NBA Lottery and Playoff Drama and NFL News Recap

The NBA Draft Lottery always pretends it’s about hope, but it’s really about incentives and desperation and this year gave us all of it. We break down why tanking never goes away, why the lottery can’t be “fixed” with small tweaks, and what the top of the board means for teams trying to find the next franchise changing star. As a Bulls fan, I’m locked in on Chicago landing the No 4 pick, what that finally opens up, and why this draft feels like it has multiple real difference makers.

Then we pivot to the NBA playoffs, including how OKC handled business, what LeBron James' NBA  future has in store in terms on what team he decides to spend the rest of his career with. We also get into the Spurs surviving a physical series that included a Wemby ejection, plus the weird sports media outrage cycle when Anthony Edwards daps up the Spurs mid 4th quarter after the Wolves wave the white flag.

From there, it’s NFL schedule release week: the creative videos, the strength of schedule lists, and the fan favorite win loss game. We talk the Patriots going from the easiest slate to one of the toughest while dealing with offseason noise and roster questions, then we go straight at the Steelers. Aaron Rodgers is back on a one year deal, and we ask the uncomfortable question: is this a real plan or just kicking the quarterback problem down the road again? We finish with Ohio State uniform and turf changes and a blunt take on the push toward a 24 team college football playoff.

If you ride with the pod, subscribe on your platform, leave a five star rating, share it with a friend, and tell us your biggest disagreement from the episode.

Transcript

Solo Update And Game Plan

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome back to JB Sports Podcast. Today is Sunday, May 15th, and we are back for another pod. It's just a solo one today. Jay's, I couldn't so here's the thing. We've been going through a lot of things as of recently. I'm not bad necessarily bad things. But so I was supposed to podcast earlier on last week, and then I realized that the schedule release was gonna be late last week, Thursday, right? So I wanted to wait for that to happen to be able to have that a part of the pod. Because again, it's really we're only doing one week during at this time. So I wanted to wait for that. And then Jace, we had I had to help Jace with car stuff for the past like four days or so. So on top of that, Jace has other things he had to do, he has to work. So getting him to have time to do the pot on top of everything else we were doing the last few days didn't make a lot of sense. At least, not what I thought was gonna make a good pot out of it for him, at least coming from him. I think for me it's pretty consistent either way. Again, for the most part, again, I had I had bad days as well. But I would so I can kind of turn it on and like get into it more than Jace can. If he's not mentally all the way there, he's not necessarily gonna, you know, be able to power his way through and like really put up a decent performance. Not a performance, but like really be into it, right? So I've been working on Jace's cart the last four days, and then I'm sitting here like, okay, well, I guess I have to pod at some point because the last time I put out a pod was May 5th, so that'll be 12 days ago. Again, that's partially that's on me, but I it's just I saw the opportunity earlier on last week, and I'm like, okay, I can wait for the schedule release to come out so we can do all that. So I waited for that, and then the car stuff came up. And by the car stuff, I mean Jace has to turn his beater car into his main car due to life circumstances, so we had to make sure he can use that beater car to now be his main, good be able to drive around, break safely, and all of that. So I've been helping him with that over the last few days, and again, I mean help in the most general of terms. I am not a car guy whatsoever. He is definitely more of the fixer when it comes to our sibling hood. Uh so all I do, I was mostly the tool guy, and that's kind of the joke he had for me, was he called me a tool a tool toolboy, which is what he called me during this whole four-day saga. Again, I think I I acquitted myself well and did some good things. But I if you ask him, he'll say that I potentially had a spot where he was getting crushed by a gas tank and I wasn't helping him in a good enough time. Again, from my point point vantage view, he didn't really say that he was, you know, truly. He was just kind of you could have one point one punch tagline and be like, help. And it just doesn't, it sounds like you're trying to get a joke. It sounded like a joke to me. I was worried. I kept asking questions. It wasn't like I walked away from him. But he again, he was supposed I was supposed to know what he was thinking. So uh that was a whole saga there for like a day and a half. But we got through it. Jay S now has breaks and all of that, so uh good for that. But I still have to have a pod. So let's um that's why I'm here. I have plenty to talk about. I'm gonna start with like the NBA stuff because again, because of when we last potted, I didn't get the chance to talk to the about the lottery at all um for the next NBA draft I wanted to talk about, and then from there we have the rest of the NBA playoffs that have been going on as of recently. I think I think today's gonna be the last game for the um Eastern, sorry, in in the semis for what is it, semis or corner? Quarter finals? The third the third round of the playoffs, right? Hold on, am I crazy? For the second round. Okay, last week for the second round of the playoffs. I think today's the last day because the Cavs and the Pacers are um in their game seven, so they're gonna decide who's gonna move on and face the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals. So I'll talk about all of that, and then I do I will transition to some NFL stuff where I'll kind of talk about some of some different topics, including schedule releases, and I do want to talk about the Steelers a little bit too, because the news came out about Rogers as well. So that's my main deal. I'm kind of gonna be all over the place. I'm not gonna necessarily be locked in on too many things for too long, I don't think. So that's the plan for today. I'm just a kind of like a cascade of different things on my mind that I wanted to talk about on the pod. So if you're here for it, want to listen all the way through, I definitely appreciate you. If you just kind of want to piece apart and like pick through the things you want to hear me ramble on about, I totally understand that as well. And I'm gonna try to get Jace on the pod sometime next week. So hopefully I can get his reactions to how he thinks his bangles are gonna do with their new schedule. I think I already asked him like a in a more like you know, just off-handed, like, hey, what do you think about your schedule and all that? And you know, he's very positive about his bangles as per usual. So but I want to make sure we get that on pod as well. So I'm gonna try to get him on the pod later on. I think this week, now that I've that it's Sunday, later on this week I'm gonna try to get him on the pod, make sure we do one together here, because I know it's been a couple weeks, so I'll make sure we get that done. But for today, let's go ahead and uh get to the things I wanted to get to. Let me close that and let's go ahead and get to the things. Alright, so the NBA. And let's see here, the lottery, right? Draft. Alright, I want to talk about the draft first because we last time we I posted a pod was May 5th. The draft lottery was announced. Uh, the well, the order of the draft was announced on the 10th, so five days later. So that is something I never really had a chance to get on the get on here and talk about. So and here's the thing. I don't want to go too deep on any of this stuff, to be totally honest with you, because at the end of the day, I've talked about the the issues with tanking and these teams kind of like trying to suck for all these all these team, all these uh picks. And again, on one hand, I think it's something that it's a little bit like loser behavior to a certain extent. But again, I I I can see that on one hand, but also the way that the system is built in the NBA is that you have to suck to have a chance at more ping-pong balls so you can have a chance to get a player that'll change your franchise in a way in basketball that's a lot more needed than in football, right? In football, you don't have to have the number like a top 10 pick to build your team out to have a good team. But the thing is, even in football, at some point you have to be able to get your prize, pu your prized fighter, and that's usually your quarterback position. That's where picking in the teens and trying to get a quarterback of your future isn't always the way to go because quarterbacks always get pushed up in the draft. If they're if they're talented enough, they're not going to fall to you in the middle of the draft. Like they're going to be taken very high in the first round. And I think it's very similar to that in the NBA. And because there is so much when it comes to talent evaluation, and to be honest, like people are following these these guys that from the point where there were kids or teenagers, right? Getting recruited and all of that. So when it comes to there's very rare, at least especially now with all the analytics and all of the uh scouting that happens, that you're gonna find a diamond in the rough later on in the first round or even the second round, right? There's a reason why the people like the draft like picks like Giannis was like middle of the first round outside the lottery, Kwai was outside outside the lottery, Shay was a late first round pick. Um, was it Shay? Yeah, I think he was late first round pick. Um Tyrese Maxie was a late first round pick. So like those guys are few or few and far between when it comes to talents being able to be picked up later on and not necessarily be lottery picks. So now when teams want to kind of turn around their like they're trying to get their superstar player to then turn their franchise around, a lot of these teams are gonna go for let's just lose as many games as possible and hope that we can get a a top draft pick by having more ping-pong walls. Again, the NBA is going through this whole thing where they're trying to find a new strategy to try to make sure teams don't tank year after year after year to try to get great picks and all of that, which again I think on some hand is is I'm I'm I'm not sure if they can ever fix it if they're not going to change the actual way that this stuff is done from the ground up. And by the fact they still want to do this lottery thing, any other change you're doing outside of that is not necessarily gonna fix the issue because at the end of the day, the prize is way too is way too um good for these teams to look at and be like, hey, if we can get our next superstar and we just have to lose more games to make it happen, they're gonna do it. And again, I just I don't know how that how you're really gonna fix that if you're not necessarily gonna change the draft from the ground up the way that it is right now. So with getting out of complaining about the draft and tanking and all of that, I just want to get to the actual announcement of the lottery picks, right? Because I was watching it because, again, me being a Bulls fan, if you didn't know, I'm a Bulls fan, and the Bulls have been terrible lottery odds, like when it comes to getting top draft picks over the years, right? They've always been really bad at it. And honestly, the Bulls have been a pretty pretty terrible franchise for the most part with how they're ran ever since, you know, I guess Derrick Rose was the last time this team was actually good. In like a part of it, and like in the fight of trying to be a really good team in the NBA, ever since we've had terrible ownership, which has technically always been the case, but you know, the Bulls um with Jordan happened even under terrible ownership and all that. But we've had terrible coaches, terrible drafting, and then honestly, on top of that, not even good draft luck when it comes to getting a top draft pick, so you can get one of those amazing players that can turn around your franchise in the way that um other teams have gotten, right? So I'm watching it. I'm hoping for a top three pick. I honestly want the number one pick because AJ DeBonzo is like awesome from what I've seen of him playing college basketball. But I was just like, you know what, get me a top three, top four pick, and I think I'll be happy as a Bulls fan. Because at least I'll have a chance. Because this year is like one of those years where they're like, everybody's like, there are three like three or four legitimate potential superstar players, even if not, they're gonna be very good players in the NBA. Which is good. I'm I'm happy that the Bulls, uh, I would be happy that the if the Bulls can get one of those players to help this team. Because again, we are the Bulls is a bunch of young players anyway, so adding a potential superstar piece is definitely what the Bulls need at this point. So I'm watching it. And the way they do it is pretty cool. They're adding um they do the announcement. This is after they do all the ping-pong ball stuff already. So all the teams technically know what their chances are for the most part when it comes to where they're kind of slotted in this draft, and then it gets announced, they do all of that, and we go from there. So the as it turned out when it came to the order, I'm just gonna go from first to 10th and do all of that. Well, before I do that, there was a real chance in this draft that the Oklahoma City Thunder, they had like a 7% chance to get a top four pick in this draft. Imagine how insane, uh how crazy it would have gotten if OKC would have found a way to have a top four pick and get one of those crazy talented players to already add to what everybody looks at as like the probably the best team in the NBA. And again, the only reason that's happening is not because it's their own pick, it's because OKC has been they have picks up on picks on picks that they've been amassing over years and years and years of different trades and stuff like that. Again, I've talked about how good OKC has kind of built themselves up and kind of set themselves up for success by having all of those trades they did for years upon years upon years, and then now they've kind of built themselves to where, hey, we have our couple, couple of our stars, and then from there we can just keep drafting well and having good draft picks to be able to get some talented players that keep refreshing our roster on the back end so we can keep everything else kind of looking like very cheap and not necessarily having to overpay anybody because we have another guy on the way that's gonna be very talented and can fill that role, and we can let the guys go and get their big contracts elsewhere. Again, other than Shay, other than Chet, and then other than Jalen Williams. Those are the three guys they have paid some real money to. Outside of that, they're just gonna keep drafting dudes to fill different roles outside of that. So they had a chance to get into it, which again it didn't happen, but it was definitely one of those storylines where, like, man, like this thing could get real shitty if the OKC looks like they're gonna be on a run to another finals for a second year in a row and they manage to get a top four pick and get one of those dudes on the top of the draft. Insane, and everybody was really scared of that happening. And again, luckily it didn't happen because again, I just think it's just and because people are always looking for a reason to say the NBA is rigged, and apparently that was gonna be one of the reasons because again, why would the NBA want OKC to be that much they're already that much better than everybody else in the NBA? Why would the NBA want OKC to build their lead even more by being able to get one of those top guys? And that's the part that kind of didn't make sense to me. Again, there's a lot of people out there that are very um again, I I do subscribe to some conspiracy theories, but I think by comparison, there are some people that are looking for the conspiracy theory at every every walk of their life. Like they're looking, like they're expecting there could be there to be a conspiracy theory in every sense of this world. And I'm just not one of those guys, and especially with sports, again, I get it, it's a little bit more fun when you're talking about conspiracy theories in sports, because again, at the end of the day, we don't have any sort of as fans, we don't really have any sort of um control or power over how things happen in the sports world, we're just kind of spectators here. So maybe there being conspiracy theory in the sports world is not necessarily as um detrimental as in other walks of life in this natural world that we live in. But I'm just I'm just not there, and I don't care, and I'm at the end of the day, it's just if something like that were to happen, I think there's too many people you'd have to keep quiet in order for these conspiracy theories to really turn out to be true, and that's kind of where I fit on most of these bigger ones that people are kind of subscribe subscribing to. Um, okay, so you had a chance, and then the other big um what is it, storyline in this whole draft was the Clippers with that fifth pick overall. Um, because the Clippers were in a spot is if because they of the trades that they had made over the years is that if the Clippers managed to get a top four pick in this draft, their pick would be automatically forfeited over to the Indiana Pacers because of a trade that they made for um Zubach, I believe. Zubach, I believe, um, when the Clippers got him. Sorry. Yeah, it was that, right? Yeah. So when the Clippers traded for him, there was Zoo.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Which trade was that? Hold on.

