Four like you just it gets preposterous because there's so much timeline left and that that to me is like really really fun just because Come on, man. We got we got Lakers Warriors in the play in game. We've had, we've done this storyline a lot. Like this is Turner classic movies right here. But when you bring in the young gun, went to that that's, that's

what Tatum could have been Tatum's in what you were talking about that middle ground. But if they lose this year, right, it'll be it'll be like, Hey, I thought this guy was good first team all in a, he'll be top five, probably an MVP voting. Uh, but because the team is so good and there's, there's more people to criticize that maybe Tatum skates a little bit, but it's just part of it, man. Uh, there's a couple of shots in the clutch. Yeah, exactly. But, you know, when Tatum gets dogged a little bit, I'm like, yeah, but like when you have 51 and elimination of gaming it's Philly. That to me at least is like, yeah, I don't know. I think that's kind of important. Yeah. Big time. It says a lot about you. A couple of things I want to do. You mentioned the college basketball stuff. Is Bruce Pearl your guy? I love Bruce at ESPN, by the way.

I love Bruce ideas being by the way. Oh my gosh. So tell him I said hello, but you covered Kentucky would, like what do you think happens there? It's so fascinating because, you know, you look at Dan Hurley in Connecticut, if he were to have a down year, you know, other than the newspapers up there, you know,

it's like the New York media markets right there. Cause everyone in New York eventually moves to Connecticut or New Jersey. And so, okay, well, the Yankees are playing or the Knicks are playing. I mean, I was in Louisville, Kentucky, and I could light up the phone lines filling in on talk radio there just talking about, you think Calipari leaves? And it would just be like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, and this is like July. It's the number one thing they talk about. And so to see a shift where another school comes in and says, we're going to give you

a $5 million slush fund to use however you want to bring in players. And you know, you get to start fresh and most other schools would kill to have four final fours and one championship in a 15 year run. They would kill for that. Kentucky, it's not enough. And I understand it. I mean, Kentucky has one of the richest history ever. Adolph Rupp, Pat Riley, Rick Pitino, John Calipari,

Tubby Smith, the litany of players. I just know that sitting next to Jay and talking to him because I would get so many texts, this was when Louisville's job was still open, hey, tell Jay to come to Louisville, tell Jay to come to Louisville. And I was like, I was in the green room with him and he was like, bro, I'm not, I'm done. Like I'm not coming back. And so then I was like, hey man, let me tell you about John Gruden on Monday Night Football, where every year the Tennessee coaching job was interesting and then he got a raise. I was like, I will be your agent and we can milk this year in and year out, bro.

Every time something opens up, you just be like, you're the name. Hey, CBS, we need a little bit more. We need a little bit more. And he was laughing. And I said, all right, coach, 500 million for two years. And he said, not going to do it. Come on. I mean, that's absurd. That's when Candace jumped in and she was like, I was left.

I was letting Lefkoe be an idiot, but now like 500 million. He's like, I have enough. I want to spend time with my family. And like, I'm, I'm just, I'm not going to do it. And I was like, a billion dollars for two years. And he was like, I don't think I'd do it. And I'm like, you're out of your mind. But one thing that Jay told me that was so interesting was, you know, he's covering college basketball all year

and he's going site to site and school to school. And it became a ritual where like the rest of the crew would leave and the coach would ask Jay to stay just to like talk and he said almost it's he said it's happened 20 30 times where the crew leaves they got their information for the game they sit down and that coach looks at Jay and he goes I am exhausted He's like with this with the NIL with the recruiting Just with the team like it is it's killing me man

And Jay after the second time like went back to his wife was like is this is this how I was and they were like He she was like you don't remember and That's why I think all these guys the Shashevskis the Roy's the Bayhimes the Jays Like they got to a point that the Sabins it's too much now and so we have a true changing of the guard and coaching and so But Kentucky doesn't want the young up- comer. You know, they tried that. They tried that with Billy Gillespie. And it's something that haunts them to this day. And so they want the big names flash.

Kentucky, I think, and KSR, they always do a good job like capturing this. But, you know, they want to steal your, they want like, oh, you got pocket aces? That's my hands. Like I have pocket aces now. They want to steal your, they want like, oh, you got pocket aces? Ask my hands. Like I have pocket aces now. They want to take a made man. And so everyone I hear says that like Scott Drew

has the demeanor, but it's going to be, I don't think whoever they hire is going to be able to out recruit Calipari. And so that those after the timeout plays better be electric, whoever they get. A couple of things before we finish here. Um, your pod was Shaq. Shaq is like an interesting relationship for me.

Again, I don't know. I interviewed him once a long time ago with Van Pell. Um, but when I say relationship, uh, relationship, I think about how I perceived him at the beginning, it was this phenomenon and then he was with with the Lakers and back then I'm still captain 617. So I didn't care. It was like I was rooting for him. And then towards the end, you're just like, okay, you know, he's, he's hanging on. And then getting to know him through TNT and in the podcast and other

interviews that he's done, he's probably one of my favorite athletes, his honesty, his directness. It doesn't mean I agree with everything he's saying because I still think that there's a lot of pushback from previous generations of basketball that, that is just really weird. Uh, it's gotten a little bit better, but there was a stretch there. It was like, Oh cool. All the nineties and early two thousands guys are just here to shit on everybody every single week.

Like, so, uh, what what what has he taught you? Like, what is it like getting to know him in a level that most of us will never reach? Love that question. One, I think, I actually think to your broader point about 90s players, I think it's because of our current lack of vocabulary. And what I mean by that is these older players, they don't really get into the nuance as much, but when they hear words like great or dominant,

they get really offended. And so I think it's because we use these words that they're like, nah, bro, like we had to earn great. You can't just be calling Anthony Edwards great. And so it always sounds like hating, but I actually think it's a vocabulary issue. If you say words like promising, they don't get as a fit. So that's one thing that I've noticed. What I've also noticed about Shaq,

when you walk with Shaq, like walking with him in the final four, and it's halftime of Purdue NC State and the players are coming through the hallway and DJ burns has his head down and he's like a bull and he's so in the zone and then he sees Shaq and it's like a double take and he smiles and his back gets straight and then like you just see like whenever you're with Shaq a at street and then like you just see like whenever you're with Shaq a Million cell phones come up people are running up. Hey say this do that and you just it's this energy that is Intoxicating and it is magnetic and at the same time you get to where you have to go and it is Exhausting and so the endurance is something that he's taught me.

The big lesson that he always talks about is nobody cares. Oh, like you're tired, nobody cares. Oh, like you think you did well, nobody cares. Like I learned a lot that he is very influenced by his military father backgrounds. That when he tells stories about his father, there's part of me that feels sad because I could tell that all Shaq really wanted was this man to like grab him one day

and just be like, I love you and I'm so proud of you. But there's this now like reverse where he looks back at his life and he sees how damn successful he is and how much he's built and he credits so much of that to the fact that his father never let him be happy and just like settle and So he's kind of like torn in this this dichotomy where it's like I want to appreciate love But at the same time is the reason that I have all of this because I've been pushed to a crazy level This is definitely the stage of Shaq's life where he's having fun and a little bit softer because as I hear these stories about him

As a player or when players come in like we had Baron Davis come in studio or Jamal talks about it When Jamal always says the NBA was very lucky that Shaq was a nice guy because the NBA always has a most dominant player and they don't have to be nice they could actually treat people really bad and Shaq could have really torn some people up and he didn't but I would also say that with Shaq he has taught me that at least in our jobs the most important thing is to entertain and I think sometimes you I always like to give you credit for this and I'll never forget the rant that you went on where you were just talking

about like I feel like I'm doing this the right way and I I feel like I'm watching all the games I'm really putting a lot of thought into my analysis. And I think that you do outwork a lot of people. And it's that other part though that Shaq always teaches me where it's like, hey man, you need to make people smile. Like you need to make people go, I enjoy, like this is fun. And so how do you make both of those worlds come together? Because I'm like you where it's like bro. I didn't play in the NBA

All I want to do is to be respected by my peers. I would love a coach to be like, hey that was really good analysis You know like that that makes my heart feel but at the same time like they do the YouTube clip of funniest NBA on TNT moments probably has like 20 million views and I've never seen a Top top ten, you know Kenny at the board breaking down ISO and I and and so it's a you need to give both You know Adam Silver gave his little speech about how we need to teach people and JJ Reddick gets on his soapbox all the time about how we need to teach people and JJ Reddick gets on his soapbox all the time. But Shaq just kind of reminds me like, hey bro, we got one run at this thing. And if you're not having fun, why are you doing it?

And so that's a fun reminder. It's a good reminder and I actually think despite my path, it's the right way to go about it. And I'll never forget 2003, sit down with a local radio affiliate of the Celtics in Boston, but nobody really listened to the station. The guy brings me into an interview. He goes, what does talk radio to you? I gave this absolute diatribe of like, it's an important chance to inform and educate on it.

I just fucking went, went, went. And the guy just looked at me and was like, you're wrong, it's entertainment. when when the guy just looked at me and was like, you're wrong. It's entertainment. No, I was, I was so ready. I was so ready for that moment. And he just was like, yeah, okay, cool story. You're wrong. Um, that's not what it is at all. But like, bro,

that's why like when you and like Saruti are like talking about shit and like making fun of like people at the gym or whatever, it's like, that's that great balance. You know what I mean? Where you have to have some of it, right? You have to have some of it. Look, dudes watching basketball, like, like, it has to be fun. Van Pelt and I, you know, because we always pride ourselves in like, oh, we know more than the other guys shows and we watch more games and we do all this, but the show didn't really

click until I would say after the first two years, like he told some story about some high school kids filming him at Chipotle and how much it pissed him off. So he started filming him back and every, that was the thing of the show. Like that day show, that was the thing that resonated. However you monitor those things. And we realized we were having way more fun that day. And we just kind of looked at each other.

