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- [00:00]
Mike Wilbon
I don't just stand on business. I live it 24 7. Because you don't become a young entrepreneur by staying stagnant. Whether I'm chasing deals, networking, or taking calls from behind the wheel of my Toyota Crown, I'm always in motion. You may think launching a successful startup is enough to be satisfied, but me, I'm just getting started. It's a new day at Toyota led by a new generation of drivers. And we want you to know one thing. You can't stop my drive. Toyota, let's go places. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilmont. Tony, the oldest llama in the world, just turned 27.
- [00:40]
Tony Kornheiser
I'm Tony Kornheiser, and honestly, I have underpants older than that.
- [00:44]
Mike Wilbon
I can believe this if you want. How does anybody know how old the damn llama is? And how do you know on another continent whether those llama are older than your llama? This is fraudulent. Complete fraud.
- [00:58]
Tony Kornheiser
Yeah, I was gonna say I had no idea how old a live. I mean, I just have no idea. If you would have told me a hundred years, like a parrot, I would have said, okay, how do you know.
- [01:09]
Mike Wilbon
There'S not one who's 31? How do you know?
- [01:12]
Tony Kornheiser
No, maybe there is. Smoking and drinking in the middle of the night. What do we know? Welcome to pti, boys and girls. In today's episode, Matt Scherzer is skeptical, Kirk Cousins is a backup, and Tim Legler is joining us for five good minutes. But we begin today with Luka Doncic getting a triple double last night, 19 points, but. But only on 6 of 17 shooting, 15 rebounds, 12 assists as his new team, the Lakers, beat his old team, the Mavericks, in Los Angeles. Afterwards, Doncic said, quote, I'm just glad it's over, honestly. Wilbon, what aspect of last night's game stands out to you?
- [01:45]
Mike Wilbon
All right, Tony, I know you're going to think I'm being a contrarian, and I'm not trying to be that because I turned in like everybody else to see LeBron and Luka. I did. And I wasn't disappointed on any level. But what stands out to me as somebody who watches way too much basketball in his life every year forever, was the Dallas Mavericks and Kyrie Irving and how they're holding that together, hopefully until they get Anthony Davis back and other people, but primarily Anthony Davis. And so I don't know if they can do that because Davis, you know, there was one headline down in Dallas that said, you know, Anthony Davis is two weeks away from being two weeks away. And we, you know, you don't know how that is with the situation, but I'm impressed with that. I'm impressed with what Jason Kidd has done. There's. There's no. I know the home fans cheer them wildly in the building, but there's been a malaise about town throughout North Texas after trading Luka. And those guys have had to find their own motivation. And I'm just very impressed with the Mavericks and trying to hold on and claw until they get these guys back. And so, yeah, Luca and LeBron, they're great and they'll be better. But I was impressed with the Mavericks last night.
- [02:59]
Tony Kornheiser
Yeah. I'll tell you what stood out to me. I didn't watch the game live because the 10:15 start is way too late for me. When I looked at it this morning, I saw that the Dallas GM Nico Harrison, was sitting in the stands watching the game.
- [03:11]
Mike Wilbon
Was.
- [03:12]
Tony Kornheiser
And in the middle of the first quarter, Laker fans started an impromptu cheer. Thank you, Nico. Thank you, Nico. So he can remember that when he gets fired for making this insane trade, he can at least feel comforted that some group of fans is happy with this trade. Mike, The Lakers are 15 and 4 in their last 19 games. And what I'm going to say here does not apply strictly to Luka, because luka's games, they're 3 and 2 in Luka's game. So it's not just about him. They were a terrible defensive team last year. They had a rating of 115.3, which was 16 out of 30th in these last 20 games. Mike, their rating is 110.4. It's number one. It's the best defensive ranking in the league. They just held the team to under 100 points. They're better. And I'm thinking, Mike, that some of the credit's got to go to JJ Reddick.
- [04:05]
Mike Wilbon
Absolutely.
- [04:05]
Tony Kornheiser
Because this is. They're. They're transforming two things.
