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The Ryan Masillo show is presented by DraftKings and Oliver episodes are also on Netflix loaded with football today, four weeks in, quarterly reports, including an investor's letter on one team. I'm going to do four teams. I'm going to do it every single week. I know it's not technically quarterly reports after week seven. You'll get the exercise. We're talking to the NBA with Chris Mannix. He gives us his finals pick and then kind of talks himself out of his finals pick, but it's interesting nonetheless. So like almost an appetizer NBA preview stuff because look, there's pre-season games going on and we'll take a look at week five with Andrew, Ceciliano and life advice, including the Alliance pick winner. The football season is heating up and every week feels bigger with DraftKings. DraftKings Sports app is now live in all 50 states. That means from Texas to California to Florida, every fan is in on the excitement. 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Because we're four weeks into the NFL season, we're going to do NFL quarterly reports, not going to all 32 teams now, but I'm going to start with the NFC North because out of the division, Minnesota's 2-0, Chicago's 3-0, Detroit's 2-2, Green Bay's 2-1, I think other than the NFC West, it's really the only two divisions, I think you could argue, being the best divisions in football, I'll go with the NFC North as of right now, because I still, it basically becomes like an Arizona Green Bay conversation, but it could also be like, hey, the way San Francisco's played, what Seattle has done, what our expectations are for the Rams, arguably all three of those are higher than what we have right now in the NFC North. So, totally fair, understand it, but so far a great start. We start with Minnesota and we know it's the best defense in the NFL with the worst offense. This is starling because I was looking at these numbers last night, so every single defensive number is off the charts, we've covered this. Kyler Murray has a QBR of 27.6. Cam Ward in his rookie year was at 33.2. Zach Wilson was last in the 2021 season with a QBR of 33.4. J. Jim McCarthy in 25 had a QBR of 35.6. So, we're doing a little exercise here with all four teams. Would you rather have this quarterback situation or Jalen Hertz? I'd rather have Jalen Hertz. Next question, stupid TV graphic topic. Potentially, will you see this on a TV show? Will the Vikings regret trading J. Jim McCarthy? Here's the thing. Sometimes as I present these stupid TV graphic things, if you're doing the pre-show meeting, I'm like, is that really that stupid of a question? Because if you were to say to the Vikings, hey, this is how bad it's going to be a quarterback. And yes, you could say, hey, Kyler got the concussion, the missed reps. It's probably a weird training camp, even though it was pretty clear he was going to be the guy and they'd already turned on J. Jim McCarthy. But if you had said to them, this is how bad it's going to be. And I know everybody thinks it's going to get better because it can't possibly get any worse. Would you be in a spot where you're like, well, with McCarthy having so little experience and then him coming off an injury and missing his entire rookie season, would they be halfway through the season thinking, if this continues, could have been as bad with McCarthy? They clearly liked him enough to draft him. There had to be something about him. But as we've touched on as well, for them to trade him for a fifth-browder with this quarterback situation and this defense, it's not like this is some kind of gap year for this team because the defense is so insane. They must have just, they clearly couldn't stand him and wanted him out of the building. So I actually don't think even though I title it stupid TV graphic topic, I don't know that that one would be that stupid. When will we know? So the Bears wins a quality win, even with the rain and Caleb going down. If Caleb doesn't get hurt, maybe Chicago pulls that one out. I like their chances. Then you've got the Packers and Miami, both bottom three Offences. You've got the Bucks who are Owen four, although that feels a little misleading. So you could say, wait a minute, they're actually just beating up on the worst teams. Tampa's Owen four record is a combined 20 points. They've kind of been in every single one of these games. So I don't really look at them as like a bottom four, bottom five team in the NFL. So I think it's going to be after week nine against Buffalo. I had a doubt with the way the NFL works that they're going to start eight, you know. And just if they were to beat Buffalo with that defense, is that mean now we have to start looking at the Vikings and saying, this team can win the NFC because that'll be what happens. But looking at some of the next matchups, Detroit and their offensive protection against this D line, although we're good to Detroit and this offensive line being a little bit better than maybe we expected. The whole getting off off of his spot, we talked about it in the Carolina game, but honestly, he kind of lit it up still like he's, there's some throws in there that don't look great, or he doesn't look comfortable having to get outside of the pocket. But look at the stat line against Carolina who did a really good job of moving him around and they got back into that game. So look, I think the summary, the quarterly port summary here for the Vikings is, you can't win a Super Bowl with this kind of quarterback play, even if the defense sets some historic marks. Chicago, the defense is top five. We did not expect that. They're fifth and opponents points per game. They're fourth and opponents yards per play. They're fifth and opponents EPA. They're number two on third downs. They're number three and opponents yards per game. So this is not what we were expecting. We thought with the schedule and the lack of sustainability on a massive turnover margins that they had last year that they wouldn't be able to do that again. But here's something they are doing also on top of all the stuff that's going on with the quarterback. They lead the NFL and rushing yards per game at 196, which is the highest the team has been. I don't think they're going to stay at that number. But that's the highest number since Baltimore led the NFL and rushing yards per game at 206 per game in 2019. So that's a really insane number four weeks in again. I doubt it stays that high, but clearly they can run the football when they don't feel like their passing attack is going to be the priority on a Sunday. Stupid TV graphic topic here for the Bears. If Tyson Beijing, who's been named starter for week five against Green Bay, if they were to win say the next two games without Caleb Williams and then Caleb comes back and they have New England at home, then they're at Seattle very easily to go five and one to five and three. Will they put up a TV graphic that says are the Bears better off with Beijing than Caleb Williams? Someone will absolutely ignore the schedule and say yes, I've done this long enough. Someone will have to say that and pretend they believe it on TV. That would be inaccurate. Clearly Caleb brings this offense to another level with his playmaking. I think we've already seen that last year and in the limited number of attempts that we've seen from before the hamstring injury this year, but yeah, somebody's probably going to say that and it's also ignoring that Beijing granted one of them was a free play, but he had three more interceptions, like he could have had four on the day. I know not really four because it was like back-to-back and there was an off-sides. Then there was hands of the face and then there was another penalty there, but look, there were some things that Beijing did against the Jets that I really liked. He had a rollout and a huge spot where they were moving the ball, but he needed to worry about the clock and he got away from the pressure because he's so damn athletic and then ran out of bounds and it was like for a guy that hasn't played a lot of football lately, which you can build into the turnover part of this, that technically ended up not being turnovers in the box score, but that I thought was like a really heavy play for a guy that just doesn't have a ton of seasoning. But considering what Case Kingdom did and for a night, considering
know, granted they beat the jets. Um, I think somebody will say that if they end up at five and one and then go five to three, five and three after those, those tough back to back weeks. Um, hurts or Caleb Williams. We'll go Caleb Williams. So summary, the defense way better than expected. I don't know if it's going to end up being top five, but man, they have looked incredible, especially the front, like they tore apart Philadelphia and that night game. And that was like, you know, on top of the case, Keenan part of it, how much fun that was, it was like, wow, this looks like this is not what I expected to look like. I don't think many people did. Uh, and then Caleb Williams in his second full season with Ben Johnson, which we expect this to happen. He gets through this hamstring part of it because, you know, the two things with Caleb that always concerned me despite how much I love him is the bad throw percentage and the on target percentage because it's just not where it needs to be for like a premier quarterback and the bad throw percentage was almost cut half through 55 attempts through him. So a good sign there, although limited through those first couple of weeks, Detroit, two and two. All right, so there are two wins. They barely beat New Orleans and they beat the Jets and they were tied in the fourth quarter against the Jets. The down big debuff below to their credit. They get back into it. Same thing against Carolina down big. Uh, this defense is a mess as we know, um, but they got back into both games, but again, those two wins aren't really anything to get all that excited about. I'm sensing a trend. Opponents yards per play under Dan Campbell. This season, it's 28th. Last season, it was 18th. That's the best season ever. In 24, it was 29th. In 23, it was 29th. In 22, it was 32nd. And in 21, it was 30th. So kind of makes me go like, Daringling, go to head coaching, John. Um, this team never plays defense. And we know the secondary is a mess with the injuries. Branch is expected to come back at some point. So that'll help them. I'm not all that hot on the corners right now. Uh, and then the Kirby Joseph part of this. So there's at least some idea with some injury updates with this team that it can't continue to be this bad, but it's always kind of been this bad with this group. The old line has gone through its own challenges. Uh, the past protection and run block win rate with all the changes are actually a little bit better than you would think. And that's that's actually pretty surprising because they've had to shuffle some things already. Um, but here's here's what I think is kind of the the secret part of this Detroit team so far this season in 26. I'm not sure golf is getting the credit that he deserves for how well he's playing. So a career high in QBR, uh, he's tied for third and big time throws according to pro football reference with zero turnovers to choice plus three in the turnover margin, which is tied for third in the NFL. But golf is just across the board lighting it up, knowing he has to go into every one of these games of the shootout, which usually leads the mistakes and he's not making any of those mistakes. Knowing every time they kick it off, like, I've probably got to get us the 30 points to even pull one of these things out. So if we're going golf or hurts, I'll go golf, stupid TV graphic. Uh, in 23 when they played in the fantasy championship game, remember, they're up 14 zip on the 49ers. Then we're outscored 3410, the rest of the game. Dan Campbell, who was a very open person, said this may have been our only shot. He got killed for that. He's since said, hey, you know, in the moment, like what I meant was like every year is year to year, but he might have been telling the truth. And so you could sit there and say, if this team's window has closed, that he knew it then and he tried to go back and like, I don't know, give him a hard time about it, which I think is unfair. It'll be unfair just because the reality of the sport in any of these sports, when you get that far and you don't get all the way, you don't win a championship or at least appear in the NBA finals or make it to a Super Bowl, you understand what I'm saying? Odds are, you're never going to get back there. And with this group defensively, it seems like a massive chore. So if we go through the process of like, when will we know with this team? Looking at the schedule, looking ahead at everything. In this division, pulling it up now, they've got Arizona, Green Bay, Minnesota. I can't imagine what off in this offense is going to look like against Minnesota in that front, at least they'll be at home. I think it'll be after week 10 against New England. So it's not like they're going to be playing great offenses with Arizona, Green Bay, Minnesota. So they probably can pick off one of those games and then they go, Miami. So it might be two and two, but I think after week 10, we'll have a real sense of whether or not we think this team is actually a playoff team. Summary, see above. And finally, Green Bay. So here are some numbers for you. They're 25th on offense, which is higher than I expected. 