OKC Pick Fears And Pacers Tweet

Second Round Recap And LeBron Options

Spurs Advance After Wemby Ejection

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Let's see here. Yeah, so when the Clippers traded for Zubac from the Indiana Pacers, the trade was for a top four protected pick in the 2026 um um first round, and then it was also Benedict Mathrin, center Isaiah Jack Zach Jackson, and then the 2029 first round pick, a 2028 second round pick, and then this top four protected first round pick this year. Okay. So the whole thing was that if the pace, if that pick ended up being a top four pick, that pick would have been forfeited over to the Indiana Pacers. And then if if the if the pick was if the Clippers pick ended up being anywhere from six um from pick six on, then they would have had to give their give their pick over to I forget which team. No, it was to somebody, right? So the Clippers were in a spot where the theta got anything else other than the fifth pick, they were gonna lose that pick altogether. Okay. So that was a real compelling part of this whole thing where the Pacers were hoping for that pick to be a top four pick, so they can keep their pick, but if um, but if it was six on, then it was going to somebody else, and then it was literally the fifth pick and the fifth pick only, where the Clippers, actually fifth or sixth, where the Clippers could get one of those two picks and they'd be able to keep that pick by comparison, right? So that was another big storyline in this, where everybody was like, who knows what that pick's gonna end up being. So before I get any farther into any of those things, let's go ahead and give you the order real quick and I'll kind of give my thoughts. Um, first pick overall was to the Washington Wizards. AJ DeBonsa was not looking very happy when he uh when it got announced that he would have to go to the Wizards. And again, that's off of the assumption that DeBonsa is gonna be looked at as the best drive uh the best um what's the word I'm looking for? The best prospect by far. And again, everybody's been calling him that for a while now. And um the guy out of BYU who was also went to Utah in his um high school, he was in high school in Utah as well. So DeMonza did not look very happy to potentially have to go to the Washington Wizards if they were so to pick him. And it's like one of those, another one of those things is that Utah, the Utah Jazz were one of those teams that were very much trying to tank their way into getting that one that first pick overall. And what's funny is that the owner for the Utah Jazz was also one of the major donors for the BYU Cougars, which is the college that Debonsa went to. And apparently, based off how the story goes, is that he was one of like the main guys that um that helped DeBonsa in high school by giving money to the high school that he went to or something like that. So like there was a long-standing relationship between the ownership of the Utah Jazz and DeBonsa, right? So they were helping make sure he was getting any IL money to stay in BYU in Utah to play his college, get his college year, his year in college, and then there was some sort of like hope that he was gonna end up staying in Utah and going to the Utah Jazz. Again, they didn't work out because Washington got that first pick overall. But it is funny that Utah put that much work into one player hoping that he would end up being their guy to be their superstar at some point, and they lost out that first overall pick to the Washington Wizards, which is hilarious. Um, so but one other thing about the Washington Wizards is like it's hilarious because because they have an Anthony Davis, they already have it looked like Washington last year kind of made their bed when it came to trying to be a better basketball team. They traded for um Anthony Davis. They have um I'm forgetting his name, Trey Young. So starting next year, it looks like they're at least trying to like, hey, we can we're gonna suck this year, but next year we're gonna have these great players come back and be able to play from day one, and they're gonna try to be a more competitive basketball team. But the question is, is that now they have this first first pick overall, and DeBonsa didn't really look all that excited to go there. And if Utah is that thirsty for wanting DeBonsa to be their number one guy, what can you get out of Utah for them to trade up by one pick? And again, if Utah's gonna take DeBonsa anyway, and there's this is looked at as like a four-person draft for you where you have four potential superstar players to pick from, and if you're not all that into DeBonsa anyway, or you realize that DeBonsa wouldn't be that happy to go to Washington, get what you can get out of Utah and like get a King's ransom for Utah to trade up one pick, and then you can still have your pick of the litter after DeBonsa with those other three guys that everybody's look looking at as like potential superstar players. So, like that is one of those things that people are gonna be looking at before that draft starts of whether that trade actually happens or not. Um, pick two is is Utah, like I kind of already said here with what the trade potentially would be. So Utah was so close to getting DeBonsa, but they're now gonna have to, if they really want him, they're either gonna have to convince find a way to convince DeBonsa to really tank his own his own draft fight, which I don't think is gonna happen because DeBonsa has been like the prize the prize gem that everybody's been looking for for the past year or so. So they're either gonna find have DeBonsa find a way to tank his own stock to for Washington not to pick him, or they're gonna have to convince Washington to trade, and then they're gonna have to go up with King's Ransom to trade up by one pick. So that's gonna be a weird, like not weird, but it's gonna be a saga to have to keep track of before that draft go um happens. Pick three was what was the Memphis Grizzlies. I do feel good they got a top four pick. I think they deserve it. I think Memphis really did build that team to be a contender, and it wasn't their fault that Ja Morant ended up being a crazy person that couldn't help get out of his own way and stop getting in trouble. And then on top of that, the injuries as well. So, like this whole thing was meant on Ja B. Their superstar player that was going to be there on a night and night out basis. And though, you know, again, it's I know when I'm giving them an excuse of them not thinking that you know that John Morant was going to be a crazy person, but I think at the end of the day, it's your job to know what that what type of player that is, and it's just like that's the part that is like, well, if you know him better than anybody else and you decided to keep him around and keep paying him and make him your number one guy, you potentially have to understand the risks of players if you know them as well as you probably should, being if you're gonna give them millions upon millions of dollars. But I do feel bad for them because again, when John Morant came into the league, it was awesome, he was great, and then the injuries happened and his own actions happened with all the different stuff he was doing on and off the basketball court. So like that's the part I feel bad for Memphis for because they really were trying to be a competitive basketball team, it just didn't work out. So I'm very happy they got to have a top four pick to then maybe get their next superstar to be able to get out of this whole John Morant thing because like I'm pretty sure they're probably gonna trade him sooner rather than later to whatever team thinks they're gonna be able to fix him. Um so I'm very glad Memphis got this pick. And then the fourth pick overall went to the Chicago Bulls. I was very happy to have again, I was hoping for a top three to be able to guarantee myself because it's really four guys that everybody's looking at as like the main like potential superstars, but really it's three that are like everybody like consensus when it comes to draft people are like shoe-in superstar players, okay. So I was really hoping for a top three pick, but again, having the fourth pick overall isn't necessarily the worst thing, and I do think whatever player of those four kind of falls to the Bulls, I really do think can be really good players. And again, whether they're superstars or not is has yet to be seen, but I'm just glad the Bulls have a chance to you know have their chance at a guy, even if it's just the guy that falls to them when when the other three teams kind of pick their one, pick their guys, okay? So I'm very happy about that. And the way the Bulls are kind of set up, any one of those players that would fall to them would definitely be a help because we traded away so many good players in the middle of last year during the trade deadline to you know be able to suck bad enough to you know get a good enough draft pick in this whole draft lottery. And again, it worked ended up working out for the Bulls in a certain extent. I'm guessing they would have loved to have a top the number one overall pick, but again, it didn't end up end up happening that way. Um, but still, as a Bulls fan, very happy we can potentially get a very good high caliber player to add to this very young basketball team in general. Again, for me, I'm kind of hoping it's Cameron Boozer because everybody's like kind of falling out of love with him. But with what we have on our team already, and if we could add a guy like him with his defense and with he is not necessarily a great shooter, but I think he's getting better. So if he could just keep progressing shooting-wise and his offense again, can kind of keep growing, like he already brings the defense and he's already a big body, and I just think he'll be able to add a lot of things to our team. Because and he's kind of like the guy that's like looked at as like potentially not the superstar amongst the four. Um, he's the guy that not everybody's kind of clear on as to what they think he'll end up being in the NBA. But I think he's a very talented player, so if he's the guy that ends up falling to the Bulls, I'll be very happy if that happens. Next, um, pick five Clippers, they managed to get one of the either the fifth or sixth pick. So they get to keep their pick. And this is where another story I had to talk about was after this got announced that the Pacers weren't able to get that top four pick overall. The owner, was it the owner of the Pacers or the GM of the Pacers? One of those two. They tweeted after the fact that they were sorry, and he said he felt like it was a good trade at the time for a very good player that'll help their team was as it is where it is right now. Because again, they sucked last year because um Tyrese Halliburton was hurt and he was having his issues with that. So they did kind of, you know, they wanted to suck on purpose this year. So in Zubac is a guy that wants Halliburton is back, I think will compliment each other very well. And when he tweeted about not getting that fourth pick of one of those top four picks and be able to get, you know, one of those guys, he tweeted, let me get let me make sure I get the tweet. Um Pacers Um Let's see. GM was it the GM tweet? Was it the GM or the owner? Kevin Pitchard. Um I want to get that tweet because it sounds insane. So this is the GM. Is it the GM or the owner? President of basketball operations, right? He tweets out after this whole thing. I'm really sorry to all our fans. I own taking this risk again when they potentially being able to get that top four all pick. Surprised it came up fifth after this year. I thought we were due some luck. But please remember this team deserved a starting center to come to compete with the best teams next year. We have always been resilient. So here's my thing. And I think most people have talked about this, but I think it was just very hilarious for this guy to kind of put this in writing for everybody to see. He thought he thought they were due some luck. Not that this was worth the chance, and like getting a great player, and on top of the idea of maybe getting that top four overall pick was a thing, and it's just like, oh, I thought we were due some luck. The fact that he put it all on the idea that they are they're due, and it's kind of like being at a blackjack table and like just keep betting, keep betting, keep betting. And it's just like you just keep sitting at the table hoping that the next one's gonna be it when it's not happening. Like, that's like I'm just like, dude, you can't run your team off of that. And even if you do, you can't put that in writing for everybody to see. I would have rather him just not said anything than to come out and say this, that they were just do some luck. I don't it just comes off again. I just think to a certain extent, like it's I'm not gonna say it's the worst thinking of all time because I think I I think to some degree when you're in this world, like especially when you're in the business world, sometimes just needing a little bit of luck is that is all you need. But to put that in writing for your fans after they're already upset about how this kind of has all gone down, then you're gonna tell them, Well, I was just kind of crossing my fingers too and hoping this would work out. Like it doesn't seem like it's like giving off that much of like having a good organizational like plan, right? When you're just like, hey, this is all coin flip here. We're just hoping that coin flip kind of went our way, and I'm just like, it just kind of it gave me a bad taste in my mouth. And again, I'm not even a Pacers fan, do I really care? No. But I do feel bad for all those Pacer fans that had to breed that after all that had kind of went down. I don't know, man. It didn't make any sense to me the fact that he would even put that in writing, even if he that it truly is how he feels about the whole whole thing. But you could have just gone with we thought Zuboch was a great player anyway. And but he just it looked like he was he hit that whole thing was him hoping he can get Zubach and have a top four of our pick to kind of help out that team. And it's just like it the fact that didn't work out, and then you say put that in writing on Twitter, or X, whatever you want to call it, is like it was just kind of weird, kind of a weird thing, and it's just like a weird admission of guilt when it comes to hoping you were due, which is kind of crazy for that to be the way you put it. Um, pick six through ten was Brooklyn, Sacramento Kings, the Atlanta Hawks got it uh got the eighth pick, Dallas got the ninth pick, and then Milwaukee got the tenth. That's the rest of the top ten. I don't really go want to go. I guess the rest of the lottery is Miami Heat, Charlotte Hornets at 14, and then 15 is the Bulls, which is their second pick of the first round. So that's about it on the draft. I really so um it was a very it was a very probably one of the more um fun draft like draft lottery announcements to watch in recent years, to be totally honest with you. Maybe it was more because I was looking for the Bulls to get that get that top top four pick and they ended up getting it, so maybe I just feel a little better about it in general. But I think there was a lot of different storylines to be to kind of look at and be like, oh, this could like there were some real things that could have happened that really would have changed the landscape of the NBA if it worked out in a certain way. So it was it was very it was a very um it was a very um interesting draft in general to watch. I'm not gonna lie. Um sorry, draft lottery announcement in general to watch, because the draft doesn't actually happen until June, I think. So I just want to make sure I go through that because that was a very interesting like whole like hour were hours worth of uh was it even an hour? I think it was like half an hour. It doesn't really matter. It was a very interesting thing to watch uh as I was watching it. And if hopefully if you're a fan out there of one of these teams, you manage to get a pick that you liked. If not, then it's just how it goes, and I hope that the whole NBA lottery thing gets changed because I just think in general the what they're trying to do with anti-tanking and all that is always going to be a thing, no matter what rules you put in place, because the advantages of losing and getting that pick is way higher than any potential um downside that the NBA can come up with while keeping this system still going in the way that it's going. So alright, getting out of the NBA draft stuff, I do want to get into the playoffs and how they've worked out of as of recently. Um let's see. Let's just get into the recent playoff bracket bracket here and how it's going as of right now. So from last week, it was the conference semifinals week. Um semifinals, yeah, it was second round. Sorry, I'm stupid. I can't really can't remember the how they say each round, so it's kind of dumb on my part. Semifinals going on last week. Um, Thunder Lakers, Thunder managed to finish off that series and beat the Lakers in four games. Again, not all that surprising. I talked, I talked about in the last pod how now everything out, like we can't why can't we just enjoy LeBron and not try to make everything about a GOAT debate and all that? So if you want to get the go, hear me go down that rabbit hole, you can go listen to the last pot I put out. But the Thunder managed to finish that one off, leaving the Lakers to be like, hey, what is LeBron gonna do in his future? Is he gonna stay with the Lakers? Is he gonna take a pay cut, stay with the Lakers so they can make the team better? Because they're gonna have to pay Austin Reeves and they're gonna have to find other ways to make this team better. And if LeBron takes as much money as humanly possible, then it radic, especially on top of Austin Reeves having to get paid as well, it radically reduces the amount of moves the Lakers can make and actually make them to make themselves viable as a a real contender in the Western Conference, especially with OKC still no OKC's not going anywhere. San Antonio's only getting better and better no matter how much how this next series goes with them going against each other, they're gonna be the top two teams in the West going into next year. Um so that's the big question with the Lakers is what are they gonna do? Is what is LeBron gonna do? And the whole I'm not sure what I would actually want him to do. Whatever he wants to do, I guess. Um he has plenty of options, especially if he's willing to take a pay cut to go somewhere and like go be a part of a contender. But my whole thing with that is I just don't think being on a contender is his number one priority. I think where he's at in his career, I think he knows that he doesn't have a lot to prove, and honestly, the only thing he can do to change his outlook when it comes to how people look at him in his career is probably go win another championship. But where he's at right now, I just don't know if there's gonna be anybody that he can go to that will guarantee him that. So I just don't think that's gonna be the number one thing with him being in his 40, like he's gonna be 42 by this time next during next season. So the fact that he's gonna be 42 years old going into next season, or during next season, and I just don't not sure like what his whole plan is gonna be is to go back to the Cavaliers and have that like that last storybook ending, go back home and play for a season and have your like your retirement tour type of thing. And then you've the the Clipper, I mean sorry, the Cavs would still be a very good team that'll they're looked at as like one of the best Eastern Conference teams now, let alone once you add LeBron to that situation. Um, does he stay with the Lakers and take a pay cut and want to stay where he's at and kind of built things over the last few years with Luca and um and Austin Reeves, even if that means that they can't make a lot of moves if he doesn't take a like legitimate pay cut to stay on that team? Will he go to a team like the Golden State Warriors and like go play with Steph and like be might be one of the best television products if he does that in the NBA next year, if he does that? Because people look at like their favorite players right now, like still two of the most popular players in the NBA are looked at as being LeBron and Steph Curry. So the idea of those two being together on a team for a season would be a very fun thing for television. Sorry, I'm having something stuck in my throat. Let me take a drink of something. Better, I think. Um but who knows? Sorry. Um, and not to mention the fact that that Bronny Jr. is still on Lakers, so who knows if Bronny's gonna follow LeBron wherever he goes, or if Bronny wants to stay on the Lakers and kind of carve out his role there without Mr. Mr. LeBron around, his father. Um, who knows how that whole dynamic's gonna work out. But again, once LeBron decides whether he wants to play or not, and then from there what he wants to do with it with his last year or two of his career, because again, people are saying he's probably gonna pay more years than not, and I'm just sitting here like, man, I don't know if you're LeBron James, if you want to have a season where your physical gifts take a legitimate spike down, right? If I'm LeBron, or again, I'm not LeBron, so honestly, this is kind of stupid for me to kind of go down this rabbit hole, but if I'm LeBron, I'm like, hey, wouldn't you rather go out on a high note and like be able to say, hey, I still have probably more in the tank, but I decided to kind of bow out and kind of go enjoy my retirement and not necessarily have to have the down year like Michael Jordan have again. As much as I think Michael Jordan was a lot better on the Wizards than people like to remember that they he was, like, LeBron could have that carrot in his hand. Like, hey, I can just say I never had a down year as an NBA player because of age. Like, I feel like that could be one feather in LeBron's cap in the goat debate if you want to have it, that I just think he could take if he's not gonna sit here and keep extending his career just to be playing, if there's a chance he'll have a legitimate decline in his play, which again this year was not the case. I think he had a few weeks where he was kind of coming back from injury and not really playing all that well. Again, he started the season with sciatica not be able to start the beginning of the season. Sciatica just literally being an old man injury at this point, from what I have been from what I've read. But outside of that, LeBron has showed that he's still a top 20 player in the NBA, to be totally honest with you. So, do you want to potentially give up that being able to say that for your last few years of your career? Just keep playing. I'm not sure, but I I wouldn't if I'm LeBron. But again, I'm not LeBron. Um, and then the Thunder, they're gonna be going on the next round, probably they've been waiting for I think close to a week now while the Timberwolves kind of Timberwolves and Spurs kind of battled it out. Spurs did finish off their series to uh get past the Timberwolves in in six games. Again, I keep doing that. I'm sorry. Sorry guys if you're having to listen to me try to get out whatever is stuck in my throat right now. But so on to the Timberwolves and Spurs. Spurs finish off that series 4-2 in six games. It was a little bit of a up and down thing, especially those first four games, because it was the Timberwolves were really playing tough. Um Wemby, I think that was in game five, I want to say. In game five. It was game four.

