My Guys Are Better

Episode 63: My Guys Are Better

The Knicks didn’t just close out Atlanta. They made Atlanta sit through the closing credits.

Ian breaks down the Knicks’ massive Game 6 blowout win over the Hawks, KAT’s triple-double on only four shots, the entire starting five showing up, and why this series may have revealed the Knicks’ real playoff identity. From there, it’s around the NBA: Philly forcing Game 7 against Boston, what that could mean for the Knicks, the Lakers/Rockets injury mess, Thunder and Spurs looking dangerous out West, and Detroit trying not to become the playoff cautionary tale.

Then it’s NFL Draft reaction. The Jets draft actually makes sense, but Jets fans have been burned before. The Giants had a clear Harbaugh-style plan, but Caleb Downs landing in Dallas deserves a side-eye. Plus, the Rams taking Ty Simpson behind Matthew Stafford might be awkward, but it also might be exactly how smart teams avoid quarterback purgatory.

Finally, it’s MLB. The Yankees are rolling behind Aaron Judge, Ben Rice, Cam Schlittler, and a pitching staff that looks scary before Cole and Rodón are fully back. The Mets, meanwhile, are a full-on mess. Ian gets into the 10-21 start, the injuries, David Stearns’ roster, Carlos Mendoza’s hot seat, Soto/Lindor optics, and why patience is no longer the answer.

Theme of the week: My guys are better.
Identity check included.

Transcript

Cold Open And Theme Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:30

One forty to eighty-nine in a playoff closeout game. Eighty-three to thirty-six at a halftime. A forty-seven-point halftime league. NBA playoff record. You know, at a certain point, you weren't watching to see if the Hawks had come back anymore. You were watching to see if the scoreboard was gonna need a wellness check. This was not a win, this was the message with sneakers on. My guys are better. That's not just a take after tonight, that's a box score. Tad had a triple-double on four shots. That sounds fake. That sounds like something you'd make up when you're trying to explain modern basketball to somebody's uncle at the barbecue. But that was the beauty of it. He didn't hijack the offense, he unlocked it. OG came out breathing fire, Bridges had his best night of the series, Brunson had eight assists, no turnovers, never looked like he needed to save the building by himself, and hard was hard. The whole starting fight was in double figures, and the Hawks looked like a team that got all the answers to the test and still forgot to bring a pencil. So, the title this week for this episode is simple. My guys are better. And it's not just the Knicks tonight, it's the whole episode. It's an identity check. At some point, every team has to stop selling the idea and start proving the thing. The Knicks did that physically, emotionally, basketball-y, basketball-wise. They looked across the floor and said, our guys are better than yours, period. Stop. The Jets, well, the Jets are trying to figure out if their guys are finally the right guys after a draft that actually makes sense. Even if Jets fans have every right to keep one hand near the emergency break. The Giants had a plan, stuck to it, and drafted hardball football. Even if Caleb Downs did end up falling into Dallas' lap. The Yankees, well, everything is coming up Yankees right now. I mean, Judge is judge, Ben Rice is becoming a real thing, and Cam Schlitzer has Yankee fans more excited than the home run race. And then there's the Mets. From one bowl out to another, the Knicks gave you that kind of ooh, it makes you pound your chest, makes you feel proud. And the Mets, Mets gave you that kind of uh feeling where it makes you stare at the wall and wonder how a roster this expensive can feel this far from good. We got Knicks, we got playoffs, we got Jets Giants, we got Yankees, I got a Mets rant. I even got a little Ty Simpson Rams breakdown for you, too. Whole lot of identity checks across the board. So let's open the tab, let's do it to it. Well, alright, let's start with the Knicks. And really, where else are we supposed to start after that performance tonight? The Knicks didn't just beat the Hawks. The Knicks didn't just advance into the next round. The Knicks went into Atlanta for a closeout game and turned the whole thing into a crime scene. 140 to 89. Even that doesn't sound close enough to what it was. It was a 51 point win in a playoff closeout game. Who had the Knicks minus 50 and a half? I mean, that is ridiculous. That is the type of score where you know you're out to dinner and you check your phone, you see the number, and you think the app glitched. 83 to 36 at halftime. 47 point halftime lead, NBA playoff record. At a certain point, you weren't watching to see if Atlanta had any run left. You were watching to see how disrespectful this could get before somebody from the league office called down and said, hey guys, throw the towel in. Maybe relax a little bit. You know, my guys are better. The whole starting five was in double figures. OG had 29, Bridges had 24, and listen, I I know we've been getting on him a lot lately. I'm not going to do the whole Mikhail Bridges referendum tonight. He played well. He had his best game of the series at the perfect time. That's all I need from that conversation right now. Brunson dropped 17 with eight assists and zero turnovers. Hart gave you 14, and Kat, Kat had a triple double on four shots. Four shots. That's the piece that I keep coming back to with the Knicks team right now. Kat had 12, 11, and 10. He went 10 for 10 from the line, and he only took four shots. This is not a guy hijacking the offense. This is a guy unlocking it. You know, there's such a big difference between Kat being a talented player on the floor and Cat being the actual hub of the offense. When the ball runs through him, everything changes. Atlanta had to make decisions tonight. Do you help? Do you stay home? Do you send pressure? Do you let him see over the top? Didn't matter. Every answer Atlanta gave was wrong tonight. That is when the Knicks look dangerous. You know, Brunson does not have to carry every possession like he's walking through the snow with groceries. OG can attack in rhythm. Bridges can cut, shoot, defend, and just be part of the flow. Hart does the heart stuff that he always does. Jumps up, grabs, rebounds. Where did he come from? All of a sudden the offense stops looking like five expensive pieces trying to figure out whose turn it is to shoot the ball and starts looking like a team that knows where the pressure point is. And Kat at the hub is the formula. The physicality is the identity. Game four, game five, game six, the Knicks stopped asking Atlanta for permission. They imposed themselves. They were bigger. They were stronger. They defended. They hit first. They made the Hawks feel small, as they should. You know, there was a moment in game four where CJ McCollum gets tangled up with Cat. I think OG dunked the ball and then McCollum brought it up, and then he got tangled up and he fell on the ground. And the camera cut perfectly to CJ's face. And he had this look on his face, like, damn man, we're getting bullied and we can't do shit about it. Soon as I saw that, that was the series right there. You could tell just from the body language that they knew, yeah, we can't compete. You know, and look, to be fair, Atlanta had some moments early. They made the Knicks fans sweat. They took two of those games and made everybody start doing the normal New York sports thing where we spiral, overreact, and