18th on defense. They are 31st in the NFL and yards per carry. They can't pass protect. They cannot run the football. Vegas is the worst on yards per carry in the NFL if you're curious. These are the quarterbacks with a worse completion percentage in Jordan love. Cooper Rush, Malik Willis, James Winston, Jack Strand, and Ethan Kelleyek Manus. Yeah, that's not good. That is unexpected. That's not what we expect from Jordan love. And like this old line is a mess. So love to me is become the NFC's version of Justin Herbert where there's just a ton of us in the media. I think there's a lot of people that have worked in the league, whether they played quarterback or coaches that are now on TV that are so enamored with both of these guys and their talent because there's still, I'm going to tell you right now, there's Jordan love throws every single week or I'm like, okay, this is why this guy got paid. This is why we think of it as a top 10 quarterback. But the elite of the elite figure out a way to get through the weeks when they know they just don't have the protection upfront. And that's the problem with the align. And guess what, Jordan love isn't one of those guys. And I'm talking like not just the top five guys every single year. I'm talking like Hall of Famers where they go, all right, this is what I'm tasked with. I'm going to have to figure this thing out. So I think some of the fan bases get really, really spoiled when you're like, do you realize how special your quarterback is knowing this is protection sucks and that he's going to find a way to still compete every single time. But all that has to be on the same page. Like it has to be shorter routes. It has to be receivers, you know, getting out of breaks quicker. It has to be getting the ball out. It's a lot like what we saw with Carolina against Detroit, which I thought was remarkable because it was just like, Hey, we're not going to let Aiden Hutchinson destroy us all night long, even though we kind of had a great game, but Bryce Jung and everybody just felt like they were on the same page or getting the ball out like that all the time. And I don't think Green Bay necessarily looks like that. So they're 30 second in pass block win rate, which is why they're last on third down percentage. They're converting 26% of their third downs. When you're below 30% as a team, it's hard to find many teams that end up finishing the season below 30% on third down. And that's where they're at right now. So I'm sorry. I'm not going to crush Jordan love. And when it comes to the hurts love question, this will be a little controversial. I don't think, you know, I don't think it's going to make Forbes, but I'll still stay with Jordan love. All right, stupid TV graphic topic would look floor be fired in season. If this were a different ownership group like the other ownership groups all over the NFL are in a different city. Yeah, I think in season, he probably would lose his job, even with all of the offensive line struggles. When will we know? Look at this schedule. They've got Chicago where they're actually favored against the Bears this week. So because I've just went through this entire rant, they'll probably win because that's the NFL this upcoming week. But look at this schedule, Chicago Dallas Detroit Carolina at New England, Minnesota and at the LA Rams. If they're four in seven, you should probably feel good about this. But the whole one when we know thing, I think we already know because of this offensive line. And yes, they're missing some of their dudes. But I just don't see it. I feel like this team is going to be a rebuild around Jordan love a couple of years from now as they have to reset the roster around him. And you could say, well, that's what Green Bay does with their quarterbacks is their super patient. Well, we'd all be super patient if you had Brett Fargoon to Aaron Rogers. All right, summary here. I'm going to go investors letter that you get from different investments that you have. And sometimes it's comical when the investments are going poorly. And then you get these letters. So here we go, dear investors, the last four weeks have been a master class in cosmic volatility. Our proprietary algorithmic yield optimization engine experienced a nonlinear liquidity event. Resources invested in high yield strategies have not performed to our expectations. The research was accurate. The results were wrong. However, using Mac benchmarks and not the more traditional NFL pricing models, we feel we would outperform Mac expectations, which we think is an accurate comp based on geographic similarities. Let's talk some more football. He's my neighbor Andrew Silliano of NFL media. You can see him on NFL report Monday through Thursday. And that is at 7 p.m. Eastern time streaming on NFL channel, which is available across all major fast platforms as well as NFL plus the NFL YouTube channel And the NFL out, man, it's good to see you likewise.
friend. How are you? How's the road? Road is good. Road is good. A few stops here there. But, you know, you always miss home. It's nice to live in a place that you miss. But let's, let's start here. Let's start here because I think a lot of people, me included, with a couple teams in our backyard, specifically more of the Rams. Wherever you were in the summer, I kind of like to ask a lot of people about this when I haven't had you on during the season. But what has shifted, if anything, for you about how the NFC looks with the RAND start with Seattle start and maybe what we've seen from some of these other teams? It's a good question. I don't think the Eagles are really much in the conversation right now. I don't know that they were from me, a front runner for an NFC championship game. I think all eyes were on our backyard in the NFC West. I think the Rams are still in it and we'll connect those dots. I think what the Rams did in the fourth quarter is too early to say in the first weekend of October that they saved their season. I don't know, but I think we'll look back because they are going to get healthy. And I do believe they are in the conversation at the end of the year. But that fourth quarter I think is a turning point. Down a couple of tight ends, can't play 13 personnel. The defense was doing the job against the Eagles certainly. And I know we want to all throw Jalen Hertz to the UFL this week. But give the Rams defense a little bit of credit there as well. I know Nick Foles will tell you there were plays on the field. Yes, there were. But I think the Rams are in it at the end. However, if you look at this weekend's game in Seattle where I think Brock Perty and the diners have one forced straight, it feels like what the Rams and the Seahawks had last year. And that is we have two games here to determine home field for the NFC championship game. And this is round one. If Zach Charbonate doesn't pick up that football on hand into the official on that Thursday in December last year, you could argue the NFC championship game. I know they had a full overtime play, but the NFC championship game would have been in LA. What would have happened? I don't know. I think the Seahawks were the best team in football. But you can wonder. I don't know how the diners though continually survive these injuries. It's not making light of them, but dude, it's almost comical at this point. But if they win this week, that is a huge step towards change. Yeah, I looked at the oldest roster and they're on an absolute heater and looked at defense, looked terrific, but I think every defense looks great, except for a second half for Jacksonville against the sprinkles offense right now. But yeah, the diners who every single year I go, hey, I'm penciling them, 10 wins at worst, probably 11. I respect the hell out of them. Shanahan's incredible. And all of the things that we just always assume, this is the first year, I was just like, hey, I'm over it. It's not going to happen. And I still have a hard, I still have a hard time believing that like with this group, then I'll go, yeah, I like their health. Like it just feels like it's automatic. When you start putting together starters lost, you know, games lost to starters or however many they're going to be like back at the top of the list again, which is always super unfortunate. It's kind of been the story of this entire era there. Also part of the story is when McCaffrey is healthy, they go deep, right? When they open three and oh, they end up in the Super Bowl. So you have all this historical data as well that they have found their way through the storm. But you know, it's easier said than done, just because history says they've done in the past doesn't mean they get overcome these injuries. I think that the Seahawks run game, the idea that they're literally bringing in every, it's almost like they're going through, you know, like on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning, you look at who's available in your fantasy league because all I got to be running back this week and you're going down the list going, no, no, no, no, no. That guy was good four years ago. That guy was good six years ago. That guy still in the league. And that's what the Seahawks are doing right now. I thought it was hysterical when McDonald was asked yesterday, "Hey, why'd you bring in Jill Nixon?" And he kind of had the smirk on his face, like, "Do I become a wiseass here?" And he goes, "We need running backs?" And that to me is something demoneter as well because we have no idea when Jadari and Prattis is getting back. Yeah, let's go through Minnesota's schedule. I won't need to tell me when they lose. At New Orleans. They have an early-by-week and week six in Indianapolis at home, unlike at Detroit. Maybe. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. I'm a little worried about Goff against that D-line. Even though Goff, as I mentioned in the open, I feel like, if you have a minute on that, feel free. But I feel like Goff is one of the most overlooked performances for the first month of the season. I mean, he has been fantastic. And I don't ever put him maybe in like that top five group, maybe flirts of like seven to thirteen. But if he wasn't playing for them right now, if he wasn't doing what he was doing this season, they would easily be on four. And you would start wondering, like, I kind of think the window is closed based on super bowl contention for them. But, I mean, if he wasn't around doing what he's doing right now, you'd start wondering who they're going to be drafting in twenty seven with crazy because you want to go to the Vikings game. Let's compare them. It's a couple of weeks away. The Vikings offense has been as bad as the lion's defense. But no one's asking to blow up the Vikings. So I got Kevin O'Connell and Kyler will figure it out. Maybe you have the conversation to go back to Wens. But in Detroit, it's, are you firing Kelvin Shepherd? You know, why didn't you trade for Joey Porter? This is not sustainable because Jared can't score thirty points again. Maybe he can. Obviously, Colin's worth was disgusted on Sunday night. It was Sunday night. I'm losing track of days. With Sunday night. Yeah, Caroline. Sunday night. Thank you. Is it week five? That's absurd. It was, oh, my God, I can't believe I didn't get a first down there. I was kind of surprised as well. I don't know that the lion's can pull this out of the fire. I do have more faith though that Kevin O'Connell will find a way to put together an offense here because Ryan Flores's defense, you want to stack. This is a fun game. Stack the best sides of the ball. Say there's 64 of them in the NFL. Ryan Flores's defense has got to be top five, right? I don't know the, the metrics say with the point scored say. For this season, yeah, like fear factor, like I don't want to face Kyle. I don't want to face by all the units. Yeah. I think Flores's defense right now is the most horrifying group. You could have any unit in the NFL. So that's going to carry you. And I don't know where the Vikings are going to lose. I mean, they'll lose when they just get shut out and someone kicks two field goals against. Right. They've won two games without a touchdown. So that's, that's pretty hard to do in league right now. We've asked a lot of people the same question here, but is it too soon to say Jacksonville's the favorite in the AFC? I don't think so. I saw him in person week one. And there, there were people that were ready after week one to say that the brown sub the number one overall pick. And they should be sent to Canada. But now I'm not suggesting that the Jacksonville is this unbeatable team. Clearly they lost in Denver week two. But they are that good. And if you go Shanahan, pretty, I think Liam Cohen and Trevor Lawrence are on the same kind of like Jedi mind trick or Volcan. We love tears here. Yeah. I tier one QB. Oh, I hate the tears. There's nothing here. All right. I went on a rant on that yesterday, like who gives a flying, you know what? About a tear like it's off season talk show conversation. I respect Mike Sando. I respect Jeremy Fowler. I respect Nick shook. I get why. But tear rings. I didn't expect. Yeah, but you come on. We all know why why these are done. They're done. They're they're clickbait. Not like that's not a problem. They're easy to consume. I know exactly what I'm clicking on. People love lists. I get it. You and I know how the beast is fed. We feed the beast all the time. Much respect to those guys. The quotes, all of them anonymous are certainly interesting. But you know, the next time somebody walks up to me in a bar or you in an airport and goes, let me tell you man, if we could only get tier two quarterback play, I might just buy season tickets. No. Shut up. I hate but I think Liam Cohen and Trevor Lawrence are of like mind right now where they're just coming. I mean, he's making arm arrogant throws, just audacious throws. And I think they're that good. They've got a one two puncher running back. Chris Rodriguez, Loki, great signing. They guarantee them five million. He was the finisher last week in Cincinnati. Travis Hunter is is looking like a cornerback one the last two weeks. I don't care if he doesn't play out offense. They play a lot of zone. They rush the passer with four. You don't know. They they're defense and anti cap and Ellie don't get enough respect. I think they are the favorite. Yeah. So what does that mean for you? Because this feels like a classic NFL example of resetting what we think about everything with Philadelphia.
