Latest / The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast / Brian Windhorst talks NBA Playoffs and Free Agency with Chad & BlackJack

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Brian Windhorst talks NBA Playoffs and Free Agency with Chad & BlackJack · The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast

0:08
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Favorites, the podcast from the Action Network.
0:15
Speaker 1: I am Chad Millman and I am joined if I'm
0:19
Speaker 1: the one and only one of my favorite people in
0:22
Speaker 1: the world, even when he's not being nice to me,
0:24
Speaker 1: which I know he doesn't feel like doing today. Black
0:27
Speaker 1: Jack Fletcher, Hi, my beautiful brother. No, like, you're just
0:32
Speaker 1: being short and normally this is the point where like
0:36
Speaker 1: you'd be mean to me and I'd be like why
0:39
Speaker 1: and but we're not going to get into that today.
0:41
Speaker 1: You know why. No, we're not going to get into that.
0:45
Speaker 1: Because Baxter Holmes of ESPN wrote a great story about
0:51
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers dysfunction that posted today, and it
0:54
Speaker 1: just so happened that the NBA Finals are starting on Thursday,
0:57
Speaker 1: and uh, Brian Windhorst, who is is one of the
1:01
Speaker 1: premier NBA insiders, reporters and analysts in all of America,
1:07
Speaker 1: was already scheduled to come in the podcast today, so
1:10
Speaker 1: we got him on. And he obviously has written multiple
1:12
Speaker 1: books on Lebron James, so he knows Lebron, his camp
1:16
Speaker 1: and what's happening in the Lakers intimately, so he could
1:19
Speaker 1: speak eloquently to the scenario in l a and also
1:22
Speaker 1: to Baxter's story. Uh, and he could talk to us
1:24
Speaker 1: about the finals um for which we had a lot
1:26
Speaker 1: of questions. To sort of handicap the finals a little
1:28
Speaker 1: bit for us. Sounds good. So instead of you giving
1:33
Speaker 1: me one word answers, we're just just gonna go into
1:38
Speaker 1: Brian Windhorst right now. So let's let's listen to the
1:41
Speaker 1: interview we just did with Brian Windhorst, as promised joining
1:46
Speaker 1: the Favorites podcast. Listen. This was one of my favorite
1:50
Speaker 1: colleagues at ESPN because he can do so many things.
1:52
Speaker 1: He can write a story on deadline. He is one
1:55
Speaker 1: of the best, most connected insiders in the n b A.
1:59
Speaker 1: He can and synthesize complex information for television on a
2:03
Speaker 1: moment's notice, and he does it all with a smile,
2:06
Speaker 1: almost the complete opposite of my co host from ESPN,
2:12
Speaker 1: Insider Analyst extraordinaire, author of multiple books, including the latest
2:18
Speaker 1: Lebron Inc. Which you can pick up anywhere books are sold.
2:21
Speaker 1: Mr Brian wynd Horse, how are you buddy now? He
2:24
Speaker 1: says this before he was always the side eye that
2:27
Speaker 1: I got when I was a subordinate. That's because he's
2:31
Speaker 1: two faced. Brian No it's more like, I listen, I am.
2:36
Speaker 1: I hold back my love and the compliments until after
2:39
Speaker 1: it's over. While it's happening, I want people to be
2:42
Speaker 1: inspired and somewhat fearful. How's that working out with your kids?
2:45
Speaker 1: That's right? My kids love me. That's cute. Oh, Brian,
2:55
Speaker 1: I'm sorry you're in the middle of all this tension.
2:57
Speaker 1: How are you man? Listen? There is there is a
3:00
Speaker 1: lot going on in the n b A. I think
3:02
Speaker 1: we got you on on the perfect day. You know
3:04
Speaker 1: Baxter Holmes, Uh uh, you know your colleague who I
3:09
Speaker 1: actually hired at ESPN. Um, can we not write this
3:13
Speaker 1: all about you? Has a phenomenal story today out about
3:16
Speaker 1: the Lakers and before we get into the Warriors Raptors Finals.
3:20
Speaker 1: But I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you, like,
3:23
Speaker 1: what did you think of that story? Well? I think
3:27
Speaker 1: that the Lakers, what we can see, which is there
3:31
Speaker 1: some of their decision making over the last few years,
3:34
Speaker 1: speaks for itself. Um, they do not. They're not an
3:38
Speaker 1: organization that gives off the impression that they have a
3:41
Speaker 1: lot of infrastructure and positive workflows. Um. There are teams
3:46
Speaker 1: that are you know, what you would call quote unquote
3:48
Speaker 1: smart teams or teams with terrific infrastructure, teams that have
3:53
Speaker 1: great experience and good decision makers that make bad decisions
3:57
Speaker 1: because you know, it's it's basketball is hard, there's says
4:00
Speaker 1: you have to make sometimes don't work out, etcetera. So, um,
4:02
Speaker 1: the Lakers are not alone, but there their decisions that
4:05
Speaker 1: they've made out in public for everybody to see have
4:08
Speaker 1: been generally poor. They've got a couple of victories, but
4:10
Speaker 1: they've got a lot of losses, and so it's really
4:13
Speaker 1: not a surprise that the interior of their organization is
4:18
Speaker 1: not entirely what you would call functional. So I must
4:21
Speaker 1: say that if you assigned any reporter to any organization,
4:25
Speaker 1: whether it was the San Antonio Spurs, whether it was
4:28
Speaker 1: the um you know, who's your class organization, the Warriors,
4:31
Speaker 1: whether it was the Raptors, you would probably find people
4:35
Speaker 1: who are unhappy about things the way where they were going.
4:37
Speaker 1: Just is if anybody was assigned to, you know, cover
4:40
Speaker 1: any of the places we've ever worked in our lives.
4:42
Speaker 1: I mean, so nothing is ever a honeymoon. Um, But
4:46
Speaker 1: I think more than anything, even if it was dysfunction
4:50
Speaker 1: on the interior, if it functioned properly on the exterior,
4:53
Speaker 1: then it wouldn't be as big of a deal. But
4:54
Speaker 1: because it's been so dysfunctional outwardly, it makes it easy
4:58
Speaker 1: to see what's what's going on internally. Were you surprised
5:02
Speaker 1: given the fact that that you know, you you know
5:06
Speaker 1: the interior of organizations as well as anybody. Were you
5:09
Speaker 1: surprised last year when a Lebron signed with the Lakers? Um, well,
5:15
Speaker 1: let's first answer that question and then I'll ask my
5:17
Speaker 1: follow up. I was not surprised he was he signed
5:20
Speaker 1: the Lakers. If you were watching his and his team's
5:23
Speaker 1: movements over the previous eighteen months, they were telegraphing it.
5:26
Speaker 1: I was not a hundred percent sure he was going
5:29
Speaker 1: to go in two thousand eighteen, Um, just like I
5:32
Speaker 1: wasn't a hunt. I mean, you know, they were telegraphing
5:34
Speaker 1: coming back to Cleveland, and I wasn't a hundred percent sure, um,
5:38
Speaker 1: that it was gonna be two thousand fourteen when he
5:40
Speaker 1: went back. I think part of that is just as
5:42
Speaker 1: a reporter, your skeptical, and you hold back to you
5:45
Speaker 1: really nail things down. Um, you could see it coming.
