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Pick'em Pros
Pick'em Pros is a father and son dynamic duo who love talking sports. Their show "Who Ya Got" features their weekly sports game picks along with commentary of fantasy sports. 13 Year old Diego Thompson is a hit as he passionately makes his points and never backs down when going head to head with his father!
Pick'em Pros
🔥 Duke's chances w/o Flagg, Joker Top 5 Big Man, Luka & JJ Won't Last, NFL Free Agency 🔥
Basketball takes center stage as we dive headfirst into March Madness predictions, NBA MVP debates, and the ripple effects of NFL free agency. Our conversation kicks off with a scorching hot take: Nikola Jokić might already be a top-five big man in NBA history, with just two more championships potentially crowning him as the greatest ever—yes, even above Shaq and Kareem.
Cooper Flagg's ankle injury sparked an intriguing strategic question: should Duke "load manage" their star freshman through the ACC tournament when they've already secured a high NCAA seed? This could signal a new approach where conference tournaments become optional showcases for teams with championship aspirations.
The MVP race between SGA and Jokić drew passionate arguments, with all hosts agreeing that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander deserves the honor this year despite Jokić's historic statistical achievements. Leading the Western Conference's top seed while putting up 30+ points nightly should finally earn SGA the recognition that has eluded him.
Lakers fans received a reality check as we dissected the LeBron-Luka partnership that seems more "fool's gold" than championship formula. We questioned whether Luka's relationship with coach JJ Redick will last, noting how even championship-caliber coaches like Rick Carlisle and Jason Kidd seemed relieved to move on from coaching the star.
NFL free agency provided fertile ground for debate, particularly the Panthers' questionable $100 million investment in JC Horn. We capped things off with bold predictions about which under-.500 teams will make next year's NFL playoffs, pointing to the Raiders, Bears, Falcons, and Panthers as potential turnaround stories.
Don't forget to join our bracket challenge at thepickempros.com for a chance to win a $100 gift card in both the men's and women's NCAA tournaments. Basketball season is reaching its thrilling climax—are you ready?
Pick'em Pros is a father son duo who enjoy talking sports, debating and having fun while doing it!
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I would say Joker gets in there at the five spot right now. But I'm going to take it one step further. If Joker gets two more championships, Joker goes down as the best big man ever.
Speaker 2:Ooh Over Shaq.
Speaker 1:Heck yeah over Shaq.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh, okay, yes All right Over Shaq, it's probably over all of them for island.
Speaker 1:All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. You know who it is I am Derek Thompson.
Speaker 3:I'm Diego.
Speaker 2:Thompson, I'm Christopher Davis, and who are?
Speaker 1:we the Pick'em Pros. We are the Pick'em Pros coming back at you in the house with a special episode of who you Got, father-son dynamic duo and our main man, christopher Davis, coming at you from Cary, north Carolina, today in this beautiful studio. We are the show that gets you talking. All right, as we give you all the fire takes here. We are a show by the fans, for the fans is what makes us unique. We talk NFL, nba, we go golf when we need to.
Speaker 1:Baseball. Power slap yes, that's right, power slap. We're going to bring you in the power slap soon. We've got that coming at you and we bring you everything. Man, we've got a fire show here for you today. Today, the focus is March Madness, the NCAA tournament, acc tournament, of course, the final push in the NBA as we get ready for the playoffs and the NFL free agency. So those are fire things that we're going to talk about today. Excuse me if the show sucks today. I lost a whole bunch of brain cells on the way here riding with Diego and Chris listening to the new Playboy Cardi album.
Speaker 3:Why are you hating on the album? That's crazy man.
Speaker 1:That was garbage. It was was amazing that's art art.
Speaker 2:Right there, it is art, okay, okay yeah, okay, to be fair let me, let me give my take. So basically, when in high school in georgia and again it took cardi a minute to grow on me as well, but again, once it hit, it hit. Sometimes bars aren't everything, you just need beats, flows definitely hits. Bars aren't everything.
Speaker 3:Y'all hear me, bars aren't everything Spoken by somebody.
Speaker 1:That's Michael Jordan, right, 23,. Right, you just turned 23. Happy birthday to you. All right, but yeah, spoken like a 23-year-old. How old are you, boy? 15. 15. 15. Okay, all right, so you love the album clearly, right, amazing.
Speaker 3:Love it All. Right Generational Might be the album of the decade.
Speaker 1:Why didn't he drop on time?
Speaker 3:Uh-huh. Why didn't he drop on time? Because it was the buildup then and all the fans would be be excited. And it was just. It was perfect, yeah, Okay, All right. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, we will move on. Welcome to pick a pros. Y'all All right. We're in rare form. Y'all ready to get into this first topic? Y'all ready's get into this? So ACC basketball First. Your guy, diego Cooper Flagg, twisted that ankle pretty badly, so it looks like he is out for the rest of the ACC tournament, which is probably a good thing. However, what's your take on the injury? How is that going to impact Duke for the rest of the ACC tournament? What's the outlook for the rest of the year? Just give us your take on Duke and Cooper Flagg.
Speaker 3:Honestly, I just think we just need to load, manage this one. Give Carolina a win, give them a nice win, say they got a win against us even though we didn't have all our people. We just got to rest up, get ready for the tournament, because that's really what matters. We already got the 1C locked up. We already got A1C locked up. Maybe we don't need Cooper flagging them to win the ACC tournament. We came back against a pretty good Georgia Tech team down by double digits to win that game.
Speaker 1:We good, this doesn't even really matter, we're fine that would be a hard flex If y'all won the ACC tournament without Cooper Flag. That would really put everybody on notice. Yeah, that would be pretty hard. But before we go to you, chris, so that's interesting because you said they should load manage. Yeah, that's an interesting take because could this be the start of teams that have the number one seed locked up load managing in the conference tournament? Is that basically like unnecessary bowl games? It?
Speaker 3:should be like how college football. It's sort of a penalty if you make the championship game and lose. It can sort of be like that where they just load manage a little bit so they don't have to get in those situations.
Speaker 1:Interesting. I wonder if that'll catch on. What do you think, Chris?
Speaker 2:Well, managing with college players is insane. Listen, this is a rare opportunity that you get to win your conference and you're just all of a sudden not going to want to play because you're going to go to March Madness, where you're more likely to get upset by a crazy three. Nah, at least try to win your conference championship.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then we can't risk big injuries because we have a real chance to win our sixth national championship. We can't lose it. Who is we Duke? Are you French? Oui, oui, I'm not French.
Speaker 1:I'm not oui, oui, oui, okay. That is a cold jersey, though that's a hard jersey right there, tatum Duke jersey. That's pretty nice, all right, okay. Well, let's go into the ACC tournament. So who do you have winning the ACC tournament? Diego.
Speaker 3:I'm going to go with Duke. I'm going to go with us, you know, because that's my team. You know we still are the best team without Cooper, but if we don't win, it doesn't really matter, so yeah okay, all right, shout out to josh.
Speaker 1:Okay, I caught that comment out of the corner of my eye, going for duke. All right, josh. But josh, you're bandwagon man, so you, you, you're just uh happy because you, on the fourth try, called duke in the uh women's acc tournament. You said who do you say? He said notre dame.
Speaker 4:Then he said Carolina then I think he settled on.
Speaker 1:Duke, all right. What about you, chris?
Speaker 2:I'm going with Duke as well, wow. I'm going with my team as well. What, yeah, sorry.
Speaker 1:Man Dang. Okay, you know what I'm going to say, because this would just be so typical. I'm going to say Carolina. I'm going to say Carolinaolina, we don't even care. You know, they want to do the nc state thing. Although it wouldn't be five games in five days, I guess it would be four and four. So it's not quite the same, but I could definitely see them uh them doing that. So we'll see what happens. If they can beat duke tonight, without cooper flag, they'd have a tough game against Clemson, though that's the 10th team in the country.
Speaker 3:True.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but they'd be very motivated. That would basically be their national championship for this year. Really would be. Yeah, that would be that's sad.
Speaker 3:No shot, though, no shot we can work real hard with them.
