Ted Nguyen

Today's podcast is loaded. We've got NBA, we've got NFL. We start with Bobby Marks, taking a look at the NBA names that are part of the NBA trade market. Can I interest you in some deal? Perhaps some Butler, maybe a little Zion, even a little, little bean. And then we're going to talk with Ted Wynn from The Athletic, who is just great on the film breakdown stuff.

Yeah, it's a scary proposition. All right. So how much? There's still more to do. Don't worry, folks, because we haven't really done the Beale Levine thing and maybe Milwaukee Works and all of that, too. But whether it's a Butler deal, I mean, Beale has the no trade. So that's that's more like outright public control. Right. Like, hey, this is what I want to do. This is what I don't want to do.

But with somebody like Butler, where you're on the front office side and you're trying to figure out, like you're talking to his reps going, how's this going to go if we trade for your guy? And they say, well, you know, how invested are you perhaps long term? in our guy. How do those conversations work that we know aren't necessarily supposed to happen, but it's the way business is done.

So they have to happen for everybody to feel like they know what they're walking into.

It might be like one okay pick and one other pick that doesn't really mean anything. And then I wonder, as I promise I'll get to your bottom, but then I wonder, like, will we have a James Harden thing where Jimmy –

doesn't get traded before the deadline, rides it out, and then it's like, actually the best way for me to sort of protect my money is to opt in for the $52 million player option this summer.

Right now, outside of that official current team allowing that say 24 or 48 hour window, um, I mean, imagine like the tires are kicked though in hypotheticals.

So the agent knows before that granted access of where your head is at financially.

I still think the Memphis one makes basketball sense. I don't know what pieces would be going out.

And then they're stuck with me all over again because James did that strategically, not because he wanted freedom, because he knew he'd be able to kind of control where he could go and then what his next contract would be. So I just don't...

I'm not talking about the money. I'm talking about the one. Give me the one thing that everybody can look at Houston and say, well, yeah, but you're not getting Tariq. You're not getting any of those guys. Is there a player... Wells has been so good for them as a rookie, by the way, Memphis is front office.

The stuff that they do finding these guys, like they are, they are in the conversation with just doing like, if you want to go like, who do you trust? Like late in the first, in the, in the draft where you're like, they have just have a nice tracker.

I mean, that's what happened.

Yeah, it's kind of like how I feel about Orlando a little bit. Like, it sucks that Paolo and Franz went out, but I think there's going to be a reward for those minutes for a lot of the guys in the Magic that were pushed into a spot to keep it going, keep the seat warm, and then they're going to get their dudes back.

But I guess there's just a moment of me with Memphis where some of these draft picks are a little bit more off the radar, and then you're like, hey, that guy can play. Like, Santi Aldama, that guy can play. Like, check it out. But what I'm saying, not on the money matching part of it, is that if you're Miami, there has to be some... there has to be some kind of asset.

Like that's a weird, it's always a weird player. Like, Hey, we kind of like that guy.

do um this year in uh in memphis as far as kind of who that blue chip guy is see that's exactly what i was talking about is that you know unless it's unless it's the second first right there would probably have to be some pick and because it's memphis you know whatever it's not like miami's clearly one of the smarter organizations so they're not gonna be like oh cool we get this first in 31. this is this is this is awesome like well what does it turn into

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Okay, a couple different theories behind these things as well. There's a bit of a Celtics... What's going on with you guys? Malaise and the Raptors coming off a nice win against Golden State. So it's a bit of a zag on the Celtics not playing as well. Raptors being excited. I just think when you actually look at some of these teams that are about to go full, we don't give a bleep anymore.

The number really can't be big enough. So there's two teams with that, Brooklyn and Toronto. So I would... I don't like giving out this many points, but it is Boston minus 15. Try to get right in Toronto, Brooklyn in LA. I would say Clippers minus 14 on that one. And then if you want something with some points, Charlotte is actually favored.

So the guys paying attention to this, as you would imagine the people that do this professionally, Utah has actually been a, tick more competitive um since they're probably season low moment of four and i don't know five and 20 charlotte you probably forgot this but they started six and nine um they are two and 18 since That's not very good.

But they've actually been kind of competitive, whether it's the Phoenix win, the Phoenix rematch, the Cleveland game. They were in that one. They were in the Detroit game. Chicago's lost overtime there. So I actually think Charlotte's been playing a little bit better basketball here lately. So why don't we just go? Didn't want to do this, but it's three favorites.

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I think it's just always disappointing is probably the nicest way I could put it. I don't even have to use the playoff game last year where he was terrible. But for whatever his skill set is and his athleticism and the numbers in Washington, I just think it's a guy that It's always going, the experience is always going to leave you with, how come this isn't better?

And that's basically been his career and his availability has been a question for years and years here. So the fact that you've got the no trade part of this, what is the market for him?

I mean, look, collectively, those guys look bad when the Charlotte loss. I know they split with that stretch over a week, but when they lost to them. The weirdest part, it was like Charlotte actually looked like the better basketball team.

Going back to when it happened, the argument for it is you just got Bradley Beal for free, right? You got Bradley Beal for free and considering what your financial restrictions are going to be, especially as we moved into a new economic landscape, which is changing a lot of what's even possible. Because I even think about the Butler stuff where

you go, well, normally the guy's just going to get his way, right? He's going to get his way. He's going to find a way to get out. There'll be some team that does like a two plus one for like, he'll probably figure it out and get paid because even at that age, it's kind of what the history has told us.

And now I think that we're going to start realizing I've made the, the players are going to start realizing like, There's just not enough places to even compete for your services. Sometimes I even look at the Harden deal with the Clippers, and it's worked for him. They needed him. They needed his usage. You know he's going to put up numbers.

We were like, man, that's a big number for somebody that I wonder how much competition there was for. Maybe that's a sign of history not shifting the way maybe I'm expecting it to. Maybe it happens with Butler or whatever. When I think about the Beal part of it, it's super easy to be like, what is wrong with you guys? You should have never, ever done it. But the

asset math is hard for a team to ignore. We're literally getting Bradley Beal for free, except for what you have to pay him. The problem is it needed to work out in a basketball sense. You needed him to be excited about it. And he's just not that guy. I don't even know who would debate the other side of this.

And I think the scary thing for Phoenix is, all right, you want to bring him off the bench. You want to maybe make it a little uncomfortable for him to become a little bit more open to waving the no trade clause to a couple of different teams. This is a dude that sat around on the Wizards bench that was more than happy getting his 30 points, losing every night.

And then he had nights where he would be just sitting by himself, kind of shaking his head. kind of feeling like he was motherfucking the entire experience, and yet waiting to get his five-year extension. So I don't think that Beal can be shamed. He's already shown us when he was with the Wizards, like, hey, you think me coming off the bench in Phoenix is bad? I'll do this. Don't worry about me.

I'm not going to do anything that you guys... The basketball part of it needed to be what we think the best version of him can be, and it just isn't.

Yeah, I wonder if we'll see a shift to that, though, where it started going from, I mean, however far back in the timeline you want to go, you wait until you're a free agent, everybody's stockpiling all of their cap space. This is going to be really exciting. And then the player's just like, what's the point? Just take the extension and ask for the trade later.

And then it was like, I'll ask for the trade for... A year out, no, I'll ask for a trade like halfway with a year and a half out. And then we had guys going, I don't give a shit that the extension hasn't even kicked in yet. I want out, which I think is part of the restrictive language for the trades in the CBA. It's not just the penalties.

It's not just trying to find a way of curbing spending at the very top. You now get to go to your star player and say, I know you're mad and I know you want to go there and I can't legally do it. So I think all that stuff is, and I know you already understand all this. I'm explaining it to the CBA guy. Like you don't let's, I still think we didn't, we didn't do enough on Zion.

What do you do if you're David Griffin?

And by the way, he looked good. He looked good physically the first game he came back.