5:47
Speaker 1: What I was surprised about Chad was that he went
5:51
Speaker 1: there without the Lakers looking like they had a definitive
5:54
Speaker 1: plan of what they were doing. It was almost like,
5:56
Speaker 1: you know, was ready shoot aim as a part RADI
5:59
Speaker 1: post already aim shoot, which is the way he had
6:01
Speaker 1: operated in free agencies in the past. I guess that,
6:04
Speaker 1: you know what, you just answered my question in a
6:07
Speaker 1: better way than I asked it, which was this team
6:09
Speaker 1: was already in chaos. So why does Lebron sign there
6:12
Speaker 1: thinking I know, I'm going to make it better? Or
6:16
Speaker 1: did he not care because he just wanted to be
6:18
Speaker 1: in l A. I think there was two reasons. I
6:20
Speaker 1: think Hubris played into it because I think Lebron feels
6:24
Speaker 1: that any team that he's a part of, he can
6:26
Speaker 1: sort of clean things up, whether it's how they play,
6:29
Speaker 1: how they're operated, how their leadership is. I mean, and
6:32
Speaker 1: he did that to a certain extent in Cleveland. You know,
6:34
Speaker 1: the four years he was gone from Cleveland, they were,
6:38
Speaker 1: you know, a non playoff team. They won the lottery
6:40
Speaker 1: three or four years, which is incredible fortune but also
6:43
Speaker 1: tells you that they're in the lottery with high odds,
6:46
Speaker 1: and uh, I think he felt like, I'll just go
6:50
Speaker 1: to l A and all sort of fix that just
6:52
Speaker 1: bring the mess to me and I'll make it pretty.
6:54
Speaker 1: And I think the other thing was that it wasn't
6:56
Speaker 1: wholly of basketball decision, and he he has people of view.
7:00
Speaker 1: Was this against him guys um over the last year
7:03
Speaker 1: They said, well, this is what you get when you
7:04
Speaker 1: move out to Hollywood to make movies and TV shows,
7:06
Speaker 1: et cetera. And I would say that, yeah, but he
7:11
Speaker 1: could have made space Jam from Cleveland. Space Jam was
7:13
Speaker 1: already in the works before he signed with the Lakers.
7:16
Speaker 1: And what he came back to Cleveland that was not
7:18
Speaker 1: a whole basketball decision, and the Calves were not a
7:21
Speaker 1: championship contender. It took him sort of finessing to Kevin
7:24
Speaker 1: Love trade and took them making over their roster a
7:27
Speaker 1: couple of times. It wasn't like that was a ready
7:29
Speaker 1: made team, like for example, that Durant went to. So
7:32
Speaker 1: that was a family decision as well. And so I
7:33
Speaker 1: think part of it was, Yes, he wanted to be
7:36
Speaker 1: closer to the media business, which he is going to
7:38
Speaker 1: be heavily involved in for the foreseeable future. And yes,
7:41
Speaker 1: I think he just he and the family want to
7:42
Speaker 1: live in l a at this point in their careers
7:44
Speaker 1: and and at this point in his kids lives. So, um,
7:47
Speaker 1: I mean saying that it wasn't a whole basketball decision.
7:49
Speaker 1: I don't think he's something to be used against him,
7:51
Speaker 1: even though I'm sure it has been and will continue
7:53
Speaker 1: to be. All Right, So you literally wrote the book
7:56
Speaker 1: on Lebrin. In fact, you've done it multiple times. The
7:58
Speaker 1: last one, Lebron Inc. Which just came out in April. Uh,
8:01
Speaker 1: speaks to everything that you're talking about, like his ambitions,
8:04
Speaker 1: his hopes. When when you understand that, can you think
8:10
Speaker 1: that Lebron is fully focused on what's happening on the court.
8:16
Speaker 1: He I do believe that he does the best as
8:18
Speaker 1: he possibly can. Um. He uses a line, man, he
8:22
Speaker 1: uses this line probably fifty times a year, and it
8:25
Speaker 1: totally came from pat Riley. And for all I know,
8:27
Speaker 1: pat Rodley took it from somebody else. I don't know
8:29
Speaker 1: if he took it from Adolf rob or something, but
8:31
Speaker 1: pat Robbie. One of the things that he likes to
8:33
Speaker 1: say is keep the main thing the main thing, and
8:36
Speaker 1: Lebron will talk about that all the time. You'll hear
8:38
Speaker 1: him said, you just got to focus on the main thing, um,
8:41
Speaker 1: which is his basketball. And if you look at the
8:43
Speaker 1: way he approaches the seasons. Typically he does do that.
8:47
Speaker 1: I think the one challenge with Lebron is his investment
8:51
Speaker 1: in in in in the season while it's going on.
8:55
Speaker 1: So what what I mean by that is there were
8:57
Speaker 1: times in Cleveland where he was so frustrated with the coaching,
9:01
Speaker 1: or he was so frustrated with the roster, or it's
9:04
Speaker 1: at various teammates that he kind of would go into
9:06
Speaker 1: a little bit of a shell. And um, you know
9:10
Speaker 1: last year, it's in particularly the two thousand seventeen eighteen season,
9:13
Speaker 1: he got so frustrated at one point that I saw
9:15
Speaker 1: that he even took his foot off the gas. Um.
9:18
Speaker 1: He would probably deny this vigorously, but this is just
9:20
Speaker 1: my perception and one like he said it. But I
9:22
Speaker 1: was watching him play and noticing that he wasn't, in
9:25
Speaker 1: my mind, going all out, And when they traded half
9:28
Speaker 1: the roster at the trade deadline, he immediately reapplied his
9:32
Speaker 1: foot to the gas and had um one of the
9:35
Speaker 1: best playoff runs of his life. As good as Kauai
9:37
Speaker 1: Leonard has been in this playoffs, I think if there
9:40
Speaker 1: was a vote, he would be voted in m VP
9:42
Speaker 1: of the playoffs. If you go back and look at
9:44
Speaker 1: the actual raw numbers, Lebron was better he last year.
9:48
Speaker 1: And not only that, he was actually better by a
9:49
Speaker 1: little bit of a space, like a little bit of
9:51
Speaker 1: a margin. Suddenly that close. That's how great Lebron was.
9:54
Speaker 1: But he definitely was guilty, in my opinion, of backing
9:57
Speaker 1: off so um. To me, that's where I think he
10:01
Speaker 1: can kind of be criticized for not necessarily focusing on
10:06
Speaker 1: things that are off the court. I think he's always
10:08
Speaker 1: done a good job of balancing and focusing on but
10:10
Speaker 1: losing faith and his team, which is one of the
10:13
Speaker 1: things that is something he admits that he fights. He's
10:17
Speaker 1: even said that he's tried to clean up his body language,
10:20
Speaker 1: tried to clean up when he's passive aggressive against his teammates,
10:23
Speaker 1: because he recognizes that is a weakness. Brian looking forward
10:27
Speaker 1: to June this year, when free agency begins, I'm looking
10:31
Speaker 1: at a list of the top eight free agents in basketball.
10:35
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie, Irving, Jimmy Butler, those guys.
10:39
Speaker 1: The Lakers are not favored to land a single one
10:43
Speaker 1: of them. So if you were sending me a hundred
10:47
Speaker 1: dollars to walk over to New Jersey and bet in
10:49
Speaker 1: a sports book which one of these guys would I
10:52
Speaker 1: bet is going to be Lebron's teammate this fall. Okay,
10:55
Speaker 1: So I think you have to draw a line. In
10:57
Speaker 1: my mind, it's not really a free agency. There's for
11:00
Speaker 1: what I've been describing as A plus level free agents.
11:03
Speaker 1: I would like to just call them A but I
11:05
Speaker 1: don't want to have the other guys assigned as be
11:07
Speaker 1: and have that used against me. So Um, in terms
11:10
Speaker 1: of inclusions, I will say the A plus free agents,
11:13
Speaker 1: so and they're all case just so, then it fits nicely.
11:16
Speaker 1: Um Klay Thompson, UM, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, and Kevin
11:21
Speaker 1: Durant before A plus ks Um. Those four players, in
11:25
Speaker 1: my mind are players that if the Lakers got them,
11:28
Speaker 1: they would be championship contenders with Lebron and some maneuvering
11:31
Speaker 1: with their roster. Um their complete straight difference making players. UM.
