Latest / The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views / The Sixers And Flyers Seasons Are Around The Corner (PST Episode 529)

Transcript

The Sixers And Flyers Seasons Are Around The Corner (PST Episode 529) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

• 0:00
  Hey, everybody, it's Jeff. We've recorded this podcast episode on two days
• 0:04
  this week, Tuesday, August twenty nine, twenty twenty three, and Wednesday,
• 0:08
  August thirtieth, twenty twenty three. So by the time you hear this,
• 0:12
  some things may have changed here and there, but we hope you enjoyed
• 0:14
  the show. All right, everybody, you're listening to the Philadelphia Sports Devil
• 0:42
  podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world.
• 0:46
  Thanks so much for joining us this week. We got a great show coming
• 0:50
  your way. We got a lot of Phillies talk, Eagles talk. We're
• 0:52
  gonna be getting into some Sixers talking Flyers talk as well. I am Jeff
• 0:56
  Warren. I'm here on my good buddy, Len Hunts sicker Man, Len
• 1:00
  Man. I missed the Phillies game tonight, like you and I are recording
• 1:03
  this on Tuesday, August twenty nine. I missed it, man, and
• 1:07
  it was such a great game. I had a work function, but I
• 1:11
  was following it on my phone. Dude, this Phillies team, we're gonna
• 1:14
  be starting off talking about them, but they're on fire man. It's amazing
• 1:18
  to see. Yeah, offensively, they you really can't get much hotter than
• 1:23
  they are right now. Exactly. It's absurd what they're doing. They have.
• 1:26
  As of us recording this, I think they have fifty seven home runs
• 1:30
  here in August, which ties the most home runs by a Phillies team ever.
• 1:34
  Tomorrow night they could potentially break this. They could break their own record.
• 1:38
  You know, it's amazing how hot they are, how these bats are
• 1:41
  right now. Yeah, and and they're i mean currently for the month of
• 1:47
  August, they're like leading baseball by like I think ten home runs. Like
• 1:51
  the next the next closest team I think is the Braves with when I saw
• 1:55
  the graphic girlier like, Phillies had fifty six and the Braves had forty six
• 1:57
  and then they hit another one afterward. Yeah, so yeah, it was
• 2:02
  I mean, they're they're just they're really hitting the ball so well. And
• 2:07
  this is something I was gonna, you know, maybe wait until later.
• 2:09
  But let's wait. Yeah, let's wait, let's wait. Yeah, yeah,
• 2:14
  let's wait a little bit here, because I did want to say because
• 2:17
  I say it every single show and I have been for over ten years,
• 2:22
  and I forgot on this one. I always say I'm Jeff Warren and I'm
• 2:24
  with my buddy Len Hunter Gonna. I always go how are you Len?
• 2:28
  And I forgot to do it this time. So how are you Lenn?
• 2:30
  You don't care. I'm just just you know. No, no wait wait
• 2:40
  we all know. Oh gosh, no, no, I want a laugh.
• 2:46
  Yes, you don't even smoke, and you've got like the greatest smokers
• 2:52
  laugh at times. Yeah. I don't know how it happened, but well,
• 2:58
  last time you were on the pod two weeks ago, I asked how
• 3:00
  everything was with the home. Things are going well. We were talking before
• 3:04
  we hit the record button. I know things are going well. I gotta
• 3:06
  be honest with you about something in terms of homeownership before we get into the
• 3:09
  show. I I bought. I bought something recently, and I mentioned it
• 3:15
  on the thread with all of our buddies on it and stuff. I mentioned
• 3:17
  it recently, but man, I bought an electric lawnmower and it is freaking
• 3:23
  fantastic. I love this thing. Not only is it quiet, but it's
• 3:29
  not it's smooth. It's so bizarre. I feel like I feel like I'm
• 3:35
  walking on sunshine. You know it's it's Yes, it's a battery that I
• 3:42
  charge up during the course of the week, you know, once a week
• 3:46
  that I only cut my grass once a week. I don't know. There's
• 3:49
  some insane people out there I know that do it like three times a week.
• 3:51
  It's crazy, but exactly so, I love this electric lawnmower. I'm
• 3:59
  like, why didn't I get this? Before I got it at Lows,
• 4:00
  it was like, I think it was like three hundred and twenty bucks or
• 4:03
  something like that. Like, I mean a little on the expensive side,
• 4:06
  I think for a lawnmower. But I've had the same gas lawnmower for sixteen
• 4:11
  years. This, this electric lawn mower is amazing. I would highly recommend
• 4:14
  it. Yeah, I have, I have, and I don't know if
• 4:17
  it's the same brand you got. I bought one of those. It's called
• 4:21
  Ego. It's a leaf blower. Oh yeah, I got. I got
• 4:26
  that last last fall, and that thing's awesome. And they I know,
• 4:30
  they make a lawnmower two. So I was thinking whenever this one that I
• 4:33
  that I currently have, and it is an older one. If it ever
• 4:36
  goes that's probably the next thing I'll do. Yeah. Yeah, I would
• 4:40
  highly recommend it, not just to you, but those out there listening.
• 4:43
  If you got a lawn mower that's crap in the bed. I would recommend
• 4:46
  an electric lawn or going to lows. I have the Cobalt one. Are
• 4:50
  they paying you for this or they are not? This is not paid advertisement
• 4:55
  at all. I just I have just loved it. I've actually enjoyed mowing
• 4:59
  the lawn. You should be getting money for this. I know, I
• 5:01
  could, like I don't. I don't know if there's any I don't know
• 5:04
  if there's any lawn mower that would make me enjoy mowing the lawn. Sorry,
• 5:09
  so I actually let me take that back. So, like I was
• 5:12
  walking my dog. I live right close to you know, a college,
• 5:15
  we had one in town here, and it's you know, we're walking on
• 5:20
  the campus today and one of these guys like in one of those like one
• 5:25
  of the maintenance dudes is mow and in this mower moved faster than my car,
• 5:30
  I think, And I was like, yeah, that, I mean,
• 5:32
  I don't need it for my are definitely not, but I was like
• 5:35
  that looks awesome. Yes, absolutely, all right, enough of the lawn
• 5:39
  mower talk. I'm getting to that point and that age in life where these
• 5:43
  type of things really do excite me I get we gotta get into Philly sports
• 5:46
  talk. Yeah, this is what happens when you listen to a podcast with
• 5:49
  two men and they're in their mid to late forties. Like I said,
• 5:54
  we do have some Phillies talk coming to you. Got some listener feedback that
• 5:58
  we are going to be getting to and we certainly have to then talk about
• 6:01
  the Philadelphia Eagles, some of these storylines as they've trimmed down to fifty three
• 6:05
  man roster. Amazingly enough, this team does not have a punter, but
• 6:10
  we're gonna get into it. Then we are going to be talking about this
• 6:14
  Philadelphia seventy Sixers team. We've got Sean Bernard from the Philly Sports Network and
• 6:17
  the Pick Swap Media podcast. He's gonna join us for some James Harden,
• 6:21
  Daryl Morey, Joel Embiid talk. That's a great discussion coming your way.
• 6:27
  And then what we're throwing down on the table is some Flyers talk. It's
• 6:30
  been a while since we got into this Philadelphia Flyers team. Some of the
• 6:32
  details as this season is right around the corner, and season's right around the
• 6:36
  corner for the Sixers as well. But in terms of the Flyers, we've
• 6:39
  got Jamie Bascu from Flyers Nitty Gritty dot Com. He's gonna be joining us
• 6:43
  for a look at this upcoming season, some storylines that we're gonna be following,
• 6:46
  some players and what the defense is gonna look like. You know what
• 6:51
  Bobby Brink and Noah Kates might actually be bringing to the table. So stick
• 6:56
  around for that interview. Len, let's get into this Philadelphia Phillies team,
• 7:00
  and let's get into some listener feedback that we received. So we received some
• 7:04
  listener feedback from our friend the show, April Hershey and South Carolina, and
• 7:11
  we've been talking about JT. Real Muto on this podcast, whether it's a
• 7:15
  table talk discussion this past week last week on the show, in the interview,
• 7:17
  talking about JT. Real Muto and just how he hasn't necessarily been having
• 7:21
  the type of offensive season that we are used to from him. I mean
• 7:26
  think we're I think we're all seeing it. And I specifically mentioned this past
• 7:29
  week just how his batting average is probably the worst it's been since his rookie
• 7:32
  season ten years ago. Len, and we had April get in touch with
• 7:38
  us, and she said, you've been talking a lot about Real Muto's struggles
• 7:42
  on the show recently, why not consider or discuss his defensive stats or contributions
• 7:47
  when talking about his effectiveness at his age rather than just his batting average.
• 7:53
  He helped Lorenz and pitch that no hitter, and he's certainly one of the
• 7:56
  senior Dugout members. So, April, thanks so much for getting in touch
• 8:00
  with us. And after I received this listener feedback, Len I like I
• 8:03
  wanted to check out some stats with him in terms of his his stolen base
• 8:13
  his stolen base numbers. Basically, okay, so we all know that JT.
• 8:16
  Real Muto, throughout his career he gets guys out who are trying to
• 8:20
  steal second base. We know that. You know he's been at the top
• 8:24
  of the league for many many years in terms of that category. But guess
• 8:28
  what here in two thousand twenty three, in April, you can check this
• 8:33
  out too, two twenty three, here JT. Real Muto has only thrown
• 8:37
  out twelve of fifty five attempted stealers. That's a rate of twenty two percent
• 8:41
  that ranks twenty fourth among qualified catchers. And yes, the season's not over.