I was praising Zach Kleinman in Memphis without saying his name. I was just talking about the group in Memphis, but he deserves a shout out. I feel bad for the Pelicans front office because I think they have done one of the best jobs of roster creation. I don't love the DeJounte trade as much, but I understood them feeling like they had to be different.

And, you know, it's real easy to be like, oh, you should have traded Zion. But you finally got the season from him prior to him getting hurt in the play-in game, which derails everything finally kind of working out and coming together because of his health. I am not surprised, though, when you and Tim did the piece that there's more value for

A Zion market because that actually doesn't surprise like his one stop a get him out of New Orleans like we'll bring him in with our guys like we're going to do this thing like was it I don't know if it was Shams or somebody had reported like it wasn't that it was going to happen but you could just wave Zion and I was like yeah actually still that's that was that to me was ridiculous because you're like that's not the way it works.

Yeah, I just think the idea that it was a zero or something, it's just like, this is not the way this league works. Because the new team, imagine if the Knicks weren't the Knicks. Again, another incredible roster turnover in a very short amount of time. But if the Knicks had been the stale Knicks, you don't think that there's...

and maybe this is not a great point because it's like, well, the Knicks are good now. So when they were bad, they would have gone to Zion. The point that I'm making is that for any stale franchise to be able to introduce this dude to come and run around in your uniform for a little bit, like I always think there's value for the next stop for the disastrous start.

And it's starting to feel though, like, The page needs to be turned on it, but you'd be turning the page on leading up to the trade deadline in a few weeks at his lowest possible value. And we also realize that market value is a real... Things can change in a very quick amount of time, but it just... It seems like an anchor to this franchise. And look, Ingram hasn't been healthy.

They've had all sorts of health issues. Meanwhile, they keep drafting pretty good players. And Yves Misi's a real dude, man.

Well, Trey Murphy, his game against Boston and putting the ball on the floor. And I'm like, man, I almost wish they would just tank... get rid of all the old guys, try to add picks, see if they get one of the two or three guys and just do it all over again. Because this Scion thing, you can't ask everyone, everyone involved with the franchise to rely on him and wait for it to work.

But then at the same time, I'd have a hard time being like, I'm trading him at his absolute worst. Cause if he puts together a good month, then people are going to start falling for it again. But It's really frustrating. Okay, who would you rather trade for then? If you're Milwaukee, if you're Horst, and you're running the Bucs, and everything's equal, right?

So it's not about matching all the money here. Would you rather, like, put them in order. Butler, Beal, Levine, Zion. I mean, Zion doesn't really make a ton of sense basketball-wise, so I'm just... I don't know, man.

Oh no, I do think about it.

Uh, well, we got it. We got it in the first couple of games against Boston, but you can see that there is a steep decline and he was really bad against Denver. Um,

So I know exactly what you're talking about here, but we can't just... Those first couple games against Boston, he was... I mean, it's off the charts what he did against Milwaukee, but he was... There was a toughness thing there, too, where Boston was really unsure of themselves, and Jimmy was kind of almost laughing at the dudes, being like, you're just not wired the way I am.

But to your front office guy's point, there's no lie in there. It wasn't in the finals.

All right. Would you do Austin Reeves in a pick for Zion?

I mean, granted, we're going to figure out the money.

See, the thing is, is I actually think LeBron, like one of the good things about getting D'Angelo Russell out of there is it, You can't have LeBron play point guard all night, but when I watch the Lakers, I think of the playoff version of them because I know this is going to sound crazy to me. I like this Lakers roster.

a little bit you know not i i think there's a lot of different options and reeves being on the ball more makes him better d'angelo not being there in those slow possessions where everybody's just waiting to see whatever it is that he wants to do because like with d'angelo it's don't don't hit me over the head with the shooting numbers like look at these possessions like oh cool high pick and roll you're gonna stall with the basketball you're gonna lean down it's like you're doing the limbo and everybody's sort of like waiting and you're just waiting for like the one cut that's an assist and

Having Finney Smith, I know the Spurs, like Chris Paul put on just a master class of surgery matchups against them, which was nice to see from my guy. But when I look at the Lakers, I'm like, all right, I actually like a lot of the pieces here. AD's been terrific. Finney Smith's a good pickup because they needed to change their perimeter defense.

I think I like the possessions of LeBron playing point more than the other ones, but we're not going to see it in January and February. Like, is there a version of this that's kind of sneaky where LeBron paces himself and he has something in him to be able to do this for multiple weeks?

And then I'll watch his rotations on defense and I'll go, man, like, are you going to do that in the playoffs too? Because I don't know that they can survive. This sounds crazy, but as great as he is offensively, the numbers are still great. He's passing and all those different things.

For the Lakers to be at least taken seriously as maybe an upset alert team in the playoffs, in the West, my guess would be he's not going to have the same approach defensively. And maybe he plays more point guard. I'm not talking myself into the Lakers winning the West here. I'm just trying to figure out how viable they are to be matched up with some of these other teams.

It's not the three teams like last year or four teams.

Like I'm really worried about them.

Yeah, that's what it feels like, the first half of this. So I don't know if I just did a good Lakers. Was that a positive Lakers segment or a negative one? I think it was positive. Here's, I think, the other part of the story of just where we're at roster-wise and how much talent there is in this league. I was doing the top 100 for the Ringer last night, and I was looking at different rotations.

Portland stinks. And yet, you're like, look at all this depth.

No, but there's just teams where I'm writing down going like this is their fifth or sixth guy. They're not even good. Like this team isn't isn't any good. And there's like, I don't know, two or four guys I kind of like on this team. It just feels very different from 20 years ago where you were like, that's their third option. Like this is an NBA team's third option. Like this team's doomed.

And yeah, I just think there's way more talent, but we'll see what happens before the deadline. Anything else? I kept you here quite a bit, so I could let you go now.

I've enjoyed reading his stuff all season long. So he's going to help us look for some things in the divisional round for this weekend that he's going to pick all the games. We've got a lot of advice. Joining us to talk about the NBA as we're about the halfway mark, almost game 40 for a lot of teams, is Bobby Marks, former front office executive and one of my favorite NBA guests.

Yeah. I still wonder like if it ends up becoming this moment where you can dictate all these things or if the actual value of the picks is diminished, you know, where it

the first thought when you tweeted that out was like look at all these teams that are going to be controlling the first round it's 14 picks for the other 24 teams but there could be another side of it where the team that wants a pick's like well i don't have to i don't have to pay your price i'll just call the other team because you can't like oklahoma city can't keep drafting this many guys especially as they start making more and more commitments financially here um

unless they were going to get really aggressive and go like the Oakland A's path of this and re-sign their guy, trade him, and then draft a replacement. But when you're flirting with titles, you're flirting from the NBA championships, nobody wants to be that cute. I would have a hard time believing that that's what they would actually do. You're the best.

Where can we see all your stuff on YouTube and make sure that everybody's caught up?

I'm going to do that tonight. Easy reading. That's my Wednesday. I'm excited. You're the best. Thanks for the time, man. We'll talk soon.

Let's get ready for some NFL football. Somebody who I've enjoyed having on in the past. I love reading stuff on The Athletic. A real film breakdown of what's going on in some of these NFL matchups is Ted Wynn. All right, man. Let's get into this Baltimore-Buffalo deal. All right. So, I mean, some of these cases we have previous games to look at. Week four here, Baltimore just gashes Buffalo.

They run it all over them. This is also the seventh time in NFL history we've had a matchup of two teams who've averaged over 30 plus points a game during the regular season. So I know that some of the questions will be similar in the like, what do you see from the film there that you think is repeatable? Some of the adjustments where the teams are right now.

So wherever you want to go on that first one that we're all looking forward to.