Speaker 1:Take the shot, please. All right, all right, well, um, again sticking with the acc, all right, but talking about coach keats? Okay, so the nc state coach, coach keats, was uh fired, as you all know. Um, what about five days ago? And, uh, diego, I think you uh were on the side that he deserved at least another year. Why don't you go ahead and talk about that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like Keats. I thought he was a good coach, a good guy, but yeah, I think he deserved another year. I mean only giving him one year. After just going to the Final Four and winning the ACC Championship, I think he just deserved another year. Also, who is a coach you think are you going to get? That's better than a guy that just went to the Final Four and ACC championship win? I don't know who you're going to get, Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I say that worked against him. Like I said, all I heard all offseason was how State had all this momentum and they were back and all these recruits are going to want to, you know, come to state and that they had recruited. Well, right, so the last thing we expected was for them to finish what five and five and 15 in the conference. I don't think anybody expected it's one thing if they said, hey, we lost, you know, lost all our seniors. We're probably going to have a down year, we're rebuilding and we'll be back. But that wasn't the talk.
Speaker 1:The talk was they might get back in the Final Four this year, so I think that actually worked against them. It hurt, okay, nothing.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I feel like to me, if you can make a miracle run, you're always going to have a shorter leash.
Speaker 5:You feel me, me, because everybody's gonna ask you, can you do it again?
Speaker 2:and then if you perform way below the expectations, it's not gonna be great. I mean, I think of like situations with like browns coaches, like I don't know if you remember freddie kitchens when the browns won. Yeah, a couple of those games went on a crazy run and then all of a sudden, you know they get out so true that's true, yeah yeah now, and the other thing, I don't know if many people realize this.
Speaker 1:So again, I like, I really like keats. He was great to you when you were there. Um, I think everybody loved him. But you know, on the personal level and we were all excited about this season, but again, 12 and 19 overall. They were 5 and 15 in the conference. Do you know how many road games they won this year? I? Don't know how many.
Speaker 2:How many Zero Ooh Ugh.
Speaker 1:They came close to beating Newt, they went 0-11 on the road this year and then in neutral site games they were 0-2. So the 12 wins that they had were all at home Went 12-6. So I think that's what 12 to six. So I think that that's what, what led to it. So, and I think a lot of people don't realize exactly what the record was, they just know they were bad.
Speaker 1:But a lot of people weren't really checking for college like that and state to be real. So they just oh, okay, they had a down year but yeah, it stayed and you know who else you're going to get. But when you really dig into it and you go, oh dang, they didn't win a road game, you know they were bad, bad. You know, like Meek Mill, oh you, rich, rich, yeah, they were bad, bad. You know what I mean. So yeah, they were pretty bad there. All right, well, hubert Davis, let's stay on the ACC. So Carolina, starting to turn it around, looks they're going to get into the tournament here, get into the big dance, the NCAA tournament. How long of a leash does Hubert Davis have?
Speaker 3:He's gone. You think he's gone? Yeah, he's out of here, he gone Really. I mean just hearing from the Carolina fans.
Speaker 1:Really, okay.
Speaker 3:well, yeah, I think you know, because he didn't recruit a center. He recruited a bunch of guards to go along with RJis, elliot gado. Yeah, in regards they had, they only had one one like six nine guy to play center and like a six six guy to play power forward. Yeah, so like they, they just don't think that he can recruit as well as he needs to compete with, like a duke that recruits, you know everybody. You know every year they're having the top recruiting class and they gotta compete with that. Every twice a year I think he's out of here.
Speaker 2:What do you think? I mean, I think after a deep run, and if they somehow beat Duke, you got to still give them a chance.
Speaker 3:I don't know I'll have to next face him. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think he's saved his job at least another year. I mean, would I be absolutely floored and shocked if they fired him? No, but I wouldn't bet on it. I think he saved himself another year just getting into the tournament. I think if they missed the tournament and then turned down the NIT yet again, I think that might have been doing for him, but I think he bought himself another year. I think that might have been doing for him, but I think he bought himself another year.
Speaker 1:However, if they don't get back to old Carolina ball getting into the Sweet 16, the days are numbered. I think the day is definitely going to have to recruit. Like you said, show and prove. And are they behind the eight ball with NIL? You know we look at money. You know Marquise Williams again was with us at Kings. Former football player from UNC, said again, they don't have as much funds as a lot of these other schools do, sec and all those types of schools Big Ten so they're working at a little bit of disadvantage. But at the same time Duke tends to get top recruits.
Speaker 3:I understand, but for Carolina.
Speaker 2:I don't think you've got an excuse. You're an all-time blue blood. There's no way that nobody wants to donate just so y'all can go and beat Duke every year and go win an ACC championship and go win in the NCAA tournament. The one thing I don't like in sports, especially when it comes to NIL, is the conversation when it comes to ACC teams, Because I know we're in the South, but is the conversation when it comes to ACC teams, Because I know we're in the South but there's still a bunch of boosters who love this sport. It's just like you just got to allocate your resources better. And, yes, the SEC, especially with football, that's so dominant and that's so big over there. But I think really with ACC it's a game of catch-up, but you have the alumni, you have all of the stuff to be able to keep up. So I really don't think that's an excuse at this point, honestly.
Speaker 3:Them hanging on to these stars for five years consistently. That's also a thing. These players don't want to ruin their NBA stock because, let's say, they have a great freshman year, sophomore year, they're staying all five years it doesn't matter who, it is All five.
Speaker 1:And you know what? That's one last thing before we move on to the NCAA tournament. That's funny. So we noticed we were watching the Duke Carolina game last week, the game that mattered, and it was funny because you've got the Duke alumni commentating the game. Yes, right, you've got Jason Williams doing he's more the background. And then you've got jason williams um doing, um, he's more the background. And then you've got uh, what's the the main guys? I can't think of the main guy's name. No, that's not. But they got. They got the two dude guys right. But the point is, it's so funny because every time they reference carolina star player, they kept saying that he was a five-year player.
Speaker 1:He like kept yeah he kept saying it was like a subtle dig that he kept taking throughout the whole game, so I thought that was pretty, pretty funny. All right, well, we're gonna move on to the ncaa tournament and go into march madness y'all. So quick plug. Yes, pick them pros. We have our bracket challenge, as we do every year, so you can join, you can sign up now. You can go ahead, fill out your brackets. It's free to get in.
Speaker 1:Just go to our website, thepicklemproscom. Thepicklemproscom. Go to our website and you can sign up for the the men's bracket and the women's bracket, and we are giving away a hundred dollar gift card for the winner of the men's bracket and the women's bracket, and we are giving away a $100 gift card for the winner of the men's bracket and a $100 gift card to the winner of the women's bracket. You'll also get a little Pick'em Pro swag, so you'll get some gear and you'll get some funds to get a gift card. So it's free to join. Go to our website, sign up for both and fight for second place, because y'all know I'm going to take that thing. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:March Madness right here. I don't know if anybody's going to take first in that one. It'd be hard to call. I'm sorry. There's always that one Cinderella team that ruins everything for everybody Every time.
Speaker 1:Every time. Make sure you sign up today for that. All right, so sticking with NCAA tournament here, let's go into our predictions, because when we have our next show, which will be at Kings next week Saturday, the tournament would have already started. We'll be into the second round technically at that point when we have our next show. So before we, we don't know what the brackets are. We don't know all of that. But at a high level, based on the college teams in the NCAA, we're going to start with the women, Then we'll go to the men. Based on the women, what team would you pick right now, Diego, to win?
Speaker 3:it, I'd pick USC. They beat the number one team in the country, ucla, twice. They lost in the big conference in the Big Ten championship. Still they beat them twice in the Big 10 Championship. But I mean, still to beat them twice in the regular season is really impressive. I think they beat UConn. They've had some big wins. They got Juju, who's arguably the best player in college basketball Okay. So yeah, I think they got what it takes.
Speaker 1:Wow, all right, okay, man, okay. So you've got USC to win Juju. All right, okay, man, okay. So you've got USC to win Juju, all right. What about you, chris?
Speaker 2:All right, South Carolina. I'm not doubting Don Staley.
Speaker 1:Oh, south Carolina. Yeah, y'all know, I love Don Staley.
Speaker 2:That's who I got.