• 8:46
  The numbers may fluctuate, but Len JT. Real Muto is very average
• 8:52
  this year in this category where he is typically basically the cream of the crop
• 8:58
  here. So like, while I really appreciated April reaching out to us and
• 9:01
  being like, hey, why don't you talk about things he does well defensively
• 9:05
  too, I mean, at least in this particular area where he has been
• 9:07
  at the top of Major League baseball for a long time, he's struggling here
• 9:13
  as well. I just I wonder if he has some sort of undisclosed injury
• 9:16
  that we just don't know about. It's affecting his swing, could be affecting
• 9:18
  the way that he's throwing the second base. I don't know. It's just
• 9:22
  a really downed year for him, and we've been talking about whether or not
• 9:24
  he is on the down slide with his career. But I mean, these
• 9:28
  are the numbers that are talking to us this year. I don't know what
• 9:30
  are your thoughts here, Lenn. I mean, the numbers aren't what they've
• 9:35
  been, you know, throughout his career. He did have a nice play,
• 9:39
  I mean it was it was Edmundo Sosa had the better part of the
• 9:43
  play tonight, where Otani was trying to steal third base. Real Muda made
• 9:48
  a nice snap throw and I didn't even get out of a stance, really
• 9:52
  man, and I snapped her down the third It drew Sosa off the bag
• 9:56
  and Sosa had to make a kind of go backwards to get the ball and
• 10:00
  make the tag one Otani at the same time. But I mean it was
• 10:01
  still you know, from from that position, it was a really good throw,
• 10:05
  and he did have a good uh when when he was on third base
• 10:11
  at one point, I can't remember who hit the ball, but he made
• 10:13
  it home. He still moves really well for a catcher, is what I'm
• 10:16
  getting at. At that at that juncture they're talking about the you know,
• 10:20
  the play at home where he made it under the catcher's tag. He still
• 10:24
  does a lot of good things, you know. I think part of it
• 10:28
  is we think about, okay, is the decline starting, because I think
• 10:33
  out of a lot of people on the team, real Mudo might be towards
• 10:37
  the top of the list because probably because of the position that he plays,
• 10:41
  where you're like, okay, when is a decline going to happen? He's
• 10:45
  on the wrong side of thirty. He's a catcher. When is it going
• 10:48
  to happen? I mean, you know, he did have a nice game
• 10:50
  to night, two to four an RBI. He's hitting, like he said,
• 10:54
  two fifty one. That's not horrible. I mean, it's it's okay,
• 11:00
  you know, it's He's still I would say, in the upper echelon
• 11:03
  of catchers in baseball. Is he the best catcher in baseball anymore? No?
• 11:07
  I don't. I don't think he is. I don't think he I
• 11:09
  don't know if he's in the top three at this point, but on the
• 11:13
  team, he's still the decent player. I am not as down on him
• 11:20
  as you are, but I think that kind of plays in. I think
• 11:24
  parting a part of the looking into Okay, when is this guy going to
• 11:28
  fall off the cliff? We're waiting for it. I think more from him
• 11:31
  than we are most people. Yeah. Yeah, I hate being that guy.
• 11:35
  I really do, because I love JT. I love him and I
• 11:37
  have for so many years. And I don't mean to be like the Debbie
• 11:41
  down or with him. I'm just starting to see something and maybe it's an
• 11:43
  anomaly. Maybe it's just this twenty twenty three season for whatever reason, like
• 11:48
  I mentioned earlier, maybe it's an undisclosed injury that he is specifically dealing with.
• 11:52
  But the fact of the matter is he's just not the same player.
• 11:54
  And here's the thing too, And like April said, you know, he
• 11:58
  helped Lorenz Lorenz and pick that no hitter, and he's done some really good
• 12:01
  things at that catcher position, his relationship with Aaronola, how solid he has
• 12:07
  been with Zach Wheeler over a length of period of time that he's been on
• 12:11
  the team as well. JT. Real Muto does some really good things.
• 12:13
  He is an above average catcher still here in twenty twenty three in this league.
• 12:18
  In my opinion, it's just that we're not seeing that dominance that we
• 12:22
  are so used to. And that's why I've brought it up. And it's
• 12:26
  just something I just want us to keep our eye on as we're moving forward
• 12:28
  here. And and that's true. But all right, So Alec Bohm,
• 12:35
  would you say he is having a good year or a bit, oh my
• 12:37
  god, a great year. He's I think he's having a breaking in coming
• 12:41
  into tonight's game. Ops. Alec Bohm seven sixty five. JT. Real
• 12:48
  Mudo seven sixty one. All right, So I mean it's you know,
• 12:54
  you know, it is still you know, you think he's having a worse
• 12:58
  year I think than he is. You know, fifteen homers, fifty one
• 13:01
  RBIs Now he's stolen twelve bags, which is, you know, more than
• 13:05
  you're going to get from most catchers. That's true to me. The big
• 13:09
  thing, the big interesting thing this year is the whole stolen base thing,
• 13:13
  with the with the you know, the bases being bigger, the shorter disgree
• 13:18
  point, MLB doing everything it can to you know, increase stolen bases.
• 13:22
  That has affected probably his numbers a little bit. I mean, and there
• 13:24
  is some creedance of what you're saying in the fact that you know, okay,
• 13:28
  yeah, it's probably going to affect every catcher's numbers, but he's still
• 13:33
  down in the twenties, you know, out of how many qualified catchers in
• 13:37
  that category. Yes, so there is there is some drop off there where
• 13:41
  there hasn't been in the past. But I think for a lot of these
• 13:43
  guys, I mean just just based on what Major League Baseball is trying to
• 13:48
  do to bring stolen bases back into the fold, I think all those guys
• 13:52
  are filling it this year. Yeah, April, thanks so much for the
• 13:54
  feedback, and and you know, talking about this topic. I think it's
• 13:58
  an important one, this Phillies team that we all love so much. And
• 14:01
  moving along len some Mortalist Center feedback that we got from our friend of the
• 14:05
  podcast, Josh Schuster. We had actually I had actually brought Josh on some
• 14:11
  time ago. He was the first time we talked about the Philadelphia Union on
• 14:16
  the Table talk show. I remember I was a nervous little guy. I
• 14:18
  was, well, I'm not a little guy, but i was a nervous
• 14:20
  guy because I'm like, all right, you know, just really starting to
• 14:24
  get into the Philadelphia Union here. And Josh was fantastic, but you know,
• 14:28
  he also sent us some feedback about the Philadelphia Phillies. In terms of
• 14:33
  the conversation Eric and I had last week on the show about who has been
• 14:37
  our favorite Phillies player to watch, and he said, hey, guys,
• 14:39
  great show as always. The one player that's been a blast to watch that
• 14:43
  it don't believe you had mentioned was Johann Rojas. He's so smooth and center
• 14:48
  field. He's the type of player that shows what elite fielding looks like compared
• 14:52
  to good fielding. Marsh was good in center field, but Rojas is elite
• 14:58
  anyway. I just wanted to give Rojas out out after having to watch the
• 15:01
  garbage the Phillies rolled out there for years, and I'm looking at you,
• 15:05
  o'dooble and company. Keep up the good work, guys, Josh So josh
• 15:09
  Man, thanks so much for the email and listener feedback. Folks, if
• 15:13
  you want to get in touch with us Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com,
• 15:16
  we'll read your email here on the show and respond to it's here.
• 15:18
  So, uh, I don't know, like, what are your thoughts here,
• 15:20
  because yeah, man, Rojas is pretty freaking incredible. I remember what
• 15:24
  about a month ago or so and his MLB debut. He made those dazzling
• 15:30
  he made that dazzling double play, you know, just he made some history.
• 15:33
  Of course during Michael Lorenzen's no hitter as well, he's he's doing some
• 15:39
  really great stuff in the field, diving catches here and there. Rojas has
• 15:45
  been great in center field, and he has been fun to watch this year.
• 15:48
  Yeah, I'll be honest with you, I did. I thought when
• 15:50
  when he came up, I thought he was gonna be good in the field,
• 15:54
  and I didn't think he was gonna hit worth a lick. Yeah the
• 15:58
  plate, Yeah, at least this year, because you know, you know,
• 16:02
  he was coming up from Double A to the majors. He you know,
• 16:04
  is still pretty young, he's still trying to figure things out. He's
• 16:08
  fired a lot better. And granted he's you know, not getting a lot
• 16:12
  of the at bats that I think, you know, some of these other
• 16:15
  guys on the team are, but I think that he's he's acquitted himself quite
• 16:19
  well. He's been a lot better at the play than I thought he was.
• 16:23
  Absolutely And the thing that I think about with with with Rojas, and
• 16:27
  you know, I'm getting ahead of myself, getting ahead of myself by a
• 16:30
  couple of years, actually, is I'm just thinking ahead of the future when
• 16:36
  you know, we've got Rojas and you've got Justin Crawford, who's got some
• 16:38
  Jets coming, you know, their first round pick from last year's draft,
• 16:44
  who's been progressing and is looking like, you know, a top fifty prospect
• 16:47
  in all of baseball right now. And you just think in a couple of
• 16:49
  years, it almost doesn't matter who's playing in right field. They could have
• 16:53
  like me, you and right field. If you have Rojas and Crawford in
• 16:59
  that outfield, good luck. Yeah, I mean those two are going to
• 17:02
  cover so much ground it's not even funny. So that's that's an exciting prospect
• 17:06
  to think of. Absolutely, Thanks so much, Josh for the listener feedback,
• 17:10
  and we'll be in touchdown the road, have you on the podcast for
• 17:12
  sure at some point in the future. So, I mean, len,
• 17:15
  as we look at the Philadelphia Philly's moving forward here, it's a team that
• 17:21
  appears to be poised to make the postseason. I think the last percentage I
• 17:25
  saw was an over ninety two percent chance that they're going to be in the
• 17:29
  postseason. And I really think we need to look at how Trey Turner has
• 17:34
  turned things around. I mean, I think it was what twenty seven,
• 17:38
  twenty eight, maybe twenty nine days ago where his season had reached its lowest
• 17:42
  point. We know the storyline, it's one of the best in baseball this
• 17:47
  year when an entire city and stadium standing ovation to get him going, and
• 17:52
  it freaking worked. It freaking worked. I mean he after I mean since
• 18:00
  August fourth, his slash line is three fifty six three ninety four six ninety
• 18:06
  my gosh, and it's just he's been lighting it up. I mean,
• 18:11
  he's as of us recording this here again Tuesday night, August twenty nine.
• 18:15
  He's had three home runs in two games in the past two games. You
• 18:18
  know, he is he is heated up. Yeah, he is finding that
• 18:22
  that that that power stroke that we knew that he had. And you know,
• 18:26
  it was just a tough, tough first what what do you say,
• 18:30
  two thirds of the season for him, and and now he's on fire.
• 18:34
  I mean, this team, I feel like, and I'm worried, is
• 18:38
  peeking right now at this point, Lennon. And if if that's the case,
• 18:42
  it could be trouble for the postseason. If they're peaking now and we
• 18:45
  don't even have September here. I mean, when people are listening to this,
• 18:48
  it might be September first second, somewhere around there. But I don't
• 18:52
  know. It's so good to see Trey Turner being Trey Turner, the trade
• 18:56
  Turner that they acquired and gave a huge contract to. But the fact that
• 19:00
  he's doing what his talent has been throughout his entire year, it's so good
• 19:04
  to see. Man. Yeah, this is the guy that we thought we
• 19:07
  were getting all along Now. I mean, he's in the midst of an
• 19:11
  exceptional hot streak. I don't think this is the guy you can expect for
• 19:15
  the next you know, ten and a half years. But I mean,
• 19:18
  this is closer to the guy than we thought we were going to get hold
• 19:22
  along. I mean, he's I mean, he's like so many people on
• 19:26
  this team. August has been so good to him. You know, you
• 19:30
  looked at and this is something I was gonna bring up earlier, you know,
• 19:33
  earlier in the season. You're like, oh man, Bohm is having
• 19:37
  such a good year, and Bryson, Stott and Marsh got off to a
• 19:41
  really hot start, and like, the younger guys are carrying this team,
• 19:45
  Like we're just waiting. Okay, we're the guys that we're waiting on.