Yeah, I think, you know, in the wildcard round, we saw a bunch of rematches that, you know, you couldn't really take a lot from because the teams are so different. I think that there are some things you can take from the first game with the Bills and the Ravens. Like, for example, the Bills run defense hasn't improved much. They're still a bad run defense. They're very light.

So, um, I, I could see the Ravens gashing them on the ground. Um, the first play of the game in that, that game was like a 98 yard touchdown from Derrick Henry. Um, so I don't know how they're going to prove in that front or how they're going to try to stop Derrick Henry. Um,

last week against the Steelers, the Ravens kind of went back to this like option Lamar Jackson offense where Derek Henry was in a shotgun. They usually like to run them from the pistol under center. I think they're going to go back to just being a heavy offense where they're just going to run Derek Henry and then they're going to play action off of it.

You're not going to see as much option football from Mar Jackson just because the bills front is so light on the offensive side of the ball. The bills are much different. I mean, In the early parts of the season, they were really struggling because they didn't have a separator. They were throwing a bunch of targets to Mac Hollins, who is like a special teams guy.

Keon Coleman wasn't quite the receiver he is now. Not that he's like an all-star ball winner right now, but he's much more effective than he was early in the season. So... this is a game where Amari Cooper has to show up and he hasn't, he's been pretty inconsistent and they haven't really targeted him much.

But the Ravens are going to challenge these, these receivers and somebody is going to have to win an outside for, for Josh Allen.

You know, the Pittsburgh Baltimore game, you know, going into it, I've already covered this on Monday where I just, you know, I'd watch the two teams play and I'd be like, how does Pittsburgh keep beating this team? You know, and some of the history was Lamar's availability. And then, They get him towards the end of the regular season, but then it was so dominant during wildcard weekend.

And you did a breakdown of kind of the different attacks that Pittsburgh thought they could go into this with it. Did, did Baltimore just solve Pittsburgh without any adjustments or is it just the way Baltimore is rolling right now? Cause I thought the breakdown was just really good on like the responsibilities of the linebackers.

Yet it seemed like Baltimore was just so comfortable with everything Pittsburgh tried to do or the lack of adjustments from Pittsburgh.

Yeah, I mean, they're comfortable because Pittsburgh only had one answer against Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry in the option game. And usually when you're going against the option game, you have to have multiple answers and you have multiple ways to play that option. And one of the ways you play it is called scrape exchange, where you have the defensive end crash into the running back.

forcing Lamar Jackson to keep the ball. And then you have a linebacker loop around and take Lamar Jackson. And, you know, you could do that sporadically. You could do it, you know, once or twice to kind of surprise them. But for some reason, Pittsburgh just decided that's the only answer we're going with. And we're sticking with it the entire game.

And the Ravens just kept on having different answers for it. And, um, They just gashed them for big plays. I mean, they just put a tie down on the backside and blocked the end. And then that way there's nobody crashing on a running back, opened up the A-gap, and that's how you get that big Derrick Henry run.

So, I mean, if you're the Bills watching that tape, you could have a scrape exchange and you could have that strategy in your game plan. But you also need to know that you have to have three or four other strategies to try to stop the option so that they don't just – At least make him think. At least make Lamar Jackson think a little bit and make him a little indecisive about the option.

But again, I don't think the option is going to be a huge part of this game because I just think the Bills are very light up front and they don't have to do that. They could just line up Derrick Henry behind Lamar Jackson and hand the ball off.

Yeah, I'm with you on the Pittsburgh thing. Just watching that game where it was like, okay, they're going to attack the running back. They're not going to wait. They're going to attack. And then it's like, okay, but now Lamar just kind of

knows every single time so like i've wondered at times with lamar over the course of the season if they've paced him to just unleash this version of him and maybe i'll just pivot this into a question of like maybe it was pittsburgh specific maybe it was about getting him ready for like the full arsenal of it but also to like what other people who've come on and talked to us like whether it was fitzpatrick or foxworth have been like look this is just a very different approach because they need they they knew they needed to be something post greg romans

for Lamar to have a better chance in the playoffs. So take that wherever you want to go and kind of your expectations for Lamar in this version, because obviously it hasn't worked out for him.

Yeah. I think this is the first time where they don't have to be an option team because they have the option to, or they have the ability to just line up behind center and just hand the ball off to Derek Henry. And, you know, part of the option football is it, it, you're putting more on the shoulders of the quarterback.

So now that you could just hand the ball off to Derek Henry, the quarterback could take a break. You don't have to have the quarterback be part of the play every single time. And that's part of the appeal of having a run game is it's not always on the shoulder of the quarterback. And when you have a run game that involves a quarterback, he's part of it every play.

And that's part of who the Ravens have been. And now... That doesn't have to be all on Lamar's shoulders. So I think especially against this Bills front where they are lighter, I just think the Ravens just have so many things they can do offensively where it doesn't all have to be a Lamar every time. And I think Lamar has talked about it where he has been jittery in playoff games.

When I've watched Jimmy this year, the advanced stuff is off the charts for him. I think that's really misleading. I see a guy that is disinterested a lot of nights. I've seen entire stretches of a quarter where he doesn't even want to get involved in the action. It's funny because you could have the advanced stats thrown in your face.

And you can see in that Pittsburgh game, too, they didn't want to pass Spalaton, and they were having a lot of success in the run game. But I think part of that was just to calm Lamar down and just give him a little bit of a mental break and let him get into the flow of the game.

On the Buffalo side of this, I'd agree. I don't know that there's anything we can really point to, and the Rams game wasn't that long ago, where it feels like at least if you're picking the game, like the Baltimore game, rushing attack against this Bills front.

But if we look at Buffalo's offensive line, and I don't know how much you put into the pass block win rate and rush win rate stuff, but if you go by individual players, like Buffalo has like three guys that are just off the charts on these grades.

And there was something else I was looking at this morning that I thought was really interesting and how often they line up with a sixth offensive lineman. It's number one in the league, 148 plays this year. It's like 60 more than the number two team. And they did it a bunch against Denver.

Is that something, I mean, certainly you have to be prepared for if you're Baltimore, but is that something against Baltimore's front where you feel like Buffalo is going to want to go to that as they have during the regular season?

Yeah, it's a big part of their offense now where they are moving under center more and just taking Josh Allen out of the equation and just being able to hand the ball off to James Cook. I think part of that is just the league is moving towards very light fronts, more too high boxes. So a lot of the really good teams are ahead of that.

And they've built this really strong run game where they could attack those fronts just fast. by running the running back instead of having the option and that sort of deal too. And the Bills have a very strong offensive line. Deion Dawkins, I think, is having a career year at left tackle. Spencer Brown is playing really well at right tackle.

But the Ravens also have the number one run defense in the league. So I don't know if they can just go to their six offensive linemen sets and run the ball like they did against the Broncos. They just straight up bullied the Broncos. They got under center and they just bullied them up front. you're not going to be able to do that against this Ravens front.

I think this is a game where you're going to have to spread them out and you're going to have to run Josh Allen a ton. He's going to have to be a huge part of the running game against this Ravens front.

Let's take a look at Philadelphia and the Rams. The Rams, as we all know, started 1-4. I think there's some stuff that you could talk about looking back schedule-wise, but getting blasted by Arizona week two by 30 points was like, okay, what's going to happen here? The offensive line was a massive problem. the injuries of receiver, and they come out and they dominate Minnesota.

Real quick, do you think there was anything from the Minnesota-Detroit game that impacted Shula, a D coordinator's approach to what they wanted to do against Darnold?

It's like, look at his PER, look at the windshield, look at the efficiency, look at all this stuff. The guy takes a million free throws because people go for the up fake and he gets the call. I think the free throw stuff for him is saving his statistical profile in a way that you don't really pick up unless you watch them enough. And it's not to say, like, he's washed. I'm not saying that.

Yeah, I think the Rams are typically a zone team. They like to play back a little bit and just kind of keep everything in front of them. But they were much more aggressive against the Vikings. They were pressing them, doubling Justin Jefferson, just not giving those receiver free releases.