start mentally firing six people all at once. But then the Knicks found the thing. And once they found it, Atlanta did not have the bodies, the size, or the answers for it. The fight tonight between Mitchell Robinson and Dyson Daniels kind of summed it up too. Look, I'm not sitting here saying go get yourself suspended for game one or the next thing. I'm not saying do something stupid. And there is a difference between playing with edge and losing your mind. Atlanta was down 50 when that broke out. So I can understand tensions were running a little bit high. It's not exactly two teams on equal footing. You know, that's one team getting embarrassed on national stage and not knowing what to do with their hands anymore, like Ricky Bobby. But as for the Knicks, I mean, look, that edge plays, man. It's about time this team showed more fight than Flash. Stand on it. Physically, emotionally, basketball-wise. Look across the floor and say, our guys are better than your guys. And they did that tonight. And now, because of it, now they get to sit back and watch Boston and Philly beat each other up in a game seven. You absolutely love that for the Knicks. Boston was projected to gentleman sweep maybe Philly. Oh, no embiad. What are they gonna do? Yeah. Philly forcing game seven is a chef's kiss gift. Not just from the rest standpoint either, although, yes, you you do take the rest for sure. The Knicks close their business in six. Boston and Philly now have to go empty the tank in a winner-take all game. And you know what comes with that? Well, legs get heavier, the rotations tighten, every possession starts to feel like somebody turned the room temperature up. Meanwhile, the Knicks are at home on the couch, tea in hand, beer in hand, probably feeling like the rest of us, saying, Yeah, go ahead, fellas, take your time, no worries. Go beat each other up. But more important than the rest, Philly. Philly might have accidentally shown you the Knicks blueprint to beating Boston. Now, look, I'm not saying Boston is fake, let's not get stupid. Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown are stars. They're top five players in this league. And also not to mention Joe Mizzua is an absolute stud of a coach. They've been a force all year. This was supposed to be a gap year. Jason Tatum's out, we don't know what we're doing, let's just maybe tank year. And it wasn't. So if the Knicks do get Boston, it's not exactly some cute little matchup where you start booking the parade route. But Philly has made them uncomfortable. And that's the part that the Knicks should be paying attention to. Game six, Sixers win, 106-93. Tyrese Maxie goes for 30 with five assists, zero turnovers, playoff Paul. I hate that, but Paul George gives him 23, hits five threes, and beat as 19, 10, and 8, almost a triple-double himself. But Boston shoots 29% from three. This is what they've been since they won the championship. Live and die by the three. You know, Tatum at 17, Brown at 18, 5 turnovers. That's that's not gonna cut it. Right now, that's not Boston looking inevitable anymore. That's Boston looking like a team that can be dragged into the mud a little bit. And where they get dragged into the mud is with the big man. The whole reason Philly is still in this series is that they've been able to stress Boston with Embiid. Boston centers have to deal with him physically, and if they can't do it without fouling, there's a real problem. If they go smaller or slower or start trying to patch it together, now the whole defense has to bend. The Knicks, well, the Knicks do not have Embiid. Different player, different style, different problem. But you know what the Knicks do have? They got a guy by the name of uh Carl Anthony Towns, big cat. And they also have a guy by the name of Mitchell Robinson. So if bigs are the problem for Boston, well, they can make Boston answer a size question real quick. They can make Boston defend actions through cat. They can make them rebound, they can make them feel bodies, feel some banging. And then all of a sudden, once Boston starts worrying about all that, well, here comes Brunson. Here comes OG, here comes Bridges cutting into space, here comes Hart being that menace that he is. Look, Philly forced in game seven matters. They didn't just extend the series, they gave the Knicks film. Philly might have accidentally handed the Knicks a rough draft on the scouting report. Now, if Philly wins Game 7, well, different conversation. You know, Knicks Sixers is a whole different type of emotional mess. But either way, the Knicks are in a good spot here. They took care of business, they found the formula, they did not become the team that lets a series drag back to the garden when it does not need to. And now they uh they get to put their feet up and rest a little bit. Every year in the playoffs, like I've been saying the last couple episodes, somebody gets caught. Somebody in the top four gets bounced by somebody in the bottom four. And everybody spends the next week predicting that they saw it coming. The Knicks could not be that team, and it looked like they were gonna be for a half a second there. But they took the moment, they seized it, they had a chance to close the door, and they didn't just close it. They kicked the door off the hinges and threw it in traffic. Now, Detroit, Detroit, on the other hand, that's the team I've been side-eyeing. You know, oh, the the Knicks are gonna have to match up with Detroit. They've owned them all regular season, they've been such a problem, they're a bad matchup. The Pistons won 60 games, and I'm sorry, I just I have not believed in them like that. Look, I know the record. I know that Cade is special. I know they got some guys. I they had a great regular season. Great, cool. I'm still looking at them like, are we sure? And now, now they're in a fist fight with Orlando. Orlando, a team that was in the play-in and actually lost the first round of the play-in. Cade had to come back from injury and basically will them to a win just to keep the one seed from getting bounced by the eight. And he was awesome, I give credit. 45 points. Powell also had 45 in that game. Great individual effort, effort, great duel, great theater, awesome game between the two of them. Still, if Cade does not come back and drag them across the line, we're talking about a one seed getting sent home by an eight seed. That is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. The playoffs do not care about your regular season resume. They do not care that you had a cute story, that you pulled it together late at the end of the season to make a push. They don't care that you won 60 games and finished at the top of the east. You know, at some point, your guys have to be better. That is why the Knicks closing the way that they did matters big time. You know, they were not that guy. They did not let it get weird. They did not give Atlanta a game seven at the garden where one hot shooting night from somebody turns into your whole season becoming a stress test and the garden gets nervous. No, no, no, no, no. They handled it. They handled business. Out West, well, outwest it's getting a little interesting in a different way. The Lakers and Rockets series should have been the all-star studded blockbuster that it was supposed to be. Luca, KD, LeBron, Austin Reeves, Houston's Young Core, Ime Adoka, all of it. Instead, well, instead, we got robbed. No Luca. Durant's missing time and already ruled out for game six. Reeves is in and out, not playing to the