• 19:48
  And you know, sure enough in August, Schwarber, Castianos, Harper,
• 19:53
  and Turner all have eight or more home runs this month. So that's what
• 20:00
  That's what we were waiting on. Was this the veterans on this team,
• 20:03
  the guys that we that are making the big money that we expected to be,
• 20:07
  you know, pulling the load. They have now kind of got up
• 20:11
  to where you know, Stott and and Bom, where Castianos was in the
• 20:15
  first half of the year. You know, don't forget he was all start
• 20:18
  for the Phillies this season. So those guys have kind of and that's what's
• 20:22
  fueling all this That's that's why you're getting, you know, all this offense
• 20:26
  this month is because those four guys have stepped up and joined the younger guys
• 20:30
  who have not fallen off. So, I mean, it's it's been great
• 20:33
  to watch. I mean, you look at the Phillies right now, you're
• 20:36
  talking about the playoffs. You know, if the playoffs were to end of
• 20:40
  the day, I think they're now five games up in the wild cards standing,
• 20:42
  they would get the first of those three wild card spots. I don't
• 20:47
  know how it goes, if they would just play the weakest of the three
• 20:51
  division winners in terms of you know, wedding percentage, in that case,
• 20:55
  it would be Milwaukee. So yeah, I mean who I think they haven't
• 21:00
  had an identical record with coming into tonight, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 21:03
  I mean it. Yeah, I mean, they couldn't look better than they
• 21:08
  are right now. I think particularly, Yeah, that offense, well,
• 21:11
  and that's what I was going to say. The offense is a dude.
• 21:14
  The offense has taken so much a stress off the pitching, Like you feel
• 21:18
  like the pictures. Of course, they don't need to like try to pitch
• 21:22
  a shut out, you know, every night, or try to get through
• 21:25
  at least like, you know, seven or eight innings here. You know,
• 21:27
  four hey, four innings, we're good to go. Okay, starting
• 21:32
  pitching four innings, five innings, we're good to go here. Because this
• 21:34
  offense has just been on fire. And that that really is I think the
• 21:37
  storyline here during the course of August and into September. Yeah. Absolutely,
• 21:42
  I mean, look, when you're when you're getting you know, they're not
• 21:47
  getting twelve runs a game, but like like tonight, there's like twelve to
• 21:49
  five, and the Angels scored a couple you know runs in the in the
• 21:52
  top of the ninth inning. It was just like there was never a point
• 21:55
  at which I was worried about that game because I mean, they just built
• 22:00
  such a cushion. I mean, if if their offense can do that all
• 22:03
  the time, not at least most of the time, for this pitching staff,
• 22:07
  I mean, it's almost not gonna matter, you know, how well
• 22:10
  they're doing on the mail. Absolutely, and that's a good thing for the
• 22:11
  postseason. Folks. All right, let us know what you're thinking about this
• 22:15
  Phillies team. We'd love to hear from you Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot
• 22:18
  com. We'll read your email here on the show and respond to it.
• 22:21
  And if you're new to listening to us, we'd love it if you would
• 22:23
  subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're listening to us on. If you're on Apple
• 22:26
  Podcasts, give us a follow there and you can also catch our podcasts over
• 22:30
  at Philadelphia Sportstable dot com. Make sure you follow Len on the social media
• 22:37
  the Twitter dot com at Len Hunt Sicker. You can follow me at Jeffrey
• 22:41
  Underscore, Warren and the Show at Philadelphia PST. We're gonna take a quick
• 22:45
  break. We will be back in just a bit. All right, we
• 22:48
  are back, Len. We have to get into this Philadelphia Eagles team at
• 22:53
  this point in the preseason. As of today, they have trimmed the roster
• 23:00
  down to fifty three players. So we're gonna take it a look at some
• 23:03
  of this new Eagles depth here and really who might be a part of their
• 23:08
  foundational future, because there was some interesting stuff going on in terms of this
• 23:15
  fifty three man roster, especially some storylines. As I mentioned at the top
• 23:18
  of the show, there's no punter on the team, there is none and
• 23:22
  there needs to be one unless Nakobe Dean or who I don't know, maybe
• 23:26
  Brandon Graham will take a shot at it, you know, just just punting.
• 23:30
  You know, there's no real I don't know who's going to be the
• 23:33
  punt returner on this team either. At this point. I doubt it's gonna
• 23:37
  be one of the widers. I don't know, maybe he's a Caius will
• 23:40
  be the punt returner. I have no idea. But this team, aside
• 23:45
  from not having a punter, they decided that they were going to keep and
• 23:48
  I cannot remember the last time this has happened. Eleven defensive backs, eleven
• 23:55
  seven cornerbacks, four safeties and we're gonna get through some of these here too.
• 24:00
  And but like right off the bat, when you kind of look at
• 24:02
  the names here, like what really stood out to you, I mean,
• 24:06
  aside and aside from the fact that there's only three three linebackers on the team
• 24:10
  too, Like, what was it for you that you're like, oh,
• 24:11
  boy, unbelievable. Yeah, I guess it gets remedied by the fact that
• 24:17
  you know, maybe they'll have like two tight ends in there, or you
• 24:21
  know, they're they're running backs do with such a good job of catching balls
• 24:23
  out of the backfield. Yeah, you know in this era where you know,
• 24:29
  nobody bats an eye, it's somebody thrown for four thousand yards anymore,
• 24:33
  or you know, and we're getting seeing guys thrown for five thousand yards.
• 24:36
  You know, you're just like four wide receivers. That's it. Really,
• 24:40
  Yeah, you know, how are you gonna like do go five wide or
• 24:42
  anything like that? Like you know, So that to me was was something
• 24:48
  I guess. With the linebacker thing, it doesn't you know, get me
• 24:52
  as much because you know, I know that you know, sometimes they're called
• 24:56
  edges and sometimes they're called linebackers. So I just, you know, if
• 24:59
  they were to line up that way, I don't know. Maybe you know,
• 25:00
  Hassan Reddick to me, still counts as a linebacker. I don't know
• 25:06
  Nolan Smith as well, So yeah, I don't, I don't know,
• 25:14
  you know, And look, linebacker is in a position. You know,
• 25:17
  they're never you know, they're not gonna line up at a traditional fourth rad
• 25:19
  let alone a three four, you know, perish the thought. But you
• 25:23
  know, Dean will be in there and maybe Cunningham, you know, maybe
• 25:26
  they'll go to linebackers if that even, I mean, chances are you know
• 25:32
  they'll they'll kill one linebacker and you know, have all the you know,
• 25:36
  the defensive backfield out there, you know, along with the four guys up
• 25:40
  front. I don't know, so yeah, I just it does seem excessive
• 25:45
  in certain positions. I mean, the the god they love their defensive lineman
• 25:49
  and and it is cool how many how many guys they have, and how
• 25:53
  they can just come at you in waves. But I mean sometimes you're just
• 25:56
  like, man, is it is it overkill? Do you need seven defensive
• 26:00
  tackles? I don't know exactly. I didn't know if they really needed Contavious
• 26:04
  Street. I really didn't know if they needed him or Moro Ojomo. I
• 26:11
  wasn't expecting those guys necessarily to make the team and go ahead. They didn't
• 26:15
  cut any of their draft picks. I don't think, no, no,
• 26:17
  I don't believe. I think every single guy that they drafted made this team,
• 26:19
  which you know, I can't remember the last time has that ever happened?
• 26:26
  I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I don't not that I can
• 26:30
  remember. Well, there's one specific too, Lynn in a position that we
• 26:33
  really haven't talked about, and I was a little surprised because they've only carried
• 26:36
  two individuals at this position over many, many years, and that is the
• 26:41
  quarterback position. So obviously Jalen Hurts, Marcus Mariotta and Tanner McKee. They
• 26:45
  wanted to keep Tanner McKee. I think they see something in him potentially Jalen
• 26:49
  Hurts backup of the long term future. Mariotta only signed a one year deal.
• 26:55
  But I think it's interesting how they really wanted to keep Tanner McKee.
• 26:57
  They didn't want him potentially going on waivers and getting on the practice squad at
• 27:00
  this point. They see something in him, and he showed us something during
• 27:03
  the preseason too, so I think he may be potentially that long, long
• 27:07
  term backup for Jalen Hurts. Yeah, it's certainly what it sounds like.
• 27:12
  I mean, it certainly sounds like they're awful high on him. And you
• 27:17
  know, Mariota, he's only here on a one year deal anyway, right,
• 27:21
  right, So maybe that's the thought of like, Okay, you're you're
• 27:23
  gonna be the third quarterback this year and you're gonna soak up as much as
• 27:27
  you can and next year, we're not spending money on a backup quarterback because
• 27:32
  it's you. Yeah, I mean that that kind of sounds like that's a
• 27:36
  plan God forbid. Like you mentioned four wide receivers, like say, if
• 27:41
  A. J. Brown and Quez Watkins were to get hurt, I mean,
• 27:44
  that leaves you with Davante Smith, who's a fantastic wide receiver, but
• 27:48
  you know, and Olamade zach Zachaius, you know, like I mean,
• 27:53
  he's an okay, he's an okay wide receiver, but my gosh, I
• 27:56
  mean that's gonna put that much more pressure on the tight end position. Dallas
• 28:02
  Goddard, Grant Calcatara, Jack Stall, Albert. Oh my gosh, I'm
• 28:07
  gonna mess up his name. I'm not even gonna make funny on this one.
• 28:12
  Because I was looking at it, you know, shortly before and I
• 28:17
  saw his name. I was like, oh, God, I think it's
• 28:18
  Albert. I think so, I don't know, but really, hell,
• 28:25
  I mean, they made that trade with the Denver Broncos to bring big al
• 28:29
  in here. So I mean there's now four tight ends. We have seen
• 28:32
  four tight ends, and sometime too it's usually been three, especially when zach
• 28:37
  Ertz was here. Zach Ertz Dallas Goddard and back in the day, like
• 28:40
  jack Stall, he was basically the third guy. But jack Stall obviously hasn't
• 28:44
  gotten to that point where they're gonna necessarily trust him. Albert Okwa Bunham,
• 28:48
  I believe you say his name. I think he can actually be that tight
• 28:52
  end too for this team, I really do, you know. I mean,
• 28:55
  he's had an injury history, had a torn acl his rookie season.
• 28:59
  I believe he's missed twelve games total out of the past two years because of
• 29:03
  injuries. However, he's very talented. He is a very talented tight end
• 29:08
  and very athletic, so I think he could potentially be the number two.