11:37
Speaker 1: I don't know if you want to call them top
11:39
Speaker 1: twelve players, top fifteen, top eight, I don't know, whatever
11:41
Speaker 1: you want to do. Anthony Davis is sort of an
11:43
Speaker 1: answary piece on that list, but he is not a
11:45
Speaker 1: free agent. Per se, So I'll leave him off of
11:46
Speaker 1: it for now. In my mind, the big decision from
11:49
Speaker 1: the big thing for the Lakers is, if you can't
11:52
Speaker 1: get any of those four players, what is your plan B?
11:56
Speaker 1: Is your plan B to go after the A level
11:58
Speaker 1: case as I call them as Middleton, Kemba Walker. I'll
12:02
Speaker 1: put Jimmy Butler in that regard Tobias Harris. Those are
12:05
Speaker 1: all A level players, but in my opinion, not difference
12:08
Speaker 1: makers um or do you do you go a different route?
12:12
Speaker 1: Do you go sign um you know, more role supporting players.
12:15
Speaker 1: Do you try to sign guys on one year contracts
12:18
Speaker 1: to re enter the market, to try to get Anthony
12:20
Speaker 1: Davis one of those A plus free agents a year
12:22
Speaker 1: from now, et cetera. And to me, that's what the
12:25
Speaker 1: Lakers are really confronting. They're not going to have much
12:28
Speaker 1: of a control on what those four guys at the
12:30
Speaker 1: top they're going to do, because you know, this is
12:33
Speaker 1: a great free agent year, but even in comparison to
12:35
Speaker 1: other great free agent years, like let's go back to
12:37
Speaker 1: two thousand and ten for example, when you had you know,
12:40
Speaker 1: Lebron and Bosh and Wade and Joe Johnson out there
12:45
Speaker 1: and there was a couple other star players. Those guys
12:48
Speaker 1: weren't like this group in that they didn't have titles.
12:53
Speaker 1: All four of those A plus guys have all one championships.
12:56
Speaker 1: They don't have to join the team to quote unquote
12:59
Speaker 1: chase the title. I think if you look at them,
13:01
Speaker 1: Um and and really, we just have to guess because
13:03
Speaker 1: all of their personalities are a bit off what you
13:06
Speaker 1: consider a mainstream personality. Klay Thompsons want to the most
13:10
Speaker 1: unique guys you'll ever see in the NBA for various reasons.
13:15
Speaker 1: Durant and and Uh and Kyrie, in my mind, are
13:20
Speaker 1: very mere, curial Um change their mind about things on
13:24
Speaker 1: a weekly basis, if not daily, And we could sit
13:27
Speaker 1: here and I could tell you what who to put
13:29
Speaker 1: a bet on. That's why I would think it would
13:30
Speaker 1: be dangerous. You have to get really good odds because
13:33
Speaker 1: I can tell you to put a bet on Kyra.
13:34
Speaker 1: I can tell you, oh yeah, Kyrie's best friend called
13:37
Speaker 1: me this morning and told me X, go bet on X.
13:40
Speaker 1: And that may be accurate information. The Kyrie may wake
13:43
Speaker 1: up on June fifteenth and decide to go to something else,
13:46
Speaker 1: and then he may wake up on June Threius and
13:47
Speaker 1: decided to go another place. And that's just the reality
13:49
Speaker 1: of those guys. And then Kauai is a guy who's
13:52
Speaker 1: almost impossible to read. That the Raptors have spent a
13:55
Speaker 1: year trying to read him, and I don't think they
13:56
Speaker 1: have a good read on them. So we're talking about
13:58
Speaker 1: all these guys who have priorities, who that are not
14:02
Speaker 1: what you would call typical basketball priorities, and they all
14:05
Speaker 1: have championships, they have nothing to prove, so they are
14:07
Speaker 1: very volatile and in predicting what they're going to do.
14:10
Speaker 1: So if you're the Lakers and you don't know, and then,
14:13
Speaker 1: by the way, these other teams don't know either. I
14:15
Speaker 1: talk to these teams all the time. They are going
14:16
Speaker 1: for them. They don't know. Nobody has a good field.
14:19
Speaker 1: The Celtics don't know what's gonna happen. The Clippers don't
14:21
Speaker 1: know what's gonna happen. The Lakers don't know. You what
14:24
Speaker 1: you really are incumbent on doing um if UM. If
14:28
Speaker 1: you're preparing for this as you is making your plan
14:31
Speaker 1: D C, D E F G. And if you're again,
14:33
Speaker 1: if you're making a wager, make sure you factor it
14:36
Speaker 1: into the price that you get because if you if you,
14:39
Speaker 1: if you make a wager today, information and things are
14:43
Speaker 1: gonna change. They're gonna change that price dramatically, and they
14:46
Speaker 1: change how you feel about that wager for the next
14:48
Speaker 1: six weeks. Of those top four guys you mentioned, Durant, Irving, Thompson,
14:52
Speaker 1: and Leonard, which one do you think Lebron would most
14:55
Speaker 1: like to play with? Um? I think Durant would be
15:00
Speaker 1: amazing to play with him. Um I think Duran is
15:04
Speaker 1: gonna be had a chance to be a top five
15:06
Speaker 1: to ten all time player. He's maybe built better to
15:10
Speaker 1: score than any player in history of the game. That
15:13
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that he'll end up with more points than
15:15
Speaker 1: Abdul jabbar Um or more scoring titles than Jordan's. But
15:20
Speaker 1: there's never been a player who has come to the
15:22
Speaker 1: NBA who's built a score like him. The game of
15:25
Speaker 1: the he he the game of basketball for him is
15:27
Speaker 1: different than it's been for anybody else. We've never seen
15:29
Speaker 1: a man of that size with that shooting ability, just
15:32
Speaker 1: never seen it. And and uh, not only that, but
15:36
Speaker 1: he's proven you know, he did have that foot issue,
15:38
Speaker 1: but he's generally proven to be durable. I mean, you
15:40
Speaker 1: look at him, And you don't think that he couldn't
15:42
Speaker 1: play mother ten years. I mean, how long is his prime?
15:45
Speaker 1: His prime is as long as he can kind of
15:47
Speaker 1: stay healthy and run. That could be six, seven, eight,
15:50
Speaker 1: nine more years. So you know, that's a guy that
15:53
Speaker 1: I'd like to get into and do UM deal with UM. Now,
15:57
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that Tyrie and Bronze games are brilliantly
16:02
Speaker 1: paired together. They are their basketball games were made to
16:05
Speaker 1: play with each other because Irie is a guy who
16:08
Speaker 1: can handle the ball and remove pressure from Lebron for
16:11
Speaker 1: creating the offense, but also play off the ball. So
16:14
Speaker 1: when Lebron wants to dominate it, he can set he
16:17
Speaker 1: can set Kyrie up. And it's no you know, accident
16:21
Speaker 1: that they made three finals playing together. They won one
16:24
Speaker 1: finals and that team that they lost for one to
16:26
Speaker 1: the first year Durant was in Golden State, the two
16:29
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen team. In my mind, that team probably wins
16:35
Speaker 1: the championship in like seventy five percent of the seasons
16:37
Speaker 1: in NBA history, maybe higher. I know that they lost
16:40
Speaker 1: four one, but they lost four one to maybe the
16:42
Speaker 1: greatest team of all time. That year, that team won
16:44
Speaker 1: sixteen and one I'd like to remind you, um, the Warriors,
16:49
Speaker 1: the Calves went through the East playoffs at twelve and one.
16:52
Speaker 1: They were a dominant team. Kyrie and Lebron are beautifully
16:56
Speaker 1: matched as players. Unfortunately, their personalities do not match. And Um.
