The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Russell Wilson and NFL QB Desperation. Plus, a Big Picture Luka Chat With ‘The Wonder Boy’ Author Tim MacMahon.
Thu, 27 Mar 2025
Russillo starts the pod by examining how Russell Wilson will fit with the Giants and the landscape of backup QBs in the NFL (0:40). Then, Tim MacMahon comes on to share more information about the Luka trade, including Nico Harrison’s relationship with Kobe and Rob Pelinka, what really scared the Mavs, and the role that Mark Cuban played (16:49). Plus, Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle (56:26)! Am I mooching off my in-laws? 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 visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Tim MacMahon Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the implications of Russell Wilson's contract with the Giants?
On today's episode of the podcast, we're going to start just talking a little bit about the Russell Wilson contract, what it means, concerns I have for the Giants, and the Giants signing backups. And really, should you be doing that? Because there aren't a lot of backups to pick from. So the depth there, at least, is good for New York. We'll look at the backup market in general.
The Wonder Boy, Luka Doncic, the book is out this week. The author, Tim McMahon, will go over all of the prequel stuff to how this trade actually happened. And what we hear a retort from Brian Windhorst on their podcast. And life advice. It's March. It's 2025. Where is your backup quarterback awareness for the NFL? Mine is locked in right now.
I was looking at a list the other day, and I was like, man, that list seems bleak. Still a few moves to be made. I don't know if it's just in the moment going, that doesn't look good, where if I did the exercise every single March, every single year, I'd be like, that doesn't look good. But this just feels bad.
We're going to get to some of the backup quarterback options here in a second, but let's start with a starter. I guess, and that's Russell Wilson to your New York Giants. So the deal was first reported as one year, 21 million. That's not going to happen. It's 10.5 million guaranteed. The incentives are going to make him a few million more if he plays every game, if he wins a bunch of games.
But to make the full 21, the stuff that I was looking at this morning, again, a lot of this stuff is very misleading on the headline. It looks good for the agent. It looks good for the player. But like, hey, 20 million for Russ. You're like, yep. He would have to win, I think, like every game and then make the playoffs. And if you go undefeated, chances are you're going to be in the playoffs.
So clearly he's going to make a few million more. I would imagine he is the starter based on him deciding to sign there, even though James Winston was just signed for two years and like eight million base. So when you just look at the numbers, you're like, OK, Wilson, clearly the priority. And then still the scenario of whether or not the Giants would take a quarterback is
with their pick at the top of the first round. So why would the Giants do this? Because I've seen a couple of different theories and let's try to explore all of them. Is it because of the lack of quarterback depth around the league? Because it feels like every year a couple of guys get hurt. There's a very repeated talking point of there's just not enough quarterbacks, right?
There's just not enough quarterback. I just feel like right now and then coming off of the anticipation. So I shouldn't say coming off of this draft because it hasn't actually happened, but we already know this is not the greatest quarterback draft. The depth of actually guys who are going to be taken, it's just not the same as a lot of other years.
So are we seeing teams more desperate to sign some names to become a backup? Or in this case, the Giants quarterback rumor, it's like, let's just... Bring somebody in here, at least at one point from a talent perspective, we'd like to flamed out somewhere else as a first round pick or Russell Wilson, who, you know, let's get to the debate on who he is right now. At least there's something there.
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Chapter 2: How will the Giants address their backup quarterback situation?
And for Wilson, we know the resume, even if it's heading in the wrong direction. So the old saying goes, because right now the Giants have two quarterbacks and with the draft, they could have three. If you have two quarterbacks, you have zero. It's a really clever line. It's also kind of stupid because I'd rather have two than zero. I think all of us would rather that.
So we understand the dynamic of having to change your mind all the time. The Rob Johnson, Doug Flutie thing was actually bad for the Bills. So it was bad ultimately when they made their final decision. But you get the point. Like, there's just a lot of extra stuff. Like, I remember...
having a debate with somebody about if you had a couple top 10 picks you just take two quarterbacks and that way you have a better chance of getting it right considering the burnout rate of these guys that are taken in the first round it's like i understand the math part of that but the reality is is all of a sudden you're bringing in an unprecedented dynamic of having two top 10 picks or two first round picks if any team were actually to ever do this
Like, yeah, we're breaking camp. These guys are splitting reps and may the best man win. And chances are one guy is absolutely not built for that. And you've already fucked up his career before it even started. So Wilson, he's limited, right? He's limited to where he can throw. He's limited on what I think offensive coordinators trust him with.
Uh, he is somebody that physically it would make sense that he's not the dynamic athlete that he was before the guy that could keep plays alive when it looked like they were about to die. He would find ways to complete passes on third down. You know, I used to just love him where it was like, everything looks like it's done. And now you have to figure out a way to make something up here.
And I thought he was like one of the best in the game at doing it. It's been a long time since we've seen that consistently delivered on Sundays. The Steeler slide is not all on him. I think that was unfair. You know, whether it was Pickens missing game or the defense falling apart, you know, Pittsburgh at one point was 10 and three.