and Jacksonville being the London game. I really wish, I wish it wasn't the London game. You know, it's not a complaint about it starting earlier or any of that kind of stuff because I just think sometimes you get some London game results where you go that meant absolutely. Like, I don't know. I mean, sure, there's plenty of the regular settings for some of these games where you'll look back a few weeks later and be like, that result really didn't mean anything. But considering where Philadelphia is right now, are you even open to the idea that they surprise everybody and knock out what everybody's saying? It's now the most complete team in the NFL in Jacksonville. - I think Nick Surion is a damn good coach. And if they do that, I would not be surprised considering everything they're facing this week. With Lane Johnson retiring. He came Jürgen's and Concussion Protocol on to the offense, one of seven passing last week on third down, was it one of 12, whatever it is last week. - Oh, 12, yeah. - Oh, oh for 12. I don't see that happening. However, however, there is a, an international travel conversation that has not yet been had, lost in the Lane Johnson stuff yesterday is Nick Surion, he dropping, that they're flying Friday afternoon. They're taking the Friday, Red Eye getting their Saturday. They're doing what they did last year, where they stayed on the East Coast. They practiced in Baltimore. I think they have played the Ravens. They practiced the Camp in Yards, took a Red Eye, got off the plank, kicked the Jaguars asses, so badly the game was basically over at halftime and then turned around and went home. And that's why Sean did the same thing for Australia, clearly that did not work. But the Eagles are doing that this week as well. So be prepared for that conversation one way or the other, whomever wins that game. Oh, look, it worked. Maybe that was what the Eagles needed or maybe it spectacularly backfired. - Yeah, I mean, Barkley's question most, Smith's still questionable, Goddard's doubtful. And then, who was really nice for them in the one drive, where they were up 2010 and that was the whole field goal decision, which I'm not outraged by the whole thing, even though I felt like at the time, hey, maybe being up 13 is two touchdowns is a little bit better than likely the ramp scoring. And then maybe I thought it'd be that last drive for a time field goal, it would've been a lot easier, but that's not the way it played out 'cause it ended up being two touchdowns anyway. But you throw that in and then when you look at this offensive line and the Lane Johnson story, he's just sucks and it's unfortunate. And obviously, anybody that knows him, I've had him on the show and the whole thing, it's like, man, it's just a tough spot to be in, but you start running through this offensive line and it's like after Milata, you're going Lampkin, Kendall, Steen, Bell, and the other four-o-line positions, which is not what you were expecting. - Yeah, Marco Bell's like a seven-foot dude, you know, trying to learn, he's not seven feet tall. He just looks seven feet tall, trying to learn to play right tackle on the fly here. - Six nine. - Six nine, he's massive. I think there's a conversation to be had, is Lane, and I don't know, is Lane Johnson still there, if Jeff Stoutlin is still there? Does this offense look different if Jeff Stoutlin is still there? I think that's a fair conversation. Now if I also think, and I like Jaylen, hurts a lot. But there were people last year, down the stretch around the league who whispered, you watch how he's going to find a way, contractually, like it's almost impossible, but how he's going to find a way, this past off season, to try to move on. And it never happened, they stayed with him. I think it was the right move to stay with him. You're bringing Sean Manion, you're bringing another offensive coordinator, but how far away are we? Let's say it goes badly in London. How far away are we from the Tanner McKee conversation? I don't think 80 don'ts let anywhere near the playing field ever again in Philly, but are we far from that conversation? Yeah, Tanner McKee, I don't want to use tier here, but he's definitely in that group of unproven young backups, where you just hear like whether you read it, or you hear it, certainly in your orbit, a little bit more than maybe I would, is like, you know, they kind of like Tanner McKee. Of course they. That's why it may be Andy Dalton thing, so nonsensical in the off season, respect Andy. Absolutely, but like, yeah, and I guess, hey, if you need two, you probably need three, but it didn't make any sense why he came in. Give me a pick for Denver chargers. I mean, Logic Abba is obviously says Denver, you keep waiting for the back against the wall performance for the chargers, and I guess you had it in Buffalo, your force five turnovers, but couldn't do it, you had it in the fourth quarter in Seattle, but it wasn't enough. The idea that they finished that game, and who knows how they get through this week, and drew wise as they get to that game, but the idea that they got through that game in Seattle with four rookies playing in front of Justin Herbert against that defense in Seattle, one of those rookies is basically playing out of position. He's a center, he's playing guard. Like, why are we here, how are we here? And that's what Chris Riem was trying to ask Carbob this week. I don't think it was a combative question, it was a question that had to be asked, and that is two and a half years into this whole thing, how are we still here? And yes, Justin Herbert is a warrior, he's a warrior, he's tough, he's got gifts that 99 out of 100 quarterbacks walking the earth do not have, but you came into protective. You brought McDaniel into protective, and I don't just mean five guys up front, but just like protect this guy. And we're still here, where he's taking a beating, and he said it's an insult, it was not an insult. But I don't know how they protect him against, against fans Joseph this week. And if you look ahead at the schedule, you won't play the schedule game. In two weeks they get the chiefs, I believe it's in Kansas City, in case he's coming off a buy. So like, where is the turnaround for them? And then how do they fix it? People say they're gonna fire Harbaugh. They're not gonna fire Harbaugh guys. That's not what-- That's ridiculous. That's not what they do. And I think, you know, coaching contracts are always murky, if you go with the initial reports that is hiring, they owe him two years and 30 plus million. I don't think they're gonna fire Mike McDaniel, but Steven Ross is paying the majority of that deal, right? It's a far, far more affordable option. But for who, for what? He, you know, I don't know where the answers are there. The schedule gets brutal for them. It's so brutal. Again, if you want to play that game, if there's definitely something that I wanted to check here on the pressure rate, because that was kind of my faith in this charge team where you go, hey, look, like the pressure thing was ridiculous last season. He was at 30%, 29.8, because the highest in the NFL for any qualified starter. So, you know, every third dropback, and missing the attack is to get everybody back. And then you look at this year and you're getting everybody back and you're like, well, I hope those guys are hurt, because all of a sudden now these franchise 10 year kind of tackles now look like they're getting beat all the time. And maybe that is the case with all specifically, but the pressure rates were right basically where it was last year. It's a 29.2%. Then you start looking to the receiver room, especially when LAD is out. And it's like a LAD, a number one target, like probably not. You get Denver KC, the bias you said, and then LA Houston Baltimore. And who knows what Houston's gonna look like, we're gonna ask you about that here quickly. But I could see Denver as much as I can't stand what they've done offensively. And they've given us plenty of evidence to not love it. They can have like a, the way the charges are playing, it feels like they can have a scene minus game on offense, because in that San Francisco loss for the Broncos, you looked at that defense going, dude, this is one of the best defenses on a Sunday. Like Denver was incredible. And then they had to sell out with no corners. And then Kittle beats him on the big one. But for the most part, they'd held them in check. And offense, obviously, as we mentioned earlier, with Purdy and Shanahan that's been rolling. I think the biggest question right now in the AFC West, let me think, taking the Raiders out of this is, can Denver score some points before the fourth quarter? It's not sustainable to have to come back in the fourth quarter every single week or to not have the offense wake up until the fourth quarter every single week. And it's not just Davis Web problem, it isn't, because this is how they operated last year. And it was fun, and they pulled it out of the fire every single week. But constant fourth quarter comebacks is not a sustainable model. And I'm not going to be, I'm not the tapehead. I'm not the guy saying, "Voenix is missing the backside big here or a bow, pull the trigger," whether it's for him or for Jail and Hurts. But the people that I do respect that are, say that much like Jail and Hurts, and they're different players. Voenix is leaving a lot out there on the field. This is year three for him. It is a big year three. All those year three quarterbacks that are extension eligible. Next March, Caleb Williams and Jay Daniels and Boenix and Michael Penix, Jay Jim McCarthy. Obviously, he's not going to get one. It's more, do you pick up the fifth year option? It's a fascinating case study with that group. Does Houston start a path back to respectability with a win against Tennessee? If they don't be Tennessee. If they don't be Tennessee, it's crisis mode, full-time crisis mode. Also, not sustainable. Starting 0 and 3, 0 and 4 and saying, we're going to pull it out and somehow make a run. The biggest concern for me. They've never done 0 and 4 before. Yeah, three of the four starts under Domingo, I believe, 'cause when I looked it up on Monday, it's been generally bad. They put up the graphic during this broadcast, and then it's 0 and 4, but keep going, please. Yeah, no. the easy target there.