17:02
Speaker 1: In addition to who wants to sort of be the
17:04
Speaker 1: dominant figure and sort of the voice of the locker room,
17:07
Speaker 1: Lebron always kind of had a I'm going to be
17:09
Speaker 1: the older brother or even the father figure to you Kyrie,
17:12
Speaker 1: and Tyrie does not want that. UM. And so I
17:16
Speaker 1: don't know, I doubt that their person especially since they've
17:19
Speaker 1: already been to the mountaintop. I think they're about They're
17:21
Speaker 1: They're difference than their personalities makes it unlikely. UM, but
17:24
Speaker 1: my goodness, probably the best fitting teammate Lebron has ever had.
17:30
Speaker 1: I feel like one of the dynamics that was really
17:34
Speaker 1: clear in the story about the Lakers today is the
17:37
Speaker 1: influence agents have, despite the protests of Rich Paul, who
17:43
Speaker 1: is Lebron's agent, in the making of a roster, in
17:47
Speaker 1: the management of a franchise, and that throws any conversation
17:51
Speaker 1: around Oz and where someone is going to go out
17:54
Speaker 1: the window. So is there a sort of agent X
17:58
Speaker 1: factor in any of this k club where that could
18:02
Speaker 1: influence things that people who are generally thinking about this,
18:06
Speaker 1: whether they want to you know, make novelty bets or
18:09
Speaker 1: just thinking about it as fans, could influence it in
18:11
Speaker 1: a way that we don't know. Yeah, you can, you know, Chad,
18:15
Speaker 1: You're you're looking at that like an editor. Because the
18:17
Speaker 1: fat most fascinating part of the story to me was
18:19
Speaker 1: that the Lakers have made their decision that they're going
18:23
Speaker 1: to build this team through free agency. Um. They've had
18:28
Speaker 1: high draft picks, but they have not hit on those
18:30
Speaker 1: high draft picks. Um. And by the way, I like
18:34
Speaker 1: to point out that the Lakers have been one of
18:36
Speaker 1: the luckiest teams in the lottery in the last twenty years. Um.
18:40
Speaker 1: They have. In the last four times they've been the lottery,
18:43
Speaker 1: they their numbers come up, um, three years in a
18:46
Speaker 1: row they came up as a number two pick. Um.
18:49
Speaker 1: And then all three of those years that would have
18:50
Speaker 1: lost that pick if it didn't fall in that top
18:53
Speaker 1: five or in one year and that was in the
18:54
Speaker 1: top three. That's incredibly lucky, especially with the pick protection issue.
18:58
Speaker 1: And then this year they go from the eleven pick
19:00
Speaker 1: the number four pick. Last year they didn't have their pick, um,
19:03
Speaker 1: and of course they didn't move up. But you know,
19:06
Speaker 1: for the last four times had been a lottery boom
19:07
Speaker 1: boom boom boom boom. Um. So they they've elected to
19:11
Speaker 1: say we're gonna we're not gonna build through trades or
19:13
Speaker 1: free agency. I mean, they're chape tried. I'm sorry, draft
19:17
Speaker 1: or trades, but we're going to try to go through
19:19
Speaker 1: free agency. And to play that game, you really have
19:23
Speaker 1: to play the game with the agents. You really have
19:25
Speaker 1: to open your door to the agents and you know,
19:28
Speaker 1: cultivate those those relationships. Um. There's no question in my
19:33
Speaker 1: mind that their decision to give Contavious Caldwell Pope a
19:36
Speaker 1: one year, eighteen million dollar contract two years ago was
19:39
Speaker 1: tied into the fact that his agent, Rich Paul was
19:43
Speaker 1: representing Lebron Um. You know, I know Rich very well.
19:47
Speaker 1: He would be very upset, um if I said that
19:50
Speaker 1: to his face. Um, But there's just no doubt in
19:53
Speaker 1: my mind that that played a role. To to play
19:55
Speaker 1: a seventeen percent role, to play an eighty three percent role,
19:58
Speaker 1: I don't know, um, but the Lakers had this caps
20:01
Speaker 1: they they didn't know if to do what they could
20:03
Speaker 1: only use it for a year. It wasn't like they
20:05
Speaker 1: had a ton of options, but they gave it all
20:07
Speaker 1: the Pope and um. And so they were they were
20:11
Speaker 1: kind of playing the game there. Uh. And you know
20:14
Speaker 1: Rich represents Anthony Davis, who is going to be a
20:17
Speaker 1: free agent unless he extends his contract next summer. And um,
20:21
Speaker 1: you know that's just important. Not only that, guys, but um,
20:25
Speaker 1: you know, the value runs the team now was a
20:27
Speaker 1: former agent himself who was was around the team very
20:31
Speaker 1: often with Kobe and a lot of other teams. You know,
20:33
Speaker 1: Rob Blanka had a lot of clients. In fact, I
20:36
Speaker 1: don't know if he was James Harden's first agent, but
20:39
Speaker 1: he represented James Harden when James Harden basically became a star. Um,
20:44
Speaker 1: he had you know, he had number of other agents, um,
20:47
Speaker 1: another number of other players. Um. But he certainly would
20:51
Speaker 1: have been known to how the Lakers you know, used
20:53
Speaker 1: to sort of play things old school and keep the
20:55
Speaker 1: agents at arm's length. And that you know, for years
20:58
Speaker 1: they weren't getting free agents. They went through dry spell
21:01
Speaker 1: where they couldn't get free agents. And I'm sure that
21:03
Speaker 1: an agent run now running the organization had no small
21:06
Speaker 1: part to the way they change their deal with they
21:08
Speaker 1: their way that they dealt with agents. So really it's um,
21:13
Speaker 1: it's sort of uh, you know, it's an organizational decision.
21:16
Speaker 1: We're either gonna, you know, play this game or or not.
21:19
Speaker 1: But if you want to be a free agent player,
21:21
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to probably play the game on some level. UM.
21:24
Speaker 1: And I think that's really one of the films. The
21:26
Speaker 1: takeaways that you can take from the whole Lakers story.
21:28
Speaker 1: How would how could it possibly could affect the betting? Um?
21:32
Speaker 1: You know. One of the things that I think is
21:34
Speaker 1: interesting is if Rich Paul is going to have um
21:39
Speaker 1: access to the team plane, which Baxter describes in that story,
21:42
Speaker 1: if he's going to have access to the team in
21:46
Speaker 1: in in ways that other um that other agents don't.
21:49
Speaker 1: If I was a top agent, I wonder if I
21:52
Speaker 1: would want my my player to go there, because I
21:56
Speaker 1: would be afraid that, you know, Rich Paul would have
21:57
Speaker 1: extra access and try to steal my player. Not to
22:00
Speaker 1: I think that that's what would happened, but I could
22:02
Speaker 1: certainly see an agent being afraid to send a player
22:06
Speaker 1: to l a freak because of it. But guys, the
22:09
Speaker 1: agent business is as competitive as any business on earth.
22:12
Speaker 1: So it's very difficult to have one agent talk about
22:17
Speaker 1: another age in any sort of realistic way. They always
22:21
Speaker 1: hate the other guys, They hate their competitors are they're
22:23
Speaker 1: they're perpetually stabbing each other in the back. Um like
22:26
Speaker 1: you know, Magic Johnson calling Ralph Blinka backstabber. Well, find
22:30
Speaker 1: me an agent in the last fifty years in the
22:32
Speaker 1: NBA who hasn't been a backstabber. On some level, You've
22:35
Speaker 1: got that. You're not a successful agent if you're not
22:37
Speaker 1: a backstabber, or if you don't backstab, you'd never get clients,
22:40
Speaker 1: you'd never make money. You would make it. So if
22:42
Speaker 1: you get into that kind of business, that's what you
22:45
Speaker 1: expect to have to deal with, al right. So on
22:47
Speaker 1: one side of the ledger in the Western Conference, we've
22:50
Speaker 1: got the Los Angeles Linker Lakers, who are working at
22:52
Speaker 1: the highest level of dysfunction that you could possibly imagine,
22:56
Speaker 1: and it's been happening for several years. On the other end,
22:59
Speaker 1: you have of the Golden State Warriors, who in that
23:02
Speaker 1: same time frame have been as effective and functional and
23:06
Speaker 1: um run an organization that is almost a meter image.