• 29:11
  So anyway, there's just some folks. Here are some of the storylines that
• 29:15
  we're looking at here in terms of the fifty three man roster. Anything else
• 29:18
  really just strike you lenn again no punter but still okay, So well,
• 29:25
  and that's what I want to get out here on the fifty three man ros
• 29:27
  roster. Who who who is inactive? To start to see exactly, Yeah,
• 29:37
  you're not good, that's that's freaking ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. My
• 29:41
  thought is they might cut safety justin Evans. Perhaps I don't know, maybe
• 29:45
  Mario Goodrich. They can't you just make him inactive? You know, do
• 29:51
  you do you have to fall on cut him? I think you do have
• 29:52
  to cut him. Even though they're inactive, they're still in the fifty three
• 29:56
  man roster. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, Like I mean,
• 30:00
  good Rich is a practice squad guy last year. I mean, I like
• 30:04
  that that Rix kid that that they got Eli Rix him great faking preseason and
• 30:11
  Ringo. I want to keep him around to see what would you know what
• 30:15
  he can do? But yeah, good Rich to me, is it seems
• 30:18
  like you know that guy that like is maybe the first one on that line
• 30:22
  if the who do they even bring in? Like do you know, do
• 30:26
  you who's that kid the the really good punter that that had the rape allegation,
• 30:34
  That guy from Buffalo Horizon or something. Yeah, his last name started
• 30:38
  with an A. Yes, Like I mean because he's been he was cleared
• 30:44
  apparently, is that you know, since he's floating out there and you know
• 30:48
  apparently yeah, Like, is that you know? Is that someone they would
• 30:53
  go? They have to get somebody they cut, uh sipos or however you
• 30:57
  say? So? Yeah, So I don't know what they do but like,
• 31:03
  you can't go into the season and not have a punter. It's just
• 31:08
  weird. I don't think they've ever done this before, you know. And
• 31:11
  I know they're like, yes, you know, we're gonna be having a
• 31:14
  punter. You know, we're making fun here and rightfully so, but they're
• 31:18
  gonna have to make a move. I mean, honestly, it's kind of
• 31:21
  crappy because one of these guys on the team, like whether it's Grant Calcatara
• 31:25
  perhaps, or like I said, maybe Justin Evans from the safety position.
• 31:29
  You keep these guys on after a day like today and they're like, all
• 31:33
  right, I made the fifty three man roster and then all of a sudden
• 31:34
  you get the rug pulled out from under you. Yeah, because of a
• 31:37
  punter. You know, he existingly, Look, guys, you know,
• 31:41
  I think your offense is going to be great too, but eventually you're gonna
• 31:45
  have to punt. Yes, I mean, I love what you did,
• 31:48
  but eventually you're gonna need to punt. What if that? Seriously, what
• 31:52
  if? What if? How? He was like, you know what,
• 31:53
  we don't need a punter. We don't need it. We're just gonna be
• 31:56
  getting down there into their into their red zone every single drive. We don't
• 32:01
  need a pun or Hurts is either gonna score, one of the wide receivers
• 32:06
  are gonna score, one of the running backs are gonna score, or Jake
• 32:08
  Elliot's kicking a field goal. We don't need a thinking punter. I love
• 32:15
  the confidence. But you know, let's meanwhile here on Earth. Yea,
• 32:22
  yes, all right, well that's gonna I think wrap up our Eagles talk
• 32:28
  here and Lenn, I'll let you get going, buddy, you have anything
• 32:30
  else here, anything else with regard to the Eagles, Billies as we're moving
• 32:36
  forward here, I know with regard to the Sixers, I know, I
• 32:38
  know you sent out a text to our thread with our buddy saying or with
• 32:45
  regard to Ben Simmons, he made some shocking comments about his love for the
• 32:49
  city of Philadelphia and he said it would be his ideal trade spot to come
• 32:52
  back. My god, yeah it was. It was with an interview with
• 32:55
  with Mark Spears of Endscape, and it was something guy, I guess you
• 33:00
  know, I'm picked up in other things. So I just took a screenshot
• 33:02
  of the headline and sent it to you guys, like I was at the
• 33:07
  at my dining room table when I was reading it, and I actually had
• 33:10
  to look around to make sure I was still like on this planet, Like
• 33:16
  what is Like? How could you think? Okay, so the main player
• 33:23
  on this team that you had a beef with is not only still here,
• 33:28
  he's one of the five best players in the NBA. Like, how do
• 33:31
  you think that's gonna work? Whatever? Work? I don't get it.
• 33:37
  Ben Simmons is crazy. He just proved as he really is crazy. Yeah.
• 33:45
  I can't even wrap my mind around I know. All right, Well,
• 33:50
  Lenn, I'm gonna let you get going. We got some sixers talk
• 33:52
  coming your way, so let again. I'll let you go, buddy,
• 33:55
  and we are going to be getting to our sixer discussion right now. And
• 34:01
  joining us this week from Pick Swap Media, great podcast where they're talking sixers
• 34:07
  in NBA, and also he is with Fox Sports the Gambler out of Philadelphia.
• 34:13
  We've got our friend, the one and only, Sean Bernard. How
• 34:15
  you doing, Sean? Yeah? Doing well. It's always something with this
• 34:19
  team, so oh my god, Toes keeps me something to talk about.
• 34:22
  But I appreciate you having me back on and I'm excited to chop it up.
• 34:24
  Once again, absolutely man like. It never ceases to amaze me that
• 34:30
  we have the drama that we continue to have with this Philadelphia seventy sixers team,
• 34:36
  front office, various quote stars that are on this team. Seems like
• 34:40
  year after year as fans were just dealing with these storylines that are amazing.
• 34:45
  And I'd like to first of course, get into the James Harden and Daryl
• 34:49
  Morey situation with you, Sean, but more specifically from the Daryl Morey point
• 34:53
  of view, because i think we've been talking a lot about James Harden with
• 34:58
  a lot in terms of this saga here which we are which we're going to
• 35:00
  be doing in this podcast anyway, just a little bit. But I'm sure
• 35:05
  the Daryl Morey or I'm not sure actually the Darryl Moorey narrative has gotten its
• 35:10
  due. So I'm wondering what are your thoughts on Darryl Mooreray himself with regard
• 35:15
  to the situation how he has handled one of his top stars from the time
• 35:21
  the season you know started, basically until until this particular point at this at
• 35:27
  this time, like, it's it's amazing to see how a relationship has deteriorated.
• 35:31
  What's your thoughts with regard to Darryl Moorey specifically and how he's handled all
• 35:35
  this. Yeah, it's interesting. There's a lot to this story as a
• 35:38
  whole, and dating back quite quite a bit of time between the James Harden
• 35:42
  and Darryl Moorey their relationship together. I think there are two guys who are
• 35:45
  as connected as a general manager and a player have ever been when it comes
• 35:50
  to legacy wise, when you think back to Darryl Moorey's first big move as
• 35:53
  a general manager when he first took over in Houston was trading for James Harden,
• 35:58
  who at this point in time was a sixth man for the Oklahoma City
• 36:00
  Thunder and a guy who had not really proven his cases an NBA star.
• 36:05
  And to both Moory's credit and James Harden's credit, is he then became that
• 36:07
  superstar. He became this MVP guy, one of the greatest offensive talents of
• 36:12
  all time. He was all these boxes that were checked that you had to
• 36:15
  hope for when making that type of investment. And now to continue this now
• 36:19
  ten years together and now in another location here in Philadelphia, both these guys
• 36:22
  had to know what they were signing up for when they rebuilt this relationship that
• 36:25
  clearly more to this And by the way, neither one of these guys,
• 36:29
  neither James Harden nor Daryl Morey are guys I would want to play hardball with
• 36:32
  that. Neither one of them are guys who they're both dig their heels in
• 36:36
  when they have their spot, when they get stuck in a corner, that
• 36:37
  they're staying there. And they should also know that about each other based on
• 36:40
  all the track record. Now, there's so much like he said, she
• 36:45
  said, with this story and what exactly is going on, what was said
• 36:47
  in the private conversations between James Harden and Darryl Morray. That's really the only
• 36:52
  way we're going to find out who's I guess right and wrong in this situation.
• 36:55
  I do think the thing that I will say is, regardless of all
• 36:59
  this relationship, it is Darryl Moorey's job to do what is in the best
• 37:01
  interest of these Sixers. That not handing James Harden a long term MAX contract
• 37:07
  that would not have been in these six ers best interests. We see the
• 37:09
  way he's deteriorating. He's still a very useful player, still a guy that
• 37:13
  you can get usage out of especially in the regular season. Is a high
• 37:15
  level player, but like, is not the guy that you want to I
• 37:19
  guess hit your anchor too. At this point in time, I do think
• 37:22
  James Harden felt he was owed that. I feel like he's earned that over
• 37:24
  time, and he is coming off a very good year in which he led
• 37:27
  the NBA and assist he had those two forty plus playoff games, So I
• 37:30
  think he felt he was owed it. Darryl Moore had to look himself in
• 37:32
  the mirror feel like I can't make this investment, I can't go all the
• 37:36
  way in, and there were some hurt feelings from that. Now, the
• 37:37
  trade conversation, the whole different conversation. Whether Darryl Moore guaranteed that. I
• 37:43
  also think Arden can't be causing quite a ster win. Darryl Moore could trade
• 37:46
  him tomorrow and all of a sudden everything's fine again. But then he is
• 37:49
  reaching that promise if it is, and part of that is playing the game
• 37:52
  when negotiations. So I don't disagree with any of Morey's decisions. I don't
• 37:55
  think he's handled things quite in the exact best way possible to at least bring
• 38:00
  this into the spot that we are at But I do think what was said
• 38:02
  between those two is really what it comes down to and how I view the
• 38:07
  thing. Everything in its entirety, absolutely and I completely agree with you.