Speaker 1:That's who I got, man. So, yeah, I've got my heart and I've got my head right. Heart, I'm with you. I say South Carolina, dawn Staley, love to see them repeat uh, we know they're going to make adjustments and and just be strong and they just, you know, breeze through the SEC uh, tournament, got yet another SEC conference championship. So very impressive, great roster, very well coached, great scouting department, the whole nine.
Speaker 1:But I can't unsee that 30-point blowout that UConn put on South Carolina. Yeah, at home, at home, at South. I mean man, yes, yes In their house, yeah, in their house. So I'm like man, as much as I want to say South Carolina and I love and I'm going to be pulling for them, I just can't unsee that. That butt whooping, yeah, yeah, so, man, so if I'm putting money on it, I've got to say UConn. I believe that at this point, yeah, and you know man Gino's hungry for another title, man, he hadn't had one in a minute. Yeah, so you know, you know he wants to come, because I think he also has been waiting to uh, retire, but I think he wants to go out on a, on a high note. So I could definitely see that. So I think, uh, I I think smart money is on you, kind of I have to have to pick one now, all right, okay, well, let's go over to the men. So uh, diego, who you got on the men's side there's really no debate.
Speaker 3:I mean it. It's going to be Duke. Everybody knows it's going to be Duke Cooper Flagg, future face of the NBA National Player of the Year. He's about to be named that. It's really just obvious. I don't even know why we're having this conversation.
Speaker 1:Okay, Cooper Flagg, but isn't Cooper Flagg? Wasn't Cooper Flagg in a wheelchair yesterday?
Speaker 3:He wasn't. I mean, that was really pretty dramatic, it was just Okay.
Speaker 2:Maybe, you had to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 1:Okay, precautionary. Okay, precautionary, all right. Okay, what about you? I got.
Speaker 2:Duke as well. You got Duke too. Listen, I won another championship. One of the worst memories I have is us losing to Carolina. Coach K's last game, our last chance to really do the thing In the Final Four, losing to Carolina. So I want us to get it back in blood. Go on a little revenge tour, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, oh man. Okay Paul, I didn't realize you were a Dukie man, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's one of the things that I don't tell people, because once I say Lakers-Duke and then I say the Panthers, because then people assume it's Lakers-Duke-Cowboys. It's like no, it's Lakers-Duke-Cowboys. I got to have a balance of, like you might as well throw the Cowboys in there 2015.
Speaker 3:Hell's Frozen over. At that point I'm trying to. I don't remember their title in 2015.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you really haven't. You haven't lived through the championship. Okay, all right, okay, interesting. So again, I don't know if this is going to be a theme today, but I've got a heart and a head pick All right. So heart is Houston. Man, y'all I love, I love Houston.
Speaker 3:That was your sleeper team. I love Houston.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's my sleeper team although they're number two or three in the country now, they're still sleeper because everybody was sleeping on them coming in and I doubt many people are going to pick them to win the championship this year. I doubt many people will pick them, so I'm not even picking them. As much as I love Houston, love the defense, the way they play they always, when it's you know, final eight, elite eight, final four, when they get into tough possessions they just are not able to score. They have a great three-point shooter, they have a little more offense, but I still feel that they just overall as a team don't have enough offense to pull it off. So again, smart money, I feel, is on Florida this year and Florida is the team to do it. They've got the right balance of offense and defense. Hopefully we'll see Florida come here to Raleigh for round one and round two of the NCAA tournament. Yes, shout out to Raleigh hosting rounds one and round two. So hopefully Duke will be here and hopefully Florida will be here. That would be great to see. All right, okay. Well, let's move on to some NBA. Let's move on to some NBA action here.
Speaker 1:Now, before we get into that, I've got to plug next week's show. All right. So next week's show we are at King's yes, live in front of a big, big audience already sold out. All right as far as getting up close and personal and having a direct view of the show, but we will be at King's Saturday, march 22nd. Yes, saturday, march 22nd at King's, we go live at 7 PM Eastern, our typical time. We're already sold out as far as being right there, but we have an overflow section. So if you want to be in the overflow section, just pull up, be in the overflow section, check it out. It's going to be great and we are going to wow. The night is going to cap off right, the night is going to cap off by us giving away two tickets to a lucky winner to join us in the VIP suite for the round two games right At the Lenovo Center. So a lucky person that is there in the audience in the core area that's already sold out is going to win two tickets at the end to join us the very next night. So that's going to be. That's going to be wild. That's going to be wild. So can't wait for that. All right, so just wanted to plug that, okay.
Speaker 1:So the MVP race, the NBA let's start off with this All right MVP race. We've got Joker versus SGA Big, big debate and I was actually watching. I read an article saying that joker has just overtaken sga in the prediction for winning mvp. I believe that people are losing their mind over that 30 2020 game that he put up and then they beat. Although they played each other back to back or played each other in a short span, they split. But a lot of people are freaking out on the fact that Joker won his game Because Joker put up, like almost did another 30-20-20. He had like a 30-18-9, I think, gain.
Speaker 3:It was a triple-double man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it was a humongous number.
Speaker 2:Anyhow, I mean, I could do that.
Speaker 1:Let's get y'all's. Take on this man, sga, the guy that is with the team that has, you know, one of the top records and we're missing a lot of people early on. Or Joker, who's putting up again another historic performance. Who you got, diego.
Speaker 3:Oh, you're talking about people losing their minds over his like 20, 20, wait, no, 30, 20, 20 game and some other stuff they did. I'm losing my mind over them losing to Ant-Man and the Timberwolves by 20 points at home. Like this team again. You can't be losing this team again. They don't even have Cat. They replaced Cat with Julius Randle. Like, come on, man, you can't be doing that. Anyways, it's clearly SGA Number one overall seed in the West Averaging, leading the NBA in scoring, averaging 32, 5, and 6. Stats he's got the stats. They're number one, been carrying them even when they didn't have Chet. Chet's missed most of the year. And Joker the Nuggets are number three seed, close to the fourth seed and just has had some bad losses recently Lost to the Lakers. I think it's SGA. He needs to get his first Joker's one too many.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there is that A little bit of fatigue. It was questionable because a lot of people thought SGA should have won last year, so you could maybe do a good old NBA referee makeup call on that. But, chris, what's your take?
Speaker 2:oh, your stats matter more than your seating and like you carrying a team and leading and scoring and doing all this other stuff. And that's where I'm like kind of confused with this argument, because I'm like, okay, what are we gonna keep doing the redefining the mvp year after year after year, because the years we thought joker should have won it, he didn't win it. And then now this year it's like, okay, look, love, what yoka just doing again. This is all time great stuff. I have a question about you. I might ask you about that after this.
Speaker 2:All right, but with shea, like, come on leading the youngest team in the nba of multiple players. Still, they are still the youngest team in the nba, they're the number one seed in the superior conference in the nba and have been putting hands and feet on the best teams in the NBA, mostly led by that guy. And we can talk about like, oh, he gets all the free throws, he gets all the calls. That doesn't matter, that's a skill. You get into the line, you're still scoring, you're still dropping 50. That's the most. What. 50-point games, 40-point games, 30-point games, 24 games. And then, in addition to him, I think he's going to break Kobe's record for most consecutive 20-point games in a season. So what are we talking about here? Y'all, let's give Shea the MVP again. We got to reward a player for doing something. We knew, okay, siu was good last year, but we didn't expect Shea to take it to this level and they're going to win, almost like being a 65-plus win team. Come on, like Chris. What are we talking about here?
Speaker 3:They're like 12 games ahead of the number two seed also.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is a huge gap. Yeah, there would be one thing if there was a little less of a gap, but the gap between the OKC Thunder and the second seed in the West is huge. So, yeah, yeah, definitely. I agree, I agree, we all agree. Sga should be the MVP. Now, yeah, to be real, if you did a blind reveal and just looked at their stats, you know Joker might get it. But there is something to be said about the fact that SGA could have easily won it last year. There is something to be said that some of the other MVPs that Joker got you could question that. So I feel that SGA should definitely get it this year. It would be a tragedy if he's had yet another great season. It would remind me of James Harden, because James Harden should have had more than just that one MVP. And so I feel that that first MVP that Steph Curry got, I thought James.