SPEAKER_01 38:33

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Ant Edwards Dap Debate And Knicks Sweep

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SPEAKER_00 38:41

Um I think that was in game four. I think it was in game four Wemby got um ejected. So that was a whole ordeal because of the of what Wemby was going through with this for the physicality that the Timberwolves were putting him through in those first three games. In that fourth game, Wemby finally got tired of it, looks at um Nasreed and gives him a cold elbow. And again, it wasn't necessarily in the face, it was kind of in the neck area. But again, the intent was there, it was very obvious, and then Wemby kind of like I think acted like he didn't know what a flagrant two was, which I'm like, I'm not gonna go down the rabbit hole of like act like trying to parse out whether he was acting or not, he like he knew what a flagrant two was or not. It doesn't really matter to me. I just think when it comes to and people were like thinking of whether he was he got ejected, I think that was early in the second quarter in that game four, that the Spurs ended up losing that game. And people were looking at it as like, oh, should he be suspended? Should he be fined? The NBA decided not to suspend or even fined him for suspend him for the next game or even fine him because he had missed so much of that game four, because he had elbowed him so early on in that game and got ejected. Um here's my thing. I could have understood it either way if the M what whatever the NBA decided to do, I was going to be able to understand why they did it, right? If they the NBA would have decided to eject him because he had did something so obviously wrong, and you can't, again, as much as they were playing physical with him, like I again watching how the Timberwolves tried to beat him up, because again, that's the only thing you can possibly do against this mountain of a of a player in Wemby is fit like literally just keep beating him up, and hopefully that'll kind of take away the aggressiveness out of his game, and hopefully that'll make an impact on because again, when Wemby is playing aggressive and he's getting to the paint and he's able to shoot, like on top of all the things he's able to do defensively, like he's an almost an unstoppable player. So if if what you're gonna try if you're gonna try to do anything to try to slow him down, it is going to be to try to rough him up and make the game as physical as possible for him. And the the rest weren't really calling a lot of calls when it up to that point when it comes to try to protect, like they weren't trying to protect him whatsoever, which again in the playoffs I don't really expect them to. But it looked like Wemby kind of lost his cool for a moment and he made a very bad choice. So if the NBA would have decided after he had got injected in that game and the Spurs ended up losing because then they lost by like that game by like five points. So it was it's very obvious, it's very it's a very easy parallel to create that hey, if Wemby would have stayed in that game, they would have won that game and gone up 3-1, and they would have had a commanding lead in that game and not had this series wouldn't even have gone six, let alone wouldn't even gone five, like through five games, let alone getting to six, right? But he made a bad decision, and whatever the NBA would have decided to do after that, I think would have been I wouldn't have argued it either way. If they would have suspended him for another game, I'm like, cool. He'd I I understand because he made an act that was not a part of the game whatsoever and was very dangerous. I could have understood if they decided to suspend him for another game or fine him in general, but a lot of people turned it into like, oh, but Wemby is a media darling to a certain extent. So there's a lot of people that look at Wemby and they really like Wemby and they think he'll be a great player for years to come. And I totally get I totally understand that. And um, and because of that, people kind of and again, it's not like Wemby has made a like he's he doesn't have a history of doing this throughout his NBA career so far. So him having that one mistake of make in getting past it and people kind of forgiving him is like okay, fine. But once you do that multiple multiple times over and you become like a Draybond Green type of thing, again, it de the his the prior history matters, right? If this was Draymond doing something like that, I think the NBA would have had a no tolerance policy because Draymond has made so many bad decisions in NBA games to kind of like make that like do things like that, right? But because WemB hasn't really had a history of that, I think they kind of went more lenient on it, and I totally understand that. So I think in when coming back in game that was game four, game five, and coming back in game five and everything, I think that I I everybody kind of tried to turn him into like a guy that was wrong to a certain degree, and they're like, oh, he's gonna come back angry and all of that, and I'm like, well, Wemby was the one that did the wrong thing. It wasn't like he was the one elbowed in the face by Nas Reed, right? So I do get the idea that if if anybody is a Wemby skeptic, most notably like guys like Nick Wright, who I don't think he hates Wemby, but I think he which I I'll get to this rabbit hole, I think, in a second, where I thought why when I think about his kind of not disdain, but his um I'm I don't think he's super because again I I like Nick Wright. I think he's one of my more favorite sports talk guys in the in the space, right? But when it comes to like he wasn't a guy that was as like very positive about Wemby and he because people went too for super far early on in Wemby's career saying if everything goes right, he'll be the next Jordan, he'll be the best player of all time. And he was one of those guys like, oh well, again, for other for certain reason he doesn't like thin players and all of that, but he's like more of that wait to see, not necessarily all in on Wemby as of right now. And I do think that does because that is be a little bit because he's such a LeBron guy. And the idea that a guy like Wemby can come into the NBA and have similar love, like and similar, similar admiration to what LeBron had coming into the NBA to a certain extent. And now everybody's saying that Wemby could be the best player of all time. I think he does kind of feel a little threatened to a certain extent. And I don't want to go crazy on that rabbit hole because there's just a lot of things going on there. But I think there was a thought that came into my brain when I was hearing him talk about Wemby at some point. So I'm just sitting there like, man, the some of the things he's talking about when it comes to Wemby sound eerily similar to the talk that about about LeBron when LeBron came into the NBA and was trying to, you know, trying to make his foothold is like people were calling LeBron the chosen one coming out of high school. Like, like people were like the talk between when LeBron coming out and Wemby coming out was eerily similar when it comes to the amount of like very sure people that this could be a player that could be the greatest of all time. Which I think kind of goes into guy like Nick Wright being a little bit more hesitant on Wemby in comparison the most, but okay. But so yeah, people that were trying to make Wemby out to be like the victim in that scenario was definitely not necessarily the best thing. It was kind of stupid and kind of revisionist history to a certain extent. But again, he came back in game five, he played game five and game six and six and played very well, and the Spurs managed to finish out this series, even if it took them more games they needed to, because Wemby made that bad bad decision and got kicked out of that game four. And now the Spurs are gonna have to, they've played six games while OKC's been pretty much sitting for close to a week by the time they play each other, and OKC has just been getting healthy and not having to play any games, and they're just like kind of hanging out, right? So that's where I think the issue comes in, is that like I just think the Thunder are just super like they're gonna be super healthy, super ready to go, their their legs are gonna be pretty good while the Spurs were just playing some extra games they probably didn't need to play. So like that's the part that I think kind of puts the Spurs in a bad spot, even though I do think the Spurs are a bad matchup for the Thunder in general, but it is playoff time, so who knows what how this whole thing's gonna shake out. But amongst all the teams in the West that everybody was thinking could have a chance against the Thunder, the Spurs were the number one team when it came to like people thinking the Spurs can actually knock off the Thunder because of how different of a player that Wemby is and the talent that he is and how he impacts the game defensively against a team like OKC. So that'll be a great series to watch. I'm very excited for that to happen. Oh, and the last thing I want to talk about the Timberwolves and Spurs, and that game six, the Spurs are blowing off the Timberwolves by like 30 points in the fourth quarter, I think, with like eight minutes left. I think with the eight minutes left, the Timberwolves coach, Chris Finch, I believe is his name, um, pulled out all the starters for the Timberwolves and pretty much waved the white flag for that game. And Anthony Edwards was seen going to the Spurs bench, kind of giving everybody dap and kind of congratulating everybody, and then just going to sit down for the last eight minutes of that game. And it it made it made a big deal of like the sports media world and all that, and everybody's like, why would he do that? The never say die mentality, you're supposed to like be a competitor until the end. And the way I look at it is I'm like, that's just I think this was made a big deal because everybody was looking for Anthony Edwards to be the next. Well, everybody's always looking for the next incarnation of Jordan, or looking for that crazy competitor that um doesn't give up or is like a giant again. Anthony Edwards has made a very good career of being a giant killer and taking out all these teams that they're underdogs against and all of that. So like he's been doing his job when it comes to being a good competitor and playing heck. He played through injury in this series, the knee, the uh hyper extended knee, and came back and played relatively well in this series against the Spurs, even if it wasn't a losing effort. But people have an issue with him going to dap up again. They waved the the Timberwolves waved the white flag. They pulled all their starters, like the game was over at that point. So I'm not I'm not one of those guys that's like you have to wait till the end of the game or you're not believing in your team. And they're like, you're the coach decided the game was over when he pulled all the starters with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter when they're down by 30 points. So I just don't know what's the difference between Anthony Edwards going to going and congratulating everybody on the Spurs with eight minutes left or waiting until the game was done to do so when the game was already considered over because the this Chris Finch, the Minnesota coach, waved the white flag first. Like it'd be one thing if Anthony Edwards was still playing and he went and did that, but he was going to the bench. He wasn't going to see another second of action in that game because they waved the white flag. So I just don't understand why people are having like arguing the semantics of when he's supposed to go congratulate the other team when that game was over. That game was over before they pulled all the starters, but they were like they were down 30 points. Like that didn't happen out of nowhere. That game seemed over later, late, late in the second half. Like it was again, it wasn't over at that point, but it just looked that's how the game ended up looking. Because it just looked at the Spurs, no matter how good the Timberwolves were playing, the Spurs were just always up by 15-20 points, right? And then it turned into 30, and that's in the fourth quarter, and that's when the white flag was was waved. I just the idea that people want to like argue with the semantics of that and think less of um Anthony Edwards because of that moment is stupid to me. It doesn't make any sense with how that kind of worked out. I just I just don't get how that's gonna be the thing that people are gonna hang their hats on as to what they're mad about in that series. Like they lost the series, they were down 30. They waved the coach waved the white flag in general, and Anthony Edwards just went and dapped everybody everybody and said, Hey, we're done, we're good. I just don't get what waiting till the end of the game was gonna change. I just don't know. That literally, that whole argument is only about semantics. That is only about how it looks. They they did they just I don't know. People are stupid, and I just think always looking, I I I don't know. It doesn't make it make any sense to me. Uh the fact they turned that into such a big deal. Um the other side of the bracket, Knicks or Knicks and Sixers, Knicks won that series 4-0. And that really does pay me to say because my stepdad's a Knicks fan and he's really into it. And after that fourth game, I think that was on a Saturday. That was on Sunday, right? That was on yeah, because it was Mother's Day. On that Sunday, the Knicks finish off the Sixers 140. They won by 30. Heck, every game in that series, they won by like more than 20 points, I think. So that series was not a series whatsoever. The Sixers really couldn't come to play at all. It felt like the Sixers kind of shot all their shots to get past the Celtics, and then once they got to the Knicks, they just didn't have anything left. Um, neither Embiid nor anybody else on that team really could keep up with what the Knicks were doing. So the Knicks really did whitewash the Sixers, and I hate again, I hate to say it because my stepdad. We were all with Mother's Day kind of having a little get together, and he like he came out with a broom and he's just super proud. And I'm like, man, like what does