And then that allowed the pass rush to really work against a Minnesota offensive line that's pretty weak offensively. their best tackle, Brian O'Neill. He struggled in that game. Cab Robinson has struggled all season. And the interior line is really bad. So once you force Sam Darnold to hold the ball a little bit and let that pass rush get to work, they have a lot of problems.

So, you know, I don't know if they're going to do that. against the Eagles. I think the number one thing is they're going to have to try to stop Saquon Barkley. But this is going to be a much different game for the Rams. I think against Minnesota, there's some, it's just a good matchup. Some of the strengths versus their weaknesses kind of matched up very well.

This is going to be a much, much different game for the Rams.

You could hear, like, why I really like Aikman on a broadcast is when he's kind of over something. He lets you know without being nasty about it. But watching Darnold drop back and hold on to the football and just the tone of Aikman's voice as it kept happening. And at one point where you could just tell he was over it, then it happened, I think, the next play.

And he's telling the audience in a way without necessarily using his words, which I thought was just really high-level stuff because you're just watching Darnold have this awful game. All right, so we go back and look at the... What midseason matchup with the Rams here, the Eagles and Barkley just absolutely gashed him. They got all over Stafford five, six sacks in that one.

But yeah, it's the Rams feel like that. Not a great record. I kind of hate that nobody wants to play this team because I mean, we've got eight teams left. Like most of them are going to be really good. There's not really anybody going to be sneaking into this. Unless you were to get some sort of upset, whatever.

But just kind of looking at that matchup to where the Rams are now might be because I don't really know what to make of the Green Bay game because of Hurts essentially being out of action for almost a month. It wasn't great on offense. It's not what you would want. But I think to be fair, you have to look at it being a pretty abnormal situation for Hurts going into his first playoff game this year.

Yeah, for sure. It just felt like they didn't want to take a lot of risk with Jalen hurts. A lot of the passing game was very simple, you know, and they've been better throughout the season. And, you know, maybe they just felt like their defense was going to win the game for them and they didn't have to take too many chances. And against the Rams, they could fall into a similar script.

But obviously the Rams offense is playing much better now. They have a healthy offensive line and healthy receiving group. And during the season, it was like either the receivers were healthy and the offensive line couldn't get healthy. But now that... Um, they're both healthy. The offense should be much better than they, uh, were against the Eagles when they played in a regular season.

Um, but also, um, there have been stretches where Matthew Stafford just has struggled, um, against some of the better defenses. Um, I mean, they had like a three game stretch in the season where they really were inconsistent. And part of the reason why they're so good against the Vikings is because the Vikings blitz a lot. They try to do a bunch of like coverage disguises and all that.

But Matthew Stafford is a veteran quarterback. He's one of the smartest quarterbacks in the league. And he could figure that stuff out. But against the Eagles, they do a lot of disguising, but they don't rely on the blitz to get home. They don't rely on trickery. They could just play you straight up because they have very good players all across the board.

I think the Memphis thing is probably the only one that I've heard that actually makes basketball sense because it raises your ceiling. Like, this is another really interesting thing. Like, when you look at the West this summer and you're like, look at all of that depth.

So this could be a matchup where Stafford does struggle. I don't think it's going to be just, you know, oh, the Rams are healthy. They're explosive on offense again. I could see them struggling against this Eagles defense.

And the Eagles are not going to have my guy, N'Kobi Dean, at middle linebacker, which is super frustrating because he's one of my favorite college players. And I'll just have these moments where I'm like, well, he has to be good in the pros. Even though I realize he was undersized, he gets off to kind of a slow start. And like, how many snaps is this guy even getting?

And then once he figures it all out and with bond, like this group, I think the personnel turnover, I mean, you can even speak to what the Rams have been doing here in the draft. Now that's nice. They have some picks, like all the young guys on that defense for the Rams, like overhauling that roster in a really, really short amount of time.

But then when you think about the Eagles just kind of reloading from being in the Super Bowl two years ago to the guys that they have, and Nolan Smith starting to make plays, and obviously Carter's always fun to watch there. So you feel like there's enough depth, even though the Dean loss is a significant loss.

There should be enough skill, enough playmakers around that defense that it's not going to derail who they are on defense. Yeah, for sure. All right, let's take a look at Houston and Kansas City. Now, I love some of your notes on Houston. for this one because we've had Sando on for years in the Cook Index.

We all love it, like your tendencies, how aggressive you are in the passing game when the score is not dictating play calling and all that kind of good stuff. Houston does not cook. Traditionally, I think you had to know. I think I read it from you where if you look at third and 10 or more yards. Right. So just absolutely brutal third down situations.

Houston had the second most third and 10 plus downs, third and third down, third and 10 plus. Again, I screwed that up. But the second most in the NFL behind only Cleveland, which is not where you want to be as you're going into the playoffs. And it looked like that was going to be the approach against the Chargers. What happened in that game?

And the depth was kind of based on fear of like, imagine having to go up against them in the Western Conference Finals and everything. Other than OKC, I don't really think there's anyone to be afraid of. It's not that there's not depth, but the rating, like if there were tier one depth, it's like a bunch of tier two to tier three depth. And maybe Dallas, because man, when they have those guys...

I mean, there's a lot of stuff, the Herbert stuff as well. But what happened specific to maybe the play calling and the aggressiveness that we saw from Houston that we're not used to seeing with their O.C. ?

Yeah, so cook rate basically measures how aggressive you are as far as passing the ball on early downs before, you know, the score could really, you know, like if you're up by a lot of points, then obviously you're going to run the ball a little bit more or in a two minute drill, you're not going to run the ball. So cook rate takes account of all that.

And against the Chargers, the Texans had the highest cook rate they had the entire season by far. So Bobby Slowick, who is typically a run-run pass guy, which is one of the reasons why they get in so many third and longs is because they can't run the ball. They are the least efficient run game in the entire league. They have the lowest success rate as far as run.

the entire league lower than the Raiders and the Raiders were God awful this season, but he keeps going to this run, run pass. And then, you know, they get zero yards, zero yards. And then all of a sudden you're in third and 10 and you expect CJ Stroud to kind of save you. And for, for a part of the season, he was doing that pretty well, but then that kind of just catches up to you after a while.

And that's one of the reasons why the Houston offense has been so disappointing. But against the, the,

against the chargers uh they passed a little bit more on early downs they spread out they got into empty sets uh they went got into four by one sets and and got nico collins uh iso'd up so they found ways to just quickly got rid of get rid of the ball and create some positive yards on first down and after the chargers defense got worn down that's when the run game kind of took over you saw joe

and take over in that game. And we got to give a lot of credit to Joe Mixon because in that game, there are so many times where they had penetration and he was able to just find a way to wiggle his way out and get some yards. I mean, this Texas offensive line is just not very good at run blocking or pass blocking.

Yeah, that's what's weird is because I was looking at some of the win rate stuff again, and I was surprised to see Houston on the better side of some of the pass block win rate stuff, but the run stuff is just abysmal. across the board.

And, you know, I think this is important stuff though, because there's so much of it is just focused on, we'll look at Stroud and, you know, there's a slight decline and he was so clean in the interception part of it. Like unless you're peak Aaron Rogers or Brady, you're probably not staying down at that low of a number with the interceptions.

So then it's, it's kind of labeled as like, well, Stroud's taking a step back and, you know, look again, there's statistical stuff to tell you that this is exactly what's going to happen. But if it's long developing routes and, for a team where you don't like the O line that is sort of run predictable at all those times, you know, maybe, maybe there's more baked into it. You know what I mean?