has always been the offensive side of the ball, especially last. It took time for that offensive side, who was a new staff to get their footing. And obviously we saw what CJ did in the postseason, it wasn't good. CJ had a really good game against the Cowboys. Really good. Can you tell me why Jalen Petri has no help in the red zone against CDLAM on that touchdown at the end of the game? I'm not in firing mode in any way at all. But it's the Texans defense right now that doesn't make any sense. When you have these think pieces written in the off season about how this is a transformational defense and Will Anderson is going to be the defensive player of the year, and then we see this. Will Anderson is just, I mean, is obviously he's still my baby, man. He deserves a ton of love with what he did in that Dallas game. That's why part of me, because I just think he's so ridiculous, where I was like, I kind of wish they had pulled that one out, but there was no way, there was just no way they're going to hold Dallas to less than the field goal and they get them to give it the game when they touch them. But the game that he had, I wish, you know, it's just kind of the rules. Like you lose, then we can't exit there and praise you for an entire week, because we would have if they had pulled that out. I'm pulling up their schedule here, Titans this week, let's give them a win. I believe their next Thursday against the Jaguars, I mean, that's a delicious game, and that becomes their game of the year. They win that or I'm giving the next games after that, because I think they get the giants and then I'm, I mean, then they have the buy and then they're at the Chargers Cleveland. Like there's a, they didn't even, they don't even have to beat Jacksonville, you know, that would be obviously the statement of this, but there's a path to five and five here that's very reasonable, through, absolutely, absolutely, in the hunting, yeah, in the hunt. I mean, look, the other part of this is we all know if they just kind of stay healthier than some of these other teams, like a lot of times just sit there and be like, Oh, what happened to this team? It's like, well, they're missing five starters, like this isn't that hard, but they're just not quarterbacks or it's not a receiver. It's two linemen. It's two defensive linemen. It's, you know, one of the corners of the season, the other corner stings and now he's, and then you just kind of start figuring out like what happened to this team and a lot of times the, the story is told through your availability here. So I were having a conversation yesterday, Nick shook, I mentioned earlier, NFC South first AFC South, and you would have never, because the Texans were a super bowl favorite. The Jaguars are coming off a, a playoff season as well. You would never say the NFC South is better than the AFC South, but with the way the Texans are playing right now, with Jacksonville, the only team in that division, um, and with the Falcons, the last two weeks, the Panthers are really good. I mean, would we dare say the NFC South is better? Saints are feisty. No, I'm still not there yet. I know you're saying, uh, and that's even with me kind of defending the Bucks a little bit here as I did at the top a little bit. It's like their own four, but Bucks are not, uh, they're not as bad as Owen for like they are not. I know they're known for team, but they were even, look, they were even still in that game in green Bay. And then that leads to the green Bay conversations like what do you extend back to last year? I mean, uh, it looked, this has been a bad friend. Do you look at 11 of 13? There's a 12 of 14 now. What is it? I just don't put them in a group of like another, like, I don't think they're Miami. I don't think they're, oh, no, no, no, they're not my, no, no, I'm not suggesting that. They're not Miami. They're not Tennessee. Um, there's talent on that team, uh, I was down there week two. The look of frustration in that building, but I believe you look at, I believe they're up nine to six on the Browns, the then winless Browns, who had gotten destroyed a week for in Jacksonville. They're up nine six and halftime and you would think you were at funeral. Um, and they've since lost now a couple of games in their own four and they're stuck with a great kid, a kid from our backyard here in LA, uh, and Jalen Daniels, who's an amazing story who kept him in a game last week, but they're, they're stuck with them right now at all in four for at least a couple of more weeks. I don't know where they're path for it. They can blame the delay in that Browns game and say, like, you know, that guy's 15 minutes. It's week 10. All right. Final thought here. Yeah. Even though it's like looking too far ahead here, what are your expectations of Buffalo LA from Monday? Monday night. Um, uh, I'm expecting to be there. So I'm excited for that, uh, what are my expectations? That is a great question. I don't know that it's, I don't, it's been, no, I think it is because, I mean, that should be, that is a preseason potential Super Bowl match, right? You got the bills coming in, uh, they have not looked that great the last couple of weeks. They barely survived against the chargers. We saw what happened last week when they lose the Patriots. You have the Rams coming off a save your season victory in which Matthew Stafford at times look great. The times look like a turnover machine. You don't know if Aaron Donald is going to play, but he's training in that direction. Cooke is likely going to play, but he's clearly not 100% and not himself. Um, do they get after Josh Allen and us to truly affect it? Can they stop James Cook to the bills dedicate themselves to running James Cook enough as he should be run? Uh, I, I think it could be a shootout, but I, I don't know that I have entire, the, I don't know that I have a lot of confidence in the Rams. If it is a shootout, keeping up. Yeah. I think the Rams get this one at home. I do. I think this bill's defense, which we were kind of going into the season, like, Hey, Allen's going to have to just put the cape on all year long, which he's certainly capable of. The rushing attack has been terrific. Uh, there was even some stuff happening along the front, Rousseau seems to be even the best version of him. We kept talking about Walker the second year guy out of Kentucky, um, but Benford so important to them. And you're like, I, there's not a lot of guys back there that I love and then you take him out of the mix. Uh, I think the Rams in this kind of going home after what they did on the road against Philadelphia. I mean, if this Rams team is really anything close to what we thought they would be before the season started, I think they put up a big number against this Buffalo defense at home, prime time. It's interesting. I was there for the last one, uh, the last one that I gave him a couple of weeks ago against the Giants were seven plays in Jackson, dark, got hurt and like the game was over at that point. Sorry, James. I love James, but he just didn't look the same. He didn't look like the James the last couple of weeks where he's, you know, a little more confidence, a link of the ball around having fun. And I love the James experience I witnessed at first hand in 2024 and Cleveland. He's truly one of my favorite people anywhere, uh, but like the game was over, the Giants never felt like they were in it. It was a weird night. Um, this is going to be rock and bills fans travel well, not a shot at Rams fans, bills fans travel well. Remember the week one game, what was it, 21 or 22 when they opened up in prime time. In LA, uh, that was wild that night, uh, it, I know probably the TV audience is sick of the Rams already, but they, uh, I mean, that to me is the game of the week, no matter what the other games on the schedule are. And I know there's some good games this week on schedule. Enjoy it. You can check out Andrew Silliano on the NFL report Monday through Thursday at 7 p.m. Eastern time against streaming on NFL channel, which is available across all major fast platforms as well as NFL plus NFL's YouTube channel and the NFL app. Good to see you, man. Enjoy Monday. Likewise, safe travels. Let's, uh, let's connect me back in time. The football season is heating up in every week feels bigger with draft Kings. The draft King sports app is now live in all 50 safe. Follow the teams you love, keep up with the biggest games and experience the excitement of football all week long, no matter which game you're watching, you're always connected with one app before we get to the Alliance winner last week, winning three, no. For the crew. Maybe we'll plug that one into the old calculation machines. See what that pair would have been, um, because I don't think we've done that because things obviously have changed here on the show a little bit, but we'd like to share a few trends from draft Kings to tell you kind of who everyone is betting on. And usually it's kind of nice to go the other way that's certainly what I'm going to be doing this week. The most bet on game as far as number of bets and the total money is that Philadelphia Jacksonville game Chicago is the most bet on team. As of right now, that game has flipped where Green Bay was favored. Now Chicago is minus two and a half and that one. And then Jacksonville minus, I've seen it seven and a half, I've seen it seven in London. Um, obviously that is a huge difference there. And the number three team since that a lot of people laying the seven points there on that touchdown, which would make sense going up against the dolphins. I think one of the other ones, I was surprised that Houston wasn't, well, that's back at seven and a half now against on on the road against the Tennessee as far as props. He's on Robinson, after Monday night football, everybody's betting him to go over 80 yards in their game against Baltimore. Um, Tutton has a couple props here that are really popular and the most bet on any time TD is Jamer Gibbs. All right. Let's bring in the guys fresh off a winning week for the Alliance.