this mean for you? Like you're acting all tough, and like you had burnt out the broom, and I'm like, are you gonna make it past whoever you have to face in the Eastern Conference Finals? And let alone if you do that, are you gonna are you gonna win the finals? No. I literally think because here's here's my thing. Maybe I'm just being bitter, but yeah, for sure. My bulls suck. All that fine, cool, right? But I'm just like, no matter what happens in this next series, again, you should win it because I think the Knicks are the better team, but like, no matter what they do, they are not beating whatever team comes out of the West if the Knicks make it to the finals. So I'm just like, maybe I'm just maybe I'm just being bitter. Um I can I can maybe accept that I'm just being a bitter guy. But I don't think it changes the fact that the Knicks, like, has anybody given anybody from the eastern side of the bracket a chance to win the finals? I don't think so. I think it when it comes to odds, when it comes to who can win the who what what um Vegas thinks when it comes to the two teams, like the teams that are most likely to win the championship, it's okay C by Lance. I think they're like they're like very they're like very highly favored to win the whole thing. And then the set next best team is the Spurs. So like I just don't know how anybody could think that like again, how anybody on the eastern side, no matter who makes it out, can think they're gonna win the championship. That's not gonna be the case. You may get closer to it. I just don't know if you like really have a chance to go win the whole thing, but I don't know. Again, I'm being bitter. And then the last but not least, the Pistons Cavs series. That series will end today. I think they play 8 o'clock tonight. Um, game seven and all of that. Again, this has been a back and forth series. I don't honestly don't know. Like, I think Detroit's gonna be playing at home in this game seven. I I lean towards Detroit because can the Cavs really don't play all that well on the road for the most part. And Kay Cunningham has been absolutely awesome in this series. They've got nothing out of Jalen Duran. I think he has been like a kind of like a no-show throughout this whole series. Like, if they got something out of him other than rebounds, like point point, I think he averaged like 20 and 10 in the regular season. He hasn't gotten anything over like seven, eighteen points throughout this whole series. So if they got more out of Durin, I'd feel a little bit better about it of them winning this series against the Cavs, but again, it just when it comes to secondary offensive scoring, like the Detroit really doesn't have it. It's really Cade Cunningham or nothing. So I don't know. Again, they could win this game and all that, but I just think that in in on the Cavs side here, I will give James Harden this. Harden has not had his terrible offensive game in this series as of yet. Not terrible. Although I guess he kind of has, but it like he hasn't had like the full-on meltdown, okay? And Mitchell was playing very terribly in the beginning of the series, and then he had the which game was it where he had like the 40-point game in the second half? Was that game five? No, it wasn't game five. Was that game six? No, because game six the the Pistons won. Was that game three? It was game three, right? Insane type of stat line. Donovan Mitchell goes throughout that first quarter. I think he ends the first quarter with like the sorry, the first half with like four points, and then the second half explodes for over 40. Absolutely insane. Like Donovan Mitchell was was like insane in that game. Then he managed to help the Cavs come back in that game because they were down pretty big early on in that game. And with Donovan Mitchell exploding, gave the Cavs a chance to by winning that game and tying the series 2-2. But it was just it was a fun it this series has been back and forth. It's been relatively good basketball. And as long as both teams come out and play some good ball, I can ex I can be happy with whoever wins this series. I do think Detroit's probably a worse matchup for the Knicks than this than the Cleveland Cavaliers are. Because Detroit plays such good defense and Cade Cunningham is as as unstoppable a force as anybody. Um so I think the Knicks the Pistons would be a worse matchup for the Knicks by comparison. So, and again, whoever comes out of this, I'm kind of rooting for them because I just don't want the Knicks to make the finals. I'm being again being petty and all that. I can totally, totally like um admit. But I don't know. I'm I'm gonna root for whoever comes out because I just don't want the Knicks to make the finals at all again again being better. Um, but I think the Pistons are probably a little bit worse of a matchup for him because of the defense that they play and Kate Cunningham being as good as he is. Um by comparison, because the Cavs don't play defense really at all. And um, I don't know. Wait, needing Harden to have great games in the biggest of moments. I don't know. As long for literally for the rest of Harden's career, I'll always feel weird about it, to be totally honest with you. Even though Harden has had plenty of good playoff games, it's just in the biggest moments is when Harden usually kind of crumbles. And again, he's done some good things in this series to make me feel a little bit differently, but not enough to change my whole mentality on him. So I don't know, it'll be a fun fun uh game of seven tonight. Hopefully it'll be a good game. So hopefully not a blowout because I think we've had a lot of blowouts in these playoffs where having a very good, tight game of seven would be a lot of fun and a lot of fun what basketball to watch. And that is it for basketball, I think, for the most part. I really don't have anything else to talk about when it comes to the NBA. Anything else? Oh, um SGA has been reported to win the MVP for the second straight year. I don't disagree. I think with what uh SGA was able to do throughout this whole season with all of his guys, without all of his. I think he played most of the season without Jalen Williams in general, his number two guy. And the fact that he was able to lead this team to a number one number one seed overall, literally from start to finish, was like the best player out there. I think he averaged, I think he averaged over 30 points and like close to 10 rebounds, so like, I mean, sorry, not 10 assists, I think. And the fact that he was able to kind of he is the best player on that Oklahoma City Thunder team by far. And he led them to a number one seed without his number two guy. And I think when you compare him to the other guys that were in like um, what is it, in the talk about the award, you're comparing him to guys like Jokic, who, you know, Jokic is always gonna have the numbers, but his team wasn't all that good throughout the regular season, so he was kind of out in this whole thing. Luca was very hot this year offensively, but defensively doesn't really bring that big of an impact. And then the team, I think he was barely barely got to through the threshold to play enough games to be available for these awards anyway. But I just think Luca he had a good, like he had a good month, right? He had an awesome month, but I think overall just didn't do enough like winning wise. And then who was the other guy? Um J uh Jalen Brown for this the Celtics. I think he everybody was thinking the Celtics were gonna be a terrible team this year without Jason Tatum coming off the injury, and Jalen Brown became a better player in every single way. Again, in his own words, had the best season he's like the most fun season he's had throughout his NBA career, being the number one guy with no with no Jason Tatum around, and he played very well throughout this season and was a real a legitimate MVP candidate, but I just think that team overall was so good around him that I just think it takes away a little bit of the credit that he receives for how good he was throughout the season, which I don't necessarily disagree with, especially when they play in the playoffs and it kind of works out to where it's like, hey, they weren't all that good. I can't say not all that good, but they had their issues, right? Like in Jalen Brown, as much as I think he played very well, it's just like that team's a machine, and I think that he was a leader of a machine that was just kind of cooking throughout the year. And people do take away some credit for it for from a guy like him because he was giving he that team's just so good by comparison to everybody else in the East. They were, it just it is what it is on that fact. Um and then Luca, him, Jokic. I guess Kate Cunningham had a chance as well to be win the MVP, but he just missed a lot of time, and I think it kind of impacted his stats because of it. But I don't know, it was a weird one. But I just think that SGA is the rightful guy to win the win the MVP. I really do think so. He's been the best, he was the best player. Not I he was the best player on the best team. And again, the best player can be a little bit argued between him and Jokic and all of that, but I just think that he was a very good player all year long on the best team in the NBA when it came to record. And I think he he more than more than deserves it. Anyone else I had to think about? He had to talk about. I don't think I have anything else. Oh, and uh Steve Kerr. He's coming back for the Warriors. I think they he signed a two-year deal to go back to the to coach the Warriors. I think that was a little bit of a question there for a bit of whether he'd be back at all because of potential the job with the NBA, sorry, with ESPN going back to calling games again and being an analyst, um, especially with the this being the kind of like the final year or two of Steph and Draymond being the main two pillars of that team. It was a question of whether he'd be back or not. And then Draymond kind of set the whole thing off with him kind of blaming Kerr. And I didn't talk about this in the last while with the whole Kurt without with Draymond kind of going at war with a bunch of people um for saying the shit about Kerr that he said, and then going at it with Austin Rivers about who's the better player, and because Austin Rivers kind of said that like that there's no reason to for Draymond to think that he was because the whole thing with Draymond about Kerr is that he kind of said that he thought Kerr limited him offensively with the player he could have been. But I just think that conversation in general is kind of stupid when everybody kind of universally agrees that Draymond with the talent that he had kind of maxed out what he was as an NBA player. He is a four, what does he say, a three, four-time champion? And like he, I think a lot of people think that Draymond maxed out what he could have been in the NBA, and that was because of what Steve Kerr with the position that Steve Kerr put him in to be the player that he was, and the idea of Draymond saying that he was held back by that same coach kind of put a lot of people on tilt, and that led to the argument between him and him and Austin Rivers back and forth um over their own podcast about each other, and then he and then Draymond didn't get enough when it came to that argument, then started to talk, he's tried to talk trash about um Charles Barkley when he was on the TNT show with him, and tried to make a joke, didn't really work, didn't really land all that well when it comes to not trying to he said he didn't want to be Charles when Charles with the with the Houston Rockets, kind of making a joke that Charles with the Houston Rockets was terrible by comparison, which it's been kind of proven that Charles was not terrible with the Houston Rockets. Did they win? No, but Charles was not a terrible player there. Um but it was just Draymond had a really bad two weeks there. But Kerr will be the coach going um back to the Golden State Warriors over the next two years, and hopefully they'll be able to. I don't think when a championship is really in their cards, but I do think be a fun team and kind of like have this last little like, you know, let Steph Curry go out there and play some fun basketball, be relatively competitive, maybe make the playoffs once over the next two years, and I think everybody can be very happy. Here's the thing I think the LeBron of all this has kind of altered our brains as to what successful careers end like. I think the the fact that LeBron has been able to play 22, 23 years overall and be able to be a very good player and be on a I'm not gonna say a championship winning team, but he's been on a very good competitive team throughout his whole NBA career, not really have a fall-off when it comes to his play for the most part. Again, I'm not gonna say that like 100% he's the same player that he was eight, five, six, seven years ago, but that would be stupid to say. But when it comes to being as competitive as he as he has been over the last few years, like kind of alters what people look at as having a good end of career by comparison, right? For a long time, having the last couple years where an old player can go out there, score some points, looks look good doing it, and like kind of have a kind of kind of like a retirement tour to a certain extent was good enough. And now because of what LeBron just keeps altering what success looks like at an old age because he's been doing so well, even in his older age in the NBA, I think it just kind of alters what everybody's thinking. Like, oh, the Warriors should try to go like make moves, try to go win a championship. Like, they're not close enough to that. And I don't think you should expect a 37-year-old Steph Curry to be able to turn it on and kind of go after it for another year or two trying to go win the win the championship. I just don't think that's the case with whatever everything else they have to look at in the Western Conference. That just doesn't make any sense to me. Um, and other than that, I don't have anything else when it comes to basketball. Um, I think I kind of exhausted everything when it comes to that and talking about it for over an hour. Um let's see here. What else do I have here? Let's get out of basketball, let's go to the M uh the NFL here.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:47