Speaker 2:Harden should have had it. The first Giannis one that was James Harden should have gotten that one for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I feel that it's the same thing. So is it going to be SGA's fourth or fifth year where he could have won it when he finally gets it? Come on, let's not do that. So yeah, we got gotta definitely get it to SGA this year.
Speaker 2:Alright, cool, cool, matthew, you had a question. Yeah, so because, again, you know you're the basketball guru, you feel me. I wanted to ask you is Joker a top 5 big man all time, right now? Yes, okay, yes. So who would you say would be your five? Oh, man, oh, and I know you're asking that, so that that that definitely because you gotta pick a five, that's tough, I would.
Speaker 1:I would put him top five for sure. Um, you know, I mean okay, yeah, you say you know russell, chamberlain, shack, kareem, and then I probably put Joker. I probably put them over Hakeem, because Hakeem has two, right, joker has one, is putting crazy numbers up, but he's got one with no other all-star on his team. So I think that the no other all-star on his team and the ridiculous numbers that he's putting up and the passing and all of that, I think can give him that edge. Hakeem had amazing footwork, probably the best footwork ever, especially for a big man was nasty, but hakeem got. He got both of those and jordan went there, you know. So then that's also the other thing. So, from a historical standpoint, so those would be my top five. I don't know if I'm missing anybody because this is off the dome, but I would say Joker gets in there at the five spot right now. But I'm going to take it one step further. If Joker gets two more championships, joker goes down as the best big man ever.
Speaker 2:Ooh Over Shaq. Heck yeah over Shaq. Yes, okay, yes, all right over Shaq. Heck yeah over Shaq.
Speaker 1:Over Shaq, over all of them over now Kareem, but yeah, I would say again, if he continues to play with no other all-star and Joker gets two more championships, I would put Joker as best big man ever. That's what I would say on that. What do you think, diego?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I agree, I think he's top five. Also, would you include Tim Duncan as a big or?
Speaker 1:is that more like no, I'm just going to say, I'd have him there regardless.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You got Kareem one, like Shaq two Bill Russell.
Speaker 1:Um then joker and like will chamberlain five I think okay, all right, nice, I love that, love that. Great, great discussion, great discussion. All right, fellas. Well, let's move on. Oh yeah, let's go to the los angeles lakers. Yeah, we got it. We cannot be a sports talk show and talk basketball and not talk to lakers although we don't just solely talk lakers. Yeah, we got it. We cannot be a sports talk show and talk basketball and not talk to lakers although we don't just solely talk lakers. But we got to give you a little bit of lakers here. But lakers, man, are they fool's gold? Diego, we got a lot of layers to this conversation, but we'll just kind of start here and peel back the the layers here.
Speaker 3:What you got yeah, dude, I do think they're fool's gold man. Yeah, um, they're just too. It's too old, you know, like lebron getting hurt luca, just basically the same age as lebron's way of looking. It might as well be, um, yeah, it's just and and they're relying on, like jackson hayes and like all these other role players that you know. Hey, if lose, it's on them. You know the whole LeBron LeBron thing.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, that's. The most aggravating thing about them is they'll pick the most rando player and say, oh, we don't have so and so, like man, ain't nobody thinking about him. No, no, no, this is you. When it was AD and LeBron, it was AD and LeBron. It was AD and LeBron. Now that it's Luka and LeBron, it's Luka and LeBron. I don't want to hear about your six-man off the bench or anybody like that as the reason you're not winning.
Speaker 2:But yeah, come on, that's fair, absolutely Okay. So as again a resident Lakers fan here, I will say I have been trepidatious about this trade. I did say we're not going to win the championship this year.
Speaker 2:So, y'all flaming us. Okay, yes, it is understandable and it is irritating as a Lakers fan when you do have now two top 10 players, more like two top eight players, let's be real, okay. And then the old guys hurt and then Luka decides again the next game. That felt like fool's gold to me at least. See how we perform seeing lebron deferring, luca hitting big shots, lebron taking over and overtime. That's how I feel we should be all the time. However, there's games where luca just looks like he forgets how to play basketball, yeah, and austin reeves like and our third best player forgets how to shoot. So I'm like, yes, I don't know what we're supposed to do, and I think that again, with not having a true big man, that has definitely affected us. And again, jackson Hayes has been playing good in his minutes, but again, him being hurt. That hasn't been great for us as well.
Speaker 2:And I do think that, again, some of our parts do help and sometimes there are moments when our six-man on the bench shows up. That shouldn't really determine how we play. Like, again, when it comes to the playoffs, we've seen Joker and Jamal Murray just be like hey, we're going to take over and we're going to do our thing. You feel me, and Michael Porter Jr is going to hit a big shot, or Christian Brown, but most of the time it is going to be Joker and Jamal Murray. So I don't need that excuse. You feel me like, oh, like, our bench isn't solid enough. Look, if we have Luke and LeBron, we should be able to figure it out. So, hey, we'll see how this playoffs goes. I hope we're not in another first round exit, though.
Speaker 1:That's why I don't need to have it, especially after the high that they were on.
Speaker 2:The high, the 50,000 points. I was like, oh yeah, we're back.
Speaker 1:Yep, back to reality. So shout out to my dad. So I see the comment that popped up there said that the Lakers. They basically said Lakers, yeah, lakers, are falling down. So you know that. Now again, full disclaimer. Professor Thompson is in Dallas, texas.
Speaker 2:Oh, you wish it on him, bro.
Speaker 1:It's okay, man, it's okay, he will be joining us a lot later in the next month or so as we get NBA finals time, and in the summer you're going to be seeing a lot of Professor Thompson. So you know, shout out to him there, shout out to all the family, everybody that's watching. Shout out to Mashika Trey. Everybody Shout out to everybody. But yes, wanted to say that. So, with LeBron being the best player, I think that's a big problem yeah right, still lying over, still relying on lebron to no to uh shoot two game, winning threes against the hornets.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's pretty bad that's pretty bad.
Speaker 1:Now, what's up with luca breaking down? All right, what's what's up with that? So again we, yeah. Something seems too good to be true. It is Was Dallas. Did Dallas know what was up?
Speaker 3:I still think Dallas is going to end up winning the trade Next year. Once they get healthy, I think they're going to end up winning because Luka just doesn't look like the same player he played good against the Nuggets, but I mean he might be heading to the Nuggets soon, who knows?
Speaker 5:Maybe he might be heading to the Nuggets soon. Who knows, maybe he's just trying to look good in front of their front office.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I just don't think Luka's the same player. He just doesn't. He's getting hurt, he doesn't look as happy.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, he has not looked happy Like ever since, like on the plane and everything just did not look happy. Now I've got something else to say about the Luka thing. I don't see Luka and JJ Redick getting along long-term, so I think they're still in the honeymoon stage. Don't know how much of a honeymoon stage it is right now with LeBron being gone. I think that's going to make that honeymoon stage end pretty quickly, because it's mighty funny that the moment LeBron was gone, then all of a sudden JJ was trashing the team and you know the effort and doing all that and you know basically calling them out as being a different, you know, team without LeBron Again let's not forget, let's not forget a great, a great championship coach in.
Speaker 1:Rick Carlisle basically raised his hands up and said I'm done, right, and went to the Indiana Pacers. He went to Siberia OK, to get away from Luca, all right, that was an indictment. And now we've got Jason Kidd saying yeah, because we know Jason Kidd knew about the trade. And Jason Kidd was like, yeah, yeah, that's fine, let's go ahead and get rid of him. So I think that's a big indictment on Luka to have two coaches of that caliber being fined with not coaching a all-time great talent. I think that that says a lot and is very interesting.
Speaker 1:So, and with the personality back to my point, with the personality that JJ Redick has and as abrasive as he can be, if Rick Carlisle and JKid threw their hands up with Luka, then what is butthole JJ Redick going to be? He's not going to be patient with him. No, not at all. That is not going to end well. That is not going to end well. That is not going to end well. Let JJ Reddick start to be sarcastic with Luka and Luka having as much power as he has. Knowing, hey, I'm the star and I'm all y'all got because LeBron's about to be gone, one of them going to have to go, and who is it going to be? Oh man, get your popcorn ready for that one. That's going to be interesting. Let's move on to our next topic. Okay, so Cleveland Cavaliers, josh's Cavaliers Out of Cleveland, shout out to Josh Cavaliers heading to the NBA Finals. Is that fact or is that cap what you got, diego?