• 38:09
  Daryl Morey has to do what he needs to do in the best interests of
• 38:13
  the Philadelphia seventy six ers, the organization, for the future of the team
• 38:15
  for this coming season and beyond, and for James Harden to act in the
• 38:21
  manner which he has understanding and knowing the cameras on our phones are going to
• 38:24
  be out just everywhere. He wanted folks to hear that he called Darryl Moorey
• 38:30
  a liar, and it kind of leads us, I guess to the next
• 38:32
  topic where Look, we know that, like you mentioned, James Harden led
• 38:37
  the league last season and assists I believe it was ten point seven assists per
• 38:40
  game. Like I'm wondering how we should be defining James Harden's career at this
• 38:45
  point and what should his value truly be for some other teams out there in
• 38:51
  the NBA when he's put Daryl Morey in a particular predicament and essentially himself at
• 38:55
  a predicament as well. What are you thinking here? Yeah, he's sure
• 39:00
  put himself in a predicament when it comes to even in the best case scenarios,
• 39:04
  he will be a free agent next offseason, so there has to be
• 39:06
  other teams and he has to keep that in mind when doing his burn the
• 39:09
  World tour, which he currently seems beyond that, he has to keep in
• 39:12
  mind the future implications for himself. So that is one thing I will swing
• 39:15
  in the Sixers favor. It's a difficult legacy to fine when it comes to
• 39:19
  James Harden that he's one of the supremely most talented players that ever touched basketball,
• 39:23
  particularly on the offensive side of the ball. He's led the NBA and
• 39:27
  scoring, He's led the NBA and assist. He's been an MVP, some
• 39:30
  of the highest usage numbers ever, some of his peak rockets years are truly
• 39:34
  some of the most impressive offensive performances we've ever seen. And to do it
• 39:37
  to the level like there's just some ridiculous stats of like him not scoring less
• 39:42
  than thirty games or thirty points to thirty consecutive games, things like that that
• 39:45
  are just difficult to ever touch and it. But with all this comes the
• 39:49
  baggage that comes with them when we're talking about. This is now the third
• 39:52
  team that he is forcing his way out of. It also comes with the
• 39:55
  lack of rings, which is brought up often and that this style of bad
• 40:00
  keep ball is not really designed to translate in the postseason in the same way.
• 40:02
  And some of that that is just you know, pure unfortunate. I
• 40:06
  guess just odds that it come. When you think about the Rockets missing twenty
• 40:09
  seven consecutive three pointers in a game seven of the playoffs, like you just
• 40:13
  can't really account for that, and that's just bad luck. But that's the
• 40:15
  shooting variants that comes with it when you are so three point reliant. So
• 40:19
  it's a very niche style of play, and that is what makes it difficult
• 40:22
  when looking around the NBA of where exactly does he fit on that James Harden's
• 40:25
  complaining, one of his complaints from Doc Rivers was his lack of basketball freedom
• 40:30
  and his lack of ability. And I get it that Joel Embiid is the
• 40:31
  number one in the pecking Roman sixers, but James Harden was second in the
• 40:36
  entire MBA, only behind Luca don Chich in terms of individual time of possession
• 40:39
  with the basketball. So I don't want to hear too much about him complaining
• 40:43
  about the lack of touches when there's literally one human being who had it more
• 40:45
  than you across the entire MBA. So there is a little bit of this
• 40:49
  battle of what James Harden is at this point in time, which is still
• 40:52
  a very useful, very high level NBA player, versus what he still thinks
• 40:55
  he is, which is still that MVP caliber that can be a one A
• 40:59
  of a team, which he just passed that. So it is a difficult
• 41:01
  legacy to define. I think how he cleans things up from here. I
• 41:05
  think his intention when coming to Philly was to become more of that good guy,
• 41:07
  do the sacrifice, all that, and he kind of just it isn't
• 41:10
  sitting right with him or for whatever reason, is not working out. If
• 41:14
  he can kind of find this and fall into more of like a Chris Paul
• 41:16
  type role who is comfortable taking a backseat to other superstars, ye if had
• 41:21
  eventually gets to the Clippers and can do that, maybe he cleans things up.
• 41:23
  But I do think that he's made much more of a mess for himself
• 41:25
  than he realizes. Absolutely again, folks talking to Sean Bernard from pick Swap
• 41:30
  Media. That great podcast. Check it out on Apple Podcasts. That's where
• 41:34
  I subscribe. And also he is a six ers an NBA insider for Fox
• 41:38
  Sports The Gambler out of Philly and follow him on the Twitter dot com at
• 41:43
  Sewan Underscore Bernard one. He is a great, great follow and Shan is
• 41:47
  we're moving along here, just a couple more topics, you know. The
• 41:50
  other ongoing narrative has been persisting throughout this summer surrounds, of course one Joel
• 41:57
  Embiide and what his future is going to look like. And he certainly hasn't
• 42:00
  said that he just wants to keep playing for Philadelphia for the rest of his
• 42:07
  life and the rest of his career. He hasn't said that. He hasn't
• 42:09
  said too too much, said a few words here and there as we know.
• 42:13
  But I'm wondering, what's the percentage that maybe you would give that Joel
• 42:17
  embiad is unhappy and the actually once out of Philly right now as we are
• 42:22
  heading into September here in twenty twenty three, what are your thoughts here?
• 42:25
  It's certainly the rockiest that has ever been when it comes to all the drama.
• 42:29
  There's a point where the amount of nonsense that Joel Embiad has kind of
• 42:32
  had to sit there. Whether it be the GM on a burner, whether
• 42:35
  it be Ben Simmons holding out, guys refusing to shoot, all these things
• 42:38
  that have happened throughout the years. There's a point where you have to hit
• 42:42
  a breaking point for every player. And we would be naive as Sixers fans
• 42:45
  who think that Joel is just going to be blindly loyal to the Sixers for
• 42:49
  the entirety of his career. It's unfortunately just not have the NBA works nowadays
• 42:52
  that we see the way stars hop teams that they have the power and the
• 42:55
  control when it comes to where that they want to play, and that there
• 42:58
  will be a breaking point. Now, what I will say is I think
• 43:00
  a lot of this is much more people looking at the situation and connecting those
• 43:06
  dots and thinking that it will be Joel than Joel himself actually putting that message
• 43:09
  out there. I know there was the one quote floating out of him wanting
• 43:13
  to win a championship whether it's in Philadelphia or anywhere else. Stuff like that.
• 43:16
  Obviously it's great to hear. The thing that I will say is Joel's
• 43:20
  an incredibly intelligent human being. That's one of my biggest impressions on interviewing him
• 43:23
  and talking to him is he's always been much more aware of everything than I
• 43:28
  think people give him credit for. He knows what he's doing. He's very
• 43:30
  much paying attention to the outcome of whatever this James Harden saga is. It
• 43:35
  feels different in this situation, and that even if you date back to the
• 43:37
  Ben Simmons one, like Ben Simmons and Joel did never never saw eye to
• 43:42
  eye. They want guys that got along and there was at least that room
• 43:45
  for we can find the right piece in this trade. It feels different with
• 43:47
  this hardened trade that there's to some extent more finality to it, that there's
• 43:52
  not as much room to go upward. And it's also that James Harden and
• 43:54
  Joel Embiads seem to genuinely like each other, so you're kind of running out
• 43:59
  a friend. And the same thing if you want to bring up Jimmy Butler
• 44:00
  in the conversation, ye, Jimmy Butler and Joel Embiad always got along.
• 44:04
  It was these other things that didn't make it happen. So I do think
• 44:07
  Embiad is looking at how this James Harden situation resolves itself. I'm confident he
• 44:10
  will be a member of these Sixers for the entirety of next year. But
• 44:14
  I do think that if they get this wrong, if this continues to be
• 44:16
  poorly managed, that this does have potential to be a breaking point when it
• 44:21
  comes to the Joel Embiead situation. But on the other hand, they could
• 44:24
  absolutely nail it. They bring in the right players and all of a sudden,
• 44:27
  all is good in the world of Joel Embiad against absolutely paying attention to
• 44:30
  how this happens. That there's this is a high pressure movement for how Darren
• 44:35
  Moorey handles the James Harden situation overall, But I don't think there's a decision
• 44:38
  on the table yet. And that's a great segue, Sean into you know,
• 44:40
  the final topic I wanted to ask you about. I mean, getting
• 44:44
  back to Darryl Moorey. At the end of the day, this really all
• 44:46
  does come down to him and what move he is able to make potentially to
• 44:52
  keep Joel Embiid happy and to say, okay, you know, we're seeing
• 44:54
  some sort of forward progress and movement here. So I'm wondering, from your
• 44:59
  vantage here in your analysis, what are the chances that Darryl Moorey is going
• 45:04
  to be able to land that next big superstar to put next to Joel Embiid,
• 45:07
  Perhaps a personality that gets along with Joel as you were just mentioning,
• 45:13
  that will make him happy, possibly keep him here for years to come.
• 45:15
  So what are the chances of that actually happening here? Not as great as
• 45:20
  I would like them to be. Outside, I don't think there's very many
• 45:24
  Eye for Eye stars that there will be a James Harden swop for it.
• 45:28
  And as I mentioned, there's just such a select few teams that it could
• 45:30
  make sense for The Clippers are the team that Harden has specifically called out and
• 45:35
  mentioned he wants to be a part of. It also makes it difficult from
• 45:37
  a negotiation standpoint when James Harden is openly saying he wants to play for a
• 45:40
  team, and that's one of the things that Adam Silver has sent as a
• 45:44
  crackdown to these players. The same thing with Dame Lillard in Miami, that
• 45:47
  it makes it difficult from a team from a just negotiation standpoint that when we
• 45:52
  know the desired outcome, then they're kind of bidding against themselves, so you
• 45:55
  don't drive the market and set your team up from success in the same way,
• 45:59
  I do think eventually that there will be a Clippers trade for James Harden.
• 46:01
  I don't think it's going to be the eye for eye stars that people
• 46:05
  hope, but I do think that there's a chance that Daryl Morey is able
• 46:07
  to kind of replenish the roster and add enough pieces around that could either be
• 46:12
  repurposed into a bigger trade or just there's a moment of reset where let's see
• 46:16
  exactly what we have in Tyrese Maxie. What does he look like without James
• 46:20
  Harden. What is the type of player that you compare him to? A
• 46:22
  guy that jumps out to me, and I think it's mentioned as too much
• 46:25
  of like a tosson is Norman Powell. I think Norman Powell is awesome,
• 46:29
  And no, he's not as good as James Harden, but he's a guy
• 46:31
  who, in the situation for what these sixers need, could be a better
• 46:35
  fit than James Harden. And this guy who scored twenty one point four points
• 46:38
  just a season ago that he's not a nothing NBA player. So I think
• 46:43
  by getting players that fit better, by keeping the door open, keeping caps
• 46:45
  base open, and attacking next offseason, you could set yourself up fine.
• 46:50
  Still, it's not perfect. It's not ideal. You want to be balls
• 46:52
  to the walls competing every single season. But if there has to be a
• 46:55
  bit of like a let's recoupe, let's get these assets, get these young
• 46:59
  players, and then look at more of a long term plan, that still
• 47:01
  is an option where I could work out for the Sixers again, folks.
• 47:05
  Sean Bernard at sewn Underscore Bernard one on the Twitter dot com Pick Swap Media
• 47:09
  podcast, and also he's an insider over at Fox Sports The Gambler. You're
• 47:15
  on threads too, aren't you, buddy. Yeah, yeah, still not
• 47:19
  as active as I need to be on San perfect. Yeah all right.