best of his ability because he's still hurt. And LeBron, LeBron is doing LeBron thing, sure, but he's an old man in basketball years at this point. I mean, he threw that alley oop to his son, and the joke on around Twitter was this man literally had to create a human to throw an alley oop to. You know, he's out there trying to duct tape the whole thing together with IQ strength and a little bit of like, oh yeah, I've seen this version of this movie already. Houston does deserve credit. I will give them that. They were down 3-0 and they didn't fold. They pushed it to game six. That team had a game three disaster where they looked young. They made brutal mistakes, and Emay called them out at the podium. And then they responded. You know, Reed Shepard makes the winning plays, Jabari Smith talks like a guy who believes that they're better, and then actually backs it up. That's growth. That's good for their young team. Like, I don't know if they complete anything historic. No team has ever come back from 3-0. There's a reason for that. But Houston, Houston at least has turned this into something watchable. They've made the Lakers work, they've made it uncomfortable. That series had blockbuster written all over it, and now it kind of has turned into it, even without all the star players there. The other side of the West, well, that's where the real monsters are. OKC swept Phoenix and Thunder look like they know exactly who they are and they're playing like it. You know, SGA is playing like the killer that he is. The team defends, they run, they execute, and then SGA gets to do the little uh villain chat after the fact, too. Dylan Brooks is just the biggest pain in the ass on a basketball court. He wanted the theater. Yes, shy sweeps him out of there and handed him the boarding pass, gives him a little violin on the way out. That's clean work. San Antonio, oh boy, don't look now. Everything we thought that was uh, you know, a couple years away seems to be advancing in a different kind of terrifying way. The Spurs are not just some cute future story anymore. Wemby and De'Aaron Fox are a real problem right now. It's already in the building. You know, they're blocking shots, closing games, making everybody do the math on the next five years with Wemby. I think he's 20. As for Minnesota and Denver, well, it's just brutal. I mean that's a real basketball rivalry. They those are two teams that actually hate each other. It's like Nick's Celtics, Nick's Philly. And they were playing good, they were up big. And then the basketball gods just do what they do, and they show them the injury bill at the worst possible time. Anthony Edwards is banged up, Dante DiVincenzo tore his Achilles, he's out. It sucks, man. It sucks, but that's playoff basketball. You can't control when guys get hurt. And Denver has looked like they had a path back into it now, and once Jokic sees that path, he usually starts walking down it with the expression like he's annoyed the game took him away from his horses. He walks down that path like a Terminator. As for the Cavs and Raptors series, well, that's I've been calling that the forgotten series. But Toronto does deserve credit. You know, they showed up, they have made Cleveland sweat more than Cleveland probably wanted to. Dennis Schroeder having a big fourth quarter veteran stuff, that's great. Good for Toronto making it a real series, I guess. Cleveland still has questions, man. I don't know. Harden continues to be the playoff adventure and not always the fun kind. That team has enough talent to advance, but if you are trying to get to that next level, you probably don't love needing a halftime speech and a Schroeder heater just to settle down a first-round series against Toronto. Not what you're looking for. One last thing before we move on from the NBA here. They've put out an anti-tanking idea. Good. You know, the league is looking at changing the lottery format. You're you're trying to stop teams from being rewarded for being aggressively terrible. You want fewer teams punting on the season before fans even get to get through the first month of the winter. Look, I am always going to sport trying to make losing less profitable. You can't legislate dignity. I get it. Bad teams are still gonna be bad. Front offices are still gonna find little loopholes and fancy ways to call losing something more than professional. Oh, it's a development year, it's an asset uh accumulation, long-term timeline. Trust the process. My guy, you lost by 32, and your best player is mysteriously resting his calf on a Tuesday in February. Still, still, the idea is right. Make teams compete. Make the regular season matter. We all love playoff basketball, but it's kind of garbage through the months of the year. Winter's hard enough. Let's not make basketball rough, too. Stop handing gift baskets to teams that punt the season before Christmas. Anyway, that's the NBA right now. The Knicks, the Knicks made a statement and a half tonight. Boston and Philly are about to go to war in game seven. The West has some monsters, and Detroit is trying not to become the cautionary tale. The playoffs are doing what they always do. They're not asking who look good on paper, they're asking who are your guys. Tonight, the Knicks had the loudest answer in the league on that front. So now let's take that same question from the court to the draft board. One fan base is cautiously planning in with both hands still on the panic plane. And the other is trying to trust the plan in while still sidebinning. So let's take the same question from the court to the draft board. My guys are better. Are my guys better? Well, the Jets and Giants both spent draft weekend trying to convince their fan bases of the same thing. These are our guys. This is our plan. This is the direction. Trust us. Very dangerous words in New York sports. Let's start with the Jets because the Jets are they're doing a thing where I am trying to be mature. I am trying to be fair. I am trying to look at it like a normal adult football fan and not like someone who has been involved in many, many, many seasons of heartbreak and horror movie. Look, I like the draft. I do. I actually I love it. I love what the Jets did. I'm buying it. But I've been burned before. So that's kind of the sweet spot. That's where I live. That's where most Jets fans live, honestly. My poll that I put out, which if you're new here, every Wednesday we do the Wednesday mic check. I put out a poll for everybody, and your results, your voting kind of shapes the uh the topic of discussion. But anyway, the poll that I put out was almost dead even for the Jets. 53% said muji cooked, and 47% said it always looks good on paper. That is the entire Jets fan experience in one Instagram poll. One half of the room is like, wait a second, this actually kind of makes sense. And the other half is standing by the exit with the car already running. You know, nobody wants to be the first person at the bar yelling, the Jets finally figured it out. Because that person always ends up on camera in December with a thousand yard stare or a paper bag over their head. But I gotta tell you, the draft did make sense. It's kind of the annoying part. You know, I wanted to poke holes in it, I wanted to sit there and say, uh, same old Jets, here we go again. I can't really do that. Not with a straight face, at least. Listen, David Bailey at two, Kenyon Sadiq at 16, Omar Cooper at 30, trading back up to get him. D'Angelo Pons in the second round, who was an Aaron Glenn lookalike, Cade