Speaker 3:I mean I think it's fair to say at this point that we just gotta see. Um, okay, the calves, they're looking like a great regular season team. Just find me, they have talent on the roster. They should be. But I mean, we we didn't expect what they're doing now. But it's just, garland has never shown up in the playoffs. We haven't. We haven't seen it. Mitchell's always put his arm around him and kind of little boy them in the playoffs. We haven't seen it. Mitchell's always put his arm around him and kind of little boyed him in the playoffs. He's kind of just taken over and it just hasn't been enough. Scooped his head.
Speaker 4:LeBron style.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just like LeBron to Kyrie. I just think we got to see, I can't believe it to us.
Speaker 1:Got to see TPD, okay. So right now you still say that the Boston Celtics are the team that'll go to the finals.
Speaker 3:I do think the Cavs will get to the Eastern Conference Finals, though I think they'll play the Knicks and the Knicks will run out of gas and they'll beat them and then go to the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1:Finals Thibodeau run them into the ground. Okay, all right. What do you think? Is it fact or cap? I got the Celtics as well.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah. I know I picked the Knicks but seeing their performances versus all the best teams in the NBA, I mean shoot. They lost to the Lakers. At this point. Who can they beat?
Speaker 2:You feel me, but yeah, I just I don't know. I I think that the playoff experience that they have, the fact that the celtics still feel disrespected off of that championship run that they had last year, and again the calves it really is show and prove like I'm not gonna believe until I see the first two rounds are gonna make me are gonna be what's gonna determine it all for me, because I'm not, I don't know, I just it's weird, I don't believe in them and I've seen the celtics show up time and time again in the conference unless jimmy butler, just the only times they haven't, like made the finals when jimmy butler's gone, nuclear so it's just right yeah, yep, like that was, that was really it, you know, and there's no jimmy butler to go nuclear on them right now in the eastern conference.
Speaker 1:That's all I'm saying. Well, but I think Donovan Mitchell is going to be that replacement, because Donovan Mitchell has that dog.
Speaker 3:He's going to need some help. He can't do it by himself. He's got the help. Now Are they going to show up? He's got plenty of LeBron help. He's probably never shown up in the playoffs. That game in Boston, that game in.
Speaker 1:Boston. When Boston jumped out on him about 20 points and then you could read Tatum's lips talking about get the F out of here, you know what I mean, and whatever thought it was over. And then Mitchell went crazy, lost his mind, went nuclear.
Speaker 2:It was that dog.
Speaker 1:And I think that's a precursor and they're going to have home court advantage. If it goes down to a game seven, it's going to be in the old gun arena I don't know what they call it now.
Speaker 2:I think it's quick. I don't know if it's quick and long. I'm showing my age on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, quick and long, something like that, yeah, but again, what's the name of the stadium? Let us know.
Speaker 2:I need proof. That's all I need to see to believe it. You feel me? Again, Boston still has the most experienced team, their whole roster. They can go eight deep. What are we doing, man? Let's see what happens. I hope not. I hope not.
Speaker 1:They can go eight deep, but again, my man Yudoka's not coaching them, they're just shooting threes. They got the mad scientists there right now and they're just shooting threes.
Speaker 2:They got the mad scientists you know there right now and they've been shooting threes. And when Al Horford hits five in a big game, four then we're going to be having a different conversation.
Speaker 3:That's all I'm going to say. It's really all about Tatum. It's the.
Speaker 1:Tatum, that shoot loss. So it's Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. Thank you, brandon. Thank you, brandon. Fact-checking, shout, fact-checking, shout-out to Brandon, keeping it straight man, all the fact-checking and getting us all the stats. Oh, we got, because of Stacey Hobbs. Hey, cousin, it seems like the Lakers are doing a little better since they have Luka. Lebron and Luka should make it happen. The Cavs are doing their thing, that's right. Yes, cavs are doing their thing. Lakers, you know, when LeBron gets back, I'm sure they'll look like a whole nother team because LeBron is one of the main guys. But we'll see. We'll see if that is that a calf now. No, luka's resting tonight. So again, calf and ankle, I believe, is what he's got right now. Foot and back, got about six or seven different illness right now, everything hurt Everything, all right Okay.
Speaker 1:But again, cavs 55-10 at the moment. Man, yeah, eight and a half game lead over Boston. Right now, boston's 47-19. So, yeah, shout out to the Cavs. So I for the record.
Speaker 5:I have the Cavs going to the NBA Finals. Yes, I believe in the Cavs.
Speaker 1:They are going to the NBA finals. Yes, I believe in the Cavs. They are going to the NBA finals. I got them.
Speaker 2:We're at 55 and 10 with a conference where the Bulls and the Nets exist. I don't want to hear nothing about that.
Speaker 1:Come on, there is that. There is that.
Speaker 2:I'm glad the Pistons are good this year, because I would have made a joke about that. Shout out to.
Speaker 1:Kane. Actually, as the great Eddie Johnson, a legendary player of the Phoenix Suns, said, there you go with the facts, man. There you go with the facts. All right, bless up. Show the can, though, man. Best story in sports. All right, let's move on.
Speaker 1:Jason Tatum let's move on to our guy Jason Tatum, rocking the Celtics hoodie here in honor of my guy. So, tatum a lot of people say he's disrespected, but some people say he's overrated and just on a stack team. So you know which is? We're going to get into that before you get into that.
Speaker 1:It's funny because I've had a lot of battles with people on instagram about tatum, right, and they've kind of gone at me, right, for my disrespect of tatum. But what's funny about it is I haven't said I haven't put one post out going at tatum, it's just the fact that I have not included him in certain lists and that has started the battle. Okay, right. So, like in my face of the nba, I listed some people and didn't list tatum, and then people were going at me and then in the argument back and forth it was like oh, you just don't like tatum. I'm like I didn't even list Tatum to not put him in this, and there was a couple of the topics where I didn't list Tatum and then the Tatum supporters came out and were like ah man, the disrespect I'm like. Ok, I just didn't mention him.
Speaker 3:But anyway, with that said, diego, is Tatum being disrespected or is he overrated? I, I'm gonna just say he's properly rated, because I mean, yeah, I'm such a big combination of people saying that he's overrated, some say he's disrespected, so I'm gonna just say it's in the middle, he's properly rated. Okay, you know, he's the best player on a championship team, so I mean that that puts him in a space that's, that's good. But then also he is on a great team with that stacked, which has a lot of other guys that can step up in big games. So yeah, I just properly rated, properly rated?
Speaker 1:All right, properly rated. What about you, chris?
Speaker 2:To me, again, he's properly rated. He's obviously like top 10 fringe, top five player when he's on and my thing with him is just like you're literally leading the charge on a great team. But again, if Jalen Brown decides to turn up one game, it's like, oh, we got another guy who can do the exact same thing. They also got Drew Holiday and then you have the best role player who listen, if Derek White could ever. If there's one player on the Celtics actually one of the Lakers, it's Derek White, because he Celtics white. Actually one of the Lakers, it's Derek white because he, yeah, big defensive, plays big three every single time. So when you got all those guys on your team, plus again a mad scientist head coach who you don't like for some reason, I don't know what he- did to you but shoot, I have very valid reasons he took you doka's job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I have a valid reason to like this, like email.
Speaker 2:Like we all have a very valid reason to dislike Imei. Like let's keep it real Football at all, it's our great one. Like that's just. That's crazy. Hey, I think that again he's properly rated. He's one of the better players in the NBA, but again you're on the best team. Like nobody's going to necessarily try to crown you, make you the face when you're like there's so many parts that really help you out and help elevate you.