What is that?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:57

That doesn't matter, sorry. Sorry guys, I saw a little I saw a headline and kind of went down a rabbit hole for a few seconds there. But I realized it didn't matter, so it's all good. So NFL. Let's jump over to that. I have some things I wanted to talk about here. For me. Um I have what was the things I want to talk about? The NFL stuff. I know there's something. So let's start with the start with the schedules, right? The schedules came out on Thursday. I think it was kind of leaking out all of last week. That different standalone games were kind of getting like soft announced and all of that. With the Thursday night being the day that a bunch of teams kind of like put out their schedules like all at the same time. Um, I was very excited for because I was waiting for the Chargers to put out their schedule release video because theirs is the funniest every single year, because they're willing to give jokes to any single team, and they do it in a very creative way. I think last year they did the Minecraft. This year they did a halo, they did Halo themed um schedule release, and that goes not with just them, other teams kind of like do some very creative things when it comes to how they decide to announce their schedules. Again, when it comes to being an FL fans and all of that, having a schedule release is definitely a big deal because it because again, to be totally honest, we've as fans, we've all known who the home and away opponents are for these teams, like way in advance. Like we've known this for six, seven, eight months now as to what the actual opponents will be for next year. The only thing we kind of figure out on Thursday was how it kind of all works out timing-wise, where the buys are, and kind of like where these games are kind of placed, right? And that's what gets fans very excited. And then you kind of add on the idea of like these schedule release videos coming out and like making fun of each other and kind of doing in the fun way. I just think it adds a so much more um pageantry to it in general, and it it does it every year. It's funny because I see clips of everything going on and like different things happen here or there. Again, headlined by the Chargers, kind of what they're coming up with the jokes every single year, kind of like kills it. So, and I was looking for how many different Vrable jokes would happen because of the whole thing, him and Diana Roussini thing. There were plenty, and I think the Chargers had a couple, and then the couple other teams made some things, but I think overall it's been it was a very fun schedule release and all of that. And um I think I think it was very fun. So, based on that, um, NFL.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:44

Let's see here. When was that story made? May 14th, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:50

So, um the schedules came out very fun. If you haven't seen the Chargers schedule release, it's very funny. There's Easter eggs all over the place, there's making fun of everybody. The idea, the one of the funniest things, it didn't even include Vape Vrabel, it was the Chargers, because they play the Broncos twice, because again, they're in the same division. But there was a point where they in the part in that video where because it's a Halo themed, like they have like whatever, whoever Bo Nick is supposed to be as a Halo character, kind of having the after um post-game interview in the playoffs, and they throw a grenade at Bo Nicks' leg, and that and he hit it explodes and he falls off the mountain and all that, which is hilarious because of how what the whole saga is with Bo Nicks afterwards with all the injuries and stuff like with all the surgeries he's had to get on that leg to try to fix it after the injury he had in that game, which is hilarious. Again, it every no holds barred, everybody's getting the smoke. The charges will make fun of anybody, and it's hilarious, it's very funny. Um but now, because of that, I I would I went I am gonna talk about the Steelers specifically because again I'm a Steelers fan, and I went down that rabbit hole of trying to play that game of win the win-loss game. But according to this is a story on the ESPN, the hardest schedules in the NFL, um, based off of the schedule lease and all of that. These are the top five hardest, I mean, sorry, top five hardest schedules in the NFL. Okay number um number one is the Chicago Bears, who they do it based off of the by the winning, it's determined by the winning percentage of the teams that they're gonna be playing, the combined winning percentage of all the opponents that the that a team is going to face in their schedule. That's kind of how it's decided, right? Is based off of how many wins the team had the year before. Um, the hardest schedules is gonna be the Bears being number one, Dolphins, Cardinals, Packers, and Chiefs. Those are the top five hardest schedules. And then the easiest schedules, top five easiest, turn so in the top five hardest, the Bears, all their opponents have average have an average of um is that an average? Winning percentage. So it's based on winning percentage. Um a little over 500. Um Dolphins have um over over 500. The top five teams when it comes to schedule, all over have their average winning percentage is over 500 worth of teams they're gonna play this year. Top five easiest are the Browns, the Saints, the Bengals, the Falcons, and the Colts. Top five easiest. And let's see here. For schedule.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:39

Let's see.