- [04:08]
Mike Wilbon
Credit to JJ Redick, but also credit to LeBron. This whole thing seems to have energized him. There have been some possessions where LeBron looked like he did on defense. 5, 7, 10, 12, 15 years ago, where he plays. And I know anybody 40 has got to regulate a little bit. LeBron's got to pick some spots. Even as great as he is, he got to pick a spot, but he's been picking them brilliantly defensively. And of course, everything on that team takes its cue. Not from luka, yet from LeBron. They have been great defensively, and they're impressive, period. One year after the Falcons signed Kirk Cousins to $100 million in guarantees. His future with the franchise feels vague. Yesterday at the combine, head coach Raheem Morris and GM Terry Fontenot both said the Falcons were unaware Cousins had throwing arm injury down the stretch, which Cousins recently announced. Right now the team plans to go with Michael Pennix as a starter, Cousins as the backup. How does this situation sound to you?
- [05:12]
Tony Kornheiser
Tom it sounds impossible. It sounds untenable. It sounds like there's mutual distrust. He's Cousins are saying I got hurt and the Falcons are saying we didn't know he got hurt. How is that possible? He didn't tell them he didn't go in for therapy. He hid his injury. Or are they saying something to intimate that he's lying about his injury? Because if that's what they're intimating, then they don't want him on the field and they don't even want him in the locker room. And if he feels that they are saying something that is not true, he's not going to want to play for them. This is a classic cover you're behind situation and you know what's going to happen. Mike they're all in for panics now and all they got to worry about is money. How much money do they owe him that they have to pay him and how much dead money on a cap hit are they going to get? They will try to trade them. Nobody will go for the trade. So they'll pick out the one day in the calendar that is least onerous on the cap hit and they'll release him that day.
- [06:11]
Mike Wilbon
Tony, I'm not going to disagree with any of that, but nobody held a gun to anybody's head in Atlanta's executive offices and told the Falcons to give up $100 million guaranteed money to a quarterback coming off a real injury.
- [06:30]
Tim Legler
What?
- [06:31]
Mike Wilbon
So yeah, cover your blank is exactly what's going on. But this is their they did this. It's not like they inherited the team. Like they just sort of showed they knew he was coming aboard. They knew. Well, you like this. They knew what was happening so net and you when they drafted Penix, the whole thing just seemed weird. It seemed weird. You're going to spend $100 million in guarantees and you're going to spend a pretty high pick whatever it was in the top 10 where Pendix went and use it on a quarterback. The whole thing was just bizarre. And this continues. This is a new chapter and another calendar year as we flip the page in bizarre.
- [07:13]
Tony Kornheiser
Yeah, it's completely untenable let's move to my favorite warrior God, Max Scherzer, who made his debut for the Blue jays yesterday, throwing two innings, 34 pitches, 20 strikes, four strikeouts. Scherza was on the wrong side of two pitch challenges though, and talked about the RoboCoil experiment saying, quote, I'm a little skeptical on this. I think major league umpires are really good. We know there are going to be strikes change to balls and balls change to strikes. We're going to basically be even. Are we actually going to improve the game? I don't think so. We're humans. Can we just be judged by humans? Unquote. Will Banda Scherzer make a compelling argument?
- [07:50]
Mike Wilbon
Not really. I get it and I might even agree with him. Compelling to me is one of those Perry Mason arguments where you just beat down Hamilton Berger and you say, okay, sit down, because this argument wins the day. I don't know that we're there, Tony. I think this is muddied now. By the way, Mark Masky, the Washington Post, among others, reporting that the NFL is going to go to automated first down. So the chain gang might be out there, but on first down it's going to go to automation. So this is coming. And I don't think that Max Scherzer, and you know, I like Scherzer nearly as much as you do, maybe not as completely, cuz my favorite warrior God right now is Jimmy Butler. So I don't know that this argument is going to sway anything. You know what I mean? That would be compelling. It's going to sway nothing, Tone. The whole world is going that direction.
- [08:42]
Tony Kornheiser
Matt Scherzer is 40 years old. He spent the last 18 years of his life having balls and strikes called by human beings. Okay? What he's really doing, and he's very comfortable with that. He's trying to get a human out there so that when he hits his spot with a pitch and it's a little off, the ump is going to say strike. Because he's seen what Scherzer can do. He doesn't want change. Old people don't want change. I don't want any change. He didn't like the pitch clock. Scherzer and Verlander and Kershaw, they don't want anything new because the old stuff is what's getting them into Cooperstown. I'm fine with robocalls. I'm fine with that. And because I think that fans will like it, I think they'll be right more often than they're wrong. And there's only two again, Scherzer will adjust to it. Mike, it's not aimed at his generation. It's sort of like cable and streaming. It's different generations. Let's take a break. Coming up, what is JJ Redick doing with these Lakers? We're going to ask Tim Legler.