I think it was after the show or it was before the next one. I said, Hey, whatever we're doing, we just got to like, let's just tell more stories. Let's have more fun that day. And we just kind of looked at each other. I think it was after the show or before the next one. I said, Hey, whatever we're doing, we just got to like, let's just tell more stories. Let's have more fun. Let's talk about what's going on in our day. It doesn't have to be three hours of a diary here, but let's make sure we do more of that stuff because we have all the other things, but let's more do more of that. And that's actually when the show clicked. And I think that's always been kind of the, it's not even the secret sauce of TNT. It's just, it also helps too. Like if TNT started tonight, if that show started tonight and it was the first ever, then it would get destroyed

because they're like, these guys don't even like to sport. So it took years, maybe not years, but the audience knows what it's going to get and that's the advantage that your show will have over everybody else because now that it's established. Speaking of the gym, before we finish, it sounds like you need a little tailor-made life advice relating to a gym issue. Yeah, so I signed up, I was doing the whole Equinox thing and it was great but it was a lot and so they opened up a new gym across the street and it's like brand new and everything, I mean more machines, I never have to wait, everything's awesome. But there's

this issue where instead of it being like a long locker room where like you it's like urinals like, oh you're there, I'm going three down. It's these little pods and they're all U-shaped because I guess they did, they could fit more lockers in. But the problem is, is like if one person's in a pod, you're right on top of them. So my life advice question is, what is proper protocol when you go back to your locker and you've worked out and you're like, bro, I'm gross. I just want to take this off and I want to get in the sauna and then I want to get in

the steam room and then I want to take this off and I want to get in the sauna and then I want to get in the steam room And then I want to take a shower But someone just got there and you realize oh man They have opened the locker next to mine because they didn't see me there. They didn't know Do you do you stand there and like let them do their thing? Do you go out there and be like hey man right next to you and hope that they go? Oh, let me move down Do you have the right of way? What is the move there? Because when it happens, all of the good dopamine that I've released during the workout now

turns into dreaded anxiety and I kind of need your help. Okay. Well, the quick answer to this is you stand. If the guy's already at the locker and he's next to the one that your stuff is in, but he's already there, you stand and you wait. This is a very classic example of my four-way stop sign theory. That is, you always think you're right and everybody else is wrong. You can go early and cut the other guy off and you know that you're wrong, but you'll find a way, your initial reaction will be find a way to think that that other person is wrong.

You know this move, you're at the stop sign, you're like, oh, maybe didn't quite see him or he would stop before me, so I went, now he's honking at me, but then you're just being the car, be like, yeah, but you were like, you were just waiting. So like, you know, so, and then you have five minutes down the road, you're like, that was me, that was 100% on me, and I think that happens a lot in life,

and this is one of those times, because it's annoying for you, You're like, that was me. That was a hundred percent on me. And I think that happens a lot in life. And this is one of those times because it's annoying for you. You're done with your workout. You want to get your stuff. There's probably a way he could kind of move, but if it were reversed, the first thing you would think of is like, are you serious? I'm here already. This is nine tenths. I wouldn't think that.

If somebody came up to me, let me get out of the way. You get your stuff. They'll go back to the locker. I don't know. If somebody, it depends. Have I unload? Like this is a, they haven't unloaded yet. Like they haven't put the bag down. They haven't taken their shoes off. They haven't taken the hoodie off. Like if someone came and they said, Oh, excuse me, I'm right here. I would be like, Oh, my bad. And I would find one a little bit further away. Like I would reset in that moment. And then my follow-up would be, okay, so it went fine when you get done the workout, but then you're

coming back from the shower and you're in the towel and flip-flops and then people are settling in. Do you wait in that situation too? Because now dude, you are fully committed. We need to get dressed right now. You're still waiting? I know what it's like, because I want out immediately. When I'm done with anything, I'm just like, I want out. If I don't know who the person is,

and then you're looking at the person and making the assumption where you go, this is gonna go well, this isn't gonna go well. This isn't going to go well. I mean, you can do a little advanced scattering report on it and there might be just an angle, but I just know that when it's been reversed and I'm getting changed and I'm standing in front of it. And by the way, the design of those things, like we need to get architects on this because I understand maximizing locker space, but you can have a hundred lockers in that little you.

And if four people are in there, it's just, it's over. Like no one will ever be able to do it. One bench, we got one fricking bench. Right, so if I'm on the bench and halfway through my change, like I'm supposed to move, I just don't think you would like it. You might be more deferential. You might be thinking

about the most efficient way for everyone. I think most people would not be feeling that way. And it's a classic role reversal where you'll always think the other person is doing it wrong, no matter which side of that situation you're in. It's true. It's gotten to the point now where I'm like, I might just go to and from in the gym clothes to avoid using lockers at all. That's why it's, yeah. Do you really? You don't even, you're not even staying longer at all. No, I'm just done.

Cause it looks like. But you pay for all those amenities, Rossello. That's part of the payment. My Equinox payment is justified by when I'm in a major city for some kind of thing, I can just go to the Equinox and I know it's going to be a good time. And, you know, you're like, great. I'd love for maybe more of the Equinox is to add more hip thrusters. Also known as flat bench.

Where what's happening with the hip thrusting movement to use the flat bench to support this movement. Oh, my God. And then I look and go, oh, so nobody to use the flat bench to support this movement. Oh my God. And then I look and go, oh, so nobody can use the bench today, huh? Do you hip thrust? I'm not afraid to hip thrust, but I won't use the flat bench.

I'll use the machine for it, which I know isn't the same thing, but you get there at the wrong time, and it turns into a hip thrust off, and they're just waiting around. And whoever whoever does it like they never do that quickly so you're like cool so for 15 minutes this thing that's not for this is gonna be used for this I would also say that whether or not I hip thrust on a day in which I was hoping to hit thrust is determined by which direction the hip thrust machine

is facing if I walk into a gym and it's facing the gen pop, I do not feel comfortable hip thrusting. If it's facing a window or a wall, I'm down. But there's just something about strapping yourself in and making humping motions at 40 to 50 people that are, they typically aim it right at the treadmills, which are like the voyeurs of the gym. They don't really,

they know that they should probably do some weights, but they're just gonna sit there and watch everybody instead. And if I'm hip thrusting at them, I have to change the workout. And, but I'm not, but I, like you, I'm not taking a flat bench because that is hollowed ground and I would never do such a thing.

Yeah, leave those, leave those alone, leave them for the OGs. Adam, that was awesome, man. Enjoy you on TNT, again, the big podcast for Shaq every Wednesday, thanks. Appreciate you, man. We got Todd McShay again with us and we'll be lucky enough to have him leading up

to the draft every week on the pod. Probably a little recap as well. We've talked a lot about the quarterbacks and there's still some more stuff that I want to do that maybe we'll get to next week, but you and I were going back and forth and you wanted to really focus on the number one overall picks and the situations that they were drafted into. So let's start with the Bears and Caleb. Where is this team in relation to other teams that have gone number one at this pick for

the QB? Yeah, I mean, you remember back just a couple of months ago, everything was about Caleb crying with his mom in the stands and painting his fingernails and the Notre Dame game and all of that stuff. It's interesting how, you know, as Intel has started to come out and we start going through the actual process and the coaches get involved in watching the tape, it's not, you know, are the Bears going to take Caleb at number one? It's how does Caleb fit with this Bears team and who's going to be drafted at number two with Washington? I mean, let's just be honest,

the league is going to do the best it can to try to keep it a quote unquote surprise with the number one overall pick to build drama that first night of the draft. But ultimately everyone in the league knows Caleb's going to be a Chicago bear. So I spent a little bit of time just kind of looking at what these quarterbacks have been drafted into as number one overall picks. Because obviously there's a ton of pressure, right? I mean, you're the number one overall pick. You're going to change the franchise. But that's not always the case. We've covered it several times, like 40% of these guys, it's basically a 40% hit rate

with quarterbacks in the first round. So what has led to success? And it's having a personnel and a supporting cast in place. I think personally, going back and just looking at it historically, just in the last like 10 or so years, Caleb's in the best position to succeed early in his career. I'm not saying that they're gonna be a playoff team as a rookie, but early in his career,

since if you go back to, I would say 2020, to me that would be with Joe Burrow in that situation that he was in, going to Cincinnati with the weapons that they had, and in that same draft, you know, making sure that they added more weapon, you know, or the next year, I should say, with Jamar Chase, I think it was, or was it that year? I can't remember. No, it was the following year with Jamar Chase, right? Regardless, Cincinnati, what they did, you know, leading for them... Because still on the team. It was, it was Boyd. Exactly. So they had

weapons there and, and then they continued to add weapons in the next year. So I think it's the best situation to succeed since 2020. When you say, well, that's, that's only four years ago. I get it. But like, look at price young a year ago, two and 15 with Carolina. Ownership is well documented, the situation they have with David Tepper and new coaching staff coming in, coaching staff fired as a rookie, no weapons around him. They traded Christian McCaffrey, no protection up front, right? So you're asking Bryce Young to provide for Carolina what Houston was provided for and CJ Stroud when they had good weapons, not great, but solid weapons, drafted Tank Dell, hit on him, had pretty good protection up front, had a good defense to go with him at

number two. And everyone says, well, you know, everyone missed. Bryce Young's not the guy. Well, maybe CJ Stroud's always going to be better. And it looks like he's probably heading that trajectory. But so much of it is what you're drafted into. Trevor Lawrence in 2021, perfect example. Urban Meyer, first year, NFL head coach first time,

didn't know what he was doing. The situation was a mess behind the scenes. They didn't have the weapons for him, didn't have the protection for him. And he was a mess. Year two, Doug Peterson comes in, new regime, gets some weapons. And he's had moderate to good success, but obviously, you know, has not been able to take that next step. 2020, I talked about it.