More than there's, there's another level of understanding with the quarterbacks. Um, because I think most of us are huge fans of Stroud, like Fitzpatrick coming on last week saying like he wants his sons to watch how he throws a football. And I know that it's more than arm talent and all that kind of stuff, but I just,

I feel like over the long haul of the Stroud experience, even going back to the Georgia game, there's just a lot with him that you would like. And the way he just plays the position beyond just some of the talent stuff. Now, we pivot that into Kansas City because we know that they're going to dial up pressure. And I feel like Kansas City dials up pressure when you most expect it.

we know what they did last year and they know what kind of exactly who they are. And I like their, I like their rotation options even better than last year's finals team. Um, I don't know if Denver is going to be good enough to like be at that OKC level. Certainly not Minnesota. I really love watching Houston, but there's certain nights with them that I don't always love.

It's actually very predictable that this is what we've been saving, and we're not going to save it for a time to trick you. We're going to throw it at you when we need to throw it at you. How do you like that matchup for Houston's front, essentially?

It's going to be tough. I mean, this is as healthy as the Texans have been up front and in the secondary. They might get Watson back. And if you look at the splits and their defense when Watson was healthy, And when he left, I mean, they're pretty dramatic. I mean, if you're a man coverage team, you need corners to play man coverage.

And now they have potentially two cornerbacks that could kind of lock up the outside and buy some more time for them up front. And this is a very talented front with Charles Amenehu back in the lineup.

um you know obviously chris jones um and we talked about uh we talked about how the texans were able to get those quick passes on early downs it's going to be much tougher against kansas city because they they're going to press you they're going to press those receivers um and they did that in the week 16 matchup and for some reason you know slow it kept on trying to throw these bubble screens and they would get stopped for like negative yardage every single time so i think

If he's smart, he's not going to do that anymore, especially against these press corners that are very good at tackling. And the thing that they had some success with is just throwing it deep to Tankdale in that game where they were seeing these heavy blitzes. And shroud was just backing up and trying to get some time and just chucking it deep to take Dell.

And, you know, they got that touchdown where Dell was unfortunately hurt on off of it. But the question is who's going to be that deep ball winner for, for the Texans. Now they're going to double Nico Collins. Steve Spagnola is one of the best defense coordinators as far as taking away your number one weapon.

Um, so who's going to be that secondary guy that's going to be able to beat these chiefs, um, defenders. I don't know who that's going to be, whether they're going to turn to Mechie or they're going to, you know, Robert Woods is not a deep ball winner at his age.

Um, so, so that's the big question for the Texans is, is who's going to be that guy that could take the top off the defense when they're doubling Collins and when they're bringing pressure.

We're a huge Robert Woods podcast, but I understand what you're saying. Kansas City, red zone touchdown percentage. I looked it up again this morning. 22nd in the NFL. Not good. That's really bad. Usually means like you're just leaving points out there all the time. Usually means it's a quarterback. Maybe you don't trust. Maybe it's a play calling thing.

All these different things, except it is maybe the guy we trust more that's ever played the position. Still some work to do on the Brady resume. But then I looked it up last year and they were

So the Memphis part, the Memphis part from a basketball, like, hey, let's just get this guy in here who's a motherfucker and see what happens. That one kind of makes a lot of sense. Is this one of those deals where he's more motivated if he's hearing the right things financially ahead of time about what his options are this summer?

19th in red zone touchdown percentage so uh actually across my home's career it's a little bit lower than you would think there was a great year two years ago where there was second touchdown percentage i think the chiefs are one of the weirdest teams i can ever remember going into the playoffs because the record is insane we know all the close calls with them we know that the offensive

approach has changed i don't know if that's a personnel thing i don't know if it's a maturity thing with holmes but it's a depth of target thing kelsey's had three touchdowns this year although i think he's been a bigger part of the offense the second half of the season i don't really think that's debatable with any of this stuff um i think i'll ask it this way where do you rank kansas city like if you could if you could make money on and i'm not even talking about a spread but you get baltimore

Because I don't think anybody's picking Houston under the equation here. If you get Baltimore, Buffalo, or Kansas City right now, who do you think is the best chance? Well, see, that's That question doesn't work either because Buffalo and Baltimore are playing each other. I guess I'll just ask it this way. Who do you think is the best team in the AFC today?

To me, it's the Chiefs. I mean, they haven't been healthy all season. Now they're as healthy as they've ever been at any point this season. We know Patrick Holmes kind of flips the switch in the playoffs. They have the playoff experience. It's just a hard... it's hard to pick anybody, but, but Kansas city, in my opinion. And obviously the Ravens have an amazing roster.

They're playing very well right now. But, you know, I just want to see Lamar Jackson be able to do it in the post season, especially when he's going to be in a game where a lot, there's going to be a lot more on his shoulders. I thought, Pittsburgh just kind of gave the game away with what they were doing. And really, there was just not a ton of pressure on Lamar Jackson.

But when he's faced off against a Josh Allen or a Mahomes where he's in a bit of a shootout situation, how is he going to handle it? I mean, I love Lamar as much as anyone, but I just want to see him do it in this setting.

Yeah, I mean, look, it's the home field. It's the, hey, they get to play Houston, so there's an easier path conversation. But it sounds like we're just talking straight team. You're going cheap. Sorry, before we get your rapid-fire picks, let's just finish with Washington and Detroit here.

We know Detroit blitzes, I think, the second-highest rate in the NFL, and yet Jaden Daniels is a young quarterback that seems to be comfortable against it. There's all sorts of numbers that tell you he's – I'd say at worst top 10 quarterback against some of the pressure stuff going through the grade of the game against Tampa.

There's probably some stuff you could pick apart from Jaden, except when you need him the most. He's doing the unthinkable and he's saving a team. And then doing it in a playoff level two on top of everything else. So how do you see the Jaden attack against what Detroit is going to do? Where I imagine it's probably a carryover from what we saw at the end of the regular season with Aaron Glenn.

It's like, all right, if we don't have these guys healthy, we are just going to be as aggressive. We're not going to be passive and lose. We're going to be aggressive. If we lose that way, they'll just feel better about it because that seems to be the entire team's culture.

Yeah, they're going to blitz Jaden like crazy. I mean, part of the reason why you want to blitz a mobile quarterback is because you surround it with more bodies. So there's less of a chance that they could scramble and you get into some of those cover zero blitzes. So they just throw the ball and get rid of it. So they're not trying to scramble around and create plays.

But like you mentioned, Jaden Daniels has been phenomenal. against the Blitz all season. He's third in EPA against the Blitz, and you usually don't see that with rookie quarterbacks. But he's just so calm, and he's able to throw the ball deep against the Blitz, too. He's not just throwing hot routes. Terry McLaurin's one of his favorite targets against

blitz and you remember that cover zero blitz he beat at the end of the cincinnati game that really kind of you know wowed everyone that was the first that was the first throw this year with him i'm like that throw is like all-time stuff so yeah i didn't mean to interrupt but i just wanted to back up like that was a moment on the couch where you go yeah it's pretty special but go ahead

So, I mean, we're going to have to see him try to beat this Blitz deep because they play Blitz and they're going to play a lot of man coverage. And they're probably going to do what they did against Sam Darnold and the Vikings, where they're going to double Justin Jefferson and try to dare somebody else to beat you.

So, Dynami Brown, who's kind of come on as late, I think he's going to be a huge part of this game. But, yeah, I mean, I think... Detroit is going to do a good job of limiting what Jaden can do on the ground because they're just going to bring bodies at him. It's going to be tough for him to find running lanes.

But if he does, I mean, it's probably going to be a big play because everybody's playing man coverage. But I think it's going to be up to guys like Zach Ertz and Dynamic Brown to win against one-on-one coverage. And the lines have been a little bit weaker against tight ends, especially after all the injuries. So we'll see if Ertz can do it. But also, the Lions are very good against a run, too.

So that's another problem for this Washington offense. And the Lions are likely going to score a lot, which is going to change the game script and force them into a passing game script, which is another difficult thing that the commanders are going to have to deal with.