let's go. Who wants the board? I say we stir Kyle again. Yeah. Okay. Steve like my bet pre show and then you said everyone in America likes my bet, which really doesn't feel awesome, but I guess you got to stick to your gun. So I'm going to take the bears minus two and a half really thought that Caleb would be back because I mean Kurt Warner did it. Why can't he do it? But I guess well, we'll roll with the bears either way. We'll go with agent. Yeah. I'm going to I'm going to zag on our guy Ceciliano. He had mentioned that he didn't think that the Rams offense was going to keep up. I do think they're going to keep up. I think this is like hey we too of who could be in back. They're going to have to score a ton of points. I don't know, like I just trust the Rams offense more. I think I trust the bills offense to score. So I'm going to take their team total over 27 half for the Rams. Okay. I like that one doing overs this week. Nice. That's fun. Yeah. I know. I'm going to go. I've got to find it. I mean, this is where it gets a little dicey. I have it right here at seven and a half on a board and it is the most bet against team. And that is your Philadelphia Eagles against Jacksonville. So give me the Eagles plus seven and a half. All right. Last week if you did parlay and I did calculate it, it would be like 10 bucks to win about 60 bucks. Let me throw this one in here. That's a pretty sweet one. Are you one of friends? It's not bad. It's not bad. All right. That's what you're on the same. So yeah. What do you say it was? I think you'll be around the same. Okay. All right. Little spice in the attitude this weekend from everybody here. Get ready for week five. One app every sport, all 50 states, new draft king's customer sign up with the code Ryan spend just five bucks, get 150 in rewards within 14 days, includes all markets. That's code Ryan RYEN in partnership with draft kings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem called 1-800 Gambler 1-800 My Reset. Connecticut called 888-789-7777 visit ccpg.org on behalf of boot hill casino in Kansas, Betax pass through may applying Illinois, 21 and over, void in Canada, bet with draft king sportsbook to get bonus bets that expire in seven days or trade with draft king's predictions to get predictions dollars that expire in one year. Avent contract trading involves risk of loss. Predictions offer void in New York, non-withdrawable rewards issued as $50 click to claims every seven days for 14 days. Terms at dkng.co/offer, limited time offer nationwide based on sportsbook predictions and free-to-play sports contest availability varies by state. Seeing NBA preseason games in the midst of college and pro football for me is horrifying, but it is right around the corner. Chris Manic joins us right now at Si.com, DeZone, and of course his podcast as well open floor. Let me start here. I know I'm not ready. So if you don't want to do it, you don't have to do it. But do you have a finals pick already? Yes. I am going with San Antonio, which is the low hanging fruit, but I already have some reservations about that, which we can get into. And I'm going to take Philadelphia getting it together and being like third or fourth seed to finish the regular season, but then like being just tough to beat four out of seven in the playoffs. Yeah, I don't, look, I don't blame you on the San Antonio one. So give me the reservations there on that side of it, because I don't, like I think there's kind of, I mean, unless you want to be different, some years, I want to be different. It just feels like you can really only pick two teams out of the West. Yeah. Well, it's the other team. So I just got back from Oklahoma City. I spent a couple of days out there and maybe I'm being a prisoner of the moments. But like being at that, those practices, I'm looking around. I'm like, shit, this, this team stacked. I kind of forgot like how good the roster is like one to 10. And like they peeled off some guys, like Jordan. That's the most significant. Dord, of course. Isaiah, Joe is a shooter. Wiggins utility guy. But like, and even watching preseason this week, like Jared McCain looks like he's ready to step into a bigger role. Um, I'm watching Shay. It looks like he's stronger this season. And I'm watching Jalen Williams. Like, wait a minute, they didn't have Jalen Williams and AJ Mitchell for the end of that spur series. And they still almost won it. Now, now both these guys are back at all NBA guy and Williams. A guy and Mitchell, who I think is going to flirt with, I mean, I don't know if he's going to start, but like six men probably probably not going to start. Case and we'll also start. I mean, they're, they're loaded. They're, they're loaded. And you know, talking to some of them, I think they've got a little bit of an edge coming into the season because of what happened. I think, shit, I'd spent some about 20 minutes talking to him. I think he's got a little bit of an edge coming into the season because of what happened. Again, recency bias, prisoner of the moment, but as excited as I am both the spurs, being around Oklahoma City kind of reminded me like this team talent for talent, roster spot for roster spot. There isn't no team in the league with that kind of depth. The McCain transaction, like it really speaks, there was no room for anybody. And yet they knew, okay, because I just don't think, I don't know how many people are better than Sam. I don't know that I put a list together that are better than Prestee when it comes to like forward thinking and going, okay, let's map out this whole thing. Also, the luxury of having a roster that's, that's that deep, but Joe was playing real playoff minutes from them. Wiggins two years ago, playing real playoff minutes from him. There was times with Wiggins. I'm like, you know, he would, how many teams would love to have this kind of guy. And yet they still saw McCain and probably the pricing on it and go on, all right, we have room for him because he think even as we have to get under the apron and worry about all the different things that we're going to be doing here, and how Topic fits in and like all this different stuff, you just, I'm like, we have a spot for him, even though it feels like we have the most crowded one through 12 in the entire NBA. It's why my guy, Uzman Gang, like I'm sure his agent was begging Prestee to be like, can we please get him out of here so he can get anything resembling a decent second contract, which, which happens a lot, but it's just, I'm with you that it's so deep. I think losing game seven last year makes a lot of sense. I guess I just still hesitate and I still don't know what I'm going to do. The chat when we match up doesn't seem to go in their favor. It doesn't, and I think that's going to be the story of this entire season. Like I spent and not to step on my own reporting, but I spent a while talking at chat and we talked about a lot of things that he did this off season to correct some of the things that went a little awry last season. I think he changed some of his shot positioning got a little bit stronger. All the things that you generally hear, but like ultimately it comes down to his ability to, you know, be either a hold, hold, when be to kind of a stalemate or to win that matchup at times. And I'm just not convinced yet that we're there with with chat homebren. And now can they overcome that? I mean, he was bad in that series and they were still one game away from winning without Jalen Williams of without AJ Mitchell at the end. So maybe they can survive a mediocre series from chat homebren. But beginning on opening night, that matchup is going to have a magnifying glass on it all season long. Yeah, and to be totally fair here, you know, it's a combination of different things. It's not like chat is just going at Wembee and they're going back and forth against each other because of Art and Stein and everything else will be able to put together. Okay, so on the spur side of this, give me, by the way, can I just say one more thing about about the thunder here? Like, just, I say Joe and Wiggins, like I was doing my preseason predictions of the magazine that comes out in a couple of weeks. And I'm like, why do I want to pick Aaron Wiggins for six men and most improved? Like, why am I looking at Isaiah Joe so closely for most improve? Like, that just speaks to the level of talent these guys have. Like I think Isaiah Joe is going to be lights out off the bench for Detroit. I think Wiggins is going to find a role in that defensive mind, did kind of back court wing rotation in Atlanta. Like those guys can play, man, like it, it, it does speak to the, just how steep that team was in talent that you could peel the caliber of those two players off and still be talking about them as a co-favorite to win the conference. Totally agree. All right. So San Antonio, you pick them, but then it sounds like you're already talking yourself into regretting it. Just because I believe in Oklahoma City, maybe more than I thought I was, I thought I was or I definitely was last month. There's no reason to pick against the spurs. Like, you know, they're little things that nitpick. Like I'd like to see Mitch Johnson play when be more powerful during the season to take some of the miles off his tires. I don't think playing him at center for 65-odd games is useful. Clearly, they've got some issues with Keldin Johnson there. That's why they went out and got to bias Harris. So how does that, you know, rotation shake out, but like organic growth alone, how do you pick against him? Like when he's not going to be on a sub 30-minute per game restriction for most of the season, you know, Castlin Harper, I'm going to take huge leaps. Harper took a huge leap in the second half of last season. Like these are, they're core three or like all star level, maybe all NBA level, all three of them. So it's not that I have any questions about San Antonio. It's just that I think Oklahoma City. I guess I kind of forgot for a brief moment just how freaking good that that team was. I don't know if Terris Reed from UConn can give him anything, but it would be a really nice combination to lighten the load to your point for women Yama and I don't think that was the guy last year. I know he
he didn't, they needed more from him in the playoffs. And I know they got as far as they got, but I don't know if he was the guy last year for them. - Rarely will you have a team go that far and you're watching him throughout the entire journey being like, I don't think you can play this guy. Like, I don't think you can play Kelton Johnson. I don't think you can play Coronet. It makes all the sense in the world that the plus minus like certain games I'd be looking directly for that. And sometimes it's just such an ugly number. And you're like, okay, but it's also an ugly number because of Wemba Nyama when he's actually in there and though the presence that he has. And then the frustration with the Iron Fox at the end of everything you think whether it was a health thing. I think it's a combination of health. There's times I thought he was moving really well and still just not doing what you'd expect for the one guy that was out there that was established. But I wanna see two things. I mean, if Harper, I don't know that he could stay in the trajectory of going from is he really a rotation guy in the beginning because they're stacked and he's so young too. I trust him more than any other spurs player in the NBA Finals is a rookie which is kinda where it ended up, which is insane. So how do you stay on that path to be even better than that? He's not even listed as a starter today. If he were to continue to kind of take those leaves, which I think is totally fair, I love he can open mind of like, I don't know what kind of ceiling there is on him. Maybe that's enough. And to the thing that I said to Sweeney when we had him on where I was like, I just would love to see Wemba Nyama's starting point be better in the playoffs. 'Cause you can do all that shit as a seven four guy off the dribble and you can set him up further away. And so whether it's a powerful center of any of those things, but when it's a playoffs, it's just so much harder for you to be like, do you really think you're gonna get to the hoop from that far out? And I hope they learn their lesson. I hope Mitch Johnson in that group and the guards learn their lesson about. I just think how poorly they used him in that Nick series. - Yeah, I think they will learn those lessons. I think Wemba is as good as anyone that I've covered in recent years at taking the information and applying it. Now, I don't know what if he did some strange things this summer like, oh, hang with the monks or some of that stuff. But more than anything, I think that he's gonna take everything that he learned from getting beat up in that Nick series. I mean, the Nick's played him in ways that nobody played him. They went against the grain every game in that series. They were attacking him. They were being more physical with him. They were playing bigs on him. I think he'll take that and he'll grow from it. And I just, I think Harper's a star, like a superstar. I think Harper's was like a cut below him, but still a star. I love the Harris acquisition because he's another, like he's a great locker room guy. Like in addition to being like a pretty consistent 13-ish point per game, mid-33 point shooter, he's a great locker room guy. Like the pistons will swear up and down that having him around over the last two years was a big part of their upward trajectory which got them that great turnaround year and then getting the number one seed. I just think they made all the right moves in the off season. And I think just the way these guys are going to grow naturally, they're just going to be pretty tough to beat in the playoffs. You spent some time in Slovenia. It was your first time. Have you been there before? Never been there. Beautiful country. You liked it? You liked it. You liked it. A lot of tourists. I was there, obviously, to hang with Luca who does not spend a lot of time in the city proper. He was telling me it's just like too many tourists from to kind of hang around there. But yeah, I got there just after the Lakers were, I went out there for their golf tournament, basically. It's been a few days then. All right, so give me being around it. Like what do you think this Laker story is like this year? I think really dynamic offensively, like really dynamic. You know, these are, like I was asking Luca like, you know, what was your level of input in roster construction? And he's like pretty much all of it. So this is a, he said that in, kind of in so many words. Like, you know, so these are his guys. And Luca, it's interesting, like some