Klubnick later as a quarterback swing, a little, you know, fourth round flyer. You can see the idea. It wasn't random. It wasn't the Jets just walking into the grocery store hungry and coming out with cereal batteries and you know, a kayak or something, you know? There was an actual plan. Bailey over Arvell Reese was the big one. I get why people wanted Reese. I kind of was in the camp of wanting Reese too. But Bailey gives the Jets something they badly needed. A real pass rush monster. You know, Will McDonald is fine and all, but Bailey's a dog coming off the edge. Gives you production, gives you explosion. That guy lived in the backfield all college. So look, this defense had 26 sacks last year, 31st in football. You can't be a defensive head coach and have a defense that rushes the passer like it's asking politely. Not to mention they didn't have an interception all year. Aaron Glenn's identity has to show up there first. And look, I'm not asking for 85 Bears. I'm just asking for the Jets to stop playing defense like the other team submitted a request for him. You know? Oh, can hey, can we play today? Can we uh, you know, whatever? Bailey is a swing at fixing that. He led the country in sacks, he had 23 tackles for loss, and he he brings that kind of athletic profile where you can at least see the vision. You know, studies Von Miller, takes pieces from Aiden Hutchinson, has that Stanford, Texas Tech background where the work ethic and intelligence seems to check out. It's not just fast guy, go run, hit QB. There's a little more meat to the bone than that with him. Now, as for Sadiq, Sadiq is 16, this is kind of the one where people are gonna have some questions. Weapon luxury. I personally love the pick. That was the poll question earlier in the week, and I think that's fair. The Jets already took Mason Taylor last year, and he showed some promise, and he's a legacy guy. They had needs, so you know, if you take Kenyan Sadiq at 16, that cannot be just the big guy fast, big guy jump kind of thing. Bad teams draft traits, good teams draft roles. So to me, that means if Frank Reich, Frank Reich looked at this kid and said, I know exactly what I'm gonna do with him, then fine. Stand on it. That's where I get interested, man. The story that Frank Reich basically called his shot on Sadiq, that he saw the athletic profile, saw the mismatch potent mismatch potential, and wanted him in this offense, that changes the whole conversation for me. I was high on him coming in, I didn't think he would be there. I love that they got him. Now it becomes less of a luxury pick and more of like a statement pick. The Jets are trying to make the offense difficult to match up with. Two tight ends, bigger bodies, more versatility, give Gino some options. Hell, give the next quarterback options. Let Sadiq move around, let Taylor do what he does. Make defenses decide if they want to go big and get spread out or go small and get bullied. That's a real idea. Now it just has to become real football. The fact that they traded back up for Omar Cooper, that is the other piece that I really like. They were maybe even projected to take him in 16, so trading back into the first round for a receiver gives you another player who can actually help the offense breathe. He was Fernando Mendoza's guy at Indiana, and I've watched the tape. He is a stud. He produces in big spots. The Jets needed more than Garrett Wilson in a prayer. They needed some actual answers. So if you're trying to show the league your offense is not a haunted house anymore, you need people who can turn the lights on. That's kind of where Gino comes in too here. Look, I'm not I'm not saying Gino Smith is here to be the savior. No one thinks that. Gino is the showroom. Okay. He is the bridge to whatever comes next. Maybe it's a draft pick, maybe it's a trade, maybe it's a free agent, maybe it's something we don't even see yet. But Gino's job this year is to make the offense functional enough that you can evaluate the house. You know, can Sadiq be a real weapon? Can Cooper show some pop? Can Garrett Wilson still be the centerpiece? Can can Brees Hall be part of the next version of the offense? Can Frank Reich design something modern? Can this organization finally become a place where a quarterback does not immediately walk in and need witness protection? That's the mission. Geno Smith is not here to be the savior. He is here to prove the building has electricity. So that brings me to my next little quarterback hot take that I got that I don't even think needs to be presented as a flaming hot take. I mean, it you know, if you line up the dots, it kind of is what it is. Maybe, just, just maybe, the Jets are not automatically drafting a quarterback in 2027. I know, I know, blasphemy. They got all these picks, they use them for a reason. It's the Jets. It's easy to say they'll stink. Pick high, draft the next savior, and we'll all meet back here in three to four years for the same conversation with different graphics. History says that that's the safe bet. But it's harder. And maybe more useful to ask what the plan looks like if they're actually competent. What if they're not terrible enough to pick at the very top? What if they're just good enough that the defense stabilizes, the young weapons flash, the offense looks professional, and suddenly they're not picking one or two. They're picking 12 or 13. Yes, they have the ammo. Yes, they can move up. But those picks also have a super amount of value if you're building a roster. You know, they have cap space coming out the wazoo. They're gonna have$150 million worth of cap space next year. So they have a chance, believe it or not, to actually become an attractive football operation, a football destination if this thing looks like it's gutting on getting on the right path here. That's kind of the Detroit model that Aaron Glenn came from, too. You know, build the infrastructure, build the room, and then find the quarterback. Detroit under Dan Campbell didn't solve everything by drafting the savior. No, they were terrible first. They built a real football team, they traded some picks, and then they ended up trading Matthew Stafford for Jared Goff. I gotta say, both guys ended up better off in their second situations. Goff revitalized his career, and Stafford won a ring. Maybe, maybe the Jets are trying to build the house first and then decide who gets the keys later. And look, that is a very un-Jets thought. It's almost kind of weird to say out loud, but they they might have a plan. Cade Klubnik kind of fits into that too. Fourth round pick that they moved up to go get. Day three pick, developmental project, very athletic, experienced, smart kid, had a good interview process, good workout upside, can throw the ball. And also, I watched some Clemson tape from him. That offensive line was god-awful. But it shows you're not forcing the pick, you're not convincing yourself at dinner that he is the franchise. You're just taking a little lottery ticket and putting it in the draw. Scratch it off, we'll see if it hits. That's how sane teams operate. The bigger thing, though, that needs to be addressed is Aaron Glenn. Look, this season is going to tell us a lot about him. Was year one just overwhelming? New job, ugly roster, bad quarterback situation, defense falling apart, everything moving too fast. Fine. Okay, that's cool, man. Year one can be messy. I get it, it's all good. A lot of people want you out of here. I'm okay with keeping you for right now. But I'm gonna tell