All right, rapid fire picks. Let's start in the AFC with the headliner, Buffalo, Baltimore.

I think the Ravens are going to win.

All right. Sounds like Kansas City over Houston. No surprise there. Yeah. And Detroit, Washington. Detroit. Rams, Eagles.

Eagles. I hate to be boring and pick all the favorites, but I have a tough time seeing upsets this week.

Look, I You know, I wish I had done it more during the college football playoff, but sometimes I try to get cute myself. And, you know, maybe you'll feel better Monday if it goes off shock. If you want to read more Ted stuff, check it out on The Athletic. I promise you will enjoy it and it helps you get ready for some big playoff games. Thanks, man. No problem.

Thanks for having me on.

Let me tell you what's required. Normally, we start with life advice, email address, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Kyle and Sruti are here, and Borgon is back from Disney. He turned off his microphone. It's Kyle.

astutely said, do not turn off anything, uh, because we're going to start with you fresh from Orlando, uh, with a, what looks like a, a thick cotton Taylor Swift shirt on top of everything else. Surprises never end. Uh, how are you?

I don't know what is or isn't anymore, to be honest with you. Is that fair?

Yeah. I think it's all positive. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, You're back. Talk to us, guy.

Uh, were you already in Orlando sick?

So wait, you got sick at home? At home. In New York. And then I'm like, I'm still getting on the plane. Trip was already booked.

Didn't have trip insurance. Too cheap to not go. Epcot waits for no man.

Booking dot, nah. Yeah, so it was already booked. How was your significant other as far as a caretaker?

She was like, I'm not. Was she like, I don't know. Was she like in a caring mode or was she like in a half marathon mode?

Right. Uh, anything else? Any, any snacks? Did you, did your stomach turn around that you could start eating Disney food or?

Okay, let's look at it this way. Let's look at all these headline things. Let's talk it out, all the different stuff. I have talked about Jimmy Butler, not a ton on the pod, but I felt like it's exciting. It's the big name. It's the next domino to fall with the drama. I mean, we're used to having these things happen, so this is exciting. So he gets suspended. He's eligible to come back tomorrow.

Yeah. Butter noodles.

Yeah. I remember when, you know, one of those, so Rudy understands this, but like when you're at ESPN, one of the weirdest things is just the Disney stuff that you get.

And you get this card that seemed like really impressive, some platinum Disney card. And then I used, I never used any of it. And then once, right. Then people would always be asking like, Hey, do you have your passes that you can give to other people? And that was always a pain in the ass. Cause you had to like transfer over. I was the recipient of one of those ones. Yeah. Yeah.

But there would be people that you worked with that would be like, I already gave my four passes, but like, I'm trying to get 16 people down there. Correct. So like, we're still doesn't have any kids. And then I remember the first time I opened it up because I don't even think I knew. And then it was just all of these expired passes.

And I did it in front of the person that was asking me and they just looked at all that. They're like, Oh my God, look at all those expired passes. Like just this log. And granted, whenever you had to get on like the internal corporate hub, that to me was like, you might as well just, you might as well just drop me in a maze that has no opening. Cause I, I don't know what the hell's going on here.

They're like, you need to figure out that you have to update this or whatever. And I just remember like getting this, this package of all of these things. And, I just remember in the moment looking at him going, I'm never going to use any of this stuff. But it's too bad Wargon, you don't have anybody from your days at ESPN that you could reach out to. Exactly. I know. So that's unfortunate.

So there's nothing else. I mean, I feel like there's always something else, another morsel with you that I don't want to leave untouched.

It's a risky run. Yeah.

It doesn't sound like an F, but I don't... Is that D trip for you?

Sure. Okay. All right. Well, thanks, man. Glad to see you're feeling better. And look out. I mean, the next time... This is like a movie, right? The first five minutes would be you throwing up in Orlando and then the movie starts, kind of, and you're getting ready for something in Chatham. All right. Let's see here. We have a lot of people following up on... The bat story with Cerruti.

Honestly, Cerruti, I would like to hear less exasperation out of you because people are on your side. Kind of just pumped about the way you handle this. So, yeah. I don't know.

Yeah, maybe I, you know, I, Obviously, we have to defer to them. There was somebody who emailed in and said, I heard Saruti talking about the bat that was in his house and the standard procedure in my area is that anyone who's slept in the same building as a bat gets a rabies shot unless they catch the bat and have it tested. So there you go.

My wife is a teacher and it's happened to a couple of her students in the last couple of years. Unvaccinated rabies is 100% fatal in humans. Literally, there's never been anyone to survive it. Please read this or someone else's email on the subject. People need to know to not mess around. So yeah, there's an article there that we're not going to read on the pod.

But yeah, Michael Scott tried to solve rabies and his co-workers laughed at him. Race for the cure. Maybe you guys could do a rabies fun run. For real.

Right. There's your run.

Then, uh, there was another one that said, Steve's not getting enough credit, uh, all the alpha in the room. And then there was some other followups on to how the rest of us would handle it. Uh, I, when it ever comes to stuff, I get way too much credit. There's a time where maybe I'd be your guy, but I'm not sure that I am anymore. Um, somebody wrote in and said, should I read the crow email?

Not based on the movie or Russell. All right, let's read the crow email. Cause I thought it was pretty good. Uh, all right. The setting is a bachelor party at the Oregon coast for dudes in their mid twenties in the house, a two story deal where the entire upstairs is a single bedroom. We're all hanging downstairs.

We start hearing noises from the bedroom as if some thing or someone is now in the house. We look around and make sure nobody has gone up there. Sure enough, everyone is accounted for. That would be easy, though, right? All right. Roll call. One, four. All right. We're all here.

Myself and the other guy decide to slowly walk up the stairs to see what's going on with literally no clue what we might find. Turns out it wasn't on my bingo card. It's a two-foot jet black crow that had flown through a window. It was now flying from ceiling fan to ceiling fan in the bedroom. Panicked. The thing was massive, all caps.

And if you haven't seen a crow up close, it's a terrifying looking thing. Now what? None of us are all that interested in finding out how in real life crows respond to humans trying to help them out of a bedroom. So we call animal control closed on weekends. The machine, though, says to call the non-emergency line, which we do.

Sure enough, 30 minutes later, a cop arrives, probably disgusted by the lack of masculinity in the house, probably grabs a broom, walks up the stairs, smacks the crow out of the air, bare hands it, tosses it out the window onto the deck, and it flies away as if nothing happened. So here's the question. How would you guys have handled the situation? Again, this is another one.

My guess, Sruti at best doing what he did. Oregon is doing the cop's job. Kyle's leaving the house and hoping the crow is gone by the time it gets back. See, I think Kyle would. Well, if his wife is there, that's a big thing.

It's a massive swing. It's like Andy Dalton in a primetime game.

Yeah. I mean, if it's a crow, she'd probably adopt it. It's like, Hey, this is Cameron.

Yeah. I think a cop is always, if it's four guys, they're going to, they're going to be disappointed in you. Just because it's like, there's other stuff going on other than a crow. it's four guys. So like, I'm sure, I'm sure you feel enough shame already that we don't need to add to it. I remember I had this one stretch where I felt like I was getting messed with, um, quite a bit a few years ago.

I also think, okay, see, um, didn't like the Meechich fit and went, hey, let's get off of this money too on the Gordon deal on top of everything else. So I think there was like another layer of that was like, oh, look, they're doing something that may not work out, but there's also potentially another smart reason why they're doing it.

And somebody showed up to my, I think I've already talked about this. Like somebody showed up to my door and I couldn't, the camera wouldn't turn on right as it was happening. So I had no idea what was going on. And then, so I just called the cops. And then when they apprehended a dude who was just totally confused and pretty banged up, um, They kind of just looked at me like, you got to call us.

And I was like trying to explain it a little bit. And I went, you know what? This is just take the L. There's nothing else.