of his people are telling me, like he, he doesn't, I don't know if he actually, like makes notes and has like a spreadsheet somewhere, but he clocks like guys that he would like to play with during his seasons. And the guy like Kessler is somebody that was pretty high on his list. And, you know, some of the other guys they got were, were players that he, he wanted to play with. And I think that's going to lead to like just kind of games. They have some incredible offensive explosions. Like I think Luke and Reeves, like they're, I mean, they're going to be so dynamic offensively, so tough to stop. And I was talking to JJ Redick about this. And, you know, they're going to play Luke. I think a little bit more off the ball and, and try to get him in some different situations. I think that's going to be useful to him. Keeping some of those miles off his tires as the season progresses, they're going to be great offensively. They say they're going to be good defensively. I don't know, man, I don't know. You're asking a lot of Walker Kessler a lot. You're asking him to be a big time shop locker, which he is. You're asking him to be healthy, which he wasn't last season. You're asking defend picking roles high, which I don't think he's great at. And just clean up for a lot of mistakes that some of these weaker perimeter defenders might make. So I think a lot of score a lot of teams. Do they have enough defensively when you get up against the elite teams? I don't know. Luke is great. And we've seen he can beat teams with maybe lesser talent around him. But to get to the finals, you know, you got to go through. And starting in the second round. And I'm wondering, do they have enough defensively to get that done? It's totally fair. I mean, it's just a lot of guys in the perimeter that you think and you're right on. I mean, you start asking him like, what do you guys think Walker Kessler is? Like prime Dwight Howard. They're just going to clean up all of this stuff. And then you wonder if any team in the playoffs has any kind of stretch five, or however they want to play it. Like that's the thing with the Lakers are all go, okay, what if Kessler gets stuck in a matchup? Now, granted, they may go with the old warrior's thing where they put Bogot on Tony Allen. And they just go, hey, we don't care. Like we'll find a guy in your five and we'll put Kessler on him and then we'll pre switch it or whatever. But I wonder if there's a matchup, whether it's okay, see going small, what's that? And this is just about the Lakers like finding a way to get, you know, because nobody cares in L.A. Like, oh, yeah, we think you have a nice run and get bounced in the second round. It's like a kids there. Is there that extra step where you want to okay see your San Antonio? You get past one of them, you know, who knows what could happen in the playoffs? Who's healthy, all that kind of stuff? Well, like, could this team get to the Western conference finals and I think, you know, the Kessler thing, I like a man, but God, it's just, I have to imagine if you're that front office, you're like, we were desperate, like we desperately need to address the center situation. But man, do we have all our eggs in this basket? Well, somebody, somebody said to me that knows Luca and this wasn't a criticism necessarily. But it's like, when you look historically at the centers that have thrived opposite Luca, like they're a particular style, yes, but they're also cheap, right? Like it's usually you get the, the cheap guy that earns more money by playing opposite Luca. You really pay the guy to, that to be that guy next to Luca. Luca enhances a someone that comes in as an unknown or a lesser player. So they're investing a ton of money and obviously draft capital in Kessler, hoping that Luca can unlock even more. Now, I'm sure he will offensively, like, I mean, Kessler's going to get a lot of shots at the rim like in with his lobs. He's got that kind of Kevin McHale thing where he catches the ball high and just puts it right back in. So he his number is going to go up, but like, are we going to see like a Derek lively type of jump playing opposite Luca, Daniel Gafford type of jump, you know, even like sometimes Jackson Hayes, though he played opposite Luca, you're going to get, you're going to have an enhanced, that much of enhanced version of the center position when you're paying that kind of money. So Philadelphia, you're going for it in a packed, packed east. I don't remember. I know we kind of fall victim of that everything you ought to remember the last time I've seen this. I do not remember an Eastern conference where, as I've said throughout, like I could argue seven to eight teams here for a one or two seed. So why Philadelphia? Um, well, again, I don't think they win the regular season, uh, number one. I actually think Boston's going to do it for being honest. I think, you know, Joe Mizzoula is going to coach his ass off all year. I think there's like three or four guys there starting with Tatum that are going to embrace the challenge of the, uh, the skepticism. I think they're, they may not win as many games as last year, but that's a product of the league being better. But I think they're going to be like a game or two up as the number one seed to end it. Um, real quick, though, on the totals, like with the new taking rules, you know, whether you're looking at overunders or whatever, like I think there's going to be a lot of high end like the top four seeds, you're going to be looking at their wins going, you know, there aren't, there aren't going to be three teams that have these 17 and two closes at the end of the season, which we kind of talk ourselves into going like, oh my god, look how red hot this team is. And then you go, do you realize that they played like seven tanking teams on top of some really good wins there? Like there's some teams that get really inflated there late. I wonder if we're just not going to see that, which then would drive down the totals for the top seeds in both conferences. But we're going to see the reverse of that, right? Like, you're going to see, like Sacramento, Brooklyn, like these bottom feeders or whoever gets injured, you know, just try desperately to climb out of that bottom three. Like they'll be, they'll be playing all their guys for 40 plus minutes to get out of that bottom three. So yeah, I think they're, you're not, you're right, you're not going to see those types of runs. Um, on Philadelphia, I just, I'm buying into the talents and I'm buying into the experience and I'm buying into the fact that I'm not as bullish on some of those other
team's chances to succeed in the playoffs. I think the Celtics as a playoff team have a bit of a ceiling. I don't think there is good as they were last year as a postseason team. Maybe that's because I can't trust Paul George yet or I still want to see what Mitchell Robinson and Kato look like in that rotation. But I think the Celtics have a bit of a ceiling. I think Detroit took a step back with their moves this off season. Glad the Durin situation got resolved, but I still think they're a bit of a weaker team. And the next like they they should go in as the the front runner. But like so much went right for that team last year. Like everything went right there. We're perfectly healthy. They had great chemistry. They clicked beginning from the second half of the season on. Do they can they re can they rediscover that same type of run? I think Philadelphia can overcome the issues they're inevitably going to have in the regular sea. It's going to be so clunky early on like Jalen Brown and Joel and bead and LeBron James kind of fighting over mid post position. You know, and bead being ignored for long stretches and getting pissed off about it. I think like January and February. It is. It's just going to be like. It's going to be something sitting and going like, Oh, this isn't going to work. It isn't going to work. But I just somehow believe that like March hits and like everybody's going to be like, you know what? Let's just let's just go. Let's just deal with with what we got. Let's let's accept the roles that we have and let's let our talent, you know, break out. I mean, you know, Jalen Brown is still in all NBA, arguable first team guy. Embed. I look the slim down. Embed doesn't do anything for me. I need to see how he moves laterally. But he's still if he's healthy. It does for me. Just the fact that he did it, you know, after years of being like, I think you need to be slimmer. Like I'm just through. I mean, kind of slimmer last year to like, I was at media day last year. And I remember people saying like, you look good. Yeah. I mean, to me, it's like Ken is the knee. What have said? Jesus, dude, did you even see a weight this summer? I don't know. There's maybe in Philadelphia. I don't know. There's still maybe. Yeah. Um, I, I, I, the knee and the movements, like, I'm, I'm not worried about. Can Embed be the dominant defensive player that he's been. Like, you know, he'll get his touches invariably. Um, but they need him as a rim protector. They've got some defensive issue of their own kind of on the perimeter. Um, so like can him be be that guy that can clean up some of those mistakes? I'm curious to see that. But when, when the playoffs roll around, I'm just, I'm buying into LeBron, I'm buying into Jalen Brown, I'm buying into Tyrese Maxi. Like, I'm just buying in that these guys will find a way to figure it out. And I think when they get into a series, um, they will arguably be the most talented team in any series they have against the Eastern conference contender. And it's just insane that the fifth option is BJ Edgecombe. Like this may not be the best thing ever for his development. It's like what, what do you think you're going to be? But the great ones just kind of take it by the horns and go like, I'm not waiting around. I'm not going to wait in anybody's way. I, I, you're absolutely right. By the way, too, because it's LeBron, it's going to bring all this extra attention. There'll be some weird dramatic stretch of, you know, VJ's annoyed, but then Jalen Brown's annoyed VJ. I actually think LeBron is probably the best suited for this. Um, then because I've heard some stuff and I go, you know, the way he has played, that you could say whatever he wants. Like, I think the two timeline stuff are either on the Lucas timeline and they're not in my timeline. Like that to me never made any sense. It's like, well, do you think, what are these? What are the Lakers supposed to do with you, man? Like they're supposed to trade all their draft picks because you're in your 40s playing well. But he will over the course of the regular season. I think he's totally, he's not going to be desperate for his numbers. I don't think he's going to be desperate for his touches. They're not going to play him fucking point guard and have him bring the ball. I've read that the other day. If somebody said it media day, like, oh, he's going to initiate at the time of the offense. He's going to be fucking watching, man. He's going to be watching and he's going to make the right play. He's going to be really like economical with the amount of energy that he's using during the regular season, which again, I've talked about this. I've seen him look like he's taken entire quarters off and he stills ends up with like 22, 8 and 7 and it's, it's just remarkable. So maybe he still finds way to like get some decent numbers. But I don't think he's going to be some, I'm left out drama queen if he's not getting enough shots during the regular season. And I think he knows that. And that would be when I, when I see that stuff in some of the preview discussions or pieces, I go, I don't, I don't think that's accurate. I think one of the best parts about him now is that like he gets it and he'll want other guys to go off. And then once it comes to the playoffs and you go, all right, when we need the right possession here, like now I'll take the ball because I'm still probably the best decision maker out of this entire group. I think he's going to let other guys eat for months during the regular season. 100%. Everything that people around that organization have told me over the last couple of weeks is that LeBron has come into this situation with his eyes wide open. Like he knows exactly what he's stepping into. He knows exactly what his role kind of should be. He'll play a few different roles. I'm sure during the season, but he knows what is expected of him. And no, he's not going to be bringing the ball up, but he's going to be kind of more of an offensive hub at times, you know, have the ball in his hands, make the second pass and then watch the play kind of develop. Um, you know, I think you'll be excellent in transition. I never saw Nick Nurse talking about kind of the number of like getting go guys they have on that team. And he's right. Like grab the ball off the boards. What's the brawn? Jalen edge comb like big guys who can rebound and then go and get out in transition. I think they'll be successful in that respect. But I think LeBron, like he's not going to be the problem. He's not. He's not going to be the issue. Like other guys, will they get grumpy? Jalen grumpy and Jalen grumpy, you know, Max. He's probably too positive. Yeah, he's way too positive. He's always positive. He's not cynical yet. And edge comes too young to like he's too young to like kind of get get cranky about, especially if they're winning. Well, Dean Wade who pissed about not getting touches. You know, who knows? I mean, another guy that comes in like, and I look, that was a great acquisition. I love the team. He was playing. He was defending the best perimeter defenders for the Cavaliers and the playoffs. Like that's exactly what you need. You've got Jalen can defend sure. But LeBron's not a defensive guy at the stage. Like Max, he's got his limitations. Like I want Dean Wade in there as the extra guy down the maybe he's playing over edge comb in the fourth quarter because you need a defensive minded guy who can shoot the occasional three. I love that pick up for them. I love that pickup. Totally great. All right. We stay in the east end in the last few minutes because like this doesn't feel like full preview ready yet. But I got you eliminating anything he's like, I don't want to eliminate Toronto. I'm starting to feel like Boston's leaning into this kind of regular season hack mode. And then once they get into the playoffs, like I was really just disappointed with them in that six or series for a bunch of different reasons where I was like, you guys are just going to do the same thing the entire game here and then lose and then like not change maybe until you watch the film next game. I thought they were really slow to