you, year two has to show growth. If he is the identity guy, the defensive coach, the Bill Parcell's disciple, the defense has to look different. No ifs, ands, or buts. If this regime is really different, then we need to see it when the games start, not just when the draft grades come out and everybody is feeling great and handsome in April. I like the draft, I see the plan, but I'm not dancing just yet. It's kind of the Jets segment in one sentence, if I have to say it. Now, for the Giants, well, the Giants are a little different. You know, Giants fans should feel pretty good. I think not parade good, not everything is solved good, but they should feel like the team had a vision and they actually executed on it. John Harbaugh was brought in here for a reason. Discipline, structure, hard work, toughness, grown-up adult football. Stop being cute, stop being soft, stop trying to win the press conference and start building something to actually hold up on Sundays. So, their first two picks fit exactly that. Arvell Reese at five, fell to them, didn't think that he'd even be there. And then Francis Mauioga at 10. Look, this is not fantasy football. This is not the shiny toy aisle. That is big up the middle, strong defense, protect your quarterback, make the building tougher. Reese is uh he I don't know. I want to be a little careful how I say this because I'm not comparing him to him, but I am kind of comparing him to him. Arvell Reese could end up being John Harbaugh's Terrell Suggs. You know, all right, relax, deep breath, everybody put the phone down, don't come at me just yet. All I'm saying is I can see why Harbaugh would look at Reese and say, Yeah, that's my type of football player. Versatile, violent, always around the ball, can be moved around, can play inside, outside, rush the pass, just a pure havoc causer, which is kind of what Suggs was. That's the archetype. That's the type of player that a coach like Harbaughs himself to use and knows how to use him. Then you get to Maui Yoga. And it's just beautiful offensive line nonsense. Take it for me, a Jet fan. Listen, I drafted two tackles two years in a row. Big, tough Samoan body mover, and his opening quote on draft day on the podium or the uh stage was I'll die for you, Jackson Dart. That's insane. Tell me that's not a guy that you want. You don't want your guard giving a TED talk. You want you don't want him saying, I'm really excited to contribute to the organization, yada yada yada. No, no, no, no. I want you to move that man against his will and protect my quarterback. That's the job. And Maui Ogre comes in sounding like he is already well prepared to do that for Jackson Dart. So the Giants had a plan. Round of applause for that. Now, a little note in the margin based on that. Caleb Downs fell to 10, and you didn't take him. And then the Cowboys traded up for Caleb Downs. I can like the Giants draft and still be a little cautious for them. You know, he ended up with Dallas. The Cowboys' problem the last couple years has not really been offense. They needed defense more than anything. They needed somebody on that side of the ball who could become the adult, the tone setter, the captain, the guy who organizes the chaos. Downs was regarded by a lot of people as maybe the best player in this entire draft. He just plays a position that the teams do not usually draft that high. Then Dallas gets him an 11. That is kind of the thing that makes Giants fans stare at the ceiling for a second. You know, I'm sure they're happy with Mauioga. They want to, you know, protect their franchise quarterback. But oh boy. If Caleb Downs becomes the next captain of the Cowboys defense for the next 10 years, we're gonna have to have a conversation coming back to this. And listen, the draft doesn't exist in a vacuum. It never does, especially not in the division. You don't just draft your guy. You also have to live with who your rivals get. And with the drafting of Arvell Reese, Kayvon Thibodeau might be next on the trade block. He's another name I'd like to keep an eye on here. You know, I'm not saying trade him just to trade him, but when a new coach comes in, a new identity comes in, and the roster starts shifting, guys enter prove it mode, whether anybody says it publicly or not. You know, a fresh start does not exactly mean blank check. They did draft Abdul Carter last year, and now another kind of inside linebacker, pass rusher. Thibodeau needs to get his ass going here. Harbaugh might be able to get the best out of him. Maybe that happens, but if the Giants are building this new version of themselves and they don't think that Kayvon fits it long term, that conversation is definitely going to start happening, if not already. Now, last but not least, just to wrap up the NFL, put a nice little bow on it here. I put out a poll about the Rams drafting Ty Simpson at 13. Wanted to get everybody's take on it. And uh I think they made this smart move. The poll kind of agreed to. 67% said smart future planning, 33% said waste at a high draft pick. I don't know, man. I'm with the 67%. The Rams took Ty Simpson at 13 while Matthew Stafford is coming off an MVP season. On the surface, yeah, that's a little weird. Stafford is playing at a ridiculous level. The Rams are still good. Puka Naku is there. They could have taken a receiver to help him out. Devontae Adams is getting older, maybe a running back, maybe an old lineman, tight end, anything. They could have taken Sadiq there, honestly. Sadiq would have killed it with Stafford. I get that whole argument. But here's the thing: you don't get many chances to draft tomorrow when you're still good today. The Rams more than likely are not going to live in the top 10, top half of the first round very often if Sean McVeigh and Matthew Stafford are doing the damn thing. So if you think your quarterback is near the end, which everybody thought he was last year, and you think there is a quarterback sitting there who either fits your system or you can teach it to him, you have to at least consider it. Stafford has every right to feel a little bit a type of way about it if he does. Not saying he does. There's been no reports about that. But he's human. Nobody wants to see the company hire the younger guy and say, Don't worry, man, this has nothing to do with you. Meanwhile, he's like setting up shop in your cubicle. But the franchise has to think like a franchise. You know, when Stafford is done, he is done. He's not going to say, you know what, man, they drafted this guy to kind of help me. Maybe, you know, maybe I'll play another year or two. Nah, man. When that guy decides it's over, it's over. The Rams have to be ready for that. That's how you avoid being in Steeler land, to be honest with you. You know, the Steelers probably, they probably should have done this earlier with Big Ben. They should have done it, they should have drafted Ben's replacement at some point while he was still there. But instead, every year they just picked another receiver or another running back or whatever. So now they end up being just good enough to pick too late for the quarterbacks and never bad enough to pick at the top. So they live in this weird quarterback purgatory hell, and they have to keep signing, you know, old vets or retreaded guys. You know, they don't even know if Aaron Rodgers is going to re-sign at this point. That is football hell. Good to root for your team, and you want to see them do good, but they are hindering the franchise in the long run. So the Rams are definitely not trying