That's the most similar situation with Joe burrow. Kyler Murray though, in 2019, he has had some success, but it was five and 10 as a rookie, five, 10 and one as a rookie that year. And Kyler kind of balled out as a rookie, but they still didn't have the success or the supporting cast around him. Baker Mayfield in 2018 had a really good year as a rookie, seven, eight and one, but the organization wasn't set up to sustain success with Baker.

And we saw that, what is he on, his fourth team, I think, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So my point is not only is Caleb a quote unquote generational talent, not only is the NFL comparison for him, Patrick Mahomes, but he's in a position where he can succeed. And with Mahomes, he needed a year we've talked about the air raid system, the adjustments he had to make. So he got a year to learn the NFL, to kind of sit back with Smith there as a rookie,

with a veteran quarterback who was willing to help him, with Andy Reid, who's a quarterback developer, and was in the right situation. Well, Caleb's gonna start right away. And now all of a sudden he's in a situation with DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, a wide receiver, right? DeAndre Swift and a lot of depth behind him at running back. So there's going to be balance and Cole Comed at tight end

and an offensive line that they have invested in. And so again, I'm not saying that bears are all all of a sudden going to go from, you know, and then this isn't, you know, their first round pick. This is part of a trade. So let's give a lot of credit to Ryan Polz and his, as a GM, his foresight of we're not ready now. The quarterback draft is going to be better next year.

We need to move around, continue to get, put ourselves in position that when we start to build up our roster, when we draft the quarterback at number one overall off of the trade from last year, we're going to not only get a guy, get the guy, but we are going to have him in a situation where he can succeed. So I'm excited to see how it all plays out. Okay. So the old line is an important one here because I was going through it this morning and looking up old PFF grades on offensive line units, you know, for these draft classes. And I agree that the bears feel like they've invested, but on paper,

we still don't know what we have with fields, whether you want to blame fields where I think some of the field sacks are kind of the Russell Wilson sacks where Wilson was just going to be sacked for a long time because the offensive line was like, where are we supposed to be protecting? Cause we don't even know what the hell's going on back there with you. And it led to like, oh, he still gets beat up even though he's really good. It's like, I think actually a lot of those sacks are on him.

And I think you could say the same for fields. And we'll see what Williams, what Williams likes to move around because he's been so effective, like on throws outside of the pocket. I mean, they're just incredible numbers. So I, you know, he's a young guy, he's probably just going to get sacked a ton

no matter what. Caroline has- And some of those, to your point, right, So he's a young guy, he's probably just gonna get sacked a ton no matter what. To your point, some of those sacks that cause problems for Chicago with Justin Fields, Caleb's gonna have to break some habits because he has some of those similar habits, right? Yeah, because he's been at the college level. Forced into those habits, right? Yeah. I was watching some clips of him again, the other day where you're just like, I'm sorry. There's just not many human beings who can do these things that make these kinds of throws. But when people get in the bad habit part of it, it's like, okay, right after the ball,

like something got destroyed. The protection of the inside was just over. It was non-existent. So it wasn't going to happen. So he's going like free snap being like, where's my escape route before, like he's already thinking about where can I move and no offense, I think in the NFL is really sustainable to be able to do that. So we're on the same page. Like I just enjoy that that part of him is something that he can do. He can save plays where some young guys come in and once it's, once it's off

schedule, it's just over for him. And so he's just, he's just, he's just, he's just, him is something that he can do. He can save plays where some young guys come in and once it's once it's off schedule, it's just over for him. But would you say the Bears O line right now? Like, is that a plus or a negative? I'd say right now it's a neutral. OK, all right. Which which which if we're being fair, is an upgrade over over what he was protected behind at USC. Okay.

All right. So let's move on from there though, only because like the Kyler one's interesting because you can look at the weapon part of it and go, okay, Larry was still around. Christian Kirk was there who's not, he's a unique player. He's a really talented guy, but you have to be creative with the way that you're going to use Kirk to get the most out of him. Kenyon Drake was there, David Johnson were there. Um, you know, the way we go through these players, I think they're both

still free agents now, but again, we're going back a few years, but I'm, I'm with you like Kyler showed me enough early on that I was like, okay, this, this guy may have an actual chance. But when you think about Arizona's roster building in general, like I love this with Mike Sando and now we're still carrying over a few years. But Santa was like, if you look at the money spent on incoming players and the money that was spent by the league on their outgoing players, Carolina players signed in free agency with new teams was 12 and a half million.

It's like one of the worst numbers of the league to go their players that they didn't want to resign were so. Like, I don't want to say not wanted, but essentially that they didn't want to resign were so like, I don't want to say not wanted, but essentially that's what it was that like the other, like other than Marcus Brown, like there wasn't really that much excitement. Right. Right.

So that's a roster, even when you and I talked about it during the season where you go, okay, we're, cause I think it was a new England topic where it's like just new England actually have the least amount of talent on its roster in the NFL? I think you said Arizona and free agency would prove some of that as well. So I wouldn't say the Kyler situation. Like the best part of Kyler was I felt like he

was doing a lot with very little, even though people may look at the Larry Fitzgerald name part of that and you're like, yeah, but it's at the very, very end of his career, even though he put up some good stats. So that's not a great situation. I'd agree with you that the Bryce Young one might be the worst out of all of this.

Deanlin was his number one. The protection was terrible, but it was funny because coming into 23, Carolina was kind of middle of the pack based on some offensive line projections. And then that's not even close to the way they played considering they spent all that money on Hunt and Lewis. And there was a third offensive lineman that they brought in. They were like, even if we're overpaying these guys, we have to prioritize this to give Young

any kind of chance to salvage that you've used the first pick on him. If you look at Trevor Lawrence, like is that, is that an urban thing? Is the biggest negative factor in comparison to the weapon part of it, or is that equal for you? I think it was equal probably, you know, maybe it was, and you know, like I'm close with her, but I love urban, but I think it was just such a different world. You know, I think from, from managing and handling professional athletes to,

to offensive system, I just think that they were so behind and so off course in terms of what they were trying to do. And so even if you had really good weapons, it obviously would have looked a lot better, but it was not a scheme. It was not a situation from leadership on down that was going to allow him to succeed. And we saw like the weapons were better a year later. But to me, like it was the confidence and knowing where to go with the football and watching Doug Peterson say like, all right, this is your read. If this isn't it, this is where you go.

And getting his quarterback comfortable with what he was doing. I never got the sense watching tape from Trevor's rookie year that he ever was in this like really confident place of what to do with the football. Baker. You know, Baker's like you go back to that story. Because you were like, Hey, I think teams really like them, right? Like you knew he was going to go in the first round. And at the very end, like leading up to it, you're like, wait, what are you hearing? Like this guy might go one. Yeah, like two weeks before. It was a really.

And remember that class was loaded. Loaded, right. Five first rounders early. There are Darnold guys, there were Allen guys. I admit, I love Josh Rosen. I thought he had it upstairs. And then you have the Lamar part of it. And I feel like Darnold was probably more of a consensus guy

for most of the pre-draft process. I love Darnold. I thought he was gonna be a star. I mean, I've owned it on this podcast before. I'll continue. I'll be 65 years old doing this, still owning that I thought Sam Darnold was gonna be the guy.

Still get another chance. It makes you feel a little bit better when you like somebody when like years later, there's another team that's like, yeah, we'll give him a chance to start here. Yeah. I remember his start of his career where Jets fans are like, yep, here we go. Done and done. We've got our guy for the next 10 years. Well, I thought maybe we'd get a little sniff of it last year with Sam Fran.

Remember Brock Purdy coming in off the injury, moving of us wanted that. Moving on from Trey Lance. I'm like, wait, wait a second, wait a second. If there's anyone in the league who could get the most out of my boy, Sam, it's Kyle Shanahan. But we never saw that, so. Okay, so what's, it's not even close because consensus has been Caleb here for a long time. But the Baker part of it, it's like, oh wow.

That's the latest rise ever. Based on the momentum, clearly Cleveland had already knew who they wanted to take. But as far as it getting out and the way we had talked about ahead of time. So then I was looking at that part of it and it's like, okay, so he had Jarvis and Joku who I feel better about now, but I feel like it took a little while with him. So I don't know that you just pencil him in, in 2018 and be like, Oh, what it like, we knew how physically gifted he was and all that. But he wasn't there yet.