Patriots Whiplash From Easy To Brutal

SPEAKER_00 1:12:14

Dang, it's not gonna give me that. Okay. Um so it's kinda hard to go through every single NFL schedule to kind of talk about those. Um I do have my thoughts on the Steelers schedule, because I've kind of again I'm a Steelers fan, so I'm gonna definitely go through the all the um all the things here, but here's the thing, right? Let's do So here's the here's a couple thoughts that I have on the schedules in general. First off, the fact that the the Patriots have to start their season with okay, this is so I'll go with the Patriots here. Let's do that. I think the Patriots going from last year where they had the easiest schedule in the NFL, right? And it was by a landslide, their schedule was the easiest amongst all the teams in the NFL. And they used that schedule to go all the way and got into the playoffs, did what they had to do, and went won the champion and sorry, got to the Super Bowl from where they were, which is a huge deal. But a lot of people looked at that schedule and be like, hey, that's kind of the main reason that they were good enough that they kind of were able to coast through the season and then be able to play well in the playoffs and get there. But everybody saw that the schedule was one of the main reasons why the the Patriots were able to kind of get to the Super Bowl much earlier than what everybody thought they were going to be able to, right? And um let me make sure I bring up back up the hardest schedules. When it comes to the numbers and how who has the easiest, hardest schedules, the Patriots go from having one of the easiest, the easiest schedule in the NFL last year, to now they're not necessarily in the top five, but they are number six when it comes to having the hardest schedules in the NFL. Right? And this is my problems. Not only have they had all the off-season issues when it comes to Mike Frabel and the whole him and Diana Roussini thing, which has really put a big old monkey wrench into their whole offseason, and I think that's all everybody's ever talked about. And again, will they be able to get through and Frab will get through it and still be the head coach there um starting then starting next season? Probably. I do think there is an outside chance that if Diana Roussini does one interview and comes out and says a couple different things she could say, I'm gonna again I'm not gonna go down that rabbit hole as to what I think those things are, but I think there's a real chance she could fuck up everything for them and make Vrabel have to think he has to step down in order to kind of get his whole life in order again, and there is a chance that could happen. Not very high, but there is a chance, and I think this this whole offseason for the Patriots have been an absolute disaster. Um it's kind of weird, man. It's just like even though the Patriots are one of the cleaner organizations out there, they stay in these different, like salacious things that happen, right? Like they're always in the news for something, even though it's never for anything, all that's their their player, their players aren't beating people, beating women, or all that, but it's just like very embarrassing different situations, this situations to be a part of in that the Patriots have been a part of over the years, that is kind of kind of crazy how that works, right? But so the offseason has been kind of bad, and that whole saga with Rable and all that has definitely been a big distraction. And then you go from having the easiest schedule in the NFL to now you're having the one of the hardest, and they got rid of a whole bunch of players on their on their roster, and everybody's saying that the the eventual trade for AJ Brown will happen, so they will have AJ Brown on that roster, but it doesn't change the fact that they're replacing a good portion of that defense that they had. And are they gonna be able to fix their offensive line troubles from last year? Who knows if that's gonna be able to be fixed? And now you're gonna throw on top of all the issues they have with their team, and then not to mention what will Drake may be after having such a flying high season all year long, to where he struggled very mightily in the playoffs. Like, what will he be coming out of that? Will he go back to being the MVP candidate that he was last season, or is he closer to what he was when he was struggling in the playoffs? Again, I'm only asking the question about him because nobody wants to, when everybody wants to have those questions about CJ Stroud as well. Again, he struggled most of the year last year, so CJ had a little bit more struggles by comparison. He wasn't an MVP candidate last year like Drake May was, but their struggles in the playoffs were not all that dissimilar. So the idea that nobody wants to have that question about Drake May at all, but everybody's questioning if CJ Stroud's even an NFL quarterback, kind of makes me kind of frustrated. So I'm gonna be the one if nobody else is. I'll ask the question is Drake May gonna be able to kind of bounce back and be the MVB candidate that he was during the regular season last year? That's a question that needs to be answered after he struggled so much in the playoffs. And then add that the offensive line troubles, and they're they're replacing a whole bunch of players on that team. So, like, this is not an established team that like has a baseline of not being able to get worse on top of this the issues with Rabel and all the other things going on. So, and then you throw on that the sixth hardest schedule in the NFL. Like, look at this. They have to start their season in Seattle, first game of the year, the standalone game. On banner releasing night, like the the Seahawks gonna be dropping a banner in their own stadium, and then you're gonna have to play them. Insane that they have a that's like a hard, such a hard start at the start of the season for them. It just kind of sucks. And then you play the Steelers, which I think, again, I'm not necessarily not gonna go down that rabbit hole to say that's a hard game at all, because I think the Steelers are I think they're an eight-nine team at best, to be totally honest with you, but I'll get to that here in a minute. And then at Jaguars, at Buffalo Bills, then you have the Raiders, which again is a little bit easy, but again, your first four games, like those are three, three of those out of those four games, I think they're real chances they lose. And then you have the Raiders, you have the Jets, and then you go to the Bears, and then at the Dolphins, Packers, Lions, Chargers, Bills, again, Vikings, Chiefs, then you have the Bronx um Jets, Broncos, Dolphins to end off your schedule. They have a hard schedule, especially with that first four games, man. They could lose three out of those four. Like, I there's a real chance that happens. And again, that is relying a little bit on the Jaguars, but I think the Jaguars early on in the year, I think they're offensively, I think they'll be pretty good. So I think there's a real chance they lose three out of four of those games to start the year, and I think starting off the season one and three, and then thinking you're gonna go make the playoffs, and like, because again, I have Patriot fans that I know of pretty well, and I have to I have to go and ask them, like, hey, what do you think coming off the Super Bowl this year, what is a successful season for you this year? Because I think depending on the fans, some fans are insane and they think they can make a Super Bowl again. There's others that are a little bit more reasonable, but I I I'm trying to I try to gauge them as to like like do you think I think there's a real chance that the Patriots struggle to make the playoffs? Let alone win the division. I I I think there that's a real chance the Patriots take a real step back, even though they made the Super Bowl last year. I think they they think there's a real chance they they take like they're struggling to win nine, ten games with the schedule that they have. And I'm just sitting here like I think for Patriot fans, they're gonna have to take a hard look as to what their team is, and like they're just so young, and Drake May is still so young, and like if Drake May is the next Josh Allen, then I think all these things I'm talking about is stupid, right? But I just think with all the issues that they have offensive line-wise and their defense is still a little bit in flux, I'm just like, I don't know. I I think I think there's a lot of players they're replacing and bringing in new guys. I just think they do not have the floor that I think a lot of people, a lot of Patriot fans think they have. I think their floor can be pr fairly low if they don't take care of their business and if their team doesn't come together like they think it should be. Let alone the fact that Vrabel may not be coming into the season the most locked in on all leaf football. Again, life happening outside of football, and it's kind of kind of got in the way. But I'm just like, they're in a weird spot here. And I think they're they could really stru struggle because of it. Um, let's see, who uh who else do I have an issue with their schedule? I'll leave the Bengals alone because I want to have Jace talk about it. Let's see, who else did I want to talk about here schedule-wise?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:04

Let's see here. Um Buffalo, Miami, Green Bay, Washington, Arizona. Detroit the Rams? I want to talk about the Rams.