to become that. Ty Simpson only had 15 college starts. There's some risk. But he sat at Alabama. He learned. And the Rams liked his intelligence. They liked his pro style throws. And honestly, if you're going to learn from somebody, it's either Shanahan or McVay. So them taking him at 13, I don't fault him. If you believe in the kid, where is he going to get a better classroom? You know? That's the whole point. You're not drafting him to save your franchise in September. You're drafting him so the franchise does not wake up two years from now with no plan and a depth chart that looks like it was assembled during a fire drill. Expensive? Yes. Awkward? Maybe, but very smart. Anyway, that's the NFL theme this week. Everybody is trying to point at their draft board and say, my guys are better. Now, now they have to prove it when the games actually get going here. Draft Weekend is the easy part. Everybody loves their picks in April. Everybody sees the vision in May. Everybody talks themselves into a plan by June. But sure as shit, come, I don't know, October, there's going to be an ESPN article that says if we redid the 2026 draft, here's who would go first. And it's somebody that was picked, I don't know, 15th, 20th, you know? Is what it is. Nobody knows as much as they want to tell you that they do know, nobody knows. But all right, let's uh let's move from the gridiron over to the diamond. Yankees are looking good, Mets are looking to. Disastrous. Got a lot to say about both. Keep it right here. Well, if you made it this long in the show, that can only mean one thing. Means you want to hear about baseball. Means you want to hear about the diamond talk. And trust me, I've got plenty to say about a certain team in this city. But we'll start with the Yankees, mostly for my own mental health. Because after that, I am going to kill the Mets. It is not going to be peaceful. But first, you know, the Yankees right now are the clean side of the whole my guys are better theme and conversation of the episode. Everything is just kind of coming up Yankees, man. I mean, the pitching, which we knew was going to be good, has been dominant. The bats have been more than fine. Judge is Judge, which is almost boring to say at this point, but Ben Rice looks like he has taken the next step. And Cam Schlittler looks legit. Garrett Hole is working his way back. Rodan is still out there as another arm coming. You know, it's one of those stretches where if you're a Yankees fan, you almost don't want to say too much out loud. You know, just keep stacking wins, keep nodding quietly, and don't knock on the door of the baseball gods. Judge and Ben Rice getting into that mantle and yogi era sentence, it's the kind of thing that sounds insane, but with Aaron Judge, nothing sounds insane anymore. Judge being historic is just part of the program now. I mean, he hits another homer, and you go, Yeah, of course he did. He's either leading the league or tied at the top, and it feels like he's doing it in the most casual monster way possible. Just another week, another baseball being launched into witness protection program. Ben Rice, shout out Rice on the mics. Ben Rice is the part that makes you sit up a little bit. That's the development. That's the unexpected piece that changes the way the lineup feels. You know, Judge doing judge things is the superstar holding up his end. Ben Rice turning into a real problem. That's where the Yankees start feeling a little more dangerous than expected. You know, belly, okay. Jazz, maybe. You can survive a lineup where one guy is terrifying. Good teams know how to work their way around that. You start adding in a second guy who is becoming a real threat, really undeniable. Well, now the whole thing breeds a little bit differently. You know, pitchers don't get the easy pocket of the lineup so easily anymore. The stress carries over, you can feel the difference. My poll was kind of funny too. Uh I put up Judge and Rice mashing against Schlitler looking legit. And Schlittler won by a lot. 79% of you said Schlitler looking legit was more important to the Yankees right now. So that tells me that Yankee fans know Judge is Judge. They are excited about Rice, but the thing that really changes the ceiling is if Schlitler is real deal. That's the kind of thing that gets a fan base dangerous. Cam Schlittler does not have to be Jacob de Grom. You know, let's all relax before we start giving the kid a statue in a Cy Young speech. But when a young Yankee starter is giving you quality starts, missing bats, putting up zeros, and doing it all while Cole and Rodan are still not fully back, that's where you start doing the dangerous math in your head. I mean he's four and one, the ERA is sitting around one and a half, he's striking guys out, he's giving them multiple starts with no earned runs. And he just went into Texas and shoved against deGrom himself. That's not just a cute April story anymore. That's a guy forcing you to make room in the conversation for him. You know, the Yankees' pitching staff looks like it came out of a lab right now. And they still have some major arms working their way back. That's the part that I keep looking at. They're not doing this with everything fully loaded. They're banking wins while waiting for reinforcements. That's what functional looks like, man. Stanton, Stanton goes down again, which never feels good, but you knew would happen eventually, and it did open the door for Jason Dominguez, who also is now hurt. Look, you never want to build your opportunity plan around Giancarlo, but at this point, it's kind of basically been part of the Yankees calendar for a couple years now. Maybe another big name prospect will get called up in the meantime, but we'll see how it goes. Even in the Texas finale where they lost 3-0, if I'm a Yankees fan, I'm not losing sleep over that. If Valdi shoved, it happens. And he notoriously owns the Yankees. They still had a great road trip. You tip your cap, you get on the plane, and you move on. That's what stable teams do. Funny thing too here, you know, uh, I don't hear a lot of uh, oh, fire Aaron Boone right now. I don't hear any of that too much anymore. It's amazing how that works. The Yankees win a bunch of games, Judge is launching baseballs, rice is mashing, Slitler looks real. And suddenly everybody remembers that the manager is not personally responsible for every ground out a second. It's just funny how quiet the crowd gets when the machine is actually working. Now. Oh now. Let me clear my throat for this. From one blowout to another, you know, the Knicks, the Knicks gave you the kind of blowout that makes you pound your chest, makes you feel proud and happy to be a Knicks fan. Well, the Mets, the Mets gave you the kind that makes you stare at the wall and hate your life a little bit. 14-2 against the Nationals in the rain. You know, after finally getting one of those nights of oxygen with that 8-0 win, they turn around and get dog walked 14-2. And then they lose again 5-4 to finish April 10-21. 