- [09:38]
Mike Wilbon
We'll also ask him what whether he expects the warriors recent success for Jimmy Buckets to continue. Plus the strike zone moves like Eddie Goodell does not have the same strike zone as Dave Kingman.
- [09:52]
Tony Kornheiser
So the strike zone, no, it's a two dimensional thing. It's not three. And that's a legitimate argument against it.
- [10:03]
Mike Wilbon
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- [10:31]
Unknown
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- [11:27]
Tony Kornheiser
Let's dig back into the NBA with our great friend ESPN NBA analyst Tim Legler. Let's start with this, Tim. The lakers have won 15 out of 19. Wilbot and I spent a lot of time talking about Luca and LeBron. Can you tell us what you specifically notice about the way JJ Redick is coaching these people on this team?
- [11:48]
Tim Legler
I think one of the things that's been most impressive for me about JJ is that he's got a veteran team. He's a first time head coach, he's a young head coach and he coaches them hard and he has an edge to him and an intensity about him on the sideline in the huddles that you really don't see much of in this league. It's, it's really been refreshing and that's what JJ believes in and he knows that the Way you have to clean up certain things to pay attention to detail, make guys accountable and challenge them to clean it up. Because. Because he is seeing things that other people are not. I think he has a great gift to see all 10 players at the same time, which gives him an ability to know exactly what to clean up in the moment, what detail needs to be paid attention to. He's got a great staff too, which helps him with that. But JJ's ability to see it and then coach them, hard to do it is impressive because I think a lot of guys in his position may be too deferential to the players he is not.
- [12:41]
Mike Wilbon
We could talk about the Lakers on and on and on, but we will skip across to the other side of the country, Tim, and deal with the. The Knicks essentially, who play Philly tonight. They should be fine because the Knicks beat up on all the bad teams and their defense is uncharacteristically awful, particularly for any team coached by Tibbs Legs. What are you seeing and how is this possible?
- [13:04]
Tim Legler
Yeah, and I was sitting there Sunday calling that game against Boston and you know, at that point they had lost their last six against the top three teams. We were making a lot of. Of it. The margin of victory was. Is not close. And I'm thinking, okay, maybe today's the line in the sand, right? Enough is enough moment for the Knicks. Like we're going to dig in here and fight these guys. And they were down 20 in the first quarter, so. So I don't know necessarily that that line was drawn very clearly in the sand. Here's. Here's the root of it. I think for me it's Carl Anthony Towns defending at the five is a lot different look for him and it's a lot different look from what they've had in the past with Mitchell, Robinson, Isaiah Hartenstein. They. They just do a much better job at the point of attack. They have quicker feet. They can show a little bit further out on the floor, which takes away like the initial shot from the guard coming off Carl. They. Carl Anthony Townsend was always put him in drop coverage because he struggles with that. If he's out too far, the current the corner will get turned on him. And now you're complete. Your defense is completely compromised. He's better defending at the four when you could put him more down toward the baseline against a different guy down there, a secondary screener maybe of the ball, not the primary action. Most fives in this league are setting the first ball screen and that is a challenge for him. And I think that to me, it's. It's oversimplifying it. Obviously there's more that goes into it, but I think that's a big part of it. He's being attacked and hunted on that end and they're getting really good action out of that and they don't get as much with Hartenstein. Hey, Mitchell, Robinson comes back, maybe some lineups with he and Towns could be something they're going to explore to make them better on that end. But there's no doubt they have come up woefully small against those top three teams and it's exposed them. The offense is good enough to win a lot of games in this league, but against those teams, you've got to be buttoned up defensively a lot better than that and they don't have much.
- [14:57]
Mike Wilbon
Time to solve it either. Let's talk about a team. We haven't talked about legs in, I don't know, Tony and I. In five years maybe. And that would be the Detroit Pistons, who have now won seven straight hosted Celtics, who've won six straight. All right, I mean, I know we're in the bell lap of the season, but if the Pistons were to somehow beat the Celtics tonight, does it mean more to you? Are you paying more attention to them? Can they have a win in this regular season that makes you stand up and go, wow?