Right. Thousand yards from Chubb. The O line, according to PFF, I looked it up this morning, that was ranked as the number two offensive line unit in the NFL going into 2018. Yeah. Yeah. And listen, they were seven, eight and one his rookie year. in 2018. Yeah. Yeah. And listen, they were seven, eight, and one is rookie year. So they, I mean, they had some weapons around for Baker. It wasn't, it's, it's apples and oranges, like the Bryce young situation, Trevor Lawrence situation, what they stepped into Baker actually stepped into something pretty decent. It's, but it got worse around him, you know,

as it progressed in my opinion. So do you him, you know, as, as it progressed, in my opinion. So do you think, all right. So to kind of wrap a bow on this, because I think there's some people listening to you talk up Cincinnati and being like, Hey, that was a two and 14 team, but again, any of these guys that are going number one is not like, Oh yeah, they were 10 and six. They were, they were pretty good. Um, they went to 14 and 11 and one, as you already pointed out.

So Bryce has got to be the worst situation after the first year of any of the more recent guys, right? Bryce and then Trevor number two. Okay. Because of both things, the coaching, the coaching situation, the leadership situation and the supporting cast. But Bryce is number one in recent history. Yes. All right.

So you would put Caleb where you would put them behind borough situation. And again, it's kind of, all right, well, whatever they did the previous year, this is what I thought of the roster going into the year. You think borough situation is better than Caleb's and Caleb's situation is going to be better than the rest of the guys we talked about. Maybe only because, and again, the following year they drafted Jamar. So it was kind of a two year thing with, with Borrow, right?

But they were getting younger. I would say the only thing is you look at DJ more, not aging, but not young, Keenan Allen injuries injuries, you know, aging, all that stuff, DeAndre Swift bounced around. So like, I think this is kind of a short-term supporting cast, but the Bears are in, remember they pick at number nine too. What would you do if you were them at nine? One of two things, I'd either take Romo Dunze,

the number three receiver in this class behind Marvin Harrison Jr. and Malik neighbors. However, you have them stacked one or two or vice versa. And I would take Romo Dunze at number nine. And now we've got a third weapon with a young quarterback that can spread the ball around with depth at the running back position. Cole Comed, very solid, you know, a productive player at tight end, I would go in that direction. Or is there an opportunity to move down a little bit and take advantage? I love Roma Dunze.

I think he's going to be a really good player, but you've also got some other wide receivers that if you're forced to move down, like a Brian Thomas from LSU, AD Mitchell from Texas, Xavier LeGette from South Carolina, who I think is the most, I would argue the most underrated at this point of the wide receivers. Cause I think Lad McConkey and, and Ricky Purcell, Purcell have gotten some late love and they're going to be second round picks. I think are going to be really good. But my point is this receiver class and this offensive tackle class are both loaded.

So if they get an opportunity to move down and whether they get an additional number two this year or maybe a number two next year or something like that, the reason why it worked out for Burrow in a two-year span is that they were able then the next year to go get a chase and to continue to build their roster. And I think Ryan Poles has shown that he's patient and he understands that it's not about right now. It's about like, I'm gonna have a five year window when we bring in Caleb and maybe we wanna see progression, we wanna see, you know, getting close to a playoff team,

but it's really gonna be years two and three where we're gonna know what we have. And so I think there will be some patience, but absolutely adding another younger weapon would be up there in terms of what I'd be looking at. Can we just talk about Xavier LeGette here for a second? Yeah. I would say over the last couple years of any receivers

where, and it wasn't the headliner guys that we've already spent a ton of time talking about, but just the who the fuck is that guy moment? Right. And I know he's 23 in January. He'd been there five years. So clearly, you know, after a while, you're like, okay, well, I know who that guy is. I loved him.

I mean, loved him. It loved him in the way it was like, Hey, I love him even more because he just doesn't get talked about with all these other dudes. What is the difference? And there's probably a chance that he goes in the first round. So correct me here on this if there's enough momentum that he ends up in the first round. But can you help us understand you can't speak for everybody, but the process of figuring out the difference

between the first round receiver and the second round receiver. I know there's simple things like 40 time and size and all that kind of stuff, but like what else is there when you're watching receivers and you go, okay, he's awesome, he's physical, but there's still like five guys ahead of him. What makes a second round receiver not a first round receiver? They're missing a trait, right? Like, you know, maybe they lack size, maybe they lack, you know, the height, the arm length. Maybe it's the ball skills aren't as good. You know, they're missing something that you have with Marvin. Marvin Harrison Jr. doesn't have that like elite, elite twitch and like snap in terms of an athlete after the catch and those sorts of things. But he has everything else and he's still unbelievably productive because of his acceleration and his strength after the catch.

Malik neighbors needs to get bigger and stronger to get off the line more consistently, but he is so clearly the most explosive weapon in this entire draft and maybe like the last few years, like that he's that dangerous. So like you have to have the elite traits. And with LeGate, late riser, was it the system? Was it the quarter inconsistency of quarterback and the offense? But I look at him, 6'1", 212 pounds. He's physical the way he's built.

He's great on contested catches. He ran a four three, what was it? Yeah, four three, nine 40 yard dash. I mean, a 40 inch vertical 10 six broad. There's not a lot that he's missing physically. And so yeah, like, he's kind of like, Junior to Marvin Harrison, Jr. in terms of the physical traits. He's not quite as tall, not quite as strong, but he's still big, physical, strong, has that straight line speed.

So to me, I just think in a draft where it's loaded with Marvin Harrison, Malik Nabors, Roma Dunze, we talked about these guys, Brian Thomas LSU, AD Mitchell, Xavier Worthy, both from Texas, those last two guys, Lad McCogley, there are so many receivers, and I think maybe only we see five in the first round because the depth is so good. But I think Ligette is the most underrated

because when the ball's in the air, his ability to adjust in how physical he is, and then the speed that he brings as a vertical receiver, there's just, there's not many guys like him. Yeah, I'm looking at the receiver class here. I mean, we still haven't mentioned Keon Coleman once, which feels like a mistake. And I know that he didn't run as well. And I know the frame is, is probably not ideal, but you want to talk about just catching the football.

It's absurd. Like what's your main Burton? I saw, I saw your main Burton ranked as the 20th best receiver. Yeah, and there's some, like, I always hate to use this word, but scouts have some concerns with the character and kind of the, you know, what you're bringing in. But Burton was an absolute stud. He's a second round pick if there's not any of that concern. And I've talked to several scouts who were like, the guy's not getting talked about is Burton. But even going back to LeGette.

He ran a 4-4-5 and Burton like, look, baller, okay? Baller. When you watched on Saturdays, what did Burton do? Like if it wasn't for Burton, I don't know what Milro would have done. Yeah. Because that was it. It was like, he was the guy.

He needs to catch this. And in big moments too, you know? Okay, all right. So let's, we touched on it there a little bit on the Chicago part of it, when you mapped out like trade scenarios and I give Bill Barnwell all the credit in the world for doing a mock draft of what every team should do,

trade up or trade down or stay pat. Yeah. Cause you're like, he's like, they should trade up, they should trade down, they should trade up, they should trade up, they should trade down. They should trade up. They should trade up. They should trade down. I know what he's doing. Like it was fun, clicked on it, read it,

but I was just like, every one of these teams has a direction. If Bill's listening, I feel like he and I kind of got in a fight and I wasn't picking a fight last year. It was one of like 15 shows that I was doing. Then all of a sudden I got called into like, I don't know, like sports center or something. It was one of, you know, I forget which show it was. And all of a sudden, like, I'm, you know,

I'm on with Kuiper, we're talking mock drafts, we're replacing players, we're talking about strengths and we like all this stuff that went. And then all of a sudden it's like, all right, the next show up, producers in my year, you know, Bill Barnwell is gonna come on and we're gonna go go through trade scenarios. And they wanted to talk about whether that would be a good trade for team A, a good trade

for team B. And I was so immersed in it, I'm getting off the phone with GMs and coaches and scouts and stuff. And I'm like, all right, here we go. Ties straight, camera's right there, let's go. And Bill's like, he's ripping off these trades. And I'm like, no, that's not happened. No. No, like I, I wasn't saying like I just got off the phone

with the GM, but like, no, they're not doing that. So I'm not sure like where to go. And I would like, I completely failed to comply with the exercise. All right. And so as it is, the segments going on, it's like an eight minute segment. As the segments going on, it's like an eight minute segment, as the segments going on, I'm sensing tension, right? And then the host, I forget who the host,

but the host was like, well, let me guess, Todd, you're going to say that this is ridiculous. I'm like, no, no, like I appreciate it. I understand what Bill's coming from, but like, I know that's not what's going to happen. So what are we doing here? Yeah, so Bill, if you're listening, but like that was not my intention. That's the last time I've worked with them. Now I'm in my situation that I'm in. So I never really got a chance to tell Bill I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go that way.

I'm glad we can provide that forum for you. Thank you. Because when I was reading it, I was kind of laughing, chuckling, but I would go, yeah, but this is like a really good exercise because all anyone's gonna do is they're gonna click on it, they're gonna look for their team,

and then they're gonna read like, oh, are we a trade up or a trade down team? The same way when you had to do your mock draft a year before the actual draft happened, you hated doing it, but it was the most clicked on thing that you did. So the point of it is, I think there are a lot of valuable nuggets

in kind of figuring out like Denver. You're going, okay, Denver in most scenarios you go, we've got to take our Wilson medicine. We moved off of this. It was a disaster. We used the picks. We even put some player resources into that. We had to use the picks on the patent transaction. So this should be a reset year and building towards next year.

set year and building towards next year. And yet it seems like the most talked about potential trade up for a quarterback. As you know, like in the NFL, if you really want to throw the picks in, you can move up, especially if you're getting the third or fourth guy in this case, JJ McCarthy. Like there's a price that you can pay to make that transaction happens, uh, to make it happen.