And then we had to start talking about them as a team that could win the AFC. And then it becomes like dismissive. Like, why can't the Steelers do it? Like, look at the history, look at the defense. Yeah. look at, I don't know.
Um, well, we look at the rest of the AFC and considering what the rest of the landscape looked like and the quarterbacks that Pittsburgh was going to have to go through with Russell Wilson taking over for fields, like a very honest conversation was, yeah, that would seem to be a huge surprise despite the 10 and three record and the defensive numbers they were putting up.
But the slide wasn't just on Wilson, even though it played out that way. Cause that's what happens with quarterbacks all the time. Um, Think about it. Through 10 games, they were number two in opponents' points per game. They were giving up 16 a game. The next eight, including the playoffs, they gave up 26.6 points per game.
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Chapter 3: What led to the Luka Doncic trade?
Well, no, because it was it was one guy with a cell phone. Right. OK. So like, I don't know if he saw the cell phone or not. I think it was just probably not. I think that that was like it's a moment that was, frankly, it was funny at the time. And then now in hindsight, it's like, oh, but I think people might be making too much of that moment.
I haven't actually talked to Finn about it, but I think it was just more of like, hey, not in the hallway, man. Don't be drinking a beer out here for everybody to see. Behind closed doors, cool. Not in the hallway. That was my read on it, at least.
Taking it away from him, though. A man taking another man's beer away like that to prove something.
I think that's a little weird. Well, especially because Luca is an adopted Texan and you know, like, you know, you don't take a man's beer out of his hand in Texas. That's for damn sure. Um, but I, I, I do believe that Michael Finley was a strong supporter of Luca from start to finish. I would say that I would say that.
Okay, that's good. I'm glad we got that out there. Let's talk about new ownership. We all know a new ownership syndrome is a real thing, and it's almost unavoidable. The first 12 to 18 months, you are guaranteed to do something really stupid. And now we've got the stepson, Patrick. Oh, my God. And look, you even go in on the Bert Jordan thing.
You want to talk about the stuff away from the facility where it's like these guys are not super locked in. I think Patrick has had a really good run, and maybe he's brilliant in his field, but he thought he could get away with the tech Zoom conference buzzwords of this space and maximizing that for basketball people when you're using those analogies, you just kind of –
it concerns your fan base to being like, do we have an absolute fraud imposter?
Well, and I just don't think the guy knows much about basketball and there's this, like all these conspiracy theories. Oh, this is a, you know, the management demanded this because they're trying to depress the value of the franchise to move it to Vegas. Like this is QAnon whack job stuff. Like, no, that's not what happened. Nico Harrison managed up, right?
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Chapter 4: What concerns surround Luka Doncic's fitness and preparation?
Nico Harrison convinced Patrick Dumont, a guy who is a year in to having control of an NBA franchise, that, hey, we've got to get rid of this guy. You know, Luka doesn't work hard. Luka's bad for the culture. Supermax would be a terrible investment. He convinced Dumont of that, and he'd earned Dumont's trust because, listen,
The moves that Nico made before the deadline last year, which by the way, at the time, it wasn't like people were talking about the Mavs made great moves around the league. There was a lot of questions about them. But Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington ended up being critical pieces to a team that caught fire down the stretch of the regular season and made a finals run.
So Nico had built up some credibility, a lot of credibility, I would say, with Patrick Dumont based on the success of of his first transaction cycle with Dumont in control of the team. But, I mean, Dumont doesn't know much about basketball. That's pretty clear. He also doesn't have a great feel for public speaking.
The problem is, though, is because everything has worked out for him. Like, I know who these guys are. He's like, oh, I can just go up on the stage and dazzle them. And you're like, dude, if you don't grow up with this, like you can't, you can't cliff notes the NBA world in front of NBA people and pull it off. Like maybe you can at some of these other business thing, but like,
I'm sorry I interrupted, but like it's unbelievable to think like, yeah, I can just go up here and put on a suit and they'll figure like I got this.
Sure. And when he when he made those comments, we're talking about it was an interview with Brad Townsend of Dallas Morning News. It was the day after the Anthony Davis's abbreviated Mavericks debuts. So that the first home game following trade, when there was that huge protest outside the arena, you know, and sell the team F Nico, they even said some nasty things about me, which wasn't very nice.
One of them was don't buy the book, which I do appreciate the free publicity, but anyways, uh, That protest was held in the shadows of a statue of a gentleman named Dirk Nowitzki. And if you need to check on the spelling, the street right there is Nowitzki Way, right? And on that statue, 21 letters summing up 21 seasons. Man, you know, the man's game. Loyalty never fades away.
If you're going to start naming NBA legends who are like the epitome of discipline and hard work, and your target audience is a Dallas fan base, and you leave Dirk out of that, oh my God. It was honestly one of the worst PR moves I've ever seen in my life.
um cuban's role in this because as you recently pointed out on a pod it was being sold to everybody that cuban was still in charge as he was saying those things other teams were like why does everybody just keep rolling with this not because they felt like hey we need to be fat they were just fascinated with the assumption which is a bad one that okay i've given up
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Chapter 5: How did Nico Harrison's relationship with Kobe influence decisions?