• 47:22
  Is it Sean Bernard over there or Shan Underscore Bynard one? I think so,
• 47:25
  Yeah, Shanco one. I'm pretty sure. Very good, very good,
• 47:29
  Sean, dude. Man, it's always great talking to you about the
• 47:31
  Sixers team NBA storylines as well. Come back on the pod at some point
• 47:36
  again in the future. Man, I would love to talk to you,
• 47:37
  my friend. Yeah. Absolutely, appreciate for having me and anytime. Love
• 47:40
  Chadden up a great discussion with Sean, but we are gonna have to move
• 47:45
  on here at the PST Podcast Show. We've got some more great content coming
• 47:50
  your way. In just a bit, we're gonna be getting into some Philadelphia
• 47:52
  Flyers talk. We haven't talked about the Flyers too too much on this podcast
• 47:57
  over the past couple months. Seasons right around the corner, and there's some
• 48:01
  really interesting storylines that are gonna be happening. Yes, we know what this
• 48:05
  team is going to be like this season. We know not to get those
• 48:08
  expectations up too high, but we got a great discussion coming your way.
• 48:13
  We've got a great guest, but first we are going to take a break.
• 48:16
  We will be back in just a bit. We are back and now
• 48:21
  it is time to get into some Flyers talk. We got a great guest.
• 48:23
  It's what we're thrown down on the table and now on the table,
• 48:30
  and it is great to have on the podcast with us. Absolutely love having
• 48:35
  him on when he is able to jump on when he's not over at Flyers
• 48:38
  Nitty Gritty dot Com putting out some great content again Flyers Nitty Gritty dot Com.
• 48:45
  We love the folks over there, including this particular gentleman who's doing some
• 48:50
  good stuff in terms of his Flyers writing. We've got the one and only
• 48:52
  Jamie Bascall. How you doing, Jamie, I'm doing great, and it's
• 48:57
  a pleasure to come on for your dedicated following again. And uh, you
• 49:00
  know you're a legend. Contact you know a person that says, hey,
• 49:05
  can you please come on? Other than that's five, ten, fifteen,
• 49:07
  twenty, twenty five, thirty minutes, you guys cour two hours, it
• 49:12
  doesn't matter, you know, you gotta do it. I mean, it's
• 49:15
  you know, my son. He's a big fan of Michael Jordan. Yeah,
• 49:19
  and Michael Jordan contacted him and asked him to do a podcast for five
• 49:22
  minutes. I'm sure he sweet Jesus, I love you, Jay, Dear
• 49:29
  God puffing me up here. Well, look, I really appreciate those kind
• 49:32
  words. But man like, I wanted to bring you on because I'm thinking
• 49:36
  more and more about this Flyer season than is right around the corner. I
• 49:38
  do get on Flyers Nitty Gritty every Flyers Nitty Gritty dot com every now and
• 49:44
  again to check out what you guys are writing about. Check out you know
• 49:46
  some of the ongoing storylines and themes of what we're going to be seeing with
• 49:51
  this team over the course of this next season. And I wanted to first
• 49:53
  get into the goalie situation for the Flyers, mainly regarding the future of the
• 50:00
  position. Now we know that Samuel Urson he got a two year contract extension,
• 50:04
  and goalie Cal Peterson is likely to be around potentially for a little while.
• 50:07
  Plus the Flyers drafted goalies on two consecutive picks during this last NHL draft.
• 50:15
  So, Jamie, I'm wondering, like, what are your thoughts on
• 50:16
  where the Flyers goalie situation is going to be going in the future. What
• 50:22
  are your thoughts? You know, that's a good question, and that's one
• 50:25
  it's hard to answer right now because honestly, it's all dependent on Carter Heart.
• 50:29
  Yeah, there is no doubt in my mind that the Flyers want to
• 50:31
  re up or signed you know, Carter Hart long term. He is a
• 50:36
  franchise netminder for any franchise you know, in the National Hockey League. But
• 50:40
  yep, you know, I think the Flyers are a little warisome. If
• 50:45
  he wants to sign you know, a long term deal, maybe he only
• 50:49
  wants, you know, a one year deal, and it's who knows if
• 50:52
  he wants to be part of the rebuild process. So I think there's a
• 50:53
  lot of worrisome uh you know, going around and this is a new regime.
• 51:00
  So Danny Berrier, Key Jones, John Tortorello's involved as well, Dan
• 51:04
  hillfordy all had meetings and I'm sure they said, you know, let's shore
• 51:07
  up this position justin in case that Carter Hart does not want to be here
• 51:13
  a long term, does not when he's signed here a long term, it
• 51:15
  wouldn't be on the Flyer's end. It would definitely be on the art in
• 51:17
  his agents and uh, you know, and what's best for him. Now
• 51:21
  he has said to me and the rest of the media for that matter.
• 51:24
  I should put that out there because he also did say that at exit interviews
• 51:29
  he wants to win, but he wants to be part, you know,
• 51:32
  of the Flyer's franchise in terms of winning as well. So you take that
• 51:37
  for two folds. Yeah, he wants to win. So that makes you
• 51:39
  a little weary. You don't think that Philadelphia is gonna win here for the
• 51:44
  next year or two years, you know, So you become worrisome. And
• 51:47
  I understand, you know, the fans panic, but I also understand why,
• 51:52
  you know, the top you know, the regime is trying to you
• 51:55
  know, shore up that position, to make sure that, hey, Ev
• 51:58
  carter Hart does not want to be here. If he does not want to
• 52:00
  be here long term, then we have X, Y and Z. So
• 52:05
  at least we're okay until we start to win it, until we start to
• 52:07
  build a contending team again, they could get through it. So with Cal
• 52:12
  Peterson, it's a two years right now. He technically be the backup given,
• 52:17
  you know, until the hockey candidate investigation comes out. If Carhart's involved
• 52:22
  or not, I should say or not, because it doesn't mean that he
• 52:24
  is involved in that from way, shape or form. In terms of the
• 52:28
  suspensions that you know, apparently, you know, some credible reporters you know,
• 52:35
  said that they knew the five names that were involved. I guess that's
• 52:38
  you know, we should leave that one alone. Yeah, well yeah,
• 52:42
  well wait and see what happens. Of course, but Cal's here for a
• 52:45
  few years. Then they got you know, Sam or Arson, you know,
• 52:49
  for like you said, he reopted you know, two years. They
• 52:51
  made sure that he wasn't going to go overseas. I've seen a lot of
• 52:53
  players go overseas because there's a lot of money overseas, and you so reading
• 52:58
  worlds, a lot of their players left overseas. Uh. It's not just
• 53:01
  them though. If you look throughout the National Hockey League, a lot of
• 53:06
  a lot of players are jumping ship and going over to whether it be Germany
• 53:09
  because Germany is now up and coming. Uh, they're becoming more you know
• 53:15
  of a hockey you know country or destination. Yeah, yeah, so coming
• 53:21
  up hit uh you know for you know, former NHL players, veteran NHL
• 53:25
  players. Uh, you know, I think that they wanted to make sure
• 53:30
  that Samy Orson was going to be here. Uh. You know, we
• 53:31
  don't know, you know, what's gonna go on with field Sandsra. I
• 53:35
  think he's gonna, you know, eventually we get waived. I'd say he's
• 53:38
  not part of the packing order right now. I don't see it as of
• 53:43
  right now anyway, at least long term for that matter. But like you
• 53:49
  said, they drafted two really stud netminders who can be surprises, not necessarily
• 53:54
  surprises, but surprises to many Flyers fans who maybe didn't have them, you
• 53:59
  know, pegged to take two net miners. Some maybe didn't have even one
• 54:02
  netminder being selected. You know, this past rapt by the Philadelphia Flyers,
• 54:07
  So yeah, it's going to be interesting. But I think that they're shoring
• 54:09
  this physician off just in case, in totality, just in case Carter Hart
• 54:15
  does not want to be here. Yeah again, folks. Talking to Jamie
• 54:17
  Bascall from Flyers Nitty Gritty dot Com. Follow him on Twitter at Jamie Bascow.
• 54:22
  He is a great, great follow as consistently tweeting about this Philadelphia Flyers
• 54:28
  team and ongoing storylines happening with this team. Yeah, no problem, man,
• 54:31
  And look, I wanted to reflect on a recent piece that you wrote
• 54:36
  as we move along to the defensive side of things with this team. Wrote
• 54:38
  a peace recently on Rasmus Risto Lane and you know, indicating that he's one
• 54:43
  of the most consistent Flyers defensemen that are on this team right now. And
• 54:47
  you know, John Tortorell, as we know, said he's the team's most
• 54:51
  improved player over this past season. Where do you see Risto's upcoming season potentially
• 54:58
  heading from a defensive standpoint, Amy, I see him starting out as a
• 55:02
  middle pairing defenseman. I think that at Cam York and he's a mentor.
• 55:06
  I don't know if that would be Rossmus rist aligning. I think those those
• 55:09
  two Uh, in my particular opinion, I don't think they would compliment each
• 55:13
  other. Well, uh, Riso. Risso is more offensive than what he's
• 55:17
  been given, you know, uh, you know for the past few years.
• 55:22
  Yes, he had three holes in seventeen assists you know, this past
• 55:24
  season, so he started to get you know, started to garner some points.
• 55:28
  But he's a little more offensive than that. So he's more of an
• 55:31
  offensive minded defenseman. Uh. I would say maybe his numbers don't you know
• 55:37
  show that, or yeah, he looks for the big hit but has seen
• 55:40
  that. John Tortorella teamed him down after that benching and whatever happened after that
• 55:45
  benching. Rosmus was quick in his head and said, hey, maybe maybe
• 55:50
  Towards c know told him. He didn't exactly say exactly what Towards stole him,
• 55:54
  but maybe Towards stold him, Hey, you're here long term. I
• 55:57
  want you to be the guy. Yeah, the same thing with Travis CONNECTI
• 56:01
  now Travis, uh you know, that's another story. But he told Travis,
• 56:06
  I want you to be a leader. Uh, you know, and
• 56:08
  during training camp and he was like, wow, you view me as a
• 56:12
  leader and he said, sure as heck, uh, you know, I
• 56:14
  need some help. And that's look what happened. Travis Connecte had a career
• 56:19
  year, had a great but the same thing with Rossmus risk of lining.
• 56:23
  If finally you saw the player that Chuck Fletcher traded for, uh maybe not
• 56:28
  made up for the trade just yet, but it showed potential of what he
• 56:34
  and I think that he is a solid middle pairing defenseman. I wouldn't go
• 56:37
  anything more because I would say, Kim York needs a mentor, uh,
• 56:42
  and I don't know if that would be Rossmus. I'd rather I feel more
• 56:45
  confident that's Mark's Stall. Yeah up there, Uh you know, compaired with
• 56:51
  Kim York. Well that's a that's a perfect segue, Jamie into the next
• 56:53
  topic that I wanted to get into. And I'm glad you mentioned Mark Stall
• 56:57
  because, like you know, as we're sticking with the defense yere, you
• 57:00
  know, conventional wisdom says, you know, we're going to be seen as
• 57:01
  you mentioned Cam York and Mark Stall as the team's first defensive pairing, and
• 57:06
  I do wonder, you know, after Mark Stall being in the league now
• 57:09
  for like three decades, what he is going to be able to do for
• 57:14
  the development of these young defenders and specifically Cam York as well. So how
• 57:17
  do you see Mark Stall's impact on the team this season and down the road
• 57:22
  here. I think that Mark Stall came here because he wants to mentor.