But it just doesn't seem like it makes any sense for a team that's got this pick and then another one in the third round and haven't been able to bring in players recently with the top picks because of the things that we've already talked about. Yeah, I mean, you're looking at Minnesota who's already made a draft trade, sitting at 11,

they acquired Houston's pick in the 20s, and now, like, they, and I said it when it happened, we came on a couple of days after it happened. I told you like, you don't make that trade unless you've already had serious significant talks about moving up and what those parameters would look like. So, and then you've got, you got the giants who are sitting up there, right?

Who are sitting at number six, who could, there's potential interest. I'm not sure that they're gonna pull the trigger, but they could try to move up a couple of spots. So to me, to me, Denver, like all the Intel and I'll just I'll kind of skip forward all this because Bonyx is everyone you talk to in the league, every mock draft you click on and I've clicked on more this year because I'm you know, I don't have a whole hell of

a lot to do some days at this point because I've already done the scouting reports all that, and I'm not doing all the TV that I was in most years. So everything is Bo Nix to Denver. And I get it. You do the Drew Brees, you do the mobility. Kuyper and I were talking offline a few days ago last week, and he was talking to me about hand span and height and weight and rushing yards and all those, comparing the two, Bo Nix and Drew Brees. And like, I get it. And everyone in the league and talk to him like, yeah, like he fits with Sean

Payton, he fits with Sean really well in that system and that would work. But there isn't a person in the league I've talked to Ryan, not a single person in the league, like evaluators, scouts, directors, GMs that have a first round grade on Bo Nix. You know, the conversation I have is that you're talking about Caleb, you have Juan, Jaden Daniels, a lot closer than I thought before I got in the tape.

JJ McCarthy, well, you know, how much did he have to carry the team, but he's got the traits. Talking about Drake May, like he needs a year to sit, but if you can develop him, and maybe like some Josh Allen traits But his Josh Allen light like those are the conversations I'm having You get to Penex most polarizing player in the entire draft and especially as a quarterback

But then you get to Bo Nicks and it's like yeah, no, he's a backup He's a backup. You know, maybe he surprises you love the guy interviews Just unbelievable interview. Coach's son, passion for the game, toughness, the experience he got going to Oregon, love him. But he's a backup. But then everyone, that's every conversation I have with scouts and directors and GMs.

But then you got this one team in Denver sitting at number 12, and everyone's kind of penciling them in and then I asked Mel Now again, we were having that same conversation. I said Mel Who would you take Will Levis or Bo Nix? He's like Todd will love us and he loved Will Levis Don't get me wrong. I said I would too and I wasn't as high on Will Levis So like where does Bo Nix belong and so we had that conversation. I'm like, alright Mel You're doing your mock draft It's first time ever, first time ever, 17 years that he and I have actually talked about

a mock draft because I'm not doing one in contrast with him. Right. And he's like, I was like, if you, if you don't put him in Denver, where do you put him? You go second round. I was like, all right. So I was like, but why, why is everyone saying, is Denver going to evaluate it so differently from everyone in the league or Denver going to say, Hey differently from everyone in the league or Denver going

to say, Hey, the rest of the league may not value Bo Nix the way that we do, but we value him a lot higher because we think he's a perfect fit for what we do. So to me, that's fascinating. And then you look at everyone, calmly would say, well, why not wait till the second round? Well, they don't have a second round pick. So that's going to Denver to me is a real wild card in this class. And then I think the whole thing is going to be wild. Like when you get picked to is Jayden Daniels, if you ask everyone in the league, and you and I have talked about Jayden Daniels is so clearly the number two quarterback in this class.

Like the first tier of quarterbacks is Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels. The second tier is Drake May based off of potential in the future. The third tier is JJ McCarthy and if he wasn't a quarterback he's kind of mid to later you know like you're happy getting him like 15 to 23 somewhere in that range if you're just grading him off of what you see. If you're grading him as any any other position. As talent, yeah, okay, but you can't really do that. No, I know that. But I think you're saying. But I'm trying to give you the tears. I know you're giving me the tears,

but what you're saying is that there's all these quarterbacks that you graded as like, he's the 10th guy, he's 19th, he's 21st, but it's the position. And it's kind of a New England debate right now where you go, okay, cool, you're not ready, the roster isn't very good for you. Agency didn't go your way.

So you're not really ready to take the quarterback. You don't have enough support around him. So don't take him. It's like, okay, but do you know that you're just going to have a top three pick with what is a strong, considered a strong, like top of the class for this position? Like if you, if you start trying, like I've liked the, I've opened my, my mind up to the idea of like, can you try to get everything set support wise in a better situation?

Kind of like what you're talking about with the bears are doing with Caleb. Can you actually pull that off? Can you go, okay, now we're ready to take the quarterback because you feel like you're more prepared from a roster standpoint when reality is like, okay, so you just assume that you're going to be in a position to take a quarterback because you feel like you're more prepared from a roster standpoint when reality is like, okay, so you just assume that you're going to be in a position to take a guy next year because you don't know where your pick is going to land. Football can get weird where a bad team ends up with seven wins.

And now all of a sudden you're taking like the fifth guy as opposed to the second or third guy. That's, that's the dance for New England. That's really tough. Yeah. And my, my point in all of this is you have to evaluate and stack the player. That's what every good NFL team does based off of what the, what the talent level is and where they belong. And then you have to,

and then once you're done with that board, the vertical board, right, one through whatever the number is for each team, whether it's 125, 150, once, once you stack that player and you kind of look at it in tiers, like, all right, these are these five, four, three, four, five, six elite players. This is the second tier. Where do those quarterbacks land in the tiers? My point in all of this is Caleb and Jaden belong in that first tier, in my opinion, and the opinion of a lot of people in the league.

Drake May belongs in that second tier. JJ McCarthy is in that third tier. And so then it becomes, all right, if you're Minnesota, how much are you willing to give up? Or if you're another team, like Denver, we're talking about how much you're willing to give up to go get a third tier player if that's JJ McCarthy, if that's where you kind of stack them. And then the Bo Nix thing, you're talking maybe fourth or fifth tier and is Denver going to use the 12th overall pick because they think he belongs. But that to me is the fascinating part because of the importance of the quarterback position. How much are you willing to give up? Because you're sitting there, New England's at

three, right? And then after that, you've got Arizona at four and the Chargers at five. And so the two teams after New England at three don't need a quarterback. They're set at their quarterback position. So what teams are going to try to move up and how much are they willing to give up for what essentially is not only the third or fourth quarterback in this class, but maybe the second or third tier of talent in this class. That's my whole, my whole point. But to kind of spin it forward, we all know what's going to happen.

These quarterbacks are going to come off the board. The top four quarterbacks, Caleb, Jaden, Drake, and JJ are going to come off the board, probably in the top five, maybe top six picks, the worst. And so who's going to move up? And I think, I think it's going to get fascinating because of some of picks, the worst. And so who's going to move up? And I think, I think it's going to get fascinating because of some of the general managers, some of the history and some of the things that are going on with Jade, with New England at three, and then who's going to do with Arizona at four and the Chargers at five. I think there's going to be a lot of moves

and I think it's going to be a potentially could be different than most years. Yeah. Arizona's guy, I think has moved what four times in the last six years in the first round Austin for yep. Love to move around spent. Hey, by the way, spent 15 years in the new England personnel department. Now Elliot Wolf wasn't there. Elliot came in. He was the current general manager for the Patriots came in the year after um, um, Monty

Austin Fort left, but there there's, there's a connection there to the year after, um, um, Monty Ossoff left, but there there's, there's a connection there to the new England, to new England. And so I like, and then, you know, Monty wants to trade around. They needs a wide receiver. Maybe it's a situation where Arizona moves down and then moves back up. We've seen that before, right? Right. But there's no, whether it's Austin Ford's relationship historically with New England, and you're smart to remind us of the timeline with Elliott Wolf, it doesn't,

there's no need for them to have any real dealings with each other because even if New England were to move down, why does Arizona need to move up? Because there's rumors in the league right now. You ready for this? There's rumors in the league right now that New England could potentially move out of that number three spot because they realize their roster is so poor. Pick up an additional one this year. Pick up like a number two, a second rounder next year. And then start to use a little bit of that collateral but not give up the other one this year. Package some picks and try to move back up. So let's say they move down with Minnesota to 11.

I'm simply talking about the Arizona part of it, because if Arizona would have moved up to three, it doesn't make any sense. Arizona doesn't- Well, just listen to me. If you'd let me talk for a second, my goodness. If New England moves out of three and trades down to 11, Minnesota moves up to three.

They have, Elliot Wolf has intel that Minnesota wants to move up and go get JJ or Drake may. And New England says, you know what? We like the other guy anyway. And then New England sits at 11 with now an additional first rounder, an additional second rounder next year and says, all right, we moved down. We got more collateral from moving down from three, from three to 11, then we have to give up to go down, go back up to number four with Arizona.