And you know, put yourself in the situation, middle of the night, bat flying around. Why? If you get a kid, you know, uh, I think just some people are used to bats. You know, there's people listening right now. That's not the way you do it. Right. I think most of us aren't, but again, rabies awareness, Thank you for the email. All right. Let's get to a couple of emails here.

Hanging out with rich friends. I've listened since the beginning and finally thought of a good question. 5'10 and a good day, 180. I've been practicing basketball while my eight-year-old has his select practice. If you leave me open, I'm dangerous. Let's go, JJ Redick.

My question stems from hanging out with my core friend group where one of us is a business owner and does very well for himself in life. The rest of us do just fine, mid $100,000 salary in the Midwest with a low cost of living, but it's not close to what this guy pulls down.

I thought this might be relatable to Ryan, but what I'm trying to figure out is the level of guilt we should feel if we were doing the experience that he offers to pay for that we otherwise wouldn't be able to do. Recently, we were all going to go get tickets to a sought after college football game, take all of our kids. That's a lot of tickets. And we were looking for normal bowl seats.

And then he just buys all of them right down by the field and tells us to send him whatever we would have paid anyway. Do you do that? He tries to do the same thing on vacation. We were picking somewhere to stay and he just books the best place and send what we want. I'm an adult with a wife and three kids. So how do I handle it? Do I struggle? and pay my full share on pride.

Because they probably expected a little bit more out of him when they finally brought him over and given him an extension. Well, not an extension, but like a multi-year deal. All right. Maybe we make this the Golden State part and then we'll get the deal after this. Because I totally get it. Like you need to figure out with Steph at this age and still playing as well.

Do I swallow it and trust that he really means it and doesn't care to be clear. The amounts are definitely not affecting his personal situation whatsoever.

Um, good.

Um, no, I don't think, I think you have to look at it from the standpoint, like if he's just stepped up and now he's done this a couple of times, right? So he just said, screw it. I'm buying all these tickets. And then the vague, like,

do whatever you think is right thing or he didn't even say that which would have been a way worse way to phrase it like he gave you a really specific thing like hey whatever you're going to spend before just spend money that and then i've covered the rest of it uh you know look all of us are different right um and in this case i think you have to understand that part of his um joy of

of being able to do this stuff is that he can share it with somebody else. Right. I think this guy's coming from a pretty good place based on the description and the fact that he's booking a vacation and being like, look, I can afford this. This is the standard that I want to be at, but I also don't want you to feel bad. Now, granted, there's plenty of people listening right now.

And just to say pride wise, like I can't have you do that. I have friends. Um, there's one situation where a friend needs some help and he was like turning it down, turning it down. And finally, like a bunch of us just get together and we're like, we're not going to listen to him. Like, let's just, help our friend. He needs the help.

And of course it was a great thing and it didn't really impact us all that much. And it, and it changed, um, something for him at the time he needed it. And it was something we felt good about. Like, you know, we, we felt great that we were able to help our friend and there wasn't a moment where any of us felt like we were being asked to do something that we weren't comfortable doing.

So that's different because it was something that was far more serious. But in this case, I think what you have to understand is that he wants to be able to do

these things that he can afford but he wants to share them with somebody else and part of the reward of of having access to these different things and and just being able to have the financial freedom where he doesn't worry about it like so many of us would that you being a part of the activity with him is what he really wants because like dudes that are loaded like cool you can you can take a jet here you can stay in aspen or you know you can do all these different things

like other than me, very few people actually want to do this stuff by themselves. Uh, and I, for the record, I've never, ever taken a jet, uh, by myself where I've been like, whatever, this is a massive waste of money. Let me just go to Maui as I can. Uh, and I wouldn't, I don't think I would ever do that just by myself. Maybe who knows, never really, but, um, Just keep telling yourself that.

And as far as you and what you're supposed to do, follow his instructions. Don't feel like you have to be taxed for his aggressiveness because then you end up resenting it. And that leads to all sorts of other stuff.

I think we've even had emails on that where the one person decides this is where they want to stay and then everybody else feels like they're totally strapped or put out and then the vacation ends up being something they're kind of digging out of financially for a little while and they kind of get resentful about the whole thing.

And, you know, I think this becomes kind of the noise on social media of like, they weren't a 12 and three team. They're not a very good basketball team right now. And there's some shooting numbers where you're like, everybody was making shots. They were playing absurd level defense. But now to watch Steph out there with a massive drop off to who the number two scoring option is.

So I remember when I was, you know, back in the day and the hockey guys would come back to Burlington and they were young and they immediately were making money. And it was just kind of understood like they were going to pay for the guys that couldn't pay. And you hope it works out down the line where you can repay them.

Sometimes you can't, but most of the people being generous about this aren't doing it because they feel like they're, I'm taking too long with this whole thing. They're not being taken advantage of. They actually really want to do this. So don't feel like you have to get dollar for dollar back to him.

And if it ends up being a pride thing, then stop going with him if it's going to bother you that much. But again, clearly the emailer is not saying that it's bothering him so much. So I think this is just a win for everybody. Life's rare like, hey, I think everybody's kind of right here. So don't worry about it.

And, you know, some nights Wiggins has it. Kaminga's had a couple moments. But when you watch them in all their clutch games, I think they played 24. They lost to Toronto the other night. And you watch what Steph is dealing with. Like Steph is not the problem with this basketball team right now. I can't believe anybody could ever come to that conclusion.

Yeah, I mean, if he has enough money that none of this is ever going to bother him, I don't think he wants to be sitting 40 rows lower, turning around, waving to his friends.

Like, you know, I mean, plenty of rich guys are totally fine with it. And I think there's always something... to the rich guy in the group that pays for stuff because he wants to dictate every piece of the itinerary. So it's essentially his trip and there's a power play there.

Yeah. I mean, I've had a couple of friends where it is like that. Like you're, making it look like you're doing all of these things because you're such a gracious person. And ultimately what you're doing is controlling all of it. And that's when your boy checks out. That's when your boy's like, all right, I'm totally out of here. Or I'll upgrade in a different area. And then it's like, cool.

We all went on this trip together and now we're not going to see each other. These dudes are just... Dudes are just whipping it out left and right. All right. Can't play on basketball court office. Oh, excuse me. Can't play on office basketball court. All right. Long time fan. Thanks for the content. Six foot one, 180. Haven't lifted in a while.

My last bench was a 240 max, which I'm still pretty proud of. You should be. It's good. Player comp is maybe late career Rasheed Wallace or maybe LiAngelo Ball. or air on holiday because I went to UCLA and have a much more talented brother. The Angelo ball.

Yeah. Good rap career. You guys see that little jello? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I was psyched. I went on hoops hype in the first seven stories were about his record deal. I work at a marketing office, which is located in a huge converted warehouse. At the center of it is a beautiful basketball court with wooden floors and glass backboards. Damn. Sounds like Heaven. Center of a warehouse? Yeah.

I don't know what the logic was of putting a basketball court in a business office, but I always enjoyed getting some free throws in before or after meetings. I would sometimes hear grumblings about people being annoyed by the sound of balls bouncing, but I always thought that people should just wear headphones or get used to what was essentially white noise. I don't know about that, dude.

I mean, I couldn't be more on your side of wanting to get some shots up here, but... All right, so a few months ago, I saw a sign put up that said the basketball court could only be used after 3 p.m. or between 12 and 1 p.m. I found this a bit disheartening, but didn't have a real issue.

But you're like, okay, well, how do we help him?

I came into work really early the other day to beat traffic and had a bit of an inner conflict as to whether it'd be appropriate to get some shots up. It was around 7.20 a.m., and the office was 95% empty, though it wasn't after 3 p.m. or the 12 to 1 window. I thought it was fine since it was well before the workday. The sign also did not specify when restrictions on the basketball court started.