• 57:27
  I think that that's the ultimate reason why he wanted to come. He knew
• 57:30
  that the Flyers had some good up and coming young defenseman to also mention.
• 57:37
  Ronnie adderd Igors and Bula. Yeah, and so I think that you know
• 57:42
  with you're looking at Ivan Provrov was paired with Matt Niskanen in Ivan Provoff had
• 57:47
  a career year with Matt niskan has sort of made what Ivan Provaroff could be,
• 57:53
  even though he was a very good defenseman before, but he elevated his
• 57:57
  game. Matt nissan was able to elevate him, and I think the two
• 58:00
  worked well. I think that the same could happen with Cam York and Mark
• 58:06
  Stall, and that's why I would like to see them paired together. Mark
• 58:08
  Stall has been through the riggers much like Matt Niskanen was. Matt Niskanen.
• 58:13
  No, obviously he was younger than Mark Stall. I understand that, but
• 58:16
  they both were through the riggers and Matt Nissan, you know one you know,
• 58:21
  a cop. So he was able to bring that, you know to
• 58:24
  Ivan and then he left, he retired. So I think that Mark Stall
• 58:30
  could elevate Cam York and you know, maybe Cam York he'll settle Cam York
• 58:36
  down. I think that when Cam York does too much, that's when the
• 58:40
  wheels on the bus start to fall off. And it happens with a lot
• 58:44
  of young players. They try to overcompensate, you know, for certain aspects
• 58:47
  of their game to where you know, it's a mental thing. They may
• 58:51
  not think that they're good in this area, so let me work on this
• 58:54
  area. And they're hearing stuff from a lot of the coaching staff, whether
• 58:58
  it be you know, words are from the defense you know, defense coach.
• 59:01
  So they're getting a lot of information. And I think Mark stalkn hone
• 59:05
  in on that and bring it in and you know and say hey, no,
• 59:07
  just focused on this, just play your game. You know, he'll
• 59:10
  learn how to settle him down. I think that's what came York is learning
• 59:15
  to do. And I think we saw that. I think we saw that
• 59:17
  after that recall in December, maybe not the first month through the month of
• 59:22
  January. Although I thought he played okay, but he saw his year progress.
• 59:25
  I thought he really really started to show the player that he could be.
• 59:29
  I thought that he played very well defensively towards the ladder parts of the
• 59:32
  season. And of course I don't see him anywhere going back to Lee High
• 59:38
  at all. But I'm just saying he solidified his status in the NHL and
• 59:43
  to me showed, hey, this is what I can be. That I
• 59:49
  can be a top pairing guy. I may not be there yet, but
• 59:51
  I can be a top hairing guy. And I think that Mark Stal could
• 59:54
  bring that. Mark Stalls been been there, He's been there, done that.
• 59:58
  And I think that, you know, maybe Cam York might try to
• 1:00:01
  be too offensive because there is some offensive player, you know, to Cam
• 1:00:05
  York. He's he's got a very powerful shot, he's very good on the
• 1:00:07
  power play, so he can be an all offensive minded defenseman as well.
• 1:00:13
  But I think Mark Stall could bring both elements of all offense in defense and
• 1:00:19
  bring it in, you know, for Cam New York. And I just
• 1:00:22
  think that I'd like that pairing a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 1:00:24
  I'd like him to respect. It's no disrespect to Rosmus for align him.
• 1:00:30
  But I think rossmus Is has become very consistent, and I think he was
• 1:00:34
  one of the more consistent defenseman, him and Nick Steeler in particular. I
• 1:00:37
  think, lads year, if I were going to give votes for the Barry
• 1:00:40
  Ashby Trophy, it would have been either or of them. Uh, either
• 1:00:45
  Nick Steeler or or rosmus I didn't think Ivan, you know, played that
• 1:00:50
  well enough to win that particular trophy, although he did, and kudos to
• 1:00:53
  him, but I just thought that rossmus was a better defenseman and I thought
• 1:00:58
  that you know, Nick's or it was too. And I think that it
• 1:01:01
  surprised me because I didn't expect Risco after especially after he got benched. I
• 1:01:07
  didn't expect him to come back with this type authority. I expected him to
• 1:01:10
  wilt a little bit and maybe get down on himself and say, hey,
• 1:01:15
  you know I can be better. I know him better, but for some
• 1:01:19
  reason, I just can't do it here and affiliate and lo and behold,
• 1:01:22
  No, that didn't happen. Right, came back and and showed people,
• 1:01:28
  Hey, this is why they traded for him, and he was more of
• 1:01:31
  a shock to me. Although I liked his game his first year. I
• 1:01:37
  liked that aspect of all the elements that he brought, and that's no knock
• 1:01:40
  to him him. Again, he played very well last year and I just
• 1:01:45
  think that that he should be a middle pairing defestment with Travis Anheim, and
• 1:01:52
  I think the two worked well together when they are together. I think that,
• 1:01:58
  you know, pairing is solid. Although I would say the weakest parts
• 1:02:02
  of the Flyers, or the biggest question marks are on the defensive side of
• 1:02:07
  the puck at this particular moment, because when I look and I just don't
• 1:02:12
  know, you don't know. I mean, they treated uh exactly and you're
• 1:02:16
  like, Okay, well who's gonna bog the tough minutes now? Yep,
• 1:02:21
  Yeah, it's gonna be really interesting. Yeah, I mean it's gonna be
• 1:02:23
  really interesting to see Jamie and the defense is gonna be very interesting. Yeah.
• 1:02:28
  But that scares me because I even was playing twenty seven to thirty a
• 1:02:34
  night, So again, that's wear and tear on his body. And maybe
• 1:02:37
  that's why he couldn't, you know, be that flashy, you know defenseman,
• 1:02:42
  because he had to play too much. Who knows, but he relished
• 1:02:45
  at and but who's gonna log it. I'm not so sure yet. And
• 1:02:49
  that's why I say I think it's gonna be Ah, there's gonna be a
• 1:02:52
  lot of positions off for grabs on the defensive side of the puck, and
• 1:02:55
  there's gonna be some shocks, yeah, I think so yeah. And I
• 1:02:59
  think moving on to the offensive side of things too, Jamie, I think
• 1:03:01
  we're going to be seeing some of these of course, younger players and younger
• 1:03:06
  talent within this organization kind of showing us something. And there's one guy in
• 1:03:09
  particular I wanted to talk about from an offensive perspective right off the bat,
• 1:03:14
  which is Bobby Brink. I mean, he seems to be a very under
• 1:03:15
  the radar player on this team heading into this season. I mean, look,
• 1:03:19
  he's not really fast or big, but he's been a successful offensive player
• 1:03:23
  down the line. And I think there are some intriguing storylines when it does
• 1:03:27
  come to Bobby Brink in the future here within this organization. So do you
• 1:03:30
  think he'll get a shot to play with the big leagues more this coming season?
• 1:03:35
  And what can we expect from his career with the Flyers organization when you
• 1:03:38
  know, kind of looking at the macro picture here, I actually think that
• 1:03:44
  Bobby Brink is is not going to win a job out of the camp.
• 1:03:46
  Okay, I do foresee him. I see him making a push. I
• 1:03:52
  think that consistency was a problem with Bobby brink last season after and that wus
• 1:03:57
  to be expected after he suffered a significant injury. He missed you know,
• 1:04:01
  five to six months there. That's a long time, especially you know,
• 1:04:05
  in your developmental years. It was like, you know, Morgan Frost lost
• 1:04:09
  a year because of his development a year with his injury. You know,
• 1:04:13
  Tyson forrest Or lost a year with his developmental you know, uh, you
• 1:04:17
  know, don't forget that. You know, he had a significant injury as
• 1:04:20
  well with scholar. Uh you know, so like those two players in particular,
• 1:04:26
  you miss an entire year. And that's sort of what happened to Bobby
• 1:04:29
  brank Although he saw flashes of what he could be, he just wasn't consistent
• 1:04:32
  enough. And I think that that had to do with timing, And I
• 1:04:35
  think that had to do with getting reacclimated to the game, to the speed,
• 1:04:40
  to the professional level. Maybe he was he would have been able to
• 1:04:44
  do that at college, but not at the pro level. But I think
• 1:04:46
  that he's going to bring everything together this year and really show who he is.
• 1:04:50
  Towards wasn't familiar with him, so I didn't expect him to get a
• 1:04:54
  recall last year, although some people did. I didn't because he didn't participate
• 1:04:59
  in his training camp. Towards didn't know him, and I think that's why
• 1:05:01
  he favored Ali Lixel over, you know, towards the tail end where I
• 1:05:05
  think Bobby Brink could have deserved a recall at the end there, but or
• 1:05:11
  near the end for that matter, because I thought he was playing okay hockey
• 1:05:14
  then. So consistency is a big thing for Bobby Brank and I think he's
• 1:05:16
  going to bring it together and I do foresee him being up at some point
• 1:05:20
  by December January. I think he's a very good player. Uh, there's
• 1:05:25
  a lot of talent there. There's a lot we don't know what to expect
• 1:05:27
  from him. I don't think anybody does, but but there's potential there.
• 1:05:32
  He's a very talented individual, and he doesn't You're right, he doesn't get
• 1:05:35
  enough talk, and not enough talk for me either. You know, I've
• 1:05:40
  been talking a lot about Tyson Forrester, I haven't, you know, I
• 1:05:44
  haven't talked a lot about Bobby Branking and I should. I think that,
• 1:05:47
  you know, Bobby brink Is could be an elite goal scorer. I think
• 1:05:51
  that he has a risk shot that he gets scored with the best of them.
• 1:05:56
  Yeah, And I think that's to me that's not talked about and I
• 1:06:00
  should be talking about it more, but I don't. He's a very under
• 1:06:02
  the radar player, absolutely, and he's gotten my aspects of his game.
• 1:06:08
  He's not the fastest player, but he's skating him improved and it's very noticeable.
• 1:06:13
  And I saw that with the Fandoms last year towards the tail end of
• 1:06:15
  the season that it looked like his confidence was there again. And I think
• 1:06:19
  that that was a big thing too. Like he started off on a high.