Rodgers Deal And Steelers Quarterback Limbo

Steelers Win Loss Game Prediction

SPEAKER_00 1:21:26

The Rams have a lot of really hard schedule too, but they're probably a better team. Alright, let's get I want to talk about the Steelers real quick. I do want to talk about the Steelers. So because I'm a Steelers fan and I went when when the schedule was released, I went straight to the Steelers schedule and had to go through it. I'm sitting here like, man, what do I think this team's about to be? And because I just like, again, I'm one of those like guys that likes to talk about all the ifs, ands, or buts, the scenarios and all of that, especially with the Steelers. I went through the schedule and I won and I played the win-loss game for this team, right? And I'll do this again for you today on the pod because I think I have a I'm pretty I'm not feeling great to a certain degree, to be totally honest with you. I'm not feeling good about it. Um I want to write this down to make sure I have this for the end of the year when I can talk about it again. Um I played the win-loss record with the Steelers on my own and kind of went through it. And I'm not feeling good. And I and I assume that Rodgers is going to be. Should I talk about the oh, I should talk about Rodgers first. Before I play that game, the news did come out yesterday that Rodgers and the Steelers came up with a one-year deal where Rodgers will be back for another season being the starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I think it'll be for a base salary of anywhere from 22 to 23 million with some incentives in there to kind of bump it up up to 25. So the contract is up worth up to 25 million with a base salary of 22 to 23 million. Okay. Um, again, the fact that we we got him paying for playing for like 15 million last year was borderline robbery for what he ended up being for the team last year. So I'm not sitting here saying he didn't deserve a pay raise, but when it was getting talked about as to what he was gonna he was expecting from the Steelers money-wise, people started talking about like 30 million, upwards of 30 million. And I'm sitting here like, man, I don't feel good about that. He's still 42 years old. Why are we even putting all of our hopes and putting all of our eggs in this basket when he dude's 42? He again, football is a is a very hard game, and if you're not willing to go out there and do everything necessary to win, like Rodgers is not taking hits, like he's not gonna like he'll he'll throw still throw the hell out of the football. I totally agree with that part, but when it comes to anything extra of trying to be the tough guy to go out there and make some big boy plays to win football games, I just think Rodgers is a little bit past that. And I think that even with him playing at his best, I just don't think he's gonna translate to the Steelers winning a Super Bowl. So the idea that he was gonna come back and now get a big pay raise, now 25 close to 25 million, which is fine, not the worst out there. I think he's we're still getting him at a relative like getting a starting quarterback in the NFL at 25 million isn't necessarily the worst. Like we're not paying a boatload of money, okay? But my hope my only my big problem has been not about the money. I had the same issues last year when he was only playing for 15 million. My problem with this team is that they are now kicking the can down the road again for another season. I'm not trying to find your long-term answer at quarterback. And excuse me if I don't think Drew Aller, a third-round draft pick, is going to be the long-term answer for the Steelers. Forgive me if I'm wrong on that. If I if I'm wrong when it comes to Drew Allen, he ends up being the long-term answer at quarterback, long-term answer at quarterback, or even Will Howard, too. Even though I love Will Howard, I just think that if if they drafted Drew Aller with a third-round pick, I don't think they really believe that Will Howard can be the long-term answer. So I'm just gonna go with that idea, even though I think Will Howard really does have like if you gave him a chance, I think he could do some things. But I just think that the fact that they're gonna kick the can down the road for another year for a 42-year-old quarterback that I don't think is gonna get us anywhere near a Super Bowl anyway, that's what makes me upset. Where I'm just sitting here, like, we're just kicking the can on the road for another year. And I've had this conversation multiple times over on this podcast talking about why when the when the structure is that when you need a quarterback, just sucking for one year or two, can turn your franchise around. You can get the quarterback you need, and you can turn you can turn your franchise around relatively quickly, but without having the quarterback, you can have as many of those other things on your team as possible. You can have a good team overall, but if you don't have the quarterback, it's not gonna work. And they had their chance to go get a Malik Willis, they had their chance to go get a um Sam Darnold, and they had their chance to go for those other guys, but they're sticking with a 41, 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers. It doesn't make any sense to me. That will never be your again, best case scenario will never be your long-term answer. One another year or maybe two tops. And you're like just swallowing the pill for one year and sucking for a year is not necessarily the worst thing possible. And again, at the end of the day, I I still respect the idea of trying to go after every year and trying to be as competitive as possible as a team. Because again, there's plenty of teams in the NFL that have now sold their season before it's even started. Uh-huh, the Dolphins, amongst other teams. So they're always going to be teams that are going to be willing to sit there and make their fans pay absorbent prices to come watch their games while knowing that they're trying to lose it at the same time. So, like, I totally get the idea that what the Steelers are doing are really is relatively noble. But when it comes to a competitive sport against other teams out there, and when it comes to like professional sports, at the end of the day, you have to be willing to do some things to kind of get your team back to where it needs to be. And if you don't have a quarterback, you're not going to make it. And if you're always drafting in the in the in the late teens, early 20s, it's not going to you're not going to get your quarterback that way. Now with the way scouting is now, you're not going to have a big Ben falling to you in the middle of the first round. It's just not going to happen. Because every anytime there's a quarterback that has any sort of real ability, they're going to get pushed up in the draft the way that the draft is now. So being able to sit here and be a middling team trying to compete every year when you're not actually when you don't actually have a chance to go win the Super Bowl, is not going to get you your long-term answer at quarterback. It's just, it's just not. So to the to the win-loss game, even though I so that that's to put the bell on the Aaron Rodgers thing. I'm not feeling good about it. I don't think he even makes that big of a deal as to differences in the in the team, to be totally honest with you. I think with him or without him, I think this team is probably under 500. And I think we if we're going to be over under 500 team anyway, why won't we just swallow the pill, start one of those young guys and say, hey, if one of them turns into something, we'll be happy. But if not, we'll be able to have a really good draft pick going into next year's draft. I don't know. I I just I think it's stupid, to be totally honest with you. But the win-loss game. I'm going to play this with the Steelers real quick because I know the Steelers very well. And I think it'll be at least a relatively fun conversation to have here before we get out of here. Um I think I might have one other thing to talk about before we go, but again, we'll get to that. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. So the 2026 schedule, let's play the win-loss game real quick here. I want to go through it. Again, I think Jace will probably want to play this game with me again, but I think again, it'll be a totally different scenario when that happens. But so we'll go, I'll do it by myself for now. For the Steelers, 2026 schedule, I'll play the win-loss game. First game of the year against the Falcons. Is that is that the whole schedule? No, is it the preseason? No, first game of the year against the Falcons. Am I crazy? Okay, first game of the year for the Falcons. This is at home, right? I'll say a win. I'll be nice. Second game of the year. I'm uh at New England. That's a loss. We're not beating New England. Um, third game of the year, especially early. I don't think it's gonna happen. Third game of the season, you have Cincinnati. This is in Pittsburgh. I'm gonna go ahead and give the Steelers a win there because the Steelers will always split, and I think at home is where the Steelers have the best chance to win that game. So I'll give them a win. At Cleveland, I'll give them a win. Um against the Colts in week five. That's an L. I don't care what quarterback is playing for them, they're gonna beat us. Um, week six at Tampa Bay, that's an L. Even though I don't, their defense is not gonna be all that good. I'm just not sure we have a team that's gonna be able to take advantage of that defense. And then Tampa Bay offensively is always they're better earlier on in the year than they are later on the season, once they start getting hurt and all of that. So I'm gonna say at Tampa Bay will be a loss. New Orleans, week seven. That game is it is in France? I think. Hold on, am I crazy? Hold on, maybe I'm crazy. No, it's in France. Yeah, Paris. So they're playing in Paris in that game. Um I think New Orleans will be nasty this year, to be totally honest with you. So I actually think it's gonna be a loss. Especially later on the season. This will be I think the Saints will have a chance to figure some things out. Tyler Shuck, I think, started to really turn it on last year, and they only got better by adding more more pieces of that team offensively. I think we lose that game. Um, we and then we play the Browns again, which I think we never totally beat them, so that's probably an L. This is at Cleveland, right? No, I gave the Steelers a win at Cleveland. I'm gonna give them a loss at Cleveland. Sorry. Retroactively, I'm going back and losing and giving them a loss against going to Cleveland in week four, and then I will give the Steelers a win in week eight when we play them in November. So we split with the with the with Cleveland. Even though I think Cleveland's bad, I just think they'll be a little bit better when it comes to their coach. And I think, especially early on, I think the Steelers will probably be better. But as that team goes along, I think the offense will, even if it's Shador, who wonder what quarterback it ends up being, I think they'll they'll have enough to beat us. They always do at least once. I don't remember the last time the Steelers actually whitewashed beat that beat Cleveland both times in a season. It's been a minute. So I think we have we split with Cleveland um in week eight and win that game. Um week nine, we get a buy, so I think that's a very good buy for the Steelers. It's very good right in the middle of the season. You have a chance to have a little bit of a buy there after, and then not have too much of a schedule left to go. Um, so I like the week nine bye. Very, very helpful there. Week 10 at Cincinnati, that's an L that's a loss. I had this argument with Jace the other day when he he was doing his win-loss for his Bengals. I think we're gonna split. Um, it always happens. I just think it's been a minute since either team has what has uh beat both beat the other both times in a season. And I think that I'll be a little bit at home and home. I think the Steel the Bengals always start off their season relatively slow. So I think the Steelers will get the win early on in the year in week three. But by the time it's week 10, the Steelers are starting to their decline. I think the Bengals are really starting to heat up, especially with Joe Burrow. As long as Joe Burrow is healthy and that team is kind of relatively relatively healthy around him, they have an offensive line. I think they'll beat us in one of those two games. So I'll give the Steelers an L there. Week 11 at Philadelphia, that's a loss. I don't care what offense Philadelphia has, they'll be able to do enough to beat us. I don't I have no doubt about that. Week 12, Denver. That's a loss. Denver is a much better football team than us. They're off their defense is awesome. So I just don't think Aaron Rodgers is going to be able to do nearly enough to it for us to win that game. Um, week, no matter what quarterback that Denver has at that point, because again, I'm not even sure that if Bo Nick's is gonna be able to start this season um for Denver because of how bad his leg is. I'm not sure, man. That there was a picture going around of Bo Nicks' leg. It looks ugly, dude. And I'm just sitting there, it's giving me that Alex Smith vibe where it's just like they keep having to do different in surgeries on it, try to get it back to where it needs to be, and it's just I'm not feeling real all that great about it. But even still, no matter what quarterback they have, I will give the Steelers an L against them. Week 13, Houston. That's an L. Week, it's just Houston. That that's that front seven for Houston will absolutely destroy our offensive line. And I think, and I really do think CJ's gonna have a really good year this year. Um, I think he's gonna shut up all the haters. I think he's gonna have a really good year. Again, I'm a CJ apologist. I'll be a CJ fan forever, to be totally honest, because of what he was for the Buckeys. But I do think CJ will get back to form, and I think he'll have a very good season this year. So even if CJ wasn't, I think that Houston defense will be enough to. I think Houston defense will score multiple times in this game. So I think we lose against Houston no matter what CJ shows up. Um week 14 at Jacksonville, that's also an L. Um Week, because again, it's Jackson with Zach Jacksonville. This is on the road. This is a Monday night game. I'm not feeling all that great about it. I think Jacksonville will be a better team than us this year. Um week 15, Baltimore. I think we win that game because we always split with Baltimore, uh, especially later on. I think we played Baltimore twice within a four-game stretch, which isn't great. Not feeling great about that one. But I'll give us one win against Baltimore because I just don't think we're gonna end up beating Baltimore at the end of the season. So I'm gonna go ahead and say we win that one game against Baltimore, next game against Carolina in week 16. I again I'm not sure which Carolina team is gonna be end up seeing, man. Is um why am I forgetting his name now? Oh, that sucks. Um why am I forgetting his name? Bryce Young. I always forget Bryce Young's name. It's kind of insane. Um, is Bryce Young gonna be playing very good football at this point? Like, are they gonna be a lot better team they were last year? Again, this team got the Panthers got to the playoffs last year. So are they gonna stay on that trajectory and keep playing good ball? I don't know, but I think later on this season the Steelers will be worse and worse because they're just an older football team in general. Aaron Rodgers will be more probably more hurt than he was beginning of the season. I'll give the Steelers a win just to be nice there, but I'm not feeling great about it. Um week 17 at Tennessee, I'll give them a I'll give them a win there. Because I I think Tennessee, as much as I think they'll be better, I think their offense will be better, but their defense still has a long ways to go to get where they need to be. So I think the Steelers will win that game, and then at Baltimore, week 18, that'll be an L because we're no way we're beating Baltimore twice in a season. It's just not gonna happen. So either way, no matter whether it's earlier, like in week 15 when we face Baltimore and Baltimore beats us or week 18, it's gonna happen one of those games. And then the other, the Steelers will magically find a way to win because it always happens that way. So, based off my win-loss game, which I think I was more negative about them in this game than I was the first time. I think when I did it by myself when the schedule came out, I was sitting at eight and nine. Um, right now, one, two, three, four, five, six. Yeah. So we just played this win-loss game here. I have them going six and eleven.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:50

Dang.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:52

I was more negative this time than I was last time. That's crazy. Again, I'm just sitting here like, I here's my thing. I know I'm incredibly negative. I have a Steelers fan, um, a friend that I met at the gym, that we just we literally have each other's numbers so we could just talk about the Steelers, right? He's incredibly positive, I'm incredibly negative, and we kind of went, I text him the other day, I'm like, hey, what I and I told him eight and nine at the time. I'm changing my mind now. I'm at six and eleven. Um, I'm like, hey, if we're eight and nine, and why wouldn't we just, you know, I'd rather just like lose a couple more games and have a top ten pick and have a chance at a quarterback going into next year's draft. Um he was he said they had a chance to win 11 games. I was like, where is 11 games? I was when I said eight and nine, I thought I was being generous to a certain degree, and I think based off of me playing that game again and getting down to six wins instead of nine, I mean eight, I think I was being incredibly generous when I did it the first time and gave him the eight games. So the idea that the Steelers can win 11 games with this schedule, I just don't think that's even possible, to be totally honest with you. Um, I just think the Steelers team, even though I think they're gonna be better offensively, I'm not sure what Rogers is gonna be coming into this year. I think he'll be fine, but I'm not sure if that'll be enough. Our defense, I think, will be better to start. Again, it's just our defense always good is good to start the year, but as they get hurt and more players get lost throughout the season, the the defense always takes a nasty downturn later on the season it goes. So I'm not feeling great about that either. And if it goes by if we end up winning six six games this year, I think I'll be relatively happy because that'll mean that they probably get a top ten pick and have a chance to actually draft their long-term quarterback. So I'll be more than happy to do that. Because again, I'm more than happy to have one year of losing if we can get the team the guy that can turn around our franchise at the quarterback position. Because at the end of the day, even though we have Mike McCarthy as our coach now, I think he'll be a better offensive mind to help out our team in general. Do I think that he can like he can like have a little bit of a uh of a project at quarterback and expect him to be able to create another quarterback from either Drew Aller or Will Howard? I'm just not very positive on that. I'm just not. So I don't know, man. I'm not feeling good about the Steelers at all this year. Here's the thing, I'd feel I'd actually feel happier if I knew that they were trying to lose. My problem is that I think even though I think the Steelers are not good enough to get to their schedule and have a winning record, let alone make the playoffs, I think they're gonna try their hardest and probably win some games they pro I think they shouldn't. And they're gonna be just close enough to the playoffs and either to get in and get ram rotted in the first round or barely miss it and still be around pick 15 to 20, 15 to 22, and be picking later on in the round to where they can't get a quarterback they need. So that's the part that I think I'm stuck in, is that I think we're just in a a rat race of mediocrity, and we're not gonna ever be bad enough to make a real change in the franchise player-wise, and we're not gonna be good enough to go win a Super Bowl. And that's the part that makes it suck for me. I'm still locked in. I'll be watching every game no matter what, anyway. Even if we were losing, I'd still watch every game because I'm just I'm a I'm a crazy fan that way. But I just think that we just gonna stay in this little like this this rat race, man. And I'm just like, it's one year can fix it. Ask the Patriots how that worked out. Sorry, they did it for two years. But like I'm like, just imagine if you just like if you just let go of the let go of the steering wheel for two years, let everything go to shit, we get ended up a lot better on the back end. I know I've talked about this plenty of times over, and I know it's probably annoying to anybody that's been listening to our podcast for a while to listen to me complain about the Steelers once again about this whole s situation, but you know, it's on my heart, so I'm gonna talk about it, I guess. Um getting out of that, let me get to any other stories on the for the NFL that I want to talk about here. Um, let's see here.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:13

Was there anything else I wanted to talk about when it came to the NFL schedules and stuff?