10-21. Man, that just rolls right off the tongue. Real ugly like, huh? The Mets finished April with the worst record in baseball. They've lost 17 of 20. They went 3-6 on a homestand against three sub-500 teams. This was supposed to be your get right series, your get right homestand. They've got the highest payroll, the massive expectations, and they're already sitting there like the season needs a search party. You know, and I'm not doing the it's early thing anymore. That time is over. It's done. Early is when you're scuffling. Early is when a couple guys are cold, the bullpen blows a game or two, and you say, all right, well, you know, baseball's weird. Give it a minute, it'll be all right. This is not that. This is not bad luck. This is not one bad week. This is a full on mess. I don't I don't even know where you start fixing it, and that's the scary part. You know, if it was one thing, fine, fire the hitting coach, you know, shuffle the lineup, wait for one guy to get back, you'll wait for somebody to get out of slump, make a bullpen move, whatever. This is not one thing. This is the lineup, the injuries, the roster construction, the bullpen, the rotation depth, the vibes, the body language, the whole building. It is all bad. And like, I'm not just mad, I am disappointed. That's where I'm at with David Stearns. Look, emotionally, I'm a little hurt by what he did to this team. I understood why it had to be done, why hard decisions had to be made. I understand why some fan favorites had to go, why the idea of being less sentimental and more flexible and more sustainable, more modern had to be in place. Okay, fine. I can live in the real world. This core had its chance and they couldn't get it done. Year one in his tenure, they went to game six of the NLCS. That buys you some time. Year two, well, they missed the playoffs on the last day because of tiebreakers and because they couldn't beat the Miami Marlins. Painful, sure. But you know what? At least they were in the fight and they were gonna make some moves to get better. Year three, they start 10 and 21. Worst team in baseball. And the roster looks messy if I'm being polite about it. So here's the line. I understood the teardown. I do not understand the product. This does not look like a painful step back before the big leap. This looks like falling down the stairs. This was supposed to be the roster Stearns promised would be better after moving off fan favorites. This was supposed to be more balanced, more functional, deeper on the bench, a smarter run prevention, yada, yada, yada. Right now, right now it looks like a team that doesn't even see the mile marker for good driving down the highway. That's the part that bothers me the most. It's not just that they're bad. Bad happens. Every team has ugly stretches. It's that I don't even see the path right now, the path to fix things right now. Yeah, you miss Soto for almost 15 games. Fine. That's a massive loss. Take Judge out of the Yankees lineup, and what is it? But now Lindor is hurt, and the rumor is that it's gonna be for at least another month. Luis Robert Jr. goes on the IL with a back issue, which is like slip discs. That's terrible. Which, to be honest, I mean, that was always part of the gamble with him anyway. The talent is obvious, the availability has always been the question with him. But Sangha is hurt, Polanco is hurt. The injury list is is is looking like you know somebody spilled coffee on the roster sheet. And then the guys who are healthy are not hitting enough. And now you're asking players who you thought would be nice bench pieces to play major roles in the field and in the lineup. You're asking depth players to become answers. Depth is supposed to support the structure. It is not supposed to become the structure. The Mets don't have any structure right now. That's the whole issue. You know, you can have names, you can have money, you can have talent, you can have a payroll that makes other fan bases roll their eyes at you. None of it means anything if the team has no shape. And look, the Mendoza conversation is tough too, because I don't think Carlos Mendoza is the root of all evil here. I really don't. I do think he makes some bad decisions sometimes, sure. But I also think he is standing closest to the fire. And unfortunately, with baseball, usually the guy standing closest to the fire is who gets nailed first. But no, I mean, look, the players keep saying, no, it's not Mendoza, it's not him, cool. Then stop playing like a team trying to get him fired. That's where I get stuck. If you truly respect him, prove it. If you believe in him, play like it. You know, if the clubhouse is back at him, stop giving the front office reasons to hold a meeting with him. Soto says it's on the players. Great. Great answer, veteran answer, leadership answer. But now it has to turn into more than just a quote. You can't keep telling everybody the manager is not the problem while the team plays like the manager has no control of the room and is the problem. Sure, maybe they respect him. Maybe they walk all over him. Maybe that's why they like him. Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle. I don't know. I'm not in the clubhouse. But what I do know is the product looks bad. The optics look bad. The Mets don't exactly have a good baseball team right now. But I'll tell you what they do have. They might have the best telenovela in the sport, the best Spanish soap opera in the sport. You know, I saw a picture over the week that so when when Soto hits a home run, they he goes into the dugout and he does the uh hard hat celebration that they're doing, you know, with the vests and the hard hat, you know, the whole works. Okay, cool. He's buying into it. And what do you know? There goes Lindor, gets caught on camera, off to the side, and he's looking like he's side-eyeing him with this look of disdain. So now, now every Mets fan is breaking down dugout body language. Look, maybe it means something, maybe it's nothing. I'm saying it means something. But when you're 10 and 21, everything looks suspicious. If you're winning, you know, that clip is funny. You're if you're winning, people laugh at it and say, oh, look at Lindor messing around, you know, uh, Soto hit a home run, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. When you're the worst team in baseball and the clubhouse feels weird, suddenly every frame gets turned into evidence. That's what losing does. It makes harmless stuff look toxic. It makes normal frustration look like turmoil. It makes every glance, every quote, every celebration, every silence feel like a clue to whatever mess is going on behind closed doors. That's where the Mets are right now. Then, you know, the games themselves are just brutal. They're unwatchable. I mean, the Rockies sweep was embarrassing enough. Getting swept at home by the Rockies is not a skid. That's the baseball gods putting a traffic cone in front of your house. You had an ABS moment where Brett Beatty looks like he drew a basis loaded walk, and then the robot steps in and says, actually, nope, that was a strike, goes to down. I mean, that's how cold the Mets are right now. Even technology is telling them no. Then they get an 8-0 win against Washington, and for one night, you start to breathe a little bit. Soto homers, bichette homers, home shoves. Benge looks good. You start maybe, you know, talking yourself into one of those, all right, you know, maybe this is the spark. Maybe this is the spark they need. We'll see how it goes. Yeah, that lasted about 24 hours. Next thing you know, Brady House is hitting a grand slam. Washington is putting up seven runs in an inning, and the Mets are losing 14 to 2, and the sparse crowd at City Field is booing in the rain. I can't even people be I can't even believe people showed up for that game. This is not watchable baseball. The worst is Soto Homered in that game, too. He had three hits, which almost makes it funnier in a dark way, proving that when one guy does something, the rest of the