react, which is rare for me to say because I think Missoula is so good, but I wonder if they just math the shit out of the regular season and then we get to the playoffs. As you point out, I was like, you think they're going to be one seed. I don't know if I'm going to pick them to in the east. I look, I'm telling you right now. I'm probably not. The Knicks broke two rules like hard and fast rules. Like, can you win with cat five and can you win with a small point card? And they did it. They did two things, especially more on the cat part of it where I'm like, I guess, you know, there's always exceptions to all this kind of stuff. Are there any of these teams? Because I don't want to eliminate Toronto. I think the Detroit thing to win the east with that offense, even though they've shifted that way. Look, I still don't want to give up on Orlando here and we haven't even touched on the honest. Yeah. Well, I'm not I'm not bullish on my, I mean, never have been like. Wow. They're, they're, look, they're, yeah, this is a great player. Bams are great player. I think defensively, depending on how they play, they can be one of the great, they can be the best defensive team in the league, maybe. Like Mitchell's a good defender. You know, how are you getting a shot? The rim against these guys? Like they're elite. But shock creation is still a thing. Shot making, I think, is still a thing. They've got some guys that can make shots, but I think against the top tier teams, I think shock creation is going to be a problem for them. Detroit, I mentioned this at the top. I look, Isaiah Stewart was a big part of their identity. Like they were the dog pound in that locker room. Stuart and Durin, like that, that was part of what made them great the last couple of years. I mentioned Harris. He was a big part of what they did. The last couple of years. I don't, I like Isaiah Joe. John Collins is fine. I just think they take a little bit of a step back from, from a talent perspective there. Yeah, and it also, I don't think it's like wrong to go, hey, they're probably not going to win 60 and be at one seed and all that kind of stuff. Well, the, the, the, the Orlando apartment, let's do this. Let's, let's, let's, because I'm very bullish on our land. Very, very, and I've been, we keep running over here. So, I've been, I've been, well, then you and I are on the same page. I've been riding the magic train for two years. And ever since they had that, what was it? The 40 something win season and they look like they, they gave Boston hell in the playoffs. That was two years ago, right? They, I, I've been bullish on them. I think they have been one of the biggest underachievers over the last couple of years for the talent that they have. You know, Paulo has not, was not great last season. But Franz Wagner doesn't get hurt against Detroit. They win that series probably. Yeah, I think so. So, so like the, the talent is there. And I think, Swini, I actually, again, stepping on my own magazine reporting, I think he's coach of the year this year. I do, because I think that team is going to climb into the top four, five range in the conference, because I think they can still defend. And I think there's levels that the guys on that roster can get to that they haven't gotten to yet. I think Paulo can get back to being the all NBA candidate. Wagner can get back to being the all star. I'm a little concerned about point guard, because I think Suggs is really good at
a lot of things. I don't think he's the playmaker that maybe they need to be a table setter for that team. But I think Sweeney's going to get into him. I think he's obviously had a lot of success with stars at different stops along the way. He's got the cachet, the pedigree from being an assistant on the Spurs last season. I know he's connected really well with a lot of these guys early on. What does Seattle spend a lot of time with Paulo in the off season? So I just, I've been buying them for two years. I'm not selling my stock. I'm keeping it. And I'm a believer that this team is going to be a top four or five seed and hell when they get to the playoffs, if they can defend like we think we can. I have a quick, Yannis thought though on the playmaking thing. I don't know if they'll want to do it over the course of entire regular season with his injury history. But I've seen, we both know that we've seen enough words like if you just kind of let him go like with his passing the last few years, like that might be what it is. Yannis attack, everything collapses. They've just tried to find every single possible shooter that they can and I would commend them on just being proactive of like, Hey, we know what this is going to look like. If Yannis is going to attack, we need to space it out. We need to try to find anyway to get him room. You probably don't want to do that for 82 regular season games and have him just be in transition going fucking crazy, even though he kind of can't help himself the way he's wired. But that might be the version of what their playmaking is once it matters a little bit later on. That's a lot to put. That's a lot to put on your body. It is. And that's why we may not like we only see glimpses or maybe it's the new and the fresh and everybody's healthy in the beginning and then they they pull it back and go, well, hey, look, we know what we can be. We don't want to do this every single night. Before I let you go, I just feel like there has to be a pacer's conversation here because of the starting five that they're going to have the different look was Zoo, which changes, you know, the whole point of, you know, whether it was miles turned two years ago, it was like that's that stretch five that I'm talking about. So Zoo is not that guy. If you look at the bench, like it kind of felt like two years ago, they could run out 10. They could run all night with you. Like that was a big part of their kind of surprise run. I think there's options there to feel good about maybe one through nine, but it's still kind of TBD. Even though a couple of names are still familiar, whether it's you or other people you talk to, like, are we all missing the point here on not like plugging the pacer's in as a favorite here in the east? What seed were they when they made that run to the finals a couple of years ago? They weren't like what seed was it? Four seed. Yeah, like, yeah, they weren't the number. They weren't they're a middle of the pack team that got, you know, white hot, I believe. And you know, I can see them being right in that mix. Again, I had a conversation with the scout actually last night about Indiana. And they're a couple of things. One is the haliburde and element. Like does he pick up where he left off a couple of years ago? I mean, that is, as we saw with Tatum, an injury that you can obviously come back from, but does it, do you come back to the same player right away? Or is there a learning curve? And I've heard the usual good things about haliburde and, you know, this op season, he's had a long time now to recover. But does he hit the ground running there? That's, that's to me as a variable. The zoo botch part of this is going to be interesting. Zoo botch, really good player, really good player, but a very different player to your point that Turner was like, how does Rick Carlisle kind of reinvent this team again? Or does he reinvent this team again? With how they play offensively, and you don't have the kind of quick trigger three point shooter plan to five, like zoo botch extended his range, you know, his last year with the clippers, he can do that a little bit. But he's a very different type of player, more paint oriented, you know, kind of mid-range stuff. Like what does the new Indiana Pacer system look like? The reason to believe is that like Carlisle is a chameleon man. For a guy his age, he's been around this long. Like he is just, it's remarkable how he can coach to the strengths of his roster. I think you'll find a way to do it again. But I think where we, I think we're Indiana Falls is probably somewhere in that middle of the pack in the regular season. And maybe if they get it right, they can make another kind of run in the playoffs. Always great to see you. Chris Manek's SI dot com open floor podcast to zone. We'll talk again once we get to the season. Thanks man. Any time man. Do you want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriela. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the south fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. Best of all kids. I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Live advice, live advice
[email protected], Kyle back in the mix. Denim. We've got Saruti. How are you? I got him too. He's talking about free show. Yeah. This is some Abercrombie is throwing heat these days. This was this was dancing across my Instagram feed for a while. And I was like, I'm not the kind of guy who buys stuff. He sees on Instagram. But man, I am now. I am now. I love that that's happened for you. It's like a like a, like a, you know, like a worksman collard shirt. Like somebody from tires would be wearing that like. That's not what that is. That is not what that is. That fits you well. Thanks. All right. Work trip versus dad guilt. Hey guys, 30 year old male 510 195 last real gym bench mark was 225 for 16 during COVID. Great number. Although we're living off past performances these days. Well, I think the black Guerrero Jr. is like, that's that's what you get paid for. Not what I'm supposed to do. Hoops comp normally elestromatic. Gravis Vasquez, except for a brief insanity as grown on the afterwork pickup circuit in the summer of 16. My wife and I have a five month old daughter. I work remotely. My wife recently returned to work at school. And thankfully our mom's alternate watching our daughter during the week. Thank God for grandma's about a month ago. I had a mandatory five day work trip. Part of the deal being fully remote. Otherwise, my wife was understanding but it was a tough week. Even with help from our mom, she was handling most mornings nights and bedtime. And I can tell she was stressed. I also hated being away from them. Although the trip itself was pleasant. Now I've been invited on another trip next month, except this one is to don't read the city. Okay. Um, I think I'm still going to go. All right. So another trip next month. It's international. I've never been, but I always wanted to go. My managers treating it as a reward for our team after two years of grinding on a successful project. So it's not as mandatory as the last one. I'd love to go. I'm proud of what we accomplished like my co-workers and a company paid international trip like this is an exactly an everyday opportunity. My mother-in-law will also like likely be away that week. So my wife would have even less help. My wife hasn't told me not to go. But after seeing how difficult the last trip was, I feel guilty voluntarily putting her through it again. So what's the move? Take the rare opportunity and figure out as much as possible beforehand or recognize it with a five month old. This just isn't the time. And if my wife tells me to go, how much do I take that at face value? When I know I'll make, it'll make her week significantly harder. Thanks, guys. Um, so yeah, man, a big time international trip. Um, I mean, all right, just out of the jumps to Rudy. Why don't you take the lead on this one? It's a delicate balance. My man, I, uh, the trip thing like is like, you could feel bad, but that doesn't really earn any, any kind of points, um, at all, and I've been there. I do feel bad, but I'll get you a sombrero. Yeah, listen, you know, some, some, some trinkets. Uh, I think this one seems pretty cool though. Like, what is the line? Like are you, is she going to like, it's going to be a serious relationship conversation. If you get back from this one or like, can you work one more in and then it stops? Cause like, this seems like a cool, I'm not going to say like once in a lifetime, mentality right there. It's on in the lifetime. This is big. Yeah. Just telling you right now. I'd air on the, on the side of caution, but like, she kind of has to understand like, this is, this is pretty awesome. But like, then don't do, like two other trips, like right after that. Okay. Can you just like work with your, with your team and your boss or whatever to be like, okay, this is one, then I got to, I got to sit this one out for a while. Cause like, I'm really losing, losing ground on the home front. So I fought those battles before. I'm, we used to do live shows. We used to like a bunch of them in the fall. And you know, I had like one kid at the time and just, you know, it's tough. Like, you know, you leave the, you leave your life alone with the kid. It's like pretty isolating. It sucks. Like I understand. Like I, I get it. Um, we used to do at the old place. Remember we had the, uh, there was that thing where they'd bring everybody LA in October. And I have, my October is insane. I have, uh, my anniversary, my wife's birthday, basically with in the same week period. And then my daughter's birthday is also later in October. And then I'll Halloween, which you know, we like Halloween around these parts. It's just that it's a pack month. We have to go to LA. Yeah. And I used to go to LA for a month in the middle of that. I got back one time, like, like the Friday before her birthday party on Saturday. That didn't go over super well. But like, what do you, I don't know, I had to go and get this. What it is. So, um, I think international kind of Trump says, though, like, can she just give you one more? And then you promise like, Hey, this is not going to be the way it is normally. I know that sounds stupid. And like you're an idiot. But like, I think, I think if you, if you're honest with her and just say, Hey, this is the one I want to go. This one's going to be really cool. This is not going to be permanent, but you know, going forward. You know, I, I always, when guys told me they couldn't make like a trip or couldn't do a thing from the family, I never like cried. I was always like, Oh, yeah, he's a dad. It's different for him. And just like, I'm here, like listening to that email, I'm like, glad I never pushed back on that guy. You know what I mean? It's actually, it's a good, it's really a good reason not to go. Unfortunately, but, um, yeah, I, I'll stick with Steve. Steve's usually pretty, pretty level headed. It sounds like a sick opportunity. And the other thing is most people, I think don't ever get to go on work trips. So like, it's a little bit of a, like, be grateful for what you got. And maybe you should take advantage of this. You know, there's a lot of people that, you know, the electricians union just isn't going to send them.