23:09
Speaker 1: Because Bob Meyers at the top and he's got experience
23:12
Speaker 1: in the agent business, and Steve Kerr has been running
23:14
Speaker 1: it and he is a former player, and so from
23:17
Speaker 1: a coaching perspective, now you've got him in the finals
23:19
Speaker 1: again for the fifth straight year. They are minus three
23:23
Speaker 1: fifty to win the title. Obviously no value there, but
23:29
Speaker 1: right now the odds are better that they will Blackjack.
23:34
Speaker 1: Help me out with this because I forgot the numbers here,
23:36
Speaker 1: Warriors to win the title in four, five, six or seven. Yeah,
23:42
Speaker 1: you've got plus five hundred sweet plus three fifty and five,
23:46
Speaker 1: plus two forty and six and plus five fifty in
23:49
Speaker 1: seven of all these numbers. Go ahead. Yeah, well, let
23:54
Speaker 1: me ask you this, what is the price for the
23:56
Speaker 1: Raptors money line in game One's good question. Let to
24:00
Speaker 1: look in the Action Network app, which is free, and
24:02
Speaker 1: I can tell you that. But this is the bet. Okay,
24:08
Speaker 1: this is the bet that you have to consider. Um,
24:13
Speaker 1: if the Raptors win Game one, if you believe that
24:17
Speaker 1: the Raptors can win Game one, you essentially, in my mind,
24:21
Speaker 1: are believing that this is going to be a six
24:22
Speaker 1: game series. Um, if you believe that the Warriors are
24:27
Speaker 1: winning Game one, I think you can you now have
24:30
Speaker 1: to begin to look at betting a four game series
24:33
Speaker 1: and really where your feelings on that are in my mind.
24:37
Speaker 1: You know, if you're going to make a pre series bet,
24:40
Speaker 1: that's what you're looking at. That's what you have to consider. Um,
24:44
Speaker 1: because the the you know, you've got the time off
24:49
Speaker 1: nine days, You've got the Warriors going on the road.
24:52
Speaker 1: They've only gone on the road, uh for one playoff
24:56
Speaker 1: series in the last five years, and that I believe
24:59
Speaker 1: was um um the Rocket series last year in the
25:02
Speaker 1: Conference finals. Unless I'm having a brain fart, So this
25:05
Speaker 1: is something that they're not to do. Um. Toronto has
25:09
Speaker 1: a nice thing of of rest. They you know, Kauai
25:14
Speaker 1: has gotten to rest those legs, and yet they haven't
25:17
Speaker 1: had really any rest. They began practicing yesterday. Um, there's
25:21
Speaker 1: enormous emotion. They're coming there on a four game win streak.
25:24
Speaker 1: They're playing very well. If you're gonna have a chance
25:26
Speaker 1: to get ahead of the of the of the Warriors,
25:31
Speaker 1: it's um, it's it's in game one. And the other
25:34
Speaker 1: thing I'll point out Steph Curry has been on a
25:37
Speaker 1: hot streak. Uh. He was on a he was in
25:40
Speaker 1: the slump for the first series and a half, he
25:43
Speaker 1: was shooting poorly, he was struggling, he couldn't make a shot.
25:46
Speaker 1: Durk got hurt, and he continued on the slump. He's
25:49
Speaker 1: was scoreless in the first half of the game in Houston,
25:51
Speaker 1: and for the last four and a half games he's
25:53
Speaker 1: been on a hot streak. But one of the reasons
25:56
Speaker 1: that the Warriors are so damned deadly with Durant is
25:59
Speaker 1: that they have that margin for air, that that um
26:04
Speaker 1: other bullets of fire, so to speak. And I'll just
26:07
Speaker 1: take you back to last Finals. In Game three of
26:10
Speaker 1: the Finals last year game in Cleveland, first road game,
26:14
Speaker 1: you know, sort of the Cavs last stand. Steph Curry
26:16
Speaker 1: went three of sixteen in that game, I believe, Uh
26:20
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson don't have the box score in front of me,
26:22
Speaker 1: went like four of eleven or four of twelve, four ten,
26:25
Speaker 1: something like that. Both of them had an offshooting game.
26:28
Speaker 1: But Durant put in thirty seven, um, because they had
26:33
Speaker 1: this awesome other weapon they could go to. And then
26:35
Speaker 1: in the in games Game four, which was a closed
26:38
Speaker 1: out game, Curry had a huge game at thirty seven
26:41
Speaker 1: and they blew them off the court. So I don't
26:44
Speaker 1: think we have seen the Warriors deal with a game
26:48
Speaker 1: where Curry doesn't stay on fire and they have to
26:50
Speaker 1: deal without Durant. That game is going to happen. At
26:53
Speaker 1: some point. Curry is not going to continue to shoot
26:57
Speaker 1: from three point range, especially if you defend him a
26:59
Speaker 1: little bit it And so I don't know. I wish
27:02
Speaker 1: I had a crystal ball. I could tell you, Yeah,
27:04
Speaker 1: Thursday night, curries hot streak is gonna end. He hasn't
27:06
Speaker 1: played in a while. Hot is gonna end. But if
27:09
Speaker 1: you think you're gonna beat the Warriors despite what their
27:12
Speaker 1: record is without Durant, I realized that record is thirty
27:15
Speaker 1: four and four. I realized thirty and one. I agree
27:18
Speaker 1: that's daunting, and why you bet against it. I'm not
27:20
Speaker 1: saying that you should. I'm just saying when Curry does
27:23
Speaker 1: not have a good shooting game, if Durant's not there
27:25
Speaker 1: to be the safety net, they are more beatable. And Durant,
27:29
Speaker 1: I think, is a game two games three return depending
27:32
Speaker 1: on how that leg goes. So if you can talk
27:35
Speaker 1: yourself in to um, if you can talk to yourself
27:39
Speaker 1: in to the Raptors winning straight up in game one,
27:44
Speaker 1: and you can talk to yourself into money line that
27:47
Speaker 1: you know you can maybe back it up with thinking
27:50
Speaker 1: that the series can go six games, because I think
27:52
Speaker 1: if the Raptors get him one so they probably can
27:53
Speaker 1: get him again. And Brian, that's kind of one of
27:55
Speaker 1: the questions that I wanted to ask you about because
27:57
Speaker 1: I heard you and Scottie Pippen on the jump of
28:00
Speaker 1: an interesting discussion about this during the Warriors Blazers series.
28:05
Speaker 1: I feel like Kevin Durants not playing in this series,
28:08
Speaker 1: and I feel like the Warriors are kind of slow
28:10
Speaker 1: playing everyone and making it sound like we'll take a
28:13
Speaker 1: game to game, But it feels like he's going to
28:15
Speaker 1: be out for most, if not all, of this series.
28:18
Speaker 1: And in my mind, if Kevin Durant's not on the
28:21
Speaker 1: floor and Kawhi Leonard doesn't have to chase him around
28:24
Speaker 1: for five or six or seven games, I think Toronto
28:27
Speaker 1: can win this series. Now, if Durant's on the floor,
28:29
Speaker 1: I'd say there's no chance. And the odds are very different.
28:34
Speaker 1: Golden State is minus three fifty two win, Toronto's plus
28:36
Speaker 1: two twenty. We've heard the NBA ask for integrity fees.