- [15:30]
Tim Legler
Well, all right. First, I've been paying hard attention to them all year since I did their first preseason game against Milwaukee. And I said that night I did a game with Mark Jones and I said this is going to be the most improved team in the NBA. I could feel it. They've got all these young lottery picks on the team and they went through a horrible situation last year, embarrassing to the point. They were leading SportsCenter because we wanted to see if the losing streak was still going. At one point approaching 30 games. You're talking about going from that to right now. An opportunity two games back of the four spot in the Eastern Conference. An incredible job by Jamie Bickerstaff. The young talent has caught my attention all year. But if they beat the Boston Celtics, everyone is going to now take notice of what their doing. They're really interesting because they've got so much athleticism and team speed and just these young guys going out there and believing in themselves. But then they've got this star offensive player at the point in Cade Cunningham who's big and he moves a little bit slower and more methodical. He's never in a rush, he's always on balance and he Gives them the polish that you need at that spot. And so when they run onto the floor, they know, hey, yeah, we're a bunch of young hungry guys, but we've also got a guy that could be the best player on the court tonight. And it gives them incredible amount of confidence. So, yes, I especially am going to be in tune to that game tonight to see the fight they put up against the Boston Celtics.
- [16:53]
Tony Kornheiser
We will get you out of here on this. The warriors blew out the Hornets last night. I'm sure that was expected, but they've now won six out of seven since they got Jimmy Butler. Can you explain why this is working so well with Jimmy Butler and whether you are confident that it can in fact continue?
- [17:10]
Tim Legler
There's something about Jimmy arriving there and I, and everyone that's talked about this has said pretty much the same thing. There was an instant belief that they didn't have before and he's got that kind of swagger and toughness and you know that he's going to be in there at both ends of the floor to win his matchups. And so now they've added this to their team and it gave, gave them more confidence. But that's confidence isn't going to get you over the hump. It has to be tangible on the court as well. And where he has helped there is the fact that he's mainly an isolation player. He's a mid range isolation player that likes to get to the line, shoot mid range, tough jump shots. But they've incorporated him without losing the continuity and flow of their offense, which is they're known for because of his passing ability, his iq, his ability to find the open spot in their offense and know where the ball is supposed to go next. His passing's never been given much credit in his career. He is a really smart basketball player. And they also got the best version of Jimmy, as we know over the years, which is a highly motivated Jimmy Butler. And you don't know how long that'll last in a certain place maybe, but they have it right now and it's made a big difference for Golden State. The Lakers obviously look different. So the Western Conference outside of Oklahoma City who have set the bar is very, very interesting right now as they reshuffle the deck with and Jimmy Butler's a big part of that in Golden State.
- [18:32]
Tony Kornheiser
Tim, thank you so much. Wonderful.
- [18:34]
Mike Wilbon
Appreciate it, man. Good to see you.
- [18:36]
Tony Kornheiser
Thank you.
- [18:37]
Tim Legler
Appreciate you both. Thanks.
- [18:39]
Tony Kornheiser
Let's take one last break. Still to come, Amen Thompson gets tossed for clobbering Giannis in the paint.
- [18:45]
Mike Wilbon
You could be suspended for that. And would the Rams really want a new starting quarterback? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
- [18:55]
Tony Kornheiser
So Tim Legler was on the podcast with me this morning and, you know, doing 15 minutes. He was great. I mean, really.
- [19:05]
Mike Wilbon
Race the rudders, race the sails.
- [19:07]
Tim Legler
Race the sails. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching.
- [19:11]
Tony Kornheiser
Over.
- [19:12]
Tim Legler
Roger, wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution?
- [19:17]
Unknown
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- [20:11]
Tony Kornheiser
Happy time people. Happy 23rd birthday. Dylan Cruz Cruz was the second overall pick in the 2020 baseball draft out of LSU. The first pick was Cruz's teammate Paul Skeens. That LSU team won the national championship. Skeens debuted spectacularly last year with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Cruz came up to the Washington Nationals in August, played 31 games in the bigs. He had modest numbers, batting.218, three homers, eight RBI, 12 runs scored, 12 stolen bases. This season, Cruz figures to be Washington regular right fielder with 25 year old Jacob Young in center and 22 year old James Wooden left. And this could be the Nats outfield for a decade or less.
- [20:54]
Mike Wilbon
People leave free age and they get. They get angry. They want to go somewhere else. Although it's not like the NBA, but the Nets I heard somewhere have the youngest outfield average, 23 plus 23 point something in the majors going into this opening day. How about that?