house is still on fire. Not one person can carry a whole team out of a massive slump. And don't even get me started on the 5-4 loss that might have been the most Mets version of it all. You know, first inning, James Woods robs Soto of a homer early. The Mets fight back, they take the lead, and then Luke Weaver comes in in the eighth and gives up a two-run homer to CJ Abrams. Soto gets stranded in the ninth at second. Ronnie Mauricio strikes out to end the game, another loss, another game they led and they let slip away. They have lost a game that they have led in ten times already this year. Ten. It is May 1st. That is such a gross number, man. And then to pile it on even more, Luke Weaver had a quote after the game saying that the uh the freedom they play with day to day seems to be suffocated a little bit. Yeah, that's not what you want to hear. That sounds like a team therapy quote. That sounds like somebody. Oh, God, that sounds like something you say when the room knows it's tight and just nobody knows how to loosen it, nobody knows how to fix it, the fun is gone, the air is gone. The season is 31 games old, and everybody already looks like they're carrying luggage, waiting for the offseason. Mendoza said it too. He said, Oh, we got to start winning series, period. Yeah, no kidding. That homestand was supposed to be the soft landing. Twins, Rockies, Nationals, all sub 500 teams. Get right, breathe, get back on track, stack a few wins. Instead, they go three and six and leave town as the worst team in baseball. And now they head to California. And what, I'm supposed to pretend patience is still the mature answer here? No. No, no, no, no, no. The mature answer is looking at this thing honestly. The Stearns plan is failing and falling apart right now. The roster is not good enough. The stars are hurt, the depth is being exposed, the manager may not be the biggest problem, but he still might be the easiest button to press. And the players keep saying the right thing, but the field keeps saying something else. That's the Mets, man. Not unlucky, not early, not one piece away from Fine. A full on mess. You know, and around the league, you can see how quickly this stuff gets ugly. Boston already fired Alex Cora. Philly fired Rob Thompson. The Phillies went straight to D Manningly as a short-term answer, and everybody is already connecting Alex Corr to every and any long-term job. Red Sox players are questioning direction, Phillies are trying to change the voice in a room. The Astros and the Angels, they have their own heat in the building. Managers are getting fired because it's the easiest lever to pull. But pulling the lever does not mean you fix the machine. That's what scares me with the Mets. You can fire a Mendoza and maybe the room gets a jolt for a week. Maybe. But does that fix the lineup? Does that fix Sangha's back? Does that fix Lindor's calf? Does that fix Robert's durability? Does that fix the bullpen? Does that fix a roster that feels like it was built out of maybes? No, I I don't think it does. So if you're gonna make a change, make sure you know what you're actually trying to fix. Don't just fire the guy because everybody needs a body. Everybody needs somebody to hang to the cross. Oh God, that's I hate it. That's where the Yankees and the Mets contrast is so loud. You know, the Yankees know who they are right now. The Mets don't. The Yankees have stars playing like stars, a surprise bat turning into a real piece, young pitching creating excitement, reinforcements coming, and the whole operation just feels stable like it always does. The Mets, yeah, the Mets have money, they got injuries, they got bad vibes, roster questions, a manager on the hot seat, a front office plan taking on water fast, and a fan base already staring at May like it's September.

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God.

Identity Lesson And Final Sendoff

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That's the identity check. One team can say my guys are better, and you can see it. And the other team is still trying to figure out who the guys even are. God, baseball is so fucking frustrating, man. Anyway, thanks for hearing me out. Thanks for having the therapy with me. Let's land this plane. So that's gonna do it. That's episode 63. My guys are better. It uh it started out as the Knicks statement tonight, but it kind of kinda became the whole show. You know, the Knicks walked into Atlanta and didn't just win, they proved something. They found the formula, trusted it, and then they played like the better team. No apology, no overthinking, no dragging it back to the garden just for a game seven and making everybody sweat. Jets and Giants, a little bit of a different part of the same conversation. They're not proving on the field just yet, but they're trying to build it. Jets are trying to build the house before they hand the keys over to somebody, and the Giants are trying to build a tougher room with Harbaugh's fingerprints all over it. Yankees, well, the Yankees look they already know who their guys are. Judge is judge, Rice is becoming real, Schlitler looks legit. The pitching has been nasty, and the whole operation just feels steady. The Mets on the other side of it, that's what it looks like when nobody really knows what the hell is going on. Money doesn't solve that by itself. Names don't solve that by themselves. At some point, the plan has to show up on the field. That's really the identity check. You know, everybody likes the clean version of a plan. Everybody likes the idea before it has to carry any weight. The hard part, the hard part is when the first answer doesn't work and nobody has time for a meeting. That's when you find out who your guys are. That's when you find out what you actually built. Same thing in real life, too, man. I mean, it's Easy to feel solid when everything is lining up. It's easy to trust the plan when the plan is still just words. The real test comes when something gets sideways. And you gotta decide what you're standing on. Who are your people? You know, what are you building? What do you actually believe in? And are you willing to adjust that without losing yourself? That's the balance. Stand on your guys, stand on your work. Stand on the people who show up for you. But also be honest enough to look around and say, you know what, this ain't working, man, when it isn't. There's nothing weak about adjusting. There's nothing wrong with admitting the first answer wasn't the right one. The only real problem is pretending you're fine while the whole room is filling with smoke. So know your guys, know your plan, know yourself a little bit too. As always, thank you for listening. Thank you for riding with me, especially on these uh longer episodes where we just open the tab and start ranting through everything. Follow along on the Instagram at Rice on the Radio. Uh jump in on Wednesday mic checks, send me your takes, send me your questions, your arguments, what you liked about the episode, what you think I'm an idiot about, all of it. I appreciate every listen, every share, every message, every person who keeps showing love to the show. Brick by brick, right? As always, spread some good energy this week. Tell someone you love them, be a little nicer to people. It's really easy to find negative energy. It's really hard to find good. Be the good. I am Ian Rice. This has been episode 63 of Rice on the Mics, and I'll catch you guys same time, same place, next week. Cheers, and we're gonna go to the biggest.