• 1:06:21
  What was his first five or six games, he scored a goal in
• 1:06:25
  each yea and he got off to a very quick start, and then he
• 1:06:28
  saw laps, you know, where he didn't have a point and like he
• 1:06:31
  didn't register a point in like eight to ten games. There there was about
• 1:06:34
  an eight to ten games stretch and it was to be expected. I think
• 1:06:38
  that maybe he didn't expect to get off to a fast start, but he
• 1:06:42
  didn't. He goes to him. So, yeah, I think that he
• 1:06:45
  deserves to be talked about more. Gonna be interesting. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:06:49
  Well to close us out here, Jamie, and you know, I wanted
• 1:06:54
  to get your thoughts really quick. We only have a few minutes left here
• 1:06:57
  on Noah Kates. Noah Kates really thrive as a rookie, as we know,
• 1:07:00
  and US Flyers fans looking for him to take even more steps this coming
• 1:07:04
  season. Thirty eight points in eighty two games was pretty impressive for his rookie
• 1:07:10
  season last year. But I do wonder, I mean I do wonder how
• 1:07:12
  high his ceiling is. What are your thoughts on how high that ceiling may
• 1:07:15
  actually be for him? I think he's gonna surprise people. I think with
• 1:07:19
  the way he played last year, I think he could be a top six
• 1:07:23
  potential player. Nice, I'm that high on Noah Kates. No case is
• 1:07:28
  a phenomenal player. Yeah, And I don't say that about very often.
• 1:07:30
  I don't get very happy over players like you know, after their first season.
• 1:07:35
  But this was a season that was highly unexpected. I did not expect
• 1:07:43
  this particular season from from Noah Kates, right right. I didn't expect it
• 1:07:49
  at all. Usually, yes, coming back from the NC Double A like
• 1:07:55
  how he did. Uh, you know he's coming out for his rookie season
• 1:07:57
  from the NC Double A. Yes, they're playing against men in some ways
• 1:08:00
  because of the ages and different things like that. So he was a little
• 1:08:03
  bit of an overager beings at you know, he see twenty two. He
• 1:08:09
  was at the particular time when he played for the Flyers last season, so
• 1:08:12
  he was a bit of an overager. But I didn't expect it. I
• 1:08:16
  didn't expect him to make that type of impact, especially with Swarts coming in
• 1:08:19
  and having a tough coach like Torts and the demanding coach usually for a younger
• 1:08:25
  player. But I guess he's dealt with that, you know, in the
• 1:08:28
  past. So he was able to hone in and he put forth a you
• 1:08:32
  know, a great year. I think that his skating improved. I think
• 1:08:34
  that Shankatorier is very big and key to his development. And I saw what
• 1:08:41
  a lot of people didn't you know, hone in on during the during the
• 1:08:46
  season was Shankatorier was helping him towards the tail end of the season with faceoffs
• 1:08:50
  there was one game to where he was very bad withdraws throughout the course of
• 1:08:55
  the year, but there was that one game he won. He went nine
• 1:08:58
  for ten and it was like, yeah, I think it was like the
• 1:09:02
  fifteenth last, fifteenth game of the season. I was sort of around the
• 1:09:06
  sixty seventh, you know game mark there he was nine for ten and I
• 1:09:12
  look and Coots was at practice the next practice with him, and at the
• 1:09:17
  face off dot, I was like, okay, now it makes sense,
• 1:09:20
  uh you know that cous And to me, that showed that Couse was sort
• 1:09:25
  of back healthy again, because if he's able to take draws, that that
• 1:09:29
  that means that it's helping his back, you know as well, because you
• 1:09:32
  know his back problems that he was having. I don't think he would have
• 1:09:35
  been taking draws if he didn't, you know, feel overly confident at his
• 1:09:39
  health. So that that was great. That was a great practice there.
• 1:09:42
  I thought. I was like, okay, now, but now in made
• 1:09:45
  sense why Noah was better at draws. It's because the Coots he was getting.
• 1:09:48
  So he continues to get pointers from Sean Katier and to me, he
• 1:09:54
  is Quaturier asked a Katurier two point out all the skills and talent are there.
• 1:10:00
  Maybe not offensively yet. He registered thirty eight points, but that was
• 1:10:02
  still a very good rookie season. But you know, Sean Couturier took you
• 1:10:09
  know, four or five years to get there offensively as well, So we
• 1:10:12
  just got to be a little patient with him. But his feeling, I
• 1:10:15
  potentially see him as a top six player. Yeah, I really I'm that
• 1:10:18
  high on him. I his defensive skills are phenomenal. I mean, he
• 1:10:26
  really stifled his opponents more much like Sean Katoria. But what impressed me the
• 1:10:30
  most was his puck handling. He's very even though he's small, he's very
• 1:10:33
  tough to move off the puck. He does not want him he does not
• 1:10:38
  want to lose that puck at all, and when he does, he gets
• 1:10:40
  pissed. And uh, you know, he bore battles. He's not afraid,
• 1:10:44
  he doesn't shy away from physical activity. Reminds me of a mill Andrei
• 1:10:47
  that way. You know, they're both like smaller players, but they're both
• 1:10:54
  right in there, uh you know, beating, you know, hitting opponents
• 1:10:58
  and bore battling for the puck. Very good that way. He's very good
• 1:11:00
  with worming his way along the boards and somehow finding a way to come away
• 1:11:06
  with the puck. But it's his acute hockey, I Q. His vision
• 1:11:12
  of the ice is. Another impressive part for me is that he's always he's
• 1:11:19
  always aware where his teammates are, where the best play could possibly be.
• 1:11:25
  And I do see why Torts is very high on him. He's gonna have
• 1:11:29
  to rely on Kates this year a lot more. Unfortunately, it's not fair
• 1:11:32
  to Noah. It's just the cards that have been dealt for the Flyers.
• 1:11:36
  They're just really not deep at the center position just yet, and there's a
• 1:11:42
  lot more pressure for him to succeed if he comes into this season struggling.
• 1:11:46
  I can see the Flyers struggling. I just don't, you know, they
• 1:11:50
  just don't have the center death. You know that other teams do, uh,
• 1:11:56
  you know. And now with this Morgan Frost stuff still lingering, which
• 1:11:59
  it will get worked out, but I just don't they just don't have that
• 1:12:02
  depth. So it puts a lot more pressure. Enough, But last year
• 1:12:05
  and particularly he handled it very well, and that was sort of like the
• 1:12:10
  same unknowns coming into this training camp because although I think Sean Gatoria is healthy,
• 1:12:15
  he still has to go out there and prove it. Uh yeah,
• 1:12:18
  he can be a number one, but do they want him to be a
• 1:12:20
  number one? And that's why I think that no, it's actually going to
• 1:12:24
  start a little higher. I think he might actually be featured on the top
• 1:12:27
  line as I think that Towards might want to give Katori a sometime. You
• 1:12:33
  know, people people people call me crazy with that Kevin Hayes stuff, But
• 1:12:36
  I was on your podcast and I remember this and I said, you know,
• 1:12:40
  the Flyers were very familiar with turning a surgery, rock him back and
• 1:12:45
  look what happened. That was a miserable year. So I think that the
• 1:12:48
  Flyer's medical staff is doing a much better job. And I think that they're
• 1:12:53
  going to take it easy with Coots. I mean, this isn't a contending
• 1:12:55
  team going into the season, although I think they're going to surprise some especial
• 1:13:00
  way of Cotrya and Atkinson are both healthy throughout the course of the year.
• 1:13:02
  I think they're gonna surprise. I don't get my hopes up, Jamie.
• 1:13:06
  I think they will. I think they'll be a playoff bubble team. I
• 1:13:09
  think they're gonna be a fun team to watch, is what I mean.
• 1:13:12
  I think that maybe maybe maybe not make the playoffs, but be right there
• 1:13:15
  and things, you know, for the playoffs. I'm not saying contention by
• 1:13:17
  any means, uh, you know, but I think they could be right
• 1:13:20
  there for the playoffs, you know, I really do. And maybe maybe
• 1:13:25
  maybe if they steal that you know, point or two. Uh. You
• 1:13:28
  know, like last year they lost a lot of one goal games. Uh,
• 1:13:31
  they lost you know, some games they had to come back, you
• 1:13:33
  know, much like this Philly team is. Uh. But you know,
• 1:13:38
  we'll see, Yes, we will. We will see, and we will
• 1:13:41
  also see a lot more content on flyers Nitty Gritty dot com featuring Jamie and
• 1:13:46
  a bunch of the writers over there. It's such a great job you guys
• 1:13:49
  are doing. Jamie again Flyers Nitty Gritty dot com at Jamie Basco on the
• 1:13:55
  Twitter dot com. He's a fantastic follow my friend. Thank you so much
• 1:13:58
  for taking the time. I'm looking forward to having you on the podcast down
• 1:14:02
  the road, my friend. I really appreciate you. I appreciate your dedicated
• 1:14:05
  following. You guys are freaking doing a phenomenal job, and just keep up
• 1:14:09
  the good work. I'm very proud of how far you've come, I mean,
• 1:14:12
  you continue to grow. Very impressed. Thanks a lot, my man,
• 1:14:15
  appreciate it. One of the reasons I love talking to Jamie so much
• 1:14:19
  is not only is he a good writer, of course, and not only
• 1:14:23
  are they putting up good content on Flyers Nitty Gritty dot Com, but man,
• 1:14:26
  he is so passionate and so optimistic about what can happen with certain players
• 1:14:30
  and talent on this Flyers team, and it just really shines through with our
• 1:14:33
  discussions every single time he is on. So again at Jamie Basco on Twitter,
• 1:14:39
  give him a follow, and that's going to do it for us here
• 1:14:41
  on this podcast episode. Make sure you are subscribed on whatever podcast platform you
• 1:14:45
  are on. You are going to enjoy the content here. We've got a
• 1:14:49
  lot of baseball, football, hockey, basketball, and even soccer as we
• 1:14:54
  follow the Philadelphia Union as well on this podcast platform Philadelphia Sports Table dot Comments,
• 1:15:00
  where you can get all of our podcast shows. But we are on
• 1:15:01
  major podcasting platforms out there. Hit that follow button on Apple podcast. If
• 1:15:08
  you are on Apple podcast right now and follow us on the Twitter dot com
• 1:15:12
  at Philadelphia PSD. You can follow me at Jeffrey Underscore, Warren again,
• 1:15:15
  my co host Lenn from earlier at Len hunts sicker, and we got more
• 1:15:18
  great content coming your way next week. We've got some great guests. Next
• 1:15:24
  Thursday, we are dropping our Eagles season preview, and we've also got our
• 1:15:30
  Eagles the first game of the season, Eagles and the New England Patriots.
• 1:15:34
  We've got our pregame preview show coming to our opposition territory podcasts. So that
• 1:15:40
  being said, folks, you all take care and we'll catch you next time.