- [21:08]
Tony Kornheiser
And they're all good. They're all good players. Wood has real power. Happy Anniversary, Dwyane Wade. On this day 13 years ago, the Miami Heat first ballot hall of Famer broke Kobe Bryant's nose with a flagrant foul during the All Star Game, the first ever in an All Star Game. We spent a good amount of time last week discussing the lack of intensity in recent All Star Games. This incident is what former players point to as emblematic of a different approach to the game before the Heat faced Lakers Just one week later, Wade said he called Bryant asking, are we good? Brian responded, I love it. In that game in la, Bryant wore a mask to protect his nose and scored A game high 33 in a win. Wade had 16.
- [21:50]
Mike Wilbon
Things have changed a lot in basketball the last few years, Tony. Dwayne Wade doesn't get nearly the celebration. He doesn't get nearly the praise and love he ought to. Because when LeBron James needed to win his first championship. Championship, who did he go and recruit to be a tag team partner? Dwyane Wade.
- [22:08]
Tony Kornheiser
Well, he gets it from you.
- [22:09]
Mike Wilbon
You love him. He gets it from me.
- [22:11]
Tony Kornheiser
Happy trails. On man. Thompson.
- [22:12]
Mike Wilbon
That's right.
- [22:13]
Tony Kornheiser
Yeah. The Rockets forward got ejected last night after going flagrant two on Giannis in the lane. Thompson came down on Giannis's head and neck in what was pretty clearly not a basketball play. After the game with Houston won by three, Giannis was understanding, saying, quote, at the end of the day, you don't want to have a league that's soft. I feel like he wanted to make it a hard foul, but he grabbed my neck. But there's no hard feelings, unquote. Thompson is having a terrific season for the Rockets, but this is his second ejection of the year. He was suspended two games in December for throwing Tyler Hero to the court.
- [22:45]
Mike Wilbon
So you could defend him being a tough guy. Think about those old days we just referred to is you'd have to face another tough guy. And we're not talking about just dropping the gloves nine seconds in. We're talking about you got to see somebody like Charles Oakley again and again and again and again. But we're not getting that. We're not getting back to that time. We're not.
- [23:06]
Tony Kornheiser
But you'd love to go back to that time. You would. I know you would. Let's go to the big finish.
- [23:11]
Mike Wilbon
Let's do it.
- [23:11]
Tony Kornheiser
Jets players gave ownership an F. An F in an anonymous players union survey. Your thoughts?
- [23:18]
Mike Wilbon
Good. The Aaron Rod Rodgers move alone merits an F. The New York Daily News reports that Aaron Rodgers wants to play for the Rams. Did you hear what I just said? Does that make sense?
- [23:31]
Tony Kornheiser
It only makes sense if the Rams trade Matthew Stafford. And that's out there. Even though the coach says he wants Stafford back as a quarterback because Rogers will come in with Devonte Adams and we'll see how that works. Lionel Messi scored as Inter Miami bounce sporting Kansas City for the Champions Cup. Are you impressed?
- [23:49]
Mike Wilbon
Yes. He should be able to endorse something. I see Hot Shaq's already got that heating and cooling. Somebody's got that. He scores at zero. He scores in the 70s. The goat. Alex Oveskin scored his 30th last night. That's a big deal.
- [24:03]
Tony Kornheiser
Is it? He only needs 12 to break Gretzky's record. Every goal is a big deal for him at this point.
- [24:09]
Mike Wilbon
Last one.
- [24:09]
Tony Kornheiser
US Women's soccer against Japan tonight for the she Believes Cup. Are you intrigued?
- [24:14]
Mike Wilbon
It's a real game. Yes, I'm intrigued. This is not like us playing Colombia having 49,000 consecutive shutouts. No, this is a real game.
- [24:22]
Tim Legler
It's worth watching.
- [24:25]
Tony Kornheiser
We are out of time. We will try and do better the next time. I am Tony Kornheiser.
- [24:28]
Mike Wilbon
And I'm Mike Wilbog. Same time tomorrow, Knucklehead. You can get the PTI podcast on the ESPN app or Apple podcast. And now you know what's coming again.
- [24:42]
Tony Kornheiser
New glasses. New glasses.
- [24:45]
Unknown
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