Speaker 1:I will say for Tatum that he continues to improve. He's gotten better this year. I really watched him and I love the fact that he's shooting. Although he does shoot a lot of threes, does the cha-cha? You know backstep travel, three, three, but he is shooting the mid-range a little more. I love it when he shoots that shot and especially in these playoffs, if he can consistently go to that and not bail you know, teams out with bad shots, that's going to be a great sign for the Celtics. So I love that he's doing that more. He's driving better. You know, before he would get ripped a lot or drive all the way, miss the layup and then throw his arm and cry for the foul and whatnot. He's finishing better this year so I like that. His stats are great. So you know he has improved. I would say that he is still properly rated. I don't think that he's being disrespected and I certainly don't think that he's overrated by any stretch. I think he's properly rated. But people that are huge on Tatum feel that if you're not saying he's the face of the league or if you're not saying that he is the MVP leader, that you're disrespecting him. I just don't think that's quite fair. I think he's properly rated at this point, alright, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, let's move on. We're going to finish up Before we get to the Brandon minute at the end, or Brandon minutes. We got a couple minutes for Brandon. We are going to talk NFL, all right, we're going to talk NFL free agency. We're going to bring Brianna yes, we do have Brianna coming at you from Arizona. She's going to be joining us in a minute. Before we bring Brianna on for our two NFL topics, we've got one topic that we're going to talk about internally, all right, and that is going to be the Carolina Panthers. We got the two Carolina Panther homers here and by us coming at you from North Caculac in Cary, north Carolina, right now, to be specific, we got to talk about the Panthers.
Speaker 1:I personally feel that they have had a terrible offseason. I think it has been atrocious. All right, the fact that they have made your guy JC the highest paid corner in the NFL is just terrible, and I feel their offseason has been awful. I had them as a team that was under 500. That would probably make the playoffs next year, but now I do not think they would make the playoffs. I think they are going to be about the same, diego. I believe you disagree. I think both of you disagree by your reaction to me. Diego, take it away. Why don't you go ahead and judge the Panthers offseason?
Speaker 3:Well, we started off bad. I'm not going to lie. We're signing JC $100 million deal. He's a nice corner, he's a good corner, but he's not deserved to be the highest paid corner in the league. $25 million a year for JC Horn is crazy. Yep, that was bad. But outside of that, with the actual free agent moves, I like getting the cowboy running back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like getting Rico Dowdle I like signing him, Getting him for only 3 million. A thousand yard rusher. The backup, Chuba Hubbard. I think that's a good move. Getting some guys on defense, getting some help on the D-line, getting some linebacker help. So now our defense is boosted a little bit. So I think it's been a good offseason.
Speaker 1:So far Been a good offseason, so they overpaid for the cornerback, but then they signed a whole bunch of people that nobody's ever heard of. And now this is a great offseason Not until we boosted our D-line.
Speaker 3:We're getting our Pro Bowl D-in back. We're missing the whole year last year and now we're good. We're all good. Why did he?
Speaker 1:miss off. Because he got hurt in the second game. Okay, I'm sorry, I'm not that bad. Y'all hated on Derrick Brown. That was crazy.
Speaker 2:Derrick Brown is literally bad, listen, all right. So let me be real about this team. Okay, the Millen Williams loss to the Patriots, that's what I was like. Okay, what are we doing? But again got some quality pieces on the D-line Again. What are we doing? But again got some quality pieces on the D-line Again. Jc, we had to keep some defensive talent around. That was my take. I know it's a steep, steep price tag on me. Shoot, we were live and we saw that the guy who's going to get paid in Cincinnati and T Higgins was kind of doing his thing, but I think that we made some good strides. I think the draft has to be where we fully hit and get some really good impact rookies One at the receiver position, maybe another I like the Trayvon Moore exciting as well. The new safety I like that as well. But yeah, my honest thing was I thought Edgerow, our defensive coordinator, should have been fired because we allowed the most points in the NFLfl.
Speaker 2:That's why that's why I was like, okay, like in nfl history, like we like let the most points. So I was like I don't necessarily think you know you should keep having a job. We're routinely getting 40 put on our heads. You feel me so glad we got the pieces. Hopefully, you know, ever improves, but if there's another season where we're allowing over 30 points a game yes, we got to An NBA stat line on an NFL defense's head is not okay. That is not great.
Speaker 3:I want to say one more thing about JC. You're the highest paid corner in the league. That's nothing we can do about it. Now Please play some man to man coverage Please, because if you're going corner league, that's nothing we can do about it. Now please play some man-to-man coverage please, because if you're gonna, you're gonna show. So you're the highest paid corner league. Just play man-to-man, play these guys straight up and see if you can win. I just want to see it.
Speaker 3:Don't play man-to-man like like you play yes man-to-man like me, be like me, okay all right.
Speaker 1:how many touchdowns did you give up last year? Zero, not bad. How many catches did you give up?
Speaker 3:Three All year.
Speaker 1:That's not bad, that's decent. I would have done better. That's okay, that's all right. All right, oh man, there you go, ah you feel me.
Speaker 4:See, bill, you feel me.
Speaker 1:Hey, but okay, my last comment on this and then we'll bring Bray on and get to these other topics. But the Panthers, can you sign one person that we know All?
Speaker 3:right, I mean yeah but, God dog, come on man.
Speaker 1:You had your boy, that left seed. You had Metcalf, you had, I mean, you had all these big-name guys that were going to all these teams. You had your guy that signed to the Rams. Now I can't think of anybody's name.
Speaker 3:No no, devontae, Devontae, devontae.
Speaker 1:Adams. You had Devontae Adams. You had all these players, big names, players that have a history of putting up big-time numbers, and the Panthers couldn't sign one of them. That is crazy. Not one. We got to go with people that I got to look up on Google to find out that supposedly got 1,000 yards. I couldn't pick that guy out of a lineup. If you paid me $5 million, I could not pick. I wouldn't know him. If he walked in here and slapped the mess out of me like a power slap guy, I would not know who he was. Man, come on, man.
Speaker 3:Anyway, that's my point about the Carolina Panthers. We could have done that if we traded JC while he had some value.
Speaker 1:Yes, agree, that's why I say their offseason was trash, but y'all clutching your pearls. Like I said something awful. It wasn't amazing, it was fine, it was all right, we took care of some business, some business, some business.
Speaker 3:We could have done better, but it's a step.
Speaker 2:It's a B-draft. B-draft, it's fine.
Speaker 1:It's fine, y'all sound like some homers. All right, bree, come save me. Let's bring Brianna on. Let me get some over here. What's going on, brianna? How you doing.
Speaker 5:I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 1:Good, good, great to see you.
Speaker 5:Good to see you too. It's been a while.
Speaker 1:Yes, it has been a while. This is the longest break. We took a two-week hiatus, but actually we were chilling. So I was there with you. We were in Arizona, went to see the Phoenix Suns, we were in the box chilling you know what I'm saying while these guys were slumming it back here. So yeah, so yeah, we were living our best life. Yes, yes, but um, well, now we're gonna talk thanks for joining us for these nfl topics. We're gonna talk free agency. Okay, we're off the panthers, I didn't want you to live through that. Now we're talking about the rest of the nfl, okay, so what are we want to talk about? The best free agency moves, worst free agency moves? What's your take on some of the free agent moves? What do you want to highlight?
Speaker 5:I think the Seahawks getting Sam Darnold was probably a really good move just now that they have another quarterback. Just because he has talent, A lot of people hate on him. I don't know why he has talent, but I think at Seattle it'll be proved a little bit more than it has been.
Speaker 1:He's with, doesn't he have like a coach that he had before in Seattle? I think he's got like a familiar guy that really believes in him as well. So I think that's part of why he wanted to go there so I can see him showing up in there.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and I think one of the worst was the Jets with Justin Fields.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yes, we were talking about that. Yeah, that was an interesting one. Now they did sign him for and I thought this was a hilarious comment they signed him for the unwritten rule basement price for NFL starting quarterback at $20 million. So they said that's the Justin Fields rate of starting quarterback at 20 million. So so they said that that's the justin fields rate starting quarterback. 20 is the the, the low there. But um, you know, even with that, you know now he he has some moments in pittsburgh, but we'll see.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I don't think it's enough. I think he really needs to improve, because he's been on a few teams now and you know he hasn't really made his like oh my gosh, he's awesome type of game yet.
Speaker 1:So yeah, for sure, for sure. And you have, like, you have your quarterbacks that are fourth quarter, you know their clutch and whatnot, and get better, better as the game goes on is the opposite. He'll start off hot when the plays are scripted, but then, as it gets money time, that's when the accuracy really really dips and he has to rely on his legs or else they're definitely in trouble. So, okay, good, take on that. What do you guys think, diego? What's your good or bad free agency?