Well, and look, Luka was the most accomplished, decorated teenage prospect ever to come out of Europe. And you can argue he was also extremely mis-evaluated by the NBA. Three teams passed on this guy, right? One of whom, the Phoenix Suns, had just hired Igor Koshchkov as their head coach.
This is the guy who was the Slovenian national team coach when 17-year-old Luka is the co-star with Goran Dragic of a team that won Eurobasket. Slovenia has 2 million people. It's like if there's a tournament of all the states in America and Idaho wins it, right? I mean, it's insane. And Igor had never been a head coach, wasn't a coach there for very long, just one year.
They never asked his opinion. He finally goes to Robert Sarver and says, listen, man, I just got to get this off my chest so I can sleep. We've got to draft Luka. We've got this cap space, big offer sheet on the table. Get him Clint Capella. Get him a rim running center. Luca, Booker, Capella. That's our core we can build. And it's like, thanks for your input. You'll coach the guys we give you.
We're going with this guy who is from Arizona. You know, Robert Sarver, the Arizona alum. Yeah, no, I'm taking the seven footer who is from Arizona. And like a lot of people did have DeAndre in the morning draft. Then Vlade, Balkan basketball legend, had known Sasha Doncic for decades, Luka's dad.
One, I was told by a scout who was in the room that Vlade, quote, knew too much, you know, that he knew, hey, you know, Luka likes to have a good time. The discipline's not the best, all those sort of things, which, frankly, Sasha is kind of like the, I call him the Charles Barkley of Slovenia. You know, big, gregarious personality. Yes. likes to have a good time, you know?
So like, knew all that, but then, Vlade didn't think he was a superstar. Well, he'd take touches away from Darren Fox. We don't want that. Marvin Bagley III, Vlade said on draft night, is a better player and a better fit. Well, not sure about any of those, buddy. And by the way, Luca remembers last year, Vlade was sitting courtside in Sacramento.
And after Luca iced a win, he's sneering over there. He's going back to the bench talking about, that guy should have drafted me. That guy should have drafted me. And then the Hawks, they had Luke a little bit above Trey Young on their board. But hey, if we can get an extra lottery pick out of it, OK, let's do it.
And lo and behold, the Mavericks, who had an epic tank job that cost Cuban 600 grand when he said the quiet part out loud, then got booted back by the lottery gods. A couple of spots were able to move back up and get the guy who Donnie Nelson was absolutely crazy. pounding the table for, as he did Giannis when Cuban didn't listen in that draft.
And maybe more importantly, in terms of Cuban's decision-making, this gambling dude who'd been consultant for him on the sly, old Bob Volgares, and he brought up Harden. That's exactly who he brought up. This guy's going to be an MVP candidate at some point relatively soon. And James Harden was the comp. And I do still think prime James Harden is the best comp for Luka.
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Chapter 6: What role did Mark Cuban play in the Mavericks' recent decisions?
know there's an argument to be made that it makes way more sense to set up your fiance set up her sister like you know like sometimes when you look at the way inheritance works and i i don't understand how anybody really gets upset and talking about inheritance like some people just gonna luck out and some people aren't but there's an argument for spending it now while you're younger and helping you get a head start as opposed to like oh cool now we're 65 and we get these checks
From our from our parents, you know, so look, just appreciate it, man, because you're in a great spot. But I also think you're in a great spot because your wife seems to understand, despite her financial advantages, and you're not taking it for granted. And it's just full appreciation. So. high marks all around.
Yeah. I liked the good gesture thing too. Like, you know what, just like put in for those master's tickets and surprise them, you know, like get, get, get Carmel's dad, that Beretta, you know, get it, get, get him the, get him the present. He's going to be like, Holy crap.
Um, you know, with all the, with all the money that you haven't spent, uh, because of doing stuff with them, just think, just really spend more time thinking about when those gift or good gesture moments present themselves. Like, how can you really crush that?
It's really probably time, too. Spend money. Give back with your time. They're going to appreciate that, I think, more than whatever the gift is. At least that's how I know my parents look at it.
Okay. I thought this was a dream one, but it is also about a dream. So this isn't about inception, but let's see if I can help here a little bit. All right. Long time listener, first time emailer, 28, 5'11", and three quarter, formerly six feet. No pickup comp because I was cut by every basketball team I ever tried out for.
About six months ago, one of my best friends from college, let's call him Bubba, moved into my house in Philly after living in Chicago since graduating college. Um, so he moved in six months ago, moved into his house, Philly since he graduated college. So we're talking, this guy's gotta be a little bit younger.
I mean, unless he graduated later, but he's been working as an engineer, but about a year ago told our friend group, he was looking at a career change and a move back to the East coast. He and I discussed moving in with me since I had an open room in my house. While I was really excited about one of my best friends moving in, I was a little concerned with what his new career would be dot, dot, dot.
Bubba had written a script for a sitcom during the dregs of COVID based on his experience living in Chicago post-graduation. All right, so it sounds like he's a couple years later if he was living in COVID post-graduation. See what we're saying here. He calls it a perfect hybrid of new girl and workaholics.
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