I think it kind of does, though, buddy. Yeah, I think it does. Yeah. If it was, say, 3 a.m., would that be allowed? 5 a.m.? In my head, I thought 8 a.m. made sense. Again, our guy showed up at 7.20. I began shooting free throws when one of the few people comes at me hot, asking me to, quote, calm down with the basketball.

When the options are the Beals of the world, not to say that they have a match for Beal, or the Butlers of the world, even though you would hate being in the front office and telling Lake up in ownership that, hey, we're going to wait for the thing that I can't tell you is going to present itself, but I'm promising you waiting for the unknown is still better than trading for the known.

I sheepishly say that I didn't know what the hour what hour the restrictions started and he angrily said I obviously couldn't play now to which I meekly asked him to calm down as I put the ball away and walk back towards my desk not wanting to escalate the situation both because I'm non-confrontational but also because I thought I was kind of in the wrong he yelled thank you as I walked away which I ignored now sitting at my desk and stewing for a few hours

I'm wondering, did he send this email, Dave? I love those. I'm wondering if I should ask the building's management to make a sign that more accurately describes when shooting free throws is permitted. I'm also tempted to play during the allotted lunch hours today, but as loudly and obnoxiously as possible, yelling and one and whatnot, just out of spite. Yo, next. Yeah. What if you...

basketball is life the rest is just details just screaming and one t-shirt slogans now i understand the need for a calm workplace but i feel wrong letting a beautiful basketball court go unused and i don't want the hellishly monotonous corporate conformity culture to win do my complaints have any validity what should i do uh i can't believe i can't believe i'm about to say this

As someone that, I mean, every time you see a hoop and a ball, it's just like, you know, it's my happy place. It's just, it's, I think you're wrong. And I think it's, I think it's pretty understood. Like we don't need more fucking signs in life, man.

Every time I see a sign for something that's painfully obvious, I just go, you know, would we just be better off if we were like, hey, if you needed that sign to not do the thing the sign is telling you to not do, can we just split up? Can we just draw a line? You get these six states. And the rest of us will take the other 44. It's like leprosy island.

Right. Like, if you were on the fence about what you could or couldn't do, but this sign, like, helped you understand, if that's the kind of direction you need in your life, like, maybe the rest of us would all be better off if we didn't have to put up those signs for you. So now, look, this is basketball. To Saruti's point, or I forget who said it, why...

Butler's Gym is just this gorgeous facility right in the middle of your warehouse. But I think at 720, it's probably kind of understood that you shouldn't be... Unless you knew you were the only person there, which you know that you weren't because you said it was 5%. So then to say, well, the sign says 12 to 1. You know what the sign saying 12 to 1 and after 3 means?

I don't think that's like a running clock after 3. The 12 to 1 is your indicator that 720 is out, man. And as much as I love this and it would be, I think I'd have to quit. I couldn't work here. Just having that there staring at me the entire time.

And I don't actually have a problem with you playing from 12 to one and being super obnoxious about it because that guy lets you have it a little bit and you're kind of pissed about it. Let's be honest.

And that's where the Butler stuff doesn't I still don't really think it changes who they are. And if you're waiting for this magical trade to change who the Warriors are and become a title contender, like you're probably waiting forever.

Yeah, but remember, our emailer is asking for like a more accurate sign. And what I'd say is, I think the 12 to 1 tells you that 720 is wrong.

Are they, though? Because I'll tell you, there's a few times I've stared at them for 10 minutes. Yeah, me too. What the fuck does that mean, though?

And it's always weird, too, because then when you come back and you get a ticket, the sign is so much clearer after the ticket. You're like, every other Wednesday. It's like it's in a foreign language while you're wondering if you're good. And then once you get the ticket, it's like somebody translated it for you. And you're like, okay, yep, this makes sense now.

That sounds like you got two women's bathrooms.

But some of these quick fix, like because somebody's a name, a Levine or these types of like acquisitions where you're like, well, you made the team better and now there's a better number two scoring option. Those are the things I would have a hard time saying yes to if you're in the position of running a front office.

I think this guy has to be pretty young.

That's my guess. Yeah. Which is, which look, I've been this guy.

You know, I mean, I've, the number of times I've been yelled at for getting a shot up.

I can't imagine. And I, you know, I don't know how many times I ever thought I was actually right. You know, it's like, but when somebody yells at you, when somebody gives you the business, and by the way, that wasn't about your free throw attempts. That's about all the free throw attempts before you.

correct that's about guys just working on non-cone dribble drills because no one i don't care if you've never played people love to touch a basketball and bounce it and then throw it at the rim like you can be i remember one time i think i was in junior high and my father was holding a ball i think after one of our practices or something and another kid's dad came up and slapped the ball out of his hands

And the guy was not an athlete, slapped the ball out of my dad's hands and then like did a layup and then kind of like laughed and he threw the ball back to my dad. And, um, my dad kind of just, I knew even at like 13, I was like, Hmm, this might not be a great idea. Right. Then he did it to him again. And I think there was a, Hey, listen, motherfucker.

Um, and then my, cause I, I never forget this because my father was like, He was upset about it in the car ride home when we were in the truck, getting truck wisdom. And he's like, there's a fucking little guy. Like, look, I didn't fucking. And I was like, all right, dad. I'm the 13 year old telling him to like, all right, chill out. He's an annoying dad. We all know he's an annoying dad.

You know, it's not the end of the world. He didn't actually steal the ball from you. It's not a real turnover. It's not on the box score. You have two turnovers now.

You know, well, that, that wasn't going to, that wasn't going to happen. Uh, all right. I think that's a, I think we got it all covered on anything else. I feel like, I feel like there's still meat on that Oregon bone.

That's dangerous stuff, man. Yeah, it happened to me once.

All right, then, man. Glad you feel better. Yeah, glad you feel better and you didn't blow up your building. Yeah. Damn, so you just opened all the windows for like four hours in the winter?

All right. Yeah. Good to see you. Thanks to Oregon. Thanks to Kyle. That is it for today's podcast. We'll be back on Friday. We'll talk some NBA. I'll probably do some kind of open on the NBA. That's a lingering in the leftover because we had double guests today and then liner getting ready for the national championship game. And then next week will be Monday, Tuesday, Friday.

So look out midweek gap. Who knows what's possible. Please check out the show on YouTube and, of course, always subscribe. Ryan Russillo, podcaster on your Spotify. Must be 21 and older and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com.

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We know that there's a massive player option north of $50 million this summer. We can talk about the egos involved and that Jimmy's a stubborn guy and that Pat is somebody who's a pretty accomplished dude who's not going to be pushed around a little bit. I guess I've just never quite wondered why the Heat would still want to be in the Jimmy Butler business.

I just don't know how the Warriors got this lucky to have somebody be this smart as the face of the franchise. I mean, he's the greatest teammate of his generation and that he would do the opposite of what so many other stars would be doing, especially as their window closes where it's like, hey, just do something because I'm a star and you owe this to me.

even though it doesn't make basketball sense. I just want to be super impatient. I want to put public pressure on you. I want to do all this bullshit stuff. It's passive aggressive because I deserve to and I get to.

And instead, Steph just goes the other way, like the logical basketball way of like, sure, yeah, we can do like something stupid, which is not what he's saying, but he's essentially saying that. All right. So do you think Giannis was saying something when he was talking about the records against the top team?

I don't know the answer, by the way.

You don't want to sign him to a long-term deal. He's 35. He was always a pain in the ass there, but he was your pain in the ass. And when you were winning, it was worth it. Now it's not worth it. I don't really think the market for him would be all that great in looking at previous deals because I think sometimes you'd be like, well, how many picks or whatever? And it's like, I don't know.

um but they have not been good against you know they beat okc in the nba cup game but they have not been good against you know the top of the eastern conference and that's who you're going to have to get through here because i think people feel like the dame acquisition was was based on yannis like the yannis smoke stuff has been really weird for like a long time and then bucks fans have just