That's how Arizona could come into play. I think we're going to see some kind of double weird trade. And I know that the chargers, chargers need offensive tackle and wide receiver, right? Sitting at number five, Joe Ortiz is from Baltimore, born and born and bred under Ozzie, Ozzie Newsome. Joe Douglas was the same way. Eric DeCosta has been the same way. They've all been, been brainwashed properly, if you will. That's not the right word, but they've all been

brainwashed in a good way. Brainwashed in a great way that, hey, let's sit back. We trust our board, trust our evaluators, wait for a team to panic, call us in emergency when we're on the clock and move back with them because they're gonna pay us more than we deserve to be paid. Then we'll move back and we'll still get a great player. So I think the Chargers are open for business.

Arizona is open for business. New England, Robert Kraft, I'd be shocked if Robert Kraft would allow the Patriots not to draft a quarterback in the first round. But we saw last year, remember? Remember with Nick in Houston and the ownership wanting a quarterback. Well, all right, we're going to get our defensive guy that we really want for our new defensive

head coach. And we're also going to trade up and get the quarterback that we want. Everyone's happy. So maybe new England's in a similar situation where everyone winds up being happy. We're going to get a quarterback. It might not be picking a number three. I'm just where it's early. I'm just like reading some tea leaves and I'm not saying new England's definitely going

to double move. I'm just saying there's going leaves. And I'm not saying New England's definitely gonna double move. I'm just saying there's going to be some interesting maneuvering with Minnesota having two picks at 11 and then the Houston pick. And New England wanting a quarterback, but knowing they've got a whole lot else that they've got to figure out in their first year with the regime, with a new head coach

and with Elliott pulling the triggers. And then Arizona and the Chargers sitting there, two GMs that love to move and take advantage. What being willing to kind of sit back and wait and move. I think, I think one in two should be locks. It should be Caleb number one. It should be Jayden Daniels number two, despite everyone saying it's JJ or, or it's Drake may. And then the draft kind of starts at number three. And I think at three, four and five, it's going to be a lot of wheeling and

dealing. Right. The problem for the Patriots in that scenario of the double move is that so then Arizona's selling the pick to somebody else because they don't need the third quarterback there, right? And I don't think they would just say, okay, well, well Arizona is sitting at four. So if New England moves out and Minnesota comes in at three. Listen, we're spending a lot of time. I'm just saying that something weird is gonna happen in this range, okay? I think the Chargers part of it makes a lot of sense. I mean, if I were the Chargers, I'd be like,

after you lose Mike Williams and you lose Kenan Allen, although that Chargers roster, injury wise, I would just go, hey, who's the next receiver that's there? If they have that kind of grade on him, more so than Joel. I just think that that makes more sense for them to go to Herbert and be like, we don't want you throwing a Quinton Johnson, you know, like we have to do a better job making sure that you still have weapons because you've lost

two guys, whatever you think of them. I thought when they were both healthy, they were, they were really good. Like especially Keenan. Uh, and I even like Mike Williams a lot, even though I know he's older and there's some injury concerns there as well. I think the Giants part of it, it's, it's, it Kenan. Uh, and I, I even like Mike Williams a lot, even though I know he's older and, and there's some injury concerns there as well. I think the Giants part of it at six would just be really funny if they go, Oh wait, like JJ McCarthy is still available. Yeah. Daniel Jones.

We've already paid him. It doesn't take a ton to move off of it. We can even slow play it a little bit with JJ and, and that's, that's our answer. Remember last year with Seattle, Pete Carroll, John Schneider, head coach, and general manager respectively. They were at, they weren't just at every pro day for all the top quarterbacks. They were like taking selfies, Instagram, social meet. It was like borderline weird, right?

And then come getting closer to the draft. Like I remember even having a conversation with what goes on behind the scenes and I don't want to give too much away, but what goes on behind the scenes at some point ESPN has got to make a decision where they're going to send their camera people and a reporter, right? And we're trying to figure out where are the trades going to happen for the quarterbacks. And Schneider was making it perfectly clear, hey, send a camera here. Send a camera here. They wanted everyone in the league to know we are going to take a quarterback. And did they wind up taking a quarterback?

No. And it feels like the Giants are doing some of the same thing. If you just kind of follow the breadcrumbs and the trail, they're sending everyone to all these quarterbacks, right? These quarterback pro days. And maybe they pull the trigger on one. I'm not, you know, it's, it's highly, you know, it's, it's very likely that they could, or it's very possible. I should say that they could, but it just seems like they're overselling their pro day involvement for these

quarterbacks. A lot like Seattle did a year ago. I love that story. But if you want to get in the witherspoon business, no one can criticize that because he's already one of my favorite players in the league. Thanks man, we'll talk to you next week. You got it brother, look forward to it. It's time for the Alliance. We missed the college basketball by one.

Pringle got stepped on, didn't help our cause. Nelson played better. So now we're recapping Alabama-Yukon almost a week later. So we'll move on from that. The NBA game we've got to pick tonight is Boston at Milwaukee. Kyle's not with us today. He's not dead.

He's just traveling. So here's the deal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like when Michael Scott makes the announcement about Meredith. Like what? Uh, okay.

As soon as I saw this line, like every time we have to do this, I have an idea in my head. I'll kind of guess. I'll be like, I wonder how close you can get to guessing what it'll be before I look on FanDuel and this line stinks. Milwaukee's getting two at home at one point, so Rudy they open favored in this one minus one. Is that correct? Yeah, I thought they were like one point favorites and I was kind of all over Milwaukee because I'm like, they need this game more than Boston does.

Boston doesn't need it at all. So there you go. But then it moved the other way. So now that scared me, but I still, I still kind of like Milwaukee. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a need thing, which is baked into this. There's no way this is Milwaukee. Plus two. It's probably like, if they were both playing and the standings were close or something, it, I would think it'd be based on the way Milwaukee's looked. Um, plus five, five and a half at home.

Yeah. I don't know. That next game that night was terrifying though. So I don't know who knows. And that was at home. Yeah, I don't know. That next game the other night was terrifying though. So I don't know who knows and that was at home. Yeah, so I think because the line, but it has so much more to do with Boston just clenching everything here.

It makes it a little tougher. Again, if we're January, the line would be so bad. If the two teams are playing this way, they'd be like, okay, this line stinks. So take side that you don't think anybody's taking, but we'll stay with it. We'll take Milwaukee plus two and then build out the rest of the four legged here. All right. Milwaukee plus two. I'm going to take Dame Lillard 25 or more points. He's

averaged that versus the Celtics this season. Again, it's just a flat out needed spot for the buck. So I'm going to take him to have a big game. Kyle from the plane, he's going to take Jalen Brown over five and a half rebounds. So he's going with the Celtics angle on that. And then just to get it to four legs and add a little more juice, we're gonna take Janice six plus rebounds. That gets us to plus 447.

So feels like that's a pretty decent solid bet there. Yeah, so the last one, we were just trying to find something that felt incredibly doable to keep us in that plus 400, 500 range, which is usually what we're trying to search for here. He gave us a lot of cash. Yeah.

Yeah, right. So that one's so doable. It's what you would think. Looking at Jaylen. We know what, I don't want to mess with Kyle's leg on this one. I was trying to find an under for Jaylen assists, but they didn't have it up there because again,

these guys are smart. All right, so to recap, the four legged for the Alliance is officially. It's bucks plus two, Lillard 25 plus points, Jaylen Brown over five and a half rebounds and Giannis six plus rebounds plus 447. Let's get it. All right, you can check it all out on Fandil Sportsbook.

You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible.

Let me tell you what's required. The email address is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Kyle is in transit, so we're not gonna have him with us here, which I know is greatly disappointing, especially after people saw real fourth wall breaking there of Kyle, the video of him meeting Iron Eagle and his fly was down. You know, we should just save it for Kyle's back.

But there's a video I retweeted. I thought you were talking about the Titus tape picture too. That was one that was making the rounds. Yeah. He's a Kyle in the wild. That could be his own podcast. What I would do. I think it has a chance. Just Kyle doing stuff. You know, Kyle abroad would be a great I'd watch that show on Netflix. Kyle in the wild. I think it has a little bit more bite to it. Whatever, we'll keep working on it.

All right, so let's get to a couple emails here. Today's a pretty long pod, so maybe it's better that it's just Sarudy and I to work through all this. We got a line of advice with Lefkoe, so. That's right, yeah, we did, we did. Okay, let's do a couple of work ones. Working with my dad, 1962, 210 pounds. I think this is a good one for Surya and I.

I've been doing some deep self reflection with no real resolution. So I thought why not turn it over to the masters? Thank you. Growing up, particularly in my early and mid teens, this guy's 19 now, four score. My early to mid teens. Yeah. You count 12.

I was what you would deem, quote, a highly touted prospect, a bright guy with skills, looks and maturity. My father's an absolute legend in his field, both well-regarded and highly accomplished. However, I always felt comfortable growing in his shadow. My situation, despite being highly touted, I've got to admit, I've underwhelmed. Wow, this guy's a really good writer and some- Self-aware? Yeah, some serious self-awareness here at 19, despite your height and good looks. A combination of health circumstances to be frank, probably overblown expectations have seen me

under deliver. Oh, well, I'm sorry. I didn't realize it's a health thing. Despite this, I have a couple of options, one of which involves landing in the upper band of employment opportunities. However, my aforementioned father, parentheses, once again, an incredibly successful business man has indicated he would like me to come work for with him for slash with him at his current place of employment. He's even suggested that he may try to land a position for himself wherever I decide to work as he is so

keen to work as father and son. While I'm grateful, it isn't, but the keen part tells me we're dealing with somebody outside of the states. Wait, so his, really, just so I get this quick, right, his dad wants to go work wherever his son gets a job? I think that's one of the potential scenarios that he's asking about. The dog does not like that idea at all. All right, so he said maybe you could work with him, but yes, you're right. He suggested he may try to land a position for himself wherever I decide to work.