28:40
Speaker 1: We've seen them strike a deal with MGM to exchange
28:43
Speaker 1: information and intellectual property. Where is the line between as
28:49
Speaker 1: a better me having all of the information necessary to
28:52
Speaker 1: make an informed decision and a team not wanting to
28:55
Speaker 1: give a strategic advantage to their opponent. Well, I think
28:58
Speaker 1: there's two different rush in here. One is if an
29:01
Speaker 1: injury is unreported, and one is if the severity of
29:05
Speaker 1: an injury is made blurry. I don't think you're ever
29:08
Speaker 1: gonna be able to solve the riddle of how well
29:13
Speaker 1: when is Kevin Durant coming back. We'll tell you one thing,
29:16
Speaker 1: if the if the Warriors fall down to well, Kevin
29:18
Speaker 1: Durant will playing Game three. I think if they fall down,
29:22
Speaker 1: if they fall down one, oh we'll see, you know,
29:24
Speaker 1: if they get down to one. You know what I'm saying.
29:26
Speaker 1: I think whether he plays or not depends kind of
29:29
Speaker 1: on how the series goes on whether he needs to
29:31
Speaker 1: push it or not. UM. When it comes to whether
29:35
Speaker 1: you know an injury is completely unreported, like we had
29:39
Speaker 1: um with Lebron James in last year's finals. UM, which
29:42
Speaker 1: in my mind is sort of the classic example here
29:45
Speaker 1: because if you look at the numbers that Lebron was
29:48
Speaker 1: putting up in the playoffs, and then you look at
29:50
Speaker 1: his Game one, he had fifty one points. In Game one,
29:53
Speaker 1: they lost an overtime. On the road. He punches the blackboard.
29:56
Speaker 1: He averages seven points per game lesson shoots about five
29:59
Speaker 1: or six percentage points less. The next three games he
30:02
Speaker 1: is getting m R s, he's getting X rays. They
30:04
Speaker 1: don't say a word, and the vest three games are
30:07
Speaker 1: all sort of one sided. To me. That's where I
30:10
Speaker 1: have the problem. If you've got a guy who has
30:13
Speaker 1: an injury, and injury significant enough that they actually did imaging,
30:17
Speaker 1: you know that, you know it's not one of these things,
30:19
Speaker 1: well my knee is sore, Well my ankle is sore.
30:21
Speaker 1: I can't know quantify that. But the other thing is
30:25
Speaker 1: the way that the NBA could could fight back on
30:27
Speaker 1: this is they could just put every injury on. They
30:29
Speaker 1: could say lebron um, you know, sore ankle, sore hips,
30:33
Speaker 1: sore shoulder, hangnail um, sore neck, uh, sore ribs and
30:38
Speaker 1: he and and he. They could have them with sore
30:40
Speaker 1: ribs of the entire postseason and you'd never know how
30:43
Speaker 1: they really hurt. That's why I have suggested, if there's
30:46
Speaker 1: imaging done, there's no gray area there. Did he have
30:49
Speaker 1: the X ray or did he not have the X ray?
30:51
Speaker 1: Did he gave you? Because nobody's having an m r
30:53
Speaker 1: I just for fun. Nobody wants to go sit in
30:56
Speaker 1: that tube. Nobody wants to, you know, get in that
30:58
Speaker 1: hospital gown. Nobody wants to ride down to the thing
31:01
Speaker 1: for fun. If you have an m r I on
31:03
Speaker 1: somebody's knee or in somebody's hand, I think you should
31:06
Speaker 1: I think you should say it. And in this last round, um,
31:10
Speaker 1: you know, Uh, Damian Lillard had a a diagnosed injury
31:14
Speaker 1: on his ribs um and I don't know if there
31:18
Speaker 1: was imaging on that. They never said my guests would
31:20
Speaker 1: be that they x rayed. I mean, how could they
31:22
Speaker 1: if you have a rib injury. I don't know why
31:24
Speaker 1: you wouldn't x ray it to see if you had
31:26
Speaker 1: cracked ribs or whatever. But everybody saw him land on
31:30
Speaker 1: him get landed on And if you after the game
31:32
Speaker 1: you heard that he had an X ray on his
31:34
Speaker 1: ribs um, you would know that it's a concern. And
31:37
Speaker 1: so to me, that's the issue when it comes to
31:40
Speaker 1: like betting on this series and trying to decide what
31:42
Speaker 1: Durant's gonna do. I don't even know if Durant knows.
31:44
Speaker 1: I don't know if the Wizards or if the Warriors know.
31:47
Speaker 1: I know that when they first looked at him and
31:49
Speaker 1: they first did the examination and did the m R
31:52
Speaker 1: I they looked at and said, you know, that looks
31:53
Speaker 1: like three to four weeks, and by the way, we'll
31:56
Speaker 1: right it three weeks. I think tomorrow is three weeks
31:58
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken UM. And he has said that
32:02
Speaker 1: the injury is a little bit worse that he's had
32:03
Speaker 1: in the past. So I don't even think that they're
32:06
Speaker 1: off what their what their timeline was, and I wouldn't
32:09
Speaker 1: expect them to to ever announce that. But my thing
32:12
Speaker 1: with the League is they literally put out a whole
32:15
Speaker 1: memo to all of their owners who said, if you
32:20
Speaker 1: own more than of this. In fact, in the memo,
32:23
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys know this. The Action
32:25
Speaker 1: Network is mentioned in the memo that the League sent
32:27
Speaker 1: to its to its UM, to its the owners want
32:31
Speaker 1: it talked about investing and owning media properties that are
32:34
Speaker 1: dedicated to gambling, and it's aid example, the Action Network UM.
32:38
Speaker 1: And so they put out all these rules that if
32:40
Speaker 1: you have of of of of a company, it takes bets.
32:44
Speaker 1: You your uh, your company, you know your best can't
32:48
Speaker 1: be taken by that gambling house. Um. If you're on
32:52
Speaker 1: the board of the directors of a of a gambling
32:55
Speaker 1: of a sports book, or a company that operator takes bets,
32:58
Speaker 1: you can't have your teams games like that. There's bullet
33:01
Speaker 1: point by bullet point by bullet point going over all
33:04
Speaker 1: of these regulations for an owner being able to take
33:07
Speaker 1: bets on his game, which you know, to be honest
33:09
Speaker 1: with you, do you think it would honestly be really
33:11
Speaker 1: that different if the Golden Nuggets could take rockets bets?
33:14
Speaker 1: Do you honestly think that it would change the any
33:16
Speaker 1: sort of chance of integrity issues? I mean, maybe I'm naive.
33:19
Speaker 1: I don't think so. Um Um, but they have. But
33:25
Speaker 1: they have not addressed the injury problem as far as
33:27
Speaker 1: I know. They have given the teams no guidance and
33:29
Speaker 1: not changed any of their rules. And to me, that's
33:31
Speaker 1: a big problem. And I don't really the integrity fee
33:34
Speaker 1: that they're chasing, that's a that's a pipe dream. They're
33:38
Speaker 1: never going to get that in any state. The only
33:40
Speaker 1: way they're going to get that is by getting me
33:43
Speaker 1: the Congress to approve to slip that into a to
33:47
Speaker 1: a federal law. They tried it with the states. That
33:50
Speaker 1: didn't work. They're now gonna you know, if that bill
33:53
Speaker 1: ever becomes in front of Congress, which I'm sure it
33:55
Speaker 1: will someday, Um, they'll lobby the hell out of those
33:59
Speaker 1: congressmen to try to get that done. Um. I don't
34:03
Speaker 1: think it has at that integrity. See is they're chasing money.
34:06
Speaker 1: I don't think it's really about integrity. If it was,
34:08
Speaker 1: if there was another way from the chase money, they
34:10
Speaker 1: would Um. But I do think for for public appearances,
34:14
Speaker 1: you know, because you want to invite new fans. You
34:17
Speaker 1: want a fan living in what you talk Kansas who
34:19
Speaker 1: doesn't care about the NBA, who now may watch a game,
34:23
Speaker 1: or buy a jersey or by the NBA league pass
34:27
Speaker 1: um or attend a couple of games in Oklahoma City
34:31
Speaker 1: a year. You want you want to approach that guy.