Ohio State Uniforms And Turf Changes

College Football Playoff Push To 24

Final Thoughts And How To Support

SPEAKER_00 1:42:19

I don't think so. I don't think so. Alright. So that's it for the NFL stuff. I think one other thing came to my brain that I want to talk about before we get out of here. I know we're close to two hours here, so I'm not gonna I hopefully not gonna take too long on this, okay? So this is gonna transition a little bit of college football, and I know there's really nothing happening when it comes to anything on the field, okay? I know we're gonna get to you know off-season work, the camp soon and all that. So like that's something that's coming to make me excited about the Buckeyes and everything. Um, first off, this the Ohio State Buckeyes came out with a string of good information when it comes to me being excited as a fan going into next season. They changed the uniforms around where they're doing the heritage stripe or what they're calling the buckeye stripe now. Um they add a little bit, they changed the design of the Ohio State uniforms a little bit. Awesome change. I love to see it. Very fun. Very fun. Um they announced an all-black uniform again with some changes, which I'm very excited about. I think one of the hardest looking all-black uniforms in all of college football. I'm not gonna have an argument otherwise. I think the Steelers, I mean, sorry, the Ohio State all-black uniform is what probably the best in college football. Again, I'm I'm not trying to be totally dismissive of anybody else, but I just think that it's hard to beat um with what the still what the Buckeyes are putting out going with the all-blacks this year. All I can hope is is that with those with those uh uniforms, we use it for a good occasion. Hopefully, if it's for a good opponent, and I need that game to be at least as close to night as possible. Because having an all-black uniform during the day kind of takes away a little bit of the uh the allure of it. It needs to be at night. We need to black out the shoe with the blacked-out uniforms. I that would that is what I would love to see. I think the probably the game is probably the best one I can think of to maybe have it happen is the Oregon game when Oregon comes to um Columbus. But the problem is, is that I really hope that game's on at noon, and if it's not at noon, it might probably be at 3.30. But again, that game happens later on the year, so 3.30, the gate it'll start to get dark out closer, like to five, six o'clock. So you can at least get a little bit of that game where you can have like it being dark out with the dark uniforms blacking out the shoe and everything. So that's my vote for hoping that that can be the game that that game will, that um, that uniform scheme will come out for the Buckeyes. On top of the uniform changes, which all look very good, insanely good. I think universally, I think for Ohio State fans, they love the uh uniform changes. Um there's also like probably the most universally loved thing that everybody, every Ohio State fan really wants to happen, is that they're finally changing their goddamn turf out. They've had the same stupid, bad turf for the past three, four, five years now, and everybody's been looking for them to try to go to straight grass because it's healthier off for the players and everything. But the so Ohio's not gonna do that because they want to be able to still use the stadium for other things when it comes to performances and stuff like that, and turf's just a lot easier when it comes to doing that, even though I think they make more than enough money to use grass and still be able to do the things they want to do when it comes to performance and stuff outside of the football team. Um, but again, not gonna do it, but at least they're gonna be replacing the turf for all new turf, and hopefully it'll be a lot better for the players. I can that's all I can hope. And again, it's a very, very good neat needed change to happen because that turf has been awful for the for the last three, four, five years now. So that is a very welcome change that is coming for the Buckeyes in 2026. And then my other thing I want to talk about was the um the 2014 playoff that's been kind of talked about here. So the recent news for college football is that like they're trying to make their way to making another expansion of the college football playoff format from going to now four so what is that 12 now? They're trying to go all the way to 24. Okay. Let me just give the the info about the 2014 playoff before I get to my complaints and my thoughts on it, right? So it'll be a 2014 playoff. The group of five will not be in it anymore. Those they'll have their own playoff that'll be outside. So it'll be all power four teams in this playoff, which is good because I just think in general, the group of five being able to make a magical run, which everybody was thinking was going to happen, will never happen in football anymore, based on the current landscape of college football. So I think the group of six having their own cop their own champ, their own uh tournament will be a very good thing. And I think it will lead to very much better football in general. And on top of that, I think the because of that 2014 playoff, a lot of the conference championship games will go away, which I think is a good thing. I think they've lost their their um importance over the years with now the playoff and everything. So the the idea of those go going away isn't is probably a good idea for me. And then you won't it won't have to be the um and with that pro it won't be as many um at-large bids that have to be fought over. It'll be more of every conference getting a certain amount of teams in. Um, and then there only be like a couple at-large bids that have to be fought over by comparison. Because let's be honest, the what we have right now, it's mostly all at-large bids other than the the top four um teams that have won their conferences. Outside of that, everything else is pretty much up to the committee making the decision. So being able to have an idea, having a chance of taking the decision, as many decisions out of the committee's hands as possible is definitely a good thing for everybody. But my but my whole thing is with this 2014 playoff, man, I I just I'm not for it, to be totally honest with you. I don't I think in general, when this whole expansion thing kind of came out, I was always a fan of eight. So four was fine. I think four was probably a little bit too small. I was cool with eight because I thought that for for me in general, my general thesis on this is that there is not more than eight teams on every any given year that is good enough to win a national championship. That's just my my straight thoughts on this. Like, you cannot go through all these seasons that we've had a playoff for and get more than eight teams that actually have a chance to win the national championship, right? And to be honest, when I see all these expansion rumors and all that, I think all of this is due to money. I don't think there is a real appetite for these teams thinking that, oh, we really have a if we're the 12th best, that we're the 15th best team, we have a chance to win the title if we get in. I just don't think that's the case. I really don't, and I don't think those teams think that's the that's the case. I think this whole thing is about money. I think it's about inclusion for these coaches to be able to have more opportunities to get into the playoff. Because let's be honest, now that the playoff is 12 teams, I think for a lot of teams in college football where it's like, you know, not the big the biggest blue buds, um, the like top tier blue bloods, like where it's like the playoff should be like what you should that's an every year thing, right? But there's a lot of teams out here in the power four that's like, hey, if they're just a little bit more inclusion for the playoff, it'll give me a chance. If I can get my team into the playoff, no matter what we do once we're there, it'll give me a better chance of keeping my job for another season so I can keep building and keep getting paid. So I get that from the school side and from the coaches' side, why they would want this playoff. And again, for the most part, a lot of coaches have all said they wanted this 2014 playoff. Because I think just having more opportunities means you can mess up less and mess up more in the regular season and still get into the playoff, which is now what everybody cares about. And I think from the school side, they just want the money. I think this is just all a big old fucking money grab. And I just don't think that this whole 2014 playoff is actually about finding the best team out there. I don't think that's the case. And literally for all of football time, at least as far as I can remember, nobody was thinking that the 10th best team had a chance to win the whole fucking thing. I just don't think so. And again, maybe there is one-off years that's happening, but do you think there's 24, there's 20, 20, 21, 22, 23 teams that can win a championship every year? It's just not the case. It's just not. I just nobody is ever going to convince me that that is necessarily the case. And in football, it's just it's a lot harder for these teams to have magical runs when you're facing off against better football teams that just have more. And again, as much as I think the college football has been kind of flattened out when it comes to talent, like I totally agree with that idea that because of NIL and because of portal and all of that, that I do think that the teams like Ohio State's and the Georgias and the Bamas can't have five stars throughout the first, second, and third string on their team anymore. That's not the case. I think the the talent has been thinned out throughout college football. I really do think so. But even still, like the backups for Ohio State are still gonna be better for the backups for a lot of teams. And I think that the idea that you're gonna be able to like have all these teams have a chance because they might have one or two five stars they wouldn't have had in years past, I don't think that leads to actually having a chance to go win the whole fucking thing when it comes to a 2014 playoff. So I just I just think that the whole the whole process is just a big old money grab for the the the money makers of the sport of college football, this the universities and all that. And I just don't like the fact that for the coaches when they're all fighting for it, and again, this includes Ryan Day, because Ryan Day has been a proponent of the 24 team playoff as well. I just think that for a team like Ohio State, and I'm just saying this for him specifically right now, a 12-team playoff is enough for Ohio State, to be totally honest with you. I think for a team that is like winning less than 10 games is like a is like an anomaly for a team like Ohio State. I think Ryan Day's job is pretty secure for the most part, outside of losing to Michigan a bunch and all of that. But I'm just like the 2014 playoff is just the fans are not asking for a 2014 playoff for the most part. And I know there's some people out there that are. And I'm not, and I think a lot of the people that are asking for that are just looking for more chaos to a certain extent, and are not really caring about the actual competitiveness of it. I don't I don't think. I just don't think there's 24 teams that are like viable to win a championship every year. I just don't think that's the case. And I think for me, I would have been fine with 8-team playoff, but they turned it to the end of 12, and I think 12 has turned out to be a very good middle ground for me. Where yeah, it's a 12-team playoff, but I think that 12-team playoff is necessary to make sure you get the best eight teams in no matter what. And even they even fucked that up last year because I think Notre Dame was a probably a top eight team, but they fucked around with their season, and so did Texas. So like I think they're too, and here's my main thing is that I think the I think the more teams you let into the playoff, it does take away from the regular season. It does. And that's the part that gets to me, because I'm like, there are people, and again, I'm not necessarily as crazy as Josh Pate and thinking that all the all the playoffs are bad, but I'm sitting there like the the idea that adding more teams in does take away some it does take away from it. It does. It takes away from the regular season in general, and it takes away the idea that it let's just say it's a 2014 playoff last year in Texas, loses to Florida, loses to Ohio State, and who else they lose to? They lost to Georgia as well. Now you're gonna sit there and say, hey, they lost all three of those games and they get into the playoffs without a doubt, still. I think there should be a sense of if you don't take care of your business during the regular season, there should be a downside of you not making the playoff. I don't I don't I just don't think that giving teams like again, this includes my team as well. If the if you doesn't take care of business and they lose three games throughout the regular season, they don't deserve to be in the playoff, even for me. And again, now that if there's a chance you really do turn this thing into a 24 team playoff, you're only giving the big boys more and more of a chance to mess up more throughout the regular season and still make it. And I don't think that's necessarily the right thing to do. Especially when there aren't 24 teams on an every year basis that can win a ch championship. That's my main b that's my whole main focus on this whole thing. And that's the part that annoys the crap out of me, because I'm just sitting there like, I I can see this is becoming less and less about the actual competitiveness on the football field. It's just more about money. And it's more about inclusion for inclusion's sake rather than actually trying to get in all the best teams that have a chance to actually go win the damn thing. So I don't know. Again, maybe I'm thinking a little too hard on it, maybe I'm a little too negative on the whole idea in general. But I think in gener I think I think I'm relatively right on this. I I really do think so. And again, if they manage to make it 24 teams and it ends up being a great thing, I'll be more than happy to eat crow and take the take the L on the chin then, but I just think in general from how things have gone, I'm just not very positive on the idea whatsoever. So I don't know. It's it's it's a whole thing. Again, it hasn't necessarily happened yet, but it things are kind of moving that way, and if that's the part I'm like, uh, it probably will happen anyway. Again, it's not like I really have a chance to change anything when it comes to this thing, and so I have no power in this scenario, but I just think there's a lot of fans that are not that are not asking for this. This is not something that's widely being asked for outside of the universities and the coaches. So I don't know, man. I think you sometimes you have to listen to the main again. There are but again, there are fans that are asking for this too. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Um, so that's it for me. Uh we're getting close to two hours here, so I want to make sure to cut this off so I'm not going again, I've already probably gone too long here. So if you've been if you manage to listen to this whole thing, I definitely appreciate it. And heck, if you manage to kind of piece through and kind of jump through, because I know there are chapters with how the podcast is set up. So if you kind of jump through and listen to certain things you want to talk to hear about from me, hear me ramble on about, I definitely appreciate that as well. Um, we are gonna get Jace on for a pod this week, so be be ready for that. Stay stay tuned. I'll make sure to get him on so we can kind of go like you get a little bit more of like the you know, the brotherly love and you know, the back and forth that you're used to if you've been listening to listening to this podcast for a while. So that is about it for me here. Let's go in in the pod. So if you've been listening for a while, we appreciate you. If you're just now jumping on, hopefully you like us and enjoy us enough to join us on this ride of talk listen to listening to us talk about sports in the dumbest way possible. And if this is the first pod you've listened to, make sure you go listen to a different pod with both me and Jason so you get a better idea of what we are at our best for this podcast. Is playing is at highest gear, is when you have both of us here, brothers, podcast hosts, co-host, talking shit, talking ball, having fun doing it, right? And then if you do like us and to join us, we'd appreciate if you could do a couple things for us. Make sure you like our podcast, subscribe to the podcast, rate the podcast five stars wherever you listen to us. We're available on all audio platforms out there um where you can get your podcast, and we're also available on YouTube as well. So if you have YouTube premium like I do, and you listen to your podcast, just kind of turning on a YouTube video and just kind of listening to it in the background, um, we are available to for you to do that as well. 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