anything like that. You know, so I think I think that's if you are in one of those cool jobs that lets you do it. I think, you know, I think maybe just enjoy what you got. Go for it. I know no one wants to hear from me on this, but you know, I guess I just don't understand like, hey, yeah, I know it's hard, but it doesn't mean I do nothing. And maybe I'm coming at it from the worst perspective because once there was a younger kid, both of my parents would have zero issue just being like, all right, see you guys later. And I would be in charge until I finally wised up and was like, I need to stop coming home. And then, you know, my sister was was in the on deck circle. And then it was just expected. I mean, look, looking back, it kind of sucks a little bit. I've had entire summers where it was just both of my parents would be gone for the day. And then my buddy's been like, can you do something? I'm going to go, no, I have, I have a baby to take care of. I can't. Yeah, right. What's their baby policy? Yeah. You know, she's quiet. Take a nap. It's like we can bring her to the food court and buy cassette tapes and fire on other girls in junior high. Actually, we all in junior high. We'll take that, you know, don't it's great. You start kind of like looking around. Yeah. So, I mean, you want to go, I would hope because it's such a special trip that she understands it and wants you to go. And, you know, when you say, hey, when both moms helped out on the previous one, she was still kind of stressed out. Well, I don't know. I mean, I mean, how should two people helping? Yeah. Yeah. And so I think, I think no matter what, like there's just going to be a lot of times, you're just like, oh, this is so stressful. It's like, yeah, no shit. It is. And it can be, it can be, well, little less stressful if I bail on this, but like it just sounds like you're going to be coming back and paying some sort of international tax on this. And so I would, I would see if you can get the kind of like hard sign off where it's not really a sign off. Maybe that's a soft sign off, I should say. And then you go, and then you come back, very prepared. Yeah, look at this trip with like great send off, great come back, you know, don't get a Fort Lauderdale in two months for golf trip. Right. Be ready to hit the pumpkin passion, you come back, you're doing some food shop and you're going to Costco, like be ready for that. Be, you know, happy time available, your Saturdays and Sundays, probably not a lot of football going on. Yeah. You send her off somewhere. There you go. Mm-hmm. Well, that's what that's my thing. I always am like, well, why don't like, so I bet it's touch with Grace. She's coming in this weekend. Then you guys, yeah, it's twofold. Like whenever I feel like I go away, Maddo is just like, I'm like, oh, it's work, but she's like, yeah, but you're having a good time at work. Like you're going to like the bar still Chicago, so your co-work Kyle like you're going to gain your the finals. Now, it's hard, it's hard to argue that. It is hard. And when you're just like, oh, it's work on you, I don't have any other option, but what I will say, like I've had to cut back, which does suck is, you know, like, hey, like, for example, when we went to Ole Miss, yeah, we'd love to stay for that game, right? I think grind you stayed, right? Um, those are the game. Yeah. Yeah, that's a problem. I don't believe because the dog bit a tennis ball. Right. Great to see you severed the bummer, but no, but it was like a real van in me moment where I go, you have to leave a Mississippi now to get back to LA because your dog ate a tennis ball. He does like the dogs. The here's what we know. The dog ate a tennis ball. That cannot be undone. You're getting a last minute inconvenient flight from Mississippi to then probably Atlanta and then back to LA, you're going to get there so late. I don't even know necessarily what could be done. So we could stay in the original plan and he just looked at me and goes, you're right, but you're also wrong. Like, it's just, yeah, I have to go. I have to go. He doesn't have that dog. And that's the thing sometimes it do. It's like, I actually want to leave. I'm telling you, I'm telling you that it's, it's my lady, but in reality, like, I'm freaking out, but I don't want, but I let it go. I think I'm good at when somebody goes, Hey, I can't do this. I just go, okay. But I had to ask some follow up there on the timeline of the dog. All right, we'll do another one here, but the guy also sent in a follow up where he said he was freaking out about anonymity. So, I'll do this as best I can on the fly. And now he's probably going to freak out just as I read that. Six foot, 178. No impressive gym stats. I did, however, run my first ever marathon in the summer. Came in at 338, great job, player comp, Matthew Delavadova. We should have rankings of like the top five highest comps. Boris Dio, Delavadova, I tell you what, Grievous Vazquez was not. I would not be high on that list. No, he had a nice little pro career. I wasn't sure that was going to happen for him. Not great offensively, but we'll give you absolutely everything I have for defensive stop. Then slightly annoying and pick up games, your guys input on this one. Here's the situation 24 living in a major city. Got myself into the dating app scene past Sunday. I wanted a nice coffee date with someone that I met. I'm just trying to leave out extra stuff on the fly here. So long walk talked about our life current situations, even our ambitions. It was pretty good. We found common ground and a lot of things and had a few genuine laughs all in all it went about as well as you can hope a first date with a stranger you met on the internet can go at the end of the day. We made solid plans to go it again. It all seemed well and I was pretty excited to see her again today. However, she sent me a long text. I'll paraphrase here. Enjoyed the other day. Better office friends. But I think you would connect with my roommate. I would love to share your number with her. What the hell even is that? Here I am thinking we had a great time together, even going as far as making plans for our next get together. Only for her to try to set me up with a roommate. I feel like I would rather been ghosted all together because the move she pulled feels oddly patronizing to tell you the truth. I'm not really heard or sad about this. I'm just kind of confused. Was she lying in my face when she said she wanted to go out again? Am I the idiot for thinking the date went well? Have you ever come across anything like this? Or am I just overthinking this whole thing and should you just chalk it up as a loss? It's like the inverse of that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry starts to date his girlfriend's roommate. What would you guys have done in this situation for what it's worth? I did already reply as politely as possible and pass on the offer because it just felt like in all around weird situation, but I'd still like to hear your thoughts. Thanks in advance. So I golf with top flights and I sometimes shank them left and right. And sometimes it's a bummer. I love keeping a golf ball. I really do. And their top flights are prepared to lose them. But sometimes you come out with a noodle and like, yeah, I did lose the top guy. You know, I lost the top flight, but I have a noodle. And I think like there's small wins in that. I think I probably would have picked up the noodle. Yeah, I'll be that guy. I like it. I don't know. Could you get a pitch? She cute. Does she fit in a robot? I don't know. Yeah. Like probably. That's probably your answer. What position on a softball field would she be? Because there is like actually a cool side part of this where, man, if she is cute, and then you like kind of, you know, works out the bearer. Yeah, like this other ship's like awesome boy. Yeah, like, you know, like that could be really fun for you. And you can kind of hold it over for however long you want to do it for. But yeah, I would, you know, I don't know. Like I need some sort of physical, you know, evidence picture something. Anything? I remember. I think I said this one other time. I got dumped by somebody I wasn't seeing. And I wanted to be like, are you ending things with me when we, there's nothing to end, but then I just went. I'm going to pre-end it. Yeah, I was like, I'm just going to sit on this. I don't feel like making any kind of point whatsoever. But you're 24 right now. You kind of feel like making a point. I think to Rudy's point is a good one. If you want to do what it sounds like it might be a little too late, but there being nothing funnier than you just being the best boyfriend ever. Fire up a table for that first date. Like, you don't even like her. You're doing all sorts of extra stuff. You're helping her move. You're helping her friends move. Like you're just you quit your job. This is your full time job. You want to be the greatest boyfriend ever. And then you just kind of like do a Alan Iverson step over on the on the first girl that I met every single time you show up. And you're like, yeah, I'll watch your dog for you. What do you guys? What do you guys want to do? You can back massage. No problem. I don't even want one in return. One day you're getting married and all of a sudden, you know, she's like, Hey, thanks to this girl. She I can't thank her enough. Like, my life is the best it's ever banned. Like this is just the long term story. It's going to be incredible. Well, yeah, there's like a certain defensive back from Mississippi state. It's not even going great. You're wedding toast. It's just unbelievable. You know, originally Sarah couldn't make it today because she's in court for custody, but a raised one to her. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't for her. But it sounds like you don't want to do that. It sounds like you want to say something. Sure, it's a little annoying. Welcome to being young and dating in a major city. So you'll you'll you'll get the next one just like Delavidova. Delavidova wouldn't give up. Come right, stick a three in his eye, come right back down and pick you up half court. That'll do it for the show today. Thanks to Tom Kevin Surudi and Kyle Reiner Silo show all episodes on Netflix are still sports.
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