34:33
Speaker 1: You got to convince that guy and people in Spokane,
34:36
Speaker 1: Washington and and young kids who grew up without affiliation
34:40
Speaker 1: to a team. You want to convince them to invest
34:42
Speaker 1: in the NBA. You gotta make them feel like there's
34:45
Speaker 1: some transparency. And I don't know if the league has
34:46
Speaker 1: gotten there yet when it comes to injury, how do
34:48
Speaker 1: you like that We've been mentioned in the league memo
34:53
Speaker 1: to stay away from that big time. Hey, listen, we're
34:57
Speaker 1: getting mentioned. No, there's no such thing is bad, but liste,
35:01
Speaker 1: I have two more questions for you. You mentioned the
35:04
Speaker 1: opportunity is potentially, you know, betting on the Raptors tonight
35:10
Speaker 1: and then re examining the series price forget about that.
35:14
Speaker 1: If you are betting on the series, who are you taking?
35:18
Speaker 1: And if it's the Warriors, how many games I've got
35:22
Speaker 1: to I've got a real hard time trying to determine, um,
35:30
Speaker 1: just how difficult getting through the East was for the
35:33
Speaker 1: Raptors visa the how, the how, what what the Warriors
35:37
Speaker 1: just went through. And I'm having a difficult time really
35:41
Speaker 1: comparing the teams because I can sit here and make
35:43
Speaker 1: a case for you that one of the things that
35:46
Speaker 1: bothers the Warriors is physical play, and that the Raptors
35:50
Speaker 1: are gonna be really physical with them, and that, um,
35:53
Speaker 1: that they've got a really smart defensive team, and they've
35:56
Speaker 1: got two defensive Player of the Years and they're starting
35:58
Speaker 1: line up Marcutsong and Kaua Leonard and a handful of
36:01
Speaker 1: other guys who have been on all defensive teams. Their
36:05
Speaker 1: defense is extremely playoff tested. You look at Serge Ibaka, Marcusol,
36:11
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry, Kawhi Leonard, those do Danny Green. Those dudes
36:17
Speaker 1: know how to play defense in the playoffs. Some of
36:19
Speaker 1: those dudes have played against the Warriors in the playoffs.
36:22
Speaker 1: It's not the first time that they've prepared for that
36:24
Speaker 1: split cut defense. And I watched him go through a
36:27
Speaker 1: grinder series against the Sixers, who I think have a
36:32
Speaker 1: terrific team. I watched him go through a grinder series
36:34
Speaker 1: against the team that was number one in the league
36:36
Speaker 1: in a whole bunch of categories, including record in Milwaukee,
36:40
Speaker 1: including going into Milwaukee and winning, and I could convince
36:43
Speaker 1: myself the dis Raptors team is actually really awesome, and
36:47
Speaker 1: the Kauhi Leonard is the kind of beast that is
36:50
Speaker 1: Lebron level beast who could um strike a couple of
36:55
Speaker 1: blows and caused the Warriors to bleed a little bit.
36:58
Speaker 1: Then I can go look it and say what the
37:02
Speaker 1: Warriors they're doing right now is the highest level of
37:05
Speaker 1: basketball they've played in the last couple of years. And
37:08
Speaker 1: they've gone eight one in the finals. The last two
37:11
Speaker 1: years and that the Raptors won't know what hit them.
37:14
Speaker 1: And this is something that I see over and over
37:17
Speaker 1: early in series. Um Uh. You are not used to
37:23
Speaker 1: the pressure that the Warriors put on you on defense.
37:26
Speaker 1: It reminded me one of the one of the teams
37:28
Speaker 1: that um really prioritize length for the first time, where
37:33
Speaker 1: they all they wanted was big ranging guys. Oklahoma City
37:36
Speaker 1: Thunder backed about the turn of the decade, UM, And
37:39
Speaker 1: when you played against the Thunder, they had all these
37:42
Speaker 1: super long armed guys, and like the in the first quarter,
37:45
Speaker 1: they would get like ten deflections because passes that you
37:49
Speaker 1: threw against every other team where all of a sudden
37:51
Speaker 1: within the reach of the Thunder. I'll never forget this.
37:53
Speaker 1: This was like a phenomenon um, and the Thunder frequently
37:57
Speaker 1: had their best defensive games early in se race. UM.
38:01
Speaker 1: I think it's the exact inverse of the Warriors. No
38:03
Speaker 1: matter how much film you watch, no matter how you
38:05
Speaker 1: prepare yourself for it, they run that split cut and
38:08
Speaker 1: your brain says, go with Curry, or your brain says,
38:11
Speaker 1: go to this guy, And next thing you know, dray
38:13
Speaker 1: Montrose some wicked bounce past for a dunk. You think
38:16
Speaker 1: you know the play, and then Curry goes in the
38:18
Speaker 1: direction he's wide open on the wing catch and shoot gone.
38:20
Speaker 1: There's three. Next thing you know, they've had four in
38:23
Speaker 1: a row and you're calling time out wondering how you
38:24
Speaker 1: got down twelve. I just uh if I can present
38:29
Speaker 1: the cases on both sides, and normally I feel like
38:31
Speaker 1: I have a good feel that I've watched these teams
38:33
Speaker 1: play for months and I go, this is this is
38:36
Speaker 1: how they really truly match up. I don't have a
38:38
Speaker 1: good feel here. I mean, I honestly could sit here
38:41
Speaker 1: and tell you, oh, yeah, I think this sucker is
38:43
Speaker 1: going six games. I think the Warriors will win, but
38:46
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be a grinder and all the
38:48
Speaker 1: games are gonna be close and they'll just eke it out,
38:51
Speaker 1: or I complain that I think the Warriors would are
38:53
Speaker 1: just gonna take a look at this Eastern Conference dregs
38:55
Speaker 1: and pound him by ten every game. And I honestly
38:58
Speaker 1: don't know which way it's gonna go. I don't actually
39:00
Speaker 1: think it's a good series to bet on before the
39:03
Speaker 1: series begins, um, and I know that it will cost
39:07
Speaker 1: you the money. It will cost you some odds if
39:11
Speaker 1: you have to wait and watch game one. Um, which
39:14
Speaker 1: is again why I think the real question to me
39:16
Speaker 1: is I just I just think that Raptor's money line.
39:19
Speaker 1: And I wonder if, as you mentioned, Mr Blackjack, that
39:24
Speaker 1: the way that the odds aren't equal, that they're they're
39:28
Speaker 1: really incentivizing you to take the Warriors for the series,
39:31
Speaker 1: but they're not so crazy about having you take the
39:34
Speaker 1: Raptors in game one because the price isn't that good.
39:37
Speaker 1: I think I think that's you know, without having seen
39:40
Speaker 1: the odds, which just have you describe it to me.
39:41
Speaker 1: I think that reflects the bookmaker's uncertainty. I think as well,
39:45
Speaker 1: maybe I'm reading it wrong, but I sort of feel
39:47
Speaker 1: that if if it's really that flat in uh in
39:49
Speaker 1: game one for allegedly a heavy favorite, yeah, I mean
39:52
Speaker 1: Toronto is minus one ten in game one, but plus
39:54
Speaker 1: two twenty for the series. I fink you're exactly right.