All right. So while I'm grateful for his support and guidance, I'm struggling with the idea of working so closely with my father at this stage of my life. My concerns at 19 years old, I feel I need to forge my own path and establish my own identity separate from my father's shadow. I'm worried that working directly for him could stifle my personal professional growth and I'm concerned that I might be a little bit more Concerns at 19 years old. I feel I need to forge my own path and establish my own identity separate from

my father's shadow. I'm worried that working directly for him could stifle my personal professional growth. And I'm concerned about the potential for conflicts and perceived favoritism in the workplace. Even worse, do I really want to be 19 and hanging out with my dad? My desired outcome. Ideally, I would like to find a fulfilling career that allows me to develop my own

skills and expertise without the added pressure of being in the same organization as my father. Request for advice. So he has like, I didn't realize he has headers for all different parts of this. Well, I'm buying stock in this guy just based on the structure of the email. I would greatly appreciate your insight and guidance on how to navigate this situation. How can I respectfully communicate my concerns to my father while still maintaining a positive relationship? What strategies can I employ to find a fulfilling career path that aligns with my personal and professional goals? Thanks in advance for your time and consideration.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts." That's incredibly formal. Did you work for your dad growing up? Summers, yeah, like summers and, you know, like college breaks. And so my dad, plumbing, heating, air conditioning owned a comp, my grandfather started it. We bought it from somebody else, but it was basically their company,

passed it down to my dad. My dad has basically run it with, you know, TSM other partners, but you know, he basically ran the business. I think he knew from a pretty young age though, that like, that wasn't my thing, wasn't my strength. I was kind of into sports and video games. And like my dad didn't care about sports or anything like that growing up. Like he was just my dad's was Mr. Fix

it and fixed everything. And he was pretty smart to be like, you know what? I don't think Steve is going to be in for this for this particular career. But it was kind of weird because every time I would be on the breaks, like all the guys would be awesome to me. But you know, they also knew they were working with the, you know, the boss's son. So like, were they going to be addicted to me? No, they were all pretty cool, but I would do kind of odd jobs here and there and it was nothing like that important I Don't know that I I don't know that I could have done that though if I like unless I was really savvy at it and like Can actually add something to the business? I think I would have just kind of felt awkward just being like, alright

Where's my job? Like where do I sign up? Like can I just take over from my dad? Some people could do that, some people can't. I think in this situation, if you're working with your dad later in life, I think that is a really cool thing. As your dad gets older, if you guys can find a way to work together, that's really cool.

But I almost feel like me personally, to feel secure in that, I'd wanna be the one driving whatever that business is. And my dad would be there as the staff event, help me along with some of the business stuff. But I wanna be making sure that I'm carrying my own and not just doing it off of my dad would be like, there is the staff event, help me along with some of the business stuff, but I wanna be make sure that I'm like carrying my own and not just doing it off of my dad's past work. So it's tough, dude.

I kind of, I would just, if you're on the fence, I think you kind of gotta carve your own path because otherwise I think you're constantly gonna be looking over your own shoulder. And even if you are good at your job, people are still gonna call it the nepotism thing. So it's a tough call. That'd be weird though.

This would be different though, because it's not like if you were to follow his son, it's like wait, that adds a layer. That I don't love either. I'd be like, dad, give me some space, man. I gotta kind of be my own man. Or could you do some sort of side business together? I don't know.

Just to kind of scratch that. It's because it is cool that your dad wants to do this stuff for you. That's awesome. My dad's always looking for different, my dad is like, hey, could you come up with a cape? Cause they live in the cape now, they've retired. And he's like, can you come and put the new floor in with me?

He's always looking for odd jobs for me to do with him just to like hang out. And I get that, that's cool. That's part of being a dad and being older. But I don't know that like I'd want him to be my profession. Like I don't know about my dad here hanging out with us on the podcast being like, you know, we could have cleaned up that open a little bit.

Yeah, I don't need that. Yeah, the dad part of this is a really important part of it. Cause if you're a dad and you're listening to this, I think the percentage of dads that would love this setup is so much higher than the percentage of sons that would like to set up. And it doesn't necessarily reflect, uh, a lack of love or a strained relationship. It's just when you're younger, you're like, I don't want to fucking hang out with my dad.

You know, it's just the way of the world. Now, if some of you may have this great setup and it worked out, I also think there's a difference between the blue collar work and the white collar work. And it sounds like this is a little bit more white collar. So I'd have to know specifically like which industry we're talking about here. I've already covered all the stuff working for my dad, constantly growing up. And he kind of knew that I probably had different aspirations.

All at some point I was almost kind of like, you know, maybe I'll just go do this because at least I'm outside and I'll be my own boss. And, you know, that's probably more important for me to do something. Listen, trades are a smart move now. Tradesayser back dude, just like Abercrombie. Yeah, I called it. You can't. I mean you gotta. You can't even get mad at any subs. Be like hey, I thought you did this wrong. OK, cool, I'll never show up again.

Call somebody else. Yeah, where are they? Yeah, right. I mean, it's like trying to get an MRI, you know, like seriously, you thought you were just going to get one of these. You thought I was going to come over and fix this. Like yeah, no problem. So I don't, I think we already understand

where the email is coming from. You don't really want to do this. It's not a reflection of how you feel about your father. It's about, you already talked about it, but now it's how do you handle telling him that and telling him straight up is gonna be disappointing to him because he's, I just don't think that dads understand the dads take it a little bit more personally, cause they're thinking like, wait, I've done all these

things and I just love my son and wouldn't this be like really cool? And it's like, this is not a reflection of how I feel about you. I just want to be away from you, especially when you're talking about like 19. You know, if you'd gone to college, you'd had a little work experience and you're 25 or 30 and you're emailing in and you actually think it's a good idea, then that's fine. Like as far as favoritism and all those little things, I think this dynamic's different

because it's not necessarily his company that he wants you to work for. He may wanna follow you somewhere else, which, you know, that's a whole different set of challenges, but I don't think you should fear what potential criticism you could have in that dynamic as opposed to the more traditional one that we're usually tasked with trying to figure out. It was like, Oh, your dad has this awesome opportunity.

Like I would tell a lot of the young guys out there, like if your dad has some sick opportunity for you and you're going to cut the line a little bit and you're going to be better financially and it's something you actually do want to do and pursue fucking do it. You know, people can sit there, everybody's going to talk shit about everybody no matter what, and maybe they're gonna talk more shit about you in a very specific way that nobody else is dealing with.

Cool, talk all the shit you want. I'll be over here cutting the corporate line by five fucking years. We can all not like it until it's your option, whether it's the father taking care of his son or the son taking advantage of that. So we can all not like it, but I still wouldn't tell guys to be like, yeah, you don't want to be criticized around the office.

Like don't do that. Even though it's a great opportunity. The thing I would say is like, what's the relationship with the mom? What's the relationship between your parents? Because that's where maybe you get a little ally at the negotiating table. As you explained to her, Hey, I love the guy and this makes sense, but not right now. It doesn't make sense right now.

Let me go do this. Let me go out there on my own and figure out what I want and what I don't want. And then maybe we can circle back on this thing, but I can't be like day one. Hey, it's like to be here. And here's also my dad. Now the delicate part with that is if your parents hate each other, then she'll use that as a chip in her lifelong battle with your dad where it's not solving your problems. She'll just say, oh, and then you try to go work with Phil and Phil didn't even want

to work with you. And then you just end up pouring fuel all over whatever their problem is. However, if they do get along, they'll be able to get along. work with you and then you just end up pouring fuel all over whatever their problem is. However, if they do get along and you have a good relationship with your mother, you may have to side door this one a bit explaining everything we just explained. Like, is there any way that maybe the three of us can talk together? So does it feel like I'm talking behind his back or any of that kind of stuff? Is there any chance that you can help me get aligned with him?

And even though he might not like it, there's no way, especially when you talked about how successful he's been, there's no way he's not going to understand where you're at right now. I'd have a hard time believing that this would turn into something where he would be resentful and like really emotional about it. This isn't something that, that the emailer can necessarily like convey. I guess he could talk to the mom about it, but I saw this one of those, you know, Instagram, TikTok reels, whatever, where there's that like guy to chair and it's like super well lit and everything's good.

And it's just like, you know, I don't know who he was, but he was asked a question like how do successful people prevent their kids from becoming complacent or lazy? And he was basically just like, you have to, like, as hard as it is, you just, you have to let them fail and problem solve and figure things out on your own. So if you're 19 and, you know, you want to have a conversation with your family and be like, dad, I'd love to figure something out long-term, but like, I need to fail on my own.

I need to figure out my path on my own. That's a totally, your dad's gonna respect that. There's no way your dad won't respect that, no way. As long as you are like, hey, I have no issue. I'd love to figure out something long-term, but I need to find me first before we start doing something together. I think that's a totally fair conversation to have.

Your dad is probably gonna respect you even more for that. Not that he doesn't already respect you, but that's what I would do. Yeah. I think we got it. All right. Let's see here. Quick one?

Yeah, I think it's a quick one. I think it's another altercation one. I have my own altercation one back from my Equinox visit to the Prince Street Equinox. I may share it because I'm hoping. This guy told his version of the story to other people, but I don't I'm not going to be arrogant enough to think that everybody fucking recognizes me. But. This guy.