Speaker 3:moves.
Speaker 3:I didn't like Daniel Jones to Indianapolis and they're going to have him compete with Anthony Richardson, like, yeah, that's like if you're gonna have him learn or somebody have it be like a veteran, maybe, like a guy that's been to some Pro Bowls all pros, but not Daniel Jones like there's no point in that, if you're at that point, you just gotta let him play. And then I don't like Miles Sanders to the Cowboys either. Um, yeah, that that's not as big as a deal in the news, but I mean he's looking to be maybe their starter, since they let go of Rico, dowdle and Zeke, oh yeah, so he's really all they got right now. That's true, they don't have anybody as their starter. No, we learned our lesson with that a few years ago. That's a good one.
Speaker 2:What about you, chris? My worst move is the 49ers whole offseason. I have no idea what is going on, oh okay, losing your one of your best safeties and your second best linebacker yeah, the broncos yeah, lost a bunch of pieces on the defensive line. Still got to pay brock purdy traded devo again. Devo might be washed, Diego, but hey, we'll see. We'll see. But you lost all those pieces. You're still thinking about trading Ayuk. You let Yusha go. I thought Yusha was like Teflon. I was like who pays a fullback anymore.
Speaker 5:So here I'm going.
Speaker 2:I'm like oh, yeah, they're getting rid of everybody. So, yeah, their worst move again to me, me, it's their whole offseason. I don't know what's going on and it's really sad because we really saw this team in overtime with the, with the former super bowl champions, and now you know it's, it's quiet, it's not looking good for san fran and I would say my best, the best move I think I'm saying division is Devontae Adams with the Rams. I think that again, they are a couple plays away from being Philly in that divisional game.
Speaker 2:So I do think that, yeah, adding Devontae great upgrade at receiver, he's going to do his thing. Yeah, uh-huh man.
Speaker 1:Oh, put that Summer. Can you put that back up? Update so what? 45-24 Duke over North Carolina at half 45-24?
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Man.
Speaker 3:We don't need Cooper Flatt to beat you.
Speaker 1:Just like I said, Duke was going to win tonight.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, Run the tape back, everybody Run the tape back. You know what happened?
Speaker 1:The North remembers night, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, run the tape back, everybody run the tape back. The north remembers nice, nice, okay, uh, bass, so yeah, okay. So I would say, uh, one of the better moves, okay, and I agree with, with all y'all's takes. I love mostard het he Mostert to the Raiders. I love that they signed him for little and I love that, actually, that's what the Cowboys should have gotten him.
Speaker 3:That would have been a steal.
Speaker 1:Yes, that would have been a steal. So I love him going there. And again, he needs to get, he wants to get a contract. So again, mostert, on a one-year deal, give me that all day long. Now most are on multi. No, we know he's gonna be hurt. But mostard, on a one-year deal, I'll take that all day long, especially if it's a discount. Oh, that's a very high upside. So, um, I love that.
Speaker 1:Anthony richardson I do not understand the colts. You know doing, know, doing Anthony Richardson, the way that they are. You know, give him, give him a full, healthy season and then judge. And let's, let's, let's see. You know, I would really want to see him this third year. Now, if this third year is bad, then yeah, let's move on. But he, the flashes that he's shown, I still think he can be an amazing quarterback. So go ahead and support him. Do what you would do with any, you know, high draft pick and not try to jack them up mentally and build them up and see if you've got something. Then it's trying to have a competition with the guy that I. I'm just I'm blown away by how bad the Colts have botched Richardson Played well after the bench.
Speaker 2:But that's the whole issue is, it was a locker room thing Like there was like there was like a bunch of like articles that came out about them like all not being disciplined. So when Anthony Richardson taps out, everybody's like freaking out about that. It's like, oh, quarterback, so I was supposed to do that. But there's like if a locker room is all like that, it's your culture's problem.
Speaker 2:You should try to be better and try to be a leader of men, but you got to at least establish hey, you want to be a good teammate. You're in the AFC South. It's not like you're going up against world beaters here. Come on, man Like y'all got to try, great point.
Speaker 1:And Aaron Rodgers tapped out a couple weeks later yeah Nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But that's a whole other topic, right? So next, all right, which team in the NFL? All right, that was under .500 last year. We're going to start with you, bree. What team was under .500? Or teams under 500 last year? We're going to start with you, Bree. What team was under 500? Or teams under 500 last year are going to make the playoffs next year? Who you?
Speaker 5:got. Okay, I personally am going to say the Jets maybe. Well, I mean, they got a new GM and they have a new head coach, aaron Glenn, so he's awesome already and a new GM and they got Justin Fields, who's still young, who has time to improve everything that he has done already and get better. So I mean they have some pretty new aspects to that team. So I'm like hopefully they can do a little better. Well, not hopefully, because I don't really care about them, but maybe they will go to the playoffs.
Speaker 1:Okay, the Jets All right, yeah, yeah, we'll see. Yeah see if, if, uh, glenn can bring some of that detroit magic over and rebuild them the way that they rebuilt detroit. Okay, uh, diego, who do you have?
Speaker 3:yeah, I'm gonna say the carolina panthers, the way they ended the season last year after bryce was benched, came in, played some, won some big games, played amazing against the two teams that were in the Super Bowl, almost won those two games. He's a clutch quarterback and can play in the fourth quarter. We got Thielen playing well. We got a young receiving core but yeah, we have Adam Thielen who can still ball but also, you know, mentor the younger guys. We got a dynamic duo. There's going to be a lot of mentors. Dynamic duo in the backfield now Chuba Ubbard and Rico Dowdle. Chubba.
Speaker 1:I call them Chubba we got a solid O-line.
Speaker 3:Now Our defense is building up. We got our Pro Bowl D-tackle coming back D-line. Better, we got some help in the secondary with our safety. So, yeah, I just think we have what it takes to make it be a playoff team. Maybe even further, maybe even further. Maybe, even in a game.
Speaker 2:I ain't going that far bro.
Speaker 3:Yeah, don't be crazy now Just watch. You've got to take it too far.
Speaker 1:Now did Bree come on here and say the Arizona Cardinals.
Speaker 5:No.
Speaker 3:Well, my team's actually good. No, they are.
Speaker 5:That's such a lie, Diego. That's so funny. That's so funny.
Speaker 3:Let's wait and see.
Speaker 5:Oh you're funny. You're really delusional, right.
Speaker 3:Man, that's crazyional.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to tell about the Cardinals.
Speaker 2:So that's right, that's right sorry, that was hilarious, I'll go with the Chicago Bears. So I think, and again I believe Panthers, we're going to turn around, we're going to be great. But to me the Bears are a very interesting offseason story. You got the offensive wunderkind in Ben Johnson. You got they improved their offensive line. They looked around and they were like, hey, oh, y'all suck, get to the back of the line, let's bring some real dogs in here. You got some great defensive line talent as well. You improved in the trenches. You already had a great defense. You still have great weapons. Hey, let's see you for year two, caleb. And again, every season there's a and as a Panthers fan, as Panthers fans of Texans know, there's a year that one rookie quarterback does really good, and the next year, after somebody pop out and show some corks.
Speaker 3:I hope Caleb plays well for the number one QBs. Yeah, just for that narrative, just for that narrative.
Speaker 1:I feel you on that. Okay, anybody out of the AFC, anybody in the AFC.
Speaker 2:I think of just usual suspects. But were the Dolphins under 500? Yeah, okay, I would say the Dolphins. I started to say the Dolphins. I would say the Dolphins.
Speaker 1:I started to say the.
Speaker 2:Dolphins. I would say the Dolphins would definitely try to shake back and return. They were 8-9.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:All the injuries and all the crazy stuff. They just they got to figure out how to play in cold weather. That's really their only issue Because, again, you have all the talent, you have all the pieces, you're it back.
Speaker 1:So let's see what happens. They better make it, or Tyreek is going to definitely have a man man trim. Sure Yep, he will demand a trade for sure. All right, so I've got in the NFC the Atlanta Falcons. I got Breeze Falcons under 500. That's going to make the playoffs.