39:57
Speaker 1: This is this is what's really interesting me. This is
39:59
Speaker 1: my last question is like, since gambling became more and
40:03
Speaker 1: more relevant in the NBA instead became legal, you have
40:07
Speaker 1: written a ton about this, and the way you talk
40:10
Speaker 1: about it, you clearly know it. How did you learn
40:13
Speaker 1: so much about betting, and I don't ever I never
40:17
Speaker 1: was really big sports better. Um. First off, when I
40:22
Speaker 1: saw the court case go to the Supreme Court, even
40:26
Speaker 1: before it went to the even before it went to
40:29
Speaker 1: the to to the actual hearing, I felt that it
40:33
Speaker 1: had a good chance to win, because even though I'm
40:36
Speaker 1: not a lost scholar, if you read if you read it,
40:39
Speaker 1: you know it's pretty clear. And then when I listen
40:43
Speaker 1: to the oral arguments, I actually listened to the to
40:45
Speaker 1: the justices asking the questions. And by the way, the
40:49
Speaker 1: two um, you know, the two lawyers who this was
40:53
Speaker 1: like the heavy this was like Ali Frasier. Two of
40:56
Speaker 1: the most prominent attorneys who've ever you know, you have
41:02
Speaker 1: gone before the court round after round after round, and
41:04
Speaker 1: some of them one of them was the was one
41:06
Speaker 1: of the bush Gore lawyers who actually won. The guy
41:08
Speaker 1: you have had lost the case, Ted Olsen, actually one
41:12
Speaker 1: bush Gore um in front of the Supreme Court, one
41:14
Speaker 1: of the most important Supreme Court cases of our lifetime. Um,
41:18
Speaker 1: if you listened to the orchu oral arguments, you could
41:21
Speaker 1: tell that the gamblers are gonna win. And so even
41:25
Speaker 1: though we had to wait five months and that was
41:29
Speaker 1: obviously a lot of people felt that, Um, Chad, you
41:32
Speaker 1: must have felt it too, because you left a really
41:34
Speaker 1: good job to go to the Action Network because you
41:36
Speaker 1: thought this was going to happen. And so more than
41:38
Speaker 1: my interest in the actual gambling itself, I felt that
41:42
Speaker 1: there was something because one of the things I like
41:43
Speaker 1: to do is I like to try to find complex
41:45
Speaker 1: subjects and try to explain them, um, and trying to
41:50
Speaker 1: explain them to the audience, sort of like, hey, let
41:53
Speaker 1: me help you get smarter here, let me try to
41:56
Speaker 1: do the hard work for you. And I felt like
41:58
Speaker 1: this that gambling is was an area where you could
42:00
Speaker 1: do this. So I also feel like, um, there's very
42:03
Speaker 1: little of voices of authority on gambling right now, and
42:07
Speaker 1: there's you, There's there's a few people out there who
42:10
Speaker 1: could say the league, Hey, when are you going to
42:13
Speaker 1: address this injury the spay situation. You can't talk about
42:17
Speaker 1: gambling and try to figure out how to get money
42:19
Speaker 1: from these folks on one end and not change your
42:22
Speaker 1: policies on the other. Like somebody had to be the
42:25
Speaker 1: voice to say, how about you do that? And since
42:28
Speaker 1: I don't really have any interest or investment in the
42:31
Speaker 1: gambling side of it, but I do have an interest
42:34
Speaker 1: in fairness and I do have an interest in the
42:36
Speaker 1: changing landscape. I felt like that was some that was
42:39
Speaker 1: a zone that I could play in. So, um, I
42:43
Speaker 1: don't really want this to be my beat. Um. You know.
42:46
Speaker 1: For example, guys, I write a lot about NBA officiating, um,
42:51
Speaker 1: because that's something that nobody really wants to talk about.
42:55
Speaker 1: They just complain about it. But I actually think it's
42:57
Speaker 1: like super important, and um, you know, I I sort
43:02
Speaker 1: of had it up to hear with the Houston Rockets
43:04
Speaker 1: and the Warriors bitching about calls in the in the
43:07
Speaker 1: in that series, and I pretty much took them both
43:09
Speaker 1: the task and as loud to the megaphones I could
43:11
Speaker 1: get my hands on. And so I kind of feel
43:14
Speaker 1: like that's a space where nobody really wants to do that.
43:18
Speaker 1: But I think it's important. Nobody really wants to talk
43:20
Speaker 1: about the bones of what happens, you know with the
43:24
Speaker 1: league in the game. I mean, who really cares that
43:27
Speaker 1: there's memos going out about what the owners can do. Well,
43:31
Speaker 1: that's kind of where I come in. I care about it,
43:34
Speaker 1: and so I tried to I try to track it
43:37
Speaker 1: for whatever that audience is interested in. Well, listen, you're
43:40
Speaker 1: nailing it as you always have. And if I didn't
43:43
Speaker 1: tell you when we were working together, I think you're
43:45
Speaker 1: a marvel. And I apologize if I held back in
43:48
Speaker 1: my Now I'm teasing. I actually, you know you never
43:51
Speaker 1: wanted you would never want to hear from the boss,
43:53
Speaker 1: right like, uh, when the when the text would come in,
43:56
Speaker 1: or when Chadszone wuld ever come up, there would be
43:57
Speaker 1: an email, I'd go. You know, your first thing is,
43:59
Speaker 1: oh no, what did I do? So I actually would
44:01
Speaker 1: prefer to have not heard. I think no news. I
44:04
Speaker 1: think in our business, no news is good is good.
44:08
Speaker 1: I think how any time you reach out, it's usually
44:09
Speaker 1: because there's some sort of problem. I felt black Jack
44:12
Speaker 1: just pulled the microphone closer to his mouth, and I
44:14
Speaker 1: feel like he was going to say something obnoxious and
44:16
Speaker 1: I'm cutting him off. So now now he might just
44:19
Speaker 1: be sleeping. I apologize. Brian. Thank you so much for
44:23
Speaker 1: coming on the podcast and spending all this time making
44:25
Speaker 1: us much much smarter about the NBA Free Agency, the
44:29
Speaker 1: NBA Finals. This was fantastic. Thanks. I really appreciate you
44:33
Speaker 1: having me. Good luck with everything. We want to thank
44:35
Speaker 1: Brian Winners for coming on the show. He was pretty amazing,
44:38
Speaker 1: wasn't you, black Jack? He was awesome. Give me, like,
44:41
Speaker 1: in more than four words, what you think the most
44:43
Speaker 1: interesting thing. I have like three things that I thought
44:46
Speaker 1: were amazing, But give me your most amazing thing. Because
44:48
Speaker 1: the guy knows everything. Nobody wants to play with Lebron
44:51
Speaker 1: and the Lakers. Why are you acting like this right now?
44:55
Speaker 1: I'm just being succinct, But why I didn't ask you
44:58
Speaker 1: to be succinct. Do I just do things that you
45:02
Speaker 1: asked me to? Oh my god. I thought he was
45:05
Speaker 1: amazing on the the idea on the Lakers, but also
45:08
Speaker 1: the idea of like how agents are sort of playing
45:11
Speaker 1: in the space. I thought was really smart. That was fascinating.
45:14
Speaker 1: Also his take on the finals and sort of finding
45:17
Speaker 1: the advantage in the series and not really betting on
45:19
Speaker 1: anything until you see what happens tonight. Obviously you're not
45:22
Speaker 1: going to make as much money, but I thought that
45:24
Speaker 1: take was really interesting and I want to thank him
45:25
Speaker 1: for coming on. He was actually, um, it's a really
45:28
Speaker 1: good idea. The Raptors will still be plus money even
45:30
Speaker 1: if they win Game one. Oh. He was actually a
45:32
Speaker 1: little more committed to the podcast today than New work well,
45:36
Speaker 1: he didn't have to sit next to you. So this
45:40
Speaker 1: has been the favorites from the Action Network, downloaded on Apple,
45:45
Speaker 1: podcast radio dot com, slash the Action Network, or wherever
45:51
Speaker 1: you listen to your podcasts. Until next time, I Love you.
45:57
Speaker 1: Don't steal myself a do