I thought the guy fucked up pretty bad, so I just told him, it's like, I think you're kind of fucking this up and the guy lost it. You people usually don't take well to say, hey, I think you're kind of fucking this up. And the guy lost it. People usually don't take well to, hey, I think you're fucking this up. I didn't say it that way, but well. Hey guy, I don't know. You're fucking this up. Yeah, I know, right?

And I know the audience could think, do you just seek this out? I don't seek out any of it. But I also came to a point in my life where I go, if I don't seek out any of it. But I also, you know, I came to a point in my life where I go, if I'm just gonna like, hey, I don't like this. All right, I can stew, I can call Sarutti and get mad or I can just fucking say something. Yeah, that's, it's been a pivot of, I don't know.

I don't know how long I've pivoted to that. But then it's over, right? Like, I mean, it happened and then it's over. Yeah, it was over. What's gonna happen, you know? You know, maybe hopefully his day wasn't ruined. Your day doesn't sound long I've pivoted to that. But then it's over, right? I mean, it happened and then it's over. It's going to happen, you know? Hopefully his day wasn't ruined. Your day doesn't sound like it was ruined. So you just move on. Sometimes it's okay. A little confrontation is not terrible.

Yeah, I just didn't. I felt like we were in kind of a rhythm there of like, oh, then this happened, this happened, this happened. So it was like it was a funny story. And then I explained it to somebody else, like you have to do that on the pod. And I was like, I don't know. But maybe we'll just save it. We'll save it for another one and we'll save it for when Kyle's back. Yeah yeah because Kyle's gonna love it. He's more into confrontation than I am so that's good.

Yeah we'll leave that one in the confrontation tab that we have. Okay so speaking of though 40 year old dude 5'10 balding apparently a bit scrawny these days. I was about a D3 prospect level baseball and basketball player high school before an injury and had been working out for the last 20 years or so on the regular, trying different types of manual resistance and hip and lower back exercise. My fifth goals now are more to just be able to walk about five miles and pick up a baby when I'm 80 years old. Well, good luck with your plan.

So I work out in some what uppity club in the city where there's a decent amount of ego, privilege and pretentiousness flying around. When I'm walking into the locker room, I see this younger dude about 20, 28 likely taller than me, but not much girth, very use of girth. He's wearing a strip club veteran hat pictured below. All right. So this says strip club veteran, but it looks as if it would say Vietnam vet with the same. It's like a novelty hat. Yeah, yeah. Like FBI. Yeah.

Federal body inspector. Good one, dude. I watched some of the Freak Nick documentary, Will Work for Sex. Did you ever have a buddy in your friend group that would wear the equivalent of the Will Work for Sex t-shirt? Well, I think we all had unfortunate t-shirt choices in college. I certainly did.

Uh, there's a, what's your worst one? There's a famous picture of me, spring weekend, Quinnipiac freshman year, where I think I had a rehab is for quitch for quitter shirt. So not, not the best. I'm going to be honest. I thought it was hilarious. Back in the day, there was a shot, I forget what the place was. There was this one place that was like in the mall where you can get all these stupid shirts. So everybody had one in like 2006, seven that range.

Uh, I think every mall has female body inspector. There was the female body inspector. God, what do you say? Me? I said federal. God, that wasn't even right. No, no, no, no. Yeah.

What are the government's spine on? But what's going well? I mean, who brought the old guy? Uh, but no, there was this, there was this, it wasn no, no. Yeah, what are the government spying on? But what's going well? I mean, listen to that. Who brought the old guy? But no, there was this, it wasn't hot topic. I forget the name of it, but there was this place where all the dudes would go and get t-shirts and they were all stupid. But yeah, not my brightest moment.

Again, I was kind of a bit of a shithead at times back in the day. It's all right. Okay, all right, so this guy's got the strip club veteran hat on and I can't tell you, it is decked out. If you look too quick, you'd be like, what? He then proceeds to answer a FaceTime call

without headphones when sitting on a bench, when I'm about to change into my gym clothes behind him. I'd had a hard day at work, had seen the hat and told him, hey, big timer, how about you turn off the fucking FaceTime? Not a soft intro. We went back and forth. He said that I needed to learn how to speak to people.

I told him everyone has their opinions these days and maybe he should not break rules. I attempted to deescalate, but he kept arguing. Eventually he called me an old man in scrawny. I told him, I am an old man. My trainer says scrawny is in. He kept arguing. We could come back on the fly, you know, not many, it's tough. It's tough in those moments to be like. Look at Tim Duncan, you know. Yeah. He kept arguing and walking away.

Sorry, what'd you say? Added years to his career. I'm just saying, Slim is good. Yep, well said, well said. Glad we kept that in there. He kept arguing and walking away. I told him to keep walking. That was the end of it.

And it was the first time in my life that I played an old man card, mostly jokingly a couple of questions. How would you handle the situation? What's your position on FaceTime phone calls in the locker room? When is the right time if ever to play the, I am an old man card. Uh, I think you nailed it. Yeah. I think you nailed that FaceTime while people are getting changed. There's no, there's no email that exists, although we'll get one.

Or it's like, well, you nailed that. FaceTime while people are getting changed, there's no email that exists, although we'll get one, where it's like, well, what if they just had a baby and there was a fever and you go on a check? You can't be on FaceTime with that. I think just the outdoor speaker FaceTime thing is out of fucking control now anyway with where this is going. I'm worried about the next part of it, but there's nothing, there is nothing

that would justify somebody being on FaceTime while people are being, uh, while people are changing the locker room behind them. So I think you handled it pretty well. You did, you did come in, you came in hot though. There was no jabs here. You came in. If you actually said, hey, big timer, even if I were doing something wrong, I probably wasn't gonna love that entree

into what was about to go down. The fact that you said keep walking and he walked away from you probably feels a bit like a win. I'm happy for you on that one. There are a couple things like FaceTiming out loud. I'm trying to think of what else, but yeah, like watching videos on your phone, anything really like with your phone speaker

that everybody else can hear that's a personal thing. I actually, that should be called out all the time, personally. So I have no issue with this. I don't think you can call out this, I don't think you can call out the speaker FaceTime or speaker video thing all the time. Like I think it has to keep happening.

Extended period of time or yeah, multiple. Yeah. Because somebody answers a Face or yeah, multiple. Yeah. Because somebody answers a FaceTime and they're immediately talking. I don't think he jumped into two seconds in the call and be like, what's wrong with you, but this is different because now you're on video changing. Yeah. I, you're right. There's probably like, if it's like a, if it's a couple minutes or it's a repeat offender that a guy that you constantly see, I think that, I think that behavior

deserves to be called out. You were talking about just noise in general. Like I think cars, like if you're driving by a neighborhood and you constantly see. I think that behavior deserves to be called out. You were talking about just noise in general. I think cars, if you're driving by a neighborhood and you're blasting speakers at this, what are you doing? That guy, who are you trying to reverse? I was probably that guy in 18, early 20s, not in my early 20s, probably in my teens.

Couple of rock for Foskates back there, 12 inches. What are you supposed to do to keep the windows up, dude? Yeah, the bass isn't even going, it's just rattling the metal in the back of your car. I still thought I had one more custom audio deal in my car. Like, I still thought I was like, I'm gonna do it one more time because I got so sick of all the break-ins

because anytime I'd moved to a different neighborhood, I'd pull in and then you just knew dudes were like, oh, he must have something nice in there. And I'd come out and all my shit was all over the street. That was always the most disappointing parts. Like you stole all the stereo equipment and then you like left specific things that you didn't, you just didn't live like, Oh, that's that shirt sucks. Leave it, but leave it on the street.

I think if you're going to break into a guy's car and steal his stereo and his amps and his subs, and you don't want to steal his clothes. You can at least leave the clothes in the car. That would be a nice way to go about it. I had my car broken into so many different times. I was like, all right, that's it. Never putting another system in. So then I was like, I'm gonna put one more in.

I've got one more in me. And then I brought a Land Rover in. The guy's like, I'm not touching this thing. Like, what are you nuts? Wow, that's, yeah. Thanks, thank God for that guy. I don't know why. I mean, I feel like systems only belong like Nissan Altima's. Yeah. I just, I don't even, I understand there's going to be very little support for my position. I just always remember

seeing like the Macintosh components and be like, that's heaven. If you can afford that and put that together, like you don't need anything in your life. You can walk in and see that. They're going to be like, this guy's got to figure it out. No, I'm anything in your life. They're gonna be like, this guy's gotta figure it out. No, I'm talking in the car. Like, cause they weren't really doing that. I just felt like, I don't know if there's anything better in life than having that kind of system. Like, I don't think you'd need, you know,

for people criticizing me not having a family and be like, are you kidding? I have a Macintosh system. I don't, what the fuck do I need kids for? All right, that's life advice. Thanks to Wargon. Thanks to Saruti. And thanks to Kyle for just being kind of aligned with us here. Let's see how the Alliance goes. Check out the YouTube page. Please subscribe. Brian Russo podcast, Ringer Spotlark. and Must be 21 and older in President-Select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star

Casino LLC. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com forward slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Vermont. Call 1-800-NEXTSTEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona. 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut. 1-800-9 with it in Indiana. 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas. 1-877-770 stop in Louisiana. Visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland, visit

1800gambler.net in West Virginia, or call 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelpline.ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.