Speaker 1:And then yeah, and then check this one out In the AFC. I've got the Raiders. I've got the Raiders. I'm going to shock everybody. They are going to be the surprise team, the real surprise team. Again, as usual, I put it all on the table. Raiders are the team. That's the team. It's just like the Commanders last year. The Raiders are the team. That's the team. It's just like the commanders last year. The Raiders are going to be next year's commanders, that's the team.
Speaker 2:Do you know when Pete Carroll move you into the division with three other great coaches, with all three teams that just made the playoffs?
Speaker 3:last year three great quarterbacks. Mahomes, Nick Herbert and Nix. Let's say two and a half. I would say two and a half.
Speaker 2:I would say two and a half, the only certified one, I can say, is Mahomes.
Speaker 1:Now, Nix I like, but let's make sure he doesn't have the sophomore slump. So I like Nix. I haven't really seen Denver do much this offseason, so we'll see about that. Herbert they got Hufanga and Greenlaw.
Speaker 2:They got those 49ers players on their defense. That's why I was like, okay, yeah that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:But Herbert, no, no. You cannot call Herbert a great quarterback anymore. He has to redeem himself After the way he went to bed in a playoff no.
Speaker 3:I mean he's still throwing interceptions. No, no, no. We're not saying win the. I mean he's still throwing interceptions. No, no, no, no. We're not saying win the Super Bowl, we're just saying get to the playoffs.
Speaker 1:Herbert can get to the playoffs. Herbert's been overrated the whole time.
Speaker 3:Wow, he can get there. He just won't play well in the wild card game.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, you're saying, ted Tells all that. All right, I'll hit you right, ted tells that one Nope.
Speaker 1:They got Harbaugh, but nope, I do not believe in Harbaugh. All right, well, there, you have it. All right. Well, bree, what's going on with you? I know you're hitting the road. Tell us about some of the things that you've got coming up interviews, just kind of catch us up on what's going on with you.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I have. Well, I'm going to Seattle next month, at the end of the month, to compete nationally again for first place, hopefully, yes. And then I got some interviews coming up with some pretty cool people yes, some football players, nfl players. So, very exciting. Yeah, I'm excited.
Speaker 1:That's right. We got some stuff. Brianna, our Pick'em Pros sports correspondent, you know making big waves, getting in touch with a lot of the big athletes. So yeah, we rolled out the interview with Eric Priest, 15-0 boxer from Golden Boy. So yeah, that was great. And then we've got a lot more coming, a lot more in store A couple of interviews that you've already done, that we're in the process of editing, and then a bunch more that have committed. So a whole lot coming out.
Speaker 5:There's a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really excited about that. Well, always a pleasure. We know we will see you soon. Thanks for your insight and we'll be looking out for the next big interview. Perfect, thank you for having me. All right, Thank you All right. Get the wrong wrong. But there we go. All right, here we go. So, man, we are almost done here. No, you have a little past time, so no, we got to get out of here. Let's see. My wife said go Pick'em Pro Princess. I like that. Yes, yes, we know.
Speaker 2:Brianna likes that. She be fine with a nickname. Shout out to her. Yeah, man.
Speaker 1:She got all the nicknames. Nickname UC Payne. That was a great one, yeah, a whole lot, a whole lot of nicknames, for sure, the creator of Pick'em Pro. So always, she's got that. So before we get out of here, let's bring in our guy, everybody's favorite. We got Brandon. What's going on? My dude? What's going on? Yo? What's up? What's up? All right, all right. So, man, why don't you go ahead and wrap us up here? Man, let's see, can we update it to three? Can we do three minutes on the clock? See if we can do that. If we can, there we go, we'll adjust that. But yeah, brandon, so you can go ahead and start as we go. Man, we talked about a lot of things today. So, man, just take it wherever you want to take it, man.
Speaker 4:How do you want to recap this bad boy? Um, so, like I know, it's like it's been a lot of moves in the nfl. So, like you know, um don't like for as, like the broncos, like they could be an AFC title sleeper.
Speaker 1:Oh, you think they're a sleeper Okay.
Speaker 4:Like you know, with the defense they have with Greenlaw and Hufanga, I would say they'll probably have the number one ranked defense next year. Okay, If they don't, it would be a shocker. So there's that.
Speaker 1:They do have Sertan. They made some big moves.
Speaker 4:Jokic. I feel like I know SGA is trying hard for the MVP, but Jokic is like, right there, it might be one of those things where it just come down to the wire and Shea ends up winning it by. You know, by like some votes. It won't be unanimous. No, no, no, not at all. So be close. There's For his MVP in the NFL. I'm going to go with Jaden Daniels.
Speaker 1:Oh, that would be a trip. Oh man, I could see that, let's get spicy.
Speaker 4:Yes, because all the moves that Commanders have made Okay and for me I always feel like, yeah, they have made some good moves. I know we kind of rotate, you know, mvp contenders every year seems like in the nfl. Yeah well, I wouldn't mind seeing an nfc quarterback winning mvp, that's right.
Speaker 1:So there's that. That would be something.
Speaker 4:Now look, lamar lamar's not gonna win it um, like I mean, I'm still waiting for joe like for me, if you ask me'm still waiting for Joe Burrow. Like for me, if you ask me, I'm waiting for Joe Burrow to win it, but he will have to stay healthy, so there's that. And then it's like I kind of want like new, like young quarterbacks coming up, like winning it, so they keep it fresh. Okay, instead of repeat winners. Okay, I like that.
Speaker 1:What about March Madness? Who you got for women and who you got for the men winning.
Speaker 4:So on the men's side, I have Auburn over Duke, ooh, okay. And on the women's side, I have UConn over South Carolina, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I know and.
Speaker 4:I bring it to.
Speaker 1:South Carolina, but yeah.
Speaker 4:Now I have UCLA, USC, on the women's side, making it to the Final Four. Okay, I have Houston and Florida in the Final Four on the men's side. Oh, I would love to see that, I would love to see that. And there is unrivaled, for you know the unrivaled championship. Well, the semifinals is Sunday and the championship game is Monday, okay, and both those games are going to be on TNT.
Speaker 1:So there's that, yeah yeah, okay, and both those games are going to be on TNT, so there's that. Yeah, yeah, okay, all right, that's good. I like that jersey, man.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, like I don't know if they're going to repeat, but they got a good shot at it.
Speaker 1:Okay, I like that. I like that, man. Well, hey, thank you for blessing us with the insight, for blessing us with the insight. Thanks for all the behind the scenes that you do in keeping us informed and keeping us looking good. We appreciate it, man, and we'll see you next time. My dog, okay, all right, thank you, brandon, all right. All right, that's our guy, brandon. Yeah, and that's it. Before we get any questions. If anybody has a question, we'll give you a second to throw that in. Otherwise, we're going to go ahead and get out of here and see what's the update on the game. Anybody know the Duke Carolina. Let's see what's the latest on that. Get the latest on that, I haven't seen it All right, let's see what we.
Speaker 3:We're up by 21 at halftime.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, it's still halftime. We're up by 21 at halftime. Oh, okay, it's still halftime. Yep, woo, woo, okay, all right, we're going to see what happens with that. Yeah, remember he picked Duke right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just remember that, yeah, y'all remember. Yeah, unc spelled Very weirdly.
Speaker 1:It's crazy Cool. All right, well, I Think we're good, think we're out, so we're going to go ahead and wrap up. We appreciate all the love and support, as always. We will see y'all at Kings. No, it's going to be big time again. Standing room only overflow room. So if you don't have a ticket, overflow room, you can still meet all the amazing guests We've got, you know, former NFL players we got state. We got Mr Lawrence. We got State. We got Mr Loris D Todd, former associate commissioner of ACC. So many people. Olivia, the golfer of Southeast Raleigh man a lot of people, maybe some surprise guests, a lot, a lot coming. Our guests for April are pretty much set. We even have guests already locked in for our June show. So it's just exploding. We've got people wanting to break news with us all the time. A lot of great things. So I appreciate the love and support. We'll see y'all next time. Until then, pick'em Pros, pick'em Pros, all right, later. Love y'all, peace, peace, javaris, jordan, we'll be right back, thank you.